A History of Germany Part 23

against France. --The Diet of 1512. --The Empire divided into Ten Districts. --Revolts of the Peasants. --The "Bond-Shoe" and "Poor Konrad." --Change in Military Service. --Character of Maximilian's Reign. --The Cities of Germany. --Their Wealth and Architecture.

--The Order of the "Holy Vehm." --Other Changes under Maximilian.

--Last Years of his Reign. --His Death.

[Sidenote: 1493.]

As Maximilian had been elected in 1486, he began to exercise the full Imperial power, without any further formalities, after his father's death. For the first time since the death of Henry VII. in 1313, the Germans had a popular Emperor. They were at last weary of the prevailing disorder and insecurity, and partly conscious that the power of the Empire had declined, while that of France, Spain, and even Poland, had greatly increased. Therefore they brought themselves to submit to the authority of an Emperor who was in every respect stronger than any of the Electors by whom he had been chosen.

Maximilian had all the qualities of a great ruler, except prudence and foresight. He was tall, finely-formed, with remarkably handsome features, clear blue eyes, and blonde hair falling in ringlets upon his shoulders; he possessed great muscular strength, his body was developed by constant exercise, and he was one of the boldest, bravest and most skilful knights of his day. While his bearing was stately and dignified, his habits were simple: he often marched on foot, carrying his lance, at the head of his troops, and was able to forge his armor and temper his sword, as well as wear them. Yet he was also well-educated, possessed a taste for literature and the arts, and became something of a poet in his later years. Unlike his avaricious predecessors, he was generous even to prodigality; but, inheriting his father's eccentricity of character, he was whimsical, liable to act from impulse instead of reflection, headstrong and impatient. If he had been as wise as he was honest and well-meaning, he might have regenerated Germany.

[Sidenote: 1495. PERPETUAL PEACE PROCLAIMED.]

The commencement of his reign was signalized by two threatening events.

The Turks were renewing their invasions, and boldly advancing into Carinthia, between Vienna and the Adriatic; Charles VIII. of France had made himself master of Naples, and was apparently bent on conquering and annexing all of Italy. Maximilian had just married Blanca Maria Sforza, niece of the reigning Duke of Milan, which city, with others in Lombardy, and even the Pope--forgetting their old enmity to the German Empire--demanded his a.s.sistance. He called a Diet, which met at Worms in 1495; but many of the princes, both spiritual and temporal, had learned a little wisdom, and they were unwilling to interfere in matters outside of the Empire until something had been done to remedy its internal condition. Berthold, Archbishop of Mayence, Frederick the Wise of Saxony, John Cicero of Brandenburg, and Eberhard of the Beard, first Duke of Wurtemberg, with many of the free cities, insisted so strongly on the restoration of order, security, and the establishment of laws which should guarantee peace, that the Emperor was forced to comply. For fourteen weeks the question was discussed with the greatest earnestness: the opposition of many princes and nearly the whole cla.s.s of n.o.bles was overcome, and a Perpetual National Peace was proclaimed. By this measure, the right to use force was prohibited to all; the feuds which had desolated the land for a thousand years were ordered to be suppressed; and all disputes were referred to an Imperial Court, permanently established at Frankfort, and composed of sixteen Councillors. It was also agreed that the Diet should meet annually, and remain in session for one month, in order to insure the uninterrupted enforcement of its decrees. A proposition to appoint an Imperial Council of State (equivalent to a modern "Ministry"), of twenty members, which should have power, in certain cases, to act in the Emperor's name, was rejected by Maximilian, as an a.s.sault upon his personal rights.

[Sidenote: 1496.]

Although the decree of Perpetual Peace could not be carried into effect immediately, it was not a dead letter, as all former decrees of the kind had been. Maximilian bound himself, in the most solemn manner, to respect the new arrangements, and there were now several honest and intelligent princes to a.s.sist him. One difficulty was the collection of a government tax, called "the common penny," to support the expenses of the Imperial Court. Such a tax had been for the first time imposed during the war with the Hussites, but very little of it was then paid.

Even now, when the object of it was of such importance to the whole people, several years elapsed before the Court could be permanently established. The annual sessions of the Diet, also, were much less effective than had been antic.i.p.ated: princes, priests and cities were so accustomed to a selfish independence, that they could not yet work together for the general good.

