Chapter IV: , VII (84)

"The March of Brandenburg is one of those districts which was
first peopled by the advance of the German nation towards the
east during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was in
the beginning, like Silesia, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Prussia,
and Livonia, a German colony settled upon an almost
uncultivated soil: from the very first, however, it seems to
have given the greatest promise of vigour. … Possession was
taken of the soil upon the ground of the rights of the
princely Ascanian house—we know not whether these rights were
founded upon inheritance, purchase, or cession. The process of
occupation was so gradual that the institutions of the old
German provinces, like those constituting the northern march,
had time to take firm root in the newly-acquired territory;
and owing to the constant necessity for unsheathing the sword,
the colonists acquired warlike habits which tended to give them
spirit and energy. … The Ascanians were a warlike but
cultivated race, incessantly acquiring new possessions, but
generous and openhanded; and new life followed in their
footsteps. They soon took up an important political position
among the German princely houses: their possessions extended
over a great part of Thuringia, Moravia, Lausitz, and Silesia;
the electoral dignity which they assumed gave to them and to
their country a high rank in the Empire. In the Neumark and in
Pomerelllen the Poles retreated before them, and on the
Pomeranian coasts they protected the towns founded by the
Teutonic order from the invasion of the Danes. It has been
asked whether this race might not have greatly extended its
power; but they were not destined even to make the attempt.
{1454}
It is said that at the beginning of the fourteenth century
nineteen members of this family were assembled on the
Margrave's Hill near Rathenau. In the year 1320, of all these
not one remained, or had even left an heir. … In Brandenburg
… it really appeared as if the extinction of the ruling
family would entail ruin upon the country. It had formed a
close alliance with the imperial power—which at that moment
was the subject of contention between the two great families
of Wittelsbach and Luxemburg—was involved in the quarrels of
those two races, injured by all their alternations of fortune,
and sacrificed to their domestic and foreign policy, which was
totally at variance with the interests of Brandenburg. At the
very beginning of the struggle the March of Brandenburg lost
its dependencies. … At length the Emperor Sigmund, the last
of the house of Luxemburg, found himself so fully occupied
with the disturbances in the Empire and the dissensions in the
Church, that he could no longer maintain his power in the
March, and intrusted the task to his friend and relation,
Frederick, Burgrave of Nürnberg, to whom he lay under very
great obligations, and who had assisted him with money at his
need. … It was a great point gained, after so long a period
of anarchy, to find a powerful and prudent prince ready to
undertake the government of the province. He could do nothing
in the open field against the revolted nobles, but he assailed
and vanquished them in their hitherto impregnable strong-holds
surrounded with walls fifteen feet thick, which he demolished
with his clumsy but effective artillery. In a few years he had
so far succeeded that he was able to proclaim a Landfriede, or
public peace, according to which each and everyone who was an
enemy to him, or to those comprehended in the peace, was
considered and treated as the enemy of all. But the effect of
all this would have been but transient, had not the Emperor,
who had no son, and who was won by Frederick's numerous
services and by his talents for action, made the Electorate
hereditary in his family. … The most important day in the
history of the March of Brandenburg and the family of Zollern
was the 18th of April, 1417, when in the market-place of
Constance the Emperor Sigmund formally invested the Burgrave
with the dignity of Elector, placed in his hands the flag with
the arms of the March and received from him the oath of
allegiance. From this moment a prospect was afforded to the
territory of Brandenburg of recovering its former prosperity
and increasing its importance, while to the house of Zollern a
career of glory and usefulness was opened worthy of powers
which were thus called into action."

_L. von Ranke,
Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg,
book 1, chapter 2._

See, also, BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1168-1417;
and HOHENZOLLERN, RISE OF THE HOUSE OF.

GERMANY: A. D. 1467-1471.
Crusade against George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia.

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1458-1471.

GERMANY: A. D. 1467-1477.
Relations of Charles the Bold of Burgundy to the Empire.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1467, and 1476-1477.

GERMANY: A. D. 1492-1514.
The Bundschuh insurrections of the Peasantry.

Several risings of the German peasantry, in the later part of
the 15th and early part of the 16th century, were named from
the Bundschuh, or peasants' clog, which the insurgents bore as
their emblem or pictured on their banners. "While the peasants
in the Rhætian Alps were gradually throwing off the yoke of
the nobles and forming the 'Graubund' [see SWITZERLAND: A. D.
1396-1499], a struggle, was going on between the neighbouring
peasantry of Kempten (to the east of Lake Constance) and their
feudal lord, the Abbot of Kempten. It began in 1423, and came
to an open rebellion in 1492. It was a rebellion against new
demands not sanctioned by ancient custom, and though it was
crushed, and ended in little good to the peasantry (many of
whom fled into Switzerland), yet it is worthy of note because
in it for the first time appears the banner of the Bundschuh.
The next rising was in Elsass (Alsace), in 1493, the peasants
finding allies in the burghers of the towns along the Rhine,
who had their own grievances. The Bundschuh was again their
banner, and it was to Switzerland that their anxious eyes were
turned for help. This movement also was prematurely discovered
and put down. Then, in 1501, other peasants, close neighbours
to those of Kempten, caught the infection, and in 1502, again
in Elsass, but this time further north, in the region about
Speyer and the Neckar, lower down the Rhine, nearer Franconia,
the Bundschuh was raised again. It numbered on its recruit
rolls many thousands of peasants from the country round, along
the Neckar and the Rhine. The wild notion was to rise in arms,
to make themselves free, like the Swiss, by the sword, to
acknowledge no superior but the Emperor, and all Germany was
to join the League. They were to pay no taxes or dues, and
commons, forests, and rivers were to be free to all. Here,
again, they mixed up religion with their demands, and 'Only
what is just before God' was the motto on the banner of the
Bundschuh. They, too, were betrayed, and in savage triumph the
Emperor Maximilian ordered their property to be confiscated,
their wives and children to be banished, and themselves to be
quartered alive. … Few … really fell victims to this cruel
order of the Emperor. The ringleaders dispersed, fleeing some
into Switzerland and some into the Black Forest. For ten years
now there was silence. The Bundschuh banner was furled, but
only for a while. In 1512 and 1513, on the east side of the
Rhine, in the Black Forest and the neighbouring districts of
Würtemberg, the movement was again on foot on a still larger
scale. It had found a leader in Joss Fritz. A soldier, with
commanding presence and great natural eloquence, … he bided
his time. … Again the League was betrayed … and Joss
Fritz, with the banner under his clothes, had to fly for his
life to Switzerland. … He returned after a while to the
Black Forest, went about his secret errands, and again bided
his time. In 1514 the peasantry of the Duke Ulrich of
Würtemberg rose to resist the tyranny of their lord [in a
combination called 'the League of Poor Conrad']. … The same
year, in the valleys of the Austrian Alps, in Carinthia,
Styria, and Crain, similar risings of the peasantry took
place, all of them ending in the triumph of the nobles."

