History of the reformation in Germany

wssat

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

From the Library of
V. F. CALVERTON

Cornell University Library
BR305 .R19 1905

olln

3 1924 029 240 020

Cornell University
Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029240020

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION
IN GERMANY

HISTORY

OF THE

Reformation in Germany

BY

LEOPOLD von RANKE

TRANSLATED BY SARAH AUSTIN

EDITED BY

ROBERT A. JOHNSON, M.A. (Oxon.)

LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited

NEW YORK : E. P.. DUTTON & CO.
1905

PRINTED BY

BILLING AND SONS, LIMITED,

GUILDFORD.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

It is, perhaps, necessary to offer some apology for the space occupied
by the notes, in consequence of the plan I have adopted in respect of
a large portion of them. The German authorities cited are chiefly
contemporaneous — many of them unprinted, and drawn from different
parts of the vast empire through which the German tongue is spoken.
They abound in 'obsolete ^and i provincial forms — if indeed the word
provincial can be applied to any of the varieties of a language, no
one of which thenclaimed a metropolitan authority, — and present diffi-
culties, which even a German, if unprepared by special studies, often finds,
to say the least, extremely perplexing.

To secure the reader, therefore, against any errors I may have fallen
into, and in order that, if important, they may be pointed out, I have
placed the original within reach. I hope the translations may give some
idea of the light these notes throw on individual as well as national char-
acter. We find in them one source of the vigour and animation of the
portraits, and the dramatic vivacity of the scenes, with which this history
abounds. We see that the author has lived with his heroes, and listened
to their own homely and expressive language.

I have much greater need of the indulgent construction of the reader
in behalf of some few notes which I have ventured to add. Nothing but
my own belief, and the assurance of others, that they were absolutely
necessary to the understanding of certain passages in the work, would have
induced me to risk such a departure from my proper province. Names
of institutions and of offices scarcely ever admit of a translation. Words
analogous in form, or allied in origin, generally express a totally different
set of acts or functions in different countries, and can therefore only mis-
lead. And if such names convey false ideas, others again convey none at
all. Being compelled to endeavour to affix some tolerably distinct notions
to the words of this class which I had to interpret, I ventured to think that
the little information I had gathered for myself might not be unacceptable
to the less learned of my readers. The scanty nature of it will hardly
surprise them, and will, I hope, be pardoned. I have at least sought it
in the most authentic and unquestioned sources.

I may perhaps be allowed to say, in extenuation of any defects in the

vi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

translation, that I have found it by far more difficult and laborious than
any I had before attempted : indeed, had I clearly foreseen all the diffi-
culty and labour, it is probable I should not have undertaken it, especially
when cut off from the assistance and the resources which England or
Germany would have afforded me. Those who are acquainted with the
original will, I am sure, be disposed to regard my attempt to put it into
English with indulgence ; — and of those who are not, I must ask it. While
the gravity and importance of the subject demanded an unusually scrupu-
lous fidelity, the difficulty of combining that fidelity with a tolerable
attention to form, has been far greater than I ever encountered. If in
translating the " History of the Popes," I was anxious not to discolour,
in the slightest degree, the noble impartiality which distinguishes that
work, I have felt it equally incumbent on me not to heighten or diminish
by a shade the more decidedly protestant tone which the author has given
to his " History of the Reformation." Whatever, therefore, might be
my desire to offer to the English public a book not altogether uncouth or
repulsive in style, it has always been inferior to my anxiety not to misrepre-
sent the author, as much as that has been subordinate to my sense of the
reverence due to the subject, and to truth.

S. A.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

From the first ten years of the fifteenth century to the beginning of the
thirty years' war, the constitution and political condition of Germany
were determined by the periodical diets and the measures there resolved on.

The time was long past in which the public affairs of the country were
determined by one supreme will ; but its political life had not yet (as at
a later period) retreated within the several boundaries of the constituent
members of the empire. The imperial assemblies exercised rights and
powers which, though not accurately defined, were yet the comprehensive
and absolute powers of sovereignty. They made war and peace ; levied
taxes ; exercised a supreme supervision, and were even invested with
executive power. Together with the deputies from the cities, and the
representatives of the counts and lords, appeared the emperor and the
sovereign princes in person. It is true they discussed the most important
affairs of their respective countries in their several colleges, or in com-
mittees chosen from the whole body, and the questions were decided by
the majority of voices. The unity of the nation was represented by these
assemblies. Within the wide borders of the empire nothing of importance
could occur which did not here come under deliberation ; nothing new
arise, which must not await its final decision and execution here.

In spite of all these considerations, the history of the diets of the empire
has not yet received the attention it deserves. The Recesses1 of the

1 The Recess (Abschied— literally, Departure ; called by the jurists of the
empire, Recessus, was the document wherewith the labours of the diet were
closed, and in which they were summed up. All the resolutions of the assembly,
or the decisions of the sovereign on their proposals or petitions, were collected into
one whole, and the session, or, according to the German expression, day (Tag),
was thus closed with the publication of the Recess. Each separate law, after
having passed the two colleges, that of the electors and that of the princes,
received the emperor's assent or ratification, and had then the force of law. It
was called a Resolution of the Empire (Reichsschluss or Reichsconclusum). The
sum of all the decisions or acts of a diet was called the Reichsdbschied.

The correspondence of this with the English term Statute will be seen in the
following extract : " For all the acts of one session of parliament taken together
make properly but one statute ; and therefore when two sessions have been held
in one year we usually mention stat. i or 2. Thus the Bill of Rights is cited as
1 W. & M. st. 2, c. 2 ; signifying that it is the second chapter or act of the second
statute, or the laws made in the second session of parliament in the first year of
King William and Queen Mary." — Blackstone's Comment, vol. i., p. 85, 15th ed.

The earliest Recesses of the empire are lost. Since the year 1663, as the diet
remained constantly sitting down to 1806, no recess, properly so called, could
be published. — Transl.

viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE

diets are sufficiently well known ; but who would judge a deliberative
assembly by the final results of its deliberations ? Projects of a syste-
matic collection of its transactions have occasionally been entertained,
and the work has even been taken in hand ; but all that has hitherto been
done has remained in a fragmentary and incomplete state.

As it is the natural ambition of every man to leave behind him some
useful record of his existence, I have long cherished the project of devoting
my industry and my powers to this most important work. Not that I
flattered myself that I was competent to supply so large a deficiency ;
to exhaust the mass of materials in its manifold juridical bearings ; my
idea was only to trace with accuracy the rise and development of the
constitution of the empire, through a series (if possible unbroken) of the
Acts of the Diets.

Fortune was so propitious to my wishes that, in the autumn of 1836,
I found in the Archives of the city of Frankfurt a collection of the very
land I wanted, and was allowed access to these precious documents with
all the facility I could desire.

The collection consists of ninety-six folio volumes, which contain the
Acts of the Imperial Diets from 1414 to 161 3. In the earlier part it is
very imperfect, but step by step, in proportion as the constitution of the
empire acquires form and development, the documents rise in interest.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, from which time the practice
of reducing public proceedings to writing was introduced, it becomes so
rich in new and important materials, that it lays the strongest hold on the
attention. There are not only the Acts, but the reports of the deputies
from the cities — the Rathsfreunde,— which generally charm by their
frankness and simplicity, and often surprise by their sagacity. I profited
by the opportunity to make myself master of the contents of the first
sixty-four of these volumes, extending down to the year 1551. A
collection of Imperial Rescripts occasionally afforded me valuable
contributions.

But I could not stop here. A single town was not in a condition to
know all that passed. It was evident that the labours of the electoral and
princely colleges were not to be sought for in the records of a city.

In the beginning of the year 1837, I received permission to explore the
Royal Archives of the kingdom of Prussia at Berlin, and, in the April of
the same year, the State Archives of the kingdom of Saxony at Dresden,
for the affairs of the empire during the times of Maximilian I. and Charles V.
They were of great value to me ; the former as containing the records of
an electorate ; the latter, down to the end of that epoch, those of a sovereign
principality. It is true that I came upon many documents which I had
already seen at Frankfurt ; but, at the same time, I found a great number

AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix

of new ones, which, gave me an insight into parts of the subject hitherto
obscure. None of these collections is, indeed, complete, and many a
question which suggests itself remains unanswered ; yet they are in a high
degree instructive. They throw a completely new light on the character
and conduct of such influential princes as Joachim II. of Brandenburg,
and still more, Maurice of Saxony.

Let no one pity a man who devotes himself to studies apparently so
dry, and neglects for them the delights of many a joyous day. It is true
that the companions of his solitary hours are but lifeless paper, but they are
the remnants of the life of past ages, which gradually assume form and
substance to the eye occupied in the study of them. For me (in a preface
an author is bound to speak of himself — a subject he elsewhere gladly
avoids) they had a peculiar interest.

When I wrote the first part of my " History of the Popes," I designedly
treated the origin and progress of the Reformation with as much brevity
as the subject permitted. I cherished the hope of dedicating more exten-
sive and profound research to this most important event of the history of
my country.

This hope was now abundantly satisfied. Of the new matter which I
found, the greater part related, directly or indirectly, to the epoch of the
Reformation. At every step I acquired new information as to the cir-
cumstances which prepared the politico-religious movement of that time ;
the phases of our national life by which it was accelerated ; the origin and
working of the resistance it encountered.

It is impossible to approach a matter originating in such intense mental
energy, and exercising so vast an influence on the destinies of the world,
without being profoundly interested and absorbed by it. I was fully
sensible that if I executed the work I proposed to myself, the Reformation
would be the centre on which all other incidents and circumstances would
turn.

But to accomplish this, more accurate information was necessary as
to the progress of opinion in the evangelical1 party (especially in a political
point of view), antecedent to the crisis of the Reformation, than any that
could be gathered from printed sources. The Archives common to the

1 It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to remark, that I have retained this word
throughout the following work in its original acceptation; viz., as denoting the
party which, at the time of the Reformation, adhered to the Confession of Augs-
burg ; the party which declared the Gospel the sole rule of faith. In our own age
and country it has been assumed by a party which stands in nearly the same
relation to the Church of England as the party called pietistical (pietistisch) to
the Lutheran Church of Germany. But this did not seem to me a sufficient reason
for removing it from its proper and authorized place in German history. The
word protestant hardly occurs in the original volumes ; and as it suggests another
train of ideas and sentiments, I have not introduced it. — Traksl.

x AUTHOR'S PREFACE

whole Ernestine line of Saxony, deposited at Weimar, which I visited in
August, 1837, afforded me what I desired. Nor can any spot be more
full of information on the marked epochs at which this house played so
important a part, than the vault in which its archives are preserved. The
walls and the whole interior space are covered with the rolls of documents
relating to the deeds and events of that period. Every note, every draft
of an answer, is here preserved. The correspondence between the Elector
John Frederick and the Landgrave Philip of Hessen would alone fill a long
series of printed volumes. I endeavoured, above all, to make myself
master of the two registers, which include the affairs of the empire and of the
League of Schmalkald. As to the former, I found, as was to be expected
from the nature of the subject, many valuable details ; as to the latter, I
hence first drew information which is, I hope, in some degree calculated to
satisfy the curiosity of the public.

I feel bound here publicly to express my thanks to the authorities to
whom the guardianship of these various archives is entrusted for the
liberal aid — often not unattended with personal trouble — which I received
from them all. ,^j— *■""-"— -

At length I conceived the^project of undertaking a more extensive
research into the Archives of Germany. I repaired to the Communal
Archives of the house of Anhalt at Dessau, which at the epoch in question
shared the opinions and followed the example of that of Saxony ; but I
soon saw that I should here be in danger of encumbering myself with too
much matter of a purely local character. I remembered how many other
documents relating to this period had been explored and employed by
the industry of German inquirers. The work of Buchholtz1 on Ferdi-
nand I. contains a most copious treasure of important matter from those
of Austria, of which too little use is made in that state. The instructive
writings of Stumpf and Winter2 are founded on those of Bavaria. The
Archives of Wiirtemberg were formerly explored by Sattler ;3 those of
Hessen, recently, by Rommel i and Neudecker. For the more exclusively
ecclesiastical view of the period, the public is in possession of a rich mass
of authentic documents in the collection of Walch, and the recent editions
of Luther's Letters by De Wette ; and still more in those of Melanchthon
by Bretschneider. The letters of the deputies from Strasburg and Niirem-

1 Buchholtz, F. B., Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinands I., o vols. Vienna,
1831-38.

2 Winter, V. A., Geschichte der evangelischen Lehrein Baiern, 2 parts. Munich,
1809-10.

3 Sattler, C. F., Geschichte des Herzogthums Wiirtemberg, 5 parts. Ulm,
1764—68.

4 Rommel, Ch. v., Geschichte von Hessen, 10 vols. Marburg and Cassel
1820-58.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi

berg,1 which have been published, throw light on the history of particular
diets. It is hardly necessary for me to mention how much has lately
been brought together by Forstemann respecting the Diet of Augsburg
of 1530, so long the subject of earnest research and labour.

Recent publications, especially in Italy and England, lead us to hope
for the possibility of a thorough and satisfactory explanation of the
foreign relations of the empire.

I see the time approach in which we shall no longer have to found
modern history on the reports even of contemporary historians, except
in so far as they were in possession of personal and immediate knowledge
of facts ; still less, on works yet more remote from the source ; but on the
narratives of eye-witnesses, and the genuine and original documents.
For the epoch treated in the following work, this prospect is no distant
one. I myself have made use of a number of records which I had found
when in the pursuit of another subject, in the Archives of Vienna, Venice,
Rome, and especially Florence. Had I gone into further detail, I should
have run the risk of losing sight of the subject as a whole ; or in the neces-
sary lapse of time, of breaking the unity of the conception which had
arisen before my mind in the course of my past researches.

And thus I proceeded boldly to the completion of this work ; persuaded
that when an inquirer has made researches of some extent in authentic
records, with an earnest spirit and a genuine ardour for truth, though
later discoveries may throw clearer and more certain light on details,
they can only strengthen his fundamental conceptions of the subject : —
for truth can be but one.

1 Recent works on this correspondence are : Virch, H., und Winckelmann, O.,
Politische Korresp. der Stadt Strasburg im Zeitalter der Reformation, 3 vols.
Strasburg, 1879-98.

Liidewig, S., Die Politik Niirnbergs im Zeitalter der Reformation. Gottingen,
1893-

ERRATA

Page 739, note 2, line 8, for " his Provisional Government"
read ' ' the Provisional Government ' ' ; line g, for " Thurian
Dampier" read " Thurian Dangin."

PAGE

Bibliography and Chronological Table - - - - xv

Editor's Introduction ------- xxi

INTRODUCTION.

View of the Early History of Germany - - - - i

BOOK I.

ATTEMPT TO REFORM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE.

1486-15 17 -------- 40

BOOK II.

EARLY HISTORY OF LUTHER AND OF CHARLES V. 1517-1521.

I. Origin of the Religious Opposition - - - - 1 1 1
II. Descent of the Imperial Crown from Maximilian to

Charles V. ------- 158

III. First Defection from the Papacy, 1519-20 - - - 192

IV. Diet of Worms, a.d. 1521 ----- 223

BOOK III.

ENDEAVOURS TO RENDER THE REFORMATION NATIONAL AND
COMPLETE. 1 521-1525.

I. Disturbances at Wittenberg — October, 1521, to March, 1522 - 248

II. Temporal and Spiritual Tendencies of the Council of Regency,

1521-1523 -------- 263

III. Diffusion of the New Doctrines, 1522-1524 - 277

IV. Opposition to the Council of Regency — Diet of 1523-24 - 295

V. Origin of the Division in the Nation - - - - 316
VI. The Peasants' War - - - - - - 334

VII. Formation of the Adverse Religious Leagues — Diet of Augs-
burg, December, 1525 ------ 359

BOOK IV.

FOREIGN RELATIONS— FOUNDATION OF THE NATIONAL
CHURCHES OF GERMANY. 1521-1528.

I. French and Italian Wars, down to the League of Cognac,

1521-1526 -------- 372

II. Diet of Spire, a.d. 1526 ------ ^y

III. Conquest of Rome, a.d. 1527 ----- 429

IV. Occupation of Bohemia and Hungary - 446
V. Foundation of Evangelical States - - - - 459

xiii

CONTENTS

BOOK V.

PAGE

FORMATION OF A CATHOLIC MAJORITY. 15 27-1 5 30.
RETROSPECT.
I. Changes in the General Political Relations of Europe.

1527, 1528 ------- 488

II. Germany during the Affair and Times of Pack - - 500

III. Reformation in Switzerland ----- 509

IV. Political Character of the Year 1529 - - - - 532
V. Diet of Spires, a.d. 1529 - 552

VI. Dissensions among the Protestants - 562

VII. The Ottomans before Vienna ----- 574

VIII. Charles V. in Italy ------ 586

IX. Diet of Augsburg, 1530 - - - - - - 595

BOOK VI.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD.

IS30-I53S-

I. Foundation of the League of Schmalkald - - - 631

II. Progress of the Reformation in Switzerland - - 640

III. Attempts at a Reconciliation of the two Protestant Parties - 648

IV. Catastrophe of the Reformation in Switzerland - - 654

V. The Reformation in the Cities of Lower Germany. Conclu-

sion of the League of Schmalkald - - - 665

VI. Ottoman Invasion. First Peace of Religion. 1531, 1532 - 676
VII. Influence of France. Restoration of WBrtemburg 1533,

1534 -------- 693

VIII. Progress of the Reformation during the Years 1532-1534 - 710
IX. Anabaptists in MCnster. Cursory and General View of

ANABAPTISM ------- 728

X. Burgermeister Wullenweber of Lubeck - - - - 757

Index -."... . . 776

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This short bibliography is compiled for the use of the general reader. No
contemporary authorities are given ; for these and for fuller lists of secondary
authorities the elaborate bibliographies given in the following works may be
consulted : The Cambridge Modern History, Vols. I. and II. (ut infra) ;
Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale ; Dahlmann Waitz, Quellenkunde
der deutschen Geschichte.

A. GENERAL.

Johnson (A. H.). Europe in the Sixteenth Century: 1495-1598 (Periods of

European History). 7s. 6d. Rivington, 1897.
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I„ Chaps, ix., xvi., xvii., xviii. ; Vol. II.,

Chaps, ii.-viii., x., xi., xix. Each 16s. net. Cambridge Press, 1902-1904.
Containing some admirable monographs on various aspects of the period.

Zeller (J.). Histoire d'Allemagne, Vol. V. : La Reformation. Paris, 1854.
Geiger (L.). Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und Deutschland (Oncken's

Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen). Berlin, 1882.
Bezold (F. von). Geschichte der deutschen Reformation (Oncken's series).

Berlin, 1890.
Both the above are excellent surveys of the whole period.

Janssen (J.). Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters.

Freiburg-i.-B., 1897.
The same, translated by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie ; sub tit., History

of the German People at the close of the Middle Ages. 6 vols. 75s. Paul,

1 896- 1 903.
Creighton (Bp. M.). History of the Papacy, Vols. III.-V. Each 6s. Longman

(1882-94), 1897.
By far the best book on the subject in English.

Ranke (Leopold von). Die romischen Papste.

The same, translated by Mrs. S. Austin; sub tit., History of the Popes of

Rome. 3 vols. 30s. Murray, 1866.
Pastor (Ludwig). Geschichte der Papste.

The same, translated by F. J. Antrobus, 4 vols. 48s. net. Paul, 1891-95.

The best book from the Roman-Catholic point of view.

xv

xvi BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gregorovius (F.). Geschichte der Stadt Roma in Mittelalter, Vol. VIII.

The same, translated by Annie Hamilton. 9s. Bell, 1902.

Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.

Herzog's Realencyclopadie fiir protestantische Theologie und Kirche.
These can always be consulted with confidence on any individual characters.

B. SPECIAL.
Alman. Kaiser Maximilian I.

Ranke (Leopold von). Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation.
Leipzig, 1881-82.
The English translation cannot be recommended.

Strauss (D. F.). Ulrich von Hutten. Second edition. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1874.

The same, translated by Mrs. George Sturge. 1874.

Geiger (L.). Johann Reuchlin : sein Leben und seine Werke. Leipzig, 187 1.
Froude (J. A.). Life and Letters of Erasmus. 3s. 6d. Longman (1894), 1899.

An interesting book, which, however, must be read with caution.
Seebohm (F.). The Oxford Reformers of 1498. Third edition. 14s. Longman,
1896.

John Colet — Erasmus — Thomas More.

Armstrong (E.). The Emperor Charles V. 2 vols. 21s. net. Macmillan, 1902.
The best English life of the Emperor.

Baumgarten (H.). Geschichte Karls V. 3 vols. Stuttgart, 1885-92.
The best German life of the Emperor.

Mignet (F. A. M.). Rivalite de Francois I. et de Charles V. Second edition.
2 vols. Paris, 1875.
The best book on the military side.

Maurenbrecher (W.). Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der Reformationszeit.
Leipzig, 1874.

Karl V. und die deutschen Protestanten. Diisseldorf, 1865.

Geschichte der katholischen Reformation. Nordlingen, 1880.

Stirling Maxwell (Sir W.). The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V. 1852.

Lindsay (T. M.). Luther and the German Reformation. 3s. Clark, Edinburgh,
1900.

Beard (Charles). The Hibbert Lectures, 1883 : The Reformation in the Six-
teenth Century and Modern Thought. 4s. 6d. Williams and Norgate (1883),
1885.

Martin Luther and the German Reformation. 16s. Paul, 1889.

Kostlin (J.). Martin Luther : sein Leben und seine Schriften. 2 vols.

Stahelin (R.). Huldreich Zwingli und sein Reformationswerk. Halle, 1883.

Henry (P.). Das Leben Calvins, 3 vols. Hamburg, 1835-44.

The same, translated by Stebbing ; sub tit., The Life and Times of Calvin.

2 vols. 1849.

BIBLIOGRAPHY xvii

Guizot (F. P. G.). La vie de Quatre grands Chretiens. Paris, 1873.

The same, translated ; sub tit., Great Christians of France. 6s. Macmillan

(1869), 1878.

Calvin.

Kampschulte (F. W.). Johann Calvin in Genf.

Bax (E. Belfort). The Peasants' War in Germany. 6s. Sonnenschein, 1899.

Lamprecht (K.). Die Entwickelung des rheinischen Bauernstandes (West-

deutsche Zeitschrift fiir Geschichte, Bd. VI.).
Brandenburg (E.). Moritz von Sachsen. Leipzig, 1898.

C. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Consult Clarendon Press Historical Atlas, Nos. 37, 38, 39, and 47. Also Spruner-
Menke's Historical Atlas, Nos. 43, y^, and 74.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF LEADING
EVENTS

1508. Luther goes to Wittenberg.

15 12. Opening of the Fifth Lateran Council.

1513. Death of Julius II. Accession of Leo X.
1 5 15. Accession of Francis I.

Battle of Marignano.
ISi6. French Concordat with Leo X.
Death of Ferdinand of Aragon.
Treaty of Noyon.

1 5 17. Close of the Fifth Lateran Council.
Publication of Luther's Theses.

1518. Luther before the Cardinal-Legate at Augsburg.
Zwingli at Zurich.

1 5 19. Death of the Emperor Maximilian.
Election of Charles V. to the Empire.

1520. Luther excommunicated.

Publication of Luther's "Appeal to the Christian Nobility."
Coronation of Charles V. at Aachen.

1 521. Diet of Worms. Luther placed under the ban of the Empire.
Outbreak of war. Milan occupied by the imperial and papal forces.
Death of Leo X.

1522. Election of Adrian VI.
Luther returns to Wittenberg.
Battle of Bicocca.

The Knights' War in Germany.
Capture of Rhodes by the Turks.

1523. First public Disputation at Zurich.
Defection of the Constable of Bourbon.
Bonnivet in Italy.

Death of Adrian VI. Succession of Clement VII.

1524. Retreat of Bonnivet.

The Peasants' War in Germany.
Francis I. crosses the Alps.

1525. Battle of Pavia.

Prussia becomes a secular Duchy.

1526. Treaty of Madrid.

Charles V. marries Isabella of Portugal.
League of Cognac.

xix b — 2

xx CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF LEADING EVENTS

Recess of Spire.
Battle of Mohacz.
Raid of the Colonna on Rome.
Ferdinand elected King of Bohemia and Hungary.
IS27- The sack of Rome.

Invasion of Italy by Lautrec.

1528. France and England declare war on the Emperor.
Siege of Naples by Lautrec. Defection of Andrea Doria.

1529. Diet of Spire. " The Protest."

Civil War in Switzerland. First Peace of Cappel.

Treaty of Barcelona.

Peace of Cambray.

Siege of Vienna by the Turks.

Conference of Marburg.

1530. Last imperial coronation by the Pope.
Diets of Augsburg. Confession of Augsburg.
Capture of Florence.

Revolt against the Bishop at Geneva.
1 5 3 1 . Ferdinand elected King of the Romans.

Henry VIII. " Supreme Head of the Church " in England.
Battle of Cappel and death of Zwingli.
League of Schmalkald.

1532. Inquisition established at Lisbon.
Annates abolished in England.
Religious Peace of Niiremburg.
Second conference at Bologna.

1533. English Acts in restraint of appeals to Rome.
Wullenweber Burgomaster of Liibeck.
Address of Cop. Flight of Calvin.

1534. Anabaptist rising at Miinster.
Ulrich recovers Wurtemburg.
Peace of Cadan.

The Grafenfehde.

Ignatius Loyala founds the Society of Jesus.

Death of Clement VII. Accession of Paul III.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Leopold von Ranke was one of the leaders of the modern scientific
school of German historians, which reckons Niebuhr as its father, and
includes, among others, the names of Mommsen, Giesebrecht, Waitz,
Droysen, and Von Sybel, several of them pupils of Von Ranke himself.
Although these writers did not deny the value of artistic presentation,
they cared much more that the presentation should be accurate. Ranke
tells us that he was taught this lesson by observing the irreconcilable
divergencies between the accounts of contemporary writers, and by the
liberties Sir Walter Scott took with historical fact in his novels. He was
thus led to the conclusion that " a strict representation of facts, be it ever
so narrow or unpoetical, is, beyond doubt, the first law."1 Yet " all
hangs together — critical study of genuine sources, impartiality of view,
objective description ; the end to be aimed at is the representation of the
whole truth "2 Accordingly, Ranke and his comrades of the scientific
school applied to the criticism of original authorities the most stringent
canons of evidence. They discounted the prejudices and the want of
opportunities in the case of memoirs and biographies, and insisted more
especially on the value of public documents, letters and the despatches
of ambassadors.3 Their work was much facilitated by the great advance
which had lately been made in facility of access to State archives, and by
the publication of many of the most important documents and despatches.
The relations of the greater Powers of Europe had just at the close of
the fifteenth century shown a marked increase of intimacy, though by
no means of friendship, and this naturally led to a correspondingly notice-
able increase of diplomacy. The plentiful crop of diplomatic documents
which resulted began only towards the middle of the nineteenth century
to be opened to the student, and hence, perhaps, one of the reasons which
led Ranke to devote his main attention to the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. In his first attempt at historical writing, his " History of Latin
and Teutonic Nations," published in 1824, he tells us that it was at the

1 Latin and Teutonic Nations, translation, p. 6.

2 History of England, translation, vol. v., p. 428.

3 Cf. Ranke's Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber, which forms the Ap-
pendix to his Geschichte der Romanischen und Germanischen Volker — a work
which has unfortunately not yet been translated into English.

xxi

xxii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

close of the fifteenth century that the nations of Europe first definitely
realized in the Italian wars the fundamental unity which underlay their
common civilization, a civilization which was in all cases founded on a
fusion of Romanic and German elements. Ranke first set himself to
demonstrate this fundamental unity, but the complexity of his task and
the ever-increasing mass of material led him to abandon the attempt,
after having brought his sketch up to the year 1518. Henceforth he
devoted himself to the study of separate countries, chiefly, however, in
the centuries of his original choice. The side which most attracted him
was the religious movement, so far, at least, as this was interwoven with
political issues. Thus most of his writings1 aim at tracing the special
form taken in each country by the great movement of the Reformation.
In the volume before us it is with the relations of Church and State
in Germany that he is mainly interested. His purpose is to show that
just as the mediaeval history of Germany had turned upon the contest
between the Empire and the Papacy, so that of the sixteenth century
centred round the struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Though he does not deny the influence of personal character on the de-
velopment of the plot, he insists more especially on the effect of the German
Constitution and of the Empire, both the products of past history, upon
the course of the Reformation in that country. According to his method,
he seeks for the interpretation of events chiefly in the despatches of ambas-
sadors, and in the political correspondence of contemporary statesmen,
while somewhat neglecting the faiths and aspirations expressed in the
general literature of the age.

This limitation of the scope of history is less apparent in the work
before us than in others, but for all that "The History of the Reformation
in Germany " may be said to present a somewhat external picture of the
times.

Our author investigates the causes of events, but the feelings of the
victorious and of the oppressed, or the economic or social side of history,
he passes by with scant attention. Yet it may fairly be claimed that the
history of a nation at any time, and above all at such a period of intel-
lectual and social as well as spiritual upheaval as this which he has
under review, to be altogether intelligible, should not be limited to war,

1 The most important are :

History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations, translated by Ashworth.

History of the Popes, translated by S. Austin.

Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg during the 16th and 17th Centuries,
translated by Sir A. and Lady Duff-Gordon.

History of England, principally in the 17th Century, translated by several hands.

Civil Wars and Monarchy in France in the 16th and 17th Centuries, translated
by M. A. Garvey.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xxiii

diplomacy, and government, but should cover the whole field of human
thought and action, and even, we may add, of sentiment.

Ranke has been called a lyrical writer of history. " His point of view
is not that of the narrative, but of reflection on the narrative. ... It
is not his purpose first to make us acquainted with the subject, as is usually
the intention of historical writers. He assumes such acquaintance . . .
and adds to it only the last touches of colour, often in quite unexpected
places."1

" He draws in broad outlines, and then fills up the details. ' I have
made,' he says, ' this attempt to represent the general through the par-
ticular, directly, and without multiplicity of detail.' The truth of the
picture, no doubt, depends upon the discrimination and honesty with
which the choice of details is made."2

But there is another of Ranke's characteristics as a writer which stood
him in good stead. He enjoyed a certain aloofness and detachment of
mind which gave him a power of rare impartiality. As Lord Acton has
said of Bishop Creighton, himself a follower of Ranke, " He is not striving
to prove a case, or burrowing towards a conclusion, but wishes to pass
through scenes of raging controversy with a serene curiosity ; . . . avoid-
ing both alternatives of the prophet's mission, he will neither bless nor
curse, and seldom invites his readers to execrate or admire."3

Like a skilful physician, he diagnoses the disease in cold, critical tones.
He rarely rouses our enthusiasm or excites our indignation. This pecu-
liarity is well illustrated by Ranke's answer to the divine who claimed him
as a fellow-worker on the Reformation. " You," said Ranke, " are in
the first place a Christian. I am a historian. There is a great gulf between
us."4 And Ranke tells us himself that the " History of the Reformation "
was undertaken as a balance to the " History of the Popes," because he
doubted whether in his former work he had done complete justice to the
Protestants.6 Not that he was indifferent to religion, or without strong
convictions on questions of his own day, but as a historian he felt it his
duty not to take sides or to plead a cause.

The " History of the Reformation in Germany " is probably Ranke's
greatest achievement. Nowhere are his great historical gifts better seen.
His patience in research, his power of grouping facts to illustrate a central
idea, his talent for analysis of character, his calmness and sobriety of

1 Zeller, Ausgewahlte Briefe von Friedrich Strauss ; quoted in the Journal of
the American Historical Association, 1896, vol. i., 77.

2 Ibid., p. 76.

3 English Historical Review, vol. ii., p. 573.

4 E. Spiiler, Portraits contemporains.

5 Zur eigenen Lebensgeschichte von Leopold von Ranke, herausgegeben von
A. Dove, p. 52.

xxiv EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

judgment, and his peculiar method of pausing to reflect on the conclusions
and the lessons which the facts have brought out— all are used to the best
advantage. Nevertheless, the work cannot be considered to provide a
complete or exhaustive account of a most complex period, and in addition
Mrs. Austin's translation unfortunately only gives us three out of the
original five volumes, and thus takes us down to the end only of the second
of the three periods into which the historian has divided his book.

To fill up the gap it will be necessary for the student to have recourse
to other authors, who give many details, and deal with many aspects
which have been neglected in Ranke's treatment of the period. More-
over, what we may call the " documentary age " was only just beginning
when Ranke wrote, and much important material has been published and
classified since.

In order to assist the reader in his study of the period a short Biblio-
graphy of the more important histories which have appeared since Ranke
wrote has been added to the present edition, and for the rest, anyone who
really wishes fully to understand the Reformation should read some parts
at least of the contemporary literature, an ample proportion of which is
now readily accessible to the general public.

Yet, although such supplementary reading is essential if we wish to
make for ourselves a living picture of the past, as an introduction to the
period Ranke's great work has never been surpassed. The student will
find that he is led through the tangled maze of policy and of controversy
by a sure and certain guide. He will be taught the main issues and the
leading principles which were gradually evolving themselves, and will
thus obtain a firm outline based on scientific study, which he can subse-
quently fill up at pleasure.

The following references may be found useful for an account of Ranke's life,
and for a further criticism of his work :

Journal of American Historical Association, 1896, vol. i., p. 67, accompanied
at p. 1265 by a complete list of his writings.

English Historical Review, vol. i., 1896 : article on German Schools of History,
by Lord Acton.

Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. lxxvi., 1886, p. 693 et seq.

Revue Historique, vol. xxxi., 1886, p. 364.

Zur eigenen Lebengeschichte von L. von Ranke, herausgegeben von A. Dove.

Guglia E. L. von Ranke : Ranke's Leben und Werke.

HISTORY

OF THE

REFORMATION IN GERMANY

INTRODUCTION.

VIEW OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF GERMANY.

For purposes of discussion or of instruction, it may be possible to sever
ecclesiastical from political history ; in actual life, they are indissolubly
connected, or rather fused into one indivisible whole.

As indeed there is nothing of real importance in the moral and intel-
lectual business of human life, the source of which does not lie in a profound
and more or less conscious relation of man and his concerns to God and
divine things, it is impossible to conceive a nation worthy of the name,
or entitled to be called, in any sense, great, whose political existence is
not constantly elevated and guided by religious ideas. To cultivate,
purify and exalt these, — to give them an expression intelligible to all
and profitable to all, — to embody them in outward forms and public acts,
is its necessary as well as its noblest task.

It is not to be denied that this process inevitably brings into action two
great principles which seem to place a nation at variance with itself.
Nationality (i.e. the sum of the peculiar qualities, habits, and sentiments
of a nation) is necessarily restricted within the bounds marked out by
neighbouring nationalities ; whereas religion, ever since it was revealed
to the world in a form which claims and deserves universality, constantly
strives after sole and absolute supremacy.

In the foundation or constitution of a State, some particular moral or
intellectual principle predominates ; a principle prescribed by an inherent
necessity, expressed in determinate forms and giving birth to a peculiar
condition of society, or character of civilisation. But no sooner has a
Church, with its forms of wider application, embracing different nations,
arisen, than it grasps at the project of absorbing the State, and of reducing
the principle on which civil society is founded to complete subjection :
the original underived authority of that principle is, indeed, rarely acknow-
ledged by the Church.

At length the universal religion appears, and, after it has incorporated
itself with the consciousness of mankind, assumes the character of a great
and growing tradition, handed down from people to people, and com-
municated in rigid dogmas. But nations cannot suffer themselves to be
debarred from exercising the understanding bestowed on them by nature,
or the knowledge acquired by study, on an investigation of its truth. In
every age, therefore, we see diversities in the views of religion arise in
different nations, and these again react in various ways on the character
and condition of the State. It is evident, from the nature of this struggle,
how mighty is the crisis which it involves for the destinies of the human
race. Religious truth must have an outward and visible representation,
in order that the State may be perpetually reminded of the origin and
the end of our earthly existence ; of the rights of our neighbours, and the

i

2 INTRODUCTION

kindred of all the nations of the earth ; it would otherwise be in danger
of degenerating into tyranny, or of hardening into inveterate prejudice, —
into intolerant conceit of self, and hatred of all that is foreign. On the
other hand, a free development of the national character and culture
is necessary to the interests of religion. Without this, its doctrines can
never be truly understood nor profoundly accepted : without incessant
alternations of doubt and conviction, of assent and dissent, of seeking
and finding, no error could be removed, no deeper understanding of truth
attained. Thus, then, independence of thought and political freedom
are indispensable to the Church herself ; she needs them to remind her
of the varying intellectual wants of men, of the changing nature of her
own forms ; she needs them to preserve her from the lifeless iteration of
misunderstood doctrines and rites, which kill the soul.

It has been said, the State is itself the Church, but the Church has
thought herself authorised to usurp the place of the State. The truth
is, that the spiritual or intellectual life of man — in its intensest depth and
energy unquestionably one — yet manifests itself in these .two institutions,
which come into contact under the most varied forms ; which are con-
tinually striving to pervade each other, yet never entirely coincide ; to
exclude each other, yet neither has ever been permanently victor or
vanquished. In the nations of the West, at least, such a result has never
been obtained. The Califate may unite ecclesiastical and political power
in one hand ; but the whole life and character of western Christendom
consists of the incessant action and counter-action of Church and State ;
hence arises the freer, more comprehensive, more profound activity of
mind, which must, on the whole, be admitted to characterise that portion
of the globe. The aspect of the public life of Europe is always determined
by the mutual relations of these two great principles.

Hence it happens that ecclesiastical history is not to be understood
without political, nor the latter without the former. The combination
of both is necessary to present either in its true light ; and if ever we are
able to fathom the depths of that profounder life where both have their
common source and origin, it must be by a complete knowledge of this
combination.

But if this is the case with all nations, it is most pre-eminently so with
the German, which has bestowed more persevering and original thought
on ecclesiastical and religious subjects than any other. The events of
ten centuries turn upon the struggles between the Empire and the Papacy,
between Catholicism and Protestantism. We, in our days, stand midway
between them.

My design is to relate the history of an epoch in which the politico-
religious energy of the German nation was most conspicuous for its growth
and most prolific in its results. I do not conceal from myself the great
difficulty of this undertaking ; but, with God's help, I will endeavour to
accomplish it. I shall first attempt to trace my way through a retrospect
of earlier times.

CAROLINGIAN TIMES.

One of the most important epochs in the history of the world was the
commencement of the eighth century ; when, on the one side, Mahomme-
danism threatened to overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other, the

CAROLINGIAN TIMES 3

ancient idolatry of Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across
the Rhine. In this peril of Christian institutions a youthful prince of
Germanic race, Karl Martell, arose as their champion ; maintained them
with all the energy which the necessity for self-defence calls forth, and
finally extended them into new regions. For, as the possessor of the
sole power which still remained erect in the nations of Roman origin —
the Pope of Rome — allied himself with this prince and his successors ;
as he received assistance from them, and bestowed in return the favour
and protection of the spiritual authority, the compound of military and
sacerdotal government which forms the basis of all European civilisation
from that moment arose into being. From that time conquest and con-
version went hand in hand. " As soon," says the author of the life of
St. Boniface, " as the authority of the glorious Prince Charles over the
Frisians was confirmed, the trumpet of the sacred word was heard." It
would be difficult to say whether the Frankish domination contributed
more to the conversion of the Hessians and Thuringians, or Christianity
to the incorporation of those races with the Frankish empire. The war
of Charlemagne against the Saxons was a war not only of conquest but of
religion. Charlemagne opened it with an attack on the old Saxon
sanctuary, the Irminsul ;x the Saxons retorted by the destruction of
the church at Fritzlar. Charlemagne marched to battle bearing the
relics of saints ; missionaries accompanied the divisions of his army ;
his victories were celebrated by the establishment of bishoprics ; baptism
was the seal of subjection and allegiance ; relapse into heathenism was also
a crime against the state. The consummation of all these incidents is to
be found in the investiture of the aged conqueror with the imperial crown.
A German, in the natural course of events and in the exercise of regular
legitimate power, occupied the place of the Caesars as chief of a great
part of the Romance world ; he also assumed a lofty station at the side
of the Roman pontiff in spiritual affairs ; a Frankish synod saluted him,
as " Regent of the true religion." The entire state of which he was the
chief now assumed a colour and form wherein the spiritual and temporal
elements were completely blended. The union between emperor and
pope served as a model for that between count and bishop. The arch-
deaconries into which the bishoprics were divided, generally, if not uni-
versally, coincided with the Gauen, or political divisions of the country.
As the counties were divided into hundreds, so were the archdeaconries
into deaneries. The seat of them was different ; but, in respect of the
territory over which their jurisdiction extended, there was a striking
correspondence.2 According to the view of the lord and ruler, not only
was the secular power to lend its arm to the spiritual, but the spiritual
to aid the temporal by its excommunications. The great empire reminds
us of a vast neutral ground in the midst of a world filled with carnage
and devastation ; where an iron will imposes peace on forces generally
in a state of mutual hostility and destruction, and fosters and shelters
the germ of civilisation ; so guarded was it on all sides by impregnable
marches.

1 The Saxon idol, identified in later Germanic mythology with the Teutonic
hero Hermann, the conqueror of Varus. Cf. Milman, History of Latin Christianity,
Bk. v. c. i.

2 See Wenck, Hessische Landesgeschichte, ii. 469.

I — 2

4 INTRODUCTION

But every age could not produce a man so formed to subdue and to
command ; and for the development of the world which Charlemagne
founded, it remained to be seen what would be the mutual bearing of the
different elements of which it was composed ; whether they would blend
with or repel each other, agree or conflict : for there can be no true and
enduring vitality without the free motion of natural and innate powers
and propensities.

It was inevitable that the clergy would first feel its own strength. This
body formed a corporation independent even of the emperor : originating
and developed in the Romance nations, whose most remarkable product
it had been in the preceding century, it now extended over those of Ger-
manic race ; in which, through the medium of a common language, it
continually made new proselytes and gained strength and consistency.

Even under Charlemagne the spiritual element was already bestirring
itself with activity and vigour. One of the most remarkable of his capitu-
laries is that wherein he expresses his astonishment that his spiritual and
temporal officers so often thwart, instead of supporting each other, as it
is their duty to do. He does not disguise that it was the clergy more
especially who exceeded their powers : to them he addresses the question,
fraught with reproach and displeasure, which has been so often repeated
by succeeding ages — how far they are justified in interfering in purely
secular affairs ? He tells them they must explain what is meant by
renouncing the world ; whether that is consistent with large and costly
retinues, with attempts to persuade the ignorant to make donations of
their goods and to disinherit their children ; whether it were not better
to foster good morals than to build churches, and the like.1

But the clergy soon evinced a much stronger propensity to ambitious
encroachment.

We need not here inquire whether the pseudo-Isidorian decretals were
invented as early as the reign of Charlemagne, or somewhat later ; in the
Frankish church, or in Italy : at all events, they belong to that period,
are connected with a most extensive project, and form a great epoch
in our history. The project was to overthrow the existing constitution
of the church, which, in every country, still essentially rested on the
authority of the metropolitan ; to place the whole church in immediate
subjection to the pope of Rome, and to establish a unity of the spiritual
power, by means of which it must necessarily emancipate itself from the
temporal. Such was the plan which the clergy had even then the bold-
ness to avow. A series of names of the earlier popes were pressed into
the service, in order to append to them forged documents, to which a
colour of legality was thus given.2

And what was it not possible to effect in those times of profound his-
torical ignorance, in which past ages were only beheld through the twilight
of falsehood and fantastic error ? and under princes like the successors

1 " Capitulare interrogationis de iis quae Karolus M. pro communi omnium
utilitate interroganda constituit Aquisgrani 811." — Monum. Germanics Histor.
ed. Pertz, iii., p. 106.

2 A passage from the spurious Acts of the Synods of Pope Silvester is found
in a Capitulary of 806. See Eichhorn, Ueber die spanische Sammlung der
Quellen des Kirchenrechts in den Abhandll. der Preuss. Akad. d. W. 1834.
Philos. Hist. Klasse, p. 102.

CAROLINGIAN TIMES 5

of Charlemagne, whose minds, instead of being elevated or purified, were
crushed by religious influences, so that they lost the power of distinguish-
ing the spiritual from the temporal province of the clerical office ?

It is indisputable that the order of succession to the throne which
Louis the Pious, in utter disregard of the warnings of his faithful adherents,
and in opposition to all German modes of thinking, established in the
year 817,1 was principally brought about by the influence of the clergy.
" The empire," says Agobardus, " must not be divided into three ; it
must remain one and undivided." The division of the empire seemed to
endanger the unity of the church : and, as the emperor was chiefly deter-
mined by spiritual motives, the regulations adopted were enforced with
all the pomp of religious ceremonies, — by masses, fasts, and distributions
of alms ; every one swore to them ; they were held to be inspired by God
himself.

After this, no one, not even the emperor, could venture to depart from
them. Great, at least, were the evils which he brought upon himself by
his attempt to do so, out of love to a son born at a later period of his life.
The irritated clergy made common cause with his elder sons, who were
already dissatisfied with the administration of the empire. The supreme
pontiff came in person from Rome and declared in their favour ; and a
universal revolt was the consequence. Nor did this first manifestation
of their power satisfy the clergy. In order to make snre of their advantage,
they formed the daring scheme of depriving the born and anointed
emperor, on whom they could now no longer place reliance, of his con-
secrated dignity — -a dignity which, at any rate, he owed not to them, — ■
and of bestowing it immediately on the successor to the throne who had
been nominated in 817, and who was the natural representative of the unity
of the empire. If, on the one hand, it is indisputable that, in the eighth
century, the spiritual authority contributed greatly to the establishment
of the principle of obedience to the temporal government, it is equally
certain that, in the ninth, it made rapid strides towards the acquisition
of power into its own hands. In the collection of capitularies of Bene-
dictus Levita, it is treated as one of the leading principles, that no consti-
tution in the world has any force or validity against the decisions of the
popes of Rome ; in more than one canon, kings who act in opposition to
this principle are threatened with divine punishment.2 The monarchy
of Charlemagne seemed to be about to be transformed into an ecclesiastical
state.

I do not hesitate to affirm that it was mainly the people of Germany
who resisted this tendency ; indeed, that it was precisely this resistance
which first awakened Germany to a consciousness of its own importance
as a nation. For it would be impossible to speak of a German nation,
in the proper sense of the word, during the preceding ages. In the more
remote, the several tribes had not even a common name by which they
recognised each other : during the period of their migration, they fought

1 Fauriel, Histoire de la Gaule Merid., iv. 47, examines this point more in
detail.

2 Benedicti Capitularia, lib. ii., p. 322. " Velut praevaricator catholicae fidei
semper a Domino reus existat quicunque regum canonis hujus censuram per-
miserit violandam." Lib. iii. 346. " Constitutiones contradecreta praesulum
Romanorum nullius suut momenti."

6 INTRODUCTION

with as much hostility among themselves as against the stranger, and
allied themselves as readily with the latter as with those of common race.
Under the Merovingian kings they were further divided by religious
enmities ; the Saxons, in presence of Frankish Christianity, held the
more pertinaciously to their forms of government and to their ancient
gods. It was not till Charlemagne had united all the Germanic tribes,
with the exception of those in England and Scandinavia, in one and
the same temporal and spiritual allegiance, that the nation began to
acquire form and consistency ; it was not till the beginning of the ninth
century, that the German name appeared as contra-distinguished from the
Romance portion of the empire.1

It is worthy of eternal remembrance, that the first act in which the
Germans appear as one people, is the resistance to the attempt of the
clergy to depose their emperor and lord.

The ideas of legitimacy which they had inherited from their past political
life and history, as members of tribes, would never have led them to
derive it from the pretended grace of God, — that is to say, from the
declaration of the spiritual authorities. They were attached to Louis
the Pious, who had rendered peculiar services to the Saxon chiefs ; their
aversion to his deposition was easily fanned into a flame : at the call of
Louis the Germanic, who kept his court in Bavaria, the other tribes,
Saxons, Swabians, and Franks, on this side the Carbonaria,2 gathered
around his banner ; for the first time they were united in one great object.
As they were aided by an analogous, though much feebler, movement in
the south of France, the bishops soon found themselves compelled to ■
absolve the emperor from the penance they had imposed, and to acknow-
ledge him again as their lord. The first historical act of the united nation
is this rising in favour of their born prince against the spiritual power.
Nor were they any longer inclined to consent to such a deviation from
their own law of succession, as was involved in the acknowledgment of a
single heir to the whole monarchy. When, after the death of Louis the
Pious, Lothair, in spite of all that had passed, made an attempt to seize
the reins of the whole empire, he found in the Germans a resistance, at
first doubtful, but every moment increasing, and finally victorious. From
them his troops received their first important defeat on the Riess, which
laid the foundation of the severance of Germany from the great monarchy.3

Lothair relied on his claims recognised by the clergy ; the Germans,
combined with the southern French, challenged him to submit them to
the judgment of heaven by battle. Then it was that the great array of the
Frankish empire split into two hostile masses ; the one containing a
preponderance of Romance, the other of Germanic elements. The former
defended the unity of the Empire ; the latter demanded, according to
their German ideas, its separation. There is a ballad extant on the
battle of Fontenay, in which one of the combatants expresses his grief
at this bloody war of fellow-citizens and brethren ; "on that bitter night

1 Riihs Erlauterung der zehn ersten Capitel von Tacitus Germania, p. 103 ;
Mone : Geschichte des Heidenthums im Nordlichen Europa, Th. ii., p. 6.

2 A famous forest near Louvain in Hainault.

3 In Retiense. (Aryjales Ruodolfi Fuldensis ; Monumenta Germania; Hist.,
L, p. 352-) According to Lang (Baierische Gauen, p. 78), belonging to the Swabian
territory.

CAR0L1NGIAN TIMES 7

in which the brave fell, the skilful in fight." For the destiny of the West
it was decisive.1 The judgment of heaven was triumphantly pronounced
against the claims of the clergy ; three kingdoms were now actually
established instead of one. The secular Germanic principles which, from
the time of the great migration of tribes, had extended widely into the
Romance world, remained in possession of the field : they were steadfastly
maintained in the subsequent troubles.

On the extinction of one of the three lines in which the unity of the
empire should have rested, dissensions broke out between the two others,
a main feature of which was the conflict between the spiritual and secular
principles.

The king of the French, Charles the Bald, had allied himself with the
clergy ; his armies were led to the field by bishops, and he abandoned
the administration of his kingdom in a great measure to Hinkmar, arch-
bishop of Rheims. Hence, when the throne of Lotharingia became vacant
in the year 869, he experienced the warmest support from the bishops
of that country. " After," say they, " they had called on God, who
bestows kingdoms on whom He will, to point out to them a king after
His own heart ; after they had then, with God's help, perceived that the
crown was of right his to whom they meant to confide it," they elected
Charles the Bald to be their lord.2 But the Germans were as far now
as before from being convinced by this sort of public law. The elder
brother thought his claims at least as valid as those of the younger ; by
force of arms he compelled Charles to consent to the treaty of Marsna,
by which he first united transrhenane Germany with that on the right bank
of the Rhine. This same course of events was repeated in the year 875,
when the thrones of Italy and the Empire became vacant. At first,
Charles the Bald, aided now by the pope, as heretofore by the bishops,
took possession of the crown without difficulty.3 But Carlmann, son of
Louis the Germanic, resting his claim on the right of the elder line, and
also on his nomination as heir by the last emperor, hastened with his
Bavarians and high Germans to Italy ; and in spite of the opposition of
the pope, took possession of it as his unquestionable inheritance. If this
were the case in Italy, still less could Charles the Bald succeed in his
attempts on the German frontiers. He was defeated in both countries ;
the superiority of the Germans in arms was so decisive that, at length,
they became masters of the whole Lotharingian territory. Even under
the Carolingian sovereigns, they marked the boundaries of the mighty
empire ; the crown of Charlemagne, and two thirds of his dominions, fell
into their hands : they maintained the independence of the secular power
with dauntless energy and brilliant success.

SAXON AND FRANKISH EMPERORS.

The question which next presents itself is, what course was to be pursued
if the ruling house either became extinct, or proved itself incapable of

1 Angilbertus de bella qu£e fuit Fontaneto.

2 " Caroli Secundi Coronatio in Regno Hlotharii, 869." — Monum., iii. 512.

3 " Papa invitante Romam perrexit. Eeato Petro multa ct pretiosa munera
efferens, in imperatorem unctus est." — Annates Hincmari Remensis, 875 et 876 ;
Monum. Germ., i. 498.

3 INTRODUCTION

conducting the government of so vast an empire, attacked on every side
from without, and fermenting within.

In the years from 879 to 887, the several nations determined, one after
another, to abandon the cause of Charles the Fat. The characteristic
differences of the mode in which they accomplished this are well worthy
of remark.

In the Romance part of Europe the clergy had a universal ascendancy.
In Cisjurane Burgundy it was " the holy fathers assembled at Mantala,
the holy synod, together with the nobles," who " under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit," elected Count Boso king.1 We find from the decretal
for the election of Guido of Spoleto, that " the humble bishops assembled
together from various parts at Pavia chose him to be their lord and king,2
principally because he had promised to exalt the holy Roman church,
and to maintain the ecclesiastical rights and privileges." The conditions
to which Odo of Paris gave his assent at his coronation are chiefly in
favour of the clergy : he promises not only to defend the rights of the
church, but to extend them to the utmost of his information and ability.3
Totally different was the state of things in Germany. Here it was more
especially the temporal lords, Saxons, Franks, and Bavarians, who, under
the guidance of a disaffected minister of the emperor, assembled around
Arnulf and transferred the crown to him. The bishops (even the bishop
of Mainz) were rather opposed to the measure ; nor was it till some years
afterwards that they entered into a formal negotiation4 with the new
ruler : they had not elected him ; they submitted to his authority.

The rights and privileges which were on every occasion claimed by
the clergy, were as constantly and as resolutely ignored by the Germans.
They held as close to the legitimate succession as possible ; even after the
complete extinction of the Carolingian race, the degree of kindred with
it was one of the most important considerations which determined the
choice of the people, first to Conrad, and then to Henry I. of Saxony.

Conrad had, indeed, at one time, the idea of attaching himself to the
clergy, who, even in Germany, were a very powerful body : Henry, on
the contrary, was always opposed to them. They took no share in his
election ; the consecration by the holy oil, upon which Pepin and Charle-
magne had set so high a value, he declined ; as matters stood in Germany,
it could be of no importance to him. On the contrary, we find that as in
his own land of Saxony he kept his clergy within the strict bounds of
obedience, so in other parts of his dominions he placed them in subjection
to the dukeo 6 ; so that their dependence on the civil power was more
complete than ever. His only solicitude was to stand well with these

1 " Nutu Dei, per suflragia sanctorum, ob instantem necessitatem." — Electio
Bosonis ; Monum., iii. 547.

2 " Nos humiles episcopos ex diversis partibus Papia? convenientibus pro
ecclesiarum nostrarum ereptione et omnis Christianitatis salvations, " &c. —
Bleclio Widonis Regis, Monum., iii. 554.

3 Capitulum Odonis Regis. Ibid.

4 " De collegio sacerdotum gnaros direxerunt mediatores ad praefatum regem,"
&c. — Arnulfi Concilium Triburience, Monum., iii. 560. He says, " Nos, quibus
regni cura et solicitudo ecclesiarum commissa est."

6 "Totius Bajoaria; pontifices tua: subjaceant potestati," is the promise of
Liutprand the king to Duke Arnulf. Buchner, Geschichte der Baiern, iii. 38,
shows what use the latter made of it. See Waiz, Henry I., p. 49.

CA ROLINGIA N TIMES 9

great feudatories, whose power was almost equal to his own, and to fulfil
other duties imperatively demanded by the moment. As he succeeded
in these objects, — as he obtained a decisive victory over his most dan-
gerous enemies, re-established the Marches, which had been broken at all
points, and suffered nothing on the other side the Rhine that bore the
German name to be wrested from him, — the clergy were compelled by
necessity to adhere to him : he bequeathed an undisputed sceptre to his
house. It was by an agreement of the court and the secular nobles that
Otho was selected from among Henry's sons as his successor to the throne.
The ceremony of election was attended only by the dukes, princes, great
officers of state, and warriors ; the elected monarch then received the
assembled body of the clergy.1 Otho could receive the unction without
scruple ; the clergy could no longer imagine that they conferred a right
upon him by that ceremony. Whether anointed or not, Otho would have
been king, as his father had been before him. And so firmly was this
sovereignty established, that Otho was now in a position to revive and
carry through the claims founded by his Carolingian predecessors. He
first completely realised the idea of a Germanic empire, which they had
only conceived and prepared. He governed Lotharingia and administered
Burgundy ; a short campaign sufficed to re-establish the rights of his
Carolingian predecessors to the supreme power in Lombardy. Like
Charlemagne, he was called to aid by a pope oppressed by the factions
of Rome ; like him, he received in return for his succour the crown of
the western empire (February 2, 962). The principle of the temporal
government, the autocracy, which from the earliest times had held in check
the usurpations of ecclesiastical ambition, thus attained its culminating
point, and was triumphantly asserted and recognised in Europe.

At the first glance it would seem as if the relation in which Otho now
stood to the pope was the same as that occupied by Charlemagne ; on a
closer inspection, however, we find a wide difference.

Charlemagne's connexion with the see of Rome was produced by mutual
need ; it was the result of long epochs of a political combination embracing
the development of various nations ; their mutual understanding rested
on an internal necessity, before which all opposing views and interests
gave way. The sovereignty of Otho the Great, on the contrary, rested on
a principle fundamentally opposed to the encroachment of spiritual
influences. The alliance was momentary ; the disruption of it inevitable.
But when, soon after, the same pope who had invoked his aid, John XII.,
placed himself at the head of a rebellious faction, Otho was compelled
to cause him to be formally deposed, and to crush the faction that supported
him by repeated exertions of force, before he could obtain perfect obedi-
ence ; he was obliged to raise to the papal chair a pope on whose co-
operation he could rely. The popes have often asserted that they trans-
ferred the empire to the Germans ; and if they confined this assertion
to the Carolingian race, they are not entirely wrong. The coronation of
Charlemagne was the result of their free determination. But if they
allude to the German emperors, properly so called, the contrary of their

1 Widukiveli Annales, lib. ii. " Duces ac praefectorum principes cum caetera
principum militumque manu — fecerunt eum regem ; dum ea geruntur a ducibus
ac csetero magistratu, pontifex maximus cum universo sacerdotali ordine prse-
stolabatur."

io INTRODUCTION

statement is just as true ; not only Carlmann and Otho the Great, but
their successors, constantly had to conquer the imperial throne, and to
defend it, when conquered, sword in hand.

It has been said that the Germans would have done more wisely if
they had not meddled with the empire ; or at least, if they had first
worked out their own internal political institutions, and then, with matured
minds, taken part in the general affairs of Europe. But the things of this
world are not wont "to develop themselves so methodically. A nation
is often compelled by circumstances to increase its territorial extent,
before its internal growth is completed. For was it of slight importance
to its inward progress, that Germany thus remained in unbroken con-
nexion with Italy ? — the depository of all that remained of ancient civilisa-
tion, the source whence all the forms of Christianity had been derived. The
mind of Germany has always unfolded itself by contact with the spirit of
antiquity, and of the nations of Roman origin. It was from the contrasts
which so continually presented themselves during this uninterrupted con-
nexion, that Germany learned to distinguish ecclesiastical domination
from Christianity.

For however signal had been the ascendancy of the secular power, the
German people did not depart a hair's breadth either from the doctrines
of Christianity, the ideas upon which a Christian church is founded, or
even from the forms in which they had first received those doctrines and
ideas. In them the nation had first risen to a consciousness of its exist-
ence as a united body ; its whole intellectual and moral life was bound
up with them. The German imperial government revived the civilising
and Christianising tendencies which had distinguished the reigns of Karl
Martell and Charlemagne. Otho the Great, in following the course marked
out by his illustrious predecessors, gave it a fresh national importance by
planting German colonies in Slavonic countries, simultaneously with
the diffusion of Christianity. He germanised as well as converted the
population he had subdued. He confirmed his father's conquests on the
Saale and the Elbe, by the establishment of the bishoprics of Meissen
and Osterland. After having conquered the tribes on the other side the
Elbe in those long and perilous campaigns where he commanded in person,
he established there, too, three bishoprics, which for a time gave an
extraordinary impulse to the progress of conversion.1 In the midst of all
his difficulties and perplexities in Italy he never lost sight of this grand
object ; it was indeed while in that country that he founded the arch-
bishopric of Magdeburg, whose jurisdiction extended over all those other
foundations. And even where the project of Germanising the population
was out of the question, the supremacy of the German name was firmly
and actively maintained. In Bohemia and Poland bishoprics were erected
under German metropolitans ; from Hamburg Christianity found its
way into the north ; missionaries from Passau traversed Hungary, nor
is it improbable that the influence of these vast and sublime efforts ex-
tended even to Russia. The German empire was the centre of the con-
quering religion ; as itself advanced, it extended the ecclesiastico-military
State of which the Church was an integral part ; it was the chief repre-
sentative of the unity of western Christendom, and hence arose the neces-
sity under which it lay of acquiring a decided ascendancy over the papacy.
1 Adami Brem. Histor. Ecclesiastica, lib. ii., c. 17.

CAROLINGIAN TIMES n

This secular and Germanic principle long retained the predominancy
it had triumphantly acquired. Otho the Second offered the papal chair
to the abbot of Cluny ; and Otho the Third bestowed it first on one of
his kinsmen, and then on his instructor Gerbert. All the factions which
threatened to deprive the emperor of this right were overthrown ; under
the patronage of Henry III., a German pope defeated three Roman candi-
dates for the tiara. In the year 1048, when the see of Rome became
vacant, ambassadors from the Romans, says a contemporaneous chronicler,
proceeded to Saxony, found the emperor there, and entreated him to give
them a new pope. He chose the Bishop of Toul, (afterwards Leo IX.),
of the house of Egisheim, from which he himself was descended on the
maternal side. What took place with regard to the head of the church
was of course still more certain to befall the rest of the clergy. Since
Otho the Great, in all the troubles of the early years of his reign, succeeded
in breaking down the resistance which the duchies were enabled by their
clan-like composition to offer him, the ecclesiastical appointments
remained without dispute in the hand of the emperor.

How magnificent was the position now occupied by the German nation,
represented in the persons of the mightiest princes of Europe and united
under their sceptre ; at the head of an advancing civilisation, and of the
whole of western Christendom ; in the fulness of youthful, aspiring strength !

We must here however remark and confess, that Germany did not
wholly understand her position, nor fulfil her mission. Above all, she did
not succeed in giving complete reality to the idea of a western empire,
such as appeared about to be established under Otho I. Independent
and often hostile, though Christian, powers arose through all the borders
of Germany ; in Hungary, and in Poland, in the northern as well as in
the southern possessions of the Normans ; England and France were
snatched again from German influence. Spain laughed at the German
claims to a universal supremacy ; her kings thought themselves emperors ;
even the enterprises nearest home — those across the Elbe — were for a
time stationary or retrograde.

If we seek for the causes of these unfavourable results, we need only
turn our eyes on the internal condition of the empire, where we find an
incessant and tempestuous struggle of all the forces of the nation. Un-
fortunately the establishment of a fixed rule of succession to the imperial
crown was continually prevented by events. The son and grandson of
Otho the Great died in the bloom of youth, and the nation was thus
compelled to elect a chief. The very first election threw Germany and
Italy into a universal ferment ; and this was shortly succeeded by a second
still more stormy, since it was necessary to resort to a new line — the
Franconian. How was it possible to expect implicit obedience from the
powerful and refractory nobles, out of whose ranks, and by whose will,
the emperor was raised to the throne ? Was it likely that the Saxon
race, which had hitherto held the reins of government, would readily and
quietly submit to a foreign family ? It followed that two factions arose,
the one obedient, the other opposed, to the Franconian emperor, and
rilled the empire with their strife. The severe character of Henry III.
excited universal discontent.1 A vision, related to us by his own chan-

1 Hermannus Contractus ad an. 1053. " Regni tarn primores quam inferiores
magis magisque mussitantes, regem se ipso deteriorem fore causabantur."

12 INTRODUCTION

cellor, affords a lively picture of the state of things. He saw the emperor,
seated on his throne, draw his sword, exclaiming aloud, that he trusted
he should still avenge himself on all his enemies. How could the emperors,
thus occupied during their whole lives with intestine dissensions, place
themselves at the head of Europe in the important work of social improve-
ment, or really merit the title of supreme Lords of the West ?

It is remarkable that the social element on which they propped their
power was again principally the clergy. Even Otho the Great owed his
triumph over intestine revolt and discord, in great measure to the support
of the bishops ; for example, of his brother Bruno, whom he had created
Archbishop of Cologne, and who, in return, held Lotharingia in allegiance
to him : it was only by the aid of the clergy that Otho conquered the
Pope.1 The emperors found it expedient to govern by means of the
bishops ; to make them the instruments of their will. The bishops were
at once their chancellors and their counsellors ; the monasteries, imperial
farms. The uncontrollable tendency, at that time, of all power and
office to become hereditary would naturally render the heads of the
church desirous of combining secular rights, which they could dispose of
at pleasure, with their bishoprics. Hence it happened, that just at the
time when the subjection of the clergy to the imperial authority was the
most complete, their power acquired the greatest extension and solidity.
Otho I. already began to unite the temporal powers of the count with
the proper spiritual authority of the bishop. We see from the registers
of Henry II. that he bestowed on many churches two and three countships ;
on that of Gandersheim, the countship in seven Gauen or districts. As
early as the eleventh century the bishops of Wiirzburg succeeded in totally
supplanting the secular counts in their diocese, and in uniting the spiritual
and temporal power ; a state of things which the other bishops now strove
to emulate.

It is evident that the station of an emperor of Germany was no less
perilous than august. The magnates by whom he was surrounded, the
possessors of the secular power out of whose ranks he himself had arisen,
he could hold in check only by an unceasing struggle, and not without
force. He must find a prop in another quarter, and seek support from
the very body who were in principle opposed to him. This rendered it
impossible for him ever to attain to that predominant influence in the
general affairs of Europe which the imperial dignity would naturally
have given him. How strongly does this everlasting ebb and flow of
contending parties, this continual upstarting of refractory powers, con-
trast with the tranquillity and self-sufficiency of the empire swayed by
Charlemagne ! It required matchless vigour and fortitude in an emperor
even to hold his seat.

In this posture of affairs, the prince who possessed the requisite vigour
and fortitude, Henry III., died young (a.d. 1056), and a child, six years old, j
in whose name the government was carried on by a tottering regency,'
filled his place :— one of those incidents which turn the fortunes of a world.

1 Rescriptum patrum in concilio, in Liutprand, lib. vi., contains the remarkable
declaration : ' Excommunicationem vestram parvipendemus, earn potius in
vos retorquebimus."

EMANCIPATION OF THE PAPACY 13

EMANCIPATION OF THE PAPACY.

The ideas which had been repressed in the ninth century now began to
revive ; and with redoubled strength, since the clergy, from the highest
to the lowest, were become so much more powerful.

Generally speaking, this was the age in which the various modifications
of spiritual power throughout the world began to assume form and sta-
bility ; in which mankind found repose and satisfaction in these con-
ditions of existence. In the eleventh century Buddhaism was re-estab-
lished in Thibet ; and the hierarchy which, down to the present day,
prevails over so large a portion of Eastern Asia, was founded by the
Lama Dschu-Adhischa. The Califate of Bagdad, heretofore a vast empire,
then took the character of a spiritual authority, and was greatly indebted
to that change for the ready reception it met with. At the same period,
in Africa and Syria arose the Fatimite Califate, founded on a doctrine of
which its adherents said, that it was to the Koran what the kernel is to
its shell.

In the West the idea of the unity of the Christian faith was the pervading
one, and had taken strong hold on all minds (for the various conversions
which awakened this or that more susceptible nation to fresh enthusiasm
belong to a later period). This idea manifested itself in the general efforts
to crush Mahommedanism : inadequately represented by the imperial
authority, which commanded but a limited obedience, it now came in
powerful aid of the projects and efforts of the hierarchy. For to whom
could such an idea attach itself but to the bishop of the Roman Church,
to which, as to a common source, all other churches traced back their
foundation ; which all western Europeans regarded with a singular
reverence ? Hitherto the Bishop of Rome had been thrown into the
shade by the rise and development of the imperial power. But favouring
circumstances and the main course of events now united to impel the
papacy to claim universal and supreme dominion.

The minority of the infant emperor decided the result. At the court
of Rome, the man who most loudly proclaimed the necessity of reform —
the great champion of the independent existence of the church — the man
ordained by destiny to make his opinion the law of ages, — Hildebrand, the
son of a carpenter in Tuscany, acquired supreme influence over all affairs.
He was the author and instigator of decrees, in virtue of which the papal
elections were no longer to depend on the emperor, but on the clergy of
the Church of Rome and the cardinals. He delayed not a moment to
put them in force ; the very next election was conducted in accordance
with them.

In Germany, on the contrary, people were at this time entirely occupied
with the conflicts of the factions about the court ; the opposition which
was spread over Italy and Germany (and to which Hildebrand also be-
longed) at length got a firm footing in the court itself : the adherents of
the old Saxon and Salic principles, (for example, Chancellor Guibert) were
defeated ; the court actually sanctioned an election which had taken
place against its own most urgent interest ; the German rulers, plunged in
the dissensions of the moment, abandoned to his fate an anti-pope who
maintained himself with considerable success and who was the repre-
sentative of the ancient maxims.

14 - INTRODUCTION

Affairs, however, changed their aspect when the youthful Salian, with
all his spirit and talents, took the reins of government into his own hand.
He knew his rights, and was determined to assert them at any price.
But things had gone so far that he fell into the most perilous situation at
the very outset of his career.

The accession to the throne of a young monarch, by nature despotic
and violent, and hurried along by vehement passions, quickly brought
the long-fermenting internal discords of Germany to an open breach. The
German nobles aspired after the sort of independence which those of
France had just acquired. In the year 1073 the Saxon princes revolted ;
the whole of Saxony, says a contemporary, deserted the king like one man.
Meanwhile at Rome the leader of the hostile party had himself gained
possession of the tiara, and now advanced without delay to the great work
of emancipating not only the papacy but the clergy from the control of.
the emperor. In the year 1074 he caused a law to be proclaimed by his
synod, the purpose and effect of which was to wrest the nomination to
spiritual offices from the laity ; that is, in the first place, from the emperor.

Scarcely was Henry IV. seated on his throne when he saw its best
prerogatives, the crown and consummation of his power, attacked and
threatened with annihilation. He seemed doomed to succumb without a
contest. The discord between the Saxons and Upper Germans, which
for a time had been of advantage to him, was allayed, and their swords,
yet wet with each other's blood, were turned in concert against the
emperor ; he was compelled to propitiate the pope who had excommuni-
cated him, to travel in the depth of winter to do that penance at Canossa
by which he so profoundly degraded the imperial name.

Yet from that very moment we may date his most strenuous resistance.

We should fall into a complete error were we to represent him to our-
selves as crossing the Alps in remorse and contrition, or as convinced of
the rightfulness of the claims advanced by the pope. His only object was
to wrest from his adversaries the support of the spiritual authority, the
pretext under which they threatened his highest dignity. As he did not
succeed in this, — as the absolution he received from Gregory was not so
complete as to restrain the German princes from all further hostilities,1 —
as, on the contrary, they elected another sovereign in spite of it, — he
plunged into the most determined struggle against the assumptions of
his spiritual as well as of his temporal foes. Opposition and injury roused
the man within him. Across those Alps which he had traversed in peni-
tential lowliness, he hurried back burning with warlike ardour ; in Carinthia
an invincible band of devoted followers gathered around him. It is
interesting to follow him with our eye, subduing the spiritual power in
Bavaria, the hostile aristocratical clans in Swabia ; to see him next
marching upon Franconia and driving his rival before him ; then into
Thuringia and the Meissen colonies, and at length forcing him to a battle
on the banks of the Elster, in which he fell. Henry gained no great
victories ; even on the Elster he did not so much as keep the field ; but
he was continually advancing ; his party was continually gaining strength ;
he held the banner of the empire aloft with a steady and vigorous grasp.

» Lambertus Schafmaburgensis : {Pistor. i., p. 420.) " His conditionibus
absolutus est ut . . . . accusationibus responderet et ad paps sententiam vel
retmeret regnum .... vel aequo animo amitteret."

EMANCIPATION OF THE PAPACY 15

After a few years ho was able to return to Italy (a.d. 108 i). The empire
had been so long and so intimately allied with the episcopal power that its
chief could not be without adherents among the higher clergy : synods
were held in the emperor's behalf, in which it was resolved to maintain
the old order of things. The excommunications of the pope were met by
counter-excommunications. Chancellor Guibert, who had suffered for
his adherence to Salic principles, was nominated pope under the auspices
of the emperor ; and after various alternations of success in war, was at
length conducted in triumph to Rome. Henry, like so many of his
predecessors, was crowned by a pope of his own creation. The second
rival king whom the Saxons opposed to him could gain no substantial
power, and held it expedient voluntarily to withdraw his pretensions.

We see that the emperor had attained to all that is attainable by war
and policy, yet his triumph was far from being as complete and conclusive
as we might thence infer ; for the result of a contest is not always decided
on a field of battle. The ideas of which Gregory was the champion were
intimately blended with the most powerful impulses of the general develop-
ment of society ; while he was a fugitive from Rome, they gained possession
of the world. No later than ten years after his death his second successor
was able to take the initiative in the general affairs of the West — a power
which was conclusive as to results. One of the greatest social movements
recorded in history — the Crusades — was mainly the result of his policy ;
and from that time he appeared as the natural head of the Romano-
Germanic sacerdotal and military community of the West. To such
weapons the emperor had nothing to oppose.

The life of Henry, from this time till its close, has something in it which
reminds us of the antique tragedy, in which the hero sinks, in all the glory
of manhood and the fulness of his powers, under an inevitable doom.
For what can be more like an overwhelming fate than the power of opinion,
which extends its invisible grasp on every side, takes complete possession
of the minds of men, and suddenly appears in the field with a force beyond
all control ? Henry saw the world go over, before his eyes, from the
empire to the papacy. An army brought together by one of the blind
popular impulses which led to the crusades, drove out of Rome the pope
he had placed on the throne : nay, even in his own house he was encoun-
tered by hostile opinions. His elder son was infected with the zeal of
the bigots by whom he was incited to revolt against his father ; the
younger was swayed by the influence of the German aristocracy, and, by
a union of cunning and violence, compelled his own father to abdicate.
The aged warrior went broken-hearted to his grave.

I do not think it necessary to trace all the various alternations of the
conflict respecting the rights of the church.

Even in Rome it was sometimes deemed impossible to force the emperor
to renounce his claims. Pope Paschal at one time entertained the bold
idea of giving back all that the emperors had ever granted to the church,
in order to effect the radical separation of the latter from the state.1

As this proved to be impracticable, the affairs of the church were again

1 Heinrici Encyclica de Controversia sua cum Papa. — Monum., iv. 70. The
emperor asked, most justly, what was to become of the imperial authority, if
it were to lose the right of investiture after the emperors had transferred so large
a share of their privileges to the bishops.

16 INTRODUCTION

administered for a time by the imperial court under Henry V., as they had
been under Henry IV.1

But this too was soon found to be intolerable ; new disputes arose, and
after long contention, both parties agreed to the concordat of Worms,2
according to which the preponderant influence was yielded to the emperor
in Germany, and to the pope in Italy ; an agreement, however, which
was not expressed with precision, and which contained the germ of new
disputes.

But though these results were little calculated to determine the rights
of the contending powers, the advantages which gradually accrued to
the papacy from the course of events were incalculable. From a state
of total dependence, it had now attained to a no less complete emancipa-
tion ; or rather to a preponderance, not indeed as yet absolute, or denned,
but unquestionable, and every moment acquiring strength and con-
sistency from favouring circumstances.

RELATION OF THE PAPACY TO THE PRINCES OF THE EMPIRE.

The most important assistance which the papacy received in this work
of self-emancipation and aggrandisement arose from the natural and
tacit league subsisting between it and the princes of the Germanic empire.

The secular aristocracy of Germany had, at one time, made the strongest
opposition, on behalf of their head, to the encroachments of the Church ;
they had erected the imperial throne, and had invested it with all its power :
but this power had at length become oppressive to them ; the supremacy
of the imperial government over the clergy, which was employed to keep
themselves in subjection, became their most intolerable grievance. It
followed that they at length beheld their own advantage in the emanci-
pation of the papacy.

It is to be observed that the power of the German princes and that of
the popes rose in parallel steps.

Under Henry III., and during the minority of his successor, both had
laid the foundation of their independence : they began their active career
together. Scarcely had Gregory VII. established the first principles
of his new system, when the princes also proclaimed theirs ; — the principle,
that the empire should no longer be hereditary. Henry IV. maintained
his power chiefly by admitting in detail the claims which he denied in the
aggregate : his victories had as little effect in arresting the progress of
the independence of the great nobles as of the hierarchy. Even as early
as the reign of Henry V. these sentiments had gained such force that the
unity of the empire was regarded as residing rather in the collective body
of the princes than in the person of the emperor. For what else are we
to understand from the declaration of that prince — that it was less dan-
gerous to insult the head of the empire than to give offence to the princes ?s

1 Epistola Friderici Coloniensis archiepiscopi : Codex Vdalrici Babenbergensis,
n. 277. " Synodales episcoporum conventus, annua consilia, omnes denique
ecclesiastici ordinis administrationes in regalem curiam translata sunt."

2 The concordat of Worms settled the quarrel concerning investitures. The
Pope retained the rights of investing with the ring and crozier, but acknowledged
the freedom of election.

3 "Unius capitis licet summi dejectioreparabiledampnum est, principum autem
conculcatio ruina regni est." Fragmentum de Hoste facienda. — Monum., iv. 63.

THE PAPACY AND THE PRINCES 17

—an opinion which they themselves sometimes expressed. In Wurzburg
they agreed to adhere to their decrees, even if the king refused his assent
to them. They took into their own hands the arrangement of the disputes
with the pope which Henry found it impossible to terminate : they were
the real authors of the concordat of Worms.

In the succeeding collisions of the papacy with the empire everything
depended on the degree of support the emperor could, on each occasion,
calculate on receiving from the princes.

I shall not here attempt to give a complete view of the times of the
Guelphs and the Hohenstaufen ; it would not be possible, without entering
into a more elaborate examination of particulars than is consistent with
the object of this short survey : let us only direct our attention for a
moment to the grandest and most imposing figure with which that epoch
presents us — Frederick I.

So long as Frederick I. stood well with his princes he might reasonably
entertain the project of reviving the prerogatives of the empire, such as
they were conceived and laid down by the emperors and jurists of ancient
Rome. He held himself entitled, like Justinian and Theodosius, to
summon ecclesiastical assemblies ; he reminded the popes that their
possessions were derived from the favour and bounty of the emperor,
and admonished them to attend to their ecclesiastical duties. A disputed
election furnished him with a favourable occasion of acquiring fresh
influence in the choice of a pope.

His position was, however, very different after the fresh rupture with his
powerful vassal, Henry the Lion. The claims of that prince to a little
town in the north of Germany, — Goslar in the Harz, — -which the emperor
refused to admit, decided the affairs of Italy, and hence of the whole of
western Christendom. In consequence of this, the emperor was first
stripped of his wonted support ; he was beaten in the field ; and, lastly,
he was compelled to violate his oath, and to recognise the pope he had
rejected.

It is true that, having turned his arms against his rebellious vassal, he
succeeded in breaking up Henry's collective power : but this very success
again was advantageous to the princes of the second rank, by whose
assistance he obtained it, and whom, in return, he enriched with the spoils
of his rival ; while the advantage which the papacy thus gained was
never afterwards to be counter-balanced.

The meeting of Frederick I. and Alexander III. at Venice is, in my
opinion, far more important than the scene at Canossa. At Canossa,1
a young and passionate prince sought only to hurry through the penance
enjoined upon him : at Venice,2 it was a mature man who renounced
the ideas which he had earnestly and strenuously maintained for a quarter
of a century; he was compelled to acknowledge that his conduct towards
the church had been dictated rather by love of power than of justice.8

1 At Canossa Henry IV. submitted to Gregory VII., 1077. Cf. Milman, Hist,
of Latin Christianity, Bk. vii., c. 2.

2 The Pacification of Venice. Reconciliation between Frederick I. and
Alexander III. Cf. Milman, Bk. viii., c. ix.

3 " Dum in facto ecclesiae potius virtu tern potentiae quam rationem justitiae
volumus exercere, constat nos in errorem merito devenisse." Oratio Impera'
toris in Conventu Veneto. — Monum., iv. 154.

1 8 INTRODUCTION

Canossa was the spot on which the combat began ; Venice beheld the
triumph of the church fully established.

For whatever might be the indirect share which the Germans had in
bringing about this result, both the glory and the chief profit of the victory
fell entirely to the share of the papacy. From this moment its domination
began.

This became apparent on the first important incident that occurred ;
viz., when, at the end of tlie twelfth century, a contest for the crown arose
in Germany.

The papacy, represented by one of the most able, ambitious, and daring
priests that ever lived, who regarded himself as the natural master of
the world — Innocent III. — did not hesitate an instant to claim the right
of deciding the question.

The German princes were not so blinded as not to understand what
this claim meant. They reminded Innocent that the empire, out of rever-
ence for the see of Rome, had waived the right which it incontestably
possessed to interfere in the election of the pope ; that it would be an
unheard-of return for this moderation, for the pope to assume an influence
over the election of the emperor, to which he had no right whatever.
Unfortunately, however, they were in a position in which they could take
no serious steps to prevent the encroachment they deprecated. They
must first have placed on the throne an emperor equally strong by nature
and by external circumstances, have rallied round him, and have fought
the papacy under his banners. For such a course they had neither the
inclination, nor, in the actual state of things, was it practicable. They
had no love for the papacy, for its own sake ; they hated the domination
of the clergy ; but they had not courage to brave it. Innocent's resolute
spirit was again victorious. In the struggle between the two rivals, the
one a Guelph, the other a Hohenstaufe, he at first supported the Guelph1
because that family was well inclined to the church ; but when, after
the accession of this prince to power, and his appearance in Italy, he
manifested the usual antipathy of the empire to the papacy, Innocent
did not hesitate to set up a Hohenstaufe2 in opposition to him. He
had contended against the Hohenstaufen with the resources of the Guelphic
party : he now attacked the Guelphs with those of the Hohenstaufen.
It was a struggle in which the agitations of the rest of Europe were mingled.
Events, both near and remote, took a turn so favourable, that Innocent's
candidate again remained master of the field.

From that time the papacy exercised a leading influence over all German
elections.

When, after the lapse of many years, Frederick II., (the Hohenstaufe
whom he had raised to power,) attempted in some particulars to restore
the independence of the empire, the pope thought himself justified in
again deposing him. Rome now openly avowed her claim to hold the
reins of secular as well as spiritual authority.

" We command you," writes Innocent IV. to the German princes in
1 246, ' ' since our beloved son, the Landgrave of Thuringia, is ready to
take upon himself the office of emperor, that you proceed to elect, him
unanimously without delay."3

1 The Guelph, i.e., Otto IV. 2 Frederick II., son of Henry VI.

3 Ex Actis Innocentii. — Monum., iv. 361.

THE PAPACY AND THE PRINCES 19

He formally signifies his approbation of those who took part in the
election of William of Holland ; he admonishes the cities to be faithful
to the newly-elected emperor, that so they may merit the apostolical as
well as the royal favour.

In a very short time no trace of any other order of things remained in
Germany. Even at the ceremony of homage, Richard of Cornwall was
compelled to dispense with the allegiance of the cities, until it should
be seen whether or not the pope might choose to prefer another aspirant
to the throne.

After Richard's death Gregory X. called upon the German princes to
prepare for a new election : he threatened that if they delayed, he and
his cardinals would nominate an emperor. The election being terminated,
it was again the pope who induced the pretender, Alfonso of Castile, to
abandon his claim and to give up the insignia of the empire ; and who
caused the chosen candidate, Rudolph of Hapsburg, to be universally
acknowledged.1

What trace of independence can a nation retain after submitting to
receive its head from the hands of a foreign power ? It is manifest that
the same influence which determines the elections, must be resistless
in every other department of the state.

The power of the princes of Germany had, it is true, been meanwhile on
the increase. In the thirteenth century, during the struggles between the
several pretenders to the throne, and between the papacy and the empire,
they had got possession of almost all the prerogatives of sovereignty ; they
likewise took the most provident measures to prevent the imperial power
from regaining its vast preponderance. At the end of the thirteenth and
the beginning of the fourteenth century the emperors were chosen almost
systematically out of different houses. Consciously or unconsciously,
the princes acted on the maxim, that when power began to be consolidated
in one quarter it must be counterbalanced by an increase of authority in
another ; as, for example, they curbed the already considerable power of
Bohemia by means of the house of Hapsburg, and this again, by those of
Nassau, Luxemburg, or Bavaria. None of these could attain to more
than transient superiority, and in consequence of this policy, no princely
race rose to independence : the spiritual princes, who conducted the
larger portion of the public business, were almost of more weight than
the temporal.

This state of things tended greatly to increase the power of the papacy,
on which the spiritual princes depended ; and to which the temporal
became very subordinate and submissive. In the thirteenth century
they even made the abject declaration that they were planted in Germany
by the church of Rome, and had been fostered and exalted by her favour.2
The pope was, at least, as much indebted to the German princes as they
were to him ; but he took good care not to allude to his obligations, and
nobody ventured to remind him of them. His successive victories over
the empire had been gained by the assistance of many of the temporal
powers. He now possessed, uncontested, the supreme sovereignty of
Europe. Those plans of papal aggrandisement which were first avowed

1 Gerbert, Introductio ad Cod. Epist. Rudolfi, c. iv., n. 30.
8 Tractatus cum Nicolao III. Papa, 1279. " Romana ecclesia Germaniam
decoravit plantans in ea principes tanquam arbores electas." — Monum. iv., 42.

2 — 2

20 INTRODUCTION

in the ninth century, and afterwards revived in the eleventh, were, in
the thirteenth, crowned with complete success.

During that long period a state of things had been evolved, the outlines
of which may, I think, be traced in a few words.

The pretensions of the clergy to govern Europe according to their
hierarchical views — pretensions which arose directly out of the ecclesi-
astical institutions of Charlemagne — were encountered and resisted by
the united body of the German people, still thoroughly imbued with the
national ideas of ancient Germania. On this combined resistance the
imperial throne was founded. Unfortunately, however, it failed to acquire
perfect security and stability ; and the divisions which soon broke out
between the domineering chief and his refractory vassals, had the effect
of making both parties contribute to the aggrandisement of that spiritual
power which they had previously sought to depress. At first the emperors
beheld in a powerful clergy a means of holding their great vassals in check,
and endowed the church with liberal grants of lands and lordships ; but
afterwards, when ideas of emancipation began to prevail, not only in the
papacy but in all spiritual corporations, the temporal aristocracy thought
it not inexpedient that the emperor should be stripped of the resource
and assistance such a body afforded him : the enfeebling of the imperial
authority was of great advantage, not only to the church, but to them.
Thus it came to pass that the ecclesiastical element, strengthened by the
divisions of its opponents, at length obtained a decided preponderance.

Unquestionably the result was far different in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries from what it would have been in the ninth. The secular power
might be humbled, but could not be annihilated ; a purely hierarchical
government, such as might have been established at the earlier period,
was now no longer within the region of possibility. The national develop-
ment of Germany had been too deep and extensive to be stifled by the
ecclesiastical spirit ; while, on the other hand, the influence of ecclesi-
astical ideas and institutions unquestionably contributed largely to its
extension. The period in question displayed a fulness of life and intelli-
gence, an activity in every branch of human industry, a creative vigour,
which we can hardly imagine to have arisen under any other course of
events. Nevertheless, this was not a state which ought to satisfy a great
nation. There could be no true political freedom so long as the most
powerful impulse to all public activity emanated from a foreign head.
The domain of mind, too, was enclosed within rigid and narrow boundaries.
The immediate relation in which every intellectual being stands to the
Divine Intelligence was veiled from the people in deep and abiding
obscurity.

Those mighty developments of the human mind which extend over
whole generations, must, of necessity, be accomplished slowly ; nor is it
always easy to follow them in their progress.

Circumstances at length occurred which awakened in the German
nation a consciousness of the position for which nature designed it.

OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY 21

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT RESISTANCE TO THE ENCROACHMENTS OF THE
PAPACY.

The first important circumstance was, that the papacy, forgetting its
high vocation in the pleasures of Avignon,1 displayed all the qualities of a
prodigal and rapacious court, centralising its power for the sake of imme-
diate profit.

Pope John XXII. enforced his pecuniary claims with the coarsest
avidity, and interfered in an unheard-of manner with the presentation to
German benefices : he took care to express himself in very ambiguous
terms as to the rights of the electoral princes ; while, on the contrary,
he seriously claimed the privilege of examining into the merits of the
emperor they had elected, and of rejecting him if he thought fit ; nay,
in case of a disputed election, such as then occurred, of administering the
government himself till the contest should be decided 2 : lastly, he actually
entered into negotiations, the object of which was to raise a French prince
to the imperial throne.

The German princes at length saw what they had to expect from such
a course of policy. On this occasion they rallied round their emperor, and
rendered him real and energetic assistance. In the year 1338 they unani-
mously came to the celebrated resolution, that whoever should be elected
by the majority of the prince-electors should be regarded as the true and
legitimate emperor. When Louis the Bavarian, wearied by the long con-
flict, wavered for a moment, they kept him firm ; they reproached him
at the imperial diet in 1334 with having shown a disposition to accede
to humiliating conditions. A change easily accounted for ; the pope
having now encroached, not only on the rights of the emperor, but on
the prescriptive rights of their own body — on the rights of the whole
nation.

Nor were these sentiments confined to the princes. In the fourteenth
century a plebeian power had grown up in Germany, as in the rest of
Europe, by the side of the aristocratic families which had hitherto exercised
almost despotic power : not only were the cities summoned to the imperial
diets, but, in a great proportion of them, the guilds, or trades, had got
the municipal government into their own hands. These plebeians em-
braced the cause of their emperor with even more ardour than most of
the princes. The priests who asserted the power of the pope to excom-
municate the emperor were frequently driven out of the cities ; these

1 Cf. Creighton's Popes, vol. i., p. 31. From 1 305-1 370 the popes lived at
Avignon and were the creatures of the French king. " The Babylonish captivity,"
as it was called, was followed, on the death of Gregory XI. in 1378, by the Great
Schism.

2 " Attendentes quod imperii Romani regimen, cura et administratio (another
time he says, imperii Romani jurisdictio, regimen et administratio), tempore
quo illud vacare contingit, ad nos pertineat, sicut dignoscitur pertinere." —
Litem Johannis in Rainaldus, 1319 ; and Olenschlager, Geschichte des Rom.-
Kaisertkums, &-c, in der ersten Hdlfte des \ifen Jahrhunderts, p. 102. In the
year 1323 he declares that he has instituted a suit against Lewis the Bavarian ;
" super eo quod electione sua per quosdam qui vocem in electione hujusmodi habere
dicuntur, per sedem apostolicam, ad quam electionis hujusmodi et personae electee
examinatio, approbatio, admissio ac etiam reprobatio et repulsio noscitur per-
tinere, non admissa," &c. — Olenschlager, Urk., n. 36.

22 INTRODUCTION

were then, in their turn, laid under excommunication ; but they never
would acknowledge its validity ; they refused to accept absolution when
it was offered them.1

Thus it happened that in the present instance the pope could not carry
the election of his candidate, Charles of Luxemburg ; nobles and commons
adhered almost unanimously to Louis of Bavaria : nor was it till after
his death, and then only after repeated election and coronation, that
Charles IV. was gradually recognised.

Whatever he might previously have promised the pope, that sovereign
could not make concessions injurious to the interests of his princes : on
the contrary, he solemnly and firmly established the rights of the electors,
even to the long-disputed vicariate (at least in all German states). A
germ of resistance was thus formed.

This was fostered and developed by the disorders of the great schism,
and by the dispositions evinced by the general councils.

It was now, for the first time, evident that the actual church no longer
corresponded with the ideal that existed in men's minds. Nations assumed
the attitude of independent members of it ; popes were brought to trial
and deposed ; the aristocratico-republican spirit, which played so great
a part in the temporal states of Europe, extended even to the papacy (the
nature of which is so completely monarchical), and threatened to change
its form and character.

The ecclesiastical assembly of Basle entertained the project of estab-
lishing at once the freedom of nations and the authority of councils ; a
project hailed with peculiar approbation by Germany. Its decretals of
reformation were solemnly adopted by the assembly of the imperial diet :2
the Germans determined to remain neutral during its controversies with
Eugenius IV. ; the immediate consequence of which was, that they were
for a time emancipated from the court of Rome.3 By threatening to go
over to his adversary, they forced the pope, who had ventured to depose
two spiritual electors, to revoke the sentence of deposition.

Had this course been persevered in with union and constancy, the
German Catholic church, established in so many great principalities, and
splendidly provided with the most munificent endowments in the world,
would have acquired a perfectly independent position, in which she
might have resisted the subsequent polemical storms with as much firm-
ness as that of England.

Various circumstances conspired to prevent so desirable a result.
In the first place, it appears to me that the disputes between France
and Burgundy reacted on this matter. France was in favour of the-ideas
of the council, which, indeed, she embodied in the pragmatic sanction ;
Burgundy was for the pope. Among the German princes, some were in
the most intimate alliance with the king, others with the duke.

The pope employed by far the most dexterous and able negotiator. If
we consider the character of the representative and organ of the German

1 e.g. Basel. Albertus Argentinensis in Urstisius, 142.

a Johannes de Segovia : Koch, Sanctio pragmatica, p. 256.

3 Declaration in Miiller, Reichstagstheater, unter Fred. III., p. 31. "In
sola ordinaria jurisdictione citra praefatorum tam papas quam concilii supremam
auctoritatem ecclesiastics politiae gubernacula per dioceses et territoria nostra
gubernabimus."

OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY 23

opposition, Gregory of Heimburg, who thought himself secure of victory,
and, when sent to Rome, burst forth at the very foot of the Vatican into
a thousand execrations on the Curia ; — if we follow him there, as he
went about with neglected garb, bare neck, and uncovered head, bidding
defiance to the court, — and then compare him with the polished and supple
iEneas Sylvius, full of profound quiet ambition and gifted with the happiest
talents for rising in the world ; the servant of so many masters, and the
dexterous confidant of them all ; we shall be at no loss to divine which
must be the successful party. Heimburg died a living death in exile,
and dependent on foreign bounty ; jEneas Sylvius ended his career,
wearing the triple crown he had so ably served. At the very time we are
treating of, iEneas had found means to gain over some councillors, and
through them their sovereigns, and thus to secure their defection from
the great scheme of national emancipation. He relates this himself with
great satisfaction and self-complacency ; nor did he disdain to employ
bribery.1

The main thing, however, was, that the head of the empire, King
Frederick III., adhered to the papal cause. The union of the princes,
which, while it served as a barrier against the encroachments of the
church, might have proved no less perilous to himself, was as hateful to
him as to the pope. ^Eneas Sylvius conducted the negotiation in a manner
no less agreeable to the interests and wishes of the emperor than to those
of the pope : the imperial coffers furnished him with the means of cor-
ruption.

Hence it happened that on this occasion also the nation failed to attain
its object.

At the first moment, indeed, the Basle decretals were accepted at Rome,
but under the condition that the Holy See should receive compensation
for its losses. This compensation, however, was not forthcoming ; and
Frederick III., who treated on the part of the empire, at length conceded
anew to Rome all her old privileges, which the nation had been endeavour-
ing to wrest from her.2 It would have been impossible to carry such a
measure at the diet ; the expedient of obtaining the separate consent
of the princes to this agreement was therefore resorted to.

The old state of things was thus perpetuated. Ordinances which the
papal see had published in 1335, and which it had repeated in 1418, once
more formed, in the year 1448, the basis of the German concordat. It
is hardly necessary to say that the opposition was not crushed. It no

1 Historia Friderici III. ap. Kollar, Analecta, ii., p. 127.

2 In the second half of the foregoing century attention had been strongly
drawn to the assertion, that all the decrees of the council of Basle, which had not
been expressly altered by the concordat, acquired legal validity in virtue of the
same. Against this, Spittler has made the objection, that the brief runs thus :
" donee per legatum concordatum fuerit vel per legatum aliter fuerit ordinatum ;"
and, assuming that an "aliter " is wanting in the first part of the sentence, has
concluded that the whole of the decrees had only been suffered to hold good
till the conclusion of the concordat. (Werke, viii., p. 473.) But in the relation
of iEneas Sylvius in Koch, Sanctio pragmatica, p. 323, the " aliter " missed by
Spittler stands expressly next to " concordatum ;" " usque quo cum legato
aliter fuerit concordatum." (Vide Koch, ii., § 24.) The sense of these words
cannot therefore be doubted. For in no case can it be supposed that " aliter "
had been left out with any sinister design.

24 INTRODUCTION

longer appeared on the surface of events ; but deep below it, it only
struck root faster and acquired greater strength. The nation was exasper-
ated by a constant sense of wrong and injustice.

ALTERED CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE,

The most remarkable fact now was, that the imperial throne was no longer
able to afford support and protection. The empire had assumed a position
analogous to that of the papacy, but extremely subordinate in power
and authority.

It is important to remark, that for more than a century after Charles IV.

had fixed his seat in Bohemia, no emperor appeared, endowed with the

vigour necessary to uphold and govern the empire. The bare fact that

Charles's successor, Wenceslas, was a prisoner in the hands, of the

Bohemians, remained for a long time unknown in Germany : a simple

decree of the electors sufficed to dethrone him. Rupert the Palatine only

escaped a similar fate by death. When Sigismund of Luxemburg, (who

after many disputed elections, kept possession of the field,) four years

after his election, entered the territory of the empire of which he was to

be crowned sovereign, he found so little sympathy that he was for a

moment inclined to return to Hungary without accomplishing the object

of his journey. The active part he took in the affairs of Bohemia, and

of Europe generally, has given him a name ; but in and for the empire,

] he did nothing worthy of note. Between the years 1422 and 1430 he

never made his appearance beyond Vienna; from the autumn of 143 1

to that of 1433 he was occupied with his coronation journey to Rome;

j and during the three years from 1434 to his death he never got beyond

! Bohemia and Moravia : l nor did Albert II., who has been the subject

! of such lavish eulogy, ever visit the dominions of the empire. Frederick III.,

' however, far outdid all his predecessors. During seven-and-twenty years,

I from 1444 to 1 47 1, he was never seen within the boundaries of the empire.

Hence it happened that the central action and the visible manifestation

of sovereignty, inasfar as any such existed in the empire, fell to the share

of the princes, and more especially of the prince-electors. In the reign

of Sigismund we find them convoking the diets, and leading the armies

into the field against the Hussites : the operations against the Bohemians

were attributed entirely to them.2

In this manner the empire became, like the papacy, a power which
acted from a distance, and rested chiefly upon opinion. The throne,
founded on conquest and arms, had now a pacific character and a con-
servative tendency. Nothing is so transient as the notions which are
handed down with a name, or associated with a title ; and yet, especially
in times when unwritten law has so much force, the whole influence of rank
or station depends on the nature of these notions. Let us turn our atten-
tion for a moment to the ideas of Empire and Papacy entertained in the
fifteenth century.

1 The acts of his reign are dated from Ofen, Stuhlweissenburg, from Cronstadt
" in Transylvanian Wurzland," from the army before the castle of Taubenburg
in Sirfey (Servia). Haberlin, Reichsgeschichte, v. 429, 439.

2 Matthias Doring in Mencken, iii., p. 4. " Eodem anno principes electores
exercitum grandem habentes contra Boljemos se transtulerunt ad Bohemian*. "

ALTERED CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE 25

The emperor was regarded, in the first place, as the supreme feudal
lord, who conferred on property its highest and most sacred sanction ;
as the supreme fountain of justice, from whom, as the expression was, all
the compulsory force of law emanated. It is very curious to observe
how the choice that had fallen upon him was announced toFredericklll., —
by no means the mightiest prince in the empire ; how immediately there-
upon the natural relations of things are reversed, and " his royal high
mightiness " promises confirmation in their rights and dignities to the
very men who had just raised him to the throne.1 All hastened to obtain
his recognition of their privileges and possessions ; nor did the cities
perform their act of homage till that had taken place. Upon his supreme
guarantee rested that feeling of legitimacy, security and permanence,
which is necessary to all men, and more especially dear to Germans.
" Take away from us the rights of the emperor," says a law-book of that
time, " and who can say, this house is mine, this village belongs to me ? "
A remark of profound truth ; but it followed thence that the emperor
could not arbitrarily exercise rights of which he was deemed the source.
He might give them up ; but he himself must enforce them only within
the narrow limits prescribed by traditional usage, and by the superiorl
control of his subjects. Although he was regarded as the head and
source of all temporal jurisdiction, yet no tribunal found more doubtful
obedience than his own.

The fact that royalty existed in Germany had almost been suffered to
fall into oblivion ; even the title had been lost. Henry VII. thought it
an affront to be called King of Germany, and not, as he had a right to be
called before any ceremony of coronation, King of the Romans.2 In the
fifteenth century the emperor was regarded pre-eminently as the successor
of the ancient Roman Caesars, whose rights and dignities had been trans-
ferred, first to the Greeks, and then to the Germans in the persons of
Charlemagne and Otho the Great ; as the true secular head of Christen-
dom. Emperor Sigismund commanded that his corpse should be exposed
to view for some days ; in order that everyone might see that " the Lord
of all the world was dead and departed."3

" We have chosen your royal grace," say the electors to Frederick III
(a. d. 1440), " to be the head, protector, and governor of all Christendom."
They go on to express the hope that this choice may be profitable to the
Roman church, to the whole of Christendom, to the holy empire, and
the community of Christian people.4 Even a foreign monarch, Wladislas
of Poland, extols the felicity of the newly-elected emperor, in that he was
about to receive the diadem of the monarchy of the world.6 The opinion
was confidently entertained in Germany that the other sovereigns of
Christendom, especially those of England, Spain, and France, were legally
subject to the crown of the empire : the only controversy was, whether

1 Letter of the Frankfort Deputies, July 5, 1440. Frankfurter Arch.

2 Henrici VII. Bannitio Florentine, Pertz, iv. 520, " supprimentes (it is there
said) ipsius veri nominis (Regis Romanorum) dignitatem in ipsius opprobrium et
despectum."

3 Eberhard Windeck in Mencken, Scriptt. i. 1278.

4 Letter of the Prince-Electors, Feb. 2, I440,[in Chmel's Mat erialien zur Oestreich,
Gesch. No. ii., p. 70.

'> Literae VJadisJai ap. Kollar, Anal., ii., p. 830.

26 INTRODUCTION

their disobedience was venial, or ought to be regarded as sinful.1 The
English endeavoured to show that from the time of the introduction of
Christianity they had never been subject to the empire.2 The Germans,
on the contrary, not only did what the other nations of the West were
bound to do — they not only acknowledged the holy empire, but they had
secured to themselves the faculty of giving it a head ; and the strange
notion was current that the electoral princes had succeeded to the rights
and dignities of the Roman senate and people. They themselves expressed
this opinion in the thirteenth century. " We," say they, " who occupy
the place of the Roman senate, who are the fathers and the lights of the
empire."3 .... In the fifteenth century they repeated the same opinion.4
" The Germans," says the author of a scheme for diminishing the burthens
of the empire, " who have possessed themselves of the dignities of the
Roman empire, and thence of the sovereignty over all lands."6 ....
When the prince-electors proceeded to the vote, they swore that " accord-
ing to the best of their understanding, they would choose the temporal
head of all Christian people, i.e., a Roman king and future emperor."
Thereupon the elected sovereign was anointed and crowned by the Arch-
bishop of Cologne, who enjoyed that right on this side the Alps. Even
when seated on the coronation chair at Rheims, the King of France took
an oath of fealty to the Roman empire.6

It is obvious in what a totally different relation the Germans stood to the
emperor, who was elevated to this high dignity from amidst themselves, and
by their own choice, from that of even the most puissant nobles of other
countries to their natural hereditary lord and master. The imperial dignity,
stripped of all direct executive power, had indeed no other significancy
than that which results from opinion. It gave to law and order their
living sanction ; to justice its highest authority ; to the sovereignties of
Germany their position in the world. It had properties which, for that
period, were indispensable and sacred. It had a manifest analogy with
the papacy, and was bound to it by the most intimate connection.

The main difference between the two powers was, that the papal enjoyed

1 Petrus de Andlo de Romano Imperio : an important book, not indeed with
reference to the actual state of Germany, but to the ideas of the time in which it
was written. It dates from between 1456, which year is expressly mentioned,
and 1459, in which year happened the death of Diedrich of Mainz, of whom it
speaks. The author says, ii. c. 8 : " Hodie plurimi reges plus de facto quam de jure
imperatorem in superiorem non recognoscunt et suprema jura imperii usurpant."

2 Cuthbert Tunstall to King Henry VIII., Feb. 12, 15 17, in Ellis's Letters,
series 1. vol. i., p. 136. " Your Grace is not nor never sithen the Christen faith
the kings of England wer subgiet to th' Empire, but the crown of England is an
Empire of hitself, mych bettyr than now the Empire of Rome : for which cause
your Grace werith a close crown."

3 Conradi IV. electio 1237 : Pertz, iv. 322.

1 P. de Andlo ii., iii. " Isti principes electores successerunt, in locum senatus
populique Romani."

5 Intelligent^ Principum super Gravaminibus Nationis Germanics. MS. at
Coblenz. See Appendix.

« ^Eneas Sylvius (Historia Friderici III. in the Kollar's Anal. ii. 288.) tries .to
make a distinction between the three crowns, and to assign them to the different
kingdoms ; but in this case we do not ask what is true, but what was commonly
thought. The opinions which he disputes are exactly those of importance in our
eyes ; namely, those generally entertained.

ALTERED CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE 27

that universal recognition of the Romano-Germanic world which the
imperial had not been able to obtain : but the holy Roman church and
the holy Roman empire were indissolubly united in idea ; and the Germans
thought they stood in a peculiarly intimate relation to the church as well
as to the empire. There is extant a treaty of alliance of the Rhenish
princes, the assigned object of which was to maintain their endowments,
dioceses, chapters, and principalities, in dignity and honour with the
holy Roman empire and the holy Roman church. The electors lay claim
to a peculiar privilege in ecclesiastical affairs. In the year 1424, and
again in 1446, they declare that the Almighty has appointed and authorised
them, that they should endeavour, together with the Roman king, the
princes, lords, knights, and cities of the empire, and with all faithful
Christian people, to abate all crimes that arise in the holy church and
Christian community, and in the holy empire.1

Hence we see that the German people thought themselves bound in
allegiance to the papal, no less than to the imperial authority ; but as the
former had, in all the long struggles of successive ages, invariably come
off victorious, while the latter had so often succumbed, the pope exercised
a far stronger and more wide-spread influence, even in temporal things,
than the emperor. An act of arbitrary power, which no emperor could
ever have so much as contemplated — the deposition of an electoral prince
of the empire — was repeatedly attempted, and occasionally even accom-
plished, by the popes. They bestowed on Italian prelates bishoprics as
remote as that of Camin. By their annates, pallia, and all the manifold
dues exacted by the curia, they drew a far larger (Maximilian I. said, a
hundred times larger) revenue from the empire, than the emperor : their
vendors of indulgences incessantly traversed the several provinces of the
empire. Spiritual and temporal principalities and jurisdictions were so
closely interwoven as to afford them continual opportunities of interfering
in the civil affairs of Germany. The dispute between Cleves and Cologne2
about Soest, that between Utrecht and East Friesland about Groningen,
and a vast number of others, were evoked by the pope before his tribunal.
In 1472 he confirmed a toll, levied in the electorate of Treves3 : like the
emperor, he granted privilegia de non evocandoA

Gregory VII. 's comparison of the papacy to the sun and the empire to
the moon was now verified. The Germans regarded the papal power as
in every respect the higher. When, for example, the town of Basle founded
its high school, it was debated whether, after the receipt of the brief
containing the pope's approbation, the confirmation of the emperor was
still necessary ; and at length decided that it was not so, since the inferior
power could not confirm the decisions of the superior, and the papal see
was the well-head of Christendom.5 The pretender to the Palatinate,
Frederick the Victorious, whose electoral rank the emperor refused to
acknowledge, held it sufficient to obtain the pope's sanction, and received
no further molestation in the exercise of his privileges as member of the
empire. The judge of the king's court having on some occasion pro-

1 Miiller Rtth. Fr. iii. 305. 2 Schuren, Chronik von Cleve, p. 288.

3 Hontheim, Prodromus Historian Trevirensis, p. 320.

4 The privilege of exemption from having causes evoked to the Court of the
Emperor granted to the Electors and to some princes.

5 Ochs, Geschichte von Basel, iv., p. 60.

2R INTRODUCTION

nounced the ban of the empire on the council of Liibeck, the council

obtained a cassation of this sentence from the pope.1

It was assuredly to be expected that the emperor would feel the humili-
ation of his position, and would resist the pope as often and as strenuously
as possible.

However great was the devotion of the princes to the see of Kome,
they felt the oppressiveness of its pecuniary exactions ; and more than
once the spirit of the Basle decrees, or the recollections of the proceedings
at Constance, manifested themselves anew. We find draughts of a league
to prevent the constitution of Constance, according to which a council
should be held every ten years, from falling into utter desuetude.2 After
the death of Nicholas V. the princes urged the emperor to seize the favour-
able moment for asserting the freedom of the nation, and at least to take
measures for the complete execution of the agreement entered into with
Eugenius ; but Frederick III. was deaf to their entreaties. .Eneas Sylvius
persuaded him that it was necessary for him to keep well with the pope.
He brought forward a few common-places concerning the instability of
the multitude, and their natural hatred of their chief ; — just as if the
princes of the empire were a sort of democracy : the emperor, said he,
stands in need of the pope, and the pope of the emperor ; it would be
ridiculous to offend the man from whom we want assistance.3 He himself
was sent in 1456 to tender unconditional obedience to Pope Calixtus.
This immediately revived the old spirit of resistance. An outline was
drawn of a pragmatic sanction, in which not only all the charges against
the papal see were recapitulated in detail, and redress of grievances
proposed, but it was also determined what was to be done in case of a
refusal ; what appeal was to be made, and how the desired end was to
be attained.4 But what result could be anticipated while the emperor,
far from taking part in this plan, did everything he could to thwart it ?
He sincerely regarded himself as the natural ally of the papacy.

The inevitable effect of this conduct on his part was, that the discontent
of the electors, already excited by the inactivity and the absence of the
emperor, occasionally burst out violently against him. As early as the
year 1456 they required him to repair on a given day to Niirnberg, for
that it was his office and duty to bear the burthen of the empire in an
honourable manner : if he did not appear, they would, at any rate, meet,
and do what was incumbent on them.6 As he neither appeared then nor
afterwards, in 1460 they sent him word that it was no longer consistent
with their dignity and honour to remain without a head. They repeated
their summons that he would appear on the Tuesday after Epiphany, and
accompanied it with still more vehement threats. They began seriously to
take measures for setting up a king of the Romans in opposition to him.

1 Sartorius, Gesch. des Hanse, ii., p. 222.

2 e.g. Resolution of the spiritual Electors, &c. : Properly, a report upon the
means of restoring tranquillity to the empire, and upon the necessity of a council,
of about the year 1453, in the archives of Coblenz.

3 Gobellini Commentarii de Vita Pii, ii., p. 44.

4 iEneae Sylvii Apologia ad Martinum, Mayer, p. 710 ; and the above-cited
Intelligentia.

■• Frankfurt, Sep. 10., 1456 ; a hitherto unknown and very remarkable docu-
ment. Frankf. Arch.

ALTERED CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRE 29

From the fact that George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, was the man
on whom they cast their eyes, it is evident that the opposition was directed
against both emperor and pope jointly. What must have been the con-
sequence of placing a Utraquist1 at the head of the empire ? This increased
the zeal and activity of Pope Pius II. (whom we have hitherto known
as jEneas Sylvius), in consolidating the alliance of the see of Rome with
the emperor, who, on his side, was scarcely less deeply interested in it.
The independence of the prince-electors was odious to both. As one of
the claims of the emperor had always been, that no electoral diet should
be held without his consent, so Pius II., in like manner, now wanted to
bind Diether, Elector of Mainz, to summon no such assembly without
the approbation of the papal see. Diether's refusal to enter into any
such engagement was the main cause of their quarrel. Pius did not conceal
from the emperor that he thought his own power endangered by the
agitations which prevailed in the empire. It was chiefly owing to his
influence, and to the valour of Markgrave Albert Achilles of Brandenburg,
that they ended in nothing.

From this time we find the imperial and the papal powers, which had
come to a sense of their common interest and reciprocal utility, more
closely united than ever.

The diets of the empire were held under their joint authority ; they were
called royal and papal, papal and royal diets. In the reign of Frederick,
as formerly in that of Sigismund, we find the papal legates present at the
meetings of the empire, which were not opened till they appeared. The
spiritual princes took their seats on the right, the temporal on the left,
of the legates : it was not till a later period that the imperial commissioners
were introduced, and proposed measures in concert with the papal
functionaries.

It remains for us to inquire how far this very singular form of govern-
ment was fitted to satisfy the wants of the empire.

STATE OF GERMANY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

We have seen what a mighty influence had, from the remotest times, been
exercised by the princes of Germany.

First, the imperial power and dignity had arisen out of their body,
and by their aid ; then, they had supported the emancipation of the
papacy, which involved their own : now, they stood opposed to both.
Although strongly attached to, and deeply imbued with, the ideas of
Empire and Papacy, they were resolved to repel the encroachments of
either : their power was already so independent, that the emperor and
the pope deemed it necessary to combine against them.

If we proceed to inquire who were these magnates, and upon what
their power rested, we shall find that the temporal hereditary sovereignty,
the germ of which had long existed in secret and grown unperceived,
shot up in full vigour in the fifteenth century ; and (if we may be allowed
to continue the metaphor), after it had long struck its roots deep into the
earth, it now began to rear its head into the free air, and to tower above
all the surrounding plants.

1 Utraquists, also called Calixtins. The moderate party among the Hussites,
who demanded the participation by the laity of the cup in the sacrament.

30 INTRODUCTION

All the puissant houses1 which have since held sovereign sway date
their establishment from this epoch.

In the eastern part of north Germany appeared the race of Hohenzollern ;
and though the land its princes had to govern and to defend was in the last
stage of distraction and ruin, they acted with such sedate vigour and
cautious determination, that they soon succeeded in driving back their
neighbours within their ancient bounds, pacifying and restoring the
marches, and re-establishing the very peculiar bases of sovereign power
which already existed in the country.

Near this remarkable family arose that of Wettin, and, by the acquisi-
tion of the electorate of Saxony, soon attained to the highest rank among
the princes of the empire, and to the zenith of its power. It possessed the
most extensive and at the same time the most flourishing of German
i principalities, as long as the brothers, Ernest and Albert, held their united
court at Dresden and shared the government ; and even when they separ-
ated, both lines remained sufficiently considerable to play a part in the
. affairs of Germany, and indeed of Europe.

In the Palatinate we find Frederick the Victorious. It is necessary to
read the long list of castles, jurisdictions, and lands which he won from all
his neighbours, partly by conquest, partly by purchase or treaty, but which
his superiority in arms rendered emphatically his own, to form a con-
ception what a German prince could in that age achieve, and how widely
he could extend his sway.

The conquests of Hessen were of a more peaceful nature. By the

inheritance of Ziegenhain and Nidda, but more especially of Katzeneln-

bogen, a fertile, highly cultivated district, from which the old counts had

never suffered a village or a farm to be taken, whether by force or purchase,

it acquired an addition nearly equal to its original territory.

j A similar spirit of extension and fusion was also at work in many other

'places. Julich and Berg formed a junction. Bavaria-Landshut was

: strengthened by its union with Ingolstadt ; in Bavaria-Munich, Albert

jthe Wise maintained the unity of the land under the most difficult cir-

j cumstances ; not without violence, but, at least in this case, with bene-

Jficial results. In Wurtemberg, too, a multitude of separate estates were

j gradually incorporated into one district, and assumed the form of a German

1 principality.

New territorial powers also arose. In East Friesland a chieftain at
length appeared, before whom all the rest bowed ; Junker2 Ulrich Cirksena,
who, by Ms own conquests, extended and consolidated the power founded
on those of his brother and his father. He also conciliated the adherents
of the old Fokko Uken, who were opposed to him, by a marriage with
Theta, the granddaughter of that chief. Hereupon he was solemnly
proclaimed count at Emden, in the year 1463. But it was to Theta, who
was left to rule the country alone during twenty-eight years, that the new
sovereignty chiefly owed its strength and stability. This illustrious woman,
whose pale, beautiful countenance, brilliant eyes and raven hair survive in
her portrait, was endowed with a vast understanding and a singular
capacity for governing, as all her conduct and actions prove.

1 See Table opposite.

2 Junker, literally, the younger son of a noble house, became the title of the
lesser aristocracy of Germany. It corresponds pretty nearly to squire in its
common English acceptation. — Transl.

'THE PUISSANT HOUSES OF GERMANY."

I. House of Wettin in Saxony.

Frederick I., 1381-1428.

RUTKSTANT. CATHOLIC.

(Ernestine, Electoral Branch at Wit- (Albertine, at Meissen.)

tenburg.) Albert, 1485-1500.

Ernest, 1464-1486.

Duke George, 1 500-1 535.
Frederick the Wise, 1486-1 525 (defends Henry (his brother, becomes a Pro-
Luther). I testant), 1529-1541.
John (his brother), 1525-1532.

Maurice, 1541-1553 (secures the Elec-
John Frederick, 1532-1554. torate).

II. House of Hohenzollern.
Younger Branches. Electoral Branch.

A. Albert of Prussia, Grand Master of Descended from Frederick I.,

the Teutonic Order, 1512-1568. 1417-1440.

Secularises his Duchy, 1525. Albert Achilles, 1470-1486.

B. Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of

Culmbach, 1 536—1557. John Cicero, 1486-1499.

C. John of Austria, Margrave of Neu-

mark, brother of Joachim II., Joachim I., 1499-1535.

ob. 1 57 1. I

Joachim II., 1535—1 571 . (Becomes a
Protestant in 1539, though he
never breaks with the Emperor.)

III. The House of Wittelsbach.

1. Bavaria.
Albert II., 1460-1508.

I
William I., 1508-1550.

2. Palatinate.
Frederick the Victorious, 1451-1476.
Philip (his nephew), 1476-1508.

I
Lewis V., 1 508-1 544.
Frederick II. (his brother), 1544-1552.
(becomes a Protestant).
There were two other branches :

i. Ingoldstadt, united to Landshut, 1445.
ii. Landshut, which became extinct on the death of George the Rich, 1 503 .

IV. House of Guelph.
Duke Ernest I. of Luneburg, 1532- Duke Henry IV. of Wolfenbuttel,
i54i- 1541-1568.

V. House of Cleves-Julich.
William III. of Julichand Berg,

I ob. 1511.
Mary - - - - - = John III., DukeofCleves, 1521-1539.

Anne William,

=Henry VIII. of 1539-1592.
England.

VI. House of Hesse.
William II., 1 500-1 509.

Philip L, 1 509-1 567.

VII. House of Wortemburg.
Ulrich I., 1503-1550, became a Protestant, 1534.

32 INTRODUCTION

Already had several German princes raised themselves to foreign
thrones. In the year 1448, Christian I., Count of Oldenburg, signed the
declaration or contract which made him king of Denmark: in 1450, ne
'was invested with the crown of St. Olaf, at Drontheim ; in H57, the Swedes
acknowledged him as their sovereign ; in 1460, Holstein did homage to
■ him, and was raised on his account to the rank of a German duchy. these
acquisitions were not, it is true, of so stable and secure a character as they
at first appeared ; but, at all events, they conferred upon a German
princely house a completely new position both in Germany and in
Europe.

The rise of the princely power and sovereignty was, as we see, not the
mere result of the steady course of events ; the noiseless and progressive
development of political institutions ; it was brought about mainly by
adroit policy, successful war and the might of personal character.

Yet the secular princes by no means possessed absolute sovereignty ;
they were still involved in an incessant struggle with the other powers of
the empire.

These were, in the first place, the spiritual principalities (whose privileges
and internal organisation were the same as those of the secular, but whose
rank in the hierarchy of the empire was higher), in which nobles of the
high or even the inferior aristocracy composed the chapter and filled the
principal places. In the fifteenth century, indeed, the bishoprics began
to be commonly conferred on the younger sons of sovereign princes : the
court of Rome favoured this practice, from the conviction that the chapters
could only be kept in order by the strong hand and the authority of
sovereign power ;l but it was neither universal, nor was the fundamental
principle of the spiritual principalities by any means abandoned in con-
sequence of its adoption.

There was also a numerous body of nobles who received their investi-
ture with the banner, like the princes, and had a right to sit in the same
tribunal with them ; nay, there were even families or clans, which, from
all time, claimed exemption from those general feudal relations that
formed the bond of the state, and held their lands in fee from God and his
blessed sun. They were overshadowed by the princely order ; but they
enjoyed perfect independence notwithstanding.

Next to this class came the powerful body of knights of the Empire,
whose castles crowned the hills on the Rhine, in Swabia and Franconia ;
they lived in haughty loneliness amidst the wildest scenes ; girt round by
an impregnable circle of deep fosses, and within walls four-and-twenty
feet thick, where they could set all authority at defiance : the bond of
fellowship among them was but the stricter for their isolation. Another
portion of the nobility, especially in the eastern and colonised princi-
palities in Pomerania and Mecklenburg, Meissen and the Marches, were,
however, brought into undisputed subjection ; though this, as we see in
the example of 'the Priegnitz, was not brought about without toil and
combat. -

There was also a third class who constantly refused to acknowledge any
feudal lord. The Craichgauer and the Mortenauer would not acknow-

1 " Si episcopum potentem sortiantur, virgam correctionis timent." — Mneas
Sylvius.

THE EMPIRE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 33

ledge the sovereignty of the Palatine, nor the Bolder and Lowen-ritter,1
that of Bavaria. We find that the Electors of Mainz and Treves, on
occasion of some decision by arbitration, feared that their nobles would
refuse to abide by it, and knew not what measure to resort to in this con-
tingency, except to rid themselves of these refractory vassals and with-
draw their protection from them.2 It seems, in some cases, as if the relation
of subject and ruler had become nothing more than a sort of alliance.

Still more completely independent was the attitude assumed by the
cities. Opposed to all these different classes of nobles, which they re-
garded as but one body, they were founded on a totally different principle,
and had struggled into importance in the midst of incessant hostility. A
curious spectacle is afforded by this old enmity constantly pervading all
the provinces of Germany, yet in each one taking a different form. In
Prussia, the opposition of the cities gave rise to the great national league
against the supreme power, which was here in the hands of the Teutonic
Order. On the Wendish coasts was then the centre of the Hanse, by which
the Scandinavian kings, and still more the surrounding German princes,
were overpowered. The Duke of Pomerania himself was struck with
terror, when, on coming to succour Henry the Elder of Brunswick, he
perceived by what powerful and closely allied cities his friend was encom-
passed and enchained on every side. On the Rhine, we find an unceasing
struggle for municipal independence, which the chief cities of the ecclesias-
tical principalities claimed, and the Electors refused to grant. In Fran-
conia, Niirnberg set itself in opposition to the rising power of Brandenburg,
which it rivalled in successful schemes of aggrandisement. Then followed
in Swabia and the Upper Danube (the true arena of the struggles and the
leagues of imperial free cities), the same groups of knights, lords, prelates
and princes, who here approached most nearly to each other. Among the
Alps, the confederacy formed against Austria had already grown into a
regular constitutional government, and attained to almost complete inde-
pendence. On every side we find different relations, different claims and
disputes, different means of carrying on the conflict ; but on all, men felt
themselves surrounded by hostile passions which any moment might blow
into a flame, and held themselves ready for battle. It seemed not im-
possible that the municipal principle might eventually get the upper hand
in all these conflicts, and prove as destructive to the aristocratic, as that
had been to the imperial, power.

In this universal shock of efforts and powers, — with a distant and feeble
chief, and inevitable divisions even among those naturally connected and
allied, a state of things arose which presents a somewhat chaotic aspect ;
it was the age of universal private warfare. The Fehde3 is a middle term

1 In 1488 Albert IV., of Bavaria, imposed a tax instead of personal service.
The Order of Knights, having vainly protested against this, formed the association
called the Lion League (Lowenbund), and entered into alliance with the Swabian
League. The other associations were probably of a similar kind. — Transl.

2 Jan. 12. 1458. Document in Hontheim, ii., p. 432. " So sail der von uns,
des undersaiss he ist, siner missig gain und ime queine schirm, zulegunge oder
handhabunge widder den anderen von uns doin." — " Then shall that one of us,
whose vassal he is, abandon him and yield him no protection, support or defence
against the rest of us."

3 Some resemblance in sound probably led to the use of the word feud (feodum),
as the equivalent of Fehde (faida), a confusion which, however sanctioned by

3

34 INTRODUCTION

between duel and war. Every affront or injury led, after certain for-
malities, to the declaration, addressed to the offending party, that the
aggrieved party would be his foe, and that of his helpers and helpers'-
helpers. The imperial authorities felt themselves so little able to arrest
this torrent, that they endeavoured only to direct its course ; and, while
imposing limitations, or forbidding particular acts, they confirmed the
general permission of the established practice.1

The right which the Supreme, independent power had hitherto reserved
to itself, of resorting to arms when no means of conciliation remained, had
descended in Germany to the inferior classes, and was claimed by nobles
and cities against each other ; by subjects against their lords, nay, by
private persons, as far as their means and connections permitted, against
each other.

In the middle of the fifteenth century this universal tempest of con-
tending powers was arrested by a conflict of a higher and more important
nature — the opposition of the princes to the emperor and the pope ; and
it remained to be decided from whose hands the world could hope for any
restoration to order.

Two princes appeared on the stage, each of them the hero of his nation,
each at the head of a numerous party ; each possessed of personal qualities
strikingly characteristic of the epoch — Frederick of the Palatinate, and
| Albert of Brandenburg. They took opposite courses. Frederick the
Victorious, distinguished rather for address and agility of body than for
size and strength, owed his fame and his success to the forethought and
caution with which he prepared his battles and sieges. In time of peace
he busied himself with the study of antiquity, or the mysteries of alchemy ;
poets and minstrels found ready access to him, as in the spring-time of
poetry ; he lived under the same roof with his friend and songstress,
Clara Dettin of Augsburg, whose sweetness and sense not only captivated

custom, I have thought it better to avoid. Eichhorn (Deutsche Staats und
Rechtsgeschichte, vol. i., p. 441) says : — " In case of robbery, murder, &c, the
injured party, or his heirs, was not bound to pursue the injurer at law ; but
private help or self-revenge (Privathulfe und Selbstrache)— Fehde (faida), was
lawful ; and the Befehdete (faidosus) could only escape this by paying the ap-
pointed fine." For the earliest mention of this fine, he refers to Tacitus (Germ.
21). It is remarkable too that the authority from which he quotes these terms
is, the laws of Friesland, a country where, as is well known, feudalism never
existed. And indeed the parties by whom diffidations (Fehdebriefe) were often
sent, were obviously subject to no feudal relations. Although we appear to have
lost the English cognate of the Anglo-Saxon Foehthe (capitalis inimiciiia), it is
found in the Scotch feid, fede, feyde (see.Gawin Douglas, Jamieson's Diet., &c),
and in most of the Teutonic languages.— Transl.

1 e.g. the " Reformation " of Frederick III. of 1442 orders, " dass nymand dem
andern Schaden tun oder zufugen soil, er habe ihn denn zuvor— zu landlaufigen
Rechten erfordert."— " that none should do, or cause to be done, injury to
another, unless he have previously challenged him, according to the customary
laws of the land." The clause of the golden bull, de Diffidationibus, is then
repeated.*

* The clause is as follows :— " Eos qui de cetero adversus aliquos justam diffi-
ciatioms causam se habere fingentes, ipsos in locis, ubi domicilia non obtinent
aut ea commumter non inhabitant, intempestive diffidant; declaramus damna
per mcendia, spoha, vel rapinas, diffidatis ipsis, cum honore suo inferre non posse. "
Bulla Aurea, cap. xvii -Trans.

THE EMPIRE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 35

the prince, but were the charm and delight of all around him. He had
expressly renounced the comforts of equal marriage and legitimate heirs ;
all that he accomplished or acquired was for the advantage of his nephew
Philip.

The towering and athletic frame of Markgrave Albert of Brandenburg
(surnamed Achilles), on the contrary, announced, at the first glance, his
gigantic strength: he had been victor in countless tournaments, and
stories of his courage and warlike prowess, bordering on the fabulous,
were current among the people ; — how, for example, at some siege he had
mounted the walls alone, and leaped down into the midst of the terrified
garrison ; how, hurried on by a slight success over an advanced party of
the enemy, he had rushed almost unattended into their main body of 800
horsemen, had forced his way up to their standard, snatched it from its
bearer, and after a momentary feeling of the desperateness of his position,
rallied his courage and defended it, till his people could come up and com-
plete the victory. jEneas Sylvius declares that the Markgrave himself
assured him of the fact.1 His letters breathe a passion for war. Even
after a defeat he had experienced, he relates to his friends with evident
pleasure, how long he and four others held out on the field of battle ; how
he then cut his way through with great labour and severe fighting, and how
he 'was determined to re-appear as soon as possible in the field. In time
of peace he busied himself with the affairs of the empire, in which he took
a more lively and efficient part than the emperor himself. We find him
sharing in all the proceedings of the diets ; or holding a magnificent and
hospitable court in his Franconian territories ; or directing his attention
to his possessions in the Mark, which were governed by his son with all
the vigilance dictated by the awe of a grave and austere father. Albert
is the worthy progenitor of the warlike house of Brandenburg. He be-
queathed to it not only wise maxims, but, what is of more value, a great
example.

About the year 1461 these two princes embraced, as we have said,
different parties. Frederick, who as yet possessed no distinctly recognised
power, and in all things obeyed his personal impulses, put himself at the
head of the opposition. Albert, who always followed the trodden path of
existing relations, undertook the defence of the emperor and the pope :2

1 Historia Friderici III., in the part first published by Kollar, Anal., ii., p. 166.

2 In the collection of imperial documents in the Frankfurt Archives, vol. v.,
there is a very remarkable report by Johannes Brun of an audience which he
had of Albrecht Achilles in Oct. 1461. He had to entreat him for a remission of
the succours demanded. Markgrave Albrecht would not grant this : " Auch
erzalte er, was Furnemen gen unssen gn. Herrn den Keyser gewest ware und wy
ein Gedenken nach dem Ryche sy, auch der Kunig von Behemen ganz Meynung
habe zu Mittensommer fur Francfort zu sin und das Rych zu erobern, und
darnach wie u. g. H. der Keiser yne, sine Schweher von Baden und Wirtenberg
angerufen und yne des Ryches Banyer bevolhen habe, iiber Herzog Ludwig, um
der Geschicht willen mit dem Bischof von Eystett, den von Werde und Din-
kelsbol und umb die Pene, darin er deshalben verfallen sy ; — in den Dingen
er uf niemant gebeitet oder gesehen, sondern zu Stund mit den sinen und des
von Wirtenberg mit des Rychs Banyer zu Feld gelegen und unsern Herrn den
Keyser gelediget und die Last uf sich genommen, darin angesehen sine Pflicht,
und was er habe das er das vom Ryche habe, und meyne Lip und Gut von u. H.
dem Keiser nit zu scheiden." — " He also recounted what manner of enterprise

3—2

36 INTRODUCTION

fortune wavered for a time between them. But at last the Jorsika, as
George Podiebrad was called, abandoned his daring plans. Diether of
Isenburg was succeeded by his antagonist, Adolf of Nassau ; and Frederick
the Palatine consented to give up his prisoners : victory leaned, in the
main, to the side of Brandenburg. The ancient authorities of the Empire
and the Church were once more upheld.

These authorities, too, now seemed seriously bent on introducing a better
order of things. By the aid of the victorious party, the emperor found
himself, for the first time, in a position to exercise a certain influence in
the empire ; Pope Paul II. wished to fit out an expedition against the
Turks : with united strength they proceeded to the work at the diet of
Niirnberg (a.d. 1466.). x

It was an assembly which distinctly betrayed the state of parties under
which it had been convoked. Frederick the Palatine appeared neither in
person nor by deputy ; the ambassadors of Podiebrad, who had fallen into
fresh disputes with the papal see, were not admitted : nevertheless, the
resolutions passed there were of great importance. It was determined
for the next five years to regard every breach of the Public Peace2 as a

there had been against our gracious lord the emperor, and how there was a
design upon the empire ; also how the king of Bohemia had the full intention
of being at Frankfort at midsummer, and of getting possession of the empire ;
and how, thereupon, our gracious lord the emperor had summoned him, his
brothers-in-law of Baden and Wurtemberg, and committed the banner of the
empire to him rather than to Duke Ludwig, by reason of the affair with the
bishop of Eystett, those of Werde and Dinkelsbol, and of the punishment he had
incurred on that account : in these things he had tarried or looked for no one,
but forthwith taken the field with his men and those of him of Wurtemberg, with
the banner of the empire, and relieved our lord the emperor and taken the burthen
upon himself, and had therein beheld his duty : and that what he had, he had
from the empire, and had no thought of separating his life and lands from the
cause of the emperor." As to the prayer of the cities, he says : — " wywol yme
das Geld nutzer ware und er mer schicken wolle mit den die er in den Sold gewonne
denn mit den die in von den Stadten zugeschicket werden, ye doch so stehe es
ime nit zu und habe nit Macht eynich Geld zu nehmen und des Reisers Gebote
abzustellen." " Although money was needful to him, and he should spend
more with troops he took into his pay than with those the cities should send him,
still it would not become him, and he had not power anyhow to take money and
to set aside the emperor's command." Dispositions such as befit a prince of
the empire. It were much to be wished there were someone capable of giving
a more full and accurate account of the life and deeds of this remarkable prince.

1 Proceedings at the papal and imperial diet held at Niirnberg on account of
the Turkish campaign, in the 4th vol. of the Frankfort Acts of the Diet of the
Empire, as published by Schilter and Miiller, with some small variations.

2 Landfriede — Peace of the land. The expression, public peace, which, in
deference to numerous and high authorities I have generally used in the text, is
liable to important objections. A breach of the public peace means, in England,
any open disorder or outrage. But the Landfriede (Pax publica) was a special
act or provision directed against the abuse of an ancient and established institu-
tion,—the Fehderecht (jus difiidationis, or right of private warfare). The attempts
to restrain this abuse were, for a long time, local and temporary ; as for example,
in the year 1382, Markgrave Sigismund of Brandenburg, and some of the neigh-
bouring princes concluded a Landfriede for six years. In such cases tribunals
called Peace Courts (Friedensgerichte), for trying offences against the Landfriede,
were instituted and expired together with the peace. The first energetic measure

THE EMPIRE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 37

crime against the majesty of the empire, and to punish it with the ban. It
was found that the spiritual tribunals must come in aid of the temporal
sword ; and accordingly the pope denounced the heaviest spiritual penalties
against violators of the Public Peace. The emperor formally adopted
these resolutions at an assembly at Neustadt, in the year 1467, and for
the first time revoked the articles of the Golden Bull and the Reformation
of 1442, in which private wars were, under certain conditions, permitted.1
A peace was proclaimed, " enjoined by our most gracious lord the king of
the Romans, and confirmed by our holy father the pope," as the electors
express themselves.

Some time afterwards — at Regensburg, in the year 147 1 — the allied
powers ventured on a second yet more important step, for the furtherance
of the war against the Turks, which they declared themselves at length
about to undertake : they attempted to impose a sort of property tax on
the whole empire, called the Common Penny,2 and actually obtained an
edict in its favour. They named in concert the officers charged with the
collection of it in the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees ; and the papal
legate threatened the refractory with the sum of all spiritual punishments,
exclusion from the community of the church.3

These measures undoubtedly embraced what was most immediately
necessary to the internal and external interests of the empire. But how
was it possible to imagine that they would be executed ? The combined
powers were by no means strong enough to carry through such extensive
and radical innovations. The diets had not been attended by nearly
sufficient numbers, and people did not hold themselves bound by the reso-
lutions of a party. The opposition to the emperor and the pope had not

of the general government to put down private wars was that of the diet of
Ntirnberg (1466).

Peace of the realm, internal or domestic peace (as distinguished from foreign
or international), would come nearer to the meaning of Landfriede. It is suffi-
cient, however, if the reader bears in mind that it is opposed not to chance
disorder or tumult, but to a mode of voiding differences recognised by the law,
and limited by certain forms and conditions ; as, e.g. that a Bejehdete (faidosus)
could not be attacked and killed in church or in his own house. See Eichhorn,
Deutsche Staats-und-Rechtsgeschichte, vol. ii., p. 453. — Transl.

1 The constitution of the 18th August, 1467, in Miiller Rtth., ii. 293. The
provisions for the maintenance of peace contained in those laws were not to be
annulled, "dann allain in den Artickel der gulden Bull, der do inhellt vonWider-
sagen, und in den ersten Artickel der Reformation, der da inhellt von Angreifen
und Beschedigen ; dieselben Artickel sollen die obgemeldten funf Jar ruhen, —
auf dass zu Vehde Krieg und Aufrur Anlass vermitten und der Fride Stracks
gehalten werde." " Then alone in the article of the Golden Bull, concerning
challenges, and the first article of the Reformation, concerning assaults and
damages : these articles shall remain unaltered the above-mentioned five years,

— that all occasion of challenge, war, and disorder be avoided, and peace be
thoroughly maintained." Unluckily the worthy Miiller read Milbenstadt for
Neuenstadt in this important passage, — a mistake which has found its way into
a number of the histories of the empire.

2 Das gemeine Pfennig. — I have not been able to find in any French or English
writer the literal translation of this name given to the first attempt at general
taxation in the empire ; but I have retained it as characteristic of the age, and
of the nature of the tax. — Transl.

3 The Duke of Cleves was named executor for Bremen, Miinster, and Utrecht ;
Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, for Regensburg and Passau.

38 INTRODUCTION

attained its object, but it still subsisted : Frederick the Victorious still
lived, and had now an influence over the very cities which had formerly
opposed him. The collection of the Common Penny was, in a short
time, not even talked of ; it was treated as a project of Paul II., to whom
it was not deemed expedient to grant such extensive powers.

The proclamation of the Public Peace had also produced little or no
effect. After some time the cities declared that it had occasioned them
more annoyance and damage than they had endured before.1 It was
contrary to their wishes that, in the year 1474, it was renewed with all
its actual provisions. The private wars went on as before. Soon after-
wards one of the most powerful imperial cities, Regensburg, the very place
where the Public Peace was proclaimed, fell into the hands of the Bavarians.
The combined powers gradually lost all their consideration. In the year
1479 the propositions of the emperor and the pope were rejected in a mass
by the estates of the empire, and were answered with a number of com-
plaints. .

And yet never could stringent measures be more imperiously demanded.

I shall not go into an elaborate description of the evils attendant on the
right of diffidation or private warfare (Fehderecht) : they were probably not
so great as is commonly imagined. Even in the century we are treating
of, there were Italians to whom the situation of Germany appeared happy
and secure in comparison with that of their own country, where, in all
parts, one faction drove out another.2 It was only the level country and
the high roads which were exposed to robbery and devastation. But even
so, the state of things was disgraceful and insupportable to a great nation.
It exhibited the strongest contrast to the ideas of law and of religion upon
which the Empire was so peculiarly founded.

One consequence of it was, that as every man was exclusively occupied
with the care of his own security and defence, or could at best not extend
his view beyond the horizon immediately surrounding him, no one had
any attention to bestow on the common weal ; not only were no more
great enterprises achieved, but even the frontiers were hardly defended.
In the East, the old conflict between the Germans and the Lettish and
Slavonian tribes was decided in favour of the latter. As the King of Poland
found allies in Prussia itself, he obtained an easy victory over the Order,3
and compelled the knights to conclude the peace of Thorn (a.d. 1466),

1 " Dass die erbb. Stadte und die jren in Zeitten sollichs gemainen Friden und
wider des Inhalt und Maiming mer Ungemachs Beschadigung verderblicher
Rost Schaden und Unfrid an jren Leuten Leiben und Guten gelitten, dann sy
vorher in vil Jaren und Zeytten je empfangen." " That the hereditary cities
and their people, in times of such common peace, and contrary to the intent and
meaning, had suffered under more inconvenience, damage, cost, mischief, and
disturbance, to the persons and possessions of their inhabitants, than had been
undergone before during many years and seasons."— Proceedings at Regensburg,
1474. Frankfurter A A., vol. viii.

2 JEneas Sylvius, Dialogi de Autoritate Concilu, introduces in the second
of these dialogues a Novanese, who calls out to the Germans : " Bona vestra
vere vestra sunt : pace omnes fruimini et Ubertate in communi, magisque -ad
naturam quam ad opinionem vivitis. Fugi ego illos Italiae turbines."— Hollar,
Anal., 11. 704.

3 For a history of this Teutonic Order cf. Lodge, The Close of the Middle
Ages (Rivmgton), p. 454, or the excellent article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

THE EMPIRE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 39

by which the greater part of the territories of the Order were ceded to him,
and the rest were held of him in fee. Neither emperor nor empire stirred
to avert this incalculable loss. In the' West, the idea of obtaining the Rhine
as a boundary first awoke in the minds of the French, and the attacks of
the Dauphin and the Armagnacs were only foiled by local resistance.
But what the one line of the house of Valois failed in, the other, that of
Burgundy, accomplished with brilliant success. As the wars between
France and England were gradually terminated, and nothing more was
to be gained in that field, this house, with all its ambition and all its good
fortune, threw itself on the territory of Lower Germany. In direct de-
fiance of the imperial authority, it took possession of Brabant and Holland ;
then Philip the Good took Luxemburg, placed his natural son in Utrecht,
and his nephew on the episcopal throne of Liege ; after which an unfortu-
nate quarrel between father and son gave Charles the Bold an opportunity
to seize upon Guelders. A power was formed such as had not arisen
since the time of the great duchies, and the interests and tendencies of
which were naturally opposed to those of the empire. This state the
restless Charles resolved to extend, on the one side, towards Friesland, on
the other, along the Upper Rhine. When at length he fell upon the
archbishopric of Cologne and besieged Neuss, some opposition was made
to him, but not in consequence of any concerted scheme or regular arma-
ment, but of a sudden levy in the presence of imminent danger. The
favourable moment for driving him back within his own frontiers had been
neglected. Shortly after, on his attacking Lotharingia, Alsatia, and
Switzerland, those countries were left to defend themselves. Meanwhile,
Italy had in fact completely emancipated herself. If the emperor desired
to be crowned there, he must go unarmed like a mere traveller ; his ideal
power could only be manifested in acts of grace and favour. The King of
Bohemia, who also possessed the two Lusatias and Silesia, and an exten-
sive feudal dominion within the empire, insisted loudly on his rights, and
would hear nothing of the corresponding obligations.

The life of the nation must have been already extinct, had it not, even
in the midst of all these calamities, and with the prospect of further
imminent peril before it, taken measures to establish its internal order and
to restore its external power ; — objects, however, not to be attained with-
out a revolution in both its spiritual and temporal affairs.

The tendency to development and progress in Europe is sometimes more
active and powerful in one direction, sometimes in another. At this
moment temporal interests were most prominent; and these, therefore,
must first claim our attention.

BOOK I.

Attempt to reform the constitution of the empire

i486— 1517

Similar disorders, arising from kindred sources and an analogous train
of events, existed in all the other nations of Europe. It may be said, that
the offspring and products of the middle ages were engaged in a universal
conflict which seemed likely to end in their common destruction.

The ideas upon which human society is based are but partially and im-
perfectly imbued with the divine and eternal Essence from which they
emanate ; for a time they are beneficent and vivifying, and new creations
spring up under their breath. But on earth nothing attains to a pure and
perfect existence, and therefore nothing is immortal. When the times
are accomplished, higher aspirations and more enlightened schemes spring
up out of the tottering remains of former institutions, which they utterly
overthrow and efface ; for so has God ordered the world.

If the disorders in question were universal, the efforts to put an end to
them were not less so. Powers called into life by the necessity of a change,
or growing up spontaneously, arose out of the general confusion, and with
vigorous and unbidden hand imposed order on the chaos.

This is the great event of the fifteenth century. The names of the
energetic princes of that time, whose task it was first to awaken the nations
of Europe to a consciousness of their own existence and importance, are
known to all. In France we find Charles VII. and Louis XI. The land
was at length delivered from the enemy who had so long held divided sway
in it, and was united under the standard of the Lilies ; the monarchy was
founded on a military and financial basis ; crafty, calculating policy
came in aid of the practical straightforward sense which attained its ends,
because it aimed only at what was necessary ; all the daring and insolent
powers that had bid defiance to the supreme authority were subdued or
overthrown : the new order of things had already attained to sufficient
strength to endure a long and stormy minority.

Henry VII. of England, without attempting to destroy the ancient
liberties of the nation, laid the foundation of the power of the Tudors on
the ruins of the two factions of the aristocracy, with a resolution nothing
could shake and a vigour nothing could resist. The Norman times were
over ; — modern England began. At the same time Isabella of Castile
reduced her refractory vassals to submission, by her union with a power-
ful neighbour, by the share she had acquired in the spiritual power, and
by the natural ascendancy of her own grand and womanly character, in
which austere domestic virtue and a high chivalrous spirit were so singu-
larly blended. She succeeded in completely driving out the Moors and
pacifying the Peninsula. Even in Italy, some stronger governments
were consolidated ; five considerable states were formed, united by a free
alliance, and for a while capable of counteracting all foreign influence. At
the same time Poland, doubly strong through her union with Lithuania,
climbed to the highest pinnacle of power she ever possessed ; while in
Hungary, a native king maintained the honour and the unity of his nation
at the head of the powerful army he had assembled under his banner.
However various were the resources and the circumstances bj' which it

40

Book I.] FOUNDATION OF A NEW CONSTITUTION 41

was surrounded, Monarchy — the central power — was everywhere strong
enough to put down the resisting independencies ; to exclude foreign
influence ; to rally the people around its standard, by appealing to the
national spirit under whose guidance it acted ; and thus to give them a
feeling of unity.

In Germany, however, this was not possible. The two powers which
might have effected the most were so far carried along by the general
tendency of the age, that they endeavoured to introduce some degree of
order ; we have seen with what small success. At the very time in which
all the monarchies of Europe consolidated themselves, the emperor was
driven out of his hereditary states, and wandered about the other parts
of the empire as a fugitive.1 He was dependent for his daily repast on the
bounty of convents, or of the burghers of the imperial cities ; his other
wants were supplied from the slender revenues of his chancery : he might
sometimes be seen travelling along the roads of his own dominions in a
carriage drawn by oxen ; never — and this he himself felt — was the majesty
of the empire dragged about in meaner form : the possessor of a power
which, according to the received idea, ruled the world, was become an object
of contemptuous pity.

If anything was to be done in Germany, it must be by other means,
upon other principles, with other objects, than any that had hitherto been
contemplated or employed. ■■• 1

FOUNDATION OF A NEW CONSTITUTION.2

It is obvious at the first glance, that no attempt at reform could be suc-
cessful which did not originate with the States themselves. Since they
had taken up so strong a position against the two co-ordinate higher
powers, they were bound to show how far that position was likely to prove
beneficial to the public interests.

It was greatly in their favour that the emperor had sunk into so deplor-
able a situation.

Not that it was their intention to make use of this to his entire overthrow
or destruction ; on the contrary, they were determined not to allow him to
fall. What for centuries only one emperor had accomplished, and he, in
the fulness of his power and by dispensing extraordinary favours (viz. to
secure the succession to his son), Frederick III. achieved in the moment of
the deepest humiliation and weakness. The prince-electors met in the year
i486, to choose his son Maximilian king of the Romans. In this measure,
Albert Achilles of Brandenburg, took the most prominent and active part.
Notwithstanding his advanced age, he came once more in person to Frank-
furt : he caused himself to be carried into the electoral chapel on a litter,
whence, at the close of the proceedings, he presented the sceptre ; he was
in the act of performing his high function as archchamberlain of the empire,
when he expired. It could not escape the electors, that the claims of the
house of Austria to the support of the empire were greatly strengthened

1 See Unrest, Chronicon Austriacum ; Hahn. 660-688. Kurz, Oestreich
unter Friedrich III., vol. ii.

2 For an outline of the Germanic Constitution cf. Cambridge Modern History,
vol. i., p. 288. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, p. 106. Wolf, Deutsche
Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegeureformation, p. 1-113 (more fully).

42 FOUNDATION OF [Book 1.

by this event. Maximilian, the son-in-law of Charles the Bold, who had
undertaken to uphold the rights of the house of Burgundy in the Nether-
lands, encountered there difficulties and misfortunes not much inferior to
those which beset his father in Austria, and must, on no account, be
abandoned. His election could hardly be regarded as fully accomplished,
until the countries which had hitherto maintained a hostile attitude were
subjected to him, and thus restored to the empire. It was precisely by
determining to send succours in both directions, that the states acquired
a two-fold right to discuss internal affairs according to their own judg-
ment. They had rendered fresh services to the reigning house, which
could not defend its hereditary possessions without their aid, and their
voices must now be heard.

At this moment, too, a coolness arose between the emperor and the
pope. There was a large party in Europe which had always regarded the
rise of the Austrian power with dislike, and was now greatly offended at
the election of Maximilian to the Roman throne. To this party, in con^
sequence of the turn Italian affairs had taken, Pope Innocent VII. belonged.
He refused the emperor aid against the Hungarians, and even against the
Turks. The imperial ambassador found him, as Frederick complained to
the diet, " very awkward to deal with " (gar ungeschickt),1 and could do
nothing with him. There was also a difference with the pope about the
nomination to the see of Passau, as well as about a newly-imposed tithe.
In short, the intervention of the Roman see was, for a moment, sus-
pended. For the first time, during a long period, we find numerous
assemblies of German princes without the presence of a papal legate.

Under these circumstances the deliberations of the States were opened
with a better prospect of useful results.

It was evidently not necessary to begin from the beginning ; all the
elements of a great commonwealth were at hand. The diets had long
been regarded as the focus of legislation and of the general government :
peace (Landfriede) had been proclaimed throughout the realm ; an im-
perial court of justice existed ; as long ago as the Hussite war a census had
been taken with a view to the general defence of the empire. Nothing
remained but to give to these institutions that steady and pervading
action which they had hitherto entirely wanted.

To this effect deliberations were incessantly held from the year i486 to
1489. Ideas embracing the whole land of the German people, and directed
to the restoration of its unity and strength, were in active circulation. In
order to obtain a more complete and accurate conception of the several
important points, we will consider them, not in their historical connection
either with each other or with contemporaneous events, but each
separately.

The first was the Public Peace, which had again been broken on every
side, and now, -proclaimed anew in i486, had been rendered clear by some
more precise provisions annexed in 1487 ; yet it differed little from those
which had gone before it. The execution of it was now, as heretofore,
left to the tumultuous levy of the neighbourhood within a circle of from
six to ten miles (German) ; nay, the declaration of 1487 expressly declares
that a party in whose favour sentence had been pronounced might use

1 Miiller, Rtth. unter Friedrich III. v. 122.

Book I.] A NEW CONSTITUTION 43

force to secure its execution.1 The only difference was that the co-opera-
tion of the pope was no longer invited. There was no further mention of
sending papal conservators with peculiar powers of executing justice, in
order to the maintenance of the Public Peace. This, however, rendered
it doubtful whether the clergy, to whom the pope and the church were
much more proximate and formidable than the emperor and the state,
would choose to regard themselves as bound by the peace. No other
means could be found to obviate this evil than that the emperor should
declare, as the bishops had done in regard to their own nobility, that he
would put the disobedient out of the favour and protection of the law, and
would not defend them from any aggression or injury.

We see what a state of violence, insubordination, and mutual inde-
pendence still prevailed, and even manifested itself in the laws ; and how
necessary it was to establish internal regulations, by the firmness and
energy 'of which arbitrary power might be held in check, and the encroach-
ments of an authority which, at the very first meeting of the estates, was
regarded as foreign, might be repelled.

The most essential point was to give to the imperial diets more regular
forms and greater dignity ; and especially to put an end to the resistance
offered to their edicts by the cities.

The cities, which were so often hostilely treated by the other estates,
and which had interests of so peculiar a nature to defend, held themselves
from the earliest period studiously aloof. During the Hussite war they
were even permitted to send into the field a separate municipal army
under a captain of their own appointment.2 In the year 1460 they de-
clined going to council with the princes, or uniting in a common answer
to the emperor's proposals.3 In the year 1474 the deputies refused to
approve the Public Peace concluded by the emperor and princes, and
obstinately persisted that they would say nothing to it till they had con-
sulted their friends.4 In i486 the princes having granted some subsidies

1 Muller, Rtth. Fr. VI., 115. " Wo aber der, der gewaltige Tate furneme und
iibe, das thete uf behapte Urtheil, so solt dariiber nyemant dem Bekriegten das
mahl Hilf zuzuschicken schuldig seyn." " When, however, anyone, under-
taking and exercising acts of violence, does so upon judgment received in
his favour, then shall no one be bound to send help thereupon to him who is
attacked."

2 In the year 1431. Datt de Pace Publica, 167.

3 Protocol in Muller, i., p. 782 : with this addition, however, " Sie wolten
solch friindlich Fiirbringen ihren Friinden beriimen." " They would commend
so friendly a proposition to their friends."

4 The answer given by them in Muller, ii., p. 626, is vague and obscure. In
the Frankfurt Archives (vol. viii.) it runs thus : " Als die des Friedens nothurftig
und begerlich sind, setzen sy (die Stadte) in kein Zweifel, E. K. M. (werde)
gnediglich darob und daran seyn, dass der vestiglich gehandhabt und gehalten
werde : dazu sy aber irenthalb zu reden nit bedacht sind, audi kein Befel habeu,
imterteniglich bittend, das S. K. M. das also in Gnaden und Guten von in versten
und sy als ir allergnedigster Herr bedenken wolle." — " As they have need, and
are desirous of peace, they (the cities) make no doubt, your Imperial Majesty
will graciously strive to bring about that it be firmly maintained and kept ; but
beyond this they have no thought of speaking on their own behalf, nor have
any command so to do, submissively entreating, that his Imperial Majesty will
'therefore take this in good and gracious understanding from them, and think
of them like their most gracious master." It is evident that their acceptance

44 FOUNDATION OF [Book I.

to the emperor to which the cities were called upon to contribute, they
resisted, and the more strenuously, since they had not even been sum-
moned to the meeting at which the grant was made. Frederick replied
that this had not been done, because they would have done nothing with-
out sending home for instructions.

It was evident that this state of things could not be maintained. The
imperial cities justly deemed it an intolerable grievance that they should
be taxed according to an arbitrary assessment, and a contribution de-
manded of them as if it were a debt ; on the other hand, it was just as
little to be endured that they should obstruct every definite decision, and
send home to consult their constituents on every individual grant.

So powerful was the influence of the prevailing spirit of the times, that,
in the year 1487, the cities came to a resolution to abandon the course
they had hitherto pursued.

The emperor had summoned only a small number of them to the diet
of this year ; they determined, however, this time to send the whole body
of their deputies, and not to require them to send home for instructions.
The Emperor Frederick received them at the castle at Niirnberg, sitting on
his bed, "of a feeble countenance," as they express themselves,1 and
caused it to be said to them that he was glad to see them, and would
graciously acknowledge their coming. The princes, too, were well satisfied
therewith, and allowed the cities to take part in their deliberations. Com-
mittees were formed — a practice that afterwards became the prevailing
one — in which the cities too were included. The first which sat to deliber-
ate on the Public Peace consisted of six electors, ten princes, and three
burghers. From the second, — to consider the measures to be adopted
against the Hungarians, — the cities were at first excluded, but afterwards
were summoned at the express desire of the emperor. Our reporter,
Dr. Paradies of Frankfurt, was one of the members of this committee.
Nor was the share taken by the burgher delegates barren of substantial
results ; of the general grant of 100,000 gulden, nearly the entire half,
(49,390 gulden) was at first assessed to them : they struck off about a
fifth from this estimate, and reduced it to 40,000 gulden, which they
apportioned to each city at their own discretion.

At the next diet, in 1489, the forms of general deliberation were settled.
For the first time, the three colleges, electors, princes, and burghers,
separated as soon as a measure was proposed ; each party retired to its
own room, the answer was drawn up by the electoral college, and then
presented for acceptance to the others. Thenceforth this continued to
be the regular practice. At this juncture there was a possibility of the
constitution of the empire assuming a form like that which arose out of
similar institutions in other countries, viz. that the commons, who regarded
themselves (in Germany as elsewhere) as the emperor's lieges (Leute), —
as in an especial manner Ms subjects, — might have made common cause
with him against the aristocracy, and have formed a third estate, or

is only very general, and that they would not suffer the more essential resolutions
to be pressed upon them ; the emperor at last concedes the point relating to the
instructions.

1 Dr. Ludwig zum Paradies of Frankfurt, Monday after Judica, April 2, 1487. .
With this diet of the empire begin the detailed reports of the Frankfurt deputies. '
The earlier ones were more fragmentary. — lis. A., vol. xii.

Book I.] A NEW CONSTITUTION 45

Commons' House. Sigismund was very fond of joining his complaints of
the princely power with theirs ; he reminded them that the empire had
nothing left but them, since everything else had fallen into the hands of
the princes ; he liked particularly to treat with them, and invited them to
come to him with all their grievances.1 But the imperial power was far
too weak to foster these sympathies to any practical maturity, or to give
a precise and consistent form to their union ; it was incapable of affording
to the cities that protection which would have excited or j ustifled a volun-
tary adherence to the head of the empire on their part. The German
Estates generally assumed a very different form from all others. Else-
where the lords spiritual and temporal used to meet separately : in Ger-
many, on the contrary, the electors, who united the spiritual and temporal
power in their own persons, had so thoroughly defined a position, such
distinct common privileges, that it was not possible to divide them. Hence
it happened that the princes formed a single college of spiritual and tem-
poral members : the committees were generally composed of an equal
number of each. The cities in Germany were not opposed, but allied to
the magnates. These two estates together formed a compact corporation,
against which no emperor could carry any measure, and which represented
the aggregate power of the empire.

In the consciousness of their own strength and of the necessity of the
case, they now made a proposal to the emperor, which, however moderate
in its tone, opened the widest prospect of a radical change in the consti-
tution.

It was obvious that if order and tranquillity were really restored, and
all were compelled to acknowledge him as the supreme fountain of justice,
the emperor would necessarily acquire an immense accession of power.
This the estates were little inclined to concede to him ; the less, since
justice was so arbitrarily administered in his tribunal, which was there-
fore extremely discredited throughout the empire. As early as the year
1467, at the moment of the first serious proclamation of the Public Peace,
a proposal was made to the emperor to establish a supreme tribunal of a
new kind for the enforcement of it, to which the several estates should
nominate twenty-four inferior judges 2 from all parts of Germany, and the
emperor only one as president.3 To this Frederick paid no attention : he
appointed his tribunal after, as he had before, alone ; caused it to follow
his court, and even decided some causes in person ; revoked judgments
that had been pronounced, and determined the amount of costs and fees at
his pleasure. He of course excited universal discontent by these pro-
ceedings ; people saw clearly that if anything was to be done for the
empire, the first step must be to establish a better administration of

1 See Sigismund's Speech to the Friends of the Council at Frankfurt. Printed
by Aschbach, Geschichte Kaiser Sigmunds, i. 453. He there says, he will discuss
with them " was ir Brest (Gebrechen) sy," — " what may be their wants."

2 The passage, as Harpprecht, Archiv. i. par. 109. gives it, is quite unintelligible,
for instead of urtailsprecher (utferer of a sentence), urthel sprechen (to pronounce
sentence) is printed, just as if the states themselves were to sit in judgment. It
is more exact and connected in Konig von Konigsthal, ii. p. 13.

3 The words in the text are Urtheiler and Richter. As Urtheil is judgment
or decision, and Recht, law or right, these titles seem to imply some analogy with
the offices of the English jury and judge. — Transl.

4<5 FOUNDATION OF [Book I.

justice. The subsidies which they granted the emperor in the year 1486
were saddled with a condition to that effect. The estates were not so
anxious to appoint the judges of the court, as to secure to it first a certain
degree of independence ; they were even willing to grant' the judge and his
assessors a right of co-optation for the offices becoming vacant. The
main thing, however, was, that the judge should have the faculty of sen-
tencing the breakers of the Public Peace to the punishment upon which
the penal force of the law for the preservation of that peace — the punish-
ment of the ban — mainly rested, as well as the emperor himself ; and also
that it should rest with him to take the necessary measures for its execu-
tion. So intolerable was the personal interference of the emperor esteemed,
that people thought they should have gained everything if they could
secure themselves from this evil. They then intended in some degree to
limit the power of the tribunal, by referring it to the statutes of the par-
ticular part of the empire in which the particular case arose, and by having
a fixed tax for the costs and fees.1

But the aged emperor had no mind to renounce one jot of his traditional
power. He replied, that he should reserve to himself the right of pro-
claiming the ban, " in like manner as that had been done of old " (immaas-
sen das vor Alters gewesen). The appointment of assessors also must in
future take place only with his knowledge and consent. Local statutes
and customs should only be recognised by the court in as far as they were
consistent with the imperial written law, i.e. the Roman (a curious proof
how much the Idea of the Empire contributed to the introduction of the
Roman law) : with regard to taxing the costs and fees, he would be
unrestrained, as other princes were, in their courts of justice and chan-
ceries.2 He regarded the supreme tribunal of the realm in the light of a
patrimonial court. It was in vain that the electors observed to him
that a reform of the supreme court was the condition attached to their
grants ; in vain they actually stopped their payments, and proposed
other and more moderate conditions : the aged monarch was inflexible.

Frederick III. had accustomed himself in the course of a long life to
regard the affairs of the world with perfect serenity of mind. His contempo-
raries have painted him to us ; — one while weighing precious stones in a
goldsmith's scales ; another, with a celestial globe in his hand, discoursing
with learned men on the positions of the stars. He loved to mix metals,
compound healing drugs, and in important crises, predicted the future
himself from the aspects of the constellations : he read a man's destiny in
his features or in the lines of his hand. He was a believer in the hidden
powers that govern nature and fortune. In his youth his Portuguese
wife, with the violent temper and the habitual opinions of a native of
the South, urged him in terms of bitter scorn to take vengeance for some
injury : he only answered, that everything was rewarded, and punished,
and avenged in time. 3 Complaints of the abuses in his courts of justice
made little impression on him : he said " things did not go quite right or
smooth anywhere." Oh one occasion representations were made to
him by the princes of the empire, against the influence which he allowed

1 Essay on an Ordinance of the Imperial Chamber ; Miiller vi 20

2 Moruta Csesareanorum ; Miiller, vi. 69.

3 Grunbeck Historia Friderici ' et ' Maximiliani in Chmel, Oestreichischer
Geschichtsforscher, 1., p. 69.

Book I.] A NEW CONSTITUTION 47

his councillor Priischenk to exercise : he replied, " every one of them had
his own Priischenk at home." In all the perplexities of affairs he evinced
the same calmness and equanimity. In 1449, when the cities and princes,
on the eve of war, refused to accept him as a mediator, he was content :
he said he would wait till they had burnt each other's houses and destroyed
each other's crops ; then they would come to him of their own accord,
and beg him to bring about a reconciliation between them ; — which shortly
after happened. The violences and cruelties which his hereditary
dominions of Austria suffered from King Matthias did not even excite his
pity : he said they deserved it ; they would not obey him, and therefore
they must have a stork as king, like the frogs in the fable. In his own
affairs he was more like an observer than a a party interested ; in all
events he saw the rule by which they are governed, — the universal, in-
flexible principle which, after short interruptions, invariably recovers its
empire. From his youth he had been inured to trouble and adversity.
When compelled to yield, he never gave up a point, and always gained the
mastery in the end. The maintenance of his prerogatives was the govern-
ing principle of all his actions ; the more, because they acquired an ideal
value from their connection with the imperial dignity. It cost him a
long and severe struggle to allow his son to be crowned king of the Romans ;
he wished to take the supreme authority undivided with him to the grave :
in no case would he grant Maximilian any independent share in the ad-
ministration of government, but kept him, even after he was king, still as
" son of the house -,"1 nor would he ever give him anything but the count-
ship of Cilli : " for the rest, he would have time enough." His frugality
bordered on avarice, his slowness on inertness, his stubbornness on the
most determined selfishness : yet all these faults are rescued from vul-
garity by high qualities. He had at bottom a sober depth of judgment,
a sedate and inflexible honour ; the aged prince, even when a fugitive
imploring succour, had a personal bearing which never allowed the majesty
of the empire to sink. All his pleasures were characteristic. Once, when
he was in Niirnberg, he had all the children in the city, even the infants
who could but just walk, brought to him in the city ditches ; he feasted
his eyes on the rising generation, the heirs of the future ; then he ordered
cakes to be brought and distributed, that the children might remember
their old master, whom they had seen, as long as they lived. Occasionally
he gave the princes his friends a feast in his castle. In proportion to his
usual extreme frugality was now the magnificence of the entertainment :
he kept his guests with him till late in the night (always his most vivacious
time), when even his wonted taciturnity ceased, and he began to relate
the history of his past life, interspersed with strange incidents, decent
jests and wise saws. He looked like a patriarch among the princes, who
were all much younger than himself.

The Estates saw clearly that with this sort of character, with this
resolute inflexible being, nothing was to be gained by negotiation or
stipulation. If they wished to carry their point they must turn to the
young king, who had indeed no power- as yet, but who must shortly
succeed to it. On his way from the Netherlands, whence he was hastening
to rescue Austria from the Hungarians, for which end he had the most

1 Letter from Maximilian to Albert of Saxony, 1492, in the Dresden Archives.

48 FOUNDATION OF [Book I.

urgent need of the assistance of the empire, they laid their requests before
him and made a compliance with these the conditions of their succours.
Maximilian, reared in the constant sight of the troubles and calamities
into which his father had fallen, had, as often happens, adopted contrary
maxims of conduct ; he looked only to the consequences of the moment :
he had all the buoyant confidence of youth ; nor did he think the safety
of the empire involved in a tenacious adherence to certain privileges.
His first appearance in public life was at the diet at Niirnberg, in 1439,
where he requited the support granted him by the empire with ready
concessions as to the administration of justice. He could indeed only
promise to use every means to induce his father to have the Imperial
Chamber (Kammergericht) established as soon as possible on the plan
proposed. In this, as was to be expected, he did not succeed ; but he
was at all events morally bound to fulfil the expectations he had raised :
it was a first step, though the consequences of it lay at a distance. This
promise was registered in the recess1 of the diet.2

This was the most important point of the administration of the empire.
All internal order depended on the supreme court of justice. It was of
the highest moment that it should be shielded from the arbitrary will of
the emperor, and that a considerable share in the constitution of it should
be given to the States.

Maximilian too now received the succours he required for the restoration
of the Austrian power. While one of the bravest of German princes,
Albert of Saxony, called the Right Arm of the empire, gradually, to use
his own expression, " brought the rebellious Netherlands to peace,"3
Maximilian himself hastened to his ancestral domains. Shortly before,
the aged Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol had allowed himself to be per-
suaded to give the emperor's daughter, who had been confided to him,
in marriage to Duke Albert of Bavaria-Munich ; and had held out to that
prince the hope that he would leave him Tyrol and the Vorlande as an
inheritance. But the sight of Maximilian awakened in the kindhearted
and childless old man a natural tenderness for the manly and blooming
scion of his own race ; he now dwelt with joy on the thought that this
was the rightful heir to the country, and instantly determined to bequeath
it to him. At this moment King Matthias of Hungary, who was still in
possession of Austria, died. The land breathed again, when the rightful
young prince appeared in the field surrounded by the forces of the empire
and by his own mercenaries ; drove the Hungarians before him, delivered
Vienna from their hands, and pursued them over their own borders. We
find this event recorded, even in the journals of private persons, as the
happiest of their fives4 : — a district that had been mortgaged raised the
mortgage money itself, that it might belong once more to its ancient
lords.

Such was the vast influence of the good understanding between Maxi-

1 " Recess," cf. translator's note, Preface to vol. i.

2 Miiller, vi., p. 171. A register of this imperial diet in the Frankfurt Archives,
vol. xiii.

3 From a letter of Albrecht to his son, in Langenn, Duke Albert, p. 205.

4 Diarium Joannis Tichtelii, in Rauch, Scriptt. Rer. Austriacarum, ii. 559.
He writes the name of Maximilian four times, one after the other, as if unable to
write it often enough for his own satisfaction.

Book L] A NEW CONSTITUTION 49

milian and the States of the empire, on the re-establishment of the power
of Austria. It had, at the same time, another great effect in conducing
to the conciliation of one of the most eminent of the princes, and to the
consolidation of all internal affairs.

The Dukes of Bavaria, in spite of the family alliance into which they
had been forced with the emperor by the marriage above mentioned,
adhered to the opponents of Austria — the Roman see, and King Matthias.1
They would hear nothing of furnishing aids to the emperor against the
king ; they refused to attend the diets, or to accept their edicts : on
the contrary, they made encroachments on the domains of their neigh-
bours, enlarged the jurisdiction of their own courts of justice, and threat-
ened neighbouring imperial cities — for example, Memmingen and Bibrach.
Regensburg had already fallen into the possession of Duke Albert of
Munich.2

Immediately after the renewal of the Public Peace, in the year 1487,
it became evident that there was no chance of its being observed if these
partial and turbulent proceedings were not put an end to.

This was the immediate and pressing cause of the Swabian league,3
concluded in February 1488, by the mediation of the emperor,4 and some
of the more powerful princes. The order of knights, who the year before
had renewed their old company of St. George's shield, quickly joined the
league, as did also the cities. They mutually promised to oppose a
common resistance to all strangers who sought to impose foreign [i.e. not
Swabian) laws upon them, or otherwise to injure or offend them. But
in order to secure themselves from disputes or disorders among themselves,
and at the same time to observe the Public Peace — for this general object
was, from the very first, included among the more particular ones, and
gave the whole union a legitimate character, — they determined to settle
their mutual differences by the decision of arbitrators, and appointed a

1 In Lent, 1482, Albert and George determined, " with their several states,
that, without the countenance of the holy father, help should not be given to
King Matthias against the emperor." " Mit ihr beder Landschaft dass man
ohne Gunst des h. Vaters dem Kaiser wider Konig Matthias nit helfen sollte."
Anonymous contemporary Chronicle in Freiberg's Collection of Historical Papers
and Documents, i. 159. All these circumstances deserved a closer examination.
For the modern relations and political system of these states did not begin so
late as is believed. From Hagek, Bohmischer Chronik, p. 828, it appears that
the Bohemians would not put up with their exclusion from the election of Max-
imilian. They entered into a league with Matthias, drawing Poland into it also.
(Pelzel. Geschichte von Bohmen, i. 494.) The deputies of Matthias tried to set
the Italian princes in motion. (Philippus Bergomas, Supplementum Chroni-
corum.) France likewise belonged to this party. The reason why Bavaria
joined it is evident. The eyes of her dukes were always turned either towards
Lombardy or the Netherlands. Freiberg : Geschichte der Baierischen Land-
stande, i. 655.

2 Pfister, Geschichte von Schwaben, v., p. 272.

3 A league of cities, princes, and knights, founded 1488, primarily with the
object of maintaining order in Swabia.

4 In his very first address the emperor declares the object of the league to be,
that the states, " bei dem heiligen Reiche und ihren Freiheiten bleiben," " should

remain in adherence to the holy empire, and in possession of their liberties."

Datt, de Pace Pub., 272. Who could believe that for the history of this most
important of all early leagues we have still to refer chiefly to Datt ?

4

SO FOUNDATION OF A NEW CONSTITUTION [Book I.

council of the league, composed of an equal number of members chosen
from each body. In a very short time the league was joined by neigh-
bouring princes, especially Wurtenberg and Brandenburg, and formed,
as contra-distinguished from the knights and the cities, a third body,
taking equal share in its council, submitting to the decisions of the arbi-
trators, and promising, in case of a war, to send the contingent agreed upon
into the field. Here, in the very focus of the old quarrels, a firm and
compact union of the several classes arose, affording a noble representation
of the Ideas of the constitution of the empire, and of public order and
security ; though its main and proximate object was resistance to the
encroachments of Bavaria. Nevertheless, Duke Albert held himself
aloof in haughty defiance, while the emperor, relying on the league, would
hear of no reconciliation till the pride of the Duke was humbled. At
length resort was had to aims. In the spring of 1492 the troops of the
league and of the empire assembled on the Lechfeld. Frederick of Bran-
denburg, " whose doublet had long been hot against Bavaria," carried
the banner of the empire ; Maximilian was there in person. At this
moment Albert, abandoned by his kinsmen, at strife with his knights,
felt that he could not withstand such an overwhelming force ; he relin-
quished the opposition which he had hitherto maintained, consented
to give up Regensburg, and to abandon all claims founded on the assign-
ments made by Sigismund. By degrees even the old dmperor was appeased,
and received his son-in-law and his grand-daughters with cordiality.
After some time Albert himself found it expedient to join the Swabian
league.

We see that the reign of Frederick III. was by no means so insignificant
as is commonly believed. His latter years especially, so full of difficulties
and reverses, were rich in great results. The house of Hapsburg, by the
acquisition of Austria and the Netherlands, had acquired a high rank in
Europe. A short campaign of Maximilian's sufficed to establish its claims
to Hungary.1 The intestine wars of Germany were almost entirely
suppressed. The Swabian league gave to the house of Austria a legiti-
mate influence over Germany, such as it had not possessed since the time
of Albert I. The diets had acquired a regular form, the Public Peace was
established and tolerably secured, and important steps were taken towards
the formation of a general constitution. What form and character this
should assume, mainly, depended on the conduct of Maximilian, on whom,
at the death of his father (August 19, 1493), the administration of the
empire now devolved.

DIET OF WORMS, 1495-

Ideas had long been universally current, and schemes suggested, pregnant
with far more extensive and important consequences than any we have
yet contemplated.

Among the most remarkable were those put forth by Nicholas von Ku3,
whose capacious and prophetic mind was a storehouse of new and just

1 The treaty of Oedenburg, 1463, July 29, had already secured the succession
to the house of Austria, upon the extinction of the Hunniads. The new treaty,
1491, Nov. 7, the Monday after the feast of St. Leonard, renewed this right in
case of failure of male issue from Wladislas.

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1495 Si

views on the most various subjects. At the time of the council of Basle
he devoted himself with earnest zeal and perspicacious judgment to the
internal politics of the empire. He began by observing that it was impos-
sible to improve the church without reforming the empire ; since it was
impossible to sever them, even in thought.1 He therefore urgently recom-
mends, though an ecclesiastic, the emancipation of the secular authority.
He is entirely opposed to the right claimed by the papacy, of transferring
the empire to whom it will : he ascribes to the latter a mystical relation
to God and Christ, absolute independence, and even the right and the
duty of taking part in the government of the church. He desires that
the confusion arising from the jurisdiction of the spiritual and temporal
courts be put an end to. He proposes a plan for superior courts of justice,
each provided with three assessors, chosen from the nobles, clergy, and
citizens respectively,2 and empowered not only to hear appeals from the
inferior courts, but to decide the differences between the princes in the
first instance : it was only by such means, he thought, that the legal
practice could be brought into greater harmony with the principles of
natural justice. Above all, however, he looked to the establishment of
yearly diets for the revival of the authority, unity, and strength of the
empire (Reich) ; for he clearly perceived that no such results were to be
expected from the power of the emperor (Kaiserthum) alone.3 Either
in May or in September he would have a general meeting of the Estates
held at Frankfurt, or other convenient city, in order to arrange any
existing dissensions, and to pass general laws, to which every prince
should affix his signature and seal, and engage his honour to observe
them. He strenuously contends that no ecclesiastic shall be exempted
from their operation ; otherwise he would want to have a share in the
secular power, which was to be exercised for the general good. He goes

1 Nicolai Cusani de Concordantia Catholica, lib. iii. Schardius, Sylloge de
Jurisdictione Imperiali, f. 465.

2 Lib. iii. c. xxxiii. : " Pronunciet et citet quisque judicum secundum condi-
tionem disceptantium personarum, nobilis inter nobiles, ecclesiasticus inter
ecclesiasticos, popularis inter populares.: nulla tamen definitiva feratur nisi ex
communi deliberatione omnium trium. Si vero unus duobus dissenserit, vincat
opinio majoris numeri." It is not to be believed that the customs of German
law also had not given rise to many complaints. It is here said : " Saepe sim-
plices pauperes per cavillationes causidicorum extra causam ducuntur, et a tota
causa cadunt, quoniam qui cadit a syllaba, cadit a causa : ut saepe vidi per
Treverensem diocesim accidere. Tollantur consuetudines quae admittunt jura-
mentum contra quoscunque et cujuscunque numeri testes." — iii. c. 36.

3 This is one passage among many in which the want of two words correspond-
ing to Reich and Kaiserthum, both Englished by empire, is grievously felt :
Reich, and its numerous derivatives and compounds, Reichstag, Reichsab-
schied, &c, always relate to the great Germanic body called the Empire. Kaiser-
thum, the office and state of Kaiser, relates to the personal dignity, power,
functions, &c, of the individual occupying the imperial throne. As it is im-
possible every time these words occur to resort to a long paraphrase, the meaning
is often lost or obscured. Reich is also applied to a monarchical state, and then
stands in a like relation to Konigthum (the kingly office or state) ; somewhat
as realm does to royalty. The title of a former section presents a difficulty of
a somewhat similar nature, — it is, Papstthum and Furstenthum — Popedom
and Princedom : for the former we have Papacy ; for the latter abstraction,
nothing. — Transl.

4—2

52 DIET OF WORMS, 1495 [Book I.

on to remark that, in order seriously to maintain order and law and to
chastise the refractory, it is necessary to have a standing army ; for to
what end is a law without the penal sanction ? He thinks that a part
of the revenues of the numerous tolls granted to individuals might be
kept back by the state, and a fund thus formed, the application of which
should be every year determined at the diet. There would then be no
more violence ; the bishops would devote themselves to their spiritual
duties ; peace and prosperity and power would return.

It is clear that the reforms suggested by this remarkable man were
precisely those which it was the most important to put in practice ; indeed
the ideas which are destined to agitate the world are always first thrown out
by some one original and luminous mind. In the course of time some
approach was made, even on the part of the authorities of the empire, to
the execution of these projects.

Even during their opposition to Frederick III. in 1450 — 1460, the Electors
were of opinion that the most salutary measure for the empire would be,
when they were with the emperor in person — for example, in an imperial
city, — to form a sort of consistory around him, like that of the cardinals
around the pope, and from this central point to take the government of
the empire into their own hands, and to provide for the preservation of
public order. It was their notion that a permanent court of justice should
be established, like that of the parliament1 of Paris, whose judgments
should be executed by certain temporal princes in the several circles of
the empire ; the ban should be pronounced by the emperor according
to justice and conscience, and should then be duly executed and obeyed.2

Similar suggestions appeared from time to time. In the archives of
Dresden there is a report of a consultation of the year 1491, in which
dissatisfaction is expressed with the plan of a supreme court of justice,
and a scheme of a general government and military constitution for the
whole empire, not unlike that of Nicholas von Kus, is proposed ; an
annual diet for the more important business of the general government,
and a military force, ready for service at a moment's notice, proportioned
to the six circles into which it was proposed to divide the empire, and
under twelve captains or chiefs.

With the accession of a young and intelligent prince, a tendency to
improvement and a leaning towards innovation took the place of the
invincible apathy of the old emperor ; and these dispositions, both in the
chief of the empire and the Estates, were strengthened by other circum-
stances attending the new reign.

Maximilian had received some offences of an entirely personal nature
from the King of France. According to the terms of a treaty of peace,
that prince was to marry Maximilian's daughter, and, till she reached
years of maturity, she was confided to French guardianship : Charles
now sent her back. On the other hand, Maximilian was betrothed to
the princess and heiress of Brittany, an alliance on which the people of
Germany founded various plans reaching far into the future, and hoped
to draw that province under the same institutions as they intended to
give to the empire. Charles VIII., however, got the young princess into

1 Cf. Cheruel, Dictionnaire des Institutions de la France.

2 Final Edict of the spiritual Electors. See p. 58., n. 1.

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1405 53

his power by violence, and forced her to accept his hand.1 The rights of
the empire were immediately affected by these hostile acts. Whilst
Maximilian was preparing to go to Rome to be crowned, and cherished
the hope of restoring the imperial dignity and consideration in Italy, the
French, anticipating him, crossed the Alps, marched unchecked through
the Peninsula from north to south, and conquered Naples. We cannot
affirm that Charles VIII. had any positive design of seizing the imperial
crown ; but it is undeniable that a power, such as he acquired throughout
Italy by the nature and the success of his enterprise, was calculated to
oppose a direct obstacle to the revival of the authority of the German
empire.

Irritated by such reiterated wrongs, and deeply impressed with the
necessity of making a stand against French aggression ; availing himself
of his incontestable right to demand succours from the States for his
journey to Rome ; urged likewise by his Italian allies, Maximilian now
appeared at Worms, and on the 26th March opened his diet with a descrip-
tion of the political state of Europe. " If we continue," exclaimed he,
" to look on passively at the proceedings of the French, the holy Roman
Empire will be wrested from the German nation, and no man will be
secure of his honour, his dignity, or his liberties." He wished to invoke
the whole might and energy of the empire to take part in this struggle.
Independent of a hasty levy to keep alive the resistance of Italy, he like-
wise demanded a permanent military establishment for the next ten or
twelve years, in order that he might be able to defend himself, " wherever
an attack was attempted against the Holy Empire." He pressed for it
with impetuous earnestness ; he was in a position in which the interests
of the public were identical with his own.

The Estates also, which had assembled in unusual numbers, were fully
impressed with the necessity of resisting the French. But in the first
place, they regarded affairs with more coolness than the young emperor ;
and, secondly, they deemed the accession of a new sovereign who had
already pledged himself to them and was now in need of considerable
assistance, a moment well adapted for the prosecution of their schemes
of reform and the introduction of order into their internal affairs. They
met the warlike demands of the king with one of the most comprehensive
schemes ever drawn up for the constitution of the empire.

They too assumed the necessity of a strong military organisation, but
they found the feudal system, now in its decline, no longer available ;
they deemed it better to impose a general tax, called the Common Penny.
This tax was to be levied, not according to the territorial extent, but
to the population of the several parts of the empire. The application of
it was not to devolve on the king, but to be entrusted to a council of the
empire composed of members of the States, the cities included. This

1 The old emperor says in his proclamation of the 4th of June, 1492, " Rather
would we depart in peace and blessedness from this world, than suffer so un-
christianlike and foul a deed to remain unpunished, and the Holy Empire and
German people to put up with this scandalous and irreparable injury under our
rule." " Wir — lieber von dieser Welt seliglich scheiden, dann einen solchen
unkristlichen snoden Handel ungestrafft beleiben und das heil Reich und deutsche
Nation in diesen lesterlichen und unwiederpringlichen Vail bei unserer Regierung
wachsen lassen wolten."

54 DIET OF WORMS, 1495 [Book I.

council was to be invested with large general powers. It was to execute
the laws, to put down rebellion and tumult ; to provide for the reintegra-
tion of any domains that had been subtracted from the empire ; to conduct
the defensive war against the Turks and other enemies of the Holy Empire
and of the German nation ; in short, it is evident that it was to have the
sum of the powers of government in its hands ;x and certainly a large
share of independence was to be awarded to it for that purpose. The
weightiest affairs it was bound to lay before the king and the electors,
subject to the revision of the latter ; but in all other respects the members
were to be freed from the oath whereby they were bound to the king and
the Estates, and act only in conformity with the duties of their office.2

The ideas by which this project was dictated show a very strong public
spirit ; for it was by no means the king alone whose power was limited.
The general interests of the country were represented in a manner which
would admit of no division or exclusion. How utterly, for example, is
the idea of a general tax, to be collected by the parish priest, and delivered
under his responsibility to the bishop, at variance with any further aug-
mentation of the influence of the territorial lords ! Which among them
would have been strong enough to resist a central national power, such as
this must have become ?

The first result, however, would have been that the power of the monarch
— not indeed that which he exercised in the usual troubled state of things,
but that which he claimed for better times — would have been limited.

It remained now to be seen what he would say to this project. The
fiefs which he granted out, the knightly festivities ^devised in^his honour,
or given by him in return, the manifold disputes between German princes
which he had to accommodate, occupied him fully. It was not till the
22nd of June that he gave his answer, which he published as an amendment
of the project. On closer examination, however, its effect was in fact
entirely to annul it. He had said at the beginning that he would accept
the project with reservation of his sovereign prerogatives ; now, he de-
clared that he thought these assailed in every clause. I will give an ex-
ample of the alterations he made. According to the project, the council
of the empire was charged to see that no new tolls were erected without the
previous knowledge of the electors ; a precaution suggested by the tolls
continually granted by Frederick and Maximilian. The clause, in its
altered state, set forth that the council of the empire should itself take
care to erect no toll without the previous knowledge of the king.

Strange that such a complete reversal of an original scheme should be
announced as an amendment ! but such were the manners, such the
courtesy of that time. The opposition in temper and opinion was not the
less violent on that account. A visible irritation and ill-humour prevailed

1 See the first scheme which the elector of Mainz communicated first to the
king, and then to the cities. Protocol in Datt, de Pace Pub., p. 830. The
protocol is the same with that found in the Frankfurt Acts, vol. xv.

2 The latter is a provision of the larger draft, p. 838, nr. 17. " Sollen dieselben
President und Personen des vorgemeldten Rathes aller Geliibd und Aide — damit
sie uns oder inen (denen von welchen sie gesetzt worden) verbunden oder ver-
strickt waxen, genntzlich ledig seyn." " The same president and persons of
the before-mentioned council shall be wholly freed from all promise and oath,
having the effect of binding them to, or connecting them with, us or them "
(those by whom they had been appointed).

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1495 55

at the diet. The king one day summoned to Ms presence the princes on
whose friendship he could most confidently rely, — Albert of Saxony,
Frederick of Brandenburg, and Eberhard of Wiirtenberg, to consult them
on the means of maintaining his sovereign dignity.1

So directly opposed were the views of the monarch and those of the
States at the very commencement of this reign. Both parties, however,
made the discovery that they could not attain their ends in the way they
had proposed to themselves. Maximilian clearly perceived that he should
obtain no subsidies without concessions. The States saw that, at present
at least, they would not be able to carry through their scheme of a general
government.2 While trying, however, to hit upon some middle course,
they came back to experiments attempted under Frederick III.

In the first place, they settled the basis of that Public Peace which has
rendered this diet so celebrated. On a more accurate examination, we
find indeed that it is in detail rather less pacific than the former ones ; as,
for example, it restores a right, lately abrogated, of the injured party to
make forcible seizure of a mortgaged estate ; the only advantage was, that
this peace was proclaimed, not as before for a term of years, but for ever.
By this act the' law, in fact, ceased to contemplate the possibility of any
return to the old fist law (Faustrecht).

The question of the Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht), or supreme
court of justice for the empire, was next discussed. Maximilian had
hitherto treated this tribunal exactly as his father had done : he made
it follow his court ; in 1493 it accompanied him to Regensburg, in 1494 to
Mechlin and Antwerp, in 1495 to Worms. We have, however, seen that
he was bound by the concessions he made in 1489 to reform the administra-
tion of justice. When, therefore, the proposals formerly laid before his
father were submitted to him, he felt himself compelled to accept them.
Under what pretext, indeed, could he have rejected an institution, the
establishment of which he had so solemnly undertaken to promote with all
his might ? This, however, was one of the most important events in the
history of the empire. Maximilian gave his assent to the maxim that the
statute law should have force in the supreme court, and that no more than
the regular fees should be exacted ; above all, he ceded to the judge the
office of proclaiming the ban of the empire in his name ; nay, he bound
himself not to remove the ban when pronounced, without the consent of
the injured party. When we reflect that the judicial power was the highest
attribute of the imperial crown, we feel all the importance of this step.
Nor was it only that the supreme court of the empire was secured from the

1 Notice in the Archives of Berlin, which contains, however, only fragmentary
remarks upon this imperial diet.

2 Later Declaration of the Elector Berthold of Mainz in Datt, p. 871. " Daruf
ware erst fiirgenommen ain Ordnung im Reich aufzurichten und Sr. ko. Mt.
furgehalten, darab S. M. etwas Beswarung und Missfallens gehabt, hetten die
Stende davon gestanden." " Thereupon it was first determined to establish a
regular government in the empire and submitted to his Royal Majesty, so that
if H.M. had any objection or dislike to it, the States would have desisted from
it." Whether Muller, Rtth. unter M. (i. 329), be right in maintaining that a
second scheme of a similar kind had also been presented, whereupon Maximilian
had offered to appoint, instead of the imperial council, a court council, I must
leave undetermined. It would, in fact, have been but another evasive propo-
sition.

56 DIET OF WORMS, 1405 [Book I.

arbitrary interference which had hitherto been so injurious to it — its
offices were also appointed by the Estates. The king nominated only the
president (Kammerrichter) ; the assessors were appointed by the Estates ;
and the cities, to their great joy, were invited to propose certain candidates
for that office : a committee was then appointed to examine and decide
on the presentations.1 Later jurists have disputed whether the court
derived its penal sanction solely from the emperor, or from the emperor and
the princes : but this much is certain, that it changed its whole character ;
and from a simply monarchical institution, became dependent on the whole
body of the States. It followed, of course, that it was no longer an append-
age to the court and a companion of the emperor's travels ; but held its
stated sittings in one fixed spot in the empire.

This great concession was met by the States with a grant of the Com-
mon Penny, on the produce of which they allowed the king, who seemed
intensely desirous of it on account of the state of his affairs in Italy, to
raise a loan. The tax itself is a combination of poll-tax and property-tax,
not very different from that formerly levied by the kings of Jerusalem, and
also occasionally proposed in Germany ; for example, in the year 1207,
by King Philip. In the fifteenth century, frequent mention of such taxes
is made as being applied sometimes to the maintenance of the Hussite,
sometimes of the Turkish war. The Common Penny was levied on the
following plan : — Half a gulden was levied on every five hundred, a whole
one on every thousand, gulden ; among persons of small means, every
four-and-twenty above fifteen years of age, without exception, men and
women, priests and laymen, were to contribute one gulden ; the more
wealthy were to pay according to their own estimate of their property.
The idea of taxation was still in some degree mixed up with that of alms ;2
the priests were to admonish the people from the pulpit to give something
more than what was demanded. The whole plan was still extremely im-
perfect. Its importance consisted only in its being (as the whole course
of the transaction proved) a serious attempt at a general systematic taxa-
tion of the empire, destined for purposes both of peace and war, for the
maintenance of the supreme courts of justice, the payment of the Italian
allies, and the equipment of an army against the Turks.

It was in accordance with this character of a general tax that the choice
of the treasurer of the empire, whose office it was to receive the money
from the commissioners or collectors stationed in all parts of the country,
was also entrusted to the States. Maximilian engaged to levy the Common
Penny in the Austrian and Burgundian dominions upon the same plan,
and to set the example herein to all other sovereigns.

But if the collection of the money could not safely be entrusted to the
king, still less could its application. After the proposal for a council of
the empire had been suffered to drop, the idea of a yearly meeting of the
Estates of the empire for the purpose of controlling the public expenditure,
first suggested by Nicholas von Kus, and then proposed in the project of
1 49 1, was revived. This assembly was to meet every year on the first of
February, to deliberate on the most important affairs, internal and ex-

1 Notice from a document of later date in Harpprecht, Staats-archiv. des
Reichskammergerichts, ii., p. 249.

2 So the taxes levied by the contemporary King of England, Henry VIII,,
were called ' benevolences.' — Transj.,

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1495 57

ternal. To this body the treasurer of the empire was to deliver the money
he had received from the taxes ; and in it was to be vested the exclusive
power of deciding on the application of the same : neither the king nor
his son was to declare war without its consent ; every conquest was to
accrue to the empire.1 To this body was also committed a peremptory
authority for the maintenance of the Public Peace. The question was,
when this tribunal (thus rendered independent of the crown and emanating
from the Estates) should have pronounced the ban, to whom the execution
of it was to be entrusted. The king of the Romans wished that it should
be left to him. The States, true to the principle on which their legislation
was founded, committed it to the annual assembly of the empire.

It is obvious that the States, though they gave up their original plan,
kept constantly in view the idea on which it was founded. In the conflict
of the interests of the monarch and those of the States, the balance clearly
inclined in favour of the latter. Maximilian had cause to complain that
he was made to feel this personally ; that he had been forced to withdraw,
and to wait before the door, till the resolution was passed. He was often
inclined to dissolve the diet ; and it was only the want of a fresh subsidy
(which he then obtained) that restrained him.2 On the 7th of August, he
accepted the project in the form last given to it.

There is a grand coherency in its provisions. All Germans are once
more seriously and practically regarded as subjects of the empire ; and
the public burthens and public exertions were to be common to all. If the
States thus lost something of their independence, they received in com-
pensation (according to their ancient organisation and their respective
ranks) a legitimate share in the supreme administration of justice, as well
as of the government. The king submitted himself to the same ordin-
ances, and to the same community. He retained undiminished the
supreme dignity, the prerogatives of a sovereign feudal lord ; but in the
conduct of public business, he was to be regarded only as president of the
college of. the Estates of the empire. The constitution proposed was a
mixture of monarchical and federal government, but with an obvious pre-
ponderance of the latter element ; a political union, preserving the forms
of the ancient hierarchy of the empire. The question whether these pro-
jects could be carried into execution, was now of the highest importance
to the whole future destiny of Germany.

Resolutions of so comprehensive a kind can be regarded as views only ;
— as ideas, to which an assembly has expressed its assent, but to the execu-
tion of which there is a long way yet to be traversed. It is the ground-
plan of a building which is intended to be built ; but the question remains
whether the power and the means will correspond with the intention.

1 Maintenance of Peace and Law established at Worms. Miiller, Rtth.
Max., i., p. 454.

2 This second grant amounted to 150,000 gulden. " Damit S. Konigl. Gnad
unserm h. Vater Papst und Italien, bis der gemein Pfennig einbracht werde,
dester stattlicher Hiilfe thun mochte." " In order that his Royal Grace may be
so much the more able to give more liberal help to our holy father the pope and
Italy, until the Common Penny be collected." To collect the loan, the king
despatched emissaries to single states ; e.g. Prince Magnus of Anhalt and Dr.
Heinrich Friese to the following ; the Abbot of Fulda, contributing 300 gulden ;
the two Counts of Hanau, 500 ; the Count of Eisenberg, 300 ; the city of Freiberg,
400.; and the city of Frankfort, 2,100. Instruction in Comm, Archiv. at Dessau,

58 DIET OF LINDA U, 1496 [Book I.

DIFFICULTIES. DIET OF LINDAU, 1496.

A great obstacle to the execution of the resolutions of the diet occurred
at once in the defective nature of its composition. A large number of
powerful Estates had not been present, and as the obligatory force of the
resolutions of an assembly upon those not present was as yet far from
being determined, it was necessary to open separate negotiations with the
absent. Among others, the Elector of Cologne was commissioned to
negotiate with the bishops in his neighbourhood, those of Utrecht, Miinster,
Osnabriick, Paderborn, and Bremen ; the Elector of Saxony with Liine-
burg, Grubenhagen, and Denmark ; and it was by no means certain what
would be their success. Here again we find the possibility assumed that
someone might not choose to be included in, or to consent to, the Public
Peace.1

A still more important organic defect was, that the knightly order had
taken no part in the diet. It is manifest that the mighty development
which a government composed of different estates (eine stcindische Ver-
fassung) had reached in England, mainly rests on the union of the lower
nobility and the cities in the House of Commons. In Germany it was not
the ancient usage to summon the nobility to the diet. The consequence
of this was, that the nobles refused to conform to the resolutions passed at
it, especially when (as in the present case) these related to a tax. The
Franconian knights assembled in December at Schweinfurt, and declared
that they were free Franconians, nobles of the empire, bound to shed their
blood, and in every war to guard the emperor's crown and sceptre at the
head of all their youth capable of bearing arms ; but not to pay taxes,
which was contrary to their liberties, and would be an unheard of innova-
tion. This declaration had the assent of all their compeers. Unions of
the same kind were formed in the several circles.2

We observed how much stress was laid at an earlier period on the
spiritual authorisation. The consequence of the want of it now was that
the abbots of the empire refused to recognise the authority of so purely
secular a tribunal as the Imperial Chamber.

There were yet other Estates whose obedience was very doubtful. The
Duke of Lorraine declared that, beyond the jurisdiction of his own
tribunals, he was amenable to no other authority than that of the king in
person. The Swiss confederates did not indeed as yet dispute the sove-
reignty or the jurisdiction of the empire, but at the first exercise of it they
were offended and irritated into resistance. The king of Poland declared
that Dantzig and Elbing were Polish cities, and rejected all claims made
upon them on the part of the empire. As the first effect of a vigorous
medicine is to set the whole frame in agitation, so the attempts to organise
the Germanic body had the immediate result of calling into activity the
hostile principles hitherto in a state of repose.

But if so strong an element of resistance existed on the side of the States,
to whom the resolutions were clearly advantageous, what was to be ex-
pected from the king, whose power they controlled, and on whom they
had been forced ? In contriving the means for their execution, every-

1 Recess and ordinances in Miiller, 459.

2 Miiller, Rtth. 688, 689.

Book I.] DIET OF LINDAU, 1496 59

thing had been calculated on his sympathy and co-operation ; whereas
he incessantly showed that he set about the task with repugnance.

He certainly organised the Imperial Chamber according to its new
forms. It held its first sittings at the Grossbraunfels at Frankfurt-on-
Main,1 on the 3rd of November. On the 21st of February it exercised its
right of pronouncing the ban for the first time : the judge and Ms assessors,
doctors and nobles, appeared in the open air ; the proclamation of the
ban, by which the condemned was deprived of the protection of the law,2
and all and every man permitted to attack his body and goods, was publicly
read and torn in pieces. Yet the king was far from allowing the court of
justice to take its free course. On more than one occasion he commanded
it to stop the proceedings in a cause ; he would not suffer his fiscal, when
judgment was given against him, to pay the usual fine of the defeated
party : he sent an assessor from the Netherlands whom his colleague re-
fused to admit, because he had not been regularly appointed ; he made no
provision for the pay of the assessors as he was bound at first to do : after
appointing Count Eitelfriedrick of Zollern, against the will of the States,
who preferred another,3 he very soon removed him, because he wanted
him for other business. Nor did he take any measures for collecting
the Common Penny in his own dominions, as he had promised. The meet-
ing had been, as we saw, fixed for the 1st of February, but he did not appear,
and consequently it did not take place.4

It is a matter of astonishment that the reputation of founder of the con-
stitution of the empire has so long and so universally been given to a
sovereign, on whom the measures tending to that object were absolutely
forced, and who did far more to obstruct than to promote their execution.

There is no doubt that all attempts at reform would have been utterly
defeated, had not the king's designs been counteracted by a prince who
had embraced most of the opinions on which it was founded ; who had
been the chief agent in bringing it thus far, and was not inclined now to let
it drop — Berthold, Elector of Mainz, born Count of Henneberg.5 Even
under Frederick III., whose service he entered at an early age, he had taken

1 Excerpta ex Collectaneis Jobi de Rorbach ; Harpprecht, ii. 216. In the
Frankfurt Imp. Archives, a letter is still extant from Arnold Schwartzenberg to
the council of Frankfurt, dated on the Friday after the Feast of the Assumption
(Aug. 21) : " Item uf Samstag U L F. Abend hat Graf Hug von Wernberg
nach mir geschickt, und vorgehalten, das Kammergericht werde gelegt gen
Frankfurt, wo man ein Huss dazu bekommen mocht und ein Stuben daneben
zum Gespreche." " Also upon the evening of Saturday, the feast of Our
Blessed Lady, Count Hugh of Wernberg sent to me and represented, that the
Imperial Chamber was transferred to Frankfurt, where it might be possible to
get a house, and a room close to it for conferences." The price of meat and fish
was to be determined, and the citizens were to be admonished to behave in a
seemly and discreet manner (" zimlich und glimpflich ") towards the members.

2 " Ans dem Frieden in den Unfrieden gesetzt " — literally, put out of the
peace into unpeace." — Transl.

3 To the Prince Magnus of Anhalt, he says in one of his own notes, " Con-
ventus me elegerunt, sed revocavit rex."

4 In the Frankfurt Archives, we meet with several letters from Julich, Colin,
Mainz, &c, bespeaking a lodging, but also a letter dated from Frankfurt itself
on the Saturday after Invocavit, to the effect that no one had as yet appeared.

6 Of the Romhilde line, born in 1442. Diplomatische Geschichte des Hauses
Henneberg, p. 377.

60 DIET OF LINDAU, 1406 [Book I.

an active share in all attempts to introduce better order into the affairs of
the empire. In i486, he became Elector of Mainz, and from that time
might be regarded as the most eminent member of the States. There are
men, whose whole existence is merged in their studies or their business :
there we must seek them if we wish to know them ; their purely personal
qualities or history attract no attention. To this class of men belonged
Berthold of Mainz. Nobody, so far as I have been able to discover, has
thought it worth while to give to posterity a description of his personal
appearance or characteristics : but we see him distinctly and vividly in
the administration of his diocese. At first people feared his severity ; for
his administration of justice was as inexorable as it was impartial, and his
economy was rigorous ; but in a short time everybody was convinced that
his austere demeanour was not the result of temper or of caprice, but of
profound necessity : it was tempered by genuine benevolence ; he lent a
ready ear to the complaints of the poorest and the meanest.1 He was
peculiarly active in the affairs of the empire. He was one of the vener-
able men of that age, who earnestly strove to give to ancient institutions
which had lost their original spirit and their connection with higher things,
the new form adapted to the necessities of the times. He had already
conducted the negotiations of i486 ; he next procured for the towns the
right of sitting in the committees ; it was mainly to him that Germany
owed the promises made by Maximilian in the year 1489, and the projects
of Worms were chiefly his work. In every circumstance he evinced that
serene and manly spirit, which, while it keeps its end steadily in view, is
not self-willed as to the means or manner of accomplishing it, or pertina-
cious on merely incidental points ; he was wearied or discouraged by no
obstacles, and a stranger to any personal views : if ever a man bore his
country in his inmost heart, it was he.

In the summer of 1496, at the diet of Lindau, this prince acquired a
degree of independent power such as he had not enjoyed before.

In the midst of the troubles of that summer, Maximilian thought
he discerned the favourable moment in which he needed only to show
himself in Italy, in order, with the help of his allies there, to re-establish
the supremacy of the imperial power. He summoned the States to repair
to Lindau, whither they were to bring the amount of the Common Penny,
together with as many troops as it would suffice to pay, and whence
they were immediately to follow him ; at the same time declaring that he
would not wait for them, but must cross the Alps without delay with what
force God had given him.

While he put this in execution, and, equipped rather as for some romantic
enterprise of knight-errantry than for a serious expedition, rushed on
to Italy, the States of the empire gradually assembled in Lindau. They
brought neither troops, money, nor arms ; their attention was directed
exclusively to internal affairs. How greatly in acting thus they relied
on Elector Berthold is shown (among other documents) by the instructions
to the ambassador of Brandenburg, ordering him implicitly to follow the
course pursued by that prince.2

1 Serarius, Res Moguntinje, p. 799.

2 In the Berlin Archives there is a Convolute concerning this Diet of the Empire,
which, along with the Instruction, contains 1st, the letters received up to the
time of the arrival of the deputies, and the propositions made by the foreign

Book I.] DIET OF LINDAU, 1496 6;

On the 31st of August, 1496, the princes, as many as were assembled
embarked in boats and fetched the king's son, Archduke Philip of Bregenz
across the river ; on the 7th of September, the first sitting was held. Th<
Elector of Mainz took his place in the centre ; on his right sat the princes,
the archduke, for the first time, amongst them ; on his left, the ambas-
sadors or delegates of those who did not appear in person ; in front of him
stood the deputies of the cities. In the middle was a bench for the king's
councillors, Conrad Stiirzel and Walter von Andlo.

The Elector conducted the proceedings with unquestioned authority.
If he absented himself, which was never but for a short time, they were
stopped ; when he returned, he was the chief speaker, whether in the
assembly or the committee ; he brought forward the propositions, de-
manded the grants, and found means to keep the plenipotentiaries steady
to them. He did not conceal the grief he felt at seeing the empire in such
a state of decline. " Even in the time of Charles IV. and Sigismund,"
exclaimed he, " the sovereignty of the empire was acknowledged in Italy,
which is now no longer the case. The king of Bohemia is an elector of
the empire, and what does he do for the empire ? has he not even wrested
Moravia and Silesia from it ? Prussia and Livonia are liable to incessant
attacks and oppression, and no one troubles himself about them ; nay,
even the little which remains to the empire is daily wrested from it, and
given to one or the other. The ordinances of Worms were made to
preserve the empire from decay ; but the union and mutual confidence
which alone could sustain it are wanting. Whence comes it that the
Confederation enjoys such universal respect ? that it is feared by Italians
and French, by the pope, nay, by everybody ? The only reason is that
it is united and of one mind. Germany ought to follow the example.
The ordinances of Worms should be revived, not to prate about, but to
execute them."1

Berthold's was that powerful eloquence which is the expression of con-
victions founded on actual experience. The committee resolved to look
into the matter, and to see that the empire was better ordered. On the
motion of the Brandenburg ambassador, the members examined their
credentials, and found that they were sufficient for that purpose. Such
being the dispositions of the States, affairs now took a decisive turn.

The Imperial Chamber, which had closed its sittings in June, was induced
to open them again in November. It was determined to appropriate the
tax which was to be levied on the Jews in Regensburg, Niirnberg, Worms,
and Frankfurt, to the payment of the assessors. The Elector insisted
that the sentences of the court should be executed, that no sovereign
should recall his assessor, and that the cities should have justice against
the princes. It was resolved to transfer the chamber to Worms : the

deputies ; 2nd, the protocol of the proceedings on the Friday after the feast of
St. Dionysius, Oct. 14. What is especially remarkable in this protocol is, that
the most distinguished of the plenipotentiaries, Erasmus Brandenburg, parish
priest of Cotbus, was a member of the committee, and is the reporter of its trans-
actions. The greater part is in his handwriting.

1 These words were spoken by the Elector on the 28th Nov. A similar effusion
is cited in Scherer's extract, and in Fels, Erster Beitrag zur Reichsgesch. Preface,
§ 7. In these contributions is to be found the protocol of Lindau, contained in
the Frankf. A., A. vol. xvi.

62 . DIET OF LINDAU, 1496 [Book I.

reason assigned for which was, that it was easier from thence to reach
the four universities of Heidelberg, Basle, Mainz, and Cologne, whenever
it was necessary " to ask the law."

On the 23rd of December, the edict for levying the Common Penny was
renewed in the most stringent form. The knights (Ritterschaft) who
complained of the demand made upon them by the king, were reminded
that it was not the king who imposed this tax, but the empire ; that it
was the most equal and the least oppressive that could be devised, and
would be of advantage to their Order, if they would only get to horse and
endeavour to earn the pay for which this fund was in part raised.

Another meeting of the States was appointed to consider of the dis-
bursement of the Common Penny.

Other points were discussed ; — the necessity of instant and effective
succours for the attacked ; new regulations of the courts of justice and of
the mint ; above all, the firmest determination was expressed to maintain
unaltered the measures passed at Worms. Should any attempt be made
to thwart or oppose them or those of the diet of Lindau, the matter was
to be referred to the Archbishop of Mainz, who should be authorised
thereupon to convoke other members, in order that an answer from the
whole body of the States might be given, and public order and tranquillity
be defended by them in concert.1

All these resolutions the Archbishop carried without much difficulty.
If there was occasionally some attempt at opposition on the part of the
envoys of the princes, those of the electors and of the cities always sup-
ported him and compelled the former to give way. They were, therefore,
incorporated in the Recess ; the usual practice as to which was, that
each member should first write out for himself the resolutions which had
been passed : these were then compared in the assembly, a fixed formula
was determined on, and signed by the whole body.

On the 10th of February 1497, the diet of Lindau was closed. The
.States thanked the Archbishop for the trouble he had taken, and entreated
his pardon for their negligences. The Elector, on the other hand, excused
himself for having, perhaps, sometimes addressed them with too great
earnestness, and exhorted them faithfully to enforce the resolutions that
had been passed, each in his own territory or sphere, that so the empire
might be profited.

DIET OF WORMS AND FREIBURG, 1497, 1498.

The matter was, however, but half settled ; the difficulties which had
arisen among the States had been removed, but as yet no influence had
been obtained over the king, whose co-operation and executive power
were indispensable.

Maximilian's romantic enterprise had ended as was to be expected :
the same excitable fancy which had flattered him with exaggerated hopes,

1 In order to avoid the appearance of a conspiracy, it had been previously
resolved, " Die Handhabung, zu Worms versigelt, vorzunehmen und aus der-
selben am Grund und Einung und Verstendtniss zu nehmen und was des zu
wenig seyn will zu erweitern." " To take the declaration sealed at Worms, and
from it to construct a groundwork, union, and agreement, and in those respects
where it may come short, to enlarge it." — Brandenburg Protocol.

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS AND FREIBURG, 1497-8 63

had prevented him from perceiving the true state of affairs. After a
short time the allies, whose assistance was all he had to rely on, had
quarrelled among themselves ; he had returned to Germany filled with
shame, disgust and vexation. Here he found the finances of his hereditary
domains exhausted and in the utmost disorder ; the empire in an attitude
of defiance and sullen reserve, and disastrous tidings following each other
in quick succession. When Louis XII. ascended the throne in 149S,
Maximilian hoped that troubles would arise in France, and that his allies
would support him in a fresh attack upon that power. The very contrary
took place : Louis, by pacific and prudent measures, won from his subjects
a degree of consideration such as no king had ever before possessed ; the
Italian league endeavoured to bring about an accommodation with him :
but the most unexpected thing was, that Maximilian's own son, Archduke
Philip, instigated by his Netherland councillors, without consulting his
father, entered into a treaty with France, in which he promised not to
agitate any of his claims on Burgundy so long as Louis XII. lived, and
never to attempt to enforce them by arms, or otherwise than by amicable
and legal means. The only consideration in return for this vast con-
cession was the surrender of a few strong places. Maximilian learned
this when he had already begun his preparations for war ; in June 1498,
in a state of the most violent irritation, he summoned the assembly of
the empire which he could no longer do without.

The assembly had opened its sittings, as had been determined, in
Worms,1 but had transferred them at the king's reqnest to Freiburg.
Although, in consequence of the proceedings at Lindau, affairs were in a
much better state than before, — the Common Penny began to be really
collected, the Imperial Chamber at Worms held its regular sittings for the
administration of justice, and the diet itself exercised an uncontested
jurisdiction as between the several Estates, in the more weighty and
difficult cases ; yet it was daily felt that so long as the king remained in
the equivocal and half hostile attitude he had assumed, nothing perma-
nent would be accomplished. Before the very eyes of the assembled
States, Elector John of Treves, with the help of his secular neighbours,
Baden, the Palatinate, Hessen and Juliich, invaded the town of Boppard,
and forced it to submit and to do homage to him. The Swiss resisted a
sentence of the Imperial Chamber against St. Gall, held the most insolent
language, and were very near issuing formal diffidations. The States
pointed out to the king, in remonstrances incessantly reiterated, that, with-
out his presence, neither the Public Peace could be maintained, nor the
law executed, nor the taxes duly collected.

At length, on the 8th June, 1498, he arrived in Freiburg, but neither

1 Transactions of the States of the Holy Empire at the Royal Diet at Worms,
Fr. A., vol. xvii. We see by them, amongst other things, as a matter of complete
certainty, that Maximilian did not appear at Worms. As Haberlin (Reichs-
geschichte, ix. 84), however, assumes that he did, he must have been deceived
by certain documents which were only laid before the Imperial Diet in the
King's name. At Freiburg, July 3rd, the Tuesday after the Visitation of the
Holy Virgin, Maximilian made excuses for uot having appeared at Worms : " he
had been obliged to establish an excellent government (Regiment) in his here-
ditary states," &c, " it had been commented on as folly in him," &c " but
now he was present." (Brand. Protocol.)

64 DIET OF WORMS [Book I.

with the views, nor in the temper, that his subjects wished. His soul was
galled by the failure of all his plans ;— deeply wounded by the defection
of the Netherlands, and ardently excited by the thought of a war with
France ; the more, I think, from a feeling of the difficulty, nay, impracti-
cability of it. At the very first audience (28th June) he vented all this
storm of passion upon the princes. He said that he did not come to
ask their advice, for he was resolved to make war upon France, and he
knew that they would dissuade him : he only wished to hear whether
they would support him as they were bound to do, and as they had pro-
mised at Worms. It was possible that he might accomplish nothing
decisive ; but, at any rate, he would give the king of France a slap in the
face {Backenstreich), such as should be remembered for a hundred years.
" I am betrayed by the Lombards," said he, " I am abandoned by the
Germans : but I will not allow myself again to be bound hand and foot
and hung upon a nail, as I did at Worms. War I must make, and I will
make, let people say what they may. Rather than give it up, I would
get a dispensation from the oath that I swore behind the altar at Frank-
furt ; for I have duties not only to the empire, but to the House of Austria :
I say this, and I must say it, though I should be forced on that account
to lay the crown at my feet and trample on it."

The princes listened to him with amazement. " Your Majesty," replied
the Elector of Mainz, " is pleased to speak to us in parables, as Christ did
to his disciples !" They begged him to bring his proposals before the
assembly, which would then proceed to deliberate upon them.1 Strange
meeting of this monarch with this assembly ! Maximilian lived in the
interests of his House ; in the contemplation of the great political relations
of Europe ; in the feeling that he was the bearer of the highest dignity
of Christendom, which was now in jeopardy : he was ambitious, warlike,
and needy. The States, on the other hand, had their attention fixed
on internal affairs ; what they desired above all things was a government
of order and law ; they were cautious, pacific, frugal : they wanted to
check and control the king ; he to excite and hurry on the States.

Nothing less than the singular prudence, moderation, and sense which
distinguished the Archbishop of Mainz were necessary to prevent a total
breach between them.

He conciliated the king by placing before his eyes the prospect of the
revenue likely to accrue from the Common Penny. He prevailed on the
assembly to offer the king immediate payment of the sum formerly pro-
mised at Worms ; on the understanding that Maximilian should himself
contribute to the fuller and more exact collection of the tax by his own
example and assistance. This brought on a more distinct explanation.
Every individual was called upon to state how much of the Common
Penny he had collected. A slight review of these statements will
give us an insight into the situation of the German princes of that
day.

Elector Berthold of Mainz has collected and paid in the tax ; but some
persons in his dominions had resisted. To these he has announced that
they subjected themselves to the ban of the empire, from which he would

1 The Brandenburg protocol, our chief source of information regarding the
Diet of Freiburg, adds, the king spoke " with many marvellous words and ges-
tures, so as to be completely obscure and incomprehensible."

Book I.] AND FREIBURG, 1497-8 65

not protect them. — Cologne and Treves have received only a part of their
share of the tax : they have met with not less refractory subjects, who
excused themselves with the delays of the Netherlands. — The Electors of
Brandenburg and of Saxony have collected the greater part of the tax,
and are ready to pay it in ; but there are certain lords in Saxony of whom
the Elector says, he can do nothing with them ; he does not answer for
them.1 — The ambassador of the Elector Palatine, on the other hand,
has not even instructions to give any distinct explanation ; George of
Landshut, too, gave only an evasive answer. Albert of Bavaria expressed
himself better disposed, but he complained of the great number of recalci-
trants he met with. Nor was this to be regarded as a pretext : the
Bavarian states had, in fact, made great difficulties ; — they had enough
to do with the wants of their own country ; they thought it strange that
the empire, also, should make claims upon them.2 The resistance in Fran-
conia was not less vehement ; the Margraves of Brandenburg were forced
in some cases to resort to distraint. — The cities, already prepared for
contributions of this kind, had a much easier task. Only three out of
the whole number were still in arrear — Cologne, Miihlhausen, and Nord-
hausen ; the others had paid in their whole contingent.

Although the matter was, as we see, far from being perfectly accom-
plished, it was put into a good train, and Maximilian was highly satisfied
with the result. He now condescended to give a report of what his own
hereditary dominions had raised. From Austria, Styria, and Tyrol he
had collected 27,000 gulden ; in the Netherlands, on the contrary, great
resistance had been made. " Some," says the king's report, " those of
the Welsch (i.e. foreign, not German) sort, said they were not under the
empire. Those who hold to the German nation, on the other hand,
declared that they would wait and see what their neighbours on the Rhine
did."

Unfortunately it is impossible, from the reports before us, to arrive
at any statistical results. The payments were too unequal, and the
accounts are generally wanting.

It was, however, for the moment a great point gained, that the States
could either pay the king the money he required immediately, or at least
promise it with certainty. He was thus induced, on his side, to devote
his attention and interest to the affairs of the empire.

The Public Peace was guarded with fresh severe clauses, especially
against the abettors of the breakers of it. The president of the Imperial
Chamber was empowered, in peculiarly weighty and dangerous cases, to
call together princes of the empire at his own discretion, and to require
their help. A former proposition of the Imperial Chamber, viz. to confer
the right of representation on the heir, was at length carried, in spite
of the objection that a third part of the nation held to the rules of the
Sachsenspiegel3 (Mirror of Saxony), which were at direct variance with

JIn the Instruction of the Elector of Brandenburg it was further said, " Scarcely
half of the Common Penny had been got in, on account of the great mortality.
His electoral Grace would either deliver up what had been hitherto received
separately, or would be responsible for the whole together."

3 Freiberg, Gesch. der Baier. Landst., i., 568. 663.

3 A collection of old Saxon or Frisian Laws of the beginning of the thirteenth
century.

5

66 DIET OF WORMS AND FREIBURG, 1498 [Book I.

that right.1 A regular criminal procedure was taken into consideration,
chiefly on account of the frequent illegal infliction of the punishment of
death. In order to put a stop to the confusion in the currency, it was
resolved to coin all gulden of the size and form of the gulden of the Rhenish
electors. In short, this diet of Freiburg, which opened so stormily, gradu-
ally despatched more business of various kinds than any that had yet met.
The question now remained what view the States would take of European
affairs. The French had made the proposal that Genoa and Naples
should be ceded to them, in which case they would not disturb Milan, and
would conclude a permanent peace on all other points ; — a proposal which,
if sincere, had much to recommend it, and was especially agreeable to
the German princes. They argued that Genoa was little to be depended
upon in any case, and was seeking a new master every day ; and what
had the empire to do with Naples and Sicily ? It would, in fact, be far
more advantageous to them to have a powerful prince there, who could
hold the Turks in check. The sovereignty of Italy was a matter of indiffer-
ence to them ; they declared themselves generally opposed to all alliances
with the Welsch (non-Germans). Such, however, was not the opinion
of the electors, and least of all, the ecclesiastical. They reminded their
opponents that Genoa had been called by Frederick I. a chamber of the
empire ; that Naples was a fief of the papal see, and must therefore be
held by the King of the Romans, the steward of the church. But above
all, that they must not suffer the King of France to become too powerful,
lest he should attempt to get possession of the empire. They would
not abate a single iota of the idea of the Germanic empire, with which
indeed their own importance was indissolubly associated. These senti-
ments, which rendered them at once partisans of the king, were at length
triumphant : the negotiations which Frederick of Saxony had set on foot
with Louis XII. fell to the ground : at the moment when the States had
placed the institutions of the empire on something like a firm footing,
they were forced into a war.

^*"Two|great conflicting tendencies had been at work from the beginning
of this^reign; that of the king, to hurry the nation into warlike enter-
prises ;Jand that of the States, to establish its internal tranquillity. They
now seemed resolved on concession, union, and concert. The king had
confirmed and established the proceedings of Worms, which were dis-
agreeable to him ; and the States acceded to his desire to defend the
majesty of the empire by arms.

EVENTS OF THE WAR.

It remained however to be asked, whether either party had distinctly
conceived, or maturely weighed, what they were about to undertake.

There may be governments to which war is a source of strength ; but
it can never be so to those which have a strong federative element, yet in

1 A very important protocol, which serves to complete the others, in Harpp-
recht, ii., p. 341. In the Berlin Archives, we find the document, which Miiller,
ii. 442, gives under the title " An Explanation of the Imperial Chamber," with
some additions, however ; e.g. " with respect to the article concerning the suc-
cession of daughters and grandchildren, this article has been deferred till the
arrival of the king's majesty." The presence of the king himself was needful
to bring the affair to a conclusion.

Book I.] EVENTS OF THE WAR, 1498 67

which the danger attendant on failure is not common to the whole body.
For Germany, nothing was more necessary than peace, in order that
institutions yet in their infancy might be allowed tranquil growth, and
identify themselves with the habits of the people ; and the scarcely
recognised principle of obedience have time to take root. The collection
and expenditure of the Common Penny needed above all to become
habitual. But the diet at which these measures had been concluded was
hardly closed when the nation rushed forth to war.

Nor was this all. The power they were about to attack was the earliest
and the most completely consolidated of any in Europe ; a new sovereign,
who had long enjoyed universal consideration, had assumed the reins
of government and commanded the entire and cordial obedience of his
subjects. Such was the monarch, and such the kingdom, which Maxi-
milian, in daring reliance on the assistance of the empire, now proceeded
in person to attack. After having regained for his troops the advantages
they had lost in Upper Burgundy,1 he fell upon Champagne with a con-
siderable army. A truce was now offered by the enemy, which he
declined.

I do not doubt that the leading princes saw the danger of the course
Maximilian was taking ; but they could not prevent it. The agreement
they had come to at Freiburg was obtained solely by the consent of the
States to assist him in his campaign : — they must let him try his fortune.

The great superiority of the political position which Louis XII. had
contrived to acquire now manifested itself. He had gained over the
old allies of Maximilian in Spain, Italy, and even the Netherlands. Milan
and Naples, which he had resolved to attack, had no other allies than the
King of the Romans himself.

But even in Germany itself, Louis found means to excite enmities
sufficient to furnish Maximilian with occupation. The Palatinate had
always maintained a good understanding with France ; active negoti-
ations were set on foot with Switzerland and the Grisons. Duke Charles
of Gueldres, (of the house of Egmont, deposed by Charles the Bold, but
which had never renounced its claims,) was the first to take up arms.

Maximilian was driven out of Champagne by incessant rain and the
overflow of the rivers. He turned his arms upon Gueldres, and, with
the assistance of Juliers and Cleves, gained some advantages ; but they
were not decisive : the country adhered faithfully to Duke Charles, who
had secured its attachment by granting it new privileges. Hence it
happened, that Maximilian could not attend the assembly of the empire
fixed to be held on the eve of St. Catherine (November 21st) at Worms,
indispensable as that was to the completion and execution of the ordinances
agreed on : this meeting, where, if he had been present, resolutions of the
utmost practical importance would probably have been passed, broke
up without doing any thing.2 But, besides this, the troubles in Switzer-

1 The Fugger MS. relates at length that the Germans had kept the advantage
in a skirmish, Sept. 22, 1498, and had reconquered castles they had previously
lost. It is incredible that Maximilian, as Zurita asserts, should have had 25,000
infantry and 5 ,000 horse in the field.

2 Letter from Maximilian to Bishop Henry of Bamberg : Harpprecht, ii. 399.
The king invited the assembly to meet at Cologne, where, however, many of th
members did not appear, as their instructions only spoke of Worms.

s— 2

68 EVENTS OF THE WAR, 149& [Book I,

land now broke out in the form of regular war. The empire was as yet
far from renouncing its sovereignty over the confederated cantons : it
had cited them before the imperial chambers, nor had any objection been
taken to the legality of such a proceeding ; the Common Penny had been
levied in them ; so lately as at the diet of Freiburg, the resolution was
passed, " to keep the powerful cities of the Confederation, which bear
the imperial eagle in their arms, in their duty and allegiance to the empire,
and to invite them again to attend the meetings of the States. But
these invitations could have no effect in a country where the want of
internal peace was not felt, because they had secured it for themselves and
were already in possession of a tolerably well-ordered government. A party
which had always been hostile to the King of the Romans, and which found
it more expedient to earn French money than to adhere to the empire,
jained the upper hand. In this state of things, the Grisons, who were
threatened by Tyrol on account of the part they had taken, injurious to
the peace of the empire, by sheltering persons under the king's ban, found
mmediate assistance from the confederates. In one moment the whole
xontier, Tyrol and Grisons, Swabia and Switzerland, stood in hostile
irray.

Strange that the measures taken to introduce order into the empire
ihould have had results so directly contrary to the views with which they
vere undertaken ! The demands of the diet and of the imperial chamber
et the Swiss Confederation in a ferment ; the summoning of the Grisons
o deliver up a fugitive under ban occasioned their defection. If, on the
ither side, the city of Constance, after long hesitation, joined the Swabian
eague, this act was regarded with the utmost disgust by the Swiss, because
he city possessed the jurisdiction over the Thurgau, a district of which
t had obtained possession some years before. Independently of this,
here existed, ever since the formation of the league, a hatred between
Jwabia and Switzerland which had long vented itself in mutual insults
,nd now broke out in a wild war of devastation.

The constitution of the empire was far from being strong enough — •
ts unity was far from having sunk deeply enough into the mind and
onsciousness of the people — to allow it to put forward its full strength
n the conflict with France : the States convened, or rather huddled
ogether in the utmost hurry at Mainz, passed partial and infirm reso-
iitions ; it was, in fact, only the members of the Swabian league who
upported the king, and even these were not inclined to risk their lives
n a battle with sturdy peasants.

Under these circumstances, the empire was in no condition to make a
uccessful resistance to those designs of King Louis upon Italy which Maxi-
lilian had vainly desired to prevent. Whilst the Upper Rhine was torn
y private wars, the French crossed the Alps and took Milan without diffi-
ulty. Maximilian was compelled to make a very disadvantageous peace
rith the Swiss, by which not only the jurisdiction of the Thurgau was lost,
ut their general independence was fixed on an immovable basis.

A successful war would have strengthened the constitution of the
mpire : the inevitable effect of these reverses was to overthrow or, at the
sast, to modify it.

Book I.] DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1500 69

DIET OF AUGSBURG, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

The immediate result of this assembly was that the authority of the king
was even more limited than before ; the principle of representative govern-
ment (standische Princip) gained another victory, by which it appeared
to have secured a fresh and lasting ascendancy.1

At the diet which was opened at Augsburg on the 10th of April, 1500,
it was agreed that the means which had been hitherto adopted for the
establishment of a military organization and a more regular government
were insufficient. The prospect of collecting the Common Penny was too
remote ; events succeeded each .other too rapidly to allow of the possi-
bility of the States constantly assembling first for the purpose of guiding
or controlling them. Adhering to the idea which had got possession of
their minds, they now resolved to try other means to the same end. They
proposed to collect the forces they wanted by a sort of levy. Every four
hundred inhabitants, assembling according to their parishes, were to fur-
nish and equip one foot soldier, — a method which had been tried some time
before in France : the cavalry proportioned to this infantry was to be
raised by the princes, counts, and lords, according to a certain scale. A
tax was to be laid on those who could not take an active share in the war, —
clergy, Jews, and servants, and the amount was to form a fund for the war ;
propositions which, as it will be seen, are immediately connected with the
former ones, and which assume an equally complete and comprehensive
unity of the empire. Maximilian embraced them with joy ; he made his
calculations, and gave the Spanish ambassador to understand that he
would shortly have 30,000 men in the field. On the other hand, he adopted
a plan which he had rejected five years before, and which must have been
odious to a man of his character ; he now acknowledged the necessity of
having a permanent imperial council, which might relieve him and the
States from incessant recurrence to the diets, and to whose vigilance and
energy the execution of the ordinances when issued might be entrusted.2
A committee was formed for a fresh discussion of this institution, and its
suggestions were then submitted to the general assembly of the States.
Every member had the right of proposing amendments in writing.

The business was treated with all the gravity it deserved. There were
two points to be considered ; the composition, and the rights and functions,
of the proposed council. In the first place, a position suited to their high

1 Standische Princip is not literally " representative principle," or rather, it is
that and something more. Standisch, the adjective of Stand, (status, class,
order), as applied to government, signifies representation of the several states
or orders of the nation. The English and the Swedish constitutions are stan-
disch ; the American, though representative, is not standisch at all, since there
are no Stande to represent. I may here point out another difficulty arising out
of the double and often equivocal use of the word state, which represents both
Staat and Stand — two words of totally different meaning. Staat, the state, is
the whole civil and political body of the nation ; Stand (status) is a class or order
of the nation. The United States of America are Staaten ; the States of the
Empire were Stande. — Teansl.

2 Protocol of the Imperial Diet of Augsburg, in the Frankfurt Archives,
vol. xix., unfortunately not so circumstantial as might be wished ; e.g. the
objections which the cities had made, contained in three bills or advertisements,
are not inserted, " because every city deputy knew them."

jo DIET OF AUGSBURG [Book I.

rank, and to the influence they had hitherto possessed in the country, was
assigned to the electors. Each of them was to send a delegate to the coun-
cil ; one of them, according to regular rotation, to be always present. The
much more numerous college of princes was less favourably treated. The
intention had at first been to let the spiritual side be represented according
to the archbishoprics ; the temporal, according to the so-called countries,
Swabia, Franconia, Bavaria, and the Netherlands -,1 but these divisions
neither corresponded with the idea of a compact and united empire, nor
with the existing state of things ; and the assembly now preferred to in-
clude spiritual and temporal princes together within certain circles or dis-
tricts. Six of these were marked out, and were at first called provinces of
the German nation, Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, Upper Rhine, West-
phalia, and Lower Saxony ; they were, however, not as yet called by these
names, but were distinguished according to the several states which in-
habited them.2 The interests whose disseverance would, in any case,
have been absurd and purposeless, were thus more closely united. Counts
and prelates and cities were all included within these circles. It was also
determined that one temporal prince, one count and one prelate should
always have a seat in the council. Austria and the Netherlands were to
send two delegates. Little notice had at first been taken of the cities ;
nor, indeed, in spite of the original intention, had they at a later period
been admitted to a place in the imperial chamber ; but they thought this
extremely injurious to them, and the more unjust, since the burthen of
raising the funds for the expenses of the States must fall mainly upon them ;
and at length they succeeded in obtaining the right of sending two members
to the imperial council. The cities which were to enjoy this privilege in
turn were immediately named : Cologne and Strasburg for the circle of
the Rhine ; Augsburg and Ulm for the Swabian ; Niirnberg and Frank-
furt for the Franconian ; Liibeck and Gosslar for the Saxon : the delegates
were always to be sent by two of these districts.8 A curious illustration
of the old and fundamental principle of the Germanic empire, — that every
right should be attached as soon as created, in a certain form, to a certain
place ; so that the general right wears the air of a special privilege.

Thus the three colleges of which the diet consisted were also the com-
ponent parts of the imperial council, which may, indeed, be regarded as a
permanent committee of the States. The king had no other right there
than to preside in person, or to send a representative (Statthalter). The
preponderance was doubtless on the side of the States, and especially in
the hands of the electors, who were now so firmly united and so strongly
represented.

This council, the character of which was so decidedly that of class

1 These are Salzburg, Magdeburg, Bremen, and Besancon ; the electorates
were of course excluded ; the Netherlands on the Maass were instead of Saxony.
Datt, de Pace Publica, p. 603.

2 Order of the Regency (Regiment) established at Augsburg, in the collec-
tions of the Recesses of the Imperial Diets.

3 Chiefly from the letter of Johann Reysse to the City of Frankfurt, Aug. 17,
1500. "So die Fursten kainen von Stetten zu Reichsraidt verordnet hatten,
so haben die Stette bedacht," &c. " As the princes had appointed none of the
cities to the council of the empire, the cities had therefore bethought them-
selves," &c. He further remarks, that the princes immediately caused three
candidates to be proposed to them from each city, out of whom they chose one.

Book I.J AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, 1500 71

representation {stdndisch), was immediately invested with the most im-
portant powers. Everything that regarded the administration of justice
and the maintenance of public tranquillity ; everything relating to the
measures of defence to be taken against the infidels and other enemies ;
foreign as well as internal affairs, lay within its domain ; it had power " to
originate, to discuss, to determine." It is evident that the essential
business of the government was transferred to it, and indeed it assumed
the title of the government or regency of the empire1 (Reichsregiment).2

It seemed now as if not only the judicial but the legislative and adminis-
trative parts of the government must assume a thoroughly representative
(stdndisch) character.

If Maximilian suffered himself to be persuaded to make such large con-
cessions in Augsburg, it was, doubtless, only because the preparations for
war depended upon them ; because he hoped by this means to obtain from
the States a durable, voluntary, cordial and effective support in his foreign
enterprises. On the 14th of August, after everything was concluded, he
urged the States to take example from him, and to do something for the
empire, as he had done. He worked himself up, as it were intentionally,
to the expectation that this would take place ; he wished to believe it ;
but his hopes alternated with secret fears that, after all, it would not take
place, and that he should have surrendered his rights in vain. He be-
trayed the greatest agitation of mind ; a feeling of impending danger and
of present wrong, as he himself expressed it. Whilst he reminded the
assembly of the oaths and vows by which each of them was bound to the
holy empire, he added that unless more and better was done than before,
he would not wait till the crown was torn from his head, he would rather
himself cast it down at his feet.3

Very little time elapsed before he got into various disputes with the
States. He was obliged to consent to publish an edict against the dis-
obedient, the penalties attached to which were of a less severe nature than
he deemed necessary.

A Captain-general of the empire, Duke Albert of Bavaria, was appointed,
with whom Maximilian speedily felt that he could never agree.

The armament of the succours agreed upon did not proceed, in spite of
the new council of the empire, which assembled in the year 1500. In
April, 1 501, the lists of the population of the several parishes, which were
the necessary basis of the whole levy, were not yet sent in.

1 That this was regarded as a sort of abdication is shown by the expression
of the Venetian ambassador. Relatione di S. Zaccaria Contarini, venuto orator
del re di Romani 1502 : in Sanuto's Chronicle, Vienna Archives, vol. iv. " Fo
terminato et fo opinion del re rinontiar il suo poter in 16, nominati il senato
imperial, quali fossero quelli avesse (i quali avessero) a chiamar le diete e tuor le
imprese."

2 The translation commonly in use for Reichsregiment (council of regency)
does not convey any definite or correct idea to the mind of the reader, nor does
any better suggest itself. Das Regimen iis as nearly as possible the govern-
ment, according to the common and inaccurate use of the word, but that is far
too vague and general. What its powers and functions were we see in the text.
Eichhorn (vol. iii., p. 127) says : " This institution was agreeable neither to the
emperor nor to the States. For the former it was too independent, and for the
latter, too active ; and hence it remained only two years assembled." — Transl.

3 Letter from Reysse, Aug. 17.

72 DIET OF AUGSBURG [Book I.

Lastly, the imperial council assumed an attitude utterly disagreeable
to the king. Negotiations were set on foot, and a truce concluded, with
Louis XII. of France, whom Maximilian had thought to crush with the
weight of the empire. The council was not averse to grant the Icing of
France Milan as a fief of the empire, at his request.1

At this the whole storm of anger and disgust which Maximilian had so
long with difficulty restrained burst forth. He saw himself thralled and
fettered as to internal affairs, and as to external, not supported. His
provincial Estates in Tyrol remarked to him how insignificant he was
become in the empire.

He appeared for a moment at the Council of Regency in Niirnberg, but
only to complain of the indignities offered him,2 and of the increasing dis-
orders of the empire. He remained but a few days.

It had been determined that the Council of Regency should be em-
powered to summon an assembly of the States in cases of urgency. The
state of things now appeared to that body highly urgent, and it did not
delay to use the right conferred upon it. The king did everything he
could to thwart it.

Another ordinance bound the king not to grant the great fiefs without
consulting the electors. As if to punish the States for their negotiations
with Louis XIL, he now granted, of his own sole authority, the fief of
Milan to this his old enemy.3

But if the king had not power enough to enforce order in the empire, he
had enough to trouble that which was as yet but imperfectly established.
In the beginning of the year 1502, everything that had been begun in
Augsburg had fallen into a state of utter dissolution. The Council of
Regency and the assessors of the imperial chamber, who neither received
their salaries nor were allowed to exercise their functions, dispersed and
went home. To the king, this was rather agreeable than otherwise. He
erected a court of justice exactly similar to that of his father, with assessors
arbitrarily appointed, over which he presided himself. It is evident from
one of his proclamations that he meditated establishing in like manner a
government (Regiment) nominated solely by himself, and, by its means,
carrying into execution the plan of a military organisation determined on
in Augsburg.

This conduct necessarily excited a universal ferment. A Venetian
ambassador, Zaccharia Contarini, who was in Germany in the year 1502,

1 Miiller Reichstagsstaat, p. 63.

2 In this Maximilian was not entirely wrong. It is not to be believed to what
lengths the French Ambassador went. He said without reserve, that the reason
why Maximilian took the part of Naples so warmly was, that he had been paid
30,000 ducats, though the negotiator of the affair had pocketed one half of the
sum, and the remainder only had come into the hands of the emperor. He
said the King of France had no thought of injuring the empire. But if they
made war on him, then the king would find his way into the enemies' quarters
as readily as they into his. — And yet to this ambassador the council of the empire
gave a testimonial to the effect that if he had not accomplished the ldng's object,
the fault lay not in him but in circumstances. Recreditive, May 25, 1501 ;
Miiller, p. 1 10.

3 Contarini alleges the following very peculiar motive : — " Lo episcopo di
Magonza voleva per il sigillo 8om due. onde parse al re di Romani d'acordarsi
et aver lui questi danari."

Book I.] AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, 1500 73

was astonished at the great unpopularity of the king, — how ill people spoke
of him, how little they respected or cared for him. Maximilian himself
said, " He would he were Duke of Austria, then people would think some-
thing of him ; as King of the Romans he received nothing but indignities. "1

Once more did the electors resolve jointly and resolutely to oppose his
will. On the 30th of June, 1502, at a solemn congress at Gelnhausen, they
bound themselves to hold together in all important affairs ; to act as one
man at the imperial diets, and always to defend the wishes of the majority ;
to allow of no oppressive mandates, no innovations, no diminution of the
empire ; and, lastly, to meet four times every year, for the purpose of
deliberating on the public affairs and interests. It does not distinctly
appear whether they really, as was reported, came to the resolution to
dethrone the king ; but what they did was in fact the same thing. With-
out consulting him, they announced a meeting of the empire on the ist of
the November following ; every member communicated to the one seated
next him the topics on which they were to deliberate. They were the same
which had formed the subject of all former deliberations of the Germanic
body : the Turkish war, the relations with the pope, the public expendi-
ture, but, above all, the establishment of law, tranquillity and order ; with
a view to the maintenance of which, some new ordinances were presently
inserted, to come into force after the Imperial Chamber and Council of
Regency should cease to exist.2

The Elector Palatine, who had rather opposed the former measures of
the diet, now that it had come to a breach with the king, distinguished
himself by his active and zealous co-operation.

Maximilian was in the greatest perplexity. While he complained that
attacks were made on the sovereignty which was his of right as crowned
king of the Romans, — while he sought to take credit for having of his own
accord established the Council of Regency and the Chamber,3 he did not
feel himself strong enough to forbid the proposed assembly of the empire ;
he therefore took the course of proclaiming it himself ; announcing that he
would be present at it, and would take counsel with the princes and electors
on an expedition against the Turks ; the necessity for which daily became
more urgent. This was, in truth, not very unlike the conduct of King
Rupert, or the manner in which, at a later period, the kings of France put
themselves at the head of factions which they could not subdue. But the
electoral princes of Germany would not even make this concession. Some
had already arrived at Gelnhausen for the proposed diet ; among them a
papal legate ; and many others had bespoken dwellings, when a procla-
mation of the Elector Palatine of the 18th of October was circulated,
putting off the diet.4

1 Relatione, 1. c. of 1502. " II re e assai odiato, a poca obedientia in li tre
stadi : questi senatori electi e venuti nimici del re : adeo il re dice mal di loro
e loro del re. II re a ditto piu volte vorria esser duca d'Austria, perche saria
stimato duca, che imperator e vituperate"

2 I found them in the Archives of Berlin and Dresden ; to the Duke of Saxony
they had sent the united electors of Brandenburg and Saxony. Muller has but
a very unsatisfactory notice of the subject.

3 Letter from Schwabischwerd, Nov. 2, Frankf. R.A., torn. xx.

4 Hinsburg, near Frankfurt, Oct. 20. (Thursday after Galli.) Gelnhausen
sent to Frankfurt the letter of the elector Berthold, which arrived on the 19th,
wherein the latter also declared " the diet appointed at Gelnhausen was delayed
from special causes, and removed to another place."

74 DIET OF AUGSBURG [Book I.

To compensate for this they held an extraordinary meeting in Wurz-
burg, at which they renewed their opposition, and announced a general
assembly of the empire for the next Whitsuntide.

Maximilian, who was about to set out on a journey to the Netherlands,
issued a proclamation, in which he invited the States to repair to his
court, and to consult with him concerning the Turkish war and Council
of Regency.1

Of the meeting summoned by the king there exists not a trace ; that
appointed by the electors, however, certainly took place in June, 1503, at
Mainz, though we are unable to discover whether it was numerously
attended. Maximilian's measures were here opposed, on the ground that
they were injurious to the empire. As there was nothing to be feared from
his Council of Regency (since he was obliged to confess that he had been
unable to find fitting members), the meeting contented itself with attacking
his tribunal. They declared to him that no prince of the empire would
consent to submit to its decisions. They reminded him of the ordinances
passed at Worms and Augsburg, and urged him to adhere to them.

Such was the result of the attempts made in the year 1 503 to constitute
the Germanic body.

The authority of the empire was restored neither in Italy, nor in the
Swiss Confederation, nor on the eastern frontier, where the Teutonic
knights were incessantly pressed upon by the Poles and Russians. At
home, the old disorders had broken out new. Not only had the attempt
to establish a firm and durable constitution for war and peace utterly
failed, but there was no longer any tribunal of universally recognised
authority.

The highest powers in the nation, the king and his electors, had fallen
into irreconcilable discord. In Elector Berthold, especially, Maximilian
beheld a dangerous and determined foe. It had already been reported to
him from Augsburg that Mainz had spoken contemptuously of him to the
other princes ; and obsequious people had given him a list of not less
than twenty- two charges which the Elector brought against him. Max-
imilian had stifled his anger, and had said nothing ; but the impression
now made upon him by every opposition he encountered, by every con-
sequence of the Augsburg constitution that he had not anticipated, was
the more profound ; he ascribed everything to the crafty schemes of the
sagacious old man. A hostile and bitter correspondence took place
between the king and the arch-chancellor.2 Maximilian retorted upon his
adversary a list of charges, twenty-three in number ; — one more than those
brought against himself by Mainz, which he still kept concealed, but with
whose contents he only fed his resentment the more constantly in secret.3

A state of things most perilous to himself.

1 Antorf, April 7, Fr. A. " Des Reichsregiments wegen der Personen so
daran geordnet seyen wir dann nit so paid erlangen haben miigen und dadurch
wiederum in Anstand kommen ist." — " As to the Council of Regency, on account
of the persons fitted for it, we have not been able to create it so quickly, and
accordingly it is again delayed."

2 Gudenus IV., 547, 551.

3 " Konigl Maj Anzeigen, item die Ursach darumb des Reichs Regiment und
Wolfart zu Augspurg aufgericht stocken beliben ist." — " Declarations of his
Royal Majesty, also the cause why the government and welfare of the empire
established at Augsburg have stood stock-still." — Frankf. A. A.

Book I.J IMPROVED FORTUNES OF MAXIMILIAN 75

The other Electors adhered firmly to Berthold, who, in the midst of all
these troubles, had formed a fresh and strict alliance with the Palatinate.
The cities clung to him^s closely as ever. There was a general feeling
through the nation that the fate of Wenceslas was impending over Maxi-
milian ; — that he would be deposed. It is said that the Elector Palatine
had formally proposed this measure in the electoral council ; that shortly
after, the king arrived one day unexpectedly at a castle belonging to that
prince where his wife was residing, and that during their morning's repast,
he gave her to understand that he was perfectly acquainted with her hus-
band's designs. Such, however, was the grace and charm of his manner
and the imposing dignity of his person and bearing, that the project was
abandoned.1 However this may be, his affairs were in as bad a situation
as possible. The European opposition to Austria once more obtained that
influence on the interior of Germany, formerly acquired through Bavaria,
and now through the Palatinate, which maintained a close connection
with France and Bohemia.

Yet Maximilian had still powers and resources in store ; and it was the
Palatinate which soon afforded him an opportunity to rally and to apply
them.

IMPROVED FORTUNES OF MAXIMILIAN. DIET OF COLOGNE AND CONSTANCE ;
I50S AND IS07.

In the first place Maximilian had connected himself with one of the most
powerful houses of Europe.2 The marriage of his son Philip with the
Infanta Johanna of Spain not only directly opened very brilliant prospects
to his family, but indirectly afforded it a defence against the aggressions of
France, in the claims, the policy, and the arms of Spain. After a momen-
tary good understanding in Naples, a war had just broken out between
these two powers, the results of which inclined in favour of Spain ; so
that the consideration of France began to decline in Germany, and the
public confidence in the fortunes of Austria to revive.

Moreover, Maximilian had (which was much more important) a party
at home among the States. If the electors and the cities in alliance with
Mainz were hostile to him, he had won over devoted friends and adherents
among the princes, both spiritual and temporal.

For the name and state of King of the Romans was not an empty sound.
In the general affairs of the realm his power might be controlled ; but the
functions and the sacred dignity of sovereign head of the empire still gave
him considerable influence over individual families, districts and towns.
He was exactly the man to turn this influence to advantage.

By means of unremitting attention and timely interference he gradually
succeeded in getting a certain number of bishoprics filled according to his
wishes. We find among them the names of Salzburg, Freisingen, Trent,
Eichstadt, Augsburg, Strasburg, Constance, Bamberg : all these sees were

1 Anecdote in Fugger, the truth of which, however, I will not warrant.

2 The marriage that gave Spain to the Hapsburgs :

Maximilian— Mary of Burgundy.

Archduke Philip =Juana, d. of Ferdinand and Isabella
Charles V.

76 IMPROVED FORTUNES OF MAXIMILIAN [Book I.

now, as far as their chapters would permit, partisans of Maximilian, and
favourers of his projects.1 In these ecclesiastical affairs his connection
with the pope was especially useful to him. For example, when a prebend
of the cathedral of Augsburg became vacant in 1500, it was the papal
legate who conferred it on the king's chancellor, Matthew Lang (the vacancy-
having occurred in a papal month). The chapter raised a thousand
objections ; it would admit no man of the burgher class, and, least of all,
a son of a burgher of Augsburg : but Maximilian said, one who was good
enough to be his councillor and chancellor was good enough to be an
Augsburg canon. At a solemn mass Matthew Lang was unexpectedly
placed among the princes, and afterwards seated within the altar. At
length the canons were satisfied, upon Lang's promising them that if he
delegated to another the business of the provostship, he would appoint no
one whom the chapter did not approve.

Still more direct was the influence which Maximilian gained over the
secular princes. In most cases he attached them to his cause, partly by
military service, partly by the favours which he had to dispense as head
of the empire. Thus the sons of Duke Albert of Saxony were indissolubly
bound to the Netherland policy of Austria by the possession of Friesland,
which Maximilian granted to their father as a reward of his services. Albert's
son-in-law, too, Erich of Calenberg, connected through him with the house
of Austria, gained fame in the Austrian wars : the whole house of Guelph
was attached to Austria. Henry der Mittlere2 of Liineburg, as well as his
cousins, won new privileges and reversions of estates in the service of the
king. In the same position stood Henry IV. of Mecklenburg.8 Bogis-
law X. of Pomerania did not indeed accept the service offered him at his
return from the East ; nevertheless Maximilian thought it expedient to
conciliate him by the grant of the tolls of Wolgast and other favours.4
The granting of tolls was, indeed, with Maximilian, as with his father, one
means of carrying on the government : Julich, Treves, Hessen, Wiirten-
berg, Liineburg, Mecklenburg, the Palatinate even, and many others,
acquired at different times new rights of toll. Other houses transferred
to Austria their ancient alliances with Burgundy. Count John XIV. of
Oldenburg alleged that a secret treaty had existed between his ancestors
and Charles the Bold, in consideration of which the king promised to sup-
port him in his claims on Delmenhorst.5 Count Engilbert of Nassau
fought by the side of Charles at Nancy, and of Maximilian at Guinegat, for
which he was made Stadtholder-General of the Netherlands in 1501. From
this moment we may date the firm establishment of the power of that house
(which shortly after gained possession of Orange) in the Low Countries.6
Hessen and Wiirtenberg were won over by Maximilian himself. He at
length determined to grant the Landgrave of Hessen the investiture which
he had always refused his father. At the diet of 1495 ne presented himself

1 Pasqualigo, Relatione di Germania (MS. in the Court Library at Vienna),
to whom I am indebted for this remark, says of the bishops : " Li quali tutti
dependono dal re come sue fat hire, e seguono le voglie sue."

* Der Mittlere — the mid-brother of three.— Transl.

3 Lutzow, Geschichte von Meklenburg, ii., p. 458.

4 Kanzow, Pomerania, ii., p. 260. Barthold im Berlin Kal. 1838, p. 41.
6 Hamelmann, Oldenb. Chronik., p. 309.

0 Arnoldi, Gesch. v. Oranien, ii. 202.

Book I.] PARTISANS OF MAXIMILIAN 77

in front of the throne with the great red banner, upon which, round the
arms of Hessen, were displayed not only the bearings of Waldeck, but of
Katzenelnbogen, Diez, Ziegenhain, and Nidda : the banner was so splendid
that it was not torn up, as was usual on such occasions, but was borne in
solemn procession and consecrated to the Virgin Mary.1 Such was the
investiture of the house of Hessen ; and we find that William der Mittlere
took an ardent share in Maximilian's campaigns.

Still more intimate was the connection of Wiirtenberg with Austria.
Maximilian put the seal to the acquisitions of centuries made by the
counts of that house by consolidating them into a duchy ; from that time
he took a warmer interest in the affairs of that state than of any other : in
the year 1503, in defiance of the law, he declared the young Duke Ulrich
of age when only in his sixteenth year, and thus secured his entire devotion.
The Markgraves of Brandenburg were still true to the ancient allegiance
of their founder.2 Later historians complain bitterly of the costly jour-
neys and the frequent campaigns of Markgrave Frederick, whose succours
always far exceeded his contingent. We find his sons also, from the year
1 500, commanding small bodies of men in the Austrian service.

These princes were, for the most part, young men who delighted in war
and feats of arms, and at the same time sought profit and advancement in
the king's service. The gay and high-spirited Maximilian, eternally in
motion and busied with ever-new enterprises, good-natured, bountiful,
most popular in his manners and address, a master of arms and all knightly
exercises, a good soldier, matchless in talents and inventive genius, was
formed to captivate the hearts and to secure the ardent devotion of his
youthful followers.

How great was the advantage this gave him was seen in the year 1504,
when the Landshut troubles broke out in Bavaria. Duke George the Rich
of Landshut, who died on the 1st of December, 1503, in defiance of the
feudal laws of the empire and the domestic treaties of the house of Bavaria,
made a will, in virtue of which both his extensive and fertile domains, and
the long-hoarded treasures of his house, would fall, not to his next agnates,
Albert and Wolfgang of Bavaria-Munich, but to his more distant cousin,
nephew, and son-in-law, Rupert of the Palatinate, second son of the
elector, to whom, even during his lifetime, he had ceded his most important
castles.

Had the Council of Regency continued to exist, it would have been
empowered to prevent the quarrel between the Palatinate and Bavaria
which this incident rekindled with great violence ; or had the imperial
Chamber still been constituted according to the decrees of Worms and
Augsburg, members of the States of the empire would have had a voice in
the decision of the question of law : but the Regency had fallen to nothing,
and the court of justice was constituted by the king alone, according to his
own views ; he himself was once more regarded as " the living spring of
the law,"3 and everything was referred to his decision.

1 The ballad on this subject, which Miiller, Rtth. unter Max. I., 538, has
inserted, is of later date ; the thing itself is correct.

2 Frederick of Hohenzollern, Margrave of Nuremburg. Given the Electorate
of Brandenburg by the Emperor Sigismund , 1417.

3 Expression of Lamparter in his addre ss to the States at Landshut ; Frei-
berg, ii„ p. 178. Gesch. der baier. Landstande, h., p. 38.

78 IMPROVED FORTUNES OF MAXIMILIAN [Book I.

His conduct in this case was extremely characteristic. He insisted
upon the preservation of peace : he then appeared in person, and presided
at long sittings of the diet, in order to preserve a good temper and under-
standing : he did not shrink from the labour of hearing both parties, even
to the fifth statement of each ; and, lastly, he summoned the judge and
assessors of his chamber to assist him in forming a just and lawful decision.1
But in all these laudable efforts he had chiefly his own interest (he calls it
himself by that name) in view.

He now called to mind all the losses he had sustained on account of
Bavaria ; — for example, how the expedition to the Lechfeld had caused him
to neglect the defence of his rights in Brittany and Hungary. He found,
on the one side, that Duke George had incurred heavy penalties by his
illegal will ; on the other, that Albert's claims, founded on family con-
tracts, were not incontestably valid, since those contracts had never
been confirmed by the emperor or the empire. Hereupon he set
himself up a claim to one part of the land in dispute, and a not incon-
siderable one.

Duke Albert, the King's brother - in - law, was quickly persuaded to
acquiesce, and at length published a formal renunciation of the disputed
districts. This was not surprising ; he was not yet in actual possession
of them, and he hoped by this compliance to establish a claim to still
larger acquisitions. On the other hand, the Count Palatine Rupert was
utterly inflexible. Whether it were that he reckoned on his father's
foreign alliances, or that the hostile spirit of the electoral college towards
the king gave him courage, — he rejected all these proposals of partition.
Maximilian had an interview with him one night, and told him that his
father would bring ruin on himself and his house : but it was all in vain ;
Rupert immediately afterwards had the audacity to take possession in
defiance of the king.

Upon this Maximilian lost all forbearance. The lands and securities
left by Duke George were awarded by a sentence of the Chamber to the
Duke of Bavaria-Munich ; the crown fiscal demanded the proclamation
of the ban, and on the same day (23d April, 1504) the King of the Romans
uttered it in person in the open air.2

The neighbours of the Palatine attached to the king's party only waited
for this proclamation to break loose upon him from all sides. The recol-
lection of all the injuries they had been compelled to endure from " that
wicked Fritz " (so they called Frederick the Victorious), and the desire to
avenge themselves and redress their wrongs, was aroused within them.
Duke Alexander the Black of Veldenz, Duke Ulrich of Wurtenberg, Land-
grave William of Hessen, who led the Mecklenburg and Brunswick auxili-
aries, fell with devastating bands upon the Rhenish Palatinate.3 In the
territory on the Danube, the troops of Brandenburg, Saxony, and Calen-
berg joined the magnificent army which Albert of Munich had collected.
The Swabian league, once so dangerous an enemy, was now his most
determined partisan ; Niirnberg, which indeed wished to make conquests

1 Harpprecht, Archiv. des Kammergerichts, ii., p. 178.

2 Freiberg, passim, ii., p. 52.

3 Trithemius, Zayner, and others, describe this devastation minutely. See
Ranke, Gesch. der romanisch-german. Volker, p. 231.

Book I.] BAVARIAN DISPUTES 70

for itself, sent succours to the field four times as great as'had originally been
required of it.1 The King of the Romans first appeared on the Danube.
It added not a little to his glory, that it was he who had gone in quest of
a body of Bohemian troops — the only allies who had remained faithful to
the Count Palatine — and had completely defeated them behind his own
Wagenburg, near Regensburg. He then marched on the Rhine ; the
bailiwick of Hagenau fell into his hands without resistance. Here, as on
the Danube, his first care was to take possession of the places to which he
himself had claims. The Palatinate, in any case little able to withstand
so superior and general an assault, was now totally incapacitated by the
death of the young and war-like Count Palatine, the author of the whole
disturbance, who fell in battle. The old elector was obliged to employ
another son (whom he had sent to be educated at the court of Burgundy)
as his mediator with Maximilian. An assembly of the empire, which had
been talked of in the summer of 1504, had at that time been evaded by
the king. It was not till the superiority of his arms was fully established
in February, 1505, that he concluded a general truce, and summoned a diet
at Cologne (which assembled in the June of that year), for the settlement
of all the important questions arising out of this affair, and now once
more referred to his decision.2

How different was his present from his former meeting with the States !
He now appeared among them at the close of a war successfully terminated,
with added renown of personal valour, surrounded by a band of devoted
adherents, who hoped to retain by his favour the conquests they owed to
their own prowess ; respected even by the conquered, who surrendered
their destiny into his hands. Nor was this all. The affairs of Europe
were propitious. Maximilian's son Philip was become King of Castile,
upon the death of his mother-in-law. Many a good German cherished the
hope that his mighty and glorious chief was destined to chase the Turks
from Europe, and to add the crown of the Eastern empire to that of the
West. They thought that the united force of the empire was so great,
that neither Bohemians, Swiss, nor Turks could withstand it.3

The first matter discussed at Cologne was the decision of the Landshut
differences. The king had the power of determining the fate of a large
German territory. He recurred to the proposals which he had made

1 In the true historical accounts of the cities usurped by Niirnberg, etc., 1791,
par. 15, this reproach is again brought against that city.

2 One of the strangest reports of these occurrences is to be found in the Viaggio
in Alemagna di Francesco Vettori, Paris, 1837, p. 95, from the mouth of a gold-
smith at Ueberlingen. First, the Count Palatine is in league with the Swiss
and the French ; even the Swiss war is brought 'about by him : hereupon Max-
imilian concludes a treaty with France at Hagenau, in 1502 (it took place, as
we know, in 1505), and forthwith attacks the Count Palatine, who calls upon
the Bohemians for help, but then leaves them himself in the lurch, so that they
get beaten. This is another example how rapidly history turns into myth ;
every detail is incorrect, while the whole is not entirely devoid of truth. Vettori
himself finds the statements of the goldsmith wanting in order, and not to be
depended on ; but he readily admits them into his book, which has more the
air of the Decameron than of a Diary of a Journey.

3 The sentiment of the admirable song, " die behemsch Schlacht " (the Bo-
hemian Fight), 1504, by Hormayr, from some publication of the day, and repeated
by Soltau, p. 198.

80 IMPROVED FORTUNES OF MAXIMILIAN [Book I.

before the beginning of the war : for the issue of the Count Palatine
Rupert, he founded the new Palatinate on the other side the Danube,
which was to yield a rent of 24,000 gulden ; the constituent parts of it
were calculated to produce that amount. Landshut now, indeed, de-
volved on the Munich line, but not without considerable diminution :
the dukes themselves had been compelled to pay by cessions of lands for
the succours they had received ; the king kept back what he had advanced
to others before the sentence was pronounced : not only did he not sacri-
fice, he promoted, his own interests. The Palatinate sustained still
greater losses ; the loans, the claims to ceded lands, and the king's claims,
were more considerable in that territory than in any other. It availed
little that the old elector could not bring himself to accept the terms
offered him ; he was only the more entirely excluded from the royal
favour : some time later his son was obliged to conform to them. If the
possessions of the two houses of Wittelsbach were regarded as a whole,
it had suffered such losses by this affair as no house in Germany had for
ages sustained ; and it left so deep and lasting a resentment as might have
proved dangerous to the empire, had not their mutual animosity been
enkindled anew by the war, and rendered all concert between them im-
possible.

The position of Maximilian was, however, necessarily changed, even
as to the general policy of the empire, by the course things had taken.

The union of the electors was broken up. The humiliation of the
Palatinate was followed by the death of the Elector of Treves in the year
1503, to whose place Maximilian, strengthened by his alliance with the
court of Rome, succeeded in promoting one of his nearest kinsmen, the
young Markgrave James of Baden;1 and, on the 21st December, 1504, by
the death of the leader of the electoral opposition, Berthold of Mainz.
How rarely does life satisfy even the noblest ambition ! It was the lot of
this excellent man to five to see the overthrow of the institutions which he
had laboured so earnestly to establish, and the absolute supremacy of
the monarch on whom he had sought to impose legal and constitutional
restraints.

Maximilian had now a clear field for his own enterprises. It seemed to
him possible to use the ascendancy which he felt he had acquired, for the
establishment of organic institutions. Whilst he endeavoured to ascertain
why the measures taken at Augsburg had failed (the blame of which he
mainly attributed to Berthold of Mainz), he published a plan for carrying
them into execution, with certain modifications.2

His idea was, at all events, to form a government (Regiment) composed
of a viceroy, chancellor, and twelve counsellors of the empire ; and for
their assistance, and under their supervision, to appoint four marshals,
each with twenty-five knights, for the administration of the executive
power in the districts of the Upper and Lower Rhine, the Danube, and
the Elbe. The imposition of the Common Penny was again expressly
mentioned.

But a glance is sufficient to show the wide difference between this scheme

1 Browerus, p. 320. He saw the Brief by which the Pope recommended the
candidate of the King of the Romans.

2 Protocol of the Imperial Diet in the Frankfurt Acts, which adds considerably
to the particulars found in Miiller's Reichstagsstaat.

Book I.] DIET OF COLOGNE, 1505 81

and the former. The king insisted on having the right of summoning this
governing body to attend his person and court ; it was only to be em-
powered to decide in the more insignificant cases ; in all matters of impor-
tance it was to recur to him. He would himself nominate a captain-general
of the empire, if he could not come to an understanding with Albert of
Bavaria.

In short, it is clear that the obligations and burdens of government
would have remained with the states ; the power would have fallen to
the lot of the king.

His ascendancy was, however, not yet so great as to induce, or to com-
pel, the empire to accept such a scheme as this at his hands.

Was it indeed possible to revert to institutions which had already
proved so impracticable ? Was not the sovereignty of the lords of the
soil far too firmly and fully developed to render it probable that they would
lend or even submit themselves to such extensive and radical changes ?
The only condition under which this could have been imagined possible
was, that a committee chosen from the body of the princes should be in-
vested with the sovereign power ; but that they would voluntarily abandon
their high position in favour of the king, it would have been absurd to
expect.

The diet of Cologne is remarkable for this — that people began to cease
to deceive themselves as to the real state of things. The opinions which
prevailed during the last years of Frederick's and the first of Maximilian's
reign ; the attempts made to establish an all-embracing unity of the
nation, — a combined action of all its powers, — a form of government
which might satisfy all minds and supply all wants, are to be held in eternal
and honourable remembrance ; but they were directed towards an un-
attainable Ideal. The estates were no longer to be reduced to the condition
of subjects properly so called : the king was not contented to be nothing
more than a president of the estates. It was therefore necessary to
abandon such projects.

The estates assembled at Cologne did not refuse to afford succours to
the king, but neither by a general tax (Common Penny) nor by an assess-
ment of all the parishes in the empire, but by a matricula.1 The difference
is immeasurable. The former plans were founded on the idea of unity, and
regarded the whole body of the people as common subjects of the empire ;
the matricula, in which the States were rated severally, according to their
resources, was, in its very origin, based on the idea of the separateness of
the territorial power of the several sovereigns.

They declined taking any share in a central or general government
(Reichsregiment) of the empire. They said his majesty had hitherto ruled
wisely and well ; they were not disposed to impose restraints upon him.

Public opinion took a direction far less ideal, far less satisfactory to
those who had cherished aspirations after a common fatherland, but one
more practical arid feasible.

Maximilian demanded succours for an expedition against Hungary ; not
against the king, with whom, on the contrary, he was on a good footing,

1 The Matricula partook of the nature both of census and rate or assessment.
It was the list of the contingents, in men and money, which the several States
were bound to furnish to the empire, and was founded on their population and
pecuniary resources respectively. — Transl.

6

82 DIET OF COLOGNE, 1505 [Book I.

but against a portion of the Hungarian nobles. The last treaty, by which
his hereditary rights were recognised, had been agreed to only by a few of
them individually ; it was not confirmed at the diet. The Hungarians
now began to declare that they would never again raise a foreigner to the
throne, alleging that none had consulted the interests of the nation. A
resolution to this effect, which was as offensive to their monarch as it was
injurious to the rights of Austria, was solemnly passed and sent into all
the counties.1 This Maximilian now resolved to oppose. He observed
that the maintenance of his rights was important not only to himself but
to the Holy Empire, for which Bohemia had been recovered, and with
which Hungary was, through him, connected.

In a proclamation, in which the edicts concerning the Council of Regency
(Regiment) and the Common Penny were expressly repealed, Maximilian
asked for succours of four or five thousand men for one year. He ex-
pressed a hope that this might perhaps also suffice for his expedition to
Rome. The States assented without difficulty: they granted him four
thousand men for a year, raised according to a matricula. The levy was
to consist of 1058 horse, and 3038 foot. Of these, the secular princes were
to furnish the larger proportion of horse, namely, 422 ; the cities the
larger of foot, — 1 106 : on the whole, the electors had to bear about a
seventh, the archbishops and bishops a half, the prelates and counts not
quite a third ; of the remaining seven parts, about one half was borne by
the secular princes, the other half by the States.

These more moderate levies had at least one good result — they were
really executed. The troops which had been granted, were, if not entirely
(which the defective state of the census rendered impossible), yet, in great
measure, furnished to the king, and did him good service. His appearance
on the frontier at the head of forces armed and equipped by the empire,
made no slight impression in Hungary ; some magnates and cities were
quickly reduced to obedience. As a son was just then born to King
Wladislas, whereby the prospect of a change of dynasty became more
remote, the Hungarian nobles determined not exactly to revoke their
decree, but not to enforce it. A committee of the States received uncon-
ditional powers to conclude a peace, which was accordingly concluded in
July 1 506 at Vienna ; Maximilian having again reserved to himself his
hereditary right. Although the recognition of the states of Hungary
expressed by accepting this treaty is only indirect, Maximilian thought
his own rights and those of the German nation sufficiently guaranteed by
this treaty.

He now directed his attention and his forces upon Italy. Till he was in
possession of the crown and title of emperor he did not think he had
attained to his full dignity.2

It was evident, however, that he would not be able to accomplish his
purpose with the small body of men that followed him from Hungary.

1 Istuanffy, Historia Regni Hungarici, p. 32.

2 In his declaraton to the states, Maximilian designates the convention of
Vienna as a treaty " whereby his Imperial Majesty and the German nation,
God willing, might suffer no loss of their rights in the kingdom of Hungary,
when the crown becomes vacant :" — " dadurch I. K. Mt. und deutsche Nation,
ob Gott will, an ihrer erblichen und andern Gerechtigkeit des Konigreichs Ungern,
wenn es zu Fallen kommt, nicht Mangel haben werde."

Book I.] DIET OF CONSTANCE, 1507 83

Louis XII., with whom he had shortly before concerted the most inti-
mate union of their respective houses, was led into other views by his
States. He no longer thought it advisable to permit the ambitious,
restless Maximilian, sustained by the power of a warlike nation, to get a
footing in Italy. In this the Venetians agreed. At the moment when
Maximilian approached their frontiers, they hastened (favoured by a
revolt among the Landsknechts, which gave them time) to organise a very
strong defence. Maximilian saw that, if he would obtain the crown, he
must conquer it by force of arms and in strenuous warfare. He hastened
to summon a new diet.

Once more, in the spring of 1507, the States assembled, in the plenitude
of their loyalty and devotion to the king. They were still under the
influence of recent events ; strangers were astonished at their unanimity,
and at the high consideration the king of the Romans enjoyed among
them. A remark made by the Italians is not without foundation — that a
calamity which had befallen the king had been of advantage to him in the
affairs of Germany.1 His son Philip had hardly ascended the throne of
Castile when he died unexpectedly in September, 1506. The German
princes had always regarded the rising greatness of this young monarch
with distrust. They had feared that his father would endeavour to make
him elector, or vicar of the empire, and, after his own coronation, king of
the Romans ; and this first idea of a union of the imperial authority with
the power of Burgundy and of Castile had filled them with no little alarm.
The death of Philip freed them from this fear ; the sons he left were too
young to inspire anxiety. The princes felt disposed to attach themselves
the more cordially to their king ; the more youthful hoped to conquer new
and large fiefs in his service.

On the 27th of April, 1507,'2 Maximilian opened the diet at Constance, in
the immediate neighbourhood of Italy. Never was he more impressed
with the dignity of his station than at this moment. He declared, with a
sort of shame, that he would no longer be a little trooper (kein hleinerReiter),
he would get rid of all trifling business, and devote his attention only to
the great affairs. He gave the assembly to understand that he would not
only force his way through Italy, but would engage in a decisive struggle
for the sovereignty of Italy. Germany, he said, was so mighty that it-
ought to receive the law from no one ; it had countless foot soldiers, and
at least sixty thousand horses fit for service ; they must now make an
effort to secure the empire for ever. It would all depend on the heavy
fire-arms ; the true knights would show themselves on the bridge over the
Tiber. He uttered all this with animated and confiding eloquence. " I
wish," writes Eitelwolf von Stein to the elector of Brandenburg, " that
your grace had heard him."

1 Somaria di la Relatione di Vic. Querini, Doctor, ritornato dal Re di Romani,
1507, Nov. Sanuto's Chronicle, Vienna Archives, torn. vii. He is of opinion,
that the Elector of Saxony indulged the hope of one day getting possession of
the crown. " II re a gran poder in Alemagna," he also says, " e molto amato.
perche quelli non 1' ubediva e morti."

2 Tuesday after the feast of St. Mark. Letter from Eitelwolf von Stein to
the elector of Brandenburg, April 6, 1 507, in the Berlin Archives. The previous
accounts are incorrect.

6—2

84 DIET OF CONSTANCE, 1507 [Book I.

The States replied, that they were determined to aid him, according to
their several means, to gain possession of the imperial crown.1

There remained, indeed, some differences of opinion between them.
When the king expressed his determination of driving the French out
of Milan, the States dissented. They were only disposed to force a passage
through the country in defiance of them, for a regular war with France
was not to be engaged in without negotiations. Nor would they grant
the whole of the supplies the king at first demanded. Nevertheless, the
subsidy which they assented to, in compliance with a second proposal
of his, was unusually large. It amounted to three thousand horse, and
nine thousand foot.

Maximilian, who doubted not that he should accomplish some decisive
stroke with this force, now promised, on his side, to govern any conquest
he might make according to the counsels of the States. He hinted that
the revenue she might derive from these new acquisitions would perhaps
suffice to defray the charges of the empire.2

• The States accepted this offer with great satisfaction. Whatever,
whether land or people, cities or castles, might be conquered, was to
remain for ever incorporated with the empire.

This good understanding as to foreign affairs, was favourable to some
progress in those of the nation. The diet of Cologne, while it gave up all
the projects of institutions founded upon a complete community of interests
and of powers, had continued to regard a restoration of the Imperial
Chamber as necessary. This, however, they had never been able to
accomplish : the Chamber which Maximilian had established by his own
arbitrary act had held no sittings for three years ; the salaries of the
procurators had even been stopped.3 Now, however, the diet assembled
at Constance resolved to re-establish the Imperial Chamber according to

1 Answer of the States, Frankf. A. A., torn, xxiii. : " They had appeared at
this Imperial Diet, at his majesty's request, as his lieges fully inclined to advise,
and according to their ability to aid in obtaining the imperial crown, and to offer
resistance to the design of the King of France, which he is practising against the
holy empire." — " Sie syen uf diesen Richstag uf irer Mt. Erfordern als die Gehor-
same erschienen, ganz Gemiits zu raten und ires Vermogens die kaiserliche Krone
helfen zu erlangen und des Konigs von Frankreich Furnemen, des er wider
das h. Reich in Uebung steht, Widerstand zu tun."

2 In the declaration in which he asks for 12,000 -men, he adds : " And if the
Safes now show themselves in such measure ready and prompt with help, then

is his imperial majesty willing to act after their counsel, with respect to what
money, goods, land and people will be requisite, how the same should be managed
and applied, how also the conquered domains and people are to be treated and
supported by the empire, so that the burdens in all future times may be taken
off the Germans, and, according to what is reasonable, laid upon another nation ;
also, how every king of the Romans may be supported honourably in due state
without heavily burdening the German nation." — " Und wo sich die Stend des
Reichs jetzo dermaassen dapferlich mit der Hilf erzaigen, so ist k. Mt. willig
jetzo nach irem Rat zu handeln, was von Geld Gut Land und Liiten zuston wird,
wie dasselb gehandelt und angelegt werden soil, wie auch die eroberte Herr-
schaften und Lut by dem Rich zu hanndhaben und zu erhalten syn, dadurch
die Burden in ewig Zeiten ab den Deutschen und der Billichait nach uf andre
Nation gelegt, auch ein jeder romisch Konig eehrlich und statlich on sunder
Beswerung deutscher Nation erhalten werden mog."

3 Harpprecht, ii., § 240, § 253.

Book I.] DIET OF CONSTANCE, 1507 85

the edicts of Worms. In the nomination of the members of it the electors
were to retain their privileges ; for the other estates, the division into
circles which had been determined on in Augsburg was adopted, so that
it was not entirely suffered to drop : no notice was taken of the cities.
The question now was, how this tribunal was to be maintained ? Maxi-
milian was of opinion that it would be best that each assessor should be at
the charge of the government which had appointed him : he would take
upon himself that of the j udges and the chancery of the court. Unquestion-
ably however the States were right in desiring to avoid the predominancy
of private interests which this arrangement would have favoured i1 they
offered to tax themselves to a small amount in order to pay the salaries
of the law officers. They did not choose that the court should be stripped
of the character of a tribunal common to the whole body of the States,
which had originally been given to it. With this view they determined
that every year two princes, one spiritual, the other temporal, should
investigate its proceedings, and report upon them to the States,

If we pause a moment and reflect on what preceded the diet of Con-
stance, and on what followed it, we perceive its great importance. The
matricular assessment (or register of the resources of the empire) and the
Imperial Chamber were, during three centuries, the most eminent insti-
tutions by which the unity of the empire was represented ; their definitive
establishment and the connexion between them were the work of that
diet. The ideas which had given birth to these two institutions were
originally founded on opposite principles ; but this was exactly what
now recommended them to favour ; the independence of the several
sovereignties was not infringed, while the idea of their community was
kept in view.

Another extremely important affair, that of Switzerland, was also
decided here.

Elector Berthold had been desirous of incorporating the Swiss in the
diet, and giving them a share in all the institutions he projected. But
exactly the reverse ensued. The Confederates had been victorious in a
great war with the King of the Romans. In the politics of Europe they
generally adhered to France, and they continued to draw one city after
another into their league ; and yet they pretended to remain members and
subjects of the empire. This was a state of things which became manifestly
intolerable when disputes with France arose. Whenever war broke out
with France and Italy, a diversion was to be feared on the side of Switzer-
land, the more dangerous because it was impossible to be prepared for it.

The diet resolved to come to a clear understanding on this point. An
embassy was sent by the States of the empire to Switzerland for that
purpose.

The members of it were, however, by no means confident of success.
" God send his Holy Spirit upon us," exclaims one of them : "if we
accomplish nothing, we shall bring down war upon the Swiss, and be
compelled to regard them as our Turks."

1 " Es sy not, das Cammergerichte als ain versampt Wesen von ainem Wesen
unterhalten und derselbtige underhaltung nit zerteilt werden." — " It is needful
that the imperial chamber, as a collective body, be maintained by one body,
and that the maintenance of the same be not divided." — Protocol of the Imperial
Diet in Harpprecht, ii. 443.

86 DIET OF CONSTANCE, 1507 [Book I.

But the Confederates had already, in the course of their service, fallen
out with the French, so that the ambassadors found them more tractable
than they had expected. They recalled all their troops still in Italy at
the first admonition. They promised without the slightest hesitation
to remain faithful to the empire. A deputation from them appeared at
Constance, and was most graciously received by the king, who kept them
there at his own expense and dismissed them with presents, after entering
into an agreement to take into pay, in the next war, six thousand Swiss
under the banners of the empire.

On the other hand, Maximilian made a most important concession
to them. He formally emancipated them from the jurisdiction of the
imperial courts ; declaring that neither in criminal nor in civil causes
should the Confederation, or any member of it, be subject to be cited
before the imperial chamber or any other royal tribunal.1

This measure decided the fate of Switzerland to all succeeding ages.
At the very time when the empire agreed to subject itself to a general
assessment and enrolment, and to the jurisdiction of the imperial chamber,
it abandoned all claim to impose them on the Swiss : on the contrary, it
took their troops into its pay and renounced its jurisdiction over them.
They were, as Maximilian expressed himself, " dutiful kinsmen of the
empire," who however must be kept in order when they were re-
fractory.

Although it is not to be disputed that the real political grounds of these
concessions was the increasing inclination of the Swiss to a separation
from the empire, still it was the most fortunate arrangement for that
moment. The quarrel was for a time appeased. Maximilian appeared
more puissant, more magnificent than ever. Foreigners did not doubt
that he would have, as they heard it affirmed, thirty thousand men to
lead into the field : the warlike preparations which they encountered in
some of the Swabian cities filled them with the idea that the empire was
rousing all its energies.

Maximilian indulged the most ambitious and romantic hopes. He
declared that with the noble and efficient aid granted to him, he hoped
to reduce to obedience all those in Italy who did not acknowledge the
sovereignty of the holy empire. But he would not stop there. When
he had once reduced that country to order, he would confide it to one of
his captains, and would himself march without delay against the infidels ;
for he had vowed this to Almighty God.

The slow march of the imperial troops, the procrastination of the Swiss,
the well-defended Venetian passes, doubly difficult to force in the approach-
ing winter season, were indeed calculated to rouse him from these dreams
of conquest, and turn his attention on what was really attainable. But his
high spirit did not quail. On the second of February he caused a religious
ceremony to be performed in Trent, as a consecration of his intended
expedition to Rome. Nay, as if the very object for which he was going
thither was already accomplished, he assumed, on the very same day,
the title of elected emperor of the Romans.2 Foreigners always called
him so, and he well knew that the pope, at this moment his ally, would
not oppose it. He was led to this act by different motives : on the one

*• Fryheitsbull bei Anshelm, iii. 321.

« There is a closer examination of this point in the Excursus upon Fugger.

Book I.] VENETIAN WAR. DIET OF WORMS, 1508 87

side, the sight of the formidable opposition he had to encounter, so that
he already feared he should not succeed in getting to Rome ; on the other,
the feeling of the might and independence of the empire, for which he
was anxious at all events to rescue the prerogative of giving a supreme
head to Christendom : the mere ceremony of coronation he did not regard
as so essential. To Germany, too, his resolution was of the utmost im-
portance : Maximilian's successors have always assumed the title of
Emperor immediately after their coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle ; though
only one of the whole line was crowned by the pope.1 Although Pope
Julius appeared well pleased at this assumption, it was, in fact, a symptom
of the emancipation of the German crown from the papacy. Intimately
connected with it, was the attempt of Maximilian at the same time to
revive the title of King of Germany, which had not been heard for cen-
turies. Both were founded on the idea of the unity and independence
of the German nation, whose chief was likewise the highest personage in
Europe. They were expressions of that supremacy of the nation which
Maximilian still asserted : a supremacy, however, which rapidly declined.

VENETIAN WAR. DIET OF WORMS.

It had been debated at Constance whether the imperial forces should first
attack the French or the Venetian possessions in Italy. Whatever con-
quests might be made, it was not the intention of the diet to grant them
out as fiefs (Milan had not even been restored to the Sforza), but to retain
them in the hands of the empire, as a source of public revenue.

Among the princes some were advocates for the Milanese, others, who
like the dukes of Bavaria had claims against Venice, for the Venetian,
expedition. Even among the imperial councillors, difference of opinion
prevailed. Paul von Lichtenstein, who was on good terms with Venice,
was for attacking Milan ; Matthew Lang and Eitelfritz of Zollern, on
the other hand, deemed it easier to make conquests from the Venetians
than from the French.2

The latter opinion at length prevailed. The Venetians were not to be
brought to declare that they would not take part against the king of the
Romans : on the other hand, France held out hopes that if no attempt
was made upon Milan, she would offer no obstacle to the steps taken by

1 The title of Emperor, though commonly given to Maximilian, belonged, of
right, only to those who had been crowned at Rome by the hands of the Pope, —
conditions which, as we shall see, Maximilian was never able to fulfil. At the
head of the " Holy Roman Empire (Reich) of the German Nation," stands the
King, elected by the German estates of the empire, who, however, by his election
and his coronation in Germany (at Aachen) obtains only the rights and title of
King of the Romans (Romischen Konigs), and acquires the rights and title of
Roman Emperor (Romischen Kaisers) only by his coronation at Rome ; to
which all the vassals of the empire must accompany him, and which the Pope,
if he be lawfully and duly elected, cannot refuse him. His successor bears the
title of King of the Romans. Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats-und Rechts-geschichte,
vol. ii., p. 365. — Transl.

2 Relatione di Vicenzo Quirini. He mentioned some of the council by name
as " nostri capitali inimici :" for a time, Maximilian said : " I Venetiani non
mi a fa to dispiacer e Franza si. E su queste pratiche passa il tempo."

88 VENETIAN WAR [Book I.

the empire for the assertion of its other claims in Italy.1 Strongly as the
Alps were defended, Maximilian was not to be deterred from trying his
fortune there. At first he was successful. " The Venetians," he says, in
a letter to the Elector of Saxony, dated the ioth of March, " paint their
lion with two feet in the sea, one on the plain country, the fourth on the
mountains ; we have nearly caught the foot on the Alps ; there is only
one claw missing, which, with God's help, we will have in a week ; and
then we hope to conquer the foot on the plain.2

But he had engaged in an enterprise which was destined to plunge his
affairs in general, and those of Germany in particular, into inextricable
difficulties.

In Switzerland, spite of all treaties, the French faction, especially
supported by Lucerne, soon revived ;3 the confederate troops hung back.
This so greatly weakened the German forces (the emperor having intended
to draw two thirds of the infantry from Switzerland), that the Venetians
soon had the advantage of the imperialists. They did not rest satisfied
with driving the Germans from their territory, they fell on the emperor's
own dominions, just where he was least prepared for an attack. Gorz,
Wippach, Trieste, and forty-seven places, more or less strongly fortified,
rapidly fell into their hands.

Germany was struck with astonishment and consternation. After
subsidies which had appeared so considerable, after the exertions made
by every individual for the empire, after such high-raised expectations,
the result was shame and ignominy. It was in vain that the emperor
alleged that the levies had not been furnished complete ; the fault of this
was in part ascribed to himself. The Duke of Liineburg, for example,
had never received the estimate of his contingent. But, putting that
aside : — To set out without having the least assurance of success !— to
risk his whole fortunes on the levies of a Swiss diet ! The common lot —
loss of reputation for one abortive undertaking — now fell with double
and triple force on Maximilian, whose capacity and character had always
been doubted by many.

Compelled to return immediately to Germany, Maximilian's first act
was to call the electors together. The elector palatine he did not include
with the rest ; Brandenburg was too far ; he contented himself with
sending a messenger to him. But the others assembled in the beginning
of May 1508, at Worms. Maximilian declared to them that he called
on them first, on whom the empire rested as on its foundations, for their

1 Pasqualigo, Relatione. " Non sarai molto difficil cosa che la (S. M.) diriz-
zasse la sua impresa contra questo stato, massime per il dubbio che li e firmato
nell' animo che le Eccz0 Vostre siano per torre l'arme in mano contra a lei quando
la fusse sul bello di cacciar li Francesi d'ltalia, et a questo ancora 1' inclineria
assai li onorati partiti che dal re di Francia li sono continuamente offerti ogni
volta che la voglia lassar la impresa di Milano e ricuperar le altre jurisditioni
imperiali che ha in Italia."

2 Letter from Sterzing, March 1, accompanied by a letter from Hans Renner
of the same date. He also has the best hopes.

3 In the Relatione della Nazione delli Suizzeri 1508, Informm. politiche,
torn, ix., the different persons who brought about this change are mentioned,
but their names are difficult to decipher in our copy : " Amestaver at Zug,
Nicolo Corator at Solothurn, Manforosini at Freiburg." Lucerne was the centre
of the whole movement.

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1508 89

aid in his great peril : he craved their counsel how he might best obtain
valiant, safe, and effective succours ; but, he added, without employing
the Swabian league, whose help he should stand in need of elsewhere ; and
without convoking a diet of the empire.1

Among the assembled princes, Frederick of Saxony was the most power-
ful. By his advice they declined the emperor's invitation to meet him in
Frankfurt ; principally because they found it impossible to come to any
resolution without a previous conference with the other states of the
empire.2 Maximilian replied that he was in the most perilous situation
in the world ; if the troops of the empire, whose pay was in arrear, were
now to withdraw, his country of Tyrol was inclined to join the French
and the Venetians, out of resentment against the empire, by which it was
not protected : he could in no case wait for a diet ; the loss of time would
be too great ; the utmost that could be done would be hastily to call
together the nearest princes.3 The electors persisted in demanding a diet.
They would not believe that the Swabian league entertained the thought
of separating itself from the other states ; to grant any thing on their
own responsibility and in the absence of the others, said they, would
bring hostility upon them, and be useless to the king.4 They were worked
upon by the pressing and obvious exigency of the case, only so far as to
facilitate a loan of the emperor's, by their intercession and guarantee.

The consequences of war must, in every age and country, have an
immense influence on the current of internal affairs. We have seen how
all the attempts to give to the empire a constitution agreeable to the wishes
and opinions of the States were ultimately connected with the alliance
by which Maximilian was elected king of the Romans, Austria and the
Netherlands were defended, and Bavaria reduced to subjection. On
the other hand, at the first great reverse — the unfortunate combat with
Switzerland, — that constitution received a shock from which it never
recovered. The position too which the king himself assumed, rested on
the success of his arms in the Bavarian war. It was no wonder, there-
fore, that after the great reverses he had now sustained, the whole fabric
of his power tottered, and the opposition which seemed nearly subdued
arose in new strength. Success is a bond of union ; misfortune decom-
poses and scatters.

Nor was this state of the public mind changed by the circumstance that
Maximilian, favoured by the disgust which the encroachments of the
Venetians had excited in other quarters, now concluded the treaty of
Cambrai, by which not only the pope and Ferdinand the Catholic, but the
King of Bavaria, against whom he had just made war, combined with him

1 The instruction for Matthias Lang, Bishop of Gurk ; Adolf, Count of Nassau ;
Erasmus Dopier, prebendary of St. Sebaldus at Niirnberg ; and Dr. Ulrich von
Schellenberg, is dated the last day of April, the feast of St. Wendel, 1508. (Weimar
Archives.)

2 The Archives at Weimar contain the advice of Frederick, and the answer.
(May 8, Monday after Misericordia. )

3 Letters of Maximilian from Linz, May 7, and from Siegburg, May 10.
(Weimar Archives.)

4 Answer, dated May 13, Saturday after Misericordia. (Weimar Archives.)
In return for their guarantee, they desired some security from the emperor.
The latter replied, " he could bind himself to nothing further, than to release
them from their guarantee within a year's time, upon his good faith."

90 VENETIAN WAR [Book I.

against Venice.1 This hasty renunciation of the. antipathy to France
which he had so loudly professed, this sudden revolution in his policy,
was not calculated to restore the confidence of the States.

Perhaps the present might really have been the moment in which,
with the co-operation of such powerful allies, conquests might have been
made in Italy ; but there was no longer sufficient concert among the
powers of Germany for any such undertaking. On the zist of April,
1509, the emperor made his warlike entry into the city of Worms (where
after long delays, the States had assembled),2 armed from head to foot,
mounted on a mailed charger, and followed by a retinue of a thousand
horsemen, among whom were Stradiotes and Albanians. He was destined
to encounter such an opposition as never awaited him before.

He represented to the States the advantages which would accrue to
the empire from the treaty just concluded, and exhorted them to come
to his aid with a formidable levy of horse and foot as quickly as possible,
at least for a year.3 The States answered his appeal with complaints
of his internal administration. A secret discontent, of which the fiery
impetuous Maximilian seemed to have no suspicion, had taken possession
of all minds.

The chief complaints arose from the cities ; — and indeed with good
reason.

Under Elector Berthold they had risen to a very brilliant station,
and had taken a large share in the general administration of affairs. All
this was at end since the dissolution of the Council of Regency {Regiment).
Nor were any municipal assessors admitted into the Imperial Chamber.
Nevertheless, they were compelled to contribute not only to all the other
taxes, as well as to the expenses of the administration of justice, but the
rate imposed on them at Constance was disproportionately high. Even
at Cologne they were not spared, as we saw ; they were compelled to fur-
nish nearly two sevenths of the subsidies ; but at Constance a full third
of the whole amount of foot soldiers and of money was levied upon

1 Matthias von Gurk informs the elector Frederick, Sept. 24, that he was going
with certain councillors and the daughter of the emperor to a place on the French
frontier, in order to treat concerning the peace with the Cardinal de Rohan, who
was also to come thither. " Frau Margareta handelt und muet sich mit allem
Vleiss und Ernst umb ain Frid." " The Lady Margaret negotiates and exerts
herself with all industry and earnestness for a peace."

2 By a letter of summons, Cologne, May 31, 1508, after the above-mentioned
meeting of the electors, " ein eilender Reichstag," " a speedy diet of the empire "
was announced for July 16 ; deferred at Boppart, June 26, " bis wir des Reichs
Nothdurft weiter bedenken,"— " till we have further considered the necessities
of the empire," at Cologne, July 16., fixed for All Saints' day ; at Brussels
Sept. 12, this term is once more resolved upon ; at Mechlin, Dec. 22, the reason
of the fresh delay is explained, viz. the negotiations with France ; at last,
March 15, 1509, the emperor renews his letter of summons, and fixes the term
for Judica. Fr. Ar., vols. xxiv. and xxv.

3 Verhandelung der Stennde des h. Reichs uff dem kaiserlichen Tage zu Worms
ao dm 1509. Frankft. Ar. vol. xxiv. Address of his majesty, Sunday, April 22,
at one o'clock. " Wo S. Heiligkeit nit gewest, hatte Kaiser. Mt. den Verstand
und Practica nit angenommen." Had it not been for his holiness, his imperial
majesty would not have accepted the treaty. Yet he remarks, the affair " werde
sich liederlich und mit kleinen Kosten ausfiihren lassen," — " might be executed
easily and at little cost."

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1509 91

them.1 Nay, as if this was not enough, immediatelyafterthe diet the emperor
caused the plenipotentiaries of the cities to be cited before the fiscal of the
empire, who called them to account for the continuance of the great
merchants' company, which had been forbidden by previous imperial
edicts, and demanded a fine of 90,000 gulden for carrying on unlawful
traffic. The merchants loudly protested against this sentence ; they said
that they were treated like serfs ; it were better for them to quit their
native country, and emigrate to Venice or Switzerland, or even France,
where honourable trade and dealing was not restricted ; but they were
forced at last to compound by means of a considerable sum. The cities
were not so weak, however, as to submit quietly to all this ; they had
held town-meetings (Stddtetag) and had determined to put themselves
in an attitude of defence at the next imperial diet ;2 the members of the
Swabian league as well as the others. They had not the slightest inclina-
tion to strain their resources against a republic with which they carried
on the most advantageous commercial intercourse, and which they were
accustomed to regard as the model and the natural head of all municipal
communities.3

Among the princes, too, there was much bad blood. The demands of
the imperial chamber, the irregularities in the levies of men and money
which we shall have occasion to notice again, had disgusted the most
powerful among them. The Palatinate was still unreconciled. The old
Count Palatine was dead ; his sons appeared at Worms, but they could
not succeed in obtaining their fief. The warlike zeal which had recently
inflamed many for the emperor, had greatly subsided after the bad results
of his first campaign.

But the circumstance which made a stronger impression than all the
rest, was the conduct of Maximilian with regard to his last treaties. At
the diet of Constance, the States had proposed sending an embassy to
France in order to renew negotiations with that power ; for they did not
choose to commit the whole business of the empire implicitly to its chief.
Maximilian had at that time rejected all these proposals, and professed

1 Accounts in the genuine Fugger. It appears to me that the sum amounted
to 20,000 gulden. See Jager, Schwabisches Stadtewesen, 677.

2 The resolutions of these municipal diets deserve much more accurate examina-
tion. A letter from the Swabian league, Oct. 21, 1508, calls to mind, " welcher-
maass auf vergangen gemeinem Frei und Reichsstett-Tag zu Speier der Besch-
werden halben, so den Stettboten uf dem Reichstag zu Costnitz begegnet sind,
gerathschlagt und sunderlich verlassen ist, so die Rom. Konigl. Mt. weiderum
ein Reichstag furnehmen wird, dass alsdann gemeine Frei und Reichsstette gen
Speier beschrieben werden sollten." — " In what manner, at a former common
diet of the free and imperial cities held at Spires by reason of complaints with
regard to the treatment the deputies of the cities had met with at the imperial
diet at Constance, it had been discussed and specially resolved on, in case his
majesty, the King of the Romans, should again propose a diet of the empire,
that then the free and imperial cities should be convened in common at
Spires."

3 Very curious indications of the light in which Venice was regarded by the
trading towns of Germany are still to be found at Niirnberg. That magnificent
city endeavoured in all its institutions to imitate the queen of the Adriatic. I
have seen, in MS., an application from the council of Niirnberg to the senate of
Venice for the rules of an orphan asylum, in which this sentiment is strongly
expressed . — Transl.

92 VENETIAN WAR [Book I.

an irreconciliable enmity to the French. Now, on the contrary, he had
himself concluded a treaty with France, and without consulting the
States ; nay, he did not even think himself called upon to communicate
to them the treaty when ratified.1 No wonder if these puissant princes,
who had so lately entertained the project of uniting all the powers of the
empire in a government constituted by themselves, were profoundly
disgusted. They reminded the emperor, that they had told him at
Constance that the grant he then received was the last ; and that he,
on his side, had abandoned all claim to further aids. He was persuaded,
they said, by his councillors, that the empire must help him as often
as he chose to require help ; but this notion must not be allowed to take
root in his mind, or they would have perpetually to suffer from it.

A very strong opposition thus arose on various grounds to the king's
proposals. It made no change in public opinion, that the French obtained
a brilliant victory over the Venetians, and that the latter for a moment
doubted whether they should be able to retain their possessions on the
main land. On the contrary, the first obstacle to the victorious career
of the league of Cambrai was raised in Germany. At the same moment
in which the Venetian cities in Apulia, Romagna and Lombardy fell into
the hands of the allies after the battle of Aguadello, a committee of the
States advised, and the whole body thereupon resolved, that an answer
should be sent to the emperor, refusing all succours. They declared
that they were neither able to support him in the present war, nor were
they bound to do so. Unable, because the last subsidies had been
announced to their subjects as final, and no fresh ones could be levied
without great difficulties and discontents : not bound, since the treaty
had not even been communicated to them, as was the custom from time
immemorial in all cases of the kind.2

The emperor's commissioners (for he had quitted the diet again himself
a few days after his arrival, in order to hasten the armaments on the
Italian frontier,)3 were in the utmost perplexity. What would the church,
what would France, say if the holy empire alone did not fulfil its conditions?

1 The Weimar Archives contain an opinion upon the necessity of refusing
succours, in which persons are especially complained of, " so bei S. Kais. Mt.
sein und sich allwege geflissen Ks. Mt. dahin zu bewegen Hilf bei den Stenden
des Reiches zu suchen zu solchem Furnemen, das doch ohne Rad und Bewusst
der Stennde des h. Reichs beschehen ist : " — " who are about his imperial
majesty, and in all ways strive to move his imperial majesty to seek help from
the states of the empire, towards such undertaking, which, however, has
been entered upon without the advice and knowledge of the states of the holy
empire."

2 Transactions, <S-c. " Dweile die Stende des Reichs davon kein grundliches
Wissen tragen, so hab I. Ks. Mt. wohl zu ermessen, dass wo ichts darin begriffen
Oder verleipt das dem h. Reich jetzo oder in Zukunft zu Nachtheil thate reichen,
es were mit Herzogthum Mailand oder anderm, dem Reich zustandig, dass sie
darin nit willigen konnen." — " Seeing that the states of the empire have no
thorough knowledge thereof, his imperial majesty has to consider well that if
any thing be therein contained or embodied which might tend now or hereafter
to the injury of the holy empire, be it with regard to the duchy of Milan, or any
other belonging to the empire, they cannot give their consent thereunto."