Before the Diet at Worms adjourned, it agreed to furnish the Emperor with 9,000 men, to be employed in Italy against the French, and afterwards against the Turks on the Austrian frontier. Charles VIII.

retreated from Italy on hearing of this measure, yet not rapidly enough to avoid being defeated, near Parma, by the combined Germans and Milanese. In 1496 Sigismund of Tyrol died, and all the Hapsburg lands came into Maximilian's possession. The same year, he married his son Philip, then eighteen years old and accepted as Regent by the Netherlands, to Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile. The other heirs to the Spanish throne died soon afterwards, and when Isabella followed them, in 1504, she appointed Philip and Joanna her successors. The pride and influence of the house of Hapsburg were greatly increased by this marriage, but its consequences were most disastrous to Germany, for Philip's son was Charles V.

The next years of Maximilian's reign were disturbed, and, on the whole, unfortunate for the Empire. An attempt to apply the decrees of the Diet of Worms to Switzerland brought on a war, which, after occasioning the destruction of 2,000 villages and castles, and the loss of 20,000 lives, resulted in the Emperor formally acknowledging the independence of Switzerland in a treaty concluded at Basel in 1499. Then Louis XII. of France captured Milan, interfered secretly in a war concerning the succession, which broke out in Bavaria, and bribed various German princes to act in his interest, when Maximilian called upon the Diet to a.s.sist him in making war upon France. After having with much difficulty obtained 12,000 men, the Emperor marched to Italy, intending to replace the Sforza family in Milan and then be crowned by Pope Julius II. in Rome. But the Venetians stopped him at the outset of the expedition, and he was forced to return ingloriously to Germany.

[Sidenote: 1508. WARS WITH VENICE AND FRANCE.]

Maximilian's next step was another example of his want of judgment in political matters. In order to revenge himself upon Venice, he gave up his hostility to France, and in 1508 became a party to the League of Cambray, uniting with France, Spain and the Pope in a determined effort to destroy the Venetian Republic. The war, which was b.l.o.o.d.y and barbarous, even for those times, lasted three years. Venice lost, at the outset, Trieste, Verona, Padua and the Romagna, and seemed on the verge of ruin, when Maximilian suddenly left Italy with his army, offended, it was said, at the refusal of the French knights, to fight side by side with his German troops. The Venetians then recovered so much of their lost ground that they purchased the alliance of the Pope, and finally of Spain. A new alliance, called "the Holy League," was formed against France; and Maximilian, after continuing to support Louis XII. a while longer, finally united with Henry VII. of England in joining it. But Louis XII., who was a far better diplomatist than any of his enemies, succeeded, after he had suffered many inevitable losses, in dissolving this powerful combination. He married the sister of Henry of England, yielded Navarre and Naples to Spain, promised money to the Swiss, and held out to Maximilian the prospect of a marriage which would give Milan to the Hapsburgs.

Thus the greater part of Europe was for years convulsed with war chiefly because instead of a prudent and intelligent _national_ power in Germany, there was an unsteady and excitable _family_ leader, whose first interest was the advantage of his house. After such sacrifices of blood and treasure, such disturbance to the development of industry, art and knowledge among the people, the same confusion prevailed as before.

[Sidenote: 1512.]

Before the war came to an end, another general Diet met at Cologne, in 1512, to complete the organization commenced in 1495. Private feuds and acts of retaliation had not yet been suppressed, and the Imperial Council was working under great disadvantages, both from the want of money and the difficulty of enforcing obedience to its decisions. The Emperor demanded the creation of a permanent military force, which should be at the service of the Empire; but this was almost unanimously refused. In other respects, the Diet showed itself both willing and earnest to complete the work of peace and order. The whole Empire was divided into ten Districts, each of which was placed under the jurisdiction of a Judicial Chief and Board of Councillors, whose duty it was to see that the decrees of the Diet and the judgments of the Imperial Court were obeyed.

