1912] on the Eferts of the Thirty Years' ]Var. 385 



1064 — that a reorganization, under which Erfurt's prosperity revived, 

 could be carried into effect. 



May I detain you for a few moments while I trace the effect of 

 the AVar in the history of two other German universities — one 

 southern and one northern — which may even more signally illustrate 

 its direct incidence ? 



The ancient Ruperta Carolina of Heidelberg had, after a long 

 period of tidelity to the Papal traditions of her foundation, in which 

 she rivalled even her rather younger sister Cologne, continued to 

 flourish both under the Lutheran Elector Otto Henry, who left her 

 his library, and whose name still survives with tlie remains of his 

 castle, and under the Calvinist Frederick the Pius, the magnanimous 

 prince, under whom, owing to the confluence of Calvinist fugitives 

 (Peter Ramus was one) and those of the flower of the Calvinistic 

 youth of Europe, Heidelberg became the first German university 

 to which we may ascribe an international character. After a second 

 interval of Lutheran ascendancy, Heidelberg, under Frederick lY. 

 and Frederick V., the husband of our younger English Elizabeth, 

 once more became the centre of the Calvinistic anti-Habsburg pro- 

 paganda, until the Great War broke out, and the honest young 

 Elector, the heir of great designs, to the execution of which nature 

 had nut made his equal, was drawn to the Bohemian throne, and 

 thence cast forth into a life of homelessness. Thus it came to pass 

 that, in 1G22, Heidelberg fell into the avenging clutch of the Catholic 

 League and its general Tilly, and the University, with all its great 

 memories and its greater promise, seemed already to have become a 

 thing of the past. In the four years which ensued upon the capture 

 and partial destruction of Heidelberg castle and town, six students 

 matriculated ; and in 1629 it seemed time for the gradual processes 

 of the counter-Reformation to begin. A Catholic university crept 

 into being, with two faculties, a theological and philosophical, each 

 consisting of a single teacher. Within yet a few years, the Swedes 

 were masters of Heidelberg, and once more, though the great 

 Protestant champion lay dead, the university was brought back to 

 its allegiance to the Reformation. But her vicissitudes were not yet 

 over ; and a year had barely passed Ijefore the great battle of Nord- 

 liugen was fought, and the darkest days of the Palatinate set in, when 

 the capital, after being plundered by the worsted Swedes, was sub- 

 jected afresh to a siege, and after this had been raised through the 

 French, was reconquered by the Lnperialists, and subjected during 

 the remainder of war to the Bavarian rule, or rather to an alternation 

 of anarchy and military occupation,, during both of which violence 

 and rapine, famine and disease, ran their horrid course. 



These were the scenes, I may observe, in which, naturally enough, 

 the imagination of posterity came, perhaps more than in any others, 

 to picture to itself the awful desolation of the Thirty Years' War. 

 I do not wish to enter very closely on this occasion into the comments 