3 Not out of anger, as has been commonly believed. He declared as early
as the 22d of April, that he could not await the conclusion, and went away
two days afterwards, before the diet had fully met : the real proposition of the

Book I.] DIET OF WORMS, 1508 93

The States declined any further explanation on the matter ; if the com-
missioners had any proposition to make concerning law and order, con-
cerning the administration of justice, or the coinage, the States were
ready to entertain it. The commissioners asked whether this was the
unanimous opinion of all the States ; the States replied, that was their
unanimous resolution. The commissioners said, that nothing then
remained for them but to report the matter to the emperor, and await his
answer.

It may easily be imagined what a tempest of rage he fell into. From
the frontiers of Italy — from Trent — he dispatched a violent answer,
printed, though sealed. He began by justifying his own conduct ; especi-
ally the conclusion of the last treaty, for which he had power and authority,
' ' as reigning Roman Emperor, according to the ordinance of the Almighty,
and after high counsel and deliberation ; " he then threw the blame of his
reverses back on the States, alleging, as the cause of them, the incom-
pleteness of the subsidies. Their inability he could not admit. They
should not try to amass treasure, but think of the oath they had sworn,
and the allegiance they owed to him. Nor was that the cause of their
refusal ; it was the resentment which some had conceived because their
advice was not taken.

Before this answer arrived, the States had dispersed. No final Recess
was drawn up.

DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1 5 10; OF TREVES AND COLOGNE, 1 5 12.

Before I proceed further, I feel bound to make the confession that the
interest with which I had followed the development of the constitution
of the empire, began to decline from this point of my researches.

That at so important a moment, when the most desirable conquest was
within their grasp — a conquest which would have more than freed them
from the burdens they bore so reluctantly, and would have constituted
an interest common to all the States — they came to no agreement, shows
that all these efforts were doomed to end in nothing, and that the impossi-
bility of reaching the proposed end lay in the nature of things.

Although the emperor by no means took the active, creative part which
has been ascribed to him in the establishment of national institutions, he
evinced a strong inclination towards them ; he had a lofty conception
of the unity and dignity of the empire ; and occasionally he submitted
to constitutional forms, the effect of which was to limit his power. Nor
were there ever States so profoundly convinced of the necessity of founding
settled coherent institutions, and so ready to engage in the work, as those
over which he presided. Yet these two powers could not find the point
of coincidence of their respective tendencies.

The States saw in themselves, and in their own union, the unity of the

diet took place only on May 16, Wednesday before the Feast of the Assumption,
Casimir of Brandenburg acting as his Lieutenant (Statthalter), Adolf von Nassau
and Frauenberg as his councillors. Frankf. Ar., vol. xxiv. The letters of the
Frankfurt friend of the council (Rathsfreund), Johannes Frosch, repeat nearly
what is contained in the Archives, with some additions. It appears from both
that no final resolution was come to, although Miiller and Fels seem to imply
the contrary.

94 THE EMPEROR AND THE STATES [Book I.

empire. They had in their minds a government composed of representa-
tives of the several orders in the empire (standisches Regiment) such as
really existed in some of the separate territories of the empire ; by which
they thought to maintain the dignity of the emperor, or, if occasion de-
manded, to set fixed bounds to his arbitrary rule ; and to introduce
regularity and order into the establishments for war, finance, and law,
even at the expense of the power of the territorial sovereigns. But the
calamities of an ill-timed campaign, and the dissatisfaction of the
emperor with the part they took in foreign affairs, had destroyed their
work.

Maximilian then undertook to renovate the empire by means of similar
institutions, only with a firmer maintenance of the monarchical principle ;
resolutions to that effect were actually passed, not indeed of such a radical
and vital character as those we have just mentioned, but more practicable
in their details : but when these details came to be carried into execution,
misunderstandings, reluctances without end appeared, and suddenly every
thing was at a stand-still.

The States had been more intent on internal, Maximilian on external,
affairs ; but neither would the king so far strip himself of his absolute
power, nor the States part with so much of their influence, as the other
party desired. The States had not power to keep the emperor within
the circle they had drawn round him, while the emperor was unable to
hurry them along in the path he had entered upon.

For such is the nature of human affairs, that little is to be accomplished
by deliberation and a nice balance of things : solid and durable foundations
can only be laid by superior strength and a firm will.

Maximilian always maintained, and not without a colour of probability,
that the refusal of the empire to stand by him gave the Venetians fresh
courage.1 Padua, which was already invested, was lost again, and Maxi-
milian besieged this powerful city in vain. In order to carry on the war,
he was obliged to convoke the States anew. On the 6th of March, 1510,
a fresh imperial diet was opened at Augsburg.2 Maximilian represented
the necessity of once more bringing an army against Venice. Already he
had extended the empire over Burgundy and the Netherlands, and estab-
lished an hereditary right to Hungary ; he would now annex to it these
rich domains, on which the burdens of the state might fall, instead of
resting wholly on Germany.

The prospect thus held out produced a certain impression on the States,
yet they still remained very pacific. They wished to bring the affair to
a conclusion by a negotiation with Venice. The Republic had already
promised a payment of 100,000 gulden down, and 1 0,000 gulden yearly
tax, and the diet was extremely inclined to treat on this basis. This will

1 Rovereyt, Nov. 8, 1509. " Als uns der Stend Hilf und Beistand vorzigen
und abgeschlagen, und den Venedigern das kund, wurden sy mehr gestarkt,
suchten erst all ir Vermogen und bewegten daneben den gemein Popl in Stetten."
— " When the help and assistance of the states was withdrawn and refused us,
and this became known to the Venetians, they felt further strengthened,
examined into all their resources, and moreover stirred up the common people
in the cities." — Franhf. Ar.

* Haberlin is uncertain whether the imperial diet had been summoned for
the feast of the three kings, or for the 12th of Jan. The summons is addressed
to the observers of the feast of the three kings, i.e. Jan. 13.

Book I.] DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1510 95

appear intelligible enough, when it is remembered with how much diffi-
culty a grant of a few hundred thousand gulden was obtained. It would
at least have relieved them from the small tax raised for the support of
the Imperial Chamber, which was collected with great difficulty.1

To the emperor, however, these offers appeared almost insulting. He
calculated that the war had cost him a million ; that Venice derived an
annual profit of 500,000 gulden from Germany ; he declared that he would
not suffer himself to be put off so.

The misfortune was now, as before, that he could not inspire the States
with his own warlike ardour. All proj ects that recalled the Common Penny
or the four-hundredth man, were rejected at the first mention. A grant
was indeed at length agreed on ; they consented to raise succours according
to the census and rate (matricula) fixed at Cologne (for they rejected that
of Constance), and to keep them in the field for half a year :2 but how
could they hope to drive the Venetians from the terra firma by so slight
an effort ? The papal nuncio spoke on the subject in private to some of
the most influential princes. They answered him without reserve, that
the emperor was so ill-supported because he had undertaken the war
without their advice.

It followed by a natural reaction, that Maximilian felt himself bound
by no considerations towards the empire. When he was requested at
Augsburg not to give up his conquests at his own pleasure, he replied, that
the empire did not support him in a manner that would make it possible
to do otherwise ; he must be at liberty to conclude treaties, and to make
cessions as he found occasion. So little advance was made at this dfet
towards a good understanding and co-operation between the emperor
and the States.

The emperor rejected even the most reasonable and necessary proposals.
The States required that he should refrain from all interference with the
proceedings of the Imperial Chamber. This had been the subject of
continual discussion, and was at total variance with the idea upon which
the whole institution was founded. Maximilian, however, did not scruple
to reply, that the Chamber sometimes interfered in matters beyond its
competence : that he could not allow his hands to be tied.

No wonder if the States refused to assent to a plan which he submitted
to them for the execution of the sentences of the Imperial Chamber, not-
withstanding its remarkable merits. Maximilian proposed to draw out a
scheme of a permanent levy for the whole empire, calculated on the scale

1 Proceedings at the Imperial Diet held at Augsburg in 15 10. (Fr. Ar.)
Answer of the States, second Wednesday after Judica. They advised the
measure, in order neither to let the matter drop entirely for the future, " oder
viel nachtheiliger mid beschwerlicher Rachtigung annehmen zu miissen, als
jetzt dem heiligen. Reich zu Ehr und Lob erlangt werden mdge : " — " nor to be
obliged to accede to a more disadvantageous and oppressive arrangement, than
might now be got to the honour and praise of the holy empire."

2 The emperor desired a free promise of " the grant made at Constance for
as long as his majesty should have need of it." He was willing to give a secret
promise in return, that he wanted them for one year only. The States proposed
the levy of Cologne. The emperor replied that this shocked him ; that many
of the States were able to contribute more than that singly. They persisted,
however, and all they resolved on was, to grant the levy of Cologne for half, as
they had1 before done for a whole, year.

96 VENETIAN WAR [Book I.

of Cologne, of from one to fifty thousand men, so that, in any exigency,
nothing would be needed but to determine the amount of the subsidy
required. For, he said, a force was necessary to chastise the rebellious
who break the Public Peace or disregard the ban of the Chamber, or
otherwise refuse to perform the duties of subjects of the empire. The
fame of such an organisation would also intimidate foreign enemies. A
committee might then sit in the Imperial Chamber, charged with the
duty of determining the employment of this force in the interior.1 This
was evidently a consistent mode of carrying out the matricular system.
Maximilian, with the acuteness and sagacity peculiar to him, had once
more touched and placed in a prominent light the exact thing needed.
The States declared that this scheme was the offspring of great wisdom
and reflection ; but they were not to be moved to assent to it — they
would only engage to take it into consideration at the next diet. This
was natural enough. The very first employment of the levy would have
certainly been in Maximilian's foreign wars. The emperor's councillors,
too, with whom the States were extremely dissatisfied, would have gained
a new support in their demands.

It was not to be expected that affairs would turn out otherwise than
they did.

No new disputes arose at Augsburg : to all appearance a tolerable
harmony prevailed, but in essentials no approach was made to union.

Maximilian carried on the Venetian war for a few years longer, with
various success, and involved in ever new complications of European
policy. He interwove some threads in the great web of the history of
that age, but all his attempts to draw the empire into a fuller participation
in his views and actions were vain : neither the cities, nor even the Jews
who inhabited them, gave ear to his demands for money ; the results of
his levies were so inadequate that he was obliged to dismiss them as
useless ; the utmost he could hope was, that the succours granted him
in Augsburg would arrive at last. The surrender of one city after
another, the loss of the hope of some alleviation of the public burthens,
were partly the consequence, partly the cause, of all these misunder-
standings.

In April, 15 12, a diet again assembled at Treves, whence its sittings were
afterwards transferred to Cologne.2

The emperor began by renewing his proposal for a permanent rate and
census, and by praying for a favourable answer. The princes answered,
that it was impossible to carry this measure through in their dominions,

1 Commissioners for the maintenance of the law. " Also dass Kais. Mt.
Jemand dazu verordnet, desgleichen auch das Reich von jedem Stand etliche,
mit voller Gewalt, zu erkennen, ob man Jemand der sich beklagt dass ihm
Unrecht geschehen, Hiilfe schuldig sey und wie gross." — " So that his imperial
majesty do appoint some one ; in the same manner, also, the empire, certain
persons from each state, with full power to discover whether help, and' to what
extent, be due to any man complaining that wrong has been done him." In
each quarter of the empire was to be a president, who would summon help
upon such discovery. There was also to be a general captain for the empire.

2 The acts of this diet are to be found tolerably complete in vol. xxxi. of the
Frankfurt Collection. The letters of the Frankfurt deputy, Jacob Heller, from
the 4th of May to the 29th of June, are dated from Treves ; one on the 12th of
July from Cologne, in vol. xxix.

Book I.] DIET OF TREVES AND COLOGNE, 15 12 9;

and with their subjects ; they begged him to propose to them other ways
and means. Maximilian replied, that he trusted they would then at least
revert to the resolutions of the year 1500, and grant him the four- hundredth
man that he might gain the victory over the enemy, and a Common Penny
wherewith to maintain the victory when gained. The States did not
venture entirely to reject this proposal, feeling themselves, as they did,
bound by the promises made at Augsburg. The scheme of a Common
Penny was now resumed, but with modifications which robbed it of all its
importance : they lowered the rate extremely ; before, they had deter-
mined to levy a tax of one gulden on every thousand, capital ; now, it
was to be only one on every four thousand.1 They likewise exempted
themselves : before, princes and lords were to contribute according to
their property ; now they alleged they had other charges for the empire,
to defray out of their own exchequer. Even the representations of the
knights were immediately yielded to ; they were only to be bound to include
their vassals and subjects within the assessment. Maximilian made less
objection to this, than to the insufficiency of the tax generally ; but the
States answered that the common people were already overladen with
burthens, and that it would be impossible to extort more from them.
He then requested that at least the tax might be granted until so long
as it should have produced a million of gulden. The States replied that
the bare mention of such a sum would fill the people with terror.

The emperor's other proposition, concerning the execution of the
sentences of the Imperial Chamber, was received and discussed with
greater cordiality. Rejecting the division of the empire into four quarters,
which Maximilian, like Albert II., had once thought of adopting, the
States conceived the idea of employing the division into circles (hitherto
used only for the elections for the Council of Regency and the Imperial
Chamber) for that purpose, and of rendering it more generally applicable
to public ends. The electoral and imperial hereditary domains were also
to be included among the circles. Saxony and Brandenburg, with their
several houses, were to form the seventh ; the four Rhenish electorates
the eighth, Austria the ninth, Burgundy the tenth circle. In each
a captain or governor was to be appointed for the execution of
the law.

But this subject also gave rise to the most important differences. The
emperor laid claim to the nomination of these captains, and demanded
moreover a captain-general, whom he might employ in war, and a council
of eight members who should reside at his court ; a sort of ministry
(Regiment), from whose participation in affairs he promised himself
peculiar influence in the empire. The States, on the contrary, would
hear nothing either of these councillors, or of the captain-general, and
they insisted on reserving to themselves the nomination of the captains
of their circles.

These points gave rise to fresh and violent disputes at Cologne, in
August, 1 5 12. On one occasion the emperor refused to receive the answer
sent by the States, which, he said, was no answer, and should not remain a
moment in his hands.

1 This was the principle : — Whoever possessed 50 gulden was to pay ¥V of a
Rhenish gulden ; between 50 and 100, -£$ ; 100 and 400, 2V ; 400 and 1000, ^ ;
1000 and 1500, \ ; 2000 and 4000, i ; 4000 and 10,000, 1 gulden.

7

98 INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

It was only through the zealous endeavours of the Elector of Mainz, that
the proposal for the eight councillors was at length accepted. Their chief
office was to be that of putting an end to quarrels by conciliation. Of the
captain-general, no further mention occurs. I do not find that there was
any intention of limiting the circles in the nomination of the subordinate
captains. The subsidy was granted in the way determined by the States,
and the emperor abandoned his demand for a million.

At length, therefore, resolutions were passed, and finally embodied in a
Recess of the empire.

When, however, we come to examine whether it was executed, we find
not a trace of it. There was a numerous party which had never, from the
first, assented to the resolutions, though they had not been able to prevent
their adoption ; at the head of which was one of the most experienced and
the most respected princes of the empire — Frederick, Elector of Saxony.
The projected subsidy was never even called for, much less raised. The
eight councillors were never appointed, nor the captains, whether supreme
or subordinate. The division of the empire into ten circles did not assume
any positive character till ten years later.

INTESTINE DISORDERS.

Had the attempts to give a constitution to the empire succeeded, a con-
siderable internal agitation must necessarily have ensued, until an adapta-
tion and subordination of the several parts to the newly-created central
power had taken place. But that attempts had been made, and had not
succeeded, — that existing institutions had been rudely shaken, and no real
or vital unity been produced, — could result in nothing but a universal
fermentation.

The reciprocal rights and duties of the head of the empire and the States,
were now for the first time thrown into utter uncertainty and confusion.
The States had demanded a share in the jurisdiction and the government ;
the emperor had conceded some points and had held tenaciously to others ;
no settled boundary of their respective powers had been traced. It was
an incessant series of demands and refusals — extorted grants, inadequate
supplies — without sincere practical efforts, without material results, and
hence, without satisfaction on any side. Formerly the union of the
electors had, at least, possessed a certain independence, and had represented
the unity of the empire. Since 1504 this also was dissolved. Lastly,
Mainz and Saxony had fallen into a bitter strife, which entirely broke up
the college. The only institutions which had come to any real maturity
were the Imperial Chamber and the matricula. But how carelessly was
this constructed ! Princes who no longer existed, except in old registers,
were entered in the list ; while no notice was taken of the class of mediate
proprietors which had gradually arisen. Countless appeals were the con-
sequence. The emperor himself named fifteen secular, and five spiritual
lords, whose succours belonged to the contingent of his own dominions,
and not to the matricula of the empire ; Saxony named fifteen secular
lords and three bishops -,1 Brandenburg, two bishops and two counts ;

< In the Archives at Dresden there is an instruction from Duke George for
Dr. G. von Breyttenbach, according to which the latter was to declare at Worms
(in 1509), " das wir uns nicht anders zu ermnern wissen, denn das alles, so wir

Book I.] INTESTINE DISORDERS 99

Cologne, four counts and lords ; every one of the greater States put for-
ward mediate claims which, had not been thought of. A number of cities,
too, were challenged. Gelnhausen, by the Palatinate ; Gottingen, by the
house of Brunswick ; Duisburg, Niederwesel, and Soest, by Juliers ;
Hamburg, by Holstein.1 In the acts of the diets we find the memorial of
an ambassador of Denmark-Holstein to the States of the empire, wherein
he pleads that he has travelled two hundred miles (German) to the
emperor, but could obtain no answer either from him or his councillors ;
and now addressed himself to the States, to inform them that there was a
city called Hamburg, lying in the land of Holstein, which had been assessed
as an imperial city, but of which' his gracious masters were the natural
hereditary lords and sovereigns.'2 There was no dispute about the prin-
ciple. It was always declared in the Recesses, that the States should
retain their right over all the succours which belonged to them from
remote times ; yet in every individual case the question and the conflicting
claim were always revived. Even the most powerful princes had to com-
plain that the fiscal of the Imperial Chamber issued penal mandates
against their vassals.

In short, the Imperial Chamber excited opposition from every side.
The princes felt themselves controlled by it, the inferior States, not pro-
tected. Saxony and Brandenburg reminded the diet that they had only
subjected their sovereign franchises to the chamber under certain con-
ditions. Joachim I. of Brandenburg complained that this tribunal re-
ceived appeals from the courts of his dominions ; which had never been
done in his father's time.3 The knights of the empire, on the other hand,
were discontented at the influence exercised by the powerful princes over
the chamber ; when a prince, they said, saw that he would be defeated, he
found means to stop the course of justice. Maximilian, at least, did not
think their complaints unfounded : " Either," says he, " the poor man
can get no justice against the noble, or if he does, it is ' so sharp and fine
pointed ' that it avails him nothing." Nor were the cities backward with
their complaints. They thought it insufferable that the judge should
receive the fiscal dues ; they prayed for the punishment of the abandoned
men by whose practices many cities were, without any crime or offence,

uf dem Reychstage zu Costnitz zu Underhaltung des Kammergerichtes
zu geben bewilligt, mit Protestation beschehen, also das dye Bischoffe und
Stifte desgleichen Graven und Herrn die uns mit Lehen verwandt und auch
in unsern Fiirstenthumen sesshaftig seyn, welche auch an dem Kammergericht
nie gestanden, ichtes dabei zu thun nicht schuldig, bei solcher Freiheit bleiben." — ■
" That we have no other remembrance than that all which we consented to give
at the diet at Constance for the maintenance of the Imperial Chamber, was
accompanied with a protest ; that thus the bishops and chapters of such counts
and lords as hold of us by feudal tenure and are vassals of our principalities,
and who have never appeared before the Imperial Chamber and are under no
obligation to do so, continue to be exempt."

1 Proceedings concerning the Imperial Chamber, and such as claim exemption
from its jurisdiction : Harpprecht, Staats Archiv, iii., p. 405.

2 We know that he did not succeed. The decision of the imperial diet of
1 5 10 is the main foundation of the freedom of the empire possessed by Hamburg.
Liinig, Reichsarch. Pars Spec. Cont., iv., p. 965.

3 Letter from Frederick of Saxony to Renner, on the Wednesday after the
feast of the Three Kings, 1509 (Weim. Ar.) ; Joachim I. die crps. Christi, 1510.

7—2

ioo INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

dragged before the court : in the year 1512 they again demanded that two
assessors appointed by the cities should have seats in the chamber j1 — of
course, all in vain.
I The natural consequence of this inability of the supreme power either to
I enforce obedience or to conciliate approbation and respect, was an universal
J striving after separate and independent power — a universal reign of force,
', which singularly characterizes this period. It is worth while to try to

bring before us the several States under this aspect.
. I. In the principalities, the power of the territorial lord was much
I extended and increased. In particular ordinances we clearly trace the
idea of a legislation for the whole territory, intended to supersede local
unions or associations, traditional rules and customs ; and of an equally
general supervision, embracing all the branches of administration. A
remarkable example of this may be found in the ordinances issued by
Elector Berthold for the government of his archbishopric.2 In some
places, a perfect union and agreement subsisted between the princes and
their estates ; e.g. in the dominions of Brandenburg, both in the Mark and
Franconia : the estates contract debts or vote taxes to pay the debts of
the sovereign.3 In other countries, individual administrators become
conspicuous. We distinguish the names of such men as George Gossenbrod
in Tyrol, created by Maximilian, Regimentsherr (master or chief of the
government), and keeping strict watch over all the hereditary rights of the
sovereign. In Styria, we find Wallner, the son of the sacristan of Altot-
tingen in Bavaria who accumulated the treasure of Landshut ; in Onolz-
bach, the general accountant Prucker, who for more than thirty years
conducted the whole business of the privy chancery and the chamber of
finance. It is remarkable too that these powerful officials seldom came to
a good end. We often see them dragged before the tribunals and con-
demned to punishment : Wallner was hanged at the door of the very house
in which he had entertained princes, counts, and doctors as his guests ;
Gossenbrod was said to have ended his life by poison ; Wolfgang of
Kolberg,* raised to the dignity of count, died in prison ; Prucker was
forced to retreat to a prebend in Plassenburg.6 In order to put an end to
the arbitrary acts of the detested council of their duke, the Wurtenbergers
extorted the treaty of Tubingen in 1514. Here and there we see the
princes proceeding to open war in order to extend their territory. In the
year 1511 Brunswick, Liineburg, Bremen, Minden, and Cleves fell with
united forces on the country of Hoya, which could offer them no resist-
ance. In 1 5 14, Brunswick, Liineburg, Calenberg, Oldenburg, and Duke
George of Saxony, turned their arms against the remnant of the free
Frieslanders in the marshes. The Butjadinger swore they would rather
die than live exposed to the incessant vexations of the Brunswick officials,

1 Jacob Heller to the city of Frankfurt, June 11. " Wir Stett sein der Meinung
auch anzubringen zween Assessores daran zu setzen auch Gebrechen und Mangel
der Versammlung fiirzutragen." — " We cities are of the opinion that we should
introduce two assessors to sit there (in the court), and to bring forward the
abuses and detects of the assembly."

a Bodmann, Rheingauische Alterthumer, ii. 535.

s Buchholz, Geschichte der Mark, hi. 363. Lang, i., p. m.

4 Report in the Fugger MS.

5 Lang, i., p. 147.

Book I.] INTESTINE DISORDERS 101

and flew to arms behind the impassable ramparts of their country ; but
a traitor showed the invading army a road by which it fell upon their rear ;
they were beaten, and their country partitioned among the conquerors,
and the Worsaten and Hadeler compelled to learn the new duty of obedi-
ence to a master.1

In some cases the princes tried to convert the independence of a bishop
into complete subjection ; as, for example, Duke Magnus of Lauenburg
demanded of the bishop of Ratzeburg the same aids2 as were granted him
by his States, perhaps with twofold violence, because that prelate had
formerly served in his chancery ; he encountered a stout resistance, and
had to resort to open force.3 Or a spiritual, prince sought to extort un-
wonted obedience from the knights of his dominions, who thereupon, with
the aid of a secular neighbour, broke out in open revolt ; as the dukes of
Brunswick took the knights of Hildesheim, and the counts of Henneberg
the chapter of Fulda and the nobility connected with it, under their pro-
tection.

II. For the increasing power of the princes was peculiarly oppressive to
the knights. In Swabia the associations of the knights of the empire
(Reichsritterschaft) consolidated themselves under the shelter of the
league. In Franconia there were similar struggles for independence ;
occasionally (as, for instance, in 151 1 and 1515), the six districts (Orte) of
the Franconian knights assembled, mainly to take measures for subtracting
their business under litigation from the tribunals of the sovereign : the
results of these efforts, however, were not lasting ; here and on the Rhine
every thing remained in a very tumultuous state. We still see the war-
like knights and their mounted retainers, in helm and breastplate and with
bent cross-bow before them — for as yet the horsemen had no fire-arms — ■
riding up and down the well-known boundary line, marking the halting
places, and lying in ambush day and night in the woods, till the enemy
whom they are watching for appears ; or till the train of merchants and
their wares, coming from the city they are at war with, is seen winding
along the road : their victory is generally an easy one, for their attack is
sudden and unexpected ; and they return surrounded by prisoners and
laden with booty to their narrow stronghold on hill and rock, around which
they cannot ride a league without descrying another enemy, or go out to
the chase without harness on their back : squires, secret friends, and
comrades in arms, incessantly come and go, craving succour or bringing
warnings, and keep up an incessant alarm and turmoil. The whole night
long are heard the howlings of the wolves in the neighbouring forest.
While the States of the empire were consulting at Treves as to the means
of ensuring the execution of the laws, Berlichingen and Selbitz seized the
train of Nurnberg merchants coming from the Leipzig fair, under the con-

1 Rehtmeier, Braunschweigsche Chronik, ii., p. 861.

2 Bede — precaria ; (beten, to pray) — grants of money to the prince on extra-
ordinary occasions, such as attendance on the emperor, the marriage of a daughter,
<S-c. — Transl.

3 Chytraeus, Saxonia, p. 222. By Masch, Gesch. von Ratzeburg, p. 421, we
perceive that there were many other points of dispute. On the 28th of March,
1507, bishop and chapter were obliged to promise, "that when the sovereign
received a land-tax from his knights, it should be paid by the peasants on the
church lands just as by the peasants of any other lords."

102 INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

voy of Bamberg, and thus began the open war against the bishop and the
city. The decrees of the diet were of little avail.1 Gotz von Berlichingen
thought himself entitled to complain of the negotiations that were opened ;
for otherwise he would have overthrown the Niirnbergers and their Bur-
germeister " with his gold chain round his neck and his battle-mace in his
hand."2 At the same time another notorious band had collected under
the command of the Friedingers-in Hohenkrahn (in the Hegau), originally
against Kaufbeuern, to avenge the affront offered to a nobleman who had
sued in vain to the fair daughter of a citizen : afterwards they became a
mere gang of robbers, who made the country unsafe ; so that the Swabian
league at length stirred itself against them, and the emperor himself sent
out his best men, the Weckauf (Wake up) of Austria, and the Burlebaus,
— at whose shots, as the historical ballad says, " the mountain tottered,
the rocks were rent, and the walls riven, till the knights fled, their people,

1 Emperor and States disputed as to the amount of the levy necessary. The
emperor thought they wanted to put the affair off, and reminded them that
what had happened to-day to Bamberg, might happen to-morrow to another
city. If the succours demanded appeared too considerable, he would ask
Bamberg to be content with a hundred horses fit for service. This the States
agreed to ; but only under the condition that the ban must be first proclaimed
against outlaws or suspected persons before the troops were employed. (Frankf.
A.) The universal state of division extended even to this matter.

2 Gotzens von Berlichingen ritterliche Thaten. Ausgabe von Pistorius,
p. 127. Mullner's Chronicle (MS.) relates the whole affair, after the documents
in the Nurnberg Archives, in the following manner : — The attack was made
between Forchheim and Neusess, May 18, 15 12, by a band of 130 horse; 31
persons were carried off ; the damage done amounted to 8800 gulden ; the
horses were foddered and the booty divided in a wood near Schweinfurt. The
prisoners were concealed by the knights of Thiingen, Eberstein, Buchenau. The
council of Nurnberg hereupon took 500 foot soldiers into their pay, and announced
to the Great Council their determination to do every thing to bring the perpe-
trators to punishment. Meanwhile, " solten sie ihre Kaufmannschaft so enge
es seyn konnte, einziehen, bis die Leufte etwas besser wurden : " — "they must
draw in their dealings as much as possible till the ways became somewhat better."
And he actually produces a proclamation of ban of the 15 th of July, accom-
panied, however, by a proposal for a commission before which the accused might
clear themselves. Some did thus clear themselves ; others not. Among the
last are mentioned, Caspar von Rabenstein, Balthasar and Reichart Steinriick,
Wilhelm von Schaumburg, Dietrich and Georg Fuchs, Conrad Schott. Among
them are many Wiirzburg officials, who were jointly declared under ban by
the Imperial Chamber. As in the mean time a number of fresh attacks had
taken place, at Vilseck, Ochsenfurt, Mergentheim (in which the Commander of
the Order at Mergentheim had drawn suspicion upon himself), the Swabian
league at last came forward with an armed force, to which the Nurnbergers
added 600 men on foot, a squadron of cavalry, and a small body of artillery.
Gangolf von Geroldseck led the troops of the league ; their first move was against
Frauenstein, belonging to Hans von Selbitz : several castles were carried, and
lands taken, and at last the way was opened to a treaty. The emperor decreed
that the knights should pay 14,000 gulden as compensation. Muller asserts that
of this sum the Bishop of Wiirzburg paid 7000 gulden, the Count Palatine
Ludwig 2000, the Duke of Wiirtenberg as much, the Master of Mergentheim
1000, and Gotz himself 2000. He infers that those princes, " dieser Fehd heimlich
verwandt gewesen," — " had been privily concerned in this Feid." On the
other hand, he speaks with praise of the bishop of Bamberg and Markgrave
Frederick of Brandenburg.

Book I.] INTESTINE DISORDERS 103

surrendered, and the castle was razed to the ground."1 But there was also
many a castle in Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia for which a similar fate
was reserved. The insecurity of the roads and highways was greater than
ever ; even poor travelling scholars who begged their way along, were set
upon and tortured to make them give up their miserable pittance.2 " Good
luck to us, my dear comrades," cried Gotz to a pack of wolves which he
saw fall upon a flock of sheep, " good luck to us all and every where." He
took it for a good omen.

Sometimes this fierce and lawless chivalry assumed a more imposing
aspect, and constituted a sort of tumultuary power in the state. Franz
von Sickingen had the audacity to take under his protection the enemies
of the council which had just been re-established in Worms by the emperor ;
he began the war with that city by seizing one of its vessels on the Rhine.
He was immediately put under ban. His answer to this was, instantly
to appear before the walls of that city, to fire upon it with carronades and
culverins, lay waste the fields, tear up the vineyards, and prevent all
access to the town. The Whitsuntide fair could not be held either in 1 5 1 5
or 1 5 16. The States of the circle of the Rhine assembled, but dared not
come to any resolution ; they thought that could only be done at an im-
perial diet.3 It is indisputable that some princes, out of opposition either
to the emperor or to the Swabian league, favoured, or at least connived at,
these acts of violence. The knights were connected with the party
among the princes which was inclined neither to the emperor nor to the
league. '

III. The cities were exposed to annoyance and injury from all sides ; j
from the imperial government, which continually imposed fresh burthens J
upon them ; from these lawless knights, and from the princes, who in !
1 5 1 2 agitated the old question of the Pf ahlbiirger.4 But they made a
most gallant defence. How many a robber noble did Lubeck drag from
his stronghold ! Towards the end of the fifteenth century that city con-
cluded a treaty with neighbouring mediate cities, the express object of
which was to prevent the landed aristocracy from exceeding the powers
they had hitherto exercised. It availed nothing to King John of Denmark
that the Emperor Maximilian for a time favoured his attempts. In the
year 1 509, the Hanse towns or rather a part of them, attacked his islands,
beat his ships at Helsingor, carried away his bells for their chapels, and re-
mained absolute masters on the open sea. A Lubeck vessel boarded by
three Danish ones near Bornholm beat off two of them and captured the
third : in the year 1 5 1 1 the Lubeck fleet returned to the Trave with
eighteen Dutch ships as prizes.6

1 Anonymi Carmen de Obsidione et Expugnatione Arcis Hohenkrayen, 15 12.
Fugger, both MS. and printed. Gassari Annales ad ann. 1512.

2 Plater's Lebensbeschreibung. The period he speaks of is about the year
151 5, as he immediately afterwards mentions the battle of Marignano.

3 Zorn's Wormser Chronik. in Munch's Sickingen, iii.

4 Pfahlbiirger (from Pfahl, pale or stake) were originally persons inhabiting
a town, but not enjoying all the rights of citizenship. (See Golden Bull, cap. 16.)
They were often free peasants, subject to the sovereign lord's jurisdiction, but
not his serfs. It seems that they availed themselves of the protection and
security afforded by the cities to the prejudice of the lord's feudal rights, and
formed associations to resist him. (See Eichhorn, ii. 162.)

6 Becker, Geschichte von Liibek, vol. i., p. 488.

104 INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

Nor did the inland cities make a less spirited resistance to those aggres-
sions from which they were not protected by the Swabian league. How
admirably did Niirnberg defend herself ! For every injury she sustained,
she carried her vengeance home to the territory of the aggressor, and her
mounted bands frequently made rich captures. Woe to the nobles who
fell into their hands ! No intercession either of kinsmen or of neighbouring
princes availed to save them ; the council was armed with the ever-ready
excuse that the citizens absolutely demanded the punishment of the
offender. In vain did he look out from the bars of his prison towards the
forest, watching whether his friends and allies were not coming to his
rescue : Berlichingen's story sufficiently shows us with how intense a dread
even those of her neighbours who delighted the most in wild and
daring exploits regarded the towers of Niirnberg. Noble blood was
no security either from the horrors of the question or the axe of the
executioner.1

Sometimes, indeed, commercial difficulties arose — for example, in the
Venetian war — which could not be met with the same vigour by the inland
towns as the Hanseats displayed at sea, but the effects of which they found
other means to elude. All intercourse with Venice was in fact forbidden,
and the Scala which had obtained the proclamation of the ban, often
arrested the merchandise travelling along that road ; though this was done
only in order to extort money from the owners for its redemption. I find
that one merchant had to pay the emperor three thousand ducats transit
duty, on three hundred horse-load of goods : the Tyrol government had
formerly appointed a commissary in Augsburg, whose business it was to
collect regular duties on those consignments of goods the safety of which
I it then guaranteed. The towns accommodated themselves to the times
1 as they could ; thankful that their trade was not utterly destroyed. The
I connexion with the Netherlands, established by the house of Austria, had
; meanwhile opened a wide and magnificent field for commercial enterprise.
J Merchants of Niirnberg and Augsburg shared in the profits of the trade
■ to the East and West Indies.2 Their growing prosperity and indispensable
assistance in all pecuniary business gave them influence in all courts, and
especially that of the emperor. In defiance of all decrees of diets, they
maintained " their friendly companies ;" associations to whose hands the
smallest affairs as well as the largest were committed. There is sufficient
j ground for the belief that they gave occasion to many just complaints of
| the monopoly which was thus vested in few hands ; since the importers
' of wares had it in their power to regulate the price at will.3 But they
nevertheless maintained a strong position in the assemblies of the empire.
The abortive results of the diets held from 1509 to 15 13 were chiefly
caused by their opposition. They found means to get the proposed mea-
sures concerning the Pfahlburger, in virtue of which goods were to pay
duty, not to the town in which the owner of them lived, but to the sovereign

1 Milliner's Chronicle is full of anecdotes of this land.

2 Gassarus (Annales in Mencken, i. 1743) names those of the Welser, Gossen-
brot, Fugger, Hochstetter, Foelin ; the last are without doubt the Vehlin. He
reckons the dividends from the first voyage to Calcutta at 175 per cent.

3 Jager, Schwabisches Stadtewesen, i. 669. As early as 1495, the plan was
entertained of taxing the great companies. Datt., p. 844, nr. 16. Things
remained in this state from one diet to another.

Pook I.] INTESTINE DISORDERS 105

or lord in whose dominions that town was situated, indefinitely adjourned.
(a.d. 1512.)1

It is evident that the peaceful security, the undisturbed prosperity,
which are often ascribed to those times, had no existence but in imagination.
The cities kept their ground only by dint of combination, and of unwearied
activity, both in arms and in negotiation.

There was also a vehement and continual ferment in the interior of the
towns. The old struggle between the town councils and the commons or
people was continually revived by the increasing demands for money made
by the former and resisted by the latter ; in some places it led to violence
and bloodshed. In the year 1 5 10 the Vierherr2 Heinrich Kellner was exe-
cuted in Erfurt for having, in the financial straits of the city, allowed the
house of Saxony to redeem Capellendorf for a sum of money : all the
following years were marked with violence and disorder. In Regensburg
the aged and honest Lykircher, who had frequently held the offices of
chamberlain, hansgrave, and judge of the peace, was brought to trial ;
and, though the treasonable acts of which he was accused were never
proved against him, was barbarously tortured in the Holy Week of 1513,
and shortly afterwards put to death.3 In Worms, first the old council,
and afterwards its successor, was driven out. In Cologne the commons
were furiously incensed against the new contributions with which they
were vexed ; and still more against an association or company called the
Garland, to which the most criminal designs were imputed.4 Similar
disturbances took place in Aix-la-Chapelle, Andernach, Speier, Hall in
Swabia, Liibeck, Schweinfurt, and Niirnberg :6 in every direction we meet
with imprisonments, banishments, executions. Domestic grievances were
often aggravated by the suspicion of a criminal understanding with
neighbouring states. In Cologne it was Guelders ; in Worms and Regens-
burg, Austria ; in Erfurt Saxony, which was the object of their suspicions.
The feeling of public insecurity burst forth in acts of the wildest violence.

IV. Nor was this excitement and agitation confined to the populations
of towns ; throughout the whole breadth of the empire, the peasantry
was in an equal state of ferment. The peasants of the Swiss mountains
had completely changed their relation to the empire : from the condition
of subjects, they had passed to that of free and independent allies : those
of the marches of Friesland on the contrary had succumbed to the neigh-

1 A counter representation from Wetzlar and Frankfurt " Es wurde dem Reich
und ihnen ein merklicher Abbruch seyn und wider ihre Privilegien laufen." —
" It would be a signal injury to the empire and to them, and go against their
privileges." (Fr. A.)

2 Vierherr and Hansgraf are among the numerous titles of magistrates used
in different parts of Germany. The former was probably the title of the four
chief magistrates, like the four Syndics of Hamburg. The Hansgraf was a sort
of president of the board of trade (if I may so apply the words) in the Hanse
towns. There are still, I am told, two Hansgrafen in Liibeck. — Transl.

3 Chronicle of Regensburg, vol. iv., part iii.

4 Rhythmi de Seditione Coloniensi in Senkenberg, Selecta Juris et Hist., iv.,
nr. 6.

5 Baselii Auctarium Naucleri, p. 1016. " Ea pestis pessimae rebellionis
adversus senatum in plerisque — civitatibus irrepsit. Trithemius (Chronic.
Hirsaug., ii., p. 689) reckons them up, adding the remarks, " et in aliis quarum
vocabula memoriae non occurrunt."

ro6 INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

bonring sovereigns ; the Ditmarschers alone stood for a while after a
glorious and successful battle, like a noble ruin amidst modern edifices.
The antagonist principles which, in distant lands and from the furthest
marches of the empire, gave rise to these conflicts, came into contact under
| a thousand different forms in the heart of the country. The subsidies
j for the empire and its growing necessities fell ultimately on the peasant ;
j the demands of the sovereign, of the holders of church lands, and of the
■ nobility, were all addressed to him.1 On the other hand, in some countries
J the common people were made to bear arms ; they formed the bands of
landsknechts which acquired and maintained a name amongst European
' troops ; they once more felt the strength that was in them. The example
of the Swiss was very seducing to the south of Germany. In the country
round Schletstadt, in Alsatia, a society of discontented citizens and
peasants, the existence and proceedings of which were shrouded in the
i profoundest secrecy, was formed as early as the year 1493. Traversing
| almost impassable ways, they met at night on solitary mountains, and
) swore never in future to pay any tax which was not levied with their
; own free consent ; to abolish tolls and duties, to curtail the privileges of
j the clergy, to put the Jews to death without ceremony, and to divide
their possessions. They admitted raw members with strange ceremonies,
specially intended to appal traitors. Their intention was in the first place
to seize on Schletstadt, immediately after to display the banner with the
device of the peasant's shoe,2 to take possession of Alsatia, and to call
the Swiss to their aid.3 But in spite of the fearful menaces which accom-
panied the admission to the society, they were betrayed, dispersed, and
punished with the utmost severity. Had the Swiss in 1499 understood
their own advantage and not excited the hatred of their neighbours by
their cruel ravages, the people along their whole frontier would, as con-
temporaries affirm, have flocked to join their ranks. An incident shows
the thoughts that were afloat among the people. During the negotiations
preceding the peace of Basle, a peasant appeared in the clothes of the
murdered Count of Fiirstenberg. " We are the peasants," said he, " who
punish the nobles." The discovery and dispersion of the conspiracy
above-mentioned by no means put an end to the Bundschuh. In the
year 1 502 traces of this symbol were found at Bruchsal, from whence the
confederates had already gained over the nearer places, and were extending
their ramifications into the more remote. They declared that in answer
to an inquiry addressed to the Swiss they received an assurance that the
, Confederation would help the right, and risk life and limb in their cause.
There was a tinge of religious enthusiasm in their notions. They were to
I say five Pater nosters and Ave Marias daily. Their war-cry was to be,

1 Rosenbliit complains that the noble draws his maintenance from the peasant,
and yet does not insure him any peace ; that he is constantly pushing his demands
further, whereupon the peasant answers with abuse, and the noble rides down
his cattle.

2 The Bundschuh ; the large rude shoe bound on the foot with thongs of
leather, commonly worn by the Swabian peasantry and borne on their
banner in the servile war to which they were driven by intolerable oppression.
The Bund or league of the peasants was afterwards called the Bundschuh.
— Transl.

3 Herzog, Edelsasser Chronik, c. 71, p. 162.

Book I.] INTESTINE DISORDERS 107

" Our Lady !" They were to take Bruchsal, and then march forth and f
onward, ever onward, never remaining more than twenty-four hours in
a place. The whole peasantry of the empire would join them, of that there
was no doubt ; all men must be brought into their covenant, that so the
righteousness of God might be brought upon earth.1 But they were
quickly overpowered, scattered, and their leaders punished with death.

The imperial authorities had often contemplated the danger of such
commotions. Among the articles which the electors projected discussing j
at their diet of Gelnhausen, one related to the necessity of alleviating thej
condition of the common people.2 It was always the conclusive argument)
against taxes like the Common Penny, that there was reason to fear theyj
would cause a rebellion among the people. In the year 15 13, the authori-'
ties hesitated to punish some deserters from the Landsknechts, because
they were afraid that they might enter into a combination with the
peasants, whose permanent conspiracy against the nobles and clergy had
been discovered from the confessions of some who had been arrested in
the Breisgau. In the year 15 14, they rose in open and complete rebellion s
in Wiirtenberg under the name of Poor Kunz (der armer Kunz) : the I
treaty of Tubingen did not satisfy the peasants ; it was necessary to put j
them down by force of arms.3 We hear the sullen mutterings of a fierce «
untamed element, incessantly going on under the very earth on which we
stand.

While such was the state of Germany, the emperor was wholly occupied
with his Venetian war ; — at one time fighting with the French against the
Pope and the Venetians, at another with the Pope and the English against
the French : the Swiss, now in alliance with him, conquer Milan and
lose it again ; he himself, at the head of Swiss and Landsknechts, makes
an attempt to recover it, but in vain. We see him repeatedly travelling
from Tyrol to the Netherlands, from the sea-coast back to the Italian Alps ;
like the commander of a beleaguered fortress, hurrying incessantly from
bastion to bastion, and watching the propitious moment for a sortie.
But this exhausted his whole activity ; the interior of Germany was
abandoned to its own impulses.

A diet was appointed to be held at Worms again, in the year 1 5 1 3 ; and
on the 1st June we find a certain number of the States actually assembled.
The emperor alone was wanting. At length he appeared, but his business
did not allow him to remain : under the pretext that he must treat in
person with the dilatory electors of Treves and Cologne, he hurried down
the Rhine, proposing to the States to follow him to Coblentz. They chose
rather to disperse altogether.4 " Of a truth," writes the Altburgermeister

1 Frank! Acten, vol. xx. Baselii Auctarium, p. 997.

2 " Der mit Fron Diensten Atzung Steure geistlichen Gerichten und andern
also merklich beschwert ist, dass es in die Harre nicht zu leiden feyn wird." —
" Who is so signally burthened with feudal services, taxes, ecclesiastical courts,
and other things, that in the long run it will not be to be borne."

3 Wahraftig Unterrichtung der Ufrur bei Sattler Herzoge, i., App. no. 70.

4 In the Frankfurt Acts, vol. xxx., there is a letter from Worms to Frankfurt,
according to which the States present, " prima Junii nechst verruckt einhelliglich
entschlossen und den kaiserlichen. Commissarien fur endlich Antwort geben, dass
sie noch zehn Tag allhie bei einander verziehen und bleiben, und wo inen in mitler
Zeit nit weiter Geschefte Oder Befel von Kais. Mt zukommen, wollen sie alsdann
sich alle wieder von dannen anheim thun." — " On the first of June just past,

108 INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

of Cologne to the Frankfurters, " you have done wisely that you stayed
at home ; you have spared much cost, and earned equal thanks."

It was not till after an interval of five years (a.d. 1517), when not only
Sickingen's private wars threw the whole of Upper Germany into confusion,
but the universal disorder of the country had become intolerable, that a
diet was held again ; — this time at Mainz, in the chapter house of which
city it was opened on the 1st July.

The imperial commissioners demanded vast succours for the suppression
of the disturbances — not, as before, every four hundredth, but every fiftieth
man ; the States, however, did not deem it advisable to resort to arms.
The poor husbandman, already suffering under the torments of want and
famine, might, " in his furious temper," be still further exasperated ; the
rage which had long gnawed at his heart might burst forth ; a universal
rebellion was to be feared. They desired rather to put down the pre-
vailing disturbances by lenity and conciliation ; they entered into negotia-
tions on all sides — even with Sickingen ; above all, they appointed a com-
mittee to inquire into the general state of the country, and into the causes
of the universal outbreak of disturbances. The imperial commissioners
wanted to dissolve the assembly on the ground that they could do nothing
without ascertaining the opinion of his imperial majesty ; but the States
would not consent to be put off so : the sittings of the committee, two
members of which were nominated by the cities, were solemnly opened
by a mass for the invocation of the Holy Ghost (Missa Sancti Spiritus).
On the 7th August, 1517, they laid their report before the diet.

It is very remarkable that the States discover the main source of the
whole evil in the highest and most important institution that had been
founded in the empire — in the Imperial Chamber ; and in the defects in
! its constitution and modes of procedure. The eminent members of that
' tribunal, they said, were gone, and incapable ones put in their places.
The procedure was protracted through years ; one great cause of which
was, that the court received so many appeals on trifling matters that
the important business could not be despatched. Nor was this all. The
court had not free course ; it was often ordered to stay all proceedings. If,
after long delays and infinite trouble, a suitor succeeded in getting judg-
ment pronounced, he could not get it executed ; his antagonist obtained
mandates to prevent its execution. The consequence was, that the highest
penalties of the law, the ban and reban (Acht und Aberacht), had no longer
terrors for any one. The criminal under ban found shelter and protection ;
and as the other courts of justice were in no better condition — in all,
incapable judges, impunity for misdoers, and abuses without end — disquiet
and tumult had broken out in all parts. Neither by land nor by water
were the ways safe ; no safe-conduct, whether of the head or the members

unanimously resolved, and give this their final answer to the imperial commis-
sioners, that they shall tarry and remain here together ten days longer, and if,
meantime, no further business or command reach them from his imperial majesty,
they shall all in that case betake themselves thence home." In an address of
the 20th of August, Maximilian announces a new diet of the empire, " Die geringe
Anzahl der erschienenen Stande habe ihren Abschied genommen, da sie sich
keiner Handlung verfangen mogen." — " The small number of states which had
appeared, had taken their leave, as they were unwilling to meddle with any
business."

Book L] INTESTINE DISORDERS 109

of the empire, was the least heeded ; there was no protection, whether
for subjects or for such foreigners as were entitled to it : the husbandman,
by whose labours all classes were fed, was ruined ; widows and orphans
were deserted ; not a pilgrim or a messenger or a tradesman could travel
along the roads, whether to fulfil his pious duty, or to deliver his message,
or to execute his business. To these evils were added the boundless luxury
in clothing and food ; the wealth of the country all found its way into
foreign lands, especially to Rome, where new exactions were daily invented :
lastly, it was most mischievous to allow the men at arms, who had some-
times been fighting against the emperor and the empire, to return to their
homes, where they stirred up the peasantry to rebellion.

And while such was the statement of public grievances, the particular
petitions and remonstrances were countless. The inhabitants of Worms
complained of " the inhuman private warfare {Fehde) which Franciscus
von Sickingen, in despite and disregard of his honour, carried on against
them ;" to which the deputies from Spires added, that Sickingen's troops
had the design to burn down the Spital of their city. Muhlhausen com-
plained in its own name, and those of Nordhausen and Goslar, that they
paid tribute for protection and were not protected : Liibeck enumerated
all the injuries it sustained from the King of Denmark, from nobles and
commons ; it could obtain no help from the empire, by which it was so
heavily burthened ; it must pay its money to the Imperial Chamber,
which always gave judgment against it, and never in its favour. Other
towns said nothing of their grievances, because they saw it was of no
avail. Meantime the knights held meetings at Friedberg, Gelnhausen,
Bingen, and Wimpfen, whither the emperor sent delegates to appease them.
Anna of Brunswick, the widowed Landgravine of Hessen, appeared in
person at the diet, and uttered the bitterest complaints : she said she
could obtain no justice in Hessen ; that she vainly followed the emperor
and the Imperial Chamber from place to place ; her dowry of Melsungen
was consumed ; she was reduced to travel about like a gipsy, with a
solitary maid-servant, and to pawn her jewels and even her clothes ; she
could not pay her debts, and must soon beg her bread.

" Summa Summarum," writes the delegate from Frankfurt, " here is
nothing but complaint and wrong ; it is greatly to be feared that no
remedy will be found."1 The States made the most urgent appeals to
the emperor : they conjured him for God's sake, for the sake of justice,
for his own, for that of the holy empire, of the German nation, nay of all
Christendom, to lay these things to heart ; — to remember how many
mighty states had fallen, through want of inward tranquillity and order ;
to look carefully into what was passing in the minds of the common
people, and to find a remedy for these great evils.

Such were the words addressed to him ; but they were but words. A
remedy — a measure of the smallest practical utility — was not so much as

1 Philip Fiirstenberg, July 26. In the 32d vol. of the Frankf. A., where
generally the transactions of this diet are to be found. " Wo Kais. Mt.," he
says, on the 16th of Aug., of the representations which were made, " dieselbig
als billig und wol ware verwilligen wiirde, hofft ich alle Dinge sollten noch gut
werden, wo nicht, so helf uns Gott." " If his imperial majesty would comply
with the same, as were reasonable and right, I should hope that all things might
yet go well; if not, then God help us."

no INTESTINE DISORDERS [Book I.

suggested ; the diet was dissolved without having even proceeded to one
resolution.

And already the excited mind of the nation was turned towards other
evils and other abuses than those which affected its civil and political
condition.

In consequence of the intimate union between Rome and Germany,
in virtue of which the Pope was always a mighty power in the empire, a
grave discussion on spiritual affairs had become inevitable. For a time,
they had fallen into the back-ground, or been the subject only of chance
and incidental mention : now, however, they attracted universal atten-
tion ; the vigorous and agitated spirit of the nation, weary and disgusted
with the present and the past, and eagerly striving after the future, seized
upon them with avidity. As a disposition was immediately manifested
to go to the bottom of the subject, and to proceed from a consideration of
the external interference of the church, to a general and thorough exami-
nation of its rights, this agitation speedily acquired an importance which
extended far beyond the limits of the internal policy of Germany.

BOOK II.

EARLY HISTORY OF LUTHER AND OF CHARLES V.

1517 — 1521.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF THE RELIGIOUS OPPOSITION.

Whatever hopes we may entertain of the final accomplishment of the
prophecies of an universal faith in one God and Father of all which have
come down to us in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, it is certain
that after the lapse of more than ten centuries that faith had by no means
overspread the earth. The world was filled with manifold and widely
differing modes and objects of worship.

Even in Europe, the attempts to root out paganism had been but
partially successful ; in Lithuania, for example, the ancient worship of \
the serpent endured through the whole of the 15th and 16th centuries, ]
and was even invested with a political significance -,1 and if this was the
case in Europe, how much more so in other portions of the globe. In every
clime men continued to symbolise the powers of nature, and to endeavour
to subdue them by enchantments or to propitiate them by sacrifices :
throughout vast regions the memory of the dead was the terror of the
living, and the rites of religion were especially designed to avert their
destructive interference in human things ; to worship only the sun and
moon supposed a certain elevation of soul, and a considerable degree of
civilisation.

Refined by philosophy, letters, and arts, represented by vast and
powerful hierarchies, stood the mightiest antagonists of Christianity —
the Indian religion and Islam ; and it is remarkable how great an internal
agitation prevailed within them at the epoch of which we are treating.

Although the Brahminical faith was, perhaps, originally founded on •
monotheistic ideas, it had clothed these in a multiform idolatry. But at j
the end of the 1 5th and beginning of the 16th century, we trace the progress 1
of a reformer in Hindostan. Nanek, a native of Lahore, endeavoured to !
restore the primitive ideas of religion, and to show the advantages of a J
pure morality over a merely ceremonial worship : he projected the aboli- ,'
tion of castes, nay, even a union of Hindoos and Moslem ; he presents one J
of the most extraordinary examples of peaceful unfanatical piety thej
world ever beheld.2 Unfortunately, his efforts were unsuccessful. The!
notions he combated were much too deeply rooted ; even those who called
themselves his disciples — the Sikhs — paid idolatrous honours to the man;
who laboured to destroy idolatry. :

A new and very important development of the other branch of the
religions of India — Buddhism — also took place in the fifteenth century.

1 jEneas Silvius de Statu Europae, c. 20. Alexander Guagninus in Resp.
Polonise. Elz., p. 276.

2 B'hai Guru the B'hale in Malcolm's Translation, Sketch of the Sikhs. Asiatic
Researches, xvi. 271. That holy man made God the Supreme known to all — he
restored to virtue her strength, blended the four castes into one — established
one mode of salutation.

in

H2 ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS OPPOSITION [Book II.

i The first regenerated Lama appeared in the monastery of Brepung, and
! was universally acknowledged throughout Thibet ; the second incarnation
! of the same (from 1462 to 1542) had similiar success in the most remote
Buddhist countries ;J from that time hundreds of millions revere in the
( Dalailama at Lhassa the living Buddha of the present,— the unity of the
; divine trinity, — and throng thither to receive his blessing. It cannot be
' denied that this religion had a beneficial influence on the manners of rude
nations ; but, on the other hand, what fetters does such a fantastic deifi-
cation of human nature impose on the mind ! Those nations possess the
materials for forming a popular literature, a wide diffusion of the know-
ledge of the elements of science, and the art of printing ; but the literature
itself — the independent exercise and free utterance of the mind, can
never exist ;2 nor are such controversies as those between the married and
unmarried priests, or the yellow and the red professions which attach
themselves to different chiefs, at all calculated to give birth to it. The
rival Lamas make pilgrimages to each other, and reciprocally recognise
each other's divine character.

The same antagonism which prevailed between Brama and Buddha,
subsisted in the bosom of Islam, from its very foundation, between the
three elder Chalifs and Ali ; in the beginning of the sixteenth century
the contest between the two sects ,3 which had been dormant for awhile,
broke out with redoubled violence. The sultan of the Osmans regarded
himself (in his character of successor to Abubekr and the first Chalifs) as
the religious head of all Sunnites, whether in his own or foreign countries,
from Morocco to Bokhara. On the other hand, a race of mystic Sheiks
of Erdebil, who traced their origin from Ah, gave birth to a successful
warrior, Ismail Sophi, who founded the modern Persian monarchy, and
secured once more to the Shiites a powerful representation and an illus-
trious place in history. Unfortunately, neither of these parties felt the
duty or expediency of fostering the germ of civilisation which had lain
in the soil since the better times of the early Chalif at. They only developed
the tendency to despotic autocracy which Islam so peculiarly favours, and
worked up political hostility to an incredible pitch of fury by the stimu-
lants of fanaticism. The Turkish historians relate that the enemy who
had fallen into Ismail's hands were roasted and eaten.4 The Osman, Sultan
Selim, on the other hand, opened the war against his rival by causing all
the Shiites in his land, from the age of seven to seventy, to be hunted out
and put to death in one day ; " forty thousand heads," says Seadeddin,

1 Fr. Georgi Alphabetum Tibetanum, p. 326, says of it : " Pergit inter Tar-
taros ad amplificandam religionem Xacaicam in regno Kokonor cis murum
magnum Sinorum : inde in Kang : multa erigit asceteria : redit in Brepung."
He bears the name of So-nam-kiel vachiam-tzho, and is notwithstanding the old
Reval-Kedun, who died in 1399.

2 Hodgson, Notice sur la Langue, la Literature, et la Religion des Boudhistes.
" L'ecriture des Tibetains n'est jamais employee a rien de plus utile que des
notes des affaires ou de plus instructif que les reves d'une mythologie absurde,"
<S<c. The objections of Klaproth, Nouv. Journ. Asiatique, p. 99, are not in
my opinion of much weight, as the question is not concerning a literature, which
may be old, or the existence of which may be unknown, but a living one of the
present day.

3 Sunnites and Shiites, the two great parties amongst the Mahommedans.

4 Hammer, Osmanische Gesch., ii. 345.

Chap. I.] ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS OPPOSITION 113

" with base souls." The antagonists were, as we perceive, worthy of
each other.

In Christendom, too, a division existed between the Grseco-Oriental
and the Latin Church, which, though it did not lead to acts of such savage
violence, could not be healed. Even the near approach of the resistless
torrent of Turkish power which threatened instant destruction, could not
move the Greeks to accede to the condition under which the assistance
of the West was offered them — the adoption of the distinguishing formulae
of confession — except for the moment, and ostensibly. The union which
was brought about at Florence,1 in the year 1439, with so much labour,
met with little sympathy from some, and the most violent opposition from
others : the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, loudly
protested against the departure from canonical and synodal tradition,
which such an union implied ; they threatened the Greek emperor with
a schism on their own part, on account of the indulgence he showed to
the Latin heterodoxy.2

If we inquire which of these several religions had the greater external
and political strength, we are led to the conclusion that Islam had un-
questionably the advantage. By the conquests of the Osmans in the 1 5 th
century, it had extended to regions where it had been hitherto unknown,
almost on the borders3 of Europe ; combined too with political institutions
which must inevitably lead to the unceasing progress of conversion. It
reconquered that sovereignty over the Mediterranean which it had lost
since the eleventh century. Its triumphs in India soon equalled those
in the West. Sultan Baber was not content with overthrowing the !
Islamite princes who had hitherto held that land. Finding, as he ex- 1
pressed it, " that the banners of the heathen waved in two hundred cities ]
of the faithful — that mosques were destroyed and the women and children i
of the Moslem carried into slavery," he proclaimed a holy war against the !
Hindoos, as the Osmans had done against the Christians. On the eve
of a battle he resolved to abjure the use of wine ; he repealed taxes which
were inconsistent with the Koran, and enkindled the ardour of his troops
by a vow sworn upon this their sacred book ; his reports of his victories
are conceived in the same spirit of religious enthusiasm, and he thus earned
the title of Gazi.* The rise of so mighty a power, actuated by such ideas,
necessarily gave a vast impulse to the propagation of Islam throughout
the East.

But if, on the other hand, we endeavour to ascertain which of these
different systems possessed the greatest internal force, — which was preg-
nant with the most important consequences to the destiny of the human

1 For the Council of Florence brought about under Eugenius IV., 1439, cf.
Creighton, vol. ii., p. 184. The well-known fresco in the Riccardi Palace com-
memorates this meeting of the Eastern and Western Churches.

2 Passages from their letter of admonition in Gieseler Kirchengeschichte,
ii. 4., p. 545.

3 Borders of Europe, or more accurately, of Western Europe. The Turks'
first conquest in Europe was that of Gallipoli, 1358. By the close of the fifteenth
century they had taken Constantinople (1453) and most of the Balkan Peninsula.
Cf. Cambridge Modern History, vol. i., c. iii., and Clarendon Press Historical
Geography Series, No. viii.

4 Baber's own Memoirs, translated into English by Leyden and Erskine, into
German by Kaiser, 1828, p. 537, and the two firmans thereto annexed.

ii4 ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS OPPOSITION [Book II.

race, — we can as little fail to arrive at the conviction (whatever be our
religious faith), that the superiority was on the side of Latin Christendom.
Its most important peculiarity lay in this— that a slow but sure and
unbroken progress of intellectual culture had been going on within its
bosom for a series of ages. While the East had been convulsed to its very
centre by torrents of invasion like that of the Mongols, the West had
indeed always been agitated by wars, in which the various powers of society
were brought into motion and exercise ; but neither Tiad foreign tribes
overrun the land, nor had there been any of those intestine convulsions
which shake the foundations of a society in an early and progressive
stage of civilisation. Hence all the vital and productive elements of
human culture were here united and mingled : the development of society
had gone on naturally and gradually ;" the 'innate passion and genius for
science and for art constantly received fresh food and fresh inspiration,
and were in their fullest bloom and vigour ; civil liberty was established
upon firm foundations ; solid and symmetrical political structures arose
in beneficent rivalry, and the necessities of civil life led to the combination
and improvement of physical resources ; the laws which eternal Providence
has impressed on human affairs were left" to their free and tranquil opera-
tion ; what had decayed crumbled away and disappeared, while the
germs of fresh life continually shot up • and' flourished : in Europe were
found united the most intelligent, the bravest, and the most civilised
nations, still in the freshness of youth. '

Such was the world which how sought; like its eastern rival, to extend
its limits and its influence. Four centuries had elapsed since, prompted
by religious motives, it had made attempts at conquest in the East ; but
after a momentary success these had failed — only a few1 fragments of
these acquisitions remained in its possession. But at the end of the
fifteenth century, a new theatre for boundless activity was opened to the
West. It was the time of the discovery of both Indies. All elements of
European culture — the study of the half-effaced recollections of antiquity,
technical improvements, the spirit of commercial and political enterprise,
religious zeal — all conspired to render the newly-discovered countries
tempting and profitable. All the existing relations of nations, however,
necessarily underwent a change ; the people of the West acquired a new
superiority, or at least became capable of acquiring it.

Above all, the relative situation of religions was altered. Christianity,
especially in the forms it had assumed in the Latin Church, gained a fresh
and unexpected ascendancy in the remotest regions. It was therefore
doubly important to mankind, what might be the present or the future
form and character of the Latin Church. The Pope instantly put forth
a claim, which no one contested, to divide the countries that had been,
or that yet might be found, between the two States by which they were
discovered.

1 E.g., Crete and Cyprus, which were in the hands of Venice, and a few settle-
ments on the Persian Gulf in the hands of the Portuguese.

Chap. I.] RELATION OF PAPACY TO RELIGION 115

POSITION OF THE PAFACY WITH REGARD TO RELIGION.

The question, at what periods and under what circumstances the distin-
guishing doctrines and practices of the Romish Church were settled,
and acquired an ascendancy, merits a minute and elaborate disserta-
tion.

It is sufficient here to recall to the mind of the reader, that this took
place at a comparatively late period, and precisely in the century of the
great hierarchical struggles.

It is well known that the institution of the Seven Sacraments,1 whose
circle embraces all the important events of the life of man, and brings them
into contact with the church, is ascribed to Peter Lombard, who lived in
the twelfth century.2 It appears upon inquiry that the notions regarding
the most important of them, the Sacrament of the Altar, were by no
means very distinct in the church itself, in the time of that great theo-
logian. It is true that one of those synods which, under Gregory VII.,
had contributed so much to the establishment of the hierarchy, had
added great weight to the doctrine of the real presence by the condemna-
tion of Berengar : but Peter Lombard as yet did not venture to decide
in its favour : the word transubstantiation first became current in his
time ; nor was it until the beginning of the thirteenth century, that the
idea and the word received the sanction of the church : this, as is well
known, was first given by the Lateran confession of faith in the year 1 2 1 5 ;
and it was not till later that the objections which till then had been con-
stantly suggested by a deeper view of religion, gradually disappeared.

It is obvious, however, of what infinite importance this doctrine became
to the service of the church, which has crystallized (if I may use the
expression) around the mystery it involves. The ideas of the mystical
and sensible presence of Christ in the church were thus embodied in a living
image ; the adoration of the Host was introduced ; festivals in honour
of this greatest of all miracles, incessantly repeated, were solemnized.
Intimately connected with this is the great importance attached to the
worship of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, in the latter part of the
middle ages.

The prerogatives of the priesthood are also essentially connected with
this article of faith. The theory and doctrine of the priestly character '.
were developed ; that is, of the power communicated to the priest by <
ordination, " to make the body of Christ " (as they did not scruple to say) ; |
" to act in the person of Christ." It is a product of the thirteenth century, i
and is to be traced principally to Alexander of Hales and Thomas Aquinas.3 i
This doctrine first gave to the separation of the priesthood from the laity,

1 The Seven Sacraments, e.g. :

1. Baptism. 2. Confirmation. 3. The Eucharist. 4. Penance.

5. Extreme Unction. 6. Holy Orders. 7. Matrimony.

2 It would amount to little, if what Schrockh (Kirchengeschichte, xxviii.,
p. 45,) assumes were true ; viz., that Otto of Bamberg had already preached this
doctrine to the Pomeranians ; but it has been justly remarked, that the biography
of Otto, in which this statement appears, was written at a later time.

3 See the researches of Thomas Aquinas concerning the Birth of Christ,
" Utrum de purissimis sanguinibus virginis formatus fuerit, &c." Summje,
pars iii. quaestio 31. It is evident what value was set upon the point.

ti6 POSITION OF THE PAPACY [Book II.

which had indeed other and deeper causes, its full significancy. People
began to see in the priest the mediator between God and man.1

This separation, regarded as a positive institution, is also, as is well
known, an offspring of the same epoch. In the thirteenth century, in spite
of all opposition, the celibacy of the priesthood became an inviolable law.
At the same time the cup began to be withheld from the laity. It was
not denied that the efficacy of the Eucharist in both kinds was more com-
plete ; but it was said that the more worthy should be reserved for the more
worthy — for those by whose instrumentality alone it was produced. " It
is not in the participation of the faithful," says St. Thomas, " that the
perfection of the sacrament lies, but solely in the consecration of the
elements."2 And in fact the church appeared far less designed for instruc-
tion or for the preaching of the Gospel, than for the showing forth of the
great mystery ; and the priesthood is, through the sacrament, the sole
depository of the power to do this ; it is through the priest that sanctifi-
cation is imparted to the multitude.

This very separation of the priesthood from the laity gave its members
boundless influence over all other classes of the community.

It is a necessary part of the theory of the sacerdotal character above
alluded to, that the priest has the exclusive power of removing the obstacles
which stand in the way of a participation in the mysterious grace of God :
in this not even a saint had power to supersede him.8 But the absolution
which he is authorized to grant is charged with certain conditions, the most
imperative of which is confession. In the beginning of the thirteenth
century it was peremptorily enjoined on every believer as a duty, to confess
all his sins, at least once in a year, to some particular priest.

It requires no elaborate argument to prove what an all-pervading
influence auricular confession, and the official supervision and guidance
of consciences, must give to the clergy. With this was connected a com-
plete, organized system of penances.

Above all, a character and position almost divine was thus conferred
on the high-priest, the pope of Rome ; of whom it was assumed that he
occupied the place of Christ in the mystical body of the church, which
embraced heaven and earth, the dead and the living. This conception of
the functions and attributes of the pope was first filled out and perfected
in the beginning of the thirteenth century ; then, too, was the doctrine
of the treasures of the church, on which the system of indulgences rests,
first promulgated. Innocent III. did not scruple to declare, that what he
did, God did, through him. Glossators added, that the pope possessed
the uncontrolled will of God ; that his sentence superseded all reasons :
with perverse and extravagant dialectic, they propounded the question,
whether it were possible to appeal from the pope to God,4 and answered
it in the negative ; seeing that God had the same tribunal as the pope,
and that it was impossible to appeal from any being to himself.

1 " Sacerdos," says Thomas, " constituitur medius inter Deum et populum.
Sacerdos novae legis in persona Christi operatur." Summse, pars iii. quaestio 22,
art. 4, concl.

2 "Perfectio hujus sacramenti non est in usu fidelium sed in consecratione
materiae." — Pars iii. qu. 80, a. 12, c. 2m.

3 Summae Suppl. Qu. 17, a. 2, c. im. " Character et potestas conficiendi et
potestas clavium est unum et idem." But I refer to the entire question.

4 Augustini Triumphi Summa in Gieseler, Kirchengeschichte, ii. iii. 95.

Chap. I.] WITH REGARD TO RELIGION 117

It is clear that the papacy must have already gained the victory over
the empire, — that it could no longer have any thing to fear, either from
master or rival, — before opinions and doctrines of this kind could be
entertained or avowed. In the age of struggles and conquests, the theory
of the hierarchy gained ground step by step with the fact of material power.
Never were theory and practice more intimately connected.

Nor was it to be believed that any interruption or pause in this course
of things took place in the fifteenth century. The denial of the right of
the clergy to withhold the cup was first declared to be heresy at the council
of Constance : Eugenius IV. first formally accepted the doctrine of the
Seven Sacraments ; the extraordinary school interpretation of the miracu-
lous conception was first approved by the councils, favoured by the popes,
and accepted by the universities, in this age.1

It might appear that the worldly dispositions of the popes of those
times, whose main object it was to enjoy life, to promote their dependents
and to enlarge their secular dominions, would have prejudiced their
spiritual pretensions. But, on the contrary, these were as vast and as
arrogant as ever. The only effect of the respect inspired by the councils
was, that the popes forbade any one to appeal to a council under pain
of damnation.2 With what ardour do the curalist writers labour to demon-
strate the infallibility of the pope ! John of Torquemada is unwearied
in heaping together analogies from Scripture, maxims of the fathers and
passages out of the false decretals, for this end ; he goes so far as to main-
tain that, were there not a head of the church who could decide all contro-
versies and remove all doubts, it might be possible to doubt of the Holy
Scriptures themselves, which derived their authority only from the
church ; which, again, could not be conceived as existing without the
pope.3 In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the well-known
Dominican, Thomas of Gaeta, did not hesitate to declare the church a
born slave, who could have no other remedy against a bad pope, than to
pray for him without ceasing.*

Nor were any of the resources of physical force neglected or abandoned.
The Dominicans, who taught the strictest doctrines in the universities
and proclaimed them to the people from the pulpit, had the right to
enforce them by means of fire and sword. Many victims to orthodoxy
were offered up after John Huss5 and Jerome of Prague. The contrast;
between the worldly-mindedness and sensuality of Alexander VI. and:
Leo X., and the additional stringency and rigour they gave to the powers f
of the Inquisition, is most glaring.8 Under the authority of similarly'

1 Baselii Auctarium Naucleri, p. 993.

2 Bull of Pius II. of the i8thof Jan., 1460. (XV. Kal. Febr., not X., as Rain,
has it.) Bullar. Cocq. torn. iii. pars iii., p. 97.

3 Johannes de Turrecremata de Potestate Papali (Roccaberti, torn, xiii.),
c. 112. "Credendum est, quod Romanus pontifex in judicio eorum quae fidei
sunt, spiritu sancto regatur et per consequens in illis non erret : alias possit quis
eadem facilitate dicere, quod erratum sit in electione quatuor evangeliorum et
epistolarum canonis." He laments, however, over the " multa turba adversary
orum et inimicorum Romanse sedis," who will not believe this.

4 De Autoritate Papas et Concilii. Extracts in Rainaldus, 15 12, nr. 18.

3 For John Huss and his follower Jerome of Prague cf. Creighton's " Popes,"
vol. i., c. 4.
0 Decretals in Rainaldus, 1498, nr. 25, 1516, nr. 34.

n8 POSITION OF THE PAPACY [Book II.

disposed predecessors, this institution had recently acquired in Spam a
more fearful character and aspect than it had ever yet presented to the
world ; and the example of Germany shows that similar tendencies were
at work in other countries. The strange distortion of the fancy which
gave birth to the notion of a personal intercourse with Satan, served as the
pretext for bloody executions ; the " Hexenhammer "i (Hammer for
Witches) was the work of two German Dominicans. The Spanish Inqui-
sition had originated in a persecution of the Jews : in Germany, also,
the Jews were universally persecuted in the beginning of the sixteenth
century, and the Dominicans of Cologne proposed to the emperor to estab-
lish an Inquisition against them. They had even the ingenuity to invent
a legal authority for such a measure. They declared that it was necessary
to examine how far the Jews had deviated from the Old Testament,
which the emperor was fully entitled to do, since their nation had formally
acknowledged before the judgment-seat of Pilate the authority of the
imperial majesty of Rome.2 If they had succeeded, they would certainly
not have stopped at the Jews.

Meanwhile the whole intellectual energy of the age flowed in the channels
marked out by the church. Germany is a striking example to what an
extent the popular mind of a nation of the West received its direction
from ecclesiastical principles.

The great workshops of literature, the German universities, were all
more or less colonies or branches of that of Paris — either directly sprung
< from it, like the earlier ; or indirectly, like the later. Their statutes
\ sometimes begin with a eulogy on the Alma Mater of Paris.3 From that
most ancient seat of learning, too, had the whole system of schoolmen, the
controversy between Nominalism and Realism, the preponderancy of the
theological faculty, — " that brilliant star from which every thing received
light and life," — passed over to them. In the theological faculty the
Professor of Sentences4 had the precedency, and the Baccalaureus who
read the Bible was obliged to allow him to determine the hour of his lec-
ture. In some universities, none but a clerk who had received at least
inferior ordination, could be chosen Rector. The whole of education,
from the first elements to the highest dignities of learning, was conducted in

1 A court for the trial of Witchcraft.

2 Report in Reuchlin's Augenspiegel (Mirror), printed by v. d. Hardt, Historia
Liter. Reformationis, hi. 61.

3 Principium Statutorum Facultatis Theological Studii Viennensis ap. Kollar
Analecta, i. 137, p. 240, n. 2. Statute of Cologne in Bianco, Endowments for
Students at Cologne, p. 451 : " Divinae sapiential fluvius descendens a patre
luminum — ab alveo Parisiens. studii tanquam cisterna conductu capto per
canalia prorumpit Rheni partes ubertando." ' University of Paris founded
circum 1170. Cf. Rashdall, History of the Universities in the Middle Ages,
vol. i., pp. 273 ff. The genealogy is as follows : — From the " university of Paris
issued those of Prague, Vienna, Heidelberg, and Cologne ; from Prague, — Leipzig,
Rostock, Greifswald ; and for the greater part, Erfurt ; from Cologne, — Louvain
and Treves ; from Vienna, — Freiburg, and, according to the Statutes, Ingolstadt.
At Basle and Tiibingen at first, deference was paid to Bologna also ; but even
in Basle, the first Bursa was called the Parisian and in Tubingen the first teacher
of Theology was a magister from Paris.

4 Professor Sententiarum, the expositor of the " Sentential " of Peter Lombard.
— Transl.

Chap. I.] WITH REGARD TO RELIGION 119

one and the same spirit. Dialectical distinctions intruded themselves
into the very rudiments of grammar 51 and the elementary books of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries were constantly retained as the ground-
work of learning :2 here, too, the same road was steadily pursued which
had been marked out at the time of the foundation of the hierarchical
power.

Art3 was subject to the same influences. The minsters and cathedrals,
in which the doctrines and ideas of the church are so curiously symbolised,
rose on every side. In the year 1482, the towers of the church of St.
Sebaldus at Nurnberg were raised to their present height ; in 1494, a new
and exquisitely wrought gate was added to Strasburg minster ; in 1 500,
the king of the Romans laid the first stone of the choir of the Reichsgot-
teshaus (Church of the Empire) St. Ulrich, in Augsburg, with silver trowel,
rule, and hod ; he caused a magnificent block of stone to be brought from
the mountains, out of which a monument was to be erected " to the well-
beloved lord St. Ulrich, our kinsman of the house of Kyburg :" upon it
was to stand a king of the Romans, sword in hand.4 In 15 13, the choir of
the cathedral of Freiburg, in 15 17, that of Bern, was finished ; the porch
on the northern transept of the church of St. Lawrence in Nurnberg dates
from 1520. The brotherhoods of the masons, and the secrets which arose
in the workshops of German builders, spread wider and wider. It was not
till a later period that the redundancy of foliage, the vegetable character,
which so remarkably distinguishes the so-called gpthic, architecture
became general. At the time we are speaking of, the interior of churches
was principally adorned with countless figures, either exquisitely carved in
wood, or cast in precious metals, or painted and enclosed in gold frames,
which covered the altars or adorned the aisles and porches. It is not the
province of the arts to produce ideas, but to give them a sensible form ;
all the creative powers of the nation were now devoted to the task of repre-
senting the traditional conceptions of the church. Those wondrous
representations of the Mother of God, so full of sweet and innocent grace,
which have immortalized Baldung, Schaffner, and especially Martin
Schon, are not mere visions of an artist's fancy ; they are profoundly con-
nected with that worship of the Virgin which was then peculiarly general
and fervent. I venture to add that they cannot be understood without
the rosary, which is designed to recall the several joys of the Holy Mary; —
the angelic salutation, the journey across the mountains^ the child-bearing
without pain, the finding of Jesus in the temple, and the ascension ; as the
prayer-books of that time more fully set forth.

These prayer-books are altogether singular monuments of a simple and
credulous devotion. Thero are prayers to which an indulgence for 146

1 Geiler, Navicula :.." In prima parte de subjecto attributionis et de habitibus
intellectualibus, quod scire jam est magistrorum provectorum."

2 Johannes de Garlandia, Alexander's Doctrinale. Dufresne, Praefatio ad
Glossarium, 42, 43.

3 For an account of German painters and engravers of the fifteenth century
cf. Head, Schools of Painting in Germany, bk. iii. c. 1. For Architecture of the
period, cf. Ferguson, History of Architecture, vol. ii. bk. iv. c. 5, or Dehis and
Bezold, Die Kirkliche Baukunst des Abendlandes, vol. ii., pp. 249 ff.

4 Account in the Fugger MS. We remember that St. Ulrich was the first
saint canonised by a pope (Johannes, xv. 973) for the whole church.

126 POSITION OF THE PAPACY [Book II.

days, others to which one for 7000 or 8000 years are attached : one
morning benediction of peculiar efficacy was sent by a pope to a king of
Cyprus ; whosoever repeats the prayer of the venerable Bede the requisite
number of times, the Virgin Mary will be at hand to help him for thirty
days before his death, and will not suffer him to depart unabsolved. The
most extravagant expressions were uttered in praise of the Virgin : " The
eternal Daughter of the eternal Father, the heart of the indivisible
Trinity :" it was said, " Glory be to the Virgin, to the Father, and to the
Son."1 Thus, too, were the saints invoked as meritorious servants of
God, who, by their merits, could win our salvation, and could extend
peculiar protection to those who believed in them ; as, for example, St.
Sebaldus, " the most venerable and holy captain, helper and defender
of the imperial city of Nurnberg."

Relics were collected with great zeal. Elector Frederick of Saxony
gathered together in the church he endowed at Wittenberg, 5005 particles,
all preserved in entire standing figures, or in exquisitely wrought reliquaries,
which were shown to the devout people every year on the Monday after
Misericordia.2 In the presence of the princes assembled at the diet, the
high altar of the cathedral of Treves was opened, and " the seamless coat
of our dear Lord Jesus Christ," found in it ; the little pamphlets in which
this miracle was represented in wood-cuts, and announced to all the world,
are to be found in the midst of the acts of the diet.3 Miraculous images of
Our Lady were discovered ; — one, for example, in Eischel in the diocese of
Constance ; at the Iphof boundary, by the road-side, a sitting figure of
the Virgin, whose miracles gave great offence to the monks of Birklingen,
who possessed a similar one ; and in Regensburg, the beautiful image, for
which a magnificent church was built by the contributions of the faithful,
out of the ruins of a synagogue belonging to the expelled Jews. Miracles
were worked without ceasing at the tomb of Bishop Benno in Meissen ;
madmen were restored to reason, the deformed became straight, those in-
fected with the plague were healed ; nay, a fire at Merseburg was ex-
tinguished by Bishop Bose merely uttering the name of Benno ; while
those who doubted his power and sanctity were assailed by misfortunes.4
When Trithemius recommended this miracle-worker to the pope for
canonization, he did not forget to remark that he had been a rigid and
energetic supporter of the church party, and had resisted the tyrant
Henry IV.5 So intimately were all these ideas connected. A confra-
ternity formed for the purpose of the frequent repetition of the rosary
(which is, in fact, nothing more than the devout and affectionate recollec-
tion of the joys of the Holy Virgin), was founded by Jacob Sprenger, the

1 Extracts from the prayer-books : Hortulus Anime, Salus Animae, Gilgengart,
and others in Riederer, Nachrichten zur Biichergeschichte, ii. 1 57-411.

2 The second Sunday after Easter, so called from the Introit for that Sunday
in the Roman Missal, which begins, "Misericordia Domini plena est terra," and
gives the key to the variable parts of the Mass. Zaygung des Hochlobwiirdigsten
Heiligthums, 1509. (The Showing of the most venerable Relics, 1509.) Extract
in Heller's Lucas Kranach, i., p. 350.

3 Chronicle of Limpurg in Hontheim, p. 11 22. Browerus is again very solemn
on this occasion.

4 Miracula S. Bennonis ex impresso, Romas 1521, in Mencken, Scrip tores Rer.
Germ. ii. p. 1887.

6 His letter in Rainaldus, 1506, nr. 42.

Chap. I.] WITH REGARD TO RELIGION 121

violent and fanatical restorer of the Inquisition in Germany, — the author
of the " Hexenhammer."

For it was one single and wondrous structure which had grown up out
of the germs planted by former ages, wherein spiritual and temporal
power, wild fancy and dry school-learning, the tenderest devotion and the
rudest force, religion and superstition, were mingled and confounded, and
were bound together by some mysterious quality common to them all ; —
and, amidst all the attacks it sustained, and all the conquests it achieved
— amidst those incessant conflicts, the decisions of which constantly
assumed the character of laws, — not only asserted its claim to universal
fitness for all ages and nations — for this world and the next — but to the
regulation of the minutest particulars of human life.

I know not whether any man of sound understanding — any man, not
led astray by some phantasm, can seriously wish that this state of things
had remained unshaken and unchanged in Europe ; whether any man
persuades himself that the will and the power to look the genuine, entire
and unveiled truth steadily in the face — the manly piety acquainted with
the grounds of its faith — could ever have been matured under such in-
fluences. Nor do I understand how any one could really regard the diffu-
sion of this most singular condition of the human mind (which had been
produced by circumstances wholly peculiar to the West) over the entire
globe, as conducive to the welfare and happiness of the human race. It is
well known that one main ground of the disinclination of the Greeks to a
union with the Roman church, lay in the multitude of rules which were
introduced among the Latins, and in the oppressive autocracy which the
See of Rome had arrogated to itself.1 Nay, was not the Gospel itself kept
concealed by the Roman church ? In the ages in which the scholastic
dogmas were fixed, the Bible was forbidden to the laity altogether, and
even to the priesthood, in the mother tongue. It is impossible to deny
that, without any serious reference to the source from which the whole
system of faith had proceeded, men went on to construct doctrines and to
enjoin practices, shaped upon the principle which had become the dominant
one. We must not confound the tendencies of the period now before us
with those evinced in the doctrines and practices established at the Council
of Trent ; at that time even the party which adhered to Catholicism had
felt the influences of the epoch of the Reformation, and had begun to
reform itself : the current was already arrested.2 And this was absolutely
necessary. It was necessary to clear the germ of religion from the thou-
sand folds of accidental forms under which it lay concealed, and to place
it unencumbered in the light of day. Before the Gospel could be preached
to all nations, it must appear again in its own lucid, unadulterated purity.

It is one of the greatest coincidences presented by the history of the
world, that at the moment in which the prospect of exercising dominion
over the other hemisphere opened on the Romano-Germanic nations of the

1 Humbertus de Romania (in Petrus de Alliaco de Reform. Eccles. c. 2.)
" dicit quod causa dispositiva schismatis Graecorum inter alias una fuit propter
gravamina Romanse ecclesiae in exactionibus, excommunicationibus, et statutis."

2 I hold it to be the fundamental error of Mohler's Symbolik, that he considers
the dogma of the Council of Trent as the doctrine from which the Protestants
seceded ; whilst it is much nearer the truth to say, that itself produced Pro-
testantism by a reaction.

122 OPPOSITION RAISED BY [Book II.

Latin church, a religious movement began, the object of which was to
restore the purity of revelation.

Whilst other nations were busied in the conquest of distant lands,
Germany, which had little share in those enterprises, undertook this
mighty task. Various events concurred to give that direction to the mind
of the country, and to incite it to a strenuous opposition to the See of
Rome.

OPPOSITION RAISED BY THE SECULAR POWERS.

The efforts to obtain a regular and well compacted constitution, which for
some years had occupied the German nation, were very much at variance
with the interests of the papacy, hitherto exercising so great an influence
over the government of the empire. The pope would very soon have been
made sensible of the change, if that national government which was the
object of such zealous and ardent endeavours had been organised.

The very earliest projects of such a constitution, in the year 1487, were
5 accompanied with a warning to the pope to abolish a tithe which he had
arbitrarily imposed on Germany, and which in some places he had actually
levied.1 In 1495, when it became necessary to form a council of the
! empire, the intention was expressed to authorize the president to take into
j consideration the complaints of the nation against the church of Rome.2
\ Scarcely had the States met the king in 1498, when they resolved to re-
1 quire the pope to relinquish the Annates which he drew to so large an
; amount from Germany, in order to provide for a Turkish war. In like
manner, as soon as the Council of Regency was formed, an embassy was
sent to the pope to press this request earnestly upon him, and to make
representations concerning various unlawful encroachments on the gift
and employment of German benefices.3 A papal legate, who shortly
after arrived for the purpose of causing the jubilee to be preached, was
admonished by no means to do anything without the advice and know-
ledge of the imperial government ;4 care was taken to prevent him from
granting indulgences to breakers of the Public Peace : on the contrary,
he was charged expressly to uphold it ; imperial commissioners were
appointed to accompany him, without whose presence and permission he
could not receive the money when collected.

We find the Emperor Maximilian occasionally following the same course.
In the year 1 5 10 he caused a more detailed and distinct statement of the
grievances of the German nation to be drawn up, than had hitherto
existed; he even entertained the idea of introducing into Germany6 the
Pragmatic Sanction, which had proved so beneficial to France. In the
year 1 5 1 1 he took a lively interest in the convocation of a council at Pisa :
we have an edict of his, dated in the January of that year, wherein he
declares that, as the court of Rome delays, he will not delay ; as emperor,

1 Letter, with the seals of Mainz, Saxony, and Brandenburg ; June 26. ,1487,
in Miiller, Rtth. Fr. vi. 130.

2 Datt, de Pace Publ., p. 840.

3 Instructions of the Imperial Embassy. Miiller, Reichstagsstaat, 117.

4 Articuli tractati et conclusi inter Rev'"""1 Dominationem Dnum Legatum
ac senatum et conventum Imperii in Miiller, Reichstagsstaat, p. 213.

5 Avisamenta Germanicae Nationis in Freher, ii. 678. Yet more remarkable
is the Epitome pragmaticae sanctionis in Goldast's Constitutt. Imp., ii. 123.

Chap. I.] THE SECULAR POWERS 123

steward and protector of the Church, he convokes the council of which she
is so greatly in need. In a brief dated June, he promises to those assembled
his protection and favour till the close of their sittings, " by which they
will, as he hopes, secure to themselves the approbation of God and the
praise of men."1 And, in fact, the long-cherished hope that a reform in
the church would be the result of this council, was again ardently indulged.
The articles were pointed out in which reforms were first anticipated.
For example, the cumulation of benefices in the hands of the cardinals
was to be prevented ; a law was demanded, in virtue of which a pope
whose life was stained with notorious vice, might be summarily deposed.2
But neither had the council authority enough to act upon ideas of this
sort, nor was Maximilian the man to follow them out. He was of too
weak a nature ; and the same Wimpheling who drew up the statement of
grievances, remarked to him how many former emperors had been de-
posed by an incensed pope leagued with the princes of the empire — cer-
tainly no motive to resolute perseverance in the course he had begun.
Independent of this, every new turn in politics gave a fresh direction to
his views on ecclesiastical affairs.3 After his reconciliation with Pope
Julius II. in 1513, he demanded succours from the empire in order to take
measures against the schism which was to be feared. Had there really
been reason to fear it, he himself would have been mainly to blame for
the encouragement he had given to the Council of Pisa.

It is sufficiently clear that this opposition to Rome had no real prac-
tical force. The want of a body in the state, armed with independent
powers, crippled every attempt, every movement, at its very commence-
ment. But, in the public mind, that opposition still remained in full
force ; loud complaints were incessantly heard.

Hemmerlin, whose books were in those times extensively circulated and
eagerly read exhausted the vocabulary for expressions to paint the cheating
and plunder of which the court of Rome was guilty.4

In the beginning of the sixteenth century there were the bitterest com-
plaints of the ruinous nature of the Annates.6 It was probably in itself
the most oppressive tax in the empire : occasionally a prelate in order
to save his subjects from it, tried to mortgage some lordship of his see.
Diether of Isenburg was deposed chiefly because he was unable to fulfil
the engagements he had entered into concerning his Pallium. The more
frequent the vacancies, the more intolerable was the exaction. In Passau,
for example, these followed in 1482, i486, 1490,. 1500 : the last-appointed

1 Triburgi XVI. mensis Januarii and Muldorf V. Junii in Goldast, i. 421, 429.

2 In the Fugger MS. the decrees which were expected are noted down.

3 Baselius, mo. " Admonitus prudentium virorum consilio — quem incaute
pedem cum Gallis contra pontificem firmaverat, citius retraxit."

1 Felix Malleolus, Recapitulatio de Anno Jubileo. " Pro nunc de prssentis
pontificis summi et aliorum statibus comparationis praeparationem fecimus, et
nunc facie ad faciem experientia videmus quod nunquam visus est execrabilioris
exorbitationis direptionis deceptionis circumventionis derogationis decerptationis
depraedationis expoliationis exactionis corrosionis et omnis si audemus dicere
simoniacse pravitatis adinventionis novas et renovationis usus et exercitatio
continua quam nunc est tempore pontificis moderni (Nicolas V.) et in dies
dilatatur."

5 The first-fruits in a year's revenue paid by bishops> abbots, and holders of
benefices.

124 OPPOSITION RAISED BY [Book II.

bishop repaired to Rome in the hope of obtaining some alleviation of the
burthens on his see ; but he accomplished notliing, and his long residence
at the papal court only increased his pecuniary difficulties.1 The cost of
a pallium2 for Mainz amounted to 20,000 gulden ; the sum was assessed on
the several parts of the see : the Rheingau, for example, had to con-
tribute 1000 gulden each time.3 In the beginning of the sixteenth century
vacancies occurred three times in quick succession — 1505, 1508, 1513 ;
Jacob von Liebenstein, said that his chief sorrow in dying was that his
country would so soon again be forced to pay the dues ; but all appeal to
the papal court was fruitless ; before the old tax was gathered in, the
order for a new one was issued.

We may imagine what was the impression made by the comparison of
the laborious negotiations usually necessary to extract even trifling
grants from the diet, and the great difficulty with which they were col-
lected, with the sums which flowed without toil or trouble to Rome. They
were calculated at 300,000 gulden yearly, exclusive of the costs of law pro-
ceedings, or the revenues of benefices which lapsed to the court of Rome.4
And for what purpose, men asked themselves, was all this ? Christendom
had, nevertheless, lost two empires, fourteen kingdoms, and three hundred
towns within a short space of time : it was continually losing to the Turks ;
if the German nation were to keep these sums in its own hands and expend
them itself, it would meet its hereditary foe on other terms, under the
banners of its valiant commanders.

The financial relations to Rome, generally, excited the greatest atten-
tion. It was calculated that the barefooted monks, who were not per-
mitted by their rule to touch money, collected a yearly income of 200,000
gulden ; the whole body of mendicant friars, a million.

Another evil was the recurrence of collisions between the temporal and
spiritual jurisdictions, which gradually became the more frequent and
obvious, the more the territorial sovereignties tended towards separation
and political independence. In this respect Saxony was pre-eminent.
In the different possessions of the two lines, not only the three Saxon
bishops, but the archbishops of Mainz and Prag, the bishops of Wiirz-
burg and Bamberg, Halberstadt, Havelberg, Brandenburg and Lebus,
had spiritual jurisdiction. The confusion which must, at all events, have
arisen from this, was now enormously increased by the fact that all dis-

1 Schreitwein, Episcopi Patavienses, in Rauch, Scriptt., ii. 527.

2 The symbol of archiepiscopal authority. A collar of white lamb's-wool with
two bands hanging in the front and back of the wearer, and decorated with six
black crosses.

8 This is shown by the Articles of the inhabitants of the Rheingau in Schunck's
Beitragen, i. p. 183. Jacob of Treves also reckons in 1500, " Das Geld, so sich
an dem papstlichen Hofe fur die papstlichen Bullen und Briefe, daruber 4nnaten,
Minuten, Servitien, und anders demselben anhangend, zu geben gebiiret," " the
money, which it behoves to give to the papal court for the papal bulls and briefs,
moreover annats, minutes, services, and the rest belonging to the same," at
20,000 guldens. Document in Hontheim, ii., ser. xv.

i This is, for instance, the calculation of the little book, Ein kliigliche Klag
(A mournful Complaint) 1521, which, however, I am not for adopting. It might
very likely be impossible to reckon the gains of the Romish court. The tax of
the annates at Treves, for instance, legally amounted to 10,000 gulden, and yet
the actual charge was 20,000.

Chap. I.] THE SECULAR POWERS 125

putes between laity and clergy could only be decided before spiritual
tribunals, so that high and low were continually vexed with excommunica-
tion. In the year 1454, we find Duke William complaining that the evil
did not arise from his good lords and friends the bishops, but from the
judges, officials, and procurators, who sought therein only their own profit.
In concurrence with the counts, lords, and knights of his land, he issued
certain ordinances to prevent this abuse,1 in support of which, privileges
granted by the popes were alleged ; but in 1490 the old complaints were
revived, the administration of justice in the temporal courts was greatly
obstructed and thwarted by the spiritual, and the people were impoverished
by the consequent delays and expenses.2 In the year 1 5 1 8, the princes of 1
both lines, George and Frederick, combined to urge that the spiritual juris- J
diction should be restricted to spiritual causes, and the temporal to tern- j
poral ; the diet to decide what was temporal and what was spiritual, i
Duke George was still more zealous in the matter than his cousin.3 But
the grievances and complaints which fill the proceedings of the later diets
were universal, and confined to no class or portion of the empire.

The cities felt the exemptions enjoyed by the clergy peculiarly burthen-
some. It was impossible to devise any thing more annoying to a well-
ordered civic community, than to have within their walls a corporate
body which neither acknowledged the jurisdiction of the city, nor con-
tributed to bear its burthens, nor deemed itself generally subject to its
regulations. The churches were asylums for criminals, the monasteries
the resort of dissolute youth ; we find examples of monks who made use
of their exemption from tolls, to import goods for sale, or to open a tavern
for the sale of beer. If any attempt was made to assail their privileges,
they defended themselves with excommunication and interdict. We find
the municipal councils incessantly occupied in putting some check to this
evil. In urgent cases they arrest offenders even in sanctuary, and then
take measures to be delivered from the inevitable interdict by the inter-
position of some powerful protector ; they are well inclined to pass over
the bishops and to address themselves directly to the pope ; they try to
effect reforms in their monasteries. They thought it a very questionable
arrangement that the parish priest should take part in the collection of the
Common Penny ; the utmost that they would concede was that he should
be present, but without taking any active share.* The cities always
vehemently opposed the emperor's intention of appointing a bishop to be
judge in the Imperial Chamber.

The general disapprobation excited by the church on such weighty
points, naturally led to a discussion of its other abuses. Hemmerlin
zealously contends against the incessant augmentation of ecclesiastical
property, through which villages disappeared and districts became waste ;
against the exorbitant number of holidays, which even the council of
Basle had endeavoured to reduce ; against the celibacy of the clergy, to

1 Ordinance of Duke William ; Gotha, Monday after Exaudi, 1454, in Miiller,
Rtth. Fr., i. 130.

2 Words of an ordinance of Duke George in Langenn's Duke Albrecht, p. 319.

3 Articles of the negotiations of the diet, as my gracious lord has caused them
to be given in 1 518. In the Dresden Archives.

4 Jager, Schwabisches Stadtewesen : Milliner's Niirnberger Annalen, in
several passages.

126 CHARACTER AND TENDENCIES OF [Book II.

which the rules of the Eastern Church were much to be preferred ; against
the reckless manner in which ordination was granted, as, for example,
that two hundred priests were yearly ordained in Constance : he asks to
what all this is to lead.1

Things had gone so far that the constitution of the clergy was offensive
to public morals : a multitude of ceremonies and rules were attributed
to the mere desire of making money ; the situation of priests living in a
state of concubinage and burthened with illegitimate children, and often,
in spite of all purchased absolutions, tormented in conscience and oppressed
with the fear that in performing the sacrifice of the mass they committed
a deadly sin, excited mingled pity and contempt : most of those who
embraced the monastic profession had no other idea than that of leading
a life of self-indulgence without labour. People saw that the clergy took
from every class and station only what was agreeable, and avoided what
was laborious or painful. From the knightly order, the prelate borrowed
his brilliant company, his numerous retinue, the splendidly caparisoned
horse, and the hawk upon his fist : with women, he shared the love of
gorgeous chambers and trim gardens ; but the weight of the mailed coat,
the troubles of the household, he had the dexterity to avoid. If a man
wishes to enjoy himself for once, says an old proverb, let him kill a fat
fowl ; if for a year, let him take a wife ; but if he would live joyously all
the days of his life, then let him turn priest.

Innumerable expressions of the same sentiment were current ; the
pamphlets of that time are full of them.2

CHARACTER AND TENDENCIES OF THE POPULAR LITERATURE.

This state of the public mind acquired vast importance from its coinci-
dence with the first dawnings of a popular literature which thus, at its
very commencement, became deeply and thoroughly imbued with the
prevalent sentiment of disapprobation and disgust towards the clergy.

It will be conceded on all sides that in naming Rosenbliit and Sebastian
Brant, the Eulenspiegel (Owlglass) and the edition of Reineke Fuchs
(Reynard the Fox) of the year 1498, we cite the most remarkable pro-
ductions of the literature of that time.3 And if we inquire what character-
istic they have in common, we find it to be that of hostility to the Church
of Rome. The Fastnachtspiele (Carnival Sports) of Hans Rosenbliit
have fully and distinctly this character and intention ; he introduces the
Emperor of Turkey, in order through his mouth to say the truth to all
classes of the nation.4 The vast success of the Eulenspiegel was not to
be attributed so much to its clownish coarseness and practical jokes, as

1 The books De Institutione novorum Officiorum, and De Libertate Ecclesi-
astica, are especially remarkable with reference to this matter.

2 Wimpheling also mentions, " scandalum odium murmur populi in omnem
clerum."

3 For a further account of these writings and writers, cf. Geiger, Renaissance
und Humanismus in Deutschland, pp. 1344 ff., or Creighton, vol. v. c. i. ii., or
Cambridge Modern History, vol. i. c. xvi. xvii.

4 In the description also of the battle of Hembach in Reinhart's Beitrage
zur Historie Frankenlandes, the nobles are mentioned "as a sharp scourge,
which chastises us on account of our sins ; " " their hearts are harder than
adamant."

Chap. I.] POPULAR LITERATURE 127

to the irony which was poured over all classes ; the wit of the boor, " who
scratches himself with a rogue's nails," put that of all others to shame.
It was under this point of view alone that the German writer recast the
fable of the fox ; he saw in it the symbolic representation of the defects
and vices of human society, and he quickly detected its application to
the several classes of men, and laboured to develop the lesson which the
poet reads to each. The same purpose is obvious to the first glance in
Brant's Ship of Fools. The ridicule is not directed against individual
follies : on the one side is vice, nay crime, on the other, lofty aspirations
and pursuits which rise far above vulgar ends, (as, for example, where
the devotion of the whole mind to the task of describing cities and
countries, the attempt to discover how broad is the earth, and how wide
the sea,) are treated as folly.1 Glory and beauty are despised as transient ;
" nothing is abiding but learning."

In this general opposition to the prevailing state of things, the defects
in the 'ecclesiastical body are continually adverted to. The Schnepperer
declaims violently against the priests, " who ride high horses, but will
not do battle with the heathen." The most frequent subject of derision
in the Eulenspiegel is the common priests, with their pretty ale-wives,
well-groomed nags, and full larders ; they are represented as stupid and
greedy. In Reineke too the Papemeierschen — priests' households, peopled
with little children — play a part. The commentator is evidently quite in
earnest ; he declares that the sins of the priests will be rated more highly
than those of the laity on account of the evil example they set. Doctor
Brant expresses his indignation at the premature admission into the
convent, before the age of reason ; so that religious duties are performed
without the least sentiment of devotion : he leads us into the domestic
life of the uncalled priests, who are at last in want of the means of sub-
sistence, while their soul is heavy laden with sins ; " for God regardeth
not the sacrifice which is offered in sin by sinful hands.''2

This, however, is not the exclusive, nor; indeed, the principal matter
of these books ; their significance is far more extensive and general.

While the poets of Italy were employed in moulding the romantic
materials furnished by the middle ages into grand and brilliant works,
these excited little interest in Germany : Titurel and Parcival, for example,
were printed, but merely as antiquarian curiosities, and in a language even
then unintelligible.

While, in Italy, the opposition which the institutions of the middle ages
encountered in the advancing development of the public mind, took the
form of satire, became an element of composition, and as it were the
inseparable but mocking companion of the poetical Ideal ; in Germany
that opposition took up independent ground, and directed its attacks
immediately against the realities of life, not against their reproduction
in fiction.

In the German literature of that period the whole existence and conduct
of the several classes, ages and sexes were brought to the standard of the
sober good sense, the homely morality, the simple rule of ordinary life ;
which, however, asserted its claim to be that " whereby kings hold their
crowns, princes their lands, and all powers and authorities their due value."

1 Dr. Brant's Narrenschiff., 1506, f. 83.

2 The 72nd Fool. fol. 94.

128 CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF [Book II.

The universal confusion and ferment which is visible in the public
affairs of that period, proves by inevitable contrast, that the sound common
sense of mankind is awakened and busy in the mass of the nation ; and
prosaic, homely, vulgar, but thoroughly true, as it is, constitutes itself
judge of all the phenomena of the world around it.

We are filled with admiration at the spectacle afforded by Italy, where
men of genius, reminded by the remains of antiquity around them of the
significance of beautiful forms, strove to emulate their predecessors, and
produced works which are the eternal delight of cultivated minds ; but
their beauty does not blind us to the fact that the movement of the
national mind of Germany was not less great, and that it was still more
important to the progress of mankind. After centuries of secret growth
it now became aware of its own existence, broke loose from tradition, and
examined the affairs and the institutions of the world by the light of its
own truth.

Nor did Germany entirely disregard the demands of form. In Reinecke
Fuchs, it is curious to observe how the author rejects every thing appro-
priate to the style of romantic poetry ; how he seeks lighter transitions,
works out scenes of common life to more complete and picturesque reality,
and constantly strives to be more plain and vernacular (for example, uses
all the familiar German names) : his main object evidently is to popularise
his matter, — to bring it as much as possible home to the nation ; and his
work has thus acquired the form in which it has attracted readers for more
than three centuries. Sebastian Brant possesses an incomparable talent
for turning apophthegms and proverbs ; he finds the most appropriate
expression for simple thoughts ; his rhymes come unsought, and are
singularly happy and harmonious. " Here," says Geiler von Keisersperg,
" the agreeable and the useful are united ; his verses are goblets of the
purest wine ; here we are presented with royal meats in finely wrought
| vessels."! But in these, as well as in many other works of that time,
| the matter is the chief thing ; — the expression of the opposition of the
'ordinary morality and working-day sense of mankind to the abuses in
I public life and the corruptions of the times.

At the same period another branch of literature, — the learned, took an
analogous direction ; perhaps with even greater force and decision.

CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF LEARNED LITERATURE.

Upon this department of letters Italy exercised the strongest in-
fluence.

In that country neither the metaphysics of the schools, nor romantic
poetry, nor Gothic architecture, had obtained complete dominion : recol-
lections of antiquity survived, and at length in the fifteenth century,
expanded into that splendid revival which took captive all minds and
imparted a new life to literature.

i Geiler, Navicula Fatuorum, even more instructive as to the history of morals,
than the original; J u. "Est hie," he continues, "in hoc speculo Veritas
morahs sub figuns sub vulgan et vernacula lingua nostra teutonica sub verbis
simihtudinibusque aptis et pulchris sub rhitmis quoque concinnis et instar
cimbalorum concinentibus."

Chap. L] LEARNED LITERATURE 129

This reflorescence of Italy in time reacted on Germany, though at first
only in regard to the mere external form of the Latin tongue.

In consequence of the uninterrupted intercourse with Italy occasioned
by ecclesiastical relations, the Germans soon discovered the superiority
of the Italians ; they saw themselves despised by the disciples of the
grammarians and rhetoricians of that country, and began to be ashamed
of the rudeness of their spoken, and the poverty of their written language.
It was not surprising, therefore, that young aspiring spirits at length
determined to learn their Latin in Italy. At first they were only a few
opulent nobles — a Dalberg, a Langen,1 a Spiegelberg, who not only ac-
quired knowledge themselves, but had the merit of bringing back books,
such as grammatical treatises and better editions of the classics, which
they communicated to their friends. A man endowed with the peculiar
talent necessary for appropriating to himself the classical learning of the
age then arose — Rudolf Huesmann of Groningen, called Agricola. His
scholarship excited universal admiration ; he was applauded in the schools
as a Roman, a second Virgil.2 He had, indeed, no other object but his
own advancement in learning ; the weary pedantries of the schools were
disgusting to him, nor could he accommodate himself to the contracted
sphere assigned to a learned man in Germany. Other careers which he
entered upon did not satisfy his aspirations, so that he fell into a rapid
decline and died prematurely. He had, however, friends who found it
less difficult to adapt themselves to the necessities of German life, and to
whom he was ever ready to afford counsel and help. A noble and intimate
friendship was formed in Deventer, between Agricola and Hegius, who
attached himself to him with all the humility and thirst for knowledge
of a disciple ; he applied to him for instruction, and received not only
assistance but cordial sympathy.3 Another of his friends, Dringenberg,
followed him to Schletstadt. The reform which took place in the Low
German schools of Munster, Hervord, Dortmund, and Hamm, emanated
from Deventer, which also furnished them with competent teachers. In
Niirnberg, Ulm, Augsburg, Frankfurt, Memmingen, Hagenau, Pforzheim,
&c, we find schools of poetry of more or less note.4 Schletstadt at one
time numbered as many as nine hundred students. It will not be imagined
that these literati, who had to rule, and to instruct in the rudiments of
learning, a rude undisciplined youth compelled to live mainly on alms,
possessing no books, and wandering from town to town in strangely

1 Hamelmann published in 1580 an Oratio de Rodolpho Langio, which has
some merit, but which has also given rise to many errors.

2 Erasmi Adagia. Ad. de Cane et Balneo.

3 Adami, Vitae Philosophorum, p. 12, mentions this correspondence " unde
turn ardor proficiendi, turn candor in communicando elucet."

4 They are so called, e.g. in the Chronicle of Regensburg. A list of the schools,
very incomplete, however, is given by Erhard, Hist, of the Restoration of the
Sciences, i. 427. Eberlin von Giinzburg names in 1521, as pious schoolmasters,
" deren trewe Unterweisung fast geniitzt," whose faithful instruction had been
profitable," Crato and Sapidus at Schletstadt, Mich. Hilspach at Hagenau,
Spinier and Gerbellius at Pforzheim, Brassicanus and Henrichmann at Tiibingin,
Egid. Krautwasser at Stuttgart and Horb, Jon. Schmidlin at Memmingen, also
Cocleus at Niirnberg, and Nisenus at Frankfurt. See Dr. Karl Hagen, Deutch-
lands literarische und religiose Verhaltnisse im Reformations Zeitalter, 1841,
vol. i., pp. 164-237.

9

i3o LEARNED LITERATURE [Book It.

organized bands, called Bachantes and Schutzen.i were very eminent
scholars themselves, or made such ; nor was that the object : their merit,
and a sufficient one, was that they not only kept the public mind steady
to the important direction it had taken, but carried it onwards to the best
of their ability, and founded the existence of an active literary public.
The school-books hitherto in use gradually fell into neglect, and classical
authors issued from the German press. As early as the end of the fifteenth
century, Geiler of Keisersberg, who was not himself devoted to these
pursuits, reproached the learned theologians with their Latin, which, he
said, was rude, feeble, and barbarous — neither German nor Latin, but
both and neither.2

For since the school learning of the universities, which had hitherto
entirely given the tone to elementary instruction, adhered to its wonted
forms of expression, a collision between the new and humanistic method,
now rapidly gaining ground, and the old modes, was inevitable. Nor
could their collision fail to extend from the universal element of language
into other regions.

It was this crisis in the history of letters that produced an author
whose whole life was devoted to the task of attacking the scholastic forms
prevailing in universities and monasteries ; the first great author of the
modern opposition, the champion of the modern views, — a low German,
Erasmus of Rotterdam.

On a review of the first thirty years of the life of Erasmus, we find that
he had grown up in ceaseless contradiction with the spirit and the systems
which presided over the conventual life and directed the studies of that
time ; — indeed that this had made him what he was. We might say that
he was begotten and born in this contradiction, for his parents had not
been able to marry, because his father was destined to the cloister. He
had not been admitted to a university, as he wished, but had been kept
at a very imperfect conventual school, from which he soon ceased to derive
any profit or satisfaction ; and, at a later period, every art was practised
to induce him to take the vows, and with success. It was not till he had
actually taken them, that he felt all the burthen they imposed : he regarded
it as a deliverance when he obtained a situation in a college at Paris :
but here, too, he was not happy ; he was compelled to attend Scotist
lectures and disputations ; and he complains that the unwholesome food
and bad wine on which he was forced to live, had entirely destroyed his
health. But in the meanwhile he had come to a consciousness of his own
powers. While yet a boy, he had lighted upon the first trace of a new
method of study,3 and he now followed it up with slender aid from without,
but with the infallible instinct of genuine talent ; he had constructed
for himself a light, flowing style, formed on the model of the ancients, not
by a servile imitation of particular expressions, but in native correctness

1 Platter's Autobiography places this practice in a very lively manner before
us. (Thomas Platter, after the autograph manuscript lately edited by Fechner,
Basle, 1840.)

2 Geiler, Introductorium, ii. c. " Quale est illud eorum Latinum, quo utuntur,
etiam dum sederint in sede majestatis suee, in doctoralis cathedra lectura I"

3 He cannot, however, be properly considered as a scholar of Hegius.
" Hegium," he says in the Compendium Vitae, " testis diebus audivi." It was
the exception.

Chap. I.] ERASMUS 131

and elegance far surpassing anything which Paris had to offer. He now
emancipated himself from the fetters which bound him to the convent
and the schools, and boldly trusted to the art of which he was master,
for the means of subsistence. He taught, and in that way formed con-
nections which not only led to present success, but to security for the
future ; he published some essays which, as they were not less remarkable
for discreet choice of matter than for scholarly execution, gained him
admirers and patrons ; he gradually discovered the wants and the tastes
of the public, and devoted himself entirely to literature. He composed
school-books treating of method and form of instruction ; translated from
the Greek, which he learned in the process ; edited the classics of antiquity,
and imitated them, especially Lucian and Terence. His works abound with
marks of that acute. and nice observation which at once instructs and
delights ; but great as these merits were, the grand secret of his popularity
lay in the spirit which pervades all he wrote. The bitter hostility to the
forms of the devotion and the theology of that time, which had been ren-
dered his habitual frame of mind by the course and events of his life,
found vent in his writings ; not that this was the premeditated aim or
purpose of them, but it broke forth sometimes in the very middle of a
learned disquisition — in indirect and unexpected sallies of the most
felicitous and exhaustless humour. In one of his works, he adopts the
idea, rendered so popular by the fables of Brant and Geiler, of the element
of folly which mingles in all human affairs. He introduces Folly herself
as interlocutor. Moria, the daughter of Plutus, born in the Happy
Islands, nursed by Drunkenness and Rudeness, is mistress of a powerful
kingdom, which she describes and to which all classes of men belong.
She passes them all in review, but dwells longer and more earnestly on
none than on the clergy, who, though they refuse to acknowledge her
benefits, are under the greatest obligations to her. She turns into ridicule
the labyrinth of dialectic in which theologians have lost themselves, —
the syllogisms with which they labour to sustain the church as Atlas
does the heavens, — the intolerant zeal with which they persecute every
difference of opinion. She then comes to the ignorance, the dirt, the
strange and ludicrous pursuits of the monks, their barbarous and objur-
gatory style of preaching ; she attacks the bishops, who are more solicitous
for gold than for the safety of souls ; who think they do enough if they
dress themselves in theatrical costume, and under the name of the most
reverend, most holy, and most blessed fathers in God, pronounce a blessing
or a curse ; and lastly, she boldly assails the court of Rome and the pope
himself,1 who, she says, takes only the pleasures of his station, and leaves
its duties to St. Peter and St. Paul. Amongst the curious woodcuts,
after the marginal drawings of Hans Holbein, with which the book was
adorned, the pope appears with his triple crown.

This little work brought together, with singular talent and brevity,
^natter which had for some time been current and popular in the world,
gave it a form which satisfied all the demands of taste and criticism, and
fell in with the most decided tendency of the age. It produced an inde-

1 Mupias iyKuifuov. Opp. Erasmi, t. iii. " Quasi sint ulli hostes ecclesia;
perniciosiores quam impii pontifices, qui et silentio Christum sinunt abolescere
et qusstuariis legibus alligant et coactis interpretationibus adulterant et pesti-
lente vita jugulant."

9—2

132 CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF [Book II.

scribable effect : twenty-seven editions appeared even during the lifetime
of Erasmus ; it was translated into all languages, and greatly contributed
to confirm the age in its anticlerical dispositions.

But Erasmus coupled with this popular warfare a more serious attack
on the state of learning. The study of Greek had arisen in Italy in the
fifteenth century ; it had found its way by the side of that of Latin into
Germany and France, and now opened a new and splendid vista, beyond
the narrow horizon of the ecclesiastical learning of the West. Erasmus
adopted the idea of the Italians, — that the sciences were to be learned
from the ancients ; geography from Strabo, natural history from Pliny,
mythology from Ovid, medicine from Hippocrates, philosophy from
Plato ; and not out of the barbarous and imperfect school-books then in
.use : but he went a step further — he required that divinity should be
learned not out of Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, but out of the Greek
fathers, and, above all, the New Testament. Following in the track of
Laurentius Valla, whose example had great influence generally on his mind,
he showed that it was not safe to adhere to the Vulgate, wherein he pointed
out a multitude of errors -,1 and he then himself set about the great work, —
the publication of the Greek text ; which was as yet imperfectly and
superficially known to the West. Thus he thought, as he expresses it,
to bring back that cold word-contender, Theology, to her primal sources ;
he showed the simplicity of the origin whence that wondrous and com-
plicated pile had sprung, and to which it must return. In all this he had
the sympathy and assent of the public for which he wrote. The prudence
wherewith he concealed from view an abyss in the distance, from which
that public would have shrunk with alarm, doubtless contributed to his
success. While pointing out abuses, he spoke only of reforms and improve-
ments, which he represented as easy ; and was cautious not to offend
against certain opinions or principles to which the faith of the pious clung.2
But the main thing was his incomparable literary talent. He worked
incessantly in various branches, and completed his works with great
rapidity ; he had not the patience to revise and polish them, and accord-
ingly most of them were printed exactly as he threw them out ; but this
very circumstance rendered them universally acceptable ; their great
charm was that they communicated the trains of thought which passed
through a rich, acute, witty, intrepid, and cultivated mind, just as they
arose, and without any reservations. Who remarked the many errors
which escaped him ? His manner of narrating, which still rivets the atten-
tion, then carried every one away. He gradually became the most
celebrated man in Europe ; public opinion, whose pioneer he had been,
adorned him with her fairest wreaths ; presents rained upon his house
at Basle ; visitors flocked thither, and invitations poured in from all

1 In the edition of Alcala de Henares, on the other hand, the Greek text has
been changed according to the Vulgate ; e.g. i Joh. v. 7. Schrockh, KGsch.
xxxiv. 83. As to the rest, this adherence to the Vulgate was regarded at a later
period, and especially when his canonization was talked of, as the chief merii
of Ximenes, " ut hoc modo melius intelligeretur nostra vulgata in suo rigore et
puritate." — Acta Toletana in Rainaldus, 1517, nr. 107.

2 A few years later he thus describes his situation : " Adnixus sum ut bona,
literse, quas scis hactenus apud Italos fere paganas fuisse, consuescerent de
Christo loqui." Epistola ad Cretium, 9 Sept., 1526. Opp. III. i., p. 953.

Chap. I.] LEARNED LITERATURE 133

parts.1 His person was small, with light hair, blue, half-closed eyes, ful
of acute observation, and humour playing about the delicate mouth
his air was so timorous that he looked as if a breath would overthrow
him, and he trembled at the very name of death.2

If this single example sufficed to show how much the exclusive theology
of the universities had to fear from the new tendency letters had acquired,
it was evident that the danger would become measureless if the spirit of
innovation should attempt to force its way into these fortresses of the
established corporations of learning. The universities, therefore, de-
fended themselves as well as they could. George Zingel, pro-chancellor
of Ingolstadt, who had been dean of the theological faculty thirty times in
three-and-thirty years, would hear nothing of the introduction of the study
of heathen poets. Of the ancients, he would admit only Prudentius ; of
the moderns, the Carmelite Baptista of Mantua : these he thought were
enough. Cologne, which had from the very beginning opposed the intro-
duction of new elementary books,3 would not allow the adherents of the
new opinions to settle in their town : Rhagius was banished for ten years
by public proclamation ; Murmellius, a pupil of Hegius, was compelled
to give way and to become teacher in a school ; Conrad Celtes of Leipzig
was driven away almost by force ; Hermann von dem Busch could not
maintain his ground either in Leipzig or Rostock ; his new edition of
Donatus was regarded almost as a heresy.4 This was not, however, uni-
versal. According to the constitution of the universities, every man had,
at leapt after taking his degree as Master of Arts, a right to teach, and it
was not every one who afforded a reason or a pretext for getting rid of him.5
In some places, too, the princes had reserved to themselves the right of
appointing teachers. In one way or another, teachers of grammar and
of classical literature did, as we find, establish themselves ; in Tubingen,
Heinrich Bebel, who formed a numerous school ; in Ingolstadt, Locher,
who, after much molestation, succeeded in keeping his ground, and left
a brilliant catalogue of princes, prelates, counts, and barons, who had been
his pupils ;6 Conrad Celtes in Vienna, where he actually succeeded in
establishing a faculty of poetry in the year 1501 ; and in Prague, Hier-
' onymo Balbi, an Italian, who gave instructions to the young princes, and

1 He afterwards complains of the want of contradiction. " Longe plus
attulissent utilitatis duo tresve fidi monitores quam multa laudantium millia
Epp. III. i. 924.

2 Compare this passage with Holbein's well-known portrait, by which it was
doubtless inspired.

3 According to Chytraus (Saxonia, p. 90). Conrad Ritberg, the bishop of
Miinster, was warned by the university of Cologne against the establishment
of a school upon the new method, but he, who had himself been in Italy, was
far more strongly worked on by the recommendations which Langen had brought
with him thence ; e.g. even from Pope Sixtus.

4 Hamelmann, Oratio de Buschio, nr. 49.

6 Erasmi Epistohe, i., p. 689. In the Epp. Obsc. Vir. ed. Munch, p. 102, a
Socius from Moravia is complained of who wanted to lecture at Vienna without
having taken a degree.

6 " Qui nostri portarunt signa theatri." — Catalogus Illustrium Auditorum
Philomusi. " Doctorum insignium magistrorum nobilium ac canonicorum
infinitum pene numerum memorare nequeo, qui ore magnifico laudisonaque
voce me praceptorem salutare gestiunt. Haec citra omnem jactantiam appo-
suimus." — Extract in Zapf. Jacob Locher, called Philomusus, p. 27.

134 LEARNED LITERATURE [Book II.

took some share in public affairs. In Freiburg the new studies were con-
nected with the Roman law ; Ulrich Zasius united the two professorships
in his own person with the most brilliant success ; Pietro Tommai of
Ravenna, and his son Vincenzo, were invited to Greifswald, and after-
wards to Wittenberg in the same double capacity i1 it was hoped that the
combined study of antiquity and law would raise that university. Erfurt
felt the influence of Conrad Muth, who enjoyed his canonry at Gotha " in
blessed tranquillity " (" in gluckseliger Ruhe ") as the inscription on his
house says : he was the Gleim of that age — the hospitable patron of
young men of poetical temperament and pursuits. Thus, from the time
the new spirit and method found their way into the lower schools, societies
of grammarians and poets were gradually formed in most of the univer-
sities, completely opposed to the spirit of those establishments as handed
down from their fountain-head, Paris. They read the ancients, and per-
haps allowed something of the petulance of Martial, or the voluptuousness
of Ovid, to find its way into their lives ; they made Latin verses, which,
stiff and barbarous as they generally were, called forth an interchange of
admiration ; they corresponded in Latin, and took care to interlard it
with a few sentences of Greek ; they Latinised and Graecised their names.2
Genuine talent or accomplished scholarship were very rare ; but the life
and power of a generation does not manifest itself in mere tastes and
acquirements : for a few individuals these may be enough, but, for the

; many the tendency is the important thing. The character of the univer-
sities soon altered. The scholars were no longer to be seen with their

I books under their arms, walking decorously after their Magister ; the

!' scholarships were broken up, degrees were no longer sought after — that of
bachelor especially (which was unfrequent in Italy) was despised. On
some occasions the champions of classical studies appeared as the pro-
moters of the disorders of the students ;3 and ridicule of the dialectic
) theologians, nominalists as well as realists, was hailed with delight by the
! young men.

The world, and especially the learned world, must be other than it is
for such a change to be effected without a violent struggle.

The manner, however, in which this broke out is remarkable. It was ,
not the necessity of warding off a dangerous attack or a declared enemy
that furnished the occasion : this was reserved for the most peaceful of
the converts to the new system, who had already fulfilled the active task
of life, and at that moment devoted himself to more abstruse studies, —
John Reuchlin.

Reuchlin, probably the son of a messenger at Pforzheim, was indebted
to his personal gifts for the success which attended him in his career. A
fine voice procured him admittance to the court of Baden ; his beautiful
handwriting maintained him during his residence in France ; the pure
pronunciation of Latin which he had acquired by intercourse with

1 Tiraboschi also mentions them, vi., p. 410. Their catastrophe at Cologne
s not yet, however, thoroughly cleared up.

2 Chrachenberger entreats Reuchlin to find some Greek name, " quo honestius
in Latinis Uteris quam hoc barbaro uti possim," Lynz, Febr. 19, 1493.

3 Acta Facultatis Artium Friburgensis in Riegger, Vita Zasii, i. 42. " Con-
clusum, ut dicatur doctori Zasio, quod scholaribus adhaereat faciendo eos rebelles
in universitatis prsejudicium."

Chap. I.] REUCHLIN 135

foreigners, caused him to be appointed member of an embassy to Rome,
and this led to an important post and considerable influence at the court
of Wiirtemberg, and with the Swabian league generally.1 His qualities, both
external and internal, were very unlike those of Erasmus. He was tall
and well made, and dignified in all his deportment and actions, while the
mildness and serenity of his appearance and manner won instant con-
fidence towards his intellectual superiority.2 As an author, he could
never have gained the applause of the large public of Latin scholars ;
his style is not above mediocrity, nor does he evince any nice sense of
elegance and form. On the other hand, he was inspired by a thirst for '
learning, and a zeal for communicating, which were without a parallel. !
He describes how he picked up his knowledge bit by bit, — crumbs that fell ;
from the lord's table — at Paris and in the Vatican, at Florence, Milan,
Basle, and at the Imperial Court ; how, like the bird of Apollonius, he
left the corn for the other birds to eat.3 He facilitated the study of Latin )
by a dictionary, which in great measure supplanted the old scholastic ones, \
and of Greek, by a small grammar ; he spared neither labour nor money '
to get copies of the classics brought across the Alps, either in manuscript,
or as they issued from the Italian press. What no prince, no wealthy*
city or community thought of doing, was done by the son of a poor errand '
man ; it was under his roof that the most wondrous production of distant 3
ages — the Homeric poems — first came in contact with the mind of Ger- j
many, which was destined in later times to render them more intelligible j
to the world. His Hebrew learning was still more highly esteemed by ;
his contemporaries than all his other acquirements, and he himself regarded
his labours in that field as his most peculiar claim to distinction. " There '
has been none before me," exclaims he with well-grounded self-gratulation,
to one of his adversaries, " who has been able to collect the rules of the
Hebrew language into a book , though his heart should burst with envy,
still I am the first. Exegi monumentum a?re perennius."4 In this work
he was chiefly indebted to the Jewish Rabbis whom he sought out in all
directions, not suffering one to pass by without learning something from
him : by them he was led to study not only the Old Testament, but other
Hebrew books, and especially the Cabbala. Reuchlin's mind was not one
of those to which the labours of a mere grammarian or lexicographer are
sufficient for their own sake. After the fashion of his Jewish teachers, he
applied himself to the study of the mystical value of words. In the name
of the Deity as written in the Holy Scriptures, in its elementary composi-
tion, he discovers the deepest mystery of his being. For, he says, " God,
who delights in intercourse with a holy soul, will transform it into himself,
and will dwell in it : God is Spirit ; the Word is a breath ; Man breathes ; ,

1 Schnurrer, Nachrichten von den Lehrern der Hebraischen Literatur, p. 11.
A small essay of Michael Coccinius, De Imperii a Graecis ad Germanos Transla-
tione, 1506, is dedicated to Reuchlin, together with his two colleagues in the
court of the Swabian league, Streber and Winkelhofer (confcederatorum Suevorum
judicibus consistorialibus et triumviris).

2 Joannis Hiltebrandi Praefatio in Illustrium Virorum Epistolas ad Reuchlinum.

3 Praefatio ad Rudimenta Linguae Hebraicas, lib. iii. Cf. Burkhard, de Fatis
Lingua? Latinse, p. 152.

4 Reuchlini Consilium pro Libris Judaeorum non abolendis in v. d. Hardt,
Historia Ref., p. 49. This is moreover a fine specimen of German prose.

136 LEARNED LITERATURE [Book II.

' God is the Word. The names which He has given to Himself are an echo
of eternity ; in them is the deep abyss of his mysterious working expressed ;

'the God-Man called himself the Word."1 Thus, at its very outset, the

'! study of language in Germany was directed towards its final end and aim—
the knowledge of the mysterious connection of language with the Divine —
of its identity with the spirit. Reuchlin is like his contemporaries, the dis-

' coverers of the New World, who sailed some north, some south, some right
on to the west, found portions of coast which they described, and while at
the beginning, often thought they had reached the end. Reuchlin was
persuaded that he should find in the road he had taken, not only the
Aristotehc and Platonic philosophies, which had already been brought to
light, but that he should add to them the Pythagorean, — an offspring of
Hebraism. He believed that by treading in the footsteps of the Cabbala,
he should ascend from symbol to symbol, from form to form, till he should
reach that last and purest form which rules the empire of mind, and in
which human mutability approaches to the Immutable and Divine.2

But while living in this world of ideas and abstractions, it was his lot
to be singled out by the enmity of the scholastic party : he unexpectedly
found himself involved in the heat of a violent controversy.
| We have already alluded to the inquisitorial attempts of the Dominicans
of Cologne, and their hostility to the Jews. In the year 1508, a book was
published by an old Rabbi, who at the age of fifty had abandoned his wife
and child, and become a Christian priest. In this he accused his former
co-religionists of the grossest errors ; for example, adoration of the sun
and moon ; but, above all, of the most horrible blasphemies against the
Christian faith, which he endeavoured to prove from the Talmud.3 It was
mainly on this ground that the theologians of Cologne urged the emperor
to order the publication of the Talmud, and gave him, at his request, the
opinion in which they affirmed his right to proceed against the Jews as
heretics. The Imperial Council, however, deemed it expedient to consult
another master of Hebrew literature. They referred the matter to the
reviver of the cabbalistic philosophy — Reuchlin.

Reuchlin gave his opinion, as might be expected, in favour of the Judaical
books. His report is a beautiful monument of pure dispassionate judg-
ment and consummate sagacity. But these qualities were just those fitted
to draw down the whole storm of fanatical rage upon himself.

The Cologne theologians, irritated to fury by the rejection of their propo-
sition, which they ascribed, not without reason, to the adverse opinion
of Reuchlin, incited one of their satellites to attack him ; he answered ;
they condemned his answer ; he rejoined, upon which they appointed a
court of inquisition to try him.

This was the first serious encounter of the two parties. The Dominicans
hoped to establish their tottering credit by a great stroke of authority, and
to intimidate the adversaries who threatened to become dangerous to them,
by the terrors which were at their disposal. The innovators — the teachers
and disciples of the schools of poetry whom we have mentioned — were

fully sensible that Reuchlin's peril was their own ; but their efforts and

1 Reuchlin de Verbo Mirifico, ii. 6, 15 ; hi. 3, 19.

2 Reuchlin de Arte Cabbalistica, p. 614, 620, 696.

3 Notices of this little Jewish book in Riederer's Nachrichten, I. i., p. 34. It
appeared in Latin in 1509, as an " opus aureum ac novum."

Chap. I.] REUCHLIN 137

aspirations were checked by the consciousness of opposition to existing
authority, and of the dubious position which they occupied.

In October, 1513, a court of inquisition was formed at Mainz, composed ?
of the doctors of the university and the officers of the archbishopric, under
the presidency of the inquisitor of heretical wickedness — Jacob Hog- ,
straten ; and it remained to be seen whether such a sentence as that pro-
nounced some years before against John of Wesalia, would now be given.

But times were totally altered. That intensely Catholic spirit which
had rendered it so easy for the Inquisition to take root in Spain, was very
far from reigning in Germany. The Imperial Council must have been,
from the outset, indisposed towards the demands of the Cologne divines,
or they would not have appealed to such a man as Reuchlin for advice.
The infection of the prevalent spirit of literature had already spread too
widely, and had created a sort of public opinion. We have a whole list
of members of the higher clergy who are cited as friends of the literary-
innovation — Gross and Wrisberg, canons of Augsburg, Nuenar of Cologne,
Adelmann of Eichstadt, Andreas Fuchs dean of Bamberg, Lorenzo
Truchsess of Mainz, Wolfgang Tanberg of Passau, Jacob de Bannissis of
Trent. Cardinal Lang, the most influential of the emperor's councillors,
shared these opinions. The superior clergy were not more disposed than
the people to allow the Inquisition to regain its power.

Elector Diether had consented to the trial of Wesalia, against his will,
and only because he feared the puissant Dominicans might a second time
effect his deposition ;i now, however, the heads of the church were no
longer so timorous, and after the tribunal had already taken its seat to
pronounce judgment, Dean Lorenz Truchsess persuaded the Elector to
command it to suspend its proceedings, and to forbid his own officers to
take part in them.2

Nay, another tribunal, favourable to Reuchlin, was appointed to hold
its sittings under the Bishop of Spires, in virtue of a commission obtained
from Rome ; the sentence pronounced by this court on the 24th April,
1514, was, that the accusers of Reuchlin, having falsely calumniated him,
were condemned to eternal silence and to the payment of the costs.3

So widely diffused and so powerful was the antipathy which the Domi-
nicans had excited. So livery was the sympathy which the higher and
educated classes testified in the efforts of the new school of literature. So
powerful already was the opinion of men of learning. It was their first
victory.

Persecuting orthodoxy found no favour either with the emperor or with
the higher clergy of Germany. But its advocates did not give up the con-
test. At Cologne, Reuchlin's books were condemned to be burnt : unani-
mous sentences to the same effect were obtained from the faculties of
Erfurt, Mainz, Louvain, and Paris ; thus fortified, they applied to the
supreme tribunal at Rome ; the representatives of orthodox theology pre-
sented themselves before the pope, and urged him to give his infallible

1 " Cogentibus Thomistis quibusdam, veritus ne denuo ab episcopatu ejiceretur
jussu Romano pontificis." — Examen Wesalia, fasc. i. 327.

2 Hutten's Preface to Livy, Opp. III., p. 334 ed. Munch proves the share of
Lorenz Truchsess " quodam suo divino consilio."

3 Acta judiciorum in v. d. Hardt, Hist. Lit. Reformationis, 114. The chief
source of information respecting these events.

138 CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF [Book II.

decision in aid of the ancient champions of the Holy See against inno-
vators.

But even Rome was perplexed. Should she offend public opinion
represented by men so influential from their talents and learning ? Should
she act in opposition to her own opinions ? On the other hand, would it
be safe to set at nought the judgment of powerful universities ? to break
with the order which had so zealously contended for the prerogatives of
the Roman see, and had preached the doctrine and furthered the sale of
indulgences all over the world P1

In the commission appointed by the pope at Rome, the majority was for
Reuchlin, but a considerable minority was against him, and the pope held
it expedient to defer his decision. He issued a mandatum de supersedendo.2

Reuchlin, conscious of a just cause, was not perfectly satisfied with this
result, especially after all that had gone before : he expected a formal and
complete acquittal ; nevertheless, even this was to be regarded as little
less than a victory. The fact that the party which assumed to represent
religion and to have exclusive possession of the true doctrines, had failed
to carry through their inquisitorial designs, and even, as secret reports
said, had only escaped a sentence of condemnation by means of gold and
favour,3 was enough to encourage all their adversaries. Hitherto the latter
had only stood on the defensive ; they now assumed an attitude of open,
direct offence. Reuchlin's correspondence, which was published ex-
pressly to show the respect and admiration he enjoyed, shows how numer-
ously and zealously they rallied round him. We find the spiritual lords we
have mentioned ; patricians of the most important cities, such as Pirk-
heimer of Nurnberg, who delighted in being considered as the leader of a
numerous band of Reuchlinists ; Peutinger of Augsburg, Stuss of Cologne ;
preachers like Capito and CEcolampadius ; the Austrian historians, Lazius
and Cuspinian ; doctors of medicine — all, in short, who had any tincture
of letters ; but chiefly those poets and orators in the schools and univer-
sities who beheld their own cause in that of Reuchlin, and now rushed in
throngs to the newly-opened arena ; at their head Busch, Jager, Hess,
Hutten, and a long list of eminent names.4

The remarkable production in which the whole character and drift of
their labours is summed up, is, the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum. That
popular satire, already so rife in Germany, but hitherto confined to generals,
here found a particular subject exactly suited to it. We must not look for
the delicate apprehension and tact which can only be formed in a highly
polished state of society, nor for the indignation of insulted morality ex-
pressed by the ancients : it is altogether caricature, — not of finished
individual portraits, but of a single type ; — a clownish, sensual German
priest, his intellect narrowed by stupid wonder and fanatical hatred, who
relates with silly naiveU and gossiping confidence the various absurd and

1 Erasmus ad Vergaram, Opp. III. ; 1015. " Quis enim magis timet monachos
quam Romani pontifices ?"

2 Reuchlin de Arte Cabbalistica, p. 730. Acta Judiciorum, p. 130.

3 In Hogstratus Ovans, 336, it is said, through the intercession of Nicolaus
von Schomberg.

4 Even before the letters to Reuchlin, we find set down the Exercitus Reuchli-
nistarum. Pirkheimer, Epistola Apologetica, in Hardt, p. 136, has another list.
Later lists, e.g. in Mayerhofif, must, in several cases, be taken with restrictions.

Chap. I.] LEARNED LITERATURE 130

scandalous situations into which he falls. These letters are not the work
of a high poetical genius, but they have truth, coarse strong features of
resemblance, and vivid colouring. As they originated in a widely-diffused
and powerful tendency of the public mind, they produced an immense
effect : the See of Rome deemed it necessary to prohibit them.

It may be affirmed generally that the genius of the literary opposition
was triumphant. In the year 15 18, Erasmus looked joyfully around him ;
his disciples and adherents had risen to eminence in every university —
even in Leipsig, which had so long resisted : they were all teachers of
ancient literature.1

Was it indeed possible that the great men of antiquity should have
lived in vain ? That their works, produced in the youth-time of the human
race, — works with whose beauty and profound wisdom nothing that has
since arisen is to be compared, should not be restored to later ages in their
primitive form and perfection ? It is an event of the greatest historical
importance, that after so many convulsions by which nations were over-
thrown and others constituted out of their ruins, — by which the old world
had been obliterated and all its elements replaced by other matter, — the
relics of its spirit, which could now exercise no other influence than that
of form, were sought with an avidity hitherto unknown, and widely
diffused, studied, and imitated.

The study "of antiquity was implanted in Germany as early as the first
introduction of Christianity ; in the 10th and nth centuries it had risen
to a considerable height, but at a later period it was stifled by the despo-
tism of the hierarchy and the schools. The latter now returned to their
original vocation. It was not to be expected, that great works of literary
art could as yet be produced ; for that, circumstances were not ripe.
The first effect of the new studies showed itself in the nature and modes
of instruction — the more natural and rational training of the youthful
mind which has continued to be the basis of German erudition. The
hierarchical system of opinions which, though it had been wrought up
to a high point of brilliancy and refinement, could not possibly endure,
was thus completely broken up. A new life stirred in every department ,
of human intelligence. "What an age ! " exclaims Hutten, " learning j
flourishes, the minds of men awake ; it is a joy to be alive." This was!
peculiarly conspicuous in the domain of theology. The highest ecclesiastic j
of the nation, Archbishop Albert of Mainz, saluted Erasmus as the restorer
of theology.

But an intellectual movement of a totally different kind was now
about to take place.

EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER.

The authorities, or the opinions which rule the world, rarely encounter
their most dangerous enemies from without ; the hostilities by which they
are overthrown are usually generated and nurtured within their own sphere.

1 In the Essay De Ratione conscribendi Epistolas, the dedication of which
belongs to the year 1522, he exclaims (ed. of 1534, p. 71.), " Videmus quantum
profectum sit paucis annis. Ubi nunc est Michael Modista, ubi glossema Jacobi,
ubi citatur Catholicon brachylogus aut Mammaetrectus, quos ohm ceu rarum
thesaurum aureis Uteris descriptos habebant monachorum bibliothecas." It is
evident how much the method had changed.

140 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

In the bosom of theological philosophy itself, discords arose from which
a new era in the history of life and thought may be dated.

We must not omit to notice the fact, that the doctrines of Wickliffe,
which had spread from Oxford over the whole of Latin Christendom, and
broke out with such menacing demonstrations in Bohemia, had not, in
spite of all the barbarities of the Hussite wars, been extirpated in Germany.
At a much later period we find traces of them in Bavaria, where the
Boklerbund drew upon ' itself the suspicions of Hussite opinions ; in
Swabia and Franconia, where the council of Bamberg at one time thought
it necessary to compel all the men in that city to abjure the Hussites ; and
even in Prussia, where the adherents of Wickliffite and Hussite doctrines
at length submitted, though only in appearance.1 It was the more remark-
able that after such measures, the society of the Bohemian brethren arose
out of the fierce tempest of Hussite opinions and parties, and once more
exhibited to the world a Christian community in all the purity and sim-
plicity of the primitive church. Their religion derived a new and singular
character from the fundamental principle of their secession — that Christ
himself was the rock on which the church was founded, and not Peter
and his successors.2 Their settlements were in those districts where the
Germanic and Slavonic elements are intermingled, and their emissaries
went forth and traversed unnoticed the wide domain of either language,
seeking those already allied to them in opinion, or endeavouring to gain
over new proselytes. Nicholas Kuss of Rostock, whom they visited several
times, began at this time to preach openly against the pope (a.d. 1511. ).3

The opposition to the despotism of the Dominican system still subsisted
in the universities themselves. Nominalism, connected at the very
moment of its revival with the adversaries of the papacy, had found great
acceptance in Germany, and was still by no means suppressed. The most
celebrated nominalist of that time, Gabriel Biel, the collector, is mainly
an epitomizer of Occam. This party was in the minority, and often
exposed to the persecutions of its enemies who wielded the powers of the
Inquisition ;4 but it only struck deeper and firmer root. Luther and
Melanchthon are the offspring of nominalism.

And perhaps a still more important circumstance was, that in the
1 5th century the stricter Augustinian doctrines were revived in the persons
of some theologians.

Johann de Wesalia taught election by grace ; he speaks of the Book
in which the names of the elect are written from the beginning. The
tendency of his opinions is shown by the definition of the Sacrament which
he opposes to that given by Peter Lombard : the former is that of St.
Augustine in its original purity, while the latter is an extension of it ; the

1 Zschokke, Baier. Gesch. ii., 429. Pfister, Gesch. von Schwaben, v. 378.
Baczko, Gesch. von Preussen, i. 256.

2 What it was which appeared dangerous in their doctrines is shown particu-
larly in the Refutations of the Dominican Heinrich Institoris, from which Rain-
aldus (1498, nr. 25) gives copious extracts.

8 Wolfii Lectiones memorabiles, ii. 27.

4 In the Examen Magistrale Dris Joh. de^Wesalia, the Concipient describes
these disputes at the conclusion : " adeo ut si universalia quisquam realia nega-
verit, existimetur in spiritum sanctum peccavisse, immo — contra deum, contra
Christianam religionem, — deliquisse."

Chap. I.] THEOLOGICAL MOVEMENT 141

general aim of his works is, the removal of the additions made in later
times to the primitive doctrines of the church.1 He denies the binding
force of priestly rules, and the efficacy of indulgences ; he is filled with the
idea of the invisible church. He was a man of great intellectual powers,
capable of playing a distinguished part at a university like that of Erfurt :
he arrived at these convictions by degrees, and when convinced did not
conceal them even in the pulpit ; nor did he shrink from a connexion with
Bohemian emissaries. At length, however, when advanced in age, he
was dragged, leaning on his staff, before the Inquisition, and thrown into
prison, where he died.

Johann Pupper of Goch, who founded a convent of nuns of the rule of
St. Augustine at Mechlin about the year 1460-70, made himself remarkable
by accusing the dominant party in the church of a leaning to Pelagianism.2
He calls Thomas Aquinas the prince of error. He attacked the devotion
to ceremonies, and the Pharisaism of vows, upon Augustinian principles.

How often have the antagonists of the church of Rome made this the
ground of their opposition ! — from Claudius of Turin in the beginning of
the ninth, to Bishop Janse3 in the seventeenth century, and his followers
in the 18th and 19th. The deeper minds within her pale have always
felt compelled to point back to those fundamental doctrines on which she
was originally based.

The principles of the opposition now assumed the form of a scientific
structure. In the works of Johann Wessel, of Groningen, we see a manly
mind devoted to truth, working itself free from the bonds of the mighty
tradition which could no longer satisfy a religious conscience. Wessel
lays down the maxim that prelates and doctors are to be believed onlyj
so far as their doctrines are in conformity with the Scriptures, the sole
rule of faith, which is far above pope or church ;4 he writes almost in the
spirit of a theologian of later times. It was perfectly intelligible that he
was not permitted to set foot in the university of Heidelberg.

Nor were these efforts completely isolated.

At the time of the council of Basle, the German provincial society of
the Augustin Eremites had formed themselves into a separate congregation,
and had from that moment made it their chief endeavour to uphold
the more rigorous doctrines of the patron of their order. This was peculi-
arly the aim of the resolute and undaunted Andreas Proles, who for nearly
half a century administered the Vicariate of that province.5 Another
and a congenial tendency came in aid of this in the beginning of the
1 6th century. The despotism of the schools had been constantly opposed
by all those who were inclined to mystical contemplation : the sermons
of Tauler, which had several times issued from the press, became extremely

1 Joh. de Wesalia, Disputatio adversus indulgentias in Walch, Monimenta
Medii Mvi, torn. i. fasc. i., p. 131.

2 Dialogus de Quatuor Erroribus circa Legem Evangelicam in Walch, Monim.
I. iv., p. 181. " Haec fuit insania Pelagii haeretici, a qua error Thomistarum non
solum in hoc loco sed etiam in multis aliis non multum degenerare videtur."
What impression this made, we perceive from Pantaleon's description.

3 Bishop Janse : Bishop of Ypres, 1585 — 1638, and founder of the Jansenists,
a sect which was finally condemned by the Bull Unigenitus in 171 3. Cf. article
in Encyclopaedia Britannica.

4 Ullmann, Johann Wessel, p. 303.

5 Joh. Pelz, Supplementum Aurifodmae, 1504, in Kapp, Nachlese, iv., p. 460.

142 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

popular from their mild earnestness, their depth of thought and reason,
and the tone of sincerity so satisfactory to the German mind and heart.
The Book of German Theology, which appeared at that time, may be
, regarded as an offspring of Tauler's teaching. It chiefly insisted on the
inability of the creature, of himself to comprehend the Infinite and the
Perfect, to attain to inward peace, or to give himself up to that Eternal
Good, which descends upon him of its own free motion. Johann Staupitz,
the successor of Proles, adopted these ideas, and laboured to develop and
to diffuse them.1 If we examine his views of the subject, — as for example,
the manner in which he treats of the love " which a man can neither
learn of himself nor from others, nor even from the Holy Scriptures, —
which he can only possess through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit," —
we are struck with their perfect connexion and accordance with the
stricter ideas of grace, faith, and free-will ; a connexion, indeed, without
which these doctrines would not have been intelligible to the age. We
must not assume that all Augustine convents, or even all the members
of the one in question, were converted to these opinions ; but it is certain
that they first struck root among this order, whence they spread abroad
and tended to foster the resistance to the prevailing doctrines of the
schools.

It is manifest that all these agitations of opinion, from whatever source
they proceeded, were allies of the literary opposition to the tyranny of
the Dominican system. The fact that these various but converging
tendencies at length found representatives within the circle of one uni-
versity, must be regarded as in itself an important event for the whole
nation.

In the year 1 502, Elector Frederick of Saxony founded a new university
at Wittenberg. He accomplished this object chiefly by obtaining the
pope's consent to incorporate a number of parishes with the richly endowed
church attached to the palace, and transforming the whole into a founda-
tion, the revenues of which he then allotted to the new professors. The
same course had been pursued in Treves and in Tubingen ; the clerical
dignities of the institution were connected with the offices in the university.
The provost, dean, scholaster, and syndic formed the faculty of law ;
the archdeacon, cantor, and warden, that of theology ; the lectures on
philosophy and the exercises of the candidates for the degree of master
of arts were attached to five canonries. The eminent Augustine convent
in the town was to take part in the work.2

We must recollect that the universities were then regarded not only as
j establishments for education, but as supreme tribunals for the decision of
! scientific questions. In the charter of Wittenberg, Frederick declares3
that he, as well as all the neighbouring states, would repair thither as to
an oracle ; "so that," says he, " when we have come full of doubt, we
may, after receiving the sentence, depart in certainty."

Two men, both unquestionably belonging to the party hostile to the
reigning theologico-philosophical system, had the greatest influence on

1 Grimm de Joanne Staupitzio ejusque in sacrorum Christianorum restaura-
tionem meritis, in Illgen Zeitschrift fur die Hist. Theologie, N. F. i. ii. 78.

2 The papal privilege in Grohmann, Geschichte der Universitat Wittenberg,
cf. p. no.

3 Confirmatio ducis Frederici, ib., p. 19.

Chap. I.] EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER 143

the foundation, and first organisation of this university. The one was
Dr. Martin Pollich of Melrichstadt, physician to the elector, whose name
stands at the head of the list of the rectors of the Leipzig university, where
he was previously established. We know that he had contended against
the fantastic exaggerations of scholastic learning, and the strange assertions
to which they gave birth ; such as that the light created on the first day
was theology ; that discursive theology was inherent in the angels. We
know that he had already perceived the necessity of grounding that science
on a study of letters generally.1

The other was Johann Staupitz, the mystical cast of whose opinions,
borrowed from St. Augustine, we have just mentioned ; he was the first
dean of the theological faculty, the first act of which was, the promotion
of Martin Pollich to be doctor of theology :2 as director of the Augustine
convent, he likewise enjoyed peculiar influence. It was not an insigni-
ficant circumstance that the university had just then declared St. Augustine
its patron. Notwithstanding his strong tendency to speculation, Staupitz
was obviously an excellent man of business ; he conducted himself with
address at court, and a homely vein of wit which he possessed, enabled
him to make his part good with the prince ; he undertook an embassy,
and conducted the negotiation with success ; but the deeper spring of
all his conduct and actions is clearly a genuine feeling of true and heartfelt
religion, and an expansive benevolence.

It is easy to imagine in what spirit these men laboured at the university.
But a new star soon arose upon it. In the year 1508, Staupitz conducted
thither the young Luther.

We must pause a moment to consider the early years of this remarkable
man.

" I am a peasant's son," says he ; " my father, grandfather, and
ancestors were genuine peasants ; afterwards, my father removed to
Mansfeld, and became a miner ; that is my native place."3 Luther's
family was from Mohra, a village on the very summit of the Thuringian
forest, not far from the spot celebrated for the first preaching of Christi-
anity by Boniface ; it is probable that Luther's forefathers had for cen-
turies been settled on their hide of land (Hufe) as was the custom with
those Thuringian peasants, one brother among whom always inherited
the estate, while the others sought a subsistence in other ways. Con-
demned by such a destiny to seek a home and hearth for himself, Hans
Luther was led to the mines at Mansfeld, where he earned his bread by
the sweat of his brow, while his wife, Margaret, often fetched wood from
the forest on her back. Such were the parents of Martin Luther. He
was born at Eisleben, whither his sturdy mother had walked to the yearly
fair ; he grew up in the mountain air of Mansfeld.

The habits and manners of that time were generally harsh and rude,
and so was his education. Luther relates that his mother once scourged
him till the blood came, on account of one miserable nut ; that his father

1 Loscher, in the unoffending accounts of 1716, and in the Acts of the Refor-
mation, i. 88., has given extracts from his writings. In his epitaph in the parish
church at Wittenberg, he is rightly called hujus gymnasii primus rector et parens.

2 Liber decanorum facultatis theologorum Vitebergensis, ed. Foerstemann,
p. 2%

Tischreden, p. 581.

H4 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

had punished him so severely that it was with great difficulty that he could
get over the child's terror and alienation ; at school he was flogged fifteen
times in one forenoon. He had to earn his bread by singing hymns before
the doors of houses, and new year's carols in the villages. Strange —
that people should continually exalt and envy the happiness of childhood,
in which the only certain foretaste of coming years is the feeling of the
stern necessities of life ; in which existence is dependent on foreign help,
and the will of another disposes of every day and hour with iron sway.
In Luther's case, this period of life was full of terrors.

From his fifteenth year his condition was somewhat better. In Eisenach,
where he was sent to the high school, he found a home in the house of
some relations of his mother ; thence he went to the university of
Erfurt, where his father, whose industry, frugality and success had
placed him in easier circumstances, made him a liberal allowance :x
his hope was, that his son would be a lawyer, marry wall and do him
honour.

But in this weary life the restraints of childhood are soon succeeded
by troubles and perplexities. The spirit feels itself freed from the bonds
of the school, and is not yet distracted by the wants and cares of daily
life ; it boldly turns to the highest problems, such as the relation of man
to God, and of God to the world, and while eagerly rushing on to the solu-
tion of them, it falls into the most distressing state of doubt. We might
be almost tempted to think that the Eternal Source of all life appeared
to the youthful Luther only in the light of the inexorable j udge and avenger,
who punishes sin (of which Luther had from nature an awful and vivid
feeling) with the torments of hell, and can only be propitiated by penance,
mortification and painful service. As he was returning from his father's
house in Mansfeld to Erfurt, in the month of July, 1505, he was overtaken
in a field near Stotternheim by one of those fearful tempests which slowly
gather on the mountains and at length suddenly burst over the whole
horizon. Luther was already depressed by the unexpected death of an
intimate friend. There are moments in which the agitated desponding
heart is completely crushed by one overwhelming incident, even of the
natural world. Luther, traversing his solitary path, saw in the tempest
the God of wrath and vengeance ; the lightning struck some object near
him ; in his terror he made a vow to St. Anne, that if he escaped, he
would enter a convent. He passed one more evening with his friends,
enjoying the pleasures of wine, music, and song ; it was the last in which
he indulged himself ; he hastened to fulfil his vow, and entered the Augus-
tine Convent2 at Erfurt.

But he was little likely to find serenity there ; imprisoned, in all the
buoyant energy of youth,within the narrow gates and in the low and gloomy
cell, with no prospect but a few feet of garden within the cloisters, and
condemned to perform the lowest offices. At first he devoted himself to
the duties of a novice with all the ardour of a determined will. " If
ever a monk got to heaven by monkish life and practices (durch Moncherei),

1 Luther's Erklarung der Genesis, c. 49, v. 15. Attenb., torn, ix., p. 1525.

2 The Augustinians (Austen Friars or Eremites) were not strictly monks but
one of the four orders of Friars founded in the thirteenth century. The others
are — Dominicans or Black Friars, Franciscans or Grey Friars, Carmelites or
White Friars.

Chap. I.] EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER 145

I resolved that I would enter there," were his words.1 But though he
conformed to the hard duty of obedience, he was soon a prey to the most
painful disquiet. Sometimes he studied day and night, to the neglect of
his canonical hours, which he then passed his nights in retrieving with
penitent zeal. Sometimes he went out into some neighbouring village,
carrying with him his mid-day repast, preached to the shepherds and
ploughmen, and then refreshed himself with their rustic music ; after
which he went home, and shutting himself up for days in his cell, would
see no one. All his former doubts and secret perplexities returned from
time to time with redoubled force.

In the course of his study of the Scriptures, he fell upon texts which
struck terror into his soul ; one of these was, " Save me in thy righteous-
ness and thy truth." " I thought," said he, " that righteousness was
the fierce wrath of God, wherewith he punishes sinners." Certain passages
in the Epistles of St. Paul haunted him for days. The doctrine of grace
was not indeed unknown to him, but the dogma that sin was at once
taken away by it, produced upon him, who was but too conscious of his
sins, rather a sense of rejection — a feeling of deep depression, than of
hope. He says it made his heart bleed — it made him despair of God.2
" Oh, my sins, my sins, my sins !" he writes to Staupitz, who was not a
little astonished when he received the confession of so sorrowful a penitent,
and found that he had no sinful acts to acknowledge. His anguish was
the longing of the creature after the purity of the Creator, to whom it
feels itself profoundly and intimately allied, yet from whom it is severed
by an immeasurable gulph : a feeling which Luther nourished by incessant
solitary brooding, and which had taken the more painful and complete
possession of him because no penance had power to appease it ; no doctrine
truly touched it, no confessor would hear of it. There were moments when
this anxious melancholy arose with fearful might from the mysterious
abysses of his soul, waved its dusky pinions over his head, and felled him
to the earth. On one occasion when he had been invisible for several
days, some friends broke into his cell and found him lying senseless on
the ground. They knew their friend ; with tender precaution they struck
some chords on a stringed instrument they had brought with them ; the
inward strife of the perplexed spirit was allayed by the well-known remedy ;
it was restored to harmony and awakened to healthful consciousness.

But the eternal laws of the universe seem to require that so deep and
earnest a longing of the soul after God should at length be appeased with
the fulness of conviction.

The first who, if he could not administer comfort to Luther in his des-
perate condition, at least, let fall a ray of light upon his thick darkness,
was an old Augustine friar who with fatherly admonitions pointed his
attention to the first and simplest truth of Christianity, — the forgiveness
of sins through faith in the Redeemer ; and to the assertion of St. Paul
(Rom. iii.), that man is justified without works, by faith alone :3 doctrines

1 Short answer to Duke George. Altenburg. t. vi., p. 22. Exposition of the
eighth chapter of John, v. 770.

2 He relates this in the Sermo die S. Joh. 15 16, in Loscher, Reformations Acta,
i., p. 258.

3 Short notice by Melancthon on the Life of Luther. Works. Attenb. viii.
876. See Matthesius, Historien Dr. Luthers. First Sermon, p. 12. Bavarus
in Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheranismi, p. 21.

IO

i46 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

which he might indeed have heard before, but obscured as they were by
school subtleties, and a ceremonial worship, he had never rightly under-
stood. They now first made a full and profound impression on him. He
meditated especially on the saying " The just shall live by faith." He
read St. Augustine's commentary on this passage. " Then was I glad,"
says he, " for I learned and saw that God's righteousness is his mercy,
by which he accounts and holds us justified ; thus I reconciled justice
with justification, and felt assured that I was in the true faith." This
was exactly the conviction of which his mind stood in need : it was mani-
fest to him that the same eternal grace whence the whole race of man is
sprung, mercifully brings back erring souls to itself and enlightens them
with the fulness of its own light ; that an example and irrefragable assur-
ance of this is given us in the person of Christ : he gradually emerged
from the gloomy idea of a divine justice only to be propitiated by the
rigours of penance. He was like a man who after long wanderings has
at length found the right path, and feeling more certain of it at every
step, walks boldly and hopefully onward.

Such was Luther's state when he was removed to Wittenberg by his
provincial (a.d. 1508). The philosophical lectures which he was obliged
to deliver, sharpened his desire to penetrate the mysteries of theology,
" the kernel of the nut," as he calls it, " the heart of the wheat." The
• books, which he studied were St. Paul's Epistles, St. Augustine against
the Pelagians, and, lastly, Tauler's sermons : he troubled himself little
with literature foreign to this subject ; he cared only to strengthen and
work out the convictions he had gained.1

A few years later we find him in the most extraordinary frame of mind,

1 In the " Histori, so zwen Augustinerordens gemartert seyn zu Bruxel in
Probandt," — " History, how two monks of the order of St. Augustine underwent
martyrdom at Brussels in Brabant,"— there is in sheet B the following excellent
and authentic passage upon Luther's studies. " In welchen Verstand (dass er
die Schrift so klar und guadenreich erklare) er kummen ist erst durch maniche
Staupen dye er erlitten hat von Got, und mit vleissigen Bitten zu Got, steten
Lesen, und nemlich Augustinus wider die Pelagianer hat ym grosse hilff gethan
tzur erkenndnuss Pauli yn seyn Episteln. 'Sunderlich ein Predigbuchlin der
Tawler genanndt yhm deutschen das hat er uns oft zu erkauffen ermant unter
seym lesen yn der Schul, welches yn gefurt hat yn geist, els er offt uns bekannt :
auch ist eyn Biichlyn genandt die deutsch Theologen, hat Er allzeyt hochgebrifft,
als er den schreibtt yn der Vorrede gedachten Buchlyns. — Hat auch oft gesagt,
das seyn Kunst mer yhm geben sey auserfaren denn lesen, und das vyll Bucher
nit gelert machen. Darumb findt man (Spater, 1523) yhn seiner Wonung nit
vyll Bucher, den eyn Bibel und Concordanz der Bybel." — " To what under-
standing (enabling him to explain the Scriptures with such clearness and grace)
he has arrived, first by manifold chastisements which he has suffered from God,
and through diligent prayer to God, and constant reading ; and for instance,
Augustine against the Pelagians has been of great help to him towards the
comprehension of Paul in his Epistles. Especially a little book of sermons by
Tauler, he has often admonished us to buy, in the middle of his teaching in the
school, as what has guided him in spirit, as he has often acknowledged to us ;
there is also a little book called the German Theology, which he has at all times .
highly praised, as he writes in the preface to the said little book. He has also
often said, that his skill was given him more by experience than reading, and
that many books do not make a man learned. Therefore many books are not
to be^found (this is later, in 1523) in his dwelling ; but one Bible and a Con-
cordance of the Bible."

Chap. I.] EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER 147

during a journey which he took for the affairs of his order to Rome. As
soon as he descried the towers of the city from a distance, he threw himself
on the ground, raised his hands and exclaimed, " Hail to thee, O holy
Rome !" On his arrival, there was no exercise in use among the most
pious pilgrims which he did not perform with earnest and deliberate
devotion, undeterred by the levity of other priests ; he said he was almost
tempted to wish that his parents were dead, that so he might have been
able certainly to deliver them from the fire of purgatory by these privileged
observances.1 Yet, at the same time, he felt how little such practices
were in accordance with the consolatory doctrine which he had found
in the Epistle to the Romans and in St. Augustine. While climbing the
Scala Santa on his knees in order to obtain the plenary indulgence attached
to that painful and laborious work of piety, he heard a reproving voice
continually crying within him, " The just shall liye by faith."2

After his return in 15 12, he became Doctor of the Holy Scripture, and
from year to year enlarged his sphere of activity. He lectured at the
university on both the Old and New Testament ; he preached at the
Augustine church, and performed the duties of the priest of the parochial
church of the town during his illness ; in 15 16, Staupitz appointed him
administrator of the order during his absence on a journey, and we trace
him visiting all the monasteries in the province, appoin ting or displacing
priors, receiving or removing monks. While labouring to introduce a
profounder spirit of piety, he did not overlook the smallest economical
details ; and besides all this, he had to manage his own crowded and
extremely poor convent. Some things, written in the years 1515 and 1 5 16,
enable us to understand the state and workings of his mind during that
period. Mystical and scholastic ideas had still great influence over him.
In the first words of his on religious subjects in the German language
which we possess, — a sketch of a sermon dated November, 15 15, — he
applies, in somewhat coarse terms, the symbolical language of the Song
of Songs to the operations of the Holy Ghost, which acts on the spirit
through the flesh ; and also to the inward harmony of the Holy Scriptures.
In another, dated December of the same year, he endeavours to explain
the mystery of the Trinity by the Aristotelic theory of being, motion, and
rest.3 Meanwhile his thoughts were already turned to a grand and general
reform of the church. In a speech which appears to have been intended
to be uttered by the provost of Lietzkau at the Lateran council, he sets
forth that the corruption of the world was to be ascribed to the priests,
who delivered to the people too many maxims and fables of human inven-
tion, and not the pure word of God. For, he said, the word of life alone
is able to work out the regeneration of man. It is well worthy of remark,
that, even then, Luther looked for the salvation of the world far less
to an amendment of life, which was only secondary in his eyes, than to a
revival of the true doctrines : and there was none with the importance
of which he was so penetrated and filled as with that of justification by
faith. He continually insists on the absolute necessity of a man denying
himself, and fleeing for refuge under the wings of Christ ; he seizes every

1 Exposition of the 117th Psalm to Hans von Sternberg. Luther's Werke,
Altenb. v. 251.

2 Story told by Luther in the Table Talk, p. 609.
Sermo Lutheri in Nativitate Christi, 15 15.

10 — 2

148 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

opportunity of repeating the saying of St. Augustine, that faith obtains
what the law enjoins.1 We see that Luther was not yet completely at one
with himself ; that he still cherished opinions fundamentally at variance
with each other ; but all his writings breathe a powerful mind, a youthful
courage, still restrained within the bounds of modesty and reverence for
authority, though ready to overleap them ; a genius intent on essentials,
tearing asunder the bonds of system, and pressing forward in the new
path it has discovered. In the year 1516, we find Luther busily occupied
in defending and establishing his doctrine of justification.2 He was greatly
encouraged by the discovery of the spuriousness of a book attributed to
Augustine, on which the schoolmen had founded many doctrines extremely
offensive to him, and which was quoted almost entire in Lombard's book,
" De vera et falsa Penitentia ;" and he now took heart to attack the doc-
trine of the Scotists on love, and that of the Magister Sententiarum on
hope ; he was already convinced that there was no such thing as a work
in and for itself pleasing to God — such as prayer, fasts and vigils ; for as
their whole efficacy depended on their being done in the fear of God, it
followed that every other act or occupation was just as good in itself.

In opposition to some expressions of German theologians which appeared
to him of a Pelagian tendency, he embraced with uncompromising firm-
ness even the severer views of Augustine : one of his disciples held a
solemn disputation in defence of the doctrine of the subjection of the
will, and of the inability of man to fit himself for grace, much more to
obtain it, by his own powers.3

If it be asked wherein he discovered the mediating power between
divine perfection and human sinfulness, we find that it was solely in the
mystery of the redemption, and the revealed word ; mercy on the one side,
and faith on the other. These opinions led him to doubt of many of the
main dogmas of the church. He did not yet deny the efficacy of absolu-
tion ; but no later than the year 15 16, he was perplexed by the doubt
how man could obtain grace by such means : the desire of the soul was
not appeased by it, nor was love infused ; those effects could only be pro-
duced by the enlightenment of the mind, and the kindling of the will
by the immediate operation of the Eternal Spirit ; for, he added, he could
conceive of religion only as residing in the inmost depth of the heart.4
He doubted whether all those outward succours for which it was usual
to invoke the saints, ought to be ascribed to them.

Such were the doctrines, such the great general direction of mind imme-
diately connected with the opinions implanted by Pollich and Staupitz,
which Luther disseminated among the Augustine friars of his convent
and his province, and, above all, among the members of the university.
For a time Jodocus Trutvetter of Eisenach sustained the established
opinions ; but after his death in the year 1513, Luther was the master
spirit that ruled the schools. His colleagues, Peter Lupinus and Andreas
Carlstadt, who for a time withstood his influence, at length declared

1 Fides impetrat quae lex imperat.

2 From the Sermo de propria Sapientia, it appears that he had already been
attacked on this point. " Efficitur mini et errans et falsum dictum."

3 Quaestio de viribus et voluntate hominis sine gratia, in Loscher, i. 328.

4 Sermo xma post Trinitatis. He still says himself occasionally, " Ego non
satis intelligo hanc rem ; manet dubium," dvc. — Loscher, p. 761.

Chap. L] THE PAPAL COURT 149

themselves overcome and convinced by the arguments of Augustine and
the doctrines of the Holy Scripture which had made so deep an impression
on him ; they were almost more zealous than Luther himself. A totally
different direction was thus given to the university of Wittenberg from
that in which the other seats of learning continued to move. Theology
itself, mainly indeed in consequence of its own internal development,
made similar claims to those asserted by general literature. In Wittenberg
arose the opposition to the theologians of the old and the new way, the
nominalists and the realists, and more especially to the reigning tho-
mistical doctrines of the Dominicans ; men turned to the scriptures and
the fathers of the church, as Erasmus (though rather as a conscientious
critic than an enthusiastic religionist) had recommended. In a short
time there were no hearers for the lectures given in the old spirit.

Such was the state of things in Wittenberg when the preachers of papal
indulgences appeared in the country about the Elbe, armed with powers
such as had never been heard of before, but which Pope Leo X. did not
scruple, under the circumstances in which he found himself, to grant.

For no fear whatever was now entertained at Rome of any important
division in the church.

In the place of the council of Pisa, one had been convoked at the Lateran,
in which devotion to the see of Rome, and the doctrine of its omnipo-
tence, reigned unalloyed and undisputed.

At an earlier period, the college of Cardinals had often made an attempt
to limit the powers of the papacy, and to adopt measures with regard to
it like those employed by the German chapters towards their bishoprics ;
they had elected Leo because they thought he would submit to these
restraints. But the event proved how utterly they had miscalculated.
The men who had chiefly promoted Leo's election were precisely those
who now most severely felt his power. Their rage knew no bounds.
Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci several times went to the college with a dagger
concealed beneath the purple ; he would have assassinated the pope
had he not been withheld by the consideration of the effect which the
murder of a pope by a cardinal would produce on the world. He there-
fore held it to be more expedient to take another and less violent way to
the same end — to get rid of the pope by poison. But this course required
friends and allies among the cardinals and assistants in the palace, and
thus it happened that he was betrayed.1

What stormy consistories followed this discovery ! The persons stand-
ing without, says the Master of the Ceremonies, heard loud clamours, —
the pope against some of the cardinals, the cardinals against each other,
and against the pope. Whatever passed there, Leo did not allow such
an opportunity of establishing his power for ever, to escape him. Not
only did he get rid of his formidable adversary, but he proceeded to create
at one stroke thirty-one cardinals, thus insuring to himself a majority in
all contingencies, and a complete supremacy.2

1 All doubts whatsoever in the reality of this conspiracy cease upon reading
the discourse held by Bandinelli upon receiving his pardon, in which he acknow-
ledges, " qualiter ipse conspirarat cum Francisco Maria, . . . et cum Alfonso
Petrutio machinatus erat in mortem sanctitatis vestrae praeparando venena,"
^c. <S*c.

a Paris de Grassis, in Rainaldus, 15 17, 95. Comp. Jovius, Vita Leonis, iv. 67.

ISO EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

The state, too, was convulsed by a violent storm. Francesco Maria,
Duke of Urbino,1 who had been driven out of his territory, had returned,
and had set on foot a war, the result of which long kept the pope in a
state of mingled exasperation and shame : gradually, however, he mastered
this opposition also ; the war swallowed up streams of gold, but means
were found to raise it.

The position which the pope, now absolute lord of Florence and master
of Siena, occupied, the powerful alliances he had contracted with the other
powers of Europe, and the views which his family entertained on the rest
of Italy, rendered it absolutely indispensable for him, in spite of the prodi-
gality of a government that knew no restraint, to be well supplied with
money. He seized every occasion of extracting extraordinary revenues
from the church.

The Lateran council was induced, immediately before its dissolution
(15th of March, 15 17), to grant the pope a tenth of all church property
throughout Christendom. Three different commissions for the sale of
indulgences traversed Germany and the northern states at the same
moment.

These expedients were, it is true, resorted to under various pretexts.
The tenths were, it was said, to be expended in a Turkish war, which was
soon to be declared ; the produce of indulgences was for the building of
St. Peter's Church, where the bones of the martyrs lay exposed to the
inclemency of the elements. But people had ceased to believe in these
pretences.

Devoted as the Lateran council was to the pope, the proposition was
only carried by two or three votes : an extremely large minority objected
to the tenths, that it was impossible to think of a Turkish war at present.2
Who could be a more zealous catholic than Cardinal Ximenes, who then
governed Spain ? Yet even in the year 1 5 1 3, he had opposed the attempt to
introduce the sale of indulgences into that country ;3 he made vehement
professions of devotion to the pope, but he added, as to the tenths, it
must first be seen how they were to be applied.*

For there was not a doubt on the mind of any reasonable man, that all
these demands were mere financial speculations. There is no positive
proof that the assertion then so generally made — that the proceeds of the
sale of indulgences in Germany was destined in part for the pope's sister
Maddelena — was true. But the main fact is indisputable, that the eccle-
siastical aids were applied to the uses of the pope's family. We have a
receipt now lying before us, given by the pope's nephew Lorenzo to the
king of France, for 100,000 livres which that monarch paid him for his
services. Herein it is expressly said that the king was to receive this sum
from the tenths which the council had granted to the pope for the Turkish
war.5 This was, therefore, precisely the same thing as if the pope had
given the money to his nephew ; or, perhaps even worse, for he gave it
him before it was raised.

The only means of resistance to these impositions were therefore to be

1 Leoni, Vita di Francesco Maria d'Urbino, p. 205.

2 Paris de Grassis, in Rainaldus, 15 17, un. 16.

;i Gomez, Vita Ximenis, in Schott, Hispania illustrata, i., p. 1065.
4 Argensola, Anales de Aragon, p. 354.
6 Molini, Documenti storici, t. i., p. 71.

Chap. I.] SALE OF INDULGENCES 151

sought in the powers of the state, which were just now gradually acquiring
stability, as we see by the example of Ximenes in Spain ; or in England,
where the decision of the Lateran council could not have reached the
government, at the time when it forced the papal collectors to take an
oath that they would send neither money nor bills of exchange to Rome.1
But who was there capable of protecting the interests of Germany ? The
Council of Regency no longer existed ; the emperor was compelled by his
uncertain political relations (especially to France) to keep up a good
understanding with the pope. One of the most considerable princes of
the empire, the Archchancellor of Germany, Elector Albert of Mainz, born
Markgrave of Brandenburg, had the same interests as the pope, — a part
of the proceeds were to go into his own exchequer.

Of the three commissions into which Germany was divided, the one
which was administered by Arimbold, a member of the Roman prelature,
embraced the greater part of the dioceses of Upper and Lower Germany ;
another, which included only Switzerland and Austria, fell to the charge
of Cristofero Numai of Forli,2 general of the Franciscans ; and the Elector
of Mainz himself had undertaken the third in his own vast archiepiscopal
provinces, Mainz and Magdeburg : and for the following reasons.

We remember what heavy charges had been brought upon the arch-
bishopric of Mainz by the frequent recurrence of vacancies. In the year
1 5 14 the chapter elected Markgrave Albert for no other reason than
that he promised not to press heavily on the diocese for the expenses of
the pallium. But neither was he able to defray them from his own
resources. The expedient devised was, that he should borrow 30,000
gulden of the house of Fugger of Augsburg, and detain one half of the
money raised by indulgences to repay it.3 This financial operation was
perfectly open and undisguised. Agents of the house of Fugger travelled
about with the preachers of indulgences. Albert had authorized them
to take half of all the money received on the spot, " in payment of the
sum due to them."4 The tax for the plenary indulgence reminds us of
the measures taken for the collection of the Common Penny. We possess
diaries in which the disbursements for spiritual benefits are entered and
calculated together with secular purchases.5

1 Oath of Silvester Darius, the papal collector (in curia cancellaria in aula
palatii Westmonasteriensis) April 22, 1517, in Rymer's Fcedera, vi. i., p. 133.

2 His deputy plenipotentiary was Samson, of whom it was said in a pamphlet
of 1 521 : er habe den Bauern " Bassporten geben in den Hymel durch ein Toll-
metschen, von welchem Kaufmannschatz hatt er gut silberm Platten gefiret
gen Mailand." — He had given the peasants " passports into Heaven through an
interpreter, by means of which stock in trade he had taken good silver coin back
to Milan."

3 Notices from a manuscript essay, from which Rathmann Gesch. von Mag-
deburg, iii. p. 302., has made extracts. In Erhard's Uberlieferungen zur vater-
landische Gesch., part iii., p. 12, is to be found a calculation addressed to
Leo X., and a motuproprio by him referring to this point. The money ad-
vanced by the Fuggers to the archiepiscopal oratores in Rome towards the
payment for the pallium amounted to 21,000 ducats (100 ducats are equal to 140
gold gulden) ; the Fuggers received 500 Rhenish gulden over, as commission.

4 Gudenus, Diplom. Moguntiac, iv. 587.

5 E.g., Johannis Tichtelii Diarium, in Rauch, ii. 558. "Uxor imposuit pro
se duas libras denariorum, pro parentibus dimidiam 1. d , pro domino Bartho-
lomaeo dimidiam 1. d."

i^2 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

And it is important to examine what were the advantages which were
thus obtained.

The plenary indulgence for all, the alleged object of which was to
contribute to the completion of the Vatican Basilica, restored the pos-
sessor to the grace of God, and completely exempted him from the punish-
ment of purgatory. But there were three other favours to be obtained
by further contributions : the right of choosing a father confessor who
could grant absolution in reserved cases, and commute vows which had
been taken into other good works ; participation in all prayers, fasts,
pilgrimages, and whatever good works were performed in the church
militant ; lastly, the release of the souls of the departed out of purgatory.
In order to obtain plenary indulgence, it was necessary not only to con-
fess, but to feel contrition ; the three others could be obtained without
contrition or confession, by money alone.1 It is in this point of view
that Columbus extols the worth of money : " he who possesses it," says
he seriously, " has the power of transporting souls into Paradise."

Never indeed were the union of secular objects with spiritual omnipotence
more strikingly displayed than in the epoch we are now considering.
There is a fantastic sublimity and grandeur in this conception of the
church, as a community comprehending heaven and earth, the living and
the dead ; in which all the penalties incurred by individuals were removed
by the merit and the grace of the collective body. What a conception of
the power and dignity of a human being is implied in the belief that the
pope could employ this accumulated treasure of merits in behalf of one
or another at his pleasure !2 The doctrine that the power of the pope
extended to that intermediate state between heaven and earth, called
purgatory, was the growth of modern times. The pope appears in the
character of the great dispenser of all punishment and all mercy. And
this most poetical, sublime idea he now dragged in the dust for a miserable
sum of money, which he applied to the political or domestic wants of the
moment. Mountebank itinerant commissioners, who were very fond of
reckoning how much they had already raised for the papal court, while
they retained a considerable portion of it for themselves, and lived a life
of ease and luxury, outstripped their powers with blasphemous eloquence.
They thought themselves armed against every attack, so long as they
could menace their opponents with the tremendous punishments of the
church.

But a man was now found who dared to confront them.

While Luther's whole soul was more and more profoundly embued with
the doctrine of salvation by faith, which he zealously diffused not only in
the cloister and the university, but in his character of parish priest of
Wittenberg, there appeared in his neighbourhood an announcement of a
totally opposite character, grounded on the merest external compromise

1 Instructio summaria ad subcommissarios, in Gerdes, Historia Evangelii,
i. App. n. ix., p. 83. For the most part agreeing word for word with the Avvisa-
menti of Arcimbold in Kapp's Nachlese.

2 Summa divi Thomae Suppl. Qu. 25. art. 1. concl. " Pnedicta merita sunt
communia totius ecclesiae : ea autem quae sunt alicujus multitudinis communia,
distribuuntur singulis de multitudine secundum arbitrium ejus qui multitudini
praeest." Further: art. 2. " Nee divinae justitiae derogatur, quia nihil de poena
dimittitur, sed unius pcena alteri computatur."

Chap. I.] THE NINETY-FIVE PROPOSITIONS 153

with conscience, and resting on those ecclesiastical theories which he, with
his colleagues, disciples and friends, so strenuously combated. In the
neighbouring town of Juterbock, the multitude flocked together around
the Dominican friar, John Tetzel, a man distinguished above all the other
pope's commissioners for shamelessness of tongue. Memorials of the
traffic in which he was engaged are preserved (as was fitting) in the ancient
church of the town. Among the buyers of indulgences were also some
people from Wittenberg ; Luther saw himself directly attacked in his cure
of souls.

It was impossible that contradictions so absolute should approach so
near without coming into open conflict.

On the vigil of All Saints, on which the parochial church was accustomed
to distribute the treasure of indulgences attached to its relics, — on the 3 1 st
October, 15 17, — Luther nailed on its gates ninety-five propositions; —
" a disputation for the purpose of explaining the power of indul-
gences."

We must recollect that the doctrine of the treasure of the church, on
which that of indulgences rested, was from the very first regarded as at
complete variance with the sacrament of the power of the keys. The
dispensation of indulgences rested on the overflowing merits of the church :
all that was required on the one side was sufficient authority : on the other
a mark or token of connection with the church, — any act done for her
honour or advantage. The sacrament of the keys, on the contrary, was
exclusively derived from the merits of Christ : for that, sacerdotal ordina-
tion was necessary on the one side, and, on the other, contrition and
penance. In the former case the measure of grace was at the pleasure of
the dispenser ; in the latter, it must be determined by the relation between
the sin and the penitence. In this controversy, Thomas Aquinas had
declared himself for the doctrine of the treasure of the church and the
validity of the indulgences which she dispensed : he expressly teaches that
no priest is necessary, a mere legate can dispense them ; even in return for
temporal services, so far as these were subservient to a spiritual purpose.
In this opinion he was followed by his school.1

The same controversy was revived, after the lapse of ages, by Luther ;
but he espoused the contrary side. Not that he altogether denied the
treasures of the church ; but he declared that this doctrine was not suffi-
ciently clear, and, above all, he contested the right of the pope to dispense
them. For he ascribed only an inward efficacy to this mysterious com-
munity of the church. He maintained that all her member^ had a share
in her good works, even without a pope's brief ; that his power extended
over purgatory only in so far as the intercessions of the church were in his
hand ; but the question must first be determined whether God would hear
these intercessions : he held that the granting of indulgences of any kind
whatsoever without repentance, was directly contrary to the Christian
doctrine. He denied, article by article, the authority given to the dealers
in indulgences in their instructions. On the other hand, he traced the

1 Scti Thomse Summa, Supplementum tertiae partis, Quaestio xxv., art. ii.,
expounds this doctrine very clearly. Its main ground, however, always remains
the same, that the church says thus : for, "si in prsedicatione ecclesise aliqua
falsitas deprehenderetur, non essent documenta ecclesiae alicujus autoritatis ad
roborandam fidem."

154 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

doctrine of absolution to that of the authority of the keys.1 In this
authority, which Christ delegated to St. Peter, lay the power of the pope
to remit sin. It also extended to all penances and cases of conscience ;
but of course to no punishments but those imposed for the purpose of
satisfaction ; and even then, their whole efficacy depended on whether
the sinner felt contrition, which he himself was not able to determine much
less another for him. If he had true contrition, complete forgiveness was
granted him ; if he had it not, no brief of indulgence could avail him : for
the pope's absolution had no value in and for itself, but only in so far as it
was a mark of Divine favour.

It is evident that this attack did not originate in a scheme of faith new to
the church, but in the very centre of the scholastic notions ; according to
which the fundamental idea of the papacy — viz. that the priesthood, and
more especially the successors of St. Peter, were representatives and vice-
gerents of Christ, — was still firmly adhered to, though the doctrine of the
union of all the powers of the church in the person of the pope was just as
decidedly controverted. It is impossible to read these propositions without
seeing by what a daring, magnanimous, and constant spirit Luther was
actuated. The thoughts fly out from his mind like sparks from the iron
under the stroke of the hammer.

Let us not forget to remark, however, that as the abuse complained of
had a double character, religious and political, or financial, so also political
events came in aid of the opposition emanating from religious ideas.

Frederick of Saxony had been present when the Council of Regency
prescribed to Cardinal Raimund very strict conditions for the indulgence
then proclaimed (a.d. 1501) : he had kept the money accruing from it in
his own dominions in his possession, with the determination not to part
with it, till an expedition against the infidels, which was then contemplated,
should be actually undertaken ; the pope and, on the pope's concession,
the emperor had demanded it of him in vain :2 he held it for what it really
was — a tax levied on his subj ects ; and after all the proj ects of a war against
the Turks had come to nothing, he had at length applied the money to his
university. Nor was he now inclined to consent to a similar scheme of
taxation. His neighbour, Elector Joachim of Brandenburg, readily sub-
mitted to it : he commanded his States to throw no obstacles in the way
of Tetzel or his sub-commissioners ;3 but his compliance was clearly only

1 Just as the adversaries, whoju Thomas Aquinas refutes, maintained : " indul-
gentise non habent effectum nisi ex vi clavium."

2 At the Diet of Augsburg, 15 10, the Saxon deputies declared to the papal
nuncio, as appeared in one of their letters to Frederick the Wise : " es habe Pp.
Heiligkeit leiden mogen, das E. Gn. das Geld so in iren Landen gefallen zu sich
genommen, mit einer Verpflichtung wann es zum Streit wider die Unglaubigen
komme es wyderum darzulegen : aus der Ursach hab E. Gn. wyewol mehrmal
darum angesucht von Keys Mt. wegen, die auch gerne E. Gn. gemelte Summe
um ihrc Schuld geben hatt, dy Summa noch wy sy gefallen ist." — " His Papal
Holiness has been obliged to allow that your Grace should take into your keeping
the money collected in your States, under an obligation to produce it again
whenever a war with the infidels should come about : from this cause, your
Grace, although many times applied to for it, on behalf of his Imperial Majesty,
who would gladly have given the before-mentioned sum to your Grace in payment
of debts, still has the entire sum, as it was collected."

8 Mandate of Joachim in Walch, Werke Luthers, xv. 415.

Chap. I.] DISPUTE CONCERNING INDULGENCES 155

the result of the consideration that one half of the amount would go to his
brother. For this very reason, however, Elector Frederick made the
stronger resistance : he was already irritated against the Elector of Mainz
in consequence of the affairs of Erfurt, and he declared that Albert should
not pay for his pallium out of the pockets of the Saxons. The sale of
indulgences at Jiiterbock and the resort of his subjects thither, was not
less offensive to him on financial grounds than to Luther on spiritual.

Not that the latter were in any degree excited by the former ; this it
would be impossible to maintain after a careful examination of the facts ;
on the contrary, the spiritual motives were more original, powerful, and
independent than the temporal, though these were important, as having
their proper source in the general condition of Germany. The point
whence the great events arose which were soon to agitate the world, was
the coincidence of the two.

There was, as we have already observed, no one who represented the
interests of Germany in the matter. There were innumerable persons
who saw through the abuse of religion, but no one who dared to call it by
its right name and openly to denounce and resist it. But the alliance
between the monk of Wittenberg and the sovereign of Saxony was formed ;
no treaty was negotiated ; they had never seen each other ; yet they were
bound together by an instinctive mutual understanding. The intrepid
monk attacked the enemy ; the prince did not promise him his aid — he
did not even encourage him ; he let things take their course.

Yet he must have felt very distinctly what was the tendency and the
importance of these events, if we are to believe the story of the dream
which he dreamt at his castle of Schweinitz, where he was then staying, on
the night of All Saints, just after the theses were stuck up on the church
door at Wittenberg. He thought he saw the monk writing certain propo-
sitions on the chapel of the castle at Wittenberg, in so large a hand that it
could be read in Schweinitz ; the pen grew longer and longer, till at last
it reached to Rome, touched the pope's triple crown and made it totter ;
he was stretching out his arm to catch it, when he woke.1

Luther's daring assault was the shock which awakened Germany from
her slumber. That a man should arise who had the courage to undertake
the perilous struggle, was a source of universal satisfaction, and as it were
tranquillised the public conscience.2 The most powerful interests were
involved in it ; — that of sincere and profound piety, against the most
purely external means of obtaining pardon of sins ; that of literature,
against fanatical persecutors, of whom Tetzel was one ; the renovated
theology against the dogmatic learning of the schools, which lent itself to
all these abuses ; the temporal power against the spiritual, whose usurpa-
tions it sought to curb ; lastly, the nation against the rapacity of Rome.

But since each of these interests had its antagonist, the resistance could
not be much less vehement than the support. A numerous body of natural
adversaries arose.

1 A divine and scriptural dream from Caspar Rothen, Gloria Lutheri, in
Tentzel's Histor. Bericht, p. 239.

2 Erasmus fo Duke George of Saxony, Dec. 12. 1524. "Cum Lutherus
aggrederetur hanc fabulam, totus mundus illi magno consensu applausit, —
susceperat enim optimam causam adversus corruptissimos scholarum et ecclesiae
mores, qui eo progressi fuerant ut res jam nulli bono viro tolerabilis videretur."

156 EARLY CAREER OF LUTHER [Book II.

The university of Frankfurt on the Oder, like that of Wittenberg, was
an off-shoot of Leipzig, only founded at a later date, and belonging to the
opposite party. Determined opponents to all innovation had found
appointments there. Conrad Koch, surnamed Wimpina, an old enemy of
Pollich, who had often had a literary skirmish with him, had acquired a
similar influence there to that possessed by Pollich at "Wittenberg. Johann
Tetzel now addressed himself to Wimpina, and with his assistance (for he
was ambitious of being a doctor as well as his Augustine adversary)
published two theses, on one of which he intended to hold a disputation for
the degree of licentiate, on the other, for that of doctor : both were directed
against Luther. In the first he attempted to defend the doctrine of in-
dulgences by means of a new distinction between expiatory and saving
punishment. The pope, he said, could remit the former, though not the
latter.1 In the second thesis he extols most highly the power of the pope,
who had the exclusive right of settling the interpretation of Scripture, and
deciding on articles of faith ; he denounces Luther, not indeed by name,
but with sufficient distinctness, as a heretic, nay a stiff-necked heretic.
This now resounded from pulpit and chair. Hogstraten thundered out
invectives, and clearly intimated that such a heretic was worthy of death ;
while a manuscript confutation by an apparent friend, Johann Eck of
Ingolstadt, was circulated, containing insinuations concerning the
Bohemian poison.2 Luther left none of these attacks unanswered : and
in every one of his polemical writings he gained ground. Other questions
soon found their way into the controversy ; e.g. that concerning the
legend of St. Anne, the authenticity of which was disputed by a friend of
Luther's at Zwickau, but obstinately maintained by the Leipzig theo-
logians.3 The Wittenberg views concerning the Aristotelian philosophy
and the merit of works spread abroad : Luther himself defended them at
a meeting of his order at Heidelberg ; and if he experienced opposition
from the elder doctors, a number of the younger members of the university
became his adherents. The whole theological world of Germany was
thrown into the most violent agitation.

But already a voice from Rome was heard through the loud disputes of
excited Germany. Silvester Mazolini of Prierio, master of the sacred
palace, a Dominican, who had given out a very equivocal and cautious
opinion concerning the necessity of repentance and the sinfulness of lying,
but had defended the system of teaching practised by his order with
inflexible zeal ; — who, in Reuchlin's controversy, had been the only mem-
ber of the commission that had prevented it from coming to a decision
favourable to that eminent scholar, now deemed himself called upon to
take up arms against this new and far more formidable assailant. He rose,
as he said, from the commentary in " Primam Secundae " of St. Thomas,
in the composition of which he was absorbed, and devoted a few days
to throw himself like a buckler between the Augustine monk and the

1 Disputatio prima, J. Tetzelii Thesis, 14. To this refers the passage in
Luther's second sermon oh Indulgences, in which he calls such a distinction
mere talk.

2 Obelisci Eckii, nr. 18 et 22.

3 Joh. Sylvii Apologia contra Calumniatores suos, in qua Annam nupsisse
Cleophae et Salomas evangelicis testimoniis refellitur. Reprinted in Rittershusii
Commentarius de Gradibus Cognationum, 1674.

Chap. I.] DISPUTE CONCERNING INDULGENCES 157

Roman See, against which he had dared to rear his head ;* he thought
Luther sufficiently confuted by the mere citation of the opinions of his
master, St. Thomas. An attack emanating from Rome made some im-
pression even upon Luther: feeble and easy to confute as Silvester's
writing appeared to him, he now paused ; he did not wish to have the
Curia his open and direct foe. On the 30th May he sent an explanation of
his propositions to the pope himself, and seized this occasion of endeavour-
ing to render his opinions and conduct generally intelligible to the Holy
Father. He did not as yet go so far as to appeal purely and exclusively to
the Scriptures ; on the contrary, he declared that he submitted to the
authority of the fathers who were recognised by the church, and even to
that of the papal decrees. But he could not consider himself bound to
accept the opinions of Thomas Aquinas as articles of faith, since his works
were not yet sanctioned by the church. " I may err," he exclaims, " but
a heretic I will not be, let my enemies rage and rail as they will."

Affairs, however, already began to wear the most threatening aspect at
Rome.

The papal fiscal, Mario Perusco,2 the same who had rendered himself
celebrated by the investigation of the conspiracy of cardinals, commenced
criminal proceedings against Luther ; in the tribunal which was appointed
the same Silvester who had thrown down the gauntlet to the accused on
the literary ground was the only theologian. There was not much mercy
to be expected.

There is no question that German influences were also at work here.
Elector Albert, who instantly felt that the attack from Wittenberg was
directed in part against himself, had referred Tetzel to Wimpina ; the
consequence of this was, that Frederick was attacked in Tetzel's theses
(indirectly indeed, but with the utmost bitterness), as a prince who had
the power to check the heretical wickedness, and did not — who shielded
heretics from their rightful j udge.3 Tetzel at least affirms, that the Elector
had had an influence in the trial. Personal differences, and the jealousies
of neighbouring states, had influenced, from the very beginning, the course
of these events.4

Such was the state of the spiritual power in Germany. As yet, a seces-
sion or revolt from the pope was not thought of ; as yet, his power was
universally acknowledged, but indignation and resistance rose up against
him from all the depths of the national feeling and the national will.
Already had his sworn defenders sustained a defeat ; — already some of
the foundations of the edifice of dogma, on which his power rested,
tottered ; the intense desire of the nation to consolidate itself into a certain
unity, took a direction hostile to the authority of the Court of Rome. An
opposition had arisen which still appeared insignificant, but which found
vigorous support in the temper of the nation and in the favour of a power-
ful prince of the empire.

1 Dialogus revdi patris fratris Sylvestri Prieriatis — in praesumptuosas Martini
Lutheri conclusiones, in Loscher, ii. 12.

2 Guicciardini (xiii., p. 384) and Jovius mention him.

3 Disputatio secunda, J. Tetzelii Thesis, 47, 48.

4 Tetzel to Miltitz in Loscher, ii. 568. : " so doch hochbenannter Erzbischof
inen bestellt hat zu citiren und nicht ich." — " Thus then the above-named
archbishop has summoned him (Luther) and not I."

158 DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1518 [Book II.

CHAPTER II

Descent of the Imperial Crown from Maximilian to Charles V.

DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1518

Had there been at this moment a powerful emperor, he might have turned
these agitations to vast account. Supported by the nation, he would have
been able to revive the ancient opposition to the papacy, and to inspire
his people with a new life founded upon religious ideas.

Maximilian was by nature far from being inaccessible to such a project.
Indeed, the expression he once let fall to Elector Frederick, that he wished
" to take good care of the monk," for that it might be possible some time
or other to make use of him, betrays what was passing in his mind ; but
for the moment he was not in a condition to follow it out.

In the first place, he. was old, and wished to secure to his grandson
Charles the succession to the empire. He regarded this as the closing
business of his life. He had laboured all his days, as he said, to aggrandize
his house : all his trouble would, however, be lost, if he did not attain
this his final aim.1 But, for this, he especially required the support of
the spiritual power ; for the minds of men were not yet so far emancipated
from the ideas of the middle ages, as that they could be brought to recog-
nise in him the full dignity of emperor, without the ceremony of coronation.
While meditating the project of raising his grandson to the rank of king
of the Romans, the first difficulty that occurred to Maximilian was, that
he himself had not been crowned. He conceived the idea of causing him-
self to be crowned, if not in Rome, at least with the genuine crown of a
Roman emperor, which he hoped to induce the papal court to send across
the Alps, and opened negotiations with that view. It is evident how
necessary it became for him, not only not to irritate, but to conciliate the
pope.

On another point also, advances were made towards a good under-
standing between the emperor and the pope. We have mentioned the
j grant of a tenth for a Turkish war, which the Lateran council was induced
I to consent to, just before its close. It is a very significant fact, that while
this excited amazement and resistance throughout Europe, Maximilian
; acquiesced in it. He, too, wished nothing more earnestly than once more
1 to levy a large tax on the whole empire ; we know, however, what a
' mighty opposition he encountered, and that even the grants which he
! wrung from the States had been fruitless : he now hoped to obtain his
end in conjunction with the pope. He therefore assented, without a
question to the plan of the Court of Rome. It seems as if not only his
self-interest was moved, but his imagination captivated. He exhorts
the pope, in letters of the greatest ardour and vivacity, to undertake the
campaign in person, surrounded by his cardinals, under the banner of
the cross ; then he says, every one would hasten to his aid : he, at least,
had from his youth had no higher ambition than to do battle against the
Turks.2 The victories of Selim I. over the Mamelukes revived his sense of
the general danger. He convoked the States of the empire, in order at

1 Letter of the 24th of May, 1518.

2 Letter of Maximilian, Feb. 28. in Rainaldus, 1517. 2-5.

Chap. II.] DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1518 159

length to conclude on means of raising efficacious succour against the
Turks, to whom already all Asia, as far as the domains of Prester John,
belonged ; by whom Africa was occupied, and whom it would soon become
utterly impossible to resist.1 He hoped that the moment was come for
realising his long-cherished project of establishing a permanent military
constitution. Thus, after long interruption, the ancient union of the
spiritual and temporal powers was once more beheld at the diet. Instead
of opposing the pope, the emperor united with him ; while the pope sent
a legate to assist the emperor in his negotiations with the States.

His choice fell on the Dominican, Thomas de Vio, the same who had so
zealously defended the papal prerogatives ; this had opened to him the
way to higher dignities, which had terminated in that of cardinal. The
brilliant appointment of legate, now superadded, placed him at the summit
of his ambition. He determined to appear with the greatest magnificence,
and almost acted in earnest upon the pretension of the Curia, that a legate
was greater than a king.2 At his nomination he made special conditions
as to the state and splendour of his equipments ; for example, that a
white palfrey with bridle of crimson velvet, and hangings for his room
of crimson satin, were to be provided for him : even his old master of the
ceremonies could not refrain from laughing at the multiplicity of demands
which he had to make. When at Augsburg he delighted beyond all things
in magnificent ceremonies ; such as the high mass which he celebrated
before all the princes, spiritual and temporal, in the cathedral, on the 1st
of August ; when he placed the cardinal's hat on the head of the Arch-
bishop of Mainz, kneeling at the altar, and delivered to the emperor
himself the consecrated hat and sword — the marks of papal grace and
favour. He indulged also in the most extravagant ideas. While exhorting
the emperor to march forth against the hereditary enemy who thirsted
for the blood of Christendom, he reminded him that this was not 6nly
the day on which Augustus had become master of the world at the battle
of Actium, but also that it was sacred to St. Peter : the emperor might
accept it as an augury of the conquest of Constantinople and Jerusalem,
and the extension of the empire and the church to the farthest ends of the
earth.3 Such was the style of a discourse, framed according to all the rules
of rhetoric, which he delivered to the assembly of the States.

It may easily be imagined, that it cost him no labour to persuade the j
emperor; after a short deliberation they now made the joint proposal!
that in order to bring an army against the Turks into the field, every fifty '
householders should furnish one man, and the clergy should pay a tenth, '
the laity a twentieth, of their income for its maintenance.

It was extremely difficult, however, to carry this measure through the
States. Whatever were the real designs of the emperor, people refused,
whether in Germany or abroad, to believe that he was in earnest. Publi-
cations appeared, in which the intention of the See of Rome to make war
on the infidels was flatly denied ; these were all Florentine arts, it was

1 Address of the 9th February in the Frankf. A., vol. xxxiii. By a letter
from Fiirstenberg (July 3, 1518) it appears that the States had met by the begin-
ning of July.

2 " Legati debent esse supra reges quoscunque." — Paris de Grassis in Hofmanni
Scriptores novi, p. 408.

3 Jacobi Manlii Historiola duorum Actuum ; Freher, ii., p. 709.

160 DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1518 [Book II.

affirmed, to cajole the Germans out of their money ; the proceeds of
indulgences were not even applied to the building which was repre-
sented as so urgently wanted; the materials destined for the building of
St. Peter's wandered by night to the palace of Lorenzo de Medici ;— the
Turks whom they ought to make war upon were to be found m Italy.1
As to the emperor, it was suggested that his object was to impose a tax
on the empire under these pretexts.

The answer which the States returned on the 27th of August, therefore,
was a decided negative. They observed, that it would be impossible to
raise so considerable a tax, in the state to which the country had been
reduced during the last years by war, scarcity, and intestine disorder.
But that, independently of this, the common people complained of all
the money that was sent out of Germany to no purpose ; the nation had
already frequently contributed funds for a Turkish war by means of
indulgences and cruciata, but it had never yet heard that any expedition
against the Turks had been attempted. The refusal thus assumed the
character of an accusation. The States seized the opportunity afforded
by the demand on the part of the See of Rome to retort upon it a multitude
of grievances : e.g. the annates which were now exacted from abbeys,
prebends, and parishes ; the constantly increasing costs of the confirma-
tion in spiritual offices caused by the creation of new officia ; the apparently
eternal burthens imposed by the rules of the Roman chancery ; all the
various encroachments on the right of patronage ; the appointment of
foreigners to spiritual posts in Upper and Lower Germany ; and, generally,
an incessant violation of the concordat with the German nation.2 A
memorial presented by the Bishop of Liege to the head and princes of the
empire, served to give additional force to these complaints. It contained
a complete catalogue of acts of injustice which the German church had to
suffer from the courtiers of Rome ; those mighty huntsmen, sons of
Nimrod, as it said, sallied forth daily in chase of benefices ; day and
night they meditated on nothing but how to thwart the canonical elections ;
the German gold, formerly too heavy for an Atlas, had fled across the Alps.3
Such a writing, " so full of boldness," said the Frankfurt envoy, had never
been seen.

How greatly had the emperor deceived himself in imagining that he
should more readily attain his end by the aid of the spiritual power !

Charges against the pope were now also advanced at the discussions
on the grievances which had been brought forward a year before at Mainz ;
e.g. his encroachment on the right of collation ; the conduct of the clergy
generally ; above all, the use of excommunication, to which the people
had no mind to concede a validity equal to that of the sentence of the
civil tribunals. But in urging these complaints, they did not lose sight

1 Oratio Dissuasoria ; Freher, ii. 701. The "conclusion of this discourse
makes against the opinion that it is by Hutten. But how is the fact to be
explained, that the dialogue, unquestionably Hutten's, ' Pasquillus Exul,' has
so extraordinary a resemblance in many passages to this discourse, that it cannot
possibly be accidental ? It might, however, very well have had an influence
upon the consultations, as it reached Wittenberg on the 2nd of September." —
Luther's Letters, i., nr. 79.

2 Answer of the States, Friday after the Feast of St. Bartholomew. Frankft. A.

3 Erardus de Marca Sacramae CaEsac Majestati. Kapps Nachlese, ii., nr. 1.

Chap, ll.j DIET OF AUGSBURG, 151S 161

of those against the emperor. They again demanded a better composition
of the courts of justice, and a more perfect execution of the judgments of
the Imperial Chamber ; a commission was appointed in order to deliberate
on the code of criminal procedure.

Nor was this all ; the opposition to the imperial authority took a
perfectly new direction in the important discussions on the Turkish war.

The States did, indeed, after much debate, at length seem to come to
some agreement as to the nature and mode of a new tax ; it was actually
decreed in the Recess, that for three years every one who communicated
at the Lord's Supper should pay at least a tenth of a gulden, and that the
sum resulting from this collection should be kept by the government till
the commencement of a Turkish war ; but even a grant of so strange and
equivocal a kind was rendered nearly illusory by a condition attached to it.
The princes declared that they must first consult with their subjects upon
it. The emperor's answer shows how astonished he was at this innovation.
He said, that was not the usage in the Holy Empire ; the princes were not
bound by the consent of their subjects ; it was the duty of the latter to
execute the decisions of their lords and rulers.1 The princes replied, that
they had often made promises without consulting their subjects, and the
consequence had been, that it had generally been found impossible to
execute them : continuance in such a course could end in nothing but
disgrace and contempt. The Recess, accordingly, contained nothing more
than that the princes promised to treat with their subjects, and to report
the result at the next diet.

It is evident that the disposition which this betrays must have rendered
it impossible to come to any agreement on the other affairs of the empire.
A great deal was done about the Imperial Chamber, but without any
results.2 The Electors protested in a body that in virtue of their franchises
they were not subject to the Imperial Chamber : they could not agree
on the suggestions for a reform ; the old objections to the matricula for

1 Declaration of the emperor on the 9th of Sept. " Item, dass in dem alien
Churfiirsten Fiirsten und Stande kein Ausred noch Entschuldigung fiirnemen,
noch solch Zusage thun mit eynicher Weigerung oder Condicion auf ihre Unter-
thanen, denn sollichs in bisher bewilligten Hiilfen nie bedacht worden und daruf
gestellt ist, sondern Churn". FF. und Stend haben allezeit frei gehandelt und
bewilligt, nachdem sy Kaisr. Mt. und des Reichs Churf. belehnt seyen, auch
die Unterthanen schuldig seyn den Willen der Fiirsten und Obern und nit die
Fiirsten und Obern der Unterthanen Willen zu verfolgen und Gehorsam zu
beweisen." " Also, that in all these things the electors, princes, and States take
upon themselves no evasion or excuse, nor make such promise with any hesitation
or condition having reference to their subjects, for none such had ever been
made, nor grounded thereon, on occasion of succours granted heretofore ; but
electors, princes, and estates have in all times freely acted and made grants, as
lieges of his Imperial Majesty and electors of the empire ; also the vassals ara
bound to follow the wills of, and to show obedience to, princes and superiors, and
not princes and superiors to follow the will of, and to show obedience to, subjects."
— Frankft. Aden.

2 The reason of the bad appointments lies in the bad pay. Fiirstenberg (Letter
of the 8th of Sept.) remarks that no better pay could be obtained. " Daraus
folgt, dass es auch nit mit dem Inkommen, so jetzunder geben wird, mit gelehrt
fromm und verstandig Leuten besetzt mag warden." " Thence follows, that it
(the Imperial Chamber) cannot, with the incone which is now given, be provided
with learned, pious and sensible men."

II

1 62 DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1518 [Book II.

the contributions were urged again ; its operation was no longer felt,
and in a short time it was entirely at a standstill.1

Disorder once more prevailed on all sides. The same torrent of com-
plaints poured in upon the diet at Augsburg, as the year before at Mainz.

The Count von Helfenstein invoked assistance against Wurtemberg,
Ludwig von Boyneburg against Hessen, the Archbishop of Bremen against
the Worsats : all in vain. The disputes between the city of Worms and
their bishop, between the Elector Palatine and a company of merchants
who were robbed when under his escort, were brought to no conclusion.
The behaviour of the Elector Palatine in this affair, and the support
which he appeared to find, raised the indignation of the city to the highest
pitch.2 There was hardly a part of the country which was not either
distracted by private warfare, or troubled by internal divisions, or terrified
by the danger of an attack from some neighbouring power. Those who
wished for peace must take their own measures to secure it: it was in
vain to reckon upon the government.

Such a state of anarchy necessarily led to a general conviction that
things could not go on thus. For a long time the emperor could come to
no agreement with the Estates on any measure whatever, whether for
tranquillity at home, or against the enemy abroad : what he had been
unable to accomplish single-handed, he had tried to effect in conjunction
with the pope — an attempt which had ended in more signal failure than
before. The highest authorities could no longer fulfil the prime duties of
a government.

In so far it was of great importance that the States of the Empire made
the innovation we have just mentioned ; viz. to render the grants depen-
dent on the will of their subjects. The life of the nation showed a tendency
to fall off from what had hitherto been its centre, and to form itself into
independent self-sufficing powers in the several territories. This tendency
was now greatly increased by the interests connected with the election of
an emperor, which were already very active in Augsburg, and shortly
afterwards began to occupy all minds.

In fact, we cannot advance a step further without some preliminary
inquiry into the relations of the German principalities.

1 Fiirstenberg, Sep. 14. " Somma Sommarum aller Handelung die uf diesem
Reichstag gehandelt ist, dass von Friede und Recht nichts beschlossen wird,
dass die Schatzung des Tiirkenzugs, wie K. Mt. dawider, bei den Unterthanen
anbracht (wird). " The sum total of all the affairs which have been transacted
at this Imperial Diet is, that nothing is determined as to the peace and the laws,
and that the taxation for the Turkish war, although his Imperial Majesty is
opposed to it, is laid on the vassals."

2 Fiirstenberg, in transmitting the correspondence, expresses his dissatisfaction.
" Hie ist nit anders : ein jeder sehe sich fiir. Die Churf. Fiirsten und Andre
haben nit alle ob der Handlung Gefallens : es will aber diess Mai aus Ursachen
nit anders seyn. Gott erbarms." " Here things are not otherwise : let each
man look to himself. The electors, princes, and others are not all content with
the transaction : but this time there are causes why it cannot be otherwise.
God have mercy on us."

Chap. 1T.J THE GERMAN PRINCES 163

MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE GERMAN PRINCES

It was impossible as yet to speak of German states, properly so called.
The unity of even the larger principalities was not yet sufficiently
cemented : — attempts were here and there made at a common government,
which, however, seldom succeeded, so that people constantly returned to
the principle of division ; — nor was there any settled system of representa-
tion. A vast number of independent powers and privileges still existed,
incompatible with any form of government whatever. But, in the larger
territories, there were efforts towards the establishment of unity and
order ; in the smaller, local associations took the place of the princely
power : in all directions the force of the local spirit struggled for ascend-
ency with the imperial authorities, and, the more it succeeded, the more
vain were the attempts of the latter at concentration and general efficient
control.

It was unquestionably an important circumstance, that the head of
the empire was less intent on the. tranquil exercise of his legal sovereignty,
than on acquiring influence by personal and irregular interference. It
was only in moments of enthusiasm and excitement that Emperor
Maximilian beheld his high station in its national aspect ; in ordinary
moments he regarded it rather as a fraction of his personal power. The
nature of his administration was exactly calculated to excite agitations
of every kind in the somewhat formless world around him.

In Upper Germany the emperor had naturally, after all that had passed,
to encounter much opposition. The Elector Palatine could not yet forget
the injuries he had sustained in the last war ; he was still unappeased, nor
had he received his investiture. Although the emperor had then espoused
the party of Bavaria, the people of that country were not the less sensible
what the two branches of the sovereign house, viewed collectively, had
lost. The young princes, William and Louis, had such a profound sense
of this, that they arranged the disputes which had broken out between
them as to their respective shares in the government, as quickly as pos-
sible, when they thought they detected, on the part of the emperor, a
design of turning their disagreements to advantage in order to promote
another interest, as in the year 1504.1 They remembered what Bavaria
had been stripped of ; and the first act of their combined government
was to pledge themselves mutually to reconquer all that had been lost,
as soon as the emperor, their uncle, was dead.2

It appeared that Maximilian might reckon more securely on Duke Ulrich
of Wurtemberg, whom he had declared of age before the legal term, who
had accompanied him in his wars, had made conquests under his banner,
and to whom he had given a consort : Ulrich seemed bound to him by
every tie of gratitude. But this prince soon began to display a deter-
mined spirit of resistance to the emperor's designs, inspired by the most
arrogant self-conceit. He was displeased that he was of so little impor-
tance in the Swabian league. He considered it an insufferable abridgment
of his power, that of the one and twenty votes in the council of that body,

1 From a letter of Duke Ludwig ; Freiberg, Landstande, ii. 149.

2 The first document in the Urkundenbuch to Stumpf, Baierns Politischa
Gesch., i.

i64 MUTUAL RELATIONS OP [Book II.

fourteen belonged to the lower states, — prelates, counts, knights, and
above all, cities ; and had the right of deciding on peace and war ; so
that " his will and possession were in the hands of strangers."1 In the
year 15 12, when the league was renewed, he obstinately refused to join
it. He thus offended the league, began consequently to fear its hostility,
and allied himself with its enemies, especially the Elector Palatine and
the Bishop of Wiirzburg. He thus got into innumerable difficulties and
quarrels with the emperor, with all his neighbours, and even with his own
states and councils, which would rather have adhered to the emperor and
the league. In all these affairs his behaviour became more and more
violent, harsh, and overbearing. The peasants revolted against his
taxes ; the estates of his dominions compelled him to sign a contract
limiting his authority, which he showed an inclination to break : his
councillors meditated setting a regency over him, which filled him with
rage. At length the consummation of all these evils burst upon him in
his own house.

Unhappily he had suffered himself to be carried away by an inclination
for the wife of one of his courtiers, Hans von Hutten, his comrade in the
field and the chase. Hutten at length seized an occasion to speak to his
lord on this subject ; the duke threw himself at his feet, extended his
arms imploringly to him, and conjured him to permit him to see and to
love her ; he had tried in vain, he said, to conquer his passion — he could
not.2 It is reported, that in a short time they exchanged characters ;
Hutten became the lover of the duchess Sabina. One day Ulrich thought
he saw the betrothing ring which he had given his wife, on Hutten's
finger, and fell into the most violent transports of jealousy. It is impos-
sible, in the dearth of authentic accounts,3 to say how much of the story
is true. According to the legal documents, what peculiarly incensed the
duke was, that Hutten had not kept the secret of his master's passion,
and had given currency to reports by which he1 appeared at once vicious
and ridiculous. It seemed that the servant was little alarmed at the
anger which his lord gave vent to on this occasion ; he thought he should
have to encounter some sharp words, to which he could return others as
sharp and as proud. But Ulrich was now worked up to deeds of ven-
geance. They were riding together, and as they came into the Boblinger
wood, the duke took the knight aside, upbraided him with his falsehood,
called out to him to defend his life ; and, as Hutten was not armed, over-
powered and killed him.4 He then stuck his sword into the ground, and
tied the lifeless body fast to it with a girdle twisted round the neck. He

1 " Beswerung so wir Herzog Ulrich zu Wirtemperg haben. des Pundts
Schwaben Erstreckung anzunemen." " Difficulty which we, Duke Ulrich of
Wiirtemberg, have to consent to the extension of the Swabian League." Sattler,
Herzoge, i. Appendix, nr. 56, p. 129.

2 The printed address of the family of von Hutten in Sattler, a. a. O,. p. 213.

3 See Heyd, Duke Ulrich, i., p. 394. It is not to be forgotten that a certain
respect was observed in the statement in spite of all its violence. The Huttens
would not have brought forward the connection with the wife of the murdered
man, had not the Duke first mentioned it.

-> Address of Duke Ulrich, a. a. O., p. 305. The relations maintained, that
Hutten had been positively invited to join in the ride ; the Duke, that he had
been warned, and yet had obstinately accompanied them. The account of the
Duke seems to me to have greater moral probability.

Chap. II.] THE GERMAN PRINCES 165

said that as Freischoffe, as initiated member of the Fehme, he had the
right and authority to do so. He carried home the bloody sword, and
laid it by his wife's bedside. Alarmed for her freedom, and even for her
life, she fled, first to her uncle the emperor, who was taking the diversion
of hunting in the neighbourhood, and then to her brothers in Bavaria,
between whom and TJlrich there was already much bad blood. Sabina
accused her husband to the emperor, and demanded that her enemies
should be delivered up. Ulrich, on the other hand, persecuted with vin-
dictive fury her friends and all those whom he regarded as adherents of
the emperor and the league. Attempts at reconciliation only served to
bring the secret hostilities fully to light : a treaty was concluded, but
immediately broken ; letters injurious to the honour of both parties were
interchanged : never, in short, did a prince rend asunder all the ties that
bound him to a party, as whose ally and associate he had risen to power,
with greater violence than Duke Ulrich. At the diet of 15 18 it was
reported that he had arrested followers of the emperor, put them to
horrible tortures, and threatened them with death. On the other hand,
Maximilian intimated that he would appoint a criminal tribunal to try
the duke, and would execute whatever sentence it might pronounce :l
he immediately issued a special writ to the States, not only authorising,
but summoning them to set at liberty their lord's prisoners.2 This
furnished an additional motive to the emperor for desiring a reconcilia-
tion with the Elector Palatine. This he accomplished so far that that
prince appeared at the diet and received his investiture. It is clear that
the emperor's policy acquired by this event, and by his influence over
the league and Bavaria, the ascendency in Upper Germany ; neverthe-
less, affairs wore a very perilous aspect, and it was easy to foresee that,
be the event what it might, differences could not be adjusted in an amicable
manner. Their ramifications extended over the whole empire.

Another and far more formidable opposition to the emperor arose out
of the affairs of Lower Germany connected with the house of Burgundy.

One of the earliest acts of Maximilian's government, in i486, the year
of his election, had been to grant the reversion of Julich and Berg to
the house of Saxony, if those provinces should, "by reason of failure
of lineal heirs male," become vacant.3 In the year 1495 he confirmed
this for himself and all his successors in the empire, " now as then,
and then as now." The event in question seemed not far distant, since
Duke William VII. had only a daughter ; this opened to the house of
Saxony a prospect of a more commanding, indeed, of what might be called
a European position, since Friesland had then been transferred to the
younger line.

But difficulties soon arose. This assignment to so distant a master

1 Fiirstenberg, Sept. 9, calls it, " eine scharfe und iibermessliche Antwort : "
" a sharp and immoderate answer." " Wo er sich nicht fiige, wolle ihm S. M.
ein Halsgericht setzen, dass er daselbst in Schranken komme, und wess von
anderen und Sr. Maj. Interessen wegen an ihn erlangt wird, dass dem auch
Vollzug geschehe." — " In case he do not yield, his Majesty will sit in judgment
on him, that he may be thereby brought within bounds, and whatever, by reason
of his Majesty's and other interests may be decreed against him, that the same
may also be executed."

2 July 17, 1518. Sattler, i., App. 263.

3 Document in Miiller, Imp. Rtth. Fr., vi. 4S.

1 66 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF [Book II.

was by no means popular in the country itself, which would have thought
itself better provided for by a union with the neighbouring province of
Cleves. Princes and states were unanimous in this opinion. In the year
1496 they already determined to marry the daughter of the Duke of
Julich with the heir of Cleves, and to unite the two countries. A solemn
treaty, which may be regarded as effecting a union of all these provinces,
was entered into and signed by nobles and cities.1 They prayed the
emperor to confirm it, and to acknowledge the Princess of Julich as
heiress of her father's possessions

The emperor, however, would have paid little attention to this petition,
and would have adhered to the grant of reversion,, had not certain political
events occurred to change his designs.

From the time that Duke Charles, son of the Duke of Gueldres, formerly
deposed by Charles the Bold, had returned to his hereditary dominions,
and, in defiance of the unfavourable decrees of the empire, had found
means, with the aid of his estates, to maintain himself, there had not
been one moment's peace in those parts. He was closely allied with
France ; all the enemies of Austria found in him an ever-ready protector.
It was, therefore, a serious thing to make another powerful enemy in
that neighbourhood. The Duke of Cleves threatened, in case his petition
was refused, to enter into a matrimonial connexion and an indissoluble
alliance with the Duke of Gueldres — a threat which filled the Netherlands
with alarm.2 The Governor Margaret, Maximilian's daughter, thought
it would be impossible to wrest Julich and Berg from the Duke of Cleves ;
the only effect would be to cause him to unite with Gueldres, Arenberg,
and Liege, all foes of the house of Burgundy : this would furnish a power
strong enough even to drive the emperor^ posterity out of the Nether-
lands.

I In Saxony it was believed that the emperor connected schemes of another
kind with this design. Elector Frederick enjoyed singular consideration

I in the empire. He steadily adhered to the principles and sentiments of

1 Treaty of Marriage and Agreement in Teschenmacher, Annales Cliviae,
Cod. dipl., nr. 98, 99, wherein the two princes promised one another — the Duke
of Julich, that his daughter should bring the son of his brother of Cleves his
principalities of Julich, Berg, his countship of Ravensburg, with all his other
lordships, — the Duke of Cleves, that his son should bring the daughter of his
brother of Julich his principality of Cleves, his countship of the Mark, and all his
other lordships, now actually possessed, or still to be acquired.

2 The emperor says to Cesar Pfiug : " Die klevisch Tochter hindre I. M. Frau
Tochter Margr." " The daughter of the Duke of Cleves stands in the way of
the Lady Margaret, Ms Imperial Majesty's daughter." Renner states : " Clef
lasst sich vernehmen, wolt man die Lehen nit thun, so musste sich Clef mit den
Herrn verbinden, von denen es Trost und Hiilf haben mecht das Sine zu erhalten."
" Cleves says thus — if they will not bestow the fief, then Cleves must join the
lords from whom she may have comfort, and help to hold her own." — Weimar
Acts. Comp. Correspondance de l'Empereur Maximilien I. et de Marguerite
d'Autriche, I., p. 390. Margaret further wrote in 15 11 to the emperor, as is said
in his answer : " Que se povons tant faire que nostre cousin le due de Zaxssen
voulsist quieter ou du moins mectre en delay la querelle qu'il pretend a la duche
de Juillers, le jeusne due de Cleves et son pere se condescendroient facilement a
eulx declairer a la guerre et aydier a la reduction de nostre pays de Gheldres."
The emperor hoped to conciliate the elector at the approaching imperial diet,
but in this he did not succeed,

Chap. II.] THE GERMAN PRINCES 167

the old electors, and his power was constantly on the increase. His
intellectual superiority checked the inclination which his cousin George
now and then betrayed to oppose him ; so that the house of Saxony
might still be regarded as one power. His brother Ernest had been
Archbishop of Magdeburg up to the year 1513, and certainly one of the
best that see had ever possessed ; his cousin Frederick was Grand Master
in Prussia ; his sister Margaret, Duchess of Liineburg, ancestress of that :
house. It is evident how extensive was the influence of this family ; an
influence further augmented by the act of the States of Hessen, which, on
the death of Landgrave William, in 1 5 10, excluded his widow Anne from
the guardianship of the minor, claimed by her, and committed it to the
elector and house of Saxony, to which the regency thereupon appointed
was subject. Boyneburg, the governor of the province, who was at the
head of affairs, was entirely devoted to Frederick.1 It appeared to the
emperor highly inexpedient to throw Julich, and Berg also, which must
soon be without a sovereign, into the hands of this powerful prince, who
might thus become too mighty a vassal.

Under the influence of these considerations, Maximilian retracted the
promise he had made at the time of his election (and doubtless with a
view to that), and in various documents of the years 1508-9 revoked the
contingent rights on Julich and Berg which had been conferred : he
declared that the duke's daughter, Maria, was the worthy and competent
successor of her father.2 In the year 1 5 1 1 William VII. died ; his son-
in-law, John of Cleves, took possession of the country, without opposition.
All attempts to recall the past, all persuasions and negotiations on the
part of the house of Saxony, were vain.

The effect of this certainly was to induce Cleves to refuse the alliance )
with Gueldres, and to adhere faithfully to Austria. Saxony, on the !
contrary, declined in importance. The spiritual principalities which were 1
occupied by members of that house passed into other hands on the death
of their possessors. Boyneburg, by his somewhat tyrannical mode of
governing, provoked the discontent of the States of Hessen, and especially
of the cities (a.d. 15 14). By a sort of revolution, the Princess Anne was
restored to the guardianship of which she had been deprived ; Elector
Frederick retaining nothing more than the name. Another proof of this
anti-Saxon spirit was, that the emperor, at the suggestion of the order of
knights, declared the young Landgrave Philip of age when only fourteen
years old (March, 15 18) ; alleging that he would be better off so, than
under any guardianship or tutelage whatsoever. In these Hessian trans-
actions, Duke George took part against the elector : so far from raising
any cordial opposition to the designs of A me, he betrothed his son with
her daughter. Meanwhile he had already restored Friesland to Austria.

In this case, too, the policy of Austria was triumphant ; the dreaded
coalition of the Netherland adversaries was prevented, and Saxony kept
at a distance and depressed.3 On the other hand, however, the hostility

1 See Rommel, Philipp der Grossmiithige, vol. i., p. 26.

2 The document in Teschenmacher, nr. 100, is inconclusive ; nr. 101 leaves
no room for doubt.

3 The Saxon councillors, as early as 1512, dreaded further disfavour : " Darum
er (der Kaiser, nach jener Erklarung fur Cleve) fort und fort auf Wege trachten

-mocht, Ewer AHer Furstl. Gnaden zuzuschieben so viel ihm moglich, damit

1 68 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF [Book IT.

of the most able and prudent of all the princes of the empire was pro-
voked. What the weight of that hostility was, soon appeared at the
diet of Cologne (a.d. 15 12). Frederick's resistance sufficed to defeat all
the emperor-'s plans ; at least, his biographer imputes to his opposition
the rejection of the project of a new tax. This enmity affected even the
Netherlands through another channel. The niece of the elector, a Liine-
burg princess, married Charles of Gueldres (of whom we have already
spoken), who thus secured in two of the most powerful princely houses,
such a support as he had never before been able to obtain.

While the house of Saxony was thus weakened by a contest with Austria,
Brandenburg rose upon her favour. It was with the emperor's assistance
that Brandenburg princes succeeded to those of Saxony both in the grand
mastership of the Teutonic Order and the see of Magdeburg : he then
further favoured the elevation of the young archbishop, who was also
bishop of Halberstadt, to the Electorate of Mainz, which had formerly
been enjoyed by a brother of Elector Frederick: we have already seen
what was the nature of the relations which subsisted between these two
princes. Maximilian also renewed his alliance with the Franconian line
of this house. He confirmed the removal of the old Markgrave, who had
been declared idiotic, from the government ; and marrying the Mark-
grave's eldest son Casimir to his own niece, Susanna of Bavaria, he gave
that prince the whole support of his authority and an important advantage
over his brothers. For this very reason, however, he did not win them
over completely ; with one of them, indeed, the Grand Master, he had a
serious difference. The emperor had at first induced him to assume a
hostile attitude towards King Sigismund of Poland,1 who was rendered
extremely formidable to the Austrian claims on the kingdom of Hungary,
by his connection with the House of Zapolya. Maximilian wished to
hold him in check, on the one side by the Grand Duke of Moscow, on the
other by the Teutonic Order. But the situation of things was now much
altered. In the year 1 5 1 5, Sigismund of Poland had formed very amicable

Ew. Aller Fiirstl. Gn. in Dempfung und Abfall kamen." — " Lest he (the emperor,
after that declaration in behalf of Cleves) should more and more strive after
means of embarrassing your most Princely Grace as much as possible, so that
your most Princely Grace may fall into weakness and decline." — Letter from
Cologne written Thursday after Jacobi, 1512. Weimar Records.

1 The Fugger MS. : " Deswegen die Kais. Maj. nach solchem Wege getrachtet,
dieweil S. M. erachtet, dass Konig Sigmund seinem Schwager Graf Hansen von
Trentschin Grossgrafen in Ungarn Rath und Hiilfe erzeiget und denselben nach
Absterben des Konigs Lasslew zu dem Reich Ungarn . . . befordern mocht, dass
er demselben etliche Konige und Fiirsten zu Feinden machen wollt, und ward
durch S. Mt. so vil gehandelt, dass Markg. Albrecht von Brandenburg Hoch-
mcister in Preussen den hochernannten Konig Sigmundt von Polen anfeindet."
" His Imperial Majesty on this account, because his Majesty considered that
King Sigismund had yielded counsel and aid to his brother-in-law, Count Hans
von Trentschin Grossgraf in Hungary, and after the decease of King Ladislas
might advance the same to the kingdom of Hungary, that he wished to render
sundry kings and princes enemies to the same ; and so much was done by his
Majesty, that Margrave Albert of Brandenburg, Grand Master in Prussia, opposes
the above-named King Sigismund of Poland." The alliance with Russia was
concluded expressly for the reconquest of the lands of the Order seized on by
Poland. This is the famous document in which Zar was translated into Kaiser
(emperor), -^Karamsin, Hist, of Russia, vji, 45, 450,

Chap. II.] THE GERMAN PRINCES 169

relations with the emperor ; he now recognised the hereditary right of
Austria to Hungary, and took a wife out of the Italian branch of that
house. Maximilian, on his side, waived the claims of the empire : he
granted Danzig and Thorn an exemption from the jurisdiction of the
Imperial Chamber in 1 5 15, as he had to Switzerland in 1507 ; a measure
the more important in this case, since it substituted a Polish for a German
jurisdiction ; it was, in fact, a sort of cession. It may readily be imagined
how much less inclined he must now be to interpose earnestly on behalf
of the Order ; and accordingly we find it stated in the preamble to the
agreement, that the emperor recognised the peace of Thorn, — the very
thing against which the Grand Master protested, and by which he had
been made a vassal of the crown of Poland. Prussia was thus again
alienated from the emperor, and this reacted on the other members of
the house of Brandenburg. Elector Joachim, at least, was not dis-
inclined to give the same support to the Grand Master as he did to his
brothers in Franconia.

It may easily be imagined that the position of the other sovereign houses
was affected in various ways by all these friendships and enmities.

Pomerania, forced to give way before the claims of Brandenburg to
the supreme feudal lordship, was alienated from Austria by the support
its rival received from that power. The Pomeranian historians ascribe
it to the influence of Joachim I. that the projected marriage of a Pomer-
anian princess with King Christian II. of Denmark did not take place ;
and on the contrary, that that monarch married a grand-daughter of
Maximilian.1 The result of this again was, that the uncle and rival of
Christian Frederick of Holstein, who thought himself unjustly dealt with
in the partition of the ducal inheritance, and, as king's son, believed him-
self to have claims even on Norway,2 now sought to ally himself with the
house of Pomerania ; whilst the third member of this house, the Count of
Oldenburg, adhered firmly to the Austro-Burgundian alliance, and once
more received a stipend from the Netherlands. Every event that occurred
in the northern states immediately affected the dynastic houses of Germany
through these various combinations.

It must not be imagined that open hostility broke out amongst them.
There was a greater or lesser influence of the house of Austria ; a more
or less visible favour shown by or inclination towards it ; but they re-
mained on the footing of good neighbours, met at diets, interchanged
visits at family festivals, endured what they could not alter, and kept
their eye steadily on the point in view.

The discord was most fierce and undisguised in the house of the tur-
bulent Guelfs. Calenberg and Wolfenbiittel held to the friendship of
Austria ; indeed it was in her service that the duke of the former state
had revived the ancient war-like renown of his house. Liineburg sided
with the opposition. There were a multitude of old disputes between
them, mainly caused by an attempt of the Bishop of Minden, a Wolfen-
biittler by birth, to appropriate to himself the countship of Diepholz, to

1 Kanzow, Pomerania, ii. 313.

8 Chief points of complaint, as set forth in the different publications on the
dispute : Christiani, Neuere Gesch. von Schleswig-Holstein, i., p. 318. These
complaints sufficiently refute the supposition of a good understanding, to which
Christiani previously sdheres.

170 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF [Book. II.

which Liineburg had ancient contingent claims.1 Lauenburg was now
drawn into these quarrels. During the absence of the Archbishop of
Bremen — another Wolf enbultler— the Worsats, who had recently been
conquered, killed his officers ; Magnus of Lauenburg, to whom they
appealed as the true Duke of Lower Saxony, lent them aid, and destroyed
the fortress erected by the archbishop.2 On his return, open war among
all these princes appeared imminent, and was only prevented from break-
ing out by Mecklenburg, which stood in a tolerably impartial situation
in the midst of all these disputes ; or rather, in that of an ally of both
parties.

This example suffices to prove that there was but little distinction
between temporal and spiritual princes.
I For the highest posts in the church had long been distributed, not in
I consequence of spiritual merits, but in compliance with the wishes of
I some powerful prince, especially the emperor ; or of the interests of the
j neighbouring nobles, who had seats in the chapters : indeed it was, as we
; have seen, a maxim of the court of Rome, ever since the last century, to
use its influence in promoting the younger sons of sovereign houses.3 In
the beginning of the sixteenth century this policy had been pursued with
success in many sees. In Lower Germany, Brunswick, and Lauenburg
in particular, rivalled each other in this respect. The house of Brunswick-
Wolfenbiittel and Grubenhagen had got possession of the archbishopric
of Bremen, the bishoprics of Minden, Verden, Osnabriick and Paderborn ;
the house of Lauenburg, of Miinster and Hildesheim. We have seen how
richly Brandenburg was provided for. We find princes of Lorraine as
: bishops of Metz, Toul and Verdun. The palatinate possessed Freisingen,
Regensburg, Speier, Naumburg, and afterwards Utrecht. Bavaria
j obtained Passau. In the year 1 5 16, the chapter of Schwerin chose Prince
Magnus of Mecklenburg, although not yet seven years old, its bishop.4
It were impossible to enumerate all the prebends which came into the
hands either of members of the less powerful houses, or favourites of the
emperor. Melchior Pfinzing, his chaplain and secretary, was dean of
St. Sebald, in Niirnberg, of St. Alban and St. Victor in Mainz ; and pre-
bendary both in Trent and Bamberg. Hence it followed that the interests
of the house to which a dignitary of the church belonged, or to which
he owed his elevation, influenced the exercise of his functions : we find
the spiritual principalities implicated in all the intrigues or dissensions
of the temporal rulers.

These circumstances reacted on the other states of the empire, though
perhaps less obviously. The cities of the Oberland, for example, whose
strength was the main support of the Swabian league, belonged to the
one party ; while the Franconian knights, who were at open war with
the league, sided more with the other.

For imperfect and undefined as all relations were, the powers of Germany
may be ranged under two great political parties. On the side of Austria
were Bavaria, the League, Brandenburg (for the most part), Hessen, Cleves,

1 Delius, Hildesheimische Stiftsfehde, p. 96.

2 Chytaeus, Saxoniae Chronicon, lib. vii., p. 227.

3 See p. 64. jEneas Sylvius, Epistola ad Martinum Maier, p. 679.

4 Born July 4, 1509 ; elected June 21, 15 16. Rudloff, MecklenburgischeGesch.,
iii. 1, 37.

Chap. II.] THE GERMAN PRINCES 171

the Count of East Friesland (who had lately joined this party), Olden-
burg, Denmark, Calenberg, Wolfenbuttel, and Albertine Saxony. On
that of the opposition, were Ernestine Saxony, Pomerania, Lauenburg,
Ltineburg, the Franconian knights, Wiirtemberg, and Gueldres. The
Duke of Gueldres was indeed in a state of open warfare. In the year 1 5 1 7,
his troops devastated the whole of Holland ; he gave up Alkmaar to
pillage for eight days : in the year 15 18, the Frisian corsair, Groote Pier,
appeared in the Zuyder Zee, and made himself complete master of it for
a considerable time. The duke employed all his influence to keep the
Frieslanders in a continual state of revolt. The palatinate and Mecklen-
burg occupied a sort of neutral or middle ground between these two
parties. The Elector palatine inclined to the house of Austria for a
singular reason. His brother Frederick, who had served for many years
at the court of Burgundy, had formed an attachment to the Princess
Leonora. One of his letters was found in her possession, and excited such
displeasure, that the unhappy prince was obliged to quit the court, with
the persuasion that he had thus thrown away all his well-earned claims
on the emperor's favour, unless he could re-establish them by still more
important services. But his brother was not disposed to forget what he
had suffered in the war of inheritance. On the contrary, the brave
knight who had risen to fame and honour in his service, Franz von Sick-
ingen, now took revenge on Hessen for those very injuries.1. While the
diet was sitting at Augsburg, he marched an army of 500 horse and 8,000 j
. foot upon the fortified town of Darmstadt, and extorted from the inhabi- J
tants contributions to the amount of 45,000 gulden, on the hardest and ,
most oppressive terms. A deputation of the empire made representa-
tions to the emperor against this breach of the Public Peace ; but he did
not venture to do anything ; he had formerly taken Sickingen into his
own service, and he had no mind to alienate the palatinate again.

Such is the situation in which we find Maximilian towards the close of
his career.

The received opinion which recognises in him the creative founder of
the later constitution of the empire, must be abandoned. We saw above
that the ideas of organisation which first became current in the early
years of his reign experienced far more opposition than encouragement ■;
from him ; and that he was incapable of carrying even his own projects
into execution. We now see that he had not the power of keeping the '
princes of the empire together ; that, on the contrary, everything about
him split into parties. It followed of necessity that abroad he rather
lost than gained ground. In Italy nothing was achieved : Switzerland
acquired greater independence than she possessed before ; Prussia was
rather endangered than secured. The policy of France had obtained new
influence in the heart of Germany ; first Gueldres and then Wiirtemberg
openly declared for that power.

The glory which surrounds the memory of Maximilian, the high renown
which he enjoyed even among his contemporaries, were therefore not won
by the success of his enterprises, but by his personal qualities.

Every good gift of nature had been lavished upon him in profusion ;
health up to an advanced age, so robust that when it was deranged strong

1 That this was the motive, is asserted in the Chronicle of Flersheim, by
Munch, iii. 310.

172 MAXIMILIAN [Book II.

exercise and copious draughts of water were his sole and sufficient remedy ;l
not beauty indeed, but so fine a person, so framed for strength and agility,
that he outdid all his followers in knightly exercises, outwearied them in
exertions and toils ; a memory to which everything that he had learnt
or witnessed was ever present ; so singular a natural acuteness and just-
ness of apprehension, that he was never deceived in his servants ; he
employed them exactly in the services for which they were best fitted ;
an imagination of unequalled richness and brilliancy ; everything that
he touched came new out of his hands ; a mind, as we have already
remarked, which always seized with unerring instinct on the necessary,
though unfortunately the execution of it was so often embarrassed by
other conditions of his situation ! He was a man, in short, formed to
excite admiration, and to inspire enthusiastic attachment ; formed to be
the romantic hero, the exhaustless theme of the people.

What wondrous stories did they tell of his adventures in the chase !
How, in the land beyond the Ens, he had stood his ground alone against
an enormous bear in the open coppice : how in a sunken way in Brabant
he had killed a stag at the moment it rushed upon.Jum : how, when sur-
prised by a wild boar in the forest of Brussels, he had laid it dead at his
feet with his boar-spear, without alighting from his horse. But above
all, what perilous adventures did they recount of his chamois hunts in
the high Alps, where it was he who sometimes saved the practised hunter
that accompanied him, from danger or death. In all these scenes he
showed the same prompt and gallant spirit, the same elastic presence of
mind. Thus, too, he appeared in face of the enemy. Within range of
the enemy's fire, we see him alight from his horse, form his order of battle,
and win the victory : in the skirmish, attacking four or five enemies
single-handed : on the field, defending himself in a sort of single combat
against an enemy who selected him as his peculiar object ; for he was
always to be found in the front of the battle, always in the hottest of the
fight and the danger.2 Proofs of valour which served not merely to
amuse an idle hour, or to be celebrated in the romance of Theuerdank :3
the Venetian ambassador cannot find words to express the confidence
which the German soldiers of every class felt for the chief who never
deserted them in the moment of peril. He cannot be regarded as a great
general ; but he had a singular gift for the organisation of a particular
body of troops, the improvement of the several arms, and the constitu-
tion of an army generally : the militia of the Landsknechts, by which the
fame of the German foot soldiers was restored, was founded and organised
by him. He also put the use of fire-arms on an entirely new footing, and
his inventive genius displayed itself pre-eminently in this department ;
he surpassed even the masters of the art, and his biographers ascribe to

1 Pasquaglio, Relatione di 1507 : " Non molto bello di volto ma bene pro-
portionate, robustissimo, di complessione sanguinea e collerica, e per V eta sua
molto sano, ne altro il molesto che un poco di catarro che continuamente li
discende, per rispetto del quale ha usato e usa sempre far nelle caccie gran eser-
citio."

2 See the Geschichtbibel of Set). Frank ; and particularly the Key to Theuer-
dank, reprinted in the edition of Theuerdank by Haltaus, p. 111.

3 An allegory dealing with the adventures of Maximilian — partly written by
Maximilian himself.

Chap. II.] MAXIMILIAN 173

him a number of very successful improvements :l they add, that he
brought even the Spaniards who served under him to the use of fire-
arms. Wherever he was present he found means to allay the mutinous
disorders which often arose in these bands of mercenaries, in consequence
of the irregular state of his finances. We are told that once in extremity
he appeased the discontent of his men by the jests and antics of a court
fool, whom he sent among them. He had a matchless talent for manag-
ing men. The princes who were offended and injured by his policy could
not withstand the charm of his personal intercourse. " Never," says the
sagacious Frederick of Saxony, "did I behold a more courteous man."
The wild turbulent knights against whom he raised the empire and the
league, yet heard such expressions from his lips, that it was, as Gotz von
Berlichingen said, " a joy to their hearts ; and they could never bear to
do anything against his Imperial Majesty or the house of Austria." He
took part in the festivals and amusements of the citizens in their towns
— their dances and their shooting matches, in which he was not unfre-
quently the best shot ; and offered prizes — damask for the arquebusiers,
or a few ells of red velvet for the cross-bowmen : he delighted to be among
them, and found in their company and diversions a relief from the arduous
and weary business of the diet. At the camp before Padua he rode up
to a suttler and asked for something to eat. John of Landau, who was
with him, offered to taste the food ; the emperor inquired where the
woman came from. From Augsburg, was the reply. " Ah !" exclaimed
he, " then there is no need of a taster, for they of Augsburg are God-
fearing people." In his hereditary dominions he often administered
justice in person, and if he saw a bashful man who kept in the back-
ground, he called him forward to a more honourable place. He was little
dazzled by the splendour of the supreme dignity. " My good fellow,"
said he to an admiring poet, " thou knowest not me nor other princes
aright."2 All that we read of him shows freshness and clearness of appre-
hension, an open and ingenuous spirit. He was a brave soldier and a kind-
hearted man ; people loved and feared him.

And in his public life, we should do him injustice if we dwelt exclusively
on his abortive attempts to reconstitute the empire. It is an almost
inevitable defect of that form of government which excites a competition
between the highest person in the state and a representative body or
bodies, that the sovereign separates his personal interests from those of
the community. Maximilian, at least, was far less intent on the pros-

1 Griinbeck in Chmel, p. 96. " Bellicas machiuas in minutas partes resolvere,
parvis viribus bigis aptari et quocunque fert voluntas faciliter deduci primus
invenit." The Fugger MS. : " Durch S. Mt. Erfindung sind die Poller und
Morser zu dem werfen, auch die langen Ror zu dem weitraichen, desgleichen
die weiten kurzen Ror .zu dem Haglschiessen in die Streichwehre darin auch
etwa eisern Ketten und Schrot geladen werden, alsdann auch die grossen Kar-
thauneu von neuen erfunden und zu gebrauchen aufbracht worden." " By his
majesty's invention, mortars for throwing, also long tubes for distant range,
likewise broad short tubes for firing canister shot from fortifications, and which
may also be loaded with iron chains and balls ; moreover large carronades have
been afresh discovered and brought into use."

2 The Fugger MS. Cuspinian. Querini paints him, Nov. 1507, as "homo
virtuoso, religioso, forte, liberal, quasi prodego. Adeo tutti 1' ama : ma mancha
di prudentia." — Sanuto, vol. vii.

174 MAXIMILIAN [Book II.

perity of the empire than on the future fortunes of his house. When a
youth of eighteen, he went to the Netherlands, and, by the union of Bur-
gundy and Austria, founded a new European power. In States, as in
the world of science, there are certain minds whose vocation it is to act
as the pioneers of those gifted with the genius of construction. Incapable
of bringing any thing new into existence, they are actively employed in
preparing the materials and the instruments with which their more
creative successors are to work. The force that was in embryo did not
assume its complete form under Maximilian. But by maintaining the
sovereign prerogatives in the Netherlands, as well as in Austria ; by de-
fending the former against the French, the latter against the Hungarians ;
by securing for his house the great Spanish inheritance ; by definitively
founding that of Hungary and Bohemia, he exerted a vast and permanent
influence on succeeding ages. How different was the position of his grand-
son from that of his father, ari exile from his paternal land, or from his
own, a prisoner in Bruges ! Never did a family enjoy more magnificent
or more extensive prospects than those which now lay before that of
Austria. This was the point of view from which .Maximilian regarded
the affairs of Germany. Until the latter half of the fifteenth century,
Austria was almost shut out from Germany : she now interfered with a
high hand in the affairs of every state and province, temporal or spiritual
— territories of cities or of knights : nothing could stir, whether in an
amicable or a hostile direction, by which she was not immediately affected.
If it be undeniable that the empire, regarded as a whole, had sustained
losses, it is not less true that it was the union of the house of Austria with
Burgundy which restored the province of the Low Countries again to a
conscious connection with Germany ; and that the remote prospects
which were involved in the Hungarian, and still more in the Spanish
family alliance, opened a new theatre of activity to the nation. The
shadows of coming events continually flitted before the mind of Maxi-
milian : it was this presentiment which influenced his whole conduct and .
actions, and produced all that was apparently unsteady, mysterious, and
one-sided in his policy. It was not given to him to perfect or to found ;
his mission was solely to prepare, to maintain, and to extend the views
and the claims of his house, amidst the conflicting powers of the world.

The last decisive moment still remained ; and although he would
never hear any thing on the subject at an earlier period of his reign, it is
clear how earnestly he must have desired to secure his grandson's succes-
sion.

From the situation of things in Germany which we have just contem-
plated, it is easy to infer what was the support he might reckon upon,
and what the obstacles he was likely to encounter. He had already
made great progress in his negotiations at the diet of Augsburg. The
renewal and confirmation of his good understanding with the Hohen-
zollern, and the large promises he made to that family, secured to him
two electoral votes, those of Brandenburg and of Mainz, both of which
had very recently been extremely dubious.1 Hermann of Cologne, of

1 Albert and Joachim had made preliminary promises in 15 17 to the ldng of
France, which they now retracted. The state of things appears from a memoran-
dum which the emperor had drawn up for his grandson in Oct., 1518, wherein
it is said : " Le mariage de dame Catherine avoc le fils du Marquis Joachim n'im-

Chap. II.] MAXIMILIAN 175

the family of Wied, who was intimately connected with Cleves, and hence
well inclined to the emperor, was completely won by presents made to
himself, and by pensions promised to his brothers and kinsmen i1 lastly,
the old misunderstandings with the palatinate were arranged by the
mediation of the Count Palatine Frederick; the elector received his
investiture, entered into an agreement with Austria as to the inheritance,
and gave his sanction to the order of succession. After certain preliminary
arrangements had taken place, these four electors had a meeting with the
emperor, who was surrounded by his own council and that of his nephew,
on the 27th August, 15 18, and ratified their consent by a formal treaty.
The ambassadors of Bohemia, who was now restored to her place in the
Germanic body (as since the league of 1515, Austria was sure of her vote),
gave their assent.

On the other hand, Frederick of Saxony, as may readily be believed,
did not forget his numerous wrongs and affronts, and was not to be pro-
pitiated. With him was Elector Richard of Treves, a Greifenklau by
birth, who had already been opposed to the Prince of Baden, and had, at
a more recent vacancy, obtained the electorate. Their chief objections
were, that it was an unheard-of thing to place a king of the' Romans by
the side of an uncrowned emperor, and that a papal constitution forbade
the union of the kingdom of Naples, which Charles possessed, with the
crown of Germany.

Maximilian laboured incessantly to remove these objections, as well as
the deeper reasons for which they were only a cover. Active negotiations
were carried on with the court of Rome, both as to the sending of the
crown across the Alps,2 and the repeal of the above-mentioned constitu-
tion. The strangest plans were suggested. Maximilian once thought of
abdicating and passing the rest of his life at Naples ; not, indeed, without
receiving the crown of that country as compensation for the one which
he renounced, so as to remove both of those obstacles at once. Besides
this, the physicians had told him he might recover his health in Naples.
The German negotiations he thought he should" conclude at a meeting

porte pas moins ; le marquis pour donner sa voix a Charles a du renoncer a son
manage avec dame Renee de France et a une grande somme d'argent que le roi
de France luy avoit promis."

1 Argent Comptant et Pensions pour lArchevesque de Coulongne ; Mone,
Anzeiger fur Kunde der teutschen Vorzeit, 1836, p. 409. The records therein
inserted from the Archives of Lille have all been of great use to me. M. Mone
had, however, left a great many untouched, from which M. Gachard of Brussels
has lately given an extract in a " Rapport a Monsieur le Ministre de l'lnterieur
sur les Archives de Lille," Annexe C, p. 146. In addition to printed sources, I
made use of a correspondence of the Venetian ambassador at Rome, who trans-
mits home the news which reaches him, and paints admirably the varying dis-
positions of the court.

2 Maximilian even demanded that the pope himself should come to Trent and
crown him. He alleged that the pontiff had gone to meet Francis I. at Bologna.
But the master of the ceremonies held a coronation out of Rome to be thoroughly
inadmissible. Even were pope and emperor in one province, the pope might
not, he said, then and there crown the emperor ; he must rather suffer him to
proceed alone to Rome and be there crowned by a cardinal. — Paris de Grassis, in
Hoffmann, p. 425. Another idea was, that the cardinals, Giulio de Medici and
Albert cf Mainz, should perform the ceremony at Trent.

176 DEATH OF MAXIMILIAN [Book II.

which was to take place in the following March at Frankfurt. He begged
Elector Frederick in the most urgent manner not to fail to be present, and
added that he himself intended to set out soon after the new year.

But this was not permitted him. He fell sick on the journey, at Wels,
within his own dominions. His illness did not prevent him from carrying
on the negotiations concerning the succession : in his sleepless nights he
had the genealogical history of his early progenitors read to him ; he was
occupied with the past and the future fortunes of his race, when he expired,
on the 12th January, 15 19.

His death suddenly plunged the issue of the pending negotiations into
fresh uncertainty. The engagements already entered into related only to
the election of a king, as next in dignity and succession to the emperor ;
the affair altered its aspect now that the subject of them was an immediate
reigning king and emperor. But so much more weighty was now the
decision, both as it regarded the distant future, and the present, pressing,
tempestuous moment.

Possibilities of every kind still presented themselves.

ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN IJII.

Had the powers and functions of the head of the empire been denned by
a regular constitution, such as was once contemplated, the most illustrious
princes of the empire might have chosen one out of their own body to fill
that station. But as the project had failed, who among them all would
have been powerful enough to allay the storm of hostilities that raged on
all sides, and to uphold the dignity of the empire among the powers of
Europe ? It was a great question whether any one of them would venture
upon such a task.

Maximilian had entertained and declared various singular projects
before he would suffer it to be known that he had designs for his grandson.
He had offered the succession to the king of England : in one of the most
extraordinary documents existing, he at another time nominated the young
king Louis of Hungary and Bohemia, administrator of the empire during
his lifetime, and after his death, his successor ; and these two princes now
actually cherished some hopes of the imperial crown : but the one was at
too great a distance, the other not sufficiently powerful at home ; it was
impossible to entertain serious thoughts of either.

In declaring himself openly in favour of his grandson, Archduke Charles,
King of Spain and Naples, Maximilian now proposed a scheme which had
much to recommend it. Charles was of German blood, heir to Austria,
and to many provinces of the German Netherlands, and sprung of the
( house which had already acquired a sort of title to the imperial dignity.
I There was, however, no want of objections to this young prince. It was
! observed that he did not even understand German, and had given no
! proofs of personal valour or ability ; the multitude of his dominions
would leave him no time to devote to the empire ; lastly, he was expressly
excluded by the papal constitution. His prospects, indeed, began to be
overclouded. The electors, as we have observed, did not think them-
selves bound by their promises ; nor did Maximilian's daughter Margaret,
who now conducted the negotiations, deem it expedient to lay before them
the sealed copies of their several compacts, as she had been advised to do ;

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN is 19 177

she contented herself with reminding them in general terms of their ex-
pressions of good-will. Added to this, disturbances of a very serious
nature had broken out in Austria after Maximilian's death, in which the
States established a government of their own1 without troubling them-
selves about the young and absent princes ; " poor boys, of whom nobody
could tell whether they would ever be seen in Germany." In Tyrol similar
troubles broke out.2 Louis, King of Hungary, thought it expedient to
recall his sister Anna from Austria, where she had already arrived in order
to conclude her marriage with one of the brothers.

Under these circumstances, a foreign monarch, already the natural rival
of the Austro-Burgundian power, — Francis I. of France, — determined to
grasp at the supreme dignity of Christendom.3

The fortune and fame of Francis were still in the ascendant. The J
battle of Marignano, by which he had reconquered Milan, and the per- \
sonal valour which he had displayed there, had secured him a high station i
in Europe, and a great name. He was on an intimate footing with Leo X. '
We find that this pope communicated the briefs which he intended to '
address to the German princes, first to the court of France. King Henry
of England, after a short hesitation, promised him his co-operation " by
word and deed." A still more essential thing was, that he had gained an
influence over at least a portion of the German opposition. We have|
spoken of the Dukes of Gueldres and Wurtemberg ; the existence of the •
one, and all the hopes of the other, depended on France : old relations,
never entirely broken, united the palatinate to that country, and Duke
Henry der Mittlere of Liineburg now also took part with the king. " I
rejoice in his good fortune," says he in a letter, " I grieve at his bad for-
tune ; whether he be up or down I am his." The king affirmed that he
was solicited by Germany to try to acquire the crown. His adherents
insisted particularly on his bravery ; they urged that no other prince was
so well fitted to conduct the war against the Turks, which, sooner or later,
must be undertaken.

Kings of France, both before and after Francis, have entertained
similar projects — for example, Philip of Valois and Louis XIV. ; but none
ever had so much encouragement from the posture of affairs, none such
favourable prospects, as Francis I.

Two things were necessary to the success of his undertaking ; the
electors must be won over, and the anti-Austrian party must be sup-
ported and strengthened. Francis was resolved to do every thing in his
power to accomplish both these ends, especially to spare no money ; he
gave out that he would spend three millions of kronthalers to become
emperor. In the February of 15 19, we find Germany again filled with

1 Narratio de Dissensionibus Provincialium Austrias. Pez. Scriptt., ii. 990.

2 Zevenberghen to Margaret, March 28, Mone., p. 292.

3 II CI. di Bibbiena al CI. de' Medici, 13 Ott., 1518. He gives an account of
an audience he had of the king relating to the elettion del Catholico (the grants
which had been made at Augsburg for Charles) : " sopra che in sustanza mi
disse, in grandissimo secreto, sua opinione et volonta essere, che per Nostro
Signore (the pope) e per sua Mta si faccia ogni opera possibile, accioche ella non
vada innanzi et che si corrompano con danari et con promesse et con ogni possibil
mezzo gli elettori." — -Lettere di Principi,, i., p. 47. The whole correspondence,
which is printed in this collection, ought to be read ; it perfectly shews the
relations between Leo X. and Francis I.

178 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 [Book II.

his emissaries. Somewhat later, his most confidential minister, Admiral
Bonnivet, in whose talents the public had great confidence from his late
successful conclusion of the peace with England and Spain, set out for
the Rhine, largely provided with money ; whence he ventured, but in
the profoundest secrecy, further into the interior of Germany.1

At one time it really appeared as if the king would attain his object
with the electors.2

He had long had the most perfect understanding with Richard Greifen-
klau, Elector of Treves. Whatever were the cause, — whether ancient dis-
sensions between Treves and the house of Burgundy concerning their
claims on Luxemburg, or perhaps the hope which the Elector (who was
already " Archchancellor through Gallia and the kingdom of Aries ")
might entertain of an accession to his power and importance in case
France were once more so closely united to the empire, — it is certain that
Elector Richard had been equally deaf to the seductions of Maximilian
and to the prayers of delegates from the Spanish Netherlands. On the
other hand, the terms of the credentials given him by Francis show the
most implicit confidence in him. " Convinced of his fidelity, his zeal, his
honour and his prudence," the king nominated him his lawful and un-
questioned procurator, envoy and commissary, with full powers to grant
to the remaining electors and their confidential servants, or to any other
princes of the empire, as much money as he thought fit, either in one sum,
or in the form of yearly pension ; and to that intent, to mortgage the
crown lands in the name of the king, and even in that of his successors :
whatever he agreed to was to have the same force and validity as if
concluded by the king in person. While he declared himself ready to
protect the rights and privileges of the princes, the nobles and the
cities ; and, generally, to do every thing appertaining to an emperor, —
especially to undertake the war against the Turks for the defence and
extension of the faith, — he empowered the Elector of Treves, should
the occasion present itself, to take the required oath on the salvation
of his soul.

Nor were the king's negotiations fruitless in other quarters. A com-
plete outline of a treaty with the Elector Palatine was drawn up by his
envoys,3 and in the beginning of April that prince raised his pecuniary
demands on Austria threefold, and revived his claim to the Stewardship
(Landvogtei) of Hagenau. Cologne received a warning from Austria not
to allow herself to be seduced into the wrong way, while the French some-
times thought themselves nearly sure of her support.

All these Rhenish electors feared the violence and vengeance of Francis I.
in case they resisted him ; they were alarmed at perceiving no refuge or
defence on the other side. But the support of the See of Rome was still

1 In Rome it was asserted, " che 1' era in Augusta el dito Amirante," according
to letters of the 1st of April ; but I find no further proof of it.

2 The statements of Flassans, Histoire de la Diplom. Fr., i. 322, are not of
importance. But he there mentions a " liasse contenant des memoires, lettres
et instructions donnees par Francois I. a ses envoyes aupres des electeurs," in
the Tresor des Chartes. (I looked them over myself in the year 1839, and have
extracted from them some remarkable notices.) The accounts of the jeune
aventureux (Memoires de Fleuranges, Coll. univ., xvi. 227), though well wprth
reading, do no. go deep enough.

3 In the extract in Stumpf. Baierns polit. Gesch., i,, p. J4,

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 179

more advantageous to the king's cause, than the fears or the sense of
weakness of these princes. Pope Leo X. indeed sometimes expressed him- }
self doubtfully, and it appeared as if he would not take part against i
Austria ; but he was far too deeply versed in the policy of Italy, not to <
see the dangers that would impend over himself if Naples were united to \
the empire. The Venetian ambassador, who enjoyed his confidence, '
affirms that Leo would on no account consent to that.1 Nor was the
court of Spain deceived ; King Charles once ordered the pope's mes-
sengers to be arrested in Tyrol, in order to obtain proof of the illicit prac-
tices of the court of Rome in that country.2 He knew that the legate
spoke ill of him ; one of his councillors was astonished when the Elector
of Mainz showed him all the letlers he had received from the papal court
in the interest of the French. Of all the electors he was the one whom
it was the most important to gain ; and who had such ample means of
gaining him as the pope ? One of the favourite objects of the elector in
Mainz was to get himself nominated legate of Germany, like Amboise of
France and Wolsey in England. It is well known how difficult it was to
induce the See of Rome to grant that dignity to a native ; but at the
present moment, and in favour of Francis I., it was disposed to do so.
In a letter dated from St. Peter's, March 14, 15 19, and bearing the seal
of the fisherman's ring, Leo X. authorized the king, in the event of his
obtaining the imperial crown by the vote and influence of the Elector of
Mainz, to promise the same the dignity of legate in Germany : he, Leo X.,
binding himself, on the word of a true pope of Rome, to fulfil the engage-
ment. There seemed little reason to doubt that the elector would yield
to such a temptation.

The bait which he held out to Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg,
brother of the Cardinal, was at least equally alluring. Joachim, to whom
Maximilian had promised his grand-daughter Catherine, the sister of
Charles, in marriage to the hereditary prince, with a very large dowry, had
conceived some suspicions that there was a design to disappoint him.
The contract was indeed ratified, but only by Charles, not by the princess,
without whose consent it could not be considered binding. The Fuggers
declared themselves not authorized to fulfil the pecuniary obligations con-
tracted with the Elector. Joachim, whether at home or in his foreign
relations, was fiery, resolute, and suspicious ; in money matters, above
all, he was not to be trifled with. He was already mortified that the
affair had not been terminated a year sooner, as he wished. He therefore
fixed a term within which the promises made him were to be fulfilled, and
meanwhile gave audience to the French ambassador, de la Motte. The
French now in their turn promised him a princess of the blood for his son,
— Madame Renee, daughter of Louis XII. and Queen Anne, — with a still
larger dowry, for the payment of which they offered greater security than
their rival. But they did not fail to accompany these promises with

1 " II papa dice vol far ogni cosa in favor del re christianissimo, et non vol
sia il re cattolico per niuno partido per esserli troppo vicino, e poi S. St4 e in
liga col re christianissimo dicendo aver mandato al re cattolico il juramento ha
fatto peril reame di Napoli accio si aricordi : poi prego l'orator tenesse sileutio."
Roma, 12 April.

2 "Pour devoiler ses illicites poursuites." From the letter of the 31st of
March in Gachard.

12 — 2

180 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 1519 [Book II.

others of a far more extensive character. In case Francis I. was really-
chosen, they declared themselves empowered to acknowledge the elector
his lieutenant or viceroy ; but if that was found to be impracticable, they
would use all their influence to raise Joachim himself to the throne.
Joachim was not so free from ambition as not to be captivated by pro-
posals of such a kind. The moment of Brandenburg's greatness seemed
to him arrived. It was something that he should be lieutenant of the
future emperor ; his brother, legate of the pope ; the highest secular and
spiritual honours would thus be united in his house. Behind these, floated
the far more splendid vision of the imperial crown.

While however the French became thus deeply implicated with the
house of Brandenburg, they did not desist from attempts to gain over the
elector of Saxony.1 We have no accurate knowledge of the negotiations
carried on with him, but we have evidence that the French were perfectly
well informed of the disgusts the elector had latterly had to endure re-
specting the Netherlands ; and presumed that he would not be very
willing to recognize the sovereign of that province as his emperor.

During these negotiations, which awakened such lively hope, the oppo-
sition in the interests of France, so long kept down by the late emperor,
broke out in acts of open violence. Ulrich of Wiirtemberg, even on his
way home from the obsequies of Maximilian, made an attack on Reut-
lingen, where one of his stewards was killed, took the town, and, with
the aid of French money,2 collected a numerous army, with which he
thought to revenge himself on all his enemies, especially the Duke of
Bavaria. He negotiated with the Swiss, and hoped to excite them to
take up arms against the Swabian league. Somewhat later, the Bishop
of Hildesheim also put himself at the head of his troops, and, during
Passion week, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, inflicted the
most fearful devastations on the territory of his Brunswick enemies.
The Duke of Luneburg, who had also received money from France, acted
in concert with him, gained friends on all sides, and made magnificent
preparations for war. The Duke of Gueldres had promised to send him
succours, and took troops into his service.

The French endeavoured to gain over other military chiefs, as for
example, in Upper Germany, Sickingen ; in Lower, Henry of Mecklen-
burg. The latter was to bind himself to appear with his troops at Coblentz
in the territory of Treves, immediately after the election, in order to earn
the pension promised him by the king.3 French money was offered to
the Counts of the Harz, and to the nobles of Westphalia, through the
mediation of Gueldres.4

The idea of the French doubtless was, that they should best attain their
end by a union of negotiation and warlike demonstrations, — of persuasion

1 Letter from the Venetian ambassador, dated Poisy, March 28 : " Del duca
di Saxonia si confida : non vorra il re catolico."

2 Francis complained afterwards that Ulrich had declared the . sum which
he had received. See Sattler, ii. 92. A letter in Sanuto, dated April 27, 15 19.
" S. M. Xma era quello che dava danari al duca de Virtenberg.^accio ten'esse la
guerra in Germania."

3 Rudloff, Neuere Gesch. von Mecklenburg, i., p. 50.

* The Count of Schwarzburg declared, according to a letter of Nassau, of the
20th of March, in Mone (p. 136.), that a pension of 600 livres for his life had been
offered him, and that he had not accepted it.

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 181

and terror. The court already regarded the event as nearly certain. It
is said that the king's mother had ordered the jewels in which she meant to
appear at the coronation.1 The ambition of her son took a higher flight.
When the English ambassador asked him whether it was his serious in-
tention, if he became emperor, to take any active measures as to the long-
talked-of Turkish war, he solemnly assured him, laying his hand on his heart,
that in three years he would either not be alive, or be in Constantinople.2

But he was far from being so near the goal of his wishes as he and his
courtiers imagined. The attachment of Austria was not so weak in
Germany as to have lost all its force on the death of the emperor. The
electors might indeed vacillate, but they were not yet won by France.
Enemies of the House of Austria might arise, but it found friends who
adhered to it with constancy. Above all, too, that house possessed a
head determined to defend his claims, prepared to accept the challenge
of his French rival, and to sustain the combat to the last.

Some former councillors of Maximilian, Matthew Lang, Villinger,
Renner, and certain delegates from the court of the Netherlands, among
whom the most conspicuous was Maximilian of Zevenberghen, formed a
commission in Augsburg, which, under the presidency of Margaret,
watched over the interests of Austria. Able and devoted as these men
were, they sometimes took a very gloomy view of affairs and feared for
the event. At one time the thought passed through their minds, that it 5
would be better to put forward the Archduke Ferdinand, Charles's brother, !
who was just arrived in the Netherlands from Spain : they were at all
events very desirous that he should come to Germany without loss of ;
time. But they little knew their master, King Charles, if they thought
this could be agreeable to him. He was not only displeased but incensed
at it. He declared to the Archduchess Margaret, that he was absolutely
determined to have the crown himself, by whatever means it was to be
obtained, and at whatever cost : he forbade his brother's journey.3 He
who united in his person so many monarchies, felt that his ambition
would be unsatisfied till he had achieved the supreme dignity of Christen-
dom. He had long reflected not only on the -advantages likely to result
from it, but on the disadvantages he had to expect if he failed, and that
dignity was bestowed on another. He resorted without delay to every
form of canvass. To the electors he represented that his great-grand-
father, and his grandfather, the late Maximilian, when invested with the
imperial majesty, had governed the German nation long and well ; he
was resolved to tread in their footsteps, and to protect all franchises,
spiritual and temporal, particular and general ; and to abate every thing
which could be prejudicial to the liberties of Germany. He declared that
his sole object was to maintain peace throughout Christendom ; and,
after the pattern of his other grandfather, the King of Aragon, to make
war upon the unbelievers, and to reserve his whole force for the defence
and diffusion of the Catholic faith.4 From this time Ferdinand was no

1 Le Ferron, v. 118.

2 Sir Thomas Boleyn to King Henry. Ellis Letters, i. 147.

3 Margaret to Zevenberghen, May 15. " Absolument le roi est delibere de
lui-mesme parvenir a 1' empire, comment que ce soit et quoi que il luy doibve
couster."

4 Papiers d'lhat du CI. Granvelle, t. i., p. 112. . —

1 82 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 [Book II.

more thought of : the councillors reverted to their original project, — to
raise their elder lord, the King of Spain, to the station of " Prince of
princes," at whatever risk or sacrifice.

We must here examine a little in detail what were the means to which
they resorted, what the circumstances which favoured them, and what
the obstacles they encountered.

Their greatest advantage was precisely that from which their antagonist
had hoped the most ; — the connection between Francis and the Pope.

At a meeting of the Rhenish electors at Wesel, in the beginning of April,
the papal legate formally admonished them, in virtue of a prohibitory
bull of Clement IV., not to elect the King of Naples, which country, he
said, was the property of the Church of Rome. Though the negotiations
between the French and the electors were at that moment peculiarly
active, such a demand as this roused their spirit of independence. They
replied that they were astonished that the pope should endeavour to
throw a prohibition in the way of the election ; — a thing which the See
of Rome had never done ; and expressed their hope that his holiness
would desist from such an attempt. The legate answered with some
bitterness ; he reminded them of their not altogether lawful transactions
with Maximilian. A correspondence arose which betrayed great irrita-
tion, and was not much fitted to advance the cause the pope had espoused.1

The warlike movements of Francis and his allies were, if possible, yet
more advantageous to his rival ; above all, the rising of the restless
Wurtemberger. Some few of the imperial council thought to settle the
affair in good German fashion, by peaceful means ; but the more sagacious
prevented this : they foresaw with certainty on whose side the superior
strength lay, who would be victorious, and what an advantage would
result to the interests of the election : they wished for war.2 The Swabian
league, irritated by former and by recent affronts, and now strengthened
by considerable subsidies, was ready to take the' field. Franz von Sick-
ingen at length accepted a yearly pension from the house of Burgundy,
broke off all negotiations with France, and promised to come to the aid
of the league with his cavalry. It was, however, at the same time neces-
sary to restrict the struggle within these limits, to prevent a general con-
flagration, and especially to keep the Swiss from siding with Wiirtem-
berg.

Duke Ulrich had already taken 16,000 Swiss into his pay ; and it was-
to be feared that the old hostility between the Confederation and the
Swabian league might break out anew, as it had done twenty years before.
This would have been as welcome a sight to Francis as it was to his pre-
decessor Louis XII. It was all important not only that it should be
avoided, but that contrary dispositions should be excited.

The election of emperor had already been discussed in the Swiss diet.
French ambassadors had presented themselves to seek the support of the

1 Correspondence in Bucholtz, iii. 670. Acta Legationis in Goldast, Political
Imper., p. 102. This coincides with the fact of the electors demanding back
so seriously and pressingly their circular letters from Augsburg.

2 Letter from Zevenberghen, March 28. Mone. Matth. Schiner, Feb. 12 :
" Que ce Due de Wirtemberg estoit le plus grand ami du roi (Charles) — car a
cause de sa folie la grandt lighe feront de si grosses armees qui feront crainte aux
Francois et autres qui veuillent empescher son election."

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 183

Confederation : the Swiss in Paris, among them Albert von Stein, advised
their countrymen to declare for the king, were it only in order to enjoy
the credit and the favour resulting from an event which was no longer to
be averted.1 The Confederation was not, however, so decidedly French
as to follow this course. The Cardinal von Sitten, the old enemy of the
French, well skilled in all the secret ways of diplomacy, was then in Zurich,
and in the enjoyment of great consideration. In the middle of March,
Zevenberghen came from Augsburg to his aid. They had, indeed, no
easy task. Zevenberghen makes loud complaints of the bad words and
threats he was obliged to endure from the pensionaries and speakers ;
what it cost him to acknowledge " this low rabble as gentlemen, and to
pay them respect ; he would rather carry stones ;" but he bore it all :
he did among them, he said, as if at a fair — paid much, and promised
more ; at length he succeeded. The main cause of his success was,
indeed, the interests of Switzerland herself ; not only the recollection of
the Swiss blood shed in the late wars, or of the numerous claims which
still remained unsatisfied ; but above all, the consideration that France
would, by the acquisition of the imperial dignity, become too mighty,
would no longer need the assistance of the Swiss, and would consequently
trouble herself no more about them, — still less, pay their pensions. On
the 1 8th of March, the Swiss diet came to a formal resolution to oppose
the election of the French king to the imperial crown, with body and soul
(as they expressed it) ; and on the contrary to promote the election of a
German prince, whether an elector or another. In pursuance of this they
wrote to the electors, and to Francis himself ; they took the liberty to
admonish the latter to content himself with his own kingdom. The
Austrian ambassadors wished the Confederation to declare openly for
King Charles, but this they could not accomplish. " Wherever they fall,"
said Zevenberghen, " there they abide."2 Nevertheless much was
effected. The ancient union with Austria was renewed. The diet deter-
mined to recall from the field those of their people who had joined the
•duke, and with such unanimous earnestness that they should not d^re to
resist.

This decided Duke Ulrich's ruin. Zevenberghen justly gloried in
having persuaded the diet to pass such a resolution.

At the moment when letters of challenge (Fehdebriefe) poured in upon,
the duke from all sides — when even some of his own vassals renounced^
their allegiance, and the powerful troops of the league were preparing to
tfall upon his country — at that moment he was abandoned by those who
alone could have defended him. His Wiirtemberg militia did not under-
stand regular warfare ; his cavalry was no match whatever for that of the
league. The league encountered no resistance. On the 21st of April
they took Tubingen, where the duke's children were residing, and he
himself was compelled to abandon his country.

So complete a victory — deciding the conquest of a considerable princi-
pality— turned the scale in favour of the Austrian interest through the
whole of Upper Germany.

A similar change soon followed in Lower Germany. Towards the end

1 Anshelm, Chronicle of Berne, v. 375.

3 Mars 22. " La ou ils tombent, ils demeurent comme tels gens qu'ils sont,"
Gachard, 178. See Maroton to Margaret, April 10, Mone, 397,

1 84 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 [Book II.

of May the dukes of Calenberg and Wolfenbiittel had completed their
preparations, and appeared in the field with their auxiliaries from Hessen
and Meissen in undisputed superiority. They destroyed Waldenstein,
stormed Peine, and plundered the Luneburg territory. Fifty villages
were seen in flames at once on their path, nor did they spare a single
church ; they defaced the arms of their own house, the house of Guelf,
on their cousin's castle, and carried off rich booty. " They were of a
proud spirit," says a song of that day ; " they had silver and the red
gold ; they went in velvet with golden chains ; they had two thousand
chariots with them." They challenged the Duke of Luneburg in mockery
to do battle, while he was still waiting for the succour promised him from
Gueldres.

But if the French thought to attain their end by the aid of the intestine
wars of Germany, they soon found how completely they had deceived
themselves. Exactly at the decisive moment, these private wars took
a turn in favour of Austria.

Under the impressions produced by these events the plenipotentiaries
of King Charles renewed their negotiations with the electors with the
greatest diligence.

Towards the end of April a Spanish charge-d'affaires arrived, bringing
the archbishop of Mainz the assent to all his demands. Very remarkable
concessions and promises were made to him ; full power over the chancery
of the empire ; the protection of the emperor in the dispute of the arch-
bishopric with Saxony about Erfurt, and in that with Hessen about a
newly-erected toll ; the emperor's intercession with the pope that he
would allow the archbishop to hold a fourth bishopric in Germany ; and,
lastly, (for the example of France was to be followed in this) his appoint-
ment as legate of the Apostolical See in the empire. Moreover, the
pensions promised him were secured to him by special legal instruments
from Mechlin and Antwerp.1 From this time we find the archbishop, who
had vacillated for a moment, unshaken in his attachment to Austria
and doubly zealous in her cause. He threw the whole weight which
the dignity of archchancellor gave him in Germany, into the scale of
King Charles.

The elector palatine's support was secured by similar means. He had
wavered, only because the publication of his new agreement with Austria
as to the succession, and the promised compensation for the stewardship
of Hagenau were delayed ; while, on the other hand, the Swabian league
threatened to espouse the pecuniary claims urged against him by the
Rhenish merchants. The Austrian plenipotentiaries hastened to allay
these troubles ; they satisfied the demands of the merchants at their own
cost. Count Palatine Frederick, moreover, exerted all his influence with
his brother in favour of Austria, and considerable sums of money were
granted to both.2 Though the elector had said at first, that whatever
wind blew, he would always be for Austria, he had not entirely kept his
word ; but he gradually returned to his first intention, and remained
constant to it.

1 Carolus ad Albertum 12 Martii, in Gudenus, iv. 607. Jean de le Sauch
a Marguer. 29th April ; Mone, p. 403.

2 Correspondence in Mone, p. 34. See Hubert Thomas Leodius, Vita Friderici
Palatini, iv., p. 100 sq.

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 1519 185

The difficulties with Cologne were not so great. The Count of Nassau,
who conducted the negotiations in this part of the country, understood
the means of conciliating the Rhenish counts generally, and the arch-
bishop— who was by birth one of that body — in particular. The con-
cessions made to that prelate at Augsburg were now extended. We
have a letter of his, dated the 6th of June, in which he treats the affair of
the election as settled, as soon as Bohemia shall be secured.1

The King of Bohemia had indeed at first contemplated availing himself
of the engagements entered into with him by Maximilian, and had in
consequence sent his ambassadors to Italy ; but he soon saw how little
he had to expect. The pope treated his documents with the greatest
contempt, as some of the many privilegia which Maximilian had created
in order to put money into the pockets of his clerks. Upon this the
government of Bohemia resolved to support the house of Austria, with
which it was about to enter into so near a family alliance. Perhaps the
circumstance that John, brother of the Markgrave George of Brandenburg,
who had great influence at that court, was just married to the widow of
Ferdinand the Catholic and nominated Viceroy of Valencia,2 contributed
greatly to this result.

There remained, therefore, only Treves, Brandenburg, and Saxony ;
and the Austrian plenipotentiaries showed no lack of zeal in their en-
deavours to secure these important votes.

With Treves there was nothing to be done. Although the dependents
of the elector gave some hope, he himself declared he would keep his vote
free, and from this resolution no representations could induce him to
depart. If, notwithstanding this, he had entered into the close connexion
with France which we have already noticed, it must have been under
some reservation which secured to him his freedom of voting at the decisive
moment. Such, at least, was the case with Brandenburg.

On the 20th of April the plenipotentiaries of King Charles, the Count
of Nassau, M. de la Roche, and Nicholas Ziegler, who enjoyed the especial
confidence of the archbishop of Mainz, arrived at Berlin. They were
commissioned to renew to Elector Joachim all the promises which had
formerly been made to him, especially in relation to the marriage of his
son with the archduchess and infanta Catherine. They brought with
them the infanta's ratification, and placed it in the hands of a kinsman
of the elector, Markgrave Casimir. But they found Joachim little dis-
posed to listen to them. The utmost that he would promise was, that he
would vote for Charles, if the four electors who preceded him had done
so ; and even for this very unsatisfactory engagement, he made greater
demands than they were empowered to grant. Nor had he given any
promise to the King of France, but with the condition that two electors
should have voted on that side before it came to his turn ; yet that
sovereign had, in addition to various other concessions, agreed to these
exorbitant demands. According to the first proposal made by Margaret,
her ambassadors certainly gave the elector reason to hope that he would
have the lieutenancy of the empire, but I do not find whether this was
confirmed by Charles or not. The ambassadors did not accede to a sug-

1 Bucholtz, iii. 671.

2 Letter from Charles to Casimir on this subject, March 6, 1 5 19 : Spiess,
Brandenburgische Miinzbelustigungen, i., p. 389.

1 86 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 [Book II.

gestion of Joachim's as to the vicariate of the empire for the Saxon pro-
vinces ; still less would they permit him to hope for the crown, in any
case or under any condition. As this was the prospect that first allured
the elector, we need not wonder that they had no success with him.

It was the more important to obtain the vote of him whom Austria
had lately so deeply offended, and whom the councillors regarded as their
most formidable opponent — Frederick of Saxony.1 As the Bohemian
vote did not carry great weight (and indeed the last election was con-
cluded without Bohemia), the vote of Saxony was necessary to the forma-
tion of a majority that would be universally recognised. The refusal of
the elector to take part in the measures agreed on at Augsburg, which
excited great discontent in the nation when they were known, had in-
creased the already high consideration he enjoyed. Moral authority and
the consent of public opinion were attached to this vote ; every effort
must be made to secure it.

The elector himself remained inaccessible. He would hear of no pro-
mises ; he forbade his servants to receive presents, and referred all
inquiries to the day of election, when it would be seen to whom he gave
his vote ; till then he would keep it free.

But there is no position on earth so lofty or so impregnable, that it
cannot be reached by some means or other. The deputies determined to
take a step which, if successful, would certainly put an end to all the ani-

| mosities that had been accumulating between Saxony and Austria. They

j now offered the Archduchess Catherine, sister of King Charles, who had
just been the subject of their fruitless negotiations with Joachim I., to

; Duke John, brother of the elector, for his son, John Frederick, the future

1 heir to the electorate.

To this proposal Duke John replied, that the king would be able to
place his sister in a more exalted position. The ambassadors answered,
that the king only wished to renew the ancient alliance of the two houses.
They overruled the objections raised by his modesty in the most dexterous
and nattering manner, by reminding him that the sister of Emperor Fre-
derick was the grandmother of the dukes of Saxony.2

The elector took no part in these negotiations, but he allowed them to
go on. The ambassadors thought they discovered that the whole business
of the election depended on the success of them. They wrote first from
Lochau, and again on the 16th of May from Rudolstadt, to the king, in
Spain, urging him to send them full powers to conclude this treaty of
marriage as quickly as possible, if he would not have their endeavours
prove fruitless : this was ths only means of arriving at the desired end.3
This was so obvious to the king that he did not hesitate an instant. On
the 30th of May he signed the act empowering his envoys to negotiate this
marriage and every thing relating to it, in his name, and to arrange the
terms with an authority equal to his own.4 Hereupon Duke John granted
his council full powers to treat ; in the preamble to which he said that,
" bearing in mind the dignity of the crown of Spain, and the name and

1 Marnix to Margaret, March 16, traces the unfavourable disposition of
Bohemia, amongst other sources, to Saxony : Mone, p. 131.

2 Miiller, Geschichte der Protestation, p. 689.

3 Nassou et Peine, May 16, Mone, p. 406.

4 Document in Arnoldi's Denkwiirdigkeiten, p. 8.

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 187

race of the honourable house of Austria, he wished most especially to see
his son, who was also well inclined thereto, advised to a friendly marriage
with the most illustrious princess, the Lady Catherine." The Austrian
ambassadors had now only to ascertain what effect this good under-
standing with the duke was likely to have on the elector, and to act
accordingly.

At all events it is evident that they had successfully employed the
interest of the house they served.

But the affair was not decided thus.

Austria had now unquestionably a majority of declared friends in the
electoral college ; but the French, too, could reckon on more than one
partisan, and did not relinquish the hope of gaining over one or two of
the others. They had just made a vehement, and, as they believed,
successful attempt on the elector of Cologne : they thought that even
if they had only three votes, the pope would declare the election valid ;
and his legate, at least, adhered firmly to their side up to the middle of
June.

Austria was indeed victorious, and remained with arms in her hands ;
but the partisans of France in Lower Germany were by no means crushed.
We find traces of very extensive and unexpected plans ; e.g., an original
document, in which Francis promises to pay whatever troops the electors
of Treves and Brandenburg should levy in Germany, under the extra-
ordinary pretext that they were to maintain the peace of the country and
the freedom of the roads for the meeting in Frankfurt. The Duke of
Gueldres was already up in arms again. The French troops did not yet
advance upon the German frontier, but they were prepared to do so.1

The two powers vied with each other in prodigal expenditure of money.
It was a peculiar advantage on the side of Austria that the great mer-
cantile house of Fugger, which conducted nearly the whole monetary
business of Germany, refused its services to the French.2 Admiral
Bonnivet had, however, brought large sums in hard money to Germany,
which many might think better than any bills of exchange what-
soever.

Had the event depended exclusively on pecuniary interests, its decision
would have remained very doubtful.

But considerations of a totally different nature evidently had weight.

We must do the princes of Germany in old times the justice to admit
that, spite of the many scandalous transactions they engaged in, the
interests of the nation always prevailed at last.

To uphold the ancient privileges of the empire against all attacks or |
encroachments of the See of Rome, was the motive which led the Rhenish j
electors to reject the proposals and arguments of the legate.

But was not Francis also a foreigner ? Could the electoral college s
venture so lightly to alienate from the nation that imperial crown which, ,
at every diet, they solemnly promised to maintain ? There were those

1 Letter from France, May 26. " In Franza non e alcun motivo di arme, ma
ben la zente preparata."

2 Letter from Zevenberghen ; Mone, p. 36. In the Netherlands Margaret
forbade business relating to French bills of exchange to be transacted. Ibid.,
p. 293. But we find the imperial agents not always on a good understanding
with the Fuggers. The Welsers seem to have done business on lower terms.

1 88 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 [Book II.

who did not fail to remark that Francis was an absolute monarch, accus-
tomed to implicit obedience and possessed of great power, under whose
sceptre the maintenance of German liberties could hardly be expected.
The violent acts of his partisans were not calculated to make quiet patriots
his friends.

On the other hand, the young King of Spain was without question a
German. He reminded the German princes that the true stem and the
first blossom of his nobility were from Austria : were he not a German,
had he not land and lordships in Germany, he would withdraw from the
contest.

How profound an effect was produced by this difference in the preten-
sions of the rivals, is distinctly shown by a remark of the papal delegates.
They say, everyone will, in the end, deem it infamous to receive
money from France ; but to take it from King Charles, is thought
nothing of.

Public opinion had also already declared itself on the matter. The
electors had it in their power to choose one of their own body, — a German
prince. Had they chosen the King of France, taking money too for their
votes, the result might have been dangerous to themselves

All these things were gradually so distinctly felt, that, by the middle
of June, Charles's superiority was decided, and no further doubt was
entertained of the event.

Henry VIII. of England for a moment cherished the hope of placing
the crown on his own head, during the contest of the other two sove-
reigns ; but his ambassador acted with great discretion and reserve.
He looked at the affair like a man of business, and, on calculation, he
found this crown too dear a purchase for its value and utility.1 A
letter of his, of the 12th of June, shows that he had then given up all
hope.

At this conjuncture Carracciolo, one of the pope's charges-d'affaires,
caused himself to be carried, ill as he was, to the archbishop of Mainz, in
order that he might once more recommend to that prelate the interests
of the church and of the King of France. The archbishop answered, that
he took upon his own head the affairs of the church, but that he would
have nothing to do with the King of France. The envoy asked upon
whom the choice of the electors would fall ? The cardinal said, on the
King of Spain ; and if not upon him, then upon the Elector of Saxony.
The envoy was perfectly astonished that the cardinal, notwithstanding
such repeated misunderstandings, still preferred the Elector of Saxony
to the King of France.2 These words perhaps decided the conduct of
the Roman see. When Pope Leo found what the dispositions of Germany
were, he was heard to exclaim, that it would not do to run one's head
against the wall; an expression characteristic of his policy, which was
always that of giving way before an obstinate resistance. After having
so long held out, he at length yielded (June 24th), and announced
to the electors his assent to the election of the King of Spain and
Naples.

When the electors assembled in Frankfurt there was not the smallest

1 Richard Pace ; Ellis, i. 156. See Herbert, Life of Henry VIII., p. 74.

2 " Lz esso Moguntino habbi gran inimicitia con Saxonia, lo vol avanti che il
re christianissimo."

Chap. II.] ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 1519 189

hope left for Francis : the only remaining obstacle to Charles's success
was the wish which had existed among them, of having a native of the
soil of Germany for their emperor.1 The elector Joachim, who now put
forward urgent claims,2 was thought of ; but his own relations, above all
his brother of Mainz, were against him : they found that the maintenance
of the imperial dignity would necessitate exertions and expenses which
would consume the resources of the Mark, and those of their whole family ;
they knew, too, that the princes of the empire would not choose a head
of so harsh, severe and self-willed a character. Joachim would never
have conciliated a sufficient number of voices. A far more formidable
rival existed in the person of Frederick of Saxony, on whom the eyes of
the assembly were now turned. Richard of Treves went to him once by
night, and offered to take a part of the labour of the canvass on himself.
His own hopes being utterly at an end, the King of France determined
to use his influence in favour of Frederick. Considering the conduct of
that prince in the Lutheran affairs, and the national tendencies with
which these affairs were connected, this certainly opened one of the
grandest prospects for the destiny of Germany. The electors were, on
the whole, well disposed towards the measure ; indeed it was afterwards
said, in the way of reproach, that if there had been one among them
" capable of sustaining the empire," he would have been chosen. Had
Frederick only been inspired by a more daring ambition ! Had he not
been of so cautious a nature, rendered still less enterprising by age !
But he had too long and too profound an acquaintance with the history
of the empire, not to know that a vast preponderance of power was neces-
sary to hold together in union and subordination these haughty, energetic
princes and states, all striving for independence.

Although his resolution was taken, he once asked his follower, Philip
of Solms, his opinion. Philip replied, that he feared his lord would not
be able to use his power of punishing with due severity. Frederick
answered, that he was of the same opinion ; and declined the proffered
support.3 The time was come, too, when no more reserves could be
maintained : he declared himself openly for King Charles. This declara-
tion decided those who had till then been wavering.

On the 28th of June, the tocsin was sounded, according to ancient
custom, and the electors assembled, clad in their scarlet robes of state,
in the small dark chapel in the choir of the church of St. Bartholomew,
which served them as conclave. They were already unanimous. Mainz
addressed himself first, according to ancient precedent, to Treves, who
replied that he voted for the Archduke Charles of Austria, Prince of

1 The Italians, for instance, could not at all comprehend why such a one was
not chosen. " Li electori " says Lippomano, the Venetian ambassador at Rome,
" saranno pazzi a non si far uno di loro." On this ground they willingly believed
that the Elector of Brandenburg would be chosen. " Scrive il CI. Sedunese, sara
il Brandenburg, 5 Giugno." Hereon rests also Vettori's opinion, that Leo had
never wished to give his support to the king, in whose behalf, however, he had
expressed himself far too decisively.

2 According to a letter from the admiral, of the 17th or 18th of June, " II Tre-
verese havea rimosso il Marchese di Brandenburg qual volea esser electo lui ;"
but he concluded thence, that the king had fresh hope.

8 Extract from Lucas Geierberg, Leben Philipsen, Grafen von Solms, after the
preface to Gobel's Beitragen zur Staatsgeschichte von Europa, p. 19.

190 ELECTION OF EMPEROR IN 15 19 [Book II.

Burgundy, King of Spain. So said they all ; the King of France had not
a vote.1

The electors were however mindful, in choosing so puissant a prince,
immediately to take measures for securing the rights of the empire.
They laid before the elected King of the Romans a rigorous capitulation,
constructed on the principles which had been established during the last
negotiations with Maximilian.2 In this it was decided that the public
offices should be filled exclusively by Germans, the public proceedings
carried 00 exclusively in the German language, and the assemblies of the
empire invariably held within the frontiers of the German nation. Nor
did the electors forget their own privileges. They stipulated that they
were to have seats in the Council of Regency ; that no war was to b e
declared, no alliance concluded, no diet convoked — it is hardly necessary
to add, no tax imposed — without their consent ; whatever was acquired
by the counsel and aid of the States in war, should remain for ever the
property of the empire.3

And here another reflection suggests itself. The princes, it is true,
elected a puissant monarch as their chief. But it may be asked, was
not his position, which rendered inevitable his frequent absence, favour-
able to the development of their own power ?

Under a prince like this, who had to govern so many countries, to
provide against so many wars, they could most easily obtain that repre-
sentative constitution, that share in the government of the empire, which
it had been the constant object of their endeavours to acquire under
Maximilian.

How strange a mixture of the most heterogeneous motives combined
to bring about the election of Charles V. ! Pecuniary bribes (it is not to
be denied) to a large amount, both to the princes, among whom were
even Treves and Duke John of Saxony, and to their dependents and
Icouncillors ; the concession of new privileges ; family alliances, near or
[remote, which either already existed, or were now concluded, or con-
jtracted for the future : on the other hand, some degree of dread of the
I army of the Swabian league which was still in the field and in the pay of
Austria ;4 and, lastly, antipathy to the stranger, in spite of his still more
profuse offers of money ; attachment to the house which had already
given several emperors to Germany and which enjoyed traditional respect ;
the dangers atetnding every other course ; the expectation of good results
from that pursued ; — in short, a mixture of purely personal considerations
and of sincere regard for the public weal ! Among the various influences
which determined the event, we must not omit to add that of luck. On
the very day, nay the very hour, of election, an event took place in Lower
Saxony, which, had it occurred earlier, might easily have rendered the
issue once more doubtful, and have revived the hopes of the French party.

1 Protocollum Electionis in Goldast's Polit. Reichshandeln, p. 41. The
speeches said to have been delivered on this occasion are fictitious. See Ranke,
Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber, p. 62.

2 Revers in Bucholtz, iii. 668.

3 Capitulation, amongst others, in Dumont, iv. 7. Unfortunately I have not
been able to examine the documents.

Richard Pace to Cardinal Wolsey, i. 157. " Suerly they wold nott have
electidde him yff fere of these persons hadde not dryven them thereunto, "

Chap. II.] BEGINNING OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT 191

The cavalry of Gueldres had at length joined Duke Henry of Liine-
burg, who had set out without delay to seek in the field the plunder-
laden army of his cousins. He came up with this near Soltau on the
Haide, and began the attack without waiting for his infantry. His
strength lay in his cavalry, which rushed up to the enemy's artillery and
took it, then broke the lines of the infantry, partly mercenaries, who took
to flight and threw their arms into the sand : animated by this success,
the conquering troop then made a violent attack on the squadron of
Calenberg horse. Here they met with a gallant resistance ; Duke Eric
of Calenberg, distinguishable by his white plume, forced his way into
their ranks ; but, in spite of his bravery, the Liineburgers overpowered
him by their numbers, and gained a complete victory. Eric himself, his
brother William, and a hundred and twenty knights, were made prisoners
by the partisans of the King of France.1

But since, as we have observed, the election of the emperor was con-
cluded on the same day, this victory was utterly fruitless. The victors
were now compelled to avoid all connexion with France, while the van-
quished found favour and assistance from the commissioners of Charles V.
at Augsburg. In October, Henry the Younger of Wolfenbiittel took up
arms anew, aided, as it was believed, by money from Augsburg, and
committed devastations in Hildesheim, estimated at a hundred and fifty
thousand gulden ; and it was with difficulty that he could be induced
by the neighbouring princes to grant a truce. He would agree to no
definitive terms proposed by the mediators. He quitted Zerbst, where
they were assembled, by night, without bidding them farewell, and only
leaving word that he must reserve the matter for the decision of his
imperial majesty (May, 1520). If France had defended the Liineburgers,
Austria and her fortunes now lent more powerful support to their adver-
saries.

The affairs of Upper Germany at the same moment took a still more
decisive turn in the same direction. Wiirtemberg passed entirely into
Austrian hands.

The cause of this was that Duke Ulrich, in this unexpected attack in
August, had driven out the government of the league, taken the country
again into his own possession, and was only expelled from it by renewed
efforts of that body.2 This conquest was now burdensome to the con-
querors : the expenses of the former war, for which they earnestly desired
some compensation, were now, on the contrary, increased by new ones.
The members of the league, therefore, joyfully accepted the emperor's
proposition to take into his charge and custody the country, together
with the duke's children ; and, in consideration of this concession, he
promised to accede to the demands of the States.3 In February, 1520,
the imperial commissioners took the administration into their own hands ;
and by confirming the treaty of Tubingen, which Ulrich at his return had
been imprudent enough to revoke, they secured a considerable party in
the country.

1 Chytraus, Saxonia, lib. viii., p. 207. Carmen prolixius, in Leibnitz, Scrip-
tores Rer. Brunsv. iii. 257.

2 Stumphart, Chronica gwaltiger Verjagung Herzog Ulrichs (Chronicle of the
forcible Expulsion of Duke Ulrich) : Sattler, Herzoge, ii., Appendices, p. 43.

3 Gwalt K, Karis V. auf seine Commissarien, ibid., p. 79.

192 BEGINNING OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT [Book II.

This first act of Charles's government wore a very arbitrary aspect.
| For it was utterly unheard of that, as the Swiss expressed it, "a prince
j of the Holy Empire should be driven from his illustrious house, contrary
; to all law, and forcibly despoiled of the principality which was his by
i paternal inheritance and right." But the commissioners regarded the
election as a triumph of the Austrian party, and were only anxious to
turn it to their own advantage.

This had not been the intention of the electors, — least of all that of
Frederick of Saxony ; on the contrary, they had immediately considered
how to introduce a uniform representative government, to convoke an
imperial diet, and to appoint a Council of Regency. The court of Spain
appeared to approve cordially of these measures ; a proclamation arrived,
in which Elector Frederick was nominated lieu tenant (Statthalter) of the
Regency, and was also intreated to give his good counsel in public affairs.
But the commissioners did not think fit to convoke a diet, still less to
nominate a Council of Regency. They carefully avoided consulting the
elector, and kept the diploma of his nomination to themselves. They
were as fully determined now, as under Maximilian, to resist all inter-
ference on the part of the States ; they chose to retain the whole of the
public business in their own hands.

This ought to excite no wonder. These imperial functionaries remained
firmly attached to those views which had become current under Maxi-
milian, and regarded the new government as a mere continuation of the
old.

It therefore became a matter of double solicitude to ascertain in what
light the young prince, on his arrival in Germany, and those around him,
would regard affairs, or in what spirit he would undertake their manage-
ment. His commanding station and wide sovereignty naturally led
people to expect views proportionately grand and elevated ; and such
indeed were displayed in all his letters. He wrote to Elector Frederick
that he should find that he had given his vote to the most grateful of
princes ; that he would shortly appear in person, hold a diet, and order
the affairs of the empire with the counsel and approbation of his well-
beloved, the Elector ; " for," said he, " we esteem marvellously the
designs, the counsel, and the wisdom of thy rule."1

Before, however, Charles could arrive, the religious affairs of Germany
had assumed a character which rendered the question, what course he
would embrace, no less important to the church than to the empire.

CHAPTER III
First Defection from the Papacy, 1519-20.

cajetan and miltitz.
During the interval we have been treating of, it had more than once
appeared probable that the Lutheran controversy would be brought to a
peaceful termination ; to this both sides were inclined.

1 Instruction to Hieronymus Brunner, Barcelona, Sept. 25, 15 19, in a register
in the Weimar archives, which lays open the whole of the circumstances,

Chap. III.] CAJETAN 193

During the diet at Augsburg, Elector Frederick prevailed on himself
to pay a visit to the papal legate, and to invite his mediation. I
do not find that the latter had any special commission from Rome
to this effect, but his general powers gave him full liberty to accept
such an office. He promised the elector to listen to the monk when-
ever he should appear before him, and to dismiss him with paternal
kindness.1

The business of the meeting was already ended, when Luther, well
pleased at not being obliged to go to Rome, set out to present himself
before the cardinal. He travelled indeed in a most lowly guise ; the cowl
he wore was borrowed, and he wandered on, craving hospitality from
convent to convent, ill, and sometimes exhausted even to fainting.2 He
often said afterwards, that if the cardinal had treated him kindly, he
might easily have induced him to keep silence. When he came into his
presence he fell down at his feet.