_F. Seebohm,
The Era of the Protestant Revolution,
part 1, chapter 4._

See, also, below: A. D. 1524-1525.

GERMANY: A. D. 1493.
Maximilian I. becomes emperor.

{1455}

GERMANY: A. D. 1493-1519.
The reign of Maximilian.
His personal importance and his imperial powerlessness.
Constitutional reforms in the Empire.
The Imperial Chamber.
The Circles.
The Aulic Council.

"Frederic [the Third] died in 1493, after a protracted and
inglorious reign of 53 years. … On the death of his father,
Maximilian had been seven years king of the Romans; and his
accession to the imperial crown encountered no opposition. …
Scarcely had he ascended the throne, when Charles VIII., king
of France, passed through the Milanese into the south of
Italy, and seized on Naples without opposition.

See ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.

Maximilian endeavoured to rouse the German nation to a sense
of its danger, but in vain. … With difficulty he was able to
despatch 3,000 men to aid the league, which Spain, the pope,
the Milanese, and the Venetians had formed, to expel the
ambitious intruders from Italy. To cement his alliance with
Fernando the Catholic, he married his son Philip to Juana, the
daughter of the Spaniard. The confederacy triumphed; not
through the efforts of Maximilian, but through the hatred of
the Italians to the Gallic yoke. … Louis XII., who succeeded
to Charles (1498), … forced Philip to do homage for
Flanders; surrendering, indeed, three inconsiderable towns,
that he might be at liberty to renew the designs of his house
on Lombardy and Naples. … The French had little difficulty
in expelling Ludovico Moro, the usurper of Milan, and in
retaining possession of the country during the latter part of
Maximilian's reign.

See ITALY: A. D. 1499-1500.

Louis, indeed, did homage for the duchy to the Germanic head;
but such homage was merely nominal: it involved no tribute, no
dependence. The occupation of this fine province by the French
made no impression on the Germans; they regarded it as a fief
of the house of Austria, not of the empire: but even if it had
stood in the latter relation, they would not have moved one
man, or voted one florin, to avert its fate. That the French
did not obtain similar possession of Naples, and thereby
become enabled to oppose Maximilian with greater effect, was
owing to the valour of the Spanish troops, who retained the
crown in the house of Aragon. His disputes with the Venetians
were inglorious to his arms; they defeated his armies, and
encroached considerably on his Italian possessions. He was
equally unsuccessful with the Swiss, whom he vainly persuaded
to acknowledge the supremacy of his house. … For many of his
failures … he is not to be blamed. To carry on his vast
enterprises he could command only the resources of Austria:
had he been able to wield those of the empire, his name would
have been more formidable to his enemies; and it is no slight
praise, that with means so contracted he could preserve the
Netherlands against the open violence, no less than the subtle
duplicity, of France. But the internal transactions of
Maximilian's reign are those only to which the attention of
the reader can be directed with pleasure. In 1495 we witness
the entire abolition of the right of diffidation [private
warfare, see LANDFRIEDE],—a right which from time immemorial
had been the curse of the empire. … The passing of the
decree which for ever secured the public peace, by placing
under the ban of the empire, and fining at 2,000 marks in
gold, every city, every individual that should hereafter send
or accept a defiance, was nearly unanimous. In regard to the
long-proposed tribunal [to take cognizance of all violations
of the public tranquillity], which was to retain the name of
the Imperial chamber, Maximilian relaxed much from the
pretensions of his father. … It was solemnly decreed that
the new court should consist of one grand judge, and of 16
assessors, who were presented by the states, and nominated by
the emperor. … Though a new tribunal was formed, its
competency, its operation, its support, its constitution, the
enforcement of its decisions, were left to chance; and many
successive diets—even many generations—were passed before
anything like an organised system could be introduced into it.
For the execution of its decrees the Swabian league was soon
employed; then another new authority, the Council of Regency.
… But these authorities were insufficient to enforce the
execution of the decrees emanating from the chamber; and it
was found necessary to restore the proposition of the circles,
which had been agitated in the reign of Albert II. …

