GERMANY. (HISTORY.) 



423 



security against violence and plunder, by land and 

 sea, associations for self defence were formed. Thus, 

 during the reign of the emperor Frederic I. Barba- 

 rossa (1152 90), the cities on the Rhine, the North 

 sea, and the Baltic, formed the Hanseatic league, for 

 tlie mutual protection of their commerce. Under 

 this emperor, and, still more, under Frederic II. 

 (1218 50), poetry and the first germs of literature 

 Iwgan to flourish. The peace of the empire, which 

 forbade all private warfare, unless after a previous 

 declaration of three days, contributed to restore public 

 security. The assemblies of the estates of the empire 

 were imitated by the separate members of which the 

 empire was composed. These convoked the syndics 

 )f the towns, the superiors of the monasteries, and 

 the great proprietors, to deliberate on public affairs : 

 this was the origin of the provincial diets. The 

 character of Frederic II. had a beneficial influence 

 upon all Germany ; which was, however, in a mea- 

 sure, limited by his wars in Italy. The claims of 

 the German emperors, in that country, had, from the 

 beginning, weakened their power, and prevented 

 them from establishing and maintaining domestic 

 order. His plans were also counteracted by the op- 

 position of the pope and the powerful enemies of his 

 (the Hohenstaufen) family. On his death, in 1250 

 (or, perhaps we may say, on the election of his rival, 

 Henry Raspe, by the instigation of the pope), the 

 great interregnum began. Conrad IV., son of Fre- 

 deric II., elected king in 1237, had to contend with 

 his rivals, William of Brabant, Alphonso of Castile 

 and Richard of Cornwall, and was so much occupied 

 with his own personal safety, that, in the disordered 

 state of the empire, all treaties were violated, the 

 laws disregarded, and all the excesses of private 

 warfare renewed. The nobles in Suabia, Franconia, 

 and on the Rhine, rendered themselves immediate 

 vassals of the empire, as there were no dukes power- 

 ful enough to keep them in check. Thus almost 

 every thing that Frederic II. had done for the con- 

 stitution, for the arts and sciences, was destroyed. 

 The last of the Hohenstaufen, Conradiii of Suabia, 

 perished on the scaffold, in Naples. 



Rodolph I., count of Hapsburg, was raised to the 

 German throne (1272 1291), and restored order 

 with a powerful, and, often, severe hand. The 

 castles of the predatory nobility were destroyed, the 

 right of private warfare almost entirely abolished, and 

 the more powerful princes attached to the govern- 

 ment by marriages. Rodolph took Austria, Styria, 

 and Carniola from Ottocar, king of Bohemia, and 

 became the founder of the dynasty which, in the 

 female branch, still reigns in Austria. The reign 

 of Albert of Austria, second successor of Rodolph 

 (1298 1308) is remarkable for the foundation of the 

 liberty of Switzerland. Under Henry VII. of Lux- 

 emburg (1308 1313), the celebrated division of the 

 Guelfs and Ghibelines took the shape of a continued 

 struggle between the emperors and the popes. On 

 his death, in Italy, the empire was again torn by the 

 rivalry of Frederic of Austria and Louis of Bavaria, 

 the latter of whom was victorious, and received (1330 

 1347) the imperial crown from the pope ; but new 

 difficulties with the holy father ensued, and Germany 

 was laid under an interdict. Six of the electors con- 

 cluded the elective union of 1338, to prevent the in- 

 terference of the popes in the election, and determined 

 that the choice of the electors should be decisive 

 without the papal sanction. Charles IV., king of 

 Bohemia, then became sole emperor, and issued (1356) 

 the golden bull, which settled the manner of conduct- 

 ing the elections of emperor, and abolished private 

 warfare. Learning and freedom of opinion received 

 a new impulse in Germany ; the university of Prague 

 was founded, in which the disciples of Wickliff in- 



troduced the spirit of opposition to ecclesiastical 

 abuses. The natural propensity of the Germans to 

 appeal to the sword, revived the right of private war- 

 fare in the time of Wenceslaus (1378 1410). Of 

 three competitors of Wenceslaus, Sigismund (1411 

 1457) succeeded him. During his reign was held 

 the council of Constance (see Council, and Constance), 

 by which Huss was condemned ; and the war of the 

 Hussites followed in Bohemia, Misnia, Franconia, 

 and Bavaria. Albert II. of Austria (143739) died 

 too soon for the execution of his projects for the re- 

 storation of order. The reign of Frederic III. was 

 marked by the revival of learning, the foundation of 

 several universities, and by the enterprise and acti- 

 vity excited by the discovery of America, which 

 aroused all Europe. Feudal warfare and the tyran- 

 ny of the nobles still oppressed the country, as is 

 shown in the confederation of the Suabian cities. 

 Maximilian I. (1493 1519), an active and enterpris- 

 ing prince, established the perpetual peace of the 

 empire, introduced a chamber of justice, and other 

 institutions, and divided Germany first into six, and 

 afterwards into ten, circles. He took the title of 

 Roman Emperor, and even intended to ascend the 

 papal throne, but was anticipated by the cardinals. 

 He also established the post-office (1516). The 

 commencement of the reformation (1517) at the uni- 

 versity of Wittenberg closes his important reign. 

 To his successor and grandson, Charles V., king of 

 Spain, an elective capitulation was proposed, to 

 which he was required to swear, but which he viola- 

 ted in almost every measure of his reign. The refor- 

 mation begun by Luther made rapid progress ; the 

 peasants' war, under Thomas of Munster, spread de- 

 solation ; the union of the landgrave Philip of Hesse 

 and the elector of Saxony, in favour of the reforma- 

 tion ; the solemn protest of the adherents of the new 

 doctrine (1529), and the Smalcaldic league of the 

 Protestant princes (1530), preceded the Smalcaldic 

 war (1546). After the deposition of the elector 

 John Frederic of Saxony, and the interim (q. v.) of 

 1548, the elector Maurice allied himself with France 

 and with the Smalcaldic league. Charles V. was 

 obliged, by the treaty of Passau (1552), to grant the 

 Protestants entire liberty of conscience and equal 

 civil rights with the Catholics, which were princi- 

 pally confirmed by the religious peace of Augsburg 

 (1555). Charles confirmed the administration of the 

 empire, and renewed the laws for the preservation of 

 the peace of the empire and of the chamber of jus- 

 tice. In 1556, he abdicated the government, and 

 died (1558) in a Spanish monastery. On the succes- 

 sion of Ferdinand I., brother of Charles, the religious 

 peace was included in the elective capitulation (see 

 Capitulation}, and the council of Trent (begun in 

 1545) was concluded which rendered the separation 

 of the Protestants and the Catholics permanent. 

 Under his successor, Maximilian II. (1564 76), the 

 divisions among the Protestants themselves, the con- 

 troversies between Melanchthon and Calvin, and the 

 separation of the Calvinists from the Lutherans, by 

 ti\e formula Concordice, took place, and, in the reign 

 of his son, Rodolph II., the thirty years' war was 

 prepared by the establishment of the union and of the 

 league. Under Matthias (1618), the two parties 

 took up arms. The fanaticism of Ferdinand (1619 

 37) kindled the spark into a flame. The thirty 

 years' war began with all its terrors. Notwith- 

 standing the bloody resistance of the union, Tilly 

 and Wallenstein reduced the greater part of the em- 

 pire to submission ; the edict of restitution, requiring 

 all the foundations and estates of the church, which 

 the Protestants had seized since 1552, to be restored 

 to the Catholic church, and authorizing the Catholic 

 states to oblige their Protestant subjects either to 