Unhappily, however, this legate, Thomas de Vio of Gaeta (Cajetan),
was not only a representative of the Curia, but a most zealous Thomist.
His mother, it is said, dreamt when she was with child of him, that she
saw St. Thomas in person teaching him, and afterwards bearing him to
heaven.3 In his sixteenth year, in spite of the great reluctance of his
family, he was not to be withheld from entering a Dominican convent,
where laying aside his original name of James, he took that of his saint,
and exerted all his powers thoroughly to imbue his mind with the doc-
trines of St. Thomas, whom he esteemed the most perfect theologian that
ever existed. He undertook to defend his great work, the Summa, step
by step, against the objections of the Scotists.4

Luther, therefore, was already extremely odious to him as a nominalist,
as an impugner of the theological despotism of St. Thomas, and as leader
of an active opposition party in a newly-created university. At first he
replied to Luther's humility with the official fatherly condescension of a
spiritual superior. But the natural antagonism between them soon broke
out. The cardinal was not disposed to be satisfied with mere silence, nor
would he permit the matter to come to a disputation, as Luther proposed ;
he thought he had demonstrated the monk's error to him in a few words,
and demanded a recantation. This awakened in Luther a feeling of that
complete contrariety of opinions and systems, which acknowledges no
subordination, whether spiritual or temporal. It appeared to him that
the cardinal did not even understand his idea of faith, far less confute
it : a conversation arose in which Luther displayed more reading, more
distinctness and depth of view, than ' the legate had given him credit
for ; speculations of so extraordinary a kind had never come before him ;
the deep-set glittering eyes, fixed upon his, inspired him with a sort of

1 Frederick's letter to Cajetan (Loscher, ii. 543): " Persuaseramus nobis,
vestram pietatem audito Martino secundum vestram multiplicem promissionem
eum paterne et benevole dimissuram esse." See Luther, wider Hans Worst
Altenb. vii. 462. Letter to Lang in de Wette, i. 141.

2 Luther to Spalatin, Oct. 10, 1518, in de W. 142.

3 So says the Biography in Roccaberti, Bibl. Max. t. xix., p. 443.

4 " Divi Thomae Summa cum commentariis Thomae de Vio, Lugduni, 1587.
Praefatio : " Inter theologos quem. divo Thomae Aquinati praeferre ausis, invenies
neminem."

13

194 CAJETAN [Book It

horror ; at length he exclaimed that Luther must either recant or never
venture into his sight again.1

It was the dominican system which here, clad in purple, repulsed its
antagonist. Luther, though furnished with a safe-conduct from the
emperor, thought himself no longer secure from violence ; he drew up an
appeal to the pope, praying him to inquire into the matter, and took to
flight. His going corresponded with his coming. Escaping through a
secret gate which his Augsburg friends opened for him by night, mounted
on a horse procured for him by his provincial, Staupitz, habited in his
cowl, and without any proper riding garments, he rode, accompanied by
a mounted guide, eight long German miles the first day ; on alighting, he
fell half dead from fatigue by the side of his horse on the straw. But he
was happily out of the immediate jurisdiction of the legate.

Cajetan's accusations soon followed him to Saxony. He conjured the
elector not to stain the glory of his house for the sake of an heretical friar ;
if he did not choose to send him to Rome, at least to get rid of him out of
his country ; he declared that Rome would never suffer this affair to
drop. But he could no longer produce any impression ; his indiscreet
and violent conduct had robbed him of all credit with Frederick. The
university wrote to their prince that they knew no otherwise than that
Luther showed all due reverence for the church, and even for the pope ;
were there wickedness in the man, they would be the first to notice it.
This corporation was irritated that the legate should treat one of its
members as a heretic, before any sentence had been pronounced.2 Thus
seconded, Frederick replied to the legate, that it had not yet been shown
by any of the numerous learned men in his own states, or those contiguous,
that Luther was a heretic ; and refused to banish him.3

Luther however did not conceal from himself that the sentence pro-
nounced by Rome might very probably be unfavourable to him. He
hastened to secure himself against this as far as possible by a fresh appeal
to the general council which was just about to be called.

But the conduct of the cardinal did not obtain the approbation of
Rome. That court was not disposed to alienate so considerable and
respected a sovereign as Frederick, who had just acquired twofold weight
by his conduct at the election, and with whom it had probably rested to
raise the King of France to the imperial throne, as the pope had desired.
Leo therefore now made an attempt to bring the discussion concerning
Luther to an amicable conclusion. He determined to send the elector
the golden rose, a mark of the apostolical favour, for which that prince
had always been very anxious. In order to draw the loosened ties closer
between them, he likewise despatched a native of Saxony, and agent of
the elector at Rome, to him as nuncio.

Karl von Miltitz unquestionably showed great address in the manner
in which he set about the affair.

1 Luther's report in the Acta Augustana, his letters, the addresses of the
legate, finally a letter from Staupitz, in Grimm (passim, p. 123), give sufficient
information about this interview. It is to be regretted that the account sent by
the legate to Rome has never come to light.

2 With regard to the brief in which mention is made of a sentence already passed
(in Loscher, ii. 438), I think I have shown in an Excursus, that it is not genuine.

? Correspondence in Loscher, 537-542.

Chap. III.] MlLTlTZ 195

On his arrival in Germany he abstained from visiting the legate, who
indeed had lost all influence, and now showed a sullen resentment against
the elector ; even on the journey, Miltitz contracted an intimacy with
one of Frederick's privy councillors, Degenhard Pfefnnger. He did not
scruple among friends, over the convivial table, or even in inns and
taverns, to join in the complaints which were made in Germany of the
Curia, and of the abuses of the church ; nay, to confirm them by anec-
dotes of what he had himself witnessed. But he assured his hearers that
he knew the pope, and had influence with him, and that Leo did not
approve these things. He pronounced the most entire and distinct dis-
approbation of the scandalous proceedings of the vendors of indulgences ;
and in short the reputation which preceded him was such that Tetzel did
not dare to present himself before him.1

On the other hand, the prince, towards whom he maintained the de-
meanour of a subject and servant, and Luther himself, whom he treated
very indulgently, conceived great confidence in him. Without much
trouble, he succeeded in bringing about that degree of approximation
between himself and the anti-dominican party, which was absolutely
necessary to the success of his negotiation.

On the 3rd January, 15 19, he had an interview with Luther at Alten-
burg. The nuncio represented to the monk the evils which arose from his
vehemence, and the great breach which he would thus make in the church :
he implored him with tears to lay these things to heart. Luther promised
to remedy, by a public explanation of his doctrine, whatever mischief he
might have done. On the other hand, the nuncio gave up the idea of
bringing Luther to a recantation. They came to an agreement that the
matter should be referred to a German bishop, and that, meanwhile, both
parties should be bound to observe silence.2 So, thought Luther, the
controversy would die away. They embraced and parted.

The explanation which Luther soon after published, in consequence of
this conversation, is very remarkable. He touches on all the contro-
verted points of the moment. Without abandoning the free attitude he
had assumed, he shows that he considers himself as still within the pale
of the Roman church ; for example, he maintains that the saints ought
to be invoked for spiritual, rather than for temporal gifts, but he does
not deny that God works miracles at their graves ; he still admits the
doctrine of purgatory, and of indulgences in a certain sense ; he wishes
for some relaxation of the commandments of the church, but is of opinion
that this could only be granted by an ecclesiastical council ; although he
ascribes salvation to the fear of God and the state of the thoughts and
intentions, he does not entirely reject good works. It is evident that on
every point he insists on inward, rather than outward influences and
merits ; but he does so with great moderation, and endeavours to main-
tain external observances. In the same spirit he speaks of the church.
He sees her essence in " inward unity and love "; but he does not reject
her constitution ; he acknowledges the supremacy of the church of Rome,
" where St. Peter and St. Paul, forty-six popes, and hundreds of thou-

1 His letter of apology, subscribed " Brother Tetzel, on the last day of Dec,
'S1^" (*'•*■ 1518), in Walch, xv., p. 860. The rest of Miltitz's Correspondence,
first published by Cyprian, is also to be found in Walch.

2 " In ir selbs vorgehn." — Luther to the Electors, in De Wette, i. 218.

13—2

196 M1LT1TZ [Book II.

sands of martyrs, poured out their blood, and overcame hell and the
world " : no sin that can be committed in her can justify us in separating
ourselves from her, or in resisting the commands of the pope.

With this explanation the ecclesiastical authority might for the moment
be content— and indeed was forced to be content. For, if Elector Frederick
chose to accept it, there was no other power that could be turned against
Luther : so great was the interest which the nation already took in his
cause ; so strong the aversion which repelled all interference of the court
of Rome.

In the early months of the year 1519, when the demands of the last diet
in behoof of the Turkish war were made to the several States in all parts
of Germany, the doubts expressed in that assembly as to the reality of
the intention which served as pretext were now repeated in various circles,
and were more and more widely diffused ; all the well-founded complaints
which had there been more distinctly stated than ever, were now the
topic of discourse through the whole nation.

Moreover, the interest which the papal legate had evinced in the views
of Francis I. on the imperial crown, excited great disgust. It is a fact
well worth notice, that the whole Austrian party thus naturally fell into
a state of hostility to the Roman see. At the court of its leader, the
Elector of Mainz, there appeared satires in which the pompous inanity of
the legate, his personal peculiarities and the oppressive nature of his
office, were ridiculed in the bitterest manner. In the spring of 1519,2 it
was with difficulty that he could find a boatman in Mainz who would
consent to take him down the river to Niederwesel, where the Rhenish
electors held a meeting : he was once told that he must renounce all his
French schemes if he wished to get home in a whole skin.3

This universal unpopularity compelled the court of Rome to observe a
discreet reserve, to which its interest in the election contributed, and
thus it happened that Rome once more tried by every means in its power
to be upon a footing of amity with Elector Frederick. Another plenipo-
tentiary of the Curia besides Miltitz appeared in Saxony. The legate,
although with obvious ill will, was at length prevailed upon to deliver to
the elector the golden rose which had been entrusted to him, and which
he had till now withheld. The prospect of putting an end to the con-
troversy in Germany was desirable and commodious even to him. The
Archbishop of Treves was selected as judge.4

ARRIVAL OF MELANCHTHON.

The state of suspended controversy and preliminary calm that now arose
was peculiarly advantageous to the university of Wittenberg. There was
a general sentiment of an undertaking successfully begun, increasing in
force of opposition, but yet not obnoxious to the condemnation of the

1 D. M. L. Unterricht auf etliche Artikel so ihm von seinen Abgonnern aufgelegt
worden : Walch, xv. 812.

2 Hutten's Febris Prima (op. iii. 109) belongs to this period.
s Letter to Zurich in Anshelm, Berne Chronik, v. 373.

4 Miltitz to the Electors : Walch, xv. 879 : he had seen the legate at Coblentz.
The instruction to Miltitz, 1. 1., must likewise be assigned to the month of May, as
it refers to his journey into Saxony, which he mentions in his letter, dated WedneSr
day after Misericordia, May 1 1 ,

Chap. III.] MELANCHTHON 197

church. The members of the university had time to carry forward the
proper studies of the place in the spirit that had from the first presided
over them. The most eminent teachers still held the same opinions on
the main question. Besides this, in the summer of 1518, they had ac-
quired a youthful assistant, whose labours from the first moment gave
new life to their whole proceedings.

Philip Schwarzerd, surnamed Melanchthon, was, in the truest and most
perfect sense, a disciple of Reuchlin. Reuchlin was one of his nearest
relations, and had directed his education : the young man followed the
precepts and the example of his master with intelligent docility ; the
native powers which well-conducted studies never fail to develop, the
sympathy he received from his fellow-students, and above all, a match-
less capacity, certain, from the first, of its vocation, led him rapidly for-
wards. In his 17th or 18th year he had already begun to teach in
Tubingen, and had published two or three little books on grammatical
subjects.1

But the mind of the pupil, like that of the master, was not satisfied with
philological studies. He attended lectures in all faculties ; for the
sciences were not as yet cultivated in such detail or in so special a manner,
as to render that impossible ; they could still furnish nutriment to a large
and liberal curiosity. Melanchthon felt peculiarly attracted towards the
study of philosophy, in comparison with which all his other pursuits
appeared to him mere waste of time. But the rigid, stationary spirit of
the old universities still reigned in Tubingen ; and while his whole intel-
lectual powers were stretching forward to unknown regions, his instructors
sought to bind him down to a lifeless routine.

A circumstance, however, occurred which decided both his outward
destiny and the direction of his mind. In the spring of 15 18, Elector
Frederick applied to Reuchlin to send him a teacher of the Greek language
for his university. Without a moment's hesitation, Reuchlin recom-
mended " his kinsman and friend," whom he himself had instructed.2
This might be regarded as involving Melanchthon's decision ; for between
master and disciple there was that noble relation which exists between a
youth who beholds the world in the imperfect light shed over distant
objects, and the admitted superiority of a matured judgment. " Whither
thou wilt send me," writes Melanchthon to Reuchlin, " there will I go ;
what thou wilt make of me, that will I become." " Gel thee out," an-
swered Reuchlin, " from thy country and from thy kindred." With the
words once addressed to Abraham, he blessed him and bade him
depart.

In August, 1 5 18, Melanchthon came to Wittenberg. His first deter-
mination was, as he says, to devote himself entirely to the university, and
to raise its fame in the classical studies which had as yet been cultivated
with little success. With the high spirits of youth he reckoned up the
labours he had before him, and hastened to enter upon them.3 Before
September was over, he dedicated to the elector the translation of one of

1 Schnurrer de Phil. Melanchthonis rebus Tubingensibus : Orationes Academ.
ed. Paulus, p. 52. Praefatio in primam editionem operum. Bretschneiders
Corpus Reformatorum, iv. 715.

2 Correspondence in the Corp. Ref. i. 28.

8 To Spalatin, Sept., 1518, Corp. Ref. i. 43.

198 MELANCHTHON [Book; II.

Lucian's works ; in October he printed the Epistle to Titus and a little
dictionary; in November he wrote the preface to a Hebrew Grammar.
He immediately undertook a more elaborate work, — his Rhetoric, which
appeared in three books, in January, 1 5 19. In February followed another
discourse ; in March and April editions of several of Plutarch's writings,
with a preface — all during an equally varied and laborious course of teach-
ing ; for the youthful stranger undertook to give instructions in Hebrew
as well as Greek.1

Yet these immediate occupations led neither to the scope, nor to the
results, of his laborious studies.

It was an important circumstance that a perfect master of Greek arose
at this moment at a university, where the development of the Latin
theology already led to a return to the first genuine documents of primi-
tive Christianity. Luther now began to pursue this study with earnest-
ness. His mind was relieved, and his confidence strengthened, when the
sense of a Greek phrase threw a sudden light on his theological ideas ;
when, for example, he learned that the idea of repentance (pcenitentia),
which, according to the language of the Latin church, signified expiation
or satisfaction, in the original conception of the Founder and the apostles
of Christianity signified nothing but a change in the state of mind :2 it
seemed as if a mist was suddenly withdrawn from before his eyes.

It was also of inestimable value to Melanchthon that he could here
devote himself to subjects which filled his whole soul, and that he now
found the substance of those forms to which his attention had hitherto
been principally directed. He embraced with enthusiasm the theological
views of Luther, and above all, his profound exposition of the doctrine of
justification. But he was not formed to receive these opinions passively.
He was one of those extraordinary spirits, appearing at rare intervals,
who attain to the full possession and use of their powers at an early period
of life. He was now but just twenty-one. With the precision which
solid philological studies seldom fail to impart, — with the nice instinct
natural to the frame of his mind, he seized the theological element which
was offered to his grasp.

The somewhat unfavourable impression which the youthful and unpre-
tending appearance of the new comer had at first made, was quickly
effaced. The scholars caught the infection of their teacher's zeal. " They
are as industrious as ants at the university," says Luther. Reforms in
the method of instruction were proposed. With the approbation of the
court, lectures were discontinued which had no value but for the scholastic
system, and others were instituted, founded on classical studies ; the
conditions upon which academical degrees were granted were rendered
less severe. These measures unquestionably tended to place Wittenberg
in stronger contrast to the other universities ; new views and ideas were
introduced. Luther's letters show the ferment that was going on within
him, but they equally show that neither he nor those associated with him
were conscious of being involved in a general struggle with the church of
Rome. We saw how carefully Luther kept within the bounds prescribed

1 Luther to Spalatin, Jan. 25, in De Wette, i. 214. Upon these two correspon-
dences, as may be imagined, my whole narrative is founded.

2 fier&voia..

Chap. III.] DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG 199

by the church ; and Melanchthon, in one of his prefaces, extols the services
rendered by his sovereign to monasteries.1 This, as well as the conduct
pursued by Miltitz, and finally also by the legate, shows that every thing
wore a peaceful aspect.

But at this very moment, when external peace at least was restored,
and when, though vehement struggles were to be anticipated from differ-
ences of opinion and of education, it was possible they might be confined
within the region of school learning, there arose a contest touching those
important doctrines whereon the Church and the State are founded, and
lighting up that war which has never since been extinguished. It must
be admitted that Luther was not the person who caused its outbreak.

DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG.

During the diet of 1518, Eck had appeared in Augsburg, dissatisfied that
his polemical writings had as yet procured him neither emolument nor
honour :2 he had called on Luther, and had agreed with him, in a per-
fectly amicable manner, publicly to fight out an old controversy which
he had with Dr. Carls tadt in Wittenberg, concerning grace and free will.
Luther had readily offered his mediation, in order, as he says, to give the
lie to the opinion that theologians cannot differ without hostility. Carl-
stadt consented to dispute with Eck in Erfurt or Leipzig ; upon which
Eck immediately published a prospectus of the disputation, and made it
known as widely as possible.

Luther's astonishment was extreme when he saw in this prospectus
certain opinions announced as the subject of the debate, of which he was
far more the champion than Carlstadt. He held this for an act of faith'
lessness and duplicity which he was called upon openly to resist ; the
agreement he had just concluded with Miltitz seemed to him broken ; he
was determined to take up the gauntlet.3

It was of vast importance that Eck had annexed to the dogmatic con-
troversy, a proposition as to the origin of the prerogatives of the papacy.
At a moment when anti-papal opinions were so decidedly triumphant
throughout the nation, he had the clumsy servility to stir a "question,
always of very difficult and dubious solution, yet from which the whole
system of the Church and State depended, and, when once agitated,
certain to occupy universal attention : he ventured to irritate an adversary
who knew no reservations, who was accustomed to defend his opinions to
the utmost, and who had already the voice of the nation on his side. In
reference to a former assertion of Luther's, which had attracted little
attention, Eck propounded the maxim, that the primicy of the Pope of
Rome was derived from Christ himself, and from the times of St. Peter ;
not, as his opponent had hinted, from those of Constantine and Sylvester.
The consequences of this gross imprudence were soon apparent. Luther,
who now began to study the original documents of the papal law — the
decretals, and had often in the course of this study felt his Christian con-
victions wounded, answered with a much bolder assertion, namely, that
the primacy of Rome had been first established by the decretals of the

' Dedication of Lucian in Calumniam. C.R. i. 47.

2 Bartholini Commentarius de comitiis Augustanis, p. 645.

3 Luther's letters to Sylvius, Feb. 3 ; Spalatin, Feb, 7 ; Lang, April 13.

200 DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG [Book II.

later popes in the last four centuries (he meant, perhaps, since Gregory
VII.), and that the primitive church knew nothing of it.1

It is not surprising that the ecclesiastical authorities in Saxony, (for
example, the bishop of Merseburg) and even the theologians of the uni-
versity, were not much pleased that a disputation of the kind at last
agreed upon between the parties, should be held in Leipzig. Even the
elector hesitated for a moment whether he should allow Luther to go.
But, as he had the firmest conviction that hidden truth would best"be
brought to light in this manner, he at length determined that it should
take place, and endeavoured to obviate every objection that stood in its
way. It was settled that, together with various other important points
of doctrine on the mysteries of faith, the question, whether the papacy
was established by God, or whether it was instituted by man, and con-
sequently might be abolished by man (for that is in fact the point at issue
in the two doctrines), was to be argued in a public disputation, at a great
university, in the face of all Germany ; that this question, the very one
in which all political and ecclesiastical interests met as in a point, was to
be thus discussed in a period of ferment and of ardent innovation.

At the very moment when the electors assembled at Frankfurt to choose
an emperor, (June, 15 19,) the theologians met to perform an act of no less
importance.

Eck arrived first from Ingolstadt. Johann Mayr von Eck was un-
questionably one of the most eminent scholars of his time — a reputation
which he had spared no pains to acquire. He had visited the most cele-
brated professors in various universities : the Thomist Siistern at Cologne,
the Scotists Sumenhard and Scriptoris at Tubingen ; he had attended the
law lectures of Zasius in Freiburg, those on Greek of Reuchlin, on Latin
of Bebel, on cosmography of Reusch. In his twentieth year he began to
write and to lecture at Ingolstadt upon Occam and Biel's canon law, on
Aristotle's dialectics and physics, the most difficult doctrines of dogmatic
theology, and the subtilties of nominalistic morality ; he then proceeded
to the study of the mystics, whose most curious works had just fallen
into his hands : he set himself, as he says, to establish the connexion
between their doctrines and the Orphicoplatonic philosophy, the sources
of which are to be sought in Egypt and Arabia, and to discuss the whole
in five parts.2 He was one of those learned men who held that the great
questions which had occupied men's minds were essentially settled ; who
worked exclusively with the analytical faculty and the memory ; who
were always on the watch to appropriate to themselves a new subject with
which to excite attention, to get advancement, and to secure a life of
ease and enjoyment. His strongest taste was for disputation, in which
he had made a brilliant figure in all the universities we have mentioned,
as well as in Heidelberg, Mainz, and Basle : at Freiburg he had early
presided over a class (the Bursa zum Pfauen) where the chief business
was practice in disputation ; he then took long journeys, — for example,
to Vienna and Bologna, — expressly to dispute there. It is most amusing

1 Contra novos et veteres errores defendet D. Martinus Lutherus has sequentes
positiones in studio Lipsensi. It is the thirteenth proposition. Opp. lat.
Jen. i. 2zi.

2 Eckii Epistola de ratione, studiorum suorum, in Strobel's Miscellaneen,
iii., p. 97.

Chap. III.] DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG 201

to see in his letters the satisfaction with which he speaks of Ms Italian
journey : how he was encouraged to undertake it by a papal nuncio ;
how, before his departure, he was visited by the young Markgrave of
Brandenburg ; the very honourable reception he experienced on his way,
in Italy as well as in Germany, from both spiritual and temporal lords,
who invited him to their tables ; how, when certain young men had ven-
tured to contradict him at one of these dinners, he had confuted them
with the utmost ease, and left them filled with astonishment and admira-
tion ; and lastly, how, in spite of manifold opposition, he had at last
brought the most learned of the learned in Bologna to subscribe to his
maxims.1 He regarded a disputation with the eye of a practised fencer,
as the arena of unfailing victory ; his only wish was to find new adver-
saries on whom to try his weapons. He therefore seized with avidity on
an opportunity of extending his fame in North Germany. He was now
seen in the midst of the Leipzig professors (who welcomed him as an ally
against their neighbouring rival and enemy), taking part in the procession
of the Corpus Christi, dressed in his priestly garments and with an air of
great devotion. In his letters we find that he did not neglect to institute
a nice comparison between the Saxon beer and that of Bavaria ; and also
that the fair sinners of Leipzig did not escape his notice.2

On the 24th of June the Wittenbergers arrived ; the professors in low
open waggons on rollers or solid wooden wheels (JRollwagen), Carlstadt
first, then Luther and Melanchthon, and some young licentiates and
bachelors ; with them was Duke Barnim of Pomerania, who was then
studying in Wittenberg and held the dignity of rector ; around them, on
foot, some hundreds of zealous students armed with halberds, battle-
axes and spears. It was observed that the Leipzigers did not come out
to meet them, as was the custom and the courtesy of those times.3

With the mediation of Duke George, the terms of the combat were next
settled : Eck reluctantly acquiesced in the condition that the speeches
and rejoinders should be written down by notaries ; while Luther was
forced to concede that the decision was to be left to certain universities ;
he himself proposed Paris and Erfurt. The duke insisted, with peculiar
earnestness, on these things ; he treated the affair like a trial at law, and
wanted to send the documents, as it were, to a court of appeal for its
decision. Meanwhile he ordered a spacious hall in the castle to be got
ready for the literary duel ; two pulpits were placed opposite to each
other, covered with tapestry, on which were the figures of the warrior
saints, St. George and St. Martin ; there was ample provision of tables
for the notaries, and of benches for the audience. At length, on the 27th
of June, the action was commenced with a mass and invocation of the
Holy Ghost.

Carlstadt had insisted on his right of opening the debate, but he acquired
little glory from it. He brought books, out of which he read passages,
then hunted for others, then read again ; the objections which his oppo-
nent advanced one day, he answered the next.1 How different a dis-

1 Riederer, Nachrichten, &c, iii. 47.

2 Eck to Haven and Burkard, July 1, in Walch, iv., p. 1456. In this respect
he had the very worst reputation.

3 Pfeifer's Beschreibung, ibid., p. 1435,

4 Rubeus, in Walch, xv. 1491,

202 DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG [Book II.

putalor was Johann Eck ! His knowledge was all at his command, ready
for use at the moment ; he required so little time for preparation, that
immediately after his return from a ride he mounted the chair. He was
tall, with large muscular limbs, and loud penetrating voice, and walked
backwards and forwards while speaking ; he had an exception ready to
take against every argument ; his memory and address dazzled his
hearers. In the matter itself — the explanation of the doctrine of grace
and free-will — no progress was, of course, made. Sometimes the com-
batants approximated so nearly in opinion, that each boasted he had
brought over the other to his side, but they soon diverged again. With
the exception of a distinction made by Eck, nothing new was produced j1
the most important points were scarcely touched upon ; and the whole
affair was sometimes so tedious that the hall was emptied.

The interest was, therefore, the more intense, when at length, on Monday
the 4th of July, at seven in the morning, Luther arose ; the antagonist
whom Eck most ardently desired to meet, and whose rising fame he hoped
to crush by a brilliant victory. Luther was of the middle size, at that
time so thin as to be mere skin and bone ; he possessed neither the thunder-
ing organ, nor the ready memory stored with various knowledge, nor the
skill and dexterity acquired in the gladiatorial exercises of the schools,
that distinguished his opponent. But he, too, stood in the prime of man-
hood, and in the fulness of his strength : be was in his thirty-sixth year ;
his voice was melodious and clear ; he was perfectly versed in the Bible,
and its aptest sentences presented themselves unbidden to his mind :
above all, he inspired an irresistible conviction that he sought the truth.
He was always cheerful at home, and a joyous jocose companion at table ;
he even, on this grave occasion, ascended the platform with a nosegay in
his hand ; but when there, he displayed the intrepid and self-forgetting
earnestness arising from the depths of a conviction till now unfathomed,
even by himself. He drew forth new thoughts and placed them in the
fire of battle, with a determination that knew no fear and no personal
regards. His features bore the traces of the storms that had passed over
his soul, and of the courage with which he was prepared to encounter
those that yet awaited him ; his whole aspect breathed profound thought,
joyousness of temper, and confidence in the future. The battle immedi-
ately commenced on the question of the authority of the papacy, which,
at once intelligible and important, riveted universal attention. Two sons
of German peasants (for Eck, too, was the son of a peasant, — Michel Mayr,
who was for many years Ammann2 of Eck, as Luther's father was Rath-
sherr3 of Mansfeld) represented the two great tendencies of opinion which
divided the world then, and divide it now; the future condition of the
Church and the State mainly hung on the issue of their conflict — on the
success of the one in attack, and of the other in defence.

It was immediately obvious that Luther could not maintain his asser-
tion, that the pope's primacy dated only from the last four centuries ; he
soon found himself forced from this position by ancient documents, and
the rather, that no criticism had as yet shaken the authenticity of the
false decretals. But his attack on the doctrine, that the primacy of the

1 Rogatus largireturne totum opus bonum esse a dep respondit : totum
quidem, non autem totaliter. — Melanchthon.

2 Titles of local magistrates. — Transl.

Chap. III.] DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG 203

pope (whom he still persisted in regarding as the ecumenical bishop) was
founded on Scripture and by divine right, was far more formidable.
Christ's words, " Thou art Peter, feed My sheep," which have always
been cited in this controversy, were brought forward :l Luther laboured
to support the already well-known explanation of them, at variance with
that of the Curia, by other passages which record similar commissions given
to the Apostles. Eck quoted passages from the Fathers in support of his
opinions, to which Luther opposed others from the same source. As soon
as they got into these more recondite regions, Luther's superiority became
incontestable. One of his main arguments was, that the Greeks had never
acknowledged the pope, and yet had not been pronounced heretics ; the
Greek church had stood, was standing, and would stand, without the pope ;
it belonged to Christ as much as the Roman. Eck did not hesitate at
once to declare that the Christian and the Roman church were one ; that
the churches of Greece and Asia had fallen away, not only from the pope,
but from the Christian faith — they were unquestionably heretics : in the
whole circuit of the Turkish empire, for example, there was not one soul
that could be saved, with the exception of the few who adhered to the
pope of Rome. " How ?" said Luther, " would you pronounce damna-
tion on the whole Greek church, which has produced the most eminent
fathers, and so many thousand saints, of whom not one had even heard
of a Roman primate ? Would Gregory of Nazianzen, would the great
Basil, not be saved ? or would the pope and his satellites drive them out
of heaven ?" These expressions prove how greatly the omnipotence and
exclusive validity of the forms of the Latin church, and the identity with
Christianity which she claimed, were shaken by the fact that, beyond her
pale, the ancient Greek church, which she had herself acknowledged,
stood in all the venerable authority of her great teachers. It was now
Eck's turn to be hard pressed : he repeated that there had been many
heretics in the Greek church, and that he alluded to them, not to the
Fathers, — a miserable evasion, which did not in the least touch the asser-
tion of his adversary. Eck felt this, and hastened back to the domain
of the Latin church. He particularly insisted that Luther's opinion, — ■
that the primacy of Rome was of human institution, and not of divine
right, — was an error of the poor brethren of Lyons, of Wickliffe and Huss,
but had been condemned by the popes and especially by the general
councils wherein dwelt the spirit of God, and recently at that of Con-
stance. This new fact was as indisputable as the former. Eck was not
satisfied with Luther's declaration that he had nothing to do with the
Bohemians, nay, that he condemned their schism ; and that he would not
be answered out of the Collectanea of inquisitors, but out of the Scrip-
tures. The question had now arrived at its most critical and important
moment. Did Luther acknowledge the direct influence of the Divine
Spirit over the Latin church, and the binding force of the decrees of her
councils, or did he not ? Did he inwardly adhere to her, or did he not ?
We must recollect that we are here not far from the frontier of Bohemia ;

1 In the exposition by Nicolaus von Lire (Lyranus) also, of which Luther
made the most use, there occurs this explanation, differing from that of the Curia,
of the passage in Matthew, chap. xvi. : " Quia tu es Petrus, i.e. confessor verae
petrae, qui est Christus factus ; — et super hanc petram, quam confessus es,
i.e. super Christum, aedificabo ecclesiam meam."

204 DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG [Book II.

in a land which, in consequence of the anathema pronounced in Con-
stance, had experienced all the horrors of a long and desolating war, and
had placed its glory in the resistance it had offered to the Hussites : at a
university founded in opposition to the spirit and doctrine of John Huss :
in the face of princes, lords, and commoners whose fathers had fallen in
this struggle ; it was said, that delegates from the Bohemians, who had
anticipated the turn which this conflict must take, were also present :
Luther saw the danger of his position. Should he really reject the pre-
vailing notion of the exclusive power of the Roman church to secure
salvation ; oppose a council by which John Huss had been condemned
to the flames, and perhaps draw down a like fate upon himself ? Or
should he deny that higher and more comprehensive idea of a Christian
church which he had conceived, and in which his whole soul lived and
moved ? Luther did not waver for a moment. He had the boldness to
affirm, that among the articles on which the council of Constance grounded
its condemnation of John Huss, some were fundamentally Christian and
evangelical. The assertion was received with universal astonishment.
Duke George, who was present, put his hands to his sides, and shaking
his head uttered aloud his wonted curse, " A plague upon it I"1 Eck now
gathered fresh courage. It was hardly possible, he said, that Luther could
censure a council, since his Grace the Elector had expressly forbidden any
attack upon councils. Luther reminded him that the council of Con-
stance had not condemned all the articles of Huss as heretical, and specified
some which were likewise to be found in St. Augustine. Eck replied that
all were rejected ; the sense in which these particular articles were under-
stood was to be deemed heretical ; for a council could not err. Luther
answered that no council could create a new article of faith ; how then
could it be maintained that no council whatever was subject to error ?
" Reverend father," replied Eck, " if you believe that a council regularly
convoked can err, you are to me as a heathen and a publican."

Such were the results of this disputation.2 It was continued for a time,
and opinions more or less conflicting on purgatory, indulgences, and
penance were uttered. Eck renewed the interrupted contest with Carl-
stadt ; the reports were sent, after the solemn conclusion, to both univer-
sities ; but all these measures could lead to nothing further. The main
result of the meeting was, that Luther no longer acknowledged the autho-
rity of the Roman church in matters of faith. At first, he had only
attacked the instructions given to the preachers of indulgences, and the
rules of the later schoolmen, but had expressly retained the decretals of
the popes : then he had rejected these, but with appeal to the decision
of a council ; he now emancipated himself from this last remaining human
authority also ; he recognised none but that of the Scriptures.

PROGRESS OF THE THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION.

At this period Luther conceived an idea of the Church different from
any he had before entertained — deeper and more comprehensive. He
recognised in the Oriental and Greek Christians true members of the

1 " This I myself heard and saw." — Froschel's Report in Walch, xv. 1400.

2 " Disputatio Excellentissimorum Theologorum Jodannis Eccii et D. Martini
Lutehri Augustiniani qua; Lipsice coepta fuit iv die Julii ao 15 tg. Opera Lutheri
Jen., i. 331.

Chap. III.] PROGRESS OF THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION 205

universal church : he no longer admitted the necessity of a visible head ;
he acknowledged none but the Invisible, the ever-living Founder, whom
he regarded as standing in a mystical relation to his faithful disciples of
every nation and clime. This was not only a dogmatic innovation, but
at the same time the recognition of an incontestable fact — the validity of
Christianity without the pale of the Latin church. In asserting this
opinion, Luther now took up a position which enabled him to appropriate
all the various elements of opposition to the papacy that were afloat in
the world. He made himself better acquainted with the doctrines of the
Greek church, and finding, for example, that it did not admit the doctrine
of purgatory, of which he also found no mention in Scripture, he ceased
to maintain it, as he had done even in Leipzig.1 A far stronger impres-
sion was made on him by the works of John Huss, which now reached him
from Bohemia ; he was perfectly astonished at finding therein the doc-
trines expounded by St. Augustine, and derived from St. Paul, which he
had adopted after such violent mental struggles. " I taught Huss's
opinions," says he, in February, 1520, "without knowing them, and so
did Staupitz : we are all Hussites, without knowing it. Paul and Augus-
tine are Hussites : I do not know what to think for amazement." He
denounces woe to the earth, and predicts the fearful judgments of God.
because evangelical truth had been known for a century, and had been
condemned and burnt.2 It is evident that he not only receded in opinion
from the church of Rome, but at the same time conceived a religious
disgust, nay hatred, of her. In the same month, the treatise of Lauren-
tius Valla, on the donation of Constantine, first fell into his hands. It-
was a discovery to him that this donation was a fiction : his German
honesty was shocked and exasperated at finding that, as he says, " such
shameless lies had been incorporated into the decretals, and almost made
articles of faith." " What darkness !" exclaims he; " what wickedness !"
All spirits and powers that had ever waged war against the papacy now
gathered around him ; those which had never submitted from the be-
ginning ; those which had emancipated themselves and never been re-
claimed ; and all the tendencies of the opposition that existed in the
bosom of Latin Christendom, whether theological or literary. He had
no sooner begun to study the papal laws, than he thought he perceived
that tney were in contradiction to the Scriptures : he was now persuaded
that the Scriptures and the papacy stood irreconcilably opposed. It is
quite in accordance with Luther's character that, while seeking a solution
of the problem, how this could be permitted by Divine providence ;
while struggling to recover the broken unity of his religious convictions,
he fell, after violent contention and torture of mind, on the hypothesis
that the pope was the antichrist whom the world was taught to expect.3

1 Letter to Spalatin, Nov. 7.

2 To Spalatin, in De Wette, nr. 208.

3 To Spalatin, Feb. 23, (not 24) 1520, nr. 204. " Ego sic angor ut prope non
dubitem papam esse proprie antichristum." This notion sprang from the old
chiliastic notions still maintained in the West (see the passage of Commodian :
" venturi sunt sub antichristo qui vincunt," in Giesler, Kirchengeschichte,
i. 271.), and was especially cherished in Germany. One of the oldest German
works in print, the first mentioned by Panzer in the Annal ender alteren deutschen
Literatur, is, Das Buch vom Entkrist (The Book of Antichrist), or also : " Buchlin
von des Endte Christs Leben und. Regierung durch verhengiss Gottes. wie er

266 PROGRESS OF THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION [B6ok IL

This mythical notion tended, no doubt, to obscure the historical view
which might perhaps have been obtained of the subject ; but it had, in
fact, no other meaning than that the doctrine of the church was corrupted,
and must be restored to its original purity.

Melanchthon, meanwhile, who had taken the part of an ally and adviser
in the Leipzig disputation, was occupied with a parallel, but peculiar train
of speculation, and now devoted himself to theological studies with the
quiet ardour natural to him ; with the enthusiasm which a successful and
steady progress in a new path always excites.

The principles on which protestant theology rest are to be traced, at
least as much to him as to Luther. One of the first that he enounced,
referred immediately to the controversy in Leipzig.

Maxims of the Fathers of the church were appealed to by each side, and
with equal justice. To extricate the matter from this contradiction, Me-
lanchthon laid it down in a little treatise, published August, 15 19, that
the Scripture was not to be expounded according to the Fathers, but that
these were to be understood according to the sense of Scripture.1 He
maintained that the expositions of the great pillars of the Latin church,
Ambrose, Jerome and even Augustine, were often erroneous. This
principle — that a Christian (or, as he expresses it, a Catholic) is not bound
to receive any thing but what is contained in Scripture — he treated more
at large in September, 15 19. What he had said of the Fathers, he now
repeated of councils — that their authority was of no account when com-
pared to that of Scripture. Having reached this point, doubt on doubt
inevitably presented itself to his mind, as to the entire system of authorita-
tive dogmas. If Luther was resolute in action, Melanchthon was no less
so in speculation. Even in September, 15 19, he stated the polemical
maxims in which he attacked the two most important fundamental doc-
trines of the whole system ; that of transubstantiation, and that of the
sacerdotal character ; whereon the mystery of the visible church, as well
as the sacramental ritual which governs the whole course of human life,
rest.2 The boldness of the attack, and the ingenuity with which it was
carried on, filled everyone with surprise. " He has now appeared to all,"
says Luther, " as wonderful as he really is. He is the most powerful
enemy of Satan and of the schoolmen ; he knows their folly and the rock

die Welt tuth verkeren mit seyner falschen Lere und Rat des Teufels, auch wie
darnach die zween Propheten Enoch und Helyas die Christenheit wieder bekerne
mit predigen den Christen Glauben." "Little Book concerning Antichrist's
Life and Rule through God's Providence, how he doth pervert the World with his
false Doctrine and Counsel of the Devil ; also how, thereafter, the two Prophets,,
Enoch and Elias, again convert Christendom with preaching of Christ's faith."
In 1 5 16 this book was reprinted at Erfurt. We see how it came about that
Luther was occasionally called Elias by his followers.

1 Defensio contra J. Eckium : C. R. i., p. 113. " Patres judice Scriptura re-
cipiantur."

2 Unluckily these propositions, which play a chief part in the construction of
the protestant system of belief, are no longer to be met with. From a letter of
Melanchthon to John Hess, Feb., 1520 (C. R. i. 138), we get a knowledge of three
of them, which are moreover the most important. According to Luther's letter
to Staupitz in de Wette, i., nr. 162, they must date from the month of September.
The propositions which appear in the C, R., p. 126, are, as Forstemann there
remarks, of later origin ; seemingly of the date of July, 1520.

Chap. III.] PROGRESS OF THEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION 207

of Christ ; he has the power and the will to do the deed. Amen." Me-
lanchthon now applied himself with fresh fervour to the study of the New
Testament. He was enchanted by its simplicity, and found in it true
and pure philosophy ; he refers the studious to it as the only refreshment
to the soul, and the afflicted, as pouring peace and joy into the heart.
In his course of study, too, he thought he perceived that much was con-
tained in the doctrines of former theologians, which not only could not
be deduced from Scripture, but was at variance with it, and could never
be brought into accordance with its spirit. In a discourse on the doc-
trines of Paul, pronounced on the 18th of January, 1520, he first declared
this without reserve. In the following month he remarked that his objec-
tions to transubstantiation and the sacerdotal character, were applicable
to many other doctrines ; he finds traces of Jewish ceremonies in the seven
sacraments, and esteems the doctrine of the pope's infallibility an arrogant
pretension, repugnant to Holy Scripture and to common sense : — most
pernicious opinions, he says, which we ought to combat with all our might ;
more than one Hercules is needed for the work.1

Thus we perceive that Melanchthon arrives at the same point which
Luther had already reached, though by a calmer and more philosophical
path. It is remarkable how each expresses himself concerning the Scrip-
ture, in which both live. " It fills the soul," says Melanchthon : " it is
heavenly ambrosia."2 " The word of God," exclaims Luther, " is a
sword, and war, and destruction : it meets the children of Ephraim like
a lioness in the forest." The one views it in reference to the inward
thoughts of man, with which it has so strong an affinity ; the other, in
its relation to the corruptions of the world, against which it wars ; but
they come to the same conclusion. They quitted each other no more.
" That little Greek (Griechlein)," says Luther, " outdoes me even in
theology." " He will make up to you," exclaims he, " for many Martins."
All his solicitude is that any of those misfortunes should befall him which
are incident to great minds. On the other hand, Melanchthon was
deeply impressed and penetrated with the thorough comprehension of
St. Paul, peculiar to Luther ; he prefers the latter to the fathers of the
church ; he finds him more admirable every time he sees him ; even in
ordinary intercourse, he will not admit the justice of the censures which
his joyous and jocose humour brought upon him. It was truly a divine
dispensation that these two men lived together and united at this crisis.
They regarded each other as two of God's creatures endowed with different
gifts, each worthy of the other, joined in one common object, and holding
the same convictions ; a perfect picture of true friendship. Melanchthon
is careful not to trouble Luther's mind.3 Luther confesses that he aban-
dons an opinion when Melanchthon does not approve it.

So immeasurable was the influence which the literary spirit had obtained
over the new and growing theology ; an influence which we shall now see
it exercising in another manner.

1 Dedication to Bronner, C. R., p. 138. Letter to Hess.

2 To Schwebel, Dec, 1519, 128.

3 To John Lange, Aug., 1520. "Spiritum Martini nolim temere in hac causa,
ad quam destinatus inrb Tpovotas videtur, interpellare." (C. R., i. 221.)

2o8 HUTTEN [Book II.

HUTTEN.

The minds which took part in the poetical and philological movement
of Germany of which we have treated, may be arranged under two dis-
tinct classes. Those of the one class, eager to acquire and apt to give
instruction, sought by tranquil and laborious study to master the erudi-
tion they were afterwards to diffuse. The whole character of their labours,
which from the first were directed to the Holy Scriptures, was represented
by Melanchthon, and had formed in his person the most intimate union
with the deeper theological tendencies which were exhibited in that of
Luther, and had gained an ascendancy at the university of Wittenberg.
We have seen what were the results of this union. The peaceful study of
letters acquired solidity, depth, and intensity of purpose ; theology,
scientific form and an erudite basis. But literature exhibited another
phase : by the side of the tranquil students were to be seen the com-
bative poets ; — well content with the ground they had gained, self-satisfied
and arrogant ; incensed at the opposition they had experienced, they
filled the world with the noise of their war. At the beginning of the
Lutheran controversy, which they regarded as a mere dispute between
two monastic orders, they had remained neutral. But now that this
revealed a character of such vastness, and opened a vista so remote, now
that it appealed to all their sympathies, they too took part in it. Luther
appeared to them in the light of a successor of Reuchlin ; John Eck as
another Ortwin Gratius, a hired adherent of the Dominicans, and in that
character they attacked him. In March, 1520, a satire appeared with
the title of " The Pianed-off Angle," (Der abgehobelte Eck) which for fan-
tastic invention, striking and crushing truth, and Aristophanic wit, far
exceeded the " Literae Obscurorum Virorum," which it somewhat re-
sembled. And at this moment a leader of the band entered the lists, not
nameless like the others, but with his visor up. It was Ulrich von Hutten,
the temper of whose weapons and his skill in wielding them had long been
well known.

The whole course of Hutten's life had, like that of Erasmus, been deter-
mined by his being very early condemned to the cloister ; but to him this
constraint was far more intolerable : he was the first-born of one of the
most distinguished equestrian families of the Buchen, which still laid claim
to the freedom of the empire. On his friends earnestly pressing him to
take the vows, he ran away, and sought his fortune, as Erasmus had done,
in the newly opened career of literature.1 He encountered every variety
of suffering : plague and shipwreck ; the banishment of a teacher whom
he followed ; robbery, and disease ; the scorn with which indigence and
a mean garb are commonly regarded, especially in a strange land ; the
utter neglect of his family, who acted as if he did not belong to them ;
nay, his father even treated him with a sort of irony. But his courage
remained buoyant, his mind free and unshackled ; he bid defiance to all
his enemies, and a state of literary warfare became a second nature to
him. Sometimes it was his own personal quarrels which he fought out
on the field of literature ; for example, the ill-treatment he sustained

1 Mohnike, Ulrich Huttens Jugendleben, p. 43. Hutten was born in 1488 ;
in 1499 he entered the convent, and in 1504 deserted it.

Chap. III.] HUTTEN 209

from his hosts at Greifswald, who robbed him ; he called upon all his
companions of the school of poets to take part against this act of injustice,
which was, as it were, committed against them all.1 Another time he
replied to the reproach which even in that age be had to encounter, that
a man must be something, i.e., must fill some office, or hold some title ;
or some deed of violence, like the unjustifiable conduct of the Duke of
Wurlemberg to one of his cousins, moved him to vehement accusation.
But his warlike muse was still more excited by the affairs of h!s
country.

The study of Roman literature, in which the Germans have taken so
•eminent a part, has not unfrequently had the effect of awakening the
patriotism of their descendants. The ill success of the emperor in the
Venetian war did not deter Hutten from eulogizing him, or from treating
the Venetians, in their contest with him, as upstart fishermen ; he con-
trasts the treachery of the pope and the insolence of the French, with the
achievements of the Landsknechts and the fame of Jacob von Ems. He
writes long poems to prove that the Germans have not degenerated, that
they are still the ancient race. Just as he returned from Italy, the contest
between the Reuchlinists and the Dominicans had broken out, and he
rushed to the side of his natural ally, armed with all the weapons of in-
dignation and of ridicule ; he celebrated the triumph of his master in his
best hexameters, which were embellished with an ingenious wood-cut.
Hutten is not a great scholar, nor is he a very profound thinker ; his ex-
cellence lies more in the exhaustlessness of his vein, which gushes forth
with equal impetuosity, equal freshness, in the most various forms, — in
Latin and in German, in prose and in verse, in eloquent invective and in
brilliant satirical dialogue. Nor is he without the spirit of acute observa-
tion ; here and there (for example in the Nemo) he soars to the bright and
clear regions of genuine poetry : his hostilities have not that cold malig-
nant character which disgusts the reader ; they are always connected with
a cordial devotion to the side he advocates : he leaves on the mind an
impression of perfect veracity, of uncompromising frankness and honesty ;
above all, he has always great and single purposes which command uni-
versal sympathy ; he has earnestness of mind, and a passion (to use his
own words) " for godlike truth, for common liberty." The victory of the
Reuchlinists had turned to his advantage also : he had found an asylum
at the court of the Elector Albert of Mainz, and formed an intimacy with
the formidable Sickingen ; he was cured of his illness, and now thought
of marrying and entering upon his paternal inheritance ; he thus hoped
to enjoy the tranquillity of domestic life, while the brilliancy of the repu-
tation he had already acquired secured to him an eminent station. Under
these circumstances the spirit which Luther had awakened in the nation
breathed upon him ; a prospect opened, compared to which all previous
results had been mere child's play ; it took possession of his whole con-
victions, of every impulse and energy of his mind. For a moment Hutten
deliberated. The enemy to be attacked was the mightiest in existence,
who had never been subdued, and who wielded power with a thousand
hands ; whoever engaged in a conflict with him must be aware that he
would never more find peace so long as he lived. Hutten did not disguise

1 Querelarum, lib. ii., eleg. x., " nostros, communia vulnera casus."

210 HUTTEN [Book II.

this from himself ; it was discussed in the family, who dreaded the losses
and evils to which it would expose them. " My pious mother wept,
said he. But he tore himself away, renounced his paternal inheritance,
and once more took up arms.1

In the beginning of the year 1520, he wrote some dialogues, for which
he could never hope to obtain pardon. In the one, called the Spectators
(Anschauenden), the jests on the papal legate are no longer, as before, con-
fined to certain externals ; all his spiritual faculties, his anathema and
excommunication which he hurls against the sun, are treated with the
bitterest scorn and derision. In another — Vadiscus, or the Roman
Trinity — the abuses and pretensions of the Curia are described in striking,
triplets : in confirmation of the Wittenberg opinion, that the papacy was
inconsistent with the Scriptures, Hutten drew a picture of the actual state
of the court of Rome, in which he represented it as an abyss of moral and
religious corruption, which the duty of Germans to God and their country
equally called upon them to shun.2 His ideas were profoundly national.
An old apology for Henry IV. having accidentally fallen into his hands,
he published it in March, 1520, with a view of reviving the recollection of
the great struggle with Gregory VII., and the extinct sympathy of the
nation with the empire, and of the empire with the nation.3 He sent it
to the young Archduke Ferdinand, who had just arrived in the Nether-
lands from Spain, with a dedication, in which he calls upon him to lend his
aid to the restoration of the ancient independence of Germany, which had
withstood the warlike and victorious Romans of old, and was now become
tributary to the effeminate Romans of modern times.4 It appeared as if
the nation might reasonably look with hope to the two brothers of the
house of Austria, whose elevation to the throne had been so earnestly
opposed by the papal court. Most of their friends were indeed at this
moment enemies of the papacy. We have already alluded to the disposi-
tion of the court of Mainz. In Switzerland all who had approved Luther's
first book were adherents of Cardinal von Sitten, who had so successfully
conducted the affairs of the house of Austria at the diet, partly by their
assistance. Sickingen, who had contributed so much to the decision taken
by Wurtemberg, was likewise a partisan of Reuchlin, and found means to
compel the Cologne Dominicans, although the process was still pending in
Rome, to obey the sentence of the Bishop of Spires, and to pay the costs
to which they had there been condemned. No one had contributed more
to the election of Charles V. than Frederick of Saxony : by the protection
which he had afforded to Luther and his university, he had rendered pos-
sible the national movement in that prince's favour. He now absolutely
refused to allow Luther to be tried at Rome. On the day of the emperor's
election the Archbishop of Treves had actually undertaken the office of
umpire, and Elector Frederick declared that no steps should be taken
against Luther till that prelate had pronounced his decision, by which

1 Apology for Ulrich von Hutten in Meiuer's Lebensbeschreibungen ber-
uhmter Manner, &c, iii. 479.

2 Vadiscus, Dialogus qui et Trias Romana inscribitur. Inspicientes Dialogus
Hutteni. Opera ed. Munch., iii. 427, 511.

3 Waltramus de Uuitate Ecclesis conservanda, etc., in Schardius Svlloee
Part I. . - '

4 Praefatio ad Ferdinandum. Opp., iii. 551.

Chap. III.] HUTTEN 211

he would abide.1 There was a secret connection between all these inci-
dents, these various manifestations of opinion : — people were resolved to
get rid of the interference of Rome. Hutten preached in all parts, that
Germany must abandon Rome and return to her own bishops and primates.
" To your tents, O Israel !" exclaimed he ; and we perceive that sovereigns
and cities responded to his appeal.2 He deemed himself destined to
accomplish this change, and hastened to the court of the archduke, in
order if possible to gain him over by personal intercourse, and to inspire
him with his own ardour. He felt the most confident assurance of suc-
cess. In an essay written on the road, he predicted that the tyranny of
Rome would not long endure ; already the axe was laid to the root of the
tree. He exhorted the Germans only to have confidence in their brave
leaders, and not to faint in the midst of the fight ; for they must go on — ■
on, in this propitious state of things, with this good cause, with these
noble energies. " Liberty for ever — Jacta est alea," was his motto. The
die is cast : I have ventured all upon the throw.3

Such was the turn which Luther's cause now took — not without great
faults on the side of the defenders of the See of Rome. The attack, which,
though only levelled at one side of the great system, would unquestion-
ably have been very troublesome to the head of the Church, was now
directed against his entire position and functions,— against that idea of
his authority and prerogative which he had so successfully laboured to
establish. It was no longer confined to the domain of theology ; for the
first time, the literary and political elements of opposition existing in the
nation came into contact and mutual intelligence, if not into close union,
with the theological ; thus allied, they turned their united strength
against the prerogatives of the Pope of Rome.

This led to a similar combination on the other side ; and the See of
Rome, which had hitherto always maintained reserve, was now induced
to pronounce a definitive sentence.

BULL OF LEO X.

We must bear in mind that the advocates of the old opinions were not
satisfied with opposing Luther with all the authority they possessed (for
example, the Dominican universities of Louvain and Cologne pronounced
a solemn condemnation of his works), but sought to prove themselves the
strictest and most faithful allies of the Roman See. The attacks of the
Germans furnished them with an opportunity to exalt the omnipotence
of the papacy more extravagantly than ever. Silvestro Mazzolini, the
Master of the Sacred Palace, of whom we have spoken, published a pamph-
let,4 in which, indignant that Luther had dared to appeal from bis iudg-

1 Transactions, Walch, xv. 916, 919. The chief reason why this did not come
to pass was, that Frederick wanted to bring Luther with him to the Imperial
Diet, which was to be held in Nov., 15 19, but which the Imperial Commissioners
prevented.

2 Agrippa a Nettesheim Johanni Rogerio Brenhonio ex Colonia 16 Junii, 1520.
(Epp. Agrippje, lib. ii., p. 99.) " Reliuquat Romanos Germania et revertatur
ad primates et episcopos suos."

3 Ad liberos in Germania omnes. Opp., iii. 563.

* De Juridica et Irrefragabili Veritate Romanae Ecclesiae Romanique Ponti-
ficis : Roccaberti, Bibl. Max., torn, xix., p. 264.

14 — 2

212 BULL OF LEO X. [Book II.

ment to the pope, and in the last resort to a council, he tries to demon-
strate that there can be no judge superior to the pope ; that the Roman
pontiff is the infallible arbiter of all controversies and of all doubts ; and
further sets forth that the papal sovereignty is the only true monarchy,
the fifth monarchy mentioned by Daniel ; that the pope is the prince of
all spiritual, and the father of all temporal princes ; the head of the whole
world, nay, that he is, virtually, the whole world.1 In his former work,
he had only said that the whole collective church was in the pope ; now
he affected to prove that the pope was the world. In another place, too,
he did not hesitate to declare that all the power of temporal sovereigns
was a sub-delegation of the papal.2 The pope, he says, is more superior
to the emperor than gold to lead : a pope can appoint or depose an em-
peror ; appoint or depose electors ; make or abolish positive laws ; the
emperor, he exclaims, together with all laws and all Christian peoples,
could effect nothing contrary to his will.3 The proofs that he adduces in
support of his opinion are, indeed, strange enough, but it was not neces-
sary to substantiate them ; it was enough that they were adduced by a
man of so eminent a station, and that they emanated from the papal
palace. German obsequiousness hastened to furnish Roman arrogance
with a somewhat better groundwork for its pretensions. In February,
1520, Eck also completed a treatise on the primacy, in which he promises
triumphantly and clearly to confute Luther's assertion, " that it is not of
divine right," and also to set forth various other rare and notable things,
collected with great labour, partly from manuscripts which he had most
diligently collated. " Observe, reader," says he, " and thou shalt see
that I keep my word."1 Nor is his work by any means devoid of learning
and talent ; it is an armoury of very various weapons ; but it affords
the most distinct evidence of the importance of this controversy to science,
independent of all theological considerations, and of the profound dark-
ness in which all true and critical history still lay buried. Eck assumes,
without the slightest hesitation, that Peter resided twenty-five years at
Rome, and was a perfect prototype of all succeeding popes ; whereas,
historical criticism has shown that it is a matter of doubt whether the
apostle ever was at Rome at all : he finds cardinals, and even under that
title, as early as the year 770, and assigns the rank and functions of car-
dinal to St. Jerome. In the second book, he adduces the testimony of

1 C. iv. " Etsi ex jam dictis constat Romanum praesulem esse caput orbis
universi, quippe qui primus hierarcha et princeps sit omnium spiritualium ac
pater omnium temporalium principum, tamen quia adversarius negat eum esse
ecclesiam catholicam virtualiter aut etiam ecclesiae caput, eapropter ostendendum
est quod sit caput orbis et consequenter orbis totus in virtute."

2 De Papa et ejus Potestate, ibid., p. 369. "Tertia potestas (the first is that
of the Pope, the second that of the prelates) est in ministerium data, ut ea quae
est imperatoris et etiam principum terrenorum, quae respectu Papae est sub-
delegata subordinata."

3 " Papa est imperatore major dignitate, plus quam aurum plumbo (371). —
Potest eligere imperatorem per se ipsum immediate — ex quo sequitur quod etiam
possit eligere electores imperatoris et mutare ex causa : ejus etiam est electum
confirmare, — et dignum depositione deponere (372). — Nee imperator cum
omnibus legibus et omnibus Christianis possent contra ejus voluntatem quic-
quam statuere."

4 De Primatu Petri. In Eckii Opp. contra Lutherum, torn, i., f. iii.

Chap. III.] BULL OF LEO X. 213

the Fathers of the Church in support of the divine right of the pope, and
places at their head Dionysius Areopagita, whose works are, unfortunately,
spurious. Among his favourite documents are the decretals of the elder
popes, from which much certainly is derived that we should not other-
wise be inclined to believe ; the only misfortune is, that they are alto-
gether forgeries. He reproaches Luther with understanding nothing
whatever of the old councils ; the sixth canon of the council of Nice, from
which Luther deduced the equality of the ancient patriarchate, he inter-
prets in a totally different manner ; but here again he had the ill luck to
rest his arguments on the spurious canon, which belongs not to the Nicene,
but the Sardicene, synod. And so on.

It is important to have a distinct idea of the actual state of things.
With these claims of an absolute power, including all other earthly powers,
were connected, not only dogmatic theology as elaborated in the schools,
but this gigantic fiction, this falsification of history, resting on innumerable
forged documents ; which, if not overthrown, as it subsequently was (and
we must add chiefly by truly learned men of the Catholic church itself),
would have made all authentic and well-founded history impossible : the
human mind would never have arrived at the true knowledge of ancient
times, or at the consciousness of the stages itself had passed through.
The newly-awakened spirit of the German nation seized at once upon this
entire system, and laboured energetically to open new paths in every
direction of human thought and action — politics, religion, science, and
letters. Equal zeal was displayed on the other side in maintaining the old
system entire. As soon as Eck had finished his book, he hastened to Rome
to present it himself to the pope, and to invoke the severest exercise of the
ecclesiastical authority against his opponents.

It was asserted at that time that Eck was in fact sent to Rome by the
house of Fugger, which was alarmed at the prospect of losing the profit
arising from the money exchanges between Rome and Germany. It is at
least certain that the doctor had some intimate connection with those
eminent merchants. It was in their behalf that he defended usury in his
disputation at Bologna.1

But his chief aid was derived from the judgment pronounced against the
new opinions by Cologne and Louvain. Cardinals Campeggi and Vio,
who were well acquainted with Germany, gave him all the support in their
power. His book was fully calculated to place the imminence of the danger
before their eyes. A commission of seven or eight zealous theologians was
appointed, of which Giovan Pietro Caraffa, Aleander, and probably also
Silvestro Mazzolini and Eck himself, were members ; their judgment could
not be, for one moment, doubtful ; already, in the beginning of May, the
draft of the bull by which Luther was condemned was prepared.

In the trial of Reuchlin, it was matter of doubt how far the See of Rome
made common cause with the Dominicans ; now, however, that order had
completely succeeded in restoring the ancient alliance. In the present case

1 Literae cujusdam e Roma. From the Pirkheimer papers in Riederer,
Nachrichten zur Kirchen Gelehrten und Biichergeschichte, i., p. 178. As a letter,
this document certainly inspires me with some suspicion ; at all events, however,
it is of the same date, and expresses the opinion of a well-informed contemporary.
Welser also says (Augspurgische Chroniken, ander theil, p. 275) that that dis-
putation had been held " at the cost of Jacob Fugger and his partners."

214 BULL OF LEO X. [Book II.

the trial was hardly begun, when we hear that the monks at Cologne
triumphed in a sentence which had been pronounced in their favour, and
caused it to be affixed on their church doors.1

The Elector of Mainz was called to account for the protection he had
afforded to Ulrich von Hutten, and exhorted to show severity against the
author of so many libels. The main object, however, was the condemna-
tion of Luther. The jurists of the Curia were of opinion that a citation and
fresh hearing of the accused "were necessary, adding, that " God had sum-
moned even Cain once and again before him ;" but the theologians would
accede to no further postponement. They at length came to a com-
promise, and determined that the propositions extracted from Luther's
writings were to be judged without delay, but that an interval of sixty days
was to be granted to him for recantation. The draft of the bull, framed by
Cardinal Accolti, underwent many alterations. A consistory was held four
times, to consider of each separate proposition ; Cardinal Vio, though
suffering under a severe attack of illness, would on no account stay away ;
he was carried to the meeting every time. A smaller conference met in
the presence of the pope himself, at his country-house at Malliano, and in
this Eck took part. At length on the 16th of June, the bull was completed.
Forty-one propositions from Luther's writings were declared false, dan-
gerous, scandalous, or absolutely heretical, and the damnatory decrees of
the universities of Louvain and Cologne as learned, true, and even holy.
Christ was invoked to protect his vineyard, the management of which he
had, at his ascension, entrusted to St. Peter. St. Peter was besought to
take the cause of the Church of Rome, the mistress of the faith, under his
care. Luther, if he did not recant within the sixty days allowed him, was
to be considered a stubborn heretic, and to be hewn off, as a sere and
withered branch, from Christendom. All Christian authorities were
exhorted to seize his person and to deliver him into the hands of the pope.2

It appears that no doubt of the complete success of this measure was
entertained in Rome. Two vigorous champions who had a personal
interest in the matter, Aleander and John Eck himself, were entrusted with
its execution. In Germany there was no need of a royal placet ; the com-
missioners had their hands completely free.

How proud and elated was Eck on reappearing in Germany with the new
title of papal prothonotary and nuncio. He instantly hastened to the

1 Letter from Hedios to Zwinglius in Meiners, passim, p. 236. This matter
deserved closer examination. That it had been really agitated again in Rome
at that very time, is clear from the letters of the Elector Palatine and the Domini-
cans assembled at Frankfurt (Friedlander, Beitrage zur Reformations-geschichte,
pp. 113, 116), May 10 and 20, 1520. But might not the letter of the Dominicans
have been merely a consequence of the extorted agreement with Sickingen ?
If so, no weight could be attached to it by the court of Rome. Even at Leipzig,
Eck had drawn attention to the necessity of that reunion ; he blamed the pope
for his leaning to the grammarians (grammaticelli), adding that he was not
proceeding in the via regia : July 24, 1519 (not 1520) : in Luther's Opp. Lat., ii.,
p. 469.

2 Frequently printed in Luther's and Hutten's works. The authentic copy is
in Bull. Cocq., III. iii., p. 487. It surprises me that Rainaldus, who gives it,
should have taken it from Cochlaus. On all these subjects he is very scanty.
Pallavicini is somewhat better. A few notices are to be found in the Parnassus
Boicus, iii., p. 205.

Chap. III.] BULL OF LEO X. 215

scene of the conflict, and in the month of September caused the bull to be
fixed up in public places in Meissen, Merseburg and Brandenburg. Mean-
while Aleander descended the Rhine for the same purpose.

It is said, and with perfect truth, that they did not everywhere meet
with the best reception ; but the arms they wielded were still extremely
terrible. Eck had received the unheard of permission to denounce any of
the adherents of Luther at his pleasure, when he published the bull ; a
permission which, it will readily be believed, he did not allow to pass
unused. Amongst others he had named Adelmann of Adelmannsfeld, his
brother canon at Eichstadt, with whom he had once nearly gone to blows
at dinner concerning the questions of the day. In pursuance of the bull
the bishop of Augsburg now set on foot proceedings against Adelmann,
who was compelled to purge himself of the Lutheran heresy by oath and
vow. Eck had not scrupled also to denounce two eminent and respected
members of the council or senate of Nurnberg — Spengler and Pirkheimer :
the intercessions of the city, of the Bishop of Bamberg, even of the Dukes
of Bavaria, were of no avail ; they were forced to bow before Eck, who
made them feel the whole weight of the authority of one commissioned by
the See of Rome.1 In October, 1520, Luther's books were seized in all the
bookseller's shops of Ingolstadt, and sealed.2 Moderate as was the Elector
of Mainz, he was obliged to exclude from his court Ulrich von Hutten,
who had been ill received in the Netherlands, and to throw the printer of his
writings intoprison. Luther's works were first burnt in Mainz. Aleander's
exultation at this was raised to a pitch of insane insolence. He let fall
expressions like those of Mazzolini, — that the pope could depose king and
emperor ; that he could say to the emperor, " Thou art a tanner ;" (Du
hist ein Gerber) he would soon, he said, settle the business of a few miserable
grammarians ; and even that Duke Frederick would be come at by some
means or other.3

But though this storm raged far and wide, it passed harmless over the
spot which it was destined to destroy. Wittenberg was unscathed ; Eck
had indeed instructions, if Luther did not submit, to execute on him the
menaces of the bull, with the aid of the surrounding princes and bishops.4
He had been authorized to punish as a heretic the literary adversary whom
he was unable to overcome; a commission against which the natural instinct
of morality so strongly revolted, that it more than once endangered Eck's
personal safety, and which, moreover, it was found impossible to execute.
The Bishop of Brandenburg had not the power, even had he had the will,
to exercise the rights of an ordinary in Wittenberg ; the university was pro-
tected by its exemptions, and, on receiving the bull from Eck, he resolved
not to publish it. The authorities assigned as a reason that his holiness
either knew nothing about it, or had been misled by the violent instigations
of Eck. That Eck had, on his own authority, specified by name two other

1 Riederer's little work, Beitrage, <S-c, is specially devoted to these events,
The privilege possessed by Eck appears from a paragraph of his Instructions,
quoted by him word for word, p. 79.

2 Letter of Baumgartner to the Council of Nurnberg, Oct. 17.

3 Erasmi Responsio ad Albertum Pium, in Hardt, Hist. Lit. Ref., i. 169. For
the dnr\aixaTO(fi6pos is no other than Aleander.

4 Extract from the Breve Apostol. 15 Kal. Aug. Winter, Geschichte der
Evangel. Lehre. in Baiern, i., p. 53.

216 BULL OF LEO X. [Book II.

members of the university, Carlstadt and Johann Feldkirchen, as partisans
of Luther, created universal indignation. Luther and Carlstadt were
allowed to be present at the sittings in which the resolutions as to the bull
were passed.1 Already the university had greater authority in this part of
Germany than the pope. Its decision served as a rule to the electoral
government, and even to the official of the bishopric of Naumburg-Zeiz.

The only question now was, what the Elector of Saxony, who was just
gone to meet the emperor on his arrival at the Rhine, would say. Aleander
met him in Cologne and instantly delivered the bull to him. But he
received a very ungracious answer. The elector was indignant that the
pope, notwithstanding his request that the affair might be tried in Germany,
notwithstanding the commission sent to the Archbishop of Treves, had
pronounced sentence in Rome, at the instigation of a declared and person-
ally irritated enemy, who had then come himself to publish, in the sover-
eign's absence, a bull, which, if executed, would ruin the university, and
must inevitably cause the greatest disorder in the excited country. But,
besides this, he was convinced that injustice was done to Luther. Erasmus
had already said to him at Cologne, that Luther's sole crime was that he
attacked the pope's crown and the monks' bellies.2 This was likewise the
prince's opinion ; it was easy to read in his face how much these words
pleased him. His personal dignity was insulted, his sense of justice out-
raged ; he determined not to yield to the pope. He reiterated his old
demand, that Luther should be heard by his equals, learned and pious
judges, in a place of safety ; he would hear nothing of the bull.3 This, too,
was the opinion of his court, his brother, and his nephew, — the future
successor to the throne — nay, of the whole country.4

For it was in the nature of things that the partial and ill-considered
proceedings of the See of Rome should awaken all antipathies. We may
safely affirm, that it was the bull which first occasioned the whole mass of
public indignation to burst forth.

CRISIS OF SECESSION

During the early months of the year 1520, Luther had remained com-
paratively passive, and had only declared himself against auricular con-
fession and against the administration of the Lord's Supper in one kind,
or defended the propositions he had advanced at Leipzig ; but when the
tidings of Eck's success at Rome, and of the impending excommunication,
reached him, at first as a vague rumour, but daily acquiring consistency
and strength, his ardour for spiritual combat awoke : the convictions
which had meanwhile been ripening in him burst forth ; " at length,"
exclaimed he, " the mysteries of Antichrist must be unveiled :" in the
course of June, just as the bull of excommunication had been issued at
Rome, he wrote his Book to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation,

1 Peter Burcard (Rector) to Spengler. Riederer, p. 69.

2 Spalatin, Life of Frederic, p. 132. The " Axiomata Erasmi Roterodami pro
causa Lutheri Spalatino tradita, 5 Nov., 1520, in Lutheri Opp. Lat., ii., p. 314,'
are very remarkable, as throwing light upon the notions of Erasmus.

3 Narrative of the proceedings at Cologne (W., xv. 1919) ; the idea that this
is by Heinrich von Zutphen, is an error caused by the signature in the earlier
edition, which, however, only refers to an annexed correspondence.

4 Veit Warbeck ; Walch, xv. 1876.

Chap. III.] CRISIS OF SECESSION 217

which was, as his friends justly observed, the signal for a decisive attack.
The two nuncios, with their bulls and instructions, were met by this book,
which was published in August at Wittenberg.1 It consists of a few sheets,
the matter of which however was destined to affect the history of the world,
and the development of the human mind ; — at once preparative and pro-
phetic. How loud had been the complaints uttered in all countries at this
time of the abuses of the Curia, and the misconduct of the clergy ! Had
Luther done nothing more, it would have signified little ; but he brought
into application a great principle which had taken firm hold on his mind
since Melanchthon's disputation ; he denied the character indelibilis con-
ferred by ordination, and thus shook the whole groundwork of the separa-
tion and privileges of the clergy. He came to the decision that in regard
to spiritual capacity, all Christians are equal ; this is the meaning of his
somewhat abrupt expression that " all Christians are priests." Hence
followed two consequences ; first, that the priesthood can be nothing but a
function ; " no otherwise separate or superior in dignity," says he, " than
that the clergy must handle the Word of God and the Sacraments ; that
is their work and office ;" but also that they must be subject to the sover-
eign power, which has another office to perform ; " which holds the sword
and the rod in its hand wherewith to punish the wicked and to protect the
good."2 These few words run counter to the whole idea of the papacy
as conceived in the middle ages ; on the other hand, they furnish a new
basis to the secular power, for which they vindicate the scriptural idea of
sovereignty ; and they include in themselves the sum of a new and grand
social movement which was destined by its character to be prolonged
through centuries. Yet Luther was not of opinion that the pope should be
overthrown. He would have him remain, neither, of course, as lord para-
mount of the emperor, nor as possessor of all spiritual power ; but with
well-defined limited functions, the most important of which would be to
settle the differences between primates and archbishops and to urge them
to the fulfilment of their duties. He would retain cardinals also, but only
as many as should be necessary — about twelve — and they should not mono-
polise the best livings throughout the world. The national churches
should be as independent as possible ; in Germany, especially, there should
be a primate with his own jurisdiction and his chanceries of grace and
justice, before which the appeals of the German bishops should be brought ;
for the bishops, too, should enjoy greater independence. Luther strongly
censured the interference which the See of Rome had recently been guilty
of in the diocese of Strasburg. The bishops should be freed from the
oppressive oaths with which they were bound to the pope : convents might
still be suffered to exist, but in smaller number, and under certain strict
limitations : the inferior clergy should be free to marry. It is not necessary
to enumerate all the changes which were connected with these in his mind ;
his meaning and purpose are clear. It could not be said that he wished to
break up the unity of Latin Christendom, or completely destroy the con-
stitution of the church. Within the bounds of their vocation, he acknow-

1 Probably, however, in the beginning of August. On the third of August
Luther writes to his brother Augustine, Voigt, " jam edo librum vulgarem contra-
Papam de statu ecclesiae emendando." (De V., i. 475.)

2 An den christlichen Adel deutschen Nation ; von des christlichen Stendes
Bcsserung. Altenb. Augs. Werke, i. 483.

218 CRISIS OF SECESSION [Book II.

ledges the independence, nay, even the authority of the clergy s1 but to
this vocation he wishes to recall them, and at the same time to nationalise
them and render them less dependent on the daily interference of Rome.
This wish, indeed, he shared with every class of the community.

This was, however, only one point of his attack — the mere signal for the
battle which soon after followed in all its violence. In October, 1520,
appeared the treatise on the Babylonish captivity of the church ;2 for
Luther regarded the gradual establishment of the Latin dogmas and usages,
which had been effected by the co-operation of the schools and the hier-
archy, in the light of a power conferred on the church. He attacked them
in the very centre of their existence — in the doctrine of the sacraments —
and, in the first place, in the most important of these, the Eucharist. We
should do him injustice were we to look for a thoroughly elaborated theory
on this subject ; he only points out the contradictions which subsisted
between the original institution and the prevailing doctrine. He opposes
the refusal of the cup, not because he did not believe that the bread con-
tained the whole sacrament, but because nobody ought to attempt to make
the smallest change in the original institutions of Christ. He does not,
however, counsel the resumption of the cup by force ;3 he only combats
the arguments with which it had been attempted to justify the refusal of it
from Scripture, and zealously traces out the vestiges of the pure and
primitive practice. He then treats of the doctrine of transubstantiation.
The reader will recollect that Peter Lombard had not ventured to maintain
the transformation of the substance of the bread. Later theologians did
not hesitate to do this ; they taught that the accidens alone remained ;
a theory which they supported by a pretended Aristotelic definition of
subject and accident.4 This was the point taken up by Luther. The
objections raised by Peter of Ailly to this hypothesis had, at a former
period, made a great impression upon him ; but he now also thought it
dishonest to introduce into Scripture any thing which was not found in it,
and that its words were to be taken in their plainest and most precise
meaning ; he no longer acknowledged the force of the argument, that the
Church of Rome had sanctioned this hypothesis ; since she was that same
thomist aristotelic church, with which he was engaged in a mortal struggle.
Moreover, he believed himself able to prove that Aristotle had not even been
understood on this point by St. Thomas.5 But a yet more important
doctrine, as affecting the practical views of Luther, was, that the celebra-
tion of the sacrament was a meritorious work — a sacrifice. This dogma
was connected with the mysterious notion of the identity of Christ with
the Church of Rome, which Luther now entirely rejected. He found
nothing of it in the Scripture ; here he read only of the promise of redemp-

1 "It does not beseem the pope to exalt himself above the temporal power,
save only in spiritual offices, such as preaching and absolving " (p. 494).

2 De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesise Prasludium M. L., ubi praecipue de
natura, numero et usu sacramentorum agitur. Opp. ed. Jen., ii. 259.

3 " Contra tarn patentes potentes scripturas ; contra evidentes Dei scripturas,"
p. 262.

4 One principal passage is in the Summa Divi Thoroae, pars iii., qu. 75., art. iv.,
c. lm. v. 4.

6 Opiniones in rebus fidei non modo ex Aristotele tradere, sed et super eum,
quem non intellexit, conatus est stabilire : infelicissimi fundamenti infelicissima
structura (p. 263).

Chap. III.] CRISIS OF SECESSION 219

tion connected with the visible sign or token, and with the faith ; nor could
he forgive the schoolmen for treating only of the sign, and passing over in
silence the promise and the faith.1 How could any man maintain that it
was a good work — a sacrifice — to remember a promise ? That the per-
formance of this act of remembrance could be profitable to another, and
that other absent, was one of the most false and dangerous doctrines. In
combating these dogmas, he does not conceal from himself the conse-
quences : — that the authority of countless writings must be overthrown ;
the whole system of ceremonies and external practices altered : but he
looks this necessity boldly in the face ; he regards himself as the advocate
of the Scripture, which was of higher significance and deserved more careful
reverence than all the thoughts of men or angels. He said he only pro-
claimed the Word in order to save his own soul ; the world might then look
to it whether it would follow that Word or not. He would no longer adhere
to the doctrine of the seven sacraments. Thomas Aquinas delights to
show how their order corresponds with the incidents of the natural and
social life of man — baptism with his birth ; confirmation with his growth ;
the eucharist with the nutriment of his body ; penance with the medicine
of his diseases ; extreme unction with his entire cure : — how ordination
sanctified public business ; marriage, natural procreation.2 But these
images were not calculated to make any impression on Luther ; he only
inquired what was to be clearly read in the Scriptures ; what was the
immediate relation betweeen a rite, and' faith and redemption : he rejected,
almost with the same arguments as those to be found in the confession of
the Moravian brethren, four of the sacraments, and adhered only to
baptism, the Lord's Supper, and penance. The others could not even be
derived from the See of Rome ; they were the product of the schools, to
which, indeed, Rome was indebted for all she possessed ;3 and hence, there
was a great difference between the papacy of a thousand years ago and
that of the present day.

The hostile systems of opinion on the destiny and duties of man, and on
the plan of the universe, now stood confronted in all their might. Whilst
the papal see proclaimed anew in every bull all the privileges which it had
acquired during the gradual construction of its spirituo-temporal state in
the middle ages, and the principles of faith connected with them, the idea of
a new ecclesiastical constitution according to which the priesthood should
be brought back to a merely spiritual office, and of a system of faith emanci-
pated from all the doctrines of the schools and deduced from the original
principles of its first apostles — an idea conceived by one or two teachers in
a university, and emanating from a little town in Germany — arose and took
up its station as antagonist of the time-hallowed authority. This the pope

1 If at a later period, Bellarmin, as Mohler, p. 255, relates, requires before all
things " ex parte suscipientis voluntatem fidem et poenitentiam," still it was
exactly conclusions of this kind which Luther missed in the then prevailing
thomistic writings ; and before we blame him, it must be shown that these
doctrines had been really taught and inculcated in his time. Their readmission
into the Roman church, is, as has been said, only the reaction of the spirit of
reform.

2 Tertia pars, qu. lxv. conclusio.

3 " Neque enim staret tyrannis papistica tanta, nisi tantum accepisset ab
universitatibus, cum vix fuerit inter celebres episcopatus alius quispiam qui
minus habuerit eruditionem pontificum.

220 CRISIS OF SECESSION [Book II.

hoped to stifle in its birth. What if he could have looked down that long
vista of ages through which the conflict between them was destined to
endure !

We have already observed that the pope's bull did not touch Witten-
berg. Luther had even the audacity to denounce the pope as a suppresser
of the divine word, for which he substituted his own opinions ; — nay, even
as a stubborn heretic. Carlstadt also raised his voice against the fierce
Florentine lion, who had never wished any good to Germany, and who
now condemned the truest doctrines, contrary to laws divine and human,
without even having granted the defenders of them a hearing. The whole
university rallied more and more firmly round its hero, who had in fact
given it existence and importance. When the intelligence arrived that in
some places the authorities had begun to execute the bull, and to burn
Luther's books, the monk felt himself sufficiently strong to revenge this
arbitrary act on the pope's writings. On the ioth of December, 1520, the
academic youth,1 summoned by a formal proclamation posted on a black
board, assembled in unwonted numbers before the Elster Gate of Witten-
berg ; a pile of wood was collected, to which a Master of Arts of the
university set fire : in the full feeling of the orthodoxy of his secession, the
mighty Augustine, clad in his cowl, advanced to the fire, holding in his hand
the pope's bull and decretals: "Because thou hast vexed the Lord's saints,"
exclaimed he, " mayest thou be consumed in eternal fire !" and threw it
into the flames. Never was rebellion more resolutely proclaimed. "Highly
needful were it," said Luther another day, " that the pope (that is the
papacy) with all his doctrines and abominations should be burnt."

The attention of the whole nation was now necessarily drawn to this
open resistance. What had first procured for Luther the general sym-
pathy of the thinking and serious-minded among his contemporaries was
his theological writings. By the union of profound thought and sound
common-sense which distinguishes them, the lofty earnestness which they
breathe, their consolatory and elevating spirit, they had produced a
universal effect. " That know I," says Lazarus Spengler in the letter
which was imputed to him as a crime, " that all my life long no doctrine
or sermon has taken so strong hold on my reason. Divers excellent and
right learned persons of spiritual and temporal estate are thankful to
God that they have lived to this hour, that they might hear Dr. Luther
and his doctrine."2 The celebrated jurist Ulrich Zasius in the most
explicit and animated terms proclaims his adoption of Luther's opinions
as to absolution, confession, and penance ; his writings on the ten com-
mandments and on the Epistle to the Galatians.3 The collections of
letters of that time afford abundant proof of the interest which the religious
publications — for example, the exposition of the Lord's Prayer, or the
new edition of the German Theology — excited ; societies of friends were

1 According to Sennert, Athenae et Inscriptiones Viterbegenses, pp. 58, and
59, the names in the university books amounted in the year 1512 to 208 ; in
1513 to 151 ; in 1514 to 213 ; in 1515 to 218 ; in 1516 to 162 ; in 1517 to 232 ;
in the year 1518 the number of the students entered already rose to .273 ; in
1519 to 458 ; in 1520 to 578.

2 Speech in defence, Riederer, p. 202.

3 Zasii Epp., p. 394. I cannot possibly believe this letter to be spurious, as
the same opinion reappears in so many others.

Chap. III.] CRISIS OF SECESSION 221

formed for the purpose of communicating them to each other, of getting
them reprinted and then distributed by messengers sent about with these
books, and no others, in order that the attention of the buyers might not
be diverted ; preachers recommended them from the pulpit.1

The boldness of this attack, so formidable and so immediately connected
with the deepest feelings of religion, was another cause of popular in-
terest. Some, and among them Zasius whom we have just quoted, dis-
approved the turn it had taken, but its temerity only served to heighten
the admiration and the sympathy of the majority ; all the elements of
opposition naturally congregated around a doctrine which afforded them
that of which they stood most in need — justification in their resistance
on religious grounds. Even Aleander remarked that a great proportion
of jurists declared themselves against the ecclesiastical law ; but how
great was his error if he really thought what he asserted — that they only
wished to be rid of their canonical studies : he little knew the scholars of
Germany, who were actuated by a far different motive, — the vexatious
collisions between the spiritual and temporal courts, complaints of which
had been laid before so many diets and assemblies of the empire. The
very latest proceedings of the court of Rome had drawn down severe
criticism from the lawyers of Germany. Jerome of Endorf, an imperial
councillor, declared that the mode taken by the pope of enforcing his bull
by the threat of " attainder for high treason, loss of inheritance and fief,"
was an encroachment of the spiritual power on the temporal, which he
exhorted the emperor not to endure.2 It was not, however, the jurists
alone, but even the clergy whom Aleander found wavering, especially the
inferior clergy who severely felt the pressure of the hierarchical power ;
he was of opinion that throughout Germany they approved Luther's doc-
trines.3 Nor did it escape him that the religious orders too were infected :
among the Augustines this arose from the influence of the later vicars, and
partiality for a brother of their own order ; with others, from hatred of
the tyranny of the Dominicans. It was also inevitable, that in the heart
of many a reluctant inmate of a cloister, the events now passing would
awaken the wish and the hope of shaking off his fetters. The schools of
the humanists belonged of course to this party ; no dissension had as yet
broken out among them, and the literary public regarded Luther's cause
as their own. Already too attempts had been made to interest the un-
learned in the movement. Hutten perfectly understood the advantage
he possessed in writing German : " I wrote Latin," he says, " formerly,
which not every one understands ; now I call upon my fatherland." The
whole catalogue of the sins of the Roman Curia, which he had often in-
sisted upon, he now exhibited to the nation in the new light thrown upon
it by Luther, in German verses.4 He indulged the hope that deliverance
was at hand, nor did he conceal that if things came to the worst, it was
to the swords and spears of brave men that he trusted ; by them would
the vengeance of God be executed. The most remarkable projects began
to be broached ; some particularly regarding the relation of the German
church to Rome ; as that no man should for the future possess an ecclesi-

1 Beatus Rhenanus to Zwinglius. Huldrici Zwinglii Opera, torn, vii., pp. 77, 81.

2 To the Landeshauptmann of Styria, Siegm. v. Dietrichstein. Walch, xv. 1902.

3 Extracts from the Report of Aleander in Pallavicini.

4 Klage und Vermanung gegen die ungeistlichen Geistlichen.

222 CRISIS OF SECESSION [Book II.

astical dignity, who could not preach to the people in the German tongue •
that the prerogatives of the papal months, accesses, regresses, reserva-
tions, and of course, annates, should be abolished ; that no sentence of
excommunication issued by Rome should have any validity in Germany ;
that no brief should have any force till a German council had pronounced
whether it were to be obeyed or not ; the bishops of the country were
always to hold in check the papal power.1 Others added proposals for a
radical reform in details ; that the number of holy days should be dimin-
ished, the curates regularly paid, fit and decorous preachers appointed,
fasts observed, only on a few days in the year, and the peculiar habits of
the several orders laid aside ; a yearly assembly of bishops should watch
over the general affairs of the German church. The idea even arose that
a christian spirit and life would, by God's especial ordinance, spread from
the German nation over the whole world, as once from out Judaea. There-
unto, it was said, the seeds of all good had sprung up unobserved ; — " a
subtle sense, acute thought, masterly skill in all handicrafts, knowledge
of all writings and tongues, the useful art of printing, desire for evangelical
doctrine, delight in truth and honesty." To this end, too, had Germany
remained obedient to the Roman emperor.2

All hopes now rested on Charles V., who was at this moment ascending
the Rhine. Those who opposed the new opinions wished him the wisdom
of Solomon and of Daniel, " who at as early an age were enlightened by
God ;" they even thought the state of things so desperate, that if not
changed by a serious and thorough reformation, the last day must quickly
come."3 The partisans of innovation approached him with the boldest
suggestions. He was asked to dismiss the grey friar his confessor, who
boasted that he ruled him and the empire ; to govern with the counsels
of temporal electors and princes ; to entrust public business, not to
clerks and financiers, but to the nobles, who now sent their sons to study ;
to appoint Hutten and Erasmus members of his council, and to put an
end to the abuses of Rome and to the mendicant orders in Germany.
Then would he have the voice of the nation for him ; he would no longer
stand in need of pope or cardinal, but, on the contrary, they would

1 Etliche Artickel Gottes Lob und des heyligen Romischen Reichs und der
ganzen Deutschen Nation ere und gemeinen nutz be.langend." " Divers articles
touching God's praise, and the honour and the common profit of the holy Roman
empire and of the whole German nation." At the end, Printed at Hagenau
by Thomas Anshelm, in Feb., 1521.

2 " Ein Klagliche Klag an den Christlichen Rom. Kayser Carolum von wegen
Doctor Luthers und Ulrich von Hutten," &c— " A Doleful Complaint to the
Christian Roman Emperor Charles, relating to Dr. Luther and Ulrich von
Hutten," &c. ; the work known by the title of " The Fifteen Confederates."
Panzer, Annals of the earlier German Literature, ii., p. 39j has shown that it is
by Eberlin von Gunzburg. In the Epistola Vdelonis Cymbri Cusani de Exustione
Librorum Luthen, 1520, the contrast between the Romans and the Germans
is described in the following manner : " Nos Christum, vos chrysum nos publi-
cum commodum, vos privatum luxum colitis, vos vestram avaritiam— et extre-
mam libidinem, nostram nos innocentiam et libertatem tuentes pro suis quisque
bonis animose pugnabimus." 11

3 Verbatim, from Hieronymus Emser against the unchristian book of Martin
Luther the Augustine, sheet iv. He adds, all ranks are sinful, and " foremost
the clergy from the highest to the lowest." He also applies to them the saying!

from the heel to the crown of the head there is no soundness."

Chap. IV.] DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 223

receive confirmation from him ; " then," said one, " will the strong Ger-
mans arise with body and goods, and go with thee to Rome, and make all
Italy subject to thee ; then wilt thou be a mighty king. If thou wilt
settle God's quarrel, he will settle thine."1

" Day and night," exclaims Hutten to him, " will I serve thee without
fee or reward ; many a proud hero will I stir to help thee , thou shalt be
the captain, the beginner, and the finisher ; — thy command alone is
wanting."2

CHAPTER IV.

DIET OF WORMS. A.D. 152I.

The most important question for the intellectual and moral progress of
the nation now unquestionably was, in what light Charles V. would regard
exhortations of this kind ; what disposition he would evince towards the
great movements of the national mind.

We have seen that as yet every thing was wavering and unsettled : no
form had been found for the government ; no system of finance, no mili-
tary organisation perfected ; there was no supreme court of justice ; the
Public Peace was not maintained. All classes in the empire were at
strife — princes and nobles, knights and citizens, priests and laymen ;
above all, the higher classes and the peasants. In addition to all these
sources of confusion, arose the religious movement, embracing every
region of mind, originating in the depths of the national consciousness,
and now bursting forth in open revolt against the head of the hierarchy.
The existing generation was powerful, intelligent, inventive, earnest,
thoughtful. It had a presentiment that it contained the germ of a great
moral and social revolution.

The want of a sovereign and chief, felt by all mankind, is in fact but
the conscious necessity that their manifold purposes and endeavours should
be collected and balanced in an individual mind ; that one will should be
the universal will ; that the many- voiced debate should ripen into one
resolve, admitting of no contradiction. This, too, is the secret of power ;
when all the energies of a nation give voluntary obedience to its commands,
then, and then only, can it wield all its resources.

This was the important result which now hung upon the question,
whether Charles would understand the sentiments and the wants of his
nation, and thence be able to secure its full obedience.

In October, 1520, he proceeded from the Netherlands to Aix-la-Chapelle,
where he was to be crowned. The newly elected emperor was a young
man of twenty, still imperfectly developed, who had just learned to sit
his horse well and to break a lance ; but of feeble health, a pale and
melancholy countenance, with a grave, though benevolent expression.
He had as yet given few proofs of talent, and left the conduct of business
to others ; it was principally in the hands of the high chamberlain, William
of Croi, Lord of Chievres, who possessed, as it was said, absolute authority
over finances, court and government. The minister was as moderate as

1 Ein Klaglicher Klag, sheet fj- III.

3 Compare Napoleon's expression of astonishment that Charles V. did not
champion the Protestant cause, for had he done so he would have had all
permany at his feet.

224 DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

his master, who had formed himself upon his model ; his manner of listen-
ing and answering satisfied everybody ; nothing was heard to fall from
his lips but sentiments of peace and justice.1

On the 23rd October Charles was crowned ; he took the title of Roman
Emperor Elect,2 which his predecessor had borne in the latter years of his
life. No later than December we find him in Worms, where he had
convoked his first diet, and whither the sovereigns and states of Germany
now flocked together. His whole soul was filled with the high significance
of the imperial dignity. He opened the diet on the 28th January, 1521,
the day sacred to Charlemagne. The reigning idea of his opening speech
was, that no monarchy on earth was to be compared with the Raman
empire, which the whole world had once obeyed, to which " God himself
had paid honour and allegiance, and had left behind him." Unhappily
it was now but the shade of what it had been, but he hoped, with the
help of the monarchies, the powerful countries and the alliances which
God had granted him, to raise it again to its ancient glory.3

This seemed the echo of the common wish of Germany ; it remained
to be seen how he would understand his work — how he would endeavour
to perform it.

SECULAR AND INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE EMPIRE.

Charles's first care at the diet was to strengthen the advantageous rela-
tion in which, from the circumstances attending his election, he stood to
the several German sovereigns. The Elector of Mainz received an exten-
sion of his powers as arch-chancellor. Whenever he was present in person
at court, the despatch of all the internal business of the empire was to rest
with him ; but in his absence, to be in the charge of a secretary appointed
by himself, to act with the grand chancellor.4 The Elector of Saxony
obtained the sanction of his nephew's marriage with the infanta Catherine.
As the Saxon government wished, on account of the expense, to avoid a
marriage by proxy, the emperor pledged himself to see that the infanta
should arrive in Germany six months after his own return to Spain.
Markgrave Casimir of Brandenburg had the reversion of the next con-
siderable fief of the empire which might fall vacant in Italy. The Count

1 " Relatione di Francesco Corner venuto orator di la Cesa e catolica Mth
6 Zugno 1 52 1. Chievres : zentilhuomo per esser il secondo genito non di molta
facolta, ma adesso piu non potria essere, per haver al governo suo non solum
la persona del re, ma la caxa li stati li danari e tutto quello e sotto la S. M"\ E
homo di bon ingegno, parla pocho, perho molto humanamente ascolta e benigna-
mente risponde : non dimostra esser colerico, ma piu presto pacifico e quieto
che desideroso di guerra, et e molto sobrio nel suo viver, il che si ritrova in pochi
Fiaminghi."

2 A description of the place (in which the journey of Charlemagne to Jerusalem
is still treated as an historical fact) and of the ceremonies, by an eye-witness, in
Passero, Giornale Napol., p. 284.

3 The Proposition, which is the first document in the Frankfurt and Berlin -
Archives relating to this Imperial Diet, was followed on the 14th of March,
Monday after Oculi, by a special statement, which explains it ; this is given also
by Olenschlager, Explanation of the Golden Bull. Records, nr. vii., p. 15. One
of the best printed works of that time, bat not however quite exact. As to
the rest, Charles's statement recalls strongly some passages in Peter von Andlq,

4 Haberhn, Reichsgeschichte, x„ p. 375,

Chap. IV.] INTERNAL AFFAIRS 22$

Palatine Frederick, who had been promised the dignity of Viceroy of
Naples, received as compensation the post of imperial lieutenant in the
Council of Regency ; Calenberg, and Wolfenbiittel, the old and devoted
friends of Austria, were readily favoured in the matter of Hildesheim,
upon which the Liineburgers quitted the diet in disgust ; they saw that
they should have to pay severely for their inclination towards the French.
Shortly after, a very ungracious decree was issued against them.1 The
proceedings of the Swabian league, on the other hand, met with a no
less cordial approbation. The exiled Duke of Wurtemberg, who had
neglected to repair to the Netherlands, as he had promised, now declared
himself ready to appear at the diet. He received for answer, that it
was no longer convenient to his imperial majesty to give audience to
the duke ; nor would any intercession induce Charles to change this
determination. Proceedings were instituted against him, which ter-
minated as unfavourably as those of Lvineburg : both were shortly after
placed under ban.2 The affair of Wurtemberg was the more important,
since that country belonged to the territory which it was proposed to
incorporate into the newly constituted state of Austria. Archduke Fer-
dinand, the emperor's brother, who was educated in Spain, but had been
fortunately removed from that country,3 where he might have become
dangerous, received the five Austrian duchies, which Maximilian had once
entertained the project of raising into a kingdom in his favour, as his
portion of the inheritance of the German domains. The day on which
this contract was ratified (28th April, 1521,)4 is one of the most memorable
in German history. It witnessed the foundation of the German line of
the house of Burgundian Austria, which was destined to occupy so great
and conspicuous a station not only in Germany but in the whole of western
Europe. Emperor Maximilian's former plans were adopted ; and those
reciprocal engagements with the royal houses of Bohemia and Hungary
which were pregnant with such vast and immediate results, were con-
tracted. The emperor at first intended to keep Wurtemberg and the
upper hereditary domains for himself, and to appoint a government for
the joint administration of them ; but he did not carry this into execu-
tion ; with great magnanimity he left first the government and then the
possession of them to his brother, as his alter ego.s Many thought Fer-
dinand a man of greater talents than Charles ; at all events he was evi-
dently more animated, daring and warlike, and kept a vigilant eye on
what occurred in every direction.

It cannot be said that in these transactions Charles showed a constant
regard for the national feelings or interests. ~ He suffered himself to be
persuaded to strip the Bishop of Lubeck of the inferior feudal dominion
of Holstein, to which he had a right, and to transfer it to the King of
Denmark and his heirs : he forbade the duke, " under pain of his grievous
displeasure and that of the empire," to oppose any obstacle. He had
certainly no other motive for this measure than that the king was his

1 In Delius Stiftsfehde, p. 175.

2 Sattler, Herzoge, ii., p. 75.

3 Corner : " Credo non si hanno fidato di lassarlo in Spagna ne al governo di
Spagnoli dubitando di qualche novita."

4 Bucholtz, Ferdinand, i., p. 155.

6 Extracts from the Records, ib., 158.

IS

226 DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

brother-in-law, and forgot that that monarch would never be regarded
in any other light than as a foreign prince.1 Nor was his conduct towards
Prussia untainted by similar considerations : the emperor negotiated a
truce between the Grand Master and the King, of Poland for four years,
within which time he promised, with the aid of his brother and the King
of Hungary, to endeavour to adjust the difference. The Grand Master
would acknowledge no other allegiance than that he owed to the emperor
and empire, and rejected every other demand. The emperor took this
occasion to institute an inquiry whether his vassal could, or could not,
render feudal service to a foreign king. He appointed the King of Hun-
gary one of the umpires ; that prince being now related to the house of
Austria through the Jagellon alliance, which, as we have observed, was
the main cause of the change in the late emperor's policy with regard to
Prussia.

It is evident that it was Charles's earnest purpose to maintain the posi-
tion prepared by Maximilian, and occupied, even before his arrival, by his
own commissioners. Kinsmen and old partisans were favoured, and, as
far as possible, promoted ; recently acquired friends, more closely at-
tached ; the decision of difficult disputes, for example, those between
Cleves and Saxony, Brandenburg and Pomerania, Hessen and Nassau,
were, if possible, postponed, and rendered dependent on future favour :
the old opposition was, for the moment, broken up and reduced to
inactivity.

Such were the auspices under which the deliberations on the institu-
tions of the empire now commenced.

We shall not examine what would have happened, or what course
Charles's councillors would have entered on, if their hands had been
perfectly free. It is enough to say that this was not the case.

In the third article of the election capitulations, the emperor had pro-
mised to establish a government, or Council of Regency, " such as had
formerly been devised and had been in course of formation, of pious,
acceptable, brave, wise and honest persons of the German nation, to-
gether with certain electors and princes." The purpose of this stipula-
tion was not doubtful. The nation wished now to establish, on a per-
manent basis, the representative form of government which had been
under discussion in 1487, planned and proposed in 1495, and brought into
operation in 1500, but abolished again by Maximilian. The opinions and
designs of Archbishop Berthold were now revived.

At Worms the electors renewed their ancient union, and interchanged
their word to press for the performance of the promises contained in the
capitulations. In March a scheme of the Council of Regency was sub-
mitted to the emperor. This scheme was no other than a repetition of
the ordinance for the establishment of the Regency of the year 1500. It
was to be composed exactly in the same manner : — a lieutenant of the
emperor as president, delegates from the electors and the six circles (for
the division of the empire into ten circles was not yet carried into effect),
and representatives of the different states in rotation : to remain in
existence and in force when the emperor was present within the empire,
as well as in his absence ; to have power to carry on negotiations, in
urgent cases to contract alliances and to decide feudal questions. In
1 Copies of the Records, printed in Christiani, i., p. 541.

Chap. IV.] COUNCIL OF REGENCY 22;

short, now, as at the former period, the greater part of the powers and
functions of emperor were to be transferred to this representative body.

It was not in the nature of things that the emperor should assent to
such a project. He was surrounded by the same school of German coun-
cillors who had been about his predecessor : the ideas of Elector Berthold
were once more encountered by the views of Maximilian. The emperor
declared, that his predecessor on the throne had found that the Council
of Regency tended to the diminution of his own power and to the pre-
judice of the empire, and therefore had not established it ; that it could
not be expected of him to attempt to repeat the experiment of an institu-
tion which could only lower his dignity in the eyes of foreign nations. He
sent the States a scheme of a totally different nature for their considera-
tion ; according to which the most important element of the Regency
was six permanent imperial councillors ; the fourteen councillors named
by the Estates, who were to be assessors to the former, were to be con-
stantly changed. Although the interests of the emperor would thus be
far more powerfully represented than before, yet the Council of Regency
thus constituted was neither to make alliances, nor to decide important
feudal questions ; nor to remain in existence, except during the emperor's
residence out of the limits of the empire. The oath was to be pronounced,
not to the emperor and the empire, but to the emperor alone. The
imperial hereditary dominions, which it was one of the main objects of
the States to render subject to the common duties and burdens of the
empire, Charles insisted on keeping under a perfectly independent ad-
ministration ; even Wurtemberg was not included within the boundary
he had assigned to the circles.

This led to a very animated encounter. The States considered the
expressions about Maximilian as " more than highly vexatious." Had
not that prince, they said, suffered himself to be persuaded by false friends
to recede from the original plan, it would have been honourable, useful,
and glorious for himself and the holy empire, and terrible to all adver-
saries. And this time they were immovably steadfast to their project.
The emperor could obtain nothing but some mitigation of subordinate
points.

The most vexatious thing to him was the mention of an administration
of the empire which should continue its functions during his presence.
He regarded this as a sort of tutelage — a stain upon his honour. On
this point they yielded to him, and acceded to the title he proposed, " His
Imperial Majesty's Regency in the Empire ;" also that it should at first
be established only for the period of his absence. This was subject to
the less difficulty, because its duration could not be fixed, and the
emperor on his part promised to decide whether the existence of the
institution should be prolonged or not, according to the situation of
affairs at the time of his return.

Concessions were made to the emperor on some other matters of detail.
The composition of the Council of Regency, which was the most impor-
tant matter, was indeed to be precisely on the model of the former, but
the number of assessors was increased from twenty to twenty-two, the
two additional members to be nominated by the emperor. On the more
important feudal questions, and in alliances with foreign powers, the
approbation of the emperor was justly made a necessary condition ; but

15—2

228 DIET OF WORMS, AD. 1521 [Book II.

the initiative in affairs, and the negotiation of them, were to be left to
the Regency. Wiirtemberg was restored to the Swabian circle. Austria
and the Netherlands were to send deputies as before. The oath was un-
questionably to be taken in the first place to the emperor, but a distinct
pledge was given that the honour and welfare of the Holy Empire were
to be mentioned immediately after in the formula of the oath.1

In a word, the emperor succeeded in maintaining his honour and
authority — a point on which he showed great susceptibility ; but, at the
same time, the States carried through their long-cherished idea, and
obtained a share in the government of the empire, which Maximilian,
after the first experiment, would never again grant them. The Electors
of Saxony and of Treves were peculiarly satisfied with the result.

The Imperial Chamber, which had fallen into utter decay, was recon-
stituted upon the same principles. The original scheme was a very exten-
sive one. As there were about three thousand causes undecided, it was
proposed to name so many assessors that they might be divided into two
senates ; the one of which should be entirely occupied in disposing of old
causes. There was a project for reforming the procedure on the model of
the Rota Romana and the parliament of France. But it was soon evident
how little could be done. " I have as yet seen no doctor," writes the Frank-
furt delegate home, " who has proposed any good scheme of reform.
People say the judges' hearings should be increased, the holydays curtailed,
and proceedings the only purpose of which is delay, abolished : any
peasant might have advised that." " They are deliberating," says he,
another time, " on the reform of the Imperial Chamber ; but that is like a
wild beast, every body knows his strength, but nobody where to attack
him ; one advises here, the other there." At last the States, with whom
this proposal likewise originated, came to the conviction that nothing could
be invented more expedient than the old ordinance of the year 1495, with
the improvements it had afterwards undergone, and some new additions.2

1 The documents exchanged in this contest are tolerably complete in Harp-
precht. In the Frankfurt Archives there is, besides, an essay : " ungeverlich
Anzeyg, was in Keys. Mt. ubergebenem Regiment zugesetzt und umbgangen
ist." — " a tolerably exact Account of what has been determined and done in the
Regency appointed for his Imperial Majesty."

3 The ordinance of the Imperial Chamber of 1521 is almost word for word
the same as this project of the states. The beginning only is different. " Dien-
stag nach Latare," lautet er, " ist auf Romisch. Ks. Mt. unsres Allergnadigsten
Herrn Beger von Churfiirsten Fiirsten Stennden des heil. Rom. Reychs berat-
schlagt, da hievor auf erstgehalltenem Reychstag allhie zu Wormbs im xcv. I.
ain Ordnung desselben Kaiserl. Cammergerichts aufgericht, welche nachmals
zu vorgehalten Reychstagen zum Thail weiter declarirt und gebessert worden,
das dieselbe als not-urfdeglich und hochlich ermessen und bedacht, im h. R
zu hallten und zu vollziehen auch nachmals nit wol stattlicher zu machen oder
zu ordnen seyn mocht dann wie hernach folgt ; darum Ir der Stennde getreuer
Rate, das die kais. Mt. jetzo solich (Ordnung ?) wider allhie gegen und mit den
Stennden des heyl. Reychs und herwiderumb sambt hernachgemeldten Ender-
ungen Ratschlag und Zusatz genadigklich annem, approbir und wie bei S. K,
Mt. Anherrn geschehen verpflicht und dieselben also zu halten und zu vollziehen
als Romischer Keiser handhabe." — " On Thursday after Laetare," it proceeds,
" at the desire of the Roman emperor, our most gracious lord, the electors,
princes, and states of the Roman empire have debated on a new constitution
of the Kammergericht having been, on a former diet here at Worms, in 1495,

Chap. IV.] COUNCIL OF REGENCY 229

The chief alteration was, that the emperor should be allowed to appoint
two new assessors to the court of justice as well as to the Regency. The
constitution of the court was in other respects the same as that agreed to at
Constance ; here, too, the division of the six circles was retained. The
three spiritual electors and the three first circles, Franconia, Swabia, and
Bavaria, were to send assessors learned in the law ; the three temporal
electors and the three last circles, Upper Rhine, Westphalia and Saxony,
assessors of the knightly class. Charles V. promised to send from his
hereditary dominions two of the former and two of the latter description.
He had also the joint nomination, with the States, of the judge or president
of the court, and of the two assessors out of the class of counts and lords.
The character of the tribunal, as we perceive, remained essentially that of
class representation (standisch) ; and this was the more unequivocal, since
it was to hold its sittings in the same place as the Council of Regency,
which was so decidedly representative, and was to be subject to the super-
vision of that body.

What likewise contributed to impress this character on it was, that the
States took upon themselves (as, indeed, they had from the first offered
to do) the maintenance of all these authorities. Many extensive plans
were devised for that end : e.g. the keeping back the annates and the
revenues of spiritual fiefs, which now went to Rome ; or a tax on the Jews ;
or the imposition of an import duty throughout the empire, which had the
most numerous and the warmest advocates ; at last, however, they came
back to a matricula on the pattern of that proposed at Constance, only that
the rate was much higher. The cost of the courts of justice was estimated
at 13,410 gulden ; that of the Council of Regency, the assessors of which
must receive much higher salaries, at 28,50s.1 But as it was foreseen that
there would be many deficits, it was determined to make the estimates at
50,000 gulden. The assessment of Constance was altered as follows :
the principle was, to multiply the contributions then required by five, and
this rule was generally adhered to, though not without many exceptions.
Many of the counts and lords, who were always very intractable, were left
at the old assessment ; others were raised, but only threefold at the
highest. On the other hand, some cities which had the reputation of being
very flourishing and wealthy, were compelled to submit to a contribution
above fivefold higher than the last. Niirnberg and Ulm were raised from
100 to 600 gulden ; Danzig, from 70 to 400. In this manner was the only
permanent impost on the States of the empire, which, together with the
supreme tribunal, had begun to fall into oblivion, revived.

Larger demands, with a view to a military organization, and also more

decreed, which constitution afterwards at other diets has been farther inter-
preted and amended ; that the same, as requisite and highly fitting and well-
considered, should be kept and executed in the empire, since the same could not
well be made or constituted more excellent than here follows. Therefore it is
the loyal advice of the said states, that his imperial majesty do now, in a common
accord with the states of the empire, with the alterations, suggestions, and
additions hereafter mentioned, graciously accept and approve of the said con-
stitution, and, like his majesty's imperial predecessors, engage to keep and
execute the same and uphold it as Roman emperor."

1 Harpprecht, IV., iii. 35, has, it is true, only 27,508 gulden, but this is an
error. In the Frankfurt copy the sums are given more correctly than in Harp-
precht,

230 DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

immediately to the emperor's coronation journey to Rome, necessarily
came under discussion.

It might have been thought that the projects of a general tax, and of a
military training of the people in parishes, would have been revived in con-
junction with that of the Council of Regency ; representative government
and popular armament had always hitherto been kindred notions. On this
occasion, however, the latter was not suggested ; either because it had
always been found to be impracticable, or because, since it was last enter-
tained, the power of the princes had so greatly increased. On the 21st of
March Charles V. appeared in person in the assembly of the States, and,
with much circumlocution, demanded through the mouth of Dr. Lamparter
succours for his expedition to Rome, which he himself estimated at 4,000
horse and 20,000 foot, for a year, He then promised to contribute 16,000
foot soldiers, 2,000 heavy horse, and a considerable body of light horse at
his own cost. Elector Joachim of Brandenberg answered in the name of
the states, " his brothers, lords, and good friends,"1 and prayed time for
consideration. To the demand itself, which was founded on the" ancient
customs of the empire, or to the number of troops specified, which was'not
unreasonable, there was no objection to be urged. But again the States
would promise nothing, till they were certain of the establishment of the
supreme court and of the Council of Regency, which latter institution they
more than ever felt bound in duty to insist on. At length they granted the
required number of troops, but only for half a year ; it was also agreed that
they should furnish the men, and not money for raising them ; they would
not give occasion a second time to all the disorders that had prevailed in
this matter under Maximilian.2 Lastly, care was taken that the German
troops should not be left to the command of foreigners : they were all to
march under their own officers ; the emperor was only to have the appoint-
ment of the commander-in-chief, who also must be a German. For every
leader wished to see his own men in the field under his own banner. A
matricula was drawn out on the principles of that of Constance of 1507.
As to the cavalry, it was almost exactly the same ; in addition to the 3,791
men then registered, there were now 240 from Austria and Burgundy, so
that all the electors, and many others of the states, had only to furnish their
old contingent. For the infantry (to which Austria and Burgundy now
contributed 600 men each) the former demand of 4,722 was generally
quadrupled, though with many exceptions.3 Thus arose the matricula of
1 521, which was the last, and formed the model for the military organisa-
tion of the German empire for ages.

Such were the most important measures proposed by the new emperor
at this first diet. It could not be said that they were fully adequate to
the wants of the nation. The resolutions adopted were chiefly to the
advantage of the sovereign princes ; the preliminary ordinances concerning
the execution of the judgments of the Imperial Chamber — which was

1 Letter from Fiirstenberg to Frankfurt, March 24. " S. Maj. sey auch
willens gen Rom zu Ziehen und dasjenige so dem Reich entwandt, wieder zu
erlangen." — " His majesty purposes to go to Rome, and to regain possession of
that which has been wrested from the empire."

2 Fiirstenberg, May 13: " Damit kein Finantz in den gesucht werde." —
" In order that it might not be turned into a matter of financial speculation,"

3 Neueste Sammlung der Reichsabschiede, ii., p. 211.

Chap. IV.] DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 231

chiefly intrusted to them — were, for example, manifestly in their favour :
even in his capitulation, the emperor had proposed to forbid alliances or
leagues between the nobles and vassals ; and this might have the effect of
forming more compact local powers. On the other hand, nothing was done
for the mass of the people, among whom such a ferment prevailed, though
it had been so much and so often talked of. The nobility remained ex-
cluded from all share in the business of the empire ; counts, lords, and
nobles were in a constant state of excitement concerning the legal decision
pf their disputes with princes and electors, which they wanted to have more
expeditious and equitable, and some rather acrimonious correspondences
on this subject passed at the diet. The cities had vainly demanded a seat
in the Imperial Chamber for their deputies ; the great subsidies of the
empire were discussed and voted without consulting them ; many of them
were recently aggrieved by the new rate of contributions imposed on them ;
and, besides this, they were threatened with an import duty for the whole
empire, from which they feared a universal disturbance to commerce.
They made incessant complaints, and at last only agreed to the project
because they would not, as they said, be the only members of the empire
who resisted ; they would not have to bear the blame if peace and justice
were not established.1

Notwithstanding these defects, it was a great point gained that the dis-
orders of the last years of Maximilian's reign were checked ; and that the
ideas of a representative government, which had never been realised under
him, were revived with such considerable success. The constitution of
1521, like that of 1507, was founded on a combination of matricular with
representative forms ; but the latter were now far more comprehensive,
since they did not, as on the former occasion, regard the administration of
justice only, but, according to the propositions of 1495 and 1500, formed
the basis of a Council of Regency, enjoying considerable independence of
the emperor. The attempt to revive an administration adapted to the
momentary interests of the policy of the house of Austria, such as that
constantly carried on by Maximilian, was met by a national institution,
which, if it could but acquire consistency and development, promised the
most important future results.

1 Hans Bock and Dr. Peutinger, who had sat in the committee, got little
credit. " Etlich geben," writes Fiirstenberg on the 20th of May, " Hr. Hansen
Bock etwa spitz Wort, als ob er sich und die rheinischen Stadte erhalten und
sie im Pfeffer habe stecken lassen. Dazu verdriesst sie und uns alle, dass sie
die Grafen fast gelachert (erleichtert) und die Beschwerung auf uns getrieben
haben. Dr. Peutinger der ist der aller onlustigst, er wolt gem dass man es
beim alten Anschlag liess, will nit ansehn dass Eine Stadt aufgeht die andre in
Abfall kommt." — " Some give Herr Hans Bock hard words, as if he had taken
care of himself and the Rhenish cities, and left them (the others) in the lurch.
Moreover, it vexes them and all of us that they have greatly relieved the counts,
and forced the burden upon us. Dr. Peutinger is the most discontented of all ;
he would gladly have abided by the old assessment : he does not like to see that
whilst one city rises, another falls into decline,"

232 FOREIGN RELATIONS [Book II.

FOREIGN RELATIONS. LUTHER.

While these political arrangements were concluded, the spiritual in-
terests of the empire were also frequently discussed : they opened another
field to the emperor's policy.

On all the other questions which came before him, he had been able to
keep in view Germany, his relation to the interior of the empire, and the
interests of his family ; but the Lutheran agitation extended so widely
that it affected even the most important foreign relations.

Charles V. was the child and nursling of that Burgundian court which
had been mainly composed of French elements under Philip the Good and
Charles the Bold, and had followed the peculiar line of policy dictated by
the position of those princes. Even as opposed to Ferdinand the Catholic
and the Emperor Maximilian, this court had maintained and acted on its
own independent views, often in direct hostility to the former. The
prospects which had been contemplated under Charles the Bold, and opened
under Philip I., appeared to find a necessary fulfilment in the position and
the rights of Charles V. The court of Brussels, which was not properly a
sovereign court and wielded no extraordinary powers, was suddenly called,
by the hereditary rights of its prince, to play the greatest part in Europe.
To take possession of this pre-eminent station was of course its first care.

For the attainment of this end, the policy of the Netherlands was con-
ducted with singular prudence and success by the Archduchess Margaret
and the Lord of Chievres. Friesland had been annexed to the Netherlands,
which had also been strengthened by the appointment of a kinsman to the
bishopric of Utrecht, and by the closest alliance with Liege and Cleves.
The crowns of Castile and Aragon, with all their dependencies, had been
taken possession of. Rebellious commotions had indeed been universal,
even in Naples and Sicily, but they had all been put down : the national
pride of the Castilians, offended by the dominion of a court composed of
foreigners, burst forth in an insurrection of the communes ; but the monarch
possessed natural allies there in the clergy and the grandees, and needed not
to fear the people.

The inheritance of Maximilian was now added to these vast territories.
The Austrian hereditary dominions, with all their rights or expectancies in
the east of Europe, which had been acquired by the late emperor, were
now left to the younger scion of the house, who, however, was kept in
constant dependence by his need of assistance : the empire Charles took
into his own hands, and founded the ascendency of his house in Germany
— with what care, we have just seen.

All this was carried into effect in the midst of continual irritations and
collisions with France, originating in the disputes between former dukes
and kings ; but matters were so skilfully conducted in Brussels, that
peace was maintained under the most difficult circumstances. The suc-
cessors of Louis XI. were compelled, however reluctantly, to allow the
posterity of Charles the Bold to consolidate a power which infinitely
exceeded all that could have been anticipated in his time.

Nothing now remained but for the Burgundian monarch to take pos-
session of the imperial rights in Italy, which appeared the more practic-
able, since he already ruled Naples and Sicily, and since his expedition
to Rome would be supported by the whole might of the Spanish monarchy ;

Chap. IV.] FOREIGN RELATIONS 233

— a combination which had never existed before. The Proposition1 with
which he opened the diet sufficiently showed that the young emperor was
determined to avail himself of it. During the proceedings, frequent
allusion was made to the recovery of the imperial dominions that had
been lost, and grants for that purpose were made by the diet ; negotia-
tions were entered into with the Swiss, even at Worms.

The maintenance of peace with France, the country the most nearly
interested, was no longer possible. Francis I. held the duchy of Milan
without having received or even sought the investiture ; the emperor's
first efforts must be directed to this point. Other plans, which gradually
attained to maturity, lay in the background ; for example, that of re-
covering the duchy of Burgundy, taken by Louis XL, the loss of which
the Netherlands had never learned to brook. The consolidation of two
great European powers completely opposed to each other, which had
long been silently preparing, became at this moment fully manifest.
France, — by her internal unity and her wide-spread connexions, both
early in the 14th and (after the expulsion of the English) at the close of
the 15 th and beginning of the 16th centuries, unquestionably the most
powerful country in Europe, — saw herself surrounded and overshadowed
on all her frontiers by a vassal who had gradually risen to power, whom
she thought she had crushed, but who, by a few easy and fortunate matri-
monial alliances, had come into possession of a combination of crowns
and dominions such as the world had never beheld. Here we first per-
ceive the hidden motives which rendered Francis so eager to obtain the
imperial crown ; he could not endure that his ancient vassal should rise
to a dignity superior to his own. That this nevertheless had come to
pass, — that his rival could now set up legitimate claims to the very
country the possession of which was peculiarly dear to the king as the
conquest of his own sword, — inflamed him with bitter and restless irrita-
tion. Growing ill will was observable in all the negotiations, and it
became evident that a breach was inevitable between these two great
powers.2

This was the grand conjuncture destined to develop the political life
of Europe ; the several states of which necessarily inclined to the one
side or the other, according to their peculiar interests. Its more imme-
diate consequence was, to determine the position of the empire and the
application of its forces.

For however highly Charles V. estimated the imperial dignity, it was
natural that he should not look upon Germany as the central point of his
policy. The sum of all his opinions and feelings was, of necessity, the
result of the aggregate of his various dominions and relations. He ever
felt himself the Burgundian prince who united the highest dignity of
Christendom with the numerous crowns he had inherited from his an-
cestors ; and he thus, like his grandfather, necessarily regarded the rights
he enjoyed as emperor as only a part of his power ; indeed the extent and
variety of the countries subject to his sway rendered it even more impos-

1 The Proposition was the speech with which the emperor opened the diet.
It contained the topics proposed for discussion. — Transl.

a What were the mutual reproaches appears in the French Apologia Madritae
Conventionis Dissuasoria, and the Imperial Refutatio Apologise in Goldast,
Politica Imperialia, pp. 863, 864,

234 DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

sible for him to devote himself completely to the internal affairs of Ger-
many, than it had been for Maximilian.

Of the workings of the German mind, he had not the faintest idea ; he
understood neither the language nor the thoughts of Germany.

It was a singular destiny that the nation, in the moment of an internal
agitation so mighty, so peculiar to itself, had called to its head a stranger
to its character and spirit ; in whose policy, which embraced a much
wider sphere, the wants and wishes of the German people could appear
but as a subordinate incident.

Not that religious questions were indifferent to the emperor — they
were very interesting to him ; but only in as far as they affected or
threatened the pope, and afforded a new view of his own connexion with
the court of Rome, or new weapons with which to encounter it.

Amidst all the various political relations of the emperor, this, however,
was unquestionably now the most important.

For as a conflict with France was obviously inevitable — a conflict of
which Italy must be the principal scene — the main question for the
emperor was, whether he should have the pope with him or not. The
two monarchs already rivalled each other in their efforts to gain Leo's
favour. Both were lavish in their promises ; the king, in case he should
conquer Naples, which he was resolved to attack ; the emperor, in the
event of an attempt upon Milan, which he was about to make in favour
of the pretender and the house of Sforza, and for the purpose of restoring
the rights of the empire over that province.

This, however, was not the only close relation of the emperor to the
see of Rome ; others of an ecclesiastical nature, but involving not less
important results, existed in his other dominions, and especially in Spain.

It is matter of notoriety that the main prop of the government of that
country, as constituted under Ferdinand the Catholic, was the Inquisi-
tion. But this institution was now the object of a simultaneous attack
in Castile, Aragon, and Catalonia. That powerful body, the Cortes of
Aragon, had applied to the pope, and had actually obtained from him
some briefs, according to which the whole constitution of the Inquisition
was to be altered and approximated to the forms of the common law.1
In the spring of 1520, Charles sent an ambassador to Rome to effect a
revocation of these briefs, which he foresaw must have important conse-
quences in his other dominions, and endanger his whole government.

The negotiations were pending when Charles arrived in the Nether-
lands, and a loud and almost universal voice, expressing both a political
and a religious opposition, called upon him to assume a bold attitude of
resistance to the pope.

Charles's acute and able envoy, who arrived in Rome while Eck was
there, and Luther's controversy gave rise to so many deliberations of the
theologians and sittings of the consistory, immediately perceived all the
advantage which might accrue from it to his master. " Your Majesty,"
he writes to the emperor on the 12th of May, 1520, " must go to Germany,
and there confer some favour upon a certain Martin Luther, who is at the
court of Saxony, and excites great anxiety in the court of Rome by the
things he preaches."2 This view of the case was actually adopted at the
Llorente, Hist, de 1'Inquisition, i., p. 395, nr. x.
2 Extract from Manuel's Despatches ; LJorente, i., p. 39S,

Chap. IV.] ALEANDER 235

imperial court. When the papal nuncio arrived there with the bull
against Luther, the prime minister let fall the expression, that the
emperor would do what was agreeable to the pope, if his holiness would
oblige him, and not support his enemies.1 On another occasion, Chievres
said that if the pope embarrassed the affairs of the emperor (with France),
other people would stir up embarrassments for him, out of which he would
not easily extricate himself.

This, therefore, was the real point on which the affair, from the first
moment, turned : not the objective truth of the opinions, nor the great
interests of the nation connected with them, — of which the newly arrived
sovereign was not conscious, and with which he could have no sympathy ;
but the general situation of politics, the support which the pope was
willing to grant the emperor, and the footing upon which the former
intended to place himself with regard to him.

This was well known at Rome. Great pains were taken to gain over
the emperor's confessor, Glapio, a Franciscan, who was not well disposed
towards Rome, " by civilities." It was determined, after long hesitation,
to nominate the Bishop of Liege, Eberhard of the Mark, who had gone
over from the side of France to that of Austria, cardinal, offensive as this
must be to the former power.2 The same motives had dictated the
mission of Aleander, who had been in the bishop's service before he came
to Rome, and, from the influence which that prelate enjoyed over the
government of the Netherlands, appeared there as the natural mediator
between Rome and the empire. This bishop, Aleander thought, too,
would be an active instrument in securing a favourable result to the
negotiations with the empire, though his language was generally frank
and audacious. All the measures which the nuncio suggested or em-
ployed were conceived in this spirit. The Bishop of Tuy, who had fol-
lowed the emperor from Spain, and enjoyed great consideration with the
prime minister, was to be conciliated by the gift of a benefice which had
been already promised to one who had every possible claim to it. Aleander
paid one of the imperial secretaries fifty gulden, for which sum the latter
engaged to render him " secret and good service ;" and promised the
same man a pension for some years, in consideration of his pledging him-
self to report to him all the deliberations of the Council of Regency hostile
to the court of Rome. He expresses himself persuaded that most of these
councillors and secretaries, although they hate the papacy, will " dance
to Rome's piping," if they do but see her gold.3 His bribes extended
even to the door-keepers and beadles who were to seize Luther's works ;
his sole and continual complaint is, that his employers send him too little
money. By a similar course of " cunning and promptitude," as he boasts,
he had carried into effect the mandate for the burning of Luther's books

1 From Aleander's letters: Pallavicini, i., c. 24, p. 136. — To what does the
emperor refer, when he afterwards reproaches the court of Rome with having
tried to delay the coronation at Aix ? Caroli Rescr. Goldast, Const. , p. 992.

- Molini, Documenti di Storia Italiana, i., p. 84.

3 He asks on one occasion for " denari si per mio vivere come per donar a
segretarii et a sbirri, li quali ancorche siino infensissimi alia corte di Roma,
tutta volta qualche danaro li farebbe saltar a nostro modo : quia aliter nihil
fit et vix faciemus aliquid." — Extracts from, Aleander's Letters in Miinter, Beitrdge
zw Kirchengeschichte, p. 78.

236 DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

in Flanders : " the emperor and his councillors saw the books burning,
before they were fully aware that they had assented to the mandate."
Aleander's letters present an odious and disgusting spectacle ; a most
immoral mixture of cunning, cowardice, arrogance, affected devotion and
mean ambition ; the vilest means employed in so great a cause. It is
not probable that these were without influence, though of course others
were needed to produce a decisive effect. But what had not been put in
practice ? In the matter of the Inquisition, especially, the pope agreed
to make the most important concessions. On the 21st of October, 1520,
he declared to the grand inquis^or of Spain, that he would give no further
encouragement to the demands of the Cortes of Aragon ; that he would
not confirm the briefs he had issued, and that he would introduce no
innovation in the affairs of the Inquisition, without the approbation of
the emperor. Even this did not satisfy Charles ; he demanded the entire
revocation of the briefs. On the 12th of December, the pope offered to
declare all steps that had been taken against the Inquisition null and void.
On the 16th of January, 1521, he at length actually permitted the emperor
to suppress the briefs, and expressed the wish that they might be sent
back to Rome in order that he might annul them.1

It is obvious that this state of things was little calculated to meet the
wishes of the people of Germany. Charles's position and connexions
required of him an alliance with the pope, instead of that opposition which
the spirit of the nation would have dictated. How grievously were the
hopes which such men as Hutten and Sickingen had placed on the young
emperor disappointed ! The papal bull was executed without hesitation
in the Low German hereditary dominions, where the higher clergy and
confessors seemed to engross all the consideration of the court : in January,
1521, there was a general belief that the emperor was determined to
destroy Luther, and, if possible, to exterminate his followers.2 A brief
arrived, probably together with the last concessions, wherein the pope
exhorted the emperor to give the force of law to his bull by an imperial
edict. " He had now an opportunity of showing that the unity of the
church was as dear to him as to the emperors of old. Vainly would he be
girded with the sword, if he did not use it, not only against the infidels,
but against heretics, who were far worse than infidels."3

One day in the month of February, on which a tournament was to be
held, the emperor's banner was already displayed, when the princes were
summoned, not to the lists, but to the imperial quarters, where this brief
was read to them, and at the same time an edict commanding the rigorous
execution of the bull was laid before them.

Strange and unlooked for entanglement of events ! The Lutheran con-
troversy led the pope to revoke that mitigation of the severities of the
inquisition in Spain which he had already determined on at the request
of the Cortes ; while in Germany, on the other hand, the emperor pre-
pared to crush the monk who so audaciously incited the people to rebel
against the authority of Rome. The resistance to the power of Dominican

1 Extracts in Llorente, i. , pp. 396 and 405.

2 Spengler to Pirkheimer, Dec. 29, Jan. 10, in Riederer, pp. 113, 131.

3 " Deus accinxit te terrenee potestatis supremo gladio, quem frustra profecto
gereres juxta Pauli apostoli sententiam, nisi eo uterere cum contra infideles turn
contra infidelibus multo deteriores haereticos." — Fr. Arch.

Chap. IV.] DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING LUTHER 237

inquisitors was in both countries a national one. This fully explains the
fact that, among the Spaniards who accompanied the court, those at
least of the middle classes took the liveliest interest in Luther and his
writings.

In Germany however the emperor could accomplish nothing without
the approbation of the empire ; and in submitting the draft of the man-
date before alluded to to the States, he had added, " that if they knew
of any thing better, he was ready to hear it." This gave rise to very
warm discussions in the imperial council. " The monk," says the Frank-
furt deputy, " makes plenty of work. Some would gladly crucify him,
and I fear he will hardly escape them ; only they must take care that he
does not rise again on the third day." The same doubt and fear, that
condemnation by a party would produce no permanent effect, prevailed
in the States. The emperor had intended to publish the edict without
further trial,1 according to the advice of Aleander, who declared that the
sentence of condemnation already pronounced was sufficient ; Doctor
Eck, too, sent in a little memorial, full of flatteries and admonitions, to
the same effect.2 It was the same question which had been discussed in
the curia,3 but the Estates of Germany were not so obsequious as the
jurists of Rome. They begged the emperor to reflect what an impression
would be made on the common people, in whose minds Luther's preaching
had awakened various thoughts, fantasies, and wishes, if he were sen-
tenced by so severe a mandate, without being even called to take his
trial. They urged the necessity of granting him a safe-conduct, and
summoning him to appear and defend himself. But a new question arose.
On what basis was this trial to be conducted ? The States distinguished
between two branches of Luther's opinions ; the one relating to church
government and discipline, which they were for handling indulgently,
even if he refused to recant (and they seized this occasion of once more
strongly impressing on the emperor the complaints of the nation against
the See of Rome) ; the other, against the doctrine and the faith " which
they, their fathers and fathers' fathers, had always held." Should he

1 In the draft it is said : " Und (weil) dann der gedacht Martin Luther alles
das, so muglichen gewesen ist, offentlichen gebredigt, geschrieben und ausge-
braitet, und yetzt am jungsten etlich Articul, so inn viel Orten in Behem gehalten
werden und die von den hailigen Concilien fur katzerisch erkannt und erklart
seyn, angenommen, und ine darum die papstlich Heyligkeit fur einen offenbaren
Ketzer wie obstet erklart und verdammt hat und deshalben inen weiter zu
horen nit rat noch geburlich ist." — " And (since) then the said Martin Luther has
openly preached, written, and spread all this as much as possible, and has now
lately accepted certain articles which are maintained in many places in Bohemia,
and which are recognised and declared by the holy councils to be heretical, and
his papal holiness has, therefore, as beforesaid, declared and condemned him as
an avowed heretic, and therefore it is neither advisable nor fitting to hear him
further."

2 "Ad Carolum V. de Ludderi causa: Ingoldstadt, 18 Feb. Saxones sub
Carolo magno colla fidei et imperio dedere : absit ut sub Carolo maximo Ludder
Saxo alios fidem veram et unicam deponere faciat."

3 The Corte Romana in its wider sense, i.e., the cardinals, bishops, and other
officials in the Papal Court, making the Papal Government. In its stricter sense
the term would refer to the body of lawyers practising in the Papal Courts of
Justice.

238 DIET OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

also persist in these, and refuse to recant, they declared themselves ready
to assent to the imperial mandate, and to maintain the established faith
without further disputation.1

Such were the views with which Luther was summoned to Worms.
" We have determined," says the imperial citation, " we and the States
of the Holy Roman empire, to receive information from thee concerning
the doctrine and the books that have been uttered by thee." An imperial
herald was sent to conduct him.

With regard to the opposition to the temporal interference of Rome,
the States were essentially of the same opinion with Luther. As the
emperor was bound even by his capitulation to restore and maintain the
Concordat and the ecclesiastical liberties of the nation, which had been
continually violated to an insufferable extent, the lesser committee was
now employed in drawing up a complete statement of the grievances of
the nation against the See of Rome. Their manner of proceeding was
this ; each prince delivered in a list of the grievances of which he had
more particularly to complain, and every charge alleged by more than
one was received and recorded. Already it was feared that the spiritual
princes would draw back ; but the councillors of the temporal were deter-
mined in that case to carry the matter on to the end alone. A statement
of grievances was produced which reminds us of the writings of Hutten
and the Book to the German Nobles ; so strong was the censure of the
papal See generally, and above all, of the government of Pope Leo X.2
It is filled with the cunning and malignant devices, the roguery and
cheating, which prevailed at the court of Rome. The curia was also
directly accused, in practice, of simony. If Luther had done nothing
more than attack the abuses of the curia, he could never have been
deserted by the States ; the opinion he had expressed on this subject was
the general one, and was indeed their own. Probably the emperor him-
self would not have been able to withstand it ; his father confessor had
threatened him with the chastisements of Heaven if he did not reform
the church.

jg We feel almost tempted to wish that Luther had remained for the
present satisfied with this. The nation, engaged under his conduct in a
common struggle against the temporal sway of the church of Rome,
would have become for the first time strongly united and completely

1 " Der Stennd Antwurt auf keyserlicher Mt. Beger des Mandats." — " The
answer of the States to the desire of his imperial majesty to the mandate."
Without a date. Unfortunately, also, Fiirstenberg has not dated his letters
precisely. The one, for instance, which refers to this resolution, he has inscribed
Saturday after Marthas. Saturday after Matthiae, March 2, is certainly meant.
In which case this resolution of the States is of that date. For that their answer
should have referred to a command of the emperor of the 7 th of March, is im-
possible, since the letter of summons to Luther is dated the 6th of March.

2 This document is republished from the old printed edition, in Walch, xv.
2058. The copy in the Frankfurt Archives, which agrees with the printed one,
shows more plainly that the work consists of three parts ; the first reaching to
E iiii., upon which follows an episode ; the second, with a fresh superscription,
touching especially the usurpations of the spiritual courts of justice, reaching
to G iii. ; finally, a third, containing chiefly the complaints of the clergy them-
selves, and of the ordinaries, against the court of Rome, which was presented
on the Monday after Jubilate, April 22, Luther himself being by.

Chap. IV.] GLAPIO 239

conscious of its own unity, But the answer to this is, that the strength
of a mind like his would have been broken, had it been fettered by any
consideration not purely religious. Luther had been incited not by the
wants of the nation, but by his own religious convictions, without which
he would never have done any thing, and which had indeed led him
further than would have been either necessary or expedient in a political
struggle.

Some still hoped, however, that he would recall one step ; that he
would at least not persist in his last most offensive expressions which
occurred in the Book of the Babylonish Captivity. This was in par-
ticular the opinion of the emperor's confessor. He did not regard the
papal anathema as an insuperable obstacle to an amicable adjustment.
Luther had not yet had a hearing ; a door remained open to the pope
for restoring him to the bosom of the church, if he would but consent to
retract this last book, which was full of the most untenable assertions
and not comparable to his other writings. But by maintaining these
passages he laid a stumbling-block in his own path ; he would cause that
the precious wares which he might otherwise bring safely to port would
be shipwrecked.1 At first he proposed to the Elector of Saxony to nomi-
nate two or three councillors with whom he could consult as to the means
of arranging the affair. The elector replied that he had not learned
councillors sufficient. Glapio hereupon asked whether the parties would
submit the matter to chosen arbitrators, by whose decision the pope
himself would abide. The elector did not believe it possible to induce
the pope to consent to this, especially since the emperor intended so soon
to leave Germany. On hearing this, Glapio sighed. The silent, reserved
prince, who repelled all attempts at intimacy or sympathy from others,
and who was in fact the only human being that had any influence over
Luther, was absolutely unapproachable : it was impossible to obtain from
him even a private audience. The confessor, therefore, addressed him-
self to other friends of Luther. He went to the Ebernburg to visit Sick-
ingen, who had just then re-entered the emperor's service and was
esteemed one of Luther's most distinguished patrons, in the hope of
obtaining his mediation. Here, too, Glapio expressed himself in such a
manner on some points, that he might have been supposed to be an
adherent of Luther. I am not of opinion that this was a stratagem, as
so many have assumed ; Aleander, at least, was very uneasy about it,
and neglected no means of interrupting the course of the negotiations.
It is obvious that Luther's opposition to the pope promised to be a doubly
powerful instrument of the imperial policy, if the government did not find
itself compelled absolutely to condemn him on account of his open schism,
and could keep the matter pending before a court of arbitration. Sickingen
sent an invitation to Luther to visit him in passing by.2

For Luther was already on his way from Wittenberg to Worms. He
preached once on the road, and in the evening when he arrived at his inn,
amused himself with playing the lute ; he took no interest whatever in
politics, and his mind was elevated far above all subjects of mere personal
interest, whether regarding himself or others. At various places on the
road he had to pass through, might be seen posted up the decretal con-

1 Seckendorf, Comm. de Lutheranismo, i. 142.

2 See Luther's Narrative. Works, Altenb. Ed., t. i., p. 733.

240 LUTHER AT WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

demning his books, so that when they arrived at Weimar the herald asked
him whether he would go on. He replied that he would rely on the
emperor's safe-conduct. Then came Sickingen's invitation. He replied,
if the emperor's confessor had any thing to say to him, he could say it in
Worms. Even at the last station, a councillor of his sovereign sent him
word that he had better not come, for that he might share the fate of
Huss. " Huss," replied Luther, " was burnt, but not the truth with
him : I will go, though as many devils took aim at me as there are tiles
on the roofs of the houses."1 Thus he reached Worms, on the 18th of
April, 1 521, one Tuesday, about noon, just as people sat at dinner. When
the watchman on the church tower blew his trumpet, every body crowded
into the streets to see the monk. He sat in the open waggon (Rollwagen)
which the council of Wittenberg had lent him for the journey, in the cowl
of his order ; before him rode the herald, with his tabard, embroidered
with the imperial eagle, hung over his arm. Thus they passed through
the wondering, gaping crowd, regarded by some with sympathy, by all
with various and unquiet emotions. Luther looked down upon the
assembled multitude, and his daring courage rose to the height of firm
confidence : he said, " God will be with me." In this state of mind he
alighted.

The very next day towards evening he was conducted into the assembly
of the empire. The young emperor, the six electors (among whom was
his own master), a body of spiritual and temporal princes before whom
their subjects bowed the knee, numerous chiefs celebrated for deeds in
war and peace, worshipful delegates of cities, friends and foes, were there,
awaiting the entrance of the monk. The sight of this majestic and
splendid assemblage seemed for a moment to dazzle him. He spoke in
a feeble and almost inaudible voice. Many thought he was frightened.
Being asked whether he would defend his books (the titles of which were
read aloud) collectively, or consent to recant, he replied that he begged
for time to consider : he claimed, as we have seen, the benefit of the
forms and customs of the empire.

The following day he appeared again before the diet. It was late before
he was admitted ; torches were already lighted ; the assembly was perhaps
more numerous than the day before ; the press of people so great, that
the princes hardly found seats ; the interest in the decisive moment, more
intense. Luther now exhibited not a trace of embarrassment. The same
question as before being repeated to him, he answered with a firm, distinct
voice and with an air of joyful serenity. He divided his works into books
of Christian doctrine, writings against the abuses of the See of Rome, and
controversial writings. To be compelled to retract the first, he said,
would be unheard of, since even the papal bull had acknowledged that
they contained much that was good ; the second, would afford the
Romanists a pretext for the entire subjugation of Germany; the third,
would only give his adversaries new courage to resist the truth : — an

1 Miiller, Staatscabinet, viii. 296. I retain the expression, which he himself
makes use of in a subsequent letter : " Wenn ich hatte gewusst, dass so viel
Teufel auf mich gehalten hatten, als Ziegel auf den Dachern sind, ware ich
dennoch mitten unter sie gesprungen mit Freuden." — " If I had known that as
many devils would have set upon me as there are tiles on the roofs, I should still
have sprung into the midst of them with joy." — Letters, ii. 139.

Chap. IV.] LUTHER AT WORMS, A.D. 1521 241

answer which was more directed against the erroneous form in which the
questions had been arranged, than against the views with which the
States had entered on the trial. The official of Treves put the matter in
a more tangible shape, by advising Luther not to give a total and un-
qualified refusal to the proposal to retract. Had Arius, he said, retracted
some points, his good books would not have been destroyed together with
the bad. In his (Luther's) case, too, means would be found to rescue
some of his books from the flames, if he would recant what had been con-
demned by the Council of Constance, and what he had repeated in defiance
of that condemnation. The official insisted more on the infallibility of
councils than on that of the pope.

But Luther now believed as little in the one as in the other ; he replied
that even a council might err. This the official denied. Luther repeated
that he would prove that this might happen, and that it had happened.
The official could not of course go into the inquiry in that assembly. He
asked again definitively whether Luther meant to defend all his works as
orthodox, or to retract any part. He announced to him that, if he utterly
refused to recant, the empire would know how to deal with a heretic.
Luther had expected that a disputation or confutation, or some attempt
at demonstrating his errors, awaited him in Worms ; when therefore he
found himself at once treated as a false teacher, there arose in his mind
during the conversation the full consciousness of a conviction dependent
on no act of the will, founded on God's word, regardless of and untroubled
by pope or council : threats alarmed him not ; the universal sympathy,
the warm breathings of which he felt around him, had first given him
strength and courage : his feeling was, as he said at going out, that had
he a thousand heads he would let them all be struck off sooner than
recant. He repeated now, as he had done before, that, unless it were
demonstrated to him by texts from the Holy Scripture that he was in
error, he could not and would not recant, since his conscience was captive
to God's word. " Here I stand," exclaimed he : "I can do no other-
wise ; God help me. Amen."1

It is remarkable how different was the impression which Luther made
upon those present. The Spaniards of high rank, who had always spoken
af him with aversion and contempt, who had been seen to take a book of
Luther's or Hutten's from a book-stall, tear it in pieces and trample it in
the mire,2 thought the monk imbecile. A Venetian, who was otherwise
perfectly impartial, remarks, that Luther showed himself neither very
learned nor remarkably wise, nor even irreproachable in his life, and that
tie had not answered to the expectations conceived of him.3 It is easy
to imagine what was Aleander's judgment of him. But even the emperor
iad received a similar impression : " That man," said he, " will never

1 Acta, Revdi Patris Martini Lutheri coram Caesa Majestate, etc., Opp. Lutheri,
at. ii. p. 411. The account which Pallavicini drew from the letters of Aleander
:ontains somewhat more : a good deal of the detail which he gives, as well as
lifierent pieces of news, I found in the letters of the Frankfurt delegates, Fiirsten-
nerg and Holzhausen.

2 Buschius ad Huttenum. Opp. Hutt., iv., p. 237.

3 Contarenus ad Matthaeum Dandulum Vormatiae, 26™° d. April, 1521, in
:he Chronicle of Sanuto, torn. xxx.

16

242 LUTHER AT WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

make a heretic of me." The next day (19th of April) he announced to
the states of the empire in a declaration written in French and with his
own hand, his determination to maintain the faith which had been held
by his predecessors, orthodox emperors and catholic kings. In that word
he included all that had been established by councils, and especially that
of Constance. To this he would devote his whole power, body and soul.
After the expressions of obstinacy which they had yesterday heard from
Luther, he felt remorse that he had spared him so long, and would now
proceed against him as against an avowed heretic. He called upon the
princes to act in the same spirit, according to their duty and their pro-
mises.

Luther had, on the contrary, completely satisfied his own countrymen.1
The hardy warriors were delighted with his undaunted courage ; the
veteran George of Frundsberg clapped him on the shoulder, encourag-
ingly, as he went in ; the brave Erich of Brunswick sent him a silver
tankard of Eimbeck beer through all the press of the assembly. At
going out a voice was heard to exclaim, " Blessed is the mother of such
a man !" Even the cautious and thoughtful Frederick was satisfied with
his professor: "Oh," said he to Spalatin in the evening, in his own
chamber, " how well did Doctor Martinus speak before the emperor and
states !" He was particularly delighted at the ease and ability with
which Luther had repeated his German declaration in Latin. From this
time, the princes rivalled each other in the frequency of their visits to
him. " If you be right, Sir Doctor," said Landgrave Philip of Hessen,
after a few jocose words, which Luther gently rebuked with a smile, " may
God help you." Luther had already been told, that if his enemies burned
him, they must burn all the German princes with him. Their latent
sympathy was aroused and set in motion by the emperor's peremptory
manifesto, so foreign to all the forms of the empire. A paper was found
in his apartments on which were written the words, " Woe to the land
whose king is a child !" A declaration of open hostility was fixed on the
town-hall, on the part of four hundred allied knights against the Romanists,
and especially against the Archbishop of Mainz, for trampling under foot
honour and divine justice. They had sworn not to abandon the upright
Luther. " I am ill at writing," said the author of this proclamation ;
" but I mean a great mischief, with 8,000 foot soldiers at my back. Bund-
schuh, Bundschuh, Bundschuh !"2 This seemed to announce a combina-
tion between the knights and the peasants to protect Luther against his
enemies. In fact, the courtiers did not feel perfectly at ease, when they
saw themselves thus unarmed and defenceless, in the midst of a warlike
nation in a state of violent excitement and agitated by conflicting pas-
sions.

For the moment, however, there was nothing to fear, since Sickingen
and many other knights and captains had entered Charles's service, in

1 " Contarenus ad Tiepolum, 25"10 d. Apr. Habet intentissimos inimicos et
maximos fautores : res agitur tanta contentione quantam nemo crederet." —
Letter of Tonstall from the Diet of Worms, in Fiddes' Life of Wolsey, p. 242. The
Germans every where are so addicted to Luther, that rather than he shall be
oppressed by the pope's authority, a hundred thousand of the people will sacrifice
their lives.

2 The war-cry of the league of the peasants of the Upper Rhine in 1501-2.

Chap. IV.] EDICT OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 243

the hope of soon reaping an ample harvest of glory and gain under his
banners.

Before the States entered on the discussion of the emperor's proclama-
tion, they proposed that an attempt should be made to induce Luther to
renounce his most offensive opinions ; they intimated that there was
danger of a rebellion, if the proceedings against him were of so hasty and
violent a kind : for this purpose the emperor granted a delay of some
days.

But it was easy to foresee that little could be accomplished by such
means. Representations were made to Luther concerning his opinions
on the councils ; — he persisted in affirming that Huss was unjustly con-
demned at Constance. He was again asked to acknowledge the emperor
and states as judges of his doctrines ; — he declared that he would not
allow men to be the judges of God's word.

Aleander maintains that Luther had really, at one moment, been
advised to abandon some of the opinions he had last proclaimed, and to
defend only those immediately directed against Rome. No trace of this
is to be found in German authorities. It does not even appear that the
question contained in the memorial of the States was very precisely put ;
but all his declarations were so clear and explicit, so profoundly religious,
that no personal considerations were to be expected from him : he had
emancipated himself for ever from the forms of the church of Rome ; in
rejecting the decision of one council, he rejected the whole idea on which
it rested : a compromise was now impossible.

But as he quitted Worms without having consented to the smallest
limitation of his opinions, the former resolution of the States, which had
given occasion to his being summoned before them, was now put in force
as an instrument of his condemnation. The emperor, at least, could not
have contemplated a revision of this decree or a fresh debate upon it,
since he had just formed the most intimate relations with the See of
Rome.

The ill concealed hostile disposition in which Don Juan Manuel had
found the court of Rome in the spring of 1520, had been converted into
the strictest union by his efforts, within the space of a year. On the
8th of May, 1521, an alliance was concluded between Charles and Leo, in
which they mutually promised " to have the same friends and the same
enemies, without exception ; the same will in consent and denial, in
attack and defence." They began by making common cause against
France ; the pope having at length determined completely to take the
side of the emperor, and to exert all his powers to drive the French out of
Milan and Genoa. The immediate object, however, was the spiritual
affairs of Germany.

In the 1 6th article of the treaty, the emperor promised that, " inasmuch
as certain men had arisen, who fall off from the Catholic faith and wickedly
slander the apostolic see, he would employ all his powers in punishing
them and avenging the wrong they had committed against the apostolic
see, in like manner as if it had been done against himself."1

It cannot be affirmed that the conduct of Charles V. in the affair of

1 Tabulae Foederis, &c, in Dumont, t. iv.,part iii.,p. 98. " Quoniam sanctis-
simo domino nostro cura est aliquanto etiam ma"jor rerum spiritualium et pastoralis

officii quam temporalium "

16 — 2

244 EDICT OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 [Book II.

Luther was dictated exclusively by political motives ; it is very probable
that a denial of the infallibility of councils and an attack on the sacra-
ments, was as offensive as it was unintelligible to him ; but it is perfectly
clear that he was mainly determined by politics. To what purposes
might not Luther havo been turned, if he had moderated his tone so as
to render it unnecessary to condemn him ? But as this was not to be
avoided, it was made a condition of the great war which was about to be
declared.

There was, however, still a certain difficulty in adopting decisive
measures, arising from the universal sympathy which Luther had excited
during his presence. The resolution passed by the States was now re-
pugnant to a considerable number of them. The question was, whether
they would acquiesce without contest in an edict founded upon this
resolution.

In order to obtain this result, the following course was adopted.

Nothing was said for some time ; meanwhile many quitted Worms, as
all the other business was ended.

On the 25 th of Majr, when the emperor appeared at the town-hall to
go through the formalities of receiving the resolutions concerning the
Council of Regency, the courts of justice, and the matricula, in person,
he requested the States to adjourn their departure for three days, in order
to terminate some matters which were still undecided.1 According to
ancient usage, the members of the diet escorted him back to the bishop's
palace, where he resided ; the electors of Saxony and the Palatinate had
left Worms, but the four others were present. On their arrival at the
palace, they found the papal nuncios awaiting them. In consequence of
Aleander's urgent representations of the necessity of sending this mark
of honour, briefs had arrived from the pope to the electors, and were
presented to them by the nuncios. A brief had also arrived addressed
to the emperor, the publication of which had been designedly delayed
till this moment. Under the impressions made by these flattering com-
munications, the emperor now declared that he had caused an edict on
the Lutheran affair to be drawn up, on the basis of the former resolution
of the States. This document had even been composed — such was the
confidence now prevailing between emperor and pope — by one of the
nuncios ; the present was esteemed the favourable moment for communi-
cating it to these members of the diet. There was now no legitimate or
efficient line of opposition open to them, even had they been disposed to
pursue it ; and the Elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I., replied that the
opinion of the States was certainly conformable to the measure in question.
Aleander hastened to place this instantly on official record.2

We perceive that the edict was not laid before the States in assembly ;
it was not submitted to any new deliberation ; it was announced to them
unexpectedly, in the emperor's apartments, and after every artifice had
been employed to incline them to listen favourably to any proposal : their

1 Letter of Fiirstenberg, May 28, Frankf. Arch.

2 Pallavicini, lib. i., c. 28, from Aleander's Letters. It is evident what pleasure
the narrator takes in the success of so dexterous a proceeding : " Era ignoto il
misterio all' istesso Grancancelliere — crucciava forte i ministri di papa, veggendo
nel discioglimento della dieta rimanerse con le mani vacue : ma i principi se
vogliono adoperare prudentemente, conviene," &c, &c.

Chap. IV.] EDICT OF WORMS, A.D. 1521 245

assent, which cannot even be called a formal one, was extorted by a sort
of surprise.1

It was, however, as severe and peremptory as possible. Sentence of
ban and re-ban was declared against Luther as a member lopped off from
the church of God ; together with all his adherents, patrons and friends.
His writings, and those of his followers, were prohibited and sentenced to
be burnt. And that no similar works might appear in future, a censorship
was appointed to control the press.2

Aleander had thus attained the long-desired object of all his negotia-
tions. In the course of the day he had two fair copies made, the one in
German, the other in Latin : the next morning — Sunday, — he hastened
with them to the emperor ; he found him with the States and the court
in the church, but even this did not prevent him from laying the paper
before Charles on the spot ; in the church it received the imperial signa-
ture. This was on the 26th of May ; but Aleander had thought it ex-
pedient to date it the 8th, at which time the assembly was still tolerably
full.

By this act the temporal power, as well as the spiritual, declared open
resistance to the spirit of religious innovation which was awakened in
the nation. The opposition had not succeeded, as they had hoped, in
inspiring the emperor with their own hostility to the papacy ; on the con-
trary, he had drawn closer all the ties which bound him to the pope.
The two representatives of the secular and ecclesiastical powers had united,
in order to uphold the established constitution of the church.

Whether they would succeed was, indeed, another question.

1 Dr. Caspar Riffel, in his Christl. Kirchengesch. der Neuesten Zeit, vol. i.,
p. 214, cannot, in fact, avoid admitting this. But he rejoices, that " the
emperor, by means of this ' surprise,' removed all opportunity for even one of
them (the princes) to break his word at the decisive moment." It could not
well be said more plainly that a serious difference prevailed between the emperor
and the princes.

2 Edict of Worms in Walch, xv. 2264. It is remarkable that in all other
departments the censorship is conferred on the bishop alone ; but in that of
theology, only in conjunction with " the faculty of the Holy Scriptures of the
nearest situated university." — § 36.

BOOK HI.

ENDEAVOURS TO RENDER THE REFORMATION NATIONAL
AND COMPLETE.

1521—1525.

The peculiar character and form which the Latin church had gradually
assumed gave rise, as we have already seen, to the necessity for its reform ;
— a reform demanded by the state of the world, and prepared by the
national tendencies of the German mind, the advancement of learning,
and the divergencies of theological opinion. We have likewise remarked
how the abuse of the traffic in indulgences, and the disputes to which it
gave birth, led, without design or premeditation on the part of any con-
cerned, to a violent outbreak of opposition.

While we regard this as inevitable, we cannot proceed further without
pausing to make some observations on its extreme danger.

For every member and every interest of society is enlinked with the
whole established order of things which forms at once its base and its
shelter ; if once the vital powers which animate this mass are thrown
into conflict, who can say where the victorious assailants will find a check,
or whether every thing will not be overwhelmed in common ruin ?

No institution could be more exposed to this danger than the papacy,
which had for centuries exercised so mighty an influence over the whole
existence of the European nations.

The established order of things in Europe was, in fact, the same military-
sacerdotal state which had arisen in the eighth and ninth centuries, and,
notwithstanding all the changes that had been introduced, had always
remained essentially the same — compounded of the same fundamental
elements. Nay, even those very changes had generally been favourable
to the sacerdotal element, whose commanding position had enabled it to
pervade every form of public and private life, every vein of intellectual
culture. How then would it have been possible to assail it without pro-
ducing a universal shock ; to question it, without endangering the whole
fabric of civilisation ?

It must not be supposed that so resistless a power of persuasion resided
in a merely dogmatic faith, wrought out by the hierarchy and the schools.
The establishment of this would, on the contrary, have excited incessant
controversy, which, though generally confined within the region of received
ideas, would sometimes have been carried beyond that limit. But the
intimate connexion which the papacy maintained with all established
authorities had defeated every attempt at opposition. How, for example,
could an emperor have ventured to take under his protection religious
opinions opposed to the dominant system of faith, not on particular and
unimportant points, but profoundly and essentially ? Even as against
a pope on whom he was making war, he could not have dared to do it ;
he must have feared to undermine the spiritual basis on which his own
rank and power were founded ; to be the first to break through the circle
of ideas and associations by which the minds of men were bounded. The
authorities felt, at every moment, the indissoluble nature of their connexion
with the hierarchy, and generally made themselves the instruments of
the persecution of all who dissented from the faith prescribed by the church.

246

Book III.] INTRODUCTION 247

It was now also to be considered that projects and attempts of the most
dangerous kind had been connected with the more recent attacks on the
doctrine and discipline of the church of Rome.

A century and a half had elapsed since John Wicliffe had engaged in a
similar contest with the papacy in England (with nearly the same weapons,
and supported by the same national impulses) to that which Luther now
entered upon in Germany ; this was instantly accompanied by a tumul-
tuous rising of the lowest classes of the people, who, not content with
reforms in the creed, or an emancipation from the see of Rome, aimed at
the abolition of the whole beneficed clergy,1 and even at the equalisation
of the nobleman and the peasant ; i.e. at a complete overthrow of Church
and State. It is uncertain whether Wicliffe had any share in these pro-
ceedings or not. At all events, the resentment they excited fell upon him,
and he was removed from Oxford, the scene of his labours, whence he
might have exercised a singular influence over England and the world,
to the narrow and obscure sphere of a country parish.

The disorders in Bohemia, which broke out in consequence of the teaching
and the condemnation of Huss, at first related exclusively to the spiritual
matters whence they arose ;2 but the severity with which they were
repressed soon excited an extremely dangerous fanaticism. The
Taborites3 not alone rejected the doctrines of the Fathers of the church
equally with those of later times, but they demanded the destruction of
all the books in which those doctrines were contained. They declared it
vain and unevangelical, nay, sinful, to prosecute studies and to take
degrees at the universities ;4 they preached that God would destroy the
world, and would only save the righteous men of five cities ;5 their preachers
deemed themselves the avenging angels of the Lord, sent to execute his
sentence of annihilation. Had their power corresponded with their will,
they would have transformed the earth into a desert in the name of the
Lord.

For a thirst for destruction is inevitably excited by successful opposition,
and is the more violent, the more powerful the enemy with whom it has
to contend.

Was not then, we must now inquire, a similar storm to be feared in
Germany, where the pope had hitherto wielded a portion of the imperial
power ?

The nation was in a state of universal ferment ; a menacing revolt
against the constituted authorities was already stirring in the depths of

1 See Prioris et Capituli Cantuarensis Mandatum, Sept. 16, 1381, in Wilkins's
Concilia Magnse Britanniae, iii., p. 133.

2 One chief cause of this movement which is commonly overlooked, is men-
tioned by the well-informed Hemmerlin in his tract De Libertate Ecclesiastica.
I will give this in his own words. " In regno Bohemias quasi omnes possessiones
et terrarum portiones et portiones portionum quasi per-singulos passus fuerunt
occupatae, intricatae et aggravate per census, reditus et proventus clero debitos.
Unde populares nimis exasperati — insultarunt in clerum et religiosos — et terram
prius occupatam penitus liberarunt."

3 The extreme party among the Hussites, in contradistinction to the Calix-
tines.

4 Formula fidei Taboritarum apud Laur. Byzynium (Brzezina) : Ludewig
Reliquiae MSS., torn, vi., p. 191.

5 Byzynii Diarium belli Hussitici, ib., p. 155 sq.

248 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

society ; would not this be called into action by an attack on the highest
of all acknowledged earthly authorities ? Would not the destructive forces
which every society harbours in its bosom, and which this sacerdotal-
military state had certainly not been able to neutralise or destroy, now
rear their heads ?

The whole future destiny of the German nation was involved in the
question whether it could withstand this danger or not ; whether it would
succeed in severing itself from the papacy, without imperilling the state
and the slowly won treasures of civilisation in the process ; and what
form of constitution — for without political changes the separation was
impossible — the nation would then assume. On the answer to these
questions rested, at the same time, the possible influence of Germany on
the rest of the world.

The immediate course of events assumed a most menacing and dangerous
character.

CHAPTER I.

DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG OCTOBER, I52I, TO MARCH, 1522.

Once more had the supreme temporal power in Germany allied itself with
the papacy, and this at first could not fail to make a deep impression.
The edict of Worms was published in all parts of the empire ; and in some
places the confessors were instructed by the bishops to refuse absolution
to every one who should be guilty of avowing Lutheran tenets. Luther's
own sovereign could only save him by seizing him on his way through
the Thuringian forest, and carrying him, in feigned captivity, to the safe
asylum of the Wartburg. A report was spread that an enemy of the
elector had imprisoned and perhaps killed him.

It soon, however, became manifest how little had been effected by
these severities.

In the towns of the Netherlands in which Charles happened to be residing,
Luther's writings were collected and publicly burned ; but the emperor
might be seen to smile ironically as he passed these bonfires in the market-
place, nor do we find any trace of such executions in the interior of Germany.
On the contrary, the events of the diet and the new edict only gained
fresh partisans for Luther's cause. It appeared a powerful argument for
the truth of his doctrines, that when he publicly avowed his books at
Worms, and declared that he was ready to retract them if any one could
confute him, no one had ventured to accept the challenge.1 " The more
Luther's doctrine is pent up," says Zasius, " the more it spreads."2 If
this was the experience of the university of Freiburg, where the orthodox
party was so strong, what must it have been elsewhere ? The Elector of

1 " Ein schoner dialogus und gesprech zwischen eim Pfarrer und eim Schul-
thayss, betreffend alien iibelstand der Geystlichen," &c. " A fine dialogue and
conversation between a parish priest and a sheriff touching the ill condition of
the clergy," &c, doubtless written immediately after the meeting of the diet ;
in which are these words : " Warum hand ir dan nit Doctor Luther mit dis-
putiren yez zu Worms iiberwunden." " Why did you not then overcome Doctor
Luther in the disputation now held at Worms ?" This is the argument with
which the sheriff brings over the parish priest to his views.

2 Epp., i. 50.

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG 249

Mainz did not think it expedient to grant the Minorites the permission
begged by their provincial, to preach against Luther in his diocese, fearing
that it would but increase the agitation of the public mind.1 In despite
of the new regulations for the censorship contained in the edict, pamphlet
after pamphlet appeared in favour of the new doctrines. These were
mostly anonymous, but Hutten ventured to put his name to a direct
attack on the pope's nuncio, Aleander, the author of the edict. In this
he asks him whether he imagines that he can crush religion and freedom
by means of a single little edict, artfully wrung from a youthful prince ;
or that an imperial command had any power against the immutable word
of God. Were not rather the opinions of a prince subject to change ?
The emperor, he believed, " would learn to think very differently in time."2
The agents of Rome themselves were astonished to find of how little avail
was the edict they had obtained with so much difficulty. The ink, they
said, was scarcely dry with which the emperor had signed it, when already
it was violated on every side. They are said, however, to have consoled
themselves with the reflection, that if it had no other results, it must
lay the foundation for inevitable dissension among the Germans themselves.
It was a most significant circumstance that the university of Wittenberg
was as little affected by the imperial edict as it had been by the papal
bull. There the new doctrines had already taken root and flourished
independently of Luther's personal influence, and thither the flower of
the German youth flocked to receive and adopt them. It made indeed
but little difference whether Luther was present or not ; the lecture
rooms were always crowded, and his doctrines3 were defended with the
same enthusiasm, both orally and in writing. In short, this infant uni-
versity now took the boldest ground. When the Sorbonne at last broke
silence, and declared itself against Luther, Melanchthon thought himself
not only bound to undertake the defence of his absent friend, but he
even dared to fling back the accusation upon the university of Paris,
the source of all theological learning, the parent stem of which the German
universities were branches, the Alma Mater to whose decision the whole
world had ever bowed, and to charge her herself with falling off from
true Christianity. He did not hesitate to declare the whole of the doctrines
current at the universities, especially the theology of the schools, false
and heretical when tried by the standard of Scripture.4 The highest
powers in Christendom had spoken, the pope had issued an anathema,
and his sentence had been confirmed by that of the great mother university,
and, finally, the emperor had ordered it to be executed ; and yet, in the
small town of Wittenberg, which a few years before was hardly known, a
professor little more than twenty years of age, in whose slight figure and
modest bearing no one could have detected any promise of heroism or

1 Capito ad Zwinglium Hallis, iv., Aug., 1521. (Epp. Zw., i. 78.) He required
sermons, " citra perturbationem vulgi, absque tarn atrocious affectibus."

2 Invectiva in Aleandrum. Opera, iv., p. 240.

3 Spalatini Annales, 1521, October. " Scholastici, quorum supra millia ibi
turn fuerunt." Nevertheless, in the course of the winter, the electors of Bruns-
wick and Brandenburg forbade their subj ects to attend this University. Mencken,
Script., ii. 611. The number of matriculations fell off considerably during the
winter term. Sennert, p. 59.

4 Adversus furiosum Parisiensium theologastrorum decretum Phil. Melanch-
thonis pro Luthero Apologia. Corp. Reformatorum, i. 398.

iiO DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

boldness, dared to oppose all these mighty powers, to defend the con-
demned doctrines, nay, to claim for them the exclusive glory of Christianity.

One cause of this singular phenomenon was, that it was well known
that the appearance was more formidable than the reality : — the motives
which had determined the course taken by the court of Rome (chiefly
Dominican influence), and the means by which the edict had been extorted
from the emperor, and the manner of its publication, were no secret. The
three men from whom the condemnation in Paris originated were pointed
out, and called by the most opprobrious names.1 The reformers, on the
other hand, were conscious of pure motives, and a firm and impregnable
foundation for their opinions. The influence of their prince, who afforded
them undoubted though unacknowledged protection, was a safeguard
against actual violence.

But those who ventured to take up so independent and imposing a
position, at variance with all established authorities, and supported only
by opinions which had not yet attained their full development nor acquired
a precise form, obviously incurred an enormous weight of responsibility.
In carrying out the principles professed, it was necessary to be the pioneers
of a numerous, susceptible, and expecting crowd of sympathising spirits.
Here, where all the elements of a state at once military and sacerdotal
were to be found as abundantly as elsewhere, the experiment was to be
tried, how far the authority of the priesthood might be destroyed without
endangering the safety of the state.

It had, however, become impossible to remain stationary. Men's
minds were too much excited to be content with doctrines alone. On
the faith which was now so profoundly shaken, were founded practices
that influenced every day and hour of common life ; and it was not to
be expected that an energetic generation, conscious of its own power, and
impelled by new and mighty ideas, should do violence to its own convictions
and submit to ordinances it had begun to condemn.

The first remarkable incident that occurred was of a purely personal
nature. Two priests in the neighbourhood, Jacob Seidler and Bartholo-
mew Bernhardi, both professing the doctrines of Wittenberg, solemnly
renounced their vows of celibacy. Of all the institutions of the hierarchy,
this, indeed, was the one which, from the strong taste for domestic life
inherent in the nation, had always been most repugnant to the German
clergy, and, in its consequences, most profoundly offensive to the moral
sense of the people. The two priests declared their conviction that
neither pope nor synod were entitled to burden the church with an ordi-
nance which endangered both the body and the soul.2 Hereupon they
were both claimed for trial by the spiritual authorities ; Seidler alone,
who resided in the territory of Duke George of Saxony, was given up to
them, and perished in .prison ; the Elector Frederick refused to lend his
authority to the Bishop of Magdeburg against Bernhardi ; he refused,
as Spalatin expresses it, to let himself be employed as a constable. Carl-

1 Glareanus ad Zwinglium Lutetiae 4 non. Julii, 1521. Beda, Quercus, Chris-
tophorus : Bellua, Stercus, Christotomus. Epp. Zw., p. 176. The work of
Glareanus, p. 156, in which the death of Leo X. is mentioned, does not belong to
the year 1520, but to the following year.

2 " Quid statuerint Pontificii canones, nihil refert Christianorum." — Epistle
from the Theologians of Wittenberg to the Bishop of Meissen, Corp. Ref., i. 418.

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG ■ 25!

stadt now took courage to attack the institution of celibacy in a work of
considerable length.

As the vow of celibacy was originally confined to the monastic orders, and
had subsequently been extended to the whole priesthood, its dissolution
necessarily affected the whole idea of the monastic system. In the little
Augustine church which had been the scene of Luther's first appearance,
Gabriel Zwilling, one of his most able fellow-labourers, preached a series
of fervent discourses, in which he attacked the very essence of monachism,
declaring that it was not only lawful but necessary to renounce it ; for
that " under the cowl there was no salvation." Thirteen Augustine monks
left the convent at once, and took up their abode, part among the students
and part among the townspeople. One of them who understood the trade
of a cabinet-maker, applied for the right of citizenship and proclaimed his
intention of marrying.1 This was followed by a general disturbance : the
Augustines who had stayed in the convent thought themselves no longer
safe ; and the Carmelite convent in Wittenberg had to be protected every
night by a strong guard.

Meanwhile Brother Gabriel made another still more formidable attack
upon the Catholic church. He carried Luther's doctrines about the
sacrament so far as to declare the adoration of it, and even the celebration
of the mass without communicants, simply as a sacrifice (the so-called
private mass), an abuse and a sin.2 In a short time the prior of the
convent was compelled by the general agitation to discontinue the cele-
bration of private masses in his church, in order, as he said, to avoid still
greater scandal. This of course produced a great sensation both in the
town and university. On the 3d of December, 1521, when mass was
going to be sung in the parish church, several of the students and
younger burghers came with knives under their coats, snatched away the
mass books and drove the priests from the altar. The town council
summoned the offenders subject to its jurisdiction, and showed an inten-
tion of punishing them ; upon which the townspeople rose tumultuously
and proposed terms to the council, in which they demanded the liberation
of the prisoners in a tone almost amounting to open rebellion.3

All these were attempts made without plan or deliberation to overthrow
the existing form of divine worship. The Elector, to whose decision such
affairs were always referred, wished, as was usual with him, to take the
opinion of some constituted authority.

1 Report of Gregorius Bruck to the Elector, Oct. n. Corp. Ref., i. 459.

2 Report from Helt the prior of the Augustines to the Elector, Nov. 12. Corp.
Ref., p. 483.

3 The Council of Wittenberg to the Elector. Dec. 3 and 5. Corp. Ref.,
p. 487. The impression made by these innovations in distant countries is
remarkably displayed by a passage in vol. xxxii. of the Venetian Chronicle of
Sanuto, in the Archives of Vienna. " Novita di uno ordine over uso de la fede
Christiana comenzada in Vintibergia. Li frati heremitani di S. Augustino hanno
trovato e provato per le St. Scripture che le messe secondo che se usano adesso
si e gran peccato a dirle o a odirle (thus it appears that the whole innovation was
looked upon as an invention of the Augustine order) e dapoi el zorno di S. Michiel,
1 521, in qua ogni zorno questo hanno predichado e ditto, e stanno saldi in questa
soa oppinione, e questo etiam con le opre observano e da poi la domeniga di
S. Michiel non hanno ditto piu messe nella chiesia del suo monasterio, e per
questo e seguito gran scandalo tra el popolo li cantori e canonici spirituali e
temporali ' '

252 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

His first step was to summon to Wittenberg a council of Augustines
from the provinces of Meissen and Thuringia. These monks all more or
less shared Luther's opinions and regarded his cause as their own. Their
judgment, as he afterwards declared, coincided with his own, even during
his absence ; they did not go so far as Brother Gabriel, who denounced
the monastic vows as sinful, but they no longer acknowledged them to be
binding. Their decision was as follows : " Every creature is subject to
the word of God, and needs not allow himself to be oppressed by burden-
some human institutions ; every man is at liberty to leave the convent or
to remain in it 51 but he who leaves it must not abuse his freedom according
to the lusts of the flesh ; he who prefers to stay, will do well to wear the
cowl and render obedience to his superiors from choice and affection."
They determined at the same time to desist from the practice of begging,
and to abolish votive masses.

Meanwhile the prince had called upon the university to pronounce an
opinion on the mass in general. A commission was accordingly chosen,
of which Melanchthon was a member, and which decided for the entire
abolition of the mass, not only in Wittenberg but throughout the country,
be the consequences what they might.2 When, however, the moment
arrived for the whole corporation to confirm this sentence, they absolutely
refused to do so ; several of the most influential members stayed away
from the meeting, declaring that they were too insignificant to undertake
to reform the church.3

Thus as neither the Augustine order nor the university declared them-
selves distinctly in favour of the innovators, the Elector refused to move
any further in the matter, saying that if even in Wittenberg they could
not agree, it was not probable that the rest of the world would think
alike on the proposed change : they might go on reading, disputing, and
preaching about it, but in the mean while they must adhere to established
usages.4

The excitement was, however, already too great to be restrained by
the command of a prince whose leniency was so well known ; and accord-
ingly Dr. Carlstadt announced, in spite of it, that on the feast of the
circumcision he should celebrate the mass according to a new rite, and
administer the Lord's Supper in the words of the Founder. He had
already attempted something of the kind in the month of October, but
with only twelve communicants, in exact imitation of the example of
Christ. As it seemed probable that difficulties would be thrown in his
way, he determined not to wait till the day appointed, and on Christmas
Day, 1 521, he preached in the parish church on the necessity of abandoning
the ancient rite and receiving the sacrament in both kinds. After the
sermon he went up to the altar and said the mass, omitting the words
which convey the idea of a sacrifice, and the ceremony of the elevation
of the host, and then distributed first the bread and next the wine, with

1 Decreta Augustinianorum. Corp. Ref., i. 456. This meeting is not to be
placed in the month of October, but rather in December or the beginning of
January, as is remarked by Seckendorf (Historia Luther., i., s. 54, § 129) on the
authority of a contemporary letter. See Spalatini Ann., 610.

2 Ernstlich Handlung der Universitat, &c, Corp. Ref., i. 465.

3 Report of Christian Beiers, Dec. 13, ib., 500.

* Instruction of the Elector, Lochau, Dec. 19, ib., 507. \

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG 253

the words, " This is the cup of my blood of the new and everlasting
covenant." This act was so entirely in harmony with the feelings of the
congregation that no one ventured to oppose it. On New Year's Day
he repeated this ritual, and continued to do so every succeeding Sunday ;
he also preached every Friday.1

Carlstadt belonged to a class of men not uncommon in Germany, who
combine with a natural turn for deep speculation the boldness to reject
all that has been established, or to maintain all that has been condemned ;
yet without feeling the necessity of first arriving at any clear and precise
ideas, or of resting those ideas upon arguments fitted to carry general
conviction. Carlstadt had at first adopted the doctrines of the schoolmen ;
he was afterwards urged by Luther to the study of the sacred writings,
though he had not, like him, patience to acquire their original languages ;
nor did he hesitate at the strangest and most arbitrary interpretations, in
which he followed only the impulse of his own mind. This led him into
strange aberrations ; even at the time he was preparing for the disputation
at Leipzig, he used the most singular expressions with regard to the Holy
Scriptures, applying to them as a whole that which has generally been
understood of the law only ; viz. that they lead to transgression, sin, and
death, and do not afford the true consolation the soul requires. In the
year 1520 he entertained doubts whether Moses was really the author of
the books which bear his name, and whether the Gospels have come down
to us in their genuine form ; speculations which have since given so much
occupation to learning and criticism, presented themselves at this early
period to his mind.2 At that time he was overawed by the presence and
authority of Luther ; now, however, he was restrained by no one ; a
wide arena for the display of his ambition lay before him, and he was
surrounded by an enthusiastic public. Under these circumstances he was
himself no longer the same ; the little swarthy sun-burnt man, who for-
merly expressed himself in indistinct and ambiguous language, now poured
forth with the most vehement eloquence a torrent of mystical extravagant
ideas, relating to a totally new order of things, which carried away all
imaginations.

Towards the end of the year 1521 he was joined by allies who had
entered on a similar career from another direction, and who pursued it
with still greater audacity.

It is well known that at the beginning of the Hussite troubles, two
strangers, Nicolas and Peter of Dresden, who had been banished by the
Bishop of Meissen and found an asylum in Prague, were the persons who,
during the absence of Huss and Jerome, instigated the populace to demand
a change of the ritual, especially in the administration of the sacrament ;
and that various other fanatical opinions were quickly combined with
these.3

Whether it was that these opinions re-acted on the country in which
they originated — or whether they had from the first taken deeper and

1 Zeitungaus Wittenberg ; account of what took place in 15 21, &c. ; inStrobel's
Miscellanien, v. 121.

2 See extracts from his works in Loscher's Historia Motuum, i. 15.

3 The notice of this is very remarkable in Pelzel's Wenceslas, ii. (Urkunden,
nr. 238, ex MS. coaevo capituli.) They declared at the very beginning " quod
papa sit antichristus cum clero sibi subjecto."

254 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

more lasting root there, — the same spirit which had formerly directed the
movement at Prague, now revived at Zwickau (a town in the Erzgebirge,
where Peter of Dresden had for some time resided), and appeared likely
to guide the agitation now prevailing at Wittenberg.

This spirit was remarkably displayed in a sect which congregated
round a fanatical weaver of the name of Claus Storch, of Zwickau, and
professed the most extravagant doctrines. Luther did not go nearly far
enough for these people. Very different men, they said, of a much more
elevated spirit, were required ; for what could such servile observance
of the Bible avail ? That book was insufficient for man's instruction ;
he could only be taught by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost.1
Their fanaticism soon rose to such a pitch as to convince them that this
was actually granted to them ; that God spoke to them in person, and
dictated to them how to act and what to preach.2 On the strength of this
immediate inspiration from Heaven, they pressed for various alterations
in the services of the church. Above all, they maintained that a sacra-
ment had no meaning without faith, and therefore entirely rejected the
baptism of infants, who are incapable of faith. But their imaginations
took a much wilder flight. They asserted that the world was threatened
with a general devastation, of which the Turks were perhaps to be the
instruments ; no priest was to remain alive, not even those who were
now contracting marriage, nor any ungodly man ; but after this bloody
purification the kingdom of God would commence, and there would be
one faith and one baptism.3 They seemed well inclined to begin this
work of violent convulsion themselves. Finding resistance from the
moderate portion of the citizens and town council of Zwickau, they collected
arms in the house of one of their party, with the design of falling suddenly
on their opponents and putting them all to death. Fortunately they
were anticipated by Wolf of Weissenbach, the chief magistrate of the place ;
he arrested a number of the misguided men, kept the peace and compelled
the ring-leaders to quit the town.4 The fanatics hoped to accomplish
abroad what they had failed in at home. Some of them went to Prague
with a view to reviving the old Taborite sect there, — an attempt which
proved abortive. The others, of whom it is more especially our business to
speak, came to Wittenberg, where they found the ground admirably pre-
pared for the seed they had to sow, by the universal restlessness of minds
craving for some unknown novelty, not only among the excitable class
of students, but even among the townspeople. We accordingly find that
after their arrival in Wittenberg the agitation assumed a bolder character.

1 A report sent from Zwickau to the elector, of which he informs the uni-
versity, gives this account of their opinions. Acta Einsiedelii cum Melanthonio,
C. R., p. 536. The statements in Enoch Widemann Chronicon Curias, in Mencken,
Scriptt. R. G., iii. 744, shows a somewhat later development of the fantasies of
Storch. Tobias Schmidt's Cronica Cygnea, 1656, is not without its value for
the events of the thirty years' war, but is insufficient for the times of the Reforma-
tion.

2 Official Report of Melanchthon, Jan. 1, 1522, C. R., i. 533, from which it is
evident that half a year before, these people had not begun to boast of this com-
munion with God.

3 Zeitung aus Wittenberg, p. 127.

4 According to G. Fabricius, Vita Rich, in Melcliior Adam, Vitae Philoso-
phorum, p. 72.

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG 255

Carlstadt, with whom they immediately allied themselves, introduced
more striking innovations every day. The priestly garments were abolished
and auricular confession disused. People went to receive the sacrament
without preparation, and imagined that they had gained an important
point, when they took the host with their own hands instead of receiving
it from those of the priest. It was held to be the mark of a purer Christi-
anity to eat eggs and meat on fast days especially. The pictures in the
churches were now esteemed an abomination in the holy place. Carlstadt
disregarded the distinction which had always been made between reverence
and adoration, and applied all the texts in the Bible directed against
idolatry to the worship of images. He insisted upon the fact that people
bowed and knelt before them, and lighted tapers, and brought offerings ;
that, for example, they contemplated the image of St. Christopher, in
order that they might be preserved against sudden death ; he therefore
exhorted his followers to attack and destroy " these painted gods, these
idol logs." He would not even tolerate the crucifix, because he said
men called it their God, whereas it could only remind them of the bodily
sufferings of Christ. It had been determined that the images should be
removed from the churches, but as this was not immediately executed,
his zeal became more fiery -,1 at his instigation an iconoclast riot now
commenced, similar to those which half a century afterwards broke out
in so many other countries. The images were torn from the altars, chopped
in pieces and burnt. It is obvious that these acts of violence gave a most
dangerous and menacing character to the whole controversy. Carlstadt
not only quoted the Old Testament to show that the secular authorities
had power to remove from the churches whatever could give scandal to
the faithful, but added, that if the magistrates neglected this duty, the
community was justified in carrying out the necessary changes. Accord-
ingly the citizens of Wittenberg laid a petition before the council, in which
they demanded the formal abolition of all unbiblical ceremonies, masses,
vigils, and processions, and unlimited liberty for their preachers. The

1 Von Abtuhung der Bylder. Und das keyn Betdler unther den Christen
seyn soil. Carolstatt in der christlichen Statt Wittenberg. Bog. D. (Concern-
ing the Abolition of Images. And that there should be no Worshipper among
Christians. Carlstadt in the Christian Town of Wittenberg. Sheet D.) The
decree was made on Friday after St. Sebastian, Jan. 24, 1522. The dedication
to the paper on the first sheet, which also was first printed, is dated Monday
after the conversion of St. Paul, 27th Jan. Carlstadt then had the greatest
hopes. The date shows how zealous he was. When he came to the fourth
sheet, he plainly saw that matters would not proceed so rapidly. " Ich hette
auch gehofft, der lebendig got solt seine eingegeben werk das ist guten willen
tzu abtuhung der bilder volzogen und yns eusserlich werk gefurt haben. Aber
ess ist noch kein execution geschehen, vileicht derhalben, das got seinen tzorn
vber vns lest treuffen yn meynung seynen gantzen tzorn ausszuschuden, wu
wir alsso blind bleiben vnd furchten vns vor dem dass vns nicht kan thun. Das
weiss ich das die Obirsten deshalb gestrafft werden. Dan die schrifft leugt ye
nit." — " I had also hoped that the living God would have carried into execution
and openly brought to bear his appointed work, that is, good will towards the
abolition of images. But no execution has yet taken place, perhaps because
God lets his anger drip upon us, intending to pour out all his wrath, if we remain
thus blind, and fear not that which he is able to do. Thus much I know,
that they in high places will be punished therefore. For the Scripture lieth
not."

256 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

council was forced to concede these points one after the other j1 nor did
even these concessions satisfy the innovators. Their project was to realise
without delay their own conception of a strictly Christian community.
The council was called upon to close all places of public amusement, not
only those which the law prohibited, but those which it had sanctioned ;
to abolish the mendicant orders who, they said, ought not to exist in
Christendom, and to divide the funds of the religious communities, which
were pronounced to be altogether mischievous and corrupt, among the
poor. To these suggestions of a bigoted fanaticism, blind to the real
nature and interests of society, were added the most pernicious doctrines
of the Taborites. An old professor like Carlstadt suffered himself to be
carried away by the contagion to such a degree as to maintain that there
was no need of learned men, or of a course of academic study, and still
less of academic honours. In his lectures he advised his hearers to return
home and till the ground, for that man ought to eat his bread by the
sweat of his brow. One of his most zealous adherents was George Mohr,
the rector of the grammar school, who addressed the assembled citizens
from the window of the school-house, exhorting them to take away their
children. Of what use, said he, would learning be henceforth ? They
had now among them the divine prophets of Zwickau, Storch, Thoma,
and Stiibner, who conversed with God, and were filled with grace and
knowledge without any study whatsoever. The common people were
of course easily convinced that a layman or an artisan was perfectly
qualified for the office of a priest and teacher.

Carlstadt himself went into the houses of the citizens and asked them
for an explanation of obscure passages in Scripture ; acting on the text
that God reveals to babes what he hides from wise men. Students left
the university and went home to learn a handicraft, saying that there
was no longer any need of study.2

The conservative ideas to which Luther had still clung were thus aban-
doned ; the idea of temporal sovereignty, on which he had taken his
stand to oppose the encroachments of the priesthood, was now rejected
with no less hostility than the spiritual domination. Luther had com-
bated the reigning faith with the weapons of profound learning ; one of
the rudest theories of inspiration that has ever been broached now threat-
ened to take its place. It is evident, however, that its success was impos-
sible. All the powers of the civilised world would have risen against such
a wild, destructive attempt, and would either have utterly crushed it, or
at all events have driven it back within the narrowest limits. Had such
anarchical dreams ever become predominant, they must have destroyed
every hope of improvement which the world could attach to the reforming
party.

In Wittenberg there was no one capable of resisting the general frenzy.
Melanchthon was then too young and inexperienced, even had he possessed
sufficient firmness of character. He held some conferences with the
prophets of Zwickau ; and finding not only that they were men of talent,
but well grounded in the main articles of a faith which was likewise his
own ; being also unable to refute their arguments concerning infant

i Strobel, v. 128.

2 Froschel : Tractat vom PriesterthunT(Appendix),~i565. Reprinted in the
Unschuldigen Nachrichten, 173 1, p. 698.

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG 257

baptism, he did not feel himself competent to enter the lists against
them. We find disciples and friends of Melanchthon among their
adherents.1

The elector was equally incapable of offering any efficient resistance.
We are already acquainted with the character of this prince, — his tem-
porising policy, his reluctance to interfere in person, his habit of letting
things take their own course. His was the most peaceful nature produced
by this troubled and warlike age ; he never had recourse to arms ; when
advised to seize Erfurt, on the plea that he might accomplish it with
the loss of only five men, he replied, " One were too many."2 Yet his
quiet, observant, prudent, and enlightened policy had ever been crowned
with ultimate success. His pleasure was to adorn his own territories,
which he thought as beautiful as any on earth, with castles, like those
of Lochau, Altenburg, Weimar and Coburg ; to decorate his churches
with pictures from the admirable pencil of Lucas Kranach, whom he
invited to his court ; to keep up the high renown of his chapel and choir,
which was one of the best in the empire, and to improve the university
he had founded.

Although not remarkable for popular and accessible manners, he had
a sincere affection for the people. He once paid back the poll-tax which
had been levied, when the purpose to which it was to be applied was
abandoned. " Truly," said he of somebody, " he is a bad man, for he
is unkind to the poor folk." Once, when on a journey, he gave money
to the children who were playing by the roadside : " One day," said he,
" they will tell how a duke of Saxony rode by and gave each of them
something, " We read of his sending rare fruits to a sick professor.3
The elector was now in years ; most of the older German princes
with whom he had lived in habits of intimacy, " his good comrades
and friends," as he called them, were dead, and he had many annoy-
ances and vexations to bear. He was in doubt and perplexity as to the
real inclinations of the young emperor. " Happy is the man," he ex-
claimed, " who has nothing to do with courts !" The disagreement
between himself and his nearest neighbour and cousin, the turbulent
Duke George, became more and more serious and evident. " Ah, my
cousin George !" said he, — " truly I have no friend left but my brother ;"
— and to him he gradually confided the greater share of the government.
The protection he afforded to Luther had arisen naturally out of the
course of events ; at first, partly from political motives, then from a
feeling of duty and justice.4 Nor was this all ; he conscientiously shared
the profound, unquestioning veneration for the Scriptures inculcated by
Luther. He thought that everything else, however ingenious and
plausible, might be confuted ; the word of God alone was holy, majestic,

1 E.g., Martin Borrhaus (Cellarius) of Stuttgart had set on foot a private
school for Melanchthon. Adam, Vitae Theolog., p. 191.

2 Luther to John Frederick and Moritz, 1 542.

3 Epistola Carlstadii ad Spalatinum in Gerdes Scrinium, vii. ii. 345.

4 His counsellors in Wittenberg declared, on the 2d Jan., 1522, " S. Ch. G.
haft sich Doctor Martinus Sachen bisher nicht anders — angenommen, denn allein
weil er sich zu Recht erboten, dass er nicht bewaltigt wurde." — " His Christian
grace, the elector, had as yet taken up Dr. Martinus's cause in no other way
beyond offering to see that he had justice, and was not overpowered by force." —
Corp. Ref., p. 537.

17

258 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

and truth itself : he said that -this word should be " pure as an eye." He
had a deep reverential fear of opposing or disobeying it. The basis of all
religion is this sense of what is sacred — of the moral mystery of the uni-
verse ; this awe of offending against it under the momentary influence
of impurer motives. Such was eminently the religion of Frederick the
Wise, and it had withheld him from interfering decidedly and arbitrarily
in Luther's behalf ; but it also hindered him from exerting his power
to put down these new sectarians in Wittenberg, displeasing as they were
to him. He did not venture, any more than Melanchthon, to pronounce an
absolute condemnation of them. After listening to the doubts and
scruples of his counsellors and learned men at Prettin on this subject,
he appeared perplexed and overpowered at the idea that these people
might possibly be in the right. He said that as a layman he could not
understand the question ; but that, rather than resist the will of God,
he would take his staff in his hand and leave his country.1

It certainly might have come to this. The movement that had begun
could lead to nothing short of open rebellion, — to the overthrow of civil
government in order to make room for a new Christian republic ; violence
would then certainly have called forth violence, and good and evil would
have perished together.

How much now depended on Luther ! Even these disturbances were
the offspring or the consequence of ideas that he had set afloat, or were
closely connected with them : if he sanctioned them, who would be able
to stem the torrent ? if he opposed them, it seemed doubtful whether his
opposition would have any effect, or whether he himself would not be over-
whelmed in the common ruin.

During the whole of this time he was in the Wartburg, at first keeping
closely within the walls, then venturing out timidly to gather straw-
berries on the castle hill, and afterwards, grown bolder, riding about as
Junker George, accompanied by a groom. He once even ventured into
Wittenberg, trusting to the disguise of his long hair and beard, and com-
pletely cased in armour. But though his mode of life and his accoutre-
ments were those of a Reiter, his soul was ever in the heat of ecclesiastical
warfare. " When hunting," says he, " I theologized :" the dogs and
nets of the hunters represented to him the bishops and stewards of anti-
christ seeking to entrap and devour unhappy souls.2 In the solitude of
the castle he was again visited by some of the struggles and temptations
which had assailed him in the convent. His chief occupation was a
translation of the New Testament, and he likewise formed the project of
giving to the German nation a more correct translation of the Bible than
the Latin church possesses in the Vulgate.3 Whilst endeavouring to
fortify his resolution for the accomplishment of this work, and only wishing
to be in Wittenberg that he might have the assistance of his friends, he
heard of the excitement and disorder prevailing there. He was not for a
moment in doubt as to their nature. He said that nothing in the whole
course of his life had given him greater pain ; all that had been done to
injure himself was nothing in the comparison. The pretensions of these

1 Spalatin, Leben Friedrichs des Weisen. Vermischte Abhandluneen zur
sachsischen Gesch. B. v.

2 To Spalatin, 15th Aug., D. W„ ii. 43.

3 To Amsdorf, 13th Jan., p. 123.

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG 259

men to the character of divinely inspired prophets and to immediate
communion with God, did not impose on him ; for he too had fathomed
the mysterious depths of the spiritual world, and had gained a far deeper
insight into it, and a far too exalted conception of the divine nature,
to allow himself to be persuaded that God would appear visibly to his
creatures, converse with them, or throw them into ecstasies. " If you
want to know the time and place and nature of the divine communications,"
writes he to Melanchthon,1 " hear ; ' Like as a lion he hath crushed my
bones ;' and, ' I am cast out from before thy countenance, my soul is
filled with heaviness, and the fear of hell is upon me.' God spake by
the mouths of his prophets, because if he spoke himself we could not
endure it." He wishes his prince joy of the cross which God has laid
upon him, and says that the Gospel was not only persecuted by Annas
and Caiaphas, but that there must be a Judas even among the apostles ;
he also announces his intention of going to Wittenberg himself. The
elector entreated him not to leave his retreat so soon, saying that as
yet he could do no good, that he had better prepare his defence for the
next diet, at which it was to be hoped he would obtain a regular hearing.2
But Luther was no longer to be restrained by these arguments ; never
had he been more firmly convinced that he was the interpreter of the
divine word and that his faith would be a sufficient protection ; the
occurrences in Wittenberg seemed to him a disgrace to himself and to
the Gospel.3 He accordingly set out on his way, regardless of the pope's
excommunication or the emperor's ban, bidding his prince have no care
about him. He was in a truly heroic state of mind.

A party of young Swiss who were on their way to the University of
Wittenberg stopped to dine at the sign of the Black Bear at Jena. On
entering they saw a horseman who sat at the table resting his right hand
on the hilt of his sword, with a Hebrew psalter before him ; this horseman,
as they afterwards discovered, was Luther, and we read in the notes of
one of them, how he invited them to dine with him, and how gentle and
dignified was his deportment.4 On Friday 7th of March he arrived at
Wittenberg ; on the Saturday the same Swiss found him surrounded by
his friends, inquiring minutely into all that had occurred during his
absence. On Sunday he began to preach, in order immediately to ascer-
tain whether his popularity and influence were still sufficient to enable
him to allay the disturbance. Small and obscure as was the scene to
which he returned, his success or failure was an event pregnant with
important results to the whole world ; for it involved the question, whether
the doctrine which had forced itself on his conviction from its own inherent
weight, and which was destined to give such an impulse to the progress
of mankind, had also power to subdue the elements of destruction ferment-
ing in the public mind, that had already undermined the foundations of
society and now threatened it with total ruin. It had now to be tried
whether it were possible to reform without destroying ; to open a fresh
career to mental activity, without annihilating the results of the labours
of former generations. Luther's view of the question was that of a

1 13 Jan., 1522, to Amsdorf, p. 125.

2 Instructions to Oswald, Corp. Ref., i. 561.
i 3 To the elector, 5 th March, ii. 137.

4 From the Chronicle of Kessler, in Bernet, Leben Kesslers, p. 27. ,

17 — 2

260 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

preacher and pastor of souls ; he did not denounce the changes that had
been made as utterly pernicious, nor the doctrines from which they had
sprung as fundamentally bad, and he carefully refrained from any per-
sonal attacks on the leaders of the new sect. He merely said that they had
acted with precipitation, and had thus laid a stumbling-block in the way
of the weak and transgressed the commandment of charity. He allowed
that there were practices which undoubtedly ought to be abolished ; such,
for instance, as private masses ; but that these reforms ought to be
effected without violence or scandal. As to a number of other usages,
he thought it indifferent whether a Christian observed them or not. That
it was a matter of very small importance whether a man received the
Lord's Supper in one kind or in both, or whether he preferred a private
confession to the general one, or chose rather to remain in his convent
or to leave it, to have pictures in the churches, and to keep fasts, or not ;
but that to lay down strict rules concerning these things, to raise violent
disputes, and to give offence to weaker brethren, did more harm than
good, and was a trangression of the commandment of charity.

The danger of the anarchical doctrines now broached, lay in the assump-
tion that they were an indispensable part of true Christianity ; an assump-
tion maintained with the same vehemence and confidence on the side
of the anabaptists, as the divine and thence infallible origin of every
decree of the church was on that of the papists.

These doctrines, therefore, like those of the papacy, were intimately
bound up with the whole system of morals, and the whole fabric of civil
life. It was therefore most important to show that religion recognised
a neutral and independent province, over which she was not required to
exercise a direct sway, and where she needed not to interfere in the guidance
of every individual thought. This Luther did with the mildness and
forbearance of a father and a guide, and with the authority of a profound
and comprehensive mind. These sermons are certainly among the most
remarkable that he ever preached ; they are, like those of Savonarola,
popular harangues, not spoken to excite and carry away his hearers,
but to arrest them in a destructive course, and to assuage and calm their
passions.1 How could his flock resist the well-known voice, the eloquence
which carried the conviction it expressed, and which had first led them
into the way of inquiry ? The construction commonly put upon moderate
councils, namely, that they arise from fear of consequences, could have
no place here. Never had Luther appeared in a more heroic light ; he
bid defiance to the excommunication of the pope and the ban of the
emperor, in order to return to his flock ; not only had his sovereign
warned him that he was unable to protect him, but he had himself ex-
pressly renounced his claim to that protection ; he exposed himself to
the greatest personal danger, and that not (as many others have done)
to place himself at the head of a movement, but to check it ; not to
destroy, but to preserve. At his presence the tumult was hushed, the
revolt quelled, and order restored ; a few even of the most violent party

i " Sieben Predigten D. M. L. so er von dem Sontage Invocavit bis auf den
andern Sontag gethan, als er aus seiner Pathmos zu Wittenberg wieder ankom-
men." (" Seven sermons of Doctor Martin Luther, delivered by him during the
week between the Sunday Invocavit and the following Sunday, when he re-
turned from his Patmos to Wittenberg.") — Alt., ii. 99.

Chap. I.] DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG 261

leaders were converted to his opinions and joined him. Carlstadt, who
could not be brought to confess his error, was condemned to silence. He
was reproached with having intruded himself uncalled into the ministry,
and was forbidden to enter the pulpit again. Some approximation took
place between the moderated opinions now maintained by Luther, and
those of the civil authorities, who were delivered from the danger that had
threatened the state. A treatise of Carlstadt's, written in the same
spirit as heretofore, part of which was already printed, was suppressed
by the university, and a report of it sent to the elector. The Zwickauers
once more sought an interview with Luther ; he exhorted them not to
suffer themselves to be deceived by the illusions of the devil ; they
answered, that as a proof of their divine mission, they would tell him
what were his thoughts at that instant ; to this he agreed, upon which
they said that he felt a secret inclination towards themselves. " God
rebuke thee, Satan !" exclaimed Luther. He afterwards acknowledged
that he had, indeed, been conscious of such a leaning ; but their guessing
it, he held to be a sign of powers derived from Satan rather than from
God j1 he accordingly dismissed them with a sort of challenge to their
demon to resist his God. If we soften the coarseness of his language,
this struggle between two antagonist spirits, the one destructive,
the other tutelary, is the expression of a mighty and profound
truth.

Wittenberg was now once more quiet ; the mass was as far as possible
restored, preceded by confession, and the host was received as before with
the lips. It was celebrated in hallowed garments, with music and all the
customary ceremonies, and even in Latin ; nothing was omitted but the
words of the canon which expressly denote the idea of a sacrifice.2 In
every other respect there was perfect freedom of opinion on these points,
and latitude as to forms. Luther himself remained in the convent and
wore the Augustine dress, but he offered no opposition to others who chose
to return to the world. The Lord's Supper was administered in one
kind or in both ; those who were not satisfied with the general absolution,
were at full liberty to require a special one. Questions were continually
raised as to the precise limits of what was absolutely forbidden, and what
might still be permitted. The maxim of Luther and Melanchthon was,
to condemn nothing that had not some authentic passage in the Bible, —
" clear and undoubted Scripture," as the phrase was, — against it. This
was not the result of indifference ; religion withdrew within the bounds
of her own proper province, and the sanctuary of her pure and genuine
influences. It thus became possible to develop and extend the new
system of faith, without waging open warfare with that already estab-
lished, or, by the sudden subversion of existing authorities, rousing those
destructive tendencies, the slightest agitation of which had just threatened
such danger to society. Even in the theological exposition of these doc-
trines, it was necessary to keep in view the perils arising from opinions
subversive of all sound morality. Luther already began to perceive the
danger of insisting on the saving power of faith alone ; already he taught

x Camerarius, Vita Melanchthonis, cap. xv.

2 " Luther von beider Gestalt des Sacraments zu nehmen." — Altenb., ii.,
p. 126.

262 DISTURBANCES AT WITTENBERG [Book III.

that faith should show itself in good conduct, brotherly love, soberness
and quiet.1

The new religious opinions, in assuming the character of a distinct creed,
threw off from themselves all that was incongruous, and assumed a more
individual, and at the same time a more universal character, — the character
inseparable from its origin and tendency. As early as December, 1821,
in the heat of the disturbances, appeared the first elementary work on
theology, founded on the new principles of. faith — Melanchthon's ' Loci
Communes.' This was far from being a complete work ; indeed it was
originally a mere collection of the opinions of the apostle Paul concerning
sin, the law, and grace, made strictly in accordance with those severe
views to which Luther had owed his conversion, but remarkable on account
of its entire deviation from all existing scholastic theology, and from
being the first book which had appeared for several centuries in the Latin
church containing a system constructed out of the Bible only. Sanctioned
by Luther's approbation, it had great success, and in the course of repeated
editions it was recast and perfected.2 The translation of the New Testa-
ment by Luther, which he corrected with Melanchthon's assistance on
his return to Wittenberg, and published in September, 1522, had a still
more extensive effect, and acted immediately on the people. Whilst
with one hand he emancipated them from the forms imposed on religion
by the schools and the hierarchy, with the other he gave to the nation a
faithful, intelligent and intelligible translation of the earliest records of
Christianity. The national mind had just acquired sufficient ripeness
to enable it to apprehend the meaning and value of the gift : in the most
momentous stage of its development it was touched and penetrated to
its very depths by the genuine expression of unveiled and unadulterated
religion. From such influences everything was to be expected. Luther
cherished the noble and confident hope that the doctrine alone would
accomplish the desired end ; that wherever it made its way, a change in
the outward condition of society must necessarily follow.

1 Eberlin of Giinzberg quotes a remarkable passage from one of his sermons :
" Vermanung an alle frumen Christen zu Augsburg am Lech :" — " Ich hab
gehort," says he, " von D. Martin Luther in ainer Predig ain gross war wort,
das er sagt : wie man die sach anfacht, so felt unrat darauf : predigt man den
glauben allein, als man thon sol, so unterlesst man alle zucht und ordnung,
predigt man zucht und ordnung so felt man so gantz daraufi das man alle selic-
kait darein setzt und vergisst des glauben ; das mittel aber were gut, das man
also den glauben yebte das er ausbreche in zucht und ordnung, und also iibte
sich in guten siten und in briederlicher liebe das man doch selickait allein durch
den glauben gewertig were." — " An Exhortation to all pious Christians at Augs-
burg on the Lech :" — " I have heard in one of Luther's sermons a great and true
saying : that as you stir up the matter, some mischief arises ; if a man preach
faith alone, as he should do, he omits all soberness and order ; if he preach
soberness and order, he insists upon them alone, and places all salvation therein,
forgetting faith ; the middle course, however, would be the best, that man should
so use faith that it should break out in soberness and order, and that they should
so exercise themselves in good habits and in brotherly love, as to look for salva-
tion only through faith."

3 The original composition of this book is to be seen by a comparison of the
first sketch of it in 1520 (which appears written by many different hands, in
Strobel's Neuen Beitragen, v. 323) with the first edition of 1521, printed in
V. D. Hardt's Hist. Lit. Ref., iv.

Chap. II.] COUNCIL OF REGENCY 263

The course pursued by the authorities of the empire, in the altered
form they had meanwhile acquired, not only justified this hope, but led to
results calculated to give it still greater assurance.

CHAPTER II.

TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL TENDENCIES OF THE COUNCIL OF REGENCY.
1521— 1523.

It is a remarkable and striking coincidence, that the mighty national
movement we have just been considering was exactly coeval with the
institution of that representative (standisch) form of government which
had been the object of such various and persevering exertions.

The Emperor, powerful as he was, had been forced to grant it as the
condition of his election ; the plan was agreed upon at Worms, and was
carried into execution in the autumn of 1521. The electors and the
circles severally elected deputies, who, as we find, were freed from their
feudal obligations, and exhorted to attend only to the general welfare of
the empire. The old acts of the Imperial Chamber, weighing many hundred
weight, and containing the pleadings in about 3500 long pending and yet
undecided suits, and a vast number of fresh plaints on which no proceedings
had yet been taken, were transported to Niirnberg.1 One by one the
deputies arrived ; those from the emperor, the last of all. During the
course of the month of November they got so far as to open first the Council
of Regency, and then the Imperial Chamber.

At first they had to endure a great deal from the interference of the
imperial councillors ;2 the same, for the most part, with whom the states
had had such frequent disputes under Maximilian, and who were still
unwilling to give up any of their lucrative privileges, and still, as formerly,
accused of taking bribes. Very strange things occurred ; among others,
the Bishop of Wiirzburg had seized the person of a certain Raminger,
who was furnished with a safe conduct from the emperor, and kept him
prisoner. The Council of Regency very properly took the injured man

1 Hans v. d. Planitz to Friederich v. Sacksen, 18 Oct., 1521, according to
communication made by Adam v. Beichlingen. The correspondence of Planitz,
in two volumes, and a smaller pamphlet in the Archives of Weimar, are the
authorities for the following. Harpprecht and Miiller (Staats Cabinet, i.), give
very superficial information.

2 Planitz says, as early as the 18th October, " Churfiirsten Fiirsten und
Andre so itzund allhie vorhanden haben Beisorge, es werde bei etzlichen Kaiser-
ischen gefleissigt, ob sulch Vornemen des Regiments in Verhinderung oder
Aenderung gestellt werden mecht." — " The electors, princes, and others, at this
present here assembled, have a fear that some of the imperial court are busied
in endeavours to hinder, or at least to alter, this project of the Council of Regency."
On the 14th of May he mentions a certain Rem, who after long imprisonment
succeeded in obtaining an imperial absolution. " 1st vermutlich, weil das
Regiment die Sach zu sich forderet und die Sach den Hofretten nicht gestatten
wollte, hierin zu handeln, das sie die Absolution gefiirdert, damit das Regiment
auch nichts daran haben solt." — " It is probable, since the Regency brought
the matter within its own jurisdiction, and did not allow the imperial councillors
to act in it at all, that the latter furthered the absolution, in order to take it out
of the hands of the Regency.". The letters are full of similar expressions.

264 DIET OF 1522 [Book III.

under their protection. Their surprise may be conceived when a declara-
tion arrived from the emperor, that he had given the safe conduct without
reflection, and that it could not be supposed that the Bishop of Wiirzburg
had violated a real imperial safe conduct. It made no difference whether
the States supported the Regency or not. The states met in March, 1522,
and both bodies jointly interceded for the Bishop of Hildesheim, who
complained of the ban which had been pronounced against him and his
friends, without any previous summons and trial. But the emperor would
not endure any interference with " his affairs," and rejected the inter-
cession with some short unmeaning answer.

Towards the end of May the emperor quitted the Netherlands. His
presence was required in Spain to quiet the disturbances of the Comuni-
dades,1 and his mind fully occupied with the perplexities of the war he
had begun in Italy, and with the extraordinary conquests and discoveries2
made on a distant continent by a handful of fortunate and intelligent
Castilian adventurers serving under his banner. Even the German
councillors who accompanied him could not possibly influence the details
of the administration of Germany from so distant a country as Spain.
At this time, therefore, the Council of Regency first acquired complete
independence. The young emperor's presence had been needed to confer
upon it the authority which his absence now left it at liberty to exercise.

Let us first consider the temporal part of its administration.

Several very important matters had come under consideration ; above
all, the executive ordinance, on the plan proposed in the year 15 12, and,
then so violently resisted by Maximilian, was determined upon ; namely,
that the circles should elect their own captains or governors. The affairs
of Turkey and Hungary also urgently demanded attention. Whilst the
two principal rulers of Christendom inflamed their natural jealousy into
bitterer antipathy in the Italian wars, the potentate of the Osman empire
led out his armies, fired by hatred of the Christians and love of conquest,
and took possession of Belgrade, the ancient bulwark of Christendom
which was but feebly defended on that frontier. Germany was not
insensible to the danger : the States met expressly on this account in
the spring of 1522,3 and again in the autumn; a part of the supplies

1 The revolt of the cities in Castile, which broke out in 1521. Cf. Armstrong,
Charles V., Chap. V.

2. Conquest of Mexico completed 1522 ; conquest of Peru, 1532. For a succinct
account of the Spanish conquests in the New World, cf. Cambridge Modern
History, vol. i., Chapters I. and II., esp. p. 40 ff.

3 The summons is dated Feb. 12 : for the Sunday Oculi (March 23, 1522), so
as to allow time to arm. On March 28, a number of the States were present, and
processions and prayers were ordered : " Damit S. gottlich Barmherzigkeit den
Zorn, ob und wie wir den durch unsre Schuld und Missethat verschuldet hatten,
von uns wende." — " In order that the Almighty mercy may turn from us the
wrath which we have brought upon ourselves by our guilt and misdeeds." The
Proposition was made on the 7th of April : the emperor therein declared that
he gave up the supplies voted for his expedition to Rome to be applied to the
war against the Turks. The States determined to vote three-eighths thereof to
the war, — not, however, in men, but in money ; every thing was done in haste,
as a better method of equipment was to be arranged in a conference with the
Hungarian commissioners. The Frankfurt deputy thought that little would
be effected, but " aufs furderlichste wieder zum Thor hinaus." — " That they
would pe out of the gate again as fast as possible." The chief delay wag caused

Chap. II.] COUNCIL OF REGENCY 265

which had been granted to the emperor for his expedition to Rome were,
with his permission, appropriated to the succour of the Hungarians.
Schemes for the complete equipment of an army, to be kept always in
readiness for the same purpose, were proposed and discussed. The main
point, however, on which every thing else depended, was the secure
establishment of the form of government itself. Every day showed the
inconveniences of allowing the salaries of the members of the Imperial
Chamber and the Regency to be dependent on the matricular taxes,
which were granted from year to year, and were always difficult to collect ;
neither would it do to leave these salaries to be paid by the emperor, as
it was justly feared he would then raise a claim to appoint the members
himself. Many other expedients were proposed, such as the application
of the annates to this purpose ; a tax upon the Jews ; or finally, the
reimposition of the Common Penny, in connection with a permanent war
establishment. But all were alike impracticable. For the annates, a
previous agreement with the see of Rome was necessary, and that was
not so easily made. The towns which had obtained from earlier emperors
the right of taxing their own Jews (a right which they had lately maintained
in opposition to the imperial fiscal) absolutely refused to surrender it.
As to a return to the Common Penny, it did not get beyond a mere project,
and was not even seriously debated. Under these circumstances, the
Council of Regency adopted a plan which had formerly been entertained,
and which, in itself, must have been productive of very important national
consequences, besides being connected with- other views of the adminis-
tration of the empire well worthy of our attention.

Among the charges and complaints which the severaljclasses of the com-
munity made against each other in those times, one which was urged with
the greatest frequency and vehemence was directed against the merchants.

Commerce still travelled along its accustomed roads ; the Hanse
Towns1 still enjoyed most of their privileges in foreign countries ; peace
had restored the markets of Venice ; but the splendour and importance
of this traffic was eclipsed by the brilliant and adventurous commerce
across the seas, to which the discovery of both the Indies had given rise.
Some of the great commercial houses of Upper Germany placed themselves
in immediate communication with Lisbon, or shared in the West Indian
enterprises of the Spaniards. Antwerp owed its prosperity chiefly to
being the emporium of German maritime trade.

In Germany, however, no one was satisfied ; the stricter part of the
community disapproved the importation of new luxuries and wants ;
others complained of the quantity of money sent out of the country, and
almost all were discontented at the high prices of the wares. During the
years 15 16 to 1522, especially, a general rise in prices was observed.
Cinnamon cost upwards of a gulden the pound, sugar from twelve to twenty

by the disputes in the sessions of the colleges. " Der Sachen halber bleiben
andre Handel unausgerichtet und wir verzehren das Unsre ohne Nutzen." —
" For the sake of these, other affairs remained undetermined, and we eat up our
susbtance without profit." The order is dated May 7 (Frank. A.). At the fol-
lowing diet, in Dec, 1522, two-fourths more of the money intended for the
expedition to Rome were voted for this service.

1 The Hanse Towns, so called from Hansa=a guild. Cf. article on the Hanse
Towns in Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Zimmern's The Hanse Towns,

266 COUNCIL OF REGENCY, 1522 [Book III.

gulden the cwt, and some of the East Indian spices had risen to four times
their former price.1 Several causes might conduce to this effect ; such
as increased luxury and consequent demand ; the Venetian war, which
had interrupted the course of trade, and a diminution of the value of money,
arising from the importation of precious metals from America, which began
to be felt, though far from what it afterwards became. At that period,
however, the cause was chiefly sought, and perhaps not without justice,
in the system of monopoly arising from the combination of the great
commercial houses ; a practice which had continued to increase, in spite
of the repeated enactments of the diets. They were already, it was alleged,
possessed of such an amount of capital and such numerous and extensive
factories, that no one could possibly compete with them. They were
willing to give the King of Portugal higher prices even than he had pre-
viously asked, only on condition that he would demand still higher from
those who came after them. It was calculated that every year 30,000 cwt.
of pepper and 2,000 cwt. of ginger were imported into Germany, and that
within a few years, the first had risen in price from 18 to 32 kreutzers
per lb., and the second from 21 kreutzers to 1 gulden, 3 kreutzers ; this
must, of course, have afforded an enormous profit.

As Rome was constantly assailed for her sale of indulgences, and the
knights for their robberies, so the merchants and commercial towns were
now incessantly inveighed against for their extortions. At all events,
the Frankfurters attributed the disfavour shown them for some time
past in their transactions with the Estates of the empire, almost exclusively
to the unpopularity of monopolists.

At the diet of 1522-23, the resolution was taken to interdict all com-
panies possessing a capital of more than 50,000 gulden : they were to be
allowed a year and a half to dissolve their partnership. It was hoped
that this would enable the smaller commercial houses to enter into com-
petition with the great ones, and would also have the effect of preventing
the accumulation of money and merchandise in few hands.

Overlooking the enormous advantages afforded by foreign commerce,
however carried on, the diet conceived the idea of covering the general
deficiencies of the state by a tax upon trade. It was notorious that
each individual prince drew the greater part of his revenues from the

1 I have extracted the following tables from a decree of the Select Committee
on Monopolies in 1523 (Frank. A.) : —
The best saffron from Cata-j cQst k cost {q kr

Ionia, which - - -J
Second rate do. - „ 1519 „ 2 g. 21 to 27 kr. ,, 4 g.

Cloves - - - - ,, 1512 ,, 19 schill. cost in ,, 2 g.
Stick cinnamon- - - „ 1516 ,, 1 g. 18 kr. „ 1518 2 g. 3 ort.
Short do. - - - - „ 1515 .. 3 ort.
Nutmeg - - - - „ 1519 „ 27 kr.
Mace - - - - ,, 1518 „ 1 g. 6 kr.

Best pepper in the husk - ,, 1518 ,, 18 kr.
Ginger, formerly from 21 to 24 kr.

Galingal ,, ' „ 1 g. 36 kr.

Sugar, the hundred weight in 15 16 ,, 11 to 12 g.

Sugar candy - - - „ 1S16 .. l6 to 17 S-

Venetian almonds the cwt. ,, 1518 ,, 8 g.

all wljgi?3 - - - ., 1518 .. 5 g-

butthath^ - - " ■• J518 - 3g- zsch.

1 5 19 I g. 21 kr.
I522 3 g- 28 kr-
4 g. 6 kr.
„ 32 kr.
1516 1 g. 3 kr.

1 g. 39 kr.
1518 20 g.
1522 20 to 21 g.
,, 12 g-
„ 9 g-

4 g. 1 ort.

Chap. II.] PROJECT OF A SYSTEM OF IMPORT DUTIES 267

tolls, the right of levying which had been granted to him by former
emperors ; and as it was evident that no direct tax could be collected,
a plan was adopted for an indirect one, in the form of a general system
of import duties to be levied for the use of the empire.

This project is worthy of a moment's attention ; if carried into execution
it must have produced incalculable results ; but it is remarkable that it
could even be entertained. So early as the year 1521 it was discussed:
the Elector Joachim I. of Brandenburg adopted it with great eagerness
and continually recommended it.

In the spring of 1522 the States were really resolved to accede to it,
principally because it did not appear burdensome to the common people ;
but in order to make sure of carrying it into effect, they determined to
ask the previous consent of the emperor, before taking any further step.

This consent having been received from Spain, accompanied, however,
with the condition that the further provisions should be again submitted
to him for approbation, a commission was appointed at the diet of 1 522-23,
by the general vote of the States, to work out the plan in detail.1

The commission went on the principle of leaving all the necessaries of
life duty-free. Under this head were classed corn, wine, beer, cattle for
draught and slaughter, and leather. All other articles were to pay both
an import and export duty, not to be regulated either by weight or by
a tariff, which would have occasioned a great deal of troublesome investi-
gation, but by the price at which the article was bought, to be stated by
the purchaser ; upon this, the duty was to be four per cent.

The whole extent of the Roman empire inhabited by the German race
was to be surrounded by a line of custom-houses, which was to begin at
Nikolsburg in Moravia, and thence pass towards Hungary through Vienna
and Gratz to Villach or Tarvis ; thence to extend along the Alps towards
Venice and Milan. Custom-house stations were to be erected in Trent,
Brunegg, Insbruck, and Feldkirchen. The frontier of Switzerland,
which refused to submit to the imposition of the duty, was to be guarded
by custom-houses ; the line was then to cross the Rhine and run through
Strasburg, Metz, Luxemburg, and Treves, to Aix-la-chapelle ; which
would bring it near the coast and within the region of maritime commerce.
The Netherlands were without hesitation considered as part of the empire ;
Utrecht and Dordrecht, as well as Cologne and Wesel, were proposed as
custom-house stations for inland trade ; Antwerp, Bruges and Bergen-
op-zoom, for maritime trade, especially that with England and Portugal.
The line was thence to follow the coast northward and eastward. Towards
Denmark, which according to public law was still regarded as a permanent
confederate of the empire, the Hanse towns, from Hamburg to Danzig
inclusive, were to be the custom-house ports ; towards Poland, Konigsberg
in the Newmark and Frankfurt on the Oder, besides a few other towns
in Silesia and Lusatia.2

Much was still left undetermined in this project ; for instance, it was
immediately proposed that the frontiers should be surveyed, in order

1 " Ordnung ains gemainen Reichs Zolls in Ratschlag verfast." — Fr. Ar.,
vol. xxxviii. " Ordinance for customs' duties for the whole empire."

2 This anticipation of a Zollverein, which has only been accomplished in our own
day, and was the precursor of the foundation of a new German Empire onjws
enduring basis, is very remarkable.

268 PROJECT OF A SYSTEM OF IMPORT DUTIES [Book III.

to ascertain whether better places could not be found for the prevention
of smuggling, than those already named : it was still a matter of doubt
whether Bohemia could be included, and neither Prussia nor Livonia
had yet been taken into consideration ; but all these were mere details
which could easily be determined when the project was carried into execu-
tion ; — the main point was seriously resolved upon.

As might have been expected, the whole commercial body thought it
would be injured by this measure, which it attributed merely to the
hostility generally shown towards itself, and accordingly raised numerous
objections to it, more or less well founded. An attempt was made to
answer all these objections at length. The example of neighbouring
kingdoms was cited, where much heavier restrictions existed, and where,
nevertheless, trade was most nourishing. It was argued that the duty
by no means fell on the merchant, but on the consumer ; and that it would
be a prodigious advantage to commerce if, by means of this tax, the
disturbances in the empire could be put down, and general security restored.

At all events, it cannot be denied that this project might have been
the means of producing the most important results for the future fate
of Germany. The establishment of accurately denned and well guarded
frontiers, the entire circumference of which were closely bound to a common
active centre, would in itself have been a great advantage ; this alone
would have at once awakened a universal feeling of the unity of the
empire. Besides the whole administration would have assumed a different
character. The most important national institution, the Council of
Regency, the formation of which had cost so much labour, would by this
means have acquired a natural and firm basis, and sufficient power for
the maintenance of order. As yet there was no peace throughout the
country ; all the roads were unsafe ; it was impossible to reckon on the
execution of any sentence or decree. But had this ordinance been vigor-
ously carried into effect, the Regency would have had the means of paying
the governors and councillors in the circles, so often discussed, and of
maintaining a certain number of troops under their own orders and those
of the subordinate authorities.

In the spring of 1523 it seemed as if this point would certainly be
achieved : the plan was again sent for final confirmation to the emperor
who was already bound by his former consent.

It is evident that the Council of Regency entertained the project of
constituting itself a powerful central government, and, in conjunction with
the States, resorted to every possible expedient to accomplish this end,
in spite of all opposition.

Hence the question, what course this rising power would take with
respect to the religious movement, acquired additional importance.

At the beginning of the year 1522 the feelings of the Council of Regency
were much opposed to the innovation. Duke George of Saxony was
present, in whom a natural attachment to traditional' opinions,1 the

1 Duke George said to our informant Planitz : " Wenn S. F. Gn. nicht mit
der Tatt und Gewalt dazu that, wiird S. Gn. Land schyr gar ketzerisch : wollten
alle die behemische Weis an sich nemen, und sub utraque communiciren : er
geddcht es aber mit Gewalt zu weren." — " If his princely grace did not interfere with
might and deed, his grace's subjects would soon become sheer heretics, for they
ail wanted to follow the Bohemian fashion, and to communicate sub utraque ;
put that He intended to prevent it by force." — Letter of the 2nd Jan,, 1522,

Chap. II.] COUNCIL OF REGENCY, 1522 269

various old quarrels with his cousins of the Ernestine line, and a personal
dislike to the bold and reckless monk, combined to raise a violent and
active hostility to the new doctrines. The disturbances in Wittenberg
happened opportunely to give more weight to his accusations ; and he
actually obtained an edict in which the Regency exhorted the neighbouring
bishoprics of Naumburg, Meissen, and Merseburg not to allow the innova-
tions to be forced upon them, but to maintain the customary rites and
practices of the church.1

But in the course of the next three months, when news arrived that the
disturbances had ceased, the feelings of the Council of Regency underwent
a total change. One subject of discussion, of course, was Luther's return
to Wittenberg, by which he had openly bidden defiance to the imperial
ban, and Duke George even proposed an appeal to the immediate inter-
vention of the emperor ; this, however, merely wounded the self-love of
the Council of Regency. John of Planitz, the envoy of Elector Frederick,
would not hear his master blamed for permitting Luther to remain in
Wittenberg ; nor would he allow it to be said that the monk's doctrine was
heresy. " The receiving the sacrament in both kinds, the marriage of a
few priests, and the desertion of the convent by a few monks, could not,"
he said, " be called heresies ; these acts were merely opposed to regula-
tions established not long since by popes and councils, and which would
perhaps be eventually abolished. If, on the other hand, Luther were
banished, imitators of him would arise, but animated with a different
spirit ; who, instead of preaching only against the dogmas of the church,
might declaim against Christianity and God himself ; and not only a
rebellion, but complete unbelief might be the result." This envoy was
a man of talent, equally resolute and dexterous : he was strongly in favour
of Luther, less indeed from religious belief, although in the main their
opinions were the same, than from the conviction that Luther's cause was
equally the cause of his prince, of the Council of Regency, and of the empire.

In the summer of 1522 it was the turn of the Elector Frederick to attend
the Council of Regency in person. He was one of the few who remained
of the old school of princes, to whom that body owed its establishment,
and he had lately taken the most active part in the firm settlement of its
constitution. He had already been frequently consulted concerning
questions of form. His calm judgment, his well-known experience,
and the universal respect paid to his acknowledged integrity and talents
for business, invested him with singular authority.2 He might indeed

1 Resolution und Decisnr.,.. fr.c, 20th Jan., 1522. Walch xv. 2616. The
Appendix No. 10 is remarkable : ' Bis so lang durch Versehung der gemeinen
Reichsstande, christliche Versammlung .oder Concilia solcher Sachen halben,
eine bedachtliche wohlerwogene gegriindete gewisse Erklarung — vorgenommen
werde." — " Until such time as, by the care of the general Estates of the empire,
a christian assembly, or council for such matters, shall have made a prudent,
deliberate, well grounded, and certain declaration of faith." From this passage
we may perceive the existence of another tendency, although as yet vague.

2 The Elector of Treves hearing that Frederick was ill, sent him word through
his minister, " E. Ch. Gn. solten vest halten, nicht krank werden noch abgehen,
denn man hett im Reich E. Ch. Gn. nye als wol bedurft als itzund, nachdem
E. Ch. Gn. wusste, wye es allenthalben im Reiche stiinde." — " Your Electoral
Grace must stand firm, and not fall sick nor die, for your Electoral Grace was
never so greatly needed by the empire as now, for your Electoral Grace knows
how matters stand in the empire." — Planitz, 1st Nov., 1521.

270 COUNCIL OF REGENCY, 1522 [Book III.

at this time be said to govern the empire, in as far as it could be governed
at all.

Under these circumstances, it is evident that Luther, who enjoyed
so fully the favour of this prince, had nothing to fear from the Council
of Regency. Duke George continued to attack him before that assembly :
he repeatedly complained of the monk's violence, and of the abuse which
he poured forth against the princes of the empire, the emperor and the
pope. Never perhaps was a more evasive answer given than that which
he received from the Council of Regency, to one of these accusations.
" We perceive," they write on the 16th of August, " that your grace feels
displeasure at insults to the pope's holiness and the emperor's majesty,
and we thereupon make known to your grace, that we would not patiently
endure insult or injury to the emperor's majesty, wherever we should
see or hear of it."1 No wonder that, when the duke afterwards com-
plained of this answer to the lieutenant of the empire, Count Palatine
Frederick, he replied that at that time there was nothing to be done in
matters of this kind.

An independent party favourable to Luther was now forming in the
Council of Regency. It was, it is true, subject to fluctuations from the
entrance of new members every quarter of a year ; but from the per-
manent operation of principles once imbibed, it always regained the upper
hand, and, in fact, constituted a majority. Here was, indeed, a wonderful
change in the aspect of affairs ! — In 1521 the emperor published sentence
of ban against Luther, and in 1522-23, the body which represented the
imperial power, took him, though still under ban, under its protection,
and even approximated to his opinions. That body was, of course, not
affected by the political combinations which had influenced the emperor.

The bias it had received was all the more important, since the States
had assembled during the last months of the one year and the first of
the ensuing ; and at the instigation of the new pope, Adrian VI., were
to come to a decision concerning the Lutheran affairs.

Adrian VI. was undoubtedly an extremely well-intentioned man. He
had formerly been professor at Louvain, and had even then zealously
reproved the arrogance of the priesthood, and the waste and misapplication
of church property.2 He subsequently became tutor to Charles V., and
took part in the administration of the affairs of Spain, there he imbibed
a thorough disgust of the worldly tendencies of the papacy. He was there-
fore strongly disposed to attempt some reform. He declared that he
had only bent his neck under the yoke of^JJv»-p%pctl dignity, in order to
restore the defiled bride of Christ to h»i original purity. At the same
timehe was a decided opponent of Lather, and belonged to those ' Magistri
nostri *" of Louvain, who Ka6T~Scf long waged war against the innovating
literature and theology ; he had expressed unqualified approbation of
the opinions professed by that university. The orthodox dominican
tendency, which, as early as 1520, had once more formed a close alliance

1 Instruction to the Regency at Niirnberg. Answer to the same ; letter from
Duke George, dated the Tuesday after the Nativity of the Virgin (9th Sept.),
and from Otto Pack to the duke, the Monday before the Xlmille Virginum
(20th Oct.). — Dresden Archives.

* Extracts from his " Commentary in Quartum Sententiarum," in the letter
of Joh. Lanoy to Henr. Barillon ; Burnam's Vita Adriani, p. 360.

Chap. II.] DIET OF 1522—23 271

with the court of Rome, had now obtained a temporary sovereignty in
his person.

In conformity with these sentiments were the instructions which Adrian
gave to his nuncio Chieregati, whom he sent to the German diet. He
looked upon the spread of Lutheran doctrines as a punishment for the
sins of the prelates. " We are aware," said he, " that, some years ago,
many abominations took place in this chair : every thing was turned to
evil, and the corruption spread from the head to the members, from the
pope to the prelates." Whilst he now declared himself willing to reform
the existing abuses, he at the same time exhorted the States of Germany
to offer a determined resistance to the diffusion of Luther's opinions ;1
and brought forward eight arguments in favour of that course,which he
thought of irresistible cogency.

An answer to these propositions of the pope had now to be given,
and a resolution to be formed upon them. This duty devolved on the
Council of Regency.

At the first appearance of the nuncio, a trial of strength ensued between
the two parties in that body. The orthodox minority brought forward
a complaint from the nuncio, concerning two or three preachers who
proclaimed the Lutheran tenets under the very eyes of the Regency,
to their and his serious offence. Archduke Ferdinand, who then filled
the office of lieutenant of the empire, and the Elector of Brandenburg,
who was the next in succession for the ensuing quarter, declared them-
selves in favour of the nuncio. The majority however, led by Planitz,
resolutely opposed them. This gave rise to several violent discussions.
Ferdinand exclaimed, " I am here in the place of the emperor." — " Yes,
certainly," rejoined Planitz, " but in conjunction with the Council of
Regency, and subject to the laws of the empire " ; — and, in accordance
with his suggestion, the affair.was referred to the States ;2 i.e. indefinitely
adjourned. It is easy to imagine that this increased the boldness and
vehemence of the Lutheran preachers. "Even if the pope," exclaimed
one of them in the church of St. Lawrence, " had a fourth crown added
to the three he already wears, he should not make me forsake the word
of God." Thus was defiance hurled from the pulpit against the pope,
before the very eyes of his nuncio.

Under these circumstances the Council of Regency appointed a com-
mittee to draw up the answer which the States should give to the nuncio.
This committee, like the Regency itself, contained representatives of
both parties ; some of its members belonging to the clergy, and others
to the laity, and for a time it was doubtful which side had the majority.
This was however very soon decided.

The most influential member was undoubtedly Johann von Schwar-

1 " Expergiscantur, excitentur — et ad executionem sententiae apostolicae ac
imperialis edicti prsefati omnino procedant. Detur venia iis qui errores suos
abjurare voluerint." — Instructio pro Cheregato.

2 Planitz relates this himself, on the 4th Jan., 1523. The States answered,
that it was a grave matter which required much consideration : they asked for
copies of the brief and of the instruction, and wished " etzliche dariiber verordnen,
die die Sach mit Fleiss bewegen." " In der Stadt ist gross Murmeln, will nicht
rathen, das man einen gefangen annehme." — " To appoint certain people who
should manage the matter with diligence." " In the town is much murmuring.
I cannot advise that any person should be imprisoned."

272 SCHWARZENBERG [Book III.

zenberg, the Hofmeister1 of Bamberg, who was now advanced in life.
In his early youth he had quitted the dissipation of a court which had
threatened to hurry him along in its vortex, and, in consequence of his
father's admonition, had formed earnest and effectual resolutions of a
virtuous life ; from that time he had devoted himself with untiring
perseverance to study and to the service of the state. We have transla-
tions of some of Cicero's works, bearing his name, in which he has care-
fully adopted the purest and most intelligible forms of the language of
his age.2 The first criminal code for Bamberg, if not entirely his work,
was at least in great measure constructed by him. In this he evinces
as much capacity for appreciating the value of traditional and local usages,
(for he adheres in the main to the old customary law of the city of Bam-
berg,) as the scientific merits of the Roman law. Wherever he applies
the principles of the latter to supply some deficiency, he does it in a manner
corresponding with existing maxims.3 He was, as we see, a man of
original and productive talent, both in literature and in politics : he
expressed his wonder how any one could find the time too long. He
eagerly embraced the Lutheran cause at its very first appearance, finding
in it the scientific and practical tendencies of his own mind exalted by
an alliance with religious sentiments and aims. He accordingly exchanged
several very serious letters on the subject with one of his sons, and removed
one of his daughters from her convent ; indeed his mind was entirely
engrossed by the new opinions.4 With all the force of a full and well-
grounded conviction, armed against every objection, he adopted them,
and, partly perhaps owing to the high and important station he filled, he
carried with him the minds of his colleagues ; some because they already
inclined to those opinions — like Sebastian von Rotenhan and Dr. Zoch,
and others, like the Bishop of Augsburg, because they knew not, just
then at least, what resistance . to offer. T^ose-who did not share these
opinions, such as_Dr. v". Werthern, the envoy from Duke George, and the
Archbishop of "Salzburg, found it better to stay away from the assembly.
Thus, with very slight opposition, this committee, which now represented
the central government of the empire, agreed upon a report in a spirit
of decided opposition to the papacy, and of the greatest importance to
the whole future progress of the new doctrines.

This report was based on the admissions and promises of reform made
by the pope, which the committee accepted, but without giving in return
the promise which the pope demanded, — to unite with him in the endeavour
to crush the Lutheran doctrines. On the contrary, it declared that these

1 Title applicable to the Governor of Bamberg only.

2 E.g., De Senectute. Neuber's was revised and collated with the text by
Hutten, and put into Hoffrankisch Deutsch by Schwarzenberg. Neuber's
translation of the De Officiis was put into " zierlicher Hochteutsch," — " elegant
High German," — by Schwarzenberg, and then revised by a third person to see
" obs dem Lateyn gemess sey," — " whether it were according to the Latin."
Christ praises it for the " emergens e stilo nativa et vere Germanica simplicitas."
De Amicitia was translated " von Synnen zu Synnen, nicht von Worten zu
Worten," — " from sense to sense, not from words to words." — Cf. Degen, Litera-
tur der tjbersetzungen, i- 55-

3 Zopfl das alte Bamberger Recht als Quelle der Carolina, pp. 166, 170.

4 There is a notice of him in Strobel Vermischte Beitrage, 1775, No. 1. Heller,
Reformationsgeschichte von Bamberg, p. 45.

Chap. II.] REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 273

admitted abuses rendered it impossible to carry into execution the bull
of Leo X. and the edict of Worms, for that Luther had been the first to
expose these abuses, and any display of rigour towards him would make
everyone believe that it was the object of the government " to suppress
the truth of the Gospel by tyranny, and to maintain unchristian abuses,
wherefrom nothing could arise but resistance to authority, sedition and
heresy." The pope was exhorted to adhere to the concordats, to redress
the grievances of the German nation, and above all, to abolish annates :
it was not indeed pretended that these reforms would now suffice to put
an end to the schism ; that, it was said, could only be effected by a council.
The convocation of a council, which would occupy men's minds for half a
century, had already been the subject of a serious conversation between
the nuncio and Planitz, and was now officially agitated by the committee
of the Council of Regency. Some of the conditions were at once stated by
it : they were as follows : — The council to be convoked bv the pope's
holiness, with the assent of the emperor's majesty, as befitted the respective
privileges of the two sovereigns ; to be held at a convenient neutral town
without delay ; to begin within a year, and under a form materially
differing from any previous council. One important innovation was,
that the laity were to be allowed a seat and a voice in it, and all present
were to be absolved from every obligation which might restrain them from
bringing forward whatever might be of service in " godly, evangelical, and
other»generally profitable affairs." An assembly thus constituted would
have answered to the Lutheran ideas respecting the Church, and would
have been totally different from what the Council of Trent afterwards was.
In answer to the inquiry, what course would be pursued till the council
had given its decision, the committee answered, that they should hope,
in case the pope agreed to their proposals, to prevail on the Elector
Frederick and on Luther, that neither the latter nor his followers should
write or preach any thing which might occasion irritation and disorder ;
they should only teach the Holy Gospel and the authentic Scriptures
according to the true Christian sense. These last conditions were of
course the most important ; all the rest was vague and remote, but these
would serve as a rule of conduct for the present moment. They were,
as may be easily perceived, entirely in accordance with the opinions which
prevailed at Wittenberg and at the court of Saxony, and were evidently
proposed with the intention of promoting the free development of the
doctrine embraced there. The 13th January, 1523, was the day on which
this ever-memorable decision of the States was announced for further
discussion. Hans von Planitz joyfully sent it to his master on the very
same day.1

A great fermentation, and sharp collisions between the clerical and
lay members began moreover to be observable in the States. It had
indeed at first appeared as if both intended to make common cause against
Rome, and at Worms the bishops had stated their own peculiar grievances
in addition to those of the German nation ; yet it was there that the
division began ; the clergy found that their interests were touched by

1 " Wess der Ausschuss zu pepstlicher Heiligkeit Antwurdt den lutherischen
Handell betreffen .verordnet derhalb gerathschlagt hat." — " What the com-
mittee'argued and decided with respect to his papal holiness's answer concerning
the Lutheran affairs." — Frankf. R. A. A., torn, xxxviii., f. 99.

18

274 DIET OF 1522—23 [Book III.

the complaints of the laity, and resolved to defend their prescriptive
rights. Several outbreaks of this animosity had already taken place in
that assembly. A memorial from the cities, full of the most violent
invective, was read, and the head of the German clergy, the elector of
Mainz, warmly expressed his displeasure at it. It appeared, he said, as
if the clergy were to be treated like criminals, and not to be secure from
personal violence. But even the most zealously catholic lay princes
demanded reforms ; and if a prince had given no instructions on the subject
himself, his councillors of their own accord inclined to that side. The
grievances of the nation were again recapitulated ; — this time indeed
without the participation of the clergy, but with much more vehemence,
and with many additions, chiefly directed against the clergy themselves ;
for the thousandfold abuses enumerated, no reform was more strongly-
urged than the separation of the spiritual from the temporal jurisdiction.

Nothing could be more calculated to drive these two hostile parties into
open warfare than the report which the committee of the Council of
Regency had sent in to the States.

The clergy did, however, succeed in introducing some modifications into it.

First of all, the admissions quoted from the papal brief were only allowed
to stand as far as they regarded the pope himself : the words relating
to priests and prelates were struck out.1 Then no mention was made of
the claims of the laity to a seat and voice in the council. A single phrase
was frequently the cause of violent disputes ; for instance, the clergy
would not admit the word " evangelical " into the article concerning
obligations ; whereupon such offensive expressions were used by the
lay party, that the elector of Mainz left the assembly and rode home to his
lodging. In the end however the majority decided in his favour, and the
word was omitted.

Whatever were the changes made in particular expressions, the main
point was left unaltered ; the States declined to carry into execution the
edict of Worms ;2 a council was demanded, which was to begin, if possible,
within a year, in a German town, and with the co-operation of the
emperor : a suggestion was even made to alter the form of such an assembly,

1 In the rough draft it is stated : " 1st von Ppl. Heiligkeit . . . woll ange-
zeigt dass solches von wegen der Sund beschee und dass die Sund des Volks von
den Sunden der Priester und Pralaten herfliessen, und dass darum dieselben
zuforderst und am ersten als die endlich Ursach solcher Krankheit von der
Wurzel geheilt gestraft und abgewendet werden soil." — " It is well shown by
his holiness the pope that such things happen on account of sin, and that the
sinfulness of the people flows from the sins of the priests and prelates ; that
these therefore should, first and foremost, as the ultimate cause of such evil,
be cured from the root upwards, and should be cured, punished and turned from
their evil ways." This passage is wanting in the answer which was really sent
to the papal nuncio. — See the reprint in Walch, xv., p. 2551, No. 8.

2 This was expressed in the following manner in the answer given to the
nuncio : " Majori namque populi parti jam pridem persuasum est . . . nationi
Germanicae a curia Romana per certos abusus multa et magna gravamina et
incommoda illata esse : ob id, si pro executione apostolicae sedis sententiae vel
imperatoriae majestatis edicti quippiam acerbius attemptatum esset, mox popu-
laris multitudo sibi hanc opinionem animo concepisset ac si talia facerent pro
evertenda evangelica vertitate et sustinendis manutenendisq.ue malis abusibus,
unde nihil aliud quam gravissimi tumultus populares intestinaque bella speranda
essent." — Fr. A.

Chap. II.] DEBATES 275

and the participation of the temporal states in it was tacitly assumed ;
both clergy and laity were to be relieved from all obligations restrictive
of the free utterance of opinion. In short, the party which strove to
alter the entire constitution of the Church had now decidedly the upper
hand in both estates of the empire. The clergy were aware of the necessity
of a change, and the laity eagerly pressed for it ; — it is said that even
Duke Louis of Bavaria insisted upon it, in spite of the opposition of the
adherents of Rome.1

The only points that now remained to be discussed — and for the present
the most important — were, the conduct of affairs in the interval before
the convocation of the council, and the degree of liberty of speech and
action which was to be allowed to writers and preachers.

On this question the clergy succeeded in introducing still further restric-
tions. They insisted that the elector should be requested not alone to
prohibit whatever might lead to disorder, but to allow nothing whatever
to be written, printed or done by Luther or his followers ; and also that
the request should be made immediately without waiting for the pope's
consent to the council. The Saxon envoy to the diet, Philip von Feilitzsch,
endeavoured to maintain the terms proposed by the Council of Regency,
and failing in this, protested that " his prince could not consider himself
bound by this resolution, and would always know how to act in a christian,
praiseworthy and irreproachable manner."

Thus we see that in this contest the victory inclined first to one side
and then to the other. The two parties collected all their forces for the
last point at issue, which was, perhaps, still more important than the
preceding one, as it was to decide the latitude to be allowed to preaching ;
a matter which immediately concerned the mass of the people. The
clergy were not satisfied with merely directing the preachers to confine
themselves to the Gospel and to writers approved by the Church, but
required a more accurate specification of what was meant by the latter,
and wished to include the four great Latin fathers, Jerome, Augustin,
Ambrose and Gregory, to whom they ascribed canonical authority. This
is the more remarkable, since a century earlier the more explicit of the
Hussite doctrines had been regarded mainly as a departure from these
four founders of the Latin church. But the nation was now so deeply
imbued with the spirit of Luther's teaching, that it would no longer be
bound by the particular form and character assumed by the Latin church ;
the common-sense of the people revolted against the imputing to St. Paul
legs authority than to Ambrose. The time was past in which the clergy
could carry their point. After a great deal of debating a resolution was
passed, which was in reality only a more complete expression of the
meaning of the original proposition. It was decreed, that nothing should
be taught but the pure, true and holy Gospel ; mildly, piously and in a
Christian spirit, according to the doctrine and interpretation of writings
approved and accepted by the Christian church.2 Perhaps the adherents

1 Planitz names him as early as on the 18th Jan. with Schwarzenberg and
Feilitzsch.

2 " Quod nihil praeter verum purum sincerum et sanctum evangelium et
approbatam scripturam pie mansuete christiane juxta doctrinam et exposi-
tionem approbate et ab ecclesia Christiana receptae scripturae doceant." This
is the passage in the answer given to the papal nuncio.

18—2

276 DIET OF 1522—23 [Book III.

of the established faith were satisfied by the decision, because it
recognised the authority of the expositions of the Latin fathers ;
but this recommendation was couched in vague, general and un-
certain language ; whereas that of the evangelical doctrine was precise,
decided and emphatic, and therefore was alone likely to make an
impression.

Thus, after all, the answer went back to the Council of Regency, having
undergone a few partial changes, but agreeing in the main with the spirit
of the original plan. Contrary to all expectation, it caused another
very stormy debate in that assembly. Some of the members (among
whom was the Bishop of Augsburg) who had repented of the part they
had taken in the original scheme, made another attempt to retain the
express mention of the four fathers of the Church. Planitz reports that
he had to endure many proud and wicked words, and to resist a violent
storm on this question. He expresses the greatest indignation at the
apostasy of the bishop, whom, he says, God had raised out of the dust
and made a ruler over his people, and who in return persecuted the
Gospel.1 However, with resolution and patience, and the assistance
of Schwarzenberg, he succeeded in maintaining the form which had
at last been decided upon, and the answer was delivered to the nuncio
as it had been returned from the assembly of the States.2

The nuncio did not attempt to conceal his astonishment and vexation.
Neither the pope nor the emperor, nor any other sovereign, he said, had
expected such a decision from them. He renewed his request for the execu-
tion of the edict of Worms and the establishment of an episcopal censor-
ship ; but it was impossible to persuade a body which moved so slowly
and with so much difficulty, to think of retracting a resolution once
formed, and all his endeavours were fruitless.

The substance of the answer was published in an imperial edict. The
Elector of Saxony and Luther himself were highly pleased with it ; Luther,
indeed, thought that the ban and excommunication which had been pro-
claimed against him were virtually revoked by it.

It is indisputably true that these decisions of the diet of Niirnberg were
exactly the contrary of those passed at Worms. The important step
which had been expected of Charles V., namely, that he would place himself
at the head of the national movement, was now actually taken by the
Council of Regency. The political opposition which had so long been

1 Planitz, 4th Feb. : " Ich will aber Patienz und Geduld tragen. Es haben
die Stande obangezeigte Wort (he has inserted them in his letter) haben wollen
und nit die vier Doctores zu benennen und sulchs dem Regiment anzeigen lassen,
dabei es blieben." — " I will, however, have patience and temper. The States
would have the words I have before mentioned, and would not allow the four
doctors to be named or specified to the Council of Regency, so it remained as it
was."

2 Planitz, 9th Feb. : " Die Schrift ist dem papstl. Nuntius auf die Mass
ubergebenwie ich E. Chf. G. zugeschickt. Der ist der nicht zu frieden und hat
darauf replicirt. ... Er will den Kayser dabei nit haben, so gefallt ihm auch
nit dass es so gar frei seyn soil wie begehrt." — " The paper is handed over to the
papal nuncio, on the whole much as I have sent it to your electoral grace. The
nuncio is not satisfied with it, and has replied, he will not allow the emperor to
be mentioned in it, nor does he like that there should be so much freedom as is
demanded."

Chap. III.] DIFFUSION OF THE NEW DOCTRINES 277

gathering its forces, offered a more vigorous resistance than ever to the
pope : allied with it, and protected by the representatives of the imperial
power, religious discussion was now left to its free and unfettered

CHAPTER III.

DIFFUSION OF THE NEW DOCTRINES.
1522— 1524.

No new arrangement needed to be made, no plan to be concerted, no
mission to be sent : like the seed which shoots up on the ploughed field
at the first genial rays of the sun in spring, the new opinions, the way for
which had been prepared by all the events and discussions we have
endeavoured to trace, now spread abroad through the whole land where
the German language was spoken.

A religious order was destined to afford the first common centre to the
various elements of opposition.

The Augustines of Meissen, and of Thuringia generally, had made the
first step towards emancipation, by a formal resolution. Among them
were old friends of Luther's, who had followed the same career of studies
and of opinions as he had : even among the more distant Augustine con-
vents, there were few in which similar questions had not been agitated,
and similar changes of opinion manifested ; indeed, a list is still extant, of
those who took part in the movement at Magdeburg, Osnabruck, Lippe,
Antwerp, Regensburg, Dillingen, Niirnberg and Strasburg,1 and in the
territories of Hessen and Wiirtemberg. Many of these reformers were men
advanced in life, who had held these doctrines ever since the time of Johann
Proles, and who now exulted to see them attain a fuller development and
greater power : others again, were youthful and fiery spirits, inspired with
admiration for their victorious brother of Wittenberg. Johann Stiefel of
Esslingen beheld in him the angel of the Apocalypse flying through the
heavens, and holding in his hand the everlasting Gospel ; he composed a
mystical and heroic poem in his praise.2 This body, moreover, had the
glory of being the first to draw down persecution on itself. Two or three

1 According to Eberlin's, "Syben frumme aber trostlose Pfaffen," " Seven
devout but comfortless Priests," Dr. Caspar Amon, " ain erwirdig Man," " a
reverend man," taught at Dillingen. This is doubtless the same person who in
1523 published a Psalter done into German from the genuine text in the Hebrew
tongue, — " geteutscht nach warhaftigem text der hebreischen zungen." The
dedication of this book is dated Lauingen. Panzer, ii., p. 131.

2 Von der christformigen rechtgegriindeten Lehre Doctoris Martini Luthers :

" Er thut sich worlich fyegen zu Got in rechten mut,
Gwalt mag ihn auch nit biegen : er geb er drum sein blut.
Zu Worms er sich erzeyget : er trat keck auf den plan.
Sein feynd hat er geschweyget : keiner dorft ihn wenden an."
" Concerning the Christian-like well-grounded doctrine of Doctor Martin
Luther :

" He trusted truly in God with a good courage.
Force could not bend him : for it (the cause) he would have spilled his blood.
He proved himself at Worms ; stepping boldly into the field.
He silenced his enemies : none could answer him."
See Strobel's Neue Beitrage, i., p. 10.

278 DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

Augustine friars at Antwerp were the first martyrs of the new faith. Jean
Chatelain of Metz was soon afterwards condemned to the flames for the
attacks he had made on the prerogatives of the clergy in the Advent of
1523, and the Lent of 1524.

A number of Franciscans, not, like the Augustines,1 supported by their
order, but separating themselves entirely from it, and, as we may infer
from that act, men of more energetic temper, were the next to join the
new sect. Some of these were learned men, like Johann Brismann of Cott-
bus, who had been for many years devoted to the study of the schoolmen
and had become doctor of theology, but who now, like Luther, drew from
their works entirely opposite opinions.2 Others were spirits full of deep
religious yearnings, which the conventual rule and discipline failed to
satisfy ; such was Friedrich Myconius. It is related that on the night
following his investiture, he dreamed that whilst wandering in steep and
tortuous paths, he was met by a holy man, baldheaded, and clothed in an
antique dress, as St. Paul is painted, who led him first to a fountain whose
waters flowed from a crucified body, whereat he slaked his thirst, and then
through endless fields of thick standing corn, in which the reapers were
making ready for the harvest.3 This vision is sufficient to show the turn
of his mind ; and we may easily infer from it the impression which must
have been produced on him by the revival of the apostolical doctrine, and
the prospect of an active co-operation in its diffusion. Others again were
men who in the various intercourse with the lower classes, to which the
duties of a Franciscan convent leads, had perceived the pernicious effects of
the doctrine of justification by works, and now attacked it with all their
might : among these were Eberlin of Gunzburg, and Heinrich of Ketten-
bach, who came out of the same convent at Ulm, and who both possessed
in an extraordinary degree, the gift of popular oratory. Eberlin's oppo-
nents said of him, that he alone had power to mislead a whole province ;
so great was the effect of his eloquence on the common people. Among
them were found the most steadfast champions, like Stephen Kempen,
whose brave and warlike bearing was worthy of his name. The Francis-
cans were almost everywhere among the first reformers : Kempen was the
founder of "the new doctrines in Hamburg, where he defended them nearly
single-handed for three years against all opponents.

But there was not, perhaps, a single religious order which did not furnish
partisans to the new opinions, many of whom were among its most cele-
brated champions. Martin Butzer had been appointed professor of the

1 The Reimchronik of Metz speaks very favourably of this Augustine monk.

" A Metz prescha ung caresme,
devant grand peuple homme et femme,
qui en sa predication
avoient grande devotion."

His persecutor says to him, —

" Tu as presche de nostre estat,
je te hai plus qu'un apostat :
as tousche sur le gens d'eglise :
maintenant te tiens a ma guise."

Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, ii., Preuves cxix.

2 Extract from his sermons in Seckendorf, Historia Lutheranismi, i., p. 272.

3 Adami Vitae Theologorum, edition of 1705, p. 83.

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 279

Thomist doctrines by the Dominicans ; but he dissolved his connection
with that order by a kind of lawsuit, and from that time forward took a
most active and successful part in the establishment of the new system of
faith. Otto Brunnfels came out of the Carthusian convent at Mainz and
became the follower of Hutten, whose labours he shared with rival ardour.
The young reading-master of the Benedictine abbey of Alperspach,
P. Ambrosius Blaurer, was incited by the general ferment to the study of
the sacred writings, and formed opinions which soon rendered a longer
residence in the convent impossible to him. GEcolampadius, who had but
lately taken the vows in the convent of St. Bridget at Altomiinster, raised
his voice in favour of the new views : he had hoped to find in the convent
undisturbed leisure for the learned works he purposed to write ; but the
conviction which soon forced itself on his mind hurried him into an eager
participation in all the mental conflicts of the times. The brothers of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel at Augsburg declared themselves for Luther from
the very first, with the prior at their head ; and to them belonged, for a
time, at least, Urban Regius,1 one of the most devoted and favourite
disciples of Johann Eck, whom he now, however, deserted for the new
cause : 2 he supported it with great effect, first in Upper, and afterwards
still more successfully in Lower, Germany. Here he was, after a while,
assisted by Johann Bugenhagen, who had also for a long time followed a
very different course of studies and opinions, in a convent of Prasmonstra-
tenses3 at Belbuck in Pomerania. Bugenhagen, as his history of Pomerania,
written in 15 18, and vigorously attacking the abuses prevailing in the
Church, shows, was even then convinced of the necessity of a complete
change in the body of the clergy ;4 but he was no less strongly opposed to
Luther ; and when Luther's book on the Babylonish captivity was brought
to him one day as he sat at dinner, he exclaimed, that since the Passion of
Christ a more pernicious heretic had never existed. But this very book
wrought a complete revolution in his mind : he took it home with him
read it, studied it, and became convinced that the whole world was in error
and that Luther alone saw the truth. Of this change of sentiments he
informed his colleagues at the conventual school over which he presided,
his abbot, and all his friends.5 Similar conversions took place in all the
religious orders. The superiors were often the most strongly impressed,
like the priors of the Augustine and Carmelite convents, of whom we have
spoken : among others were Eberhard Widensee, provost of the convent
of St. John at Halberstadt, and by his influence, Gottes-Gnaden and St.
Moritz, provosts of Neuenwerk and Halle, and Paul Lemberg, abbot of
Sagan, who openly declared that if any one of his monks felt his
conscience burdened by remaining in the convent, so far from attempting

1 Braun, Geschichte der Bischofe von Augsburg, iii. 239. He is also called
a Carmelite in Welser's Augsburger Chronik.

2 There are a few letters which passed between them in Adami, p. 35. Eck
is violent and bitter. Regius (Konig), in spite of the firmness of his opposition,
never forgets the accustomed reverence towards his master.

3 One of the monastic orders — a branch of the Augustinian Canons. So called
because founded at Premontre, near Laon. Cf. Gasquet, English Monastic
Life p. 226.

4 J. H. Balthasar, Prafatio in Bugenhagii Pomeramam, p. 5.

6 Chytraei Saxonia, p. 287. Lange, Leben Bugenhagens, 1731, contains
nothing of importance.

28o DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

to keep him there, he would rather carry him out of it on his own
shoulders.1

On a careful examination, I do not find, however, that love of the world,
or any licentious desire to be freed from the restraints of the convent, had
much effect in producing these resolutions ; at all events, in the most con-
spicuous cases, where motives have been recorded by contemporaries, they
were always the result of a profound conviction ; in some, gradually
developed, in others, suddenly forced on the mind, sometimes by a striking
passage in the Bible : many did not leave the convent of their own accord,
but were driven out of it ; others, though of a most peaceful nature them-
selves, found their abode between the narrow walls embittered by the
frequent disputes which arose out of the state of men's minds. The
mendicant friars felt disgust at their own trade : one of them, a Franciscan,
entered a smithy at Niirnberg with his alms-box in his hand, and was asked
by the master why he did not rather earn his bread by the work of his
hands : the robust monk immediately threw off his habit and became a
journeyman smith, sending back his cowl and box to the convent.

There is no doubt that the monastic institutions of the West were origin-
ally founded in imitation of the Hindu penitents, who live in lonely
forests, clothed in the bark of trees, eating only herbs and drinking only
water, free from desires, masters of their passions, beatified even in this
life, and a sure refuge to the afflicted.2 But how widely had the recluses
of Europe departed from their model ! They took part in all the pursuits,
dissensions and troubles of the world, and their main object was the main-
tenance of a dominion at once temporal and spiritual, aided by masses
actuated by the same sentiments and working to the same ends ; they
were held together by servile vows, frequently taken from interested
motives, and, as much as possible, disregarded. No sooner, therefore,
had the validity of these vows, and their religious efficacy to the soul,
become doubtful, than the whole structure fell in pieces ; nay more, the
institution on which the Western Church mainly rested, sent forth the most
sturdy antagonists to its further hierarchical development.

This general movement among the regular3 clergy was now seconded by
all ranks of the secular priesthood.

There was one even among the bishops, Polenz of Samland, who openly
declared himself for Luther, occasionally preached his doctrines from the
pulpit at Konigsberg, and took care to appoint preachers of his own way
of thinking to a number of places in his diocese. Luther was overjoyed at
this ; such a peaceable and lawful change was exactly what he desired.4

A few other bishops were also supposed to be favourably inclined to
the new doctrine. Johann Eberlin of Giinzburg mentions the Bishop of

1 Catalogus Abbatum Saganensium, in Stenzel's Scriptt. Rer. Siles., i.,

P- 457-

2 Nalas, twelfth song.

3 The regular clergy as opposed to the secular are the members of the monastic
orders, who live under strict rule, although all monks are not ordained.

4 " Lutheri Dedicatio in Deuteronomium : Reverendo . . . Georgio de
Polentis vere episcopo. Tibi gratia donata est, ut non modo verbum susci-
peres et crederes, sed pro episcopali autoritate etiam palam et publice confessus
doceres docerique per tuam diocesim curares, liberaliter his qui in verbo laborant
provisis." — Opp., iii., p. 75. Hartknoch's Preussische Kirchengeschichte, i.,
P- 273-

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 281

Augsburg, who did not conceal that " the life and conversation of the
Lutherans were less sinful than those of their adversaries ;" the Bishop of
Basle, who was pleased when Lutheran books were brought to him, and
always read them diligently ; the Bishop of Bamberg, who no longer op-
posed the preaching of Lutheran doctrines in his city, and the Bishop of
Merseburg, who sent for the writer to consult him concerning the reforms
which were wanted. He assures us that several others sent their canons to
study at Wittenberg. Most of the names which we find in the list of
Reuchlin's patrons appear among those who took part in the religious
innovation.

They were also joined by the patrician provosts of the great towns,
such as a Wattenwyl in Berne, and a Besler and Bomer in Nurnberg,
under whose protection the evangelical preachers were established in the
churches of their respective cities.

Even without this encouragement, a great number of the officiating
priests and preachers in Lower, and still more in Upper, Germany, declared
themselves converts to Luther's opinions. The name of Hermann Tast,
one of the twenty-four papal vicars in Schleswig, is well known. In the
churchyard at Husum stood two lime-trees, which were called the Mother
and the Daughter ; under the largest of the two, the Mother, Tast used to
preach, escorted to and from the place of meeting by his hearers, who
went armed to fetch him and conduct him home. At Emden, in East
Friesland, Georg von der Dare was driven out of the great church when he
began to preach Luther's doctrines ; but the people, after flocking to hear
him for some time in the open air, at length obtained re-admittance for
him into the church. Johann Schwanhauser, custos of St. Gangolph in
Bamberg, declaimed, in the language of a Carlstadt, against the adoration
of the saints.1 The parish priest of Cronach was one of the first who
married. At Mainz, it was the preacher in the cathedral, Wolfgang Kopfl
(for a long time the confidential adviser of the elector) ; at Frankfurt,
the preacher in the church of St. Catharine, Hartmann Ibach ; at Stras-
burg, the parish priest of St. Laurence, Matthew Zell ; at Memmingen, the
preacher of St. Martin's, Schappeler, who were the first to propagate the
new doctrines. In the imperial city of Hall, Johann Brenz, a mere youth,
but deeply impressed with the doctrines of St. Paul, and an imitator of
the apostle's style of speaking, pronounced his sermon of trial in September,
1 522, and drove his antagonists, the guardian and the reader of the Minorite
convent, out of the field without further contest, by the doctrine of the
sole merit of Christ.2 In the Kreichgau, a band of village priests, united by
similarity of opinion, collected around Erhard Schnepf, under the protec-
tion of the Gemmingen. In Basle, at the procession of the Corpus Christi,
Roubli, the priest of St. Alban's, carried a splendidly-bound Bible instead
of the host, declaring that he alone bore the true Holy of holies. Next
followed, at the minster of Zurich, the great secular priest, Ulrich Zwingli,
equally courageous and influential in politics and in religion, and in whom
the Vicar of Constance soon thought he beheld a second Luther. We may
follow these movements even into the lofty regions of the Alps. The leading
men of Schwytz often timed their rides so as to arrive at Freienbach, where
a friend of Zwingli's preached, at the time of divine service, after which they

1 Extracts from his sermons in Heller, p. 62.

2 Hartmann and Jager, Johann Brenz, i. 43, 59.

282 DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

stayed and dined with him.1 It made no difference that they were Swiss,
for in those days the feeling of nationality had not yet separated them
from Germany ; indeed the people of the Valais called the territory of
the confederate cities, Germany. The new doctrines then followed the
course of the mountains as far as the valley of the Inn, where Jacob
Strauss first expounded them to many thousand converts ; then to Salz-
burg, where Paul von Spretten made the cathedral resound with them,'
and finally into Austria and Bavaria. At Altenottingen, where there was
one of the most popular miraculous pictures, the regular priest, Wolfgang
Russ, had the courage to declaim against pilgrimages.

It may be concluded that all these changes were not brought about
without stout resistance and a hard struggle. Many were compelled to
yield, but some persevered, and at all events the persecution did no harm
to the cause. When that zealous Catholic, Bogislas X. of Pomerania,
destroyed the protestant society at Belbuck, and confiscated the property
— for the seizure of church lands began on that side — the only result was,
that one of their teachers accompanied some young Livonians, who had
been studying there, to Riga, and thus scattered the seed of the Word over
the most remote parts of Germany.2

Paul von Spretten was expelled from Salzburg, after which we find him
preaching in St. Stephen's church at Vienna, and when driven thence, at
Iglau in Moravia : there also he was in imminent danger, and at last found
a safe asylum in Prussia. With this scene of action, the ardent Amandus
was not content ; he soon left it and went to Stolpe,- where he challenged
the monks to a disputation on the truth of the old or the new system : he
told them they might prepare a stake and faggots, and burn him if he was
overcome in argument ; and that if he obtained the victory, the sole
punishment of his opponents should be conversion.

As yet no attention was paid to the place where the Gospel was preached.
It is almost symbolic of the ecclesiastic opposition, that at Bremen it was
a church standing under an interdict, in which two or three Augustine
friars who had escaped the stake in Antwerp, first assembled a congrega-
tion. At Goslar the new doctrine was first preached in a church in the
suburbs ; and when that was closed, a native of the town who had studied
at Wittenberg proclaimed it on a plain covered with lime-trees (the Linden-
plan), whence its adherents were there called Lindenbriider (brothers of
the lime-tree).3 In Worms a moveable pulpit was put up against the outer
walls of the church. The Augustine monk, Caspar Guttel of Eisleben,
at the request of the inhabitants of Arnstadt, preached seven sermons in
the market-place there, according to ancient custom. At Dantzig the
people assembled on a height outside the town, to hear a preacher who had
been driven from within its walls.

But even if none of the clergy had embraced the new faith, it would have
found many proclaimers and defenders among the laity. At Ingolstadt,

1 Hottinger, Geschichte der Eidgenossen.

2 Andreas Cnoph von Custrin. " Er hat viel herrlicher und geistreicher
Lieder, darin die Summa von der Lehre von der Gerechtigkeit, dem Glauben
und desselbigen Fruchten . . . verfasset." — " He has composed many most
beautiful and ingenious songs, wherein is contained the essence of the doctrine of
righteousness — faith and its fruits." — Hiarn, Liefiandische Gesch., book v., p. 193.

3 Hamelmann, Historia renati Evangelii. Opp. Hist. Gen., p. 869.

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 283

under the very eyes of Dr. Eck, an enthusiastic journeyman weaver read
aloud Luther's writings to assembled crowds ; and when, in the same town,
a young Master of Arts, called Seehofer, who had begun to teach from
Melanchthon's pamphlets, was forced to recant, his defence was undertaken
by a lady, Argula von Staufen, whose attention having been directed by
her father to Luther's books, had, in conformity with their precepts,
devoted herself exclusively to the study of the Scriptures. Believing her-
self fully able to compete with them in knowledge of the Bible, she now
challenged all the members of the university to a disputation, and hoped
to maintain the superiority of her own faith in the presence of the prince
and the whole community.1 It was in this intimate acquaintance with
Scripture that the leaders of the religious movement trusted. Heinrich
von Kettenbach exultingly enumerates countries and cities — Niirnberg,
Augsburg, Ulm, the Rhenish provinces, Switzerland and Saxony — where
women and maidens, serving men and artisans, knights and nobles, were
more learned in the Bible than the high schools.2

There was indeed something very extraordinary in this simultaneous
and universal conviction, unquestionably religious in its origin, rising up
in opposition to forms of ecclesiastical and political life which had been
revered for centuries, though now men could see in them only their wide
departure from true primitive Christianity, and their subservience to an
oppressive and odious power.

As every effort on the one side was followed by a reaction, and every
attack by persecution, it was of great importance that there should be one
spot in Germany where such was not the case : this spot was the electorate
of Saxony.

In the year 1522 the neighbouring bishops made another attempt to re-
establish their power here also, in consequence of the favourable tone of the
first proclamation of the imperial government ; and the Elector Frederick
offered no opposition to them so long as they promised to send preachers
who should combat the Word with the Word.3 When, however, not con-
tent with this, they demanded that the priests who had married or dared
to administer the Lord's Supper in both kinds, and the monks who had
quitted their convents, should be given up to them, he declared, after brief
consideration, that the imperial edict did not oblige him to this.4 By with-
drawing his countenance from them, he of course annihilated their influence.

This naturally induced all those who were forced to fly from other places,
to take refuge in his dominions, where no spiritual authorities could reach
them. Eberlin, Stiefel, Strauss, Seehofer, Ibach from Frankfurt, Bugen-
hagen from Pomerania, Kauxdorf from Magdeburg, Mustaeus from Halber-

1 Winter, Gesch. der evang. Lehre in Baiern, i. 1 20 f .

2 " Ein new Apologia vnnd Verantwortung Martini Luthers wyder der^Papisten
Mortgeschrey, die zehen klagen wyder jn ussblasiniren so wyt die Christenheyt
ist, 1523." — " A new Apology and Answer of Martin Luther against the Papist's
Cry of Murder, who trumpet forth Ten Complaints against him throughout
Christendom."

3 Frederick instructs his officers, " An Verkiindigung des Wortes Gottes nicht
zu hindern." — " Not to hinder the preaching of the Word of God." He takes
for granted, " sie wurden die Ehre Gottes und die Liebe des Nachsten suchen "
— " that they would seek the honour of God and the love of their neighbour."

4 Geuterbock, St. Lucastag. The very remarkable correspondence in the
Sammlung vermischter Nachrichten zur sachsischen Geschichte, iv. 282.

284 DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

stadt, where he had been barbarously mutilated,1 and numbers more,
flocked together from all parts of Germany ; they found a safe asylum,
and in many cases temporary employment, and then went forth again con-
firmed in their faith by intercourse with Luther and Melanchthon. Witten-
berg was the centre of the whole movement ; without the existence of such
a centre, the unity of direction, the common progress, which we observe,
would have been impossible ; we may add, that the admixture of foreign
elements was of great importance to the development of the public mind of
Saxony. The university especially thus acquired the character of a national
body, — incontestably the true character of a great German high school.
Both teachers and hearers resorted from all parts of Germany, and went
forth again in all directions.

Wittenberg became equally important as a metropolis of literature.

It was the agitation of these important questions which first obtained
for the German popular literature general circulation and influence. Up
to the year 1518 its productions were far from numerous, and the range of
its subjects very narrow. During the last twenty years of the fifteenth
century there appeared about 40 German works ; in 1513 about 35 ; in
1514,47; in 1515,46; in 1516,55; in 1517,37: these were chiefly mirrors
for the laity, little works on medicine, books on herbs, religious tracts,
newspapers, official announcements, and travels, — in short, the books
fitted to the comprehension of the many. The most original productions
were always those of the poetical opposition — the satires which we have
already noticed. The increase in the number of German publications
which followed Luther's appearance before the public was prodigious. In
the year 1 5 1 8 we find 7 1 enumerated ; in 1519,111; in 1520, 208 ; in 1521,
211 ; in 1522, 347 ; in 1523, 498. If we inquire whence this wonderful
increase emanated, we shall find it was from Wittenberg, and the chief
author, Luther himself. In the year 15 18 we find 20 books published
with his name ; in 1519, 50 ; in 1520, 133 ; in 1521, when he was inter-
rupted by his journey to Worms, and hindered by a forced seclusion, about
40 ; in 1522, again 130 ; and in 1523, 183.2 In no nation or age has a
more autocratic and powerful writer appeared ; and it would be difficult to
find any other who has united so perfectly popular and intelligible a style,
and such downright homely good sense, to so much originality, power and
genius ; he gave to German literature the character by which it has been
ever since distinguished, of investigation, depth of thought, and strenuous
conflict of opinions. He began the great discussion which has been carried
on in Germany through all the subsequent centuries ; though often griev-

1 What cruelties then took place ! " Aliquot ministri canonieorum capiunt
D. Valentinum Mustaeum," — " with the sanction of the burgher-master he had
preached the Gospel in Neustadt," " et vinctum manibus pedibusque, injecto in
ejus os freno, deferunt per trabes in inferiores ccenobii partes ibique in cella
cerevisiaria eum castrant." — Hamelmann, 1. c., p. 880. 1

2 I rely upon Panzer's Annalen der altern Deutschen Literatur, 1788-1802.
That the information, useful as it is, is not quite complete, is a defect this has in
common with most statistical works. We can, however, gather from them the
general facts, which is all we here have to do with. According to Adam, Vitae
Jurisconsult., p. 62, it was Schneidewin's father-in-law — ex honorata familia,
quae nomen gentilitium Turingorum habuit, agnomen vero Aurifabrorum — who
established the first printing-press at Wittenberg, socio Luca pictore seniore.
This is another of Lucas Cranach's merits.

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 285

ously interrupted by acts of violence and by the influences of foreign policy.
In the beginning he stood quite alone, but by degrees, especially after the
year 1521, disciples, friends, and rivals began to appear in the field. In the
year 1523, besides his own works, there were published 215 by others, in
favour of the new opinions ; that is, more than four fifths of all that
appeared, while we do not find above 20 decidedly catholic publications.
It was the first time that the national mind, uninfluenced by foreign models,
and manifesting itself purely in the form impressed on it by the great events
of the times, and the high destinies to which Germany was called, found a
general expression ; moreover this expression regarded the most important
interests that can occupy the attention of man, and its very first utterance
was prompted by ideas of religious freedom.

It was a singular felicity, that at the very instant of full intellectual
awakening, the Holy Scriptures, both of the New and Old Testament,
were laid open to the nation. It is true that the Bible had long been known
in translations ; but it is impossible to conceive, without reading them,
how full of errors, how rude in style, and how unintelligible these versions
are. Luther, on the contrary, spared no labour to obtain an accurate
knowledge of the meaning of the original, and gave it utterance in German,
with all the clearness and energy of which that language is capable. The
imperishable records of the earliest ages of the world, characterised by the
freshness of the youth of mankind, and the sacred writings of later date,
in which true religion appears in all its childlike candour, were now put into
the hands of the German people in their own vernacular tongue, piece by
piece, like a periodical work which relates to the immediate interests of the
day, and were devoured with equal avidity.

There is one production of the German mind which owes its origin
directly to this concurrence of circumstances. In translating the Psalms,
Luther conceived the project of making a paraphrase of them for the pur-
pose of congregational singing ;l for the idea of a Church, such as he had
described and begun to call into existence, supposed that the congregation
should take a far more considerable part in the service than it had ever done
before. In this case, however, as in some others, a mere paraphrase did
not suffice. The devout spirit, tranquil in the conviction of possessing the
revealed Word of God ; elevated by the strife and danger in which it was
placed, and inspired by the poetical genius of the Old Testament, poured
forth lyrical compositions, at once poetry and music ; words alone would
have been insufficient to express the emotions of the soul in all their fulness,
or to excite and sustain the feelings of a congregation. This could only be
done by the melody which breathed in the solemn old church music, and
the touching airs of popular songs. Such was the origin of the evangelical
hymns, which we may date from the year 1523.2 Detached hymns by

1 Luther's preface to Johann Walter's Hymns recalls " das Exempel der
Propheten und Konige im alten Testament, die mit singen und klingen, mit
dichten und allerlei Seitenspiel Gott gelobet haben," — " the example of the
prophets and kings in the Old Testament, who, with songs and music, with
verses and all manner of stringed instruments, praised God." — Altenb. A., ii.,
P- 75i-

2 Riederer, "von Einfuhrung des deutschen Gesanges " p. 95. The remark-
able letter to Spalatin concerning the translation of the Psalms into German
verse, in De Wette, ii., p. 490, is doubtless earlier than that dated 14th Jan.,
1524, ibid., p. 461. In it we see what the Musae Germanicae, about which De.

286 DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

Luther and Spretten acquired immediate popularity, and lent their aid
to the earliest struggles of the reforming spirit ; but it was many years
later that the German mind displayed its whole wealth of poetical, and still
more of musical, productions of this kind.

The popular poetry also devoted itself in other ways to the new ideas
with that spirit of teachableness, and at the same time resistance to
arbitrary power, which characterised it. Hutten published his bitterest
invectives in verse ; Murner depicted the corruption of the clergy in long
and vivid descriptions : to this feeling of censure and reprobation was now
added, if not in Murner himself, at any rate in most others, a positive con-
viction of the truth of the new doctrine, and a profound admiration of its
champion ; the man who maintained the righteous cause among crimson
barrets and velvet caps was celebrated in verse. The pope was brought on"
the stage in carnival farces ; he congratulates himself that, in spite of his
knavery, men continue to ascribe to him the power of admitting them into
heaven or binding them in hell, which brings many birds to his net to be
plucked ; that he reaps the fruits of the sweat of the poor man's brow,
and can ride with a retinue of a thousand horses — his name is Entchristelo ;
there also appear, uttering like sentiments, Cardinal Highmind (Hochmuth),
Bishop Goldmouth Wolfsmaw (Goldmund Wolfsmagen), Vicar Fabler
(Fabeler), and a long list of personages held up to ridicule and contempt
under such names : the last who enters is the Doctor, who expounds the
true doctrine very much in the tone of a sermon.1 Under the influence of
these impressions was educated Burckhardt Waldis, who afterwards made
such a happy application2 of the old fable of the. beasts to religious con-
troversies. The greatest German poet of that day warmly embraced
Luther's cause. Hans Sachs's poem, the Nightingale of Wittenberg,
appeared in 1523 ; he compares the faith which had prevailed for four
hundred years, to the moonlight which had led men astray in the wilder-
ness ; now, however, the nightingale announces the rising sun and the light
of day, while she herself soars above the dark clouds. Thoughts emanating
from a sound understanding, instructed by the infallible Word, and con-
fident of its own cause, form the basis of the many ingenious, gay, and
graceful poems — not the less attractive for a slight smack of the workshop —
with which the honest master delighted all classes of the nation.

In Germany, the proper aim of art — to teach by giving a sensible form
to ideas — had never been lost sight of. Hence, there is no less fancy dis-
played in her symbols, than earnestness in her character. It so happened
that one of the great masters of the time, Lucas Kranach,3 went to live at

Wette seems to be in doubt, really meant. It appears from the letters to Haus-
mann, that Luther was employed in November and December, 1523, in the
composition of the liturgy.

1 " Ein Fassnachtspyl, so zu Bern uf der Hern Fassnacht in dem MDXXII.
Jare von Burgerssonen offentlich gemacht ist, darnin die warheit in Schimpfls-
wyss vom Pabst und siner Priesterschaft gemeldet wiirt." — " A Carnival Play,
the which was publicly enacted in the Lord's carnival of the year 1522, at Bern,
by the sons of burghers, wherein the truth is satirically told of the pope and of
his priesthood." Newly printed by Griineisen. — Nicl. Manuel, p. 339.

2 An adoption of jEsop's Fables. For Burckhardt Waldis. Cf. Bibliographie
Universelle.

3 Lucus Kranach. 1472-1553. Cf. Schuchard's Lukus Kranach.

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 287

Wittenberg, and, in a constant familiar intercourse with Luther, became
thoroughly imbued with the modes of thinking of the reformers, and con-
secrated his talents to embodying them. He sometimes entered the ranks
as a combatant. Some of his smaller pictures, such as the Passion of Christ
and Antichrist, in which the lowliness and humility of the Founder, and the
pride and pomp of his vicegerent, are contrasted, are protests against
Catholicism ; and accordingly woodcuts of them were inserted into
Luther's writings. It may be imagined that his chaste pencil was employed
in 110 works but such as harmonised with the evangelical faith. The grace
and loveliness with which he had formerly adorned groups of beatified
female saints, he now shed over the little children receiving the blessing of
our Saviour. The mysteries shadowed forth in early art, were now ex-
pressed in representations of the Sacraments retained by Luther, which
were sometimes painted on one canvas, and of the sublime work of Re-
demption. The eminent statesmen and divines by whom he was sur-
rounded, presented forms and features so remarkable and characteristic,
that he had no temptation, except in the cause of religion, to strive after
the ideal. Albert Diirer, though his genius had already reached maturity,
was powerfully affected by the prevailing spirit : the most perfect, perhaps,
of all his works, — the evangelists Mark and John, and the apostles Peter
and Paul, — were produced under the impressions of these times. There
exist studies for these pictures with the date 1523 : they reflect the image
suggested by Scripture (now rendered accessible to new views), of the
wisdom, devotion and energy of these first witnesses of the Christian
church. Vigour and grandeur of conception manifest themselves in every
feature.1

The general development of the German mind was closely connected
with the new ideas ; the same spirit was stirring in the learned, as in the
popular branches of mental activity.

Wittenberg was far from being the only university in which the course
of studies was changed. At Freiburg, where Luther was detested, the
Aristotelian philosophy ceased to be studied and inculcated as hitherto.
" Petrus Hispanus," says Ulrich Zasius, " has had his day; the books of
Sentences are laid aside ; our theologians are some of them reading
Matthew and others Paul ; nay, even the very beginners, those who are
but just arrived, crowd to these lectures."2 Even Zasius himself, one
of the most distinguished German jurists of that time, gives a remarkable
testimony to the universal diffusion of the reforming spirit. He complains
that his lecture-room is deserted ; that he has barely half a dozen hearers,
and they, all Frenchmen ; and at the same time he can find no better
mode of recommending his own exertions in the cause of learning, than
by comparing them to the labours of Luther. The glossators of the genuine
texts whom he was engaged in combating, appeared to him in the same
light as the schoolmen on whom Luther was waging war ; he laboured to
restore the Roman law to its original purity, just as Luther strove to revive
the theology of the Bible.

Of all departments of learning none, however, stood more in need of a

1 How Pirkheimer and Diirer disputed about the question of the Lord's Supper
in Melanchthon's presence : related by Peucer in Strobel's " Nachricht von
Melanchthons Aufenthalt in Nurnberg," p. 27.

2 Zazii Epistolae, i. 63.

288 DIFFUSION OF [Book III

similar reform than history. There existed an immense accumulation of
materials; but the earlier periods were obscured by the learned fables
which were continually receiving fresh and more circumstantial additions ;
while the later were known only in fragments dressed up to suit the interests
of the dominant party : the most important parts had been intentionally
falsified, in consequence of their necessary connection with the great
ecclesiastical fiction. It was impossible to arrive at a true, lively and
connected view of history ; even minds thirsting for real information
shrank from such insuperable masses of reading. An attempt to penetrate .
them was, however, made just about this time by Johann Aventin, who,
at an earlier period, had sympathised in the literary tendencies of the
new school of thinkers, and now followed its religious direction with the
liveliest zeal. In writing his Bavarian chronicle, the contents of which
are interesting to Germany generally, and even to the world, he spared
no pains in searching libraries and archives in order to substitute genuine
records for the shallow and improbable traditions hitherto current. He
puts the reader on his guard against the representations of the ignorant ;
especially " people who have seen nothing of mankind, who know nothing
of cities and countries, have no experience of earthly or heavenly matters,
and yet pretend to judge of every thing." His endeavour is to under-
stand history in its true and necessary aspect, " such as it should be."
The spirit of the national opposition to the papacy is powerfully at work
within him : whenever he strives to depict the simplicity of the Christian
doctrine, or alludes to its origin, he never fails to contrast with it the
spiritual power in its rise, progress, and operation. His history of
Gregory VII. is even now the best extant : he takes a very comprehensive
view of the results arising from the dominion of the hierarchical principle,
though he had not the peculiar talent requisite to place them distinctly
before the reader. His works are indeed generally unfinished ; but he
was the first labourer in that field of profound and penetrating research
into universal history, which in our day occupies so many minds.

For a time, it seemed as if the interest in theological questions would
absorb all others. Erasmus complains that nothing was read or bought
but publications for or against Luther ; he fears that the study of the
humanities, which was but just established, would be stifled under a
new system of school learning. The chronicles of the time describe how
the contempt into which the clergy had fallen reacted on learning : the
proverb, " Die Gelehrten, die Verkehrten," (the more learned, the more
wrongheaded), was in everybody's mouth, and parents hesitated to devote
their children to studies which offered so doubtful a prospect. This,
however, was only a momentary aberration ; the mind, roused to a desire
for authentic knowledge, could not reject the very instrument which had
awakened it. In the year 1524 Luther published a letter to the " burgher-
masters and councillors of all the towns on German ground," exhorting
them " to establish Christian schools."1 He means by this, especially
for the training of priests ; for, he says, it is only by the study of languages
that the Gospel can be preserved in its purity, to which end it was delivered

1 Altenb. edition, ii., p. 804. Eoban Hess caused the letters which he had
received on this subject from Luther, Melanchthon, Jonas, Draco and others, to
be printed collectively in 1523, in the pamphlet, " De non contemnendis Studiis
humanioribus."

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 289

down to us in writing ; otherwise there would be nothing but wild and
perilous disorder, and an utter confusion of opinions. Yet he does not
by any means confine his recommendation to ecclesiastical schools ; far
from it : he deplores that schools have been so exclusively calculated for
the education of the clergy, and his chief object is to free them from this
narrow destination, and to found a learned class among the laity. He
holds out the education of the ancient Romans as an example to Germany ;
and says that instructed men well versed in history are absolutely necessary
for the government of the state ; he also insists upon the establishment
of public libraries, not only to contain editions and expositions of the
sacred writings, but also orators and poets, whether heathen or not ;
besides books on the fine arts, law and medicine, chronicles and histories ;
" for they be profitable for the learning of the wonders and works of
God." This letter had as great an effect on secular learning, as his book
addressed to the German nobility had on the general condition of the
laity. Luther first conceived the idea of that learned body of official
laymen which has exercised such an incalculable influence over the social
and political condition of Germany ; he advocated the popular cultivation
of knowledge for her own sake, apart from the church ; it was he who
laid the first stone of that edifice of learning in northern Germany, which
Succeeding labourers have reared to such a height. In this he was vigor-
ously seconded by the indefatigable Melanchthon, who was the author
of the Latin grammar used in the schools throughout the North of Germany,
till the beginning of the eighteenth century.1 He completed it in the
year 1524, beginning from some notes made for the private instruction
of a young Niirnberger ; at the same time, the Greek grammar, of which
he had previously drawn up the plan, received the form in which it was
taught for centuries afterwards. Teachers were formed under Melanch-
thon's discipline, who adopted all his ideas, and became the founders of
the German school- training. The most remarkable of these was Valentine
Trotzendorf, who was called from Wittenberg to Goldberg in Silesia,
in the year 1523, and who was said to be born a schoolmaster as much as
Caesar was born a general, or Cicero an orator. Innumerable German
schoolmasters were formed by him.

A large and coherent survey of all these facts suffices to convince us
that the Reformation was by no means confined to theological dogmas ;
a whole circle of aspirations and thoughts of a peculiar character, and
pregnant with a new order of things, had arisen ; closely connected, it is
true, with the theological opposition, and partly developed under that form,
but the existence of which is neither to be ascribed to, nor confounded
with, that phenomenon. The opposition was itself merely one manifesta-
tion of this spirit, the future workings of which were entirely independent
of it. ^

The first object of the awakened mind undoubtedly was, deliverance
from that mighty power which claimed the right of retaining it
captive.

In examining more closely the course of this struggle, as it displayed
itself in all parts of Germany, we shall fall into error if we expect to find

1 The editions most worthy of note till 1737 are enumerated in Strobel, Von
den Verdiensten Melanchthons, um die Gramma tik . . ., neue Beitrage, ii., iii.,
P- 43-

19

290 DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

the same points of variance which exist between the later Protestant
and the revived Catholic systems. The ideas and intellectual powers
which were then arrayed against each other, stood in a far more distinct,
broad and intelligible opposition.

One of the most violent conflicts was that concerning faith and good
works. We must not understand by this the more deep and abstruse
controversy which has since arisen out of the subtilty or the obstinacy
of the schools. At that time the question was very simple : on the one
side, by good works were meant those ritual observances through which
men then really hoped to merit reward, both in this world and the next —
such as pilgrimages, fasting, the foundation of masses for the souls of
the dead, the recital of particular prayers, the reverence paid to certain
saints, and the gifts to the churches and the clergy which formed so im-
portant a part of the piety of the middle ages. To this perversion of
the idea of moral obligation, which had been so culpably allowed to gain
currency and strength, the other party opposed the doctrine of the efficacy
of faith without works. But — especially after the troubles in Wittenberg
— no one now ventured to inculcate an ideal, abstract, inactive faith.
We still possess many of the sermons of that period, and it would be difficult
to find one in which faith and charity are not spoken of as indissolubly
united. Caspar Giittel earnestly inculcates the doctrine, that the conduct
which a man pursues towards his neighbour for the love of God is the one
essential thing.' The preacher blamed those who spent their substance
in enriching the clergy, decorating the image of a saint, or going on distant
pilgrimages, and at the same time forgot the poor.

The same thing took place with respect to the opinions concerning
the church. The reformers entirely refused to recognise the holy church
of Christ, out of whose pale there is no salvation, in the persons of the pope,
his prelates and priests ; they considered it profane to say that the Church
commands or possesses any thing ; they distinguished that ecclesiastical
institution, which, by its scandalous government, gave the lie to the prin-
ciples on which it was founded, from the mysterious existence of that
holy fellowship which appears not outwardly, which, according to the
words of the Symbol, is a pure object of faith, and which unites heaven
and earth indeed, but without the intervention of the pope.2 " Far be

1 Schutzrede wider etzlich ungezemte Clamanten. The very sermons preached
at Axnstadt : printed in Olearii Syntagma Rerum Thuringicarum, ii. 274 ; an
edition which Panzer does not mention in his Annals, ii., p. 93.

2 Ain Sermon oder Predig von der christlichen Kirchen welches doch sey die
hailig christlich Kirche, davon unser Glaub sagt, geprediget zu Ulm von Bruder
Heinrich von Kettenbach, 1 522. — •" A Sermon or Preaching touching the Christian
Church — which is the holy Christian Church of which our belief speaketh ?
Preached at Ulm by Brother Henry of Kettenbach." Johann Brenz took up
this doctrine very vehemently. He will not allow that the church is to be
believed because it received Christ. " Juden und Heiden die haben Christum
angenommen — und sind nachfolgends die ausserliche christliche Kirche geworden,
und hat die Kirche ihren Ursprung von den frommen Christenmenschen und ist
nachfolgends die ausserliche christliche Kirche worden, doch nit dass die Menschen
ihre Seligkeit haben von der ausserlichen Kirche. . . . Dieweil die Kirche ein
geistlicher verborgener Leib ist und nit von dieser Welt, so folgt, dass in diesem
Leib kein weltlich ausserlich noch sichtbar haupt ist." — " Jews and Pagans
received Christ, and thereupon became the outward Christian church, and the
church has its origin from pious Christians, and is thereafter become the outward

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 291

it from us to suppose," said Pastor Schmidt, in a sermon he preached with
great effect at Kiissnacht, " that the Christian church can acknowledge
a head so spotted with sin as the pope ; and thus forsake Christ, whom
St. Paul so often calls ' the head of the church.' "*

In like manner the institution of the Lord's Supper, freed from all
priestly intervention, was contrasted with the compulsory obligation of
confessing every individual sin, — an obligation which led and still leads
to all the odious abuses of the confessional, and to the despotism of a stern
and tyrannical orthodoxy. The discretionary power of the priest to grant
absolution was denied, together with the doctrine of the actual presence ;
and people were even dissuaded from too nice a pondering over particular
sins, as tending to stimulate the desires anew, or to produce despair :
nothing was required but an undoubting, cheerful, steadfast reliance
on the mercy of God, and faith in His present favour.2

But perhaps the most strongly and totally opposed were the opinions
as to creeds of human origin and the pure word of God. Here again the
dispute was not concerning tradition, as it has been defined by the more
ingenious and enlightened controversialists of modern times ; that is to
say, little more than the Christian spirit propagating itself from generation
to generation, — the Word living in the hearts of the faithful.3 What
the reformers combated, was the entire system of the Latin church, devel-
oped in the course of centuries by hierarchical power and school learning,
and claiming absolute authority. They remarked that the fathers of the
church had erred, Jerome often, and even Augustin occasionally ; that
those holy men had themselves been well aware of it ; and that neverthe-
less a system from which no deviation was allowed, had been based on
their decisions, and spun out with the aid of heathen philosophy. Thus
it came to pass that they had given themselves up to human devices, and
that there was not a teacher among them who led his hearers to the true
understanding of the Gospel. And to this human doctrine, which neither
satisfied the reason nor consoled the heart — which was connected with
all sorts of abuses — they now opposed the eternal word of God, " which is
noble, pure, cordial, steadfast and comfortable, and should therefore be
kept unadulterated and undented."* They exhorted the laity to work
out their own salvation ; to gain possession of the word of God, which

Christian church, not that men receive salvation from the outward church. . . .
For since the church is a spiritual hidden body, and not of this world, it follows
that this body cannot have a worldly, outward and visible head."

1 Myconius ad Zwinglium. Epp. Zw., p. 195.

2 " Eyn verstendig trostlich Leer iiber das Wort St. Paulus : Der Mensch sol
sich selbst probieren una alsso von dem Brott essen und von dem Kelch trinken :
zu Hall in Innthal von D. Jacob Strauss geprediget, MDXXII." — " A reasonable
and comfortable Doctrine concerning the Word of St. Paul : ' But let a man ex-
amine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.' Preached
by D. Jacob Strauss, 1522, at Hall, in the valley of the Inn." The body and
blood of Christ are taken as the surest sign of His merciful promises to forgive
us our sins, if we have faith. This contradiction appears in some later writings
of this author.

3 Mohler Symbolik, p. 361.

4 Das hailig ewig Wort Gots was das in im kraft, sterke, frid, fred, erleuchtung
und leben in aym rechten Christen zu erwecken vermag — zugestelt dem edlen
Ritter — Hern Jorgen von Fronsperg ; von Haug Marschalk der genennt wirt

19—2

292 DIFFUSION OF [Book III.

had now come forth in full splendour from its long concealment, to take
it as a sword in their hands, and to defend themselves with it against the
preachers of the contrary faith.1

Such were the questions concerning which the warfare of popular litera-
ture— preaching, was mainly carried on. On the one side, certain external
ecclesiastical observances were deemed meritorious ; the idea of a Church
was identified with the existing hierarchy ; the mystery of the individual
relation to God, which is expressed in absolution, was made dependent on
absolute obedience to the clergy. These opinions belonged to the system
of faith which defended its authority with fire and sword. On the other
side, was the obligation of faith and love ; the idea of the unity of an in-
visible Church consisting in a community of souls ; the forgiveness of sins
through faith in the redemption, and reception of the sacrament without
the necessity of confession ; and, finally, belief in the Bible alone as a rule
of faith and doctrine. We are not now treating of the modifications given
to their opinions by individual theologians, but simply of the prevalent
trains of ideas which were at war in every part of Germany.

So early as the year 1521, a little work was published, containing the
allegory of this contest, under the name of " The old and the new Gods."
On the title-page we see, as representatives of the new God, the pope,
some of the fathers of the church, Aristotle, and, at the bottom of the leaf,
Cajetan, Silvester, Eck and Faber ; on the opposite page, the true and
ancient God in his triune form, the four evangelists, St. Paul grasping a
sword, and lastly, Luther. The contents of the book were quite in char-
acter with the frontispiece.2 With the ceremonies, rites, and articles of
faith which had grown up under the protection of the rising hierarchy and
its bloody sword, and turned Christianity into a kind of Judaism, is con-
trasted the old God, with his authentic word, and the simple doctrine of the
redemption, of hope, faith, and love.3

Zoller zu Augsburg, 1523. — "The holy eternal word of God, what strength,
power, peace and joy, light and life it is able to awaken in a true Christian. Ad-
dressed to the noble Knight George von Fronsperg, by Haug Marshalk, who was
named tax-master at Augsburg in 1523." In his preface he praises the knight,
" dass Eur Gestreng yetzumal so hoch benennt und gepreist wird, dass das edel
rain lauter und unvermischt Wort Gottes, das heilig evangelium bey eur gestreng
statt hat, -und in eur ritterlich gemiit und herz eingemaurt und befestiget," &c. —
" that your worship is now so highly famed and praised, for that the noble, clear,
plain and pure word of God, the holy Gospel, has an asylum with your worship,
and is enclosed and made fast in your knightly spirit and heart," &c.

1 Cunrad Distelmair von Arberg : ain trewe Ermanung, &c, 1523.

2 Panzer, ii., p. 20.

3 See the preface by Hartmann Dulich, printed in Veesenmeier's Sammlung
von Aufsatzen, p. 135. The following passage in Eberlin of Gunzburg's Fraind-
licher Vermanung, p. iii., shows how much the purpose of the whole movement
was recognised in these its most prominent tendencies : " Ich halt, Luther sey
von Gott gesandt zu seubern die Biblia von der lerer auslegung vnd zwang, die'
gewissen zu erlosen von banden der menschlichen gebot od' bapstgesetzen, und
den gaistlichen abziehen den titel Christi ufi seiner kirchen, dz fiirohyn nit mer
sollich gross biiberey — strafflos sey und' dem heyligen namen Gottes . . '. auch
ist der Luther gesant dz er lere das creutz vnd glauben, welche schier durch alle
doctores vergessen seindt ; darzu ist Luther beruft von Got vnd Got gibt im
weysshait, kunst, vernunft, sterke, vnd herz dazu." — " I hold that Luther was
sent by God to free the Bible from the empty expositions and restrictions of the

Chap. III.] THE NEW DOCTRINES 293

These coarse and naked expressions suffice to show that the nation felt
what were the real points in debate. The German mind became conscious
that the hour of its maturity was come ; boldly resisted the tyranny of
those accidental forms which had governed the world, and returned to the
only true source of religious instruction.1

Considering the vast agitation, the strong feeling of conflict, which
prevailed, it is doubly remarkable how much control men had over them-
selves, and with how much caution they often acted.

Heinrich of Kettenbach continued to assume that the Church — by which
however he understands an invisible community — possessed the treasure
of the merits of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of all the elect.

Eberlin of Gunzburg, whilst writing from Wittenberg to exhort his
friends in Augsburg to procure for themselves each a copy of the New
Testament, even if they had to save the price of it out of their food or
raiment, admonishes them at the same time not to be too hasty in con-
demning the opinions of their fathers. There were many things, he said,
which God in his wisdom had kept secret, and which they needed not to
inquire about ; such as purgatory, and the intercession of saints. He
adds, that even Luther condemned nothing that had not some distinct
passage of Scripture against it.

A young Bohemian critic brought forward a whole train of arguments
to prove that it was very doubtful whether St. Peter had ever been in
Rome ; and the Catholic party clearly perceived that if this question was
decided in the negative, the whole doctrine of the primacy would be over-
thrown. But the theologians of Wittenberg did not allow themselves to
be dazzled by the brilliant results to which this line of argument would lead ;
they pronounced it to be of no avail2 towards furthering faith and piety ;
and, indeed, in a work wherein this question is treated at length, and the
ill effects of the abuse of the doctrine of primacy set forth with great earnest-
ness, a hope is expressed that the new Pope, Adrian VI., would renounce
all existing errors, and confine himself entirely to the precepts of the Bible
— which some passages in his writings seemed to promise ; and that then
not only the present differences would be healed, but also the old schism
ended, and that even Greeks and Bohemians would return to the bosom of
the Church.3

teachers, to release the conscience from the bondage of human commands or
popish laws, and to strip ecclesiastics of the title of Christ and of his church, so
that in future such great knavery should no longer remain unpunished in the holy
name of God. Luther is likewise sent to teach the cross and the faith, which are
clean forgotten by all the doctors. Hereunto was Luther called by God, and to
this end has God given him wisdom, knowledge, prudence, strength and courage."

