To remove all pretext for private war, the Imperial Chamber was to be reorganised. The Emperor was to retain the right of nominating the President, the sixteen a.s.sessors were to be elected by the Diet. The court was not to follow the Emperor, but was to have a fixed place of session, and was to be supported by imperial taxation. It was to have supreme jurisdiction in all cases arising between states of the Empire, and to hear appeals on all causes arising in their courts, except where the Prince enjoyed the _privilegium de non appellando_; and it could p.r.o.nounce the ban of the Empire without the Emperor's consent. Maximilian also consented to an annual meeting of the Diet, and conceded to it the right of appropriating the proceeds of the Common Penny.

| Diet of Augsburg. April 1500.

The demand for a Council of Regency (_Reichsregiment_) to control the central administration he rejected, as trenching too seriously on his prerogative. Yet five years afterwards, at the Diet of Augsburg, 1500, his difficulties were so great, and his need of help so imperious, that he yielded even on this point. His Italian expeditions of 1495 and 1498 had failed. On the day on which the Diet met, Ludovico Sforza had been taken prisoner, April 10, 1500 (cf. p. 38), and Milan was once more in French hands.

The system of the Common Penny had failed, owing to the difficulty of collection. The Diet therefore ordered a levy of men for six months.

Every four hundred inhabitants were to furnish one soldier, the Princes to provide the cavalry; a tax was also laid on those who did not serve. In return, the Emperor consented to the establishment of the Council of Regency (_Reichsregiment_). This standing Council of the Empire was to be formed of a President, one Elector, one Bishop, one Prince, one Count, and sixteen representatives of the States. It was to summon the Diet, of which it served as a standing committee, to nominate the members of the Imperial Chamber, to collect taxes, to maintain order at home, and decide on questions of peace and war.

Although under the presidency of the Emperor or his Stadtholder, nothing of importance could be done without its leave, and thus it shared the executive power with him.

| 1502. Opposition of Maximilian.

| Compact at Gelnhausen. June 1502.

Maximilian, however, had no intention of seeing his authority thus controlled, and this abortive Council only lasted a few months.

Henceforth, disappointed at the n.i.g.g.ard support which his concessions had produced--for the levy voted at Augsburg was never fully furnished--he determined to lean upon his own resources. 'As King of the Romans,' he said, 'he had only experienced mortification.

He would for the future act as an Austrian Prince.' Accordingly, in 1502, he fell back on his imperial right of holding Courts of Justice (_Hofgerichte_), and erected a standing Court or Aulic Council (_Hofrath_), entirely under his own control, to which he referred matters pertaining to his own territories, and cases which he was called upon to adjudicate in his capacity of overlord.[36] He even thought of inst.i.tuting a Council of his own to take the place of the Council of Regency. The Electors on their side entered into a solemn compact at Gelnhausen (June 1502) to unite themselves as one man against the dangerous innovations of the Emperor; carried on negotiations with Louis XII. on their own account; and, in 1503, even spoke of deposing Maximilian and electing his rival, the French king, in his stead.

| 1504. Success of Maximilian in the Landshut succession | question.

At this moment the position of Maximilian began to improve. He found himself supported by many of the literary men who cherished the memories of the Empire, by many of the Princes, the Imperial Knights, and others who dreaded the power of the Electors, and, in 1504, the question of the Landshut succession gave him an opportunity of humiliating his chief enemy, the Elector Palatine, Frederick the Victorious, or the Wicked, as his opponents called him. On the death of Duke George, the Rich, of Landshut (December 1503), without direct heirs, three claimants appeared: Rupert, the second son of the Elector Palatine, and son-in-law and nephew of George, who claimed under the will of his father-in-law; and the two Dukes of Bavaria, Wolfgang and Albert, who urged their claim as his nearest agnates. Maximilian supported the cause of Bavaria; called on the princes who were jealous of the Elector Palatine; with their help, defeated his forces in a battle where Rupert, his son, was killed, and forced the Diet of Cologne, in 1505, to divide the territories of Landshut between the Dukes of Bavaria and himself; while the son of Rupert was fain to content himself with the small district of the upper Palatinate on the north of the Danube.

| 1504. Death of Berthold of Mayence and of the Elector of | Treves.

| Improved position of Maximilian.