The Districts were as follows: 1.--THE AUSTRIAN, embracing all the lands governed by the Hapsburgs, from the Danube to the Adriatic, with the Tyrol, and some territory on the Upper Rhine: Bohemia, Silesia and Hungary were not included. 2.--THE BAVARIAN, comprising the divisions on both sides of the Danube, and the bishopric of Salzburg. 3.--THE SUABIAN, made up of no less than 90 spiritual and temporal princ.i.p.alities, including Wurtemberg, Baden, Hohenzollern, and the bishoprics of Augsburg and Constance. 4.--THE FRANCONIAN, embracing the Brandenburg possessions, Ansbach and Baireuth, with Nuremberg and the bishoprics of Bamberg, Wurzburg, &c. 5.--THE UPPER-RHENISH, comprising the Palatinate, Hesse, Na.s.sau, the bishoprics of Basel, Strasburg, Speyer, Worms, &c., the free cities of the Rhine as far as Frankfort, and a number of petty States. 6.--THE ELECTORAL-RHENISH, with the Archbishoprics of the Palatinate, Mayence, Treves, Cologne, and the princ.i.p.ality of Amberg. 7.--THE BURGUNDIAN, made up of 21 States, four of them dukedoms and eight countships. 8.--THE WESTPHALIAN, with the dukedoms of Julich, Cleves and Berg, Oldenburg, part of Friesland, and 7 bishoprics. 9.--THE LOWER SAXON, embracing the dukedoms of Brunswick-Luneburg, Saxe-Lauenburg, Holstein and Mecklenburg, the Archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Lubeck, the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck, and a number of smaller States. 10.--THE UPPER SAXON, including the Electorates of Saxony and Brandenburg, the dukedom of Pomerania, the smaller States of Anhalt, Schwarzburg, Mansfeld, Reuss, and many others of less importance.

[Sidenote: 1512. MILITARY CHANGES.]

This division of Germany into districts had the external appearance of an orderly political arrangement; but the States, great and little, had been too long accustomed to having their own way. The fact that an independent baron, like Franz von Sickingen, could still disturb a large extent of territory for a number of years, shows the weakness of the new national power. Moreover, nothing seems to have been done, or even attempted, by the Diet, to protect the agricultural population from the absolute despotism of the landed n.o.bility. In Alsatia, as early as 1493, there was a general revolt of the peasants (called by them the _Bond-shoe_), which was not suppressed until much blood had been shed.

It excited a spirit of resistance throughout all Southern Germany. In 1514, Duke Ulric of Wurtemberg undertook to replenish his treasury by using false weights and measures, and provoked the common people to rise against him. They formed a society, to which they gave the name of "Poor Konrad," which became so threatening that, although it was finally crushed by violence, it compelled the reform of many flagrant evils and showed even the most arrogant rulers that there were bounds to tyranny.

But, although the feudal system was still in force, the obligation to render military service, formerly belonging to it, was nearly at an end.

The use of cannon, and of a rude kind of musket, had become general in war: heavy armor for man and horse was becoming not only useless, but dangerous; and the courage of the soldier, not his bodily strength or his knightly accomplishments, const.i.tuted his value in the field. The Swiss had set the example of furnishing good troops to whoever would pay for them, and a similar cla.s.s, calling themselves _Landsknechte_ (Servants of the Country), arose in Germany. The robber-knights, by this time, were nearly extinct: when Frederick of Hohenzollern began to use artillery against their castles, it was evident that their days of plunder were over. The reign of Maximilian, therefore, marks an important turning-point in German history. It is, at the same time, the end of the stormy and struggling life of the Middle Ages, and the beginning of a new and fiercer struggle between men and their oppressors. Maximilian, in fact, is called in Germany "the Last of the Knights."

[Sidenote: 1512.]

The strength of Germany lay chiefly in the cities, which, in spite of their narrow policy towards the country, and their jealousy of each other, had at least kept alive and encouraged all forms of art and industry, and created a cla.s.s of learned men outside of the Church.

While the knighthood of the Hohenstaufen period had sunk into corruption and semi-barbarism, and the people had grown more dangerous through their ignorance and subjection, the cities had gradually become centres of wealth and intelligence. They were adorned with splendid works of architecture; they supported the early poets, painters and sculptors; and, when compelled to act in concert against the usurpations of the Emperor or the inferior rulers, whatever privileges they maintained or received were in favor of the middle-cla.s.s, and therefore an indirect gain to the whole people.