1 Sermon von der Kirche, at the very beginning.

2 Luther to Spalatin, 17th Feb., 1520, in De W., i. 559.

3 Apologia Simonis Hessi adv. dominum Roffensem Episc. Anglicanum super
concertatione ejus cum Vlrico Veleno. Julio mense, 1523. The author maintains
chiefly, " quod gentiliter et ambitiose pro Petri primatu a multis pugnetur, cum
hinc nihil lucri accedat pietati : quod impie abusi sint potestate sua Romani
pontifices in statuendis quibusdam articulis seditiosis magis quam piis." The
passage of Adrian, in titulo de Sacram. baptismi, is : " Noverit ecclesia se non esse
dominam sacramentorum sed ministram, nee posse magis formam sacramen-
talem destituere aut novam instituere quam legem aliquam divinam abolere vel
novum aliquem fidei articulum instituere. Spero fore," he then proceeds, " si

294 DIFFUSION OF THE NEW DOCTRINES [Book III.

Others who were less sanguine, were yet of opinion that all violent
measures were to be avoided, and that the abolition of abuses should be
left to the government. Some, indeed, exhorted their followers to free
themselves from the dominion of the priesthood, as the Israelites did from
that of Pharaoh. But even such men as the vehement Otho Brunfels
opposed them, saying, that " the Word had power to improve the state of
the world without trouble or the sword ; and that things rashly and incon-
siderately begun never ended well."1

This was Luther's opinion also ; and for a long time it was acted on
throughout the whole empire.

Everything might yet be hoped from the guidance of the Council of
Regency ; for in directing that the pure word of God should be preached,
and in avoiding all reference by name to the fathers of the Church, who were
looked upon as the corner-stones of modern Romanism, the Council of
Regency had adopted the most important ideas of the reformers.

In the year 1523 it took the cause of reform more expressly under its
protection.

When Faber, the vicar of Constance, received a commission from Rome
to preach against Luther, and applied to the Council of Regency for pro-
tection and safe conduct, they gave him a letter purporting, indeed, to
have that effect, but conceived in such terms that, as Planitz says, he would
gladly have had a better.

Duke George made fresh complaints to the Regency of Luther's violent
attacks, and several members of that body were of opinion that the elector
should be admonished to punish him. This, however, was opposed by the
majority^ Count Palatine Frederick, the emperor's lieutenant, proposed
that the duke's letters should, at any rate, be sent to the elector. " Sir,"
said Planitz, " the voice of the majority decides that my gracious master
shall not be written to ;" and the duke was told that he might make the
application to the elector himself.

In the convocation of a fresh diet, care was taken to make no allusion to
the religious troubles.2

The main point, however, was that no step whatever was taken towards
the execution of the edict of Worms ; but the new doctrines were allowed
freely to take their course, in expectation of the ecclesiastical council
which had been demanded.

It is evident of what importance to the State as well as to the Church
was the question, — whether a government in which sentiments of this kind
predominated, would be able to maintain itself or not.

ille perstat in sua sententia, ut tota catholica ecclesia, quae nunc in sectas videtur
divisa, in unam fidei unitatem aggregetur, adeo ut et Bohemos et Graecos dexteras
daturos confidam bene prasidenti Romano pontifici."

1 Vom evangelischen Anstoss, Neuenburg in Breisgau Simonis und Juda, 1523.

2 Letter from Planitz, dated 28th Feb., 3d March, and 18th August, 1523.

Chap. IV.] OPPOSITION TO THE REGENCY 295

CHAPTER IV.

OPPOSITION TO THE COUNCIL OF REGENCY. DIET OF 1 523-24.

Two great ideas occupied the mind of the whole German nation ; that of a
national, representative, and at the same time, powerful government, and
that of a complete renovation of the religious condition of the country :
both these ideas were now, to a considerable extent, represented ; each
received support from the other ; and, united, they seemed to promise a
future equally important from a political and intellectual point of view.

All endeavours, however, which are directed towards ends so vast and
comprehensive inevitably provoke strong and various opposition from
many quarters.

Not that the connection between these two important objects was so
close as to be evident to all minds, or that the antagonists of the opposition
were fully aware of both its bearings ; but each of them roused the peculiar
antipathies of a class. It by no means followed that those who opposed
the Council of Regency were hostile to the reformation of the Church.

We are generally inclined, in our views of the past, to fall into the error
of ascribing too soon an exaggerated influence to a new element of social
and political life. However powerful it may be, there are other influences
at work which it cannot immediately overcome, and which continue to
exercise their own independent action.

The hostility to the Council of Regency arose from two causes funda-
mentally opposed. In the first place, that body seemed destined to become
a powerful and efficient government, — a prospect which was far from
welcome to everyone. In the second, it was at present very feeble ; it
possessed no executive power. Hence the first obstacle it encountered
was disobedience.

SICKINGEN AND HIS ADVERSARIES.

It was not to be expected that the Public Peace proclaimed by Charles V.
would be better observed than those of former reigns. Two imperial
councillors, Gregory Lamparter and Johann Lucas, the master of the
treasury, were attacked and taken prisoners on their way to Augsburg from
Worms, where they had assisted at the closing of the diet. Nurnberg, the
seat of government and of the courts of law, and at this time in a certain
sense the capital city of the empire, was surrounded on all sides by the
wildest private wars. Hans Thomas of Absberg, doubly irritated by the
resolutions taken against him by the Swabian League, assembled again,
in 1522, the most daring and reckless reiters from all the surrounding dis-
tricts : fresh letters of challenge were brought to Nurnberg every day, or
were found stuck on the whipping-post in the neighbouring villages ; the
roads east and west became unsafe. There was a lonely chapel at Kriigel-
stein, in the territory of Bamberg, where mass was said three times a week.
Here, under colour of hearing it, all the bands of robbers and their scouts
met together. Woe to the company of merchants that fell in their way,
for they not only plundered them of all their wares, but had now adopted
the barbarous practice of cutting off the right hands of their prisoners :
it was in vain that the wretched sufferers implored them at least to cut off

296 SICKINGEN [Book III.

the left and leave the right. Hans Thomas of Absberg thrust the right
hand of a shopkeeper, which he had chopped off, into the bosom of the un-
fortunate man, and told him that when he got to Niirnberg he might give
it to the biirgermeister in his name.1

The Frankfurt Acts of 1522 present a very striking example of the
general insecurity. Philip Fiirstenberg, who was sent by the town of
Frankfurt to the Council of Regency to take part in the government of the
empire, found the road he had to travel from Miltenberg to Wertheim
so unsafe, that he quitted his carriage, and joining a party of some 'prentice
tailors whom he met, assumed their garb, and took a by-road on foot. The
carriage was attacked by several horsemen with bent cross-bows. In order
to reach Wertheim he was forced to take an escort of five or six men armed
with fire-locks or cross-bows.2 " The Reiters are angry," says he : " what
they are about I know not."

In this state of things, when the Council of Regency could not even pro-
tect its own members, there broke out a private war, more violent than any
that had disturbed the peace of the empire during Maximilian's reign.
In August, 1522, Franz von Sickingen, with a well-armed force of infantry,
cavalry and artillery, ventured to attack an elector of the empire, the
Archbishop of Treves, in his own country and strongly fortified capital.

In the main this was merely a private war (Fehde) like many others,
originating in a personal quarrel (this same elector having once earnestly
entreated the assistance of the empire against Sickingen's outrages in
Hessen) ; the pretext for which was some doubtful legal claims, — especially
concerning a fine which had been transferred from the archbishop to
Sickingen ; and the real object, the plunder and, if possible, the conquest
of the fortified towns. There exists a most interesting letter from an old
confidential friend of Sickingen's, in which the writer dissuades him from
the enterprise, and lays before him all the chances of success or failure.3

Other motives were also at work, which gave public importance to this
undertaking : success in a hostile enterprise was no longer Sickingen's
ultimate aim ; he had an eye to interests of far greater moment.

First of all, to those of the whole body of the Knights of the Empire.
We have seen how great was their discontent at the state of public affairs
at that time : at the Swabian League, which took upon itself to be at once

1 Milliner's Niirnberger Annalen for the years 1522 and 1523 contain this and
many other details ; for example, Riidigkheim und Reuschlein " haben im Junio 2
Wagen mit Kupfer beladen zwo Meil von Frankfurt angenommen und die Fuhr-
leut ungescheut benothiget, dass sie das Kupfer in das Schloss Rucking, dem von
Riidigkheim zugehorig, fiihren miissen." — " Riidigkheim and Reuschlin did in
June take, two miles from Frankfurt, two waggons loaded with copper, and in
the most shameless manner constrained the drivers to convey the copper to the
castle Rucking, which belonged to Riidigkheim." Riidigkheim wrote to the
burgher of Niirnberg, to whom the copper belonged, that if he wished to have it
back, he might come and buy it of him. They were exasperated because the
citizens of Niirnberg had complained to the emperor.

2 Fiirstenberg writes from Wertheim on St. Peter's and Paul's day, 1522 :
" also hab ich meyn gnedigen Herrn gebeten, uns gen Wirtzburg zu verhelfen :
ist er willig, Gott helf uns furter." — " I have then besought my gracious Lord to
assist us in our journey to Wurzburg : if he be willing, God help us further."

3 Balthazar Schlor's letter to Sickingen, without date, but immediately before
the outbreak of hostilities, in Giinther's Codex Diplomaticus Rheno-Mosellanus,
v., p. 202.

Chap. IV.] SICKINGEN 297

accuser, judge and executor of its own sentences ; at the Imperial Chamber,
whose proceedings were only directed against the weak, and left the strong
to their own guidance ; at the encroachments of the princes, their courts
of law, taxes and feudal privileges. In the spring of 1522 the nobility of
the Upper Rhine met at Landau, and resolved that they would only allow
their feudal affairs to be judged before feudal judges and vassals, according
to old custom ; and their differences with those of other classes, before
tribunals composed of impartial judges, of knightly rank ;*• and that they
would come to the assistance of every man to whom this was refused.
They elected Franz von Sickingen their leader in this matter. An address
to the imperial towns, written by Hutten and dated 1522,2 is the manifesto
of the opinions entertained by Sickingen and his followers. Never were
the sovereign princes more vehemently accused of violence and injustice ;
the towns were invited to accept the friendship and alliance of the nobility,
and above all, to destroy the Council of Regency, which Hutten looked
upon as the representative of the princely power.

The religious dissensions gave, of course, a strong additional impulse to
hostilities undertaken against one of the most powerful of the spiritual
princes. The Ebernburg was, in fact, the first place in which the evan-
gelical service was regularly celebrated in its new form. Sickingen's
followers went further than the school of Wittenberg. They considered the
administration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds not alone lawful, but
absolutely necessary. John (Ecolampadius was the first who condemned as
pernicious, the spiritual satisfaction which the people felt at listening every-
day to the unintelligible muttering of the mass, being present at the cere-
mony of benediction, and commending themselves to God without much
expenditure of time or attention ; and he accordingly read the mass only
on Sundays, omitting the elevation of the host, and using none but the
German language.3 There is a letter extant written by Sickingen himself,
in which he inveighs against the use of pictures in churches, and pro-
nounces them better fitted for the decoration of stately halls ; he also
declaims against the invocation of saints. The marriage of Johann
Schwebel, one of his preachers, was arranged by him. One of his friends
was Hartmuth von Kronenberg, who may be considered as the earliest

1 "... wo der Kleger den Antwurter erfordert vor sein des Antwurters
Genoss, oder ungefehrlich dem etwas gemess oder daruber, unparteilichs Rechten
oder Austrags, vor die, so inlendisch der Sachen gesessen oder gelegen seyn." —
" where the plaintiff cites the defendant before a tribunal composed of his own
and the defendant's peers (or nearly so), and having jurisdiction over affairs
occurring in the country."

2 " Beklagunge der Freistette deutscher nation." — " Complaints of the free
cities of the German nation." — The date is ascertained by these words : —

" Der (Kaiser) zeucht nun von unst wider Mher ;

Sie wollen nit, dass er widerkheer."
" The emperor now leaves us again ;
They wish he may not come back."
These ideas prevailed in the following year also, as we learn from a writing by
Kettenbach : " Practica practicirt," &c. (Panzer, ii. 190), wherein the cities are
exhorted not to involve themselves in the disputes between the nobles and the
princes.

3 CEcolampadii Epistola ad Hedionem in Gerdesius Historia Evangelii, torn, i.,
Monumenta, p. 166.

298 SICKINGEN [Book III.

specimen of a pious and earnest Lutheran in the style of more modern
times.1

The connexion with these mighty elements gave unwonted importance
to Sickingen's enterprises. The majority of the whole knighthood of the
empire was on his side, and exerted itself in his favour ; he also called on
Luther, to whom he had formerly offered protection, for his support. And
assuredly it would have been no mean alliance, had the monk, whom the
nation honoured as a prophet, taken up his abode with the brave and
puissant knight, and lent to the formidable bands of the Ebernburg the
powerful aid of his word. But Luther had the great good sense to avoid
all political connections, to attempt no violence, and to trust solely
and entirely to the might of his doctrines. Sickingen received nothing
from Saxony but dissuasions. Nevertheless, his manifesto to the in-
habitants of Treves shows how much he reckoned on the prevailing
national inclinations ; for he promises that " he will deliver them from the
heavy antichristian yoke of the priesthood and lead them to evangelical
freedom."2 The ideas and sentiments of a warlike noble, who feels himself
a match even for a powerful prince ; of the head of the whole order of
knighthood ; and of a champion of the new religious opinions, were all
blended in his mind. It is a significant fact that Hutten, in one of his
dialogues, puts into the mouth of Sickingen an ardent panegyric on Ziska,
the invincible hero who cleared his country of monks and idle priests,
employed their property for the general good, and put a stop to the depre-
dations of Rome.3

On the 27th of August, 1522, Sickingen declared war against the arch-
bishop, chiefly for those things " wherein he had acted against God and the
emperor's majesty." Secretly assisted, rather than hindered, by the
Elector of Mainz, he arrived before Treves on the 7th of September, having
taken St. Wendel. He crossed the Marsberg with 1,500 horse, 5,000 foot,
and a considerable body of artillery ;4 and we have reason to believe that
he expected to be joined at this point by his friends, Rennenberg, who was
recruiting for him in Cleves and Julich ; the bastard of Sombreff, who was
doing the same in the archbishopric of Cologne ; and Hanz Voss, who was
arming in the territory of I.imburg ; Nickel Minkwitz, too, was to join him
with 1,500 men out of Brunswick. In Sickingen's camp, it was rumoured
that he would soon be elector ; nay, perhaps something even greater still.
The eyes of the whole empire were turned upon his movements ; the dele-
gate of Duke George of Saxony wrote to his master that nothing so dan-
gerous to the princes of the empire had been attempted for centuries.5
Others affirmed that affairs were in such a state, that before long it would
be impossible to know who was king or emperor, prince or lord.

The turbulent and anarchical power of the knights thus once more
threatened the peace and security of the whole empire. It is not easy to
imagine what would have been the result had they been successful.

1 Letters from Kronenberg to the four mendicant orders, 25th June, 1522,
and to the inhabitants of Kronenberg ; Munch's Sickingen, ii., pp. 145 and 153.

2 Extracts from the manifestoes in Meiner's Leben Huttens, p. 317.

3 Monitor Secundus Opp., iv., p. 144.

4 This number, smaller than that which is usually given, is taken from the
Flersheimer Chronik, in Munch's Sickingen, iii., p. 215.

6 Letter in the Royal Saxon Archives.

Chap. IV.] SICKINGEN 299

It is scarcely credible that a tolerably well organised government
could have been formed out of the several knightships which were now
become absolute and independent sovereignties ; or that the wild and
arbitrary courses of men who were accustomed to look to their swords for
right and security, could easily have been restrained by the sermons of the
reformers : it is at least certain that CEcolampadius found a hard and un-
grateful soil on Sickingen's mountain fortress. Moreover, the elements
of which this body were composed were of the most heterogeneous natures :
the knighthood — one of the most peculiar products of the middle ages —
arose out of, and existed in, the disorganisation of the powers of the state :
whereas the declared tendency of the new religious system was to renovate
and confirm those powers. The position of Sickingen himself was anom-
alous : the forces which he led were by no means of a chivalrous kind ;
he was at the head of a hired army which could only be held together by
money, and furnished with the apparatus for a kind of warfare essentially
opposed to all knightly modes of combat. Strange spectacle ! — the forces
which decided the fate of the world in two different ages were here in
contact, and it was imagined that they could be brought to unite and co-
operate ! We, in our days, can see how impossible was such a union ;
for it is only by keeping pace, sincerely and energetically, with the progress
of society, that any thing permanent can be effected. Even at that time,
however, it was perceived, that if the power of the princes were overthrown,
and the constitution of the empire (which was as yet by no means firmly
established) broken up, nothing was to be expected but an exclusive,
violent, and at the same time self -conflicting rule of the nobles.

The question then was, who should undertake the defence of public
order, thus fearfully menaced.

The Council of Regency did all that was in its power. Remonstrances
were sent to Sickingen, and mandates to all the neighbouring princes,
enjoining them to resist his attempts. On Sickingen, the warnings from
the Regency made little impression : he replied, that he himself intended
to introduce a new order of things into the empire.1 He utterly refused to
submit to a decision of the Imperial Chamber, and said that he had a court
of justice of his own, composed of soldiers who argued with muskets and
carronades. It is very probable that his whole army did not think as he
did ; at any rate, the Council of Regency asserted that Franz's following
and power were greatly diminished in consequence of their efforts. But a
far weightier authority was required to force him to submission, and every-
thing depended on the resistance he would find from the olector and his
allies.

Richard von Greiffenklau, Archbishop of Treves, had made the best

1 Planitz to the Elector Frederick, 13th Sept. : " Sickingen habe gesagt, er
wolle sich eines Thuns unterstehn, dessen sich kein romischer Kaiser unterstanden.
28th Sept. er habe den Boten des Regiments gesagt : er wisst vorwar, sein Herr
der Kaiser werde nicht ziirnen, ob er den Pfaffen ein wenig strafet und ihm die
Kronen eintrankt, die er genommen hatte." — " Sickingen had said that he would
dare to do a deed which no Roman emperor had yet dared. 28th Sept. he said to
the messenger of the Regency, he knew for certain that his lord the emperor
would not be angry because he punished the priest a little, and paid him off for
the crowns he had taken." People really began to believe that the emperor
might have some understanding with him. The emperor afterwards said, Franz
had not served him well enough to induce him to connive at matters of this sort.

300 SICKINGEN [Book III.

possible preparations. He had burned down the convent of St. Maximin,
on which the enemy reckoned for stores, bringing in his own hand the first
torch that fired it : in the town his presence kept down the disturbances
which certainly had begun. The clergy mounted guard round the cathe-
dral, the citizens in the market-place, the mercenaries on the walls and in
the towers ; and the conduct of the war was entrusted to the native nobles
who had not deserted the cause of the see.

While Sickingen, who had calculated on making a coup-de-main, now
met with an unexpected and determined resistance, it so happened that all
his friends and allies, whose arrival was necessary to the completion of
his force, were either detained or beaten. The Duke of Cleves and the
Elector of Cologne ordered all the horsemen who had been recruited in
their territories, to stay at home, under pain of forfeiture of their fiefs, and
even of their lives. The young Landgrave of Hessen succeeded in defeating
Minkwitz's troops as they were marching from Brunswick ; taking their
leader, with all his papers, prisoner, and finally inducing the soldiers to
enter his own service.1 All these reverses deterred the Liineburg and
Westphalian troops from taking the field at all.

On the other side, the Elector Palatine, Sickingen's former patron, as
well as his old and bitter enemy the Landgrave of Hessen, took arms and
hastened to the assistance of their neighbour and ally, the Elector of
Treves.

Sickingen, deprived of the support he had expected, and encamped
before a bravely-defended town, in an open country, among a people
exasperated by his devastations, did not dare to await the conjunction of
forces so superior to his own ; besides this, he himself did not evince that
energy and those resources of talent and bravery, without which no one can
venture with impunity on such hazardous enterprises. On the 14th of
September he was compelled to abandon Treves.2

That one week sufficed to give a turn to the whole destiny of Germany.

The three sovereigns who represented the threatened princely power,
were thus triumphant over the rebellious knights and their leaders. They
were not content with clearing the archbishopric of its enemies ; and
though, strange to say, they did not pursue Sickingen, they immediately
attacked his allies.

The Elector of Mainz, who was accused of allowing a detachment of
Sickingen's horse to pass the Rhine unmolested, was forced to buy his
peace at the cost of 25,000 gulden.3

Hartmuth von Kronenberg, whom the landgrave wanted above all
to punish for the share he had taken in Sickingen's foray on Darmstadt,
was beleaguered in his castle near Frankfurt. The landgrave would not
hear of pardon or conditions ; he helped to point the cannon with his
own hand. The knight escaped but just in time, for his fortress was forced
to surrender on the 16th of October. The three princes received in person

1 Letter from Landgrave Philip to the Elector of Treves, 5th Sept., 1522, in
Rommel's Geschichte von Hessen, vol. v., p. 858.

2 These events at Treves are described by Latomus and Browerus, Annal. Trev.,
ii. 340, who has also quoted Latomus Gesta Trevirorum in Hontheim's Prodromus,
p. 858, Chronicon S. Maximini, ibid., p. 1035.

3 The delegate of Duke George says that this is one of the reasons : " Die
andern stecken in der Feder." — " The others stick in the pen."

Chap. IV.] SICKINGEN 301

the oaths of allegiance from the inhabitants, and the town was for a
long time treated as Hessian.1

They next marched against Frowen von Hutten, " because he had taken
part in the rebellion, and received proclaimed outlaws in his house : " his
castle of Saalmiinster was taken.

The same fate was shared by Philip Waiss of Haussen in the Mark of
Fulda, and by Rudeken in Rukingen ; others endeavoured to save them-
selves by negotiation.

A similar storm threatened Sickingen's allies in distant parts of the
country. The Franconian nobles had not, it is true, directly assisted
him, but they had encouraged him in his project, and had generally
adhered to his faction : the Swabian League, on the contrary, had made
common cause with the princes, especially with the Elector Palatine,
and now summoned the Franconian knights before its tribunal, to stand
their trial for certain breaches of the Public Peace. The knights did not
consider themselves bound to obey this citation, and, accordingly, met at
Schweinfurt to protest against it : they were still determined to defend
themselves. The vassals of the Bishop of Wiirzburg, who had been the
last to join the League, were so exasperated at his tardiness, that, in the
beginning of the year 1523, they deprived him of all his offices. This
threw all Swabia and Franconia into confusion. From the very superior
strength of the League, the result of the struggle was easily foreseen, unless
the Council of Regency had power to prevent it.

Events indeed now acquired a totally different character and impor-
tance, from their effect on this supreme administrative body of the empire.

Its authority was formerly resisted and contemned by Sickingen and
his friends, for which, on the accusation of the procurator of Treves,
Sickingen had been outlawed on the 8th of October, contrary to the laws
of the empire, without summons or trial. Now, however, his enemies
placed themselves in an attitude of equal defiance, and of equal peril to
the Council of Regency : instead of pursuing the outlaw himself, they
attacked his supposed allies, frequently without proof of their guilt, and
took their fortified dwellings. The Swabian League, which already
declared that it had only acquiesced in the creation of the Council of
Regency on the supposition of its union, now openly usurped part of the
functions of the Imperial Chamber by the citations before its own tribunal
to which we have alluded ; and it did not deign even to return an answer
to an admonition, not to molest people about the Public Peace.

Men's pretensions naturally rise with their power. As the attempts
*of Sickingen, and the insubordinate spirit of the Franconian nobility had
not been put down by the Council of Regency, but by the superior force
and the arms of their neighbours, it was natural that the latter should
now continue the struggle with a view to their own interests, without
much regard to the supreme authority of the empire.2

Hence it happened that the Council of Regency soon took under its
protection the very men it had but just before treated as its enemies.
Frowen von Hutten, after the opinions of the most considerable members
of the Imperial Chamber had been heard, obtained without much trouble

1 Tendel : " Beschreibung der Belagerung von Kronenberg." — Munich, iii.,
p. 28.

2 See the letter from the Elector of Treves, 2d Nov., 1522, in. Munich, iii. 33,

302 SICKINGEN [Book III.

a mandate wherein the princes were required to restore all his castles to
him ; and shortly after a formal judgment was given in his favour. At
the same time, the Council of Regency pressed the princes to release the
Elector of Mainz from the conditions so arbitrarily imposed on him.1 These
princes had wished for the aid of the empire to put down the outlawed
Sickingen ; but this they found it impossible to obtain, either from the
Regency or from the Estates assembled in the beginning of the year 1523 ;
if the sentence of outlawry had not already been pronounced, we may
safely assume that it would not. have been pronounced at all.2 Some
members of the Swabian League proposed that all meetings and associa-
tions among the order of knights should be forbidden, but to this the
Regency could not now be brought to consent ; on the contrary, it pro-
claimed its intention of protecting all the knights, except those who had
committed any offence against the Public Peace.

It appears to me that the knights as a body now first became of real
importance to the organisation and progress of the empire. Their wild
project of founding an independent power was at an end. The Council
of Regency was their sole support, and they found themselves under the
necessity of making common cause with it. The union of these two bodies,
essentially distinct, was rendered more strict by the circumstance that the
knights and the Regency had both embraced the evangelical doctrines.
For the same reason, the Elector of Saxony, who was the main prop of
the Regency, entered into a kind of alliance with the knights. In the
second quarter of the year 1523, when the duty of personal attendance
at the Council of Regency fell upon the Elector of Mainz, his place was
filled by his cousin, the grand master, Albert of Prussia, whose sole purpose
was to maintain the dominion of his order, i.e., the Teutonic knights,
and especially those of Swabia and Franconia, in their own country,
and to set the whole powers of the empire in motion to that effect.

Little as it had been to be desired a year ago, that Sickingen should
conquer Treves, it was of great importance that he should be able to defend
himself against the attacks which were preparing against him in the spring
of 1523.

Thus, by a strange turn of fate, the safety of the knight who had so often
disturbed the Public Peace, and committed so many deeds of violence,
became now, after he was outlawed, inextricably bound up with the
interests of order in the empire.

Nor did he by any means give up his cause : he expected to receive
assistance from Lower Germany, and from the Upper Rhine ; to be joined
by the Bohemian and Franconian knights, and to be supported by the *
Lutherans. From his fortress of Landstuhl, where he was then living,
he one day descried horsemen among the distant underwood ; he nattered
himself that they were Lutherans who were coming to see what he was
about, but they came no nearer, and tied their horses to the bushes.3 What

1 Planitz, 4th Feb., 1523, says, they should release him from his obligations,
and give Sickingen an amicable hearing.

2 Planitz thought on the 24th Nov. that sentence of outlawry would not be
pronounced against Sickingen, " man hatte ihn denn citiert ; aber geschehn ist
geschehn " — " without citing him to appear ; but what is done is done."

3 Hubert Th. Leodius, Acta et Gesta Francisci de Sickingen in Freher Script.
Rer. Germ., iii., p. 305.

Chap. I V.J DEATH OF SICKINGEN 303

he saw was the advanced guard of the enemy who were approaching to
besiege him.

Meanwhile he had no apprehension. He had just repaired his fortress ;
and had no doubt that he would be able to stand a siege of three months
at least, in which time his allies would come up and relieve him.

But the event proved that he had not rightly calculated the improve-
ment that had taken place in the engines of war during the preceding
century. He had no other means of defence than those used by the
knights of old : it remained to be seen whether the lofty situation, the
vaulted towers — solid as the rocks they stood on — and the massive walls,
could afford protection against artillery. It was soon evident that the
old defences were far too weak for the modern arts of war. On the 30th
■of April, 1523, the princes began to bombard the castle with carronades
and culverins, well supplied with ammunition and well served. The
young landgrave, who appeared in the dress of a landsknecht, showed
courage and skill i1 the great tower, which commanded and threatened
their camp, fell the same day : the newness of its walls made them less
able to withstand the shock of the cannon-balls. Sickingen seeing this
unexpected misfortune, went to a loophole, and leaning on a battering
engine, sought to get a view of the state of things, and of what was to be
done. A culverin happened at the moment to be pointed in that direction
with but too sure an aim ; the implements of defence were scattered in
all directions, and Sickingen himself was hurled against a sharp beam
and mortally wounded in the side.

The whole fortress was a ruin: in the only vault which remained
standing, lay the lord of the castle, bereft of all hope. No help appeared
in sight. " Where now," said Sickingen, " are those gentlemen, my
friends, who promised me so much ? Where is Fiirstenberg ? where are
the Swiss and the Strasburgers ?" He was at last forced to capitulate.2

The princes having refused to allow him liberty to evacuate the castle,
as, according to custom, he proposed, he said, " I will not be their prisoner
long." He had scarcely strength enough left to sign the conditions, and
lay dying when the princes entered the donjon.

The Elector of Treves said, " What charge had you to bring against
me, Franz, that you attacked me and my poor subjects in my see ?"
" And what against me," said the landgrave, " that you invaded my
land in my nonage ?" Sickingen replied, " I have now to render an
account to a greater sovereign."

His chaplain Nicolas asked him whether he wished to confess, but he
answered, " I have already confessed to God in my heart."

The chaplain addressed to him some last words of consolation, and
held up the host ; the princes bared their heads and knelt down : at that
moment Sickingen expired, and the princes said a paternoster for his soul.3

1 Lettera da Ispruch a dl 1 2 Mazo, 1 523, al Sr Mch. di Mantoa. " II Landgrafio
si e portato magnanimamente, essendo sempre stato de li primi, in zuppone con
le calze tagliate et in corsaletto da Lanzichenech, et e giovane di 18 anni." —
Sanuto's Cron. Ven., vol. xxxiv.

2 Account of what occurred in the wars of Franz Sickingen ; Spalatin, Samm-
lung zu Sachs. Gesch., v., p. 148.

3 The Flersheimer Chronik contains the most authentic account. Munch,
iii. 222.

304 SICKINGEN [Book III.

Sickingen's memory will live for ever ; not on account of any great
achievements productive of lasting results, nor even on account of his
extraordinary bravery, or of any eminent moral qualities he evinced, but
for the novelty and importance of the position to which he gradually
attained. The first step in his rise was his connexion with the Elector
Palatine, who employed him against his enemies, opened a career to him,
and afforded him support and assistance both publicly and in secret.
Thus in a short time, from an inconsiderable knight, possessor only of
two or three mountain castles, he became a powerful Condottiere who
could bring a small army into the field at his own charges. The more
considerable he became, the more he felt tempted to pursue his own line
of policy, and justified in doing so. The Wiirtemberg war was the first
occasion on which he separated himself from the elector, who did not cor-
dially approve that enterprise. He did not, however, on that account
join the Swabian League ; on the contrary, he soon entered into the closest
alliance with the Franconian knights, with whom that body was at enmity.
This it was that rendered his position so imposing. We have seen how
a few years before, Wiirtemberg, the Palatinate, and Wurzburg opposed
the Swabian League with the aid of the knights. Now, however, the
princes had been forced to join the League, and Wiirtemberg had been
subdued ; so that Sickingen and the knights maintained the opposition
single-handed. Visions of reviving the ancient independence of the
nobility ; of freeing themselves from the territorial jurisdiction of the
temporal and spiritual princes, and of opening the way for the spread of
the new religious convictions, floated before their minds. Never was
there a more singular combination : in the midst of the deeds of violence
that were committed, there was a lively and ready apprehension of great
ideas : it is this strange union which characterises the nobility of that
time. Meanwhile they had neither the intellectual power nor the political
influence necessary to carry out projects of such a nature. When Sickingen
at last decidedly attacked the princely authority, mightier powers took
the field against him ; the Palatinate not only abandoned him, but com-
bined with his enemies for his destruction.1 He then discovered that he
was not so strong as he believed himself to be, that he did not owe his
elevation to his own powers alone, and that those which had helped to
raise, were now turned against him. In this conflict he perished.

The taking of Landstuhl was a victory of the order of princes (Fiirsten-
thum) over that of knights (Ritterthum) ; of the cannon over the strong-
hold, and in so far, of the new order of things over the old ; it fortified
the newly-arisen independent powers of the empire.

All the castles belonging to Sickingen and his friends now fell into the
hands of the princes. They were twenty-seven in all, including those
taken in the course of the autumn. Those on the right bank of the Rhine
fell to the share of the landgrave, those on the left, were divided between

1 Contemporaries saw it in this light, as is shown by the dialogue between the
Fox and the Wolf : " Wolf : Wie mainstu hat der Pfalzgraff gethon, wir wolten
gut feiste Bolz erlangt han ? Fuchs : es ist bei Got war, derselb hat uns allein
den Schaden thon des wir uns nit versehen." — " The Wolf : How thinkest thou,
has the elector palatine done — should we have received good large cross-bow
bolts ? The Fox : It is true, by God ; he alone has done us the mischief- against
which we had not guarded."

Chap. IV.] FRANCONIAN KNIGHTS 305

the elector palatine and the archbishop. In the Ebernburg, the only-
castle that defended itself for any time, rich booty was taken, — splendid
jewels and plate, both for worldly and religious purposes ; but above all,
thirty-six pieces of artillery, the finest of which — the Nightingale, cast by
Master Stephen of Frankfurt — measured thirteen feet and a half, weighed
seventy hundred weight, and was decorated with the figures of the knight
and his lady, their respective ancestors, and the saint for whom they had
formerly had a peculiar devotion — St. Francis.1 This was part of the
landgrave's share. The princes bound themselves to aid each other to
keep what they had won in common, after which, on the 6th of June,
they separated.

At the same moment the Swabian League held a meeting at Nordlingen,
to which all the Franconian knights accused of a breach of the Public
Peace were summoned for trial. Some of them succeeded in clearing them-
selves from suspicion ; others appeared, but failing to prove their innocence,
they were not admitted to their oath. Many altogether disdained, to
present themselves before the councillors of the league.2 Against the two
last classes, an army of 1,500 horse and 15,000 foot assembled on the
15 th June, at Dunkelspiel, under the command of George Truchsess: the
cities of Augsburg, Ulm, and Nurnberg provided the artillery.3 Such an
army as this was far too powerful to be resisted by the Franconian nobles.
Bocksberg, near Mergentheim, was considered the strongest castle in
Franconia, and upon it, on the advice of the Niirnbergers, the march was
first directed. The Rosenbergs, to whom it belonged, had originally meant
to defend themselves, and had hired a troop of Landsknechts and mus-
keteers to serve their guns ; but when they saw such an overpowering force,
they gave up all idea of defence, and surrendered their castle with its stores.
This example put an end to all resistance. The castle of Absberg was
burnt, and nothing left standing but the bare walls. In the Kriigelstein
there stood a tower, the walls of which were eight feet thick, even at the
top ; this was blown up with gunpowder. Waldstein, in the midst of its
wilderness, whither many a prisoner had been dragged, was blown up and
destroyed by Wolf von Freiberg, the captain of the city of Augsburg :
twenty-six castles are enumerated, all of which were seized, and most de-
stroyed. Some of these were Bohemian fiefs ; and at first the Bohemians
had made a show of resistance in the neighbourhood of the mountains ;
but the League ordered its commander to act up to his instructions, without
regard to the Bohemians, who accordingly retreated, leaving him to fulfil
his terrible commission.

The independent knights were utterly crushed. Just as they had caught
the inspiration of religion, and had hoped by its influence to open a new
career for themselves, their power was broken for ever. We must not fail
to observe a fact intimately connected with this event. The man who
first brought the warlike spirit of knighthood into contact with the religious
agitations of the times, Ulrich von Hutten, was involved in the common

1 Report in Spalatin, p. 151.

2 Letter from Nordlingen in the Dresden Archives, beginning of June, 1523,
" der Bund geht teglich zwir in Rath." — " The league meets in council every day."
Chiefly from Milliner's Annalen, which contains a journal of the whole expedition.

3 Nurnberg gave 2 cannon, 2 carronades, 2 nightingales, 2 culverins, 6 rabinets,
6 mortars, 60 pole-axes.

20

306 DEATH OF HUTTEN [Book III.

catastrophe. He had given to Sickingen's enterprises the incalculable aid
of a zealous counsellor and encouraging friend : he was, therefore, naturally
struck with consternation at his fall. He dared not endanger the safety
of his relations by his presence ; and in Upper Germany he was equally
obnoxious to the vengeance of the spiritual, and of the victorious temporal
authorities ; he took refuge in Switzerland, as others had done in Saxony.
There he fell again into the same bitter and desponding state of mind
which he had once laboured under in his youth. Nor, even here, did he
always find a welcome ; he wandered from place to place, under the un-
happy necessity of asking money and assistance of his literary friends,
many of whom shunned him as dangerous. Erasmus, who carefully kept
up his connexions among the great, was frightened at the idea of receiving
a visit from him, and avoided and repulsed him. In addition to this, his old
disease broke out again in a dreadful manner. Yet the veteran combatant
did not lose his courage ; once more he poured forth all the vehemence
of his rhetoric against Erasmus, whom he looked upon as an apostate.
But he had now no longer strength to bear such violent emotions and exer-
tions, and before he could receive the answer of Erasmus, disease put an
end to his life : — he died at Ufnau, on the lake of Zurich, where he had gone
at Zwingli's advice to consult a priest skilled in the healing art.1

It was fortunate for Luther that he had made no closer alliance with the
knights ; as both he and the doctrine he preached would have been in-
volved in their evil destiny.

If we now return to the point whence we started, we shall clearly per-
ceive, that the whole turn of affairs was unpropitious, and even dangerous,
to the Council of Regency. It would indeed have been unable to do any
thing for Sickingen, having tied its own hands by declaring him an outlaw ;
it would however gladly have afforded protection to the knightly order ;
but what resistance could it possibly make to two such powerful armies as
those of the League and of the princes ? Moreover these two powers,
emboldened by conquests, assumed an attitude of still greater defiance,
and even hostility. The princes declared the judgment in favour of
Frowen von Hutten invalid and illegal,2 and rejected the proceedings of the
Regencv in that and all other cases.

To this dangerous hostility another no less formidable was soon added.

THE CITIES AND THE IMPERIAL COURT.

Under the circumstances we have been describing, the establishment of
the proposed import duties, by which the power of the Council of Regency
must have been materially increased, could not have failed to produce
important results. There ought to have been no hesitation on the subject ;
the States had resolved on it ; the emperor had given his consent before-
hand. A messenger from the lieutenant of the Empire had already carried
the acts and the Recess of the diet to Spain.

1 Zwinglius to Wolfhardt, nth Oct., " libros nullos habuit, supellectilem
nullam prster calamum." — Epp., p. 313.

2 Planitz, 22d July. He thinks that, under such circumstances, the Council
of Regency could not last long : " Denn der dreier Fiirsten und des Bunds Vor-
nehmen will sich mit unsern gethanen Pflichten gar nicht leiden." — " The inten-
tions of the three princes and of the league will not square with our duties."

Chap. IV.] OPPOSITION OF THE CITIES 307

But we have already remarked how much the cities thought themselves
injured and endangered by such an interference with commerce : they were
determined not to submit to it without resistance.

They had also many other grievances to allege.

In the year 1521, the decree concerning the levies for the expedition to
Rome had been passed without summoning the cities, according to ancient
usage, to the deliberation. The cities immediately complained, where-
upon an explanation was given which satisfied them for the moment.

Since then, however, the attempts made to meet the exigencies of the
empire by taxes which would have fallen most heavily on the cities ; their
determined resistance ; the attacks on the monopolies on the one side, and
the obstinate maintenance of them on the other, had been continually
augmenting the ill-will between the cities and the higher classes ; and at the
diet of 1522-3 it openly burst forth.

A general meeting of the States was announced for the 1 1 th of December,
1522, in order to hear and discuss the proposals to be made by the Council
of Regency and the committee, for succours to be granted to the Hun-
garians. It had formerly been customary for the Council of Regency,
after submitting a proposition, to retire and leave the three colleges to
deliberate thereupon. On this occasion, however, the Regency did not
retire : the electors and princes assented to its proposal without separating,
and it was then laid before the cities. The cities, which were peculiarly
interested in questions of this kind, and always rather hard to satisfy,
asked time for consideration — -only till the afternoon. Hereupon they
received an answer which they little expected : they were told, that " the
usage in the empire was, that when a thing was determined on by the
electors, princes and other Estates, the cities should be content to abide by
it." The citizens, on their side, contended, that if they were to share weal
and woe with the other States they ought also to have a voice in the
deliberations ; in short, that those who took their purses must be fain to
take their counsel. The subsidies in money were what they particularly
objected to; like the other States, they would only furnish men. But no
attention was paid by the assembly to a resolution they drew up to this
effect. A mandate was issued, requiring them to furnish contributions
which they had never voted : they asked fresh time for deliberation, but
were again told that it was not the practice : they were preparing to reply
when it struck eleven, and the sitting was dissolved.1

The cities were the more confounded at this proceeding, on being told
that it was by special favour that two of their deputies were received into
the committee, whereas the counts had only one : they thought this
betrayed an intention of excluding them from the committees altogether.
In the year 1487, they had given up the opposition which, as a body, they
had long maintained, because the Elector Berthold of Mainz had, as we
saw, obtained for them a practical share in the deliberations ; and we know
how powerfully this was sometimes exercised : they now supposed that
the intention was to strip them of all their rights, at the same time that the
fulfilment of their obligations was strictly enforced.

As measures which threatened to be extremely injurious to their trade
and manufactures were now resolved on with reference to monopolies and
1 Letter from Holzhausen to Frankfort, Dec, 1522. Frankf. Arch., vol. xxxvi.,
particularly f. no, Die Supplik der Stadte.

20 — 2

308 THE CITIES AND [Book III.

import duties, and as a fresh petition, in which all their grievances, past and
present, were set forth, had proved as ineffectual as the preceding ones,
they determined to resist with all their might.

They steadily withheld their assent to the decisions of the diet, and obsti-
nately refused to grant a loan which they were called upon to advance, and
which was to be repaid out of the proceeds of the tax for the Turkish war.
Hereupon the princes took care to let them feel their displeasure. " The
imperial towns," writes the deputy from Frankfurt,1 " are departing under
heavy disgrace : time alone can show what will be the result ; but my
journey home is a sad one."

It was fortunate for the cities that the decisions of the States did not
immediately acquire the force of law, but had first to be sent to Spain to
receive the emperor's ratification. Their only hope lay in this. In March,
1 523, the cities assembled in Spire, and resolved to send an embassy of their
own to Spain, to represent to the emperor the injury they apprehended
from the proposed duties, as well as their other grievances.

The report of this mission is fortunately still extant, and we will pause
over it for a moment, as it affords us a curious specimen of the manner in
which the affairs of Germany were conducted at the imperial court in
Spain.

The journey was extremely long and fatiguing. On the 15th of June,
the delegates met at Lyons, and it was not till the 6th of August that they
reached Valladolid : the chief cause of delay was the oppressive heat,
which even caused some of the party to fall sick.

They began by visiting Markgrave Johann of Brandenburg, the high
chancellor, and above all the councillors to whom the affairs of Germany
were referred ; Herr von Rosch, Hannart, Provost Marklin of Wald-
kirchen, and Maximilian von Zevenberghen.

Hereupon, on the 9th of August, the emperor gave them a formal
audience in the presence of a brilliant assembly of grandees, bishops, and
ambassadors : they addressed him in Latin, and were answered in the same
language by the chancellor, in the emperor's name.

A commission was then appointed to discuss affairs with them, consisting
only of the four German councillors we have named above : the proceed-
ings commenced on the 1 1 th of August.

The delegates had drawn up a statement of their grievances under six
heads ; — administration of justice, tolls, subsidies, Public Peace, mono-
polies, and other things of less importance. These they laid before the
commissioners in German and Latin, and then went through them together,
which gave them an opportunity of expressing their wishes orally.

The councillors at first appeared unfavourably inclined. They thought
it unjust that the question of the jurisdictions should not have been brought
forward till now, when a young emperor had just ascended the throne :
they complained that no class in the empire would do its part, although
neither the Council of Regency nor the courts of justice could be maintained
without supplies from the several Estates : they exhorted the cities to
submit for a short time longer, and not to refuse their share of the contribu-
tions voted by the diet on the part of the whole empire, in aid of the Hun-
garians. A draft of a ratification of the decree of the diet had actually

1 Holzhausen, 25th, 26th, 29th Jan., 1523. Vol. xxxvii. of the Frankf. Archives
is here my chief authority.

Chap. IV.] THE IMPERIAL COURT 309

been prepared at the instigation of another imperial councillor, Doctor
Lamparter. But the delegates were not so easily put off : they declared
that the cities were ready to contribute their share ; for example, to pay
two members of the Imperial Chamber, and even to pay the contributions,
at the rate determined at the diet of Constance ; but that they had no inten-
tion of submitting to the unjust demands attempted to be enforced against
them. They supported their declarations with a few very acute and
stringent remarks. " Who can foretell," said they, " what will become of
the revenues raised from these import duties ? It is reported that a scheme
has already been proposed by the princes for sharing the proceeds amongst
themselves ; and even if this be not true, there is a project of electing a
king of the Romans, who would be able to maintain his power out of the
revenue thus raised." In short, they made it appear that the duty would
be dangerous to the emperor himself ; remarking, at the same time, that
the Council of Regency was not composed in the manner most favourable
to the interests of the emperor. They also promised the councillors, per-
sonally, " to make a grateful return to them for their trouble."

The cities had thus hit upon the means by which any thing was to be
accomplished at the imperial court.

At the next meeting the Provost of Waldkirchen gave them to under-
stand, that the emperor, finding how unpopular it was, was not inclined
to impose the duty in question ; neither was it his intention to continue
the Council of Regency ; but he must then ask, what the cities were pre-
pared to do for his imperial majesty, if he took the government into his
own hands ? The delegates replied, that if the emperor granted their
petition, and then made any reasonable suggestion to them, they would
show themselves grateful and obedient subjects. Waldkirchen reminded
them that it appeared from the old registers, that the last emperors on
their accession had received a gift of honour from the cities ; and asked,
why this had been omitted for the first time with the young emperor, who,
he said, placed his whole confidence in the cities, and, were it not for the
wars, would take a straightforward and royal course with regard to them.

Another matter next fell under discussion. The pope's nuncio had
complained that in Augsburg, Strasburg, and Nurnberg, Luther's doctrines
were received, and his works printed. The delegates, on being called
to account for this, denied the fact. They declared that not a syllable of
Luther's writings had been printed in their towns for several years :
nay more, that foreign itinerant vendors of his books had been punished ;
and that, however much the common people might thirst after the Gospel
and reject human doctrines, it was not from the towns that Luther found
protection : it was well known who his defenders were ; the cities, for
their part, were resolved, hereafter as heretofore, to remain Christian
members of the Christian church.

Hereupon the two parties came to an agreement on the most important
points. Another conference between the whole commission and the
delegates was held on the 19th of August, and attended also by the Count
of Nassau. The doors having been carefully closed, the delegates were
informed, that the emperor intended to take the government into his
own hands, to appoint a valiant lieutenant, and a noble and dignified
Imperial Chamber, and not to allow the imposition of the import duties.
The amount of the sum to be offered to him was left to the discretion of

3io THE CITIES AND THE IMPERIAL COURT [Book III.

the delegates ; but they promised to come to an agreement on the subject
with Hannart, who was to go to Germany as the imperial commissioner.

The delegates were also to treat concerning the monopolies ; not exactly
on the part of the cities as a body, but in the name of the great mercantile
companies. The omnipotence of money and its possessors soon helped
them to the attainment of their object. It was settled that the Council
of Regency was to be directed to pass no resolution with regard to the
monopolies, without again asking the consent of his imperial majesty.1

Their commission being thus satisfactorily executed, the delegates
quitted Spain. At Lyons they had an audience of Francis I., who vented
upon them his anger against the emperor. In December they reached
Niirnberg, where a fresh diet had just assembled.

The final result then was, that the imperial court had entered into a
combination with the cities, against the existing form of government in
the empire, and especially against the Council of Regency.

And, indeed, it was only natural that the imperial councillors, who had
always been in competition with this administrative body, should take
advantage of any internal dispute to rid. themselves of it.

Another and a still stronger motive existed. The idea had really arisen
in Germany, as the towns had hinted, of electing a king of the Romans.
Ferdinand of Austria, the emperor's own brother, was the man pointed
out by the public voice. It was believed, as far as I can discover,2 that
he would govern in concert with the Council of Regency, according to
the forms of the constitution which had just been established ; and it is
manifest that this could only have attained its completion, had Germany
possessed a sovereign of limited power, and dependent on constitutional
forms. No wonder that the mere suggestion should be very ill received
in Spain ; in fact, it almost implied an abdication on the part of the
emperor.

Moreover, Ferdinand was very unpopular there. He was constantly
making fresh demands, while frequent complaints were preferred against
him ; besides the Spaniards believed his most confidential adviser, Sala-
manca, to be equally ambitious and selfish. When Hannart went to
Germany, he was commissioned, if possible, to effect Salamanca's dismissal,
and to counteract all his ambitious schemes.

diet of 1524.

If in a former chapter we have endeavoured to show what weighty
interests of church and state were involved in the existence of the Council
of Regency, we must now turn our attention to the mighty and determined
opposition arrayed against it.

Three warlike and victorious princes ; the Swabian League, which
wielded such formidable forces ; wealthy cities ; and finally, though as

1 " Der gemeynen Frey und Reichs Stadt Potschafften Handlung bei Romisch
Kayserl. Majestadt zu Valedolid in Castilia." — " The Negotiation of the Embassy
of the united, free, and imperial Cities, with his Roman Imperial Majesty at
Valladolid in Castile." In the month of August, anno 1523. In the Frankf.
Arch., torn, xxxix., fol. 39-56.

2 I extract from a roll of the Weimar Archives, which contains a number of
scattered papers written by the chief councillors of the archduke to Elector
Frederick.

Chap. IV.] DIET OF 1524 311

yet in secret, the Emperor, whose whole hope of regaining unlimited
authority rested on the overthrow of this representative body.

The Council of Regency was not, however, destitute of support. Arch-
duke Ferdinand promised not to consent to its overthrow, and some of his
councillors were its decided adherents, as might be expected, from the
prospects it held out to him and to them. The Elector of Saxony, to
whom it chiefly owed its existence, attended the diet in person in order
to defend it. The Elector of Mainz, who had suffered from the oppression
of the three princes alluded to, together with the whole house of Branden-
burg, were among its champions. The Regency also enjoyed the whole
sympathy of the knightly order (whose only hopes were founded upon
it), and of the partisans of the religious innovations.

Thus it still stood on firm ground : in spite of all the changes of individual
members, the majority once established, remained : those who did not
belong to it, like the Chancellor of Treves, Otto Hundt of Hessen, stayed
away.1 The imperial fiscal commenced the proceedings against the great
mercantile companies, and a judgment against the three princes was
prepared. Several most important questions were laid before the diet,
which opened on the 14th of January, 1524, concerning the means of
maintaining the government and the administration of justice ; the
execution of decrees of the diet, the code of criminal procedure,2 &c.

It is a calamity for any power to have produced no great results ; and
under this disadvantage the Council of Regency laboured. It had been
unable to maintain the Public Peace, or to control either Sickingen or his
adversaries. The great scheme of customs duties, on which all the
resources for carrying on the government depended, had come to nothing.
It was now assailed by blow upon blow.

On the ist of February the attorney of the three princes, Dr. Venningen,
appeared before the general assembly of the States, and made a long,
bitter, and insulting speech against the proceedings of the Council of
Regency.

A mandate from the emperor was produced, by which the proceedings
already commenced against the commercial companies were stayed. The
court of Spain demanded to have the documents relating to the case
laid before it.

Hannart next arrived, and from the first took part with the opponents
of the Regency — the Elector of Treves, in whose company he came, and
the cities, from whom he had received a present of 500 gulden.3 At his
first interview with the archduke he did not pay him the respect which
that prince expected, nor did he attempt to conceal that the emperor wished
for the dissolution of the existing form of government.

Such were the circumstances under which the assembly of the states
began their deliberations : the debate on the grant necessary to the

1 Otto von Pack to Duke George of Saxony, the Friday after St. Lucia (Dresden
Arch.), thinks that they were driven out. " Darnach wissen E. F. Gn. wer die
andern seint, welche alle E. F. Gn. Abwesen wol erdulden konnen." — " Your
princely grace will by this know who the others are, that can all well bear your
grace's absence."

2 Frankfurter Acten, vol. xxxix., in which are these documents, and vol. xl.,
containing the letters of Holzhausen concerning this diet.

* Letter of Ferdinand's in Bucholtz, ii., p. 46..

312 DIET OF 1524 [Book III.

maintenance of the Council of Regency must, of course, bring the matter
to a decision.

The Regency was, after all, the expression of the power of the several
states of the empire ; was it then credible that the States would themselves
assist in its dissolution ?

We have seen that the Regency obtained a majority in the former diets
of the empire ; though after laborious efforts and with precarious results.
A host of new antipathies were now added, arising out of the interests of
the sovereign princes and the free cities ; of money and of religion. The
influence of the great capitalists was enormous even in those times. The
Fuggers were instrumental in the election of Charles V. ; and, in all
probability, in the publication of the bull of Leo X. against Luther. They
brought about the alliance between the court and the discontented towns ;
and it was mainly by their influence that the projected system of duties
was abandoned ; and now they had the audacity to turn the affair of
the monopolies, which had called forth so many decrees of the diet against
themselves, into a subject of accusation against the Council of Regency ;
alleging that that body had assumed judicial powers which properly
belonged to the Imperial Chamber alone.1 The Bishop of Wiirzburg
accused the Council of Regency of openly favouring the new creed : he
said that it had set at liberty two members of his chapter whom he had
brought before the ecclesiastical court on the charge of contracting marriage,
and that it had given a safe-conduct to a canon whom he had banished
for Lutheran opinions. The imperial commissioner was informed that
most of the members of the Council of Regency were zealous Lutherans.2
The majority which had hitherto been in favour of that body was riot
compact enough to resist such a multitude of hostile influences, and after
some debate and vacillation, turned against it. The States did not,
indeed, go so far as to propose its total abolition, but resolved not to meet
on the 20th of February to consider the means for its maintenance, unless
its members were previously changed ; and declared they could by no
means consent to its continuance, composed as it then was.

This was, however, decisive. The important point was, the establish-
ment of a vigorous government, chosen out of the body of the States ;
but what could be expected for the future, if the present members, who
had been really earnest in the performance of their duties, and had actually
begun to govern, were to be deprived of office, without any charge worthy
of a moment's discussion being brought against them ? Was it likely
that their successors would show any courage or independence ?

It was once more rendered evident, that the powerful separate elements,
of which the empire was compounded, could never be controlled by one
central government.

Frederick the Wise of Saxony felt the whole significance of this decision.

1 Holzhausen, 12th Feb., 1524. It appears from this that only Augsburg
offered any resistance to the imperial edicts in the matter of the monopolies.
All the other towns were in favour of their abolition. Dr. Rolinger had inserted
the article touching monopolies of his own accord in the instruction given to
the delegates sent to Spain.

2 Hannart to the emperor, 14th March : — " Et certes je me suis pour vray
averty, la pluspart du regiment sont grands Lutheriens : car en beaucoup de
choses et provisions qu'ils ont fait, ils eussent bien peu user de plus grande
discretion et moderation qu'ils n'ont (usees).

Chap. IV.] DIET OF 1524 3'3

He now, at the close of his life, saw the idea of a representative government,
which had been the object of his whole existence, completely wrecked.
He said, that he had never witnessed such a diet :* he left it on the 24th
of February, and never appeared at one again.

Archduke Ferdinand, it is true, still refused his assent to the decision ;
he even used his personal influence to win over the cities to the side of
the Council of Regency ; but in the course of a short time, observes the
Saxon ambassador, his councillors were no longer of the same opinion : it
seemed as if Hannart, instead of destroying Salamanca's power, had
gained him over ; at all events, he never delivered the letter in which
the emperor desired the Elector of Saxony to assist in getting rid of Sala-
manca. These causes at length produced their effect on Ferdinand :
" after holding out resolutely for nine weeks," writes the Saxon am-
bassador, on the 1st of March, " he has suddenly fallen away." He con-
sented that not a single member of the old Council of Regency should be
admitted into the new.2

The Imperial Chamber underwent the same sort of purification. No
inquiry was made as to whether the members had been attentive or negli-
gent, capable or incapable ; but merely whether they had supported the
nobles against the princes, or aided the fiscal in the prosecution of mono-
polists. Their conduct as to religious matters was also taken into con-
sideration. Dr. Kreutner, the assessor3 for the circle of Franconia, was
dismissed for having eaten meat on a fast-day, without considering that
he had a claim for upwards of 1000 gulden, arrears.

This brings us to the main question, — how far these great changes
re-acted on the conduct of spiritual affairs. The cause of the Council of
Regency and that of the religious reformation were, as we see at every
step, connected, though not indissolubly : the question now was, whether
the States, which had abandoned the Regency to its fate, would be equally
unfavourable to the new faith.

After the early and unexpected death of Adrian VI., the purer and
severer spirit which he had introduced and exemplified, disappeared.
Clement VII., who next ascended the papal chair, was, like his predecessors,
exclusively bent on maintaining the papal privileges ; and on applying
the temporal forces of the states of the church to personal or political
ends, without troubling himself seriously about the necessity of reform.
He sent to the German diet a man of his own way of thinking, — Lorenzo
Campeggio.

Campeggio found Germany, which a few years before he had traversed,

1 At all events the provost of the cathedral of Vienna excused him with these
words, to Campeggi, who asked the cause of his absence. Letter from Wolfstal,
14th March, Weimar Arch. The Italians thought he had gone away because
the legate had come. " Assai sdegnato," as the Venetian Ziani expresses him-
self, Disp. 29 Martio. The same person remarks that Nurnberg had already
entirely fallen away from Catholicism : " Di qui e totalmente scancellata la
sincera fede."

2 According to a letter of Wolf von Wolfstal, Ferdinand, even on the 17 th of
April, said, " Dass Hannart ihn sampt ihm selbst verfiihrt, wie wenn ein Blinder
den andern fiihrt." — " That Hannart had deceived him, as well as himself, like
as when the blind lead the blind."

3 Assessor=judge. For the constitution of the Imperial Chamber, which was
first organized in 1495, see Cambridge Modern History, vol. i., p. 304.

3H DIET OF 1524 [Book III.

surrounded with the halo of an unshaken and sacred authority, in a state
of complete apostasy. In Augsburg he was assailed with derision and
mockery when, at his entrance into the town, he raised his hand to give
the customary benediction. After this he was advised by others, and
thought it most prudent himself, to enter Nvirnberg without any ceremony
whatever. He did not wear his cardinal's hat, and made no sign of
benediction, or of the cross ; and instead of riding to the church of St.
Sebaldus, where the clergy were assembled to receive him, he rode straight
to his lodging.1

His presence, instead of damping the zeal of the reforming preachers,
seemed to inflame it to the utmost. The pope was characterised as anti-
christ, before the face of his legate. On Palm-Sunday no palms were
strewed ; and in Passion- Week the ceremony of laying down the cross and
raising it again, was omitted : thousands received the sacrament in both
kinds,2 and not only among the common people ; several members of the
Council of Regency were among the communicants, and even the sister
of the archduke, Queen Isabella of Sweden, partook of the cup at the
castle of Nvirnberg.

It is very possible that these public demonstrations -produced in the
mind of Ferdinand, on whom the new doctrines had made no impression,
and who had been brought up in all the rigour of Spanish Catholicism,
the determination to abandon the Council of Regency ; and it is also
likely enough that the pope's legate had some influence in the same direc-
tion. At all events, the fall of the Council of Regency, which had taken
the new doctrines under its protection, would necessarily be very favour-
able to the maintenance of Catholicism.

Perhaps the legate founded on this a hope of obtaining from the States
a decision agreeable to his wishes on religious affairs generally. He com-
plained of the innovations which were made before his eyes. He reminded
the States of the edict published at Worms, and expressed his astonishment
that ordinances of this kind were so imperfectly enforced in the empire.
Hannart also demanded the execution of the edict in the emperor's name.

On this occasion, however, it became manifest that religion had by no
means decided the course of affairs, however it might have influenced
the conduct of some individuals. Had no political motives existed, the
councillors of the Regency would never have been dismissed on account
of their religious inclinations. The complaints of the legate made no
impression. " Some," writes Planitz, " are indignant, but most only
laugh." The cities, which had contributed so greatly to the overthrow
of the Council of Regency, were furious at the mention of the edict. They
declared that the common people were so eager for the word of God,
that to deprive them of it would cause rebellion, bloodshed and general

1 The Regency recommended him " dass er seinen Segen und Kreuz zu thun
vermeyd, angesehen wie es deshalb jetzund stee." — " To avoid making the sign
of the cross or the benediction, seeing how matters then stood." — Feilitzsch to
Frederick of Saxony, nth March."

2 Planitz (28 th March) reckons 4000. " 1st deshalb Muhe und Erbett, und
sunderlich, dass es des Regiments Personen eines Theyls also genommen." —
" On this account is trouble and labour, and especially as the persons of the
Regency have in part received it thus." He remarks that Ferdinand was very
angry at such a manifestation of his sister's opinions. " Nicht weiss ich wie es
gehn will." — " I know not how it will end."

Chap. IV.] DIET OF 1524 315

ruin ; and that the resolutions of the preceding year must be absolutely
adhered to. In short, with regard to religious affairs, those who were
hostile to Rome still constituted the majority in the States. The legate
was reminded soon after his arrival of the hundred grievances of the nation
which had been sent to Rome by his predecessor. This had been foreseen
in Rome ; and the legate had been instructed to feign that the memorial
containing these complaints had not been delivered in the names of the
princes.1 Accordingly Campeggio answered with a perfectly untroubled
countenance, " that no official announcement of those grievances had
reached Rome ; that three printed copies had been sent thither, it was
true, one of which he had seen himself, but that he could not bring himself
to believe that anything so beyond measure ill-written could be produced
by the diet." This was certainly not at all calculated to satisfy the tem-
poral Estates, who had been extremely in earnest with regard to the griev-
ances, the statement of which had cost so much trouble and deliberation.

Moreover, the personal behaviour of the legate, who was accused of
sordid avarice, and of revolting oppression towards the poorer sort of
German priests, was far from favourable to the success of his negotiations.2

When the decisive discussion on religious affairs arrived, the order
necessary to the transaction of public business and the presence of the
imperial commissioner so far influenced the States, that they did not deny
the obligation they lay under to carry the edict of Worms into execution ;
but to this admission they added a clause to a directly contrary effect ;
namely, that they would execute it " as far as was possible," — a modifica-
tion of so vague a nature that it was left to the discretion of each individual
to do what he pleased. The cities had already represented at length that
it was not possible. At the same time the demand was renewed, that the
pope should convene a council in the German dominions, with the emperor's
consent. This the legate undertook to advocate faithfully to his holiness.

It was, however, questionable whether this was sufficient to tranquillise
men's minds ; or whether, in such a state of fermentation, they would
wait patiently for so remote an event as the convocation and decision of an
ecclesiastical assembly : lastly, whether the German nation would so far
renounce the unity of its anti-Romish tendencies, which had taken so deep
a root, as to consent to abide by the results of a council composed of all
nations.

No sooner were the representatives of the reforming principles dis-
missed from the Council of Regency, than the necessity of supplying the
place of their labours in some other manner was doubly felt. This aroused
the champions of the new doctrines to unite in forming a most remarkable
determination.

The question which had once before been so important was still un-
answered ; namely, what was to be done in Germany in the interval till
the council met. In spite of all opposition, a resolution still more extra-

1 Pallavicini, i., p. 222 : " che dissimulasse che la scrittura si fosse ricevuta
per nome dei principi."

2 A detailed contemporary account of the manner in which the legate induced
the learned but poor Schoner to present to him his mathematical instruments,
on the promise of a benefice, and then neither procured him the benefice nor paid
him for his instruments. Strobel, Nachricht vom Aufenthalt Melanchthons, in
Nurnberg, p. 18.

316 ORIGIN OF THE [Book III.

ordinary, and of which the results were still more incalculable than that
of the former year, was adopted on this point. It was determined that,
in the month of November of the current year, a meeting of the States
should be convened at Spire, and should there hold a definitive deliberation.
To this end, the sovereign princes were to direct their councillors and
learned clerks to draw up a list of all the disputed points which were to
be discussed and decided. Besides this, the grievances of the nation
and means for their redress were to be considered anew. Meanwhile it
was resolved, as the year before, that the holy Gospel and God's word
should be preached.1

It is indeed true that the party favourable to Rome, emboldened by
the overthrow of the Council of Regency, had regained somewhat of its
influence at this diet, but still it was kept in check by a large majority :
the German nation asserted its claim more strenuously than ever, to
complete independence in ecclesiastical affairs, as against the pope and
the unity of the Latin church.

CHAPTER V.

ORIGIN OF THE DIVISION IN THE NATION.

There are probably few reflecting men, however well-disposed on other
grounds to the cause of ecclesiastical reform, who have not occasionally
felt inclined to join in the usual condemnation of it, as the cause of the
separation of Germany into two parts, — often at open war and never
thoroughly reconciled ; — to impute to the adherents of the new opinions
all the blame of having broken up the unity, not only of the church but
of the empire.

So long as we regard the facts from a distance they doubtless wear this
aspect ; but if we approach nearer to them and contemplate the events
which brought about this division, the result we shall arrive at will, if I
mistake not, be far different.

No man, to whatever confession he may belong, can deny, what was
admitted even by the most zealous Catholics of that day; viz., that the
Latin church stood in need of reform. Its thorough worldliness, and the
ever-increasing rigidity and unintelligible formalism of its dogmas and
observances, rendered this necessary in a religious view ; while the inter-

1 Decree of the Diet of Niirnberg, 18th April, 1524. When, after this decree,
we read Luther's paper, — " Zwei kaiserliche uneinige und widerwartige Gebote "
(Altenb., ii. 762), " Two imperial contradictory and incompatible Orders," — ■
we are astonished that he was so ill satisfied. The cause of this, however, is,
that in the mandate founded on the Recess, the article prescribing the teaching
of the holy Gospel was omitted, while, on the other hand, great stress was laid
on the observance of the edict of Worms. The clause " so viel moglich," indeed,
is there ; but almost disappears under the constant reiterations of the edict of
Worms ; hence we perceive the influence which the imperial chancery obtained
after the abolition of the old Council of Regency. Luther does not appear to
have been aware of the Recess, and still less of the preceding negotiations. The
imperial delegate, Hannart, and the papal legate, took a far more complete
view of the matter. They thought it a great gain that at any rate the name of
national council had been avoided. Nevertheless, Hannart concludes his letter
of the 16th April with the words, " que cependant se fera ung concil national
d'AUemagne."

Chap. V.] DIVISION IN THE NATION 317

ference of the papal court, which was not only oppressive in a pecuniary
sense, by consuming all the surplus revenue, but destructive of the unity
and independence of the nation, made it not less essential to the national
interests.

Nor can it be alleged, either on religious or national grounds, that any
unjustifiable measures were resorted to to effect this change.

Independently of all the more precise articles of the protestant creed,
which were gradually constructed and accepted, the essence of the religious
movement lay in this, — that the spirit of Christianity, so deeply implanted
in the German mind, had been, bv degrees, ripened to a consciousness of
its own independence of all accidental forms ; had gone back to its original
source, — to those records which directly proclaim the eternal covenant
of the Godhead with the human race, — and had there become confident
in its own truth, and resolute to reject all untenable theories and subjugat-
ing claims.

No one could shut his eyes to the peril impending over the whole existing
order of things in the nation, from a departure from those established
ecclesiastical forms which had such mighty influence over domestic as
well as public life. We have, however, seen with what care all destructive
elements were rejected, with how much self-control every violent change
was avoided, and how patiently every question was still left to the decision
of the empire.

Let it not be objected that discord had already arisen, and that, as we
have remarked, action was encountered by re-action ; no momentous
crisis in the life of a great nation was ever unaccompanied by this stormy
shock of conflicting opinions. The important point is, that the divisions
should not have sufficient power to overthrow the paramount and acknow-
ledged supremacy of the principle of unity.

Such was the tendency of affairs in Germany in the year 1524.

The adherents of the new faith had hitherto always submitted to the
constitutional government of the empire ; in the hope of obtaining from
its proceedings and favour a reconstruction of the ecclesiastical insti-
tutions, in accordance both with the wants of the nation and the commands
of the Gospel.

The majority in the Council of Regency, as we have seen, influenced
the States in this spirit. In spite of all the efforts of opponents, and of
the various external difficulties, a majority was formed in the diet, favour-
able to the reformation. Two Recesses were drawn up and agreed to in
its favour. Even after the fall of the Regency, this majority maintained
itself, and resolved that a national assembly should be convened at an
early date, and should occupy itself exclusively with the endeavour to
bring the religious affairs of the empire to a definitive conclusion.

A nobler prospect for the unity of the nation, and for the further progress
of the German people in the career they had already entered upon, cer-
tainly never presented itself.

To form some notion of the degree to which it occupied the minds of
men, we have only to examine the state of Franconia, where, during the
summer of 1524, six opinions or reports, destined to be laid before this
assembly, appeared, all conceived in the spirit of the evangelical party.
Luther felt contented and happy when he saw the judgment of the learned
men of Brandenburg ; he said that this was coin of the right stamp,

3i8 CONNEXION OF [Book III.

such as he and his friends at Wittenberg had long dealt withal. That of
Henneberg was not so completely in accordance with his opinions. Luther's
doctrine concerning free will was combated in it ; but in all other respects
it was soundly evangelical, and condemned the invocation of saints, the
seven sacraments, and the abuses of the mass. The reports of Windsheim
and Wertheim were particularly violent against the saints ; that of Niirn-
berg, against the pope. One of the two parties which divided Rothenburg
sent in an opinion favourable to the evangelical side.1 The other party,
however, which was more faithful to the ancient doctrine, was no less
active. Ferdinand required his universities of Vienna and Freiburg to
send in full and minute explanations of the disputed points. At the
former university, the faculties immediately prepared to draw up their
report, and that of theology exhorted the others to abstain from all mutual
offence.2 It is evident that the most various modifications of opinion
must have been in agitation and in conflict at Spire. What results might
not have been anticipated, had it been possible to execute the project of
holding a peaceful and moderate discussion, — of endeavouring to sever
the good from the bad !

It is true that another evangelical majority, like that with which the
proposal originated, was fully to be expected ; but this was the inevitable
consequence of the present state of things : the nation had no alterna-
tive ; it must resist the encroachments of Rome, or fall ; the religious
movement could no longer be suppressed, it could only be guided. This
was the part assigned to the national assembly ; nor can it be said that
the unity of the nation was thus endangered ; on the contrary, had it
attained its object, it would have given to that unity a much more solid
foundation.

In order to discover who it was that, at this decisive juncture, broke
the bond of the national unity, we must examine how it happened that an
assembly for which such solemn preparation had been made, never took
place.

The See of Rome naturally opposed it ; for in proportion as the prospect
it afforded was full of hope and promise to the German nation, it was
threatening and disastrous to the court of Rome.

We have the report of a congregation held at this crisis by Pope
Clement VII., at which means were discussed for carrying into effect the
bull against Luther, and the edict of Worms, in spite of the Recesses by
which they were counteracted. A vast variety of schemes were suggested ;
such as, that Frederick of Saxony should be deprived of his electorate, — a
measure proposed by Aleander ; or that the kings of England and Spain
should be prevailed on to threaten to put a stop to all commerce with the
German towns, from which the pope anticipated great results. The only
conclusion they came to, however, was to oppose the meeting at Spire,
both to the emperor and the States, whom the legate was instructed to
use every means to prejudice against that assembly.3

The question for immediate decision — a question which we must here

i Extracts from v. d. Lith Erlauterung der Frank. Reformationshist : p. 41.

2 Raupach Evangel. Oestreich, ii., p. 29. Struve mentions a similar exhorta-
tion from the elector palatine to the University of Heidelberg in his Pfalzische
Kirchenhistorie, p. 19.

3 Pallavicini, lib. ii., c. x., p. 227.

Chap. V.] THE POPE WITH BAVARIA 319

examine — was, whether there could be found estates in Germany who
would prefer joining with the pope to awaiting the decisions of a general
assembly.

The papal court had already found means to secure to itself allies in
Germany : it had won over one of the most powerful of the sovereign
houses — that of the dukes of Bavaria.

The government as well as the people of Bavaria had formerly shared
the common aversion of the German nation to the ascendency of Rome ;
neither the bull of Leo X. had been carried into effect, nor the edict of
Worms observed.1 The dukes had been as much displeased at the en-
croachments made by the spiritual on the temporal jurisdiction, as any
other princes; and Luther's doctrines spread among the learned, the clergy,
and the commons, as rapidly and as widely as in other parts of the empire.

But as early as the end of the year 1521 the dukes began to incline
towards Rome, and had ever since been becoming more and more decided
partisans of the old faith.

Contemporary writers ascribed this to the great power and extensive
possessions of the regular clergy in Bavaria ;2 and certainly this had an
influence, though rather of a different kind from that supposed.

The first symptom of an intimate connection between Rome and
Bavaria was a draft of a bull which Leo X. caused to be prepared on the
14th Nov., 1521, wherein he authorises a commission of prelates, before
proposed by the dukes, to visit the convents and restore order and disci-
pline in them.3 He died before this bull was finished ; but not before
he had thus pointed out to the Bavarian Government what might be done
in this direction. A standing commission, independent of the bishopric,
and under the influence of the sovereign, was charged with the super-
intendence of spiritual affairs.

About this time the university of Ingolstadt was almost broken up by
a pestilential disease. When the contagion had ceased, and the pro-
fessors reassembled, they found that it would be impossible to maintain
their strict catholic discipline without other support than that of the
spiritual jurisdiction ; and that a ducal mandate would be necessary to
help them to withstand the innovations which threatened to invade even
their own Dody. The three most resolute champions of the old system,
Franz Burckhard, Georg Hauer, and Johann Eck, who had again been
at Rome in the autumn, joined in urgent representations of the necessity
for such a measure ;4 of which Duke William's chancellor, Leonhard von

1 Winter, Geschichte der Schicksale der evangelischen Lehre in und durch
Baiern, i., pp. 62, 76.'

2 Pamphlet of Reckenhofer touching the affairs of Seehofer : " Denn sobald
du fur Miinchen herauskompst auf drey Meyl gegen Burg, und fragst wes ist der
Grund, Antwort : ist meines gnedigen Herm von Degernsee, Chiemsee, Sauner
see, also dass mer denn der halb Teyl des Bayrlandes der Geistlichen ist." — .
" For as soon as you leave Munich, about three miles toward Burg, and ask
whose is the land ? the answer is, It belongs to my Lord of Degernsee, Chiemsee,
Saunersee, so that more than half of Bavaria belongs to the clergy." — Panzer,
No 2462.

3 Winter, ii., p. 325.

4 He could not have gone thither before October, as he was still at Polling
during the months of August and September. Leben des beriihmten Joh. Eckii
in the Parnassus Boicus, i., ii., p. 521.

320 CONNEXION OF [Book III.

Eck, one of the most active and influential statesmen of that time, was
fully convinced.1

The dukes were soon won over to the same opinion ; probably the
report of the riots which had just then broken out at Wittenberg (but
which Luther so quickly tranquillised) made them anxious to prevent
similar disturbances in their own territories.

On Ash Wednesday, 5th of March, 1522, the dukes issued a mandate,2
wherein they commanded their subjects, under heavy penalties, to adhere
to the faith of their forefathers. That which had been considered neces-
sary for the university, was thus extended to the whole nation. The
dukes' officers were directed to arrest all refractory persons, ecclesiastics
as well as laymen, and to report upon their offences.

In spite of the rigour which was used, these measures had not, at first,
the anticipated effect. In Saxony the temporal power refused to lend
its arm to support the episcopal authority ; in Bavaria, on the contrary,
the bishops, who had a vague perception of the danger which must accrue
to their independent authority from such an alliance, did not second the
efforts of the temporal power with much zeal. The followers of Luther,
arrested by the civil officers, often escaped free and unpunished, from
the ecclesiastical court which had jurisdiction over them.

When Dr. Johann Eck returned to Rome in the summer of 1523, at
the invitation of Pope Adrian,3 he was commissioned by the dukes to
make a formal complaint against the bishops on this head, and to request
an extension of the ducal authority in the proceedings against heretics.4
It was impossible to refuse the demand of the orthodox doctor, who took
part in the most secret consultations on religious affairs. Pope Adrian
therefore published a bull empowering a spiritual commission to degrade
ecclesiastics who should be convicted of heresy, and to deliver them over
to the temporal criminal tribunals, even without the concurrence of the
bishops. Adrian added only the limitation, that the bishops were to be
once more admonished to perform their duties within a given term ; but
this was subsequently disregarded.

Thus we see that it was not the independent authority of the great
institutions of the church, that the dukes took under their protection :
they raised up a collateral authority, standing under their own Immediate
influence, and empowered to intervene in the most peculiar sphere of
ecclesiastical rights and duties.

Dr. Eck is not to be regarded only as one of Luther's theological oppo-
nents. He exercised an extraordinary influence on the state, as well as
the church in Bavaria ; and to him principally is to be attributed that
alliance between the ducal power, the university of Ingolstadt, and the

1 Winter, passim, p. 81.

2 ' ' Erstes baierisches Religionsmandat, Miinchen am Eschermittiche angeender
Vassten." — Ibid., p. 310.

3 " Er entbot denselben durch zwei Brevia nach Rom." — " He summoned him
by two briefs to Rome." — Parnassus Boicus, i. ii., p. 206.

J " Fragmentum libelli supplicis, quern Bavariae Ducis oratores, quorum
caput Celebris ille Eckius, Adriano VI. Romae obtulerunt anno 1*521," ap. (Efele,
ii. 274. The date is wrong, as Adrian was not pope in 1521. The bull, which
was prepared according to the words of the petition, is dated June, 1523. The
Bavarian bishops first appealed against it in December, 1523, so that there can
be no doubt that that is the proper date.

Chap. V.] THE POPE WITH BAVARIA 321

papal authority, which checked the progress of the national movement in
that country.

Nor was it the authority alone of the church that was assailed ; claims
were soon advanced to her possessions.

Pope Adrian granted to the dukes one fifth of all the revenues of the
church throughout their territories ; " for," said he, " the dukes have
declared their readiness to take arms against the enemies of the true
faith."1 When Pope Clement VII. came to the tiara, he revoked all
grants of this nature ; nevertheless he saw reason to confirm this one for
the three following years : since then, it has been renewed from time to
time, and has always remained one of the chief foundations of the Bavarian
financial system.2

On this occasion the university was not forgotten. Adrian consented
that in every chapter in Bavaria, at least one prebend might be conferred
on a professor of theology, " for the improvement of that faculty, and for
the better extirpation of the heresies that had arisen in that, as well as in
other German countries."3

Thus, before any form of government constituted according to
evangelical views, could be thought of, we find an opposing body
organised expressly for the purpose of supporting catholic principles,
which gradually became of immense importance to the destinies of
Germany.

We have already shown that the disturbances of those times mainly
arose out of the struggle between the spiritual and temporal power. The
rising temporal sovereignties naturally sought to defend themselves
against the encroachments of their ecclesiastical neighbours. With this
tendency, Luther's views of government exactly coincided ; he advocated
a total separation of the two powers. The dukes of Bavaria, however,
found that such a separation was not the only way to attain the desired
end ; they took a directly opposite course, which was both shorter and
more secure. What others were striving to wrest from the pope by hostile
measures, they contrived to obtain with his concurrence. By this means
they at once gained possession of a large share of the ecclesiastical revenues,
and an authority, sanctioned by the papal see, over the surrounding
bishops, even in the most important branch of the spiritual jurisdiction ;

1 Bull of the 1st of June. It is there said of the dukes, " Ad arma contra
perfidos orthodoxse fidei hostes sumenda sese obtulerunt." — Ibid., 279. The
Turks were also included in this.

2 See Winter, ii., p. 321.

3 30th of August, CEfele, p. 277. In Mederer, Annales, Acad. Ingolstadt,
iv. 234, is to be found the bull of Clement VII. concerning this matter ; by this
bull the dukes of Bavaria are entitled always to promote one of their professors
of theology at Ingolstadt to a prebendal stall in the chapters of Augsburg,
Freisingen, Passau, Regensburg, or Salzburg. They gave out : " quod ecclesie
predicte a Ducibus Bavarie fundate vel donationibus aucte fuerunt." The
reason assigned was, that they wished to have theologians " hoc tempore peri-
culoso, quo Lutheriana et alie plurime hereses contra sedem apostolicam . . .
propagantur, qui se murum pro Israel exponent et contra hereses predictas
legendo predicando docendo et scribendo eas confutent dejiciant et exterminent."
This is the more important, because in the years immediately after the plague,
the university, as is mentioned by the statutes of the faculty of jurists, was
almost entirely reconstituted.

21

322 CONGRESS OF RATISBON [Book III.

an authority which was very soon manifested in the proceedings of the
Bavarian council for religious affairs. These were advantages which
the adherents of the new faith could not yet so much as contemplate.

There was still, however, this immense distinction ; — that, while the
latter were the representatives of the tendency of the nation to eman-
cipate itself from Rome, Bavaria fell into much more absolute subjection
to that power, from whom she held all the privileges she now enjoyed.

Under any circumstances, however, so decisive a step, taken by one of
the most powerful houses of Germany, and the example of the advantages
resulting from a renewed connection with Rome, could not fail to have a
great effect on all its neighbours.

We find from a very authentic source, the transactions of the Arch-
bishop of Salzburg with his states, that a compact had already been
entered into between Bavaria and Austria, " against the Lutheran sect."1

It is certain that Archduke Ferdinand had likewise formed a closer
connection with the see of Rome, and had obtained thence, in behalf of his
defence against the Turks, the enormous grant of a full third of all the
ecclesiastical revenues.

Rome did not neglect to conciliate the more influential spiritual, as well
as temporal, princes. The long contested appointments to the bishoprics
of Gurk, Chiemsee, Seckau, and Lavant, were granted to the Archbishop
of Salzburg, even during the disputed months.

By these means the papal see succeeded in regaining a party in the
States : no doubt it is to be attributed to these and similar causes, that
catholic opinions were more strongly represented at the diet of 1524 than
they had been the year before.

Still, as we have already seen, they were not triumphant at that diet.
A number of bishops even, offended by the support given by the pope to
the claims of the temporal sovereigns, offered a determined resistance to
every suggestion emanating from Rome.

The legate Campeggio plainly saw that nothing could be gained from a
general assembly in which Lutheran sympathies so greatly predominated.
He complained that he could not here venture to speak freely.2

On the other hand, as he saw around him a number of friends holding
the same opinions, he hoped that he should be able to effect more com-
pletely all he wanted at a provincial meeting, where only these partisans
would be present.

Accordingly, even at Niirnberg, where the national assembly at Spire
was resolved on, he proposed another which, in spirit, was directly at
variance with it. He made no secret that his object was to obviate the
danger which must ensue from an assembly convoked with the avowed
intention of listening to the voice of the people.?

This proposal was first agreed to by Archduke Ferdinand and a few
bishops, and then by the dukes of Bavaria. At the end of June, 1524,
the meeting was held at Ratisbon. The dukes, the archduke, the
legate, the Archbishop of Salzburg, the Bishop of Trent, who came in
the retinue of the archduke, and the administrator of Ratisbon, were

1 Zauner, Salzburger Chronik, iv. 359.

2 From a letter of Ferdinand's, dated Stuttgard, 19th May, in Gemeiners
Regensburger Chronik, iv., vi., p. 514.

3 From the letter of the legate, dated 8th May. Winter, i., p. 156.

Chap. V.] CONGRESS OF RATISBON 323

present. Delegates appeared for the bishops of Bamberg, Augsburg,
Spire, Strasburg, Constance, Basle, Freising, Passau, and Brixen : thus
not only Bavaria and Austria, but the Upper Rhine and a considerable
portion of Swabia and Franconia, took part in it.

The legate opened the meeting with a discourse on the perils with which
the religious troubles threatened both estates : he exhorted them to
abandon their disputes, and to unite in measures " for extirpating the
heretical doctrines, and making men live after the ordinances of the
Christian church." Archduke Ferdinand supported the proposal, and
strongly insisted to the assembly on the pecuniary grants he had ootained.

The prelates then divided into three commissions : the first of which
was to consider the disputes between the clergy and laity ; the second,
the reforms to be immediately undertaken, and the third, the measures
to be taken with respect to doctrine.1

The conference lasted for sixteen days in the town hall at Ratisbon,
and sittings were held before and after noon. The grave course of affairs
was on one occasion interrupted by a festive dance.

The affair of the pecuniary grant was the first settled.

The bishops plainly perceived that the popular ferment, which, from
its first origin, had been constantly increasing in strength and impetuosity,
must be far more dangerous to them, than any supremacy of the temporal
sovereign. There were few among those we have named who had not had
to struggle with a growing opposition in their own capitals. A year
before, Cardinal Lang had found it necessary to bring six troops of veteran
soldiers into Salzburg. He himself rode at their head habited in a red
slashed surcoat, under which glittered a polished cuirass, and grasping his
marshal's baton ; and thus compelled the corporation to sign fresh declara-
tions of submission. Perhaps, too, a few such prelates may have been
favoured with fresh concessions from the pope ; we find many decided •
partisans of Rome among their delegates, for example, Andreas Hardin
of Bamberg, who was once himself vicerector at Ingolstadt ;2 Eck and
Faber also were present. The spiritual lords ended by making a virtue
of necessity ; those of Bavaria consented to pay to the temporal power
(as near as I can discover) a fifth part of their revenues, and those of
Austria a fourth.3

1 Letter from Ebner and Niitzel to the Elector Frederick, wherein they inform
him, " was eine Schrift enthalt, die ihnen vom Hofe furstlicher Durchleuchtigkeit
(Ferdinands) zugekommen ist," — " of the contents of a letter which had reached
them from the court of his Royal Highness (Ferdinand)," 8th July, 1524. —
Weimar. A.

2 Heller, Reformationsgesch. von Bamberg, p. 70.

3 Planitz, who had been at Esslingen, writes to the Elector Frederick, Niirn-
berg, 26th July : " Die Geistlichen in des Erzherzogs Landen haben bewilligt,
ihm den vierten Pfennig zu geben, 5 Jahr lang, und die Geistlichen unter den
Herrn von Baiern geben ihren Fiirsten den 5 ten Pfennig 5 Jahr, allein dass sie
in ihren Fiirstenthumen die lutherische Lehr nicht zulassen und vest uber ihnen
halten wollen." — " The ecclesiastics in the archduke's dominions have agreed to
give him the fourth penny for 5 years, and the ecclesiastics under the lords of
Bavaria will give to their princes the fifth penny for 5 years, but on condition
that they shall not suffer the Lutheran doctrines in their dominions, and that
they will keep them down with a strong hand." I have not been able to dis-
cover whether Planitz was rightly informed as to the duration of this impost.
According to Winter, ii., p. 322, it was continued for several years longer.

21 — 2

324 CONGRESS OF RATISBON [Book III.

They next proceeded to consider the points of doctrine and life.

The most important result of this consultation was a decision which
it had been found impossible to carry at the meeting of the States of 1523.
The preachers were directed to refer principally to the Latin fathers of
the church for the interpretation of difficult passages in Scripture ; and
(what could not be accomplished on a former occasion) Ambrose, Jerome,
Gregory and Augustin were specified as the patterns of faith. In former
days, this might have been looked upon as a concession to the literary
tendencies of the time, since it relaxed the fetters of the scholastic system ;
but now, it mainly betokened opposition to Luther and to the majority
of the States of the empire, by sanctioning, at any rate, the authorities
on which rested the later systems of the Latin church. It was resolved
that divine service should be preserved unaltered according to the usages
of former generations, and an attempt was made to put an end to Luther's
influence. His books were once more forbidden, and all subjects of the
allied princes were interdicted, under pain of forfeiture of their patrimonies,
from studying at the university of Wittenberg.

At the same time, steps were taken towards the removal of those abuses
which had occasioned such a general ferment. All the extortions of the
inferior clergy which raised so much discontent among the common people,
the enforcement of expensive ceremonies, the burdensome fees, the refusal
of absolution on account of debts, were abolished. The relation of the
clergy to their flocks was to be put on a fresh footing, by a commission
composed of clerical and lay members. The reserved presentations were
diminished, the number of holydays materially lessened, the practice of
stations abolished. The assembly pledged itself for the future to a more
careful consideration of personal merit in the appointment of ecclesiastics.
The preachers were admonished to show greater earnestness, and to avoid
• all fables and untenable assertions ; and the priests, to follow a chaste
and irreproachable course of life.1

We are, I believe, warranted in looking on these resolutions as the first
effects of the principles of the reformation in reviving the profounder
spirit of Catholicism. As the alliance of the sovereign ^princes with the
papal see fulfilled the political demands, so this attempt supplied (at first
indeed very inadequately) the religious wants, which had given birth to
the reforming spirit. These attempts at regeneration were unquestionably
more important and effective than has been supposed, even by the catholic
party itself ; and, indeed, modern Catholicism is in great measure based
upon them ; but neither in depth of religious intuition, in the genius which
produces a permanent impression'on remote nations and ages, or in force
and intensity of enthusiasm, could they be compared to those movements
which took their name from Luther, and of which he was the centre. His
opponents offered nothing original ; the means they adopted, and by
which they thought to keep their ground, were mere analogical imitations

1 " Constitutio ad removendos abuses et ordinatio ad vitam Cleri reformandam
per Revdum Dm Laurentium," &c. — Ratisponae Nonis Julii, in Goldast, Con-
stitutt. Impp., iii., p. 487. What is given by Strobel (Miscel., ii., p. 109, &c),
from an old printed book, which is also before me, by no means embraces the
whole contents of the Constitution. The abolition of a great number of holy-
days in the 21st article, which differs but little from the later protestant regula-
tions, is very remarkable.

Chap. V.] DIVISION IN THE NATION 325

of what he had already done. Thus, at Campeggio's suggestion, Dr. Eck
published, as a corrective to Melanchthon's " Loci communes," a hand-
book of the same kind,1 and Emser made a translation of the Bible, as a
rival to that of Luther. The works of the Wittenberg teachers had
issued forth in the natural course of their own internal development :
they were the product of minds goaded by a resistless impulse, pressing
forward in their own peculiar path, and were filled with the vigour and
originality that forces conviction : the catholic books, on the contrary,
owed their existence to external motives ; — to the calculations of a system
which looked about for any means of defence against the danger pressing
upon it from every side.

But those who adopted such a line of conduct, thus cut themselves off
from the great and vigorous expansion which the mind of the German
nation was now undergoing. The questions which ought to have been
discussed and determined at Spire, with a view to the unity and the wants
of the nation, were disposed of by the allied powers in a narrow and one-
sided manner. It was said that a single nation had no right to decide
on the affairs of religion, and of Christendom generally : this was easily
asserted ; but what was the nation to do, if, from the peculiarities of its
constitution and character, it was the only one that had fallen into this
state of ferment ? At first it had petitioned for the immediate convocation
of a council ; but as the hope of this grew fainter and more remote, it
felt the necessity of taking the matter into its own hands. This is suf-
ficiently proved by the ordinances issued at Ratisbon. The difference
was this — at Spire, in all probability, resolutions would have been taken
in opposition to the Pope of Rome ; whereas at Ratisbon it was thought
expedient, from a thousand considerations, to form a fresh alliance with
him. This was the origin of the divisions in the nation. The national
duty of awaiting the decisions of a general assembly which was already
fixed ; of taking part in its deliberations ; and, let us add, of influencing
them to wise ends, was sacrificed to the narrow and partial expediency
of an alliance with Rome.

One part of the projects of the congregation at Rome being thus executed
with unhoped-for success, Campeggio next pointed out the necessity of
endeavouring to accomplish the other ; which was, to induce the emperor
to give the cause his cordial support.2

Not a moment was lost at Rome in gaining over Charles V. Whilst
the official proclamations from Ratisbon dwelt only upon such points
in the Recesses as were favourable to the papacy, and affected to consider
them as mere confirmations of the edict of Worms, it was at the same time
represented to the emperor in Spain how greatly his authority must suffer
by his edict being limited by two following Recesses ; nay, by an attempt
having actually been made to revoke it, — a measure which he himself
could not have ventured upon : it was evident, they said, that the people

1 "Enchiridion, seu Loci Communes contra Hsereticos :" printed in 1525,
and, according to Eck, composed ," Hortatu Cardinalis de Campegiis, ut sim-
pliciores, quibus cortice natare opus est, summarium haberent credendorum, ne
a pseudoprophetis subverterentur."

2 He complained : " non haver quella causa (Luterana) di costa (della Spagna)
il caldo che bisogneria, fa che d'ogni provisione che si faccia si trahe poco frutto."
— Giberto Datari agli Oratori Fiorentini in Spagna, Lettere di Principi, i., i. 133.

326 ORIGIN OF THE [Book III.

of Germany were preparing to throw off all obedience, both to temporal
and spiritual authority. And what insupportable insolence was there in
fixing a meeting in that country, to decide on matters of faith, and the
affairs of Christianity at large ; as if the Germans had a right to prescribe
laws to his imperial majesty and to the whole world I1

Similar arguments were vehemently pressed upon Charles's ally,
Henry VIII., who had entered into a literary warfare with Luther, to
induce him to use all his credit with Charles V. in support of the pope's
exhortations.

The state of political affairs generally was highly favourable for pro-
moting the influence of the papal power over the emperor. War had been
formally declared against Francis I., in May, 1524, and was now raging
with the utmost violence. The emperor attacked the king in his own
territory, from the side of Italy. It would therefore have been extremely
.dangerous to offend the pope, who was in his rear, and who did not quite
approve the invasion ; or to refuse him a request which, moreover, was
consonant to the catholic education he had himself received in his
youth.

Charles V. did not hesitate a single moment. On the 27 th of July, he
despatched a proclamation to the empire entirely in favour of the pope,
and expressed with unwonted vehemence. He complained that his
mandate from Worms was disregarded, and that a general council had
been demanded, without even the due decorum of consulting him. He
declared, that he neither could nor would allow the intended assembly
to take place ; that the German nation assumed to do what would be per-
mitted to no other, even in conjunction with the pope, — to alter ordinances
which had been so long held sacred. He pronounced Luther's doctrines
to be inhuman, and, like his master, Adrian, he compared him to Mahomet.
In short, he forbade the assembly, on pain of being found guilty of high
treason, and incurring sentence of ban and reban.2

Thus did the court of Rome succeed in gaining over to its cause not only
several powerful members of the empire in Germany, but even its supreme
head in Spain, and by their means, in putting a stop to the dangerous

1 We have not indeed the very letter from the pope to the emperor, but there
is a sufficient account of it in the despatch from the papal datarius to the nuncio
in England, Marchionne Lango, Lettere di Principi, i. 124. " N. Sre ha di cio
scritto efficacemente alia Mt4 Ces, accioche la consideri, che facendo quei popoli
poco conto di dio tanto meno ne faranno alia giornata della Mtk S. e degli altri
Signori temporali : . . . l'absenza della M14 Cesarea ha accresciuta 1' audacia
loro tanto che ardiscono di ritrattar quell' editto, cosa che Cesare proprio non
faria." On the other hand, in the edict given at Ratisbon, it is stated,
" Darumb so haben wir auf des hochwiirdigsten Herrn Lorenzen, etc. Ersuchen
uns vergleycht, dass wir und unser Principal obgemelt Kaiserlich Edict zu
Worms, auch die Abschied auf beyden Reichstagen zu Nurnberg deshalb besch-
lossen . . . vollziehen." — " Wherefore we have, at the request of the most
worshipful master Lorenzo, &c, agreed, that we and our principal should execute
the above-named imperial edict of Worms, and the recesses of both diets at
Nurnberg confirming the same."

2 Frankf. Arch. It appears from a letter from the Elector of Saxony to Ebner,
dated Oct., 1524, Walch, xv. 271 1, that, in the letter which had been sent to
him, the expression, " bei Vermeidung criminis lese majestatis, unser und des
Reicht Acht," &c. — " on pain of being found guilty of high treason, and of our
ban and that of the empire," &c, had been omitted.

Chap. V.] DIVISION IN THE NATION 327

resolutions of the diet : this was its first energetic interference with the
ecclesiastical affairs of Germany.

The main cause of this was, that the emperor, residing in Spain, followed
a line of policy, on which the character and the opinions of Germany had
not the slightest effect, and suggested solely by his relations with other
countries. His government during the first years of his reign exercised
merely a negative, decomposing influence. Without taking any serious
steps for the redress of the grievances charged upon Rome, he allowed
himself to be induced by his political position to issue the edict of Worms,
which, after all, could not be carried into effect ; while on the one hand,
it inflamed the antipathy of the nation to the utmost, and, on the other,
put fresh arms into the hands of the adherents of the Curia. He first
checked the growing consolidation of the Council of Regency, by rejecting
the system of import duties to which he had at first consented, and then
thought it advisable to overthrow that body entirely. Another Council
of Regency was, it is true, formed at Esslingen ; but it took warning
from the fate of the former, and neither enjoyed authority, nor even made
the least attempt to acquire any ; — it was the mere shadow of a govern-
ment. We have already shown what prospects in favour of religion and
of national unity were connected with the projected assembly at- Spire.
This assembly was forbidden by the court of Spain, as if it were criminal.

The unity of Germany has ever depended, not so much on forms of
government, or decisions of the diet, as on an intimate understanding
among the more powerful sovereigns. Maximilian had found, during
the latter half of his reign, what it was to have offended and alienated
the Elector of Saxony ; and it was only by healing this breach and entering
into a close alliance with the Ernestine line of Saxony, that the election
of Charles V. could be secured ; from that time the Elector Frederick had
always been treated, in externals at least, with the confidence and con-
sideration due to a powerful and undoubted ally. This intimate con-
nexion the emperor now broke off. He thought it more advantageous,
and more suitable to his own station amongst the powers of Europe, to
marry his sister Catharine to John III. of Portugal, than to the nephew
of the Elector of Saxony, to whom he had betrothed her. Hannart was
commissioned to communicate this resolution to the court of Saxony.1
We may remember how flattering the proposal had been to Duke John,
Frederick's brother ; the objections which he raised from mere modesty,
and his ultimate joyful acquiescence. Hannart's communication was
proportionately mortifying to him. The Saxon court was deeply offended.
Such of the elector's friends as were about the archduke wanted him to
use his influence to prevent so offensive a proceeding ;2 but as he had at

1 Miiller, Geschichte der Protestation, gives the particulars of this event.
Hannart's letter to the emperor, dated 14th March, shows that the affair was to
have come before the diet, which Ferdinand now purposely avoided. " II a
semble a mon dit Sr par plusieurs raisons que ne debvai parler a Mr de Saxen de
la matiere secrete, que savez, que jusque apres la fin de cette journee imperiale."
These letters altogether show a better understanding between Hannart and the
archduke than the Saxon documents would lead one to imagine.

2 Among the secret correspondence between Frederick's and Ferdinand's
councillors, there is a note in which one of them says, " S. Fiirstl. Durchlaucht
begeren sonderlich, das der Heirath vollzogen werd, damit S. F. Gn. desto mer
Fug und Statt hab, S. Chf. Gn. als irn angenommenen Vatern um Rath teglich

328 PERSECUTIONS [Book III.

first taken no personal share in the negotiation, neither did he now say-
one word, but suppressed his vexation. Duke John was less reserved.
With wounded pride he rejected every communication, every offer, ten-
dered to him on the subject : he expressed to those about him that nothing
during the whole course of his life had ever hurt his feelings so deeply.

With the other sovereign princes, too, Austria stood but ill. The
house of Brandenburg, which had supported the first council of Regency
for the sake of the interests both of Prussia and Mainz, was much disgusted
by its overthrow, and concealed that feeling so little, that overtures were
made to the Grand Master, Albert, by France, though indeed he did not
accept them. In the month of August, the Rhenish electors held a
congress, from which Archduke Ferdinand said he expected no good either
to himself or his brother.1 The electoral councillors did not attempt to
disguise from the imperial commissioner that people were extremely
discontented with the emperor ; that his capitulation would be laid before
the meeting ; and as he had not fulfilled the conditions contained in it,
they would proceed to the establishment of a new form of government,
either under a lieutenant, the vicars of the empire, or a king of Rome,
whom it was intended to elect.2 This project was discussed at a great
cross-bow match at Heidelberg, where several princes were met together,
and the palatine house of Bavaria was particularly busied with negotia-
tions to that effect. The bond of Catholicism between Bavaria and
Austria was not strong enough to prevent Duke William of Bavaria from
conceiving the idea of obtaining the crown for himself.

Thus the unity of the government of the empire was again dissolved,
almost before it had felt its own purposes or destinies. At a crisis so
immeasurably eventful, in which all the energies of the nation were
rushing with boundless activity into untried regions, and eager for a new
state of things, all directing power was wanting.

Hence it happened that the local powers proceeded to act upon the
principles which severally predominated in them.

Persecution began in those countries which had combined to pass the
resolutions of Ratisbon.

In Bavaria we find priests ejected or banished, and nobles driven from
their estates, till they consented to recant. The tempestuous, oppressive
atmosphere of the times is most strikingly exemplified in the fate of an
officer of the duke, Bernhard Tichtel von Tutzing. He was travelling
towards Niirnburg on the duke's business, when he was joined on the
road by Franz Burkhard, one of the orthodox professors of Ingolstadt :
they put up together at Pfaffenhofen, and after supper, the conversation
turned on religious matters. Tichtel perhaps knew who his companion
was ; he reminded him that conversations of this kind were forbidden by
the new edict, to which Burkhard answered that that did not signify
between them. Hereupon Tichtel did not conceal his opinion that the
edict could not be carried into effect, and would merely be a disgrace to

anzusuchen." — " His princely highness greatly desires the consummation of the
marriage, so that his princely highness may have more excuse and reason for
daily asking counsel of his electoral grace as his adopted father," — a wish which
could scarcely have been shared by the whole court.

1 Letter from Ferdinand, Bucholtz, ii., p. 68.

2 Letter from Hannart, ib., p. 70.

Chap, v.] PERSECUTIONS 329

the dukes ; he even went so far as to speak somewhat equivocally of
purgatory and of the obligation to fast ; sanguinary punishments for
differences of opinion he condemned altogether. On hearing these senti-
ments, Burkhard, who had advised the dukes to all the most odious
measures, was seized with the savage fury of a persecutor : he said, in so
many words, that decapitation was the proper punishment for Lutheran
villains, and at the same time called Tichtel himself a Lutheran. At
parting he affected to be reconciled to him, but he hurried to denounce
the crime he had detected. Tichtel was arrested and confined in the
Falkenthurm, subjected to an inquisition, and compelled to recant : it
was only by dint of great exertions and powerful intercession, that he
escaped a most degrading punishment which had been suggested to the duke.1

In the territory of Salzburg a priest arrested for Lutheranism was on
his way under guard to Mittersill, where he was to remain imprisoned for
life, and while the constables were carousing, was set free by two peasants'
sons. For this offence the poor youths were, by order of the archbishop,
secretly beheaded without public trial, early in the morning, in a meadow
in the Nonnthal outside the town — a place never used for execution.
Even the executioner had scruples, because the condemned prisoners
had not had lawful trial ; but the bishop's officer said, " Do what I com-
mand you, and let the princes answer for it."2

A citizen of Vienna, one Caspar Tauber, who had expressed anti-
catholic opinions respecting the intercession of saints, purgatory, con-
fession and the mystery of the communion, was condemned to make a
recantation. On a great holyday — the Nativity of the Virgin Mary —
two pulpits were erected for this purpose in the churchyard of St.
Stephen's ; one of these was for the precentor, the other for Tauber, to
whom the form of recantation which he was to read was given. But
whether it was that he had never promised this, or that an opposite con-
viction suddenly forced itself more strongly than ever on his mind, he
declared from the pulpit whence the assembled multitude was expecting
to hear his recantation, that he did not consider himself to have been
refuted, and that he appealed to the Holy Roman Empire. He must
have been well aware that this would not save him : he was beheaded
shortly after, and his body burnt ; but his courage and firmness left a
lasting impression on the people.3

There were some other people arrested with Tauber, who, terrified by his
fate, made the recantation demanded of them, and escaped with banishment.4

1 Another of the same party, the Chancellor Leonhard v. Eck, had proposed
that the duke should follow the merciful course " (den barmherzigen Weg "),
viz., that Tichtel should only be placed in the pillory, his crimes be there read
aloud, and then by him be orally confessed and renounced : he should then, as
a mark of his heretical backsliding, be branded on both cheeks ; after this he
was to be conveyed back again to the Falkenthurm, and kept there until further
orders from the duke. See the Extracts from the Acts, Winter, i., pp. 182-199.

2 Zauner, iv., p. 381.

3 Ein warhafftig Geschicht, wie Caspar Tawber, Burger zu Wien in Osterreich
fur ein Ketzer und zu dem Todt verurtaylt und aussgefurt worden ist," 1524. —
" The true History how Caspar Tawber, a burgher of Vienna in Austria, was con-
demned and executed as a heretic." The execution took place on 17th Sept.

4 Sententia contra Joannem Vjesel — one of the condemned — ult. Septembr,
1524. Raupach Evangel. Oestreich. Erste Fortsetzung ; Beilage, No. V.

330 DIVISION IN THE NATION [Book III.

The same severity was practised throughout the Austrian dominions.
The three governments of Innsbruck, Stuttgart, and Ensisheim appointed
a commission at Engen, whose especial business it was to suppress the
movement in their provinces. The people of Waldshut gained nothing
by dismissing their preacher, Balthasar Hubmaier : the Engen commis-
sion declared that they should be punished, or, as it was coarsely expressed,
" that the Gospel should be banged about their ears till they were fain
to hold their hands over their heads." The weeds were to be pulled up
by the roots ; and already the other towns had been summoned to furnish
subsidies of artillery and infantry for the attack on Waldshut, when a
body of Swiss volunteers, principally from Zurich, came to the assistance
of the town, and caused the commission to pause awhile.1

Kenzingen did not escape so well ; the little town was actually taken
and invested.

Similar disturbances were going on in all parts of the country, though
sometimes the measures taken stopped short of bloodshed ; Luther's
books were forbidden, and his adherents were not endured in the pulpit
or the councils of the princes, but ware exiled from their country. The
government of Wiirtemberg wanted to break off all communication
with Reutlingen, because it tolerated evangelical preachers. Neither
were the most barbarous executions wanting. We read of preachers
nailed to the pillory by the tongue, so that in order to get free they were
forced to tear themselves away, and were thus mutilated for life. The
fanaticism of monkish bigotry was awakened, and sought its victims in
Lower as well as Upper Germany. The most awful example was made
of the wretched Heinrich of Ziitphen, at Meldorf in Ditmarsch. A small
congregation had formed itself there, which had invited this Augustine
monk from Bremen to join them for a time : they had obtained permis-
sion from the governors of the country, the Forty-eight, that until the
meeting of the expected ecclesiastical assembly, the Gospel should be
preached pure and unchanged. But their opponents, the prior of the
Dominicans of Meldorf and the Minorites of Lunden, were far more
powerful ; and in combination with the vicar of the bishop's official, they
obtained a contrary sentence, which delivered the poor man into their
hands, alleging that he had preached against the Mother of God.2 A
drunken mob, headed by monks bearing torches, went one night in January
to the parsonage and dragged forth the preacher, whom they put to death
by the most atrocious tortures, executed with equal cruelty and unskil-
fulness.

Meanwhile the other party was aroused to a sense of the necessity of
taking more decisive measures.

Immediately after the congress at Ratisbon, the cities, seeing the
danger that threatened them from the support which their bishops

1 Letter from Balthasar Hubmaier in the Taschenbuch fur Suddeutschland,
1839, p. 67, from the Archives of Switzerland and the Upper Rhine.

2 Neocorus, edited by Dahlmann, ii., p. 24. The judgment of the magistrate
runs thus : " Desse Bosewicht heff t gepredigt wedder de Moder Gadess und wedder
den Christen Gloven, uth welkerer Orsake ick ehn verordele van wegen mines
genedigen Herrn Bischops van Bremen thorn Vuere." — " This miscreant hath
preached against the mother of God and the Christian faith, for which reason I
condemn him to the fire, in the name of my gracious Lord Bishop of Bremen."

Chap. V.] CITIES AND NOBLES 331

appeared to receive from the princes, held a great town meeting at Spire,
and resolved, in direct opposition to that adherence to the Latin fathers
of the church which had been enjoined, that their preachers should confine
themselves wholly to the Gospel and the prophetic and apostolic
Scriptures.1 At that time they still expected that the assembly would
be held at Spire, and their intention was to propose some common resolu-
tion. When, however, this meeting was forbidden by the emperor, and
it seemed as if another serious attempt would be made to carry into effect
the edict of Worms, they assembled towards the end of the year at Ulm,
in order to aid each other in resisting all measures proposed with that
view. Weissenburg, Landau, and Kaufbeuren, which had already
received some rebukes, were admonished as to their future conduct.

The towns were joined by a part of the nobility. Count Bernhard of
Solms appeared at the meeting, in the name of the counts on the Rhine
and the Eifel, of the Wetterau, the Westerwald, and the Niederland ;
and asked the towns their opinion concerning a proposed levy and tax of
the empire for an expedition against the Turks, and also concerning the
Lutheran matter. The towns judged rightly that this combination with
the nobles would be very advantageous to them ; and after interchanging
a few letters, the affair was concluded, and a resolution was taken on the
spot at Ulm, " not to act separately in affairs of such weight, and during
such perilous times."2

The most important event of all was, that a considerable number of
the princes declared their complete dissent from the compact of
Ratisbon.

Markgrave Casimir of Brandenburg, who had certainly never shown
any great religious enthusiasm, could no longer withstand the aroused
and declared convictions of his whole country : he rejected the proposal
of becoming a party to that compact, alleging the general expectation
of the assembly at Spire. When this meeting was forbidden by the
emperor, he passed a decree in concert with his estates, that, in his own
territories at least, nothing should be preached but the Gospel and the
word of God of the Old and New Testament, pure and undefiled; and
according to the right and true interpretation. Such was the tenour of
the recess of the Brandenburg diet of the 1st of October, 1524. His
brother George, who lived at the Hungarian court at Ofen, was not
satisfied even with this. He thought that the word of God ought not
only to be preached, but to be implicitly obeyed, in defiance of all human
ordinances.3

A most unlooked-for change now took place in Hessen. It was ex-
pected that the three warlike princes who had conquered Sickingen and
overthrown the Council of Regency, would also combat the reforming
ideas which their enemies had supported. The most energetic of the
three, however, very soon followed an exactly contrary course.

In May, 1524, one day as Landgrave Philip of Hessen was riding to a
cross-bow match at Heidelberg, he met, near Frankfurt, Melanchthon,
whose fame was well known to him, and who was then returning from a

1 Town meeting at Spire, St. Margaret's day, 1524. Summary extract in Fels
Zweiter Beitrag, p. 204.

2 Fels Zweiter Beitrag, p. 206. Nicolai, 1524.

3 Von der Lith, pp. 61-65.

332 DIVISION IN THE NATION [Book III.

visit to his home in the Palatinate, accompanied by a couple of intimate
friends who had been there with him. The landgrave stopped him, made
him ride some distance by his side, and asked him several questions which
betrayed the deep interest he felt in the religious dissensions ; and, at
last, he only dismissed the surprised and embarrassed professor, on condi-
tion that he should send him, in writing, his opinion on the most important
points under discussion.1 Melanchthon executed this task with his usual
mastery of his subject ; his letter was short, logical, and convincing, and
produced a strong impression. Not long after his return from the
festivities, on the 18 th of July, the landgrave issued a mandate (also in
manifest contradiction to the resolutions of Ratisbon), wherein, among
other things, he commanded that the Gospel should be preached pure
and unadulterated. From day to day he became more deeply imbued
with the peculiar opinions .of the new creed : at the beginning of the
following year, he declared that he would sooner give up his body and
life, his land and his people, than forsake the word of God.

It appears as if some general understanding had been come to at
Heidelberg on the subject of religion ; for, at first, Philip of Hessen fully
expected that the Elector Palatine would follow his example ; and
although it was not in the nature of that prince to take so decided a part
as the landgrave, at least he did not allow himself to be hurried into any
acts of persecution.

The banished Duke of Wiirtemberg, too, might already be regarded
as a convert to the cause. Lutheran preachers resided with him at Miim-
pelgard, and in October, 1524, Zwingli expressed his wonder and joy that
this Saul was become a Paul.2

Duke Ernest of Liineburg, the nephew of Frederick of Saxony, who had
studied at Wittenberg, showed a similar leaning to the doctrines of the
reformers, and was strengthened in his opposition to Austria by the affair
of Hildesheim. The first beginnings of the reformation at Celle under his
protection, date from the year 1524.3

He was joined by Frederick I. of Denmark, who, a year before, had
become sole master of Silesia and Holstein. His son Christian had
attended the Diet at Worms, with his tutor Johann Ranzau : they both
returned home filled with admiration of Luther, and deeply imbued with
his doctrines. They invited Peter Suave — the very man who had accom-
panied Luther on that journey — to Denmark ; by degrees the duke himself
was won over to the same cause. While bloody persecutions were set on
foot in so many places, Frederick I. published an edict, dated the 7th
August, 1524, wherein he made it a capital offence to molest or injure any
one on account of his religion : every one, he declared, ought so to order
his conduct in that behalf, as he could best answer it to Almighty God.4

A still more important circumstance for the prospects of Lutheranism
was, the secession of a powerful spiritual prince, the Grand Master Albert
of Prussia, from the doctrines of the papacy. At the diet of Niirnberg
he had been much impressed by Osiander's preaching ; and having ex-
amined the Scriptures himself, he felt convinced that the order to which

1 Camerarius Vita Melanchthonis, cap. 26. Strobel's Neue Beitrage, iv. 2, p. 88.

2 Zwinglius (Ecolaompadio, Tiguri, 9th Oct. Epp. Zwinglii, i., p. 163.

3 Hiine, Geschichte von Hannover, i., p. 747.

4 Miinter, Kirchengeschichte von Danemark, ii., p. 565.

Chap. V.] LUTHERAN PRINCES 333

he belonged was not in accordance with the word of God.1 Another motive
probably was, that the fall of the Council of Regency, and the depressed
state of the nobility in general, deprived him of the last hope of obtaining
assistance from the empire against Poland. What then must have been
his feelings when no hope was left of successfully resisting his old enemies,
while at the same time his mind was agitated by doubts of his own condi-
tion and calling ? He returned to Saxony in the company of Planitz, the
Saxon assessor to the Regency, with whose sentiments we are well
acquainted. Here he saw Luther. This intrepid and resolute man, who
considered all things with relation to the intrinsic necessity, rather than
the outward pressure which enforced them, advised him to forsake the
rules of his order, to marry, and to convert Prussia into an hereditary
principality. The Grand Master had too much of the discretion and
reserve befitting a prince, to express his assent to this suggestion : but
it was easy to read in his countenance how strongly he inclined
towards it.2 We shall see how, impelled by the situation of his country,
and by the course which his negotiations took, he soon proceeded to the
execution of this project.

Such were the results of the prohibition of the national council, the
announcement of which had excited such ardent hopes.

It cannot be affirmed that violence was met by violence, or that the
tenacity with which the old doctrines were maintained was opposed by
an equally resolute adoption of the new.

How little such was the case, is shown by the example of the Elector
of Saxony, who in spite of Luther's continual and violent expostulations,
caused the mass to be celebrated throughout the whole of the year 1524,
in his chapel of All-Saints, and continually reminded the chapter of their
clerical duties.

The state of things may rather be summed up as follows. The empire
had determined to hold a general deliberation on the important affair
which occupied the whole mind of the nation. The pope succeeded in
preventing the execution of this project, and in drawing a certain number
of the German sovereigns into a partial combination in his own favour ;
but the others still pursued the path they had entered upon conformably
with the laws of the empire. They were indeed forced to renounce the
general assembly, since the emperor so peremptorily forbade it ; but they
were not so easily persuaded to relinquish the old decrees of the empire.
They determined to abide by the provisions of the Recess of 1523, which,
in spite of a few additions and amendments, had in the main been con-
firmed in 1524. Indeed all the various mandates of that year have funda-
mentally the same character and purport.

Such was the origin of a division which has never since been healed ;
which has constantly been kept open by the same foreign influences that
originally caused it. It is very remarkable that all the different party
leanings which have lasted through successive centuries, manifested
themselves thus early. We have still to observe their establishment
and further progress ; but the first moment of their existence revealed
the incalculable amount of the danger with which they were pregnant.

1 Memorandum of a conversation between Markgrave Albrecht and Achatius
v. Zemen. Beitrage zur Kunde Preussens, vol. iv.

2 Letter from Luther to Brismann in de W., ii. 526.

334 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PEASANTS' WAR.

Public order rests on two foundations — first, the stability of the govern-
ing body ; secondly, the consent and accordance of public opinion with
the established government ; not, indeed, in every particular, which is
neither possible nor even desirable, but with its general tenour.

In every age and country there must be disputes concerning the ad-
ministration of the government ; but so-long as the foundations of public
confidence remain unshaken, the danger is not great. Opinions are in
perpetual flux and perpetual progress ; so long as a strong government
is actuated by the same general spirit, and feels the necessity of moving in
the same direction, no violent convulsion need be feared.

But when the constituted powers doubt, vacillate, and conflict with
one another, whilst at the same .moment opinions essentially hostile to
the existing order of things become predominant, then, indeed, is the peril
imminent.

The first glance will suffice to show us that such was now the state of
Germany.

The government of the empire, which it had cost so much labour to
constitute, and which certainly enjoyed the general confidence of the
nation, was now broken up, and its place filled by the mere shadow of a
name. The emperor was at a distance, and recently the authority he had
exercised was merely negative ; he had only prevented the execution
of whatever was resolved on. The two hierarchies, the spiritual and the
temporal, which had been the work of past centuries, were now separated
by a deep and wide chasm. The good understanding of the more powerful
sovereigns, on which the unity of the empire had always depended, was.
destroyed. On the most important affair that had ever presented itself,
all hope of framing measures in concert was at an end.

This, of course, reacted very powerfully on the state of opinion. A sort
of understanding, with regard to which it was unnecessary to fix any
precise terms, had hitherto been evinced in the tendencies of the imperial
government, and the moderated tone adopted by Luther ; and this it
was that had enabled them to crush the destructive opinions which arose
in 1522. But now that all hope of further change being effected by a
decree of the empire was over, Luther could no longer maintain the authori-
tative position he had assumed, and the anarchical theories he had helped
to stifle broke out afresh : they had found an asylum in the territory of
his own sovereign — in electoral Saxony.

In Orlamunde, one of the cures which had been incorporated with the
endowments of Wittenberg for the benefit of that University, Carlstadt
now preached. He had entered into possession of the cure in an irregular
manner, in opposition to the proper patrons of it, partly by means of a
certain claim which he raised as belonging to the chapter, but mainly, by
the election of the parishioners. He now removed the pictures, performed
divine service after his own fashion, and promulgated the most extra-
ordinary opinions concerning the doctrines of the church, and especially
the obligations of the Mosaic law. We find mention of a man who, by

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 335

Carlstadt's advice, wanted to marry two wives.1 His rash and confused
mind led him entirely to confound the national with the religious element
of the Old Testament. Luther expected that before long circumcision
would be introduced at Orlamunde, and thought it necessary seriously to
warn the elector against attempts of this nature.

At Eisenach, Johann Strauss had already struck into a like crooked
path. He was particularly violent against the practice of receiving
interest on a loan. He declared that the heathenish laws of the jurists
were not binding, and that the Mosaic institution of the year of jubilee,
" wherein every man shall return unto the inheritance he had sold," still
continued to be a valid commandment from God ; thus calling all vested
rights of property in question.2

Not far from thence, Thomas Miinzer had founded a church on the
doctrines which had been suppressed at Zwickau and Wittenberg. Like
the former propagators of those doctrines, he assumed as its sole basis,
those inward revelations to which alone he attached any importance ;
and he far surpassed them in the vehemence with which he preached the
Taborite doctrine, that unbelievers were to be exterminated with the sword,
and that a kingdom should be established, composed of the faithful only.

These doctrines could not fail to find a welcome and an echo in all parts
of Germany. In Wurtemberg, too, the Israeli tish year of jubilee was
preached to the peasants. " Oh, beloved brethren !" said Dr. Mantel,
" oh, ye poor Christian men, were these years of jubilee to arrive, they
would indeed be blessed years !"3 Otto Brunfels, who had previously
been very moderate in his language, in 1524 published at Strasburg a
series of essays on tithes, wherein he declared them to be an institution
of the Old Testament, which was abrogated by the New, and entirely
denied the right of the clergy to them.4

While new champions of these opinions started up in various parts of
Germany, Nicolas Storch reappeared at Hof, where he found believers
in his revelations, and gathered round him twelve apostles who were to
disseminate his doctrine throughout the nation.5

The exile of Miinzer and Carlstadt from Saxony, which was partly
effected by Luther's influence,6 greatly contributed to the spread'and the

1 Letter of Luther to Briick, 13th Jan., 1524. (De W., ii., No. 572.)

2 " Dass wucher zn nemen und geben unserm christlichen Glauben entgegen
ist, 1524." — " To give and take usurious interest is against our Christian faith."
C. iii., it is said : " So dann in der Ordnung des Jubel Jars im Text oflfenbarlich
aussgedruckt wirt das Gebot, das die noturfftig bruderlich Lieb fordert, muss alle
Einrede still halten und alien Christen desgleychen zu thun gebotten ungezwey-
ffelt seyn." — "Seeing, then, in the text, ordaining the year of jubilee, the command
requiring brotherly love is clearly expressed, so all disputes must cease ; and there
can be do doubt that all Christians are commanded to do likewise."

3 Sattler, Wiirtenbergische Geschichte, Herz, ii., p. 105.

4 " De Ratione Decimarum Ottonis Brunfelsii Propositiones." Among
others, prop. 115 : " Proditores Christi sunt Juda pejores et sacerdotibus Baal,
qui pro missis Papisticis et Canonicis preculis decimas recipiunt."

5 Widemann, Chron. Curiense : Mencken, iii., p. 744.

6 Who has not read the scenes in Jena, where Luther is said to have given
Carlstadt a gulden to write against him, and to be his enemy ? Acta Jenensia,
Walch, xv. 2422. Luther always complained of the malignity of these stories.
That they are received in Luther's works does not prove their truth, as Fuessli

336 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

force of the agitation. They both went to the Upper Rhine, where
Carlstadt began by unreservedly proclaiming his doctrine of the Lord's
Supper ; and, however untenable was his own exposition of it, the excite-
ment he thus occasioned was most violent, and productive of incalculable
results. Miinzer proceeded through Niirnberg to Basle and the frontier
of Switzerland, where he was soon surrounded by fanatics who called them-
selves " the young Miinzers," as Carlstadt was, by men of learning. He
confirmed them in the rejection of infant baptism, which by degrees was
become the watchword of the party that meditated a universal revolution.

Thus, to the disorganisation of the supreme authorities, was added the
general revolt of opinion against all existing institutions ; a state of the
public mind, which opened a boundless vista of possible changes in the
order of things.

The result was inevitable.

We have already seen in what a state of ferment the peasantry of all
parts of the empire had been for more than thirty years ; how many
attempts they had made to rise ; how violent was their hatred to all
constituted authorities. Long, however, before the Reformation had been
even thought of, their political schemes were tinged with a religious
character : this was shown in the case of the Capuchins at Eichstadt,
in that of Hans Behaim in the Wiirzburg dominions, and of the peasantry
in Untergrumbach. Joss Fritz, who in 1513 renewed the Bundschuji_
at Lehen, in the Breisgau, was encouraged in his p^fflspiQge^by the parish
priest, " because justice would be furthered by it : God aTpferoved the
Bundschuh, as might be shown from the Scriptures ; it was, therefore, a
godly thing."1 Poor Kunz of Wurtemberg declared, in 1514I " that he
would stand up for righteousness and divine justice." It was immediately
after a sermon of a former very orthodox professor of catholic theology,
Dr. Gaislin, that the tumult first broke out on the banks of the iGlems.2

It was the manifest and inevitable tendency of the reforming move-
ment, which shook the authority of the clergy from its very foundations,
to foster ideas of this kind ; but it is not less clear that the/ evangelical
preaching, which was undertaken with far different views' anil aims, was
likely to be affected by an excitement already so powerful. The political
excitement was not produced by the preaching, but theleligiouS enthusiasts
caught the political fever. For all had not the sound sense and the penetra-
tion of Luther. It was now taught that as all were the children of one
Father, and all equally redeemed by the blood of Christ, there should no
longer be any inequality of wealth or station.3 To the**>mplaints of the

says in his Life of Carlstadt, p. 65. Luther was placed in a false position by
hinting that Carlstadt's opinions were seditious, like those of Miinzer, which could
not be clearly proved.

1 Confession of Hans Hummel ; Schneider, Bundschuh zu Lehen, p. 99.

2 Heyd Herzog Ulrich von Wurtemberg, i., p. 243.

s " Kurz das es zugang auff Erden, wie mir Theutschen von Schlaurafienland,
die Poeten de Insulis fortunatis, und die Juden von ihres Messias Zeytten dichten,
also auch zum Tayl die Junger Christi gedachten vom Reych Christi." — " In
short, that it should be on earth, as we Germans romance of the Schlaurafienland
(a sort of pays de Cocaigne), poets, of the happy isles, and the Jews of the times
of their Messiah ; so some of the disciples of Christ thought about the kingdom of
Christ." — Eberlinvon Giinzburg Ein Getrewe Warming an die Christen in der
Burgau.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 337

misconduct of the clergy, were added the old accusations against lords and
rulers : their wars ; the harsh, and often unjust administration of their
ministers and subordinates, and the oppressions under which the poor
groaned ; in short, it was asserted that if the spiritual power was anti-
chri^tianJ_the_teniporal was no less so. Both were accused of heathenism
ancTtyranny. ,rTEIhgsl:aiihorgo~6n as they have done," concludes one
of these writings ; " the game has been carried on long enough, and both
citizens and peasants are tired of it ; everything will alter — omnium
rerum vicissitudo,"1

The first disturbances broke out in the same district in which most of
the former commotions had begun, — in that part of the Schwarzwald which
divides the sources of the Danube from the upper valley of the Rhine.
Several causes concurred to render this the scene of peculiar discontent : — ■
the vicinity of Switzerland, with which that part of Germany stood in
various and close relations ; the peculiar severity with which the Austrian
government at Ensisheim and the commission at Engen pursued even the
most blameless preachers of the new doctrine ; the personal share taken
in these measures by the Count of Sulz, governor of Innsbruck, and heredi-
tary judge at Rothweil, who, as well as the Counts of Lupfen and Fiirsten-
berg, was distinguished for his hatred of Lutherans and peasants ; the
presence of Duke Ulrich of Wurtemberg at Hohentweil, who beheld his
most formidable enemies in these noble partisans of Austria, and used
every means to irritate the people against them ; lastly, perhaps, the
consequences of a hailstorm which, in the summer of 1524, destroyed all
hopes of the harvest in the Kletgau. The insurrection broke out in the
Stuhlinger district, the domain of Count Sigismund of Lupfen. If it be
true, as the contemporary chronicles affirm, that the immediate cause of
the revolt was a strange whim of the Countess of Lupfen, for winding
yarn upon snail-shells which her subjects were forced to collect, it is
certain that never did a more trifling and fantastic cause produce more
serious and violent effects.2

On the 24th of August, 1524, Hans Muller of Bulgenbach, a Stuhlinger
peasant and soldier, went to the anniversary of the consecration of the
church at Waldshut, followed by a considerable troop of insurgent peasants
bearing a black, red and white flag : but resistance to a single count was

1 Ein ungewonlicher und der ander Sendtbrieff dess Bauernfeyndts zu Karst-
hannsen." — " An uncommon and another missive of the peasants' enemy to
Karsthannsen," towards the end : printed by Johann Locher of Munich. Panzer
(ii., No. 2777.) mentions a previous letter of Karsthannsen, dated 1525. In the
second, I find no mention of the peasants' war. and it must have been written, at
latest, during the latter half of the year 1524.

2 Extract from the Villinger Chronik ; Walchner, Ratolphzell, p. 89. Accord-
ing to Anshelm, vi., p. 298, the subjects of the Counts Von Lupfen and Fiirsten-
berg complained, " Dass sie am Fyrtag mussten Schneggenhussli suchen, Gam
winden, Erdbeer, Kriesen, Schlehen gewinnen, und ander dergleichen thun, den
Herren und Frouwen werken bei gutem Wetter, ihnen selbs im Ungewetter : das
gejagd und d'hund luffent ohne Achtung einigs Schadens." — " That on holydays
they were obliged to hunt for snails, wind yarn, gather strawberries, cherries,
and sloes, and do other such like things ; they had to work for their lords and
ladies in fine weather, and for themselves in the rain. Their huntsmen and
hounds ran about without regarding the damage they did." The matter was
laid before the Kammergericht, but the people did not wait for the decision.

33^ THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

far too mean and trifling an object for him ; he announced his intention
of founding an evangelical brotherhood for the purpose of emancipating
the peasantry throughout the German empire.1 A small contribution
levied on the members was destined to pay emissaries who were to extend
the confederation over all parts of Germany. This proj ect did not originate
with himself. It was suggested by Thomas Miinzer, who had long kept
up a correspondence with this district, and now arrived there in person.
He stayed a few weeks in Griesheim, and then traversed the Hegau and the
Kletgau, — for he could find no permanent resting-place,2 — preaching
wherever he went the deliverance of Israel, and the establishment of a
heavenly kingdom upon earth. The subjects of the Counts of Werden-
berg, Montfort, Lupfen, and Sulz, of the Abbot of Reichenau and the
Bishop of Constance, gradually joined the Stiihlingers. Those of Sulz
previously consulted the inhabitants of Zurich, in which town their lord
possessed the rights of citizenship ; and although the latter did not, as
they assured the count, approve the insurrection, they did hot hesitate
to make the toleration of evangelical preachers one of the conditions of
their obedience.3 It would be well worth while to examine the course of
these movements more narrowly than has yet been done. The various
motives which concurred to produce the peasants' war were more dis-
tinguishable at this, than at any other period ; for this was the moment
at which they assumed the form of those general ideas, which from that
time to this have possessed such a singular power of inflaming and attaching
the minds of men.

The lords vainly called upon the Swabian League for aid in their peril.
Here and there a band of insurgents was induced by its persuasions and
promises to return home ; but wherever a serious engagement took place,
the peasants maintained their ground.

Hearing that a body of the infantry and cavalry of the League was
advancing against them under Jacob von Landau, they took up a strong
position, from which it was impossible to dislodge them.4 Nor could the
most zealous efforts of well-intentioned mediators bring about any
reconciliation. The peasants drew up a statement of their grievances
in twelve articles, which they did not hesitate to lay before the Council
of Regency at Esslingen. If, however, the lords refused to enter on the
discussion of the whole of these collectively, the peasants were equally
determined not to concede any point : they had indeed far more extensive
schemes in reserve. At the end of the year 1524, and the beginning of
1525, the peasants were masters of the whole land.5 The lords and their
ministers were at length compelled to seek safety behind the massive walls
of Ratolphzell, defended by its devoted townsmen.

Meanwhile, however, similar disturbances had broken out in larger
districts.

Nowhere were the complaints of the people better grounded than in the

1 Schreiber, Taschenbuch fur Stiddeutschland, i., p. 72.

2 " Certis de causis." Bullinger adversus Anabaptistas, and his Reformations-
geschichte, p. 224.

3 Fiiesslins Beitrage zur Historie der Kirchenreformation, vol. ii., p. 68.

4 Walchner, Geschichte von Ratolphzell, p. 92.

6 The instruction given by Archduke Ferdinand to Veit Suiter (Walchner and
Bensen, p. 558) shows the state of lawless violence produced under these circum-
stances.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 339

dominions of the Abbots of Kemp ten. These ecclesiastical rulers con-
tinually vexed their subjects with fresh taxes, which they spent in building
or travelling. As long ago as the year 1492, riots had broken out in con-
sequence, but had led to no redress of the people's wrongs. The free
peasants, who were very numerous in the Abbacy, were continually
ground down to the station of Zinsers,1 and these again to that of villeins ;2
while the latter were compelled to perform services that rendered their
condition more intolerable. Free lands were taken possession of ; tithe-
free estates subjected to tithes ; the money paid by the peasants for
protection and defence was raised twentyfold ; the popular courts of
justice held at markets or fairs were suppressed ; the revenues of the
communes or villages were seized ; occasionally, even, the spiritual
power was applied to carry through these oppressions. It was not sur-
prising, therefore, that, in the year 1523, when a new Abbot, Sebastian
von Breitenstein, entered on the government, the peasants refused to do
homage, except on condition that he would redress their grievances. At
first he held out the hope that he would comply with their demands ;
thirteen sittings were held to consider them, but all in vain ; the Abbot
at length exclaimed that he would leave things as he found them ; if his
subjects would not obey him, George von Frundsberg should come and
teach them. This was assuredly a most ill-timed stretch of the spiritual
rights of supremacy, just when all men were refusing their belief in the
basis on which those rights were founded — the divine authority of the
clergy. As the Abbot made this appeal to force, his subjects thought it
time to pepare for defence. On the 23d of January, 1525, the seceders
(Gotteshausleute — God's house people) held a meeting at their old place on
the Luibas. They determined to pursue the matter legally before the
judges and councillors of the League, and if they could get no redress, to
sound the tocsin, and repel force by force.

Already they beheld allies rising around them on every side. Similar,
if not equal, wrongs ; the force of example, and the hope of success, set
the peasantry all over Swabia in motion.

In February, the people of the Allgau, led by Dietrich Hurlewagen of
Lindau, rose against the Bishop of Augsburg, and formed a strict alliance
with the villages of Kempten. On the 27th of February, the two districts
held a meeting on the Luibas. If any inhabitant of them refused to join
the association, a stake was driven into the ground before his door, as a
token that he was a public enemy. At their call, the peasants all along
the Lake of Constance, and across the Alps to Pfullendorf, joined them,
led by Eitelhans of Theuringen, whom his followers celebrate as " a good
captain of the Lord, who kept a faithful hand over them." No bells could
be tolled for divine service ; the sound of them instantly gave the alarm,
and all the people rushed to the place of meeting at Bermatingen.3 A
third party, consisting of the subjects of the Abbot of Ochsenhausen, the

1 The word " Zins " corresponds to the French " cens," and Zinsers to peasants
with tenure " in censive," which is the English " copyhold."

2 Haggenmiiller, Geschichte der Stadt und Grafschaft Kempten, p. 505, says,
that four hundred cases of this kind are recorded in the Rotula of the Provincial
Acts.

8 Salmansweiler's description in Oechsle, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Bauern-
kriegs, p. 485.

22 — 2

340 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

Baron of Waldburg, and many other lords and cities, rose on the Ried.
The villages that refused to join them were threatened with fire and sword;1
the people on the Iller hastened to unite with them. Their centre of
operations was at Baldringen.

Thus united, and grown to a formidable force, the peasantry now again
laid their grievances before the Swabian League. In the course of March,
negotiations were again set on foot in Ulm with the three insurgent bands.
But it may be doubted whether it was not the character of the League
itself which caused these discontents ; — the incessant wars, the expenses
of which were either thrown directly on the subjects, or raised by an
increase of all the established burthens ; the support it gave to the several
lords individually ; being itself composed of the very sovereigns against
whom the complaints were made. It now clearly appeared how great
a calamity it was for the country that the Council of Regency had recently
lost so immensely in power and consideration. It sent, indeed, two of its
members to command peace, and to try to bring about a reconciliation ;
and they proposed to erect a court of arbitration, — each party to nominate
one prince and three cities, who should hear the complaints and adjudge
the remedy. But the Council of Regency was far too weak to obtain a
hearing for even these moderate proposals. For a moment (in February
and March) the invasion of his own land by the Duke of Wiirtemberg had
occupied the attention of the League. It is difficult to say what would
have happened if the Confederation, on whom this prince again relied,
had adhered firmly to his cause, as it appeared its interest to do. For
it seemed consistent enough that the Swiss, in opposition to whom the
Swabian League was originally formed, should support the duke who
attacked, and the peasants who revolted against it ; and it was this danger
which had induced the councillors of the League to enter into negotiations.
But on this occasion, as on former ones, other considerations preponderated
with the Swiss diet ; and when the duke had already forced his way into
the outskirts of Stuttgart, they recalled their troops from him with the
greatest urgency,2 and he was compelled to retreat without gaining any
solid advantage.

1 See the account of the treaty of Hegowisch, Walchner, p. 298 : " Wie wol es
den Frommen und Erbaren nit lieb, sonder ein gros beschward was. Niitt dester
minder so was der Jungen und auch deren die niemen nutz ; so vil das die Allten
und auch die Frommen mit innen musten zuchen, oder sy im der nit ziechen
wollt ein Pfal fur sin hus schlugent, und im darby trowtend." — " Although,
indeed, to the honest and godly it was not welcome, but rather a grievous
burthen ; nevertheless, not only the young, and those who were of no use to any
man, but also the old and godly men even were forced to go along with them.
And if any man would not, they thrust a stake into the earth before his door, and
threatened him thereat."

2 Hans Stockar's Heimfahrt und Tagebuch, p. 131 : "und dye Botten, die
miantend uns ab, das wier hiam zugend mit Mund und mit Brieffen, by Lib und
by Leben, ain Eren und Gutt, by Verliirn unser Vatters-land, und ckemend wier,
so wettind sy uns aller Straff ledyg Ion, und erzalttend uns von dem Schaden, den
wier zu Mialand und der Frantzoss Kiing hatt aimpfangen. Und also warend wir
unseren Heren und Oberen gehorsam, und brachen in der Nacht uff." — " And the
messengers warned us to depart to our homes by word of mouth and by letter, as
we loved our lives and limbs, our honour and goods, and feared to lose our country;
and if we went there they would forgive us all punishment. And they told us
of the losses we had suffered in Milan, and those of the French king. And accord-
ingly we obeyed our lords and masters, and set out that same night."

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 341

The League was thus at liberty to act against the peasantry. Without
further hesitation it required them first to lay down their arms, after which
it would treat with them.1 As the peasants had gone much too far to
agree to these conditions, the League, well prepared for war, determined
on an immediate resort to force. But it was destined again to find a wholly
unexpected resistance. Detached bands were easily routed and dis-
persed, and a few small places quickly reduced ; but this had no effect on
the main body. The duke's enterprise had so far been of use to the
peasants, that it had given them time to assemble in masses which kept
even such a commander as George Truchsess in check. Many of these
men had borne arms in the field. While the League had excited the
insurrection by grinding taxes and religious persecutions, it had also made
the insurgents capable of self-defence, by its continual wars. The feeling
of their own power of defending themselves was, indeed, one chief motive
to the revolt. The foot-soldiers of the League, who had not unfrequently
served under the same banners with these peasants, had a natural fellow-
feeling with them. And now, from the time that the last negotiations
had proved abortive, the disorder began to assume a really serious
character.

The twelve articles had appeared, and every one knew what he had
to expect, and why he had taken arms. These articles contained three f
different kinds of demands ; first of all, the liberty of the chase, of fishing, I
and of hewing wood, and the prevention of or compensation for the damage j
done by the game : — demands and complaints reiterated by the peasantry
of all countries ever since the rise of feudal societies : as early as the year
997, we find them urged in Normandy.2 Secondly, the peasants pressed
for relief from some newly-imposed burthens, new laws and penalties,
and for restoration of the property of the parishes which had been
abstracted, as we remarked in speaking of the usurpations of the lords..
Lastly, the desire for religious reform was mingled with these secular!
motives. The peasants were determined no longer to be serfs, for Christ \
had redeemed them also with His precious blood ; they would no longer
pay the small tithe, but only the great one,3 for God had ordained that
alone in the Old Testament. Above all, they demanded the right to
choose their own preachers, in order to be instructed by them in the true

1 Haggenmiiller, Kempten, p. 522. A book which I have constantly found
very useful. I am surprised to find the movement at Kempten so falsely repre-
sented, even in contemporary works, and hence, of course, in all subsequent ones.
Cochlaus seems to be the originator of the errors.

2 Gulielmus Geneticensis, Hist. Norm., lib. v. 2 : " Juxta suos libitus vivere
decernebant, quatenus tarn in sylvarum compendiis quam in aquarum commer-
ciis nullo obsistente ante statuti juris obice legibus uterentur suis."

3 This is shown in the following passage from Milliner's Annals. The council
at Nurnberg caused it to be proclaimed from all pulpits, " dass aller leben-
dige Zehent, als Fullen Kalber Lammer, &c, desglaichen der kleine Zehent,
den man nennt dan todten Zehent, als Heidel Erbeiss Heu Hopfen, &c,
ganz todt und abseyn solle, aber den grossen harten Zehenten von hernach
benanntem Getreide, so man die funf Brand nennt, nemlich von Korn Diinkel
Waitzen Gerste habern, sollte man zu geben schuldig seyn." — " That all tithes
on living things, such as foals, calves, lambs, &c, likewise the small tithes called
the dead tithes, such as buck-wheat, pasture, hay, hops, &c, should be entirely
abolished ; but the people should be bound to pay the great hard tithes on the
following sorts of grain, viz., rye, spelt, wheat, barley, and oats." (According to
custom the fifteenth, twentieth, or thirtieth sheaf.)

342 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III

faith, " without which they were mere flesh and blood, and good for
nothing." The characteristic feature of these articles is a mixture of
spiritual and temporal demands, a derivation of the latter from the former,
which is certainly at variance with the sentiments of Luther, and with
the pure and unmixed tendencies of the reformation ; but which is also
far removed from all schemes of general convulsion, and not at variance
with common sense and humanity. As to the political demands, the
local and particular interests are far less prominent than those of a general
or a universal character, — as was indispensable where various bands of
men were to combine : the author of them, be he who he may, gave evi-
dence of sagacity and address. For thus alone could the articles obtain
general approbation, and be regarded as the manifesto of the whole body
of the peasantry.1 But further demands were by no means withdrawn
in consequence.

All the people of the Black Forest, from Wutachthal to Dreisamthal,
now flocked together under Hans Miiller of Bulgenbach. This leader
journeyed from place to place, brilliantly attired in a red cloak and cap,
at the head of his adherents ; the great standard and the battle flag
followed him in a cart decorated with leaves and ribbons — a sort of car-
roccio.2 A herald, or messenger, summoned all the parishes, and read
the twelve articles aloud. Nor did their commander stop here ; he
declared them the symbol of the evangelical brotherhood, which he in-
tended to found ; whoever refused to accept them should be put under
temporal ban by the union. Already had this been declared against the
lords of castles, the monks and priests in convents and chapters : though
even these men might be admitted into the association, if they chose to
enter it, and to live for the future in common houses like other people ;
everything should then be granted them which was their due according
to the laws of God. Miiller's first vague idea of an evangelical brother-
hood thus assumed a very distinct form. A radical change in political
and even in social relations was the object now clearly aimed at.

In the course of April, 1525, it really appeared likely to come to this.

It is a very remarkable circumstance that while Munzer was fomenting
the disorders in Upper Swabia, Dr. Carlstadt, a Franconian by birth, was
equally active in Franconia. Compelled to quit Strasburg and to return

1 ' ' Dye grunlichen und rechten Hauptartikel aller Bauerschaff t und Hynder-
sessen :" printed among others in Strobel's Beitrage, ii., p. 9. Among the editions,
one in Panzer, No. 2705, has this addition : " des monadts Martii." According
to Haggenmiiller, p. 513, their first appearance in the form of a document was
during the negotiation between the three united bodies of peasants and the
Swabian League, in February and March, 1525, in which case they must have
been drawn up by a preacher who had joined the peasants. According to the
unanimous opinion of contemporaries, among whom was Melanchthon, Christopher
Schappeler was the author. Even in the Florentine History of Nardi (viii.,
p. 187), he is called, " uno scellerato rinnovatore della setta degli anabattisti
chiamato Scaflere." Schappeler, however, always denied this (Bullinger, p. 245) ;
and, indeed, it seems to have been an error. It was afterwards supposed, and
from his own confession (see Strobel, ib., p. 76), that Joh. Heughlin, of Lindau,
was the real author, yet his confession relates only to the articles which were
granted to the peasants of Sernatingen, to prevent their j oining the other peasants :
the famous twelve articles would have been' mentioned in another manner.

2 Schreiber der Breisgau im Bauernkriege, Taschenb. fur Siiddeutschland,
i-, P- 235.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 343

home, but there subject to incessant persecution, and regarded with double
horror in consequence of the notoriety of his doubts as to the sacrament,
he at length found an asylum at Rothenburg on the Tauber, where his
opinions were regarded with sympathy. The citizens of the guilds de-
manded that the church reform which had just been begun should be
carried through, which the patrician families (die Geschlechter), whose
domination was, moreover, not wholly legal, opposed. The guilds had
a most powerful ally on their side, in the sturdy war-like peasants of the
Landwehr, who were also vexed with exorbitant and illegal charges, and
who claimed the liberty of the Gospel. We are too well acquainted with
the character of Carlstadt not to know that he would approve all the
objects of the people. Already banished by the council, but secretly
protected by certain powerful members of it, he suddenly appeared near
the crucifix in the great burial-ground, in his peasant's coat and hat of
rough white felt, and exhorted the country people not to desist from their
endeavours.1 It may easily be imagined, however, that the movement
was not confined to religious innovations. In the last week of March
disturbances broke out, first in the country, and then in the town, in which
a committee of the guilds seized on all the power ; while the rural com-
munes formed themselves into a great association, set forth their griev-
ances— which had indeed spiritual grounds, but were by no means of an
exclusively spiritual nature — and took up arms to compel redress.

In Franconia the slumbering fires of discontent burst forth with still
greater rapidity than in Swabia ; either in consequence of the combina-
tions formed by the emissaries sent by Hans Miiller, or by the excitement
produced in the minds of the disaffected ringleaders by the example of
their neighbours. A few thousand peasants, excited by the twelve articles
which had fallen into their hands, assembled in a valley of the Odenwald,
called the Schupfergrund, and chose for their leader George Metzler, the
inn-keeper at Ballenburg, in whose house the first arrangements had been
made, — a bold man, whose life had been passed in the noisy revels of a
frequented tavern.2 Similar meetings were held at Bockingen, Mergen-
theim, and many other places. The first thing usually was to break the
fasts ; a banquet was held at which the most eloquent and the most
disaffected spoke ; the twelve articles were brought out, read, and ap-
proved ; a leader was chosen, and the alarm bell sounded. Such was the
beginning of the riot, the first act of which, in almost every case, was to
seize upon a flour store or a wine-cellar, or to drag a seigneurial fish-pond.
The newly-chosen commanders might be seen riding about with an air
of authority, mounted upon the priest's pony. But though these tumults
seemed contemptible enough in their beginnings, they became more and
more formidable as they advanced. On an appointed day the several
bands repaired together from every side, not exactly at the customary
meeting-place, but at some convent they had doomed to destruction, as
for example, at Schefiersheim, where they swore to pay neither tax, rent,

1 Bensen der Bauemkrieg in Ostfranken, p. 79. According to the sentence
passed on Stephan von Menzingen, this leader of the town movements, an ad-
herent of Duke Ulrich of Wiirtenberg, associated frequently with Carlstadt. See
Anfang und Ende des Bauernkriegs zu Rothenburg, Walch, L. W., xvi. 180.

2 According to Hubert Thomas Leodius, this occurred about the middle of Lent,
at Latare, 26th March,

344 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

nor tithe to any lord, temporal or spiritual, till they would come to some
terms ; and in future, as they had only one God, to acknowledge only one
master. It was as if the insurgents were led by some secret guidance to
one predetermined end. Their object was in the first place to emancipate
themselves from their lords, but then to unite with them and take measures
in concert against the clergy, and, above all, against the spiritual princes.
To accomplish this work by forcible means, two troops marched into
the field, one called the Black from Rothenburg, under Hans Kolben-
schlag, the other, the White, from the Odenwald, under George Metzler.
The lords were compelled to accept the twelve articles, of which the
Odenwald band published a distinct declaration, wherein the abolition
of the punishment of death, of the lesser tithes, and of villeinage were
especially insisted on, without omitting such local modifications as should
seem necessary, and holding out the prospect of further reforms.1 This
band had not, like the Swabian, the forces of the League to deal with ;
there was nobody capable of resisting them. The Counts of Hohenlohe
and Lowenstein, the commander of the Teutonic Order at Mergentheim,
and the Junker of Rosenberg, were forced in succession to subscribe
to the conditions laid before them by the peasants, and to submit before-
hand to the reforms they purposed to introduce. The Counts George
and Albert of Hohenlohe consented to appear before the peasants' army
at Grunbuhl. " Brother George and brother Albert," said a tinker of
Ohringen to them, ' ' come hither and swear to the peasants to be as brothers
to them, for ye are now no longer lords but peasants."2 Terrible, indeed,
was the fate of those who ventured to resist, like Count Helfenstein at
Weinsberg. The natural rudeness of peasants was inflamed by the first
opposition into the wildest and most wanton bloodthirstiness : they
swore that they would kill every man that wore spurs ; and when Helfen-
stein had fallen into their power, it was in vain that his wife, a natural
daughter of Emperor Maximilian, threw herself at the feet of the
leaders with her little son in her arms : a lane was formed, and the victim
brought out, preceded by a peasant playing on a pipe ; Helfenstein was
then driven onto the spears of his peasants amidst the sound of trumpets
and horns. Hereupon everyone gave way : all the nobility, from the
Odenwald to the Swabian frontier submitted to the laws of the peasants, —
those of Winterstetten, Stettenfels, Zobel, Gemmingen, Frauenberg, and
the Counts of Wertheinvand Rheineck ;|those of Hohenlohe (now) even
gave up their artillery to the peasants.3 In order to bring the matter to a
conclusion, both bodies now marched against the most powerful lord in
Franconia, who bore the title of duke there, — the Bishop of Wiirzburg. On
their way, they had not alone enriched and strengthened themselves, but
1 had also secured distinguished commanders of the knightly class. Gotz
von Berlichingen had undertaken the command of the Odenwald troop ;
partly because it would have been dangerous to refuse ; partly attracted
by the prospect of active war, which was the sole object and passion of his
life, and in which he was the more ready to engage, as it was directed

1 Explanation of the 12 articles. Ochsle, p. 572, and Bensen, p. 526.

2 Letter from Count George to the city of Hall. Tuesday after Palm Sunday.
Oechsle, p. 271.

3 Chronik der Truchsessen, ii., p. 195.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 345

against his old enemies of the Swabian League.1 Florian Geier led the
Rothenburgers. On the 6th and 7th of May these bands approached
Wiirzburg in opposite directions, and were joyfully received by the in-
habitants of the town, who hoped to gain the privileges of a free imperial
city ;2 the citizens and the peasants swore not to forsake each other till
they had conquered the Frauenberg, in which the last remaining forces
of the princes and knights of Franconia, who were now united, had
assembled.

At the same moment (the end of April and beginning of May, 1525) a
similar state of things began throughout Upper Germany. Disturbances
broke out in all directions, and everywhere they were in effect successful.

The Bishop of Spire had been forced to submit to the conditions imposed
by the peasants ;3 the Elector Palatine had met them in an open field
near the village of Horst, and promised to redress their grievances on the
conditions laid down in the twelve articles.* In Alsace, Zabern, the resi-
dence of the bishop himself, had fallen into the hands of the insurgents ;
the inhabitants of the small towns declared that they had no spears where-
with to pierce the peasants ; for a time their leaders, Schlemmerhans and
Deckerhans,5 were all-powerful. On Markgrave Ernest of Baden refusing
to accept the terms offered by the peasants, his castle was taken and he was
forced to fly. The knights of the Hegau were surrounded and besieged by
them in the town of Zell on the Untersee. Even the powerful Truchsess,
at the head of the forces of the Swabian League, was compelled to come to
terms with the peasants of the Allgau, See and Ried, and, with the mediation
of the cities, to promise them relief from their oppressions, before they
would submit. It was unusual good fortune when they would thus consent
to wait for future arrangements. In Wiirtemberg they would not hear of
any more diets of the duchy (Landtage), but insisted on instantly placing
everything in the hands of their Christian brotherhood, which had already
spread over the chief part of the country. Each place sent a certain
number of people into the field.

The Bishop of Bamberg, the Abbot of Hersfeld, and the coadjutor of
Fulda, had already made concessions of a spiritual, as well as temporal kind.
The last-named of the three agreed to these changes with peculiar readi-
ness, and immediately allowed himself to be saluted Prince von der Buchen ;
his brother, the old Count William of Henneberg, also entered into the
peasants' league, and promised to leave in freedom " all whom God Almighty

1 Lebensbeschreibung des Gotz, p. 201. See his Apology in the Materialien,
p. 156.

2 Johann Reinhards Wiirzburgische Chronik in Ludwig, Wurzb. Geschichtschr.,
p. 886.

3 Gnodalius, ii., p. 142.

4 Letter from the Elector to Melanchthon : "Haben uns mit ihnen den 12
Artikel wegen eines Landtags vereinigt, dergestalt wes wir uns derselben mit
ihnen vergleichen mochten, das hat seine wege, wes wir uns aber nicht vertragen
konnen, das solt stehen zu Thurfursten Fiirsten und Standen des Reichs." —
" We have agreed with them about a diet to consider the 12 articles ; in such
wise that whatever we could arrange with them was to stand, but what we cannot
settle was to be referred to the electors, princes, and states of the empire." This
was the principle of most of the arrangements that were made (Mel. Epp., i.,

P- 743)-

5 Two names, equivalent to Jack the Guttler and Jack the Tiler. — Transl.

346 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

had made free in Christ his son."1 The boldest attempt at a complete
change in all the relations of life was perhaps that made by the inhabitants
of the Rheingau. They once more assembled on the old traditional
meeting-place, the Liitzelau, at Bartholomewtide,2 and agreed to demand,
above all, the restoration of their ancient constitution, the Haingericht
(Bush Court)3 subsisting under their old law, and the Gebick, which con-
verted the country into a sort of fortress : besides this they insisted on the
participation of the lords, both spiritual and temporal, in the burthens
borne by the community at large, and the application of conventual
property to the use of the country. They encamped on the Wachholder
at Erbach, and actually in open rebellion, compelled the governor, dean
and chapter to grant their demands.4 At Aschaffenburg too, the governor
for the Archbishop of Mainz was forced to submit to the conditions of the
peasants.

The whole Swabian and Franconian branch of the German nation was
thus in a state of agitation which seemed likely to end in a complete over-
throw of all the existing relations of society ; a great number of towns
were already infected with the prevailing spirit.

The small towns were the first to join the cause of the peasantry, —
Kempten, Leipheim, and Giinzburg on the Danube (which, indeed, soon
received severe chastisement) ; the nine Odenwald towns in the see of
Mainz, and the towns in the Breisgau, in some of which the town clerk him-
self opened the gates to the peasants ; none of these, indeed, were in a con-
dition to resist, and most of them groaned under the same oppressions as
the peasantry. The people of Bamberg conceived the bold project of com-
pelling the surrounding nobles to come and live within the walls of their
town and to become burghers ; nearly fifty castles were stormed in this
neighbourhood.6 The Abbot of Kempten being forced to surrender his
castle of Liebenthann to the peasants, and to seek refuge in the town, the
burghers took advantage of the favourable moment to bring him to an
agreement they had long desired, for, the release of all his rights of sove-
reignty. Some of the free imperial towns of the second and third classes
were next drawn into the league by persuasion or by force : these were
Heilbronn, Memmingen, Diinkelspiel, and Wimpfen ; Rothenburg entered
into an alliance with the peasantry for a hundred and one years, which was
ratified at a solemn assembly held in the parish church : Windsheim was

i The formula of the League. Ludwig, p. 879.

2 According to Bodmann's Rheingauischen Alterthumern, p. 461, Vogt's
assertion, that the juniper-tree was the ancient place of meeting, is erroneous.

3 Grimm, in his Deutsche Rechtsalthumer, p. 793, says, " The ancient Gericht
was invariably held in the open air, in a wood, under shady trees, on a hillock,
or near a spring : the assembled multitude could not have been contained in any
moderate building, and pagan ideas required that the Gericht should be holden in
a holy spot, on which sacrifices were offered, and the judgment of heaven appealed
to. Christianity abolished the sacrifices, but left the old Gerichtstatten undis-
turbed." I have sought in vain for any explanation of the word Gebick. It has
been suggested to me that it 'is something like a Mark (district), or rather the lines
by which each Mark was enclosed. These were chiefly formed by forests, and
also by rivers, ditches, and other natural boundaries. See Grimm's account of
the primitive territorial divisions of Germany (book iii., p. 491). — Transl.

4 Artikel gemeiner Landschaft : Schunk, Beitrage zur Mainze Gesch., i., p. 191.

5 Lang's Geschichte von Baireuth, i.t p. 187. Heller, p. 88.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 347

only restrained from the same course by the dissuasions of Niirnberg.
Even in the great cities a similar spirit manifested itself. Mainz claimed
the restitution of its rights as an imperial city, of which it had been deprived
since the last disturbances. The council of Trier not only demanded
that the clergy should be called upon to bear their share in the burthens of
the citizens, but even laid claim to a part of the spiritual revenues accruing
from the relics in the cathedral.1 The council of Frankfurt was forced to
agree to the articles laid before it by the commonalty, word by word ;2
alleging as an excuse that the same thing had happened in several other
imperial cities. It was remarked that Strasburg received the insurgents
as citizens, and that Ulm supplied them with arms, and Niirnberg with
provisions. A learned writer of this period states it as his opinion, that the
movement had originated even more with the towns than with the
peasantry, and that the former had been originally stirred up by Jewish
emissaries : he believes that the intention of the towns was to shake off
the authority of the princes altogether, and to live like Venice, or the
republics of antiquity.3

Unfounded as was this opinion — for we know how zealously many of the
imperial towns, Niirnberg for example, strove to suppress the rising dis-
orders in their own dominions, and we have seen that the disturbances in
the towns which corresponded to those of the peasants were only called
forth by circumstances, — yet we cannot but perceive what force and exten-
sion must have been given to the rebellion by the addition of this second
element, and how wide and threatening the danger was become.

The ideas to which this crisis gave birth were most remarkable.

The Franconian peasants formed projects for the reform of the whole
empire.

So deeply rooted was this purpose in the very heart of the nation. That
which the princes had vainly endeavoured to accomplish at so many diets,
— which Sickingen and his knights had attempted three years before to
execute after their fashion, — the peasants now believed they could
effect — of course in the manner most calculated to raise their own
condition.

The first object was to give a general direction and guidance to the
present tumultuous movement. A common office for the business of all
the separate bands, in fact a sort of central government, was to be estab-
lished at Heilbronn. The masses were to be ordered to return home to their
daily work, leaving only a certain levy in the field, whose duty it would be :
to compel all who still remained unsubdued to accept the twelve ;
articles.

In the further attempts to create some positive institutions, the predomi- \
nant idea was that of freeing the peasantry from the burthen of all the op-
pressive privileges of the lords, both spiritual and temporal. To accomplish
this, it was determined to proceed at once to a general secularisation of
the ecclesiastical property. As this would involve the abolition of the
spiritual principalities, means would thus be obtained for giving com-

1 Scheckmann : Additamentum ad Gesta Trevirorum in Wyttenbach's
Edition of the Gesta, ii., Animadv., p. 51.

2 Lersner's Frankfurter Chronik.

3 Conradi Mutiani Literal ad Fridericum Electorem, 27th April, 1525, in
Kohler's Beitrage, i. 270.

348 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

pensation to the temporal sovereigns for the loss of their rights, for which
some indemnity was thought due. The amount of church property was so
enormous that the people hoped still to have enough left to satisfy all the
public exigencies of the empire. All duties and tolls were to be taken off,
■ and all charges for safe conduct ; and only every tenth year a tax was to
be levied for the Roman emperor,1 who was in future to be the sole pro-
tector and ruler of the country, and to whom alone the people were to owe
duty and allegiance. The courts of law were to be remodelled and popular-
ised on one comprehensive principle. There were tp be sixty-four free
courts (Freigerichte2) in the empire, with assessors of all classes, even the
lowest ; besides these, sixteen district courts (Landgerichte), four courts of
appeal (Hofgerichte), and one supreme court (Kammergericht) ; all organised
in the same manner. The members of the Kammergericht were to be as
follows : — two princes, two regining counts, two knights, three burghers
of the imperial towns, three from the princely residences, and four from all
the communes of the empire. These were plans which had often been
suggested, and are, for instance, to be found in a work which appeared as
early as 1 523, called " Need of the German Nation " (" Nothdurft deutscher
Nation" ) — they were now adopted and developed by two clever and daring
peasant leaders, Friedrich Weigant of Miltenberg, and Wendel Hipler,
formerly chancellor of Hohenlohe.3 The doctors of the Roman law were
especially hated by the peasantry ; they were not to be admitted into any
court of law, and only to be tolerated at the universities, in order that their
advice might be taken in urgent cases. All classes, too, were to be made

1 They refused to acknowledge Markgrave Ernest of Baden as their sovereign,
and were determined to be governed in future by the Emperor and his
deputy alone. They also meant something similar by the divine right which
they conceded to the Duke of Wiirtemberg. The chief ground of their recogni-
tion of the Emperor (Kaiser — Ctesar) was that he was named in the New
Testament.

2 Grimm says, in his Deutsche Rechts Alterthumer (p. 829), " Originally almost
every Gau or Merkgericht might be called a Freigericht. Later, however, when the
sovereignty of the princes gained force and consistency, this term acquired a
peculiar meaning. Particular districts which maintained their independence,
and remained immediately subject to the empire, bore the name of Freigerichte,
just as immediate cities were called Freistddte." Courts called Freigerichte, of
which the lord of the soil appoints the president, and the peasants the assessors,
exist, I am told, in the German provinces of Russia. — Transl.

3 See the plans of the peasants in Ochsle, p. 163, and in the Appendix. It has
already been remarked by Eichhorn (Deutsche Staats und Rechtsgesch., iii.,
p. 1 19, 4th ed.) that these designs throw a new light on the so-called Reformation
of Frederick III. Goldast does not indeed deserve the blame which Eichhorn
attributes to him : he has not given this little work as a reformation of the Em-
peror's. The old work he quotes bears the title " Teutscher Nation Notturft : die
Ordnung-und Reformation aller Stend in Rom. Reych, durch Kayser Friedrich III.
Gott zu Lob, der ganzen Christenheit zu Nutz und Seligkait furgenommen."
(Panzer, ii., p. 226.) — " The Needs of the German Nation : the ordering and re-
formation of all the classes of the Roman empire by the Emperor Frederick III.,
undertaken for the glory of God, and for the benefit and salvation of all Christen-
dom." But this, no doubt, is a mere author's fiction. The paper breathes
throughout the spirit of the first years of the reformation. The calamity at Erfurt,
which is there mentioned among those communes which owed their ruin to self-
interest, refers, no doubt, to the destructive riots of 15 10, and not to any previous
and less remarkable events.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 349

to return to their original vocation ; the clergy were to be only the shep-
herds of their flocks ; the princes and knights were to occupy themselves
in defending the weak, and to live in brotherly love one with another. All
the commons were to undergo a reformation consonant to the laws of God
and of nature : only one sort of coin was to be current, and uniform weights
and measures were to be introduced.

Ideas more radically subversive than were ever again proclaimed till the
time of the French Revolution. /

But bold and anarchical as they were, they were not without a consider-
able prospect of being realised. The contagion spread every instant : it
had already seized on Hessen, whence it threatened to extend its conquests
over the Saxon race ; as from Upper Swabia over the Bavarian, and from
Alsatia over that of Lorraine. Corresponding disturbances took place in
Westphalia ; for example, at Munster, where the town demanded the same
concessions from its chapter as at Trier, and the bishop already feared
that he should see the whole country hurried away by the storm.1 It also
broke out on the Austrian frontiers, where all that offered resistance were
put under ban by the peasantry ; all the Alpine districts were in the same
state : in Tyrol, Archduke Ferdinand found himself compelled, in manifest
contravention of the decrees of Ratisbon, to concede to the committees
of the states of Inn and Wippthal that the Gospel should in future be
preached " pure and plain, according to the sense borne by the text ;" 2
in the see of Brixen, the bishop's secretary, Michael Geissmayr, headed the
insurgents ; at Salzburg, the miners nocked to the churches at the sound of
the alarm-bell ; even between Vienna and Neustadt the labourers in the
vineyards talked of a combination which would enable them to send about
ten thousand men into the field within a few hours.3

Meanwhile, the rebellion had broken out in Thuringia, and had there
assumed another character.

It appears probable that in Thuringia and the Harz, traditions of the
fanaticism of the flagellants, the effects of which may be traced down even
to the end of the 15 th century,4 had prepared the ground for the insurrec-

1 " Alle und semptliche Artikel durch die van Munster by sick solvest up-
gericht." — " All and every article drawn up for themselves by those of Munster,"
and especially the letter of the Bishop Frederick, dated 8 th of May, in Niesert,
" Beitrage zu einem Miinsterschen Urkundenbuch," i., p. 113. "So juw vor-
gekommen, was grotes uprores jtzont im hylligen Ryke und daitscher nation
weder alle Christliche Ordenunge Obericheit geistlich und weltlich vorhanden
is — werden wy berichtet — das sulchs allhier in unserm Gestichte unser Obericheit
und insonderheit dem geistlichen Stande zii gyner geringen Verhonynge Inbrock
und Besweringe im Deile och vorgenommen und betenget." — " And it has come
to our knowledge what great uproar there is now throughout the holy empire and
German nation, against all Christian order and all rulers, both spiritual and tem-
poral ; and we are informed that, in our diocese, this has been the cause of no
little contempt, resistance, and complaining against our magistrates, and especi-
ally against those of the ecclesiastical order."

2 Excerpts in Bucholtz, viii., p. 330. Bucholtz shows a want of knowledge of
the language of this period in assuming that by these concessions the difficulties
were avoided.

3 Schreiben von Hofrath und Renntkammer, Bucholtz, viii., p. 88.

* According to Johann Lindner's Onomasticon (Mencken, ii., p. 1521) this sect
prevailed chiefly in Aschersleben and Sangerhausen. In a document which is
quoted by Forstemann in his Provincialblattern fur Sachsen (1838, No. 232)

350 THE PEASANTS' WAR—MONZER [Book III.

tion of the peasantry. At all events motives arising out of religious
enthusiasm were much more powerful there than political causes. The
opinions which Luther had overcome at Wittenberg, and which he had
warned his prince not to suffer to take root in Thuringia, were now eagerly-
listened to by a numerous and excited population. Miinzer had returned
to Thuringia ; he had been received at Miihlhausen,1 where, as at Rothen-
burg, a change of the constitution and of the council had been brought
about by the co-operation of the lower class of burghers with the country
people ; and from hence he soon spread the ferment far and wide around
him. He scorned, as we are already aware, the " fabulous gospel " preached
by Luther, his " honeysweet Christ," and his doctrine that antichrist must
be destroyed by the Word alone, without violence : he maintained that the
tares must be rooted out at the time of harvest ; that the example of
Joshua, who smote the people of the promised land with the edge of the
sword, must be followed.2 He was moreover dissatisfied with the compacts
made by the peasants in Swabia and Franconia. His views went much
farther ; he deemed it impossible to speak the truth to the people so long
as they were governed by princes. He declared it intolerable that all
creatures had been converted into property, — the fish in the water, the
birds in the air, and the plants on the earth ; these creatures must be free
to all before the pure Word of God could be revealed. He utterly rejected
all the principles on which the idea of the State rests, and acknowledged
nothing but revelation ; " but this," he said, " must be expounded by a
second Daniel, who will lead the people like Moses." At Miihlhausen he
was regarded as a master and a prophet ; he had a seat in the council, and
gave judgment in the court of law according to revelation ; under his direc-

we find an inquisition at Castle Hoym against one of these flagellants, in the year
148 1. It was perhaps a point of union that they too looked upon their preacher
as a prophet, and thought that in him they beheld the judge at the day of judg-
ment. But, indeed, the whole is dressed up with metaphor.

1 Not the more famous town in Alsace, but Miihlhausen in Thuringia.

2 Auslegung des andern unterschyds Danielis dess propheten gepredigt aufm
Schloss zu Alstedt vor den tetigen thewren Herzogen und Vorstehern zu Sachsen
durch Thomas Miinzer, 1524." — " Explanation of the other distinction of the
Prophet Daniel, preached at the Castle of Alsted, before the active and beloved
dukes and governors of Saxony, by Thomas Miintzer." Certainly one of his most
remarkable productions. He takes great pains to prove the difference between
genuine revelations and false visions, e.g., that the former descends on a man in
a joyful amazement (" in eyner frohen Verwunderung "). A man must be free
from all temporal comforts of the flesh (" abgeschieden sein von allem zeitlichen
Trost seines Fleisches "). The work of visions should flow not from human
endeavours, but simply from the unchangeable will of God (" nit rausser quellen
durch menschliche anschlege, sondern einfaltig herfliessen nach Gottes un-
vorrucklichen Willen "). It is clear that he does not go nearly so far as Ignatius
Loyola ; at the same time he combats Luther's more moderate theory, which he
ascribes to "imaginary goodness" (" einer getichten Giite "). He says quite
openly, that the ungodly should not be suffered to live. " I say with Christ
that ungodly rulers, more especially priests and monks, should be put to death"
(" Ich sage mit Christo, &c. das man die gotlosen regenten, sunderlich pfaffen
und monche todten sol "). Princes are to exterminte the ungodly, or God will
take the sword from them. " Oh, my dear masters, how finely will the Lord
smite the old pots with an iron rod I" (" Ah lieben Herren, wie hubsch wirt der
Herr unter die alten Topf schmeissen mit einer eysern Stangen.")

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR—MUNZER 351

tion convents were suppressed, and their property confiscated ; cannon of
prodigious calibre founded, and warlike enterprises executed. The priests'
houses in the territory of Duke George were first attacked, and then the
convents stormed, with the assistance of the enraged populace ; in the
Harz and throughout the great plain of Thuringia, up to the edge of the
forest. The monuments of the old Landgraves at Reinhardsbrunn were
defaced, and the library destroyed.1 The next step was to attack the
castles and farms of the lords, both in Eichsfeld and in Thuringia. We no
longer find any mention of conditions and treaties, or of a future reforma-
tion ; the object of these fanatics was a general and pitiless destruction.
" Beloved brethren," writes Miinzer to the miners at Mansfeld ; " do not
relent if Esau gives you fair words ; give no heed to the wailings of the
ungodly. Let not the blood cool on your swords ; lay Nimrod on the
anvil, and let it ring lustily with your blows ; cast his strong tower to the
earth while it is yet day." " Know then," he writes to Count Ernest of
Heldrungen, " that God has commanded us to cast thee from thy seat with
the might that is given to us."2 When the country people of Schwarzburg,
also in league with the small towns, rose against the count, and assembled
in considerable force at Frankenhausen, Miinzer feared nothing but the
conclusion of a treaty ; " a fraud," he calls it, " under colour of justice " :
he left his stronghold of Muhlhausen in order to prevent this and to attack
" the eagle's nest " in person. He proved from the Apocalypse that the
power was to be given to the common people. " Come and join in our
measure," he writes to his friends at Erfurt, "it shall be right fairly trod ;
we will pay the blasphemers back all that they have done to poor Christen-
dom." He signed himself " Thomas Miinzer, with the sword of Gideon."

Fanatic as he was, Miinzer still occupied a most formidable position. In
him the mystical notions of former ages were blended with the tendencies
toward ecclesiastical and temporal reform which had just arisen. Out of
this combination he formed a set of opinions which addressed themselves
immediately to the common people ; incited them to rise and annihilate
the whole existing order of things, and prepared the way to the absolute
sway of a prophet. The people assembled in troops all around on the hills
of Meissen and Thuringia,3 awaiting the first decisive result of his enter-
prise, in order to join him immediately after it . The popular current would
then have flowed in this direction from all parts of Germany.

At length, therefore, the results which might long have been anticipated,
appeared. No sooner were the authorities which constituted the State in
Germany at variance with themselves and each other, than the elementary
forces on which it rested arose. The lightnings flashed from the ground,
and the streams of public life left their accustomed channels : the storm
which had so long been muttering underground now poured out all its fury
on the upper regions, and everything seemed to threaten a complete
convulsion.

If we examine more closely this great elemental strife of the German
State in all its bearings, we shall be able to distinguish several different
steps in its progress.

Its origin was, no doubt, to be found in the oppression of the peasantry,

1 Thuringia Sacra, i., p. 173.

2 Letter in Strobel : Leben, Schriften und Lehren Thomae Miinzer, p. 95.

3 Pauli Langii Chronica Nurnburgensia, in Mencken, ii., p. 67.

352 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

which had been gradually increasing during the preceding years ; in the
imposition of fresh taxes, and, at the same time, the persecution of the
evangelical doctrines which had seized on the minds of the common people
more strongly than any intellectual influence before or since, and had more
effectually stimulated them to individual exertion. Had the peasants been
content with resisting all arbitrary claims, and securing the liberty of
hearing their own doctrine preached, they would have avoided calling up
against them the whole strength of the existing order of things, and might
have secured to themselves a long course of peaceful and lawful improve-
ment.

Nay, even more might have been obtained ; in many places, treaties
were concluded by which the lords gave up the most oppressive of the rights
they had formerly acquired ; it was probable that these would be observed
on both sides, and that a lawful and well-defined relation would thus be
established between the classes.

But it is not in human nature to rest content with moderate success ;
it is vain to expect reason or forbearance from a conquering multitude.
Here and there a confused tradition of some ancient rights of the commons
was revived, or the people found themselves a match for the knights in the
field ; — indeed, the rebellion must be considered partly as a symptom of
I the revived importance of infantry ; — but for the most part, they were
goaded by long-cherished hatred and lust of revenge, which now found vent.
While some of their chiefs boasted that they would introduce a better order
of government into the empire, the wildest destruction was carried from
castle to castle, from convent to convent, and even threatened the towns
which had refused to join the rebellion. The peasants thought theyought not
to rest while a dwelling was left standing in Germany superior to a peasant's
cottage.1 Their fury was inflamed by the ravings of fanatical preachers,
who justified the work of destruction, and thought it a duty to shed blood ;
and, following the inspiration of the moment, which they called divine, to
erect a new kingdom of heaven. Had this movement been successful
there must of course have been an endof all peaceful progress, according to
the laws which have ever governed the human race. Happily, it could not
succeed ; Munzer was far indeed from being the prophet and hero required
to execute so gigantic an enterprise ; besides which, the existing order of

1 According to Milliner's Annalen, the peasants, in anger at receiving some
refusal, declared to the council of Niirnberg, that the council might stand in
greater need of the peasants than the peasants of the council : " darauf sind sie
mit einem solchen Trutz und Hochmuth abgescheiden, als wann die Welt ihr
eigen ware ; haben sich auch ingeheim gegen etliche vernehmen lassen, sie
gedenken kein Hauss in ganzen Land zu gedulden, das besser sey denn ein Bauern-
haus :" — " thereupon they departed with such insolence and pride, as though
the world were their own : they also in private gave many to understand that
they were resolved to suffer no house to stand which was better than a peasant's
hut." In the ordinance made by Michel Geismair in 1526 (" Lanndsordnung, so
Michel Geismair gemacht hat, im 1526 Jar," Bucholz, ix. 651), the fifth article
is, " alle Rinkmauern an den Stetten, dergl. alle Geschlosser und Bevestigung
im Lannd niedergeprochen werden und hinfur nimmer Statt sonnder Dorfer
sein, damit Unterschied der Menschen (aufhore), und ain gannze gleichait im
Lannd sei " — " That all walls round towns, likewise all castles and fortified
houses in the country, should be thrown down, and thenceforth there were to
be villages but no towns, so that all distinction among men should cease, and a
complete equality should prevail in the land."

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR— LUTHER 353

things was too firm to be so completely overthrown. Moreover, the
strongest and most genuine element of the reforming party was opposed
to it.

Luther had not allowed himself to be hurried into any political enter-
prise by Sickingen and the knights ; nor had the insurrection of the
peasantry any attractions for him. At the beginning, ere it assumed its
more frightful form, he exhorted them to peace : while he rebuked the
lords and princes for their acts of violence and oppression, he condemned
the rebellion as contrary to divine and evangelical law, and as threatening
destruction to both spiritual and temporal authorities, and hence to the
German nation.1 But when the danger so rapidly increased, when his old
enemies, the " murder prophets and mob spirits," took so prominent a part
in the tumult, and when he really began to fear lest the peasants should
prove victorious (a state of things which he thought could only be the pre-
cursor of the day of judgment), the whole storm of his indignation burst
forth. With the boundless influence which he possessed, what must have
been the consequences had he taken part with the insurgents ! But he
remained a staunch advocate for the separation between the spiritual and
the temporal, which was one of the fundamental principles of his whole
system ; and to the doctrine that the gospel gives freedom to the soul, but
does not emancipate the body from restraint, or property from the control
of the laws. The origin of the rebellion has been often ascribed to his •
preaching, but this is not confirmed by the facts. Luther now, as three
years before, did not for one instant hesitate to brave the storm, and to do
everything in his power to prevent the general destruction which he clearly
foresaw. A pious Christian, said he, should rather die a hundred deaths
than give way one hair's breadth to the peasants' demands. The govern-
ment should have no mercy ; the day of wrath and of the sword was come,
and their duty to God obliged them to strike hard as long as they could
move a limb : whosoever perished in this service was a martyr of Christ.
Thus he supported the temporal order of things with the same intrepidity
that he had displayed in attacking the spiritual.2

The secular authorities, too, aroused themselves, and took courage in
this, the greatest peril that had ever threatened them.

The first who rose was the same man who had done the best service
against Sickingen, — the young Philip of Hessen : towards the end of April
he assembled his knights and his most trusty subjects of the towns in

1 " Ermanung zum Friede auf die 12 Artikel der Baurschaft in Schwaben." —
Altenb., iii., p. 1 14.

2 Wider die raubischen und mordischen Bauern. — Against the robbing and
murderous peasants. — Ibid., p. 124. See the letter to Riihel, ii., p. 886. Me-
lanchthon came to his aid on this occasion with his convincing, dogmatical, and
clear conclusions ; e.g., to Spalatin, 10th April, 1525, chiefly to be understood as
directed against the introduction of the Mosaic laws, but also to be understood
generally : " Rationi humanae commisit Christus ordinationes politicas : . . .
debemus uti praesentibus legibus." (Corp. Ref., i. 733.) It is necessary to have
a front of brass to persist in affirming, as Surius and Cochkeus have done, that
Luther abandoned the peasants when he saw that they were beaten. I do not
know whether the partial successes of George Truchsess, gained at a great dis-
tance, were really known to Luther ; it is, however, certain that they decided
nothing : the revolt of the peasants had just taken full possession of Thuringia
and Saxony, when Luther, at his own personal risk, opposed it.

23

354 DEATH OF FREDERICK THE WISE [Book III.

Alsfeld ; lie promised them that no new burthens should be laid on the
peasants ;*■ while, on their part, in answer to his inquiry, they swore with
outstretched hands to live and die with him. His first care was to defend
his own frontiers ; he tranquillised Hersfeld and Fulda, not, indeed, with-
out violence, though his cruelties have been fabulously exaggerated ; and
then crossed the mountains and marched into Thuringia to the assistance
of his Saxon cousins, with whom he stood in hereditary alliance.2

Just at the moment that these disorders reached their height in that
district, the Elector Frederick died. How striking was the contrast between
the fierce intestine discord which raged throughout Germany, and the quiet
chamber at Lochau in which Frederick, calm and collected in the midst of
agonizing pain, was awaiting the approach of death ! " You do well," said
he to his preacher and secretary Spalatin, who after long hesitation had
taken courage to demand an audience of him, "you do well to come to me,
for it is right to visit the sick :" he then caused the low chair in which he
reclined to be rolled to the table, and laying his hand in that of the intimate
friend and adviser of his latter years, he once more talked of the things of
this world, of the peasants' rebellion, of Dr. Luther, and of his own ap-
proaching death. He had ever been a gentle master to his poor people,
and he now exhorted his brother to act prudently and leniently ;3 he was
not frightened at the danger of the peasants becoming masters, serious as
he believed it to be ; for if it were not the will of God, it could not happen.
This conviction, which had guided and supported him through the whole
course of the Lutheran movement, was doubly strong in his last moments.
None of his relations were with him ; he was surrounded only by servants.
The spirit of opposition which everywhere else divided rulers and their
subjects, had not yet reached them. " Dear children," said the prince, " if
I have ever offended any of you, I pray you to forgive me for the love of
God ; we princes do many things to the poor people that we ought not to
do." He then spoke only of the merciful God who comforts the dying.
For the last time Frederick strained his failing eyes to read one of his friend
Spalatin's consolations ; he then received the sacrament in both kinds
from the hands of a clergyman to whom he was attached. The new
doctrine, which had flourished under his prudent and sheltering care, now
no longer appeared to him in the light of a power of this world which had
to fight for its existence, and the herald of a new order of things ; — he only
saw in it the true Gospel, the true Christian faith, piety, and comfort to the
soul. The dying man leaves the world to itself, and withdraws entirely
within the circle of his own relations to the Infinite, — to God, and eternity.
Thus he died on the 5 th of May, 1525. " He was a child of peace," said his
physician, " and in peace he hath departed."4

His successor, now the Elector John, ascended the throne in the midst
of the wildest and most formidable confusion. Concessions were no longer
to be thought of ; there existed the same difference between Frederick
and John as between Luther's first and second book ; between doubt and

' 1 This information is afforded by a declaration of Landgrave William at the
Diet of 1576. Rommel, Neuere Geschichte von Hessen, p. 255, 848.

2 Haarer, Warhafftige Beschreibung des Bauernkriegs, c. 49, in Gobel's
Beitragen, p. 139. Rommel, i. 108.

3 His letters of the 14th of April, and 4th of May, in Walch, L. W., xvi., p. 140.

4 Spalatin, Leben Friedrichs des Weisen, p. 60.

Chap. VI.] DEATH OF MVNZER 355

cautious counsel and downright hostility. Philip of Hessen came to his
assistance at the right moment ; Duke George and Duke Henry took the
field about the same time, and four princes thus marched with their forces
to meet the peasants.

Mtmzer had taken up a position on the rising ground above Franken-
hausen, which commands the whole length of the valley ; the spot was
well chosen for preaching to assembled multitudes, but offered no advant-
ages whatever for defence. He showed utter incapacity : he had not even
provided powder for his laboriously cast guns ; his followers were miserably
armed, and had only entrenched themselves behind a feeble barricade of j
waggons. The prophet who had said so much about the force of arms, !
and who had threatened to destroy all the ungodly with the edge of the
sword, was now reduced to reckon on a miracle, which he saw announced
in the portent of a coloured circle round the sun at noon. At the first j
discharge of the enemy's artillery the peasants sang a hymn ; they were i
totally routed, and the greater number killed. Hereupon the panic'
which accompanies a half accomplished crime seized the whole country.
All the troops of peasants dispersed, and all the towns surrendered ; even
Miihlhausen attempted hardly any resistance.1 Munzer was executed in
the camp before Miihlhausen, where for a time he had reigned. He seemed
possessed by a savage demon up to his last hour. When, under the pangs
of torture, he was reminded of the countless number he had led into
destruction, he burst into a loud laugh, and said it was their own desire.
When he was led out to death he could not remember the articles of faith.

At this conjuncture movements were made in all directions for attacking
the forces of the peasants.

Duke Antony of Lorraine came with the various garrisons from Cham-
pagne and Burgundy, and a few companies of German landsknechts and
reiters, to the assistance of the Landvogt of Morsperg in Alsatia. He cut
off some scattered troops in the open field, after which, those who had
assembled in Zabern capitulated ; they were, however, accused of having
made a subsequent attempt to gain over the landsknechts, and were
attacked and slaughtered to the number of seventeen thousand, as they
were leaving the fortress on the morning of the 17th of May.2

Thus Wiirtemberg once more fell into the hands of the Swabian League,
whose general, Truchsess, having in a great degree secured his rear by a
treaty with the peasantry around the lakes, marched upon the Wiirtem-
berg insurgents, whom he encountered at Sindelfingen, and having first
thrown them into disorder with his field artillery, he charged and cut them
down with his numerous and well-armed cavalry. Having then taken
and garrisoned a succession of towns and cities, he marched on Franconia.
There he was joined by the other two princes who had fought against
Sickingen, — the Electors of Treves and the Palatinate, who marched to
meet him from Bruchsal, which had just fallen into their hands. The
two armies united on the 29th of May, in the open field between Helspach
and Neckarsulm. They made up together a force of two thousand five

1 Die Histori Thoma Muntzers des Aufengers der Doringischen Urfur."
Hagenau. — This book contains the well-known narrative of Melanchthon, also
to be found in Luther's works (Altenb., iii. 126).

2 Bellay, No. III. Account by Rappoltstein in Vogt's Rheinisch. Gesch.,
vol. iv., p. 49.

23 — 2

356 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

hundred horse, and eight thousand foot, and marched on into
Franconia.1

It was a most important advantage to them that the castle of Wurzburg
still held out against two powerful bodies of Franconian peasants. At
first, indeed, the garrison would have consented to accept the twelve
articles, and had already received authority from the bishop to do so ; a
part of the peasants were anxious to come to terms, which would enable
them to go to the assistance of their allies, hard pressed on all sides. But
the citizens of Wurzburg, determined to get rid of the castle, which had
always been a bridle in their jaws, contrived that the conditions offered
to the garrison should be such as it was impossible it should accept. Here-
upon the latter resolved to resist to the utmost. Sebastian von Rotenhan,
who had so greatly promoted the interests of the Lutheran doctrines in
the Council of Regency, had supplied the fortress with every requisite,
even with powder mills ; erected chevaux-de-frise within the ditches, and
palisades all round the castle, and had induced the garrison to swear
with uplifted hands that they would stand the storming bravely and
faithfully. On the 15 th of May, the day of the battle of Frankenhausen,
the peasants began the storm at nine o'clock at night, to the sound of
trumpets and fifes, with loud shouts and flying colours. Pitch, brim-
stone, and other combustibles were thrown down on them from the castle,
and incessant firing kept up from every loop-hole in the walls and tower.
The lonely castle reared its head in haughty grandeur amid the many-
coloured glare of the fire with which it kept off the wild hordes that had
overrun Franconia, and now threatened all Germany. The artillery
decided the victory here, as at Sindelfingen and Frankenhausen ; at two
in the morning the peasants retreated.2

A second assault was entirely out of the question ; they received news
of the defeat of their friends on all sides, and the storm impending over
themselves became every moment more near and threatening.

They made one more effort to save themselves by negotiating ; they
again offered the twelve articles to the acceptance of the garrison of Wurz-
burg, and invited Truchsess, the general of the League, who was marching
upon them, to appoint time and place for an interview for the purpose of
negotiation. In a general address to the States of the empire, they en-
deavoured to set their views and objects in a favourable light ; and called
upon the Franconian states especially to send delegates to Schweinfurt,
that they might take counsel together with them, " for the establishment
of the word of God, of peace and of justice."3 But all this was now too
late. They had never had confidence in their own strength, and now
fortune had deserted them : they must either remain masters of the field
or perish.

The united army advanced against them without delay ; all the places
it passed in its march surrendered unconditionally. On the 2nd of June it
fell in with the first troop of peasants at Konigshofen : it was the band
from the Odenwald which had had the courage to advance against the

1 The autograph diary of the Count Palatine Otto Heinrich, in Freiberg's
Urkunden und Schriften, iv., p. 367, gives these numbers.

2 Johann Reinhard, in Ludwig, 889.

3 Proclamation in Ochsle, of the 27th of May, p. 302. The meeting was fixed
for the 31st day of May.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 357

victorious enemy. But it consisted of not more than four thousand men,1
and all their measures were thoroughly ill-concerted. The peasants had
neglected to guard the fords of the Tauber, and had encamped round their
baggage, within a barricade of waggons, on the Miihlberg ; and it would
have been well for them if they had awaited the attack of the enemy even
there ; but, terrified by the superior force which gradually presented
itself, they endeavoured to reach a neighbouring forest, and thus invited
an immediate assault. The cavalry fell upon their exposed flank, the
princes themselves helping to cut them down ; in the twinkling of an eye,
before even the landsknechts could come up, the whole body of peasants
was entirely broken and routed.2 A false rumour of victory induced the
Rothenberg troop to quit its position near Wiirzburg, and on the 4th of
June that also fell into the hands of the cavalry in an open field, between
Sulzdorf and Ingolstadt, and was completely dispersed. Both victories
were accompanied by the most barbarous massacres. Of six hundred
peasants who attempted to defend themselves in a fortified house near
Ingolstadt, all but seventeen were put to the sword.

A third band which was connected with the Thuringian insurgents
was overthrown and routed, after a short conflict, on the Bildberg
near Meiningen, where they had entrenched themselves behind
waggons, by Elector John of Saxony.3 The mild and placable
prince promised safety to all who would surrender themselves to his
protection.

Thus the great Franconian bands, which had thought to reform the
whole of Germany, were destroyed like those of Alsatia, Thuringia, and
Wurtemberg ; and, like those provinces, Franconia was now garrisoned
and chastised by its former masters.

On the 7 th of June, Wiirzburg was forced to surrender at discretion.
The aged members of the town council assembled in the market-place
and bared their grey heads to salute the leaders of the army of the League ;
but they found no mercy from Truchsess, who declared that they were all
perjured and dishonoured, and had forfeited their lives. In Wiirzburg
alone, sixty rebels from the town and country were hanged : the execu-
tions were equally frequent and terrible throughout the whole bishopric ;
two hundred and eleven were put to death in different ways ; all arms
delivered up, new services imposed, and heavy contributions extorted :
the ancient ceremonies of the church were restored. Meanwhile Mark-
grave Casimir of Brandenburg, having taken possession of all the rest ol
Franconia, of Bamberg, Schweinfurt, and Rothenburg, without encounter-
ing any serious resistance, proceeded to take vengeance on the insur-
gents in his own territories.

All that now remained was, to subdue the remnant of the insurgents
who still kept their ground on the Upper and Middle Rhine.

The armies of Trier and the Palatinate, on their homeward march, fell

1 I hold this to be the true number, as the report of Secretary Speiss, who
accompanied the army (Ochsle, p. 197), and the Journal of the Elector, p. 368,
agree on this point. Others mention far greater numbers.

2 Brower, Annales Trevirenses, lib. xx., p. 353.

3 Spalatin, see Menken, ii. 11 14. The peasants had one carronade, ■ sixteen
cannons and mortars, four arquebusses, and matchlocks. Their waggoDS were
buried in the earth.

35 8 THE PEASANTS' WAR [Book III.

in with the insurgents of the Middle Rhine at Pfeddersheim,1 and as on all
former occasions the peasants were dispersed and cut down ; the warlike
archbishop is said to have slain several with his own hand. These dis-
tricts hereupon submitted ; and even the people of the Rheingau had to
give up their arms, and to pay contributions. Mainz was forced to resign
the liberties it had but just regained ; while the people of Trier, happy
that they had not made any serious demonstration, readily dropped all
the projects they had entertained.

The great army of the League on the Upper Rhine found a far more
arduous task ; it was there that the rebellion had originated and taken
the deepest root, and nothing decisive had yet been accomplished towards
its suppression. The men of the Allgau reappeared in the field ; they
had occupied a very strong post on a steep hill, at the foot of which is the
river Luidas, and on either side, large ponds : a considerable number of
experienced landsknechts fought in their ranks. They were able to keep
their ground against even the artillery of Truchsess, and indeed had some
intention of beginning the attack. Fortunately for Truchsess, the veteran
and successful leader, George Frundsberg, came to his assistance in time.
It is highly probable2 that he exercised a personal influence on many of
the peasant chiefs, his old comrades and followers. Contemporary writers
positively affirm that he bought over Walter Bach, who treacherously
persuaded the peasants to abandon their strong position. Perhaps, how-
ever, their stores failed ; at all events they separated, and retreated
towards the mountains. Truchsess hastened in pursuit of them, and began
to burn their farms and villages. This was in direct violation of the orders
of the League, at which he only laughed ; he, he said, a peasant himself,
understood his business better ; he knew that this was the way to make
every man think of his own home. He kept his troops together and thus
easily beat the separate bands of peasants whenever he met with them. He
was not, however, so absolutely master as at Wurzburg. George Truchsess
was at last obliged to enter into a compact with the large body of rebels
who held together on the Kolenberg, by which redress of the local griev-
ances of their several villages was promised them. Not till then did they
lay down their arms and give up their ringleaders.3

At the same moment, Count Felix of Werdenberg put to the rout the
peasants of the Hegau, Kletgau, and all that remained in the Schwarzwald
• — for many were gone home to their harvest — and compelled them to lay
down their arms.*

Thus was arrested the great movement which threatened the total sub-
version of the whole existing order of things in Germany : all the schemes
for reconstituting the empire from the groundwork of society upwards,
or still more, for visionary changes in the order of the world under the
guidance of a fanatical prophet, were now for ever at an end.

Wherever the matter had been decided by arms, the laws of war were
enforced. The most barbarous executions took place ; the severest con-
tributions were exacted ; and in some places, laws more oppressive than
ever were imposed.

i Haarer, c. 84-89.

2 Reisner, Kriegsthaten der Frundsberge.

s Haggenmiiller Kempten, p. 540.

4 Walchner Ratolphzell, p. 109.

Chap. VI.] THE PEASANTS' WAR 359

It was only in districts where the peasants had not sustained a total
defeat, that, after all their former vague and ambitious projects had
spontaneously died away, some alleviation of their burthens and sufferings
was granted them.

The Count of Sulz and his subjects agreed to refer their differences to
arbitrators chosen in common, and Archduke Ferdinand consented to
appoint a chief umpire.1

To the people of the Breisgau, Ferdinand promised in his own name
that due regard should be paid by magistrates and government officers
to the complaints of the subjects.2 The states of Upper Austria would
not allow contributions to be levied upon the people.3

In Tyrol, steps were taken under the influence of the disturbances,
towards drawing up a code of laws, whereby the subjects were relieved
from all taxes that could not be proved by authentic documents, to have
existed for more than fifty years ; likewise from the lesser tithes in kind,
and a variety of other dues and services ; and the right of fishing, and
even of shooting and hunting, granted them. Archduke Ferdinand also
made concessions as to religion. Towns and councils were empowered to
appoint their own clergy, and the Gospel was to be preached according
to the letter.4

Salzburg was the only country in which the peasants kept the field
against the advance of a regular army ; and even when they were forced
to bend before the might of the Swabian League, they began by making
singularly advantageous terms.5

These events belong, however, to another state of things, which im-
mediately followed the disturbances, and to which we will now turn our
attention.

CHAPTER VII.

FORMATION OF THE ADVERSE RELIGIOSU LEAGUES DIET OF AUGSBURG,

DECEMBER, 1525.

The conflict between the elements of German society was now at an end ;
the rebellious peasantry, and that portion of the population of the towns
which took part with them, were subdued, as the knights had been before
them. The local powers which had arisen during the course of ages had
again withstood all the storms by which they were assailed : aided by the
emperor or the Council of Regency, they had stood fast amidst the ruin of
all central authority.

Nevertheless, peace was by no means restored, nor was one of those great
questions which had so long occupied public attention decided.

The rebellion had been put down without any reference to religious creed ;
friends and foes of the new doctrines had taken up arms with equal eager-
ness against the common enemy ; but as soon as that enemy was subdued,
the old antipathies broke out with fresh violence.

1 The treaty which the people of Zurich helped to negotiate is to be found in
Bullinger's Reformations-geschichte, i., p. 249.

2 The treaty of Offenburg : extract in Schreiber's Taschenbuch, p. 302.

3 Declaration of the Stande, Bucholtz, viii., p. 104.

Excerpts from the proceedings of the diet, Bucholtz, viii., p. 337,
5 Zauner, Chronik von Salzburg, iv„ p. 429,

3<5o FORMATION OF [Book III.

The Ratisbon members of the Swabian League, who at this time exer-
cised the chief influence in that body, seized upon this opportunity of carry-
ing into execution by main force the measures which had been concerted
at that city. The victories of the League were everywhere followed by
religious persecutions. Among those who were beheaded at Wiirzburg,
many were condemned, not for the rebellion, in which they had taken no
part, but for the crime of professing the evangelical faith. Nine of the
most wealthy burghers were executed at Bamberg, and it is asserted that
some of them were remarkable for their peaceable conduct, and had rather
tried to prevent than to encourage the attack of the country people on the
bishop's palace ; they were punished, as was openly proclaimed, for their
adherence to the evangelical party.1 Their possessions were, by an un-
exampled exercise of arbitrary power, given to certain individuals, among
whom was a secretary of Truchsess. All who professed the evangelical
doctrines immediately fled out of both bishoprics. But even in all other
territories, spiritual as well as temporal obedience was enforced on the
peasantry ; the Lutherans stood — under that title — first on the list of those
excluded from pardon. The bitterest persecution was directed against the
preachers. A provost-marshal of the name of Aichili traversed Swabia
and Franconia in all directions at the head of a band of reiters, in order to
carry into effect the executions that had been decreed ; it is calculated that
within a small district, he hung forty evangelical preachers on trees by the
roadside.2 This was the first restoration of Catholicism by violence in
Upper Germany.

Similar attempts were now made also in the north.

After the taking of Muhlhausen, the allied princes had agreed on common
measures against the peasants. Duke George relates, that one morning,
as his son-in-law Philip was just setting off on a journey, he (Duke George)
went to him once more, and entreated him not to attach himself to
Luther's cause, "in consideration of the evil which had flowed therefrom ;"
that he repeated this warning to the Elector of Saxony within the same
hour, and that it was kindly received by both of them. Duke George
hoped to exercise great authority over his cousin John after Frederick's
death, as well as over Landgrave Philip, to whom he stood in the relation of
an affectionate father-in-law.

These three princes had agreed at Muhlhausen to communicate their
resolutions to their neighbours ; and Duke George had an interview as
early as in July with the electors of Mainz and Brandenburg and the Duke
of Brunswick, at Dessau. These princes still adhered to the Catholic
faith, and they allowed their belief, that the insurrection owed its existence
to the new doctrines that had been preached, to influence their resolutions.
Though we have no authentic document as to the nature of these resolu-
tions, there is sufficient evidence that they were in the highest degree
unfavourable to the religious changes. Duke George communicated them
to his cousin and his son-in-law, expressing at the same time his persuasion

1 Detailed account in Milliner's Annalen.

2 Bullinger's 140th cap. treats of Provost Aichili ("von Profossen Aichili").
Anshelm also mentions him (vi., p. 291) as being peculiarly active against the
Lutheran parsons : he seized, plundered, mulcted, and hanged them. " Er war
sunderlich gflissen, uf die lutherischen Pfaffen, fiengs' beroubts' schatzts' und
henkts'."

Chap. VII.] RELIGIOUS LEAGUES 361

that they had ceased to entertain any Lutheran ideas.1 At all events he
did not suffer himself to be deterred by any consideration for them, from
condemning his own subjects to the severest punishments. At Leipzig
two citizens were beheaded for no other reason than that some Lutheran
books had been found in their possession.2

It appeared probable that the Lutheran movement, from the time it
was associated with an insurrection of the peasantry, would, like that of
Wicklyffe, be encountered by a reaction which would end in its entire
suppression.

But the reform set on foot by Luther stood on a far wider and firmer
basis than that of Wicklyffe, and had already found resolute and powerful
supporters both in North and South Germany.

Landgrave Philip even brought an evangelical preacher with him to
Miihlhausen ; and Duke George, while in the act of expressing his con-
viction of his son-in-law's altered sentiments, was struck with surprise at
the appearance of this man. From that time Philip had become more and
more deeply imbued with Lutheran opinions. We have only to read the
letters he wrote to Duke George during this year, — in which he controverts
the doctrine of the canon and the mass, the received idea of the Church,
and the obligation of vows, — in order to see with what lively and yet
earnest zeal he adopted the new doctrines, and what accurate and extensive
knowledge he had acquired of the scriptural grounds on which they rested.3

The same state of things existed in Saxony.- Far from forsaking the
path trodden by his predecessor, the new elector advanced in it with far
more decided steps than Frederick had done. On leaving Weimar in
August, 1525, he once more assembled the priesthood of that district — on
the 1 6th of that month — and, after causing their minds to be prepared by
two sermons, he announced to them that in future they were to preach the
pure word of God, without any human additions.4 Some old priests who

1 The only authentic notice of these meetings is to be found in a letter from
Duke George in the Dresden Archives. According to that, the determination
was " to stand by each other in case the Lutherans attacked any one of them,
in order to remain at peace from such rebellion." — " sich bei einander finden zu
lassen, wenn die Lutherischen einen von ihnen angreifen wurden, um solches
Aufruhrs vertragen zu bleiben." It is not, however, easy to perceive from
whom they expected an attack, if they really believed Philip and the Elector
John to have been reconverted ; and, indeed, Duke George says, " otherwise
he would not have made them a party to the treaty, for he well knew that one
could not beat Swiss with Swiss." — " denn sonst wurde er ihnen den Vertrag
nicht mitgetheilt haben, er wisse wohl, dass man Schweizer mit Schweizern nich
schlage." The explanation is, that in those times a defensive form was given
to all alliances, even when there was no intention of abiding by mere defence.
Duke Henry said to the emperor, that he had signed a treaty with his friends,
" against the Lutherans, in case they should attempt by force or cunning to
gain them over to their unbelief," — " wider die Lutherischen, ob sie sich unter-
stiinden, sie mit List oder Gewalt in ihren Unglauben zu bringen."

2 Gretschel : Leipzigs kirchliche Zustande, p. 218.
s Rommel's Urkundenbuch, p. 2.

4 " Das man das lauter rayn evangelion on menschliche Zusatzung predigen
soil, furstlicher Befelch zu Weymar beschehen." — " That the pure Gospel should
be preached without any human additions. Sovereign command issued at
Weimar." — Circular from the minister Kisswetter at Erfurt to Master Hainrich
at Elxleben, a.d. Gera, 1525.

362 FIRST ATTEMPTS [Book III.

were present having expressed the opinion that this would not be incon-
sistent with their saying masses for the dead and consecrating salt and
water, they were told that the same rule applied to ceremonies as to
doctrines.

In consequence of the recess of Miihlhausen, the elector had an interview
with Markgrave Casimir of Brandenburg at Saalfeld, at which the evan-
gelical tendencies predominated as much as the catholic had done at Dessau.
These princes did not indeed form a regular alliance, but Markgrave Casimir
declared that he would hold fast by the word of God.1

At the very time when the military force of the Swabian League was
employed in checking the progress of the reformation, some of its most
powerful members, the very towns in which it had originated, — Augsburg
and above all, Nurnberg — organised their churches according to evan-
gelical principles. We shall return to this subject in another place.

The territory of Wurtemberg, which had been conquered by the League,
and could hardly have been imagined capable of taking any resolutions
of its own, now declared itself on the same side ; the Estates expressed their
conviction that the tranquillity of the country could only be maintained
by preaching to the people the pure word of God, unalloyed by the selfish-
ness and vain conceits of men.

Already the evangelical preachers began formally to emancipate them-
selves from the authority of the bishops. At Wittenberg, in May 1525,
they determined to give ordination themselves. Melanchthon justifies this
on the ground that the bishops neglected their duties.2 The preachers now
asserted their underived vocation as against the bishops, in the same
manner as those had done against the pope. Melanchthon says that the
princes could not be called upon to support a jurisdiction of whose abusive
and corrupt nature they were convinced. In Hessen and Brandenburg
too, even in the towns, the clergy began to emancipate themselves from the
episcopal jurisdiction.

We perceive that the two opposite tendencies came out of the conflict
with the peasants, exactly in the same state in which they entered into it ;
only with increased activity on either side.

The papal party had the advantage, in so far as in a great part of the
empire, the penal power, of which it made such fearful use, was in its hands ;
but on the whole, the evangelical party had gained still more in the
struggle.

Never had the aversion to the spiritual part of the constitution of Ger-
many been so general and so avowed. The clergy were accused of those
acts of grinding oppression which had mainly caused the revolt. The
hostility of the people was specially directed against them ; the peasants
of the Allgau, for example, who were besieging Fussen, raised the siege
as soon as that town threw off its allegiance to its lord, the Bishop of Augs-
burg, and hoisted the banner of Austria. On the other hand, though the
ecclesiastical princes had contributed very little to extinguish the flame of
rebellion, they now made the most tyrannical and merciless use of the
victory won by others.

1 According to a description by Casimir himself in a letter from Schrautten-
bach to the Landgrave Philip, dated 27th Dec, 1525, in Neudeckers Urkunden,
p. 16.

2 De Jure Reformandi. Corp. Reform., i., p. 765.

Chap. VII.] AT SECULARISATION 3^3

Hence it happened that the evangelical party found it so easy to shake
off the episcopal authority ; it is, however, more remarkable that an
analogous effect was produced in the catholic party. If the one side
questioned the spiritual, the other no less vigorously attacked the temporal
jurisdiction.

We must here again recur to the events of Tyrol and Salzburg. Arch-
duke Ferdinand had taken up the most remarkable position in the
world.

At the diet of Tyrol, which we have already mentioned, there were
assembled only the nobles, the cities, and rural districts (Gerichte) ■} the
ecclesiastical body did not appear. The anti-ecclesiastical temper which
this produced was very strongly expressed in the resolutions that were
passed. In the recess of this diet it was proclaimed, that the appointment
to the inferior situations in the church should be rendered totally indepen-
dent of the bishops ; in future, cities and rural districts (Gerichte) should
have the right of presentation, which the sovereign of the country should
confirm, and all complaints of the clergy should be addressed by the former
to the latter.2 The petition of the Bishop of Trent for leave to call in
foreign troops to punish the insurgents within his see, was refused ; for
the common people were of opinion, says Ferdinand, that the clergy ought
to have no jurisdiction whatever in temporal affairs ; were such a per-
mission granted to the bishop, the nobles would complain that he was
goading the people to a fresh revolt, which would bring trouble and ruin
upon them also.3 This was even carried much further. The Bishop of
Brixen proving himself incapable of restoring order in his see, where one
of his secretaries and toll collectors was the leader of the revolt, the Tyrolese
determined not to afford him the least assistance, but at once to secularise
the see. Archduke Ferdinand took possession of it, and committed the
government to one of his council, " till some future council, or the reforma-
tion of the empire ;" he received the homage from all the vassals and the
official persons of the see.4 The captain of Ehrenberg, which was garrisoned
by Tyrolese, would not go to the succour of the town of Fiissen till it
surrendered itself as an hereditary fief to the house of Austria, and did

1 Gericht here means a certain community. Grimm (Deutsche Rechts Alter-
thumer, p. 755) says, " By Gericht we now understand a tribunal for the decision
of litigated matters, or the punishment of offences. Originally, however, the
predominant idea was that of a popular assembly (concilium), in which all the
public business of the Mark, the commune, or the district was discussed, disputes
settled, and fines adjudged. The main element of the Gericht is now the judges ;
but then, it was the congregated free men. . . . All judicial power was exer-
cised by the community of free men under the presidency of an elected or heredi-
tary head." — Transl.

2 Bucholtz, viii., p. 338.

3 Ferdinand to Bishop Bernhard of Trent, Inspruck, 9th July, 1525, Bucholtz,
ix., p. 640.

1 Patent of occupation, 21st July. " Auf Beger und mit Rat ainer ersamen
Landschaft dieser unsrer f. G. Tirol, — zu furkumung nachtail schadens und
geferlichait, so dieselben unser Grafschaft und dem Stift zu Brichsen, des Vogt
Schirm und Schutzherr wir dann sein, enstehen mechten." — " At the request
and with the advice of the honourable province of this our free country of Tirol
— for the prevention of loss, damage, and danger, which might accrue to
our country and the see of Brichsen, whereof we are bailiff, lord, arid
protector."

364 FIRST ATTEMPTS [Book III.

homage to the Archduke.1 The Zillerthalers were thus enabled to throw
off their allegiance to Salzburg, to attach themselves to Tyrol, and to accept
the Archduke, who had already high authority over them, as their lord
and sovereign.2 Nay, even in Bavaria, similar notions prevailed. When
Matthew, Archbishop of Salzburg, was besieged in his citadel by the
peasants, and reduced to the greatest extremity, Doctor Lesch, a Bavarian
chancellor, presented himself before the archduke and proposed to him to
sequester the archbishopric in common ; so that the part lying on the con-
fines of Bavaria should be taken possession of by the dukes, and that bor-
dering on Austria by the archduke. Ferdinand joyfully acceded to the
proposal ; he authorised the commissioners he had sent to the peasants
to use all their endeavours (but with the knowledge of the archbishop)
that the see might be given up to Austria and Bavaria.3 In Bavaria,
however, this was only a transient thought ; the plan here pursued was
that of an unconditional restoration, from the accomplishment of which
the dukes might justly expect a still greater degree of authority than they
had already acquired, over the neighbouring bishoprics. They therefore
furnished aid in every direction. In Tyrol, on the other hand, the province
had agreed with the prince on the concessions to be made to the rebels ;
by a resolute postponement of spiritual interests, they thought they should
at once allay the tumults and enhance their own.liberty and power. The
Bavarians, consequently, soon abandoned the plans above mentioned,
and resolved to come to the assistance of the archbishop in this exigency
with the forces of the Swabian League. The motives which determined
the dukes were not, however, of a very disinterested nature ; they calcu-
lated on this opportunity of securing the succession to the archbishopric .
for their brother, Ernest of Passau ; which they preferred to contributing
to place the greater part of it in the hands of Austria, and thence in a hostile
relation to themselves. In vain the states of Tyrol made an attempt to
restrain the Swabian League from its intended campaign, by representa-
tions of the ancient privileges and alliances of Salzburg.4 At Innsbruck a
strong desire prevailed to secure the succession to Don George of Austria,
natural son of Emperor Maximilian, and a disposition to afford protection
to the peasantry.5 But the dukes had already the advantage. Duke
Louis of Bavaria, the general in chief of the Swabian League, led its armies

1 Martin Furtenbach, the town notary at Fussen : report on the insurrection
of the peasants, in Ochsle's Beitrage, p. 478. " Das Volk schrie Hei Oestreich
damit wir nicht gar verderbt werden, der Hauptmann nahm die Erbhuldigung
auf ein Hintersichbringen an." — " The people cried, ' Hey Austria,' so that we
might not be entirely ruined : the governor received our hereditary homage on
a hint given him." The delegates of the town went to Innsbruck, and were
there well greeted (wohl begriisst). Ferdinand declared that he would soon go
there himself and receive the homage in person.

a Instruction to Liechtenstein and Stockel, " was sy mit dem Pfleger zu
Kropfsberg, mit der Nachparschaft im Zillerthal reden sollen." — " what they
should say to the parish priest at Kropfsberg, and to the neighbourhood in Ziller-
thal."— Bucholtz, ix., p. 630.

3 Instruction of Ferdinand to the mediating commissioners, Bucholtz, p. 621.

4 " Die vom Ausschuss der dreier Stande — an Hauptleute und Rathedes
Pundts zu Schwaben 31 Juli." — lb., ix., pi 624. — " The committee of the three
estates to the governors and councillors of the Swabian League."

5 Excerpts from a rescript of Ferdinand, ib., viii., p. 109.

Chap. VII.] AT SECULARISATION 365

against Salzburg at the end of August. He too deemed it expedient, and
strongly urged George Frundsberg, who was general of the county of Tyrol,
at first to grant the peasants a favourable treaty — afterwards, indeed, they
were as severely dealt with here as elsewhere — as a means of attaining all
their other objects. The chapter of the cathedral promised the succession
to the bishopric of Salzburg to the Bavarian prince Ernest, to whom the
archbishop also made some concessions ; the lordships of Laufen, Geis-
felden, Titmanning, and Mattsee were mortgaged to the dukes for the ex-
penses of the war. In short, they obtained a general ascendancy in
Salzburg ; nor was it till some time afterwards that the archbishop took
courage timidly to admonish them to demand nothing of him at variance
with the rights and dignities of his see.1

Thus, as we see, the plans of the League triumphed over the inclinations
of the people of Tyrol. The archduke was also forced to cede Fiissen
again to Augsburg, and the Zillerthal to Salzburg.

Notwithstanding this, Ferdinand did not relinquish the ideas he had once
conceived. When the Wurtemberg territory made the demands we have
mentioned, and pointed very unequivocally to a secularisation of the church
lands, as a means of meeting the exigencies of the country, Ferdinand
showed not the smallest displeasure : he permitted that country to send
deputies to the approaching diet at Augsburg, and promised that whatever
should there be determined in regard to a reformation of the clergy, should
be carried into effect, as well in Wurtemberg as in his other dominions.2
The views entertained on these points by Archduke Ferdinand entirely
coincided with those of the evangelical party, who, with perfect justice,
regarded the revocation of the summons for the meeting at Spire as the
immediate cause of the recent tumults. In the autumn of 1 525 the project
of settling the religious differences at an assembly of the empire and of there
proceeding to a thorough reformation, was once more universally stirred.

In addition to the meetings in Dessau and Saalfeld, there was a third
and corresponding one between the Landgrave Philip and the Elector
Palatine, at Alzey. They agreed " that things must be put on an equit-
able footing :" every means must be employed to bring about union among
the States.3

Markgrave Casimir proceeded from Saalfeld to Auerbach, to a confer-
ence with the Count Palatine Frederick, who governed the Upper Pal-
atinate in the name of his nephew. They determined, in the first place,
to lighten the burthens of the common people as much as possible ; and
in the next, again to petition the emperor to hold an ecclesiastical council
in the German nation, " in order to come to some common understanding
as to the exposition of the divine word."

In September the cities held a meeting, and Ferdinand thought he had
reason to fear very hostile and objectionable resolutions on their part ;

1 Zauner, Salzburger Chronik, v., pp. 225, 133.

2 Extractus landschaftlicher Schlusserklarung bei Sattler, Herzoge, Beilagen
zum zweiten Theil nr. 124, and Landtagsabschied, 30th Oct., 1525, nr. 125
(iii. i. 4).

3 Letter from the Elector Louis of the Palatinate, in Neudeckers Actenstiicken,
i., p. 16. From the words, " von E. L. und unserm Freund, von ir und uns," — ■
from E. L. and our friend, from him and from us " we may conclude that the
Elector of Trier was also there present.

366 SCHEME OF SECULARISATION, 1525 [Book III.

but their decision only amounted to this : to urge anew upon himself
and the emperor the necessity of introducing a clear and uniform order
into the whole empire, with respect to the ceremonies of the church.

In the universal discussion of these subjects, every possible change was
suggested, and thus ideas and plans of the most extraordinary nature
became current.

In a project drawn up towards the end of the year 1525, and discussed
at one or two meetings of the empire, it is assumed in the outset, that the
property of the church is no longer of any use or benefit either to religion
or to the empire : that some change in the disposition of it is therefore
indispensable ; that this must not, however, be left to the common people,
but must be undertaken by the supreme authorities ; i.e. by the emperor
and the temporal Estates.

People no longer scrupled to propose the secularisation of all ecclesias-
tical property.

So much might, they said, be assigned to the spiritual princes and prelates
as was necessary for the maintenance of a suitable mode of living ; nor
should anything, for the present, be taken from the canons, but both they
and their superiors should be allowed gradually to die out. Of the con-
vents, a few might be retained for young women of noble birth, but with
full right and liberty to quit them.

With the funds thus obtained, the first care must be to supply the new
spiritual wants ; to appoint pastors and preachers ; to nominate in every
circle a pious and learned man as bishop, with a fixed salary, but wholly
wihout temporal functions, and solely a superintendent of the other
ministers of the church ; and, lastly, to establish a high school in every
circle, in which the languages and the exposition of the Holy Scriptures
according to their true sense, should be taught.

But the party which suggested these reforms also entertained the hope
that they should thus acquire strength to give a new form to the whole
secular constitution of the country.

The proposal to that effect contained in this project is, to establish a
particular Council of Regency, or administrative body, in each circle ;
consisting of twelve councillors, three from each of the four estates, sove-
reigns, princes, — counts and lords (nobles), — and imperial cities ; and
a chief or president, chosen from the states of the circle, but approved by
the emperor, with nearly the same powers as the governors and the coun-
cillors of the Swabian League. This body was to put in execution all the
plans determined on by the States ; to form a supreme court of judica-
ture, and, above all, to maintain the public peace, and for that purpose to
keep a standing force of horse and foot always in the field. The young
nobility were to serve in the army, instead of occupying the posts in the
chapters. With these troops any succours granted by the emperor
and the empire could then be rendered effective, without imposing burdens
on anybody. They would constitute so great a permanent force as no
emperor had had at his command since the birth of Christ.1

1 " Rathschlag was man mit geistlichen Giitern zu gemeinem und des Reichs
Nutz furnemen und handeln soil." — " Opinion as to what should be done with
ecclesiastical property for the common good and that of the empire." In the
Weimar Records. It is indeed true that this is among the acts of 1526, but as
the diet of Augsburg is mentioned in it, it was doubtless originally intended for that.

Chap. VII.] FORMATION OF RELIGIOUS LEAGUES 367

The particular provisions of this project are far less important and in-
teresting than the general ideas upon which it is founded : — the secularisa-
tion of ecclesiastical property ; the empire represented exclusively by
temporal estates (the constitution of which was mainly based upon the
extension of the functions of the circles) ; a standing army specially for
the advantage of the young nobles : — all things which, in their mature and
finished form, gave their character to the succeeding centuries, and con-
stituted modern Germany. The most distant results were boldly con-
templated, but the way that led to them was long and arduous.

The ecclesiastical princes were yet far too strong : and it may easily
be imagined that plans of the kind above mentioned, which could not
remain concealed from them, would make them feel the necessity of col-
lecting all their strength. The clergy already complained that they were
kept out of possession of many things, of which they had been robbed
during the late commotions ; and even that their enemies proceeded in
depriving them of their accustomed jurisdiction ; they showed a deter-
mination not to await the attack at the next diet, but to press for a com-
plete restitution of their rights and possessions. To this course they were
emboldened by a rescript of the emperor, in which mention was made of
the suppression of all things that threatened the destruction of our holy
faith, and in such severe terms as seemed to imply that an entire restora-
tion of the old order of things was contemplated.1 The Council of Regency
which was sitting in Esslingen, and of which we now hear once more,
prepared to propose measures in the same spirit.2 The course taken by
the Swabian League was nearly the same. At a meeting held by that
body in November, it received a letter from Pope Clement, exhorting it
to show the same zeal in the completion of the work, that had inspired
the first undertaking of it, and to finish the most glorious deed that had
been done for centuries.3 The sovereigns of eastern Germany felt in the
same manner ; the instruction given by Duke George to his delegate at
the diet is still extant. After vehement complaints of the enormous
mischief done by the Lutheran Gospel, he demands that no change shall
be made in the traditional ordinances without the sanction of a general
council ; adding, that even if an angel should come down from heaven
he was not to be obeyed, unless in a full Christian assembly.4 Moreover
a papal nuncio was sent to attend the diet.

The idea of a change was, it is true, as widely diffused as it was com-
prehensive ; but the opposite tendency, towards the maintenance of the

1 Tolleten in Castilien, 24th May, 1525 (W. A.).

2 Feilitsch, Esslingen, Monday after St. Martin's day : " Er halt genzlichen
dafiir, dass von denen die sich der Aufruhr theilhaftig gemacht, auch denen die
Kirchen und Kloster gewaltig zerstort, denselbigen Giiter eingenommen und
davon wieder geben was ihnen gefallig, dass wider diese auf dem Reichstag
gehandelt werden soil." — " He was entirely of opinion that the property should
be taken from those who had been parties to the seditious movements, and who
had violently destroyed churches and convents, and that such of it should be
restored as they thought fit. Proceedings against these persons should be taken
at the diet."

1 3 Papal Brief, delivered in November. Ochsle, p. 305.

4 Instruction to Otto v. Pack in the Dresden Archives. It also contains some
censure of Luther's marriage ; — " that he and his Kate wanted as much for
themselves alone as the whole Augustine convent had formerly required."

368 DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1525 [Book III.

existing ecclesiastical institutions, or rather towards their restoration in
their complete integrity, was still exceedingly powerful. Even while the
partisans of the new faith cherished the most sweeping schemes, they
could not disguise from themselves that the diet might very possibly take
a turn highly unfavourable to their wishes. Some believed that the good
and the bad would be destroyed together ; that truth would be suppressed
together with falsehood ; that a rule of faith and life would be estab-
lished in accordance with the old law, and that those who did not
receive it willingly would be compelled by violence to conform to it.

As Elector John and Landgrave Philip had declared themselves most
openly for the new doctrines, they had the greatest reason for fear. The
landgrave, because his territory was surrounded on all sides by puissant
ecclesiastical princes ; the elector, because already there was an idea of
depriving him of his electorate as a seceder from the Church of Rome ; he
was advised to place himself on a better footing with his neighbours —
doubtless especially with Duke George, — for that many intrigues were on
foot against him in that direction.

It was less the view of effecting any change than the dread of danger
to themselves, and the necessity of maintaining the position which they
had taken up, that determined these two princes to enter into a closer
alliance with each other.

Landgrave Philip made the first advances in this matter by sending his
chamberlain, Rudolf of Waiblingen to Torgau, where Elector John was
holding his court, charged with the proposal to combine with him in
making a common resistance at the next diet, to any measures that might
be attempted in support of abuses, or for the suppression of truth ; to
accede to no ordinance at variance with the word of God, and to unite
steadfastly to that end with all who held the same opinions. This com-
mission was received with great joy by the elector, with whose sentiments
and convictions it so fully harmonised. At the beginning of November
his son John Frederick, set out to hold a conference with the landgrave,
and to concert the course they were to pursue.1

The interview took place at the strongly defended hunting-seat of
Friedewalt, in the SuUinger forest. The two young princes perfectly
understood each other. There is in the Weimar archives a note of an
opinion " of our dear cousin and brother the landgrave," in the hand-
writing of John Frederick himself, which is, without doubt, the result
of this conversation. Its contents do not show that any actual treaty
as yet existed ; the resolutions were such as the circumstances of the
moment called forth : such as, that the contracting parties should come
to a fuller understanding as to the evangelical cause, and should induce
as many princes, counts, and cities of similar views as possible to join
them (they had even the hope of gaining over the Elector of Trier) ;
and should then enter a common protest against the expressions contained
in the rescript, which were favourable to old usages, but pernicious to the
word of God ; and that they should stand as one man for the evangelical
cause. The electoral court did not only approve these conditions, but

1 Instruction in Rommel's Urkundenbuch, p. 10. Credentials of the same
date (5th Oct.) in the Weimar Records. There is also a note of the answer that
Waiblingen was to deliver to Torgau, 13 th Oct.

Chap. VII.] DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1525 369

thought it good to extend the agreement to other things, " in which one
might be worse treated than the other."1

In the beginning of December the hostile parties thus met at Augsburg
furnished with directly contrary instructions.

The same disagreement which prevailed among the deputies, mani-
fested itself in the imperial commission. This consisted (independently
of Archduke Ferdinand, whose behaviour was necessarily ambiguous) of
Duke William of Bavaria, the leader and champion of the papists, and
Markgrave Casimir of Brandenburg, who had so long been attached to the
evangelical party. Casimir declined indeed to enter into the compact
proposed to him by the envoys of Hessen and Saxony ; but he declared
that he would advocate his own convictions in the commission, and thus,
he urged, do more service to the cause than he could by joining a formal
alliance.

Had the princes been present in person, the struggle must now have
become vehement, earnest, and decisive ; it would soon have been clearly
seen to which side the majority inclined.

But neither party was at bottom sincerely resolved on bringing matters
to an issue. Each saw too clearly what might be the consequences of such
a decision : they wished to assemble all their forces, and to secure to them-
selves every kind of support. The princes at Friedewalt thought it ex-
pedient to remove the diet of the empire immediately to Spire or to Worms.
On the other side, the arrival of the Mainz deputy, without whom no step
could be taken, inasmuch as he brought with him the imperial chancery,
was unduly delayed. No prince as yet appeared in person ; even the
commission was not complete, and a great number of the deputies were
still missing.

The first preliminary meeting was held on the eleventh of December.
Archduke Ferdinand besought those who were assembled to have patience
awhile, till a larger number arrived, and promised to report to the emperor
the good dispositions of those present.2

But some weeks elapsed, and their numbers were little augmented : on
the renewed application of the States, the commissioners at length held a
definitive meeting on the 30th of December.3

It was evident to everybody that, considering the incompleteness of
the assembly of the States, and the importance of the questions at issue,
no permanent result could be obtained. Duke William suggested whether
it would not be better to adjourn the diet. The three colleges separated,
and were unanimously of that opinion. They adjourned the diet to Spire,

1 " Verzaichniss des Bedenkens unsres lieben Vetters und Bruders auf die
vertreuliche Unterrede, so wir mit S. L. jetzo allhie gehabt, so vil das h. gottl.
Wort belangen thut. Friedewalt Mitw. nach Bernardi." — " Note of the opinion
of our dear cousin and brother, expressed at our confidential meeting held
here, so far as they concern the holy word of God. Friedewalt, Wednesday
after St. Bernard's day." (8th Nov.) The copy which was made in Torgau
differs from the paper written in the prince's own hand in this respect : — the
prince had only written that they would make an alliance together for the sake
of the Gospel ; but in the copy the words above quoted are added : — " Auch
sunsten in andern Sachen, do eyner vor dem andern Recht leyden kunt, ausge-
schlossen gegen den, so in der Erbeynung sind."

2 Letter from Feilitsch to the Elector John, 24th December. Weimar Records.

3 Feilitsch und Minkwitz to the Elector John, zd Jan., 1526.

24

370 FORMATION OF [Book III.

on the first of May ; there, however, they said, every prince must appear
in person ; " there they would with greater dignity treat of the holy faith,
of peace and justice."

In order, however, to have done at least something, and in considera-
tion of the continued ferment among the people, a committee was appointed
to draw up a Recess.

The only remarkable circumstance as to this is, that the ordinances of
the foregoing diets of 1 523 and 1524 — that the Gospel should be preached
pure and intelligible, according to the interpretations of the received ex-
positors— was repeated, without any mention of the Fathers of the Latin
Church, or of the edict of Worms. The States mutually agreed to hold
themselves prepared to put down instantly every attempt at insurrection ;
and so far restored to their rights and station those who had been declared
infamous on account of their participation in the disturbances, that the
latter were allowed to take part in the sittings of the courts of justice.1
They were so numerous that the village tribunals would otherwise have
been entirely at a stand.

The whole attention of the public, as well as its active measures of pre-
paration, were now directed towards the approaching meeting, which,
indeed, proved to be decisive.

Saxony and Hessen had not as yet found the sympathy they expected
in their scheme of an evangelical league ; in fact, the Niirnberg deputies
alone had really shown an earnest inclination towards it : but this dis-
couragement did not induce those princes to abandon the idea : the two
ambassadors were of opinion that the affair must be undertaken with
redoubled vigour, in a personal interview between their respective
masters.

Meanwhile the other party also concentrated its forces. The chapter of
the cathedral of Mainz brought forward its long-forgotten metropolitan
powers, and summoned the chapters of its suffragans to an assembly at the
mother-church. The attention of this meeting was called to the danger
which threatened the clergy generally ; and the resolution was passed, to
send a deputation who should lay before the emperor and the pope a com-
plaint that the spiritual jurisdiction was invaded by the temporal authori-
ties ; to remind them of the services which the spiritual princes had, from
the earliest times, rendered to the empire and the church ; and to declare
that they were ready to perform similar and yet greater services in future,
but that, in return, they should expect their ancient privileges to be pro-
tected. They thought it most expedient to entrust this protection to
certain princes who had not fallen off from the faith, whom they specified.2

The wishes of these princes seemed to tend to the same point. Duke
George of Saxony and Duke Henry of Brunswick met at the residence of
the Elector of Mainz at Halle. A few days after, we find them again at
Leipzig, together with the Bishop of Strasburg ; they too determined to

J Recess (Neue Samml.), ii. 271, §§ 1, 4- This was then looked upon as a
victory obtained by the Protestants. Letters from the Niirnbergers, quoted by
Hortleder, i. viii. 1. Spalatin Annales in Mencken, ii. 652: " Concidit spes
sperantium, eo conventu totum Baalem restitutum, iri."

2 Letter from Count Albert of Mansfeld, sent with a copy of the treaty, to
the Elector of Saxony, in the Weimar Records. Letter from Waldenfels to
Vogler in v. d. Lith, p. 160.

Chap. VII.] RELIGIOUS LEAGUES 371

address themselves to the emperor. They represented to him that, seeing
the uninterrupted progress of the " damnable Lutheran doctrine," nothing
could be expected but a repetition of the rebellion ; nay, even an open war,
between the princes and lords themselves ; that attempts were daily made
to draw them too over to the Lutheran party ; and, since these were not
likely to succeed by amicable means, it seemed as if it were the design of
the Lutherans to force them into it, by instigating their subjects to revolt.
Against these attempts they now called upon the emperor for support.1
Immediately after the meeting, Duke Henry of Brunswick went to Spain,
thus throwing the weight of his personal solicitations into the balance.

Everything was thus prepared for the decisive battle. If the adherents
of innovation found their strongest support in the sympathy of the nation,
and in the mighty movement of the public mind generally ; on the other
hand, the champions of the papacy were sustained by the natural strength
of established institutions, and the resolute aversion of some powerful
princes to all change.

But they now likewise sought to engage in their behalf the active inter-
ference of the two supreme authorities whose dignity was so intimately
bound up with the spiritual constitution of the empire. They did not
doubt that these potentates would bring all their influence to their aid.

But they thus came into contact with two great political powers which
stood in very different relations to each other, from that which subsisted
between them in Germany ; — a relation subject at every moment to be
changed by the great events of Italy, and the course of European policy.

We shall be unable to understand the affairs of Germany, if we do not
first devote our attention to these events : they are also important, as
exhibiting another phase of the character and condition of the German
people.

1 Excerpt from a judgment given at Leipzig, quoted by Schmidt in his Deutsche
Geschichte, viii., p. 202. Yet I know not whether this meeting took place a
Leipzig or at Halle.

24 — 2

BOOK IV.

FOREIGN RELATIONS.— FOUNDATION OF THE NATIONAL
CHURCHES OF GERMANY.

1521-1528.
CHAPTER I.

FRENCH AND ITALIAN WARS, DOWN TO THE LEAGUE OF COGNAC, 152I 1526.

In the tenth century, when the peoples of the West, just struggling into
intellectual life and culture, were exposed on every side to attacks from
mighty and hostile forces, the first great victory was won by the Germans.1
In defending themselves, they rendered inestimable service to all others.
They restored security and independence to the West ; their successes
in arms revived the idea of a western empire ; two thirds of the great Caro-
lingian heritage devolved upon them.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the majesty and supremacy of the
empire were recognised by all the surrounding nations, north and south,
east and west.

Aries and Lyons, Milan and Pisa, were included within its dominions.
At the end of the twelfth, and the former half of the thirteenth century, we
find the emperors of Germany founding a strong domestic power in Italy :
more than once the idea of annexing the eastern empire to that of the west
suggested itself to them. Meanwhile wide tracts of country in the north
and east were covered with settlements ; and as outposts in the far distance,
those great colonies of the military orders2 were established, which were
unquestionably the best constituted and strongest power in the north.

For a while the conquests of the empire continued to advance, although
the imperial government no longer retained its pristine energy ; but at
length the dissolution of internal order, and the annihilation of the real
independence of the imperial throne, was felt on its frontiers : the empire
was no longer able to maintain its lofty station.

The spoliation began with the pope, who wrested Rome, the States of the
Church, and Avignon from the empire. In alliance with him, the French
crown got possession, noiselessly and bit by bit, of the kingdom of Aries ;
shortly after, the rising power of Poland and Lithuania gained a decisive
victory over the Teutonic order, no longer adequately supported. In the
fifteenth century, Bohemia made herself independent ; the states of Italy
scarcely preserved their allegiance to the empire even in name ; and, lastly,
the principle of separation reacted even on the races of German blood and
language who inhabited the Alps and the Netherlands. The contempla-
tion of so many disasters awoke that sorrowful indignation in the hearts of
true patriots to which we have already alluded.

As yet, however, no definite act of cession had been made on the side of
the empire ; excepting on some points, in favour of the pope, with whom,
however, the boundary line of their respective powers had not yet been

1 Merseburg, 933 a.d. Here the Germans, under the Emperor Henry I.,
defeated the Hungarians.

2 I.e., the Teutonic Order ; conquered Prussia and the Livonian Order ; con-
quered Livonia.

372

Chap. I.J FOREIGN RELATIONS 373

very firmly settled : it was still open to every kind of suggestion or
discussion.

Never, above all, had the project of giving up the north of Italy been
entertained. As early as the beginning of the fifteenth century, Rupert,
King of the Romans, made a resolute attack on Milan : in the middle of it,
after the Visconti became extinct, a party arose in Milan disposed to place
the city under the power of the emperor ; and we have traced the life-long
attempts of Maximilian to conquer Lombardy. He did not, it is true,
succeed : after many fluctuations in the fortunes of war the French at
length kept possession of Milan and Genoa ; but the ancient claims were
held in the liveliest remembrance ; and Francis I., who, moreover, had
never received investiture of the fief, was by no means regarded in the
empire in the light of a legitimate possessor.

On Charles V.'s accession to the throne, the magnificent prospect of a
recovery of all its rights once more opened on the empire.

We must remember, that this was the point of view which immediately
presented itself to men's minds, on the first approximation of Burgundy
and Austria. When Charles the Bold sent to offer his alliance to
Frederick III., he told him that he would make him more formidable than
any emperor had been for three hundred years : he represented to him
what an irresistible power must result from the union of their possessions
and privileges.1 The youthful prince who now ascended the throne was
the great grandson and heir of both those sovereigns, and his principalities
and kingdoms extended beyond the farthest limit that any imagination
could at that time have reached. How; then, was it possible that ideas of
this kind should fail to arise within him ?

Of all the nations of Western Europe, the German was, without doubt,
the best prepared for war. The nobles of that country were the first to
throw ofi the use of the lance — that chivalrous weapon which the new art
of war had rendered nearly useless : lords and vassals fought in the same
ranks.2 The foot-soldiers, or landsknechts, who were peasants, had no
equals except among the Swiss, — also of German race. The citizens were
masters in the use of fire-arms ; nor could any other nation in the world
have measured its naval forces against those of the Hanse towns and the
Netherlands combined.

All these elements of strength had been paralysed by the want of an
emperor endued with energy enough to put them in motion. Such an one
had never yet arisen ; but a new era now appeared at hand. The lands-
knechts hailed its advent in a song, the burden of which is, that they had
now a prince who would be able to pay them, and to keep them in the field.
At the diet of Worms, the reconquest of the lost or ceded dominions of the
empire was discussed with great earnestness. But here again we must not
for a moment lose sight of the fact, that the augmentation of the imperial
power was not the offspring of any essential change in the sentiments of the
nation. The nation was not disposed to grant to Charles V. greater rights
than it had granted to his predecessors ; nor to rally round him with greater
unanimity. The difference consisted in the union of power, such as had
never before centred in one house, with the rights and powers of the

1 The only account which may, however, be considered authentic, is given by
Schmidt from the Imperial Archives, book vii., cap. 24.

2 A passage from Pasqualigo's narrative will explain this further.

374 OUTBREAK OF WAR [Book IV.

empire. But the former included elements so heterogeneous that it could
never be amalgamated with the power conferred by the imperial throne.
The position of Charles V. was twofold ; hence it must of necessity in
time give birth to difficulties as peculiar as its own nature, and might
become perilous to the rights of the German empire in so far as they
were distinct from those of the individual then wearing the imperial
crown.

Even the origin of his wars is to be traced far more to the aggregate of
his various relations than to the peculiar interests of the empire.

We have already alluded to the revival of the old hostility between
France and Burgundy.

In the beginning of the year 1521 the declared enemies of the emperor
were favourably received and advanced at the French court. Francis I.
formed a connexion with the revolted communes in Castile ; in Germany,
also, the emperor continually thought he detected traces of his enemy's
machinations: letters and schemes of the most hostile nature reached him
from Italy i1 in May, Francis I. made an attempt to restore Navarre by
force to Albert. When the English expressed their pacific views and
wishes, he replied that he could not allow himself to be stopped in his
victorious career.2 He openly took under his protection Robert de la
Marck,3 who, in order to avenge a violation of his jurisdiction on the part
of the Chancellor of Brabant, was proceeding to acts of violence against
Luxemburg.

On the other hand, the emperor now concluded his treaty with Pope
Leo X., to whom the ascendancy of the French in Italy was extremely
oppressive, and any augmentation of it, intolerable.4 The alliance was
destined to revive and restore the rights of the papacy and the empire
conjointly, and even remote contingencies were not forgotten. The
emperor promised to assist in establishing the pope's claims on Ferrara ;
the pope, those of the empire on Venice.6 But they first determined
jointly to conquer Lombardy. Parma and Piacenza were to fall to the
share of the pope ; Milan and Genoa, to be governed by native rulers who
were to acknowledge the emperor as their sovereign lord. There is fre-
quent reference in the treaty to the legitimate subjection of all princes to
the pope and the emperor, from whom God would hereafter demand an
account of the state of the Christian republic.

In Germany well-meaning people were anxious to bring about a recon-
ciliation between the king and the emperor. The electors drew up a sort
of memorial, exhorting the King of France to a peaceful demeanour, and

1 Tractat de subtrahendis omnibus Csesaris aniicis, — solicitat licet frustra sacri
imperii electores,- — concitat et Uteris et nunciis turbatos HispaniEe populos.
From these and similar complaints in the Refutatio Apologise Dissuasoriae in
Goldast Polit. Imp., p. 870, is seen what especially irritated the emperor in addi-
tion to the direct attacks.

2 Extracts from the despatches of Fitzwilliam, the English minister in Paris,
dated 18th Feb. and 29th of May : Raumer, Letters from Paris, vol. i., p. 237.

z Lord of Bouillon and Sedan.

4 This motive, which the Italians seem afterwards to have forgotten, is very
apparent in a conference held by Henry VIII. with the French minister : " fere
off extreme subjection." — State Papers, Henry VIII., i., p. 1 3.

5 " Omnibus viribus suis spiritualibus et temporalibus." Art. 19. — Dumont,
iv. iii., p. 99.

Chap. I.] WITH FRANCE 375

a recognition of the rights of the empire. But the emperor was not pleased
at their interference ; he forbade the Elector of Mainz to send this paper ;
his chancellor declared to the Elector of Trier that no negotiation would
have any effect with the king, who would keep the peace only when re-
strained by force.1

The purposes, moreover, which had dictated the treaty with the pope
were wholly irreconcilable with an accommodation of the differences with
the king of France.

In August, 1521, it is true, delegates from the emperor and the king,
together with plenipotentiaries from Rome and England, met again in
Calais ; but from the first, little was to be anticipated from this confer-
ence. Of the mediators, one was already in alliance with the emperor,
while the other had long been negotiating with him, with a view to a
stricter alliance. They went over the old treaties, article by article ;
each party maintaining that it was the other who was chargeable with the
breach of it. The greatest impression was produced by a letter of Francis
to the Count of Carpi, which had fallen into the hands of the imperialists,
and in which the king spoke very plainly of the assistance he gave to
Robert de la Marck, and of his views on Naples and Sicily. When at
length a renewal of these treaties was proposed, the emperor's grand chan-
cellor, without the slightest hesitation, refused ; alleging that the basis
on which they were constructed was unsound ; the emperor having ancient
claims on France, of which they contained no mention. He not only
denied, as might be expected, the suzerainty of France over Flanders
and Artois, which he pronounced a mere momentary concession ; but
demanded that the inheritance of Charles the Bold should be given back
entire and undiminished ; he reminded the mediators what the throne of
Aragon, and what the empire was entitled to claim in the south of France :2
— pretensions which, in fact, expressed nothing less than a resolute deter-
mination to try the fortune of war ; and which it was impossible for
Francis to admit unless he had suffered a defeat.

From this congress at Calais, Charles V. reaped one advantage — he
won over the King of England. Henry VIII. had before solemnly
engaged to declare himself against one of his neighbours who should first
break the peace. The intercepted letter in question convinced him that
the blame rested with Francis I.3 He had, therefore, no hesitation in

1 " Wurde keine Handlung leiden, er sey denn dermaassen zugericht, dass er
das Friedens begere." — " He would hear of no negotiations unless he were in a
condition to ask for peace." From the mouth of the Elector of Trier : Planitz
to Frederick of Saxony. Nov. 1, 1 521.

2 Garnier, Histoire de France, xxiii., p. 359, from the MSS. of Bethune, which,
however, he does not mention, gives a very unsatisfactory account of the matter.
At the time of the first edition, I remarked that in time something material should
be done (which would be easy enough) in France for the authentic elucidations
of this history. Since then a beginning has been made by the publication of the
papers of Cardinal Gravella. In the first volume, p. 125 — 241, we find a Precis
des Conferences de Calais, a report written by the Grand Chancellor of the empire
in Latin, and put into the " langue Valonne ou Franfoise " (so he calls it) by Claude
de Chassey.

3 " Letters sent unto Rome by the Frenshe King to the Counte de Carpye
signed with his hande and subscribed by Robt. Tett (Robertet), which I have seen,
conteyning the hoole discourse of his intended enterprise, as well by Robt. de

376 CAMPAIGN OF 1521-22 [Book IV.

espousing the side of the emperor, from whom he carefully obtained
security for compensation for whatever pecuniary injury might arise to
him from his rupture with France. His plenipotentiary, Cardinal Wolsey,
proceeded from Calais to Bruges, where the stricter alliance, which had
formerly been discussed, was concluded.

The emperor really wished not to engage in the war without full justifica-
tion. As-, in consequence of the ambiguously worded article in the treaty
of peace, there was a doubt which party was in the right in the affair of
Navarre, he was rather glad than otherwise when he heard the news of
the serious demonstrations of the French in favour of Robert de la Marck.
" God be praised 1" exclaimed he ; " it is not I who begin the war ; God
affords me an occasion for defending myself." He was the more deter-
mined to pursue the enterprise to the end. " I must be a miserable
emperor," said he, " or he shall become a pitiable king of France."1

Such was the beginning of the war between Charles V. and Francis I.

It was, in fact, a direct continuation of the ancient hostilities between
Burgundy and France. At the same time, it was immensely important
to the Germanic empire, to which, for the first time, a well-grounded
prospect of re-establishing its rights and authority was re-opened. The
war, with the political changes consequent upon it, would then incessantly
react on its internal condition ; as we have already remarked, and shall
soon more distinctly perceive.

CAMPAIGN OF 152I-1522.

It seemed at first as if the struggle would be decided on the ancient
theatre of the Burgundian wars — the border country of France and the
Netherlands.

From the territory of Robert de la Marck, which had been subdued
without much difficulty, a stately imperial army, under the command of
the Count of Nassau, Sickingen, and Frundsberg marched upon the French
frontiers, conquered Mouzon, besieged Mezieres, and threatened the whole
of Champagne. In the mean time, however, Francis assembled his best
forces, and had soon so confident a feeling of his own superiority, that he
declared that God himself was evidently on the side of France. The
imperialists were compelled to raise the siege of Mezieres, and when they
met the French near Valenciennes, esteemed themselves happy to escape
without a beating. George Frundsberg regarded this retreat as one of
his most glorious achievements ; and it did, in fact, in some degree,
restore the balance of affairs : the French took some strong places in
Artois ; the imperialists, Tournay ; but these momentary successes led
to no great efforts or important results.2

In Italy, on the other hand, events unexpectedly advanced to a crisis.

la Marche in those parties, as the commotion of Italie and disturbance of Naples,
whereby the invasion of his partie evidently apperithe." Wolsey to King Henry.
— State Papers, i. 27. From the answer of Pace, p. 35, it appears that the king
thought his testimony decisive.

1 Aluigi Aleandro de' Galeazzi, Brusselles 3. Luglio, 1521. Lettere di principi,
i. 93. That is doubtless the meaning of this speech.

2 The Memoirs of Bellay and of Fleuranges on one side, and of Pontus Heuterus
and Sandoval on the other, describe this war.

Chap. I.] CAMPAIGN OF 1521 377

This was mainly brought about by the Swiss Confederation, which,
though still retaining the form of subjection to the empire, and receiving
its pay, enjoyed, in fact, political independence, and had for many years
been principally instrumental in deciding all the great struggles in the
north of Italy. Recently (a.d. 1512) the Swiss had reconquered Milan
for the Sforzas, and its loss, determined in a most bloody battle, was
entirely the result of their divisions. In the year 15 16, Maximilian had
undertaken, with their aid, a second expedition into Lombardy, the
failure of which was attributed solely to his defective conduct of it. Now,
too, both the pope and the emperor, in all their plans, reckoned on the
assistance of these neighbouring brave and warlike troops, as indispensable
to the success of their arms. Their intention was to march 16,000 Swiss
across the Alps and to advance upon Milan, at the same time that an im-
perial fleet appeared before Genoa, and a combined papal and Neapolitan
force on the Po.1

It seemed hardly possible to entertain a doubt of the success of their
efforts. The Confederation had espoused the part of the House of Austria
at the election, and was closely allied with the See of Rome. In the be-
ginning of the year, some thousand Swiss had entered Leo's service, and
their captains had been decorated by that pontiff with chains of gold.

But there was another party in Switzerland attached to France. This
party had been the cause of the division in the army in 1 5 1 5 ; had after-
wards concluded the permanent peace with France ; and though it did
not actually support the pretensions of the king to the imperial crown
(which would have given him legitimate claims to their services), being
now free from any anxiety on that score, manifested the liveliest desire
to enter into a strict alliance with him. The French left nothing undone
that could secure or strengthen the attachment of this party. Their
means were simple and infallible. They openly promised pensions, and
secretly administered bribes. Anshelm declares that not only the members
of councils and the burgesses were bribed, but all the loudest village
orators ; that many were bought with ten gulden, while not less than three
thousand found their way, by different channels, into some houses.2
Opposition was, indeed, not wanting. It was remarked that the contract-
ing parties bound themselves to a most unequal obligation in engaging
mutually to defend each other's territory; the Confederation, the exten-
sive dominions of the king on either side the Alps ; the king, the narrow
territory of Switzerland : it was said that Francis, by means of pensions,
bribes, and promises, would become almost absolute master of the Con-
federation ;3 but as majorities are generally swayed rather by interests
than by arguments, these representations had no effect.

The reply was, that the Confederation wanted something to fall back
upon in unexpected emergencies ; and where could a better connexion
be found ? that while the only sacrifice demanded of them was to let
their hot-blooded youth, whom they could not keep in order, flock to the
king's standard,, they would derive great advantages from him in return.
In Zurich alone a firm resistance was offered — the result in part of more

1 This plan is adopted in the treaty of alliance. Art. 9.

2 Anshelm, Berner Chronik, vi, p. 25.

3 Arguments on the other side are to be found, especially in the address of the
city of Zurich to the canton, quoted by Bullinger, i., p. 42.

378 CAMPAIGN OF 1521 [Book IV.

profound religious convictions ; but all other parts, — even at last Schwyz
and Glarus, which held out the longest — gave way. On the 5th of May,
1 5 2 1 , j ust as these plans were maturing, the alliance was ratified at Lucerne,
according to the terms of which, the king raised the pensions already
granted to the Confederation by one half ;* while the Swiss, on their side,
promised to come to his aid whenever any part of his dominions was
attacked, with a force of from six to sixteen thousand men. This is the
basis of every subsequent treaty between France and Switzerland. How
great a weight in Europe would the renewal of that relation to Milan
which had subsisted from 1512 to 1515 have given to Switzerland ! But
this she disregarded ; she sold her arm and her strength — the whole of
that warlike power by which she had won herself a name among the
nations — to the crown of France, and became the hired instrument of its
designs. She advanced another step in the career of separation from the
empire, to which she was bound by the ties of nationality and of history,
and sustained by which, she might have assumed a lofty station among
the powers of Europe. In July, 1521, a solemn deputation repaired to
Dijon, to deliver to Francis I. the sealed copy of the treaty ; and the king's
mother was delighted at the marks of reverential homage addressed to
her son at this ceremony ; immediately after which, bands of Swiss joined
the king's troops both in Picardy and in Italy.

It is evident how completely this must have thwarted all the plans of the
pope and the emperor.

In Italy, the breaking out of hostilities was hastened by a very ill-con-
certed attack of the French on the town of Reggio, where they intended
to carry off some Milanese emigrants. In July, 1521, Prospero Colonna,
to whom the supreme command over the combined papal and imperial
forces was given, left Bologna to attack Parma ; a fleet was sent to sea
against Genoa ; in Trent, German foot-soldiers nocked to the standard
of Francesco Sforza, son of Luigi il Moro ; while the exiled Ghibellines
appeared with a few boats on the Lake of Como, where they had always
carried on a sort of banditti warfare.2

But to what could all these detached efforts lead, when the force from
which the grand attack on the Milanese was expected had now made
common cause with the enemy, whose confidence was thus raised at all
points ? The enterprises against Genoa and Como completely failed. It
was fortunate, that at least the Germans from Trent found means to effect
a junction with the army before Parma, where the troops which had been
destined for the attack upon Genoa now likewise collected ; but, even with
this addition, they did not feel themselves strong enough for a serious and
decisive attack : on the 12th of September the siege was raised.3

The French at this time possessed an unquestioned superiority over
their enemies. The Venetians had sent into'the field five hundred men-at-

1 " Ut cognoscant intimum amorem, Hberalitatem, benevolentiam, et affec-
tionem dicti Christianissimi regis in eos." — Dumont, iv. i., p. 334.

2 Benedictus Jovius Historia Novocomensis in Grasvii Thes. Ital. iv., p. 71,
names, as leader, Johannes a Brinzia, cognomento stultus ; that is, Matto da
Brinzi, as he is otherwise called.

3 The somewhat contradictory details of the raising of this siege are to be found
in Guicciardini, Capella, Jovius (Vita Pesc. ii. 300. Leonis Xmi, iii. 100.) See
also Nardi, Storie florentine, vi., p. 170.

Chap. I.] CAMPAIGN OF 152 1 379

arms, and six thousand foot soldiers ; the Duke of Ferrara, who was not
blind to the danger impending over him, fell upon the papal territory ;
the Swiss came down from their mountains in detachments, at their head
the Bernese, led by the most ardent partisans of the French. The historian
Guicciardini, who was with the allied armies as papal commissioner,
declares, that if the French had attacked them at that moment, when also
discords and disorders had broken out among them, they would have
obtained an easy victory.1

But just at this moment, hope of succour and of safety dawned in the
very point whence the danger had arisen.

Imperial and papal envoys had arrived in Switzerland, richly provided
with money and all the means of corruption, and had again found a soil
very favourable to the fulfilment of their commission. By pressing on the
Swiss their old obligations towards the emperor and Austria, and especially
towards the pope, they brought into full and distinct light the extent of the
danger into which the Confederation had rushed. They were bound by
ancient treaties to defend part of the territories of Austria (i.e., Franche
Comte), and all those of the Church ; yet in the teeth of these, they had
entered into a new treaty, a special clause of which declared that they were
to take the field against all parties specified, and especially against Austria
and the pope, if they should attack the king's dominions. There were
still some Swiss in the papal armies, who had taken part in the attack on
Parma, while others of their countrymen co-operated, under Lautrec, in
the relief of that place ; and it was not easy to see what would be the
result of their coming in contact. The French alliance was the work of a
party, and nothing was more natural than that another party should be
formed in every place to oppose it. The disorderly and ill-timed departure
was also a ground of complaint and reproach ; in some places the whole
labour of getting in the harvest had been left to women. Zurich, which
had rejected the French alliance by an unanimous resolution of the council
in the city and the communes in the country, was determined at all events
to maintain that witff the pope. All these various inclinations and passions
were now laid hold of, and turned to account by the old master of Swiss
intrigues, Cardinal von Sitten. In Zurich he was allowed to levy 2,700
men, though under the condition that they were to be employed solely for
the defence of the papal possessions, and on no account for the attack on
Milan : these troops however formed a mere rallying point around which
partisans of the pope and emperor gathered from all parts ; the cardinal
granted still higher pay than the French plenipotentiaries : we find that
a banner or company, which had been recruited for the service of France,
went over in a body, with the single exception of its captain, to that of the
pope : above 6,000 men mustered in Coire, towards the end of September,
and were quickly joined by troops from the Grisons and the Pays de Vaud.2

The pope was already in great dismay and perplexity at the ill results of
his undertakings, when he received these tidings. His nuncio Ennio
assured him that the clause in the agreement with Zurich would not restrain

1 Guicciardini, xiv., p. 408. Se fosse sopravenuto Lautrech, gli metteva
facilissimamente in fuga.

2 The offers made by the imperial and papal party are to be seen in Anshelm.
Bullinger is more explicit as to the affairs of Zurich, cap. 24-26. See Hottinger,
Geschichte der Eidgenossen (Miiller's continuation), i., p. 55, 63.

380 CAMPAIGN OF 1521 [Book IV.

the troops of that canton from attacking Parma, Piacenza, and even
Ferrara, though they belonged to the Church ; nay, that he was confident
that if he did but distribute money among some of the leaders, he could
induce them to undertake anything he wished.1

This revived the almost extinguished hopes of the allies. It was evident
that the mere appearance of so strong a Swiss force in the combined army
must cripple the strength of the enemy, which mainly consisted of the Swiss
in his service. The only question was, how to effect a junction, and to
accomplish this the army set itself in motion. Cardinal Giulio de' Medici
had just arrived from Florence, and had appeased all the quarrels of the
leaders and secured the good will of the troops by the Florentine gold of
which he was the bearer ; he had thirteen sumpter mules in his train, all
said to be laden with money. On the first of October, Prospero Colonna
crossed the Po at Casal Maggiore and marched up the river Oglio. Mean-
while the Swiss who had come down from the Alps across the Morbegno
arrived from Chiavenna. Neither mountain nor flood, neither the warnings
of their countrymen nor the hostilities of the French, had power to deter
them. At the end of October they too appeared on the other side the
Oglio.

It was evident that the safety of the French depended on preventing
the junction of these two bodies of troops. Prospero Colonna had taken
up a position near Rebecca, so little advantageous, that even the cautious
Venetians were tempted to attack him ; the Swiss were urgent to do so :
they wanted to fight before their countrymen reached the scene of warfare ;
and in a council of war which was held, the voices were nearly unanimous
for the attack. The commander-in-chief, Lautrec, alone was not to be
induced to comply with their wishes.2 Many motives for his refusal were
assigned ; the most generally received was his want of resolution : he was
not a general fitted for enterprising warfare. He chose rather to strengthen
the garrisons in the nearest fortified towns, and to take up a strong position
behind the Adda. Prospero Colonna soon after joined the Swiss at
Gambara without any impediment. A part of them, as the nuncio had
predicted, were not reluctant to advance with him upon Milan. The more
conscientious, who could not be induced by any promises to do so, marched
upon Reggio, whence they were to make an attack on the papal cities of
Parma and Piacenza.

The allied army thus acquired an incontestable superiority. The Swiss
in the French service, discontented at not having earned the bounty dis-
tributed after a battle ; dissatisfied with Lautrec, who preferred his German
guard to them ; and exhorted by messengers from Switzerland, for God's
sake not to fight their brother confederates, deserted the ranks and returned

1 Galeacius Capella gives, p. 180, an extract from the letter : " Demum pecunia
facile esse duces corrumpere, qui milites quo res postularet technis suasionibusque
impellerent."

2 The version which Leferron (v., p. 130) quotes from the mouth of an eye-
witness— that Lautrec had really intended to make the attack on the following
day, but was prevented by the Venetians — is a mere pretext. Bellay says :
" La tardivete de nos chefs fut cause de les nous faire perdre." — Coll. Univ.,
torn, xvii., p. 180. The particulars are mentioned by the most trustworthy
Italians, such as Galeazzo. We may judge of the effect of this event from the
Chronicles of Rabbi Josef : he says of the French, " They are a nation voyd of
counsel."

Chap. I.] CAMPAIGN OF 1521 381

home in troops. If, therefore, in 15 15, the dissensions of the Swiss had
essentially facilitated the conquest of Milan to the French, the conse-
quences of those dissensions now mainly occasioned their disasters. The
allies, at this moment, reinforced by fresh troops from the Grisons, effected
their passage across the Adda with equal skill and success. Lautrec found
himself entirely confined to the fortified towns.

But these had long been the scene of hostile ferment. The Ghibellines
hated the French government ; nor were the Guelphs treated by it with
all the consideration they expected ; their most eminent leader, the aged
Trivulzi, whose authority had for a time been superior to that of the
French governor, had, on that account, fallen into the disfavour of the
king, which had terminated only with his life. To these causes of discon-
tent were added the acts of extortion and violence which generally render
the domination of the French hateful to every country subject to their
sway. On Lautrec's arrival in Milan, he found so great an agitation, that
he thought it necessary to put it down by severe military executions ; he
caused the aged Christofero Pallavicini, a near relation of the House of
Medici, and one of the chiefs of the Ghibelline faction, to be beheaded in the
castle.1 It is easy to imagine what was the impression produced by this
cruelty, combined with the spectacle of a defeated army and the report of
the approach of an enemy of overwhelming force. Upon the state of the
public mind resulting from such causes, Prospero and Cardinal Giulio had
all along placed their hopes.2 Francesco Sforza had fostered this by
proclamations, breathing nothing but clemency and mildness, and pro-
mising the paternal rule of a native prince, which were read with avidity.
As the allies approached Milan, they were urged to advance without delay
and to venture on an attack ; the whole city, it was said, would rise in
their favour. It was in November, the weather and the roads as bad as
possible ; but under these adverse circumstances they marched forwards.
On the evening of the 19th they reached Milan, and immediately pitched
their camp before it. Meanwhile, a small party of light horsemen having
reported the bad state of the entrenchments which Lautrec had hastily
thrown up round the city, the Marquess Pescara, commander of the Spanish
infantry, said : " We must find quarters in the suburbs ;" and instantly
placing himself at the head of sixty Spanish riflemen, advanced on the Porta
Romana, followed by an irregular troop of Landsknechts. The event
which was to decide the fate of Italy for centuries, began like an adventure
undertaken in wantonness and sport. Prospero Colonna, unwilling to be
outdone, collected another party of Germans and Spaniards, and marched
on the Porta Ticinese. The entrenchments were easily forced ; but, as
nearly the whole of the enemy's army lay in the city, and rallied in haste to
make resistance, the affair was still doubtful, and a part at least of the
assailants held it expedient to retire. At this crisis the population rose ;
the streets resounded with the cry " the Duke ! the Empire for ever ! down

1 Cronaca Grumello, in Verri, iii., p. 221.

2 Sepulveda, Prasfatio in Aristotelem de parvis Naturalibus (Cf. Sepulvedae
Vita et Scripta, p. cvii), says, of Giulio : " Non ignarus, in uno Mediolano cetera
oppida expugnari." Vettori admirably describes the change of circumstances.
" In Milano in facto la parte Ghibellina e superiore assai, i popoli sono sempre
desiderosi di mutazioni : chi lascia la campagna e si retira dentro alle mura,
perde di riputazione."

382 CAMPAIGN OF 1521 [Book IV.

with the French !" a universal insurrection appeared imminent, and as the
main body of the allied army at this moment approached, and the Lands-
knechts, wading up to their belts in water through the ditches, mounted
the entrenchments, Lautrec thought the defence of the city desperate, and
retreated through the Porta Comasina on the opposite side. The Venetians
were easily disarmed. The Swiss officers would not abandon the French,
and hurried after them. In less than two hours the city was taken.1 On
entering it, the imperialists found all the streets brilliantly illuminated.
The same evening it was publicly proclaimed that the emperor and pope
had determined to restore to the Milanese their hereditary sovereign, Duke
Francesco Sforza. Geronimo Morone, the confidential councillor of that
prince, who had kept alive the connection with the Ghibelline families, and
had contributed more than any other individual to the success of the
enterprise, took the reins of government.

Pa via and Lodi, on the one side the Po, Parma and Piacenza on the other,
followed the example of Milan. The latter cities received very welcome
assistance from the Swiss of Zug and Zurich, who had not accompanied the
army to Milan.

The matter was, however, by no means at an end. The French army
had not dispersed, as was expected ; it took up a strong position in Cre-
mona, whence it menaced Milan on the one side and Parma and Piacenza on
the other ; it was still in possession of a number of castles ; Novara,
Trezzo, Pizzighetone, in the Milanese ; the strongholds in the passes of the
Alps, Domo d'Ossola and Arona, with all the others on the Lago Maggiore.
The sudden death of Leo X., whom fate summoned awayjust as he received
the first favourable tidings, compelled the allied commanders to be frugal,
and to discharge as many of their troops as they could possibly spare.
For the moment, at least, they could not reckon on any further support
from the Tuscan or Papal dominions, which were distracted by troubles of
their own ; while the French had at their disposal the resources of Venice
and Genoa. The most important thing, however, was that, after this
disaster, of which they were themselves the sole cause, the Swiss acted with
greater concert. The emperor invited them to enter into alliance with him ;
the Council of Regency reminded them of their duty as members of the
empire ; an embassy from Milan offered them a subsidy ; but all was in
vain : the French party, reinforced by the powerful captains who were re-
turned from Italy, asserted its superiority ;2 its adversaries themselves
were struck by the danger which threatened the Confederation from opposi-
tion to the will of the majority. Zurich now recalled her citizens from
Italy, and the twelve cantons granted the king a levy of 16,000 men : they
gave leave to the French plenipotentiary to inspect them himself, which
had never been granted before ; and at the end of January, 1522, whilst
falling snow still covered the roads with fresh drifts, they marched across
the Alps.

1 A letter of the Marquis of Mantua to his mother, dated 21st Nov. 1521, and
printed in the thirty-second volume of Saniito's Chronicle, contains the best and .
the most trustworthy account of this event, together with a letter of the
Legate, Giulio Medici, written between the evening of the 19 th and the
morning of the 20 th.

2 On the 29 th November, we find the French agent, Galeazzo Visconti, in
Lucerne: "Queste lige," he says, "sono in grosso dixordine, — ma a tuto spero
troverase bono recapito, etiam che cumfaticha et spexa." — Molini, Doc. i., p. 132.

Chap. I.] CAMPAIGN OF 1522 383

By this event the whole political face of things assumed a new and most
complicated aspect.

The Swiss being thus opposed to the claims of the emperor and the
empire, they were only to be maintained (if indeed it was possible to main-
tain them at all) by purely German resources : no union of hereditary
possessions, no negotiations, availed the emperor further ; he had nothing
to look to but the strong arm and the tried faith of his Landsknechts.

A considerable body of these troops were already collected in the
Milanese. They had been levied the preceding year in Tyrol and Swabia,
chiefly with the pope's money : it appears from extant documents that
the Wurtemberg government ordered its servants to let every man go
who would be better out of the country than in it.1 Francis of Castelalt
had raised five companies.2 The most renowned of German captains,
George of Frundsberg, now set himself in motion. He was personally
acquainted with Francesco Sforza, who had once paid him a visit at his
castle of Mindelheim : another Italian pretender, Geronimo Adorno,
who aspired at regaining his power in Genoa, and had rendered important
service at the conclusion of the treaty, appeared in Germany well pro-
vided with money ; the drum was beat in the streets of Augsburg, and in
a very short time twelve companies of Landsknechts nocked to the stan-
dard of George Frundsberg, and marched under his orders from Glurns
on the 12th of February. He had to contend with all the difficulties of
the season, and under their severest form ; the Grisoners would not allow
him to pass over the Valtelline, so that he was obliged to take a much
worse road, which the labour of two hundred peasants was required to
clear and level, over the Wormser Joch to Lovere and the Lago d'lseo ;
notwithstanding which he arrived at the right moment, just as the Swiss
and French were about to attack Milan from Monza.3

A third German army, 6000 strong, had also assembled at Trent, under
the command of Francesco Sforza ; Adorno, whose personal hopes and
interests all hung on the issue of this campaign, hurried back to lead on
these troops to the scene of action.

The French made an attempt on Milan ; but Prospero had put himself
in an excellent state of defence, both against the castle within, and the
enemy without. He belonged to the classical school of Italy of that time,
and it was affirmed that Caesar's defence of Alesia had served as a model
for His operations.4

The French and Swiss took Novara, Vigevene, and some other places ;
but — what was much more important — they, were unable to prevent the
junction of Francesco Sforza with Prospero : on the 4th of April, after
an absence of twenty-two years, the new duke entered Milan, amidst
the ringing of bells, the incessant firing of guns, and the joyous shouts
of the whole population : a foreign yoke had now taught them the value
of a prince of their own race and country ; and they deemed that such

1 Avvisi da Trento, dated 9th July, 1521 ; Molini, i., p. 99. On the 15th the
order was published in Wiirtenberg. — Sattler, p. 77.

2 Jovius, Vita Alfonsi, p. 185, names him.

3 Reissner, Historia Hern Georgen und Hern Casparen von Frundsberg.

4 Jovius : Pescara, p. 316. If he must have an example, that of the Thebans
when they besieged the Cadmeia, and endeavoured at the same time to defend
themselves against Alexander (Arrian, i. 7) would be more appropriate.

3«4 BATTLE OF BICOCCA [Book IV.

an one would be more solicitous for their welfare, and more attached to
their persons and interests than a stranger. Francesco Sforza lay under
the unfortunate necessity of beginning his reign with demands ; never-
theless, his people vied with each other in the zeal with which they com-
plied with them. High and low brought money and money's worth ;
everybody strove to show him affection, and to obtain his favour.1 An
Augustine friar, Andrea da Ferrara, fostered this spirit in the people, by
the fervid eloquence of discourses in which he represented the French
as enemies of God.

The imperialists were thus once more in a condition to appear in the
field. After relieving Pavia they took up a strong position at Bicocca,
before Milan, in the hope that their impetuous enemy would attack them
here.

Nor did they long expect in vain. As usual, the error last committed
was that now most anxiously avoided. It was the unanimous opinion
in the French army that nothing had been wanting the preceding autumn
at Rebecca but a resolute attack, to have ensured the victory : the Swiss,
in particular, were convinced of this ; they determined not to let the
opportunity slip by again, and loudly urged their leaders to lead them on
to the enemy. Lautrec had lost his judgment and presence of mind.
Though he did not entirely approve of the proposition of the Swiss, he
did not dare resolutely to oppose them ; he suffered himself to be over-
ruled. On the morning of the 27 th of April the Swiss and the French
moved upon Bicocca.

The imperialists had encamped in a spot enclosed by morass, hollow
ways, hedges, and ditches ; had entrenched themselves here according to
the rules of art, as in a fortification, and placed their guns on lofty breast-
works. The army consisted of the German companies, which occupied
the front under George Frundsberg and Rudolf Hal ; of Spanish infantry,
especially arquebusiers, who had remained in Italy ever since the former
wars, and had fought, under Gonsalvo di Cordova, by the side of the
Germans ; and lastly, of Italian Ghibellines, who wished to see the power
of the empire restored, in order that they might avail themselves of its
protection to obtain the mastery over their adversaries. It was an army
which fully represented the substantial powers of Spain and Germany,
as united under the wearer of the imperial crown. Francesco Sforza,
whose interests were most immediately at stake, the very next morning
occupied a bridge which would have afforded access to the camp, with
Milanese troops, horse and foot. He was accompanied by a monk of San
Marco, who proclaimed that heaven had decreed the victory to the new
duke. This patriotic excitement was another ally of the imperial cause.

On the other hand, the troops of the Confederation stood now undivided
on the side of the French. As often as this had been the case before,
they had turned the scale of victory, and they were enflamed with con-
fidence in their present success.

Their tactics had hitherto always consisted in a headlong, furious,
straightforward onset on the camp or the artillery of the enemy ; and this
was the mode of attack they now adopted. They formed into two large
bodies ; the one out of the country parts, under Arnold von Winkelried

1 Grumello, quoted by Verri, p. 223.

Chap. I.] BATTLE OF BICOCCA 3^5

of Unterwalden ; the other from the cities, under Albrecht von Stein.
They would submit to no intermixture with the foreigner, and responded
to the exhortations of their leaders, who sought to moderate their impetu-
osity, with shouts and curses; according to the plan of attack, the body
from the villages was to have made the first onset, and that from the
cities the second ; but they advanced nearly in line, so as to form a right
and left wing ; the Junkers, pensioners and camp followers were forced
by the cries of the multitude to advance into ths foremost ranks. In-
spired by the ferocity of savages rather than by the noble enthusiasm
of heroes, they trusted only to themselves and despised all discipline and
guidance. They knew that they were mercenaries, but every one of
them was bent on doing his duty : their only thought was to fight out
the matter hand to hand ; to earn the storming money (Sturmgeld),
and to conquer their old foes, the Swabians — the landsknechts.

But the camp upon which they were now advancing was in a better
state of defence than any they had before attacked. As they moved
forward, their left flank experienced a fearful reception from the enemy's
well-posted infantry, and the order of battle was disturbed from that
moment ; the country troops pressed upon those of the towns. As these
however, did not give way, the former recovered their ranks, and, in
spite of the incessant fire of the arquebusiers, both bodies at once charged
the lines of the imperial entrenchments.

Seeing the enemy approach, George Frundsberg alighted from his horse,
took a halberd, and placed himself in the ranks of the landsknechts.
They fell on their knees and prayed. Meanwhile, the Swiss came on.
" Be it so," cried Frundsberg, " in a good hour, and in God's name."
The landsknechts sprang to their feet; the Swiss advanced in deep columns
through the ditches and hollow ways against the landsknechts, and began
the fight. " Ha ! do I meet thee there, old comrade ?" exclaimed Arnold
of Winkelried, as he caught sight of George of Frundsberg, with whom he
had formerly served ; " then by my hand must thou die." " God willing,"
replied Frundsberg, " thou by mine." Frundsberg received a stab in the
thigh ; Winkelried was stru;ck to the earth by a shot. The combatants
rushed forward into each other's lines, and were mingled in one common
struggle. The valour o£ Rudolf Hal and of Castelalt ; of the standard-
bearer Brandesser and of Stralin's troop, were celebrated in song and
story. But the Swiss, too, kept their ground, which was the more remark-
able, as they were not yet out of the range of the artillery ; they still
hoped to overcome the enemy, in spite of his present advantages.

Meanwhile, the French cavalry had made an attack on the bridge,
and had been repulsed ; their retreat had borne along the troops in the
rear. The cry arose, " The rear is running !" To the effect of the artillery
the impossibility of carrying the entrenchments, and the obstinate resist-
ance of the enemy, was now added the danger of being abandoned. The
retreat of the Swiss was characterised by the same impetuosity as their
onslaught. They left two or three thousand men dead on the field, but
they retreated in tolerably good order.

The Italian cavalry and the Spanish infantry now rushed out upon
them from behind the entrenchments, but without doing them much
injury.

Frundsberg, too, was urged to pursue them ; but he was satisfied with

25

386 CONQUEST OF GENOA [Book IV.

the repulse of so powerful an enemy : he said that he had earned honour
enough for one day : he felt too sensibly the importance of the victory
to endanger it by a tumultuous pursuit.1

As the military chest of the French was exhausted; the Swiss were no
longer to be kept in the field ; they betook themselves to their homes.
The French too now gave up the campaign as lost. At different points,
they found their way back across the Alps. The whole Milanese territory
fell once more into the hands of the Sforzas, and acknowledged the
emperor as its feudal lord.

This rendered it impossible for the French party to retain its footing
in Genoa. Unfortunately, however, though powerless for any effectual
resistance, it was powerful enough to prevent the conclusion of a treaty,
while it was yet time. The city was taken and given over to pillage.
The Adorni now attained the end which they had aimed at from the first,
and got possession of the government.

In the Italian historians the share taken in this event by the Germans
appears less prominent than it really was. The historical ballad,2 how-
ever, circumstantially relates, " how the eagle was once more let loose,
and many a one who had borne his head high must now cower before it ;
how George Frundsberg led an army at the Emperor's command towards
the sea-coast to attack Genoa : willingly do the landsknechts follow him ;
the Genoese feel that they cannot withstand the imperial crown, but the
arrival of French succours under Peter Navarra leads them to attempt it :
then the cannons are brought into the field, and are cheerily served by
the landsknechts ; there is a skirmish under the walls ; the storming
party and the battle are a sport to the Germans ; it is they who con-
quer the city." There is no allusion whatever to any foreign co-operation,
to any foreign leader. It is certain that they had the largest share both
in the victory and the plunder. " They measured the broad cloth with
their spears ; they clothed themselves in silk and in velvet." A number
of the wealthier families of Genoa bought an exemption from pillage.
Frundsberg was much displeased that treasure which would have sufficed
to maintain the army in the field for months, fell into their hands in so
disorderly a manner. He selected out of the booty a beautiful mariner's
compass for himself, as a memorial of the day. "Great as was the loss of

1 In the account of this battle I have adhered to the oldest and simplest sources :
Anshelm among the Swiss, Galeazzo Capra among the Italians, and Reissner's
Historia der Frundsberge, among the Germans. I am not ignorant of the
objections made, especially by Bullinger, against certain, passages of the latter.
The Swiss would not allow that they had been beaten by the landsknechts, but
replied to the songs in which the Germans celebrated their deeds, with others in
which they defended their own. One song (reprinted by Griineisen, p. 400) by
Nicholas Manuel, which is grossly false, is very well known. But even there it is
not positively denied, as Bullinger will have it, that the combatants fought hand
to hand. According to the information brought the next day by a Venetian
spy, about 1,000 men fell on the side of the imperialists. The statement of Ugo
Foscolo, in Sanuto's Chronicle, vol. xxxiii., is by no means clear. " Non si
sa," he finishes by saying, " chel causasse, nostri si misseno a ritirare in gran
desordine." His description certainly leaves the matter in complete obscurity.

2 " Ein Hupsch neii lied von der Stat Genna und wie sy die Lantzknecht
erobert haben." — " A pretty new song of the city of Genoa, and how it was con-
quered by the Landsknechts." — See Varese, Storia di Genova, iv., p. 315.

Chap. I.] HOSTILE DESIGNS OF FRANCE 387

the Genoese, it did not seem to affect them much ; they had feared the
far more serious evil of a shock to their credit.1

Thus were these dependencies of the Imperial Chamber, Genoa and
Milan, after long separation, reannexed : a victorious imperial army-
more powerful than any that had existed since the time of Henry VI.,
placed over them rulers recommended by their hereditary claims, and by
their attachment to the empire. The result was in fact greater than the
emperor expected — greater than he would even have ventured to aim at.
At the beginning of the year, he had aspired only to gain over the Swiss,
or even to buy their services with a yearly pension ; now, they were
defeated and repulsed. The forces of Central Germany, which were far
more at the emperor's command, had fought the battle and completed
the conquest.

And at this moment the prospect and the inducement to enterprises
of far wider reach presented themselves to his view.

CAMPAIGN OF 1523, 1524. ATTACK ON FRANCE.

The claims of the empire extended not alone to Italy; they also embraced
a large part of the south of France, nor had this portion of them by any
means fallen into oblivion. The Elector of Trier still bore the title of
arch-chancellor of Aries; in the year 1401, Rupert had destined his son
to fill the post of vicar of that kingdom ; in 1444, Frederick had summoned
the dauphin to his assistance " as the kinsman and vicar of the Holy
Roman Empire." At a later period, it had often been remarked that
France had neglected to renew its fief as feudatory of the empire.

It was likewise to be considered that Charles V. was not merely emperor ;
as prince of Burgundy, he possessed other rights which he had never
renounced ; he never ceased to demand the restitution of the French
possessions which had been wrested from his house ; the blood and the
spirit of one of the ancient vassals of France still lived in him.

For his schemes on this side the Alps, Charles now found as powerful
an ally in Henry VIII. of England as, for those on the other, in the pope.
Henry, too, had not forgotten the ancient claims of his predecessors on
France ; he still retained the title which expressed them, and Calais
was still in the hands of the English. Immediately after the conclusion
of the treaty at Bruges, in which the emperor and the king mutually
promised to maintain their claims by force of arms, with combined efforts
by sea and land, Wolsey laid before his master a long list of provinces,
towns, and castles which he meditated wresting from the French.2 In
the correspondence of the king with the cardinal, it is seriously proposed
that he should invade France in person ;3 and this project is given as a
reason for endeavouring to keep the Scottish border at peace. At one
time, the English were inclined to confine themselves within the part of
France nearest to them, from Calais to the Somme, as being easier to
maintain than the more distant Guyenne ; but occasionally the idea of
placing the crown of France on his own head floated before Henry's
imagination. On hearing a report of the bad state of things in that

1 Polydorus Virgilius, Hist. Angl., 27, 64.

2 Pace to Wolsey, 10th Sept., 1521. State Papers, i. 52.

3 Wolsey to Henry, Sept., 1522. Ibid., p. 107.

25—-'

388 DESIGNS OF ENGLAND [Book IV.

country, lie exclaimed that " they were making a way for him there, as
King Richard III. had done for his father in England ;* he trusted he
should govern France himself." These thoughts were sedulously fostered
by Leo, who caused a draft of a bull to be prepared, in which he formally
released the subjects of Francis I. from their oath of fidelity.2 On the
other hand, the king, as well as the emperor, promised him aid against
the heretics.3 It forms a link in this chain of circumstances, that
Henry VIII. — like his cardinal, a zealous adherent of Thomas Aquinas —
broke a lance with Luther, in behalf of that great teacher of the church :
he was delighted with the favourable reception his book experienced in
Rome,4 and with the title of Defender of the Faith which it procured him.

In March, 1522, Henry VIII. caused war to be proclaimed against the
King of France, by his herald. Already the English merchants had left
the ports, and the English students the universities, of France ; very
little English property fell into Francis's hands. In June, Lord Surrey,
admiral of both the imperial and the English fleets, made an attack on
the coast near Cherbourg ; in September, an army from England and the
Netherlands joined and invaded Picardy ; but no considerable results
ensued either there or elsewhere : a few towns were plundered, and some
small districts laid waste ; then came the unfavourable time of year, and
the troops retreated.

Much more brilliant were the prospects which opened on the campaign
of the following year (1523). As in the earlier times of the monarchy, a
powerful vassal of the French crown took part with its foes. The con-
stable Bourbon, the second man in the realm, proffered his assistance to
the emperor and the king. This fact is of so general an interest, that we
may be excused for dwelling upon it somewhat at length, even in a German
history.

Louis XL, who had already found means to reduce to subjection so
many of the territories of the great vassals, had also meditated a scheme
for bringing about the escheat of the possessions of the house of Bourbon
to the crown. On the marriage of his daughter with Pierre de Bourbon-
Beaujeu, he extorted from that prince a promise that, in default of male
issue, he would leave to the crown all the possessions of his house which
were alienable.6 A younger branch of the house still flourished in the
person of the Count de Montpensier, whom it was the king's intention to
exclude from the succession.

After some time, the event which had been foreseen actually occurred ;
Duke Peter died and left only one daughter, Countess Susanna.

1 More to Wolsey, p. 111. " The kinges grace saied that he trusted in God to
be theyre governour hym selfe, and that they shold by thys meanys make a way
for hym, as King Richard did for his father." 21st Sept. 1522. No one will
believe that this was the first time such an idea crossed his mind.

2 " Excommunicato lata per Leonem Papam X. contra Franciscum I. . . .
qua etiam subditos ejus plenissime absolvit ab omni fidelitatis nexu et juramento.
4th Sept., 1521." — Du Mont, Supplement, iii., p. 70.

» Herbert, Life of Henry VIII., p. 118.

4 Pace to Wolsey, 27th Oct., 1521. " Itt is to Hys Graces grete contentacion
and comforte."

5 " En tant qu'il le touchoit ou pourroit toucher, que tous les duchez, contez et
vicomtez de la Maison de Bourbon, advenant qu'il n'eust enfans masles de son
mariage, appartinssent au Roi." — Extract from the original document in Pasquier,
Recherches de la France, vi., c. xi.

Chap. I.] BOURBON 389

Meanwhile, however, Louis XII. had ascended the throne, and was
not inclined rigidly to enforce the claims of the crown, acquired by such
questionable means. He recognised the feudal rights of the house of
Montpensier, nor did he contest certain of the hereditary claims of the
surviving princess ; in order to prevent all dispute, he brought about a
marriage between the young Count Charles de Montpensier and Countess
Susanna, and their rights were completely blended by a mutual donation
founded on a prudent and equitable basis.

Such was the origin of the vast power of Charles, Duke of Bourbon.1
He united in his person two principalities, two duchies, four counties, two
viscounties, and seven considerable lordships ; his income was reckoned
at 120,000 crowns ; far more than the richest of German princes then
possessed. He had strong places garrisoned by his troops ; he convoked
his states, and levied taxes ; to crown all, King Francis revived the
dignity of constable in his person. He was brave, bountiful, and affable ;
and since he had succeeded in repulsing Maximilian's attack on Milan in
the year 15 16, he enjoyed the universal respect both of the army and the
nation. Even then his thoughts took the highest nights ; the lineal
succession to the throne was by no means secure ; he hoped in time to
ascend it himself. The family of Alencon, indeed, possessed nearer
claims ; but he flattered himself that these had been forfeited by the former
rebellion of that line. He even went so far as to solicit the support of the
republic of Venice, in case of the king's death 2

Events however took a totally different course. The succession to the
throne became more secure ; the government was entirely in the hands
of the confidential servants of the king and his mother. Bourbon was
recalled from Milan, and excluded from any share in affairs of state at
home ; in the very next campaign, that of the Netherlands, the privileges
of constable were no longer granted him. He might already be regarded
as leader of the numerous malcontents created by the disorders in the
government of Francis I., when, in the year 1522, his proud and splendid
station was threatened by overwhelming danger.

His wife, Susanna, died without issue ; and although she had con-
firmed by fresh acts the donations made to him at her marriage, the most
formidable pretensions to her inheritance were immediately put for-
ward.3

The king's mother, Louisa of Savoy, niece of Duke Peter, and hence a
member of the elder line, made a general demand to enter upon all the
rights enjoyed by Susanna ; but scarcely was her suit commenced, when
the Crown itself came forward with still more sweeping claims ; alleging

1 The Constable of Bourbon's lineal claim to the throne of France was traced
through the female line by descent from Isabella, grand-daughter of Philip III.
and sister of Philip VI., the first King of the House of Valois. Isabella married
Peter I., Duke of Bourbon, I34:-I356.

2 Notes taken especially from Badoer, Relatione di Milano, in Sanuto's
Chionicle. Bourbon explained these claims to the envoy, adding, — " perho in
quel caso la ser ma Signoria volesse ajutarlo." Badoer describes him thus :
" Prosperoso, traze un pallo di ferro molto gaiardamente, teme dio, e devoto,
piatoso, humano e liberalissimo."

3 This demand was prompted by motives of sheer cupidity, and took a double
form. The female fiefs were claimed by the Queen Mother, while the King
claimed the male fiefs as escheating to the crown.

39Q BOURBON [Book IV.

not only the promise made by Count Peter, but a multitude of other very
plausible titles. The more clear and incontestable of these were soon
declared valid ; and even with regard to the others, the parliament could
give no other advice to the duke than that he should endeavour to come
to some arrangement with the adverse party.1 The constable saw him-
self in imminent danger of sinking to the rank of an insignificant Count
of Montpensier. But to this he was determined not tamely to submit.
He addressed himself to that house which was then preparing to avenge
on the crown of France the violated and oppressed rights of the great
vassals. It was not the emperor who sought him ; the first advances
were made by Bourbon ; and at the same moment in which his suit began,
in the month of August, 1522, he sent Adrian de Beaurain to the court of
the Netherlands, where the only surprise expressed by Margaret was, that
he had so much confidence in so young a man.2 The more perilous and
uncertain the aspect of his legal affairs, the more earnestly did he prosecute
this negotiation. To the emperor and king nothing could be more welcome.
Beaurain went backwards and forwards several times, and, at a later period,
Sir John Russell visited the constable in disguise, on the part of Henry VIII.3
It was agreed that a German army should invade Burgundy, a Spanish,
Languedoc, and an English, Picardy, at the same moment, and that
Bourbon should declare himself independent. He flattered himself that
he should be able to bring into the field 500 men at arms and 10,000 foot
soldiers. The emperor promised to give him his sister in marriage, and
to raise him to the kingly rank ; while he, on his side, promised to ac-
knowledge the king of England as his suzerain, if the emperor should
desire it.

Francis I. had just formed the determination, since his general had been
so unfortunate, to make another attempt in person on Milan. A mag-
nificent army was assembled, and Admiral Bonnivet, who commanded
the vanguard, had already advanced to occupy the passes of the Alps :
the king set out to follow him. The allies intended to put their plan in
execution as soon as he should have left France.

But the affair was already known to too many not to transpire. The
court of the Netherlands feared it might get wind from England ; the
English court, from the Netherlands : even in France itself, the con-

1 Gaillard (Histoire de Francois I.) has given a fuller description of the passion
said to be entertained by Louisa for the Constable Bourbon. His remarks on the
suit itself in the Appendix have somewhat more value ; yet even on this subject
he is far surpassed by Garnier, vol. xxiv., p. 17. Neither does Sismondi make the
real motives sufficiently clear.

2 Notices from the Austrian Archives in Hormayr's Archiv. for the year 18 10.
No. 6.

3 Herbert, Records, p. 119. According to the extracts in Hormayr (p. 27),
the matter was not officially announced to the English court before the 1st June,
1523 ; and, if I am not mistaken, it was to this that Wolsey's undated letter
among the State Papers refers (No. 78, p. 148). For what else can the " mer-
vailous fordell " mean, the like of which was not to be expected, " for the atteyn-
yng of Fraunce "? The League was signed the beginning of August (letter of De
Praet, dated 9th August. Ibid.). It were much to be wished that the authentic
instrument itself could be produced. The letters of Wolsey to the English envoys
in Spain, Sampson and Jerningham, in Fiddes' Collection, appended to his Life of
Wolsey, No. 69 and 70, give, in greater detail, the plans of that period. The
precise terms of the treaty I have, however, sought there in vain.

Chap. I.] ATTACK ON FRANCE, 1523 391

spirators had been compelled to communicate it to some not perfectly
trustworthy persons. In short, the king's suspicions were excited, and
Bourbon had to esteem himself fortunate that he was able to escape.
The king was induced by these circumstances to commit the army of Italy
to the sole command of the admiral, and to remain at his post, to take
measures of defence against the various dangers with which his kingdom
was threatened, from within as well as from without.

Bourbon fled through Besancon to the country of Pfirt, whence he
projected making an immediate descent upon France. A few thousand
landsknechts under the Count of Fiirstenberg entered Champagne, and
occupied some fortified towns in the neighbourhood of Chaumont and
Langres ;l Bourbon's idea had always been that the English should, at
the same time, advance as far as possible into the heart of the kingdom,
carefully abstaining from plunder, and appearing only in the character
of liberators from the tyranny of Francis I. Then he thought, every town
would open its gates to them.2 But the landsknechts were soon compelled
to retreat, by want of money and provisions ; the combined army of
English and Netherlanders continued its march through Picardv, and, for
a moment, struck terror into Paris : but its leaders followed the tradi-
tional mode of warfare, and it could nowhere obtain a firm footing. The
warlike ardour of the Spaniards expended itself before Fuenterrabia,
which the French had taken. Bourbon perceived that he could accom-
plish nothing for the present on this side the Alps, and repaired to Italy.

Italy "was destined to be again the field where the fortune of war was to
be decided.

When Bonnivet appeared in Lombardy with the fine army which the
king had raised to revive his fame and regain his conquests (it was esti-
mated at 30,000 foot and 4,000 horse), the imperialists were unable to
contest the passage of the Ticino, or to meet it in the open country. Pros-
pero Colonna was compelled to confine himself to the defence of the four
most important fortified towns — Como, Cremona, Milan and Pavia.

Fortunately he had now nothing to fear from the Italian states usually
in alliance with France. Immediately before the arrival of the French
army, the emperor had concluded an anti-French alliance with the Italian
powers. It was of great advantage to him that his old preceptor, Adrian,
now filled the papal chair : and as he entirely disclaimed all the plans of
conquest of his predecessors — for example, the designs upon Ferrara —
the emperor on his side renounced all views on Venice : the Venetians
entered into an alliance with the emperor, the pope and the king of England,3
and promised to protect Sforza in his duchy.

Everything now depended on the Milanese, and it was deemed ex-
pedient, as the French were advancing, to learn their dispositions. They

1 Bellay, Memoires, i., p. 294. Petri Martyris Epp., No. 790, who thinks that
attempts were made to bribe the German commanders.

2 More to Wolsey, 20th Sept. St. P., p. 139. " The duke adviseth that the
Kinges army shall in the marching proclayme libertie, sparing the cuntre fro
burnyng and spoile. The king thought that they would soon exclaim, ' Home !
home !' if they should also forbere the profite of the spoile."

We see in Paruta, p. 217, that regard to England on commercial grounds
had considerable effect here. Wolsey said plainly to his master that the treaty
had come to pass, " by your mediation and moost for your sake." — State Papers,
No. 66,

392 CAMPAIGN IN ITALY, 1524 [Book IV.

again declared their entire devotion to the duke and the empire. At the
first sound of the bells on the 22d of September, they flocked in as great
numbers as ever to the appointed place of meeting ; most of them in full
armour, many who had come in haste, unarmed.1 The duke rode among
the assembled crowd. He told them he would govern them with the
mildness and magnanimity of his forefathers ; and they, on their side,
declared their willingness to defend his cause. The aged Prospero Colonna
was a man exactly formed to keep alive these sentiments. He enjoyed
the reputation of being equally zealous for the happiness of his country,
and for the power and glory of the empire. Amidst the horrors and calam-
ities of war, he had ever appeared in the character of protector of the
citizen and the peasant. Now, too, he was intent upon the common good.
There had been time to lay in abundant stores for the winter ; handmills
and windmills had been erected within the walls, and there was wine in
profusion. The fortifications, spite of the great circumference of the city,
were in admirable order. Sorties were daily made, and rarely without
the capture of prisoners : the people were grown so daring that they
often begged for leave to go out in a mass to attack the French.2

Even independently of these adverse circumstances, Bonnivet saw him-
self compelled by frost and snow to raise the siege, and already other
and far more formidable forces were gathering around him.

By degrees the newly recruited Italian infantry arrived ; Lannoy, the
Viceroy of Naples, brought up light and heavy cavalry ; the Venetians
appeared in the field ; but the most important reinforcement consisted
of 7000 landsknechts, whom the Archduke Ferdinand 3 had taken infinite
pains to get together under Ludwig von Lodron and Eitelfritz von Zollern.
George Frundsberg had remained at home, but had sent his son Caspar
in his place. Some enterprising chiefs like Schartlin von Burtenbach,
came at their own charges. The Marquis of Pescara, too, who commanded
the Spanish infantry with the same singular and instinctive talent as
Frundsberg the German, came again. Fortunately, he arrived just at
the moment of Prospero's death, in consequence of which the condiict of
things devolved mainly upon him.

If, however, the imperial army was once more in a condition to meet
the enemy in the field, it had not a moment to lose ; since he too expected
reinforcements which would restore to him his former superiority. The
king had concluded a new treaty with the Grisons ; the Bernese aided him
with money, and considerable bodies of men were on their way from both
countries.

Nevertheless, the imperialists and their allies did not yet deem it ex-
pedient to venture on a battle ; the Venetian Provveditore was especially
opposed to it. "I do not believe, however," said the general-in-chief of
the Venetians, the Duke of Urbino, to the Provveditore, Pier da cha
Pesaro, " I do not believe that the republic maintains so many caparisoned

1 Lettera di Milano, narra quelli successi de di 16 Stt. a di 22. Sanuto's
Chronicle, vol. xxxv.

2 Lettera di Gratiani, 21 Ott. in Sanuto. " Tanto stimano Francesi e Sguizari
come se fussero tante puttane." As to the mention of scarcity in Milan alluded
to, this could only refer to the first days, before everything was fully arranged.
See Gal. Capella and Carpesanus, p. 1356.

3 For this the emperor afterwards thanked him. Letter in Bucholtz, ii., p. 264.

Chap. I.] DEATH OF BAYARD 393

horses, so large a body of infantry, and all these arms which glitter around
us, for any other reason than to do battle when it is needful." " My lord,"
replied the Provveditore, " what advantage would it be to the republic
if we fought ? A defeat would endanger all her possessions : victory
cannot escape us if we do not fight. Were the emperor here in person he
would not give battle." This opinion, which convinced the general,
prevailed in every council of war from that time. It was agreed not to
attempt to overcome the enemy by open attack, but by strategy.

While one division of the army posted itself in the territory of Como
and Bergamo to keep off the Grison troops, the main force, accompanied
by Bourbon, who was now invested with the rank of Lieutenant of the
empire, crossed the Ticino near Pavia, and, by an unexpected attack,
took the fortress of Garlasco which commanded all the surrounding country.
This compelled Bonnivet to retreat across the Ticino, and to abandon his
strong encampment of Abbiate-Grasso, that he might at least defend
Vigevene, and the fertile plains of the Lomellino, whence he drew his pro-
visions.1 The imperialists immediately crossed the Gogna and took
Sartirana. Whilst Bonnivet, menaced in his new position, as he had
been in his former one, prepared to drive them thence, they got possession
of Vercelli, by the favour of the Ghibelline faction of the town, and by that
means obtained a footing on the other side the Sessia, so as to cut off the
admiral from the base of his operations. He had now nothing left but to
retreat to the Upper Sessia, towards Gattinara, where a new body of Swiss
were just arrived from Ivrea. He still did not relinquish the hope, with
this reinforcement, of turning round upon the enemy and once more offering
him battle. But even on his road he found the smaller places occupied
by the imperialists. When he reached the banks of the Sessia, the Swiss
refused to cross to him, and he was obliged to take measures for transport-
ing his troops over the river. While thus engaged, he was attacked by
Pescara ; universal confusion ensued ; the bridge broke down ; Gattinara
was in flames ; and, insignificant as was the number of the imperialists
on the other side the river (about a thousand light horse and the same
number of foot), the loss of the French was immense ; nothing remained
for them but once more to abandon Italy. It was evident that the mode
of warfare by which they had, within the last thirty years, obtained such
brilliant triumphs in Italy, was no longer available. Single deeds of
arms, momentary advantages, chivalrous bravery, no longer decided the
fortune of a war. The awakened national antipathy rendered a more
obstinate and regular system of defence possible : in the field, the calcula-
tions of strategy and the skilful use of the arquebuss carried all before
them. In this retreat fell among other distinguished men the good
knight — the knight without fear and without reproach — Bayard, who
united in his own person all the fair and glorious qualities of knighthood,

1 Galeazzo Capella, lib. iii., p. 191, from whom most other writers have drawn
their information. Even Du Bellay's is only a version of Capella's text, with some
French additions. Anshelm introduces some particulars about the Swiss, and
Sandoval some, but very few, about the Spaniards. In other respects they both
merely translate him. It is a great pity that no one who knew the deeds of the
Landsknechts took the trouble of supplying the deficiencies in his narrative.
Hence we know nothing more of them in this campaign than what we gather from
the life of Sebastian Schartlin.

394 ATTACK ON FRANCE, 1524 [Book IV.

and presented them for the last time, to the admiration of friend and foe.
He had always hated the arquebusiers with all his heart, and reluctantly-
granted quarter to one who fell into his hands : he was doomed to receive
his death from a bullet.1 There is something at once symbolical and
ominous of universal change in this death which has been dwelt on em-
phatically by so many historians ; and indeed in the defeat of this chival-
rous army altogether. Like the fall of Sickingen, they were expressions
of a great revolution in human affairs. The coat of mail was conquered
by the musket, and the massive wall of the castle fell prostrate before the
cannon.

The landsknechts took a very active part in the pursuit. Sebastian
Schartlin relates that for three days and three nights they followed the
enemy to the foot of St. Bernard ; they dragged the cannon they had taken
crowned with garlands from the valley of Aosta to the camp. All the
places which the French still possessed in Italy immediately surrendered ;
their defeat was as complete as it was possible to imagine.

As a sort of necessary consequence, the thought immediately arose in
the minds of the conquerors that the attack on France, which had failed
a year ago, might now be attempted with greater prudence and success.
Bourbon found the imperial army in admirable order, while his bravery
excited their respect and confidence.

The state of Italy, too, seemed to render aggressive measures necessary.
Either peace must be obtained (of which there seemed little prospect),2
or employment must be found for the King of France. Lannoy wrote to
the emperor, that the Duke of Milan would be a costly bargain to him, if
he could not succeed in clipping the wings of his restless neighbour. The
emperor reflected that it would be better to seek the enemy in his own
country than to await him in Italy, where the army must be kept together
at great expense, and gave his consent.