Originally they comprised only:
1. Bavaria,
2. Franconia,
3. Saxony,
4. the Rhine,
5. Swabia, and
6. Westphalia; thus excluding the states of Austria and the
electorates. But this exclusion was the voluntary act of the
electors, who were jealous of a tribunal which might encroach
on their own privileges. In 1512, however, the opposition of
most appears to have been removed; for four new circles were
added.
7. The circle of Austria comprised the hereditary dominions of
that house.
8. That of Burgundy contained the states inherited from
Charles the Rash in Franche-Comté; and the Netherlands.
9. That of the Lower Rhine comprehended the three
ecclesiastical electorates and the Palatinate.
10. That of Upper Saxony extended over the electorate of that
name and the march of Brandenburg. …

Bohemia and Prussia … refused to be thus partitioned. Each
of these circles had its internal organisations, the elements
of which were promulgated in 1512, but which was considerably
improved by succeeding diets. Each had its hereditary
president, or director, and its hereditary prince convoked,
both offices being frequently vested in the same individual.
… Each circle had its military chief, elected by the local
states, whose duty it was to execute the decrees of the
imperial Chamber. Generally this office was held by the prince
director. … The establishment of the Imperial Chamber was
… disagreeable to the emperor. To rescue from its
jurisdiction such causes as he considered lay more peculiarly
within the range of his prerogative, and to encroach by
degrees on the jurisdiction of this odious tribunal,
Maximilian, in 1501, laid the foundation of the celebrated
Aulic Council. But the competency of this tribunal was soon
extended; from political affairs, investitures, charters, and
the numerous matters which concerned the Imperial chancery, it
immediately passed to judicial crimes. … By an imperial
edict of 1518, the Aulic Council was to consist of 18 members,
all nominated by the emperor. Five only were to be chosen from
the states of the empire, the rest from those of Austria.
About half were legists, the other half nobles, but all
dependent on their chief. … When he [Maximilian] laboured to
make this council as arbitrary in the empire as in Austria, he
met with great opposition. … But his purpose was that of
encroachment no less than of defence; and his example was so
well imitated by his successors, that in most cases the Aulic
Council was at length acknowledged to have a concurrent
jurisdiction with the Imperial Chamber, in many the right of
prevention over its rival."

_S. A. Dunham,
History of the Germanic Empire,
book 3, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

{1456}

"The received opinion which recognises in [Maximilian] the
creative founder of the later constitution of the empire, must
be abandoned. … He had not the power of keeping the princes
of the empire together; … on the contrary, everything about
him split into parties. It followed of necessity that abroad
he rather lost than gained ground. … 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. … He was a man … formed to excite
admiration, and to inspire enthusiastic attachment; formed to
be the romantic hero, the exhaustless theme of the people."

_L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
volume 1, pages 379-381._

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations
from 1494 to 1514,
book 1, chapter 3,
and book 2, chapters 2 and 4._

See, also, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1477-1495.

GERMANY: A. D.1496-1499.
The Swabian war.
Practical separation of the Swiss Confederacy from the Empire.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1396-1499.

GERMANY: A. D. .1508-1509.
The League of Cambrai against Venice.

See VENICE: A. D. 1508-1509.

GERMANY: A. D. 1513-1515.
The emperor in the pay of England.
Peace with France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1513-1515.

GERMANY: A. D. 1516.
Abortive invasion of Milaness by Maximilian.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1516-1517.

GERMANY: A. D. 1517-1523.
Beginning of the movement of Religious Reformation.
Papal Indulgences, and Luther's attack on them.

