The Life of Hugo Grotius Part 2

Poland, and other parts of the Sclavonian territories, were subject to it. Denmark and Hungary acknowledged themselves its va.s.sals.

The emperors affected to consider all kingdoms as forming a royal republic, of which the emperor was chief. For their right to this splendid prerogative, they always found advocates in their own dominions: they reckon, among these, the ill.u.s.trious Leibniz. Out of Germany, nothing of the claim, beyond precedence in rank, has ever been allowed. This, no sovereign in Europe has contested with the emperors: it is observable, that, as the French monarchs insisted on the Carlovingian extraction of Hugh Capet, they affected to consider Henry the Fowler the first prince of the Saxon dynasty, and all his successors in the empire as usurpers. Lewis XIV. expresses himself in this manner in some memoirs recently attributed to him.

III. 2.

_State of German Literature during the Franconian Dynasty._

[Sidenote: 1024-1138.]

Throughout this period, commerce was always upon the increase; and literature, science and art, increased with it. The monuments of the antient grandeur of the eternal city, began about this time to engage the attention of the inhabitants of Germany, and to attract to Rome many literary pilgrims. They returned home impressed with admiration of what they had seen, and related the wonders to their countrymen. "The G.o.ds themselves (they told their hearers) behold their images in Rome with admiration, and wish to resemble them. Nature herself does not raise forms as beautiful as those, which the artist creates. One is tempted to say that they breathe; and to adore the skill of the artist rather than the inhabitant of Olympus represented by his art." Thus the uncultivated Germans began to perceive the beauty of these relics of antiquity, and to feel the wish of imitation. This first appeared on the seals of the emperors and bishops; several of distinguished beauty have reached our times. The German artists soon began to engrave on precious stones, and to work in marble and bronze. Four statues of emperors of the house of Saxony, of the workmanship of these times, are still to be seen at Spires; they are rudely fashioned, but are animated, and have distinct and expressive countenances.

[Sidenote: III. 2. State of German Literature during the Franconian Dynasty.]

When the emperors or n.o.bility travelled, they were frequently accompanied by artists. These sometimes made drawings of foreign churches and edifices, and on their return home, raised others in imitation of them. Thus the cathedral at Bremen was built on the model of that of Benevento. The cathedral of Strasburgh, and many other churches, were built about this time.

Music was considerably improved; the system of Guido Aretinus was no where understood better, or cultivated with greater ardour, than in Germany. Some improvement was made in poetry, but it chiefly appeared in the songs of the common people. A monk of Togernsee, in Bavaria, composed a collection of poems under the t.i.tle of Bucolics; they resemble those of Virgil only in their t.i.tle. Lambert, of Aschaffenburgh, published a history of his own times, inferior to none which have reached us from the middle ages.

[Sidenote: 1024-1138]

Dialectic, however, still continued the favourite study; and the art of disputation was never carried so far: the interest which the public took in these disputes was surprising. When it was announced that two celebrated dialecticians were to hold a public dispute, persons flocked from all parts to witness the conflict; they listened with avidity, and with all the feelings of partisans. This appears ridiculous; but, in the present times, is there no _fancy_ which deserves equal ridicule?

IV. 1

_The State of Germany, from the beginning of the Suabian Dynasty, till the Accession of the Emperor Charles V._

1138-1519.

The princ.i.p.al events in the reigns of the latter princes of the Franconian, and of all the princes of the Suabian line, were produced or influenced by the contests between the popes and emperors, respecting invest.i.tures, or the right of nominating to vacant bishoprics;--by the pretensions of the popes to hold their antient territories independent of the emperors;--or by the new acquisitions of the popes in Italy.

1264-1272.

These contests reduced the empire to a state of anarchy, which produced what is generally called, by the German writers, the Great Interregnum.

While it continued, six princes successively claimed to be emperors of Germany.

1272-1438.

The interregnum was determined by the election of Rodolph, count of Hapsburgh. From him, till the ultimate accession of the house of Austria, in the person of Albert the Second, the empire was held by several princes of different n.o.ble families.

1438-1519.

Albert was succeeded by Frederick III.; Frederick, by Maximilian I.; and Maximilian, by Charles V.

To the period between the extinction of the Suabian dynasty and the accession of the emperor Albert, may be a.s.signed the rise of the Italian republics, particularly Venice, Genoa and Florence; the elevations of the princes of Savoy and Milan, and the revolutions of Naples, and the Two Sicilies.

[Sidenote: IV. 1. The State of Germany, from the beginning of the Suabian Dynasty till the Accession of the Emperor Charles V.]