On this occasion, as formerly, the idea of attacking France at various
points was entertained, but after the experience of the former year, was
quickly abandoned. None of the parties concerned had money enough.
They esteemed themselves fortunate if they could raise sufficient funds
to keep the army of Italy quiet for a few months. Bourbon hoped to
accomplish the most brilliant achievements with this alone.

i I will not dwell long on the circumstances attending his death ; the rather,
because they appear to me doubtful. The French (Bellay, 342) relate that
Bourbon spoke to him during his last moments, and that Bayard reproached him
with his treason. It is remarkable that we find nothing of this in the life of
Bayard, Coll. Univ. xv., p. 412. But in Italy exactly the reverse was related, —
that he died lamenting the injustice of the king and the disorders prevailing in
the French government. Carpesanus, p. 1375 : " Questus de injusta in Bor-
bonium ira, de fortuna et male animatorum hominum factione cuncta in Gallia
permiscente." His feelings may have vibrated between the two sentiments here
expressed, and both may be true. Lastly, the Spaniards make him praise God
that he died, " en servicio de su rey y a manos de la mejor nacion del mundo." —
Batalla de Pabia. MS. Alb.

2 The Instruction secrete, &c, in Bucholtz, ii., p. 503, cannot deceive us on this
point. The multitude of suggestions — and there are no less than nine — shows
how impracticable each was. Peter Martyr observes this very justly in his Epp.
798, p. 472, July, 1524: "Temperate hujus tam incompositi psalterii chordas,
. . . Dira ferri acies et humano cruore fluentes rivi has diriment querelas."

Chap. L] ATTACK ON FRANCE, 1524 395

" Your affairs, sire," says he, in a letter to the emperor, " will prosper.
If we are able to give battle to the King of France, and win it, as I hope,
you will be the greatest man that ever lived, and will give laws to the
world."1

In July, 1524, Bourbon therefore led the imperial army, 5000 Germans
under Zollern and Lodron, 3000 Spaniards under Pescara, and a number
of Italians from Italy, into France. Francis had no inclination to meet
these warlike and victorious bands in the open field. Bourbon met with
no resistance, invested Antibes, Frejus, Hyeres, and Toulon, and caused
them to do homage to him. He bore the title of Count of Provence, but
had taken the oath of vassalage to the King of England.2 On the 9th of
August, he took Aix, the chief town of the province, and on the 19th arrived
before Marseilles, well knowing that all his other successes were useless if
he did not obtain possession of that fortified city. He felt of what in-
calculable value it would be to the emperor to command a harbour of such
importance between Barcelona and Genoa. Marseilles would form the
true defence of Italy, and an incomparable basis for all future operations
against France. Beaurain had entertained the design of putting Toulon
in a state of defence for the emperor, but he was utterly without the means.3
These things increased the ardour with which the army engaged in the
siege of Marseilles.

Now, however, it became evident how greatly times had altered in
France. Italians who knew the country, such as Ludovico Canossa,
Bishop of Bayeux, had always predicted this change.4 In spite of the
"many causes of discontent afforded by the king, it yet appeared that he
was the object of general adoration. On the other hand, Bourbon had
lost all credit by his treason. It must be considered that Bourbon's
influence, powerful as he was, had not been of sufficient duration to acquire
much strength : in most of his possessions he was a new master ; nor was
there any man of importance so independent of the crown as to venture

1 Extract in Bucholtz, ii., p. 263.

2 Guicciardini says indeed (xiv., p. 448), " Borbone constantemente ricus6 di
riconoscere il re d'Inghilterra." It is nevertheless not the less certain that he
did take the oaths, as is stated by Herbert (p. 133), and as we learn beyond a
doubt from a letter of De Praet in Hormayr (p. 27). The King of England was
besides fully in the secret of the undertaking. Richard Pace told the Venetian
Suriano, that his monarch had empowered him, by a letter of the 28th June, to
strengthen Bourbon in his intentions ; indeed, that Cardinal Wolsey had offered
on the 28 th Sept. to cause a landing to be attempted, if that might be of any
assistance. Pace excuses himself for not accurately stating the amount of the
succours, on the ground that the emperor had not always done so. In the mean-
while we know that John Russell brought 20,000^. into the camp before Mar-
seilles. That Pace went very honestly to work, is evident from this ; that,
spite of all appearances, he expressed a certain suspicion of the good intentions
of the Cardinal, who, he said, was a bad man : — " attenta la pessima natura del
ditto Cardenal." Whatever may be the case, it is certain that the result of the
expedition was anxiously expected in England. Bourbon acknowledged no other
king than Henry VIII.

3 The letter in Hormayr. He imagines that he could accomplish this with
10,000 ducats.

4 E.g. Lettere di Principi, i. 132. " E siate certo che Francesi adorano il loro
re, e non vi fondate nelle ribellioni altre volte seguite in Francia, perche non vi
sono piu di quei tali principi che le causavano."

396 ATTACK ON FRANCE, 1524 [Book IV.

to embrace his cause. This conjuncture suffices to prove to what an
extent the consolidation of France had been silently advancing to its
completion. Not only did no one rise in Bourbon's favour, but the
attack secured to the king more implicit obedience and more cordial
loyalty than had been yielded him before. He was able to levy three ex-
tremely heavy taxes, amounting in all to five millions, one after the other.
The clergy consented to raise contributions ; the good cities granted
voluntary aids ; even the nobility was fain to submit to forced loans.
What could the tardy and doubtful payments, laboriously obtained from
Spain or from England, effect against such abundant pecuniary resources P1
Francis brought an army into the field which might vie with any former
one in magnificence ; two thousand men-at-arms, seven thousand French
infantry, principally composed of the warlike peasantry of Dauphine,
and six thousand Swiss. In the present low state of the German govern-
ment he had even found no difficulty in tempting a body of landsknechts
to enter his service by the offer of high pay.

While these troops assembled in the country round Avignon, the im-
perialists carried on the siege of Marseilles with great pertinacity : they
brought up the cannon fit for service, which they had found in the places
they had taken from the French ; they excavated mines with immense
difficulty, and erected a battery from which they made breaches in the
walls. Pescara was conspicuous above all in the skirmishes, in his singular
dress. He wore a red vest and hose, over which was a short black coat
without sleeves, and a hat like those of the landsknechts, but with large
waving plumes. The eyes of the men followed him like a banner. His
nephew Guasto vied with him in enterprising valour. The army was in
the highest spirits up to the middle of September ; on the 21st they in-
tended to storm the city. Pescara drank to his Spaniards, and put them
in good humour ; Bourbon promised royal gratitude ; the soldiers pre-
pared themselves for the last extremities by confession. On the other
hand, the garrison, commanded by Renzo da Ceri, an Italian of the Orsini
faction, was undaunted, and had put the city in an excellent state of
defence. At the first preliminary attempts, the imperialists saw with
whom they had to deal. They learned from their prisoners that mines
filled with powder were dug behind the breaches, cannon planted at the
corners of streets, and the troops posted at all the most exposed points,
armed and ready for action.2 Suddenly Pescara changed his mind. " He
who has a mind to eat his supper in hell," said he, "may storm the city."
A council of war was called, in which not only the probability of a defeat
before Marseilles, but even -the danger to Italy of a longer delay, were
weighed and discussed. The suspicion began to be entertained that the
king might, without troubling himself about Marseilles, march directly
upon Italy. " Sirs," exclaimed Pescara, " let him who would preserve
Italy to the emperor follow me." Bourbon reluctantly abandoned the
hope of once more gaining a footing in his own country ; but the German
leaders, Zollern and Lodron, sided with Pescara. On the 28th of September
the siege was raised.

1 Gamier, xxiv., p. 102. Sismondi, xvi.

2 Sandoval, lib. xi., p. i., p. 598. In this place a mere literal repetition of an
old narrative entitled La Batalla de Pabia, by which Sandoval must be here and
there corrected ; as, for example, for Pisarmo, read Pisafio.

Chap. I.] FRANCIS I. IN ITALY, 1524 397

We shall not attempt to decide whether the king really entertained the
design attributed to him : thus much at least is certain, — that as soon as
he heard of Bourbon's retreat, he seized, on this idea with the greatest
eagerness, and, in defiance of any representations, determined to lead the
noble army he again beheld around him, across the Alps without delay.
He was determined to strain every nerve for the reconquest of Milan. On
the sleeves of his body-guard were embroidered the words, " Once more,
and no more."1

The two armies rivalled each other in the rapidity with which they
crossed the Alps. The imperialists marched as light as possible. They
took only a part of their cannon, which they dismounted and placed on
mules ; the rest were buried or sent to Toulon. They advanced in two
columns, but along the same road, so that the first always left their quarters
before the other arrived. One day a few of the Germans had got drunk
and could not march. Pescara set fire to the house in which they lay,
without pity, and burned them in it ; he would not leave one man in the
hands of the peasants, whose vengeance he feared to irritate. Thus they
passed Nice, Ventimiglia, and the Maritime Alps, considerably reduced
in external appearance, but not dispirited : they had suffered no defeat :
they were followed by a long baggage-train, consisting of all the spoils of
the wars of preceding years.

Meanwhile Francis I. marched at the head of his fresh and brilliant
army across the Upper Alps, Briancon, Pignerol, &c. ; and so, without
halting, to the plains of Lombardy. He hoped still to be beforehand with
the imperial army.

A Milanese chronicle affirms that the two armies crossed the Ticino
on the same day ; the French at Abbiate Grasso, the imperialists in the
neighbourhood of Pavia.2

Be that as it may, the imperialists were at a great disadvantage. They
could not take possession of Milan, where the plague had broken out.
Francesco Sforza said he was not a bird to let himself be shut up in that
cage. They left a garrison in the castle only ; the other troops were
divided between Pavia, Lodi, and Cremona. The powerful body of troops
which a few months before appeared about to make the emperor lord of
the world, had suddenly vanished from the field. Maestro Pasquino3
published an advertisement at Rome, setting forth that an imperial army
was lost in the Alps ; the honest finder was requested to bring it to the
owner, and a handsome reward offered. The French were undisputed
masters of the country. They prepared to conquer the fortified towns,
and in the first place, Pavia. The attack on France, which was to banish
Francis to the other side of the Alps, had only served to knit together all
the energies of his kingdom, and to secure to him the ascendancy in Upper
Italy,

1 Carpesanus, lib. x. in Martene, v., p. 1379.

2 Martino Verri, in P. Verri, iii., p. 241.

3 The name of a cobbler at Rome, at whose stall persons used to assemble to
listen to his sallies and to rail at passers-by. After his death the name was given
to a statue (probably of Roman date and representing a river god) to which
lampoons were affixed. Hence the word " Pasquinade," which first appears at
the beginning of the sixteenth century.

398 SIEGE OF PA VIA [Book IV.

BATTLE OF PAVIA.

The affairs of the emperor were not, however, in so desperate a con-
dition as they appeared to be. He had now, as before, Germans in his
service, and could without difficulty procure more.

In forming the design of laying immediate siege to Pavia, Francis I.
was actuated by the hope that he should be able to seduce the Germans
who formed the garrison to desert to his side. But he was destined to
become better acquainted with their character. The two colonels, Zollern
and Lodron, were under manifold obligations to the House of Austria,
and even the captains had passed a considerable time under the imperial
banner. I shall not attempt to say what course they would have pur-
sued had they now had to take service for the first time ; but it is certain
that not one of them was disposed to abandon the cause which he had
espoused.1 Nor was the Ghibelline city of Pavia at all the place to suggest
thoughts of such a kind. There, women of high rank might be seen taking
a part in the labours on the fortifications ; the wealthiest citizen, Matteo
Beccaria, had raised a company at his own cost, and of his own retainers ;
when scarcity began already to be felt elsewhere, he gave the officers a
splendid feast, and even the common soldiers never wanted " white bread
and cool wine." Antonio Leiva, the imperial commander, in praising
the young Caspar Frundsberg, who had now risen to the rank of captain,
says that he had kept him himself in good spirits. Antonio Leiva, too,
was exactly fitted for emergencies of this kind ; equally prudent and
resolute, devoted to the emperor's cause, and capable of any sacrifice ;
he took the gold chain from his own neck and gave it to be coined into
ducats. The Germans derived great advantage from their skill as miners ;2
while the river opposed an insuperable obstacle to the king, the attempt
to turn the course of the Ticino having totally failed, as might indeed
have been expected. In short, in January, 1525, he found that he could
do no more than surround the town, with a view to starve it into sub-
mission.3 He despatched some thousand men under the Duke of Albania
with orders to attempt a diversion in central or lower Italy.

Meanwhile fresh troops descended the Alps from Germany. Bourbon
had sold the jewels which he had saved in his flight, and had then gone
to Innsbruck and to Augsburg. Supported by Archduke Ferdinand, he

1 Sandoval, indeed, mentions that Zollern had meditated treason, and had been
therefore poisoned at a feast. This is also alluded to by G. Capella, yet with the
addition, " multi existimavere," which has also been repeated by others, with
more or less qualification. According to the account of Tsegius, physician and
knight, who remained in Pavia during the siege (De Obsidione Urbis Ticinensis,
ed. Pez, p. 9), Zollern died " post longas vigilias et assiduos labores ex tabida
febre xvi. Cal. Febr." It was said in Pavia that he was related to the imperial
family : " aliquali affinitate cum Caesare conjunctus." He is celebrated in the
songs of the time as the person who took the most active part in the defence of the
town.

2 Carpesanus ascribes the destruction of a bridge, " Germanis, ingeniosis viris."
Tffigius gives high praise on this account to Glurns, who " instrumentis ferreis
mirabili arte in medio rescindit " this same bridge.

3 Lettera di Pavia, 10 Genn. Chr. Ven. MS. It was understood, " che il re
Xm° avea deliberate di non voler piu dar battaglia a Pavia per non far morir
gente, ma volea tener quella assediata et in simil modo averla."

Chap. I.] SIEGE OF PA VIA 399

now brought eighteen companies of landsknechts under Marx Sittich of
Ems over the mountains. Count Nicholas of Salm accompanied them
with two hundred horses of the retainers of the court. At the same time
the viceroy of Naples sold everything for which he could find a purchaser,
and sent a messenger with the money directly to George Frundsberg,
who regarded the emperor's Italian power (which he himself had helped
to establish) with the most intense interest ; and who had a yet stronger
motive in the thought that it was his own son whom he was going to relieve.
The day after Christmas he mustered eleven companies at Meran : he
was surrounded by twenty-five distingished captains and brother-soldiers
of good family ; — younger sons, or gentlemen without inheritance, followed
by a retinue of peasants' sons, who, like themselves, could find no employ-
ment at home. On the 21st of January, the two divisions joined the
Italian army at Lodi.1

They saw the necessity of taking the field immediately. In spite of
all the exertions that had been made, there was not money enough forth-
coming to keep the troops quiet for any considerable time. Most of them
had received nothing but their marching money, and had only engaged
to serve for a certain fixed period without pay. Pavia, too, must be
relieved. On the 4th of February the army arrived in the neighbourhood
of that city, threw into it a few troops with munitions of war, and did
everything they could to provoke the king to quit his strong encamp-
ment.

These efforts were, however, vain. The king would not abandon the
strong position he had taken up in the park near Pavia : it was well
fortified,2 the army was in comfortable quarters, and abundantly supplied
with provisions. He thought it more advantageous to wait for an attack,
as at Marignano, than to make it, which had proved so disastrous to his
army at Bicocca.

On the other hand the imperialists were forced by want, both of money
and provisions, to resolve on attacking.3 They thought it as disgraceful
to disperse in sight of the enemy, as to suffer a defeat. " God grant me
a hundred years' war, and not one battle," said Pescara ; " but now there
is no escape." He went into the midst of his Spaniards, and represented
to them that they had not a foot of land they could call their own, nor a
bit of bread for the morrow ; " but there, before you," added he, " is
the camp, where there is bread in plenty, and meat and wine and carp
from the Lago di Garda. We must have it ; we must drive out the enemy ;
we will make St. Matthew's day memorable." Already had George
Frundsberg addressed his Germans in a similar strain. With uplifted

1 Reissner, Historia Herrn Georgen und Herrn Casparn von Frundsberg, p. 38.
See G. Barthold's Frundsberg.

2 Extrait des lettres ecrites en Allemand a Monseigneur l'Archiduc Ferdinand
per Messire George de Fronsberg. Urkundenbuch zu Buchholtz, Ferdinand,
i.,p. i.

3 In an anonymous account of that time, Lettere di Principi, i., p. 153, and from
thence transferred by Sismondi to his Hist, de France, xvi., p. 232, it is said indeed
that, two days before the battle, 1 50,000 scudi reached the camp from Spain :
this, however, must be a false statement. In Pescara's despatch it is expressly
said, " De ninguno canto nostra necessidad tenia rimedio." He had foreseen
" que deshazer el exercito a lavio del enemigo era tan mal como perdillo con
batalla."

400 BA TTLE OF PA VIA [Book IV.

hands they had promised him to do their best against their splendid foe,
and to succour their brethren in Pavia.

This was not likely to be one of those brilliant battles in which two
chivalrous armies were wont to contend for the prize of honour ; a needy
band of mercenaries, urged by hunger and privation, and counting the
days of the service they had contracted for, must be led on to the assault
or they would disperse. Their objects were, to plunder the rich camp of
the enemy, to relieve their brothers in arms, and once for all to secure the
possession of the often conquered land. Circumstances were most un-
favourable to them. " Either," writes Pescara to the emperor, " your
majesty must gain the desired victory, or we shall fulfil by our death the
duty of serving you."

Pescara's plan was to surprise the enemy by night. In the middle of
the park was the farm of Mirabella, where the market of the camp was
commonly held ; and a part of the cavalry was posted at this point. He
wished, if possible, to effect a junction with the garrison of Pavia. About
midnight they began to pull down the walls of the park. Two thousand
Germans of the regiments of Frundsberg and of Ems, and a thousand
Spaniards, with linen shirts over their coats of mail, were to fall on the
camp. But the walls were stronger than they thought ; it was daylight
before they had made breaches sufficiently large to pass through. When,
at length — on the morning of the 24th of February — the troops pressed
through, the French were fully prepared, and in motion.1 One point was
gained, — namely, that they left their strong position and came out into
the open ground on the heath ; but the imperial army itself incurred the
greatest danger. The division of the landsknechts, as they were marching
up, were within range of the very superior artillery of the French, and
suffered great loss ; the light cavalry, too, were in disorder. King Francis,
who rushed into the thick of the fight at this point and killed a brave
knight with his own hand, was delighted when he saw some companies
broken and fleeing before him. " To-day," said he to his companion, reining
up his horse to let him recover breath, " I call myself Lord of Milan."2
His army advanced in the best order, the artillery keeping up an unin-
terrupted fire.

But the moment which seemed that of victory, was, in fact, but the
beginning of the battle. Pescara had rallied round him the three thousand
men, who were now unable to effect anything, in consequence of the non-
appearance of their friends from Pavia ; and they were gradually joined
by the two large bodies under the command of George Frundsberg, and
Marx Sittich of Ems. Frundsberg, with his companions, the Counts of
Ortenburg, Hag, Virneburg, and the Lords of Losenstein and Flecken-
stein, and by his side Marx Sittich, now formed the left wing ;3 Pescara,

1 " Epitre du Roy traitant de son partement de France et de sa prise devant
Pavie," in Lenglet and Gobel, p. 30 :

" Au matin ils feirent leur entree . . .
Et nous aussi estions ja en bataille."

2 Lettera di Paulo Luzasco al Sr Marchese di Mantua, according to a statement
of the king himself.

3 This appears from the despatch of Frundsberg, " Moy et ma bande tirasmes
a la main senestre vers le dite Marchsith contre les dits Francois." There is also
to be found the number of arquebusiers, who were generally supposed to amount

Chap. I.] BATTLE OF PA VIA 401

with his Spaniards and two thousand Germans, the right. The cavalry
near him had also recovered its order. As it was manifestly no match for
the French, Pescara and Frundsberg ordered fifteen hundred arquebusiers
to support it. The viceroy, who had always been of opinion that they
might entrench themselves opposite to the enemy in the park, now clearly
perceived that this was impossible. " There is no help but in God's
mercy," said he : " Sirs, do as I do ;" so saying, and crossing himself,
he put spurs to his horse and charged the enemy.

The melee thus began on the right wing, where a part of the French
men-at-arms, the king at their head, fought with the Spanish-Italian
horse, and Salm's reiters ; in the centre, but somewhat further off, other
French horsemen under Alencon advanced with twenty-eight companies
of Swiss : against Pescara and Guasto with their Spaniards and Germans,
the black companies (as the Germans from Gueldres and Lorraine in the
king's service were called), admirably supported by artillery, moved upon
the left wing of the imperialists, consisting of the two great bodies of
landsknechts.

On this point the first decisive stroke was struck. The Germans in
the service of France, and the imperialists, were those between whom the
bitterest and most determined hatred prevailed. An Augsburger, named
Hans Langenmantel, stepped from the ranks of the former, and challenged
the two German colonels to single combat. But he was held unworthy
to do battle with them, in consequence of his having taken service under
the French, and was instantly felled to the ground and killed. A lands-
knecht held up his hand, severed from the body and covered with rings
of gold, as a trophy. Upon this the combat became furious. Marx
Sittich, by a rapid evolution, threw himself on the flank of the black
companies.1 They made a most gallant defence, and were killed almost
to a man. Their cannon fell into the hands of the imperialists.

Meanwhile the centre had advanced. Already the arquebusiers had
made a fearful impression on the men-at-arms, for no armour was stout
enough to resist the fire of their matchlocks, when Pescara, at the head of
his Spanish veterans, attacked the Swiss.2 The fight now became general ;

to 500. Taegius mentions as many, but it may have been only the Spaniards.
That the landsknechts were armed with arquebusses is proved, among other
things, by the line of the song — " Fire into them, you good landsknechts "
(" Schiesst Drein, schiesst Drein, ihr frumme Landsknecht ").Soltau, p. 250.

1 " Ein schons neiiwes Lied von der Schlacht newlich vor Pavia geschehen " —
" A beautiful new song of the battle lately before Pavia," by no means poetical,
but very accurate, which is proved by its accordance with Frundsberg's despatch :
" Da das ersachen die Lanntzknecht, bey dem Frantzosen, mer kendt rechtt,
zugendt vnns vnnder augen, Herr Jorgen Haufi gryffenn sie an, vnnd thatten in
nitt fragenn. Da dz ersach Herr Marxen hauff an disem orth, gryfien sie drauff
gar tapfferlich durchtrungen." — " When the landsknechts perceived this among
the French, taking good note and marching past us, the Lord George's troop
attacked them without asking their leave. When the Lord Marx's troop saw
this at this place, they attacked right bravely, and forced their way through."

2 His own despatch, agreeing with the statement of the king in Luzasio. When
he says that he sent Guasto with the Germans against the king's landsknechts, it
is only to be understood that Guasto had a share in Sittich's onslaught. The
German accounts prove that he and Frundsberg contributed greatly to the success
of this attack.

26

402 BATTLE OF PAVIA [Book IV.

the fury of the attack, the effect of the fire-arms on the cavalry, the sight
of the defeat of the black companies, and the rush of the victorious squadron
of the imperial Germans, threw the French centre into confusion. Alencon
was the first of the men-at-arms who took to flight ; a part of the Swiss
were hurried along with him ; a part had their ranks broken : at this
moment the garrison of Pavia appeared in the rear of the disordered
French troops, and an universal flight followed.

The gallant king was spurring his charger along the right wing, under
a heavy fire from the arquebusiers, when he looked round and saw his
people in full retreat. " My God, what is this ?" exclaimed he. He
thought, at least, to rally the Swiss, and hastened after them. But the
decided superiority of the enemy rendered this impossible. Even he
himself was borne along with the retreating torrent. He wore on his arm
an embroidered scarf, given to him in happier days in France by the lady
of his love, to whom, in return, he had vowed never, under any circum-
stances, to give way before the enemy.1 True knight as he was, he re-
treated as slowly as possible, and not without continually facing round
in an attitude of defence ; he was now overtaken by the pursuing Germans.
Nicholas von Salm stabbed his horse under him ; the king fell, and was
compelled to surrender. At this moment the viceroy came up, reached
out his hand to him respectfully, and took him prisoner.

Within an hour and a half, the most magnificent army that the world
could then behold was annihilated. It was calculated that ten thousand
men were left dead on the field, or drowned in the waters of the Ticino :
among them many Swiss, the ancient fame of whose arms, established in
the Burgundian wars, was now obscured for ever. The leaders of the
French, with few exceptions, were killed or taken prisoners : above all,
their puissant monarch had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Never
was a victory more complete and triumphant.2

The victors seized on the plunder of the camp, to satisfy their most
pressing wants. They were at length lords and masters in the state of
Milan, and had no fresh attack to fear. The Italian powers who, so long
as things were in suspense, maintained a very doubtful attitude, now
called to mind their old engagements, and consented to pay up the arrears
of subsidies they had promised, so that the army at last gradually received
its well-earned pay.

But the fears of some, the hopes of others, and the attention of all,
were now turned upon the young emperor, for whom this victory
had been won ; while he, in tranquil retirement in Castile, had

i " L'heureux present, par lequel te promys

point ne fuir devant mes ennemys." — Epitre du Roi.
2 In this account of the battle, I have not thought myself bound to adhere
exclusively to the earlier historians, such as Capella, Guicciardini, Jovius, and
Bellay. I have also avoided all that Reissner has borrowed from Jovius, as we
are now enabled to draw more authentic information from the despatches of the
commanders themselves : i . those of Frundsberg in Bucholtz, identical with an
old German edition. " Wahrlicher Bericht," &c. (" True Account," &c.) which,
however, I never saw : 2. those of Pescara in the Appendix : 3. those of Francis I.
in the letters of Luzasco in the Appendix and in the Epitre. Besides these, there
exists a detailed Spanish account, which has been used by Sandoval, and which
contains some remarkable passages. The song before quoted is a bulletin in
verse, and therefore worthy of credit.

Chap. I.] CHARLES V. 403

been slowly recovering from the quartan ague which had long tormented
him.

Charles V. was standing in a room of the palace in Madrid, talking of
the state of things in Italy, and of the situation of his army, which he still
felt to be very dangerous, when a courier from that army arrived. Without
announcing to any one the tidings with which he was charged, he walked
in : he chose to deliver them first to the emperor in person. " Sire," said
he, " there has been a battle before Pavia. Your Majesty's troops have
gained the victory : the French army is destroyed ; the king himself is
a prisoner, and in your majesty's power." Great and unexpected good
fortune has at the moment the same effect as a sudden calamity. While
Charles listened to these words, the blood seemed congealed in his veins,
and for a few moments he did not speak. When at length he found utter-
ance, he only repeated, " The King of France is in my power — the victory
is mine !" Hereupon he retired into the adjoining chamber, where his
bed stood, and kneeling down before an image of the Holy Virgin, tried
to raise his thoughts to God and to the greatness of his vocation. He
caused processions to be made and prayers to be offered up, that God
would be pleased to grant him still higher favour in the war he meditated
with the infidels. He spoke of an expedition against Constantinople and
Jerusalem.1

Projects of this kind, however, were yet at a vast distance. The im-
mediate concern was to improve the present moment.

The first idea which presented itself was, that the great victory could
in no way be turned to so much advantage as by a renewal of the so-often-
attempted invasion of France.

The Duke of Bourbon began immediately to make preparations for
carrying this into execution.

The King of England was urgent in his persuasions to the same effect.
The instructions drawn up by Henry VIII., for an embassy which he sent
to the emperor in consequence of the battle of Pavia, are extremely curious,
and show how far that monarch's views extended. He expresses his
opinion that the King of France should, under no conditions, be rein-
stated on the throne ; — there are none, he says, that Francis will observe :
he requires that he should be absolutely deprived of the crown. With
regard to a successor, there can, he says, be no question as to Bourbon,
who could neither plead any defensible claim, nor afford the emperor
any satisfactory guarantee ; on the other hand, the King of England had
the best and most incontestable right to the French crown, — a right, indeed
already recognised by the emperor. In the course of the next summer
Charles might attack France in person from the side of Spain, while he
would do the same from that of England : he would assist him with large
subsidies ; no formidable resistance was now to be feared, and he hoped to
meet his imperial majesty in Paris. If he were once crowned in that city,
he would accompany the emperor to Rome to be present at his coronation.
All that had been wrested from the House of Burgundy or the empire
should be restored to him ; nay, even eventually France and England
itself, if, in conformity with the existing treaties, he married the youthful
Princess Mary. At first he had effected to raise difficulties on this head,

1 Letter of the Mantuan envoy Suardin to the Markgrave of Mantua, 15 th
March, 1526. Sanuto, vol. xxxviii.

26 — 2

404 BA TTLE OF PA VIA [Book IV.

but in the end he consented to give his daughter, who was yet a child, into
the guardianship of the emperor till she should be of age to marry.1

From time to time, projects like this are revived in Europe,- — either of
the universal dominion of a single nation, or of a partition of power between
two preponderant states ; but though at a distance they seem to threaten
universal convulsion, they are invariably wrecked against the massive
strength of existing institutions.

Young as the Emperor was, he was of far too sedate a character to be
carried away by such extravagant propositions. Nor had England by
any means afforded him such a degree of assistance in the war, as would
have warranted her daiming so large a share of the fruits of victory. The
secret negotiations which the cardinal had carried on with France were
well known in Spain.

Chancellor Gattinara advised the emperor to answer, that it would be
unseemly to make war upon an enemy who could not defend himself ;
and that neither did the interests of peace require any such proceeding.
He thought that if the King of England resolved to try his fortune, the
best way to thwart his schemes were to send him no assistance. He
esteemed a union of France and England in the highest degree dangerous
to the empire and to Europe : his idea was to maintain the independence
of the throne of France, but at the same time to establish for ever the
supremacy of Austria. A project drawn up by his hand, which is to be
found in the Austrian Archives,3 goes directly to the same decisive object
which he already contemplated in the year 1521. The king was to re-
nounce all his claims on Italy, both on Milan and Naples ; further, to
restore Burgundy to the house to which it appertained ; and, lastly, to
acknowledge the rights of the empire over the south of France. To
Provence he made a direct claim, as "an appurtenance of the empire :"
the emperor's intention was to grant this in fee to the Duke of Bourbon.
Dauphine, too, might be demanded back, because the renewal of the
investiture had so long been neglected ; but the emperor was disposed
to leave this to the successor to the throne of France, provided always that
he married a princess of the house of Austria. If Francis I. accepted these
conditions, he would certainly be too much sunk and enfeebled to be an
object of dread. The emperor's supremacy would then be established on
an immutable basis : he would have no rival remaining who could attempt
to measure himself against him. A feeling pervaded the whole West, that

1 Fiddes, in his Life of Wolsey, 346-352, quotes at length the instruction to
Tunstall and Wingfield. Herbert, p. 168, gives a very imperfect notice of it.
Robertson, vol. iv., who had only read Herbert and not Fiddes, treats it all as a
sort of pretext. But it is only necessary to read Wolsey's letter to the king,
dated 12th Feb., 1525 (State Papers, p. 158), where he already reckons on victory,
to be convinced that people promised themselves honour and advantage from
this course. " The matters succeeding to the advantage of the imperiallis, the
thanke, laude, and praise shal comme unto Your Grace." It is impossible, how-
ever, to agree with Fiddes, who denies that any arrangement with France had
been already entered into. The same letter throws light upon this. If France
were victorious, Wolsey says he had provided against that event " by such com-
munications as be set furth with France aparte."

2 In Bucholtz, ii., p. 280. To the same intent are the demands which occur in
a letter of the emperor to the king's mother. Papiers d'etat de Granvelle,
i., p. 264.

Chap. I.] THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR 4°5

the emperor was the predestined ruler of Europe. A Neapolitan descrip-
tion of the battle of Pa via concludes with the words, " Thou hast placed
the world under his feet." " Now," said Wolsey, to one of Charles's
ambassadors, " your master will be emperor no longer in title, but in fact
also." " The counsels of God," exclaims a minister of the pope, " are a
deep abyss."

Such a prospect was not, however, welcome to all. No man had ever
yet assumed a station of this kind in Europe without exciting the ani-
mosity and the resistance of all that had a feeling of independence. The
King of England was, of course, offended by the emperor's refusal to accede
to his proposals, and every moment increased the coolness between them.
But this was not all. In another of the emperor's allies — the Papal
States — opposition to his schemes arose. Indeed, the exclamation of
a papal minister which we have just quoted savours more of the terror
of one who feels himself menaced, than of the sympathy of an ally. For
some time past misunderstandings of a very serious nature had arisen
between the pope and the emperor. They originated, indeed, merely
in a question of territory, but soon assumed the character of one of the
most important features in the affairs of the times.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR.

When Leo X. concluded his alliance with the emperor, it was, as we have
seen, with a view of getting possession of all the countries which were
still claimed by the see of Rome, especially Ferrara : in this the emperor
promised him his assistance.

On the sudden death of Leo, the Duke of Ferrara caused a medal to be
struck, with the inscription, " The lamb rescued from the jaws of the
lion." But he was not only rescued ; he found occasion, during the
vacancy of the Holy See, to get possession of Reggio and Rubiera. Over
Adrian VI. he gained such an influence, that that pontiff renewed his fief,
in spite of these encroachments.

Adrian's successor, however, Clement VII., was of a totally different
way of thinking : no sooner were the French driven out of Italy, in 1524
than he asked the imperialists to assist him against the duke, and, in the
first place, to expel the latter from Reggio.

This, however, they did not consider themselves bound to do. Their
thoughts were exclusively bent on the invasion of Franca, and they
wished to excite no troubles in their rear. The viceroy answered, that
if the pope loved the emperor, he ought rather to complete his satisfaction
by giving him back Modena.1

This suggestion was deeply offensive to the pope. If he had not latterly
contributed much to the success of the common cause, the share which he
had personally taken in the conquest of Milan was still fresh in his memory.
Was this now to turn exclusively to the profit of the empire ? was the
papacy not only not to obtain the extension of territory it desired, but to
give up cities it had formerly possessed ?

1 Giberti agli oratori in Spagna 22 Ott. 1524. The duke's retreat, after having
made a short advance, was ascribed entirely to the imperialists : " Che tal muta-
tione del duca e determinatione di non rendere e processa del vicere." — Sanga,
21 Nov. Lettere di principi 21 Nov.

406 MISUNDERSTANDINGS BETWEEN [Book IV.

So long as the imperial arms were successful in Provence, Clement was
silent ; but scarcely could he have received the news of the retreat of
Bourbon from Marseilles, than he sent an envoy (the same Geronimo
Aleander who is already well known to us) to the King of France ;* and
as soon as Francis touched the soil of Italy, Giberti, the pope's most
confidential minister, who had always been regarded as in the French
interest, went to meet him ; in order, as his credentials set forth, " to
negotiate concerning things and plans which touch the honour and advant-
age both of the pope and the king."2 The course and the result of their
negotiations are not accurately known ; but thus much is certain, that a
treaty was agreed on, the basis of which was, that the king should retain
possession of Milan. In this case the king promised not to demand the
restitution of Parma or Piacenza ; to import the salt for the consumption
of Milan from the papal salt-works (a source of considerable revenue to
the apostolic chamber), and to support the pope against his rebellious
vassals ; — meaning, no doubt, Ferrara.3 On Giberti's return, people
remarked that he never went to the pope without the head-dress which
then distinguished the French ; the pages of the palace were dressed in
the French fashion, and French officers were allowed to recruit in Rome
in aid of the Duke of Albania, who had undertaken an expedition against
Naples : the Germans at the papal court were persuaded that the pope
had even made a grant of Sicily and Naples to the king.*

This was an error : it was impossible that the sovereignty of the French
in Naples could be agreeable to the pope. His view, doubtless, was only
to favour a diversion which promised to restore the balance of power in
Italy;5 abut even this design, his whole demeanour, his undeniable defec-
tion in the moment of danger, awakened the hostility of the imperial com-
manders. They rejected his offers of mediation with disdain. " He
who is not for me," writes the viceroy to him, " is against me." Frunds-
herg drove a papal agent out of his presence at the point of the sword,
and anxiety as to the effect of the papal intrigues certainly hastened on
the battle : the imperialists threw on the pope the whole blame of the
dilatoriness of the Venetians in fulfilling their engagements.6

1 His credentials, dated 14th Oct. 1524, are to be found in Molini, i. 177.
" Magnis de rebus christianasque reipublicEe hoc tempore non solum salutaribus
sed etiam necessariis."

2 For Montmorency, dated 30th Oct. Ibid., p. 178. " Mittentes Gibertum
ad regem pro rebus ac consiliis utriusque nostrum honorem et commodum spec-
tan tibus."

3 The articles of this treaty have never been published in an authentic form ;
nevertheless the pope communicated them to the Archduke Ferdinand, and in
this form Spalatin has preserved them. Annales in Mencken Scriptt., ii., p. 641.

4 Ziegler Historia Clementis VII. in Schellhorn Amcenitates, ii., p. 372. Ziegler
was then present at the court.

6 Fr. Vettori says that the treaty made by the mediator of Alb. Carpi had
reference only to the free passage of the troops. " Solo a questo che il papa la
(gente) lasciasse passare, pagando quello aveva bisogno ; et il papa stimo certo,
che chome questa gente del re si metteva in camino, che gli imperiali si dovessino
ritirare verso Napoli, onde seguirebbe che Francesco diventerebbe Signore di
Milano . . . et ciascuno di loro avrebbe cura che l'altro non diventassi maggiore
in Italia."

G Contarini Relatione di Spagna, 1525. " Al papa davano principalmente la
colpa, che V. Celsitudine fosse andata cosi ritenuta con S. M\"

Chap. I.] THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR 4°7

This state of things sufficiently explains the painful impression made
at Rome by the news of the king's defeat ; and indeed Frundsberg actually
recommended making an immediate attack on the pope in person. Letters
were received in the ecclesiastical States from the other generals, full of
threats, and imperial troops instantly invested the territory of Piacenza.
Clement VII. avowed that he had been influenced solely by this sort of
coercion to pay the imperialists 100,000 ducats, and to conclude a fresh
treaty with them.1

Unfortunately, too, we have no authentic copy of this treaty ; but from
the state papers which were afterwards exchanged, it appears that in
some articles the pope stipulated for the same conditions as had been
granted to him by the king. He demanded the monopoly of salt in the
Milanese, the recognition of his claims on Reggio, and assistance in the
prosecution of them. He did not doubt that the emperor would accede
to these demands.

But one of them was no longer possible. Archduke Ferdinand, who had
conducted himself so meritoriously in the last expedition, had taken
advantage of the favourable moment to conclude a treaty with Francesco
Sforza, in virtue of which Milan was to purchase its salt from Austria.2
This was the first solid advantage Austria derived from her sovereignty
in Lombardy.

Nor would the emperor accede to the other condition. He had no mind
to make a forcible attack on the Duke of Ferrara. Moreover, the feudal
rights of the empire came into collision, on this ground, with those of the
See of Rome. These the emperor would on no account surrender. He
accepted the treaty in the main, but these particular articles he refused to
ratify.

" As our sovereign lord now saw," says a subsequent papal instruction,
" that he was betrayed ; that, contrary to all expectation, his footing
with the emperor was worse and worse, he lent an ear to the old assertion,
that the emperor's design was entirely to subjugate Italy ; he, therefore,
determined to ally himself with those who had a common cause with him,
in order to avert the danger which threatened him."3

It is evident, therefore, that the real questions at issue related to the
north of Italy. The pope put forward financial claims on Milan, and
territorial ones on Ferrara ; and these the emperor refused to admit.

Let us examine the conduct of Charles V. By his treaties of 1521, he
was bound to make an attack both on France and on Ferrara. His allies,
on their side, thought themselves warranted in claiming a share of the
advantages of the victory. But their co-operation had been trifling, their
behaviour, latterly, equivocal ; and hence the emperor thought himself
exonerated from all these obligations. The victory was due to his arms
alone, and alone he would reap the fruits of it : what inducement could
he have to expose himself to new dangers in order to aggrandise allies of
so doubtful a kind ?

The situation of the pope was in effect the same as that of England ; it
marks the spirit of the age, that the pope was the first who had the courage

1 Instruttione al CI. Farnese. Fiirsten und Volker, iv., App. 15. (Ranke's
History of the Popes, vol. iii., App., p. 32.)

2 Rescriptum ad criminationes.

3 The fore-mentioned Instruttione (Ranke's History of the Popes, App., p. 32).

4o8 THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR [Book IV.

to oppose the rising power which threatened to become universal. He
was afraid the empire might once more become too powerful for the
church ; and the idea of the independence of Italy haunted him as it
had done Julius II. The popes had hitherto always given the impulse
which led to great political changes, and their views had generally been
carried out. Clement VII. ventured to present himself as the centre of
the opposition to Charles V.

His first object necessarily was to bring about a reconciliation between
England and France. As early as the 8 th of March, Ludovico Canossa,
in concert with Giberti,1 began to move in this affair in France. On the
1 6th of March, the latter exhorted the papal nuncios in England to use all
their influence with Henry VIII. and Wolsey, to effect an amicable arrange-
ment with France.2 In April, the negotiations were already known in
the Netherlands. They were attended with little difficulty ; especially
since the emperor's reluctance to fulfil his engagement to marry the king's
daughter, .became more and more obvious ; whereas Francis I. declared
that he would enter into no agreement without the good counsel of the
King of England.3 On the 14th of July, Wolsey, according to Giberti's
report, appeared not only inclined to a reconciliation with France, but
inflamed with ardour for it.4 On the 30th of June, the nuncios declared
that all hesitation was at an end.

Another important circumstance was, that the Italian powers once more
assumed an attitude calculated to inspire respect. To this end, the pope
had sought to renew the ancient alliance with Switzerland, that he might
be able to command the prompt succour of eight or ten thousand men, in
case of need. He had already established a good understanding with the
Duke of Milan and the Venetians. The fortified places belonging to the
former, the fine army maintained by the latter (1000 lances, 500 light horse,
and 16,000 foot,) formed an admirable basis for the schemes in agitation.5
An alliance with France was necessary, and was desired ; but the first
condition of the treaty was to be, a renunciation on the part of that power
of all its Italian claims; of those on Milan in favour of Sforza, and of those
on Naples in favour of the pope. Then would Italy — for that name
appears once more — bring a magnificent army into the field for the deliver-
ance of Francis I.

The persons by whom the pope was surrounded really indulged the
hope that it would be possible to keep the French for ever at a distance ;
to drive out the Spaniards, and to raise Italy to the state in which she was
before the year 1494. The feeling of nationality, which had often given
signs of its existence, and especially in the unrivalled culture of letters and
art, which was the pride and the distinction of Italy, now took possession
of all minds. The pope was strongly inclined to place himself at the head
of the enterprise.

1 See a later letter of Giberti, Lett, di Pr. i. 171.

2 Lettere di Principi, 157.

3 Instructions to Tonstall and Wyngfield : Herbert, 168.

4 In Wolsey's own handwriting to the king (St. P., No. 88), the demands of the
emperor in reference to France as well as to Milan are declared to be exorbitant ;
his offers to England, to be " lytel or nothing to your commodite, proufit, or
benefit."

6 Paruta, Storia Venetiana, v., p. 243.

Chap. I.] PESCARA 409

Meanwhile a prospect of reaching the goal of their wishes with unhoped-
for rapidity now opened upon the papal party.

Immediately after the battle of Pavia, misunderstandings had broken
out between the imperial commanders. Lannoy who, on that eventful
day, had done the least, received the greatest proofs of personal favour,
and at length presumed, in direct opposition to the decision of all the
others, to take the royal captive on his own authority to Spain.1 This
gave general disgust. Pescara, who felt that his services were not duly
acknowledged or requited, begged for his dismissal ; in order, as he said,
to close his life in some obscure corner of the earth, " far from suspicion
and from war."2

This was known to the Italians, and it was, indeed, no very far-fetched
idea to ground a scheme upon the discontent of such a leader. Had not
the first knight and captain of France lately set an example of defection ?
Was it impossible to lead Pescara to a similar course ? He, too, was born
in Italy, and was, in the exactest sense of the word, an Italian.

The consequences which would result from gaining over such a man
were incalculable. He was the most experienced and the ablest of all
the emperor's generals ; in every campaign the most signal and successful
actions had been his ; the Spanish infantry were absolutely devoted to
him. If they could succeed in gaining over the general, the best part of
the army was sure to follow him, and the rest would easily be destroyed.

And magnificent was the prize they had to offer him. The Spaniards
were to be driven out of Naples and Sicily. Now it wau impossible for
the pope to administer and to defend these countries himself, and the
thought suggested itself, to reward the defection of Pescara with this
crown. The very act would have bound him closely to the Italian powers.
The unity and the freedom of Italy would have been obtained at one
stroke.

Geromino Morone, the confidential minister of Sforza, who had evinced
so much prudence in preparing, and so much energy in effecting, the
restoration of his master ; who also held all the threads of the intrigues
now going on in his hand, one day took courage to open the matter to the
marquis ; first extorting from him a solemn promise, not to disclose to
any human being what he was about to say to him. Having fully dis-
cussed the political state of Europe, he touched on the possibility of
freeing themselves from a foreign yoke which now offered itself to the
Italians (among whom he included Pescara) : he spoke of the confidence
he inspired ; of the great deed expected from him, and, lastly, he men-
tioned the prize by which that deed was to be rewarded. 3

1 Letter of Bourbon, 10th June, in Raumer's Briefen, i., p. 244. It is, however,
officially asserted in the Refut. Apologise, that the journey was undertaken by
the king's own proposal, " inscio atque inconsulto Csesare."

2 Sepulveda, Hist. vi. 1. According to Jovius he wished to retain Carpi or
Sora, but was put off with empty words. According to Sandoval, i., p. 671, the
right which he claimed of exacting ransom from the King of Navarre whom he had
taken prisoner, was contested.

3 How far matters went is shown by the often-quoted answer of the emperor :
" Cum audivisset marchio nuncium ad id per Vestram Sanctitatem transmissum,
eidem sui parte, ut ait, ofierentem sub cujusdam apostolici brevis credentia
regni nostri Neapolitani investituram et possessionem . . . ut inde Sanctitas
Vestra nos etiam ab omni imperiali dignitate deponeret." — Goldast Pol. Imp. 997.

4io PESCARA [Book IV.

Such a proposal was calculated to excite a storm of contending emotions
in the breast of Pescara. The prospect opened to him was brilliant and
boundless, and he had just causes of displeasure with the court : on the
other hand, he was incensed at the treachery of the Italians, and his old
Spanish blood rose in his veins. He instantly saw the necessity, and felt
the desire, to come to the bottom of the affair. The crafty warrior who
had so often surprised the enemy at the right moment, and had never in
his life laid himself open to attack, showed all his wonted caution and self-
command on this occasion. " It is a great thing which you say to me,"
replied he to Morone ; " and it is not the less great, that you say it to me."
He admitted that he had cause to be dissatisfied ; " but no dissatisfaction
in the world," continued he, " could induce me to act contrary to the laws
of honour. If I quit the emperor's service, it must be done in such a
manner that the best knight in the world could not have behaved other-
wise. I should do it only to show the emperor that I am of more impor-
tance than certain people whom he prefers before me."1 Expressions
in which Morone thought he perceived a leaning but slightly veiled, and
by no means dubious. This opinion, coinciding with the favourable
intelligence from France and England, gave wings to all these projects.
" I see the world utterly changed," exclaimed Giberti ; " Italy will arise
out of the deepest misery to the highest felicity."2 Writers were em-
ployed completdly to remove Pescara's scruples ; couriers were despatched
to make communications to the allied courts : — the commencement of
the work was impatiently expected.

But, we may ask, were the means contemplated really of a nature to
lead to the desired end ? The independence of a people is so vast a good,
that, when once lost, it can only be regained by straining every physical
power and every moral faculty. In the present case, the need of it was
first felt by the literary class alone ; the mass of the nation were uncon-
scious of it : they had no military point of honour to wound, nor had they
to complain of violated legal or political rights ; the right of the emperor
was of the highest antiquity, and was incontestable. Hence, therefore,
the leaders did not rely on the nation, in the proper sense of the word.
They thought chiefly of the favourable conjuncture of circumstances, of
foreign aid, and of this unlooked-for defection of Pescara : a lucky political
combination was to effect the whole.

But this soon appeared doubtful. As early as the September of 1525,
Giberti remarked3 that the intention of the French was only to take
advantage of the connexion with Italy, in order to obtain favourable
terms from the emperor.

Whilst the French party continued to reckon on the defection of the
imperial general, they learned that the fortified towns in the Milanese
were repairing. A courier who had been despatched to France had dis-
appeared in that territory ; nay, declarations reached them from the
Spanish court, which seemed to contain some allusions to the matter.
People knew not what to think. Was Morone a traitor ? But what

1 Personal narrative of Pescara in a document dated 30th of July, 1525, in
Hormayr's Archiv. for 18 10, pp. 29, 30.

2 Lettera a Ghinucci. Lettere di Principi, i. 170. How then could Giovio
(Vita Piscar., p. 408) maintain that Giberti warned the pope against these things ?

3 Al vescovo di Bajusa 4. Sett. Ibid.

Chap. I.] PESCARA 411

advantage could he propose to himself, that would outweigh the detesta-
tion he had to expect from Italy ? Or was Pescara1 playing a double
game ? "I cannot believe it," says Giberti. "What he has done for the
emperor, a kingdom could not requite : can he mean to use this occasion
to crouch before him again, and beg for his favour anew ? It were a sin
to imagine that so base a thought could find place in so noble a soul."2
And yet this was the fact. Pescara was born in Italy, but he had the
soul of a Spaniard. All his forefathers had devoted their lives to the one
object of establishing the Aragonese sovereignty in Italy. His great-
grandfather, Ruy Lopez di Avalos, had attached himself to the person
and fortunes of Alfonso V. ; his son, Inigo, had been that king's confiden-
tial adviser ; and his son, Alonzo, had perished by the hand of a Moor, in
the attack of the French ;3 the existence of our hero was bound up with
the prosperity of the same cause. His whole soul was devoted to the
command of the Spanish infantry, which was entrusted to him : he knew
every one of his men by name ; was indulgent to all their offences, even
their forbidden pillage, and spared them whenever it was possible. It was
enough for him if they fought bravely at the critical moment ; and in
this they never failed him. When he marched at their head, with his
broad shoes of German make, his waving plumes on his hat, and holding
his drawn sword straight before him in both hands, he was at the height
of his felicity and glory. The Italians, on the contrary, he hated ; he
held them for cowardly and untrustworthy ; there had even been examples
at the conquest of a city, of his ordering all the Italian soldiers to be
massacred. People asked him, " Why, — since they are your country-
men ?" " For that very reason," replied he ; " they are my countrymen,
and yet serve the enemy." As, in his capacity of general, he curbed his
natural intrepidity by prudence and caution, so was he ambitious, high-
spirited and arrogant, but always within the bounds of loyalty and honour,
The character of the soul is determined, more than is commonly imagined,
by the contemplation of some Ideal. To ideas like those which were
prevalent in Italy from the study of classical antiquity, Pescara was an
utter stranger ; but the notions and feelings of personal devotion and
fidelity which form the basis of a feudal state, and from which Italy was
the first to emancipate herself, governed all his thoughts and feelings.
He had grown up in intercourse with the heroes of Spanish romance ;
perhaps he compared himself to the Cid, who, though offended and repulsed
by his king, remained inflexibly true to him, without bating, for a single
moment, one jot of his haughty bearing. Chivalrous feeling and feudal
honour were thus opposed to the spirit of Italy, whose national feeling
was the offspring of classical culture, and who had thrown off the political
morality of the middle ages. That morality did indeed make one more
struggle for existence ; but in doing so, it betrayed how much it had
already been affected by contact with the world of which Machiavelli
was the organ and the representative. Pescara had not the refined moral
culture which would have led him to reject the proposals made to him
with the disgust and scorn they merited. He thought, indeed, while

1 On this question of Pescara's conduct cf. Baumgarten, Geschichte Karls V.,
vol. ii., p. 453.

2 To Domenico Sauli. Ibid., p. 174.

3 Zurita Anales de Aragon, v. 58 b.

412 PESCARA [Book IV

listening to them, that Morone deserved to be thrown out of the window ;
but he reflected that it was necessary to learn the whole plan in order to
counteract it effectually. While, therefore, he kept up a good under-
standing with Morone, he communicated the affair, from the very first
day, to the imperial commissioners, and to his brother commanders,
Bourbon and Leiva : he wrote instantly to Innsbruck for succours, and
sent a courier with the intelligence to Spain. While Giberti was amused
with dreams of the dawn of a new freedom for Italy, he was already
betrayed.

In September the emperor gave the marquis full powers to act in the
matter before him as he should think necessary.1

Nothing was, however, more necessary than to get a firm footing in
Milan, and to annul all the claims of the Sforzas. The imperial generals
thought that without the concurrence of the marquis they should all
have been lost.2

The first step was to secure the person of Morone. On the 14th Oct.
1525, when he paid a confidential visit to Pescara, Leiva was concealed
behind the tapestry for the purpose of overhearing the conversation, and
on Morone rising to take his leave, he was arrested. Pescara, however,
requested the emperor to grant him the liberty of this man, who might
still be of great use if an occasion offered for employing him.

Pescara now required the duke to deliver up the strong places of the
duchy to the imperial troops — a measure demanded, as he said, by the
interests of the emperor's service. The duke, robbed of his minister, and
conscious of his own treacherous conduct, did not venture to refuse ;
especially since the two strongest, Milan and Cremona, were left him.

But these were passed over in silence only so long as the others were not
taken possession of : as soon as that was the case, Pescara demanded the
surrender of the citadels of Cremona and Milan. The duke made repre-
sentations. Pescara replied, that he knew from the letters of Domenico
Sauli, the duke's plenipotentiary in Rome, that his excellency had offered
the aid of his person and his state in the liberation of Italy from the im-
perial troops ; and insisted that at least the commanders of the castles
should take an oath of fidelity to the emperor.3 As Sforza refused to
yield to these demands, Pescara had no hesitation in employing force.
He took possession of Cremona, and advanced to besiege the citadel of
Milan, which employed three thousand Germans.4 He immediately
impeached the duke of felony. He announced to the emperor, that
God and the world, and the dictates of common sense, required him to
keep Milan in his own hands. The emperor declared his resolution of
letting the prosecution take its course, and abiding by the sentence of
the judges ; though indeed of the nature of this there could be no doubt.6
Such was the result of this first attempt of the Italians to shake off the
yoke of foreign armies. As the principal element of their calculation was

1 Pescara to Archduke Ferdinand, 4th Oct. Bucholtz, iii. 1 1 .

2 Letter of Leiva in Hormayr, 29, 30.

3 Pescara to Ferdinand, 4th Nov. Bucholtz, iii. 14.

4 Custode. Continuation of Varri from the national chroniclers, p. 29.

6 Sandoval, i. 668, asserts that he saw the instruments of infeudation which
were already drawn up for Bourbon ; nay, that he had actually been invested
with the fief with all due forms.

Chap. I.] CONDUCT OF THE EMPEROR 413

the treason of Pescara, their enterprise was rendered abortive by the
fidelity with which he adhered to the emperor. Charles could now reason-
ably entertain the project of keeping Milan in his own hands.

But the matter was not yet decided. The universal hatred entertained
for the imperial troops (who lived at the charge of the inhabitants) all
over Lombardy, and the obstinacy with which the citadel of Milan defended
itself, afforded a hope that what had not been accomplished by cunning
might still be effected by force. Another favourable circumstance was,
that at this juncture the general, who had always inspired the most fear,
and now with good reason the bitterest hate — Pescara — -died. Above all,
the great questions at issue between the emperor and the King of France
were treated in a manner that justified the most confident anticipations
of fresh commotions throughout Europe.

It was clear, that the emperor, though he did not enter into the English
plans, overrated the advantages which might accrue to him from the king's
captivity. I shall not enlarge on his want of magnanimity ; — though I
hold it to be perfectly true, that the power of freely and cordially forgiving
his enemies was not in his nature ; but it may also be said that his conduct
arose from a defect of judgment. He had conquered Milan and Genoa,
and he, probably, thought that he might take advantage of the king's
captivity to induce him to renounce his Italian claims. He had gained
nothing whatever from France itself ; his attack on that kingdom having
been completely repulsed. He nevertheless demanded, obstinately and
peremptorily, the cession of Burgundy. Neither the illness into which
Francis fell from vexation and anxiety, nor the negotiations of his sister,
who had travelled to Spain on purpose to obtain her brother's liberation,
nor the arguments of his own councillors, made the slightest impression on
Charles.1 He would hear of no indemnity ; he would have back the
heritage of his fathers, whence he derived the name and the arms he bore.
But his victory was far from being complete enough for this. The prin-
ciple of unity and nationality which daily became more and more powerful
in France, had remained unshaken and unharmed, even by the defection
of the constable ; it was but slightly affected by the disasters in Italy.
Ardently as the king's mother desired her son's return, she declared that
it were better that he should remain in prison for ever, than that the
kingdom should be dismembered.

On the other hand, purer conceptions of morality and dignity would
have taught the king rather to endure his imprisonment than to assent
to conditions which he was predetermined not to adhere to. But this
would have been asking too much of him : he felt his situation insupport-
able, and was ready to purchase freedom at any price.

At length, on the 14th of January, he signed the conditions submitted
to him by the emperor. He promised to renounce all his claims on Italy,
on the suzerainty of Flanders and Artois, and his alliances with the enemies
of the emperor in Germany, Wurtemberg, and Gueldres ; he consented to
give up Burgundy. He did not reject the supposition that these con-
cessions were to put an end for ever to all disputes, and contracted him-

1 We see from the Refutatio Apologise, p. 877, that the emperor was angry
because the Duchess of Alencon, with a view to the machinations going on in
Italy, would not agree to all that the king had before pledged himself to ; chiefly
because she wished to assist him in making his escape.

414 CONDUCT OF FRANCIS I. [Book IV.

self in marriage with the emperor's sister, the widowed Queen of Portugal :
— but in the same day — the same hour — nay, one moment before — he had
secretly signed a protest, in which he declared that he accepted the treaty
only under the pressure of compulsion ; that all the stipulations contained
in it were, and would remain, null and void ; and that he intended never-
theless to maintain all the rights appertaining to his crown.1

His ideas of religion did not prevent him from taking an oath at the
solemn celebration of the mass, and with his hand on the Gospels, never
to break the treaty all the days of his life.

He now let the papal legate know that he did not mean to observe the
treaty,2 while he himself made overtures towards an alliance with the
Italian powers : at the same time, he went to Illescas to celebrate his
betrothal with the emperor's sister, which rested on the presumption that
the treaty would be executed.

The emperor and the king now saw each other more frequently, rode
out together, were carried in the same litter, and called each other brother.
They took leave near Illescas, beneath a crucifix which stands at the point
where the roads to Madrid and Toledo divide. " Brother," said the
emperor, " think on what we have promised each other." The king
replied, "I could repeat the articles, without missing a word." "Tell
me the truth," said Charles, " are you minded to keep them ?" " Nothing
in my kingdom shall hinder me from doing so," replied Francis. The
emperor then said, " One thing, I pray you ; if you mean to deceive me
in any thing, let it not concern my sister, your bride ; for she," added he,
" would not be able to revenge herself."3

We see the lowering tempest which slumbered behind this appearance
of confidence.

Immediately after, in a bark on the Bidassoa, Francis was exchanged
for his two sons, the dauphin and the future king Henry II., who were to
be left as hostages for the performance of his engagements. " Sire," said
Lannoy, "your highness is now free ; fulfil now what you have promised."
" All will be fulfilled," said the king, and sprang into the French boat.
He was now once more among his own people, and saw himself received with
all the marks of respect of which he had so long been deprived : he felt
completely himself again. Mounting, as soon as he touched land, a Turkish
horse that stood ready caparisoned, he exclaimed, " I am the king, the
king !" and galloped off.4

This was the moment for which the Italians had been waiting.
When the terms of the peace of Madrid were reported to the pope, he
declared that he approved them, provided the king did not observe them :
the only difference would then be, that the emperor would have the king's
sons in his custody, instead of the king, which would avail him little.5
He now absolved the king from his oath ;6 he caused it to be represented

1 Treaty and protest in Du Mont, iv. 1. 399, 412.

2 Giberti to the Bishop of Bajusa, Lettere di Principi, ii., p. 31, b.

3 Narrative in Sandoval, i. 717.

4 Report in Sandoval, i. 738.

6 The Bishop of Worcester to Wolsey, 12th Jan. 7 th Feb. Raumer, i. 247.

6 Sandoval, i. 746. " Embio el papa al rey de Francia relaxacion del juramento
que avia hecho :" — There is in Rainaldus a similar release from an oath, dated
3d July, 1526, xx. 460.

Chap. I.] LEAGUE OF COGNAC 4J5

to him in common with the Venetians, what an excellent army was already
in the field ; that it would not be very difficult to extort better terms ;
that if he was but resolute, and would take up arms for the relief of his
sons and the deliverance of Italy, the Italians too would show themselves
men, and would not yield themselves up to the will of the emperor.

For a moment the king paused : he hesitated to enter into this alliance.
He convoked the notables of Burgundy ; and resting on their declaration,
that the King of France, in virtue of the ancient compacts of the province
with the crown, had no right whatever to cede it,1 he repeated to the
emperor his former proposal of giving an indemnity for it in money. He
probably thought the ferment in Italy would induce Charles to accept this
offer.2

Let us pause to examine the situation of the emperor. At his court
and among his most faithful servants the treaty had experienced great
opposition, not on account of the exorbitance of its demands, but of the
slender security afforded for its observance ; they said the conditions
were very good as child's play, but nothing more : nevertheless, suppress-
ing a secret anxiety which he too felt, he had concluded it : — he had already
appointed a governor of Burgundy who was on the way thither ; his
sister waited in Vittoria for the execution of the trsaty in order to enter
France as queen ; — and now he received this proposal, — the same he had
before rejected. He saw that Francis thought he should compel him by
the fear of hostilities in Italy : the consciousness that he had not con-
ducted the affair well, the vexation at being deceived, the wounded
feeling of knightly honour, the pride of power — all arose at once within
him. He answered the king, that if he was prevented from fulfilling the
conditions of his freedom, he had better return to his captivity, where
a fresh agreement might then be made.3

In earlier ages this would have been done ; but those times were past.
The king did not hesitate to conclude his treaty with the Italian states on
the 22d May, 1 526, at Cognac. The terms proposed were, that the emperor
should be required to give up the French princes for a ransom, cede Milan
to Francesco Sforza, and restore the States of Italy in general to the con-
dition in which they were before the breaking out of hostilities ; further,
on his progress to his coronation he was to be escorted by no more troops
than the pope and Venice thought fit to permit : they thought to treat
him as they had formerly treated Maximilian. They determined to lay
these conditions before him as soon as they had equipped a powerful
army, and if he refused to accept them, which did not admit of a doubt,
to drive him out of Naples, the subsequent disposal of which the pope
reserved to himself.4

It was a combination of the whole of Western Europe to counteract
the consequences of the battle of Pavia ; to check the preponderance,

1 The emperor did not much regard this declaration : Apologise dissuasorias
Refutatio, p. 884. " Satis plane constat, eos duntaxat vocatos quos rex ipse
antea stipendiarios et juratos habebat."

2 Official information in the Oratio ad Proceres Germanise in conventu Ratis-
bon 1527, in Goldast. Polit. i., p. 902. " Conditionem ultro sibi delatam tantisper
accipere sustinuit, dum legatis rursus missis ultimum experiretur."

3 Charles relates this himself in the before quoted Refutation.

4 Traite de confederation, appelle la Sainte Ligue, in Dumont, iv., i. 451.

416 LEAGUE OF COGNAC [Book IV.

the views and the fortune of the house of Burgundy. These objects
had the concurrence of England. The king and the cardinal exhorted
Francis not to fulfil engagements which would make him the servant of
Spain.1 They did everything in their power to promote the League,2
though Henry VIII. did not deem it expedient to become a member
of it.

At the court of Rome, the ideas which had been cherished a year before,
now revived with redoubled strength. There was no longer a question
of a struggle for the sovereignty of Italy between the two princes. Francis
demanded no more than Asti and the feudal superiority of Genoa ; and
hopes were really entertained that Italy would be restored to the state
in which she was in 1404. The Venetians showed an enthusiasm not inferior
to that displayed at Rome : their ambassador, Francesco Foscari, boasts
that it was he who had held the pope fast to his resolutions ; the Republic
promised to do wonders. The Florentines were completely at the pope's
disposal, and it was reported from Piedmont that the duke wished to
emancipate himself from the imperial domination. The papal party
thought themselves secure of the assistance of the French, as the king
had so strong a personal interest in the war ; and they reckoned with
greater certainty than ever on the Swiss, whose diets would be subject
to the combined influence of the courts of France and of Rome ; the
King of England, it was hoped, would accept the protectorate of the
alliance, which was offered him, or at least consent to advance money.
Could the imperial army possibly withstand so many united forces ?
Francesco Sforza still held out in the castle of Milan ; the people were
ripe for insurrection ; they thought they could destroy the flower of the
imperial troops on the spot.3 The letters of the Datarius Giberti, who
at length saw himself in the position he had always desired, breathe all
the determination which a grand and noble enterprise inspires. In June,
1526, the emperor proposed the mildest and most moderate conditions
to the pope. Clement VII., having already joined the League, rejected
them without hesitation.4

Open war once more broke out between the two greatest powers of
Europe. But, in the situation of things and the stage of civilization
which now prevailed, it became evident that the emperor had other
weapons within his grasp than had ever been wielded by his predecessors.
These he determined to employ.

1 Extract from Cheney's Instructions, in Fiddes, 380.

2 " That the leegge shold be, by all meanys possibyll, sett forwardys." Clerk
to Wolsey, 31st May, St. P., p. 164. In a paper of the 9th Oct. (p. 180), Wolsey
ascribes the league especially to the king. " Your Highness, by whois counsaile
this liege had been begon."

s Giberti to Don Michele de Silva, 1st July. Lett, di Princ, i. 230. See
Provisioni per la guerra che disegno Pp. Clemente VII. contra l'imperatore.
Inform. Politt. torn, xii., No. 46. It appears from this that there was an inten-
tion of acting at the same time against Milan, Genoa, Naples, and Sienna, where
the imperialist party prevailed ; — in Sienna with the aid of the exiled party ;
in Naples with the aid of the Orsini ; they were determined to suffer no assem-
blage of Spaniards in the towns, and no correspondence with Spain. They were
to accept the offer of the Duke of Savoy, so that the cause might appear to be
that of the whole of Italy.

4 Sanga to Sambara, 19th June. Ibid., 210.

Chap. II.] DIET OF SPIRE, A.D. 1526 417

CHAPTER II.

DIET OF SPIRE, A.D. 1 5 26.

The events of Italy necessarily reacted with no inconsiderable force on
Germany.

The attack on the emperor was an attack on the rights of the empire ;
and Charles, with great dexterity and tact, pointed the public attention
to the fact that no mention was made of the empire in the treaty of Cognac :
it seemed to be regarded indeed as already dispossessed of all its rights.
In all former years, it was the German forces of the empire which had
decided its conquests in Italy. In the present war, more perilous than
any preceding, it was to them it must look for efficient support. It could
not be a matter of indifference to the nation whether the empire should
have any significance in Italy or none.

Weighty, however, as this consideration was, it was in truth the less
important side of the matter.

The mind and heart of the nation was incomparably more actively
engaged in the spiritual interests, — in the great questions which embraced
the whole moral and intellectual futurity of the world. We know how
mighty an influence political affairs had from the first exercised on the
emperor's conduct with regard to these questions : the edict of Worms, the
revocation of the summons for the assembly at Spire, had been the fruits
of his alliance with the pope : to please him, he had assumed an air of
strict adherence to the ancient church ; it remained to be seen whether
he would maintain it.

In the spring of 1526, there was still every appearance that he would
not depart from it a hair's breadth. Henry of Brunswick, who had just
then arrived in Spain, obtained from the emperor declarations which
sounded as decided as ever.

In fact he had arrived in a moment the most favourable that could
be conceived for the proposal he had to make in his own name and the
names of his friends.

The peace of Madrid was concluded ; and the court was persuaded that
the great dispute with France was thus settled for ever.1 Hence the views
of the government were rather directed towards Germany. If we examine
this peace more nearly, we shall find that it involved not only the adjust-
ment of personal and political disputes, but also an agreement upon a
common enterprise against the Turks, and " against heretics who have
severed themselves from the bosom of the holy church ;" the two con-
tracting princes already entreat the pope to co-operate with them by
ecclesiastical concessions.2 It was left to the good pleasure of the emperor
with which of these undertakings to begin, and when to set about them.
It was Francis's own voluntary offer, that if the emperor would make war

1 " Nach dem langen Triibsal und Krieg," writes Heinrich von Nassau from
the Spanish court to his brother in Dillenburg, " hat uns Gott den heiligen
Frieden wiedergegeben." — "After the long misery and war, God has again
given us blessed peace." Toledo, 22d Jan. : Arnoldi, p. 203.

Pour dresser tous les moyens convenables pour les dites emprises et expedi-
tions tant contre les dits Turcs et infideles que contre les dits heretiques alienes
du greme de la sainte eglise. Art. 26.

27

41 8 IMPERIAL ADMONITION [Book IV.

either upon the infidels or the Lutherans, he would bear half the cost and
accompany the army in person.1

It was in the days in which people still believed in the execution of this
treaty, — when the king returned to his kingdom, Leonora prepared to follow
him, and Orange to take possession of Burgundy, — that, in the midst of all
lhe magnificent solemnities of the church with which the marriage of the
emperor with a princess of Portugal was celebrated at Seville, the pro-
posals of Duke Henry were brought under discussion in that splendid and
stately court. They were extremely welcome, and he received the most
encouraging answer. On the 23d of March, 1526,2 the emperor issued an
admonition to certain princes and lords of the empire, to remain steadfast
in the old faith, and to use their influence with their neighbours, that the
heretical doctrines which were the cause of all the disturbances might
be wholly eradicated. In this document he commends the anti-Lutheran
alliance which had been concluded between Duke Henry, Duke George,
Elector Albert, and some other princes. He announces his intention of
shortly going to Rome ; after which he would resort to every measure
for the radical extirpation of heresy. Admonitions of this sort were
addressed to the Courts of Nassau and Konigstein, to the Bishop of Stras-
burg, and Duke Erich of Calenberg. The two former were to communicate
with the counts on the Rhine, in the Westerwald, and the Netherlands ;
the bishop with the princes of Upper, and the duke with those of Lower
Germany.3 The emperor, as we perceive, entirely shared the ideas of
the orthodox party in Germany, which indeed was observed to display
unwonted spirit and boldness from the time of Duke Henry's arrival.
Duke George was reported to say that if he liked he could be elector of
Saxony.4 His chancellor one day in Torgau expressed himself to the
effect, that the Lutheran affair would not last long ; people had better
take care what they were about.

This however necessarily obliged the opposite party to rally all thiir
forces, towards which, indeed, they had already taken some steps. The
alliance which had been talked of at the end of the former year was now
really brought into force.

It is commonly called the league of Torgau, but it was only ratified on
the side of Saxony in Torgau ; it was concluded about the end of February,
1526, at Gotha.

1 Apologise Dissuasoriae Refutatio, in Goldast. Pol. Imp., 884. " Quod inquit
(autor apologise), quocumque proficisceretur Caesar, illuc etiam maxima cum
militum manu regi eundum erat," — " on the part of the French this was one
motive for refusing to carry out the treaty," — " hie profecto se proprio gladio
percutit, quum potissime rex ipse id obtulerit, ut si Caesari adversus hostes fidei
eundum esset aut in Lutheranos movendum, is dimidium impensse sustineret,
et si Caesari gratum esset, cum eo personaliter adesset, quam oblationem Caesar
pro Christianas religionis augmento respuendam non censuit."

2 The exchange of Francis I. took place on the 16th March. The first letters
must have arrived about the 23d : in these Francis still promised to hold to the
treaty. Even in Cognac, Francis I. said to the viceroy, Lannoy, that the protest
of the Burgundians was of no importance. Refutatio Apologise.

3 In the Weim. Arch. See Rommel, Urkundenbuch, p. 13.

4 See Rommel, Ind., p. 22. From Duke George's answer, it appears that he
had only said that the councillors could be electors of Saxony if they willed it,
i.e., they could administer the affairs of the electorate. It appears as if he merely
sought to explain away what he had said.

Chap. II.] TREATY OF GOTH A 419

Here, in pursuance of the arrangement made by their several envoys
at Augsburg, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hessen met,
and agreed to stand by each other with all their might, in case they were
attacked on account of the word of God, or the removal of abuses. Accord-
ing to the first draft, the union was to subsist only " until a Christian and
equitable adjustment should be effected at the next diet of the empire."
It seems, however, that this clause was afterwards thought too restrictive,
and it was omitted. It was also specified that they would afford each
other the needful help " at their own cost and damage." As the reigning
princes treated in person, no protocol was taken of their conferences ; but
thus much is clear, — that in the course of their deliberations the ties between
them were gradually drawn closer.1

But the alliance of two princes, although among the most powerful in
the empire, could effect little : they immediately determined, according
to their former intentions, to try to induce other states of the empire to
join them. Each of them accordingly began with his near friends and
old allies ; Philip, with those of the Oberland, Elector John, with the
Low Germans.

Their success was very unequal. In the Oberland, public opinion was
not yet favourable to a positive league. The Niirnbergers had shown
themselves well disposed at the last diet, but in Gotha they declared,
" they would respectfully await the time of his Imperial Majesty and the
next diet." They feared the emperor might conceive displeasure against
them and abandon them to their enemies. The Landgrave then applied
to Frankfurt, but the council declined the proposal ; and an alliance with
the people, who, the Landgrave was assured, would find means to force
the council to do as they would have it, would have been a dangerous
precedent. The Elector of Trier was out of the question ; he abandoned,
at this very moment, the place in the opposition which he had hitherto
held, and accepted a pension of 6000 gulden from the emperor and his
brother.2 It was impossible to bring the Elector Palatine to a resolu-
tion : at a fresh interview with the Landgrave, he declared, indeed, that
he would venture person and property in the cause, but he did not accept
the proffered alliance ; he only held out the hope that he would join it at
the diet ; he also raised some objections to the draft of the treaty.3

On the other hand, the negotiations of the Elector of Saxony in Lower
Germany were eminently successful. There were a number of princss
who had always been attached to the house of Saxony, some of whom
were nearly akin to it. After some preliminary negotiations, Duke
Ernest of Luneburg, Philip of Grubenhagen, Henry of Mecklenburg,
Prince Wolf of Anhalt, and Count Albert of Mansfeld, repaired, on the
invitation of the elector, to Magdeburg.4 On the appointed day, 9th June,

1 The documents in the Weim. Arch. The ratification at Torgau took place
on the 4th March. See Hortleder, I. viii. 1.

2 Excerpt of the treaty in Bucholtz, ix. 5.

3 " Da wolle man, sagte er, die Notel weiter stellen." — " It was intended, he
said, to extend the terms." Letter of the Landgrave to the Elector, Wednesday
after Palm Sunday, 28th March. W.A.

4 It runs thus : " In Meinung und in Sachen des gottlichen Wortes, damit,
so der Reichstag Fortgang gewonne, die Sache in christlichen Bedenken zuvor
berathschlagt ware." " In the opinion and cause of the Word of God, so that

27 — 2

42o MEETING AT MAGDEBURG [Book IV.

Elector John with his son and his cousin also arrived at Liineburg.
All were alarmed at the admonition issued by the emperor from Seville,
which had only now come to their knowledge. On the ioth of June the
proceedings were opened ; Electoral Saxony 1 spoke first : he reminded
the assembled princes of the danger which threatened them from the
alliance formed at Mainz, and from the document in question ; and of the
necessity of giving in an unanimous declaration at the next diet. The
compact entered into by Saxony and Hessen was then laid before them,
together with the proposal to join it. They were all willing : on the 1 2th of
June they signed the treaty, as it had been drawn up at Gotha and ratified
at Torgau, and appended their several seals to it.2

It is especially remarkable that the princes did not disdain to receive
into their alliance a city, which, it is true, enjoyed great franchises, but
had by no means the rank or character of an immediate imperial city —
Magdeburg, where their meeting was held.3 It was important to them
as a central point for all the States of Lower Germany ; and moreover
it was desirable for them that it should be able to maintain itself against
the archbishop without their aid.

Such was the first formation of a compact evangelical party ; in pres-
ence of the imminent danger which threatened them from the union of
the emperor with their antagonists, they united to defend the truth they
acknowledged, and above all, to prevent the passing of any hostile resolu-
tion at the ensuing diet. It was an extension of the old Saxon alliance
from religious motives.

Such were the preparations made on either side for a decisive struggle,
when, in the summer of 1526, the diet was convoked at Spire. The Pro-
position was laid before the diet on the 25th of June, and brought the
affairs of the church immediately under discussion.4 It was couched in
terms which might be satisfactory to both parties. The States were

as the diet proceeded, the affair should first be subjected to Christian delibera-
tion." Instruction for Caspar v. Minkwitz, which was sent to George of Branden-
burg, who, however, did not appear. W. A.

1 In the German " Kur-Sachs," the Albertine as opposed to the ducal
Ernestine house.

2 Handlung uf den Tag zu Magdeburg. " The Proceedings at the Diet at
Magdeburg," — properly, instructions for the proceedings at this meeting. " Ferner
ist bedacht, das Bundniss so uns. gn. Herr mit dem Landgrafen zu Gotha auf-
gericht, den Fiirsten freundlich und vertraulich zu zeigen, und wo I. F. Gn.
auch darein willigen und schliessen wollten, als u. gn. Hr. sich genzlichen versehen
auch frundlich bitten thate, sollt alsdann solch Bundniss durch eine Beschreibung
immaassen mit u. gnsten Herrn vorgemeldt (dem Landgrafen) auch aufgericht
und vollzogen werden." " Further it is intended to show in friendship and
confidence to the princes, the treaty which our gracious lord has made with the
landgrave at Gotha ; and should the princes agree and be willing to enter into
it, as our gracious lord fully expected and cordially requested, then should this
treaty be concluded and ratified, by a written contract to that intent with our
gracious lord aforementioned (the landgrave)."

3 " At your humble seeking, prayer, and request," says the elector, " we have
included the burghermaster, councillors, and guildmasters of the old city of
Magdeburg in this Christian agreement, because we know that by God's grace
they are well inclined to the godly word."

* According to the report of Esslingen of the ist of April, signed, " Ferdinandus
Archi. Aust. C. in Imp. Locut" F. A., vol. xli.

Chap. II.] DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 421

herein exhorted to consult as to ways and means, " whereby Christian
faith and well-established good Christian practice and order might be
maintained until the meeting of a free council." Measures were proposed
for insuring obedience to the imperial edicts and the decrees which were
now about to be passed. It is remarkable how gently the edict of Worms
is alluded to in this last passage.1

The deliberations began in the Colleges of the Princes, and in them
too the first resolutions were indifferent. It was laid down as a principle
that, in affairs of faith, no decision should be come to, and that the old
established good customs should be observed ; — a principle which each
party might interpret in its own sense. But it was different when they
came to speak of the abuses which must be reformed. The clergy re-
quired that this matter should be referred to a council ; it could not, they
said, be within the competence of a diet to separate the good from the
evil. On the other hand, the laity did not choose to be again put off :
they declared that the common people were so far instructed that they
would no longer suffer themselves to be led with the same simple credulity
as heretofore. They had on their side the cogency of circumstances, the
reasonableness of their purpose, and even the words of the Proposition —
that good customs should be maintained and evil ones severed from them
and rejected. In spite of the vehement resistance made by the clergy,
who appeared in great numbers, it was at length resolved to discuss the
reformation of abuses, and to enforce universal obedience to whatever
might be agreed on. The clergy had the consolation of thinking that
they would have their share of influence in determining what the abuses
were which it was desirable to remove.2

But it instantly became evident that they were at a great disadvantage
even here.

The cities to which the resolution of the princes was communicated on
the 30th of June, received it with joy ; but the interpretation which they
instantly affixed to it was quite unequivocal. In their answer they
declared that, by good customs no other could be understood but such as
were not contrary to faith in Christ. But it was notorious to all how
many directly opposed to this, had, to the universal corruption, crept
into the church. It was a great joy to them to learn that these were to
be abolished.3

On the 4th of July, -when the bishops took their seats in the council of
princes, they opposed the reception of this declaration : they maintained
that the disturbed state of the people arose not from the alleged abuses,
but from seditious writings and discourses ; in the heat of debate, one of
them let fall the expression, that it would be better if all the books that
were printed were burned every eighth year. Such exaggeration and

1 Extract in Neudecker's Actenstiicken, p. 21.

2 The judgment in the Frankf. Acten, vol. xlii. Otto von Pack gives to Duke
George of Saxony an account of the proceedings, Vis. Mar. 2d July. (Dresden
Arch.) " 1st daruf gestanden, dass der einig Artikel den Reichstag solt zutrennt
haben, wenn dy Geystlichen nicht bewilligt das sy von den Missbrauchen wollten
handeln lassen." " It is agreed, that the only circumstance which should have
power to dissolve the diet should be, the clergy not consenting to any arrange-
ment concerning the abuses of the church."

3 The answer of the cities, printed by Kapp and Walch, xvi. 246.

422 DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 [Book IV.

violence could of course injure only themselves ; they were reproached
with wishing to stifle all science, art, and reason. The answer of the
cities was accepted as it stood.

Upon this the whole diet of the empire was now broken up into various
commissions, for the reform of spiritual abuses ; — one of electors, one of
princes, and one of cities — in the same manner as had been formerly
adopted at Worms, for the discussion of the charges against the papal see.

The sentiment of dislike and distrust of the clergy which reigned in
the nation became also the prevailing one in the diet. " The clergy,"
says the Frankfurt envoy, " seek nothing but their own advantage, and
neglect the public good."1 We find the same complaints in the letters
of the envoy of Ducal Saxony, notwithstanding the strict Catholicism of his
master. " The greater part of the clergy," he says, " have only their
own aggrandisement in their eye ; they cannot deny the mischief created
by the abuses that have crept into the church, yet they will eradicate
none. There is more solicitude for the true interests of Christianity to
be discerned among the laity than among the clergy."3

It may be easily imagined how greatly this disposition of the public
mind was heightened by the arrival of the allied princes of the evangelical
party.

The Elector of Saxony appeared with the state befitting the most puissant
prince of the empire. He rode in at the head of a numerous retinue of
horsemen : seven hundred persons lived daily at his charge, and his
followers boast how well they fared in his service. He was good humoured
and magnificent. One day he gave a banquet, at which twenty-six
princes dined with him ; they were seated at four tables, their nobles
and councillors at separate ones ; some went away early, others stayed
till ten o'clock, and played high. The Landgrave, on the other hand,
with his earnest and learned zeal, made a great impression : he showed
himself more deeply versed in the Scriptures than any of the bishops.3 Both
these princes had admonished their people, that, since they had taken
a name after the Gospel, they should abstain from all levities. They had
preaching in their houses every other day, which, on Sundays and holydays,
thousands resorted to hear. The armorial bearings over their doors were
encircled with the words, " Vei-bum Dei manet in sternum."

Such were the influences under which the reports of the committees

1 Hammann von Holzhusen, 1st ed. : " Die Geistlichen bearbeiten sich
heftiglich um iren eignen und vergessen den gemeinen Nutzen." — " The clergy
exert themselves vehemently for their own, and forget the common interests."

2 Otto von Pack. " 1st am Tage, wenn die Geystlichen gemeyne Christenheit
also meinten wy dy Laien, so blib Gottes Ehr, alle gute christliche Ordnung,
und bliben darzu sye selbst mit aller irer Hab Ehr und Gut, denn ich hab bisher
keyn Leyen verm'erkt der da wolt ein Buchstaben von den guten Kirchenord-
nungen abthun adder der Geystlichen Guter um einen Pfennig schmalern. Nicht
weiss ich was der Churfiirst von Sachsen und Hessen bringen werden." " It is
evident that if the clergy meant the same common Christianity as the laity, the
honour of God and good Christian order, as well as they themselves with all
their wealth, honour and property, would remain unhurt ; for I have as yet
seen no layman who wished to take away an iota from the good discipline of the
Church, or to diminish its possessions by one penny. I know not what the Elector
of Saxony and Hessen will bring about."

3 Annales Spalatini in Mencken, 659.

Chap. II.] DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 423

of the diet were made. All the old complaints and charges against the
encroachments of Rome were revived ; among others, that it exacted
far too much subservience from the bishops, since they were also coun-
cillors of the empire ; against commendams and annates, the monstrosity
of the mendicant orders, &c. It was thought that never had language so
free been directed against the pope and the bishops. The cities pressed
especially for a better provision for the parishes out of the funds of the
church, and the right of every civil government to appoint priests to
officiate in them ; they demanded that the clergy should be subject to the
civil burdens and tribunals.1

But by far the most remarkable thing was the report which issued from
the committee of the princes, consisting of the bishops of Wiirzburg,
Strasburg, Freisingen, and of George Truchsess for the spiritual ; and of
Hessen, the Palatinate, Baden, and the Count of Solms for the temporal
bench.2 I have not been able to discover which of them had the pre-
dominant influence, whether the well-known moderation of the Bishop
of Freisingen, or the ardent earnestness of the young landgrave, turned
the scale ; be that as it may, in the discussions of this committee, the
original idea of erecting one norm or standard equally binding on both
parties was kept steadily in view ; and was, in fact, realised in a resolu-
tion passed to that effect. There was as yet, spite of all the struggles
between the ruling powers, no actual division in the nation itself. The
different races of Germany stood on nearly the same stage of civilisation :
all without exception — as we had lately occasion to observe of Tyrol —
whether in the north or the south, had the same tendency to reform,
though their ideas respecting the means by which it was to be effected
might differ. But since these were not yet fixed, they might still be
moulded into more than one form. It might be imagined that a well-
conceived endeavour to establish a good understanding throughout the
nation might yet perhaps destroy those elements of discord, and reconcile
those wide divergences of opinions, which lay in the league of Ratisbon
and its consequences. In such a spirit of conciliation were these propo-
sitions conceived. They particularly insisted on the expediency of per-
mitting the marriage of the clergy, and granting the cup to the laity.
It was proposed to leave every man free to receive the Holy Sacrament
in one kind or in both ; and it was represented to the emperor that it
were better for the priesthood to contract matrimony than to live with
women of ill fame.3 The committee proposed that the severity of fasts
and confession should be mitigated, private masses abolished, and at the

1 Memorial of the free and imperial cities against the clergy, in Holzhusen's
handwriting in the Frankf. A., vol. xlii.

2 Report of the Hessian delegate, Schrauttenbach, Thursday after St. Udalric
(5th July), in the acts of the diet, Weimar Archives. They are in other respects
very confused, and afford but little information for this year.

3 " Zuzulassen, dass die Empfahung des hochwiirdigen Sacraments unter
einer oder beiderlei Gestalten eines Jeden Gewissen und freiem Willen heim-
gesetzt wurde, — dass mitlerzeit gegen den ehelichen Priestern von keyner Uber-
keyt geistlichs oder weltlichs Standes etwas streflichs werd furgenommen." —
" To concede, that the reception of the most venerable Sacrament under one or
both kinds should be allowed to every one according to his conscience and free
will, — that meanwhile no punishment should be inflicted on married priests,
either by the ecclesiastical or temporal authorities."

424 DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 [Book IV.

ceremonies of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Latin and German
languages be used jointly ; that the other sacraments should not, indeed,
be discontinued, but be administered gratuitously. In regard to preach-
ing, the formula of 1523 was repeated; — that God's word should be
preached according to right and sound understanding, and according to
the interpretation of the expositors acknowledged by the Christian church ;
but with an addition which evinced a still stronger inclination to reform
and to the sentiments of Luther ; viz., that Scripture must always be
explained by Scripture.1

Such were the propositions which issued from a commission composed
of an equal number of spiritual and temporal members. We clearly per-
ceive that if the Council of Regency formerly showed itself favourably
inclined to reform, this was not the effect of caprice, nor even of choice :
the necessity of this, step arose out of the situation of things, and the
strength of that universal conviction from whose influence no man can
withdraw himself.

After so many abortive attempts and dangerous agitations, the nation
once more showed the possibility of preserving its unity on the most
important concern that can occupy the mind of man.

On the 1st of August, a committee chosen from all the States was
appointed to submit this project to final discussion — a discussion that
promised to be of the greatest interest. There is no doubt that the project
would have experienced much opposition, since the evangelical party
protested against retaining the four sacraments, about which nothing is to
be found in Scripture ;2 nor were the catholics satisfied. Duke George
remarked that the worst abuses were yet untouched ; the origin of all
the evil lay in the bad manner in which the prelates found entrance to
the church — by the right door or the wrong — by the help of powerful
kindred : in short, the most vehement debates would have taken place ;3
but there is no ground for doubting that there would have been a
decided majority, and that it would have passed definite resolutions,
binding on the whole empire.

It was a crisis like that which had occurred two years before, when
universal preparation was made for a national assembly. The difficulties
were now greater, because on both sides independent forms of thought
and culture had begun to take root ; but it was the more important to
oppose some check to their growth, and it was yet possible to do so.

Again, however, did that power intervene which had forbidden the
national assembly, and had so often thwarted the resolutions of the col-
lective empire. The emperor seemed determined to adhere inflexibly to
his old policy.

At the same time that he published the catholic admonition, which we
have already mentioned, at Seville, he issued instructions to his com-
missioners, commanding them to assent to no resolution of the diet that
might run counter to the established doctrine or practice of the church,
and again urged the execution of the edict of Worms.4 This affair is

1 Judgment of the eight commissioners in the Dresden Archives.

2 Treatise in Walch, xvi. 258. A reply to the principles laid down by the
eight commissioners, partly agreeing with, and partly combating them.

3 Letter of Duke George in the acts of the imperial diet, Dresden Archives.

4 Commission of the 23d March in the Fr. A., vol. xlii., p. 32.

Chap. II.] DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 425

involved in some obscurity. The instructions must have arrived long
before, for a considerable time had elapsed since Duke Henry's return :
and it is not easy to see how the commissioners could, nevertheless, feel
themselves authorised at first to produce others ; — unless we suppose
that they did so in pursuance of a hint subsequently given to the arch-
duke. Be this as it may, it was not till this advanced stage of the business
that the instructions in question were produced, at the instigation, as it
was asserted in Spire, of certain powerful ecclesiastics, and not without
corruption and intrigue (" Finanz unci Hinterlist ") : they created an
extraordinary sensation. The great committee preserved its firmness
and composure : it declared that it would adopt such a course as it could
answer to the world ; but it seemed impossible to effect anything, since
every new ordinance they might frame would be met by the clear, express
words of the emperor.

There was a general persuasion that nothing more whatever was to be
accomplished. Many declared they would not stay a moment longer :
the evangelical party feared that recourse would be had to force. For
this cause mainly, the cities now inclined to the union with Saxony and
Hessen, in order to have a support and defence in case violence should
be resorted to against them.1 Niirnberg, Strasburg, Augsburg, and Ulm,
now gave their assent to the proposal of the princes.

The complication was most singular. Whilst in Italy the pope was
employing every means of attack on the emperor, and stirring up an
European war against him, the imperial power was once more rendered sub-
servient to the maintenance of the authority of the papal see in Germany.

But such a relation was too wide a departure from the ordinary nature
and course of human affairs to endure long.

In Germany people had already ceased to believe in the sincerity of
the opinions expressed in the instructions. Though their attention was
chiefly engrossed by internal affairs, they knew of the treaty of Cognac,
and of the misunderstandings between the pope and the emperor. The
cities first remarked how very remote was the date of the instructions.
At that time, indeed, the emperor and pope were on a good understanding,
but now the pope's troops were in the field against the emperor. They
were told that every improvement must be reserved for the decision of
a general council ; but how, under the present circumstances, was it
possible to expect one ? Were the emperor present, he would see that
they could not observe his edict, if they would.

It was rumoured that a caution had been sent to the Lady Margaret in
the Netherlands, to handle all matters connected with the evangelical
religion gently. In the persuasion that they were acting in accordance
with the emperor's real sentiments, the cities therefore proposed to send
a deputation which should represent to him the state of affairs, and pray
him, either to grant a national council, or at least to recall the order that
the edict of Worms should be executed. This proposal found a ready
hearing in the great committee, in which an anti-ecclesiastical majority
had instantly declared itself. During the discussion of the grievances

Then would " solch Ansuchen und Fulgung zu grossem Nutz gereichen " —
" such applications and following be of great use." Letter of Holzhusen, 21st
August. The other cities had their answer by the 25th August. They waited
to see what the deputies would accomplish before they came to a final decision.

426 DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 [Book IV.

of the common people, the abuses of the clergy had, in spite of their oppo-
sition, been expressly designated as the chief cause of the late insurrection.
People now called to mind that the imperial edict had been accepted, only
in so far as it should be found possible to execute it ; — but it was found
utterly impossible. Nobody was forthcoming who had executed it, nay,
whose conscience would allow him to execute it, according to the letter.1
And how were they to furnish succours against the Turks, if they saw
danger impending over them at home ? The great committee assented
to the proposition of sending a deputation to Spain ; and immediately
drew up instructions for it, wherein it ascribed the religious divisions of
the country more especially to the prohibition of the national assembly,
and prayed the emperor as soon as possible to call a council of the nation
at least ; and, until then, graciously to suspend the execution of the edict,
which, to some, was impossible on conscientious grounds ; to others,
because they had reason to fear it would cause a rebellion among their
subjects ; and to a third party, for these reasons combined.

It is very remarkable that while such were the resolutions come to in
Germany, they were met by corresponding ideas from Spain.

We know the point of view from which the imperial court from the first
regarded the Lutheran opinions. It had opposed them so long as it was
in alliance with the papacy ; but its devotion to the church did not go
the length of requiting the war which Clement VII. made upon it in Italy
with friendly offices in Germany. Immediately after the battle of Pavia,
when it first became apparent how little reliance could be placed on the
pope's good intentions, the Grand Chancellor, Gattinara, proposed to
demand a council ; not, as he said, really to convoke it, but only to force
the pope to show a more compliant spirit in his negotiations.2 England,
at the same time, begged Clement to consider how easily any partiality
shown to France might cost him the obedience of that portion of the States

1 A rough draft of the instructions in the Dresden Archives proves that these
were the motives alleged : the petition runs thus : " Der Kaiser wolle die Execu-
tion der Peen und Straf desselbigen Ediotes bis uf ein kiinftig Concilium in Ruw
stehn lassen, Ursach es haben die Stennd das Edict night anders angenommen
dan so vil In muglich, wie die kaiserliche Instruction selbs mit ir bringt, und
nachdem Etlichen unmuglich gewesen das Edict zu halten, so seyen sie auch
nicht in die Peen gefallen, zum andern so man die Buchstaben besieht, so ist
kain Furst oder Bisehof der das Edict gehallten oder der nicht ein Entsetzen
hat dasselbige ad literam zu halten." — " The emperor wished to let the execu-
tion of the pains and penalties imposed by this edict rest until a future council ;
therefore the estates did accept the edict only so far as it was possible to carry
it out, as was set forth in the imperial instruction ; and as some had found it
impossible to enforce the edict, they were not subjected to the penalties : — on
the other hand, if the letter of the edict be looked to, it were impossible that any
prince or bishop could enforce it, or not have a horror of enforcing it ad literam."
Then follows the instruction itself. The Frankfurt deputies say, in a letter
written from this diet, " So wollen wir auch E. F. W. nicht bergen, dass auch
das kaiserlich. Edict so ao 2: zu Worms ausgangen, allhie auf diesem Reichstag
von Fiirsten Grafen Herrn und Stedten hochlich und fast als unmoglich in alien
Puncten zu halten angefochten wird." " We will not conceal from your princely
worships that the imperial edict published at Worms, anno 21, will be opposed
at this diet by princes, counts, lords, and cities, as being almost impossible to
be enforced in all points."

2 The decree in Bucholtz, ii., p. 281.

Chap. II,] DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 427

of the empire which yet adhered to the church.1 But the hostility to him
had now become far more decided. From Germany itself he had been
apprised that the diet would be more unfavourable than ever to his cause :
he himself indeed expected nothing else.2 Long — almost too long — did
the emperor hesitate to declare himself. At length, however, after the
latest negotiations had failed, he assumed a more resolute bearing. After
many consultations in the council of state which he had just then consti-
tuted for affairs of Spain and Germany, he wrote to his brother on the
27th July, that a proposal which he now subjoined had been submitted
to that body, for abolishing the penal clauses of the edict of Worms, and
for submitting the truth of the evangelical doctrines to the decision of a
council. The pope would not have cause to complain, since it was only
the secular, and not the spiritual punishments that it was proposed to
abolish. It was to be hoped that the emperor might then obtain efficient
succours, in horse and foot, against the Turks ot against Italy, for the good
of Christendom.3

Under these circumstances — the emperor himself having made the con-
cession which Germany urgently demanded — who would not have expected
that it would be definitively granted and proclaimed ? It appears from
the original documents that Markgrave Casimir of Brandenburg, one of
the imperial commissioners, zealously advocated this abolition of penalties.4
It unquestionably depended on Ferdinand alone ; but he was not favour-
able to it.

His chief ground of opposition was doubtless the fear of displeasing
those states of Germany which were inclined to the ancient faith. Charles,
indeed, had remarked in the letter above mentioned, that a part of his
council thought it expedient to put off the repeal of the edict, which
might otherwise convert the adversaries of Lutheranism into enemies of
his government.8 Ferdinand doubtless knew even better than his brother
how necessary it was to conciliate them. The idea had at this moment
been suggested at Rome of offering the Roman crown to some antagonist
of the emperor :6 and Duke William of Bavaria had already begun to

1 Extract of a letter from Wolsey to the Bishop of Bath immediately before
the battle of Pavia (" before Parma," is doubtless a clerical error). Fiddes, Life
of Wolsey, 32. Wolsey thought that the course adopted by Campeggio promised
to lead to the desired end, but " that Germany being now so much inlected with
the Lutheran heresy, such members of it as still continue in the communion of
the church, may be provoked to withdraw their obedience, should his holiness
appear to act in favour of the French king against the emperor."

2 Albert da Carpi au Roi de France, 24th June, 1526, in Molini Docum. stor.,
i., p. 208 : " que a cette heure se feroit le tout le pis que se pourroit contre luy
et la ste. siege." From a declaration of the Elector of Trier of the 9th June.

3 Extract in Bucholtz, iii. 371. " In his council a draft of a well-constructed
and well-grounded edict was made, the fruit of which was to be, that those who
adhered to the errors of Luther were to be drawn away from them by mildness
and leniency ; and a way be afforded them by which the truth of the evangelical
doctrine might be decided by a good council, which the pope now feared ; at the same
time they would support Ferdinand against the Turks or against Italy, for the
common good of Christendom."

4 See the Lith. Erlanterung, p. 172.

5 Cause, " d'estre mauvais avec les aultres." Bucholtz, 372. Pity the whole
letter is not printed.

6 In the Provvisioni per la guerra di Clemente VII. (Inform, polit.) this is
described as a desirable measure.

428 DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 [Book IV.

canvass the most influential electors with a view to obtaining that dignity.
To wrest from the catholic princes the edict upon which they principally
based their persecution of the Lutherans, might have converted them into
the most resolute and dangerous enemies. He too thought it prudent to
suspend the repeal of the edict of Worms. He thought that when the
emperor was once more within the limits of the empire, and had established
his power there on a solid basis, this measure might be carried into effect
with advantage, and without any shock to the established religion : then
too he might obtain a good sum of money from the Lutherans in return
for this act of grace and lenity .!• But if he was not disposed to hasten
the revocation of the edict of Worms, he had just as little inclination or
power to urge its general execution. A complete triumph of the pope's
adherents would have been extremely injurious to the house of Austria.

As, therefore, it seemed neither expedient to execute the edict nor to
repeal it ; as no proposals of a middle course had any chance of acceptance ;
a principle came into action which had already influenced the course of
events, though rather beneath the surface, and without as yet exciting
general attention. The principle of the development of the several
territorial powers now prevailed even in the affairs of religion. I find that
the cities were the first to bring this into public notice and discussion.
They alleged that it was no longer possible to re-establish entire the
ceremonies of the church : that in many places these had been altered,
in others, had been left wholly untouched ; that each party thought that
his way was the right one ; that it was impossible in this case to resort to
force ; and that nothing remained but to leave every man to the form of
religion he had adopted, till such time as a free council should be able, by
the help of the divine word, to decide the matter :2 — A proposal funda-
mentally at variance with the nature of a diet of the empire, which repre-
sented unity, and with the former decrees of the empire, which had always
been of universal application and validity ; but which was imperiously
commanded by the state of things. It was equally impracticable to with-
draw the edict of Worms from the catholic states, or to impose it on the
evangelical : the thought of granting to every district and every state
the independence in regard to religion which it had, in fact, begun to
enjoy, speedily gained ground. It was the most easy and natural solution
of the difficulty ; nobody had anything better to advise. The impulse
towards religious separation which had grown up since 1524, triumphed
over all attempts to preserve and to cement unity by means of reform.
The committee decreed that " each state should act in such wise as it
could answer it to God and the emperor ;" — that is to say, it should do
as it thought expedient. The committee immediately inserted this
resolution in the instructions for the deputation to the emperor.

There is a moment at which all the interests of Europe at large, and
Germany in particular, converge and become implicated with each other ;
a moment which, though it appears unimportant, was in fact the point at
which the early history of Germany ends and the modern begins : — the
moment when the Archduke Ferdinand accepted the report of the com-

1 Excerpt of a letter from Ferdinand, 22d Sept. There is no question that
the letter of 27th July arrived in the middle of August. Letters from Spain
were generally a fortnight on the road.

2 Memorial of the cities. Frankf. A. A., vol. xlii.

Chap. II.] DIET OF SPIRE, 1526 429

mittee, sanctioned the sending of the deputation, and approved the in-
structions drawn up for it. It was ordered in the Recess, that until the
general or national assembly of the church, which was prayed for, should
be convoked, each state should, in all matters appertaining to the edict
of Worms, " so live, rule, and bear itself as it thought it could answer it
to God and the emperor."1

The reader must pardon the repetition of these words, in consideration
of the infinite importance they afterwards acquired. They contain the
legal foundation of the constitution of the national churches of Germany,
and at the same time they involve (although leaving open the possibility of
a future re-union) the separation of the nation into two great religious
parties. They are the words which decided the fate of Germany. Catho-
licism would not have been able to maintain itself if the edict of Worms
had been formally repealed. The evangelical party would not have been
able to constitute itself legally, if the emperor and the States had insisted
on the execution of that edict. The future existence and development
of both hung on this point.

Generally considered, it was the immediate and necessary consequence
of the division between the emperor and the pope. Their alliance had
produced the edict of Worms : that alliance being broken, the emperor
and his brother revoked the edict in so far as its revocation was consistent
with their own interests.

CHAPTER III.

CONQUEST OF ROME, A.D. 1 527.

While these deliberations were going on in Germany, in Italy war had
already broken out.

The allies had taken the field in June ; unquestionably not with the
necessary promptitude and decision ; since the imperialists had gained
time sufficient to put down the insurrection of the Milanese, and had at
length succeeded in taking the citadel. On the other hand, however,
the allies took Lodi and Cremona : the Swiss, so long expected in vain, at
length arrived in considerable numbers, and a brilliant corps of French
men-at-arms joined the army. In September the League were evidently

1 " Demnach haben wir (die Commissarien) auch Churfursten Fiirsten und
Stande des Reichs und derselben Bottschafter uns jetzo allhie auf diesem Reich-
stag einmiithiglich verglichen und vereiniget, mittler Zeit des Concilii oder aber
Nationalversammlung nichts desto minder (d. h. ohne die Riickkunft der Gesandt-
schaft zu erwarten) mit unsern Unterthanen ein jeglicher in Sachen, so das Edict,
durch Kais. Mt. auf dem Reichstag zu Worms gehalten ausgangen, belangen
mochten, fur sich also zu leben, zu regieren und zu halten, wie ein jeder solches
gegen Gott un Kais. Mt. hoffet.und vertrauet zu verantworten." — " Thereupon
have we (the commissioners), also the electors, princes, and estates of the empire,
and the ambassadors of the same, now here at this present diet, unanimously-
agreed and resolved, in the midst of the sitting of the council or national assembly
(i.e., without waiting for the return of the deputation) with our subjects, on the
matters which the edict published by his imperial majesty at the diet holden at
Worms may concern, each one so to live, govern, and carry himself as he hopes
and trusts to answer it to God and his imperial majesty," — New Collection of
Recesses, ii. 274.

430 ASSAULT ON ROME BY COLONNA [Book IV.

masters of the country, while the imperialists, cooped up in a city inclined
to rebellion, ill paid, and almost cut off from the surrounding country,
found themselves in a very critical situation.1

But the emperor had means of resistance and of retaliation at his com-
mand, even in Italy itself.

In June he once more made overtures of peace to the pope ; at the same
time charging his plenipotentiary, Ugo Moncado, in case he received a
refusal, to find means of diverting the forces of the enemy from Milan.2
This was not difficult to accomplish ; the state, the city, nay, the Vatican
itself, was filled with partisans of the empire. When the imperial envoy,
the Duke of Sessa, rode home from the last fruitless audience, he took a
fool behind him on his horse, who by a thousand antic tricks and buffoon-
eries gave the people to understand that there was nothing to be done.3
The pope's open enemies held meetings under his own eyes in the houses
of the Colonnas. In order to fulfil the intentions of the emperor, they
resorted to what we may be permitted to call the lowest cunning. They
began to make warlike preparations on the frontiers of Naples, in the
dominions of the Colonnas ; upon which the pope too took up arms.
They then offered to enter into a treaty with him. Clement consented,
and was now so devoid of all solicitude, that he discharged a great number
of his troops in Rome. This was exactly the moment they waited for.
Having lulled him into security, they determined to attack him. Pompeo
Colonna — the warlike cardinal who had once rent his stole and gone forth
to decide a quarrel by single combat — who had always displayed a bitter
personal hatred to Clement, now made common cause with Don Ugo, as
Sciarra Colonna had done with Nogaret. On the 19th of September, the
troops of Colonna appeared before the walls of Rome, and entered without
resistance. The city was utterly defenceless : the people did not stir ;
they were curious to see whether Colonna would really do what he said —
take possession of the Vatican in the name of the Roman emperor.4 There
was no one to prevent his fulfilling this threat ; and the pope, who had
fled to the castle of St. Angelo, was compelled, in order to have his palace
restored to him, to consent to a truce, not only with Naples and the
Colonnas, but with Milan and Genoa ; in short, in respect of all his own
troops by land or sea.6 It was only on these terms that Colonna's army
left the city, from which it carried off a booty of 300,000 ducats.

Clement must surely now have perceived the feebleness of his resources
and the magnitude of the danger ; he must have heard the voice that
foretells the fall of the avalanche ; but again he was under the dominion
of exasperation and vengeance. The obligations which he had so solemnly
and publicly taken upon himself were, as his plenipotentiary, Guicciardini,
wrote to him, far more sacred than these conditions, extorted from him by

1 1 From a letter of Guicciardini to the Datarius, 24th Sept., 1526, it appears
that there was an idea of making a new attempt to drive the imperialists out
of Milan.

2 Letter from Charles : Bucholtz, iii. 52.

3 Albert da Carpi to Francis I. Molini, Documente, i. 205.

4 Contemporary account, in Buder, Sammlung, ungedruckter Schriften,
p. 563. Negri to Micheli, 24th Sept. Lettere di Principi, i. 234. (The date in
the printed copy is wrong.)

5 Conventione di Clemente VII. con Ugo di Moncada in Molini, i. 229.

Chap. III.] WARLIKE PREPARATIONS IN GERMANY 43 1

force ;l nor was he disposed to observe the truce an hour longer than
expediency required ;2 no sooner was he in some degree prepared, than he
attacked the Colonnas and the Neapolitan territory ; in a short time he
received French and English subsidies in money, and the celebrated
defender of Marseilles, Renzo da Ceri, undertook to lead the papal army
into the Abruzzi. Meanwhile his other troops served against Milan and
Genoa, just as they had done before the truce.

At this moment, however, a new and far greater danger arose in another
quarter : the emperor had forces at his disposal of a very different char-
acter from any that Italy could produce.

In that letter of the 27th July, 1526, which was so decisive for the issue
of the diet, Charles had invited his brother either to go to Italy in person,
(in which case he meant to give him no instructions, but merely full
powers, as his alter ego,) or at least to fit out and send a strong army.3

Ferdinand was prevented from going in person by the affairs of Hungary,
which urgently demanded his presence ; but he addressed himself to the
man who had always led the Landsknechts in Italy to victory — George
Frundsberg of Mindelsheim, who was ready once more to devote all the
vigour that age had left him to the service of the emperor. The great
difficulty was to raise money.4 Ferdinand gave his plenipotentiaries
full powers to mortgage land and people, castles and cities ; he declared
himself ready to send his jewels to pawn in Augsburg. Frundsberg, too,
pawned his wife's jewels, and offered his own lands to mortgage.5 The
Italian commanders, who declared that they could only hold out for a
short time unless they received succours, sent some ready money ; at
length enough was got together to give the men at least their marching
money and half a month's pay. Hereupon the drum was beat in all the
imperial cities of the Oberland, and troops flocked to the standard from
all quarters.

We run no risk of error in affirming that it was not mere martial ardour
that now drew them together ; they knew that they were to march against
the pope.

1 Guicciardini to Datarius, 27th Sept. Lett, di Prin. ii., 14. He expressed
himself very characteristically : " Nell osservare la triegua veggo vergogna,
non si fugge spesa et si augumenta il pericolo : perche quanto all' honore, piu e
obligato N. Sre ad una lega fatta volontariamente et con tante solennita per
salute publica, che ad an' accordo fatto per forza et con ruina del mondo."

2 Excerpt of a letter wherein Clement declares that the treaty is not binding
on him.

3 Excerpt in Bucholtz, iii. 42.

4 From the report of Otto von Pack, who was sent to Innsbruck to collect
money for Duke George, we see what difficulties he encountered : the Welsers
were not in funds ; the Fuggers wanted the cash that was in their hands in order
to dissolve their partnership after the death of Jacob Fugger (Dr. A.). Accord-
ing to a letter of Ferdinand's to Charles, 28th October, 1526, (Gevay, Documents
and Acts, part i., p. 22) it appears as if nothing whatever was to be obtained
from the money changers.

5 " Voire que luy mesmes a voulsu engaiger et mectre ez mains des fouckres
les terres et biens quil a a lentour daugspurg, ne luy a este possible sauoir deulx
ny autrement recouurer argent. . . . Neantmoins affin que le tout ne se perde
. . . non obstant mes grans affaires iay enuoye audict messire george ce dargent
quay peu finer, tellement que de ceste heure il passe audict ytalie auec X™ bons
pietons et vne bonne bande dartillerie."

432 WARLIKE PREPARATIONS IN GERMANY [Book IV.

This had been foreseen in Rome. Giberti remarked, in the preceding
July, that numerous bodies of men might easily be collected in Germany,
" on account of the natural hatred which they cherish against us, and of
the hope of plunder."

The emperor's exhortations were conceived in the most insidious terms
His brother, he said, had only to give out that the army he was levying
was to march against the Turks : everybody would know what Turks
were meant. In a manifesto published by the emperor in September,
1526, he expressed himself in a manner which no follower of Luther
would have needed to disown : he testified his surprise that the pope should
be willing to cause bloodshed for any possession whatsoever ; a thing
wholly at variance with the doctrine of the Gospel.1 In October he begged
the cardinals to remind the pope that he was not raised to the pontifical
throne " in order to bear arms, nor for the injury of the people of Chris-
tendom :" he again proposed a council, and urged the cardinals, if the
pope continued to refuse it, to call one in his stead : he declared that he
at least would be guiltless, " if injury should accrue to the Christian re-
public from its denial."2 As to Frundsberg, there is no doubt that he
had for some time cherished evangelical opinions, and had, moreover,
conceived the bitterest hatred against the pope during the late war.3
Immediately after the battle of Pavia, he had proposed to march into the
States of the Church, and attack him on his own ground. He was en-
couraged in this way of thinking by his secretary and companion, Jacob
Ziegler, who had long been resident at the court of Rome, and whose
biography of Clement VII. is still extant. From this we learn what the
Germans there thought and said among themselves of the pope ; — of his
illegitimate birth, which ought from the first to have excluded him from
the priesthood ; his cunning and craftiness, and his insatiable and scanda-
lous rapacity. They accused him of a connexion with poisoners, and of
the most shameful vices. They caught up and repeated all the rumours
of the court, true or false, to feed the national antipathy of which they
were themselves full. These stories, combined with the hostility shown
by Rome to the emperor, which was esteemed most unjust, awakened in
the Germans, both leaders and common men, the same politico-religious
zeal against the pope, which had been fatal to so many bishops in the
Peasants' War. George of Frundsberg was thoroughly imbued with it ;4
added to which, he was sorry, he said, for " the good honest fellows " who
were besieged in Milan and Cremona.5 He declared that he was resolved

\ Rescriptum ad Papae Criminationes. " Quod tamen Sli Vrac non placuit,
it is said (Goldast, Constit., i. 489, nr. 19), licet credere non possemus, eum qui
Christi vices in terris gerit, vel unius gutte humani sanguinis jactura quam-
cunque secularem ditionem sibi vendicare velle, cum id ab evangelica doctrina
prorsus alienum videretur."

2 Epistola Caroli ad Collegium Cardinalium Vita Octobris. Goldast, Pol.
Imp., p. 1013.

a See the passage quoted at p. 96.

* Schelhorn, de Vita et Scriptis Jacobi Ziegleri, § 21 . He refers to an unprinted
work of Ziegler's, " magnanimo heroi, G. F° in expeditione Italica versanti eum
fuisse vel a consiliis vel ab epistolis."

5 Letter from Frundsberg to Margaret, 19th Sept., 1526, "... where the
want of money was such a hindrance to such help and succour, that it was to
be feared the good honest fellows would be abandoned, and not only the duchy

Chap. III.] FRUNDSBERG'S MARCH 433

" to make an end of the affair, and to do the pope a mischief, if he could
get him into his hands."

If the emperor's policy seconded the religious efforts of the Germans,
the religious spirit by which those efforts were prompted was favourable,
on the other hand, to the policy of the emperor. No sooner did he show
the smallest leaning to the inclinations of the people than they tendered
their whole powers to his assistance.

In November nearly 11,000 men assembled on the mustering ground at
Meran and Botzen i1 they were joined in Trent by the garrison which had
just evacuated Cremona, under Conradin of Gliirns : they were all willing
spite of the poor pay they received : about 4,000 more joined them on
their march without any pay whatever ; " a choice army, such as had
not been beheld in Italy within the memory of man."

The great and immediate difficulty was to get there ; to cross the Alps,
and then to effect a junction with the troops in Milan.

Frundsberg had no mind to waste his time and strength on the well-
garrisoned fortress of Verona : he took the far more difficult road over the
Sarka mountain, towards the domains of his brother-in-law, the Count
of Lodron, Here, again, two roads lay before him : the one on the right
practicable for an army, but commanded by the fortress of Anfo ; the
other on the left, a mere footpath between precipices and chasms, which a
single peasant could have rendered completely impassable, but which the
enemy had not observed. Along this path Frundsberg began his march
on the 17 th of November. His brother-in-law, who knew every pass and
defile of the neighbourhood of his hereditary castle, gave him escort for
three miles, up to the summit of the mountain. They could take but very
few horses, and even of these some fell over the precipices : of the men,
some perished in the same manner, and the boldest did not venture to
cast his eyes into the abyss below. A few sure-footed landsknechts
forming a sort of railing with their long spears, guarded the steps of
their veteran leader ; and thus holding on one before him and pushed
on by another, he traversed the terrific pass. They reached Aa in
the evening, and on the 18 th arrived at Sabbio without encountering
any resistance. On the 19 th they appeared at the foot of the Alps,
at the village of Gavardo, in the territory of Brescia. Their provisions
were just exhausted, but here they found good Farnazio wine ; and
having driven together 8,000 head of cattle, they made merry after
their long privations.2 ■%

of Milan lost, but Naples, Calabria, and Sicily also ; and likewise that the heredi-
tary and other dominions of his imperial Majesty must be reduced to great
extremity."

1 From the diary in Hormayr's Archiv., 1812, p. 424, we see that the army
consisted of 10,650 men, and required for its maintenance, and that of the various
officers and followers attached to it, 25,900 gulden (with the exchange, 34,842
gulden). The commissaries lent Frundsberg 2,000 gulden, " that he might have
something in hand." He accepted it " with overflowing eyes."

2 Reissner Frundsberge, 86. Thun, in Hormayr, 428. Very minute details
of this whole enterprise are to be found in Jacob Ziegler's unprinted work, Acta
Paparum Urbis Romas. I shall only remark here, that it is the main source
whence Reissner has taken his book, which it surpasses in brevity and distinct •
ness. It says of the march upon Mantua : " Vnd dieweil gfarlich vnd schwar
fur die grosse stett press vnd Bergom vber die grossen wasser, die allenthalb

28

434 FRUNDSBERG'S MARCH [Book IV.

Their intention had been to effect an immediate junction with the army
at Milan. But the enemy was far too strong in the field to allow this. The
Duke of Urbino, commander-in-chief of the League, appeared on their
right flank, and kept them off from Oglio. They saw the impossibility of
attacking any of the neighbouring cities, which were all in good state of
defence, while they themselves were without artillery : nothing remained
but to endeavour to cross the Po, where the enemy was not so strong,
and where Bourbon might in time be able to join them.1 Thither Frunds-
berg took his way, in three close columns. The allies had not yet courage
to make a serious attack on him ; they merely annoyed him with their
light cavalry, or with their musketeers, who lay in ambush behind hedges
or in ditches.2 Once only he was in serious danger. As he entered the
fortifications round Mantua, over a long and narrow dam, the enemy
attacked him in the rear, and at the same time moved forward to occupy
the bridge over the Mincio, which he had to pass at Governolo. He
would have been lost if he had suffered himself to be hemmed in in this
most unfavourable place. Frundsberg, however, though chiefly con-
spicuous for his rough soldier-like bravery, was by no means without a
simple and efficient system of tactics. He had secured this bridge exactly
at the right moment : the attack in his rear was repulsed by the mus-
keteers ; and, just as a considerable body of the enemy's troops appeared
on the other side of the river and seemed about to contest the passage with
him, fortune favoured him so far that one of his first shots inflicted a
mortal wound on their captain, Giovanni de Medici,3 in whom the Italian
soldiery put implicit trust. He was a man completely after the tastes
and opinions of Italy at that period — accomplished, prudent, addicted to
all the vices and debaucheries of the south, but at the same time energetic
and daring, and gifted with every other quality of a good leader. Here-
upon Frundsberg crossed the.Po at Ostiglia, and marched up the right
bank as far as the Trebbia. On the 28th of December he arrived in the
neighbourhood of Piacenza. "Here we are," he writes to Bourbon.;
" over the high mountains, and the deep waters, through the midst of the

verlegt durch die gwaltigen hauffen der feind, den nechsten auf Mailand
zuziehen, hat er sich auf Mantua gewendt." — " And then with danger and
difficulty, past the great cities Brescia and Bergamo, across the great water,
which was obstructed on all sides by the strong bands of the enemy ; in order
to take the nearest way to Milan, he turned upon ^Mantua."

1 Bourbon wrote to Frundsberg that he could not fix a route for him. Frunds-
berg was determined, if necessary, to fight, but otherwise " to put himself in no
peril,". — Letter in H., p. 424.

2 Leoni ; Vita di Francesco Maria d'Urbino, p. 364.

3 The incident that this was exactly the first shot out of the falconet just
arrived from Ferrara, is first found in Ziegler. Reissner also used Jovius (Vita
Alfonsi, p. 189) and Guicciardini (b. 27, p. 34), who expresses more clearly what
Ziegler tells somewhat obscurely : " he (Giov. de Medici) had one leg shot off
at the knee, by a shot from a falconet." " Roppe una gamba alquanto sopra
al ginocchio." According to the diary in Hormayr, two falconets and two
culverins arrived from the duke, together with 1,000 gulden. " Had I," says
Frundsberg, " had 400 or 500 horse, I would, with God's help, have won no
slight honour for his imperial majesty and his princely highness. You may, in
short, believe that I never in my life saw a more hurried retreat." The enemy
lost five hundred horse.

Chap. III.] JUNCTION OF THE IMPERIAL ARMIES 435

enemy, in hunger and want and misery, we have arrived safe and sound.
What shall we do ?"

Bourbon required the whole of January to reduce Milan to such a state
of tranquillity as that he could entrust it to a part of his troops, and march
with the remainder to join the German forces. On the 12th January
the junction was effected near Firenzuola.1 There could be no doubt as
to the course which it was expedient for them to pursue. We are already
acquainted with the dispositions of Frundsberg ; nor can it be matter
of wonder that Bourbon now hated the pope more than any man living ;
since the emperor's demand that he should be created Duke of Milan, to
which Clement would never accede, was the condition which had hitherto
rendered all negotiations abortive. Their sole ally in Italy was the Duke of
Ferrara, who cherished a bitter hatred to the pope, having been incessantly
menaced, even in his hereditary domains, both by Leo and by Clement :
he supplied the troops with provisions on their march, and urged their
leaders not to lose a moment, and to seek their common enemy in Rome
itself.2 On the 22d February the combined army, 20,000 strong, in six
divisions, with some cannon and a small body of light horse, broke up
their camp at Firenzuola and took the high road to Rome. Leaders and
men were equally persuaded of the fact that the pope had begun the war
afresh : they knew very well that if the emperor allowed them to be with-
out pay it was only from want of means, and they determined to go and
seek it for themselves in Rome. Religious antipathy, and the desire to
avenge the emperor — perhaps to re-establish the ancient power of the
empire in Italy ;3 — the just notion that a war is only to be concluded in
the enemy's capital ; the eagerness to get possession of their well-earned
pay, and the rumour of treasures brought from all parts of the globe and
accumulated in Rome for centuries, — all these various feelings and motives
were blended into one mass of passionate determination to conquer and to
plunder Rome.

At the very first obstacle that placed itself in their way, this temper —
now become independent and untameable — burst out with the most
violent explosion.

At the end of February and the beginning of March the papal troops
had gained some advantages in the Neapolitan territory, and the viceroy
had actually determined to conclude a truce with the pope ; in which,

1 Frundsberg was very discontented at the long delay. He began to suspect
treachery : what is told him, he believes ' like St. Thomas." Letter passim, 430.

2 As early as November, the Duke of Ferrara had advised him to establish
the Bentivogli in Bologna : if that was impossible, " to undertake the campaign
against the pope ; if Bourbon could raise no money, then to levy contributions
on the towns and villages for the support of the landsknechts."

3 Ziegler : " Desshalben aus manigfaltiger getrungner not alle einhellig
beschlossen, das sie eilends den papa, den anfaher dess kriegs vnd dieser bundtnus,
vberfallen, daselbs bezalung suchen welten ; wann das haubt bezwungen, so
wurden sich die stett vnd das land selbs ergeben, wo es ihnen dann gluckhen
vnd dem kaiser geliebt sein wurd, so wolten sie gantz Italia wieder zum reich
bringen." — " Therefore from manifold urgent need, all unanimously deter-
mined, that they would suddenly fall upon the pope, the beginner of the war,
and upon this league, and would there seek pay : when the head was subdued,
the city and the country would surrender of themselves ; if they had luck, and
the emperor pleased, they would bring back the whole of Italy to the empire."

28—2

436 MUTINY IN THE CAMP [Book IV.

however, the sum of money that was to be contributed to the support
of the army was either not mentioned at all, or very vaguely ; though
its retreat into Lombardy was distinctly stipulated.1 It was not very-
likely that this treaty would be ratified by the emperor, or accepted
by the leaders of the army ; nor, indeed, that it would be executed by
the papal general ; since the army of the League threatened in that case to
separate itself entirely from the papal troops.2 But the mere rumour of
such a thing, the sight of an envoy coming from Rome and returning
thither directly, threw the whole army into agitation.3 The Spaniards
murmured first. They threatened that they would go over to another
master who would satisfy their claims better ; — an empty threat — for
whom could they find ? Since the emperor owed them eight months'
pay, nothing remained but to stand by their leader. It was fortunate
for Bourbon that he was able to make his escape ; his tent was plundered,
and his best garment found the following day in a ditch. The Spaniards
instantly communicated their own mutinous spirit to the Germans : there
incessant cry was, Lanz ! Lanz ! Geld ! Geld ! (Lance ! Lance ! Money !
Money !) this was all the German they knew ; it was like the inarticulate
cry of passion. Frundsberg, however, did not as yet see any ground for
fear ; he still trusted to his well-tried personal influence over the lands-
knechts. He ordered the drums to beat, a ring to be formed, and had the
courage to go into the middle of it, accompanied by the Prince of Orange
(who had followed the army from Germany) and the chief commanders :
he thought he should still be able to effect something by means of a few
words of reason. He called upon them to remember how he had always
been their friend,* and had never left them in good times or in evil : he
promised that he would always be true to .his good landsknechts ; he
reminded them that they had sworn to stand by one another in life and
in death, till they should all be paid and satisfied ; then he meant to stop :
the emperor's foe, the beginner of the war, he would carry off with them.6
But reason has little power over congregated masses of men, nor is their
violence to be controlled by any arguments. The rational address of
their leader, whom every man of them individually loved and honoured,

1 Treaty in Bucholtz, iii. 605. The contents of this treaty as given by Guic-
ciardini (xviii. 5) do not exactly correspond with this ; e.g., there is no mention
in Bucholtz of the 60,000 ducats which, according to Guicciardini, were to be
paid. Ziegler says, too, " Er welt sechtzig tausent ducaten, iedem knecht, das
sie aus dem land ziehen, ainen monalfeold begen ;" — " he would give sixty
thousand ducats — the amount of a month's pay for all the landsknecht whom
they brought out of the country," which is adopted word for word by Reissner,
p. 103. I am inclined to think, however, that there were some secret articles,
as in the League of Cognac. Vettori speaks of 65,000 ducats.

2 These uncertainties reduced the papal agents to despair. " Si e sempre
consigliato lo accordo, ma s'intendeva un accordo che fusse fermo e non dubio
e intrigato, come questo che si e fatto in Roma e non osservato in Lombardia."

3 Sepulveda, vi. 1 .

4 In a former letter from the army it is said, " Die Knecht sind vast wohl
mit im zufrieden : er ritt auch unter ihnen um wie ein Held, und ist allweg der
fordriste beim Haufen." Wittenbach ,4th Feb., 27, in Hormayr's Oestreich-
ischer Plutarch, xiii. 112.

6 Reissner Frundsberge, 104. (Barthold's Frundsberg, I presume.) True
and short account in Buder, p. 526 ; and in Goldast, Polit. Reichshandel, p. 443 :
there are some small differences which can hardly be reconciled.

Chap. III.] GEORGE FRUNDSBERG 437

they answered with the cry, Money ! Money ! which ran like the mutter-
ing of a storm through their ranks : they levelled their lances against
the commanders in their centre as if they meant to transfix them. Never
could such a moment have presented itself to the imagination or the
fears of Frundsberg. It was with him that the organization and tactics
of the landsknechts had mainly originated ; they called him, and with
justice, their teacher and father. He had fought at their head in almost
all the wars of the house of Austria during that century ; he had conquered
the most powerful enemies, in spite of every inferiority of numbers or dis-
advantage of position. His reputation did not rest on the mere animal
courage of a soldier ; he commanded respect by his coolness and presence
of mind in the midst of danger ; by the promptitude with which he took
a salutary resolution, and the dauntless valour with which he executed
it. His homely sayings are very characteristic : " Kriegsrath mit der That "
(Prudence and initiative go hand-in-hand in war) ; " Viel Feinde, viel Ehre "
(Many enemies, much honour) ; they inspired both the officers and men who
served under him with boundless confidence. His command fully justi-
fied their obedience. He still hoped by their aid to effect everything ;
he did not even despair of beating the Turks, and of driving them to the
frontiers of Europe. Like a true partisan and servant of the empire,
he embraced with a glance Rome and Constantinople. His loyalty never
wavered, although, in spite of all his services, he was sometimes in bad
odour at court ; he gave vent to his dissatisfaction in a few rhymes, and at
the next trouble or disaster that befel his master, he took down his armour
from the wall : he held to the great Idea of the empire with unshaken
constancy. He had now to encounter this unlooked-for resistance. He
was a man of extraordinary personal strength ; on one occasion he had
pushed aside a very powerful adversary with one finger, as if in sport ;
fear he knew not, nor had any sudden mishap ever had power to throw
him off his guard ; — but that those should rebel against him whom he
had made what they were, — that they should turn against him the spears
which he had taught them to wield — this was too much for him. Its
effect was such as no one could have anticipated ; in the same moment
at one stroke1 — he lost utterance and consciousness, and sank down
upon a drum ; he had reached the goal of his heroic career. Singular
catastrophe ! He fell in the field, but not by the hands of the enemy ;
not in the heat of the battle which he had come forth to wage : his simple
heroic spirit, which had striven, with all its honour and all its earnestness,
to stem the rising torrent of rebellion in the troops by whom he had so
long been implicitly obeyed, sank when he saw that the tempest was
ungovernable — the passion of revolt triumphant ; — it was a sight that
struck him with instant death. It has been affirmed, that the crafty
enemy who was now advancing against him had stirred up the fire of
mutiny by secret practices and emissaries. And as against himself, no
other weapon was needed. If, however, the pope thought to gain any-
thing by these means, he was greatly in error. The re-action produced
in the army by this sudden calamity was violent as had been the con-
duct that caused it. It effected what no persuasion, no reason could
have done. The lances were taken up again, the wild tumult was stilled ;
the words of the chiefs once more found a hearing ; the whole disorderly
1 I.e., by an apoplectic stroke.

438 MARCH ON ROME [Book IV.

mass dispersed. Four days after, Frundsberg recovered his speech, but
he could no longer lead the army. He could only beg the Duke of Bourbon
not to draw back : hitherto, he said, God had guided them ; he would
not abandon their cause to the end. Some money arrived from Ferrara
for the Spaniards ; the landsknechts had ceased to clamour for it ; they
themselves entreated Bourbon to lose no more time ;-•— all they asked
was to be allowed to march.

Had Bourbon intended to retreat, he could no longer have induced the
army to do so.1

The violence of the hatred entertained against the pope by his enemies,
was equalled by the cool indifference manifested by his friends. The
army of the League followed the imperialists at a distance, and seemed
rather intended to obstruct their retreat than their progress. All the
great towns of the Ecclesiastical States were in as good a state of defence
as those of Lombardy, while the army possessed nothing but the road
along which it marched ; yet it found no obstacles save those presented
by inclement weather and alpine passes : it encountered no enemy.
Bourbon advanced slowly : on the 5 th of April we find him at Imola,
after taking and plundering smaller towns. He then turned to the right
towards the Alps, and took the road of Val di Bagno.2 The larger guns
he sent to the Duke of Ferrara, the smaller ones were dragged up the
mountains ; there was sometimes a scarcity of bread, but never of meat
and wine ; the heights were ascended without much toil in the neighbour-
hood where the Sapio, Folia, Metora, and several other tributaries of
the Arno rise, and where numerous springs meet and form the sources
of the Tiber.3 On the 18th of April the imperialists appeared at Pieve
di San Stefano, whence they threatened at the same time the valleys of
the Arno and the Tiber, — Florence and Rome ; and left it impossible
for the enemy to decide on which side they woujd first direct their attacks.
The whole of this region was panic-stricken.

The pope now perceived that the treaty he had concluded with Lannoy
was too favourable to be executed. He could no longer refuse what the
imperialists had always demanded of him — money to satisfy the troops.
He saw that his own safety depended on their dispositions. He com-
missioned Lannoy to repair to Florence to see what could be raised there.
Lannoy obtained the assurance of 150,000 scudi, rb be paid at stated
terms, and hastened towards the Alps, in order if possible to induce the
army by this promise to retrace its steps.4

1 According to Macchiavelli, Speditione a Francesco Guicciardini lettera XIV.
29 Marzo, Bourbon expressed to the legate, " quanto egli ha desiderato la pace,
e la fatica ch' egli ha durata per far contenti quelli soldati a questa tregua, e che
in effetto non ha potuto fargli contenti, mostrando che bisogna piii danari, ne
dice il numero."

2 Foscari, Relatione di Fiorenza, 1527, says that Bourbon could pass either the
Val di Lamone, or the Via della Maria, from Rimini or the Val di Bagno. Only
the middle and easiest road was fortified. The others might also have been
fortified with very little trouble, " si fata deum, si mens non laeva fuisset."
From Macchiavelli's letters it appears that when the army broke up its quarters
at San Giovanni it was thought that it might still return, and take the road to
Lucca, or attack Ravenna.

3 Plinius, Hist. Nat., iii. 175, ed. Lugd. Flavius Blondus, Italia illustr., p. 344..

4 Instruction of Lannoy in Hormayr's Archiv. 1812, p. 377. The Excerpts in
Bucholtz, p. 71, are taken from the same papers.

Chap. III.] MARCH ON ROME 439

On the 2 1 st of April he arrived at the camp, where he stayed three days*
He was seen to eat and drink with Bourbon ; all their misunderstandings
were at an end ; but it was clear that the offer of the Florentines was not
sufficient for their wants ; they declared that they must have at least
240,000 scudi to induce the army to return.

Whether even then they would have found this possible — whether
they would have seriously attempted it, — is, I think, extremely ques-
tionable. The tumults of that camp were too fresh in men's minds.
Nor do I find that they received any encouragement from the emperor.

The situation of the emperor, we must remark, is once more extremely
singular.

The expressions of paternal kindness and filial obedience which are
traditional in the Catholic world, had been frequently and ostentatiously
exchanged between him and the pope ; the emperor still occasionally
spoke of the extirpation of the Lutherans ; in respect of Italy, he gave
assurances of which the pope said, he would have given the whole world
and his own soul into the hands of the emperor upon the faith of them.1
But Charles's directions to his generals have a totally different tendency.
Lannoy was admonished in February, by no means to allow himself to
be the dupe of any treaty whatever ; if he supported Colonna's party on
the one side, and if, on the other, Bourbon came up with his German
troops, many great and good things might be accomplished. " We see
clearly," says he in a letter, " that they (in Rome) will do no good unless
they are well thrashed. It will be necessary to cut thongs out of foreign
leather {i.e. to raise money to pay our troops) wherever we can lay our
hands on it ; and we must not forget Florence, which has also deserved
a good castigation."2 These are nearly the opinions which prevailed
in the army. The letters to Bourbon are in the same tone. The emperor
tells him to do everything he can to make up the accounts of the war.
" You see, the game lasts long ; you will neglect no means of bringing
it to a close."3 He did not, it is true, break off the negotiations ; he
even caused a ratification of the truce, and full powers for concluding a
peace, to be drawn up ; but he at the same time commanded the viceroy
to deliver up the ratification only in case no change in the state of affairs
had been brought about in the meantime by the army, which might
render it possible to make better terms. At the distance at which he
was, his instructions could only arrive very late and produce a general
effect. But it is most remarkable that on the very same day when Lannoy
and Bourbon were together — on the 23d of April — after Charles must
have known of the truce — he did not say a single word to his commander-
in-chief about observing it. "I see, cousin, that you are advancing on
Rome," said he, carefully avoiding any expression of disapprobation ;
on the contrary, he insinuated that a truce or a peace might best be
negotiated there ; that he would not send him the full powers, although
his was the first name that occurred in them, in order that it might not
appear as if he came to sue for peace, so that people might know he would
compel it by force.* In one word, the emperor was well content that his

1 Instruttione a Farnese, Ranke's History of the Popes, vol. iii.. Appendix, p. 19.

2 Excerpts in Bucholtz, iii. 57..

3 14th Feb. and 31st March. Bucholtz, p. 67.

4 Extract in Bucholtz, p. 67,

44Q CONQUEST OF ROME [Book IV.

army marched on Rome to extort its pay there as it could, and to dictate
a peace to the enemy.

Let us observe, too, that at this moment, the pope was no longer inclined
to observe the truce which separated him from his allies. At the very-
same time — 25 th April — whether it be that he had already learned the
new demands of the army, and had thought them such as it was impos-
sible to comply with, or that he was determined by the general aspect
of politics — he concluded a new alliance with the League, the terms of
which were kept secret, but which, we learn from his own declaration,
contained much that was unfavourable to the emperor.1

In short, both the emperor and the pope were determined to try their
fortune in war.

The imperialists, who had felt their hands tied by the former truce, were
now set at liberty. Bourbon delayed not a moment to take advantage of
this change. After some demonstrations against Florence and Arezzo,
in which he was supported by Siena, on the 28 th of April he took that high
road to Rome which for centuries had been trodden alternately by hostile
armies and pious troops of pilgrims from the north. The cavalry of the
League was close at his heels, but before him he found no obstacle. On
the 2nd of May he was in Viterbo, where he was welcomed by the German
leaders ; on the 4th he drove the first papal troops that encountered him,
under Ranuccio Farnese, out of Romiglione ; on the 5 th he traversed
the Campagna, and appeared towards evening, from the side of Monte
Mario, before the walls of the Vatican.2

The German army thus reached Rome in the same state as it had
quitted Tyrol and Swabia, without having encountered the slightest
resistance, and having seen all its enemies disperse before it ; its hatred
exasperated by the Spaniards and Italians who had joined it, and who
sought in Rome pay and vengeance ; led by a general who had already
quitted the usual path of the morality and policy of his age and country,
and who hated in the pope the most formidable opponent of all his claims
and projects.

It would be utterly inexplicable how it happened that the prudent
Clement did not seek by every possible means to avert this storm, were it
not clear that he always believed himself to be the stronger. In Naples
he had gained ground, in Lombardy he had lost none ; the enemy's
unresisted advance he imputed to his own imprudence in concluding a
truce which had perplexed his allies : now, as he had recalled this measure
and renewed the League, he did not doubt that its army, which was already
in Tuscany, would still come to his assistance in time : till then, he thought,
Rome would be in no danger ; the walls were well furnished with cannon,
and five thousand arquebusiers were taken into pay : the defence of the
city was entrusted to the very captain who had so successfully repulsed
the same leader with a similar army from Marseilles.

It remained to be seen how the event would justify his security. Bourbon

1 Instruttione al Cl Farnese, App. p.031 : "consentendo a molte conditioni che
erano in pregiudicio della M,a Cesarea."

2 In the 21st hour (between 4 and 5 o'clock). The Commentarius captse urbis
says, that the army arrived before Rome on the 4th. A part of it must indeed
have appeared there at that time, if it is true that it was exposed for a day and
two nights to the fire of the Roman artillery.

Chap. III.] CONQUEST OF ROME 44*

summoned the pope to open the city, over which, he said, the bishop had
no right, to the emperor, to whom, as head of the Roman empire, it had
of all time belonged. The pope sent for answer to the trumpet, that if he
did not instantly be gone, he should be shot.

Hereupon a council of war was called, the issue of which could not be
doubtful. The leaders saw very clearly, that they must not allow them-
selves to be overtaken before these walls by the well-commanded enemy
who was marching on their rear. They resolved to commend themselves
to God, and at once without delay to storm Rome ; even though the
victory should be dearly bought.

During the night they did not neglect to keep the enemy in breath by
incessant alarms. Meanwhile everything was prepared for storming.

Bourbon gave his confessor a commission which affords us a tolerable
insight into the sphere of ideas in which his mind moved. He desired
him to tell the emperor, in the first pla£e, for the future to keep his troops
in good humour — especially the Germans, without whom he could not hold
Italy in check : in the second, to cause himself to be crowned in Rome,
which would be very advantageous to him for securing peace with the
pope, and obedience from the princes of the empire. As to himself, he
declared that his intention was only to force the pope to grant him a loan
for the payment of his troops, and to prepare the coronation of the emperor.
It is evident that he felt himself entirely a soldier of the emperor ; he
thought to hold Rome garrisoned by his victorious and contented army,
and to procure for his master the rank and dignity of an emperor of
antiquity.

It is a remarkable fact, that the sentiments of a portion of the popula-
tion within the walls were of the same kind. Rome possessed no com-
pact body of citizens, held together by hereditary rights, such as was at
that time to be found in almost every other city in Europe ; the mass of
the inhabitants were recent settlers from other parts, who lived upon the
business of the court. As there had been a great and continual falling
off in its consideration and revenues, they would not have been sorry to
see the government of the priests superseded by the court of a puissant
emperor, which would have afforded them the same or greater advan-
tages.1

On the morning of the 6th of May — on a Monday — the imperialists
advanced to the assault of the walls surrounding the Vatican. They had
got a quantity of trellises from the gardens, which they had converted into
scaling ladders by binding them together with willow rods. The right
side, towards the Porta Santo Spirito, was to be stormed by the Germans ;
the left, towards the Porta Pertusa, immediately behind St. Peter's
church, by the Spaniards. A thick fog rendered it impossible for the
enemy to direct his fire from the distant castle of St. Angelo against them,
or even to see their approach. At the point of their attack, the walls
were low and the intrenchments thrown up in haste. Meanwhile the
fire of the carronades, culverines and falconets which were planted on
the fortifications was so effective that the first assault of both troops was

1 Vettori : Sacco di Roma, scritto in dialogo. " Gli Romani si persuadevano
che l'imperatore avessi a pigliare Roma e farvi la sua residenza, e dovere avere
quelle medesime comodita e utile che avevano dal dominio de' preti."

442 CONQUEST OF ROME [Book IV.

repulsed. They, however, instantly prepared for a second. The Germans
were animated by the exhortations of Philip Stumpf, who led them to a
more favourable spot. Bourbon himself was seen to lead on the Spaniards,
upon whom the first repulse had made some impression, and to seize a
ladder with his own hand. The forlorn hope of the Germans, though
under a heavy fire of musketry, now succeeded in carrying the mound
and the entrenchments. From this time they encountered no resist-
ance. Claus Seidensticker, a veteran captain, was one of the first to
mount the walls with his huge battle sword in his hand ; Michael Hart-
mann, with a few comrades, leaped down ; at last they found so little
steady resistance that they themselves hardly knew how they had got
over ; in their fanatical ardour, they thought that God had gone before
them in the mist.

The task of the Spaniards was not so easy. Their leader, Bourbon,
was struck at the moment in which he was mounting the ladder by a
bullet, whether from the hand of an enemy, or an accidental shot of one
of his own troops, is uncertain.1 He was destined only to conduct events
to the point at which they might be left to their own spontaneous move-
ment ; they now passed over him, following their own unaided and un-
governed courses. But the fury of the Spaniards was roused by the
loss of their leader to a pitch which nothing could withstand ; shouting
Espana, they too scaled the walls. The papal guns were easily taken,
and the gates and sally-ports opened to the crowd that pressed on behind ;
a few hundred Swiss, who here too were opposed to the landsknechts,
were routed without difficulty ; the Borgo was conquered before the pope
actually knew that the attack had begun : he had only just time enough
left to seek refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo.2 The original text of one
of the oldest accounts states that Bourbon was carried still living, in
front of St. Peter's Church ; here he must have felt the full sense of vic-
tory— and here he breathed his last. The body was carried into the
Sixtine Chapel.

The army was sufficiently well disciplined to preserve its order after
his death ; to abstain at first from plunder, and to propose further terms
to the pope.3 A few months before, Lannoy had demanded 200,000
scudi ; and Bourbon, a few days before, 240,000. The generals now,
under the eyes of the pope, demanded 300,000 ; and, as security for
payment, the Transteverine city. The pope, who lived in the hope that
every moment would bring the army of the League — some pretended they

1 According to the Ferrarese account in Hormayr, 437, Bourbon fell either the
first or the third : a musket ball broke his ribs, and penetrated the intestines ;
in half an hour he was dead.

2 Vettori, Storia d'ltalia, relates what he witnesses as follows. " La mattina
delli sei appresento (Borbone) la battaglia tra il portone del borgo, che & drieto
alia casa del C1 Cesis, e quello di S. Spirito, dove ne' piu di luoghi non e muro,
ma bene vi era facto qualche poco di riparo. Era la mattina nebbia grande,
che causava che l'artigliria non si poteva in modo indirizzare che nocesse alii
inimici i quali dettono la battaglia, e quelli di drento si difendevano gagliarda-
mente, ma furono tanti quelli di fuori che con le mani guastavano i ripari, che
erano di terra e deboli, e si ridussono a combattere a piano." See Sepulveda,
who was also present, and fled into the castle with Alberto Carpi, vii. 7.

3 The Ferrarese account relates that only the camp followers plundered at this
moment. The attack had cost 200 men.

Chap. III.] CONQUEST OF ROME 443

already descried its advanced guard — and that the city, properly so called,
would be able to hold out till its arrival, even at this moment rejected all
proposals.

After four hours' delay, the troops once more set themselves in motion
to bring their work to a conclusion. They took the Trastevere without
drawing a sword ; the fire of the matchlocks sufficed to clear the battle-
ments, and some blocks that served as battering rams, to force the gates
off their hinges ; the bridges that led to the interior of the city were
feebly defended : the conquerors advanced unopposed through the
deserted streets ; the inhabitants had all taken refuge in their houses.
At an hour after sunset the whole city was in their hands. Until mid-
night they remained in the order in which they had been posted ; the
mass of the Spaniards remained on the Piazza Navona ; that of the
Germans, on the Campofiore, — at that time the most frequented part :
at length, as no enemy appeared either in the city or near it, they rushed
forth to plunder the houses.

For the last seventy or eighty years, uncounted treasures had flowed
in a continual stream into Rome : ecclesiastical revenues from every
country on earth ; gifts of pilgrims ; proceeds of jubilees ; incomes of
benefices held by the prelates : the money for which every spiritual
favour had been bartered -,1 and all these riches now fell into the hands
of naked, hungry, rapacious soldiers, who had so long been only kept
in hqart by the hope of this hour.

Within the first day or two, twenty thousand persons paid contributions :
those of the imperial party, Ghibellines, were as little spared as the Guelfs ;
the churches as little respected as private houses. The great basilics
before the gates of San Lorenzo and San Paolo were plundered ; the
tomb of Saint Peter was ransacked, the ring torn from the body of
Julius II. : it was calculated that the value of ten millions of gold had
fallen into the hands of the army.2

The Spaniards made the richest booty ; they might be said to scent
gold ; they showed equal skill in discovering the most hidden treasures,
and in extorting them by torture.

The Neapolitans were personally yet more ferocious and malignant.3
Fortunately, after some days Pompeo Colonna arrived ; he strove to
protect the Roman nobles, at least from the most revolting outrages, and
opened a sort of asylum in his house.

The Germans were satisfied witfi having once more enough to eat and
drink ; where they found no resistance, they were rather good-natured

1 Francesco Vettori, Storia d'ltalia, MS., adds : " Romani vendevano tutte le
loro entrate care et affittavano le loro case a gran pregj ne pagavano alcuna tassa
o gabella." He also mentions the profit of each calling : " li artigiani, il popolo
minuto, le meretrici. Never was a richer city plundered.

2 Nova quomodo Roma capta sit relatio in Schardius, ii. 6n. " Per decern
integros dies ecclesias gynecia monachos moniales et cardinales episcopos praelatos
bancarios spoliarunt, deditos ceperunt, libros et registra lacerarunt," &c. Vet-
tori : " La uccisione fu poca, perche rati si uccidono quelli che non si vogliono
defendere, ma la preda fu inestimabile di danari contanti, di gioie, d' oro e d'
argento lavorato, di vestiti, d'arazzi, paramenti di case, mercantie d' ogni sorte e
di taglie."

3 An Italian, Jovius, Vita Pompeji Columnae, pp. 191, 192, draws this distinc-
tion.

444 SACK OF ROME [Book IV.

than otherwise.1 They allowed the Jews to make their profit without
grudging. There was much gambling in Campofiore ; men had grown
so suddenly rich that they staked hundreds of gulden on a throw. Many
came laden with vases of gold, which they lost to more successful players.
Or they feasted Simon Battista, who had been imprisoned by the papal
government for prophesying the pillage of the city. But though they had
set him at liberty, he predicted no good to them ; he told them that
soldiers' riches and priests' lands went the same way. " Take all you
can, plunder and spoils," exclaimed he, " you will soon lose it all again !"
Their anti-catholic feelings vented themselves in unseemly jests. Soldiers
dressed as cardinals, with one in the midst bearing the triple crown on
his head and personating the pope, rode in solemn procession through the
city, surrounded by guards and heralds : they halted before the Castle
of St. Angelo, where the mock pope, flourishing a huge drinking glass,
gave the cardinals his benediction ; they then held a consistory and
promised in future to be more faithful servants of the Roman empire :
the papal throne they meant to bestow on Luther.2

Occasionally discords broke out between the several nations. A com-
mittee was then chosen, consisting of three Spanish and three German
officers, who patrolled the streets all night on horseback to keep ordei.3

The leaders lay in the Vatican ; the Prince of Orange occupied the
pope's chamber. Every man kept his horse as near him as possible that
it might not be stolen.

Meanwhile, the viceroy had arrived in Rome and renewed the former
negotiations. For a time the pope hoped for succour ; the Duke oi
Urbino appeared in the neighbourhood, and three times every night
signals were made from the castle that the garrison still held out. But
he appeared to fear that the Germans would defend themselves with more
vigour than would be shown in attacking them.4

Nor was it likely that he would be inclined to incur any great danger
for the sake of the pope, since, but a few years before, he had been in-
volved in a struggle for life and death with the house of Medici, and driven
by them out of his own dominions. He retreated again without making
the slightest attempt at a rescue. The pope was at length compelled to
accept in a greatly aggravated form the terms he had so often rejected.

1 In the Sacco di Roma, ascribed to Francesco Guicciardini, or to one Jacopo
Buonaparte, these details are given at length. At first I did not venture to make
use of them, as I was not quite sure as to tHe origin of the work ; but after further
investigation, I think the facts may be as related. I shall give, in the Appendix,
my views as to the author of this writing, as well as of the book called " Memorie
storiche dei principal! awenimenti politici d' Italia seguiti durante il pontificato
di Clemente VII. opera di Patrizio de' Rossi, Roma, 1837."

2 Reissner. Wahrhaftiger Bericht. Much more violent effusions of Griine-
wald's against the pope, " who acts contrary to the word of God," are related by
Cochlaeus, and repeated by Rainaldus.

8 "AXuo-is Romae, in Hofmann, Nova Collectio, p. 535. The Germans would not
allow the Spaniards to commit their abominable outrages, — for example, on the
persons of female children ; the Spaniards, on the other hand, forbade the
Germans to mock at the priests, which they declared one of the most ungodly of
sins.

* The Germans, at least, were much inclined to march against him. Schwegler
writes (Hormayr, passim ; p. 446), " in the camp of the enemy there is hunger
and discontent : if they come nearer, we will seek them in the field."

Chap. III.] CONQUEST OF ROME 445

He now promised to pay 400,000 scudi by instalments : as a pledge, he
allowed the allies to garrison some of the strongest places which still
held out ; in Lombardy, Modena, Parma and Piacenza, and in his own
states, Ostia and Civita Vecchia. On the 15 th June this treaty was
concluded, and the following day Spanish and German soldiers mounted
guard in the Castle of St. Angelo. Two hundred of the handsomest and
stoutest landsknechts were picked out to do duty about the person of
the pope.

The emperor now thought his designs on Italy accomplished. He
doubted not that his army would be able to make an advantageous con-
vention with the Florentines, who, in the general confusion, had driven
out the house of Medici and deserted the cause of the pope : it was then
to march against Venice and encamp in the territory of the republic, in
order to compel that state also to make peace. In this enterprise the
assistance of Ferrara would be valuable.1

The title of apostolic was already exchanged in Rome for that of im-
perial, chamber.

The Germans had here an opportunity of seeing distinctly how the
empire had been the prey and the dupe of the popes ; people showed them
the ruins of the emperor's palace, and explained to them all the stratagems
by which he had been stripped of the country and the city, and even of
his own imperial residence within its walls. But they consoled them-
selves with the thought, that the man who had exalted himself to the
station of a god on earth would now be brought low by the might of the
jealous and offended God of heaven. They were persuaded that He
had opened to them a way across the Alps, over the steep rocks which
they had climbed like the wild goat ; He had preserved them unhurt
at Mantua, where their enemies had thought to catch them as in a net ;
He had commissioned the first shot to lay prostrate the pope's ablest
captain ; and, lastly, having led them by all the large cities, in face of
the enemy, and once more over the trackless mountains, safe and sound,
' to Rome, He had gone before them in the mist across the strong walls.
Thus did the mighty God strike Antichrist with the lightnings of his judg-
ment.2 They indulged the hope that now times were changed, and the
beloved young emperor Charles would rule by his mild virtues according
to the word of our Redeemer alone.3

1 Letter of Charles's of the 30th of June, in Hormayr, 181 2, 381. His intention
was to appoint the Duke of Ferrara captain general : Milan, Charles could not
promise to any body, but must wait till Sforza's process was decided. In a letter
of Angerer's of the 1st of July, it is said, if 6,000 men were but now sent to the
assistance of Leiva, " all Italy would be won and conquered."

2 Ziegler's Acta Pp. contain these reflections.

3 Words of the Wahrhaftiger Bericht. (True Report.) It concludes, " In
order that our souls, over which God is Lord, at our temporal departure may be
taken to eternal joy, therefore did the Lord Jesus come down into this world,
and died on the cross for the love of all men. This may the Lord God grant us !"

446 OCCUPATION OF BOHEMIA AND HUNGARY [Book IV.
CHAPTER IV.

OCCUPATION OF BOHEMIA AND HUNGARY.

At the moment of this signal success, the warlike power of Germany,
taking another channel, poured itself over Hungary ; and here also,
for the aggrandisement of the house of Austria.

If we would form a clear conception of the origin and import of this
event, we must bear in mind, above all, that the three eastern monarchies
of western Christendom, — Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, had only
attained to a somewhat stable government, and to a share in the benefits
of Christianity and civilization, by German influence under various forms.
At the end of the fourteenth century, it once more seemed as if this con-
nexion were indissolubly restored. The most powerful house of Ger-
many, that of Luxemburg, possessed Bohemia and Hungary ; while the
heiress of Poland was educated as the affianced bride of an Austrian prince.

But in all these countries there also existed tendencies opposed to
German interference. The most formidable enemy of the Germans,
the Grand Prince Jagjel of Lithuania, succeeded in driving the Duke of
Austria from the throne of Poland ; he afterwards sent his nephew,
Koribut, to Bohemia, and his son obtained the crown of Hungary. The
race of Jagellon thus consolidated its power throughout the east of Europe ;
on the one side it presented a bulwark against the incursions of the Otto-
mans, and on the other, excluded all German influence : in spite of many
turns of fortune, it still maintained itself in the beginning of the 16th
century. Sigismund I. ruled over Poland and Lithuania ; Wladislas II.
over Bohemia and Hungary.

But it no longer possessed any internal strength. Wladislas II. was
by no means the man to curb the stormy nobles of Hungary.1 He was
fitted only for the simplest private life. Those about him remarked that
he spoke of the affairs of daily life with a certain degree of good sense,
but that this deserted him as soon as the discourse fell on matters of
state. He would not believe anything bad that was told him of any
man, and could with difficulty be brought to sign a sentence of death ;2
everybody, therefore, did what he liked. Under King Matthias the public
revenues had exceeded 800,000 ducats ; under Wladislas they gradually
fell off to 200,000 ; soon after his death, there was not money enough
to pay the expenses of the royal kitchen. Everything fell into ruin and
decay. " Two things," it is said in the Maxims of Tolna of the year
1 5 18, "are required for the maintenance of every kingdom — arms and
laws ; in our kingdom of Hungary we have neither the one nor the other.3

1 They would fain have driven away Matthias too. The Relatio Nuncii
apostolici of 1480, in Engel, ii. 14, says expressly, " Li Baroni cercano di cacciarlo
del reame."

2 Relatione di Sebastian Zustignan venuto orator di Hongaria in Sanuto, iv.,
1503. " II re e homo grande di persona e di degnissima genealogia : devoto e
religioso, e si dice, nunquam habuit concubitum cum muliere, e mai si adira, mai
dice mai di niun, e se niun dice mai di qualcuno, dicit rex : forsan non est verum.
. . . Dice assa oration, aide tre messe al zorno, ma in reliquis 6 come una
statua. . . . Est piu presto homo rectus quam rex."

3 Ex Ludovici II. decretis Tolnensis conventus in Katona Hist. crit. Ungariae,
xix., p. 89.

Chap. IV.] FALL OF HUNGARY 447

Under these circumstances, the Jagellons gradually saw the expediency
of attaching themselves again to the nearest and most powerful German
family — to the house of Austria. The Emperor Maximilian, who, as he
said, had never for a moment lost sight of " his own rights and those of
the German nation " on Hungary and Bohemia, had at length, in the year
1 5 1 5, the singular satisfaction of receiving both kings — Sigismund and
Wladislas — at his court, and of concluding the strictest alliance with
them. Wladislas betrothed his son and daughter to a grand-daughter
and grandson of the emperor ; Sigismund promised to marry Bona Sforza,
who was also related to the house of Austria. The year after Wladislas
died, and Louis II. ascended the throne under the joint guardianship of
Maximilian and Sigismund. By degrees a German party took firm root
at the court ; especially after the marriage between Louis and the grand-
daughter of Maximilian, Mary of Austria, had actually been concluded
(a.d. 1521). All was, however, still in the greatest confusion. Heber-
stein cannot find words to describe how the great nobles, spiritual as well
as temporal, vied with each other in insolence j1 how the frontiers were
without defence, while their armed bands obstructed the streets of the
capital ; how the loud trumpets called the magnates to dinner while the
king sat almost alone ; — all places were distributed by favour, and the
currency was deteriorated. At length the intelligent queen, at least,
formed plans for reviving the authority of the state ; but already had
a power arisen capable of opposing a formidable resistance to the court.

Under King Matthias the house of Zapolya, so called from a Slavonic
village near Poschega, whence it originated, rose to peculiar eminence.
To this house in particular, King Wladislas had owed his accession to
the throne ; whence, however it thought itself entitled to claim a share
in the sovereign power, and even a sort of prospective right to the throne.
Its members were the wealthiest of all the magnates ; they possessed
seventy-two castles ;2 the chief seat of the family being Trentsin, a fortress
perched on a steep rock overhanging the Waag, adorned with the most
beautiful gardens, watered from wells dug a hundred fathoms deep by
Turkish prisoners, and defended by strong fortifications. It is said that
a prophecy early promised the crown to the young John Zapolya. Pos-
sessed of all the power conferred by his rich inheritance, Count of Zips,
and Woiwode3 of Transylvania, he soon collected a strong party around
him. It was he who mainly persuaded the Hungarians, in the year 1505,
to exclude all foreigners from the throne by a formal decree ; which,
though they were not always able to maintain in force, they could never
be induced absolutely to revoke. In the year 1514 the Woiwode succeeded
in putting down an exceedingly formidable insurrection of the peasants
with his own forces ; a service which the lesser nobility prized the more
highly, because it enabled them to reduce the peasantry to a still harder
state of servitude.4 His wish was, on the death of Wladislas, to become

1 Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii, Basil, 1571, p. 146.

2 According to Turnschwamb (Engel, i., p. 193) many of them were confided
only to trusty hands, such as Father John and Stephen Zapolya.

3 The administrative officer or ruling Prince of Transylvania, which, since the
nth century, had been under Hungary.

4 The revolt was directed precisely against the nobility. Zeckel called himself,
in one of his proclamations, " Regis Hungarise tantummodo subditus et non
dominorum." — Katona, xviii. 720.

448 ' JOHN Z A POLY A [Book IV.

Gubernator of the kingdom, to marry the deceased king's daughter Anne,
and then to await the course of events. But he was here encountered
by the policy of Maximilian. Anne was married to the Archduke Fer-
dinand ; Zapolya was excluded from the administration of the kingdom ;
even the vacant Palatinate was refused him and given to his old rival
Stephen Bathory. He was highly incensed : indeed at the meeting of
the Rakosch, in 1 5 18, the emperor kept a few thousand men ready to come
to the aid of the Hungarian government in case of any violence on the
part of Zapolya.1 But it was not till the year 1525 that Zapolya got the
upper hand at the Rakosch. The king having nevertheless rejected his
proposals, his followers summoned an extraordinary diet at Hatwan, at
which they made an attempt to exclude all strangers, to alter the whole
government and take it into their own hands. They deposed the palatine,
Bathory, and elected in his stead the Woiwode's most intimate friend,
Stephen Verbocz. As to Zapolya, no one entertained a doubt that he
aimed at the throne. " The Woiwode," says a Venetian report of 1523,
" has a good head, he is very clever, and universally beloved : he would
be glad if the kingdom suffered some disaster ; he would then reconquer
it with his own forces and make himself king."2 " He strives," says
another of the year 1525, " with all the powers of his mind after the crown,
and prepares everything so that he may be able to seize it."

In order to arrest these hasty and undisguised strides of a vassal towards
the final goal of his ambition, his opponents, who had everything to fear
from his success, rallied more closely round the court ; declared, at a
national assembly, the decrees of Hatwan null and void, reinstated
Bathory, and requested the king at length to exert his authority. This
the queen was fully prepared to do. She demanded complete liberty in
the administration of the finances, and the direct dependence of the
frontier troops on the government. She warned the papal nuncio not
to put too much fuel on the fire.

But before anything was accomplished — on the contrary, just as these
party conflicts had thrown the country into the utmost confusion, the
mighty enemy, Soliman, appeared on the frontiers of Hungary, deter-
mined to put an end to the anarchy. Ottomans and Jagellons had long
stood opposed to each other on the eastern verge of Europe : the pro-
pitious moment had at length arrived, in which the Sultan might hope,
at least as far as Hungary was concerned, to fight out this long pending
duel. Five years before, he had conquered Belgrade ; which, it was said,
had fallen, partly because the Hungarian government could not raise
the fifty gulden necessary for the transport of the ammunition lying ready
at Ofen. Since then, the strong places on the frontier of Croatia had
fallen into the hands of the pachas, and the plain country was laid open
to a great blow. Such an one the sultan now felt himself encouraged
to strike, both by the internal state of Hungary and the general distrac-
tion of Europe. From his prison at Madrid, Francis I. had found means to
entreat the assistance of Soliman ; urging that it well beseemed a great
emperor to succour the oppressed. Plans were laid at Constantinople,

1 Maximilian's Instructions to Heberstein in Senkenberg's Sammlung unge-
druckter Schriften, iv., p. 26.

2 Relatione del Sr d'Orio, 12th Dec. 1523. " Saria contento che quel regno
si perdesse e poi lui con il favor de Transilvani ricuperarlo e farsi re."

Chap. IV.] INVASION BY SOLI MAN, 1526 449

according to which the two sovereigns were to attack Spain with a com-
bined fleet, and to send armies to invade Hungary and the north of Italy.1
Soliman, without any formal treaty, was by his position an ally of the
League, as the king of Hungary was, of the emperor. On the 23d of April,
1526, Soliman, after visiting the graves of his forefathers and of the old
Moslem martyrs, marched out of Constantinople with a mighty host,
consisting of about a hundred thousand men, and incessantly strengthened
by fresh recruits on its road. He understood the art of keeping his
troops under the severest discipline. His diary shows that he ordered
men to be beheaded for having driven the horses of the peasantry, or
destroyed the standing corn in a village.2 Still in the bloom of youth,
he displayed those brilliant qualities of energy and love of conquest which
had raised his ancestors to greatness.

What power had Hungary, in the condition we have just described, of
resisting such an attack ?

Ibrahim Pacha had already laid siege to Peterwardein before the Hun-
garians had taken any measures for defence. The troops had not long
before been called out, but none had appeared : contributions had been
demanded, but scarcely anything had been raised. With great difficulty,
Anton Fugger had been induced to advance fifty thousand gulden on the
Neusohler mines. The young king took the field with a following of not
more than three thousand men.3

Ibrahim had conquered Peterwardein, and had welcomed his sovereign
on the Hungarian soil with an offering of five hundred heads. The
Ottoman army was now nearly three hundred thousand strong, and had
begun to ascend the Danube : Soliman caused it to be proclaimed through
his camp that his object was Ofen. Meanwhile the troops of some Ges-
pannschafts (counties) and a few magnates collected around the king ; a
few companies hired by the pope, and a few by Poland, also joined him.
On his arrival in Tolna, he might have had from ten to twelve thousand
men.4

The most pressing necessity was to defend the passage of the Drave,
whither the palatine, who was certainly not deficient in zeal, now hastened.
But a number of magnates refused to advance without the king. Soliman
thus gained time to build a convenient bridge, over which his army marched
without interruption for five days. King Louis said, " I see my head
must be stuck up instead of yours ; well then, I will carry it thither my-
self !" He proceeded to the fatal plain of Mohacz, fully resolved with his
small band to await in the open field the overwhelming force of the enemy.
The troops of the kingdom were as yet far from being assembled ; the
two mightiest vassals, the Ban of Croatia and the Woiwode of Transyl-
vania, were still missing ; the Bohemian and Moravian allies had not yet
arrived ; — with all its recent additions, the army in Mohacz amounted to

1 Narrative of Ibrahim (the Imberi-Wascha) in the Report by Lamberg and
Jurischitsch in Gevay's Urkunden und Actenstiicken zur Geschichte der Ver-
haltnisse zwischen Oesterreich TJngern und der Pforte, 1530, p. 42.

2 Hammer's Geschichte der Osmanen, v. iii., p. 639.

3 Broderithus : Descriptio cladis Mohaczianae in appendice Bonfinii ed Sam-
bucus, p. 558. See Turnschwanb, p. 204.

4 Among them) 4,000, foot. Brod. 559. He does not state the exact number
of the cavalry.

29

450 BATTLE OF MOHACZ [Book IV.

from twenty to twenty-four thousand men. Few of them had ever seen
a pitched battle. The command was intrusted to a Muscovite friar, Paul
Tomory, Archbishop of Colocza, who had formerly distinguished himself
in a few marauding expeditions. In spite of all these disadvantages, the
Hungarians still indulged the most extravagant self-confidence. It
would have been impossible to induce them to retreat ;l they would not
even form a barricade of their waggons. As soon as the enemy descended
the hills in front of them, into the plain where they lay encamped, without
a moment's pause they rushed upon him. But Soliman was as prudent
as he was daring. The Hungarians thought to decide the battle by an
impetuous charge ; " they trusted in their harness of the blue steel."
Ill provided with infantry or artillery, they made war in the spirit and
manner of the past century. On the other hand, Soliman, barbarian as
he might otherwise be, knew how to avail himmself of the most recent
improvements in the advancing art of war ; he had planted three hundred
cannon behind the heights we have mentioned, and his janizaries were as
well skilled in the use of the matchlock as any soldiery in the world. The
Hungarians found no difficulty in dispersing the advanced Turkish squad-
rons and occupying the hill. Already they thought they had conquered,
but here they first beheld the boundless camp of the Osmans. They
rushed forward headlong, as if the impossible were possible to their valour,
and were received by a tremendous fire ; the right wing, from the artillery,
the centre from the musketry of the janizaries, while the Sipahi horse
attacked them on both flanks. Here personal valour could avail nothing.
The Hungarians were immediately thrown into disorder,2 their best men
fell, the others took to flight. The young king was compelled to flee. It
was not even granted him to die in the field of battle ; a far more miserable
end awaited him. Mounted behind a Silesian soldier, who served him as
a guide, he had already been carried across the dark waters that divide
the plain ; his horse was already climbing the bank, when he slipped, fell
back, and buried himself and his riders in the morass.3 This rendered
the defeat decisive. The leader of the nation — the king — and a great
part of the magnates had fallen.4 For the present, no further resistance
could be thought of. The land was ravaged far and wide ; the keys of
Ofen were carried to the sultan, who celebrated the Beiram there.

Soliman had gained one of those victories which decide the fate of
nations during long epochs. The great power at the head of which he
stood, the power which had carried the principles of Islam, such as they
had been established in Asia under Tartar influence, into the other quarters
of the globe, had been raised by him to complete ascendency in eastern
Europe. Who was strong enough to overturn it ? Troubling himself

1 Ongari si havea potuti ritrar salvo verso Buda. Copia di un aviso avuto da
Constantinopoli in Hammer's Wiens erste aufgehobene turkische Belagerung
App., No. viii. : a simple but good statement.

* Extract from the Heiduck Nagy's History of the Campaign of Mohacz,
preserved in Petschewi's Ottoman History (the singular example of a really useful
Oriental narrative from an Oriental work) : communicated by Hammer, in
Hormayr's Archiv. for 1827, No. 15. .

3 This account (in Nagy and others) is confirmed by the letter in Katona,
xix., p. 697, concerning the discovery of the body.

4 Katona, p. 703. "Magna dehinc rerum conversio secuta fuit, pluribus et
praesulibus et proceribus una hac dimicatione exstinctis."

Chap. IV.] CLAIMS TO THE SUCCESSION 451

little about the defence of the places he had taken, he turned back and
placed the trophies of Of en on the Hippodrome and the mosque of Aja
Sofia.

That two thrones, the succession to which was not entirely free from
doubt, had thus been left vacant, was an event that necessarily caused a
great agitation throughout Christendom. It was still a question whether
such a European power as Austria would continue to exist ; — a question
which it is only necessary to state, in order to be aware of its vast im-
portance to the fate of mankind at large, and of Germany in particular.
Before the nature of the relations which might subsist between Europe
and the Ottoman empire could even be discussed, this great question had
to be decided.

The claims of Ferdinand to both crowns, unquestionable as they might
be in reference to the treaties with the reigning houses, were opposed in
the nations themselves, by the right of election and the authority of con-
siderable rivals.

In Hungary, as soon as the Turks had retired, John Zapolya appeared
with the fine army which he had kept back from the conflict : the fall of
the king was at the same time the fall of his adversaries. The faction
which had framed the resolutions of Hatwan was now omnipotent ; and,
at an assembly at Tokay, they determined that, as nothing could be
undertaken without a king and ruler, they would immediately proceed
to elect one, and to that end convoke a diet at Stuhlweissenburg.1 Even
in Tokay, however, John Zapolya was saluted as king.

Meanwhile, the dukes of Bavaria conceived the design of getting pos-
session of the throne of Bohemia : in this they were encouraged by several
obsequious nobles of that country ; and in September they despatched
their councillor Weissenfelder to Prague, who found their prospects so
promising that they determined to send a solemn embassy to Bohemia.

Nor was it in the two kingdoms alone that these pretenders had a con-
siderable party. The state of politics in Europe was such as to insure
them powerful supporters abroad.

In the first place, Francis*I. was intimately connected with Zapolya : in
a short time a delegate from the pope was at his side, and the Germans in
Rome maintained that Clement assisted the faction of the Woiwode with
money.2 Zapolya sent an agent to Venice with a direct request to be
admitted a member of the League of Cognac.

In Bohemia, too, the French had long had devoted partisans. We find
that, in the year 1523, they had the project of attacking Austria from the
side of Bohemia, and had carried on a correspondence with an ancestor
of Wallenstein, with that object.3 As the King of Poland, who had for
some time withdrawn himself from the Austrian alliance, and likewise

1 Among the contradictory accounts of the chroniclers, the only trustworthy
document is the answer of the King of Poland to the invitation sent to him from
Tokay. Dogiel and Katona, xix., p. 748.

2 Ziegler, Vita Clem. VII., in Schelhorn's Amoenitates.-ii. 308 : " Ea pecunia
(he is speaking of exactions) Trentschinii factionem contra Ferdinandum regem
aliquamdiu juvit."

3 Lettera di Franc. Massario in Sanuto, torn, xxxv., calls him " Waldestein,
barone e gran capitano di Bohemia, volentier. veniria a servir la S"* nra cum 10,
20, 30"1 persone. Questo e quel capitano che '1 re X"10 voleva condurre."

29^-2

452 PLANS OF THE DUKES OF BAVARIA [Book IV.

set up pretensions to the throne of Bohemia, found he had no chance of
success, the Polish as well as the French envoys promised their support
to the agents of Bavaria.

By this political combination Duke William of Bavaria was encouraged
to form still more ambitious plans.

We have already observed, that Rome felt the necessity of placing a
king of the Romans by the side of, or rather in opposition to, the emperor
Charles. Meanwhile Duke William, one of the most devoted adherents
of the Curia, had already conceived the thought of raising himself to this
high station, and had actually taken steps in consequence.

At the same diet of 1524, in which the Council of Regency was over-
thrown, the houses of Bavaria and the Palatinate, engaged in a common
struggle against the nobles, laid aside their old hostilities and concluded
a new hereditary alliance. Leonhard Eck addressed amicable reproaches
to the elector, that at the last vacancy of the imperial crown, he had for-
gotten his own pretensions, and had subsequently ceded his right to the
Vicariate to the Council of Regency.1

Shortly afterwards, when the princes met at the cross-bow match at
Heidelberg, which we have already mentioned, Duke William no longer
concealed that he aspired to the Roman crown for himself.

At an interview at Ellwangen, soon after, they again discussed the
matter. Duke William appeared willing to give the precedency to the
elector ; but as that prince had taken no measures towards the accom-
plishment of such an object, he commenced negotiations without scruple
on his own account. In the autumn of 1526, overtures were also made
to the Elector of Saxony, though without success, since that prince belonged
to a party professing opinions radically different.2

The consequences that must have resulted, had this scheme succeeded,
are so incalculable, that it is not too much to say they would have com-
pletely changed the political history of Europe. The power of Bavaria
would have outweighed that of Austria in both German and Slavonic
countries, and Zapolya, thus supported, would have been able to maintain
his station ; the League, and with it high ultfa-montane opinions, would
have held the ascendency in eastern Europe. Never was there a project
more pregnant with danger to the growing power of the house of Austria.

Ferdinand behaved with all the prudence and energy which that house
has so often displayed in difficult emergencies.

For the present, the all-important object was the crown of Bohemia.

His situation as husband of a Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, and
as brother of the widowed queen, brought him into frequent personal con-
tact with the most puissant nobles. He perfectly understood the art of
turning to his own advantage every favourable disposition arising out of
these circumstances, and of extinguishing every germ of antipathy by
favours. The influential High Burggrave, Low von Rozmital, received
the assurance that the account which he was bound to render of his ad-
ministration would either be altogether dispensed with, or very slightly

1 Memoires de la Vie et des Faicts de Frederic I. (Comte Palatin), in Hoff-
mann's Sammlung ungedruckter Nachrichten, ch. xlii.

2 " There are traces," says the keeper of the Bavarian state archives, Stumpf,
" that Pope Clement VII. and the King of France tried to forward the duke's
designs."

Chap. IV.] ELECTION TO THE THRONE 453

inspected. Important concessions were also made to Schwanberg, Schlich,
Pflug, and the Duke of Miinsterberg. The Chancellor Adam von Neuhaus
had hastened in the retinue of the Austrian envoy, to use his influence in
favour of Ferdinand. While a certain number of Bohemian nobles were
quickly induced by these measures to declare that they would acknowledge
no other master than the archduke,1 no means were neglected of conciliat-
ing the mass of the population. Though thoroughly convinced that his
wife (and therefore he himself) had an unquestionable hereditary right to
the throne, he carefully avoided offending the pride which the nation
felt in the belief that, in a case like the present, it had absolute freedom of
election. He let it appear that his claim was by no means the chief
motive for his offering himself to their choice.

At first he thought of at once assuming the title of king, but this project
he dropped at the advice of his envoys. He acceded to the demand of
the Bohemians, that he would take upon himself a part of the public
debt, inconvenient as that was in the straitened state of his finances.
Nor did he disdain to give the most careful answers to all the objections
which his envoys said were urged against him.2

In a word, all his measures were taken with such skill and prudence,
that on the day of the election, though the Bavarian agent had, up to the
last moment, not the slightest doubt of the success of his negotiations,
an overwhelming majority in the three estates elected Ferdinand to the
throne of Bohemia.

This took place on the 23d October, 1526. A solemn embassy pro-
ceeded to Vienna to invite him to take possession of his new kingdom ; —
one of the fairest in the world, including, as it did, Silesia and Lusatia.

A very important question, deserving a more accurate inquiry, here
suggests itself ; — what influence religious considerations had in this election.

All the countries subject to the Bohemian crown were filled with anti-
papal elements. In Silesia and the Lusatias, the evangelical doctrines
were widely diffused ; in Bohemia and Moravia, the Utraquists formed a
most powerful community. It is hardly probable that, in the choice of
a king, the interests of these different confessions were disregarded.

In this point of view, Ferdinand was infinitely to be preferred to a duke
of Bavaria. The dukes were unqualified adherents of the papacy, and
fierce persecutors. The archduke, on the contrary, however strict a
catholic himself, however careful to appear so (for in all the countries in
question there was still a very considerable catholic party), had for some
time showed great moderation in his hereditary dominions. We have
seen how little he was inclined to favour the secular claims of the clergy,
and what equivocal decrees the German diet had passed under his influence.
Moreover, he was at this moment at open war with the pope ; the Bohemian
election took place while the recruiting for Frundsberg's army was going on.

We find no traces of the negotiations which were probably carried on
with relation to religious affairs ; but from the Recesses it appears that
Ferdinand acceded to very remarkable concessions.

It is well known that the court of Rome never fully recognised the

1 Extract from a letter of Weissenfelder in Stumpf, Baierns Polit. Gesch. i
P- 39-

a Extract from the Instructions and the Ambassador's Correspondence,
Bucholtz, ii., p. 407.

454 ELECTION TO THE THRONE [Book IV.

Compactata of the Council of Basle (a line of policy it afterwards pursued
with reference to many treaties unfavourable to itself), and, since the time
of Pius II., had expressly refused to confirm them.

Ferdinand now promised to give their full efficacy to the Compactata1
and to assume, in treating with the pope, that they were confirmed.2

One of the greatest grievances of the Utraquists was, that they had long
been without bishops to ordain their priests, and that they had been
reduced to many strange and even hurtful expedients to supply this
want. Ferdinand promised to procure for them an archbishop who should
put in force the Compactata in relation to both spiritual and temporal
affairs. In short, he solemnly undertook not only to protect the
Utraquists, but to obtain for them a fresh recognition of their privileges.

This was, perhaps, rendered less difficult by the fact, that a party
hostile to Luther was now formed among the Utraquists themselves ;
notwithstanding which, however, they were still treated as heretics.

Nor were the general abuses and errors of the church entirely forgotten.
Ferdinand promised the Bohemians to take measures to promote a Chris-
tian union and reformation — a promise which, indeed, either side might
interpret in its own favour, — but which, as it related only to the conduct
of the emperor, not to that of the pope, — to some assembly, of whatever
nature, not to a general council in which all the nations of Christendom
were to take part,3 — could, in fact, hardly be understood in any other
sense than that intended by the German diets.

The Silesians expressed themselves still more plainly and unequivocally.

At a meeting of the States at Leobschutz, on the 4th December, 1526,
after they had recognised Ferdinand's hereditary right — though not with-
out keeping up the appearance of a certain freedom, — they commissioned
the delegates who were to be the bearers of this recognition to Vienna,
(among whom were princes greatly inclined to evangelical opinions, — for
example, Frederick of Liegnitz and George of Brandenburg,) to call the
attention of the new king and archduke to the putting an end to religious
dissension, " according to the gospel and word of God."4 In conformity

1 This was a compromise drawn up by the Council of Basle, which was accepted
by the more moderate of the Hussites, and led to the conclusion of the Hussite
Wars. (Cf. Creighton's History of the Popes, vol. ii., pp. no et seq.) "Quod
rursum ad suum vigorem pervenirent." Ferdinandi Literae, 15th Dec. 1526, ap.
Dumont, iv., pp. 1. 469.

2 " Promisimus, cum summo Pontifice illud tractare, ac si Bohemis ac Moravis
ilia (compactata) cum effectu essent confirmata."

3 Excerpt of the article inserted in the Landtafel, Bucholtz, ii., p. 420.

4 The words of the instruction in Buckisch, Religionsacten, MS., torn, i., p. 206,
are as follows : — " Und nachdem der allm. Gott aus seiner gottlichen Verord-
riung geschickt und verliehen, dass wir S. Kon. Mt. zu unserm Erbkonige ein-
trachtiglich angenommen, welcher einmuttigen und trostlichen Meinung wir s.
Allmachtigkeit billig Lob und Dank sagen, so befinden wir nun in Notturf t unser
Seel und Leibs gliickseliger Wolfahrt, die jetzige vorfallende Irrung und Zwiespalt,
so sich in dem h. christl. Glauben zugetragen, bei S. K. M. anzuregen, damit
dieselb aus solchem Irrthum und Zertrennung erhaben, und nach Verordnung
der h. christl. Kirchen dem Evangelio und Worte Gottes gemass nach S. K. Mt.
Aussatz und durch unser aller einmuthig und freundliches Vergleichen in recht
christl. Bestand und gleichformigen Gebrauch gebracht wiirde, welches E. L.
ihn und E. F. Gn. bei S. K. Mt. alles in Unterthanigkeit bitten werden, auf dass
S. K. Mt. dasselbe als ein christl. Konig zu Trost und Heil unsrer Seelen Seligkeit,

Chap. IV.] OCCUPATION OF HUNGARY 455

with these instructions the delegates entreated the king to take into con-
sideration the establishment of a Christian ordinance according to the
standard of the gospel ; that so all might live together in peace and unity.
Ferdinand replied, he would do all that could conduce to christian unity
and the praise of Almighty God.1

As opposed to the traditional opinion, it may sound like a paradox to
affirm — what however the general combination of events warrants us in
concluding, — that the bearing which the house of Austria had at this
crisis assumed, — opposed to Rome in its political, and moderate in its
religious views, contributed to secure to it the obedience of these countries,
which were filled with such various elements of opposition to Rome.

By a singular concatenation of circumstances, the high Romanist opinions
of which Bavaria was the champion, contributed, from the very first, to
the defeat of her plans.

On his brother's birth-day, the 24th of February, 1527, Ferdinand was
crowned at Prague ; on the 1 1 th of May he received the act of homage
and allegiance in the market-place in Breslau, and the German princes
hastened to accept from the new suzerain a renewal of the fiefs which they
held of the Bohemian crown. A Muscovite ambassador, who happened
to be then at the court, expressed his surprise that so magnificent a king-
dom should have passed into the hands of a new lord without a sword
being drawn.2

The affairs of Hungary were not so easily or so peacefully settled.

That country offered a certain analogy to Bohemia from a religious poin t
of view. Queen Mary, around whom the Austrian party gathered, was
esteemed a friend of the new opinions : she did not keep the fasts, read
Lutheran writings, and had followers . of Luther at her court. In
November, 1526, Luther dedicated a psalm to her, for consolation under
her misfortune. On the other hand, Zapolya's partisans affected strict
orthodoxy : their chief organ, Verboez, passed among the Lutherans
for a great hypocrite ; he had caused a covered way to be constructed
from his own house to the neighbouring Capuchin convent, that he might
enjoy uninterrupted communication with it.3

auch zu Dempfung erfolgenden Unraths nach dem h. Evangelio gnadiglich zu
verordnen und zu verschaffen geruhe." — " And since Almighty God, in his divine
providence, has ordained and granted that we have unanimously accepted
H. R. My. to be our hereditary king, for which unanimous and comfortable opinion
we give due praise and thanks to the Almighty, we now find it needful for the
welfare of our souls and bodies to bring the errors and divisions which now prevail
in the holy Christian faith before H. R. My., whereby the same may be raised out
of such error and division, and according to the ordinances of the holy Christian
church, and agreeably to the gospel and the word of God may, conformably with
H. R. My.'s pleasure, and by our unanimous and amicable agreement, be brought
to a true Christian understanding, and a uniform practice. Your princely graces
will, in all submission, pray H. R. My., in order that H. R. My., as a Christian king,
may be pleased graciously to order and procure the same to be done according
to the Holy Gospel, for the comfort and benefit of our souls, and for the prevention
of future troubles."

1 Petition and Resolution, in Schickfuss, Schlesische Chronik, Hi. 171. Also id
the Appendix to Bucholtz, ii. 523.

2 Herberstein R. M. C, p. 154.

3 Turnschwamb, in Engel, i. 197. " Stephen Verboez amicus Stis." Relatio
Actorum ; Engel, ii., p. 55.

456 OCCUPATION OF HUNGARY [Book IV.

The political consequences of these conflicting opinions were, however,
not very obvious in Hungary. The inclinations in favour of a church
differing in form from that established, were as yet too scattered, too
insignificant, to produce any sensible effect. Ferdinand, who had been
reproached with surrounding his wife with Germans, who, it was said,
were all Lutherans,1 carefully endeavoured to maintain his reputation
as a good catholic. On the Good Friday of 1527 he took occasion to
admonish his sister concerning her religious leanings.2 On Corpus Christi
day of the same year, he was seen following the procession through the
streets of Vienna, in regal ornaments, with a sword girt at his side and a
missal in his hand, looking around to see that everybody paid due rever-
ence to the holy elements. From time to time he issued mandates for the
maintenance of the ancient practices of the church.

But in Hungary, superiority of force was at that time more important
than questions of religion.

It could not be said that the whole nation was split into two hostile
parties ; rather, that two political tendencies existed in its bosom ; the
one inclining to the court and the palatine, the other, to the opposition
and Zapolya. After the disaster of Mohacz they stood in the same relation
to each other as before ; the preponderance of either was dependent on
the momentary assent of the majority, who had attached themselves
decidedly neither to the one party nor the other.

At first, when Zapolya came forward, full armed and powerful out of
the general desolation, he had the uncontested superiority. The capital
of the kingdom sought his protection, after which he marched to Stuhl-
weissenburg, where his partisans bore down all attempts at opposition :3
he was elected and crowned (nth of November, 1526) ; in Croatia, too,
he was acknowledged king at a diet ; he filled all the numerous places,
temporal and spiritual, left vacant by the disaster of Mohacz, with his
friends. We have mentioned the negotiations he set on foot in all direc-
tions. In Venice and Rome, in Munich and Constantinople, we find his
agents. When someone showed him an address of Ferdinand's, exhorting
the Hungarians to abandon him, he smiled, and said, " kingdoms were
not conquered in that manner."

But Ferdinand soon had recourse to other expedients.

The party of the former court had still sufficient strength and importance
to convoke a diet on behalf of Ferdinand, the husband of a Jagellon, who
had so many ancient treaties in his favour. It was held at Presburg —
also in November, 1526 — and elected him king. Stephen Bathory and
Alexis Thurzo, the Bishop of Wesprim, were extremely active in his
service. There is a diploma of Ferdinand's, in which he names his
adherents, expresses his gratitude to them, and promises his supporters

1 Diarium in Comitiis Pesthanis, in Engel, ii. 51. " Dedit ei Germanos qui
omnes fuerunt Lutherani." In Katona, xix. 515, Art. v. " Fukkarii ablegentur :
oratores Caesareus et Venetus (the latter only for the sake of the former, as
the Venetian Relation expresses) exmittantur : Lutherani etiam omnes de regno
extirpentur, — ubicumque reperti fuerint, libere comburantur."

2 Correspondence in Bucholtz, ix.

3 So at least the Bishop of Nitra, Podmanizky, excused himself for placing the
crown on Zapolya's head. He says he should have been in danger of his life if he
had refused. — Diploma Ferdinandi ; Katano, xix., p. 7J2.

Chap. IV.] OCCUPATION OF HUNGARY 457

the best posts and offices hereafter.1 Nor did he neglect to try the efficacy
of gold ; mindful of the hint of his sister Mary, that he could accomplish
more with a gulden now, than in future perhaps with a large sum. Heavily
as they pressed upon him, his gifts were still insufficient to put an end to
the waverings of the magnates. Ferdinand saw indeed — for he had too much
good sense to indulge in any illusions — that the grand thing was superiority
in arms. The acquisition of the crown of Bohemia gradually enabled
him to obtain the necessary force, and he received some pecuniary aid
from his brother. If he hesitated to reject the negotiations which the
King of Poland set on foot at Olmutz, it was, as he expressly says in an
extant letter, merely in order to gain time for his preparations. At length
he had proceeded far enough.2

On the 31st July, 1527, Ferdinand reached the half-ruined tower on
the high road between Vienna and Ofen, which marks the boundary
between Austria and Hungary : he was received by the palatine and a
few Hungarian horsemen. As soon as he touched the soil of Hungary,
he alighted from his horse and swore to maintain the privileges of the
kingdom. He had brought a noble army into the field. The grants of
his new kingdom had enabled him to raise an excellent body of infantry :
he was preceded by Katzianer ; and he now distinguished himself by the
most rigorous discipline, which he enforced even on the Bohemians.
Rogendorf, who had returned from Spain, and the veteran captains, Marx
Sittich and Eck von Reischach, had brought up the most experienced
landsknechts. Besides these, the king's new vassals, Casimir of Branden-
burg, George of Saxony and the aged warrior, Erich of Brunswick, had
been induced to send some squadrons of German reiters to his aid. Casimir,
notwithstanding that he had adopted decided, though moderate, evan-
gelical opinions, was invested with the chief command. Nicholas von
Salm, whose name we met with at the battle of Pa via, and Johann Hilchen,
the companion of Sickingen, were with this army. It amounted to 8000
foot and 3000 horse. The king was advised not to expose his person to
danger, lest he should share the fate of his predecessor ; but as at this
moment he received the intelligence that a son was born to him, and the
succession thus secured, he insisted on accompanying the expedition.3

Nor did this assume a very formidable aspect. The first fortified places,
Comorn, Tata, and Gran; fell without much resistance : the excellent
artillery, the red-hot cannon balls, quickly reduced the garrison to despair.
The Germans advanced without interruption ; and as soon as it appeared
possible that Ferdinand might be successful, Zapolya's followers began to

1 Katona, xx. 19. " Praelaturas et dignitates et beneficia ecclesiastica ac bona
et jura hereditaria et officia quae ad collationem nostram regiam — devolventur,
praefatis consiliariis et his qui nostras partes sequentur, pro suis cuique meritis
ante alios donabimus." — Ferdinand describes the circumstances of both elections
in a letter to his brother, of 31st Dec. 1526 (Gevay, p. 30). He asserts that he
was elected by a vast majority.

2 Ferdinand to Mary, 7th April. " Combien que nay nullement en voulente —
riens traicter ny conclure, neantmoings — pour entretenir les affaires jusques a ce
que soie de tout prest pour me mectre aux champs, . . . ie luy (au Roi de
Pologne) ay bien voulu accorder icelle journee." — Gevay, p. 60.

3 Ursinus Velius de Bello Pannonico, ed. Kollar. From the collations in
Katona, who has inserted this work entire, it is evident how inferior is Isthuansi
and even Zermegh to these contemporary and circumstantial accounts.

458 OCCUPATION OF HUNGARY [Book IV.

desert him. The fleet in the Danube went over first, — the military
importance of which was equal to its moral effect ; next the Ban Bathyany,
who had already changed sides more than once, returned to that of Fer-
dinand. Peter Pereny, who is regarded as the first evangelical magnate
in Hungary, and Valentine Torok, suspected of being actuated by the
desire to retain possession of some sequestrated church lands, appeared
with splendid retinues.1 The example of these great men was followed
by innumerable obscurer ones. Zapolya saw that his antagonist was the
stronger, and neither ventured to meet him in the field, nor even to hold
the capital against him, but retreated to his own dominions. On the 20th
August, St. Stephen's day, Ferdinand made his entry into Ofen.

Whilst the States of the kingdom assembled about him in that city,
the German reiters under Nicholas von Salm — Markgrave Casimir having
died at Ofen — pursued the Woiwode across the Theis. Never did the
German troops display more bravery and constancy.2 They had often
neither meat nor bread, and were obliged to live on such fruits as they
found in the gardens : the inhabitants were wavering and uncertain —
they submitted, and then revolted again to the enemy ; Zapolya's troops,
aided by their knowledge of the ground, made several very formidable
attacks by night ; but the Germans evinced, in the moment of danger,
the skill and determination of a Roman legion : they showed, too, a noble
constancy under difficulties and privations. At Tokay they defeated
Zapolya and compelled him to quit Hungary ; after which they had the
honour to escort their royal leader and countryman to Stuhlweissenburg
in silken and embroidered surcoats over their glittering armour. On the
3rd November, 1527, Ferdinand was crowned in Stuhlweissenburg: only
five of the magnates of the kingdom adhered to Zapolya. The victory
appeared complete.

Ferdinand, however, distinctly felt that this appearance was delusive.
" Monseigneur," he writes in the same November to his brother, " I do
not doubt that the nature of the Hungarians, — the fickleness of their
will, is known to you.3 They must be held in with a short rein if you would
be sure of them." It was not without great hesitation that he could
resolve to leave Hungary again at this moment.

In Bohemia, too, his power was far from secure. His Bavarian neigh-
bours had not relinquished the hope of driving him from the throne at
the first general turn of affairs.

The Ottomans, meanwhile, acting upon the persuasion that every land
in which the head of their chief had rested belonged of right to them, were

1 Gebhardi Gesch. v. Ungarn, ii. 287. In Bucholtz, ix. 323, there is a document
concerning the submission of Pereny, which probably relates to this matter, and
is extremely remarkable. Pereny represents the following as his first demand : —
" Inprimis cupit D. Petris per S. M"-'m assecurari, ne a religione sua unquam pro-
hibeatur, quandoquidem verum et bonum Christianum se profiteatur et scientem
fidem Chanam per Christum juxta evangelium." Ferdinand answers : " Concedit
M. S. uti se gerat verum et bonum Chanam ut cujusque erga deum pietas fidesque
nostra vera et catolica dictare et postulare videtur." A concession which,
though very equivocal, seems to have satisfied Pereny. Without doubt, he
thought himself also in possession of the fides vera et catholica.

a Velius : " Haud unquam alias Germani militis virtus et patientia in bello
magis enituit."

3 " Leur muable et_fragille~vouloir." Gevay, p. 120. Bucholtz, iii. 114.

Chap. V.] FOUNDATION OF EVANGELICAL STATES 459

preparing to return to Hungary ; either to take possession 01 it them-
selves, or at first, as was their custom, to bestow it on a native ruler —
Zapolya, who now eagerly sought an alliance with them — as their vassal.

This was a state of things in which the most important events often
hang on the fate of a battle. The house of Austria had no other means
of maintaining the position it had reached, than the assistance of the
empire, to which it was compelled incessantly to appeal.

On the Germans now devolved the defence of Christendom against the
Ottoman power.

CHAPTER V.

FOUNDATION OF EVANGELICAL STATES.

So important, in respect of the foreign relations of Germany, were the
consequences of the events which coincided with the meeting of the diet
at Spire.

But that assembly at the same time gave rise to other consequences,
affecting the internal affairs of the empire and the church, which, com-
paratively insignificant as they at first appeared, were intrinsically, and
with relation to the whole future condition of Germany, of far higher and
more unequivocal importance than any external acquisitions. Those
of the States which were inclined to evangelical opinions undertook to
form new ecclesiastical establishments in their territories, on the basis laid
down by the Recess of the empire : they proceeded to sever themselves
definitely from the world-embracing hierarchy of the Latin church.

But as it usually happens that, at the beginning of radical changes, the
principles most strongly opposed to the existing order of things are the
most prominent and influential, so, in the present case, the extremest
objects were those most anxiously aimed at ; and the ideas most in favour
were those most at variance with the absolute dominion of the papacy.

Luther, at an earlier period, had contributed to this result. In the
year 1523, the Bohemians, having fallen into intolerable confusion and
perplexity, in consequence of their adherence to the necessity of episcopal
ordination, he advised them to choose their pastors and bishops them-
selves without scruple. " First prepare yourselves by prayer," said he,
" and then assemble together in God's name and proceed to the election.
Let the most eminent and respected among you lay their hands with
good courage on the chosen candidates, and, when this has taken place
in several parishes, let the pastors have a right to elect a head or super-
intendent to visit them, as Peter visited the first Christian communities."1
Ideas of this kind were at that time very popular and widely diffused,
both in Switzerland and Germany. We find even an obscure congrega-
tion declaring to its new pastor, that he is not their master but their

1 L. de instituendis Ministris Ecclesiae ad clarissimum Senatum Pragensem.
OPP- Jen-> "•» P- 554- " Convocatis et convenientibus libere quorum corda
Deus tetigerit, ut vobiscum unum sentiant et sapiant, procedatis in nomine
Domini et eligite quem et quos volueritis, qui digni et idonei visi fuerint, turn
impositis super eos manibus illorum qui potiores inter vos fuerint, confirmetis
et commendetis eos populo et ecclesias seu universitati sintque hoc ipso vestri
episcopi ministri seu pastores. Amen."

460 NEW IDEA OF THE [Book IV.

servant and minister ; peremptorily forbidding him to apply to the
bishop concerning any one of his congregation, and threatening him with
dismissal, if he does not adhere to the single and eternal word of God.1
The congregations began to regard themselves as the sources of spiritual
power. Had these principles become universal, the edifice of a new
church must have been raised on a purely democratic basis.

And, in fact, the experiment was tried in one large principality of'
Germany.

There is nothing in the history of these times more remarkable than the
decree of the synod which Landgrave Philip of Hessen held with the
spiritual and temporal estates of his dominions at Homberg. The objec-
tion raised by the guardian of the Franciscans of Marburg — that at so
small an assembly no decision could be taken on affairs which properly
belonged to a general council — was easily overruled ; since even at the
diet the impossibility of waiting for such a council had been admitted.
On the other hand, Francis Lambert succeeded in establishing the con-
trary principle — that every Christian is participant in the priesthood ;
that the true church consists only in their fellowship, and that it is for
this church to decide, according to God's word, upon articles of faith.2
The idea was formed of constituting a church consisting solely of true
believers. The following was the scheme drawn up to that effect.3

It was proposed that, after a sermon, a meeting should be held, and
everyone should be asked whether he was determined to submit himself
to the laws, or not. Those who refused should be put out and regarded
as heathens. But the names of those who chose to be in the number of
the saints, should be written down ; they must not be troubled if, at first,
they should be few, for God would soon increase their number : these
would constitute the congregation. The most important business of
their meetings would be the choice of their spiritual leaders (here simply
called bishops). For this station any citizen of irreproachable life and
competent instruction should be eligible, whatever his profession ; but
he should be allowed to retain it only so long as he preached the
genuine word of God. Each parish or congregation should have some

1 Dorfmaister und Gemaind zu Wendelstains Fiirhalten den Amptleuten zu
Schwobach iren newangeenden Pfarrherrn gethan Mittw. nach Galli, 1524.
printed in Riederer's Nachrichten zur Biichergeschichte, &c., ii. 334. " Nach-
dem ainer christlichen Gemain gebiirt, einhellig in sich in die Gemaind zu griefen
nach einem erbarn unverleumpten Mann, . . . welchen auch dieselbe Gemaind
Macht hat wieder abzuschaffen. Der Widerchrist, der sie in der babylonischen
Gefangenschaft halte, habe ihnen auch diese Freiheit entzogen," &c. — The master
(magistrate) and parish of Wendelstain's charge to the functionaries at Schwo-
bach, as to their new priest, Wednesday after Galli, 1524. " Afterwards it is
incumbent on a Christian congregation to look out unanimously for an honest
and blameless man, . . . whom the same congregation has power to dismiss
again. The antichrist who holds you in Babylonish captivity has robbed you
of this liberty among others," &c.

2 Paradoxa Francisci Lamberti in Scultetus, Annales Evang., p. 68. Tit.,
vi., § 6. Tit., iii„ § 1.

3 Reformatio ecclesiarum Hassiae juxta certissimam sermonum Dei regulam
ordinata in venerabili synodo per clemmum Hassorum principem Philippum ao
1526, d. 20th Oct. Hombergi celebrata cui ipse princeps interfuit. Schmincke
Monumenta Hassorum, ii., p. 588. Bickell Zeitschrift des Vereins fur hessische
Geschichte i. 63-69.

Chap. V.] CONSTITUTION OF A CHURCH 461

members who should perform military service, and a common chest or
treasury, to which all should contribute, and out of which the poor, and
those who had been driven from their homes for the Gospel's sake, should
receive assistance. The right of excommunicating, it was affirmed, is
inherent in every man : the crimes which draw down this punishment are
specified : absolution can only be granted after sin has been confessed and
repented of. [We see that the most rigid church discipline is united with
the fullest independence of the several religious communities. The pre-
tensions set up are sanctified by the profound earnestness of spirit which
dictates them.] Every year the churches, represented by bishops and
deputies, should assemble in general synod, where all complaints should
be heard and doubts resolved. A committee of thirteen should be
appointed to prepare the business and lay it before the meeting, to be
decided according to God's word. At the general synod, the meeting of
which was permanently fixed for the third Sunday after Easter, three
visitors were to be chosen, who were to examine the state of each individual
church.

It is very remarkable that the man who worked out these ideas into so
complete a scheme of church government, was a foreigner — a French-
man1 of Avignon — who, converted by Zwingli, had become deeply imbued
with evangelical doctrines in the school of Luther. The ideas are the
same on which the French, Scotch, and American churches were after-
wards founded, and indeed on which the existence and the development
of North America may truly be said to rest. Their historical importance
is beyond all calculation. We trace them in the very first attempt
at the constitution of a church ; they were adopted by a small German
synod.

It was another question, however, whether they could be carried into
execution in Germany generally.

Luther at least had already renounced them.

In the first place he found them attended with almost insurmountable
difficulties. Throughout the whole of his labours, he had found a powerful
ally in the desire of the higher secular ranks to emancipate themselves
from the immediate supervision of the clergy. People would not now
consent to have an equally galling yoke laid upon them in another form.
Moreover, Luther found that he had no men fitted for an institution of
this kind. He was often highly incensed at the stubborn indocility of
the peasants, who could not even be prevailed on to maintain their clergy.
He said " the ordinances of the church fared as they might do if they had
to be practised in the market-place, among Turks and heathen : the
greater part stood and gaped, as if they were only looking at something
new."2 In short, the whole state of things was not adapted to such insti-
tutions. If these ideas, which we may describe as ecclesiastically demo-
cratic, afterwards triumphed in other countries, it was because the new
church rose in opposition to the civil power ; its real root and strength
were in the lower classes of the people. But it was far otherwise in Ger-

1 Francois Lambert. These ideas, as Ranke explains, were akin to the abso-
lute monarchic principle with which Luther had cast in his lot, and Germany,
like England, preferred a church in which the sovereign, and not the congrega-
tion, was summus episcopus.

2 Preface to the Book on the German Mass. Altenb., iii. 468.

462 PRINCIPLE OF THE [Book IV.

many. The new churches were founded under the protection, the
immediate influence, of the reigning authorities, and its form was naturally-
determined by that circumstance.

For the ideas which find their way into the world are modified by
external circumstances. The moment of their production has an inevit-
able and permanent effect on their whole existence ; they live on under
the same conditions which attended their birth.

It is worth while, at the point at which we are arrived, where we have
to examine into the foundation of the evangelical church, to endeavour
to acquire a precise and comprehensive notion of the circumstances under
which it took place. We shall thus be able to form a more exact estimate
of the lawfulness of the measures adopted. The principle of the eccle-
siastical law of the evangelical church, on which the whole structure
is founded, may, if I mistake not, be arrived at by an historical
deduction.

The first and most important consideration which presents itself is,
that the real origin of the movement is to be found in the internal divisions
of the church ; that the secession took place within her own proper domain.
A university, with those nurtured in its bosom, set the example ; the
lower clergy through a great part of Germany followed ; they were the
men who changed the opinions of all classes, the lowest as well as
the highest — who carried all along with them. In innumerable places
the established form of worship fell of itself.

It was the immediate business of the spiritual power to repress this
movement ; — but it was unable to do so. The pope's bulls were not
executed. In one portion of the empire the secular power no longer lent
its arm to enforce the ordinances of the bishops. The new opinions
were become so strong in a number of the princes of the empire, that they
no longer regarded this as their duty.

Hence the ecclesiastical power had addressed itself to the emperor, and
an edict had been published in its favour ; but as this did not spring
from any intrinsic necessity but from partial political considerations, it
had been found impossible to carry it into execution. After all the ebbs
and flows of the religious agitation, the diet had at length determined not
to revoke it, but to leave to the discretion of every member of the empire,
whether he would execute it or not.

What under these circumstances could be the result in the territories
infected with the ideas of the reformation ? Should their princes seek
to restore an authority with which they had incessantly been at bitter
strife, which had drawn upon itself the hatred of the whole nation, and
whose ministry they deemed unchristian ? The Recess of the diet did
not enjoin this upon them. It said, that no man must be robbed of his
goods or his revenues ; the re-establishment of the spiritual jurisdiction
was purposely passed over in silence. Or were they to wait till a council
should be convened, and should restore order ? It was impossible to
foresee when that might take place ; — the diet itself had found it impos-
sible. Nor could things be left to their own undirected course, or to
chance. If the nation were not to be given up to a wild anarchy, the
existing lawful authorities must take measures for the restoration of
order.

If it be asked, how the princes of Germany were empowered to act

Chap. V.] EVANGELICAL ECCLESIASTICAL LAW 463

thus, their warrant must not be traced to a sort of episcopal authority ;
at least not at the beginning. It was on this occasion that Luther expressly
declared, " that the temporal power was not commanded to govern
spiritually." Another opinion then put forward is more plausible ;
namely, that the church actually existing committed to the sovereign of
the country the office of supervision. Luther, however, who maturely
weighed all these things, and would do nothing without full certainty, only
said, " that people prayed the princes, out of love and for God's sake, to
take upon themselves this affair." The new church was not yet itself
constituted ; it is quite certain that it did not esteem itself competent to
confer a right on others.

The right, properly so called, is derived, if I mistake not, from another
source.

It were hardly possible to question the competency of the empire, in
the prevailing state of confusion, to frame ordinances respecting eccle-
siastical, as well as civil affairs, at a regular assembly like that intended to
be held at Spire. It is true that scruples were urged from more than one
quarter, but these scruples were at a subsequent period removed. Other-
wise we must call in question the legality of the Religious Peace, as well
as of the peace of Westphalia, neither of which was ever acknowledged by
the papal power.

Nor was the validity of the Recesses of 1523 and 1524, which were so
important to the cause of religion, ever doubted in Germany.

Had the assembly of the empire, proceeding in this course, used its
unquestioned right, and organised a reform for all classes, a total revolu-
tion must have been the result.

The meeting of the empire could not, it is true, come to any such unani-
mous decision ; but it did not on that account relinquish its powers, as
is proved by the way in which it subsequently used them. At the time
we are speaking of, the diet deemed it expedient — for that is the point
on which the whole depends — to entrust the exercise of its rights to the
territorial rulers.

For what other interpretation can be put upon the liberty granted by
the diet to the princes, to agree with their respective subjects whether or
not they would obey the edict of Worms ? — a matter necessitating the
most decisive and sweeping measures.1 What the assembly of the empire

1 " Das ist je die Wahrheit, dass das kaiserlich. Edict anders nichts innen halt,
denn die Sachen unsern h. Glauben und Religion, auch die Irsallehren und Miss-
brauch so daraus entsprungen seyn, belangend. So denn an denselben, nemlich
wie und was man glauben, was man lehren predigen und halten, was man auch
in solchem fliehen und vermeiden soil, ein ganz christlich Leben und unser einige
Seligkeit ohne Mittel gelegen ist, ... so folget gewisslich, dass der angezeigte
Artikel auf ein ordentlich christlich Leben Regiment und Wesen muss gezogen
werden. Die hineingebrachten Wort des Edicts machen auch den Artikel viel
lauterer." — " That is the truth, that the imperial edict contains nothing but
what concerns the affairs of our holy faith and religion, and the false doctrines
and abuses that have sprung out of it. So then, as upon this, — namely, how and
what we must believe, what should be taught and preached and held, also what
should be eschewed and avoided, — a wholly Christian life and our own salvation
immediately depend, so it of a certainty follows that the above-mentioned article
must extend to the rule and nature of a proper Christian life. The words of
the edict make the article much clearer."

464 LUTHER'S IDEA OF THE CHURCH [Book IV.

was not unanimous or determined enough to execute, it left to be executed
by the several States.

Thus the matter was understood by Landgrave Philip, when he invited
his " subjects of spiritual and temporal estate " to repair to Homberg,
" in order to come to an agreement with them in affairs relating to the holy
faith." Markgrave Casimir of Brandenburg takes the same ground, when,
as a god-loving prince (as he calls himself) and a dutiful subject of his
imperial majesty, he makes an arrangement with the deputies of his
dominions, the spirit of which, notwithstanding a certain discreet reserve,
is unquestionably evangelical. We possess a little treatise of that time,
in which not only the competency, but the duty of princes to make regula-
tions conformable with the standard of the Divine Word, concerning the
whole Christian life and conversation (since the edict was intended to
extend to them also), is deduced from the words of the Recess.1 To this
Luther alludes when he mentions that the Emperor Constantine found
himself constrained, during the prevalence of the Arian troubles, to
interfere, at least so far as to summon a council in order to put a stop to
further disorders.

In a word, it was the incontestable right of the highest power in the
state, on the breaking out of these dissensions in the church, to take
measures for putting an end to them — the right of the whole collective
body of the empire, transferred to the several States, — in virtue of which
the evangelical princes proceeded to carry through the reform in their
own dominions.

Hence the democratic ideas we have mentioned could not gain ascen-
dency ; the existing facts did not tend that way ; the church did not con-
stitute itself from below. Nor had that community of true believers,
answering to the idea of the invisible Church, to which the right of giving
laws to itself might have been committed, any actual existence. Luther
continued to regard the Church as a divine institution to be supported
by all temporal authorities (as heretofore) ; instituted not for the pur-
pose of representing the great Mystery, but above all, for the instruction
of the people ; "as a public incitement," as he expresses it, " to faith
and Christianity." Whilst he denounced the bishops who had suffered
the people to remain in such a state of barbarous ignorance, that they
had not even learned the Lord's Prayer or the Ten Commandments, and
knew nothing of the Christian faith, he, at the same time, combated the
notions of some reformers, who thought that, education being rendered
more accessible and general, the priesthood might be entirely dispensed
with : in his view, the Church is a living, divine institution, for the main-
tenance and the diffusion of the Gospel by the ministering of the sacra-
ments, and by preaching : his idea is, as he says, " to drive the doctrine
of the Scriptures into the hearts of men ; that so present and future
generations may be replenished with it."

1 " Ein christlicher Rathschlag . . . welcher gestalt sich alle christliche
Personen von Obern und Unterthanen halten sollen, dass sie das nach Anzeigung
eines sondern Artikels im Abschied des jungstgehaltenen Reichstags-zu Speier
. . . mogen verantworten." — " A Christian counsel . . . what conduct all
Christian persons, rulers, or subjects should observe, that they may answer it,
according to the admonition of a particular article in the recess of the last held
diet at Spire." — Hortleder, b. i., c. 2.

Chap. V.] SAXON VISITATION 465

These were the ideas which presided over the ecclesiastical institutions
of the Saxon dominions.

The elector had nominated certain Visitors who should examine the
state of each parish as to doctrine and life. Instructions drawn up by
Melanchthon, and approved, nay, edited, by Luther, were sent in their
name to the respective clergymen.

These are well worthy of attention.

The opposition to the papacy, vehement as was the struggle still pending,
had already fallen very much into the background ; it was admitted that
this was not a fit topic to be debated in the pulpit and before the people.
The preachers were admonished not to use reproachful language con-
cerning the pope or the bishops, but to keep solely in view the wants of
the many — the implanting of the evangelical doctrine in the minds of the
common people. The greatest respect for all that was traditional and
established was shown. It was not thought necessary positively to
forbid the use of Latin for the mass : the administration of the sacrament
in one kind was even deemed allowable, where anyone from scruples of
conscience was unwilling entirely to throw off the ancient ritual ; though
the compulsion to auricular confession was rejected as unauthorised by
the Holy Scriptures, it was declared salutary for everyone to confess the
sins by which he felt his conscience burdened, and about which he needed
counsel : nor were even all the festivals of the saints abolished ; it was
enough if they were not invoked nor their intercession prayed for.

The idea which we have already frequently expressed — that the re-
formers rejected only the pretensions to infallibility and to exclusive
saving power, which were the growth of later centuries, but by no means
abandoned the ground on which the Latin church stands, — here presents
itself again in great distinctness. They sought only to get rid of the load
of perplexing traditions, to free themselves from hierarchical usurpations,
and to recover the pure meaning of the Holy Scripture — the revealed
Word.1 Whatever could be retained consistently with this, they retained.
They took care not to perplex the minds of the common people with
difficult controversial doctrines, especially those concerning good works
and free will. Not that they had in the least degree fallen off from the
convictions they had come to ; — from the fundamental doctrine of justifica-
tion by faith ; from the conflict with the error of seeking salvation in the
observance of human ordinances : on the contrary, they repeatedly pro-
claimed these principles with all possible clearness, but they required at
the same time penitence, contrition and sorrow, shunning of sin and piety
of life. For it is unquestionably in the power of man to flee from evil
and to do that which is right ; the impotence of the will means only that
it cannot purify the heart or bring forth divine gifts ; these must be sought

1 See Luther's Vorrede auf das Biichlin des Herrn Licentiaten Klingenbeil,
1528, Altenb. iv. 456. " Wir haben die Schrift fur uns, dazu der alten Vater
Spriiche und der vorigen Kirchen Gesetze, dazu des Papsts selbst eigenen Brauch
da bleiben wir bei : sie aber haben etlicher Vater Gegenspriiche, newe Canones
und ihren eignen Muthwillen ohn alle Schrifl t und Wort Gottes." — " We have the
Scripture for us, and also the maxims of the old fathers and the laws of the early-
church, and likewise the usage of the pope himself — by that we abide : but they
have the contrary maxims of some fathers, new canons, and their own wantonoess,
without any Scripture and word of God."

30

466 SAXON VISITATION [Book IV.

from God alone.1 The end they proposed to themselves was, to lead
men to inward religion, to faith and love, to blameless conversation,
honesty and good order. Far from departing on any point whatsoever
from genuine Christianity, they made it their chief merit to imbue the
minds of their hearers more and more deeply with its principles. Luther
deems it his highest praise that he applies the maxims of the Gospel to ,
common life. He made it his especial business to instruct the several
classes of society in their duties, on religious grounds : the secular autho-
rities and their subjects, the heads of families and their several members.
He displayed a matchless talent for popular teaching. He tells the clergy
how to preach with benefit to the common people ; schoolmasters how to
instruct the young in the several stages of learning, — how to connect
science with religion, and to avoid exaggeration ; masters of families how
to keep their servants in the fear of God : he prescribes to each and all
texts for the good ordering of their lives ; the pastor and his flock, men
and women, aged people and children, men-servants and maid-servants,
young and old ; he gives them the formula of the Benedicite and the
Gratias at table ; of the morning and evening benediction. He is the
patriarch of the austere and devout discipline and manners which charac-
terise the domestic life of Northern Germany. What countless millions
of times has his " Das wait Gott,"2 reminded the tradesman and the
peasant, immersed in the dull routine of the working day, of his relation
to the Eternal ! The Catechism, which he published in the year 1529, —
of which he said, that he repeated it himself with devotion, old doctor as
he was, — is as childlike as it is profound, as intelligible as simple and
sublime. Happy the man whose soul has been nourished with it, and who
holds fast to it ! It contains enduring comfort in every affliction, and
under a slight husk, the kernel of truths able to satisfy the wisest of the wise.

But, in order to insure stability to this tendency towards popular
instruction, — this substitution of preachers for priests, — a new external
establishment of the churches was immediately necessary.

We must here bear in mind that the property of the church was menaced
from every side. We have already remarked how the first dissolution of
convents originated in the high catholic party, and what claims were
made by the Austrian government on the secular administration of the
episcopal domains : these arbitrary acts daily acquired a more open and
violent character. Luther said, the papist Junkers were in this respect
more Lutheran than the Lutherans themselves ; he thought it his duty
to complain of the measures of the Elector of Mainz against his convent
in Halle.3 Landgrave Philip, too, remarked that people began to scramble

1 Instructions of the Visitatores to the parish priests of the Elector of Saxony.
Altenb. iv. 389.

2 Literally, that God rules or disposes ; — or, as we should say, As it please God.
— Transl.

3 Bericht an einen guten Freund aufs Bischofs von Meissen Mandat. Altenb.
iii. 895. " Man nehme den Klostern und Stiftern ihre Barschaft und Kleinodien,
greife den Geistlichen in ihre Freiheit, beschwere sie mit Schatzungen, laure auf
ihre liegenden Griinde." — Report to a good Friend on the Mandate of the Bishop
of Meissen. (Alt. iii. 895.) " They strip the convents and abbeys of their
money and jewels, assail the freedom of the clergy, oppress them with contribu-
tions, and lie in watch for their lands."

Chap. V.] SAXON VISITATION 467

among themselves for the conventual lands : every man stretched out his
hand after them, though in other respects they would not be called evan-
gelical.1 This disposition however was not confined to Germany ; it
showed itself all over Europe. In the two years 1524 and 1525, Cardinal
Wolsey dissolved more than twenty convents and abbeys in England,
in order to endow with their funds the new college2 in Oxford, by which he
hoped to immortalise his name.3 We must fully understand the general
temper of the times, which was connected with the attempts at reform,
before we can be competent to judge the steps taken in the evangelical
_ territories. In Saxony a great number of convents had dissolved of them-
selves ; the monks had dispersed, and the neighbouring nobles already
stretched out their hands towards the vacant lands and houses.

Luther's opinion was, that this ought not to be permitted. He said
that as the lands were originally designed for the support of God's service,
they ought in future to be applied to that destination. He required,
above all, that the rural parishes, which were very poorly endowed, and,
in consequence of the great falling off in the fees, could not maintain a
priest, should be enriched from the funds of the vacant benefices. What-
ever remained might be given to the poor or used for the exigencies of
the state. It was only to the highest power, " the supreme head," as he
expresses it, that he ascribed " the right, and at the same time the duty,
of ordering these things after the papal yoke had been removed from the
land." He once forced himself into the apartments of his elector, to
impress upon him the duty of protecting the church property from the
rapacity of the nobles.4

The Visitors were now commissioned to order the new establishments
conformably with these views. It must be acknowledged that they pro-
ceeded with great moderation. The abbeys and chapters which had
become evangelical, as for example, those of Eisenach and Gotha, re-
mained untouched. In Hensdorf and Weimar, nuns were tolerated and
allowed to adhere strictly to the old ceremonies. The Franciscan con-
vents in Altenburg and Saalfeld, which had made a violent resistance to
the new doctrines, were yet suffered to remain ; they were only admonished,
and, as the original report expresses it, " commended to God " (Gott
befohlen).5 I have not found any trace of the actual abolition of ex-
isting institutions. The commission only disposed of the estates of
benefices already fallen vacant ; these were applied to increasing the endow-
ments of parish churches and schools ; the existing chapters were com-
pelled to contribute to the same objects. Some of the prelates, for example,
the Abbot of Bosan, were very well inclined to this ; with others it was
necessary to use severe compulsion. Instead of censuring this employ-
ment of power, we have only to wish it had been from the first more

1 Letter from Philip to Luther, 1526. Rommel Hess. Gesch. v., p. 861 ; es
sey " viel Rappens um die geistlichen Guter," — there was " much snatching at the
church property."

2 I.e., Christ Church.

3 Catalogue in Fiddes's Collection, No. 76. There are especially many Augustine
convents.

4 Letter of Luther to the Elector, 22d Nov., 1526, in De Wette, in., p. 137 ; to
Spalatin, 1st Jan., 1527, ibid., 147. See p. 153.

6 Extracts from the Visitation Acts ; Seckendorf, ii., p. 102.

30—2

468 SAXON VISITATION [Book IV.

decisive — more large and sweeping in its plans and operations. In the
first freshness and vigour of the religious impulse, much more extensive
and beneficial changes might have been effected than could be attempted
at a later period. What then might not have been achieved for the cause
of religion and of civilisation, had the empire itself undertaken the guid-
ance of this mighty revolution ! As things now stood, the reformers
were forced to content themselves with bringing matters to a tolerable
condition, not inconsistent with the simple existence of the new
church.

Nevertheless, even these institutions contained the germ of a vast
development.

In the centre of Latin Christendom — so essentially hierarchical — a new
form of Church and State, emancipated from every kind of hierarchy,
arose. If, on the one hand, an alliance had been formed in Bavaria
between the civil sovereignty, the university and the papacy, which
exercised supervision and control over the regular hierarchical author-
ities, on the other, a union was here effected between the prince, the
university and the inferior clergy, which completely excluded the episcopal
jurisdiction. The lower clergy acquired great independence. They
might be said to govern themselves, by means of the superintendents
whom the sovereign chose out of their ranks, and to whom some of the
functions of bishops were committed. By rejecting celibacy, they secured
a new influence over the mind of the nation. The body of married clergy
became a nursery for the learned professions and civil offices ; the centre
of a cultivated middle class. It is to the greater care which the tran-
quillity of a country life enables parents to bestow on the education
of their children, and which the dignity of their calling in some measure
imposed upon the country clergy, that Germany owes some of its most
distinguished men. The suppression of monasteries and the restoration
of their inhabitants to social life, gradually led to a very sensible increase
of the population. In the year 1750, Justus Moser reckoned that from
ten to fifteen millions of human beings in all countries and regions of the
globe owed their existence to Luther and to his example, and adds, " A
statue ought to be erected to him as the preserver of the species."1

Institutions of the kind we have been describing were far more con-
sonant with the situation of Germany and the natural course of events,
than the rash and subversive ideas, ill suited to the state of things, which
had been put forth at Homburg. As the instructions to the Saxon Visita-
tores were adopted in Hessen, as early as the year 1528, the Saxon ordin-
ances very soon followed ; in 1531, Landgrave Philip nominated six
superintendents.2 It was only in relation to church property, that the
measures employed in Hessen were more sweeping and uniform than in
Saxony. Landgrave Philip was still inflamed by the first ardour of
religious and patriotic ideas : "I will help Hessen," exclaimed he once
with enthusiasm ; yet he did not disguise from himself the danger that
" he might be overcome by the flesh, and led away from the right path."
He conceived the design of placing the monasteries under an administra-

1 Lettre a M. de Voltaire. Osn. 6th Sept. 1750, in Abeken'sKeliquien von Justus
Moser, p. 88.

- Rommel Landg. Philipp. ii., pp. 123, 124.

Chap. V.] REFORMATION IN HESSEN . 469

tion dependent on the prince and states conjointly, — providing both for
those inmates who chose to remain, and for those who quitted them ;
and of applying the surplus to the public wants, especially of a spiritual
nature : he himself would not have the right to touch this fund without
the consent of the states.1 The interests of the country were here peculiarly
powerful.

As a motive for the confiscation of conventual property, it was alleged,
that perhaps only a fourth part of the monks and nuns were natives ;
the rest were foreigners, and therefore such property was of no advantage
to the country. Some monasteries which had embraced the evangelical
faith were suffered to remain, but by far the greater number were sup-
pressed ; some, because they drew their funds from alms, which nobody
would now contribute ; others, because the members dispersed, either
from Christian motives, as they express it, — from conscientious scruples, —
or because some favourable opportunity presented itself. They accepted
compensation in money or in kind ; the surplus was, according to the
regulations of a diet held in October, 1527, to be given in part to the
nobility,2 in part to a university which it was determined to found at
Marburg, and the remainder to form a fund" for the use of the prince, the
nobles, and the cities ; but only to be resorted to with their joint consent.
Many of these dispositions were altered in the course of the slow and
gradual execution of them. Yet some great institutions were really
founded : two endowments for young ladies of noble birth, four large
public hospitals, and, above all, the university of Marburg, with its Semin-
arium theologicum. For this newly founded evangelical university was
more especially a theological school ; the other faculties were only slight
and incomplete beginnings. The synod of Homburg had decreed that
nothing should be studied there which might be " contrary to the kingdom
of God ;" and every member was obliged to take an oath on his admission
that he would attempt no innovation contrary to God's word. It was of
great importance that another centre of evangelical theology thus arose
by the side of the school of Wittenberg ; at first, indeed, without the
imperial privilege, but this was afterwards granted.

The influence of these events was felt in the Franconian principalities
of Brandenburg, though affairs were here more complicated. Of the two

1 " Das eine Oberkeit zu dem Kasten nit kommen kont one Verwilligung der
Landschaft, sonst so verkompt das Gut, und der Oberkeit Oder Landt wurd es nit
gepessert." — " That no one of the authorities should be able to touch the fund
without the consent of the country ; otherwise the property would be spent, and
the government or the country not be the better for it." — Letter to Luther in
Rommel, v., p. 862.

3 " S. F. Gn. wollen 30 Mannspersonnen (vom Adel), 15 im odern, 15 im nidern
Fiirstenthumben, mit etlicher Steuwer an Frucht Korn und Habern Fiirsehung
thun, damit sie sich in Rustung erhalten und auf Erforderung desto stattlicher
dienen mogen." — " His princely grace will provide 30 men (nobles), 15 in the
upper, and 1 5 in the lower principality, with certain dues in wheat, rye and oats,
that so they may hold themselves in readiness and serve in more noble wise when
called out." — " Was der durchleuchtige Fiirst . . . Hr Philips . . . mit den
Glosterpersonen Pfarrherren und abgottischen Bildnussen vorgenommen hat." —
" What the most illustrious prince — the Lord Philip — has done and provided as
to monks, parish priests', and idolatrous figures." Hortleder, i. v. ii., § 11. — ■
It recalls the ideas which dictated the Augsburg scheme of secularisation, 1525.

47° BRANDENBURG [Book IV.

princes who governed conjointly, the one, Markgrave Casimir, married
to a Bavarian princess and allied to the house of Austria, adhered as
closely as he could to the established party ; while the other, Markgrave
George, who resided in Silesia, cherished and avowed decidedly evan-
gelical opinions. In October, 1526, Markgrave Casimir held a diet of
his estates at Anspach, on the occasion of the Recess of Spire, in which reso-
lutions of a still more ambiguous nature were passed than those embodied
in the Recess itself. It is impossible to doubt of their evangelical ten-
dency : in the very first article it is ordained, that the preachers through-
out the country shall preach the pure Gospel and word of God, and nothing
contrary to it ; nor are the concessions as to the ritual to be judged with
rigour, when it is remembered how tolerant even Luther was on that point.
To many, doubtless, it must have appeared shocking, that Markgrave
Casimir ordered the mass to be said in Latin ; that he prayed, though he
did not command, his subjects to keep the fasts, and even thought it
expedient to maintain the endowed masses for the dead, and the vigils.1
Markgrave George was extremely dissatisfied : the letter which he sent
his brother, together with the copy of these resolutions, is full of bitter
remarks. The whole country 'remained in a state of doubt. And as the
neighbouring bishops refused their approbation — refused to consent to
the loss of their jurisdiction, and still made attempts to present to livings,
which were not repressed with sufficient energy, — everything fell into
confusion. Under these circumstances it was an event of great impor-
tance that Casimir died in the Hungarian campaign, and Markgrave George
took upon himself the sole government of the principalities. With his
accession, the zealous evangelical councillors, Hans von Schwarzenberg
and George Vogler acquired unobstructed influencei At another diet
at Anspach, 1st of March, 1528, an explanation of the former Recess,
dictated by purely evangelical opinions, was given ; and now, too, nothing
contrary to God's word was to be tolerated in the ceremonial of the church.
A visitation, on the model of that of Saxony, was immediately appointed
in connexion with the city of Nuremberg ; and by its agency an evangelical
church constitution was established in both territories.

For the reform had meanwhile been carried through in Nuremberg. We
have already mentioned the great leaning which the burghers of that
city had shown from the first to the new doctrines, and the support they
experienced from their two provosts — patricians of Nuremberg — in the

Recess and Opinion, Onolzbach, Wednesday after St. Francis (in 1526,
St. Francis's day fell on a Wednesday, 4th Oct.), Hortleder, i. i. 3. The extract
in Lang entirely effaces the evangelical character. E.g. according to Lang, it
was said that the holy sacrament should in no case be given in both kinds, and
that nothing should be taught contrary to the doctrine of transubstantiation.
In fact, however, we find there (No. 5, Hortleder, p. 39), " Wollen uns versehen,
dass sich ein jeder mit Empfahung des Sacraments also halte, wie er das gegen
Gott und Kais. Mt. verhoff zu verantworten." — " We will take care that everyone
carry himself so as to the receiving of the Sacrament, as he may hope to answer
it to God and his imperial majesty," which, however, involves complete freedom.
" Es soil auch wider das hochw. Sacrament, — als ob in dem h. Sacrament der
Leib und das Blut nicht gegenwertig ware, nit gepredigt werden." — " There
shall also be nothing preached against the holy Sacrament, — as if the body and the
blood were not present in the holy Sacrament." Between the presence and
transubstantiation, however, what a difference !

Chap. V.] NUREMBERG 471

appointment of evangelical preachers. Here, too, no changes were at
first made, except those strictly necessary. In the year 1524, for example,
the baptismal service was first read in the German tongue. Although an
admonition to that effect had been published a year before by Luther,
the Niirnbergers chose rather merely to translate the entire formula of
the Bamberg Agenda into German : the custom of putting salt into the
mouth of the child, of breathing thrice on its eyes, and anointing its breast
with oil, was still adhered to ; nor was one of the traditionary formula?
of exorcism discontinued.1 It deserves to be noticed, as an illustration
of the transition going on, that the rector of St. Sebaldus altered the
ancient form, " Ave Regina, mater misericordiae !" into, " Ave Jesu
Christe, rex misericordiae !"2 The most important changes were, the
administration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds, and the omission of
the canon ; the abolition of vigils, masses and anniversaries for the dead,
and particular hours of the day for prayer. But it will be readily con-
cluded that this was far too much for their ordinary, the Bishop of
Bamberg. He at length excluded the two provosts from the community
of the church, declared their offices vacant, and required those with whom
it rested, to proceed to a new election. But things were totally altered
since the year 1520. Then, it was still necessary to come to a compromise
with the papal commissioners, distant as they were ; now, the excom-
munication of a neighbouring and powerful bishop made no impression.
The provosts appealed from him to " a free, sure, Christian, and godly
council."3 The most active members of the council gradually adopted
their way of thinking. Jerome Ebner, a man distinguished alike for the
rigour of his conscience and the mildness of his temper, Caspar Niitzel,
Christopher Scheurf, Jerome Baumgartner, and Lazarus Spengler, secre-
tary to the council, who united the liveliest interest in questions of religion
and church government generally, with extraordinary talents for business.
At all the meetings of the cities, from the August of 1524, the council of
Nuremberg boldly assertedits evangelical opinions, whetheragainst members
of the Swabian League, the States of the empire, or the emperor and his
representatives. Niirnberg was one of those cities which caused Charles
to declare, that he could not act otherwise than he did, on account of the
temper of the citizens. But let us not forget that it also gained great
political advantages by this conduct. Church reform was the only means
of putting an end to the disorders and insubordination of the clergy, with
which the civil power had so long had to contend. The Niirnbergers
turned the insurrection of the peasants to account for this purpose. They
urged the clergy to remember their own critical position ; the danger
that threatened them from the mob, and their pressing need of protection ;
and at length actually succeeded in persuading the whole body to yield
duty and obedience to the civil authorities. Even the Commander and
Spital-master of the Teutonic Order submitted, with the consent of the

1 History of Exorcism in the Church of Nuremberg ; Strobel Miscell. iv.,

P- 173-

2 Instead of " advocata nostra " it is " mediator noster :" instead of " Jesum
benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exilium ostende " it is " O Jesu
benedicte faciem patris tui nobis post hoc exilium ostende."

3 Appeal and Petition of the Provosts and the Prior of the Augustines at Nurem-
berg ; Strobel. Miscell. iii., p. 62.

472 NUREMBERG [Book IV.

Franconian House-commander, to the obligation of paying taxes.1 The
council was thus, for the first time, master within its own walls. The
monasteries were compelled to appoint evangelical preachers, and to
promise to admit no new members : they soon dissolved, or were closed.
The jurisdiction of the bishop had no longer an object. To all his com-
plaints the council answered, that it only performed the duties of a Chris-
tian government and executed the orders of the Recess of the empire. It
did not scruple to unite with the markgrave in the visitation of the churches ;
" since the bishop had never been in the habit of visiting the churches."

It is obvious how vastly this course of affairs must have tended to
increase the independence of the secular power, as well of the cities as
of the princes.

Let us here call to mind the primitive organisation of the church of
Germany under Charlemagne, founded on the combined power and agency
of the bishops and counts.

While, in those remote ages, the bishops had succeeded in getting into
their own hands the secular authority, at least in a part of the territories
subject to their spiritual sway, and in constituting themselves sovereign
lords ; at the time we are treating of, on the other hand, the temporal
authorities who exercised, though under another form, the rights and
privileges formerly held by the counts, excluded the bishops from all
participation in the temporal government of their sees.

We should be misled by appearances, were we to regard this simply as
an extinction of the ecclesiastical principle. For it cannot be denied
that the episcopal authority had been chiefly exerted for the maintenance
of all sorts of exemptions, dues, and claims, which had little in common
with religion. It was, for example, one of the chief causes of quarrel
between Bamberg and Nuremberg, that the city, during the revolt of the
peasants, had omitted to pay the small tithes, which the bishop absolutely
refused to give up. The temporal power could never have accomplished
its purpose, had it not taken upon itself to represent the truly ecclesias-
tical, i.e. the religious principle ; for example, to make better provision
for the religious instruction of the parishes. A deputy of the congregation
was summoned out of each parish in Brandenberg and Nuremberg, to give
true information as to the life and teaching of the clergyman. The
governments were determined to put an end to the disgraceful state of
the inferior clergy, to whom no bishop seriously paid any attention. It

1 Extract from an apologetic Address of the Council of Niirnberg in Milliner's
MS. Annals. " Es sind aber," adds the author, " die Hausscommenthurm mit
nachfolgenden Condi tionen zu Biirgern aufgenommen worden, (i) dasssie Biirger-
pflicht thun und hinter die Viertelsmeister schworen sollten, (2) dass sie den
deutschen Hof mit seinen zugehorigen Gutern diesseit des Wassers gelegen
verlosungen sollten, (3) sollen sie von allem Getrank so im Hof und Spital einglegt
wird, das TJmgeld zahlen, (4) sollen sie mit dem Holze auf des Reichs Boden sich
bescheidentlich halten." — " The House Commanders were, however, admitted
citizens under the following conditions : 1st, that they should perform all civic
services and duties and swear behind the Viertel meister (literally, quarter-
master, i.e., magistrate of a quarter of a city) ; 2d, that they should sell the
Deutscher Hof (German House), with the lands appertaining on this side of the
water ; 3d, that they should pay the duty on all drink brought into the Hof or
the Spital ; 4th, that they should bear themselves modestly as to the wood on
the imperial lands."

Chap. V.] BRANDENBURG AND NUREMBERG 473

was impossible to deny that the higher clergy had left the formation and
interpretation of doctrine to the universities ; and the office of preaching
the Word to ill-paid and ill-governed hirelings. It can excite no wonder
that, after the high schools had so long acted the part of champions of
the clerical claims, one of them at length adopted doctrines of a contrary
tendency ; or that, in those who had devoted themselves to the proper
service of the church, there arose a disgust at so contemptible and already
contemned a state of things, a feeling of the peculiar importance of their
calling, and a fervent zeal for reform, springing from a conviction of the
exclusive authority of the Gospel. The temporal power did nothing
more than avail itself of the authority given to it by the Recess, to secure
freedom for the development of these endeavours which were manifestly
of a spiritual nature. It is absurd to say that the church was thus become
the slave of the state. If by the church is understood the influence of
religious principles, it would be more just to say that it only now arose
into power ; for never were those principles more powerful and efficacious,
than in the times which immediately followed those of which we are speak-
ing. What was begun by the evangelical governments, was carried on in
an analogous manner by the catholic. But it is at the same time clear,
that the efficacy of the evangelical church did not rest on wealthy endow-
ments, high rank, or the pomp of hierarchical ordinances ; but on inward
energy, pious zeal, and the free culture and growth of the intellect. On
no other foundation can the church ever be established in Germany ;
and this is the source of her strength.

The same events which had taken place in Nuremberg, occurred also in
many of the cities of the Oberland ; first in Augsburg and in Ulm, — indeed
meetings of these three cities were frequently held and measures agreed
on : in the year 1528, there was again a talk of a new alliance between
all the imperial cities ; then followed Strasburg, and above all, the towns
of Switzerland; in the year 1528, Berne adopted the religious changes.
But we must leave the events in these countries till a later chapter,2
where we have devoted closer attention to the modifications which the
doctrine underwent in Switzerland.

The whole of Lower Germany, on the other hand, adhered to the forms
established under Luther's influence in Saxony. The slight variations
which they underwent, depended only on the difference of the civil con-
stitution or the form of sovereignty in each country.

In Liineburg the change took place in consequence of a union of the
prince and the nobles at the diet at Scharnebeck in the year 1527. The
prelates had refused to appear at previous meetings, and at their instiga-
tion the aged prince, who had abdicated and gone to France, where he
remained true to the catholic faith, came back to oppose the innovations.
But it was now too late. At that diet the reigning duke and his subjects
promised each other to cause the Gospel to be preached, pure, clear, and
plain ; they resolved that the prelates should be compelled to do the like
in their churches and convents, although they were permitted, in regard
to ceremonies, to act as they thought they could answer it to God.1 From

1 Extract from the ducal edict in Pfeffinger, Historie des Braunschweig
Luneburgischen Hauses, ii. 347. See Schlegel's Kirchengeschichte, ii. 50.

2 Book v., chap. iii.

474 EAST FRIESLAND [Book IV.

this time the reform gradually spread over the whole country. The
Chancellor Klammer rendered the same services here as Briick had done
in Saxony, Feige in Hessen, Vogler in Anspach, and Spengler in Nuremberg.

In East Friesland the power of the count was still too new to enable
him to decide in affairs so delicate and so dependent on the most intimate
convictions. When Count Etzard, who at first had been much impressed
by the Lutheran opinions, had afterwards come to the determination to
hold fast to the existing form of the church, a chieftain, Junker Ulrich
of Dornum, took upon himself the conduct of the cause. At his sugges-
tion a solemn disputation was held at Oldersum. It began in a very
characteristic manner. " Say the Lord's prayer," exclaimed Henry
Arnoldi, the champion of the Lutherans ; " and an Ave, Maria," added
Prior Laurence, the Dominican who defended the catholic side ; and the
controversy turned chiefly on the worship of the Virgin Mary. But as
the Lutherans persisted in carrying on the argument solely with passages
from Scripture, the Dominicans were left without an answer. Nor was
this all ; desertion soon crept into their own ranks. On the New Year's
day of 1527, Resius, a Dominican, ascended the pulpit in the church at
Norden, to defend certain Lutheran propositions which he had already
advanced ; a single antagonist arose who, however, was soon reduced to
silence ; whereupon the Dominican, in sign of his conversion, laid aside
his cowl in the very pulpit.1 In the year 1527, Lutheranism was the pre-
vailing religion in almost all the parishes. In the year 1528, the East
Friesland churches published a full confession of faith.

Fortunately for Schleswig and Holstein, the bishops of the dioceses of
Schleswig and Liibeck offered no strenuous opposition to the Reformation,
while on the other hand the government afforded it protection, and left
the revenues of its clerical adherents untouched. The transition from the
one confession to the other was here peculiarly easy. As one of the four
and twenty papal vicars, Hermann Tast had been the first to preach
evangelical doctrines ; his colleagues easily accommodated themselves to
the change ; — premising always that their incomes were to be secured to
them for their lives. Many of the country priests adopted the reformed
faith without a struggle ; they readily accepted the articles laid before
them. In the towns there was almost as much resistance opposed by the
anabaptists as by the adherents of the papacy. The immediate disciples
of Luther, for example Marquard Schuldorf, of Kiel, lent efficient help
against both antagonists.2 Here, too, the ecclesiastical institutions were
gradually placed on the footing of those of Saxony.

In Silesia, too, as we have already mentioned, the evangelical doctrine
had made early and mighty progress. This country, indeed, differed
from other parts of Germany, inasmuch as it, was not an immediate depen-
dency of the empire, and could therefore ground no pretensions on the
Recess of Spire. But the circumstances were nearly akin ; its chief
city and its princes assumed a scarcely less independent posture with regard
to the crown of Bohemia, to which they belonged, than the States of the
empire had done towards the emperor : every fluctuation of opinion in
central Germany was here immediately answered by an analogous move-

1 Ubbo Emmius Rerum Frisciarum Hist., lib. liv., p. 839.

2 Miinter's Kirchengeschichte von Danemark, iii., p. 584, contains a laborious
collection of these very scattered notices.

Chap. V.] SILESIA 475

merit. Breslau, which no long time before, in the affairs of Podiebrad,
had held with unshaken firmness to the side of the pope, now took the
lead in the struggle against him. Here, too, the inclinations of the council
and citizens had received an anti-clerical bias from a great number of
circumstances. They would no longer have a Bernardine convent, because
they thought themselves injured by its connection with the king's court.
They were discontented at the disgraceful scenes carried on in the parish
of St. Mary Magdalen, where one pretender to the benefice was continually
driven out by another.1 There were a thousand causes of bickering with
the canons in the city. The Lutheran tendencies, therefore, found the
ground well prepared. In the year 1523 the citizens of Breslau ventured
to appoint to the parish in question, of their own authority, Dr. Johann
Hess, one of the most intimate friends of Luther and Melanchthon, who
had just come from Wittenberg ; upon which matters took the same
course here as elsewhere. The new principles were triumphantly main-
tained in a solemn disputation ; the people were gained over ; the re-
formers began by altering the ceremonies, keeping as close as possible on
various incidental points to the traditionary ritual of the see of Breslau.
The Bernardines had quitted the city rather than submit to be united to
the Jacobites, as was proposed to them : the monasteries now dissolved
themselves ; the council offered no impediment to the monks and nuns
who quitted them and married. But it must not be imagined that the
Lutheran clergy, who unquestionably owed their ascendency to the
council, were absolutely at its disposal. In April, 1525, Dr. Hess suddenly
left off preaching, upon which the council sent to ask him the cause.
He answered, that he saw the blessed Lord Christ lying before the church
doors, and that he could not -walk over Him. What he meant was this ; —
he had often exhorted the council to provide for the beggars who filled
the city, and lay during the time of service before the church doors ; but
always in vain. This earnest demonstration, however, made an impres-
sion. The really indigent were separated from the idle, and placed in
six different hospitals. In the year 1526 the first stone of the great spital
was laid by Hess himself ; the opulent citizens gave the materials, and
the various artisans their labour ; so that the building was finished in a
year— a genuine work of the new-born evangelical zeal. Hess was strongly
and actively supported by the town-clerk, John Corvinus, who had taken
part in the earlier literary movement, and had taught in some of the first
schools of poetry. There was a general consent and co-operation : the
councillor declared to the court that he had never seen a more obedient
community.2 If this was the case with regard to those who had opposed
Podiebrad, what was to be expected from his adherents ? The son of
his son, Duke Charles, ruled over Miinsterberg, Ols and Frankenstein ;
the son of his daughter, Duke Frederick II. of Liegnitz, had united Brieg
and Wolau with that domain. It may easily be imagined what opinions
they held. Duke Charles wished to see the memory of his grandfather
restored to honour by Luther. Duke Frederick not only gave a ready

1 Schutzred des erbarn Raths und ganzen Gemeind der K. Stadt Breslau bei
Schickfuss, Neuvermehrte Schlesische Chron., iii., p. 58.

2 Die Jahrbucher der Stadt Breslau von Nicolaus Pol. Bd. iii. die Jahre, 1521-
1527. Compared to the veracious accounts of this simple chronicler, the stories
of Bukisch, who borrowed from him, are often like bad caricatures.

4?6 SILESIA Book IV.

ear to the prayers of his nobles and cities, that he would grant them a
freer exercise of their religion, but gradually became inspired by the most
ardent zeal in the same cause ;x he conceived the design of founding
another evangelical university, and had not the doctrines and followers
of Schwenkfeld caused troubles in his dominions, would have organised
one on a noble and comprehensive plan.2 Just then Markgrave George
of Brandenburg had acquired Jagerndorf, and of course allowed the
Lutheran doctrines free course there. The young duke Wenceslas Adam
of Teschen, was soon deeply impressed with the new opinions. All these
things passed without any serious opposition, either from the spiritual
or the temporal authorities. Jacob of Salza, bishop of Breslau, saw very
clearly that Christianity did not consist in the presence or absence of a
few ceremonies more or less. The evangelical doctrine found powerful
protectors at the court of King Louis. King Ferdinand, as we have seen,
at least did not venture to reject the demands regarding religion which
were laid before him at his election ; and if he occasionally published
mandates which sounded zealously orthodox, he was not in a condition
to give them effect. The Breslauers once represented to him in so lively
a manner the impossibility of returning to the ancient practices, that he
no longer ventured to press it : " Well, then," said he, at length, " only
keep the peace, and believe as you think you can answer it to God and
the emperor."3 He at the same time extended to his own province the
concessions made to the empire. Thus was formed in Silesia the constitu-
tion which for a century prevailed there, as well in the Austrian, as in all
other dominions : evangelical states strenuously maintained their political
and religious privileges, and the government was compelled to use leniency
and toleration.

By far the most remarkable and sweeping change took place, however,
in Prussia.

Various causes had contributed to prepare this event.

The political importance, nay in effect also the position of the Teutonic
Order relatively to the Prussian government, had been annihilated for
more than half a century. At the peace of Thorn, in the year 1466, the
Order had been compelled to cede the larger half of its territory, with all
its richest and most powerful cities, to Poland ; and for the smaller,
which was left in its possession, to recognise the king of that country as
its feudal lord.

If we inquire how this came to pass, we shall find that it was not so
much the consequence of the military superiority of Poland, which, though
indisputable, would never have sufficed to produce such results ; but of
the internal situation of the country,— the misunderstandings between the
order and the territory over which it ruled.

Prussia was a colony which had gradually risen to independence. The
order, which was no longer inspired by the ancient impulses of religion,
honour, or love of war, and came into the country only to govern and to
enjoy, was most oppressive to the inhabitants. They complained that

1 Des Erlauchten, &c. Herzog Friedrichs II. Grundursach und Entschuldijning
auf etlicher Verunglimpfen in Schickfuss S. 65.
'2 Thebesii Liegnitzische Jahrbucher, iii., p. 29.
3 Nic. Pol. iii., p. 52.

Chap. V.] PRUSSIA 477

they were allowed no share in the administration ; that they were treated
like serfs, subjected to acts of violence, and denied all right and justice.
The relation which arose between them was like that between the Creoles
and Chapetons in South America ; between the Pullains and the Fils
Arnaud in Jerusalem ; in short, such as must arise in every colony as its
civilisation advances. At first the country sought to protect itself by
its great union of 1440 ; but as this was opposed by the emperor, it turned
to Poland. It was the native population of Prussia that put those arms
into the hands of the King of Poland against the grand master, by means
of which the former gained the victory, and extorted so advantageous a
peace as that of Thorn. The city of Dantzig had expended 700,000 marks
in this cause. In return, the King of Poland granted to the allies, for
the first time, the blessing of self-government, which the knights had
steadily refused them.1

In the smaller division of the country which had remained in the posses-
sion of the order, but which had also taken part in the league and in the
war, similar tendencies continued, as may easily be imagined, to show
themselves. We find that the states, whose business it was to grant
the taxes, more than once refused them. They demanded the right of
appointing, jointly with the grand master, a lieutenant to act for him
during his absence ; a post we sometimes find occupied by a burgber-
mastcr. In a scheme for the defence of the country drawn up in the
year 1507, fifteen governors, or chiefs of districts, were nominated ; and of
these fourteen belonged to the native nobility, and only one to the order.2

Not only was the order thus checked and controlled in its functions,
but its peculiar republican character was gradually superseded by one
more monarchical. It was found expedient to choose native princes
as grand masters; for example, in 1498, Frederick of Saxony, and in 1511,
Albert of Brandenburg ; and in order to secure to them a state and main-
tenance suited to their rank, whole commanderies were confiscated.
These princes entrusted the public affairs to chancellors who did not even
belong to the order, and to their own particular councillors, after the
manner of the German courts. Their position became more and more
like that of hereditary rulers, in consequence of the necessity they lay
under of granting a great degree of independence to their subordinates
out of the country — both the Master in Livonia, and the Teutonic Master
{Deutschmeister) ; in fact, of emancipating the former from all important
obligations and services.3 In the place of the wide general relations of
the order, arose narrow territorial interests.

The only question now was, — one which involved a remote and per-
manent change — whether they should submit to the peace of Thorn, or
not. The last grand masters refused to do homage as their immediate

1 His very first promise is, " ut in mutatione principum commutatam etiam
aut sublatam deprehenderent oppressionem." Litterae Casimiri Regis, in Dlugoss
Historia Pol., ii., p. 138. See Voigt Preuss. Gesch., viii., p. 378.

2 Baczko Preussische Gesh. iv., p. 142.

3 Albert mentions (Schiitz Hist. Rer. Pruss., p. 331) " was er sich gegen den
beiden Meistern verschreiben und obligiren miissen ; damit sie sich denn ganz
und gar aus dem Gehorsam gezogen," — " to what he must subscribe and bind
himself towards both Masters ; wherewith they then withdrew themselves,
entirely from their obedience."

478 PRUSSIA [Book IV.

predecessors had done ; they demanded a revision of the terms of the
peace, " according to natural and Christian laws ;" they made incessant
claims on the assistance of the empire (especially of the knightly body),
which was afforded to this possession of Prussia. At length, in the year
1 5 19, the grand master (Markgrave Albert of Brandenburg) had once
more recourse to arms. But what had been injurious to his predecessors,
proved disadvantageous to him. The cities and districts which had
fallen off from the order, no longer lent their aid to the support of its
power ; it was indeed to the cities of Dantzig and Elbingen, and to the
families of the lords of the league, that the public opinion of that time
attributed the breach of the peace ; their intention was to strip the order
altogether of its territory and subjects ;J it was they who urged on the
war with the greatest energy and success. From Germany, on the other
hand, the order received no efficient help. The grand master was again
compelled to cede eleven towns with their territories, and to consent to a
truce for four years, during which affairs were to be definitively arranged,
under the mediation of the Emperor and the king of Hungary.

Albert went to Germany, in order once more to try in person what he
could obtain from the states and nobles of the empire. Had victory
declared on the side of Sickingen, with whom he had long been connected.
Prussia might have reckoned on assistance. But Sickingen fell ; the
knights of the empire suffered great losses ; they were unable to maintain
their independence at home, much less to attempt enterprises abroad.
The Council of Regency, too, on which some of its hopes were placed,
was overthrown. The emperor was so far from holding out any expecta-
tion of assistance, that he rather favoured the claims of the Jagellons.
The promised mediation was not even attempted. The grand master
had nothing left but either to do homage agreeably to the treaty of Thorn,
or to abdicate. And indeed the abdication was seriously discussed. It
might either take place according to the views of the order, in which case
Duke Erich of Brunswick was suggested as successor ; or to those of the
country and of Poland, in which case it would have been in favour of
Sigismund ; the king sent an ambassador to Nuremberg in 1524, in the
hope of inducing the grand master to consent to this latter scheme.2

The Order and its government in Prussia, were doubtless the most
singular product of the hierarchical and chivalrous spirit of the preceding
centuries in the German nation : but to what had it sunk ! The greater
part of its territory gone ; in what remained, powerful and growing
states ; the internal unity in which its strength lay, broken ; its tie to
the mother country relaxed and feeble ; — submission was become inevit-
able— its time was over. It was however not easy at present to see
what could or ought to be done ; there existed no clue by which to escape
from the labyrinth of such difficult contingencies. Such were the cir-
cumstances under which the new religious doctrine appeared in the country.
In no part of the world was it more wanted — in none more welcome.
People saw that the institution, so long revered as intrinsically religious,
by no means stood in that profound and inward relation to the idea, or

1 " Eyn newes Geticht von dem negstvorgangenen Krieg zu Preussen."
Beitrage zur Kunde Preussens, Bd. ii., p. 287.

2 Memorial of the Grand Master Albert, given by Faber, Beitr. zur Kunde
Preussens, iv. 83.

Chap. V.] PRUSSIA 479

the original spirit of Christianity, which had been presumed. The states
seized with joy a doctrine which justified their old opposition, on higher
grounds. The bishops, who were elsewhere almost universally its oppo-
nents, lent a glad ear to it : under the direction of the bishop of Samland,
fasts were abolished, mass said in German, the ceremonies altered, and
the monasteries cleared.1 Even the members of the Order could not
withstand the universal current of opinion. They were seen attending the
sermons of the Lutheran preachers ; many laid aside their cross ; some
determined to marry. Their number was indeed no longer great, and at
last only five remained faithful to the institution. At length the sermons
of Osiander, the society of men like Planitz, and the private conversation
he held with Luther, imbued the mind of the grand master himself with
the evangelical opinions prevalent in Saxony and in Nuremberg. On the
one hand, he was convinced that his profession had not the merit which
had been imputed to it, nor even conformity with the word of God. On
the other, people represented to him that he could not abdicate, since
he had duties to perform to the country from which he could not so lightly
withdraw himself. The country required him to lay to heart its desola-
tion and its weakness, and to procure for it a lasting peace ; to grant it
preachers of the pure word of God, and to abolish whatever was repug-
nant to that ; most probably including, in that expression, the vow of
the Order.2 Albert though he still adhered to it, had doubtless in his
heart determined on the course he meant to pursue, when he set on foot
new negotiations with Poland.

In Poland the diet of Petricau had just then come to the resolution that
the grand master should either do homage or be driven out of Prussia,
together with his Order.3

It was therefore very fortunate for Markgrave Albert that in Silesia,
which in all the previous troubles had adhered to the king, he had two
of his nearest relations ; his brother, Markgrave George, and his brother-
in-law, Frederick of Liegnitz — both like himself, nephews of the king —
who undertook once more to conciliate Sigismund, and to procure for
Albert favourable conditions.

The king had gone to Cracow with a committee of the diet. Here the two
princes, both, as we are aware, zealous partisans of the evangelical faith,
went to meet him : they adopted the principles laid down by the diet ;
but at the same time remarked that no arrangement with the Order would

1 How Rome stirred against and thought to overthrow it ! cf. Voigt Preussische
Geschichte, ix., pp. 732, 737. That he subscribed himself only, by the grace of
God, without mentioning the apostolic see, was there regarded as apostacy.
This had, too, an influence on the safety of the grand master, who was moreover
attacked by the Teutonic master.

2 " Sind darum aus geistlichem Suchen und Begern derselben Landschaft zw
diefer Verenderung und Vertrag mit der Kron Polen kommen." — " Are thereupon
come to this alteration and agreement with the crown of Poland, in consequence
of the spiritual request and desire of that country." Albert's answer to the pro-
posals of Grafendorf, the Saxon ambassador. W. A.

3 Literae regis ad sedem apostolicam : " alioquin haec tragoedia nullum unquam
finem habere potuisset, praser-tim cum subditi mei omnes a me exigerent modis
omnibus neque ab hoc instituto dimoveri potuerint in conventu generali regni
mei novissimo, vel cogendum tandem magistrum Prussiae ad praestandam obedi-
entiam et omagium mihi et regno meo debitum vel ilium ac ordinem ex terris
illis exturbandum."

480 PRUSSIA [Book IV.

be of any avail, since the government was in the hands of so many that
no reliance could be placed on its actions. They proposed to the king
that the grand master should be declared hereditary duke of Prussia.1

The king said, he would take into consideration what was to be done,
and what Albert's kinsmen required of him.2 He acquiesced with joy.

When the affair was brought before the royal council of Poland, some
voices indeed were raised against it on religious grounds ; but to these
others replied, that no injury was inflicted on Catholicism, since the Order
had already gone over to Lutheranism, and held nothing in greater abhor-
rence than the name of the pope ;3 they ought rather to thank God that
it had fallen of itself. The diet decided in favour of the king's project.

Meanwhile, negotiations were carried on in Beuthen, whither plenipo-
tentiaries of the Order and of the States had repaired to meet the Mark-
grave. The envoys of the Order, who were unquestionably the most
important, spoke first. They entirely approved the proposition, and only
urged their claim to certain advantages due to them from Poland. The
delegates of the States were chiefly solicitous lest they should be attacked
by the remnant of the Order in Germany, and by the empire, and not
sufficiently defended by Poland. They demanded of their new sovereign
a promise that he would rather increase than diminish their privileges,
and appoint no foreigner to a public office : though he did not accede
to the latter stipulation, they were on the whole satisfied with his declara-
tions.4 The envoys of the Order too were content, on the king consenting
to restore the fortified places taken from it in the last war, and granting
a small revenue for the new princes.

All parties thus easily and gladly combined to bring about this great
change. The King of Poland saw his suzerainty at length willingly
acknowledged, and the descendants of his sister established within his
extended frontiers. The country acquired the independence of foreign
influence it had so long aspired after. The Order, which had secularised
itself, thus secured protection ; it associated itself with the natives of the
country whom it had hitherto opposed. Markgrave Albert's aim, in
short, was not alone to found a hereditary sovereignty, he thought he
served his country by securing for it peace, and the free diffusion of evan-
gelical opinions.

On the ioth of April, 1525, the solemn infeudation took place at the

1 " Literae Andreas Critii Episcopii Presmiliensis ad Joannem Antonium Puleo-
nem (he should be called Burgonem, for J. A. v. Burgo was then nuncio in Hun-
gary) lib. Bar. et nuncium apostolicum. Principes ingenue e vestigio et citra
ullas ambages id quod attulerant proposuerunt." — Samuelis Nakielski Miechovia
sive Promtuarium, &c, p. 609.

2 Literae regis : " condictis conditionibus quae pro tempore fieri potuerunt, et
quales mutua nostra necessitudo postulavit."

3 " Luteranismum apud ordinem ipsum sacrosanctum, Romanam vero eccle-
siam et ejus ritus execrabiles esse (nihil apud eum nomine pontificis contempti-
bilius esse), plerosque commendatores et sacrificos nubere," &c. &c.

4 The negotiations are to be found in the last pages of Schutz. The duke
declared to the deputies of the states, who were in fact not specially commissioned
for that purpose, " er werde ihnen dermaassen beweisliche TJrkunden mitgeben,
dass sie den Ihren entschuldigt seyn sollten," — " that he would give them such
authentic documents that they should stand excused to their constituents."
This was shown immediately on the duke's return.

Chap, v.] PRUSSIA 481

Ring at Cracow. The king, in his sacerdotal ornaments, surrounded by
his bishops, delivered to the new duke, by the symbol of the banner (which
Markgrave George also grasped, in sign that the investiture extended to
the whole line of Brandenburg), " the whole land in Prussia which had
been held by the Order." Albert took the oath of homage and allegiance
in a formula in which no mention was made of the saints.

At his entrance into Konigsberg, he was greeted by an evangelical
preacher with a religious discourse. He was received with all the festivities
and honours which could be offered to an hereditary prince ; the bells were
rung, the houses hung with tapestry, and the roads strewed with flowers.

The States, of course, did not hesitate to approve the negotiations of
their delegates ; they confirmed the treaty of Cracow, and took the oath
of allegiance. The original document, by which Albert had confirmed
" the privileges, franchises, and praiseworthy customs " of the country
was delivered into the keeping of the magistrate of the Altstadt of Konigs-
berg. In the place of the great officers of the Order now appeared Marshal,
Landhofmeister, Oberburggraf 1 and Chancellor ; all which offices were
in future to be filled by natives. The courts of justice were newly con-
stituted with the advice and assistance of the nobles.

Only one of the knights of the order offered any persevering resistance ;
Erich of Brunswick, in whose favour Albert had thought of resigning, held
out in Memel ; he was afterwards provided for by means of a small pension.

The religious establishments were formed without difficulty : the
bishops themselves, as we have said, were in their favour. At the very
first assembly, Bishop Polenz of Samland abdicated the temporal part of
his authority, alleging that the service of the Gospel alone belonged to a
bishop, not the enjoyment of worldly honours ; he gave his power into
the hands of the duke, who took the states to witness this voluntary tra-
dition. This example was soon followed by Bishop Erhard Queis of
Pomerania. Their spiritual authority was left entire — the more so,
since now, as before, they administered it by officials.2 They introduced
a liturgy in which they still kept as close as possible to traditional forms :
the convents were turned into hospitals : the efforts to spread Christianity
in the lowest regions of society and those hitherto the least touched by
its influence, here found a wide sphere of action among the Slavonian
population, which still occupied a great portion of the land ; functionaries
called Tolken, i.e., interpreters, were attached to the parish priests, and
repeated every sentence of the sermon in the ancient language of Prussia.3
In order to keep the clergy themselves in the right way, the Markgrave
caused the Postilles1 to be brought twice a year from Wittenberg, two
hundred of each at a time. Lucas Cranach had a general commission to
send him all the good and valuable books that appeared.5

Duke Albert's marriage with -Dorothea, Princess of Denmark, which
took place in the year 1526, appears like the consummation and bond of
all these things. Alliances cemented by this kind of uniformity of opinion

1 Titles of offices to which we have none corresponding. — Transl.

2 Bock Leben Albrechts, i., p. 187.

3 Hartknoch Preussische Kirchengeschichte, p. 277.

4 A book containing expository sermons on the Gospels and Epistles. — Transl.

5 Letter to Cranach, and his account, inserted by Voigt in the Beitragen zur
Kunde Preussens, iii., p. 246.

31

482 PRUSSIA [Book IV.

are now almost universal among the crowned heads of Europe. The
duchess ' gradually gave evidence of as strong evangelical convictions,
" as firm a faith and trust in our Saviour," as her husband. Nor was she
less fitted to render domestic life happy. He dwells with untired delight
on her noble and amiable qualities ; and adds that, had she been a poor
serving girl, she could not have borne herself with more lowliness and truth,
with more unchanging love, to him unworthy.1 Her brother Christian,
afterwards King of Denmark, having married a princess of Lauenburg,
out of which house Gustavus Vasa of Sweden afterwards took his wife, all
these new evangelical powers of the North were united by the closest bonds.

Let us observe the general direction of the policy of the North, of which
these events formed the consummation. In the year 1515, Maximilian
had thought to connect all the northern territories of Slavonic and Ger-
manic tongue, in one great alliance, of which he was to be the head. Poland
severed itself first ; then Christian II. was driven out of Denmark and
Sweden ; and now Albert, who had hitherto remained attached to Chris-
tian, formed an alliance of amity and marriage with the new king. Erich
of Brunswick was removed from Memel, because he persisted in keeping
up an intercourse with Severin Norby, the admiral of Christian.2 The
position which Albert acquired at his first reception among the northern
powers, was extremely strong and advantageous.

The evangelical princes of Germany also afforded him support from
another side.

Even at the time when Elector John of Saxony, and his neighbouring
co-religionists, were negotiating about the meeting at Magdeburg, he sent
to Prussia to propose to the new duke, that if he were aggrieved in anything
relating to the evangelical faith, he would stand by him steadfastly.
This message was most welcome to the duke. He sent the Bishop of
Pomerania, who had the general conduct of his foreign affairs, and had
arranged the relations with Poland and Denmark, to Breslau, in 1526,
where he was met by Hans von Minkwitz on the part of Saxony. Here a
formal agreement was concluded.3 The duke had observed that Prussia
was so exhausted in the last war, that he could not engage to furnish
more than a hundred armed horsemen. Elector John was satisfied and
promised the duke an equal number in case he was attacked. The party
sending assistance was to pay the troops and bear the losses ; the party
receiving it, to provide them with necessaries. In December 1526, the
ratification arrived at Weimar. The duke and his bishop had a design
of extending this alliance to the states of Silesia, the Markgrave George
of Jagerndorf, the Duke of Liegnitz, and the city of Breslau :4 some delibera-
tions had already taken place about a common and more intimate concert
with Denmark, for which the elector evinced perfect readiness.

It has often teen said, and with perfect truth, that the empire sustained

1 FaberCiniges iider die Herzogin Dorothea. Beitr. z. K. Preussens, iii., p. 126.

a See Albert's Instruction, 18th April, 1525, Beitr. z. K. Pr., iv., p. 395, and an
essay by Faber, vi., p. 539.

3 Recess of Konigsberg, 5th July, 1526. W. A.

* Letter from Minkwitz, Leipzig, Sunday after St. Francis's day : " Trost, es
soil kein Mangel haben." — " Take comfort, there shall be no want." I do not
find, however, that any resolution was come to. The Landgrave of Hessen, too,
thought the mutual obligations too insignificant.

Chap. V.] CONCLUDING REMARKS 483

a great loss by the act of homage to Poland. But this was inevitable.
The Polish diet had taken the determination to proceed no further on a
middle course, and, if necessary, to decide the matter by force ; the
country was wholly incapable of resistance, and no help was to be expected
from the empire. Had the Order not yielded, it would have been driven
out of Konigsberg, as it had been out of Danzig ; the territory would
have become a Polish province, like the kingdom of Prussia. Under
these circumstances, it is unquestionably to be regarded as one of the
most fortunate events for the maintenance of the Germanic principle in
those countries, that a duchy — an hereditary German sovereignty — was
erected. If we compare this province with Livonia, we see that though
there, too, the Reformation had penetrated, though the powerful Grand
Master Plettenberg, who was now absolutely independent, protected it,
and found means still to keep the Order in existence for a time, — it was
but for a time ; the country was afterwards secularized like the rest, but
fell under a foreign yoke, and soon lost its sympathy with the German
nation. Nor did royal Prussia reap any advantage from having no prince
at its head ; the influence of Poland became overwhelming, and the
country had to endure indescribable oppressions, both of a political and
religious kind. The progress of German civilization was not only arrested,
but forced back. On the other hand, ducal Prussia gradually became
completely German ; by its family alliances with a powerful German
house, it remained in strict and indissoluble political connection with the
great fatherland. Amidst all the distraction of the theological and
literary controversies which followed in the train of the Reformation,
here was an independent centre of German culture, from which the grandest
developments of German nationality have sprung.

We cannot contemplate Germany at this moment, without a deep sense
of the grandeur of her character and position.

Belgium and the Netherlands, Bohemia and the neighbouring countries,
might once more be reckoned as parts of the German empire. German
arms had wrested Italy from the influence of France, as well as from that
of Switzerland, which had now severed itself from the empire : they had
restored the name of the empire in Italy, and in its ancient metropolis :
more than once they had made threatening advances from the south and
east into France ; and in the west, they had aided the Spaniards to recon-
quer the lost border fortresses, and to vanquish the Moors of Valencia.
They had just gained possession of Hungary. With the assistance of
the German maritime cities, they had put the two northern monarchs in
possession of their crowns. If Poland had reaped the advantage, she was
indebted for it solely to the instigation and the assistance of the German
provinces, which sufficiently showed that this was a state of things that
could not last. In Livonia, the attacks of the Russians were repulsed
in successive engagements, and, in the year 1522, peace was obtained on
very advantageous terms.

And all this had been accomplished in the absence of any vigorous
central government, — amid the storms of the most violent internal dis-
sension. But these very storms were the symptoms of a far wider ten-
dency— one which was destined to embrace the world. It was reserved
for the mind of Germany to sever the intrinsic truth of Christianity from
the accidental forms which, in later ages, had grown around it under the

31—2

4«4 CONCLUDING REMARKS [Book IV.

influences of the papacy, and with equal moderation and firmness to
secure to it a legal adoption in its extensive territories. In one electorate,
two or three duchies, the largest landgravate, the largest county of the
empire, one or two markgravates, and a great number of cities, the new
doctrine had become predominant, and had pervaded the populations with
whose character and turn of mind it had a natural affinity. In order
to bring vividly before our minds the original views of a positive and
negative kind, we should compare the written confessions of faith which
had now been published at so many places ; the articles of the Visitation of
Saxony and Hessen, and still more those of Brandenburg and Niiremburg;
the Confession of East Friesland ; the Instructions to the preachers of
Schleswig-Holstein ; the Apologies of the States of Silesia ; the Synodal
Constitutions of Prussia. In all these documents we perceive the same
feeling of an obligatory return from the accidental to the essential; a
resistless conviction, not yet indeed defined in articles of faith, but assured
of its truth. It is manifest that since the development of these opinions
took place in narrow territories, the infant church could not enter into
the most distant rivalry as to external grandeur and splendour with
the established hierarchy, in which was expressed the unity of an aggregate
of great kingdoms ^ its essence and its worth consisted in its intellectual
depth and strength. The office it had taken on itself was that of bringing
the principles of Christianity home to the minds of the common people ;
of expounding its meaning and spirit, freed from all disguises of foreign
forms and rites ; that so it might at length be brought home to the con-
sciousness of all the nations of the earth. Already was the new doctrine
proclaimed in almost every tongue. We mentioned the interpreters of
the Prussian clergy : in Breslau Doctor Hess caused the Gospel to be read
in Slavonic ; Luther's disciples preached it in Denmark and Sweden ; one
of the first names inscribed at the university of Marburg, was that of the
founder of the Scottish church; in 1527 a society of men inclined to
Lutheran opinions, was founded in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which
may be regarded as the seminary of the new opinions.1 Meanwhile from
the year 1528, an immediate effect had been produced on Geneva and the
Roman world. In Italy, the doctrine pervaded the old literary associa-
tions ; in Spain, it soon laid hold of the Franciscans ; in France, it found
a powerful patroness in the Queen of Navarre. Luther, who was a stranger
to ambition — who had not even a genuine zeal for proselytizing2 and expected
everything from the silent inborn force of conviction — yet remarked that
his efforts to restore the preaching of the Gospel would some time or other
form the subject of a church history. But at present he was occupied
with higher hopes. " It will draw the cedars of Lebanon to itself," said
he. He applied to it the words of Isaiah,3 " I will say to the North give
up, and to the South keep not back ; bring my sons from far, and my
daughters from the end of the earth."

1 Fiddes, Wolsey, p. 416.

2 See his letter to the people of Erfurt, in de W., iii., p. 227. " Wer uns nicht
horen will, von dem sind wir leicht und bald geschieden." — " He who will not hear
us, from him are we easily and quickly departed."

3 " Eine schone herrliche und trosthche Vorrede D. M. L. auf das Biichlin der
gottseligen Fiirstin F. Ursulen Herzogin zu Miinsterberg." — " A fair, noble, and
comfortable preface of Dr. Martin Luther to the little book of the godly princess
the Lady Ursula, Duchess of Miinsterberg." Altenb., iv., p. 416.

BOOK V.

RETROSPECT.

In the introduction to this history we endeavoured to lay before our
readers a view of the earlier fortunes of the German nation, especially with
reference to the struggle between the spiritual and temporal powers. We
observed how the papacy not only was victorious in this struggle, but
raised itself to the condition of a substantial power in the Germanic
empire, — a power indeed of the first order. We saw, however, that, just
as it had placed itself on a footing of amity, and concluded an alliance with
the vanquished imperial power, the empire became ungovernable, fell into
confusion and anarchy at home, and from year to year lost its considera-
tion abroad ; till at length the spirit of the nation, condemned to inactivity,
expressed itself only in a general conviction that such a position of affairs
was untenable and fatal.

In our first book we traced the earnest efforts made by the nation in
the latter part of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, to
remedy the evils under which it suffered. Its first endeavours were
directed towards temporal abuses. The project was conceived of creating
a power in the empire, resting at once on the privileges of the emperor
and those of the States, but more especially founded on the co-operation
of the latter in the government ; not with a view of effecting a centraliza-
tion in the sense of modern times, but only as a means of satisfying the
most pressing wants, — the establishment of peace and law, and the defence
of the country against its neighbours. But the end was not attained.
Certain constitutional forms, which were of more value and importance
to later times than to those which gave them birth, were indeed estab-
lished ; but we have seen how small was their practical efficacy. The
consequence rather was, that the abortive attempt to introduce such
radical changes threw the nation into universal confusion. As men felt
only the restraints which pressed upon themselves, but were ignorant
of the benefits of public order, the old spirit of insubordination and private
vengeance revived ; with the difference, however, that it was now mingled
with a lively feeling for the common weal, and animated by a disgust at
the reigning abuses, bordering on rage.

Such was the temper of the nation, when (as we observed in our second
book), after the failure of its attempts to reform its secular affairs, it
seized on the affairs of the Church, and on the functions of the papacy,
which possessed so large a portion of political power in the empire. Here,
however, this disposition of the national mind became blended with still
more extensive movements of public opinion. Though the papacy was
still intent upon a more rigorous and minute development of its dogmas
and its rites, and a more strenuous assertion of them, tendencies of a
scientific kind which were opposed to the reigning system of the schools,
and longings of the religious spirit which found no satisfaction in the
ritual observance of the prescribed ordinances, were at work within its
own bosom. The wonderful coincidence was, that just as abuses had
risen to the most intolerable height, the study of the sacred books in their
original tongues once more revealed to the world, in all its radiance, that
pure idea of Christianity which had so long been darkened or disguised.

485

486 RETROSPECT [Book V.

A man appeared who, in that secret travail and contention of mind to
which the remedies usually applied by the church afforded no relief,
seized with his whole soul on an aspect of Christianity hitherto the most
profoundly obscured ; and such was his own experience of its truth, fulness,
and saving power, that he would never more suffer it to be wrested from
him, but maintained it unshaken through life and death. In the contest
to which it gave rise, he drew around him all the other elements of innova-
tion, with a consistency and sagacity which at length gained over the
whole nation, and secured to himself a degree of sympathy such as no
other man ever enjoyed. At the same time that he gave a new direction
to religious thoughts and feelings, he opened a new prospect of national
regeneration. Men already felt that the papacy was not to be held in
check by constitutional forms; and that if they would free themselves
from its usurpations, they must contest the spiritual grounds on which
those usurpations rested.

The young emperor, who was elected in the midst of these troubles,
remained faithful to the old system ; but as he left Germany after a short
residence, and the representative government which had formerly been
projected, was now in actual operation, his conduct was of far less im-
portance than that of the States. In the third book we saw how the
Council of Regency, after brief hesitation, declared itself decidedly for
Luther. Even the proposal made in the assembly of the States, to compel
the preachers at least to adhere to the four oldest canonical teachers of
the Latin Church, was overruled by the regency ; so far were people from
considering a strict adherence to doctrines which had been added in later
ages as indispensable. The views of this government were indeed on all
points of the most enlarged kind. Its plan for the imposition of a general
tax of the empire, instead of those taxes on the several states which it was
often impossible to collect, woflld doubtless have given it a firmness and
vigour hitherto unknown. Had this succeeded, it would have taken the
administration of all the affairs of the country, ecclesiastical as well as
temporal, vigorously in hand. It is hardly possible to estimate the con-
sequences which must have resulted from a national council (such as was
already appointed) acting under its guidance. But Germany had been
too long a stranger to order. Neither the knights, nor the princes, nor
even the States, would suffer a regularly constituted power, which they
would have been forced to obey, to rise into existence. In defiance of
the decrees of the diets of the empire, some princes formed the strictest
alliance with the pope ; the emperor sent from Spain to forbid the assemb-
ling of the national council ; the whole government was broken up. The
peasants' war was a symptom of the universal dissolution which followed.
Nor was this subdued by the constituted authorities of the empire, but
by the several associations of princes and states exposed to attack. Mea-
sures for the constitution of a national church, such as had been con-
templated by the council of regency, were no longer to be thought of.
The several states were compelled to provide for their own wants.

This the emperor was in no present condition to oppose ; on the con-
trary, he himself needed the support of the new tendencies of the public
mind.

The attempt to re-establish the rights of the empire in Italy, which
he had at first undertaken in concurrence with the papacy, gradually

Book V.] RETROSPECT 48/

entangled him, as we have shown in our fourth book, in the most violent
disputes with that power. With the insignificant means at his disposal
he would never have been able to make any successful resistance to Rome,
had not the popular exasperation against the papacy, which increased
from year to year, come to his aid. But in order to turn this feeling
to account he was obliged to make concessions to it. A solemn decree
of the diet was passed, whereby an almost absolute religious independence
was granted to the princes and states within their several dominions.
This insured perfect concord and union throughout the empire. While
a German army marched into Italy, conquered Rome, and made the Pope
himself a prisoner, a great number of the territories of princes and cities
on this side the Alps adopted and put in practice the principles of Luther ;
they emancipated themselves for ever from the yoke of Rome, and estab-
lished an ecclesiastical organization of their own.

The fence of those hierarchies which had surrounded the world being
thus broken down, the more vigorous and highly civilized among them
sought to reconstitute themselves on a new system ; the leading principle
of which was, to draw religious convictions from the purest and most
primitive sources, and to free civil life from the contracting, oppressive
influence of a spiritual institution, which assumed the monopoly of piety — ■
an undertaking of the greatest importance and the highest promise to
the progress of the human race.

The empire, which from the earliest ages had developed itself under the
influence of the See of Rome, was thus invaded by a new element hostile
to the ancient hierarchical order of things : this, if sufficiently powerful
to sustain itself, promised to change the whole face and destinies of the
German nation.

Changes so radical and extensive are not, however, to be carried into
effect without the most violent struggles ; nor is this the result of human
will or caprice, but inherent in the nature of human affairs.

If, in the case before us, we consider the characters of the men who
attached themselves to the great religious innovation, we shall see how
impossible it was for them to avoid varieties of opinion, and divergences
of views. Nor was it to be expected that the energetic princes who carried
that innovation into effect, should remain perfectly exempt from the
excesses and acts of violence which, in their age, had become a second
nature.

But far greater dangers presented themselves on the side from which
they had seceded.

It would have been absurd to expect that the spirit of absolute domina-
tion which had inspired the Church of Rome from her very infancy, and
had gradually led her to claim a supreme authority over the world,
would allow her to submit to losses so dangerous to her power and interests,
without straining every nerve to bring back the seceders.

The German people would doubtless have desired that the emperor
should retain the power he had acquired in Italy, and, in return, should
allow them to carry into effect those ideas of a Church which they con-
fidently believed to be in conformity with the will and the commands of
God. But to this end it would have been necessary that the emperor
should himself feel a lively sympathy in those ideas — a sympathy elevated
far above the calculations of policy. Were this not the case (and at that

488 STATE OF AFFAIRS [Book V.

time there seemed no trace of any probability of it), his own power stood
in far too close and manifold relations to the papacy, for him long to con-
tinue at war with Rome.

As, moreover, the attempt to establish a government which might carry
through the opposition to Rome and then afford protection to the spiritual
Estates, had not succeeded, it followed that the latter, who had reaped
nothing from the reformation but loss of revenue and consideration, and
who had reason to dread still greater, — if not total, — ruin put themselves
in an attitude of defence.

Thus therefore it inevitably followed, that the emperor and the empire
once more embraced the cause of the hierarchy ; and that the commence-
ment of the fiercest and most perilous struggles dated from this moment.

As yet there was no question of a wider dissemination of the new opinions ;
it was first to be seen whether the newly organized evangelical church
would not share the fate of all the other religious institutions which had
attempted to sustain themselves apart from Rome, but had either utterly
disappeared, or sunk into insignificance.

We have watched the founding of the edifice ; it now remains for us
to see whether it will have sufficient strength and solidity to stand erect
and unsupported.

We shall begin with a view of the foreign relations of the empire, by
which the general position of the emperor was determined, and which
consequently exercised a powerful reaction on the affairs of Germany.

CHAPTER I.

CHANGES IN THE GENERAL POLITICAL RELATIONS OF EUROPE.
1527, I528.

The Hispano-German army had conquered Rome ; and whatever might
be the external deportment of the emperor, there is no doubt that he at
first founded the most extensive political projects upon this event.

The instructions with which he sent one of his courtiers, Pierre de
Verey, to the Viceroy of Naples, have only lately come to light. In these
he confesses that his wish was, either to go himself without delay to Italy,
or to cause the pope to come to Spain, in order that they might settle all
differences in person and orally : and that he should prefer the latter
plan, if the viceroy could find means to bring the pope safely to Spain ;
but that he was alarmed by the danger of the pontiff falling into the hands
of hostile troops by the way. Under these circumstances he thought it
best to re-instate the pope in the papal chair in full freedom. But the
conditions are worthy of note. This freedom, said the emperor expressly,
was only to be understood as relating to the pope's spiritual functions ;
and even with regard to these, it would be necessary, before setting him
at liberty, to obtain full security against treachery and deceit on his
part.1 The emperor stated what were the securities which he should

1 Instructions to Pierre de Verey, Baron de St. Vincent, Excerpts in Bucholtz,
Ferdinand, iii. 97-104, especially p. 101. " We have considered that in case there
be no means for his Holiness to come hither in safety, notwithstanding what has
passed/ to use so great liberality towards H, H, as to give him back his freedom,

Chap. I.] PROJECTS OF CHARLES V. 489

deem satisfactory ; viz. the cession of the cities of Ostia and Civita Vecchia,
Parma and Piacenza, Bologna and Ravenna ; and lastly, of Civita Cas-
tellana. He demands, as we see, all the important places of the ecclesi-
astical states, as then constituted. The principle upon which he proceeded
was, that even if the pope should ever again entertain the wish to injure
him, he must not have the power to do so. These strong places he pro-
posed to keep in his own hands, till the pope should call a council for the
reformation of the Church.

These views were to a certain degree in accordance with the ideas of
the German nation. The church reform which the emperor required was
certainly not that proposed by Luther and his followers ; nor indeed was
it at all of a doctrinal nature : his only object was, to have the adminis-
trative abuses removed, as preceding kings and emperors had so often
demanded, and Glapio had lately recommended in Worms. It is how-
ever obvious that the two projects reciprocally support each other. How
vast, moreover, was the prospect of increased temporal power which
opened to the emperor, if he could succeed in keeping possession of the
States of the Church till the accomplishment of so remote and uncertain
an event. Thus Ferdinand had recently seized on the bishopric of Brixen
till some accommodation should be come to, and had excited the suspicion
that he intended to keep it. Thus too, in this very year, the Bishop of
Utrecht, driven out by his warlike neighbour of Guelders, had ceded to
the government of the Netherlands all his rights over the temporal adminis-
tration of his bishopric for an annual sum of money.1 The same fate
seemed to await the greatest of all spiritual benefices — the States of the
Church. It was thought that the emperor would establish his seat of
government in Rome, take the temporalities of the ecclesiastical states
into his own hands, and depose, or carry off, the pope. What indeed
could men think, when Charles was known to have instigated the Duke
of Ferrara to undertake without delay the restoration of the exiled dynasts
of the ecclesiastical states — the Sassatelli in Imola, the Bentivogli in
Bologna, &c. ? The Viceroy of Naples actually proposed to the Spanish
colonel Alarcon, to whom the safe keeping of the pope in the Castel St.
Angelo was entrusted, to bring his captive to Gaeta. Alarcon however
refused ; " not out of ill will," observes the reporter, " but because he
had scruples of conscience." " God forbid," said the brave soldier,
" that I should lead the body of the Lord captive."2

It is not always necessary that the schemes of a power should be accu-
rately known in order to excite resistance ; the same possibility which, on

and that by the hand of my viceroy, as representative of our person, he be re-
instated in his chair at Rome. But before he can be restored to this freedom,
which is to be understood of spiritual functions, our viceroy must be so well
assured by him as to all things which can happen by human means and by
secular power, that we be not deceived therein, and that if H. H. should have the
will, he may not have the power to do us ill ; that thereby we may not, in return
for the kindness we have shown him, continually receive injury and damage, as
the experience of the past has shown." Bucholtz places these instructions three
weeks after the 30th June, i.e., 21st July, 1527.

1 The negotiations of Schoonhoven (Oct. 1527) appear from the speech in the
assembly of the Dutch States. Wagenaar, ii. 349.

2 Letter of Verey. Bucholtz, pp, no, 118.

490 PROJECTS OF CHARLES V. [Book V.

the one side, suggests the thought of an enterprise, awakens, on the other,
the dread of it and the endeavour to counteract it.

Charles V. had, as we may recollect, still most powerful enemies to con-
tend with. The League lay still encamped against him in unbroken force ;
and just at this moment the King of England, who had for some time
shown an inclination that way, made marked advances towards its chiefs.
Charles's refusal to allow him any share in the advantages resulting from
the victory of Pavia, or to conclude the promised marriage between him-
self and the Princess Mary (a refusal which touched Henry in a very
sensible part, inasmuch as it involved a pecuniary damage — an old debt
of the emperor's being reckoned as part of the dowry), seemed to the king
a sufficient ground for separating himself from his ancient ally. As early
as the 30th April, a treaty was concluded between Henry VIII. and
Francis I., the motive for which they declare to be the mutual inclination
which nature, who had fashioned them alike in mind and body, had im-
planted in their hearts, and which had been only heightened by the late
interruption of the good understanding between them. They agree
therein to demand of the emperor, through their common ambassadors,
the liberation of the French princes on fair and honourable terms, and the
satisfaction of the pecuniary claims of England ; and, in case of his refusal
to listen to these demands^ to declare war against him without delay.1
It may easily be imagined that their eagerness for war was greatly inflamed
by the conquest of Rome. Henry VIII. says, in the full powers for con-
cluding fresh treaties which he gave to Cardinal Wolsey, that the cause
of the Holy See was the common cause- of all princes ; that never had a
greater insult been offered to it than now ; and that, as this had been
caused by no offence or provocation, but solely by unbridled lust of power,
such ungovernable ambition must be opposed betimes by combined forces.2
His first idea was, that the cardinals still at liberty should assemble in
Avignon, where Wolsey should also be present ; and that a new central
point for the church should thus be created. But as the cardinals did not
agree to this, the two monarchs mutually promised on no account to con-
sent to any proclamation of a council, so long as the pope was not free ;
and jointly to oppose every attempt on the part of the emperor to
administer the powers of the church.3 Lastly, they settled the old differ-
ences between the two kingdoms. Wolsey, who had repaired to Amiens,
renounced, in the king's name, all claim to the throne of France. A sum
of money was agreed on, as compensation, which was to be paid to King
Henry and all his successors, " without ceasing, till all the years which
divine Providence has appointed to the human race shall have passed
away." At first they intended to direct their principal attack against
the Netherlands ; they now agreed to turn their arms against Italy.
Henry showed a readiness to advance subsidies ; he hoped to obtain ample
compensation by means of a perpetual tribute which he intended to exact

1 Traite de Westminster, 30 Avril 1527. Du Mont, iv. 1, 476.

2 Ad tractandum super quocumque fcedere pro resarcienda Romanae sedis
dignitate commissio regis. Rymer, vi. ii., p. 80.

3 " prasertim cum juris naturalis Eequitate pensata non proprie a summo

pontifice factum dici possit, quod ad aliorum arbitrium facit captivus, etiamsi
verbis diversissimum profiteatur." Traite d' Amiens, 18 Aout, Dumont, iv. 1,
494.

Chap. I.] HENRY VIII. 49 1

from the duchy of Milan. The proposals made by the emperor at this
moment, reasonable as they appeared, were rejected. In August 1527,
a new French army appeared in Italy under Lautrec, took Bosco, Alex-
andria and the strong city of Pavia, on which cruel vengeance was taken
for the resistance it had made two years and a half before. In October
1527, Lautrec crossed the Po, intending to wait only for reinforcements,
and then immediately to enter the States of the Church.1

It would have been extremely disagreeable to the emperor, if the pope,
still unreconciled to him, had been liberated from the castle by this army ;
an event which appeared by no means impossible, since the German troops,
in consequence of their disorder, and of the diseases caused by an Italian
summer, had sustained great losses, and were constantly discontented.
But this would have been rendered peculiarly vexatious and inconvenient
to him by a project which King Henry had conceived, and now followed
up with the most impetuous ardour.

King Henry VIII. was married to Catharine of Aragon, the widow of
his brother Arthur, and aunt of the emperor. This marriage could not
have been contracted without a dispensation from the pope, which
Julius II. had granted, " in virtue of his apostolical authority ; that
supreme delegated power which he used as time and circumstances might
require."2 But in the nation, nay, even in the persons immediately
surrounding the king, the scruples on this head had never entirely dis-
appeared. The death of every son that Catharine brought him, one after
another, produced a deep impression on people's minds, and seemed a ful-
filment of the words in the third Book of Moses,3 denouncing childlessness
against the man who shall take his brother's wife. Even Thomas Aquinas
had doubted whether the pope could release men from the obligatory
force of a law of the holy Scripture ; and we may imagine how greatly
the ideas of the reformers, originating in similar questions as to the authority
of Scripture, and now become current even in England, must have tended
to strengthen this doubt. The king's confessor had for a long time declared
to his friends that his highness's marriage would not last.4

In this state of things it happened that Cardinal Wolsey, the king's
confidant, quarrelled with the emperor. The emperor, when at Windsor,
had promised to raise him to the papal dignity ; but when the occasion
offered, he did little or nothing in his behalf. It was constantly affirmed
in Spain that Wolsey swore eternal vengeance against the emperor for
this breach of faith ; that he boasted he would bring about such a revolu-
tion in affairs as had not taken place for a century ; — even though the
kingdom of England should perish in the convulsion.5 Various other

1 Letter from Angerer (5th Nov.), in Hormayr's Archiv. 1812, p. 456 : "We
allow ourselves to be restrained by words, and the League follows up its victory.
I have really no hope or heart left." A letter of Leiva's of the 23d Oct. shows,
however, that he had not lost heart.

2 Brief in Burnet's Collection, p. 9. It is said there, " Cum matrimonium
contraxissetis illudque carnali copula forsan consummavissetis." It is clear that
the dispensation assumed this to be the case.

3 Leviticus xx. 21, quoted by John the Baptist to Herod : St. Mark vi. 18.

4 Polydorus Virgilius, Historia Anglica, Henncus VIII., p. 82. Jam pridem
conjugium regium velut infirmum labefactatum iri censebat idque clam suis
ssepe intimis amicis insusurrabat.

5 Respuesta del emperador al cartel presentado por Clarencao. Sandoval,
lib. xvi., torn, i., p. 358.

492 HENRY VIII. [Book V

causes now contributed, as we have seen, to create enmity between his
royal master and the emperor. In order, however, to render this per-
manent, it was absolutely necessary that the marriage by which Ferdinand
the Catholic and Henry VII. had thought to render the union of their
families eternal, should be dissolved. We may believe Wolsey's assertion
on his trial ; — that it was not he who first suggested the divorce ; but it
is no less certain that he first seriously proposed it, and with the view
above mentioned : he himself affirmed this most distinctly to the French
ambassador, Jean du Bellay.1

Meanwhile, the passion which the king conceived for Anne Boleyn, one
of the ladies of the queen's court, though it subserved Wolsey's views, did
not form part of his plans. He wished to substitute the French alliance
for the Spanish. When he was in Amiens he said to the queen-mother,
that if she lived only another year, she would witness the eternal union of
England with the one side (the French), and a no less complete separation
from the other. He let fall other mysterious expressions, begging her
to remember his words, and adding that he would remind her of them at
the proper time.

Such being the state of his mind, the differences of the pope with the
emperor were entirely in accordance with his wishes ; and he therefore
urged on the new alliance, and the enterprise against Italy.

We may imagine, however, the effect that schemes and proceedings
of this kind naturally produced on the emperor. And here an observation
suggests itself, which sounds paradoxical, but, if we mistake not, contains
a striking truth.

It is a well-known fact, and one to which we shall often have occasion
to recur, that this divorce proved fatal to the influence of the papacy in
England. But if we ascend to that higher point of view which commands
the general relations of Europe, we shall see that the schemes of Henry VIII.
were, at this critical moment, productive of advantage to the papal power.
The emperor, whose conduct had been not only imperious but violent
towards the pope, now perceived that the head of the church, even in a
prison, was a person of importance, and was still able to make him pain-
fully sensible of his power.

The emperor first heard of the project of divorce at the end of July
1527. In the instructions of the 21st of that month, drawn up for Verey,
no trace of it is (if we may trust our extracts) to be found ; but on the 31st
of the same month we have a letter of the emperor's in which it is expressly
mentioned. In this he commissions the viceroy to speak of the matter
to the pope, but with discretion, lest he should avail himself of it " as

1 Depeche de l'eveque de Bayonne, J. du Bellay, 28th October, 1528. Wolsey
complains of certain measures of the French, from which had ensued " totale
alienation de Nre dit St. Pere avec rompture dudit mariage (the negotiations
concerning the affair of the marriage). La quelle rompture, encore que la perte
de Nre dit St. Pere ne soit pour rien comptee, est de telle importance, ce dit mon
dit Seigneur Legat (Wolsey), que tout homme en pourra juger qui saura que les
premiers termes du divorce ont eti mis par luy en avant, afin de mettre perpetuelle
separation entre les maisons d'Angleterre et de Bourgogne." Already printed
in Le Grand's Histoire du Divorce, iii., p. 185. I have recently looked through
the manuscript (Depesches de Messire J. du Bellay, Colbert, v. 468, King's
Library, at Paris), which Le Grand used, and have found many new and impor-
tant circumstances in it.

Chap. I.] LIBERATION OF THE POPE 493

means to a mischievous understanding with the king." Charles wished
that the pope had instantly crushed the scheme by two or three briefs
to the king and the cardinal, containing a peremptory refusal.1

It is obvious that a vast weight was thrown into the pope's scale by the
need the emperor had of his aid in a domestic affair of such importance.

To this was added the unfavourable impression produced in Spain by
the captivity of the sovereign pontiff. The grandees of that kingdom
both temporal and spiritual, who were at the court, took an occasion to
speak to the emperor about it, and to remind him of the devoted attach-
ment of the Spanish nation to the see of Rome. The nuncio was even
emboldened to entertain the project of suspending the ecclesiastical
functions throughout Spain ; the prelates were to appear before the
emperor in mourning garments, and to demand from him the liberty of
Christ's vicegerent on earth. Nothing less than the direct interference
of the court was required to prevent his issuing a proclamation of this
violent character.2

Under these circumstances the imperial council of state found it im-
possible to adhere absolutely to its first instructions. Gattinara declared
that they could not keep the pope a prisoner, so long as they continued to
recognise him as the true pope. De Praet remarked, that the troops now
quartered in Rome were wanted for the defence of the kingdom of Naples,
and that they could not march till the pope was set at liberty ; he advised
that the orders issued for the execution of the instructions should be
qualified by the very pregnant words, " as far as practicable." The
council of state hereupon came to the decision that the pope must, at all
events, be set at liberty.3

Negotiations were then set on foot with Clement VII., through Degli
Angeli, general of the Franciscans. We unfortunately possess no details
of their progress. On the 26th of November, 1527, a treaty was
concluded, in virtue of which the pope was restored, not only to his spiritual
functions, but to his temporal power. The emperor contented himself
with the cession of a few strong places, such as Ostia, Civita Vecchia and
Civita Castellana. The pope promised to convoke a council for the union
and reformation of the church, and to contribute, as far as lay in his
power, to satisfy the soldiery.4 Their pay was to be raised chiefly by a
large sale of church lands in the Neapolitan territory.

Another point, which is not mentioned in the treaty, was, as it appears,
also a subject of negotiation. The pope is said to have promised the
emperor that he would not consent to the divorce of the king of England.

Clement VII. was once more free. He garrisoned the castle of St. Angelo
with his own troops, caused all the bells in the city to be rung, and nomi-
nated anew all the officers of the camera and of the city. The vast schemes
of limiting the pope to his spiritual functions, of carrying him off to a
distant fortress, and the like, were so far from being realized, that the
emperor's own power in Italy was now once more in danger.

1 Excerpt from this letter. Bucholtz, iii. 94, note.

2 Castiglione, 10th Dec, 1527 ; Pallavicini, lib. ii., c. 14.

3 Notice in Bucholtz, iii., p. 119.

4 Contract between Pope Clement and Charles V. ; Reissner, p. 155. The
words of the preamble are, however, rather a form of expression than an historical
truth.

494 LIBERATION OF THE POPE [Book V.

At first the pope was far from trusting the emperor or his ministers,
or from believing that the peace between them would be of long endurance.
It was agreed that he should go to Orvieto. But he was still fearful that
Hugo Moncada, who had succeeded Lautrec as viceroy of Naples, would
seize upon his person on the way, and carry him off to some fortress in
the imperial territory.1 He determined to escape in disguise through the
gates of the gardenof the Vatican, on the night before the dayappointed for
his journey. In this way he reached Orvieto, on the ioth of December 1527.

For a moment he felt as if he were once more master of his own destiny ;
but he no sooner raised his eyes, than he found himself surrounded by
dangers on every hand.

On the one side, he saw his country in great measure in the hands of
the conqueror by whom he had been so injuriously treated. In the course
of the winter his capital had been reduced to utter ruin by the imperial
troops, to which arrears of pay were still due.

On the other side, the friends who had affected to protect him inspired
him only with hatred, distrust and alarm. Florence, which had again
expelled the house of Medici, and attempted to found a republic on the
plan of Savonarola, found support from France. The Venetians had
taken possession of the cities of Ravenna and Cervia, which Julius II.
deemed it so great a glory to have reconquered.