"The Reformation, like all other great social convulsions, was
long in preparation. It was one part of that general progress,
complex in its character, which marked the fifteenth century
and the opening of the sixteenth as the period of transition
from the Middle Ages to modern civilization. … But while the
Reformation was one part of a change extending over the whole
sphere of human knowledge and activity, it had its own
specific origin and significance. These are still, to some
extent, a subject of controversy. … One of its causes, as
well as one of the sources of its great power, was the
increasing discontent with the prevailing corruption and
misgovernment in the Church, and with papal interference in
civil affairs. … The misconduct of the popes in the last
half of the fifteenth century was not more flagrant than that
of their predecessors in the tenth century. But the fifteenth
century was an age of light. What was done by the pontiffs was
not done in a corner, but under the eyes of all Europe.
Besides, there was now a deep-seated craving, especially in
the Teutonic peoples, who had so long been under the tutelage
of a legal, judaizing form of Christianity, for a more
spiritual type of religion. … The Reformation may be viewed
in two aspects. On the one hand it is a religious revolution
affecting the beliefs, the rites, the ecclesiastical
organization of the Church, and the form of Christian life. On
the other hand, it is a great movement in which sovereigns and
nations are involved; the occasion of wars and treaties; the
close of an old, and the introduction of a new, period in the
history of culture and civilization. Germany, including the
Netherlands and Switzerland, was the stronghold of the
Reformation. It was natural that such a movement should spring
up and rise to its highest power among a people in whom a love of
independence was mingled with a yearning for a more spiritual
form of religion than was encouraged by mediæval
ecclesiasticism. Hegel has dwelt with eloquence upon the fact
that while the rest of the world was gone out to America or to
the Indies, in quest of riches and a dominion that should
encircle the globe, a simple monk, turning away from empty
forms and the things of sense, was finding him whom the
disciples once sought in a sepulchre of stone. Unquestionably
the hero of the Reformation was Martin Luther. … As an
English writer has pointed out, Luther's whole nature was
identified with his great work, and while other leaders, like
Melancthon and even Calvin, can be separated in thought from
the Reformation, Luther, apart from the Reformation, would
cease to be Luther.' … In 1517 John Tetzel, a hawker of
indulgences, the proceeds of which were to help pay for the
building of St. Peter's Church, appeared in the neighborhood
of Wittenberg. To persuade the people to buy his spiritual
wares, he told them, as Luther himself testifies, that as soon
as their money clinked in the bottom of the chest the souls of
their deceased friends forthwith went up to heaven. Luther was
so struck with the enormity of this traffic that he determined
to stop it. He preached against it, and on October 31, 1517,
he posted on the door of the Church of All Saints, at
Wittenberg, his ninety-five theses. [For the full text of
these, see PAPACY: A. D. 1517], relating to the doctrine and
practice of selling indulgences. Indulgences … were at first
commutations of penance by the payment of money. The right to
issue them had gradually become the exclusive prerogative of
the popes. The eternal punishment of mortal sin being remitted
or commuted by the absolution of the priest, it was open to the
pope or his agents, by a grant of indulgences, to remove the
temporal or terminable penalties, which might extend into
purgatory. For the benefit of the needy he could draw upon the
treasury of merit stored up by Christ and the saints. Although
it was expressly declared by Pope Sixtus IV., that souls are
delivered from purgatorial fires in a way analogous to the
efficacy of prayer, and although contrition was theoretically
required of the recipient of an indulgence, it often appeared
to the people as a simple bargain, according to which, on
payment of a stipulated sum, the individual obtained a full
discharge from the penalties of sin, or procured the release
of a soul from the flames. Luther's theses assailed the
doctrines which made this baneful traffic possible. …
Unconsciously to their author, they struck a blow at the
authority of Rome and of the priesthood. Luther had no thought
of throwing off his allegiance to the Roman Church. Even his
theses were only propositions, propounded for academic debate,
according to the custom in mediæval universities. He concluded
them with the solemn declaration that he affirmed nothing, but
left all to the judgment of the Church. …
{1457}
The theses stirred up a commotion all over Germany. … A
controversy arose between the new champion of reform and the
defenders of indulgences. It was during this dispute that
Luther began to realize that human authority was against him
and to see the necessity of planting himself more distinctly
on the Scriptures. His clear arguments and resolute attitude
won the respect of the Elector of Saxony, who, though he often
sought to restrain his vehemence, nevertheless protected him
from his enemies. This the elector was able to do because of
his political importance, which became still greater when,
after the death of Maximilian, he was made regent of Northern
Germany."

_G. P. Fisher,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 287-293._

"At first neither Luther, nor others, saw to what the contest
about the indulgences would lead. The Humanists believed it to
be only a scholastic disputation, and Hutten laughed to see
theologians engaged in a fight with each other. It was not
till the Leipzig disputation (1519), where Luther stood
forward to defend his views against Eck, that the matter
assumed a grave aspect, took another turn, and after the
appearance of Luther's appeals 'To the Christian Nobility of
the German Nation,' 'On the Babylonian Captivity,' and against
Church abuses, that it assumed national importance. All the
combustible materials were ready, the spark was thrown among
them, and the flames broke out from every quarter. Hundreds of
thousands of German hearts glowed responsive to the complaints
which the Wittenberg monk flung against Papal Rome, in a
language whose sonorous splendour and iron strength were now
first heard in all the fulness, force, and beauty of the
German idiom. That was an imperishable service rendered to his
country by Luther. He wrote in German, and he wrote such
German. The papal ban hurled back against him in 1520 was
disregarded. He burnt it outside the gate of Wittenberg by the
leper hospital, in the place where the rags and plague-stained
garments of the lepers were wont to be consumed. The nobility,
the burghers, the peasants, all thrilled at his call. Now the
moment had come for a great emperor, a second Charlemagne, to
stand forward and regenerate at once religion and the empire.
There was, however, at the head of the state, only Charles V.,
the grandson of Maximilian, a man weak where he ought to have
been strong, and strong where he ought to have been weak, a
Spanish Burgundian prince, of Romance stock, who despised and
disliked the German tongue, the tongue of the people whose
imperial crown he bore, a prince whose policy was to combat
France and humble it. It was convenient for him, at the time,
to have the pope on his side, so he looked with dissatisfied
eyes on the agitation in Germany. The noblest hearts among the
princes bounded with hope that he would take the lead in the
new movement. The lesser nobility, the cities, the peasantry,
all expected of the emperor a reformation of the empire
politically and religiously. … But all hopes were dashed.
Charles V. as little saw his occasion as had Maximilian. He
took up a hostile position to the new movement at once. He
was, however, brought by the influential friends of Luther,
among whom first of all was the Elector of Saxony, to hear
what the reformer had to say for himself, before he placed him
under the ban of the empire. Luther received the imperial
safe-conduct, and was summoned to the Diet of Worms, there to
defend himself. He went, notwithstanding that he was warned
and reminded of the fate of Huss. 'I will go to Worms,' said
he, 'even were as many devils set against me as there are
tiles on the roofs.' It was probably on this journey that the
thoughts entered his mind which afterwards (1530) found their
expression in that famous chorale, 'Eine feste Burg ist unser
Gott,' which became the battle-song of Protestants. Those were
memorable days, the 17th and 18th of April, 1521, in which a
poor monk stood up before the emperor and all the estates of
the empire, undazzled by their threatening splendour, and
conducted his own case. At that moment when he closed his
defence with the stirring words, 'Let me be contradicted out
of Holy Scripture—till that is done I will not recant. Here
stand I. I can do no other, so help me God, amen!' then he had
reached the pinnacle of his greatness. The result is well known.
The emperor and his papal adviser remained unmoved, and the
ban was pronounced against the heretic. Luther was carried off
by his protector, the Elector of Saxony, and concealed in the
Wartburg, where he worked at his translation of the Bible. …
Brandenburg, Hesse, and Saxony declared in favour of reform.
In 1523 Magdeburg, Wismar, Rostock, Stettin, Danzig, Riga,
expelled the monks and priests, and appointed Lutheran
preachers. Nürnberg and Breslau hailed the Reformation with
delight."

