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+Project Gutenberg's German Culture Past and Present, by Ernest Belfort Bax
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: German Culture Past and Present
+
+Author: Ernest Belfort Bax
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2007 [EBook #20461]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN CULTURE PAST AND PRESENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this  |
+    | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this     |
+    | document.                                                 |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                      GERMAN CULTURE
+                     PAST AND PRESENT
+
+
+
+                            BY
+                    ERNEST BELFORT BAX
+
+        AUTHOR OF "JEAN PAUL MARAT," "THE RELIGION
+        OF SOCIALISM," "THE ETHICS OF SOCIALISM,"
+            "THE ROOTS OF REALITY," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+
+
+            LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN, LTD.
+           RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+                _First published in 1915_
+                 [_All rights reserved_]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                        PAGE
+
+      INTRODUCTORY:--SITUATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY         7
+
+   I. THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT                                 65
+
+  II. POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE TIME                           85
+
+ III. THE FOLKLORE OF REFORMATION GERMANY                      99
+
+  IV. THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TOWN                       114
+
+   V. COUNTRY AND TOWN AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES          122
+
+  VI. THE REVOLT OF THE KNIGHTHOOD                            154
+
+ VII. GENERAL SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REVOLT            174
+
+VIII. THE GREAT RISING OF THE PEASANTS AND THE
+        ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT                                   183
+
+  IX. POST-MEDIÆVAL GERMANY                                   229
+
+   X. MODERN GERMAN CULTURE                                   263
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following pages aim at giving a general view of the social and
+intellectual life of Germany from the end of the mediæval period to
+modern times. In the earlier portion of the book, the first half of
+the sixteenth century in Germany is dealt with at much greater length
+and in greater detail than the later period, a sketch of which forms
+the subject of the last two chapters. The reason for this is to be
+found in the fact that while the roots of the later German character
+and culture are to be sought for in the life of this period, it is
+comparatively little known to the average educated English reader. In
+the early fifteenth century, during the Reformation era, German life
+and culture in its widest sense began to consolidate themselves, and
+at the same time to take on an originality which differentiated them
+from the general life and culture of Western Europe as it was during
+the Middle Ages.
+
+To those who would fully appreciate the later developments, therefore,
+it is essential thoroughly to understand the details of the social and
+intellectual history of the time in question. For the later period
+there are many more works of a generally popular character available
+for the student and general reader. The chief aim of the sketch given
+in Chapters IX and X is to bring into sharp relief those events which,
+in the Author's view, represent more or less crucial stages in the
+development of modern Germany.
+
+For the earlier portion of the present volume an older work of the
+Author's, now out of print, entitled _German Society at the Close of
+the Middle Ages_, has been largely drawn upon. Reference, as will be
+seen, has also been made in the course of the present work to two
+other writings from the same pen which are still to be had for those
+desirous of fuller information on their respective subjects, viz. _The
+Peasants' War_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (Messrs.
+George Allen & Unwin).
+
+
+
+
+German Culture Past and Present
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+The close of the fifteenth century had left the whole structure of
+mediæval Europe to all appearance intact. Statesmen and writers like
+Philip de Commines had apparently as little suspicion that the state
+of things they saw around them, in which they had grown up and of
+which they were representatives, was ever destined to pass away, as
+others in their turn have since had. Society was organized on the
+feudal hierarchy of status. In the first place, a noble class,
+spiritual and temporal, was opposed to a peasantry either wholly
+servile or but nominally free. In addition to this opposition of noble
+and peasant there was that of the township, which, in its corporate
+capacity, stood in the relation of lord to the surrounding peasantry.
+
+The township in Germany was of two kinds--first of all, there was the
+township that was "free of the Empire," that is, that held nominally
+from the Emperor himself (_Reichstadt_), and secondly, there was the
+township that was under the domination of an intermediate lord. The
+economic basis of the whole was still land; the status of a man or of
+a corporation was determined by the mode in which they held their
+land. "No land without a lord" was the principle of mediæval polity;
+just as "money has no master" is the basis of the modern world with
+its self-made men. Every distinction of rank in the feudal system was
+still denoted for the most part by a special costume. It was a world
+of knights in armour, of ecclesiastics in vestments and stoles, of
+lawyers in robes, of princes in silk and velvet and cloth of gold, and
+of peasants in laced shoe, brown cloak, and cloth hat.
+
+But although the whole feudal organization was outwardly intact, the
+thinker who was watching the signs of the times would not have been
+long in arriving at the conclusion that feudalism was "played out,"
+that the whole fabric of mediæval civilization was becoming dry and
+withered, and had either already begun to disintegrate or was on the
+eve of doing so. Causes of change had within the past half-century
+been working underneath the surface of social life, and were rapidly
+undermining the whole structure. The growing use of firearms in war;
+the rapid multiplication of printed books; the spread of the new
+learning after the taking of Constantinople in 1453, and the
+subsequent diffusion of Greek teachers throughout Europe; the surely
+and steadily increasing communication with the new world, and the
+consequent increase of the precious metals; and, last but not least,
+Vasco da Gama's discovery of the new trade route from the East by way
+of the Cape--all these were indications of the fact that the
+death-knell of the old order of things had struck.
+
+Notwithstanding the apparent outward integrity of the system based on
+land tenures, land was ceasing to be the only form of productive
+wealth. Hence it was losing the exclusive importance attaching to it
+in the earlier period of the Middle Ages. The first form of modern
+capitalism had already arisen. Large aggregations of capital in the
+hands of trading companies were becoming common. The Roman law was
+establishing itself in the place of the old customary tribal law which
+had hitherto prevailed in the manorial courts, serving in some sort as
+a bulwark against the caprice of the territorial lord; and this change
+facilitated the development of the bourgeois principle of private, as
+opposed to communal, property. In intellectual matters, though
+theology still maintained its supremacy as the chief subject of human
+interest, other interests were rapidly growing up alongside of it, the
+most prominent being the study of classical literature.
+
+Besides these things, there was the dawning interest in nature, which
+took on, as a matter of course, a magical form in accordance with
+traditional and contemporary modes of thought. In fact, like the
+flicker of a dying candle in its socket, the Middle Ages seemed at the
+beginning of the sixteenth century to exhibit all their own salient
+characteristics in an exaggerated and distorted form. The old feudal
+relations had degenerated into a blood-sucking oppression; the old
+rough brutality, into excogitated and elaborated cruelty (aptly
+illustrated in the collection of ingenious instruments preserved in
+the Torture-tower at Nürnberg); the old crude superstition, into a
+systematized magical theory of natural causes and effects; the old
+love of pageantry, into a lavish luxury and magnificence of which we
+have in the "field of the cloth of gold" the stock historical example;
+the old chivalry, into the mercenary bravery of the soldier, whose
+trade it was to fight, and who recognized only one virtue--to wit,
+animal courage. Again, all these exaggerated characteristics were
+mixed with new elements, which distorted them further, and which
+foreshadowed a coming change, the ultimate issue of which would be
+their extinction and that of the life of which they were the signs.
+
+The growing tendency towards centralization and the consequent
+suppression or curtailment of the local autonomies of the Middle Ages
+in the interests of some kind of national government, of which the
+political careers of Louis XI in France, of Edward IV in England, and
+of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain were such conspicuous instances,
+did not fail to affect in a lesser degree that loosely connected
+political system of German States known as the Holy Roman Empire.
+Maximilian's first Reichstag in 1495 caused to be issued an Imperial
+edict suppressing the right of private warfare claimed and exercised
+by the whole noble class from the princes of the empire down to the
+meanest knight. In the same year the Imperial Chamber (_Reichskammer_)
+was established, and in 1501 the Imperial Aulic Council. Maximilian
+also organized a standing army of mercenary troops, called
+_Landesknechte_. Shortly afterwards Germany was divided into Imperial
+districts called circles (_Kreise_), ultimately ten in number, all of
+which were under an imperial government (_Reichsregiment_), which had
+at its disposal a military force for the punishment of disturbers of
+the peace. But the public opinion of the age, conjoined with the
+particular circumstances, political and economic, of Central Europe,
+robbed the enactment in a great measure of its immediate effect.
+Highway plundering and even private war were still going on, to a
+considerable extent, far into the sixteenth century. Charles V pursued
+the same line of policy as his predecessor; but it was not until after
+the suppression of the lower nobility in 1523, and finally of the
+peasants in 1526, that any material change took place; and then the
+centralization, such as it was, was in favour of the princes, rather
+than of the Imperial power, which, after Charles V's time, grew weaker
+and weaker. The speciality about the history of Germany is, that it
+has not known till our own day centralization on a national or racial
+scale like England or France.
+
+At the opening of the sixteenth century public opinion not merely
+sanctioned open plunder by the wearer of spurs and by the possessor of
+a stronghold, but regarded it as his special prerogative, the exercise
+of which was honourable rather than disgraceful. The cities certainly
+resented their burghers being waylaid and robbed, and hanged the
+knights wherever they could; and something like a perpetual feud
+always existed between the wealthier cities and the knights who
+infested the trade routes leading to and from them. Still, these
+belligerent relations were taken as a matter of course; and no
+disgrace, in the modern sense, attached to the occupation of highway
+robbery.
+
+In consequence of the impoverishment of the knights at this period,
+owing to causes with which we shall deal later, the trade or
+profession had recently received an accession of vigour, and at the
+same time was carried on more brutally and mercilessly than ever
+before. We will give some instances of the sort of occurrence which
+was by no means unusual. In the immediate neighbourhood of Nürnberg,
+which was _bien entendu_ one of the chief seats of the Imperial power,
+a robber-knight leader, named Hans Thomas von Absberg, was a standing
+menace. It was the custom of this ruffian, who had a large following,
+to plunder even the poorest who came from the city, and, not content
+with this, to mutilate his victims. In June 1522 he fell upon a
+wretched craftsman, and with his own sword hacked off the poor
+fellow's right hand, notwithstanding that the man begged him upon his
+knees to take the left, and not destroy his means of earning his
+livelihood. The following August he, with his band, attacked a
+Nürnberg tanner, whose hand was similarly treated, one of his
+associates remarking that he was glad to set to work again, as it was
+"a long time since they had done any business in hands." On the same
+occasion a cutler was dealt with after a similar fashion. The hands in
+these cases were collected and sent to the Bürgermeister of Nürnberg,
+with some such phrase as that the sender (Hans Thomas) would treat all
+so who came from the city.
+
+The princes themselves, when it suited their purpose, did not hesitate
+to offer an asylum to these knightly robbers. With Absberg were
+associated Georg von Giech and Hans Georg von Aufsess. Among other
+notable robber-knights of the time may be mentioned the Lord of
+Brandenstein and the Lord of Rosenberg. As illustrating the strictly
+professional character of the pursuit, and the brutally callous nature
+of the society practising it, we may narrate that Margaretha von
+Brandenstein was accustomed, it is recorded, to give the advice to the
+choice guests round her board that when a merchant failed to keep his
+promise to them, they should never hesitate to cut off _both_ his
+hands. Even Franz von Sickingen, known sometimes as the "last flower
+of German chivalry," boasted of having among the intimate associates
+of his enterprise for the rehabilitation of the knighthood many
+gentlemen who had been accustomed to "let their horses on the high
+road bite off the purses of wayfarers." So strong was the public
+opinion of the noble class as to the inviolability of the privilege of
+highway plunder that a monk, preaching one day in a cathedral and
+happening to attack it as unjustifiable, narrowly escaped death at the
+hands of some knights present amongst his congregation, who asserted
+that he had insulted the prerogatives of their order. Whenever this
+form of knight-errantry was criticized, there were never wanting
+scholarly pens to defend it as a legitimate means of aristocratic
+livelihood; since a knight must live in suitable style, and this was
+often his only resource for obtaining the means thereto.
+
+The free cities, which were subject only to Imperial jurisdiction,
+were practically independent republics. Their organization was a
+microcosm of that of the entire empire. At the apex of the municipal
+society was the Bürgermeister and the so-called "Honorability"
+(_Ehrbarkeit_), which consisted of the patrician clans or _gentes_ (in
+most cases), those families which were supposed to be descended from
+the original chartered freemen of the town, the old Mark-brethren.
+They comprised generally the richest families, and had monopolized the
+entire government of the city, together with the right to administer
+its various sources of income and to consume its revenue at their
+pleasure. By the time, however, of which we are writing, the
+trade-guilds had also attained to a separate power of their own, and
+were in some cases ousting the burgher-aristocracy, though they were
+very generally susceptible of being manipulated by the members of the
+patrician class, who, as a rule, could alone sit in the Council
+(_Rath_). The latter body stood, in fact, as regards the town, much in
+the relation of the feudal lord to his manor. Strong in their wealth
+and in their aristocratic privileges, the patricians lorded it alike
+over the townspeople and over the neighbouring peasantry, who were
+subject to the municipality. They forestalled and regrated with
+impunity. They assumed the chief rights in the municipal lands, in
+many cases imposed duties at their own caprice, and turned guild
+privileges and rights of citizenship into a source of profit for
+themselves. Their bailiffs in the country districts forming part of
+their territory were often more voracious in their treatment of the
+peasants than even the nobles themselves. The accounts of income and
+expenditure were kept in the loosest manner, and embezzlement clumsily
+concealed was the rule rather than the exception.
+
+The opposition of the non-privileged citizens, usually led by the
+wealthier guildsmen not belonging to the aristocratic class, operated
+through the guilds and through the open assembly of the citizens. It
+had already frequently succeeded in establishing a representation of
+the general body of the guildsmen in a so-called Great Council
+(_Grosser Rath_), and in addition, as already said, in ousting the
+"honorables" from some of the public functions. Altogether the
+patrician party, though still powerful enough, was at the opening of
+the sixteenth century already on the decline, the wealthy and
+unprivileged opposition beginning in its turn to constitute itself
+into a quasi-aristocratic body as against the mass of the poorer
+citizens and those outside the pale of municipal rights. The latter
+class was now becoming an important and turbulent factor in the life
+of the larger cities. The craft-guilds, consisting of the body of
+non-patrician citizens, were naturally in general dominated by their
+most wealthy section.
+
+We may here observe that the development of the mediæval township from
+its earliest beginnings up to the period of its decay in the sixteenth
+century was almost uniformly as follows:[1] At first the township, or
+rather what later became the township, was represented entirely by
+the circle of _gentes_ or group-families originally settled within the
+mark or district on which the town subsequently stood. These
+constituted the original aristocracy from which the tradition of the
+_Ehrbarkeit_ dated. In those towns founded by the Romans, such as
+Trier, Aachen, and others, the case was of course a little different.
+There the origin of the _Ehrbarkeit_ may possibly be sought for in the
+leading families of the Roman provincials who were in occupation of
+the town at the coming of the barbarians in the fifth century. Round
+the original nucleus there gradually accreted from the earliest period
+of the Middle Ages the freed men of the surrounding districts,
+fugitive serfs, and others who sought that protection and means of
+livelihood in a community under the immediate domination of a powerful
+lord, which they could not otherwise obtain when their native
+village-community had perchance been raided by some marauding noble
+and his retainers. Circumstances, amongst others the fact that the
+community to which they attached themselves had already adopted
+commerce and thus become a guild of merchants, led to the
+differentiation of industrial functions amongst the new-comers, and
+thus to the establishment of craft-guilds.
+
+Another origin of the townsfolk, which must not be overlooked, is to
+be found in the attendants on the palace-fortress of some great
+overlord. In the early Middle Ages all such magnates kept up an
+extensive establishment, the greater ecclesiastical lords no less than
+the secular often having several castles. In Germany this origin of
+the township was furthered by Charles the Great, who established
+schools and other civil institutions, with a magistrate at their head,
+round many of the palace-castles that he founded. "A new epoch," says
+Von Maurer, "begins with the villa-foundations of Charles the Great
+and his ordinances respecting them, for that his celebrated
+capitularies in this connection were intended for his newly
+established villas is self-evident. In that proceeding he obviously
+had the Roman villa in his mind, and on the model of this he rather
+further developed the previously existing court and villa constitution
+than completely reorganized it. Hence one finds even in his new
+creations the old foundation again, albeit on a far more extended
+plan, the economical side of such villa-colonies being especially more
+completely and effectively ordered."[2] The expression "Palatine," as
+applied to certain districts, bears testimony to the fact here
+referred to. As above said, the development of the township was
+everywhere on the same lines. The aim of the civic community was
+always to remove as far as possible the power which controlled them.
+Their worst condition was when they were immediately overshadowed by a
+territorial magnate. When their immediate lord was a prince, the area
+of whose feudal jurisdiction was more extensive, his rule was less
+oppressively felt, and their condition was therefore considerably
+improved. It was only, however, when cities were "free of the empire"
+(_Reichsfrei_) that they attained the ideal of mediæval civic freedom.
+
+It follows naturally from the conditions described that there was, in
+the first place, a conflict between the primitive inhabitants as
+embodied in their corporate society and the territorial lord, whoever
+he might be. No sooner had the township acquired a charter of freedom
+or certain immunities than a new antagonism showed itself between the
+ancient corporation of the city and the trade-guilds, these
+representing the later accretions. The territorial lord (if any) now
+sided, usually though not always, with the patrician party. But the
+guilds, nevertheless, succeeded in ultimately wresting many of the
+leading public offices from the exclusive possession of the patrician
+families. Meanwhile the leading men of the guilds had become _hommes
+arrivés_. They had acquired wealth, and influence which was in many
+cases hereditary in their family, and by the beginning of the
+sixteenth century they were confronted with the more or less veiled
+and more or less open opposition of the smaller guildsmen and of the
+newest comers into the city, the shiftless proletariat of serfs and
+free peasants, whom economic pressure was fast driving within the
+walls, owing to the changed conditions of the times.
+
+The peasant of the period was of three kinds: the _leibeigener_ or
+serf, who was little better than a slave, who cultivated his lord's
+domain, upon whom unlimited burdens might be fixed, and who was in all
+respects amenable to the will of his lord; the _höriger_ or villein,
+whose services were limited alike in kind and amount; and the _freier_
+or free peasant, who merely paid what was virtually a quit-rent in
+kind or in money for being allowed to retain his holding or status in
+the rural community under the protection of the manorial lord. The
+last was practically the counterpart of the mediæval English
+copyholder. The Germans had undergone essentially the same
+transformations in social organization as the other populations of
+Europe.
+
+The barbarian nations at the time of their great migration in the
+fifth century were organized on a tribal and village basis. The head
+man was simply _primus inter pares_. In the course of their wanderings
+the successful military leader acquired powers and assumed a position
+that was unknown to the previous times, when war, such as it was, was
+merely inter-tribal and inter-clannish, and did not involve the
+movements of peoples and federations of tribes, and when, in
+consequence, the need of permanent military leaders or for the
+semblance of a military hierarchy had not arisen. The military leader
+now placed himself at the head of the older social organization, and
+associated with his immediate followers on terms approaching equality.
+A well-known illustration of this is the incident of the vase taken
+from the Cathedral of Rheims, and of Chlodowig's efforts to rescue it
+from his independent comrade-in-arms.
+
+The process of the development of the feudal polity of the Middle Ages
+is, of course, a very complicated one, owing to the various strands
+that go to compose it. In addition to the German tribes themselves,
+who moved _en masse_, carrying with them their tribal and village
+organization, under the overlordship of the various military leaders,
+were the indigenous inhabitants amongst whom they settled. The latter
+in the country districts, even in many of the territories within the
+Roman Empire, still largely retained the primitive communal
+organization. The new-comers, therefore, found in the rural
+communities a social system already in existence into which they
+naturally fitted, but as an aristocratic body over against the
+conquered inhabitants. The latter, though not all reduced to a servile
+condition, nevertheless held their land from the conquering body under
+conditions which constituted them an order of freemen inferior to the
+new-comers.
+
+To put the matter briefly, the military leaders developed into barons
+and princes, and in some cases the nominal centralization culminated,
+as in France and England, in the kingly office; while, in Germany and
+Italy, it took the form of the revived Imperial office, the spiritual
+overlord of the whole of Christendom being the Pope, who had his
+vassals in the prince-prelates and subordinate ecclesiastical holders.
+In addition to the princes sprung originally from the military leaders
+of the migratory nations, there were their free followers, who
+developed ultimately into the knighthood or inferior nobility; the
+inhabitants of the conquered districts forming a distinct class of
+inferior freemen or of serfs. But the essentially personal relation
+with which the whole process started soon degenerated into one based
+on property. The most primitive form of property--land--was at the
+outset what was termed _allodial_, at least among the conquering
+race, from every social group having the possession, under the
+trusteeship of his head man, of the land on which it settled. Now,
+owing to the necessities of the time, owing to the need of protection,
+to violence, and to religious motives, it passed into the hands of the
+overlord, temporal or spiritual, as his possession; and the
+inhabitants, even in the case of populations which had not been
+actually conquered, became his vassals, villeins, or serfs, as the
+case might be. The process by means of which this was accomplished was
+more or less gradual; indeed, the entire extinction of communal
+rights, whereby the notion of private ownership is fully realized, was
+not universally effected even in the West of Europe till within a
+measurable distance of our own time.[3]
+
+From the foregoing it will be understood that the oppression of the
+peasant, under the feudalism of the Middle Ages, and especially of the
+later Middle Ages, was viewed by him as an infringement of his rights.
+During the period of time constituting mediæval history, the peasant,
+though he often slumbered, yet often started up to a sudden
+consciousness of his position. The memory of primitive communism was
+never quite extinguished, and the continual peasant-revolts of the
+Middle Ages, though immediately occasioned, probably, by some fresh
+invasion, by which it was sought to tear from the "common man" yet
+another shred of his surviving rights, always had in the background
+the ideal, vague though it may have been, of his ancient freedom.
+Such, undoubtedly, was the meaning of the Jacquerie in France, with
+its wild and apparently senseless vengeance; of the Wat Tyler revolt
+in England, with its systematic attempt to envisage the vague
+tradition of the primitive village community in the legends of the
+current ecclesiastical creed; of the numerous revolts in Flanders and
+North Germany; to a large extent of the Hussite movement in Bohemia,
+under Ziska; of the rebellion led by George Doza in Hungary; and, as
+we shall see in the body of the present work, of the social movements
+of Reformation Germany, in which, with the partial exception of Ket's
+rebellion in England a few years later, we may consider them as
+virtually coming to an end.
+
+For the movements in question were distinctly the last of their kind.
+The civil wars of religion in France, and the great rebellion in
+England against Charles I, which also assumed a religious colouring,
+open a new era in popular revolts. In the latter, particularly, we
+have clearly before us the attempt of the new middle class of town and
+country, the independent citizen, and the now independent yeoman, to
+assert supremacy over the old feudal estates or orders. The new
+conditions had swept away the special revolutionary tradition of the
+mediæval period, whose golden age lay in the past with its
+communal-holding and free men with equal rights on the basis of the
+village organization--rights which with every century the peasant felt
+more and more slipping away from him. The place of this tradition was
+now taken by an ideal of individual freedom, apart from any social
+bond, and on a basis merely political, the way for which had been
+prepared by that very conception of individual proprietorship on the
+part of the landlord, against which the older revolutionary sentiment
+had protested. A most powerful instrument in accommodating men's minds
+to this change of view, in other words, to the establishment of the
+new individualistic principle, was the Roman or Civil law, which, at
+the period dealt with in the present book, had become the basis
+whereon disputed points were settled in the Imperial Courts. In this
+respect also, though to a lesser extent, may be mentioned the Canon
+or Ecclesiastical law--consisting of papal decretals on various points
+which were founded partially on the Roman or Civil law--a juridical
+system which also fully and indeed almost exclusively recognized the
+individual holding of property as the basis of civil society (albeit
+not without a recognition of social duties on the part of the owner).
+
+Learning was now beginning to differentiate itself from the
+ecclesiastical profession, and to become a definite vocation in its
+various branches. Crowds of students flocked to the seats of learning,
+and, as travelling scholars, earned a precarious living by begging or
+"professing" medicine, assisting the illiterate for a small fee, or
+working wonders, such as casting horoscopes, or performing
+thaumaturgic tricks. The professors of law were now the most
+influential members of the Imperial Council and of the various
+Imperial Courts. In Central Europe, as elsewhere, notably in France,
+the civil lawyers were always on the side of the centralizing power,
+alike against the local jurisdictions and against the peasantry.
+
+The effects of the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and the
+consequent dispersion of the accumulated Greek learning of the
+Byzantine Empire, had, by the end of the fifteenth century, begun to
+show themselves in a notable modification of European culture. The
+circle of the seven sciences, the Quadrivium, and the Trivium, in
+other words, the mediæval system of learning, began to be antiquated.
+Scholastic philosophy, that is to say, the controversy of the Scotists
+and the Thomists, was now growing out of date. Plato was extolled at
+the expense of Aristotle. Greek, and even Hebrew, was eagerly sought
+after. Latin itself was assuming another aspect; the Renaissance Latin
+is classical Latin, whilst Mediæval Latin is dog-Latin. The physical
+universe now began to be inquired into with a perfectly fresh
+interest, but the inquiries were still conducted under the ægis of the
+old habits of thought. The universe was still a system of mysterious
+affinities and magical powers to the investigator of the Renaissance
+period, as it had been before. There was this difference, however; it
+was now attempted to _systematize_ the magical theory of the universe.
+While the common man held a store of traditional magical beliefs
+respecting the natural world, the learned man deduced these beliefs
+from the Neo-Platonists, from the Kabbala, from Hermes Trismegistos,
+and from a variety of other sources, and attempted to arrange this
+somewhat heterogeneous mass of erudite lore into a system of organized
+thought.
+
+The Humanistic movement, so called, the movement, that is, of revived
+classical scholarship, had already begun in Germany before what may be
+termed the _sturm und drang_ of the Renaissance proper. Foremost among
+the exponents of this older Humanism, which dates from the middle of
+the fifteenth century, were Nicholas of Cusa and his disciples,
+Rudolph Agricola, Alexander Hegius, and Jacob Wimpheling. But the new
+Humanism and the new Renaissance movement generally throughout
+Northern Europe centred chiefly in two personalities, Johannes
+Reuchlin and Desiderius Erasmus. Reuchlin was the founder of the new
+Hebrew learning, which up till then had been exclusively confined to
+the synagogue. It was he who unlocked the mysteries of the Kabbala to
+the Gentile world. But though it is for his introduction of Hebrew
+study that Reuchlin is best known to posterity, yet his services in
+the diffusion and popularization of classical culture were enormous.
+The dispute of Reuchlin with the ecclesiastical authorities at Cologne
+excited literary Germany from end to end. It was the first general
+skirmish of the new and the old spirit in Central and Northern Europe.
+
+But the man who was destined to become the personification of the
+Humanist movement, us the new learning was called, was Erasmus. The
+illegitimate son of the daughter of a Rotterdam burgher, he early
+became famous on account of his erudition, in spite of the adverse
+circumstances of his youth. Like all the scholars of his time, he
+passed rapidly from one country to another, settling finally in Basel,
+then at the height of its reputation as a literary and typographical
+centre. The whole intellectual movement of the time centres round
+Erasmus, as is particularly noticeable in the career of Ulrich von
+Hutten, dealt with in the course of this history. As instances of the
+classicism of the period, we may note the uniform change of the
+patronymic into the classical equivalent, or some classicism supposed
+to be the equivalent. Thus the name Erasmus itself was a classicism of
+his father's name Gerhard, the German name Muth became Mutianus,
+Trittheim became Trithemius, Schwarzerd became Melanchthon, and so on.
+
+We have spoken of the other side of the intellectual movement of the
+period. This other side showed itself in mystical attempts at reducing
+nature to law in the light of the traditional problems which had been
+set, to wit, those of alchemy and astrology: the discovery of the
+philosopher's stone, of the transmutation of metals, of the elixir of
+life, and of the correspondences between the planets and terrestrial
+bodies. Among the most prominent exponents of these investigations may
+be mentioned Philippus von Hohenheim or Paracelsus, and Cornelius
+Agrippa of Nettesheim, in Germany, Nostrodamus in France, and Cardanus
+in Italy. These men represent a tendency which was pursued by
+thousands in the learned world. It was a tendency which had the honour
+of being the last in history to embody itself in a distinct mythical
+cycle. "Doctor Faustus" may probably have had an historical germ; but
+in any case "Doctor Faustus," as known to legend and to literature, is
+merely a personification of the practical side of the new learning.
+
+The minds of men were waking up to interest in nature. There was one
+man, Copernicus, who, at least partially, struck through the
+traditionary atmosphere in which nature was enveloped, and to his
+insight we owe the foundation of astronomical science; but otherwise
+the whole intellectual atmosphere was charged with occult views. In
+fact, the learned world of the sixteenth century would have found
+itself quite at home in the pretensions and fancies of our modern
+theosophist and psychical researchers, with their notions of making
+erstwhile miracles non-miraculous, of reducing the marvellous to
+being merely the result of penetration on the part of certain seers
+and investigators of the secret powers of nature. Every wonder-worker
+was received with open arms by learned and unlearned alike. The
+possibility of producing that which was out of the ordinary range of
+natural occurrences was not seriously doubted by any. Spells and
+enchantments, conjurations, calculations of nativities, were matters
+earnestly investigated at Universities and Courts.
+
+There were, of course, persons who were eager to detect impostors: and
+amongst them some of the most zealous votaries of the occult arts--for
+example, Trittheim and the learned Humanist, Conrad Muth or Mutianus,
+both of whom professed to have regarded Faust as a fraudulent person.
+But this did not imply any disbelief in the possibility of the alleged
+pretensions. In the Faust-myth is embodied, moreover, the opposition
+between the new learning on its physical side and the old religious
+faith. The theory that the investigation of the mysteries of nature
+had in it something sinister and diabolical which had been latent
+throughout the Middle Ages, was brought into especial prominence by
+the new religious movements. The popular feeling that the line between
+natural magic and the black art was somewhat doubtful, that the one
+had a tendency to shade off into the other, now received fresh
+stimulus. The notion of compacts with the devil was a familiar one,
+and that they should be resorted to for the purpose of acquiring an
+acquaintance with hidden lore and magical powers seemed quite natural.
+
+It will have already been seen from what we have said that the
+religious revolt was largely economical in its causes. The intense
+hatred, common alike to the smaller nobility, the burghers, and the
+peasants, of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, was obviously due to its
+ever-increasing exactions. The chief of these were the _pallium_ or
+price paid to the Pope for an ecclesiastical investiture; the
+_annates_ or first year's revenues of a church fief; and the _tithes_
+which were of two kinds, the great tithe paid in agricultural produce,
+and the small tithe consisting in a head of cattle. The latter seems
+to have been especially obnoxious to the peasant. The sudden increase
+in the sale of indulgences, like the proverbial last straw, broke down
+the whole system; but any other incident might have served the purpose
+equally well. The prince-prelates were in some instances, at the
+outset, not averse to the movement; they would not have been
+indisposed to have converted their territories into secular fiefs of
+the empire. It was only after this hope had been abandoned that they
+definitely took sides with the Papal authority.
+
+The opening of the sixteenth century thus presents to us mediæval
+society, social, political, and religious, in Germany as elsewhere,
+"run to seed." The feudal organization was outwardly intact; the
+peasant, free and bond, formed the foundation; above him came the
+knighthood or inferior nobility; parallel with them was the
+_Ehrbarkeit_ of the less important towns, holding from mediate
+lordship; above these towns came the free cities, which held
+immediately from the empire, organized into three bodies, a governing
+Council in which the _Ehrbarkeit_ usually predominated, where they did
+not entirely compose it, a Common Council composed of the masters of
+the various guilds, and the General Council of the free citizens.
+Those journeymen, whose condition was fixed from their being outside
+the guild-organizations, usually had guilds of their own. Above the
+free cities in the social pyramid stood the Princes of the empire, lay
+and ecclesiastic, with the Electoral College, or the seven Electoral
+Princes, forming their head. These constituted the feudal "estates" of
+the empire. Then came the "King of the Romans"; and, as the apex of
+the whole, the Pope in one function and the Emperor in another,
+crowned the edifice. The supremacy, not merely of the Pope but of the
+complementary temporal head of the mediæval polity, the Emperor, was
+acknowledged in a shadowy way, even in countries such as France and
+England, which had no direct practical connection with the empire.
+For, as the spiritual power was also temporal, so the temporal
+political power had, like everything else in the Middle Ages, a
+quasi-religious significance.
+
+The minds of men in speculative matters, in theology, in philosophy,
+and in jurisprudence, were outgrowing the old doctrines, at least in
+their old forms. In theology the notion of salvation by the faith of
+the individual, and not through the fact of belonging to a corporate
+organization, which was the mediæval conception, was latent in the
+minds of multitudes of religious persons before expression was given
+to it by Luther. The aversion to scholasticism, bred by the revived
+knowledge of the older Greek philosophies in the original, produced a
+curious amalgam; but scholastic habits of thought were still dominant
+through it all. The new theories of nature amounted to little more
+than old superstitions, systematized and reduced to rule, though here
+and there the later physical science, based on observation and
+experiment, peeped through. In jurisprudence the epoch is marked by
+the final conquest of the Roman civil law, in its spirit, where not
+in its forms, over the old customs, pre-feudal and feudal.
+
+The subject of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages,
+characterized by what is known as the revival of learning and the
+Reformation, is so important for an understanding of later German
+history and the especial characteristics of the German culture of
+later times, that we propose, even at the risk of wearying some
+readers, to recapitulate in as short a space as possible, compatible
+with clearness, the leading conditions of the times--conditions which,
+directly or indirectly, have moulded the whole subsequent course of
+German development.
+
+Owing to the geographical situation of Germany and to the political
+configuration of its peoples and other causes, mediæval conditions of
+life as we find them in the early sixteenth century left more abiding
+traces on the German mind and on German culture than was the case with
+some other nations. The time was out of joint in a very literal sense
+of that somewhat hackneyed phrase. At the opening of the sixteenth
+century every established institution--political, social, and
+religious--was shaken and showed the rents and fissures caused by time
+and by the growth of a new life underneath it. The empire--the Holy
+Roman--was in a parlous way as regarded its cohesion. The power of the
+princes, the representatives of local centralized authority, was
+proving itself too strong for the power of the Emperor, the recognized
+representative of centralized authority for the whole German-speaking
+world. This meant the undermining and eventual disruption of the
+smaller social and political unities,[4] the knightly manors with the
+privileges attached to the knightly class generally. The knighthood,
+or lower nobility, had acted as a sort of buffer between the princes
+of the empire and the Imperial power, to which they often looked for
+protection against their immediate overlord or their powerful
+neighbour--the prince. The Imperial power, in consequence, found the
+lower nobility a bulwark against its princely vassals. Economic
+changes, the suddenly increased demand for money owing to the rise of
+the "world-market," new inventions in the art of war, new methods of
+fighting, the rapidly growing importance of artillery, and the
+increase of the mercenary soldier, had rendered the lower nobility,
+as an institution, a factor in the political situation which was fast
+becoming negligible. The abortive campaign of Franz von Sickingen in
+1523 only showed its hopeless weakness. The _Reichsregiment_, or
+Imperial governing council, a body instituted by Maximilian, had
+lamentably failed to effect anything towards cementing together the
+various parts of the unwieldy fabric. Finally, at the Reichstag held
+in Nürnberg, in December 1522, at which all the estates were
+represented, the _Reichsregiment_, to all intents and purposes,
+collapsed.
+
+The Reichstag in question was summoned ostensibly for the purpose of
+raising a subsidy for the Hungarians in their struggle against the
+advancing power of the Turks. The Turkish movement westward was, of
+course, throughout this period, the most important question of what in
+modern phraseology would be called "foreign politics." The princes
+voted the proposal of the subsidy without consulting the
+representatives of the cities, who knew the heaviest part of the
+burden was to fall upon themselves. The urgency of the situation,
+however, weighed with them, with the result that they submitted after
+considerable remonstrance. The princes, in conjunction with their
+rivals, the lower nobility, next proceeded to attack the commercial
+monopolies, the first fruits of the rising capitalism, the appanage
+mainly of the trading companies and the merchant magnates of the
+towns. This was too much for civic patience. The city representatives,
+who, of course, belonged to the civic aristocracy, waxed indignant.
+The feudal orders went on to claim the right to set up vexatious
+tariffs in their respective territories, whereby to hinder
+artificially the free development of the new commercial capitalist.
+This filled up the cup of endurance of the magnates of the city. The
+city representatives refused their consent to the Turkish subsidy and
+withdrew. The next step was the sending of a deputation to the young
+Emperor Karl, who was in Spain, and whose sanction to the decrees of
+the Reichstag was necessary before their promulgation. The result of
+the conference held on this occasion was a decision to undermine the
+_Reichsregiment_ and weaken the power of the princes, by whom and by
+whose tools it was manned, as a factor in the Imperial constitution.
+As for the princes, while some of their number were positively opposed
+to it, others cared little one way or the other. Their chief aim was
+to strengthen and consolidate their power within the limits of their
+own territories, and a weak empire was perhaps better adapted for
+effecting this purpose than a stronger one, even though certain of
+their own order had a controlling voice in its administration. As
+already hinted, the collapse of the rebellious knighthood under
+Sickingen, a few weeks later, clearly showed the political drift of
+the situation in the _haute politique_ of the empire.
+
+The rising capitalists of the city, the monopolists, merchant princes,
+and syndicates, are the theme of universal invective throughout this
+period. To them the rapid and enormous rise in prices during the early
+years of the sixteenth century, the scarcity of money consequent on
+the increased demand for it, and the impoverishment of large sections
+of the population, were attributed by noble and peasant alike. The
+whole trend of public opinion, in short, outside the wealthier
+burghers of the larger cities--the class immediately interested--was
+adverse to the condition of things created by the new world-market,
+and by the new class embodying it. At present it was a small class,
+the only one that gained by it, and that gained at the expense of all
+the other classes.
+
+Some idea of the class-antagonisms of the period may be gathered from
+the statement of Ulrich von Hutten about the robber-knights already
+spoken of, in his dialogue entitled "Predones," to the effect that
+there were four orders of robbers in Germany--the _knights_, the
+_lawyers_, the _priests_, and the _merchants_ (meaning especially the
+new capitalist merchant-traders or syndicates). Of these, he declares
+the robber-knights to be the least harmful. This is naturally only to
+be expected from so gallant a champion of his order, the friend and
+abettor of Sickingen. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the
+robber-knight evil, the toleration of which in principle was so deeply
+ingrained in the public opinion of large sections of the population,
+may be judged from the abortive attempts made to stop it, at the
+instance alike of princes and of cities, who on this point, if on no
+other, had a common interest. In 1502, for example, at the Reichstag
+held in Gelnhausen in that year, certain of the highest princes of the
+empire made a representation that, at least, the knights should permit
+the gathering in of the harvest and the vintage in peace. But even
+this modest demand was found to be impracticable. The knights had to
+live in the style required by their status, as they declared, and
+where other means were more and more failing them, their ancient right
+or privilege of plunder was indispensable to their order. Still,
+Hutten was right so far in declaring the knight the most harmless kind
+of robber, inasmuch as, direct as were his methods, his sun was
+obviously setting, while as much could not be said of the other
+classes named; the merchant and the lawyer were on the rise, and the
+priest, although about to receive a check, was not destined speedily
+to disappear, or to change fundamentally the character of his
+activity.
+
+The feudal orders saw their own position seriously threatened by the
+new development of things economic in the cities. The guilds were
+becoming crystallized into close corporations of wealthy families,
+constituting a kind of second _Ehrbarkeit_ or town patriciate; the
+numbers of the landless and unprivileged, with at most a bare footing
+in the town constitution, were increasing in an alarming proportion;
+the journeyman workman was no longer a stage between apprentice and
+master craftsman, but a permanent condition embodied in a large and
+growing class. All these symptoms indicated an extraordinary economic
+revolution, which was making itself at first directly felt only in the
+larger cities, but the results of which were dislocating the social
+relations of the Middle Ages throughout the whole empire.
+
+Perhaps the most striking feature in this dislocation was the transition
+from direct barter to exchange through the medium of money, and the
+consequent suddenly increased importance of the rôle played by usury in
+the social life of the time. The scarcity of money is a perennial theme
+of complaint for which the new large capitalist-monopolists are made
+responsible. But the class in question was itself only a symptom of the
+general economic change. The seeming scarcity of money, though but the
+consequence of the increased demand for a circulating medium, was
+explained, to the disadvantage of the hated monopolists, by a crude form
+of the "mercantile" theory. The new merchant, in contradistinction to
+the master craftsman working _en famille_ with his apprentices and
+assistants, now often stood entirely outside the processes of
+production, as speculator or middleman; and he, and still more the
+syndicate who fulfilled the like functions on a larger scale (especially
+with reference to foreign trade), came to be regarded as particularly
+obnoxious robbers, because interlopers to boot. Unlike the knights, they
+were robbers with a new face.
+
+The lawyers were detested for much the same reason (cf. _German
+Society at the Close of the Middle Ages_, pp. 219-28). The
+professional lawyer class, since its final differentiation from the
+clerk class in general, had made the Roman or civil law its
+speciality, and had done its utmost everywhere to establish the
+principles of the latter in place of the old feudal law of earlier
+mediæval Europe. The Roman law was especially favourable to the
+pretensions of the princes, and, from an economic point of view, of
+the nobility in general, inasmuch as land was on the new legal
+principles treated as the private property of the lord; over which he
+had full power of ownership, and not, as under feudal and canon law,
+as a _trust_ involving duties as well as rights. The class of jurists
+was itself of comparatively recent growth in Central Europe, and its
+rapid increase in every portion of the empire dated from less than
+half a century back. It may be well understood, therefore, why these
+interlopers, who ignored the ancient customary law of the country, and
+who by means of an alien code deprived the poor freeholder or
+copyholder of his land, or justified new and unheard-of exactions on
+the part of his lord on the plea that the latter might do what he
+liked with his own, were regarded by the peasant and humble man as
+robbers whose depredations were, if anything, even more resented than
+those of their old and tried enemy--the plundering knight.
+
+The priest, especially of the regular orders, was indeed an old foe,
+but his offence had now become very rank. From the middle of the
+fifteenth century onwards the stream of anti-clerical literature waxes
+alike in volume and intensity. The "monk" had become the object of
+hatred and scorn throughout the whole lay world. This view of the
+"regular" was shared, moreover, by not a few of the secular clergy
+themselves. Humanists, who were subsequently ardent champions of the
+Church against Luther and the Protestant Reformation--men such as
+Murner and Erasmus--had been previously the bitterest satirists of the
+"friar" and the "monk." Amongst the great body of the laity, however,
+though the religious orders came in perhaps for the greater share of
+animosity, the secular priesthood was not much better off in popular
+favour, whilst the upper members of the hierarchy were naturally
+regarded as the chief blood-suckers of the German people in the
+interests of Rome. The vast revenues which both directly in the shape
+of _pallium_ (the price of "investiture"), _annates_ (first year's
+revenues of appointments), _Peter's-pence_, and recently of
+_indulgences_--the latter the by no means most onerous exaction, since
+it was voluntary--all these things, taken together with what was
+indirectly obtained from Germany, through the expenditure of German
+ecclesiastics on their visits to Rome and by the crowd of parasitics,
+nominal holders of German benefices merely, but real recipients of
+German substance, who danced attendance at the Vatican--obviously
+constituted an enormous drain on the resources of the country from all
+the lay classes alike, of which wealth the papal chair could be
+plainly seen to be the receptacle.
+
+If we add to these causes of discontent the vastness in number of the
+regular clergy, the "friars" and "monks" already referred to, who
+consumed, but were only too obviously unproductive, it will be
+sufficiently plain that the Protestant Reformation had something very
+much more than a purely speculative basis to work upon. Religious
+reformers there had been in Germany throughout the Middle Ages, but
+their preachings had taken no deep root. The powerful personality of
+the Monk of Wittenberg found an economic soil ready to hand in which
+his teachings could fructify, and hence the world-historic result. The
+peasant revolts, sporadic the Middle Ages through, had for the
+half-century preceding the Reformation been growing in frequency and
+importance, but it needed nevertheless the sudden impulse, the
+powerful jar given by a Luther in 1517, and the series of blows with
+which it was followed during the years immediately succeeding, to
+crystallize the mass of fluid discontent and social unrest in its
+various forms and give it definite direction. The blow which was
+primarily struck in the region of speculative thought and
+ecclesiastical relations did not stop there in its effects. The attack
+on the dominant theological system--at first merely on certain
+comparatively unessential outworks of that system--necessarily of its
+own force developed into an attack on the organization representing
+it, and on the economic basis of the latter. The battle against
+ecclesiastical abuses, again, in its turn, focussed the
+ever-smouldering discontent with abuses in general; and this time, not
+in one district only, but simultaneously over the whole of Germany.
+The movement inaugurated by Luther gave to the peasant groaning under
+the weight of baronial oppression, and the small handicraftsman
+suffering under his _Ehrbarkeit_, a rallying-point and a rallying cry.
+
+In history there is no movement which starts up full grown from the
+brain of any one man, or even from the mind of any one generation of
+men, like Athene from the head of Zeus. The historical epoch which
+marks the crisis of the given change is, after all, little beyond a
+prominent landmark--a parting of the ways--led up to by a long
+preparatory development. This is nowhere more clearly illustrated than
+in the Reformation and its accompanying movements. The ideas and
+aspirations animating the social, political, and intellectual revolt
+of the sixteenth century can each be traced back to, at least, the
+beginning of the fifteenth century, and in many cases farther still.
+The way the German of Luther's time looked at the burning questions of
+the hour was not essentially different from the way the English
+Wyclifites and Lollards, or the Bohemian Hussites and Taborites viewed
+them. There was obviously a difference born of the later time, but
+this difference was not, I repeat, essential. The changes which, a
+century previously, were only just beginning, had, meanwhile, made
+enormous progress.
+
+The disintegration of the material conditions of mediæval social life
+was now approaching its completion, forced on by the inventions and
+discoveries of the previous half-century. But the ideals of the mass
+of men, learned and simple, were still in the main the ideals that had
+been prevalent throughout the whole of the later Middle Ages. Men
+still looked at the world and at social progress through mediæval
+spectacles. The chief difference was that now ideas which had
+previously been confined to special localities, or had only had a
+sporadic existence among the people at large, had become general
+throughout large portions of the population. The invention of the art
+of printing was, of course, largely instrumental in effecting this
+change.
+
+The comparatively sudden popularization of doctrines previously
+confined to special circles was the distinguishing feature of the
+intellectual life of the first half of the sixteenth century. Among
+the many illustrations of the foregoing which might be given, we are
+specially concerned here to note the sudden popularity during this
+period of two imaginary constitutions dating from early in the
+previous century. From the fourteenth century we find traces, perhaps
+suggested by the Prester John legend, of a deliverer in the shape of
+an emperor who should come from the East, who should be the last of
+his name; should right all wrongs; should establish the empire in
+universal justice and peace; and, in short, should be the forerunner
+of the kingdom of Christ on earth. This notion or mystical hope took
+increasing root during the fifteenth century, and is to be found in
+many respects embodied in the spurious constitutions mentioned, which
+bore respectively the names of the Emperors Sigismund and Friedrich.
+It was in this form that the Hussite theories were absorbed by the
+German mind. The hopes of the Messianists of the "Holy Roman Empire"
+were centred at one time in the Emperor Sigismund. Later on the rôle
+of Messiah was carried over to his successor, Friedrich III, upon whom
+the hopes of the German people were cast.
+
+_The Reformation of Kaiser Sigismund_, originally written about 1438,
+went through several editions before the end of the century, and was
+as many times reprinted during the opening years of Luther's movement.
+Like its successor, that of Friedrich, the scheme attributed to
+Sigismund proposed the abolition of the recent abuses of feudalism, of
+the new lawyer class, and of the symptoms already making themselves
+felt of the change from barter to money payments. It proposed, in
+short, a return to primitive conditions. It was a scheme of reform on
+a Biblical basis, embracing many elements of a distinctly communistic
+character, as communism was then understood. It was pervaded with the
+idea of equality in the spirit of the Taborite literature of the age,
+from which it took its origin.
+
+The so-called _Reformation of Kaiser Sigismund_ dealt especially with
+the peasantry--the serfs and villeins of the time; that attributed to
+Friedrich was mainly concerned with the rising population of the
+towns. All towns and communes were to undergo a constitutional
+transformation. Handicraftsmen should receive just wages; all roads
+should be free; taxes, dues, and levies should be abolished; trading
+capital was to be limited to a maximum of 10,000 _gulden_; all
+surplus capital should fall to the Imperial authorities, who should
+lend it in case of need to poor handicraftsmen at 5 per cent.;
+uniformity of coinage and of weights and measures was to be decreed,
+together with the abolition of the Roman and Canon law. Legists,
+priests, and princes were to be severely dealt with. But, curiously
+enough, the middle and lower nobility, especially the knighthood, were
+more tenderly handled, being treated as themselves victims of their
+feudal superiors, lay and ecclesiastic, especially the latter. In this
+connection the secularization of ecclesiastical fiefs was strongly
+insisted on.
+
+As men found, however, that neither the Emperor Sigismund, nor the
+Emperor Friedrich III, nor the Emperor Maximilian, upon each of whom
+successively their hopes had been cast as the possible realization of
+the German Messiah of earlier dreams, fulfilled their expectations,
+nay, as each in succession implicitly belied these hopes, showing no
+disposition whatever to act up to the views promulgated in their
+names, the tradition of the Imperial deliverer gradually lost its
+force and popularity. By the opening of the Lutheran Reformation the
+opinion had become general that a change would not come from above,
+but that the initiative must rest with the people themselves--with the
+classes specially oppressed by existing conditions, political,
+economic, and ecclesiastical--to effect by their own exertions such a
+transformation as was shadowed forth in the spurious constitutions.
+These, and similar ideas, were now everywhere taken up and elaborated,
+often in a still more radical sense than the original; and they
+everywhere found hearers and adherents.
+
+The "true inwardness" of the change, of which the Protestant
+Reformation represented the ideological side, meant the transformation
+of society from a basis mainly corporative and co-operative to one
+individualistic in its essential character. The whole polity of the
+Middle Ages industrial, social, political, ecclesiastical, was based
+on the principle of the group or the community--ranging in
+hierarchical order from the trade-guild to the town corporation; from
+the town corporation through the feudal orders to the Imperial throne
+itself; from the single monastery to the order as a whole; and from
+the order as a whole to the complete hierarchy of the Church as
+represented by the papal chair. The principle of this social
+organization was now breaking down. The modern and bourgeois
+conception of the autonomy of the individual in all spheres of life
+was beginning to affirm itself.
+
+The most definite expression of this new principle asserted itself in
+the religious sphere. The individualism which was inherent in early
+Christianity, but which was present as a speculative content merely,
+had not been strong enough to counteract even the remains of corporate
+tendencies on the material side of things, in the decadent Roman
+Empire; and infinitely less so the vigorous group-organization and
+sentiment of the northern nations, with their tribal society and
+communistic traditions still mainly intact. And these were the
+elements out of which mediæval society arose. Naturally enough the new
+religious tendencies in revolt against the mediæval corporate
+Christianity of the Catholic Church seized upon this individualistic
+element in Christianity, declaring the chief end of religion to be a
+personal salvation, for the attainment of which the individual himself
+was sufficing, apart from Church organization and Church tradition.
+This served as a valuable destructive weapon for the iconoclasts in
+their attack on ecclesiastical privilege; consequently, in religion,
+this doctrine of Individualism rapidly made headway. But in more
+material matters the old corporative instinct was still too strong and
+the conditions were as yet too imperfectly ripe for the speedy triumph
+of Individualism.
+
+The conflict of the two tendencies is curiously exhibited in the popular
+movements of the Reformation-time. As enemies of the decaying and
+obstructive forms of Feudalism and Church organization, the peasant and
+handicraftsman were necessarily on the side of the new Individualism. So
+far as negation and destruction were concerned, they were working
+apparently for the new order of things--that new order of things which
+_longo intervallo_ has finally landed us in the developed capitalistic
+Individualism of the twentieth century. Yet when we come to consider
+their constructive programmes we find the positive demands put forward
+are based either on ideal conceptions derived from reminiscences of
+primitive communism, or else that they distinctly postulate a return to
+a state of things--the old mark-organisation--upon which the later
+feudalism had in various ways encroached, and finally superseded. Hence
+they were, in these respects, not merely not in the trend of
+contemporary progress, but in actual opposition to it; and therefore, as
+Lassalle has justly remarked, they were necessarily and in any case
+doomed to failure in the long run.
+
+This point should not be lost sight of in considering the various
+popular movements of the earlier half of the sixteenth century. The
+world was still essentially mediæval; men were still dominated by
+mediæval ways of looking at things and still immersed in mediæval
+conditions of life. It is true that out of this mediæval soil the new
+individualistic society was beginning to grow, but its manifestations
+were as yet not so universally apparent as to force a recognition of
+their real meaning. It was still possible to regard the various
+symptoms of change, numerous as they were, and far-reaching as we now
+see them to have been, as sporadic phenomena, as rank but unessential
+overgrowths on the old society, which it was possible by pruning and
+the application of other suitable remedies to get rid of, and thereby
+to restore a state of pristine health in the body political and
+social.
+
+Biblical phrases and the notion of Divine Justice now took the place
+in the popular mind formerly occupied by Church and Emperor. All the
+then oppressed classes of society--the small peasant, half villein,
+half free-man; the landless journeyman and town-proletarian; the
+beggar by the wayside; the small master, crushed by usury or
+tyrannized over by his wealthier colleague in the guild, or by the
+town-patriciate; even the impoverished knight, or the soldier of
+fortune defrauded of his pay; in short, all with whom times were bad,
+found consolation for their wants and troubles, and at the same time
+an incentive to action, in the notion of a Divine Justice which should
+restore all things, and the advent of which was approaching. All had
+Biblical phrases tending in the direction of their immediate
+aspirations in their mouths.
+
+As bearing on the development and propaganda of the new ideas, the
+existence of a new intellectual class, rendered possible by the new
+method of exchange through money (as opposed to that of barter), which
+for a generation past had been in full swing in the larger towns, must
+not be forgotten. Formerly land had been the essential condition of
+livelihood; now it was no longer so. The "universal equivalent,"
+money, conjoined with the printing press, was rendering a literary
+class proper, for the first time, possible. In the same way the
+teacher, physician, and the small lawyer were enabled to subsist as
+followers of independent professions, apart from the special service
+of the Church or as part of the court-retinue of some feudal
+potentate. To these we must add a fresh and very important section of
+the intellectual class which also now for the first time acquired an
+independent existence--to wit, that of the public official or
+functionary. This change, although only one of many, is itself
+specially striking as indicating the transition from the barbaric
+civilization of the Middle Ages to the beginnings of the civilization
+of the modern world. We have, in short, before us, as already
+remarked, a period in which the Middle Ages, whilst still dominant,
+have their force visibly sapped by the growth of a new life.
+
+To sum up the chief features of this new life: Industrially, we have
+the decline of the old system of production in the countryside in
+which each manor or, at least, each district, was for the most part
+self-sufficing and self-supporting, where production was almost
+entirely for immediate use, and only the surplus was exchanged, and
+where such exchange as existed took place exclusively under the form
+of barter. In place of this, we find now something more than the
+beginnings of a national-market and distinct traces of that of a
+world-market. In the towns the change was even still more marked. Here
+we have a sudden and hothouse-like development of the influence of
+money. The guild-system, originally designed for associations of
+craftsmen, for which the chief object was the man and the work, and
+not the mere acquirement of profit, was changing its character. The
+guilds were becoming close corporations of privileged capitalists,
+while a commercial capitalism, as already indicated, was raising its
+head in all the larger centres. In consequence of this state of
+things, the rapid development of the towns and of commerce, national
+and international, and the economic backwardness of the country-side,
+a landless proletariat was being formed, which meant on the one hand
+an enormous increase in mendicancy of all kinds, and on the other the
+creation of a permanent class of only casually-employed persons, whom
+the towns absorbed indeed, but for the most part with a new form of
+citizenship involving only the bare right of residence within the
+walls. Similar social phenomena were, of course, manifesting
+themselves contemporaneously in other parts of Europe; but in Germany
+the change was more sudden than elsewhere, and was complicated by
+special political circumstances.
+
+The political and military functions of that for the mediæval polity
+of Germany, so important class, the knighthood, or lower nobility, had
+by this time become practically obsolete, mainly owing to the changed
+conditions of warfare. But yet the class itself was numerous, and
+still, nominally at least, possessed of most of its old privileges and
+authority. The extent of its real power depended, however, upon the
+absence or weakness of a central power, whether Imperial or
+State-territorial. The attempt to reconstitute the centralized power
+of the empire under Maximilian, of which the _Reichsregiment_ was the
+outcome, had, as we have seen, not proved successful. Its means of
+carrying into effect its own decisions were hopelessly inadequate. In
+1523 it was already weakened, and became little more than a "survival"
+after the Reichstag held at Nürnberg in 1524. Thus this body, which
+had been called into existence at the instance of the most powerful
+estates of the empire, was "shelved" with the practically unanimous
+consent of those who had been instrumental in creating it.
+
+But if the attempt at Imperial centralization had failed, the force of
+circumstances tended partly for this very reason to favour
+State-territorial centralization. The aim of all the territorial
+magnates, the higher members of the Imperial system, was to
+consolidate their own princely power within the territories owing them
+allegiance. This desire played a not unimportant part in the
+establishment of the Reformation in certain parts of the country--for
+example, in Würtemberg, and in the northern lands of East Prussia
+which were subject to the Grand Master of the Teutonic knights. The
+time was at hand for the transformation of the mediæval feudal
+territory, with its local jurisdictions and its ties of service, into
+the modern bureaucratic state, with its centralized administration and
+organized system of salaried functionaries subject to a central
+authority.
+
+The religious movement inaugurated by Luther met and was absorbed by
+all these elements of change. It furnished them with a religious
+_flag_, under cover of which they could work themselves out. This was
+necessary in an age when the Christian theology was unquestioningly
+accepted in one or another form by wellnigh all men, and hence entered
+as a practical belief into their daily thoughts and lives. The
+Lutheran Reformation, from its inception in 1517 down to the Peasants'
+War of 1525, at once absorbed, and was absorbed by, all the
+revolutionary elements of the time. Up to the last-mentioned date it
+gathered revolutionary force year by year. But this was the turning
+point.
+
+With the crushing of the peasants' revolt and the decisively
+anti-popular attitude taken up by Luther, the religious movement
+associated with him ceased any longer to have a revolutionary
+character. It henceforth became definitely subservient to the new
+interests of the wealthy and privileged classes, and as such
+completely severed itself from the more extreme popular reforming
+sects.
+
+Up to this time, though by no means always approved by Luther himself
+or his immediate followers, and in some cases even combated by them,
+the latter were nevertheless not looked upon with disfavour by large
+numbers of the rank and file of those who regarded Martin Luther as
+their leader.
+
+Nothing could exceed the violence of language with which Luther
+himself attacked all who stood in his way. Not only the
+ecclesiastical, but also the secular heads of Christendom came in for
+the coarsest abuse; "swine" and "water-bladder" are not the strongest
+epithets employed. But this was not all; in his _Treatise on Temporal
+Authority and how far it should be Obeyed_ (published in 1523), whilst
+professedly maintaining the thesis that the secular authority is a
+Divine ordinance, Luther none the less expressly justifies resistance
+to all human authority where its mandates are contrary to "the word of
+God." At the same time, he denounces in his customary energetic
+language the existing powers generally. "Thou shouldst know," he says,
+"that since the beginning of the world a wise prince is truly a rare
+bird, but a pious prince is still more rare." "They" (princes) "are
+mostly the greatest fools or the greatest rogues on earth; therefore
+must we at all times expect from them the worst, and little good."
+Farther on, he proceeds: "The common man begetteth understanding, and
+the plague of the princes worketh powerfully among the people and the
+common man. He will not, he cannot, he purposeth not, longer to suffer
+your tyranny and oppression. Dear princes and lords, know ye what to
+do, for God will no longer endure it? The world is no more as of old
+time, when ye hunted and drove the people as your quarry. But think ye
+to carry on with much drawing of sword, look to it that one do not
+come who shall bid ye sheath it, and that not in God's name!"
+
+Again, in a pamphlet published the following year, 1524, relative to
+the Reichstag of that year, Luther proclaims that the judgment of God
+already awaits "the drunken and mad princes." He quotes the phrase:
+"Deposuit potentes de sede" (Luke i. 52), and adds "that is your case,
+dear lords, even now when ye see it not!" After an admonition to
+subjects to refuse to go forth to war against the Turks, or to pay
+taxes towards resisting them, who were ten times wiser and more godly
+than German princes, the pamphlet concludes with the prayer: "May God
+deliver us from ye all, and of His grace give us other rulers!"
+Against such utterances as the above, the conventional exhortations to
+Christian humility, non-resistance, and obedience to those in
+authority, would naturally not weigh in a time of popular ferment. So,
+until the momentous year 1525, it was not unnatural that,
+notwithstanding his quarrel with Münzer and the Zwickau enthusiasts,
+and with others whom he deemed to be going "too far," Luther should
+have been regarded as in some sort the central figure of the
+revolutionary movement, political and social, no less than religious.
+
+But the great literary and agitatory forces during the period referred
+to were of course either outside the Lutheran movement proper or at
+most only on the fringe of it. A mass of broadsheets and pamphlets,
+specimens of some of which have been given in a former volume (_German
+Society at the Close of the Middle Ages_, pp. 114-28), poured from the
+press during these years, all with the refrain that things had gone on
+long enough, that the common man, be he peasant or townsman, could no
+longer bear it. But even more than the revolutionary literature were
+the wandering preachers effective in working up the agitation which
+culminated in the Peasants' War of 1525. The latter comprised men of
+all classes, from the impoverished knight, the poor priest, the
+escaped monk, or the travelling scholar, to the peasant, the mercenary
+soldier out of employment, the poor handicraftsman, of even the
+beggar. Learned and simple, they wandered about from place to place,
+in the market place of the town, in the common field of the village,
+from one territory to another, preaching the gospel of discontent.
+Their harangues were, as a rule, as much political as religious, and
+the ground tone of them all was the social or economic misery of the
+time, and the urgency of immediate action to bring about a change. As
+in the literature, so in the discourses, Biblical phrases designed to
+give force to the new teaching abounded. The more thorough-going of
+these itinerant apostles openly aimed at nothing less than the
+establishment of a new Christian Commonwealth, or, as they termed it,
+"the Kingdom of God on Earth."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] We are here, of course, dealing more especially with Germany; but
+substantially the same course was followed in the development of
+municipalities in other parts of Europe.
+
+[2] _Einleitung_, pp. 255, 256.
+
+[3] Cf. Von Maurer's _Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark-Verfassung_;
+Gomme's _Village Communities_; Laveleye, _La Propriété Primitive_;
+Stubbs's _Constitutional History_; also Maine's works.
+
+[4] It should be remembered that Germany at this time was cut up into
+feudal territorial divisions of all sizes, from the principality, or the
+prince-bishopric, to the knightly manor. Every few miles, and sometimes
+less, there was a fresh territory, a fresh lord, and a fresh
+jurisdiction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT
+
+
+The "great man" theory of history, formerly everywhere prevalent, and
+even now common among non-historical persons, has long regarded the
+Reformation as the purely personal work of the Augustine monk who was
+its central figure. The fallacy of this conception is particularly
+striking in the case of the Reformation. Not only was it preceded by
+numerous sporadic outbursts of religious revivalism which sometimes
+took the shape of opposition to the dominant form of Christianity,
+though it is true they generally shaded off into mere movements of
+independent Catholicism within the Church; but there were in addition
+at least two distinct religious movements which led up to it, while
+much which, under the reformers of the sixteenth century, appears as a
+distinct and separate theology, is traceable in the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries in the mystical movement connected with the names
+of Meister Eckhart and Tauler. Meister Eckhart, whose free treatment
+of Christian doctrines, in order to bring them into consonance with
+his mystical theology, had drawn him into conflict with the Papacy,
+undoubtedly influenced Luther through his disciple, Tauler, and
+especially through the book which proceeded from the latter's school,
+the _Deutsche Theologie_. It is, however, in the much more important
+movement, which originated with Wyclif and extended to Central Europe
+through Huss, that we must look for the more obvious influences
+determining the course of religious development in Germany.
+
+The Wyclifite movement in England was less a doctrinal heterodoxy than
+a revolt against the Papacy and the priestly hierarchy. Mere
+theoretical speculations were seldom interfered with, but anything
+which touched their material interests at once aroused the vigilance
+of the clergy. It is noticeable that the diffusion of Lollardism, that
+is of the ideas of Wyclif, if not the cause of, was at least followed
+by the peasant rising under the leadership of John Ball, a connection
+which is also visible in the Tziska revolt following the Hussite
+movement, and the Peasants' War in Germany which came on the heels of
+the Lutheran Reformation. How much Huss was directly influenced by the
+teachings of Wyclif is clear. The works of the latter were widely
+circulated throughout Europe; for one of the advantages of the custom
+of writing in Latin, which was universal during the Middle Ages, was
+that books of an important character were immediately current amongst
+all scholars without having, as now, to wait upon the caprice and
+ability of translators. Huss read Wyclif's works as the preparation
+for his theological degree, and subsequently made them his text-books
+when teaching at the University of Prague. After his treacherous
+execution at Constance, and the events which followed thereupon in
+Bohemia, a number of Hussite fugitives settled in Southern Germany,
+carrying with them the seeds of the new doctrines. An anonymous
+contemporary writer states that "to John Huss and his followers are to
+be traced almost all those false principles concerning the power of
+the spiritual and temporal authorities and the possession of earthly
+goods and rights which before in Bohemia, and now with us, have called
+forth revolt and rebellion, plunder, arson, and murder, and have
+shaken to its foundations the whole commonwealth. The poison of these
+false doctrines has been long flowing from Bohemia into Germany, and
+will produce the same desolating consequences wherever it spreads."
+
+The condition of the Catholic Church, against which the Reformation
+movement generally was a protest, needs here to be made clear to the
+reader. The beginning of clerical disintegration is distinctly visible
+in the first half of the fourteenth century. The interdicts, as an
+institution, had ceased to be respected, and the priesthood itself
+began openly to sink itself in debauchery and to play fast and loose
+with the rites of the Church. Indulgences for a hundred years were
+readily granted for a consideration. The manufacture of relics became
+an organized branch of industry; and festivals of fools and festivals
+of asses were invented by the jovial priests themselves in travesty of
+sacred mysteries, as a welcome relaxation from the monotony of
+prescribed ecclesiastical ceremony. Pilgrimages increased in number
+and frequency; new saints were created by the dozen; and the disbelief
+of the clergy in the doctrines they professed was manifest even to the
+most illiterate, whilst contempt for the ceremonies they practised was
+openly displayed in the performance of their clerical functions. An
+illustration of this is the joke of the priests related by Luther, who
+were wont during the celebration of the Mass, when the worshippers
+fondly imagined that the sacred formula of transubstantiation was
+being repeated, to replace the words _Panis es et carnem fiebis_,
+"Bread thou art and flesh thou shalt become," by _Panis es et panis
+manebis_, "Bread thou art and bread thou shalt remain."
+
+The scandals as regards clerical manners, growing, as they had been,
+for many generations, reached their climax in the early part of the
+sixteenth century. It was a common thing for priests to drive a
+roaring trade as moneylenders, landlords of alehouses and gambling
+dens, and even in some cases, brothel-keepers. Papal ukases had proved
+ineffective to stem the current of clerical abuses. The regular clergy
+evoked even more indignation than the secular. "Stinking cowls" was a
+favourite epithet for the monks. Begging, cheating, shameless
+ignorance, drunkenness, and debauchery, are alleged as being their
+noted characteristics. One of the princes of the empire addresses a
+prior of a convent largely patronized by aristocratic ladies as "Thou,
+our common brother-in-law!" In some of the convents of Friesland,
+promiscuous intercourse between the sexes was, it is said, quite
+openly practised, the offspring being reared as monks and nuns. The
+different orders competed with each other for the fame and wealth to
+be obtained out of the public credulity. A fraud attempted by the
+Dominicans at Bern, in 1506, _with the concurrence of the heads of the
+order throughout Germany_, was one of the main causes of that city
+adopting the Reformation.
+
+In addition to the increasing burdens of investitures, annates, and
+other Papal dues, the brunt of which the German people had directly or
+indirectly to bear, special offence was given at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century by the excessive exploitation of the practice of
+indulgences by Leo X for the purpose of completing the cathedral of
+St. Peter's at Rome. It was this, coming on the top of the exactions
+already rendered necessary by the increasing luxury and debauchery of
+the Papal Court and those of the other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
+that directly led to the dramatic incidents with which the Lutheran
+Reformation opened.