By this defeat of a prominent Elector, the prestige of Maximilian was much enhanced. Moreover, the death of John of Baden the Elector of Treves, and of Berthold of Mayence during the year, 1504, seriously weakened the party of reform. The Emperor's position abroad also seemed magnificent. The Treaty of Blois (September 1504) promised a brilliant match for his grandson Charles (cf. p. 61), a match which was not only to bring Brittany, Burgundy, and the French possessions in North Italy to the Hapsburgs, but might even, so Maximilian hoped, end in uniting the crowns of the Empire and of France. In the ensuing November, the death of Isabella made Joanna, his daughter-in-law, Queen of Castile; and the old age of Ladislas, of Bohemia and Hungary, gave prospects of the speedy fulfilment of the agreement, made by that King fifteen years before, by which Hungary was to fall to the Hapsburg house in the event of his dying without male issue.

| End of the attempted Reforms.

While Maximilian indulged in wild projects of universal empire, he was not in a mood to listen to further demands, nor were the Electors in a position to enforce them. Here therefore the attempts at reform may be said to have practically ceased. The hopes of Maximilian were not indeed fulfilled. Accordingly, in 1507, at Constance we find him once more demanding men and money against the perjured Louis XII., in return for a promise to revive the Imperial Chamber, which had held no sittings for three years. Supplies were granted, no longer by the Common Penny, or by a.s.sessment by parishes, but by a matricula or roll on which the separate states were rated, according to their resources, a system which emphasised the independence of the separate states.

Thus furnished, Maximilian once more invaded Italy, only to fail even more ludicrously than before (cf. p. 65); and the Diets of the years, 1509 to 1512, are taken up with mutual recriminations--the Emperor bitterly remonstrating with the Diet for refusing adequate support, and for attempting to weaken his prerogative; while the Diet retorted that his alliances and his wars had been entered into without its consent, and that he had prevented the execution of the reforms which had been enacted.

| 1512. Establishment of the Circles.

At the Diets of Treves and Cologne (1512), something indeed was done.

The organisation of the Empire into six circles,[37] hitherto only used for elections to the Council of Regency, and of the a.s.sessors to the Imperial Chamber, was extended, and the administrative and military work of the districts placed in their hands. Even then the Diets refused to allow Maximilian the privilege of nominating the Captains of the circles, or of appointing a Captain-general who should be supreme, or nominating a council of eight, who were to act as a Privy Council under his control. In short, the eternal conflict continued; Maximilian, though not averse to reforms which might make the executive and judicial work of the Empire more efficient, refused to allow his prerogative to be touched, and the Diet would only sanction those which secured them some control. The measure therefore was still-born, the Captains were never elected, and the establishment of the circles was not finally effected till 1521, three years after Maximilian's death.

| Permanent results of the attempt at Reform.

Of the reforms thus attempted during the reign of Maximilian, the Common Penny, and the Imperial Council of Regency were revived again under Charles V., soon to be abandoned for ever; and though the Imperial Chamber (_Reichskammer_), the Aulic Council (_Reichshofrath_), the circles, the system of taxation, and the levy by matricula were destined, with certain modifications, to last as long as the Empire itself, they did not succeed in saving the Empire from the continuation of weakness and intestine disorder. Not only were they disliked by the Emperor in the shape in which they were pa.s.sed, but they received lukewarm support from most of the Princes, and were opposed by the Imperial Knights; while the Cities, which feared increased taxation as likely to fall chiefly upon their citizens, complained that they had no representatives among the a.s.sessors of the Imperial Chamber. The failure of these reforms confirms the opinion that the idea of reconciling imperial unity with the establishment of an aristocratic federation was a hopeless one, and that two alternatives alone were practicable: either the consolidation of Germany into a strong concentrated kingdom under an hereditary Monarch; or the overthrow of national unity, and the dismemberment of the Empire into a number of petty states, practically sovereign and independent.

| Condition of States of the Empire.

The condition of the separate states formed a counterpart to that of the Empire. The more powerful Electors and Princes, who wished to establish a strong government, met with the same opposition from their va.s.sals, their cities, and even their peasants, which they themselves offered to the Emperor; their provincial Diets were torn with the same dissensions as those which disturbed the Imperial Diet. Yet here, more surely than in the Empire, the authority of the ruler was a.s.serting itself, based upon that principle of independent territorialism which was eventually to triumph.

