CHAPTER I.

OF THE ORIGIN AND RISE OF THE POWER OF BRANDENBURG AND PRUSSIA.

BY THE SIDE OF THE great princes who founded or extended the supreme power in Germany, history gives a place to other heroes whose undying glory it is to have opposed the former in their career: it would indeed be difficult to decide which of the two have contributed most largely to the developement of the nation.

The great sovereigns inspired the German nation with the consciousness of its own unity; and by the foundation of the Empire they not only won for Germany a high rank amongst nations, but gave her a resistless impulse towards civilization, made way for the spread of Christianity, and established public order upon a solid foundation. On the other hand, those territorial princes who opposed these monarchs defended the freedom of the national genius, which was not in harmony with ideas developed in other countries and under other circumstances, and often propounded without examination or due perception of their import. They likewise prevented the destruction of individual life and liberty by the pressure of the external forms in which these ideas had been clothed during the course of these events.

After devoting to the former the attention due to their personal character, and to the importance of their achievements, we ought not to leave the latter unnoticed: they present a series of characters which become more and more remarkable as we advance from one epoch to another.

At first these territorial princes, when not themselves enabled by birth or by the fortune of war to grasp at the imperial crown, could not fail to succumb in the struggle against a power which was of necessity strong both within and without its own dominions, called upon as it was to resist the pressure of so many powerful and barbarous foes. But the nation has not forgotten their efforts. One of them especially, Duke Ernest of Swabia, is still remembered as a man who preferred forfeiting the Emperor’s favour to breaking faith with his friend; and when for this offence he was excommunicated by the bishops and outlawed by the princes of the Empire, he retreated into the depths of the forest, where, seeing himself surrounded and overpowered by foes, he purposely sought his death.

But a time came when men of this stamp acquired a new importance, and, above all, an invincible support, in the rising power of the territorial sovereignty which was deeply rooted in the German nation.

Henry the Lion affords perhaps the most remarkable illustration of this crisis in German history. It is true that the contest for power and consideration in which he engaged with the Emperor mainly benefited the Pope and the Lombards; but when he afterwards determined to be what he really was by birth—a German territorial prince—and when he defended the inheritance of his fathers in lower Saxony against the imperial armies, he set an example which was followed by many princely families and by many towns and provinces upon which contests were forced, or which sought them of their own accord. Frederick the Warlike, again, had to fight many a hard battle for the territorial independence of Austria, upon which the house of Habsburg afterwards mainly founded its power. In central Germany another Frederick, he of the Bitten Cheek, a prince of the house of Wettin, made his name famous. At one time he no longer possessed a single castle wherein to reside, not a single war-horse to carry him into battle. A chronicle of the time describes him wandering as a fugitive through the country, in such guise that a herdsman tending his flock might have seized him; but soon after we find him gaining victories, the memory of which has fed the pride of his countrymen for generations. He withstood the armies of two Emperors, both inflamed by the greatest lust of conquest. Frederick himself perished body and soul in the struggle, but he left the land of his fathers undiminished to his house. I do not pretend here to examine whether it would not have been better, as some have asserted, if this or that opponent of the Emperor had been compelled to yield to him. The German people was accustomed to consider the imperial crown as the collective property of the princes and estates in whom the power of disposing of that dignity was vested. Should he upon whom it was conferred make use of the power with which it endowed him to increase the might of his own house, each individual prince felt himself fully justified in resistance. Not one of all the opponents of the different Emperors for a moment entertained the thought of destroying the Empire, upon which they themselves leant for support; they merely wished to defend their own political existence against any undue exercise of the imperial power. In this view taken by the territorial princes the towns and circles fully agreed. Of all the Emperors—and many of them possessed most brilliant qualities—not one since Otho the Great has been distinguished by any title of honour given by the people. The Emperors were fortunate if they were not altogether forgotten. Among the territorial princes, on the contrary, we meet with many bearing such names as the Joyous, the Bold, the Iron, the Earnest, the Glorious, the Wise, and the Good. They stood much more within the reach of popular sympathy; in them the power and importance of personal character were far more plainly shown, and provincial pride was enlisted in their favour; while the Emperor moved in so remote a sphere that he never awakened in the minds of the people any real interest or fellow-feeling; these indeed can never be excited by mere admiration.

By degrees, however, a complete change took place in the relations between the princes and the Emperor.

In earlier times the Emperor, in his imperial character, was looked upon as the firm and living centre of the whole German nation: by him the governors of the several provinces were appointed or dismissed. Subsequently, however, the estates, and more especially the territorial princes, came to be considered as those in whom alone was vested a really firm and enduring power; the Emperor was regarded as a vicegerent, to whom certain powers had been confided, and from whom they might, if necessary, be taken away.

It was under these circumstances that the temporal princes of Germany leagued themselves together for the performance of the greatest undertaking which they had ever collectively attempted.

We do not mean to attribute to the views of a certain number of German princes the origin of the religious or theological idea which led to the Protestant Reformation—that had a far deeper source; but the princes and the estates gave to the movement that support and assistance which were necessary to prevent it from being crushed at its very beginning.

Their original scheme was a purely national one. They wished, by giving to the estates a more active influence in the affairs of government, to remodel the Empire, which in its actual state of weakness was inefficiently and partially administered, and thus to restore it to its former power and energy. But this brought them into collision with the abuses which had crept into the government of the church, and gave rise to the project of remodelling the spiritual as well as the temporal power, and, in accordance with the views of those teachers who were opposed to the old doctrines, to give to it a more purely national character.

Most of the temporal princes were agreed upon this point; the corporate bodies, with but few exceptions, joined the princes, and the greater part of the nation eagerly gave in its adhesion to these views. But they were met by a strong opposition, chiefly on the part of the powerful ecclesiastical portion of the German hierarchy, and were forced to stop very far short of the aim which they had in view. After many tedious disputes at the Diets, after engaging in a war against the Emperor full of perilous reverses, this idea had to be given up; the princes and estates were forced to confine themselves to merely defensive measures.

Something, however, was effected: that which could not be carried out with respect to the government of the Empire was achieved in particular provinces and districts subject to princes or to corporations, and acquired a permanent existence. The imperial government, as it was then constituted, and the Emperor, were bound by laws to recognise this innovation, and to extend to the new order of things the universal peace and protection of the Empire.

Even this result was of immense importance. The German nation thus gained a high position in the region of intellectual life; it was the first to break through the pale of that hierarchy which encircled western Europe (as similar forms of belief encompassed the East), and to give a place in the world to the original idea of positive religion unfettered by arbitrary dogmas. This tendency found a ready acceptance in all parts of Europe, but was more especially suited to the peculiar genius and nature of the German mind, from the unfathomed depths of which it arose with resistless might. There are many who look upon this epoch—the second half of the sixteenth century—as the golden and classic age of German culture, which indisputably was never more generally diffused than at that time; and we should be disposed to agree with them, were it not that mere theological disputations occupied far the greater share of the mental activity of the time. The princes who so actively assisted in this work found their own power established on a firmer basis by its achievement. In all cases the exclusion or the remodelling of the ecclesiastical powers...