Clement feared both parties. That the emperor should possess at once
Milan and Naples, seemed to him extremely dangerous ;2 in that case
Charles would indeed be " lord of all things ;" the favour which he himself
had shown to the emperor's foes would bring his head upon the block.
But the measures of the League caused him, if possible, more anxiety and
distress. When the French invited him to sanction and to join the League
as it was then constituted, he replied, that it was a strange proposal to
make to him, to sanction and concur in the measures taken against him-
self : — in Florence his family had been ruined ; Ferrara was constantly
engaged in hostilities against him ; yet with these powers he was asked to
ally himself.

The French told him they were determined to wrest not only Milan
but Naples also from the emperor ; and they wished to know whether
the pope would at least openly declare himself for them, when they had
made their way to Naples, and driven out the Spaniard. Clement evaded
giving a positive answer ; he found it difficult to believe that they would,
as they asserted, allow him to dispose of Naples at his pleasure ; judging
from his countenance, people concluded that his intention was to gain time
to consider, and then to make such terms as circumstances would allow.3

Everything, however, depended on the issue of the enterprise of France,
and on the fortune of arms.

1 Jovius, Vita Pompeji Columnae, 197 f. Guicciardini, lib. xxiii., p. 469.

2 Literae Gregorii de Cassellis, in Fiddes's Life of Wolsey, p. 467. " Et cum ei
persuasissem, ut nihil dubitaret, et quod totum se rejiceret in manus regia!
majestatis et rev. D. Legati, dixit se ita velle facere et quod in eorum brachia
se et omnia sua remittat. Et caput jam ponit sub supplicio, nisi a regia Majestate
adjuvetur. Si Czesar permittatur aliquid possidere in Italia praeterquam in
regno Neapolitano, omnium rerum semper erit dominus, nisi mature confundatur.' '
It is evident he was still of opinion that it was necessary to the security of the see
of Rome that Milan should be wrested from the emperor.

3 Nic. Raince au Gr. Maitre, 28th Jan., 1528. MS. Bethune, 8534.

Chap. I.] ITALIAN WARS, 1528 495

In January 1 528, Lautrec entered the kingdom of Naples. The German
army, which had at length with infinite difficulty been led out of Rome
by the Prince of Orange, threw itself in his way at Troja, and offered to
give him battle. But Lautrec expected succours from Venice, and was
satisfied to let the imperialists feel the superiority of his artillery. This
conduct had such an effect, that an inclination in favour of France mani-
fested itself throughout the empire. When the expected reinforcements
arrived, the imperial troops, which had no artillery, found it necessary
to abandon the field and retreat upon Naples, the defence of which was of
the highest importance j1 the head, they said, did not follow the members,
but the members the head. Lautrec hastened to pursue them : towards
the end of April he encamped on either side of the high road from Capua,
and opened the siege of Naples. It appeared almost impossible that this
populous city, less able than any other to endure scarcity of food, could
long hold out against a conquering army. In England the fall of Naples
was already reckoned upon as the termination of the whole affair ; for
the provinces of the kingdom were already in great measure in the hands
of the allies. The Venetians took possession of the ports of Apulia, while
Filippino Doria defeated the imperialists in the harbour of Amain. Some
people began to conceive a hope of a universal overthrow of the imperial
power. Wolsey was heard to declare that the pope must be enabled at
once to depose the emperor, on account of the grievous outrages he had
experienced from him ; he had only to proclaim that the electoral princes
possessed the right of proceeding to a new election, and to admonish
them to choose one of their own body. This would not only have the
effect of conciliating them, but would create such a breach between the
emperor and the pope that any future reconciliation would be impossible.2
A communication to this effect was in fact made to the pope. He deemed
it necessary that both kings should agree upon the candidate for the
imperial crown, lest a similar confusion to that at the last election (of
Charles V.) should occur. He thought he could reckon upon four electoral
princes.3

But here, too, the emperor's lucky star did not forsake him.

In the first place, he succeeded in gaining over one of the most powerful
chiefs of Italy, Andrea Doria, of Genoa. He had long been negotiating
with him ; first before Doria entered into the service of the League, and
afterwards during the visit of the arch-chancellor Gattinara to Upper
Italy, in May 1527 : an Augustinian hermit, in concert with a servant of
Doria's named Erasmo, were, on both occasions, the secret mediators.4
It is not surprising if, under these circumstances, the king of France missed

1 Ziegler, Acta Paparum, book xii. " As the imperialists had neither ammuni-
tion nor provisions, and nothing could be conveyed to them in safety, — for all
places were better inclined to the French than to the imperialists . . ."

2 Bellay au Grandmaitre, 2d Jan. 1528 (MS. Colbert, Vc).

3 Gardiner and Cassalis to C. Wolsey, April 28. Strype, Eccles. Mem., v. 427.
" It were," says the pope, " to be foreseen before sentence of privation, who were
most meet to be chosen."

* The details which we find concerning this in Hormayr's Archiv. 1810, p. 61,
and in Bucholtz, are doubtless taken from the same documents in the Vienna
archives. Doria's engagements to Francis were to cease 1st July, 1528, and
then those to the emperor to begin. See also Folieta, Historia Genuensis, p. 309.
Sigonius de rebus gestis Andreas Aureae. Opp. Sigonii, i. 241.

496 ANDREA D0R1A [Book V.

in Doria the cordiality and zeal which he expected from him. Doria, on
his side, made many complaints of personal offences, as well as of the treat-
ment experienced by his native city, whose ancient rights over Savona
were now disputed. In England, where many Genoese then lived, and all
these circumstances were known with the greatest accuracy, they created
the most violent irritation. Wolsey said the French ought to give Doria
all the money and all the honours he might choose to demand ; and rather
cede Savona seven times over than estrange this man at the moment when
they most needed him. But France did not keep one line of policy so
rigorously and steadily in view, as to weigh all the consequences of his
loss. On the other hand, the emperor subscribed to all the terms proposed
by Doria ; he rendered the destiny of Genoa, as well as the person and
fortunes of Doria, perfectly secure, and he voluntarily added certain
marks of favour ; for example, a considerable grant of land in the
Neapolitan territory. He knew well what he was doing. In a very short
time Andrea Doria hoisted on the emperor's ships the very flags which
Filippino had taken from the imperialists in the battle of Amain.1 His
desertion alone sufficed to establish the emperor's superiority in the
Mediterranean. But besides this, it was an important advantage, that
a city which formed the link of direct communication between Spain and
Milan, once more declared for the emperor.

At this moment, too, the fate of Naples was decided.

Contagious diseases, such as always follow in the train of devastating
war, broke out in the French armies before Naples, and spread with
dreadful rapidity. " God sent amongst them," says a German report
" such a pestilence that out of 25,000 not above 4,000 survived."2 Lautrec
himself was one of its victims ; Vaudemont, to whom the crown had been
destined, died before the gates which he had hoped to enter in triumph
as king. To these disasters were added the fortunate turn of things
among the besieged. The German imperialists, as at Pavia, directed
their attacks in the first place against their countrymen in the service of
France, under the Count of Lupfen, and brought back their colours as a
trophy into the city : at length the rest of the French army found itself
compelled to prepare for a retreat, when at that moment it was attacked
and totally cut off. This occurred on the 29th August 1528.3

1 Letter to Salviati, L. d. Principi, ii. 129. In a MSS. biography of Guasto,
in the Chigi library at Rome, there is a chapter on the Cambiamento di A. Doria,
which certainly sounds rather romantic. Doria's prisoners hear him complaining
of king Francis in his sleep : " non basta al re Francesco, avermi tolti i ricatti
guadagnati col rischio del mio sangue, ma vuol Genova sottoporre a Savona —
ma io cambiaro la bandiera, sard signore del mare, faro libera non che soggetta
la patria mia." The motives, however, are clear enough. According to this
story, Guasto urged them in his conversation with Doria, adducing the examples
of La Palice and Giangiacopo Trivulzio, who had also been very ungratefully
treated by Francis. These arguments brought him over.

2 Ziegler : " es starb ser under ihnen, Bott schiket under des Frantzosen
hauffen ain solche pestilenz, das si innerhalb 30 Tagen schir all starben und von
25,000 uber 4,000 nit beliben." " There died many among them. God sent among
the troops such a pestilence, that within thirty days they sheer all died, and out
of 25,000 not 4,000 remained ;" a statement which Reissner has altered, after his
manner, p. 173.

3 Sepulveda, who was then in Gaeta, viii. 34 f.

Chap. I.] ITALIAN WARS, 1528 497

The imperialists, whose condition had so lately appeared hopeless,
remained completely victors, and once more took possession of the
kingdom.

Fortunate was it for the pope that he had remained neutral. " But
for this," writes his secretary of state, Sanga, now his prime minister,1
" we should now be in the lowest abyss of ruin." It was at a conference
between Clement and Sanga on the 6th of September, that some advances
to the emperor were seriously resolved on.

The imperial party had already frequently requested the pope to return
to Rome, where they promised to defend him from every danger.2 He
now determined upon this step. On the 6th of October we find him again
in Rome.

He was not, however, on that account to be regarded as in any degree
an ally of the emperor. Even in November 1 528, he encouraged Francis I.
to keep alive the agitation in Germany, by which Charles's dignity as
emperor was endangered, and to support the Woiwode of Transylvania.3
In December 1528, the French ambassador declares that, whatever may
appear to the contrary, the pope is as much inclined to the French as
ever ; that at the bottom of his heart he was much displeased that their
attack on Naples had succeeded so ill ; had they followed his advice, he
said, matters would not have ended so. " I venture to affirm," adds the
ambassador, " that here is no feint."4 It is at least certain that one of his
intimates, Cardinal Campeggio, who had gone to England to conduct the
proceedings on the king's divorce, said publicly, in the plainest terms, that
the emperor was full of ill-will, and would do them as much mischief as
he possibly could ; that to attack him in good earnest was the true way
to bring him to his senses ; the desirable thing would be to do him some
damage in Spain, but as that was not practicable, an expedition against
him in Germany was by all means to be undertaken, let it be conducted
as it might.5

No one, therefore, could have ventured to predict a speedy peace. In
the year 1528 a formal challenge was sent by the emperor to the king, and
it was from no backwardness on the part of the former that a single combat
did not take place.6

1 Al CI. Campeggio, Lettere di principi, ii. 127. " Se sua Santita non faceva
cosi, hora si sarebbe nel profondo della total ruina."

2 Lettera di Roma a B. Castiglione. L. d. pr. ii. 10.

3 Gio Joachim a Montmorency Roma, 7th Nov. 1528, Molini, ii. 122. "Mi
disse S. Santita, che l'imperatore fosse quasi costretto, in persona trovarsi ben
tosto in Alamagna, per dar ordine a molte cose, — le quali non ordinate — produce-
vano gran pregiudizio e non minor movimento, minacciavano a l'imperatore sua
stato, titulo e dignita (he points, no doubt, at the designs of the House of Bavaria,
to obtain the dignity of king of Rome). Se mo le cose in Germania fussero nel
stato che si dice, a S. Sa parrebbe chel chrmo re per ben degli suoi affari le man-
tenesse, augumentasse e fomentasse."

4 Raince, 14th Dec. 1528, " qu'il n y a fiction aucune."

5 Bellay, 1 Jan. 1529, " louant fort l'enterprise d'Allemagne, par quel moyen
qu'elle se puisse conduire."

6 Relacion da Borgona, Sandoval, 888. He had a solemn audience of the king,
who said to him, " Dost thou bring me the place of battle ?" The herald

answered, " Sire, the Emperor's sacred majesty " The king broke in upon

him, " I bid thee that thou speak to me of nothing, till thou hast brought me

32

498 TROUBLES IN HUNGARY, 1528 [Book V-

In Upper Italy the fortune of war was still vacillating, inclining rather
to the side of the king than to that of the emperor. The same diseases
which had destroyed the French army before Naples, attacked the German
troops which, in the summer of 1528, had crossed the Alps under Henry
of Brunswick and Mark Sittich of Ems, in aid of the emperor, and were now
encamped in Lombardy. Independently of this, Duke Henry was not the
man to carry through an undertaking in which he had to contend at once
with the jealousy of his allies, the aversion of the country people, the fatal
effects of the climate, and the attacks of the enemy. He soon retreated
in disgust across the Alps ; his troops dispersed, and part of them entered
the service of Venice.

Thereupon a fresh French army made its appearance in Ivrea under
St. Pol ; the Venetians sent money and troops to meet it, and the allies
not only reconquered Pavia, which they had a second time lost, but imme-
diately began to indulge the highest hope's. St. Pol was of opinion that
they ought instantly to press on to the Neapolitan territory, where a
number of strong places were still in possession of the French ; he
doubted not that the whole kingdom would then fall into his hands. The
French government, on the other hand, thought it more urgent first to
make an attack on Genoa and Andrea Doria. Although this did not
succeed, the army became master of the greater part of Lombardy, and
in England hopes were still entertained that it would soon take Milan,
and even, by investing Parma and Piacenza, regain its influence over
the pope.

Nor was eastern Europe in a state of less confusion. So long as Fer-
dinand himself was present in Hungary, order was in some measure
maintained, but as soon as he absented himself, the old divisions broke
out again. Even his own adherents could not agree. The Bishop of
Erlau complained of Andrew Bathory, who had insulted and wounded
him ; " no Socrates," he declared, " had had need of more patience than
he." Francis Batthyany could not make his way to the castles of which
Louis Pekry had taken possession in his name. A universal cry was
raised against the violences of the German army under Katzianer, which
levied its supplies directly upon the country, and advanced at a very slow
rate against the Joanists. Katzianer sent an energetic and rough answer.1
The assertion, even if untrue, that bread mixed with chalk was given to
the Germans to poison them, proves the strong national antipathy that
had arisen. This rendered it doubly difficult to keep in check the
adherents of Zapolya. At the diet of Ofen, in January 1 528, they formed
three distinct classes ; those who, spite of the oath they had sworn to
King Ferdinand, endeavoured to seduce his subjects to revolt ; the vacil-
lating, who had demanded safe conduct in order that they might go and
do homage to the king, and then had never appeared ; and lastly, Zapolya's

assurance of the place of battle." The herald could not fully deliver his message ;
but at last it came to pass as Wolsey thought. " I trust to God these young
courageous passions shall be finally converted into fume." 21st July, St. P.,
p. 320.

1 Correspondence in Bucholtz, iii. 269-279. In Ursuinus Velius de Bello
Pannonico, p. 91, we see that the grandees of Hungary quarrelled, " de bonis
hostis Joannis jam olim inter se partitis."

Chap. I.] ZAPOLYA AND SULEIMAN 499

open followers, who carried on a system of plunder, and rendered the
country insecure. It does not appear that any effectual measures were
taken against any of them. On the other hand, Zapolya neglected no
means by which he could, from his exile at Tarnow, keep Hungary in a
state of agitation. George Martinuzzi, a monk of the Pauline order, who
had formerly been in the service of Zapolya's mother, was so devoted
to him that he three times ventured into Hungary on foot. He boasts
of the good reception he had experienced from Jacob von Thornaly,
Stephen Bathory of Somlyo, and Paul Arthandy. He wandered from
castle to castle, revived old connexions, and prepared everything for his
lord's reception.1 The main thing was, that he was the bearer of promises
of Turkish succours. In the beginning of the year 1528 a treaty had been
concluded between Zapolya and Suleiman. This was not the result of
presents, for the ambassador, Jerome Lasko, had brought none ; nor of
any promise of tribute, but solely of political motives. Zapolya had
declared that he would, now and always, serve the mighty sultan with all
the powers of his kindgom, of his hereditary possessions, and even of his
own person. "I, on the other hand," said Suleiman, in the solemn
audience of leave, " will be a true friend and ally to your master, and
support him against his enemies with all my power. I swear it by the
prophet, by the great prophet beloved of God, Mohammed, and by my
sword."2 Unquestionably nothing could be more conducive to the pro-
gress of the Turkish power than a strict alliance with so influential a
chief. Suleiman considered himself as the most formidable rival of the
House of Austria, — the natural head of the opposition to it, in which he
included France, Venice, Poland, and the pope himself ; " that poor priest
from whom the faith of the Christians emanates, and whom they never-
theless so remorselessly maltreat." He was convinced that he ought
immediately to oppose resistance to the power of the emperor Charles V. ;
" for," said he, " it is like a stream formed of small brooks and melting
snows, which at length undermines the strong castle in the mountain
gorge."3 The Austrian ambassadors assert that the king of Poland sent a
special messenger in October 1528, inviting the sultan to declare war
upon the emperor in the following year ; in which case he would come to
his assistance. Suleiman was, however, already resolved upon it. When
Habordancz, the envoy sent by Ferdinand to Constantinople, to demand
the restitution of twenty-four fortresses formerly belonging to Hungary
offered only a pecuniary compensation in return, the sultan replied, that he
would come in person, with all his troops, to defend those fortresses. It
may easily be imagined what a ferment this prospect of war excited in
Hungary. As early as September 1528, Andrew Bathory wrote to king
Ferdinand that he lived surrounded by rebels, and with death before his
eyes. The same year, Peter Raresch, Hospodar of Moldavia, who had
long been a fisherman, but was now recognsed as a true Dragoschide of

1 His letter to Verantius in Pray, and thence in Katona, xx. 1, 409. See
Isthuansi, p. 126.

2 Lasky's Statement in Katona, xx. 1. Zasky declared in Zapolya's name,
" non solum Ungariae regnum, non solum dominia patrimonii sui, sed et per-
sonam suam propriam non suam esse vult sed vestram," p. 319.

3 Habordancz Report, in Bucholtz, iii. 596.

32—2

500 GERMAN OPPOSITION [Book V.

the house of the great Stephen, invaded and laid waste the diocese of
Szekler.1 Everything seemed to tend to a great catastrophe.

While such a universal ferment prevailed in the East and in the West,
it was hardly possible that stormy Germany should escape the contagion.

CHAPTER II.

GERMANY DURING THE AFFAIR AND TIMES OF PACK.

We invariably find the Dukes of Bavaria in more or less intimate connexion
with the foreign princes hostile to the empire — the king of France,2 the
Woiwode, and above all, the pope.

They had still not relinquished their hopes of the imperial crown.
They carried on incessant intrigues with the leading electoral princes,
and made them magnificent promises. They also tried to set the king
of France again in motion.

We are in possession of a project which they communicated to the
French court with a view to the attainment of their end.3 It was proposed
that French ambassadors, supported by those of Lorraine and of England,
should appear at the next diet of the empire, and should remind the
States what numerous and severe losses the church and the empire had
sustained, since the House of Austria had occupied the imperial throne.
Constantinople, Rhodes, and now Hungary, were lost to Christendom ;
Basle and Constance to the empire ; the sole object of the princes of Austria
was to make the empire hereditary, and to aggrandise themselves in every
possible way ; (as an example of which, Don Ferdinand's recent attempt
to get possession of Salzburg was to be cited) : hereupon they should call
upon the States to proceed to the election of another emperor ; to elevate
to the throne a man who would rule uprightly, and restore Germany to
its former prosperity ; who should be a true and good catholic, able to
eradicate all heresies. With such an emperor, the king of France should
engage to form the strictest alliance.4

It is very probable that these negotiations were carried further. It is
at least certain that the Bavarians hoped to gain over the Palatinate and
Trier; the Elector of Brandenburg, through the influence of France,
and the Elector of Saxony by corrupting his councillors.6 This we gather
from the expressions of the pope and his legate, as well as from those of
Cardinal Wolsey.

1 Engel, Geschichte der Wallachei, p. 170.

2 Lettre de Breton au Gr. Maitre, 17th May, 1528 (MS. Bethune). " Le
secretaire du due de Baviere, que vous savez, est depuis deux (jours ?) ici et a eu
fort bonne audience du roi. "

3 Forme et maniere de conduire et mener l'affaire d' election au nom du roi de
France. MS. Bethune, 6593, f. 93. See the agreement with Mainz ; Stumpf,

P- 5°-

i The conclusion runs thus : " Au surplus nos princes sont deliberes de n'ob-
mettre rien de leur labeur et vigilance, et d'essayer tous les moyens qu'ils verront
6tre necessaires pour la fin de cette affaire, et qu'ils ont esperance, Dieu aidant et
la bonte du roi tres Chretien, achever l'affaire ainsi qu'ils le desirent."

5 " Mochten etliche seiner Rathe durch Geld abzurichten seyn :" " some of his
councillors might be to be brought round with money." Extracts from a memoir,
probably of Duke William, in Sugenheim, Baierns Zustande, &c, p. 9.

Cha.p. II.] TO AUSTRIA 50

It is, however, remarkable enough that the opposite {i.e., the evangelical
party had also made advances to the powers hostile to Austria.

We find an emissary of the Landgrave of Hessen, Dr. Walter, at th<
court of France. Another we see setting out on his way to John Zapolya
and trace his progress through the whole of his journey. This was th<
celebrated Dr. Pack. In the Passion week of 1528, we find him in Senf
tenberg, where he gave himself out to be a canon of Meissen ; at Easter
in Breslau, where he hired a servant who could speak Polish ; on th(
18th of April, at Cracow. Here, in the church of St. Barbara, he hac
his first interview with a follower of the Woiwode, at which they deter
mined that he should visit that prince in person. When Pack reached
the neighbourhood of Tarnow, where the Woiwode then resided, he alightec
from his carriage and proceeded on foot into the city, in order not tc
attract attention. On the 26th and 27th April we find him negotiating
with the Woiwode ; a formal treaty was drawn up, and nothing was want
ing but the ratification of the landgrave.1 The landgrave had demanded
money to enable him to attack Ferdinand in Germany. The Woiwode
promised to procure 100,000 gulden from his brother-in-law, the king oi
Poland. The report that Poland had promised the sultan to attack
Ferdinand with German troops, may very probably be traced to this treaty.

It is impossible to calculate the consequences that must have resulted
from a prosecution of these schemes, which were aimed by the one party
at Charles's imperial dignity, while the other intended to attack Fer-
dinand in his hereditary domains ;2 especially at a time when all other
social and political relations were shaken.

But such projects were not destined to be realized. The Dukes ol
Bavaria and the Landgrave of Hessen were wholly ignorant that they
were allies. Indeed, such violent antipathies, chiefly from religious
causes, arose among the sovereigns of Germany, that they gave birth to
one of the most singular complications that ever occurred in history.

In consequence of so many evangelical princes having thrown off the
jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, numerous complaints were laid
before the imperial court ; and, in the existing state and spirit of the
imperial chanceries, these complaints could not fail to meet with a hearing :
it is perfectly true that the expediency of resorting to punishments, and
even to the ban, was there suggested. Nassau, which had old territorial
dissensions with the landgrave of Hessen, sought to secure itself against
this contingency by mandates.3

1 We have taken all the details from the confession of Hans Schuoch of Breslau,
the same whom Pack hired as his servant.

2 It was the general opinion that the troubles in the Mark, and the attacks
made by Minkwitz upon Lebus, were connected with this. Duke George writes
to Hoyer von Mansfeld (March, 1529), " It is credibly reported to us that a very
great business was in hand, and although it is set on foot in the name of some of
the nobles, we cannot give rmich heed to it, since a great deal of money is given
to the persons employed. It is said that this business is undertaken for the
advantage of the Wayda, and against the country of Laussnitz and the elector
of Brandenburg." The duke was just then intending to have an interview with
the elector. It was he who arrested Minkwitz.

3 Heinrich v. Nassau to Joh. v. Nassau ; Arnoldi, Memoirs, p. 200. The
letter is of the 13 th April, before Pack's affair, of which nothing was then known,
especially in Spain.

502 PACK'S PLOT [Book V.

A vague rumour of these designs found its way to Germany. The
landgrave was warned by a man of great consideration, as he says, " whom
he would not name, but who knew from good authority that there was
something in hand — extraordinary practices (merkliche practica) — against
the Lutherans."

The landgrave, however, did not look so far for the origin of the danger.
He saw only the hostilities of which the adherents of the new doctrine
were the objects, in Bavaria and the whole of Upper Germany ; the violent
menaces uttered by Duke George of Saxony against his cousin the elector ;
his declarations that nothing should induce him to be reconciled to that
prince so long as he adhered to the Lutheran sect, and that he only waited
for the emperor's commands to proceed against him. It appeared to the
landgrave a suspicious circumstance that zealous catholic princes had
visited King Ferdinand at Breslau, in May 1527, and had afterwards
afforded him assistance in Hungary ; in short, he was fully persuaded
that a plot against him was in agitation among his neighbours.

Just at this time it happened that the steward of the chancery of Duke
George — Otto von Pack — the same who undertook the journey to Tarnow
— in the course of they ear 1527, came to the landgrave, who was then at
Cassel, to give him information and legal advice as to the affair with
Nassau. The landgrave disclosed to him his apprehensions, and pressed
him to say whether he knew anything about the matter. Pack sighed,
and was silent. This only increased the landgrave's urgency. Pack at
length declared, that a league against the Lutherans was indeed not only
in hand, but actually concluded. He engaged to procure the original
documents for the landgrave, who, in return, promised him his protec-
tion and a reward of 10,000 gulden. Landgrave Philip was now inflamed
with indignation. In February 1528, we find him in Dresden ; whither
Pack brought, not, indeed, the original of the treaty, which, he said,
the chancellor had laid aside, but a copy of it, bearing all the outward
marks of authenticity. The seal of the Saxon chancery was affixed on
both sides to the black silk cord which tied the sheets of paper together,
and beneath it hung the seal of the signet ring which Duke George wore
(and which the landgrave knew perfectly well), with his three escutcheons ;
in the upper one the rue garland ; in the lowest, two lions. Pack allowed
the landgrave's secretary to take a copy of it, and received four thousand
gulden.1

This document contained the most alarming and hostile matter that it
was possible to conceive. It appeared therein that the Electors of Mainz
and Brandenburg, the Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, the Bishops of
Saltzburg, Wiirzburg, and Bamberg, in conjunction with King Ferdinand,
had bound themselves in the first place to fall upon the Elector of Saxony,
if he refused to deliver up Luther and his followers, and to partition his
territory : and next to attack the landgrave, and if he would not recant,
to drive him out of his country, which was then to be given to Duke
George. The city of Magdeburg was also to be reduced to subjection
to its bishop. The mode, as well as the means, of attack were accurately
determined.

The landgrave, long filled with suspicions of this kind, did not for a

1 Statement of the Landgrave, in a letter to Duke George, of the 28th June,
which Rommel (iii. 21) speaks of as lost, but which is in the Dresden archives.

Chap. II. J PACK'S PLOT, 1528 503

moment doubt the authenticity of the document laid before him ; he
hurried, with his habitual vehemence, to Weimar, in order to communi-
cate it to the elector. Even he was stunned and hurried away by the
amazing, yet precise and urgent nature of the danger ; and on the 9th of
March a treaty between the two princes was concluded, in which they
promised to raise six thousand foot and two thousand horse for their
mutual defence. They concluded that it would be better not long to
await the attack, but to anticipate it. The landgrave himself went to
Nuremberg, and thence to Anspach. It was under these circumstances
that he sent Otto Pack, whom he had now attached more closely to
his service, to the Woiwode. Warlike preparations began without delay.
The Hessian troops assembled near Herrenbreitungen ; the Saxon, in the
Thuringian forest. The whole of Germany was in motion.

The situation of things in the evangelical part of Germany was not
however such as to depend solely on the hasty spirit of this or that prince.
The theologians too, especially Luther, had a voice to give ; and the first
question was, what opinion this voice would pronounce.

Luther had as little doubt as the two princes of the genuineness of the
treaty laid before him ; but he thought it did not justify an immediate
resort to arms. Such violent measures were opposed to all his ideas of
law and morality. He therefore thought it his duty to remonstrate with
the princes on their designs, and beg them to desist from them : an accusa-
tion, he said, must first be laid against their enemies, and the answer
heard ; otherwise, violence and confusion would break out among the
princes of Germany, which, to the joy of Satan, would lay waste the
country. Of all the men who ever placed themselves at the head of a
great movement, Luther was perhaps the most averse to violence and
war. He held that self-defence was lawful, especially against princes like
those above named, who, as the equals of his master, had no sovereignty
over him ; but to be the first to take up arms and proceed to acts of
offence, — that was beyond his comprehension.1 He applied the words,
" Blessed are the meek and the peacemakers," to political affairs. " He
that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." " War," said he,
" ventures all, wins little, and is certain to lose ; but meekness loses
nothing, risks little, and wins all."

It was easy to persuade Elector John, who understood the gospel as
Luther did, and loved it with all his heart ; he had merely been hurried
away by the vehemence of his impetuous ally. He now represented to
Philip than an attack might bring dishonour on the gospel, and that they
must therefore refrain from it. The landgrave replied, that the treaty
of their enemies, sealed and sworn to by them, was equivalent to an attack ;
he represented the advantage of taking immediate and active measures
for their defence ; it would awaken many who now slumbered, and would
enable them to obtain safer terms. But the elector could no longer be
prevailed on to advance a step. He sent his son, accompanied by a
trusty councillor, named Wildenfels, to Cassel, with so decided a refusal,

1 Remarks in de Witte, iii. 316, Nos. 986, 987, but doubtless to be dated
March, and not May. For they are mentioned already in a copy of instructions
in Neudecker's Documents, p. 33, which, though undated, certainly falls in March,
since the elector says therein that he has summoned some of his friends on the
Friday after Judica (3d April), " right presently " (schirstkiinftig). •

504 PACK'S PLOT, 1528 [Book V

that the landgrave was forced at length to follow Luther's advice, and in
the first place to make the treaty known, and demand an explanation
from the princes therein named. He instantly sent it to his father-in-.
law.1

It is impossible to describe the astonishment that seized the German
courts at the appearance of the accusation founded on this document.

Duke George answered immediately, and denounced the man who
affirmed that he had seen the original of such a treaty, as a false and per-
jured villain. Elector Joachim demanded, as did Duke George, that
the name of the liar who had forged this treaty should be published, lest
people should think the landgrave himself had invented it. All the
others answered in the same manner. The landgrave saw himself
compelled to arrest his informer, and to allow him to be brought to
trial.2

We too must here discuss the question, which does not seem even yet
to be set at rest, — what was the real truth-concerning this alleged treaty ?

In the first place it is full of the grossest improbabilities. Elector
Joachim, for example, was to abandon Hessen to the duke of Saxony,
(to which, in virtue of the hereditary union of the houses, he had quite
an equal claim), stipulating to receive Beeskow and Storkow as a com-
pensation ; though these had for some years become the property of the
bishopric of Lebus.3 The Dukes of Bavaria were represented as uniting
with Ferdinand to give him possession of Hungary — the very country
which they were striving to wrest from him. The plan of the campaign,
too, was most strange ; and there is a certain ironical truth in what Pack
afterwards said, when, in order to excuse himself, he described the whole
scheme as " foolishly laid " (narrish gestettt).4.

We have also to consider the character of Pack. In the Dresden
archives there are documents concerning him, from which it is evident
that he was untrustworthy, treacherous, — in short, a thoroughly bad man.
He made use of his position at court to extort money. For example,
he borrowed from the council of Tennstadt some hundreds of gulden,
under specious pretexts, and postponed payment from term to term. In
the list of his creditors are also four other Saxon towns, Pima, Meissen,
Oschatz and Chemnitz.5

But the following story is still more discreditable to him. On one

1 Letter in the Weimar archives, undated, but of the earlier half of April, in
answer to the above-named instructions. " I will certainly see that I shortly
obtain the same (the original). But had F. L. followed my advice, and that of
others, at Weimar, and not grudged a little cost, I should have it already at this
time." It is clear that Pack from the very first demanded money. Philip
declared in a later letter to Duke George (Rommel, iii. 17), that it was only within
the last three or four weeks that he had allowed money to be offered to Pack.

2 The answers, as well as the pretended treaty itself, are to be found in Hort-
leder and Walch. In the Dresden archives there is also a copy of instructions
of Ferdinand's, in which he requests Duke George to come to the bottom of the
affair, and to make out how and where it arose.

3 Wohlbriick, Geschichte von Lebus, ii. 414.

4 Printed in the Acta concerning Doctor Otto v. Pack's examination in Cassel
in Hoffmann's collection of unprinted Reports, p. 98.

5 Missives found in Dr. Pack's house when he was arrested. Dresden Archives,
No. 7398. -

Chap. II.] PACK'S PLOT, 1528 5°5

occasion, when he went to Nuremberg on his lord's business (we find him
more than once in the character of envoy to the diet), the Bishop of Merse-
burg entrusted him with his contingent for the Council of Regency and
the imperial chamber, amounting to 103^ gulden. The diet was over, and
Pack long returned, when the bishop received a citation to pay his con-
tingent. Pack, being questioned about it, declared, without any embarrass-
ment, that he had given the money to a Nuremberg citizen of the name of
Friedemann, who had delivered it to the Council of Regency, but had
got no receipt, because some former arrears were still due. As a proof,
he subjoined Friedemann's letter and seal. Friedemann was of course
immediately called to account. What was the surprise of the council,
when the honest citizen declared he hardly knew Dr. Pack, — never had
had any dealings with him, nor received money from him : he likewise
observed that the Council of Regency would certainly have given him a
receipt for the sum which he had actually paid in, though not for the whole
debt ; that the handwriting and seal which the doctor had produced
could not possibly be his. Both these documents are in the archives ;
and, in fact, the handwriting which Pack had sent in, is totally different
from that of Friedemann. In short, Pack was already practised in
forgery, when this opportunity of making money, on a larger scale than
heretofore, presented itself. He used his skill to such a purpose, that, as
we have seen, Germany was very nearly involved in civil war. He him-
self afterwards did not persist in asserting the genuineness of the forged
documents. He abandoned the assertion that he had had in his hands
the original, authenticated by the seals of all the princes, and only affirmed
that a Bohemian secretary, named Wurisyn, had brought him a copy out
of Silesia. But even this turned out to be false. The secretary proved
that, at the time mentioned by Pack, he was not in Dresden : he was then
a fugitive from his creditors.1

A document so filled with contradictions, and proceeding from so
fraudulent and mendacious a man, must be entirely rejected. I find,
too, that the opinion that Pack had practised a cheat, was, even at the
time, very generally diffused. Melanchthon was persuaded of it the instant
he read the first examinations.2 Chancellor Briick instituted a more
searching inquiry, and came to the same conclusion.3 Landgrave Philip
more than once frankly acknowledged it. He was afterwards reproached
with having, on that occasion, undertaken much and accomplished little.
" That happened," said he, "because we felt that we were deceived. We
found that we had been falsely informed."4

Fortunate would it have been, had he yielded to this conviction sooner
than he actually did.

1 Examination of Wurisyn, in a convolute in the Dresden Archives, entitled,
Proceedings concerning the Affair between Dr. Otto Pack and Caspar Wurisyn.
I must expressly remark that, in the whole account of this affair, I do not use any-
thing that Pack confessed on the rack, as evidence.

2 To Camerarius Corp. Rep. i. 988. Alter sane odiose extorsit pecuniam nobis
valde dissuadentibus : aiSds S' 01k a-ya$ii Kexpv^"'!' ivSpl. Camerarius had very
much moderated these expressions. Dr. Bretschneider has restored them.

3 Oratio de Gregorio Pontano habati a Vito Winshemio. Declam. Melanc-
thonis, torn. V., p. 205. " Principes commenlicio fcedere moti, arma ceperunt. —
Re inquisita Pontani diUgentia exercitus dimissi sunt."

4 Third reply in Hortleder, iv. 19, No. 26, p. 567.

506 PACK'S PLOT, 1528 [Book V.

But before the falsehood of the supposed project was become perfectly
obvious, he had already fallen upon the Wurzburg territory, and threatened
Bamberg on the one side and Mainz on the other. He now demanded
that those who had caused his armament should pay the cost of it. As
no one was prepared to resist him, the bishops were compelled, in spite
of the mediation of the Palatinate and Trier, actually to pay him an
indemnity, and to accede to unfavourable terms.

Happy as the elector of Saxony was that an unjust war would be avoided,
he was fully sensible of the unpardonable nature of such violence, and of
the precipitancy which had characterized the whole affair. "It almost
consumes me," said Melanchthon, " when I reflect with what stains our
good cause is covered by it. I can only sustain myself by prayer."1

Even the landgrave was afterwards ashamed. "If it had not
happened," said he, " it would not happen now. We know no act of
our life that is more displeasing to us."2

But this did not remedy the evil, which, indeed, was followed by the
gravest and the most dangerous consequences.

The protestant chiefs had laid bold plans for availing themselves of
the complication of events in Europe, or had endeavoured to bring the
religious dissensions of Germany to an open conflict. The only result,
however, had been an outrageous breach of the public peace, which threw
an ill light on all the proceedings and designs of the religious party.

For the common sense of what was due to justice and to the empire
now naturally revolted against them.

The members of the Swabian league, to which both the landgrave and
the bishops belonged, were particularly discontented. The landgrave
sent apologetic letters, and offered to abide the legal decision of Elector
Louis. The League answered (November, 1528) that no appeal to law
was necessary ; they would adhere to the letter of their act of union. " I
would that the day of judgment burst upon us," exclaims an envoy in his
zeal, " that so we might be delivered out of this and other dangers."

Though there existed in the leaders of both parties a certain inclination
to oppose the House of Austria, and to join the European confederation
against it, we find that affairs took a totally different direction ; and that
it was in fact a mistake, a fraud, and an act of rashness, which brought
all the conflicting passions into play.

This could not, indeed, have been the case, had not the internal disso-
nances become every hour stronger and deeper.

As, on the evangelical side, institutions in harmony with the new
opinions began to be organised ; so, on the other, measures were proposed
to strengthen the tottering edifice of Catholicism.

In some places, similar means to those used by the Lutherans were

1 13th September, passim, p. 998.

2 Acts of the proceedings, legation and writings which took place under the
most serene Lord Philip, in the affairs of Miinster, Cassel, May, 1535. " As to
the bishops, a plot came before us which we and many others held to be true, and
accordingly willed to save our subjects from it ; but as we saw that we had been
too lightly informed, we paused in our designs. The money that we had given
the electors have settled with us with a good will, nor are you to regard this our
proceeding as an example, for we know no matter that more displeases us, that
we have done in all our life, than even this ; had it not happened, it would now
never happen."

Chap. II.] PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMERS 507

resorted to. In the years 1527, 1528, we find visitations of the churches
in Austria, by commissions composed of ecclesiastical and lay members
like those in Saxony, only in a contrary sense. These were appointed
in the hope of bringing about the observance of the edict of Ratisbon, and
the archducal mandates founded thereupon, by gentle means j1 but it
was soon perceived that the new opinions were already widely diffused.
Recourse was then had to punishments. On the 20th of July, 1528, it was
ordered that heretics should be punished, not as ordinary criminals, but
as malefactors of the highest order.2 On the 24th of July not only all
printers, but all vendors of sectarian books, were threatened with death
by drowning, as poisoners of the country. Edicts were published to
restore the spiritual authority which had so greatly declined.3

In Tyrol the decree of the empire of 1526 was interpreted in favour of
Catholicism ; and the government declared it would no longer be bound
by the concessions made the preceding year.

In Bavaria the main point was already gained ; and the only solicitude
of the government was, not to permit the abhorred doctrines to creep in
anew. The streets were watched, and those who attended the preachings
in the neighbourhood, were immediately seized and punished. At first
they were fined ; but as this was ascribed to the duke's avarice, he would
receive no more fines. He next caused nine men to be put to death by
fire in Landsberg, and twenty-nine by water in Munich. The name of
the unfortunate Leonhard Kasar is well known. He had come from
Wittenberg to his birthplace at Scharding, to visit his dying father ; here
he was betrayed, seized, and carried to Passau, where he was condemned,
and soon after burned.4

The Swabian league also proceeded with its executions. In 1528 the
captains of the League received orders to remove all who were suspected of
holding anabaptist opinions from the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals,
and to put them to death without the forms of trial. The council of
Nuremberg protested against this ; not indeed out of any inclination for
the anabaptists, but because they thought that, under the pretext of
hunting the wolf, the League meant to seize the sheep ; — that this was in
fact but a cover for the persecution of the followers and preachers of
the Word.

The Bishop of Constance obtained an imperial mandate, in virtue of
which all who were settled within the boundaries of his diocese were
warned to submit themselves to "his spiritual jurisdictions, bannalia,
presentations, first fruits, and other ancient usages and good customs."
The bishop proceeded with great severity against heretics. John Huglin,
of Lindau, was delivered over to the secular tribunal in Morsburg, " as
an enemy of the holy mother church," and committed to the flames.

The same thing took place on the Rhine. A preacher of Halle who
was cited to appear at Aschaffenburg, was murdered on the way back ;
a crime which was openly attributed to the chapter of Mainz.

In Cologne, Adolf Clarenbach was condemned to death ; because he
would not believe that the pope was the head of the holy church ; because
he seemed to doubt whether some things had not occasionally been estab-
lished by councils, or might be established therein, contrary to the divine

1 Bucholtz, viii. 139. 3 E.g. in Raupach, ii. Appendix, N. viii.

2 Raupach, ii. 49. * Schelhorn, in Winter, i. 258.

508 PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMERS [Book V.

word1 ; and the like. The superiority of mind, the knowledge, and the
calm courage which the accused displayed at his trial, were truly admir-
able ; and the town council of Cologne accordingly hesitated a long time
to consent to his execution. It is affirmed that they were only induced to
do so at length, by the declarations of the priests that the havoc made by
the sweating sickness in Cologne was a vengeance of God upon the city
for not punishing heretics. "Oh Cologne, Cologne!" exclaimed Claren-
bach, as he was led to the stake, " why persecutest thou God's word ?
There is a mist yet in the heavens, but by and by it will disperse."2

North Germany was no longer, indeed, the scene of these barbarous
excesses of priestly tyranny ; but Duke George still caused the poor people
who would not take the Lord's Supper because they were not allowed to
receive in both kinds, to be whipped out of the country by the beadle
and the hangman, in the most ignominious processions. In Branden-
burg, at a diet held on the day of the Visitation of the blessed Virgin,
in the year 1527, the elector and estates once more agreed to uphold the
observance of the ancient ceremonies with all their might ; to admit no
parish priest without the permission of his ordinary ; to protect the clergy
in their possessions ; and to proceed against offenders according to the
mandates of his holiness the pope and his imperial majesty.3 The country
at large, however, was not of the same way of thinking as the sovereign
and the states. The first memorable opposition which Joachim I. experi-
enced, was from his own wife, Elizabeth. She sided rather with the
Ernestine house of Saxony, from which she sprang, and with her uncle
John, than with her husband, against whom she had many other causes
of complaint ; and her physician, Ratzenberger of Brandenburg, one of
the most zealous adherents of the new doctrine, brought her acquainted
with Dr. Luther, whose books she had long admired and revered. At
last she ventured to take the Lord's Supper in both kinds, in the secrecy
of her own apartments in the palace ; but the affair did not remain con-
cealed ; the whole violence of her husband's temper was excited, and he
seemed disposed to execute the just-published mandate on his wife ; he
locked her up in her chamber, and, it is said, threatened to have her
walled up within it. She succeeded, however, in making her escape.
Disguised as a peasant, and attended by one male and one female servant,
she arrived at Torgau, where the elector of Saxony then was, in the night
of the 20th March, 1528.4 She declared to him that if she was burthen-

1 The first question asked him on the Monday after Palm Sunday, 1528.

2 Rabi Martyrerbuch, Part ii., pp. 243, 249. Here, as usual, we find in Rabus
an old, contemporaneous, and very circumstantial statement, bearing every mark
of authenticity.

3 Mandate Thursday after Annunciation, 4th July, recently given in Miiller,
Gesch. der Reform, in der Mark, p. 138.

4 Spalatin's Report in Mencken, ii. 11 16. The extracts from Seckendorfl are
not quite accurate. I also take leave to doubt the truth of the story which is
found in this book, and has been disseminated in so many histories of the Mark,
and its reformation ; namely, that it was a daughter of the electress, named
Elizabeth, who betrayed her. It is at least certain, that this princess was not a
girl of fourteen, as is said. She was born in 15 10, and was married to Erich,
Duke of Calenberg, in July, 1527. (Bunting, Braunschw, Chronik. ii. 68.) Is it
likely she was in Berlin in March, 1528 ? In the August of that year she gave
birth to her first-born son at Miinden. Her husband, who was forty years older

Chap. III.] REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND 509

some to him, or likely to bring him into any danger, she would rather go
on as far as her eyes could guide her. Elector John, however, invited her
to stay with him, and gave her Lichtenburg, where she was free to live
in entire accordance with her own pious inclinations.

Such was the state of things in Germany. What was regarded in one
part as the most perfect piety, was punished in the other as the most
horrible crime. What the one party sought to establish, the other en-
deavoured, under every condition and by every means, to extirpate.

The troubles caused by Pack are extremely characteristic of the political
re-actions arising from the spiritual struggle.

Nor were these by any means the only hostilities existing in Germany.

In consequence of the rise of the Swiss church, discords which gradually
acquired political importance, had broken out among the protestants them-
selves. We cannot advance a step further, without some examination
of the religious movement of Switzerland : one of the most important
incidents in the general progress of the reformation.

CHAPTER III.

REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.

Although Switzerland formed a distinct community, and pursued a
policy independent of the empire, it was imbued with the same moral
and intellectual spirit which prevailed in Germany, and more especially
in the North.

The efforts to throw off the domination of the priesthood which char-
acterized the century, had also, at an early period, shown themselves
here. The exemption of the clergy from the secular tribunals, and from
extraordinary taxes, — the former claimed by the Bishop of Coire, the
latter by the prelates and chapter of Thurgau, were disputed.

The literary tendencies of the German schools of poetry had also found
acceptance here. In Lucerne, St. Gall, Freiburg, Bern, Coire and Zurich,
we find similar institutions for the promotion of learning. Here, too,
arose an extensive literary public, of which Erasmus formed the active
centre from the time he settled in Basle.

Hence it happened that Luther's earliest writings excited so much
interest in Switzerland. They were first printed in a collected form in
Basle. As early as 1 520, we find " A short Poem in Praise of Luther and
in Derision of his Gainsayers," by a peasant of Thurgau. This spirit was
fostered by the students who returned from Wittenberg. The names of
those who were present when Luther burned the pope's bull are still
preserved. The doctrine spread from the plain country and the cities
into the mountains ; to the Grisons, Appenzell and Schwytz. The Admin-
istrator of Einsiedeln, one Geroldseck, was described by Zwingli as the

than herself, delighted that she had brought him a son, promised to grant her
a request. She begged for the liberation of a parish priest who had been im-
prisoned for administering the Lord's Supper in both kinds. (See Havemann
Duchess Elizabeth,' 'p. 13.) And this was the princess who a few months later
accused her own mother ! The whole story is equally improbable.

5io ZWINGLI [Book V.

father of all them that love God.1 That, notwithstanding these sym-
pathies, the movement which arose in Switzerland assumed a different
character— even as to religious questions — from that of Germany, was
mainly the result of the intellectual character and training of the man
who commenced and carried through the conflict — Ulrich Zwingli.

EARLY LIFE OF ZWINGLI.

Zwingli was born in the parish of Wildenhaus in Toggenburg, within
whose boundary the Thur rises, at a height where neither cornfields nor
fruit trees are to be seen, amidst green alpine meadows, crowned by bare
and sturdy pines.

He was born on New Year's Day, 1484, a few weeks after Luther. His
childhood fell about the time when the communes began gradually to
emancipate themselves from the most oppressive of the feudal services
due from them to the Abbot of St. Gall. This was effected chiefly under
the conduct of his father, who was the most considerable man in those
parts ; Amman of his village, and proprietor of a large tract of meadows
and upland pastures. Surrounded by numerous children, eight of whom
were sons, he lived in patriarchal dignity. It was at that time the con-
stant practice for one of a large family to devote himself to the priest-
hood : — this was the destination of Ulrich ;2 his uncle, who was the first
priest chosen by the people of Wildenhaus themselves, and who still held
that office, undertook to qualify him for holy orders.

The most remarkable trait recorded of Zwingli's youth is, his natural,
quick and clear sense of truth. He once mentioned that when he first
began to reflect on public affairs, the doubt occurred to him whether a
lie ought not to be more severely punished than stealing. " For veracity,"
added he, " is the mother and source of every virtue."

With this unperverted sense of right, which he seemed to have imbibed
from the pure air of his native mountains, he now entered the field of
literature, public life, and ecclesiastical affairs.

He studied at the schools of Basle and Bern ; thence he went to the
university of Vienna, and back again to Basle.3 It was just the dawn
of the revival of classical literature and its substitution for the scholastic
learning of the middle ages. Zwingli, like his teachers and friends,
espoused this cause, to which he steadily adhered when he became, at
a very early age, priest in Glarus (1506). He devoted all the leisure
his duties left him to study. He made some attempts at composition
in the style of the Latinists of that time ; but he never succeeded in throw-
ing his thoughts with full freedom into antique forms.4 He rather con-
tented himself with reading and studying the ancients. He was more
captivated by their matter, by their lofty feeling for the simple and the
true, than excited to imitation by their beauty of form. He thought

1 Letter to Myconius, Aug. 26, 1522. Zwinglii Opera, curantibus Melch.
Schulero et Jo. Schulthessio, torn. vii. Epp., vol. i., p. 218.

2 Properly, Huldreich — full of grace. — Trans.

3 His principal teacher in Basle was Thomas Wittenbach, himself a disciple
of Paul Scriptor of Tubingen. Gualtherus Praefatio ad priorem partem homili-
arum in Ev. Matthaei ad Josuam Wittenbachium. Misc. Tigur. iii., p. 103.

i De gestis inter Helvetios et Gallos ad Ravennam, Papiam aliisque locis
relatio. By Freher-Struve iii. 171.

Chap. III.] ZWINGLI 511

that the influences of the divine spirit had not been confined to Palestine ;
that Plato, too, had drunk from the sacred fount ; he calls Seneca a holy-
man ; above all, he reveres Pindar, who speaks of his gods in language
so divine, that some sense of the presence and power of the Deity must
have inspired him.1 He is grateful to them all ; for he has learned from '
all, and has been led by them to the truth. While occupied with such
pursuits, he took up Erasmus's edition of the New Testament in Greek,
and applied himself to it with the greatest industry. In order to make
himself thoroughly acquainted with St. Paul's epistles, he did not shrink
from the labour of transcribing them in a fair hand,2 and writing on the
margin the expositions of the fathers of the Church. Occasionally, he
was bewildered by the theological notions he had brought with him from
the university ; but he soon formed the determination to throw aside all
other considerations, and to learn God's will from His pure and simple
word. From the time he thus devoted himself exclusively to the text of
Scripture, his intellectual sight became clearer. But, at the same time
convictions extremely at variance with the established order of things
in the church, took possession of his mind. At Einsiedeln, whither he
had removed in 15 16, he said plainly to Cardinal Schiner, that popery
had no foundation in Scripture.

But it was another circumstance which gave to his labours their char-
acteristic direction. Zwingli was a republican ; reared in the perpetual
stir of a small commonwealth, a lively interest in the political business of
his country had become a second nature to him. At that time the war
with Italy set all the energies of the Confederation in motion, and raised
it to the rank of a great power in Europe. Zwingli more than once took
the field with his warlike flock. He was present at the battle of Marig-
nano. But war had brought in the evils of foreign enlistment and of
pensions. Public opinion was against them, as the disturbances which
broke out at short intervals in Lucerne, Solothurn, Bern, and Zurich
prove ; the common people would hear nothing of treaties, according
to which their sons and brothers were led to slaughter in strange lands ;
they demanded the punishment of the " German-French," the " crown-
eaters ;" in some cases the Grand Councils were actually forced to for-
swear " wages and gifts," and not unfrequently the diets published edicts
against them ; but the interests of those in power were too strongly con-
nected with these abuses for them to be given up ; a warlike youth was
always ready to enlist in foreign service, and the evil increased from day
to day. Zwingli, together with his admiration for the Latin writers,
combined that for the German popular literature (which, as we may
recollect, was full of attacks upon prevailing abuses), and as early as
1 5 10 he wrote a somewhat diffuse fable, in which he set before the Con-
federation the corrupt practices of which they were the victims : he told
them how they were vainly warned by faithful dogs against the seduc-

1 Nihil est in omni opere, quod non sit doctum, amoenum, sanctum. — Quum
aliquando Dei munere oculos recipimus eosque ad vetustissimos scriptores
attollimus, jam videntur lux et virtus in conspectum venisse. See the preface
and the conclusion which Zwingli, under the name Huldrychus Geminius, wrote
for Ceporin's edition of Pindar, 1526. Misc. Tig. iii., 207.

2 Schuler, Huldreich Zwingli, Gesch. seiner Bildung sura reformator. Notes,
p. 7.

Si2 ZWINGLI [Book V.

tions of cunning cats ; how they must inevitably lose their freedom —
freedom, that blessing which, after the example of their ancestors, they
were bound to defend with spear and battle-axe, and never to endanger
by a connection with foreigners ; those, he said, who took pensions and
gifts would bring about the destruction of their bond of brotherhood.1
In spite of this we find that Zwingli himself lay, for a time, under the
obligation of a pension from the pope. It doubtless appeared to him a
totally different thing to accept a small salary from the pope, the spiritual
head of the Confederation, and to take money from a sovereign with
whom they had no connection, like the king of France ; and accordingly
it was against the partisans of that monarch that his zeal was first directed.
In the year 1 516, we find him engaged in a warm conflict with the French
faction in Glarus, where, as in most parts of Switzerland, it was then in
the ascendant. He failed indeed, for the king had gained over the most
powerful of the inhabitants ; and he makes the bitterest complaints of
all he had to endure in consequence. At length he found himself com-
pelled to quit his parish, and to take the subordinate place of vicar at
Einsiedeln.2 This, however, led him to a more complete and consistent
development of his opinions. As the French party gradually became the
dominant one, so his resistance to it gradually grew into a struggle against
the system of pensions in general. The rise, throughout the Confedera-
tion, of alliances between families and leaders, founded chiefly upon
personal interests, he justly regarded as an event dangerous to the general
liberty. Public morals and public opinion, offended by this abuse, found
in him their most eloquent advocate. The precepts and examples of the
ancients and of the scriptures, contrasted with the prevailing moral and
religious dissolution ; and the consciousness of an honest patriotism
struggling against mercenary obsequiousness to foreign courts, raised in
him a spirit which already gave earnest of his future endeavours to reform
the whole condition, ecclesiastical and political, of his country ; it only
remained to be seen whether he could succeed in obtaining the wide field
and the commanding position which such an enterprise demanded.

These he obtained at Zurich in the year 1519.

Zurich was, if not the sole, yet the principal, town in the Confederation,
which had never allowed itself to be persuaded to accept the French
pensions. Conrad Hoffmann, a canon of the cathedral, who enjoyed
extraordinary respect, maintained the patriotic cause against foreign
service and foreign pensions ; he was eloquent, and he did not shrink
from uttering severe truths to his audience. It was chiefly through his
influence that Zwingli, in spite of much opposition, was elected secular
priest at the cathedral.3

Ulrich Zwingli here at once took up the position with regard to -these
two parties, which from that time he steadily maintained.

1 Huldrych Zwingli, the Priest's, fabulous Poem of an Ox and certain Beasts,
to be understood of the present Course of things.

2 Epistola ad Joachimum Vadianum : ex Eremo 13 Jun. 1517. Epp. i., p. 34-
Locum mutavimus Gallorum technis. Fuimus pars rerum gestarum : calami-
tates multas vel tulimus vel ferre didicimus.

3 Bullinger, Reformationsgeschichte, p. 11; " Especially because he heard,
how that he preaches violently against pensions and pensioners— against the
leagues and wars of the princes."

Chap. III.] ZWINGLI 513

His first attacks were directed against all party alliances with foreign
powers, even with the pope. He is said to have declared that Cardinal
von Sitten, who recruited for the pope, did not wear a red hat and mantle
without reason ; " if it were wrung," said he, " you would see the blood
of your nearest kindred drip from its folds." He laughed at the eagerness
with which a wolf/ that only devoured beasts was hunted, while the wolves
that destroyed men were suffered to go unmolested.

The effects of the Lutheran movement just then began to be felt in
Switzerland. No man was better prepared, or more eager, to take part
in it than Zwingli. He too had had a battle on his own ground with a
vendor of indulgences, and had succeeded in keeping him at a distance.
He wrote against the conduct of the court of Rome to Luther, and pub-
lished an apology for him, in answer to the bull.

His preaching, for which he had a singular natural gift, produced a great
effect. He attacked the prevalent abuses with uncompromising earnest-
ness. On one occasion he painted the responsibility of the clergy in such
lively colours, that several young men among his hearers instantly aban-
doned their intention of taking orders. " I felt myself," said Thomas
Plater, "as it were lifted up by the hair of the head."1 Occasionally
some individual thought the preacher aimed his remarks at him per-
sonally, which Zwingli thought it necessary to guard against : " Worthy
man," he exclaimed, " take it not to thyself ;" and then proceeded in his
discourse with a zeal which rendered him regardless of the dangers which
sometimes even threatened his life.

But his efforts were mainly directed to rendering the meaning of scrip-
ture plainer to his hearers. With the permission of the chapter, he
expounded not only the Perikopes,2 but the entire books of the scriptures
as he had studied them ;3 for he strove to catch and to communicate
the whole current and connexion of the divine thought. His doctrine
was, that religion consisted in trust in God, love of God, and innocence
of life.4 He avoided everything far-fetched or over-learned in his style ;
and his efforts to render his discourses intelligible to all, were crowned
with success. In a wide circle of hearers he laid the foundations of that
faith which stood fast in the day of the tempest, and afforded him firm
support in all his undertakings.

In daily life he was of an easy, cheerful disposition. He had learned
how to live with men, and how to deal with them, in the republic of a
village, in the camp, in the resort of strangers at Einsiedeln. He was not
free from youthful vices, sometimes of an offensive kind ; but his cor-
respondence shows how earnest were his self-reproaches and his endeavours
to amend. After a time his conduct became irreproachable.6 He laboured
to subdue ebullitions of anger, as well as those of other passions ; he drove

1 Autobiographie Platers Misc. Tig. iii. 253.

2 vepiKdircu. The passages from the Old and New Testament, selected to be read
in churches. They were first published in a distinct Lectionarium, by Pope
Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, and were adopted by Charlemagne as
the basis of the Homiliarium for his whole empire. This selection was retained
by Luther. — Trans.

3 In the second Zurich disputations he mentions it ; he began with Matthew.
i De vera et falsa Religione : Veram pietatem, quae nihil aliud est quam ex

amore timoreque Dei servata innocentia. Ed. Gualth, p. 202.

5 To Heinrich Utinger, 4th Dec, 1518. Opp. vii. Epp. i., p. 55.

33

514 ZWINGLI [Book V.

away fantastic humours by music, for he too was a great lover of music,
and a master of several instruments — an accomplishment no less common
in Toggenburg than in Thuringia.1 He loved a retired domestic life, and
his favourite food was that of his country — various preparations of milk ;
but he never refused an invitation ; he frequented the guild meetings of
the citizens, the holiday feasts of the peasants, and enlivened every
company by his cheerful spirit and pleasant discourse.2 Laborious as
he was, much . s he undertook and accomplished, he repulsed no one ;
he had the art of saying something agreeable and satisfactory to every-
body. He was well made and robust, charitable and good-humoured ;
cheerful, accessible, contented, and at the same time full of the greatest
and noblest thoughts.

If we compare him with Luther, we find that he had no such tremendous
tempests to withstand, as those which shook the most secret depths of
Luther's soul. As he had never devoted himself with equal ardour to the
established church, he had not now to break loose from it with such
violent and painful struggles. It was not the profound sense of the power
of faith and of its connexion with redemption in which Luther's efforts
originated, that made Zwingli a reformer ; he became so, chiefly because,
in the course of his study of scripture in search of truth, he found the
church and the received morality at variance with its spirit. Nor was
Zwingli trained at a university, or deeply imbued with the prevalent
doctrinal opinions. To found a high school, firmly attached to all that
was worthy of attachment, and dissenting only on certain most important
points, was not his vocation. He regarded it much more as the business
and duty of his life, to bring about the religious and moral reformation
of the republic that had adopted him, and to recall the Swiss Confederation
to the principles upon which it was originally founded. While Luther's
main object was a reform of .doctrine, which, he thought, would be neces-
sarily followed by that of life and morals, Zwingli aimed directly at the
improvement of life ; he kept mainly in view the practical significance
of scripture as a whole ; his original views were of a moral and
political nature; hence his. labours were tinged with a wholly peculiar
colour.

We must here devote a few words to the question of the priority of his
attempts at reform. It is not to be denied that, even before the year
1517, he, in common with many others, had evinced dispositions, and
expressed opinions, which tended that way. But the essential point was
the struggle with the spiritual power, and the separation from it. This
struggle Luther undertook first, and sustained alone : he first obtained
freedom of discussion for the new doctrines in a considerable German
state ; he began the work of liberation. At the time Luther was con-
demned by Rome, Zwingli was still receiving a pension from Rome.
Luther had already stood impeached before the emperor and the empire,
ere Zwingli had experienced the least attack. The whole field of his
activity was different. While in the one case, we see the highest and
most august powers of the world in agitation, in the other, it is a question
of the emancipation of a city from an episcopal power.

1 Bullinger, Reformationsgeschichte, p. 31.

2 Myconius, in Staudlin's and Tzschirner's Archiv. i. ii. : Ingenio amrenus, ore
jocundtis.

Chap. III.] SECESSION OF ZURICH 515

But this incident of the great revolution which was now going on,
has its interest ; this enterprise also demanded intelligence and energy,
and it is well worth while to devote some attention to it.

EMANCIPATION OF THE TOWN OF ZURICH FROM THE EPISCOPAL GOVERNMENT
OF CONSTANCE.

The city of Zurich, like the other cities of Switzerland, had long main-
tained a certain independence of the bishopric of Constance, to which
it belonged, mainly supported by the collegiate chapter of the cathedral.
For some years peculiar circumstances had given a remarkable extension
to the exercise of this independence.

The bishop of that time, Hugo of Hohenlandenberg, regarded with great
displeasure the traffic in indulgences which was carried on in his diocese
by the commissaries of Rome ; he had fully consented that the council
of Zurich should refuse permission to a vendor of indulgences named
Samson, who had already come as far as an inn belonging to Zurich on
the banks of the Sil, to enter their territory. Zwingli carefully preserved
the letter in which he was requested by the ecclesiastical authorities, to
oppose resistance to men bearing full powers from the Roman Curia.1
Meanwhile two political considerations induced the Curia to treat the
city with great moderation and respect.

In the year 1520 Zwingli had already secured a considerable number of
decided adherents. The town council had actually given the secular
priests and preachers in the city permission to preach according to the
divine scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and to take no notice
of any novelties in doctrine or discipline that might have been intro-
duced ;2 an order which, in fact, involved a defection from the church of
Rome. It could not be said that the affair remained unknown to the
Roman court, since two or three papal nuncios and a cardinal were present ;
but they did not venture on any opposition. Their conduct on this
occasion is very instructive, as elucidating the general policy of the church.
They promised Zwingli to raise his pension from fifty to a hundred gulden,
on condition that he desisted from preaching against the pope. Zwingli,
though in want of this addition to his income, rejected the offer. They
then made him the same offer without annexing any condition ; but even
this Zwingli would not accept.3 The nuncios, however, were more
interested in recruiting the army, with which they hoped to conquer
Milan, than in any theological question whatsoever. Although the city
was already thoroughly infected with the spirit of defection from the
church, they entered into an alliance with it. " We are not reproached

1 Antwurt Zwingli an Val. Compar. Werke ii. 1, p. 7 ; further on, the answer
to Faber, April 30, 1526.

2 " That they all and generally preach in freedom (as is also granted by the
papal laws) the holy Gospels and Epistles of the Apostles, conformably with the
word of God, and the true divine scriptures of the Old and New Testament,
and that they teach that which they receive and hold from the said scriptures,
and say nothing of other accidental innovations and rules." Answers which a
Biirgermeister, council and the grand council of the city of Zurich gave to their
confederates. Fussli Beitrage, ii., p. 237. See Bullinger, i., p. 20.

3 Uslegung und Griinde der Schhissreden, p. 359.

33—2

516 SECESSION OF ZURICH [Book V.

as heretics and apostates," says Zwingli, " but lauded with high
titles."1

The ordinary of the diocese favoured the new mode of preaching as a
means of resisting the usurpations of Rome ; the Roman see tolerated it,
in order to attain the object of its political negotiations ; and thus the
new doctrines were freely promulgated for years, and took fast root in the
public mind.

At length, however, serious attention was excited by a violation of the
discipline of the church. In March 1522, the people of Zurich broke the
fast, and ate eggs and meat. Upon this the bishop, who found himself
menaced with similar acts of insubordination, and saw his dispensations
slighted, bestirred himself ; he sent a special mission to the council of
Zurich, requiring it to maintain the established usages and ceremonies of
the church.

But it remained to be seen whether this was still possible ; whether,
at this epoch of fervent religious zeal, opinions which had undergone so
radical a change could be brought under subjection to the mere dictum
of a spiritual head.

In the conference which followed the communication made to the Grand
Council by these envoys, Zwingli maintained that many of the ceremonies
of the church were just those which St. Peter had declared to be intoler-
able. This assertion received no satisfactory answer, even from the
envoys ; indeed one of them, Wanner, preacher of the cathedral of Con-
stance, was of the same opinion in his heart.2 The Grand Council came
to a resolution, evasive in form, but very intelligible in fact, that no one
should break the fast " without notable cause ;" and requested the bishop
to obtain from the spiritual authorities, or from the learned, an explana-
tion as to the conduct to be observed with regard to the ceremonies, in
order not to offend against the precepts of Christ.3 The bishop answered
by impressing again upon the Grand Council the necessity of observing
the ordinances and good customs of the holy Church, which he believed
to be conformable with the scriptures. In a letter written with greater
freedom and animation to the chapter, he indeed admitted that some
things might have crept in which were not warranted by the holy scrip-
tures, but added that an error shared with the whole of Christendom
acquired a right to respect ; on no account ought doctrines to be accepted
which were condemned by the emperor and the pope ; those who would
not submit to the bishops, must be entirely separated from them.4

There were still some monasteries in the city which were not affected
by the first resolution of the Grand Council ; a great many persons, high
and low, still held to the ancient usages, and consequently this admonition
was not wholly without effect. The most violent opponents of the monks
were recommended to moderate their language in the pulpit or in dis-
putations.

But a circumstance purely accidental sufficed, in a short time, to produce
a contrary result.

1 Zwingli's opinion, in answer to the pope's brief. Werke, Bd. ii., Abth. ii.,

P- 393-

2 Ep. Zwinglii ad Fabricium de actis legationis. Opp. 1., p. 12.

3 Fiissli, Beitrage, ii. 15.

* His principle was, Communis error facit jus. Hjec dogmata non praedicentur,
nihil innovetur contra ecclesise ritum.

Chap. III.] FROM THE CHURCH OF ROME 517

About this time a Franciscan monk from Avignon (the same Francois
Lambert whom we had occasion to mention in treating of the synod of
Homburg) appeared in Switzerland. At an early age he had entered a
convent of very strict observance in search of peace and piety, but had
found nothing but secret vices and hateful passions.1 In this state of
things, some of Luther's works had fallen into his hands, and he deter-
mined to quit his cloister and repair to Luther himself in Wittenberg.
This monk, still habited in the garb of his order, and riding upon an ass,
now made his appearance in Zurich. His catholic orthodoxy was shaken,
but not as yet destroyed. He could not bring himself to discontinue
the ceremonies of the church, nor to give up the intercessions of the saints.
Seated at the high altar of Our Lady's minster, he held discourses to that
effect in Latin. During one of these, Zwingli called out aloud, " Brother,
thou errest !" The orthodox party hoped therefore to find an ally in
Lambert ; and as they perceived that he was learned and of ready speech,
they got up a disputation between him and Zwingli. This was held on
the 17th of July, in the refectory of the canons. But the result was very-
different from what was expected. The Franciscan was a man who loved
truth, and sincerely sought it. He soon perceived the superior weight of
his antagonist's arguments ; and was at length entirely convinced by the
passages of scripture which Zwingli placed before him. He raised his
hands, thanked God, and vowed to lay aside all litanies, and to call on
His name alone.2 He left Zurich in the same humble way as he had entered
it, and in progress of time we find him in Eisenach, in Wittenberg, at a
later period, as we said, in Homburg, and lastly, in Marburg. His attempt
to give to the German church a constitution different from that established
by Luther, is sufficient to perpetuate his memory to all succeeding
time.

This disputation produced the greatest effect in Zurich. It was held
on a Thursday. On the Monday following (the 21st of July), the council
once more called the readers of the Orders, the canons, and the secular
priests, into the provostry. Zwingli now felt himself strong enough to
open the discussion by severely censuring the sermons preached in the
convents without any warranty from scripture. The biirgermeister
renewed the proposal to both parties, to refer their differences to the
decision of the dean and chapter. But Zwingli declared that he was the
preacher, the bishop, of the city ; he had taken upon himself the cure
of souls in it with his vow ; he would not suffer that men who had in no
respect any true vocation, should preach in the convents against God's
word ; rather than that, he would mount the pulpit and publicly con-
tradict them. Already he had the whole audience on his side ; and at
length the biirgermeister declared in the name of the council, that it
was its will, that the pure word of God should be preached in the city,
and that alone.

Before this conference, preaching according to scripture was only per-
mitted, or recommended to the secular priests ; now, it was rendered
imperative even on the monks.

1 Francisci Lamberti rationes propter quas Minoritarum conversation ern
traditumque rejecit. Schelhorn, Commentatio de vita Lamberti. Amoenitat.
literariae, iii., p. 312.

2 Bernhard Weiss in Fiissli Beitragen, ii. 42.

5i8 SECESSION OF ZURICH [Book V.

If we inquire on what authority Zwingli grounded his refusal to conform
to the bishop's ordinances, we shall find that it was mainly derived from
the idea of the Commune.1 He was of opinion that all the scripture says
with regard to the church, was especially applicable to each separate com-
mune (congregation). He seems even to have assumed, that such a body,
so long as it did not attempt to introduce any new doctrines or practices,
and contented itself with hearing God's word, and deciding all contro-
versies according to that, could not fall into error.2 He regarded the
Grand Council as no less the ecclesiastical, than the political representative
of the rights of the commune. His plan of proceeding was, as he once
expressly declared, to continue to discuss each question in his sermons
till everybody was convinced ; and not till then to bring it before the
Grand Council ; after which the forms necessary to be established should
be determined on, in concert with the ministers of the church. The council,
says he, holds the supreme power as representative of the commune.3

It is manifest that this theory furnished a totally different basis for
an infant ecclesiastical society, from that on which the reformers of Ger-
many were building. In fact and practice, the difference was not, how-
ever, so great ; in Germany, the preachers united with the sovereign of
the country ; in Switzerland, with the civic authorities of the city : but
the circumstance, that the former were referred to a Recess, while the
latter already possessed the sovereignty de facto, and now exercised it in
spiritual as well as in temporal affairs, forms a very marked distinction
in theory, and one very important to the future development of the
institution.

The bishop issued a new decretal, anathematizing the doctrine, that
a christian was not bound to live according to the rules laid down by the
church ; but without the slightest avail ; since the very opinion which the
commune held to with the greatest tenacity, was that which emancipated
it from his authority.

The only real difficulty in their way, arose from the obstinacy of certain
dissentients in their own body. There were still among them men who
denounced Zwingli as a heretic.

In order to put an end to this state of things and on the ground that
the explanation which it had demanded had never been given, the council
ordained a conference of its secular priests, curates of souls, parish priests,
and preachers. This was in all respects agreeable to Zwingli's notions.
He said that God would not ask what the pope and his bishops, or what
councils and universities, had decreed, but what was contained in His

1 Gemeinde. — We have no word that expresses the double sense, ecclesiastical
and civil, of this. I have therefore been obliged to resort to the French word
Commune, which will be generally understood. — Trans.

2 Second Disputation, Liv. W. i., p. 470. " Hence it follows also that this our
convocation, which hath met together, not for the injury of certain Christians,
but to hear the word of God, cannot err ; for it undertaketh not to settle or to
unsettle, but will only hear what can be found out from certain portions of the
word of God."

3 Ante omnia multitudinem de quzestione probe docere : ita factum est ut
quicquid diacosii (the grand council) cum verbi ministris ordinarent, jam dudum
in animis fidelium ordinatum esset. Denique senatum diacosion adivimus, ut
ecclesiae totius nomine, quod usus postularet, fieri juberent. Diacosion senatus
summa est potestas ecclesiae vice. Subsidium de Eucharistia. Opp. iii. 339.

Chap. III.] FROM THE CHURCH OF ROME 519

word. The bishop, who does not yet appear to have given up all hope,
also sent some delegates, under his vicar-general Faber ; not indeed exactly
to take part in the disputation, but to be present at it, and to endeavour
to reconcile the contending parties.1 The conference, however, ended
completely in Zwingli's favour. What, indeed, could his opponents
say, after the principle had once been conceded, that the scripture, which
neither lieth nor deceiveth, was the sole rule of faith ? It is matter of
surprise that so prudent a man as Faber should venture upon such slippery
ground. He boasted that he had proved from scripture the doctrine of
the invocation of saints, to a priest infected with the heresy ; upon which
Zwingli challenged him to adduce the same proof, now, on the spot. He
failed, as might be expected, thereby affording Zwingli one of his most
signal triumphs.2 In short, even zealous adversaries then confessed —
what it is impossible to read the report of the proceedings without seeing —
that Zwingli obtained a complete victory. Hence it followed, that the
council expressly authorized him to continue in the course he had adopted,
and repeated its admonitions to the clergy, neither to practise nor to teach
anything which they could not prove from the word of God.

We must observe well the words, " practise or teach ;" they involve
an alteration of the ceremonies as well as of the preachings.

Already the change in the externals of the church was in full progress.
The clergy married ; nuns were at liberty to quit their convents, or to
remain in them : " Know, dear Master Ulrich," wrote the steward of the
convent of Cappel, to Zwingli, " we are all of one mind with our abbot, —
to accept the holy gospel and divine word, and to abide by it till death."3
Although there were still some zealous adherents of the old opinions in
the monastery attached to the cathedral, yet the resolution to reform
their body was adopted by the canons themselves, and executed in concert
with some delegates of the council. By far the greater part of the stole
fees were abolished ; and such arrangements made with regard to tithes
and other sources of revenue, that a large and excellent school was estab-
lished out of the funds. But the doubts which agitated the public mind
more than any others, were those concerning the veneration of images
and the mass, — two questions which were now daily more and more
debated. Writings against the canon of the mass already appeared, and
acts of violence had been committed upon the sacred images. The council
deemed it necessary to lay these questions before a special ecclesiastical
assembly, which was convoked in October, 1523.

It was impossible for the independent character of an association detach-
ing itself from the great hierarchical body, and assuming a constitution
of its own, to exhibit itself in a more striking light, than at this meeting.
The Bishop of Constance took good care to send no more delegates. The
aged Conrad Hofmann, formerly Zwingli's great abettor, in vain repeated
that a commune was not qualified to dispute concerning things of this

1 " Nit zu disputiren, sondern allein uffhoren, rath geben und schidliit zu seyn :"
" not to dispute, but only to listen, to give counsel, and to be peace-makers."
Faber's Warlicher Unterrichtung bei Hottinger, i. 437.

2 Proceedings of the assembly in the worshipful city of Zurich, by Hegenwaldt,
with extracts from Faber's Warlicher Unterrichtung (true account) in Zwingli''s
Works, i., p. 105.

3 Jacob Leu, the steward, to Zwingli. Epp. i. 367.

520 SECESSION OF ZURICH FROM ROME [Book V.

kind.1 Zwingli's great principle was, that the church consisted not of
pope, cardinals, bishops, and their convocations ; but of the commune,
the Kilchhori (church-hearers) : that was the church, like the first church
at Jerusalem. (Acts xv.)2 And the present meeting did, in fact, con-
sist only of the clergy of the town and country of Zurich, with a few
strangers, (as, in the example above quoted, it was remarked, there were
messengers from Antioch), who under the presidency of the burgermeister,
Marx Roust, met at the town-house, to take counsel together concerning
two of the weightiest questions that could occupy Christendom. Master
Leu (Leo Judae), secular priest of St. Peter's church, and Zwingli, laid
before the meeting the propositions, which they were prepared to defend ;
the one, that it was unlawful to use any image in the worship of God ;
the other, that the mass was not a sacrifice : they invited every man who
objected to these propositions to confute them out of scripture. One
after another rose for this purpose, but their arguments were easily
answered. Those who had the most zealously opposed the new doctrines
as heretical, were then called upon severally, by name, to prove their
words. Some did not appear ; others were silent ; others declared them-
selves at length convinced, and merely apologized for having shared the
general error. At the close of the proceedings, the Abbot of Cappel,
whom we have already mentioned, exhorted the men of Zurich now
undauntedly to espouse the cause of the gospel.3 Hereupon the priests
were commanded not to preach against the two articles which had been
triumphantly established at the conference. Zwingli drew up instruc-
tions for them, which were published by authority, and may be re-
garded as the earliest of all the symbolical books of the evangelical
churches.

Thus did Zurich sever itself from the bishopric, (and hence from the
whole system of the Latin hierarchy), and undertook to found a new form
of church government on the basis of the commune or congregation.

Though the political constitution of the city rendered it impossible
to complete the structure in exact conformity with the plan thus laid
down, it is undeniable that the inhabitants of the town and country took
a voluntary share in all the changes. No innovation was attempted to
be put in practice till the result was rendered certain by the express
approbation of the city communes ; the Grand Council did not originate
opinions, it only adopted them. Already had the clergy of the chapter
of Zurich repeated the resolutions of the city ; afterwards the several

i " I was ten or thirteen years at Heidelberg, and I went to the house of a
learned man, the same was called Dr. Joss, a good and godly man, and with him
I ate and drank oft . . . there I continually heard that it was not seemly to
dispute concerning these matters." Chunrad Hoffmanns Schriftlicher Fiirtrag
wider Zwinglis Reformation : Fiissli Beitrage, iii. 93.

2 " Ja Hong- und Kiissnacht ist eine gewissere Kirche denn alle zusammen-
gerottete Bischofe und Papste." " Yes, Hong and Kiissnacht (names of two
towns or villages) is a more certain (truer) church than all the bishops and
popes banded together." The congregation is, indeed, not properly speaking
a church, but it is an assertion of the independence of the commune. It is the
foundation-stone of the presbyterian form of church government.

3 Records of the second disputation (26, 27, 28, Wynmonats), Zwinglis Werke,
i. 539. There exists also a report of it by Johann Salat, clerk of the court at
Lucerne, It is noticed m Fiissli, Beitragen, iii. 1.

Chap. III.] THE SWISS REFORMERS 521

communes (congregations) announced their approbation of the proceedings
of the civic body, in separate acts of adhesion. The whole population
was filled with that positive spirit of protestantism which has ever since
distinguished it ; and which has, from time to time, displayed its ancient
spontaneity of action in the most remarkable manner.

RELATIONS OF THE SWISS REFORMERS TO LUTHER. CONTROVERSY CON-
CERNING THE LORD'S SUPPER.

It is clear that there was nothing in these proceedings that can justify
us in regarding them as a mere repetition of what had been passing at
Wittenberg. As the growth and development of the characters of the
two reformers, so were also the nature of the civil authority to which
they adhered, and of the oppositions they had to combat, widely different.
Essential divergencies in the direction of their ideas, and in the character
of their doctrines, also manifested themselves, in spite of the various
analogies between them.

The principal difference is, that, whereas Luther wished to retain every-
thing in the existing ecclesiastical institutions that was not at variance
with the express words of scripture, Zwingli was resolved to get rid of
everything that could not be maintained by a direct appeal to scripture.
Luther took up his station on the ground already occupied by the Latin
church : his desire was only to purify ; to put an end to the contradic-
tions between the doctrines of the church and the gospel. Zwingli, on
the other hand, thought it necessary to restore, as far as possible, the
primitive and simplest condition of the Christian church ; he aimed at
a complete revolution.

We know how far Luther was from inculcating the destruction of
images ; he merely combated the superstitions which had gathered around
them. Zwingli, on the contrary, regarded the veneration addressed to
images as sheer idolatry, and condemned their very existence. In the
Whitsuntide of 1524, the council of Zurich, in concert with him, declared
its determination of removing all images ; which it held to be a godly
work. Fortunately, the disorders which this measure excited in so
many other places, were here avoided. The three secular priests, with
twelve members of the council, one from each guild, repaired to the
churches, and caused the order to be executed under their own supervision.
The crosses disappeared from the high altars, the pictures were taken
down from the altars, the frescoes scraped off the walls, and whitewash
substituted in their stead. In the country churches the most precious
pictures were burnt, " to the praise and glory of God." Nor did the
organs fare better ; they too were connected with the abhorred super-
stition.1 The reformers would have nothing but the simple'Word. The

1 Bernhard Weiss, p. 49. Bullinger Reform. Gesch., i., p. 102. Leben
Leonis Judae Misc. Tigur. iii. 33. " Anno 24 stalt man ab die processianen der
Monchen und Pfaffen, — ordnet Leut, die iiber die Sarch (Reliquienkasten)
gingend und vergrubind die Gebein Oder Heilthum. Man taht die Orglen auss
den kilchen, das todtenlauten ward abgestellt, das wychen des Saltses Wassers
Palmen : das verrichten der Krankeen ; — hernach that man in der Stadt die
Bilder us den Kilchen und uf dem Land wo es das Mehr werden mdcht." " In the

522 CONTROVERSY CONCERNING [Book V.

same end was proposed in all the practices of the church. A new form of
baptism was drawn up, in which all the additions " which have no ground
in God's word " were omitted.1 The next step was, the alteration of the
mass. Luther had contented himself with the omission of the words
relating to the doctrine of sacrifice, and with the introduction of the
sacrament in both kinds. Zwingli established a regular love feast (Easter
1525). The communicants sat in a particular division of the benches
between the choir and the transept, the men on the right, the women on
the left ; the bread was carried about on large wooden platters, and each
broke off a bit, after which the wine was carried about in wooden cups.2
This was thought to be the nearest approach to the original institution.

We come now to a difference, the ground of which lies deeper ; and
which related not only to the application, but also to the interpretation,
of scripture, in reference to the most important of all spiritual acts.

It is well known how various were the views taken, even in the earliest
times, of this mystery ; especially from the ninth to the eleventh century,
before the doctrine of transubstantiation became universally predominant.
It is therefore no wonder if, now that its authority was shaken, new differ-
ences of opinion manifested themselves.

At the former period, they were rather of a speculative nature ; at the
latter, in conformity with the altered direction of learning, they turned
more on interpretation of scripture.

Luther had no sooner rejected the miracle of transubstantiation, than
others began to inquire whether, even independently of this, the words
by which the sacrament was instituted were not subject to another inter-
pretation.

Luther himself confesses that he had been assailed by doubts of this
kind ; but as, in all his outward and inward combats, his victorious weapon
had ever been the pure text of scripture taken in its literal sense, he now
humbly surrendered his doubts to the sound of the words, and continued
to maintain the real presence, without attempting further to define its
mode.

But all had not the same reverent submission to the literal meaning as
Luther.

Carlstadt was the first who, in the year 1524, when he was compelled
to flee from Saxony, offered a new explanation. This was indeed exegeti-
cally untenable and teven absurd, and he himself at last gave it up : in
the attempt to establish it, however, he put forth some more coherent
arguments,3 which gave a great impulse to the public mind in the direc-
tion it had already taken upon this point.

The modest (Ecolampadius of Basle, among whose friends similar notions

year 1 524 the procession of monks and priests was abolished. People were ordered
to go in search of reliquaries and dig up the bones or shrines. The organs were
taken out of the churches, the death-bell abolished, the consecration of the salt
and water and palms ; the preparation of the sick ; afterwards the pictures were
taken out of the churches in the city and in the country, wherever there were
the most of them."

1 Zwinglis Werke, II. ii., p. 230.

2 Preface ; Werke, II. ii., p. 234.

3 Dialogue of the ungodly Misuse of the Sacrament. Walch, xx. 2878. Of
the unchristian Misuse of the Lord's Bread and Cup. Ibid. 138.

Chap. III.] THE LORD'S SUPPER 523

were current, began to be ashamed that he had so long suppressed his
doubts and preached doctrines of the truth of which he was not thoroughly
convinced ; he took courage no longer to conceal his view of the sense of
the mysterious institutional words.1

The young Bullinger approached the question from another side. He
studied Berengarius's controversy, and came to the conclusion that on
this important point, — the very point afterwards established by the
reformation, — injustice had been done to that early reformer. He thought
Berengarius's interpretation might even be found in St. Augustine.2

The main thing, however, was, that Zwingli declared his opinion. In
studying the scripture after his manner, rather as a whole than in detached
passages, and not without a continual reference to classical antiquity, he
had come to the conviction that the is of the institutional words signifies
nothing more than "denotes." Already, in a letter dated June, 1523, he
declares that the true sense of the Eucharist cannot be understood, until
the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper are regarded in exactly the same
manner as the water in baptism.3 While attacking the mass, he had
already conceived the intention of restoring the Eucharist to itself, as
he expressed it.4 As Carlstadt now brought forward a very similar
interpretation, which he was unable to maintain, Zwingli thought he could
no longer remain silent. He published his exposition ; first in a printed
address to a parish priest in Reutlingen (November, 1524), then more at
length in his essay, On true and false Religion. Although he was little
satisfied with Carlstadt's explanation, he nevertheless availed himself of
some of the same arguments which that theologian had employed ; e.g.,
that the body of Christ was in heaven, and could not possibly be divided
realiter among His disciples on earth. He rested his reasoning chiefly
on the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, which was thus, as he
thought, rendered perfectly clear.

No longer ago than the autumn of 1 524, the great division of the church,
into catholic and evangelical, had been formally accomplished ; and
already an opinion was broached which was destined to work a violent
schism in the evangelical church.

Luther did not hesitate to denounce Zwingli as a wild enthusiast, with
whom he had frequently had to contend ; he disregarded the fact that the
removal of images in Zurich had been effected under the sanction of the
civil authority, and that the Swiss reformers had found a point at which
civil order might securely subsist, only a few steps further removed from
traditional usage than that to which he had himself advanced. Indeed
his notions of the affairs of Switzerland were altogether very vague and
imperfect. He began the contest with great vehemence.

This is not the place to enumerate the polemical writings exchanged, or

1 Collection of the various declarations of CEcolampadius in his life, by Hess,
p. 102.

2 Lavater vom Laben und Tod Heinrychen Bullingers, 1578, p. 8.

3 To Hans Wyttenbach, 15th June, 1523. Panem et vinum vere esse puto ac
edi etiam, sed frusta, nisi edens firmiter credat hunc solum esse animae cibum.
Omnia sunt planiora si to. (ruica <raca, i.e., ficus ficus appellaverimus, panem
dixerimus panem, vinum vinum. (Epp. i. 258.)

4 Deliberavimus usui esse futurum si missa everteretur, qua eversa spera-
vimus etiam Eucharistiam sibi restitui posse. De vera et falsa Religione,
p. 269.

524 CONTROVERSY CONCERNING [Book V.

the arguments employed, on either side. The historian may, however,
be permitted to make one remark.

It appears to me undeniable that the controversy was not to be ter-
minated by a purely exegetic process.

That the is, in the text might have a figurative sense, cannot be denied,
nor in fact does Luther attempt to deny it. He grants it in expressions
such as, Christ is a rock, a vine, &c, " because Christ cannot be a natural
rock." He only denies that the word had, or must have, a figurative
meaning in the case under discussion.1

Hence it clearly appears, that the ground of the controversy lay in
their general view of the subject.

Zwingli's chief objection to the literal interpretation is, that Christ
Himself, says, "I shall not be with you always;" thus implying that He
would not be present in the Eucharist ; and that, according to this inter-
pretation, He must be omnipresent ; whereas a local omnipresence is a
contradiction in terms. The reply of Luther, who had an instinctive
aversion to any departure from the simple, clear, and literal meaning of
words, is a general one ; — that he holds fast to the infallible Word, and
that to God nothing is impossible. But it is abundantly clear that he
would never have been satisfied with this defence, had he not felt himself
elevated above the objections of his antagonists, by the higher region
from which he contemplated the whole subject. Being harder pressed,
he at length enounced the doctrine of the union of the divine and human
natures in Christ, which he regards as far more intimate than that between
body and soul. Not even death, he says, had power to loose it ; the human
nature of Christ was raised above all natural existences, above and beyond
all created beings, by its union with the Godhead. We have here a case,
and by no means the only one, in which Luther, without being even con-
scious of it himself, reverts to opinions which were current before the
development of the hierarchical supremacy, and the organization of the
system to which it gave birth. In the ninth century, Johannes Scotus
Erigena reconciled the doctrines of the Eucharist and the two natures,
if not in exactly the same, yet in a very similar manner.2 Luther goes
on to teach that the identity of the divine and human natures is showed
forth in the mystery of the sacrament. The body of Christ is the entire
Christ, of a divine nature, exalted above all the conditions of the creature,
and hence also easily communicable in the bread. The objection,
that Christ says He would not be present always, he conclusively
answers by the remark that Christ was there speaking of His earthly
existence.

It is evident why the sort of proof adduced by Zwingli had no longer
any cogency for Luther. His own hypothesis enabled him to abide by
the strict meaning of the words, as he was fond of doing ; since they no
longer presented any contradiction. And this hypothesis, which touches
the highest mysteries of religion (though, with a reverent awe of dragging

i Greater Confession, in Walch's Collection of Luther's Works, Fart xx.,
p. 1138.

2 De divisione naturae : Neander Kirchengeschichte, iv. 472. The difference
mainly consists in this ; that Scotus assumes more decidedly the glorification of
the human nature by the divine. "Caro in virtutem translormata nullo loco
continetur."

Chap. III.] THE LORD'S SUPPER 525

the mysterious into the conflict of the day, he rarely brought it forward),
was, therefore, perfectly satisfactory to his mind.

Luther indeed here appears to us in the most characteristic light.

We have often remarked that he deviated from tradition, only so far
as he felt himself absolutely constrained to do so by the words of Christ.
To go in search of novelties, or to overthrow anything established that
was not utterly irreconcilable with scripture, were thoughts which his
soul knew not. He would have maintained the whole structure of the
Latin church, had it not been disfigured by modern additions, foreign to
its original design, and contrary to the genuine sense of the gospel : he
would have acknowledged the hierarchy itself, if it had only left him
freedom of speech ; but, as that could not be, he was compelled to take
upon himself the work of purification. He was so profoundly attached
to the traditions of the church, that it was not without the most violent
inward storms that he emancipated himself from accidental and ground-
less additions. But he held with the more unshaken tenacity to the great
mystery, in so far as it was in accordance with, and supported by, the
literal meaning of scripture.1 His mind embraced it with all its native
depth ; he was not only susceptible of the sublimest mysticism, but his
whole soul was steeped in it.

It is true, Luther fell off from the church of Rome (or rather he was
expelled from it), and wrought it more damage than any other man
whatever. But he never denied its origin. If we take a comprehensive
view of the great historical movement of opinion and doctrine throughout
the world, we shall see that Luther was the organ through which the Latin
church resumed a freer, less hierarchical form, and one more in harmony
with the original tendency of Christianity.

We must, however, admit that his views, especially of this subject,
were always somewhat individual, — not fitted to produce conviction in
all men, any more than the point from which he took those views could
be shared by all. Nor were the more profound and eminent spirits who
took an active part in the general movement of the century, by any
means so well inclined towards the church as Luther. And as the evidence
adduced by Zwingli failed to convince Luther, so Luther's hypothesis
produced no impression upon Zwingli.

Zwingli had, as we have said, none of Luther's deep and lively con-
ception of the universal Church, or of an unbroken connexion with the
doctrines of past ages. We have seen that his mind, formed in the midst
of republican institutions, was far more occupied with the idea of the ■
Commune ; and he was now intent on keeping together the communes of
Zurich by a stricter church discipline. He tried to get rid of all public
criminals ; put an end to the right of asylum, and caused loose women
and adulterers to be turned out of the city. With these views of politics
and morals, he united an unprejudiced study of the scriptures, freed from
the whole dogmatic structure that had been raised upon them. If I do
not mistake, he did, in fact, evince an acute and apt sense for their original
meaning and spirit. He regarded the Lord's Supper (as the ritual he
introduced proves) in the light of a feast of commemoration and affection.

1 E.g., Carlstadt asked, Where has Christ commanded that the elements should
be lifted up and shown to the people ? (Walch, 2876). Luther answered, Where
does Christ forbid it ? (p. 252).

526 REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND [Book V.

He held to the words of Paul ; that we are one body, because we eat of
one bread ; for, says he, everyone confesses by that act that he belongs
to the society which acknowledges Christ to be its Saviour, and in which
all Christians are one body : this is community in the blood of Christ.
He would not admit that he regarded the Eucharist as mere bread. " If,"
said he, " bread and wine, sanctified by the grace of God, are distributed,
is not the whole body of Christ, as it were, sensibly given to his followers ?"
It was a peculiar satisfaction to him that, by his view he arrived directly
at a practical result. For, he asked, how can the knowledge that we
belong to one body fail to lead to christian life and christian love ? The
unworthy sinned against the body and blood of Christ. He had the joy
of seeing that his ritual and the views he had put forth, contributed to
put an end to old and obdurate hostilities.1

Although Zwingli insists much on the supernatural element there still
was in his scheme of the Eucharist, it is clear that this was not the mystery
which had hitherto formed the central point of the worship of the catholic
church. We can easily understand the effect produced on the common
people, by the attempt to rob them of the sensible presence of Christ.
Some courage was required to resolve on such an experiment ; but when
this was actually made, the public mind was, as (Ecolampadius says,
found to be far better disposed for its reception than could have been sus-
pected. This is, however, very readily explained. People saw that they
had gone too far to retract, in their defection from the church of Rome ;
and they found a certain gratification of the feeling of independence which
that defection had generated, in rendering it as complete as possible.

Luther had, from the first moment, been treated with the greatest
harshness ; Zwingli, on the contrary, with the utmost gentleness : even
in the year 1523 he received an extremely gracious letter from Adrian VI.,
in which no allusion was made to his innovations. Yet, it is obvious that
Zwingli's opposition to the existing forms and institutions of the church,
was far more violent and irreconcileable than that of Luther. Neither
ritual nor dogma, in the forms which they had acquired in the course of
centuries, any longer made the smallest impression upon him : alterations,
in themselves innocuous, but to which abuses had clung, he rejected with
the same decision and promptitude as the abuses themselves ; he sought
to restore the earliest forms in which the principle of Christianity had
found an expression : — forms, it is true, no less than those he abolished,
and not substance ; but purer and more congenial.

Luther, notwithstanding his zeal against the pope, notwithstanding
his aversion to the secular dominion of the hierarchy, was yet, both in
doctrine and discipline, as far as it was possible, conservative, and attached
to the historical traditions of the church ; his thoughts and feelings were
profound, and profoundly impressed with the mysteries of religion. Zwingli
was much more unsparing in rejection and in alteration ; attentive to the
practical business of life ; remarkable for sobriety of mind and good sense.

Had Luther and his disciples stood alone, the principle of the reforma-
tion would probably have rapidly acquired stability ; but it would per-
haps as rapidly have lost its living, progressing power. It is difficult to
imagine Zwingli as standing alone ; but had views like his arisen without

1 Exposi io fidei, Works II., ii. 241.

Chap. III.] ANABAPTISTS IN ZURICH 527

those of Luther, the chain of the historical development of the church
would have been violently broken.

Thus it was decreed by divine Providence, if we may presume to say
so, that these two systems should make their way together. They
co-existed, each in its place ; each the offspring of a sort of internal neces-
sity ; they belonged to each other, they completed each other.

But, from the time of the establishment of the inquisition — of the
intolerant domination of a dogmatical system — so rigid an idea of ortho-
doxy had obtained in the world, that these two sections of the great party
of reform, regardless of their common antagonist, attacked each other
with furious zeal.

We shall frequently have occasion to recur to the various movements
excited by this hostility. We must now trace the progress of Zwingli on
his own ground — Zurich and Switzerland.

DEFENCE. PROPAGATION.

Although Zwingli had gone much farther than Luther, he was soon
opposed by a still more extreme party : he had to contend with the ana-
baptists.

He was called upon to form a separate congregation of true believers,
since they alone were the subjects of the promises. He replied, that it
was impossible to bring heaven upon the earth ; Christ had taught that
we were to let the tares grow together with the wheat.1

It was then demanded that he should at least invite the whole commune
of Zurich to take part in the deliberations, and not content himself
with the Grand Council, which consisted only of two hundred members.
But Zwingli feared the influence of fanatical demagogues and pretenders
to inspiration, on a larger assembly. He maintained that the commune
was adequately represented, not only politically but ecclesiastically, in
the Grand Council. The tacit assent of the commune he held to be a
perfectly sufficient sanction of the decrees of the Grand Council. This,
it was true, exercised the spiritual power, but under the condition that
it did not offend against the rules laid down in the holy scriptures in the
smallest particular ; for that had been promised to the commune by its
preachers. Zwingli adhered steadily to the idea of the Commune, though
he could not perfectly realize it ; just as, in modern times, even in countries
where the principle of the sovereignty of the people is fully admitted, the
body of the people do not, in fact, take an active part in the government.

Zwingli was determined not to suffer the newly established order of
things to be disturbed. In order to obtain some advantage from it, the
oppositionists demanded the abolition of tithes, which, they said, rested
on no divine authority whatever. Zwingli replied, that the tithes had
either already passed into the hands of third parties by civil contract,
or had been applied to the foundation of churches and schools.2 He did
not, like Luther, take his stand intrepidly on the principle of the supremacy
of the civil power ; but he was equally resolved not to allow the political
edifice which had just been constructed, to be shaken. He saw that the

1 Elenchus contra Catabaptistas. Opp. iii. 362.

2 Fiissli's Beitrage, i. 235.

S28 ANABAPTISTS IN ZURICH [Book V.

agitation must stop somewhere, unless everything was to be called in
question. He had reached a certain point, but he would not be drawn
on one step further ; and he had the general will, on which in a republic
everything depends, on his side.

At this juncture anabaptism also made its appearance in Zurich. The
rite of the second baptism is only the symbol of that doctrine which
requires perfect uniformity of opinion and genuine Christianity as the
basis of the commune (congregation). A community founded on such
ideas, however, will always apply to temporal the principle which governs
spiritual affairs ; and accordingly, we very soon find the anabaptists at
variance with the constituted authorities. When summoned before the
tribunals, they declared that they were not subject to any earthly power ;
that God was their only sovereign. They did not perhaps maintain in
so many words, that no temporal authority ought to be endured ; but
they taught that a christian could not fulfil any temporal office, or draw
the sword ; so that, according to them, Christianity did not recognise
the temporal power. They represented a community of goods as that
ideal of our condition on earth after which we ought to strive.1 As how-
ever notions of this kind had produced such fearful effects during the
revolt of the peasants, and as the Zurich anabaptists (as Zwingli affirmed
he positively knew) preached the doctrine, that it was lawful to kill, and
necessary to kill priests ; the whole force of the existing order of things,
in concert with the preachers, rose up in arms to rid the territory of them.
Some were banished, others fled ; a few of the ringleaders were drowned
without mercy.2 The new constitution of the church was firmly estab-
lished, without peril or injury to the institutions of the city or the
state.

Meanwhile, in another quarter, a still more dangerous opposition had
arisen out of political motives affecting the whole Confederation.

Zwingli had propagated his political, as well as his religious opinions
in Zurich ; he had combated the abuses of foreign enlistment and foreign
pensions with complete success : the priests were compelled solemnly to
forswear all pensions ; and in the year 1521, Zurich alone, of all the cantons,
refused to accept the French alliance. The disasters which this alliance
brought in its train, were used by Zwingli, as means of gaining others
over to his system. It is necessary to read "The Divine Warning,"
which he addressed after the battle of Bicocca, " To the oldest and right
honest Confederates at Schwyz," in order to perceive the connexion
which subsisted between his religious and his political labours. His
persuasion was, that reason and piety were blinded by secret gifts from
foreigners, and nothing but discord engendered. He urges his country-
men to lay aside selfish considerations. And if anyone asked how this
was possible, seeing that selfishness has its root in every human heart,
he answered, that care must be taken that the word of God be taught
clearly and intelligibly, and without any of the encumbrances of human

[ 1 Confessions and documents in Fiissli's Beitrage, i. 229, 249, 258,11. 263.

2 In Rodolphi Gualtheri Epistola ad Lectorem, prefixed to the second part of
the Works, 1 544, it is protested that Zwingli did not desire this. " Quod homines
vEesani, no'n jam infideles modo, verum etiam seditiosi, reipublicae turbatores,
magisjtratuum hostes, justa senatus sententia damnati sunt, num id Zwinglio
fraudi esse poterit ?"

Chap. III.] REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND 529

wisdom. For so would God gain possession of the heart. " But where
God is not in the heart of man, there is nothing but the man himself, and
he thinks of nothing but what ministers to his interests or his lusts." His
political views, and indeed all his ideas, are pervaded by that higher
morality, which is at the same time mysticism and religion. In Schwyz,
where he had a number of personal friends, his address made such an
impression, that on the 18 th May 1522, the rural communes declined the
French alliance, and admonished others to renounce it ; " all those whom
it had a right to admonish." It was quite to be expected that Schwyz,
where Geroldseck and Zwingli and Leo Juda had so long had influence,
would now follow the example of Zurich in religious affairs.

By this course, however, Zwingli necessarily created the most formidable
enemies. The leading men in the communes, who received foreign pen-
sions, and the hired captains who led the warlike youth into foreign service,
constituted factions which were not disposed to let slip their advantages
so easily ; — oligarchies which, united, governed the popular assemblies.
Zwingli himself discovered that a new nobility was as dangerous as the
old one. And in fact these governing parties were powerful enough to
induce the Schwyzers to revoke their resolution against foreign service.
The influence of Hans Hug, Schultheiss of Lucerne, chiefly contributed
to maintain the existing policy in the Wald cantons.1 At the diet of
1523 a complaint was formally laid against Zwingli, and it inevitably
followed that the hostility to his political opinions was reflected back on
his religious exertions. Indeed it is impossible to deny that they were
most intimately connected. His views on both subjects were simul-
taneous in their origin, and had thus far been prosecuted together. In
the year 1524, the diet required the Zurichers to desist from their innova-
tions. As they gave an evasive answer, the other cantons threatened
that they would no longer sit with them in diet, and would send them
back the briefs of confederation. Some dissentient opinions were indeed
expressed at the diet, and occasionally prevailed. In the year 1525 a
very remarkable resolution was passed, the purpose of which was to limit
the spiritual jurisdiction,2 after the manner of the German diets. But
those who were strongly attached to Rome would hear of no limitation
of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and, in the main, this more orthodox
opinion predominated. The prelates who, shortly before, had been in
no little jeopardy, felt the ground once more firm under their feet : they
formed the closest alliance with the oligarchs. At this point of our re-
searches, we come upon the remarkable actions of John Faber, the Vicar-
general of Constance, who at an earlier period had shared the literary
tendencies of his High German contemporaries, and encouraged Zwingli
to resist the sale of indulgencies. In 1521, however, he returned trom
Rome totally changed, and now devoted his life to the maintenance of
the ancient faith. He laboured by every means to promote the alliance
we have mentioned, and to render it effective. The conference at Baden
in May 1526, at which Eck was also present, was the expression of the

1 Zwingli's Complaint, Feb. 19, 1523, to Steiner. Epp. i., p. 275.

2 E.g., the clergy shall retain what relates to affairs of marriage, or places of
worship and sacraments, or errors of faith ; but these too shall first be laid before
the secular authorities, which shall refer them, only when they deem it necessary
to the spiritual judges. Articles in Bullinger, i. 203.

34

53Q TRIUMPH OF THE [Book V.

new understanding between the oligarchs and the spiritual power.1 With
greater confidence, and with greater probability, than ever, the orthodox
party maintained that the victory was on their side.

Yet this very conference turned out highly injurious to them.

Zwingli did not attend it, probably alarmed at the executions which
had just taken place in the see of Constance ; for example, that of Hans
Huglin : on the other hand, Bern and Basle sent two representatives of
the new doctrines, Berthold Haller and CEcolampadius, who were not
only far from conceding the victory to their opponents, but, on their
return home, excited a patriotic interest in their cause in the minds of
their fellow-citizens.2 Bern and Basle also, on their side, demanded
their share in the publication of the acts of the conference, and would
not quietly allow them to remain in the hands of the catholic majority.
A misunderstanding had already arisen between those cities and the
others, on the question of jurisdictions, and an entire division now seemed
inevitable.

But a further political crisis was necessary to bring this to an open breach.

If the new doctrine, however, had made enemies by its connexion with
politics, it had also secured friends. In all these cities a powerful demo-
cratic party in the grand councils, together with the body of the citizens,
stood opposed to the oligarchies. As the latter adhered to the spiritual
power, so the former inclined to reform. Two parties, opposed in politics
and religion, were formed, and long was the victory doubtful. There
is no question that the spirit of ecclesiastical reform, established so firmly
and so continually gaining strength among the people, mainly contributed
in the powerful canton of Bern to give the final ascendancy to the more
democratical party. The troubles concerning the conference of Baden
had the same result. At the new elections in the year 1 527, a considerable
number of the adherents of reform and adversaries of the oligarchs, entered
the Grand Council. The first consequence of this was, that the Grand
Council demanded the restitution of all its ancient rights. Twenty years
long it had acquiesced in the lesser council being composed of Vennern
and Sechzehnern :3 and it now resumed its inherent right to elect the
members of the latter body.4 After it had thus, agreeably to the con-
stitution, united in itself the entire civic power, it proceeded to the dis-
cussion of religious affairs. The mandates commanding the people to
hold fast to the ancient faith were revoked ; a disputation was held, at

1 Zwingli to Vadian, i. 485. " Istud unum caveo, ne optima plebs Helvetica
horum nebulonum, Fabri videlicet et Ecciorum, strophis committatur, id autem
OHgarcharum perfidia." 3 Kal. Apr. 1526.

2 As the song by Nicolas Manuel shows : " ain Lid in schilers Hofthon."
Griineisen, p. 409. " Egg zablet mit fiissen und henden, ling an schelken und
schenden, — er sprach ich blib by dem verstand, den Babst Cardinal Bischof hand."
" Eck strove with hand and foot, and began to scold and to abuse : — he said I
hold to the understanding (opinion) that the pope, cardinals and bishops have."
— He appears just the same in Baden as in Leipzig.

3 Local titles of magistrates. The sixteen (Sechzehnern) still exist at Bern,
though their functions are reduced to a shadow. — Trans.

i " Ad viginti annos 4 Pandareti cum 16 e civibus senatum minorem elegerunt,
ea conditione ut per eos delectos civium turma non haberet abjicere : nunc ablata
est illis potestas et concio universa civium senatum deligit." Letter from B.
Haller to Vadian in Kirchhofer's Berthold Vadian, p. 89.

Chap. III.] REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND 531

which Zwingli was present, and which ended entirely in his favour. All
his plans for Zurich were adopted in Bern. In the year 1 528, the adherents
of the old faith were turned out of both the councils. The commune
was assembled in the church ; man by man, — gentlemen, masters of
trades, and workmen, all swore allegiance to the two councils.1 The
next question, as might be expected from the twofold character of the
reform, was the system of foreign pensions, which had many advocates
in Bern, even among the evangelical party. Not without a hot contest,
and a second appeal to the opinion of the people in city and country,
were the pensions refused (24th August), and notice of the same sent to
the King of France.2

The existing government of Basle stood its ground a little longer ; it
nattered itself that it would still be able to maintain the balance between
the two confessions. Gradually, however, the evangelical communes
became aware of their superiority ; and at length, at a meeting of the
people in January 1529, only eight hundred catholics were present, to
three thousand reformers. In the following February, a violent com-
motion broke out. The first thing was to alter the constitution. The
guilds resumed their ancient independence, and acquired the perpetual
right of sending sixty of their members to the grand council. No one
was to sit in the lesser council, who was not nominated by the greater ;
all the catholics left the lesser council.3 Psalms and hymns in the German
language were immediately sung in the churches ; and on the 1st of April
a form of divine service on the pattern of that of Zurich was published,
breathing the religious earnestness and austere morality which were
among the chief internal causes of this revolution, and containing allusions
to the suppression of wanton wars.

A code determining their relations was now agreed on by the three
cities. This was in fact a treaty of alliance for the defence of the new
order of things which they had established, and into which they con-
templated the admission of all the confederate cantons, " when," as they
express it, " they shall be so far instructed in the word of God."

Of this event, indeed, there seemed to be a considerable probability.
In Glarus, Appenzell, and the Grisons, the reforming party was very
active ; in Schaffhausen the council incessantly vacillated between the
opposite tendencies ;4 in St. Gall the victory was already decided. In the
year 1528, after a change of the council of that city, the catholic cere-
monies were discontinued, and articles of a radical reformation pro-
mulgated.6 The same took place in Muhlhausen, where the secretary of

1 Stettler, ii. 6.

2 Bullinger, ii. 13. Haller calls it pecunia sanguinaria ; Hofmeister speaks
of execrabile foedus Gallicum. Manuel too was one of those who attacked the
pensions. Gruneisen, 109. Kirchhofer, 133.

3 See Ochs, Geschichte von Basel, v., p. 626 f. The dioecesium suffragio, cum
dioecesiis disponenda in CEcolampadius' Report with which Ochs (v. 653) torments
himself so much is doubtless diacosion suffragio, cum diacosiis, by which word
Zwingli, and also CEcolampadius (e.g., in his letter to Hess, p. 506) usually
denotes the Grand Council.

4 This undecided state of opinion appears clearly in the individual case of Hans
Stockar, whose journal was published in 1839.

5 Arx, Geschichte von St. Gallen, ii. 529, cursory as to the main point, circum-
stantial in the collateral and spiteful details.

34—2

532 REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND [Book V.

the city, Gamshorst, one ol the statesmen who had taken an active part
in the internal affairs of the Confederation and in its relations to the pope
and the emperor, encouraged the movement by his well-founded authority.
In the year 1528 and 1529, St. Gall, Biel, and Miihlhausen, (the latter
not without some difficulty, and only in consequence of the especial
interposition of Bern,) were received into the christian civic alliance.1

These changes, great and important as they were, originated in a single
profound thought, embracing political and religious objects. Zwingli
had resolved to purify at once the church and his country from the most
pernicious abuses of both kinds. He could not have accomplished the
ecclesiastical reform without the political, nor the political without the
ecclesiastical. Nothing short of the concurrent progress of both would
have realized his original conception. We shall see hereafter how far he
was successful.

Germany was chiefly affected by his view of the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. Butzer, and Capito, the reformers of Strasburg, had taken
part in the conference at Bern, and had long been zealous advocates for
Zwingli's system. Lindau and Memmingen soon followed Strasburg.
The same doctrine was preached by Somius in Ulm, Cellarius in Augsburg,
Blaurer in Constance, Hermann in Reutlingen, and by many others in
the towns of that part of Germany. In some indeed, the project of
attaching themselves by close and indissoluble ties to the evangelical
towns of the Swiss Confederation was talked of. And this took place
at the very moment when an evangelical church, organized according to
Luther's views, arose in so many parts of eastern Germany.

The antagonism which thus arose between the opinions and the new-
born institutions of eastern and western Germany was undoubtedly a
great misfortune. The polemical writings of that period filled all minds
with mutual antipathy.

But this reflection is by no means the only one which the course of
events is calculated to excite. The antagonism in question arose not
merely from a different apprehension of a dogma ; it lay in the very origin
of the movement on either side ; in the political and ecclesiastical con-
dition from which each party had to emancipate itself. Whether, as to
dogma, an explanation satisfactory to both parties might not still be
discovered, was as yet uncertain. But that reform in Switzerland origi-
nated in causes and sentiments native and peculiar to the country, that
it struck root in its own soil, and assumed a form and growth of its own,
was unquestionably fortunate for the world at large ; since it gave to
the general principle of the reformation fresh vigour and stability.

CHAPTER IV.

POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE YEAR 1 529.

The situation of the world was at that time as follows.

The great political relations between East and West, upon which, during
the Middle Ages, everything had depended, were unsettled. The puissant
prince in whom the warlike power of the East centred, was once more

1 Bullinger, Reformationsgeschichte, ii., p. 46.

Chap. IV.] POSITION OF THE EMPEROR 533

meditating an attack upon Christendom, from which he was justified in
anticipating success as complete as that which had attended his former
enterprises : it was not likely that the very feeble preparations for resist-
ance which had since then been made by the German powers in Hungary,
would have the effect of arresting his course. A conflict of the German
forces by land and the Roman by sea, with those of the Ottoman, seemed
imminent.

But Christendom itself was torn with divisions.

Peace was not yet restored between its two highest potentates. The
emperor had even entertained the thought of stripping the pope of all his
temporal authority ; while, on the other hand, the emperor's adversaries
had conceived a plan for deposing him, with the aid of the pope. These
projects were not yet entirely abandoned.

Nor was the military superiority of the two great powers which had so
long stood confronted in arms, more decided. From year to year the
fortunes of the house of Austria had been in the ascendant ; yet France
scorned to acquiesce in the loss of the predominant consideration she had
long enjoyed, or to renounce her possessions in Italy.

To this conflict of political interests was now added that of religious
opinions, at this moment less noisy, but pregnant with far more weighty
consequences. The authority of the Roman Church, which had ruled
the West for so many centuries, now encountered an opposition, to which
it appeared likely to succumb. Enemies had frequently arisen ; but never
before did they manifest a religious sentiment at once so energetic and so
firm ; never had their efforts been so intimately connected with the general
intellectual life, and the progress of civilization throughout Europe ;
and accordingly, never had their opinions been propagated with such
rapidity and vigour.

It had happened, moreover, that the schemes of reform had taken two
perfectly different, and even opposite directions. The one system attached
itself as closely as possible to the existing doctrine of the church, and to
the established forms of the state. The other was, from the first, blended
with projects of radical political changes, and assumed as its end the
restoration of the primitive state of Christendom. And they were directly
opposed in their views of the most important dogma.

These were not disputes about this or that measure to be taken for the
future, or about this or that interest already vested ; they were contests
concerning the interests and affairs of the deepest importance to mankind
at large ; the relations of the East and the West ; of the empire and the
papacy ; of the two preponderant powers of Europe to each other : a
contest on the one side for the permanency of the hierarchical powers,
and on the other for the introduction of new ecclesiastical forms ; and,
even with regard to the latter, a contest between those who advocated
the preservatien of all that it was possible to preserve, and those who
desired radical and sweeping changes.

As it is clear, however, that all these antagonisms, however they might
affect the world at large, chiefly concerned the German nation, and came
into collision on the German soil (for Germany had immediately to fight
out the battle with the Ottomans on the continent, to maintain its supre-
macy in Italy, and to bring the religious quarrels to a decision or to a
compromise), the whole course of affairs depended on the attitude which

534 POSITION OF THE EMPEROR [Book V.

the emperor might assume in the general shock and conflict of these
various movements.

Hitherto the fluctuating nature of events had forced him upon political
measures not always consistent with one another ; but now that the time
for decision was at hand, it was absolutely necessary to adopt a system,
and to carry it through.

The wish of the German people was, as we have already remarked, that
the emperor would place himself at the head of the resistance to the
hierarchy, and, supported by all the energy of the nation, assert the
rights of the empire, of whatever kind, and drive back the barbarians
beyond the Danube. It seems hardly possible that the emperor's inclina-
tions should not have gone with this policy. Had he not, from the
moment of his accession, spoken of a reformation of the church, and had
he not of late frequently repeated the same word ? Was not the most
violent and dangerous jealousy of his house to be found in those German
princes who had espoused the cause of the hierarchy ? It would seem
that he must necessarily have regarded an alliance with the popular
tendencies (on whose irresistible progress all his letters from Germany
dwelt) as a means of increasing his power.

But a man placed in the midst of the conflict of opposing powers and
influences of such magnitude, is seldom able to come to a perfectly free,
deliberate and unbiassed decision. I do not believe that Charles V.
ever so much as asked himself the question, which side he ought to espouse.
The German nation was not destined to attain to its further development
under the guidance of a common head. Charles V. found himself com-
pelled by his personal situation, and by the previous course of events,
to adopt a policy contrary to its wishes.

Recent experience had proved that an attempt to carry on a further
contest with the pope would involve him in perplexities of which it was
impossible to foresee the end. In the presence of this urgent necessity,
therefore, he had resolved not only upon a more conciliatory demeanour,
but on an alliance with Rome.

It is remarkable how all his foreign relations conspired to confirm him
in this resolution.

We have already observed that the honour of his house utterly forbade
him to listen to the doubt, whether the Court of Rome was warranted in
granting Henry VIII. the dispensation for his marriage, which that
monarch now declared to be null.

In the northern states, the enemies who had driven his brother-in-law
Christian into exile, manifested a strong leaning to the German notions
of reform, which indeed had nearly become predominant in Sweden. The
emperor could only restore his brother-in-law to the throne, and re-establish
the influence of the house of Austria in the north, by a union with the
various parties still attached to Catholicism.

Yet further ; the alliances which the reformed towns of Switzerland
contracted with their coreligionists and neighbours of North Germany,
caused the catholic cantons to seek a- support in the house of Austria:
they forgot their hereditary enmity to it, and in the early part of the
year 1529 concluded a formal treaty with King Ferdinand.

In the quarrel with the Woiwode and his adherents in Hungary also,
it was very important to the success of Charles's cause that the church
should acknowledge his rights.

Chap. IV.] SPANISH CATHOLICISM 535

And if the emperor cast his eyes over the German empire, he could not
fail to see that his authority had most to gain from a union with the
spiritual princes. We may remember how anxious Maximilian was to
fill the episcopal sees with men devoted to his interests, and to gain over
the body of the clergy. This became a far easier task, as soon as the
bishops, whose spiritual privileges were menaced by the current ideas of
the age, looked for protection to the imperial power. Considering the
weight which the hierarchical ingredient in the constitution of the Germanic
empire still possessed, it was, indeed, no slight advantage to have it as
an ally. I have no documentary evidence to prove that these considera-
tions presented themselves to Charles V. ; but they are certainly too
obvious to have escaped him. We all know that, at a later epoch, the
dissolution of the spiritual principalities was the signal for the overthrow
of the imperial throne. Something similar might have taken place then,
however little it might be contemplated. The imperial authority had not
firm root enough to sustain itself among merely temporal powers, even
had they not been all hereditary ; or if it did sustain itself, it could only
be by vast and continued efforts ; it was infinitely easier to turn the long-
established institutions to account. Zwingli once said truly enough, that
the empire and the papacy were so closely interwoven, that it was impos-
sible to make war upon the one without attacking the other.

The result of all these circumstances was, that the emperor's policy
was totally different from that which would have been agreeable to the
German nation. He meditated a reconciliation with the pope ; the exalta-
tion of the imperial power, but solely on the established hierarchical basis ;
resistance to the Ottomans, but entirely in the usual spirit of Latin Chris-
tendom : he had no sympathy with the German ideas of church reform, —
on the contrary, they were utterly distasteful to him, and we shall see
that he determined to extinguish them.

This is mainly to be ascribed to the fact, that he was not only emperor
of Germany, but king of Spain. He had passed the important years of
adolescence, in which a man enters definitively upon the path which he
pursues through life, in Spain, and had imbibed the opinions prevalent in
that country on some essential points.

Catholicism — which, had it really become a lifeless, unmeaning form,
must unquestionably have perished in the storms of this century — had
deep and living roots in the Roman part of Europe, and especially in Spain.

In Spain, the State, such as it existed in the middle ages, — the State,
in which the attributes of the monarchy and the priesthood were combined,
— was still in full vigour and activity.

The conflict with Islam, which had so materially contributed to the
development of this form of Church and State, was here still going on ;
the government was constantly employed in christianizing the country,
and no acts of violence tending to that end excited either reprobation or
remorse. In the year 1524, Charles got a dispensation from the oath
which bound him to tolerate the Moriscos of the crown of Aragon.1 The
victory of Pavia had inspired him with redoubled fervour ; he once used
the remarkable expression, that since God had delivered his enemies into
his hands, he was bound to convert God's enemies ;2 and he immediately

1 Pope's Brief of the 12th March, 1524. Llorente, i. 427.

2 Sandoval, i. 673, who is here generally our authority.

536 SPANISH CATHOLICISM [Book V.

set about this work in Valencia, where the Christian population was as
yet in a minority ; the Christian families being estimated at 22,000, and
the Moorish at 26,000. A sort of crusade was set on foot against the
latter ; and at last the Germans, who had followed the emperor into Spain,
were forced to march against the Moors of the Sierra Espadan. Hereupon
the mosques were transformed into churches, and tithes were collected for
the benefit of the twofold hierarchy. Of all the thousands who were
baptized, says Sandoval, there were not six whose inclinations were
changed ; but woe to him who did not prostrate himself at the sight of
the host ! The most rigorous inquisition watched over every outward
demonstration.

This might indeed be necessary. Even in 1528, a man was discovered
among the Moors of Valencia whom they secretly regarded as their king.1
His design seems to have been to make a rising on the first absence of the
emperor. He was put to death together with his whole tribe.

The colonization of America was carried on in the same spirit. The
great discoverer, on his return to Seville, was seen to take part in a pro-
cession, habited in the dress of a franciscan. Columbus thought himself
destined to propagate the christian faith in the country of the Great
Khan, which he believed he had discovered. He continually expressed
his hope of being the instrument of procuring to the crown the means of
reconquering the Holy Sepulchre.2 And we may remark in all his suc-
cessors, curiously mingled with the desire to be rich, powerful, and glorious,
the most ardent zeal for the extension of the religion of Rome.3 For the
crown, this was a sort of necessity, since it deduced all its rights from the
Roman See ; such was the official doctrine which it proclaimed to the
Indians. It transferred the entire form and character of the Latin Church,
only if possible yet more gorgeous and magnificent, to the new world.

It must not, however, be understood that all men were imbued with
these sentiments. It is a remarkable fact, for example, that Cortez did
not approve the importation of the complete hierarchy into America ;
he would have no bishops, only an active lower clergy and zealous monks ;
and occupied himself in devising means for dispensing with episcopal
ordination.4 But so strong was the attachment to the whole mass of
established usages, that even he, the conqueror and law-giver, could make
no effectual resistance to it.

Spain was, indeed, not so secluded from the rest of Europe, that the
innovating spirit and tendencies of the current literature had not pene-
trated there. Antonio de Lebrixa, for example, deserves to be placed in
the same class with Erasmus and Reuchlin. He, too, devoted his labours
to the sacred writings, and published a work under the title, " A Hundred

1 " Uno que se dize rey encubierto, que es nombre de baxa suerte, — publican,
que eran muchos con el que estaban determinados depassando el emperador de
matar a la reyna Germana y el duque de Calavria su marido e levantarse por rey
esto dicho rey encubierto.- — Han fecho morir ata 50 hombres que se dezia ser de
su lignage y tienen presos mas de ata ciento." Advertimiento de la Corte del
Emperador. Bib. du Roi, Paris. Bethune's Collection, 8531, f. no.

2 Humboldt, iii. 260.

3 Prescott, History of Ferdinand and Isabella, iii. 418, quotes a very remarkable
passage from Gonzalo di Oviedo : " "Who can doubt that powder against the
infidels is incense to the Lord ?"

4 Report of Cortez, 15th October, 1524, by Koppe, p. 487.

Chap. IV.] SPANISH CATHOLICISM 537

and Fifty Passages of the Holy Scriptures, translated in an improved
manner."1 But the Dominican Inquisition, which Germany would not
endure within its bosom, ruled in Spain with absolute sway. The grand
inquisitor, Diego Deza, bishop of Palencia, robbed the learned author of
the greater part of his book, and did not attempt to conceal that his inten-
tion in doing so was to restrain him from publishing anything in future
on that subject. Indeed it is asserted that this bishop would, if he could,
have extirpated the original language of the sacred books.2 Deza's
successor, Ximenes, was, as is well known, far from sharing these narrow
views ; he felt that depth and force of the original which no translation
can adequately convey, and ordered the text to be published in his polyglot.
But he estimated the received version of the Latin church, the vulgate,
far beyond its value. He compared the Greek and Hebrew texts, between
which the Latin was printed, to the thieves on the right hand and the
left of the Saviour.3 It is an indisputable fact, that he altered the words
of the Septuagint, and even the Greek text of the New Testament, in
accordance with the vulgate ; and adopted a passage of great importance
as dogmatic evidence, which is found in none of the manuscripts, merely
in deference to that translation.4 In short, the slightest deviation from
the established system of the Latin church would not have been tolerated.
It is a very remarkable fact, that at the epoch we are treating of, the
school philosophy rose into consideration in Spain just as it declined
throughout the rest of Europe. In the university of Salamanca, Alfonso
of Cordova proclaimed the nominalist, and, at the same moment, Fran-
cisco of Vittoria, the realist, doctrines, as something new and for the first
time to be disseminated in the country ; they wished to render it unneces-
sary for Spaniards to resort to the schools of Paris. Francisco of
Vittoria had the greatest following ; he gave a new development to the
moral philosophy of the schools. Bellarmine called him the happy father
of excellent masters ; and, indeed, the most eminent Spanish theologians
issued from his school.5 As another proof of the unaltered state of the
public mind in Spain, we may mention, that a great part of the " Roman-
cero general " owed its origin to the sixteenth century. The spirit of
the ages of priestly dominion still bore exclusive sway in the polity and
literature of the country.

1 Quinquagenae tres locorum sacras scripturae non vulgariter enarratorum.

2 " Eonus ille praesul in tota quaisticne sua nihil magis laborabat, quam ut
duarum hnguarum, ex quibus religio nostra pendet, neque ullum vestigium
relinqueretur, per quod ad diagnoscendam in rebus dubiis certitudinem pervenire
possemus." (Apologia pro se ipso. Nic. Antonii Bibl. Hisp. Nova, i., p. 138.)

3 Prologus ad lectorem. Medium autem inter has (the Hebrew and Greek
texts) Latinam beati Hieronymi translationem velut inter synagogam et orien-
talem ecclesiam posuimus : duos hinc et inde latrones, medium autem Jesum,
h. e. Romanam sive Latinam ecclesiam, collocantes.

4 Semler's Accurate Examination of the bad Execution of the Greek New
Testament, printed at Alcala, 1766. They omitted the Doxology in the 6th
Chapter of St. Matthew, which though Chrysostom had adopted that reading,
they maintained had, even in his time, been interpolated ex corruptis originalibus
(p. 117). The passage in question is, as is well known, St. John i. 5-7. In this
they adopted the criticism of St. Thomas. Salmeron too says, videtur plus fidei
tribuendum Latinis codicibus quam Gratis.

5 Nic. Antonii Bibliotheca Hisp. N. I. s. v. Franciscus.

538 SPANISH CATHOLICISM [Book V.

The natural consequence of this state of public opinion was, an intense
hostility to the aberrations, as they were deemed, of the rest of the world.
Not only were the ordinances against Luther's heresy executed with the
utmost rigour, but even Erasmus, spite of the favour he enjoyed at court,
found no mercy from monkish pedantry. Diego Lopez Zuniga, a man
familiar with both languages, made it the main object of his life to oppose
the innovations of the witty and learned Dutchman.1 During the Lent
of 1527, certain dominicans formally accused Erasmus, — or rather his
writings, for luckily he was out of their reach — of heresy, to the inquisi-
tion. A tribunal was appointed ; and ^although its members could not
immediately come to any unanimous decision, the inquisition thought
itself justified in prohibiting the " Colloquies," the " Praise of Folly,"
and the " Paraphrase of the New Testament."2

In every country there prevails a moral atmosphere, from which there
is no escape ; and we perceive that it was impossible for the young emperor,
surrounded by such influences as these, to acquire energy and independence
of mind.

The archives of Brussels contain a Spanish criticism of Luther and
OEcolampadius, written in the spirit of the church, and presented to the
emperor, to fortify him against the influences of the new opinions.3 In
this, the full right of the church to impose the punishment due to a mortal
sin is insisted upon : otherwise, it is urged, every man would follow only
his own inclination. The disputed articles of faith are then defended
in all their rigour ; marriage, confirmation, consecration, extreme unction,
are maintained to be sacraments, instituted by Christ himself. In con-
clusion, it is proved that the proper punishment for heretics is burning.

These opinions did not obtain such a complete ascendancy over the
emperor's mind as to lead him to an abject submission to the papacy ;
or to stifle his projects of purifying the church from its abuses, and of
undertaking the work of its reformation himself ; but it is unquestionable
that his residence in Spain contributed to confirm him in views of policy
with which the exclusive domination of the Latin church is intimately
connected. It strengthened his antipathy to the unauthorized innovations
of individual teachers or bodies. We shall soon witness the effects of these
sentiments.

The very first instructions he gave the imperial ambassadors who were
sent to the captive pope, contain expressions concerning the necessity of
extirpating the erring sect of the Lutherans.* In consequence of this
the pope, in the treaty of the 26th of November, 1527, promises a council,
" whereby the Church may once more be set right, and the Lutheran sect

1 He too maintained the superiority of the vulgate. " Sciendum est," says he
of John i. 5-7. " Grascorum codices apertissime esse corruptos, nostros vero
veritatem ipsam continere." Nevertheless in this very passage the vulgate is
interpolated. See Griesbach, App. 12.

2 Llorente, i. 459. Erasmi Epistolae, 989, 1032. He mentions Pedro di
Vittoria especially as his antagonist.

3 Siguense los errores de Luther y Colampadio su discipulo con la deter-
mination de l'iglesia. The several articles were discussed in succession : e.g.,
Art. 3, as above ; Art. 6, Santo es y justo commendarnos a los Santos y adorar sus
imagines. 7. La iglesia puede licitamente tener patrimonio y poseer bienes
temporales. 8. Justa pena es por los hereges, que seen quemados.

4 Bucholtz, iii. 99.

Chap. IV.] SENTIMENTS OF THE EMPEROR 539

be rooted out." In the spring of 1528, the imperial vice-chancellor,
provost Waldkirchen, repaired to Germany, with a view to reviving the
catholic spirit. As he travelled from town to town, and from one prince's
court to another, it was universally believed that his intention was to
form a league against the evangelical party.1 The exhortations of the
pope to that effect grew more and more earnest and vehement. We
possess a letter of Sanga's, dated October, 1528, in which he tells the
nuncio at the imperial court, to press the emperor in the most urgent
manner to devote himself more than heretofore to the affairs of religion :
already, he said, there were people who went further than Luther ;
already they denied the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and infant bap-
tism : — what would posterity say, when it read that, under the greatest
emperor who had governed it for centuries, Germany swarmed with
heresies ?2

Of the emperor's antipathy to them there could be no doubt. The
executions which took place in the Netherlands, where he was absolute
master, afforded sufficient proof of it. Erasmus, who knew him well,
was persuaded that he would not think himself emperor, if he did not
succeed in suppressing Lutheranism.3

And at this juncture events occurred which rendered it probable that
he would acquire the power of doing so.

We saw how warlike and menacing was the aspect of things, even so
late as the beginning of the year 1529 ; but the emperor's good fortune
frustrated the schemes, and broke the spirit, of his enemies.

The Venetians and the French still cherished the idea of conquering
Milan ; in the spring of 1529 they marched again from both sides on that
capital ; they reckoned on the exhaustion and the discontent of the citizens,
and the small number of the troops, and were resolved on an immediate
attack.

It soon became evident what Milan had lost in losing Genoa. By the
possession of that city, the emperor gained the advantage of being less
exclusively dependent on German auxiliaries than heretofore. He was
now enabled to send a few thousand men from Spain to Genoa, whence
they afterwards pushed on to Milan, which the enemy were not sufficiently
masters of the field to prevent. They were troops of the very worst
appearance, — barefoot, half-naked, squalid, and starved. But to the
emperor they were invaluable. Such as they were, they were most cor-
dially received by his commander-in-chief, Antonio Leiva. Leiva had
hitherto carried on his defence chiefly by the aid of Germans ; in September,
1528, he numbered 5,000 of that nation, and only 800 Spaniards ■* it may
easily be imagined how welcome was this reinforcement of his own country-
men, whose bravery would, he knew, be sharpened by their necessities.

The allies immediately perceived that they were not strong enough
to make a serious attack on the city. They therefore determined to
surround it at some distance, and to cut off its supplies. St. Pol even

1 Stetten, p. 308. Von der Lith, p. 217.

2 Lettere di diversi, 56.

3 Erasmi Epp., p. 963. In Hollandia mire fervet carnificina. This sounds
very differently from the remark of Le Clay, Correspondance de Maximilien et
Marguerite, ii., p. 449, in justification of Margaret.

* Letter from Leiva to the emperor. Sandoval, ii. 19.

540 ITALIAN WAR, 1529 [Book V.

indulged a hope of making some successful attempt upon Genoa, and
quitted Milan with that view.

But he thus gave his foes an opportunity of striking a great blow, such
as the Spaniards had often struck with success. Leiva's troops moved
forward in the night, without drums or trumpets, and with shirts over
their armour : he himself though suffering from the gout, would not stay-
behind ; fully armed and accoutred, even to the waving plume upon his
helmet, he caused himself to be carried on a Utter to the field. Just as
the French were breaking up their camp near Landriano, — at the moment
when St. Pol was giving orders to pull down a house, the beams of which
he wanted to force a piece of artillery out of the mud,1 they were sur-
prised by Leiva, who gained a complete victory, and led back St. Pol
and the chief officers of his army, prisoners to Milan.

This victory rendered the emperor as completely master in Lombardy
as he already was in Naples. A fresh attack upon his forces would have
required new and mighty efforts, which no one felt able or disposed to
make.

Indeed such a course was the less to be thought of, since the long-pend-
ing negotiations with the pope were brought to a conclusion, exactly at
the moment of this decisive affair in the Milanese territory.

The proposals made to the pope were, as we have remarked, of the most
advantageous nature, both as regarded German and Italian affairs, the
supreme direction of which was to be in his hands : the emperor promised
to follow his advice in every respect ; to restore to him the lands belonging
to the church ; to conclude a general peace with his mediation ; and
made many other flattering concessions. But we are not to imagine that
Clement was influenced by these alone. The proximate and determining
motive was fear. In April, 1529, he complained to Cardinal Triulzio of
the eagerness with which he was urged to conclude the treaty by the
imperial agents : he declared that he would never accede to it, were he
but strong enough to resist ; but, he added, he was surrounded on all
sides by adherents of the emperor, and might at any moment be exposed
to some fresh disaster, — he was still, in fact, no better than a prisoner ;
he saw no difference, except perhaps, that before, he could not run away,
and that now he could certainly do that : in fact, he must either escape
and abandon the states of the church to the enemy, or make the least
disadvantageous terms with them he could. He expressed all this with
so much energy, that he completely convinced the cardinal. " I know
not," says Triulzio, " what the holy father will determine upon. But
if he consents to sign the treaty, I see that it will be only because he is
forced, and dragged into it by the hair of the head."2

I will not take upon myself to maintain that this feeling exclusively
possessed the pope during the whole of these negotiations ; — he well knew
that Cardinal Triulzio, to whom he said all this, was a partisan of France :

1 The morning of the 27 th of June : in sul passar dell' Ambra, Barchi, 214.
According to Leoni the loss was caused by St. Pol disregarding the advice of the
Duke of Urbino to send on the artillery in front and to divide his other troops
into two columns, the one of which was to support the other. Vita di Francesco
Maria, 414.

2 Lettera del Cardinale Triulzio a M. Hieronymo, Roma. 9 Apr. 1529.
Bibliotheque du roi, MS. Bethune.

Chap. IV.] FLORENCE, 1529 541

but he was not so thorough a dissembler as to feign it altogether, and it
is probable that though generally suppressed, it was occasionally beyond
his control.

He was likewise influenced by considerations of his own personal interest.
His connexion with the emperor afforded him the only prospect of be-
coming master of his enemies in his native city of Florence.

For a time he had entertained the hope of attaining to this most cherished
wish of his heart by peaceful means, and with that view he kept up a
certain degree of intercourse, not direct indeed, but through friends, with
the Gonfaloniere Capponi. It seemed not improbable that the Medicean
and the republican parties would severally moderate their claims and
come to a peaceable compromise.

But at this very juncture, a contrary movement took place in
Florence.

A violent republican party, which, in spite of the entire change of
circumstances, would not give up the persuasion that it could maintain
itself as firmly as formerly, accused the Gonfaloniere of these connexions
and designs as crimes, and effected his deposition (April, 1529) ; though
he was afterwards acquitted of all real delinquency. From that time all
posts were exclusively filled by the most violent enemies of the Medici ;
the pope was spoken of with hatred and contempt, and a reconciliation
with him was out of the question. Clement VII. fell into a rage whenever
he thought of the affairs of Florence. Among other things, the story
of his illegitimate birth was brought up again ; he was declared to have
been disqualified from ascending the papal throne, and even the title of
pope was denied him.1 The English ambassador found him one day in
a state of great exasperation. Clement said he would rather be chaplain,
nay groom, to the emperor, than allow himself to be insulted by his own
disobedient subjects.2 To the feeling of the impossibility of throwing
off the yoke imposed upon him, were united revenge and ambition, which
he could satisfy in no other way than by submitting to it.

On the 29th of June, a treaty of peace was concluded at Barcelona,
between the emperor and the pope ; which was chiefly remarkable for the
pope's acquiescence in the emperor's domination in Italy, against which
he had so vehemently struggled. He renewed the infeudation for the
crown of Naples, and remitted the tribute which had always been paid
for it, retaining only the gift of the sumpter horse. He no longer positively
insisted on the maintenance of the Sforzas in Milan, but consented that
their guilt or innocence should be decided by a regular tribunal ; he was
satisfied with the emperor's declaration that he would take no steps as
to the new investiture of the duchy without the pope's consent. He
granted the imperial troops free passage through his territory, from Naples
to Tuscany or Lombardy. On the other hand, the emperor promised
to restore to the see of Rome possession of the countries wrested from it
by Venice and Ferrara (but with express reservation of the rights of the
empire), and to reinstate the Medicean family on the ducal throne of
Florence.3 The emperor formed the most intimate alliance with that

1 Varchi, Storia Fiorentina, 208. Jovius, Histories, 27, 45.

2 Casalis in Herbert, 233.

3 Tractatus Confoederationis inter Carolum V. Imperatorem Romanorum =

et Clementum, VII. Romanum Pontificem conclusus. Du Mont, iv. ii. 1,

542 PEACE OF BARCELONA [Book V.

house. He promised the hand of his natural daughter to the young
Alessandro de' Medici, on whom the lordiship of Florence was to devolve.
For so greatly had things altered, that it was now the emperor's turn to
protect the pope against the immediate influence of the League. Now,
as in the year 1521, the emperor formed an alliance with a pope of the
house of Medici. But how vast was the difference ! Leo X. might have
reasonably entertained a hope of becoming master of Milan and Genoa,
and of conquering Ferrara. Clement VII. was fain to content himself
with receiving back the States of the Church from foreign hands, and
reconquering his native city by foreign aid.

To this arrangement of Italian affairs other stipulations were appended,
though they were not all included in the treaty.

John Zapolya, who had hitherto enjoyed the favour of the apostolic
see, was now abandoned by it, and shortly afterwards visited with the
most rigorous ecclesiastical censures.1 In respect of English affairs,
Ferdinand's ambassador united his entreaties to those of the imperial
envoys. The trial had already begun there, in virtue of the commission
already issued ; but the pope pledged his word to both brothers that no
sentence should be pronounced. They, in return, promised him in the
most solemn manner, their assistance in matters of religion. In the
treaty of Barcelona the emperor declares, that he has it at heart to find
an antidote to the poisonous infection of the new opinions.2 If, however,
it should be found impossible to bring back the minds of the erring by
mild measures ; if they should refuse to hear the voice of the shepherd,
and remain stiff-necked in their errors ; " then," continues this document,
" both the emperor and the king of Hungary and Bohemia would set all
their forces in motion, and avenge the wrong offered to Christ with their
utmost power."

Such was the unexpected turn which events took. The emperor was
chiefly indebted for his victory to the sympathy in his cause, produced
in the German nation by Lutheran opinions : it was only by means of
the power which this gave him that he forced the pope to make peace.
Yet in the very treaty which he concluded with the pope, he promised him
the extirpation of these very Lutheran opinions.

These events, as the pope had foreseen, rendered it impossible for
Francis I. to avoid entertaining serious thoughts of peace, however unpalat-
able they were to him.

In the negotiations of the year 1527, the emperor had no longer demanded
the restitution of his hereditary dominions so absolutely as before ; he
had shown a disposition to accept two millions of scudi as an equivalent.
But the whole negotiation had been rendered abortive by the king's
refusal to give up Milan and Genoa, or to withdraw his troops out of
Italy.3 It appeared as if the French regarded the reconquest of Milan
as a point of duty and of honour. Chancellor du Prat declared that he
should never cease to feel the shame and dishonour that had fallen upon

1 Katona, xx. i. 551. Zapolya's Complaint respecting the Bull, from which he
saw, " S. Sanctitatem — me et incolas regni per censuras ecclesiasticas devovisse
et a capite nostro Jesu Christo, quod in ea erat, resectos declarasse."

2 Cum Cjesareae Majestati cordi sit, ut huic pestifero morbo congruum anti-
dotum praeparari possit.

3 Ce qui a ete dit en la communication tenue a Palencia, in du Mont, iv. i. 502.

Chap. IV.] NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE 543

him by the loss of that country to the crown of France, during his adminis-
tration ; could he but recover it for his sovereign, he would be content to
die the next hour.1

Nevertheless, the necessity of acquiescing in this loss had arrived.

In the first place, a continuance of the war no longer offered any pros-
pect of success. Even the king's partisans in Italy reminded him that it
would be impossible to put an army into the field before the emperor
appeared in Italy ; that Charles's alliance with the pope would make him
master in Upper as well as in Lower Italy ; Florence would not be able
to resist him ; Venice was herself in danger from the defection of Mantua,
and could think of nothing but her own safety : he would have to contend
single-handed against the emperor, who had the bravest troops in the
world, and the favour of fortune.2

The kingdom and the court, it was also urged, could no longer suffer
the French princes to remain captives in Spain, whence occasionally
unsatisfactory reports of their health arrived.

Thus, therefore, while preparations for war were going on, while hopes
of the king's arrival in person were held forth to the Italians, and an
invasion of Germany was projected ; the negotiations for peace, which
had never been definitely broken off, were resumed with fresh earnest-
ness.

It was long reported in Rome that the pope was to undertake the task
of mediation,3 and that he was to conduct affairs in person at some place
on the frontiers of France and Spain ; for example, Perpignan. To this
he seemed well inclined ; even in March, 1529, the galleys that were to
transport him were still pointed out. In the end, however, all this was
given up, and the matter fell into totally different hands.

At a considerably earlier period we find a secret emissary of Francis I.
in Spain, through whom, addressing himself immediately to his betrothed
bride, Queen Leonora, he expressed his wishes that all obstacles to their
union might be removed as quickly as possible, and placed all his affairs
with the emperor in her hands. The queen was, as may be imagined,
delighted at this message ; she declared that she had always relied on the
king's good intentions, and had therefore overlooked all that had passed.
As the envoy refused to treat with the Grand Chancellor on the ground
that he was a lover of war, — perhaps because his consideration at court
was increased by keeping those eminent men whom war would have
rendered necessary, at a distance from it, — Queen Leonora declared that

1 Bellay,_i3 Juill. 1529, MS. Maitre de Barre tells him that the expressions
which had come to the knowledge of Margaret, and also of the Emperor, pre-
vented the peace. They were these : " puisque le roi avoit perdu Milan estant
luy en administration des affaires, il aimeroit mieux la mort que de faillir a le
luy faire recouvrer : cela fait il etoit content de mourir une heure apres."

2 Ottaviano Sforza al vescovo di Lodi : Molini, ii. 210. Bgl. Instruzione di
Teodoro Triulzio, Guido Rangoni et Joachim a Mess. Mauro da Nova, Venezia,
15 Luglio, in Molini, ii. 219. " In effecto quest' impresa de tanta extrema
importantia si deve extimare, quanta possa essere da l'onore al disonore o per
meglio dirlo dal vivere al morire de la prima corona, re et regno di Christianita.

3 Hieronymus Niger to Sadolet, v. Cal. April, 1529. " Quotidie in ore habet
(pontifex) divinum consilium suum de profectione ad Caesarem et de pace publica,
quo quidem consilio si integris rebus usus fuisset, non laboraremus." Sadoleti
Epp., lib. viii., p. 323.

544 PEACE OF CAM BRAY [Book V.

the negotiation was now her business, and that she would bring it to a
conclusion alone.1

I cannot ascertain precisely the date of this mission. Suffice it to
observe, that it was an attempt to withdraw the negotiations from the
usual channel, and the regular mode of proceeding.

Duchess Louisa next addressed herself to the emperor's aunt, the
Governess of the Netherlands. Her motives were doubtless chiefly per-
sonal ; for while her grandsons were prisoners, she could not endure the
thought of the fresh campaign which she saw that her son must almost
inevitably undertake. She represented to Margaret that it more especially
devolved on them, the two oldest female relatives of the contending
princes, to endeavour to effect a reconciliation between them.2 Margaret
too was of opinion, that the animosity between the two monarchs had
been raised to such a pitch by long-protracted hostilities, by the letters
and documents that had been interchanged, and by the challenges that
had been sent, that women alone could succeed in bringing about an
accommodation.3 The emperor still thought himself bound in honour to
insist on the execution of the treaty of Madrid ; he wondered not a little
that Margaret, entirely contrary to her former character and habits,
listened to the flattering language of the duchess.4 It was no easy task
for her to change his dispositions, and indeed she afterwards took credit
for its accomplishment. At last, on the 8th of April, she received the
fullest authority to negotiate that it was possible to imagine.6 Charles V.
promised, on the word of an emperor, on his honour, and under pain of
forfeiting his private domains, to ratify any terms which she might con-
clude. It was easier for Francis I. to grant full powers. Among the
reasons why it was expedient that not the king, but his mother, should
conduct the negotiations, one of the principal was, that she had not, like
him, personally contracted engagements with the Italian powers, Milan,
Florence, or Venice.

On the 5 th July the two ladies entered Cambray from opposite sides,
and took up their abode in two houses connected by a covered way, so
that they could see and speak to one another without being observed.

The negotiations could not be very difficult, since the preliminaries
must have been agreed on before they were opened. France now actually

1 Dechiffrement d'une depesche ecrite d'Espagne, Bibl. du R. MS. Bethune,
8543, f. 182, without date, place, or signature. Perhaps of the year 1527, at all
events, of the time during which the French princes were in prison. " Elle me
demanda, si vous vouliez mettre en sa main l'affaire d'entre vous et l'empereur ;
je luy ai dit que pour cet effet m'aviez depesche vers elle. — Elle m'a dit, que la
fiance qu'elle avoit toujours eu en votre bonne voulonte envers elle, l'avoit tenue
en bonne esperance et lui avoit fait porter patiemment tout ce qui avoit passe.
Qu'elle vouloit mener cette affaire et que autre ne se meslat qu'elle, et c'estoit
son propre fait."

2 Teneur du pouvoir, donne a l'archiduchesse. DM. iv. 2, 15.

3 Her own expressions — Hormayr, Archiv., 1810, p. 108.

* Charles V. to the Sieur de Montfort, 16 Mars. Pap. d'etat de Granvelle,
i. 450. Search ought to be made for Margaret's letter which brought the matter
to a conclusion, and which must have been written about this time.

5 As " Procuratrix generalle et especialle avec plein pouvoir auctorite et
mandement especiall pour et en nom de nous pour parler — et finallement traiter
et conclure bonne ferme secure paix amitie ligue et confederation."

Chap. IV.] PEACE OF CAMBRAY 545

engaged to pay the two millions demanded ; to abandon all her claims
and connexions in Italy; and lastly, to renounce her suzerainty over
Flanders and Artois. On the other hand, Charles V. gave up some com-
paratively unimportant claims ; e.g. to Peronne and Boulogne ; and,
for the present, relinquished his scheme of conquering Burgundy.1 The
principle which then prevailed throughout Europe — that of severing
states, and, making them independent of each other — was observable
in this treaty of peace. Whilst France gave up its foreign enterprises,
its internal affairs remained untouched. Burgundy and Valois at length,
after so many bloody wars, separated. Burgundy had not indeed realized
all its pretensions, but it had gained immense advantages. It had suc-
ceeded in circumscribing the house of its rival within the limits of France.

But it was not to be imagined that everything was thus concluded.
Francis I. protested against the treaty of Cambray, as he had done against
that of Madrid. He persisted in affirming that Asti and Milan were his
inalienable inheritance, and that of his children ; that Genoa belonged to
him ; that it was impossible for a treaty wrung from him first by his own
captivity, and then by that of his children, to be binding upon him.2
When the verification of it was laid before the parliament, the procureur
general, Maitre Francois Rogier, solemnly protested against it, on the
ground that it had been brought about by the violence done to a feudal
lord by his vassal, and was therefore contrary to the fundamental laws
of the empire.3 But these protests were only the utterance of the feeling
that France yielded to force, — and very reluctantly ; they were an act
of reservation for the future, wholly insignificant for the present, and
therefore attracting no attention.

At first everyone rejoiced that peace was actually concluded. On all
the points but those in which an express alteration had been agreed on —
and these were but four — the treaty of Madrid was confirmed ; they were
now both proclaimed together, and entered in the state register. The
letter in which Duchess Louisa announces the conclusion of the treaty to
her son is very characteristic ; the safety of his person, she tells him,
resulting from the peace which God had granted them, is dearer to her
than her own life ; 4 the personal danger into which he was about to rush,
was the chief motive for her efforts. The Netherlanders were very proud
that such an act had emanated from their regent ; the French delegate
was asked at a dinner, whether people had imagined that lady capable
of such a work, and whether the French were satisfied with it ? The

1 The Emperor, however, remarks in his counter report of 1536, that he
" ursach und gewalt gehabt hatte, noch grossers und mehrers von ihm (dem
Konig) zu begeren und abzunehmen, dieweil ich damals zu wasser und zu land
sighaft von Gott und mit treffenlicher rustung gefasst und — vil sterker denner
gewesen bin." "... had at that time cause and power to demand and to take
greater and more things from him (the king) since I was then by God's grace
victorious by land and water, and prepared with excellent armaments, and much
stronger than he."

2 Protestation du Roy Franfois contre les Traites de Madrid et de Cambray.
The title of the document printed in Du Mont, in Dupuy's collection, 179.

3 Protestation du Procureur General. Du M. iv. ii. 52, nr. 39.

4 Lettre de Madame au Roi apres le traite de Cambray. Bethune, 8471.
Copie. " La seurete, Monseigneur, en la quelle je cognois votre personne par
la paix, que j'estime plus que ma propre vie."

35

546 ROME AND ENGLAND [Book V.

Frenchman replied, " that a part of the merit was due to his king ; that
on the mere word of the archduchess he had discharged 15,000 lands-
knechts, with whom he could have struck some decisive blow."1 The
pope was more delighted than anybody ; he found no words strong enough
to express his sense of the service which Duchess Louisa had rendered
to Europe. It was a peculiar satisfaction to him that the treaty con-
tained no stipulations in favour of the members of the League, of whom
he had to complain. In spite of all its provisions, he had no belief in any
long continuance of the emperor's ascendancy. The protests of the
French are quite in accordance with Clement's intimations, that as soon
as the king had his sons back again, and not till then, remedies would be
found for all the other evils.2

Nor was this the only cause of the pope's satisfaction. In the course
of the negotiations, as well as in the treaty itself, the king showed himself
no less an enemy of the religious innovations than the emperor. In the
full powers granted by Francis, he alleges as one of the grounds of his
desire for peace, his earnest wish to suppress the heresies which had arisen
in Christendom ; " that the Church might be honoured as the salvation
of souls required."3 In the 43d article of the treaty of peace, it was said,
that the emperor and the king were determined to maintain the holy see
in all its dignity and consideration, as beseemed their imperial and royal
station and power. Among the articles of the treaty of Madrid that were
confirmed, was the one in which the king promised the emperor his aid
against the heretics, no less than against the Turks. So entire a change
being thus effected in the relations of the great powers, the most important
question now was, What would be the course pursued by the king of
England, whose projects of divorce had, by a sort of reaction, so largely
contributed to the change ?

Wolsey's hope of carrying through these projects had been founded on
political combinations which now no longer existed. He thought himself
justified in the largest anticipations from the influence of the French
court on the see of Rome, and on the gratitude of the latter towards
England.

As to the pope, his real opinion was, that the king would do better
to take another wife, without any further agitation of the question, and
then to call in the Apostolic See as judge.4 This, however, the respect
for the letter of the laws, which, even in that age, distinguished England,

1 De la Pommeraye au connfctable 17 Sept. 1529. Beth. 8610.

2 Lettre de Raince, 12 Aout 1529. " Surtout ne pourroit fitre plus content
qu'il est de ce qu'il entend qu'on a eu memoire de luy, et semble qu'il ayt quelque
advis que aucuns des confederes soient aucunement (in some degree) demeures
en derriere ; que luy confirme la satisfaction en quoi il est autant ou plus que
nulle autre chose et fait bien compte, s'ils vouloient aller le chemin qui sera
requis, que delivres et retournes en France Messieurs que a tout se aura bon
remede."

3 " Pour extirper les heresies qui pullulent en la Chrestiente et que l'eglise soit
reveree honoree ainsi qu'il appartient pour le salut de nos ames." Du M. ii. iv.,
p. 16.

4 Casalis 13 Jan. Fiddes, p. 461. " Quia nullus doctor in mundo est, qui de
hac re melius decernere possit quam ipse rex ; itaque si in hoc se resolverint, ut
pontifex credit, statim committat causam (in England), aliam uxorem ducat,
litem sequatur, mittat pro legato."

Chap. IV.] DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII 547

did not permit. The king wished to have the legitimacy of the possible
issue of a second marriage fully established : he chose that the power
which had bound, should also loose him from his ties. Wolsey hoped that
the successes of the League would lead the pope to consent to this. He
repeatedly urged Francis to do as much for the dissolution of the marriage,
as the King of England had done for the restitution of the children of
France ; adding, that he had only to declare to the pope that he thought
the cause of the king of England just, and that if Rome refused Henry's
petition, he should regard it as an offence done to himself, and should
never forget it. Francis well knew the importance to himself of Wolsey 's
continuance in power ; and Wolsey reminded him that he should be ruined
if this affair were not brought to a successful issue, after the positive
assurances he had given the king.1 And, in fact, the pope himself wished
that the joint importunities of England and France had been such as
would have enabled him to excuse himself to the emperor, on the ground
of a sort of moral compulsion.2 But it does not appear that the French
thought it expedient to go so far. They had not yet abandoned the idea
of a marriage between the Princess Mary, the presumptive heiress to the
throne of England, and one of their princes.3

As Henry would not proceed in the affair without the pope, and as no
measures seemed likely to be taken for extorting Clement's consent, he
was obliged to resort to diplomatic negotiations, the progress and result
of which were, from their very nature, dependent on contingencies.

The English delegates who, in March and April, 1528, remained with
the pope, did not deceive themselves. " The difficulties and delays which
we encounter in this affair, arise," say they, " mainly from fear ; we find
everyone as well disposed as possible to forward the matter, but people
are afraid that any unusual favour granted to the king may lead to a new
captivity, provided the emperor retains his power."4 The ambassadors
again made an attempt to combat fear by fear. They one day represented
to the pope that he would lose the only prince who was really attached
to him ; " not only the King of England, but the Defender of the Faith,"
as Wolsey once expressed himself. Then would the papacy, already
nodding to its fall, be completely overthrown, to the joy of all men. The
pope was not insensible to this danger ; he walked -up and down the room
in their presence, making violent gesticulations, and it was some time

1 Bellay a Montmorency, 22 Mai, 1528 : " en la quelle (l'affaire du divorce)
s'il ne s'employoit tant et si avant, qu'il voudroit faire pour le recouvrement
des Messrs. les enfans, il pourroit etre seur d'avoir cause a mon d. Sr le legat une
totale ruine, pour les grandes asseurances qu'il en a toujours bailie a son dit
maistre."

2 D. Knight. Herbert, 218. The Pope thinketh he might by good colour
say to the emperor, that he was required by the English Ambassadeurs et M.
de Lautrech to proceed in the business.

3 Bellay mentions this motive in a despatch of the 8 th Nov. He, for his own
part, scruples to concede the point of the nullity of Catherine's marriage, because
of the use that might be made of that concession, " ou le mariage de M. d'Orleans
tireroit. Aucuns de de9a disent, que, quoique on fasse, qui espousera la princesse
sera apres roi d'Angleterre."

* Gardiner and Fox Orviet the last day of March, in Strype's Ecclesiastical
Memorials, vol. v., p. 402, that if there were anything " doon novum et gratiosum
agaynst the emperor's purpose," it should be " materia nova? captivitatis."

35—2

548 DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII [Book V.

before his excitement was calmed.1 He did, in fact, make some advances
to the English in consequence ; naming Cardinal Campeggio (who was on
the best footing with Henry VIII., and whose appointment was proposed
by the ambassadors) legate to England, and granting him authority to
declare the papal dispensation on which Henry VIII. 's marriage was
founded, operative or the contrary, and the marriage itself valid or invalid,
according to his own judgment. This he did in the beginning of June,
1528, while the affairs of the French before Naples were in the most
promising state.2 The ambassadors had also promised him to induce
the Venetians to restore his cities.3

Shortly after followed the defeat of Lautrec before Naples ; we have
seen what a complete revolution the papal policy instantly underwent in
favour of the emperor, and this now necessarily extended to the English
affair, in which Charles took so deep an interest.

On the 2d of September, Campeggio was reminded that, however strongly
his Holiness might feel himself bound to the king of England, he must
also show all possible consideration for the victorious emperor, and not
furnish him with fresh occasion for a rupture, which would not only be an
obstacle to peace, but would bring utter ruin on the States of the Church.4

In October, 1528, Campeggio came to England. However strong' were
the expressions which he used with regard to the emperor, it was very
soon evident that he had no intention of offering any serious resistance
to him. He admonished both the king and Wolsey to desist from their
project. He utterly refused to produce the bull by which Wolsey hoped
to prove to the Privy Council the pope's favourable intentions towards
the king : probably he burned it.6 He affected at every step to have
recourse to Rome for instructions. He rejected with the utmost vehe-
mence the prevalent notion that, as a marriage with a brother's widow
was forbidden in the Old Testament, this was a case in which the pope
had no dispensing power. It only remained, therefore, to prove that the
dispensation in question was not based on tenable grounds. Here, too,
however, insurmountable difficulties presented themselves, as the queen,
on whose testimony the whole matter depended, constantly affirmed
that the marriage with Prince Arthur had not been consummated. She
was a woman of so noble and dignified a character, that she was univer-

1 The same Monday in Easter week, ibid. 423. The pope also gave the French
ambassador hopes " qu'entre cy et demain prendra quelque bonne forme de
conclusion, qui pourra satisfaire au roy d'Angleterre." Raince ; Le Grand,
iii., p. 190.

2 Commission Viterbii VI. Jun. (8th June) printed in Herbert, p. 233.

3 This is evident from Casalis's letter in Burnet's History of the Reformation,
Records ii., nr. 17. The pope says to the ambassador, Vos scire volo, promissum
mihi fuisse, si legatus hie in Angliam mitteretur, futurum ut mini civitates a
Venetis restituerentur.

* Sanga to Campeggio. Viterbo, 2nd Sept. 1528. History of the Popes,

i. 126.

6 Pallavicini denies (lib. ii., c. xv.) the existence of this bull which Guicciardim
affirmed. But it is only necessary to read the above-mentioned report by Casalis
on his negotiations with the pope in Dec, 1528, in order to dispel all doubt.
S. D. N. injecta in meum brachium manu — dixit — bullam decretalem dedisse,
ut tantum regi ostenderetur concremareturque. Burnet, Records, ii. 17, p. 42-
What this bull contained we cannot of course make out, as nobody saw it but
the king and Campeggio. I am not disposed to believe Guicciardini's assertion.

Chap. IV.] DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII 549

sally believed. She also availed herself of her legal right of protesting
against her two judges, on the ground of partiality.1

During these delays, however, the pope became (especially after the
affair of Florence), more and more intimately allied with the emperor,
who declared that he regarded the interests of his aunt as his own. In
May, 1529, the English envoy expressed his fears that the commission of
the two cardinals would be formally recalled.2

This was probably the motive which led the king to open the proceedings
without further delay.

On the 31st of March, 1529, they commenced ; but on the 29th, instruc-
tions had already been sent to Campeggio from Rome, to protract them as
much as possible, and by no means to suffer judgment to be pronounced.3
These orders he punctually obeyed. The affair had not got beyond pre-
liminaries and matters of form, when, on the 28th July, Campeggio
adjourned the sittings to the 1st of October. He also claimed the holi-
days of the Roman rota for himself.

After concluding his treaty of peace with the emperor, Clement was
still in time to evoke the suit from England to the tribunals of the curia.4

On the 9th of July the pope declared to the English envoys, that he
shared the opinion common to all the Roman lawyers, that this evocation
could no longer be refused. The ambassadors used every possible means
of dissuading him from it; but he replied that he was hemmed round by
the power of the emperor, who could not only force him to do justice,
but in whose hands he himself was. " I see," said he, " the consequences
as clearly as you do ; but I am between the hammer and the anvil. If I
oblige the king, I draw down the most destructive storm on myself and on
the church."5

On the 1 8th of July peace was proclaimed in Rome between the pope
and the emperor. On the 19 th, the pope sent word to Cardinal Wolsey
that, to his great regret, he found himself compelled to evoke the cause
from England to the curia.

Wolsey had always assured his sovereign that he should be able to
carry through the affair to which, as affecting him personally, Henry
attached the greatest importance. The king now saw himself cited to
appear in person in Rome, and what particularly irritated him, under an
express pecuniary penalty.6 He thought this so offensive to his dignity,
that he did not choose to let his subjects know it.

1 Bellay, 17th Nov., 1528.

2 Gardiner 4th May, which was confirmed by divers other letters from our
agents. Herbert, p. 232.

3 Sanga al CI. Campeggio, 29 Maggio, 1529. Sua Beatitudine ricorda, che il
procedere sia lento et in modo alcuno non si venghi al guidicio. Lettre de'
principi, ii.

4 Ranke does not mention the final pretext for his evocation, which was that
Catherine declared that she held a Brief of Julius II. granting a dispensation for
her marriage with Henry VIII., even if her previous marriage with Prince Arthur
had been consummated. Clement refused to declare as to the authenticity of
this Brief, until he had heard the evidence. Cf. Pollard, Henry VII., p. 155.

6 Burnet, from the Ambassadors' despatches, p. 76.

6 " The K. Highness supposeth — that it should not be nedeful any such letters
citatorial, conteyning matier prejudicial to his persone and royal estate to be
showed to his subjects." — Gardiner to Wolsey, 4 Aug. State Papers, i., p. 336.

SSo FALL OF WOLSEY [Book V

Wolsey had also assured him that France would never desert him.
Even in May, 1529, he would not believe this possible ; he caught with
eagerness at every rumour of a new rupture between that country and the
empire, and founded fresh plans upon it. But what he refused to believe
came to pass.

Nothing remained for King Henry but to accede to the peace. His
participation in the war had of late been so slight, that the peace which
he concluded seemed but a supplement to that of France ; it has hardly
a place in English history. It was enough for the king that France
undertook to pay the money which he claimed from the emperor, out of
the above-mentioned two millions.1

But no one acquainted with the character of Henry, could for a moment
expect that he would desist from his great project, the divorce. The
desire of having a legitimate heir and successor by Anne Boleyn, was
become his ruling passion. Indeed the affair now assumed a far more
important character than heretofore.

Above all, the downfall of Wolsey had become inevitable. Already
had his anti-Austrian measures experienced opposition, not only in the
Privy Council, but in the nation. Any war with the Netherlands was
unpopular in England ; the English merchants, discontented at the
breach of the peace, had been at one time brought only by a sort of com-
pulsion to resort to the markets as theretofore. The king had been mainly
persuaded into this policy by Wolsey's assurances that the alliance would
be productive of immediate pecuniary advantage to himself. The car-
dinal often represented to the French ambassadors what arts, " what
terrible alchemy," as he expressed it, were necessary to enable him to ■
withstand his enemies.2 But all his resources were now exhausted. His
foreign policy, which had been calculated on a union between England,
France, and Rome, had completely failed. Despairing of being able to
carry through the projects which he had so zealously encouraged, it is
unquestionable that he at length advised the king to desist from them.
But he thus lost, as might be expected, the king's grace and favour ; he
irritated a considerable party, which Anne Boleyn had won over, and
particularly her father, who had been created Marquis of Rochester : old
enemies and new rose up against him ; and just then Suffolk, who during
his stay in France had shown himself little disposed to favour the car-
dinal's schemes, returned, and now openly quarrelled with him.3 Norfolk
had never been his friend.

Thus fell Wolsey. In November, 1529, he was deprived of the Great
Seal ; in December he was found guilty of having infringed the privileges
of the kingdom, by an undue exercise of his power as legate. Neither the
returning support of the French, nor (to use Norfolk's words) " the counsels
of his star-gazers," could save him.

A still more important point however was, that these affairs became

1 See Commissio ad tractandum de jocalibus recipiendis. Rymer, vi., ii. 19.
" Cum oratoribus," says Francis I., " Angliae regis, pro omnibus obligationibus
absque pignore contractis convenimus."

2 Bellay, 16th Feb., 1528, in Le Grand, Hist, du Divorce, iii., p. 84.

3 According to a letter of Bellay's of the 29th May, the king was persuaded
by the cardinal " qu'il n'a tant avance le mariage qu'il eust fait, s'il eust voulu."
Le Grand, p. 313.

Chap. IV.] PROJECTS OF THE EMPEROR 551

the subject of an angry controversy between the king and the pope. The
declaration of the former, — that he would marry Anne Boleyn, if the pope
allowed it, and if the pope did not allow it, he would still marry her, —
sounds like a jest ;* but it was the prelude to an event which changed the
history of England. Wolsey is reported to have urged the pope to ex-
communicate the king of England, because, in that case, the people
would revolt against him.2 Whether this be well-founded or not, the bare
rumour was sufficient to determine the king to put an end at once to the
possibility of such an interference with the internal affairs of his
kingdom.

To return to the emperor. It was doubtless advantageous to him that
he was for the present delivered from the hostility of England, and had
his hands free in that direction ; yet he soon expressed a doubt whether
he should not be compelled by the honour of his house, to draw his sword
again in the cause of his aunt, Henry's repudiated wife.

His letters show that he by no means calculated on the stability of peace,
when, in the summer of 1529, he made serious preparations for going
to Italy.

This design he had long seriously entertained. He seemed suddenly
conscious that the years of youth were past for him ; he felt himself a man,
and wished to take a personal share in the great concerns which had
hitherto been carried on in his name ; " to show the world," as one of his
confidential friends said, " his true self, his mind and heart, which hitherto
had been known to them alone."3 He was animated by a completely
personal and chivalrous ambition. He hoped either immediately to
bring about a peace in Italy, or to give such an impulse to the war as
would lead to its successful termination ; then to receive the imperial
crown, and to repair to Germany, whither, as he said, he was called by
his anxiety lest the greater part of the country should secede from the
church of Rome, or be overrun and conquered by the Turks.4 In reply
to a message from his brother, respecting an impending invasion of the
Turks, he sent him word that he would not only assist him, but, if possible,
take the field himself.

Had not this desire been so strong within him, he would not so easily
have entered upon a negotiation, in which he ceded to Portugal the claims
of the crown of Castile to the Moluccas, for the sum of 350,000 florins.
The Spaniards were not very well satisfied at this, but the emperor wanted
to be rid of these disputed questions, which had already led to sanguinary
quarrels in the East ;5 and, above all, he was in want of money. He was
well content that the Portuguese found means to pay him by rapid instal-
ments.

1 From a letter of the emperor to Ferdinand, 10th Jan., 1530.

2 See the extracts from a letter from Chapuis to Charles in Hormayr's Archiv.,
1810, p. 131. The Joncquim there alluded to is no other than the Genoese,
John Joachim, who is elsewhere so frequently mentioned.

3 Philibert of Orange's Instructions to Balanca, Pap. d'etat, de Granv., i. 434 :
Apres avoir veu le tant grand desir quy (l'empereur) montre, de se trouver en
quelque lieu pour donner a cognoistre a tout le monde ce que preca nous aultres
ses serviteurs avons cogneu, qu'est d'avoir le coeur tel quil a.

4 Sandoval, ii., p. 25.

5 Herrera Historia de las Indias, Dec. iv., lib. v., p. 117.

552 DIET OF SPIRES [Book V.

He now turned a deaf ear to all opposition. He said he could not be
satisfied with himself till he had taken this journey.1

On the 27th of July, 1529, the emperor took ship at Barcelona, and on
the 12th of August, landed at Genoa.

In all the plenitude of a power, not (like that of the emperors of old)
composed of German elements alone, but formed of a wonderful combina-
tion of the south and the north, Charles now appeared on the Italian
frontiers of the ancient empire. In his retinue we find all the glorious
names of Castilian history ; Mendoza, Guzman, Pacheco, Manrique,
Zuniga, Toledo, Cueva, Rojas, Ponce de Leon ; every great house had sent
a representative, and the most brilliant among them all was Alvarez
Ossorio, Marquis of Astorga. They were joined by Navarrese, Catalans,
and Aragonese. He also brought fresh troops from Malaga to reinforce
those in Milan and Naples. The imperial power, personified in the emperor,
acquired a romantic and highly catholic character, from the new elements
combined with it. It was only necessary to look at this court, in order

Let us next observe how, meanwhile, matters had gone on in Germany,
confidently to predict its intentions.

CHAPTER V.

DIET OF SPIRES, A.D. 1 529.

We have seen how great was the influence of political affairs on the rise
and progress of religious reform. Had it not been for the divisions existing
between the two highest powers of Europe, the decisive resolutions of
the diet of 1526 would never have passed.

Since that time, however, no further proceedings of practical importance
had taken place in the empire.

The mission to the emperor, which was then resolved on, was withheld
under frivolous pretences. The Saxon party confidently maintained that
this was solely the effect of the secret intrigues of the spiritual Estates,
who seemed to fear that the growing differences between the emperor
and the pope might lead the former to decide in a manner disadvantageous
to them.

A congress of the princes of the empire held at Esslingen, in December,
1526, had no other object than the defence of the country against the
Ottomans ; the resolutions which it passed were neither important in
themselves, nor productive of the slightest results.

In May, 1527, a diet was convoked at Ratisbon ; but it was so ill
attended that those present did not even consider themselves authorized
to deliberate upon matters which had been expressly referred to them ;
e.g. the affair of the deputation to the emperor above-mentioned. They
passed a resolution " to undertake no business whatever."2

In March, 1528, a new diet was appointed to be held at Ratisbon;

1 L'empereur au Sieur de Montfort. Pap. d'etat, i., p. 415. When difficulties
occurred, he said, " que je n'estois en fasson du monde delibere de lasser de faire
ce voyage, et que je ne me pouvois satisfayre de moi-mesme si je ne le faisois."

2 I remark that the extract from this recess in Haberlin (xi. 46) does not
precisely correspond with the original (Reichsabschiede, ii. 185).

CflAP. V.] THE EMPIRE, 1527, 1528 553

but the pope's adherents were still not without apprehensions as to the
probable decisions of the assembled States ; affairs in general were indeed
still too uncertain to enable them to form any settled opinions themselves.
In the first place, King Ferdinand postponed the opening of the meeting
from March till May j1 then an edict of the emperor's appeared, which
peremptorily forbade it, without assigning any satisfactory reasons ;
only, to quote the words of the edict, from " notable grounds and causes."2
We find from records of the papal court, that " no good conclusion " was
anticipated there.3

But the more weighty matters of foreign policy were now decided,
and a complete change in the internal affairs of Germany was inevitable.

The emperor's sentiments were learned, from a distance indeed, but
quite unequivocally. We have already alluded to the proceedings of
his vice-chancellor, Waldkirch. He declared to the people of Augsburg,
in the plainest manner, that the emperor was displeased with them because
they had introduced changes in religion. In Strasburg he threatened
the nobles who sat in the council with loss of life, if they did not oppose
the abolition of the mass.4 The impression he made, and the hopes
excited by the renewed connexion with the imperial court, may be inferred
from this, among other circumstances ; — the Chapter of Constance, which
shortly before had been compelled to yield to the force of the new opinions,
and to emigrate to Ueberlingen, now chose him, the vice-chancellor, as
coadjutor.

The peace concluded by the emperor with the pope was of immense
advantage to the bishops, as it not only reconciled, but united, the two
supreme powers. The clergy could now once more reckon on strenuous .
and efficient support.

This was the more welcome at a moment when they all felt the dangers
by which they were threatened by the progress of reform in Switzerland.
We discover from numerous publications expressive of their opinions,
what anxiety Zwingli's departure from the established doctrine concerning
the Lord's Supper excited in all quarters ; it was feared that the Oberland
cities, infected with the new heresy, would separate themselves from the
empire.5

Nor can we deny that the violent courses into which the landgrave
had suffered himself to be led by Pack's forgeries, had exercised a very
unfavourable influence on the cause of the reformation. They had con-
firmed the Swabian league in its anti-evangelical system ; and it now
excluded the Memmingen delegates from its council, because Memmingen
had abolished the service of the mass, and embraced Zwingli's opinions.

In his brief of October, 1528, to which we have alluded, the pope had
solemnly called upon the emperor to take up the cause of religion at the

1 Neudecker Actenstiicke, i. 26.

2 Proclamation in the Frankfurt Acts of the 10th April, which, however,
reached Germany in time.

3 Sanga a Castiglione, Lettre di diversi autori, p. 56. Prudentemente penso,
poter facilmente essere che ne succedesse qualche non buona determinatione.

4 Rohrich Gesch. der Reform im Elsass I. 360.

6 Es weisst der gmein Man nitt glich, ob er sy Schwytz oder ghor zum Rych.
The common people do not rightly know whether they are Swiss, or belong to
the empire. (Lied gegen Constanz, Vierordt, p. 34).

554 PROCEEDINGS OF [Book .V.

approaching diet, with greater earnestness than heretofore : immediate
care must, he said, be taken that at least the evil be not suffered to spread.
One effect of this was that, on the last day of November, the convocation
of a new diet, to be holden at Spires on the 21st of February, 1529, was
issued. The States were apprised that no notice would be taken of the
absent, and that those who were present would proceed to business in
the same manner as if the assembly were complete.1 The subjects
specially announced for deliberation were, the armament against the
Turks, the violations of the public peace, and, above all, the religious
innovations.

This time the announcement of a diet was serious and sincere ; the
imperial commissioners made their appearance at the time appointed ;
the ecclesiastical princes came in greater number than usual, and those
who did not come, sent the most zealous of their ministers in their stead.2
The Bishop of Constance, for example, was represented by the same Faber
who, as we saw, took an active part in the political and religious troubles
of Switzerland. He had seen Erasmus on his way, and expressed himself
in such terms, that the latter expected nothing but war and violence.3
The catholic principle had also gained new adherents among the secular
princes. Duke Henry of Mecklenburg, who had hitherto been reckoned
among the evangelical party, now entirely concurred with his son Magnus,
Bishop of Schwerin, — one of the most violent opponents of change. The
Elector Palatine, who had almost formally joined the reformers, forbade
his people to attend the preachings. It was thought that he had been
persuaded to take this course by his brother, the Count Palatine Frederick,
who had once more conceived hopes of obtaining the hand of an Austrian
princess. " The Palatinate," says a letter from Spires, " will have nothing
more to do with Saxony."

Under 'these circumstances, surrounded by opinions favourable to their
wishes, the imperial commissioners were enabled to bring forward measures
of a decisive nature, in the Proposition4 which they delivered on the
1 5 th of March.

While, in consequence of the pope's consent, they announced a council
with greater certainty than before, and at the same time touched upon
the old question — how affairs were to be carried on in the interval — they
proposed formally to revoke the article of the Recess6 of 1526, in virtue
of which all existing innovations were recognised and admitted ; on the
ground, that it gave occasion to " much ill counsel and misunderstand-

1 The printed copy of the extract names the first, the MS. copy, the twenty-
first. "And if you do not appear within ten days after the day appointed,
our envoys and commissaries will, notwithstanding, discuss and determine
affairs with the States then and there present, in all respects as if you and others
who absented yourselves on slight and frivolous grounds, had been present.
All which we shall attend to and execute with firmness and vigour, in the same
manner as if all the States, whether present or absent, had agreed to them."

2 '* I am afraid," writes Jacob Sturm to Peter Blitz in the middle of March,
" from what I see of the persons here, there will not be much to be obtained."—
" In summa, Christus est denuo in manibus Caiaphae et Pilati." Jung, Gesch.
des Reichstags zu Speier, Beil. nr. 4.

3 Erasmi Epistoke, ii. 1220.

* See p. 233, Translator's note.

& Absehied. See Author's Preface, Translator's note.

Chap. V.] THE EMPIRE, 1528, 1529 555

ing -,"1 and to substitute for it another ordinance of a directly opposite
tendency, in favour of the spiritual authorities.

This was the notion entertained by most of the orthodox. In the instruc-
tions given by Duke George of Saxony to his ambassador to the diet, we
find that he too regarded this article as the cause of all the existing troubles.2
He demanded that a uniform standard of faith should be established,
and that the representative and government of his imperial majesty should
not surrender their power.

The first thing was to appoint a committee to deliberate and report
upon the Proposition.

In this, as was fully to be expected, the orthodox party were greatly
superior. Among the electoral votes, only that of Saxony was on the
evangelical side. Of the nine princes' votes, five were ecclesiastical, and
three of the secular decidedly catholic ; while not only Faber, but Leonard
von Eck, the leader of the reaction in Bavaria, was a member of the
committee. There could be little doubt of the result. On the 24th of
March the committee declared its assent to the proposed article, and only
added the following provisions. " Those who had held to the edict of
Worms, should continue to do so : in the districts which had departed
from it, no further innovation should be introduced, and no one should
be prevented from saying mass. No ecclesiastical body should be deprived
of its authority or revenues, on pain of ban and reban. Lastly, the sects
which deny the sacrament of the true body and blood of Christ, should
in no wise be tolerated any more than the anabaptists." With these
additions the report was laid before the States.

All the measures of the States in favour of the evangelical doctrines
had been the consequence of the leaning of the majority towards them.
The majority was now reversed. What the former had enacted, the
present sought to repeal. In the sittings of the 6th and 7th of April,
they adopted the report of the commission without the smallest alteration.

Nor were the friends of reform to be deluded by the mere sound of the
words, into the idea that the only thing intended was to check the progress
of the movement. This was undoubtedly the immediate purpose ; but,
on a careful examination, it was evident that these ordinances were
incompatible with the maintenance of the changes already effected in
the several countries, on the strength of former Recesses.

One leading motive to the previous Recess had been, the necessity of
appeasing the internal troubles in the several countries ; hence it had
been left to princes and subjects to come to an understanding with one
another on religious questions, as they could. Now, those who had
prohibited the Latin mass were compelled to tolerate it, and nothing
could be expected but an entire dissolution of all that had been settled.

1 " Your Imperial Majesty," says the Poposition, " hereby repeals, revokes,
and annuls the above-mentioned article contained in the above-mentioned
recess, now as then, and then as now, all out of your own imperial absolute power
(Machtvollkommenheit)." Miiller, Historie von der evangelischen Stande,
Protestation und Appellation, p. 22.

2 " Denn dieweil es ein Jeder sol machen wie er wil und gegen Gott und kais.
Maj. vornimmt zu verantworten, so kann kein Einigkeit seyn." — " For since
every man is to do as he will, and as he thinks he can answer it to God and his
imperial majesty, there can be no unity." Instrument in the Dresden
Archives.

556 RESOLUTIONS OF THE MAJORITY [Book V.

Further : the very existence of the changes that had been adopted,
rested on a tacit denial of the episcopal jurisdictions ; the authority of
the bishops (that is, their spiritual authority) was now established anew.
The right of appointing or removing preachers was, among others, un-
questionably restored to them.1 How could this be endured for a
moment ?

The reforms were still going on most prosperously in many cities.
Some had delayed to take the final step, because they were still in expecta-
tion of some new express concession from the diet of the empire ; e.g.,
the admission of both elements in the sacrament. They were now con-
demned to abide implicitly, and for ever, by the established forms.

Lastly, Zwingli's followers were absolutely excluded from the Peace of
the Empire.

In short, though the dissidents were not expressly admonished in the
Recess, to return to the bosom of the church they had abandoned, it was
unquestionable that by assenting to it they would bring about the total
and speedy ruin of the evangelical church, which was just rising into
importance.

It appeared as if the religious reforms which had begun to acquire
consistency from the situation of the political affairs of Europe, were now
about to be overthrown by the changes which those affairs had undergone.
The great community of the empire, which for a while had wavered, now
resumed its station on the side of the two great combined powers.

There remained also the most important of all considerations for the
evangelical party ; viz., whether, supposing they were inclined to venture
to resist those powers, they had lawful grounds for doing so.

The question arose, whether, in the present case, a resolution of the
majority of the States of the empire was binding upon the minority.

This question was of a general nature : When an institution has been
established by lawful means, and has actually attained to full life and
vigour, can the supreme power morally assume the right to overthrow
and annihilate the new structure ? Has not the body which has thus
legally and efficiently constituted itself, the right to exist, and to defend
its existence ?

The imperial power had, on a former occasion, found itself unable to
heal the general divisions, and had voluntarily abandoned its functions
to the several territorial sovereigns ; was it justified, now that it had
acquired greater strength, in destroying what was in fact the result of its
own act of delegation ? This nobody could admit ; otherwise institutions

i Fiirstenberg, Wednesday after Quasimodogeniti (7th April) : " Es werden
in dem allerlei Wortlin ingeschlichen, die den Stadten, als den man ufsetzig
und gefer ist, nit treglich noch leidlich seyn ; mit Namen dass man niemand an
seiner Oberkeyt und Herkommen vergweltigen soil, damit wird den Geistlichen,
so solcher Artikel angenommen und verwilligt wird, erfolgen, die Pradicanten
zu setzen und zu entsetzen, alle Missbrauch wieder zu erheben und andere wieder
anzurichten." — " There were all sorts of little words slipped in, which are not
tolerable or endurable to the cities, against which, they (the orthodox majority)
are violent and dangerous ; and especially that their authority and traditional
jurisdiction should be forcibly set aside, in order that the clergy (in case the said
article is accepted and granted), may continue to appoint and to displace the
preachers, to restore all the old abuses, and to establish new ones." Frankf.
Acten.

Chap. V.] RESISTANCE OF THE MINORITY 557

of the greatest antiquity might, during some of the vacillations to which
power vested in a fluctuating majority is exposed, be brought into question.
Nothing would be secure or permanent ; for when once institutions had
received the sanction of law, how were they to be distinguished in principle
from those which had subsisted for ages ?

In the present case, too, it was to be observed, that with regard to one
of the most important of those ordinances, — that enjoining the toleration
of the mass, — nothing was said either in the Proposition, the report of
the commission, or the transcript.1 Landgrave Philip would not admit
that the majority of the States had the right to pass decrees so deeply
affecting the internal affairs of the territories of the minority, without
their assent.

In this declaration, Hessen, electoral Saxony, Luneburg, and Anhalt,
together with Markgrave George of Brandenburg, concurred.

The cities viewed the matter under another aspect. Their delegates
in the committee remarked, that Faber had worked upon the princes
mainly by insisting upon and exaggerating the dangerous consequences
of the former concessions.2 To this they replied, that Germany was
indebted for the tranquillity she enjoyed, to that very Recess which they
were now called upon to revoke. If, in these hasty times, they were to
pass resolutions of such gravity, directly opposed to the former, nothing
could be expected to result but division, and indescribable perplexities
and evils.3 As yet the cities were unanimous ; those which had remained
catholic, as well as those which had become protestant. The reply
above-mentioned is their common work. Vainly did Count Palatine
Frederick represent to the reformers that they were disobedient to the
imperial edict ; that their innovations led rather to discontent and trouble
than to the honour of God : they replied, that what they had done was
not an act of hostility or insubordination to the emperor, but a measure
intended to maintain peace among their people, and for the relief of con-
sciences ; that none could have a greater dread of any kind of disturbance
than they. King Ferdinand entreated them two or three times to assent
to the report laid before them, and added, that the emperor would hold
this in most gracious remembrance. They replied, that they would obey
the emperor in all that could further the maintenance of peace and the
honour of God.4

1 Extract from the Protest (Beschwerungsschrift), Miiller, p. 33.

2 Matthias Pfarrer bei Jung, nr. vii. : " Der Doctor Faber bildt mit solcher
Unworheit und Lugen in die Fiirsten, — was uss der Ler gefolg hab und noch
folgen werd, das do frilich in keines menschen gedanken ich geswige thun file,
und verbittert die Fiirsten mit solchen Reden." — " Dr. Faber represents with
such falsehood and lies to the princes what has followed and will follow from the
doctrine, such as truly never could come into any man's thoughts, much less
to act upon, and embitters the princes against us with such discourse."

3 " Der erbern Frei und Reichsstate Gesandten Bedenken." " The scruples of
the worshipful the envoys of the free and imperial cities " (8th April), Jung. nr. 26.

4 Furstenberg, Monday after Quasimodogeniti (7 th April) : " Keyserlich
Maj. begeren halber wiren sie urbittig, wess sie zu der ere Gottes auch frieden
und ruhe dienlich gehelfen mochten, sollt man sie allerunterthanig gehorsam
spuren." — " In consequence of his Imperial Majesty's desire, they respectfully
promise that whereinsoever they can be helpful to the honour of God, and the
peace and tranquillity of the realm, you shall find them most dutifully obedient,"

558 DIET OF SPIRES, 1529 [Book V.

Overpowering as the majority was, it did not think it expedient to
show an utter disregard of so determined a resistance. The cities especially
had strongly objected to the use of the word supremacy, in the article
concerning the spiritual power — a word which had been carefully avoided
in the Recess of 1526. The majority at last thought it better to omit
this word, and, as before, only to forbid the subtraction of revenues and
lands from the church. It added, that no one should protect the lieges
and subjects of another state against their lawful lords.1 But this, too, was
strongly objected to by the evangelical minority. They feared that, if
the words were taken literally, a bishop would think himself entitled' to
regard the preachers as his subjects and lieges, and that, in conformity
with the article of the Recess, they must be delivered up to him— an
obligation which had been disclaimed long before the introduction of the
new doctrines. Forty years ago Frankfurt had refused to comply with
such a demand made by Archbishop Berthold. Moreover this was only
a single point, and their causes of complaint were numerous.

But the majority was inflexible ; and it now remained for the evangelical
party to consider whether they should allow a resolution which threatened
them with destruction, to acquire the validity of law.

On the 1 2th of April, the Saxon envoy, Minkwitz, declared in the full
assembly of the empire, that they were resolved not to allow this. He
insisted chiefly on the religious grounds. In affairs of conscience, he said,
a majority had no force ; but besides, by what right did the diet venture
to denounce as unchristian, doctrines which a part of the states held
to be christian, before the council, so often demanded, had been holden ?
The minority would never consent to this ; they would not consent that
those who had hitherto conformed to the edict of Worms, should now
be forbidden to abide by it ; for this would be to pass condemnation on
their own doctrines. The other reformers were greatly rejoiced at seeing
their cause pleaded with such zeal.2 Minkwitz urged the States of the
empire to adhere to their former decree ; if this had been perverted to
any bad purpose (which, he affirmed, on the evangelical side was not the
case), the evil might be remedied by a declaration. Under these con-
ditions, he promised that the party to which he belonged would assent
to the other resolutions.

But all his arguments were vain.

On the 19th of April, King Ferdinand, Waldkirch, and the other com-
missioners appeared in the assembly of the States, thanked them for their
" christian, faithful and assiduous services," and declared their resolutions
accepted ; so that there only remained to reduce them into the form of
a Recess. They rejected the proposals and objections of the elector of
Saxony and his adherents, solely on the ground that the resolutions were
" adopted according to ancient, praiseworthy usage, by the greater part
of the electors and princes," so that the rest must also submit to them.3
The evangelical princes, startled at so direct a refusal, which had the air

1 So it was inserted in the Recess, § 10. Unterthanen und Verwandte.

2 Furstenberg. He conducted their affairs " with the greatest earnestness,
bravely, and for the best."

3 Intended message which his royal highness (Konigl. Durchlauchtigkeit)
caused to be read aloud. In the Instrumentum Appellationis of Miiller,
p. 72. »

Chap. V.] PROTEST 559

of a reproof,1 and, as it was read aloud before all the States, must be
entered on the records of the empire, retired for a moment into an adjoining
room, in order instantly to agree upon some answer. But the king and
the imperial commissioners were not disposed to wait for this. In reply
to a request of the princes, that they would not refuse a short delay,
King Ferdinand said that he had received the positive commands of
his imperial majesty ; these he had executed, and so the matter must
remain : the articles were determined on.2 So saying, he and the com-
missioners left the house. Still more irritated by the contempt for their
dignity and their rights which this conduct implied, the evangelical States
now determined to execute a project which they had conceived some
weeks before, as soon as they saw the turn affairs were taking at the diet.
They resolved to resort to the only legal means of resistance left them.
It was evidently impossible to make the assembly recede from its resolu-
tions ; to submit to them, would be to renounce their own existence.
They re-appeared in the same sitting, — not indeed before the king and
the imperial commissioners, but before the States still assembled, — and
caused that protest to be read aloud, from which they took the name
their descendants still bear — Protestants.

They especially insisted on the fundamental principles of the laws of
the empire.3 They declared that they could not be obliged, without their
consent, to give up the privileges secured to them by the Recess lately
drawn up at Spires, which had been confirmed by such strong mutual
promises, and attested by their common seals ; that the attempt of the
other States to repeal this by their separate act, was null and void, and
had no authority over them ; that they should go on to conduct them-
selves towards their subjects in matters of religion, according to the terms
of the former Recess, and as they thought they could answer it to God
and the emperor. If the other States were not to be restrained from
framing the present Recess with the offensive resolutions, they begged that
their protest might at least be incorporated with it.

This declaration, the mere form of which is most remarkable, was ex-
pressed with all possible external deference and courtesy. The States
were all spoken of as " our dear lords, cousins, uncles, and friends ; "
they were entitled, with the most careful attention to their several dis-
tinctions, " You, well beloved, and you, others."4 To the former were
addressed " friendly requests," to the latter, " gracious consideration "
(gnadiges Gesinnen) ; and while they do not for an instant lose sight of
their princely dignity, they beg their opponents not to misunderstand the

1 They call it " an almost insolent rebuke."

2 Narrative in the Appellations Instrument, p. 75, and in the letter of the
Strasburg envoy, 21st April, Jung. nr. 44.

3 A legal argument of a general nature which they adduce is, that " auch in
menschen Handlungen und Sachen das mirer wider das minder nicht furdrucken
mocht da die Sachen nit ir vil in ein gemein, sundern ieden sunderlich belangt."
— " In human dealings and affairs, the more ought not to oppress the less ;
since the affair does not belong to many of them in common, but to each in
particular." Miiller, p. 114.

i Eure Liebden und Ihr Andern. It is impossible to find in another language
terms which represent the precise distinctions implied in these and the following
words. The reader will understand that they are among the various graduated
forms of respectful address. — Trans.

56o DIET OF SPIRES, 1529 [Book V.

course which they feel themselves compelled to adopt : in return, they
promise the former to deserve this by their friendship, and the latter, to
requite it by their good will. The style of the documents of this century
certainly have no claim to be called beautiful or classical ; but they are
suited to the circumstances, and have a marked character, — like the men
of that age and all that they do.

The king, to whom this protest was delivered, together with some
additions made the following day, did not think it expedient to accept it ;
nevertheless it made an immense impression. That a diet could thus
end in open disunion, seemed to promise nothing less than immediate
violence. On the 20th, Henry of Brunswick and Philip of Baden were
commissioned by the majority to endeavour to mediate between the
parties.

The points on which the mediators agreed with the evangelical party
are very remarkable.

They conceded that the article concerning the jurisdiction of the clergy
over their subjects, and others connected with them by secular relations,
should receive certain limitations.

The evangelical party, on the other hand, promised that no further
innovation should be attempted before the convocation of a council ; and
especially that no sect should be tolerated which denied the sacrament of
the true body and blood of Christ.

The two parties agreed mutually to tolerate their differences as to the
service of the mass ; no sovereign was to have anything to say on this head,
out of his own secular dominions.1

These terms were actually accepted by the evangelical princes ; the
cities inclining to Zwingli's views were also inclined to consent to them.

It is evident that, had the only question been, to acquiesce in some check
being put to the progress of innovation (in so far as that could be effected
by legal means), they would have given way ; their position was entirely
a defensive one ; it was only against the influence of the spiritual juris-
diction, recognised anew by the diet, that they determined to make a stand.
But the composition of the majority left little hope that these proposals
would be accepted. They might obtain the assent of a few temporal
princes, but the spiritual, to whom the revolution in public affairs appeared
to open a brilliant prospect of the restoration of their power, disdained
to listen to them. Nor were all the temporal princes satisfied with the
first resolutions of the committee. Duke George of Saxony demanded
more precise regulations concerning the deserted convents and the married
priests ; he wanted that all references to the holy scriptures at variance
with tradition, should be forbidden.2 But above all it was impossible

1 " Also dass kein Churfurst noch andre Stande usserthalb ihrer weltlichen
Oberkeiten (Gebiete) den andern zu oder von sinem alten oder neuen Furnemen
oder Haltung der Messen in eynichem Wege vergweltigen, darzu oder davon
dringen sol." — " So that no Elector nor other Estate, out of his own temporal
jurisdiction (territory), should compel another to or from his old or new opinions,
or, in any way whatsoever, should urge him to or from the maintenance of the
mass." Article of Composition. Muller, p. 42. Walch, xvi. 422, where,
however, great errors occur (e.g., bessern, instead of besten). Jung. nr. 45.

2 Letter to his ambassador, 17th April. He requires the addition, " das
sich niemands unterstehe, die h. Schrift weiter zu deuten oder Disputation
einzufuhren, denn wie dieselbigen angenommenen Lerer oder der merer Tail

Chap. V.] ATTEMPTS AT MEDIATION 561

to gain over King Ferdinand. He was irritated that the evangelical princes
had framed and published a protest, without first attempting to negotiate
with him ; that they had sent it to him with so little ceremony, and had
even rejected negotiations which he had empowered Planitz to open. He
was also greatly displeased with the evangelical cities, especially Strasburg,
which, shortly before the diet, had abolished the mass ; nor could he
be prevailed on to allow Daniel Mieg, the delegate of that city, to take
his seat in the Council of Regency. He therefore now declined any
further attempt at a better understanding, and rejected the proposals
of the two mediators. He refused to allow the Protest to be incorporated
in the recess, or even any mention to be made of it.

In consequence of this, the evangelical princes utterly disregarded
Ferdinand's request that they would give no further extension or publicity
to the Protest.

A formal instrument, with all the documents annexed, was drawn up,
in which the united princes, Elector John of Saxony, Markgrave George of
Brandenburg, Dukes Ernest and Francis of Brunswick-Luneburg, Land-
grave Philip of Hessen, and Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, appealed from
the wrongs and offences done to them at the diet, to the emperor, the
next general free assembly of holy Christendom, or to a congress of the
German nation.

On the following Sunday, April 25th, the necessary legal form was given
to this manifesto. This took place (for the spot is pointed out with an
accuracy worthy of notice), "in the lodging of Chaplain Peter Mutterstadt,
near St. John's Church at Spires, in St. John's lane of the same, in the little
room on the ground floor." It was immediately made public, in order that
everyone might know that the princes had in no wise been consenting
to the new Recess, but were determined to hold fast by the former.

This declaration acquired great additional weight from the signatures
of a great number of the imperial cities.

At first they appeared resolved once more to act together as one man.
For their old rule was, that, if one of them had a grievance to complain of,
all the rest were to adopt it, and on no account to separate their interests
or their plan of action. We observed, indeed, that the first remonstrance
of the cities, though containing matter of a highly anticlerical tendency,
was signed by all. But the hearts of men were too deeply and intensely
moved by the interests of religion for them to attend to old rules. The
imperial commissioners sent for the delegates of the catholic cities, com-
mended their steady adherence to the faith, and encouraged them to
persevere in it. John Faber had a great personal influence over some of
the smaller, such as Rottweil and Ravensburg. Others, it was affirmed,
were rendered more docile by the hope of being rated lighter to the taxation
for the empire. Be this as it may ; in the decisive moment when the Chan-
cellor of Mainz asked which were the cities that felt themselves aggrieved,
the recollection of their old principles made them hesitate for a moment, —
but it was only for a moment. The delegate from Rottweil was the first

unter inen thut anzeigen und beschliessen." — " That nobody should venture to
comment on the holy scriptures, or to introduce disputations further than the
said accepted teachers, or the greater part of them, do actually teach and
decide."

36

6s 2 DIETJDF SPIRES, 1529 [Book V.

to declare that there were many among the cities that agreed to the
resolutions of the Recess. To this others assented.1 A list was drawn up
in which those who thought themselves aggrieved wrote their names.
At first Cologne inscribed itself ; not so much because it partook of the
new opinions, as because it was engaged in disputes with its clergy ; but
it afterwards revoked its signature. Frankfurt, too, was at first among
the number, and here the new opinions had taken firm root ; it subse-
quently withdrew, because it did not choose to break with the emperor.
But the others remained inflexible. In the instrument above mentioned,
fourteen were named as joining in the Protest. Strasburg, Nuremberg,
Ulm, Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, Kempten, Nordlingen, Heilbronn,
Reutlingen, Isny, St. Gall (which here once more appears among the
imperial cities), Wissenburg, and Windsheim. This includes, as we per-
ceive, all those attached to Zwingli's opinions. In the moment of need
the Lutheran princes had not hesitated to unite with them.

Sovereigns so considerable, especially in the north of Germany, — cities
so populous and wealthy in the south and west, — all united in opinion and
in will, formed a body which commanded respect. They were determined
to defend themselves with their combined strength against every attempt
at compulsion on the part of the majority.

CHAPTER VI.

DISSENSIONS AMONG THE PROTESTANTS.

The discussions of the diet of 1529 turned rather on a question of public
law than on any points of doctrine.

All hope of a general agreement of the empire on matters of religion had
long been at an end ; the division between the two great parties became
more and more marked and hostile. This division had indeed been
recognised and sanctioned by the supreme authority, whose language and
attitude in 1526 might be regarded as neutral. Now, however, when the
first storm was over, — when the ecclesiastical body, after its own violent
dissensions, had re-united for the maintenance of its common interests, —
when the emperor had once more established amicable relations with the
pope, — the catholic party succeeded in getting possession of the supreme
power ; the government of the empire, in the hands of the majority,
assumed a thoroughly catholic complexion and attitude.

The evangelical party, while emboldened by the consciousness of a
recognised legality, and cherishing the hope of further progress in the same
direction, suddenly saw itself not only excluded from all share in the
government of the empire (which it had for some years mainly conducted),
but threatened in its very existence.

Nothing remained but for these princes to organize themselves as a
minority, determined to endure no oppression, and to resist every attempt
of the kind with all their might.

It must never be forgotten, that the noble and courageous idea of taking

1 Fiirstenberg's Report in the Frankf. Acts, and the priest Matthis, in those
of Strasburg. " The separation between the cities began on that very day,"
exclaims Matthis ; " that is what the clergy have been hitherto seeking."

Chap. VI.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE PROTESTANTS 563

up this defensive position, — of entrenching themselves behind the laws
of the empire, — an idea from which the whole subsequent development
of protestantism resulted, — was founded on the union of the confessions
of Saxony and of Switzerland.

On the 2 1 st of April King Ferdinand refused the offered mediation of
Brunswick and Baden ; on the 2 2d, Saxony and Hessen concluded " a
particular secret agreement," as it is called in the document itself, with
the cities of Nuremberg, Ulm, and Strasburg. They were perfectly agreed
that they would defend themselves, if they were attacked on account of
God's word ; whether the attack came from the Swabian league, or from
the imperial chamber, or even from the imperial government. Delegates
who were to meet in June, at Rotach in the Franconian mountains, were
to determine in what manner they were to assist each other.1

No difference was, as we see, made between Nuremberg, which adhered
to Lutheran opinions, and Strasburg, which had espoused those of Zwingli.

Immediately after the diet, they proceeded to reconsider the terms of
this compact. Two drafts of it have come down to us ; the one framed
by the cities, the other by the princes. The former proceeds on the
principle, that a council should be formed of the delegates of the several
States, who, being released from their special duties towards their own
particular constituents, should act only with a view to the common
interests. The member of the alliance against whom the attack might
be directed, should always appoint the leader of the combined forces.
This project contains an ordinance in conformity with the constitution of
the empire ; viz., that the generalissimo should always be a sovereign
prince, to whom should be attached a military council consisting of six
members, three from the body of the princes, one from that of the counts,
and two from the cities. In the draft sent in by the cities, great stress
is laid on the point, that no resort should be had to arms on any but
religious grounds ; " only," to use their words, " if they were attacked
on account of their faith, or obstructed in the visitations of the churches,
under pretext of a spiritual jurisdiction." In that of the princes, which
is in the handwriting of the electoral prince, the right of self-defence is
especially insisted on; no, mention is made of the emperor; the recent
edicts are treated as mere assumptions of arbitrary power on the part of
States with which they (of the protestant party) were in every respect
equal in rank and dignity, and which therefore it was not only their right,
but their duty, to oppose.2

Whichever of these projects had been preferred, it is certain that the
force which the two allies could have called out would have been con-
siderable. The electoral prince reckoned that it would be necessary to
raise 10,000 foot and 2,000 horse ; he advised that their friends, whether
near or at a distance, should be invited to join them. The fact, that they
would have had Switzerland on their side was of immense importance
the imperial city of Constance had a year ago allied itself with Zurich
and Bern ; and St. Gall, a Swiss town, had signed the Protest. But this

1 Article of the Reflexions on the confidential Conversation : in the Weim.
Arch.

2 Bedenken der Eynung des Evangeliums halber (Reflexions on the Union
on account of the Gospel) in the W. A., und Erstgestellte Notel des Berstendnuss,
von den von Niirnberg iibergeben. Miiller.

36—2

564 THEOLOGICAL SCRUPLES [Book V.

union would not long have remained so entirely inoffensive, and so devoid
of any application to the emperor, as John Frederick intended it to be.
Landgrave Philip and the council of Zurich, who were most intimately
connected, had already serious schemes for the restoration of Duke Ulrich
of Wurtemberg. In the negotiations on this matter between France and
Zurich, which were opened by the latter, Zwingli expressly stipulated that
the landgrave, whom he characterized as magnanimous, steadfast and
wise, should be invited to join them.1 Venice too had been applied to.
Whilst the emperor maintained his ascendancy in the south of Europe,
it appeared as if a party, bound together by religious and political interests,
would rise up against him in Switzerland and Germany, and would form
the centre of a new European opposition. At all events, it might be
confidently expected that this union would offer an insuperable resistance
to the emperor and the majority of the States of the empire.

But how short a time elapsed ere the new party was compelled, by
the very nature of its own composition, to abandon all these expecta-
tions !

At the time that party was organized, the differences existing between
the two confessions had been left wholly out of sight. This was indeed
possible in Spires, under the pressure of a sudden, unexpected, and increas-
ing danger ; in presence of the common enemy, they felt the interests
that united them, and the necessity for political combination. But as
soon as they were dispersed, this impression was effaced, and the old
antipathies resumed their power.

This was characteristic of the century ; the efforts to throw off the yoke
of the clergy had been prompted by the theological spirit ; and this was
too earnest and energetic to allow itself to be controlled by any political
considerations.

The parties to the new league had at first kept it secret from the theolo-
gians in Spires ; and when at length it was communicated to them, they
were obliged to acquiesce in it.

But they were the first in whose minds scruples concerning it arose.
Melanchthon, a man who, with patient and unwearied labour, worked out
in his own mind every difficult problem that came before him, returned
home robbed of his accustomed cheerfulness.2 He fancied that if Zwingli's
adherents had been abandoned, the Lutherans would have found the
majority more willing to make concessions ; he reproached himself with
not having insisted upon this, as was his duty. He was alarmed at the
idea that a subversion of the empire and of religion might be the conse-
quence of this compliance. On reaching Wittenberg he spoke to Luther
about it, and we may easily imagine what were his sentiments. Melanch-
thon fell into the most painful state of inward strife. " My conscience,"
says he, in a letter of the 17th May, " is disquieted because of this thing ;
I am half dead with pondering upon it." On the nth June : " My soul
is possessed by such bitter grief, that I neglect all the duties of friendship,
and all my studies." On the 14th : " I feel myself in such disquiet, that
I had rather die than endure it longer." As if with a desire to remedy

1 Hottinger, ii. 282, 313.

2 Letter from Melanchthon to Camerarius, (17th May :) " Redii neutiquam
afferens domum illam quam solebam hilaritatem." To Spengler and Justus
Jonas, 1069, 1075, 1076.

Chap. VI.] THEOLOGICAL SCRUPLES 565

the wrong that had been committed, he at length endeavoured on his own
authority, to put his friends in Nuremberg on their guard against concluding
the projected treaty. " For the godless opinions of Zwingli must on no
account be defended."

His sovereign master, the elector, he could safely leave to Luther's
influence.

Luther, as we have said, had not hesitated a moment to condemn the
alliance with the followers of Zwingli. Instantly and spontaneously, on
hearing Melanchthon's statement of the facts, he applied to Elector John
even now to set aside the agreement concluded at Spires. He represented
to him that all such compacts were dangerous, and reminded him how the
former one had been misused by the impetuosity of the young landgrave.
" How then," said he, " shall we dare to connect ourselves with people
who strive against God and the Holy Sacrament ? We Shall thus go to
perdition, body and soul."

It can hardly be affirmed that these theological scruples ought to have
been utterly disregarded, or that Luther was to be blamed for entertaining
them.

We must consider that the whole reformation originated in religious
convictions, which admit of no compromise, no condition, no extenuation.
The spirit of an exclusive orthodoxy, expressed in rigid formulas, and deny-
ing salvation to its antagonists, now ruled the world. Hence the violent
hostility between two confessions, which in some respects approximated
so nearly.

A union of their respective followers could only be rendered possible,
either by disregarding their differences, or by putting an end to them.

In Spires, in the tumult of the diet, under the pressure of the common
peril, the former had been deemed possible. But how could it be realized
while the most violent polemical writings were interchanged between the
leaders ? Considering the convictions which both parties had embraced
with fervour, and held to with the utmost tenacity, such a union would
have seemed to prove that the original religious motives had not been
entirely free from alloy.

Luther was wholly opposed to it, and there needed only an admonition
from him, to deter the elector from any such attempt.

Elector John sent indeed his delegates at the appointed time to Rotach,
but with strict charge merely to listen, and report to him ; he would then
consult with the learned men about him whether the thing could be
executed without grieving the conscience. He thought that perhaps
similar scruples would occur to the people of Nuremberg.1

And in fact the opinions of the Nuremberg theologians were precisely

1 Instruction auf Herr Hansen Minkwitz Ritter gen Rotach. (Instructions
sent to Master John Minkwitz, knight, at Rotach.) He was to observe whether
possibly the Nuremberg delegates might not of their own accord say to him,
" that they found it would be difficult for them to come into any compact with
those who held Zwingli's opinion concerning the sacrament, inasmuch as they
would be burthened on account of the divine word of the faith, as if this article
were also founded on the divine word and the faith, which must then be received
in silence against their consciences ;" and then he was to say to them, " that
a like difficulty and scruple had also fallen upon us since the last diet at Spires."
The Recess is dated Tuesday after St. Boniface (8 th June).

566 THEOLOGICAL SCRUPLES [Book V.

those of the Saxon. They too exhorted the council to have nothing to
do with the " Sacramenters."1

Hence the meeting in Rotach ended in nothing beyond general
assurances of mutual assistance, and preliminary promises ; further
deliberations were postponed till a meeting, to be held at Schwabach in the
following August. This, however, never took place. It was already
countermanded when the delegates from the Oberland arrived; they
had made their long journey in vain.2

Thus the same influential body — the theologians — who had put a sudden
and entire check to the warlike preparations caused by Pack's intrigues,
three years before, now offered a no less strenuous and successful resistance
to an alliance which appeared the only safeguard from arbitrary power.
The same influence which in the one case had prevented attack, now proved
an equally insuperable obstacle to all measures of defence.

It is no wonder that Landgrave Philip, who had embraced the former
schemes with all the ardour of his haughty and ambitious temper, was
offended and grieved at the present turn of affairs. He did everything in
his power to keep his Saxon allies to their former resolution ; but in vain.3

We are not to imagine from this that Landgrave Philip had emancipated
himself from the spirit of his age. His disposition to concede arose from
his being less firmly convinced of the truth of Luther's doctrines than his
allies were.

As, however, it was no longer possible to disregard the dissensions
between the two sections of reformers, it was doubly necessary to make
one effort more to reconcile the contending theologians.

Landgrave Philip had already seen the urgency of this in Spires, and
had written to Zwingli about it. He now sent a definite invitation to
both parties to meet at his castle of Marburg, on the Feast of St. Michael
(a.d. 1529).

It is remarkable how differently his two invitations were received.
Zwingli feared that he should be withheld from going by the Grand -Council
of his city ; if he announced his intentions, he thought they would hardly
allow him to take so long a journey through so many doubtful or hostile
territories. Without communicating his intentions even to his wife, or
waiting for the expected safe conduct from Hessen, he therefore set out,
with the connivance of a few members of the privy council. On the other
hand, Melanchthon would rather that his sovereign had forbidden him
the journey altogether. Luther constantly declared that the conference
would lead to nothing. When he had reached the Werra, it was impossible

1 Chancellor Briick said at Schmalkald, that it all came from the counsels
of Nuremberg. Strobel Miscellaneen, iv., 130.

2 Letter to Nuremberg, 23d August. They would privately inform their friends
of the affair, although it " is quite burthensome to us, the delegates, not only
on account of our body's weakness, but of the length of the way, and the alarming
gangs wandering about the country." (W.A.) A meeting at Zerbst also did not
take place ; it was put off because the elector " had seen good not to conclude
that which he had conferred about with certain princes and states, concerning
a friendly understanding, with whom those of the Magdeburg union will not
enter." I find that Erich, Bishop of Paderborn and Osnabriick, who had already
joined in the first protest at Spires, was also invited.

3 Reasons and counter-reasons in the letters of the elector and the landgrave.
Muller, Gesch. der Protest, p. 256, 261.

Chap. VI.] CONFERENCE AT MARBURG 567

to induce him to proceed any further till he had received a safe conduct
in all its forms from the landgrave.1

On the other hand, the Swiss were filled with the most sanguine hopes ;
they knew that the prince at whose court they were to meet their antago-
nists, was entirely on their side in politics, and nearly so in religion. The
Wittenberg party were sensible that they would have to contend against
Philip's wishes ; they were determined however not to give way, but to
maintain their ground at all risks.

The two parties met therefore in a totally opposite temper of mind ;
and, according to the usual weakness of human nature, proceeded to act
under the influence of the moment.

Yet, regarded from a higher point of view, this meeting had a sublime
and most important character.

The eminent spirits who, on either side, had led the movement with
such power, but between whom misunderstandings had now broken out,
met together in order to endeavour to elicit by personal discussion, some
means of putting an end to the quarrels which were so great an obstacle
to the progress of the common cause.

In this light did Euricius Cordus regard it, when he addresses them all,
" the princes of the Word," " the acute Luther, the gentle CEcolampa-
dius, the magnanimous Zwingli, the honest Melanchthon," and the others
who were come, — Schnepf, Brenz, Hedio, Osiander, Jonas, Crato, Menius,
Myconius, each of whom he designates by some eulogistic epithet, and
admonishes them to put an end to the new schism. " The church falls
at your feet weeping, and conjures you by the bowels of Christ to take
this matter in hand with genuine earnestness, for the salvation of the
faithful, and to bring about a decision which the world may confess to
have emanated from the Holy Ghost."2 It was an ecclesiastical council
of the dissidents from Catholicism. Had it succeeded, means would have
been devised to maintain the unity of the new church.

Certain preliminary doubts were first satisfied. Zwingli had been
accused of errors concerning the divinity of Christ. He now professed
opinions in entire conformity with the Nicene creed. He also declared
his complete agreement with the Wittenberg divines, on the doctrine of
original sin, on which the whole scheme of redemption rests ; on the
efficacy of the external word ; on baptism, as bemg not a mere symbol.
It is certain that Zwingli in his endeavours to make out the meaning of
scripture for himself, had departed widely from the received opinions of
the church on all these points. In this respect he, like Luther, reverted
to the fundamental basis upon which the Latin church rested.3 On one
point alone, the most important of all — the point which occupied universal
attention, — on the question of the Eucharist, he was inflexible. Here he
hoped for victory, and pleaded his cause with great vivacity and earnest-

1 According to BuUinger, whose account of this conference is, generally, very
remarkable, the landgrave himself observed this difference, p. 214.

2 The poem is inserted by Melanchthon in the Paralipomenon to the Chroni-
kon Urspergense, p. 495. w j

3 Loscher, Historia Motuum, p. 103, examines how far the present resolutions'
were contradicted by former expressions of the Oberlanders. Even Planck,
otherwise a great champion of the Oberlanders, admits that in this matter
Loscher is right.

568 CONFERENCE AT MARBURG [Book V

ness. His chief arguments were, the figurative meaning of the word is,
in other passages ; the explanation given by Christ himself, in the sixth
chapter of John (concerning which, he said that " it broke Luther's neck "
— an expression the latter rather misunderstood) ; the consent of several
fathers of the church ; lastly, the impossibility that a body should be in
more than one place at one time. But Luther saw written on the page
before him, " This is my body." He persisted that these were the words
of God, about which there must* be no quibbling, and which Satan himself
could not get over ; he would not now enter upon the more profound
explanations with which he had previously combated the argument of
locality, without which it is impossible to conceive a body ; he would
not endure the word " signifies," for that made complete abstraction of
the body. The difference is this : Zwingli regards the presence of Christ
as connected with the bread ; whereas Luther regards the bread itself
as the very presence — the present body ; the visible containing the
invisible, as the scabbard contains the sword.1 He too understood the
word eat in a spiritual sense, but he would not part with the mystery
which is involved in the symbol. He thought that his antagonists had
probably never had occasion to prove the value and efficacy of their
exposition in the conflicts of the spirit ; whereas he was conscious that,
by the aid of his, he had fought against Satan and hell, and had found
there the consolation which is able to sustain the soul in the most desperate
tempests that can assail it.2

With a view to the progressive development of religious ideas, it was
not, I think, to be wished that Zwingli should have given up his theory,
which by continually referring to the original and historical character of
the institution of the great Mystery, was of such immense importance to
the whole conception of Christianity, independent of the church as actually
constituted. On the points on which he yielded he was not so sure or so
steadfast, but this he had thought out in all its bearings ; here he was
master of his subject ; it contained the principle upon which his system
was founded, and to this he clung with the utmost tenacity.

Just as little was it to be expected, or even desired, of Luther, that he
should assent to Zwingli's exposition. His opinions on the indwelling of
the divine element, generally, in the christian church, are the same as those
of the catholics ; only he does not recognise it in the numerous incidents
handed down from fantastical or sophistical ages. As these fail to afford
him the assurance he requires, he reverts to the original sources, to which
the catholics also refer, and receives nothing but what he finds there. Of

1 The following passage in the abstract from the records in Scultetus, p. 143,
seems to me to contain one of the main points of difference : Lutherus affirmat
(the subject is, the 6th chapter of John) non ipsam manducationem oralem, sed
manducationis modum crassum ilium, qualis est carnis smite aut bovinae,
rejici. Oecolampadius, arrepta inde occasione, de duplici verborum Christi
intelligentia disserit, humili sive carnali, et sublimi sive spirituali : humilem
sive carnalem verborum Christi intellectum eum esse quem Lutherus asserat a
Christo repudiatum : spiritualem sive sublimem esse ilium quem Christus
jusserit amplecti. Contra Lutherus fieri non posse nee debere, ut ad spiritualem
tantum intellectum verba ccense referantur, siquidem remissio peccatorum,
vita seterna ac regnum ccelorum carnalibus istis ac humilibus ut appereant
rebus per verbum dei annexa sint.

2 Luther's Explanation, addressed to Landgrave Philip in de W., iii., p. 510.

Chap. VI.] CONFERENCE AT MARBURG 569

the seven sacraments, he retains only the two of which unquestionable
mention is made in the New Testament. But to these he adheres in spite
of every attempt to wrest them from him, or to detract from their
mysterious import.

These are, as we have remarked, two views of the subject taken from
different points, but equally inevitable.

It was enough that the two parties began to desist from their mutual
outcries of heresy. Luther discovered that his antagonists did not mean
so ill as he had imagined, while the Swiss abandoned that coarse conception
of Luther's scheme which they had hitherto entertained. Luther thought
the violence of the polemical writings would now subside.1

In the first place, all the more important articles of faith on which they
agreed, were drawn up and signed by the theologians of both parties ;
the deviations from the Roman confession are carefully stated in it, as
well as those from the anabaptist sects ; this was a desirable basis of their
common progress, and the Marburg conference will be for ever memorable
and important for its establishment. The fifteenth and last of these
articles relates to the Lord's Supper. They agree on the nature and
mode of the solemn rite, and on its purpose, in so far that both believe
that the true body and true blood of Christ are here spiritually eaten ;
the only point in dispute is, whether this true body is bodily in the bread.
Here a freer interpretation of scripture leads to a different view of the
Mystery from that adopted by the community of the church. They
mutually promised that each party would treat the other with christian
charity.

One point however Luther would not concede ; viz., he would not
extend brotherly love to the dissidents (that is, he would not acknowledge
that the two parties formed one brotherhood).2 He thought the difference
of opinion far too fundamental ; the Mystery, the central point of the
christian's faith and service, far too essential, to admit of such a concession.

We perceive therefore that, as far as the future was concerned, and the
recognition that, in spite of their differences, they belonged essentially
to the same confession, this conference was productive of important
results ; but for the political purposes of the moment, which Landgrave
Philip had had in his eye, it effected nothing.

Indeed the very contrary of what he had aimed at came to pass.

From Marburg Luther hastened to Schleiz, where Elector John of
Saxony and Markgrave George of Brandenburg were at this moment
together, in order to consult with them as to the expediency of the Ober-
land alliance. Not only did Dr. Luther convince the princes that a
perfect unity of faith was necessary to a treaty of mutual defence, but
they determined mutually to confess the articles whereon this unity was
founded, and to admit no one into their alliance who dissented from any one

1 Melanchthon says in the Appendix to the Chron. Ursperg : — Triduo duravit
colloquium, et durasset diutius spe uberioris turn concordiae futurae, nisi hor-

rendus ille morbus sudatorius vocatos dispersisset. This was inserted in

Bullinger. It shows at least what an impression had been made on Melanch-
thon.

2 Luther to Gerbellius (4th Oct.) : — Denuntiatum est eis, nisi et hoc articulo
resipiscant, charitate quidem nostra posse eos uti, sed in fratrum et Christi
membrorum numero a nobis censeri non posse.

570 SCHWABACH ARTICLES [Book V.

of them.1 No sooner had the Oberland delegates arrived at Schwabach,
where a fresh conference was appointed to be held in October, than such
a confession of faith was laid before them for their signature, before any
further business was entered upon. These are the so-called Schwabach
articles, and are seventeen in number. Little acuteness is necessary to
discover that they bear the strongest resemblance to the Marburg agree-
ment. The sequence is the same in the first nine articles ;2 the forms of
expression are for the most part identical also ; there are but few altera-
tions, the most important among which is in the tenth article, wherein
it is taught, that " the true body and blood of Christ is verily present in
the bread and wine ; " to which is annexed the polemical remark, that
the opposite party assert them to be mere bread and wine. The Schwabach
articles are a somewhat more elaborate edition of the Marburg agreement ;
Luther's scheme being exclusively adopted in both.3 It was, of course,
impossible for the delegates from Ulm and Strasburg to sign this confession.
They remarked that it was not in conformity with the doctrines preached
among them ; that they were not apprized of the alteration, and must
bring a declaration of the opinions of their constituents on the subject, to
the next meeting.

It was easy to foresee that this declaration would be in the negative,
and that, under these circumstances, the alliance must be abandoned.

This division took place just at the moment when the emperor manifested
the most hostile disposition towards reform.

The emperor having issued a manifesto from Spain, expressive of his
disapprobation of the protest, the States which had joined in it had sent
a deputation to Italy, charged to justify their measures to him.
Nothing, however, could be more directly hostile to their views than the
Spanish Catholicism which the delegates encountered in the emperor's
court. The emperor only repeated his former declarations. He refused
to receive the protest, and was greatly displeased when the envoys laid
it on the table of the secretary who was transacting business with them.
The whole court was incensed at the audacity of Michael Kaden, one of

1 The recess of Schleiz was only oral. We see what its contents were from
the instructions to the councillors of the elector, and the Markgrave of Branden-
burg at the Schwabach conference. Miiller, p. 281, and Walch, xvii., p. 669.
First article.

2 What the Schwabach Art. viii. appears to contain over and above, is to be
found in those of Marburg under the title, De usu sacramenti. See the printed
copy of the 17 Articles in Walch, xvi. 778, and given with diplomatic accuracy
in Weber's Kritische Gesch. der Augsb. Con. V., i., Ap. 2.

3 Riederer found the following words in Veit Diedrich's handwriting on
Luther's autograph preface to the 17 Articles, of the year 1530. Praefatio ad
xvii Articulos Marburgi scriptos ; and upon them founded his assertion that the
17 Articles themselves were drawn up at Marburg. Had that been the case,
Luther would have brought them ready with him to Schleiz. In fact, Luther
must have been very much occupied. On the 30th of September the theologians
arrived ; on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of October they debated ; on the 4th the
Marburg agreement was signed ; and on the 5 th he went away. The scheme
there concocted does however agree pretty well with the character of the 17
articles, only they must afterwards have been revised, and rendered more dis-
tinct in some places, if what was said in Schmalkalden to the cities is true : " The
articles are very well considered, and drawn up with brave counsel of learned
and unlearned councillors."

Chap. VI.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE PROTESTANTS 571

the envoys, who put into the hands of the orthodox emperor, the temporal
head of catholic Christendom, a writing of a protestant tendency, given
to him by the landgrave. The delegates were compelled to follow the court
for a while as prisoners, and escaped from it only by a sort of flight.

But if any hoped that the adverse and menacing circumstances without,
would have the effect of reuniting the two sections of the protestants, this
hope proved utterly illusory.

At the very meeting at Schmalkald, before which they laid the report
of these circumstances (Dec, 1529), the separation between them was
first rendered absolute and complete.

The seventeen articles were once more laid before the Oberlanders
(who were here far more numerous than at Schwabach). Ulm and
Strasburg, whose example was usually followed by the others, definitively
declared that they would not sign them. The Lutherans, in an equally
decided manner, declared that, in that case, they could not enter into
an alliance with them. Their own earnest entreaties, and the zeal with
which the landgrave exerted himself in their behalf, — urging that there
was nothing to be expected from the emperor but disfavour and violence, —
were equally vain. The other party refused even to communicate to
them the report of the delegates, unless they would first declare their
assent to the profession of faith.1

In the course of these transactions, another question, rather of a political
nature, had come under discussion.

When Luther warned his master not to enter into a league with the
Oberlanders, he still cherished the hope that a reconciliation with the
emperor was possible. This hope was inspired by the view he took
of the character of the reformation. He contemplated only its
widest objects and effects — the deliverance of the secular power from
the pretensions to supremacy and precedency hitherto asserted by the
clergy. He represented what innumerable abuses, universally admitted
and complained of, he had removed ; while on the other hand, he had
combated with chivalrous valour against anabaptists and image breakers :
the chief merit which he claimed however, and most justly, was, that he
had revived the idea of civil supremacy and secular majesty, and had pro-
cured for it universal acceptance. He had so high an opinion of the
emperor, that he was persuaded, if it were represented to him that the
doctrines of Christianity were preached in greater purity in the evangelical
countries than they had been for a thousand years, he must instantly see
the truth. Luther was little less imbued with the idea of the Empire
than with that of the Church. I do not mean its momentary condition
or aspect, but its import and essence ; and he felt almost an equal pain
at having to sever himself from it.

Negotiations were in fact set on foot between the elector and King
Ferdinand. Ferdinand was moved to them, as he writes to his brother
more than once, by his anxiety lest a movement of the protestants should
ensue before his (the emperor's) arrival, which might have ruinous results ;
the elector, by his natural reluctance to separate himself from the head
of the empire, — a reluctance which had been greatly enhanced by Luther's
arguments, and which sometimes almost shook the confidence of the

.1 Protocol of the meeting, Sunday after St. Catherine, 1529. Strobel, iv. 113.

572 THE QUESTION OF PUBLIC LAW [Book V.

landgrave in his intentions. Philip once bluntly asked the elector, what
he had to look to from him if he were attacked.1

But it gradually became evident how little was to be expected from
these negotiations. It was clear that the protestants would not, as the
electoral prince had assumed in his project of a league, have to deal with
the States alone. Even in the instructions given by the elector to his
envoys to Schwabach, it was said, " the great danger will now be in the
highest places."2

The further question now presented itself, how far it were generally
lawful to resist the authority of the emperor. Till this was answered,
all union and combination was vain, whatever might be the conformity
of opinion in other respects.

Saxony remarked with justice that, until they were agreed on this
indispensable point, any alliance must be merely apparent, would inspire
no confidence, and afford no security.

Did not the supreme power reside in the emperor ? Were they not.
bound by the words of scripture, to which they were constantly appealing,
to pay him unqualified obedience ?

These questions were examined in Saxony itself with scrupulous earnest-
ness. The jurists rested their arguments on the principle of law, that self-
defence is permitted ; they justified resistance. The question was then
submitted to the theologians ; and, in the absence of Luther and Melanch-
thon, who were then at Marburg, Bugenhagen, upon whom the decision
devolved, brought a theological argument to support those of the jurists.
He declared that if a power, however unquestionably derived from
God, set itself in opposition to God, it could no longer be regarded as the
sovereign authority.

Luther, on his return, gave a totally different opinion. He thought
that the maxims of law which countenanced resistance were contradicted
by others which forbade it, while the latter were supported by scripture.
If resistance to every prince who disobeys God's word were to be permitted,
people would at last reject all authority whatever at their own discretion.

This opinion was shared by the theologians of Nuremberg. Johann
Brentz gave in a report to the markgrave to that effect.

The conflict was in fact between the doctrines of passive disobedience,
and of the right of resistance.

We know how greatly these doctrines, especially in their connexion
with religion, contributed to the development of political theories in Europe ;
it is worthy of remark that they were first brought into discussion in
Germany, and at so early a period.

But the time was not yet come for the vast consequences with which
they were pregnant to be felt. In another age and country they touched
the vital point upon which the development of such theories entirely
turns, viz. : the relation between sovereign and subject : in Germany
this was not even agitated ; the doubt referred only to the relation of a
subordinate to a supreme government ; of a prince of the empire to the
emperor.

In Germany the question turned upon the principles of public law
peculiar to the empire, rather than upon those which are common to all

1 Rommel Urkundenbuch, No. 9.

2 Instructions for Schwabach. Miiller, 282.

Chap. VI.] DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE $73

states. Its real bearing was, whether the supreme power of the empire
was of a monarchical or an aristocratical nature.

Luther, who saw in the imperial power the continuation of that of
ancient Rome, as represented in scripture, adhered firmly to the idea of
monarchy there exhibited. He compared the relation between the elector
his master and the emperor, with that between a biirgermeister of Torgau
and the elector. Brentz was of opinion that the princes were as little
justified in taking arms against the emperor, as the peasants against the
nobles and prelates.

These comparisons, however, clearly show how little the essential
question was defined. On the other side it was contended, that there
was no resemblance between the princes of Germany and the Roman
prefects of the scripture ; not to speak of burgermeisters and peasants.
They were subject to the emperor under certain conditions insuring their
freedom and rights ; with certain limitations, and according to the privi-
leges originally granted them. Moreover, they were themselves sovereigns,
and it was their duty as such to defend the gospel.1

At the congress of Nuremberg, the chancellor of Saxony declared (but
under the express proviso that it was only his personal opinion), that he
was convinced of the legality of resistance to the emperor. He adduced
the two arguments we have just mentioned ; in the first place, that the
power of the princes was no less derived from God than that of the emperor ;
and secondly, that if the emperor desired to compel them to return to
popery, he was to be regarded in the light of an enemy, and no such
compulsion was to be endured.

These arguments however found little approbation. As he was one
day going to his chancery, Spengler, the secretary of the city of Nuremberg,
whom we have had occasion to mention as a man of great experience in
legal affairs, went up to him and accused him of error. They fell into a
vehement altercation, which however they had the discretion to carry on
in Latin, that it might not be understood by the bystanders.

Brandenburg was of the same mind as Nuremberg. Chancellor Vogler
affirmed that his master had determined, if the emperor invaded his
dominions, not to defend himself, but to bear whatever it might please
God to lay upon him.

This opinion obtained permanent ascendancy, even in Saxony. Luther
declared, that even if the emperor violated his oath, he was still emperor —
the sovereign authority, set over them by God : if they were determined
no longer to obey, they must dethrone him. But to what could it lead
if they took up arms against him ? Whoever conquered, must expel him
and become emperor in his stead, which could be endured by no one.

The only counsel Luther could give was, that if the emperor had recourse
to violence, the princes must not indeed assist him, for that would be
to sin against the true faith ; but they must not refuse to allow him to
enter their territory, and to act there according to his will. He repeated,
that if the emperor summoned him and the other reformers, they would

1 Answer to the scruple put forth ; that no resistance may be offered to his
imperial majesty. Hortleder (n., ii. 12) places this at " about 1531 "; but as it
relates to the opposition experienced by the last of the protesting delegations,
I incline to think it must be dated at the end of 1529, or the beginning
of 1530.

574 DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE [Book V.

be forthcoming ; the emperor need have no anxiety on that account. For
every man must hold his belief at his own risk and peril.

Thus a few months sufficed to put an end to a league which seemed
destined to convulse Europe. It was entirely dissolved. Even the
territorial alliance did not seem able to afford protection against the
emperor. We perceive that the several sovereigns and states thought
themselves again bound to act and to suffer single handed.

It is very easy to repeat the censure that has so often been thrown
upon this decision. It was certainly not the part of political prudence.

But never was a course of action more purely conscientious, more regard-
less of personal consequences, more grand and magnanimous.

These noble men saw the enemy approach ; they heard his threats ;
they were under no illusion as to his views ; they were almost persuaded
that he would attempt the worst against them.

They had an opportunity of forming a league against him which would
shake Europe, at the head of which they might oppose a formidable
resistance to his projects of universal domination, and make an appeal
to fortune ; but they would not — they disdained the attempt.

Not out of fear or mistrust of their own strength and valour ; — these are
considerations unknown to souls like theirs. They were withheld by the
power of Religion alone.

First, because they would not mix up the defence of the faith with
interests foreign to it, nor allow themselves to be hurried into things
which they could not foresee.

Secondly, they would defend no faith but that which they themselves
held ; they would have feared to commit a sin if they connected them-
selves with those who differed from them ; — on one point only, it is true,
but that one of the highest importance.

Lastly, they doubted their right to resist their sovereign and head, and
to trouble the long-established order of the empire.

Thus, in the midst of the jarring interests of the world, they took up a
position counselled only by God and their own consciences, and there
they calmly awaited the danger. " For God is faithful and true," says
Luther, " and will not forsake us." He quotes the words of Isaiah, " Be
ye still, and ye shall be holpen."

Unquestionably this is not prudent, but it is great.

CHAPTER VII.

THE OTTOMANS BEFORE VIENNA.

The results of the two diets of 1526 and 1529 were not less diametrically
opposed than were their decrees.

The former led the evangelical party, protected and sanctioned by the
empire, to lay the great foundations of their future existence ; the latter
not only withdrew this protection, but at the same time divided their
body.

The discord which had arisen since the publication of the regulations
of Nuremberg, had now become an open breach.

I think we shall be justified in affirming that the contrast in the conse-

Chap. VII.] UNPOPULARITY OF AUSTRIA 575

quences of the two diets, with relation to foreign affairs, was not less
complete.

At the diet of 1526, the house of Austria having sanctioned the progress
of the evangelical party, was requited by that cordial assistance of the
German nation, which secured to it the supreme power over Italy and
Hungary. It was not to be expected that after this house had taken so
entirely different a direction, it would receive the same support from
the affections of the nation.

" I have heard," says Daniel Mieg (who had been excluded from the
Council of Regency) to the Altammeister of Strasburg, " that his Majesty
has applied for powder : my advice is, not to grant it, since such an
affront has been offered us. It were good that we kept our money and
our powder too ; we shall want them ourselves."1

The conduct of the house of Austria — its schemes of conquest and
aggrandisement — had already excited universal anxiety ; people had no
desire to lend it any serious assistance. An assessor of the Council of
Regency, Hammann von Holzhusen, delegate from Frankfurt — a city
so conspicuous for its loyalty to the imperial house — remarks, " that many
of the states, whether they be Lutheran or not, do not know what they
have to expect from Austria ; they are afraid the assistance they afford
may in the end be turned to the detriment of the empire and the nation."2

A little later we find letters circulating in Hungary, in which the im-
possibility of Ferdinand's defending Hungary is inferred from the religious
quarrels in which he was involved with the magnates of Germany.3

Such was the state of the public mind when the most powerful enemy
the empire had encountered for centuries, the representative of another
world, the rival and the implacable foe of Christendom, appeared on its
frontiers.

It was just about this time that one Katib, learned in the law, asserted
in Constantinople, that the prophet Jesus was to be preferred before the
prophet Mohammed. The Divan before whom this innovator was accused,

1 Saturday before Jubilate, 1529. Jung, Beil., No. 37.

2 Spires, Oct. 9. " E. W. werden auch fleissik bedenken und ermessen die
schwinnen lauf und brattig so in etlich Jaren vorhanden gewest und noch sint,
also, das alle Chur und Fiirsten, geistlich und weltlich, auch ander Pralaten,
Herrn, und Stadt, sie seyen lotters wie man denn die nennen will oder nit, nit
wol wissen mogen, wes sie sich versehen sollen, und also das dieselbig Hilf, so
gemelt mein gnst. und gn. Herrn, Chur und Fiirsten, auch andre Stende und Stat
thun werden, dem hilligen Reich und Teutzer Nation und inen selber zu grossen
uniiberwindlichen Schaden und nachtail reichen und kommen moge." — " Your
worships will also carefully consider and ponder the rapid course and practice
[of what, is not said] that for some years have taken place and still exist ; also,
that all electors and princes, be they Lutheran, as people are pleased to call them,
or not, know not what to provide, andalso that the same succours which are
demanded of my most gracious lords, electors and princes, will be granted by
other estates and cities, to the great and irreparable prejudice and damage of
the holy empire, German nation, and themselves." He proposes a meeting of
the cities, " in order to have discourse and counsel concerning this and other
things, to agree upon an opinion and what is to be done herein, and what answer
to be given."

3 Katona, xx. i., p. 634. Rex Ferdinandus propter dissensionem suam cum
imperio et aliis magnatibus Alemanniae propter fidem, nullum habere potest
populum.

576 SULEIMAN IN HUNGARY [Book V.

sought in vain to confute him, nor was the mufti, to whom the matter
was then referred, more successful ; he, however, tried and sentenced him
to death. This sentence was entirely agreeable to the opinions of the
Sultan.

Katib refused to recant, and suffered death for the name of Jesus, in
the middle of the mosque.

Suleiman's highest ambition was to be regarded as the prophet's vice-
gerent on earth. He was the first of the Ottoman Sultans who raised
Mecca into consideration ; it was he who built the sacred house of the
Kaaba, restored the mosque of Chadidscha, constructed aqueducts, and
established colleges. " I, whose power is sustained by the grace of the
Almighty, by the blessing of the greatest of His prophets, by the protection
of the first four of His favoured disciples ; I, the shadow of God over both
worlds " — such was His manner of describing himself in a letter to the
king of France. His pretensions were in harmony with these titles.
"Dost thou not know," said his son-in-law, Mustapha (a.d. 1528) to
Lasky, " that our Lord is next to Allah ? That as there is only one sun
in the heavens, so also there is only one lord upon earth ?"

At a time when peace was yet unconcluded in Europe, when he might
expect to fincUthe whole combined opposition to Charles V. in full activity,
on the 4th of May, 1529, Suleiman set out with an army which has been
reckoned at 250,000 men, to wage a holy war. Before him, the Hospodar
of Moldavia invaded Transylvania, and put to rout the followers of
Ferdinand. Next, John Zapolya descended the Karpathians with the
small troop that had collected around him ; he had the good fortune to
meet with Ferdinand's party in Hungary, before they were joined by the
Germans, and to defeat them ; he met and joined the Sultan on the
battle-field of Mohacz. Suleiman asked him what had induced him to
come to him, notwithstanding the difference of their faith. " The Padis-
chah," answered John, " is the refuge of the world and his servants are
innumerable, both moslems and unbelievers." Zapolya, repulsed by the
pope and by Christendom, fled to the protection of the Sultan. This
need of others for momentary protection had made the Ottoman empire
what it was.

In Hungary, Suleiman experienced little or no resistance. The Austrian
government did not dare to call out the light cavalry ; it feared, in the
unfavourable state of the public mind, that this might lead to disturbances.
But it was wholly incapable of defending the country by its own resources.
The commander of the fleet, who owed his men 40,000 gulden, had the
greatest difficulty in getting together 800. Means were not forthcoming
even to garrison the fortresses.

Suleiman's vizir laughed at the princes of the West, who were forced
to extort money from the wretched peasants before they could make
war ; he pointed to the seven towers, in which his master had gold and
silver lying in vast heaps, while his word was sufficient to place a countless
army in the field.

It is little wonder that, under these circumstances, the strong party
that adhered to Zapolya was completely triumphant. The magnates —
the Hungarian Beys, as they are called in Suleiman's journal — rivalled
each other in the alacrity with which they repaired to his camp to kiss
his hand. Peter Pereny endeavoured at least to rescue the holy crown

Chap. VII.] SULEIMAN IN GERMANY 577

for Austria ; but he was attacked on the road by the Bishop of Fiinfkirchen,
a kinsman of Zapolya's, who took him prisoner with all the regalia, and
carried them to the Ottoman camp.1 The extraordinary veneration
with which the Hungarians regard their crown is well known. They
believe it to have been sent down from heaven, and affirm that, at the
sight of it, drawn swords have leaped back into their scabbards. ," The
loadstone does not more strongly attract the iron," says Rewa, " than the
crown does the reverence of the Hungarians, and they hold it to be their
duty to escort it whithersoever it may be borne, without heeding cost or
danger."2 The Turkish notion was, that it had been handed down from
Nuschirwan the Just ; and this palladium, in which the Hungarians
beheld a divine symbol of their nationality and their kingdom, was now in
Suleiman's camp, and accompanied his army.

In this universal defection, it could hardly be expected that the German
garrisons would be able to defend the few strong places they still occupied.
There were about 700 newly raised landsknechts under Colonel Besserer,
in Ofen, who held out against several assaults ; but when the city was
taken, and the castle of St. Gerhardsberg, which commanded it, was
nearly in ruins, they despaired of being able to resist the enemy's fire with
their long lances, and held themselves justified in consulting their own
safety ; they forced their leader to capitulate. But they knew not the
enemy with whom they had to deal : Ibrahim Pacha promised, in the most
solemn manner, that they should march out free ; they had not reached
the gates of Ofen when they were all cut to pieces.3

From this moment the barbarian torrent rolled unresisted towards the
German frontier : " towards a land," says the Ottoman historian, " which
had never yet been trodden by the hoof of a Moslem steed."

The mighty power of the East, erected on kingdoms the civilization of
which was either in the state of undeveloped infancy or of semi-barbarized
decay, here first came in contact with the very heart of Western life, where
the unceasing progression of the human mind had taken root, and was in
full activity.

1 Zermegh, Historia rerum inter Johannem et Ferdinandum gestarum.
Schwandtner, ii., lib. i., § 12.

2 Rewa, De sacra corona regni Hungariae ; Schwandtner, ii. 456. See Tuber-
onis Commentarii, Ibid., 113, 114.

3 The groundlessness of the somewhat dramatic and dressed-out lamentations
of Ursinus Velius (lib. vi.) — that the Landsknechts had, on this occasion, for-
gotten the old German valour — which have found their way into modern his-
tories, appears, the moment we recur to some simpler statement ; as, for example,
that of the tutor of the pages (Pagenhofmeister) in Schardius, iii. 238 : — " Arx
ad voluptatem magis quam vim instructa erat," etc. ; or that of Sebast Frank
(which is, by-the-by, identical with a pamphlet of that time), p. 256, where he
says, the castle was garrisoned by four companies (Fahnlein), " die nitt so vil
man oder einzelich personen vermochten, als der Turk tausend ; noch hat er
eilf gewaltiger sturm davon verloren, dass er meynet es weren eitel Teufel im
Schloss." — " Who were not so many men, or single persons strong, as the Turks
were thousands ; yet were these repulsed in eleven violent assaults, so that
they thought there were nothing but devils in the castle." " Wo die nit gewest,"
adds Pessel," wer vielleicht die Stat Wien iibereilet worden." — " Had they not
been there, the city of Vienna would perhaps have been taken." " Achthundert
frummer deutscher knecht, Die hielten sich redlich und recht," says the song of
Soltau, p. 337.

37

578 SULEIMAN IN GERMANY [Book V.

No sooner had they set foot in Germany, than the Ottomans foumdl
they had a different foe before them from any they had yet encountered.

They describe it as a country of Giaours (they make no distinctions;
between infidels), a woody land, difficult to traverse ; but they remark
that it is peculiarly illumined by the torches of unbelief ; inhabited by a,
warlike people, marching under fierce banners, and defended on all sides
by castles, cities, and walled churches ; they are struck with the fact
that as soon as they had passed the frontier, they found every necessary
of daily life in the greatest abundance.1 They felt the presence of a people
thoroughly imbued with civilization, surrounded with the comforts of a.
long-settled population, brave and religious.

Ibrahim told the Austrian ambassadors the following year, that the
warning they had sent the Sultan, not to advance further, for that
Ferdinand their lord stood ready, sword in hand, to receive him, had served!
only to enflame Suleiman with fresh ardour to seek him out. He had
expected to find him in Ofen, where he thought a king of Hungary ought
to hold his seat ; but in this he had been disappointed. He had then
advanced to the Austrian frontier, where he thought Ferdinand would!
wait for him ; on the contrary, the keys of Bruck were carried out to>
meet him on his approach. Thus he reached Vienna, but there, too, he:
found neither Ferdinand nor his army ; he only learned that the king;
had fled to Lintz or Prague. At the sight of Vienna, so beautifully sur-
rounded by vineyards and mountains, and yet lying in the midst of a
fertile plain, he said that here he would rest ; this was a place worthy
of an emperor ; he had spread out his skirts (i.e., he had allowed his light
troops to disperse on all sides), to show that the real emperor was come
in his might.2

Such is the description of the event, given by Suleiman himself in a letter
to Venice. He relates how he had taken Ofen, and made himself master
of Hungary, and given it to King John ; and how the ancient crown of
that kingdom had fallen into his hands. " My purpose, however," he
says, " was not to seek these things, but to encounter King Ferdinand."3
He told the first German prisoners that were brought him, that he would
seek out Ferdinand, even if he were in the centre of Germany.

On the 20th September, he arrived before Vienna, and pitched his
camp there. From the lofty tower of St. Stephen's church nothing was
to be descried for miles, over hill and dale, but tents, and the Danube
covered with Turkish sails. The place is still pointed out near Sommering,
where Suleiman's own tent stood, the internal magnificence of which may
be inferred from the golden balls and tassels with which its exterior was
decorated. He encamped in the same order as he had marched. The
troops from the Porte immediately surrounded him ; behind him lay the
Anatolian army under its Beglerbeg, extending as far as Schwechat ;
before him, the Seraskier Ibrahim, with the European Spahis, the Roume-
liotes and Bosniaks, and the Sandschaks of Mostar and Belgrade. For,

1 Ssoloksade in Hammer, Wiens erste tflrkische Belagerung, p. 101. See
Suleiman's Journal, 22nd Sept., Osman. Gesch., iii. 650.

2 Lamberg und Jurischitsch in Gevay, 1530, p. 36. In Latin, agreeing in the
main, but with some peculiarities, p. go.

3 Copia della lettera del Sultan Solimano. Belgr., 9th Nov., Hammer, Bela-
gerung, p. 77.

Chap. VII.] SCHEMES OF RESISTANCE 579

in a country where the state is nothing else but the army, the distribution
of the camp represents that of the empire. The Hungarians, who rivalled
the other subjects of Suleiman in their zeal " to adorn themselves with
the collar of obedience," already found their place in this great assemblage.
It consisted of western Asia and eastern Europe, in the form they had
assumed, and were still assuming, under the influence of conquering
Islam ; they now made their first attempt on the heart of christian Europe.
The light troops ascended the Danube in search of the fabulous bridge of
the horned Alexander — the boundary of the fantastic world of oriental
mythology. The beast of burthen of the Arabian desert was driven up
to the walls of a German city, laden with provisions and munitions of war ;
— there were 22,000 camels in the camp. The memory of those who fell
before Vienna is still celebrated with oriental pomp. Potschewi says in
his history, speaking of Iskendertschausch Farfara, that " immediately
on his arrival here, he drank of the cup of Islamite martyrdom, and forgot
the world." For the Turkish army believed itself to be waging a holy
war against " the infidels who were like dust before it." In full view of
the grandest castle of the latest German emperors, the doctrine of the
sublime Porte was proclaimed ; that, as there was only one God in heaven,
there must be only one lord on earth : and Suleiman gave it to be under-
stood that he was this lord ; he declared that he would not lay his head
to rest till he had reduced Christendom to subjection with his sword.
It was rumoured that he reckoned on a three years' absence from Con-
stantinople for the execution of this design.

Europe was not so dull of apprehension as not to feel the magnitude
of the danger.

It was a crisis like that which arose when the Arabians had got possession
of the Mediterranean, conquered Spain, and pressed on towards France ;
or when the Mongolian power, after overwhelming the north-east and
south-east of Europe, attacked christian Germany on the Danube and
the Oder. Europe was evidently now stronger ; it was conscious that it
possessed the power " to drive these devils (so they were called) out of
Greece ;" but the necessary union seemed impossible.

There is a letter of Francis I., of this period, in which he declares, that
he would now put in execution the purpose he had always cherished, of
devoting all the powers of his kingdom and his person to the war against
the Turks ; he hoped to move his brother of England to do the same ;
he thought that he could then bring 60,000 men into the field — a force
that certainly was not to be despised. He expresses himself with such
warmth that he appears to be really in earnest ; but he adds a condition
which nullifies the whole. He proposes that the emperor should remit
one of the two millions which he was bound by treaty to pay him — a
proposition to which nobody could expect the emperor to accede.1

The imperial court, too, where the danger was still more urgent, and
where the Ottoman maxim, that every country through which the Sultan
marched belonged to him, became of terrible practical importance, was
employed in devising means for rousing the whole of Christendom to arms.

1 Lettres de Gilles de Pommeraye, MS. Bethune 8619. En cas que led.
empeurer, pour m'ayder a souldoyer les gens que je menerois en ma compaignie,
me voulust sur lesd. 2 millions d'escus en rabattre ung million, je me faisois
fort, etc.

37—2

580 LUTHER'S OPINION [Book V.

The expedient suggested is very remarkable. Hoogstraten, the leading
minister in the Netherlands, once opened himself on the subject to the
French ambassador. He said, the true way of resisting the Turks was to
bring the Pope to consent to a universal scheme of secularization. A
third of the church property, sold to the highest bidders, would suffice
to bring an army into the field, capable of driving out the Turks and
reconquering Greece.1

It is only necessary to look at these propositions, in order to see their
impracticability ; to see how impossible it was to carry through an under-
taking burthened with conditions so remote and visionary.

If Germany meant to defend itself, it was evident that it must look
to its own resources alone.

But even here things wore a very doubtful aspect. It was a question
whether there were not people so dissatisfied with the existing order of
things, as to wish even for Turkish rule. Luther himself had once said
that it was not the duty of a christian to resist the Turks, whom he ought
rather to regard as the scourge of God : this indeed was one of the sentences
condemned in the papal bull. And now the results of the diet of Spires
were calculated to excite the alarm of all the adherents of a reform in the
church, and, as we have seen, to incline them to question whether they
ought to afford assistance to Ferdinand — the head of the very majority
by which their own just demands had been rejected.

As to Luther, it is true that he used the expression just quoted ; but
in this passage he speaks only of christians, as such ; — of the religious
principle abstracted from all other considerations, such as it is exhibited
in some passages of the gospel. His indignation and disgust had been
excited by the hypocritical outcry for war against the Turks, for the sake ■
of the christian religion, and the appeals to the faithful for contributions
which were applied to very different purposes.2 In short, he utterly
abjured warlike Christianity ; he would not bring religion into so close
a connexion with the sword. But when it came to be a question of real
danger, and of aiding the efforts of the civil power to resist that danger,
he declared in the most emphatic manner, that it was a positive duty to
oppose the progress of the Turks. For that cause was the empire entrusted
to the emperor ; he and the princes would otherwise be guilty of the
blood of their subjects, which God would require at their hands. He
thinks it strange, that the assembly at Spires was so much troubled
whether people ate meat in Lent, or whether a nun got married, while
it let the Turk advance, and conquer cities and countries at his pleasure.
He calls on the princes no longer to regard the banner of the emperor

1 Que ces deux princes conduisissent le pape jusques a ce point que i° il se
contente de ce qu'il a, 2° qu'il permette qu'a l'eglise des six mille due, de rente
on preigne les deux universellement par toute la Chretiente ; les quelles seront
vendus au plus offrant, et avec l'argent que les princes fourniront (for they were
to do something) sera suffisant pour deloger ce diable de la Grece, qui seroit
grandement accroistre l'eglise d'y adjoindre un tel pays que celui la. Lettre de
Pommeraye, 17 Sept.

2 " Therefore they should desist from urging and goading, as the emperor and
princes have been hitherto urged, to the conflict with the Turks, on the plea
that, being the head of Christendom, the protector of the church, and defender
of the faith, he ought to extirpate the religion of the Turks." Vom Kriege wider
die Turken. Published about Easter, 1529. Altenb., iv. 525.

Chap. VII.] SIEGE OF VIENNA 581

merely as a piece of silk, but to follow it, as was their duty, to the field.
With a view to convert those who wished for the government of the Turks,
he takes the trouble to set forth all the abominations of the Koran. He
exhorts the people to march forth boldly in the name of the emperor ;
" he who dies in the performance of this duty," says he, " will be well
pleasing to God."

In treating of this great peril of the German nation, we may be per-
mitted to record the opinion of the man whose voice was at the time more
potent than any other. The address on the Turkish war exhibits, in all
its penetrating acuteness, the spirit whose grand task it was to separate
the ecclesiastical and temporal elements.

So much at least he effected, that the protesters, though in actual
dread of war and violence on the part of the majority, and though they
had not assented to the resolutions of the diet, made the same preparations
for the defence of the country as the others. Even Elector John sent
several thousand men into the field under the command of his son.1

From every side succours hurried to join the general-in-chief of the
empire, Count Palatine Frederick, who meanwhile had come up with
King Ferdinand at Lintz.2

These troops were, however, far from being strong enough to attack
the Ottoman camp, especially during the first panic. The emperor, who
heard in Genoa that Suleiman was not coming thither, did not find himself
in a condition to hasten with his Spaniards to the assistance of Vienna,
as he had promised.

For the present, therefore, all depended on the ability of the garrison
of Vienna to resist the barbarians.

It is worth our while to pause a moment over the particulars of this
siege, which at the time engrossed the attention of the world, and was
indeed pregnant with the most important consequences. Had Suleiman
conquered Vienna, he would have found means to fortify it in such a
manner that it would not have been easy to recover it from his grasp.
From this admirable post, he would have commanded the whole territory
of the Middle Danube.

Nor are we to imagine that Vienna was a very strong place. It was
surrounded by a ruinous wall, without any of the defences contrived by
the modern art of fortification ; without even bastions upon which artillery
commanding the enemy's camp could have been planted. The ditches
were without water. The commanders of the army of Lower Austria had
at first doubted whether they could defend the " wide-spread, uncultivated
spots ;" for a moment they thought they would rather await the enemy
in the open field, so that, in case of need, they could fall back upon the
fresh troops which the count palatine and the king were busied in collecting ;
at last, however, they had come to the conclusion that they must not sur-
render their ancient capital, and had resolved to burn the suburbs, in order
to preserve the city within the walls.

But though the fortifications were feeble, Maximilian's passion for
gunnery now, so long after his death, stood his capital in good stead. Not
only in the citadel, and behind the loop-holes which had been pierced

1 Spalatin Vita Johannis Electoris in Mencken, ii. 11 17.

2 Hubert Thomas Leodius de vita Friderici, p. 119, literally transcribed in
Melchior Soiter de Vinda Bellum Pannonicum, lib. i. Schardius, iii., p. 250.

582 SIEGE OF VIENNA [Book V.

in the walls, but on all the towers of the city gates, on the houses, on the
walls (which were first unroofed) under the roofs, nay, in the very dormi-
tories of the convents, falconets, culverins, mortars, nightingales, and
other kinds of artillery stood ready to receive the enemy's assault.

The garrison consisted of five regiments ; four German (two of which
were raised at the cost of the empire, and two by Ferdinand himself) and
one Bohemian. The troops of the empire, under count palatine Philip,
Frederick's lieutenant, occupied the wall from the Red Tower to the
Carinthian gate ; from hence the king's troops under Eck von Reischach
and Leonhard von Fels, extended to the Scots' gate. They were people
of every variety of German race ; among them many eminent Austrians,
besides Brabanters, Rhinelanders, men of Meissen and of Hamburg, and
especially Franconians and Swabians ; we find captains from Memmingen,
Nuremberg, Ansbach, and Bamberg ; a master of the watch from Geln-
hausen ; the Schultheiss (magistrate^ of the whole army was from Frunds-
berg, territory of Mindelheim, and the chief provost from Ingoldstadt.
The Bohemians occupied the ground from the Scots' gate to the Red
Tower. A few parties of horsemen were posted about on the open places
within the city, under the excellent captains Nicolas von Salm, William
von Rogendorf, and Hans Katzianer. There might be sixteen or
seventeen thousand men in all.

Whether these troops would be able to resist an enemy so enormously
superior in numbers, was however very doubtful.

Suleiman sent a message to the garrison, promising that if they would
surrender the city to him, he would neither enter it himself, nor allow
any of his troops to do so, but would continue his march in search of the
king. But if they refused, he was well assured that on the third day
from the present (Michaelmas day) there would be no dinner eaten in
Vienna ; on that day, he would not spare the babe in its mother's womb.

According to the ballads and tales of the time, the answer of the garrison
was, that he might come to dinner when he would, they would dress it
for him with culverins and halberts. But this is not true. Their minds
were not sufficiently at ease to send so bold and haughty a reply. " The
answer," says an authentic report of the general, " stuck in our pen."
They made the most earnest preparations for defence, but by no means
with the persuasion that they should conquer. They saw the extent of
the danger, but were determined to brave it.1

Suleiman had therefore no other alternative than to take the city by
force.

First, the janissaries posted themselves, with their battle-axes and fire-
locks, behind the walls of the ruined suburbs ; they were excellent marks-
men, and had with them a company of expert archers ; no one could venture
to appear on the walls or battlements, for the assailants commanded the
whole circuit of the town, and the gables of the nearer houses bristled with
arrows.

Amidst the dust and noise caused by this discharge of weapons, the
Ottomans now prepared a very different attack. Whoever was their
master, — whether, as it was said, an Armenian, or of what other nation,
—it is certain that one of the most formidable of their arts of besieging

1 Journal of the siege : Hammer, p. 66. Clearly an official report, as the
postscript and the whole form show ; drawn up on the 19th October.

Chap. VTL] SIEGE OE VIENNA 583

was the undermining' of the walls.1 The men of the West were astonished
when they afterwards beheld these mines, with entrances as narrow as a
door, and gradually widening ; not like the mines they were accustomed
to work for metals, but smooth, regular, spacious caverns, so constructed
that the walls must fall inwards. The Turks had but little artillery, and
this was the art which they now brought to bear upon Vienna. But they had
here to do with people well skilled in subterranean works. The garrison
soon perceived the enemy's designs ; vessels of water and drums were
placed so as to betray the slightest motion of the earth ; romantic stories
are still told how people watched and listened in every cellar and under-
ground room, and countermined accordingly. It was a sortof subter-
ranean war. On the second of October a half-finished mine of the enemy's
was found and destroyed. Another was soon after discovered, at the
very moment when they were beginning to fill it with powder. The
miners sometimes came so near that they could hear each other work ;
the Turks then turned in another direction. In order at all events to
secure the Carinthian gate, the Germans thought it necessary to surround
it with a ditch of sufficient depth ; but this, of course, was not possible in
all places.

On the 9th of October, the Turks succeeded in blowing up a consider-
able portion of the wall between the Carinthian gate and the citadel, and
at the same moment they rushed to the storm amidst the wildest battle-
cries.

But the besieged were already prepared. Eck von Reischach, who had
learned at Pavia how to receive an assault, had described to his people
the rush and shouts of a storming party, and how it was to be met. We
are told by a contemporary, that Reischach's instructions gave his
young landsknechts " a brave and manly heart ;" it is certain that they
stood admirably. They answered the Ottoman warcry with a tremendous
" Come on !" (Her !) Halberts, firelocks, and cannon supported each
other with the best results. " The balls of the carronades and muskets,"
says Dschelalsade, " flew like flocks of small birds through the air ; it
was a banquet at which the genii of Death filled the glasses." The German
accounts dwell particularly on the valour displayed by the aged Salm,
the commander of the army of Lower Austria, at this moment.2 The
Ottomans sustained such a murderous loss, that they were compelled to
retreat. The ruined walls were instantly restored as far as possible.

But the enemy sought to repair this check by an attack on the other
side of the Carinthian gate. After many false alarms, he blew up a con-
siderable portion of the wall leading to the Stubenthor, and immediately
made another attempt at storming. His columns were now more closely
formed. The Asafs and Janissaries had been re-inforced by Spahis of
Albanian origin, from Janina and Awlona ; armed with their crooked
sabres and small shields, they rushed forward in the van of the other
troops, over the prostrate walls. But here Eck von Reischach, with four

1 At a later period Marsigli took great pains to ascertain the proceedings of
the Turks on this occasion. See Stato militare degli Ottomanni, ii., c. xi., p. 37.
The corps of the Lagumdschi — miners — received fiefs, not pay, and were there-
fore held in greater honour. Hammer, Staatsverfassung der Osm., ii. 233.

2 Especially in the Journal in Anton, p. 34 ; concerning Reischach, see p. 32,
4th October.

584 SIEGE OF VIENNA [Book V-

small companies of intrepid landsknechts, threw himself in their way.
He was supported, as at Pavia, by Spanish soldiers, skilled in the use of
fire-arms ;x and by field marshal William von Rogendorf. They fought
hand to hand, and the long battle-swords which the Germans wielded
with both hands, mingled clashing with the Turkish scimitars. A Turkish
historian describes the fires which flashed from the encounter. Thrice
did the Ottomans renew the assault. Jovius, who described so many
battles, remarks that hardly had this century witnessed a sterner encounter.2
But all the efforts of the Ottomans were vain ; they sustained far heavier
losses now than before.

This reverse entirely damped their courage.

On the 1 2th October they again overthrew a part of the city wall ;
but when they saw the Germans and Spaniards with their banners displayed
on the other side, they did not venture to advance.

Already had the notion gained ground in the Ottoman camp that, in
the decrees of the Most High, the conquest of Vienna was not for the
present destined to Islam. The nights were unusually cold for the season,
and the mountains were covered in a morning with hoar frost ;3 they
thought with anxiety on the length and danger of the way back, and
remembered that no preparation was made for the three years' absence
of which Suleiman had spoken. Added to this, there were rumours of
approaching relief. An army of the hereditary subjects of Austria was
assembling in Moravia, while armaments were actively making in the
circles of the Swabian league. Schartlin boasts what admirable soldiers
he recruited in Wiirtemberg. Count Palatine Frederick, who had remained
in the neighbourhood of Vienna, assumed a more menacing attitude.
The peasants had already begun successfully to resist the bands of skir-
mishers. Suleiman perceived what would be his position if he were
attacked here, in a hostile country, without any fortified places and in
the bad season, by an enemy whose valour he had now learned to appre-
ciate. He determined to make one last attempt on Vienna, and if that
failed, immediately to raise the siege and retreat. He chose a day which
he regarded as lucky, the 14th of October, — the day on which the sun
enters the Scorpion. Exactly at noon he assembled a large part of his
army within sight of the walls. Tschausche proclaimed rewards, mines
were sprung, breaches opened, and the signal for storming was given.
But the soldiers had lost all confidence ; theywere driven forward almost
by force, and then came within range of the guns on the walls, so that
whole ranks fell without even seeing the enemy. Towards evening a band
was seen to advance from the vineyards, and instantly to retire
again.4

1 See especially the first Venetian Report in Hammer, p. 158 ; he 'mentions
Rogendorf, Erich de Rays, et alcuni nobili con 4 bandiere de fanti insieme cum
li Spagnoli.

2 Jovius, 28, 69, generally follows private accounts. The mention of the
Count of Oettingen shows that he speaks of the nth of October.

3 Pomis uvisque immaturis vescebantur : equi strictis arborum frondibus et
vitium pampinis tolerabantur. Ursinus Velius.

i " Sie haben kurz den Fuxen nicht wollen beissen " (in short, they would not
bite the fox), says the official report (Hammer, p. 68), which is written with the
joyous humour of a. victorious soldier. Hans Sachs says in his Historia der

Chap. VII.] RETREAT OF THE OTTOMANS 585

Hereupon a general retreat began : the Anatolians now formed the
main guard ; in the night the Sultan himself struck his tent ; the janissaries
set fire to their encampments in the suburbs, and hastened to accompany
their lord. A few days afterwards Ibrahim followed with the rest of the
European troops.

It was the first time that an enterprise of the victorious sultan had so
totally failed. He now perceived that he was not, so absolutely as his
poets boasted, " the gold in the mine of the world — the soul in the body
of the world ;"1 that there were other vigorous and invincible forces
besides himself, and beyond his power to subdue.

For the moment, however, he had reason to console himself ; he had
wrested Hungary from the Germans. John Zapolya received the sacred
crown from the hands of the Ottoman authorities ; though called king,
he was in fact only a lieutenant of the sultan.

It might have been thought that Ferdinand would take advantage of
the disorder of this retreat, and of the army collected for the relief of
Vienna, to reconquer the kingdom ; and in fact the frontier towns, Alten-
burg, Trentschin, &c, fell into his hands ; but the Castle of Gran held out,
and the troops which came up were far too weak to recover Of en.2 The
cause of this failure is evident enough ; — the king had no money. It
would have required at least 20,000 gulden to set the troops in motion ;
he could raise only 1400 gulden (and even that sum in base coin), and a few
thousand gulden worth of cloth. The discontent was universal. The
Tyrolese, who were urgently entreated to take part in this enterprise,
had unanimously refused ; the people flatly declared they had no mind
to serve any longer.3 Suleiman, on retiring from before Vienna, had
rewarded the janissaries for their efforts, however unsuccessful, with rich
gifts ; while the landsknechts, who had so gallantly and so successfully
defended the city, were not paid even the storming money (Sturmsold) to
which they had a sort of right. The consequence was, a violent mutiny
broke out among them. Such being the state of things in the imperial
army, their adversaries in Hungary were soon predominant. In the

tiirkischen Belagerung der Statt Wien, und handlung beyder tail, auf das kiirzest
ordenlich begriffen (Thl., i. 208) :

" Da sach man naus auf manchem thurn,
Das die Turken getrieben wurn,
Von iren waschen mit gewalt,
Mit saybeln priigeln Jung und alt,
Aus iren hutten und gezelten,
Aus den weinbergen und den welden.
Das sie anlaufen sturmen solten,
Das sie sich arsten und nit wolten."

" Then the people saw from many a tower that the Turks were driven with
force from their watches, young and old, with blows of sabres, out of their huts
and their tents, out of the vineyards and woods ; that they should [were ordered
to] rush to the assault, and that they halted and would not."

1 Baki's Kasside, translated by Hammer, p. 7.

2 Ursinus Velius, lib. viii.

3 Instructions of the military commissaries in Presburg for Count Nicolas zu
Salm the younger, imperial councillor and chamberlain to King Ferdinand :
Hormayr, Taschenbuch auf, 1840, p. 506.

586 CHARLES V. IN ITALY [Book V.

upper districts we find several German captains of note (especially that
Nickel Minkwitz) who gave the Elector of Brandenburg so much trouble)
in the service of Zapolya ; from Kesmark he traversed the country and
set fire to Leutschau.1 Meanwhile the Turks made an irruption over
the Bosnian frontier, and Croatia was in danger of falling into their hands ;
a disaster, the consequences of which extended even to the remoter parts
of the country. In Bohemia, Zapolya had so many warm supporters,
even among the most considerable men of the kingdom, that when Fer-
dinand went to Prague, at the end of January, 1530, he came to the con-
viction that he must get rid of all those who had any share in the govern-
ment, if he meant to be master of the country.2 This disastrous state
of things, however, only proves more strongly the immeasurable impor-
tance of the defence of Vienna.

The emperor advised his brother to conclude a truce with the sultan ;
since, at this moment, their combined forces were not sufficient to confront
him, and no other prince would afford them assistance.

Nay, even in Italy, he had felt the reaction consequent on the triumphs
of the Ottoman arms.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARLES V. IN ITALY.

Notwithstanding the numerous victories obtained by Charles V., not-
withstanding their sudden abandonment (contrary to all promise), by
Francis I., the Italian states were still in a condition to oppose a formidable
resistance to the imperial arms.

Venice was in possession of her entire Terra firma, some towns in the
States of the Church, and several strong places in the Neapolitan terri-
tory, which she successfully defended : she kept a noble army in the field,
which, if it had won no celebrated victory, had never been beaten ; under
the conduct of a leader who knew how to satisfy the cautious and jealous
senate, and, at the same time, to maintain his own reputation. Her
naval power too was in a flourishing condition ; an expedition was pre-
paring in Corfu which was to make a descent on the Neapolitan coast at
Brindisi.

The duke of Milan, in spite of long and ruinous wars, still held posses-
sion of the greater part of his country, and (besides some less consider-
able) was master of the strongest places at that time in Italy — Cremona,
Lodi and Alessandria.

It was hardly to be supposed that the duke of Ferrara, who had defended
a territory fortified by nature and art, against innumerable attacks,
would not now be able to repel his enemies.

Florence was governed by a party resolved to maintain their liberties

1 Sperfogel, and the journal of Pastor Moller of Leutschau, whose own full
barns were set on fire, Katona, xx., 1, pp. 540, 546. Minkwitz is here called
Nicolaus Mynkowitz ; he went soon after from Kesmark to Ofen.

2 Letter from Ferdinand to Charles, 21st January, 1530, in Gevay, p. 68.
Entre tant que ils ont le governement, je ne saroie avoir obeisance ne poroie
meintenir la justice.

Chap. VIII.] NEGOTIATIONS IN ITALY 587

even by a struggle for life and death ; Michel Angelo Buonarotti, himself
a member of it, fortified the city with a fertility of invention and a skill
in the execution, which, a century and a half later, excited the admiration
of a Vauban ;x a sort of levy en masse was organized throughout the
territory. The Florentines were already in alliance with Perugia, which
they hoped to get completely into their hands. They were also on toler-
ably good terms with Siena, which was, like Florence,2 oppressed by the
pope.

The States of the Church and Naples were still in a state of universal
disquiet and ferment.

How often had Italy offered successful resistance to warlike emperors,
who crossed the Alps with far more powerful armies than that at the
disposal of Charles, even though they were supported by a party in the
country ! Even when an emperor had gained a firm footing there, this
had only served to unite all parties in Italy in a common effort, to drive
him back. Neither valour nor talent, neither Frederick I. nor Frederick II.,
had been able to give stability and permanence to their domina-
tion.

And now came this youthful emperor, whose pale face and feeble voice
— whose frame graceful and healthy, but far from robust, gave him rather
the air of a courtier than a warrior — who had never seen a serious battle —
and were they to submit to him ?

The chief circumstance in his favour was, that he was closely united
with the pope, in consequence of the affairs of Florence. On his arrival at
Venice, the Florentines sent an embassy to him, but of course with limited
powers ; since they were determined at all events to maintain their actual
constitution. The emperor answered, that they must, in the first place,
recall the Medici, and restore them to the rank they held before their last
expulsion.3 The young Alessandro, whom he destined to be his son-in-
law and ruler of Florence, was already in his train.4 Moreover, he could
not endure a government which had always leaned to the Guelph and.
French party. Until, however, this affair was settled, the emperor was
completely sure of the pope, who entertained a passionate hatred of the
enemies of his house in Florence.

It might possibly occur to Charles V. that he might take arms again,
and compel his divided antagonists to accept his conditions. This the
intimate friends whom he had consulted at his departure from Germany,
probably expected ; for his presence, they averred, would be equivalent
to an army of ten thousand men ; the world must be shown that nobody
could resist where the emperor appeared in person. Some old captains

1 Vasari Vita di Buonarotti (Vite d. Pitt, X., no).

2 Relatio n.. v. Antonii Suriani de legatione Florentina, 1529. Et pero cum
questo fondamento de inimicitia con il papa, queste republiche hanno trattato
insieme qualche intelligentia.

3 According to Jacopo Pitti, Apologia de capucci, a MS. full of excellent
information, the ambassadors had the " segreta commissione, di non pregiudi-
care ne alia liberta ne al dominio : il che notificato con piu segretezza a Cesare,
hebbono per ultima risposta, che se volevano levarsi da dosso la guerra, rimettes-
sero i Medici nello stato che erano avanti si partissero dalla citta : onde li oratori
se ne partirono subito." See Varchi, ix. 234.

4 Carlo V. a Clemente VII. 29 d'Agosto. Similmente dico, ch'io sto molto
contento della persona del Duca Alessandro. Lettere di principi, ii., f. 185.

588 NEGOTIATIONS IN ITALY [Book V

of the Italian wars were also in favour of this course. Charles afterwards
regretted that he did not pursue it, and especially that he did not imme-
diately enter the Venetian territory ; the issue of the attempt of the
Turks on Vienna being what it was, he might then have dictated a
peace.1

This issue, however, it had been impossible to foresee ; and the first
effect of the advance of the grand sultan was rather to awaken in the
Italian powers a hope that they might find that support in the Turks,
which France no longer afforded them. Milan and Venice, therefore,
drew closer the bonds of their alliance ; they determined on mutual suc-
cours, and each promised not to conclude a separate peace. War broke
out again in Lombardy ; Leiva took Pavia, and a few thousand lands-
knechts under Count Felix von Werdenberg, invaded the Venetian terri-
tory along the Lago di Garda, and plundered the Brescian country.2
These slight successes, however, decided nothing ; and the two states
presented a front fully armed and prepared for self-defence.

Suleiman's retreat altered the face of things : the Italians, abandoned
on all sides, lost courage ;3 but the emperor had in the interval constantly
evinced such pacific dispositions, that he could not revert to any warlike
schemes without breaking his word and losing for ever the public con-
fidence.''

It was not agreeable to him indeed to restore the Milanese, which he
would gladly have disposed of otherwise, to Francesco Sforza ; nor to
leave the towns of the Terra firma, which he claimed as emperor, in the
hands of the Venetians ; but, all circumstances considered, it was not to
be avoided.5

It was most important to him to make peace with the Venetians, who
still possessed some strong places and good harbours in the Neapolitan
territory. By the acquisition of these, Naples would be tranquillized ;
it would then be able to conduct its own administration, and to contribute
to the general expenses of the empire.

In order to retain possession of the Milanese, he must first wrest from
Francesco Sforza the fortresses, which were in an excellent state of defence ;
this could not be done without a serious war, and would unsettle the treaty
of peace concluded with France, and even with the pope.

Pope Clement earnestly wished for peace. His former schemes of
restoring the independence of Italy, had been merged in his desire to
reduce Florence to obedience. Now it was manifest that a renewal of
the war, let it terminate how it might, would open to that city a possibility
of resistance, while it would greatly diminish his means of attack, by
furnishing other occupation to the imperial army. He thought, therefore, .

i Charles to Ferdinand, 10 January, 1530. Me trouvois plus loing de vous
que n'eusse fait si dez le commencement je me fusse party au pays des Veniciens,
et eusse ete plus pres pour mieux vous pouvoir succourir et eulx plus voluntaires
pour venir a ung meilleur appointement faillant votre necessite comme elle a
fait. Brussels Archives.

2 Leoni, Vita di Francesco Maria, 419.

3 Jacopo Pitti : Tutti calarono le bracche per la fuga Turchescha, altrimente
l'imperatore haberebbe havuto che fare molto piu che non si pensasse.

i Pour ceste occasion du Turcq j'avois tant parle de ceste paix qu'il ne m'eust
semble honneste la laisser de faire. (Lettre a Ferdinand, 10 Janv.)

E Si j'eusse veu moyen d'en faire autrement, n'en eusse use ainsi. Ibid.

Chap. VIII.] NEGOTIATIONS IN ITALY 589

he did enough for Milan and for Italy if he procured them a tolerable
peace.1

Everything that had happened had served to confirm the emperor in
the opinion, that he could not maintain his power in Italy without the
friendship of the pope.

Towards the end of the year 1529, they held a conference in Bologna,
the object of which was, from the beginning, the complete pacification of
Italy ; negotiations to that effect having already made some progress
under the mediation of the pope. On the 5 th of November the emperor
arrived, and found Clement awaiting him.

The pope and the emperor, like the two royal ladies in Cambray,
inhabited adjoining houses, connected by a door of which each had
a key.2

The emperor took care to prepare himself beforehand for every con-
versation with the veteran politician. He had a paper in his hand, on
which he had noted all the topics to be discussed at that interview.

The first point on which he listened to the pope's advice was, to cite
his rebellious vassal, Francesco Sforza, against whom he had proclaimed
sentence of forfeiture of his duchy, to appear before him.

Sforza was seriously ill. He was obliged to support himself on a staff
when he spoke with the emperor, and the pope would not allow him to
kiss his foot. But his cause did not suffer : he showed prudence, ability
and good dispositions ; he spoke extremely well, and understood how to
conciliate his own interest with entire devotion to his suzerain.3 With the
great men about the court he employed other means of persuasion. Gradu-
ally, the old resentment against him was allowed to subside.

The Venetian ambassador also endeavoured to remove the displeasure
which the emperor might have conceived against the republic. He
obtained an audience of two hours, and had the satisfaction of finding that
the emperor understood the situation of the republic, and admitted the
justification he had to offer.

The bases of a treaty were therefore soon agreed upon ; the Venetians
were to give up whatever they possessed belonging to the States of the
Church or to Naples, and on that condition, were not to be attacked.
Francesco Sforza was to receive the fief of the duchy of Milan.

The only difficulty lay in the demands for money both on Venice and
Milan. In order to make sure of payment from the latter, the emperor
wished to garrison the citadels of Milan and Como with his troops. On
the 1 2th of December a courier arrived, bringing the assent of the Venetian

1 Recollections in a letter from Rome, doubtless from Sanga to the Bishop of
Vasona, papal nuncio at the emperor's court. Lettere di principi, ii. 181-18;.

2 Romischer keyserlicher Majestat eynreyten gen Bolonia, auch wie sich bebst-
liche Heyligkeit gegen seyne keyserliche Majestat gehalten habe, 1529. His
Roman imperial majesty's journey to Bologna, also how his papal holiness de-
meaned himself towards his imperial majesty, 1529. At the conclusion : " Und
liegen der Keyser und der Babst also nah bei einander, das nit mer dan ein kleyn
wand zwyschen inen ist, und haben ein Thur zusammengehn und jeder ein
schlussel darzu." — " And the emperor and the pope lie near each other, so that
not more than a little wall is between them, and they have a door through which
to meet, and each has a key thereof."

3 Confidarsi in lei (S.M.), ponersi in man sua. Contarini Relatione di Bologna,
I53°-

590 PEACE OF BOLOGNA [Book V.

senate to the pecuniary terms imposed on the republic, as well as to those
regarding Milan.1

Hereupon, on the 23rd of December, a treaty of peace was concluded,
which was at the same time one of alliance. The Venetians engaged to
pay off the arrears of subsidies which they owed in virtue of the treaty of
1523, by instalments during the next eight years ; and, besides, 100,000 sc.
in the next year.2 Francesco Sforza was much more severely dealt with ;
a sum of 900,000 scudi, to be discharged at fixed periods, was demanded
of him, 400,000 of which he was to pay within the next year. This was,
as we perceive, the emperor's system ; he treated Milan and Venice in
the same manner as he had treated Portugal and France ; he waived
claims which he might have asserted, in consideration of money. The
emperor promised to defend Milan and Venice ; and the Venetians, on
their part, Naples and Milan, in case of an attack.

The Duke of Ferrara was still not included in the peace. As he was
also at enmity with the pope, he had neglected no means of obtaining
access to Charles himself. It is said that Andrea Doria wrote to him,
that his only way of gaining the favour of the emperor was to show con-
fidence in him.3 When, therefore, Charles entered Modena, the duke
went out to meet him, carrying the keys of the city ; and from that moment
it is certain that the emperor showed himself favourably disposed towards
him. The pope was far less placable. It was with the utmost difficulty
that he was induced to submit his disputes with Ferrara to a fresh investiga-
tion by the emperor himself, in whose hands the duke had consented to
place Modena as a deposit.

In the Florentine affairs Clement was perfectly immovable. Envoys
from that republic presented themselves before him again at Bologna ;
but they were only met by violent explosions of temper on the part of
the pope, and bitter reproaches for all the personal affronts that had been
offered to himself, and to the friends by whom he was surrounded in
Rome. The emperor repeated what he had always said, that he was not
come to Italy to injure anybody, but to make peace ; but that he had now
pledged his word to the pope, and must abide by it.4 The affair had often
been discussed in his privy council. It had been decided that, in the
first place, Florence had forfeited her privileges by rebellion, and that the
emperor had an indisputable right to punish her ; and secondly, that the
pope was, independently of this, fully justified in his demands ; since the
vicar of Christ would certainly commit no injustice.5 Perugia, Arezzo,
and Cortona were already in the hands of the imperialists ; the Prince of
Orange, though not as fully persuaded of the justice of the pope's claims
as his master, obeyed orders, and in the month of February encamped

1 Gregorio Casale, 13th Dec. Molini, ii., p. 263.

2 Tractatus pacis ligaa et perpetujE confoederationis, Du Mont., iv., ii., p. 53.

3 Galeacius Capella, lib. viii., p. 218.

4 Jacopo Pitti : Rispose loro Cesare gratamente, dolerli del male pativa la
Citta, perche egli non era venuto in Italia per nuocere ad alcuno, ma per metterci
pace, non poter gia in questo caso mancare al papa — ne credere che voglia il
papa cose inconvenienti : replicaronli li oratori, che la citta desiderava sola-
men te mantenere il suo governo : Cesare disse, che forse il governo parerebbe

loro ragionevole, nondimeno haberebbe bisogno di qualche corretione.

5 Declaration of the emperor's confessor. Varolii, p. 338.

Chap. VIII.] CORONATION OF CHARLES V. 59 1

with his army in the neighbourhood of Florence. During the carnival
there were daily skirmishes at the gates.

The emperor wished to settle all the affairs of Italy now definitely, that
he might be at liberty to go for a few months to Naples, where his presence
was very desirable. He would then have taken Rome in his way ; and,
as ancient usage demanded, have received the crown there with all the
customary solemnities. There were persons about him who told him
that he had accomplished nothing, if he had not been crowned in Rome
itself. Others, however, doubted whether the place was of so much
importance ; and Charles thought it expedient first to ask his brother,
whether the affairs of Germany would allow of his absenting himself for
the time required for this journey.1 Ferdinand replied, the sooner he
returned the better ; if he went to Naples, his enemies would imagine he
would never come back. It was therefore decided that the coronation
should take place at Bologna ; the emperor determined to commemorate
his birthday and the anniversary of the battle of Pavia by this solemn act.

Solemnities of this kind have a twofold significancy ; they connect the
present immediately with the remote past ; while, at the same time, they
have a character determined by the circumstances of the moment.

The coronation of Charles was distinguished by many peculiarities.
It did not take place at Rome, as had been the invariable custom, but at
Bologna ; the church of San Petronio was the substitute for St. Peter's ;
the chapels which were used for the various functions were named after
the chapels of St. Peter's, and there was a place marked in the church
which represented the confessional of St. Peter's.2

Nor did the emperor appear with the same state as his predecessors.
He had neglected to summon the electors ; a single German prince was
present — Philip of the Palatinate, who had arrived by chance the day
before the coronation — the same who had just acquired a certain celebrity
at the siege of Vienna ; but he held no official rank or charge at the cere-
mony. An escort of German knights, such as had heretofore accompanied
their emperor to the bridge of the Tiber, was out of the question ; instead
of them three thousand German landsknechts were drawn out on the
piazza, gallant and warlike soldiers, but under the command of a Spaniard,
Antonio de Leiva, who had made his entrance into the city at their head,
carried on a litter of dark-brown velvet. Whatever brilliancy surrounded
the emperor had attended him from Spain, or had come to meet him in
Italy. The procession with which he repaired to the church to be invested
with the imperial crown, on the 24th of February, 1 5 30, (having two days
previously received the iron crown with somewhat modified solemnities),
was opened by Spanish pages of noble birth ; then followed the Spanish
lords we have already enumerated, vying with each other in pomp and
splendour ; after them, the heralds — not German, but principally those
of the several Spanish provinces : the sceptre was borne by the Marquis

1 The immediate purpose of the letter of the 10th of January, so often referred
to, which I discovered during my second visit to Brussels, was this inquiry.
Ferdinand received it on the 18 th, and answered on the 28 th from Budweis.
The answer is printed in Gevay, 1530. App., No. 1.

2 Consurgens electus venit ad confessionem B. Petri et in loco humiliet

depresso ad instar loci ante ingressum capellae S. Petri de urbe procubuit. Rain-
aldus, xx. 568.

592 CORONATION OF CHARLES V. [Book V.

of Monferrat ; the sword, by the Duke of Urbino ; the globe, by Count
Palatine Philip ; and, lastly, the crown, by the Duke of Savoy. The
electors learned with wonder that their hereditary charges had been com-
mitted to others, without even asking their consent. After these un-
delegated performers of their functions, walked the emperor, between
two cardinals, and followed by the members of his privy council. A
wooden gallery had been erected to connect the palace with the church of
St. Petronio ; hardly had the emperor passed through it when it broke
down. Many regarded this as an omen that he would be the last emperor
who would be crowned in Italy1 — a prediction which the event fulfilled.
He himself saw in the incident only a fresh proof of his good fortune,
which protected him in the moment of danger.2

He was now invested with the sandals, and the mantle, ponderous and
stiff with jewels, which had been brought from the court of Byzantium. He
was anointed with the exorcised oil, according to a formula almost exactly
the same as that used by Hinkmar of Rheims ;3 the crown of Charlemagne
was placed upon his head ; he was adorned with all the insignia of the
most ancient and sacred dignity of Chief of Christendom. But while
receiving its honours, he also accepted its obligations ; he took the oath
which, in the triumphant days of the hierarchy, the popes had imposed
upon the emperors — to defend the pope, the Roman church, and all their
possessions, dignities, and rights ; and as he was a conscientious man,
we cannot doubt that he pronounced this oath with the most earnest
sincerity. The union of the spiritual and temporal hierarchy required to
complete the idea of Latin Christendom, was once more consummated.

During the ceremony, the French ambassador, the bishop of Tarbes,
stood between the throne of the emperor and that of the pope, with the
count of Nassau. They spoke much of the friendship now existing between
their sovereigns, which left nothing to desire, except that it should be
permanent. But it is only necessary to read the report of the ceremony
sent by the bishop to his own court, to see that he, at least, meant the very
reverse of what he said. He pretends to have perceived that the pope
sighed whenever he thought himself unobserved. He declares in the
same letter that the protracted meeting of the two sovereigns had rather
tended to generate aversion than friendship ; that the pope had said to
him, that he saw he was cheated, but that he must act as if he did not see
it. In short, he declared it certain that time would bring about proceed-
ings on the pope's part, with which the king of France might be well
satisfied.4

From the correspondence of the emperor with his brother, we also see
that he felt by no means secure of the pope.

i Charles V. was also the last emperor crowned by the Pope.

2 "Tovius, 27 th Book. De duplici corona tione Caroli V. Csesaris ap. Bononiam
historiola, autore H. C. Agrippa. Schardius, iii. 266.

3 The words of the unction in the ritual, " Ipse — super caput tuum infundat
benedictionem, eandem usque ad interiora cordis tui penetrare faciat " (Rain-
aldus, p. 569, No. 23), strongly remind us of Hinkmar's formula of 877 : " Cujus
sacratissima unctio super caput ejus defluat atque ad interiora ejus descendat
et intima cordis illius penetret." But the earlier form is in all respects more
beautiful.

4 Lettre de M. de Gramont, Ev. de Tarbes a M. 1' Admiral, Boulogne, 25 Fevrier,
in La Grande Histoire du Divorce, torn, iii., p. 386.

Chap. VIII.] CORONATION OF CHARLES V. 593

It would be a mistake to imagine that it would then have been safe or
possible for him to act as if he were sovereign lord of Italy ; but he knew
how to profit by the moment when his enemies were exhausted and
deprived of political support, in order to strengthen that ascendancy which
he had acquired by arms, and thus to lay the basis of future domination.

The pope might vent his anger as he pleased in moments of irritation,
but he could no longer emancipate himself from the emperor. Florence
being reduced to subjection after a brave resistance, the emperor conferred
upon the house of Medici a more firmly based legitimate power than it
had ever possessed ; a family alliance was concluded, which rendered
impossible in future any of those violent divisions which had hitherto rent
the city.

The emperor was also secure of Milan. Sforza well knew that Francis I.
had not wholly renounced his pretensions to Lombardy ; as was evident
from the eagerness with which some Milanese of rank sought to renew
their connexion with France. Sforza was therefore compelled to attach
himself unconditionally to the emperor, to whom alone he could look
for protection. Shortly after, he too became allied by marriage with the
house of Austria. An imperial general continued to command the army
in Lombardy.

Venice retained a far greater share of independence. But here, too,
the peace had been brought about by a party in opposition to the doge,
and relying on its friendly relations with Austria and Spain for its own
support. Moreover, the republic, menaced by the Ottomans, was com-
pelled to seek assistance in Europe, which no other power but Spain was
in a condition to afford. It had gradually come to a conviction that the
time for conquest and extension of territory was for ever past for Venice ;
that she was entering on a new era, the character of which would be deter-
mined by her relations with Spain.

Nor had the emperor been less anxious to attach to himself the lesser
princes and republics.

The markgrave of Mantua was raised to the dignity of duke ; Carpi
was granted to the duke of Ferrara, by the emperor ; to his brother-in-
law, the duke of Savoy, he gave Asti, which Francis I. had surrendered, — -
to his no small disgust ; to the duke of Urbino — at that time the most
renowned warrior of Italy — Charles had offered service, and distinguished
him with many personal favours in Bologna.

The old Ghibelline spirit revived in Siena and Lucca, and was fostered
in every possible way by the emperor. Whatever might be said of the
restored liberties of Genoa, the real effect of the changes that had taken
place there was to render Andrea Doria absolute.1 The name given to him
— II Figone (the fig-gardener) — from his birthplace, the Riviera, soon
gave way to another — the Monarch. And this monarch of Genoa was
admiral to the emperor.

Charles bound the great capitalists to his interests by a different, but
not less powerful tie ; he borrowed money of them.

There is no doubt that all these powers might imagine themselves
independent ; they might certainly have embraced e different line of

1 Basadonna Relatione di Milano, 1533. Esso Doria fa il privato e guberna
absolutamente Genoa. Del che si doleno Genoesi.

38

594 RELATION OF CHARLES V. TO GERMANY [Book V.

policy, and indeed, they occasionally meditated doing so. But either
their internal or external affairs afforded motives which bound them to
the emperor, and these motives were now partly enhanced by design,
partly 'developed by the nature of things ; while Charles's power was so
vast and dazzling, that a connexion with him was no less nattering to
the ambition, than profitable to the interests, of lesser sovereigns.

The world thus once more beheld an emperor in the plenitude of power ;
but the bases on which this power rested were new ; the old imperial office
and dignity were gone.

Least of all could the German nation boast that the Germanic empire
had recovered its ancient character and powers.

The electors complained that they were neither summoned to the coro-
nation, nor invited to take a share in the treaties which the emperor had
concluded with the Italian powers. They entered a formal protest, that
if anything should have been agreed to in these treaties which might now
or hereafter prove detrimental to the holy Roman empire, they had in
no wise assented or consented to it.1

The emperor had already been reminded that the conquered provinces
of Italy did not belong to him, but to the empire ; and had been required
to restore to the empire its finance chambers (Kammern), especially those
of Milan and Genoa ; upon which the imperial government would appoint
a gubernator, and would appropriate the surplus revenues to the mainten-
ance of tranquillity and law. Such, however, were not the notions of the
emperor, or of his Spanish captains. The duke of Brunswick affirmed
that obstacles had been intentionally thrown in his way, during his Italian
campaign in the year 1528, by Antonio Leiva ; the Spaniard, he said,
would endure no German prince in the Milanese. And this same Leiva
had now received Pavia in fief, and held the supreme command over an
army in the field. German influence was destroyed.

Under these circumstances the emperor, no longer the perfect repre-
sentative of the national power, took his way over the Tridentine Alps to
Germany (May, 1530).2

} If we inquire what were his own views as to Germany, we shall discover
that none but the most proximate presented themselves with any distinct-
ness to his mind.

He had promised his brother, whose fidelity to him through all the com-
plications of his Italian affairs had been unshaken, — who, feeble as were his
resources, was ever ready to come to his aid, and who had been his most
useful ally, — to confer upon him the dignity of king of the Romans. The
attempts to transfer this dignity to another house — attempts continually
renewed and not without danger — must, he said, be put an end to. The
fitting moment was now arrived ; they must take advantage of this full
tide of power and victory.

It had likewise become absolutely necessary to take effectual measures
against the Turks. Recent events had shown the Germans that not
Hungary alone, but their own Fatherland was at stake ; the imminence
of the danger would render them more compliant. This was an indispen-
sable condition to the stability of the house of Austria.

Yet he distinctly felt that this state of things would not be permanent.

1 Protest of the 30th July, 1530, in the Coblentz Archives.

2 Bucholtz, iii. 92. Note.

Chap. IX.] DIET OF AUGSBURG 595

During his stay in Italy, a pacific demeanour — not indeed at variance
with his disposition, which rather inclined that way, but contrary to his
original intentions — had been imposed upon him by the state of things.
But the warlike schemes of his youth, though suspended, were not aban-
doned. When he turned his eyes to Germany (as he tells his brother
in a letter) he wished to confer with him about many things, and especially
about their future conduct towards that nation : — whether they should
remain at peace, or engage in any warlike expedition ; whether they
should immediately join in a common effort against the Turks, or wait
for some great occasion which might justify their enterprise.

Everything depended on the course of religious affairs, and these had
already occupied his deliberate attention.

CHAPTER IX.

DIET OF AUGSBURG, 1 530.

By the treaty of Barcelona the emperor had bound himself to endeavour,
in the first place, to bring back the dissidents to the faith ; and if that
attempt should fail, then to apply all his power " to avenge the insult
offered to Christ."1

I do not doubt that this engagement was entirely in accordance with his
intentions.

Revolting and arbitrary as the opinion delivered to him by his com-
panion, the papal legate Campeggio, appears to us, it is in fact founded on
the same ideas. Campeggio begins by suggesting the means by which the
protestants might be reclaimed ; — promises, threats, alliances with the
states which remained true to Catholicism ; in case, however, all these
should be unavailing, he insists most strongly on the necessity of resorting
to force, — to fire and sword, as he expresses it ; he declares that their
property should be confiscated, and Germany be subjected to the vigilance
of an inquisition similar to that established in Spain.2

All that has come down to us of the correspondence of the emperor
with his brother, breathes the same spirit and the same purposes.

Ferdinand had, as we know, entered into negotiations with Elector
John of Saxony ; but he assures the emperor that he does this only to
gain time. " You may think," adds he, " that I concede too much ; and
you may thus be hindered from proceeding to the work of punishment.
Monseigneur, I will negotiate as long as possible, and will conclude nothing ;
but, even should I have concluded, there will be many other pretexts for
chastising them, — reasons of state, without your needing to mention
religion ; they have played so many bad tricks besides, that you will find
people who will willingly help you in this matter."3

1 Vim potestatis distringent (Charles and Ferdinand).

2 Instructio data Caesari dal revmo. Campeggio : " con offerte prima, poi con
minaccie ridurli nella via sua, cioe del Dio omnipotente." The Opinion is at-
tached to the deliberation at Bologna, with which Eck was acquainted. See
Luther's Warnung an seine lieben Deutschen (Warning to his dear Germans).
Altenb., v. 534. .1

3 Letter from Ferdinand to the emperor ; Budweis, 28th Jan., in Gevay's
original documents of 1530, p. 67. See the Excerpt from the Chancellor's letter
in Bucholtz, iii. 427.

38—2

596 PREPARATIONS [Book V.

This, therefore, was the design ; to try first whether the protestants
could not be brought back by fair means to the unity of Latin Christendom,
which was now restored to peace, and to the imposing aspect of a great
system ; but in case this did not succeed, the application of force was
distinctly contemplated, and the right to apply it carefully reserved.

It would not have been prudent, however, to irritate the antipathies of
offended self-love by threats. Clemency ceases to be clemency, if future
severity is seen lurking in the back-ground. It was therefore determined
at present to turn only the fair side to view.

The emperor's convocation of the diet breathed nothing but peace. He
announced his desire " to allay divisions ; to leave all past erif>rs to the
judgment of our Saviour, and, further, to give a charitable hearing to every
man's opinions, thoughts, and notions ; to weigh them carefully ; to
bring men to christian truth ; and to dispose of everything that has not
been rightly explained on both sides." This proclamation was dated from
the palace in which the emperor was living with the pope. The pope left
the emperor's hands free ; and, indeed, he too would have been rejoiced
if these lenient measures had been successful.

But whatever moderation might appear in the emperor's language, the
orthodox princes were sufficiently well-informed of the temper of the
imperial court, and of its connexion with that of Rome, not to conceive
the liveliest hopes on its arrival. They hastened to draw up a statement
of all their grievances, and to revise all the old judgments and orders in
council for the suppression of the Lutheran agitation. " It pleases us
much," says the Administrator of Ratisbon, in the instructions to his
envoys to the diet, " that the innovations against the excellent and long-
established usages of the church should be rooted out and abolished."1
The emperor at first held his court at Innsbruck, in order, by the aid
of his brother's advice, to secure a favourable result of the proceedings of
the diet. Of what nature these were, may be inferred from one fact ; —
that the Venetian ambassador saw an account from which it appeared that,
between the time of its departure from Bologna, to the 12th of July, 1530,
the imperial court had expended 270,000 gulden in presents. Prosperity
and power, in themselves sufficiently imposing and attractive, were
now, as for centuries in Germany, aided by all the influence of largesses
and favours. All who had anything to expect from the court now flocked
thither, and it was almost forgotten that the diet ought long ago to have
been opened : every man was intent on getting his own business settled
without delay.2

It soon appeared from one example, how great an influence the emperor's
presence would exercise on religious affairs. His brother-in-law, the
exiled King Christian of Denmark, who had hitherto adhered to Luther,
constantly corresponded with him, and openly declared himself a convert
to his doctrines, was induced in Innsbruck to return to the old faith.
The pope was overjoyed when he heard it. " I cannot express," he
writes to the emperor, " with what emotion this news has filled me. The
splendour of your majesty's virtues begins to scare away the night ; this

1 Forstemann Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte des Reichstags von Augsburg,
bd. i./p. 209.

2 Relatio viri nobilis Nic. Theupulo doctoris, 1533 : "ne in esso vi erano spese
se non di doni fatti a diversi signori " (among whom were Italians).