+
+The remarkable personality with which the religious side of the
+Reformation is pre-eminently associated was a child of his time, who
+had passed through a variety of mental struggles, and had already
+broken through the bonds of the old ecclesiasticism before that
+turning-point in his career which is usually reckoned the opening of
+the Reformation, to wit--the nailing of the theses on to the door of
+the Schloss-Kirche in Wittenberg on the 31st of October, 1517. Martin
+Luther, we must always bear in mind, however, was no Protestant in the
+English Puritan sense of the word. It was not merely that he retained
+much of what would be deemed by the old-fashioned English Protestant
+"Romish error" in his doctrine, but his practical view of life showed
+a reaction from the ascetic pretensions which he had seen bred nothing
+but hypocrisy and the worst forms of sensual excess. It is, indeed,
+doubtful if the man who sang the praises of "Wine, Women, and Song"
+would have been deemed a fit representative in Parliament or elsewhere
+by the British Nonconformist conscience of our day; or would be
+acceptable in any capacity to the grocer-deacon of our provincial
+towns, who, not content with being allowed to sand his sugar and
+adulterate his tea unrebuked, would socially ostracise every one whose
+conduct did not square with his conventional shibboleths. Martin
+Luther was a child of his time also as a boon companion. The freedom
+of his living in the years following his rupture with Rome was the
+subject of severe animadversions on the part of the noble, but in this
+respect narrow-minded, Thomas Münzer, who, in his open letter
+addressed to the "Soft-living flesh of Wittenberg," scathingly
+denounces what he deems his debauchery.
+
+It does not enter into our province here to discuss at length the
+religious aspects of the Reformation; but it is interesting to note
+in passing the more than modern liberality of Luther's views with
+respect to the marriage question and the celibacy of the clergy,
+contrasted with the strong mediæval flavour of his belief in
+witchcraft and sorcery. In his _De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiæ_
+(1519) he expresses the view that if, for any cause, husband or wife
+are prevented from having sexual intercourse they are justified, the
+woman equally with the man, in seeking it elsewhere. He was opposed to
+divorce, though he did not forbid it, and recommended that a man
+should rather have a plurality of wives than that he should put away
+any of them. Luther held strenuously the view that marriage was a
+purely external contract for the purpose of sexual satisfaction, and
+in no way entered into the spiritual life of the man. On this ground
+he sees no objection in the so-called mixed marriages, which were, of
+course, frowned upon by the Catholic Church. In his sermon on "Married
+Life" he says: "Know therefore that marriage is an outward thing, like
+any other worldly business. Just as I may eat, drink, sleep, walk,
+ride, buy, speak, and bargain with a heathen, a Jew, a Turk, or a
+heretic, so may I also be and remain married to such an one, and I
+care not one jot for the fool's laws which forbid it.... A heathen is
+just as much man or woman, well and shapely made by God, as St. Peter,
+St. Paul, or St. Lucia." Nor did he shrink from applying his views to
+particular cases, as is instanced by his correspondence with Philip
+von Hessen, whose constitution appears to have required more than one
+wife. He here lays down explicitly the doctrine that polygamy and
+concubinage are not forbidden to Christians, though, in his advice to
+Philip, he adds the _caveat_ that he should keep the matter dark to
+the end that offence might not be given. "For," says he, "it matters
+not, provided one's conscience is right, what others say." In one of
+his sermons on the Pentateuch[5] we find the words: "It is not
+forbidden that a man have more than one wife. I would not forbid it
+to-day, albeit I would not advise it.... Yet neither would I condemn
+it." Other opinions on the nature of the sexual relation were equally
+broad; for in one of his writings on monastic celibacy his words
+plainly indicate his belief that chastity, no more than other fleshly
+mortifications, was to be considered a divine ordinance for all men or
+women. In an address to the clergy he says: "A woman not possessed of
+high and rare grace can no more abstain from a man than from eating,
+drinking, sleeping, or other natural function. Likewise a man cannot
+abstain from a woman. The reason is that it is as deeply implanted in
+our nature to breed children as it is to eat and drink."[6] The worthy
+Janssen observes in a scandalized tone that Luther, as regards certain
+matters relating to married life, "gave expression to principles
+before unheard of in Christian Europe";[7] and the British
+Nonconformist of to-day, if he reads these "immoral" opinions of the
+hero of the Reformation, will be disposed to echo the sentiments of
+the Ultramontane historian.
+
+The relation of the Reformation to the "New Learning" was in Germany
+not unlike that which existed in the other northern countries of
+Europe, and notably in England. Whilst the hostility of the latter to
+the mediæval Church was very marked, and it was hence disposed to
+regard the religious Reformation as an ally, this had not proceeded
+very far before the tendency of the Renaissance spirit was to side
+with Catholicism against the new theology and dogma, as merely
+destructive and hostile to culture. The men of the Humanist movement
+were for the most part Free-thinkers, and it was with them that
+free-thought first appeared in modern Europe. They therefore had
+little sympathy with the narrow bigotry of religious reformers, and
+preferred to remain in touch with the Church, whose then loose and
+tolerant Catholicism gave freer play to intellectual speculations,
+provided they steered clear of overt theological heterodoxy, than the
+newer systems, which, taking theology _au grand sérieux_, tended to
+regard profane art and learning as more or less superfluous, and spent
+their whole time in theological wrangles. Nevertheless, there were not
+wanting men who, influenced at first by the revival of learning, ended
+by throwing themselves entirely into the Reformation movement, though
+in these cases they were usually actuated rather by their hatred of
+the Catholic hierarchy than by any positive religious sentiment.
+
+Of such men Ulrich von Hutten, the descendant of an ancient and
+influential knightly family, was a noteworthy example. After having
+already acquired fame as the author of a series of skits in the new
+Latin and other works of classical scholarship, being also well known
+as the ardent supporter of Reuchlin in his dispute with the Church,
+and as the friend and correspondent of the central Humanist figure of
+the time, Erasmus, he watched with absorbing interest the movement
+which Luther had inaugurated. Six months after the nailing of the
+theses at Wittenberg, he writes enthusiastically to a friend
+respecting the growing ferment in ecclesiastical matters, evidently
+regarding the new movement as a Kilkenny-cat fight. "The leaders," he
+says, "are bold and hot, full of courage and zeal. Now they shout and
+cheer, now they lament and bewail, as loud as they can. They have
+lately set themselves to write; the printers are getting enough to do.
+Propositions, corollaries, conclusions, and articles are being sold.
+For this alone I hope they will mutually destroy each other." "A few
+days ago a monk was telling me what was going on in Saxony, to which I
+replied: 'Devour each other in order that ye in turn may be devoured
+(_sic_).' Pray Heaven that our enemies may fight each other to the
+bitter end, and by their obstinacy extinguish each other."
+
+Thus it will be seen that Hutten regarded the Reformation in its
+earlier stages as merely a monkish squabble, and failed to see the
+tremendous upheaval of all the old landmarks of ecclesiastical
+domination which was immanent in it. So soon, however, as he perceived
+its real significance, he threw himself wholly into the movement. It
+must not be forgotten, moreover, that, although Hutten's zeal for
+Humanism made him welcome any attempt to overthrow the power of the
+clergy and the monks, he had also an eminently political motive for
+his action in what was, in some respects, the main object of his life,
+viz. to rescue the "knighthood," or smaller nobility, from having
+their independence crushed out by the growing powers of the princes of
+the empire. Probably more than one-third of the manors were held by
+ecclesiastical dignitaries, so that anything which threatened their
+possessions and privileges seemed to strike a blow at the very
+foundations of the Imperial system. Hutten hoped that the new
+doctrines would set the princes by the ears all round; and that then,
+by allying themselves with the reforming party, the knighthood might
+succeed in retaining the privileges which still remained to them, but
+were rapidly slipping away, and might even regain some of those which
+had been already lost. It was not till later, however, that Hutten saw
+matters in this light. He was, at the time the above letter was
+written, in the service of the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, the
+leading favourer of the New Learning amongst the prince-prelates, and
+it was mainly from the Humanist standpoint that he regarded the
+beginnings of the Reformation. After leaving the service of the
+archbishop he struck up a personal friendship with Luther, instigated
+thereto by his political chief, Franz von Sickingen, the leader of the
+knighthood, from whom he probably received the first intimation of the
+importance of the new movement to their common cause.
+
+When, in 1520, the young Emperor, Charles V, was crowned at Aachen,
+Luther's party, as well as the knighthood, expected that considerable
+changes would result in a sense favourable to their position from the
+presumed pliability of the new head of the empire. His youth, it was
+supposed, would make him more sympathetic to the newer spirit which
+was rapidly developing itself; and it is true that about the time of
+his election Charles had shown a transient favour to the "recalcitrant
+monk." It would appear, however, that this was only for the purpose of
+frightening the Pope into abandoning his declared intention of
+abolishing the Inquisition in Spain, then regarded as one of the
+mainstays of the royal power, and still more to exercise pressure upon
+him, in order that he should facilitate Charles's designs on the
+Milanese territory. Once these objects were attained, he was just as
+ready to oblige the Pope by suppressing the new anti-Papal movement as
+he might possibly otherwise have been to have favoured it with a view
+to humbling the only serious rival to his dominion in the empire.
+
+Immediately after his coronation he proceeded to Cologne, and convoked
+by Imperial edict a Reichstag at Worms for the following 27th of
+January, 1521. The proceedings of this famous Reichstag have been
+unfortunately so identified with the edict against Luther that the
+other important matters which were there discussed have almost fallen
+into oblivion. At least two other questions were dealt with, however,
+which are significant of the changes that were then taking place. The
+first was the rehabilitation and strengthening of the Imperial
+Governing Council (_Reichsregiment_), whose functions under Maximilian
+had been little more than nominal. There was at first a feeling
+amongst the States in favour of transferring all authority to it, even
+during the residence of the Emperor in the empire; and in the end,
+while having granted to it complete power during his absence, it
+practically retained very much of this power when he was present. In
+constitution it was very similar to the French "Parliaments," and,
+like them, was principally composed of learned jurists, four being
+elected by the Emperor and the remainder by the estates. The character
+and the great powers of this council, extending even to ecclesiastical
+matters during the ensuing years, undoubtedly did much to hasten on
+the substitution of the civil law for the older customary or common
+law, a matter which we shall consider more in detail later on. The
+financial condition of the empire was also considered; and it here
+first became evident that the dislocation of economic conditions,
+which had begun with the century, would render an enormously increased
+taxation necessary to maintain the Imperial authority, amounting to
+five times as much as had previously been required.
+
+It was only after these secular affairs of the empire had been
+disposed of that the deliberations of the Reichstag on ecclesiastical
+matters were opened by the indictment of Luther in a long speech by
+Aleander, one of the papal nuncios, in introducing the Pope's letter.
+In spite of the efforts of his friends, Luther was not permitted to be
+present at the beginning of the proceedings; but subsequently he was
+sent for by the Emperor, in order that he might state his case. His
+journey to Worms was one long triumph, especially at Erfurt, where he
+was received with enthusiasm by the Humanists as the enemy of the
+Papacy. But his presence in the Reichstag was unavailing, and the
+proceedings resulted in his being placed under the ban of the empire.
+The safe-conduct of the Emperor was, however, in his case respected;
+and in spite of the fears of his friends that a like fate might
+befall him as had befallen Huss after the Council of Constance, he was
+allowed to depart unmolested.
+
+On his way to Wittenberg Luther was seized, by arrangement with his
+supporter, the Kurfürst of Saxony, and conveyed in safety to the
+Castle of Wartburg, in Thüringen, a report in the meantime being
+industriously circulated by certain of his adherents, with a view of
+arousing popular feeling, that he had been arrested by order of the
+Emperor and was being tortured. In this way he was secured from all
+danger for the time being, and it was during his subsequent stay that
+he laid the foundations of the literary language of Germany.
+
+Says a contemporary writer,[8] an eye-witness of what went on at Worms
+during the sitting of the Reichstag: "All is disorder and confusion.
+Seldom a night doth pass but that three or four persons be slain. The
+Emperor hath installed a provost, who hath drowned, hanged, and
+murdered over a hundred men." He proceeds: "Stabbing, whoring,
+flesh-eating (it was in Lent) ... altogether there is an orgie worthy
+of the Venusberg." He further states that many gentlemen and other
+visitors had drunk themselves to death on the strong Rhenish wine.
+Aleander was in danger of being murdered by the Lutheran populace,
+instigated thereto by Hutten's inflammatory letters from the
+neighbouring Castle of Ebernburg, in which Franz von Sickingen had
+given him a refuge. The fiery Humanist wrote to Aleander himself,
+saying that he would leave no stone unturned "till thou who earnest
+hither full of wrath, madness, crime, and treachery shalt be carried
+hence a lifeless corpse." Aleander naturally felt exceedingly
+uncomfortable, and other supporters of the Papal party were not less
+disturbed at the threats which seemed in a fair way of being carried
+out. The Emperor himself was without adequate means of withstanding a
+popular revolt should it occur. He had never been so low in cash or in
+men as at that moment. On the other hand, Sickingen, to whom he owed
+money, and who was the only man who could have saved the situation
+under the circumstances, had matters come to blows, was almost overtly
+on the side of the Lutherans; while the whole body of the impoverished
+knighthood were only awaiting a favourable opportunity to overthrow
+the power of the magnates, secular and ecclesiastic, with Sickingen as
+a leader. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of the year
+1521.
+
+The ban placed upon Luther by the Reichstag marks the date of the
+complete rupture between the Reforming party and the old Church.
+Henceforward, many Humanist and Humanistically influenced persons who
+had supported him withdrew from the movement and swelled the ranks of
+the Conservatives. Foremost amongst these were Pirckheimer, the
+wealthy merchant and scholar of Nürnberg, and many others, who dreaded
+lest the attack on ecclesiastical property and authority should, as
+indeed was the case, issue in a general attack on all property and
+authority. Thomas Murner, also, who was the type of the "moderate" of
+the situation, while professing to disapprove of the abuses of the
+Church, declared that Luther's manner of agitation could only lead to
+the destruction of all order, civil no less than ecclesiastical. The
+two parties were now clearly defined, and the points at issue were
+plainly irreconcilable with one another or involved irreconcilable
+details.
+
+The printing-press now for the first time appeared as the vehicle for
+popular literature; the art of the bard gave place to the art of the
+typographer, and the art of the preacher saw confronting it a
+formidable rival in that of the pamphleteer. Similarly in the French
+Revolution, modern journalism, till then unimportant and sporadic,
+received its first great development, and began seriously to displace
+alike the preacher, the pamphlet, and the broadside. The flood of
+theological disquisitions, satires, dialogues, sermons, which now
+poured from every press in Germany, overflowed into all classes of
+society. These writings are so characteristic of the time that it is
+worth while devoting a few pages to their consideration, the more
+especially because it will afford us the opportunity for considering
+other changes in that spirit of the age, partly diseased growths of
+decaying mediævalism and partly the beginnings of the modern critical
+spirit, which also find expression in the literature of the
+Reformation period.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] _Sämmtliche Werke_, vol. xxxiii. pp. 322-4.
+
+[6] Quoted in Janssen, _Ein Zweites Wort an meine Kritiker_ 1883, p. 94.
+
+[7] _Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes_, vol. ii. p. 115.
+
+[8] Quoted in Janssen, bk. ii. 162.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE TIME
+
+
+In accordance with the conventional view the Reichstag at Worms was a
+landmark in the history of the Reformation. This is, however, only
+true as regards the political side of the movement. The popular
+feeling was really quite continuous, at least from 1517 to 1525. With
+the latter year and the collapse of the peasant revolt a change is
+noticeable. In 1525 the Reformation, as a great upstirring of the
+popular mind of Central Europe, in contradistinction to its character
+as an academic and purely political movement, reached high-water mark,
+and may almost be said to have exhausted itself. Until the latter year
+it was purely a revolutionary movement, attracting to itself all the
+disruptive elements of its time. Later, the reactionary possibilities
+within it declared themselves. The emancipation from the thraldom of
+the Catholic hierarchy and its Papal head, it was soon found, meant
+not emancipation from the arbitrary tyranny of the new political and
+centralizing authorities then springing up, but, on the contrary,
+rather their consecration. The ultimate outcome, in fact, of the whole
+business was, as we shall see later on, the inculcation of the
+non-resistance theory as regards the civil power, and the clearing of
+the way for its extremest expression in the doctrine of the Divine
+Right of Kings, a theory utterly alien to the belief and practice of
+the Mediæval Church.
+
+The Reichstag of Worms, by cutting off all possibility of
+reconciliation, rather gave further edge to the popular revolutionary
+side of the movement than otherwise. The whole progress of the change
+in public feeling is plainly traceable in the mass of ephemeral
+literature that has come down to us from this period, broadsides,
+pamphlets, satires, folk-songs, and the rest. The anonymous literature
+to which we more especially refer is distinguished by its coarse
+brutality and humour, even in the writings of the Reformers, which
+were themselves in no case remarkable for the suavity of their
+polemic.
+
+Hutten, in some of his later vernacular poems, approaches the
+character of the less-cultured broadside literature. To the critical
+mind it is somewhat amusing to note the enthusiasm with which the
+modern Dissenting and Puritan class contemplates the period of which
+we are writing--an enthusiasm that would probably be effectively
+damped if the laudators of the Reformation knew the real character of
+the movement and of its principal actors.
+
+The first attacks made by the broadside literature were naturally
+directed against the simony and benefice-grabbing of the clergy, a
+characteristic of the priestly office that has always powerfully
+appealed to the popular mind. Thus the "Courtisan and Benefice-eater"
+attacks the parasite of the Roman Court, who absorbs ecclesiastical
+revenues wholesale, putting in perfunctory _locum tenens_ on the
+cheap, and begins:--
+
+    I'm fairly called a Simonist and eke a Courtisan,
+    And here to every peasant and every common man
+    My knavery will very well appear.
+    I called and cried to all who'd give me ear,
+    To nobleman and knight and all above me:
+    "Behold me! And ye'll find I'll truly love ye."
+
+In another we read:--
+
+    The Paternoster teaches well
+    How one for another his prayers should tell,
+    Thro' brotherly love and not for gold,
+    And good those same prayers God doth hold.
+    So too saith Holy Paul right clearly,
+    Each shall his brother's load bear dearly.
+
+But now, it declares, all that is changed. Now we are being taught
+just the opposite of God's teachings:--
+
+    Such doctrine hath the priests increased,
+    Whom men as masters now must feast,
+    'Fore all the crowd of Simonists,
+    Whose waxing number no man wists,
+    The towns and thorps seem full of them,
+    And in all lands they're seen with shame.
+    Their violence and knavery
+    Leave not a church or living free.
+
+A prose pamphlet, apparently published about the summer of 1520,
+shortly after Luther's ex-communication, was the so-called "Wolf Song"
+(_Wolf-gesang_), which paints the enemies of Luther as wolves. It
+begins with a screed on the creation and fall of Adam, and a
+dissertation on the dogma of the Redemption; and then proceeds: "As
+one might say, dear brother, instruct me, for there is now in our
+times so great commotion in faith come upon us. There is one in Saxony
+who is called Luther, of whom many pious and honest folk tell how that
+he doth write so consolingly the good evangelical (_evangelische_)
+truth. But again I hear that the Pope and the cardinals at Rome have
+put him under the ban as a heretic; and certain of our own preachers,
+too, scold him from their pulpits as a knave, a misleader, and a
+heretic. I am utterly confounded, and know not where to turn; albeit
+my reason and heart do speak to me even as Luther writeth. But yet
+again it bethinks me that when the Pope, the cardinal, the bishop, the
+doctor, the monk, and the priest, for the greater part are against
+him, and so that all save the common men and a few gentlemen, doctors,
+councillors, and knights, are his adversaries, what shall I do?" "For
+answer, dear friend, get thee back and search the Scriptures, and thou
+shalt find that so it hath gone with all the holy prophets even as it
+now fareth with Doctor Martin Luther, who is in truth a godly
+Christian and manly heart and only true Pope and Apostle, when he the
+true office of the Apostles publicly fulfilleth.... If the godly man
+Luther were pleasing to the world, that were indeed a true sign that
+his doctrine were not from God; for the word of God is a fiery sword,
+a hammer that breaketh in pieces the rocks, and not a fox's tail or a
+reed that may be bent according to our pleasure." Seventeen noxious
+qualities of the wolf are adduced--his ravenousness, his cunning, his
+falseness, his cowardice, his thirst for robbery, amongst others. The
+Popes, the cardinals, and the bishops are compared to the wolves in
+all their attributes: "The greater his pomp and splendour, the more
+shouldst thou beware of such an one; for he is a wolf that cometh in
+the shape of a good shepherd's dog. Beware! it is against the custom
+of Christ and His Apostles." It is again but the song of the wolves
+when they claim to mix themselves with worldly affairs and maintain
+the temporal supremacy. The greediness of the wolf is discernible in
+the means adopted to get money for the building of St. Peter's. The
+interlocutor is warned against giving to mendicant priests and monks.
+
+We have given this as a specimen of the almost purely theological
+pamphlet; although, as will have been evident, even this is directly
+connected with the material abuses from which the people were
+suffering. Another pamphlet of about the same date deals with usury,
+the burden of which had been greatly increased by the growth of the
+new commercial combinations already referred to in the Introduction,
+which combinations Dr. Eck had been defending at Bologna on
+theological grounds, in order to curry favour with the Augsburg
+merchant-prince, Fuggerschwatz.[9] It is called "Concerning Dues.
+Hither comes a poor peasant to a rich citizen. A priest comes also
+thereby, and then a monk. Full pleasant to read." A peasant visits a
+burgher when he is counting money, and asks him where he gets it all
+from. "My dear peasant," says the townsman, "thou askest me who gave
+me this money. I will tell thee. There cometh hither a peasant, and
+beggeth me to lend him ten or twenty gulden. Thereupon I ask him an he
+possesseth not a goodly meadow or corn-field. 'Yea! good sir!' saith
+he, 'I have indeed a good meadow and a good corn-field. The twain are
+worth a hundred gulden.' Then say I to him: 'Good, my friend, wilt
+thou pledge me thy holding? and an thou givest me one gulden of thy
+money every year I will lend thee twenty gulden now.' Then is the
+peasant right glad, and saith he: 'Willingly will I pledge it thee.'
+'I will warn thee,' say I, 'that an thou furnishest not the one gulden
+of money each year, I will take thy holding for my own having.'
+Therewith is the peasant well content, and writeth him down
+accordingly. I lend him the money; he payeth me one year, or may be
+twain, the due; thereafter can he no longer furnish it, and thereupon
+I take the holding, and drive away the peasant therefrom. Thus I get
+the holding and the money. The same things do I with handicraftsmen.
+Hath he a good house? He pledgeth that house until I bring it behind
+me. Therewith gain I much in goods and money, and thus do I pass my
+days." "I thought," rejoined the peasant, "that 'twere only the Jew
+who did usury, but I hear that ye also ply that trade." The burgher
+answers that interest is not usury, to which the peasant replies that
+interest (_Gült_) is only a "subtle name." The burgher then quotes
+Scripture, as commanding men to help one another. The peasant readily
+answers that in doing this they have no right to get advantage from
+the assistance they proffer. "Thou art a good fellow!" says the
+townsman. "If I take no money for the money that I lend, how shall I
+then increase my hoard?" The peasant then reproaches him that he sees
+well that his object in life is to wax fat on the substance of others;
+"But I tell thee, indeed," he says, "that it is a great and heavy
+sin." Whereupon his opponent waxes wroth, and will have nothing more
+to do with him, threatening to kick him out in the name of a thousand
+devils; but the peasant returns to the charge, and expresses his
+opinion that rich men do not willingly hear the truth. A priest now
+enters, and to him the townsman explains the dispute. "Dear peasant,"
+says the priest, "wherefore camest thou hither, that thou shouldst
+make of a due[10] usury? May not a man buy with his money what he
+will?" But the peasant stands by his previous assertion, demanding
+how anything can be considered as bought which is only a pledge. "We
+priests," replies the ecclesiastic, "must perforce lend moneys for
+dues, since thereby we get our living"; to which, after sundry
+ejaculations of surprise, the peasant retorts: "Who gave to you the
+power? I well hear ye have another God than we poor people. We have
+our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath forbidden such money-lending for
+gain." Hence it comes, he goes on, that land is no longer free; to
+attempt to whitewash usury under the name of due or interest, he says,
+is just the same as if one were to call a child christened Friedrich
+or Hansel, Fritz or Hans, and then maintain it was no longer the same
+child. They require no more Jews, he says, since the Christians have
+taken their business in hand. The townsman is once more about to turn
+the peasant out of his house when a monk enters. He then lays the
+matter before the new-comer, who promises to talk the peasant over
+with soft words; for, says he, there is nothing accomplished with
+vainglory. He thereupon takes him aside and explains it to him by the
+illustration of a merchant whose gain on the wares he sells is not
+called usury, and argues that therefore other forms of gain in
+business should not be described by this odious name. But the peasant
+will have none of this comparison; for the merchant, he says, needs
+to incur much risk in order to gain and traffic with his wares; while
+money-lending on security is, on the other hand, without risk or
+labour, and is a treacherous mode of cheating. Finding that they can
+make nothing of the obstinate countryman, the others leave him; but
+he, as a parting shot, exclaims: "Ah, well-a-day! I would to have
+talked with thee at first, but it is now ended. Farewell, gracious
+sir, and my other kind sirs. I, poor little peasant, I go my way.
+Farewell, farewell, due remains usury for ever more. Yea, yea! due,
+indeed!"
+
+The above specimens of the popular writing of the time must suffice.
+But for the reader who wishes to further study this literature we give
+the titles, which sufficiently indicate their contents, of a selection
+of other similar pamphlets and broadsheets: "A New Epistle from the
+Evil Clergy sent to their righteous Lord, with an answer from their
+Lord. Most merry to read" (1521). "A Great Prize which the Prince of
+Hell, hight Lucifer, now offereth to the Clergy, to the Pope, Bishops,
+Cardinals, and their like" (1521). "A Written Call, made by the Prince
+of Hell to his dear devoted, of all and every condition in his
+kingdom" (1521). "Dialogue or Converse of the Apostolicum, Angelica,
+and other spices of the Druggist, anent Dr. Martin Luther and his
+disciples" (1521). "A Very Pleasant Dialogue and Remonstrance from the
+Sheriff of Gaissdorf and his pupil against the pastor of the same and
+his assistant" (1521). The popularity of "Karsthans," an anonymous
+tract, amongst the people is illustrated by the publication and wide
+distribution of a new "Karsthans" a few months later, in which it is
+sought to show that the knighthood should make common cause with the
+peasants, the _dramatis personæ_ being Karsthans and Franz von
+Sickingen. Referring to the same subject we find a "Dialogue which
+Franciscus von Sickingen held fore heaven's gate with St. Peter and
+the Knights of St. George before he was let in." This was published in
+1523, almost immediately after the death of Sickingen. "A Talk between
+a Nobleman, a Monk, and a Courtier" (1523). "A Talk between a Fox and
+a Wolf" (1523). "A Pleasant Dialogue between Dr. Martin Luther and the
+cunning Messenger from Hell" (1523). "A Conversation of the Pope with
+his Cardinals of how it goeth with him, and how he may destroy the
+Word of God. Let every man very well note" (1523). "A Christian and
+Merry Talk, that it is more pleasing to God and more wholesome for men
+to come out of the monasteries and to marry, than to tarry therein
+and to burn; which talk is not with human folly and the false
+teachings thereof, but is founded alone in the holy, divine, biblical,
+and evangelical Scripture" (1524). "A Pleasant Dialogue of a Peasant
+with a Monk that he should cast his Cowl from him. Merry and fair to
+read" (1525).
+
+The above is only a selection taken haphazard from the mass of
+fugitive literature which the early years of the Reformation brought
+forth. In spite of a certain rough but not unattractive directness of
+diction, a prolonged reading of them is very tedious, as will have
+been sufficiently seen from the extracts we have given. Their humour
+is of a particularly juvenile and obvious character, and consists
+almost entirely in the childish device of clothing the personages with
+ridiculous but non-essential attributes, or in placing them in
+grotesque but pointless situations. Of the more subtle humour, which
+consists in the discovery of real but hidden incongruities, and the
+perception of what is innately absurd, there is no trace. The obvious
+abuses of the time are satirized in this way _ad nauseam_. The
+rapacity of the clergy in general, the idleness and lasciviousness of
+the monks, the pomp and luxury of the prince-prelates, the
+inconsistencies of Church traditions and practices with Scripture,
+with which they could now be compared, since it was everywhere
+circulated in the vulgar tongue, form their never-ending theme. They
+reveal to the reader a state of things that strikes one none the less
+in English literature of the period--the intense interest of all
+classes in theological matters. It shows us how they looked at all
+things through a theological lens. Although we have left this phase of
+popular thought so recently behind us, we can even now scarcely
+imagine ourselves back into it. The idea of ordinary men, or of the
+vast majority, holding their religion as anything else than a very
+pious opinion absolutely unconnected with their daily life, public or
+private, has already become almost inconceivable to us. In all the
+writings of the time, the theological interest is in the forefront.
+The economic and social groundwork only casually reveals itself. This
+it is that makes the reading of the sixteenth-century polemics so
+insufferably jejune and dreary. They bring before us the ghosts of
+controversies in which most men have ceased to take any part, albeit
+they have not been dead and forgotten long enough to have acquired a
+revived antiquarian interest.
+
+The great bombshell which Luther cast forth on June 24, 1520, in his
+address to the German nobility,[11] indeed, contains strong appeals to
+the economical and political necessities of Germany, and therein we
+see the veil torn from the half-unconscious motives that lay behind
+the theological mask; but, as already said, in the popular literature,
+with a few exceptions, the theological controversy rules undisputed.
+
+The noticeable feature of all this irruption of the _cacoethes
+scribendi_ was the direct appeal to the Bible for the settlement not
+only of strictly theological controversies but of points of social and
+political ethics also. This practice, which even to the modern
+Protestant seems insipid and played out after three centuries and a
+half of wear, had at that time the to us inconceivable charm of
+novelty; and the perusal of the literature and controversies of the
+time shows that men used it with all the delight of a child with a new
+toy, and seemed never tired of the game of searching out texts to
+justify their position. The diffusion of the whole Bible in the
+vernacular, itself a consequence of the rebellion against priestly
+tradition and the authority of the Fathers, intensified the revolt by
+making the pastime possible to all ranks of society.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] See Appendix C.
+
+[10] We use the word "due" here for the German word _Gült_. The
+corresponding English of the time does not make any distinction between
+_Gült_ or interest, and _Wucher_ or usury.
+
+[11] _An der Christlichen Adel deutscher Nation._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FOLKLORE OF REFORMATION GERMANY
+
+
+Now in the hands of all men, the Bible was not made the basis of
+doctrinal opinions alone. It lent its support to many of the popular
+superstitions of the time, and in addition it served as the
+starting-point for new superstitions and for new developments of the
+older ones. The Pan-dæmonism of the New Testament, with its
+wonder-workings by devilish agencies, its exorcisms of evil spirits
+and the like, could not fail to have a deep effect on the popular
+mind. The authority that the book believed to be divinely inspired
+necessarily lent to such beliefs gave a vividness to the popular
+conception of the devil and his angels, which is apparent throughout
+the whole movement of the Reformation, and not least in the utterances
+of the great Luther himself. Indeed, with the Reformation there comes
+a complete change over the popular conception of the devil and
+diabolical influences.
+
+It is true that the judicial pursuit of witches and witchcraft, in
+the earlier Middle Ages only a sporadic incident, received a great
+impulse from the Bull of Pope Innocent VIII (Dec. 5, 1484), entitled
+_Summis Desideruntes_, to which has been given the title of _Malleus
+Maleficorum_, or _The Hammer of Sorcerers_, directed against the
+practice of witchcraft; but it was especially amongst the men of the
+New Spirit that the belief in the prevalence of compacts with the
+devil, and the necessity for suppressing them, took root, and led to
+the horrible persecutions that distinguished the "Reformed" Churches
+on the whole even more than the Catholic.
+
+Luther himself had a vivid belief, tinging all his views and actions,
+in the ubiquity of the devil and his myrmidons. "The devils," says he,
+"are near us, and do cunningly contrive every moment without ceasing
+against our life, our salvation, and our blessedness.... In woods,
+waters, and wastes, and in damp, marshy places, there are many devils
+that seek to harm men. In the black and thick clouds, too, there are
+some that make storms, hail, lightning, and thunder, that poison the
+air and the pastures. When such things happen, the philosophers and
+the physicians ascribe them to the stars, and show I know not what
+causes for such misfortunes and plagues." Luther relates numerous
+instances of personal encounters that he himself had had with the
+devil. A nobleman invited him, with other learned men from the
+University of Wittenberg, to take part in a hare hunt. A large, fine
+hare and a fox crossed the path. The nobleman, mounted on a strong,
+healthy steed, dashed after them, when, suddenly, his horse fell dead
+beneath him, and the fox and the hare flew up in the air and vanished.
+"For," says Luther, "they were devilish spectres."
+
+Again, on another occasion, he was at Eisleben on the occasion of
+another hare-hunt, when the nobleman succeeded in killing eight hares,
+which were, on their return home, duly hung up for the next day's
+meal. On the following morning, horses' heads were found in their
+place. "In mines," says Luther, "the devil oftentimes deceives men
+with a false appearance of gold." All disease and all misfortune were
+the direct work of the devil; God, who was all good, could not produce
+either. Luther gives a long history of how he was called to a parish
+priest, who complained of the devil's having created a disturbance in
+his house by throwing the pots and pans about, and so forth, and of
+how he advised the priest to exorcise the fiend by invoking his own
+authority as a pastor of the Church.
+
+At the Wartburg, Luther complained of having been very much troubled
+by the Satanic arts. When he was at work upon his translation of the
+Bible, or upon his sermons, or engaged in his devotions, the devil was
+always making disturbances on the stairs or in the room. One day,
+after a hard spell of study, he lay down to sleep in his bed, when the
+devil began pelting him with hazel-nuts, a sack of which had been
+brought to him a few hours before by an attendant. He invoked,
+however, the name of Christ, and lay down again in bed. There were
+other more curious and more doubtful recipes for driving away Satan
+and his emissaries. Luther is never tired of urging that contemptuous
+treatment and rude chaff are among the most efficacious methods.
+
+There was, he relates, a poor soothsayer, to whom the devil came in
+visible form, and offered great wealth provided that he would deny
+Christ and never more do penance. The devil provided him with a
+crystal, by which he could foretell events, and thus become rich. This
+he did; but Nemesis awaited him, for the devil deceived him one day,
+and caused him to denounce certain innocent persons as thieves. In
+consequence, he was thrown into prison, where he revealed the compact
+that he had made, and called for a confessor. The two chief forms in
+which the devil appeared were, according to Luther, those of a snake
+and a sheep. He further goes into the question of the population of
+devils in different countries. On the top of the Pilatus at Luzern, he
+says, is a black pond, which is one of the devil's favourite abodes.
+In Luther's own country there is also a high mountain, the
+Poltersberg, with a similar pond. When a stone is thrown into this
+pond, a great tempest arises, which often devastates the whole
+neighbourhood. He also alleges Prussia to be full of evil spirits
+(!!).
+
+Devilish changelings, Luther said, were often placed by Satan in the
+cradles of human children. "Some maids he often plunges into the
+water, and keeps them with him until they have borne a child." These
+children are placed in the beds of mortals, and the true children are
+taken out and hurried away. "But," he adds, "such changelings are said
+not to live more than to the eighteenth or nineteenth year." As a
+practical application of this, it may be mentioned that Luther advised
+the drowning of a certain child of twelve years old, on the ground of
+its being a devil's changeling. Somnambulism is, with Luther, the
+result of diabolical agency. "Formerly," says he, "the Papists, being
+superstitious people, alleged that persons thus afflicted had not been
+properly baptized, or had been baptized by a drunken priest." The
+irony of the reference to superstition, considering the "great
+reformer's" own position, will not be lost upon the reader.
+
+Thus, not only is the devil the cause of pestilence, but he is also
+the immediate agent of nightmare and of nightsweats. At Mölburg in
+Thüringen, near Erfurt, a piper, who was accustomed to pipe at
+weddings, complained to his priest that the devil had threatened to
+carry him away and destroy him, on the ground of a practical joke
+played upon some companions, to wit, for having mixed horse-dung with
+their wine at a drinking bout. The priest consoled him with many
+passages of Scripture anent the devil and his ways, with the result
+that the piper expressed himself satisfied as regarded the welfare of
+his soul, but apprehensive as regarded that of his body, which was, he
+asserted, hopelessly the prey of the devil. In consequence of this, he
+insisted on partaking of the Sacrament. The devil had indicated to him
+when he was going to be fetched, and watchers were accordingly placed
+in his room, who sat in their armour and with their weapons, and read
+the Bible to him. Finally, one Saturday at midnight, a violent storm
+arose, that blew out the lights in the room, and hurled the luckless
+victim out of a narrow window into the street. The sound of fighting
+and of armed men was heard, but the piper had disappeared. The next
+morning he was found in a neighbouring ditch, with his arms stretched
+out in the form of a cross, dead and coal-black. Luther vouches for
+the truth of this story, which he alleges to have been told him by a
+parish priest of Gotha, who had himself heard it from the parish
+priest of Mölburg, where the event was said to have taken place.
+
+Amongst the numerous anecdotes of a supernatural character told by
+"Dr. Martin" is one of a "Poltergeist," or "Robin Goodfellow," who was
+exorcised by two monks from the guest-chamber of an inn, and who
+offered his services to them in the monastery. They gave him a corner
+in the kitchen. The serving-boy used to torment him by throwing dirty
+water over him. After unavailing protests, the spirit hung the boy up
+to a beam, but let him down again before serious harm resulted. Luther
+states that this "brownie" was well known by sight in the neighbouring
+town (the name of which he does not give). But by far the larger
+number of his stories, which, be it observed, are warranted as
+ordinary occurrences, as to the possibility of which there was no
+question, are coloured by that more sinister side of supernaturalism
+so much emphasised by the new theology.
+
+The mediæval devil was, for the most part, himself little more than a
+prankish Rübezahl, or Robin Goodfellow; the new Satan of the
+Reformers was, in very deed, an arch-fiend, the enemy of the human
+race, with whom no truce or parley might be held. The old folklore
+belief in _incubi_ and _succubi_ as the parents of changelings is
+brought into connection with the theory of direct diabolic begettal.
+Thus Luther relates how Friedrich, the Elector of Saxony, told him of
+a noble family that had sprung from a _succubus_: "Just," says he, "as
+the Melusina at Luxembourg was also such a _succubus_, or devil." In
+the case referred to, the _succubus_ assumed the shape of the man's
+dead wife, and lived with him and bore him children, until, one day,
+he swore at her, when she vanished, leaving only her clothes behind.
+After giving it as his opinion that all such beings and their
+offspring are wiles of the devil, he proceeds: "It is truly a grievous
+thing that the devil can so plague men that he begetteth children in
+their likeness. It is even so with the nixies in the water, that lure
+a man therein, in the shape of wife or maid, with whom he doth dally
+and begetteth offspring of them." The change whereby the beings of the
+old naïve folklore are transformed into the devil or his agents is
+significant of that darker side of the new theology, which was
+destined to issue in those horrors of the witchcraft-mania that
+reached their height at the beginning of the following century.
+
+One more story of a "changeling" before we leave the subject. Luther
+gives us the following as having come to his knowledge near
+Halberstadt, in Saxony. A peasant had a baby, who sucked out its
+mother and five nurses, besides eating a great deal. Concluding that
+it was a changeling, the peasant sought the advice of his neighbours,
+who suggested that he should take it on a pilgrimage to a neighbouring
+shrine of the Mother of God. While he was crossing a brook on the way
+an impish voice from under the water called out to the infant, whom he
+was carrying in a basket. The brat answered from within the basket,
+"Ho, ho!" and the peasant was unspeakably shocked. When the voice from
+the water proceeded to ask the child what it was after, and received
+the answer from the hitherto inarticulate babe that it was going to be
+laid on the shrine of the Mother of God, to the end that it might
+prosper, the peasant could stand it no longer, and flung basket and
+baby into the brook. The changeling and the little devil played for a
+few moments with each other, rolling over and over, and crying, "Ho,
+ho, ho!" and then they disappeared together. Luther says that these
+devilish brats may be generally known by their eating and drinking too
+much, and especially by their exhausting their mother's milk, but they
+may not develop any certain signs of their true parentage until
+eighteen or nineteen years old. The Princess of Anhalt had a child
+which Luther imagined to be a changeling, and he therefore advised its
+being drowned, alleging that such creatures were only lumps of flesh
+animated by the devil or his angels. Some one spoke of a monster which
+infested the Netherlands, and which went about smelling at people like
+a dog, and whoever it smelt died. But those that were smelt did not
+see it, albeit the bystanders did. The people had recourse to vigils
+and masses. Luther improved the occasion to protest against the
+"superstition" of masses for the dead, and to insist upon his
+favourite dogma of faith as the true defence against assaults of the
+devil.
+
+Among the numerous stories of Satanic compacts, we are told of a monk
+who ate up a load of hay, of a debtor who bit off the leg of his
+Hebrew creditor and ran off to avoid payment, and of a woman who
+bewitched her husband so that he vomited lizards. Luther observes,
+with especial reference to this last case, that lawyers and judges
+were far too pedantic with their witnesses and with their evidence;
+that the devil hardens his clients against torture, and that the
+refusal to confess under torture ought to be of itself sufficient
+proof of dealings with the Prince of Darkness. "Towards such," says
+he, "we would show no mercy; I would burn them myself." Black magic or
+witchcraft he proceeds to characterize as the greatest sin a human
+being can be guilty of, as, in fact, high treason against God
+Himself--_crimen læsæ majestatis divinæ_.
+
+The conversation closes with a story of how Maximilian's father, the
+Emperor Friedrich, who seems to have obtained a reputation for magic
+arts, invited a well-known magician to a banquet, and on his arrival
+fixed claws on his hands and hoofs on his feet by his cunning. His
+guest, being ashamed, tried to hide the claws under the table as long
+as he could, but finally he had to show them, to his great
+discomfiture. But he determined to have his revenge, and asked his
+host whether he would permit him to give proofs of his own skill. The
+Emperor assenting, there at once arose a great noise outside the
+window. Friedrich sprang up from the table, and leaned out of the
+casement to see what was the matter. Immediately an enormous pair of
+stag's horns appeared on his head, so that he could not draw it back.
+Finding the state of the case, the Emperor exclaimed: "Rid me of them
+again! Thou hast won!" Luther's comment on this was that he was always
+glad to see one devil getting the better of another, as it showed
+that some were stronger than others.
+
+All this belongs, roughly speaking, to the side of the matter which
+regards popular theology; but there is another side which is connected
+more especially with the New Learning. This other school, which sought
+to bring the somewhat elastic elements of the magical theory of the
+universe into the semblance of a systematic whole, is associated with
+such names as those of Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, and the Abbot
+von Trittenheim. The fame of the first-named was so great throughout
+Germany that when he visited any town the occasion was looked upon as
+an event of exceeding importance.[12] Paracelsus fully shared in the
+beliefs of his age, in spite of his brilliant insights on certain
+occasions. What his science was like may be imagined when we learn
+that he seriously speaks of animals who conceive through the mouth of
+basilisks whose glance is deadly, of petrified storks changed into
+snakes, of the stillborn young of the lion which are afterwards
+brought to life by the roar of their sire, of frogs falling in a
+shower of rain, of ducks transformed into frogs, and of men born from
+beasts; the menstruation of women he regarded as a venom whence
+proceeded flies, spiders, earwigs, and all sorts of loathsome vermin;
+night was caused, not by the absence of the sun, but by the presence
+of the stars, which were the positive cause of the darkness. He
+relates having seen a magnet capable of attracting the eyeball from
+its socket as far as the tip of the nose; he knows of salves to close
+the mouth so effectually that it has to be broken open again by
+mechanical means, and he writes learnedly on the infallible signs of
+witchcraft. By mixing horse-dung with human semen he believed he was
+able to produce a medium from which, by chemical treatment in a
+retort, a diminutive human being, or _homunculus_, as he called it,
+could be produced. The spirits of the elements, the sylphs of the air,
+the gnomes of the earth, the salamanders of the fire, and the undines
+of the water, were to him real and undoubted existences in Nature.
+
+Strange as all these beliefs seem to us now, they were a very real
+factor in the intellectual conceptions of the Renaissance period, no
+less than of the Middle Ages, and amidst them there is to be found at
+times a foreshadowing of more modern knowledge. Many other persons
+were also more or less associated with the magical school, amongst
+them Franz von Sickingen. Reuchlin himself, by his Hebrew studies, and
+especially by his introduction of the Kabbala to Gentile readers,
+also contributed a not unimportant influence in determining the course
+of the movement. The line between the so-called black magic, or
+operations conducted through the direct agency of evil spirits, and
+white magic, which sought to subject Nature to the human will by the
+discovery of her mystical and secret laws, or the character of the
+quasi-personified intelligent principles under whose form Nature
+presented herself to their minds, had never throughout the Middle Ages
+been very clearly defined. The one always had a tendency to shade off
+into the other, so that even Roger Bacon's practices were, although
+not condemned, at least looked upon somewhat doubtfully by the Church.
+At the time of which we treat, however, the interest in such matters
+had become universal amongst all intelligent persons. The scientific
+imagination at the close of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance
+period was mainly occupied with three questions: the discovery of the
+means of transmuting the baser metals into gold, or otherwise of
+producing that object of universal desire; to discover the Elixir
+Vitæ, by which was generally understood the invention of a drug which
+would have the effect of curing all diseases, restoring man to
+perennial youth, and, in short, prolonging human life indefinitely;
+and, finally, the search for the Philosopher's Stone, the happy
+possessor of which would not only be able to achieve the first two,
+but also, since it was supposed to contain the quintessence of all the
+metals, and therefore of all the planetary influences to which the
+metals corresponded, would have at his command all the forces which
+mould the destinies of men. In especial connection with the latter
+object of research may be noted the universal interest in astrology,
+whose practitioners were to be found at every Court, from that of the
+Emperor himself to that of the most insignificant prince or princelet,
+and whose advice was sought and carefully heeded on all important
+occasions. Alchemy and astrology were thus the recognized physical
+sciences of the age, under the auspices of which a Copernicus and a
+Tycho Brahe were born and educated.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] Cf. Sebastian Franck, _Chronica_, for an account of a visit of
+Paracelsus to Nürnberg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TOWN
+
+
+From what has been said the reader may form for himself an idea of the
+intellectual and social life of the German town of the period. The
+wealthy patrician class, whose mainstay politically was the _Rath_,
+gave the social tone to the whole. In spite of the sharp and sometimes
+brutal fashion in which class distinctions asserted themselves then,
+as throughout the Middle Ages, there was none of that aloofness
+between class and class which characterizes the bourgeois society of
+the present day. Each town, were it great or small, was a little world
+in itself, so that every citizen knew every other citizen more or
+less. The schools attached to its ecclesiastical institutions were
+practically free of access to all the children whose parents could
+find the means to maintain them during their studies; and consequently
+the intellectual differences between the different classes were by no
+means necessarily proportionate to the difference in social position.
+So far as culture and material prosperity were concerned, the towns
+of Bavaria and Franconia, Munich, Augsburg, Regensburg, and perhaps,
+above all, Nürnberg, represented the high-water mark of mediæval
+civilization as regards town life. On entering the burg, should it
+have happened to be in time of peace and in daylight, the stranger
+would clear the drawbridge and the portcullis without much challenge;
+passing along streets lined with the houses and shops of the burghers,
+in whose open frontages the master and his apprentices and _gesellen_
+plied their trades, discussing eagerly over their work the politics of
+the town, and at this period probably the theological questions which
+were uppermost in men's minds, our visitor would make his way to some
+hostelry, in whose courtyard he would dismount from his horse, and,
+entering the common room, or _Stube_, with its rough but artistic
+furniture of carved oak, partake of his flagon of wine or beer,
+according to the district in which he was travelling, whilst the host
+cracked a rough and possibly coarse jest with the other guests, or
+narrated to them the latest gossip of the city. The stranger would
+probably find himself before long the object of interrogatories
+respecting his native place and the object of his journey (although
+his dress would doubtless have given general evidence of this),
+whether he were a merchant or a travelling scholar or a practiser of
+medicine; for into one of those categories it might be presumed the
+humble but not servile traveller would fall. Were he on a diplomatic
+mission from some potentate he would be travelling at the least as a
+knight or a noble, with spurs and armour, and, moreover, would be
+little likely to lodge in a public house of entertainment.
+
+In the _Stube_ he would probably see, drinking heavily,
+representatives of the ubiquitous _Landsknechte_, the mercenary troops
+enrolled for Imperial purposes by the Emperor Maximilian towards the
+end of the previous century, who in the intervals of war were
+disbanded and wandered about spending their pay, and thus constituted
+an excessively disintegrative element in the life of the time. A
+contemporary writer[13] describes them as the curse of Germany, and
+stigmatizes them as "unchristian, God-forsaken folk, whose hand is
+ever ready in striking, stabbing, robbing, burning, slaying, gaming,
+who delight in wine-bibbing, whoring, blaspheming, and in the making
+of widows and orphans."
+
+Presently, perhaps, a noise without indicates the arrival of a new
+guest. All hurry forth into the courtyard, and their curiosity is
+more keenly whetted when they perceive by the yellow knitted scarf
+round the neck of the new-comer that he is an _itinerans
+scholasticus_, or travelling scholar, who brings with him not only the
+possibility of news from the outer world, so important in an age when
+journals were non-existent and communications irregular and deficient,
+but also a chance of beholding wonder-workings, as well as of being
+cured of the ailments which local skill had treated in vain. Already
+surrounded by a crowd of admirers waiting for the words of wisdom to
+fall from his lips, he would start on that exordium which bore no
+little resemblance to the patter of the modern quack, albeit
+interlarded with many a Latin quotation and great display of mediæval
+learning. "Good people and worthy citizens of this town," he might
+say, "behold in me the great master ... prince of necromancers,
+astrologer, second mage, chiromancer, agromancer, pyromancer,
+hydromancer. My learning is so profound that were all the works of
+Plato and Aristotle lost to the world I could from memory restore them
+with more elegance than before. The miracles of Christ were not so
+great as those which I can perform wherever and as often as I will. Of
+all alchemists I am the first, and my powers are such that I can
+obtain all things that man desires. My shoe-buckles contain more
+learning than the heads of Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more
+experience than all your high schools. I am monarch of all learning. I
+can heal you of all diseases. By my secret arts I can procure you
+wealth. I am the philosopher of philosophers. I can provide you with
+spells to bind the most potent of the devils in hell. I can cast your
+nativities and foretell all that shall befall you, since I have that
+which can unlock the secrets of all things that have been, that are,
+and that are to come."[14] Bringing forth strange-looking phials,
+covered with cabalistic signs, a crystal globe and an astro-labe,
+followed by an imposing scroll of parchment inscribed with mysterious
+Hebraic-looking characters, the travelling student would probably
+drive a roaring trade amongst the assembled townsmen in love-philtres,
+cures for the ague and the plague, and amulets against them,
+horoscopes, predictions of fate, and the rest of his stock-in-trade.
+
+As evening approaches, our traveller strolls forth into the streets
+and narrow lanes of the town, lined with overhanging gables that
+almost meet overhead and shut out the light of the afternoon sun, so
+that twilight seems already to have fallen. Observing that the
+burghers, with their wives and children, the work of the day being
+done, are all wending toward the western gate, he goes along with the
+stream till, passing underneath the heavy portcullis and through the
+outer rampart, he finds himself in the plain outside, across which a
+rugged bridle-path leads to a large quadrangular meadow, rough and
+more or less worn, where a considerable crowd has already assembled.
+This is the _Allerwiese_, or public pleasure-ground of the town. Here
+there are not only high festivities on Sundays and holidays, but every
+fine evening in summer numbers of citizens gather together to watch
+the apprentices exercising their strength in athletic feats, and
+competing with one another in various sports, such as running,
+wrestling, spear-throwing, sword-play, and the like, wherein the
+inferior rank sought to imitate and even emulate the knighthood,
+whilst the daughters of the city watched their progress with keen
+interest and applauding laughter. As the shadows deepen and darkness
+falls upon the plain, our visitor joins the groups which are now fast
+leaving the meadow, and re-passes the great embrasure just as the
+rushlights begin to twinkle in the windows and a swinging oil-lamp to
+cast a dim light here and there in the streets. But as his company
+passes out of a narrow lane debouching on to the chief market-place,
+their progress is stopped by the sudden rush of a mingled crowd of
+unruly apprentices and journeymen returning from their sports, with
+hot heads well beliquored. Then from another side-street there is a
+sudden flare of torches, borne aloft by guildsmen come out to quell
+the tumult and to send off the apprentices to their dwellings, whilst
+the watch also bears down and carries off some of the more turbulent
+of the journeymen to pass the night in one of the towers which guard
+the city wall. At last, however, the visitor reaches his inn by the
+aid of a friendly guildsman and his torch; and retiring to his
+chamber, with its straw-covered floor, rough oaken bedstead, hard
+mattress, and coverings not much better than horse-cloths, he falls
+asleep as the bell of the minster tolls out ten o'clock over the now
+dark and silent city.
+
+Such approximately would have been the view of a German city in the
+sixteenth century as presented to a traveller in a time of peace. More
+stirring times, however, were as frequent--times when the tocsin rang
+out from the steeple all night long, calling the citizens to arms. By
+such scenes, needless to say, the year of the Peasants' War was more
+than usually characterized. In the days when every man carried arms
+and knew how to use them, when the fighting instinct was imbibed with
+the mother's milk, when every week saw some street brawl, often
+attended by loss of life, and that by no means always among the most
+worthless and dissolute of the inhabitants, every dissatisfaction
+immediately turned itself into an armed revolt, whether it were of the
+apprentices or the journeymen against the guild-masters, the body of
+the townsmen against the patriciate, the town itself against its
+feudal superior, where it had one, or of the knighthood against the
+princes. The extremity to which disputes can at present be carried
+without resulting in a breach of the peace, as evinced in modern
+political and trade conflicts, exacerbated though some of them are,
+was a thing unknown in the Middle Ages, and indeed to any considerable
+extent until comparatively recent times. The sacred right of
+insurrection was then a recognized fact of life, and but very little
+straining of a dispute led to a resort to arms. In the subsequent
+chapters we have to deal with the more important of those outbursts to
+which the ferment due to the dissolution of the mediæval system of
+things, then beginning throughout Central Europe, gave rise, of which
+the religious side is represented by what is known as the Reformation.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] Sebastian Franck, _Chronica_, ccxvii.
+
+[14] Cf. Trittheim's letter to Wirdung of Hasfurt regarding Faust. _J.
+Tritthemii Epistolarum Familiarum_, 1536, bk. ii. ep. 47; also the works
+of Paracelsus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+COUNTRY AND TOWN AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+
+For the complete understanding of the events which follow it must be
+borne in mind that the early sixteenth century represents the end of a
+distinct historical period; and, as we have pointed out in the
+Introduction, the expiring effort, half-conscious and half-unconscious,
+of the people to revert to the conditions of an earlier age. Nor can the
+significance be properly gauged unless a clear conception is obtained of
+the differences between country and town life at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century. From the earliest periods of the Middle Ages of which
+we have any historical record, the _Markgenossenschaft_, or primitive
+village community of the Germanic race, was overlaid by a territorial
+domination, imposed upon it either directly by conquest or voluntarily
+accepted for the sake of the protection indispensable in that rude
+period. The conflict of these two elements, the mark organization and
+the territorial lordship, constitutes the marrow of the social history
+of the Middle Ages.
+
+In the earliest times the pressure of the overlord, whoever he might
+be, seems to have been comparatively slight, but its inevitable
+tendency was for the territorial power to extend itself at the expense
+of the rural community. It was thus that in the tenth and eleventh
+centuries the feudal oppression had become thoroughly settled, and had
+reached its greatest intensity all over Europe. It continued thus with
+little intermission until the thirteenth century, when from various
+causes, economic and otherwise, matters began to improve in the
+interests of the common man, till in the fifteenth century the
+condition of the peasant was better than it has ever been, either
+before or since within historical times, in Northern and Western
+Europe. But with all this, the oppressive power of the lord of the
+soil was by no means dead. It was merely dormant, and was destined to
+spring into renewed activity the moment the lord's necessities
+supplied a sufficient incentive. From this time forward the element of
+territorial power, supported in its claims by the Roman law, with its
+basis of private property, continued to eat into it until it had
+finally devoured the old rights and possessions of the village
+community. The executive power always tended to be transferred from
+its legitimate holder, the village in its corporate capacity, to the
+lord; and this was alone sufficient to place the villager at his
+mercy.
+
+At the time of the Reformation, owing to the new conditions which had
+arisen and had brought about in a few decades the hitherto
+unparalleled rise in prices, combined with the unprecedented
+ostentation and extravagance more than once referred to in these
+pages, the lord was supplied with the requisite incentive to the
+exercise of the power which his feudal system gave him. Consequently,
+the position of the peasant rapidly changed for the worse; and
+although at the outbreak of the movement not absolutely _in extremis_,
+according to our notions, yet it was so bad comparatively to his
+previous condition and that less than half a century before, and
+tended as evidently to become more intolerable, that discontent became
+everywhere rife, and only awaited the torch of the new doctrines to
+set it ablaze. The whole course of the movement shows a peasantry, not
+downtrodden and starved but proud and robust, driven to take up arms
+not so much by misery and despair as by the deliberate will to
+maintain the advantages which were rapidly slipping away from them.
+
+Serfdom was not by any means universal. Many free peasant villages
+were to be found scattered amongst the manors of the territorial
+lords, though it was but too evidently the settled policy of the
+latter at this time to sweep everything into their net, and to compel
+such peasant communes to accept a feudal overlordship. Nor were they
+at all scrupulous in the means adopted for attaining their ends. The
+ecclesiastical foundations, as before said, were especially expert in
+forging documents for the purpose of proving that these free villages
+were lapsed feudatories of their own. Old rights of pasture were being
+curtailed, and others, notably those of hunting and fishing, had in
+most manors been completely filched away.
+
+It is noticeable, however, that although the immediate causes of the
+peasant rising were the new burdens which had been laid upon the
+common people during the last few years, once the spirit of discontent
+was aroused it extended also in many cases to the traditional feudal
+dues to which, until then, the peasant had submitted with little
+murmuring, and an attempt was made by the country-side to reconquer
+the ancient complete freedom of which a dim remembrance had been
+handed down to them.
+
+The condition of the peasant up to the beginning of the sixteenth
+century--that is to say, up to the time when it began to so rapidly
+change for the worse--may be gathered from what we are told by
+contemporary writers, such as Wimpfeling, Sebastian Brandt,
+Wittenweiler, the satires in the _Nürnberger Fastnachtspielen_, and
+numberless other sources, as also from the sumptuary laws of the end
+of the fifteenth century. All these indicate an ease and profuseness
+of living which little accord with our notions of the word "peasant".
+Wimpfeling writes: "The peasants in our district and in many parts of
+Germany have become, through their riches, stiff-necked and
+ease-loving. I know peasants who at the weddings of their sons or
+daughters, or the baptism of their children, make so much display that
+a house and field might be bought therewith, and a small vineyard to
+boot. Through their riches, they are oftentimes spendthrift in food
+and in vestments, and they drink wines of price."
+
+A chronicler relates of the Austrian peasants, under the date of 1478,
+that "they wore better garments and drank better wine than their
+lords"; and a sumptuary law passed at the Reichstag held at Lindau, in
+1497, provides that the common peasant man and the labourer in the
+towns or in the field "shall neither make nor wear cloth that costs
+more than half a gulden the ell, neither shall they wear gold,
+pearls, velvet, silk, nor embroidered clothes, nor shall they permit
+their wives or their children to wear such."
+
+Respecting the food of the peasant, it is stated that he ate his full
+in flesh of every kind, in fish, in bread, in fruit, drinking wine
+often to excess. The Swabian, Heinrich Müller, writes in the year
+1550, nearly two generations after the change had begun to take place:
+"In the memory of my father, who was a peasant man, the peasant did
+eat much better than now. Meat and food in plenty was there every day,
+and at fairs and other junketings the tables did wellnigh break with
+what they bore. Then drank they wine as it were water, then did a man
+fill his belly and carry away withal as much as he could; then was
+wealth and plenty. Otherwise is it now. A costly and a bad time hath
+arisen since many a year, and the food and drink of the best peasant
+is much worse than of yore that of the day labourer and the serving
+man."
+
+We may well imagine the vivid recollections which a peasant in the
+year 1525 had of the golden days of a few years before. The day
+labourers and serving men were equally tantalized by the remembrance
+of high wages and cheap living at the beginning of the century. A day
+labourer could then earn, with his keep, nine, and without keep,
+sixteen groschen[15] a week. What this would buy may be judged from
+the following prices current in Saxony during the second half of the
+fifteenth century. A pair of good working-shoes cost three groschen; a
+whole sheep, four groschen; a good fat hen, half a groschen;
+twenty-five cod-fish, four groschen; a wagon-load of firewood,
+together with carriage, five groschen; an ell of the best homespun
+cloth, five groschen; a scheffel (about a bushel) of rye, six or seven
+groschen. The Duke of Saxony wore grey hats which cost him four
+groschen. In Northern Rhineland about the same time a day labourer
+could, in addition to his keep, earn in a week a quarter of rye, ten
+pounds of pork, six large cans of milk, and two bundles of firewood,
+and in the course of five weeks be able to buy six ells of linen, a
+pair of shoes, and a bag for his tools. In Augsburg the daily wages of
+an ordinary labourer represented the value of six pounds of the best
+meat, or one pound of meat, seven eggs, a peck of peas, about a quart
+of wine, in addition to such bread as he required, with enough over
+for lodging, clothing, and minor expenses. In Bavaria he could earn
+daily eighteen pfennige, or one and a half groschen, whilst a pound of
+sausage cost one pfennig, and a pound of the best beef two pfennige,
+and similarly throughout the whole of the States of Central Europe.
+
+A document of the year 1483, from Ehrbach in the Swabian Odenwald,
+describes for us the treatment of servants by their masters. "All
+journeymen," it declares, "that are hired, and likewise bondsmen
+(serfs), also the serving men and maids, shall each day be given twice
+meat and what thereto longith, with half a small measure of wine, save
+on fast days, when they shall have fish or other food that nourisheth.
+Whoso in the week hath toiled shall also on Sundays and feast days
+make merry after mass and preaching. They shall have bread and meat
+enough, and half a great measure of wine. On feast days also roasted
+meat enough. Moreover, they shall be given, to take home with them, a
+great loaf of bread and so much of flesh as two at one meal may eat."
+
+Again, in a bill of fare of the household of Count Joachim von
+Oettingen in Bavaria, the journeymen and villeins are accorded in the
+morning, soup and vegetables; at midday, soup and meat, with
+vegetables, and a bowl of broth or a plate of salted or pickled meat;
+at night, soup and meat, carrots, and preserved meat. Even the women
+who brought fowls or eggs from the neighbouring villages to the castle
+were given for their trouble--if from the immediate vicinity, a plate
+of soup with two pieces of bread; if from a greater distance, a
+complete meal and a cruse of wine. In Saxony, similarly, the
+agricultural journeymen received two meals a day, of four courses
+each, besides frequently cheese and bread at other times should they
+require it. Not to have eaten meat for a week was the sign of the
+direst famine in any district. Warnings are not wanting against the
+evils accruing to the common man from his excessive indulgence in
+eating and drinking.
+
+Such was the condition of the proletariat in its first inception, that
+is, when the mediæval system of villeinage had begun to loosen and to
+allow a proportion of free labourers to insinuate themselves into its
+working. How grievous, then, were the complaints when, while wages had
+risen either not at all or at most from half a groschen to a groschen,
+the price of rye rose from six or seven groschen a bushel to about
+five-and-twenty groschen, that of a sheep from four to eighteen
+groschen, and all other articles of necessary consumption in a like
+proportion![16]
+
+In the Middle Ages, necessaries and such ordinary comforts as were to
+be had at all were dirt cheap; while non-necessaries and luxuries,
+that is, such articles as had to be imported from afar, were for the
+most part at prohibitive prices. With the opening up of the
+world-market during the first half of the sixteenth century, this
+state of things rapidly changed. Most luxuries in a short time fell
+heavily in price, while necessaries rose in a still greater
+proportion.
+
+This latter change in the economic conditions of the world exercised
+its most powerful effect, however, on the character of the mediæval
+town, which had remained substantially unchanged since the first great
+expansion at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the
+fourteenth centuries. With the extension of commerce and the opening
+up of communications, there began that evolution of the town whose
+ultimate outcome was to entirely change the central idea on which the
+urban organization was based.
+
+The first requisite for a town, according to modern notions, is
+facility of communication with the rest of the world by means of
+railways, telegraphs, postal system, and the like. So far has this
+gone now that in a new country, for instance, America, the railway,
+telegraph lines, etc., are made first, and the towns are then strung
+upon them, like beads upon a cord. In the mediæval town, on the
+contrary, communication was quite a secondary matter, and more of a
+luxury than a necessity. Each town was really a self-sufficing entity,
+both materially and intellectually. The modern idea of a town is that
+of a mere local aggregate of individuals, each pursuing a trade or
+calling with a view to the world-market at large. Their own locality
+or town is no more to them economically than any other part of the
+world-market, and very little more in any other respect. The mediæval
+idea of a town, on the contrary, was that of an organization of groups
+into one organic whole. Just as the village community was a somewhat
+extended family organization, so was, _mutatis mutandis_, the larger
+unit, the township or city. Each member of the town organization owed
+allegiance and distinct duties primarily to his guild, or immediate
+social group, and through this to the larger social group which
+constituted the civic society. Consequently, every townsman felt a
+kind of _esprit de corps_ with his fellow-citizens, akin to that, say,
+which is alleged of the soldiers of the old French "foreign legion"
+who, being brothers-in-arms, were brothers also in all other
+relations. But if every citizen owed duty and allegiance to the town
+in its corporate capacity, the town no less owed protection and
+assistance, in every department of life, to its individual members.
+
+As in ancient Rome in its earlier history, and as in all other early
+urban communities, agriculture necessarily played a considerable part
+in the life of most mediæval towns. Like the villages, they possessed
+each its own mark, with its common fields, pastures, and woods. These
+were demarcated by various landmarks, crosses, holy images, etc.; and
+"the bounds" were beaten every year. The wealthier citizens usually
+possessed gardens and orchards within the town walls, while each
+inhabitant had his share in the communal holding without. The use of
+this latter was regulated by the Rath or Council. In fact, the town
+life of the Middle Ages was not by any means so sharply differentiated
+from rural life as is implied in our modern idea of a town. Even in
+the larger commercial towns, such as Frankfurt, Nürnberg, or Augsburg,
+it was common to keep cows, pigs, and sheep, and, as a matter of
+course, fowls and geese, in large numbers within the precincts of the
+town itself. In Frankfurt in 1481 the pigsties in the town had become
+such a nuisance that the Rath had to forbid them _in the front_ of the
+houses by a formal decree. In Ulm there was a regulation of the
+bakers' guild to the effect that no single member should keep more
+than twenty-four pigs, and that cows should be confined to their
+stalls at night. In Nürnberg in 1475 again, the Rath had to interfere
+with the intolerable nuisance of pigs and other farm-yard stock
+running about loose in the streets. Even in a town like München we are
+informed that agriculture formed one of the staple occupations of the
+inhabitants, while in almost every city the gardeners' or the
+wine-growers' guild appears as one of the largest and most
+influential.
+
+It is evident that such conditions of life would be impossible with
+town-populations even approaching only distantly those of to-day; and,
+in fact, when we come to inquire into the size and populousness of
+mediæval German cities, as into those of the classical world of
+antiquity, we are at first sight staggered by the smallness of their
+proportions. The largest and most populous free Imperial cities in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Nürnberg and Strassburg, numbered
+little more than 20,000 resident inhabitants within the walls, a
+population rather less than that of (say) many an English country town
+at the present time. Such an important place as Frankfurt-am-Main is
+stated at the middle of the fifteenth century to have had less than
+9,000 inhabitants. At the end of the fifteenth century Dresden could
+only boast of about 5,000. Rothenburg on the Tauber is to-day a dead
+city to all intents and purposes, affording us a magnificent example
+of what a mediæval town was like, as the bulk of its architecture,
+including the circuit of its walls, which remain intact, dates
+approximately from the sixteenth century. At present a single line of
+railway branching off from the main line with about two trains a day
+is amply sufficient to convey the few antiquaries and artists who are
+now its sole visitors, and who have to content themselves with
+country-inn accommodation. Yet this old free city has actually a
+larger population at the present day than it had at the time of which
+we are writing, when it was at the height of its prosperity as an
+important centre of activity. The figures of its population are now
+between 8,000 and 9,000. At the beginning of the sixteenth century
+they were between 6,000 and 7,000. A work written and circulated in
+manuscript during the first decade of the sixteenth century, "A
+Christian Exhortation" (_Ein Christliche Mahnung_), after referring to
+the frightful pestilences recently raging as a punishment from God,
+observes, in the spirit of true Malthusianism, and as a justification
+of the ways of Providence, that "an there were not so many that died
+there were too much folk in the land, and it were not good that such
+should be lest there were not food enough for all."
+
+Great population as constituting importance in a city is
+comparatively a modern notion. In other ages towns became famous on
+account of their superior civic organization, their more advantageous
+situation, or the greater activity, intellectual, political, or
+commercial, of their citizens.