_S. Baring-Gould,
The Church in Germany,
chapter 18._

See PAPACY: A. D. 1516-1517, to 1522-1525.

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany._

_L. Hausser,
The Period of the Reformation._

_J. H. Merle d'Aubigne,
History of the Reformation._

_M. J. Spaulding,
History of the Protestant Reformation._

_F. Seebohm,
The Era of the Protestant Revolution._

_P. Bayne,
Martin Luther._

_C. Beard,
Martin Luther and the Reformation._

_J. Köstlin,
Life of Luther._

GERMANY: A. D. 1519,
Contest for the imperial crown,
Three royal candidates in the field.
Election of Charles V., the Austro-Spanish monarch of many
thrones.

In his last years, Maximilian made great efforts to secure the
Imperial Crown for his grandson Charles, who had already
inherited, through his mother Joanna, of Spain, the kingdoms
of Castile, Aragon, and the Two Sicilies, and through his
father, Philip of Austria, the duchy of Burgundy and the many
lordships of the Netherlands. "In 1518 he obtained the consent
of the majority of the electors to the Roman crown being
bestowed on that prince. The electors of Treves and Saxony
alone opposed the project, on the ground that, as Maximilian
had never received the Imperial crown [but was styled Emperor
Elect] he was himself still King of the Romans, and that
consequently Charles could not assume a dignity that was not
vacant. To obviate this objection, Maximilian pressed Leo to
send the golden crown to Vienna; but this plan was defeated by
the intrigues of the French court. Francis, who intended to
become a candidate for the Imperial crown, intreated the Pope
not to commit himself by such an act; and while these
negociations were pending, Maximilian died at Wels, in Upper
Austria, January 12th 1519. … Three candidates for the
Imperial crown appeared in the field: the Kings of Spain,
France, and England.
{1458}
Francis I. [of France] was now at the height of his
reputation. His enterprises had hitherto been crowned with
success, the popular test of ability, and the world
accordingly gave him credit for a political wisdom which he
was far from possessing. He appears to have gained three or
four of the Electors by the lavish distribution of his money,
which his agent, Bonnivet, was obliged to carry through
Germany on the backs of horses; for the Fuggers, the rich
bankers of Augsburg, were in the interest of Charles, and
refused to give the French any accommodation. But the bought
votes of these venal Electors could not be depended on, some
of whom sold themselves more than once to different parties.
The infamy of Albert, Elector of Mentz, in these transactions,
was particularly notorious. The chances of Henry VIII. [of
England] were throughout but slender. Henry's hopes, like
those of Francis, were chiefly founded on the corruptibility
of the Electors, and on the expectation that both his rivals,
from the very magnitude of their power, might be deemed
ineligible. Of the three candidates the claims of Charles
seemed the best founded and the most deserving of success. The
House of Austria had already furnished six emperors, of whom
the last three had reigned eighty years, as if by an
hereditary succession. Charles's Austrian possessions made him
a German prince, and from their situation constituted him the
natural protector of Germany against the Turks. The previous
canvass of Maximilian had been of some service to his cause,
and all these advantages he seconded, like his competitors, by
the free use of bribery. … Leo X., the weight of whose
authority was sought both by Charles and Francis, though he
seemed to favour each, desired the success of neither. He
secretly advised the Electors to choose an emperor from among
their own body; and as this seemed an easy solution of the
difficulty, they unanimously offered the crown to Frederick
the Wise, Elector of Saxony. But Frederick magnanimously
refused it, and succeeded in uniting the suffrages of the
Electors in favour of Charles; principally on the ground that
he was the sovereign best qualified to meet the great danger
impending from the Turk. … The new Emperor, now in his 20th
year, assumed the title of Charles V. … He was proclaimed as
'Emperor Elect,' the title borne by his grandfather, which he
subsequently altered to that of 'Emperor Elect of the Romans,'
a designation adopted by his successors, with the omission of
the word 'elect,' down to the dissolution of the empire."

_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 2, chapter 2 (volume l)._

On his election to the Imperial throne, Charles ceded to his
younger brother, Ferdinand, all the German possessions of the
family. The latter, therefore, became Archduke of Austria, and
the German branch of the House of Austria was continued
through him; while Charles himself became the founder of a new
branch of the House—the Spanish.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1526.

ALSO IN:
_W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
book 1._

_J. S. Brewer,
The Reign of Henry VIII.,
chapter 11 (volume 1)._

_J. Van Praet,
Essays on the Political History of the 15th-17th Centuries,
chapter 2, (volume 1)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1520-1521.
The Capitulation of Charles V.
His first Diet, at Worms, and its political measures.

