GERMANY. 443 



cess of that house alone can be sovereign of it, and none but women 

 of virtue and merit (birth and fortune not regarded) be received into 

 it. They are to avoid gaming, theatrical amusements, and luxuries of 

 all kinds. The badge of the order is a Death's head enamelled 

 white, surmounted with a cross pattee, black ; above the cross pattee, 

 another cross, composed of five jewels, by which it hangs to a black 

 ribband edged with white, and on the ribband these words, " Memento 

 mori" worn at the breast. 



The great order of Wurtemberg is that " of the Chase," instituted 

 in the year 1702 by the then duke, and improved in the year 1719. 

 On the left side of the coat is a silver star embroidered, of the same 

 figure as the badge, in the middle of a green circle, with the motto 

 " Amicitiae Virtutisque Fcedus." The festival of this order is on St. 

 Hubert's day, he being the patron of sportsmen. 



In the year 1709, the elector Palatine revived the "Order of St. 

 Hubert," first instituted by a duke of Juliers and Cleves, in memory 

 of a victory gained by him on St. Hubert's day, in 1447. All the 

 knights have either military employments or pensions. The arch- 

 bishop of Salzburg, in 1701, instituted the "Order of St. Rupert," 

 in honour of the founder and patron of the see he held, and as the 

 apostle of his country. As the archbishop was the richest and most 

 powerful prince of Bavaria, next to the elector, his order is in good 

 esteem. In the year 1729, Albert, elector of Bavaria, instituted the 

 " Order of St. George, the Defender of the Immaculate Conception,'* 

 the knights of which are obliged to prove their nobility by father and 

 mother for five generations. 



The " Order of the Golden Lion," instituted by the late landgrave 

 of Hesse-Cassel, is equally a military and civil order, but mostly con- 

 ferred on general officers. The landgrave also instituted the military 

 " Order of Merit," the badge of which is a gold cross, of eight points, 

 enamelled white, and in the centre this motto, " Pro Virtute etFideli- 

 tate :" it is worn at the coat button-hole, pendent to a blue ribband 

 edged with silver. 



Religiox.. ..Before the reformation introduced by Luther, the Ger- 

 man bishops were possessed (as indeed many of them continued to be 

 till the late secularisations) of prodigious power and revenues, and 

 were the tyrants of the emperors as well as of the people. Their 

 ignorance was only equalled by their superstition. The Bohemians 

 were the first who had an idea of reformation, and made so glorious 

 a stand, for many years, against the errors of Rome," that they were 

 indulged in the liberty of taking the sacrament in both kinds, and 

 other freedoms not tolerated in the Romish church. This was in a 

 great measure owing to the celebrated Englishman John Wickliffe, 

 who went much further in reforming the real errors of popery than 

 Luther himself, though he lived about a century and a half before him. 

 Wickliffe was seconded by John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who, 

 notwithstanding the emperor's safe-conduct, were infamously burnt at 

 the council of Constance. 



The reformation introduced after-wards by Luther,* of which we 

 have spoken in the Introduction, though it struck at the chief abuses 

 in the church of Rome, was thought in some points (particularly that 

 of consubstantiation, by which the real body of Christ, as well as the 



* Born in Saxony, in the year 1483 ; began to dispute the doctrines of the Romish. 

 'hurph 1517 ; and died 1546, in the 63d year of his age. 