+
+What this civic organization of mediæval towns was, demands a few
+words of explanation, since the conflict between the two main elements
+in their composition plays an important part in the events which
+follow. Something has already been said on this head in the
+Introduction. We have there pointed out that the Rath or Town Council,
+that is, the supreme governing body of the municipality, was in all
+cases mainly, and often entirely, composed of the heads of the town
+aristocracy, the patrician class or "honorability" (_Ehrbarkeit_), as
+they were termed, who on the ground of their antiquity and wealth laid
+claim to every post of power and privilege. On the other hand were the
+body of the citizens enrolled in the various guilds, seeking, as their
+position and wealth improved, to wrest the control of the town's
+resources from the patricians. It must be remembered that the towns
+stood in the position of feudal over-lords to the peasants who held
+land on the city territory, which often extended for many square miles
+outside the walls. A small town like Rothenburg, for instance, which
+we have described above, had on its lands as many as 15,000 peasants.
+The feudal dues and contributions of these tenants constituted the
+staple revenue of the town, and the management of them was one of the
+chief bones of contention.
+
+Nowhere was the guild system brought to a greater perfection than in
+the free Imperial towns of Germany. Indeed, it was carried further in
+them, in one respect, than in any other part of Europe, for the guilds
+of journeymen (_Cesellenverbände_), which in other places never
+attained any strength or importance, were in Germany developed to the
+fullest extent, and of course supported the craft-guilds in their
+conflict with the patriciate. Although there were naturally numerous
+frictions between the two classes of guilds respecting wages, working
+days, hours, and the like, it must not be supposed that there was that
+irreconcilable hostility between them which would exist at the present
+time between a trade-union and a syndicate of employers. Each
+recognized the right to existence of the other. In one case, that of
+the strike of bakers towards the close of the fifteenth century, at
+Colmar in Elsass, the craft-guilds supported the journeymen in their
+protest against a certain action of the patrician Rath, which they
+considered to be a derogation from their dignity.
+
+Like the masters, the journeymen had their own guild-house, and their
+own solemn functions and social gatherings. There were, indeed, two
+kinds of journeymen-guilds: one whose chief purpose was a religious one,
+and the other concerning itself in the first instance with the secular
+concerns of the body. However, both classes of journeymen-guilds worked
+into one another's hand. On coming into a strange town a travelling
+member of such a guild was certain of a friendly reception, of
+maintenance until he procured work, and of assistance in finding it as
+soon as possible.
+
+Interesting details concerning the wages paid to journeymen and their
+contributions to the guilds are to be found in the original documents
+relating exclusively to the journeymen-guilds, collected by Georg
+Schanz.[17] From these and other sources it is clear that the position
+of the artisan in the towns was in proportion much better than even that
+of the peasants at that time, and therefore immeasurably superior to
+anything he has enjoyed since. In South Germany at this period the
+average price of beef was about two denarii[18] a pound, while the
+daily wages of the masons and carpenters, in addition to their keep and
+lodging, amounted in the summer to about twenty, and in the winter to
+about sixteen of these denarii. In Saxony the same journeymen-craftsmen
+earned on the average, besides their maintenance, two groschen four
+pfennige a day, or about one-third the value of a bushel of corn. In
+addition to this, in some cases the workmen had weekly gratuities under
+the name of "bathing money"; and in this connection it may be noticed
+that a holiday for the purpose of bathing once a fortnight, once a week,
+or even oftener, as the case might be, was stipulated for by the guilds,
+and generally recognized as a legitimate demand. The common notion of
+the uniform uncleanliness of the mediæval man requires to be
+considerably modified when one closely investigates the condition of
+town life, and finds everywhere facilities for bathing in winter and
+summer alike. Untidiness and uncleanliness, according to our notions,
+there may have been in the streets and in the dwellings in many cases,
+owing to inadequate provisions for the disposal of refuse and the like;
+but we must not therefore extend this idea to the person, and imagine
+that the mediæval craftsman or even peasant was as unwholesome as, say,
+the East European peasant of to-day.
+
+When the wages received by the journeymen artisans are compared with
+the prices of commodities previously given, it will be seen how
+relatively easy were their circumstances; and the extent of their
+well-being may be further judged from the wealth of their guilds,
+which, although varying in different places, at all times formed a
+considerable proportion of the wealth of the town. The guild system
+was based upon the notion that the individual master and workman was
+working as much in the interest of the guild as for his own advantage.
+Each member of the guild was alike under the obligation to labour, and
+to labour in accordance with the rules laid down by his guild, and at
+the same time had the right of equal enjoyment with his
+fellow-guildsmen of all advantages pertaining to the particular branch
+of industry covered by the guild. Every guildsman had to work himself
+_in propriâ personâ_; no contractor was tolerated who himself "in ease
+and sloth doth live on the sweat of others, and puffeth himself up in
+lustful pride." Were a guild-master ill and unable to manage the
+affairs of his workshop, it was the council of the guild, and not
+himself or his relatives, who installed a representative for him and
+generally looked after his affairs. It was the guild again which
+procured the raw material, and distributed it in relatively equal
+proportions amongst its members; or where this was not the case, the
+time and place were indicated at which the guildsman might buy at a
+fixed maximum price. Every master had equal right to the use of the
+common property and institutions of the guild, which in some
+industries included the essentials of production, as, for example, in
+the case of the woollen manufacturers, where wool-kitchens,
+carding-rooms, bleaching-houses and the like were common to the whole
+guild.
+
+Needless to say, the relations between master and apprentices and master
+and journeymen were rigidly fixed down to the minutest detail. The
+system was thoroughly patriarchal in its character. In the hey-day of
+the guilds, every apprentice and most of the journeymen regarded their
+actual condition as a period of preparation which would end in the
+glories of mastership. For this dear hope they were ready on occasion to
+undergo cheerfully the most arduous duties. The education in handicraft,
+and, we may add, the supervision of the morals of the blossoming members
+of the guild, was a department which greatly exercised its
+administration. On the other hand, the guild in its corporate capacity
+was bound to maintain sick or incapacitated apprentices and journeymen,
+though after the journeymen had developed into a distinct class, and
+the consequent rise of the journeymen-guilds, the latter function was
+probably in most cases taken over by the latter. The guild laws against
+adulteration, scamped work, and the like, were sometimes ferocious in
+their severity. For example, in some towns the baker who misconducted
+himself in the matter of the composition of his bread was condemned to
+be shut up in a basket which was fixed at the end of a long pole, and
+let down so many times to the bottom of a pool of dirty water. In the
+year 1456 two grocers, together with a female assistant, were burnt
+alive at Nürnberg for adulterating saffron and spices, and a similar
+instance happened at Augsburg in 1492. From what we have said it will be
+seen that guild life, like the life of the town as a whole, was
+essentially a social life. It was a larger family, into which various
+blood families were merged. The interest of each was felt to be the
+interest of all, and the interest of all no less the interest of each.
+
+But in many towns, outside the town population properly speaking,
+outside the patrician families who generally governed the Rath,
+outside the guilds, outside the city organization altogether, there
+were other bodies dwelling within the walls and forming _imperia in
+imperiis_. These were the religious corporations, whose possessions
+were often extensive, and who, dwelling within their own walls, shut
+out from the rest of the town, were subject only to their own
+ordinances. The quasi-religious, quasi-military Order of the Teutonic
+Knights (_Deutscher Orden_), founded at the time of the Crusades, was
+the wealthiest and largest of these corporations. In addition to the
+extensive territories which it held in various parts of the empire, it
+had establishments in a large number of cities. Besides this there
+were, of course, the Orders of the Augustinians and Carthusians, and a
+number of less important foundations, who had their cloisters in
+various towns. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the pomp,
+pride, and licentiousness of the Teutonic Order drew upon it the
+especial hatred of the townsfolk; and amid the general wreck of
+religious houses none were more ferociously despoiled than those
+belonging to this Order. There were, moreover, in some towns, the
+establishments of princely families, which were regarded by the
+citizens with little less hostility than that accorded to the
+religious Orders.
+
+Such were the explosive elements of town life when changing conditions
+were tending to dislocate the whole structure of mediæval existence.
+The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 had struck a heavy
+blow at the commerce of the Bavarian cities which had come by way of
+Constantinople and Venice. This latter city lost one by one its
+trading centres in the East, and all Oriental traffic by way of the
+Black Sea was practically stopped. It was the Dutch cities which
+inherited the wealth and influence of the German towns when Vasco da
+Gama's discovery of the Cape route to the East began to have its
+influence on the trade of the world. This diversion of Oriental
+traffic from the old overland route was the starting-point of the
+modern merchant navy, and it must be placed amongst the most potent
+causes of the break-up of mediæval civilization. The above change,
+although immediately felt by the German towns, was not realized by
+them in its full importance either as to its causes or its
+consequences for more than a century; but the decline of their
+prosperity was nevertheless sensible, even now, and contributed
+directly to the coming upheaval.
+
+The impatience of the prince, the prelate, the noble, and the wealthy
+burgher at the restraints which the system of the Middle Ages placed
+upon his activity as an individual in the acquisition for his own
+behoof, and the disposal at his own pleasure, of wealth, regardless of
+the consequences to his neighbour, found expression, and a powerful
+lever, in the introduction from Italy of the Roman law in place of the
+old canon and customary law of Europe. The latter never regarded the
+individual as an independent and autonomous entity, but invariably
+treated him with reference to a group or social body, of which he
+might be the head or merely a subordinate member; but in any case the
+filaments of custom and religious duty attached him to a certain
+humanity outside himself, whether it were a village community, a
+guild, a township, a province, or the empire. The idea of a right to
+individual autonomy in his dealings with men never entered into the
+mediæval man's conception. Hence the mere possession of property was
+not recognized by mediæval law as conferring any absolute rights in
+its holder to its unregulated use, and the basis of the mediæval
+notions of property was the association of responsibility and duty
+with ownership. In other words, the notion of _trust_ was never
+completely divorced from that of _possession_.
+
+The Roman law rested on a totally different basis. It represented the
+legal ethics of a society on most of its sides brutally and crassly
+individualistic. That that society had come to an end instead of
+evolving to its natural conclusion--a developed capitalistic
+individualism such as exists to-day--was due to the weakness of its
+economic basis, owing to the limitation at that time of man's power
+over Nature, which deprived it of recuperative and defensive force,
+thereby leaving it a prey not only to internal influences of decay but
+also to violent destructive forces from without. Nevertheless, it left
+a legacy of a ready-made legal system to serve as an implement for the
+first occasion when economic conditions should be once more ready for
+progress to resume the course of individualistic development, abruptly
+brought to an end by the fall of ancient civilization as crystallized
+in the Roman Empire.
+
+The popular courts of the village, of the mark, and of the town, which
+had existed up to the beginning of the sixteenth century with all
+their ancient functions, were extremely democratic in character. Cases
+were decided on their merits, in accordance with local custom, by a
+body of jurymen chosen from among the freemen of the district, to whom
+the presiding functionaries, most of whom were also of popular
+selection, were little more than assessors. The technicalities of a
+cut-and-dried system were unknown. The Catholic-Germanic theory of the
+Middle Ages proper, as regards the civil power in all its functions,
+from the highest downward, was that of the mere administrator of
+justice as such; whereas the Roman law regarded the magistrate as the
+vicegerent of the _princeps_ or _imperator_, in whose person was
+absolutely vested as its supreme embodiment the whole power of the
+State. The Divinity of the Emperors was a recognition of this fact;
+and the influence of the Roman law revived the theory as far as
+possible under the changed conditions, in the form of the doctrine of
+the Divine Right of Kings--a doctrine which was totally alien to the
+Catholic feudal conception of the Middle Ages. This doctrine,
+moreover, received added force from the Oriental conception of the
+position of the ruler found in the Old Testament, from which
+Protestantism drew so much of its inspiration.
+
+But apart from this aspect of the question, the new juridical
+conception involved that of a system of rules as the crystallized
+embodiment of the abstract "State," given through its representatives,
+which could under no circumstances be departed from, and which could
+only be modified in their operation by legal quibbles that left to
+them their nominal integrity. The new law could therefore only be
+administered by a class of men trained specially for the purpose, of
+which the plastic customary law borne down the stream of history from
+primitive times, and insensibly adapting itself to new conditions but
+understood in its broader aspects by all those who might be called to
+administer it, had little need. The Roman law, the study of which was
+started at Bologna in the twelfth century, as might naturally be
+expected, early attracted the attention of the German Emperors as a
+suitable instrument for use on emergencies. But it made little real
+headway in Germany itself as against the early institutions until the
+fifteenth century, when the provincial power of the princes of the
+empire was beginning to overshadow the central authority of the
+titular chief of the Holy Roman Empire. The former, while strenuously
+resisting the results of its application from above, found in it a
+powerful auxiliary in their Courts in riveting their power over the
+estates subject to them. As opposed to the delicately adjusted
+hierarchical notions of Feudalism, which did not recognize any
+absoluteness of dominion either over persons or things, in short for
+which neither the head of the State had any inviolate authority as
+such, nor private property any inviolable rights or sanctity as such,
+the new jurisprudence made corner-stones of both these conceptions.
+
+Even the canon law, consisting in a mass of Papal decretals dating
+from the early Middle Ages, and which, while undoubtedly containing
+considerable traces of the influence of Roman law, was nevertheless
+largely customary in its character, with an infusion of Christian
+ethics, had to yield to the new jurisprudence, and that too in
+countries where the Reformation had been unable to replace the old
+ecclesiastical dogma and organization. The principles and practice of
+the Roman law were sedulously inculcated by the tribe of civilian
+lawyers who by the beginning of the sixteenth century infested every
+Court throughout Europe. Every potentate, great and small, little as
+he might like its application by his feudal overlord to himself, was
+yet only too ready and willing to invoke its aid for the oppression of
+his own vassals or peasants. Thus the civil law everywhere triumphed.
+It became the juridical expression of the political, economical, and
+religious change which marks the close of the Middle Ages and the
+beginnings of the modern commercial world.
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that no resistance was made to it.
+Everywhere in contemporary literature, side by side with denunciations
+of the new mercenary troops, the _Landsknechte_, we find
+uncomplimentary allusions to the race of advocates, notaries, and
+procurators who, as one writer has it, "are increasing like
+grasshoppers in town and in country year by year." Whenever they
+appeared, we are told, countless litigious disputes sprang up. He who
+had but the money in hand might readily defraud his poorer neighbour
+in the name of law and right. "Woe is me!" exclaims one author, "in
+my home there is but one procurator, and yet is the whole country
+round about brought into confusion by his wiles. What a misery will
+this horde bring upon us!" Everywhere was complaint and in many places
+resistance.
+
+As early as 1460 we find the Bavarian estates vigorously complaining
+that all the courts were in the hands of doctors. They demanded that
+the rights of the land and the ancient custom should not be cast
+aside; but that the courts as of old should be served by reasonable
+and honest judges, who should be men of the same feudal livery and of
+the same country as those whom they tried. Again in 1514, when the
+evil had become still more crying, we find the estates of Würtemberg
+petitioning Duke Ulrich that the Supreme Court "shall be composed of
+honourable, worthy, and understanding men of the nobles and of the
+towns, who shall not be doctors, to the intent that the ancient usages
+and customs should abide, and that it should be judged according to
+them in such wise that the poor man might no longer be brought to
+confusion." In many covenants of the end of the fifteenth century,
+express stipulation is made that they should not be interpreted by a
+doctor or licentiate, and also in some cases that no such doctor or
+licentiate should be permitted to reside or to exercise his
+profession within certain districts. Great as was the economical
+influence of the new jurists in the tribunals, their political
+influence in the various courts of the empire, from the
+_Reichskammergericht_ downwards, was, if anything, greater. Says
+Wimpfeling, the first writer on the art of education in the modern
+world: "According to the loathsome doctrines of the new jurisconsults,
+the prince shall be everything in the land and the people naught. The
+people shall only obey, pay tax, and do service. Moreover, they shall
+not alone obey the prince but also them that he has placed in
+authority, who begin to puff themselves up as the proper lords of the
+land, and to order matters so that the princes themselves do as little
+as may be reign." From this passage it will be seen that the modern
+bureaucratic State, in which government is as nearly as possible
+reduced to mechanism and the personal relation abolished, was ushered
+in under the auspices of the civil law. How easy it was for the
+civilian to effect the abolition of feudal institutions may be readily
+imagined by those cognizant of the principles of Roman law. For
+example, the Roman law, of course, making no mention of the right of
+the mediæval "estates" to be consulted in the levying of taxes or in
+other questions, the jurist would explain this right to his too
+willing master, the prince, as an abuse which had no legal
+justification, and which, the sooner it were abolished in the interest
+of good government the better it would be. All feudal rights as
+against the power of an overlord were explained away by the civil
+jurist, either as pernicious abuses, or, at best, as favours granted
+in the past by the predecessors of the reigning monarch, which it was
+within his right to truncate or to abrogate at his will.
+
+From the preceding survey will be clearly perceived the important rôle
+which the new jurisprudence played on the Continent of Europe in the
+gestation of the new phase which history was entering upon in the
+sixteenth century. Even the short sketch given will be sufficient to
+show that it was not in one department only that it operated; but
+that, in addition to its own domain of law proper, its influence was
+felt in modifying economical, political, and indirectly even ethical
+and religious conditions. From this time forth Feudalism slowly but
+surely gave place to the newer order, all that remained being certain
+of its features, which, crystallized into bureaucratic forms, were
+doubly veneered with a last trace of mediæval ideas and a denser
+coating of civilian conceptions. This transitional Europe, and not
+mediæval Europe, was the Europe which lasted on until the eighteenth
+century, and which practically came to an end with the French
+Revolution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] One silver groschen = 1-1/5d.
+
+[16] The authorities for the above data may be found in Janssen, i.,
+vol. i., bk. iii., especially pp. 330-46.
+
+[17] _Zur Geschichte der deutschen Gesellenverbände._ Leipzig, 1876.
+
+[18] C. 1/5d. The denarius was the South German equivalent of the North
+German pfennig, of which twelve went to the groschen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE REVOLT OF THE KNIGHTHOOD
+
+
+We have already pointed out in more than one place the position to
+which the smaller nobility, or the knighthood, had been reduced by the
+concatenation of causes which was bringing about the dissolution of the
+old mediæval order of things, and, as a consequence, ruining the
+knights both economically and politically--economically by the rise of
+capitalism as represented by the commercial syndicates of the cities;
+by the unprecedented power and wealth of the city confederations,
+especially of the Hanseatic League; by the rising importance of the
+newly developed world-market; by the growing luxury and the enormous
+rise in the prices of commodities concurrently with the reduction in
+value of the feudal land-tenures; and by the limitation of the
+possibilities of acquiring wealth by highway robbery, owing to Imperial
+constitutions, on the one hand, and increased powers of defence on the
+part of the trading community, on the other--politically, by the new
+modes of warfare in which artillery and infantry, composed of
+comparatively well-drilled mercenaries (_Landsknechte_), were rapidly
+making inroads into the omnipotence of the ancient feudal chivalry, and
+reducing the importance of individual skill or prowess in the handling
+of weapons, and by the development of the power of the princes or
+higher nobility, partly due to the influence which the Roman civil law
+now began to exercise over the older customary Constitution of the
+empire, and partly to the budding centralism of authority--which in
+France and England became a national centralization, but in Germany, in
+spite of the temporary ascendancy of Charles V, finally issued in a
+provincial centralization in which the princes were _de facto_
+independent monarchs. The Imperial Constitution of 1495, forbidding
+private war, applied, it must be remembered, only to the lesser
+nobility and not to the higher, thereby placing the former in a
+decidedly ignominious position as regards their feudal superiors. And
+though this particular enactment had little immediate result, yet it
+was none the less resented as a blow struck at the old knightly
+privilege.
+
+The mental attitude of the knighthood in the face of this progressing
+change in their position was naturally an ambiguous one, composed
+partly of a desire to hark back to the haughty independence of
+feudalism, and partly of sympathy with the growing discontent among
+other classes and with the new spirit generally. In order that the
+knights might succeed in recovering their old or even in maintaining
+their actual position against the higher nobility, the princes, backed
+as these now largely were by the Imperial power, the co-operation of
+the cities was absolutely essential to them, but the obstacles in the
+way of such a co-operation proved insurmountable. The towns hated the
+knights for their lawless practices, which rendered trade unsafe and
+not infrequently cost the lives of the citizens. The knights for the
+most part, with true feudal hauteur, scorned and despised the artisans
+and traders who had no territorial family name and were unexercised in
+the higher chivalric arts. The grievances of the two parties were,
+moreover, not identical, although they had their origin in the same
+causes.
+
+The cities were in the main solely concerned to maintain their old
+independent position, and especially to curb the growing disposition
+at this time of the other estates to use them as milch cows from
+which to draw the taxation necessary to the maintenance of the
+empire. For example, at the Reichstag opened at Nürnberg on November
+17, 1522--to discuss the questions of the establishment of perpetual
+peace within the empire, of organizing an energetic resistance to the
+inroads of the Turks, and of placing on a firm foundation the
+Imperial Privy Council (_Kammergericht_) and the Supreme Council
+(_Reichsregiment_)--at which were represented twenty-six Imperial
+towns, thirty-eight high prelates, eighteen princes, and twenty-nine
+counts and barons--the representatives of the cities complained
+grievously that their attendance was reduced to a farce, since they
+were always out-voted, and hence obliged to accept the decisions of
+the other estates. They stated that their position was no longer
+bearable, and for the first time drew up an Act of Protest, which
+further complained of the delay in the decisions of the Imperial
+courts; of their sufferings from the right of private war, which was
+still allowed to subsist in defiance of the Constitution; of the
+increase of customs-stations on the part of the princes and
+prince-prelates; and, finally, of the debasement of the coinage due
+to the unscrupulous practices of these notables and of the Jews. The
+only sympathy the other estates vouchsafed to the plaints of the
+cities was with regard to the right of private war, which the higher
+nobles were also anxious to suppress amongst the lower, though
+without prejudice, of course, to their own privileges in this line.
+All the other articles of the Act of Protest were coolly waived
+aside. From all this it will be seen that not much co-operation was
+to be expected between such heterogeneous bodies as the knighthood
+and the free towns, in spite of their common interest in checking the
+threateningly advancing power of the princes and the central Imperial
+authority in so far as it was manned and manipulated by the princes.
+
+Amid the decaying knighthood there was, as we have already intimated,
+one figure which stood out head and shoulders above every other noble
+of the time, whether prince or knight, and that was Franz von
+Sickingen. He has been termed, not without truth, "the last flower of
+German chivalry," since in him the old knightly qualities flashed up
+in conjunction with the old knightly power and splendour with a
+brightness hardly known even in the palmiest days of mediæval life. It
+was, however, the last flicker of the light of German chivalry. With
+the death of Sickingen and the collapse of his revolt the knighthood
+of Central Europe ceased any longer to play an independent part in
+history.
+
+Sickingen, although technically only one of the lower nobility, was
+deemed about the time of Luther's appearance to hold the immediate
+destinies of the empire in his hand. Wealthy, inspiring confidence and
+enthusiasm as a leader, possessed of more than one powerful and
+strategically situated stronghold, he held court at his favourite
+residence, the Castle of the Landstuhl, in the Rhenish Palatinate, in
+a style which many a prince of the empire might have envied. As
+honoured guests were to be found attending on him humanists, poets,
+minstrels, partisans of the new theology, astrologers, alchemists, and
+men of letters generally--in short, the whole intelligence and culture
+of the period. Foremost amongst these, and chief confidant of
+Sickingen, was the knight, courtier, poet, essayist, and pamphleteer,
+Ulrich von Hutten, whose pen was ever ready to champion with unstinted
+enthusiasm the cause of the progressive ideas of his age. He first
+took up the cudgels against the obscurantists on behalf of Humanism as
+represented by Erasmus and Reuchlin, the latter of whom he bravely
+defended in his dispute with the Inquisition and the monks of Cologne,
+and in his contributions to the _Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_ we see
+the youthful ardour of the Renaissance in full blast in its onslaught
+on the forces of mediæval obstruction. Unlike most of those with whom
+he was first associated, Hutten passed from being the upholder of the
+New Learning to the rôle of champion of the Reformation; and it was
+largely through his influence that Sickingen took up the cause of
+Luther and his movement.
+
+Sickingen had been induced by Charles V to assist him in an abortive
+attempt to invade France in 1521, from which campaign he had returned
+without much benefit either material or moral, save that Charles was
+left heavily in his debt. The accumulated hatred of generations for
+the priesthood had made Sickingen a willing instrument in the hands of
+the reforming party, and believing that Charles now lay to some extent
+in his power, he considered the moment opportune for putting his
+long-cherished scheme into operation for reforming the Constitution of
+the empire. This reformation consisted, as was to be expected, in
+placing his own order on a firm footing, and of effectually curbing
+the power of the other estates, especially that of the prelates.
+Sickingen wished to make the Emperor and the lower nobility the
+decisive factors in his new scheme of things political. The Emperor,
+it so happened, was for the moment away in Spain, and Sickingen's
+colleagues of the knightly order were becoming clamorous at the
+unworthy position into which they found themselves rapidly being
+driven. The feudal exactions of their princely lieges had reached a
+point which passed all endurance, and since they were practically
+powerless in the Reichstags, no outlet was left for their discontent
+save by open revolt. Impelled not less by his own inclinations than by
+the pressure of his companions, foremost among whom was Hutten,
+Sickingen decided at once to open the campaign.
+
+Hutten, it would appear, attempted to enter into negotiations for the
+co-operation of the towns and of the peasants. So far as can be seen,
+Strassburg and one or two other Imperial cities returned favourable
+answers; but the precise measure of Hutten's success cannot be
+ascertained, owing to the fact that all the documents relating to the
+matter perished in the destruction of Sickingen's Castle of Ebernburg.
+
+It should be premised that on August 13th, previous to this
+declaration of war, a "Brotherly Convention" had been signed by a
+number of the knights, by which Sickingen was appointed their captain,
+and they bound themselves to submit to no jurisdiction save their own,
+and pledged themselves to mutual aid in war in case of hostilities
+against any one of their number. Through this "Treaty of Landau,"
+Sickingen had it in his power to assemble a considerable force at a
+moment's notice. Consequently, a few days after the issue of the above
+manifesto, on August 27, 1522, Sickingen was able to start from the
+Castle of Ebernburg with an army of 5,000 foot and 1,500 knights,
+besides artillery, in the full confidence that he was about to destroy
+the position of the Palatine prince-prelate and raise himself without
+delay to the chief power on the Rhine.
+
+By an effective piece of audacity, that of sporting the Imperial flag
+and the Burgundian cross, Franz spread abroad the idea that he was
+acting on behalf of the Emperor, then absent in Spain; and this
+largely contributed to the result that his army speedily rose to 5,000
+knights and 10,000 footmen. The Imperial Diet at Nürnberg now
+intervened, and ordered Sickingen to cease the operations he had
+already begun, threatening him with the ban of the empire and a fine
+of 2,000 marks if he did not obey. To this summons Franz sent a
+characteristically impudent reply, and light-heartedly continued the
+campaign, regardless of the warning which an astrologer had given him
+some time previously, that the year 1522 or 1523 would probably be
+fatal to him. It is evident that this campaign, begun so late in the
+year, was regarded by Sickingen and the other leaders as merely a
+preliminary canter to a larger and more widespread movement the
+following spring, since on this occasion the Swabian and Franconian
+knighthood do not appear to have been even invited to take part in it.
+
+After an easy progress, during which several trifling places, the most
+important being St. Wendel, were taken, Franz with his army arrived on
+September 8th before the gates of Trier. He had hoped to capture the
+town by surprise, and was indeed not without some expectation of
+co-operation and help from the citizens themselves. On his arrival he
+shot letters within the walls summoning the inhabitants to take his
+part against their tyrant; but either through the unwillingness of the
+burghers to act with knights, or through the vigilance of the
+Archbishop, they were without effect. The gates remained closed; and
+in answer to Sickingen's summons to surrender, Richard replied that he
+would find him in the city if he could get inside. In the meantime
+Sickingen's friends had signally failed in their attempts to obtain
+supplies and reinforcements for him, in the main owing to the
+energetic action of some of the higher nobles. The Archbishop of Trier
+showed himself as much a soldier as a Churchman; and after a week's
+siege, during which Sickingen made five assaults on the city, his
+powder ran out, and he was forced to retire. He at once made his way
+back to Ebernburg, where he intended to pass the winter, since he saw
+that it was useless to continue the campaign, with his own army
+diminishing and the hoped-for supplies not appearing, whilst the
+forces of his antagonists augmented daily. In his stronghold of
+Ebernburg he could rely on being secure from all attack until he was
+able to again take the field on the offensive, as he anticipated doing
+in the spring.
+
+In spite of the obvious failure of the autumnal campaign, the cause of
+the knighthood did not by any means look irretrievably desperate,
+since there was always the possibility of successful recruitments the
+following spring. Ulrich von Hutten was doing his utmost in Würtemberg
+and Switzerland to scrape together men and money, though up to this
+time without much success, while other emissaries of Sickingen were
+working with the same object in Breisgau and other parts of Southern
+Germany. Relying on these expected reinforcements, Franz was confident
+of victory when he should again take the field, and in the meantime he
+felt himself quite secure in one or other of his strong places, which
+had recently undergone extensive repairs and seemed to be impregnable.
+In this anticipation he was deceived, for he had not reckoned with the
+new and more potent weapons of attack which were replacing the
+battering-ram and other mediæval besieging appliances. Franz retired
+to his strong castle of the Landstuhl to await the onslaught of the
+princes which followed in the spring. After heavy bombardment
+Sickingen was mortally wounded on May 6th, and the place was
+immediately surrendered. The next day the princes entered the castle,
+where, in an underground chamber, their enemy lay dying.
+
+He was so near his end that he could scarcely distinguish his three
+arch-enemies one from the other. "My dear lord," he said to the Count
+Palatine, his feudal superior, "I had not thought that I should end
+thus," taking off his cap and giving him his hand. "What has impelled
+thee, Franz," asked the Archbishop of Trier, "that thou hast so laid
+waste and harmed me and my poor people?" "Of that it were too long to
+speak," answered Sickingen, "but I have done nought without cause. I
+go now to stand before a greater Lord." Here it is worthy of remark
+that the princes treated Franz with all the knightliness and courtesy
+which were customary between social equals in the days of chivalry,
+addressing him at most rather as a rebellious child than as an
+insurgent subject. The Prince of Hesse was about to give utterance to
+a reproach, but he was interrupted by the Count Palatine, who told
+him that he must not quarrel with a dying man. The Count's chamberlain
+said some sympathetic words to Franz, who replied to him: "My dear
+chamberlain, it matters little about me. It is not I who am the cock
+round which they are dancing." When the princes had withdrawn, his
+chaplain asked him if he would confess; but Franz replied: "I have
+confessed to God in my heart," whereupon the chaplain gave him
+absolution; and as he went to fetch the host "the last of the knights"
+passed quietly away, alone and abandoned. It is related by Spalatin
+that after his death some peasants and domestics placed his body in an
+old armour-chest, in which they had to double the head on to the
+knees. The chest was then let down by a rope from the rocky eminence
+on which stands the now ruined castle, and was buried beneath a small
+chapel in the village below.
+
+The scene we have just described in the castle vault meant not merely
+the tragedy of a hero's death, nor merely the destruction of a faction
+or party, it meant the end of an epoch. With Sickingen's death one of
+the most salient and picturesque elements in the mediæval life of
+Central Europe received its death-blow. The knighthood as a distinct
+factor in the polity of Europe henceforth existed no more.
+
+Spalatin relates that on the death of Sickingen the princely party
+anticipated as easy a victory over the religious revolt as they had
+achieved over the knighthood. "The mock Emperor is dead," so the
+phrase went, "and the mock Pope will soon be dead also." Hutten,
+already an exile in Switzerland, did not many months survive his
+patron and leader, Sickingen. The rôle which Erasmus played in this
+miserable tragedy was only what was to be expected from the moral
+cowardice which seemed ingrained in the character of the great
+Humanist leader. Erasmus had already begun to fight shy of the
+Reformation movement, from which he was about to separate himself
+definitely. He seized the present opportunity to quarrel with Hutten;
+and to Hutten's somewhat bitter attacks on him in consequence he
+replied with ferocity in his _Spongia Erasmi adversus aspergines
+Hutteni_.
+
+Hutten had had to fly from Basel to Mülhausen and thence to Zürich, in
+the last stages of syphilitic disease. He was kindly received by the
+reformer, Zwingli of Zürich, who advised him to try the waters of
+Pfeffers, and gave him letters of recommendation to the abbot of that
+place. He returned, in no wise benefited, to Zürich, when Zwingli
+again befriended the sick knight, and sent him to a friend of his, the
+"reformed" pastor of the little island of "Ufenau," at the other end
+of the lake, where after a few weeks' suffering he died in abject
+destitution, leaving, it is said, nothing behind him but his pen. The
+disease from which Hutten suffered the greater part of his life, at
+that time a comparatively new importation and much more formidable
+even than nowadays, may well have contributed to an irascibility of
+temper and to a certain recklessness which the typical free-lance of
+the Reformation in its early period exhibited. Hutten was never a
+theologian, and the Reformation seems to have attracted him mainly
+from its political side as implying the assertion of the dawning
+feeling of German nationality as against the hated enemies of freedom
+of thought and the new light, the clerical satellites of the Roman
+see. He was a true son of his time, in his vices no less than in his
+virtues; and no one will deny his partiality for "wine, women, and
+play." There is reason, indeed, to believe that the latter at times
+during his later career provided his sole means of subsistence.
+
+The hero of the Reformation, Luther, with whom Melanchthon may be
+associated in this matter, could be no less pusillanimous on occasion
+than the hero of the New Learning, Erasmus. Luther undoubtedly saw in
+Sickingen's revolt a means of weakening the Catholic powers against
+which he had to fight, and at its inception he avowedly favoured the
+enterprise. In some of the reforming writings Luther is represented as
+the incarnation of Christian resignation and mildness, and as talking
+of twelve legions of angels and deprecating any appeal to force as
+unbefitting the character of an evangelical apostle. That such,
+however, was not his habitual attitude is evident to all who are in
+the least degree acquainted with his real conduct and utterances. On
+one occasion he wrote: "If they (the priests) continue their mad
+ravings it seems to me that there would be no better method and
+medicine to stay them than that kings and princes did so with force,
+armed themselves and attacked these pernicious people who do poison
+all the world, and once for all did make an end of their doings with
+weapons, not with words. For even as we punish thieves with the sword,
+murderers with the rope, and heretics with fire, wherefore do we not
+lay hands on these pernicious teachers of damnation, on popes, on
+cardinals, bishops, and the swarm of the Roman Sodom--yea, with every
+weapon which lieth within our reach, _and wherefore do we not wash our
+hands in their blood?_"[19]
+
+It is, however, in a manifesto published in July 1522, just before
+Sickingen's attack on the Archbishop of Trier, for which enterprise it
+was doubtless intended as a justification, that Luther expresses
+himself in unmeasured terms against the "biggest wolves," the bishops,
+and calls upon "all dear children of God and all true Christians" to
+drive them out by force from the "sheep-stalls." In this pamphlet,
+entitled _Against the falsely called spiritual order of the Pope and
+the Bishops_, he says: "It were better that every bishop were
+murdered, every foundation or cloister rooted out, than that one soul
+should be destroyed, let alone that all souls should be lost for the
+sake of their worthless trumpery and idolatry. Of what use are they
+who thus live in lust, nourished by the sweat and labour of others,
+and are a stumbling-block to the word of God? They fear bodily uproar
+and despise spiritual destruction. Are they wise and honest people? If
+they accepted God's word and sought the life of the soul, God would be
+with them, for He is a God of peace, and they need fear no uprising;
+but if they will not hear God's word, but rage and rave with bannings,
+burnings, killings, and every evil, what do they better deserve than a
+strong uprising which shall sweep them from the earth? _And we would
+smile did it happen._[20] As the heavenly wisdom saith: 'Ye have
+hated my chastisement and despised my doctrine; behold, I will also
+laugh at ye in your distress, and will mock ye when misfortune shall
+fall upon your heads.'" In the same document he denounces the bishops
+as an accursed race, as "thieves, robbers, and usurers." Swine,
+horses, stones, and wood were not so destitute of understanding as the
+German people under the sway of them and their Pope. The religious
+houses are similarly described as "brothels, low taverns, and murder
+dens," He winds up this document, which he calls his "bull," by
+proclaiming that "all who contribute body, goods, and honour that the
+rule of the bishops may be destroyed are God's dear children and true
+Christians, obeying God's command and fighting against the devil's
+order"; and, on the other hand, that "all who give the bishops a
+willing obedience are the devil's own servants, and fight against
+God's order and law."[21]
+
+No sooner, however, did things begin to look bad with Sickingen than
+Luther promptly sought to disengage himself from all complicity or
+even sympathy with him and his losing cause. So early as December 19,
+1522, he writes to his friend Wenzel Link: "Franz von Sickingen has
+begun war against the Palatine. It will be a very bad business."
+(_Franciscus Sickingen Palatino bellum indixit, res pessima futura
+est._) His colleague, Melanchthon, a few days later, hastened to
+deprecate the insinuation that Luther had had any part or lot in
+initiating the revolt. "Franz von Sickingen," he wrote, "by his great
+ill-will injures the cause of Luther; and notwithstanding that he be
+entirely dissevered from him, nevertheless whenever he undertaketh war
+he wisheth to seem to act for the public benefit, and not for his own.
+He doth even now pursue a most infamous course of plunder on the
+Rhine." In another letter he says: "I know how this tumult grieveth
+him (Luther),"[22] and this respecting the man who had shortly before
+written of the princes that their tyranny and haughtiness were no
+longer to be borne, alleging that God would not longer endure it, and
+that the common man even was becoming intelligent enough to deal with
+them by force if they did not mend their manners. A more telling
+example of the "don't-put-him-in-the-horse-pond" attitude could
+scarcely be desired. That it was characteristic of the "great
+reformer" will be seen later on when we find him pursuing a similar
+policy anent the revolt of the peasants.
+
+After the fall of the Landstuhl all Sickingen's castles and most of
+those of his immediate allies and friends were of course taken, and
+the greater part of them destroyed. The knighthood was now to all
+intents and purposes politically helpless and economically at the door
+of bankruptcy, owing to the suddenly changed conditions of which we
+have spoken in the Introduction and elsewhere as supervening since the
+beginning of the century: the unparalleled rise in prices,
+concurrently with the growing extravagance, the decline of agriculture
+in many places, and the increasing burdens put upon the knights by
+their feudal superiors, and last, but not least, the increasing
+obstacles in the way of the successful pursuit of the profession of
+highway robbery. The majority of them, therefore, clung with
+relentless severity to the feudal dues of the peasants, which now
+constituted their main, and in many cases their only, source of
+revenue; and hence, abandoning the hope of independence, they threw in
+their lot with the authorities, the princes, lay and ecclesiastic, in
+the common object of both, that of reducing the insurgent peasants to
+complete subjection.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] Italics the present author's.
+
+[20] Italics the present author's.
+
+[21] _Sämmtliche Werke_ vol. xxviii. pp. 142-201.
+
+[22] _Corpus Reformatorum_, vol. i. pp. 598-9.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GENERAL SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REVOLT
+
+
+Peasant revolts of a sporadic character are to be met with throughout
+the Middle Ages even in their halcyon days. Some of these, like the
+Jacquerie in France and the revolt associated with the name of Wat
+Tyler in England, were of a serious and more or less extended
+character. But most of them were purely local and of no significance,
+apart from temporary and passing circumstances. By the last quarter of
+the fifteenth century, however, peasant risings had become
+increasingly numerous and their avowed aims much more definite and
+far-reaching than, as a rule, were those of an earlier date. In saying
+this we are referring to those revolts which were directly initiated
+by the peasantry, the serfs, and the villeins of the time, and which
+had as their main object the direct amelioration of the peasant's lot.
+Movements of a primarily religious character were, of course, of a
+somewhat different nature, but the tendency was increasingly, as we
+approach the period of the Reformation, for the two currents to merge
+one in the other. The echoes of the Hussite movement in Bavaria at the
+beginning of the century spread far and wide throughout Central
+Europe, and had by no means spent their force as the century drew
+towards its close.
+
+From this time forward recurrent indications of social revolt with a
+strong religious colouring, or a religious revolt with a strong social
+colouring, became chronic in the Germanic lands and those adjacent
+thereto. As an example may be taken the movement of Hans Boheim, of
+Niklashausen, in the diocese of Würzburg, in Franconia, in 1476, and
+which is regarded by some historians as the first of the movements
+leading directly up to those of the Lutheran Reformation. Hans claimed
+a divine mission for preaching the gospel to the common man. Hans
+preached asceticism and claimed Niklashausen as a place of pilgrimage
+for a new worship of the Virgin. There was little in this to alarm the
+authorities till Hans announced that the Queen of Heaven had revealed
+to him that there was to be no lay or spiritual authority, but that
+all men should be brothers, earning their bread by the sweat of their
+brows, paying no more imposts or dues, holding land in common, and
+sharing alike in all things. The movement went on for some months,
+spreading rapidly in the neighbouring territories. At last Hans was
+seized by armed men while asleep and hurried to Würzburg. The affair
+caused immense commotion, and by the Sunday following, it is stated,
+34,000 armed peasants assembled at Niklashausen. Led by a decayed
+knight and his son, 16,000 of them marched to Würzburg, demanding
+their prophet at the gate of the bishop's castle. By promises and
+cajolery, they were induced to disperse by the prince-bishop, who, as
+soon as he saw they were returning home in straggling parties,
+treacherously sent a body of his knights after them, killing some and
+taking others prisoners. Two of the ringleaders were beheaded outside
+the castle, and at the same time the prophet Hans Boheim was burnt to
+ashes. Thus ended a typical religio-social peasant revolt of the
+half-century preceding the great Reformation movement.
+
+In 1491 the oppressed and plundered villeins of Kempten revolted, but
+the movement was quelled by the Emperor himself after a compromise. A
+great rising took place in Elsass (Alsace) in 1493 among the
+feudatories of the Bishop of Strassburg, with the usual object of
+freedom for the "common man," abolition of feudal exactions, Church
+reformation, etc. This movement is interesting, as having first
+received the name of the _Bundschuh_. It was decided that as the
+knight was distinguished by his spurs, so the peasant should have as
+his device the common shoe of his class, laced from the ankle through
+to the knee by leathern thongs, and the banner whereon this emblem was
+depicted was accordingly made. The movement was, however, betrayed and
+mercilessly crushed by the neighbouring knighthood. A few years later
+a similar movement, also having the _Bundschuh_ for its device, took
+place in the regions of the Upper and Middle Rhine. This movement
+created a panic among all the privileged classes, from the Emperor
+down to the knight. The situation was discussed in no less than three
+separate assemblies of the States. It was, however, eventually
+suppressed for the time being. A few years later, in 1512, it again
+burst forth under the leadership of an active adherent of the former
+movement, one Joss Fritz, in Baden, at the village of Lehen, near the
+town of Freiburg. The organization in this case, besides being
+widespread, was exceedingly good, and the movement was nearly
+successful when at the last moment it was betrayed. Even in
+Switzerland there were peasant risings in the early years of the
+sixteenth century. About the same time the duchy of Würtemberg was
+convulsed by a movement which took the name of the "Poor Conrad." Its
+object was the freeing of the "common man" from feudal services and
+dues and the abolition of seignorial rights over the land, etc. But
+here again the movement was suppressed by Duke Ulrich and his knights.
+Another rising took place in Baden in 1517. Three years previously, in
+1514, occurred the great Hungarian peasant rebellion under George
+Daze. Under the able leadership of the latter the peasants had some
+not inconsiderable initial successes, but this movement also, after
+some weeks, was cruelly suppressed. About the same time, too, occurred
+various insurrectionary peasant movements in the Styrian and
+Carinthian alpine districts. Similar movements to those referred to
+were also going on during those early years of the fifteenth century
+in other parts of Europe, but these, of course, do not concern us.
+
+The deep-reaching importance and effective spread of such movements
+was infinitely greater in the Middle Ages than in modern times. The
+same phenomenon presents itself to-day in backward and semi-barbaric
+communities. At first sight one is inclined to think that there has
+been no period in the world's history when it was so easy to stir up
+a population as the present, with our newspapers, our telegraphs, our
+aeroplane, our postal arrangements, and our railways. But this is just
+one of those superficial notions that are not confirmed by history. We
+are similarly apt to think that there was no age in which travel was
+so widespread and formed so great a part of the education of mankind
+as at present. There could be no greater mistake. The true age of
+travelling was the close of the Middle Ages, or what is known as the
+Renaissance period. The man of learning, then just differentiated from
+the ecclesiastic, spent the greater part of his life in earning his
+intellectual wares from Court to Court and from University to
+University, just as the merchant personally carried his goods from
+city to city in an age in which commercial correspondence,
+bill-brokers, and the varied forms of modern business were but in
+embryo. It was then that travel really meant education, the
+acquirement of thorough and intimate knowledge of diverse manners and
+customs. Travel was then not a pastime, but a serious element in life.
+
+In the same way the spread of a political or social movement was at
+least as rapid then as now, and far more penetrating. The methods
+were, of course, vastly different from the present; but the human
+material to be dealt with was far easier to mould, and kept its shape
+much more readily when moulded, than is the case nowadays. The
+appearance of a religious or political teacher in a village or small
+town of the Middle Ages was an event which keenly excited the interest
+of the inhabitants. It struck across the path of their daily life,
+leaving behind it a track hardly conceivable to-day. For one of the
+salient symptoms of the change which has taken place since that time
+is the disappearance of local centres of activity and the transference
+of the intensity of life to a few large towns. In the Middle Ages
+every town, small no less than large, was a more or less
+self-sufficing organism, intellectually and industrially, and was not
+essentially dependent on the outside world for its social sustenance.
+This was especially the case in Central Europe, where communication
+was much more imperfect and dangerous than in Italy, France, or
+England. In a society without newspapers, without easy communication
+with the rest of the world, where the vast majority could neither read
+nor write, where books were rare and costly, and accessible only to
+the privileged few, a new idea bursting upon one of these communities
+was eagerly welcomed, discussed in the council chamber of the town, in
+the hall of the castle, in the refectory of the monastery, at the
+social board of the burgess, in the workroom, and, did it but touch
+his interests, in the hut of the peasant. It was canvassed, too, at
+church festivals (_Kirchweihe_), the only regular occasion on which
+the inhabitants of various localities came together. In the absence of
+all other distraction, men thought it out in all the bearings which
+their limited intellectual horizon permitted. If calculated in any way
+to appeal to them it soon struck root, and became a part of their very
+nature, a matter for which, if occasion were, they were prepared to
+sacrifice goods, liberty, and even life itself. In the present day a
+new idea is comparatively slow in taking root. Amid the myriad
+distractions of modern life, perpetually chasing one another, there is
+no time for any one thought, however wide-reaching in its bearings, to
+take a firm hold. In order that it should do so in the _modern mind_,
+it must be again and again borne in upon this not always too receptive
+intellectual substance. People require to read of it day after day in
+their newspapers, or to hear it preached from countless platforms,
+before any serious effect is created. In the simple life of former
+ages it was not so.
+
+The mode of transmitting intelligence, especially such as was
+connected with the stirring up of political and religious movements,
+was in those days of a nature of which we have now little conception.
+The sort of thing in vogue then may be compared to the methods
+adopted in India to prepare the Mutiny of 1857, when the mysterious
+cake was passed from village to village, signifying that the moment
+had come for the outbreak. The sense of _esprit de corps_ and of that
+kind of honour most intimately associated with it, it must also be
+remembered, was infinitely keener in ruder states of society than
+under a high civilization. The growth of civilization, as implying the
+disruption of the groups in which the individual is merged under more
+primitive conditions, and his isolation as an autonomous unit having
+vague and very elastic moral duties to his "country" or to mankind at
+large, but none towards any definite and proximate social whole,
+necessarily destroys that communal spirit which prevails in the former
+case. This is one of the striking truths which the history of these
+peasant risings illustrates in various ways and brings vividly home to
+us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GREAT RISING OF THE PEASANTS AND THE ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT[23]
+
+
+The year following the collapse of Franz Sickingen's rebellion saw the
+first mutterings of the great movement known as the Peasants' War, the
+most extensive and important of all the popular insurrections of the
+Middle Ages, which, as we have seen in a previous chapter, had been
+led up to during the previous half-century by numerous sporadic
+movements throughout Central Europe having like aims.
+
+The first actual outbreak of the Peasants' War took place in August
+1524, in the Black Forest, in the village of Stühlingen, from an
+apparently trivial cause. It spread rapidly throughout the surrounding
+districts, having found a leader in a former soldier of fortune, Hans
+Müller by name. The so-called Evangelical Brotherhood sprang into
+existence. On the new movement becoming threatening it was opposed by
+the Swabian League, a body in the interests of the Germanic
+Federation, its princes, and cities, whose function it was to preserve
+public tranquillity and enforce the Imperial decrees. The peasant army
+was armed with the rudest weapons, including pitchforks, scythes, and
+axes; but nothing decisive of a military character took place this
+year. Meanwhile the work of agitation was carried on far and wide
+throughout the South German territories. Preachers of discontent among
+the peasantry and the former towns were everywhere agitating and
+organizing with a view to a general rising in the ensuing spring.
+Negotiations were carried on throughout the winter with nobles and the
+authorities without important results. A diversion in favour of the
+peasants was caused by Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg favouring the
+peasants' cause, which he hoped to use as a shoeing-horn to his own
+plans for recovering his ancestral domains, from which he had been
+driven on the grounds of a family quarrel under the ban of the empire
+in 1519. He now established himself in his stronghold of Hohentwiel,
+in Würtemberg, on the Swiss frontier. By February or the beginning of
+March peasant bands were organizing throughout Southern Germany.
+Early in March a so-called Peasants' Parliament was held at Memmingen,
+a small Swabian town, at which the principal charter of the movement,
+the so-called "Twelve Articles," was adopted. This important document
+has a strong religious colouring, the political and economic demands
+of the peasants being led up to and justified by Biblical quotations.
+They all turn on the customary grievances of the time. The "Twelve
+Articles" remain throughout the chief Bill of Rights of the South
+German peasantry, though there were other versions of the latter
+current in certain districts. What was said before concerning the
+local sporadic movements which had been going en for a generation
+previously applies equally to the great uprising of 1525. The rapidity
+with which the ideas represented by the movement, and in consequence
+the movement itself, spread, is marvellous. By the middle of April it
+was computed that no less than 300,000 peasants, besides necessitous
+townsfolk, were armed and in open rebellion. On the side of the nobles
+no adequate force was ready to meet the emergency. In every direction
+were to be seen flaming castles and monasteries. On all sides were
+bodies of armed countryfolk, organized in military fashion, dictating
+their will to the countryside and the small towns, whilst
+disaffection was beginning to show itself in a threatening manner
+among the popular elements of not a few important cities. A slight
+success gained by the Swabian League at the Upper Swabian village of
+Leipheim in the second week of April did not improve matters. In
+Easter week, 1525, it looked indeed as if the "Twelve Articles" at
+least would become realized, if not the Christian Commonwealth dreamed
+of by the religious sectaries established throughout the length and
+breadth of Germany. Princes, lords, and ecclesiastical dignitaries
+were being compelled far and wide to save their lives, after their
+property was probably already confiscated, by swearing allegiance to
+the Christian League or Brotherhood of the peasants and by
+countersigning the "Twelve Articles" and other demands of their
+refractory villeins and serfs. So threatening was the situation that
+the Archduke Ferdinand began himself to yield, in so far as to enter
+into negotiations with the insurgents. In many cases the leaders and
+chief men of the bands were got up in brilliant costume. We read of
+purple mantles and scarlet birettas with ostrich plumes as the costume
+of the leaders, of a suite of men in scarlet dress, of a vanguard of
+ten heralds, gorgeously attired. As Lamprecht justly observes
+(_Deutsche Geschichte_, vol. v. p. 343): "The peasant revolts were,
+in general, less in the nature of campaigns, or even of an
+uninterrupted series of minor military operations, than of a slow
+process of mobilization, interrupted and accompanied by continual
+negotiations with lords and princes--a mobilization which was rendered
+possible by the standing right of assembly and of carrying arms
+possessed by the peasants." The smaller towns everywhere opened their
+gates without resistance to the peasants, between whom and the poorer
+inhabitants an understanding commonly existed. The bands waxed fat
+with plunder of castles and religious houses, and did full justice to
+the contents of the rich monastic wine-cellars.
+
+Early in April occurred one of the most notable incidents. It was at
+the little town of Weinsberg, near the free town of Heilbronn, in
+Würtemberg. The town, which was occupied by a body of knights and
+men-at-arms, was attacked on Easter Sunday by the peasant bands,
+foremost among them being the "black troop" of that knightly champion
+of the peasant cause, Florian Geyer. It was followed by a peasant
+contingent, led by one Jäcklein Rohrbach, whose consuming passion was
+hatred of the ruling classes. The knights within the town were under
+the leadership of Count von Helfenstein. The entry of Rohrbach's
+company into Weinsberg was the signal for a massacre of the knightly
+host. Some were taken prisoners for the moment, including Helfenstein
+himself, but these were massacred next morning in the meadow outside
+the town by "Jäcklein," as he was called. The events at Weinsberg
+produced in the first instance a horror and consternation which was
+speedily followed by a lust for vengeance on the part of the
+privileged orders.
+
+In Franconia and Middle Germany the peasant movement went on apace. In
+Franconia one of its chief seats was the considerable town of
+Rothenburg, on the Tauber. The episcopal city of Würzburg was also
+entered and occupied by the peasant bands in coalition with the
+discontented elements of the town. The sacking of churches and
+throwing open of religious houses characterized proceedings here as
+elsewhere. The locking up of a large peasant host in Würzburg was
+undoubtedly a source of great weakness to the movement. In the east,
+in the Tyrol and Salzburg, there were similar risings to those farther
+west. In the latter case the prince-bishop was the obnoxious
+oppressor.
+
+The most interesting of the local movements was, however, in many
+respects that of Thomas Münzer in the town of Mülhausen, in Thuringia.
+Thomas Münzer is, perhaps, the best known of all the names in the
+peasants' revolt. In addition to the ultra-Protestantism of his
+theological views, Münzer had as his object the establishment of a
+communistic Christian Commonwealth. He started a practical
+exemplification of this among his own followers in the town itself.
+
+Up to the beginning of May the insurrection had carried everything
+before it. Truchsess and his men of the Swabian League had proved
+themselves unable to cope with it. Matters now changed. Knights,
+men-at-arms, and free-lances were returning from the Italian campaign
+of Charles V after the battle of Pavia. Everywhere the revolt met with
+disaster. The Mülhausen insurgents were destroyed at Frankenhausen by
+forces of the Count of Hesse, of the Duke of Brunswick, and of the
+Duke of Saxony. This was on May 15th. Three days before the defeat at
+Frankenhausen, on May 12th, a decisive defeat was inflicted on the
+peasants by the forces of the Swabian League, under Truchsess, at
+Böblingen, in Würtemberg. Savage ferocity signalized the treatment of
+the defeated peasants by the soldiery of the nobles. Jäcklein Rohrbach
+was roasted alive. Truchsess with his soldiery then hurried north and
+inflicted a heavy defeat on the Franconian peasant contingents at
+Königshaven, on the Tauber. These three defeats, following one
+another in little more than a fortnight, broke the back of the whole
+movement in Germany proper. In Elsass and Lorraine the insurrection
+was crushed by the hired troops and the Duke of Lorraine; eastward, on
+the little river Luibas. In the Austrian territories, under the able
+leadership of Michael Gaismayr, one of the lesser nobility, it
+continued for some months longer, and the fear of Gaismayr, who, it
+should be said, was the only man of really constructive genius the
+movement had produced, maintained itself with the privileged classes
+till his murder in the autumn of 1528, at the instance of the Bishop
+of Brixen.
+
+The great peasant insurrection in Germany failed through want of a
+well-thought-out plan and tactics, and, above all, through a want of
+cohesion among the various peasant forces operating in different
+sections of the country, between which no regular communications were
+kept up. The attitude of Martin Luther towards the peasants and their
+cause was base in the extreme. His action was mainly embodied in two
+documents, of which the first was issued about the middle of April,
+and the second a month later. The difference in tone between them is
+sufficiently striking. In the first, which bore the title, "An
+Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Peasantry in
+Swabia," Luther sits on the fence, admonishing both parties of what he
+deemed their shortcomings. He was naturally pleased with those
+articles that demanded the free preaching of the Gospel and abused the
+Catholic clergy, and was not indisposed to assent to many of the
+economic demands. In fact, the document strikes one as distinctly more
+favourable to the insurgents than to their opponents.
+
+"We have," he wrote, "no one to thank for this mischief and sedition,
+save ye princes and lords, in especial ye blind bishops and mad
+priests and monks, who up to this day remain obstinate and do not
+cease to rage and rave against the holy Gospel, albeit ye know that it
+is righteous, and that ye may not gainsay it. Moreover, in your
+worldly regiment, ye do naught otherwise than flay and extort tribute,
+that ye may satisfy your pomp and vanity, till the poor, common man
+cannot, and may not, bear with it longer. The sword is on your neck.
+Ye think ye sit so strongly in your seats, that none may cast you from
+them. Such presumption and obstinate pride will twist your necks, as
+ye will see." And again: "God hath made it thus that they cannot, and
+will not, longer bear with your raging. If ye do it not of your free
+will, so shall ye be made to do it by way of violence and undoing."
+Once more: "It is not peasants, my dear lords, who have set themselves
+up against you. God Himself it is who setteth Himself against you to
+chastise your evil-doing."
+
+He counsels the princes and lords to make peace with their peasants,
+observing with reference to the "Twelve Articles" that some of them
+are so just and righteous that before God and the world their
+worthiness is manifested, making good the words of the psalm that they
+heap contempt upon the heads of the princes. Whilst he warns the
+peasants against sedition and rebellion, and criticizes some of the
+Articles as going beyond the justification of Holy Writ, and whilst he
+makes side-hits at "the prophets of murder and the spirits of
+confusion which had found their way among them," the general
+impression given by the pamphlet is, as already said, one of
+unmistakable friendliness to the peasants and hostility to the lords.
+
+The manifesto may be summed up in the following terms: Both sides are,
+strictly speaking, in the wrong, but the princes and lords have
+provoked the "common man" by their unjust exactions and oppressions;
+the peasants, on their side, have gone too far in many of their
+demands, notably in the refusal to pay tithes, and most of all in the
+notion of abolishing villeinage, which Luther declares to be
+"straightway contrary to the Gospel and thievish." The great sin of
+the princes remains, however, that of having thrown stumbling-blocks
+in the way of the Gospel--_bien entendu_ the Gospel according to
+Luther--and the main virtue of the peasants was their claim to have
+this Gospel preached. It can scarcely be doubted that the ambiguous
+tone of Luther's rescript was interpreted by the rebellious peasants
+to their advantage and served to stimulate, rather than to check, the
+insurrection.
+
+Meanwhile, the movement rose higher and higher, and reached Thuringia,
+the district with which Luther personally was most associated. His
+patron, and what is more, the only friend of toleration in high
+places, the noble-minded Elector Friedrich of Saxony, fell ill and
+died on May 5th, and was succeeded by his younger brother Johann, the
+same who afterwards assisted in the suppression of the Thuringian
+revolt. Almost immediately thereupon Luther, who had been visiting his
+native town of Eisleben, travelled through the revolted districts on
+his way back to Wittenberg. He everywhere encountered black looks and
+jeers. When he preached, the Münzerites would drown his voice by the
+ringing of bells. The signs of rebellion greeted him on all sides.
+The "Twelve Articles" were constantly thrown at his head. As the
+reports of violence towards the property and persons of some of his
+own noble friends reached him his rage broke all bounds. He seems,
+however, to have prudently waited a few days, until the cause of the
+peasants was obviously hopeless, before publicly taking his stand on
+the side of the authorities.
+
+On his arrival in Wittenberg, he wrote a second pronouncement on the
+contemporary events, in which no uncertainty was left as to his
+attitude. It is entitled, "Against the Murderous and Thievish Bands of
+Peasants."[24] Here he lets himself loose on the side of the
+oppressors with a bestial ferocity. "Crush them" (the peasants), he
+writes, "strangle them and pierce them, in secret places and in sight
+of men, he who can, even as one would strike dead a mad dog!" All
+having authority who hesitated to extirpate the insurgents to the
+uttermost were committing a sin against God. "Findest thou thy death
+therein," he writes, addressing the reader, "happy art thou: a more
+blessed death can never overtake thee, for thou diest in obedience to
+the Divine word and the command of Romans xiii. 1, and in the service
+of love, to save thy neighbour from the bonds of hell and the devil."
+Never had there been such an infamous exhortation to the most
+dastardly murder on a wholesale scale since the Albigensian crusade
+with its "Strike them all: God will know His own"--a sentiment indeed
+that Luther almost literally reproduces in one passage.
+
+The attitude of the official Lutheran party towards the poor
+countryfolk continued as infamous after the war as it had been on the
+first sign that fortune was forsaking their cause. Like master, like
+man. Luther's jackal, the "gentle" Melanchthon, specially signalized
+himself by urging on the feudal barons with Scriptural arguments to
+the blood-sucking and oppression of their villeins. A humane and
+honourable nobleman, Heinrich von Einsiedel, was touched in conscience
+at the _corvées_ and heavy dues to which he found himself entitled. He
+sent to Luther for advice upon the subject. Luther replied that the
+existing exactions which had been handed down to him from his parents
+need not trouble his conscience, adding that it would not be good for
+_corvées_ to be given up, since the "common man" ought to have
+burdens imposed upon him, as otherwise he would become overbearing. He
+further remarked that a severe treatment in material things was
+pleasing to God, even though it might seem to be too harsh. Spalatin
+writes in a like strain that the burdens in Germany were, if anything,
+too light. Subjects, according to Melanchthon, ought to know that they
+are serving God in the burdens they bear for their superiors, whether
+it were journeying, paying tribute, or otherwise, and as pleasing to
+God as though they raised the dead at God's own behest. Subjects
+should look up to their lords as wise and just men, and hence be
+thankful to them. However unjust, tyrannical, and cruel the lord might
+be, there was never any justification for rebellion.
+
+A friend and follower of Luther and Melanchthon--Martin Butzer by
+name--went still farther. According to this "reforming" worthy a
+subject was to obey his lord in everything. This was all that
+concerned him. It was not for him to consider whether what was
+enjoined was, or was not, contrary to the will of God. That was a
+matter for his feudal superior and God to settle between them.
+Referring to the doctrines of the revolutionary sects, Butzer urges
+the authorities to extirpate all those professing a false religion.
+Such men, he says, deserve a heavier punishment than thieves,
+robbers, and murderers. Even their wives and innocent children and
+cattle should be destroyed (_ap. Janssen_, vol. i. p. 595).
+
+Luther himself quotes, in a sermon on "Genesis," the instances of
+Abraham and Abimelech and other Old Testament worthies, as justifying
+slavery and the treatment of a slave as a beast of burden. "Sheep,
+cattle, men-servants and maid-servants, they were all possessions,"
+says Luther, "to be sold as it pleased them like other beasts. It were
+even a good thing were it still so. For else no man may compel nor
+tame the servile folk" (_Sämmtliche Werke_, vol. xv. p. 276). In other
+discourses he enforces the same doctrine, observing that if the world
+is to last for any time, and is to be kept going, it will be necessary
+to restore the patriarchal condition. Capito, the Strassburg preacher,
+in a letter to a colleague, writes lamenting that the pamphlets and
+discourses of Luther had contributed not a little to give edge to the
+bloodthirsty vengeance of the princes and nobles after the
+insurrection.
+
+The total number of the peasants and their allies who fell either in
+fighting or at the hands of the executioners is estimated by Anselm in
+his _Berner Chronik_ at 130,000. It was certainly not less than
+100,000. For months after the executioner was active in many of the
+affected districts. Spalatin says: "Of hanging and beheading there is
+no end." Another writer has it: "It was all so that even a stone had
+been moved to pity, for the chastisement and vengeance of the
+conquering lords was great." The executions within the jurisdiction of
+the Swabian League alone are stated at 10,000. Truchsess's provost
+boasted of having hanged or beheaded 1,200 with his own hand. More
+than 50,000 fugitives were recorded. These, according to a Swabian
+League order, were all outlawed in such wise that any one who found
+them might slay them without fear of consequences.
+
+The sentences and executions were conducted with true mediæval levity.
+It is narrated in a contemporary chronicle that in one village in the
+Henneberg territory all the inhabitants had fled on the approach of
+the Count and his men-at-arms save two tilers. The two were being led
+to execution when one appeared to weep bitterly, and his reply to
+interrogatories was that he bewailed the dwellings of the aristocracy
+thereabouts, for henceforth there would be no one to supply them with
+durable tiles. Thereupon his companion burst out laughing, because,
+said he, it had just occurred to him that he would not know where to
+place his hat after his head had been taken off. These mildly humorous
+remarks obtained for both of them a free pardon.
+
+The aspect of those parts of the country where the war had most
+heavily raged was deplorable in the extreme. In addition to the many
+hundreds of castles and monasteries destroyed, almost as many villages
+and small towns had been levelled with the ground by one side or the
+other, especially by the Swabian League and the various princely
+forces. Many places were annihilated for having taken part with the
+peasants, even when they had been compelled by force to do so. Fields
+in these districts were everywhere laid waste or left uncultivated.
+Enormous sums were exacted as indemnity. In many of the villages
+peasants previously well-to-do were ruined. There seemed no limit to
+the bleeding of the "common man," under the pretence of compensation
+for damage done by the insurrection.
+
+The condition of the families of the dead and of the fugitives was
+appalling. Numbers perished from starvation. The wives and children of
+the insurgents were in some cases forcibly driven from their
+homesteads and even from their native territory. In one of the
+pamphlets published in 1525 anent the events of that year we read:
+"Houses are burned; fields and vineyards lie fallow; clothes and
+household goods are robbed or burned; cattle and sheep are taken away;
+the same as to horses and trappings. The prince, the gentleman, or the
+nobleman will have his rent and due. Eternal God, whither shall the
+widows and poor children go forth to seek it?" Referring to the
+Lutheran campaign against friars and poor scholars, beggars, and
+pilgrims, the writer observes: "Think ye now that because of God's
+anger for the sake of one beggar, ye must even for a season bear with
+twenty, thirty, nay, still more?"
+
+The courts of arbitration, which were established in various districts
+to adjudicate on the relations between lords and villeins, were
+naturally not given to favour the latter, whilst the fact that large
+numbers of deeds and charters had been burnt or otherwise destroyed in
+the course of the insurrection left open an extensive field for the
+imposition of fresh burdens. The record of the proceedings of one of
+the most important of these courts--that of the Swabian League's
+jurisdiction, which sat at Memmingen--in the dispute between the
+prince-abbot of Kempten and his villeins is given in full in Baumann's
+_Akten_, pp. 329-46. Here, however, the peasants did not come off so
+badly as in some other places. Meanwhile, all the other evils of the
+time, the monopolies of the merchant-princes of the cities and of the
+trading-syndicates, the dearness of living, the scarcity of money,
+etc., did not abate, but rather increased from year to year. The
+Catholic Church maintained itself especially in the South of Germany,
+and the official Reformation took on a definitely aristocratic
+character.
+
+According to Baumann (_Akten, Vorwort_, v, vi), the true soul of the
+movement of 1525 consisted in the notion of "Divine justice," the
+principle "that all relations, whether of political, social, or
+religious nature, have got to be ordered according to the directions
+of the 'Gospel' as the sole and exclusive source and standard of all
+justice." The same writer maintains that there are three phases in the
+development of this idea, according to which he would have the scheme
+of historical investigation subdivided. In Upper Swabia, says he,
+"Divine justice" found expression in the well-known "Twelve Articles,"
+but here the notion of a political reformation was as good as absent.
+
+In the second phase, the "Divine justice" idea began to be applied to
+political conditions. In Tyrol and the Austrian dominions, he
+observes, this political side manifested itself in local or, at best,
+territorial patriotism. It was only in Franconia that all territorial
+patriotism or "particularism" was shaken off and the idea of the unity
+of the German peoples received as a political goal. The Franconian
+influence gained over the Würtembergers to a large extent, and the
+plan of reform elaborated by Weigand and Hipler for the Heilbronn
+Parliament was the most complete expression of this second phase of
+the movement.
+
+The third phase is represented by the rising in Thuringia, and
+especially in its intellectual head, Thomas Münzer. Here we have the
+doctrine of "Divine justice" taking precedence of all else and
+assuming the form of a thoroughgoing theocratic scheme, to be realized
+by the German people.
+
+This division Baumann is led to make with a view to the formulation of
+a convenient scheme for a "codex" of documents relating to the
+Peasants' War. It may be taken as, in the main, the best general
+division that can be put forward, although, as we have seen, there are
+places where, and times when, the practical demands of the movement
+seem to have asserted themselves directly and spontaneously apart from
+any theory whatever.