The Imperial Knights, enemies of the Princes whose power they dreaded, were the chief opponents of such consolidation, and the Emperor was not ashamed at times to lean upon these questionable allies, who ruined commerce by their raids, and welcomed the wolves as their comrades. 'Good luck, my dear comrades,' cried an Imperial Knight to a pack of wolves which he saw fall on a flock of sheep; 'good luck to us all, and everywhere.' The condition of the peasants under such a state of things was probably a more miserable one than in any other country, and led to frequent revolts and conspiracies, such as that of 'The Bundschuh' (peasant's shoe)--risings which, however, were put down with cruelty. Germany, in a word, was suffering the throes of dissolution. The old inst.i.tutions were falling into decay, the new ones had not yet been established, and soon the religious troubles were to add one more element of discord and weakness.

| Social and economical condition of Germany.

But if Germany at the close of the fifteenth century was in a condition of anarchy political and social, it is a mistake to suppose that she was in a condition of barbarism. Many a prince--nay, the Emperor Maximilian himself--was a patron of art and literature; while the cities at least formed an exception to the prevailing anarchy.

They protected themselves with some success from the raids of the knights by their strong walls, their st.u.r.dy burghers, and their leagues; and, although not free themselves from violent ferments between the governing bodies of the towns and the unprivileged cla.s.ses, who sought for entrance into the town councils, this civic turbulence, as is often the case, did not ruin the trade by which many towns and burghers enriched themselves.

The cities also were the home of education, of literature, and of art. At the close of the fifteenth century sixteen universities existed, of which nine had been recently founded. Hence came the humanist scholars, Agricola, Erasmus, Reuchlin, Melanchthon, and a host of others, who revived the knowledge of the ancient languages, and enriched their own mother-tongue with their pens. In the cities too, the arts of printing, etching, metal-working, and painting flourished--witness more especially the names of Holbein, Albert Durer, and Peter Vischer, the metal-worker of Nuremberg. In a word, Germany was in a condition of transition, of unrest, of political dislocation, and yet of much intellectual ferment, which was preparing her to take the lead in the Reformation.

| The Swiss Confederation.

| 1291. The Everlasting Compact of the three Forest Cantons.

| The struggle with the House of Hapsburg.

| Battles of Morgarten, 1315, and Sempach, 1386.

| Their wars with Charles the Bold.

The reign of Maximilian witnessed also an actual loss of territory to the Empire, for it was then that Switzerland practically established its independence. The Swiss Confederation was originally one of those numerous leagues formed in Germany for self-protection as the Empire fell into decay. In the year 1291, the three Forest Cantons of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, lying at the head of the lake of Lucerne, formed 'The Everlasting Compact,' to protect themselves more especially against the powerful Counts of Hapsburg, who, with their castle of Hapsburg on the lower Aar, held large possessions, and enjoyed considerable political authority within, and around these districts. Henceforth, for some two hundred years, opposition to this aggressive house forms the clue to the history of Switzerland. By the victories of Morgarten, 1315, and of Sempach, 1386, they freed themselves from all claims to political control or jurisdiction on the part of the Hapsburgs and of any other power except the Emperor.

In 1468, Sigismund of Tyrol ceded to them all the lands he held in Switzerland, with the exception of the Frickthal in the Aargau. By their famous war with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 1474-1477, they not only established the reputation of their formidable infantry, but gained a footing in the French-speaking territories belonging to the House of Savoy.

| Condition of the Confederation at the accession of | Maximilian.

The primitive Confederation of the three Forest Cantons had, by the date of Maximilian's accession, increased its numbers to ten, and ruled over a stretch of country roughly bounded by the Jura and the lake of Neuchatel on the west, the Bernese Alps on the south, and the Rhaetian Alps, the lake of Constance, and the Rhine on the south-east, east, and north.[38] The city of Constance was a free imperial city, and was not a member of the Confederation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SWISS CONFEDERATION]

| The Government of the Confederation.