The cities, moreover, exercised an influence over the country population by their markets, fairs, and festivals. The most of them were as largely and as handsomely built as at present, but in times of peace the life within their walls was much gayer and more brilliant. Pope Pius II., when he was secretary to Frederick III. as aeneas Sylvius, wrote of them as follows: "One may veritably say that no people in Europe live in cleaner or more cheerful cities than the Germans; their appearance is as new as if they had only been built yesterday. By their commerce they ama.s.s great wealth: there is no banquet at which they do not drink from silver cups, no dame who does not wear golden ornaments. Moreover, the citizens are also soldiers, and each one has a sort of a.r.s.enal in his own house. The boys in this country can ride before they can talk, and sit firmly in the saddle when the horses are at full speed: the men move in their armor without feeling its weight. Verily, you Germans might be masters of the world, as formerly, but for your mult.i.tude of rulers, which every wise man has always considered an evil!"

During the fifteenth century a remarkable inst.i.tution, called "the Vehm"--or, by the people, "the Holy Vehm"--exercised a great authority throughout Northern Germany. Its members claimed that it was founded by Charlemagne, to a.s.sist in establishing Christianity among the Saxons; but it is not mentioned before the twelfth century, and the probability is that it sprang up from the effort of the people to preserve their old democratic organization, in a secret form, after it had been overthrown by the reigning princes. The object of the Vehm was to enforce impartial justice among all cla.s.ses, and for this purpose it held open courts for the settlement of quarrels and minor offences, while graver crimes were tried at night, in places known only to the members. The latter were sworn to secrecy, and also to implicit obedience to the judgments of the courts or the orders of the chiefs, who were called "Free Counts." The head-quarters of the Vehm were in Westphalia, but its branches spread over a great part of Germany, and it became so powerful during the reign of Frederick III. that it even dared to cite him to appear before its tribunal.

[Sidenote: 1515. LAST YEARS OF MAXIMILIAN.]

In all probability the dread of the power of the Vehm was one of the causes which induced both Maximilian and the princes to reorganize the Empire. In proportion as order and justice began to prevail in Germany, the need of such a secret inst.i.tution grew less; but about another century elapsed before its courts ceased to be held. After that, it continued to exist in Westphalia as an order for mutual a.s.sistance, something like that of the Freemasons. In this form it lingered until 1838, when the last "Free Count" died.

Among the other changes introduced during Maximilian's reign were the establishment of a police system, and the invention of a postal system by Franz of Taxis. The latter obtained a monopoly of the post routes throughout Germany, and his family, which afterwards became that of Thurn and Taxis, received an enormous revenue from this source, from that time down to the present day. Maximilian himself devoted a great deal of time and study to the improvement of artillery, and many new forms of cannon, which were designed by him, are still preserved in Vienna.

Although the people of Germany did not share to any great extent in the pa.s.sion for travel and adventure which followed the discovery of America in 1492 and the circ.u.mnavigation of Africa in 1498, they were directly affected by the changes which took place in the commerce of the world.

The supremacy of Venice in the South and of the Hanseatic League in the North of Europe, began slowly to decline, while the powers which undertook to colonize the new lands--England, Spain and Portugal--rose in commercial importance.

[Sidenote: 1518.]

The last years of Maximilian promised new splendors to the house of Hapsburg. In 1515 his younger grandson, Ferdinand, married the daughter of Ladislas, king of Bohemia and Hungary, whose only son died shortly afterwards, leaving Ferdinand heir to the double crown. In 1516, the Emperor's elder grandson, Karl, became king of Spain, Sicily and Naples, in addition to Burgundy and Flanders, which he held as the great-grandson of Charles the Bold. At a Diet held at Augsburg, in 1518, Maximilian made great exertions to have Karl elected his successor, but failed on account of the opposition of Pope Leo X. and Francis I. of France, whose agents were present with heavy bribes in their pockets.

Disappointed and depressed, the Emperor left Augsburg, and went to Innsbruck, but the latter city refused to entertain him until some money which he had borrowed of it should be refunded. His strength had been failing for years before, and he always travelled with a coffin among his baggage. He now felt his end approaching, took up his abode in the little town of Wels, and devoted his remaining days to religious exercises. There he died, on the 11th of January, 1519, in the sixtieth year of his age.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE REFORMATION.

(1517--1546.)