The election of Charles V. "was accompanied with a new and
essential alteration in the constitution of the empire.
Hitherto a general and verbal promise to confirm the Germanic
privileges had been deemed a sufficient security; but as the
enormous power and vast possessions of the new emperor
rendered him the object of greater jealousy and alarm than his
predecessors, the electors digested into a formal deed or
capitulation all their laws, customs, and privileges, which
the ambassadors of Charles signed before his election, and
which he himself ratified before his coronation; and this
example has been followed by his successors. It consisted of
36 articles, partly relating to the Germanic body in general,
and partly to the electors and states in particular. Of those
relating to the Germanic body in general, the most prominent
were, not to confer the escheated fiefs, but to re-unite and
consolidate them, for the benefit of the emperor and empire;
not to intrust the charges of the empire to any but Germans;
not to grant dispensations of the common law; to use the
German language in the proceedings of the chancery; and to put
no one arbitrarily to the ban, who had not been previously
condemned by the diet or imperial chamber. He was to maintain
the Germanic body in the exercise of its legislative powers,
in its right of declaring war and making peace, of passing
laws on commerce and coinage, of regulating the contingents,
imposing and directing the perception of ordinary
contributions, of establishing and superintending the superior
tribunals, and of judging the personal causes of the states.
Finally, he promised not to cite the members of the Germanic
body before any tribunal except those of the empire, and to
maintain them in their legitimate privileges of territorial
sovereignty. The articles which regarded the electors were of
the utmost importance, because they confirmed the rights which
had been long contested with the emperors. … Besides these
concessions, be promised not to make any attempt to render the
imperial crown hereditary in his family, and to re-establish the
council of regency, in conformity with the advice of the
electors and great princes of the empire. On the 6th of
January, 1521, Charles assembled his first diet at Worms,
where he presided in person. At his proposition the states
passed regulations to terminate the troubles which had already
arisen during the short interval of the interregnum, and to
prevent the revival of similar disorders. … The imperial
chamber was re-established in all its authority, and the
public peace again promulgated, and enforced by new penalties.
In order to direct the affairs of the empire during the
absence of Charles, a council of regency was established. …
It was to consist of a lieutenant-general, appointed by the
emperor, and 22 assessors, of' whom 18 were nominated by the
states, and four by Charles, as possessor of the circles of
Burgundy and Austria. … At the same time an aid of 20,000
foot and 4,000 horse was granted, to accompany the emperor in
his expedition to Rome; but the diet endeavoured to prevent
him from interfering, as Maximilian had done, in the affairs
of Italy, by stipulating that these troops were only to be
employed as an escort, and not for the purpose of aggression."

_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 26 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 1)._

{1459}

GERMANY: A. D. 1522-1525.
Systematic organization and adoption in northern Germany of
the Lutheran Reformation.
The Diets at Nuremberg.
The Catholic League of Ratisbon.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1522-1525.

GERMANY: A. D. 1524-1525.
The Peasants' War.

"A political ferment, very different from that produced by the
Gospel, had long been troubling the empire. The people,
weighed down under civil and ecclesiastical oppression,
attached in many places to the lands belonging to the lords,
and sold with them, threatened to rise, and furiously burst
their chains. In Holland, at the end of the preceding century,
the peasants had mustered around standards inscribed with the
words 'bread' and 'cheese,' to them the two necessaries of
life. In 1503 the 'Cobblers' League' ['Bundschuh'—see
GERMANY: A. D. 1492-1514] had burst forth in the neighbourhood
of Spires. In 1513 this was renewed in Brisgau, and encouraged
by the priests. In 1514 Wurtemburg had witnessed 'the League
of poor Conrad,' the object of which was to uphold 'the
justice of God' by revolt. In 1515 terrible commotions had
taken place in Carinthia and Hungary. These insurrections were
stifled by torrents of blood, but no relief had been given to
the peoples. A political reform was as much wanted as a
religious one. The people had a right to it, but they were not
ripe to enjoy it. Since the commencement of the Reformation
these popular agitations had been suspended, the minds of men
being absorbed with other thoughts. … But everything showed
that peace would not last long. … The main dykes which had
hitherto kept the torrent back were broken, and nothing could
restrain its fury. Perhaps it must be admitted that the
movement communicated to the people by the Reform gave new
force to the discontent which was fermenting in the nation.
… Erasmus did not hesitate to say to Luther: 'We are now
reaping the fruits of the seed you have sown.' … The evil
was augmented by the pretensions of certain fanatical men, who
laid claim to celestial inspirations. … The most
distinguished of these enthusiasts was Thomas Münzer. … His
first appearance was at Zwickau. He left Wittenberg after
Luther's return [from his concealment at Wartburg, 1522],
dissatisfied with the inferior part he had played, and he
became pastor of the little town of Alstadt in Thuringia.
There he could not long be at rest, and he accused the
reformers of founding a new papacy by their attachment to the
letter, and of forming churches which were not pure and holy.
He regarded himself as called of God to bear a remedy for so
great an evil. … He maintained that to obey princes,
'destitute of reason,' was to serve God and Belial at the same
time. Then, marching at the head of his parishioners, to a
chapel which was visited by pilgrims from all quarters, he
pulled it to the ground. After this exploit he was obliged to
quit the country, wandered over Germany, and came to
Switzerland, spreading as he went, wherever people would hear
him, his plan for a universal revolution. In every place he
found elements ready for his purpose. He threw his powder upon
the burning coals, and a violent explosion soon followed. …
The revolt commenced in those regions of the Black Forest, and
the sources of the Danube, which were so often the scene of
popular disturbances. On the 19th of July, 1524, the
Thurgovian peasantry rose against the Abbot of Reichenau, who
would not grant them an evangelical preacher. Thousands soon
gathered around the little town of Tengen, to liberate an
ecclesiastic who was imprisoned there. The revolt spread, with
inconceivable rapidity, from Suabia to the Rhine countries, to
Franconia, to Thuringia, and to Saxony. In January, 1525, the
whole of these countries were in insurrection. Towards the end
of that month the peasants published a declaration in twelve
articles, asking the liberty to choose their own pastors, the
abolition of petty tithes, serfdom, the duties on inheritance,
and liberty to hunt, fish, cut wood, &c., and each demand was
supported by a passage of Scripture."