+
+Of the fate of many of the most active leaders of the revolt we know
+nothing. Several heads of the movement, according to a contemporary
+writer, wandered about for a long time in misery, some of them indeed
+seeking refuge with the Turks, who were still a standing menace to
+Imperial Christendom. The popular preachers vanished also on the
+suppression of the movement. The disastrous result of the Peasants'
+War was prejudicial even to Luther's cause in South Germany. The
+Catholic party reaped the advantage everywhere, evangelical preachers,
+even, where not insurrectionists, being persecuted. Little
+distinction, in fact, was made in most districts between an opponent
+of the Catholic Church from Luther's standpoint and one from
+Karlstadt's or Hubmayer's. Amongst seventy-one heretics arraigned
+before the Austrian court at Ensisheim, only one was acquitted. The
+others were broken on the wheel, burnt, or drowned.
+
+There were some who were arrested ten or fifteen years later on
+charges connected with the 1525 revolt. Treachery, of course, played a
+large part, as it has done in all defeated movements, in ensuring the
+fate of many of those who had been at all prominent. In fairness to
+Luther, who otherwise played such a villainous rôle in connection with
+the peasants' movement, the fact should be recorded that he sheltered
+his old colleague, Karlstadt, for a short time in the Augustine
+monastery at Wittenberg, after the latter's escape from Rothenburg.
+
+Wendel Hipler continued for some time at liberty, and might probably
+have escaped altogether had he not entered a protest against the
+Counts of Hohenlohe for having seized a portion of his private fortune
+that lay within their power. The result of his action might have been
+foreseen. The Counts, on hearing of it, revenged themselves by
+accusing him of having been a chief pillar of the rebellion. He had to
+flee immediately, and, after wandering about for some time in a
+disguise, one of the features of which is stated to have been a false
+nose, he was seized on his way to the Reichstag which was being held
+at Speier in 1526. Tenacious of his property to the last, he had hoped
+to obtain restitution of his rights from the assembled estates of the
+empire. Some months later he died in prison at Neustadt.
+
+Of the victors, Truchsess and Frundsberg considered themselves badly
+treated by the authorities whom they had served so well, and
+Frundsberg even composed a lament on his neglect. This he loved to
+hear sung to the accompaniment of the harp as he swilled down his red
+wine. The cruel Markgraf Kasimir met a miserable death not long after
+from dysentery, whilst Cardinal Matthaus Lang, the Archbishop of
+Salzburg, ended his days insane.
+
+Of the fate of other prominent men connected with the events
+described, we have spoken in the course of the narrative.
+
+The castles and religious houses, which were destroyed, as already
+said, to the number of many hundreds, were in most cases not built up
+again. The ruins of not a few of them are visible to this day. Their
+owners often spent the sums relentlessly wrung out of the "common man"
+as indemnity in the extravagances of a gay life in the free towns or
+in dancing attendance at the Courts of the princes and the higher
+nobles. The collapse of the revolt was indeed an important link in the
+particular chain of events that was so rapidly destroying the
+independent existence of the lower nobility as a separate status with
+a definite political position, and transforming the face of society
+generally. Life in the smaller castle, the knight's _burg_ or tower,
+was already tending to become an anachronism. The Court of the prince,
+lay or ecclesiastic, was attracting to itself all the elements of
+nobility below it in the social hierarchy. The revolt of 1525 gave a
+further edge to this development, the first act of which closed with
+the collapse of the knights' rebellion and death of Sickingen in 1523.
+The knight was becoming superfluous in the economy of the body
+politic.
+
+The rise of capitalism, the sudden development of the world-market,
+the substitution of a money medium of exchange for direct barter--all
+these new factors were doing their work. Obviously the great gainers
+by the events of the momentous year were the representatives of the
+centralizing principle. But the effective centralizing principle was
+not represented by the Emperor, for he stood for what was after all
+largely a sham centralism, because it was a centralism on a scale for
+which the Germanic world was not ripe. Princes and margraves were
+destined to be bearers of the _territorial_ centralization, the only
+real one to which the German peoples were to attain for a long time to
+come. Accordingly, just as the provincial _grand seigneur_ of France
+became the courtier of the King at Paris or Versailles, so the
+previously quasi-independent German knight or baron became the
+courtier or hanger-on of the prince within or near whose territory his
+hereditary manor was situate.
+
+The eventful year 1525 was truly a landmark in German history in many
+ways--the year of one of the most accredited exploits of Doctor
+Faustus, the last mythical hero the progressive races have created;
+the year in which Martin Luther, the ex-monk, capped his repudiation
+of Catholicism and all its ways by marrying an ex-nun; the year of the
+definite victory of Charles V. the German Emperor, over Francis I. the
+French King, which meant the final assertion of the "Holy Roman
+Empire" as being a national German institution; and last, but not
+least, the year of the greatest and the most widespread popular
+movement Central Europe had yet seen, and the last of the mediæval
+peasant risings on a large scale. The movement of the eventful year
+did not, however, as many hoped and many feared, within any short time
+rise up again from its ashes, after discomfiture had overtaken it. In
+1526, it is true, the genius of Gaismayr succeeded in resuscitating
+it, not without prospect of ultimate success, in the Tyrol and other
+of the Austrian territories. In this year, moreover, in other outlying
+districts, even outside German-speaking populations, the movement
+flickered. Thus the traveller between the town of Bellinzona, in the
+Swiss Canton of Ticino, and the Bernardino Pass, in Canton Graubünden,
+may see to-day an imposing ruin, situated on an eminence in the narrow
+valley just above the small Italian-speaking town of Misox. This was
+one of the ancestral strongholds of the family, well known in Italian
+history, of the Trefuzios or Trevulzir, and was sacked by the
+inhabitants of Misox and the neighbouring peasants in the summer of
+1526, contemporaneously with Gaismayr's rising in the Tyrol. A
+connection between the two events would be difficult to trace, but the
+destruction of the castle of Misox, if not a purely spontaneous local
+effervescence, looks like an afterglow of the great movement, such as
+may well have happened in other secluded mountain valleys.
+
+The Peasants' War in Germany we have been considering is the last
+great mediæval uprising of the agrarian classes in Europe. Its result
+was, with some few exceptions, a riveting of the peasant's chains and
+an increase of his burdens. More than 1,000 castles and religious
+houses were destroyed in Germany alone during 1525. Many priceless
+works of mediæval art of all kinds perished. But we must not allow our
+regret at such vandalism to blind us in any way to the intrinsic
+righteousness of the popular demands.
+
+The elements of revolution now became absorbed by the Anabaptist
+movement, a continuation primarily in the religious sphere of the
+doctrines of the Zwickau enthusiasts and also in many respects of
+Thomas Münzer. At first Northern Switzerland, especially the towns of
+Basel and Zürich, were the headquarters of the new sect, which,
+however, spread rapidly on all sides. Persecution of the direst
+description did not destroy it. On the contrary, it seemed only to
+have the effect of evoking those social and revolutionary elements
+latent within it which were at first overshadowed by more purely
+theological interests. As it was, the hopes and aspirations of the
+"common man" revived this time in a form indissolubly associated with
+the theocratic commonwealth, the most prominent representative of
+which during the earlier movement had been Thomas Münzer.
+
+But, notwithstanding resemblances, it is utterly incorrect, as has
+sometimes been done, to describe any of the leaders of the great
+peasant rebellion of 1525 as Anabaptists. The Anabaptist sect, it is
+true, originated in Switzerland during the rising, but it was then
+confined to a small coterie of unknown enthusiasts, holding
+semi-private meetings in Zürich. It was from these small beginnings
+that the great Anabaptist movement of ten years later arose. It is
+directly from them that the Anabaptist movement of history dates its
+origin. Movements of a similar character, possessing a strong family
+likeness, belong to the mental atmosphere of the time in Germany. The
+so-called Zwickau prophets, for example, Nicholas Storch and his
+colleagues, seem in their general attitude to have approached very
+closely to the principles of the Anabaptist sectaries. But even here
+it is incorrect to regard them, as has often been done, as directly
+connected with the latter; still more as themselves the germ of the
+Anabaptist party of the following years. Thomas Münzer, the only
+leader of the movement of 1525 who seems to have been acquainted with
+the Zürich enthusiasts, was by no means at one with them on many
+points, notably refusing to attach any importance to their special
+sign, rebaptism. Chief among the Zürich coterie may be mentioned
+Konrad Grebel, at whose house the sect first of all assembled. At
+first the Anabaptist movement at Zürich was regarded as an extreme
+wing of the party of the Church reformer, Zwingli, in that city, but
+it was not long before it broke off entirely from the latter, and
+hostilities, ensuing in persecution for the new party, broke out.
+
+To understand the true inwardness of the Anabaptist and similar
+movements, it is necessary to endeavour to think oneself back into the
+intellectual conditions of the period. The Biblical text itself, now
+everywhere read and re-read in the German language, was pondered and
+discussed in the house of the handicraftsman and in the hut of the
+peasant, with as much confidence of interpretation as in the study of
+the professional theologian. But there were also not a few of the
+latter order, as we have seen, who were becoming disgusted with the
+trend of the official Reformation and its leading representatives. The
+Bible thus afforded a _point d'appui_ for the mystical tendencies now
+becoming universally prominent--a _point d'appui_ lacking to the
+earlier movements of the same kind that were so constantly arising
+during the Middle Ages proper. Seen in the dim religious light of a
+continuous reading of the Bible and of very little else, the world
+began to appear in a new aspect to the simple soul who practised it.
+All things seemed filled with the immediate presence of Deity. He who
+felt a call pictured himself as playing the part of the Hebrew
+prophet. He gathered together a small congregation of followers, who
+felt themselves as the children of God in the midst of a heathen
+world. Did not the fall of the old Church mean that the day was at
+hand when the elect should govern the world? It was not so much
+positive doctrines as an attitude of mind that was the ruling spirit
+in Anabaptism and like movements. Similarly, it was undoubtedly such a
+sensitive impressionism rather than any positive dogma that dominated
+the first generation of the Christian Church itself. How this acted
+in the case of the earlier Anabaptists we shall presently see.
+
+The new Zürich sect, by one of those seemingly inscrutable chances in
+similar cases of which history is full, not only prospered greatly but
+went forth conquering and to conquer. It spread rapidly northward,
+eastward, and westward. In the course of its victorious career it
+absorbed into itself all similar tendencies and local groups and
+movements having like aims to itself. As was natural under such
+circumstances, we find many different strains in the developed
+Anabaptist movement. The theologian Bullinger wrote a book on the
+subject, in which he enumerates thirteen distinct sects, as he terms
+them, in the Anabaptist body. The general tenets of the organization,
+as given by Bullinger, may be summarized as follows: They regard
+themselves as the true Church of Christ well pleasing to God; they
+believe that by rebaptism a man is received into the Church; they
+refuse to hold intercourse with other Churches or to recognize their
+ministers; they say that the preachings of these are different from
+their works, that no man is the better for their preaching, that their
+ministers follow not the teaching of Paul, that they take payment from
+their benefices, but do not work by their hands; that the Sacraments
+are improperly served, and that every man, who feels the call, has
+the right to preach; they maintain that the literal text of the
+Scriptures shall be accepted without comment or the additions of
+theologians; they protest against the Lutheran doctrine of
+justification by faith alone; they maintain that true Christian love
+makes it inconsistent for any Christian to be rich, but that among the
+Brethren all things should be in common, or, at least, all available
+for the assistance of needy Brethren and for the common cause; that
+the attitude of the Christian towards authority should be that of
+submission and endurance only; that no Christian ought to take office
+of any kind, or to take part in any form of military service; that
+secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that the
+Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law courts nor should
+ever make use of their tribunals; that Christians do not kill or
+punish with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from
+the body of believers; that no man should be compelled by force to
+believe, nor should any be slain on account of his faith; that infant
+baptism is sinful and that adult baptism is the only Christian
+baptism--baptism being a sacrament which should be reserved for the
+elect alone.
+
+Such seem to represent the doctrines forming the common ground of the
+Anabaptist groups as they existed at the end of the second decade of
+the fifteenth century. There were, however, as Heinrich Bullinger and
+his contemporary, Sebastian Franck, point out, numerous divergencies
+between the various sections of the party. Many of these recalled
+other mediæval heretic sects, e.g. the Cathari, the Brothers and
+Sisters of the Spirit, the Bohemian Brethren, etc.
+
+For the first few years of its existence Anabaptism remained true to
+its original theologico-ethical principles. The doctrine of
+non-resistance was strictly adhered to. The Brethren believed in
+themselves as the elect, and that they had only to wait in prayer and
+humility for the "advent of Christ and His saints," the "restitution
+of all things," the "establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth,"
+or by whatever other phrase the dominant idea of the coming change was
+expressed. During the earlier years of the movement the Anabaptists
+were peaceable and harmless fanatics and visionaries. In some cases,
+as in Moravia, they formed separate communities of their own, some of
+which survived as religious sects long after the extinction of the
+main movement.
+
+In the earlier years of the fourth decade of the century, however, a
+change came over a considerable section of the movement. In Central
+and South-eastern Germany, notably in the Moravian territories,
+barring isolated individuals here and there, the Anabaptist party
+continued to maintain its attitude of non-resistance and the
+voluntariness of association which characterized it at first. The
+fearful waves of persecution, however, which successively swept over
+it were successful at last in partially checking its progress. At
+length the only places in this part of the empire where it succeeded
+in retaining any effective organization was in the Moravian
+territories, where persecution was less strong and the communities
+more closely knit together than elsewhere. Otherwise persecution had
+played sad havoc with the original Anabaptist groups throughout
+Central Europe.
+
+Meanwhile a movement had sprung up in Western and Northern Germany,
+following the course of the Rhine Valley, that effectually threw the
+older movement of Southern and Eastern Germany into the background.
+These earlier movements remained essentially religious and
+theological, owing, as Cornelius points out (_Münsterische Aufruhr_,
+vol. ii. p. 74), to the fact that they came immediately after the
+overthrow of the great political movement of 1552. But although the
+older Anabaptism did not itself take political shape, it succeeded in
+keeping alive the tendencies and the enthusiasm out of which, under
+favourable circumstances, a political movement inevitably grows. The
+result was, as Cornelius further observes, an agitation of such a
+sweeping character that the fourth decade of the sixteenth century
+seemed destined to realize the ideals which the third decade had
+striven for in vain.
+
+The new direction in Anabaptism began in the rich and powerful
+Imperial city of Strassburg, where peculiar circumstances afforded the
+Brethren a considerable amount of toleration. It was in the year 1526
+that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg. It was
+Anabaptism of the original type and conducted on the old
+theologico-ethical lines. But early in the year 1529 there arrived in
+Strassburg a much-travelled man, a skinner by trade, by name Melchior
+Hoffmann. He had been an enthusiastic adherent of the Reformation, and
+it was not long before he joined the Strassburg Anabaptists and made
+his mark in their community. Owing to his personal magnetism and
+oratorical gifts, Melchior soon came to be regarded as a specially
+ordained prophet and to have acquired corresponding influence. After a
+few months Hoffmann seems to have left Strassburg for a propagandist
+tour along the Rhine. The tour, apparently, had great success, the
+Baptist communities being founded in all important towns as far as
+Holland, in which latter country the doctrines spread rapidly. The
+Anabaptism, however, taught by Melchior and his disciples did not
+include the precept of patient submission to wrong which was such a
+prominent characteristic of its earlier phase.
+
+Some time after his reception into the Anabaptist body at Strassburg,
+Hoffmann, while in most other points accepting the prevalent doctrines
+of the Brethren, broke entirely loose from the doctrine of
+non-resistance, maintaining, in theory at least, the right of the
+elect to employ the sword against the worldly authorities, "the
+godless," "the enemies of the saints." It was predicted, he
+maintained, that a two-edged sword should be given into the hands of
+the saints to destroy the "mystery of iniquity," the existing
+principalities and powers, and the time was now at hand when this
+prophecy should be fulfilled. The new movement in the North-west, in
+the lower Rhenish districts, and the adjacent Westphalia sprang up and
+extended itself, therefore, under the domination of this idea of the
+reign of the saints in the approaching millennium and of the notion
+that passive non-resistance, whilst for the time being a duty, only
+remained so until the coming of the Lord should give the signal for
+the saints to rise and join in the destruction of the kingdoms of
+this world and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth.
+Hoffmann's whole learning seems to have been limited to the Bible, but
+this he knew from cover to cover. A diffusion of Luther's translation
+of the Bible had produced a revolution. The poorer classes, who were
+able to read at all, pored over the Bible, together with such popular
+tracts or pamphlets commenting thereon, or treating current social
+questions in the light of Biblical story and teaching, as came into
+their hands. The followers of the new movement in question acquired
+the name of Melchiorites. Hoffmann now published a book explanatory of
+his ideas, called _The Ordinance of God_, which had an enormous
+popularity. It was followed up by other writings, amplifying and
+defending the main thesis it contained.
+
+Outwardly the Melchiorite communities of the North-west had the same
+peaceful character as those of South Germany and Moravia, holding as
+they did in the main the same doctrines. It was ominous, however, that
+Melchior Hoffmann was proclaimed as the prophet Elijah returned
+according to promise. Up to 1533 Strassburg continued to be regarded
+as the chief seat of Anabaptism, especially by Melchior and his
+disciples. It was, they declared, to be the New Jerusalem, from which
+the saints should march out to conquer the world. Melchior, on his
+return journey to Strassburg from his journey northwards, proclaimed
+the end of 1533 as the date of the second advent and the inauguration
+of the reign of the saints. Owing to the excitement among the poorer
+population of the town consequent upon Hoffmann's preaching, the
+prophet was arrested and imprisoned in one of the towers of the city
+wall. But 1533 came and went without the Lord or His saints appearing,
+while poor Hoffmann remained confined in the tower of the city wall.
+
+Meanwhile the new Anabaptism spread and fermented along the Rhine, and
+especially in Holland. In the latter country its chief exponent was a
+master baker at Harleem, by name Jan Matthys, who seems to have been a
+born leader of men. While preaching essentially the same doctrines as
+Hoffmann, with Matthys a Holy War, in a literal sense, was placed in
+the forefront of his teaching. With him there was to be no delay. It
+was the duty of all the Brethren to show their zeal by at once seizing
+the sword of sharpness and mowing down the godless therewith. In this
+sense Matthys completed the transformation begun by Hoffmann. Melchior
+had indeed rejected the non-resistance doctrine in its absolute form,
+but he does not appear in his teaching to have uniformly emphasized
+the point, and certainly did not urge the destruction of the godless
+as an immediate duty to be fulfilled without delay. With him was
+always the suggestion, expressed or implied, of waiting for the signal
+from heaven, the coming of the Lord, before proceeding to action. With
+Matthys there was no need for waiting, even for a day; the time was
+not merely at hand, it had already come. His influence among the
+Brethren was immense. If Melchior Hoffmann had been Elijah, Jan
+Matthys was Elisha, who should bring his work to a conclusion.
+
+Among Matthys' most intimate followers was Jan Bockelson, from Leyden.
+Bockelson was a handsome and striking figure. He was the illegitimate
+son of one Bockel, a merchant and Bürgermeister of Saevenhagen, by a
+peasant woman from the neighbourhood of Münster, who was in his
+service. After Jan's birth Bockel married the woman and bought her her
+freedom from the villein status that was hers by heredity. Jan was
+taught the tailoring handicraft at Leyden, but seems to have received
+little schooling. His natural abilities, however, were considerable,
+and he eagerly devoured the religious and propagandist literature of
+the time. Amongst other writings the pamphlets of Thomas Münzer
+especially fascinated him. He travelled a good deal, visiting Mechlin
+and working at his trade for four years in London. Returning home, he
+threw himself into the Anabaptist agitation, and, scarcely twenty-five
+years old, he was won over to the doctrines of Jan Matthys. The latter
+with his younger colleague welded the Anabaptist communities in
+Holland and the adjacent German territories into a well-organized
+federation. They were more homogeneous in theory than those of
+Southern and Eastern Germany, being practically all united on the
+basis of the Hoffmann-Matthys propaganda.
+
+The episcopal town of Münster, in Westphalia, like other places in the
+third decade of the sixteenth century, became strongly affected by the
+Reformation. But that the ferment of the time was by no means wholly
+the outcome of religious zeal, as subsequent historians have persisted
+in representing it, was recognized by the contemporary heads of the
+official Reformation. Thus, writing to Luther under date August 29,
+1530, his satellite, Melanchthon, has the candour to admit that the
+Imperial cities "care not for religion, for their endeavour is only
+toward domination and freedom." As the principal town of Westphalia at
+this time may be reckoned the chief city of the bishopric of Münster,
+this important ecclesiastical principality was held "immediately of
+the empire." It had as its neighbours Ost-Friesland, Oldenburg, the
+bishopric of Osnabrück, the county of Marck, and the duchies of Berg
+and Cleves. Its territory was half the size of the present province of
+Westphalia, and was divided into the upper and lower diocese, which
+were separated by the territory of Fecklenburg. The bishop was a
+prince of the empire and one of the most important magnates of
+North-western Germany, but in ecclesiastical matters he was under the
+Archbishop of Köln. The diocese had been founded by Charles the Great.
+
+Owing to a succession of events, beginning in 1529, which for those
+interested we may mention may be found discussed in full detail in
+_The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (124-71), by the present
+writer, the extreme wing of the Reformation party had early gained the
+upper hand in the city, and subsequently became fused with the native
+Anabaptists, who were soon reinforced by their co-religionists from
+the country round, as well as from the not far distant Holland; for it
+should be said that the Dutch followers of Hoffmann and Matthys had
+been energetic in carrying their faith into the towns of Westphalia as
+elsewhere. Without entering in detail into the events leading up to
+it, it is sufficient for our purpose to state that by a perfectly
+lawful election, held on February 23, 1534, the Government of Münster
+was reconstituted and the Anabaptists obtained supreme political
+power. Hearing of the way things were going in Münster, Matthys and
+his followers had already taken up their abode in the city a little
+time before. The cathedral and other churches were stormed and sacked
+during the following days, while all official documents and charters
+dealing with the feudal relations of the town were given to the flames
+during the ensuing month. Both the moderate Protestant (Lutheran) and
+the Catholic burghers who had remained were indignant at the acts of
+destruction committed, and openly expressed their opposition. The
+result was their expulsion from the city; the condition of being
+allowed to remain became now the consent to rebaptism and the formal
+adoption of Anabaptist principles.
+
+Münster now took the place Strassburg had previously held as the
+rallying point of the Anabaptist faithful, whence a crusade against
+the Powers of the world was to issue forth. The Government of Münster,
+though it officially consisted of the two Bürgermeisters and the new
+Council, to a man all zealous Anabaptists, left the real power and
+initiative in all measures in the hands of Jan Matthys and of his
+disciple, Jan Bockelson, of Leyden. The reign of the saints was now
+fairly begun. Various attempts at an organized communism were made,
+but these appear to have been only partially successful. One day Jan
+Matthys with twenty companions, in an access of fanatical devotion,
+made a sortie from the town towards the bishop's camp. Needless to
+say, the party were all killed. The great leader dead, Jan Bockelson
+became naturally the chief of the city and head of the movement.
+
+Bockelson proved in every way a capable successor to Matthys. A new
+Constitution was now given by Bockelson and the Dutchmen, acting as
+his prophets and preachers. It was embodied in thirty-nine articles,
+and one of its chief features was the transference of power to twelve
+elders, the number being suggested by the twelve tribes of Israel. The
+idea of reliving the life of the "chosen people," as depicted in the
+Old Testament, showed itself in various ways, amongst others by the
+notorious edict establishing polygamy. This measure, however, as Karl
+Kautsky has shown, there is good reason for thinking was probably
+induced by the economic necessity of the time, and especially by the
+enormous excess of the female over the male population of the city.
+Otherwise the Münsterites, like the Anabaptists generally, gave
+evidence of favouring asceticism in sexual matters.
+
+Considerations of space prevent us from going into further detail of
+the inner life of Münster under the Anabaptist regime during the siege
+at the hands of its overlord, the prince-bishop. This will be found
+given at length in the work already mentioned. As time went on famine
+began to attack the city.
+
+It is sufficient for our purpose to state that on the night of June 24,
+1535, the city was betrayed and that in a few hours the free-lances of
+the bishop were streaming in through all the gates. The street fighting
+was desperate; the Anabaptists showed a desperate courage, even women
+joining in the struggle, hurling missiles from the windows upon their
+foes beneath. By midday on the 25th the city of Münster, the New Zion,
+passed over once more into the power of its feudal lord, Franz von
+Waldeck, and the reign of the saints had come to an end. The vengeance
+of the conquerors was terrible; all alike, irrespective of age or sex,
+were involved in an indiscriminate butchery. The three leaders,
+Bockelson, Krechting, and Knipperdollinck, after being carried round
+captives as an exhibition through the surrounding country, were, some
+months afterwards, on January 22, 1536, executed, after being most
+horribly tortured. Their bodies were subsequently suspended in three
+cages from the top of the tower of the Lamberti church. The three cages
+were left undisturbed until a few years ago, when the old tower, having
+become structurally unsafe, was pulled down and replaced, with
+questionable taste, by an ordinary modern steeple, on which, however,
+the original cages may still be seen. A papal legate, sent on a mission
+to Münster shortly after the events in question, relates that as he and
+his retinue neared the latter town "more and more gibbets and wheels
+did we see on the highways and in the villages, where the false
+prophets and Anabaptists had suffered for their sins."
+
+The Münster incident was the culmination of the Anabaptist movement.
+After the catastrophe the militant section rapidly declined. It did
+not die out, however, until towards the end of the century. The last
+we hear of it was in 1574, when a formidable insurrection took place
+again in Westphalia, under the leadership of one Wilhelmson, the son
+of one of the escaped Anabaptist preachers of Münster. The movement
+lasted for five years. It was finally suppressed and Wilhelmson burned
+alive at Cleves on March 5, 1580. Meanwhile, soon after the fall of
+Münster, the party split asunder, a moderate section forming, which
+shortly after came under the leadership of Menno Simon. This section,
+which soon became the majority of the party, under the name of
+Mennonites, settled down into a mere religious sect. In fact, towards
+the end of the sixteenth century the Anabaptist communities on the
+continent of Europe, from Moravia on the one hand to the extreme
+North-west of Germany on the other, showed a tendency to develop into
+law-abiding and prosperous religious organizations, in many cases
+being officially recognized by the authorities.
+
+The Anabaptist revolt of the fourth decade of the sixteenth century,
+though it may be regarded partly as a continuation or recrudescence,
+showed some differences from the peasant revolt of some years
+previously. The peasant rebellion, which reached its zenith in 1525,
+was predominantly an agrarian movement, notwithstanding that it had
+had its echo among the poorer classes of the towns. The Anabaptist
+movement proper, which culminated in the Münster "reign of the saints"
+in 1534-5, was predominantly a townsman's movement, notwithstanding
+that it had a considerable support from among the peasantry. The
+Anabaptists' leaders were not, as in the case of the Peasants' War,
+in the main drawn from the class of the "man that wields the hoe" (to
+paraphrase the phraseology of the time); they were tailors, smiths,
+bakers, shoemakers, or carpenters. They belonged, in short, to the
+class of the organized handicraftsmen and journeymen who worked within
+city walls. A prominent figure in both movements was, however, the
+ex-priest or teacher. The ideal, or, if you will, the Utopian, element
+in the movement of Melchior Hoffmann, Jan Matthys, and Jan
+Bockelson--the element which expressed the social discontent of the
+time in the guise of its prevalent theological conceptions--now
+occupied the first place, while in the earlier movement it was merely
+sporadic.
+
+After the close of the sixteenth century Anabaptism lost all political
+importance on the continent of Europe. It had, however, a certain
+afterglow in this country during the following century, which lasted
+over the times of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, and may be
+traced in the movements of the "Levellers," the "Fifth Monarchy men,"
+and even among the earlier Quakers.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[23] Those interested will find the events briefly sketched in the
+present chapter exhaustively treated, with full elaboration of detail,
+in the two previous volumes of mine, _The Peasant's War in Germany_ and
+_The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (Messrs. George Allen & Unwin).
+
+[24] Amongst the curiosities of literature may be included the
+translation of the title of this manifesto by Prof. T.M. Lindsay, D.D.,
+in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 9th edition (Article, "Luther"). The
+German title is "Wider die morderischen und rauberischen Rotten der
+Bauern." Prof. Lindsay's translation is "_Against the murdering, robbing
+Rats [sic] of Peasants_"!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+POST-MEDIÆVAL GERMANY
+
+
+We have in the preceding chapters sought to give a general view of the
+social life, together with the inner political and economic movements,
+of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages which is
+generally known as the era of the Reformation. With the definite
+establishment of the Reformation and of the new political and economic
+conditions that came with it in many of the rising States of Germany,
+the Middle Ages may be considered as definitely coming to an end,
+notwithstanding that, of course, a considerable body of mediæval
+conditions of social, political, and economic life continued to
+survive all over Europe, and certainly not least in Germany.
+
+We have now to take a general and, so to say, panoramic view embracing
+three centuries and a half, dating from approximately the middle of
+the sixteenth century to the present time. Our presentation, owing to
+exigencies of space, will necessarily take the form of a mere sketch
+of events and general tendencies, but a sketch that will, we hope, be
+sufficient to connect periods and to enable the reader to understand
+better than before the forces that have built up modern Germany and
+have moulded the national character. In this long period of more than
+three centuries there are two world-historic events, or rather series
+of events, which stand out in bold relief as the causes which have
+moulded Germany directly, and the whole of Europe indirectly, up to
+the present day. These two epoch-making historical factors are (1) the
+Thirty Years' War and (2) the Rise of the Prussian Monarchy.
+
+Owing to the success of Protestantism, with its two forms of
+Lutheranism and Calvinism in various German territories, the friction
+became chronic between Catholic and Protestant interests throughout
+the length and breadth of Central Europe. The Emperor himself was
+chosen, as we know, by three ecclesiastical electors, the Archbishops
+of Köln, Trier, and Mainz, and by four princes, the Pfalzgraf, called
+in English the Elector Palatine, the Markgraves of Saxony and
+Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. The princes and other
+potentates, owing immediate allegiance to the empire alone, were
+practically independent sovereigns. The Reichstag, instituted in the
+fifteenth century, attendance at which was strictly limited to these
+immediate vassals of the empire, had proved of little effect. This was
+shown when in the middle of the sixteenth century Protestantism had
+established itself in the favour of the mass of the German peoples. It
+was vetoed by the Reichstag, with its powerful contingent of
+ecclesiastical members. Of course here the economic side of the
+question played a great part. The ecclesiastical potentates and those
+favourable to them dreaded the spread of Protestantism in view of the
+secularization of religious domains and fiefs. This, notwithstanding
+that there were not wanting bishops and abbots themselves who were not
+indisposed, as princes of the empire, to appropriate the Church lands,
+of which they were the trustees, for their own personal possessions.
+After a short civil war an arrangement was come to at the Treaty of
+Passau in 1552, which was in the main ratified by the Reichstag held
+at Augsburg in 1555 (the so-called Peace of Augsburg); but the
+arrangement was artificial and proved itself untenable as a permanent
+instrument of peace.
+
+During the latter part of the sixteenth century two magnates of the
+empire, the Duke of Bavaria on the Catholic side and the Calvinist,
+Christian of Anhalt, on the Protestant, played the chief rôle, the
+Lutheran Markgrave of Saxony taking up a moderate position as
+mediator. Of the Reichstag of Augsburg it should be said that it had
+ignored the Calvinist section of the Protestant party altogether, only
+recognizing the Lutheran. In 1608 the Protestant Union, which embraced
+Lutherans and Calvinists alike, was founded under the leadership of
+Christian of Anhalt. It was most powerful in Southern Germany. This
+was countered immediately by the foundation under Maximilian, Duke of
+Bavaria, of a Catholic League. The friction, which was now becoming
+acute, went on increasing till the actual outbreak of the Thirty
+Years' War in 1618. The signal for the latter was given by the
+Bohemian revolution in the spring of that year.
+
+The Thirty Years' War, as it is termed, which was really a series of
+wars, naturally falls into five distinct periods, each representing in
+many respects a separate war in itself. The first two years of the war
+(1618-20) is occupied with the Bohemian revolt against the attempt of
+the Emperor to force Catholicism upon the Bohemian people and with its
+immediate consequences. It was accentuated by the attempt of the
+Emperor Matthias to compel them to accept the Archduke Ferdinand as
+King. This attempt was countered through the election by the Bohemians
+of the Pfalzgraf, Friedrich V (the son-in-law of James I of England),
+who was called the Winter King from the fact that his reign lasted
+only during the winter months; for though the Protestant Union, led by
+Count Thurn, had won several victories in 1618 and even threatened
+Vienna, the Austrian power was saved by Tilly and the Catholic League
+which came to its rescue. Many of the Protestant States, moreover,
+were averse to the Palatine Friedrich's acceptance of the Bohemian
+crown. The Bohemian movement was ultimately crushed by a force sent
+from Spain, under the Spanish general Spinola. The final defeat took
+place at the battle of the White Hill, near Prague, November 8, 1620.
+
+The second period of the war was concerned with the attempt of the
+Catholic Powers to deprive Friedrich of his Palatine dominions. Here
+Count Mansfeld, with his mercenary army of free-lances, aided by
+Christian of Brunswick and others on the side of Friedrich and the
+Protestants, defeated Tilly in 1622. But later on Tilly and the
+Imperialists by a series of victories conquered the Palatinate, which
+was bestowed upon Maximilian of Bavaria. Mansfeld, notwithstanding
+that he had some successes later in the year 1622, could not
+effectually redeem the situation, Brunswick's army being entirely
+routed by Tilly in the following year at the battle of Stadtlohn,
+which virtually ended this particular campaign.
+
+The third period of the war, from 1624 to 1629, is characterized by
+the intervention of the Powers outside the immediate sphere of German
+or Imperial interests. France, under Richelieu, became concerned at
+the growing power of the Hapsburgs, while James I of England began to
+show anxiety at his son-in-law's adverse fortunes, though without
+achieving any successful intervention. The chief feature of this
+campaign was the entry into the field of Christian IV of Denmark with
+a powerful army to join Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick in
+invading the Imperial and Austrian territories. But the savageries and
+excesses of Mansfeld's troops had disgusted and alienated all sides.
+It was at this time that Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, was appointed
+general of the Imperial troops, and soon after succeeded in completely
+routing Mansfeld at the battle of Dessau Bridge in 1626. Four months
+later Tilly completely defeated Christian IV and his Danes at Lutter.
+Wallenstein, on his side, followed up his success, driving Mansfeld
+into Hungary. Mansfeld, in spite of some fugitive successes in the
+Austrian dominions in the course of his retreat, was compelled by
+Wallenstein to evacuate Hungary, shortly after which he died. The
+campaign ended with the Peace of Lubeck in 1629.
+
+The action of the Emperor Ferdinand in attempting to enforce the
+restitution of Church lands in North Germany was the proximate cause
+of the next great campaign, which constitutes the fourth period of the
+Thirty Years' War (1630-36). The immediate occasion was, however,
+Wallenstein's seizure of certain towns in Mecklenburg, over which he
+claimed rights by Imperial grant two years before. This, which may be
+regarded as the greatest period of the Thirty Years' War, was
+characterized by the appearance on the scene of Gustavus Adolphus, the
+Swedish King. He was not in time, however, to prevent the sacking of
+Magdeburg by the troops of Tilly and Poppenheim. The former,
+nevertheless, was defeated by the Swedes at the important battle of
+Breitenfeld in 1631. The following year the Imperial army was again
+defeated on the Lach. Thereupon Gustavus occupied München, though he
+was subsequently compelled by Wallenstein to evacuate the city. The
+last great victory of Gustavus was at Lützen in 1632, at which battle
+the great leader met his death. Wallenstein, who was now in favour of
+a policy of peace and political reconstruction, was assassinated in
+1634 with the connivance of the Emperor. On September 6th of the same
+year the Protestant army, under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, sustained an
+overwhelming defeat at Nördlingen, and the Peace of Prague the
+following year ended the campaign.
+
+The fifth period, from 1636 to 1648, has, as its central interest, the
+active intervention of France in the Central European struggle. The
+Swedes, notwithstanding the death of their King, continued to have
+some notable successes, and even approached to within striking
+distance of Vienna. But Richelieu now became the chief arbiter of
+events. The French generals Condé and Turenne invaded Germany and the
+Netherlands. Victories were won by the new armies at Rocroi,
+Thionville, and at Nördlingen, but Vienna was not captured. The
+Imperial troops were, however, again defeated at Zumarshauen by Condé,
+who also repelled an attempted diversion in the shape of a Spanish
+invasion of France at the battle of Lens in the spring of 1648. The
+Thirty Years' War was finally ended in October of the same year at
+Münster, by the celebrated Treaty of Westphalia.
+
+The above is a skeleton sketch in a few words of the chief features of
+that long and complicated series of diplomatic and military events
+known to history as the Thirty Years' War.[25]
+
+The Thirty Years' War had far-reaching and untold consequences on
+Germany itself and indirectly on the course of modern civilization
+generally. For close upon a generation Central Europe had been ravaged
+from end to end by hostile and plundering armies. Rapine and
+destruction were, for near upon a third of the century, the common lot
+of the Germanic peoples from north to south and from east to west.
+Populations were as helpless as sheep before the brutal, criminal
+soldiery, recruited in many cases from the worst elements of every
+European country. The excesses of Mansfeld's mercenary army in the
+earlier stages of the war created widespread horror. But the defeat
+and death of Mansfeld brought no alleviation. The troops of
+Wallenstein proved no better in this respect than those of Mansfeld.
+On the contrary, with every year the war went on its horrors
+increased, while every trace of principle in the struggle fell more
+and more into the background. Everywhere was ruin.
+
+The population became by the time the war had ended a mere fraction of
+what it was at the opening of the seventeenth century. Some idea of
+the state of things may be gathered from the instance of Augsburg,
+which during its siege by the Imperialists was reduced from 70,000 to
+10,000 inhabitants. What happened to the great commercial city of the
+Fuggers was taking place on a scale greater or less, according to the
+district, all over German territory. We read of towns and villages
+that were pillaged more than a dozen times in a year. This terrific
+depopulation of the country, the reader may well understand, had vast
+results on its civilization. The whole great structure of Mediæval and
+Renaissance Germany--its literature, art, and social life--was in
+ruins. At the close of the seventeenth century the old German culture
+had gone and the new had not yet arisen. But of this we shall have
+more to say in the next chapter. For the present we are chiefly
+concerned to give a brief sketch of the second great epoch-making
+event, or rather train of events, which conditioned the foundation and
+development of modern Germany. We refer, of course, to the rise of the
+Prussian monarchy.
+
+We should premise that the Prussians are the least German of all the
+populations of what constitutes modern Germany. They are more than
+half Slavs. In the early Middle Ages the Mark of Brandenburg, the
+centre and chief province of the modern Prussian State, was an
+outlying offshoot of the mediæval Holy Roman Empire of the German
+nation, surrounded by barbaric tribes, Slav and Teuton. The chief Slav
+people were the Borussians, from which the name "Prussian" was a
+corruption. The first outstanding historic fact concerning these
+Baltic lands is that a certain Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, at the end
+of the tenth century went north on a mission of enterprise for
+converting the Prussian heathen. The neighbouring Christian prince,
+the Duke of Poland, who had presumably suffered much from incursions
+of these pagan Slavs, offered him every encouragement. The adventure
+ended, however, before long in the death of Adalbert at the hands of
+these same pagan Slavs.
+
+The first indication of the existence of a Mark of Brandenburg with
+its Markgraves is in the eleventh century. There is, however, little
+definite historical information concerning them. The first of these
+Markgraves to attract attention was Albrecht the Bear, one of the
+so-called Ascanian line, the family hailing from the Harz Mountains.
+Albrecht was a remarkable man for his time in every way. Under him the
+Markgravate of Brandenburg was raised to be an electorate of the
+empire. The Markgrave thus became a prince of the empire. It was
+Albrecht the Bear who first introduced a limited measure of peace and
+order into the hitherto anarchic condition of the Mark and its
+adjacent territories. The Ascanian line continued till 1319, and was
+followed by a period of political anarchy and disturbance, until
+finally Friedrich, Count of Hohenzollern, acquired the electorate, and
+became known as the Elector Friedrich I. Meanwhile the Order of the
+Teutonic Knights, who earlier began their famous crusade against the
+Borussian heathens, had established themselves on the territories now
+known as East and West Prussia. In spite of this fact and of the for
+long time dominant power of their Polish neighbours, the Hohenzollern
+rulers continued to acquire increased power and fresh territories.
+
+At the Reformation Albrecht, a scion of the Hohenzollern family, who
+had been elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, adopted
+Protestantism and assumed the title of Duke of Prussia. Finally, in
+1609, the then Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund, through his
+marriage with Ann, daughter and heiress of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of
+Prussia, came into possession of the whole of Prussia proper, together
+with other adjacent territories. The Prussian lands suffered much
+through the Thirty Years' War during the reign of John Sigismund's
+successor, George Wilhelm. But the latter's son, Friedrich Wilhelm,
+the so-called Great Elector, succeeded by his ability in repairing the
+ravages the war had made and raising the electorate immensely in
+political importance. He left at his death, in 1688, the financial
+condition of the country in a sound state, with an effective army of
+38,000 men. Friedrich I, who followed him, held matters together and
+got Prussia promoted to the rank of a kingdom in 1701. His son,
+Friedrich Wilhelm I, by rigid economies succeeded in raising the
+financial condition of the kingdom to a still higher level. The
+military power of the monarchy he also developed considerably, and is
+famous in history for his mania for tall soldiers.
+
+We now come to the real founder of the Prussian monarchy as a great
+European Power, Friedrich Wilhelm I's son, who succeeded his father in
+1740 as Friedrich II, and who is known to history as Friedrich the
+Great.
+
+Friedrich no sooner came to the throne than he started on an
+aggressive expansionist policy for Prussia. The opportunity presented
+itself a few months after his accession by the dispute as to the
+Pragmatic Sanction and Maria Theresa's right to the throne of Austria.
+In the two wars which immediately followed, the Prussian army overran
+the whole of Silesia, and the peace of 1745 left the Prussian King in
+possession of the entire country. East Friesland had already been
+absorbed the year before on the death of the last Duke without issue.
+In spite of the exhaustion of men and money in the two Silesian wars,
+Friedrich found himself ready with both men and money eleven years
+later, in 1756, to embark upon what is known as the Seven Years' War.
+Though without acquiring fresh territory by this war, the gain in
+prestige was so great that the Prussian monarchy virtually assumed the
+hegemony of North Germany, becoming the rival of Austria for the
+domination of Central Europe, the position in which it remained for
+more than a century afterwards. Nevertheless, after this succession of
+wars the condition of the country was deplorable. It was obvious that
+the first thing to do was the work of internal resuscitation. The
+extraordinary ability and energy of the King saved the internal
+situation. Agriculture, industry, and commerce were re-established and
+reorganized. It was now that the cast-iron system of bureaucratic
+administration, where not actually created, was placed on a firm
+foundation. But in external affairs Prussia continued to earn its
+character as the robber State of Europe _par excellence_.
+
+In 1772 Friedrich joined with Austria in the first partition of
+Poland, acquiring the whole of West Prussia as his share. A few years
+later Friedrich formed an anti-Austrian league of German princes,
+under Prussian leadership, which was the first overt sign of the
+conflict for supremacy in Germany between Prussia and Austria, which
+lasted for wellnigh a century. By the time of his death--August 7,
+1786--Friedrich had increased Prussian territory to nearly 75,000
+square miles and between five and six millions of population.
+
+Under Friedrich's nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II, while the rigour of
+bureaucratic administration, controlled by a monarchical absolutism,
+continued and was even accentuated, the absence of the able hand of
+Friedrich the Great soon made itself apparent. As regards external
+policy, however, Prussia, while allowing territories on the left bank
+of the Rhine to go to France, eagerly saw to the increase of her own
+dominions in the east to the extent of nearly doubling her superficial
+area by her participation in the second and third partitions of
+Poland, which took place in 1783 and 1795 respectively. These external
+successes, or rather acts of spoliation, were, notwithstanding,
+counter-balanced at home by a degeneracy alike of the civil
+bureaucracy and of the army. The country internally, both as regards
+morale and effectiveness, had sunk far below its level under Friedrich
+the Great. This showed itself during the great Napoleonic wars, when
+Prussia had to undergo more than one humiliation at the hands of
+Buonaparte, culminating in October 1806 with the collapse of the
+Prussian armies at Jena and Auerstädt. The entry of Napoleon in
+triumph into Berlin followed. At the Peace of Tilsit, in 1807,
+Friedrich-Wilhelm had to sign away half his kingdom and to consent to
+the payment of a heavy war indemnity, pending which the French troops
+occupied the most important fortresses in the country.
+
+Following upon this moment of deepest national humiliation comes the
+period of the Ministers Stein and Hardenberg, of the enthusiastic
+adjurations to patriotism of Fischer and others, and of the activity
+of the "League of Virtue" (_Tugendbund_). It is difficult to
+understand the enthusiasm that could be aroused for the rehabilitation
+of an absolutist, bureaucratic, and militarist State, such as Prussia
+was--a State in which civil and political liberty was conspicuous by
+its absence. But the fact undoubtedly remains that the men in question
+did succeed in pumping up a strong patriotic feeling and desire to
+free the country from the yoke of the foreigner, even if that only
+meant increased domestic tyranny. It must be admitted, however, that
+as a matter of fact not inconsiderable internal reforms were owing to
+the leading men of this time. Stein abolished serfdom, and in some
+respects did away with the legal distinction of classes, thereby
+paving the way for the rise of the middle class, which at that time
+meant a progressive step. He also conferred rights of self-government
+upon municipalities. Hardenberg inaugurated measures intended to
+ameliorate the condition of the peasants, while Wilhelm von Humboldt
+established the thorough if somewhat mechanical education system which
+was subsequently extended throughout Germany. He also helped to found
+the University of Berlin in 1809.
+
+But at the same time the curse of Prussia--militarism--was riveted on
+the people through the reorganization of the Prussian army by those
+two able military bureaucrats, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In 1813
+Prussia concluded at Kalicsh an alliance with Russia, which Austria
+joined. In the war which followed Prussia was severely strained by
+losses in men and money. But at the Congress of Vienna the Prussian
+kingdom received back nearly, but not quite, all it lost in 1807. The
+acquirement, however, of new and valuable territories in Westphalia
+and along the Rhine, besides Thuringia and the province of Saxony,
+more than compensated for the loss of certain Slav districts in the
+east, as thereby the way was prepared for the ultimate despotism of
+the Prussian King over all Germany. The success of Prussian diplomacy
+in enslaving these erstwhile independent German lands in 1815 was
+crucial for the subsequent direction of Prussian policy.
+
+It is time now to return once more to the internal conditions in the
+Prussian State now dominant over a large part of Northern Germany. A
+Constitution had been more than once talked of, but the despotism with
+its bureaucratic machinery had remained. Now, after the conclusion of
+the Napoleonic wars and the re-drawing of the Prussian frontier lines
+by the peace of 1815, the matter assumed an urgency it had not had
+before. Following upon proclamations and promises, a patent was
+addressed to the new Saxon provinces granting a national _Landtag_, or
+Diet, for the whole country. The drawing up of the Constitution thus
+proclaimed in principle gave rise to heated conflicts. There was, as
+yet, no proletariat proper in Prussia, and for that matter hardly any
+in the rest of Germany. The handicraft system of production, and even
+the mediæval guild system, slightly modified, prevailed throughout the
+country. The middle class proper was small and unimportant, and hence
+Liberalism, the theoretical expression of that class, only found
+articulate utterance through men of the professions.
+
+The new Prussian territories in the west were largely tinctured with
+progressive ideas originating in the French Revolution, while the east
+was dominated by reactionary feudal landowners, the notorious Junker
+class--a class special to East Prussian territories, including the
+eastern portion of the Mark of Brandenburg--whom the moderate
+Conservative Minister Stein himself characterized as "heartless,
+wooden, half-educated people, only good to turn into corporals or
+calculating-machines." This class then, as ever since, opposed an
+increase of popular control and the progress of free institutions with
+might and main. Friction arose between the Government and Liberal
+gymnastic societies and students' clubs. This culminated in the
+festival on the Wartburg in October 1818, when a bonfire was made of a
+book of police laws and Uhlan stays and a corporal's stick. It was
+followed the next year by the assassination of the dramatist and
+political spy Kotzebue by the student Sand.
+
+Panic seized the reactionists, and the Austrian Minister Metternich,
+one of the chief pillars of absolutist principles in Europe, induced
+the King to commit himself to the Austrian system of repression. In
+1821 the Reactionary party succeeded in getting the projected
+Constitution abandoned and the bureaucratic system of provincial
+estates established by royal warrant two years later (1823). The
+Prussian police with their spies then became omnipotent, and a
+remorseless persecution of all holding Liberal or democratic views
+ensued, the best-known writers on the popular side no less than the
+rank and file being arbitrarily arrested and kept in prison on any or
+no pretext. The amalgamation of the new districts into the Prussian
+bureaucratic system was not accomplished without resistance. The Rhine
+provinces especially, accustomed to easy-going government and light
+taxation under the old ecclesiastical princes, kicked vigorously
+against the Prussian jack-boot. The discontent was so widespread
+indeed that some concessions had to be made, such as the retention of
+the Code Napoléon. What created most resentment, however, was the
+enactment of 1814, which enforced compulsory universal military
+service throughout the monarchy. Friedrich Wilhelm also undertook to
+dragoon his subjects in the matter of religion, amalgamating the
+Lutherans with other reformed bodies, under the name of the
+"Evangelical Church."
+
+In foreign politics, in the earlier part of the nineteenth century,
+during the Napoleonic wars, Prussia, as yet hardly recovered from her
+defeats under Buonaparte, almost entirely followed the lead of
+Austria. But perhaps the most important measure of the Prussian
+Government at this time was the foundation of the famous Zollverein or
+Customs Union of various North German States in 1834. The far-reaching
+character of this measure was only shown later, being, in fact, the
+means and basis by and on which the political and military ascendancy
+of Prussia over all Germany was assured. Friedrich Wilhelm III, who
+died on June 7, 1840, was succeeded by his son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+The new reign began with an appearance of Liberalism by a general
+amnesty for political offences. Reaction, however, soon raised its
+head again, and Friedrich Wilhelm IV, in spite of his varnish of
+philosophical and literary tastes, was soon seen to be _au fond_ as
+reactionary as his predecessors. The conflict between the reaction of
+the Government and the now widely spread Liberal and democratic
+aspirations of the people resulted in Prussia (as it did under similar
+circumstances in other countries) in the outbreak of the revolution of
+1848.
+
+It is necessary at this stage to take a brief survey of the political
+history of the Germanic States of Europe generally from the time of
+the Peace of Vienna, in 1815, onwards, in order to understand fully
+the rôle played by the Prussian monarchy in German history since 1848;
+for from this time the history of Prussia becomes more and more bound
+up with that of the German peoples as a whole. During the Napoleonic
+wars Germany, as every one knows, was, generally speaking, in the grip
+of the French Imperial power. To follow the vicissitudes and
+fluctuations of fortune throughout Central Europe during these years
+lies outside our present purpose. We are here chiefly concerned with
+the political development from the Treaty of Vienna, as signed on June
+9, 1815, onward. The Treaty of Vienna completed the work begun by
+Napoleon--represented by the extinction of the mediæval "Holy Roman
+Empire of the German nation" in 1806--in making an end of the
+political configuration of the German peoples which had grown up
+during the Middle Ages and survived, in a more or less decayed
+condition, since the Peace of Westphalia, which concluded the Thirty
+Years' War. The three hundred separate States of which Germany had
+originally consisted were now reduced to thirty-nine, a number which,
+by the extinction of sundry minor governing lines, was before long
+further reduced to thirty-five. These States constituted themselves
+into a new German Confederation, with a Federal Assembly, meeting at
+Frankfurt-on-the-Main. The new Federal Council, or Assembly, however,
+soon revealed itself as but the tool of the princes and a bulwark of
+reaction.
+
+The revolution of 1848 was throughout Germany an expression of popular
+discontent and of democratic and even, to a large extent, of
+republican aspirations. The princely authorities endeavoured to stem
+the wave of popular indignation and revolutionary enthusiasm by
+recognizing a provisional self-constituted body, and sanctioning the
+election of a national representative Parliament at Frankfurt in place
+of the effete Federal Council. The Archduke of Austria, who was
+elected head of the new, hastily organized National Government, was
+not slow to use his newly acquired power in the interests of reaction,
+thereby exciting the hostility of all the progressive elements in the
+Parliament of Frankfurt. When after some months it became obvious that
+the anti-Progressive parties had gained the upper hand alike in
+Austria and Prussia, the friction between the Democratic and
+Constitutional parties became increasingly bitter.
+
+The Prussian Government meanwhile took advantage of the state of
+affairs to stir up the Schleswig-Holstein question, so-called, driving
+the Danes out of Schleswig, an insurrectionary movement in Holstein
+having been already suppressed by the Danish King. Prussia, alarmed
+by the attitude of the Powers, agreed to withdraw her troops from the
+occupied territories without consulting the Frankfurt Parliament, an
+act which involved Friedrich Wilhelm in conflict with the latter. The
+issues arising out of this dispute made it plain to every one that the
+Parliament of all Germany was impotent to enforce its decrees against
+one of the German Powers possessed of a preponderating military
+strength. By the end of 1848 the revolution in Vienna was completely
+crushed and a strongly reactionary Government appointed by the new
+Emperor. Meanwhile in Berlin the Junkers and the reactionaries
+generally had already again come into power, a crisis having been
+caused by the attempt of the democratic section of the Prussian
+National Assembly, convened by the King in March, to reorganize the
+army on a popular democratic basis. We need scarcely say the Prussian
+army has been the tool of Junkerdom and reaction ever since.
+
+The last despairing attempt of the Frankfurt Parliament to give effect
+to the national Germanic unity, which all patriotic Germans professed
+to be eager for, was the offer of the Imperial crown to the King of
+Prussia. Against this act, however, nearly half the members--i.e. all
+the advanced parties in the Assembly--protested by refusing to take
+any part in it They had also declined to be associated with a previous
+motion for the exclusion of German Austria from the new national
+unity, in the interest of Prussian ascendancy. Both these reactionary
+proposals, as we all know, at a later date became the corner-stones of
+the new Prusso-German unity of Bismark's creation. On this occasion,
+however, the Prussian King refused to accept the office at the hands
+of the impotent Frankfurt Assembly, which latter soon afterwards broke
+up and eventually "petered out." Meanwhile Prussian troops, led by the
+reactionary military caste, were employed in the congenial task of
+suppressing popular movements with the sword in Baden, Saxony, and
+Prussia itself.
+
+The two rival bulwarks of reaction, Prussia and Austria, were now so
+alarmed at the revolutionary dangers they had passed through that, for
+the nonce forgetting their rivalry, they cordially joined together in
+reviving, in the interests of the counter-revolution, the old
+reactionary Federal Assembly, which had never been formally dissolved,
+as it ought to have been on the election of the Frankfurt Parliament.
+Reaction now went on apace. Liberties were curtailed and rights gained
+in 1848 were abolished in most of the smaller States. Henceforth the
+Federal Assembly became the theatre of the two great rival powers of
+the Germanic Confederation. Both alike strove desperately for the
+hegemony of Germany. The strength of Prussia, of course, lay generally
+in the north, that of Austria in the south. Austria had the advantage
+of Prussia in the matter of prestige. Prussia, on the other hand, had
+the pull of Austria in the possession of the machinery of the Customs
+Union. In general, however, the dual control of the Germanic
+Confederation was grudgingly recognized by either party, and on
+occasion they acted together. This was notably the case in the
+Schleswig-Holstein question, which had been smouldering ever since
+1848, and which came to a crisis in the Danish war of 1864, in which
+Austria and Prussia jointly took part.
+
+Among the most reactionary of the Junker party in the Prussian
+Parliament of 1848 was one Count Otto Bismarck von Schönhausen,
+subsequently known to history as Prince Bismarck (1815-98). This man
+strenuously opposed the acceptance of the Imperial dignity by the King
+of Prussia at the hands of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, on the
+ground that it was unworthy of the King of Prussia to accept any
+office at the hands of the people rather than at those of his peers,
+the princes of Germany. In 1851 Count von Bismarck was appointed a
+Prussian representative in the revived princely and aristocratic
+Federal Assembly. Here he energetically fought the hegemony hitherto
+exercised by Austria. He continued some years in this capacity, and
+subsequently served as Prussian Minister in St. Petersburg and again
+in Paris. In the autumn of 1862 the new King of Prussia, Wilhelm I,
+who had succeeded to the throne the previous year, called him back to
+take over the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and the leadership of the
+Cabinet. Shortly after his accession to power he arbitrarily closed
+the Chambers for refusing to sanction his Army Bill. His army scheme
+was then forced through by the royal fiat alone. On the reopening of
+the Schleswig-Holstein question, owing to the death of the King of
+Denmark, German nationalist sentiment was aroused, which Bismarck knew
+how to use for the aggrandisement of Prussia. The Danish war, in which
+the two leading German States collaborated and which ended in their
+favour, had as its result a disagreement of a serious nature between
+these rival, though mutually victorious, Powers.
+
+In all these events the hand of Bismarck was to be seen. He it was who
+dominated completely Prussian policy from 1862 onwards. Full of his
+schemes for the aggrandisement of Prussia at the expense of Austria,
+he stirred up and worked this quarrel for all it was worth, the
+upshot being the Prusso-Austrian War (the so-called Seven Weeks' War)
+of the summer of 1866. The war was brought about by the arbitrary
+dissolution of the German Confederation--i.e. the Federal Assembly--in
+which, owing to the alarm created by Prussian insolence and
+aggression, Austria had the backing of the majority of the States.
+This step was followed by Bismarck's dispatching an ultimatum to
+Hanover, Saxony, and Hesse Cassel respectively, all of which had voted
+against Prussia in the Federal Assembly, followed, on its
+non-acceptance, by the dispatch of Prussian troops to occupy the
+States in question. Hard on this act of brutal violence came the
+declaration of war with Austria.
+
+At Königgratz the Prussian army was victorious over the Austrians, and
+henceforth the hegemony of Central Europe was decided in favour of
+Prussia. Austria, under the Treaty of Prague (August 20, 1866), was
+completely excluded from the new organization of German States, in
+which Prussia--i.e. Bismarck--was to have a free hand. The result was
+the foundation of the North German Confederation, under the leadership
+of Prussia. It was to have a common Parliament, elected by universal
+suffrage and meeting in Berlin. The army, the diplomatic
+representation, the control of the postal and telegraphic services,
+were to be under the sole control of the Prussian Government. The
+North German Confederation comprised the northern and central States
+of Germany. The southern States--Bavaria, Baden, Würtemberg,
+etc.--although not included, had been forced into a practical alliance
+with Prussia by treaties. The Customs Union was extended until it
+embraced nearly the whole of Germany. Prussian aggression in Luxemburg
+produced a crisis with France in 1867, though the growing tension
+between Prussia and France was tided over on this occasion. But
+Bismarck only bided his time.
+
+The occasion was furnished him by the question of the succession to
+the Spanish throne, in July 1870. By means of a falsified telegram
+Bismarck precipitated war, in which Prussia was joined by all the
+States of Germany. The subsequent course of events is matter of recent
+history. The establishment of the new Prusso-German empire by the
+crowning of Wilhelm I at Versailles, with the empire made hereditary
+in the Hohenzollern family, completed the work of Bismarck and the
+setting of the Prussian jack-boot on the necks of the German peoples.
+The Prussian military and bureaucratic systems were now extended to
+all Germany--in other words, the rest of the German peoples were made
+virtually the vassals and slaves of the Prussian monarch. This time
+the King of Prussia received the Imperial crown at the hands of the
+kings, princes, and other hereditary rulers of the various German
+States. Bismarck was graciously pleased to bestow unity and internal
+peace--a Prussian peace--upon Germany on condition of its abasement
+before the Prussian corporal's stick and police-truncheon. Such was
+the united Germany of Bismarck. Germany meant for Bismarck and his
+followers Prussia, and Prussia meant their own Junker and military
+caste, under the titular headship of the Hohenzollern.
+
+Yet, strange to say, the peoples of Germany willingly consented, under
+the influence of the intoxication of a successful war, to have their
+independence bartered away to Prussia by their rulers. In this united
+Germany of Bismarck--a Germany united under Prussian despotism--they
+naïvely saw the realization of the dream of their thinkers and poets
+since the time of the Napoleonic wars--which had become more than ever
+an inspiration from 1848 onwards--of an ideal unity of all
+German-speaking peoples as a national whole. It is unquestionable that
+many of these thinkers and poets would have been horrified at the
+Prusso-Bismarckian "unity" of "blood and iron," It was not for this,
+they would have said, that they had laboured and suffered.
+
+As a conclusion to the present chapter I venture to give a short
+summary of the internal, and especially of the economic, development
+of Prussia since the Franco-German War from an article which appeared
+in the _English Review_ for December 1914, by Mr. H.M. Hyndman and the
+present writer:--
+
+"From 1871 onwards Prussianized Germany, by far the best-educated, and
+industrially and commercially the most progressive, country in Europe,
+with the enormous advantage of her central position, was, consciously
+and unconsciously, making ready for her next advance. The policy of a
+good understanding with Russia, maintained for many years, to such an
+extent that, in foreign affairs, Berlin and St. Petersburg were almost
+one city, enabled Germany to feel secure against France, while she was
+devoting herself to the extension of her rural and urban powers of
+production. Never at any time did she neglect to keep her army in a
+posture of offence. All can now see the meaning of this.
+
+"Militarism is in no sense necessarily economic. But the strength of
+Germany for war was rapidly increased by her success in peace. From
+the date of the great financial crisis of 1874, and the consequent
+reorganization of her entire banking system, Germany entered upon that
+determined and well-thought-out attempt to attain pre-eminence in the
+trade and commerce of the world of which we have not yet seen the end.
+From 1878, when the German High Commissioner, von Rouleaux,
+stigmatized the exhibits of his countrymen as 'cheap and nasty,'
+special efforts were made to use the excellent education and admirable
+powers of organization of Germany in this field. The Government
+rendered official and financial help in both agriculture and
+manufacture. Scientific training, good and cheap before, was made
+cheaper and better each year. Railways were used not to foster foreign
+competition, as in Great Britain, by excessive rates of home freight,
+but to give the greatest possible advantage to German industry in
+every department. In more than one rural district the railways were
+worked at an apparent loss in order to foster home production, from
+which the nation derived far greater advantage than such apparent
+sacrifice entailed. The same system of State help was extended to
+shipping until the great German liners, one of which, indeed, was
+actually subsidized by England, were more than holding their own with
+the oldest and most celebrated British companies.
+
+"Protection, alike in agriculture and in manufacture, bound the whole
+empire together in essentially Imperial bonds. Right or wrong in
+theory--which it is not here necessary to discuss--there can be no
+doubt whatever that this policy entirely changed the face of Germany,
+and rendered her our most formidable competitor in every market.
+Emigration, which had been proceeding on a vast scale, almost entirely
+ceased. The savings banks were overflowing with deposits. The position
+of the workers was greatly improved. Not only were German Colonies
+secured in Africa and Asia, which were more trouble than they were
+worth, but very profitable commerce with our own Colonies and
+Dependencies was growing by leaps and bounds, at the expense of the
+out-of-date but self-satisfied commercialists of Old England. Hence
+arose a trade rivalry, against which we could not hope to contend
+successfully in the long run, except by a complete revolution in our
+methods of education and business, to which neither the Government nor
+the dominant class would consent.
+
+"This remarkable advance in Germany, also, was accompanied by the
+establishment of a system of banking, specially directed to the
+expansion of national industry and commerce, a system which was clever
+enough to use French accumulations, borrowed at a low rate of
+interest, through the German Jews who so largely controlled French
+financial institutions, in order still further to extend their own
+trade. It was an admirably organized attempt to conquer the
+world-market for commodities, in which the Government, the banks, the
+manufacturers and the shipowners all worked for the common cause.
+Meanwhile, both French and English financiers carefully played the
+game of their business opponents, and the great English banks devoted
+their attention chiefly to fostering speculation on the Stock
+Exchange--a policy of which the Germans took advantage, just before
+the outbreak of war, to an extent not by any means as yet fully
+understood.
+
+"Thus, at the beginning of the present year, in spite of the
+withdrawal, since the Agadir affair, of very large amounts of French
+capital from the German market, Germany had attained to such a
+position that only the United States stood on a higher plane in regard
+to its future in the world of competitive commerce. And this great and
+increasing economic strength was, for war purposes, at the disposal of
+the Prussian militarists, if they succeeded in getting the upper hand
+in politics and foreign affairs."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[25] Works on the Thirty Years' War are numerous. Many scholarly and
+exhaustive treatises on various aspects of the subject are, as might be
+expected, to be found in German. For general popular reading Schiller's
+excellent piece of literary hack work (translated in Bonn's Library) may
+still be consulted, but perhaps the best short general history of the
+war with its entanglement of events is that by the late Professor S.R.
+Gardiner, of Oxford, which forms one of the volumes of Messrs. Longman,
+Green & Co.'s series entitled "Epochs of Modern History."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MODERN GERMAN CULTURE
+
+
+It is important to distinguish between the meaning of the German term
+"Kultur" and that commonly expressed in English by the word "culture."
+The word "Kultur" in modern German is simply equivalent to our word
+"civilization," whereas the word "culture" in English has a special
+meaning, to wit, that of intellectual attainments. In this chapter we
+are chiefly concerned with the latter sense of the word.
+
+Germany had a rich popular literature during the Middle Ages from the
+redaction of the _Nibelungenlied_ under Charles the Great onwards.
+Prominent among this popular literature were the love-songs of the
+Minnesingers, the epics drawn from mediæval traditionary versions of
+the legend of Troy, of the career of _Alexander the Great_, and, to
+come to more recent times, to legends of _Charles the Great and his
+Court_, of _Arthur and the Holy Grail_, the _Nibelungenlied_ in its
+present form, and _Gudrun_. The "beast-epic," as it was called, was
+also a favourite theme, especially in the form of _Reynard the Fox_.
+In another branch of literature we have collections of laws dating
+from the thirteenth century and known respectively from the country of
+their origin as the _Sachsenspiegel_ and the _Schwabenspiegel_. Again,
+at a later date, followed the productions of the Meistersingers, and
+especially of Hans Sachs, of Nürnberg. Then, again, we have the prose
+literature of the mystics, Eckhart, Tauler, and their followers.
+
+Towards the close of the mediæval period we find an immense number of
+national ballads, of chap-books, not to mention the Passion Plays or
+the polemical theological writings of the time leading up to the
+Reformation. Luther's works, more especially his translation of the
+Bible, powerfully helped to fix German as a literary language. The
+Reformation period, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, was rich in
+prose literature of every description--in fact, the output of serious
+German writing continued unabated until well into the seventeenth
+century. But the Thirty Years' War, which devastated Germany from end
+to end, completely swept away the earlier literary culture of the
+nation. In fact, the event in question forms a dividing line between
+the earlier and the modern culture of Germany. In prose literature,
+the latter half of the seventeenth century, Germany has only one work
+to show, though that is indeed a remarkable one--namely,
+Grimmelshausen's _Simplicissimus_, a romantic fiction under the guise
+of an autobiography of wild and weird adventure for the most part
+concerned with the Thirty Years' War.
+
+The rebirth of German literature in its modern form began early in the
+eighteenth century. Leibnitz wrote in Latin and French, and his
+culture was mainly French. His follower, Christian Wolf, however,
+first used the German language for philosophical writing. But in
+poetry, Klopstock and Wieland, and, in serious prose, Lessing and
+Herder, led the way to the great period of German literature. In this
+period the name of Goethe holds the field, alike in prose and poetry.
+Goethe was born in 1749, and hence it was the last quarter of the
+century which saw him reach his zenith. Next to Goethe comes his
+younger contemporary, Schiller. It is impossible here to go even
+briefly into the achievements of the bearers of these great names.
+They may be truly regarded in many important respects as the founders
+of modern German culture. Around them sprang up a whole galaxy of
+smaller men, and the close of the eighteenth century showed a
+literary activity in Germany exceeding any that had gone before.
+
+Turning to philosophy, it is enough to mention the immortal name of
+Immanuel Kant as the founder of modern German philosophic thought and
+the first of a line of eminent thinkers extending to wellnigh the
+middle of the nineteenth century. The names of Fichte, Schelling,
+Hegel, Schopenhauer and others will at once occur to the reader.
+
+Contemporaneously with the great rise of modern German literature
+there was a unique development in music, beginning with Sebastian Bach
+and continuing through the great classical school, the leading names
+in which are Glück, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert,
+etc. The middle period of the nineteenth century showed a further
+development in prose literature, producing some of the greatest
+historians and critics the world has seen. At this time, too, Germany
+began to take the lead in science. The names of Virchow, Helmholtz,
+Häckel, out of a score of others, all of the first rank, are familiar
+to every person of education in the present and past generation. The
+same period has been signalized by the great post-classical
+development in music, as illustrated by the works of Schumann, Brahms,
+and, above all, by the towering fame of Richard Wagner.