Martin Luther. --Signs of the Coming Reformation. --Luther's Youth and Education. --His Study of the Bible. --His Professorship at Wittenberg. --Visit to Rome. --Tetzel's Sale of Indulgences.

--Luther's Theses. --His Meeting with Cardinal Cajeta.n.u.s. --Escape from Augsburg. --Meeting with the Pope's Nuncio. --Excitement in Germany. --Luther burns the Pope's Bull. --Charles V. elected German Emperor. --Luther before the Diet at Worms. --His Abduction and Concealment. --He Returns to Wittenberg. --Progress of the Reformation. --The Anabaptists. --The Peasants' War. --Luther's Manner of Translating the Bible. --Leagues For and Against the Reformation. --Its Features. --The Wars of Charles V. --Diet at Speyer. --The Protestants. --The Swiss Reformer, Zwingli. --His Meeting with Luther. --Charles V. returns to Germany. --The Augsburg Confession. --Measures against the Protestants. --The League of Schmalkalden. --The Religious Peace of Nuremberg. --Its Consequences. --John of Leyden. --Another Diet. --Charles V.

Invades France. --The Council of Trent. --Luther's last Years.

--His Death and Burial.

[Sidenote: 1519. MARTIN LUTHER.]

When the Emperor Maximilian died, a greater man than himself or any of his predecessors on the Imperial throne had already begun a far greater work than was ever accomplished by any political ruler. Out of the ranks of the poor, oppressed German people arose the chosen Leader who became powerful above all princes, who resisted the first monarch of the world, and defeated the Church of Rome after an undisturbed reign of a thousand years. We must therefore leave the succession of the house of Hapsburg until we have traced the life of Martin Luther up to the time of Maximilian's death.

The Reformation, which was now so near at hand, already existed in the feelings and hopes of a large cla.s.s of the people. The persecutions of the Albigenses in France, the Waldenses in Savoy and the Wickliffites in England, the burning of Huss and Jerome, and the long ravages of the Hussite war had made all Europe familiar with the leading doctrine of each of these sects--that the Bible was the highest authority, the only source of Christian truth. Earnest, thinking men in all countries were thus led to examine the Bible for themselves, and the great dissemination of the study of the ancient languages, during the fifteenth century, helped very much to increase the knowledge of the sacred volume. Then came the art of printing, as a most providential aid, making the truth accessible to all who were able to read it.

[Sidenote: 1483.]

The long reign of Frederick III., as we have seen, was a period of political disorganization, which was partially corrected during the reign of Maximilian. Internal peace was the first great necessity of Germany, and, until it had been established, the people patiently endured the oppressions and abuses of the Church of Rome. When they were ready for a serious resistance to the latter, the man was also ready to instruct and guide them, and the Church itself furnished the occasion for a general revolt against its authority.

Martin Luther, the son of a poor miner, was born in the little Saxon town of Eisleben (not far from the Hartz), on the 10th of November, 1483. He attended a monkish school at Magdeburg, and then became what is called a "wandering-scholar"--that is, one who has no certain means of support, but chants in the church, and also in the streets for alms--at Eisenach, in Thuringia. As a boy he was so earnest, studious and obedient, and gave such intellectual promise, that his parents stinted themselves in order to save enough from their scanty earnings to secure him a good education. But their circ.u.mstances gradually improved, and in 1501 they were able to send him to the University of Erfurt. Four years afterwards he was graduated with honor, and delivered a course of lectures upon Aristotle.

Luther's father desired that he should study jurisprudence, but his thoughts were already turned towards religion. A copy of the Bible in the library of the University excited in him such a spiritual struggle that he became seriously ill; and he had barely recovered, when, while taking a walk with a fellow-student, the latter was struck dead by lightning at his side. Then he determined to renounce the world, and in spite of the strong opposition of his father, became a monk of the Augustine Order, in Erfurt. He prayed, fasted, and followed the most rigid discipline of the order, in the hope of obtaining peace of mind, but in vain: he was tormented by doubt and even by despair, until he turned again to the Bible. A zealous study of the exact language of the Gospels gave him not only a firm faith, but a peace and cheerfulness which was never afterwards disturbed by trials or dangers.

[Sidenote: 1517. TETZEL'S SALE OF INDULGENCES.]