_J. H. Merle D'Aubigné,
The Story of the Reformation,
part 3, chapter 8,
(History of the Reformation, book 10, chapters 10-11)._

"Had the feudal lords granted proper and fair reforms long
ago, they would never have heard of these twelve articles. But
they had refused reform, and they now had to meet revolution.
And they knew of but one way of meeting it, namely, by the
sword. The lords of the Swabian League sent their army of foot
and horsemen, under their captain, George Truchsess. The poor
peasants could not hold out against trained soldiers and
cavalry. Two battles on the Danube, in which thousands of
peasants were slain, or drowned in the river, and a third
equally bloody one in Algau, near the Boden See, crushed this
rebellion in Swabia, as former rebellions had so often been
crushed before. This was early in April 1525. But in the
meantime the revolution had spread further north. In the
valley of the Neckar a body of 6,000 peasants had come
together, enraged by the news of the slaughter of their fellow
peasants in the south of Swabia." They stormed the castle of the
young Count von Helfenstein, who had recently cut the throats
of some peasants who met him on the road, and put the Count to
death, with 60 of his companions. "A yell of horror was raised
through Germany at the news of the peasants' revenge. No yell
had risen when the Count cut peasants' throats, or the Swabian
lords slew thousands of peasant rebels. Europe had not yet
learned to mete out the same measure of justice to noble and
common blood. … The revolution spread, and the reign of
terror spread with it. North and east of the valley of the
Neckar, among the little towns of Franconia, and in the
valleys of the Maine, other bands of peasants, mustering by
thousands, destroyed alike cloisters and castles. Two hundred
of these lighted the night with their flames during the few
weeks of their temporary triumph. And here another feature of
the revolution became prominent. The little towns were already
… passing through an internal revolution. The artisans were
rising against the wealthier burghers, overturning the town
councils, and electing committees of artisans in their place,
making sudden changes in religion, putting down the Mass,
unfrocking priests and monks, and in fact, in the interests of
what they thought to be the gospel, turning all things upside
down. … It was during the Franconian rebellion that the
peasants chose the robber knight Goetz von Berlichingen as
their leader. It did them no good. More than a robber chief
was needed to cope with soldiers used to war. … While all
this was going on in the valleys of the Maine, the revolution
had crossed the Rhine into Elsass and Lothringen, and the
Palatinate about Spires and Worms, and in the month of May had
been crushed in blood, as in Swabia and Franconia.
{1460}
South and east, in Bavaria, in the Tyrol, and in Carinthia
also, castles and monasteries went up in flames, and then,
when the tide of victory turned, the burning houses and farms
of the peasants lit up the night and their blood flowed
freely. Meanwhile Münzer, who had done so much to stir up the
peasantry in the south to rebel, had gone north into
Thuringia, and headed a revolution in the town of Mülhausen,
and became a sort of Savonarola of a madder kind. … But the
end was coming. The princes, with their disciplined troops,
came nearer and nearer. What could Münzer do with his 8,000
peasants? He pointed to a rainbow and expected a miracle, but
no miracle came. The battle, of course, was lost; 5,000
peasants lay dead upon the field near the little town of
Frankenhausen, where it was fought. Münzer fled and concealed
himself in a bed, but was found and taken before the princes,
thrust into a dungeon, and afterwards beheaded. So ended the
wild career of this misguided, fanatical, self-deceived, but
yet, as we must think, earnest and in many ways heroic spirit.
… The princes and nobles now everywhere prevailed over the
insurgent peasants. Luther, writing on June 21, 1525,
says:—'It is a certain fact, that in Franconia 11,000
peasants have been slain. Markgraf Casimir is cruelly severe
upon his peasants, who have twice broken faith with him. In
the Duchy of Wurtemberg, 6,000 have been killed; in different
places in Swabia, 10,000. It is said that in Alsace the Duke
of Lorraine has slain 20,000. Thus everywhere the wretched
peasants are cut down.' … Before the Peasants' War was ended
at least 100,000 perished, or twenty times as many as were put
to death in Paris during the Reign of Terror in 1793. …
Luther, throughout the Peasants' War, sided with the ruling
powers. … The reform he sought was by means of the civil
power; and in order to clear himself and his cause from all
participation in the wild doings of the peasantry, he publicly
exhorted the princes to crush their rebellion."

_F. Seebohm,
The Era of the Protestant Revolution,
part 2, chapter 5._

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 3, chapter 6 (volume 2)._

_P. Bayne,
Martin Luther: His Life and Work,
book 11 (volume 2)._

_J. Köstlin,
Life of Luther,
part 4, chapter 5._

_C. W. C. Oman,
The German Peasant War of 1525
(English History Review, volume 5)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1525-1529.
League of Torgau.
The Diets at Spires.
Legal recognition of the Reformed Religion, and the withdrawal
of it.
The Protest which gave rise to the name "Protestants."

See PAPACY: A. D.1525-1529.

GERMANY: A. D. 1529.
Turkish invasion of Austria.
Siege of Vienna.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1526-1567.

GERMANY: A. D. 1530.
The Diet at Augsburg.
The signing and reading of the Protestant Confession of Faith.
The condemnatory decree.
Breach between the Protestants and the emperor.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1530-1531.