+
+From the last quarter of the eighteenth century onwards it may truly
+be said of Germany that education is not only more generally diffused
+than in any other country of Europe, but (as a recent writer has
+expressed it) "is cultivated with an earnest and systematic devotion
+not met with to an equal extent among other nations." The present
+writer can well remember some years ago, when at the railway station
+at Breisach (Baden) waiting one evening for the last train to take him
+to Colmar, he seated himself at the table of the small station
+restaurant at which three tradesmen, "the butcher, the baker, and the
+candlestick-maker" of the place were drinking their beer. Broaching to
+them the subject of the history of the town, he found the butcher
+quite prepared to discuss with the baker and the candlestick-maker the
+policy of Charles the Bold and Louis XI as regards the possession of
+the district, as though it might have been a matter of last night's
+debate in the House or of the latest horse-race. Where would you find
+this popular culture in any other country?
+
+Germany possesses 20 universities, 16 polytechnic educational
+institutes, about 800 higher schools (gymnasia), and nearly 60,000
+elementary schools. Every town of any importance throughout the German
+States is liberally provided in the matter of libraries, museums, and
+art collections, while its special institutions, music schools, etc.,
+are famous throughout the world. The German theatre is well known for
+its thoroughness. Every, even moderately sized, German town has its
+theatre, which includes also opera, in which a high scale of all-round
+artistic excellence is attained, hardly equalled in any other country.
+In fact, it is not too much to say that for long Germany was foremost
+in the vanguard of educational, intellectual, and artistic progress.
+
+That the above is an over-coloured statement as regards the importance
+of Germany for wellnigh a century and a half past in the history of
+human culture, in the sense of intellectual progress in its widest
+meaning, I venture to think that no one competent to judge will
+allege. Is then, it may be asked, the railing of public opinion and
+the Press of Great Britain and other countries outside Germany and
+Austria, against the Germany of the present day, and the jeers at the
+term "German culture" wholly unjustified and the result of national or
+anti-German prejudice? That there has been much foolish vituperative
+abuse of the whole German nation and of everything German
+indiscriminately in the Press of this and some other countries is
+undoubtedly true. But, however, our acknowledgment of this fact will
+not justify us in refusing to recognize the truth which finds
+expression in what very often looks like mere foolish vilification.
+
+The truth in question will be apparent on a consideration of the
+change that has come over the German people and German culture since
+the war of 1870 and the foundation of the modern German Empire. The
+material and economic side of this change has been already indicated
+in a short summary in the quotation which closes the last chapter. But
+these changes, or advances if you will, on the material side, have
+been accompanied by a moral and material degeneration which has been
+only very partially counteracted at present by a movement which,
+though initiated before the period named, has only attained its great
+development, and hence influenced the national character, since the
+date in question.
+
+It is a striking fact that in the last forty-four years--the period of
+the new German Empire--there has been a dearth of originality in all
+directions. In the earlier part of the period in question the
+survivors from the pre-Imperial time continued their work in their
+several departments, but no new men of the same rank as themselves
+have arisen, either alongside of them or later to take their places.
+The one or two that might be adduced as partial exceptions to what has
+been above said only prove the rule. We have had, it is true, a
+multitude of men, more or less clever _epigoni_, but little else.
+Again, it is, I think, impossible to deny that a mechanical hardness
+and brutality have come over the national character which entirely
+belie its former traits. It is a matter of common observation that in
+the last generation the German middle class has become noticeably
+coarsened, vulgarized, and blatant.
+
+Again, although I am very far from wishing to attribute the crimes and
+horrors committed by the German army during the present war to the
+whole German nation, or even to the _rank and file_ of those composing
+the army, yet there is no doubt that some blame must be apportioned at
+least to the latter. The contrast is striking between the conduct of
+the German troops during the present war and that of 1870, when they
+could declare that they were out "to fight French soldiers and not
+French citizens." Such were the military ethics of bygone generations
+of German soldiers. They certainly do not apply to the German army of
+to-day. The popularity of such writers as Von Treitschke and
+Bernhardi, respecting which so much has been written, is indeed
+significant of a vast change in German moral conceptions. The
+practical influence of Nietzsche, who--with his corybantic whirl of
+criticism on all things in heaven above and on the earth beneath, a
+criticism not always coherent with itself--can hardly be termed a
+German Chauvinist in any intelligible sense, has, I think, been much
+exaggerated. The importance of his theories, considered as an
+ingredient in modern German Chauvinism, is not so considerable, I
+should imagine, as is sometimes thought.
+
+We come now to the movement already alluded to as a set-off and,
+within certain boundaries at least, a counteractive of the degeneracy
+exhibited in the German character since the foundation of the present
+Imperial system. The rise and rapid growth of the Social Democratic
+movement is perhaps the most striking fact in the recent history of
+Germany. The same may be said, of course, of the growth of Socialism
+everywhere during the same period. But in Germany it has for a
+generation past, or even more, occupied an exceptional position, alike
+as regards the rapidity of its increase, its direct influence on the
+masses, and its party organization. Modern Socialism, as a party
+doctrine, is, moreover, a product of the best period of
+nineteenth-century German thought and literature. Its three great
+theoretical protagonists, Marx, Engels, and their younger
+contemporary, Lassalle, all issued from the great Hegelian movement of
+the first half of the nineteenth century. Their propagandist
+activity, literary and otherwise, was in the German language. The
+analysis of the present capitalist system, forming the foundation of
+the demand for the communization of the means of production,
+distribution, and exchange, as resulting in a _human_ society as
+opposed to a _class_ society, and ultimately in the extinction of
+national barriers in a world-federation of socialized humanity--these
+principles were first appreciated, as a world-ideal, by the
+proletariat of Germany, and they have unquestionably raised that
+proletariat to an intellectual rank as yet equalled by no other
+working-class in the world.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that with the colossal growth of the
+Social Democratic party in Germany in numbers and the introduction
+into it of elements from various quarters, a certain deterioration,
+one may hope and believe only temporary, has become apparent in its
+quality. This applies, at least, to certain sections of the party. A
+sordid practicalism has made itself felt, due to a feverish desire to
+play an important rôle in the detail of current politics. Personal
+ambition and the mechanical working of the party system have also had
+their evil influence in the movement in recent years. Nevertheless, we
+have reason to believe that the core of the party is as sound and as
+true to principle as ever it was, and that on the restoration of
+international peace this will be seen to be the case. What interests
+us, however, specially, at the moment of writing, is the lamentable,
+yet undeniable, fact that German Social Democracy has, on this
+occasion, disastrously failed to prevent the outbreak of war,
+notwithstanding the vigour of its efforts to do so during the last
+week of July; and still more that it has failed up to date to stem the
+rising flood of militarism and jingoism in the German people. That
+before many months are over the scales will fall from the eyes of the
+masses of Germany I am convinced, and not less that a revolutionary
+movement in Germany will be one of the signs that will herald the dawn
+of a better day for Germany and for Europe. But meanwhile we must hold
+our countenances in patience.
+
+If we inquire the cause of the degeneracy we have been considering in
+the German character since the war of 1870 and the creation of the new
+empire--apart from those economic causes of change common to all
+countries in modern civilization--the answer of those who have
+followed the history of the period can hardly fail to be--Bismarck and
+Prussia. We have already seen in the short historical sketch given in
+the last chapter how the robber hand of Prussia, in violation of all
+national treaty rights, had gradually succeeded in annexing wellnigh
+all the neighbouring German territories. But, notwithstanding this,
+the greater part of Germany still remained outside the Prussian
+monarchy. The policy of Bismarck was first of all to cripple the rival
+claimant for the hegemony of Central Europe, Austria. Her complete
+subjugation being unfeasible, she had to be shut up rigorously to her
+immediate dominions on the eastern side of Central Europe, in order to
+leave the path clear for Bismarck, by war or subterfuge, to absorb,
+under a system of nominally vassal States, the whole of the rest of
+Germany into the system of the Prussian monarchy.
+
+Now, as we know, from its very foundation the Hohenzollern-Prussian
+monarchy has always been a more or less veiled despotism, based on
+working through a military and bureaucratic oligarchy. The army has
+been the dominant factor of the Prussian State from the beginning of
+the eighteenth century onwards. Prussia has been from the beginning of
+its monarchy the land of the drill-sergeant and the barracks. It is
+this system which the Junker Bismarck has riveted on the whole German
+people, with what results we now see. Badenese, Würtembergers,
+Franconians, Hanoverians, the citizens of the former free cities no
+less than the already absorbed Westphalians, Thuringians, Silesians,
+Mecklenburgers, were speedily all reduced to being the slaves of the
+Prussian military system and of the Prussian military caste. The naïve
+German peoples, as already pointed out, accepted this Prussian
+domination as the realization of their time-honoured patriotic ideal
+of German unity.
+
+The fact of their subservience was emphasized in every way. The law of
+_lèse-majesté_ (_majestätsbeleidigung_), by which all criticism of the
+despotic head of the State or his actions is made a heinous criminal
+offence, to which severe penalties are attached, it is not too much to
+say is a law which brands the ruler who accepts it as a coward and a
+cur, and the Legislature which passes it as a house, not of
+representative citizens, or even subjects for that matter, but of
+representative _slaves_. It must not be forgotten that the law in
+question strikes not only at public expressions of opinion in the
+press or on the platform, but at the most private criticism made in
+the presence of a friend in one's own room. The depths of undignified
+and craven meanness to which a monarch is reduced by being thus
+protected from criticism by the police-truncheon and the gaoler struck
+me especially as illustrated by the following incident which happened
+some years ago: Shortly after the accession of the present Kaiser, a
+conjurer was giving his entertainment in a Swiss town. For one of the
+tricks he was going to exhibit he had occasion to ask the audience to
+send him up the names of a few public men on folded pieces of paper.
+His reception of the names written down was accompanied by the
+"patter" proper to his profession. On coming to the name of Kaiser
+Wilhelm II he ventured the remark, "Ah! I'd rather it had been the
+poor man just dead" (meaning the Emperor Frederick), "for I'm afraid
+this one's not much good." Will it be believed that the whole
+diplomatic machinery was set on foot to induce the Swiss Government to
+prosecute the unfortunate entertainer, abortively of course, since it
+could not have been legally done? Surely the head of a State who could
+allow his Government to descend to such contemptible pettiness must be
+devoid of all sense of common self-respect, not to say personal
+dignity. And this is the fellow who claims to be hardly second in
+importance to his "dear old God"! In this connection it is only fair
+to recall the very different behaviour of King Edward VII when an
+Irish paper published not a mere criticism but an unquestionably
+libellous article reflecting on his private character. The police
+seized the copies of the paper and were prepared to take steps to
+prosecute, when the late King interfered and stopped even the
+confiscation of the paper. The least monarchical of us must, I think,
+admit that here we have a good illustration of the distinction between
+a man sure of his reputation and a cur nervously alarmed for his.
+
+This severe law of _lèse-majesté_ in Bismarck's Prusso-German Empire
+is only an illustration of the way in which the German people have
+been made to grovel before the Prussian jack-boot. The Prussification
+of Germany in matters military and in matters bureaucratic has gone on
+apace since 1870. Prussia, it is not too much to say, has hitherto
+consisted in a nation of slaves and tyrants and nothing else. It is
+the Prussian governing class which has everywhere and in all
+departments "set the pace" since the empire was established. No man
+known to hold opinions divergent from those agreeable to the interests
+of the Prussian governing class can hope for employment, be it the
+most humble, in any department of the public service. This is
+particularly noticeable in its effects in the matter of education. The
+inculcation of the brutal and blatant jingoism of Von Treitschke at
+the universities by professors eager for approval in high places has
+already been sufficiently animadverted upon in more than one work on
+modern Germany. The defeat of Prusso-German militarism will be an
+even greater gain to all that is best in Germany herself than it will
+be to Europe as a whole.
+
+_Delenda est Prussia_, understanding thereby not, of course, the
+inhabitants of Prussian territory as such, but Prussia as a
+State-system and as an independent Power in Europe, must be the
+watchword in the present crisis of every well-wisher of Humanity,
+Germany included. A united Germany, if that be insisted upon, by all
+means let there be--a federation of all the German peoples with its
+capital, for that matter, as of old, at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, but
+with no dominant State and, if possible, excluding Prussia altogether,
+but certainly as constituted at present. Who knows but that a united
+States of Germany may then prove the first step towards a united
+States of Europe?
+
+But it is not alone to the political reconstruction of Germany or of
+Europe that those who take an optimistic view of the issue of the
+present European war look hopefully. The whole economic system of
+modern capitalism will have received a shock from which the beginnings
+of vast changes may date. Apart from this, however, the avowed aim of
+the war, the destruction of Prussian militarism and, indirectly, the
+weakening of military power throughout the world, should have
+immediate and important consequences. The brutalities and crimes
+committed in Belgium and the North of France at the instigation of the
+military heads of this Prusso-German army do but indicate
+exaggerations of the military spirit and attitude generally. Von
+Hindenburg is not the first who has given utterance to the devilish
+excuse for military crime and brutality that it is "more humane in the
+end, since it shortens war." To refute this transparent fallacy is
+scarcely necessary, since every historical student knows that military
+excesses and inhumanity do not shorten but prolong war by raising
+indignation and inflaming passions. The longest connected war known to
+history--the Thirty Years' War--is generally acknowledged to have been
+signalized by the greatest and most continuous inhumanity of any on
+record. But whether military crime has the effect claimed for it or
+not, we may fain hope that public opinion in Europe will insist upon
+giving the "humane" commanders who "mercifully" endeavour to "shorten"
+war by drastic methods of this sort a severe lesson. A few such
+treated to the utmost penalties the ordinary criminal law prescribes
+to the crimes of arson, murder, and robbery would teach them and their
+like that war, if waged at all nowadays, must be waged decently and
+not "shortened" by such devices as those in question.
+
+If the present war with all its horrible carnage issues, even if only
+in the beginning of those changes which some of us believe must
+necessarily result from it--changes economical, political, and
+moral--then indeed it will not have been waged in vain. With the great
+intellectual powers of the Germanic people devoted, not to the
+organization of military power and of national domination, but to
+furthering the realization of a higher human society; with the
+determination on the part of the best elements among every European
+people to work together internationally with each other, and not least
+with the new Germany, to this end, and the great European war of 1914
+will be looked back upon by future generations as the greatest
+world-historic example of the proverbial evil out of which good, and a
+lasting and inestimable good, has come for Europe and the world.
+
+
+UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED THE GRESHAM PRESS WOKING AND LONDON.
+
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+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of German Culture Past and Present, by 
+Ernest Belfort Bax
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's German Culture Past and Present, by Ernest Belfort Bax
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: German Culture Past and Present
+
+Author: Ernest Belfort Bax
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2007 [EBook #20461]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN CULTURE PAST AND PRESENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<br />
+<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p>
+<p class="noin">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text.<br />
+For a complete list, please see the <a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h1>GERMAN CULTURE<br />
+PAST AND PRESENT</h1>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h2>ERNEST BELFORT BAX</h2>
+<br />
+<h5>AUTHOR OF "JEAN PAUL MARAT," "THE RELIGION OF SOCIALISM,"<br />
+"THE ETHICS OF SOCIALISM," "THE ROOTS OF REALITY," ETC., ETC.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN &amp; UNWIN, LTD.<br />
+RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5><i>First published in 1915</i><br />
+<br />
+<i>[All rights reserved]</i></h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" width="10%"><span style="font-size: 90%;">CHAPTER</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="70%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="20%"><span style="font-size: 90%;">PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#INTRO">INTRODUCTORY:&mdash;SITUATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">7</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">65</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE TIME</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">85</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE FOLKLORE OF REFORMATION GERMANY</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">99</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TOWN</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">114</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">COUNTRY AND TOWN AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">122</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">THE REVOLT OF THE KNIGHTHOOD</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">154</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">GENERAL SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REVOLT</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">174</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE GREAT RISING OF THE PEASANTS AND THE
+        ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">183</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">POST-MEDI&AElig;VAL GERMANY</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">229</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">X.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">MODERN GERMAN CULTURE</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">263</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>PREFACE</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The following pages aim at giving a general view of the social and
+intellectual life of Germany from the end of the medi&aelig;val period to
+modern times. In the earlier portion of the book, the first half of
+the sixteenth century in Germany is dealt with at much greater length
+and in greater detail than the later period, a sketch of which forms
+the subject of the last two chapters. The reason for this is to be
+found in the fact that while the roots of the later German character
+and culture are to be sought for in the life of this period, it is
+comparatively little known to the average educated English reader. In
+the early fifteenth century, during the Reformation era, German life
+and culture in its widest sense began to consolidate themselves, and
+at the same time to take on an originality which differentiated them
+from the general life and culture of Western Europe as it was during
+the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>To those who would fully appreciate the later developments, therefore,
+it is essential thoroughly to understand the details of the social and
+intellectual history of the time in question. For the later period
+there are many more works of a generally popular character available
+for the student and general reader. The chief aim of the sketch given
+in Chapters IX and X is to bring into sharp relief those events which,
+in the Author's view, represent more or less crucial stages in the
+development of modern Germany.</p>
+
+<p>For the earlier portion of the present volume an older work of the
+Author's, now out of print, entitled <i>German Society at the Close of
+the Middle Ages</i>, has been largely drawn upon. Reference, as will be
+seen, has also been made in the course of the present work to two
+other writings from the same pen which are still to be had for those
+desirous of fuller information on their respective subjects, viz. <i>The
+Peasants' War</i> and <i>The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists</i> (Messrs.
+George Allen &amp; Unwin).</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="INTRO" id="INTRO"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span><br />
+
+<h1>German Culture Past and Present</h1>
+<br />
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTORY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The close of the fifteenth century had left the whole structure of
+medi&aelig;val Europe to all appearance intact. Statesmen and writers like
+Philip de Commines had apparently as little suspicion that the state
+of things they saw around them, in which they had grown up and of
+which they were representatives, was ever destined to pass away, as
+others in their turn have since had. Society was organized on the
+feudal hierarchy of status. In the first place, a noble class,
+spiritual and temporal, was opposed to a peasantry either wholly
+servile or but nominally free. In addition to this opposition of noble
+and peasant there was that of the township, which, in its corporate
+capacity, stood in the relation of lord to the surrounding peasantry.</p>
+
+<p>The township in Germany was of two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>kinds&mdash;first of all, there was the
+township that was "free of the Empire," that is, that held nominally
+from the Emperor himself (<i>Reichstadt</i>), and secondly, there was the
+township that was under the domination of an intermediate lord. The
+economic basis of the whole was still land; the status of a man or of
+a corporation was determined by the mode in which they held their
+land. "No land without a lord" was the principle of medi&aelig;val polity;
+just as "money has no master" is the basis of the modern world with
+its self-made men. Every distinction of rank in the feudal system was
+still denoted for the most part by a special costume. It was a world
+of knights in armour, of ecclesiastics in vestments and stoles, of
+lawyers in robes, of princes in silk and velvet and cloth of gold, and
+of peasants in laced shoe, brown cloak, and cloth hat.</p>
+
+<p>But although the whole feudal organization was outwardly intact, the
+thinker who was watching the signs of the times would not have been
+long in arriving at the conclusion that feudalism was "played out,"
+that the whole fabric of medi&aelig;val civilization was becoming dry and
+withered, and had either already begun to disintegrate or was on the
+eve of doing so. Causes of change had within the past half-century
+been working underneath the surface of social life, and were rapidly
+undermining the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>whole structure. The growing use of firearms in war;
+the rapid multiplication of printed books; the spread of the new
+learning after the taking of Constantinople in 1453, and the
+subsequent diffusion of Greek teachers throughout Europe; the surely
+and steadily increasing communication with the new world, and the
+consequent increase of the precious metals; and, last but not least,
+Vasco da Gama's discovery of the new trade route from the East by way
+of the Cape&mdash;all these were indications of the fact that the
+death-knell of the old order of things had struck.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the apparent outward integrity of the system based on
+land tenures, land was ceasing to be the only form of productive
+wealth. Hence it was losing the exclusive importance attaching to it
+in the earlier period of the Middle Ages. The first form of modern
+capitalism had already arisen. Large aggregations of capital in the
+hands of trading companies were becoming common. The Roman law was
+establishing itself in the place of the old customary tribal law which
+had hitherto prevailed in the manorial courts, serving in some sort as
+a bulwark against the caprice of the territorial lord; and this change
+facilitated the development of the bourgeois principle of private, as
+opposed to communal, property. In intellectual matters, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>though
+theology still maintained its supremacy as the chief subject of human
+interest, other interests were rapidly growing up alongside of it, the
+most prominent being the study of classical literature.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these things, there was the dawning interest in nature, which
+took on, as a matter of course, a magical form in accordance with
+traditional and contemporary modes of thought. In fact, like the
+flicker of a dying candle in its socket, the Middle Ages seemed at the
+beginning of the sixteenth century to exhibit all their own salient
+characteristics in an exaggerated and distorted form. The old feudal
+relations had degenerated into a blood-sucking oppression; the old
+rough brutality, into excogitated and elaborated cruelty (aptly
+illustrated in the collection of ingenious instruments preserved in
+the Torture-tower at N&uuml;rnberg); the old crude superstition, into a
+systematized magical theory of natural causes and effects; the old
+love of pageantry, into a lavish luxury and magnificence of which we
+have in the "field of the cloth of gold" the stock historical example;
+the old chivalry, into the mercenary bravery of the soldier, whose
+trade it was to fight, and who recognized only one virtue&mdash;to wit,
+animal courage. Again, all these exaggerated characteristics were
+mixed with new elements, which distorted them further, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>and which
+foreshadowed a coming change, the ultimate issue of which would be
+their extinction and that of the life of which they were the signs.</p>
+
+<p>The growing tendency towards centralization and the consequent
+suppression or curtailment of the local autonomies of the Middle Ages
+in the interests of some kind of national government, of which the
+political careers of Louis XI in France, of Edward IV in England, and
+of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain were such conspicuous instances,
+did not fail to affect in a lesser degree that loosely connected
+political system of German States known as the Holy Roman Empire.
+Maximilian's first Reichstag in 1495 caused to be issued an Imperial
+edict suppressing the right of private warfare claimed and exercised
+by the whole noble class from the princes of the empire down to the
+meanest knight. In the same year the Imperial Chamber (<i>Reichskammer</i>)
+was established, and in 1501 the Imperial Aulic Council. Maximilian
+also organized a standing army of mercenary troops, called
+<i>Landesknechte</i>. Shortly afterwards Germany was divided into Imperial
+districts called circles (<i>Kreise</i>), ultimately ten in number, all of
+which were under an imperial government (<i>Reichsregiment</i>), which had
+at its disposal a military force for the punishment of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>disturbers of
+the peace. But the public opinion of the age, conjoined with the
+particular circumstances, political and economic, of Central Europe,
+robbed the enactment in a great measure of its immediate effect.
+Highway plundering and even private war were still going on, to a
+considerable extent, far into the sixteenth century. Charles V pursued
+the same line of policy as his predecessor; but it was not until after
+the suppression of the lower nobility in 1523, and finally of the
+peasants in 1526, that any material change took place; and then the
+centralization, such as it was, was in favour of the princes, rather
+than of the Imperial power, which, after Charles V's time, grew weaker
+and weaker. The speciality about the history of Germany is, that it
+has not known till our own day centralization on a national or racial
+scale like England or France.</p>
+
+<p>At the opening of the sixteenth century public opinion not merely
+sanctioned open plunder by the wearer of spurs and by the possessor of
+a stronghold, but regarded it as his special prerogative, the exercise
+of which was honourable rather than disgraceful. The cities certainly
+resented their burghers being waylaid and robbed, and hanged the
+knights wherever they could; and something like a perpetual feud
+always existed between the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>wealthier cities and the knights who
+infested the trade routes leading to and from them. Still, these
+belligerent relations were taken as a matter of course; and no
+disgrace, in the modern sense, attached to the occupation of highway
+robbery.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the impoverishment of the knights at this period,
+owing to causes with which we shall deal later, the trade or
+profession had recently received an accession of vigour, and at the
+same time was carried on more brutally and mercilessly than ever
+before. We will give some instances of the sort of occurrence which
+was by no means unusual. In the immediate neighbourhood of N&uuml;rnberg,
+which was <i>bien entendu</i> one of the chief seats of the Imperial power,
+a robber-knight leader, named Hans Thomas von Absberg, was a standing
+menace. It was the custom of this ruffian, who had a large following,
+to plunder even the poorest who came from the city, and, not content
+with this, to mutilate his victims. In June 1522 he fell upon a
+wretched craftsman, and with his own sword hacked off the poor
+fellow's right hand, notwithstanding that the man begged him upon his
+knees to take the left, and not destroy his means of earning his
+livelihood. The following August he, with his band, attacked a
+N&uuml;rnberg tanner, whose hand was similarly treated, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>one of his
+associates remarking that he was glad to set to work again, as it was
+"a long time since they had done any business in hands." On the same
+occasion a cutler was dealt with after a similar fashion. The hands in
+these cases were collected and sent to the B&uuml;rgermeister of N&uuml;rnberg,
+with some such phrase as that the sender (Hans Thomas) would treat all
+so who came from the city.</p>
+
+<p>The princes themselves, when it suited their purpose, did not hesitate
+to offer an asylum to these knightly robbers. With Absberg were
+associated Georg von Giech and Hans Georg von Aufsess. Among other
+notable robber-knights of the time may be mentioned the Lord of
+Brandenstein and the Lord of Rosenberg. As illustrating the strictly
+professional character of the pursuit, and the brutally callous nature
+of the society practising it, we may narrate that Margaretha von
+Brandenstein was accustomed, it is recorded, to give the advice to the
+choice guests round her board that when a merchant failed to keep his
+promise to them, they should never hesitate to cut off <i>both</i> his
+hands. Even Franz von Sickingen, known sometimes as the "last flower
+of German chivalry," boasted of having among the intimate associates
+of his enterprise for the rehabilitation of the knighthood many
+gentlemen who had been accustomed to "let <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>their horses on the high
+road bite off the purses of wayfarers." So strong was the public
+opinion of the noble class as to the inviolability of the privilege of
+highway plunder that a monk, preaching one day in a cathedral and
+happening to attack it as unjustifiable, narrowly escaped death at the
+hands of some knights present amongst his congregation, who asserted
+that he had insulted the prerogatives of their order. Whenever this
+form of knight-errantry was criticized, there were never wanting
+scholarly pens to defend it as a legitimate means of aristocratic
+livelihood; since a knight must live in suitable style, and this was
+often his only resource for obtaining the means thereto.</p>
+
+<p>The free cities, which were subject only to Imperial jurisdiction,
+were practically independent republics. Their organization was a
+microcosm of that of the entire empire. At the apex of the municipal
+society was the B&uuml;rgermeister and the so-called "Honorability"
+(<i>Ehrbarkeit</i>), which consisted of the patrician clans or <i>gentes</i> (in
+most cases), those families which were supposed to be descended from
+the original chartered freemen of the town, the old Mark-brethren.
+They comprised generally the richest families, and had monopolized the
+entire government of the city, together with the right to administer
+its various sources of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>income and to consume its revenue at their
+pleasure. By the time, however, of which we are writing, the
+trade-guilds had also attained to a separate power of their own, and
+were in some cases ousting the burgher-aristocracy, though they were
+very generally susceptible of being manipulated by the members of the
+patrician class, who, as a rule, could alone sit in the Council
+(<i>Rath</i>). The latter body stood, in fact, as regards the town, much in
+the relation of the feudal lord to his manor. Strong in their wealth
+and in their aristocratic privileges, the patricians lorded it alike
+over the townspeople and over the neighbouring peasantry, who were
+subject to the municipality. They forestalled and regrated with
+impunity. They assumed the chief rights in the municipal lands, in
+many cases imposed duties at their own caprice, and turned guild
+privileges and rights of citizenship into a source of profit for
+themselves. Their bailiffs in the country districts forming part of
+their territory were often more voracious in their treatment of the
+peasants than even the nobles themselves. The accounts of income and
+expenditure were kept in the loosest manner, and embezzlement clumsily
+concealed was the rule rather than the exception.</p>
+
+<p>The opposition of the non-privileged citizens, usually led by the
+wealthier guildsmen not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>belonging to the aristocratic class, operated
+through the guilds and through the open assembly of the citizens. It
+had already frequently succeeded in establishing a representation of
+the general body of the guildsmen in a so-called Great Council
+(<i>Grosser Rath</i>), and in addition, as already said, in ousting the
+"honorables" from some of the public functions. Altogether the
+patrician party, though still powerful enough, was at the opening of
+the sixteenth century already on the decline, the wealthy and
+unprivileged opposition beginning in its turn to constitute itself
+into a quasi-aristocratic body as against the mass of the poorer
+citizens and those outside the pale of municipal rights. The latter
+class was now becoming an important and turbulent factor in the life
+of the larger cities. The craft-guilds, consisting of the body of
+non-patrician citizens, were naturally in general dominated by their
+most wealthy section.</p>
+
+<p>We may here observe that the development of the medi&aelig;val township from
+its earliest beginnings up to the period of its decay in the sixteenth
+century was almost uniformly as follows:<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> At first the township, or
+rather what later became the township, was represented <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>entirely by
+the circle of <i>gentes</i> or group-families originally settled within the
+mark or district on which the town subsequently stood. These
+constituted the original aristocracy from which the tradition of the
+<i>Ehrbarkeit</i> dated. In those towns founded by the Romans, such as
+Trier, Aachen, and others, the case was of course a little different.
+There the origin of the <i>Ehrbarkeit</i> may possibly be sought for in the
+leading families of the Roman provincials who were in occupation of
+the town at the coming of the barbarians in the fifth century. Round
+the original nucleus there gradually accreted from the earliest period
+of the Middle Ages the freed men of the surrounding districts,
+fugitive serfs, and others who sought that protection and means of
+livelihood in a community under the immediate domination of a powerful
+lord, which they could not otherwise obtain when their native
+village-community had perchance been raided by some marauding noble
+and his retainers. Circumstances, amongst others the fact that the
+community to which they attached themselves had already adopted
+commerce and thus become a guild of merchants, led to the
+differentiation of industrial functions amongst the new-comers, and
+thus to the establishment of craft-guilds.</p>
+
+<p>Another origin of the townsfolk, which must not be overlooked, is to
+be found in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>attendants on the palace-fortress of some great
+overlord. In the early Middle Ages all such magnates kept up an
+extensive establishment, the greater ecclesiastical lords no less than
+the secular often having several castles. In Germany this origin of
+the township was furthered by Charles the Great, who established
+schools and other civil institutions, with a magistrate at their head,
+round many of the palace-castles that he founded. "A new epoch," says
+Von Maurer, "begins with the villa-foundations of Charles the Great
+and his ordinances respecting them, for that his celebrated
+capitularies in this connection were intended for his newly
+established villas is self-evident. In that proceeding he obviously
+had the Roman villa in his mind, and on the model of this he rather
+further developed the previously existing court and villa constitution
+than completely reorganized it. Hence one finds even in his new
+creations the old foundation again, albeit on a far more extended
+plan, the economical side of such villa-colonies being especially more
+completely and effectively ordered."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The expression "Palatine," as
+applied to certain districts, bears testimony to the fact here
+referred to. As above said, the development of the township was
+everywhere on the same lines. The aim of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>civic community was
+always to remove as far as possible the power which controlled them.
+Their worst condition was when they were immediately overshadowed by a
+territorial magnate. When their immediate lord was a prince, the area
+of whose feudal jurisdiction was more extensive, his rule was less
+oppressively felt, and their condition was therefore considerably
+improved. It was only, however, when cities were "free of the empire"
+(<i>Reichsfrei</i>) that they attained the ideal of medi&aelig;val civic freedom.</p>
+
+<p>It follows naturally from the conditions described that there was, in
+the first place, a conflict between the primitive inhabitants as
+embodied in their corporate society and the territorial lord, whoever
+he might be. No sooner had the township acquired a charter of freedom
+or certain immunities than a new antagonism showed itself between the
+ancient corporation of the city and the trade-guilds, these
+representing the later accretions. The territorial lord (if any) now
+sided, usually though not always, with the patrician party. But the
+guilds, nevertheless, succeeded in ultimately wresting many of the
+leading public offices from the exclusive possession of the patrician
+families. Meanwhile the leading men of the guilds had become <i>hommes
+arriv&eacute;s</i>. They had acquired wealth, and influence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>which was in many
+cases hereditary in their family, and by the beginning of the
+sixteenth century they were confronted with the more or less veiled
+and more or less open opposition of the smaller guildsmen and of the
+newest comers into the city, the shiftless proletariat of serfs and
+free peasants, whom economic pressure was fast driving within the
+walls, owing to the changed conditions of the times.</p>
+
+<p>The peasant of the period was of three kinds: the <i>leibeigener</i> or
+serf, who was little better than a slave, who cultivated his lord's
+domain, upon whom unlimited burdens might be fixed, and who was in all
+respects amenable to the will of his lord; the <i>h&ouml;riger</i> or villein,
+whose services were limited alike in kind and amount; and the <i>freier</i>
+or free peasant, who merely paid what was virtually a quit-rent in
+kind or in money for being allowed to retain his holding or status in
+the rural community under the protection of the manorial lord. The
+last was practically the counterpart of the medi&aelig;val English
+copyholder. The Germans had undergone essentially the same
+transformations in social organization as the other populations of
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The barbarian nations at the time of their great migration in the
+fifth century were organized on a tribal and village basis. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>head
+man was simply <i>primus inter pares</i>. In the course of their wanderings
+the successful military leader acquired powers and assumed a position
+that was unknown to the previous times, when war, such as it was, was
+merely inter-tribal and inter-clannish, and did not involve the
+movements of peoples and federations of tribes, and when, in
+consequence, the need of permanent military leaders or for the
+semblance of a military hierarchy had not arisen. The military leader
+now placed himself at the head of the older social organization, and
+associated with his immediate followers on terms approaching equality.
+A well-known illustration of this is the incident of the vase taken
+from the Cathedral of Rheims, and of Chlodowig's efforts to rescue it
+from his independent comrade-in-arms.</p>
+
+<p>The process of the development of the feudal polity of the Middle Ages
+is, of course, a very complicated one, owing to the various strands
+that go to compose it. In addition to the German tribes themselves,
+who moved <i>en masse</i>, carrying with them their tribal and village
+organization, under the overlordship of the various military leaders,
+were the indigenous inhabitants amongst whom they settled. The latter
+in the country districts, even in many of the territories within the
+Roman Empire, still largely retained the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>primitive communal
+organization. The new-comers, therefore, found in the rural
+communities a social system already in existence into which they
+naturally fitted, but as an aristocratic body over against the
+conquered inhabitants. The latter, though not all reduced to a servile
+condition, nevertheless held their land from the conquering body under
+conditions which constituted them an order of freemen inferior to the
+new-comers.</p>
+
+<p>To put the matter briefly, the military leaders developed into barons
+and princes, and in some cases the nominal centralization culminated,
+as in France and England, in the kingly office; while, in Germany and
+Italy, it took the form of the revived Imperial office, the spiritual
+overlord of the whole of Christendom being the Pope, who had his
+vassals in the prince-prelates and subordinate ecclesiastical holders.
+In addition to the princes sprung originally from the military leaders
+of the migratory nations, there were their free followers, who
+developed ultimately into the knighthood or inferior nobility; the
+inhabitants of the conquered districts forming a distinct class of
+inferior freemen or of serfs. But the essentially personal relation
+with which the whole process started soon degenerated into one based
+on property. The most primitive form of property&mdash;land&mdash;was at the
+outset <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>what was termed <i>allodial</i>, at least among the conquering
+race, from every social group having the possession, under the
+trusteeship of his head man, of the land on which it settled. Now,
+owing to the necessities of the time, owing to the need of protection,
+to violence, and to religious motives, it passed into the hands of the
+overlord, temporal or spiritual, as his possession; and the
+inhabitants, even in the case of populations which had not been
+actually conquered, became his vassals, villeins, or serfs, as the
+case might be. The process by means of which this was accomplished was
+more or less gradual; indeed, the entire extinction of communal
+rights, whereby the notion of private ownership is fully realized, was
+not universally effected even in the West of Europe till within a
+measurable distance of our own time.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>From the foregoing it will be understood that the oppression of the
+peasant, under the feudalism of the Middle Ages, and especially of the
+later Middle Ages, was viewed by him as an infringement of his rights.
+During the period of time constituting medi&aelig;val history, the peasant,
+though he often <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>slumbered, yet often started up to a sudden
+consciousness of his position. The memory of primitive communism was
+never quite extinguished, and the continual peasant-revolts of the
+Middle Ages, though immediately occasioned, probably, by some fresh
+invasion, by which it was sought to tear from the "common man" yet
+another shred of his surviving rights, always had in the background
+the ideal, vague though it may have been, of his ancient freedom.
+Such, undoubtedly, was the meaning of the Jacquerie in France, with
+its wild and apparently senseless vengeance; of the Wat Tyler revolt
+in England, with its systematic attempt to envisage the vague
+tradition of the primitive village community in the legends of the
+current ecclesiastical creed; of the numerous revolts in Flanders and
+North Germany; to a large extent of the Hussite movement in Bohemia,
+under Ziska; of the rebellion led by George Doza in Hungary; and, as
+we shall see in the body of the present work, of the social movements
+of Reformation Germany, in which, with the partial exception of Ket's
+rebellion in England a few years later, we may consider them as
+virtually coming to an end.</p>
+
+<p>For the movements in question were distinctly the last of their kind.
+The civil wars of religion in France, and the great rebellion <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>in
+England against Charles I, which also assumed a religious colouring,
+open a new era in popular revolts. In the latter, particularly, we
+have clearly before us the attempt of the new middle class of town and
+country, the independent citizen, and the now independent yeoman, to
+assert supremacy over the old feudal estates or orders. The new
+conditions had swept away the special revolutionary tradition of the
+medi&aelig;val period, whose golden age lay in the past with its
+communal-holding and free men with equal rights on the basis of the
+village organization&mdash;rights which with every century the peasant felt
+more and more slipping away from him. The place of this tradition was
+now taken by an ideal of individual freedom, apart from any social
+bond, and on a basis merely political, the way for which had been
+prepared by that very conception of individual proprietorship on the
+part of the landlord, against which the older revolutionary sentiment
+had protested. A most powerful instrument in accommodating men's minds
+to this change of view, in other words, to the establishment of the
+new individualistic principle, was the Roman or Civil law, which, at
+the period dealt with in the present book, had become the basis
+whereon disputed points were settled in the Imperial Courts. In this
+respect also, though to a lesser extent, may <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>be mentioned the Canon
+or Ecclesiastical law&mdash;consisting of papal decretals on various points
+which were founded partially on the Roman or Civil law&mdash;a juridical
+system which also fully and indeed almost exclusively recognized the
+individual holding of property as the basis of civil society (albeit
+not without a recognition of social duties on the part of the owner).</p>
+
+<p>Learning was now beginning to differentiate itself from the
+ecclesiastical profession, and to become a definite vocation in its
+various branches. Crowds of students flocked to the seats of learning,
+and, as travelling scholars, earned a precarious living by begging or
+"professing" medicine, assisting the illiterate for a small fee, or
+working wonders, such as casting horoscopes, or performing
+thaumaturgic tricks. The professors of law were now the most
+influential members of the Imperial Council and of the various
+Imperial Courts. In Central Europe, as elsewhere, notably in France,
+the civil lawyers were always on the side of the centralizing power,
+alike against the local jurisdictions and against the peasantry.</p>
+
+<p>The effects of the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and the
+consequent dispersion of the accumulated Greek learning of the
+Byzantine Empire, had, by the end of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>fifteenth century, begun to
+show themselves in a notable modification of European culture. The
+circle of the seven sciences, the Quadrivium, and the Trivium, in
+other words, the medi&aelig;val system of learning, began to be antiquated.
+Scholastic philosophy, that is to say, the controversy of the Scotists
+and the Thomists, was now growing out of date. Plato was extolled at
+the expense of Aristotle. Greek, and even Hebrew, was eagerly sought
+after. Latin itself was assuming another aspect; the Renaissance Latin
+is classical Latin, whilst Medi&aelig;val Latin is dog-Latin. The physical
+universe now began to be inquired into with a perfectly fresh
+interest, but the inquiries were still conducted under the &aelig;gis of the
+old habits of thought. The universe was still a system of mysterious
+affinities and magical powers to the investigator of the Renaissance
+period, as it had been before. There was this difference, however; it
+was now attempted to <i>systematize</i> the magical theory of the universe.
+While the common man held a store of traditional magical beliefs
+respecting the natural world, the learned man deduced these beliefs
+from the Neo-Platonists, from the Kabbala, from Hermes Trismegistos,
+and from a variety of other sources, and attempted to arrange this
+somewhat heterogeneous mass of erudite lore into a system of organized
+thought.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>The Humanistic movement, so called, the movement, that is, of revived
+classical scholarship, had already begun in Germany before what may be
+termed the <i>sturm und drang</i> of the Renaissance proper. Foremost among
+the exponents of this older Humanism, which dates from the middle of
+the fifteenth century, were Nicholas of Cusa and his disciples,
+Rudolph Agricola, Alexander Hegius, and Jacob Wimpheling. But the new
+Humanism and the new Renaissance movement generally throughout
+Northern Europe centred chiefly in two personalities, Johannes
+Reuchlin and Desiderius Erasmus. Reuchlin was the founder of the new
+Hebrew learning, which up till then had been exclusively confined to
+the synagogue. It was he who unlocked the mysteries of the Kabbala to
+the Gentile world. But though it is for his introduction of Hebrew
+study that Reuchlin is best known to posterity, yet his services in
+the diffusion and popularization of classical culture were enormous.
+The dispute of Reuchlin with the ecclesiastical authorities at Cologne
+excited literary Germany from end to end. It was the first general
+skirmish of the new and the old spirit in Central and Northern Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But the man who was destined to become the personification of the
+Humanist movement, us the new learning was called, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>was Erasmus. The
+illegitimate son of the daughter of a Rotterdam burgher, he early
+became famous on account of his erudition, in spite of the adverse
+circumstances of his youth. Like all the scholars of his time, he
+passed rapidly from one country to another, settling finally in Basel,
+then at the height of its reputation as a literary and typographical
+centre. The whole intellectual movement of the time centres round
+Erasmus, as is particularly noticeable in the career of Ulrich von
+Hutten, dealt with in the course of this history. As instances of the
+classicism of the period, we may note the uniform change of the
+patronymic into the classical equivalent, or some classicism supposed
+to be the equivalent. Thus the name Erasmus itself was a classicism of
+his father's name Gerhard, the German name Muth became Mutianus,
+Trittheim became Trithemius, Schwarzerd became Melanchthon, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>We have spoken of the other side of the intellectual movement of the
+period. This other side showed itself in mystical attempts at reducing
+nature to law in the light of the traditional problems which had been
+set, to wit, those of alchemy and astrology: the discovery of the
+philosopher's stone, of the transmutation of metals, of the elixir of
+life, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>of the correspondences between the planets and terrestrial
+bodies. Among the most prominent exponents of these investigations may
+be mentioned Philippus von Hohenheim or Paracelsus, and Cornelius
+Agrippa of Nettesheim, in Germany, Nostrodamus in France, and Cardanus
+in Italy. These men represent a tendency which was pursued by
+thousands in the learned world. It was a tendency which had the honour
+of being the last in history to embody itself in a distinct mythical
+cycle. "Doctor Faustus" may probably have had an historical germ; but
+in any case "Doctor Faustus," as known to legend and to literature, is
+merely a personification of the practical side of the new learning.</p>
+
+<p>The minds of men were waking up to interest in nature. There was one
+man, Copernicus, who, at least partially, struck through the
+traditionary atmosphere in which nature was enveloped, and to his
+insight we owe the foundation of astronomical science; but otherwise
+the whole intellectual atmosphere was charged with occult views. In
+fact, the learned world of the sixteenth century would have found
+itself quite at home in the pretensions and fancies of our modern
+theosophist and psychical researchers, with their notions of making
+erstwhile miracles non-miraculous, of reducing the marvellous to
+being <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>merely the result of penetration on the part of certain seers
+and investigators of the secret powers of nature. Every wonder-worker
+was received with open arms by learned and unlearned alike. The
+possibility of producing that which was out of the ordinary range of
+natural occurrences was not seriously doubted by any. Spells and
+enchantments, conjurations, calculations of nativities, were matters
+earnestly investigated at Universities and Courts.</p>
+
+<p>There were, of course, persons who were eager to detect impostors: and
+amongst them some of the most zealous votaries of the occult arts&mdash;for
+example, Trittheim and the learned Humanist, Conrad Muth or Mutianus,
+both of whom professed to have regarded Faust as a fraudulent person.
+But this did not imply any disbelief in the possibility of the alleged
+pretensions. In the Faust-myth is embodied, moreover, the opposition
+between the new learning on its physical side and the old religious
+faith. The theory that the investigation of the mysteries of nature
+had in it something sinister and diabolical which had been latent
+throughout the Middle Ages, was brought into especial prominence by
+the new religious movements. The popular feeling that the line between
+natural magic and the black art was somewhat doubtful, that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>one
+had a tendency to shade off into the other, now received fresh
+stimulus. The notion of compacts with the devil was a familiar one,
+and that they should be resorted to for the purpose of acquiring an
+acquaintance with hidden lore and magical powers seemed quite natural.</p>
+
+<p>It will have already been seen from what we have said that the
+religious revolt was largely economical in its causes. The intense
+hatred, common alike to the smaller nobility, the burghers, and the
+peasants, of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, was obviously due to its
+ever-increasing exactions. The chief of these were the <i>pallium</i> or
+price paid to the Pope for an ecclesiastical investiture; the
+<i>annates</i> or first year's revenues of a church fief; and the <i>tithes</i>
+which were of two kinds, the great tithe paid in agricultural produce,
+and the small tithe consisting in a head of cattle. The latter seems
+to have been especially obnoxious to the peasant. The sudden increase
+in the sale of indulgences, like the proverbial last straw, broke down
+the whole system; but any other incident might have served the purpose
+equally well. The prince-prelates were in some instances, at the
+outset, not averse to the movement; they would not have been
+indisposed to have converted their territories into secular fiefs of
+the empire. It was only after <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>this hope had been abandoned that they
+definitely took sides with the Papal authority.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of the sixteenth century thus presents to us medi&aelig;val
+society, social, political, and religious, in Germany as elsewhere,
+"run to seed." The feudal organization was outwardly intact; the
+peasant, free and bond, formed the foundation; above him came the
+knighthood or inferior nobility; parallel with them was the
+<i>Ehrbarkeit</i> of the less important towns, holding from mediate
+lordship; above these towns came the free cities, which held
+immediately from the empire, organized into three bodies, a governing
+Council in which the <i>Ehrbarkeit</i> usually predominated, where they did
+not entirely compose it, a Common Council composed of the masters of
+the various guilds, and the General Council of the free citizens.
+Those journeymen, whose condition was fixed from their being outside
+the guild-organizations, usually had guilds of their own. Above the
+free cities in the social pyramid stood the Princes of the empire, lay
+and ecclesiastic, with the Electoral College, or the seven Electoral
+Princes, forming their head. These constituted the feudal "estates" of
+the empire. Then came the "King of the Romans"; and, as the apex of
+the whole, the Pope in one function and the Emperor in another,
+crowned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>the edifice. The supremacy, not merely of the Pope but of the
+complementary temporal head of the medi&aelig;val polity, the Emperor, was
+acknowledged in a shadowy way, even in countries such as France and
+England, which had no direct practical connection with the empire.
+For, as the spiritual power was also temporal, so the temporal
+political power had, like everything else in the Middle Ages, a
+quasi-religious significance.</p>
+
+<p>The minds of men in speculative matters, in theology, in philosophy,
+and in jurisprudence, were outgrowing the old doctrines, at least in
+their old forms. In theology the notion of salvation by the faith of
+the individual, and not through the fact of belonging to a corporate
+organization, which was the medi&aelig;val conception, was latent in the
+minds of multitudes of religious persons before expression was given
+to it by Luther. The aversion to scholasticism, bred by the revived
+knowledge of the older Greek philosophies in the original, produced a
+curious amalgam; but scholastic habits of thought were still dominant
+through it all. The new theories of nature amounted to little more
+than old superstitions, systematized and reduced to rule, though here
+and there the later physical science, based on observation and
+experiment, peeped through. In jurisprudence the epoch is marked by
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>final conquest of the Roman civil law, in its spirit, where not
+in its forms, over the old customs, pre-feudal and feudal.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages,
+characterized by what is known as the revival of learning and the
+Reformation, is so important for an understanding of later German
+history and the especial characteristics of the German culture of
+later times, that we propose, even at the risk of wearying some
+readers, to recapitulate in as short a space as possible, compatible
+with clearness, the leading conditions of the times&mdash;conditions which,
+directly or indirectly, have moulded the whole subsequent course of
+German development.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the geographical situation of Germany and to the political
+configuration of its peoples and other causes, medi&aelig;val conditions of
+life as we find them in the early sixteenth century left more abiding
+traces on the German mind and on German culture than was the case with
+some other nations. The time was out of joint in a very literal sense
+of that somewhat hackneyed phrase. At the opening of the sixteenth
+century every established institution&mdash;political, social, and
+religious&mdash;was shaken and showed the rents and fissures caused by time
+and by the growth of a new life underneath it. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>empire&mdash;the Holy
+Roman&mdash;was in a parlous way as regarded its cohesion. The power of the
+princes, the representatives of local centralized authority, was
+proving itself too strong for the power of the Emperor, the recognized
+representative of centralized authority for the whole German-speaking
+world. This meant the undermining and eventual disruption of the
+smaller social and political unities,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> the knightly manors with the
+privileges attached to the knightly class generally. The knighthood,
+or lower nobility, had acted as a sort of buffer between the princes
+of the empire and the Imperial power, to which they often looked for
+protection against their immediate overlord or their powerful
+neighbour&mdash;the prince. The Imperial power, in consequence, found the
+lower nobility a bulwark against its princely vassals. Economic
+changes, the suddenly increased demand for money owing to the rise of
+the "world-market," new inventions in the art of war, new methods of
+fighting, the rapidly growing importance of artillery, and the
+increase of the mercenary soldier, had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>rendered the lower nobility,
+as an institution, a factor in the political situation which was fast
+becoming negligible. The abortive campaign of Franz von Sickingen in
+1523 only showed its hopeless weakness. The <i>Reichsregiment</i>, or
+Imperial governing council, a body instituted by Maximilian, had
+lamentably failed to effect anything towards cementing together the
+various parts of the unwieldy fabric. Finally, at the Reichstag held
+in N&uuml;rnberg, in December 1522, at which all the estates were
+represented, the <i>Reichsregiment</i>, to all intents and purposes,
+collapsed.</p>
+
+<p>The Reichstag in question was summoned ostensibly for the purpose of
+raising a subsidy for the Hungarians in their struggle against the
+advancing power of the Turks. The Turkish movement westward was, of
+course, throughout this period, the most important question of what in
+modern phraseology would be called "foreign politics." The princes
+voted the proposal of the subsidy without consulting the
+representatives of the cities, who knew the heaviest part of the
+burden was to fall upon themselves. The urgency of the situation,
+however, weighed with them, with the result that they submitted after
+considerable remonstrance. The princes, in conjunction with their
+rivals, the lower nobility, next proceeded to attack the commercial
+monopolies, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>the first fruits of the rising capitalism, the appanage
+mainly of the trading companies and the merchant magnates of the
+towns. This was too much for civic patience. The city representatives,
+who, of course, belonged to the civic aristocracy, waxed indignant.
+The feudal orders went on to claim the right to set up vexatious
+tariffs in their respective territories, whereby to hinder
+artificially the free development of the new commercial capitalist.
+This filled up the cup of endurance of the magnates of the city. The
+city representatives refused their consent to the Turkish subsidy and
+withdrew. The next step was the sending of a deputation to the young
+Emperor Karl, who was in Spain, and whose sanction to the decrees of
+the Reichstag was necessary before their promulgation. The result of
+the conference held on this occasion was a decision to undermine the
+<i>Reichsregiment</i> and weaken the power of the princes, by whom and by
+whose tools it was manned, as a factor in the Imperial constitution.
+As for the princes, while some of their number were positively opposed
+to it, others cared little one way or the other. Their chief aim was
+to strengthen and consolidate their power within the limits of their
+own territories, and a weak empire was perhaps better adapted for
+effecting this purpose than a stronger one, even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>though certain of
+their own order had a controlling voice in its administration. As
+already hinted, the collapse of the rebellious knighthood under
+Sickingen, a few weeks later, clearly showed the political drift of
+the situation in the <i>haute politique</i> of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>The rising capitalists of the city, the monopolists, merchant princes,
+and syndicates, are the theme of universal invective throughout this
+period. To them the rapid and enormous rise in prices during the early
+years of the sixteenth century, the scarcity of money consequent on
+the increased demand for it, and the impoverishment of large sections
+of the population, were attributed by noble and peasant alike. The
+whole trend of public opinion, in short, outside the wealthier
+burghers of the larger cities&mdash;the class immediately interested&mdash;was
+adverse to the condition of things created by the new world-market,
+and by the new class embodying it. At present it was a small class,
+the only one that gained by it, and that gained at the expense of all
+the other classes.</p>
+
+<p>Some idea of the class-antagonisms of the period may be gathered from
+the statement of Ulrich von Hutten about the robber-knights already
+spoken of, in his dialogue entitled "Predones," to the effect that
+there were four orders of robbers in Germany&mdash;the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span><i>knights</i>, the
+<i>lawyers</i>, the <i>priests</i>, and the <i>merchants</i> (meaning especially the
+new capitalist merchant-traders or syndicates). Of these, he declares
+the robber-knights to be the least harmful. This is naturally only to
+be expected from so gallant a champion of his order, the friend and
+abettor of Sickingen. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the
+robber-knight evil, the toleration of which in principle was so deeply
+ingrained in the public opinion of large sections of the population,
+may be judged from the abortive attempts made to stop it, at the
+instance alike of princes and of cities, who on this point, if on no
+other, had a common interest. In 1502, for example, at the Reichstag
+held in Gelnhausen in that year, certain of the highest princes of the
+empire made a representation that, at least, the knights should permit
+the gathering in of the harvest and the vintage in peace. But even
+this modest demand was found to be impracticable. The knights had to
+live in the style required by their status, as they declared, and
+where other means were more and more failing them, their ancient right
+or privilege of plunder was indispensable to their order. Still,
+Hutten was right so far in declaring the knight the most harmless kind
+of robber, inasmuch as, direct as were his methods, his sun was
+obviously setting, while <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>as much could not be said of the other
+classes named; the merchant and the lawyer were on the rise, and the
+priest, although about to receive a check, was not destined speedily
+to disappear, or to change fundamentally the character of his
+activity.</p>
+
+<p>The feudal orders saw their own position seriously threatened by the
+new development of things economic in the cities. The guilds were
+becoming crystallized into close corporations of wealthy families,
+constituting a kind of second <i>Ehrbarkeit</i> or town patriciate; the
+numbers of the landless and unprivileged, with at most a bare footing
+in the town constitution, were increasing in an alarming proportion;
+the journeyman workman was no longer a stage between apprentice and
+master craftsman, but a permanent condition embodied in a large and
+growing class. All these symptoms indicated an extraordinary economic
+revolution, which was making itself at first directly felt only in the
+larger cities, but the results of which were dislocating the social
+relations of the Middle Ages throughout the whole empire.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most striking feature in this dislocation was the transition
+from direct barter to exchange through the medium of money, and the
+consequent suddenly increased importance of the r&ocirc;le played by usury in
+the social life <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>of the time. The scarcity of money is a perennial theme
+of complaint for which the new large capitalist-monopolists are made
+responsible. But the class in question was itself only a symptom of the
+general economic change. The seeming scarcity of money, though but the
+consequence of the increased demand for a circulating medium, was
+explained, to the disadvantage of the hated monopolists, by a crude form
+of the "mercantile" theory. The new merchant, in contradistinction to
+the master craftsman working <i>en famille</i> with his apprentices and
+assistants, now often stood entirely outside the processes of
+production, as speculator or middleman; and he, and still more the
+syndicate who fulfilled the like functions on a larger scale (especially
+with reference to foreign trade), came to be regarded as particularly
+obnoxious robbers, because interlopers to boot. Unlike the knights, they
+were robbers with a new face.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyers were detested for much the same reason (cf. <i>German
+Society at the Close of the Middle Ages</i>, pp. 219-28). The
+professional lawyer class, since its final differentiation from the
+clerk class in general, had made the Roman or civil law its
+speciality, and had done its utmost everywhere to establish the
+principles of the latter in place of the old feudal law of earlier
+medi&aelig;val Europe. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>The Roman law was especially favourable to the
+pretensions of the princes, and, from an economic point of view, of
+the nobility in general, inasmuch as land was on the new legal
+principles treated as the private property of the lord; over which he
+had full power of ownership, and not, as under feudal and canon law,
+as a <i>trust</i> involving duties as well as rights. The class of jurists
+was itself of comparatively recent growth in Central Europe, and its
+rapid increase in every portion of the empire dated from less than
+half a century back. It may be well understood, therefore, why these
+interlopers, who ignored the ancient customary law of the country, and
+who by means of an alien code deprived the poor freeholder or
+copyholder of his land, or justified new and unheard-of exactions on
+the part of his lord on the plea that the latter might do what he
+liked with his own, were regarded by the peasant and humble man as
+robbers whose depredations were, if anything, even more resented than
+those of their old and tried enemy&mdash;the plundering knight.</p>
+
+<p>The priest, especially of the regular orders, was indeed an old foe,
+but his offence had now become very rank. From the middle of the
+fifteenth century onwards the stream of anti-clerical literature waxes
+alike in volume and intensity. The "monk" had become the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>object of
+hatred and scorn throughout the whole lay world. This view of the
+"regular" was shared, moreover, by not a few of the secular clergy
+themselves. Humanists, who were subsequently ardent champions of the
+Church against Luther and the Protestant Reformation&mdash;men such as
+Murner and Erasmus&mdash;had been previously the bitterest satirists of the
+"friar" and the "monk." Amongst the great body of the laity, however,
+though the religious orders came in perhaps for the greater share of
+animosity, the secular priesthood was not much better off in popular
+favour, whilst the upper members of the hierarchy were naturally
+regarded as the chief blood-suckers of the German people in the
+interests of Rome. The vast revenues which both directly in the shape
+of <i>pallium</i> (the price of "investiture"), <i>annates</i> (first year's
+revenues of appointments), <i>Peter's-pence</i>, and recently of
+<i>indulgences</i>&mdash;the latter the by no means most onerous exaction, since
+it was voluntary&mdash;all these things, taken together with what was
+indirectly obtained from Germany, through the expenditure of German
+ecclesiastics on their visits to Rome and by the crowd of parasitics,
+nominal holders of German benefices merely, but real recipients of
+German substance, who danced attendance at the Vatican&mdash;obviously
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>constituted an enormous drain on the resources of the country from all
+the lay classes alike, of which wealth the papal chair could be
+plainly seen to be the receptacle.</p>
+
+<p>If we add to these causes of discontent the vastness in number of the
+regular clergy, the "friars" and "monks" already referred to, who
+consumed, but were only too obviously unproductive, it will be
+sufficiently plain that the Protestant Reformation had something very
+much more than a purely speculative basis to work upon. Religious
+reformers there had been in Germany throughout the Middle Ages, but
+their preachings had taken no deep root. The powerful personality of
+the Monk of Wittenberg found an economic soil ready to hand in which
+his teachings could fructify, and hence the world-historic result. The
+peasant revolts, sporadic the Middle Ages through, had for the
+half-century preceding the Reformation been growing in frequency and
+importance, but it needed nevertheless the sudden impulse, the
+powerful jar given by a Luther in 1517, and the series of blows with
+which it was followed during the years immediately succeeding, to
+crystallize the mass of fluid discontent and social unrest in its
+various forms and give it definite direction. The blow which was
+primarily struck in the region of speculative thought and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>ecclesiastical relations did not stop there in its effects. The attack
+on the dominant theological system&mdash;at first merely on certain
+comparatively unessential outworks of that system&mdash;necessarily of its
+own force developed into an attack on the organization representing
+it, and on the economic basis of the latter. The battle against
+ecclesiastical abuses, again, in its turn, focussed the
+ever-smouldering discontent with abuses in general; and this time, not
+in one district only, but simultaneously over the whole of Germany.
+The movement inaugurated by Luther gave to the peasant groaning under
+the weight of baronial oppression, and the small handicraftsman
+suffering under his <i>Ehrbarkeit</i>, a rallying-point and a rallying cry.</p>
+
+<p>In history there is no movement which starts up full grown from the
+brain of any one man, or even from the mind of any one generation of
+men, like Athene from the head of Zeus. The historical epoch which
+marks the crisis of the given change is, after all, little beyond a
+prominent landmark&mdash;a parting of the ways&mdash;led up to by a long
+preparatory development. This is nowhere more clearly illustrated than
+in the Reformation and its accompanying movements. The ideas and
+aspirations animating the social, political, and intellectual revolt
+of the sixteenth century can each be traced <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>back to, at least, the
+beginning of the fifteenth century, and in many cases farther still.
+The way the German of Luther's time looked at the burning questions of
+the hour was not essentially different from the way the English
+Wyclifites and Lollards, or the Bohemian Hussites and Taborites viewed
+them. There was obviously a difference born of the later time, but
+this difference was not, I repeat, essential. The changes which, a
+century previously, were only just beginning, had, meanwhile, made
+enormous progress.</p>
+
+<p>The disintegration of the material conditions of medi&aelig;val social life
+was now approaching its completion, forced on by the inventions and
+discoveries of the previous half-century. But the ideals of the mass
+of men, learned and simple, were still in the main the ideals that had
+been prevalent throughout the whole of the later Middle Ages. Men
+still looked at the world and at social progress through medi&aelig;val
+spectacles. The chief difference was that now ideas which had
+previously been confined to special localities, or had only had a
+sporadic existence among the people at large, had become general
+throughout large portions of the population. The invention of the art
+of printing was, of course, largely instrumental in effecting this
+change.</p>
+
+<p>The comparatively sudden popularization of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>doctrines previously
+confined to special circles was the distinguishing feature of the
+intellectual life of the first half of the sixteenth century. Among
+the many illustrations of the foregoing which might be given, we are
+specially concerned here to note the sudden popularity during this
+period of two imaginary constitutions dating from early in the
+previous century. From the fourteenth century we find traces, perhaps
+suggested by the Prester John legend, of a deliverer in the shape of
+an emperor who should come from the East, who should be the last of
+his name; should right all wrongs; should establish the empire in
+universal justice and peace; and, in short, should be the forerunner
+of the kingdom of Christ on earth. This notion or mystical hope took
+increasing root during the fifteenth century, and is to be found in
+many respects embodied in the spurious constitutions mentioned, which
+bore respectively the names of the Emperors Sigismund and Friedrich.
+It was in this form that the Hussite theories were absorbed by the
+German mind. The hopes of the Messianists of the "Holy Roman Empire"
+were centred at one time in the Emperor Sigismund. Later on the r&ocirc;le
+of Messiah was carried over to his successor, Friedrich III, upon whom
+the hopes of the German people were cast.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span><i>The Reformation of Kaiser Sigismund</i>, originally written about 1438,
+went through several editions before the end of the century, and was
+as many times reprinted during the opening years of Luther's movement.
+Like its successor, that of Friedrich, the scheme attributed to
+Sigismund proposed the abolition of the recent abuses of feudalism, of
+the new lawyer class, and of the symptoms already making themselves
+felt of the change from barter to money payments. It proposed, in
+short, a return to primitive conditions. It was a scheme of reform on
+a Biblical basis, embracing many elements of a distinctly communistic
+character, as communism was then understood. It was pervaded with the
+idea of equality in the spirit of the Taborite literature of the age,
+from which it took its origin.</p>
+
+<p>The so-called <i>Reformation of Kaiser Sigismund</i> dealt especially with
+the peasantry&mdash;the serfs and villeins of the time; that attributed to
+Friedrich was mainly concerned with the rising population of the
+towns. All towns and communes were to undergo a constitutional
+transformation. Handicraftsmen should receive just wages; all roads
+should be free; taxes, dues, and levies should be abolished; trading
+capital was to be limited to a maximum of 10,000 <i>gulden</i>; all
+surplus <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>capital should fall to the Imperial authorities, who should
+lend it in case of need to poor handicraftsmen at 5 per cent.;
+uniformity of coinage and of weights and measures was to be decreed,
+together with the abolition of the Roman and Canon law. Legists,
+priests, and princes were to be severely dealt with. But, curiously
+enough, the middle and lower nobility, especially the knighthood, were
+more tenderly handled, being treated as themselves victims of their
+feudal superiors, lay and ecclesiastic, especially the latter. In this
+connection the secularization of ecclesiastical fiefs was strongly
+insisted on.</p>
+
+<p>As men found, however, that neither the Emperor Sigismund, nor the
+Emperor Friedrich III, nor the Emperor Maximilian, upon each of whom
+successively their hopes had been cast as the possible realization of
+the German Messiah of earlier dreams, fulfilled their expectations,
+nay, as each in succession implicitly belied these hopes, showing no
+disposition whatever to act up to the views promulgated in their
+names, the tradition of the Imperial deliverer gradually lost its
+force and popularity. By the opening of the Lutheran Reformation the
+opinion had become general that a change would not come from above,
+but that the initiative must rest with the people themselves&mdash;with the
+classes specially <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>oppressed by existing conditions, political,
+economic, and ecclesiastical&mdash;to effect by their own exertions such a
+transformation as was shadowed forth in the spurious constitutions.
+These, and similar ideas, were now everywhere taken up and elaborated,
+often in a still more radical sense than the original; and they
+everywhere found hearers and adherents.</p>
+
+<p>The "true inwardness" of the change, of which the Protestant
+Reformation represented the ideological side, meant the transformation
+of society from a basis mainly corporative and co-operative to one
+individualistic in its essential character. The whole polity of the
+Middle Ages industrial, social, political, ecclesiastical, was based
+on the principle of the group or the community&mdash;ranging in
+hierarchical order from the trade-guild to the town corporation; from
+the town corporation through the feudal orders to the Imperial throne
+itself; from the single monastery to the order as a whole; and from
+the order as a whole to the complete hierarchy of the Church as
+represented by the papal chair. The principle of this social
+organization was now breaking down. The modern and bourgeois
+conception of the autonomy of the individual in all spheres of life
+was beginning to affirm itself.</p>
+
+<p>The most definite expression of this new principle asserted itself in
+the religious sphere. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>The individualism which was inherent in early
+Christianity, but which was present as a speculative content merely,
+had not been strong enough to counteract even the remains of corporate
+tendencies on the material side of things, in the decadent Roman
+Empire; and infinitely less so the vigorous group-organization and
+sentiment of the northern nations, with their tribal society and
+communistic traditions still mainly intact. And these were the
+elements out of which medi&aelig;val society arose. Naturally enough the new
+religious tendencies in revolt against the medi&aelig;val corporate
+Christianity of the Catholic Church seized upon this individualistic
+element in Christianity, declaring the chief end of religion to be a
+personal salvation, for the attainment of which the individual himself
+was sufficing, apart from Church organization and Church tradition.