The boundaries of Germany, during this period, were the Eider and the sea, on the north; the Scheld, the Meuse, the Saone and the Rhone, on the west; the Alps and the Rhine, on the south; and the Lech and Vistula, on the east. They contained,--1. The duchy of Burgundy; 2. The duchy of Lorraine; 3. The princ.i.p.alities into which Allemmania and Franconia were divided; 4. The Bavarian territories, which the Franks had acquired in Rhoetia, Noric.u.m, and Pannonia; 5. Saxony; 6. The Sclavic territories between the Oder and the Vistula: these were possessed by the margraves of Brandenburgh, and the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, and the princes dependent upon them in Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia;--7. by the provinces of Pomerania and Prussia, on the east of Saxony; 8. and the Marchia Orientalis, Oostrich, or Austria, on the east of Bavaria.

At first, the emperor was chosen by the people at large; the right of election was afterwards confined to the n.o.bility and the princ.i.p.al officers of state: insensibly, it was engrossed by the five great officers,--the chancellor, the great marshal, the great chamberlain, the great butler, and the great master of the palace. But their exclusive pretensions were much questioned. At length, their right of election was settled; first, by the Electoral Union, in 1337; and finally, in the reign of the emperor Charles IV. by the celebrated const.i.tution, called, from the seal of gold appended to it, _the Golden Bull_. By this, the right of election was vested in three spiritual and four temporal electors: two temporal electors have since been added to their numbers.

IV. 2.

_State of German literature during this period_.

[Sidenote: 1438-1519]

While the empire was possessed by the princes of the house of Saxony, a copy of the Pandects of Justinian was discovered at Amalfi. "The discovery of them," says Sir William Blackstone, in his Introductory discourse to his Commentaries, "soon brought the civil law into vogue all over the west of Europe, where before it was quite laid aside, and in a manner wholly forgotten; though some traces of its authority remained in Italy, and the eastern provinces of the empire.--The study of it was introduced into many universities abroad, particularly that of Bologna, where exercises were performed, lectures read, and degrees conferred in this faculty, as in other branches of science; and many nations of the continent, just then beginning to recover from the convulsions consequent to the overthrow of the Roman empire, and settling by degrees into peaceable forms of government, adopted the civil law (being the best written system then extant,) as the basis of their several const.i.tutions; blending or interweaving in it their own feudal customs, in some places, with a more extensive, in others, a more confined authority."

[Sidenote: IV. 2. State of German Literature, from the Suabian Dynasty to Charles V.]

This was a great step toward the civilization of Germany, and of the other countries in which the inst.i.tutions of the civil law were thus introduced. They certainly tended to animate the nations, by whom they were received, to the study of the history and literature of the people from the works of whose writers they had been compiled. They produced this effect in several countries of Europe; but their influence in Germany was very limited: the disposition to subtilize, which was at that time universal throughout the German empire, led those who cultivated literature rather to refine upon what was before them, than to new inquiries. The language of the Pandects is of the silver age; it might therefore be expected, that it would have improved the general style of the times; but this improvement is seldom discernible.

[Sidenote: 1438-1519]

[Sidenote: IV. 2. State of German Literature, from the Suabian Dynasty to Charles V.]

Good or evil is seldom unmixed: civil contests and dissensions, generally produce both public and private misery; sometimes, however, they generate mental excitement. This is favourable to Literature and Science. Its good effects appeared in the contests between the Popes and the Emperors. Great were the public and the private calamities which they caused, both in church and state; but they promoted inquiry and intellectual exertions. These were often attended with happy results.

Irnerius, by birth a German, had studied Justinian's law at Constantinople. Towards the year 1130, he was appointed professor of civil law at Bologna: the contests between the popes and the emperors produced a warfare of words among the disciples of Irnerius. It has been mentioned that the German emperors pretended to succeed to the empire of the Caesars. The language and spirit of the Justinianean code, being highly favourable to this claim, the emperors encouraged the civilians, and in return for it, had their pens at command. The decree of Gratian was favourable to the pretensions of the popes; and on this account was encouraged by the canonists. Hence, generally speaking, the civilians were partisans of the emperors, the canonists of the popes. From their adherence to the law of Justinian, the former were called Legistae; from their adherence to the decree of Gratian, the latter were called Decretistae. The controversy was carried on with great ardour and perseverance; the schools both of Italy and Germany resounded with the disputes, and in both, numerous tracts in support of the opposite claims, were circulated. The question necessarily carried the disputants to many incidental topics: these equally increased the powers and curiosity of the disputants, and stimulated them to better and more interesting studies.