The const.i.tution of the Confederation was based on 'The Everlasting Compact' of 1291, which had been confirmed and expanded by subsequent compacts, notably the Parson's ordinance (_Pfaffenbrief_) of 1370, the Sempach ordinance of 1393, and the Compact of Stanz, 1481. These agreements referred almost exclusively to questions of jurisdiction and police, and of mutual a.s.sistance and common action with regard to foreign powers, and a.s.sumed, rather than defined, the character of the central inst.i.tutions which should give sanction to these compacts.

The Diet, composed of two delegates from each member of the Confederation, and one from each 'Socius,' was little more than a meeting of envoys, strictly limited by their instructions. Nor were the minority bound by the decisions of the majority, except in matters concerning the 'Common Bailiwicks.' Although all the Confederates were allied with the three Forest Cantons, they were not necessarily leagued with one another--thus Bern had made no direct league with Zurich, nor Lucerne with Glarus. The internal const.i.tution of the separate states also varied infinitely. Some, like the Forest Cantons and Zurich, were practically democracies, while Bern was ruled by an exclusive burgher aristocracy. Thus the const.i.tution was that of a 'Confederation' of the loosest kind, a union between communities practically sovereign, neither all bound to each other, nor alike in their internal organisation. The complications, which were certain to result from these peculiarities, were further increased by the existence of other territories more or less intimately connected. Of these there were three kinds:

| The Subject Lands.

1. The 'Subject Lands.' Some of these belonged to the separate states; others, 'the Freie Orte,' such as the Thurgau and Aargau, were held as Common Bailiwicks by several or all of the members of the Confederation. These districts enjoyed no political rights, and, as is so often the case with the dependencies of democracies, were governed most harshly.

| The a.s.sociated Districts.

2. Secondly came the 'a.s.sociated Districts' (_Zugewandte Orte_). Of these, three indeed, the abbot, and town of St. Gall and the town of Bienne (Biel), on the lake of that name, were admitted as 'socii' with one vote each in the Diet.

But the far more numerous cla.s.s, the 'Confderati,' were not admitted to the privileges of full membership, and yet were bound to obey the orders of the Confederation in matters of peace and war.[39]

| The Protected Districts.

3. Lastly came the 'Protected Districts,' where the tie was still more loose.

The extraordinary complications and conflict of interests thus caused had from time to time led to serious disputes, both internal and external. They were now to involve the Swiss in a war with the Empire.

| Causes of the War with the Empire.

As long as the imperial t.i.tle was in other hands than those of the hated Hapsburg, the Swiss had remained faithful to the Empire, although practically free. But in 1440, the election of Frederick III. reawakened their apprehensions. They feared lest he should use his imperial authority to regain his power over them. On the cession of most of the family possessions by Sigismund of Tyrol (cf. p. 118), a brief period of friendship ensued, which was strengthened when, by 'The Everlasting Compact' of 1475, he confirmed his renunciation, and promised help against Charles of Burgundy. But the startling successes of the Swiss had caused the Emperor and Sigismund to desert their cause, and the old jealousies revived. The Confederation looked with dislike on the formation of the Suabian League (1488), to the north of them, a dislike which was embittered by the open contempt shown by the German n.o.bility for these upstart Swiss. The claim made by the imperial city of Constance to jurisdiction over the district of the Thurgau, which had been mortgaged to it by Sigismund, caused further friction. After the death of Frederick III. matters grew worse. The reforming party among the Electors were eager to bring Switzerland under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber, and to force the Confederation to bear its share of the taxation imposed on the Empire by the Diet of Worms (1495). Maximilian here attempted to play double. He hoped that by allowing the Diet to make these claims he might frighten the Swiss, while by refraining from enforcing them he might gain the aid of the Confederation against the French. In this he made a double blunder. The Electors, anxious to make the imperial organisation a reality, insisted on the execution of the decrees of the Diet, and the Swiss looked upon his policy as a dishonest attempt to revive the claims of his house. They had long been practically, although not legally, free from all imperial jurisdiction and taxation. They had no representative in the Diet, and their consent had not been asked. The tax of the Common Penny they declared to be a scheme on the part of the princes to tax the peasants. In short, their view of the matter was singularly like that of the American Colonies when, in the eighteenth century, England attempted to tax them. The Swiss, however, not only refused to comply themselves, they even claimed independence for their ally St. Gall.