+This served as a valuable destructive weapon for the iconoclasts in
+their attack on ecclesiastical privilege; consequently, in religion,
+this doctrine of Individualism rapidly made headway. But in more
+material matters the old corporative instinct was still too strong and
+the conditions were as yet too imperfectly ripe for the speedy triumph
+of Individualism.</p>
+
+<p>The conflict of the two tendencies is curiously exhibited in the popular
+movements of the Reformation-time. As enemies of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>decaying and
+obstructive forms of Feudalism and Church organization, the peasant and
+handicraftsman were necessarily on the side of the new Individualism. So
+far as negation and destruction were concerned, they were working
+apparently for the new order of things&mdash;that new order of things which
+<i>longo intervallo</i> has finally landed us in the developed capitalistic
+Individualism of the twentieth century. Yet when we come to consider
+their constructive programmes we find the positive demands put forward
+are based either on ideal conceptions derived from reminiscences of
+primitive communism, or else that they distinctly postulate a return to
+a state of things&mdash;the old mark-organisation&mdash;upon which the later
+feudalism had in various ways encroached, and finally superseded. Hence
+they were, in these respects, not merely not in the trend of
+contemporary progress, but in actual opposition to it; and therefore, as
+Lassalle has justly remarked, they were necessarily and in any case
+doomed to failure in the long run.</p>
+
+<p>This point should not be lost sight of in considering the various
+popular movements of the earlier half of the sixteenth century. The
+world was still essentially medi&aelig;val; men were still dominated by
+medi&aelig;val ways of looking at things and still immersed in medi&aelig;val
+conditions of life. It is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>true that out of this medi&aelig;val soil the new
+individualistic society was beginning to grow, but its manifestations
+were as yet not so universally apparent as to force a recognition of
+their real meaning. It was still possible to regard the various
+symptoms of change, numerous as they were, and far-reaching as we now
+see them to have been, as sporadic phenomena, as rank but unessential
+overgrowths on the old society, which it was possible by pruning and
+the application of other suitable remedies to get rid of, and thereby
+to restore a state of pristine health in the body political and
+social.</p>
+
+<p>Biblical phrases and the notion of Divine Justice now took the place
+in the popular mind formerly occupied by Church and Emperor. All the
+then oppressed classes of society&mdash;the small peasant, half villein,
+half free-man; the landless journeyman and town-proletarian; the
+beggar by the wayside; the small master, crushed by usury or
+tyrannized over by his wealthier colleague in the guild, or by the
+town-patriciate; even the impoverished knight, or the soldier of
+fortune defrauded of his pay; in short, all with whom times were bad,
+found consolation for their wants and troubles, and at the same time
+an incentive to action, in the notion of a Divine Justice which should
+restore all things, and the advent of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>which was approaching. All had
+Biblical phrases tending in the direction of their immediate
+aspirations in their mouths.</p>
+
+<p>As bearing on the development and propaganda of the new ideas, the
+existence of a new intellectual class, rendered possible by the new
+method of exchange through money (as opposed to that of barter), which
+for a generation past had been in full swing in the larger towns, must
+not be forgotten. Formerly land had been the essential condition of
+livelihood; now it was no longer so. The "universal equivalent,"
+money, conjoined with the printing press, was rendering a literary
+class proper, for the first time, possible. In the same way the
+teacher, physician, and the small lawyer were enabled to subsist as
+followers of independent professions, apart from the special service
+of the Church or as part of the court-retinue of some feudal
+potentate. To these we must add a fresh and very important section of
+the intellectual class which also now for the first time acquired an
+independent existence&mdash;to wit, that of the public official or
+functionary. This change, although only one of many, is itself
+specially striking as indicating the transition from the barbaric
+civilization of the Middle Ages to the beginnings of the civilization
+of the modern world. We have, in short, before us, as already
+remarked, a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>period in which the Middle Ages, whilst still dominant,
+have their force visibly sapped by the growth of a new life.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up the chief features of this new life: Industrially, we have
+the decline of the old system of production in the countryside in
+which each manor or, at least, each district, was for the most part
+self-sufficing and self-supporting, where production was almost
+entirely for immediate use, and only the surplus was exchanged, and
+where such exchange as existed took place exclusively under the form
+of barter. In place of this, we find now something more than the
+beginnings of a national-market and distinct traces of that of a
+world-market. In the towns the change was even still more marked. Here
+we have a sudden and hothouse-like development of the influence of
+money. The guild-system, originally designed for associations of
+craftsmen, for which the chief object was the man and the work, and
+not the mere acquirement of profit, was changing its character. The
+guilds were becoming close corporations of privileged capitalists,
+while a commercial capitalism, as already indicated, was raising its
+head in all the larger centres. In consequence of this state of
+things, the rapid development of the towns and of commerce, national
+and international, and the economic backwardness of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>country-side,
+a landless proletariat was being formed, which meant on the one hand
+an enormous increase in mendicancy of all kinds, and on the other the
+creation of a permanent class of only casually-employed persons, whom
+the towns absorbed indeed, but for the most part with a new form of
+citizenship involving only the bare right of residence within the
+walls. Similar social phenomena were, of course, manifesting
+themselves contemporaneously in other parts of Europe; but in Germany
+the change was more sudden than elsewhere, and was complicated by
+special political circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>The political and military functions of that for the medi&aelig;val polity
+of Germany, so important class, the knighthood, or lower nobility, had
+by this time become practically obsolete, mainly owing to the changed
+conditions of warfare. But yet the class itself was numerous, and
+still, nominally at least, possessed of most of its old privileges and
+authority. The extent of its real power depended, however, upon the
+absence or weakness of a central power, whether Imperial or
+State-territorial. The attempt to reconstitute the centralized power
+of the empire under Maximilian, of which the <i>Reichsregiment</i> was the
+outcome, had, as we have seen, not proved successful. Its means of
+carrying into effect its own decisions were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>hopelessly inadequate. In
+1523 it was already weakened, and became little more than a "survival"
+after the Reichstag held at N&uuml;rnberg in 1524. Thus this body, which
+had been called into existence at the instance of the most powerful
+estates of the empire, was "shelved" with the practically unanimous
+consent of those who had been instrumental in creating it.</p>
+
+<p>But if the attempt at Imperial centralization had failed, the force of
+circumstances tended partly for this very reason to favour
+State-territorial centralization. The aim of all the territorial
+magnates, the higher members of the Imperial system, was to
+consolidate their own princely power within the territories owing them
+allegiance. This desire played a not unimportant part in the
+establishment of the Reformation in certain parts of the country&mdash;for
+example, in W&uuml;rtemberg, and in the northern lands of East Prussia
+which were subject to the Grand Master of the Teutonic knights. The
+time was at hand for the transformation of the medi&aelig;val feudal
+territory, with its local jurisdictions and its ties of service, into
+the modern bureaucratic state, with its centralized administration and
+organized system of salaried functionaries subject to a central
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>The religious movement inaugurated by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>Luther met and was absorbed by
+all these elements of change. It furnished them with a religious
+<i>flag</i>, under cover of which they could work themselves out. This was
+necessary in an age when the Christian theology was unquestioningly
+accepted in one or another form by wellnigh all men, and hence entered
+as a practical belief into their daily thoughts and lives. The
+Lutheran Reformation, from its inception in 1517 down to the Peasants'
+War of 1525, at once absorbed, and was absorbed by, all the
+revolutionary elements of the time. Up to the last-mentioned date it
+gathered revolutionary force year by year. But this was the turning
+point.</p>
+
+<p>With the crushing of the peasants' revolt and the decisively
+anti-popular attitude taken up by Luther, the religious movement
+associated with him ceased any longer to have a revolutionary
+character. It henceforth became definitely subservient to the new
+interests of the wealthy and privileged classes, and as such
+completely severed itself from the more extreme popular reforming
+sects.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time, though by no means always approved by Luther himself
+or his immediate followers, and in some cases even combated by them,
+the latter were nevertheless not looked upon with disfavour by large
+numbers of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>rank and file of those who regarded Martin Luther as
+their leader.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could exceed the violence of language with which Luther
+himself attacked all who stood in his way. Not only the
+ecclesiastical, but also the secular heads of Christendom came in for
+the coarsest abuse; "swine" and "water-bladder" are not the strongest
+epithets employed. But this was not all; in his <i>Treatise on Temporal
+Authority and how far it should be Obeyed</i> (published in 1523), whilst
+professedly maintaining the thesis that the secular authority is a
+Divine ordinance, Luther none the less expressly justifies resistance
+to all human authority where its mandates are contrary to "the word of
+God." At the same time, he denounces in his customary energetic
+language the existing powers generally. "Thou shouldst know," he says,
+"that since the beginning of the world a wise prince is truly a rare
+bird, but a pious prince is still more rare." "They" (princes) "are
+mostly the greatest fools or the greatest rogues on earth; therefore
+must we at all times expect from them the worst, and little good."
+Farther on, he proceeds: "The common man begetteth understanding, and
+the plague of the princes worketh powerfully among the people and the
+common man. He will not, he cannot, he purposeth not, longer to suffer
+your <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>tyranny and oppression. Dear princes and lords, know ye what to
+do, for God will no longer endure it? The world is no more as of old
+time, when ye hunted and drove the people as your quarry. But think ye
+to carry on with much drawing of sword, look to it that one do not
+come who shall bid ye sheath it, and that not in God's name!"</p>
+
+<p>Again, in a pamphlet published the following year, 1524, relative to
+the Reichstag of that year, Luther proclaims that the judgment of God
+already awaits "the drunken and mad princes." He quotes the phrase:
+"Deposuit potentes de sede" (Luke i. 52), and adds "that is your case,
+dear lords, even now when ye see it not!" After an admonition to
+subjects to refuse to go forth to war against the Turks, or to pay
+taxes towards resisting them, who were ten times wiser and more godly
+than German princes, the pamphlet concludes with the prayer: "May God
+deliver us from ye all, and of His grace give us other rulers!"
+Against such utterances as the above, the conventional exhortations to
+Christian humility, non-resistance, and obedience to those in
+authority, would naturally not weigh in a time of popular ferment. So,
+until the momentous year 1525, it was not unnatural that,
+notwithstanding his quarrel with M&uuml;nzer and the Zwickau enthusiasts,
+and with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>others whom he deemed to be going "too far," Luther should
+have been regarded as in some sort the central figure of the
+revolutionary movement, political and social, no less than religious.</p>
+
+<p>But the great literary and agitatory forces during the period referred
+to were of course either outside the Lutheran movement proper or at
+most only on the fringe of it. A mass of broadsheets and pamphlets,
+specimens of some of which have been given in a former volume (<i>German
+Society at the Close of the Middle Ages</i>, pp. 114-28), poured from the
+press during these years, all with the refrain that things had gone on
+long enough, that the common man, be he peasant or townsman, could no
+longer bear it. But even more than the revolutionary literature were
+the wandering preachers effective in working up the agitation which
+culminated in the Peasants' War of 1525. The latter comprised men of
+all classes, from the impoverished knight, the poor priest, the
+escaped monk, or the travelling scholar, to the peasant, the mercenary
+soldier out of employment, the poor handicraftsman, of even the
+beggar. Learned and simple, they wandered about from place to place,
+in the market place of the town, in the common field of the village,
+from one territory to another, preaching the gospel of discontent.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>Their harangues were, as a rule, as much political as religious, and
+the ground tone of them all was the social or economic misery of the
+time, and the urgency of immediate action to bring about a change. As
+in the literature, so in the discourses, Biblical phrases designed to
+give force to the new teaching abounded. The more thorough-going of
+these itinerant apostles openly aimed at nothing less than the
+establishment of a new Christian Commonwealth, or, as they termed it,
+"the Kingdom of God on Earth."</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> We are here, of course, dealing more especially with
+Germany; but substantially the same course was followed in the
+development of municipalities in other parts of Europe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Einleitung</i>, pp. 255, 256.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Cf. Von Maurer's <i>Einleitung zur Geschichte der
+Mark-Verfassung</i>; Gomme's <i>Village Communities</i>; Laveleye, <i>La
+Propri&eacute;t&eacute; Primitive</i>; Stubbs's <i>Constitutional History</i>; also Maine's
+works.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> It should be remembered that Germany at this time was cut
+up into feudal territorial divisions of all sizes, from the
+principality, or the prince-bishopric, to the knightly manor. Every
+few miles, and sometimes less, there was a fresh territory, a fresh
+lord, and a fresh jurisdiction.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>The "great man" theory of history, formerly everywhere prevalent, and
+even now common among non-historical persons, has long regarded the
+Reformation as the purely personal work of the Augustine monk who was
+its central figure. The fallacy of this conception is particularly
+striking in the case of the Reformation. Not only was it preceded by
+numerous sporadic outbursts of religious revivalism which sometimes
+took the shape of opposition to the dominant form of Christianity,
+though it is true they generally shaded off into mere movements of
+independent Catholicism within the Church; but there were in addition
+at least two distinct religious movements which led up to it, while
+much which, under the reformers of the sixteenth century, appears as a
+distinct and separate theology, is traceable in the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries in the mystical movement connected with the names
+of Meister Eckhart and Tauler. Meister <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>Eckhart, whose free treatment
+of Christian doctrines, in order to bring them into consonance with
+his mystical theology, had drawn him into conflict with the Papacy,
+undoubtedly influenced Luther through his disciple, Tauler, and
+especially through the book which proceeded from the latter's school,
+the <i>Deutsche Theologie</i>. It is, however, in the much more important
+movement, which originated with Wyclif and extended to Central Europe
+through Huss, that we must look for the more obvious influences
+determining the course of religious development in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>The Wyclifite movement in England was less a doctrinal heterodoxy than
+a revolt against the Papacy and the priestly hierarchy. Mere
+theoretical speculations were seldom interfered with, but anything
+which touched their material interests at once aroused the vigilance
+of the clergy. It is noticeable that the diffusion of Lollardism, that
+is of the ideas of Wyclif, if not the cause of, was at least followed
+by the peasant rising under the leadership of John Ball, a connection
+which is also visible in the Tziska revolt following the Hussite
+movement, and the Peasants' War in Germany which came on the heels of
+the Lutheran Reformation. How much Huss was directly influenced by the
+teachings of Wyclif is clear. The works of the latter were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>widely
+circulated throughout Europe; for one of the advantages of the custom
+of writing in Latin, which was universal during the Middle Ages, was
+that books of an important character were immediately current amongst
+all scholars without having, as now, to wait upon the caprice and
+ability of translators. Huss read Wyclif's works as the preparation
+for his theological degree, and subsequently made them his text-books
+when teaching at the University of Prague. After his treacherous
+execution at Constance, and the events which followed thereupon in
+Bohemia, a number of Hussite fugitives settled in Southern Germany,
+carrying with them the seeds of the new doctrines. An anonymous
+contemporary writer states that "to John Huss and his followers are to
+be traced almost all those false principles concerning the power of
+the spiritual and temporal authorities and the possession of earthly
+goods and rights which before in Bohemia, and now with us, have called
+forth revolt and rebellion, plunder, arson, and murder, and have
+shaken to its foundations the whole commonwealth. The poison of these
+false doctrines has been long flowing from Bohemia into Germany, and
+will produce the same desolating consequences wherever it spreads."</p>
+
+<p>The condition of the Catholic Church, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>against which the Reformation
+movement generally was a protest, needs here to be made clear to the
+reader. The beginning of clerical disintegration is distinctly visible
+in the first half of the fourteenth century. The interdicts, as an
+institution, had ceased to be respected, and the priesthood itself
+began openly to sink itself in debauchery and to play fast and loose
+with the rites of the Church. Indulgences for a hundred years were
+readily granted for a consideration. The manufacture of relics became
+an organized branch of industry; and festivals of fools and festivals
+of asses were invented by the jovial priests themselves in travesty of
+sacred mysteries, as a welcome relaxation from the monotony of
+prescribed ecclesiastical ceremony. Pilgrimages increased in number
+and frequency; new saints were created by the dozen; and the disbelief
+of the clergy in the doctrines they professed was manifest even to the
+most illiterate, whilst contempt for the ceremonies they practised was
+openly displayed in the performance of their clerical functions. An
+illustration of this is the joke of the priests related by Luther, who
+were wont during the celebration of the Mass, when the worshippers
+fondly imagined that the sacred formula of transubstantiation was
+being repeated, to replace the words <i>Panis es et carnem fiebis</i>,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>"Bread thou art and flesh thou shalt become," by <i>Panis es et panis
+manebis</i>, "Bread thou art and bread thou shalt remain."</p>
+
+<p>The scandals as regards clerical manners, growing, as they had been,
+for many generations, reached their climax in the early part of the
+sixteenth century. It was a common thing for priests to drive a
+roaring trade as moneylenders, landlords of alehouses and gambling
+dens, and even in some cases, brothel-keepers. Papal ukases had proved
+ineffective to stem the current of clerical abuses. The regular clergy
+evoked even more indignation than the secular. "Stinking cowls" was a
+favourite epithet for the monks. Begging, cheating, shameless
+ignorance, drunkenness, and debauchery, are alleged as being their
+noted characteristics. One of the princes of the empire addresses a
+prior of a convent largely patronized by aristocratic ladies as "Thou,
+our common brother-in-law!" In some of the convents of Friesland,
+promiscuous intercourse between the sexes was, it is said, quite
+openly practised, the offspring being reared as monks and nuns. The
+different orders competed with each other for the fame and wealth to
+be obtained out of the public credulity. A fraud attempted by the
+Dominicans at Bern, in 1506, <i>with the concurrence of the heads of the
+order <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>throughout Germany</i>, was one of the main causes of that city
+adopting the Reformation.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the increasing burdens of investitures, annates, and
+other Papal dues, the brunt of which the German people had directly or
+indirectly to bear, special offence was given at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century by the excessive exploitation of the practice of
+indulgences by Leo X for the purpose of completing the cathedral of
+St. Peter's at Rome. It was this, coming on the top of the exactions
+already rendered necessary by the increasing luxury and debauchery of
+the Papal Court and those of the other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
+that directly led to the dramatic incidents with which the Lutheran
+Reformation opened.</p>
+
+<p>The remarkable personality with which the religious side of the
+Reformation is pre-eminently associated was a child of his time, who
+had passed through a variety of mental struggles, and had already
+broken through the bonds of the old ecclesiasticism before that
+turning-point in his career which is usually reckoned the opening of
+the Reformation, to wit&mdash;the nailing of the theses on to the door of
+the Schloss-Kirche in Wittenberg on the 31st of October, 1517. Martin
+Luther, we must always bear in mind, however, was no Protestant in the
+English Puritan sense of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>word. It was not merely that he retained
+much of what would be deemed by the old-fashioned English Protestant
+"Romish error" in his doctrine, but his practical view of life showed
+a reaction from the ascetic pretensions which he had seen bred nothing
+but hypocrisy and the worst forms of sensual excess. It is, indeed,
+doubtful if the man who sang the praises of "Wine, Women, and Song"
+would have been deemed a fit representative in Parliament or elsewhere
+by the British Nonconformist conscience of our day; or would be
+acceptable in any capacity to the grocer-deacon of our provincial
+towns, who, not content with being allowed to sand his sugar and
+adulterate his tea unrebuked, would socially ostracise every one whose
+conduct did not square with his conventional shibboleths. Martin
+Luther was a child of his time also as a boon companion. The freedom
+of his living in the years following his rupture with Rome was the
+subject of severe animadversions on the part of the noble, but in this
+respect narrow-minded, Thomas M&uuml;nzer, who, in his open letter
+addressed to the "Soft-living flesh of Wittenberg," scathingly
+denounces what he deems his debauchery.</p>
+
+<p>It does not enter into our province here to discuss at length the
+religious aspects of the Reformation; but it is interesting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>to note
+in passing the more than modern liberality of Luther's views with
+respect to the marriage question and the celibacy of the clergy,
+contrasted with the strong medi&aelig;val flavour of his belief in
+witchcraft and sorcery. In his <i>De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesi&aelig;</i>
+(1519) he expresses the view that if, for any cause, husband or wife
+are prevented from having sexual intercourse they are justified, the
+woman equally with the man, in seeking it elsewhere. He was opposed to
+divorce, though he did not forbid it, and recommended that a man
+should rather have a plurality of wives than that he should put away
+any of them. Luther held strenuously the view that marriage was a
+purely external contract for the purpose of sexual satisfaction, and
+in no way entered into the spiritual life of the man. On this ground
+he sees no objection in the so-called mixed marriages, which were, of
+course, frowned upon by the Catholic Church. In his sermon on "Married
+Life" he says: "Know therefore that marriage is an outward thing, like
+any other worldly business. Just as I may eat, drink, sleep, walk,
+ride, buy, speak, and bargain with a heathen, a Jew, a Turk, or a
+heretic, so may I also be and remain married to such an one, and I
+care not one jot for the fool's laws which forbid it.... A heathen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>is
+just as much man or woman, well and shapely made by God, as St. Peter,
+St. Paul, or St. Lucia." Nor did he shrink from applying his views to
+particular cases, as is instanced by his correspondence with Philip
+von Hessen, whose constitution appears to have required more than one
+wife. He here lays down explicitly the doctrine that polygamy and
+concubinage are not forbidden to Christians, though, in his advice to
+Philip, he adds the <i>caveat</i> that he should keep the matter dark to
+the end that offence might not be given. "For," says he, "it matters
+not, provided one's conscience is right, what others say." In one of
+his sermons on the Pentateuch<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> we find the words: "It is not
+forbidden that a man have more than one wife. I would not forbid it
+to-day, albeit I would not advise it.... Yet neither would I condemn
+it." Other opinions on the nature of the sexual relation were equally
+broad; for in one of his writings on monastic celibacy his words
+plainly indicate his belief that chastity, no more than other fleshly
+mortifications, was to be considered a divine ordinance for all men or
+women. In an address to the clergy he says: "A woman not possessed of
+high and rare grace can no more abstain from a man than from eating,
+drinking, sleeping, or other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>natural function. Likewise a man cannot
+abstain from a woman. The reason is that it is as deeply implanted in
+our nature to breed children as it is to eat and drink."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The worthy
+Janssen observes in a scandalized tone that Luther, as regards certain
+matters relating to married life, "gave expression to principles
+before unheard of in Christian Europe";<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and the British
+Nonconformist of to-day, if he reads these "immoral" opinions of the
+hero of the Reformation, will be disposed to echo the sentiments of
+the Ultramontane historian.</p>
+
+<p>The relation of the Reformation to the "New Learning" was in Germany
+not unlike that which existed in the other northern countries of
+Europe, and notably in England. Whilst the hostility of the latter to
+the medi&aelig;val Church was very marked, and it was hence disposed to
+regard the religious Reformation as an ally, this had not proceeded
+very far before the tendency of the Renaissance spirit was to side
+with Catholicism against the new theology and dogma, as merely
+destructive and hostile to culture. The men of the Humanist movement
+were for the most part Free-thinkers, and it was with them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>that
+free-thought first appeared in modern Europe. They therefore had
+little sympathy with the narrow bigotry of religious reformers, and
+preferred to remain in touch with the Church, whose then loose and
+tolerant Catholicism gave freer play to intellectual speculations,
+provided they steered clear of overt theological heterodoxy, than the
+newer systems, which, taking theology <i>au grand s&eacute;rieux</i>, tended to
+regard profane art and learning as more or less superfluous, and spent
+their whole time in theological wrangles. Nevertheless, there were not
+wanting men who, influenced at first by the revival of learning, ended
+by throwing themselves entirely into the Reformation movement, though
+in these cases they were usually actuated rather by their hatred of
+the Catholic hierarchy than by any positive religious sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>Of such men Ulrich von Hutten, the descendant of an ancient and
+influential knightly family, was a noteworthy example. After having
+already acquired fame as the author of a series of skits in the new
+Latin and other works of classical scholarship, being also well known
+as the ardent supporter of Reuchlin in his dispute with the Church,
+and as the friend and correspondent of the central Humanist figure of
+the time, Erasmus, he watched with absorbing interest the movement
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>which Luther had inaugurated. Six months after the nailing of the
+theses at Wittenberg, he writes enthusiastically to a friend
+respecting the growing ferment in ecclesiastical matters, evidently
+regarding the new movement as a Kilkenny-cat fight. "The leaders," he
+says, "are bold and hot, full of courage and zeal. Now they shout and
+cheer, now they lament and bewail, as loud as they can. They have
+lately set themselves to write; the printers are getting enough to do.
+Propositions, corollaries, conclusions, and articles are being sold.
+For this alone I hope they will mutually destroy each other." "A few
+days ago a monk was telling me what was going on in Saxony, to which I
+replied: 'Devour each other in order that ye in turn may be devoured
+(<i>sic</i>).' Pray Heaven that our enemies may fight each other to the
+bitter end, and by their obstinacy extinguish each other."</p>
+
+<p>Thus it will be seen that Hutten regarded the Reformation in its
+earlier stages as merely a monkish squabble, and failed to see the
+tremendous upheaval of all the old landmarks of ecclesiastical
+domination which was immanent in it. So soon, however, as he perceived
+its real significance, he threw himself wholly into the movement. It
+must not be forgotten, moreover, that, although Hutten's zeal for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>Humanism made him welcome any attempt to overthrow the power of the
+clergy and the monks, he had also an eminently political motive for
+his action in what was, in some respects, the main object of his life,
+viz. to rescue the "knighthood," or smaller nobility, from having
+their independence crushed out by the growing powers of the princes of
+the empire. Probably more than one-third of the manors were held by
+ecclesiastical dignitaries, so that anything which threatened their
+possessions and privileges seemed to strike a blow at the very
+foundations of the Imperial system. Hutten hoped that the new
+doctrines would set the princes by the ears all round; and that then,
+by allying themselves with the reforming party, the knighthood might
+succeed in retaining the privileges which still remained to them, but
+were rapidly slipping away, and might even regain some of those which
+had been already lost. It was not till later, however, that Hutten saw
+matters in this light. He was, at the time the above letter was
+written, in the service of the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, the
+leading favourer of the New Learning amongst the prince-prelates, and
+it was mainly from the Humanist standpoint that he regarded the
+beginnings of the Reformation. After leaving the service of the
+archbishop he struck up a personal friendship with Luther, instigated
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>thereto by his political chief, Franz von Sickingen, the leader of the
+knighthood, from whom he probably received the first intimation of the
+importance of the new movement to their common cause.</p>
+
+<p>When, in 1520, the young Emperor, Charles V, was crowned at Aachen,
+Luther's party, as well as the knighthood, expected that considerable
+changes would result in a sense favourable to their position from the
+presumed pliability of the new head of the empire. His youth, it was
+supposed, would make him more sympathetic to the newer spirit which
+was rapidly developing itself; and it is true that about the time of
+his election Charles had shown a transient favour to the "recalcitrant
+monk." It would appear, however, that this was only for the purpose of
+frightening the Pope into abandoning his declared intention of
+abolishing the Inquisition in Spain, then regarded as one of the
+mainstays of the royal power, and still more to exercise pressure upon
+him, in order that he should facilitate Charles's designs on the
+Milanese territory. Once these objects were attained, he was just as
+ready to oblige the Pope by suppressing the new anti-Papal movement as
+he might possibly otherwise have been to have favoured it with a view
+to humbling the only serious rival to his dominion in the empire.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>Immediately after his coronation he proceeded to Cologne, and convoked
+by Imperial edict a Reichstag at Worms for the following 27th of
+January, 1521. The proceedings of this famous Reichstag have been
+unfortunately so identified with the edict against Luther that the
+other important matters which were there discussed have almost fallen
+into oblivion. At least two other questions were dealt with, however,
+which are significant of the changes that were then taking place. The
+first was the rehabilitation and strengthening of the Imperial
+Governing Council (<i>Reichsregiment</i>), whose functions under Maximilian
+had been little more than nominal. There was at first a feeling
+amongst the States in favour of transferring all authority to it, even
+during the residence of the Emperor in the empire; and in the end,
+while having granted to it complete power during his absence, it
+practically retained very much of this power when he was present. In
+constitution it was very similar to the French "Parliaments," and,
+like them, was principally composed of learned jurists, four being
+elected by the Emperor and the remainder by the estates. The character
+and the great powers of this council, extending even to ecclesiastical
+matters during the ensuing years, undoubtedly did much to hasten on
+the substitution of the civil law for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>older customary or common
+law, a matter which we shall consider more in detail later on. The
+financial condition of the empire was also considered; and it here
+first became evident that the dislocation of economic conditions,
+which had begun with the century, would render an enormously increased
+taxation necessary to maintain the Imperial authority, amounting to
+five times as much as had previously been required.</p>
+
+<p>It was only after these secular affairs of the empire had been
+disposed of that the deliberations of the Reichstag on ecclesiastical
+matters were opened by the indictment of Luther in a long speech by
+Aleander, one of the papal nuncios, in introducing the Pope's letter.
+In spite of the efforts of his friends, Luther was not permitted to be
+present at the beginning of the proceedings; but subsequently he was
+sent for by the Emperor, in order that he might state his case. His
+journey to Worms was one long triumph, especially at Erfurt, where he
+was received with enthusiasm by the Humanists as the enemy of the
+Papacy. But his presence in the Reichstag was unavailing, and the
+proceedings resulted in his being placed under the ban of the empire.
+The safe-conduct of the Emperor was, however, in his case respected;
+and in spite of the fears of his friends that a like fate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>might
+befall him as had befallen Huss after the Council of Constance, he was
+allowed to depart unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>On his way to Wittenberg Luther was seized, by arrangement with his
+supporter, the Kurf&uuml;rst of Saxony, and conveyed in safety to the
+Castle of Wartburg, in Th&uuml;ringen, a report in the meantime being
+industriously circulated by certain of his adherents, with a view of
+arousing popular feeling, that he had been arrested by order of the
+Emperor and was being tortured. In this way he was secured from all
+danger for the time being, and it was during his subsequent stay that
+he laid the foundations of the literary language of Germany.</p>
+
+<p>Says a contemporary writer,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> an eye-witness of what went on at Worms
+during the sitting of the Reichstag: "All is disorder and confusion.
+Seldom a night doth pass but that three or four persons be slain. The
+Emperor hath installed a provost, who hath drowned, hanged, and
+murdered over a hundred men." He proceeds: "Stabbing, whoring,
+flesh-eating (it was in Lent) ... altogether there is an orgie worthy
+of the Venusberg." He further states that many gentlemen and other
+visitors had drunk themselves to death on the strong Rhenish wine.
+Aleander was in danger <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>of being murdered by the Lutheran populace,
+instigated thereto by Hutten's inflammatory letters from the
+neighbouring Castle of Ebernburg, in which Franz von Sickingen had
+given him a refuge. The fiery Humanist wrote to Aleander himself,
+saying that he would leave no stone unturned "till thou who earnest
+hither full of wrath, madness, crime, and treachery shalt be carried
+hence a lifeless corpse." Aleander naturally felt exceedingly
+uncomfortable, and other supporters of the Papal party were not less
+disturbed at the threats which seemed in a fair way of being carried
+out. The Emperor himself was without adequate means of withstanding a
+popular revolt should it occur. He had never been so low in cash or in
+men as at that moment. On the other hand, Sickingen, to whom he owed
+money, and who was the only man who could have saved the situation
+under the circumstances, had matters come to blows, was almost overtly
+on the side of the Lutherans; while the whole body of the impoverished
+knighthood were only awaiting a favourable opportunity to overthrow
+the power of the magnates, secular and ecclesiastic, with Sickingen as
+a leader. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of the year
+1521.</p>
+
+<p>The ban placed upon Luther by the Reichstag marks the date of the
+complete rupture between the Reforming party and the old <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>Church.
+Henceforward, many Humanist and Humanistically influenced persons who
+had supported him withdrew from the movement and swelled the ranks of
+the Conservatives. Foremost amongst these were Pirckheimer, the
+wealthy merchant and scholar of N&uuml;rnberg, and many others, who dreaded
+lest the attack on ecclesiastical property and authority should, as
+indeed was the case, issue in a general attack on all property and
+authority. Thomas Murner, also, who was the type of the "moderate" of
+the situation, while professing to disapprove of the abuses of the
+Church, declared that Luther's manner of agitation could only lead to
+the destruction of all order, civil no less than ecclesiastical. The
+two parties were now clearly defined, and the points at issue were
+plainly irreconcilable with one another or involved irreconcilable
+details.</p>
+
+<p>The printing-press now for the first time appeared as the vehicle for
+popular literature; the art of the bard gave place to the art of the
+typographer, and the art of the preacher saw confronting it a
+formidable rival in that of the pamphleteer. Similarly in the French
+Revolution, modern journalism, till then unimportant and sporadic,
+received its first great development, and began seriously to displace
+alike the preacher, the pamphlet, and the broadside. The flood of
+theological <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>disquisitions, satires, dialogues, sermons, which now
+poured from every press in Germany, overflowed into all classes of
+society. These writings are so characteristic of the time that it is
+worth while devoting a few pages to their consideration, the more
+especially because it will afford us the opportunity for considering
+other changes in that spirit of the age, partly diseased growths of
+decaying medi&aelig;valism and partly the beginnings of the modern critical
+spirit, which also find expression in the literature of the
+Reformation period.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>S&auml;mmtliche Werke</i>, vol. xxxiii. pp. 322-4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Quoted in Janssen, <i>Ein Zweites Wort an meine Kritiker</i>
+1883, p. 94.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes</i>, vol. ii. p. 115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Quoted in Janssen, bk. ii. 162.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE TIME</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>In accordance with the conventional view the Reichstag at Worms was a
+landmark in the history of the Reformation. This is, however, only
+true as regards the political side of the movement. The popular
+feeling was really quite continuous, at least from 1517 to 1525. With
+the latter year and the collapse of the peasant revolt a change is
+noticeable. In 1525 the Reformation, as a great upstirring of the
+popular mind of Central Europe, in contradistinction to its character
+as an academic and purely political movement, reached high-water mark,
+and may almost be said to have exhausted itself. Until the latter year
+it was purely a revolutionary movement, attracting to itself all the
+disruptive elements of its time. Later, the reactionary possibilities
+within it declared themselves. The emancipation from the thraldom of
+the Catholic hierarchy and its Papal head, it was soon found, meant
+not emancipation from the arbitrary tyranny of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>new political and
+centralizing authorities then springing up, but, on the contrary,
+rather their consecration. The ultimate outcome, in fact, of the whole
+business was, as we shall see later on, the inculcation of the
+non-resistance theory as regards the civil power, and the clearing of
+the way for its extremest expression in the doctrine of the Divine
+Right of Kings, a theory utterly alien to the belief and practice of
+the Medi&aelig;val Church.</p>
+
+<p>The Reichstag of Worms, by cutting off all possibility of
+reconciliation, rather gave further edge to the popular revolutionary
+side of the movement than otherwise. The whole progress of the change
+in public feeling is plainly traceable in the mass of ephemeral
+literature that has come down to us from this period, broadsides,
+pamphlets, satires, folk-songs, and the rest. The anonymous literature
+to which we more especially refer is distinguished by its coarse
+brutality and humour, even in the writings of the Reformers, which
+were themselves in no case remarkable for the suavity of their
+polemic.</p>
+
+<p>Hutten, in some of his later vernacular poems, approaches the
+character of the less-cultured broadside literature. To the critical
+mind it is somewhat amusing to note the enthusiasm with which the
+modern Dissenting and Puritan class contemplates the period of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>which
+we are writing&mdash;an enthusiasm that would probably be effectively
+damped if the laudators of the Reformation knew the real character of
+the movement and of its principal actors.</p>
+
+<p>The first attacks made by the broadside literature were naturally
+directed against the simony and benefice-grabbing of the clergy, a
+characteristic of the priestly office that has always powerfully
+appealed to the popular mind. Thus the "Courtisan and Benefice-eater"
+attacks the parasite of the Roman Court, who absorbs ecclesiastical
+revenues wholesale, putting in perfunctory <i>locum tenens</i> on the
+cheap, and begins:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I'm fairly called a Simonist and eke a Courtisan,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And here to every peasant and every common man<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My knavery will very well appear.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I called and cried to all who'd give me ear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To nobleman and knight and all above me:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Behold me! And ye'll find I'll truly love ye."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In another we read:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Paternoster teaches well<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How one for another his prayers should tell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thro' brotherly love and not for gold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And good those same prayers God doth hold.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So too saith Holy Paul right clearly,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Each shall his brother's load bear dearly.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But now, it declares, all that is changed. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>Now we are being taught
+just the opposite of God's teachings:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Such doctrine hath the priests increased,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whom men as masters now must feast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Fore all the crowd of Simonists,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose waxing number no man wists,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The towns and thorps seem full of them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in all lands they're seen with shame.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their violence and knavery<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave not a church or living free.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A prose pamphlet, apparently published about the summer of 1520,
+shortly after Luther's ex-communication, was the so-called "Wolf Song"
+(<i>Wolf-gesang</i>), which paints the enemies of Luther as wolves. It
+begins with a screed on the creation and fall of Adam, and a
+dissertation on the dogma of the Redemption; and then proceeds: "As
+one might say, dear brother, instruct me, for there is now in our
+times so great commotion in faith come upon us. There is one in Saxony
+who is called Luther, of whom many pious and honest folk tell how that
+he doth write so consolingly the good evangelical (<i>evangelische</i>)
+truth. But again I hear that the Pope and the cardinals at Rome have
+put him under the ban as a heretic; and certain of our own preachers,
+too, scold him from their pulpits as a knave, a misleader, and a
+heretic. I am utterly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>confounded, and know not where to turn; albeit
+my reason and heart do speak to me even as Luther writeth. But yet
+again it bethinks me that when the Pope, the cardinal, the bishop, the
+doctor, the monk, and the priest, for the greater part are against
+him, and so that all save the common men and a few gentlemen, doctors,
+councillors, and knights, are his adversaries, what shall I do?" "For
+answer, dear friend, get thee back and search the Scriptures, and thou
+shalt find that so it hath gone with all the holy prophets even as it
+now fareth with Doctor Martin Luther, who is in truth a godly
+Christian and manly heart and only true Pope and Apostle, when he the
+true office of the Apostles publicly fulfilleth.... If the godly man
+Luther were pleasing to the world, that were indeed a true sign that
+his doctrine were not from God; for the word of God is a fiery sword,
+a hammer that breaketh in pieces the rocks, and not a fox's tail or a
+reed that may be bent according to our pleasure." Seventeen noxious
+qualities of the wolf are adduced&mdash;his ravenousness, his cunning, his
+falseness, his cowardice, his thirst for robbery, amongst others. The
+Popes, the cardinals, and the bishops are compared to the wolves in
+all their attributes: "The greater his pomp and splendour, the more
+shouldst thou beware of such an one; for he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>is a wolf that cometh in
+the shape of a good shepherd's dog. Beware! it is against the custom
+of Christ and His Apostles." It is again but the song of the wolves
+when they claim to mix themselves with worldly affairs and maintain
+the temporal supremacy. The greediness of the wolf is discernible in
+the means adopted to get money for the building of St. Peter's. The
+interlocutor is warned against giving to mendicant priests and monks.</p>
+
+<p>We have given this as a specimen of the almost purely theological
+pamphlet; although, as will have been evident, even this is directly
+connected with the material abuses from which the people were
+suffering. Another pamphlet of about the same date deals with usury,
+the burden of which had been greatly increased by the growth of the
+new commercial combinations already referred to in the Introduction,
+which combinations Dr. Eck had been defending at Bologna on
+theological grounds, in order to curry favour with the Augsburg
+merchant-prince, Fuggerschwatz.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is called "Concerning Dues.
+Hither comes a poor peasant to a rich citizen. A priest comes also
+thereby, and then a monk. Full pleasant to read." A peasant visits a
+burgher when he is counting money, and asks him where he gets it all
+from. "My dear peasant," says <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>the townsman, "thou askest me who gave
+me this money. I will tell thee. There cometh hither a peasant, and
+beggeth me to lend him ten or twenty gulden. Thereupon I ask him an he
+possesseth not a goodly meadow or corn-field. 'Yea! good sir!' saith
+he, 'I have indeed a good meadow and a good corn-field. The twain are
+worth a hundred gulden.' Then say I to him: 'Good, my friend, wilt
+thou pledge me thy holding? and an thou givest me one gulden of thy
+money every year I will lend thee twenty gulden now.' Then is the
+peasant right glad, and saith he: 'Willingly will I pledge it thee.'
+'I will warn thee,' say I, 'that an thou furnishest not the one gulden
+of money each year, I will take thy holding for my own having.'
+Therewith is the peasant well content, and writeth him down
+accordingly. I lend him the money; he payeth me one year, or may be
+twain, the due; thereafter can he no longer furnish it, and thereupon
+I take the holding, and drive away the peasant therefrom. Thus I get
+the holding and the money. The same things do I with handicraftsmen.
+Hath he a good house? He pledgeth that house until I bring it behind
+me. Therewith gain I much in goods and money, and thus do I pass my
+days." "I thought," rejoined the peasant, "that 'twere only the Jew
+who did usury, but I hear that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>ye also ply that trade." The burgher
+answers that interest is not usury, to which the peasant replies that
+interest (<i>G&uuml;lt</i>) is only a "subtle name." The burgher then quotes
+Scripture, as commanding men to help one another. The peasant readily
+answers that in doing this they have no right to get advantage from
+the assistance they proffer. "Thou art a good fellow!" says the
+townsman. "If I take no money for the money that I lend, how shall I
+then increase my hoard?" The peasant then reproaches him that he sees
+well that his object in life is to wax fat on the substance of others;
+"But I tell thee, indeed," he says, "that it is a great and heavy
+sin." Whereupon his opponent waxes wroth, and will have nothing more
+to do with him, threatening to kick him out in the name of a thousand
+devils; but the peasant returns to the charge, and expresses his
+opinion that rich men do not willingly hear the truth. A priest now
+enters, and to him the townsman explains the dispute. "Dear peasant,"
+says the priest, "wherefore camest thou hither, that thou shouldst
+make of a due<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> usury? May not a man buy with his money what he
+will?" But the peasant stands by his previous assertion, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>demanding
+how anything can be considered as bought which is only a pledge. "We
+priests," replies the ecclesiastic, "must perforce lend moneys for
+dues, since thereby we get our living"; to which, after sundry
+ejaculations of surprise, the peasant retorts: "Who gave to you the
+power? I well hear ye have another God than we poor people. We have
+our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath forbidden such money-lending for
+gain." Hence it comes, he goes on, that land is no longer free; to
+attempt to whitewash usury under the name of due or interest, he says,
+is just the same as if one were to call a child christened Friedrich
+or Hansel, Fritz or Hans, and then maintain it was no longer the same
+child. They require no more Jews, he says, since the Christians have
+taken their business in hand. The townsman is once more about to turn
+the peasant out of his house when a monk enters. He then lays the
+matter before the new-comer, who promises to talk the peasant over
+with soft words; for, says he, there is nothing accomplished with
+vainglory. He thereupon takes him aside and explains it to him by the
+illustration of a merchant whose gain on the wares he sells is not
+called usury, and argues that therefore other forms of gain in
+business should not be described by this odious name. But the peasant
+will have none of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>comparison; for the merchant, he says, needs
+to incur much risk in order to gain and traffic with his wares; while
+money-lending on security is, on the other hand, without risk or
+labour, and is a treacherous mode of cheating. Finding that they can
+make nothing of the obstinate countryman, the others leave him; but
+he, as a parting shot, exclaims: "Ah, well-a-day! I would to have
+talked with thee at first, but it is now ended. Farewell, gracious
+sir, and my other kind sirs. I, poor little peasant, I go my way.
+Farewell, farewell, due remains usury for ever more. Yea, yea! due,
+indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>The above specimens of the popular writing of the time must suffice.
+But for the reader who wishes to further study this literature we give
+the titles, which sufficiently indicate their contents, of a selection
+of other similar pamphlets and broadsheets: "A New Epistle from the
+Evil Clergy sent to their righteous Lord, with an answer from their
+Lord. Most merry to read" (1521). "A Great Prize which the Prince of
+Hell, hight Lucifer, now offereth to the Clergy, to the Pope, Bishops,
+Cardinals, and their like" (1521). "A Written Call, made by the Prince
+of Hell to his dear devoted, of all and every condition in his
+kingdom" (1521). "Dialogue or Converse of the Apostolicum, Angelica,
+and other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>spices of the Druggist, anent Dr. Martin Luther and his
+disciples" (1521). "A Very Pleasant Dialogue and Remonstrance from the
+Sheriff of Gaissdorf and his pupil against the pastor of the same and
+his assistant" (1521). The popularity of "Karsthans," an anonymous
+tract, amongst the people is illustrated by the publication and wide
+distribution of a new "Karsthans" a few months later, in which it is
+sought to show that the knighthood should make common cause with the
+peasants, the <i>dramatis person&aelig;</i> being Karsthans and Franz von
+Sickingen. Referring to the same subject we find a "Dialogue which
+Franciscus von Sickingen held fore heaven's gate with St. Peter and
+the Knights of St. George before he was let in." This was published in
+1523, almost immediately after the death of Sickingen. "A Talk between
+a Nobleman, a Monk, and a Courtier" (1523). "A Talk between a Fox and
+a Wolf" (1523). "A Pleasant Dialogue between Dr. Martin Luther and the
+cunning Messenger from Hell" (1523). "A Conversation of the Pope with
+his Cardinals of how it goeth with him, and how he may destroy the
+Word of God. Let every man very well note" (1523). "A Christian and
+Merry Talk, that it is more pleasing to God and more wholesome for men
+to come out of the monasteries and to marry, than to tarry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>therein
+and to burn; which talk is not with human folly and the false
+teachings thereof, but is founded alone in the holy, divine, biblical,
+and evangelical Scripture" (1524). "A Pleasant Dialogue of a Peasant
+with a Monk that he should cast his Cowl from him. Merry and fair to
+read" (1525).</p>
+
+<p>The above is only a selection taken haphazard from the mass of
+fugitive literature which the early years of the Reformation brought
+forth. In spite of a certain rough but not unattractive directness of
+diction, a prolonged reading of them is very tedious, as will have
+been sufficiently seen from the extracts we have given. Their humour
+is of a particularly juvenile and obvious character, and consists
+almost entirely in the childish device of clothing the personages with
+ridiculous but non-essential attributes, or in placing them in
+grotesque but pointless situations. Of the more subtle humour, which
+consists in the discovery of real but hidden incongruities, and the
+perception of what is innately absurd, there is no trace. The obvious
+abuses of the time are satirized in this way <i>ad nauseam</i>. The
+rapacity of the clergy in general, the idleness and lasciviousness of
+the monks, the pomp and luxury of the prince-prelates, the
+inconsistencies of Church traditions and practices with Scripture,
+with which they could now be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>compared, since it was everywhere
+circulated in the vulgar tongue, form their never-ending theme. They
+reveal to the reader a state of things that strikes one none the less
+in English literature of the period&mdash;the intense interest of all
+classes in theological matters. It shows us how they looked at all
+things through a theological lens. Although we have left this phase of
+popular thought so recently behind us, we can even now scarcely
+imagine ourselves back into it. The idea of ordinary men, or of the
+vast majority, holding their religion as anything else than a very
+pious opinion absolutely unconnected with their daily life, public or
+private, has already become almost inconceivable to us. In all the
+writings of the time, the theological interest is in the forefront.
+The economic and social groundwork only casually reveals itself. This
+it is that makes the reading of the sixteenth-century polemics so
+insufferably jejune and dreary. They bring before us the ghosts of
+controversies in which most men have ceased to take any part, albeit
+they have not been dead and forgotten long enough to have acquired a
+revived antiquarian interest.</p>
+
+<p>The great bombshell which Luther cast forth on June 24, 1520, in his
+address to the German nobility,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> indeed, contains strong appeals to
+the economical and political <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>necessities of Germany, and therein we
+see the veil torn from the half-unconscious motives that lay behind
+the theological mask; but, as already said, in the popular literature,
+with a few exceptions, the theological controversy rules undisputed.</p>
+
+<p>The noticeable feature of all this irruption of the <i>cacoethes
+scribendi</i> was the direct appeal to the Bible for the settlement not
+only of strictly theological controversies but of points of social and
+political ethics also. This practice, which even to the modern
+Protestant seems insipid and played out after three centuries and a
+half of wear, had at that time the to us inconceivable charm of
+novelty; and the perusal of the literature and controversies of the
+time shows that men used it with all the delight of a child with a new
+toy, and seemed never tired of the game of searching out texts to
+justify their position. The diffusion of the whole Bible in the
+vernacular, itself a consequence of the rebellion against priestly
+tradition and the authority of the Fathers, intensified the revolt by
+making the pastime possible to all ranks of society.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Appendix C.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> We use the word "due" here for the German word <i>G&uuml;lt</i>.
+The corresponding English of the time does not make any distinction
+between <i>G&uuml;lt</i> or interest, and <i>Wucher</i> or usury.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>An der Christlichen Adel deutscher Nation.</i></p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE FOLKLORE OF REFORMATION GERMANY</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Now in the hands of all men, the Bible was not made the basis of
+doctrinal opinions alone. It lent its support to many of the popular
+superstitions of the time, and in addition it served as the
+starting-point for new superstitions and for new developments of the
+older ones. The Pan-d&aelig;monism of the New Testament, with its
+wonder-workings by devilish agencies, its exorcisms of evil spirits
+and the like, could not fail to have a deep effect on the popular
+mind. The authority that the book believed to be divinely inspired
+necessarily lent to such beliefs gave a vividness to the popular
+conception of the devil and his angels, which is apparent throughout
+the whole movement of the Reformation, and not least in the utterances
+of the great Luther himself. Indeed, with the Reformation there comes
+a complete change over the popular conception of the devil and
+diabolical influences.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that the judicial pursuit of witches <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>and witchcraft, in
+the earlier Middle Ages only a sporadic incident, received a great
+impulse from the Bull of Pope Innocent VIII (Dec. 5, 1484), entitled
+<i>Summis Desideruntes</i>, to which has been given the title of <i>Malleus
+Maleficorum</i>, or <i>The Hammer of Sorcerers</i>, directed against the
+practice of witchcraft; but it was especially amongst the men of the
+New Spirit that the belief in the prevalence of compacts with the
+devil, and the necessity for suppressing them, took root, and led to
+the horrible persecutions that distinguished the "Reformed" Churches
+on the whole even more than the Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>Luther himself had a vivid belief, tinging all his views and actions,
+in the ubiquity of the devil and his myrmidons. "The devils," says he,
+"are near us, and do cunningly contrive every moment without ceasing
+against our life, our salvation, and our blessedness.... In woods,
+waters, and wastes, and in damp, marshy places, there are many devils
+that seek to harm men. In the black and thick clouds, too, there are
+some that make storms, hail, lightning, and thunder, that poison the
+air and the pastures. When such things happen, the philosophers and
+the physicians ascribe them to the stars, and show I know not what
+causes for such misfortunes and plagues." Luther relates numerous
+instances of personal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>encounters that he himself had had with the
+devil. A nobleman invited him, with other learned men from the
+University of Wittenberg, to take part in a hare hunt. A large, fine
+hare and a fox crossed the path. The nobleman, mounted on a strong,
+healthy steed, dashed after them, when, suddenly, his horse fell dead
+beneath him, and the fox and the hare flew up in the air and vanished.
+"For," says Luther, "they were devilish spectres."</p>
+
+<p>Again, on another occasion, he was at Eisleben on the occasion of
+another hare-hunt, when the nobleman succeeded in killing eight hares,
+which were, on their return home, duly hung up for the next day's
+meal. On the following morning, horses' heads were found in their
+place. "In mines," says Luther, "the devil oftentimes deceives men
+with a false appearance of gold." All disease and all misfortune were
+the direct work of the devil; God, who was all good, could not produce
+either. Luther gives a long history of how he was called to a parish
+priest, who complained of the devil's having created a disturbance in
+his house by throwing the pots and pans about, and so forth, and of
+how he advised the priest to exorcise the fiend by invoking his own
+authority as a pastor of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>At the Wartburg, Luther complained of having been very much troubled
+by the Satanic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>arts. When he was at work upon his translation of the
+Bible, or upon his sermons, or engaged in his devotions, the devil was
+always making disturbances on the stairs or in the room. One day,
+after a hard spell of study, he lay down to sleep in his bed, when the
+devil began pelting him with hazel-nuts, a sack of which had been
+brought to him a few hours before by an attendant. He invoked,
+however, the name of Christ, and lay down again in bed. There were
+other more curious and more doubtful recipes for driving away Satan
+and his emissaries. Luther is never tired of urging that contemptuous
+treatment and rude chaff are among the most efficacious methods.</p>
+
+<p>There was, he relates, a poor soothsayer, to whom the devil came in
+visible form, and offered great wealth provided that he would deny
+Christ and never more do penance. The devil provided him with a
+crystal, by which he could foretell events, and thus become rich. This
+he did; but Nemesis awaited him, for the devil deceived him one day,
+and caused him to denounce certain innocent persons as thieves. In
+consequence, he was thrown into prison, where he revealed the compact
+that he had made, and called for a confessor. The two chief forms in
+which the devil appeared were, according to Luther, those of a snake
+and a sheep. He further goes into the question of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>population of
+devils in different countries. On the top of the Pilatus at Luzern, he
+says, is a black pond, which is one of the devil's favourite abodes.
+In Luther's own country there is also a high mountain, the
+Poltersberg, with a similar pond. When a stone is thrown into this
+pond, a great tempest arises, which often devastates the whole
+neighbourhood. He also alleges Prussia to be full of evil spirits
+(!!).</p>
+
+<p>Devilish changelings, Luther said, were often placed by Satan in the
+cradles of human children. "Some maids he often plunges into the
+water, and keeps them with him until they have borne a child." These
+children are placed in the beds of mortals, and the true children are
+taken out and hurried away. "But," he adds, "such changelings are said
+not to live more than to the eighteenth or nineteenth year." As a
+practical application of this, it may be mentioned that Luther advised
+the drowning of a certain child of twelve years old, on the ground of
+its being a devil's changeling. Somnambulism is, with Luther, the
+result of diabolical agency. "Formerly," says he, "the Papists, being
+superstitious people, alleged that persons thus afflicted had not been
+properly baptized, or had been baptized by a drunken priest." The
+irony of the reference to superstition, considering the "great
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>reformer's" own position, will not be lost upon the reader.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, not only is the devil the cause of pestilence, but he is also
+the immediate agent of nightmare and of nightsweats. At M&ouml;lburg in
+Th&uuml;ringen, near Erfurt, a piper, who was accustomed to pipe at
+weddings, complained to his priest that the devil had threatened to
+carry him away and destroy him, on the ground of a practical joke
+played upon some companions, to wit, for having mixed horse-dung with
+their wine at a drinking bout. The priest consoled him with many
+passages of Scripture anent the devil and his ways, with the result
+that the piper expressed himself satisfied as regarded the welfare of
+his soul, but apprehensive as regarded that of his body, which was, he
+asserted, hopelessly the prey of the devil. In consequence of this, he
+insisted on partaking of the Sacrament. The devil had indicated to him
+when he was going to be fetched, and watchers were accordingly placed
+in his room, who sat in their armour and with their weapons, and read
+the Bible to him. Finally, one Saturday at midnight, a violent storm
+arose, that blew out the lights in the room, and hurled the luckless
+victim out of a narrow window into the street. The sound of fighting
+and of armed men was heard, but the piper had disappeared. The next
+morning he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>was found in a neighbouring ditch, with his arms stretched
+out in the form of a cross, dead and coal-black. Luther vouches for
+the truth of this story, which he alleges to have been told him by a
+parish priest of Gotha, who had himself heard it from the parish
+priest of M&ouml;lburg, where the event was said to have taken place.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the numerous anecdotes of a supernatural character told by
+"Dr. Martin" is one of a "Poltergeist," or "Robin Goodfellow," who was
+exorcised by two monks from the guest-chamber of an inn, and who
+offered his services to them in the monastery. They gave him a corner
+in the kitchen. The serving-boy used to torment him by throwing dirty
+water over him. After unavailing protests, the spirit hung the boy up
+to a beam, but let him down again before serious harm resulted. Luther
+states that this "brownie" was well known by sight in the neighbouring
+town (the name of which he does not give). But by far the larger
+number of his stories, which, be it observed, are warranted as
+ordinary occurrences, as to the possibility of which there was no
+question, are coloured by that more sinister side of supernaturalism
+so much emphasised by the new theology.</p>
+
+<p>The medi&aelig;val devil was, for the most part, himself little more than a
+prankish R&uuml;bezahl, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>or Robin Goodfellow; the new Satan of the
+Reformers was, in very deed, an arch-fiend, the enemy of the human
+race, with whom no truce or parley might be held. The old folklore
+belief in <i>incubi</i> and <i>succubi</i> as the parents of changelings is
+brought into connection with the theory of direct diabolic begettal.
+Thus Luther relates how Friedrich, the Elector of Saxony, told him of
+a noble family that had sprung from a <i>succubus</i>: "Just," says he, "as
+the Melusina at Luxembourg was also such a <i>succubus</i>, or devil." In
+the case referred to, the <i>succubus</i> assumed the shape of the man's
+dead wife, and lived with him and bore him children, until, one day,
+he swore at her, when she vanished, leaving only her clothes behind.
+After giving it as his opinion that all such beings and their
+offspring are wiles of the devil, he proceeds: "It is truly a grievous
+thing that the devil can so plague men that he begetteth children in
+their likeness. It is even so with the nixies in the water, that lure
+a man therein, in the shape of wife or maid, with whom he doth dally
+and begetteth offspring of them." The change whereby the beings of the
+old na&iuml;ve folklore are transformed into the devil or his agents is
+significant of that darker side of the new theology, which was
+destined to issue in those horrors of the witchcraft-mania that
+reached their height at the beginning of the following century.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>One more story of a "changeling" before we leave the subject. Luther
+gives us the following as having come to his knowledge near
+Halberstadt, in Saxony. A peasant had a baby, who sucked out its
+mother and five nurses, besides eating a great deal. Concluding that
+it was a changeling, the peasant sought the advice of his neighbours,
+who suggested that he should take it on a pilgrimage to a neighbouring
+shrine of the Mother of God. While he was crossing a brook on the way
+an impish voice from under the water called out to the infant, whom he
+was carrying in a basket. The brat answered from within the basket,
+"Ho, ho!" and the peasant was unspeakably shocked. When the voice from
+the water proceeded to ask the child what it was after, and received
+the answer from the hitherto inarticulate babe that it was going to be
+laid on the shrine of the Mother of God, to the end that it might
+prosper, the peasant could stand it no longer, and flung basket and
+baby into the brook. The changeling and the little devil played for a
+few moments with each other, rolling over and over, and crying, "Ho,
+ho, ho!" and then they disappeared together. Luther says that these
+devilish brats may be generally known by their eating and drinking too
+much, and especially by their exhausting their mother's milk, but they
+may not develop <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>any certain signs of their true parentage until
+eighteen or nineteen years old. The Princess of Anhalt had a child
+which Luther imagined to be a changeling, and he therefore advised its
+being drowned, alleging that such creatures were only lumps of flesh
+animated by the devil or his angels. Some one spoke of a monster which
+infested the Netherlands, and which went about smelling at people like
+a dog, and whoever it smelt died. But those that were smelt did not
+see it, albeit the bystanders did. The people had recourse to vigils
+and masses. Luther improved the occasion to protest against the
+"superstition" of masses for the dead, and to insist upon his
+favourite dogma of faith as the true defence against assaults of the
+devil.</p>
+
+<p>Among the numerous stories of Satanic compacts, we are told of a monk
+who ate up a load of hay, of a debtor who bit off the leg of his
+Hebrew creditor and ran off to avoid payment, and of a woman who
+bewitched her husband so that he vomited lizards. Luther observes,
+with especial reference to this last case, that lawyers and judges
+were far too pedantic with their witnesses and with their evidence;
+that the devil hardens his clients against torture, and that the
+refusal to confess under torture ought to be of itself sufficient
+proof of dealings with the Prince of Darkness. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>"Towards such," says
+he, "we would show no mercy; I would burn them myself." Black magic or
+witchcraft he proceeds to characterize as the greatest sin a human
+being can be guilty of, as, in fact, high treason against God
+Himself&mdash;<i>crimen l&aelig;s&aelig; majestatis divin&aelig;</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation closes with a story of how Maximilian's father, the
+Emperor Friedrich, who seems to have obtained a reputation for magic
+arts, invited a well-known magician to a banquet, and on his arrival
+fixed claws on his hands and hoofs on his feet by his cunning. His
+guest, being ashamed, tried to hide the claws under the table as long
+as he could, but finally he had to show them, to his great
+discomfiture. But he determined to have his revenge, and asked his
+host whether he would permit him to give proofs of his own skill. The
+Emperor assenting, there at once arose a great noise outside the
+window. Friedrich sprang up from the table, and leaned out of the
+casement to see what was the matter. Immediately an enormous pair of
+stag's horns appeared on his head, so that he could not draw it back.
+Finding the state of the case, the Emperor exclaimed: "Rid me of them
+again! Thou hast won!" Luther's comment on this was that he was always
+glad to see one devil getting the better of another, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>it showed
+that some were stronger than others.</p>
+
+<p>All this belongs, roughly speaking, to the side of the matter which
+regards popular theology; but there is another side which is connected
+more especially with the New Learning. This other school, which sought
+to bring the somewhat elastic elements of the magical theory of the
+universe into the semblance of a systematic whole, is associated with
+such names as those of Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, and the Abbot
+von Trittenheim. The fame of the first-named was so great throughout
+Germany that when he visited any town the occasion was looked upon as
+an event of exceeding importance.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Paracelsus fully shared in the
+beliefs of his age, in spite of his brilliant insights on certain
+occasions. What his science was like may be imagined when we learn
+that he seriously speaks of animals who conceive through the mouth of
+basilisks whose glance is deadly, of petrified storks changed into
+snakes, of the stillborn young of the lion which are afterwards
+brought to life by the roar of their sire, of frogs falling in a
+shower of rain, of ducks transformed into frogs, and of men born from
+beasts; the menstruation of women he regarded as a venom whence
+proceeded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>flies, spiders, earwigs, and all sorts of loathsome vermin;
+night was caused, not by the absence of the sun, but by the presence
+of the stars, which were the positive cause of the darkness. He
+relates having seen a magnet capable of attracting the eyeball from
+its socket as far as the tip of the nose; he knows of salves to close
+the mouth so effectually that it has to be broken open again by
+mechanical means, and he writes learnedly on the infallible signs of
+witchcraft. By mixing horse-dung with human semen he believed he was
+able to produce a medium from which, by chemical treatment in a
+retort, a diminutive human being, or <i>homunculus</i>, as he called it,
+could be produced. The spirits of the elements, the sylphs of the air,
+the gnomes of the earth, the salamanders of the fire, and the undines
+of the water, were to him real and undoubted existences in Nature.</p>
+
+<p>Strange as all these beliefs seem to us now, they were a very real
+factor in the intellectual conceptions of the Renaissance period, no
+less than of the Middle Ages, and amidst them there is to be found at
+times a foreshadowing of more modern knowledge. Many other persons
+were also more or less associated with the magical school, amongst
+them Franz von Sickingen. Reuchlin himself, by his Hebrew studies, and
+especially by his introduction of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>the Kabbala to Gentile readers,
+also contributed a not unimportant influence in determining the course
+of the movement. The line between the so-called black magic, or
+operations conducted through the direct agency of evil spirits, and
+white magic, which sought to subject Nature to the human will by the
+discovery of her mystical and secret laws, or the character of the
+quasi-personified intelligent principles under whose form Nature
+presented herself to their minds, had never throughout the Middle Ages
+been very clearly defined. The one always had a tendency to shade off
+into the other, so that even Roger Bacon's practices were, although
+not condemned, at least looked upon somewhat doubtfully by the Church.
+At the time of which we treat, however, the interest in such matters
+had become universal amongst all intelligent persons. The scientific
+imagination at the close of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance
+period was mainly occupied with three questions: the discovery of the
+means of transmuting the baser metals into gold, or otherwise of
+producing that object of universal desire; to discover the Elixir
+Vit&aelig;, by which was generally understood the invention of a drug which
+would have the effect of curing all diseases, restoring man to
+perennial youth, and, in short, prolonging human life indefinitely;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>and, finally, the search for the Philosopher's Stone, the happy
+possessor of which would not only be able to achieve the first two,
+but also, since it was supposed to contain the quintessence of all the
+metals, and therefore of all the planetary influences to which the
+metals corresponded, would have at his command all the forces which
+mould the destinies of men. In especial connection with the latter
+object of research may be noted the universal interest in astrology,
+whose practitioners were to be found at every Court, from that of the
+Emperor himself to that of the most insignificant prince or princelet,
+and whose advice was sought and carefully heeded on all important
+occasions. Alchemy and astrology were thus the recognized physical
+sciences of the age, under the auspices of which a Copernicus and a
+Tycho Brahe were born and educated.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Cf. Sebastian Franck, <i>Chronica</i>, for an account of a
+visit of Paracelsus to N&uuml;rnberg.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TOWN</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>From what has been said the reader may form for himself an idea of the
+intellectual and social life of the German town of the period. The
+wealthy patrician class, whose mainstay politically was the <i>Rath</i>,
+gave the social tone to the whole. In spite of the sharp and sometimes
+brutal fashion in which class distinctions asserted themselves then,
+as throughout the Middle Ages, there was none of that aloofness
+between class and class which characterizes the bourgeois society of
+the present day. Each town, were it great or small, was a little world
+in itself, so that every citizen knew every other citizen more or
+less. The schools attached to its ecclesiastical institutions were
+practically free of access to all the children whose parents could
+find the means to maintain them during their studies; and consequently
+the intellectual differences between the different classes were by no
+means necessarily proportionate to the difference in social position.
+So <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>far as culture and material prosperity were concerned, the towns
+of Bavaria and Franconia, Munich, Augsburg, Regensburg, and perhaps,
+above all, N&uuml;rnberg, represented the high-water mark of medi&aelig;val
+civilization as regards town life. On entering the burg, should it
+have happened to be in time of peace and in daylight, the stranger
+would clear the drawbridge and the portcullis without much challenge;
+passing along streets lined with the houses and shops of the burghers,
+in whose open frontages the master and his apprentices and <i>gesellen</i>
+plied their trades, discussing eagerly over their work the politics of
+the town, and at this period probably the theological questions which
+were uppermost in men's minds, our visitor would make his way to some
+hostelry, in whose courtyard he would dismount from his horse, and,
+entering the common room, or <i>Stube</i>, with its rough but artistic
+furniture of carved oak, partake of his flagon of wine or beer,
+according to the district in which he was travelling, whilst the host
+cracked a rough and possibly coarse jest with the other guests, or
+narrated to them the latest gossip of the city. The stranger would
+probably find himself before long the object of interrogatories
+respecting his native place and the object of his journey (although
+his dress would doubtless have given general evidence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>of this),
+whether he were a merchant or a travelling scholar or a practiser of
+medicine; for into one of those categories it might be presumed the
+humble but not servile traveller would fall. Were he on a diplomatic
+mission from some potentate he would be travelling at the least as a
+knight or a noble, with spurs and armour, and, moreover, would be
+little likely to lodge in a public house of entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>Stube</i> he would probably see, drinking heavily,
+representatives of the ubiquitous <i>Landsknechte</i>, the mercenary troops
+enrolled for Imperial purposes by the Emperor Maximilian towards the
+end of the previous century, who in the intervals of war were
+disbanded and wandered about spending their pay, and thus constituted
+an excessively disintegrative element in the life of the time. A
+contemporary writer<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> describes them as the curse of Germany, and
+stigmatizes them as "unchristian, God-forsaken folk, whose hand is
+ever ready in striking, stabbing, robbing, burning, slaying, gaming,
+who delight in wine-bibbing, whoring, blaspheming, and in the making
+of widows and orphans."</p>
+
+<p>Presently, perhaps, a noise without indicates the arrival of a new
+guest. All hurry forth into the courtyard, and their curiosity is
+more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>keenly whetted when they perceive by the yellow knitted scarf
+round the neck of the new-comer that he is an <i>itinerans
+scholasticus</i>, or travelling scholar, who brings with him not only the
+possibility of news from the outer world, so important in an age when
+journals were non-existent and communications irregular and deficient,
+but also a chance of beholding wonder-workings, as well as of being
+cured of the ailments which local skill had treated in vain. Already
+surrounded by a crowd of admirers waiting for the words of wisdom to
+fall from his lips, he would start on that exordium which bore no
+little resemblance to the patter of the modern quack, albeit
+interlarded with many a Latin quotation and great display of medi&aelig;val
+learning. "Good people and worthy citizens of this town," he might
+say, "behold in me the great master ... prince of necromancers,
+astrologer, second mage, chiromancer, agromancer, pyromancer,
+hydromancer. My learning is so profound that were all the works of
+Plato and Aristotle lost to the world I could from memory restore them
+with more elegance than before. The miracles of Christ were not so
+great as those which I can perform wherever and as often as I will. Of
+all alchemists I am the first, and my powers are such that I can
+obtain all things that man desires. My <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>shoe-buckles contain more
+learning than the heads of Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more
+experience than all your high schools. I am monarch of all learning. I
+can heal you of all diseases. By my secret arts I can procure you
+wealth. I am the philosopher of philosophers. I can provide you with
+spells to bind the most potent of the devils in hell. I can cast your
+nativities and foretell all that shall befall you, since I have that
+which can unlock the secrets of all things that have been, that are,
+and that are to come."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Bringing forth strange-looking phials,
+covered with cabalistic signs, a crystal globe and an astro-labe,
+followed by an imposing scroll of parchment inscribed with mysterious
+Hebraic-looking characters, the travelling student would probably
+drive a roaring trade amongst the assembled townsmen in love-philtres,
+cures for the ague and the plague, and amulets against them,
+horoscopes, predictions of fate, and the rest of his stock-in-trade.</p>
+
+<p>As evening approaches, our traveller strolls forth into the streets
+and narrow lanes of the town, lined with overhanging gables that
+almost meet overhead and shut out the light of the afternoon sun, so
+that twilight seems <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>already to have fallen. Observing that the
+burghers, with their wives and children, the work of the day being
+done, are all wending toward the western gate, he goes along with the
+stream till, passing underneath the heavy portcullis and through the
+outer rampart, he finds himself in the plain outside, across which a
+rugged bridle-path leads to a large quadrangular meadow, rough and
+more or less worn, where a considerable crowd has already assembled.