Chap. IX.] DIET OF AUGSBURG 597

example will work upon numberless others."1 He granted Christian
absolution, and imposed upon him a penance which he was to perform
after his restoration to his kingdom. The emperor himself hoped that, as
he had succeeded, contrary to his expectations, in purifying Italy from
heresy, he should not fail in Germany. In Rome everything was expected
from the lucky star which seemed to preside over all his proceed-
ings.

Circumstances did indeed appear extremely propitious to his designs.

The emperor's convocation had been favourably received by the pro-
testants. The prince whose dispositions and conduct were the most
important — the elector of Saxony — was the first who arrived at Augsburg.
He went without delay to offer his congratulations to the emperor (who
had crossed the Alps just at the same time) on his arrival in the empire,
which he had learned " with loyal joy ;" he would wait the pleasure of his
majesty, his own chief and lord, in Augsburg.2 He had invited his allies to
follow him ; for the diet of Augsburg seemed to be the national council
which had been so long expected, so often and so vainly demanded, and
which now afforded a hope of the reconciliation of religious differences.3

The negotiations of the elector with king Ferdinand had, as may be
presumed from what we have just stated, led to no conclusion ; but they
were by no means broken off. Elector John had also various other affairs
to discuss with the imperial court, to arrange which he had sent an ambas-
sador to Innsbruck. The question, whether it might not be possible to
win him over, presented itself, and an attempt was made to prevail on
him to come himself to Innsbruck. The emperor sent him word that he
might rely on all possible friendship from him, and invited him to come
to his court, as many other princes had done. " He intended to unite
with him in the settlement of affairs, which might be arranged by them-
selves in person."

But here, too, Charles had a proof of the kind of resistance which he
would have to encounter in Germany. The elector was offended that the
emperor had urged him, through the ambassador of another power, to
impose silence on the preachers he had brought with him. This demand
appeared to him an unauthorized attempt to prejudge the very question
to be inquired into ; and he was persuaded that the compliance which he
refused in Augsburg would be extorted from him in Innsbruck, in case
he appeared there. He saw, too, that the court was already filled with
his personal adversaries. Nor did he think it expedient to enter upon
the business of the diet at any other place than the one appointed. In
short, he adhered to his declaration, that he would wait the emperor's
coming in Augsburg.

1 Roma, 3 Giugno, 1530. Lettere de' Principi, ii. 194.

2 To Nassau and Waldkirch, 14 May ; Forstemann, i. 162, 164.

3 13th March, ibid., p. 24. See the opinion in Briick, p. 11. In "einer Erma-
nung reymenweiss," by Hans Marschalk, 1530, God is prayed to proclaim his
work, " damit es komme an ein Ort in diesem Reichstag und Concilio," " whereby
a place may be appointed for this diet and council.','' Here the hopes of former
years reappear. The emperor is admonished to embrace the divine word,
" damit nicht weyter werd geplent das arm volk der Christenheit, welches lang
auf schmaler weyd des Glaubens halb irr gangen ist," — " that so the poor people
be no longer deprived of Christianity, who, on account of their scanty nourish-
ment of faith, have long gone half astray."

598 ENTRY OF CHARLES V. [Book V.

The imperial court was generally unprepared for the bearing exhibited
by the protestants assembled in Augsburg ; for the approbation the
preachers obtained in that city, and the popularity they enjoyed through-
out Germany. In Italy it had been thought that at the first mutterings
of the tempest, the protestants would disperse, like a flock of doves when
the hawk pounces down in the midst of them.1 Chancellor Gattinara
first remarked that the court would find more difficulties than he had
himself anticipated.2 Gattinara, an old antagonist of the papal policy,
and without question the most adroit politician the emperor possessed,
would perhaps have been the man to modify the views of the court so
as to render them attainable ; even the protestants relied upon him.
But exactly at this moment he died at Innsbruck. The state of things
excited no such serious misgivings in the others : what did not succeed
in Innsbruck, they hoped to accomplish, by some means or other, in
Augsburg.

On the 6th of June the emperor set out for that city. He took Munich
in his way, where he was magnificently received. Accompanied by the
temporal and spiritual princes of Austria and Bavaria — the same who
formerly concluded the Ratisbon league — he reached the bridge over the
Lech, before Augsburg, on the evening of the 15 th.

The most brilliant assemblage of princes of the empire that had been
witnessed for a long time, had already been waiting for some hours to
receive him ; sovereigns, spiritual and temporal from Upper and Lower
Germany, and a very numerous body of young princes who had not yet
attained to sovereignty. As soon as the emperor approached, they
alighted from their horses and advanced to meet him. The emperor too
alighted, and put out his hand to each of them in a courteous and friendly
manner. The elector of Mainz greeted him in the name of all these
" assembled members of the holy Roman empire." Hereupon they all
prepared to make their solemn entry into the imperial city. As we have
just contemplated the imperial coronation, in which Germany had hardly
any share, we must pause a moment over this still essentially German
ceremony of the solemn entry.3

Foremost marched two companies of landsknechts, to whom the
emperor entrusted the guard of the imperial city, as whose newly-arrived
lord he wished to be regarded. They were just recruited, and had not
that military air which is required in Germany ; but there were many

1 Leodius, lib. vii., p. 139. See how Erasmus speaks of Sadolet : — Duae res
nonnullam praebent spem : una est genius Caesaris mire felix, altera quod isti in
dogmatibus mire inter se dissentiunt. End of 1529, or beginning of 1530.
Epp., ii. 1258.

2 Raince, Rome, 1 Juin. Le s. pere est adverti, que le chancelier se trouvoit
aucunement (in some degree — the sense in which Raince often uses it) decu de
l'oppinion facille, en quoy il en avoit ete, et qu'il commencoit a confesser qu'il
s'appercevoit les choses en tout cas y etre plus laides qu'ils ne pensoient. MS.
Bethune, 8534.

3 We have several accounts of this ceremony. 1st. In the Altenburg collec-
tion of Luther's works. 2nd, in Cyprian's History of the Augsburg Confession,
and two pamphlets called 3rd Kaiserl. Maj. Einreitung zu Munchen, and 4th
Kais. Maj. Einreiten zum Reichstag gen Augsburg. The two former are re-
printed in Walch ; the two latter in Forstemann. Some particulars I extracted
from Fiirstenberg's letters.

Chap. IX.] ENTRY OF CHARLES V 599

among them who had served in the Italian wars, and some who had
become rich there. The most prominent figure was Simon Seitz, an
Augsburg citizen, who served the emperor as military secretary, and who
now, magnificently clad in gold, and mounted on a brown jennet with
embroidered housings, returned to his native town with an air of splendid
arrogance.

Next followed the mounted guard of the six electors. The Saxons,
according to ancient usage, headed the procession ; about a hundred and
sixty horsemen, all habited in liver colour, with matchlocks in their hands.
They consisted partly of the people about the court ; princes and counts
having one, two, or four horses, according to their dignity ; partly, of
the councillors and nobles summoned from the country. People remarked
the electoral prince, who had negotiated the first alliance with Hessen.
Then followed the horsemen of the Palatinate, Brandenburg, Cologne,
Mainz, and Trur, all in their proper colours and arms. According to
the hierarchy of the empire, the Bavarians had no place here ; but before
they could be prevented, they had taken their place, and they at least
filled it magnificently. They were all in light armour, with red surcoats ;
they rode by fives, and were distinguishable, even from a distance, by
their waving plumes. There might be four hundred and fifty horses
in all.

People were struck with the difference, when, after this most warlike
pomp, the courts of the emperor and the king made their appearance :
foremost, the pages dressed in red or yellow velvet ; then the Spanish,
Bohemian, and German lords, in garments of silk and velvet, with large
gold chains, but almost all unarmed. They were mounted on the most
beautiful horses, Turkish, Spanish, and Polish, and the Bohemians did not
forget to display their gallant horsemanship.

This escort was followed by the two sovereigns in person.

Their coming was announced by two rows of trumpeters, partly in the
king's colours, partly in the emperor's, accompanied by their drums,
pursuivants, and heralds.

Here then were all the high and mighty lords who ruled almost without
control in their wide domains ; whose border quarrels were wont to fill
Germany with tumult and war. Ernest of Liineburg and Henry of
Brunswick, who were still in a state of unappeased strife concerning the
Hildesheim quarrel ; George of Saxony, and his son-in-law, Philip of
Hessen, who had lately come into such rude collision, in consequence of
Pack's plot ; the dukes of Bavaria, and their cousins, the counts palatine,
whose short reconciliation now began to give way to fresh misunder-
standings ; near the princes of the house of Brandenburg, the dukes of
Pomerania, who, in despite of them, hoped to receive, at the coming diet,
infeudation as immediate lords. All these now acknowledged the presence
of one above them all, to whom they paid common homage and deference.
The princes were followed by the electors, temporal and spiritual. Side
by side rode John of Saxony and Joachim of Brandenburg, between whom
there was no slight grudge, sufficiently accounted for by the troubles
caused by the flight of the markgrave's wife. Elector John once more
bore the drawn sword before his emperor. Immediately after the
electors came their chosen and now crowned chief, mounted on a white Polish
charger, under a magnificent three-coloured baldachin, borne by six coun-

600 DIET OF AUGSBURG [Book V.

cillors of Augsburg. It was remarked that he who formed the centre of
this imposing group, was the only one who looked a stranger to it ; he
was dressed from head to foot in the Spanish fashion. He had expressed
a wish to have his brother on the one side of him, and on the other, the
legate, to whom he wished to pay the highest honour ; he even wanted
the ecclesiastical electors to yield precedence to him, but on this point
they were inflexible. They thought they did Campeggio honour enough
when the most learned of their College, Elector Joachim, who spoke Latin
with considerable fluency (better at least than any of its spiritual members),
offered him their congratulations. King Ferdinand and the legate accord-
ingly rode together, outside the baldachin ; they were followed by the
German cardinals and bishops, the foreign ambassadors and prelates.
Conspicuous among them was the emperor's haughty confessor, the
Bishop of Osma.1

The procession of princes and lords was again succeeded by mounted
guards ; those of the emperor clad in yellow, those of the king in red ;
with them, vying in gallant equipments, the horsemen of the lords spiritual
and temporal, each troop in its proper colours ; all armed either with
breastplate and lance, or with fire-arms.

The militia of Augsburg, which had marched out in the morning to
receive the emperor, foot and horse, paid troops and citizens, closed the
procession.

This was in accordance with the whole import of the ceremony, viz.,
that the empire fetched home its emperor. Near St. Leonard's church he
was met by the clergy of the city singing " Advenisti desiderabilis ;" the
princes accompanied him to the cathedral, where the " Te Deum " was sung,
and the benediction pronounced over him ; nor did they leave him till
they reached the door of his apartment in the palace.

But even here, at their very first meeting — in the church too — the
great and all-dividing question which was to occupy this august assembly,
presented itself in all its abruptness.

The protestants had joined in the religious, as well as the civil cere-
monies ; and the emperor was perhaps encouraged by this to take advan-
tage of the first moment of his presence, the first impression made by his
arrival, to prevail upon them to make some material concessions.

Allowing the remaining princes to depart, the emperor invited the elector
of Saxony, the markgrave George of Brandenburg, duke Francis of Lune-
burg, and landgrave Philip, to attend him in a private room, and there,
through the mouth of his brother, requested them to put an end to the
preachings. The elder princes, startled and alarmed, said nothing ; the
impetuous landgrave broke silence, and sought to justify his refusal on
the ground that nothing was preached but the pure word of God, just as
St. Augustine had enjoined ; — arguments consummately distasteful to
the emperor. The blood rushed into his pallid cheeks, and he repeated
his demand in a more imperious tone. But he had here to encounter a
resistance of a very different nature from that he had experienced from
the Italian powers, who contended only for the interests of a disputed
possession. " Sire," said the old markgrave George, now breaking
silence, " rather than renounce God's word, I will kneel down on this spot
to have my head cut off." The emperor, who wished to utter none but

1 Contarini : " di spirito molto alto."

Chap. IX.] FIRST DISAGREEMENT 601

words of mildness, and was naturally benevolent, was himself alarmed
at the possibility thus presented to his mind by the lips of another. " Dear
prince," replied he to the markgrave, in his broken low German, " not
heads off " (nicht Kopfe ab).1

The next difficulty was that the protestants declined taking part in
the procession of Corpus Christi, on the following day. Had the emperor
required their attendance as a court service, they would probably have
given it, " like Naaman, in the scripture, to his king," as they said ; but
he demanded it " in honour of Almighty God." To attend on such a
ground appeared to them a violation of conscience. They replied that
God had not instituted the sacrament that man should worship it. The
procession, which had no longer in any respect its ancient splendour, took
place without them.

In regard to the preaching, they did indeed at length yield ; but not
till the emperor had promised to silence the other party also. He himself
appointed certain preachers, but they were only to read the text of scrip-
ture, without any exposition. Nor would it have been possible to bring
the protestants to yield even this point, had they not been reminded
that the Recess of 1528, to which they had always appealed, and which
they would not suffer to be revoked, authorized it. The emperor, at least
so long as he was there in person, was always regarded as the legitimate
supreme authority of every imperial city.2

It is evident, therefore, that the protestants did not allow themselves
to be driven back one step from their convictions or from their rights.
The requests of the emperor when present made no more impression upon
him than his demands when absent had done. If the emperor had
calculated on compliance, these were no flattering omens of future
success.

At length, on the 20th of June, the business of the diet was opened. In
the Proposition, which was read on that day, the emperor insisted, as was
reasonable, most urgently on an adequate armament against the Turks :
at the same time he declared his intention of putting an end to the religious
dissensions by gentle and fair means,3 and reiterated the request contained

1 There is a very authentic account of this in the letters of the Nuremberg
delegate, who that same night caused the landgrave to be waked, and told him
what was going forward. 16th June ; Bretschneider C. Rel, iii. 106. With
slight variations, Heller, in Forstemann.

2 Letter from Augsburg. Altenb. v. Walch 16, 873 (in Walch under
Spalatin's name but not complete). Brenz to Isenmann, 19 Juni Corp. Ref.,
ii. 117.

3 I. Mt hat " aus angeporner Giite und Miltigkeit diesen Weg (der Giite) nach
vermoge des Ausschreibens furgenommen, der entlichen Hofnung, der soil bei
alien verstendigen ein billiges ansehn haben und menniglich dahin bewegen und
leitten, dass alle Sachen wieder zum Besten gekehrt und gewendet werden,
damit I. Mt inn irem gnedigen Fiirhaben verharren und pleiben." " Your
majesty has, from your natural goodness and mildness, chosen this way (of
gentleness) according to the tenour of the convocation, with the hope it might
obtain just consideration with all reasonable men, and move and lead many in
such wise, that all things may be again turned and converted for the best, so
that your majesty may persist and remain in your gracious purpose." From
Forstemann, i. 308, we see how many variations the copies exhibit. That of
Frankfurt has still more ; e.g., " aus eingeborner Gunstigkeit, der moglichen
Hofnung," u. s. w. But the meaning is the same.

602 CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG [Book V.

in the convocation, that everyone would give him to that end, his
" thoughts, judgment, and opinion," in writing.

As the council of the empire resolved to proceed first to the consideration
of religious affairs, the grand struggle immediately commenced.

CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG.

The protestants hastened immediately to draw up a written statement
of their religious opinions, to be laid before the States of the empire.

This statement is the Augsburg Confession, and its origin is as follows :

Immediately after the receipt of the emperor's proclamation, the Saxon
reformers had deemed it expedient to set forth in writing, and in a regular
form, the belief " in which they had hitherto stood, and in which they per-
sisted."1

Similar preparations had been made in various parts, in anticipation
of the national assembly which was to be held in the year 1524 ; and
something of the same kind was, at this moment, taking place on the other
side ; e.g., in Ingolstadt.2

The Wittenberg reformers took, as the basis of their creed, the Schwabach
articles, in which, as we may remember, the points of difference between
the Lutheran theologians and those of the Oberland were defined. It is
very remarkable that, in framing this confession, the feeling of the differ-
ences which separated them from a party so nearly akin, was, to say the
least, not less strong than that of the original dissent which had caused
the first great movement. The separation now appeared the wider, since
Zwingli and his followers had, in the meanwhile, recanted some admissions
which they had made in Marburg, and which had found their way from
the Marburg convention into the Schwabach articles.

These articles were now revised and drawn up afresh by Melanchthon,
in that sound and methodical spirit peculiar to him, and in the undeniable
intention of approximating as closely as possible to the catholic doctrines.
The expositions of the doctrine of free will and of justification by faith
which he added, were extremely moderated ; he defined at greater length
what were the heretical errors (errors rejected also by the Church of
Rome) condemned by the articles ; he sought to establish these articles,
not only on the authority of scripture, but on that of the fathers, and
especially of St. Augustine ; he did not entirely forbid the honours paid
to the memory of the saints, but only endeavoured to define their extent
more accurately ; he insisted strongly on the dignity of the temporal
power, and concluded with the assertion, that these doctrines were not
only clearly established in scripture, but also that they were not in contra-
diction with the church of Rome, as understood from the writings of the
fathers, from whom it was impossible to dissent, and who could hardly
be accused of heresy.

And indeed it cannot, I think, be denied that the system of faith here
set forth is a product of the vital spirit of the Latin church ; that it keeps
within the boundaries prescribed by that church, and is, perhaps, of all
its offspring, the most remarkable, the most profoundly significant. It

1 It was thus that Chancellor Briick first conceived the thought, as his" Zeddel,"
shows ; Forstemann, i. 39.

2 19th Feb., 1530. Extract in Winter, i. 270.

Chap. IX.] CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG 603

bears, as was inevitable, the traces of its origin ; that is, the fundamental
idea from which Luther had proceeded in the article on justification, gives
it somewhat of an individual stamp : this, however, is inherent in all human
things. The same fundamental idea had more than once arisen in the
bosom of the Latin church, and had produced the most important effects ;
the only difference was, that Luther had seized upon it with all the energy
of religious aspiration ; and in his struggle with opposite opinions, as
well as in his expositions to the people, had established it as an article of
faith of universal application ; no human being could say that, so
explained and understood, this idea had anything sectarian in it. Hence
the Lutherans steadily opposed the more accidental dogmas which have
sprung up in later ages ; though not disposed to ascribe to the expressions
of a father of the church, absolute and demonstrative authority, the
reformers were conscious that they had not departed widely from his
conception of Christianity. There is a tacit tradition, not expressed in
formulae, but contained in the original nature of the conception, which
exercises an immense influence over all the operations of the mind. The
reformers distinctly felt that they stood on the old ground which Augustine
had marked out. They had endeavoured to break through the minute
observances by which the Latin church had allowed itself to be fettered
in the preceding centuries, and to cast away those bonds altogether ;
they had recurred to the scripture, to the letter of which they adhered.
But they did not forget that it was this same scripture which had been so
long and so earnestly studied in the Latin church, and had been regarded
as the standard of her faith ; nor that much of what that church received
was really founded on scripture. To that they adhered ; the rest they
disregarded.

I do not venture to assert that the Augsburg Confession dogmatically
determines the contents and import of scripture ; it does no more than
bring back the system which had grown up in the Latin church to a unison
with scripture ; or interpret scripture in the original spirit of the Latin
church. That spirit had, however, wrought too imperceptibly to produce
any open manifestation which could have served as a bond of faith. The
confession of the German Lutheran church is itself its purest manifestation,
and the one the most immediately derived from its source.

It is hardly necessary to add that its authors had no intention of imposing
this as a permanent and immutable standard of faith. It is simply the
assertion of the fact. " Our churches teach " — " it is taught " — " it is
unanimously taught " — " such and such opinions are falsely imputed
to us." Such are the expressions Melanchthon uses ; his intention is
simply to state the belief which already exists.

And in the same spirit he wrote the second part, in which he enumerates
and explains the abuses that had been removed.

How wide a field was here opened for virulent polemical attack ! What
might not have been said concerning the encroachments of the papal power
— especially during the sitting of the diet, whose antipathies might thus
have been appealed to ; — or concerning the degeneracies of a corrupt form
of worship ! — and, indeed, we find a long register of them, among the rough
drafts of the work ; but it was thought better to omit them. Melanchthon
confined himself strictly to a justification of the ecclesiastical organization
to which the reformers had gradually attained. He explained the grounds

604 CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG [Book V.

on which the sacrament in both kinds and the marriage of the clergy
had been permitted, vows and private masses rejected, and fasts and con-
fession left to the will and conscience of each individual ; he sought to
show generally, how new and dangerous were the contrary practices, how
at variance even with the old canonical rules. With wise discretion he
was silent concerning the divine right of the pope, the Character Indelibilis,
or even the number of the sacraments ; his object was not to convert, but
simply to defend. It was sufficient that he insisted on the distinction
between the spiritual calling of the bishops and their temporal power ;
while defining the former in accordance with the tenor of scripture, he
wholly abstained from attacking the latter. He maintained that, on
this point also, the evangelical party had not deviated from the genuine
principles of the catholic church, and that consequently the emperor
might well consent to tolerate the new organization of the church.1

It may be questioned whether the protestants would not have done
better if, instead of restricting themselves so entirely to defence, they had
once more acted on the offensive, and appealed to all the strong reforming
sympathies then afloat.

We must, however, acknowledge that from the moment they had
decided to refuse to admit the adherents of Zwingli into their community,
this was impossible. They found themselves almost eclipsed by the
popularity of the doctrines taught by Zwingli ; the majority of the inhabi-
tants of Augsburg espoused the latter ; and nothing less was talked of
than a union of Upper Germany and Switzerland, in order to overthrow
the entire hierarchy of the empire. Even one of the most eminent of the
reforming princes, Landgrave Philip of Hessen, seemed from his con-
versation to lean to the side of Zwingli.2 A special admonition from
Luther was required, to induce him to subscribe the Confession.

1 It is well known that neither of the originals of the Augsburg Confession,
signed by the princes, has ever come to light. It was for a long time thought
that the German copy had been discovered in Mainz ; but Weber in his " Kritische
Geschichte der Augsburger Confession " has shown with scrupulous industry
that this, like many others, is a transcript without any authentic value. These
transcripts present a number of deviations both from each other and from the
first edition, which Melanchthon superintended in the year 1530. Fortunately
the deviations, though numerous, are not important. The scribes of that time
allowed themselves slight freedoms, especially in the law language, which was
so little fixed ; but, for the meaning and tenor, these seldom are of any moment.
Forstemann's second volume contains a very careful collation of some manu-
scripts. We meet with the original, from the Mainz Chancery, again at the
Conference of Worms, 1540. "Dr. Eck," says the Brandenburg Protocol of
the 4th Dec, " hat die newe confession und apologia angefochten, des syn seint
dem augsburgischen Reichstag etlich bletter gemehret, viel verandert und das
har in die wolle, vie er sagt, geschlagen und ein new schmalz darein gethon wer,

derhalben er das Original Keyserlich. Mt zu Augsburg iibergeben aus der

maintzischen canzlei begerete, welches denn unversaget und ihme zu iibergeben
bewilliget." — " Dr. Eck has attacked the new Confession and Apology to which
since the diet of Augsburg some leaves have been added, much altered, and the
hair beaten into the wool (felted), as he says, and a new glaze given to it, where-
fore he desired to have the original, which had been presented to his imperial
majesty at Augsburg, out of the Mainz Chancery, which, accordingly did not
refuse, and permitted the same to be given to him." I do not find, however,
that Eck produced the collation he promised.

2 Letter from Urbanus Rhegius to Luther, 21st May, 1530 : Landgrave Philip
adduces " innumera Sacramentariorum argumenta," " sentit cum Zwinglio, ut

Chap. IX.] CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG 605

Nor could the Lutherans entertain the least hope of gaining over the
majority of the States of the empire, who had already taken too decided
a part with their adversaries.

They wished for nothing but peace and toleration ; they thought they
had proved that their doctrines had been unjustly, condemned and
denounced as heretical. Luther brought himself to entreat his old antago-
nist, the Archbishop of Mainz, who now seemed more peaceably disposed,
to lay this to heart. Melanchthon addressed himself in the name of the
princes to the legate Campeggio, and conjured him not to depart from the
moderation which he thought he perceived in him, for that every fresh
agitation might occasion an immeasurable confusion in the church.1

In this spirit of conciliation, in the feeling of still unbroken ties, in
the wish to give force to that similarity which not only lay at the bottom
of both religions, but was obvious in many particulars, was this Confession
conceived and drawn up.

On the afternoon of the 25th June, 1 530, it was read aloud in the assembly
of the empire. The princes prayed the emperor to allow this to be done
in the larger hall, to which strangers were admitted, — in short, in a public
sitting : the emperor, however, chose the smaller, the chapter-room of
the bishop's palace, which he inhabited ; to this only the members of
the assembly of the empire had access. For a similar reason he wished
the Latin version of the document to be read, but the princes reminded
him that on German ground his majesty would be pleased to permit the
use of the German language. Thereupon the young chancellor of Saxony,
Dr. Christian Baier, read the Confession in German, with a distinctness of
voice and utterance which well accorded with the clearness and firmness
of the belief it expressed.2 The number of the spiritual princes present
was not great : they thought they should be compelled to listen to many
inconvenient reproaches. Those in favour of it rejoiced at having made
this progress, and were delighted both with the matter of the Confession
and the manner in which it was recited. Some took advantage of the
opportunity to note down the main points. As soon as it was finished,

ipsi mini est fassus." But it was neither this, nor a letter of Melanchthon, that
moved Luther to apply to the Landgrave. This he did as early as the 20th May.
(De W., iv., p. 23.)

1 Philip Furstenburg reports to the city of Frankfurt, 27th June, that there
were formal negotiations concerning this. The elector and his kinsmen prayed :
" In : Mt wolt morgen wieder an dem Ort erscheinen und den Umbstand ire
Berantwortung vernehmen zu lassen gestatten, denn sie weren von iren Wid-
derwertigen nit aleyn bei I. Mt sondern auch bei menniglich verunglimpft ;
aber endlich ist es bei dem Beschend blieben." — " That your majesty would
again appear at the same place (the palace), and be pleased to let those present
hear your answer, for they have been reproached not only by your majesty but
by many others, with their untractableness." Nevertheless, the message
remained unanswered.

2 Fiirstenberg : " Hell und klar, dass menniglich, so dabei was, der anders
deutsch verstunde, alle Wort eigentlich, was doch in solcher Bersammlung selten
geschicht, verstehen mocht." — " Distinct and clear, that as many as were there
present that understood German, could hear every word, which in such assem-
blies seldom happens." The catholics thought the permission to read the Con-
fession aloud, a great and unmerited honour. Even two years afterwards, Eck
grumbles at it. " Lutheranismus in arcem dignitatum evectus ita invaluit, ut
assertores erroris non vererentur in publicis comitiis Augusts ofEerre Caesari novi
dogmatis confessionem." Praefatio in homilias V. contra Turcam. A., iii.

606 DELIBERATIONS OF THE MAJORITY [Book V.

the two copies were handed to hte emperor ; the German he gave to the
chancellor of the empire, the Latin he kept in his o.wn hands. Both of
them were signed by the elector and the electoral prince of Saxony, mark-
grave George of Brandenburg, the dukes Francis and Ernest of Liineburg,
landgrave Philip, prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, and the delegates of the
cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen.

CONFUTATION. THREATS.

The evangelical princes expected that their adversaries would come
forward with a similar declaration of faith, and that the emperor would
then endeavour to mediate between them. This expectation was held out
by the Proposition, and, in still more distinct terms, by the Convocation
in virtue of which they were now assembled.

It is highly probable that this was actually the emperor's intention :
he had indeed wished that the catholic party had brought forward a
distinct charge against the reformers, in which case he would have
undertaken the part of an umpire between them. At the meeting of
the States, Ferdinand had once made a proposal to that effect.

But the two brothers were not sufficiently masters of the assembly to>
accomplish this.

The majority which had been formed in Spires, and acquired greater
compactness in Augsburg, regarded itself as the legitimate possessor of
the authority of the empire. Though the catholic zeal of the two brothers;
was most agreeable to its wishes, it found many things to object to them.
Ferdinand had obtained papal concessions of ecclesiastical revenues, — a
thing which, though permitted in Spain, was unheard of in Germany.
This excited universal disgust and resistance among the clergy. The
majority declined constituting themselves as a party, and acknowledging
the emperor as judge between them and the protestants. They declared
that they had nothing new to propose ; they had simply adhered to the
imperial edict ; if the emperor was in want of a charge to bring against
the reformers, let him resort to that of contravention of his. edict. Nay
more ; as it was the immemorial custom that the emperor should accede
to the sentiments of the assembly of the empire, they were of opinion that
he should now adopt their cause as his own. This was, in fact, requesting
him to use his imperial power in this affair with the advice of the electors,
princes, and estates of the empire. It was a matter of perfect indifference
to them, that this was at variance with the express words of the convoca-
tion, since they were not the authors of it. The emperor was, in fact,
compelled to relinquish his idea of a judicial mediation.

It has been usually asserted that traces are to be found of personal and
independent negotiations between the emperor and the protestants at
this diet. The fact however is, that from this moment, the whole business
was conducted by the majority of the States. Concerning the minutest
point — e.g., the communication of a document — the emperor was com-
pelled to hold a consultation with them ; he acted at last only as they
deemed expedient.

It is much to be regretted that we have no protocols of the sittings of
the catholic majority ; we do not even know whether any were drawn up.
Neither have any full and accurate reports come to light ; and they are

Chap. IX.] CONFUTATION 607

hardly to be expected, since the most considerable princes were present,
and the delegates from the cities did not take part in the sittings.

All that we know is, that there was a division of opinion in the majority
itself. The one party thought that the emperor ought at once to take up
arms, and enforce the execution of his former edict. The archbishop
of Salzburg said, " Either we must put an end to them, or they will put
an end to us ; which of the two suits us best ?" An equally violent
member of the assembly was heard to remark, jesting, that the Confession
was written with black ink. " Were we emperor," said he, " we would put
red rubrics to it." " Sir," rejoined another, " only take care that the
red does not spirt up in your faces." All, as this answer shows, were not
equally hostile. The archbishop of Mainz, in particular, pointed out the
danger which would arise from an invasion of the Turks, in case of an open
breach with the protestants. It was at length determined to advise the
emperor above all things to authorize a confutation of the Confession :
meanwhile, an attempt might be made to arrange the differences between
the temporal and spiritual estates. The emperor acted on this advice.
He gave himself up to the hope that the settlement of these differences
and the confutation of the Confession would, united, produce such an
effect on the protestants as to induce them to yield.1

The situation of the protestants was thus changed greatly for the worse.

Till now they had expected from the emperor's exalted position a fair
appreciation of their conduct, and mediation between them and their
adversaries ; but they very soon perceived that he did not give, but receive
the impulse ; the old and bitter enemies with whom they had so long striven
constituting a majority, now directed all the measures of the imperial
authority.

The confutation was set about with the utmost zeal. There was no
want of labourers. Not only the reforming theologians, but their oppo-
nents, had repaired to the diet with their respective princes ; Faber, from
Vienna, who was now become prebendary of Ofen ; Eck, from Ingold-
stadt ; Cochlaus, from Dresden ; Wimpina, from Frankfurt on the Oder.
With the prince bishops came their vicars, or learned officiating bishops ;
there were some eminent monks — Capuchins, Carmelites and especially
Dominicans ; Paul Haug, the provincial ; John Burkhard, the vicar ; and
the prior, Conrad Colli, who had written against Luther's marriage.2

1 The extracts in Bucholtz iii. throw peculiar light on these negotiations. A
remarkable document belonging to them is to be found entire in Forstemann,
vol. ii., p. 9. It is without a date, but it must be of the 9th or 10th of July, since

the emperor mentions a question he had asked the protestants on the 9th i.e.

whether they intended to bring forward more articles ; to which he had as yet
received no answer. The answer was given on the 10th ; but, perhaps, was not
delivered till the day following. See the reports in Schmidt, viii. 244. Melanch-
thon to Luther, 8th July. C. R., ii. 175.

2 Eck brought, among other things, a book already printed at Ingoldstadt
under the following title : Sub domini Jhesu et Mariae patrocinio Articulos 404
partim ad disputationes Lipsicam Baden, et Bernen. attinentes partim vero ex
scriptis pacem ecclesiae perturbantium extractos coram divo Caesare Carolo V.
Ro. Imp. semper Augu. ac proceribus Imperii Joan. Eckius minimus ecclesiae
minister offert se disputaturum ut in scheda latius explicatur Augustae Vindeli-
corum die et hora consensu Caesaris posterius publicandis. He mentions first
the 41 articles condemned by the pope : " Assero, qui bulla; contradixerint

6°8 CONFUTATION [Book V.

It is not surprising that a man like Erasmus (who was also invited) felt no
inclination to have his name associated with such as these. The men
who were here to conduct the discussion were the representatives of the
Aristotelic Dominican system, which so long ruled the schools of Europe,
and which he had himself combated. With the literary weapons which
they had hitherto wielded, they had accomplished little. Their whole
strength lay in their connexion with power. They were now no longer
private men ; they were to speak and to write in the name of the empire.

They were not, it is true, left at absolute liberty. People dreaded their
violence and their diffuseness, for each of them brought his old animosities
and his old refutations of Lutheran opinions, which were not now in
dispute.1 Their first draft was peremptorily returned to them by the
assembly of the empire, admonishing them to confine themselves entirely
to the article of the Confession. A second, shorter, which was next pre-
sented, was submitted, article by article, to minute discussion by the
assembly. It was the third of August before the Confutation was prepared
and could be read aloud in the aforementioned hall of the bishop's palace.

It consists, like the Confession, of two parts ; the one treating of belief,
the other of practice.

In the former, the contested question already approached the point at
which it has since remained stationary. It was no longer maintained that
the sacrament, the mere performance of the act, the opus operatum,
merited grace. It was no longer taught that a good work done without
grace was of the same nature as one done with grace ; that the difference
between them was only one of degree. Those were the doctrines against
which Luther had contended. A nearer approach was made to the more
profound conception of justification through Christ which has since been
almost universally adopted. If the catholics strove to retain the doctrine
of the necessity of good works, it was in a different sense from that hereto-
fore affixed to it.2

schismaticos esse ac fidei hostes, quos catholicus habet pro ethnicis et publicanis."
He then cites the articles which he had defended at Leipzig and Baden, as well
as those which he had opposed to the resolutions of Berne ; lastly, " errores
novi et veteres jam ventilati," under certain rubrics. He collects 404, " ex
infinitis eorum erroribus hos paucos subitarie excerpsi." In his hurry, he has
also mixed up with them some of Erasmus's maxims. The other side threw
the Propositiones de vino, venere, et balneo, in his teeth, which we still see circu-
late among the catholic societies, and which made him an object of public ridi-
cule.

1 Cochlaus printed some articles of this confutation in his book, Philippicae
quatuor in apologiam Melanchthonis, Lipsiae, 1534. At the third article, sheet
D., it is said therein: " damnent diras blasphemias — Lutheri errorem — suum
Pugenhagium — Melanchthonem suum — Antonium Zimerman, hominem insig-
niter Lutheranum — studiosum Lutheri discipulum Burguerum." The passages
worthy of condemnation from each are quoted. Hence it happened, as Cochlaus
said, " quorundam consilium qui judicabant ejusmodi responsionem fore nimis
acrem et prolixam."

2 See, besides the Confutation, De principum protestantium confessione
Joannis Eccii censura archiepiscopo Moguntino et Georgio D. S. Augustas ex-
hibita, in Coelestin, iii. 36. As this work, addressed to certain catholic princes,
contains the essentials of the concessions made by some modern catholics, it
puts an end to the imputation of hypocrisy which has been brought forward
against them.

Chap. IX.] CONFUTATION 609

This was, however, the only modification to which they con-
sented.

On the other points they remained steadfast to the established system.
They demanded the admission of the doctrine of transubstantiation, of
the seven sacraments, and the invocation of saints ; they persisted in
the denial of the cup, and the injunction of celibacy ; they even made an
attempt (which, indeed, was certain to fail) to deduce these doctrines
from passages of scripture, or from the usage of the earliest ages of the
church, and in this attempt they stumbled again on the false decretals ;
they would not give up the sacrifice of the mass ; and above all, they firmly
adhered to the idea of the Latin, as the universal church. They defended
the use of the Latin ritual in the mass, on the ground that the officiating
priest belonged far more to the whole church, than to the particular con-
gregation by which he happened to be surrounded.

In short, if, on the one side, the protestants were driven by the misinter-
pretation of doctrines, and by abusive practices, to recur directly to scrip-
ture, (understanding it in a sense corresponding with the fundamental
notions of the primitive Latin church, but irreconcilable with the ideas
and fictions of recent hierarchical times), on the other, their antagonists
now consented to relinquish some of the most flagrant excrescences in
doctrine, and to take into consideration the removal of the abuses which
had already caused so many disputes between spiritual and temporal
princes ; they still, however, persisted in affirming that the whole hier-
archical system was of immediate divine origin. We see them in search
of a method — for they had as yet found none — by which to prove the con-
formity of their system with scripture.

This would not have been of so much importance, had they aimed only
at self-defence. But that was by no means the case. The majority
not only declared that they deemed this opinion just and catholic, con-
formable with the gospel, but they also demanded that the protestant
minority should erase the refuted articles from their Confession, and
return to a unity of faith with the universal orthodox church. No atten-
tion was paid to their agreement in what was essential, ancient, and
original, so long as the slightest difference, though only in accidental and
unessential particulars, was discernible. Whatever had been altered,
whether by the inevitable pressure of circumstances, or in consequence of
the legal enactments of a former diet, was to be restored to its original
state. The emperor declared himself entirely of this mind. At the end
of the Confutation, which was published in his name, he admonished the
evangelical party immediately to return to their obedience to the Roman
and catholic church. If not, he must proceed against them as became a
Roman emperor, the protector and steward of the church.

The time for mildness was over ; the time for severity seemed to have
arrived.

Already had the pope spoken.

At the very commencement of the meeting, the emperor had demanded
a short statement of the most important demands of the protestants,
drawn up by Melanchthon, which he communicated to the legate, who
forwarded it to Rome. As far as we are able to ascertain, the following
points were mentioned as indispensable : — Sacrament in both kinds ;
marriage of priests ; omission of the canon in the mass ; concession of the

39

610 ELECTOR JOHN OF SAXONY [Book V.

secularized church lands ; and, lastly, discussion of the other contested
questions at a council. The document was laid before a consistory of
cardinals on the 6th of July. What a moment would this have been,
if they had but entered on the consideration of it in a conciliatory spirit !
But they at once declared these articles at variance with the faith and
discipline, no less than with the interests, of the church j1 they decided
to reject the petition, and simply to thank the emperor for his zeal.

The assembly of the empire had itself exhorted the emperor to act as
became the steward of the church.

Urged on either side, bound by his treaties, and exclusively surrounded
by persons who either had no idea of the real character and views of the
protestants, or had long been their enemies, — Charles assumed the sternest
deportment. Not content with his general declarations, he showed his
sentiments by his ungracious behaviour to individuals ; to the Elector
John, especially, he expressed his displeasure that he had separated
himself from the emperor, the defender of the faith, introduced innova-
tions, and sought to form confederations. " His majesty also had a soul
and a conscience, and would do nothing contrary to God's word." If
the elector would not return to the faith which had been held by their
forefathers for centuries,2 his majesty, on his part, would not be disposed
to grant him infeudation, nor any of the other favours which he craved.

RESISTANCE.

The might and energy of Latin Christendom was once more exhibited
to the world in the person of the emperor. By his brilliant victories he
had secured universal peace ; even from the Ottoman power he had
nothing to dread during the present, or probably the coming year. The
papal authority, as well as the collective power of the States of the empire,
was on his side. On the other hand, the protestants had no religious or
political support in any quarter ; nor had they even the internal strength
which a firm bond of union would have given them.

It might indeed be doubted whether German princes and lords, trained
in the chivalrous life of courts, and converted to the new doctrines in
mature age, by the arguments and instructions of strangers ; — to whom
a good understanding with their neighbours, and, in their more important
affairs, the favour of the emperor, were indispensable, would have sufficient
constancy to maintain their opinions in defiance of his express displeasure,
and of the power concentrated in his person.

The immediate decision of this question depended on the most eminent
and powerful among them, to whom the others looked up, and against
whom the emperor chiefly directed his attacks — the Elector John of
Saxony.

Elector John of Saxony, the last of the four excellent sons of Elector
Ernest, — educated with the greatest care, at Grimma, to qualify him for
either the spiritual or the temporal dignities of the empire — the progeni-
tor of the Ernestine house, which has now such numerous and flourishing

1 Pallavicini, from a contemporaneous Diary, Hi., iv. 280. Articoli opposti —
alia ragion della chiesa. A sort of ecclesiastical reason of state.
' 2 In the reprint in Muller, p. 672, it is said, for twenty or thirty years, which
is doubtless an error of the pen.

Chap. IX.] ELECTOR JOHN OF SAXONY 6il

branches1 — did not possess the political genius, nor the acute and pene-
trating mind of his brother Frederick. On the other hand, he was remark-
able from his childhood for good nature and frankness, — " without guile
and without bile," as Luther said, — yet full of that moral earnestness
which gives weight and dignity to simplicity of character. He is believed
to have lived to his thirty-second year, when he married, in perfect chas-
tity ;2 there is at least no trace of the contrary. The brilliant and tumul-
tuous knightly festivals in which he sometimes took part at the court
of Maximilian, afforded him no satisfaction, although he always made
a distinguished figure at them ; he once said, at a later period of his life,
that not one of these days had passed without a sorrow.3 He was not
born for the amusements and dissipations of the world ; the disgust
which inevitably attends them made too deep an impression on him,
and gave him more pain than their frivolous enjoyments gave him pleasure.
With his brother, who was his co-regent, he never had a difference ;
never did the one engage a person in his service without the full consent
of the other. From the first appearance of Luther in the world, John
embraced his doctrines with the most joyful sympathy ; his serious and
profoundly religious mind was gradually but completely imbued with
them. His greatest enjoyment was, to have the scriptures, which he
now heard for the first time, read aloud to him of an evening ; sometimes
he fell asleep,— for he was already far advanced in years, — but he awoke
repeating the last verse that had dwelt upon his memory. He occasion-
ally wrote down Luther's sermons, and there is extant a copy of the lesser
catechism in his handwriting.4 Examples are not wanting, both before
and since his time, of princes whose powers of action have been paralyzed
by absorption in religious contemplation ; but with him this was not the
case ; notwithstanding the extreme simplicity of his character, he was
not less conspicuous for elevation and force of will. When, during the
peasants' war, the cause of the princes was in so tottering a state, he did
not disguise from himself that a terrible convulsion might ensue ; he was
prepared for reverses, and was heard to say that he would content himself
with a horse or two, and be a man like other men ; but this sentiment did
not prevent his defending his good right as bravely as any of his brother
princes ; only he used his victory with greater clemency. It would be
difficult to point out a moment in the subsequent years of his reign, in
which he could have indulged in a merely contemplative piety. We
know of no prince to whom a larger portion of the merit of the establish-
ment of the protestant church can justly be ascribed. His brother and
predecessor had merely not suffered the new doctrines to be crushed ;
he had taken them under his protection in his own dominions, and, so
far as it was possible, in the empire. But when John assumed the govern-
ment, there were rocks on either side, on which the whole cause might

1 These are, the house of Weimar, and that of Gotha, in its three subordinate
lines ,Sachs Meiningen Hildburghausen, Sachs Altenburg, and Sachs Coburg-
Gotha. — -Transl.

2 Spalatin, Von Herzog Hansen zu Sachsen Churfiirsten, in Struve's newly
published Archives, iii. 16 ; unfortunately much less fertile in information than
the same author's Nachricht iiber Friedrich d. W.

3 An expression of his in Beckmann's Anhaltischer Geschichte, II., v.,
p. 140.

i Cyprian, Geschichte der Augsburgischen Confession, p. 184.

39—2

612 ELECTOR JOHN OF SAXONY [Book V.

have gone to wreck, and which could only have been avoided by a policy
founded on those lofty convictions that never for a moment failed or
wavered. The peasants' war was followed by violent tendencies to a
reaction ; and urgently as the adoption of these was pressed upon him
by his worldly-wise and experienced cousin, John did not allow himself
to be mastered by them. On the contrary, the course which he took at
the ensuing diet contributed to the passing of that Recess on which the
whole subsequent legal structure of protestantism was reared. It soon
indeed appeared as if the impetuosity of his Hessian ally would hurry
the elector into a series of political perplexities of which nobody could
foresee the end ; but his calmer and better judgment saved him in time,
and he returned to that defensive position which was natural to him,
and which he was able to maintain. His sole object and endeavour was
to give to the new doctrines an utterance and a recognised existence
in his dominions. He introduced into Germany the first evangelical form
of church government, which, in a greater or less degree, served as model
for all others. He speedily put a stop to the arbitrary acts of his nobles ;
mild and sweet tempered as he was, he was not to be induced to grant any
unjust favour, and he censured his son for listening more than was prudent
to those about him. In all these respects Luther had the greatest influ-
ence over him ; Luther knew how to set the secret springs of this pure
and noble soul in motion at the fitting time, and to keep this upright
conscience constantly awake. Thus, therefore, it was John of Saxony
who took the lead in that Protest which gave its name and position to the
whole party. For when justice and religion were on his side, he knew not
hesitation; he sometimes quoted the proverb, "Straight forward makes
a good runner." ("Gradaus giebt einen guten Renner.") He was by
nature retiring, peaceful, unpretending ; but he was raised to such a
pitch of resolution and energy by the greatness of his purposes, that he
showed himself fully equal to their accomplishment.

Here, in Augsburg, had Elector John to stand the test, whether his
intentions were unadulterated gold, or whether they were mixed with any
baser matter.

He felt the reverence for the emperor natural to a prince of the empire,
and at first he had no doubt of being easily able to reconcile that senti-
ment with his religious convictions. But it very soon became obvious
that this would be impossible ; and in order to avert the danger from the
head of their prince, some of his learned men reverted to the old idea, that
he should not espouse their cause, but leave it to stand or fall by itself.
They were prepared to deliver in the Confession solely in their own names.
The elector replied, " I too will confess my Christ." (" Ich will meinen
Christus auch mit bekennen.")

From that time the emperor evinced more and more alienation from
him. " We have prayed his imperial majesty," says the elector, in one
of his letters,1 " to invest us with the electoral dignity according to the
feudal forms ; this has been refused to us. We stand at a great cost here,
having just now been obliged to borrow 12,000 gulden ; his imperial
majesty has, as yet, given us no word of promise. We cannot think
otherwise than that we have been sorely slandered to his imperial majesty,
and that this has befallen us through our own kinsfolk."

1 To Nicolas v. Ende, Amtmann in Georgenthal, 28 July.

Chap. IX.] ELECTOR JOHN OF SAXONY 613

We see the state of mind to which he had already been brought ; and now
followed the confutation and the threatening declaration annexed to it.

That he, with his narrow strip of land on the Elbe and his little Thuringia,
— without any allies on whom he could rely — could offer resistance to the
emperor, who had just achieved so exalted and commanding a station,
and was enabled to enforce the ancient ordinances of Latin Christendom,
was too wild a thought to be seriously entertained for a moment. He was,
moreover, paralyzed by the doubt, whether he had a right to resist, and
rather inclined to the opinion that it could in no case be justifiable.

Care was taken to let him know clearly what awaited him. A prince
greatly in the confidence of the court, told him one day that, if he would
not submit, the emperor would attack him with an armed force, drive
him from his country and his people, and execute the extremest rigours
of the law on his person.1

The elector doubted not that it might come even to this. He came
home greatly moved, and expressed his consternation that he was required
either to deny what he had acknowledged to be the truth, or to plunge,
with all belonging to him, into irretrievable ruin.

Luther affirms that, had John wavered, not one of his council would
have stood firm.

But his simple and straightforward mind viewed the question laid
before him in so clear and direct a light, that his decision was inevitable.
" Either deny God or the world," said he, — " who can doubt which is
better ? God has made me an elector of the empire, a dignity of which I
never was worthy ; let Him do with me further according to His good
pleasure."

A dream which he had about this time affords a curious proof of what
was passing in his mind. He was seized with that sort of stifling oppres-
sion in which the sleeper feels as if he were expiring under a crushing
weight. He dreamt that he lay under a mountain, on the summit of
which stood his cousin George ; towards morning the mountain crumbled
away, and his hostile kinsman fell down by his side.

In short, the aged prince neither quailed nor wavered. Great events
rarely come to pass without those great moral efforts which are the neces-
sary, though hidden germs of new social and political institutions. Elector
John continued to declare that the emperor should find him a loyal and
peaceful prince in every respect ; but that he would never be able to induce
him to regard the eternal truth as not the truth, or the imperishable word
of God as not God's word.

The man who had the greatest influence in keeping him steady to this
determination, was unquestionably Luther, though he was not with him.

Luther's sentence of ban was not yet revoked, and though he had
remained secure in spite of it, the elector could not bring him to the
diet. He left him at Coburg, on the frontier of his territory.

1 Miiller, Geschichte der Protestation, p. 715. One proof how widely diffused
were anxieties of this kind, is a report which Zwingli received from Venice in
the beginning of the year 1530, in which the emperor's schemes are thus de-
scribed : " The emperor would bring Duke George of Saxony to Duke John,
from whom he would take away his status (Stand), so that he be no longer an
electing prince, and would take upon him to give it to Duke George." Archiv
fur schweiz. Geschichte, i., p. 278.

614 LUTHER IN COBURG [Book V.

It was a great advantage to Luther that he was not involved in the
turmoil of affairs, and of the incidents of the day ; he could thus take a
more comprehensive view of what was passing.

He was struck with surprise that the emperor appeared so intimately-
connected with the pope, and so secure of the French ; and that the
States of the empire had again espoused the pope's party. He treated
these things with a sort of irony. " Monsieur Par-ma-foi," as he called
the king of France, would, he thought, never forget the disgrace of the
battle of Pavia : Master In nomine Domini (the pope) would not be much
delighted with the devastation of Rome ; their amity with the emperor
belonged to the chapter, Non credimus.1 He could not understand how
the princes took it so easily that the pope had crowned the emperor
without their presence.2 He compared their assembly with the conclave
of jackdaws before his window ; there he witnessed the same journeying
to and fro ; the clamours and pratings of the whole flock ; the monotonous
preaching of the sophists. " A right useful folk to consume all that the
earth brings forth, and to while away the heavy time with chattering."3
It struck him particularly that the state of things when he first rose into
notice, seemed to be entirely forgotten ; he reminded his friends that, at
that time, the sale of indulgences, and the doctrine, that God might be
satisfied by pious works, were universally prevalent ; that new services,
pilgrimages, relics, and, to crown all, the fable of the garment of Christ,
were daily brought forward ; that masses were bargained for and sold
for a few pence, more or less, and held to be a sacrifice well pleasing to
God. He called to remembrance that the most effectual weapons for
putting down the peasants' war (at least those of a literary kind), had
been used by the protestants ; as a requital for which their enemies were
now labouring for their destruction. For he had never for a moment
doubted how this matter would end : from the time the emperor had pro-
hibited the preaching, he had ceased to have the slightest hope of recon-
ciliation ; he saw that Charles would urge all the subordinate princes to
renounce their opinions. Not that he thought the emperor himself dis-
posed to violence ; on the contrary, he never speaks of " the noble blood
of emperor Charles " without reverence ; but he knows in what hands
their, good lord is ; he beholds in him only the mask behind which their
old enemies are concealed ; and these, he is persuaded, meditate nothing
but force, and trust to their superior numbers. He thinks that the
Florentine who now occupies the papal chair, will find some opportunity
to cause streams of German blood to flow.

But these prospects did not affright him. " Let them do as they list,"
said he, " they are not at the end yet."

He could not think of receding one step further. " Day and night,"
said he, " I live in these things. I search the scriptures, I reflect, I discuss ;
I daily feel increasing certainty ; I will not allow more to be taken from
me, let what God wills befall me in consequence." He laughs at the
demands of the catholics for restitution. " Let them first," he exclaims,

i To Teutleben, 19th June.

2 To the elector of Mainz, 6th July.

3 To his Table Companions, 28 th April, and to Spalatin, 9th May. (A transla-
tion of this sportive letter may be found in a little volume of Fragments from
German Prose Writers. — Transl.)

Chap. IX.] LUTHER IN COBURG 615

" restore the blood of Leonhard Kaiser and of so many other innocent
men whom they have murdered !"

His intrepidity is solely the result of his persuasion that his cause is
the cause of God. " Some are sorrowful," he says, "as if God had for-
gotten us ; but He cannot forget us, He must'first forget himself ; our
cause must be not His cause, our doctrine not His work. Were Christ not
with us, where then were He in the world ? If we have not God's word,
who then has it ?" He consoles himself with the words, " Trust to me ;
I have overcome the world."

" The Lord dwelleth in the mist ; He'Jhath His dwelling-place in the
darkness. Man seeth not what He is ; but He will be the Lord, and we
shall see it."

" And if we are not worthy, it will be brought to pass by others. Have
our forefathers made us to be what we are ? God alone, who will be the
Creator after us, as He was before us, causes it to be with us even as it is.
For He, the God that ruleth the thoughts, will not die with us. If the
enemy put me to death, I shall be better avenged than I could desire :
there will be one who will say, Where is thy brother Abel ?"

In this temper of mind are all his letters of that time written. Never
was a man more intensely penetrated with the immediate presence of the
Divine Being. He knew the eternal, all-conquering powers in whose
service he was engaged ; he knew them, such as they had revealed them-
selves, and he called upon them by their names. He rested with dauntless
courage on the promises which they had given to the human race, in the
psalms or the gospel.

He spoke with God as with a present Lord and Father. His amanuensis
in Coburg once heard him praying to himself :—" I know that Thou art
our God," exclaimed he ; " that Thou will destroy them that persecute
Thy people ; didst Thou not thus, Thou wouldst abandon thine own cause ;
it is not our cause, — we have been compelled to embrace it ; Thou therefore
must defend it." He prayed with the manly courage which feels its
right to the protection of the divine power to whom it has devoted itself ;
his prayer plunges into the depths of the godhead, without losing the sense
of its personality ; he does not desist till he has the feeling of being heard —
the greatest of which the human heart, raised above all delusion, is in its
holiest moments susceptible. " I have prayed for thee," he writes to
Melanchthon, " I have felt the Amen in my heart."

A genuine expression of this frame of mind was the hymn, " Eine feste
Burg ist unser Gott " (" Our God is a strong tower "), the composition of
which is justly attributed to this period.1 It professes to be a paraphrase
of the 16th Psalm, but is in fact merely suggested by it ; it is completely
the product of the moment in which Luther, engaged in a conflict with a
world of foes, sought strength in the consciousness that he was defending
a divine cause that could never perish. He seems to lay down his arms,

1 Coelestin affirms this. Olearius, on the other hand, mentions that this
hymn is to he found in a collection of 1529. He means, however, only a col-
lection of Lutheran hymns, dated 1529, in the Jen. und Altenb. Ausg. luth.
Werke ; but which, like many other of his assertions, is founded on error.
Nowhere else is there any trace of a collection of 1529, and we may be per-
mitted to doubt of its existence. The one published under that title also con-
tains later hymns.

616 LUTHER IN COBURG [Book V.

but it was in fact the manliest renunciation of a momentary success, with
the certainty of that which is eternal. How triumphant and animated
is the melody ! how simple and steady, how devout and elevated ! It
is identical with the words ; they arose together in those stormy days.

Such was his temper of mind, when he exhorted not only his nearest
friends, but the elector and his councils to be of good courage.

He told his prince to take comfort, that no other crime was imputed to
him than the defence of the pure and living word of God. Therein indeed
consisted all his honour. In his land he had the best preachers ; child-
hood and youth grew up in the knowledge of the catechism and the word
of God, so that it was a joy to see them ■ this was the paradise over which
God had set him as guardian ; he did not only protect the word, he
maintained and nourished it, and therefore it came to his aid. "Oh!"
exclaims he, " the young will be your helpers, who with their innocent
tongues call so heartily on Heaven."

" I have lately seen two wonders," writes he to Chancellor Bruck.
" The first, — I looked out of the window at the stars of heaven, and the
whole beautiful vaulted roof of God, and could nowhere see a pillar upon
which the Master had placed His roof ; and yet it stands fast. The other,
— I saw thick clouds hanging over us, and yet no ground upon which they
rested, no vessel in which they were contained ; yet they fell not, but
greeted us with a gloomy countenance and passed on : for God's thoughts
are far above our thoughts ; if we are only certain that our cause is His
cause, so is our prayer already heard and our help already at hand : — if
the emperor granted us peace, as we wish, the emperor would have the
honour ; but God Himself will give us peace, that He alone may have the
honour."1

A determined will has always the power of carrying others along with
it. How resistless must it then be in one so filled with the Spirit of God !
Luther exercised perhaps a greater influence over his followers from a
distance, than his continual presence could have given him.

All the other princes vied with Elector John in firmness.

It was on this occasion that Duke Ernest of Liineburg won the name of
the Confessor. Instead of receding a single step, he received into his
intimacy Urbanus Rhegius, the chief promoter of the reformation in his
duchy, and took him home from Augsburg, as the most precious treasure
that he could bring his people.

The emperor and the king had promised Markgrave George of Branden-
burg to favour his interests if he would renounce the new doctrine ; a
consideration of the more weight, since Brandenburg had even then claims
on certain possessions in Silesia ; but the markgrave rejected every pro-
posal of the kind.2 Nor was this all ; his powerful and zealously catholic
cousin, Elector Joachim, was not less urgent with him to quit the evan-
gelical party, and bitter altercations took place between them. The
markgrave declared his conviction that the doctrine could not be called
an error, so long as Christ was really Christ : it taught a man to turn himself
to Christ alone ; of this he had full experience. Without entering seriously
on the discussion of this point, the elector mainly insisted on the emperor's

1 4th Aug., in De Wette, iv.

2 Letter to the kinsmen of the house of Brandenburg (Stammesvettern),
19th July ; Forstemann, ii. 93.

Chap. IX.] CONDUCT OF THE PROTESTANT PRINCES 617

determination to restore everything to its former state. The markgrave
replied, that the emperor might abolish what he chose ; that he himself
must submit, but that he would not assist in the work. The elector
asked whether the markgrave recollected what he had at stake. He
replied, " They say I am to be driven out of my country. I must commit
the matter into God's hands."1

Wolfgang of Anhalt was by no means a powerful prince, nevertheless
he said with the greatest calmness, " Many a time have I taken horse in
the cause of my good masters and friends, and my lord Christ deserves
that I should venture something for His sake also." "Master Doctor,"
said he to Eck, " if you are thinking of war, you will find people ready on
this side likewise."2

Such being the disposition of the other reformers, it was not likely that
the high-spirited landgrave would be brought to concede anything. The
Hessian chronicler, Lauze, relates that, after the Confession had been
delivered in, certain men had taken the landgrave to the top of a high
mountain, and shown him all the good things of the world ; that is, had
held out to him hopes of favour in the affairs of Nassau and Wiirtemberg ;
but that he had refused them all.3 One day he heard that the emperor
intended to reprove him ; instantly, accoutred as he was, he hurried to
court, and begged the emperor to state the acts by which he had incurred
his displeasure. The emperor enumerated some, whereupon the land-
grave gave an explanation which Charles accepted as satisfactory. But
the grand difficulty was yet to come ; the emperor required him to show
himself a dutiful subject in the matter of the faith, and added, that other-
wise he would take the course which beseemed him as Roman emperor.
But threats were still vainer than promises. Philip was moreover daily
more impatient of an assembly in which, conformably to the hierarchical
rules of the empire, he held a position by no means corresponding with his
power. He begged the emperor to dismiss him ; and as the latter refused,
he one evening rode away without leave.4 He wrote from a distance to
the elector of Saxony, to assure him that he would stake body and goods,
land and people, with him and with God's word. " Bid the cities," he
writes to his council, " that they be not women, but men ; there is no
fear, — God is on our side."

And in fact the cities proved themselves not unworthy of the princes.
" Our mind is," say the Nuremberg delegates, " not to give way, for by so
doing we should put the emperor's favour above that of God ; God, we
doubt not, will grant us steadfastness." The burgermeister and council
were of the same mind as their delegates.

Others at a distance took part in these events in a similar spirit. " Your
Grace," write the councillors of Magdeburg to the elector of Saxony,
" stands carrying on a perilous struggle in the affairs of all Christendom,
under the banner of our Saviour : we pray to God daily to grant you
patience and strength."

1 Contemporaneous notes commencing these negotiations, passim, 630.

2 Beckmann's Anhaltische Chronik, II., v. 142.

3 Letter of the Nuremberg envoy, C. R., ii. 167.

4 6th August. On the 30th July he had entered into an alliance with Zurich,
which had a great influence on his conduct. See Escher und Hottinger, Archiv
fur schweiz. Gesch. und Landeskunde, i. 426.

618 DIET OF AUGSBURG [Book V.

Things had thus already assumed a distinct shape in Germany. On
the one side was a majority, claiming all the rights and privileges of the
empire, united with the emperor, and allied with the powers of ancient
Europe ; on the other, a minority struggling for its existence, isolated and
formless, but full of religious fortitude and constancy. The majority,
with the emperor at their head, meditated using force j1 steps were already
taken for raising troops in Italy.2 The minority had as yet no plan ;
they only knew that they were determined not to yield.

But, it might be asked, was not every violent measure full of danger
to the majority of the States also ? They were not sure of their own
subjects ; the suggestion of the elector of Mainz, as to the danger with which
both parties were threatened, in case of a well-timed invasion by the
Turks, made a deep impression. From these considerations the original
proposal of the pacific party, incorporated in the resolutions of the diet,
was adopted, and an attempt at mediation resolved on.

ATTEMPT OF THE STATES TO MEDIATE.

On the 1 6 th of August a conference was opened, in which two princes,
two doctors of canon law, and three theologians of each party took part,
and which soon appeared to promise great results.

The dogmatical points at issue presented no insuperable difficulties.
On the article of original sin, Eck gave way as soon as Melanchthon
proved to him that an expression objected to in his definition was in fact
merely a popular explanation of an ancient scholastic one. Respecting
the article on justification " through faith alone," Wimpina expressly
declared that no work was meritorious, if performed without grace ;3 he
required the union of love with faith ; and only in so far he objected to
the word " alone." In this sense, however, the protestants had no desire
to retain it ; they consented to its erasure ; their meaning had always been
merely that a reconciliation with God must be effected by inward devotion,
not by outward acts. On the other hand, Eck declared, that the satisfac-
tion which the catholic church required to be made by penitence, was
nothing else than reformation ; an explanation which certainly left nothing
further to be objected to the doctrine of the necessity of satisfaction.4
Even on the difficult point of the sacrifice of the mass, there was a great
approximation. Eck explained the sacrifice as merely a sacramental

1 Butzer feared a " laniena sanctorum qualis vix Diocletiani tempore fuit."
14 Aug., 1530, Rohrich, ii.; p. 136.

2 Nice. Tiepolo Relatione. Essendo in Augusta intesi che si offersero (the
two dukes of Bavaria) all' imperatore volendo lui muover guerra a Lutheranis,
e seppi che tentorno col duca di Mantova d'haver il modo di condur 1000 cavalli
leggieri d'ltalia in caso si facesse guerra in Germania.

3 Eck too says in his opinion, " De principuum protestantium confessione
Johannis Eccii censura (Coelestin, iii. 36) : quod opera de sua natura et in se
non essent meritoria, sed solum ex Deo et gratia Dei assistente.

4 Spalatin, who performed the duties of a notary at the first sitting, in Forste-
mann, ii., p. 228. In like manner is Eck's singular expression to be understood
(Ccelestin, p. 36) : " Nos ponimus satisf actionem tertiam partem pcenitentiae, ipsi
vero fatentur, sequi debere fructus bonorum operum, ubiiterum lis est verbalis,
non realis."

Chap. IX.] ATTEMPT AT MEDIATION 6ig

sign, in remembrance of that which was offered up on the cross.1 The
presence of Christ in the eucharist was not debated. The protestants
were easily persuaded to acknowledge not only a true, but also a real
presence. This addition is actually inserted in the Ansbach copy of the
Confession.

It was certainly not the difference in the fundamental conceptions of
the Christian dogma which perpetuated the contest. Luther had done
nothing more than revive and re-establish the primitive doctrines of the
Latin church, which had been buried under the hierarchical systems of
later times, and an ever-increasing load of abuses. Such diversities as
those we have just mentioned might be reciprocally tolerated ; and indeed
different opinions had always co-existed. The real cause of rupture lay
in the constitution and practices of the church.

And with respect to these the protestants gave way as much as possible.
They were persuaded that the division was an obstacle to good discipline
in church and school ; and that the government of the church would be
both ill-conducted and costly in the hands of the temporal sovereigns.
The protestant princes and theologians declared themselves ready to restore
to the bishops their jurisdiction, right of anathema, and control over
benefices ; provided only that no attempt was made to abridge the liberty
of reading and expounding the gospel.2 They were even disposed to
observe fasts ; not as an ordinance of God, but for the sake of good order ;
and, in regard to confession, to admonish the people to confess all matters
whereon they felt a want of advice and consolation ; — concessions which,
in fact, included a restoration of the externals of the church to an extent
no longer to be expected.

Nor is there any ground for the assertion, that the refusal of the pro-
testants to restore the property of the suppressed convents was the obstacle
to a reconciliation. Though the protestants retorted upon their antagonists
the charge of worse acts of spoliation — such as the seizure of the bishopric
of Utrecht by the emperor — an event of far greater importance than the
suppression of a few convents, seeing that the constitution of the church
was founded on bishops, not on monks, — yet the elector of Saxony at last
offered to place all the suppressed convents under sequestration ; the
sequestrees, honourable men chosen from among the nobility of the land,
were to pledge themselves to the emperor to allow nothing to be abstracted
from the property, till a council should decide on its application.3

Such were the advances once more made by the protestants to the church
of Rome, and to the majority in the empire. It is difficult to understand
how it was that the latter did not meet them with eagerness.

On one point the committee of the majority made a great concession to
the protestants. It expressed the hope of obtaining, at the ensuing council,
the general admission of married priests, according to the example of the

1 Account in Coelestin, iii. 45. " Est ergo missa non revera victima, sed mys-
terialis et repraesentativa."

2 Unexpected answer, Forstemann, ii. 256. Compare with the Reflexions,
idem, p. 245, p. 75. From the latter it appears, that they tried to derive all
hierarchical institutions expressly from human laws, including even the papacy
itself, which, on those conditions, might be tolerated. How far Luther assented
to this may be seen in Reflexions signed by him. Walch., xx. 2178.

3 Sachsische Apologia. Muller, p. ?6i and the Archiv of Forstemann, p. 150.

620 DIET OF AUGSBURG [Book; V.

primitive church.1 It also opposed no scruple to the sacrament in both
kinds.

After so near an approximation, of what importance were a few differ-
ences in practice ? Was it necessary to sacrifice to them the unity of the
empire and the nation, and the blessings of peace ?

That such was the lamentable result, may be mainly ascribed to the
inability of the catholic leaders to act as perhaps they would have wished.
We know that the affair had been already discussed and decided at the
papal court. The papal legate, Campeggio, did not neglect to visit the
emperor at the critical moment, in order to inflame his catholic zeal, and
bring him back to the views of the Curia.2 He maintained that all the
ordinances of the church were immediately dictated by the Holy Ghost.
He worked on the minds of the States by similar arguments, and at length
they required that, until the decision of the council, the protestants should
appoint no more married priests to benefices ; they persisted in compulsory
confession ; they would consent neither to the omission of the canon in
the mass, nor the abolition of private masses in protestant countries ;
and, lastly, they required that the participation in the Lord's Supper
in one kind should be declared not less valid than in both.

These, however, were concessions which would have as completely
destroyed the infant work of protestant organization as those demanded
in 1529. Half -formed convictions would thus have been shaken to their
very foundations. The protestants were prepared not to condemn the
sacrament in one kind ; but it was impossible for them to resolve to declare
it equally conformable with scripture as their own form, " since," as they
affirmed, " Christ instituted the Sacrament in both kinds." Nor could
they be expected to reintroduce the private masses which they had so
vehemently denounced as utterly at variance with the idea of the sacra-
ment. This would have been to destroy their own work, notwithstanding
their conviction that they had undertaken it on just grounds.

As the negotiations advanced, too, every step revealed a greater difference
of fundamental principles than the parties had avowed to themselves.
The catholics regarded the ordinances of ecclesiastical authority as the
rule which admitted, at the utmost, of rare exceptions. The protestants,
on the contrary, saw the rule of faith and life in scripture alone ; they
would admit the peculiar institutions of the Romish church only con-
ditionally, and in so far as it was wholly unavoidable.3 The former
derived all the ordinances of the church from divine right ; the latter saw

1 " That the conjugati should be admitted to priest's estate and ordained, in
like manner, as was the usage for some centuries in old times in the first churches."
Unschliissige und unvergriffliche christliche Mittel. (Undecided and impractic-
able christian Measures. — Proposals of the Catholic Committee.) Forstemann,
ii., p. 250.

2 Thom. Leodius, Vita Friderici Palatini, vii. 151. Ut intellexit, ita rejecit.
See Melanchthon to Camerarius. Corp. Ref., ii. 590. To this also tended
Campeggio's first observations. " I santi padri," says he, " con la santita della
vita, osservantia delli precetti divini, con summa vigilantia e studio si sono sfor-
zati a partecipare del spirito santo, dal quale senza dubio spinti hanno cosi
santamente ordinate tutte le cose della chiesa."

3 Brenz spoke of a preceptum dispensabile in casu necessitatis. The necessity
is to him the decree of the Romish Church, which, however, he by no means
regards as justified thereby.

Chap. IX.] ATTEMPT AT MEDIATION 621

in them only human and revocable institutions. But little was gained
so long as the protestants were unanimously inclined to regard the papacy
as an earthly and human institution, and therefore needing limitations ;
since the religious ideas of the opposite party were entirely founded on
the divine right of the catholic church, and the character of its head as
Vicar of Christ.

And even had they come to some sort of understanding, and settled
some terms of compromise, it would have been almost impossible to put
them in execution. What difficulties, for example, would the re-establish-
ment of bishoprics have created ! The character of the new church
rested mainly on the independence of the lower clergy, and its immediate
connexion with the territorial power. The old antipathy of the cities
was already aroused by the suggestion ; the Niirembergers declared they
would never again submit to the domination of a bishop.1

Another and a less numerous meeting, consisting of only three members
on either side, was convened towards the end of August, after the first
negotiations were broken off ; but on following their discussions with
attention, we find that they never approached the point which the former
assembly had reached.

Some isolated attempts at conciliation were afterwards made. Duke
Henry of Brunswick had a conference with the son of the Elector John
Frederick, in the garden of a citizen of Augsburg. In the church of
St. Maurice, the chancellor of Baden made certain proposals to the chan-
cellor of Saxony, who was accompanied by Melanchthon : these were
discussed for a time, but could lead to no results.

The protestant party had conceded as much as possible, consistently
with their religious convictions ; they had reached the farthest limits of
compliance ; nay, murmurs were already heard in their own body against
the concessions that had been made ; it was impossible to induce them to
advance a single step farther. During these negotiations Elector John
exhorted the theologians to look only at the cause, and to take no thought
for him or his land.

Nor was any farther concession to be extorted from the other side,
fettered as it was by the pope.

NEGOTIATIONS OF THE EMPEROR.

It was impossible that the emperor should be inclined to acquiesce
in such a termination of the diet, or to allow it to disperse thus. He was,
on the contrary, deeply impressed with the conviction, that an intermin-
able train of still greater evils and troubles must then ensue.2

At the very beginning of the deliberations, the catholic majority had
repeated the demand for a council, and Charles, who already contemplated
an ecclesiastical assembly from his own peculiar point of view, as emperor,
had written about it to the pope. Clement VII. laid the demand before
a congregation which he had appointed to settle matters of faith. Many
declared themselves against it, especially on the two following grounds ;
first, because persons who had rejected the former councils would not

1 Opinion of Spengler in Hausdorfs Leben Spenglers, p. 65.

2 An opinion presented to the diet (Brussels Archives) says, " La matiere ne
peut pas demeurer en ces termes sans en attendre pis et inconvenient irreparable."

622 PROPOSALS FOR A COUNCIL [Book V.

consent to a new one ; secondly, because any attack on the part of the
Turks would be far more dangerous while the public attention was absorbed
by these internal affairs. But the pope was bound by the promises he
had made during his captivity in the castle of St. Angelo, as well as by
expressions he had let fall in conversation at Bologna : he therefore
entreated the emperor once more maturely to weigh the thing ; but if his
majesty, who was on the spot, and whose zeal for the catholic religion
was undoubted, held it to be absolutely necessary, he also would consent ;
but only under the condition laid down by the emperor and States them-
selves— that the protestants must, till then, dutifully return to the rite
and the doctrines of the holy mother church. He proposed Rome as the
most suitable place for the meeting.1

It was in consequence of this correspondence that, on the 7th of
September, the emperor sent a message to the protestants, in which he
announced the council ; adding, however, " that they must in the interval
conform to the faith and practice of the emperor, the States, and the
universal Christian church."

Did Charles really believe, after all that had passed, that a command
of this nature would be obeyed ? Such an expectation would only prove
that the temper and modes of thinking of the protestants were for ever
closed and unintelligible to him. They had already heard of the intended
proposal, and were prepared. They replied, that to comply with such
a demand would be to run counter to God and their consciences ; and
that, moreover, they were not legally bound to do so ; that the council
granted was a consequence of previous decrees of the empire, but that no
condition like that now attached to it had ever been so much as discussed.
No resolutions which the majority might recently have passed in Spires
to this effect could possibly bind those who had solemnly protested against
the whole proceedings there. In the oral communication the emperor
had described them as a sect ; against this they entered an immediate
and solemn protest.2

We are in possession of the letter which the emperor hereupon sent to
the pope ; it proves that he was no less mortified than incensed. " They
have answered me." says he, " in the stubbornness of their error, whereupon
I am reflecting what to do."

As the necessity of having recourse to force already arose in prospect
before him, he thought that, although the mediation of the States had
so utterly failed, he might be able to effect something by his personal
interference. " In order that all our measures may be more completely
justified," he continues, " it seems good to me that I should speak with
them myself, both jointly and severally, which I think immediately to
proceed in." Not, therefore, without giving notice to the court of Rome,
he offered the protestants his personal endeavours to discover means of
restoring unity, previous to the meeting of the council.

1 All' imperatore di man propria di Clemen te (L. di pr., ii. 197) : Pregatala
prima che esamini maturamente — dico a V. M. che son contento che quella, in
caso giudichi esser cosi necessario, ofierisca e prometta la convocatione del con-
cilio, con conditione pero, che appartandosi da' loro errori tornino incontinente
al viver Catholicamente.

2 Remarks on the Ansbach Acts, in Forstemann's Urkundenbuch, ii. 393.
Sachsische Apologia in Forstemann's Arch., 136.

Chap. IX.] PROJECT OF A RECESS 623

He deceived himself greatly, however, if he hoped to accomplish anything
with the protestants by means of such a missive as he now addressed to
them. In this he maintained the nullity of the Protest, without going
into the grounds on which it rested, and solely because it was reasonable
and expedient that so insignificant a number should yield to the majority :
he likewise expressed his astonishment that the catholic deputies had
carried their concessions so far. As the protestants had already expressed
their final decision, they could not do otherwise than reject a negotiation
founded on such assumptions as these. They entered into no discussion
of the religious questions in their answer ; they only sought to make the
legality of their proceedings clear to the emperor. They replied, that they
were determined to take their stand on the Recesses of the diets of 1524
and 1526 — a position from which no majority could remove them — and
asked for nothing save external peace.1

Inevitable as such an answer was, it deeply offended the emperor. He
gave the protestants to understand that he had received the same " with
notable displeasure." He says in one of his letters that he cannot describe
what vexation this affair causes him. Clinging tenaciously to the idea
of the Latin church and animated by a chivalrous sort of ambition, he
had hoped to triumph over all his enemies. Instead of this he saw him-
self involved in a dispute, the very grounds of which were unintelligible
to him.2

In fact he now thought that all peaceful means were exhausted, and that
he must have recourse to arms. In the letter to the pope to which we
have just alluded, he says, " Force is what would now bring the most
fruit ;" and he was only restrained by the consideration that he was not
sufficiently prepared. After the second answer of the protestants had been
sent in, he declared to the majority of the States, that, as he could consent
to nothing prejudicial to the faith, and as all conciliatory measures had
been of no avail, he was ready to risk his possessions and his person in
the cause, and with the aid and counsel of the States, to do whatever might
be necessary. He would likewise seek assistance from the pope and other
sovereigns.

This thought had been entertained in his privy council from the very
commencement of the diet. Should the protestants remain obstinate,
and, as their enemies wished, refuse to submit either to the judgment of
the emperor or to the council, the legate was to be consulted as to the kind
of force to be employed.3

The emperor appeared disposed to treat the protestants as he had done
the Moors in Spain. Had he been fully prepared with munitions of war,
and had he not been bound by the resolutions of the majority, he would
probably, in spite of his natural mildness, have been led by his consistent
adherence to engagements, to proceed immediately in this work.

It is, however, not surprising that the majority of the diet had some
hesitation in assenting to such a course. Certain interests had been
agitated (as we have already mentioned), about which the States were not

1 Answer of the Protestants dated 8th Sept., Forstemann's Urkunden., ii. 411.

2 Forstemann's Urkunden., ii. ; Heller's Report, 422.

3 Si lesdits Lutheriens . . . demeurent obstinez, il faut savoir l'intention
du Sieur Legat, comment et par quels moyens on pourra proceder contre eux par
righeur.

624 APOLOGY FOR THE CONFESSION [Book V.

fully agreed with the emperor -,1 they were not disposed to follow him
implicitly in a crusade. The old sentiments of members of the empire
had not yet so entirely given place to religious hatred. On the contrary,
at this moment the project of electing a king of the Romans (to which
we shall shortly recur) excited fresh dissatisfaction among them.

The States submitted a project of a Recess, which held out, indeed, a
menace of war, but at a distance ; the protestants were to be allowed
time for repentance till the next 5 th of May, in order to explain themselves
on the articles on which it had been found impossible to come to an agree-
ment.

Unfortunately, however, this project was also conceived in terms
which wounded the feelings of the protestants. It was said, that they
must compel no one to join their sect ; — the word and the thing were
equally odious to them : it contained ordinances to which they did not
think themselves at liberty to submit ; e.g., not to allow anything relating
to matters of faith to be printed within the period assigned, and to allow
monks to confess and say mass ; and, lastly, it was expressly asserted
that the Confession had been confuted with arguments drawn from the
holy scripture. By accepting and subscribing this Recess, they would
have signed the condemnation of their own cause. They rejected it
without a moment's hesitation. They not only explicitly stated the grounds
of their refusal, but seized the opportunity offered them by the assertion
that the Confession had been confuted, to lay before the emperor an
apology for it. On all main points the apology is like the Confession ;
but, if I mistake not, the nature and style of the former recede still more
widely from Catholicism.

This brought down upon them another storm. Elector Joachim of
Brandenburg announced to them, that if they refused to accept the
Recess, the emperor and States were determined to venture person and
property, land and people, in order to put an end to this matter. The
emperor declared that he would consent to no further alterations ; if the
protestant party would accept the Recess, there it was : if not, he, the
emperor, in concert with all the other Estates, must take immediate
measures for the extirpation of their sect.

But if former threats had been unavailing, these were not likely
to make any impression. The religious spirit which, in the rigour of its
conscience, had scorned every alliance not founded on perfect uniformity
of belief, now showed itself no less inflexible towards the system from
which it had seceded.

Such was the end of every attempt at approximation. The minority
were determined to maintain their position in all its integrity, and calmly
to await whatever their enemies might undertake against them.

Thus the parties separated.

It would be a complete mistake to imagine that the elector of Saxony
had any political schemes of opposition to the emperor. On the contrary,
it was a sincere affliction to him to be forced to sever himself thus from
his emperor and lord ; but he could do no otherwise. The moment had

1 Konigklich wirde zu Hungern sc. Revocation der babstlichen bulle so auf
den vierten Tail d' geistlichen gutter erlangt. — "The revocation of the papal bull
is demanded for the fourth part of the ecclesiastical lands, by the king in Hun-
gary," &c. Forstemann's Urk., ii. 843.

Chap. IX.] DIVISION AMONG THE CITIES 625

arrived when, being about to depart, he went to take his leave. " Uncle,
uncle," said the emperor, " I did not look for this from you (Ew. Liebden)."1
The elector made no answer ; his eyes filled with tears, but he could find
no words ; so he left the palace and, immediately after, the city.2

A complete separation had taken place among the princes of the empire.
In Spires this had extended to the princes alone ; now, the emperor was
not only present but implicated.

The rupture which had hitherto been concealed beneath the hope of a
reconciliation, was now laid bare to view.

The division had already extended to the cities.

First, Reutlingen, and then, one after another, Kempten, Heilbronn,
Windsheim, and Weissenburg in the Nordgau, had joined Nuremberg.

Four other towns, Strasburg, Memmingen, Constance, and Lindau,
which had hitherto adhered to the Swiss views of the Lord's supper, had
given in their own confession — the so-called Tetrapolitana — to the con-
tents of which, so highly important, to the internal history of protestantism,
we shall return hereafter.3 To them, too, the emperor caused a catholic
refutation to be read aloud ; of course, without the smallest effect.
Strasburg showed as much courage as Nuremberg and other cities. Had
the intended reconciliation taken place between catholics and protestants,
the four cities would have fallen into no little jeopardy. But as things
turned out in Augsburg, they had less to fear than at first, and they there-
fore gave the less ear to any suggestions from the other side.

It was only to the other cities that the emperor caused it to be announced,
on the 24th of September, that Saxony and his kinsmen and allies had
causelessly and wrongfully rejected a Recess drawn up, in fact, in their
favour, — doubtless mainly because they were required to restore the
convents ; but that he was resolved to put an end to this thing. As the
other States had promised to stake life and property on the cause, he
hoped to find the same zeal in them. The cities requested to be allowed first
to consult their authorities ; the emperor pressed for an immediate answer.

Hereupon those who had remained catholic, the smaller as well as the

1 Your well-belovedness , would be somewhat corresponding to this title, by
which the emperor was wont to address his immediate vassals. — Transl.

2 Erzahlung der sachsischen Apologia in Forstemann's Archiv, p. 206. Gran-
vella mentions this trait, as a proof of the loyalty and affection of the elector
towards his imperial majesty. 3

3 Fiirstenberg (5th July) relates the following : " Es haben die von Strasburg
vergangener Tag uns und etlich mehr von Stadten bei sich erfordert, und die
Bekanntniss irer Lere und Predig, so sie der Keys. Mt. zu iibergeben willens,
zuvor anhoren lassen, ob sich jemand villeicht mit inen unterschreiben wolt.
Wie wol nun dieselbig fast wol gestellt und etwas subtiler und zugtiger dan der
Fursten gewest, so haben wir doch, diweyl bis anher bei uns des Sacraments
halber ihre Opinion nit gepredigt, das underschreyben abgeschlagen ; dergleichen
haben auch andere gethan, uss ursachen von jeglichen insonderheit furgewant."
— " Yesterday they of Strasburg invited us and some others of the cities to come
to them, and to hear the confession of their doctrine and preaching, which they
intend to deliver in to the emperor ; and to see whether perchance any will
subscribe it with them. Now, although the same be well drawn up, and some-
what more subtle and discreet than that of the princes was, yet have we, seeing
that till now their opinion on the sacrament has not been preached among us,
refused to sign ; the like have also others done, for reasons by each severally
assigned."

40

626 DIVISION AMONG THE CITIES [Book V.

larger, Rottweil, Ueberlingen, Cologne, Hagenau, even Ratisbon, attached
themselves without hesitation to the emperor.

The others, who had hitherto allowed free circulation to the Confession,
without setting themselves in open opposition to the emperor and the
majority, were now in no small perplexity. They considered that, by
accepting the Recess, they should admit the Confession to be confuted,
and that they should be compelled to fight against their co-religionists ;
gradually therefore Frankfurt, Ulm, Schwabisch-Hall — and lastly Augs-
burg, rejected it. In Augsburg, as may be imagined, this difficulty was
most felt, in consequence of the emperor's presence. It was thought
necessary to resort to the extraordinary measure of convoking the great
council, in which members of all the guilds took part. But the protestant
spirit had already penetrated the body of the citizens too deeply for them
to find it possible to renounce it. In the very face of the emperor,
Augsburg refused to accept his Recess.1

1 Kress and Volkamer to Nuremberg in Corp. Ref., ii. 422. The correspondence
between the city of Frankfurt and its delegates is specially worthy of note.
" Sollte es aber mit sich bringen, wie es on Zweyfel thut," wrote Fiirstenberg on
the 3d of October, " dass wir stillschweygend gehellen, dass die Bekenntniss des
Churfursten und seynes. Anhangs mit den heyligen Evangelien und Geschrif ten
griindlich abgeleynet worden, welche Ableynung wir doch nie gesehn noch an
Tag kommen ist, das ist unsers Erachtens wider unser Gewissen und Verstand
und deshalb zu bewilligen ganz beschwerlich und nit thunlich, und wan es gleich
desfalls nit zu widerfechten were, khan E.W. on Zweyffel wol ermessen, wo
es zur Handlung kommen solt, was E. W. derwegen mit Pulver Buxen Geld und
andern zu leihen und darzustrecken zugemut word werden : wir wollen gesch-
weygen was das uf im nab zuzusagen und zu halten was weiter beschlossen wird."
— " Should it, however, come to pass, as it doubtless will, that we tacitly admit
that the Confession of the elector and his followers is fundamentally confuted
from the holy Gospels and Scriptures, (which confutation we have, however,
not seen, and which has not yet been made public,) that were, according to our
judgment, against our conscience and understanding, and to assent to it were
very difficult, and not a thing to be done ; and if, in like manner, it were not to
be controverted, your worships can without doubt well estimate, if it should come
to action, what your worships would be asked to lend and contribute in powder,
firelocks, money, and other things : we will say nothing about what is to be said
to this matter, and will hold to what may be further determined." The eminently
discreet council of Frankfurt hereupon resolves on this answer to the emperor.
(14th Oct.) — " Dieweil Kais. Mt. ein Concilium zu verschaffen sich allergnedig-
lichst erpotten, und ein erparer Rath kainswegs sich ye versehen, dass Kais.
Mt. dem ewigen Gottes Wort etwas zuwider werde aufrichten oder handhaben
helffen, so wolle ein erbarer Rath in Bedacht hochgedachter Kays. Mt. als eines
allergnedigsten giitigen milten Kaisers selbss erbieten sich desselbigen getroisten,
auch furan, als einem christlichen Magistrat wol geziemt, und so viel sie gegen Gott
der Seelen und Gewissen halb und der Kays. Mt. von des Reichs wegen Gehor
sam zu leisten schuldig, wie pillig allerunterthangist gehorsamen." — " Since
your imperial majesty has most graciously proposed to procure an ecclesiastical
council to be held, and since our honourable council has by no means seen that
your imperial majesty would ever help to establish or maintain anything con-
trary to the everlasting word of God, our honourable council, regarding your
imperial majesty as a most gracious, kind and clement emperor, proposes to trust
to your imperial majesty as it beseems a Christian magistracy, and in as far as
they are bound to tender obedience to God, on account of their souls and
consciences, and to your imperial majesty on account of the empire, so far
most dutifully to obey, as is just and reasonable." In these obscure folds do
they wrap up their refusal. In the main, they agree with their ambassador.

Chap. IX.] DIET OF AUGSBURG 627

There were now fourteen cities, and among them precisely the most
affluent and nourishing in the empire — Strasburg, Ulm, Augsburg,
Frankfurt, and Nuremberg, — that actively opposed the Recess. They
were a minority, but not so inconsiderable a minority as had at first
appeared.

Meanwhile the emperor had business to transact with the majority,
who, as we have said, did not attach themselves with such cordiality
to his house as the support they now received from him seemed to
demand.

The grant of the ecclesiastical lands in Germany and Austria, made by
the pope to King Ferdinand, was obstinately rejected. The clergy first
declared their resolution not to consent to it, and the whole assembly then
made the cause their own. In a report with marginal notes, written by
Granvilla, it appears that they threatened to withhold all subsidies for
the Turkish war if this project was persisted in. Such an innovation,
they declared, such an assumption of power on the part of the pope,
could be endured neither in the empire, nor in the Austrian hereditary
dominions.1 Granvilla made this known to the king, and Ferdinand
was at length compelled to let the bull drop.

Not till then were the Turkish succours granted ; nor even then were
they such as the emperor had wished them — permanent, which the States
declared would only be possible in case of the co-operation of the whole
of Christendom. On the other hand, a considerable body of troops
raised in haste were immediately granted ; twice as many as for the
Roman expedition of 1521 ; viz. 40,000 foot soldiers, and 8000 horse, for
six months only at present, but for longer in case of need. The succours
were not to be in money, but in men, and to be levied according to the
division of the circles.

Some other internal affairs were likewise transacted.

One main purpose of the diet, announced in the proclamation, was to
allay the disputes between the spiritual and temporal Estates which had
recently made so much noise. At a former period the spiritual States
had been vehemently attacked ; now, they were the complainants.
Formerly this would have given occasion to the most violent contests ;
now, as these mutual animosities had given way to a common antipathy,
a committee, composed of both, was appointed, and a compromise actually
effected, which the emperor consented to proclaim as a constitution of
the empire.2

The hundred Gravamina were likewise once more brought forward.
The temporal princes, accustomed to persist in their resolutions, presented
them anew. As the papal legate was not empowered to enter into nego-

1 Les deputes ont dit clerement, que la dite hastive ayde ne sera en maniere
nulle consentie, si premierement le roi (Ferdinand) n'abolit entierement la bulle
du pape, et ce non seulement en 1'empire, mais aussi a l'encontre des subjects
de tous les estats qui sont demourans et habitans en pays d'Autriche car ils
donnent a entendre que de la sorte ils ne veulent nullement estre en subjection
du pape. (Brussels Archives.) Granvilla adds the remark, au roi, que S.M.
regarde, etc.

2 Concordata of the spiritual and temporal grievances, collected in the form
of a constitution. Bucholtz, in. 636.

40 — 2

628 DIET OF AUGSBURG. RECESS [Book V.

tiations on the matter, the emperor engaged to have them agitated by his
ambassador in Rome.1

It appears almost as if the abolition of these grievances had subsequently
been regarded as conceded, and as if the constitution just mentioned
had obtained a certain authority.2 But these interests now vanished
before the far weightier one of the reformation.

The most important question was, what attitude the emperor and the
majority would assume in their relations with the States which had rejected
their Recess.

From all I have been able to discover it appears, that the emperor was
more for an immediate resort to force, while the majority were inclined to
defer taking up arms.

After being repeatedly asked, they gave in their opinion, that the
emperor should issue a new religious mandate on the basis of the edict
of Worms. If Saxony with his followers should refuse obedience to it,
the emperor should summon them to appear before him, pronounce the due
punishment, and proceed to its execution.

The Recess is conceived in the same spirit.

The emperor therein proclaims his serious determination to enforce
his edict of Worms ; he specifies a number of infringements of it, all of
which he condemns, whether they be called Lutheran, Zwinglian, or
anabaptist ; he insists on the maintenance of every point of the disputed
usages or doctrines, and establishes anew the jurisdiction of the spiritual
princes. The imperial fiscal was immediately to proceed judicially
against the recusants, even to the punishment, of the ban of the empire,
which should be executed according to the ordinances of the Public Peace.

A main point, and one to which we shall shortly have occasion to return,
is that the Imperial Chamber was immediately reconstituted and bound
to enforce this Recess.

An appeal to arms remained however, as we see from this document,
always in reserve ; it was an idea to which the emperor incessantly
recurred.

In a letter to the pope of the 4th October, he expressed himself with
great vivacity on the subject ; he informed him that the negotiations
were broken off and their adversaries more obstinate than ever, but that
he was determined to apply all his force to subdue them. He wishes the
pope to exhort the other princes of Christendom to espouse this cause.3

We have another letter, dated 25th of October, from Charles to the
cardinals, in which he earnestly entreats them to promote the convocation
of a council. Meanwhile, he wishes to consult them how he is to act in

1 In Adrian's Catalogus is quoted (No. 196, p. 93) Consultatio et deliberatio
consiliariorum deputatorum super gravaminibus quae nationi Germanicae per
sedem apostolicam inferuntur, which would belong here.

2 Spittler, Geschichte der Fundamentalgesetze der deutchkatholischen Kirche
(Werke, viii. 501), affirms that the two documents, the Gravamina, which were
regarded as actually settled, and the Concordata, lay on the table of the Imperial
Council (Hofrath) for daily use.

3 Raince, 18th Oct. Lui (au Pape) escrivoit le dit empereur estre delibere
employer tous ses biens et forces et sa propre personne a leur faire la guerre,
priant S. Ste. vouloir admonester et requerir tous les princes Chretiens vouloir
aider et entrer a 1' expedition de la dite emprise, et sur cela s. d. Ste. fait dimanche
congregation de cardinaux. MS. Bethune at Paris.

Chap. IX.] WARLIKE DISPOSITION OF THE EMPEROR 629

the interval towards the Lutherans, so as to avoid further danger ; and
especially how he ought to fulfil the functions of an emperor, which had
devolved upon him. " We declare to you," adds he, " that for the termi-
nation of this affair we will spare neither kingdoms nor dominions ; nay,
that we will devote to it body and soul, which we have wholly dedicated
to the service of God Almighty."1

On the 30th of October he sent his major domo, Pedro de la Cueva, to
Rome, to inform the pope that the catholic princes were indeed of opinion
that the year was too far advanced to undertake any immediate measures
against the Lutherans ; but to exhort him (the pope) by no means to
desist from preparations for such an enterprise. The emperor, on his side,
however desirable it might be for him to go to Spain, would postpone
everything, in order immediately to put in execution whatever in the
pope's opinion might conduce to the service of God and of his holiness.

In Rome the question had long been decided. Campeggio had told
the emperor that, without some strong measure, he would arrive at no
result. He had reminded him of Maximilian, who had never been able
to obtain obedience till he took up arms, and used them successfully
against the house of the Palatinate.2

In short, as the protestants were not to be brought to conform by mild
measures, western Christendom and the German empire, represented by
the pope, the emperor, and the assembly of the empire, appeared resolved
to put them down either by law or by force.

It remained to be seen whether the recusants would have the physical
and moral strength necessary to make effectual resistance.

1 II vous plaira, selon votre prudence et bonte, adviser comment on se peut

gouverner avec eux — (les Lutheriens) tant pour empescher qu'il n'advienne

plus detriment a la chose publique, que partiellement pour la satisfaction des
charges et offices, auxquels par la divine clemence fumes constitues, vous advisans
que n'epargnerons ni royaumes ni seigneuries pour la consommation de chose
tant necessaire, etc. Bethune, 8539.

2 Molto piu a V. Mta. conviensi in questa impresa santa e Christiana a farsi
obedire con tutte le vie e modi che si ponno trovare, che fece la felice memoria di
Maximiliano suo avo nelle imprese che contra i Palatini si gloriosamente fini,
dipoi la quale sempre fu poi tenuto e riverito e obedito, — • — ricordando sempre
che e impossibile senza qualche gagliarda exactione et ordine estirpare le heresie.

BOOK VI.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD.

i53°—i535-

As even in the remote times described by Tacitus, the Germans deemed
it the heaviest of all punishments to be forbidden to attend the public
assemblies and sacrifices ; so, during the middle ages, they accounted it
an intolerable misfortune to be excluded from the communion of the
church and the peace of the empire. These two communities appeared
to embrace all the good which man can enjoy, on this side the grave and
on the other.

The evangelical States now found themselves on the point of being
excluded from both.

From the church, encumbered as it was with abuses which they had
hoped to reform, they had, since their efforts were unsuccessful, voluntarily
severed themselves. They clung with fervent and steadfast attachment
to the idea of an improved church. On the other hand, the established
church strenuously resisted every attempt at change, and repulsed every
advance unaccompanied by complete submission.

Hence it happened that the imperial authority, on which the evangelical
party at first thought they might rely for support, having concluded a
close alliance with Rome, now threatened them with exclusion from the
Public Peace, — that is to say, with war and ruin.

It seemed evident that the evangelical party, with their slender terri-
torial power, still further enfeebled by internal divisions, if once involved
in a serious contest with a large majority of the States, the puissant
emperor, and the whole of Latin Christendom united, must be instantly
and hopelessly overwhelmed.

This it is which constitutes the most striking feature of the diet of
Augsburg ; that, in full view of this danger, they resolved never to abandon
the religious position they had taken up, and the importance of which
filled their whole souls.

When, indeed, this resolution was once taken, it appeared, on a calm
survey of their situation, that, in spite of the superiority of their opponents,
the cause they so intrepidly defended was by no means desperate.

And, in the first place, the tendency to reform was inherent in the course
of events and the progress of public opinion, and had innumerable allies
lying without the pale of its acknowledged domain ; all the force of the
principle of which the Protesters were the avowed champions, must,
without any effort of theirs, come to their aid.

At the same time the whole of the Germano-Roman nations of the West
were attacked by the most formidable enemy they had ever encountered.
In spite of all differences, in spite of the attempt to exclude them from
the great political body of which they were members, the protestants
belonged to this menaced and assailed community ; they, indeed, were
the representatives of a new stage of that intellectual culture, of which
the barbarian enemy meditated the extirpation ; Europe neither could
nor would dispense with their aid.

But, lastly, the external unity of catholic Christendom was only the pro-

630

Chap. I.] LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD 631

duct of a moment of good fortune and victory, or of prompt and successful
policy. It was hardly to be expected that such a peace as this would lead
to serious co-operation, or would even be of any long continuance.

I do not believe that any of the men then living arrived at a full sense
of the real situation of things. Landgrave Philip was the first who had
a dim perception of it ; the others, without much reflexion on what was
passing around them, took counsel only of their consciences.

The important thing both for them and for the general progress of
society was, that a centre of resistance should be firmly established, so
that they might not be overpowered by the first storm, and might on some
future occasion take advantage of favouring circumstances, by which their
enemies now so largely profited.

CHAPTER I.

FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD.

The church had of herself no political power ; for that, she was wholly
dependent on the arm of the empire. " The anathema," says the Sachsen-
spiegel, " injures only the soul ; the penalties of the law of the land or
of the feudal law are consequent on the king's ban."

Hostile as was the temper of the majority at the diet to the protestants,
this ban, spite of their secession from the church, was not proclaimed
against them. The majority, which had not even permitted the emperor
to act as judge, hesitated to put arms into his hands.

While war still appeared imminent, they conceived the design of trans-
ferring the combat to another field ; " they would not fight, but right "
(nicht fechten sondern rechten), as they expressed it. Of all the great
institutions of the empire which had been so laboriously founded for the
conservation of the national unity, the only one that still enjoyed some
consideration was the Imperial Chamber (Reichskammergericht), which
exercised the judicial functions of the emperor, while its character was
eminently representative.1 This tribunal they resolved to employ for
the purpose they meditated. At the diet of Augsburg, the Imperial
Chamber was extended and better organized for the despatch of business.
The number of assessors was increased from eighteen to twenty-four,
retaining, of course, the right of election of the circles ; but besides this,
it was thought necessary, in order to get rid of long arrears of business,
to appoint eight experienced doctors. Further, the court determined to
subject itself to a new visitation. The reader will remember the manner
in which it was purified, at the time the old Council of Regency fell.

The same spirit presided over the present reform. Seven of the
procurators and advocates were seriously admonished on account of
their religious opinions, and an eighth was obliged to absent himself for
a time.2 And this tribunal, thus strengthened, and purged from all
inclination to the new opinions, was now most earnestly exhorted to
observe the Augsburg Recess, particularly in the article concerning faith ;
the president of the chamber was to be not only empowered, but bound,

1 Standisch.

2 Harpprecht, Staatsarchiv. des Kammergerichts, v. 82.

632 THE IMPERIAL CHAMBER [Book VI.

to remove any who might infringe it, and must do so under pain of the
emperor's displeasure.1

The Imperial Chamber was thus rendered a complete expression of the
prevailing sentiments of the majority.

The protestants were well aware of this. In a project for the mainten-
ance of peace, communicated to them at the conclusion of the diet, it
was said, that no one should invade another's dominions unlawfully.
They inferred from this that such invasion might take place, in pursuance
of a sentence of the Imperial Chamber, the nature of which could not be
doubtful.

At the same time, however, a new measure was introduced for the
government of the empire.

Of late years the house of Austria had more than once had occasion to
fear that, in consequence of the nullity of the Council of Regency, and the
absence of the emperor, people might either proceed to elect another chief,
or might revive and recognise the rights of the vicars of the empire, of
whom the elector of Saxony was one.

In order to put an end for ever to plans of this sort, the emperor aban-
doned all considerations regarding his possible posterity, and, as we
have said, determined to raise his brother to the rank of king of the
Romans.

It had been objected to Maximilian on a similar occasion, that he was
himself not crowned emperor, and therefore, in fact, only king of the
Romans ; and this was one of the reasons for Charles's coronation in
Bologna.

To this the five catholic electors raised little objection, presuming that
their compliance would be requited with favours. The Palatinate was
promised compensation for its losses in the Landshut war, and moreover
the sum of 160,000 gulden. A final settlement of the affair of Zossen and
the Bohemian fiefs, together with other advantages, was promised to
Brandenburg ; in his letters he tells with great delight what a gracious
emperor and king he has.2 A number of extraordinary, and indeed
almost contradictory favours were to be granted to the elector of Mainz ;
e.g., to procure him, from the court of Rome, the powers of a legate a latere
for his dioceses, and at the same time, permission to leave these same
dioceses to coadjutors, and keep an accumulation of estates and benefices
for his own perpetual use.3 Trier had for some years been secured by
a sum of money. The longest hesitation was on the part of Cologne,
the promises made to whom eleven years ago at the election of Charles V.
were not yet fulfilled ; but at length, having received sufficient guarantee,
he assented. Saxony alone held out.

It was suggested by some, that, as Saxony could in no case be won
over without concessions which the emperor was determined not to grant,

1 Recess of the 19th Nov., 1530, §§ 76, 82, 91. All the persons of the imperial
chamber should " bear themselves agreeably to the Recess of this diet now and
here holden, especially in the article of faith and religion."

2 Letter of the 18th Aug., 1530. Berlin Archives.

3 The last, in the letter of grace (Gnadenbrief) of the 6th Sept. in Bucholtz,
iii. 662. The first, in the Brussels Archives, 7th Sept. " Contendemus obtinere o
D. N. Clemente VII. facultates ad instar legati a latere pro electore antedicta
in omnibus suis dicecesibus, nempe Moguntina, Magdeburgensi, et Halberstadensi.' '

Chap. I.] ORIGIN OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD 633

it would be most expedient to take advantage of his defection from the
church of Rome, at once to exclude him. The pope actually sent a brief
according to which Elector John could be stripped of his right of electing,
in virtue of a bull of Leo X., subjecting the defenders of Luther to the pains
and penalties of heresy.1 Deliberations were actually held upon the
matter ; but the electors had not yet reached such a point as to consent
to so formless a proceeding, which might afterwards be turned against
any one of themselves. The evidence we have seems to prove, that the
elector palatine most strenuously opposed it,2 and that John of Saxony
was in fact invited. The pliant pope had furnished a brief to meet this
case also, in which he declared that the participation of Saxony, although,
in virtue of the above-mentioned bull, he might be regarded as excom-
municated, should not prejudice the validity of the election.

The warning thus given, and the threat implied in the new instructions
to the Imperial Chamber, were the immediate causes of the League of
Schmalkald.

We have seen how little the evangelical princes had hitherto succeeded
in forming any permanent union ; and even now they wavered as long as
the emperor remained in Augsburg, and there was still a doubt what
measures he might take in concert with the majority. A congress already
convoked was given up again in consequence of some pacific expressions
of the emperor.3 But now that the Recess had appeared, and was of so
decidedly hostile a character, — now that the above-mentioned citation
was at the same time sent to the Saxon court, they could no longer defer
their meeting.

In a letter to George of Brandenburg, Elector John gives the following
reasons : — First, that in answer to a question concerning the instructions
given to the fiscal of the Imperial Chamber, the emperor had replied,
that he (the fiscal) should not be prohibited from proceeding against
those who would not submit to his Recess ; it would, therefore, be necessary
to deliberate on a unanimous exception against such a proceeding. And
likewise, that the summons to the election rendered it necessary that they
should converse with each other about it, and immediately agree on some
common measures of opposition.4

I know not whether I am wrong in supposing that this turn of affairs
was essentially favourable to the protestants.

The all important point was, that they should not be excluded from
the Peace of the Empire, on account of their ecclesiastical changes.

Had the old modes of thinking still prevailed, a crusade would have been
set on foot against them.

But, inasmuch as the majority resolved to attack them by means of

1 Extract in Bucholtz, ix. 17.

2 Taubenheim to El. John. Forstemann, ii. 821. " Wie ichs vermerke, so
szolle Pfalz die vornehmste Ursach sein, damit E. Ch. G. nicht augseschlossen
werden." According to what I observe, the palatine is the chief cause why your
E. G. is not excluded.

3 It was fixed for the Monday after the feast of St. Catherine. (28th Nov.,
IS30.)

4 This is in fact expressed in the paper which is annexed to the letter from
Torgau, of St. Andrew's Eve (29th Nov.). The elector invites the Markgrave,
" ir (S. Gn.) selbst und der sachen zu gut," (" for your Grace's own sake and that
of the cause.") (W. A.)

634 ORIGIN OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD [Book VI.

the great representative (stdndischen) tribunal, and on the field of the
ancient laws of the empire ; inasmuch as the emperor invited them to
concur in his brother's election, the legality of their participation in the
business of the empire, in spite of their ecclesiastical differences, was
recognised.

The whole contest was converted from an ecclesiastical into a general ; — ■
from a political question, to one of public law ; and on this ground the
protestants had now to unite, and to organize their resistance.

On the 22nd Dec, 1530, John of Saxony, Ernest of Liineburg, Philip of
Hessen, Wolfgang of Anhalt, the Counts Gebhard and Albrecht of Mans-
feld, the latter of whom was bearer of the vote of Grubenhagen, and also
delegates from George of Brandenburg and from several cities, assembled
in Schmalkald. The heights which surround the town were covered
with snow. It was not for their pleasure that they passed the festival of
Christmas in this small frontier town, in the midst of a rude mountain
district.

They resolved, in the first place, that, as soon as any attempt should be
made by the imperial fiscal to enforce the law against any one of them,
the whole body should come to his aid.1 They agreed on certain exceptions
which they intended to take in common, and appointed two or three
procurators to conduct the business before the Imperial Chamber.

This is the essential part of the league ; and it affords the clearest
evidence that the religious dispute was transformed into one of law.
In this all who had originally subscribed the Augsburg Confession, or had
since given in their adhesion to it, joined.

They also agreed that they must try to induce the emperor to mitigate
the terms of the Recess, or, perhaps, protest against it altogether.

Had they proceeded to act immediately, it is probable that a uniform
external organization of the new churches would have been effected.
Most of them were in favour of the introduction of a general church ordi-
nance,— mainly in order to render open vice amenable to ecclesiastical
chastisement.

On the other hand, they could not come to so perfect an understanding
concerning the second principal subject of deliberation — the election of
the king.

Saxony declared his opinion that they should not allow so great a latitude
to the emperor, as that he should be able to carry through an affair of
this importance single handed ; otherwise, there would soon be an end
of the privileges and franchises of the empire. There was a great differ-
ence, he said, between an election after a regular vacancy, and an attempt
to place a king of the Romans by the side of a living emperor. In the

1 Wo der kaiserlich. Fiscal, der Bund zu Schwaben oder Jemand anders
J. Chf. und Fiirstlichen Gnaden oder die gemeldten Stadte, eine oder mehre, oder
jemand von den Iren in Sachen unfern heil. Glauben oder was demselben
anhanget, auf den ausgegangenen Abschied furnehmen und im Schein des
Rechtens oder andere Wege beklagen wiirde, — das Ire aller Gn. und Gunsten
einander in solche beistendig, rathlich und hiilflich seyn sollen." — " If the im-
perial fiscal, the Swabian league, or any others, should undertake, in virtue of
the Recess just published, and under the appearance of law, or in any other
way, to accuse your E. and P. Graces, or the above-mentioned cities, on account
of our holy faith, or what is connected therewith — that all your Graces should
stand by one another with counsel and help."

Chap. I.] ELECTION OF FERDINAND 635

latter case, a consultation of all the electors, and a unanimous resolution,
must precede the summons to the election. But nothing of the kind
had been thought of. Even the citation which had been sent to himself
(the elector of Saxony), allowed much too short a time, and was as com-
pletely null as all the rest of the proceedings. Lastly, it was impossible
to suffer Ferdinand, who had distinguished himself by his enmity to the
gospel, to be imposed upon them. While lieutenant, he had contrived
the strangest artifices, and as king, he would have the game in his own
hands. To elect Ferdinand thus, without any stipulation, would be to
put arms into the hands of their enemies. They must stand firm as one
man, and refuse obedience with common consent. They could negotiate
afterwards. They would then have a good opportunity to oblige the king
to order the fiscal to stay proceedings, or entirely to repeal the Recess.1
They might, according to the expression in the original, " put a bit in his
mouth."

These views were very readily listened to, and especially coincided with
those of Landgrave Philip. They were approved by a large majority of
the States.

Markgrave George and his neighbours of Nuremberg alone would not go
so far. The former stood in too various and peculiar relations to Ferdi-
nand, to venture to offend him personally, The great desire of the latter
was, to show themselves the more especial subjects of the emperor. At
the first request on his part, they had delivered up the coronation regalia
which were kept at Nuremberg, and had sent an ambassador for that
express purpose to the imperial court.

Another question was intimately connected with the former.

Although the attacks more immediately to be dreaded were of a judicial
kind, it was impossible not to see that, in case of need, the emperor medi-
tated employing force. It was remarked that, in the Recess he had en-
joined peace on others, but had not promised to observe it himself.2 It
is certain that a correspondence concerning the necessity of raising troops,
was carried on between Ferdinand and the papal court, in the beginning of
the year 1531.3 People asserted that they had heard Henry of Brunswick
say, that he and Eck of Reischach were to take the command of the army.

The first question, therefore, to be decided, was, whether it was lawful
to resist the emperor.

The opinion of the theologians, who took their ideas of the imperial
authority from the New Testament, was, as we are aware, against
resistance.

But in a time of such vast changes, when the secular element was uni-
versally emancipating itself from the hierarchy, the notions of public
law necessarily became cleared of all theological admixture.

1 Article, what is to be treated of the following day at Schmalkald. (W. A.)

2 Letter of the Saxon envoy. Forstemann, ii. 711. The Niirembergers
announced as early as the 21st October, that all was, " dahin gericht, wie man
die thatliche Handlung wider die Anhenger des Evangeliums zum tapfersten
anfange." — " so arranged, that forcible measures may be the most vigorously
begun against the adherents of the gospel."

3 A. de Burgo to Ferdinand, 2d March, 1531. Dixi quod esset providendum
de viribus et remediis in re Lutherana, quod solum concilium non futurum esset
sufficiens, sed paratae vires facerent bonum concilium, et quod paratis viribus
possint illi (se ?) convert!, ubi, etc.

636 QUESTION OF RESISTANCE [Book VI.

The jurists adduced certain arguments drawn from the civil law, con-
cerning the resistance which might be offered to a judge who should
take no notice of a legal appeal ; chiefly, however, they called in question,
whether the power which the theologians ascribed to the emperor was
really his by law.1

The theologians had even advised the princes to allow the emperor to
proceed in their dominions according to his pleasure ; to allow him, for
example, to drive out themselves (the preachers). To this it was objected,
that such a proceeding would be utterly unprecedented in any other matter,
and that the emperor did, in fact, possess no such power.

New ideas on the general nature of the German constitution gradually
made their way. It was observed that, if, on the one hand, the princes
did homage to the emperor, he, on the other, took an oath which he was
bound to observe : the princes were the hereditary sovereigns of the
country ; the emperor was elected. A doctrine which was long in obtain-
ing acceptance, and was not recognised as consonant with public law
until the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia, was likewise then broached ;
— the doctrine, namely, that the constitution of the German empire was
not of a monarchical, but an aristocratical nature. According to this
theory, the relation of the princes to their head was not very different from
that of the senators of Rome to the consuls, or those of Venice to their
doge, or of a chapter to its bishop. But neither canons nor senators had
ever been bound to passive obedience. " The States govern jointly with
the emperor, and the emperor is not a monarch."2

To these arguments the theologians had nothing more to oppose. They
could now adhere to their text from Scripture, without being compelled
by it to condemn all resistance to the emperor. " We did not know,"
say they, " that the sovereign power itself was subject to law."3

The earnestness of their scruples was proved by the difficulty with
which they shook them off, and by their subsequent recurrence to them
from time to time.

Luther was peculiarly impressed with the fact that, as he had continually
remarked, the emperor did not attempt to act independently ; but always
by the advice of the pope, and of the princes of Germany. He pronounced
him to be no " Augmenter of the Empire,"4 but a captain and sworn vassal
of the pope. And should the protestants now encourage their old enemies
— their neighbours of Bohemia, who would use the authority of the
emperor's name — by declaring resistance unlawful? "They hope,"
says Luther, " that we shall not defend ourselves. But if they mean to
show their knighthood against the blood of our people, they shall do so
with peril and fear."5

1 Etlicher furtrefflicher Rechtsgelehrten in Wittenberg Sentenz. (Sentence
of certain excellent lawyers in Wittenberg.) Hortleder, Book II., cap. vi.

2 Juristical decision ; Hortleder P. II. B. 11., c. viii. at the end.

3 Considerations of the Theologians. Ibid., c. 9.

* Mehrer des Reichs ; one of the titles of the emperor. — Transl.

5 See " Warnung an seine lieben Deutschen." — Altenb., v. 538. " Alles ist
ein Getrieb des obersten Schalks in der Welt." — " All is a manoeuvre of the
chiefest rogue in the world." He did not advise recourse to arms ; but, as he
writes to Spengler, " Ego pro mea parte dixi, ego consulo ut theologus ; sed si
juristas possent docere legibus suis id licere, ego permitterem eos suis legibus uti.
Ipsi viderint."

Chap. I.] TO THE EMPEROR 637

On these grounds Saxony now proposed to the assembled States a
league for their mutual defence, even against the emperor. In all
previous coalitions of the kind, he had been excepted ; but such a
course would now be useless, since their enemies now acted under
cover of his name.1

These views were by no means shared by Nuremberg, or by Markgrave
George. Their theologians had remained unconvinced or doubtful.
Nuremberg declared that it could not found so important a resolution as
this on opinions of so revolting a kind. The reader will remember that a
similar difference existed the year before, between the divines of the two
States.2

The others, however, accustomed to follow Saxony, or perhaps even
rejoiced that she had at length abandoned her scruples, declared their
entire assent.

A draft of an agreement was immediately drawn up, in which the
emperor's name was, indeed, carefully avoided, and the causes of alarm
obscurely alluded to, in such expressions as this, " It appears as if there
existed an intention of crushing the followers of the pure word of God ;"
but it was more explicit in what related to measures of defence. The
allies bound themselves to hasten to the aid of any one among them, who
might be attacked on account of the word of God. It was further declared
that this league was directed neither against the emperor, nor against any
individual whatsoever ; which only meant that it would attack no one,
and would rigorously confine itself to self-defence.

The league included Saxony, Hessen, Liineburg, Wolfgang of Anhalt,
the two Counts of Mansfeld, the cities of Magdeburg and Bremen. The
other assembled princes and States promised to declare themselves within
a short time. On the 31st of December they dispersed.3

These nine days may be reckoned among the most important in the
history of the world. The threatened and despised minority, under the
influence of a religious idea on which depended the future development of
the human mind, assumed an energetic and even warlike attitude. They
determined in like manner, as they had confessed the new doctrine and
refused to abandon it, so they would now defend the whole position into
which that confession had led them ; — by legal means, in the first place ;
but if necessary, by arms. As to the former, all were agreed ; as to the
latter, the majority (some still entertained scruples as to their legal right) ;

1 " Dieselbig Widerpartei die Sachen in die kaiserlich Majestat, als ob sy
diselbig gar nicht zu thun hatte, schieven wil." — " The same adverse party will
shove the thing on his imperial majesty, as if they themselves had nothing at
all to do with it."

2 Muller's Annales Norici. One disputed question was, whether the imperial
authority extended to matters of religion. The Landgrave of Hessen, particu-
larly, denied this. The Brandenburg opinion, however, maintains it. Saxony
says, in the above-mentioned proposals, " Wo sich gleichwol I. Mt. Amt in des
Glaubens Sachen erstrecken sollt, ware das doch durch die Appellation, so an
I. Maj. un ein Concilium samtlich nach rechtlicher Ordnung erschienen ist,
suspendirt." — " But even if your Majesty's functions should extend to matters
of faith, they must be suspended by the appeal which has been addressed, accord-
ing to legal order, to your imperial majesty and a council."

3 Recess of the diet held at Schmalkald, 1530. Last day of December.
(W. A.)

638 ELECTION OF KING FERDINAND [Book VI.

and thus, at the very origin of the innovation, a compact and determined
union was formed for its maintenance, which its antagonists were likely
to find it difficult to overcome.

The affair of the election soon proved the force and value of this re-
sistance.

During the deliberations in Schmalkald, John Frederick of Saxony,
the heir to the electorate, had gone to Cologne, to oppose the election in
his father's name.

His opposition had, as may be imagined, no effect in preventing a thing
which was already decided. Ferdinand was chosen at Cologne (5th
January, 1531), by the five other electors, and a few days afterwards was
crowned at Aix la Chapelle.1 By his election capitulations he was expressly
bound to maintain the existing forms of religion, and specially in virtue
of the Recess of Augsburg.2 This Recess, which involved all the interests
of the catholic majority, and was the principal weapon in their hands,
had now all the value and force of law. From this time the emperor left
the administration of the empire chiefly to his brother.3 He reserved to
himself only the privilege of being consulted in some weighty cases ; e.g.,
the granting of banner fiefs, or of high titles of nobility ; or the decision
concerning monopolies — the most considerable mercantile interests of
those days ; or such proclamations of ban, or alliances, as might have the
effect of involving the country in regular war.4 But how complete and
valid soever the election thus appeared to be, the opposition of Saxony
did not fail to produce a great effect. The public voice was, independently
of this, against the act of the electors. Above all, the old rivals of Austria,
the dukes of Bavaria, who had never concealed that they aimed at the
crown (alleging that members of their house had been emperors and kings
when the ancestors of the Hapsburgs were still seated among the counts)
had now a lawful ground for refusing to acknowledge the validity of the
king's election. They cared little for the motives which had prompted
Saxony's opposition. It is remarkable that, on this point, the ultra
catholics united with the leaders of the protestants. At a second meeting

1 Spalatin, Verzeichniss der Handlung in Colin, in Struve's Archiv, i. 62.

2 The words in the copy at Brussels are, " Das wir in Zeit solcher koniglichen
Wiirde, Ambts und Regierung die Christenheit und den Stuel zu Rom, bebst-
liche Heiligkeit, auch die christliche Kirch bei dem alten loblichen und wolher-
gebrachten Glauben, Religion und • Cerimonien vermoge des jiingsten zu Augs-
burg aufgerichten Abschiedes bis zu endlicher Determination khunftigen gemeinen
Concils in guten Bevelch, Schutz und Schirm haben sollen." — " That we, as
holding such royal dignity, should have in our good ordering, protection and
defence, the stewardship and government of Christendom and the see of Rome,
the pope's holiness, also the christian church, with its ancient praiseworthy and
well-established belief, religion and ceremonies, in virtue of the Recess newly
drawn up at Augsburg, until the final determination of a future general council."

3 Extract from the original document, Bucholtz, ix. 19 : — I am struck by the
distinction, " imperium per Germaniam superiorem regat." Was lower Ger-
many excepted, because the Saxon vicar of the empire had not given his assent ?
or (more probably) because the emperor would suffer no interference of the
authorities of the empire with his Netherland government ?

4 The Brussels Archives contain the Sommaire memoire au roi des Romains
d'aucuns points esquels il semble a l'empereur que le dit S. roi doit avoir con
sideration et regard touchant le gouvernement de l'empire, pour lequel l'empereur
luy envoye ample pouvoir.

Chap. I.] ORIGIN OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD 639

held by the allies at Schmalkald, shortly before Easter, 1531, Gruben-
hagen, Hessen and Anhalt declared still more emphatically than before,
that they would persist with Saxony in refusing obedience to Ferdinand.
The cities were not all so resolute ; yet they also refrained, for the most
part, from giving him the title of king of the Romans.

Very shortly after Ferdinand complained to his brother, that he bore
the title indeed, but that it commanded no respect or obedience ; he
had no more weight than any other prince of the empire.1

From day to day the league assumed a more important aspect.

At the second meeting, the treaty for mutual defence, the duration of
which was provisionally fixed for six years, was sealed by Saxony, Hessen,
Liineburg and Grubenhagen. For the ratification by the cities, a certain
process was agreed on, which was afterwards adopted. As they had not
yet determined on a formal military organization, and as the movements
of their adversaries seemed to make some measures necessary, they re-
solved, for the present, to take a certain number of horsemen into their
pay, till they should see " whither these hasty and strange measures
would extend."

At a third meeting at Frankfurt on the Maine, on the 5 th June, the
principal subject of discussion was, the affairs of the Imperial Chamber.
The allies were not perfectly agreed to whom they should entrust their
procurations ; some objections were raised to the persons proposed, but
on the main point there was no hesitation ; the procurators were to be
empowered " to act in all their names, and to help to carry through all
things regarding their faith and religion, which the fiscal might bring
against any of the allies."2 They agreed upon a small tax to pay the
procurators. Strangely enough, the first permanent contribution which
was agreed on in the league, as in the empire, had a jurisdictional
destination..

Such were the fundamental characteristics, juridical and military,
which the league exhibited from its very commencement. Not all its
members, however, shared both these tendencies. Brandenburg and
Nuremberg would not consent to armed resistance. It was therefore
arranged that their delegates should not be admitted to the meetings in
which measures of defence were discussed. Two reports, or recesses,
were drawn up, of which the one was described as the general (" gemeine "),
the other the particular (" sunderliche "). The former related to the more
extensive, and merely peaceful ; the other, to the narrower — that is, the

1 Yo no soy mas que un principe de los del ymperio por agora, no siendo
obedecido por rey de Romanos. (B. A. )

2 " Alle und jede Sachen die Religion Cerimonien und was dem anhangt
anlangend, so der kais. Fiscal vielleicht .us befel ks. Mt. oder uf anhalten sonderer
Personen oder Parteien wider die ernannten Stadte eine oder mehr fiirgewendt
hette oder noch furpringen wiirde, in irer aller Namen semptlich und sonderlich
zu vertreten und usfiihren zu helfen." — " To act and aid in all and every matter
relating to religion, its ceremonies, and what belongs thereto, if the imperial
fiscal should, by the command of his imperial majesty, or by the suggestion of
other persons or parties against the above-mentioned cities, have alleged or
should allege one or more of such matters, you are in all their names, collectively
and severally, to act as their representatives, and to help to carry the business
through." The draft was already prepared at Schmalkald, but was adopted
at Frankfurt.

640 REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND Book VI.

warlike coalition.1 The adherents of the latter, however, still hoped to
induce Brandenburg and Nuremberg to join them. Brandenburg was
immediately threatened by the Swabian league, and the markgrave was
told that had he but signed the treaty for mutual defence, the Swabian
league wouid have left him at peace. But everything was yet in a state
of mere preparation.

Hitherto we have devoted our attention mainly to the relations of the
princes ; but those of the cities in upper and lower Germany were not less
remarkable. Negotiations with the upper German cities, leading to the
most fortunate results and justifying the highest expectations, may be
traced through all these meetings of the allies.

We should, however, be unable to appreciate them, if we did not first
attend to the course which the reformation had in the meanwhile taken
in Switzerland.

CHAPTER II.

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.

The restored unity of Latin Christendom was, as may be concluded, no
less dangerous to the dissidents of Switzerland than to those of Germany.

It happened that the catholic movement was directed first against
Germany, because the head of Christendom, the emperor, enjoyed an
authority universally acknowledged and respected in that country ; but
every step of its progress was felt to be of imminent danger to Switzerland.

The situation of the latter country was however very different from that
of the former. There, as in Germany, the reformation encountered a
majority armed with traditional privileges ; but in Switzerland this
majority was enfeebled by a long series of reverses.

We have seen how Zwingli gained over to his opinions the two most
powerful of the eight oldest cantons — Bern and Zurich ; of those which
had joined the Confederation later, Basel ; and of those more remotely
connected with it, St. Gall, Biel and Miihlhausen. In all these he had
introduced a new organization of the church.

On the other hand, he experienced an obstinate resistance from the
remaining cantons : of these five of the older — the four Forest Cantons
and Zug, were decidedly hostile. The reader will remember which party
had been triumphant there in the year 1522 ; their refusal to give up the
pensions and the right of taking foreign service, and their determination
to maintain the ancient faith with all its external observances.

Had the several cantons been completely separate states, they might,
no doubt, have remained peaceful neighbours. But there were districts
where the government was shared by the two opposing parties — the
lordships and bailiwicks which were subjects of the whole confederation :
here the adverse powers necessarily came into collision. If we reflect
that the Confederation had attained to its strength and compactness

1 Untertheniger Bericht der Sachen so sich in der Handlung zu Frankfurt,
Trinitatis, 1531, zugetragen und im Abschiede nit verzeichnet sind. " Humble
report of the affairs transacted at the meeting at Frankfurt, Trinity, 1531, and
not entered in the Recess." (W. A.) There exist, as we see, three documents
concerning this meeting ; the general and the particular recesses, and this report.

Chap. II.] THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND 641

chiefly by means of its common conquests — that the real knot of the
alliance consisted in these — it will be evident how important must be a
difference which came to an open breach on this very ground. Here the
majority had always enjoyed paramount consideration ; it was now to
be seen whether it was in a condition to maintain it.

The five older cantons refused to tolerate the new doctrines in the free
bailiwicks. The bailiffs, Joseph am Berg of Schwytz and Jacob Stocker
of Zug, inflicted on the dissidents fine, imprisonment, stripes and banish-
ment. The preachers had their tongues slit, and were driven out of the
country, or put to death with the sword. Germans who had fled from
persecution and taken refuge in Switzerland, were delivered up to thq
Austrian government of the Vorlande, which put them to death without
trial or delay.1 All books of the new doctrine, as well as testaments and
bibles, were seized. In Baden, the dead belonging to the evangelical
party were refused decent burial.

The Zurichers had long seen these things with displeasure ; and as soon
as they felt themselves strong enough to resist, they determined to endure
them no longer. One of the main articles in the treaty between Zurich
and Bern is, that the two cantons would not allow the people of the common
lordships and bailiwicks (the due proportion of the sovereignty over which
belonged to them as members of the Confederation), or the congregations
which had determined by the vote of a majority to adhere to the evan-
gelical party, to be prevented from so doing by violence.2

This at once roused all the oppressed evangelical spirit in Thurgau and
the valley of the Rhine. The Five Cantons despaired of keeping them
down solely by the authority of their bailiffs : on the 30th November,
1528, they assembled all the magistrates and deputies of the communes
of Thurgau in Frauenfeld, and admonished them not to separate them-
selves in matters of faith from the majority of the cantons to which they
owed obedience ; but rather to aid the bailiff in punishing the rebellious,
This meeting, however, had also been attended by deputies from Zurich
and Bern, who had come uninvited, and did not fail to offer exhortations
and assurances of a contrary tendency. The country people asked to
be allowed time for reflexion till the feast of St. Nicholas, when they
assembled again in Winfelden. At first they showed some hesitation ;
gradually, however, a majority declared itself determined to adhere to
the evangelical confession, and was openly supported by promises of
assistance from Zurich and Bern. The former had also been applied to
by the people of the Rhine valley, as the principal canton of the Con-
federation, and had replied, that " it would not allow them to be driven
from God's word."3

This was an act of self-government on the part of the people. As the
governing body was divided, it depended on their free decision which
party to espouse. They chose the cause of reform.

In Thurgau there soon remained but nine nobles who had not joined
this party, and even these begged only for delay. In the Rhine valley
there was only a single parish in which the majority did not vote for

1 Proclamation of Zurich, 3d March, 1529. See Bullinger, ii., 31.

2 Original document of the treaty between the cities. Bullinger, ii., 11.

3 Recess at Frauenfeld and Instructions of the Zurichers for Winfelden.
Bullinger, ii., 27. Bernh. Weiss, p. 93.

41

642 TROUBLES IN SWITZERLAND [Book VI.

the burning of pictures and images, and the abolition of the mass. Finding
that the reforming communes, with the help of Zurich, had been victorious
over the catholic council which adhered to the party of the Five Cantons,
the free bailiwicks and the country round soon followed.

However strong the assurances given, that the secular obedience due
to the established authorities should not suffer, it is obvious that the basis
of power — influence, to which the subject willingly submits — was thus
of necessity lost to the Five Cantons.

And already a dispute not less unfavourable to their cause had taken
place in another district.

Unterwalden had ventured to offer assistance to the Bernese Oberland,
where the measures taken by the city for the introduction of reform —
and especially the suppression of the convent of Interlachen — had excited
irritation and resistance ; and without any declaration of hostilities, to
invade the territory of one of its co-confederates with banners flying.
Bern placed itself on the defensive, reduced its subjects to obedience,
and compelled the invaders to retreat ; but it is obvious what must be
the effects of so open a breach of the ancient alliance. Unterwalden
found support from the four cantons with which it was more particularly
connected ; but all the City Cantons were of opinion that Unterwalden
must be chastised. Solothurn and Freiburg promised to assist Bern, as
they were bound to do.

In this state of political and religious inferiority, and threatened with
vengeance, the Five Cantons conceived the idea of applying to the house
of Austria for succour. It was, indeed, a general principle with them not
to give up alliances with foreign powers.

On the frontiers of Switzerland power was still in the hands of those
who had put down the insurrection of the peasants, and suppressed the
preaching in those parts ; — Count Sulz and Count Fiirstenberg, and Marx
Sittich of Ems, bailiff of Bregenz. The clan of Ems, which had recently
been strengthened by an alliance with the castelan of Musso, sustained
the cause of Catholicism in the mountains generally ; and the Five Cantons
had no difficulty in obtaining a favourable hearing from them. Meetings
were held at Feldkirch and Waldshut ; the arms of Switzerland and
Austria were displayed side by side ; and it was even asserted that the
old antagonists of the peacock's feather (the badge of the house of Austria)
were now seen decorated with it. A treaty was drawn up, in which King
Ferdinand and the Five Cantons mutually engaged to remain constant
to the ancient faith ; to chastise any who might assail it in their respective
territories ; and, in case this brought down hostilities upon them, to afford
each other assistance. Any conquests made within the Confederation
were to belong to the Five Cantons ; any without its boundaries, to the
king.

The chief stipulation of the treaty is, that Ferdinand guaranteed to the
Five Cantons " all that may be subject to or connected with them " (and
consequently the common bailiwicks and Thurgau), while the Five Cantons
expressly declared that they would not regard Constance as a member of
the Confederation, but would leave it to the king.1

The Five Cantons were right in replying to the City Cantons, who

1 Original treaty. Hottinger, ii., 475.

Chap. II.] THREATENED HOSTILITIES 643

reproached them with this treaty, that they also had allied themselves
with foreigners ; but the circumstances were widely different. Constance
was closely connected with the confederation, in consequence of the treaty
it had concluded with Zurich. It had always been the aim of Austrian
policy to prevent this ; and Maximilian had once, from that motive,
taken a large part of the communes into his service : the Five Cantons
now abandoned Constance to Austria.

It is remarkable that this happened at the very time (the beginning of
the year 1529) when the majority of the States of the empire once more
embraced the side of the house of Austria. All political grudges now
disappeared before a community of religious interests.

Ferdinand sought to strengthen the Swiss alliance by every means
in his power. In Innsbruck where it was concluded, he had also sum-
moned a part of the Tyrolese landholders to the council ; all the Vorlande,
Wiirtemberg included, were to be admitted to it. He hoped, perhaps, by
this means, to break for ever the power of the Confederation j1 but, at
all events, to oppose an insuperable barrier to the further progress of the
new opinions.

But it was a question whether a coalition of this kind could really afford
protection to the Five Cantons. Its measures, tried by the principles of
the Confederation, were thoroughly unjustifiable — the invasion of the
Bernese territory, no less than the alliance with Ferdinand. They were
utterly at variance with the idea and with the existence of the Confedera-
tion. To the success which, thanks to the goodness of their cause, attended
the measures of the City Cantons, was now added all the weight of the
interests of the country at large, and of indisputable right.

Peace was, at all events, out of the question, for the Confederation.
The deputies of the City Cantons who went into the mountain country,
in order to warn their old brother confederates against forming this
alliance, found the arms of their cities nailed to the gallows, and themselves
treated as heretics and traitors ; in spite of their presence and efforts, the
most terrific punishments were inflicted on seceders. The reformation
in central Switzerland had also its martyrs. Jacob Keyser, a preacher
from the territory of Zurich, who went from time to time to Gaster to
conduct the worship of an evangelical church in that place, was arrested
in the forest of Eschibach, on the high road, and dragged to Schwytz.
The office of bailiff of Gaster did not at that time belong to Schwytz ;
and, even if it had, the trial ought to have been heard before the tribunal
of Utznach. Nevertheless the commune condemned the unfortunate and
guiltless man to the flames, which he endured with great constancy.2

This roused Zurich to open resistance. In June, 1529, when a new bailiff
of Unterwalden was to make his entrance into Baden, Zurich openly
declared that it would not suffer it, nor indeed have any further community
with the Unterwalders : from henceforth it would not permit them to

1 Invitation to the Wiirtemberg districts, ii. orig. doc, No. 144. " That the
power of the same Confederation is divided by the above-mentioned union, while
his Royal Majesty and his subjects who adhere to the ancient Christian faith
are strengthened with foreign aid, as well as the above-mentioned five
cantons."

2 Bullinger, Ref. Gesch. ii., p. 148. Eidgenossische schweizerische Martyrer,
Misc. Tig. ii., p. 35 (insignificant).

41 — 2

644 THREATENED HOSTILITIES [Book VI.

exercise the office of bailiff in the domains over which they had a common
jurisdiction.1

Zurich had long since announced to the Schwytzers its determination
to avenge itself, if any violence was used towards the preacher of its
feudatories. Keyser's execution was therefore the signal for war.

On the 5 th of June the first company of Zurich troops marched out to
protect the free bailiwicks from a bloody re-establishment of the ancient
faith ; soon afterwards another was sent to Thurgau and the Rhine valley,
and a third to invest the Schwytz portion of Gaster, which had put the
preacher to death. The enemy having instantly assembled at Bar am
Boden, the great banner of the city was unfurled on the 9th of June, under
the Banneret Hans Schweizer, who had already borne it in the Milanese wars.

For the first time did two Swiss armies, not, as before, of peasants and
their lords, but of adversaries equal in rights and fully prepared for war,
stand confronted, in consequence of religious differences. " They are
so full of hatred to each other," said King Ferdinand, " that nothing but
open violence is to be expected."

The evangelical party had, however, at this moment a decided
superiority.

The Zurich army had not its equal. It consisted of the brave men who
had embraced the cause of the reformation with all the moral earnestness
with which Zwingli preached it. No common women were suffered in
the camp ; no curses or oaths were to be heard, and even dice were banished ;
the amusements consisted of athletic exercises, such as leaping, hurling, &c;
quarrels hardly ever occurred, and prayers before and after meals were
never omitted. Zwingli himself was with them ; he had been relieved
from the obligation of going out with the great banner as preacher, but he
had voluntarily mounted himself, and taken a halberd on his shoulder.

Zwingli was firmly persuaded of the superiority of his party ; and as
the accounts from all sides tended to confirm him in this opinion, he con-
ceived the most sanguine hopes. It was at least certain that the Five
Cantons had nothing to expect from Ferdinand, who was occupied else-
where, and found himself reduced to make applications to his states, from
which but small results were to be expected. Zwingli now thought him-
self about to reach the goal upon which he had from the first fixed his
eyes. He would listen to no propositions of peace, unless accompanied
with the two great concessions, on which he had always insisted, i.e., that
the whole system of pensions should be for ever forsworn, and the preaching
of the gospel permitted throughout all the cantons of Switzerland. He
represented to the members of the government, that in this way only was
unity in the state to be obtained, as well as in the church. " Stand fast
in God," exclaimed he ; " they give you good words now, but do not be
deceived ; yield nothing to their entreaties till the right is established.
Then shall we have made a war more advantageous than any that was
ever made before ; we shall have accomplished things which will redound
to the honour of God and of the city, centuries hence."2

Had it depended on Zwingli and on Zurich alone, they would have
ventured everything, and have followed up their advantages to the utmost.

1 They are particularly reproached for this in Eck's " Repulsio."

2 Opinion and letter in the Appendix to Hottinger, Geschichte der Eidgenossen,
ii., 482.

Chap. II.] FIRST PEACE OF CAPPEL 645

But there is a general and a most just dread of beginning war and of
shedding blood. Whilst the Zurichers were preparing to take the field,
Ebli, the Ammann of Glarus, appeared among them, and represented how
often they had shared weal and woe with those whom they were now
about to cast off. His address produced the greater effect, because he
was known to be an honest man, who at bottom entertained the same views
as those which prevailed at Zurich. He obtained a truce. Zwingli alone,
who saw farther into futurity than the others, was not satisfied with a
compliance which appeared to him ill-timed. " Good gossip Ammann,"
said he to Ebli, " thou wilt have to give an account of this matter to
God."1

Meanwhile Bern also spoke out. The powerful influence exercised by
Zurich was not agreeable to the Bernese, and they now declared that they
would lend assistance in case Zurich were attacked, but not otherwise.

The notion of the independence of states, which had become prevalent
in Germany, also gained ground in Switzerland. Bern deemed the con-
ditions proposed by Zwingli inadmissible, because it would not be right
to interfere so much with the independence of the government of the several
cantons.

Thus the obstacles which prevented the great reformer from carrying
out his views with the armed hand, originated in the evangelical party
itself.

Negotiations were set on foot, which, considering the power the adverse
party still possessed, and the opinions that still predominated among the
Confederates, could not lead to the decisive results contemplated by
Zwingli.2

The utmost that could be expected was, that the Five Cantons should
consent to give up the treaty with Ferdinand ; should promise compensa-
tion for the expenses of the war, and the punishment of those who had
used injurious language ; and should formally consent to the rule laid
down by the City Cantons, that, in the common domains, the vote of the
majority should decide the form of religion in each parish. The pro-
hibition of pensions, and the freedom of the evangelical faith, were also
discussed ; but they were by no means so decisively agreed to as Zwingli
had desired. The abolition of the pensions appeared only in the light of
a request of the City Cantons to the Five Cantons ; and instead of pro-
claiming liberty of preaching, it was only said, that the one party would
not punish the religious opinions of the other.3

But even thus it appeared that no slight advantage had been
obtained.

The Five Cantons were compelled to produce on the spot their original
treaty with Ferdinand ; and although the mediators interposed to prevent
it being read aloud, from the fear that it might revive old animosities,
Ammann Ebli no sooner saw it than he stuck his dagger through the

1 Bullinger, ii., 170.

2 Journal of Hans Stockar of Schafhausen, 199. " Dye von Ziirych mianttend,
uns hye och jn zu zychen, das nun wyder unser Bunttbryef was und uns nitt
zustund." — " Those of Zurich thought that to sign this was contrary to our
treaty of confederation, and not within our competence."

3 Landtsfried zu Cappell uflgericht (Peace concluded at Cappel) 25th June,
1529, Bullinger, ii. 185.

■1 1

646 PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION [Book VI.

document and tore it, upon which those who were standing near snatched
off the wax of the seal.

In consequence of the obvious superiority of the evangelical party,
reform advanced much more rapidly after the peace.

Bullinger mentions the number of places in which a majority formed
itself in favour of the new opinions ; in his language, "how the word of
God was increased." In the year 1529 Zwingli was already able to hold
a synod in Thurgau, and to establish the evangelical church there. Large
abbeys, like those of Wettingen and Hitzkirch, went over ; in the former,
not more than two monks refused their consent. Abbot George Muller,
of Baden, stipulated only that the pictures and images which were removed
from the church should not be, as in so many other places, destroyed.1
Lastly, a resolution was passed by the greater and lesser councils of Schaf-
hausen, that the mass and the images should be abolished. Hans Stockar
relates, not without suppressed sorrow, how, on the Friday after Michael-
mas, " the great God in the Minster " was taken away.2 The city joined
the union with Bern, Basel, and Zurich. In Solothurn the reformers
demanded and obtained a church ; and only a reputed miracle perpetuated
the veneration for St. Urs. The evangelical party, protected by Bern,
arose in Neuemburg ; the Catholics had already taken up arms, and it
seemed as if bloodshed was inevitable, when they resolved to allow the
majority to decide.3 It decided for reform. The majority was in many
cases small ; in Neuemburg it amounted to only eighteen ; in Neuenstadt,
to twenty-four. The same was the case on the other side, under different
influences. In Rottweil, in the immediate neighbourhood, the six catholic
guilds committed acts of such violence on the five evangelical, that several
hundred citizens were obliged to leave the town.4

But the most important circumstance for the progress of Zwingli's
opinions was, that in one of the eight older cantons, which had hitherto
remained neutral — in Glarus, — where the evangelical majority had been
much more free in the declaration of its opinions than in the others, it
had obtained a complete ascendancy. The reformed doctrine had already
so far prevailed, that only two or three churches had retained their sacred
images. Although their congregations begged for nothing more than a
short delay, till the emperor and the empire could take some measures
for the remedy of abuses, the country communes determined (April, 1530)
that these churches too should be purified, and rendered uniform with the
others in the country.6 There might be some recusants ; but, politically
speaking, Glarus was now evangelical.

The advantage of having gained over this canton, which Zwingli, at the
beginning of his career, had been obliged to abandon, was much heightened
by the enlarged sphere of legitimate influence over others which was thus
acquired.

1 From N. Manuel's Missives in Griineisen, p. 135.

2 Journal, 201.

3 Chambrier, Histoire de Neuchatel, p. 296.

4 Stettler, ii. 36.

5 Tschudi in Hottinger, p. 287, note 30. Bullinger, p. 289. " Messaltare
und Gotzen wurden abgemeeret : etliche Gotzen uf besser Gluck entzuckt und
verborgen." — " Mass-altars and idols (images) were removed ; some idols with-
drawn and hidden till better luck."

Chap. II.] IN SWITZERLAND 647

The Abbot of St. Gall had used every endeavour to check the progress
of the new doctrine in his territory (not the city, which had long espoused
it, but the country), in spite of which it had made its way there as rapidly
as elsewhere. This abbot was a prince of the holy empire, but Glarus,
Lucerne, Schwytz and Zurich exercised a protectorate over him, and, in
consequence, claimed no little influence over the internal administration
of his domains. At this juncture the abbot died, which rendered the
change in opinion of two out of the four protecting cantons very important.
Contrary to their express desire, the conventual authorities contrived,
indeed, to bring about an election, which was confirmed by the emperor
and the pope, and approved by Schwytz and Lucerne, but which Zurich
and Glarus refused to recognise ; alleging that they lay under far more
sacred obligations to the district where the evangelical movement was now
going on, than to the conventual authorities. Zurich proceeded on the
principle, that it was not the abbot who constituted the religious house,
but that all the country people, villages and communes were committed
to the guardianship of the protecting cantons. In concert with the in-
habitants, an order was issued, according to which a captain taken out of
the four protecting cantons, and a council consisting of twelve members,
were to conduct the government. But, that they might not have a
commander out of Schwytz or Lucerne, hostile to the new doctrines, they
made it an express condition that the captain should be of the evangelical
party, and that he should not receive homage till he had sworn to allow
the vassals of the abbey to continue their attendance on the preaching
of God's word.1 The newly established freedom extended to Toggen-
burg ; even during Zwingli's youth, that town had begun to purchase
its exemption from service to the convent, and this redemption it now
completed. Early in the year 1531, Zwingli had the joy of revisiting his
native place — now perfectly free — and of establishing in it a church after
his own heart.2

Extensive as was this progress, it did not, however, fulfil the views
which he had originally cherished, and on the accomplishment of which
all depended. The ruling party in the Five Cantons remained inflexible ;
even on the field of Cappel the commanders were said to have promised
each other, in defiance of the first article of the treaty of peace,3 not to
allow the spread of the new opinions, and even to put to death any who
might attempt to disseminate them. It is at all events certain, that
nobody ventured to profess them in their dominions, though many were
well inclined to them. The suppression of injurious language was not
even attempted. The people of Zurich and Bern were represented as a
set of mean, traitorous, heretical pedlers, and their preachers, as stealers
of the cup and murderers of souls : the mountaineers said, Zwingli was
one of the gods of the Lutherans ; the undiscriminating bigotry of their
priests made no distinction between the opinions of Zwingli and those of

1 Ordnung und Satzung wie hinfuro by den Gottshusliiten Rat und Gericht
zhalten. — Ordinance and rule how, in future, council and judgment are to be
held among the people (subjects or tenants) of the house of God (abbey).

2 Bullinger, ii. 271, 344.

3 Land friede. — Peace of the country, i.e., domestic or internal peace. We
want a correlative word denoting the termination of what we call civil war. — •
Transl.

648 REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND [Book VI.

Luther. Though the treaty with Austria was published, fresh negotiations
were continually set on foot. Deputies from Lucerne and Zug were present
at the diet of Augsburg. On their journey thither they were most honour-
ably received by the catholics, and were lodged in the town near the
Emperor, by his especial desire ; they were observed to give him some
written papers. They also experienced support from their old allies,
Marx Sittich, Eck of Reischach, and Hans Jacob of Landau ; and they
discussed vast plans, such as an attack on Strasburg ; the destruction of
the Confederates who might come to its aid ; and a simultaneous invasion
of the reformed part of Switzerland, from Savoy, the Rhineland and the
Alpine country.1 These projects found the more easy credence, since the
nobility of Savoy was actually preparing for a descent on Geneva ; and,
at the same time, the castellan of Musso, with his kinsmen and allies of
Ems, fell upon the Grisons. The Five Cantons took good care to afford
no assistance to the threatened districts ; indeed the people of Wallis
plainly declared that, for the sake of the faith, this ought not to be done.
Zurich and Bern naturally combined all these circumstances ; and, indeed,
the same was done on the other side ;2 — for example, King Ferdinand
feared that if the City Cantons were masters of the Grisons, they would
attack the Five Cantons, and when once they had subdued them, would
turn their arms against the hereditary dominions and the empire. It
was mainly on this ground that he requested the emperor to afford succour,
if necessary, to the Five Cantons.3

CHAPTER III.

ATTEMPTS AT A RECONCILIATION OF THE TWO PROTESTANT PARTIES.

At this juncture we find the Confederation in circumstances very analogous
to those of the empire.

In the Swiss diet, as well as in that of the empire, an increasing minority,
sustained by public opinion, stood opposed to an orthodox majority.

The chief difference consisted in this ; — that the emperor and the empire
possessed a spiritual, as well as a temporal authority ; while the Swiss
diet, which could not appeal for support to the emperor (to whom, as
such, it had no legal relation) was wholly without the former. On the
other hand, however, the Swiss minority had not, like the German, general
decrees of former diets in its favour. The conflict was, in Switzerland,
more one of fact ; in Germany, of law.

Both majorities looked to the house of Austria as their main prop.
It appeared, therefore, the interest of the minorities to use the most
earnest endeavours to heal the breach that had so long existed between
them.

But the misfortune was, that Zwingli had expressed himself in the year

1 Christian Friebald of St. Gall, Augsburg, 16th July, in Escher und Hottingers
Schweizerischem Archiv. i., p. 433.

2 From a letter from Bern to Zurich, 16th October, 1530. Hottinger, ii. 326.
The game was begun too soon : a Savoyard let out the secret that this was the
plan of the clergy. See Landgrave Philip's Instructions in Escher's Archives,
ii., p. 304.

3 Extracts from Ferdinand's letter to Charles in Bucholtz, v. 258.

Chap. III.] STRASBVRC 649

1530, in a manner rather calculated to excite resentment and increase
division, than to bring about any sort of reconciliation. Whether he
was irritated by the unfavourable reports which were spread by the
Lutherans concerning the conference of Marburg ; — or whether he was
influenced by Carlstadt, who had just then come to visit him, and soon
after obtained a post in Switzerland, it is impossible to determine ; —
it is enough to say, that hardly was the Augsburg Confession in his hands,
when he sent the emperor, though not at all called upon to do so, a state-
ment of his own belief, in which he not only attacked the catholic church,
with greater violence than Melanchthon had done (for example, he utterly
rejected the institution of bishops), but also retracted concessions he had
already made, such as that on original sin : indeed he almost expressly
reproached Luther with sighing to return to the flesh-pots of Egypt,
and gave the coarsest interpretation to his words.1

It was therefore no wonder that the Lutherans expressed an increased
aversion to the followers of Zwingli.

The necessity for peace was, however, so urgent, that at this moment
the desire to effect a reconciliation arose in another place.

The Oberland States, especially Strasburg, belonged, in fact, to both
parties.

On the one hand, they shared in the peculiar circumstances of the
German cities, and in the desire which prevailed with singular strength
among them to render the clergy subject to the civil law, and to put an
end to the influence of the great religious bodies on the presentation to
benefices ; — an influence which had been as great in Strasburg as anywhere.
In all the measures they had adopted, they had constantly referred to
the Recesses of the imperial diets. In consequence of the Recess of 1523,
the council of Strasburg had issued an admonition to the preachers, " hence-
forward to preach undaunted the Holy Scripture, pure and unmixed with
men's fables ; for a worshipful council would support them in the same."2
From the diet of 1526, the Strasburgers further deduced their right to
make alterations in the ceremonies of the church ; especially, to abolish
the mass ; and from this they did not suffer themselves to be deterred
by the admonitions of King Ferdinand, or the Council of Regency.3 They
were consequently among the first who were impeached before the Imperial
Chamber. In all these respects, they had now to adopt the same means
for their defence as the other German cities.

On the other hand, however, the dogmatic opinions of Zwingli were very
popular in Strasburg, and gradually became completely predominant ;
statues and altars were removed ; the interior walls of the churches,
ornamented with paintings, were washed over with stone colour ; the
preachers proclaimed that no graven image must be tolerated by the godly ;

1 Ad Carolum Romanum Imperatorem fidei Huldrychi Zwinglii ratio. Quod
Christi corpus per essentiam et realiter, h. e. corpus ipsum naturale, in ccelo aut
adsit aut ore dentibusque manduceter, quemadmodum Papistae et quidam qui ad
ollas Egyptiacas respectant perhibent, id vero neque tantum negamus, sed . . .
Mitratum genus atque pedatum (says he, further on), credimus vbBov.

2 Rorich, i. 175, 455. In the first chapter of the Tetrapolitana, the motive
assigned for this change is, that the great diet of 1523 commanded that the
sermons be taken out of the Holy Scripture, and the authority cited.

3 Statement of the deputies of the Council of Regency. Jung, Actenstiicke,
p. 66.

650 MARTIN BUTZER [Book VI.

no instrumental music was permitted ; even the organs were all silenced.1
Strasburg had likewise the same political interests as the Swiss cantons,
in so far as both were menaced by the Austrian power in Alsatia. In
January 1530, it joined the union of the Swiss cities ; they promised each
other mutual aid, and, in particular, Strasburg engaged to furnish the
Swiss with gunpowder.

Such being the religious and political state and interests of Strasburg,
it may be imagined that nowhere was the desire for the reconciliation of
the contending parties more earnest.

And already had a man appeared who devoted his whole life to bring
about this reconciliation, as to matters of doctrine.

This man was Martin Butzer. After the fall of Sickingen, in whose
service he was, he had been driven by persecution from place to place,
with a pregnant wife (he was one of the first evangelical preachers who
had married), and in the greatest poverty, and had at length sought refuge
in Strasburg, where he found not only an asylum, but a field for his highest
and most strenuous exertions. It is reported of him, that, in his youth,
when carrying on scholastic disputations, he had invented a method for
severing the essential and necessary from the accessory and accidental.2
By comparing the subject with each of the two contradictory predications,
he discovered a third term which reconciled them. Butzer has the repu-
tation of a pliancy not always to be justified. He is generally thought
to have yielded too much to circumstances. It is undeniable that his
attempts at mediation were prompted by the pressing necessity for peace
without, no less than by his own reflections ; but they were, as far as his
convictions were concerned, most sincere. He possessed an acute and
subtle apprehension of the ideas of others, and a remarkable talent for
developing them ; — for what may be called secondary production.

At first, Butzer had seen in Luther's interpretation of the Lord's Supper,
merely a new attempt to turn Christ into bread, as he calls it (eine neue
Verbrotung Christi) ;3 but, on a more profound study, especially of the
greater confession of the Lord's Supper, it became clear to him that this
was not the case : in a treatise he wrote, as early as the year 1528,4 he
remarks, that Luther's real meaning was totally different from that
generally imputed to him. In this opinion he was confirmed at the
conference of Marburg.

But he was not more disposed to accede to the notion generally enter-
tained by the Lutherans, that the Oberlanders regarded the Lord's Supper
as merely bread and wine. We have observed that, at the diet of Augs-
burg, the four cities found themselves compelled, as they were not allowed
to subscribe the Saxon confession, to deliver in a confession of their own.
Butzer who had the principal share in drawing it up, made choice of such
expressions as might preclude the possibility of this reproach for the

1 Rohrich Ref. v. Strasburg, ii., p. 8.

2 Adami Vitae Theologorum, 102.

3 Fragment of a letter from Butzer to the brethren in Coire, Rohrich, ii. 135.
The letter to Blaurer (ibid., p. 275 ) is likewise very instructive. Dum ipsi (Luther-
ani) veram praesentiam tueri voluerunt, . . . iis verbis earn afhrmarunt, quae
si ad vim exiges, localem statuunt. Contra nostri, dum localem voluerunt
negare, sic locuti sunt, ut visi sint Christum coena prorsus excludere.

4 Vergleichung Doctor Luthers und seines Gegentheyls — Dialogus, 1528. —
(Comparison of Dr. Luther and his adversaries.)

Chap. III.] THE TWO PROTESTANT PARTIES 651

future. In the 18th article of the " Confession of the four Free and
Imperial Cities, Strasburg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau," — the
so-called Tetrapolitana — it is said, " The Lord gives, in the Sacrament,
His real body and real blood, really to eat and to drink, for the nutriment
of souls to eternal life."1 It is evident that the word " real " is designedly
repeated, but without prejudice to the spiritual import of the partaking.

For Butzer's scheme of reconciliation rested on the assumption that
Luther did not, any more than his antagonists, mean that the body was
locally contained in the bread ; but only that there existed a sacramental
unity of the body and blood of Christ with the bread and the wine ; and
that, on the other hand, the spiritual nature of the partaking did not
exclude the real presence of the body of Christ. In so far as Luther
ascribed a spiritual essence to the body of Christ, Butzer sided with him.
He admitted that the body might unquestionably have another than a
local presence ; the bread and wine did not cease to be symbols, but they
were symbols of the present, not of the absent body ; of the bodily
presence, — that is to say, the real presence.2

The question now was, whether Butzer would succeed in rendering this
explanation acceptable to both parties.

He first submitted it to Melanchthon at Augsburg ; after which he has-
tened to Coburg, where he showed Luther those passages of his writings
which treated the most plainly of the sacramental spiritual partaking ;
he reported that he had received from both assurances which led him to
hope the best.

Luther, however, was not disposed to make the task of mediation a
light one. To guard against mistake, he proposed two questions which
left no room for ambiguity : the one, whether the body was really in the
symbols ; the other, whether it was really received by sinners. It is
remarkable that the latter and more difficult of these questions had
already been raised in the 12th century. Otto of Freisingen alludes to
it, but he thinks it better to evade it, than to command that it be answered
in the affirmative.3 To Luther this affirmative did not appear to be
attended with any such great difficulty, since it must at all events be ad-
mitted that God's word was heard by sinners, — that God's sun shone even
upon the blind. And in fact, Butzer declared himself in a satisfactory
manner on both points. He acknowledged that Christ was really present
in the sacrament ; even in the bread and to the mouth ; and that, as all
the promises of Christ must be true, he did not doubt that the ungodly,
as well as the pious, partook of the body and blood of Christ. For himself,
he accepted both articles. With regard, however, to his " Co-servants of
the Word," he remarked, that they were convinced of the first, but were
not free from doubt as to the second.4 Luther had previously consented

1 First printed in 1531, with an apology of Butzer, in which Hospinian, a
zealous Zwinglian, finds the " vera et orthodoxa sententia de coena domini."
Historia sacramentaria, ii. 221.

2 Melanchthon de Buceri sententia. Corp. Ref. ii. 316. See Literae Buceri
ad Pontanum 4th Aug. 1530, in Colestin ii. 302. Letter of Butzer's to Duke
Ernest of Liineburg in Hess's " Leben CEcolampads," p. 317.

3 Chronicorum liber viii., Prologus : utrum mali veraciter sacramentis com-
municent, an exterius tantum ea accipiant.

* We have not, indeed, Butzer's letter itself ; but the expressions of Luther,
to whom it was addressed, leave no doubt as to its contents. (To Wencelaus

652 ATTEMPT TO RECONCILE [Book VI.

not to press the second at present, if the first were but agreed on : this
he~now repeated ; by the admission that the sacrament was in the symbols,
heinvested it with its proper quality ; the question, what sinners received,
he agreed to postpone.

This was an epoch in which ecclesiastical, nay, even dogmatical questions,
were interwoven in the closest manner with political.

In consequence of the first advances made by Butzer, an invitation had
been sent to the delegates of the Oberland cities to take part in the delibera-
tions at* Schmalkald, in Dec, 1530. But after an explanation like that
above, they were, without further scruple, formally received into the
union at the second meeting.1 John Frederick, who filled the place of
his father, made it his first business to speak with the deputies of the four
cities ; he exhorted them openly to preach the doctrine thus agreed on,
and to cause it to be made known to all the world. They assured him
that, as Butzer did not treat for himself alone, but with the authority of
his masters, there could be no doubt on the subject.2 Strasburg, Lindau,
Constance and Memmingen had been joined not only by Biberach, Ysni
and Reutlingen, but even by Ulm. This powerful city had protested
against the Recess of Spires ; and, in spite of all the emperor's admoni-
tions, had refused to subscribe the Recess of Augsburg ; — measures of so
decisive a nature as clearly to show how strong the reforming spirit must
already be. But the opposite party in the city long retained considerable
strength, and numerous violent reactions took place. At length the
citizens gave the council full powers to restore order. In a very short time
an evangelical confession appeared, agreeing with the Tetrapolitana on
the article of the Lord's Supper. The cities above-mentioned all signed
the treaty of mutual defence at Schmalkald.

Butzer's efforts having thus been successful with regard to Saxony, he
proceeded to inculcate his views in Switzerland.

Of the two great Swiss reformers, he gained over one without difficulty.
The peaceful CEcolampadius thought that Butzer was as diligent a pro-
moter of truth as of charity, and recommended his interpretation to his
colleague, Zwingli.3

Link, in De Wette iv. 327.) Likewise to Menius : Bucerus effecit tantum, ut
concedant omnes, vere adesse et porrigi corpus Domini, etiam corporali prce-
sentia ; cseteri tantum fideli animas ac pinae ; Bucerus vero consentit et impiorum
manu porrigi et ore sumi. In Plank, iii. 340, these letters are obviously over-
looked.

1 Instruction uf den angesetzten Tag gegen Schmalkalden, Torgau, 25 th
March. " Uns ist itso wieder ein Schreiben von Wittenberg zukommen, so der
Butzer an Dr. Martin und Phil. Mel. gethan, daraus die zween, wie uns angezeigt
ist worden, nit anders zu vernehmen wissen, denn, das der hinterstelligen Punkt
halber auch vollend verglichen." (W. A.) — " Another letter from Wittenberg has
now come to us, which Butzer had addressed to Dr. Martin and Philip Melanch-
thon, from which, as it is shown to us, those twain can understand no otherwise
than that the article concerning the doubtful point had been fully settled."

2 Account of the transactions at the diet held at Schmalkald in the week
after Judica. " Haben keinen Zweivel, sie (ihre Herrn) werden verschaffen,
dass dergleichen gepredigt gelehrt und verkiindigt werde, auch solches lautbar
zu machen." — " Have no doubt that they (our governors) will take care that
the same shall be preached, taught, and proclaimed, so as to make it known."

3 Utriusque (veritatis et caritatis) Bucerus mea sententia observantissimus
est. Proinde confido non ingratum tibi fore quicquid ille in medium attulit.
19th Nov. 1530, in Hottinger ii. 320.

Chap. III.] THE TWO PROTESTANT PARTIES 653

It was impossible, however, that Zwingli should share his senti-
ments.

In the first place, he had far too frequently and too decidedly accused
Luther of a coarse and material view of the subject, lightly to abandon
the charge. It was also not to be denied that, although Butzer adhered
to the idea of the spiritual partaking, he approached nearer to Luther's
exposition of the mystery than Zwingli could possibly approve. He was
too conscious that his view of the subject was to be traced to a totally
different origin. He did not directly reject Butzer's formula, but the
threefold repetition of the word " real " was very offensive to him ;
he thought that people would understand this in the sense of natural.
He had no objection to Butzer's publication of a letter which he had
addressed to the Swiss, on the identity of the two doctrines ; but he
reserved to himself the right of giving a commentary upon it, expressive
of his own peculiar opinion. He consented indeed to adopt the formula,
that the body of Christ was present in the Sacrament ; but not without
the addition of the words, " only to the believing soul ;" he utterly refused
to assent to the proposition, that the body of Christ was presented to
the mouth.1 The whole force of his original conception was aroused
within him, and he could not be induced to advance one step further on
the path of conciliation.

This, however, did not prevent Basel, under the guidance of CEcolam-
padius, from accepting the mediation. There was already a report in
Switzerland of a peculiar doctrine taught by OEcolampadius, which was
said to have a considerable number of adherents.2

In short, the rumours of a closer union between the two parties of
reformers were general, earnest, and uninterrupted. In a certain sense
this had already taken place ; Strasburg, and, since July 1530, Land-
grave Philip having joined the union of the Swiss cities, at the same time
that they were members of the League of Schmalkald. The following fact
appears to me extremely striking : — Bullinger's History contains a copy
of a treaty of alliance which Zurich laid before Basel and Bern, at a con-
gress held in February 1531, with the remark, that it was already accepted
by some Germans. On nearer inspection I find that, word by word, from
beginning to end, it is merely and precisely the formula of the Schmal-
kaldic treaty. How remarkable, that Zurich should (at least, as it appears
from this) have earnestly proposed to its most intimate allies to join the
League of Schmalkald !

There was no point of time at which the Swiss Confederation was so near
to an internal reconstitution, in consequence of the progress of church
reform, and likewise to a reunion with Germany, as the one we are now
contemplating. The two factions into which it was divided were power-
fully attracted by the corresponding elements of the German mother
country. Zwingli said the matter must be settled in Switzerland, before

1 Letter in Hess, (Ecolampadius, p. 43 1 .

2 From the otherwise very empty and uninstructive essay of Faber, de admira-
bili catholicis . . . data victoria, we see this (cap. vi., Opp. hi. 145.) In a
letter of Landgrave Philip, dated the Friday after Palm Sunday, (W. A.) (Eco-
lampadius is regarded as completely agreeing with that party. " Since (Eco-
lampadius and the others are of one mind with us in the matter of the sacrament,
and it is to be hoped that the others also will come to us. . . ."

654 THE TWO PROTESTANT PARTIES [Book VI.

the emperor would have his hands free in Germany. Ferdinand feared
a general union of all the protestants. In the unusually energetic resist-
ance which he encountered on all hands, he thought he detected traces of
the confidence which such a coalition was calculated to inspire.1

But religious differences once more formed an insuperable obstacle to
their union.

At the meeting at Frankfurt on the Main, in June, 1531, the matter
was agitated anew.

Bern and Zurich had again declared that they would not accept Butzer's
formula, not because it appeared to them unchristian, but because it
was obscure, and might easily give occasion to dangerous misconceptions.2

On the other hand, the Elector of Saxony had instructed his envoys,
in case the Confederation should not subscribe a confession in harmony
with that of Augsburg, to break off all negotiations with them, and to
refuse even to be the bearers of anything they might desire to send him.

This again necessarily had an influence on the internal transactions
of the League of Schmalkald.

A project of a military organization was submitted in Frankfurt, which
the Oberlanders thought very ably conceived and expedient ; but they
declined to subscribe it, because it did not include the confederate
cantons. They declared that the enemies by whom they were surrounded
were too strong ; allies so remote would not be able to afford them adequate
assistance.

Without doubt they wished to wait to see how things would turn out
in Switzerland.

For it was evident that in that country everything would be referred
to the decision of arms, and that this decision would react in various
ways on Upper Germany.

CHAPTER IV.

CATASTROPHE OF THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.

The attack made by Savoy on Geneva was repulsed in 1530 ; in the
spring of 1531, the Castellan of Musso was also driven out of the Grisons.
As, on the one side, the cities had not joined the League of Schmalkald, so
on the other, the Five Cantons had in fact concluded no alliance with
Austria. The two parties in the Confederation stood confronted, each
limited to its own resources, but more embittered than ever.

The Five Cantons complained, and indeed not unjustly, that their
rights as majority were no longer respected. Thev retused to assent to
ordinances like those which had been issued in St. Gall The first captain
who, according to the new regulations, was to assume the command

1 Es cierto que se haran todos unos y peores que nunca por los fuercas y
ventaja que de dia en dia van cobrando los que siguen estas sectas. Prina,
27th March, 1531.

2 Correspondence between Bern, Basel, and Zurich in Escher and Hottinger's
Archiv ii., p. 290. Basel insists that Butzer's explanation is " also luter, das
sie mit irem naturlichen lyblichen substanzlichen oder wesentlichen Lyb gar keine
Gemeinschaft hat." — " so clear, that it has nothing whatever in common with
their (the opposite party's) natural, bodily, substantial, or material body."

Chap. IV.] ZWINGLFS POLITICAL REFORMS 655

there (he was from Lucerne), disdained to take an oath to peasants, and
rode away.

On the other hand, the evangelical cities were, also with apparent
justice, incensed that they had not been supported in matters regarding
their interests as members of the Confederation, and affirmed that the
bond which united them was thus broken : nor were they disposed longer
to endure the " coarse, inhuman " vituperation of which they had been
the object. The answers of the Five Cantons were, they said, in themselves
an insult.1

Zwingli's intention had been to put an end to the thing at once by
force.

The difference which existed between Luther and Zwingli was at least
as great on political, as on religious points. Luther's policy, if it deserves
the name, was entirely dependent on his religious views, and was limited
to immediate defence. Zwingli, on the contrary, pursued, from the very
beginning, ends of a positively political nature ; a complete change in
the form of the Confederation was the central point of all his ideas, and
he had laid the most extensive plans for its accomplishment. He is,
without doubt, in both respects, the greatest reformer that Switzerland
has produced.

It had often been complained of as unfair, that the forest cantons,
which contributed so much less in men and money to the wars of the
Confederation than the populous city cantons, yet enjoyed an equal
share of the advantages of victory and dominion. This was the true
cause of the dissensions which followed the Burgundian wars. Zwingli
found that this state of things had of late become more intolerable. Zug
having joined the four forest cantons, a majority had been formed which
decided all the business of the diets, and against which there existed no
lawful remedy. Zwingli was of opinion that this advantage, which they
so recklessly abused, was highly unjust. The guidance of the Confedera-
tion much more properly belonged to the two cities of Zurich and Bern,
which had always been its most powerful members, and done the most
for its interests. It would be necessary to send back the act of Con-
federation to the Five Cantons, and make a new one, either entirely
excluding them from the common bailiwicks (at least on this side of the
Alps) ; or making a fresh division ; or at all events putting an end to their
influence as a majority.2

We see that Zwingli wanted to place the constitution on a totally
different basis, and to establish its unity on the preponderance of actual
force. The same principles would then have prevailed through the whole
territory, both in religion and politics.

Plans of this sort can never be executed without an energetic co-opera-
tion of forces at the favourable moment. The first question was, whether
Master Ulrich Zwingli, powerful and respected as he was, was sufficiently
so to unite his own party in an undertaking of this kind.

1 Antwurtten und Meinungen der Radtsbotten der christlichen Stetten. —
Answers and opinions of the envoys of the councils of the Christian cities. 24th
April, 1 53 1. Bullinger, ii. 362.

2 Was Zurich und Bern Not zu betrachten sey in dem funfortigen Handel. —
What is to be regarded as the danger of Zurich and Bern in the quarrel with the
Five Cantons. Hottinger, ii. 487.

656 REACTION IN ZURICH [Book VI.

But even in Zurich, Zwingli had still to contend with hostile opinions
and obstinate private interests. In the Grand Council, which managed
the affairs of the church, there were still, towards the end of the year 1528,
men who retained their preference for the old usages. Zwingli demanded
from the pulpit the purification of the council from the ungodly, who
could not endure the word of God. Accordingly, Zwingli's partisans
proceeded to interrogate the members of the guilds, one after another,
whether they would repair to the Lord's table like other Christians ; and
excluded those who refused, from the council.1 But this did not put an
end to all the difficulties. Among the noble families there were many
who had reluctantly given up the pensions, and had not broken off all
connexion with the leaders of the Five Cantons. If Zwingli could not
break this connexion, he was determined at least to render it innocuous.
The influence of the noble families in Zurich rested upon this, — that whereas
only three members of each of the other guilds sat in the Lesser, and twelve
in the Grand Council, the noble guild — called the Constafel — had the
privilege of sending six to the former, and eighteen to the latter.2 Zwingli
had sufficient influence to break down this inequality. He carried the
point of putting the Constafel on the same footing as the other guilds.

Nothing less than measures of such severity in Zurich itself, could have
brought about that politico-religious unity in the public authority which
was necessary to Zwingli's plans. But it was clear that secret, if not open,
counteraction was inevitable. In a very short time he was made to
feel this.

Far greater difficulties were opposed to him by Bern. There, where
the attachment to the pensions was much more deeply rooted ; where a
certain jealousy of Zurich always showed itself ; the separation which had
hitherto existed between the several cantons found stubborn, if not ardent
defenders.

I know not whether Zwingli's plan, which seemed so advantageous to
the Bernese, was ever even submitted to them. I find no trace of it in
the transactions of their diets.

The demands of the city cantons were confined to the three following :
first, that blasphemers should be punished ; secondly, that the poor people
who had been driven from house and home for conscience' sake, should
be received again ; lastly, that the religious doctrines of the city cantons
should be tolerated in the territories of the other cantons ;3 — demands
which the nature of the case rendered inevitable. For what could be
the Confederation in which the one member would not receive the oath
of the other ? What the community of justice in the bailiwicks, where

1 Bernhard Weiss, p. 91, fortunately enters more into detail than Bullinger.
The difficulties of the situation are, moreover, apparent from the following
passage from Zwingli's own writings : — An non optimi quique ac innocentissimi,
cum senatores turn plebeji, sic me colunt ac tuentur, ut nisi id constantissime
facerent, minor esset publica tranquillitas. Responsio ad amici haud vulgaris
epistolam. Gualth. ii. 323.

2 See Bluntschli, Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte von Zurich, i. 359. — Unfortu-
nately, this book contains no further account of the above-mentioned relations.

3 All the negotiations are to be found in Bullinger's Chronicle, from which
nearly all authors, even the earlier ones, have drawn most of their information,
and which is now printed. The want of the continuation of Zwingli's correspon-
dence is severely felt.

Chap. IV.] RESISTANCE OF THE FIVE CANTONS 657

the one portion of the ruling body persecuted the faith in which the
other beheld its salvation ? How, above all, could the evangelical mem-
bers of the Confederation look on, while, at a few miles distance, their
co-religionists were thrown into prison ? These demands therefore were
merely an assertion of the christian character of the new state of things ;
a recognition of this was all that they claimed.

At this time, however, the religious creed was far too intimately con-
nected with the civil power for concessions, even of this kind, to be obtained,
except by compulsion. In the Five Cantons, that power was founded on
the exclusive sway of Catholicism. Had the authorities consented to
admit the contrary opinion, a hostile party would have formed itself in
the population, under their own eyes ; and, supported by the tendencies
of the age, and encouraged by sympathy from without, might easily have
become dangerous to themselves. They therefore at once decidedly
rejected these demands.

Upon this Zwingli did not hesitate to advise war, and to urge an imme-
diate attack while the advantage was still in their hands : he so far pre-
vailed that Zurich, where no one now ventured openly to oppose him,
declared itself for that course.

In Bern, however, his authority was not so great. That city also
regarded coercive measures as inevitable, but did not choose immediately
to come to extremities. It succeeded in prevailing on its allies for the
moment to resort to no act of open aggression against the Five Cantons,
but merely to withhold supplies.

This however was little likely to content Zwingli. He clearly saw that
delay would ruin everything. He felt that his adversaries at home were
once more bestirring themselves, and complained from the pulpit of the
support that Zurich itself afforded to the enemy. At one moment he
was seriously determined to resign his post. As he was prevented, though
with difficulty, from putting this design in execution, he made another
attempt to convince the Bernese of the necessity of adopting another line
of conduct. We find him holding a secret meeting, by night, in the house
of the preacher at Bremgarten, with certain delegates from Bern, while
the councillors of Bremgarten kept watch without. But he seems not
to have found much encouragement here. Before day dawned Bullinger
conducted his master to the road, through a gate near the shooting-house.
Zwingli was deeply depressed. He wept as he took leave of Bullinger.
" God keep thee, Henry," said he, " and only remain thou faithful to the
Lord Christ and His church."1 In August a comet had appeared ; Abbot
George Miiller of Wettingen one day asked Zwingli in the churchyard of
the great minster, what that might signify. " My George," answered
Zwingli, " it will cost me and many an honest man dear : the church will
be in jeopardy, but you will not be deserted by Christ."2

1 Bullinger's narrative, iii. 49.

2 I may be permitted here to quote the charming narrative of a contemporary,
which has been printed in the Schw. Mus., ii. 535. He tells how, when he was at
St. Gall in those days, he one night climbed up the Bernegh with Zwingli's friend
Vadianus, Dr. Joachim von Watt, and some others ; — how when they had climbed
up to the very top, the doctor seated himself in the midst of them upon the
ground in the dew, and explained to them the names of the constellations, the
opposite motions of the Zodiac and the rest of the firmament, and the wonders

42

658 BREAKING OUT OF WAR [Book VI.

Things fell out as Zwingli had foreseen, — indeed as it was inevitable
that they should. Bern probably hoped that the common people in the
Five Cantons would not be able to hold out against the scarcity, and
would rise against their governors ; but the very contrary came to pass.
The people were exasperated because, under the pretence of zeal for the
christian religion, their adversaries withheld the fruits of the earth, which
God caused to grow freely for all.1 The governing class turned this
disposition of the public mind to the advantage of their own authority.
The Ziirichers had put forth a manifesto for their justification, and had
sent it to Lucerne ; the council of Lucerne treated all those who had received
and communicated it to others as traitors, and sentenced them to the rack.
And, indeed, the feeling of continual offence was of itself sufficient to render
the temper of the two parties more hostile from day to day. Thus all
negotiations were abortive. The Five Cantons persisted in demanding
of the cities to open the common stores to them, according to the terms
of the Confederation, or to grant them their rightful share. The cities
refused to enter into the question of right, as, by the terms of the public
peace, the withholding of the stores was expressly appointed as the punish-
ment for continued insults and offences. This punishment they now
intended to inflict. The mediators, among whom we find Strasburg
deputies, proposed that the punishment of the insults complained of
should be left to them. To this the cities consented, but the country
cantons were not to be induced to agree to it.

No remedy could be devised ; war was inevitable ; war, under totally
different auspices from what Zwingli had desired.

In September the Five Cantons held a diet at Lucerne, in order to consult
on the means of carrying on the war. At first Uri, Schwytz, and Unter-
walden, ob dem Wald, were against an immediate attack ; indeed Uri
proposed to wait for the resolutions of the approaching diet of the empire.
But Unterwalden, nied dem Wald, insisted on the necessity of declaring
war without delay, and at length all came round to this opinion ; " for
they could not perish of hunger, they must fetch means of subsistence,
and for this they must risk body and soul."2

The friends of the Five Cantons regarded their decision with some
alarm. King Ferdinand feared they would succumb, and that the con-
fusion would then become too violent and general to be repressed.

They were undoubtedly very inferior in numbers, but they were united ;
their leaders were bound together in the closest manner by community
of interest and of danger, and were supported by the popular exasperation.

of the Creator, whom he desired soon to behold. Hereupon he cast his eyes
upon the country, and spoke of the first settlement by the Romans, of the found-
ing and fortunes of the town, how many times it had been burnt, whence each
gate thereof had its name, how the neighbouring forest had been cleared, and
who had established the flourishing trade of linen weaving : this thought led
him back again to the comet, which none doubted to portend the wrath of God.
Theophrastus von Hohenheim, then dwelling at St. Gall, and others, interpreted
it to foreshow not only bloodshed, and the overthrow of the government, but
especially the destruction of learned men.

1 Hallwyl, in Kirchhofer's Haller, 107.

2 Bullinger, iii. 73. The first attack upon Bern emanated rather from Ob-
walden.

Chap. IV.] BREAKING OUT OP WAR 659

They had likewise the advantage that while no active steps had as yet
been taken in the cities, they could rush down from their mountain for-
tresses, and make a sudden attack on the most vulnerable points. For
some days nothing was heard of them ; the passes were vigilantly guarded,
and no suspicious person was allowed to go out or in. There were, in the
high country, friends of the Ziirichers, who had promised to give them
intelligence if anything was in preparation ; but they were so strictly
watched as to render this impossible. A few days only were necessary
to make all ready for an outbreak. Suddenly, on the 9th of October, a
company from Lucerne crossed the borders, and plundered the free baili-
wicks. On the 10th, a boat laden with soldiers was seen crossing the lake
of Zug ; the sound of horns announced their arrival in Zug, and the pipes
of the men of Uri were heard on the border. At the above-mentioned
meeting at Lucerne it was immediately determined to combine forces at
Zug ; the council of war had only to fix the day, and then to set things
in order for the attack.1

Had the cities been prepared for this assault, they would easily have
repulsed it ; Zurich had only to guard the pass over the Albis, and she
would have time to make the most efficient preparations for her defence.
But the Ziirichers were up to this moment continually occupied with the
coercive measures they had adopted ; they had just been devising means
to prevent the approach of troops from Alsatia on either side the Reuss.
Whilst busied about means of coercion, they found themselves suddenly
attacked. Their confusion was the greater, since the attack coming from
different quarters, left them in doubt against what point it was more
especially directed.

On the morning of the nth of October, 1531, the militia of the Five
Cantons took the oath, and marched, eight thousand men strong, under
their five banners, to invade the territory of their chief foe, the Ziirichers.

In front of them, near Cappel, a troop of about twelve hundred Ziirichers
had posted themselves.

The great banner had indeed been unfurled the same morning in the
city of Zurich, and the militia belonging to it began to assemble ; but
all this was done with disorder and precipitation. At the same hour
a part of the troops marched towards the free bailiwicks. And now, at
the decisive moment, it became evident that all were not of the same
mind. A secret counteraction had paralyzed every measure.2 Message
after message arrived, that the combined forces of the enemy threatened
the troop at Cappel, and would utterly destroy it if assistance were not
immediately sent ; so that the militia attached to the banner, weak as it
was — there were only seven hundred men — was compelled to take the field
without further delay.

The only means of salvation would have been to surrender Cappel
and withdraw the troop.

The proposal was indeed made in their ranks to retire before the superior

1 Kurze Beschreibung der fiinf katholischen Orte Kriegs wider ihre Eidge-
nossen der fiinf zwinglischen Orte ; (Short description of the war of the five
catholic cantons against their confederates of the five Zwinglian cantons) which,
since Haller's time, has been attributed to Gilg Tschudi, but which appears in
MS. under the name of Cysat and others. Balthasar's Helvetia, ii. p. 186.

2 Examination of Rudolf Lavater. Escher, ii. 311.

42 — 2

666 BATTLE OP CAPPEL [Book VI.

force. But it appeared to these brave men an act of cowardice to retreat
a step, even when their inferiority was so manifest. Rudy Gallmann
stamped his foot on the ground when the proposal was made, and ex-
claimed, " God grant that I may not live to see the day when I shall yield
one foot of earth to these people. Let this rather be my grave."

Already had the superior enemy advanced and the firing begun, as the
banner reached the summit of the Albis. The company was, as we have
said, extremely weak. William Toning, captain of sharpshooters, looked
around, and gave it as his opinion that it would be better to halt a while,
and to wait for reinforcement from the people, who were now flocking
to join them, before they marched further. But Master Ulrich Zwingli,
who had also marched out with the banner, and, on this occasion, as
preacher, in virtue of the office which he had not been permitted to resign,
replied, that it would ill become them to look down idly from the mountain
on the brave people fighting below. " I will to them in God's name,"
added he, " and die with them, or help to save them." — " Wait, Toning, till
thou be'st fresh again," said the standard-bearer. " I am as fresh as you,"
answered Toning, " and will be with you."

The company of the Five Cantons had posted itself on a little height
surrounded with wood, called the Schurenberg ;* here the banner rushed
upon them. It was, indeed, the force of Zurich which now stood con-
fronted with the Five Cantons ; but carelessness at first, disunion and
-want of discipline afterwards, had caused it to consist of little more than
two thousand men, whereas the city could easily have put ten thousand
men into the field.

This little band was now met by the troops of the Five Cantons, four-
fold their numbers, not (to say the least) less warlike, and far better com-
manded. Little remains to be said of a battle which was decided ere it
began. The Zurichers had left the thicket at the foot of the hill unoccupied ;
through this the enemy rushed, almost unobserved, and began the attack
with the utmost confidence in his superiority. The valour of the Zurichers
was of no avail ; they were routed and overthrown in a moment, and a
furious carnage began. Of the two thousand Zurichers, five hundred
perished ; and what was the most grievous, among them were the most
eminent and zealous evangelical leaders, for they had been the first to
take up arms. There did Rudy Gallmann find the grave he pointed to.
The standard-bearers, Schweizer and Wilhelm Toning, fell, and the
banner itself was saved with great difficulty : the guildmaster Funk, the
brave Bernhard Weiss, to whom we are indebted for so many excellent
reports ;2 the director Geroldseck, several preachers, and, in the midst of

i In the " Kurze Beschreibung," Schonenberg ; but there too it ought rather
to be Schiirenberg. " 1st ein ziemlich hoher Biihel, daruff voi Zyten ettliche
huser und schiiren gestanden sind, daher mans genambt hat, wie es noch heisst,
zu oder uff Schiiren." — " This is a somewhat high hill, whereon in former times
stood several houses and barns, whence it had the name by which it still is known,
of the barns (Schiiren). " Bulling., iii. in.

2 According to Accolti (in Epistolis Sadoleti, vii. 273), of the 300 senators only
seven remained. The truth is that seven members of the lesser, and nineteen
of the Great Council were killed in battle, besides sixty citizens and seven clergy-
men (quam plurimi sacerdotes !). Bullinger enumerates them all. The rest
were men from the country. Accolti, indeed, reckons the Zurichers at 20,000

Chap. IV.] DEATH OF ZWINGLI 66 1

his flock, Zwingli himself. The enemy, drunk with victory, and already
dispersed over the battle-field in search of plunder, found him lying under
a tree, still breathing, "with his hands folded and his eyes raised to heaven."
Is it too much to conjecture that as he lay there weltering in his blood,
a thought which he had lately expressed in gloomy forebodings was present
to his soul ? The prospects of the Confederation, in the sense in which he
understood and desired it, he probably felt he must renounce for ever ;
the prospects of the church and of the religion of the gospel, he could
contemplate with unshaken confidence. Thus was he found dying by
two common soldiers, who exhorted him to confess himself to a priest,
or as it already seemed too late for that, at least to receive the blessed
Virgin and the saints into his heart. He made no answer, and only shook
his head ; they did not know who he was ; they thought him some obscure
" stubborn heretic," and gave him a death-stroke. It was not till the next
day that it was remarked that Zwingli was one among the many dis-
tinguished men who had fallen. All flocked to see him. One of his
acquaintances from Zug declared that his countenance in death had the
same expression as it used to have when inspired by the ardour of his
mind in preaching. No sight could be more welcome to his enemies, the
pensioners. They instituted a sort of trial of Zwingli, quartered his body,
burned it, and scattered the ashes to the winds.

But the Five Cantons were not yet completely victors and masters in
the Confederation. The Zurichers now determined to occupy the pass
over the Albis, and under the shelter thus afforded, they collected their
strength. They had very shortly an army of twelve thousand men of
their own, and allied cantons in the field. Meanwhile Bern too had taken
the field, and its army, together with those of Basel and Biel, was supposed
to amount to about the same number. When these troops united at
Bremgarten, the Five Cantons saw clearly that they could do nothing
against such masses ; they therefore evacuated the ravaged territory,
and retreated towards Zug, where they encamped at Bar am Boden.

It now appeared as if an offensive war might be carried on by the cities,
as Zwingli had always advised ; and they did indeed march in pursuit
of their enemy ; but circumstances were totally altered.

Since their victory, the Five Cantons had become bolder than they
had ever been before ; on the other hand, it was remarked that the cities
wanted an impulse such as Zwingli would perhaps have given them.
Zurich had indeed lost its best citizens : people said, " they had lost the
rye out of the wheat."1 The Bernese had never displayed much ardour
for war, and consequently they did not engage in it with the necessary
energy. They neglected to fall on the enemy at the favourable moment,
when he was changing his position. When at length they resolved to
attack the very strong encampment in which he now was, from the Zug
mountains on the one side and the valley on the other, and for that purpose
occupied the mountain, they did it with so little skill and prudence, that
they gave the enemy, whom they meant to surprise, an opportunity to

1 To those unacquainted with the habits of the German people, this expression
requires explanation. They, do not willingly eat wheaten bread, which they
regard as much less nutritious than that made of rye. A peasant will tell you
that it is impossible 10 work upon wheaten bread, there is no strength (kraft) in
t. — Transl.

662 PROJECTS OF FERDINAND [Book VI.

fall upon the division posted on the mountain, and to cut off a great
number of men.1 Notwithstanding their superior numbers, the cities had
no longer courage to make a strenuous attack on their brave and conquering
enemy. They only hoped to weary him out by surrounding him with a
winter encampment.

How totally were the daring schemes which Zwingli had cherished,
overthrown ! It is clear that the politico-religious principle of which he
was the representative and the champion, was, in fact, not so strong in
Zurich as he had flattered himself, and that it was still weaker in Bern.
It was not sufficiently powerful to pervade and to animate the existing
elements of society. At the decisive moment, mistaken measures were
adopted, the ground of which always was, want of that union and high-
minded energy which alone could have insured success.

The fears which had been entertained by the catholic party at the
beginning of these disturbances were now changed, by such unexpected
successes, into the most sanguine hopes.

With undisguised joy and exultation Ferdinand sent his brother an
account of the battle of Cappel and the death of the arch-heretic Zwingli.
" This," says he, " is the first advantage which has been gained of late by
the cause of the faith and of the church."

On the arrival of the news of the second successful engagement, he
began to lay plans. He exhorted his brother to remember what favour
God had shown to the defenders of His cause. Were the emperor not so
near at hand, he himself, feeble and poor as he was, would hasten to assist
in so sacred an enterprise. But now he could not refrain from exhorting
him, the head of Christendom, to do this ; never could he have a fairer
occasion for acquiring renown. Without Switzerland, the German sects
would be easily subdued. He advised him to send succours openly or
secretly to the catholic cantons. He goes so far as to tell the emperor
that this was the true way for him to put an end to religious discords,
and to become master of Germany.2

Nor was Charles V. in any degree indifferent to projects of this kind.
He answered that the excellence of his brother's advice struck him the
more, the more he reflected upon it ; that the dignity with which he was
invested, solicitude for the orthodox princes, the duty of defending the
christian religion and the common weal, and considerations for the house
of Austria, rendered it incumbent upon him to do something.

The Five Cantons had been joined in their camp on the Zug mountains
by some companies of Italians. We discover from a letter that this
took place with the knowledge of the emperor ; he was of opinion that all
future assistance must be given in the name of the pope.3

1 " Das was ungfar urn die zwei nach Mitternacht Morgens Zinstag den,
24 Octobris." " Maria die Mutter Gottes war dero Nacht ihr Kriegszeichen." —
" This was at about two hours after midnight on the morning of Tuesday the
24th October." " Mary the mother of God was their watchword on that night."
Kurzer Bericht.

2 1st Nov. Vostra Magestad a la qual suplico quiera mirar lo que ymporta y
usar de la occasion y opportunidad del tiempo, pues es el mas a proposito que
se pudo desear i camino para remediar las quiebras de nuestra fe y ser Vra. Md.
senor de Alemanna y hazer una cosa la mas sennalada que in nuestros tempos
se ha hecho.

3 Bruxelles, 2d Nov., 1531. Archives of Brussels,

Chap. IV.] ATTITUDE OF THE EMPEROR 663

Nor did he stop here. He immediately sent to ask the king of France
to give his support to the Five Cantons, and to declare war against those
which had fallen off from the faith.

But he found little cordiality in Francis, who had seen with great
displeasure the close alliance of the Five Cantons with Austria, and, with
a view to maintain a counterpoise, had entered into negotiations with the
other cantons shortly before this catastrophe. The king pleaded to the
emperor's ambassadors all the sums he had had to pay in consequence
of the engagements he had entered into at Cambray. What he had
lately inherited from his mother, he wished to apply to the defence of his
kingdom. The emperor, he continued with increasing bitterness and
irritation, had tied his hands for every enterprise where anything was
to be gained ; he was friendly only where nothing was to be got but blows
and expenses, — against the Turks and the Swiss.1

Negotiations were likewise entered into with the Venetian ambassador
in Milan. The bishop of Veroli, papal nuncio, prayed the republic for
permission to send two thousand Spaniards through the Bergamese
territory into Switzerland. The ambassador, Giovanni Basadonna, did
not immediately consent to this ; he wished to see the full powers of the
nuncio, and observed to him that the Spaniards, if allowed to interfere
in the intestine wars of the Confederation, might easily render themselves
its masters. He induced Veroli to drop his request. The nuncio repaired
in person to Switzerland, where he expressed the hope that it might be
possible to induce the seceders to return to their ancient allegiance to the
see of Rome.2

It is evident that, had it depended on the emperor and his brother, the
victory of the Five Cantons would have been immediately succeeded by
a general attempt to establish Catholicism in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, however, the Swiss themselves had begun to consider of
the means of putting an end to their dissensions.

The army of the cities was by no means in a condition to remain under
arms, in the mountains, when the bad season set in. As the Five Cantons
prepared to attack them again, Zurich, and afterwards Bern, were obliged
to accept the peace dictated to them.

It was exactly the reverse of the last internal peace. The cities were
now obliged to give up the alliances they had concluded with foreign
powers, and, in one form or another, to pay all the expenses of the war.

They were allowed the exercise of their religion. They had not fallen
so low that their enemies could dare to assail this. They had suffered
some reverses, and their attack had failed, but they were not subdued.

They were forced, however, to submit to a great diminution of their
political and religious influence. The Five Cantons intended to chastise,
not only the districts which immediately belonged to them — Rapperschwyl,
Toggenburg, Gaster and Wesen, — but also those over which the cities
had a joint control with them, such as the free bailiwicks in Aargau,
Bremgarten, and Mellingen. In the other common bailiwicks, those who

1 Lettre du roi a Mr. d'Auxerre, 21 Nov., MS. Bethune 8477. Pour la guerre
du Turc ou des Suisses, otl il n'y a que coups et despenses d' argent.

2 Relatio V.N. Joannis Basadone. " Come el mi disse, andava cum proposito
di rimover Lutherani dalla loro mala opinione con mezzo di alcuni suoi amici e
cum danari." Archives of Venice.

664 RESTORATION OF CATHOLICISM [Book VI.

had accepted the new creed were to be not indeed commanded, but per-
mitted, to return to the " ancient and true christian faith." Expressions
of this kind the cities were obliged to endure throughout the treaty.1

No sooner had Bern accepted this peace, than the revival and re-estab-
lishment of Catholicism began on all sides.

Immediately after the battle of Cappel, the catholic minority in Glarus
bestirred itself, revoked the succours of the canton already determined on,
and warned the subjects of the same not to furnish them ; they did every-
thing in their power to favour the turn things had taken. Very shortly
a certain number of churches were restored to them ; and from that time
they have exercised a far greater influence on the public business of the
canton than the evangelical party, which was disheartened and enfeebled
by the great losses sustained by their co-religionists. Schwytz, therefore,
experienced no resistance when it overran Gaster and Wesen, abolished
the old liberties, and restored the altars and images, and the mass. Glarus
united with Schwytz, and Uri undertook to reinstate the abbot of St. Gall.
His abbey was restored to him, and the city compelled to pay him a large
sum as compensation. The people who cultivated the lands of the re-
ligious house were once more regarded as its subjects, and the abbot
maintained that he was not bound by any stipulations in their favour in
the treaty of peace ; for that he was a free lord, and the protecting cantons
could lay down no rule for his government. These tenants gradually
all became catholic again. Fortunately for Toggenburg, at the very last
moment, when it withdrew from the cities, it took better securities for its
religious freedom, which, though greatly abridged, was not destroyed.
The abbot placed the government of the country in the hands of those
who had been driven out of it in the recent troubles.

Rapperschwyl was also reclaimed. At the news of the successes of
their co-religionists, the catholics rose, and being reinforced by succours
from Schwytz, were completely victorious. The leaders of the evangelical
party were obliged to flee, or were put to death. There lived in the town
a very skilful gunsmith, one Michael Wohlgemuth, of Cologne, who had
the courage to defend himself after the fashion of old times : he barricaded
his house, planted his matchlocks at the windows, and defended himself for
some time with equal gallantry and success, till at length he was regularly
besieged and taken prisoner. He was put to death with horrible tortures.
Of the remainder, some submitted, some were thrown into prison,
and some exiled. On the 19th of November mass was performed
again.

In the Aargau, the Five Cantons used the rights of conquest with the
utmost rigour. Wherever their banner appeared, the preachers retreated
from the death with which they were threatened by the German, and still
more by the French Swiss. Bremgarten and Mellingen were forced
expressly to engage to restore the ancient rites of the church. The aged
Schultheiss Mutschli, who had hitherto governed Bremgarten, lay on his
death-bed when the newly appointed catholic authorities sent to order
him to quit Bremgarten. "Tell them that I shall not trouble them long,"
he replied. He died soon after, and lies buried at Oberwyl.

The treaty of peace did not leave Thurgau and the Rhine valley so much

1 The copy of the treaty of peace in Hottinger's Appendix to vol. ii. collated
anew with the original.

Chap. IV.] IN SWITZERLAND 665

at the mercy of the Five Cantons ; they were obliged to content themselves
with restoring the convents, which recovered their old privileges.

In Solothurn, on the other hand, the catholics were completely trium-
phant. Nearly seventy protestant families were obliged to leave the city.

This second restoration of Catholicism occurring in our history, was
not so bloody as the first, which took place in Upper Germany after the
peasants' war ; but, like that, it was brought about by the casualties of
war ; like that, it was violent ; and it was far more lasting.

The general relation of the two confessions, at that time established in
the Alps, has endured down to the present time.

Even the evangelical cantons felt the influence of the restoration. The
Constafel of Zurich regained their lost privileges. The people were
obliged to acquiesce, so that Catholicism was not again in activity. The
great council was forced to make such promises to the country districts
as greatly limited its authority.

The war had lasted only six weeks, but it had totally changed the
prospects of Switzerland. Bullinger's Chronicle contains at the end a
short comparison of what the reformers had projected, and what they had
actually accomplished. They had desired the uniform introduction of
the evangelical faith ; the depression of the oligarchies ; the abatement of
the majority of the Five Cantons. The result was, that the new doctrine
was extirpated from many places where it had been' preached ; that the
papacy was re-instated in its authority ; that the Five Cantons acquired
such an ascendancy as they had never enjoyed before, and that the oli-
garchies had more power than ever."1 " Honour is overthrown, arbitrary
power is established," says Bullinger. " The counsels of the Lord are
marvellous."

CHAPTER V.

THE REFORMATION IN THE CITIES OF LOWER GERMANY. CONCLUSION
OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD.

The spirit of reform had embodied itself in two parties of very different
tendencies ; the one, bold and comprehensive, both as to religious doc-
trines and political views ; inclined to the absolute rejection of the
traditional, and ready for attack : the other, conservative (as far as it
was possible) even in matters of doctrine ; and, on the field of politics,
reluctantly brought to make a resolute defence.

The former of these had failed in its projects ; it necessarily followed
that the whole strength of the growing reformation now attached itself
to the latter. The League of Schmalkald was the more formidable to its
enemies, because its rivals were no longer in a state to compete with it.

The cities of the Oberland had already made as near an approach as
possible to the religious principle of the League of Schmalkald ; and, since

1 Bullinger, iii. 353. The state of things is particularly described in an essay
written by Leo Judse in his own justification. " There are two great parties
in Zurich, the one will protect God's word and help to secure all justice to it,
the other will plant all dishonesty, and uproot the word of God, re-establish
the papacy, and take foreign service and pensions again. It appears to the pious
that the latter party have always more favour and encouragement than they." j

666 REFORMATION IN LOWER GERMANY [Book VI.

their Swiss allies were compelled to dissolve the ties between them, they
had politically no other support remaining than the strength of the united
German States.

Their own danger was increased by the calamities of the Swiss. They
knew the lively share which the court of Ferdinand had taken in the
affairs of the Confederation, and rumours were afloat of warlike prepara-
tions in Alsatia, the Breisgau and the Sundgau.

The Oberlanders now no longer hesitated to engage in a definitive
consultation on a plan of warfare. This took place at a meeting at Nord-
hausen, in November, 1531.

But before we examine the organization which the league then assumed,
we must endeavour to understand distinctly what progress the cause of
reform had in the meantime made in the cities of Lower Germany.

REFORMATION IN THE CITIES OF LOWER GERMANY.

The first city that joined the evangelical princes was, as we have seen,
Magdeburg. Here, in a city which had pretensions to hold immediately
of the empire, and had seen itself, with great disgust, turned over to the
jurisdiction of the Archbishop ; — here, where Luther had gone to school,
and where his personal friends were still in possession of honours and
employments, his ideas had easily captivated the whole body of the citizens.
One day an old cloth-weaver was sitting under the statue of Otho the
Great, singing a Lutheran hymn, and offering copies of it for sale. Just
then the Burgermeister Rubin, who had been at mass, came by, and
ordered him to be arrested. This was sufficient to arouse the slumbering
fire. The agitation spread from the audience collected about the old
man, over the whole city. The citizens who, ever since the year 1330, had
taken an important part in secular affairs, thought that they had a right
to a no less active participation in spiritual. On the very same day, the
6th of May, 1524, the parish of St. Ulrich proceeded to exercise this right.
They met in the churchyard, and determined to choose eight men out of
their body, who for the future should manage the affairs of the church
with their concurrence, and should choose preachers. Other parishes
followed this example, and the council did not deem itself called upon to
prevent them. Evangelical preachers were universally appointed by the
side of catholic priests.

/ But a state of things like this could not last. The priests administered
the mass according to the ancient ritual ; the attacks of the preachers
were mainly directed against the mass. There was no peace till either
the priests went over to protestantism, as M. Scultetus did, or were silenced,
or sent away. The parishes of St. John and St. Ulrich having opened a
formal negotiation with the dean of Our Lady's Church, and he having
refused to grant them such priests as they desired, they solemnly renounced
his authority, " in order to take refuge with the sole eternal supreme
priest, guardian of souls, bishop and pope, Jesus Christ ; with Him as
their captain, would they do battle like true knights."1 On the 17th of
July, 1524, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered according

1 Cause and Proceedings in the imperial, honourable, and Christian City of
Magdeburg, pertaining to a Christian Walk and Conversation. By Wolff Cycloff,
Doctor of Medicine, 1524. Printed in Hahn's Collectio Monumentorum, ii. 459.

Chap. V.] MAGDEBURG 667

to Luther's form, in all the churches of the old town. Hereupon the
councillors and hundred-men assembled in their armour, and the citizens,
according to the four quarters of the city, with matchlocks and halberds ;
they swore to stand truly and firmly by each other, if trouble should
come upon the city on account of the abolition of the mass. They had
no doubt that the archbishop, Cardinal Albert, would resort to severe
measures against them. They therefore hastened to cut a canal from the
Elbe to the city ditches, in order, in case of need, to fill the latter with
water ; the walls were raised, the palisades strengthened with blocks ;
the workmen in the town, taken into their service for a small remunera-
tion. They were resolved to defend with life and limb the spiritual inde-
pendence they had asserted. But the time was not yet come when their
resolution was to be put to the proof ; for the present matters did not
go to that extremity.1

In Brunswick things took very nearly the same course, a few years
later. The citizens read Luther's books, and translation of the Bible ;
above all, his hymns produced the strongest sensation ; they were sung in
every house, and the streets resounded with them. It had become cus-
tomary here for the priests who held benefices to leave the business of
preaching to young men whom they paid, and who were called Heuer-
pfaffen (hire-priests). It is not surprising that these men generally
espoused the new doctrines, and took part with the citizens. Examples
occurred of their giving out from the pulpit, instead of the Latin hymn
to the Virgin, one of the new German psalms, in which all the congrega-
tion joined with the greatest enthusiasm.

Indeed the people would no longer listen to sermons of any other ten-
" dency. Scholastic demonstrations were tumultuously interrupted, and
incorrect quotations from Scripture loudly and eagerly corrected, by the
congregation. The clergy sent for Dr. Sprengel, one of the most respected
of the orthodox preachers of the neighbourhood, and already practised
in the handling of controversial points ; but he could make no impression.
At the conclusion of his sermon a citizen called out, " Priest, thou liest,"
and set up the Lutheran hymn, " Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein !"
(O God, look down from heaven !), which the whole congregation sang
with triumph.

The priests could at last devise no expedient, except to request the
council to rid them of their heretical assistants. But the congregations
only attached themselves the more firmly to the latter. The town and
suburbs united nominated delegates, at the head of whom was Autor
Sander, one of the leaders of the whole movement (he belonged to the
literary class of innovators of whom we have formerly made mention) ;
they now, on their side, petitioned the council to remove the priests.

At first the council inclined to the existing order of things, but it was
soon carried along by the popular movement. Reforms were at that
time going on in various places, in consequence of the decree of the empire
of 1526; among others, in the neighbouring state of Luneburg ; Duke
Henry of Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel, who would undoubtedly have opposed
it, being occupied in his expedition into Italy. Under these circumstances,

1 Sebastian Langhans, at that time mill-bailiff, left a history of the year 1524,
which it is very desirable to have printed. Up to that date, Rathmann's Extracts
and Collections (iii. 346-400) are very useful.

668 HAMBURG [Book VI.

the council passed the resolution, on the 13th of March, 1528, that in future
only the pure word of God should be preached ; that the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper should be administered in both kinds, and baptism
be performed in the German language. Dr. Bugenhagen came from
Wittenberg, in order to give a permanent form, of the kind prescribed by-
Luther, to the new order of things.1 The Duke of Luneburg promised
the city his protection.2

Things took the same course in most of the towns of this part of Germany.
In all of them we see preachers arise, the Lutheran hymns become popular,
and the congregations take part in religious questions : the council at
first makes a greater or less resistance, but at length gives way. In Goslar
fifty men were appointed out of the several parishes, and carried the
reforms through ; there was a disturbance in Gottingen, because the
overseers of the commune were at first hostile ; in Eimbeck the council
was compelled by the urgency of the commune, to recall the very preacher
whom they had lately dismissed at the request of the canons.

Our readers will remember the violent commotions which broke out in
all the cities between the years 1 5 10-15 16 ; even in those of Lower Ger-
many. The question now arose, how far the religious impulse was mingled
with this democratic agita.tion, and whether the predominant tendency
would not be political.

We find a great difference among the cities in this respect.
There were some in which council and commune united in good time ;
and in these the municipal constitutions acquired greater strength than
ever during the troubles. For not only did they get rid of the influence of
foreign prelates, which had always been oppressive to them ; but the
administration of church affairs and church property that now devolved
upon them, gave them a common interest which united them more closely.
In Magdeburg ecclesiastical colleges 3 were formed, consisting of members
of the former council, and the newly elected superintendents of the com-
munes ; this gave additional strength to the democratic element which
already somewhat predominated in the constitution of the city. The
most remarkable town in this respect is undoubtedly Hamburg. Here,
too, the reformers followed the advice of Luther, which Bugenhagen had
carried out theoretically in books* and practically by his own plans in
Brunswick ; — to establish in every parish, funds or chests (Gotteskasten),'

1 The most minute account of these events is to be found in Rehtmeier's
Kirchen-historie der Stadt Braunschweig, part iii„ tike original source of which
is a contemporaneous statement by Heinrich Lampt, preacher at St. Michael's
church : " What happened in ecclesiastical affairs, shortly before and after the
reception of the Holy Gospel here in Brunswick ;" Gasmer's Funeral Sermon
for Lampe (which is the basis of Lenz's " Braunschweigs Kirchenreformation,
1828 "), is also chiefly taken from that statement.

2 Duke Ernest mentions in a letter of the 2nd of February, 1531, a former
compact with Brunswick, in which they mutually promised, " in matters relating
to the divine word and whatever depends thereon, to risk life and property with
each other." (W. A.)

3 See Rathmann, IV., ii. 28.

4 In the Appendix to the treatise, Vom rechten Glauben (Of the true Faith),
which Bugenhagen published, both in high and low German, in 1526, and dedi-
cated to the burgermeister, councillors and the whole community of the honour-
able city of Hamburg.

Chap. V.] BREMEN 669

in order to meet the wants of the clergyman and the school, and to provide
for the poor, out of the church property ; and chose, as trustees of the
same, twelve respectable citizens, some of whom had already filled the
office of jurats of the church, and to whom twenty-four members of each
parish were now attached. The same form was adopted in most other
towns ; what distinguishes Hamburg is, that it served as the basis of a
new political constitution. The parish superintendents composed the
college of the Forty-eight, and, together with their assistants, that of
the Hundred and Forty-four ; two colleges which may be regarded as
a true representation of the hereditary class of citizens (Biirgerschaft).
Besides this, a fifth and principal chest was established, in which the
whole property of the church was to be united,1 and the administration
of it was entrusted to the three chief elders of the parish overseers. This
took place with the full consent of the worshipful the council on Michaelmas
Day, 1528. It is evident that this college contained the germs of a most
important institution, for the improvement and prosperity of the city,
and we know how completely it has fulfilled its destination. After a
lapse of three centuries, the day of its establishment has just been com-
memorated with civic festivities.2

In Rostock also the council and the citizens formed the closest union
in opposition to the Mecklenburg princes, who in the year 1531 sided for
a moment with the catholic clergy.3

But things were not everywhere thus peacefully settled. In Bremen,
where the churches had fallen into the hands of the Lutheran preachers,
as early as the year 1525, and, in 1527, the two convents of the city had
been converted, the one into a school and the other into a hospital, so
violent a hatred of the clergy had arisen among the citizens during the
incessant quarrels in which they had been involved with the priests
attached to the cathedral, that they were not satisfied with having
stripped them of all spiritual influence in the city. They laid claim to
a number of fields, gardens and enclosed lands, which, they said, the
cathedral had unjustly wrested from the town ; and as the council did
not uphold them in these claims, they chose a democratic body of a
hundred and four members, who not only endeavoured to carry through
all these measures, but radically to alter the constitution of the city ;
they overthrew the whole groundwork, and rejected all the documents

1 " Nichtesdeweyniger schollen de veer Kisten in den Carspelkarcken, wo se
mi stahn, tho Versamelinge de Almiszen blyven, so doch, dathme allendt wes
bether tho darinn gegeven, und hyrnamals tho alien Tyden darinn gegeven
werden mag, alles getrouwlik in und by de Hovetkysten presentere und averant-
wehrde." — " Nevertheless the four chests in the parish church, where they now
stand, shall remain for the collection of the alms ; so that all which may hereto-
fore have been given therein, or may hereafter be therein given, through all
times, may be truly presented and answered for to the principal [head] chest."
— Original form of the Foundation of the Overalten (Over-elders), Michaelmas
Day. 1528.

2 Lappenberg : Programme of the third secular commemoration of the
municipal constitution of Hamburg, on the 29th of September, 1528 ; wherein
the matter which Biirgermeister Bartels and the Prases of the Oberalten (Over-
elders), Rucker, treated in a popular manner in their speeches, is learnedly and
instructively developed.

3 Rudlof N. Gesch. Mecklenburgs, i. 81.

670 LUBECK [Book VI.

and charters upon which it rested ; proceeded with the greatest violence,
and at length were only put down by force of arms.1

The movement in Liibeck was still more important.

Here the patrician families had formed a close union with the clergy ;
the chapter, council, gentry and great merchants constituted one party.2
On the other hand, the desire for religious reforms was here as rife among
the citizens as in other places, but it was repressed with unrelenting zeal ;
families were punished only because the servants had sung a German
psalm. Luther's commentary on the scriptures was burned in the market
place.

Unfortunately for the ruling classes, they had suffered the finances of
the city to fall into disorder, and found themselves compelled to assemble
the citizens, and to call upon them for extraordinary supplies.

The citizens consented. They nominated a committee (a.d. 1529),
which gradually increased to the number of sixty-four, in order to
deliberate with the council on this grant ; but they immediately seized
the opportunity to claim, not only more political power, but religious
emancipation. They demanded that the committee should have a share
in regulating the revenue and expenditure of the town, and that freedom
of preaching should be granted them. The public voice was very soon
raised in their favour. The people demanded the restitution of the
preachers who had been expelled a few years before ; here, too, the
officiating priest was interrupted by the psalm, " Ach Gott vom Himmel
sieh darein !" Satirical songs were sung against Johann Rode, the rector
of Our Lady's Church, charging him with having maintained that Christ
had redeemed only our forefathers, and that their posterity must seek
salvation from him. " They who should feed us, are they who mislead
us," (Die uns sollen weiden, das sind die uns verleiten,) says one of these
songs.3 In one great meeting of citizens, those who wished to remain
catholic were asked to stand aside, when only one complied.

Overpowered by such manifestations, and deprived by its financial
difficulties of all substantial power, the council was compelled step by
step to give way.

In December, 1529, it recalled the expelled preachers ; in April, 1530,
it removed the catholics from every pulpit in the city ; in the June of the
same year, it found itself compelled to give notice to the churches and
convents to discontinue their established usages. At the very same time
that Charles V. was attempting to re-establish the ancient faith in
Augsburg, it was utterly extirpated in one of the most considerable cities
of the North. This did not pass unobserved at Augsburg. The emperor
commanded the Sixty-four in the most earnest manner by a penal
mandate, " to desist from what they were about ;" and told the council,
in case this was not complied with, to apply to some of the neighbouring
princes for assistance. It may easily be imagined what effect these

1 Roller, Geschichte von Bremen, ii., p. 380, u. f.

2 The priesthood had become very numerous, especially by the institution of
vicars. In the middle of the 15 th century there were irf*Lubeck and the neigh-
bouring churches 169 vicars. They were most of them relations of those who
had founded masses for the dead. See Grautoff, Schrif ten, i. 266. The disposi-
tion of the capital lay in the hands of provisors.

3 The song in Regkmann's Chronicle, p. 133.

Chap. V.] LUBECK 671

menaces of a distant power were likely to produce in the fermenting city.
The agitation redoubled, and increased so violently that the council was
under the necessity of requesting the Sixty-four to retain their functions,
and even of approving their making a fresh addition of a hundred
citizens to their body.1 Doctor John Bugenhagen was also invited to
Liibeck to organize a new church, with a commission chosen from the
council and citizens.2 The convents were converted into schools and
hospitals ; the nuns of St. John's were suffered to remain, on condition of
their instructing children ; in all parish churches, pastors and chaplains
attached to the confession of Augsburg were appointed, under a super-
intendent, Hermannus Bonnus.

It followed of course that the Sixty-four, whose origin was of a politico-
religious nature, were not satisfied with the concessions made by the
church ; the council was obliged to promise to account to them for the
public expenditure, to make no treaty or engagement without their
consent, to allow them a joint superintendence in military affairs ; in
short, to share all their most important functions with them.3 The
council, accustomed to nearly unlimited sway, reluctantly consented.
There was, it is true, a public reconciliation between the biirgermeisters
and the president of the Sixty-four ; but solemn acts of this kind have
never served to eradicate a rooted aversion : a few weeks after, Claus
Bromse and Hermann Plonnies, the two biirgermeisters, found the
impotency to which they were reduced, and the mistrust of which they
were the objects, so intolerable, that they quitted the city. This was
at Easter, 1531. No sooner was the departure of the biirgermeisters
known among the citizens, than a storm of anger arose. The people
imputed to them, and to the whole council, an understanding with the
neighbouring princes, and expected that the city would be attacked.
First the Sixty-four, then the Hundred, and lastly all the members of
the commune were called together ; the gates were closed ; the members
of the council were arrested, either in their own houses or in the town-
house ; till at length the council, subdued, shackled, tormented, and
deprived of its chiefs, determined to give up the great seal of the city to
the Sixty-four. The commune did not go so far as to depose them ;
never would the Lutheran preachers have approved that. But, as they
sought out a document to prove that the council might consist of a greater
number of members than actually held seats in it, and immediately pro-
ceeded to appoint the number deficient ; — as they nominated two new
biirgermeisters instead of those who had left the town ; they did in fact
entirely transform the council, and impart to the victorious opinions a
preponderating influence over all its decisions. The preachers consented

1 In the answer of the citizens, in Regkmann, 139, it is said that this was pro-
posed by the council, " um vieler Ungestumheit willen, Miih' und Verdriess
zuvorzukommen," — " in order to prevent much disorder, trouble, and annoy-
ance."

2 Notices in Grautoff, ii. 159. The influence which is ascribed in that work
to a more moderate party in the council, stands however in need of further proof.

3 The articles of the commune made, agreed on, and confirmed on the 1 3 th of
October, 1530. Becker, Liib. Gesch., iii. 27, says, not all the demands of the
commune were granted ; and he then adduces only those expressly mentioned
in the journal in Kirchring and Muller, p. 166. Is it possible that the title of the
articles can be so wrong ?

672 LUNEBURG [Book VI.

to this with great reluctance ; for their idea of the exalted nature and
dignity of the civil authority extended to the city councillors ; and at
every change they earnestly warned the people from the pulpit not to
transgress against authority.1

Duke Ernest of Liineburg was extremely rejoiced, on his return from
Augsburg, to see around him how little people cared for the favour or
disfavour of the emperor ; on the contrary, how much more prosperous
was the evangelical cause in these cities now than heretofore.2 The
emperor had just admonished the city of Liineburg in a private letter,
to remain constant to the old faith ; the only result of which was,
that the city prayed the duke to leave Urbanus Rhegius, the reformer,
whom he had brought home with him from Augsburg, for a time with
them, for the purpose of organizing their church,3 which he gradually
accomplished.

So powerfully did the spirit of the reformation diffuse itself through
Lower Germany. Already it had taken possession of a portion of the
principalities ; it was triumphant in the Wendish cities ; it had pene-
trated into Westphalia, as we shall see hereafter ; it seemed about to
pervade the whole character and condition of North Germany.

But it was easy to foresee that, before this could come to pass, it would
have to encounter many a storm.

Very violent political tendencies mingled themselves with the attempt
to reform the church ; and it was a question how far the former could be
guided in the channel of established institutions, or how far they would
assume a revolutionary character.

With these were also connected changes of religious opinion, which
did not always remain within the pale of the Lutheran system, and the
future direction of which it was impossible to foresee.

We shall examine more closely these changes, which are extremely
important : there came a time when the popular mind, violently excited,
rushed into wild and pathless regions.

At present, however, these symptoms had not betrayed themselves.

At present, the only remarkable fact was, the support which protes-
tantism, in its peaceful progress, experienced from its new extension, at the
very moment when it was most violently menaced by the emperor. This
support was peculiarly advantageous to the League of Schmalkald, to
which we must now turn our attention.

1 In the Chronicle of Hermannus Bonnus it is said that there is no better
means of maintaining a stable government than to leave the choice of the council
in the hands of the authorities.

2 Ernest to Elector John, Zelle, Monday, 17th of October. " Befinde, das
wynzig Gottlob in diesen umliegenden Stadten kais. Maj. Gnaden oder Ungnaden
gescheuet ; denn sye itzunder heftiger, als vor nie, in alien Stadten predigen
und das Wort Gottes furdern." — " I find that, thank God, his imperial majesty's
favour or disfavour is very little cared for in the cities hereabout ; for they now
preach in all cities more vehemently than ever before, and promote the word of
God." (W. A.)

3 Letter above : " haben heud der Rath und die Gemeyne mir semptlich
geschrieben." — " The council and the commonalty have all written to me to-day."

Chap. V.] LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD 673

CONCLUSION OF THE LEAGUE OF SCHMALKALD.

The Magdeburgers were included in the earlier protestant associations.
In the year 1531, being urged by their archbishop to conform to the
Recess of Augsburg, they looked to the elector of Saxony as their sole
refuge, and implored him " to protect them in their adherence to the
eternal word of God." They delayed not an instant to join the league.1

Bremen, uninvited, asked the Duke of Liineburg for the first draft of
the convention ; and declared itself ready to send a representative to the
meeting, and to contribute its share of aid.2

With Lubeck, on the other hand, the duke had to open negotiations.
This was at a time when the council still retained some power ; and, as
its sympathies were quite in an opposite direction, it naturally hesitated.
But the Hundred and the Sixty-four were easily won over. On their motion,
a delegate of the city appeared at the second congress at Schmalkald,
in March, 1531. He desired first to be informed, what support the princes
could afford the city against the ejected king of Denmark, if the emperor
should attempt to restore him ; and pleaded the necessity of not exacting
too much assistance from the citizens. But even this reservation was
dropped when the great change which we have described took place in
Lubeck. Although the delegate received very unsatisfactory answers to
his questions, Lubeck immediately after acceded to the treaty. We find
these three cities mentioned in the first sealed formula of the league.

At the following meeting in June, they were joined by Gottingen and
Brunswick. Brunswick thought that it belonged sufficiently to the
league, through its connexion with the duke of Liineburg ;3 but the
allies were of opinion that they should have stronger grounds for sending
assistance to the city in case of need, if it was a direct party to the con-
vention. An envoy from the markgrave at last removed all its scruples.

Shortly after Goslar and Eimbeck followed.

So rapidly did the compact of the princes extend over both parts of
Germany. It now included seven cities of Upper, and seven of Lower
Germany.

It was impossible longer to delay giving a constitution to such a union.
We know how urgently this was demanded by events in Switzerland, and
the Oberlanders were now fully prepared for it.4

1 Magdeburg, Saturday after Estomihi, 1531. "It happened that our most
gracious lord cardinal's steward appeared on Ash Wednesday before us, the
whole council sitting, and delivered a missive from our above-mentioned gracious
Lord ; and thereupon set forth that he had a printed copy, which he would also
deliver to us ; and as he had before signified to our burgermeister and council,
that, in the said printed copy, the Recess held at Augsburg, and the order that
they should hold to the old usages, were inserted, we would not receive it."

2 Letter of Duke Ernest, Tuesday after St. Clement.

3 Letter of the city to Ernest of Liineburg, 22d March, 1531. " Since we
have settled with your princely grace concerning our natural relation as subjects,
and have included therein our separate treaties with regard to the Christian
matters undertaken in God's name."

4 Melanchthon to Camerarius, 30th December. " Scis ejus periculi partem
ad nos pertinere." A letter from Ulm (Saturday after St. Simon and St. Jude)
announces that the greatest joy prevailed at Ferdinand's court ; in the Sundgau,
Breisgau, and Alsatia, the people had been warned to hold themselves ready
for war ; in the lauds of the Abbot of Kempten they had been ordered when
attacked to take up arms instantly and assemble.

43

674 CONSTITUTION OF THE LEAGUE [Book VI.

A preliminary discussion was held in November, 1531, at Nordhausen,
and a definitive one at Frankfurt-am-Main in December.

The first question was as to the supreme command of the league.
It was an arrangement prompted as much by the nature of things as
by habit and tradition, that they should nominate a single head of the
league, who should also command them in war. Saxony wished that one
of the two Guelfs, either the Liineburger or the Grubenhagener, should be
chosen. There was a general wish to avoid the landgrave, who was
accounted too rash and too intimately connected with the Swiss.

But this was not practicable. The landgrave was far too powerful
and warlike to suffer himself to be excluded from the command of the
league ; and, since the defeat of the Swiss, nothing more was to be feared
from his leaning to their side.

But as the elector of Saxony also did not choose to be thrown into the
shade by the landgrave, it was agreed at the meeting at Nordhausen to
elect two commanders, and that these two princes should be the men.
Each of them was to bring up one half of the troops, and they were alter-
nately to conduct the affairs of the whole body ; if the war was to be
carried on in Saxony and Westphalia, the elector to have the command ;
if in Hessen and Germany, the landgrave.

But it is not to be imagined that full powers were given to these two
chiefs to act at their good pleasure : the question was discussed with
equal earnestness, how the deliberations were to be held, and the
votes divided ; and what relation these should bear to the contribu-
tions.

The first proposal on the side of the princes was to create five votes ;
two for Saxony and Hessen, two for the cities, and the remaining one for
the other princes and counts conjointly. The ordinary contingents,
reckoned at two thousand horse, and ten thousand foot, were taxed at
seventy thousand gulden a month ; of which the princes were to pay
thirty thousand, and the cities forty.

The objection to this plan is obvious at the first glance. The greater
half of the votes, and the lesser of the contributions, were allotted to the
princes. The cities did not neglect to propose a different scheme, in
which perfect equality was observed. Each party was to contribute
thirty-five thousand gulden, and each to have four votes.

How was it to be, however, if these votes were equally divided on any
question ? an inconvenience carefully avoided in all deliberative bodies.
The cities proposed to give a casting vote to the electoral prince of Saxony,
who would otherwise have no voice. But to this the landgrave would
by no means consent. He replied, that he wished his friend and brother
all the prosperity in the world ; he should be glad to see John Frederick
Roman king and emperor ; but that, in this affair, they must maintain
perfect equality, according to the original agreement.

They therefore reverted to a project very similar to the first. Nine
votes were created, of which four were divided between Saxony and
Hessen, and four among the fourteen cities ; the ninth was to be held in
common by the remaining princes and lords. The only advantage the
cities gained was, that the contributions were more equally divided. Of
these four votes, the Oberland towns had two, and the Lower Saxon the
other two ; and they took an equal share of the contributions upon them-

Chap. V.] CONSTITUTION OF THE LEAGUE 675

selves. Of the two Lower Saxon votes, Magdeburg and Bremen had the
one, Liibeck and the remaining towns the other.

In this manner were the affairs of the league arranged, as soon as it
was concluded. The constitution is merely the expression of the fact,
and of the relations of the parties ; of the former, inasmuch as those on
whose coalition all depended were now its recognised chiefs ; of the latter,
inasmuch as the legal influence on its resolutions was determined by the
relative force and the contributions of the members.

After all that has been laid before the reader, it is unnecessary to
observe, that the principle of reform, at once conservative and defensive,
such as Luther conceived it, was here most perfectly and eminently
represented ; but if I am not mistaken, it may be added, that this league,
by thus combining the two great provinces of Upper and Lower Germany,
which had hitherto always been separated, was of the highest value to
the unity of development of the German mind. There was now another
centre besides the diets ; there was a unity not imposed by the command
of the sovereign power, but arising spontaneously from the force of cir-
cumstances, and combining a political and military with an intellectual
character. Luther was the great author, who, intelligible to both parties,
found access to both, and pre-eminently contributed to the foundation
of a uniform national culture. It was a union which extended to the
uttermost boundaries of Germany on either side. Not only the neigh-
bouring Magdeburg and central Strasburg, but biirgermeisters and town
councillors from Riga sought aid and protection of the elector of Saxony,
on whom, under God, all their hopes were fixed. They came in the name
of the evangelical party in Dorpat and Reval, praying to be defended
against the attempts of their archbishop, who threatened them with the
execution of the Recess of Augsburg.1

The league had likewise a great political import. All who had any-
thing to fear from Austria, or anything to complain of in her past conduct,
rallied round it ; — the duke of Gueldres and Julich, from whom Raven-
stein had been taken ; the king of Denmark, who was in daily dread of a
fresh attack from Christian II., aided by Austria ; and lastly, an election
opposition headed by Bavaria. In February, 1531, we find the Bavarian
councillor, Weichselfelder, in Torgau ;2 in August, Leonhard Eck visited
landgrave Philip at Giessen ; in October, a congress of all the States hostile
to Ferdinand was held at Saalfeld. Here they mutually promised " by
their true words as electors, princes and counts,3 on their honour, truth
and faith, not to consent to the election, and, above all, to the adminis-
tration, of Ferdinand ; and in case they were attacked for the same, to
support each other." Some months afterwards the form of these mutual
succours was agreed on.4

It is curious to see in what light these things appeared at a distance ;

1 Letter of the Council, Wednesday before Palm Sunday, and also that of the
Syndic Lehnmiiller, the Wednesday after the 29th March, and 5 th April, 1531.
(W. A.)

2 The Bavarian councillors were expected at the second congress at Schmal-
kald, as a letter from Philip to Dr. Leonh. Eck (undated, but without doubt
of the 31st January) shows.

3 Neudecker's Urkunden, p. 60. The counts of Mansfeld are those alluded to.

4 May, 1532T Original document in Stumpf, No. 5, p. 20.

43—2

676 OPINION OF HENRY VIII. [Book VI.

how, for example, Henry VIII. expressed himself concerning them in
a conversation with the Danish ambassador, Peter Schwaben. The
emperor, Henry thought, ought to have yielded at Augsburg, on the few
points on which they could not agree, — but Campeggio probably hindered
him. " The emperor is foolish," said he ; "he understands nothing of
Latin. They should have taken me and the king of France as umpires ;
we would have summoned the most learned men in all Europe, and would
soon have decided the affair." He then proceeded to speak of the elec-
tion. " Why do not the princes," said he, " choose another king ? —
the duke of Bavaria, for example, who would be quite a fit man. They
must not allow the emperor to deceive them as he has deceived the pope."
" Sir," added he, as if alarmed at his own frankness, " nobody must
know that I have said this. I am an ally of the emperor. In fact,"
continued he after a pause, " it would be a disgrace to the emperor if he
were forced to leave Germany without putting an end to these troubles.
I see the time is come when either the emperor must make himself
renowned, or the elector of Saxony."

Thus, then, things were come to such a pass, that a sagacious neigh-
bouring sovereign could compare the elector's chance of renown and
universal consideration with those of the emperor.

We must not, however, take this for more than it is worth ; we are
well aware that the king nattered his own secret hostility to the emperor
with thoughts of this kind.

But so much is clear notwithstanding : — that the federative position
which the aged elector acquired now, at the close of his life, was a very
high and significant one.

If the aggressive tendencies of the reformation in Switzerland had
been crushed in the attempt to break down the influences opposed to it,
a similar calamity was not to be feared for the league, whose attitude
was purely defensive. Even if the emperor had taken advantage of the
Swiss reverses and begun a great war, he would not have found it so easy,
as perhaps Ferdinand thought, to suppress protestantism, and to make
himself absolute master of Germany.

Moreover, circumstances had occurred which rendered this utterly
impossible.

CHAPTER VI.

OTTOMAN INVASION. FIRST PEACE OF RELIGION.
I531* IS32.

Destiny (if we may be allowed to use the word) had for a time left the
emperor at liberty to put an end to these religious troubles in one way or
another. For two years he had been at peace.

But this period presents a singular spectacle. We behold those who
threaten war and destruction separate, and each betake himself to his own
affairs ; while, on the contrary, those who are threatened adhere with
unshaken pertinacity to their designs, and succeed in founding an effective
politico-religious coalition. The check which reform had sustained in
Switzerland was advantageous to its consolidation in Germany.

Chap. VI.] OTTOMAN INVASION 677

It always happens, and especially under circumstances like those of
Germany, that the obvious necessity for common defence is a far better
bond of union than the most elaborate plan of attack.

The emperor did not neglect to urge the electors to more vigorous
measures. Immediately after Ferdinand's election, they formed a league
for the defence of it against all attacks whatsoever. In the spring of 1531
the emperor proposed to connect with this a more extensive coalition,
for the purpose of preventing all attempts of the seceders injurious to
the true faith.1 To this, however, the electors did not accede ; they
thought that sufficient security was afforded by the rules and recesses
of the empire. We know that there were other points on which the
States of the empire did not perfectly agree with the emperor ; the
diplomatic correspondence of the time shows that demonstrations and
professions of friendship were traversed in every direction by under-
currents of secret animosity.

Moreover, every attempt to reduce the protestants was rendered
impossible by the danger which incessantly hung over Europe from the
East.

At length its most formidable foe once more arose in his might. His
recent attack on Vienna had rather irritated than intimidated him.

We have now to contemplate, not only the warlike preparations of the
Ottomans, but their effect on Germany. If even the dread of war was
favourable to the protestants, we may expect to find that its actual out-
break was much more so.

OTTOMAN INVASION.

In the year 1530, both Ferdinand and the emperor entertained the
idea of terminating the affair of Hungary by a treaty with the Sublime
Porte. As John Zapolya boasted that he paid no tribute, the court of
Vienna hoped that the Sultan might be gained over by the offer of a sum
of money ; and even flattered itself that it might be possible to recover
the whole of Hungary, as King Wladislaus had possessed it. In this
spirit were the proposals conceived which Ferdinand sent to Constanti-
nople, in May, 1530.2

In fact, he hoped nothing more from the war with the Woiwode. A
fresh attempt on Ofen had failed. The Hungarians of both parties were
evidently weary of internal discord ; they had even a project of pro-
ceeding to elect a third king, whom all might acknowledge. Ferdinand

1 Original document in the Berlin Archives under the title : " Keyser Carls
Bedenken, wie die Election eines romischen Koniges zu Colin geschehen und auf
Konig Ferdinand gericht, wider den Churfursten von Sachsen und Andre so
dieselbe gestritten, moge gehandhabt werden." — " Emperor Charles's Reflexions
how the Election of a King of the Romans which took place at Cologne, and fell
upon King Ferdinand, is to be maintained against the Elector of Saxony and
others, who have contested it." There is in Brussels an extract from the elector's
answer in the French language, in which the emperor's offer is described in the
words : Offrant derechef avec le roy son frere d'accomplir et fournir a une notable
et durable entreprise.

2 Instructions to Lamberg and Jurischitz ; Gevay, Urkunden und Acten-
stiicke, Heft i.

6>8 LETTERS FROM FERDINAND [Book VI.

therefore consented to a truce with Zapolya. His hopes were turned
towards Constantinople — hopes which were destined to be entirely-
crushed.

It was well known in Constantinople that a general enterprise against
the Turks was incessantly talked of in Germany, Italy and Spain ; that
the pope and the empire had granted money for it, and that the emperor
hoped to render his name glorious by such a campaign. But it was also
known that the money, though granted, was either not forthcoming, or
could not be applied to its destination ; that Christendom, spite of all
treaties of peace, was full of open or secret divisions ; and the threat of
uniting its forces against the Ottomans was treated with derision. " The
King of Spain," it was said, " has encircled his brow with the diadem of
the empire ; but what then ? is he better obeyed ? He is emperor, who
extends his dominions with the sword." When the envoys appeared
with the proposals above-mentioned, the grand Vizir Ibrahim changed
colour, and dissuaded them from even submitting such to the sultan ;*
for Hungary belonged not to the Janusch Krai (as he called the king-
woiwode), but to the sultan, who therefore took no tribute from that
country, but, on the contrary, gave succours to his servant and lieutenant
who governed it. The sultan had twice conquered Hungary with the
sword, with his own sweet and blood, and that of his warriors, and it
belonged to him of right. Indeed even Vienna, and all that Ferdinand
possessed in Germany, belonged to him, since he had invaded those
countries in person, and had hunted there. Charles V. threatened to
attack the Turks ; he should not need to go far, they were making ready
to advance to meet him. " I am the sultan," said the letter which
Suleiman gave to the ambassador, " the great emperor, the highest and
most excellent ; I have reduced the Greek crown to subjection, the White
and the Black Sea ; — with God's help and my own labours, after the
fashion of my father and grandfather, with my own person and my sword,
have I conquered for myself the kingdom and the king of Hungary."
He replied to the Austrian proposition with the demand, — made far
more in earnest — that Ferdinand would surrender all the fortresses which
he still possessed in a part of Hungary.2

Suleiman lived only in the thought of making Constantinople once
more the capital of the world ; he called Charles V. merely king
of Spain ; he claimed the exclusive title of emperor (which the East
called Caliph of Rum), and was determined to restore it to its full
significancy.

We see from a letter of Ferdinand's of the 17th March, 1531, what a
powerful impression the insolent answer brought by his ambassadors
made upon him. He represents to his brother how contrary it is to all
reason and honour to suffer a kingdom like Hungary, so great and noble
and fertile, and so many innocent souls, all created in the image of the
living God, to fall into the hands of the Turkish tyrant. It was also to
be considered that this would lay open all Europe to him. The sultan
would take possession on the one side of Bohemia and Moravia, on the

1 Report of the envoys and the letters of Suleiman and Ibrahim : Gevay,
Urkunden und Actenstiicke, Heft i.

2 From Suleiman's letter, Gevay, Urkunden und Actenstiicke, Heft i., p. 91.
Pity that this is rather an extract, as well as No. vii., than a translation.

Chap. VI. TO CHARLES 679

other, of Inner Austria and Istria : from Signa he would not have far to
go to the March of Ancona and Naples.1

In a succeeding letter he conjures the emperor not to defer the pre-
parations for resistance, because the advance of the Ottomans was still
doubtful. " For the danger is great," says he, " the time short, and my
force insignificant or null."2

When it was seen that the sultan's projects were serious ; that he really
contemplated, either immediately or after a short delay, marching on
the German frontier, this prospect naturally dictated the policy of the
two brothers.

It was a moment like that in the beginning of the tenth century, when
the Hungarians first possessed themselves of their settlement, and pushed
on from thence westward, plundering and laying waste by the way. The
West had indeed made enormous progress, and had far better means of
defence than it then possessed ; but the enemy was also incomparably
more powerful and more dangerous.

On considering how he was to be encountered, it became obvious that
the greatest obstacle to an efficient defence was the divided state of
Germany. " The succours of the empire," said Ferdinand in his first
letter, " will come up very slowly. You must hold it for certain, that
Luther's adherents, even if they are convinced of the necessity for their
aid and inclined to grant it, will yet withhold it, because they fear that if
the Turks are conquered, and the peace with France, England and Italy
continues, our arms will be turned against them ; they think that the
victorious soldiery will not be satisfied with the blood they have shed,
but will seek out more to slake their thirst."

We have already seen how great an influence Ferdinand's counsels had
on Charles V. They were, indeed, always well-timed and judicious,
and bear the stamp of resolution and promptitude. Ferdinand now had
no hesitation in advising his brother to come to a peaceful arrangement
with the protestants, in so far as that was possible, without prejudice to
the essential points of the catholic faith. He said that their zeal must
be allowed to consume itself, for the more water was thrown on it, the
fiercer it burned. They must be concdiated at a diet. They would
willingly grant aid against the Turks, as soon as they saw themselves
secure in all that related to " their vain superstitions."3

As early as February, 1 53 1, an attempt was made by the emperor, as
was always the case in Germany as soon as any division assumed the
appearance of danger, through the intervention of the Palatinate and
Mainz, to bring about a reconciliation ; but as the protestants demanded,
as a preliminary to all negotiations, that the proceedings of the Imperial

1 Gevay, i. 99. The same opinion appears again in the second part, but
somewhat altered.

2 27th March. Vra. Magestad si es razon ni cordura, de estar assi desaperce-
bidos y desunidos, alia defensa necesaria debaxo desta sombra de operation
dudosa, cerca de lo qual suplico a V. Md. quiera mirar y tener proveydo lo que
convenga porque el peligro es muy grande y el tiempo breve, y mi pusanza muy
poca o ninguna. (Br. A.)

3 Assentandose esto avria mas disposition y menos ympedimento para resistir
al Turco assi in los principes como en las otras personas ; a lo qual ajudaran de
mejor gana, estando assecurados dello que toca a sus vanas creencias. (Prima
27 Marzo.)

680 NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PORTE [Book VI.

Chamber should at least be stayed for a time, nothing came of it. The
emperor declared that it would be difficult for him to undo anything that
had been determined by the Estates of the Empire.1

But Ferdinand now urgently pressed for this concession. On the
27th April, he sent the emperor an opinion of the council of war on the
plan of defence against the Turks. Meanwhile, in order to avert the
danger arising from the coalitions and practices of the Lutherans, he
advised his brother no longer to resist their demands.

The emperor therefore, in convoking a diet at Ratisbon directed his
fiscal " to suspend the proceedings, which he had been authorized by
the Recess of Augsburg to set on foot in religious matters, till the ap-
proaching diet."2 This rendered negotiations at least possible, and
afforded a prospect of uniting the strength of the empire to meet any
pressing emergency.

This prospect was, however, as yet very remote.

King Ferdinand, the author of these conciliatory measures, would
sometimes have preferred to come to an agreement with the Turks, even
under the most unfavourable conditions. In the days in which the
events in Switzerland had awakened all his zeal and ambition against
the innovators, he determined to make immense concessions with regard
to Hungary. In the instructions of the 5th November, 1531, he desired
his ambassadors, whom he sent to Constantinople, to begin by refusing
to cede any part of his Hungarian dominions ; but, in case the sultan
should absolutely decline to treat on those terms, they were then to listen
to his demands. They were to try at least to keep possession of the
castles nearest to the German frontier, or to negotiate their surrender
for the sum the Woiwode had formerly offered. But if this also could
not be obtained, if the sultan should be inflexible, and insist on a free
surrender of all the castles to the Woiwode, they should have full powers
to consent even to that ; only with the reservation, that both these castles
and the whole kingdom of Hungary should revert to Ferdinand at the
death of the Woiwode. So great were the concessions Ferdinand was
prepared to make.3 For so remote a contingency as the death of
his rival, he was willing to surrender all that yet belonged to him in
Hungary. So high was the price he set upon peace with Turkey. He
wished his brother and the pope to be included in the truce. If his brother
broke it, it should be the same as if he broke it himself. And indeed
Charles V. exhorted him to leave nothing untried, in order to conclude
a treaty with the Turks.

1 Instructions how we two, Ludwig, Count Stolberg, and Wolf von Affenstein,
knight, are to treat with his Imperial Majesty : Tuesday after Estomihi (23d Feb-
ruary). Likewise : Summary note of what we have negotiated with his Imperial
Majesty. (W. A.)

2 " For excellent and sincere reasons we commend thee earnestly, that thou
wilt completely stay such proceedings on account of religion, as thou hast in
hand, in virtue of our Recess of Augsburg, between now and the next coming
diet." Copy of a letter of the Elector of Mainz, 25th July.

3 Instructio de iis quae — Leonardus Comes de Nogarolis et Josephus a Lam-
berg — apud ser""lm Turcarum imperatorem nomine nostro agere debent, Gevay,
ii. (1531). Sicubi vero de hac quoque conditione fuerit desperatum, videlicet
quod Turcus gratuitO et sine pecunia castra ilia omnia Waywodas reddi voluerit,
turn demum sic fortuna voleute fiat per eosdem oratores nostros de iis omnibus
promissio.

Chap. VI.] MARCH OF THE OTTOMANS 68 1

But these offers were already vain. Before an ambassador had reached
the Turkish frontier, news arrived of the vast warlike preparations of the
sultan by land and by sea. On the 26th April, 1532, Suleiman set out
on the campaign that was to decide the struggle with his mightiest foe,
the emperor Charles, in whose person, as far as it was possible, the power
of the West was represented.1

A Venetian chronicle has left us a description of this expedition, which
reminds us of the pomp of the earliest eastern monarchs.2 The march
was opened by one hundred and twenty pieces of artillery ; then came
eight thousand janissaries, overjoyed at being led against the Germans,
and followed by troops of camels loaded with an enormous quantity of
baggage. After them came the Spahis of the Porte, two thousand horse ;
to whom was entrusted the holy standard, the Eagle of the Prophet,
gorgeously adorned with gems and pearls, which had already waved at
the conquest of Rhodes. To this, were attached the young boys who
were exhibited as the tribute from subject Christians and were educated
at the Porte ; dressed in cloth of gold, with long locks like women, red
hats with white plumes on their heads, and lances of exquisite Damascus
workmanship in their hands. Behind them was borne the sultan's crown,
which had shortly before been brought to Constantinople by a Sanuto
from St. Canziano at Venice, at the cost of 120,000 ducats. Then
followed the immediate retinue of the sultan, — a thousand men of gigantic
stature, and of the greatest personal beauty that it was possible to find ;
some leading hounds in a leash, others holding hawks on their fist, all
armed with bows and arrows. In the midst of them rode Suleiman, in
a garment of crimson velvet embroidered with gold, a snow-white turban
decorated with precious stones, dagger and sabre at his side, and mounted
on a chestnut horse. He was followed by the four vizirs, the most
remarkable of whom was Ibrahim, who bore the title of chief counsellor
of the sultan, vicegerent of the whole empire of the same, and of all his
slaves and barons ; after them came the remaining lords of the court,
with their attendants. The whole wore an appearance of discipline
and obedience, and moved onwards without the slightest tumult or
disorder.

Such was the pomp and majesty with which the Sublime Porte rose
up and advanced to take possession of the empire of the world. From
all sides the armed bands of its subjects hastened to join its standard.
The army which crossed the frontier of Hungary in June was reckoned
at two hundred and fifty thousand men.

Such was the camp in which Ferdinand's ambassadors at length
arrived. But what negotiations were likely to have power to stem this
torrent ?

I do not find that the envoys adhered very strictly to their instructions.
They proceeded, however, so far as to promise both the sultan and the
vizir a yearly tribute for that part of Hungary which was still in
Ferdinand's hands. On the vizir this made some impression ; but the
sultan utterly rejected it. " For who would assure him," he said, " that

1 Avviso venuto di Ragusi di un nuovo esercito messo da Solimano per ritornar
una secunda volta alia citta di Vienna l'anno nuovo 1532, in der Chronica Ven.,
which Guazzo uses, but with great freedom.

2 Marchiando con gran solazzo verso Vienna.

682 ARMAMENT OF THE EMPIRE [Book VI.

while he was at peace with Ferdinand, his brother, the king of Spain,
would not attack him ? But he would seek out that monarch who, for
three years past, had boasted of achieving great things. If the king of
Spain has the courage," added he, " let him await me in the field. With
God's grace, I shall come up with him, and then let God's will decide
between us."

The ambassadors were asked how long it took to reach Ratisbon ; they
answered that, by the shortest way, a man must ride for a month. This
long march the Ottomans seemed resolved to undertake.

And in Ratisbon the States of the empire were just assembled to hold
the long-deferred diet ; on the 17 th of April, the proceedings had been
opened.

The emperor wished for an augmentation of the succours already
granted him in Augsburg. An opinion of the council of war had been
given in, according to which ninety thousand men, of whom twenty
thousand were to be light horse, were required.1 The emperor wished
to have sixty thousand from the empire, promising in that case to furnish
thirty thousand at his own expense. But it was quite contrary to all
the precedents of the empire to increase a former grant. None of the
delegates or envoys of the States were prepared for it ; and the subsidies
already voted — forty thousand foot and eight thousand horse — were
larger than any ever granted before. On the 28th of May the emperor
declared himself satisfied, and only urged that the troops might be
assembled as rapidly and in as effective a state as possible. The place
of meeting was not, as at first intended, Ratisbon, but Vienna, —
nearer to the enemy. The whole body of troops were to meet there on
the 15th of August. For the first time, the military constitution of the
empire was in real and active operation.

Even while the diet was sitting, meetings of the circles were convoked,
commanders appointed and their pay provided, and the whole armament
gradually put in train.

But the thing on which the execution of all these decrees depended
was, the result of the negotiations with the protestants.

What would be the consequence of their rejection was soon seen, when
the emperor prepared to bring his own army into the field. He was
particularly in want of fire-arms and of powder, and he was obliged to
apply to the cities of Strasburg, Augsburg, Ulm, Nuremberg, Constance
and Frankurt to come to his aid with theirs. They were all protestant.2

Even the catholic States observed to the emperor that, before making
war abroad, they must be secure of peace at home.3

1 They demanded 32,000 foot with long spears, 10,000 with short arms, 8,000
good marksmen, 500 arquebusses, and a few thousand men to serve the artillery.
This was reckoned at 118 pieces; falcons, falconets, culverines, nightingales,
carronnades, mortars, &c. — Opinion of the Council of War. The Berlin archives
contain the letters of Barfuss, concerning the first proceedings of the diet, in
which we see that the opening of it took place on the 17 th of April.

2 Fiirstenberg to Frankfurt, 7th June.

3 Denken Chf. FF. und Stande, wo der eusserlich krieg statlichen sol voln-
bracht werden, dass zuvor die hohe Notdurft erfordern wolle, anheym den

Frieden zu halten, damit ein yder wiss, wie er neben dem andern sitz, dass

auch in alien andern Artikeln vermog E. K. M. Ausschreybens daneben fur-
geschritten, gehandelt — einer mit dem andern beschlossen werde. — The electors,

Chap. VI.] NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PROTESTANTS 683

It may even be asserted that the religious dissensions of the Germans
were not among the feeblest of the motives that prompted Suleiman's
undertaking. Whenever the ambassadors in the Turkish camp said that
the emperor enjoyed the dutiful attachment of his subjects, they were
asked, whether he had made peace with Martin Luther. The ambassadors
replied, that indeed disputes sometimes arose in Christendom, but that
they did not interfere with the general welfare ; the peace in question
would soon be concluded.1

This was now to be seen. Let us turn our attention to the negotia-
tions ; momentous as is the crisis at which we are now arrived, these are
interesting and important on other and more lasting grounds.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PROTESTANTS.

When, in the summer of 1531, the negotiations were opened, the
catholics thought to resume them at the point where they had been
broken off at Augsburg.

But it was immediately evident how widely circumstances were
altered. The protestants no longer made, they received, petitions. They
declared that it no longer seemed to them advisable to attempt to bring
about a unity of religion ; they, for their part, were determined to adhere
to their Protest and Confession, and would render a further account of
them before a Christian council.

They had a corresponding answer ready for every other proposal.

They were requested no longer to deprive the clergy of " their own."
They replied that, if the bishops were allowed to retain their jurisdiction
(for that was what was chiefly meant by " their own "), it would be putting
a sword into their hands wherewith at any time to extirpate the true
doctrine.

Further, the emperor renewed the request that the exercise of the
ancient ritual, especially the communion in one kind, should be per-
mitted. Bruck, the chancellor of Saxony, replied that, in that case the
communion in both kinds must be permitted throughout the empire ;
peace could not be established so long as the liberty with regard to the
two most important sacraments was not perfectly equal throughout the
nation.

Lastly, the election was mentioned. Turk, the chancellor of Mainz,
expressed his opinion that the opposition of the protestant party was
raised only with a view to promote their religious interests. Dr. Bruck
replied, that he could assure him that his party had no fear whatever
for their religion ; it had penetrated too deeply into the hearts of the
people : every one now knew how to discern right from wrong. This
serious intention of the protestants was, that the king should either allow

princes, and states think, that if foreign war is to be carried on grandly, the first
thing necessary will be, to keep the peace at home, so that every man may know
how he sits next to his neighbour — that also in all other articles in virtue of
Y.I.M.'s summons, affairs should be proceeded with, negotiated, and one with
another concluded.

1 Report of the ambassadors, p. 31.

684 NEGOTIATIONS IN NUREMBERG [Book VI.

the thing to come to a legal settlement, or content himself with ruling
over those who had elected him.1

Such are the most important points of these negotiations, which fill
huge bundles of documents in various archives.2 The elector palatine
kept up a constant correspondence with the landgrave ; the elector of
Mainz with the elector of Saxony ; and both of them with each other,
and with the other members of the League of Schmalkald. Occasionally
imperial plenipotentiaries came to Weimar ; the elector of Mainz took
the opportunity, during his journey between Halle and Aschaffenburg,
to speak with one or other of the most influential functionaries of Saxony ;
lastly, the two chancellors met in Bitterfeld, and drew up new proposals,
which they sent to Brussels. The emperor turned pale when this affair,
to which he had such a repugnance, was brought before him again ; but
he did not refuse to hear it, asked his brother's advice, and moderated
or confirmed his propositions accordingly.

So long as there remained the faintest possibility of an accommodation
with the Turks, we need not wonder that no progress was made in these
affairs. In Schweinfurt, where the conferences were held in the beginning
of the year 1532, not the smallest advance was made; the mediators
deemed it best to let the business of the election entirely drop ; and in
Nuremberg, whither the negotiations were transferred in order to be nearer
the emperor, the mediators at first only renewed the old proposals, and
even added some limitations.3

1 Dr. Bruck's Report of what he negotiated with Dr. Turk in Bitterfeld,
Wednesday in the Christmas holidays (27th December, 1531). There was a
second meeting, on Thursday after the Purification B. V. M. (5 th February),
concerning which there is a similar report in the Weim. Arch.

2 In Weimar, Cassel, Magdeburg, Vienna. (See Bucholtz, Bd. ix., Erhard,
Ueberlieferungen, Bd. i.)

3 Endliche Mittel und Fiirschlag, worauf Kais. Mt uf d' Schweinfurtischen

Handlung empfangenen Bericht zu handeln befohlen. — " Final means and

proposal whereupon his imperial majesty, on the receipt of the negotiations at
Schweinfurt, has commanded us to treat." Monday after Boniface (10th June)
It is an error in most editions of Luther's Works (e.g., Walch, xvii., p. 2202)
that the proposals were given in at Schweinfurt. The protestants sent their
answer on the 12th June. In Art. I. they mis6ed the words, "who adopt in
future into their doctrine the confession and apologia they have already made,
which they acknowledge themselves bound by Christian duty to accept." Art. 2,
concerning the Council, they allege that the words, " that it shall determine
according to the pure word of God alone," are wanting. So it goes on, and it
is evident that they did not in the least give way. On the 18th July, on the
contrary, they prayed, " that as to outward things, not belonging to God's
word and to conscience, a general, permanent, internal peace may be treated
of, and that the same may be concluded." This turn of things was expressly
confirmed by a letter from John Frederick to the count of Nuenar, Sunday after
St. James (30 July, 1532), wherein he complains that he has been detained eight
weeks at Nuremberg, and then reports the negotiations. /His imperial majesty's
mind is kept in such a state by the two electors, that nothing advantageous could
be transacted ; and we on our parts remarked so many difficulties therein, that
we could not treat on those articles with the approbation of God or with a good
conscience. Hence we have at last entirely rejected the articles, which ought
to have been conducive to unity, since such were the terms offered ; and have
discussed how a general peace should be brought about in the empire. (Weim.
Arch.)

Chap. VI.] NEGOTIATIONS IN NUREMBERG 685

It was not till positive intelligence was received that the sultan's
progress could not be arrested, and that he was advancing in greater
force than ever, that the two parties began earnestly to endeavour to
accommodate their differences.

Not that they had the smallest idea of coming to a perfect agreement.
The protestants aspired to nothing more than to see the position they
had taken up at least provisionally recognised by the emperor. They
demanded the proclamation of a general peace, and the suspension of the
proceedings of the Imperial Chamber, by which they felt themselves
aggrieved.

But even these proved extremely difficult to obtain.

The mediators had again used the expression, " No one shall dispossess
another of his own." No wonder that this provoked the opposition of the
protestants. There was again no mention of any peace except that
between the several States ; whereas the protestants demanded that the
peace " between his imperial majesty and themselves should be also
proclaimed to all the States of the German nation."

Another obstacle to an arrangement was, the description of the
council. The protestants had demanded " a council in which questions
should be determined according to the pure word of God." This
description was pronounced to be insidious, and not catholic. But as
"a general free council, such as was determined on at the diet of Nurem-
berg," were the words substituted, the protestants had ample reason to
be content, since they had always insisted on an adherence to the resolu-
tions of that diet.

But the difficulty arising from the proceedings of the Chamber was
much greater.

The idea of attacking the protestants by process of law was far more
that of the majority than of the emperor. The tribunal itself was,
as we have seen, an institution representing the States. We remember
how much trouble it cost to set limits to the influence of the imperial
court over it. In the proceedings of that tribunal against the protestants,
resolved on at Augsburg, and already in full progress, the catholic party
beheld its most powerful weapon. And in these they obstinately per-
sisted, notwithstanding all their occasional declarations of the necessity
of a peace. In the draft of a Recess which they laid before the emperor
on the 10th July, an article declares that, in matters of religion, the
Recess of Augsburg must be adhered to generally, and especially by the
Imperial Chamber.1 The papal legate also refused to give his assent to
an inhibition of the imperial fiscal in affairs of faith.

Such were the perplexities in which the emperor was involved. In
order to resist the Turks, the tranquillity of the empire was absolutely
necessary. But the sole condition which could assure peace to the
protestants, the catholics refused him the power to grant.2

1 Letter from Planitz to Taubenheim, nth July.

2 Declaration of the emperor, sent by Planitz to Saxony, Thursday after St.
John the Baptist (27th June). " And since the above mentioned States have
seen good to abandon all further means and negotiations for peace, and adhere
to the Recess of Augsburg, his majesty requests with peculiar earnestness of
the above mentioned States, that they will consider what may be the conse-
quences to the cause of the faith."

686 CONCESSIONS OF THE PROTESTANTS [Book VI.

At length the Imperial court came to this compromise ; — in the
public proclamation, to announce only the peace, but to give the protes-
tants a private assurance of the suspension of the legal proceedings. This,
too, was not so complete as the protestants wished. They had demanded
a declaration, that the emperor would, neither through his fiscal, nor
through his chamber, nor in any other court of justice ; and also, neither
officially nor at the instigation of any other person or persons, allow
proceedings to be taken against Saxony or his kinsmen and allies. The
emperor was not to be induced to agree to so many express clauses. He
only promised, that he would stay all law proceedings instituted " by
his majesty's fiscal and others,"1 in matters of the faith against the elector
of Saxony and his associates, until the convocation of the council. This
promise did not absolutely offend the majority, and yet might be interpreted
in the sense of the protestants, and as satisfying their principal demand.

On the other hand, that party had determined on a great concession,
which is indeed implied in those words. Their original meaning had
been that the assurance given them should also avail for all those who
might join their confession in future ; they had even demanded freedom
of preaching and of the Lord's Supper according to their ritual, for the
subjects of foreign dominions. But this again it was impossible to obtain
from the emperor. The principal motive which he used to overcome the
objections of the legate, was, that he put a check to protestantism by
means of this treaty.2 The second demand was, in fact, the same which
the city cantons of Switzerland had made, — the same which had led to
war in that country, and to such disastrous consequences. Luther
himself said that it could not be complied with by their opponents ;
could it be hoped, for example, that Duke George would freely admit
the evangelical doctrine into Leipsig ? Impossible ; — they, on their
side, would not permit neighbouring princes to interfere in the internal
affairs of their country. Luther was, as we have seen, a faithful ally
of the territorial power of the princes. His conception of the empire
likewise prevented his approving such a demand. He said it was as if
they, the protestants, wanted to take advantage of the emperor ; that
is to say, to usurp an influence over the conduct of public affairs, in con-
sequence of the necessity for defence. He was rather comforted that
" the emperor, the supreme authority ordained of God, should so
graciously offer to make peace, and give such clement and liberal com-
mands for that end." " I esteem it no otherwise," says he, " than that
God held out his Hand to us." That the progress of the evangelical faith
was thus impeded, disquieted him little ; he said " everybody must
believe at his own peril ;" that is, must be sufficiently strong in his belief
to encounter whatever dangers it might subject him to.3 Elector John

i He could be brought to nothing beyond the addition of the words, " and
others." In the original draft his majesty's fiscal only was mentioned. The
negotiations remained wavering till the day of the final resolution, the Tuesday
after St. Mary Magdalene.

2 Granvella urged the " inconvenient irremediable, sans quelque traite pour (?)
infecter le reste de la chretiente, comme l'experience l'a evidemment demontre."
— Bucholtz, ix., p. 32.

V 3 Reflections of Luther and Justus Jonas. De Wette, iv. 339. In his some-
what later reflections he reminds his prince, in his relations with his neighbours,
of the principle, quod tibi non vis fieri, alteri ne feceris.

Chap. VI.] DEATH OF JOHN THE STEADFAST 687

was entirely of the same opinion ; it was in harmony with the purely
defensive attitude he had assumed from the first ; his ruling sentiment
was, the necessity for a perfect justification of all he did by his own
conscience. He did not suffer himself to be carried away by the brilliant
extension of the league, at the head of which he stood, to swerve from the
principles on which it was originally founded. He too thought, like
Luther, that they ought not to give up the present good, the greatest
on earth — peace, — for the sake of a contingent addition to their numbers.
And accordingly he did not allow any limiting clause to be inserted in
the treaty, — he bound himself by no promise for the future, — except
that those States alone should be admitted into it, who belonged to the
league, including Markgrave George and Nuremberg ; all the princes and
States in short, with whom we are already familiar, and who had been
joined by Nordhausen and Hamburg. The landgrave of Hessen, who
entertained the contrary opinion, was at first not contented, but he after-
wards acquiesced.1

It may be regarded as a peculiar favour of Providence, that the aged
elector of Saxony lived to witness these days of peace. We have seen
above how much of the merit of founding the evangelical church was
due to this simple-hearted man. He now enjoyed great consideration
in the empire. Even a member of the imperial court (Count Nuenar)
describes him as " the one father of the German land in things human
and divine."2 But his mind was too much imbued with the sentiments
of a prince of the empire, to be satisfied so long as he was at variance
with the emperor. It formed part of the fulfilment of his destiny, to
have regained the friendship of his chief ; to have lived to see the legality
of the position he had taken up with regard to the supreme power, acknow-
ledged, after it had been so strenuously denied ; and thus to have made
a most important step towards the permanence of the religious establish-
ment of which he was the founder. In August, both the public declara-
tions and the private assurances of the emperor appeared. Shortly
afterwards, when the elector had been once more taking the pleasure of
the chase, with his two daughters and the fugitive electress of Branden-
burg, and had come back in a very cheerful mood, he was struck with
sudden death by apoplexy. " He who can trust on God," says Luther,
in the epitaph he wrote for his master and friend, " abides in security and
peace."

Meanwhile, however, the emperor, pressed by necessity, determined
to make concessions to the protestants, which had neither been sug-
gested nor approved by the majority ; a line of conduct which altered
his whole position. The experiment which he had made in Augsburg —
to govern with the majority, he now relinquished ; while the majority,

1 Opinion of his theologians, Neudecker Urkk, 199.

2 William von Nuenar to John Frederick, nth June (W. A.), " Dann wir
haben leyder keynen mynschen, den wir fir ein vater des duytschen vaterlandes
in gotlichen und menschlichen Sachen achten mogen, denn allein U. F. G. Herr
Vater und XJ. F. G., wir wollen widder mit gotlicher Hiilfe um U. F. G. stan,"
&c. — " For unhappily, we have no man whom" we can reverence and respect as
a father of the German fatherland in divine and human things, save only Y. P.
Grace's father, and Y. P. G. : we will again, with the divine help, stand around
Y. P. Grace," &c.

688 RECESS OF 1532 [Book VI.

seeing that they did not find in him the support they expected, raised
such an opposition to him at the diet of Ratisbon as he had never
before experienced. The states made reproachful representations con-
cerning his entire system of government ; — the delays of business ; the
appointment of foreigners, ev.en to places in the chancery ; the arrears
of his share of the salaries of the Imperial Chamber ; his arbitrary conduct
towards Wurtemberg, Maastricht (which he was accordingly compelled
to separate from Brabant and reinstate in its ancient liberties), and
Utrecht.1 Not only did he not dare to publish the assurances above
mentioned in favour of the protestants, but he was compelled, in direct
contradiction to them, to confirm the decrees which had been passed at
the recent visitation of the Imperial Chamber, wherein the execution of
the Recess of Augsburg was enjoined afresh. Nay, the majority even
held out a sort of distant menace of the possibility of a coalition of the
two religious parties against him. On reading in the Recess of the
empire, that the States vehemently pressed for a council, we are not at
first particularly struck with the fact ; but if we weigh these words with
greater attention and mark their origin, we shall see its vast importance.
In the summer of 1531, Bavaria and Hessen had jointly determined upon
this point ; at a meeting between Landgrave Philip and Dr. Leonhard
von Eck, at Giessen, it had been determined that, if the pope deferred
the council longer, they would urge the emperor to summon one of his
own authority ; if the emperor also, from one cause or another, neglected
to convoke it, an assembly of the States should be called to discuss the
means of restoring the unity of religion and of putting a stop to crime.2
It is obvious that the opposition to the emperor was one means of uniting
two leaders of the hostile parties in this determination ; still the fact is
very extraordinary. It was, indeed, not with the emperor's good will
that he promised, in the Recess of Ratisbon, that if the general council
was not convoked by the pope within six months, and was not actually
held within a year, he would summon an assembly of the empire, to
deliberate on the evils that afflicted the German nation generally, and
on the means of removing them. He distinctly felt that this resolution
was forced upon him and might become dangerous. And, indeed, he
avoided summoning another diet for eight years, from the fear that it
should constitute itself a national assembly, and pass decrees on religious
affairs entirely at variance with his own.3

Such was now the aspect of things in Germany. Not only did the two
religious parties stand confronted in a hostile attitude, but new divisions

1 Letter from Fiirstenberg, 8th July. The emperor replied to a reproach of
this kind, that the suggestion was wholly " untimely and inconsiderate, and,
as it appeared to H. M. not made with the knowledge of all the States ; all in
biting and sharp words." Fiirstenberg finds the reproaches very just ; but he
was not pleased at them, because they were likely to irritate the emperor, who
had left his wife and child in order to attend to the business of the empire.

2 Correspondence in the Weim. Arch, extracts therefrom, and article of the
agreement of Giessen in the Appendix.

3 Declaration of the emperor to the pope, in the year 1539. Rainaldus,
xxi. 104. Rem esse periculi plenam, alia indicere comitia, perpensa maxime
sanctione ordinum imperii, — ut Pp. Clemens de convocando concilio rogaretur,
quo non convocato Caesar illud convocaret, — ac si huic muneri is deesset, ut con-
cilium nationale cogerent.

Chap. VI.] CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE TURKS 689

had broken out in their own ranks. The catholic majority was discon-
tented with the emperor ; while the landgrave of Hessen exchanged
sarcastic, nay, insulting letters with the electoral prince John Frederick
of Saxony, who now filled the place of his father.1 Hessen and Bavaria,
on the other hand, had formed a closer political connexion ; but this
could lead to no result, since the contrast between the two religious
tendencies was nowhere so strongly exhibited as in the persons of these
two princes. The emperor and Saxony had framed an accommodation ;
but it was easy to foresee what difficulties would attend its execution.

The emperor no longer appeared, as at Augsburg, in the full vigour to
be expected from his time of life. He was ill the whole summer ; a hurt
in the leg, which he got by a fall while hunting the wolf, took so dangerous
a turn, that his physicians thought his thigh must be amputated, and one
night the sacraments were administered to him. The injury was after-
wards renewed by the part he imprudently took in a procession, and
perhaps by excesses of another kind ; during the diet he repaired to the
baths of Abach in the hope of a cure, and was sometimes inaccessible
even to his brother. When the States went to announce to him that
the succours for the Turkish war were granted, they found him in his bed-
room, sitting on a wooden bench without cushions, in the plainest dress,
with a green bough in his hand with which he was brushing away the
flies ; " in his vest," says the Frankfurt ambassador, " with so lowly
an air, that the meanest servant could not bear himself so humbly."2

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE TURKS.

And this feeble and sickly emperor, — this empire torn by such deep-
rooted dissensions, — were now to sustain the attack of the mighty chief
of the Ottomans, at the head of his countless bands. How different was
his appearance ! When Ferdinand's ambassadors had audience of him,
not far from Belgrade, they were first conducted far and wide through
the camp, both of the foot and the horse soldiers, splendidly accoutred,
then through the ranks of the janissaries, who met them with a somewhat
insolent air, until they were received near the emperor's tent with
trumpets and clarions, and at length were permitted to enter and to behold
the lord of all these armies in his splendour, sitting on a golden throne ;
near him was a splendid crown, and before him, on the pillars of the
throne, two magnificent sabres in scabbards inlaid with mother of pearl,
and a richly ornamented bow and quiver. The ambassadors valued
the jewels they saw at 1,200,000 ducats. On the 20th July the Turkish
army crossed the Drave over twelve bridges of boats in the neighbourhood
of Essek. Suleiman marched through Hungary, as if it had been his
own undisputed territory. The castles which he passed sent out their
keys to meet him. He punished the magnates who had deserted Zapolya ;
his approach struck terror into the others, and many of those who had
remained true to Ferdinand, and now saw themselves abandoned, fell off
from the house of Austria.

Germany now began to make serious preparations for defence.

1 There is a whole roll of these letters copied in the W. A.

2 Fiirstenberg, Tuesday after Whitsuntide, and in other Letters. Ferdinand
to Maria, 3d April, 1532. Gevay, ii. 74.

44

690 ARMING OF THE EMPIRE [Book VI.

The first who appeared in the field, even before the negotiations had
come to an end, were the Nurembergers. They were bound to furnish only
one company ; but " for the honour of the empire and the weal of
Christendom " they had equipped two ; altogether eight hundred men,
among whom two hundred were armed with matchlocks and fifty with
arquebuses. Meanwhile, they, with some of their neighbours, recruited
a hundred reiters in Brunswick (among whom we find a Kamp, a Biirsberg)
and a Munchhausen), who were hospitably received on their arrival in
the city, furnished with beer, wine and oats, and on the 21st of August
took their way against the enemy under Sebastian von Jessen and Martin
Pfinzing. Besides this, Nuremberg gave the emperor fifteen pieces of
heavy artillery, 175 hundredweight of powder, 1,000 lances for the
infantry, 200 coats of armour for the heralds, and a large stock of flour.1
Such were the munificent contributions of a single city, and all the others
vied with Nuremberg. The imperial deputy, who. carried to Ulm the
requisition to prepare for war, had not returned to his quarters, when
he heard the sound of the drum calling the people to arms. Augsburg
instantly declared itself ready to send all its artillery to Vienna. It
appears from a letter of the Frankfurt envoy that the firmness with
which the emperor had resisted the majority, had produced a great im-
pression on the cities.2 For a moment the protestants raised the question,
whether it would not be expedient to keep together, and to fight under
a captain of their own ; but this suggestion was speedily dismissed ; it
would have involved a fresh division, and they chose rather to serve
according to the order of the circles. Meetings were held in all the circles
at which a captain was nominated, to whom each State in the circle
delivered a list of the men it intended to furnish. It was his business
to see that the complement was actually under arms, whom it admonished
to be obedient to their appointed leader. He had also the right to fill all
offices with the most capable men of the circle. The persons from whom
he was to receive his pay were determined, and were in return to enjoy
certain privileges.3 In the circle of Lower Saxony, doubtless on account of
the daily increasing religious dissensions, it was found impossible to come to
a unanimous choice of a captain ; the emperor, therefore, in virtue of the
right which in this case devolved upon him, nominated the young mark-
grave Joachim of Brandenburg. At the beginning of August the whole
empire was in a state of warlike preparation. " Daily," says cardinal
Campeggio, in a letter of the 8th, " do we see the finest companies of
horse and foot pass through Ratisbon ; they go forth in high spirits, and
doubt not of victory." The emperor, too, was full of courage. He
remarked that he could only be the gainer in this war, whether he were
the victor or the vanquished. Were he conquered, he would leave behind
him an illustrious name, and secure his entrance into paradise ; if he

1 Milliner's Annals : " all this was destined to the fortification and provision-
ing of the city of Vienna."

2 " Es erwindet furwahr nicht an Ks. Mt. und wird I. Mt. gnedig Gemiit und
Herz auch von den Stadten dermassen gespiirt, dass sie I. Mt. iriehr als ihre
gebiihrliche Hulfe senden." — " There will truly be nothing wanting to your I. M.,
and your I. Majesty's gracious mind and heart are so understood by the cities
that they send more than their proper contingent.

3 Proceedings of the meeting of the circle of the Upper Rhine, at which Philip
von Dhun was appointed. Frankfurt Records.

Chap. VI.] SIEGE OF GUNZ 691

were victorious, he would not only gain favour in the sight of God, but
perhaps extend the empire to its ancient limits, live glorious on earth,
and bequeath a great name to posterity.1 He appeared to wish nothing
more earnestly than to meet his adversary face to face.

Meanwhile a most glorious, not to say marvellous, feat of arms had
already been achieved in Hungary.

We are acquainted with the name of Nicholas Jurischitz, one of the two
ambassadors of king Ferdinand to the sultan, in 1530, 1531. At that
time, when the envoys found all negotiations fruitless, they said they
saw that Hungary was destined to be the grave of both Turks and
Christians. Jurischitz now seemed resolved to prove the truth of this
prediction. He was just about to leave the city and castle of Giinz (where
he filled the office of captain) to a lieutenant, and to join his sovereign
with a small band of ten heavy and twenty light horsemen, when the
approach of the Turks filled the town with crowds of fugitives. He
determined to remain, to afford these unhappy people at least a momen-
tary defence, and to arrest the progress of the great army for a few days.
He never entertained a hope of making any successful resistance to such
an enemy. " I had made up my mind," says he, " to certain death."
The Turks appeared in full force and began the siege in the customary
manner ; planted their cannon on the nearest heights, dug mines and
tried to enter by the breaches. Jurischitz had no other soldiers than
his thirty reiters, the rest were all inhabitants of the town, or fugitive
peasants ; they might amount to about seven hundred in all. Yet they
drove back the Turkish storming parties eleven times, and made that
dauntless resistance which nothing but the determination rather to die
than surrender, could have inspired. At length, however — as was
inevitable — all was vain. The Turks had thrown up two great heaps
of rubbish to the height of the wall ; on one of these they planted their
largest guns, which now commanded the walls, and under cover of their
fire a broad way could be made from the other to the wall. The assault
thus prepared was made on the 28th of August by janissaries and horse-
men ; and it was impossible, as may easily be imagined, to make any
resistance to such a superiority both of numbers and position. The
besieged were soon driven into their last entrenchment, where they still
maintained the fight, though with failing strength ; already the Turkish
banner floated from eight different points on the walls. Jurischitz
expected nothing but death. " I rejoice," said he, " that God's grace
hath appointed me so honourable an end." But he was reserved for a
wondrous deliverance. The defenceless fugitives — women, children and
aged men, — now beheld themselves given over to the fury of their terrible
and barbarous foe. At the moment when he was rushing upon them
they uttered a cry, in which the imploring appeal to Heaven was blended
with the shriek of despair ; that piercing cry which nature forces uncon-
sciously from the living creature when threatened with inevitable
destruction. If this can be called a prayer, never was prayer more
instantly heard. The conquering Ottomans recoiled with alarm from

1 Niccolo Tiepolo, Relatione di 1533 : II che diceva sempre, che si vedeva non
solamente pronto a questa impresa, ma quasi arder di desiderio che li venisse
occasione di sorta che potesse honestamente esponere la persona sua a tal for-
tuna.

44—2

692 ARMY OF THE EMPEROR [Book VI.

the terrific sound. The resistance they had encountered had long ap-
peared to them almost miraculous, and they now thought they saw fresh
troops issue from every house ; they imagined they beheld in the air a
knight in full harness, brandishing his sword at them with menacing
gestures. They retreated. " The Almighty God," exclaimed Jurischitz,
" has visibly saved us."1

We might liken this to the Delphic god who opposed the irruption of
the Gauls into Greece ; to the apparition which called aloud to Drusus,
in the centre of Germany, " Thus far, and no farther ;" or to other of
those sudden turns of fortune which, at the moment of their occurrence,
have impressed the minds of men with a sense of the presence of a higher
Power (under whatever form they conceived it) ; — but we will not venture
into these regions ; it is enough for us to say that dauntless valour and
complete self-devotion were crowned with their usual success.

Suleiman resolved to leave his brave enemy, who could not have held
out one hour longer, under a guard, and to march onward.

In the interval, however, the emperor had had time to collect his
forces. He himself had raised 12,000 landsknechts, who had mustered
in the neighbourhood of Augsburg. Spanish grandees had come to win
honour under the eye of their emperor, in the war against the infidels.
The duke of Ferrara had sent a hundred huomini d'armi. Other Italians
arrived, under the conduct of the young Ippolito de' Medici, nephew of
Pope Clement VII. King Ferdinand's hereditary domains had done
their best, and no means were neglected to raise money ; he had even
applied to several Netherland nobles, and to devout rich women, urging
that no one could better employ his wealth than in the defence of Chris-
tendom.2 But the militia of the empire formed the main strength of his
army. The great muster took place in the Tulner field, near Vienna.
The numbers cannot be precisely ascertained ; the most credible accounts
vary from 76,000 to 86,000 men. On one point however they are all
agreed ; — that it was the finest army that had been seen in Christendom
for centuries. It combined the qualities which had won the great
victories in Italy ; German strength and discipline, Italian activity, and
the dogged craftiness of the Spaniards. But the German ingredient was
by far the largest.

Suleiman had advanced in the expectation that the divisions which
reigned in Christendom, and especially in Germany, would tie the emperor's
hands and render a vigorous and effective resistance impossible. When
he saw before him so numerous and well-appointed an army, he had not
the courage (which he had so often vaunted) to seek them in the field.

Despatching his Akindschi, 15,000 in number, towards Austria, he
himself marched into Styria and appeared before Gratz.3 The Akindschi
were light troops, commanded by a chief, the crest of whose helmet was a
vulture — the symbol of swiftness and' rapacity. They were however
driven by one band of Germans into the hands of another, and almost

1 Letter from Jurischitz, in Gobel's Beitragen, p. 303. — Also what Jovius
heard from his own lips, lib. xxx., p. 105. Sepulveda, x. 17-23.

2 Letter from Ferdinand to Maria. Gevay, ii. 23.

3 True description of the second expedition into Austria. From an old
Nuremberg printed paper of 1539, in Gobel's Beitragen, p. 309. The writing is
taken from the correspondence of the Count Palatine.

Chap. VI.] SULEIMAN'S RETREAT 693

annihilated ; Gratz defended itself, and, in the meantime, tidings arrived
that Doria had obtained signal successes over Zai-beg in the Ionian seas.
Suleiman recognised the ascendancy of the star of his rival, and determined
to withdraw from so perilous a struggle by a rapid retreat.1

The emperor had, as we have observed, wished to give battle to the
enemy ; for a decisive victory might have restored Hungary to his
brother. But he was satisfied with this less brilliant result. " God's
grace has granted us the glory and the happiness," he writes to the pope,
" to have put the common enemy of Christendom to flight, and to have
averted the mischief which he designed to inflict on us."2 He was fully
sensible that this was not a mere momentary advantage. It was a gain for
ever, that the fear of the warlike array of the Germans, — the impression
of their superior force, had rendered the sultan averse to engage in the
struggle, and had determined him to retreat.

Doria, too, had gained brilliant advantages for the emperor. He had
driven the Ottoman squadron out of the Ionian seas, pursued them beyond
Cerigo, and taken Coron, Patras and the Dardanelles in rapid succession.
Large cannon with Arabic inscriptions were brought to Genoa, and placed
in the Doria chapel on the Molo.3

The satisfaction of king Ferdinand was far less complete than that of
his brother. He had really hoped to recover Hungary — Belgrade not
excepted, in the full tide of victory. But the troops thought they had
done enough in having repulsed the enemy from the frontiers of Germany.
The captains produced their instructions, in which no mention was made
of the conquest of Hungary. The commander-in-chief, count palatine
Frederick, refused to advance. The main cause of this' was, that
Ferdinand had lost the favour of the nation by the zeal he had evinced
for the papacy ; the people would make no conquests for him. They
wished rather to see him weaker than stronger, as soon became evident.

CHAPTER VII.

INFLUENCE OF FRANCE. RESTORATION OF WURTEMBERG.
1533—1534-

It had appeared as if Latin Christendom, united under the emperor and
the pope, were about to fall with all its weight upon the seceders from
its body, and to annihilate them.

Instead of this, however, it happened that one of its chiefs was com-
pelled, in order to ward off the attack of the powerful foes who more
immediately threatened himself and his house, to come to terms with
the protestants, and to grant them temporary immunity. The positive
concession was not the only thing they gained ; it was a no less important
advantage to them to be thus associated in the great national enterprise,
and to contribute their full share to the defence of their common
fatherland.

But meanwhile the intestine discords which we have noticed had

1 Schartlins Lebensbeschreibung, p. 3s. Hammer, iii., p. 118.

2 Sandoval, ii.

3 Jovius, lib. xxxi. Historia del Guazzo, p. 124.

694 CONDUCT OF FRANCIS I. [Book VI.

broken out afresh among those from whom the protestants had the most
to fear.

King Francis was unquestionably bound by treaties to assist the house
of Austria against the Turks ; but his pride forbade him to do this in the
manner the emperor desired. Francis offered to attack the Turks in
Egypt ; but the imperialists suspected that his real purpose was, to arm
under this pretext, and then to fall on Genoa and Naples ; and they
utterly refused his offer.1

We have observed with what vehemence he rejected the proposal for
a combined war against Switzerland.

In the matter of the council, too, his answer was evasive. He was
much more anxious for the favour of the pope, who sought to avoid, than
for the friendship of the emperor, who wished to convoke it.2

For he never for a moment thought of regarding the concessions which
he had been forced to make in Cambray (especially the renunciation of
all claim to Genoa and Milan), as definitive. He regarded these posses-
sions as his own property, of which he had no right to rob his children,
and he felt his honour wounded as often as he thought he had lost them.

An alliance with the pope seemed to him the only means for their
recovery.

From day to day new differences broke out between the pope and the
emperor.

The emperor's earnest importunity for a council was very distressing
to the court of Rome. It had been represented to him, that while he
demanded money from the pope, he deprived him of the means of raising
it ; since not a man was to be found who would advance a loan on eccle-
siastical revenues, the reduction of which was expected from the council.
Besides this, Clement VII. felt himself offended that so little respect was
shown to his recommendations ; that, in the granting of vacant benefices,
less attention was paid to the interest of his nephew Ippolito than he had
anticipated ; that Cardinal Colonna, a sworn enemy of the court of Rome,
was left at full liberty to do as he pleased in Naples. But what chiefly
inflamed the old resentment was, the emperor's decision in the affair of
Ferrara. The emperor had promised the pope, that if he saw the right
was not on the side of his holiness, he would pronounce no decision at all.
Nevertheless, he now decided in favour of Ferrara. " This," says a
confidant of the pope, " has wounded his holiness's heart." — " Would
to God," exclaims the Charge d'affaires of king Ferdinand, " that the
emperor had not pronounced that sentence !" He thought he observed
that the imperial party at court and in the sacred college had been
weakened by it.3

The king of France, on the other hand, had proposed to the pope the
most honourable alliance that had ever been conferred on a papal house.
He offered the hand of his son, Henry of Orleans, whose prospect of the

i Letter from A. de Burgo to Ferdinand. Rome, 2nd March, 1531. Bucholtz,
ix. 90.

2 Gregorio Casali au Grand Maistre, 5 Maggio, 1531, Le Grand Histoire du
Divorce, iii. 542. Questa corte fin adesso e stata in gran timore del concilio,
hora sono alquanto assicurati, si per le ultime lettere dell' imperatore, che sono
state meno furiose delle altre, si anche per quello si spera in voi altri.

3 A. de Burgo, 8th June, 1531, p. 99-

Chap. VII.] SCHEMES OF CLEMENT VII. 695

throne of France was by no means remote (and who in fact subsequently-
occupied it), to the pope's niece, Catharine de' Medici.

The value attached to this connection by the pope may be inferred
from the treaty which he concluded on the 9th of June, 1531.

The king's demands were by no means humble ; above all, the creation
of a principality for the young couple, consisting of Pisa and Leghorn,
Reggio, Modena, Rubiera, Palma, and Piacenza ; with these, Urbino,
which had for a time belonged to Catharine's father — nay, even Milan
and Genoa, were to be united. The pope was to promise his aid to re-
conquer these districts.1

The pope entered earnestly into the negotiations. In the presence of
the French ambassadors, cardinal Grammont and the duke of Albany,
he declared himself ready, as soon as the marriage should be concluded,
to cede Pisa, Leghorn, Modena, Reggio, and Rubiera, to the young
couple ; and whenever he and the king should deem it practicable and
expedient, Parma and Piacenza ; for which, however, the king was to
grant compensation to the church, to be determined by commissioners
appointed by both parties. He expressed himself very willing to con-
tribute his share to the reconquest of Urbino. Concerning Genoa and
Milan, he gave no decisive answer. But he declared that he found the
secret articles, in which this demand was contained, generally reasonable
and just, and desired their execution as soon as a good opportunity should
present itself.2

It is evident how close was the common interest thus established
between the king and the pope, in the entire reconstitution o
Italy, and how totally this interest was at variance with that of the
emperor.

It followed of course that the pope kept his engagements with France
as secret as possible.

In August, 1 53 1, he once ventured to say to the Austrian minister
plenipotentiary, that he held it to be absolutely necessary to do some-
thing for the satisfaction of the king of France ; he saw that the emperor
would never give up Genoa and Milan, but would it not be possible to
hold out hopes to that effect, without really fulfilling them ?3 But the
impression which even such a suggestion was calculated to make was
very unfavourable. At least the pope said to the French ambassador,
in allusion to it, that he saw himself under the necessity of concealing
his good intentions towards France and of begging for delay ; but that the
French needed not for one moment to doubt of his dispositions. He
several times admitted in confidence, that the emperor had pushed his
advantages too far in the last treaty, and that it were to be wished that
he would restore to the king his rightful property. In March, 1532, the
ambassador was convinced that it was the pope's sincere desire that the

1 "Articles secrets " of the marriage treaty, signed, like that, on the 24th April.
Among other demands was, " Ayde et secours audit futur epoux pour luy ayder
a recouvrer l'etat et duche de Milan et la seigneurie de Gennes, qui luy appar-
tiennent."

2 Nre St. pere ayant vu les articles secrets les a trouves et trouve tres raison-
nables. — MS. Bethune, 8541, f. 36. — I found the article and declaration in the
King's Library at Paris.

_ 3 Burgo, nth August, 101.

696 CONFERENCE IN BOLOGNA, 1532 [Book VI.

king should rule in Milan and the emperor in Naples ; then he would
believe that, placed between them, he might enjoy some power.1

At the period we are come to we no longer expect schemes like those
which all this weighing of advantages, this leaning to France, which he
sought to conceal, at length led the pope to contrive.

In May, 1532, he sent a proposal to king Ferdinand to abandon what
he possessed of Hungary to the Woiwode, and to indemnify himself for
the loss in Italy, and especially in the Venetian territory. He had utterly
forgotten the lessons which others had learned from the war of the League
of Cambray. The Woiwode, whom he (though in the secret tribunal of
conscience) had relieved from the censures which he had once pronounced
against him, in favour of the brothers of Austria, was now to ally himself
with them against Venice. The king of France was to do the same ; and,
as a recompense, was to have a part of the Milanese and a part of
Piedmont. Francesco Sforza was to be created duke of Cremona, and
to be propitiated by a territory formed out of the Milanese and Venetian
domains : — in short, a scheme exactly in the spirit of the restless policy of
his immediate predecessor. The desire to see the king of France once
more powerful in Italy had clothed itself in the most singular forms in
his mind.2

Negotiations were actually set on foot for the furtherance of this
project ; nor did it appear utterly out of the question to Ferdinand's
plenipotentiary, nor probably to Ferdinand himself ; but in the mean-
time the Ottoman invasion approached and demanded exclusive atten-
tion, and, while he was so occupied, circumstances altered.

The emperor instantly reappeared in Italy.

It may be true, as has been affirmed, that want of money led him to
dismiss his great army, and to leave his brother with an insufficient force :
another motive, however, doubtless was, that it was become extremely
urgent for him to hold personal communication with the pope. On the
5 th December he repaired to a fresh conference with him at Bologna.

The affair of the council necessarily claimed precedence of all others.
The emperor did not deceive himself as to the pope's desire to evade it.3
But he probably hoped that his presence, and fresh representations of
the state of things in Germany (especially the danger of a national
assembly), would extort some concession from the pope. The conferences
began without delay ; the pope created a congregation for them, con-
sisting of cardinals Farnese, Cesis, and Campeggio, and Aleander, arch-
bishop of Brindisi, who held consistories on the matter. The question
was, whether a council should be definitively convoked, or whether an
attempt should first be made to allay the pending quarrels between
the christian princes. For these quarrels were always alleged by the
pope as the excuse for his procrastination. In the first consistory the

1 Despesches de l'eveque d'Auxerre, ambassadeur pour le roi Francois I. pres
le Pape Clement, 1 1 Sept., 28 Oct., 4 Janv., 20 Mars. Bibl. Royale. MS. Dupuis,
nr. 260.

2 Andreas de Burgo to the CI. of Trent, 23rd May, 1532, very circumstantial ;
see letters of 29th August, and 14th September.

3 He wrote this to his brother as early as the 29th July, 1531. Plus va Ton
avant, plus Ton appercoit que le pape n'y (for the Council) a voulente et que le
roy de France lay ne veult deplaire, pensant par ce moyen le tenir gaigne.
(Brussels Arch.)

Chap. VII.] CONFERENCE IN MARSEILLES, 1533 697

cardinals declared for immediate convocation, on the ground that the
attempt to effect the reconciliation alluded to was too remote and un-
certain. But the pope deferred receiving the decision till the next
sitting ; and in this, on the 20th December, it fell out in accordance with
his wishes. The majority declared that until the reconciliation was
effected, the council could not be held, nor any common measures be
adopted against the Turks or the Lutherans.1 The displeasure of the
emperor may easily be imagined. An attempt was made to save appear-
ances ; declarations were published that the council should, at all events,
be held, and deputies were sent to Germany to make a show of preparing
for it ; but all this was, if I may use the expression, mere fencing. These
missions had no other serious purpose than that of persuading the Germans
to abandon the thought of the national council. This was the only point
on which the emperor and the pope understood each other.2

The maintenance of peace in Italy next came under discussion. The*
emperor thought he had to expect an attack of Francis I. on Genoa, and
his scheme was, to prevent this by a coalition of all the Italian states for
their mutual defence. But in this too he experienced but feeble support
from the pope. In the presence of the emperor, Clement spoke indeed
in favour of such a coalition ; but in secret he gave the Venetian am-
bassador to understand, that in what he had said there, he had merely
expressed the opinion of the emperor, not his own ; and that he might
cautiously intimate this to the republic.3 The Venetians declared that
their relation to the Ottoman prevented their joining this coalition, which
was formed solely to favour Andrea Doria. Another obstacle arose from
the misunderstanding between the pope and Ferrara. With the utmost
difficulty, Clement was brought to promise the duke security for eighteen
months.* At length the treaty was concluded, and the contributions
which each was to furnish in the event of a war, determined. But the
negotiations themselves suffice to show how little cohesive force the league
possessed. They were, indeed, rather advantageous to Francis, inasmuch
as they afforded him a fair occasion for complaining of the hostility which
the emperor betrayed in these precautions.

If the emperor had hoped to loosen the ties between the pope and the
king by a compact of this kind, he had fallen into a gross delusion.
Against so honourable a family alliance as that proposed, no objections
or representations were likely to have any effect.

1 This information is not given by Pallavicini, but it is authentic nevertheless.
I took it from a despatch of the French ambassador, the Bishop of Auxerre, date
24th December, 1532. " Sire, au premier consistoire, une partie des Cardinaux
opina, qu'il falloit pourvoir de faire ung concille tant pour obvier aux Lutheriens
que au Turc, disant que la chose seroit trop longue de vouloir a cette heure
appoincter les princes Chretiens ; fut par notre st. pere la chose remis a cor-
recture jusqu'au pronchain consistoire, qui fut vendredi dernier, auquel fut
conclu par sa St4 et a la plurality des voix que sans accorder lesd. princes Chre-
tiens ne se pouvoit faire ny concille ny pourvoir au Turc ny auxd. Lutheriens."

2 Extract from the Instructions to the nuncio, Ugo Rangoni. Pallavicini,
lib. iii., c. xiii. (V., i., p. 327).

3 " Que ce qu'il avoit diet present l'empereur, il l'avoit diet comme opinion
de l'empereur, mais non pas comme la sienne, et qu'il le fist entendre saigement
a la S"e." L'eveque d'Auxerre, 1 Janv., 1533.

4 Compare Guicciardini (at that time vice-legate at Bologna, who was called
to the conferences), lib. xx., p. 109.

698 CONFERENCE TN MARSEILLES [Book VI.

In the following autumn the pope set out in person to conduct his niece
to France. At Marseilles he had a meeting with king Francis, which was of
incomparably more importance than his recent interview with the emperor.

Unfortunately, from the nature of the case (the negotiations being all
conducted orally), we have no authentic documents concerning them.
The emperor received warning from Rome' that it was not possible but
that the pope and the king had some designs against him ;l and the
testimony both of the Florentine confidants of the pope, and of so acute
and excellent an observer as the Venetian ambassador, unanimously
goes to prove that this was the case.

Not only were French cardinals nominated at Marseilles ; a much
more important fact was, that the pope consented, at the king's request,
to recall his nuncio in Switzerland, the bishop of Veroli, who was thought
to be well affected to the emperor.2

Other circumstances soon show what had been concerted between the
two sovereigns.

The duke of Orleans, husband of the pope's niece, laid claim to Urbino
as the inheritance of his wife, and the papal nuncio in Germany did not
conceal that the pope meant to support his claim.2 He was, he said,
certainly forbidden by treaty to attempt any changes ; but it was im-
possible to call that a change, which was merely a restitution. Urbino
was a fief of the Church, and it could not be believed that the emperor
would espouse the cause of any papal vassal against the Church.3

This matter however assumed a much greater importance when the
king renewed his claims to Milan more energetically than ever. He
demanded that Sforza should be provided for by a pension, and Milan
instantly ceded to him.4.

If we bear in mind that these were the stipulations of the marriage
treaty, it will appear extremely probable that the real subject of the
conference at Marseilles was, the mode of carrying them into execution.
And indeed it could not be otherwise than most welcome to the pope to
see his niece a powerful Italian princess.

His near connexion with France freed him from any immediate fear of
the emperor. We shall see how he tied the hands of that monarch, and
indeed tried to change the whole direction of his policy, by complying
with his wishes in the English affair.

The question only remains, how he meant to bring him to give way in
Italian affairs, — whether by open force, or by indirect means.6

1 Letter in Sandoval, xx., § 20 : Que no se descuyasse, porque no era possible
se no que el papa y el rey avian tratado algun negocio contra el. The emperor
himself mentions these things, " Que l'on y voudroit practiquer au prejudice des
choses traitees entre ledit Sr Roy et nous." Papiers d'etat de Granvelle, ii., p. 73.

2 Sanchez, in Bucholtz, ix. 122.

3 Letter from the archbishop of Lunden to Granvelle, 15th February, 1534.
The nuncio had said : " Scire se, ob id bellum futurum in Italia et pontificem
auxilia daturum duci Aurelianensi contra quoscunque pro recuperatione dicti
ducatus.

* Extracts in Raumer, Briefe aus Paris, i. 262.

6 The emperor himself afterwards saw the affair in that light. After the
breaking out of the landgrave's war, he charged his ambassador to declare to
the king : Que ces moiens qu'il semble etre pour nous vouloir contraindre sont
bien loin, etc. Papiers d'etat de Granvelle, ii. 109.

Chap. VII.] INFLUENCE ON GERMANY 699

The Venetian ambassador affirms, that the pope declined the former,
but gave his assent to the latter.

The political opposition to the house of Austria (which had succeeded
in imposing its will on catholic Europe by force of arms) had been a little
allayed, but it now revived, and resumed its former projects. The scheme
of the king and the pope was, to make use of foreign hostilities to further
their own ends.

The Venetian ambassador mentions that a movement on the part of
the Ottomans had even been talked of in Marseilles, but he will not posi-
tively affirm it i1 on the other hand, he asserts without the smallest
doubt, that a general recourse to arms in Germany was under delibera-
tion. Guicciardini too maintains, that the king communicated to the
pope his design of setting the German princes in motion against the
emperor.2

I find nothing that can invalidate the credibility of these assertions,
or can, on any reasonable grounds, be set against them.

For the connexions which the king at that time maintained with the
German princes were solely of a political character.

He especially abetted the opposition to the election of King Ferdinand.
When, in May, 1532, the opposing princes formed a closer union, and
even agreed on a regular military constitution, Francis I. bound himself,
in the event of war, to pay 100,000 gulden to the dukes of Bavaria. The
boldest and most extensive plans were occasionally put forth ; for ex-
ample, the one talked of, in Februray, 1533, — an invasion of Charles's
territories by the French, simultaneously with an attack on those of
Ferdinand by Zapolya.3 The German empire was incessantly traversed
by agents of the king, the most important of whom were Gervaise Wain,
a native of Memmingen, and Guillaume du Bellay, in order to keep
the opposition alive, and to knit closer all the threads that bound it
together.

But the affairs of Wurtemberg soon became even more important than
those of the election.

The efforts to restore the Duke of Wurtemberg to the throne may be
dated from the very day of his expulsion. Innumerable negotiations
and conferences had been set on foot for that purpose ;4 but all had been

1 It is certain, nevertheless. The pope himself, who wished to call the atten-
tion of the emperor to the subject, gave him the news. L'empereur au comte
de Reux, 19 aout 1535. Pap. d'et. du C de Granvelle, ii. 341, que le roy de
France luy avoit respondu en parlant de la desfension et provision a l'encontre
dudit Turcq, que non seulement iceluy roy de France n'empescheroit sa venue
contre la dite chrestiente, mais la procureroit.

2 Relatione di Francia di M. Marino Giustiniani, 1535. Giudico, che l'intelli-
gentia coi Turchi fusse medesimamente deliberata in Marsiglia con Clemente
Pontifice, comme fu ancora quella di Germania. Guicciardini, xx. 11 1,
havendogli (al papa) communicato il re di Francia molti di suoi consigli, e
specialmente il disegno che haveva di conciliare contro Cesare alcuni di principi
di Germania, massimamente il landgravio d'Hassia. See Sandoval, lib. xx.,
§ 20. Hereupon they parted, completely satisfied with each other.

3 Stumpf, Baierns politische Geschichte, i. 94.

4 E.g., the negotiations between landgrave Philip and duke Henry of Bruns-
wick, in the year 1530, which have since been minutely discussed in the con-
troversial writings.

700 CHRISTOPHER OF WURTEMBERG [Book VI.

frustrated by the decided hostility of the Swabian league ; and at the
diet of Augsburg, Ferdinand received from his brother the investiture of
Wurtemberg in the most solemn manner.

In the year 1 532, however, an event occurred which gave a fresh cogency
to the claims of the sovereign house.