GERMANY: A. D. 1530-1532.
The Augsburg Decree.
Alarm of the Protestants.
Their League of Smalkalde and alliance with the king of
France.
Pacification of Nuremberg with the emperor.
Expulsion of the Turks from Hungary.

The decree issued by the Diet at Augsburg was condemnatory of
most of the tenets peculiar to the protestants, "forbidding
any person to protect or tolerate such as taught them,
enjoining a strict observance of the established rites, and
prohibiting any farther innovation, under severe penalties.
All orders of men were required to assist with their persons
and fortunes in carrying this decree into execution; and such
as refused to obey it were declared incapable of acting as
judges, or of appearing as parties in the imperial chamber,
the supreme court of judicature in the empire. To all which
was subjoined a promise, that an application should be made to
the pope, requiring him to call a general council within six
months, in order to terminate all controversies by its
sovereign decisions. The severity of this decree, which was
considered as a prelude to the most violent persecution,
alarmed the protestants, and convinced them that the emperor
was resolved on their destruction." Under these circumstances,
the protestant princes met at Smalkalde, December 22, 1530,
and there "concluded a league of mutual defence against all
aggressors, by which they formed the protestant states of the
empire into one regular body, and, beginning already to
consider themselves as such, they resolved to apply to the
kings of France and England, and to implore them to patronise
and assist their new confederacy. An affair not connected with
religion furnished them with a pretence for courting the aid
of foreign princes.'" This was the election of the emperor's
brother, Ferdinand, to be King of the Romans, against, which
they had protested vigorously. "When the protestants, who
were' assembled a second time at Smalkalde [February, 1531],
received an account of this transaction, and heard, at the
same time, that prosecutions were commenced in the imperial
chamber against some of their number, on account of their
religious principles, they thought it necessary, not only to
renew their former confederacy, but immediately to despatch
their ambassadors into France and England." The king of France
"listened with the utmost eagerness to the complaints of the
protestant princes; and, without seeming to countenance their
religious opinions, determined secretly to cherish those
sparks of political discord which might be afterwards kindled
into a flame. For this purpose he sent William de Bellay, one
of the ablest negotiators in France, into Germany, who,
visiting the courts of the malecontent princes, and
heightening their ill-humour by various arts, concluded an
alliance between them, and his master, which, though concealed
at that time, and productive of no immediate effects, laid the
foundation of a union fatal on many occasions to Charles's
ambitious projects. … The king of England [Henry VIII.],
highly incensed against Charles, in complaisance to whom, the
pope had long retarded, and now openly opposed, his divorce
[from Catharine of Aragon], was no less disposed than Francis
to strengthen a league which might be rendered so formidable
to the emperor. But his favourite project of the divorce led
him into such a labyrinth of schemes and negotiations, and he
was, at the same time, so intent on abolishing the papal
jurisdiction in England, that he had no leisure for foreign
affairs. This obliged him to rest satisfied with giving
general promises, together with a small supply in money, to
the confederates of Smalkalde. Meanwhile, many circumstances
convinced Charles that this was not a juncture" in which he
could afford to let his zeal for the church push him to
extremities with the protestants.
{1461}
"Negotiations were, accordingly, carried on by his direction
with the elector of Saxony and his associates; after many
delays … terms of pacification were agreed upon at Nuremberg
[July 23], and ratified solemnly in the diet at Ratisbon
[August 3]. In this treaty it was stipulated: that universal
peace be established in Germany, until the meeting of a
general council, the convocation of which within six months
the emperor shall endeavour to procure; that no person shall
be molested on account of religion; that a stop shall be put
to all processes begun by the imperial chamber against
protestants, and the sentences already passed to their
detriment shall be declared void. On their part, the
protestants engaged to assist the emperor with all their
forces in resisting the invasion of the Turks. … The
protestants of Germany, who had hitherto been viewed only as a
religious sect, came henceforth to be considered as a
political body of no small consequence. The intelligence which
Charles received of Solyman's having entered Hungary, at the
head of 300,000 men, brought the deliberations of the diet at
Ratisbon to a period. … The protestants, as a testimony of
their gratitude to the emperor, exerted themselves with
extraordinary zeal, and brought into the field forces which
exceeded in number the quota imposed on them; and the
catholics imitating their example, one of the greatest and
best-appointed armies that had ever been levied in Germany
assembled near Vienna. … It amounted in all to 90,000
disciplined foot, and 30,000 horse, besides a prodigious swarm
of irregulars. Of this vast army … the emperor took the
command in person; and mankind waited in suspense the issue of
a decisive battle between the two greatest monarchs in the
world. But each of them dreading the other's power and good
fortune, they both conducted their operations with such
excessive caution, that a campaign for which such immense
preparations had been made ended without any memorable event.
Solyman, finding it impossible to gain ground upon an enemy
always attentive and on his guard, marched back to
Constantinople towards the end of autumn. … About the
beginning of this campaign, the elector of Saxony died, and
was succeeded by his son John Frederick. … Immediately after
the retreat of the Turks, Charles, impatient to revisit Spain,
set out, on his way thither, for Italy."

_W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
book 5._

ALSO IN:
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 6, chapters 1-8 (volume 3)._

_H. Stebbing,
History of the Reformation,
chapters 12-13 (volume 2)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1532-1536.
Fanaticism of the Anabaptists of Münster.
Siege and capture of the city.

See ANABAPTISTS OF MÜNSTER.

GERMANY: A. D. 1533-1546.
Mercenary aspects of the Reformation.
Protestant intolerance.
Union with the Swiss Reformers.
The Catholic Holy League.
Preparations for war.