+This is the <i>Allerwiese</i>, or public pleasure-ground of the town. Here
+there are not only high festivities on Sundays and holidays, but every
+fine evening in summer numbers of citizens gather together to watch
+the apprentices exercising their strength in athletic feats, and
+competing with one another in various sports, such as running,
+wrestling, spear-throwing, sword-play, and the like, wherein the
+inferior rank sought to imitate and even emulate the knighthood,
+whilst the daughters of the city watched their progress with keen
+interest and applauding laughter. As the shadows deepen and darkness
+falls upon the plain, our visitor joins the groups which are now fast
+leaving the meadow, and re-passes the great embrasure just as the
+rushlights begin to twinkle in the windows and a swinging oil-lamp to
+cast a dim light here and there in the streets. But as his company
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>passes out of a narrow lane debouching on to the chief market-place,
+their progress is stopped by the sudden rush of a mingled crowd of
+unruly apprentices and journeymen returning from their sports, with
+hot heads well beliquored. Then from another side-street there is a
+sudden flare of torches, borne aloft by guildsmen come out to quell
+the tumult and to send off the apprentices to their dwellings, whilst
+the watch also bears down and carries off some of the more turbulent
+of the journeymen to pass the night in one of the towers which guard
+the city wall. At last, however, the visitor reaches his inn by the
+aid of a friendly guildsman and his torch; and retiring to his
+chamber, with its straw-covered floor, rough oaken bedstead, hard
+mattress, and coverings not much better than horse-cloths, he falls
+asleep as the bell of the minster tolls out ten o'clock over the now
+dark and silent city.</p>
+
+<p>Such approximately would have been the view of a German city in the
+sixteenth century as presented to a traveller in a time of peace. More
+stirring times, however, were as frequent&mdash;times when the tocsin rang
+out from the steeple all night long, calling the citizens to arms. By
+such scenes, needless to say, the year of the Peasants' War was more
+than usually characterized. In the days when every man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>carried arms
+and knew how to use them, when the fighting instinct was imbibed with
+the mother's milk, when every week saw some street brawl, often
+attended by loss of life, and that by no means always among the most
+worthless and dissolute of the inhabitants, every dissatisfaction
+immediately turned itself into an armed revolt, whether it were of the
+apprentices or the journeymen against the guild-masters, the body of
+the townsmen against the patriciate, the town itself against its
+feudal superior, where it had one, or of the knighthood against the
+princes. The extremity to which disputes can at present be carried
+without resulting in a breach of the peace, as evinced in modern
+political and trade conflicts, exacerbated though some of them are,
+was a thing unknown in the Middle Ages, and indeed to any considerable
+extent until comparatively recent times. The sacred right of
+insurrection was then a recognized fact of life, and but very little
+straining of a dispute led to a resort to arms. In the subsequent
+chapters we have to deal with the more important of those outbursts to
+which the ferment due to the dissolution of the medi&aelig;val system of
+things, then beginning throughout Central Europe, gave rise, of which
+the religious side is represented by what is known as the Reformation.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Sebastian Franck, <i>Chronica</i>, ccxvii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Cf. Trittheim's letter to Wirdung of Hasfurt regarding
+Faust. <i>J. Tritthemii Epistolarum Familiarum</i>, 1536, bk. ii. ep. 47;
+also the works of Paracelsus.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>COUNTRY AND TOWN AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>For the complete understanding of the events which follow it must be
+borne in mind that the early sixteenth century represents the end of a
+distinct historical period; and, as we have pointed out in the
+Introduction, the expiring effort, half-conscious and half-unconscious,
+of the people to revert to the conditions of an earlier age. Nor can the
+significance be properly gauged unless a clear conception is obtained of
+the differences between country and town life at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century. From the earliest periods of the Middle Ages of which
+we have any historical record, the <i>Markgenossenschaft</i>, or primitive
+village community of the Germanic race, was overlaid by a territorial
+domination, imposed upon it either directly by conquest or voluntarily
+accepted for the sake of the protection indispensable in that rude
+period. The conflict of these two elements, the mark <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>organization and
+the territorial lordship, constitutes the marrow of the social history
+of the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>In the earliest times the pressure of the overlord, whoever he might
+be, seems to have been comparatively slight, but its inevitable
+tendency was for the territorial power to extend itself at the expense
+of the rural community. It was thus that in the tenth and eleventh
+centuries the feudal oppression had become thoroughly settled, and had
+reached its greatest intensity all over Europe. It continued thus with
+little intermission until the thirteenth century, when from various
+causes, economic and otherwise, matters began to improve in the
+interests of the common man, till in the fifteenth century the
+condition of the peasant was better than it has ever been, either
+before or since within historical times, in Northern and Western
+Europe. But with all this, the oppressive power of the lord of the
+soil was by no means dead. It was merely dormant, and was destined to
+spring into renewed activity the moment the lord's necessities
+supplied a sufficient incentive. From this time forward the element of
+territorial power, supported in its claims by the Roman law, with its
+basis of private property, continued to eat into it until it had
+finally devoured the old rights and possessions of the village
+community. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>executive power always tended to be transferred from
+its legitimate holder, the village in its corporate capacity, to the
+lord; and this was alone sufficient to place the villager at his
+mercy.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the Reformation, owing to the new conditions which had
+arisen and had brought about in a few decades the hitherto
+unparalleled rise in prices, combined with the unprecedented
+ostentation and extravagance more than once referred to in these
+pages, the lord was supplied with the requisite incentive to the
+exercise of the power which his feudal system gave him. Consequently,
+the position of the peasant rapidly changed for the worse; and
+although at the outbreak of the movement not absolutely <i>in extremis</i>,
+according to our notions, yet it was so bad comparatively to his
+previous condition and that less than half a century before, and
+tended as evidently to become more intolerable, that discontent became
+everywhere rife, and only awaited the torch of the new doctrines to
+set it ablaze. The whole course of the movement shows a peasantry, not
+downtrodden and starved but proud and robust, driven to take up arms
+not so much by misery and despair as by the deliberate will to
+maintain the advantages which were rapidly slipping away from them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>Serfdom was not by any means universal. Many free peasant villages
+were to be found scattered amongst the manors of the territorial
+lords, though it was but too evidently the settled policy of the
+latter at this time to sweep everything into their net, and to compel
+such peasant communes to accept a feudal overlordship. Nor were they
+at all scrupulous in the means adopted for attaining their ends. The
+ecclesiastical foundations, as before said, were especially expert in
+forging documents for the purpose of proving that these free villages
+were lapsed feudatories of their own. Old rights of pasture were being
+curtailed, and others, notably those of hunting and fishing, had in
+most manors been completely filched away.</p>
+
+<p>It is noticeable, however, that although the immediate causes of the
+peasant rising were the new burdens which had been laid upon the
+common people during the last few years, once the spirit of discontent
+was aroused it extended also in many cases to the traditional feudal
+dues to which, until then, the peasant had submitted with little
+murmuring, and an attempt was made by the country-side to reconquer
+the ancient complete freedom of which a dim remembrance had been
+handed down to them.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of the peasant up to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>beginning of the sixteenth
+century&mdash;that is to say, up to the time when it began to so rapidly
+change for the worse&mdash;may be gathered from what we are told by
+contemporary writers, such as Wimpfeling, Sebastian Brandt,
+Wittenweiler, the satires in the <i>N&uuml;rnberger Fastnachtspielen</i>, and
+numberless other sources, as also from the sumptuary laws of the end
+of the fifteenth century. All these indicate an ease and profuseness
+of living which little accord with our notions of the word "peasant".
+Wimpfeling writes: "The peasants in our district and in many parts of
+Germany have become, through their riches, stiff-necked and
+ease-loving. I know peasants who at the weddings of their sons or
+daughters, or the baptism of their children, make so much display that
+a house and field might be bought therewith, and a small vineyard to
+boot. Through their riches, they are oftentimes spendthrift in food
+and in vestments, and they drink wines of price."</p>
+
+<p>A chronicler relates of the Austrian peasants, under the date of 1478,
+that "they wore better garments and drank better wine than their
+lords"; and a sumptuary law passed at the Reichstag held at Lindau, in
+1497, provides that the common peasant man and the labourer in the
+towns or in the field "shall neither make nor wear cloth that costs
+more than half a gulden the ell, neither shall <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>they wear gold,
+pearls, velvet, silk, nor embroidered clothes, nor shall they permit
+their wives or their children to wear such."</p>
+
+<p>Respecting the food of the peasant, it is stated that he ate his full
+in flesh of every kind, in fish, in bread, in fruit, drinking wine
+often to excess. The Swabian, Heinrich M&uuml;ller, writes in the year
+1550, nearly two generations after the change had begun to take place:
+"In the memory of my father, who was a peasant man, the peasant did
+eat much better than now. Meat and food in plenty was there every day,
+and at fairs and other junketings the tables did wellnigh break with
+what they bore. Then drank they wine as it were water, then did a man
+fill his belly and carry away withal as much as he could; then was
+wealth and plenty. Otherwise is it now. A costly and a bad time hath
+arisen since many a year, and the food and drink of the best peasant
+is much worse than of yore that of the day labourer and the serving
+man."</p>
+
+<p>We may well imagine the vivid recollections which a peasant in the
+year 1525 had of the golden days of a few years before. The day
+labourers and serving men were equally tantalized by the remembrance
+of high wages and cheap living at the beginning of the century. A day
+labourer could then earn, with his keep, nine, and without keep,
+sixteen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>groschen<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> a week. What this would buy may be judged from
+the following prices current in Saxony during the second half of the
+fifteenth century. A pair of good working-shoes cost three groschen; a
+whole sheep, four groschen; a good fat hen, half a groschen;
+twenty-five cod-fish, four groschen; a wagon-load of firewood,
+together with carriage, five groschen; an ell of the best homespun
+cloth, five groschen; a scheffel (about a bushel) of rye, six or seven
+groschen. The Duke of Saxony wore grey hats which cost him four
+groschen. In Northern Rhineland about the same time a day labourer
+could, in addition to his keep, earn in a week a quarter of rye, ten
+pounds of pork, six large cans of milk, and two bundles of firewood,
+and in the course of five weeks be able to buy six ells of linen, a
+pair of shoes, and a bag for his tools. In Augsburg the daily wages of
+an ordinary labourer represented the value of six pounds of the best
+meat, or one pound of meat, seven eggs, a peck of peas, about a quart
+of wine, in addition to such bread as he required, with enough over
+for lodging, clothing, and minor expenses. In Bavaria he could earn
+daily eighteen pfennige, or one and a half groschen, whilst a pound of
+sausage cost one pfennig, and a pound of the best <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>beef two pfennige,
+and similarly throughout the whole of the States of Central Europe.</p>
+
+<p>A document of the year 1483, from Ehrbach in the Swabian Odenwald,
+describes for us the treatment of servants by their masters. "All
+journeymen," it declares, "that are hired, and likewise bondsmen
+(serfs), also the serving men and maids, shall each day be given twice
+meat and what thereto longith, with half a small measure of wine, save
+on fast days, when they shall have fish or other food that nourisheth.
+Whoso in the week hath toiled shall also on Sundays and feast days
+make merry after mass and preaching. They shall have bread and meat
+enough, and half a great measure of wine. On feast days also roasted
+meat enough. Moreover, they shall be given, to take home with them, a
+great loaf of bread and so much of flesh as two at one meal may eat."</p>
+
+<p>Again, in a bill of fare of the household of Count Joachim von
+Oettingen in Bavaria, the journeymen and villeins are accorded in the
+morning, soup and vegetables; at midday, soup and meat, with
+vegetables, and a bowl of broth or a plate of salted or pickled meat;
+at night, soup and meat, carrots, and preserved meat. Even the women
+who brought fowls or eggs from the neighbouring villages to the castle
+were given for their trouble&mdash;if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>from the immediate vicinity, a plate
+of soup with two pieces of bread; if from a greater distance, a
+complete meal and a cruse of wine. In Saxony, similarly, the
+agricultural journeymen received two meals a day, of four courses
+each, besides frequently cheese and bread at other times should they
+require it. Not to have eaten meat for a week was the sign of the
+direst famine in any district. Warnings are not wanting against the
+evils accruing to the common man from his excessive indulgence in
+eating and drinking.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the condition of the proletariat in its first inception, that
+is, when the medi&aelig;val system of villeinage had begun to loosen and to
+allow a proportion of free labourers to insinuate themselves into its
+working. How grievous, then, were the complaints when, while wages had
+risen either not at all or at most from half a groschen to a groschen,
+the price of rye rose from six or seven groschen a bushel to about
+five-and-twenty groschen, that of a sheep from four to eighteen
+groschen, and all other articles of necessary consumption in a like
+proportion!<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the Middle Ages, necessaries and such ordinary comforts as were to
+be had at all were dirt cheap; while non-necessaries and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>luxuries,
+that is, such articles as had to be imported from afar, were for the
+most part at prohibitive prices. With the opening up of the
+world-market during the first half of the sixteenth century, this
+state of things rapidly changed. Most luxuries in a short time fell
+heavily in price, while necessaries rose in a still greater
+proportion.</p>
+
+<p>This latter change in the economic conditions of the world exercised
+its most powerful effect, however, on the character of the medi&aelig;val
+town, which had remained substantially unchanged since the first great
+expansion at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the
+fourteenth centuries. With the extension of commerce and the opening
+up of communications, there began that evolution of the town whose
+ultimate outcome was to entirely change the central idea on which the
+urban organization was based.</p>
+
+<p>The first requisite for a town, according to modern notions, is
+facility of communication with the rest of the world by means of
+railways, telegraphs, postal system, and the like. So far has this
+gone now that in a new country, for instance, America, the railway,
+telegraph lines, etc., are made first, and the towns are then strung
+upon them, like beads upon a cord. In the medi&aelig;val town, on the
+contrary, communication was quite a secondary matter, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>more of a
+luxury than a necessity. Each town was really a self-sufficing entity,
+both materially and intellectually. The modern idea of a town is that
+of a mere local aggregate of individuals, each pursuing a trade or
+calling with a view to the world-market at large. Their own locality
+or town is no more to them economically than any other part of the
+world-market, and very little more in any other respect. The medi&aelig;val
+idea of a town, on the contrary, was that of an organization of groups
+into one organic whole. Just as the village community was a somewhat
+extended family organization, so was, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, the larger
+unit, the township or city. Each member of the town organization owed
+allegiance and distinct duties primarily to his guild, or immediate
+social group, and through this to the larger social group which
+constituted the civic society. Consequently, every townsman felt a
+kind of <i>esprit de corps</i> with his fellow-citizens, akin to that, say,
+which is alleged of the soldiers of the old French "foreign legion"
+who, being brothers-in-arms, were brothers also in all other
+relations. But if every citizen owed duty and allegiance to the town
+in its corporate capacity, the town no less owed protection and
+assistance, in every department of life, to its individual members.</p>
+
+<p>As in ancient Rome in its earlier history, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>and as in all other early
+urban communities, agriculture necessarily played a considerable part
+in the life of most medi&aelig;val towns. Like the villages, they possessed
+each its own mark, with its common fields, pastures, and woods. These
+were demarcated by various landmarks, crosses, holy images, etc.; and
+"the bounds" were beaten every year. The wealthier citizens usually
+possessed gardens and orchards within the town walls, while each
+inhabitant had his share in the communal holding without. The use of
+this latter was regulated by the Rath or Council. In fact, the town
+life of the Middle Ages was not by any means so sharply differentiated
+from rural life as is implied in our modern idea of a town. Even in
+the larger commercial towns, such as Frankfurt, N&uuml;rnberg, or Augsburg,
+it was common to keep cows, pigs, and sheep, and, as a matter of
+course, fowls and geese, in large numbers within the precincts of the
+town itself. In Frankfurt in 1481 the pigsties in the town had become
+such a nuisance that the Rath had to forbid them <i>in the front</i> of the
+houses by a formal decree. In Ulm there was a regulation of the
+bakers' guild to the effect that no single member should keep more
+than twenty-four pigs, and that cows should be confined to their
+stalls at night. In N&uuml;rnberg in 1475 again, the Rath had to interfere
+with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>intolerable nuisance of pigs and other farm-yard stock
+running about loose in the streets. Even in a town like M&uuml;nchen we are
+informed that agriculture formed one of the staple occupations of the
+inhabitants, while in almost every city the gardeners' or the
+wine-growers' guild appears as one of the largest and most
+influential.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident that such conditions of life would be impossible with
+town-populations even approaching only distantly those of to-day; and,
+in fact, when we come to inquire into the size and populousness of
+medi&aelig;val German cities, as into those of the classical world of
+antiquity, we are at first sight staggered by the smallness of their
+proportions. The largest and most populous free Imperial cities in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, N&uuml;rnberg and Strassburg, numbered
+little more than 20,000 resident inhabitants within the walls, a
+population rather less than that of (say) many an English country town
+at the present time. Such an important place as Frankfurt-am-Main is
+stated at the middle of the fifteenth century to have had less than
+9,000 inhabitants. At the end of the fifteenth century Dresden could
+only boast of about 5,000. Rothenburg on the Tauber is to-day a dead
+city to all intents and purposes, affording us a magnificent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>example
+of what a medi&aelig;val town was like, as the bulk of its architecture,
+including the circuit of its walls, which remain intact, dates
+approximately from the sixteenth century. At present a single line of
+railway branching off from the main line with about two trains a day
+is amply sufficient to convey the few antiquaries and artists who are
+now its sole visitors, and who have to content themselves with
+country-inn accommodation. Yet this old free city has actually a
+larger population at the present day than it had at the time of which
+we are writing, when it was at the height of its prosperity as an
+important centre of activity. The figures of its population are now
+between 8,000 and 9,000. At the beginning of the sixteenth century
+they were between 6,000 and 7,000. A work written and circulated in
+manuscript during the first decade of the sixteenth century, "A
+Christian Exhortation" (<i>Ein Christliche Mahnung</i>), after referring to
+the frightful pestilences recently raging as a punishment from God,
+observes, in the spirit of true Malthusianism, and as a justification
+of the ways of Providence, that "an there were not so many that died
+there were too much folk in the land, and it were not good that such
+should be lest there were not food enough for all."</p>
+
+<p>Great population as constituting importance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>in a city is
+comparatively a modern notion. In other ages towns became famous on
+account of their superior civic organization, their more advantageous
+situation, or the greater activity, intellectual, political, or
+commercial, of their citizens.</p>
+
+<p>What this civic organization of medi&aelig;val towns was, demands a few
+words of explanation, since the conflict between the two main elements
+in their composition plays an important part in the events which
+follow. Something has already been said on this head in the
+Introduction. We have there pointed out that the Rath or Town Council,
+that is, the supreme governing body of the municipality, was in all
+cases mainly, and often entirely, composed of the heads of the town
+aristocracy, the patrician class or "honorability" (<i>Ehrbarkeit</i>), as
+they were termed, who on the ground of their antiquity and wealth laid
+claim to every post of power and privilege. On the other hand were the
+body of the citizens enrolled in the various guilds, seeking, as their
+position and wealth improved, to wrest the control of the town's
+resources from the patricians. It must be remembered that the towns
+stood in the position of feudal over-lords to the peasants who held
+land on the city territory, which often extended for many square miles
+outside the walls. A small town <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>like Rothenburg, for instance, which
+we have described above, had on its lands as many as 15,000 peasants.
+The feudal dues and contributions of these tenants constituted the
+staple revenue of the town, and the management of them was one of the
+chief bones of contention.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere was the guild system brought to a greater perfection than in
+the free Imperial towns of Germany. Indeed, it was carried further in
+them, in one respect, than in any other part of Europe, for the guilds
+of journeymen (<i>Cesellenverb&auml;nde</i>), which in other places never
+attained any strength or importance, were in Germany developed to the
+fullest extent, and of course supported the craft-guilds in their
+conflict with the patriciate. Although there were naturally numerous
+frictions between the two classes of guilds respecting wages, working
+days, hours, and the like, it must not be supposed that there was that
+irreconcilable hostility between them which would exist at the present
+time between a trade-union and a syndicate of employers. Each
+recognized the right to existence of the other. In one case, that of
+the strike of bakers towards the close of the fifteenth century, at
+Colmar in Elsass, the craft-guilds supported the journeymen in their
+protest against a certain action of the patrician Rath, which they
+considered to be a derogation from their dignity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>Like the masters, the journeymen had their own guild-house, and their
+own solemn functions and social gatherings. There were, indeed, two
+kinds of journeymen-guilds: one whose chief purpose was a religious one,
+and the other concerning itself in the first instance with the secular
+concerns of the body. However, both classes of journeymen-guilds worked
+into one another's hand. On coming into a strange town a travelling
+member of such a guild was certain of a friendly reception, of
+maintenance until he procured work, and of assistance in finding it as
+soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Interesting details concerning the wages paid to journeymen and their
+contributions to the guilds are to be found in the original documents
+relating exclusively to the journeymen-guilds, collected by Georg
+Schanz.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> From these and other sources it is clear that the position
+of the artisan in the towns was in proportion much better than even that
+of the peasants at that time, and therefore immeasurably superior to
+anything he has enjoyed since. In South Germany at this period the
+average price of beef was about two denarii<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> a pound, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>while the
+daily wages of the masons and carpenters, in addition to their keep and
+lodging, amounted in the summer to about twenty, and in the winter to
+about sixteen of these denarii. In Saxony the same journeymen-craftsmen
+earned on the average, besides their maintenance, two groschen four
+pfennige a day, or about one-third the value of a bushel of corn. In
+addition to this, in some cases the workmen had weekly gratuities under
+the name of "bathing money"; and in this connection it may be noticed
+that a holiday for the purpose of bathing once a fortnight, once a week,
+or even oftener, as the case might be, was stipulated for by the guilds,
+and generally recognized as a legitimate demand. The common notion of
+the uniform uncleanliness of the medi&aelig;val man requires to be
+considerably modified when one closely investigates the condition of
+town life, and finds everywhere facilities for bathing in winter and
+summer alike. Untidiness and uncleanliness, according to our notions,
+there may have been in the streets and in the dwellings in many cases,
+owing to inadequate provisions for the disposal of refuse and the like;
+but we must not therefore extend this idea to the person, and imagine
+that the medi&aelig;val craftsman or even peasant was as unwholesome as, say,
+the East European peasant of to-day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>When the wages received by the journeymen artisans are compared with
+the prices of commodities previously given, it will be seen how
+relatively easy were their circumstances; and the extent of their
+well-being may be further judged from the wealth of their guilds,
+which, although varying in different places, at all times formed a
+considerable proportion of the wealth of the town. The guild system
+was based upon the notion that the individual master and workman was
+working as much in the interest of the guild as for his own advantage.
+Each member of the guild was alike under the obligation to labour, and
+to labour in accordance with the rules laid down by his guild, and at
+the same time had the right of equal enjoyment with his
+fellow-guildsmen of all advantages pertaining to the particular branch
+of industry covered by the guild. Every guildsman had to work himself
+<i>in propri&acirc; person&acirc;</i>; no contractor was tolerated who himself "in ease
+and sloth doth live on the sweat of others, and puffeth himself up in
+lustful pride." Were a guild-master ill and unable to manage the
+affairs of his workshop, it was the council of the guild, and not
+himself or his relatives, who installed a representative for him and
+generally looked after his affairs. It was the guild again which
+procured the raw material, and distributed it in relatively equal
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>proportions amongst its members; or where this was not the case, the
+time and place were indicated at which the guildsman might buy at a
+fixed maximum price. Every master had equal right to the use of the
+common property and institutions of the guild, which in some
+industries included the essentials of production, as, for example, in
+the case of the woollen manufacturers, where wool-kitchens,
+carding-rooms, bleaching-houses and the like were common to the whole
+guild.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, the relations between master and apprentices and master
+and journeymen were rigidly fixed down to the minutest detail. The
+system was thoroughly patriarchal in its character. In the hey-day of
+the guilds, every apprentice and most of the journeymen regarded their
+actual condition as a period of preparation which would end in the
+glories of mastership. For this dear hope they were ready on occasion to
+undergo cheerfully the most arduous duties. The education in handicraft,
+and, we may add, the supervision of the morals of the blossoming members
+of the guild, was a department which greatly exercised its
+administration. On the other hand, the guild in its corporate capacity
+was bound to maintain sick or incapacitated apprentices and journeymen,
+though after the journeymen had developed into a distinct class, and
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>consequent rise of the journeymen-guilds, the latter function was
+probably in most cases taken over by the latter. The guild laws against
+adulteration, scamped work, and the like, were sometimes ferocious in
+their severity. For example, in some towns the baker who misconducted
+himself in the matter of the composition of his bread was condemned to
+be shut up in a basket which was fixed at the end of a long pole, and
+let down so many times to the bottom of a pool of dirty water. In the
+year 1456 two grocers, together with a female assistant, were burnt
+alive at N&uuml;rnberg for adulterating saffron and spices, and a similar
+instance happened at Augsburg in 1492. From what we have said it will be
+seen that guild life, like the life of the town as a whole, was
+essentially a social life. It was a larger family, into which various
+blood families were merged. The interest of each was felt to be the
+interest of all, and the interest of all no less the interest of each.</p>
+
+<p>But in many towns, outside the town population properly speaking,
+outside the patrician families who generally governed the Rath,
+outside the guilds, outside the city organization altogether, there
+were other bodies dwelling within the walls and forming <i>imperia in
+imperiis</i>. These were the religious corporations, whose possessions
+were often extensive, and who, dwelling within their own walls, shut
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>out from the rest of the town, were subject only to their own
+ordinances. The quasi-religious, quasi-military Order of the Teutonic
+Knights (<i>Deutscher Orden</i>), founded at the time of the Crusades, was
+the wealthiest and largest of these corporations. In addition to the
+extensive territories which it held in various parts of the empire, it
+had establishments in a large number of cities. Besides this there
+were, of course, the Orders of the Augustinians and Carthusians, and a
+number of less important foundations, who had their cloisters in
+various towns. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the pomp,
+pride, and licentiousness of the Teutonic Order drew upon it the
+especial hatred of the townsfolk; and amid the general wreck of
+religious houses none were more ferociously despoiled than those
+belonging to this Order. There were, moreover, in some towns, the
+establishments of princely families, which were regarded by the
+citizens with little less hostility than that accorded to the
+religious Orders.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the explosive elements of town life when changing conditions
+were tending to dislocate the whole structure of medi&aelig;val existence.
+The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 had struck a heavy
+blow at the commerce of the Bavarian cities which had come by way of
+Constantinople and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>Venice. This latter city lost one by one its
+trading centres in the East, and all Oriental traffic by way of the
+Black Sea was practically stopped. It was the Dutch cities which
+inherited the wealth and influence of the German towns when Vasco da
+Gama's discovery of the Cape route to the East began to have its
+influence on the trade of the world. This diversion of Oriental
+traffic from the old overland route was the starting-point of the
+modern merchant navy, and it must be placed amongst the most potent
+causes of the break-up of medi&aelig;val civilization. The above change,
+although immediately felt by the German towns, was not realized by
+them in its full importance either as to its causes or its
+consequences for more than a century; but the decline of their
+prosperity was nevertheless sensible, even now, and contributed
+directly to the coming upheaval.</p>
+
+<p>The impatience of the prince, the prelate, the noble, and the wealthy
+burgher at the restraints which the system of the Middle Ages placed
+upon his activity as an individual in the acquisition for his own
+behoof, and the disposal at his own pleasure, of wealth, regardless of
+the consequences to his neighbour, found expression, and a powerful
+lever, in the introduction from Italy of the Roman law in place of the
+old canon and customary law <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>of Europe. The latter never regarded the
+individual as an independent and autonomous entity, but invariably
+treated him with reference to a group or social body, of which he
+might be the head or merely a subordinate member; but in any case the
+filaments of custom and religious duty attached him to a certain
+humanity outside himself, whether it were a village community, a
+guild, a township, a province, or the empire. The idea of a right to
+individual autonomy in his dealings with men never entered into the
+medi&aelig;val man's conception. Hence the mere possession of property was
+not recognized by medi&aelig;val law as conferring any absolute rights in
+its holder to its unregulated use, and the basis of the medi&aelig;val
+notions of property was the association of responsibility and duty
+with ownership. In other words, the notion of <i>trust</i> was never
+completely divorced from that of <i>possession</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman law rested on a totally different basis. It represented the
+legal ethics of a society on most of its sides brutally and crassly
+individualistic. That that society had come to an end instead of
+evolving to its natural conclusion&mdash;a developed capitalistic
+individualism such as exists to-day&mdash;was due to the weakness of its
+economic basis, owing to the limitation at that time of man's power
+over Nature, which deprived it of recuperative <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>and defensive force,
+thereby leaving it a prey not only to internal influences of decay but
+also to violent destructive forces from without. Nevertheless, it left
+a legacy of a ready-made legal system to serve as an implement for the
+first occasion when economic conditions should be once more ready for
+progress to resume the course of individualistic development, abruptly
+brought to an end by the fall of ancient civilization as crystallized
+in the Roman Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The popular courts of the village, of the mark, and of the town, which
+had existed up to the beginning of the sixteenth century with all
+their ancient functions, were extremely democratic in character. Cases
+were decided on their merits, in accordance with local custom, by a
+body of jurymen chosen from among the freemen of the district, to whom
+the presiding functionaries, most of whom were also of popular
+selection, were little more than assessors. The technicalities of a
+cut-and-dried system were unknown. The Catholic-Germanic theory of the
+Middle Ages proper, as regards the civil power in all its functions,
+from the highest downward, was that of the mere administrator of
+justice as such; whereas the Roman law regarded the magistrate as the
+vicegerent of the <i>princeps</i> or <i>imperator</i>, in whose person was
+absolutely vested as its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>supreme embodiment the whole power of the
+State. The Divinity of the Emperors was a recognition of this fact;
+and the influence of the Roman law revived the theory as far as
+possible under the changed conditions, in the form of the doctrine of
+the Divine Right of Kings&mdash;a doctrine which was totally alien to the
+Catholic feudal conception of the Middle Ages. This doctrine,
+moreover, received added force from the Oriental conception of the
+position of the ruler found in the Old Testament, from which
+Protestantism drew so much of its inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>But apart from this aspect of the question, the new juridical
+conception involved that of a system of rules as the crystallized
+embodiment of the abstract "State," given through its representatives,
+which could under no circumstances be departed from, and which could
+only be modified in their operation by legal quibbles that left to
+them their nominal integrity. The new law could therefore only be
+administered by a class of men trained specially for the purpose, of
+which the plastic customary law borne down the stream of history from
+primitive times, and insensibly adapting itself to new conditions but
+understood in its broader aspects by all those who might be called to
+administer it, had little need. The Roman law, the study of which was
+started <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>at Bologna in the twelfth century, as might naturally be
+expected, early attracted the attention of the German Emperors as a
+suitable instrument for use on emergencies. But it made little real
+headway in Germany itself as against the early institutions until the
+fifteenth century, when the provincial power of the princes of the
+empire was beginning to overshadow the central authority of the
+titular chief of the Holy Roman Empire. The former, while strenuously
+resisting the results of its application from above, found in it a
+powerful auxiliary in their Courts in riveting their power over the
+estates subject to them. As opposed to the delicately adjusted
+hierarchical notions of Feudalism, which did not recognize any
+absoluteness of dominion either over persons or things, in short for
+which neither the head of the State had any inviolate authority as
+such, nor private property any inviolable rights or sanctity as such,
+the new jurisprudence made corner-stones of both these conceptions.</p>
+
+<p>Even the canon law, consisting in a mass of Papal decretals dating
+from the early Middle Ages, and which, while undoubtedly containing
+considerable traces of the influence of Roman law, was nevertheless
+largely customary in its character, with an infusion of Christian
+ethics, had to yield to the new <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>jurisprudence, and that too in
+countries where the Reformation had been unable to replace the old
+ecclesiastical dogma and organization. The principles and practice of
+the Roman law were sedulously inculcated by the tribe of civilian
+lawyers who by the beginning of the sixteenth century infested every
+Court throughout Europe. Every potentate, great and small, little as
+he might like its application by his feudal overlord to himself, was
+yet only too ready and willing to invoke its aid for the oppression of
+his own vassals or peasants. Thus the civil law everywhere triumphed.
+It became the juridical expression of the political, economical, and
+religious change which marks the close of the Middle Ages and the
+beginnings of the modern commercial world.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be supposed, however, that no resistance was made to it.
+Everywhere in contemporary literature, side by side with denunciations
+of the new mercenary troops, the <i>Landsknechte</i>, we find
+uncomplimentary allusions to the race of advocates, notaries, and
+procurators who, as one writer has it, "are increasing like
+grasshoppers in town and in country year by year." Whenever they
+appeared, we are told, countless litigious disputes sprang up. He who
+had but the money in hand might readily defraud his poorer neighbour
+in the name of law and right. "Woe is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>me!" exclaims one author, "in
+my home there is but one procurator, and yet is the whole country
+round about brought into confusion by his wiles. What a misery will
+this horde bring upon us!" Everywhere was complaint and in many places
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>As early as 1460 we find the Bavarian estates vigorously complaining
+that all the courts were in the hands of doctors. They demanded that
+the rights of the land and the ancient custom should not be cast
+aside; but that the courts as of old should be served by reasonable
+and honest judges, who should be men of the same feudal livery and of
+the same country as those whom they tried. Again in 1514, when the
+evil had become still more crying, we find the estates of W&uuml;rtemberg
+petitioning Duke Ulrich that the Supreme Court "shall be composed of
+honourable, worthy, and understanding men of the nobles and of the
+towns, who shall not be doctors, to the intent that the ancient usages
+and customs should abide, and that it should be judged according to
+them in such wise that the poor man might no longer be brought to
+confusion." In many covenants of the end of the fifteenth century,
+express stipulation is made that they should not be interpreted by a
+doctor or licentiate, and also in some cases that no such doctor or
+licentiate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>should be permitted to reside or to exercise his
+profession within certain districts. Great as was the economical
+influence of the new jurists in the tribunals, their political
+influence in the various courts of the empire, from the
+<i>Reichskammergericht</i> downwards, was, if anything, greater. Says
+Wimpfeling, the first writer on the art of education in the modern
+world: "According to the loathsome doctrines of the new jurisconsults,
+the prince shall be everything in the land and the people naught. The
+people shall only obey, pay tax, and do service. Moreover, they shall
+not alone obey the prince but also them that he has placed in
+authority, who begin to puff themselves up as the proper lords of the
+land, and to order matters so that the princes themselves do as little
+as may be reign." From this passage it will be seen that the modern
+bureaucratic State, in which government is as nearly as possible
+reduced to mechanism and the personal relation abolished, was ushered
+in under the auspices of the civil law. How easy it was for the
+civilian to effect the abolition of feudal institutions may be readily
+imagined by those cognizant of the principles of Roman law. For
+example, the Roman law, of course, making no mention of the right of
+the medi&aelig;val "estates" to be consulted in the levying of taxes or in
+other questions, the jurist <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>would explain this right to his too
+willing master, the prince, as an abuse which had no legal
+justification, and which, the sooner it were abolished in the interest
+of good government the better it would be. All feudal rights as
+against the power of an overlord were explained away by the civil
+jurist, either as pernicious abuses, or, at best, as favours granted
+in the past by the predecessors of the reigning monarch, which it was
+within his right to truncate or to abrogate at his will.</p>
+
+<p>From the preceding survey will be clearly perceived the important r&ocirc;le
+which the new jurisprudence played on the Continent of Europe in the
+gestation of the new phase which history was entering upon in the
+sixteenth century. Even the short sketch given will be sufficient to
+show that it was not in one department only that it operated; but
+that, in addition to its own domain of law proper, its influence was
+felt in modifying economical, political, and indirectly even ethical
+and religious conditions. From this time forth Feudalism slowly but
+surely gave place to the newer order, all that remained being certain
+of its features, which, crystallized into bureaucratic forms, were
+doubly veneered with a last trace of medi&aelig;val ideas and a denser
+coating of civilian conceptions. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>This transitional Europe, and not
+medi&aelig;val Europe, was the Europe which lasted on until the eighteenth
+century, and which practically came to an end with the French
+Revolution.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> One silver groschen = 1-1/5d.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The authorities for the above data may be found in
+Janssen, i., vol. i., bk. iii., especially pp. 330-46.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Zur Geschichte der deutschen Gesellenverb&auml;nde.</i>
+Leipzig, 1876.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> C. 1/5d. The denarius was the South German equivalent of
+the North German pfennig, of which twelve went to the groschen.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE REVOLT OF THE KNIGHTHOOD</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>We have already pointed out in more than one place the position to
+which the smaller nobility, or the knighthood, had been reduced by the
+concatenation of causes which was bringing about the dissolution of
+the old medi&aelig;val order of things, and, as a consequence, ruining the
+knights both economically and politically&mdash;economically by the rise of
+capitalism as represented by the commercial syndicates of the cities;
+by the unprecedented power and wealth of the city confederations,
+especially of the Hanseatic League; by the rising importance of the
+newly developed world-market; by the growing luxury and the enormous
+rise in the prices of commodities concurrently with the reduction in
+value of the feudal land-tenures; and by the limitation of the
+possibilities of acquiring wealth by highway robbery, owing to
+Imperial constitutions, on the one hand, and increased powers of
+defence on the part of the trading <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>community, on the
+other&mdash;politically, by the new modes of warfare in which artillery and
+infantry, composed of comparatively well-drilled mercenaries
+(<i>Landsknechte</i>), were rapidly making inroads into the omnipotence of
+the ancient feudal chivalry, and reducing the importance of individual
+skill or prowess in the handling of weapons, and by the development of
+the power of the princes or higher nobility, partly due to the
+influence which the Roman civil law now began to exercise over the
+older customary Constitution of the empire, and partly to the budding
+centralism of authority&mdash;which in France and England became a national
+centralization, but in Germany, in spite of the temporary ascendancy
+of Charles V, finally issued in a provincial centralization in which
+the princes were <i>de facto</i> independent monarchs. The Imperial
+Constitution of 1495, forbidding private war, applied, it must be
+remembered, only to the lesser nobility and not to the higher, thereby
+placing the former in a decidedly ignominious position as regards
+their feudal superiors. And though this particular enactment had
+little immediate result, yet it was none the less resented as a blow
+struck at the old knightly privilege.</p>
+
+<p>The mental attitude of the knighthood in the face of this progressing
+change in their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>position was naturally an ambiguous one, composed
+partly of a desire to hark back to the haughty independence of
+feudalism, and partly of sympathy with the growing discontent among
+other classes and with the new spirit generally. In order that the
+knights might succeed in recovering their old or even in maintaining
+their actual position against the higher nobility, the princes, backed
+as these now largely were by the Imperial power, the co-operation of
+the cities was absolutely essential to them, but the obstacles in the
+way of such a co-operation proved insurmountable. The towns hated the
+knights for their lawless practices, which rendered trade unsafe and
+not infrequently cost the lives of the citizens. The knights for the
+most part, with true feudal hauteur, scorned and despised the artisans
+and traders who had no territorial family name and were unexercised in
+the higher chivalric arts. The grievances of the two parties were,
+moreover, not identical, although they had their origin in the same
+causes.</p>
+
+<p>The cities were in the main solely concerned to maintain their old
+independent position, and especially to curb the growing disposition
+at this time of the other estates to use them as milch cows from which
+to draw the taxation necessary to the maintenance of the empire. For
+example, at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>Reichstag opened at N&uuml;rnberg on November 17, 1522&mdash;to
+discuss the questions of the establishment of perpetual peace within
+the empire, of organizing an energetic resistance to the inroads of
+the Turks, and of placing on a firm foundation the Imperial Privy
+Council (<i>Kammergericht</i>) and the Supreme Council
+(<i>Reichsregiment</i>)&mdash;at which were represented twenty-six Imperial
+towns, thirty-eight high prelates, eighteen princes, and twenty-nine
+counts and barons&mdash;the representatives of the cities complained
+grievously that their attendance was reduced to a farce, since they
+were always out-voted, and hence obliged to accept the decisions of
+the other estates. They stated that their position was no longer
+bearable, and for the first time drew up an Act of Protest, which
+further complained of the delay in the decisions of the Imperial
+courts; of their sufferings from the right of private war, which was
+still allowed to subsist in defiance of the Constitution; of the
+increase of customs-stations on the part of the princes and
+prince-prelates; and, finally, of the debasement of the coinage due to
+the unscrupulous practices of these notables and of the Jews. The only
+sympathy the other estates vouchsafed to the plaints of the cities was
+with regard to the right of private war, which the higher nobles were
+also anxious to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>suppress amongst the lower, though without prejudice,
+of course, to their own privileges in this line. All the other
+articles of the Act of Protest were coolly waived aside. From all this
+it will be seen that not much co-operation was to be expected between
+such heterogeneous bodies as the knighthood and the free towns, in
+spite of their common interest in checking the threateningly advancing
+power of the princes and the central Imperial authority in so far as
+it was manned and manipulated by the princes.</p>
+
+<p>Amid the decaying knighthood there was, as we have already intimated,
+one figure which stood out head and shoulders above every other noble
+of the time, whether prince or knight, and that was Franz von
+Sickingen. He has been termed, not without truth, "the last flower of
+German chivalry," since in him the old knightly qualities flashed up
+in conjunction with the old knightly power and splendour with a
+brightness hardly known even in the palmiest days of medi&aelig;val life. It
+was, however, the last flicker of the light of German chivalry. With
+the death of Sickingen and the collapse of his revolt the knighthood
+of Central Europe ceased any longer to play an independent part in
+history.</p>
+
+<p>Sickingen, although technically only one of the lower nobility, was
+deemed about the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>time of Luther's appearance to hold the immediate
+destinies of the empire in his hand. Wealthy, inspiring confidence and
+enthusiasm as a leader, possessed of more than one powerful and
+strategically situated stronghold, he held court at his favourite
+residence, the Castle of the Landstuhl, in the Rhenish Palatinate, in
+a style which many a prince of the empire might have envied. As
+honoured guests were to be found attending on him humanists, poets,
+minstrels, partisans of the new theology, astrologers, alchemists, and
+men of letters generally&mdash;in short, the whole intelligence and culture
+of the period. Foremost amongst these, and chief confidant of
+Sickingen, was the knight, courtier, poet, essayist, and pamphleteer,
+Ulrich von Hutten, whose pen was ever ready to champion with unstinted
+enthusiasm the cause of the progressive ideas of his age. He first
+took up the cudgels against the obscurantists on behalf of Humanism as
+represented by Erasmus and Reuchlin, the latter of whom he bravely
+defended in his dispute with the Inquisition and the monks of Cologne,
+and in his contributions to the <i>Epistol&aelig; Obscurorum Virorum</i> we see
+the youthful ardour of the Renaissance in full blast in its onslaught
+on the forces of medi&aelig;val obstruction. Unlike most of those with whom
+he was first associated, Hutten <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>passed from being the upholder of the
+New Learning to the r&ocirc;le of champion of the Reformation; and it was
+largely through his influence that Sickingen took up the cause of
+Luther and his movement.</p>
+
+<p>Sickingen had been induced by Charles V to assist him in an abortive
+attempt to invade France in 1521, from which campaign he had returned
+without much benefit either material or moral, save that Charles was
+left heavily in his debt. The accumulated hatred of generations for
+the priesthood had made Sickingen a willing instrument in the hands of
+the reforming party, and believing that Charles now lay to some extent
+in his power, he considered the moment opportune for putting his
+long-cherished scheme into operation for reforming the Constitution of
+the empire. This reformation consisted, as was to be expected, in
+placing his own order on a firm footing, and of effectually curbing
+the power of the other estates, especially that of the prelates.
+Sickingen wished to make the Emperor and the lower nobility the
+decisive factors in his new scheme of things political. The Emperor,
+it so happened, was for the moment away in Spain, and Sickingen's
+colleagues of the knightly order were becoming clamorous at the
+unworthy position into which they found themselves rapidly being
+driven. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>The feudal exactions of their princely lieges had reached a
+point which passed all endurance, and since they were practically
+powerless in the Reichstags, no outlet was left for their discontent
+save by open revolt. Impelled not less by his own inclinations than by
+the pressure of his companions, foremost among whom was Hutten,
+Sickingen decided at once to open the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Hutten, it would appear, attempted to enter into negotiations for the
+co-operation of the towns and of the peasants. So far as can be seen,
+Strassburg and one or two other Imperial cities returned favourable
+answers; but the precise measure of Hutten's success cannot be
+ascertained, owing to the fact that all the documents relating to the
+matter perished in the destruction of Sickingen's Castle of Ebernburg.</p>
+
+<p>It should be premised that on August 13th, previous to this
+declaration of war, a "Brotherly Convention" had been signed by a
+number of the knights, by which Sickingen was appointed their captain,
+and they bound themselves to submit to no jurisdiction save their own,
+and pledged themselves to mutual aid in war in case of hostilities
+against any one of their number. Through this "Treaty of Landau,"
+Sickingen had it in his power to assemble a considerable force at a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>moment's notice. Consequently, a few days after the issue of the above
+manifesto, on August 27, 1522, Sickingen was able to start from the
+Castle of Ebernburg with an army of 5,000 foot and 1,500 knights,
+besides artillery, in the full confidence that he was about to destroy
+the position of the Palatine prince-prelate and raise himself without
+delay to the chief power on the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p>By an effective piece of audacity, that of sporting the Imperial flag
+and the Burgundian cross, Franz spread abroad the idea that he was
+acting on behalf of the Emperor, then absent in Spain; and this
+largely contributed to the result that his army speedily rose to 5,000
+knights and 10,000 footmen. The Imperial Diet at N&uuml;rnberg now
+intervened, and ordered Sickingen to cease the operations he had
+already begun, threatening him with the ban of the empire and a fine
+of 2,000 marks if he did not obey. To this summons Franz sent a
+characteristically impudent reply, and light-heartedly continued the
+campaign, regardless of the warning which an astrologer had given him
+some time previously, that the year 1522 or 1523 would probably be
+fatal to him. It is evident that this campaign, begun so late in the
+year, was regarded by Sickingen and the other leaders as merely a
+preliminary canter to a larger and more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>widespread movement the
+following spring, since on this occasion the Swabian and Franconian
+knighthood do not appear to have been even invited to take part in it.</p>
+
+<p>After an easy progress, during which several trifling places, the most
+important being St. Wendel, were taken, Franz with his army arrived on
+September 8th before the gates of Trier. He had hoped to capture the
+town by surprise, and was indeed not without some expectation of
+co-operation and help from the citizens themselves. On his arrival he
+shot letters within the walls summoning the inhabitants to take his
+part against their tyrant; but either through the unwillingness of the
+burghers to act with knights, or through the vigilance of the
+Archbishop, they were without effect. The gates remained closed; and
+in answer to Sickingen's summons to surrender, Richard replied that he
+would find him in the city if he could get inside. In the meantime
+Sickingen's friends had signally failed in their attempts to obtain
+supplies and reinforcements for him, in the main owing to the
+energetic action of some of the higher nobles. The Archbishop of Trier
+showed himself as much a soldier as a Churchman; and after a week's
+siege, during which Sickingen made five assaults on the city, his
+powder ran out, and he was forced to retire. He at once made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>his way
+back to Ebernburg, where he intended to pass the winter, since he saw
+that it was useless to continue the campaign, with his own army
+diminishing and the hoped-for supplies not appearing, whilst the
+forces of his antagonists augmented daily. In his stronghold of
+Ebernburg he could rely on being secure from all attack until he was
+able to again take the field on the offensive, as he anticipated doing
+in the spring.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the obvious failure of the autumnal campaign, the cause of
+the knighthood did not by any means look irretrievably desperate,
+since there was always the possibility of successful recruitments the
+following spring. Ulrich von Hutten was doing his utmost in W&uuml;rtemberg
+and Switzerland to scrape together men and money, though up to this
+time without much success, while other emissaries of Sickingen were
+working with the same object in Breisgau and other parts of Southern
+Germany. Relying on these expected reinforcements, Franz was confident
+of victory when he should again take the field, and in the meantime he
+felt himself quite secure in one or other of his strong places, which
+had recently undergone extensive repairs and seemed to be impregnable.
+In this anticipation he was deceived, for he had not reckoned with the
+new and more potent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>weapons of attack which were replacing the
+battering-ram and other medi&aelig;val besieging appliances. Franz retired
+to his strong castle of the Landstuhl to await the onslaught of the
+princes which followed in the spring. After heavy bombardment
+Sickingen was mortally wounded on May 6th, and the place was
+immediately surrendered. The next day the princes entered the castle,
+where, in an underground chamber, their enemy lay dying.</p>
+
+<p>He was so near his end that he could scarcely distinguish his three
+arch-enemies one from the other. "My dear lord," he said to the Count
+Palatine, his feudal superior, "I had not thought that I should end
+thus," taking off his cap and giving him his hand. "What has impelled
+thee, Franz," asked the Archbishop of Trier, "that thou hast so laid
+waste and harmed me and my poor people?" "Of that it were too long to
+speak," answered Sickingen, "but I have done nought without cause. I
+go now to stand before a greater Lord." Here it is worthy of remark
+that the princes treated Franz with all the knightliness and courtesy
+which were customary between social equals in the days of chivalry,
+addressing him at most rather as a rebellious child than as an
+insurgent subject. The Prince of Hesse was about to give utterance to
+a reproach, but he was interrupted by the Count <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>Palatine, who told
+him that he must not quarrel with a dying man. The Count's chamberlain
+said some sympathetic words to Franz, who replied to him: "My dear
+chamberlain, it matters little about me. It is not I who am the cock
+round which they are dancing." When the princes had withdrawn, his
+chaplain asked him if he would confess; but Franz replied: "I have
+confessed to God in my heart," whereupon the chaplain gave him
+absolution; and as he went to fetch the host "the last of the knights"
+passed quietly away, alone and abandoned. It is related by Spalatin
+that after his death some peasants and domestics placed his body in an
+old armour-chest, in which they had to double the head on to the
+knees. The chest was then let down by a rope from the rocky eminence
+on which stands the now ruined castle, and was buried beneath a small
+chapel in the village below.</p>
+
+<p>The scene we have just described in the castle vault meant not merely
+the tragedy of a hero's death, nor merely the destruction of a faction
+or party, it meant the end of an epoch. With Sickingen's death one of
+the most salient and picturesque elements in the medi&aelig;val life of
+Central Europe received its death-blow. The knighthood as a distinct
+factor in the polity of Europe henceforth existed no more.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>Spalatin relates that on the death of Sickingen the princely party
+anticipated as easy a victory over the religious revolt as they had
+achieved over the knighthood. "The mock Emperor is dead," so the
+phrase went, "and the mock Pope will soon be dead also." Hutten,
+already an exile in Switzerland, did not many months survive his
+patron and leader, Sickingen. The r&ocirc;le which Erasmus played in this
+miserable tragedy was only what was to be expected from the moral
+cowardice which seemed ingrained in the character of the great
+Humanist leader. Erasmus had already begun to fight shy of the
+Reformation movement, from which he was about to separate himself
+definitely. He seized the present opportunity to quarrel with Hutten;
+and to Hutten's somewhat bitter attacks on him in consequence he
+replied with ferocity in his <i>Spongia Erasmi adversus aspergines
+Hutteni</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Hutten had had to fly from Basel to M&uuml;lhausen and thence to Z&uuml;rich, in
+the last stages of syphilitic disease. He was kindly received by the
+reformer, Zwingli of Z&uuml;rich, who advised him to try the waters of
+Pfeffers, and gave him letters of recommendation to the abbot of that
+place. He returned, in no wise benefited, to Z&uuml;rich, when Zwingli
+again befriended the sick knight, and sent him to a friend of his, the
+"reformed" pastor of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>little island of "Ufenau," at the other end
+of the lake, where after a few weeks' suffering he died in abject
+destitution, leaving, it is said, nothing behind him but his pen. The
+disease from which Hutten suffered the greater part of his life, at
+that time a comparatively new importation and much more formidable
+even than nowadays, may well have contributed to an irascibility of
+temper and to a certain recklessness which the typical free-lance of
+the Reformation in its early period exhibited. Hutten was never a
+theologian, and the Reformation seems to have attracted him mainly
+from its political side as implying the assertion of the dawning
+feeling of German nationality as against the hated enemies of freedom
+of thought and the new light, the clerical satellites of the Roman
+see. He was a true son of his time, in his vices no less than in his
+virtues; and no one will deny his partiality for "wine, women, and
+play." There is reason, indeed, to believe that the latter at times
+during his later career provided his sole means of subsistence.</p>
+
+<p>The hero of the Reformation, Luther, with whom Melanchthon may be
+associated in this matter, could be no less pusillanimous on occasion
+than the hero of the New Learning, Erasmus. Luther undoubtedly saw in
+Sickingen's revolt a means of weakening the Catholic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>powers against
+which he had to fight, and at its inception he avowedly favoured the
+enterprise. In some of the reforming writings Luther is represented as
+the incarnation of Christian resignation and mildness, and as talking
+of twelve legions of angels and deprecating any appeal to force as
+unbefitting the character of an evangelical apostle. That such,
+however, was not his habitual attitude is evident to all who are in
+the least degree acquainted with his real conduct and utterances. On
+one occasion he wrote: "If they (the priests) continue their mad
+ravings it seems to me that there would be no better method and
+medicine to stay them than that kings and princes did so with force,
+armed themselves and attacked these pernicious people who do poison
+all the world, and once for all did make an end of their doings with
+weapons, not with words. For even as we punish thieves with the sword,
+murderers with the rope, and heretics with fire, wherefore do we not
+lay hands on these pernicious teachers of damnation, on popes, on
+cardinals, bishops, and the swarm of the Roman Sodom&mdash;yea, with every
+weapon which lieth within our reach, <i>and wherefore do we not wash our
+hands in their blood?</i>"<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is, however, in a manifesto published in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>July 1522, just before
+Sickingen's attack on the Archbishop of Trier, for which enterprise it
+was doubtless intended as a justification, that Luther expresses
+himself in unmeasured terms against the "biggest wolves," the bishops,
+and calls upon "all dear children of God and all true Christians" to
+drive them out by force from the "sheep-stalls." In this pamphlet,
+entitled <i>Against the falsely called spiritual order of the Pope and
+the Bishops</i>, he says: "It were better that every bishop were
+murdered, every foundation or cloister rooted out, than that one soul
+should be destroyed, let alone that all souls should be lost for the
+sake of their worthless trumpery and idolatry. Of what use are they
+who thus live in lust, nourished by the sweat and labour of others,
+and are a stumbling-block to the word of God? They fear bodily uproar
+and despise spiritual destruction. Are they wise and honest people? If
+they accepted God's word and sought the life of the soul, God would be
+with them, for He is a God of peace, and they need fear no uprising;
+but if they will not hear God's word, but rage and rave with bannings,
+burnings, killings, and every evil, what do they better deserve than a
+strong uprising which shall sweep them from the earth? <i>And we would
+smile did it happen.</i><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>As the heavenly wisdom saith: 'Ye have
+hated my chastisement and despised my doctrine; behold, I will also
+laugh at ye in your distress, and will mock ye when misfortune shall
+fall upon your heads.'" In the same document he denounces the bishops
+as an accursed race, as "thieves, robbers, and usurers." Swine,
+horses, stones, and wood were not so destitute of understanding as the
+German people under the sway of them and their Pope. The religious
+houses are similarly described as "brothels, low taverns, and murder
+dens," He winds up this document, which he calls his "bull," by
+proclaiming that "all who contribute body, goods, and honour that the
+rule of the bishops may be destroyed are God's dear children and true
+Christians, obeying God's command and fighting against the devil's
+order"; and, on the other hand, that "all who give the bishops a
+willing obedience are the devil's own servants, and fight against
+God's order and law."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<p>No sooner, however, did things begin to look bad with Sickingen than
+Luther promptly sought to disengage himself from all complicity or
+even sympathy with him and his losing cause. So early as December 19,
+1522, he writes to his friend Wenzel Link: "Franz von Sickingen has
+begun war against the Palatine. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>It will be a very bad business."
+(<i>Franciscus Sickingen Palatino bellum indixit, res pessima futura
+est.</i>) His colleague, Melanchthon, a few days later, hastened to
+deprecate the insinuation that Luther had had any part or lot in
+initiating the revolt. "Franz von Sickingen," he wrote, "by his great
+ill-will injures the cause of Luther; and notwithstanding that he be
+entirely dissevered from him, nevertheless whenever he undertaketh war
+he wisheth to seem to act for the public benefit, and not for his own.
+He doth even now pursue a most infamous course of plunder on the
+Rhine." In another letter he says: "I know how this tumult grieveth
+him (Luther),"<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and this respecting the man who had shortly before
+written of the princes that their tyranny and haughtiness were no
+longer to be borne, alleging that God would not longer endure it, and
+that the common man even was becoming intelligent enough to deal with
+them by force if they did not mend their manners. A more telling
+example of the "don't-put-him-in-the-horse-pond" attitude could
+scarcely be desired. That it was characteristic of the "great
+reformer" will be seen later on when we find him pursuing a similar
+policy anent the revolt of the peasants.</p>
+
+<p>After the fall of the Landstuhl all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>Sickingen's castles and most of
+those of his immediate allies and friends were of course taken, and
+the greater part of them destroyed. The knighthood was now to all
+intents and purposes politically helpless and economically at the door
+of bankruptcy, owing to the suddenly changed conditions of which we
+have spoken in the Introduction and elsewhere as supervening since the
+beginning of the century: the unparalleled rise in prices,
+concurrently with the growing extravagance, the decline of agriculture
+in many places, and the increasing burdens put upon the knights by
+their feudal superiors, and last, but not least, the increasing
+obstacles in the way of the successful pursuit of the profession of
+highway robbery. The majority of them, therefore, clung with
+relentless severity to the feudal dues of the peasants, which now
+constituted their main, and in many cases their only, source of
+revenue; and hence, abandoning the hope of independence, they threw in
+their lot with the authorities, the princes, lay and ecclesiastic, in
+the common object of both, that of reducing the insurgent peasants to
+complete subjection.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Italics the present author's.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Italics the present author's.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>S&auml;mmtliche Werke</i> vol. xxviii. pp. 142-201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Corpus Reformatorum</i>, vol. i. pp. 598-9.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>GENERAL SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REVOLT</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Peasant revolts of a sporadic character are to be met with throughout
+the Middle Ages even in their halcyon days. Some of these, like the
+Jacquerie in France and the revolt associated with the name of Wat
+Tyler in England, were of a serious and more or less extended
+character. But most of them were purely local and of no significance,
+apart from temporary and passing circumstances. By the last quarter of
+the fifteenth century, however, peasant risings had become
+increasingly numerous and their avowed aims much more definite and
+far-reaching than, as a rule, were those of an earlier date. In saying
+this we are referring to those revolts which were directly initiated
+by the peasantry, the serfs, and the villeins of the time, and which
+had as their main object the direct amelioration of the peasant's lot.
+Movements of a primarily religious character were, of course, of a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>somewhat different nature, but the tendency was increasingly, as we
+approach the period of the Reformation, for the two currents to merge
+one in the other. The echoes of the Hussite movement in Bavaria at the
+beginning of the century spread far and wide throughout Central
+Europe, and had by no means spent their force as the century drew
+towards its close.</p>
+
+<p>From this time forward recurrent indications of social revolt with a
+strong religious colouring, or a religious revolt with a strong social
+colouring, became chronic in the Germanic lands and those adjacent
+thereto. As an example may be taken the movement of Hans Boheim, of
+Niklashausen, in the diocese of W&uuml;rzburg, in Franconia, in 1476, and
+which is regarded by some historians as the first of the movements
+leading directly up to those of the Lutheran Reformation. Hans claimed
+a divine mission for preaching the gospel to the common man. Hans
+preached asceticism and claimed Niklashausen as a place of pilgrimage
+for a new worship of the Virgin. There was little in this to alarm the
+authorities till Hans announced that the Queen of Heaven had revealed
+to him that there was to be no lay or spiritual authority, but that
+all men should be brothers, earning their bread by the sweat of their
+brows, paying no more imposts or dues, holding land <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>in common, and
+sharing alike in all things. The movement went on for some months,
+spreading rapidly in the neighbouring territories. At last Hans was
+seized by armed men while asleep and hurried to W&uuml;rzburg. The affair
+caused immense commotion, and by the Sunday following, it is stated,
+34,000 armed peasants assembled at Niklashausen. Led by a decayed
+knight and his son, 16,000 of them marched to W&uuml;rzburg, demanding
+their prophet at the gate of the bishop's castle. By promises and
+cajolery, they were induced to disperse by the prince-bishop, who, as
+soon as he saw they were returning home in straggling parties,
+treacherously sent a body of his knights after them, killing some and
+taking others prisoners. Two of the ringleaders were beheaded outside
+the castle, and at the same time the prophet Hans Boheim was burnt to
+ashes. Thus ended a typical religio-social peasant revolt of the
+half-century preceding the great Reformation movement.</p>
+
+<p>In 1491 the oppressed and plundered villeins of Kempten revolted, but
+the movement was quelled by the Emperor himself after a compromise. A
+great rising took place in Elsass (Alsace) in 1493 among the
+feudatories of the Bishop of Strassburg, with the usual object of
+freedom for the "common man," <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>abolition of feudal exactions, Church
+reformation, etc. This movement is interesting, as having first
+received the name of the <i>Bundschuh</i>. It was decided that as the
+knight was distinguished by his spurs, so the peasant should have as
+his device the common shoe of his class, laced from the ankle through
+to the knee by leathern thongs, and the banner whereon this emblem was
+depicted was accordingly made. The movement was, however, betrayed and
+mercilessly crushed by the neighbouring knighthood. A few years later
+a similar movement, also having the <i>Bundschuh</i> for its device, took
+place in the regions of the Upper and Middle Rhine. This movement
+created a panic among all the privileged classes, from the Emperor
+down to the knight. The situation was discussed in no less than three
+separate assemblies of the States. It was, however, eventually
+suppressed for the time being. A few years later, in 1512, it again
+burst forth under the leadership of an active adherent of the former
+movement, one Joss Fritz, in Baden, at the village of Lehen, near the
+town of Freiburg. The organization in this case, besides being
+widespread, was exceedingly good, and the movement was nearly
+successful when at the last moment it was betrayed. Even in
+Switzerland there were peasant risings in the early years of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>sixteenth century. About the same time the duchy of W&uuml;rtemberg was
+convulsed by a movement which took the name of the "Poor Conrad." Its
+object was the freeing of the "common man" from feudal services and
+dues and the abolition of seignorial rights over the land, etc. But
+here again the movement was suppressed by Duke Ulrich and his knights.
+Another rising took place in Baden in 1517. Three years previously, in
+1514, occurred the great Hungarian peasant rebellion under George
+Daze. Under the able leadership of the latter the peasants had some
+not inconsiderable initial successes, but this movement also, after
+some weeks, was cruelly suppressed. About the same time, too, occurred
+various insurrectionary peasant movements in the Styrian and
+Carinthian alpine districts. Similar movements to those referred to
+were also going on during those early years of the fifteenth century
+in other parts of Europe, but these, of course, do not concern us.</p>
+
+<p>The deep-reaching importance and effective spread of such movements
+was infinitely greater in the Middle Ages than in modern times. The
+same phenomenon presents itself to-day in backward and semi-barbaric
+communities. At first sight one is inclined to think that there has
+been no period in the world's history when it was so easy to stir up
+a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>population as the present, with our newspapers, our telegraphs, our
+aeroplane, our postal arrangements, and our railways. But this is just
+one of those superficial notions that are not confirmed by history. We
+are similarly apt to think that there was no age in which travel was
+so widespread and formed so great a part of the education of mankind
+as at present. There could be no greater mistake. The true age of
+travelling was the close of the Middle Ages, or what is known as the
+Renaissance period. The man of learning, then just differentiated from
+the ecclesiastic, spent the greater part of his life in earning his
+intellectual wares from Court to Court and from University to
+University, just as the merchant personally carried his goods from
+city to city in an age in which commercial correspondence,
+bill-brokers, and the varied forms of modern business were but in
+embryo. It was then that travel really meant education, the
+acquirement of thorough and intimate knowledge of diverse manners and
+customs. Travel was then not a pastime, but a serious element in life.</p>
+
+<p>In the same way the spread of a political or social movement was at
+least as rapid then as now, and far more penetrating. The methods
+were, of course, vastly different from the present; but the human
+material to be dealt with was far easier to mould, and kept <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>its shape
+much more readily when moulded, than is the case nowadays. The
+appearance of a religious or political teacher in a village or small
+town of the Middle Ages was an event which keenly excited the interest
+of the inhabitants. It struck across the path of their daily life,
+leaving behind it a track hardly conceivable to-day. For one of the
+salient symptoms of the change which has taken place since that time
+is the disappearance of local centres of activity and the transference
+of the intensity of life to a few large towns. In the Middle Ages
+every town, small no less than large, was a more or less
+self-sufficing organism, intellectually and industrially, and was not
+essentially dependent on the outside world for its social sustenance.
+This was especially the case in Central Europe, where communication
+was much more imperfect and dangerous than in Italy, France, or
+England. In a society without newspapers, without easy communication
+with the rest of the world, where the vast majority could neither read
+nor write, where books were rare and costly, and accessible only to
+the privileged few, a new idea bursting upon one of these communities
+was eagerly welcomed, discussed in the council chamber of the town, in
+the hall of the castle, in the refectory of the monastery, at the
+social board of the burgess, in the workroom, and, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>did it but touch
+his interests, in the hut of the peasant. It was canvassed, too, at
+church festivals (<i>Kirchweihe</i>), the only regular occasion on which
+the inhabitants of various localities came together. In the absence of
+all other distraction, men thought it out in all the bearings which
+their limited intellectual horizon permitted. If calculated in any way
+to appeal to them it soon struck root, and became a part of their very
+nature, a matter for which, if occasion were, they were prepared to
+sacrifice goods, liberty, and even life itself. In the present day a
+new idea is comparatively slow in taking root. Amid the myriad
+distractions of modern life, perpetually chasing one another, there is
+no time for any one thought, however wide-reaching in its bearings, to
+take a firm hold. In order that it should do so in the <i>modern mind</i>,
+it must be again and again borne in upon this not always too receptive
+intellectual substance. People require to read of it day after day in
+their newspapers, or to hear it preached from countless platforms,
+before any serious effect is created. In the simple life of former
+ages it was not so.</p>
+
+<p>The mode of transmitting intelligence, especially such as was
+connected with the stirring up of political and religious movements,
+was in those days of a nature of which we have now little conception.
+The sort of thing in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>vogue then may be compared to the methods
+adopted in India to prepare the Mutiny of 1857, when the mysterious
+cake was passed from village to village, signifying that the moment
+had come for the outbreak. The sense of <i>esprit de corps</i> and of that
+kind of honour most intimately associated with it, it must also be
+remembered, was infinitely keener in ruder states of society than
+under a high civilization. The growth of civilization, as implying the
+disruption of the groups in which the individual is merged under more
+primitive conditions, and his isolation as an autonomous unit having
+vague and very elastic moral duties to his "country" or to mankind at
+large, but none towards any definite and proximate social whole,
+necessarily destroys that communal spirit which prevails in the former
+case. This is one of the striking truths which the history of these
+peasant risings illustrates in various ways and brings vividly home to
+us.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE GREAT RISING OF THE PEASANTS AND THE ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>The year following the collapse of Franz Sickingen's rebellion saw the
+first mutterings of the great movement known as the Peasants' War, the
+most extensive and important of all the popular insurrections of the
+Middle Ages, which, as we have seen in a previous chapter, had been
+led up to during the previous half-century by numerous sporadic
+movements throughout Central Europe having like aims.</p>
+
+<p>The first actual outbreak of the Peasants' War took place in August
+1524, in the Black Forest, in the village of St&uuml;hlingen, from an
+apparently trivial cause. It spread rapidly throughout the surrounding
+districts, having found a leader in a former soldier of fortune, Hans
+M&uuml;ller by name. The so-called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>Evangelical Brotherhood sprang into
+existence. On the new movement becoming threatening it was opposed by
+the Swabian League, a body in the interests of the Germanic
+Federation, its princes, and cities, whose function it was to preserve
+public tranquillity and enforce the Imperial decrees. The peasant army
+was armed with the rudest weapons, including pitchforks, scythes, and
+axes; but nothing decisive of a military character took place this
+year. Meanwhile the work of agitation was carried on far and wide
+throughout the South German territories. Preachers of discontent among
+the peasantry and the former towns were everywhere agitating and
+organizing with a view to a general rising in the ensuing spring.
+Negotiations were carried on throughout the winter with nobles and the
+authorities without important results. A diversion in favour of the
+peasants was caused by Duke Ulrich of W&uuml;rtemberg favouring the
+peasants' cause, which he hoped to use as a shoeing-horn to his own
+plans for recovering his ancestral domains, from which he had been
+driven on the grounds of a family quarrel under the ban of the empire
+in 1519. He now established himself in his stronghold of Hohentwiel,
+in W&uuml;rtemberg, on the Swiss frontier. By February or the beginning of
+March peasant bands were organizing throughout Southern <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>Germany.
+Early in March a so-called Peasants' Parliament was held at Memmingen,
+a small Swabian town, at which the principal charter of the movement,
+the so-called "Twelve Articles," was adopted. This important document
+has a strong religious colouring, the political and economic demands
+of the peasants being led up to and justified by Biblical quotations.