After the expulsion of Duke Ulrich, his son Christopher, then only five
years of age, was also carried out of Wurtemberg. It was reported that,
at the last house in which he slept in his own country, the boy played
with a lamb, and when he went away earnestly entreated the host to
take care of it, promising that when he came back he would reward him
for his trouble. It was long, however, before this childish dream was
fulfilled. The boy grew up in Innsbruck and Neustadt, under Ferdinand's
guardianship. He was not very well taken care of, less perhaps from
evil intention than from the general disorderly state of the affairs of the
court ; he himself tells us that his condition excited pity ; sometimes he
suffered absolute want, and once he was even in danger of being carried
off by the Turks. But early suffering is a better school for princes than
the idleness and the flattery of a court ; fortune was, in the main, his
true friend. She gave him, as a teacher, the learned and excellent Michael
Tifernus, who attached himself to his charge with entire devotion. The
history of this man is extremely characteristic of his times. When a
child, he was carried off by the Turks, whence, nobody knew ; but at
length they dropped him on the road. The poor little foundling was
taken to Duino (Tybein) near Trieste, from which town he took his name :
there he was brought up by charitable people, and afterwards sent to a
college at Vienna, where his education was completed. He carefully
watched over the safety of his docile and intelligent pupil. By degrees
the lad was introduced at court, for there was no intention of breeding
him in a manner unseemly for a prince ; and in 1 5 30, he was with the
emperor in Augsburg. Here he inevitably learned his true position in
the world ; for he became a centre of attraction to people who incessantly
reminded him of his claims to sovereign power. How then could he see
with indifference the banners of Wurtemberg and Teck in Ferdinand's
hand, at the ceremony of the investiture ? The feeling of his right grew
with his growth, and strengthened with his strength ; but he was obliged
to repress and conceal it. In this excited state of mind, he received notice
that he was to accompany the emperor, with whom he had willingly gone
to the Netherlands, through Italy and Spain. It is very probable that
he felt no inclination for this expedition ; especially when he remembered
that, immediately after the expulsion of his father, there was an idea of
sending him to Spain. Christopher was, moreover, determined not to
abandon " his rights in Germany." He said plainly that he would have
nothing to do with the journey to Spain. Accordingly, when the imperial
court crossed the Alps to Italy, after the Turkish war in 1532, he contrived
to escape with his tutor. They wandered away from the rest of the
retinue unobserved, and took the road to Salzburg. Guided by peasants
familiar with the mountain passes, they were at a great distance before
they were missed and followed. If all the circumstances related in the
1 6th century were true, their flight was accompanied with various perils ;
one of their horses fell ill, and in order to avoid being betrayed by its
body, they determined to drown it in a lake ; and while the young prince

Chap. VII.] DISSOLUTION OF THE SWABIAN LEAGUE 701

fled on the remaining horse, from his pursuers, Tifernus lay hidden in
the long rushes on its margin.1 In short, they disappeared from the
court, and it was generally believed that they had fallen victims to bands
of soldiers or peasants in the mountains.2 But they had reached a secure
asylum, probably under the protection of the dukes of Bavaria, whence
the complaints of Christopher, and his demands for the restitution of
his inheritance were suddenly proclaimed aloud to the world.3

The reappearance of a prince of the house of Wurtemberg, with legiti-
mate claims unimpaired by time ; of the ancient race and name, and
possessed of the affections of his born subjects, was of itself a very
important event. At that moment it was rendered doubly so by the
circumstance, that the dukes of Bavaria, to whom Christopher's father
had been peculiarly odious, and whose coalition with the Swabian League
had been the main instrument of his expulsion, now gave their support
to his son.

The Swabian League was indeed already on the eve of dissolution.
One motive for this was, the long-existing one, — that the princes could
not accustom themselves to submit to the council of the League, in which
prelates and cities enjoyed equal rights and equal influence with them-
selves, and an adroit member sometimes- guided the decision of the
assembly at his pleasure.4 In 1532, Hessen, Trier and the Palatinate
formed a separate coalition, in which they promised each other not to
agree to a renewal of the League.5 The cities, too, were dissatisfied ;
especially at the rigorous catholic proceedings of the league tribunal.
Ulm, Augsburg and Nuremberg united for their common protection. But
the highest discontents were caused by the affairs of Wurtemberg. In
the year 1 5 30, Wurtemberg shared all the privileges of Austria, and was
even left out of the matricula of the Imperial Chamber. It seemed that
it was to enjoy an exemption from all the burdens of the empire. And
meanwhile the expenses of the war, which the League had incurred in
the conquests of 15 19, were not yet paid.6 The emperor and the king

1 The groundwork of this story is in Gabelkofer, extracted by Sattler and
Pfister (Duke Christopher). Pfister says (p. 80) that Charles had begun to pay
attention to Christopher in Vienna, and took him with him to a meeting he had
with Hadrian VI. in Bologna. This is not true. Heyd, too (Duke Ulrich, ii. 332),
seems to me to go too far, when he concludes from an expression of Christopher's,
" that he had inquired into his affairs ever since the diet of Augsburg," that the
young prince was not there.

2 Letter from Christopher to his mother, 18th October. Heyd, ii. 339.

3 The first letter of the 17th November. Sattler, ii. 229.

4 Landgrave Philip says, in a subsequent letter (25th December, 1545) :
" Befinden, wie es im schwabischen Bund zugangen, dass Dr. Eck, so oft er
gewollt, das Mehrer hat machen konnen, es sey gleich den andern Standen
gelegen oder ungelegen gewesen, welches auch verursacht das der schwabische
Pund dariiber zerrissen worden." — " I find how it has gone on in the Swabian
league, that Dr. Eck, as often as he pleased, was able to play the leader, whether
the other States liked it or not, which has also caused the rupture of the Swabian
League."

5 Friday after St. Bernard. The agreement is in the Archives of Trier, at
Coblenz.

6 Ferdinand to Charles, 27 th April. V. Md sabe la dicha liga no quire mas
servir en esto hasta ser pagados dello que por ello les fue prometido y esto al
presente por mi parte tengolo por impossible.

702 DISSOLUTION OF THE SWABIAN LEAGUE [Book VI.

clearly saw how important it was for the possession of the country, to
be able to call out the well-appointed veteran troops of the League ; their
plenipotentiary, the bishop of Augsburg, took all possible pains, in the
year 1533, to hold it together.1 But already the result appeared very
dubious : under the existing circumstances, no one would undertake the
defence of Wiirtemberg for Ferdinand. Bavaria declared that he regarded
the cause of duke Christopher as his own.

In December, 1533, a meeting of the League was held at Augsburg, for
the definitive adjustment of the affair.

The poor, despoiled, and almost forgotten young prince now appeared
with a brilliant band of supporters ; councillors from electoral Saxony,
Brunswick, Liineburg, Hessen, Miinster, Julich, Mecklenburg, and
Prussia. Ferdinand's commissioners found themselves constrained to
treat with him, and to offer as compensation Cilli, Gorz, or Nellenburg.
The young duke, however, would no longer listen to these proposals. He
declared that the agreement upon which they were founded had never been
fulfilled, and hence was at an end.2 He conducted himself with prudence
and circumspection, taking care never to advert to the causes of his father's
expulsion. He only steadily maintained, that unheard-of injustice had
been done to his house, and to himself particularly ; seeing that not one
of the stipulations made and agreed to had been observed. He solemnly
declared, however, that, in spite of this, he should never think of revenging
on the leagued states the injuries they had inflicted on his house. This
assurance was repeated in his father's name by the Hessian envoys. The
impression made by these circumstances rendered it impossible for the
commissioners to advance a single step. When the meeting dispersed,
it was obvious to everyone that the great league on which the power of
Austria in Upper Germany mainly rested, was near its dissolution.3

A French envoy was present at this assembly. We are so fortunate
as to possess the pathetic discourse which he pronounced in favour of
Duke Christopher ;4 but the simple fact that so powerful a neighbouring
monarch espoused the cause of the young prince, produced a greater effect
than all his eloquence.

This happened at the same time that the king and the pope were
together in Marseilles. As soon as the pope left that city, the king, secure
of a good understanding with Rome, hastened to take advantage of
favouring circumstances for a decisive movement.

In January, 1534, he contracted a still closer alliance with the German
princes as to the affair of the election. He engaged, in case it should lead
to a war, to take upon himself a third part of the costs. For the present,

1 The instructions and Statement are in the Brussels Archives.

2 See Complete Refutation of the Treaties: last day of July, 1533. Hort-
leder, i., iii., vii.

3 Extract from Gabelkofer in Pfister, Duke Christopher I., 102-116 ; expressly
remarked by Baut. (Heyd, ii. 424.)

4 " The prince would be an exile ; in foreign lands men would point at him

and say, that is he who once — who now — who without any fault of his " He

did not finish the sentence, because he read, as he said, in the eyes of the assembly
that they felt his meaning. Discours de M. de Langey, in the Appendix to the
Memoires of Bellay. Coll. univ., torn, xviii., p. 336. He was, moreover, com-
missioned (p. 274), " d'essayer tous moyens possibles a faire que cette ligue de
Suabe ne se renovast, mais que de tous points elle se dissolust."

Chap. VII.] MEETING IN BAR-LE-DUC 7°3

he paid the 100,000 crowns of the sum he had promised, which were
deposited with the dukes of Bavaria.

He felt that his objects would be more immediately furthered by support-
ing the claims of Wurtemberg, upon which affair he immediately entered.

Landgrave Philip, personally attached to duke Ulrich of Wurtemberg,
and hostile on various grounds to the house of Austria, had long deter-
mined to undertake the restoration of the exiled house at the first favour-
able opportunity. This had been one principal aim of his whole policy
during many years. Circumstances now favoured his designs. He
wanted nothing but money in order to strike the blow as quickly as possible,
and without any obstructing engagements with other German princes.

The alliance between King Francis and Landgrave Philip was mainly
negotiated by Count William of Fiirstenberg, one of those partisan leaders
who attached themselves first to one side and then to another. After
serving the house of Austria in the year 1528, he had now thrown himself
into the party of France.

From Marseilles, the king proceeded to the eastern frontier of his king-
dom, under the conduct of Count Fiirstenberg.1 Landgrave Philip also
came from Cassel, and passed through Zweibrucken ; on the 18th we find
him at St. Nicholas on the Meurthe.

A meeting between him and the king immediately took place in Bar-le-
duc. All the pending questions were here discussed ; the council and the
election ; the interests of Hessen and Nassau ; and those of the Netherlands
and Gueldres. The king professed himself on every point a friend of
German independence, and, in general, of the protestant princes ;2 the
main question, however, — that on which all depended, — was the design
upon Wurtemberg. The landgrave, who had no want of troops or muni-
tions of war, demanded, in the first place, money to put them in motion.
The king, expressly bound by the treaty of Cambray not to take part
with the enemies of the emperor, among whom was the duke of Wiirtem-
berg, scrupled thus formally to agree to send subsidies for his assistance,
in open violation of that treaty. They hit upon the expedient of dis-
guising the payment of the sum of 125,000 crown dollars, which Francis
engaged to supply, under a contract for the sale of Mompelgard ; the
duke reserving to himself the right of re-emption. In a subjoined agree-
ment the king declared that he gave the duke 75,000 dollars as a present.
On the 27 th of January the treaty was concluded ;3 the landgrave set out
on his return without delay, and on the 8th of February was again in
Cassel. He now lost not a moment in making his preparations. He hesi-
tated, as may be supposed, to confide his secret to paper ; but so numerous
were the messages with which he dispatched his confidential councillors,
that sometimes he had not one of them left at home ; to the elector of
Trier and the elector Palatine he went in person.4 He also took part

1 Letter from Philip to Fiirstenberg. Munch, Fiirstenberg, ii., p. 37.

2 Letter of the landgrave to the elector, Rommel, iii., p. 54, which is remark-
able, as well for what he says, as for what he does not say. According to this,
the king only offered to negotiate between Ulrich and Ferdinand.

3 Notices hereupon in Rommel, ii., p. 298 ; it were much to be wished that
the treaty itself were printed.

4 Tellement que luy meme en personne a ete contrainct d'aller devers l'arch-
eveque de Treves et le comte Palatin. Lettre du chancelier du landgrave a Langey.
MS. Bethnue, 8816, f. 55.

704 GERMAN POLICY [Book VI.

in the compact concerning the election ; but when he sent the ratification
of it to the king, he added that he should not wait for the dukes of Bavaria ;
he was already preparing to go to work by himself.1 The king was
delighted at the prospects which were thus opened to him. On Easter
Monday, 1 5 34, he said to an agent of the Woiwode, who was with him, that
the Swabian League was dissolved ; that he had sent money to Germany,
and had many friends there, and allies already in arms ; that he, Zapolya,
would soon be able to dictate a peace.2

One danger the landgrave had to avert before he openly took arms.
The electors who had chosen Ferdinand would perhaps fear that a suc-
cessful campaign against him might, in the end, prove ruinous to them-
selves. It appeared very possible that they would be induced by this
consideration to take up the king's cause ; and indeed a diet of electors
was already fixed to be held at Gelnhausen. Unquestionably the chief
motive of Philip's journey was, to tranquillize the electors of Trier and
the Palatinate. So far, he said, from thinking of a war on account of the
election, the basis for a final accommodation of that matter would now
be laid. Bavaria promised that, if Wurtemberg was restored to the here-
ditary house, it would make no further opposition to the election ; here-
upon Brandenburg, Cologne and the Palatinate promised not to obstruct
the landgrave in his undertaking. Trier even consented to contribute
succours.3

King Ferdinand suddenly found himself in a state of complete isolation.

The emperor was at a distance, the king of France hostile, the pope
(as afterwards more clearly appeared) extremely doubtful. The old
hostility which had formed the bond of the Swabian League had expired ;
Duke Ulrich solemnly confirmed the assurances of the landgrave, that
the cities had nothing to fear from him. Neither the engagements entered
into by the electors at the king's election, nor their religious differences,
now operated in his favour. The clergy were as much his enemies as the
laity.4

For no German prince could see with approbation an ancient German
sovereign house thus despoiled of its inheritance.

The Wittenberg theologians and his own subjects warned the landgrave
that he would bring Hessen into danger ; he replied, half jestingly, " I
will not ruin you this time." He took a wider view of the state of things
than they did, and felt himself sure of his cause.

He had to contend only with Ferdinand, — nay, only with Ferdinand's
Wurtemberg forces ; and for these he felt himself fully a match.

Whilst he himself was mainly occupied in collecting a magnificent body
of cavalry — the arm in which, in the 16th century, Lower Germany sur-
passed the rest of Europe — Count William of Fiirstenberg, with the aid
of Strasburg, assembled twenty-four companies of foot on the Upper
Rhine and in Alsatia, where the best landsknechts remained all the winter,

1 Sommes deja pres de conduire le tout en effet. Cassel, 9 Mars. MS. Bethune,

2 From the interrogations of Casali and Corsini, who were arrested and
examined in Hungary, 1535. In the Brussels Archives.

3 Letter of Philip, in Stumpf, Appendix, No. 14. See another of his letters
to Dr. Eck, mentioned by Stumpf in the text, p. 153.

* Wolfgang Brandner had already represented the matter very justly to the
king, in July, 1533. Bucholtz, ix. 76.

Chap. VII.] LANDGRAVE PHILIP'S CAMPAIGN 705

waiting to be called into the field. They were from Pomerania and
Mecklenburg, Brunswick and Eichsfeld, the Westphalian bishoprics, and
the archbishopric of Cologne ; while the heart of them was formed by
Philip's own Hessian vassals, without question the militia most frequently
called out in all Germany at that time ; and now not very willing to answer
the call. The two bodies met at Pfungstadt, in the Odenwald. On
Tuesday, the 5 th May, the news arrived that the enemy had also collected
a fine army in Stuttgart, and would doubtless appear in the open field.
All were in the highest spirits, and eager for the fight. On Wednesday
the 6th, just after midnight, they broke up their quarters. The landgrave,
on horse-back, with his lance in his hand, reviewed the troops. In their
van were the waggons with munitions and stores, driven by six thousand
peasants, all men capable of bearing arms. Next came a company of
light horse, and then the artillery, followed by the great squadron of
heavy-armed reiters, under the chief standard, borne by the hereditary
grand marshal of Hessen ; after them the foot soldiers, both those brought
up by the landgrave, and the Oberlanders, to whom Duke George of
Wiirtemberg sent a very considerable reinforcement. There were about
20,000 foot and 4,000 horse ; an army which, though far from being the
largest that had been seen, even in those days, was yet, for a single prince
of the empire, and one not even belonging to the first class, numerous
beyond all expectation, excellently equipped, and perfectly provided with
all things necessary for war. Care had been taken to enlist as many
officers as possible of the evangelical faith, which was that of the majority
of the common men. It was the first army of a politico-religious oppo-
sition to the house of Austria, on the part of Germany and of Europe,
that had appeared in the field.

On the other side, the Austrian government in Wiirtemberg had been
arming. Convents of monks and nuns, cathedral and rural chapters
had raised contributions, and the cities had paid a war-tax.1 The old
commanders of the Italian campaigns, Curt of Bemmelberg, Caspar
Frundsberg, Marx of Eberstein, and Thamis,2 surnamed Hemstede, had
collected bands of landsknechts : we meet again the well-known names
of the adversaries of Hessen in Sickingen's wars, — Hilch von Lorch,
Sickingen's sons, and Dietrich Spat. The king himself did not appear ;
his place was filled by Philip of the Palatinate, lieutenant of Wiirtemberg, — ■
the same, who had distinguished himself at the defence of Vienna.
Although the troops were not equal to those of the landgrave in number
(they might amount to about 10,000 men, including a considerable number
of Bohemians), they had courage enough to wait for him on his way, in
the open field at Laufen on the Neckar. They did not even take the
trouble to obstruct his passage over the river.

The first engagement took place on the 12th of May. The king's troops
sustained the assault tolerably well. Not only, however, was the Count
Palatine, their leader, wounded, but the landgrave's superiority became
so manifest that they saw they had no chance of making any successful
resistance. In the night Dietrich Spat set out to bring up more cavalry.
Early in the morning of the following day the army itself sought to take
up a more secure position.

1 Spanish report.

2 This is doubtless the Von Thonis in the song in Heyd, Battle of Laufen, p. 88.

45

706 BATTLE OF LAV FEN [Book VI.

But it was not likely that the fiery landgrave would suffer them to
accomplish this. In an instant he was in motion. He would listen to
no objections ; he saw well what an advantage it would be for him, with
his superior cavalry and his good artillery, to fall upon the enemy when
dislodged from his position. It was by such a movement that the bands
of armed peasants had formerly been routed. The Austrian army had,
indeed, experienced landsknechts and brave officers ; but the want of
horses brought them into the same perilous situation as that which had
proved fatal to the peasants. By a charge of cavalry on their flank,
landgrave Philip detained the enemy in a vineyard till his artillery could
come up. He then hastened back to bring up the infantry for a decisive
attack. But before they could come up, the cavalry and artillery had
already combined their efforts with such effect, that the enemy fell into
complete disorder, and retreated across the Bidembach. The few reiters
that remained escaped to the Asperg ; the foot soldiers were dispersed,
and many perished in the Neckar.1 The landgrave himself was astonished
that leaders of such reputation had made so little resistance.

A field of battle is, in general, the place on which the collective forces
of two opposite states of moral culture come into collision, and try their
respective strength. Landgrave Philip had the most fortunate com-
bination of European circumstances, the secret or declared good wishes
of all Germany, and a host of religious sympathies, on his side. Fer-
dinand had only himself to trust to ; he defended a dubious right and
unpopular ideas, and he had proved the weaker in the land he possessed.

But this battle is also deserving of all attention on account of its con-
sequences. It decided the fate of one of the most important German
principalities. The country fell at once into the power of the conquerors.
Duke Ulrich reappeared after his long absence ; the citizens, after rati-
fying the treaty of Tubingen, did homage to him for his capital city of
Stuttgart, in a meadow on the road to Canstadt ; the other towns and
villages followed their example. Nor did the castles hold out for Fer-
dinand. Either their commanders were in their hearts inclined to the
returning princes of the land ; or they feared for their estates, which had
already fallen into the hands of the conquerors ; or they yielded to force.
Even the Asperg surrendered on the 8th of June.

Thus was Wurtemberg once more in the hands of a Wurtemberg sove-
reign. Duke Ulrich's enemies had given him, in derision, the nickname of

i Neue zeitung von des Landgrafen zu Hessen Kriegshandlung, bei Hortleder,
I. vol. iii., c. 12, is neither graphic nor correct, especially as to time. Philip's
letter to his councillors (Rommel, ii. 319) gives the best account. The other
reports, however, are still more useless than the Neue Zeitung. Jovius makes
out that the count Palatine was wounded on the day of battle ; probably merely
for the sake of effect (lib. xxxii., p. 128). Nicolaus Asclepius Barbatus insists
upon the circumstance that the landgrave attacked, " ea manu quae hostium
numero vix responderet." It is clear that he could not attack with all his
troops at once ; but he had a most decided advantage in point of numbers.
Tehtinger gives a kind of general description of " equitum fremitus, armorum
crepitus strepitusque," of no value whatever. Von Heyd's careful m'onograph,
Die Schlacht von Laufen, Stuttgart, 1834, contains a fragment of another letter
by Philip, coinciding with the first, and a very good passage from Gabelkofer
(Beil. iii. v.), which confirm the statement made above, — besides some new
landsknecht songs, very interesting and valuable.

Chap. VII.] CONDUCT OF THE POPE 707

broom-maker ; the other side now retorted the jest, and said that he was
come to sweep all the spiders' webs from out the land. The people were
delighted to see once more the Huntinghorn,1 after which they had so long
yearned ; and proclaimed in their songs the happiness of the country that
had recovered its native prince. Politically, it was of great moment that
a prince, who might be regarded as the most complete representative of
the opposition to Austria, was now called to play a part in the centre of
Upper Germany. His well-known sentiments left no doubt from the
first, as to what his conduct would be in religious affairs.

The behaviour of Pope Clement VII. on this occasion was very remark-
able. The ambassador of King Ferdinand implored his assistance in this
imminent danger ; which, he said, might also become extremely formid-
able to the Church and to Italy. The pope brought the matter before
the next consistory ; he repeated the ambassador's words, and even
heightened his expressions ; but as to the assistance to be rendered to the
king, he did not so much as make a suggestion. Hereupon a letter arrived
from Ferdinand himself to the pope, and the affair was again brought
before the consistory. But the pope chose this moment to revive the
emperor's demands with regard to a council, which were so intensely
odious to the Curia ; the consequence was, that, though the subsidies
already granted to the emperor and the king were paid, the proposal for
further aid was sent back for the consideration of a congregation. The
pope said, the king lay ill of a disease which no slight tinctures or syrups
could cure, — nothing less than a violent medicine. Accordingly, the con-
gregation decided that, as it could not grant the king a large subsidy, it
was better to grant him none. To the great vexation of the ambassador,
the news had arrived, that the landgrave on his entry into Wurtemberg
had attempted no hostile measure against the churches ; whereupon the
pope declared that the war was a private one, in which he would not
interfere ; if the enemy should attack the Church, it would then be time
enough for him to think of subsidies. The ambassador remarked, with
all the vivacity consistent with his respect for the pope, how important
the affair was ; how dear it might cost the Holy See, nay, the city of Rome
and all Italy. But the pope too was excited and almost angry ; he asked,
where then was the emperor ? and why he had not provided against these
disasters ? he (the pope) had long ago called his attention to the conduct
that was to be expected from the landgrave.2 In short, the pope was not

1 A badge of the house of Wurtemberg. — Transl.

2 Bericht des konigl. Gesandten Sanchez an Ferdinand, 15 Juni, 1534.
(July is probably an error of the copyist.) Bucholtz, ix. 247. All that surprises
me is, that Bucholtz fancies himself to have disproved the assumption I have
here made, that the pope was informed beforehand of the landgrave's intention
to take up arms. He has underlined all the civil speeches which the pope made
to the nuncio, in order to keep him quiet ; as if any weight was to be attached
to such things, and the historian were not to judge from actions. But Sanchez
was by no means so devout a believer in the pope as our Bucholtz. He acquaints
his master with the course which things are taking, " ut melius Ms Vra istorum
mentes et cogitationes intelligat, quibus technis parent isti rem longius differre."
He suspects : " suborta mihi fuit suspectio, S,em S. non satis efficaci fervore
procedere ;" he is indignant at the excuses that are made : " dolore et indig-
natione assensus replicui, cum tamen reverentia debita ;" and ends by convincing
himself that nothing will be done : " opinor papam da turum nobis bona verba."

45—2

708 DESIGNS OF FRANCE [Book VI

to be moved to take any part in the affair — not the slightest. He would
wait till he heard of the ruin of the Church before he would do anything
to prevent it ; at present, he regarded the matter merely from a political
point of view. The German princes — as, for example, Duke George of
Saxony — reproached the pope with being in an understanding with the
king, to keep Germany in a state of confusion, in order not to be forced
to convoke a council.1

Such a state of things seemed to open the most brilliant prospects to
the king of France.

On the 1 8th of June, the victors had reached Taugendorf, on the Austrian
frontier. " My friends," said Francis," have conquered Wurtemberg —
only onwards ! more !" Meanwhile Barbarossa too had appeared at sea,
plundered the Neapolitan coast far and wide, and then fallen upon Tunis,
which he captured. He assumed a most threatening attitude towards
Spain, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter. Francis I. thought
that the emperor, oppressed by the various dangers which menaced his
house, would yield to his demands. He demanded Genoa, Montferrat,
and a part of Milan, immediately.2 The schemes with regard to Urbino
began to be agitated. t

In Germany a flame seemed to be kindled which would not easily be
quenched.

As soon as the emperor received the news of his brother's defeat, he
despatched a messenger with a considerable sum of money, with which
to bring an army into the field to chastise the landgrave.3 Nothing could
better have suited the views of his enemies.

But in Germany, people were not inclined to allow things to go to such
lengths, either on the one side or the other.

The aggressors did not feel themselves strong enough to carry on a
protracted war, and least of all would they fight for a foreign interest.

If Francis I. had intended to turn the animosities of the Germans to
his own account, they, on their part, had designed to use the French for
the attainment of their own ends : that was all.

It was certainly agreed in the treaty concerning the affairs of the

If I may venture to offer another conjecture with respect to this affair, I would
suggest that King Francis I. had really promised the pope that the landgrave's
enterprise should have no consequences which might affect the Church ; a con-
dition always made by the kings of France, when they supported the protestants
during the Thirty Years' War.

That such a promise could not have been kept, especially in times of such
vehement zeal, is' obvious.

1 L'empereur au comte de Nassau, 29th Aout : Papiers d'etat du O Granvelle,
ii. 171 : Se sont indignez les electeurs, princes et autres ... a 1' occasion de la
responce faite par le due Georges de Saxen au nunce du pape la ou il le touche
(le roi) grandement avec le dit st. pere de non chercher autre chose que d'entretenir
la dite Germanye en trouble et s'entendre avec le dit st. pere pour empescher le
concille.

2 This appears from the Instructions of the emperor to the count of Nassau,
12th August, 1534, from which Von Raumer has given extracts in his Briefe
aus Paris, i. 262. Since then printed in the Pap. d'etat du C Granvelle, ii. 15.

3 We have a minute report on this subject by the bishop of Lund en, who went
from one Rhenish court to another, in order to negotiate the matter ; 1st August,
1534. Br. Archives.

Chap. VII.] PEACE OF CAD AN 7°9

election, that neither party should conclude a peace without the other ;
but, as Philip of Hessen observed, the war in question had not then broken
out.1 He had taken care to prevent this before he took up arms. The
dukes of Bavaria had remained quiet ; the French deposit lay unemployed
in their coffers.

The whole question was, whether king Ferdinand could resolve to give
up Wurtemberg.

He, too, was placed in a very doubtful position. Should he, in order
to recover what he had lost, imperil all that he possessed by a better and
more unquestionable right ? He was told that if he was not ready for
battle in a few days, all would be lost. His councillors Rogendorf,
Hofmann, and the bishop of Trent, joined in the opinion that he had
better determine to give up Wurtemberg.

A meeting of German princes was already opened at Annaberg, on
this and other business.

In" order to take part personally in the proceedings, King Ferdinand
repaired to Cadan, a little place in the neighbourhood, between Annaberg
and Saatz.

He did not, indeed, consent to renounce Wurtemberg, absolutely and
for ever ; for, he said, he had been most solemnly invested with the fief
in the presence of the assembled diet — his brother had grasped the banner
with his own hand ; he could not, and would not, suffer himself to be
despoiled of his right. But he consented that Duke Ulrich should take
possession of Wurtemberg as a sub-fief of Austria, though with seat and
voice in the empire.2 With this, Landgrave Philip, and at length Duke
Ulrich himself, was satisfied.

In return, the elector of Saxony now declared himself ready to acknow-
ledge Ferdinand as king of the Romans. He did not confess that he had
been in the wrong ; on the contrary, he demanded that a clause should
be annexed to the Golden Bull, laying down such directions for future
cases, as might amount to a sanction of his condtfct in the present case.3
But this reservation did not prevent him from going to Cadan on the
27th of June, nor from paying to his former adversary all the honour
due to a king of the Romans. His adherents, too, to whom his opposition
alone had given a legitimate ground for refusing allegiance to Ferdinand,
could now no longer withhold it. By degrees all acquiesced.

The ambassador of Charles had just commenced his negotiations on the

1 " Alldiweil man der wale sachen halben nicht krieget." — " All this while
there is no war on account of the election business." Philip's instructions to
his envoys to the king, Rommel, iii. 65

2 Letter of George von Carlowitz, in Sattler, iii., Urk, p. 104.

3 " Das kunftiglich, wann bei leben ains Rom. Kaisers Oder konigs, ain Rom.
Konig soil erwelt, alle Churfiirsten zuvor samen beschaiden werden, davon zu
reden, ob ursachen genugsam vorhanden und dem Reich furderlich fey ainen
Rom. Konig — zu erwehlen, und wann sie sich da verainigt, das alsdann und
nicht eher der Churfurst zur koniglichen wahl erfordert werde." — "That in future,
when in the lifetime of a Roman emperor or king, a king of the Romans is to be
elected, all electors should be convoked beforehand to consult about it, whether
there be causes sufficient, and whether it be profitable to the empire to elect a
Roman king ; and when they are there assembled, that then, and not before,
each elector should be called upon to elect a king." Mainzisch-sachsisches
Bedenken, ibid., 101.

710 ORGANIZATION OF THE [Book VI.

Rhine against the landgrave, when this intelligence arrived and caused
him to suspend them.

Whilst king Francis was daily hoping to hear of further hostilities in
Germany, peace was already concluded. From this quarter, at least, he
could expect nothing more, calculated to forward his Italian schemes.

On the contrary, it was evident that the landgrave's enterprise, though
its success was to be entirely attributed to a concurrence of European
circumstances, would nevertheless produce no effect on political relations
in general ; its results were bounded by the frontiers of Germany ; and
there they were by no means exclusively political, as had been anticipated,
but were also of the greatest importance to religion. Some other stipu-
lations were made at Cadan, which eventually contributed greatly to the
permanence and stability of protestantism. But they belong to another
cycle of events, which we shall contemplate hereafter.

CHAPTER VIII.

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION DURING THE YEARS I532-I534.

It is evident that an event like the peace of Nuremberg must inevitably
contribute, in a very high degree, to confirm and develop the principle
of the reformation, in those countries where it had been established in
consequence of the Recess of 1526.

The protestants had not suffered the episcopal jurisdictions to be re-
imposed upon them ; they thought themselves guaranteed, by the
emperor's promise, from further proceedings on the part of the Imperial
Chamber ; and at the same time from the immediate hostilities of the
majority of the States of the Empire.

Hereupon the Saxon diet, assembled at Weimar towards the end of
1532, no longer hesitated to ordain the resumption of the visitation of the
churches, which had naturally been interrupted at a time when every-
thing was in suspense.1

The mass, which in some places had been adhered to, was now entirely
prohibited : the few convents that still existed were ordered to adopt the
evangelical doctrine, and were forbidden to receive novices. A universal
sequestration of conventual lands was organized, with the co-operation
of the States. Their design was to apply the proceeds to some of the
most pressing wants of the country, especially to pay off the public debt ;
for which they had likewise just granted a tax. But as they expressed
themselves very humbly on this subject, and even held out a prospect
of re-payment, if necessary,2 the elector insisted with the greater earnest-
ness on the necessity of keeping in view the original purpose of the
endowments. The first care was for the parish churches. The idea had
originally been, that the parish churches might be provided for out of
the small foundations, confraternities, endowments for masses for souls,

1 Extracts from the Reports of Visitations, Seckendorf, iii. § 25, Add. iii.
The Instructions is dated 19th December, 1532.

2 " Zu einer Furstreckung und Mithiilfe, jedoch dergestalt dass solchs der
Notturft und Gelegenheit nach wieder erganzt worde." — " For a loan and aid,
but in such wise that the same be restored according to need and occasion."
Transactions of the diet at Jena, Erhardi, 1533.

Chap. VIII.] EVANGELICAL CHURCH 7"

and, where these were insufficient, new rates, levied upon the communes.
But this proved wholly impracticable. The communes — burghers and
peasants, as well as nobles — were vainly reminded how much their masses
and indulgences had heretofore cost them ; they answered, that times
were altered. It was therefore necessary to apply to the parishes a large
portion of the conventual property ; which, at first, while many monks
were still to be maintained, and an expensive administration to be kept
on foot out of it, yielded no very large revenue.1 It is scarcely credible
in what a state they were found. But at length the end was accom-
plished. " With great care, trouble, and labour," says Myconius, himself
one of the Visitors, " we brought it to pass that every parish should
have its teacher and its allotted income ; every town its schools, and all
that belongs to a church."2 The visitation now extended to the domains
of the princes of Reuss and Schwarzburg. The clergy there showed less
refractoriness than ignorance and immorality ; it was impossible to retain
them, however willing they were to remain ; they were almost all re-
placed by disciples of the Wittenberg school. This metropolis of pro-
testantism was now rather better provided for.3 The old order of things
was utterly overthrown, and Wittenberg stood at the head of the new
church. From her had emanated the doctrines which had already
begun to be rendered imperative on the preachers ;4 and ordination was
conferred by the spiritual members of her university.

This system was also adopted almost unchanged in Hessen, where the
original sketch of a constitution of the church, founded on the idea of
the commune, as conceived by Zwingli, had long been abandoned.
Visitations were held ; the parishes were put upon a better footing, as
the landgrave boasted, than they had ever been ; superintendents were
appointed, and divine service was conducted after the manner of
Wittenberg. The chief difference was, that the church in Hessen was
far richer than in electoral Thuringia and Saxony, which rendered it
practicable to make some large endowments. In the year 1532, the
convents of Wetter and Kaufungen, with revenues which had been

1 As an example we will cite the parish of Umpferstedt. The decree of the

visitors was as follows : " Als wir befunden das die pfarhe zu Umpferstedt

und Wigendorf zur unterhaltung eines pfarhers vast zu wenig hett, so haben wir
verordnet, nachdem das Dorf Umpferstedt dem Closter Oberweymar an alle
myttel und eygenthumlich zugethan seyn soil, das einem iden pfarrer zu Umpfer-
stedt von gedachtes Closters zu Oberweymar Gutern zugelegt und gegeben
werden soil eines yeden Jahres ein Acker Holz samt dem Closterholz zu Drostet,
ein Acker oder anderthalb ungefahrlich Wisewachs zu Neuendorf und ein halb
weimarisch malter korns von Adam Rosten zu Wiemar, von beiden Dorfern
die Decimation." — " Seeing that we — have found that the parish of Umpfer-
stedt and Wigendorf hath much too little for the support of a priest, we do hereby
order and direct that, seeing the village of Umpferstedt is claimed as pertaining
and subject to the convent of Oberweymar, every priest at Umpferstedt shall
duly receive from the property of the said convent of Oberweymar each year
one acre of wood, over and above the convent wood at Drostet, an acre or
an acre and a half, more or less, of forage from Neuendorf, and half a Weimar
measure of grain from Adam Rosten at Weimar, besides tithes from both villages."

2 Lommatzsch, Narratio de Myconio, p. 55.

3 Its whole revenue amounted to 281 1 g. 11 grs. ; to this 1900 g. more were
added. Hitherto Luther's salary had been 200 g. : it was now increased to 300 g.

4 Knapp, Narratio de Iusto Iona, p. 17.

712 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH [Book VI

estimated as equal to a small count's fee, were consecrated to the portion-
ing of noble young ladies in marriage. In the year 1533, the houses of
Haina and Merxhausen, and, shortly after, those of Hofheim and Gronau,
were converted into national hospitals. Ten monasteries in the upper
and lower principalities were gradually incorporated into the university
of Marburg, and a part of the revenue of five others devoted to the same
purpose. A theological seminary was established, supported by con-
tributions from the sovereign and all the (Biirgerschaften) town corpora-
tions of the country.1

In Luneburg the jurisdictions of Bremen, Veirden, Magdeburg and
Hildesheim had already been separated. They were now entirely
abolished, and the supreme superintendence over all these districts was
confided to Urbanus Rhegius. He deemed it his duty to remain in this
laborious and not very secure post, although he was invited to return to
the Oberland, of which he was a native. His sovereign, Duke Ernest,
was his zealous supporter. We frequently see him accompanied by his
chancellor and one of the preachers, visiting the monasteries in person
and recommending the cause of reform ; and, indeed, most of the monks,
as well as the prioresses with their nuns, went over to the evangelical
faith. Sometimes the priors or canons had a common interest with the
duke ; for example, in Bardewik, which the archbishop of Bremen wanted
to incorporate with Verden. Gradually the Saxon forms predominated
here as in Hessen. An annual church visitation was held.3

In Franconian Brandenburg, too, the monasteries were successively
put under the civil administration. There were still monks in many
places, but some of them had taken wives — even here and there an abbot.3
But no fresh elections of abbots or abbesses were allowed : in some cases
we find administratrixes, as, for example, Dorothea of Hirschhard, in the
chapter for noble maidens at Birkenfeld. An order of chancery was
drawn up, according to which the surplus of the revenues of monasteries
was to be thrown into a common fund, and reserved for any cases of need
occurring to the state generally. All the proceeds of other foundations
and benefices that might become vacant were to be applied to the main-
tenance of parish churches and schools. In the year 1533, an ecclesi-
astical ordinance was drawn up, in concert with Nuremberg, for the govern-
ance of churches and convents.4

All, as we perceive, was yet in its infancy, and nearly formless ; a
regular and stable ecclesiastical constitution was as yet out of the question.
Thus much only is evident, — that the secular authorities generally ob-
tained great advantages over the spiritual.

A portion of the ecclesiastical revenues fell into the hands, either of the
sovereign, or of the nobility, or of the community at large. In all the
reformed countries a clergy, indebted for its position and importance to
the zeal and efforts of the civil power, was substituted for one whose
rights were exclusively derived from episcopal ordination.

We find a proof how little the laity were inclined to submit to any

1 Extracts from the Reports. Rommel, i., p. 191 and note.

2 Schreiben des Urbanus Rhegius an die Augspurger 14 Juli, 1535, bei Walch
xvii. 2507 ; see Schlegel, ii. 51, 95, 211.

3 Report by Cornelius Ettenius, p. 498.
* Lang, ii. 42.

Chap. VIII.] TRIUMPH OF THE SECULAR PRINCIPLE 713

domination on the part of the new clergy, in the ecclesiastical ordinance of
Nuremberg and Brandenburg just alluded to.

The clergy of those districts wished for the reintroduction of the power
of excommunication, for which those of Nuremberg formally petitioned ;
those of Brandenburg were at least not opposed to it, and indeed in their
report they adduced arguments in favour of that institution. But they
could not prevail. The laity would not submit to this despotism, and,
in the publication of the ordinance, the paragraph treating of it was
expunged.1

Wittenberg itself was opposed to it. Luther said,2 that public sentence
of excommunication ought to be preceded by previous inquiry, and fol-
lowed by a universal avoidance of the excommunicated : now the former
could not easily be conducted ; the latter would cause great confusion,
especially in large towns. He clearly saw that it was not the province
of religion to maintain public order by any coercive measures whatsoever,
which properly belong to the state alone. The church of Wittenberg
contented itself with refusing the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to
notorious sinners, without attempting to interfere with the civil relations
of society. The preachers condemned, vice in the pulpit, and admonished
the authorities not to tolerate it.

Nor did the spiritual power achieve any greater conquests elsewhere.
In the year 1533 a provincial synod was established in Strasburg, which
included various secular elements, together with the spiritual ; a com-
mission of the council (which, indeed, had precedence), the wardens of the
city churches, the doctors and teachers of the liberal arts. In the articles
which it adopted, the office of preventing blasphemy and open scandal
was specially committed to the civil authorities,3 whereas the council
never would consent to the introduction of church discipline, properly
so called. In affairs of faith, they said, nothing was to be effected by
commands ; as they could not possibly be enforced, the publication of
them could only be attended with loss of consideration. The blameless
life and conversation of the clergy (each of whom was to be seriously
admonished in private), the good example of the higher classes, and ex-
hortations to the lower by the masters of the guilds, appeared to them
the only practicable means to the attainment of the object.4

The church was regarded as an institution for the propagation of
religion — not so much outward as inward. Everything approaching to
papacy was avoided. To free themselves from the coercive power of the
spiritual body — the exercise of which was most oppressive, while its
relaxation was destructive to morality — was the chief aim of the whole
movement. And if the people would no longer endure the influence
and the spiritual tyranny of the prelates, neither were they disposed to
confer analogous powers on the inferior clergy who had abandoned the

1 Considerations of the Clergy of the Margravate concerning Church Discipline.
Strobel, Miscellaneen, ii., p. 148. Even so recently as in 1741, the worthy Haus-
mann did not venture to tell what he knew of this matter. Hausmann in Spengler,
pp. 55, 297.

2 Bedenken bei, D. W. iv., p. 389.

3 The sixteen articles of the synod of 1533- Rohrich, ii. 263, and especially
Art. 15.

4 Declaration of the council of 1534, id., p. 41.

7H DISPUTES WITH THE [Book VI.

hierarchical system. The demand for a more rigid church discipline
was immediately met by the conviction, that the christian principle ought
to act upon the will by penetrating the heart ; not to subdue the former
by force, nor to alienate the latter by coercion.

While, however, the reformers were busied with these arrangements
and considerations, and thought themselves perfectly secured by the
concessions of Nuremberg, it proved that this was not entirely the case : the
higher clergy of the catholic church were far too powerfully represented
in the constitution of the empire, and too expressly supported by the laws
of the empire, so easily to abandon their cause.

The emperor, indeed, issued an injunction to the Imperial Chamber from
Mantua (6th November, 1532), to stop all hostile proceedings concerning
religious matters till his further commands.1

A great number of prosecutions of that kind were already begun. Accu-
sations were laid by the higher clergy against Strasburg, Constance,
Reutlingen, Magdeburg, Bremen and Nuremberg, as well as against some
sovereign princes ; among whom were Ernest of Luneburg and George
of Brandenburg. Most of the confiscated property was reclaimed ; and
occasionally the interest due to a chapter, or an endowment in a town
was withheld ; or an attempt was made to remove married priests ; or
to place zealous catholic priests in a protestant city, against the will of
its inhabitants.

The protestants thought they were permanently protected by the
emperor's injunction. The Imperial Chamber, however, was not of that
opinion.

The Chamber was bound to the observance of the Recess of Augsburg ;
it well knew that the majority had committed the war against protes-
tantism to its hands ; and no man, or body of men, will ever willingly
surrender functions which confer power. On the other side, could it
venture to disobey an injunction of the emperor, from whom its authority
was derived, and in whose name its judgments were pronounced ?

In this dilemma, the Imperial Chamber devised the expedient of
declaring that the pending trials were not affairs of religion, but breaches
of the public peace, and acts of spoliation ; and that the offence charged
was, transgression of the Recess of the empire.

The first case in which this distinction was taken, was in the course of
the proceedings concerning the claim of the city of Strasburg to the
revenues and jewels of the chapter of Arbogast. The city advocate,
Dr. Herter, said, that was indeed the suit against Strasburg, an affair
in which all protestants were civilly interested, but that it also con-
cerned religion, and therefore could not be proceeded in, conformably
with the emperor's recent proclamation. The bishop's advocate replied
that his gracious master had nothing to do with the protestant body ;
that the business regarded things wholly distinct from religion. The
protestants said, that a peace of the kind understood by the Chamber

1 Harpprecht, v. 295. Saxon delegates were sent thither to carry on the
business, Schreiben von Planitz, Mantua, 7 th Dec. They received through
Held this answer : " Und so weit die Forderungen am Kammergericht und zu
Rothweil belangen thut, wiiszte sich I. Mt. wohl zu erinnern des Vertrags," &c. —
" So far as the demands made on the Imperial Chamber and at Rothweil are
concerned, his Imp. Majesty was mindful of the treaty," &c.

Chap. VIII.] IMPERIAL CHAMBER 7*5

could be of no value to them, nor would his imperial majesty have troubled
himself to ordain such a one ; the truce included persons, property, and
co-dependencies. Nevertheless, they could obtain nothing further from
the court than a resolution to ask the emperor for an explanation of his
words.

The emperor was still in Bologna, as it were the guest of the pope, and
in daily communication with his holiness, when this question was laid
before him. He dared not offer a fresh offence to the pope, already
vacillating ; nor dared he offend the majority of the states. And yet he
could not revoke his truce. He gave an answer dark as the response of
an oracle. "The words of our injunction," says he, "extend only to
affairs of religion ; what, however, affairs of religion are, does not admit
of any better explanation than that which the affairs themselves afford."1
Probably Held, an old assessor of the Imperial Chamber, who had accom-
panied the emperor to Bologna, was the inventor of this interpretation.
Obscure as it is, it leaves no doubt of its tendency. The government
wished to confirm the Chamber in the course it had taken.

A commission which visited the tribunal in May, 1533, also admonished
the members of it afresh to maintain the Recess of Augsburg, especially
in regard to religion.2

Fortified by this double admonition, the Imperial Chamber now knew
no moderation. The plaints were received and reproduced ; the objec-
tion raised by the defendants, that the Chamber was not the proper
tribunal for religious matters, made no impression ; the accusers charged
them with an offence against the imperial authority, the inevitable conse-
quence of which was sentence of ban.

Had the protestants submitted to this, their union would have been
totally useless.

They first addressed themselves (according to a resolution of their
meeting at Schmalkald, in July, 1533), to the elector palatine and the
elector of Mainz, who had negotiated the peace, and who now took part,
by their councillors, in the recess of visitation. The electors declared
that they could not take this matter upon themselves. Hereupon the
protestants appealed to the court itself. As a proof that the pending
trials turned upon affairs of religion, they cited the traditional maxim of
the church of Rome, — that everything relating to a benefice is to be
considered a spiritual matter. Their sole purpose, they said, in concluding
the peace was, to guard themselves from the complaints and accusations
of the clergy, — that in consequence of the change of doctrine they were
robbed of their usufructs. But besides this, they had been expressly
promised that the proceedings at Strasburg should be stopped. They
pressed for a distinct explanation, whether the Imperial Chamber would
stay the proceedings in compliance with the emperor's commands, or
not. The direct answers of the Chamber were obscure and evasive ;
the indirect — its actions — were perfectly clear. In November, 1533, the
guild-masters and council of Strasburg were declared guilty. The city

1 26th Jan. 1533. Harpprecht, v. 300.

2 " Dem Abschied von Augsburg, sonderlich der christlichen Religion und
Glaubens halber, nachzukommen und stracks zu geleben." — " To follow the
decree of Augsburg, especially touching the christian religion, and to live strictly-
according to it."

716 PEACE OF CADAN [Book VI.

advocate again objected, that it was no longer an affair concerning Stras-
burg alone, but all protestants ; upon which the bishop's advocate asked
the judge of the Imperial Chamber, Count von Beichlingen, whether his
grace would allow his sentence, given doubtless after mature reflection,
to be impeached in so unfair a manner. Judge and court, after a short
delay, declared, that if within fourteen days nobody should come to
terms on the behalf of the city of Strasburg, judgment would be executed
on the demand of the bishop's advocate.

At the same time difficulties were vexatiously thrown in the way of
the protestant procurator, Helfmann, because he persisted in taking the
oath to God alone, and not to the saints also.

The protestants saw that the concessions they had obtained in the
treaty of Nuremberg were, under these circumstances, of no avail to them.
Meanwhile they were far from abandoning their claims : on the 30th
July, 1534, they proceeded to a formal recusation of the acts of the Imperial
Chamber.

The council of Regency was abolished ; the emperor at a distance ;
King Ferdinand not yet secure of the allegiance of his subjects, and the
administrative powers which the emperor had committed to him, very
imperfectly recognised. To all these elements of disorder was now added,
that the authority of the tribunal which was the sole remaining repre-
sentative of the unity of the empire, was repugned by a large portion of
the States.

It is obvious how much these troubles tended to heighten the discontent
which the rapid success of Landgrave Philip in his Wiirtemberg campaign
had already seriously aggravated.

They were accordingly among the most important subjects of discus-
sion at Annaberg and Cadan.

One main inducement for the elector of Saxony to give way as to the
election was, that King Ferdinand, from whom hitherto nothing could be
expected but a hostile influence on the Chamber, now bound himself,
"seeing that a misunderstanding had arisen concerning the peace of Nurem-
berg," to bring about an abandonment of the proceedings commenced
against those included in that treaty. These words must be well weighed.
The admission that a misunderstanding had arisen ; the promise of a
complete stop to proceedings, were clearly intended to silence, as far as
it lay in the king's power, the cavils of the Imperial Chamber. So the
protestants understood it.1 We. do not know the injunction which the
king hereupon issued to the Imperial Chamber ; but it is the fact, that we
find no complaint of any further proceedings of that tribunal.

The benefit of the truce extended, of course, only to those who were
included by name in the peace of Nuremberg. But another point was deter-
mined at Cadan which tended materially to the spread of protestantism.

1 Saxon Memorial to the congress at Vienna, 1535. The pretext of the Im-
perial Chamber, that it did not listen to any religious affairs, was, according to
this, obviated by the treaty ; " Indem das sich K. Mt. verpflichtet hat, obwol
uf berurten niirnbergischen Frieden etwas Missverstand, — welcher Missverstand
eben des Kammergerichts Gegenfiirwendung gewest, — fiirgefallen, soil er doch
aufgehoben seyn." — " Inasmuch as his imperial majesty has bound himself,
although a certain misunderstanding has occurred concerning the above-men-
tioned treaty of Nuremberg " (which misunderstanding was neither more nor
less than this pretext of the Imperial Chamber), " that it should be removed."

Chap. VIII.] PEACE OF CAD AN 7^7

King Ferdinand had at first not only wished to bind the duke of
Wiirtemberg by the terms of the peace, to receive his country as a fief
held of him, but also, to attempt no alteration in religious matters ; and
an article was actually proposed, stipulating that the duke should leave
everybody as he had found him in the matter of religion.1 But if
Ferdinand obstinately persisted, as we have seen, in the former demand,
the elector was equally inflexible in rejecting the latter. It was im-
possible, he said, that he could ever consent that the Word of God should
not be preached according to his own confession and that of his deceased
father ; he could not obstruct the free course of the gospel ; he would
not, even were the duke willing ; rather would he withdraw his opposition
to the election ; the article in question must absolutely be erased.2 Upon
this the duke received the joyful intelligence that he was to remain un-
shackled as to religion, and have power to take measures for christian
order in concert with his subjects.3 The only restrictions imposed on
him were in regard to those who, being possessed of certain regalia, were
not properly to be considered his subjects.

These, then, are the decisions which render the peace of Cadan so im-
portant to the cause of protestantism. It is clear that no such result
was contemplated in the attempt on Wiirtemberg ; that the protestant
theologians hoped nothing, the pope feared nothing, from it. But,
concluded by one of the chiefs of the evangelical party, in favour of a
prince who during his banishment had imbibed similar sentiments, and
ratified under conditions like those we have described, this peace could not
fail to bring about a total alteration of the religious state of Wiirtemberg.

The form which the reformation here assumed was also to a certain
extent prescribed by the course of events.

Had the duke's restoration been brought about sooner by one of those
political combinations which Zwingli contemplated, it is probable that
his views of church government would also have gained an ascendancy
in the duchy.

But now, the war having been conducted by Hessen, and the peace
brought about by Saxony, after the defeat of the Swiss and the approxi-
mation of the Oberlanders to the Saxon confession, that result was not
to be expected. On the contrary, the duke adopted the form of expres-
sion in use since that approximation ; he announced that he would tolerate
no one who preached any other doctrine than that of the true body and
blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. An article of the peace of Cadan
was expressly directed against the Sacramenters.4

1 That is, without doubt, the meaning of the somewhat obscure words :
" Das Herzog Ulrich einen jedern in dem Furstenthuirib Wirtenberg der Religion-
sachen halber in dem Wesen wie sie bis uf sein Einnehmen (gewesen), verfclgen,
und zugestellt werden." — " That Duke Ulrich should allow all men in the duchy
of Wiirtemberg to continue and be established in the state in which they were,
as to religious matters, up to the time of his restoration."

2 We know these negotiations from a letter of the elector of Saxony to the
king. Sattler, iii., p. 129. On the margin, by the side of this article, is written :
" Sol aussen pleiben." — " Must be left out."

3 Through Hans von Dolzk ; Letter from Ulrich, ibid., 124.

* Letter to Blaurer, 22nd December, 1534. The addition, "Wie Euch denn
selber alles wohl wissen ist." — " As all is known to yourself," shows that Ulrich,
from the first, held the same language.

718 REFORMATION IN WURTEMBERG [Book VI.

At the same time he invited Ambrosius Blaurer, one of the most eminent
Oberland theologians and an intimate friend of Butzer's, together with
the Marburg professor Erard Schnepf, a decided follower of Luther, to
organize the church of Wurtemberg. They began by agreeing on a
formula satisfactory to both. Their agreement is a symptom of the
gradual consolidation of the unity of the German evangelical church.1

Thereupon Blaurer undertook the reformation of the country above,
and Schnepf that of the country below, the Staig.2 The priests were no
longer convoked according to the rural chapters, as heretofore, but accord-
ing to the secular division of the country into bailiwicks ; and after the
main points of the evangelical doctrine had been expounded to them,
were asked to state what the government had to expect from them.
Spite of all the exertions of the Austrian government for the mainte-
nance of the religious edicts, there were still a considerable number even
of the priests who joined the evangelical party at the first invitation.
In the bailiwick of Tubingen there were seven ; the remaining twelve
asked for time to consider.3 Under these circumstances the ritual was
altered without difficulty. In many places the mass was voluntarily
abandoned ; in others, it was discontinued according to order. Schnepf
instituted a form of the Lord's Supper with which the Oberlanders were
satisfied.

The monasteries were next taken in hand. Duke Ulrich made no secret
of "his intention of applying their property to the payment of the public
debt, and the relief of the people from intolerable burdens." As he had
been so long out of the country, and had taken upon him Ferdinand's
debts to the Swabian League, it is not to be wondered at that he found
himself in pecuniary difficulties, for which this was the only remedy.4

He did not suffer himself to be restrained by the limitations laid down
in the peace of Cadan. The Austrian government had led the way ; it

1 They both confessed, Corpus et sanguinem Christi vere, i.e., substantialiter
et essentialiter, non autem quantitative aut qualitative vel localiter, praesentia
esse et exhiberi in coena ; a formula, the scholastic fashion of which scandalized
many of the evangelical party.

2 In Schnurrer's Erlauterungen der W. K. und Ref. Gesch. it is stated as a
fact (p. 127) that many whom Schnepf sent away as doubtful, went a few miles
further and were accepted by Blaurer. Schnurrer refers for this to Fussli's
EpistolEe Reformatorum, p. 99. There is a letter of Haller to Bullinger, in which
the former relates what he had heard from Thomas Blaurer in August, 1534, —
consequently at the very beginning of the difference between the two parties ;
quam male conveniat Wirtembergensibus ministris (as the Schnepfians are full
of sneers at enthusiasts), et dum quibusdam de Schnepfio periculum sit, cum ad
ministerium apti sint, quum prima prope sit interrogatio de eucharistae causa,
si Lutheranus fuerit, quantumvis alioquin doctus, admittatur, sin minus, reji-
ciatur et ab Ambrosio recipiatur. It is clear that Thomas Blaurer speaks of
it only as a danger, — a possibility. Jac. Sturm was of the same opinion :
" Schnepf schiihe die unsern, werde die in Anstellung der Kirche meiden." —
" Schnepf is shy of our people, and will avoid them in his appointments to the
church." But it remains to be proved whether circumstances really turned
out as Schnurrer sets forth.

3 Bericht Ambrosii Blaurers was er mit den Pfaffen Tiibinger Umts ausge-
richtet. (Report of Ambrose Blaurer what he effected with the priests of the
Tiibinger bailiwick.) Sattler, iii. App. No. 16.

* Schnurrer Erlauterungen, p. 149, No. 1.

Chap. VIII.] REFORMATION IN WURTEMBERG 719

had asserted the rights of the state over endowments of doubtful
sovereignty, and could not make much objection if its successor did
the same.

The whole country was thus in a short time transformed. Duke Ulrich
had the merit of devoting particular attention to the university. We
find many distinguished names among the teachers ; the system of
stipends adopted in Hessen was introduced with increased effect into
Wurtemberg. Tubingen gradually became one of the most distinguished
nurseries of protestant learning.

Wurtemberg was a conquest of protestantism based on the old
hereditary rights of German princes ; a conquest of double value, inas-
much as it was achieved in precisely that region where the Swabian
League had hitherto obstructed the progress of the evangelical faith.1
Throughout the Oberland this now acquired fresh activity ; in Alsatia,
where the influence of Strasburg had not been impaired ; in the neigh-
bouring dynastic domains ; Markgrave Bernhard of Baden, Count
Philip IV. of Hanau, Louis of Falkenstein, William of Fiirstenberg (the
joint leader in the Wurtemberg war), gradually reformed the church in
their territories, as did also numerous imperial cities. Scarcely could
the news of the battle of Laufen be known, when Michael Kress, the parish
priest of Weissenburg in the Wasgau, discontinued the mass (June, 1534) ;
the council concurred with him, and warned the discontented servants
of the chapter to quit the town without delay. The greatest impression
however was made by the conversion of Augsburg. The reformed
doctrine had long been gaining ground there, but the old opinions had
still powerful supporters, among whom were the Fuggers ; and had any-
thing been attempted against the bishop and chapter, the law or the
Swabian League would have hastened to their assistance. It is obvious,
however, that a state of things in which the minds of men were daily
embittered by conflicting or hostile preaching, was not tenable in a
community that pretended to some political weight in the empire ; these
points of difference now constituted the most important part of public
affairs. The evangelical party, which had long been the majority, now
took courage, under the political influences of those times, to assert their
rights.2 A disputation was proposed to the clergy. As they either
entirely refused to enter into it, or would do so only under conditions
which the city could not accede to, the greater and lesser council, with
the burgermeister Wolf Rehlinger at their head, passed a resolution, that
no more papistical preaching should be allowed ; no mass tolerated,
except in the church immediately belonging to the bishop. This hap-
pened on the 22nd July. Hereupon most of the chapels were closed, a
part of the clergy left the city, while another rallied the more closely round
the bishop and the chapter.

Analogous motives regarding the internal affairs of the city led, about
the same time, to the formal conversion of Frankfurt ; though without so
marked an influence of political causes.3

1 Gassarus, in Mencken, i., p. 1798 : this took place " Non sine totius Suevias
pfafforum monachorumque consternatione."

2 Gassarus, passim. Stetten 335. Zapf, Leben Stadions, p. 82.

3 Kirchner, Geschichte von Frankfurt, ii. 84. I shall revert to both these
cities.

720 REFORMATION IN ANHALT [Book VI.

We need not adduce any more facts to show that the new religion,
though certainly favoured by the course of political affairs, possessed
great independent force and activity ; it had prepared the very events
which contributed to its emancipation.

It was sometimes sufficiently strong to maintain itself in complete
contradiction to what the political situation of the country seemed to
require ; as for example in Anhalt.

For what could be more perilous for the majority of the Anhalt princes
(in whose name one of them, — Prince John — had subscribed the Recess
of Augsburg), than to retract, in direct opposition to those powerful
neighbours whose favour was absolutely essential to them, — Duke George
of Saxony, the elector Joachim of Brandenburg, and the archbishop
Albert ? One of the brothers, Prince George, was an ecclesiastic, and
already prebendary of Magdeburg and Merseburg cathedrals ; his
prospects seemed bound up with the existence of the catholic church.
Yet it was he who contributed the most to the change. He declared
that, near as he lived to the birth-place of Lutheranism, he had been
deceived as to its true character ; it had been represented to him in the
most unfavourable light possible ; he had been told that good works
were forbidden by it, good ordinances subverted, and license given for
all unchristian practices. But he had convinced himself of the contrary.
He had found that the holy scriptures were taught conformably with the
ancient Roman church.1 He gradually became so zealous and so persua-
sive in his exhortations to his brothers, that a Dominican friar having
indulged in violent language against the use of the sacrament in both
kinds, on Holy Thursday of the year 1532, in the pulpit at Dessau, they
displaced him, and appointed in his stead Nicholas Hausmann, a friend
of Luther. Duke George of Saxony instantly threatened them with
the emperor's displeasure ; he predicted the utter failure of their
attempts, and the ruin of Prince George's prospects in the church ; but
he made no impression upon them either by representations of this kind,
or by his doctrinal arguments.2 They went on fearlessly. The circum-
stance, that a member of the reigning house also had a high office in the
diocese, was of great importance. As archdeacon and prebendary of
the church of Magdeburg, Prince George deemed himself entitled to
exercise a regular spiritual authority in his dominions. In virtue of this
combined spiritual and temporal power, he convoked the clergy of the
Anhalt country on the 16th March, 1534, and admonished them in future
to administer the Lord's Supper in both kinds.3 The archbishop cardinal
was dissatisfied, as may be imagined ; but Prince George insisted that
the spiritual jurisdiction belonged in the first place to him, as archdeacon ;

1 Letter from George to the emperor, in Fiirst Georgs Schrif ten und Predigten
(Prince George's Writings and Sermons), p. 368.

2 Letter of Prince Joachim to George, Fiirst Georgs Schriften und Predigten,
p. 384. Luther rejoices at this commencement, " Etiamsi id factum non sit
sine gravi periculo, magnis principibus contrarium suadentibus, insuper etiam
minantibus." Letter to the three brothers John, Joachim, and George, in
Lindner's Mittheilungen aus der Anhaltischen Geschichte (Communications
from the History of Anhalt), part ii., which contains some letters wanting in
De Wette.

3 Instructions to the envoys of John and Joachim of Anhalt to the Arch-
bishop. (Dessau Archives.)

Chap. VIII.] REFORMATION IN POMERANIA 7^1

while the archiepiscopal superintendence remained with the cardinal.
In spite of all opposition, he gradually filled the benefices south of the
Elbe with disciples of Luther. But when the reform was about to begin in
the country on the other side, within the jurisdiction of the bishop of
Brandenburg, matters were altered. At first Prince George requested the
bishop to ordain whatever priests he might send him. But as the latter
naturally refused to admit married priests into the catholic church, Prince
George no longer hesitated to send his candidates to Wittenberg, where
Luther examined them, and, if he found them attached to pure and sound
doctrine, gave them a certificate and ordained them.

It was fortunate that things anywhere took so peaceful a course.

In other parts, as for example in Pomerania, there were the most
violent intestine struggles. Indeed there had always been peculiar
exasperation between parties in that country. In some of the towns
there had been iconoclastic riots, and with what hatred the adherents
of popery requited them, may be seen in the satirical songs which are
extant. The nobility and clergy of the whole country were leagued
against the towns. The two princes, George and Barnim, quarrelled.
Even in 1531, the protestants had feared that George would take an
active share in the war which threatened them. But Barnim, — the
same who had taken part in the Leipzig disputation, — sent word to the
league, that what his brother built up, he would pull down j1 that he had
wished for a division of the provinces and a separate government, in
order that he might be able to support the religious reforms. At this
moment, however, Duke George died, and his son Philip, young, eager
for instruction, and rather at variance with his catholic stepmother, was
more easy to gain over. It is probable that Barnim and Philip, at an
interview at Cammin, in August, 1534, agreed to undertake in their
dominions what had already been effected in so many others. At a diet
at Treptow in the following December, they laid before the meeting a
project of a reformation, which was in fact founded on a proposition of
the towns, and, with some trifling alterations, joyfully accepted by them.
The excellent Pomeranian, Doctor Bugenhagen, was invited to undertake
a visitation of the churches in the manner of Wittenberg. But the nobles
and clergy raised a most violent opposition. The bishop of Cammin,
who had been entreated to direct the changes, utterly refused ; the abbot
of Altencamp produced a mandate of the Imperial Chamber, forbidding
the dukes to make any innovation. The knights were made to believe
that a league was in agitation between the princes and the towns, which
could only turn out to their injury ; and therefore refused to take the
smallest share in the reforms.2

This was, indeed, the state of a great part of Lower Germany. Duke
Henry of Mecklenburg, who, in 1534, took the sacrament in both kinds,
was opposed by his brother Albert, together with the greater part of the
country. The resistance which the change still experienced in Holstein

1 Proceedings at Schmalkald, Judica, 1531. He declined joining the League
of Schmalkald, " because the domains were still undivided between him and his
brothers."

2 Letter of Abbot Johann Huls (8 th June), and the Pomeranian Order of
Knights (25th October, 1535), in Medem, Gesch. der Einfuhrung der ev. Lehre
in Pommern, 197. 231.

46

722 REFORMATION IN SOEST [Book VI.

appears in a letter of Landgrave Philip to Duke Christian, as to the means
of gaining over the nobility. Almost everywhere we find the chapters
and the equestrian order (Ritterschaften) in array against the reforming
tendencies of the cities. In Westphalia, especially, the most violent
contest had broken out.

The course and progress of things in the cities of Westphalia were
the same as in those of Saxony. Lutheran hymns were sung by boys
in the streets, by men and women in the houses, first in an evening, and
then by day ; and Lutheran preachers arose. Here and there a convent
voluntarily broke up, as at Hervord, while the priories of monks and
nuns which remained adopted the reformation.1 The priest of Lemgo,
who had been a steady adherent of John Eck, was at length convinced
by the writings of his antagonists, and travelled to Brunswick in order
to inspect the nature and mode of the change ; he returned an evangelical
preacher, and introduced reform into the town. The old Biirgermeister
Florken, who had been a great admirer of the hierarchical system, and
held it to be the only legitimate form of Christianity, was obliged to yield
to the innovators who confuted the scholastic doctrines out of the epistle
to the Romans.2

There were, however, but two or three places in which the movement
was so peacefully carried forward ; elsewhere it gave occasion to scenes
of violence and blood, especially in Soest and Paderborn.

In the former city the biirgermeister and councillors had been com-
pelled, against their will, to sanction the Lutheran preaching, and to
adopt the Confession of Augsburg, and an evangelical form of church
government.3 But since they remained in office, it was impossible to
avoid continual irritation between them and the leaders of the evangelical
party in the commune. There was a tanner, named Schlachtorp, who
was peculiarly odious to them ; and thinking to re-establish their totter-
ing authority, at least in civil matters, they seized on the pretext of an
excess of which he and two or three- others, heated with wine, had been
guilty, to arrest him, bring him to judgment, and condemn him and his
companions to deaths Nobody was prepared for such a sentence — for
their only crime in fact was some insulting and irritating language — •
Schlachtorp least of all, for otherwise he could easily have made his escape.
No representation as to the trifling nature of the offence, no intercession,
was of any avail ; the day of execution was fixed. In order to protect
them in this act, the council entrusted the most loyal of the citizens, who
were still in part catholic, with arms. We must accompany the victim
to the scaffold. When he reached it, he turned to the multitude of his
fellow-citizens of his own opinions, who were assembled in great numbers,
though unarmed, and after protesting that he died for the cause of religion
alone, he began to sing the hymn, — " Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin."

i " Wolte," says Luther, " dass die Kloster alle so ernstlich Gottes Wort
wolten beten und halten." — " Would that the convents all would so earnestly
pray {i.e., read with devotion), and keep God's word."

2 The other biirgermeister who then resigned was Andreas Kleinsorg, grand-
father of Gerhard von Kleinsorgen, who wrote a history of the Westphalian
church, of a catholic tendency.

3 The catholic clergy were commanded " ut honeste viverent abolita

superstitione tantum ;" most of them quitted the city.

Chap. VIII.] REFORMATION IN PADERBORN 723

(With peace and joy I go hence.) The whole multitude joined in. They
were convinced that the unfortunate man was a victim to arbitrary power ;
but the council wielded the sword of justice, and they did not think them-
selves justified in interposing. The executioner asked which of the
condemned would die first. Schlachtorp craved that honour, sat down
upon the chair, suffered his shirt to be pulled off, and presented his
neck to the stroke. As fortune would have it, the executioner did not
take good aim, and the stroke, instead of falling on his neck, fell on
his back ; so that Schlachtorp and the chair in which he was seated were
overturned, and, though fearfully wounded, he was still living. The
other executioner came forward, raised him up, and placed his neck in a
position to receive a second stroke. But meantime Schlachtorp had
recovered his consciousness ; he thought he had given justice her
due, and was absolved from all further obligations ; though his hands
were bound, by a rapid turn he snatched the sword, already again up-
lifted, from the executioner's hand, and grasped it with a strength
redoubled by the mortal peril, till he had torn the cords from his hands
with his teeth ; when he brandished the weapon, crimsoned with his own
blood, around him with such force that neither of the executioners dared
to approach him. All this was the work of a moment. But in that
moment the sympathy of the people, which had been repressed with such
difficulty, burst forth. The magistrates ordered the executioners to
desist ; the crowd carried Schlachtorp, holding the captured sword in his
hand, in triumph to his house, where, on the following day, he died from
loss of blood and violent agitation. Never was there such a funeral seen
as his. Men and women, old and young, evangelical and catholic, accom-
panied the body, all pressing to see the sword of justice which was laid
on the coffin. This incident raised the ferment of all spirits and the
exasperation against the council to such a pitch, that the latter thought
itself every moment menaced with violence and tumult, and at length
deemed it best to leave the town (July, 1533). A new council was then
appointed, and the evangelical organization completed.

The events which occurred at Paderborn also lead us to the foot of the
scaffold, though not to witness so terrible a catastrophe. Here, too, the
common people had, by violence and intimidation, obtained liberty of
preaching, and had already delivered over several churches to protestant
preachers ; no negotiation of the Landdrosts,1 no orders of the diet, had
availed to reclaim them. Such was the state of things when the newly-
elected administrator of the chapter, Hermann of Cologne, rode into
the town at the head of the leading men of the land and an armed retinue,
to receive their homage. Hermann was by nature no zealot (we shall
meet him hereafter on a totally different path) ; but the representations
of the canons and the council, joined to some resentment at the disregard
shown to his authority, at length moved him to a violent step. He
once more, and, as he said, in order to take a gracious leave, invited the
citizens to the garden of the monastery of Abdinkhoven ; on their arrival,
they were surrounded with armed soldiers ; the leaders of the evangelical
party were seized and thrown into prison. They were accused of a design
to deliver up the city to the landgrave of Hessen, put to the torture, and

1 A sort of magistrate ; high bailiff. — Transl.

46 — 2

724 REFORMATION IN WESTPHALIA [Book VI.

sentenced to death in presence of the assembled people, and in sight of
the scaffold, already strewn with the sand that was to drink their blood.
But things were not allowed to pass here as in Soest. The first execu-
tioner declared that they were innocent men, and that he would rather
die himself than put them to death. An aged man was heard to call out
of the crowd, into which he had crawled, leaning on his staff, that he was
as guilty as the condemned, and that he demanded to be executed with
them ; at the same moment the women and young maidens of the town
rushed out of an adjoining house with disordered garments and dishevelled
hair, and implored, weeping, mercy for the prisoners.1 The tears came
into the eyes of Elector Hermann (one of the house of Wied), who, as we
have said, loved not deeds of violence ; and as he saw that his temporal
lords were also moved, he granted the condemned men their lives. But
their doctrines were effectually put down. Those inclined to them were
kept under strict supervision, and fined at the pleasure of the authorities.
A recess was drawn up, by which the new doctrines were forbidden under
the severest penalties.2

Such were the conflicting powers in Westphalia : on the one side,
spiritual princes, cathedral chapters, knightly orders and city authorities,
closely bound together ; on the other, bodies of citizens vehemently
excited and inflamed by zealous preachers ; the one class not less wilful
and violent than the other. The former scrupled not to employ their
jurisdictional and magisterial powers with the extremest severity to
suppress the new opinions ; the other, obedient so long as the strict
letter of the law was concerned, were ripe for revolt at any moment when
that appeared to be in the least degree violated. The spiritual govern-
ment, which held together the higher classes by the bonds of a common
interest, was attacked by the lower, who rejected its authority, with all
the violence of incipient rebellion.

Nowhere, however, did these conflicting elements come into fiercer
collision than in the centre of spiritual organization ; in that place where
the word used to denote the convent founded on the banks of the Aa at
the time of the first introduction of Christianity, had superseded the
ancient name of the place and the district, and had become the name of
the town and the country — in Munster.

Bernhard Rottman, a Lutheran preacher, who had already been driven
away, established himself again at the church of St. Maurice in the suburbs,
and became so popular, that at length the bishop, urged by the clergy
of the city, sent him a safe conduct and desired him to go. The conse-
quence of this however was, that his followers in the city itself received
him ; they first built him a wooden pulpit in a churchyard, but soon
after, rather by the threat than the actual application of force, opened
to him the church of St. Lambert.3 A committee of the citizens was

1 Hamelmann Hist, renov. evangelii 1328 ; here, my chief authority.

2 " We will that now and henceforth no strange man or woman, serving-man
or maid, who come out of such towns or villages as are attached to the new
doctrine, or are accused of the same, be received as servants in our city of Pader-
born," 1532, 18th October. Kleinsorgen, ii. 364.

3 So the oldest and simplest report relates. " Dorpius Wahrhaftige Historie,
wie das Evangelium zu Munster angegangen :" — " True history how the gospel
was assailed at Munster."

Chap. VIII. ] MUNSTER 72S

next appointed to defend the new doctrines against the clergy and the
council. Other Lutheran preachers appeared, and a disputation was
held, the object of which was, to show the abuses of the established mode
of worship. As they found no able defender, the sentiments of the people
gained influence over the council (which consistent with the ancient
constitution of the country, was open to popular influences), and at
length obtained a majority. They then proceeded without delay to a
final arrangement. At a solemn meeting at the Schauhaus, all the parish
churches were delivered up to the newly-come preachers, by the council,
aldermen (Oldemanner) and guildmasters. The clergy, together with
the minority of the council, quitted the city. The religious revolution
was, as so often happened in those times, connected with civil changes.

But those who had been expelled were less inclined in Miinster than
elsewhere to despair of their cause : they found natural allies in the
knights (Ritterschaft), and the chapter. Here, too, advantage was
taken of the accession of a new bishop, Francis von Waldeck, to excite
the whole country against the city. All communication with it was cut
off, its rents and the interests of its moneys were withheld, and the citizens
themselves taken prisoners wherever they were caught. The condition
attached to the removal of these oppressive measures was, the restoration
of the old religion.

The evangelical party, however, who thought themselves in the right,
were not disposed to yield. If force were appealed to, they felt them-
selves strong enough to resist ; and the best opportunity soon offered for
striking a blow which must decide the contest.

The bishop had just ridden with the States to receive homage at Telgte,
a mile from Miinster. The injunction to the citizens, to conform again
to the ancient faith, was issued from this place, on the Christmas day of
1532. They instantly resolved what course to pursue. During the
following night they marched upon Telgte, nine hundred strong ; partly
brave citizens, partly tried soldiers, armed with matchlocks and two or
three small cannon, laid on four-wheeled waggons. Fortune favoured
them so far that the bishop's mounted posts did not fall in with them.
They arrived at Telgte in the grey of the morning ; broke in the gates,
took possession of the streets, and found their way into the houses where
their enemies were quietly sleeping. They took them nearly all prisoners ;
— the princes, councillors, the highest members of the cathedral chapter,
and of the equestrian order, together with their own councillors who had
quitted the town ; the prince himself, by good luck, was gone ; they
suffered the deputies of the small towns to depart, but they carried all
the rest — all their old opponents — back to Miinster on carts.1 At about
eleven o'clock the train, announced by the joyous beat of the drum,
re-entered the city in triumph.

1 Instructions and Report of Thanne von Hardt, Marshal of Miinster in the
Cleves Records, Diisseldorf Archives. Negotiations and attack as already
related : " Alsdann etlich unser gewaltigen Herren von Miinster, desgleichen
rede, verordente, eins Domcapitels und der Ritterschap, ok somige ander des
Adels, ok somige von den Stedten gefenglich genummen." — " Then certain of
our powerful lords of Miinster, the council of the same, the delegates from the
chapter of the cathedral and the order of knights, and some of the nobles and
some of the citizens were taken prisoners."

726 REFORMATION IN WESTPHALIA [Book VI.

The people thus for the present attained their end. The bishop could
not make a regular attack upon them ; for even had he had the means, he
would have been restrained by fear of the vengeance the citizens might
take on the prisoners in their hands. The anxious families of these
prisoners now endeavoured to put an end to the hostilities they them-
selves had excited.1 By the mediation of Hessen, a peace was at length
concluded in February, 1533 ; according to the terms of which, liberty
to follow the confession of Augsburg, both as to ceremonies and preaching,
was guaranteed to the city for its six parish churches ; while, on the
other hand, the citizens were to permit the exiles to return, and allow
the ancient ritual to subsist for the bishop, chapter and monastery. The
landgrave as mediator, the bishop and chapter, the delegates of the order
of knights (among whom were a Raesfeld, two Drostes, and a Biiren) and
the councillors of the cities, signed the treaty of peace. All seemed now
set at rest. The bishop appeared in the city, and received the homage ;
an evangelical church ordinance was published, in which a provision was
made for the poor, and negotiations were opened for joining the
League of Schmalkald.

Had these things remained, says Kersenbroik, the clergy of Miinster
would have fallen under a yoke never again to be thrown off. We may
add, that had these things remained, protestantism would now be the
prevalent religion of town and country in Westphalia. The neighbour-
ing communes, Warendorf, Beckum, Aalen, Coesfold, already imitated
the example of Miinster. The bishop himself, who was not more fixed
in his opinions than Hermann of Cologne, would at length have been
borne with the stream, and Miinster would have decided the fate of
Westphalia.

But a signal example was to be given to the world, of the dangers
inevitably attending a change in long-established things.

The principle of the reformation was once more in living progress ; it
was spreading victoriously through all Germany ; but for that very reason
its effect on the actions, the wants and the passions of men admitted
neither of restraint nor calculation. It is true that the protestants had
at length acquired a regularly constituted organ, whose legality, and
compatibility with the condition and welfare of the empire had obtained
recognition, though at first an unwilling and partial one ; but even to
this the innovators could not entirely adhere. The members of the
League of Schmalkald, in whose favour the peace had been made, were
specified by name ; and these did not yet venture to unite with others.
The new opinions were compelled to make their way by their own
strength ; and it naturally followed that they struck into paths deviating
from the constituted evangelical church.

At an earlier period of the reformation, the movement in the towns of
lower Saxony was with difficulty arrested at the results of its first successes,
or appeased by the mere freedom of divine worship according to the new

1 Letter of Bishop Francis (after confirmation), 17th Jan. 33., " sind wir durch
etzliche Grafen auch ein trefflichen Adel und Verwandte, sunderlich den von Buern
und Mengersheim umb Erlosung derselben die also in unserm Dienst niedergelacht,
sehr heftig angesoicht." — "We are very vehemently solicited by certain counts,
also excellent nobles and kinsmen, especially by them of Buern and Mengersheim,
for the liberation of those who have thus succumbed in our service."

Chap. VIII.] DISORDERS IN MUNSTER 7*7

ritual. In Magdeburg, community of goods had been preached under
some lingering influences of the peasants' war ; and it required as deter-
mined a will as that of Amsdorf, who was chosen superintendent of the
church of Magdeburg, to assert and maintain the pacific intentions of
Luther. In Brunswick, an inclination to Zwingli's views showed itself
soon after the creation of the Lutheran church-establishment, even
among the preachers who had assisted in constructing it ; they rejected
the organ and singing in parts, and especially certain hymns sung during
the communion, expressive of the Lutheran view of that institution ;
but the council of the city, and especially the syndic Levin of Emden,
declared themselves against every innovation, and would not suffer any-
thing at variance with the received ordinances of the church to be devised ;
doubtless they feared that it would not be easy to set limits to a new
movement. We observe similar appearances in Goslar. They arose in
part from the Zwinglians who had been driven out of Brunswick ; but
here, too, Amsdorf watched over the integrity of the Wittenberg ordin-
ances, and their opponents were driven away.

Movements of a kindred nature, but far more violent, now took place
in Miinster. The preachers who had arisen during the conflict (of whom
the most zealous, Rottmann, now held the office of superintendent) not
only betrayed a leaning to the Zwinglian view of the Lord's Supper, but
what (considering the manner in which opinions were at that time
implicated) was much more important, — a wide departure even from
Zwingli in relation to the other sacrament. Rottmann rejected infant
baptism. All the lovers of peace in Miinster, all who were satisfied with
what they had obtained were alarmed ; the council, democratically as it
was constituted, opposed him ; a disputation was held, the result of
which was, a formal declaration against Rottmann. The university of
Marburg too gave in an opinion against him, and certain Hessian theo-
logians came to support the council in its resistance to the innovators.
With all this, however, the new council, which had still to contend with
the tendencies of the catholic party, was not strong enough to have
recourse to energetic measures. Rottmann and his followers remained
in the town, and their secret influence was the greater, the more it was
openly controlled. They were not inclined to submit to a secular
authority, owing its existence to a religious movement which had been
headed by themselves.

In this state of things they fell upon the thought of publicly intro-
ducing into Miinster an element of the general moral and intellectual
confusion to which they had already been somewhat inclined — ana-
baptism. This has frequently crossed our path in the course of our
history ; and we have seen how, expelled and persecuted by every
legitimate authority, it yet always exercised a resistless power over the
minds of men.

The importance of its admission into Miinster was by no means confined
to that city. It was an event of universal significancy.

The principle of reform, now embodied in a regular system, again saw
tendencies rise around it, by which it was, in its turn, threatened with
destruction.

If, on the one side, it had established itself on impregnable foundations
against the assaults of the ancient church, it was destined to encounter,

728 UNITARIAN ANABAPTISTS [Book VI.

from the opposite quarter, dangers which at some moments seemed to
threaten its very existence.

The arena for the free struggles of the intellect was now thrown open ;
it was soon to appear that conquests on that field are neither easy to win,
nor to maintain.

CHAPTER IX.

ANABAPTISTS IN MUNSTER. CURSORY AND GENERAL VIEW OF
ANABAPTISM.

At a moment when the great ecclesiastical institution which for centuries
had held all consciences enthralled by ordinances more or less arbitrary,
was shaken, partially overthrown and robbed of its influence, it was not
probable that the minds of men could be brought again to concur in one
positive set of opinions.

The wonder is less that this could not be completely effected, than
that it was actually accomplished to so great an extent.

At the moment before us, however, antagonistic principles were about
once more to come into violent collision.

We saw the resistance' that Zwingli, as well as Luther, had to en-
counter from a third party, which rejected infant baptism. We observed
at the same time, that this rejection formed by no means the exclusive
point of dissent ; but was merely the badge of a party which differed
on innumerable other points, and exhibited infinite shades and varieties.

It were well worth while to explore this eccentric state of opinion ;
to collect the strange writings in which it found utterance, and to trace
out their inward connection.

So far as I can gain a general view of the matter, it appears to me that
there were, in regard to doctrine, two distinct lines of opinion, diverging
from the same point.

The dogma of justification occupied the attention of the anabaptists,
as well as of their contemporaries, and gradually led them to the discus-
sion of the questions of the two natures in Christ, and the powers and
qualities of the soul. They all adhered to the belief of the freedom of
the will (and in that respect were opposed to Luther) ; but they differed
n the conclusions they drew from it.

The one party thought the question a very simple one. They held
that man could unquestionably earn salvation by virtuous conduct and
by his own efforts ; that Christ was rather our teacher and father than
our redeemer. This opinion was particularly expounded by Hans Denk,
a very distinguished young man, — learned, conscientious and modest ;
at least he acknowledged, what scarcely any other of his associates would
grant, that it was possible he might err. The basis of his doctrine is,
that God is love ; which, he said, flesh and blood could never have under-
stood, had it not been embodied in certain human beings, who might be
called divine men or the children of God. But in one of them, love was
supremely exemplified ; — in Jesus of Nazareth. He had never stumbled
in the path marked out by God ; He had never lost His unity with God ;
He was a saviour of His people ; for He was the forerunner of all those

Chap. IX.] GARDENER-BRETHREN OF SALSBURG 719

who should be saved. This was the meaning of the words, that all should
be saved by Christ.1

Intimately connected with Hans Denk was Ludwig Hatzer ; they
translated a part of the prophets into German together. Hatzer, how-
ever, was not only licentious in his life, but pushed his doctrines to their
extremest consequences. He was the first man of that time who denied
the divinity of Christ. We are not able to say how he arrived at this
opinion, nor by what arguments he maintained it ; the book he wrote
upon it was never printed, and Ambrosius Blaurer burned the last manu-
script copy.

Hans Kautz of Bockenheim, near Worms, put forth similar doctrines.
He maintained that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was our saviour, inasmuch
as He left footsteps, by treading in which we might attain to salvation ;
whoever taught more than this converted Him into an idol.2

It is difficult to believe how widely these opinions were diffused. We
find them in Salzburg, without being able to trace how they got there.
They were professed by a community of poor people who rejected all
divine worship, lived together in solitary places, and established confra-
ternities by voluntary contributions ; they called themselves Gardener-
brethren (Gdrtnerbruder). They believed that the desire to do good was
inherent in man, and that if he fulfilled the law it was enough ; for that
God drew us to Himself by that necessity of acting justly, which He had
imposed on us : that Christ was by no means the fulfiller of the law, but
a teacher of Christian life ;3 — doctrines of no very profound, but of a
perfectly innocuous character. Nevertheless they drew down upon these
poor people the most terrific punishment. Some of them being discovered
at a meeting in the house of the parish priest, had, without hesitation,
given the names of the absent members of their society. Hereupon, they
were all delivered up to justice. Those of weaker faith who allowed
themselves to be persuaded to recant, were first beheaded and then burnt.
Those who refused to recant were consigned alive to the flames. " They
lived long," says a contemporaneous account, " and called aloud upon
God, so that it was most piteous to hear." In other places they were
brought together into the house where they had frequently held their
meetings and preached to one another, fastened in, and the house set
fire to. " They cried out most lamentably together, and at length gave
up the ghost : God help them and us all !"

1 Passages from his Buch von der Liebe (Book of Love), Arnold, i. 1305. He
was not consistent in his opinions. OEcolampadius (Epp. Zw. et CEc. p. 169)
maintains that he retracted shortly before his death. " Etiamsi nee ilia purga-
tissima erant." See Vadian to Zwick, in Fussli, Beitrage, v. 397.

2 Rohrich Gesch. der Ref. in Elsass. i., 338. Zwingli refers to him in the
Elenchus contra Catabaptistas, in which he says, Apud Vangiones Denckii et
Hetzeri cum Cutiis nescio quibus nihil obscure plenam perlitationem per Christum
negant, quod nihil aliud est quam novum testamentum conculcare."

3 Newe Zeyttung von den widdenteufern und yhrer Sect, 1528. — New Journal
of the Anabaptists and their Sect, 1528. Appended are 13 articles, " welche
sie sur warhaftig halten," " which they hold for true "; e.g., " Es sey ein inniges
Ziehen des Vaters damit er uns zu yhm ziehe, das sey wenn man lere recht thun
von aussen." — " Sie mogen Guts thun von yhnen selbst wie sie erschaffen." —
"That there is an inward attraction of the Father, whereby He may draw us to
himself ; that is, if we teach men to do rightly from without (i.e., in outward
acts)." " They may do good of themselves, as they are created to do."

730 ANABAPTIST DOCTRINES [Book VI.

There was a beautiful girl of sixteen, who could by no means be induced
to recant ; — for indeed the soul is at that age stronger and more capable
of the highest nights of devotion to a great moral sentiment, than at
a more advanced period of life ; — it is certain that she was guilty of the
things whereof she was accused, but in all other respects she had the
consciousness and the expression of the purest innocence. Everybody
supplicated for her life. The executioner took her in his arms, carried
her to a place near where horses were watered, and held her under the
water till she was drowned ; he then drew out the lifeless body and com-
mitted it to the flames.1

The other party, of whom mention was made, was led to totally different
conclusions on the same questions of redemption and justification. They
assumed a fundamental separation between flesh and spirit. Instead of
holding that man is able of his own strength to do that which is right,
and is saved by righteousness, and that this is the doctrine preached by
Christ, they maintained, that the flesh alone sinned, and that the spirit
was not affected by its acts, since it did not participate in the fall : that
the whole man was rendered as free by the restoration, as before the fall,
or even more so. Inasmuch as they ascribed this restoration to Christ,
they taught that His humanity was of a peculiar nature, that He took
nothing of His mother at His birth, but in Him the pure word was made
flesh, for the flesh of Adam was accursed. These views were also very
widely disseminated ; there are anabaptist hymns in which they are dis-
tinctly expressed.2 It is not improbable that Caspar Schwenkfeld, who
also rejected the church, as then constituted, and infant baptism, and
denied that the body of Christ was created, contributed greatly to their
development.3 Melchior Hoffmann, who busied himself so much with
these points, was certainly instigated by him. Hoffmann declared him-
self at first for unconditional election by grace ; but he afterwards main-
tained that every man might be made partaker of grace ; those only were
lost without hope of mercy, who, having been once enlightened, fell off
again from the truth. He proposed to unite all -in whom any sign of
grace manifested itself, into one congregation by second baptism.4

Many and still greater diversities showed themselves among the ana-
baptists in respect of conduct and practice.

Some regarded infant baptism as useless, others as an abomination ;
some demanded the strictest community of goods, others went no further

1 Newe Zeyttung. In Zauner's Salzburger Chronik, v. 119, there are some
further notices concerning these priests, &c, although the anecdote above was
unknown to him.'

2 The song, for example, which is inserted in the history and traditions of
Miinster (Munsterischen Geschichte und Sagen), p. 291. The prisoner is there
asked whether Christ be of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary.

" Das hab ich nie gelesen, hab ich vor ihnen bekannt,
Wie soil der von Erde wesen den Gott uns hat gesandt."

" That have I never read, as I confess'd before you,

How should He have been of earth, whom God hath sent to us."

3 Bullinger, writing to Vadian, says of Schwenkfeld, " Hoffmanni dogma de
carne Christi coelitus delata primus invenit, etsi jam dissimulat." Butzer
accuses him of the whole of the anabaptist doctrines. Epp. Ref., p. 112.

4 Extract from his Exposition of the 12th Chapter of Daniel, in Krohri's
Geschichte der Wiedertaufer (only concerning Melch. Hoffmann), p. 90.

Chap. IX.] ANABAPTIST DOCTRINES 731

than the duty of mutual help. Some segregated themselves as much as
possible, and held it to be unchristian to celebrate the sabbath ; others
declared it culpable to follow after singularities. Sebastian Frank,
who knew them well, and was even thought to belong to them, gives a
long list of divergencies which he had observed among them.1

It was impossible that they should not come into collision with the civil
power in various ways.

This was obviously the case with those who refused to perform military
service, or to take an oath. They esteemed it a crime to take away life
under any circumstances whatsoever, and regarded an oath as sinful and
forbidden. This could not possibly be allowed in the cities, the defence
of which was still entirely confided to the citizens themselves ; nor in
those, like Strasburg, where the whole allegiance was connected with the
oath of citizenship (Biirgereid), which was taken on the yearly swearing
day (Schwortag).

As we advance, we find others who thought themselves called upon to
reform the institution of marriage, on the plea that none was valid save
such as was concluded in the spirit. One of this class of reformers was
the tanner Claus Frei, who had deserted his wife, and rambled about the
world with another woman whom he called " his only true spiritual
wedded sister."2

All, however, agreed in declaring the church government, formed by
the combined authority of the magistrate and the priest, insupportable ;
and maintained that if everybody were allowed to preach, there would be
no such thing as schism. They declared that the institutions framed
by the evangelical leaders were nothing else than a new kind of
papacy.

They were persuaded too that these could not last long. One of the
most essential points of their creed is, the apocalyptic expectation of a
speedy and total revolution and a complete victory, which Miinzer and
Storch had fostered. Following their example, the later leaders had also
indulged in the most magnificent visions, each on his own behalf, and had
contrived to procure belief in them, at least among his immediate friends
and followers.

Hubmayr likened Nicolspurg, where one of the house of Lichtenstein
hospitably entertained him, to Emmaus ; " for it began to be night, and
the last days were at hand."

. Melchior Hoffmann, a travelling tanner already mentioned, whom we
meet with in Alsatia, in Stockholm, in Livonia, in Kiel and in East Fries-
land, — now intimately connected with powerful princes, and now pining
in prison, — at length returned to Strasburg. This city, he declared, was
destined to be the seat of the New Jerusalem, whence, according to the
Apocalypse (c. xiv.), a hundred and forty-four thousand virgin apostles
were to issue forth, to gather all the elect of God into the fold.

By degrees the idea of introducing such a state of things by force was
agitated.

Hans Hut imagined he could prove out of Moses and the Prophets that
the anabaptists were destined, as children of God, like the Israelites

1 Die drift Chronika Von den Papsten und geistlichen Handeln. (The third
Chronicle of the Popes and religious quarrels, p. 165.)

2 Rohrich, ii. 93, 101.

732 ANABAPTIST DOCTRINES [Book VI.

of old, to root out the ungodly, to which God himself could call
them.1

In the Wurtemberg territory a man named Zuberhans, who was taken
prisoner in the year 1528, confessed that he and other true believers had
determined to begin the work on the following Easter ; seven hundred of
them were to meet at Reutlingen, and to proceed immediately to over-
throw the government of Wurtemberg, to put the priests to death, and to
effect a complete revolution.2

Melchior Hoffmann did not threaten to use the sword himself, but he
was persuaded that recourse must be had to it. He had been for a time
in personal communication with Frederick I., king of Denmark, and he
declared him to be one of the two sovereigns by whom, when the times
should be come (for they had not yet arrived), all the first-born of Egypt
should be slain, till the true gospel should possess the earth, and the
marriage of the Lamb be accomplished. But all his disciples had not his
moderation. Some of them were of opinion that the times were actually
come, and that they were themselves destined to wield the sword. Thus
these opinions very quickly rose from the more strange than dangerous
peculiarities of the Quietists (Stillen im Lande), to the furious violence of
fanatical world-reformers.

Every part of Germany was traversed by wandering apostles of these
various sects ; no one knew whence they came, or whither they were
going. Their first salutation was, The peace of the Lord be with you !
and with this they connected the doctrine of a fraternal community of
all things. They then went on to discourse of the corruption of the world
which God was about to chastise ; and remarked that the power He had
given to the Turks might be regarded as a beginning of that chastise-
ment. They next turned to the expectation, then very widely diffused,
of an impending mystical transformation of all things. Rumours had
come from the East of the birth of antichrist, which had already taken
place at Babylon amidst signs and wonders ; some even said he was grown
up and worshipped as a god.3 In the West, the successes of the emperor
Charles V. had excited the most extravagant hopes. He was to conquer
Jerusalem, and to issue a commandment to put to death every man on
earth who did not adore the cross ; he would then be crowned by an angel
of God, and die in the arms of Christ.4 In some places people seriously
expected the end of the world, the day and hour of which was fixed. To
dreams of this sort the anabaptists attached their prophecies. They
declared that the messengers of God who were to seal the elect of God
with the sign of the covenant, were already abroad in the world. When
the time was come, those who were sealed were to be gathered together
from the four ends of the earth ; and then would Christ their king come
among them and deliver the sword into their hand. The ungodly were to be

1 Sebast. Frank, p. 169.

2 Sattler, Herzoge, ii., p. 174.

3 A letter published in the year 1 532 by the Rhodisern ; in Corrodi's Geschichte
des Chiliasmus, iii., p. 20. His mother's name was Rachuma (the Merciful).
On the night in which he was born (5 th March), the sun shone, and disappeared
the following day. It rained pearls, which typified the people that had bound
themselves by oath to follow him.

* Antonius Pontus, Hariadenus Barbarossa, in Mattluei Analecta veteris aevi,
i., p. 1., mentions it, " ut vulgatissimum ita antiquissimum verbum divinum."

Chap. IX.] ANABAPTIST DOCTRINES 733

utterly swept away ; but to the elect a new life was appointed, without laws,
or authorities, or marriage, in the enjoyment of overflowing abundance.1

It is evdent that the anabaptists proceeded upon principles which
leaned on the one side to mysticism, and on the other to rationalism ; but
they always concurred in the feeling of the necessity for the strictest
union, and in the arrogance of an elect people ; these combined led to
views, at once transcendent and sensual, of the mission of a Messiah.
There was no novelty in what they promulgated. These were, in fact,
only the same promises which the Talmud held out to true believers
among the Jews : — that, at the end of days, all the peoples of the earth
should be destroyed, or should become the servants of the elect, who
should live in glory, and feast on Behemoth and Leviathan. But such
was the universal fermentation in the minds of men, that they produced a
certain effect. They addressed themselves not, as before, to peasants,
but to artisans. The dark and dingy workshop, where continuous toil
still leaves the spirit free for a certain degree of meditation, was suddenly
illumined by these notions of a near and blessed futurity ; — a dream too
intoxicating not to find believers.

The German governments of both confessions delayed not to put in
force against them all the severity which they were bound by the constitu-
tions of the empire to employ.

The protestants were for a while perplexed : the constitutions of the
empire had been declared, at the meetings at Schmalkald, too severe ;2
and they at length came to the resolution not to punish men for their
belief, but only for the crime of promulgating insurrectionary doctrines.
There is a little book extant, printed at Wittenberg, in which this dis
tinction is more fully expanded ; the Berlin copy of it contains notes in
the margin, written by an anabaptist, in which he persists in affirming
that the anabaptists have nothing to do with the insurrectionary dis-
orders.3 But the very difficulty was, to separate tendencies so intimately
blended. In Saxony the government adhered steadily to the principle
of examining the doctrines taught by each man, and dealing with him
accordingly.4 Landgrave Philip, on the other hand, always leaned to
milder measures ; he contented himself with keeping anabaptists who
openly professed revolutionary opinions in prison. The Oberland govern-
ments, supported by his example, declared they would not stain their
hands with the blood of these poor people ; and in Strasburg children
were permitted to attain the age of seven, before their parents were com-
pelled to have them baptized.5

1 Der Wiedertaufer lere und geheimniss aus h. Schrift widerleght, durch
Justum Menium. (The Doctrine and Mystery of the Anabaptists confuted out
of the Holy Scripture, by Justus Menius.) In Luther's Works, Wittenberg
edition, ii. 262.

2 " Zu geschwinde " — " too hasty." Recess of the Meeting at Frankfurt
Trinity, 1531.

3 •' Das weltliche Oberkeit den Weidertauffern mit leiblicher Strafe zu wehren
schuldig sey ;" Etlicher Bedenken zu Witenberg, 1536. " The secular authorities
are bound to put down the anabaptists by corporal punishment." Some Re-
flexions at Wittenberg, 1536. In the notes the Maulchristen (Mouth-Christians)
are particularly attacked ; the evangelical doctrine is not censured.

4 Melanchthon, in Luther's Letters, by Lindner, p. 24.
6 Sattler, iii. 44. Rohrich.

734 JAN MATTHYS [Book VI.

,. In the catholic countries, on the contrary, where heresy was even more
severely punished than revolt, executions took place in mass. The
Gardener-brethren were treated with the same rigour as at Munich ;
" some were deprived of their limbs, others beheaded, others cast into the
Isar, and others burned alive at the stake." Similar punishments were
inflicted at Passau, where thirty perished in dungeons.1 There are cir-
cumstantial accounts of the deaths of George Wagner at Munich, Hatzer
at Constance, and Hubmayr at Vienna, who all perished in the flames.
How terrible is the cry uttered by Jacob Hutter, when the anabaptists
who had sought refuge under the protection of the nobles of Moravia,
were driven forth again ! " We are in the desert, on a wild heath,
under the bare heavens !" Yet even there toleration was denied
them.2

But with all these persecutions the governments did not attain their
end, — least of all, indeed, where they were the most inhuman, as in the
Netherlands. Here, the Lutheran opinions had, from the first, found
very general acceptance ; violently as they were repressed, we find a con-
fession, dated in the year 1531, that if coercion were withdrawn, all the
people would receive them. It was this forcible repression of the prin-
ciples of the reformation which prepared the soil for the doctrines of the
anabaptists. Jan Matthys, a baker at Leyden and a disciple of Hoff-
mann, combined with the fanatical and mystical views of religion of his
master, the notion that the restoration of all things was at hand, and must
be brought about by the sword. He declared himself to be the Enoch
who was to announce the things to come ; formally established himself
as a prophet, and sent twelve apostles to the six neighbouring provinces,
who made numerous proselytes and sealed them with the mark of the
covenant of the anabaptists. We may trace the progress of Jan Bockel-
sohn from Leyden to Briel, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Enkhuysen and
Alkmar ; baptizing wherever he went, and establishing small associations
of ten, twelve and fifteen true believers, who, in their turn, propagated
his doctrines. In Holland generally, we find a very powerful anabaptist
party which started up suddenly in all directions, and sought to conquer
a field for the further development of its forces.

It happened that affairs were now in such a state in Munster that people
were well inclined to receive them. The apostles of Jan Matthys, who
made their appearance there, gained access not only to the artisans, but
also to those very preachers who had been nourished with the marrow
of the evangelical doctrine.

RISE OF THE ANABAPTISTS IN MUNSTER.

This was not the first example of such leanings ; Capito of Strasburg
betrayed them for a time, though in him they yielded to maturer re-
flection.

The motives, however, which led Bernhard Rottmann to give himself
up to them without reserve were, if we may believe a report originating with
Melanchthon, of a very personal nature.

1 Winter, Geschichte der baierschen Wiedertaufer, p. 35.

2 Missive from Jacob Hutter to the Governor of Moravia. Annales Anabap-
tistici, p. 75.

Chap. IX.] BERNHARD ROTTMANN 735

There lived in Miinster a certain Syndic Wiggers, from Leipzig, a worthy
and honourable man, but married to a woman of very doubtful conduct.
Her husband's house and garden were daily thronged with her passionate
admirers, among whom was Bernhard Rottmann ; an attachment of the
most violent nature was soon formed between them, and at the death of
her husband, which occurred soon after, it was commonly reported that
she had poisoned him.1 Rottmann immediately married her. There is
no need to substantiate all the rumours that were circulated, in order to
explain the coldness and aversion with which every man of decency and
honour regarded Rottmann. The consequence of this was, that he strove
to re-establish his reputation by excessive severity of manners. He
began to discourse on the corruption of the world and the necessity for
works of charity, and expressed himself dissatisfied with the state of things
brought about by the Lutheran reformation. In dogma, too, he con-
tinually receded further from the reformers ; whether from the influence
of the secret emissaries of the anabaptists, or from the suggestions of his
own mind, we are not able to discover. After having altered the cere-
mony of the Lord's Supper,2 he began, as we have said, to impugn the
lawfulness of infant baptism. As soon as the number of the anabaptists
became considerable, he openly joined them. Rottmann and his col-
leagues had just fallen into violent disputes with the council. They held
at first been compelled to give way and to quit the town. What better
allies could they have found than the new prophets, whose predictions
and doctrines exercised so great and wide an influence ? The Lutheran
system ascribed great power to the civil government — even to the magis-
tracy of a city ; — for the recognition of the independence of the secular
element in the state was of its very essence. On the other hand, ana-
baptism was decidedly hostile to it ; its own aspirations after an exclusive
despotism were incompatible with any other authority. Nothing could
be more welcome to the preachers of Miinster, in the struggle they were
carrying on. One of them assigns as the motive for the cordiality with
which they had received the prophets, that he might predict (" vor-
wittige " is his expression) that God the Lord would purge the whole country
of Miinster, and drive the ungodly out of it.3

i Locorum communium collectanea a Johanne Manlio excerpta, p. 483.
" Habebat conjugem mirabilem, quse coepit insanire amore Rotmanni, quapropter
et virum veneno interemit." In Kersenbroik this is not stated with such cer-
tainty. On the other hand, a still severer version of the same story is to be
found in the Postilla Melanchthoniana. Extracted in Stobel, Von der Ver-
diensten Melanchthons um die heil. Serif t. (Of the services rendered by Melanch-
thon to the Holy Scriptures 1773, p. 89.)

2 Dorpius, Wahrhafftige Historie wie das Evangelium zu Miinster angefangen.
(True history how the Gospel began (to be preached) in Miinster). Sheet C.
" Brach semel in ein grosse breite schussel, gos wein darauff, und nachdem er
die Wort des Herrn vom nachtmal dazu gesprochen hatt, hies er die so des
Sacraments begerten zugreiffen und essen : davon ist er Stuten Bernhard genannt
worden, denn semel heisst auf ire sprach stuten." — " He broke white bread into
a large wide dish, poured wine thereon, and after he had spoken the words of
the Lord at the Last Supper, he told those who desired the sacrament to take
and eat ; hence he was called Stuten Bernhard, for white bread is called Stuten
in their tongue."

3 Confession of the anabaptist preacher Dionysius von Diest, surnamed Vynne,
in Niesert's Miinsterischer Urkundensammlung, i., p. 48.

736 RISE OF ANABAPTISM IN MUNSTER [Book VI.

The important coincidence was, that the growing anabaptism of Holland
happened to find its way into Minister at a point of time when the politico-
religious movement had, as yet, no definite aim ; and a half-suppressed
party was rousing itself for fresh struggles with the existing order of
things. The leaders of this party seized upon it, partly from conviction,
partly as means to their own ends ; and it was thus adopted by a numerous
community, amidst whom it could expand all its forces.

At the end of the year 1533, Miinster was filled with anabaptists. On
the festival of the Three Kings, in 1534, the prophet Jan Matthys appeared
with his fanatical apostle, Jan Bockelson of Leyden. A considerable
burgher of the city, Bernhard Knipperdolling who, being formerly ex-
pelled from Miinster, had connected himself with the anabaptists in
Stockholm, received them into his house. The two Dutchmen, with
their remarkable dress, their enthusiastic deportment, their daring, and
yet, to the people of those parts, attractive manners, made a great im-
pression in Miinster. Religious opinion was still in a state of violent
oscillation, and on the watch for novelty. It was to be expected that
women, and especially nuns, would be easily carried away by doctrines
which proclaimed the coming of a life of holy sensuality. Seven nuns
of the convent of St. Aegidius were baptized at once, and their example
was soon followed by those of Overrat. The citizens' wives next went by
stealth to the meetings of the baptists, and brought their jewels as the
first-fruits of their devotion. Their husbands began by being indignant,
and ended by being converted. After the preachers of the city had them-
selves received baptism, they administered it. Rottmann taught these
new doctrines with all the talent and all the zeal which he had before
devoted to the cause of the reformation. It was the same voice which
had seduced men from the church of Rome, — the voice which no one could
withstand. People said he carried a philtre about him, by which he
bound all whom he baptized for ever to himself.

He was soon strong enough to be able to set the council, which had
thought to control him, at defiance. Women reproached the biirger-
meister for favouring a Hessian preacher, who could not even speak the
language of Miinster ; nuns spoke with scorn in the open market of the
Hessian god whom men ate ; girls of sixteen cried aloud, Woe to sinners !
the journeymen blacksmiths forced the council to liberate one of their
comrades who had been imprisoned for preaching.

Nevertheless the anabaptists were not yet masters.

On the 8th of February a tumult occurred, in which, excited by a real
or an imaginary danger, they took possession of the market-place ; while,
on the other hand, the council and the anti-anabaptists invested the walls
and gates. It was soon evident that the latter had a great superiority
both in numbers and strength, being joined by auxiliaries from the neigh-
bouring peasants and the bishop. They dragged cannon to all the
entrances to the market ; and many thought that the matter must now
be decided, the market-place secured, and the anabaptists, of whom so
many were strangers, be expelled. The houses of those who had not been
rebaptized were already marked by garlands of straw, as a protection in
the approaching pillage. On the other hand, enthusiasm and fear, courage
and danger produced in the anabaptists an exaltation of mind in which
they beheld the most extraordinary visions ; — a man with a golden crown,

Chap. IX.] RISE OF ANABAPTISM IN MUNSTER 737

a sword in one hand and a scourge in the other ; or a human form with
gouts of blood dropping from his clenched fist. Or they fancied they saw
the city full of lurid fire, and the man on the white horse of the Apoca-
lypse, riding on the flames and brandishing a sword.1 It became a ques-
tion whether wild fanatics like these should be attacked with artillery ;
and the Hessian preacher Fabrichis, who had been the object of so much
contumely, exerted all his influence to prevent it ; he admonished those
who were prepared for the fight, to spare the blood of brethren. Some
members of the council, too, were moved with pity, if not with secret
sympathy. They also reflected that they should certainly meet with
resistance, and that perhaps, in the universal confusion, the bishop would
make himself master of the city. In short, instead of proceeding to the
attack, they began to negotiate. Plenipotentiaries were named, and
hostages mutually given ; at length it was settled that everyone should
enjoy freedom of conscience, but should keep the peace, and obey
the civil authorities in all temporal things.2 The anabaptists regarded
their deliverance (and with justice) as a victory. In one of their writings
on the restitution it is said, " the faces of the Christians (for this name
they arrogated exclusively to themselves) became beautiful in colour."
Children of seven years old prophesied in the market-place. " We do
not believe," adds the writer, " that a greater joy was ever known on
earth."

And in truth, from this hour, they daily advanced to a decided superi-
ority in power.

They had now, for the first time, acquired a legally recognised existence.
Men of congenial sentiments flocked to Miinster from all sides ; husbands
without their wives, wives without their husbands, sometimes whole
families together. Rottmann had promised to every man who would
repair thither, tenfold compensation for all that he abandoned.

So sudden was the revolution, that on the 21st February, when the
election of a new council took place, the anabaptists had the majority.
The electors were no longer appointed according to the flesh, but accord-
ing to the spirit ; they were all inspired artisans.

Nor were these men at all disposed to spare their adversaries, or to
tolerate their existence near themselves. On the 27 th February, a great
meeting of armed anabaptists was held at the town-house. It began
with prayers, which lasted for some time ; the prophet seemed to be sunk
into a deep slumber ; suddenly, however, he started up and declared
that such of the unbelievers as would not be converted must instantly
be driven out ; such was the will of God. He made no secret of his designs.
" Away with the children of Esau !" exclaimed he, " the inheritance
belongeth to the children of Jacob." Rapacity was combined with
enthusiasm. Hereupon the streets resounded with the fearful cry of

1 Restitutie des rechten und warraclitigen verstandes forniger articule. —
Restitution of the right and true understanding of foregoing articles : a writing
printed in Miinster, of which Arnold (Kirchen und Ketzerhistorie) has reprinted
the concluding discourse. See the Confession of Jacob Hafschmidt, in Niesert,

P- 155-

2 Dorpius, D. iii.: " Das ein jeder solt frei sein bei seinem Glauben zu bleiben,
solten alle widder heim, ein jeder in sein haus Ziehen, frieden haben und halten."
— " That everyone be free to abide by his faith, and all shall go home again,
every man to his own house, and have and hold peace."

47

738 THE BISHOP ARMS [Book VI.

" Out with the ungodly !" It was on a stormy day, in the middle of
winter. The snow, which still lay very deep, began to melt ; a violent
wind drove the rain and sleet through the air. The houses were broken
open, and all who would not abjure their baptism were driven from their
homes and hearths. An eye-witness has painted the wretched spectacle
of mothers, who could rescue nothing else from their houses, with their
half-naked babes in their arms ; little children wading bare foot through
the snow ; old men, who left the city leaning on a staff, stripped of the
last penny of the miserable remnant of the earnings of a toilsome life.1

The anabaptists were thus not only the masters of the city, but its sole
occupants. What their adversaries had scrupled to do to them, they
inflicted with fanatical eagerness. They divided the city among them-
selves ; and communities from different parts of the country took posses-
sion of the religious houses. The moveable property of the exiles was
collected together, and seven deacons were appointed by Matthys to
distribute it gradually to the faithful, according to their several necessities.

The anabaptists would have immediately proceeded to extend their
dominion beyond the city, had not the bishop, now supported by the
neighbouring princes, encamped around it with a splendid army.

Cleves and Cologne had at first hesitated whether they should merely
keep off the infection from their own territory, or render assistance to
the bishop. But the consideration, that the landgrave of Hessen might
send him succours, and that, in case these were victorious, a change might
be attempted in the see under his influence, induced both these western
neighbours to follow his example.2 They found that the bishop was
ill armed and ill advised ; they saw what danger might ensue if the ana-
baptists succeeded in gaining over the smaller towns subject to the see,
and they therefore determined to send succours, first of artillery and
infantry, and then of cavalry ; always, however, under the condition that
the see should compensate them for their outlay. The bishop now strained
every nerve ; fresh taxes were levied, and all the jewels from the churches
were devoted to the expenses of the war ; the bishop's vassals took the
field at their own cost. In April and May, 1534, the city was beleaguered
on all sides. If, as it was very well provided with the requisites for war,
the allied troops could not flatter themselves that they should immediately
reduce it, they at all events attained no inconsiderable advantage by
confining the disorders within the walls of Miinster.

The matter of immediate interest is, to watch the internal and spon-
taneous development of this singular phenomenon. We shall see a re-
ligious element (such as, under one form or another, had appeared in the
ecclesiastical movements of preceding ages) at work within a narrow
sphere, but in complete freedom, and producing the most remarkable results.

1 Kersenbroik. Historia anabaptistica MS. ; for it is necessary always to
compare the German translation of this work, of 1771, with the original.
Mencken's reprint contains scarcely a third of the original, and just the most
important things are left out.

2 Protocol of a sitting of the council at Berg (Diisseld. A.). " Nachdem zu
besorgen, das Hessen mit underlouffen, und vielleicht eine verennderung der
stifte gescheen mochte." — " Afterwards it is to be feared that Hessen might
interfere, and perhaps an alteration of the see take place."

Chap. IX.] CHARACTER OF ANABAPTISM 739

CHARACTER AND PROGRESS OF ANABAPTISM IN MUNSTER.

It might be presumed that, from the time the anabaptists were masters
of Miinster, hardened by success in the narrowness of mind common to
sectarians, they would not only tolerate nothing that was likely to oppose
them, but even nothing that was not completely identified with them-
selves. Accordingly all the pictures and statues in the cathedral and the
market-place were destroyed. The almost entire disappearance of the
monuments of the Westphalian school of art, which, if in existence, would
assert their place by the side of those of Cologne, is to be ascribed to the
wanton barbarism with which they were destroyed at this period. Rudolf
von Langen had brought back from Italy a noble collection of old engrav-
ings and manuscripts, illustrative of the great recent revolution in litera-
ture ; these were solemnly burnt in the market-place.1 The reformers even
held it a duty to destroy all musical instruments. Nothing was to remian
but the Bible, and that subject to the interpretation of their prophets.

Everything was to be in common among those who had undergone the
second baptism. The rule which had been laid down as to the property
of the exiles, was very soon applied to the possessions of the faithful.
They were ordered, under pain of death, to deliver up their gold and silver,
their jewels and effects, to the chancery, for the common consumption.
In short, a sort of St. Simonism2 was established. While the idea of pro-
perty was abolished, each man was to continue to exercise his craft.
Regulations are extant, in which journeymen shoemakers and tailors are
specially mentioned ; the latter being enjoined to take heed that no new
garment or fashion be introduced. There are also rules for the smiths
and locksmiths ; in short, every trade was treated as a public charge or
office. The most honourable of all these was, as may be imagined, the
defence of the country. Even boys were trained to this, and acquired an
extraordinary dexterity in shooting with the bow, which was not yet
entirely superseded by firearms. Those to whom a special office was
committed were exempted from the service of the watch. The whole
community formed one military-religious family. Meat and drink were
provided at the common cost ; the two sexes, " brethren and sisters,"
sat apart from each other at meals ; they ate in silence, while one read
aloud a chapter of the Bible.3

1 Kersenbroik. In campum dominicum cum incredibilis librorum multitudo
perlata esset, qui etiam ultra viginti millibus florenorum valebant, — incompara-
bilem urbis thesaurum flamma subita absumit.

2 Ranke's allusion is to the history of his own time. The Comte de Saint-
Simon (d. 1825), author of the " New Christianity," in which religious conceptions
were blended with a great industrial scheme. His disciples Bayard and Enfantin
(Le Pere) preached a mystic socialism, together with the " rehabilitation of the
flesh," i.e., free love and polygamy. Their association at Menil-montant was
dissolved as outraging public morals in 1832. But their socialistic theories
survived in Louis Blanc, author of the " Organization of Labour," and partly
inspired his experiment in State-Socialism as a member of his Provisional Govern-
ment in Paris in 1848. Cf. Thureau Dampier, Hist, de la Monarchie de Juillet,
ch. viii.

3 Kersenbroik, fol. 218. Ordinatio politici regiminis a 12 senioribus recens
introducta. § 9. Ut in cibis administrandis legitimus servetur ordo, prafecti ejus
rei, officii sui memores, ejusdem generis fercula uti hactenus fieri consuevit
singulis diebus fratribus sororibusque in disjunctis et disparatis mensis modeste

47—2

740 JAN BOC KELSON, OR JOHN OF LEY DEN [Book VI.

It is obvious that a community so singularly constituted could not con-
sist with the forms of municipal administration, in which the biirger-
meister and city councillors possessed power and pre-eminence. The
prophet Jan Matthys, who devised the new institutions, very soon seized
on the supreme authority, which contemporary writers describe as truly
royal — absolute.1 Matthys, however, did not survive the Easter of 1534.
At a tumult in which he was foremost — for his fanaticism was not of the
cowardly sort — he was killed.

We have already mentioned that he had been accompanied to Miinster
by Jan Bockelson, surnamed of Leyden, the son of a magistrate (Schulz)
of the Hague, and a Westphalian serf woman who had been bought from
her husband.2 In his wanderings as journeyman tailor, he had been as
far as Lisbon on the south and Liibeck on the north, and had at length
settled in Leyden, near the gate leading to the Hague. He soon grew
discontented with his business, and opened a sort of inn, where he and
his wife sold beer and wine. It was his great ambition to make a figure
in the poetical association which Leyden, like most of the cities of the
Netherlands, at that time possessed, called the Kammer van Rhetoryke.
The flow of his verses (Refereyne) was the easiest, his scholars were the
most distinguished ; he wrote dramas, in which he played a part ; and
it is very likely that he here became imbued with the spirit of hostility
to the church which was common to the schools of rhetoric of that day.
In this state of mind, anabaptism fell in his way and took complete posses-
sion of him. He speedily acquired a tolerable knowledge of the holy
scriptures ; though, as is usual with such autodidactic artisans, he utterly
confounded national and religious elements, and applied whatever seized
upon his ardent imagination, with all its accidental circumstances and
relations, to the actual world. He possessed an agreeable exterior, natural
eloquence, fire and youth3 ; even before Matthys' death he played a
certain part, and after that event (which he said he had predicted) he
took his place. And in boldness at least, he was nowise inferior to his
predecessor. The opinion was already afloat that, even in civil affairs,
it was our duty to disregard all human laws and ordinances, and to hold
merely to the word of God. The public attention was turned upon the
new prophet. After he had remained silent some days, " because God
had closed his mouth," he at length declared, that there must be twelve

et cum verecundia sedentibus apponent. It appears, indeed, as if this related
more particularly to those engaged in the defence.

1 Hortensius, p. 301. Joannes Matthias hanc autoritatem sibi pararat, ut
unus jam inde supra leges esset, unus scisceret, juberetque quae viderentur,
antiquas et abrogaret leges, aliasque pro libidine conderet.

a Confession of Jan Bockelson. " His father was called Bockel and was a
Schulte (magistrate) in Sevenhagen." It should be Grevenhagen, in which place
Kersenbroik was praetor. Bockelson's mother was a serf woman of Schedelich,
from Zolke, in the Miinster territory.

3 " Doch find ich von jenem in Truck ausgangen, dass er von Angesicht,
Person, Gestalt, Vernunft ein redsprech, rahtweiss anschlegig, an Behendigkeit
unerschrockenem stolzen Gemiit von kiinen Taten und Anschlegen ein edel
wohlgeschickt und wunderbarlich Mann say gewesen." — " But I have found
from that printed book, that he was in countenance, person, stature and intellect,
an eloquent, sagacious, cunning man ; of prompt, dauntless, and haughty spirit ;
of bold deeds and designs ; a noble, capable, and extraordinary man." Sebastian
Frank, die andere Chronik, 266.

Chap. IX.] DOCTRINES RESPECTING MARRIAGE 741

elders in the new Israel, as in the ancient, and immediately proceeded to
name them. Rottmann, on his side, assured the congregation that such
was the will of God, and presented the newly appointed elders to it. The
preacher and the prophet now dispensed with all the civic forms of election,
and nominated the magistrates. The people universally acquiesced, and
accepted them. Six of them were to sit to administer justice every
morning and afternoon ; the prophet Jan Bockelson was to proclaim
their sentences to the whole people of Israel, and Knipperdolling to
execute them with the sword.

It is evident that this was a new step in the progress of visionary religion,
or rather of fanatical prophecy. A table of laws was announced, composed
exclusively of passages from scripture, especially the books of Moses.

The extravagant abuse to which such an application of scripture
naturally leads, soon became evident in other ways.

Jan Matthys had already abandoned his wife, who was advanced in
years, and had married a young girl called Divara ; he had persuaded
her that this was the will of Heaven, and had brought her to Miinster.
Jan Bockelson coveted not only the post, but the wife, of his predecessor ;
but as he was already married, he put forth the doctrine, that it was allow-
able for a man now, as well as under the old covenant, to have several
wives. At first, the natural good sense of mankind revolted against such
a proposition. We may remember that propositions of this kind had
been long before submitted to Luther, who had rejected them on the
ground that marriage was a civil ordinance, and therefore must be obeyed.
In Miinster, arguments of this nature were utterly despised ; people
insisted on living merely in accordance with the holy scriptures. Rottmann
preached the new doctrine for several days in the churchyard of the
cathedral.1 Things were not, however, come to such a pass, that so crying
an insult to good morals and to all honest usage and tradition could escape
opposition, even under existing circumstances. All that remained of the
old-established citizens, all who were not utterly given over to the new
opinions, rallied around a smith of the name of Mollenhok. The watch-
word of " the gospel " was heard once more ; there was a talk of recalling
the exiles, and restoring the old constitution of the city, and some of the
prophets and preachers were actually imprisoned. But they were now
become too strong for opposition ; there were too many enthusiastic
strangers in the town ; and the common people were intoxicated by the
doctrine of equality. Mollenhok's party were soon compelled to take
refuge in the town-house ; and cannon being posted in front of it (partly
drawn by women), they waved their hats out of the windows in token .of
surrender. They ought to have known that this would not save their
lives. Never were prisoners more pitilessly treated than these, by men
who were but yesterday their " brethren in the spirit." Many were
bound to trees and shot. " He who fires the first shot," exclaimed Jan
Bockelson, " does God a service." The others were beheaded.2

1 In a contemporaneous notice in Spalatin's Annales Reformationis, p. 302,
it is stated that Rottmann also took four wives.

2 Ne ex crebris bombardarum tonitruis hostes oppidanos inter se dissidere
suspieentur neque tantam pulveris jacturam faciant, decretum est reliquos
sexaginta sex gladio ferire, quae poenas executio Knipperdollingo committitur,
qui singulis diebus aliquot pro arbitrio suo productus et tandem ad unum omnes
capite plectit, nisi quod propheta interim animi et exercitii causa in nonnullos
animadverterit. (Kersenbroik.)

742 CHARACTER OF ANABAPTISM [Book VI.

It was consistent with that fanatical narrowness which acknowledges
nothing but its own creed, to punish every deviation from it with death
and destruction. Terror is the necessary and invariable offspring of a
system of belief which rejects every other. At the proclamation of the
table of laws above mentioned, extermination from among God's people
was denounced against every man who should disobey them. Above all,
woe to him who should call in question the divine commission of the
lawgiver. Even Matthys had caused the punishment of death to be
inflicted on one Master Truteling, a smith, a man of good repute, who had '
addressed some disrespectful words to him. We stated that Knipperdolling
undertook the office of executioner. He had the power of putting
to death any man whom he detected in disobedience to the new laws, on
the spot, and without trial ; for the wicked, it was said, must be rooted
out of the earth. Preceded by four heralds, with a drawn sword in his
hand, he traversed the streets carrying terror wherever he went.

But since everything, however wild and eccentric, must still follow the
laws of its peculiar nature, nor can stop in its career till it has displayed
its original instincts in the clearest light, this monstrous phenomenon,
having vanquished all external opposition, now entered on the last stage of
its internal development.

The spiritual power, in conflict with the temporal, had called prophecy
to its aid ; and had first opposed, then defied, and finally overthrown, the
civil authority ; it had then driven out or exterminated all its opponents,
and had established a sort of government over which it exercised absolute
sway. But it had not yet reached its culminating point. Theocracy,
being founded on the claim to a peculiar preference and favour of the
divine being, has a natural tendency to assume a monarchical form.
The chief prophet could not content himself with merely proclaiming
the will of the elders to the people of Israel, although they were in fact
appointed by him ; he conceived the project of becoming the king of that
people.

• Another prophet who had arisen by his side, one Dusentschuer, formerly
a goldsmith, spared him the trouble of announcing his intentions. Dusent-
schuer declared that God had revealed to him that John of Leyden should
be king. The preachers, who always advocated the most extravagant
ideas, immediately supported him ; indeed John himself afterwards
avowed that, without their assistance, he could neither have introduced
polygamy, nor established monarchy. He accordingly granted them a
share of his power. After the people had given their assent to his new
dignity (every man subscribing his name), he declared that he could not
tarry alone in the sanctuary ; the congregation must join him in praying
to God for good servants of His house. After all the people had prayed,
Rottmann appeared, and read from a paper the names of those who
were pointed out by the divine approbation for the highest dignities.
One of the highest was himself. He was the president or speaker
(Worthalter), like the presiding burgermeisters of the free cities ; Knipper-
dolling, who had frequent fits of prophetic ecstasy, was Statthalter, or
lieutenant ; while the king's privy council was composed of preachers
and the most eminent of the fanatics. In short, the principle of spiritual
fanaticism now attained to absolute sway in this monarchi-theocratic
government.

Chap. IX.] ANABAPTIST DOCTRINES 743

The mystical views which lay at the bottom of the whole anabaptist
movement now assumed a more distinct form. The hopes which had
hitherto seemed dim and remote, appeared more attainable, more possible
to be realized.

The anabaptists deduced from scripture that in the beginning God
had created all things good by the word ; but they had not remained
good, and God's ordinance now required their restoration by the word.
But all things had their course in triads — in three periods. One was to
be succeeded by another, so that the past should be eclipsed by the
present ; till at length a third should appear — that, namely, to which
there should be no alteration or end.

The first age of the world ended with the deluge. It had now reached
its second epoch. God had resorted to various means of turning men to
Himself ; He had sent them Abraham and the prophets, had showed them
signs and wonders, had given His written word ; lastly, had sent His only
son : but all in vain — men would not tolerate righteousness near them,
much less let it rule over them ; therefore must the wrath of God go forth,
even as in the days of Noah, and be poured out upon the heads of the
wicked, in order to bring about the third age, and the perfecting of the
whole world. This moment had now arrived.1

Rottmann, in his treatise on temporal and earthly power, viewed the
matter from another side ; but the tendency of his opinions was the
same.

He says, that it was God's will that all men should be subject to him
alone, should behave as brethren, and should live quietly and joyfully
under him. But in consequence of the fall, the divine government had
ceased and an earthly power became necessary. This, however, was in
its very nature bad, and was constantly becoming worse. Four
monarchies had been ordained by God from the beginning. The first
had been likened by Daniel to a beast ; but the fourth, or last, was a
monster which had not its equal upon earth for bloodthirsty tyranny.
But the time of this too was come ; its cracking betrayed the nearness
of its fall ; all its wealth and treasure would become the spoil of the true
brethren.2

He exhorted them to seize the present moment, that it might not be
with the christians as formerly with the Jews, who did not perceive the
time of their visitation.

1 Von der Verborgenheit des Rykes Christi, ende von den Dagen des Herrn
(Of the hidden Mystery of the Kingdom of Christ, the end of the Days of the
Lord), cap. v. Arnold, Kirchen- und Ketzer-geschichte, i. 994. Pity that the
last seven chapters were left out, merely for the sake of sparing a few leaves.

2 Rottman, Von tydliker und irdischer Gewalt (On temporal and earthly
Power), MS. in Miinster. Extracts from it, in Jochmus, Geschichte der Wieder-
taufer, p. 188. It is remarkable what a striking resemblance these notions have
with those proclaimed by Robespierre, after he thought he had put down atheism.
Compare his speech at the fete de l'Etre Supreme, 8th June, 1794. " L'auteur
de la nature avait lie les mortels par une chaine immense d' amour et de felicite ;
perissent les tyrans qui ont ose la briser ! Francais republicains, c'est a vous
de purifier la terre qu'ils ont souillee, et d'y appeller la justice qu'ils en ont
bannie." Buchez et Roux, Histoire Parlementaire, xxxiii., p. 179. The differ-
ence lies only in the religious ideas ; the intention — to establish a primitive state
of universal happiness — is exactly the same.

744 JAN BOCKELSON, SURNAMED [Book VI.

The objection, that the kingdom of Christ was not of this world, they
put aside in their own peculiar manner.1 They made a distinction
between a spiritual kingdom, which belonged to the age of suffering, and
a corporeal kingdom of glory and splendour, which Christ was to enjoy
with His true disciples for a thousand years.2 They were persuaded that
the kingdom of Miinster would endure until the commencement of that
millennium, and ought therefore to foreshow it, and be an image of it.
They regarded the siege which they had to sustain as necessary ; for the
sacrifice must be offered up in the desert ; the women must suffer their
strife ; the court of the temple must be filled with dead. God, however,
would not only avert the arm of force, but would also put His sword into
the hand of His people without delay, that they might destroy all that
did evil from the face of the earth. " Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for
the time is come."3

This was also the mystical reason for their appointing a king over
them ; for the prophecies referred especially to a king who was to be the
lord of all the earth. Dusentschuer called Jan Bockelson king of the
whole world.

This young visionary artisan was entirely persuaded that the whole
future destiny of the world rested on him. He called himself John, the
rightful king in the new temple. In his edicts he says, that in him the
kingdom announced by Christ was incontestably come ; that he sat upon
the throne of David.4 He wore round his neck a chain of gold, to which

1 A specimen of their exegesis is to be seen in the Confession of a Deist, formerly
a Priest. " Christus spreckt, myn rike ist nicht van duser werlt, heft dusen
Verstand : Christus rick ist ein rick Gerechticheit und der Wairheit, dat rike
avers duser werlt ist ein rike der bosheit und ungerechticheit." — " Christ says,
' My kingdom is not of this world '; the meaning of. which is, that Christ's king-
dom is a kingdom of justice and truth, but the kingdom of this world is a kingdom
of wickedness and injustice."

2 See the conference of John of Leyden with Corvinus.

3 Rev. xiv. This is the reference in the original. But the words quoted are,
" Schenket ihr doppelt ein, denn die Zeit ist vorhanden." (Pour ye in double,
for the time is at hand.) Such differences in the two versions are, however, of
very frequent occurrence. — Transl.

* One of his laws, given in Latin by Kersenbroik, and with slight differences
by Herrsbach, is to be found in German, in the Archives at Dusseldorf. It begins
very characteristically. " Kundlich und openbar sy alien Liefhebberen und
Tostendern der Warheit, und gotlicher Gerechticheit, sowol den Unvorstendigen,
als in der Verborgenheit Gottes Verstandigen. So und in wetmaten de Christen
und ere Tostendere sick under dem Panier der Gerechticheit als ware Israeliten
in dem nyen Tempel in jegenwerdicheit des Richs, vorlanges verseen, durch den
munth der Propheten belovet, vermitz (vermittelst) Christum und seiner Aposteln
in Kraft des Geistes angefangen und geopenbaret, und nu an Johann den Ger-
echten in dem Stule Davids gelofflichen und inwedersprechlichen vorhanden,
schicken wandern und haben sollen." — " Be it known and proclaimed to all
lovers and followers of the truth and godly righteousness, as well those who
understand not, as they who understand the mystery of God : Inasmuch as the
Christians and their adherents have sent forth, under the banner of righteous-
ness, as true Israelites in the new temple, in the present existence of the kingdom
long foreseen, promised by the mouth of the prophets, begun and revealed by
means of Christ and His apostles, in the power of the spirit, and now come in
(the person of) John the Rightful, the promised and incontestable occupant of
the throne of David. . . ."

Chap. IX.] JOHN OF LEYDEN 7 AS

hung the symbol of his dominion, — a golden globe transfixed with two
swords, the one of gold, the other of silver, above the handles of which
was a cross. His attendants wore the same badge on their green sleeves ;
for green was his colour. Like all upstarts, he loved magnificence. Thrice
a week he appeared with his crown and golden chain in the market-place,
seated himself on his throne, and administered justice ; Knipperdolling
standing one step lower, with the sword. When he rode through the
town, two boys walked beside him, the one carrying the old Testament,
the other a naked sword : all who met him fell on their knees.1 There
were some who expressed disgust at his pomp, and at the number of his
wives, to which he was continually adding. " Out upon you !" exclaimed
he ; " but I will rule over you, and over the whole world, in spite of you !"
Even Knipperdolling could not help mixing buffoonery with his terrible
functions. He once caused himself to be suspended over the heads of
the crowded multitude in the market-place, that he might breathe the
spirit into them all. He danced indecent dances before the king, and
seated himself on his throne. These men were like madmen ; a secret
and irresistible consciousness of the untruth of all their wild visions
forced itself upon them. Knipperdolling, indeed, had once a serious
quarrel with the king, but it was soon made up ; Knipperdolling did
penance, and all things returned to the track of credulous obedience.
In October, 1534, the whole city celebrated the Lord's Supper in the
following manner : — Tables were set for all the adult women (who were
far more numerous than the men), and for those of the men who did not
hold watch on the walls, — four thousand two hundred persons ; John
of Leyden and his wife Divara appeared with all their courtiers, and
served at the tables ; it was a regular meal. After this they took wheaten
cakes, ate of them first, and gave of them to the others — the king the
bread, the queen the wine ; saying, " Brother, (or sister), take and eat ;
as the grains of wheat are baked together, and the grapes are pressed
together, so are we also one." Then they sang the psalm, " Allein Gott
in der Hoh' sey Ehr " (To God alone in the highest be honour).2 So
far, this ceremony might appear religious and innocent. But mark the
sequel. The king thought he perceived at the feast " one who had not
on a wedding garment." He fancied that this man was Judas, ordered
him to be led out, went out himself, and cut off his head ; he believed
he had felt himself commanded by God to do this, and returned cheerful
and delighted to the feast.3

Of all the phenomena which attended this monstrous delusion, the
mixture of piety, sensuality, and bloodthirstiness is the most revolting ;
however reluctantly, we must pursue our observation of it somewhat
further.

There was a woman in Minister who boasted that no man could control
her ; this boast had irritated the desire of John of Leyden to have her

1 Ant. Corvinus de miserabili Monasteriensium anabaptistarum obsidione ad
G. Spalatinum, ap. Schardram, ii. 315. Aulam praefecturis ac officiis ita insti-
tuerat, ut si natus rex fuisset, prudentius non potuerit : erat enim in excogi-
tandis iis quae regalem pompam decebant, minis artifex.

2 Neuste Zeitung von den Wiedertaufiern zu Miinster, 1535.

3 Dorpius ; " and he was so pleased with this murder, that he continually
laughed."

746 ANABAPTIST DISORDERS [Book VI.

among his wives ; she lived with him for some time, but growing tired of
him, she gave him back the presents she had received from him and left
him. The anabaptist king regarded this as the greatest of all crimes, led
her to the market-place, beheaded her himself, and kicked away the
corpse with his foot. Hereupon all his other wives joined in singing, " To
God alone in the highest be honour."

Everything being overthrown and transformed, and universal equality
established, nothing remained, save the self-love and self-will of the
visionary fanatic to whom all paid willing homage. In him spiritual pride
and sensual desire, frenzied enthusiasm and natural coarseness, formed
a strange, we might say a grotesque mixture, which is very remarkable,
viewed as a psychological product. Freedom was, of course, out of the
question, among men who had given themselves up to courses of so horrible
and disgusting a character. How frightful is the contrast between the
innocence of the little sect of the Gardener-brethren of Salzburg and the
delirious depravity of Miinster !

Yet it riveted the affections of men ; they fought for it with the in-
tensest animosity.

A woman of Sneek in Friesland, named Hille Feike, who had travelled
to Miinster to seek, as she said,- the salvation of her soul from God's word,
felt herself incited by the story of Judith, which she had heard read at
table, to follow her example. She actually set out, on a similar errand,
dressed in all the bravery she could collect, with jewels furnished her
from the treasury, and provided with a sum of money. But the unusual
splendour of her dress excited suspicion. She was taken before the bishop
whom she had intended to kill, and being questioned, she confessed her
design, and was put to death.1

On the 30th of August, 1534, the bishop made an attempt to storm the
city ; but he found it excellently prepared to receive him. A small body
of picked men stood in the market-place, ready to hasten, under the king's
orders, to those points which were most threatened. Others were posted
in the alleys of trees behind the walls. The main force awaited the
enemy on the walls ; between the men stood women and boys, the latter
armed with bows and arrows, the former with large caldrons, in which
as they said, they were cooking the enemy's breakfast. At five in the
morning the great Hessian carronade called the Devil, gave the signal in
the camp ; the landsknechts moved upon six different points at once,
and succeeded in passing over the ditches and stockades ; they placed
their ladders, and already more than one standard-bearer had planted his
colours on the walls. But the besieged had allowed them to come on thus
far unmolested, in order to overwhelm them with more certain destruc-
tion. The fire of musketry now poured down among the crowded ranks
The women threw down wreaths of burning pitch on the necks of those
who were climbing, or they poured the seething lime which they had
mixed in their caldrons over them ;2 the storm was totally repulsed

1 Bekanntnisse Hyllen Feyken aen pyn am Freydag nach Nativitis Joh.
Baptistae. — Pynlig Bekanntnisse Hyllen Feyken am Saterdag na J. B. Niesert,
i. 40, 44.

2 Here is another specimen of Kersenbroik's descriptive powers. Piceas
coronas adhibita face incendunt, a.tque ita fragrantes furculis quibusdam ferreis
in ascendentiuin colla injiciunt, qui horrendis flammis ipsa anna penetrantibus

Chap. IX.] SPREAD OF ANABAPTISM 747

without need of any assistance from those posted in the interior of the
city ; the inhabitants had displayed military talents and courage which
robbed the landsknechts of all spirit for a renewal of the onslaught.

The prince bishop was obliged to content himself with surrounding the
city with blockhouses, for which he had to levy a new tax.

The spirits of the anabaptists were naturally raised by so brilliant a
victory.

In October, after the communion described above, some of the faithful
were charged to go into the neighbouring cities, and to relate the signs
and wonders that had been done amongst them. In the very hour in
which they received these orders, they set out to execute them. They all
fell, as was to be expected, into the hands of the bishop's people, and
expiated their design with their death.

This however by no means induced John of Leyden to renounce his vast
projects.

We may remember that an universal fermentation had seized on the
lower classes, especially the artisans, in the German towns ; and that the
anabaptist spirit took root more particularly among these classes. At
this moment we meet with the same appearances in almost every part of
Germany. In Prussia, the anabaptists enjoyed the protection of one of
the most powerful men in the country, Frederick von Heideck, who was
in high favour with Duke Albert ; and they even gained over a portion of
the nobility.1 Great as was the number of fugitives from Moravia, we
still find them there by thousands. In 1534, the Saxon Visitors found
the valley of the Werra filled with them, and in Erfurt they avowed that
they had sent forth three hundred prophets to convert the world.2 In the
year 1534, we trace single emissaries in Anhalt, and in Franconian Bran-
denburg, where people had to produce their baptismal register before they
could be admitted to the second baptism. In Wurtemberg the duke's
hereditary marshal, a Thumb von Neuburg, kinsman of Schwenkfeld, gave
them asylum for a time in his lands in the Remsthal.3 In Ulm there were
threatenings of new opinions bordering on anabaptism, like those of
Sebastian Frank or Schwenkfeld ; while in Augsburg an anabaptist king
actually arose. In Switzerland they were always to be found in the pro-
testant cantons ; and as their denunciations were chiefly directed against
the bad life of pretended Christians, the zealous Haller sought to turn their
appearance to account, for the purpose of establishing a better church
discipline.4 In Strasburg many pertinaciously adhered to the belief that
Hoffmann would come forth from his prison in glory and splendour ;

miseris modis excruciati sorsum deorsumque cursitant majorique motu flammas
exsuscitant et frustra chirotecis e crassioribus femorum pellibus ad hoc com-
paratis ardentia serta eximere tentant, ita enim fragranti pice et resina contra-
huntur ut manus inde retrahere nequeant : tandem quidam eorum proni con-
cidunt, seseque in terra algenti prte intolerabili cruciatu ita volvunt ut herbas
circumquaque flammas emarcescerent : nine magno clamore animam evomunt :
alii vero conceptas flammas restincturi in fossas proruunt et pondere armorum
depressi subsidunt.

1 Baczko, iv. 219.

2 Seckendorf, Hist. Luth., iii., § 25, p. 71.

3 Lang, ii. 33. Sattler, iii., p. 104.

4 Haller and Frecht in Ottius, p. 69, 81.

748 SPREAD OF AN AB APT ISM [Book VI.

they also added an Enoch to this their Elias. Dreams and prophecies
of this kind were rife along the whole course of the Rhine ; in Cologne and
Trier troops of light cavalry traversed the country to prevent or disperse
assemblages of anabaptists.1 But their stronghold was the Netherlands.
In Amsterdam, where a short time before an emissary from Miinster had
made numerous proselytes, they more than once ventured to show them-
selves openly. When Count Hoogstraten, the privy councillor of the
regent, came thither in October, and endeavoured to introduce some more
rigorous measures both against lutherans and anabaptists, a nocturnal
tumult arose, which very nearly led to the most formidable consequences.2
From that time there were incessant rumours of the design of the anabaptist
to take possession of the city. Leyden was kept in a constant terror of
fires and tumults.3 In the beginning of the year 1535, a meeting of nearly
a thousand anabaptists took place in the Groningerland, which the statt-
holder was obliged to disperse by an armed force.4 In East Friesland a
prophet expressed the hope that the whole of upper and lower Germany
would rise, as soon as the king should go forth with his mighty banner.
Even those who did not share in their opinions, thought that if John of
Leyden could only win a few successful battles, he would find followers
enough to convulse the world, as the Lombards or Franks had done of
old.5 We have seen that John of Leyden laid claim to the whole world
as his property. He once gravely appointed twelve dukes, amongst whom
he formally partitioned the world, and in the first place Germany. He
treated the neighbouring princes of the empire as his equals. In a letter
to Landgrave Philip of Hessen he calls him " dear Phil " (lieber Lips), as
the landgrave's most intimate brothers in arms were wont to do.6 He
begged him to take up the Bible, and especially to study the lesser prophets ;
there he would find, as he says, " Whether we have usurped the power
and title of king, or whether this matter is ordained of God to some other
end."

But before things were ripe for a general and combined effort on their
part, the empire was roused to take energetic measures to stem the rising
torrent.

PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK ON MUNSTER. REDUCTION OF THE CITY.

The mode in which this took place, may serve as a perfect specimen of
the conduct of affairs in the empire generally.

It would have been natural to expect that this triumph of opinions so

1 Potocol of the Council of March, 1534.

2 Lambertus Hortensius Tumultuum Anabaptistarum, liber unus, Schardius
Scriptt. rer. Germ., ii., p. 306. These Netherland reports are the most important
thing in Hortensius.

3 Brandt, Histoire de la "Reformation, i., p. 50.

* Letter of the Stattholder of Friesland to the bishop of Miinster. Lewarden,
25th January. (Duss. A.)

6 Sebastian Frank, Andre Chronik, p. 267.

8 14th Jan., 1535. Printed in the little book: Acta Handlungen Legation
und Schriften, so durch Landgraf Philippsen in der Miinsterschen Sache gesche-
hen. — Documents of the Proceedings, Legation, and Correspondence of Land-
grave Philip, concerning the Affairs of Miinster. 1536, sheet ii.

Chap. IX.] PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACK 749

severely prohibited by all successive Recesses of the empire, in a consider-
able city, and the new vigour thus given to them in many other places,
would have caused the whole empire to arise in its strength to crush a
danger threatening to every condition of men.

Yet the affair was left almost entirely to the bishop of Miinster and his
political friends.

We have seen how their jealousy of Hessen, and their own danger, had
induced Cologne and Cleves to come to the bishop's assistance.

Each of them sent, in the first place, some artillery ; though only on
the security of the chapter, and under condition that any damage done
to the guns should be repaired.

The councils of Cologne and Cleves then had a meeting to deliberate on
what was further to be done.

They met on the 26th of March, 1534, at Orsoy, and determined to send
the bishop succours of men, but not of money ; each prince to send two
companies of landsknechts at his own cost. On the 7 th of May, at a
second meeting at Neuss, they added, that each should also have two
hundred fully mounted horsemen before Miinster, in readiness for the
storming of the city. The duke of Cleves had already commanded his
subjects to take no foreign service, nor to permit anyone belonging to them
to do so, till this matter was terminated.

Meanwhile the bishop required other aid than that of troops. As the
resources of his country were not sufficient, he incessantly pressed for a
"brave sum of money " on loan. At first there was an idea of raising
him a thousand gulden on security ; but as this turned out to be either
impracticable or insufficient, it was resolved at a fresh meeting between
the council of Miinster and those of Cologne and Cleves, at Neuss, on the
20th of June, that each party should contribute twenty thousand gulden
— sixty thousand in all — in order to provide, everything necessary for the
assault1 ; the bishop however engaging to repay the two other powers,
after the conquest of Miinster. We have seen, however, the bad success
of that enterprise. When the councils met in camp in the beginning of
•September, they hoped to find rhe city reduced ; they found nothing but
the consequences of defeat, and universal discouragement. The erection
of the blockhouses took place in consequence of the common resolution
of the three sovereigns. They agreed again to raise fifty thousand gulden
for that purpose.

But it was sufficiently evident that Miinster would never be reduced in
this way. They determined, as had been proposed from the first, to apply
to the nearest circles and to engage their co-operation.

Cologne belonged to the circle of the electorate of the Rhine; Cleves
was head of that of Westphalia and the Lower Rhine. The circles had
begun, for the first time, to take an important part in affairs during the

1 " That each prince, Cologne, Cleves, and Miinster, should contribute and
pay 4,000 soldiers, for the support of the knechts who now lie before Miinster,
and 1,000 sappers for a month (which gives a sum of 12,000 knechts and 3,000
sappers and miners) ; and also, shall altogether furnish 10,000 Emden gulden,
for the purchase of powder ; which, reckoning each knecht's and sapper's pay at
four Emden gulden, together with the actual 10,000 E. g., amount in all to
70,000 E. g., which are equal to 60,000 gold gulden ; so that each elector and
prince has undertaken to contribute 20,000 gulden."

750 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CIRCLES [Book VI.

last Turkish war ; and the princes were now authorized by the Recesses
of the empire, to require their co-operation in this matter.

It was first discussed in Mainz, at a meeting of the circle of the electorate
of the Rhine. Cologne and Cleves reckoned their outlay, and demanded
compensation ; and, more especially, that the other states of the circle
should immediately share it. But the only result of this was, that in
spite of all their resistance, the meeting ordered them to keep up the
blockhouses ; agreeing, however, to deliberate further on the matter at
a general assembly.1

On the 27th of October, the states of the circle of the Lower Rhine and
Westphalia met in a convent at Cologne. As a general meeting was in
prospect, they declined voting any permanent succours. But in order
to be prepared at any moment to send such as might be demanded in
haste, they agreed to raise the same sum of money as a month's tax for
the last Turkish war would have amounted to.

Meanwhile the more distant circles, like those of Hessen and Saxony,
were invited to join in the deliberations. Saxon councillors met those of
Cologne and Cleves at Essen, in the beginning of November ; the Hessian,
shortly after, those of the Palatinate, Mainz, Trier and Wiirzburg, at
Oberwesel. Their deliberations acquired great earnestness and energy,
from their fear lest the bishop should apply for aid to the house of Bur-
gundy) which might seize this opportunity to get possession of Munster ;
for Mary had already asked for succours for that city, from her states in
the Netherlands. Rather than this should happen, Saxony bound itself
to take an equal share of the expenses of the blockade. Here too ambitious
schemes were at work ; but mutual jealousy compelled everyone to keep
within legitimate bounds.

The meeting of the three circles — the two above named and that of
the Upper Rhine — determined on at Mainz, took place in December, at
Coblentz. They expressed their readiness to bear the expenses of the
continued blockade. Three thousand men were to be kept before Munster,
and to that end fifteen thousand gulden were to be raised monthly. Count
Whirich von Daun was appointed commander ; four councillors of war,
from Cologne, Trier, Cleves and Hessen, were to accompany him, and the
troops were to take the oath to the states of the circles.2

It is however evident that even this was rather a measure of defence
against any attack on the part of the besieged, than one at all calculated to
effect the subjugation of the city. For this the circles did not think
themselves powerful enough ; they determined to call the entire empire to
their aid.

The course of this affair, as we have already remarked, strikingly
illustrates the character of the German commonwealth. The measures
necessary to reduce to obedience a city in open rebellion, did not originate
with the supreme head of the empire ; but the sovereign to whom that city

1 Extract from the Recess of Mainz, in the Diiss. Arch. " The electoral
councillors consider of the most useful and profitable way, how other princes
and states of the empire, besides their own electoral circle, the circle of the
Upper Rhine, and that of the Lower Rhine, and Westphalia, may be induced to
take part in this business."

2 The Recess of Coblentz is only to be found in Kersenbroik. I sought it in
vain in Coblentz and in Diisseldorf.

Chap. IX.] SUCCOURS OF THE EMPIRE 751

belonged, and his nearest neighbours, were left for a long time to struggle
with it unassisted ; till the growth of the danger gradually widened the
circle of allies, and at length drew the whole body of the empire, though
not without partial opposition, into the contest.

One of the first acts that Ferdinand had to perform after his recognition
as king of the Romans, was, to convoke a general assembly at Worms on
the fourth of April, in conformity with the petition of the three circles.

The States were not, it is true, unanimous ; the elector of Branden-
burg, for example, maintained that the three circles were able alone to
make an end of the anabaptists, and refused to take any part in the
measures for that object. But by far the greater number of the Statee
sent delegates. A resolution was passed, to levy one month and a quarter
of the last general tax for the empire, on all the States. The amount
which this might be expected to produce was not great enough to enable
the allied princes to bring any considerable accession of force into the
field. The only advantage was, that they were now sure of being able
to continue the blockade till they could obtain a decisive result. The
appointment of the commander in chief, which had taken place at Coblentz,
was confirmed by the imperial authorities ; only with the addition of two
councillors to the other four : after the conquest of the city, the emperor
and the States were to decide on the course to be pursued with it.

It would be superfluous to enter into any minute recital of the deeds
of this little army. It is sufficient to say that it succeeded in cutting off
all communication with the city, and in reducing it by hunger.

The chief hope of the besieged was, that they should receive help and
supplies from the country where their doctrines were the most widely
diffused, and whence they themselves had mostly sprung. Zealous
anabaptists from the Netherlands had come to see the state of things in
Miinster, and had gone back and announced the approaching triumphal
procession of the king, whom they also acknowledged, and whom they
were to accompany through the world. The cry of, Death to all
priests and nobles ! was revived ; with the addition, that the only lawful
sovereign in the world was the king of Miinster.1 About Easter, 1535,
they were all in motion. The West Frieslanders took Oldenkloster, not
far from Sneek ; the Groningers marched upon the monastery of Warfum ;
while the Hollanders, many thousand strong, crossed over to Overyssel,
thinking to meet others of the faithful at the hill convent in the Hasselt
country.

It seems as if they had intended to make these convents, whence
Christianity had once radiated, centres from which to spread anabaptism
over the land, and then to go to meet their appointed king. But the
organized and armed force of the provinces was stronger than these
irregular bands. The Groningers " and Hollanders were dispersed on
their way, without difficulty.2 Oldenkloster, which the anabaptists had

1 " Slan doot alle Monniken und Papen und alle Overicheit de in der werlt
sint, went allenne unse Konink is de rechte Overicheit." — " Slay all monks and
priests, and all sovereigns in the world ; since our king alone is the true sovereign."
Beninga Historie van Oostfriesland, bei Matthaus. Analecta vet. aevi, iv.,
p. 680 ; where some characteristic details are to be found.

2 Extraict de ce que Maistre Everard Nicolai, conseiller au grand conseil
nrrlnnnA a Malines escrint a son frere Mr. Nicolas Nicolai. Les Anabantistes

752 SIEGE OF MUNSTER [Book VI.

possession of, made some resistance, and was not retaken without loss.
They afterwards made an attempt to conquer Amsterdam for the King
of Zion, and actually got possession of the town-house one night ; —
though indeed, for that one only.1 They did not choose to observe the
conditions under which their co-religionists had succeeded in obtaining
power in Miinster, and ascribed that success to a miraculous interposition
of God, which they expected to be extended to themselves ; and, of
course, expected in vain.

The prophet had incessantly encouraged the people of Miinster with
the hope of the assistance of his countrymen, whom he said, neither sword
nor any other deadly peril, neither fire nor water, would prevent from
making their way to see their king : but as these prophecies were not
fulfilled, some murmurs arose among them.2 By degrees the famine
became insupportable. Those of weaker faith began to doubt of the
whole matter, and quitted the city. They were at first repulsed by the
camp : women with their children were seen sitting in the ditches by the
stockade, through which some compassionate landsknechts handed them
food ; but it was found impossible to drive back whole troop's into the
city. They presented a spectacle which recalled to their learned con-
temporaries the horrors of Saguntum and Numantia. Skeletons covered
with a shrivelled skin, with a neck scarcely able to support the weight of
the head, meagre lips, and hollow, transparent cheeks ; — all of them
filled with horror at the famine they had shared and witnessed, and hardly
able to stand. But many were still determined " not to flee back to
Egypt," as the king expressed it. They rejected the summons sent them
in the beginning of June, by the commander-in-chief, with the indigna-
tion of men assured that they have truth on their side. Not that they
concealed from themselves that they should perhaps be trampled under
the hoofs of the last monster described by Daniel ; but they clung to
the hope that he would soon be crushed by the corner-stone, and the
kingdom be given to the saints of the Most High. They are said to have
intended, when all was lost, to set fire to the city, and rush out upon the
enemy's guns.

And perhaps it would have come to this, had there not been found a
traitor willing to help the besiegers (who had not yet forgotten the dis-
astrous assault of last year) to cross the ditches and walls. If they had
only the inner walls and the musketry to contend with, the result could
not be doubtful. Those who remained in the city could not be in much

par instigation et messaiges se sont esmeus et rassembles en nombre de plusieurs
mille sur la coste de la mer d'Hollande pour de la neviger au pays d'Overyssel ou
ils devaient a certain jour prefix tenir communication de leurs affaires dedans
un monastere qui s'appelle Bergklooster aupres de la ville de Hasselt, Sec. Nicolai
was gone there expressly to convert them. According to him, there were twenty
waggons and three thousand people. He found, however, only five men and
thirteen women, whom he soon convinced of their error.

1 Hortensius Tumult. Anabaptistarum, bei Schardius, ii. 310.

2 Nie Tydongen en den Erzb. tho Collen. (New tidings to the Archbishop of
Cologne.) Niesert, p. 198. According to a letter of the commander of the
7th of May, a soldier who had escaped said there was great distress, the common
people murmured, the king with his retinue only sought to prevent an insurrec-
tion.

Chap. IX.] TAKING OF MUNSTER 753

better plight than those who had quitted it ; the king only and those
belonging to his court, — his councillors, friends, the new dukes and
governors, and such privileged persons, — had sustenance for a short time.1
When the bishop disclosed his plan to the landsknechts, and promised
them that the commander, with the nobles and captains, should lead the
way, they expressed themselves willing ; for they were tired of their straw
beds in the blockhouses. The scene before us is a deplorable one ; — on
the one side wild violent men, hurried away by thsir dreams into excess
and crime, now famished and desperate, yet still drunk with enthusiasm ;
and on the other, bands of landsknechts kept together with difficulty ;
sluggish and listless in their movements, and only roused to make a
decisive attack when there could remain no doubt of the result. Here
was no field for glorious exploits. At the appointed hour, on St. John's
eve, 1535, a few hundred landsknechts crossed the ditches where they
were the narrowest, and mounted their ladders where the walls were the
lowest. They knew the anabaptists' watchword, deceived the sentinels,
and then threw them over the walls : thus they took a bastion, made
their way to the cathedral close, and, without waiting long for their
comrades, shouted their war-cry and beat their drums. The anabaptists
sprang from their beds and rushed together to defend themselves. The
result was for a moment doubtful ; but only until the main body of the
besiegers pressed in through a gate opened from within. The anabaptists
then fought with fury, and did great mischief to the assailants with their
musketry ; they killed a hundred and fifty nobles and officers, who were
in the foremost ranks of the enemy : but it was the struggle of despera-
tion. As the king was attempting to retreat to the strongest bastion, he
was taken prisoner. Rottmann, resolved to escape the ignominy that
awaited him as captive, rushed into the thickest of the fight, and found
his death there. A few hundred of them still defended themselves behind
a heap of carriages near St. Michael's chapel, with such bravery, that
their assailants determined to allow them to capitulate. It appears that
the terms granted were not observed. They were told they should be
allowed to go home, and that when the bishop came he would determine
what further should be done. It is true, indeed, that he would hardly
have spared their lives. But the landsknechts, exasperated by the loss
of their comrades, were not to be prevailed on to wait for his coming ;
they rushed after the people retreating into their houses, and it was
almost impossible to stay the slaughter ; and this, when stayed, was only
succeeded by more formal executions.2

1 Corvinus ad Spalatinum : Vidi ipse multos ibi libros, quorum detracta coria
victum miseris suppeditarunt — immo scio pueros quoque comesos ibi esse, id
quod ab iis auditum mihi est, qui in reliquias quasdam capta.urbe ejus rei testes
inciderunt.

2 Here, as well as in the account of the conquest of the city, I follow a pamphlet
called " Warhaff tiger bericht der wunderbarlichen Handlung der Dueffer zu
Munster in Westvalen, wie sich alle sachen nach eroberung der stat und in der
Eroberung zugetragen ; die noch vor der Execution des Jan von Leiden geschrie-
ben worden, sie hat sein Bildniss in Holz." — " True Account of the wonderful
affair of the Baptists in Munster in Westphalia, how all things after the conquest
of the city and during the conquest happened ; which was written even before
the execution of John of Leyden ; it has his effigy in wood (engraving)." Ker-
senbroik, however, relates otherwise : Donantur vita et positis armis urbe pro-

754 REACTION IN MVNSTER [Book VI.

For, as things stood now, it is not to be wondered at that the entire
extirpation of anabaptism was contemplated. Even the women were
driven out of the city, and every one who afforded them shelter was
threatened to be treated as an anabaptist. No one knew what became
of them. Gradually those who had been driven out of the city before,
and who formed about a third of the former population, returned ; but
as even they were not held entirely guiltless, they were obliged to pay a
small acknowledgment to the bishop for the recovery of their estates.
No one suspected of anabaptism could be re-admitted into the city without
giving security to the amount of four hundred gulden. Cleves and Cologne
endeavoured to mitigate the severity of the reaction, and especially ex-
pressed their disapprobation of the plan of building a fortress in the city.1
We shall see, at a subsequent period of our history, what were the plans
of these two princes with regard to religion ; plans, which they required
the bishop to promise beforehand to adopt. A deputation of the empire
also demanded the restoration of the city to its ancient rights and
privileges. But of this there was not the slightest hope. The bishop,
chapter and equestrian order, or nobles {Ritterschaft) were, indeed, only
preserved from utter destruction by the help of their neighbours ; and
the army which had won the victory for them had been assembled in
virtue of a decree of the empire ; but the administration of the empire
was very far from having energy enough to take the affair into its own
hands. On the contrary, the chapter and nobles seized this opportunity
entirely to annihilate the independence of the city, which had long been
odious to them. In spite of the intervention of the two powers above
mentioned, it was decided to build a fortress in Miinster, and even at the
cost of the city itself ; the half of its revenues were to be applied to that

tinus, praeeuntibus quibusdam militiae ducibus, exire jubentur. Cum vero
liberum exeundi commeatum impetrassent, multi eorum ad aedes suorum neces-
sariorum forte aliquid inde allaturi sese subducunt atque iter ad aliis ad exen-
dum paratis sponte sua divelluntur, ubi cum longiorem moram fecissent, jam
tuto egressos eodem certe commeatu confisi sine ducibus subsequi contendunt,
qui a militibus intercept! mactantur. I leave everyone free to judge, — but this
appears to me like a dressing up and apology. The old account above says : —
" Ward auf beiden partheien so vil gehandlet das ein yetlicher solt wider heim
in sein haus ziehen, bis auf die Zukunft des bischofs des gnadigen herrn, dann
solt weiter in den sachen gehandlet werden. Daraufi ward jenen glauben zuge-
sagt, und zoch ein yetlicher wieder heim in sein haus. Als aber die landsknecht
grossen merklichen schaden empfangen — fielen sie mit grimmigen zorn in die
heuser und wo sie der einen funden, rissen sies mit den kopfen aus den heusern
auf die strassen, howens zu stucken, stechns all zu tod. Kurz demnach ward
umbgeschlagen daz man kein mer todtschlagen solt," &c. — " It was agreed by
both parties that everyone should go to his own home again till the coming of
the lord Bishop's Grace, and then the matter should be further handled. There-
upon this was trusted to, and every man went to his own home again. But as
the landsknechts had suffered great and notable damage, they fell with furious
rage on the houses, and where they found anyone they dragged him by the head
out of the house into the street, hewed him to pieces, or stabbed him dead.
Shortly afterwards they slew all around, till there were no more to slay," &c.

1 Proceedings at the meeting at Nuyss, 1535, 15 July. They objected that
for this the consent of emperor and empire were necessary ; it was contrary to
the privileges of the city, and it would be better to raze the walls, and fill up the
ditches.

Chap. IX.] EXECUTION OF JOHN OF LEY DEN 755

purpose : the commander of this citadel was to be taken from among the
nobility of the country, nominated only with the consent of the chapter
and body of nobles to whom he was to swear allegiance, and whose com-
mands he was to obey, even if the sovereign were present.1 The town
council too was for the future to be nominated with the consent of the
chapter and the nobles. The city, which had nearly emancipated itself
from the yoke of the nobles and clergy, was thus once more entirely sub-
jected to it, as a consequence of the insurrection. The chapter and the
nobles got possession of far more power than the prince ; as Bishop
Francis, who had to encounter their violent opposition, afterwards ex-
perienced. The restoration of Catholicism in all its rigour followed of
course in the train of these events.

Meanwhile the captive king and his councillors, Knipperdolling and
Krechting, were already brought to trial. The king was at first full of
defiance, treated the bishop with insolent familiarity, jested with those
who reproached him with his polygamy, and protested that he would
never have surrendered the town, even if all his people had died of hunger.
In the first conversation which several Hessian theologians had with him,
he manifested the greatest obstinacy. But he very soon requested another
conference, in which he said that none of them in Miinster had any certain
knowledge of the millennium, the clear perception of which had been
revealed to him in prison ; he now confessed that the resistance he had
offered to the authorities was unlawful, polygamy rash and untimely, and
he even acknowledged the obligation of infant baptism.2 He promised,
if he were pardoned, together with Melchior Hoffman and his wives, to
try to bring all anabaptists to silence and submission. In this disposition
he remained, even after he must have known that it could avail him
nothing. He confessed to the bishop's chaplain that if he were to suffer
ten deaths, he had deserved them all. Knipperdolling and Krechting,
on the other hand, were perfectly obdurate : they appeared far less versed
in theological questions than John of Leyden, and their convictions being
founded on less knowledge, were more stubborn ; they persisted in
declaring that they had only followed the admonitions of God. They
were all condemned to be put to death with red-hot pincers in the market-
place of Miinster.3

Protestants and catholics witnessed the execution which was the result
of their combined efforts ; but what was already their temper towards

1 Kersenbroik gives the Articuli de propugnaculo, which are not quite correct
in the German retranslation ; e.g., § 4. Neque hie sine capituli et nobilitatis
consensu inauctorabitur neque exauctorabitur ; the translation of which is, " he
should neither be appointed nor dismissed without the approbation of the
chapter."

2 Gesprech oder disputation Antonii Corvini und Johannis Kymei mit Johann
von Leiden. Printed contemporaneously at Wittenberg. In sheet G there is a
confession of John of Leyden, " mit miner eighene hand ondertekent," " under-
signed with my own hand."

3 Des Miinsterischen Konigreichs an und abgang, Bluthandel und End ; the
rise and fall of the kingdom of Miinster ; trial and execution ; Samstag nach
Sebastiani Anno 1536. The frontispiece represents the tower of St. Lambert's
church, with the iron baskets in which the bodies were exposed, that of the king
rather higher than the two others. The pamphlet is merely a history of the
execution.

756 ANABAPTISTS IN ENGLAND [Book VI.

each other ! One of the Hessian divines above-mentioned, describes,
in a letter to the court chaplain of Saxony, the delight of the mass-priests
at the execution. Some, however, he adds, appeared to want, to complete
their satisfaction, that the Lutherans should be disposed of in the same
manner. The Lutherans did not disguise from themselves that, for the
present, there remained no hope for the progress of their doctrines in
Miinster.1

The effect of this catastrophe on the anabaptists was, that the anarchical
principles they had professed, although they still found champions,
were gradually abandoned ; and the milder form of their opinions re-
mained the prevailing one. This change, it is clear, could be of little
immediate avail to them ; they were not the less obnoxious to severe
and bloody persecution.

This later and mitigated period gave birth to the spiritual songs which
have been from time to time republished from their hymn-books. They
contain such sentiments and expressions as the following : — They are
beset on every side by crafty and malignant serpents ; the great dragon
hath arisen, and rideth in his wrath through Germany ; but they are
resolved not to suffer themselves to be frightened by fire or water or
sword ; they know that God can save His true children, and that He will,
in every case, take care of the soul, even though the flesh should bleed.
" The tyrants of the Burgundian court " are arrayed against them ;
they imprison men and women, and make inquisition into their faith.
These, however, display a single and steadfast mind ; they will not deny
Him who is the eternal good, and they seal their belief in Him with their
blood.2 Therefore they are thrown into prison. They are happy, for
they see themselves surrounded by the heavenly hosts and martyrs ;
they behold God in the sun of grace, and know that no man can banish
them from their fatherland, which is with God. They call to mind
analogous events ; such as the miracles in the old martyrologies (treating
them after their manner).3 Lastly, they prepare to lay themselves as
victims on the altar, and to be led to the place of execution ; the clear
fountain of the divine word consoles them with the hope of being made
like unto the angels.4

In Germany, the utmost they could obtain for their opinions, under
their mildest forms, was some degree of toleration.

But at the moment of their total overthrow in Miinster, many had fled
in despair to England. Here, amid the storms of the seventeenth century,
their whole system of opinions assumed a most remarkable form. For
example, a great deal of what is peculiar in the mode of life of the quakers
is a mere reproduction of what Justus Menius imputes to the anabaptists.

But the colonies of North America now lay open to them. Those things

1 Corvinus ad Spalatinum, 1. I, 318. Tanto anabaptistis iniquior sum, quanto
certius comperi illorum malitia factum esse ut vix mutire nunc audeant qui
antea veritati erant addictissimi.

2 See the Lied des gefangenen Wiedertaufers (Song of the imprisoned Ana-
baptist), Die zwei Jungfrauen von Beckum (The two Virgins of Beckum), " O
lieber vater und herzog mild " (" O beloved Father and clement Duke ") in the
Miinsterischen Geschichten und Sagen, p. 277 f. .

3 See Pura, in the Wunderhorn, i. 146, and Algerius, in the same, p. 353.
i Abschied vom Leben (Farewell to Life), Miinst. Gesch. u. Sag., p. 284.

Chap. X.] SOCIAL DISORDERS IN GERMANY 757

for which there was no room in a constituted society, where such ex-
periments could produce nothing but disorder and destruction, were
practicable in a world where everything had to be created. In Providence
and Pennsylvania the moral and religious ideas of the anabaptists were
first developed and reduced to practice.

CHAPTER X.

BURGERMEISTER WULLENWEBER OF LUBECK.

The disturbances created by the anabaptists were not the sole interruption
to the regular progress of the reformation in Germany. The source
whence these had sprung gave birth to other movements, which, although
they took very different directions, threatened to become equally for-
midable.

A spirit of anarchy and insubordination had prevailed in the towns
ever since the beginning of the sixteenth century ; and now that the
commonalty took so active a part in carrying out the reformation, the
religious movement could not fail to be tinctured with this democratic
spirit.

Nevertheless, respect for established political institutions was a leading
principle of the German reformation. In by far the greater number of
towns, the lawful authorities kept their place ; indeed, there were only
two of the larger ones in which the old councils were completely over-
thrown, Miinster and Liibeck.

To these two cities, therefore, all restless and innovating tendencies
impetuously rushed.

At Miinster, where the clergy had always been paramount, attempts
were made, as our readers have seen, to establish a kind of socialist
theocracy.

A strong moral or intellectual impulse, if allowed its free course, will
always set at work the most peculiar powers and instincts of the organiza-
tion upon which it acts. Now Liibeck, the centre of the Hanse towns, had
interests of a mercantile and warlike nature ; and precisely these were
the most powerfully acted upon by the prevailing democratico-religious
spirit. The incidents which occurred there were not less remarkable
than those in Miinster, but of a totally different character.

But in order to understand them, we must first cast our eyes round the
theatre on which they were acted.

The first consideration that will strike us is, that the power of the old
Hansa rested on two main points ; first, the union of all the maritime
towns of Germany, from Narwa to Bruges ; and, secondly, the ascendancy
which the more central of them — the so-called Wendish cities — had
acquired over the Scandinavian kingdoms.

In that age Scandinavia was still of the greatest importance to the com-
merce of Germany. Calculations were published at the time, of the
possible products of the mountains of the great peninsula, the plains of
the Vorlande, and the surrounding sea ; the copper and iron of- Sweden ;
the furs of the northern, and the masts of the southern parts of Norway ;
the produce of the cattle-breeding and the agriculture of Denmark ; above

758 SCANDINAVIA AND THE HANSA [Book VI.

all, the profits arising from the herring fishery, which supplied the whole
of northern Germany as far as Swabia and Franconia ; and lastly, the
advantages of the command of the Sound.1

As governments were now continually springing up, anxious to improve
the natural resources of their country for their own profit, the northern
kings had long been trying to oppose a check to the excessive influence
of the cities.

This would not have been of great moment, had not the union between
the latter been dissolved. In the private war which broke out in 1427,
between the Wendish cities and Erich, the sovereign of the united king-
doms of Scandinavia, the Netherlands severed themselves from the former,
obtained peculiar privileges, and followed their own separate interests.
Liibeck was indeed, in the fifteenth century, strong enough to prevent their
acquiring an ascendancy ; but it was not able completely to counteract
their influence in the East.

When Christian II., the last of the kings who wore the united Scan-
dinavian crowns, married the sister of Charles V., he was not only intent
on securing powerful political allies, but also on gaining a firm support
for his commercial schemes in the Netherlands.

We accordingly find that he was assisted in his attempt on Sweden by
the Netherlands — especially by the dowry of the Burgundian princess ;
and immediately afterwards, in defiance of all treaties, began to violate
the privileges of the Hansa. Hanseatic merchants were detained at
Schonen, ships coming from Riga carried off, and new and exorbitant
duties imposed. The king's wish was, to emancipate himself completely
from Liibeck, and to raise Copenhagen to be the great emporium of the
trade of the North. The Hanse Towns were fully persuaded that the
king, contrary to all he had signed and sealed and sworn, aimed at nothing
less than the ruin of the maritime towns.

The gallant resistance made by Liibeck is well known. It was she who
sent to Sweden Gustavus Vasa, the enemy and rival before whom Chris-
tian's star paled, and she supported him with all her might. When Stock-
holm surrendered to him, the keys of that city were presented to the two
town-councillors who accompanied the Liibeck fleet ; by them they were
then delivered to the new king, who had just granted them a most liberal
and advantageous charter.2

Nor was the share which Liibeck took in the change of affairs in Den-
mark much less important. When Frederick of Holstein accepted the
crown offered him by the aristocracy of that country, and repaired to
Copenhagen, a Liibeck army accompanied him by land, and a Liibeck fleet
was ready to support him by sea.

Severin Norby, who still for a while kept Christian's flag afloat in the
Baltic, at length succumbed mainly to the exertions of the navy of Liibeck,
which burnt his ships on the coast of Schonen.

From that time, Christian incessantly menaced the country from which

1 Summarium von allem was die drei Reiche Denemark, Schweden und Nor-
wegen an whare und anderm vermugen ; im Archiv zu Brussel. Summary of
all that the three kingdoms, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, possess in wares
and other property. In the Archives at Brussels.

2 Regkmann liibliche Chronik ; otherwise a mere repetition of Bonnus, has
an article peculiarly confirming this statement.

Chap. X.] CHRISTIAN II, 759

he had been driven, with an invasion. He formed an alliance with England ;
raised troops in Germany with the aid of his kinsmen and friends ; sent
ships to sea against the Hanseats from Zealand and Brabant ; and, as he
still had communication with the interior of the country, and an imperial
party still existed in the towns, he was always feared. Lubeck enjoyed
the franchises jt had obtained, without molestation, mainly because the
two kings could not do without her assistance against their menacing foe.

Their alliance was drawn closer when Christian, notwithstanding the
protestant zeal he had formerly manifested, returned to Catholicism ; and
now, supported by efficient aid from the emperor, seriously prepared to
make an effort to recover his throne. It is, however, clear that there was
not always the best understanding between the brothers-in-law. While
Christian was arming in Friesland, an imperial envoy endeavoured to
bring about a reconciliation between him, king Frederick of Denmark,
and the Hanse Towns. King Frederick declared that he would submit
to an arbitration if Christian consented to do the same, and, above all,
to suspend hostilities ; a proposal which the envoy hastened to lay before
Christian in Friesland. That monarch, however, answered him with
violent complaints, that after being so long an exile from his country, he
was not yet to be permitted to return to it, nor to be restored to his
rightful throne.1 Instead of disbanding his troops, he marched without
delay into Holland. That which he could not obtain by fair means, he
extorted by force — ships and money. He knew that the court of Vienna
approved of his undertaking (if not at the present moment, yet on the
whole) and wished for the same results. The emperor had often enough
declared that he regarded Christian's cause as his own. Netherland
merchants afforded the king voluntary assistance ; the houses of Frei of
Campen, Schultis of Enkhuysen, Bur of Amsterdam, and Rath of Alkmar,
were mentioned as those to whom he was chiefly indebted for the funds
necessary to his designs ; and he, in return, granted them the most ad-
vantageous charters. On the 15th October, 1531, they set sail from
Medenblik.

The Lubeckers now addressed themselves to the League of Schmalkald.
They declared that nothing less was intended than the destruction of
protestantism, and that there was an express understanding with ah the
bishops to that effect. King Frederick offered to join the League of
Schmalkald with his hereditary domains, if at least the most considerable
members of it, Saxony, Hessen and Liineburg, would conclude a similar
treaty with him in respect of his elective kingdom.2 For, he said that,

1 Literae Banneri ad Caesarem, de gestis apud Vandalicas civitates, s. a.
Brussels Archives.

2 The acceptation generally given must be so modified. " Your grace will be
pleased to know," says King Frederick in a letter to Landgrave Philip, dated
St. John's Day, 1531, " that we are earnestly well inclined to enter upon a union
and alliance of our kingdom, and also our hereditary domains, concerning secular
affairs, commerce and transactions, with you and our beloved uncle, the Elector
of Saxony, together with the duke of Liineburg." If this alliance should be
concluded, " we are consequently not disinclined, but, on the contrary, fully
minded, then to contract a union, understanding and alliance, on behalf of our
hereditary dominions alone, with all electors, princes, counts and estates attached
to the evangelical party." The landgrave hoped that Hamburg, Rostock,
Wismar and Stade would also join.

760 CAPTURE OF CHRISTIAN II. [Book VI.

however strong his attachment to the evangelical cause, he would be
prevented from expressing it by the power of his bishops, every one of
whom had a great following of nobles.

Thus, as a counterpoise to the influence which Catholicism had exer-
cised on the one side, an attempt was made to implicate the scarcely
formed anti-catholic league in these political affairs. But it did not
succeed. Elector John would not hear of this twofold character of a
member of the league ; nor indeed was it necessary. No sooner had King
Frederick given theLubeckers sufficient security for the trade with Holland,1
than four Liibeck men-of-war put to sea, before the Danes had made any
preparations. Christian had indeed landed in the meantime in Norway,
and had, without difficulty, gained possession of the whole of that country,
with the exception of a few fortified towns ; but the Liibeck cruisers burnt
his ships on the coasts, provisioned Aggerhus, and formed a central point
for the greater force which assembled in May, 1532 ; relieved Aggerhus,
and compelled Christian to negotiate, to capitulate, and finally to surrender
himself into the hands of his enemies. As far as I have been able to dis-
cover, it was the delegate from Liibeck who counselled the perpetual
detention of Christian.

As the Dutch were parties to this defeat, they instantly began to feel
the consequences of it. In the summer of the year 1532, above four
hundred merchant vessels were lying useless in the ports of Holland ;
there were ten thousand boatmen out of employment, and wheat rose to
double its usual price.2 While Christian was in Norway, King Frederick
had allowed himself to be prevailed on to sign an ignominious treaty ;
but in virtue even of that he now claimed compensation, which he rated
extremely high, and which the Netherlands refused to pay. The king
dismissed the ambassadors of the stattholderess with an unfriendly
message ; upon which the Liibeckers took the confiscated church treasures
out of the sacristies, and fitted out a squadron with them, which, in the
year 1533, lay in the Sound.

Upon this, the great towns of Holland fitted out a fleet to chastise that
of Liibeck — " the rebel and foe to his majesty."

They insisted on the high dignity with which their sovereign was in-
vested, as if that gave a greater colour of right to their proceedings.

It seemed as if matters must come to a decision by arms, now and for
ever, between the two divisions of the ancient Hansa ; especially since the
democratic faction in Liibeck, the rise of which during the religious troubles
we have noticed, was now at the helm, and engaged in these affairs with
the most ardent zeal.

In the early and primitive days of Liibeck, when, as in Venice, a share
in the administration of public affairs was regarded as a burden, a statute
was framed, according to which a man who had sat two years in the
council, was at liberty to quit on the third.3 People had, however, long

1 Bonnus and Regkmann : " with the assurance that they would again

assist the city of Liibeck against the Hollanders, and not allow them afterwards
to sail through the Sound with so many ships."

2 Wagenaar, Niederlandische Geschichte, ii. 423.

3 " Des driden Jaers sol he frye sin des Rads, men he moghe id dann mit
Bedde von erne hebben, dat he soeke den Rad." — " The third year he should
be free from the council, unless he be requested to offer himself as a member

Chap. X.] GEORGE WULLENWEBER 761

been accustomed to regard this burden as an honour, and were jealous of
sharing it with anybody. Nevertheless, the rising faction interpreted the
statute to mean that no one should be allowed to sit more than two years
in the council ; consequently, that a third part of the college must be
renewed every year. The most active supporter of this construction was
George Wullenweber, one of the directors of the Hundred and Sixty-
four ; he probably thought it the best means of getting possession of the
supreme power, with an appearance of legality ; and it was entirely
approved of by the excited citizens. In February, 1533, the council was
renewed, and Wullenweber was one of the first elected to it ; scarcely
had he sat a fortnight, when (8th March) he was chosen biirgermeister.
This completed the overthrow of the constitution of Liibeck. Wullen-
weber now united the power of a popular leader with that of a lawful
magistrate. He seemed determined immediately to prosecute the war
with Holland with the utmost vigour ; ordering even the great chande-
liers of St. Mary's church to be taken down and cast into guns.

But before he proceeded further, changes took place which gave his
activity a totally different direction.

It was natural that the northern governments, delivered from the
enemy they had so long feared, should not cling so closely to the cities
which had hitherto afforded them protection. They were now once more
free to feel the oppression which these protectors exercised over them ;
— the obstruction which they offered to their own commercial activity.
In the victory of Liibeck over Holland, they could not possibly see any
direct advantage to themselves ; for there too a democratic faction, against
which they had a natural antipathy, had gained the upper hand. Had
they not reason to fear that it might excite similar agitations among their
own subjects ?

While things were in this state, King Frederick died at Gottorp, in
April, 1533, and a number of pretenders to the Danish crown arose.
Frederick's sons, of whom the one, Duke Christian, was inclined to
protestantism, the other, John, was trained in the catholic faith, had
both numerous adherents ; the latter, especially among the higher clergy.
It is affirmed that a distant relation, Joachim of Brandenburg, also put
in claims to the succession, and ventured to entertain hopes. Others
thought of the elector of Saxony. The memory of Christian was not yet
wholly effaced, but the house of Austria hastened to set up a new pretender
in his place ; Count Palatine Frederick, to whom the emperor gave the
daughter of Christian in marriage.

In this general uncertainty, Liibeck thought it might also have a voice,
and that it perceived in what direction its interests lay. Wullenweber
went to Copenhagen, and addressed himself first to the council of state
on the subject of the Dutch war ; but he found no encouragement. He
then turned to the nearest protestant pretender, Duke Christian, and
offered him his assistance to obtain the crown. Duke Christian had, how-
ever, sufficient prudence and reserve to decline this. Wullenweber saw that

again." — Becker, ii., p. 54. I do not know on what grounds Barthold rests his
interpretation of the statute, in his article on Wullenweber, in Raumer's Taschen-
buch, for 1835, p. 37. It is as follows : — No man shall sit for more than two
years in the council, unless the citizens propose an extension of the term, for
some special reasons.

762 HENRY VIII. OF ENGLAND [Book VI.

he should gain nothing by a war with Holland, if, meantime, he lost
Denmark. He conceived the idea of taking advantage of the confusion
of the moment, and establishing in that country the dominion of his
city (and consequently his own), on a firmer and more extensive basis
than ever. He thought that he might reckon on the sympathy of a party
in the country, and at the same time on the support of one of the great
powers of Europe.

A part of the Liibeck fleet which had put to sea against the Dutch, had
touched on the English coast, when its commander, Marcus Meier, had
ventured to land without a passport, and had been arrested and lodged
in the Tower of London. This happened just at the time in which
Henry VIII. (as we shall have occasion to relate more at length) had
entirely broken with the see of Rome, and had determined to emancipate
his kingdom from the power of the pope ; he was, therefore, looking round
on every side for allies to assist him in his defence. We have a resolu-
tion of his privy council, in pursuance of which an embassy was to be
sent to the Hanse Towns (among other places), in order to form an
alliance with them.1 Considering also the growing coolness with the
emperor, it could not be a matter of indifference to the English whether
the throne of Denmark was filled by a prince in the interest of the house
of Burgundy, or in that of its opponents. It is, therefore, no wonder
that the king, instead of punishing the commander of a fleet which had
taken the sea against the Netherlanders, invited him to his presence, and
negotiated with him. From the documents extant it appears that Marcus
Meier promised, in the name of his party and his city, that no prince should
mount the Danish throne whom Henry VIII. did not approve. Henry,
on the other hand, showed himself ready to support Liibeck in its under-
taking, and hoped to gain over the king of France to the same cause.

Meier returned to Liibeck, full of this most unexpected result of his
expedition.

This man had formerly been a blacksmith at Hamburg, but had left
his trade to enter the army. He served first in that body of adven-
turers which Christian II. collected in Friesland, and conducted into
Holland and then to Norway. Here he was taken prisoner, but he imme-
diately seized the opportunity to take service with Liibeck. This unquiet
community was just the element for him ; he attached himself to the
rising chiefs of the popular party, and as early as the year 1532, the com-
mand of the troops destined for the Turkish war was entrusted to him,
and he marched to the frontier and back again, through the whole German
empire, at their head. He next, ready for either kind of warfare, went
to sea ; and he returned from England, decorated with a gold chain and
the honour of knighthood. He now began to play a great part in Liibeck,
keeping a vast retinue of servants and horses, and going, after the some-
what barbaric fashion of that age, dressed with the utmost possible
splendour ;2 he was young, handsome, and brave ; and, of course, found
favour in the eyes of the principal citizens' wives. By a marriage, con-
tracted shortly after his return, with the rich widow of the lately deceased
biirgermeister Lunte, he gained a footing among the patrician families ;

1 Propositions for the King's Council, in Strype's Memorials, i. 238. State
Papers, i. 411.

2 Sastrow, i. 115.

Chap. X.] AND MARCUS MEIER 7&3

and, at his wedding, the captain of the city, surrounded by a mounted
band, escorted him from the Holstein Gate.

Marcus Meier had, from the first, been on very intimate terms with
Wullenweber ; their intimacy now became closer than ever. At the
sittings of the Hansa they appeared at the head of a numerous retinue,
in glittering armour, and preceded by trumpets. The good fortune that
had hitherto attended them, gave them confidence in the future.

Their first efforts were directed towards ruling in Lubeck itself.

There were still in the council sqme of the former members, and these,
as may be imagined, did not concur in all the propositions of the inno-
vators. At Easter, 1534, they were turned out of office without ceremony,
notwithstanding the utter repugnance of such a proceeding to the principles
laid down by Luther. The superintendent, Bonnus, would no longer
look on while the authorities were attacked, dismissed, and banished ;1
he, therefore, sent in his resignation.

Their main object now was to have their hands free in politics and war ;
and they therefore determined, though after some hesitation, to conclude
a truce with the Dutch for four years ; even on the condition of granting
the free passage through the Sound, demanded by Holland.

They could now direct all their thoughts and plans towards the North,
where things assumed the most favourable aspect for them.

In the Danish cities, nay, even in the capital of Sweden, as well as on
the south of the Baltic, there were civic bodies impatient of the yoke of
an oppressive aristocracy.

In Denmark the citizens had discovered, after the lapse of some time,
that the expulsion of Christian II. had been of no benefit to them. All
the immunities from burdens which that king had granted them, had
been gradually revoked. They were especially indignant that the nobility,
not content with the enormous privileges it enjoyed, endeavoured to get
the profits of commerce into its hands.2 The two burgermeisters, Jorg
Mynter of Malmoe, and Ambrosius Bogbinder of Copenhagen, both
Germans, entirely shared Wullenweber's democratic sentiments. Pro-
tected by Frederick, Jorg Mynter had introduced the reformation into
Malmoe, and would not allow it to be put down, as the national council
seemed to intend. They promised the Lubeckers that, as soon as their
men-of-war should appear off the Danish coasts, they would abandon
the council, and fight openly on their side. It appears as if it had been

1 Letter of Hermannus Bonnus to the extraordinary Council, 4th May, 1534.
Starke, Liibekische Kirchenhistorie, i., Beilage, nr. v.

2 Address from the commons of Copenhagen to Queen Mary, May, 1535
(Brussels Arch.), specifies the reasons for their irritation, " Darum das dieses
Richs Raidt und der Adel, fiber das sie unsern rechten Konig — entsetst, bisher
mit manigfaltiger unredlicher Beswerung nicht weniger uns denn alle andere
Stette und gemeinen Mann im ganzen reich fon unsern, christlichen Freiheiten
und Gerechtigkeiten gezwungen, die Kaufmannschap hinweggenommen," &c. —
" Because that the council of this kingdom, and the nobility, besides that they
have deposed our rightful king, have hitherto with manifold, dishonest, and
intolerable conspiracies, forcibly suppressed our christian liberties and rights,
taken away our privileges as merchants," &c. The last complaint is also re-
ported in the Rerum Danicarum Chronologia, in Ludewig Reliquae MSS., ii.,
p. 70, auf. Nobilitatis osores gravissimi ob negotiationes quas exercebant
ditiores.

7^4 FERMENT IN LOWER GERMANY [Book VI.

concerted that both cities should join the League of the Hansa ; but on
this point the authorities are not unanimous.

Very similar views were entertained by Andres Handson, master of
the mint at Stockholm ; with whom all the German citizens, and a part
of the Swedish, seem to have been in an understanding. King Gustavus
affirmed that their designs aimed directly at his life, and that powder
was laid under his seat in the church, with the intention of blowing him
up in the sight of the assembled congregation.

If we remember that, in all the Hanse Towns, nay, in all nether Germany,
the popular inclinations had manifested themselves in a similar manner,
and though repressed for the moment, were by no means entirely extin-
guished ; — if we combine with this the popularity acquired in the West
by anabaptism (which was only a religious cloak for the democratic
principle), we shall perceive how mighty was the agitation which shook
the North German world. It was a ferment like that preceding the revolt
of the peasants, which had not then penetrated lower Germany, but had
been arrested and quelled on its frontiers. Now, however, — after a lapse
of ten years, — lower Germany was in a state of agitation not less violent.
At the time of the peasants' war, some few towns partook of it ; now,
they were its leaders and champions. Lubeck, which Bonnus calls the
capital of all the Saxon tongues, led the way. What was to be expected if
bold demagogues were already masters there, and had at their disposal
the means for the execution of their plans ?

But the cities now, like the peasants before them, could not do with-
out a commander of noble birth. They engaged the services of Christopher
of Oldenburg, who, though a canon of Cologne cathedral, was a brave
warrior and a zealous protestant. As a child, his mind had been richly
stored with history ; and, when at a riper age, he had repaired to the
court of Philip of Hessen, it was thoroughly imbued with that mingled
spirit of war and religion which then reigned there ; he had afterwards
assisted in putting down the peasants, and in delivering Vienna ; he was
not without elevation of mind, and had all the parts and qualities of a
gallant soldier.

It was, however, impossible that a member of the house of Oldenburg
should adopt the quarrels of a few burgermeisters without solid grounds ;
or, at the least, without a plausible pretext.

The Liibeckers determined to allege that they were about to liberate
and reinstate on his throne the captive king Christian, whom nobody
had more bitterly hated, or more successfully sought to injure, than they.
Yet there was a certain tincture of truth in this. The object they had
immediately in view, was not their mercantile interests (which Christian
had thwarted) ; but the democratic, or rather anti-aristocratic, which
he had always espoused.1 But they took ample precautions as to the
former. Count Christopher promised that, if he conquered, he would
cede Gothland, Helsingborg, and Helsingor to the Liibeckers, whose
ascendancy in the Baltic would thus have been secured for ever. Nay,
he gave them the assurance that he would deliver King Christian into
their hands, as soon as he had rescued him from prison.2 What a power

1 See Hvitfield, G. ii. Pontanus ap. Westphalen, 1144.

2 Declarations of Wullenweber in his Interrogatorium ; authenticated by
Gebhardi, ii. 135.

Chap. X.] COUNT CHRISTOPHER'S SUCCESSES 765

over the three Scandinavian kingdoms would they have acquired by the
possession of the person of their legitimate monarch !

For they were resolved not to suffer Gustavus Vasa to remain in Sweden ;
they had even thought of setting up the young Svante Sture as a temporary
rival and competitor.

In May, 1534, Count Christopher entered Lubeck. The present inten-
tion of the inhabitants was to seize upon the property of the cathedral,
which they meant to confiscate at the death of the bishop. Christopher
took Eutin without difficulty. His attack on some castles in Holstein,
such as Trittow, which he conquered, and Segeberg, was merely in order
to give occupation to Duke Christian, and in the meantime, undisturbed
by him, to attain his ends in Denmark.1

Disregarding the means of defence which Duke Christian instantly
raised, and the advantages which he obtained, Count Christopher, eager
to complete the great work, put to sea at Travemunde, on the 19th June,
1 5 34, with twenty-one ships of war.

Never did an invading army find a country better disposed for its
reception. The burgermeister Mynter put out to meet the fleet, with
the news that he had raised a revolt in Malmoe, and had got possession
of the citadel, which he had destroyed. Hereupon Christopher cast
anchor some miles in front of Copenhagen. As soon as he showed himself,
the insurrection, for which everything was ready, and which, like those
in Germany, was directed against the nobles and the clergy, broke out in
Seeland. In Roschild the multitude plundered the bishop's palace and
delivered up the city. They fell upon the castles of the nobles and razed
them to the ground. The majority of the nobles, solely to save their
lives, consented to renew their former oath to Christian II., and in an
unusual form. On the 15th of July, Copenhagen went over; Laaland,
Langeland, and Falster followed the example of Seeland without delay.
Nothing was wanting but the arrival of the count in Malmoe, to carry
all Schonen with him. In Funen it seemed for a moment as if the revolt
of the peasants, which had just arisen, would be put down by the council
of state and the nobility ; but some small succours from the count sufficed
to insure a victory to the peasants, and recognition to the exiled king.
There remained only Jutland. A pirate, named Clemint, who had joined
Count Christopher in Malmoe, fell upon Aalborg ; and collecting the
Jiitish peasants around him, soon drove the nobles and their heavy cavalry
out of the field.

While these tidings were coming in, the syndic of Lubeck, Doctor Olden-
dorp, one of the most active members of the reforming party — a man
" of unquiet spirit," to use the words of old Kantzow — travelled through
the Swedish cities, to invite their participation in this undertaking. He
was personally a representative of the democratic interests, and he now
unfolded the most flattering prospects that it was possible to conceive
it may easily be imagined how he was received by the people. A few of
the old councillors opposed him, but in vain. The Stralsunders threw
their burgermeister, Claus Smiterlow, into prison, carried the cannon on
board the ships of war, and elected a new council. The expenses of the
war were to be paid by forced contributions from the richer sort, without
any assistance from the people. The old burgermeisters of Rostock
1 Wullenweber declared that these schemes related only to Denmark.

766 LUBECK AND ENGLAND [Book VI.

were compelled by force to give their assent to the preparations for war.
All the towns of the surrounding countries were roused to attempt great
things. Reval and Riga sent contributions. Nothing was heard of but
Lubeck. " Had the cities succeeded as they hoped," says Kantzow,
" not a prince or a nobleman would have been left."1

Meanwhile the people of Lubeck did not neglect to cultivate their friend-
ship with England. On the 30th May, they sent three councillors to that
country, to express to the king their sentiments as to his quarrel with the
pope, to offer him their alliance against the see of Rome, and at the same
time to request his support and assistance in their own affairs.2

We have before us the copy of a treaty of the second August, 1534, accord-
ing to which they also left the king the free disposal of the crown of Den-
mark, in case he desired either to take possession of it himself, or to
recommend another candidate ;3 while he, on his side, confirmed all their
ancient privileges, gave them a sum of money, and promised them further
support.

One symptom of the impression which these events made in Europe
may be found in a letter of the archbishop of Lund, in which he begs the
emperor to reflect on the consequences of an alliance between the Hanse
Towns and England ; how easily Holland might then be invaded, and an
insurrection raised there ; and conjures him to take some means to prevent
it. He added, that if the emperor thought himself bound by his treaties
with the house of Oldenburg, he might declare war in the name of Frederick
of the Palatinate and the youthful Dorothea. There was living in Lubeck
one Hopfensteiner, formerly in the service of the archbishop of Bremen,
who incessantly entertained the imperial ministers with reports of the
great regard still paid to the emperor's interests in the Hanse Towns,
and represented an enterprise of this kind as very easy. The archbishop
of Lund offered, in case of need, to carry on the war in his own name.4

But before the imperial court, or the government of the Netherlands,
could resolve on a measure of so decisive a kind, the Liibeckers had met
with a resistance in the North, which daily assumed a more formidable
character.

1 Kantzow's Chronik von Pommern, in the accurate edition of Bohmer, p. 211 .

2 Oratores missi de villa de Lubicke, in Rhymer's Foedera, vi. ii. 214. Further
information on these affairs may be expected from the continuation of the State
Papers. It is remarkable that the king wished also to form an alliance with
the Hamburghers, " for the redressing and amending of the injuries doon to his
majestie by the bishop of Rome." Articles were to be laid before them for their
acceptance, e.g., " Against Goddes prohibitions the dispensation of the bishop
of Rome or of an other man is uterlie nought and of no value "; the same which
were after laid before the Liibeckers, and also some others specially relating to
the bishop's government : they were to send twelve ships to the king's assist-
ance, and raise 10,000 men at his cost — 3,000 horse and 7,000 foot. Printed in
the Report of the Rec. Commission, App. C.

3 If he would do neither, for he was as yet undecided, they engaged to repay
his loan. " Alle und itlik Geld, so S.K.M. der Stadt thorn besten vorstrecket."
— " All and every money which H.R.M. had advanced for the benefit of the
city." Words of the treaty, which Dr. Schmidt had the kindness to procure
me from the Bremen Archives.

* Literae Archiepiscopi ad Oaesarem et Dm. de Granvella, in the third volume
of the Imperial Documents at Brussels. The letter of the 1st of August, 1534,
is particularly worthy of note.

Chap. X.] DUKE CHRISTIAN OF HOLSTEIN 7&7

Duke Christian of Holstein was a man of tranquil, North-German
temper : a nature not lightly moved, but when once urged by necessity,
capable of acting with admirable perseverance and discretion. He had
already shown of what he was capable, by the manner in which he had
introduced the reformation into the duchies. His mind and character
were profoundly penetrated with the religious and moral spirit of the
German reformation. He sang the Lutheran hymns with as much fervour
as any worthy artisan of an imperial city. Perjury he visited with new
and increased penalties. To read the Bible, to listen to passages from
history, to converse at table with some learned divine or wise statesman,
to follow the discoveries in astronomy — such were his pleasures. His
political and military acts were, as we see, based on deep and solid grounds,
and prompted by elevated motives and tendencies.1

To this prince the leaders of the popular party in Liibeck had, as we
have stated, offered the crown of Denmark ; he had declined it, because
he would not owe it to force, and they had, in consequence, directed their
first hostilities against him ; being at length irritated, and earnestly
supported both by his subjects and his neighbours (and among them the
landgrave of Hessen), he at length took the field with a considerable force,
in the intention of chastising the Lubeckers for their attacks.2 In Sep-
tember, 1534, he appeared before the city, and, in order to cut off the
communication with the sea, proceeded without delay to block up the
Trave. Marcus Meier protested that he should not succeed in this. But
Meier's arrangements only proved his complete unfitness for serious
warfare. The Holsteiners first took possession of the bank of the Trave
as far as Tremsmuhle ; they then took up a strong position on the opposite
bank, on the Burgfeld, and connected their posts by a bridge which
effectually closed the river. All attempts of the Lubeckers both by land
and water to get possession of this bridge were fruitless ; they were re-
peatedly beaten before the eyes of their wives and children, and were
forced to yield other important points. The city which was laying plans
to get the whole North under its influence, saw itself cut off from all
communication with the sea at its very gates.

The first and most urgent of all necessities for Liibeck was, to rid itself
of so imminent a foe. Already misunderstandings broke out in the city ;
the citizens were discontented, the Hundred and Sixty-four resigned, and
even in the council the men in power encountered resistance. They were
compelled to enter upon negotiations with Holstein, which they were
no longer in a condition to conduct according to their wishes. We have
no accurate information either concerning the preceding movements in the
town, or these negotiations ; but it is evident that the latter embraced the
affairs of Denmark as well as those of Holstein, and that a considerable
approximation was made between the parties. Duke Christian seemed in-
clined to make some concessions, and Wullenweber declared that he
would have consented to the terms of peace, had not Dr. Oldendorp
prevented him. Thus it happened that they agreed on nothing but the
affairs of Holstein ; Liibeck ceded all that she had taken from Holstein.
But a stranger peace was never concluded. Whilst the contracting

1 Eragius, Historia Christiani, iii., p. 395. Hemming, Oratio funebris ad
calcem historiae Craginae.

2 Chytraeus, Hist. Sax., p. 408.

768 CHRISTIAN ELECTED KING OF DENMARK [Book VI.

parties agreed about Holstein, each reserved to itself the right to continue
the war with all its might concerning the affairs of Denmark. 1

But these also were decided by the personal qualities of Duke Christian.

Such were the straits in which the states of Denmark found themselves,
in consequence of attacks from without and revolt within, that they had at
length, although not without strenuous resistance on the part of the clergy,
determined to elect the duke to the throne.

By this measure all the fears of the protestants of that kingdom, which
had been very lively, were dissipated. In their manifesto, the Lubeckers
had spoken of the introduction of pure religion as the chief object of their
undertaking. This was now of course without a meaning, and all the
sympathy that they could look for on this score, had vanished.

Now, moreover, the interests of Denmark were defended by an able and
courageous champion. As he would perhaps have yielded too much in
the camp before Liibeck, so he would afterwards perhaps have consented
to extend anew the privileges of the Lubeckers ;2 but they would be con-
tented with nothing less than the disposal of the kingdom and the crown.
There was now no other resource therefore than the sword. Without loss
of time, Duke Christian turned with his victorious .troops from Liibeck to
Jutland. Even in December, 1534, he succeeded in retaking Aalborg and
pacifying the whole province. His two brothers-in-law, the king of
Sweden and the duke of Prussia, took up arms for him ; the former by
sea and land, and the latter by sea only. His other brother-in-law, the
duke of Pomerania, sent him subsidies which arrived just at the critical
moment. Two or three Hessian companies, which he had had with him at
Liibeck, marched with him to the North. Throughout a great part of
Norway he was already acknowledged king.

On the other side, the Lubeckers once more collected all their forces.

They succeeded in gaining over to their cause a neighbouring prince,
Duke Albert of Mecklenburg.

Duke Albert, who had adhered with great fidelity to the party of the
deposed and imprisoned Christian, subsequently declared that he had
received no pay from Liibeck ; his only motive was, " that it seemed to
him good and praiseworthy to set free an anointed king, who, contrary
to bond and seal, had been thrown into prison."3 It was said that the
crown of Denmark, or even that of Sweden, had been promised to him
as a recompense for his services. It does not appear that any such direct
and positive engagement was entered into ; according to Wullenweber's
declaration, the promise made to him was, that Liibeck would protect him
in the possession of whatever he might obtain from King Christian.4

1 Regkmann's Chronicle (p. 176) agrees with the Interrogatorium of Wullen-
weber, if accurately compared. Only Regkmann gives some conjectures, e.g.,
that Wullenweber's enemies would not permit that Liibeck should be aggrandized
by him.

2 According to a letter of Hopfensteiner, 20th of January, 1535, the king
promised, first, that the captive king Christian should be well taken care of ;
secondly, satisfaction given to Count Christopher ; thirdly, restitution of what
Liibeck had expended on the kingdom of Denmark, " in his father's time ";
fourthly, much more liberty and justice than they have hitherto had, and also
certain towns as pledges : — " but they would not consent."

3 Albert's Declaration, Monday after Reminiscere, 1537. (Brussels Archives.)
* Interrogatorium.

Chap. X.] CHRISTIAN III. 7$9

It is possible, however, that more distinct views were held out to him";
according to Hopfensteiner,1 the plan of the Lvibeckers was, that, if King
Christian was liberated, Duke Albert should continue to govern Denmark
as regent, while the king should be maintained suitably to his rank in
Liibeck ; they enjoying all the advantages they had ever claimed, — Hel-
singor and Helsingborg, with the tolls, Gothland, and perhaps even Calmar
and the Swedish mines. On the 9th April, Duke Albert embarked at
Warnemiinde. He seemed to have made preparations for a permanent
residence in Denmark ; taking with him his wife, who was with child,
His court, and even his huntsmen and hounds, in order that he might
enjoy the pleasures of the chase, after the German fashion, in the thick
forests of Denmark. It was of great advantage to the Liibeckers that a
distinguished prince of the empire, sovereign of no inconsiderable territory,
had espoused their cause. It inspired the Danish towns likewise with
courage and confidence. Hitherto they had borne the- whole weight of
the contest alone ; but Albert brought some independent power to their
aid, and was rather to be regarded as an auxiliary than a salaried com-
mander. Wullenweber, who accompanied the duke, at length succeeded
in bringing about an understanding between him and Count Christopher,
who had, at first, shown considerable dissatisfaction. . Shortly after,
a Liibeck squadron brought further reinforcements, under the counts of
Hoya and Tecklenburg.

Meanwhile Marcus Meier, who had been sent to Schonen, had bestirred
himself there with great success. He executed one of his usual daring and
dexterous manoeuvres. Being taken prisoner, he turned his ill luck to
such good account, that he got possession of the very castle in which he
was imprisoned — Warburg, in Holland.

The two parties were, as we perceive, very equally matched ; perhaps
that of Liibeck and the cities was somewhat superior in numbers.

The question was no longer, as perhaps at an earlier period, whether
the ecclesiastical reform would extend to Denmark ; its destiny was com-
pletely secured by the accession of a protestant king. The question
rather was, whether the ecclesiastical reform would combine with a political
revolution ; whether the democratic principle which, emanating from
Liibeck, had spread itself over the whole North, would be triumphant
there, or not ;— the same question which, from the moment of its first
agitation at Wittenberg, in Carlstadt's time, had kept Upper (and more
recently Lower) Germany in that state of ferment which had just been
so terribly quelled in Munster.

The whole force of the democratic principle was now united at this
remote point of the North. Had it conquered, it would have caused a
fresh and mighty reaction in Germany.

On the nth of June, 1535, on the spot where of yore Odin was wor-
shipped with sanguinary rites — where legends of the greatness of the
house of Oldenburg, mutilated by its own divisions, have their seat — ■
on the island of Funen, not far from Assens, near the Oxnebirg, this awful

1 Hopfensteiner, 26th November, 1534, at which time the negotiation was
already begun. The prospect of gaining Mecklenbtfrg contributed the most to
bring about the rejection of Christian's proposals. Wullenweber declares that
he neither prevented the peace, nor engaged duke Albert on his side ; but that
this was done by others : this account is perfectly consistent.

49

77Q VICTORY OF CHRISTIAN III. [Book VI.

question was decided. On both sides were Germans and Danes. The
royal party were led by Hans Rantzau, who had won his knighthood at
Jerusalem, and had traversed the whole of Europe ; and who combined,
in a still higher degree than his master, zeal for protestantism, and love
of arts and science,1 with address in the council and valour in the field ;
the troops of the cities were commanded by the count of Hoya. Rantzau
conquered, — like Landgrave Philip at Laufen — like the princes in the
peasants' war — by the superiority of his cavalry and artillery. It was
in his favour that the enemy did not wait for him, but made the first
onset and fell into disorder. The best men of the cities' army fell, and it
sustained a total defeat.2

At the same time the fleets met at Bornholm. The king's fleet included
Swedish and Prussian, that of Lubeck, Rostock, and Stralsund ships. It
was now to be decided whether the princes or the cities were henceforth
to be the masters of the sea. The battle had already begun, when they
were parted by a storm ; but the royal fleet was evidently superior ; the
Danish admiral Skram, who commanded it, captured a great number of
Lubeck trading vessels on the coasts.

Christian III. was thus victorious by land and by sea. Fiinen had
been forced immediately to submit, and did homage to him at Odensee.
With the help of the fleet, which arrived at that moment, he crossed over
to Seeland, where he was received with great joy by the nobles. The
inhabitants of Schoningen did him homage as soon as he appeared. War-
burg was soon retaken, and used as a pledge between Denmark and Sweden.
In the beginning of August, 1535, the conquests made by the cities were
once more reduced to Malmoe and Copenhagen.

Notwithstanding this, the possession of these two points would still
have rendered a resumption of their former plans possible, had not the
discontents which had arisen at the first reverses, ripened meanwhile
into a complete revolution.

And lastly, that interposition on the part of the authorities of the empire
in the internal affairs of Lubeck, which the imperial envoys had two years
before demanded, was now energetically put in practice. The city was
admonished by a mandate of the Imperial Chamber to reinstate the ex-
pelled biirgermeisters and all the members of the town council. In itself
this mandate would have had little effect ; but it expressed a demand
which was now imperiously heard in almost all the other cities of Lower
Germany, and was, therefore, supported by public opinion. Above all,
the Lubeckers felt that they were beaten ; their world-embracing plans
had encountered an invincible, nay, a triumphant resistance ; the energy
of the democratic spirit was broken by their failure.

On the 15 th of August, 1535, the council convoked the commons, and
laid before them the mandate of the Imperial Chamber. The moment in
which Wullenweber was on a journey of business in Mecklenburg was not
taken without design. The commons first convinced themselves that the
mandate contained nothing about the re-establishment of the ancient
ecclesiastical forms ; and, being satisfied on that point, declared themselves
ready to obey it, and to put a stop to all innovations in temporal things.

1 Chytraeus : oculus nobilitatis eruditse in his terris fulgentissimus. See
Christiani, N. Gesch. von Schleswig und Holstein, i. 479, ii. 54.

2 Craghis, Historia Christiani III., p. 95.

Chap. X.] REACTION IN LtJBECK 77*

At the next sitting of the council, George von Hovelen, who had been
made biirgermeister against his will, rose up and took his old place among
the councillors. The councillors appointed by the commons perceived
that, under these circumstances, they could not maintain their posts, and
quitting their chairs, they resigned their dignity. We may imagine the
astonishment of Wullenweber when he returned and found so complete
a change effected in his absence. He had long ceased to possess the
popularity which had raised him to power, and no effort to regain it had
been of any avail. He, too, was compelled to resign. Recalled by his
fellow-citizens, escorted into the town by a hundred and fifty old friends,
and the ambassadors from Cologne and Bremen, — for the Hansa happened
to be sitting, — Nicholas Bromse re-entered Lubeck.1 A recess was drawn
up, in virtue of which the evangelical doctrines were retained ; while, on
the other hand, the council was reinstated in its former rights. The
lutheran principle, which demanded only a reconstitution of spiritual
things, and allowed the temporal, wherever it was possible, to subsist, was
here, too, triumphant.

It was obviously no longer to be expected that the Danish war could be
carried on with vigour. Gert Korbmacher, the miner, who joined another
expedition to the Sound, expresses his disgust at the little earnestness
that was shown in it.

The war however went on, though feebly enough; and sometimes new
and extensive plans were connected with it.

From the trial of Wullenweber, it appears indisputable that he had
intended to resume his schemes and enterprises. There were at that time
a few bands of landsknechts, under the command of a colonel named
Uebelacker, recruited in the name of the count of Oldenburg in the Hadeln
country. Wullenweber set out to join them. On his trial he declared,
that his intention was to lead these troops across the Elbe at Boitzenburg
and before the walls of Lubeck, without delay ; his partisans would have
opened the Mohlenthor to him, he would have overthrown the council,
and have established a completely democratic government, together
with anabaptism. But even in his examination, these plans appear in
the light of half-matured projects ; and before his death Wullenweber
utterly denied them,2 and especially retracted all personal accusations
of participation which had been extorted from him. It is difficult to
reject a confession, the most material points of which were made without
the fearful agency of the rack ; but it is utterly impossible to ground any
belief on a declaration which the accused retracted at the moment of his
death. The existence of these plans, therefore, must for ever remain
problematical. If they ever existed, they could have had no other result
than that which we have already witnessed. Wullenweber fell — as he
had been forewarned — into the hands of his bitterest enemy, the arch-
bishop of Bremen, who, as in his quality of spiritual lord he could not
stain his hands with blood, gave him up to his brother, Duke Henry of
Brunswick. Here he was subjected to the examination above men-

1 Becker, Geschichte von Liibek, based on Reimar Koch und Lambert von
Dalen, ii. 91-95.

2 In Article 31, he says, "They have never entirely concluded the affair of
the anabaptists ; but one thing brought on another."

49—2

772 CHARACTER OF THE AGE [Book VI.

tioned,1 accused by both Denmark and Liibeck, and because he would not
deny all that he was accused of, condemned to die according to the old
forms of the German law. The justice of the land pronounced that "he
might not have done unpunished that which he had done." He was
beheaded and then quartered.

Wullenweber is a perfect representative of the rash and perverse spirit
which was rife, during that period, among the inhabitants of the German
cities. He had begun, like so many demagogues in other towns ; the
talent of leading a mobile population at his pleasure, and the natural
force of the political and religious interests, elevated him to a station
whence he could dare to intrude self-supported among the great powers
of the world. He knew no moderation ; failures did not teach him caution ;
he evoked once more the ancient spirit of the Hansa, prevailed on German
princes to engage in his wars, and contracted alliances with foreign poten-
tates. Motives of all sorts, — democratic, religious, mercantile and political
— were confusedly blended in his mind ; he entertained the project of
making the reformed Liibeck the centre and head of the democracy of the
North, and himself the director of this newly organized world. But he
thus deserted the sphere of the ideas which had given force and success to
the German reformation ; the powers which he attacked were, at length,
too strong for him ; the reverses which democracy suffered on every hand
reacted on his native city : the ground was thus cut from under his feet,
and he fell into the hands of his enemies. Having failed to conquer
the North, the only alternative that remained to him was to die on the
scaffold.

It is altogether a remarkable generation which we here find engaged in
conflict. Bold demagogues who have raised themselves to power, and
stubborn patricians who never for an instant give up their cause ; princes
and lords who make war for war's sake ; and others who steadily con-
template an object which they pursue with persevering resolution : all
robust, violent, aspiring natures ; all connecting some public interest with
their own private advantage. Among them, and second to none in
capacity, the aged king, to whom the greater part of all that was con-
tended for, legally belonged ; whose name sometimes resounded in the
fight as a war cry, but who expiated the sins of his youth by an endless
captivity. Victory declared herself on the side of the strongest. She
could neither be won by those who had not yet thoroughly secured their
own cause, nor by those who had adopted projects to which they were
in fact strangers. Victory remained with the duke, raised to the royal
throne, who fought with ardour and energy for himself, and who was
connected with the existing and the past by his policy, and with the

1 In Regkmann's Chronicle there is a report of his last accusation and execu-
tion, with some of his letters written from his prison. Strangely enough, the
defence has thus been published without the accusation. The trial, which I found
in the Weimar Archives among the Wolfenbiittel papers, has been of great use
and value to me. Wullenweber confessed but few of the charges, and those the
most doubtful ones, under the torture. On the other hand, there is much of
another kind without any immediate relation to the criminal accusation, and
rather of an historical nature, which is occasionally strikingly confirmed by
passages of the Chroniclers not generally considered authentic, or by forgotten
documents. Of course, I have admitted nothing that Wullenweber denied
again before his death.

Chap. X.] DECLINE OF CIVIC COMMUNITIES 773

progressive and the future, by his religion. All the intrigues of foreign
potentates were abortive. In the year 1536, Christian III. (we shall see
hereafter under what combinations) took possession of his capital, and
remained master of the field.

Independent, however, of all personal considerations, it may be affirmed
that the enterprise of Lubeck was no longer compatible with the spirit
and circumstances of the times. Those great communities which, in the
middle ages, pervaded and bound together all states, and the organiza-
tion of which is one of the most striking peculiarities of that period of
history, were now on the eve of complete decomposition. In presence of
an all-embracing sacerdotal order, and of an equestrian order which bound
the whole nobility of the West in a sort of corporation or guild, civic
bodies might also aspire to extend their commercial monopoly over king-
doms far and near. But with their contemporary institutions they too
were doomed to fall. The principle which pervades modern history tends
to the mutual interdependence of the several peoples and kingdoms, in all
political relations. That Lubeck should emancipate herself from the hier-
archy, yet think to maintain a commercial supremacy (and not by the
natural superiority of industry, capital, or skill, but by the force of com-
pulsory treaties and edicts), involved an historical contradiction.

But it must not be supposed that the influence of Germany over the
North was thus destroyed. On the contrary, it was now established on
a more liberal but a firmer basis than ever. It was no longer the influence
of force, but of intelligence. Who does not know what efforts were made
in earlier ages to carry Christianity into the North from Germany ? yet
an accurate investigation will convince us that England was far more
instrumental to its conversion. That alliance of a specially religious
nature which Anscharius and his successors failed to bring about between
Germany and the Northern kingdoms, was now effected, though in another
manner, by the reformation. The destruction of the influence of Lubeck
did not prejudice protestantism ; scarcely had Christian III. taken Copen-
hagen, when he proceeded to introduce its doctrine and rites as they pre-
vailed in Germany, under the direction of the same Wittenberg theologian,
who had reformed so many parts of lower Germany — Doctor Bugen-
hagen. This system of faith struck root there, with the same rapidity
and depth with which it had established itself in Germany, and formed the
basis of the intimate union of the whole moral life of the North with that
of Germany. From that time, the same current of thought, the same
development of ideas, has distinguished the German and the Scandinavian
portions of the great Teutonic family. In the North, too, the church
severed herself from the restless domain of politics ; her whole activity
was confined to the intellectual regions.

We have observed the same result in all the events of the latter years
of our history.

Zwingli, who contemplated not only a purification of faith and doctrine,
but a radical change in the Swiss confederation, and especially the pro-
gress of democratic ideas, had fallen ; his political projects had failed ;
ill the last days — perhaps the last moments — of his life, he could seek
consolation only in the prospects of the church. The anabaptist move-
ment, which aimed at so complete a change of all the conditions of society,
was suppressed, and, in Germany, annihilated. Even the general agita-

774 INTRODUCTION OF SYMBOLICAL BOOKS [Book VI.

tion of the middle classes of the trading cities, which had been connected
with the schemes of Liibeck, proved fruitless, and necessarily subsided.
It seemed as if the religious principle which had arisen in its own peculiar
strength, could endure no such intimate connexion with politics.

The chief anxiety of the reformers was, to protect their faith from all
interpretations which could lead its followers into these devious and
dangerous paths.

To this anxiety may be attributed the introduction of symbolical books
among the protestants. In order to secure themselves from the propaga-
tion of anabaptist opinions, the Wittenberg teachers once more solemnly
adopted the resolutions of the early assemblies of their church, in which
the doctrines of the Trinity, and the two natures in Christ, were originally
established ; as had already been expressed in the Confession of Augs-
burg. They held it necessary to render conformity to these doctrines
indispensable both to theological advancement in the universities, and
to appointments in the church.1

Not that they meant by any means to hold up their Confession as an
eternal and immutable rule or norm of faith. In the negotiations carried
on with England in the year 1535, the case was expressly pronounced
possible, that some things in the Apology and Confession might, on further
examination of God's word, be found susceptible of correction and im-
provement.2 Nor, keeping in view the relations with Switzerland, can
it be denied that the doctrine itself was in a state of living progress and
construction. The connexion formed by Saxony with the Oberlanders,
which, spite of a great approximation, did not amount to a complete
adhesion on the part of the latter, involved an influence of their dogmatic
views on those of Saxony ; we shall shortly see how earnest were the efforts
made to bring about a complete amalgamation.

The example of Saxony was soon followed by the cities of lower Ger-
many. In April, 1535, the preachers of Bremen, Hamburg, Liibeck,
Rostock, Stralsund and Liineburg entered into a convention, in which
they determined, that, in future, no one should be permitted to preach
who did not solemnly subscribe to the sound doctrines contained in the
Confession and Apology. This appeared to them the only means of
keeping down anabaptists and other heretics, who would otherwise throw
everything in church and state into confusion.3

1 Statu ta collegii facultatis theologicae in Forsteman, Liber Decanorum, p. 152.
Volumus puram evangelii doctrinam, consentaneam confessioni quam Augustae

exhibuimus, — pie proponi ; — severissime etiam prohibemus spargi haereses

damnatas in synodis Nicaena, Constantinopolitana, Ephesina et Chalcedonensi,
nam harum synodorum decretis de explicatione doctrinae, de Deo Patre, Filio,
et spiritu Sancto, et de duabus naturis in Christo nato ex virgine Maria assenti-
mur, eaque judicamus in scriptis apostolicis certo tradita esse.

2 Petitio illustrissimorum principum data lagatis serrac0 regiae dignitatis
25th December, 1535. The king was to promise to conform to the Confession
and Apology : " nisi forte quaedam — ex verbo Dei merito corrigenda aut mutanda
videbuntur."

3 Bericht von etlicher grossen Gemeinen Prediger Unterredung. Report of
the conference between certain great preachers. In Schroder's Evangelischero
Meklenburg, i. 301, " qui velut obliti humani nominis omnia sursum ac deorsum

miscent tarn id republica quam in causa christianae religionis ne dissimu-

latione malum irrepat atque magistratus auctoritas labefactetur."

Chap. X.] CONCLUSION 775

And, we may ask, was not this in conformity with the principle in which
the whole protestant movement had originated ?

The intention of its authors was not to prescribe new laws to the world ;
they had no desire to shake the foundations of political and social life, as
actually constituted ; their only object was, to emancipate themselves
from a hierarchy which, exclusive and worldly as it had become, still
laid claim to absolute and divine authority.

In this undertaking vast progress had now been made ; but it was far
from being thoroughly accomplished. Mighty powers, constrained by
their nature and interests to resist all attempts at separation, were still
arrayed against it. We shall still have to tell of the stern conflicts and
the various fortunes of this high intellectual warfare.1

1 The remaining four Books of Ranke's History were never translated by Mrs.
Austin, and we are still without an English version of this important part of his
work. The ground covered by the concluding volumes is set forth in the headings
which Ranke has assigned to each Book, as follows :

Book VII. : The further developments of Protestantism under the influence
of the general political situation, 1535-44.

Book VIII. : The Schmalkaldic War.

Book IX. : The Interim.

Book X. : The Epoch of the Peace of Religion.

The final Volume of over 500 pages is of the nature of a huge Appendix, and
contains a mass of extracts from original sources in amplification of the footnotes
which the historian has appended to the current text, and which have formed his
more important authorities in the compilation of his History. These extracts
are of immense value in themselves, and are a striking testimony to the industry
of research which is so characteristic of all Ranke's work. They are in each
case presented with explanatory introductions and criticisms, which are of even
greater value to the student of this period of history.

INDEX

A Hundred and Fifty Passages of the Holy
Scriptures : 537

Accolti, Cardinal : 214

Acts, the Frankfurt, of 1522 : 296

Adelmann of Adelmannsfeld : 215

Adolf of Nassau : 36

Adorno : 383

Adrian VI., Pope : bias towards Refor-
mation, 270-271 ; result of death of,
313. 321

^Eneas Sylvius : see Pius IX.

Agricola : see Huesmann

Agobardus : 5

Aichili : 360

Albania : Duke of, 398

Albert II. : 24

Albert of Bavaria : 65 ; appointed Cap-
tain-General of Empire, 71

Albert of Bavaria-Munich, surnamed the
Wise : 30, 48, 50

Albert of Brandenburg, surnamed
Achilles : 29, 34, 35-36, 41 ; and
Frederick the Victorious, differences
between, 35-36; Grand Master of
Teutonic Order in 1511, 477 ; marriage
of, 481-482

Albert, Elector of Mainz, Archchancellor
of Germany: 151, 157, 209

Albert of Mecklenburg : 721

Albert of Prussia, Grand Master : 302,
328, 332-333

Albert of Saxony : 48, 55

Aleander, Geroniono : 213, 214-5, 216,
221, 235, 239, 243, 245, 318, 406

Alexander III., Pope, and Frederick I. :
meeting between, 17

Alexander VI., Pope, and the Inquisi-
tion: 117

Alexander of Hales : 115

Alexander the Black of Veldenz : 78

Alfonso of Castile : 19

Alliance of Lutheran Princes : 419

An den christlichen Adel deutschen Nation
[Luther]: 216-218

Anabaptists, doctrines of : 730-739, 742-

744 ; in Miinster, 734 - 753 ; in

Zurich, 527-528 ; persecution of,

734, 754 ; reaction against, 754-756

Unitarian, 728-729

Anhalt, Reformation in : 720

Anhalt, Wolfgang von : 617

Anna of Brunswick : petition of, to Diet

of Mainz, 109
Annates : 123 and note, 273
Anschauenden, Die [Hutten] : 210
Anspach, Diet at, 1528 : see Diet
Antiquity, study of, in Germany : 139
Antony of Lorraine : 355"
Aquinas, Thomas : 115, 153
Architecture, Church, activity in : 119
Arimbold: 151
Armagnacs, the : 39
Art, subjection of, to Church : 119
Articles of Faith, Schwabach : 569, 570
Augustin Eremites, German Provincial

Society of: 141
Augustines of Meissen and Thuringia,

emancipation of: 277-278
Augsburg, Bishop of, testimony of, in

favour of Lutherans : 281
Augsburg Confession : see Confession
Augsburg, Diets of 1500, 1510,1518 : see

Diet
Augsburg, patriotic action of: 690
Austria, House of, unpopularity of :

575
Avignon, Papal Court at : 21 and note

Baber, Sultan: 113

Babylonish Captivity of the Church [Luther] :
218-220, 279

Bach, Walter : 358

Baden Conference, 1526 : 529

Bagdad, Califate of : 13

Baier, Dr. Christian, Chancellor of
Saxony : reads Confession of Augsburg
before Assembly, 605 and note

Balbi, Hieronymo : 133-134

Bamberg, Bishop of : action of, 471 ;
toleration towards Lutherans, 281

Ban Bathyany : 458

Barcelona, Treaty of, 1529 : 541-542

Basle : decretals, acceptance of, at Rome,
23 ; Ecclesiastical Assembly of, project
of, 22 ; final triumph of Evangelicals
at, 53'

Basle, Government of, maintains balance
between the two faiths : 530

Basle, Bishop of: attitude towards Lu-
therans, 281

Bathory, Stephen : election of, to Palati-
nate, 448

776

INDEX

777

Baumgartner, Jerome : 471

Bavaria, Dukes of: alliance of, with
Rome, 319, 321-322; nearly always
opposed to Empire, 500 ; plots of,
against Charles V., 500

Bayard, death of: 393-394 and note

Bebel, Heinrich : 133

Beccaria, Matteo : 398

Behaim, Hans : political schemes of,
336

Beichlingen, Count von : 716

Berlichingen, Gotz von : 101, 102 and
note, 103

Bern, City of: protestations of, 645;
sides with democratic party, 530

Bernhardi, Bartholomew : renounces
vows of celibacy, 250

Berthold, Elector and Archbishop of
Mainz : 59-60, 226, 227, 300, 302, 307 ;
death of, 74 ; director of Diet at Lindau
1496, 61-62, 64 ; Maximilian's dread of,
74 ; popularity of, 75

Besler of Nuremberg : 281

Bicocca, Battle of : 385-386 and note

Blaurer, P. Ambrosius : 279, 718 and
note

Bockelsohn, Jan, of Leyden : see John of
Leyden

Bogislaw X. of Pomerania : 76, 282

Bohemia : confusion in, 447 ; election of
Ferdinand to throne, 453-454 ; es-
tablishment of bishoprics in, 10; throne
of, Dukes of Bavaria aim at, 451

Bohemia and Hungary : occupation of,
446-459

Bohemian Brethren, Society of : 140

Bokler, the : 33

Boklerbund, the : 140

Boleyn, Anne : 550

Bologna : conference at, 1529 : 589-590 ;
peace of, concluded at, 590

Bologna : conference at, 1532, between
Charles V. and Clement VII., 696

Bomer of Nuremberg : 281

Bonnivet, Admiral : 178, 187, 390, 391,
392 ; retreat of, 393 ; commands Im-
perial army, 395

Book 0/ German Theology : 142

Bosso, Count, election of, as King of
Burgundy : 8

Bourbon, Duke of, Constable of France :
388, 389, 398, 412, 438 ; death of, 442 ;
flight of, 391, 394, 395-6; march to
Rome, 438-440; meeting with Lannoy,
438, 439; victory before Rome, 441-

443
Boyneburg, Ludwig von : 162, 167
Brahminism : ill
Brandenburg, Reformation in, 469-470,

473 ; rising power of, 33
Brandenburg, Albert of : see Albert
Brandenburg, Bishop of : action of, 215
Brandenburg, Casimir of : see Casimir

Brandenburg, Elector of : 271
Brandenburg, George of : see George
Brandenburg, House of: aggrandisement

of, 168
Brandenburg, Reformation in : 469-470,

473
Brandesser : 385
Brand, Sebastian : 126, 128
Breitenstein, Sebastian von, Abbot : 339
Bremen : disturbances in, 669-670 ; joins

League of Schmalkald, 673
Brenz, Johann, of Hall : 281
Brismann, Johann, of Cottbus : 278
Briick, Dr. : 683-684 and note
Bruges, Treaty of : 387
Brunfels, Otto: 279, 335
Bruno, Archbishoj) of Cologne : 12
Brunswick, disturbances in : 667-668
Buddhism : 111-112 ; re-establishment

of, in Thibet, 13
Bugenhagen, Dr. Johann, of Pomerania :

279, 283, 721 ; on right of resistance,

572
Bull of Leo X. against Luther : 211-216,

273. 318, 319
Bundschuh, the : 106 and note, 107, 242
Burckhard, Franz, of Ingolstadt : 319,

328
Burgundy and France : disputes between ,

22
Burgundy, House of : 39
Busch, Hermann von dem : 133
Butjadinger, the : 100-101
Butzer, Martin : 278-279, 650 ; efforts at

mediation, 651-653

Cadan, Peace of: 709 ; importance of, to
Protestant cause, 717 ; stipulations of,
709-710, 716, 717

Cajetan : 292 ; and Miltitz : 192-196

Calais, conference at : 375

Califate, Fatimite, founding of: 13

Calif ate of Bagdad : 13

Calixtus, Pope : 28

Cambray : Peace of [1527], terms of,
544 ; Treaty of [1508], 89-90, 92

Cammin, Bishop of : 721

Campaign of 1521-1522 : 376-387
,, of 1523-1524 : 387-397 ; defeat of
French, 394

Campeggio, Cardinal Lorenzo : 213, 497 ;
goes to England, 548 ; instructions to,
549; opinion of, 595, 600; proposals
of, 322, 325 ; reception of, in Germany,

314-315
Canossa, Henry IV. at : 17 and note
Canossa, Ludovico, Bishop of Bayeux :

395
Cantons, the Five, 642
,, the City : 642, 643
Cappel, Battle of : 660; first peace of, 645
Capuchins : political schemes of, at

Eichstadt, 336

778

INDEX

Caraffa, Giovan Pietro : 213

Carlrriann : 7, 10

Carlstadt, Dr. Andreas: 148, 201, 216,
220, 342-343 ; and Eck, disputation
between, 199, 201-204 ; attacks institu-
tion of celibacy, 251, 252-253 ; disputa-
tion with Eck, 199, 201-204; innova-
tions introduced by, 255 and note, 256 ;
exiled from Saxony, 335-336 ; explana-
tions of, 522, 523 ; preaches at Orla-
munde, 334"335

Casimir of Brandenburg : 224, 331, 357,
362, 365, 369, 457, 464, 470; death of,
458

Castelalt, Francis of : 383, 385

Catharine, Archduchess : 179, 186-187,

224. 327

Catharine de' Medici : 695

Catholicism in Switzerland : re-establish-
ment of, 664-665; Spanish, 535-538

Celtes, Conrad, of Leipzig : 133

Chamber, Imperial : 77, 98, 161-162 ;
and Cities, 306-310 ; and Swabian
League, 297; block of business in,
263 ; compromise arrived at, 686 ;
defects in constitution of, 108 ; diffi-
culties arising from proceedings of,
685 ; disputes with reformers, 714, 715 ;
extension of, 631-632, 639; mandate
of, 770 ; opposition excited by , 99 ;
reconstruction of, 128 and note, 313 ; re-
establishment of, 84; reform of, 55-56

Charlemagne : 3, 10, 25 ; religious char-
acter of war against Saxons, 3 ; as
uniter of Germanic tribes, 6

Charles the Bald : 7

Charles the Fat : 8

Charles IV. : 22, 24

Charles, King of Spain and Naples : 176;
elected ' ' King of the Romans ' ' as
Charles V., 190

Charles V. : abandons idea of judicial'
mediation at Diet of Augsburg [1530],
606 ; alliance with Duke of Bourbon,
390 ; alliance with Henry VIII.,
387 ; Markgrave George of Branden-
burg ; applies for subsidy, 230 ; arms
triumphant in Lombardy, 540 ; arrival
and entry into Augsburg [1530], 598-
600; attitude towards Clement VII.,
439 - 440 ; attitude towards Diet of
Spire [1526], 427 ; attitude towards
Lutheran agitation, 234-244 ; attitude
towards protest submitted by Diet of
Spire [1529], 570 ; Augsburg Diet,
negotiations at [1530], 621-629 ; calls
upon Protestants to conform, 622 ;
Catholic admonition published by, at
Seville, 418, 424 ; challenge to Henry
VII., 497; claims on France, 387 ; com-
bination of Western Europe against,
415-416 ; concessions to Protestants,
687-688 ; conduct towards France and

Papacy, 407-408 ; conference with
Clement VII. [1599], 589 ; conference
with Clement VII. [1532] at Bologna,
696 ; coronation as Roman Emperor
elect [1521], 224 and note; coronation
at Bologna as Emperor of the Romans,
591 - 592 ; designs on Italy accom-
plished, 445 ; effect of his policy, 327 ;
efforts of controversialists to obtain his
support, 222 223; election of, as King
of the Romans, 189-190 ; feelings to-
wards Clement VII. , 426-427 ; illness,
689 ; in Italy, 586-595 ; invites Ferdi-
nand to attack Italy, 431 ; loyalty of
Germans to, 433 ; manifesto, 432 ;
Margaret, Archduchess, cautions, 425 ;
marriage, 418 ; negotiates with France,
543 ; negotiates with Francis I. and
Venice with a view to supporting
Five Cantons, 663 ; opposes project
of committee of discussion at Diet
of Spire [1526], 424 ; overtures to
Clement VII., 430; peculiarity of his
position, 374 ; perplexities of, 685 ;
plan for avenging insults offered to
Christ, 596, 597 ; plans regarding
Clement VII. after conquest of Rome,
488-489 ; position of [1529], 533-536 ;
proclamation at Diet of Augsburg
tI53°]. 596 ; proclamation to Empire,
326 ; projects of [1599], 551-552 { pro-
spect of recovery of Imperial Rights,
373 ; public spirit of, 690-691 ; quarrel
with Wolsey, 491-492 ; reception of
news of victory of Pavia, 403 ; relation
to See of Rome [1523], 234, 243, 245 ;
remonstrated with upon continued
captivity of Clement VII. , 493 ; re-
proaches levelled against, by Catholics,
088 ; rupture with fourteen Cities, 625 ;
rupture with Protestant Princes, 625 ;
scheme of government, 227 ; sentiments
towards Reformation, 539, 542; sever-
ance of intimate relations with Frede-
rick of Saxony, 327 ; singular situation
["1527], 439 ; situation of, after Treaty of
Madrid, 415 ; strong position of, at
time of Diet of Augsburg [1530], 610 ;
sympathies secured for Rome [1524],
325-326 ; sympathy with anti-Luthe-
ran alliance of German nobles, 418 ;
threatens to resort to force against
Lutherans [1530], 623-624; treaty with
Leo X , 374 ; unforgiving nature of,
413 ; urges execution of Edict of
Worms, 424 ; war with Francis I. ,
376 ; wins over Henry VIII., 375-376;
wishes as to divorce of Henry VIII. ,
492-493

Charles VII. of France : 40

Charles VIII. of France, and Princess
of Brittany : 52-53

Charles, Duke of Gueldres : 67

INDEX

779

Chatelain, Jean, of Metz : condemned to
the flames, 277-278

Chieregati, Papal Nuncio : 271, 276

Chievres, Lord of : 232

Christian I., King of Denmark : 32

Christian II., King of Denmark: 169,
758-760 ; deposition of, 760 ; return to
ancient faith, 596-597

Christian of Holstein, Duke : 767 ; elected
King of Denmark as Christian III.,
768 ; victory of, 770

Christianity, causes of its superior in-
fluence over human race : 113-114

Christopher of Oldenburg : 764-765

Christopher of Wiirtemburg : 700-706

Church and State : mutual relations be-
tween, 2,4; papal party in, advantages
of, 362 ; foundation of National, in
Germany, 372-484

Churches, Grseco-Oriental and Latin,
division between : 113

Circles, proposal to divide State into :
97-98

Cirksena, Ulrich : 30

Cities, attitude of : 33 ; and Imperial
Court, 306-310 ; and upper classes,
points of dispute between, 307-310 ;
great meeting of delegates from, at
Spire, 330-331 ; wrongs endured by,
103-105

Cities, Imperial : 33 ; attitude of, 42-43 ;
complaints of, 90, 91, 109, 307 ; meeting
in Spire, 308 ; take part in Peasants'
War, 346-347 ; treatment of, 42

Cities of Westphalia : Reformation in,
722-728

Cities, the Fourteen : rupture of, with
Charles V., 625-626 and notes.

City Cantons, the : 642-643

Clara Dettin of Augsburg : 34-35

Clarenbach, Adolf: persecution of, 507-
508

Classes, Upper, and Cities : points of
dispute between, 307-310

Clement VII. : absolves Francis I. from
oath, 414 ; action against Duke of
Ferrara, 405 ; aims of, 313 ; alliance
with Charles V., 549; attacks the
Colonnas and Neapolitan territory,
431 ; claims Milan and Ferrara, 407 ;
conduct of, towards Wiirtemburg, 707 ;
congregation held by, 318, 321 ; con-
sents to truce with Colonna, 430 ;
breaks truce, 431 ; courageous attitude
towards Charles V., 408; desire for
peace, 588-589 ; fears, 494 ; ill-feeling
towards Florence, 541, 590; imprison-
ment in St. Angelo, 430, 445 ; misunder-
standing between and Charles V., 405-
416; offended with Charles V., 694;
overtures to Ferdinand, 696; overtures
to Sforza, 696 ; overtures to the Woi-
wode, 696 ; return to Rome, 497 ; set at

liberty, 493 ; treaty with Imperialists,
407 ; war with Charles V., 416

Clergy, Roman Catholic, charges brought
against : 362 ; irritation caused by ex-
emptions enjoyed by, 125 ; self-asser-
tion of, 4, 5, 8, 12, 19

Cleves, Duke of: 166, 167, 300

Cognac, League of : 415, 416

Colloquies [Erasmus] : prohibition of, by
Inquisition, 538

Cologne, Diet of : see Diet

Cologne, Elector of : 58, 300

Colonna, Pompeo, Cardinal : assaults
Rome, 430

Colonna, Prospero : 378, 380, 381, 383,

392

Columbus, aspirations of : 536

Common Penny, the : 37-38 ; collection
of, 56-57, and note, 62, 64-65 ; imposi-
tion of, 53-5, 56 ; revival of, 97

Communities, civic, decline of : 773

Compactata of Council of Basle : 454
and note

Confederation, Swiss : 377 ;

Conference of Baden : see Baden
of Bologna : see Bologna
of Calais : see Calais
of Ratisbon : 323 and note, 324
of Schweinfurt : see Schweinfurt
of Zurich : see Zurich

Confession of Augsburg : 602-606 ; con-
futation of, 607-608 and note ; reading
of Confession before the Diet, by Baier
[I53°]1 605 and note ; signatories to
the, 606

' ' Confession of the four Free and Im-
perial cities, Strasburg, Constance,
Memmingen, and Lindau ": statement
in, 651

Congregations, Evangelical, formation
of: 460-461 ; Luther's views on, 461-463

Congress of Esslingen [1526] : 552
, , of Gelmhausen : 73

Conrad : 8

Constance, Bishop of, persecution by :
507

Constance, Constitution of, opposition
to: 28

Constance, Diet of: see Diet

Constitution of Constance : see Constance
,, of the German Empire : attempt
to reform, 40-50

Contarini, Zaccharia : 72

Convents : conversion of, into hospitals,
etc., 711-712 ; dissolution of, 466-467

Cortez : religious sentiments of, 536

Corvinus, John : 475

Council, Ecclesiastical, proposed : 273
,, Grand: 516, 518, 530-531
,, Imperial, establishment of: 69 and

note, 70, 71
,, of Florence : 113 and note
,, of Regency : 71 and note, 72, 74

78o

INDEX

225, 367 ; action of, 299, 301-302 ;
danger to, 306 ; extinction of, 77 ;
importance of, 340 ; independence
of, 264 ; meeting of, at Esslingen,
327, 338 ; opposition to, 310-316 ;
reconstruction of, 313 ; schemes of,
226-228 ; spiritual and temporal
tendencies of, 263-277
Court, Imperial, and the Cities : 306-

310
Cracow, Treaty of : 481
Craichgauer, the : 32
Crisis of Secession : 216-223
Croatia, Ban of : 449
Crown of Hungary : 577
Custom-houses : establishment of, 267

Dalberg : 129

Dare, Georg von der : 281

De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesia: Prce-

ludium [Luther] : 218-220
Deckerhans, the : 345
Defection from the Papacy, First : 192-

223
Denk, Hans, teachings of : 728-729
Deza, Diego, Grand Inquisitor : 537
Diet of Anspach [1528] : 470
,, of Augsburg and its consequences

[1500]: 69-75
,, ,, [1510]: 93-96; refractoriness of,
95 ; rejection of Maximilian's
plans, 96
,, ,, [1518] : 158-162; antagonistic

attitude of States, 160-162
.1 ., [I525]: 368-371; adjournment
to Spire, 370 ; contradictory in-
structions to delegates, 369 ; meet-
ing of, 369
• > >> [153°]: 629 ; action of Catholic
majority at, 606; attempts of States
to mediate, 618-621 ; demands of
Catholics at, 609; firmness of Pro-
testant minority, 601
,, Cologne [1505]: 75-82; remarkable

point of, 81
,, Cologne and Treves [1512] : 96-
98
Constance [1507] : 83-87 ; impor-
tance of, 85
,, Empire: 44 and note, 50; settling

forms of deliberation at, 44
,, Freiburg and Worms [1497-1498]:

62-66 ; good work done by, 66
,, Lindau [1496] : 58-62,64
,, Mainz [1517] : 108-110; complaints

at, from Cities, 109
,, Nuremberg [1521] : 263-277 ; resolu-
tions passed at, 3637
,, Ratisbon [1527] : 552
„ ,, L1528]: 552, 553
„ ,, [1531]: 680-688
,, Saxony : see Weimar
,, Scharnebeck [1527] : 473

Diet of Spire [1526] : 417-429 ; charges
against Rome, 423 ; complications
due to message from Charles V.,
425-426 ; conciliatory attitude of
Charles V. towards Diet, 427 ; de-
bates on religious abuses, 421-422 ;
report of Committee of Princes,
423-424

[1329]: 554-562; appeal to

Charles V., 561 ; manifesto to Pro-
testant Princes and signatories of,
561 - 562 ; mediation attempted,
560 ; Minkwitz speaks at, 558 ;
points of difference, 559, 560 ;
protest, 559 - 560 ; resistance of
minority, 557 ; resolutions of ma-
jority, 556

,, Treves [1512] : 96-98

,, Weimar [1532] : 710

,, Worms [1495]: 50-57; difficulties
arising out of, 58-62 ; obstacles to
execution of its resolutions, 58

,, ,, and Freiburg [1497-1498] : 62-
66; good work done by, 66 ; trans-
ferred from Worms to Freiburg, 62

,, ,, [1508] : 87-93 ; anger of Maxi-
milian towards, 93; refusal to grant
Maximilian's request, 89

.1 »> [I5I3] : I07. I08 ; abortive
nature of, 107-108

,, ,, [1521] : 223-245; edict against
Luther, 248 ; idea of representative
government revived, 231 ; Luther
before the Diet, 240
Diether of Isenburg : 36, 123

,, of Mainz: 29
Diets of 1526 and 1529 : different results

of, 574-575

Discussion, freedom of religious, estab-
lished : 277

Disputation at Leipzig : 199-204

Ditmarschers, the : 106

Divine Warning, The [Zwingli] : 528

Doctrines, new, diffusion of: 277-294;
points under debate, 290-294

Dominicans, powers of the : 117

Doria, Andrea, of Genoa : 495

Dorothea, Princess of Denmark : mar-
riage of, 481-482

Dringenberg : 129

Dschu-Adischa, Lama : 13

East Friesland : Reformation in, 474
Eberhard of the Mark : 235
Eberhard of Wiirtemburg : 55
Eberlin, Johann, of Giinzburg: 278, 280,

283, 293
Ebli, Ammann, of Glarus : 645-646
Ebner, Jerome : 471
Ecclesiastical principles, domination of

the: 118
Eck, Dr. Johann Mayr von : 156, 200-

201, 214-215, 237 and note, 279, 2g2 ;

INDEX

781

and Dr. Carlstadt, disputation be-
tween, 199, 201-204 '• attack upon, by
poets, 208 ; conversion of, to Lutheran
views, 722 ; influence of, in Bavaria,
319, 320, 325 ; treatise on the Primacy,
212-213
Eck, Leonhard von : 319, 329 note, 452
Eck von Reischach : 582 ; defence of

Vienna, 583, 584
Eitelfritz von Zollern : 392
Elector Berthold of Mainz : 300, 302, 307
Elector of Cologne : 58
Elector Palatine, the: 73, 163, 171, 300,
332, 345 and note, 355, 357"358. 365;
adverse action towards Maximilian,
73) 75 > attitude towards Reformation,
554 ; defeat of, 79-80
Elector of Treves : 355, 357"358
Emperor, German, and Papacy, coolness
between : 42-43 ; and States, failure to
apportion responsibilities and duties
of, 98 ; election of [1511], 176-190 ; title
of, 87 note
Emperors, German : absenteeism of, 24 ;
perilous position of, 12 ; preten-
sions of, 25, 26; want of force of
character among, 24
,, Saxon and Frankish : 7-12
Empire, Frankish : dividing up of, 6-7
,, German, and Papacy: struggle be-
tween, 2, 7, 8, 13, 17, 122 ; rela-
tions between, 9-20, 26-29
,, German : armament of, 690 692 ; at-
tempt to reform the constitution
of, 40-110; Diet of, see Diet;
failure to give constitution to, 98 ;
international disorders in, 98-110 ;
Knights of the, 32 ; order of suc-
cession to throne of, 5 ; proceed-
ings of [1527 and 1528], 553-556 !
secular and internal affairs of,
224-231 ; struggle for the crown
of, 11
Emser translates Bible : 325
Engilbert of Nassau : 76
England and Rome : 546 ; attacks Cher-
bourg, 388 ; beginning of modern, 40
Ennio, Papal Nuncio : 379
Epistola Obscurorum Virorum ; 138
Erasmus: 130-3, 306; complaint of, 288-9 ;

on Luther, 216
Erich of Calenberg : 76
Erich of Brunswick : 242, 457, 481
Ernst, Markgrave, of Baden : 345
Ernst of Liineberg : 332, 599, 616, 672
Ernst of Passau : 364
Esslingen, Congress of [1526] : 552 ;

Council of Regency at [1524] : 338
Estates, German, Constitution of : 45
Etzard, Count : 474

Eucharist, Luther's views on the : 568-
569 ; Zwingli's views on the, 568,
569

Eugenius IV., Pope: 22; and doctrine

of seven sacraments, 117
Eulensfiegel [Owlglass] : 126 ; cause of its
success, 126-127 : rea' purpose of, 127
Europe, changes in political relations :

488-500
Evangelical congregations : 460 - 461 ;
Luther's views on the formation
of, 461-463
,, ministers: method of selection, 460-

461
,, party, first compact formed by, 420
Excommunication : debate over principle
of, 713

Faber, John, Vicar-General of Con-
stance : 292, 294 ; change in senti-
ments, 529

Fastnachtspiele : 126

Fatimite Califate : founding of, 13

Faustrecht [first law] : 55

Fshde, custom of the : 33, 34 ; and note,
296

Fehderecht, the [right of private war] : 7

Feike, Hille : 746

Feldkirchen, Johann : 216

Felix of Werdenberg, Count : 358

Fels, Leonhard von : 582

Ferdinand, Archduke, later King of
Hungary: 210, 271, 310, 313, 314, 318,
322, 323, 328, 349, 359, 392, 476 ; and
Charles V., correspondence between
regarding threatened invasion of Hun-
gary by Suleiman, 678-680 ; at Augs-
burg [1525], 369 ; at Augsburg [1530],
600 ; at Spire [1529], 559 ; birth of
son, 457 ; claims crowns of Bohemia
and Hungary, 451 ; conciliatory atti-
tude toward Lutherans, 427, 42S ;
conciliatory measures suggested by, to-
wards Suleiman, 680 ; concludes treaty
with Sforza, 407 ; crowned at Prague
as King of Bohemia, 454 ; crowned
as King of Hungary at Stuhlweiss-
enburg, 458 ; defeated at Laufen, 706 ;
defeated by Zapolya, 576 ; election to
throne of Bohemia, 453-454 ; election
to throne of Hungary, 458 ; crowned
as King of Rome, 638 ; joy at
death of Zwingli, 662 ; loss of popu-
larity, 693 ; makes truce with Zapolya,
678 ; overtures to Clement VII., 696 ;
piety of, 456 ; powerlessness to retake
Hungary, 585 ; proposals to Suleiman
[1530], 677 ; proposed election as King
of Rome, 632, 635 ; opposition to
election by Protestant Princes, 638 ;
receives his share of German domains,
225 ; reception of ambassadors of, by
Suleiman, 689 ; refuses mediation at
Spire, 561 ; renounces claim to throne
of Wiirtemburg, and is acknowledged
King of Romans by Elector of Saxony,

782

INDEX

707 ; sends Frundsberg to Italy, 431 ;
treaty with Five Cantons, 642-643

Ferrara, Duke of : 379 ; hatred of Cle-
ment VII., 435; overtures of peace
from, 590

Five Cantons, the : and King Ferdinand,
treaty between, 642 ; peace declared,
663 ; war declared by, against Cities
[1531], 658

Florence, Council of : 113 and note

Fokko Uken : 30

Fontenay, Battle of: 6

Foreign relations under Charles V. : 232-

234. 372-484

France and Burgundy : disputes between,
22

France and Italy : alliance of, against
Charles V. , 429-445

France, attack on : 387-397, 304 ; influ-
ence of, 693-699 ; negotiations with
tI529]. 543 ; overtures to Clement VII.,
694-695 ; unity of, 40

Francis, Duke of Liineburg : 600-601

Francis I. of France : and Clement VII.,
close alliance of, 695 ; and Suleiman,
compact between, 449 ; antagonistic
attitude to Charles V., 374-375 ; aspires
to Imperial crown, 177-81, 182-83, l87-
190 ; conditions of release from cap-
tivity in Spain, 413, 414 ; duplicity of,
414, 417-418 ; efforts of Bavarians to
rouse, 500 ; Pope absolves from oath,
414 ; reconquers Milan, 397 ; taken
captive to Spain, 409 ; treaty with the
Grisons, 392 ; treaty with Italian
States, 415 ; war declared against,
326

Franciscans, emancipation of : 278

Francisco of Vittoria : 537

Franconian Emperor : election of, to
German throne, 11

Frankenhausen, Battle of : 355

Frankfort Acts, the [1522] : 296

Frankfort am Oder, University of : 156

Frankish Emperors : 7-12

Frankish Empire : dividing up of, 6-7

Frederick I. and Alexander III. : meet-
ing between, 17

Frederick II. : 18 and note

Frederick III. : 23,24,25,41 and note; atti-
tude towards Papacy, 28 ; character of,
46, 47 ; receives deputations from Im-
perial Cities, 44

Frederick of Brandenburg : 50, 55

Frederick of Denmark : 759 ; death of,
761

Frederick of Holstein : 758

Frederick of Liegnitz : 454

Frederick the Victorious, of the Palati-
nate : 27, 30, 34-36, 38, 78, 225, 294;
at siege of Vienna, 584

Frederick the Wise, of Saxony : 166, 242,
311, 312-313; alliance with Luther, 155 ;

and Council of Regency, 269-270 ; and
indulgences, 154 - 155 ; character of,
257 - 258 ; claims to Imperial crown,
189 ; death of, 354 ; declines Imperial
crown, 189 ; dream of, 155 ; elected
Statthalter of the Regency in Wurtem-
burg, 192 ; founds University of Wit-
tenberg, 142; Golden Rose presented to,
by Papal Legate, 195 ; Grand Master
of Teutonic Order [1498], 477 ; impor-
tance of his vote for Imperial crown,
186; opposition of, to Maximilian, 98;
proposal to deprive him of Electorate,
318; protects Luther, 210 -211, 216;
severance of intimate relations with
Emperor, 327

Frei, Claus, the tanner : 731

Freiburg, Diet of Worms and : see Diet

Freiburg University : dislike to Luther
in, 287

Friedingers, the : 102

Fritz, Joss : 336

Frundsberg, Caspar von : 392, 398

Frundsberg, Georg von : 242, 339, 358,
365 ; arduous march [1522], 383-386 ;
besieges Mezieres, 376; besieges Pavia,
399-401 ; goes to Italy, 431 ; hatred of
Clement VII., 432, 433 ; march of,
433-435 ; illness, 437 ; meeting in his
army, 436-437 ; urges attack on Cle-
ment VII., 407

Fugger, Mercantile House of: 151, 168
note, 187, 312, 431 note

Fiirstenberg, Philip, Count : 296, 337,
642

Gaislin, Dr. : 336

Gallman, Rudy : 660

Gamshorst : 532

Gardener-brethren of Salzburg : 729

Gauen, the : 3, 12

Gebick, the : 346

Geier, Florian : 345

Geiler von Keisersberg : 128, 130

Geissmayr, Michael : 349

Gelnhausen, Congress at : 73

Gemeine Pfennig Das : 37-38

Genoa, re-annexation of, to Empire : 387

George of Brandenburg : 470, 600 - 601

and note; at Schmalkald, 635 ; firmness

of, 616
George of Saxony : 201, 204, 268, 269, 270,

294, 298, 351, 355, 370-37L 457. 599;

action against Reformation, 360-361 ;

at Diet of Spire [1526], 424 ; attitude

towards anti-Lutheran treaty, 504 ;

menaces Lutherans, 502 ; persecution

of, 508
George Podiebrad, King of Bohemia :

29, 36
George the Rich, of Landshut : 65, 77 .
Gerbert, election of, as Pope : n
Germans, the : capitulation and defeat

INDEX

783

of, at Ofen, 577 and note ; first appear-
ance as a people, 6
Germany : growth of popular power in,
21-22 ; state of, in middle of fif-
teenth century, 29-39 ; unity of,
from what it depends, 327
,, Emperors of: absenteeism of, 24;
perilous position of, 12 ; preten-
sions of, 25- 26 ; want of force of
character of, 24
,, Empire of: altered character of, 24-

29
,, Estates of : constitution of, 45 ; light
in which Frederick III. regarded
them, 46-47
,, Princes of: attitude of, 29 ; increase
of power of, 19 ; power exercised
by. 29> 32 '• their opposition to
Emperor and Pope, 34
Geroldseck : 509
Ghibellines, the : 381
Giberti, Datanus : 406, 408, 412, 416,

432
Gliirms, Conradin von : 433
Golden Bull, revocation of articles of :

37 and note
Gossenbrod, Georg : 100
Gotha, Treaty of: 419 ; signing of, 429
Gottes-Gnaden, Provost of Neuenwerk :

279
Gottingen, disturbances in : 668
Gotz von Berlichingen : 102 note; com-
mands peasants, 344
Government, representative : see Repre-
sentative
Grseco - Oriental and Latin Church :

division between, 113
Grand Council : 516, 518, 530-531
Gregory VII. : 15, 16, 27
Gregory X. : 19
Gregory of Heinburg : 23
Greifenklau, Richard, Elector and Arch-
bishop of Treves : 178, 299-300
Gudenus IV. : 74 note
Gueldres, Duke of: 166, 171, 177, 180,

187
Guelph, House of: 31, 381
Guelphs and Hohenstaufens : struggle

between, 18
Guibert, Chancellor : 13
Giinz, siege of, by Turks : 691-692
Giittel, Caspar, of Eisleben : 282 ; teach-
ings of, 290

Haingericht, the : 346
Hal, Rudolf : 384, 385
Haller, Berthold : 530
Hamburg, organization in : 668-669 and

note
Hannart : 308, 311, 313, 327
Hanse, the : 33

,, Towns : 265 ; danger to, 758, 759,
762

Hapsburg, House of : importance of, 50
Hatzer, Ludwig : 729 ; death of, 734
Hauer, Georg : 319
Hausmann, Nicholas : 720-721
Hegius and Huesmann : friendship be-
tween, 129
Heideck, Frederick von : 747
Heinrich der Mittlere of Liineburg : 76

and note, 177
Heinrich of Kettenbach : 278, 293
Helfenstein, Count : 162 ; murder of,

344
Helfmann, Procurator : 716
Hemmerlin : protests against augmenta-
tion of Church property, 125-126
Henneberg : see Berthold, Elector of

Mainz
Henry I. of Saxony : 8, 9
Henry II. of Germany : policy of, 12
Henry III. of Germany : n, 12 ; and Pa-
pacy, n; discontent towards Papacy,
11, 12
Henry IV. of Mecklenburg : 14-15, 16,
76; at Canossa, 17 and note; crusades
mainly due to, 15 ; humiliation of, 14;
triumph of, 14-15

Henry V. of Germany : 16

Henry VII. of England : 40

Henry VII. of Germany : 25

Henry VIII. of England : 188, 326 ; and
Marcus Meier, 762 - 763 ; anger to-
wards Rome, 549 ; changed attitude
towards Charles V., 490; controversy
with Clement VII., 551 ; divorce, 546-
547 ; doubts as to legality of marriage
with Katharine, 491 ; peace with Spain,
550 ; proposals to Charles V. ; supports
Liibeck, 762; treaty with Francis I.,
490 ; views on German affairs, 676

Henry der Mittlere : see Heinrich

Henry of Brunswick : 370-371, 599; in
Spain, 417, 425 ; retreat of, 498

Henry of Mecklenburg : attitude of, to-
wards Reformation, 554, 721

Henry of Saxony : 355

Henry the Elder of Brunswick : 33

Henry the Lion : 17

Henry the Younger of Wolfenbiittel :
191

Hermann of Cologne : 723

Hess, Dr. Johann : 475

Hessen, House of : rise of, 30, 31, 77

Hessen, Landgrave of: see Philip

Hessen, Reformation in : 468-469

Hexenhammer [Hammer of Witches] :
118, 121

Hilchen, Johann : 457

Hildebrand, work of : 13

Hildesheim, Knights of: protected by
Dukes of Brunswick, 101

Hinkmar, Archbishop of Rheims : 7

" His Imperial Majesty's Regency in the
Empire " : 227

784

INDEX

History, early, of Luther and Charles V. :
m-245

Hoffmann, Melchior, the tanner : 730 ;
prophecy of, 731, 732

Hofmann, Conrad : 519 and note

Hogstraten, Jacob : 137, 156

Hohenlohe, Albert and George, Counts
of: 344

Hohenstaufen and Guelphs : struggle
between, 18

Hohenzollern, House of: rise of, 30, 31

Holstein, Frederick of : 758

Holyhusen, Hermann von : 575 and
note

Hospodar of Moldavia invades Transyl-
vania : 576

Hubmaier, Balthasar : 330 ; death of,

734

Huesmann, Rudolf of Groningen [Agri-
cola] : 129 ; and Hegius, friendship
between, 129

Hug, Hans : 529

Hiiglin, Hans : execution of, 530

Hugo of Hohenlandenberg, and Indul-
gences: 515

Hundt, Otto, of Hessen : 311

Hungary : attacked by Suleiman, 448 ;
defeat of army, 450 ; confusion in, 447 ;
fall of, 447 ; Ferdinand elected King of,
458 ; holy crown of, 577 ; occupation
of, 457 ; troubles in, 498 ; unity of, 40

Hunting-horn of Wurtemberg, the : 707

Hurlewagen, Dietrich, of Lindau : 339

Huss, John: 117, 204, 247 and note

Hut, Hans : 731

Hutten, Frowen von : address written
by, 297, 298, 301

Hutten, Hans von : 164

Hutten, Ulrich von : 208-211, 214, 215,
221, 223, 286, 305-306 ; death of, 306

Ibach, Hartmann, of Frankfurt : 281,
283

Imperial Chamber : see Chamber

Imperial Council : establishment of, 69
and note, 70, 71

Imperial crown, descent of, from Maxi-
milian to Charles V. : 158-192

Imperial troops retreat upon Naples :

495
Indulgences, Papal: 149, 150, 151, and

note; sale of, 515
Ingolstadt, University of, action of: 319
Innocent III. : 18; declaration of, 116
Innocent IV. : 18
Innocent VII. : 42
Inquisition, Dominican, the: 117-118,

537 ; attack upon, 234, 236-237
Irminsul, the : 3 and note
Isabella of Castile : 40
Isabella of Sweden : 314
Isidorian pseudo-decretals : 4
Islam; schism in, 112; superior in

strength to Christianity, 113 ; spread

of, 113
Italian Renaissance : influence of, upon

German learned literature, 128-134
Italian War [1528] : 495-497

.. .. [ISZ9]: 54°

Jacob von Ems : 209

Jacob von Liebenstein : 124

Jagellon, the race of : 446, 447

Jagjel, Prince, of Lithuania : 446

James of Baden : 80

Janse, Bishop : 141

Jerome of Endorf : 221

Jerome of Prague : 117

Joachim I, of Brandenburg : 99, 154-
15S, 169, 179," 230, 599, 600; attitude
towards alleged anti-Lutheran treaty,
504; claims to Imperial crown, 189;
treatment of wife, 508

John III. of Portugal : 327

John XII. Pope : 9

John XIV. of Oldenburg : 76

John XXII., Pope: 21

John, Markgrave of Brandenburg : 308

John of Leyden : 734, 736, 740-755 ; cruel
death of, 755

John of Planitz : 269, 271, 273, 276

John the Steadfast of Saxony : 186, 190,
327, 328, 354-355, 503 ; alienation of
Charles V. from, 612-613 and note;
and anti-Lutheran treaty, 503-506 ; and
Philip of Hessen, compact between,
368-369 ; at Diet of Augsburg [1530],
597, 599, 600; at Diet of Spire [1526],
422 ; at Schmalkald, 635 ; cause for
fear, 368 ; character of, 611 - 612 ;
death of, 687 ; high position acquired
by, 676; Luther's influence over, 612,
613 ; noble conduct of, 613 ; religious
sentiments of, 361,362; responsibility
resting upon, 610 ; sentiments regard-
ing concessions made to Imperial
Chamber, 686, 687 ; victory of, 357

John Frederick of Saxony : 368, 638

John of Torquemada : 117

John of Treves : invades Boppard, 63

Jbrsika : see George Podiebrad

Joseph am Berg of Schwytz : persecu-
tions by, 641

Junker, the, of Rosenberg : 344

Jurischitz, Nicholas : bravery of, at
Giinz, 691-692

Kaden, Michael : 570

Kammergcricht, reform of the : 55-56

Karl Martell : 3, 10

Katib, assertions and martyrdom of : 575,

576
Katzianer, Hans : 582
Kauty, Hans, of Bockenheun : 729
Kauxdorf of Magdeburg : 283
Kempen, Stephen : 278

INDEX

785

Kettenbach, Heinrich of : 278, 293
Keys, Sacrament of the : 153, 154
Keyser, Jacob : arrest and martyrdom of,
643 ; persecution of the signal for war
with Zurich, 644
Knights : complaints against, at Diet of
Mainz, 109 ; growing importance of,
302 ; power crushed, 305 ; power of
threatens security of Empire, 296-298 ;
struggle to preserve their independ-
ence, 101 ; victory over, 304
Knights of the Empire : 32
Knights, Teutonic, Order of : 302
Knipperdolling, Bernhard : 736, 742, 745
Kolbenschlag, Hans : as commander of

" black troops," 344
Kopfl, Wolfgang : 281
Kranach, Lucas : 286, 287, 481
Kreutzner, Dr. : 313
Kronenberg, Hartmuth von : 297-298, 300
Kuss, Nicholas von, of Rostock : reforms

proposed by him, 50-52, 140
Kunz of Wiirtemberg : 336

Lama Dschu-Adhischa : 13

Lambert, Francois, Franciscan monk of

Avignon : 460 ; appears in Ziirich,

517 ; disputation with Zwingli, 517 ;

further travels, 517
Lamparter, Dr. Gregory : 295, 309
Landau, Jacob von : .338
Landfriede : 36-37 note, 42
Landgrave, Philip von Hessen : see Philip
Lang, Matthew : 181 ; prebend conferred

upon, 76
Langen : 129

Langenmantel, Hans : 401
Lannoy : exaggerated rewards of, 409,

414 ; meeting with Bourbon, 438, 439 ;

treaty with Clement VII., 438
Lateran Council : 149-151 and note
Latin and Grseco - Oriental Church,

division between : 113
Laufen, Battle of : 706
Lautrec : 379, 380, 381, 384; attacks

Imperial troops, 495
League, Lion : 33 note

,, National, 33

,, proposed Evangelical : 368-370

,, of Cognac : 415-416

„ of Torgau : 418

„ Schmalkaldic : see Schmalkald

,, Swabian : see Swabian
Leagues, religious, formation of antago-
nistic : 359-371
Learning, subjection of, to Church : 118
Lebrixa, Antonio, " The Erasmus of

Spain": 536-537
Leipzig, disputation at : 199-204
Leiva, Antonio : 398, 412 ; Commander-
in-Chief in Italy, 539 - 540 ; victory

over St. Pol, 540
Lemberg, Paul, Abbot of Sagen : 279-280

Leo X., Pope : 177, 179, 188 ; and the In-
quisition, 117 ; Bull of, against Luther,
211-216, 273, 318, 319; death of, 382

Leonora, Queen, and Francis I. : 543-544

Lesch, Dr. : 364

Levita, Benedictus, capitularies of : 5

Libraries, public, establishment of : 289

Lindau, assembly of States of Empire at :
60 ; Diet of, see Diet

Lion League : 33 note

Literary spirit, effect of, on theology : 208

Literature, Learned: condition and char-
acter of, 128-136
, , Popular : tendencies and character
of, 126-128

Livonian Orders : 372

Locher of Ingoldstadt : 133

Loci Communes [Melanchthon] : 262, 325

Lodron, Colonel : 398

Lombard, Peter : 115, 140

Lombardy, war in : 588

Lord's Supper, the, controversy con-
cerning: 291, 297, 336, 471, 521-527. 569

Lords, territorial, increase of power of :
100

Lorraine, Duke of, opposition to : 58

Lothair : 6

Louis XI. of France : 40

Louis XII : prudence of, 62, 72

Louis of Bavaria: 21, 22, 163, 275, 364-
365, 449 ; death of, 450

Louis the Pious : 5, 6

Louisa of Savoy : 389

Louise, Duchess and Archduchess Mar-
garet : efforts of, to secure peace, 544

Lowenbund, the : 33 note

Lowen -Hitter, the : 33

Lowenstein, Commander of Teutonic
Order : 344

Lower Germany, ferment in : 764

Lubeck : 758, 759, 761, 767 ; joins the
League of Schmalkald, 673 ; Reforma-
tion in, 670-672

Lucas, Johann : 295

Ludwig von Lodron : 392

Liineburg and the Reformation : 473

Liineburg, Ernst, Duke of : see Ernst

Lupfen, Sigismund, Count of : 337

Luther, Martin : 140 ; advocates learning
for its own sake, 289 ; and Charles V.,
early history of, 111-157; and Council
of Regency, 270 ; and Melanchthon con-
trasted, 208; sympathy between, 206-
207 ; and Peasants' War, 353 ; and
Zwingli contrasted, 521, 522 ; alliance
with Frederick of Saxony, 155 ; appears
before Diet [1521], 240-241 ; arrival at
Worms, 240 ; at the Wartburg, 248 ;
attitude of public towards, 615 - 616 ;
aversion to violence and war, 503 ;
becomes doctor, 147 ; books burnt in
Flanders, 235 - 236 ; Bull of Leo X.
against, 214 ; burns it, 220 ; condemns

SO

786

INDEX

alliance with followers of Zwingli, 565 ;
discussions concerning, 234-240 ; early
career of, 139-157 ; enters Augustine
convent, 144 ; Erfurt University, 144 ;
Rome, 147 ; Wittenberg University,
143 ; interview and discussion with
Miltitz, 195-196; Hymns, 615 and note;
life at the Wartburg, 258 ; leaves
Worms, 243 ; nails propositions to gates
at Wittenberg ; on Babylonish Cap-
tivity of Church, 218-220; paraphrases
the Psalms, 285-286; returns to Wit-
tenberg, 259-262, 269 ; seizure of his
books, 215 ; sent for to Worms, 238 ;
sentence pronounced against, 245 ;
takes part in disputation between Carl-
stadt and Eck, 202-204 ; theological
opposition to, 234-237 ; translates New
Testament, 262 ; urges resistance to
the Turks, 580-581 ; view of position in
1530, 614 ; views on the Eucharist, 568-
569 ; views on formation of congrega-
tions and selection of ministers, 461-
463 ; views on sale of indulgences, 153-
155 ; visits Thomas de Vio, 193, 194

Madrid, Treaty of : 414, 417
Magdeburg, disturbances in : 666 - 667 ;

founding of archbishopric of, 10 ;

joins League of Schmalkald , 673
Magnus, Bishop of Schwerin : 554
Magnus of Lauenberg : 170
Magnus of Mecklenburg : 170
Mainz, Archbishop of: 62, 64; at Augs-
burg [1530], 607 ; meeting of Electors

at, 74
Mainz, Diet of : see Diet
Mainz, Elector of: 214, 215, 224, 311
Mantel, Dr. : 335
Marburg, meeting of Reformers at : 566 ;

founding of University, 469
Margaret, Archduchess: 176-177, 181,

232 ; and Duchess Louise, their efforts

to secure peace, 544
Marklin, Provost of Waldkirchen : 308,

309

Marseilles : conference at, between Fran-
cis I. and Clement VII. [1533], 698;
siege of, 396

Marsna, Treaty of : 7

Martell, Karl : see Karl Martell

Mary, Queen of Hungary : 445 ; Lutheran
leanings of, 457

Mass, abolition of, urged : 252

Matricula, A : 81 and note, 98, 161 - 162,
230

Matthias, King of Hungary: 49 note;
cruelties of, 47 ; death of, 48

Matthys, Jan, teachings of: 734, 736,
738 ; death of, 740

Maximilian, Emperor: 52-125, 163, 327;
achievements of, 171-176 ; character
of, 41 - 42, 48 - 49, 77, 171-176 ; con-

cessions of, 55 ; crosses Alps, 60 ; dis-
content of, 71 - 72 ; death of, 176 ;
death of son, 83 ; efforts to obtain re-
dress from Rome for encroachments,
122-123 ; elected King of the Romans,
41-42, 47, 50 ; excitement of, at Diet of
Freiburg, 64 ; failure to create a united
nation, 94 ; improved fortunes of, 75.
83 ; leanings towards reforms, 52 ;
national discord under, 74 ; negotia-
tions with Pope, 158 ; perplexities of,
73 ; popularity of, 75 ; project against
Turks, 158-160; proposes siege of
Venice, 94 - 95 ; schemes for a per-
manent Imperial levy, 95 ; secures suc-
cession to throne of Hungary, 50 ;
situation at close of career, 171 ; suc-
cesses of, 79 ; treatment of Ulrich of
Wurtemberg, 165 ; wrongs sustained
by, 52-53

Maximilian von Zevenberghen : 181,
183, 308

Mazzolini, Silvestro, of Prierio : attack
on Luther by, 156-157 ; pamphlet by,
211-212, 213

Mecklenburg, Albert, Duke of: see
Henry

Mecklenburg, Henry, Duke of: see
Albert

Medici, Giulio de, Cardinal : 380

Meier, Marcus, of Liibeck : 162-163, 7^7 ■
769

Meissen, establishment of bishopric of :
10

Melanchthon, Philip (Schwarzerd) : 140,
195-199, 256 257, 289, 331-332. 362 ;
and Luther contrasted, 208 ; sympathy
between, 206-207 ; appointed teacher
of Greek at Wittenberg, 195 ; defends
Luther in Paris, 249 ; instructions
drawn up by, as to doctrine of life,
465 ; opinion of Pack incident, 505,
506 ; opinion regarding union with
followers of Zwingli, 564 ; takes part
in disputation at Leipzig, 206 ; views
on religion, 206-207

Merseburg, Bishop of, tolerance towards
Lutherans : 281

Metzler, George : 343 ; commands
" white troops," 344

Milan : plague in, 397 ; reannexation of,
to Empire, 387

Military organization, efforts at : 69

Miltitz, Karl von: 194; and Cajetan,
192-196 ; interview with Luther, 195

Ministers : method of selecting evan-
gelical, 460 ; Luther's views upon,
461-463

Minkwitz, Nickel : 298 ; speech of, 558

Mohacz, Battle of : 449-450

Mollenhok : 741

Monarchy : strength of, as central power
in most European countries, 40-41

INDEX

787

Monasteries : conversion of, into hos-
pitals, 711, 712

Monastic institutions : original models
for, 280

Moncado, Ugo, plenipotentiary of
Charles V. : 430

Montpensier, Count de : 388-389

Moors, expulsion of, from Spain : 40

Morone, Geronimo : 382 ; arrest of, 412 ;
tempts Pescara, 409-411

Mortenauer, the : 32-33

Muller, Hans, of Biilgenbach : 337-338,

342,343
Miinster : Anabaptists in, 728, 734-753 ;

Bishop of, resorts to arms, 738 ;

Reformation in, 724-753 ; siege of,

748-753, and note
Miinzer, Thomas : 335, 342 ; expelled

from Saxony, 335-336, 350-352. 355
Mermellius : 133

Murner celebrates Luther in verse : 286
Mustaeus of Halberstadt : 283-284
Muth, Conrad : 134
Mutschli, Schultheus : death of, 664
Myconius, Friedrich : 278 ; vision of,

278

Nanek, efforts of, to eradicate idolatry :

in
Naples : investiture by French, 498 ;

siege raised, 496
Narrenschiff [ship of fools] : 127 ; purpose

of, 127
Nassau, Adolf of : see Adolf
Nassau, Count of : 185 ; besieges

Mezieres, 376
National League : 33
Nationality, bounds of : 1
Neustadt, assembly at : 37
New Testament, paraphrase of, by

Erasmus, prohibited : 538
Nicolas of Dresden : 253
"Nightingale of Wittenberg," the

[Sachs]: 286
Numai, Cristofero, of Foli : 151
Nuremberg : 33 ; Diet of, see Diet ;

gallant defence of, 104 ; negotiations

in, 684-685 ; patriotic action of, 690 ;

peace of, effects of, 710 ; visitation,

470-473
Niitzel, Caspar : 471

Odo of Paris : 8

CEcolampadius, John, of Basle : 279,
297, 299, 522-523, 530, 652

Order of Knights : 33 note
„ of Prsemonstratenses : 279
,, political, consequence of absence
of, in State : 100-110

Orders, Livonian : 372

Osiander : 332

Osma, Bishop, Confessor to Charles V. :
600

Osterland, establishment of bishopric

of : 10
Otho II. and the Papacy : 11
Otho III. and the Papacy : 11
Otho the Great of Saxony : 9-10, 25 ;

cause of success, 12 ; realization of

idea of Germanic Empire, 9
Otho IV. : 18 note

Ottoman invasion [153 1, 1532]: 676-693
Ottomans before Vienna : 574-586 ;

march of [1532], 681 ; retreat of, 585 ;

siege of Vienna, 581-585
" Our Lady of Mount Carmel," Brothers

of, at Augsburg : 279

Pack, Dr. Otto von : character of, 504-
505 ; dealings with Zapolya, 501 ;
forgeries, effects of, 553 ; Germany
during the affair and times of, 500-506

Paderborn, Reformation in : 722-724

Palatine, Elector : see Elector

Pallavicini, Christofero : beheadal of,
381

Papacy and Empire : struggle between,
in Germany, 2, 7, 8, 13, 17, 122 ;
efforts to concentrate forces at Diet of
Spire, 370 ; emancipation of, 13-20 ;
first attempts to resist encroachments
of, in Germany, 21-24 '• nrst defection
from, 192-223 ; Frederick III.'s atti-
tude towards, 28 ; position of, with
regard to religion, 115-122 ; relations
between Empire and, 9-20, 26-29 )
relation of, to Princes of the Empire,
16-20

Papal power : supremacy acknowledged
by Germany, 27

Paradies, Dr., of Frankfurt : 44

Paraphraseof the New Testament[Erasmns],
prohibition of, by Inquisition : 538

Parishes, visitation of, resumption of :
710-711 and note

Paschal, Pope : 15

Passau, Ernest of : 364

Paul II. : 36

Pavia, Battle of : 398-405 ; French de-
feat, 402 ; retaken by Leiva, 588

Peace of Cadan : 709 : importance of, to
Protestantism, 717; terms of, 709-
710, 716, 717
, , of Cambray : terms of, 544
,, of Thorn, 476, 478

Peasantry : state of ferment of, 105-107

Peasants' War : 334-359 ; demands of,
341, 342 ; first disturbances, 337 ; first
signs of unrest, 334-337 ; immediate
cause of, 337 ; massacre of, 357, 358-
35g ; objects of, 343, 344 ; plans of
reform, 347-349

Penitents, Hindu: 280

People and Town Councils : struggle be-
tween, 105

Pereny, Peter : 458 ; fruitless endeavour
50 — 2

788

INDEX

to rescue holy crown of Hungary for
Austria, 576-577

Persecution, religious: 507; commence-
ment of, 328-330, 360

Perusco, Maria, Papal fiscal : 157

Pescara, Marquis of: 392,393, 396, 397;
before Pavia, 399-401 ; besieges Milan,
412 ; death of, 413 ; indignant rejection
of bribes, 412 ; offer of Naples and
Sicily to, 409-411 ; slights offered to,
409

Peter of Dresden, Duke : 253-254, 388-
389

Philip of Bregenz, Archduke: 61, 62;
death of, 83 ; King of Castile, 79 ; mar-
riage with Johanna of Spain, 75

Philip, Landgrave, of Hessen : 242, 300,
59g, 600 ; and anti-Lutheran treaty,
503-506 and note; and John of Saxony,
compact between, 368-369; and Peas-
ants' War, 353-354. 355 ; at D'et of
Spire [1526], 422 ; at Schmalkald, 635 ;
campaign of, 705-706 ; cause for fear,
368 ; espouses cause of Christopher of
Wiirtemberg, 703 - 704 ; leaves Augs-
burg, 617 ; meets Melanchthon, 331-
332 ; religious sentiments and views,
361, 365, 566, 604; synod held by, at
Homberg, 460

Pirkheimer of Nuremberg : 215

Pisa, Council of Maximilian at : 122-
123

Pius IX. (jEneus Sylvius) : 23, 28, 29

Planitz : 294, 314

Plettenberg, Grand Master of Teutonic
Order : 483

Poland : establishment of bishopric in,
10 ; strength of, 40

Polenz of Samland : 280, 481

Pollich, Dr. Martin, of Melrichstadt :
143

Pomerania, Duke of : 33

Pomerania, Reformation in : 721

Popes of Rome : attributes and functions
of, 116

Popular power : growth of, in Germany :
21

Prsemonstratensis, Order of: 279

Praise of Folly [Erasmus] : prohibition of,
by Inquisition, 538

Priesthood, prerogatives of: 115-116

Princes of German Empire : dissatisfac-
tion among, 91-92 ; increase of power
of, 19 ; mutual relations of, 163-171 ;
ppposition to Emperor and Pope, 34 ;
power exercised by, 29, 32 ; relation to
Papacy, 16-20

Princes of German Empire, Protestant :
complete rupture with Empire, 625

Princes, Saxon, revolt of: 14

Principle, secular, triumph of the : 713

Proles, Andreas : 141

Proles, Johann : 277

Protestant parties, the two; attempts at
reconciliation between : 648-654

Protestants : appeal of, to Charles V.,
561 ; at Augsburg [1530], demands of,
609-610 ; firm attitude of, 617 ; dis-
sensions among, 562-574 ; negotiations
with and concessions of, 683-689 ;
origin of name, 559 ; protest of, at
Diet [1529] 559-560

Prucker : 100

Priischenk, Councillor : 47

Prussia, Reformation in : 476 482

Psalms, Luther's paraphrase of: 285-
286

Public Peace : proclaimed by Charles V.,
36 and note, 37, 38 and note, 295 ; rejec-
tion of , 38 ; re-proclamation, 42 ; threat-
ened exclusion of Protestants from, 630

Pupper, Johann, of Goch : accusations
of, 141

Queis, Erhard, Bishop of Pomerania :

Raminger, arrest of : 263
Rantzau, Hans : 770
Rantzau, Johann : 332
Ratisbon : administrator of, 322 ; con-
ference at, 323 and note, 324
Ratzenberger of Brandenburg : 508
Real Presence, doctrine of : 115
Recess of Augsburg suspended : 680
Reformation, endeavour to render it

national and complete : 246-368 ; office

it had taken upon itself, 484 ; progress

of, in 1532-1534. 7I°728
Reformation in Anhalt, 720

, , Brandenburg : 469-470

, , cities of Lower Germany : 666-672

,, cities of Westphalia : 722-728

,, East Friesland : 474

,, Hessen : 468-469

,, Liineburg: 473

,, Miinster: 724-768

, , Prussia : 476-482

,, Rostock : 669

, , Silesia : 475-476

, , Soest : 722

,, Strasburg : 649-650

,, Switzerland: 509-532, 640-648; cat-
astrophe to, 654 ; progress of,
640-648

,, Wiirtemberg : 718-719
Reformers, meeting of, at Marburg : 566 ;

persecution of, 507-509 ; Swiss, rela-
tions of, with Luther, 521
Regency, Council of : see Council
Regensburg : 38, 50 ; Diet of, see Diet
Reichsregiment : 71 and note
Reineke Fuchs : 126, 128
Relics : 119

Religion and superstition, mixture of, in
Middle Ages: 121; bounds of religious

INDEX

;89

ideas, i ; function of, i ; origin of op-
position to, 111-114
Renee, Madame, Princess of France : 179
Rennenberg : 298
Renner : 181
Representative government : attempts

at, 263 ; idea of wrecked, 313 ; spread

of spirit of, 22 ; victory of principle of,

69
Resistance of Protestants : 610-618
Reuchlin : 134-139, 197, 213 ; books

burnt, 137-138 ; trial of, 137
Revelation, movement to restore purity

of: 122
Rhagius : 133
Rhegius, Urbanus : 616
Richard of Cornwall : 19
Richard of Treves : 189
Rogier, Maitre Francois, Procurcur-genc-

ral: 545
Roman Catholic Church : at what period

did its doctrines and practices acquire

ascendency ? 115
Roman Court, exactions of: 123-124;
guilty of deception and plunder, 123

,, See, defence of : 211-216
Romans, King of the : 25
Rome : and England, 546 ; assault on,

by Colonna, 430 ; conquest of [1527],

429-445 ; financial relations of, 124 and

note ; march to, 438-440 ; sack of, 443-

444 ; storm of, 441-443
Rbsch, Councillor : 308
Rosenbliit, Hans : 126
Rostock, Reformation in : 669
Rotenhan, Sebastian von : 356
Rothman, Bernhard : 724-725 ; marriage

of. 733 ; promises of, 737-738 ; views

on marriage, 741, 743
Rbubli of Basle : 281
Rozendorf, Wilhelm von : 582, 584
Rudeken : 301
Rudolph of Hapsburg : 19
Rupert of the Palatinate : 24, 77, 78

Sabina, Duchess of "Wurtemberg : 164-

165
Sachs, Hans : 286

Sachsenspiegel, rules of the : 65 and note
Sacrament of the Keys : 153, 154
Sacraments, Seven, institution of: 115-

117
St. Gall, Abbot of: 647
St. George's Shield, Company of: 48
St. Moritz, Provost of Halle : 279
St. Pol : attempts to attack Genoa, 540 ;
reconquers Pavia for France, 498 ;
taken prisoner, 540
Salamanca : 310
Salm, Count Nicholas von : 3gg, 457,

582, 583
Salzburg, Archbishop of : 322 ; at Augs-
burg [1530], 607

Saxon Diet : see Diet

Saxon Emperors : 7-12 ; Princes, revolt
of, 14 ; visitation, 465-468

Saxony and Hessen : proposed evangelical
league, 368-369, 370

Schappeler of Memmingen : 281

Scharnebeck, Diet at : see Diet

Schartlin von Biirtenbach : 392

Scheurf, Christopher : 471

Schlemmerhans : 345

Schmalkald : meeting of Protestant
nobles at, 634 ; debate as to right of
resistance to Imperial power, 635-637 ;
resolutions taken, 634

Schmalkald, League of : 759 ; conclusion
of, 665, 673-676; constitution of, 674-
675 ; foundation of, 631 ; importance
of action of, to world at large, 637 ;
joined by Bremen, Brunswick, Eim-
beck, Goslar, Gottingen, Lubeck, Mag-
deburg, 673-5 ; origin of, 630-633 ;
political import of, 675-676 ; second
meeting of, 638-639 ; signatories to,
637 ; third meeting, 639

Schmidt, Pastor : 291

Schnepf, Erard : 281, 718 and note

Schuldorf, Marquard, of Kiel : 474

Schwabach Articles of Faith : 569, 570,
602 ; revision of, by Melanchthon, 602-
604

Schwanhauser, Johann : 281

Schwartzerd : see Melanchthon

Schwarzenberg, Hans von : 470

Schwarzenberg , Johann von : 271-272

Schwebel, Johann : 297

Schweinfurt, conference at : 684 and
note

Schwenkfeld, Caspar : 730

Secession, crisis of : 216-223 ; of Zurich
from Church of Rome, 515-521

Secularization of ecclesiastical property,
attempts at : 362-368

Seehofer : 283

Seidensticker, Claus : 442

Seidler, Jacob : renounces vows of celi-
bacy, 250

Selbitz : 101

Selim I., Sultan : 112 ; victories of, 158

Serpent-worship in Lithuania : in

Sforza, Francesco: 381, 382, 384; cited
to appear before Charles V., 589 ;
declines to enter Milan, 397 ; over-
tures of Clement VII. to, 696 ; position
of, 593

Sheiks of Erdebil : 112

Shiites: 112

Sickingen, Franz von: 171, 182, 209,
210, 242, 296; adversaries of, 295-304;
besieges Mezieres, 376 ; death, 303 ;
elected leader of nobility of Upper
Rhine, 297 ; private wars of, 108, 109;
siege of, at Landstuhl, 302, 303

Sigismund, Emperor : 45,50

790

INDEX

Sigismund I., King of Poland: 168-169,

446
Sigismund of Luxemburg : 24, 25
Silesia, Reformation in : 475, 476
Silvester : 292

Sitten, Cardinal von : 183, 210
Sittich, Mark, of Ems : 399, 498, 642 ;

before Pavia, 400-401
Soest, Reformation in : 722
Solms, Count Bernhard of : 331
Sombreff : 298
Sovereign : question of right of resistance

to, 572-574 ; views of Bugenhagen and

Luther on, 572
Spalatin : 354
Spengler, Lazarus, of Nuremberg : 215,

220, 471
Spiegelberg: 129
Spire, Diet of : see Diet

„ meeting at, opposed : 318
• Sprenger, Jacob : 120-121
Spretten, Paul von : 282
States and Emperor : failure to apportion
duties and reponsibilities of, g8

,, clerical and lay members of, dis-
putes between, 273, 274

,, evangelical, foundation of : 459-484
Staufen, Argula von : 283
Staupitz, Johann : 142, 143, 194
Stein, Albert von : 183
Stein, Albrecht von : 384
Stiefel, Johann : 277, 283
Stocker, Jacob, of Zug : persecution by,

641
Storch, Claus, of Zwickau : 254
Storch , Nicolas : 335
Strasburg, Reformation in : 649-650
Strauss, Johann : 283 ; teachings of, 335
Stumpf, Philip : 442
Stiirzel, Count : 61
Suave, Peter : 332

Suleiman : attack on Hungary, 448 ; pru-
dence of, 450 ; victory of, 451-452 ;

ambition of, 576 ; before Vienna, 578,

579 ; enmity towards Ferdinand, 578 ;

in Germany, 577 - 578 ; retreat of,

693 ; threats and projects of, in 1531,

678, 679 ; treaty with Zapolya, 499 ;

triumphant march through Hungary,

689
Sulz, Count of: 359, 642; Governor of

Insbruck, 337, 338
Superstition and religion, mixture of, in

Middle Ages : 121
Supinus, Peter : 148
Surrey, Lord : 388
Susanna, Countess : 388-389
Swabian League : 48-50, 296, 338, 340,

355. 358, 367 ; hostility to Duke of

Wiirtemberg, 699; meeting of, 305,

310 ; persecution by, 507
Swiss Confederation : 377
Switzerland : Catholicism in, re-estab-

lishment of, 664 ; interest in Luther's
writings, 509 ; persecutions in, 641 ;
political divisions in, 377 ; Reforma-
tion in, 509-532, 640-648, 654 ; sells
herself to France, 378 ; threat of civil
war in, 644

Taborites, the : 247 ; doctrines of, 335

Tast, Hermann : 281, 474

Tauber, Caspar : persecution of, 329 and

note
Tauler, sermons of: 141-142, 146
Taxation, general : first attempt at, 37-

38 and note, 264-268
Territorial lords : increase of power of,

100
Tetrapolitana, the: 625; statement in,

651

Tetzel, Johann, Dominican Friar: 153,
I56r 157 and note, 195

Teutonic Knights : 302

Teutonic Order, the : 33, 38 note, 39, 168,
372, 476-483 ; Grand Masters, 477 ;
Grand Master Count Lowenstein, 344 ;
Grand Master Plattenberg, 483 ; poli-
tical importance of, destroyed, 476

Theta, Countess : 30

Thomas Aquinas : 115, 153

Thomas, Hans, of Absberg : outrage by,
295-296

Thomas of Gaeta, the Dominican : 117

Thorn, Peace of : see Peace

Tichtel von Tutzing, Bernhard : persecu-
tion of, 328

Tifernus, Michael : 700

To the Christian Nobility of the German
Nation [Luther] : 216-217

Tommai, Pietro : 134

Tommai, Vincenzo : 134

Tomory, Paul, Archbishop Colocza : 450

Torgau, League of: 418

Torok, Valentine : 458

Torquemada : see John of Torquemada

Town Councils and people: struggles
between, 105

Treaty, alleged, against Lutheran
Princes : 502-505

Treaty of Barcelona : 541, 542
Bruges : 387
Cambray : 89-90, 92
Cracow : 481
Gotha : 419, 429
Madrid : 414, 417
Marsna : 7
,, Tubingen : 100

Treasure of the Church, doctrine of:
153

Trent, Bishop of : 322

Treves, Chancellor of : 311 ; Diet of, see
Diet; Elector of, 355, 357"358 ; Sick-
ingen lays siege to, 300

Trotzendorf, Valentine : 289

Truchsess, Georg : 305 ; commands

INDEX

791

Swabian League against peasants, 341,

345. 355-358
Trutvetter, Jodocus, of Eisenach : 148
Tubingen, Treaty of : 100
Turks, campaigns against : 36, 37, 689-

693
Tuy, Bishop of : 235

Ulrich of Wiirtemberg: 77, 78, 163-165,
180, 182, 183, 191, 332, 337, 340;
restoration to dukedom [1533], 699,
706-707, 710
Ulrich von Dornum, Junker : 474
Unitarian Anabaptists : 728-729
Universities, German : subservience of,

to the Church, 118
Urban, Regius : 279

Urbino, Francesco Maria, Duke of: 150
Utraquists, the : 29 and note, 453 ; griev-
ances of, 454

Vadiscus, or the Roman Trinity [Hutten] :
210

Valla, Laurentius : 132

Vasa, Gustavus : 758

Venetian War : 87-93 ; reverses to Ger-
man arms, 88, 94, 107

Verboez : 455

Vienna, Ottomans before : 574 ; retreat
of Ottomans, 585 ; siege of, 581-585

Villinger : 181

Vio, Cardinal Thomas de [Cajetan] : 159,
213, 214; denounces Luther, 193, 194;
meets Luther, 193-195 ; views change
as to Luther, 204-206

Virgin Mary, worship of: 115, 120

Visitation, Saxon : 465-468

Vogler, George : 470

Voss, Hanz : 298

Wagner, George, death of : 734
Waiss, Philip, of Haussen : 301
Waldkirchen, Imperial Vice-Chancellor :

539
Wallner : 100
Walter von Andlo : 61
War, French: 66-68; [1521-1522], 376-416
,, Italian : [1521-1526], 372-416 ; [1528],

495-497 i ['529]. 54°

" Peasants' : 349-359

" Venetian: 87-93; reverses to Ger-
man arms, 88, 94, 107
Wars, private : 295, 296 ; evils of, 38
Watt, Dr. Joachim von : 657 note
Wattenwyl of Berne : 281
Weissenfelder : 451

Wenceslas, Adam, of Teschen, Duke : 476
Wenceslas, King : 24
Werdenberg, Felix, Count von : 588
Werthern, Dr. von : 272
Wesalia, Johann, teachings of : 140-1
Wessel, Johann, of Groningen: teachings
of, 40

I Westphalia, Reformation in cities of :

722-728
Wettin, House of, rise of the : 30, 31
Wicliffe, John : 247 ; spread of doctrines

in Germany, 140
Widensee, Eberhard : 279
Wiggers, Syndic : 735
William of Bavaria: 163, 328, 369;

aspires to Imperial crown, 427 - 428,

452
William of Croi, Lord of Chievres : 223-

224
William of Henneberg, Count, joins

peasants : 345
William of Hessen : 78
William of Holland : 19
Wimpina, Conrad Koch : 156
Winkelried, Arnold von, of Unterwalden :

384

Wittelsbad, House of : 31

Wittenberg : a place of refuge, 283-284 ;
disturbances at, 248-263 ; riots at, 320;
the metropolis of literature, 284-287;
University of, 142-143

Wladislas II., King of Bohemia and
Hungary : 446, 447

Wladislas of Poland : 25

Wohlgemuth, Michael, of Cologne: de-
feat and torture of, 664

Woiwode, the, of Trannsylvania : 447
and note, 448, 449, 456, 458 ; claims to
crown of Hungary supported by Fran-
cis I., 451 ; overtures of Clement VII.
to, 696

Wolf von Freiberg : 305

Wolfgang of Kolberg : 100

Wolsey, Cardinal : fall of, 550 ; plans of,
for French alliance, 492

Worms, Concordat of : 17 ; Edict of,
refusal of States to carry out, 274-

275
Worms, Diet of : see Diet
Wullenweber of Lilbeck : 761-765 ; death

of, 772; declaration of, 768, 770-771
Wiirtemberg, House of: 31
Wiirtemberg, Reformation in : 718-719 ;

organization of Church in, 718
Wiirtzburg, Bishop : accusation of,

against Council of Regency, 312;

attacked by peasants, 344 ; successful

struggle for supremacy, 12, 17
Wiirtzburg, meeting at : 74 ; siege of,

356 ; surrender of, 357

Ximenes, views of : 537

Year 1529, political character of the :
532-552

Zapolya, House of : 447
Zapolya, John, Count of Zips, crowned
King of Hungary : 585 ; defeat of, 458 ;

792

INDEX

defeats Ferdinand, 576 ; disturbance's
caused by, 499 ; treaty with Suleiman,
499 ; triumph of, 576-577

Zasius, Ulrich : 134, 220, 221, 248, 287

Zell, Matthew, of Strasburg : 281

Ziegler, Jacob : 432

Zingel, George: 132

Ziska : 298

Zollen, Colonel : 398

Zuniga, Diego Lopez, opponent of Eras-
mus : 538

Zurich, Anabaptists in : 527 - 528 ; and
Bern, articles of treaty between, 641 ;
conference at, 519; declines alliance
with France, 528 ; emancipation of,
from episcopal government of Con-
stance, 515-521

Ziitphen, Heinrich von, of Meldorf, tor-
ture of : 330

Z willing, Gabriel : 251

Zwingli, Ulrich: 281, 510-532; admira-

tion of, for Latin writers, 511 ; advises
a resort to arms, 657 ; and Lambert,
disputation between, 517 ; and Luther,
differences between, 521-527; char-
acter of, 513, 514; contrasted with
Luther, 514 ; creates enemies, 529 ;
death of, 661 ; defence, 527 ; early
life, 510-511; elected secular priest at
Zurich Cathedral, 512 ; exclusion of
followers from peace of Empire, 556 ;
fears roused by 'action of, 553 ; founda-
tion of his opinions, 518 ; goes to
Zurich, 512 ; opposition to, in Bern,
657 ; political reforms of, 655-657 ;
preaches against Papal practices, 515-
516 ; principles of, 520 ; takes part in
Lutheran movement, 513 ; takes up
arms, 644 ; threatens to resign, 657 ;
victory at conference, 519 ; victory at
Grand Council, 530 ; views of, on the
Eucharist, 567-568

THE END.

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.