sive Empire would have been politic and might have allayed 

 growing discontent among his subjects. He lived in a little 

 world of his own, doing nothing to control the public move- 

 ments for weal or for woe taking place in his dominions, and 

 naturally events marched forward against his interests. He 

 had fallen into the habit of postponing for weeks and even 

 months decisions on affairs of state that demanded immediate 

 action ; he shortened more and more his visits to the Privy 

 Council, and in place of manfully grappling with problems 

 of public policy, be amused himself in directing the labors of 

 alchemists, in studing astrology and botany, as well as in 

 .the more active pursuits of carving in wood, painting on 

 canvas and polishing precious stones. 



Rudolph lived in terror of apparitions and was a victim 

 to superstitious fears of death; these were exaggerated in 

 part by a prophecy made by Tycho Brahe. Both, the Em- 

 peror and the astronomer were greatly impressed by the as- 

 sassination of Henry III of France, in 1589, by a monk 

 named Jacques Clement, and a similar fate was thought to 

 await Rudolph. 



At the beginning of the seventeenth century the aggres- 

 siveness of the war-loving and Christian-hating Turks on the 

 borders of Hungary combined with the civil and political dis- 

 orders in Bohemia to increase the perplexity of the crown, 

 and at the same time did not decrease the indifference of 

 Rudolph to his duties as Emperor. Disregarding the fact that 



"The king who delegates 

 His pow'r to other hands, but ill deserves 

 The crown he wears," 



he entrusted military operations against the Mahommedans 

 to his brother Matthias, whereupon the Austrian Archdukes 

 conspired to force Rudolph to abdicate and to seat Matthias 



109 