+They all turn on the customary grievances of the time. The "Twelve
+Articles" remain throughout the chief Bill of Rights of the South
+German peasantry, though there were other versions of the latter
+current in certain districts. What was said before concerning the
+local sporadic movements which had been going en for a generation
+previously applies equally to the great uprising of 1525. The rapidity
+with which the ideas represented by the movement, and in consequence
+the movement itself, spread, is marvellous. By the middle of April it
+was computed that no less than 300,000 peasants, besides necessitous
+townsfolk, were armed and in open rebellion. On the side of the nobles
+no adequate force was ready to meet the emergency. In every direction
+were to be seen flaming castles and monasteries. On all sides were
+bodies of armed countryfolk, organized in military fashion, dictating
+their will to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>countryside and the small towns, whilst
+disaffection was beginning to show itself in a threatening manner
+among the popular elements of not a few important cities. A slight
+success gained by the Swabian League at the Upper Swabian village of
+Leipheim in the second week of April did not improve matters. In
+Easter week, 1525, it looked indeed as if the "Twelve Articles" at
+least would become realized, if not the Christian Commonwealth dreamed
+of by the religious sectaries established throughout the length and
+breadth of Germany. Princes, lords, and ecclesiastical dignitaries
+were being compelled far and wide to save their lives, after their
+property was probably already confiscated, by swearing allegiance to
+the Christian League or Brotherhood of the peasants and by
+countersigning the "Twelve Articles" and other demands of their
+refractory villeins and serfs. So threatening was the situation that
+the Archduke Ferdinand began himself to yield, in so far as to enter
+into negotiations with the insurgents. In many cases the leaders and
+chief men of the bands were got up in brilliant costume. We read of
+purple mantles and scarlet birettas with ostrich plumes as the costume
+of the leaders, of a suite of men in scarlet dress, of a vanguard of
+ten heralds, gorgeously attired. As Lamprecht justly observes
+(<i>Deutsche Geschichte</i>, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>vol. v. p. 343): "The peasant revolts were,
+in general, less in the nature of campaigns, or even of an
+uninterrupted series of minor military operations, than of a slow
+process of mobilization, interrupted and accompanied by continual
+negotiations with lords and princes&mdash;a mobilization which was rendered
+possible by the standing right of assembly and of carrying arms
+possessed by the peasants." The smaller towns everywhere opened their
+gates without resistance to the peasants, between whom and the poorer
+inhabitants an understanding commonly existed. The bands waxed fat
+with plunder of castles and religious houses, and did full justice to
+the contents of the rich monastic wine-cellars.</p>
+
+<p>Early in April occurred one of the most notable incidents. It was at
+the little town of Weinsberg, near the free town of Heilbronn, in
+W&uuml;rtemberg. The town, which was occupied by a body of knights and
+men-at-arms, was attacked on Easter Sunday by the peasant bands,
+foremost among them being the "black troop" of that knightly champion
+of the peasant cause, Florian Geyer. It was followed by a peasant
+contingent, led by one J&auml;cklein Rohrbach, whose consuming passion was
+hatred of the ruling classes. The knights within the town were under
+the leadership of Count von Helfenstein. The entry of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>Rohrbach's
+company into Weinsberg was the signal for a massacre of the knightly
+host. Some were taken prisoners for the moment, including Helfenstein
+himself, but these were massacred next morning in the meadow outside
+the town by "J&auml;cklein," as he was called. The events at Weinsberg
+produced in the first instance a horror and consternation which was
+speedily followed by a lust for vengeance on the part of the
+privileged orders.</p>
+
+<p>In Franconia and Middle Germany the peasant movement went on apace. In
+Franconia one of its chief seats was the considerable town of
+Rothenburg, on the Tauber. The episcopal city of W&uuml;rzburg was also
+entered and occupied by the peasant bands in coalition with the
+discontented elements of the town. The sacking of churches and
+throwing open of religious houses characterized proceedings here as
+elsewhere. The locking up of a large peasant host in W&uuml;rzburg was
+undoubtedly a source of great weakness to the movement. In the east,
+in the Tyrol and Salzburg, there were similar risings to those farther
+west. In the latter case the prince-bishop was the obnoxious
+oppressor.</p>
+
+<p>The most interesting of the local movements was, however, in many
+respects that of Thomas M&uuml;nzer in the town of M&uuml;lhausen, in Thuringia.
+Thomas M&uuml;nzer is, perhaps, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>best known of all the names in the
+peasants' revolt. In addition to the ultra-Protestantism of his
+theological views, M&uuml;nzer had as his object the establishment of a
+communistic Christian Commonwealth. He started a practical
+exemplification of this among his own followers in the town itself.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the beginning of May the insurrection had carried everything
+before it. Truchsess and his men of the Swabian League had proved
+themselves unable to cope with it. Matters now changed. Knights,
+men-at-arms, and free-lances were returning from the Italian campaign
+of Charles V after the battle of Pavia. Everywhere the revolt met with
+disaster. The M&uuml;lhausen insurgents were destroyed at Frankenhausen by
+forces of the Count of Hesse, of the Duke of Brunswick, and of the
+Duke of Saxony. This was on May 15th. Three days before the defeat at
+Frankenhausen, on May 12th, a decisive defeat was inflicted on the
+peasants by the forces of the Swabian League, under Truchsess, at
+B&ouml;blingen, in W&uuml;rtemberg. Savage ferocity signalized the treatment of
+the defeated peasants by the soldiery of the nobles. J&auml;cklein Rohrbach
+was roasted alive. Truchsess with his soldiery then hurried north and
+inflicted a heavy defeat on the Franconian peasant contingents at
+K&ouml;nigshaven, on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>Tauber. These three defeats, following one
+another in little more than a fortnight, broke the back of the whole
+movement in Germany proper. In Elsass and Lorraine the insurrection
+was crushed by the hired troops and the Duke of Lorraine; eastward, on
+the little river Luibas. In the Austrian territories, under the able
+leadership of Michael Gaismayr, one of the lesser nobility, it
+continued for some months longer, and the fear of Gaismayr, who, it
+should be said, was the only man of really constructive genius the
+movement had produced, maintained itself with the privileged classes
+till his murder in the autumn of 1528, at the instance of the Bishop
+of Brixen.</p>
+
+<p>The great peasant insurrection in Germany failed through want of a
+well-thought-out plan and tactics, and, above all, through a want of
+cohesion among the various peasant forces operating in different
+sections of the country, between which no regular communications were
+kept up. The attitude of Martin Luther towards the peasants and their
+cause was base in the extreme. His action was mainly embodied in two
+documents, of which the first was issued about the middle of April,
+and the second a month later. The difference in tone between them is
+sufficiently striking. In the first, which bore the title, "An
+Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>the Peasantry in
+Swabia," Luther sits on the fence, admonishing both parties of what he
+deemed their shortcomings. He was naturally pleased with those
+articles that demanded the free preaching of the Gospel and abused the
+Catholic clergy, and was not indisposed to assent to many of the
+economic demands. In fact, the document strikes one as distinctly more
+favourable to the insurgents than to their opponents.</p>
+
+<p>"We have," he wrote, "no one to thank for this mischief and sedition,
+save ye princes and lords, in especial ye blind bishops and mad
+priests and monks, who up to this day remain obstinate and do not
+cease to rage and rave against the holy Gospel, albeit ye know that it
+is righteous, and that ye may not gainsay it. Moreover, in your
+worldly regiment, ye do naught otherwise than flay and extort tribute,
+that ye may satisfy your pomp and vanity, till the poor, common man
+cannot, and may not, bear with it longer. The sword is on your neck.
+Ye think ye sit so strongly in your seats, that none may cast you from
+them. Such presumption and obstinate pride will twist your necks, as
+ye will see." And again: "God hath made it thus that they cannot, and
+will not, longer bear with your raging. If ye do it not of your free
+will, so shall ye be made to do it by way of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>violence and undoing."
+Once more: "It is not peasants, my dear lords, who have set themselves
+up against you. God Himself it is who setteth Himself against you to
+chastise your evil-doing."</p>
+
+<p>He counsels the princes and lords to make peace with their peasants,
+observing with reference to the "Twelve Articles" that some of them
+are so just and righteous that before God and the world their
+worthiness is manifested, making good the words of the psalm that they
+heap contempt upon the heads of the princes. Whilst he warns the
+peasants against sedition and rebellion, and criticizes some of the
+Articles as going beyond the justification of Holy Writ, and whilst he
+makes side-hits at "the prophets of murder and the spirits of
+confusion which had found their way among them," the general
+impression given by the pamphlet is, as already said, one of
+unmistakable friendliness to the peasants and hostility to the lords.</p>
+
+<p>The manifesto may be summed up in the following terms: Both sides are,
+strictly speaking, in the wrong, but the princes and lords have
+provoked the "common man" by their unjust exactions and oppressions;
+the peasants, on their side, have gone too far in many of their
+demands, notably in the refusal to pay tithes, and most of all in the
+notion of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>abolishing villeinage, which Luther declares to be
+"straightway contrary to the Gospel and thievish." The great sin of
+the princes remains, however, that of having thrown stumbling-blocks
+in the way of the Gospel&mdash;<i>bien entendu</i> the Gospel according to
+Luther&mdash;and the main virtue of the peasants was their claim to have
+this Gospel preached. It can scarcely be doubted that the ambiguous
+tone of Luther's rescript was interpreted by the rebellious peasants
+to their advantage and served to stimulate, rather than to check, the
+insurrection.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the movement rose higher and higher, and reached Thuringia,
+the district with which Luther personally was most associated. His
+patron, and what is more, the only friend of toleration in high
+places, the noble-minded Elector Friedrich of Saxony, fell ill and
+died on May 5th, and was succeeded by his younger brother Johann, the
+same who afterwards assisted in the suppression of the Thuringian
+revolt. Almost immediately thereupon Luther, who had been visiting his
+native town of Eisleben, travelled through the revolted districts on
+his way back to Wittenberg. He everywhere encountered black looks and
+jeers. When he preached, the M&uuml;nzerites would drown his voice by the
+ringing of bells. The signs of rebellion greeted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>him on all sides.
+The "Twelve Articles" were constantly thrown at his head. As the
+reports of violence towards the property and persons of some of his
+own noble friends reached him his rage broke all bounds. He seems,
+however, to have prudently waited a few days, until the cause of the
+peasants was obviously hopeless, before publicly taking his stand on
+the side of the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival in Wittenberg, he wrote a second pronouncement on the
+contemporary events, in which no uncertainty was left as to his
+attitude. It is entitled, "Against the Murderous and Thievish Bands of
+Peasants."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Here he lets himself loose on the side of the
+oppressors with a bestial ferocity. "Crush them" (the peasants), he
+writes, "strangle them and pierce them, in secret places and in sight
+of men, he who can, even as one would strike dead a mad dog!" All
+having authority who hesitated to extirpate the insurgents to the
+uttermost were committing a sin against God. "Findest thou thy death
+therein," he writes, addressing the reader, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>"happy art thou: a more
+blessed death can never overtake thee, for thou diest in obedience to
+the Divine word and the command of Romans xiii. 1, and in the service
+of love, to save thy neighbour from the bonds of hell and the devil."
+Never had there been such an infamous exhortation to the most
+dastardly murder on a wholesale scale since the Albigensian crusade
+with its "Strike them all: God will know His own"&mdash;a sentiment indeed
+that Luther almost literally reproduces in one passage.</p>
+
+<p>The attitude of the official Lutheran party towards the poor
+countryfolk continued as infamous after the war as it had been on the
+first sign that fortune was forsaking their cause. Like master, like
+man. Luther's jackal, the "gentle" Melanchthon, specially signalized
+himself by urging on the feudal barons with Scriptural arguments to
+the blood-sucking and oppression of their villeins. A humane and
+honourable nobleman, Heinrich von Einsiedel, was touched in conscience
+at the <i>corv&eacute;es</i> and heavy dues to which he found himself entitled. He
+sent to Luther for advice upon the subject. Luther replied that the
+existing exactions which had been handed down to him from his parents
+need not trouble his conscience, adding that it would not be good for
+<i>corv&eacute;es</i> to be given up, since the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>"common man" ought to have
+burdens imposed upon him, as otherwise he would become overbearing. He
+further remarked that a severe treatment in material things was
+pleasing to God, even though it might seem to be too harsh. Spalatin
+writes in a like strain that the burdens in Germany were, if anything,
+too light. Subjects, according to Melanchthon, ought to know that they
+are serving God in the burdens they bear for their superiors, whether
+it were journeying, paying tribute, or otherwise, and as pleasing to
+God as though they raised the dead at God's own behest. Subjects
+should look up to their lords as wise and just men, and hence be
+thankful to them. However unjust, tyrannical, and cruel the lord might
+be, there was never any justification for rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>A friend and follower of Luther and Melanchthon&mdash;Martin Butzer by
+name&mdash;went still farther. According to this "reforming" worthy a
+subject was to obey his lord in everything. This was all that
+concerned him. It was not for him to consider whether what was
+enjoined was, or was not, contrary to the will of God. That was a
+matter for his feudal superior and God to settle between them.
+Referring to the doctrines of the revolutionary sects, Butzer urges
+the authorities to extirpate all those professing a false religion.
+Such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>men, he says, deserve a heavier punishment than thieves,
+robbers, and murderers. Even their wives and innocent children and
+cattle should be destroyed (<i>ap. Janssen</i>, vol. i. p. 595).</p>
+
+<p>Luther himself quotes, in a sermon on "Genesis," the instances of
+Abraham and Abimelech and other Old Testament worthies, as justifying
+slavery and the treatment of a slave as a beast of burden. "Sheep,
+cattle, men-servants and maid-servants, they were all possessions,"
+says Luther, "to be sold as it pleased them like other beasts. It were
+even a good thing were it still so. For else no man may compel nor
+tame the servile folk" (<i>S&auml;mmtliche Werke</i>, vol. xv. p. 276). In other
+discourses he enforces the same doctrine, observing that if the world
+is to last for any time, and is to be kept going, it will be necessary
+to restore the patriarchal condition. Capito, the Strassburg preacher,
+in a letter to a colleague, writes lamenting that the pamphlets and
+discourses of Luther had contributed not a little to give edge to the
+bloodthirsty vengeance of the princes and nobles after the
+insurrection.</p>
+
+<p>The total number of the peasants and their allies who fell either in
+fighting or at the hands of the executioners is estimated by Anselm in
+his <i>Berner Chronik</i> at 130,000. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>was certainly not less than
+100,000. For months after the executioner was active in many of the
+affected districts. Spalatin says: "Of hanging and beheading there is
+no end." Another writer has it: "It was all so that even a stone had
+been moved to pity, for the chastisement and vengeance of the
+conquering lords was great." The executions within the jurisdiction of
+the Swabian League alone are stated at 10,000. Truchsess's provost
+boasted of having hanged or beheaded 1,200 with his own hand. More
+than 50,000 fugitives were recorded. These, according to a Swabian
+League order, were all outlawed in such wise that any one who found
+them might slay them without fear of consequences.</p>
+
+<p>The sentences and executions were conducted with true medi&aelig;val levity.
+It is narrated in a contemporary chronicle that in one village in the
+Henneberg territory all the inhabitants had fled on the approach of
+the Count and his men-at-arms save two tilers. The two were being led
+to execution when one appeared to weep bitterly, and his reply to
+interrogatories was that he bewailed the dwellings of the aristocracy
+thereabouts, for henceforth there would be no one to supply them with
+durable tiles. Thereupon his companion burst out laughing, because,
+said he, it had just occurred to him that he would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>not know where to
+place his hat after his head had been taken off. These mildly humorous
+remarks obtained for both of them a free pardon.</p>
+
+<p>The aspect of those parts of the country where the war had most
+heavily raged was deplorable in the extreme. In addition to the many
+hundreds of castles and monasteries destroyed, almost as many villages
+and small towns had been levelled with the ground by one side or the
+other, especially by the Swabian League and the various princely
+forces. Many places were annihilated for having taken part with the
+peasants, even when they had been compelled by force to do so. Fields
+in these districts were everywhere laid waste or left uncultivated.
+Enormous sums were exacted as indemnity. In many of the villages
+peasants previously well-to-do were ruined. There seemed no limit to
+the bleeding of the "common man," under the pretence of compensation
+for damage done by the insurrection.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of the families of the dead and of the fugitives was
+appalling. Numbers perished from starvation. The wives and children of
+the insurgents were in some cases forcibly driven from their
+homesteads and even from their native territory. In one of the
+pamphlets published in 1525 anent the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>events of that year we read:
+"Houses are burned; fields and vineyards lie fallow; clothes and
+household goods are robbed or burned; cattle and sheep are taken away;
+the same as to horses and trappings. The prince, the gentleman, or the
+nobleman will have his rent and due. Eternal God, whither shall the
+widows and poor children go forth to seek it?" Referring to the
+Lutheran campaign against friars and poor scholars, beggars, and
+pilgrims, the writer observes: "Think ye now that because of God's
+anger for the sake of one beggar, ye must even for a season bear with
+twenty, thirty, nay, still more?"</p>
+
+<p>The courts of arbitration, which were established in various districts
+to adjudicate on the relations between lords and villeins, were
+naturally not given to favour the latter, whilst the fact that large
+numbers of deeds and charters had been burnt or otherwise destroyed in
+the course of the insurrection left open an extensive field for the
+imposition of fresh burdens. The record of the proceedings of one of
+the most important of these courts&mdash;that of the Swabian League's
+jurisdiction, which sat at Memmingen&mdash;in the dispute between the
+prince-abbot of Kempten and his villeins is given in full in Baumann's
+<i>Akten</i>, pp. 329-46. Here, however, the peasants did not come off so
+badly as in some other places. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>Meanwhile, all the other evils of the
+time, the monopolies of the merchant-princes of the cities and of the
+trading-syndicates, the dearness of living, the scarcity of money,
+etc., did not abate, but rather increased from year to year. The
+Catholic Church maintained itself especially in the South of Germany,
+and the official Reformation took on a definitely aristocratic
+character.</p>
+
+<p>According to Baumann (<i>Akten, Vorwort</i>, v, vi), the true soul of the
+movement of 1525 consisted in the notion of "Divine justice," the
+principle "that all relations, whether of political, social, or
+religious nature, have got to be ordered according to the directions
+of the 'Gospel' as the sole and exclusive source and standard of all
+justice." The same writer maintains that there are three phases in the
+development of this idea, according to which he would have the scheme
+of historical investigation subdivided. In Upper Swabia, says he,
+"Divine justice" found expression in the well-known "Twelve Articles,"
+but here the notion of a political reformation was as good as absent.</p>
+
+<p>In the second phase, the "Divine justice" idea began to be applied to
+political conditions. In Tyrol and the Austrian dominions, he
+observes, this political side manifested itself in local or, at best,
+territorial patriotism. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>was only in Franconia that all territorial
+patriotism or "particularism" was shaken off and the idea of the unity
+of the German peoples received as a political goal. The Franconian
+influence gained over the W&uuml;rtembergers to a large extent, and the
+plan of reform elaborated by Weigand and Hipler for the Heilbronn
+Parliament was the most complete expression of this second phase of
+the movement.</p>
+
+<p>The third phase is represented by the rising in Thuringia, and
+especially in its intellectual head, Thomas M&uuml;nzer. Here we have the
+doctrine of "Divine justice" taking precedence of all else and
+assuming the form of a thoroughgoing theocratic scheme, to be realized
+by the German people.</p>
+
+<p>This division Baumann is led to make with a view to the formulation of
+a convenient scheme for a "codex" of documents relating to the
+Peasants' War. It may be taken as, in the main, the best general
+division that can be put forward, although, as we have seen, there are
+places where, and times when, the practical demands of the movement
+seem to have asserted themselves directly and spontaneously apart from
+any theory whatever.</p>
+
+<p>Of the fate of many of the most active leaders of the revolt we know
+nothing. Several heads of the movement, according to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>contemporary
+writer, wandered about for a long time in misery, some of them indeed
+seeking refuge with the Turks, who were still a standing menace to
+Imperial Christendom. The popular preachers vanished also on the
+suppression of the movement. The disastrous result of the Peasants'
+War was prejudicial even to Luther's cause in South Germany. The
+Catholic party reaped the advantage everywhere, evangelical preachers,
+even, where not insurrectionists, being persecuted. Little
+distinction, in fact, was made in most districts between an opponent
+of the Catholic Church from Luther's standpoint and one from
+Karlstadt's or Hubmayer's. Amongst seventy-one heretics arraigned
+before the Austrian court at Ensisheim, only one was acquitted. The
+others were broken on the wheel, burnt, or drowned.</p>
+
+<p>There were some who were arrested ten or fifteen years later on
+charges connected with the 1525 revolt. Treachery, of course, played a
+large part, as it has done in all defeated movements, in ensuring the
+fate of many of those who had been at all prominent. In fairness to
+Luther, who otherwise played such a villainous r&ocirc;le in connection with
+the peasants' movement, the fact should be recorded that he sheltered
+his old colleague, Karlstadt, for a short time in the Augustine
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>monastery at Wittenberg, after the latter's escape from Rothenburg.</p>
+
+<p>Wendel Hipler continued for some time at liberty, and might probably
+have escaped altogether had he not entered a protest against the
+Counts of Hohenlohe for having seized a portion of his private fortune
+that lay within their power. The result of his action might have been
+foreseen. The Counts, on hearing of it, revenged themselves by
+accusing him of having been a chief pillar of the rebellion. He had to
+flee immediately, and, after wandering about for some time in a
+disguise, one of the features of which is stated to have been a false
+nose, he was seized on his way to the Reichstag which was being held
+at Speier in 1526. Tenacious of his property to the last, he had hoped
+to obtain restitution of his rights from the assembled estates of the
+empire. Some months later he died in prison at Neustadt.</p>
+
+<p>Of the victors, Truchsess and Frundsberg considered themselves badly
+treated by the authorities whom they had served so well, and
+Frundsberg even composed a lament on his neglect. This he loved to
+hear sung to the accompaniment of the harp as he swilled down his red
+wine. The cruel Markgraf Kasimir met a miserable death not long after
+from dysentery, whilst Cardinal Matthaus <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>Lang, the Archbishop of
+Salzburg, ended his days insane.</p>
+
+<p>Of the fate of other prominent men connected with the events
+described, we have spoken in the course of the narrative.</p>
+
+<p>The castles and religious houses, which were destroyed, as already
+said, to the number of many hundreds, were in most cases not built up
+again. The ruins of not a few of them are visible to this day. Their
+owners often spent the sums relentlessly wrung out of the "common man"
+as indemnity in the extravagances of a gay life in the free towns or
+in dancing attendance at the Courts of the princes and the higher
+nobles. The collapse of the revolt was indeed an important link in the
+particular chain of events that was so rapidly destroying the
+independent existence of the lower nobility as a separate status with
+a definite political position, and transforming the face of society
+generally. Life in the smaller castle, the knight's <i>burg</i> or tower,
+was already tending to become an anachronism. The Court of the prince,
+lay or ecclesiastic, was attracting to itself all the elements of
+nobility below it in the social hierarchy. The revolt of 1525 gave a
+further edge to this development, the first act of which closed with
+the collapse of the knights' rebellion and death of Sickingen in 1523.
+The knight was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>becoming superfluous in the economy of the body
+politic.</p>
+
+<p>The rise of capitalism, the sudden development of the world-market,
+the substitution of a money medium of exchange for direct barter&mdash;all
+these new factors were doing their work. Obviously the great gainers
+by the events of the momentous year were the representatives of the
+centralizing principle. But the effective centralizing principle was
+not represented by the Emperor, for he stood for what was after all
+largely a sham centralism, because it was a centralism on a scale for
+which the Germanic world was not ripe. Princes and margraves were
+destined to be bearers of the <i>territorial</i> centralization, the only
+real one to which the German peoples were to attain for a long time to
+come. Accordingly, just as the provincial <i>grand seigneur</i> of France
+became the courtier of the King at Paris or Versailles, so the
+previously quasi-independent German knight or baron became the
+courtier or hanger-on of the prince within or near whose territory his
+hereditary manor was situate.</p>
+
+<p>The eventful year 1525 was truly a landmark in German history in many
+ways&mdash;the year of one of the most accredited exploits of Doctor
+Faustus, the last mythical hero the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>progressive races have created;
+the year in which Martin Luther, the ex-monk, capped his repudiation
+of Catholicism and all its ways by marrying an ex-nun; the year of the
+definite victory of Charles V. the German Emperor, over Francis I. the
+French King, which meant the final assertion of the "Holy Roman
+Empire" as being a national German institution; and last, but not
+least, the year of the greatest and the most widespread popular
+movement Central Europe had yet seen, and the last of the medi&aelig;val
+peasant risings on a large scale. The movement of the eventful year
+did not, however, as many hoped and many feared, within any short time
+rise up again from its ashes, after discomfiture had overtaken it. In
+1526, it is true, the genius of Gaismayr succeeded in resuscitating
+it, not without prospect of ultimate success, in the Tyrol and other
+of the Austrian territories. In this year, moreover, in other outlying
+districts, even outside German-speaking populations, the movement
+flickered. Thus the traveller between the town of Bellinzona, in the
+Swiss Canton of Ticino, and the Bernardino Pass, in Canton Graub&uuml;nden,
+may see to-day an imposing ruin, situated on an eminence in the narrow
+valley just above the small Italian-speaking town of Misox. This was
+one of the ancestral strongholds of the family, well <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>known in Italian
+history, of the Trefuzios or Trevulzir, and was sacked by the
+inhabitants of Misox and the neighbouring peasants in the summer of
+1526, contemporaneously with Gaismayr's rising in the Tyrol. A
+connection between the two events would be difficult to trace, but the
+destruction of the castle of Misox, if not a purely spontaneous local
+effervescence, looks like an afterglow of the great movement, such as
+may well have happened in other secluded mountain valleys.</p>
+
+<p>The Peasants' War in Germany we have been considering is the last
+great medi&aelig;val uprising of the agrarian classes in Europe. Its result
+was, with some few exceptions, a riveting of the peasant's chains and
+an increase of his burdens. More than 1,000 castles and religious
+houses were destroyed in Germany alone during 1525. Many priceless
+works of medi&aelig;val art of all kinds perished. But we must not allow our
+regret at such vandalism to blind us in any way to the intrinsic
+righteousness of the popular demands.</p>
+
+<p>The elements of revolution now became absorbed by the Anabaptist
+movement, a continuation primarily in the religious sphere of the
+doctrines of the Zwickau enthusiasts and also in many respects of
+Thomas M&uuml;nzer. At first Northern Switzerland, especially the towns of
+Basel and Z&uuml;rich, were the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>headquarters of the new sect, which,
+however, spread rapidly on all sides. Persecution of the direst
+description did not destroy it. On the contrary, it seemed only to
+have the effect of evoking those social and revolutionary elements
+latent within it which were at first overshadowed by more purely
+theological interests. As it was, the hopes and aspirations of the
+"common man" revived this time in a form indissolubly associated with
+the theocratic commonwealth, the most prominent representative of
+which during the earlier movement had been Thomas M&uuml;nzer.</p>
+
+<p>But, notwithstanding resemblances, it is utterly incorrect, as has
+sometimes been done, to describe any of the leaders of the great
+peasant rebellion of 1525 as Anabaptists. The Anabaptist sect, it is
+true, originated in Switzerland during the rising, but it was then
+confined to a small coterie of unknown enthusiasts, holding
+semi-private meetings in Z&uuml;rich. It was from these small beginnings
+that the great Anabaptist movement of ten years later arose. It is
+directly from them that the Anabaptist movement of history dates its
+origin. Movements of a similar character, possessing a strong family
+likeness, belong to the mental atmosphere of the time in Germany. The
+so-called Zwickau prophets, for example, Nicholas Storch and his
+colleagues, seem in their general <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>attitude to have approached very
+closely to the principles of the Anabaptist sectaries. But even here
+it is incorrect to regard them, as has often been done, as directly
+connected with the latter; still more as themselves the germ of the
+Anabaptist party of the following years. Thomas M&uuml;nzer, the only
+leader of the movement of 1525 who seems to have been acquainted with
+the Z&uuml;rich enthusiasts, was by no means at one with them on many
+points, notably refusing to attach any importance to their special
+sign, rebaptism. Chief among the Z&uuml;rich coterie may be mentioned
+Konrad Grebel, at whose house the sect first of all assembled. At
+first the Anabaptist movement at Z&uuml;rich was regarded as an extreme
+wing of the party of the Church reformer, Zwingli, in that city, but
+it was not long before it broke off entirely from the latter, and
+hostilities, ensuing in persecution for the new party, broke out.</p>
+
+<p>To understand the true inwardness of the Anabaptist and similar
+movements, it is necessary to endeavour to think oneself back into the
+intellectual conditions of the period. The Biblical text itself, now
+everywhere read and re-read in the German language, was pondered and
+discussed in the house of the handicraftsman and in the hut of the
+peasant, with as much confidence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>of interpretation as in the study of
+the professional theologian. But there were also not a few of the
+latter order, as we have seen, who were becoming disgusted with the
+trend of the official Reformation and its leading representatives. The
+Bible thus afforded a <i>point d'appui</i> for the mystical tendencies now
+becoming universally prominent&mdash;a <i>point d'appui</i> lacking to the
+earlier movements of the same kind that were so constantly arising
+during the Middle Ages proper. Seen in the dim religious light of a
+continuous reading of the Bible and of very little else, the world
+began to appear in a new aspect to the simple soul who practised it.
+All things seemed filled with the immediate presence of Deity. He who
+felt a call pictured himself as playing the part of the Hebrew
+prophet. He gathered together a small congregation of followers, who
+felt themselves as the children of God in the midst of a heathen
+world. Did not the fall of the old Church mean that the day was at
+hand when the elect should govern the world? It was not so much
+positive doctrines as an attitude of mind that was the ruling spirit
+in Anabaptism and like movements. Similarly, it was undoubtedly such a
+sensitive impressionism rather than any positive dogma that dominated
+the first generation of the Christian Church itself. How this acted
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>in the case of the earlier Anabaptists we shall presently see.</p>
+
+<p>The new Z&uuml;rich sect, by one of those seemingly inscrutable chances in
+similar cases of which history is full, not only prospered greatly but
+went forth conquering and to conquer. It spread rapidly northward,
+eastward, and westward. In the course of its victorious career it
+absorbed into itself all similar tendencies and local groups and
+movements having like aims to itself. As was natural under such
+circumstances, we find many different strains in the developed
+Anabaptist movement. The theologian Bullinger wrote a book on the
+subject, in which he enumerates thirteen distinct sects, as he terms
+them, in the Anabaptist body. The general tenets of the organization,
+as given by Bullinger, may be summarized as follows: They regard
+themselves as the true Church of Christ well pleasing to God; they
+believe that by rebaptism a man is received into the Church; they
+refuse to hold intercourse with other Churches or to recognize their
+ministers; they say that the preachings of these are different from
+their works, that no man is the better for their preaching, that their
+ministers follow not the teaching of Paul, that they take payment from
+their benefices, but do not work by their hands; that the Sacraments
+are improperly served, and that every <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>man, who feels the call, has
+the right to preach; they maintain that the literal text of the
+Scriptures shall be accepted without comment or the additions of
+theologians; they protest against the Lutheran doctrine of
+justification by faith alone; they maintain that true Christian love
+makes it inconsistent for any Christian to be rich, but that among the
+Brethren all things should be in common, or, at least, all available
+for the assistance of needy Brethren and for the common cause; that
+the attitude of the Christian towards authority should be that of
+submission and endurance only; that no Christian ought to take office
+of any kind, or to take part in any form of military service; that
+secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that the
+Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law courts nor should
+ever make use of their tribunals; that Christians do not kill or
+punish with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from
+the body of believers; that no man should be compelled by force to
+believe, nor should any be slain on account of his faith; that infant
+baptism is sinful and that adult baptism is the only Christian
+baptism&mdash;baptism being a sacrament which should be reserved for the
+elect alone.</p>
+
+<p>Such seem to represent the doctrines forming the common ground of the
+Anabaptist groups <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>as they existed at the end of the second decade of
+the fifteenth century. There were, however, as Heinrich Bullinger and
+his contemporary, Sebastian Franck, point out, numerous divergencies
+between the various sections of the party. Many of these recalled
+other medi&aelig;val heretic sects, e.g. the Cathari, the Brothers and
+Sisters of the Spirit, the Bohemian Brethren, etc.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few years of its existence Anabaptism remained true to
+its original theologico-ethical principles. The doctrine of
+non-resistance was strictly adhered to. The Brethren believed in
+themselves as the elect, and that they had only to wait in prayer and
+humility for the "advent of Christ and His saints," the "restitution
+of all things," the "establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth,"
+or by whatever other phrase the dominant idea of the coming change was
+expressed. During the earlier years of the movement the Anabaptists
+were peaceable and harmless fanatics and visionaries. In some cases,
+as in Moravia, they formed separate communities of their own, some of
+which survived as religious sects long after the extinction of the
+main movement.</p>
+
+<p>In the earlier years of the fourth decade of the century, however, a
+change came over a considerable section of the movement. In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>Central
+and South-eastern Germany, notably in the Moravian territories,
+barring isolated individuals here and there, the Anabaptist party
+continued to maintain its attitude of non-resistance and the
+voluntariness of association which characterized it at first. The
+fearful waves of persecution, however, which successively swept over
+it were successful at last in partially checking its progress. At
+length the only places in this part of the empire where it succeeded
+in retaining any effective organization was in the Moravian
+territories, where persecution was less strong and the communities
+more closely knit together than elsewhere. Otherwise persecution had
+played sad havoc with the original Anabaptist groups throughout
+Central Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile a movement had sprung up in Western and Northern Germany,
+following the course of the Rhine Valley, that effectually threw the
+older movement of Southern and Eastern Germany into the background.
+These earlier movements remained essentially religious and
+theological, owing, as Cornelius points out (<i>M&uuml;nsterische Aufruhr</i>,
+vol. ii. p. 74), to the fact that they came immediately after the
+overthrow of the great political movement of 1552. But although the
+older Anabaptism did not itself take political shape, it succeeded in
+keeping <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>alive the tendencies and the enthusiasm out of which, under
+favourable circumstances, a political movement inevitably grows. The
+result was, as Cornelius further observes, an agitation of such a
+sweeping character that the fourth decade of the sixteenth century
+seemed destined to realize the ideals which the third decade had
+striven for in vain.</p>
+
+<p>The new direction in Anabaptism began in the rich and powerful
+Imperial city of Strassburg, where peculiar circumstances afforded the
+Brethren a considerable amount of toleration. It was in the year 1526
+that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg. It was
+Anabaptism of the original type and conducted on the old
+theologico-ethical lines. But early in the year 1529 there arrived in
+Strassburg a much-travelled man, a skinner by trade, by name Melchior
+Hoffmann. He had been an enthusiastic adherent of the Reformation, and
+it was not long before he joined the Strassburg Anabaptists and made
+his mark in their community. Owing to his personal magnetism and
+oratorical gifts, Melchior soon came to be regarded as a specially
+ordained prophet and to have acquired corresponding influence. After a
+few months Hoffmann seems to have left Strassburg for a propagandist
+tour along the Rhine. The tour, apparently, had great success, the
+Baptist <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>communities being founded in all important towns as far as
+Holland, in which latter country the doctrines spread rapidly. The
+Anabaptism, however, taught by Melchior and his disciples did not
+include the precept of patient submission to wrong which was such a
+prominent characteristic of its earlier phase.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after his reception into the Anabaptist body at Strassburg,
+Hoffmann, while in most other points accepting the prevalent doctrines
+of the Brethren, broke entirely loose from the doctrine of
+non-resistance, maintaining, in theory at least, the right of the
+elect to employ the sword against the worldly authorities, "the
+godless," "the enemies of the saints." It was predicted, he
+maintained, that a two-edged sword should be given into the hands of
+the saints to destroy the "mystery of iniquity," the existing
+principalities and powers, and the time was now at hand when this
+prophecy should be fulfilled. The new movement in the North-west, in
+the lower Rhenish districts, and the adjacent Westphalia sprang up and
+extended itself, therefore, under the domination of this idea of the
+reign of the saints in the approaching millennium and of the notion
+that passive non-resistance, whilst for the time being a duty, only
+remained so until the coming of the Lord should give the signal for
+the saints to rise and join in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>destruction of the kingdoms of
+this world and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth.
+Hoffmann's whole learning seems to have been limited to the Bible, but
+this he knew from cover to cover. A diffusion of Luther's translation
+of the Bible had produced a revolution. The poorer classes, who were
+able to read at all, pored over the Bible, together with such popular
+tracts or pamphlets commenting thereon, or treating current social
+questions in the light of Biblical story and teaching, as came into
+their hands. The followers of the new movement in question acquired
+the name of Melchiorites. Hoffmann now published a book explanatory of
+his ideas, called <i>The Ordinance of God</i>, which had an enormous
+popularity. It was followed up by other writings, amplifying and
+defending the main thesis it contained.</p>
+
+<p>Outwardly the Melchiorite communities of the North-west had the same
+peaceful character as those of South Germany and Moravia, holding as
+they did in the main the same doctrines. It was ominous, however, that
+Melchior Hoffmann was proclaimed as the prophet Elijah returned
+according to promise. Up to 1533 Strassburg continued to be regarded
+as the chief seat of Anabaptism, especially by Melchior and his
+disciples. It was, they declared, to be the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>New Jerusalem, from which
+the saints should march out to conquer the world. Melchior, on his
+return journey to Strassburg from his journey northwards, proclaimed
+the end of 1533 as the date of the second advent and the inauguration
+of the reign of the saints. Owing to the excitement among the poorer
+population of the town consequent upon Hoffmann's preaching, the
+prophet was arrested and imprisoned in one of the towers of the city
+wall. But 1533 came and went without the Lord or His saints appearing,
+while poor Hoffmann remained confined in the tower of the city wall.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the new Anabaptism spread and fermented along the Rhine, and
+especially in Holland. In the latter country its chief exponent was a
+master baker at Harleem, by name Jan Matthys, who seems to have been a
+born leader of men. While preaching essentially the same doctrines as
+Hoffmann, with Matthys a Holy War, in a literal sense, was placed in
+the forefront of his teaching. With him there was to be no delay. It
+was the duty of all the Brethren to show their zeal by at once seizing
+the sword of sharpness and mowing down the godless therewith. In this
+sense Matthys completed the transformation begun by Hoffmann. Melchior
+had indeed rejected the non-resistance doctrine in its absolute form,
+but he does not appear in his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>teaching to have uniformly emphasized
+the point, and certainly did not urge the destruction of the godless
+as an immediate duty to be fulfilled without delay. With him was
+always the suggestion, expressed or implied, of waiting for the signal
+from heaven, the coming of the Lord, before proceeding to action. With
+Matthys there was no need for waiting, even for a day; the time was
+not merely at hand, it had already come. His influence among the
+Brethren was immense. If Melchior Hoffmann had been Elijah, Jan
+Matthys was Elisha, who should bring his work to a conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>Among Matthys' most intimate followers was Jan Bockelson, from Leyden.
+Bockelson was a handsome and striking figure. He was the illegitimate
+son of one Bockel, a merchant and B&uuml;rgermeister of Saevenhagen, by a
+peasant woman from the neighbourhood of M&uuml;nster, who was in his
+service. After Jan's birth Bockel married the woman and bought her her
+freedom from the villein status that was hers by heredity. Jan was
+taught the tailoring handicraft at Leyden, but seems to have received
+little schooling. His natural abilities, however, were considerable,
+and he eagerly devoured the religious and propagandist literature of
+the time. Amongst other writings the pamphlets <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>of Thomas M&uuml;nzer
+especially fascinated him. He travelled a good deal, visiting Mechlin
+and working at his trade for four years in London. Returning home, he
+threw himself into the Anabaptist agitation, and, scarcely twenty-five
+years old, he was won over to the doctrines of Jan Matthys. The latter
+with his younger colleague welded the Anabaptist communities in
+Holland and the adjacent German territories into a well-organized
+federation. They were more homogeneous in theory than those of
+Southern and Eastern Germany, being practically all united on the
+basis of the Hoffmann-Matthys propaganda.</p>
+
+<p>The episcopal town of M&uuml;nster, in Westphalia, like other places in the
+third decade of the sixteenth century, became strongly affected by the
+Reformation. But that the ferment of the time was by no means wholly
+the outcome of religious zeal, as subsequent historians have persisted
+in representing it, was recognized by the contemporary heads of the
+official Reformation. Thus, writing to Luther under date August 29,
+1530, his satellite, Melanchthon, has the candour to admit that the
+Imperial cities "care not for religion, for their endeavour is only
+toward domination and freedom." As the principal town of Westphalia at
+this time may be reckoned the chief city of the bishopric of M&uuml;nster,
+this important <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>ecclesiastical principality was held "immediately of
+the empire." It had as its neighbours Ost-Friesland, Oldenburg, the
+bishopric of Osnabr&uuml;ck, the county of Marck, and the duchies of Berg
+and Cleves. Its territory was half the size of the present province of
+Westphalia, and was divided into the upper and lower diocese, which
+were separated by the territory of Fecklenburg. The bishop was a
+prince of the empire and one of the most important magnates of
+North-western Germany, but in ecclesiastical matters he was under the
+Archbishop of K&ouml;ln. The diocese had been founded by Charles the Great.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to a succession of events, beginning in 1529, which for those
+interested we may mention may be found discussed in full detail in
+<i>The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists</i> (124-71), by the present
+writer, the extreme wing of the Reformation party had early gained the
+upper hand in the city, and subsequently became fused with the native
+Anabaptists, who were soon reinforced by their co-religionists from
+the country round, as well as from the not far distant Holland; for it
+should be said that the Dutch followers of Hoffmann and Matthys had
+been energetic in carrying their faith into the towns of Westphalia as
+elsewhere. Without entering in detail into the events leading up to
+it, it is sufficient for our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>purpose to state that by a perfectly
+lawful election, held on February 23, 1534, the Government of M&uuml;nster
+was reconstituted and the Anabaptists obtained supreme political
+power. Hearing of the way things were going in M&uuml;nster, Matthys and
+his followers had already taken up their abode in the city a little
+time before. The cathedral and other churches were stormed and sacked
+during the following days, while all official documents and charters
+dealing with the feudal relations of the town were given to the flames
+during the ensuing month. Both the moderate Protestant (Lutheran) and
+the Catholic burghers who had remained were indignant at the acts of
+destruction committed, and openly expressed their opposition. The
+result was their expulsion from the city; the condition of being
+allowed to remain became now the consent to rebaptism and the formal
+adoption of Anabaptist principles.</p>
+
+<p>M&uuml;nster now took the place Strassburg had previously held as the
+rallying point of the Anabaptist faithful, whence a crusade against
+the Powers of the world was to issue forth. The Government of M&uuml;nster,
+though it officially consisted of the two B&uuml;rgermeisters and the new
+Council, to a man all zealous Anabaptists, left the real power and
+initiative in all measures <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>in the hands of Jan Matthys and of his
+disciple, Jan Bockelson, of Leyden. The reign of the saints was now
+fairly begun. Various attempts at an organized communism were made,
+but these appear to have been only partially successful. One day Jan
+Matthys with twenty companions, in an access of fanatical devotion,
+made a sortie from the town towards the bishop's camp. Needless to
+say, the party were all killed. The great leader dead, Jan Bockelson
+became naturally the chief of the city and head of the movement.</p>
+
+<p>Bockelson proved in every way a capable successor to Matthys. A new
+Constitution was now given by Bockelson and the Dutchmen, acting as
+his prophets and preachers. It was embodied in thirty-nine articles,
+and one of its chief features was the transference of power to twelve
+elders, the number being suggested by the twelve tribes of Israel. The
+idea of reliving the life of the "chosen people," as depicted in the
+Old Testament, showed itself in various ways, amongst others by the
+notorious edict establishing polygamy. This measure, however, as Karl
+Kautsky has shown, there is good reason for thinking was probably
+induced by the economic necessity of the time, and especially by the
+enormous excess of the female over the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>male population of the city.
+Otherwise the M&uuml;nsterites, like the Anabaptists generally, gave
+evidence of favouring asceticism in sexual matters.</p>
+
+<p>Considerations of space prevent us from going into further detail of
+the inner life of M&uuml;nster under the Anabaptist regime during the siege
+at the hands of its overlord, the prince-bishop. This will be found
+given at length in the work already mentioned. As time went on famine
+began to attack the city.</p>
+
+<p>It is sufficient for our purpose to state that on the night of June
+24, 1535, the city was betrayed and that in a few hours the
+free-lances of the bishop were streaming in through all the gates. The
+street fighting was desperate; the Anabaptists showed a desperate
+courage, even women joining in the struggle, hurling missiles from the
+windows upon their foes beneath. By midday on the 25th the city of
+M&uuml;nster, the New Zion, passed over once more into the power of its
+feudal lord, Franz von Waldeck, and the reign of the saints had come
+to an end. The vengeance of the conquerors was terrible; all alike,
+irrespective of age or sex, were involved in an indiscriminate
+butchery. The three leaders, Bockelson, Krechting, and
+Knipperdollinck, after being carried round captives as an exhibition
+through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>the surrounding country, were, some months afterwards, on
+January 22, 1536, executed, after being most horribly tortured. Their
+bodies were subsequently suspended in three cages from the top of the
+tower of the Lamberti church. The three cages were left undisturbed
+until a few years ago, when the old tower, having become structurally
+unsafe, was pulled down and replaced, with questionable taste, by an
+ordinary modern steeple, on which, however, the original cages may
+still be seen. A papal legate, sent on a mission to M&uuml;nster shortly
+after the events in question, relates that as he and his retinue
+neared the latter town "more and more gibbets and wheels did we see on
+the highways and in the villages, where the false prophets and
+Anabaptists had suffered for their sins."</p>
+
+<p>The M&uuml;nster incident was the culmination of the Anabaptist movement.
+After the catastrophe the militant section rapidly declined. It did
+not die out, however, until towards the end of the century. The last
+we hear of it was in 1574, when a formidable insurrection took place
+again in Westphalia, under the leadership of one Wilhelmson, the son
+of one of the escaped Anabaptist preachers of M&uuml;nster. The movement
+lasted for five years. It was finally suppressed and Wilhelmson burned
+alive at Cleves on March 5, 1580. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>Meanwhile, soon after the fall of
+M&uuml;nster, the party split asunder, a moderate section forming, which
+shortly after came under the leadership of Menno Simon. This section,
+which soon became the majority of the party, under the name of
+Mennonites, settled down into a mere religious sect. In fact, towards
+the end of the sixteenth century the Anabaptist communities on the
+continent of Europe, from Moravia on the one hand to the extreme
+North-west of Germany on the other, showed a tendency to develop into
+law-abiding and prosperous religious organizations, in many cases
+being officially recognized by the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>The Anabaptist revolt of the fourth decade of the sixteenth century,
+though it may be regarded partly as a continuation or recrudescence,
+showed some differences from the peasant revolt of some years
+previously. The peasant rebellion, which reached its zenith in 1525,
+was predominantly an agrarian movement, notwithstanding that it had
+had its echo among the poorer classes of the towns. The Anabaptist
+movement proper, which culminated in the M&uuml;nster "reign of the saints"
+in 1534-5, was predominantly a townsman's movement, notwithstanding
+that it had a considerable support from among the peasantry. The
+Anabaptists' leaders were not, as in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>case of the Peasants' War,
+in the main drawn from the class of the "man that wields the hoe" (to
+paraphrase the phraseology of the time); they were tailors, smiths,
+bakers, shoemakers, or carpenters. They belonged, in short, to the
+class of the organized handicraftsmen and journeymen who worked within
+city walls. A prominent figure in both movements was, however, the
+ex-priest or teacher. The ideal, or, if you will, the Utopian, element
+in the movement of Melchior Hoffmann, Jan Matthys, and Jan
+Bockelson&mdash;the element which expressed the social discontent of the
+time in the guise of its prevalent theological conceptions&mdash;now
+occupied the first place, while in the earlier movement it was merely
+sporadic.</p>
+
+<p>After the close of the sixteenth century Anabaptism lost all political
+importance on the continent of Europe. It had, however, a certain
+afterglow in this country during the following century, which lasted
+over the times of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, and may be
+traced in the movements of the "Levellers," the "Fifth Monarchy men,"
+and even among the earlier Quakers.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Those interested will find the events briefly sketched
+in the present chapter exhaustively treated, with full elaboration of
+detail, in the two previous volumes of mine, <i>The Peasant's War in
+Germany</i> and <i>The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists</i> (Messrs. George
+Allen &amp; Unwin).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Amongst the curiosities of literature may be included
+the translation of the title of this manifesto by Prof. T.M. Lindsay,
+D.D., in the <i>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</i>, 9th edition (Article,
+"Luther"). The German title is "Wider die morderischen und
+rauberischen Rotten der Bauern." Prof. Lindsay's translation is
+"<i>Against the murdering, robbing Rats [sic] of Peasants</i>"!</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>POST-MEDI&AElig;VAL GERMANY</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>We have in the preceding chapters sought to give a general view of the
+social life, together with the inner political and economic movements,
+of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages which is
+generally known as the era of the Reformation. With the definite
+establishment of the Reformation and of the new political and economic
+conditions that came with it in many of the rising States of Germany,
+the Middle Ages may be considered as definitely coming to an end,
+notwithstanding that, of course, a considerable body of medi&aelig;val
+conditions of social, political, and economic life continued to
+survive all over Europe, and certainly not least in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>We have now to take a general and, so to say, panoramic view embracing
+three centuries and a half, dating from approximately the middle of
+the sixteenth century to the present time. Our presentation, owing to
+exigencies of space, will necessarily take the form of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>mere sketch
+of events and general tendencies, but a sketch that will, we hope, be
+sufficient to connect periods and to enable the reader to understand
+better than before the forces that have built up modern Germany and
+have moulded the national character. In this long period of more than
+three centuries there are two world-historic events, or rather series
+of events, which stand out in bold relief as the causes which have
+moulded Germany directly, and the whole of Europe indirectly, up to
+the present day. These two epoch-making historical factors are (1) the
+Thirty Years' War and (2) the Rise of the Prussian Monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the success of Protestantism, with its two forms of
+Lutheranism and Calvinism in various German territories, the friction
+became chronic between Catholic and Protestant interests throughout
+the length and breadth of Central Europe. The Emperor himself was
+chosen, as we know, by three ecclesiastical electors, the Archbishops
+of K&ouml;ln, Trier, and Mainz, and by four princes, the Pfalzgraf, called
+in English the Elector Palatine, the Markgraves of Saxony and
+Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. The princes and other
+potentates, owing immediate allegiance to the empire alone, were
+practically independent sovereigns. The Reichstag, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>instituted in the
+fifteenth century, attendance at which was strictly limited to these
+immediate vassals of the empire, had proved of little effect. This was
+shown when in the middle of the sixteenth century Protestantism had
+established itself in the favour of the mass of the German peoples. It
+was vetoed by the Reichstag, with its powerful contingent of
+ecclesiastical members. Of course here the economic side of the
+question played a great part. The ecclesiastical potentates and those
+favourable to them dreaded the spread of Protestantism in view of the
+secularization of religious domains and fiefs. This, notwithstanding
+that there were not wanting bishops and abbots themselves who were not
+indisposed, as princes of the empire, to appropriate the Church lands,
+of which they were the trustees, for their own personal possessions.
+After a short civil war an arrangement was come to at the Treaty of
+Passau in 1552, which was in the main ratified by the Reichstag held
+at Augsburg in 1555 (the so-called Peace of Augsburg); but the
+arrangement was artificial and proved itself untenable as a permanent
+instrument of peace.</p>
+
+<p>During the latter part of the sixteenth century two magnates of the
+empire, the Duke of Bavaria on the Catholic side and the Calvinist,
+Christian of Anhalt, on the Protestant, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>played the chief r&ocirc;le, the
+Lutheran Markgrave of Saxony taking up a moderate position as
+mediator. Of the Reichstag of Augsburg it should be said that it had
+ignored the Calvinist section of the Protestant party altogether, only
+recognizing the Lutheran. In 1608 the Protestant Union, which embraced
+Lutherans and Calvinists alike, was founded under the leadership of
+Christian of Anhalt. It was most powerful in Southern Germany. This
+was countered immediately by the foundation under Maximilian, Duke of
+Bavaria, of a Catholic League. The friction, which was now becoming
+acute, went on increasing till the actual outbreak of the Thirty
+Years' War in 1618. The signal for the latter was given by the
+Bohemian revolution in the spring of that year.</p>
+
+<p>The Thirty Years' War, as it is termed, which was really a series of
+wars, naturally falls into five distinct periods, each representing in
+many respects a separate war in itself. The first two years of the war
+(1618-20) is occupied with the Bohemian revolt against the attempt of
+the Emperor to force Catholicism upon the Bohemian people and with its
+immediate consequences. It was accentuated by the attempt of the
+Emperor Matthias to compel them to accept the Archduke Ferdinand as
+King. This attempt was countered through the election by the Bohemians
+of the Pfalzgraf, Friedrich V <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>(the son-in-law of James I of England),
+who was called the Winter King from the fact that his reign lasted
+only during the winter months; for though the Protestant Union, led by
+Count Thurn, had won several victories in 1618 and even threatened
+Vienna, the Austrian power was saved by Tilly and the Catholic League
+which came to its rescue. Many of the Protestant States, moreover,
+were averse to the Palatine Friedrich's acceptance of the Bohemian
+crown. The Bohemian movement was ultimately crushed by a force sent
+from Spain, under the Spanish general Spinola. The final defeat took
+place at the battle of the White Hill, near Prague, November 8, 1620.</p>
+
+<p>The second period of the war was concerned with the attempt of the
+Catholic Powers to deprive Friedrich of his Palatine dominions. Here
+Count Mansfeld, with his mercenary army of free-lances, aided by
+Christian of Brunswick and others on the side of Friedrich and the
+Protestants, defeated Tilly in 1622. But later on Tilly and the
+Imperialists by a series of victories conquered the Palatinate, which
+was bestowed upon Maximilian of Bavaria. Mansfeld, notwithstanding
+that he had some successes later in the year 1622, could not
+effectually redeem the situation, Brunswick's army being entirely
+routed by Tilly in the following year at the battle of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>Stadtlohn,
+which virtually ended this particular campaign.</p>
+
+<p>The third period of the war, from 1624 to 1629, is characterized by
+the intervention of the Powers outside the immediate sphere of German
+or Imperial interests. France, under Richelieu, became concerned at
+the growing power of the Hapsburgs, while James I of England began to
+show anxiety at his son-in-law's adverse fortunes, though without
+achieving any successful intervention. The chief feature of this
+campaign was the entry into the field of Christian IV of Denmark with
+a powerful army to join Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick in
+invading the Imperial and Austrian territories. But the savageries and
+excesses of Mansfeld's troops had disgusted and alienated all sides.
+It was at this time that Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, was appointed
+general of the Imperial troops, and soon after succeeded in completely
+routing Mansfeld at the battle of Dessau Bridge in 1626. Four months
+later Tilly completely defeated Christian IV and his Danes at Lutter.
+Wallenstein, on his side, followed up his success, driving Mansfeld
+into Hungary. Mansfeld, in spite of some fugitive successes in the
+Austrian dominions in the course of his retreat, was compelled by
+Wallenstein to evacuate Hungary, shortly after which he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>died. The
+campaign ended with the Peace of Lubeck in 1629.</p>
+
+<p>The action of the Emperor Ferdinand in attempting to enforce the
+restitution of Church lands in North Germany was the proximate cause
+of the next great campaign, which constitutes the fourth period of the
+Thirty Years' War (1630-36). The immediate occasion was, however,
+Wallenstein's seizure of certain towns in Mecklenburg, over which he
+claimed rights by Imperial grant two years before. This, which may be
+regarded as the greatest period of the Thirty Years' War, was
+characterized by the appearance on the scene of Gustavus Adolphus, the
+Swedish King. He was not in time, however, to prevent the sacking of
+Magdeburg by the troops of Tilly and Poppenheim. The former,
+nevertheless, was defeated by the Swedes at the important battle of
+Breitenfeld in 1631. The following year the Imperial army was again
+defeated on the Lach. Thereupon Gustavus occupied M&uuml;nchen, though he
+was subsequently compelled by Wallenstein to evacuate the city. The
+last great victory of Gustavus was at L&uuml;tzen in 1632, at which battle
+the great leader met his death. Wallenstein, who was now in favour of
+a policy of peace and political reconstruction, was assassinated in
+1634 with the connivance of the Emperor. On September 6th <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>of the same
+year the Protestant army, under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, sustained an
+overwhelming defeat at N&ouml;rdlingen, and the Peace of Prague the
+following year ended the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth period, from 1636 to 1648, has, as its central interest, the
+active intervention of France in the Central European struggle. The
+Swedes, notwithstanding the death of their King, continued to have
+some notable successes, and even approached to within striking
+distance of Vienna. But Richelieu now became the chief arbiter of
+events. The French generals Cond&eacute; and Turenne invaded Germany and the
+Netherlands. Victories were won by the new armies at Rocroi,
+Thionville, and at N&ouml;rdlingen, but Vienna was not captured. The
+Imperial troops were, however, again defeated at Zumarshauen by Cond&eacute;,
+who also repelled an attempted diversion in the shape of a Spanish
+invasion of France at the battle of Lens in the spring of 1648. The
+Thirty Years' War was finally ended in October of the same year at
+M&uuml;nster, by the celebrated Treaty of Westphalia.</p>
+
+<p>The above is a skeleton sketch in a few words of the chief features of
+that long and complicated series of diplomatic and military events
+known to history as the Thirty Years' War.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>The Thirty Years' War had far-reaching and untold consequences on
+Germany itself and indirectly on the course of modern civilization
+generally. For close upon a generation Central Europe had been ravaged
+from end to end by hostile and plundering armies. Rapine and
+destruction were, for near upon a third of the century, the common lot
+of the Germanic peoples from north to south and from east to west.
+Populations were as helpless as sheep before the brutal, criminal
+soldiery, recruited in many cases from the worst elements of every
+European country. The excesses of Mansfeld's mercenary army in the
+earlier stages of the war created widespread horror. But the defeat
+and death of Mansfeld brought no alleviation. The troops of
+Wallenstein proved no better in this respect than those of Mansfeld.
+On the contrary, with every year the war went on its horrors
+increased, while every trace of principle in the struggle fell more
+and more into the background. Everywhere was ruin.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>The population became by the time the war had ended a mere fraction of
+what it was at the opening of the seventeenth century. Some idea of
+the state of things may be gathered from the instance of Augsburg,
+which during its siege by the Imperialists was reduced from 70,000 to
+10,000 inhabitants. What happened to the great commercial city of the
+Fuggers was taking place on a scale greater or less, according to the
+district, all over German territory. We read of towns and villages
+that were pillaged more than a dozen times in a year. This terrific
+depopulation of the country, the reader may well understand, had vast
+results on its civilization. The whole great structure of Medi&aelig;val and
+Renaissance Germany&mdash;its literature, art, and social life&mdash;was in
+ruins. At the close of the seventeenth century the old German culture
+had gone and the new had not yet arisen. But of this we shall have
+more to say in the next chapter. For the present we are chiefly
+concerned to give a brief sketch of the second great epoch-making
+event, or rather train of events, which conditioned the foundation and
+development of modern Germany. We refer, of course, to the rise of the
+Prussian monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>We should premise that the Prussians are the least German of all the
+populations of what constitutes modern Germany. They are more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>than
+half Slavs. In the early Middle Ages the Mark of Brandenburg, the
+centre and chief province of the modern Prussian State, was an
+outlying offshoot of the medi&aelig;val Holy Roman Empire of the German
+nation, surrounded by barbaric tribes, Slav and Teuton. The chief Slav
+people were the Borussians, from which the name "Prussian" was a
+corruption. The first outstanding historic fact concerning these
+Baltic lands is that a certain Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, at the end
+of the tenth century went north on a mission of enterprise for
+converting the Prussian heathen. The neighbouring Christian prince,
+the Duke of Poland, who had presumably suffered much from incursions
+of these pagan Slavs, offered him every encouragement. The adventure
+ended, however, before long in the death of Adalbert at the hands of
+these same pagan Slavs.</p>
+
+<p>The first indication of the existence of a Mark of Brandenburg with
+its Markgraves is in the eleventh century. There is, however, little
+definite historical information concerning them. The first of these
+Markgraves to attract attention was Albrecht the Bear, one of the
+so-called Ascanian line, the family hailing from the Harz Mountains.
+Albrecht was a remarkable man for his time in every way. Under him the
+Markgravate of Brandenburg was raised to be an electorate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>of the
+empire. The Markgrave thus became a prince of the empire. It was
+Albrecht the Bear who first introduced a limited measure of peace and
+order into the hitherto anarchic condition of the Mark and its
+adjacent territories. The Ascanian line continued till 1319, and was
+followed by a period of political anarchy and disturbance, until
+finally Friedrich, Count of Hohenzollern, acquired the electorate, and
+became known as the Elector Friedrich I. Meanwhile the Order of the
+Teutonic Knights, who earlier began their famous crusade against the
+Borussian heathens, had established themselves on the territories now
+known as East and West Prussia. In spite of this fact and of the for
+long time dominant power of their Polish neighbours, the Hohenzollern
+rulers continued to acquire increased power and fresh territories.</p>
+
+<p>At the Reformation Albrecht, a scion of the Hohenzollern family, who
+had been elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, adopted
+Protestantism and assumed the title of Duke of Prussia. Finally, in
+1609, the then Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund, through his
+marriage with Ann, daughter and heiress of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of
+Prussia, came into possession of the whole of Prussia proper, together
+with other adjacent territories. The Prussian lands suffered much
+through the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>Thirty Years' War during the reign of John Sigismund's
+successor, George Wilhelm. But the latter's son, Friedrich Wilhelm,
+the so-called Great Elector, succeeded by his ability in repairing the
+ravages the war had made and raising the electorate immensely in
+political importance. He left at his death, in 1688, the financial
+condition of the country in a sound state, with an effective army of
+38,000 men. Friedrich I, who followed him, held matters together and
+got Prussia promoted to the rank of a kingdom in 1701. His son,
+Friedrich Wilhelm I, by rigid economies succeeded in raising the
+financial condition of the kingdom to a still higher level. The
+military power of the monarchy he also developed considerably, and is
+famous in history for his mania for tall soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>We now come to the real founder of the Prussian monarchy as a great
+European Power, Friedrich Wilhelm I's son, who succeeded his father in
+1740 as Friedrich II, and who is known to history as Friedrich the
+Great.</p>
+
+<p>Friedrich no sooner came to the throne than he started on an
+aggressive expansionist policy for Prussia. The opportunity presented
+itself a few months after his accession by the dispute as to the
+Pragmatic Sanction and Maria Theresa's right to the throne of Austria.
+In the two wars which immediately followed, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>Prussian army overran
+the whole of Silesia, and the peace of 1745 left the Prussian King in
+possession of the entire country. East Friesland had already been
+absorbed the year before on the death of the last Duke without issue.
+In spite of the exhaustion of men and money in the two Silesian wars,
+Friedrich found himself ready with both men and money eleven years
+later, in 1756, to embark upon what is known as the Seven Years' War.
+Though without acquiring fresh territory by this war, the gain in
+prestige was so great that the Prussian monarchy virtually assumed the
+hegemony of North Germany, becoming the rival of Austria for the
+domination of Central Europe, the position in which it remained for
+more than a century afterwards. Nevertheless, after this succession of
+wars the condition of the country was deplorable. It was obvious that
+the first thing to do was the work of internal resuscitation. The
+extraordinary ability and energy of the King saved the internal
+situation. Agriculture, industry, and commerce were re-established and
+reorganized. It was now that the cast-iron system of bureaucratic
+administration, where not actually created, was placed on a firm
+foundation. But in external affairs Prussia continued to earn its
+character as the robber State of Europe <i>par excellence</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>In 1772 Friedrich joined with Austria in the first partition of
+Poland, acquiring the whole of West Prussia as his share. A few years
+later Friedrich formed an anti-Austrian league of German princes,
+under Prussian leadership, which was the first overt sign of the
+conflict for supremacy in Germany between Prussia and Austria, which
+lasted for wellnigh a century. By the time of his death&mdash;August 7,
+1786&mdash;Friedrich had increased Prussian territory to nearly 75,000
+square miles and between five and six millions of population.</p>
+
+<p>Under Friedrich's nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II, while the rigour of
+bureaucratic administration, controlled by a monarchical absolutism,
+continued and was even accentuated, the absence of the able hand of
+Friedrich the Great soon made itself apparent. As regards external
+policy, however, Prussia, while allowing territories on the left bank
+of the Rhine to go to France, eagerly saw to the increase of her own
+dominions in the east to the extent of nearly doubling her superficial
+area by her participation in the second and third partitions of
+Poland, which took place in 1783 and 1795 respectively. These external
+successes, or rather acts of spoliation, were, notwithstanding,
+counter-balanced at home by a degeneracy alike of the civil
+bureaucracy and of the army. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>country internally, both as regards
+morale and effectiveness, had sunk far below its level under Friedrich
+the Great. This showed itself during the great Napoleonic wars, when
+Prussia had to undergo more than one humiliation at the hands of
+Buonaparte, culminating in October 1806 with the collapse of the
+Prussian armies at Jena and Auerst&auml;dt. The entry of Napoleon in
+triumph into Berlin followed. At the Peace of Tilsit, in 1807,
+Friedrich-Wilhelm had to sign away half his kingdom and to consent to
+the payment of a heavy war indemnity, pending which the French troops
+occupied the most important fortresses in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Following upon this moment of deepest national humiliation comes the
+period of the Ministers Stein and Hardenberg, of the enthusiastic
+adjurations to patriotism of Fischer and others, and of the activity
+of the "League of Virtue" (<i>Tugendbund</i>). It is difficult to
+understand the enthusiasm that could be aroused for the rehabilitation
+of an absolutist, bureaucratic, and militarist State, such as Prussia
+was&mdash;a State in which civil and political liberty was conspicuous by
+its absence. But the fact undoubtedly remains that the men in question
+did succeed in pumping up a strong patriotic feeling and desire to
+free the country from the yoke of the foreigner, even if that only
+meant increased domestic tyranny. It must be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>admitted, however, that
+as a matter of fact not inconsiderable internal reforms were owing to
+the leading men of this time. Stein abolished serfdom, and in some
+respects did away with the legal distinction of classes, thereby
+paving the way for the rise of the middle class, which at that time
+meant a progressive step. He also conferred rights of self-government
+upon municipalities. Hardenberg inaugurated measures intended to
+ameliorate the condition of the peasants, while Wilhelm von Humboldt
+established the thorough if somewhat mechanical education system which
+was subsequently extended throughout Germany. He also helped to found
+the University of Berlin in 1809.</p>
+
+<p>But at the same time the curse of Prussia&mdash;militarism&mdash;was riveted on
+the people through the reorganization of the Prussian army by those
+two able military bureaucrats, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In 1813
+Prussia concluded at Kalicsh an alliance with Russia, which Austria
+joined. In the war which followed Prussia was severely strained by
+losses in men and money. But at the Congress of Vienna the Prussian
+kingdom received back nearly, but not quite, all it lost in 1807. The
+acquirement, however, of new and valuable territories in Westphalia
+and along the Rhine, besides Thuringia and the province of Saxony,
+more than compensated for the loss of certain Slav <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>districts in the
+east, as thereby the way was prepared for the ultimate despotism of
+the Prussian King over all Germany. The success of Prussian diplomacy
+in enslaving these erstwhile independent German lands in 1815 was
+crucial for the subsequent direction of Prussian policy.</p>
+
+<p>It is time now to return once more to the internal conditions in the
+Prussian State now dominant over a large part of Northern Germany. A
+Constitution had been more than once talked of, but the despotism with
+its bureaucratic machinery had remained. Now, after the conclusion of
+the Napoleonic wars and the re-drawing of the Prussian frontier lines
+by the peace of 1815, the matter assumed an urgency it had not had
+before. Following upon proclamations and promises, a patent was
+addressed to the new Saxon provinces granting a national <i>Landtag</i>, or
+Diet, for the whole country. The drawing up of the Constitution thus
+proclaimed in principle gave rise to heated conflicts. There was, as
+yet, no proletariat proper in Prussia, and for that matter hardly any
+in the rest of Germany. The handicraft system of production, and even
+the medi&aelig;val guild system, slightly modified, prevailed throughout the
+country. The middle class proper was small and unimportant, and hence
+Liberalism, the theoretical expression of that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>class, only found
+articulate utterance through men of the professions.</p>
+
+<p>The new Prussian territories in the west were largely tinctured with
+progressive ideas originating in the French Revolution, while the east
+was dominated by reactionary feudal landowners, the notorious Junker
+class&mdash;a class special to East Prussian territories, including the
+eastern portion of the Mark of Brandenburg&mdash;whom the moderate
+Conservative Minister Stein himself characterized as "heartless,
+wooden, half-educated people, only good to turn into corporals or
+calculating-machines." This class then, as ever since, opposed an
+increase of popular control and the progress of free institutions with
+might and main. Friction arose between the Government and Liberal
+gymnastic societies and students' clubs. This culminated in the
+festival on the Wartburg in October 1818, when a bonfire was made of a
+book of police laws and Uhlan stays and a corporal's stick. It was
+followed the next year by the assassination of the dramatist and
+political spy Kotzebue by the student Sand.</p>
+
+<p>Panic seized the reactionists, and the Austrian Minister Metternich,
+one of the chief pillars of absolutist principles in Europe, induced
+the King to commit himself to the Austrian system of repression. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>In
+1821 the Reactionary party succeeded in getting the projected
+Constitution abandoned and the bureaucratic system of provincial
+estates established by royal warrant two years later (1823). The
+Prussian police with their spies then became omnipotent, and a
+remorseless persecution of all holding Liberal or democratic views
+ensued, the best-known writers on the popular side no less than the
+rank and file being arbitrarily arrested and kept in prison on any or
+no pretext. The amalgamation of the new districts into the Prussian
+bureaucratic system was not accomplished without resistance. The Rhine
+provinces especially, accustomed to easy-going government and light
+taxation under the old ecclesiastical princes, kicked vigorously
+against the Prussian jack-boot. The discontent was so widespread
+indeed that some concessions had to be made, such as the retention of
+the Code Napol&eacute;on. What created most resentment, however, was the
+enactment of 1814, which enforced compulsory universal military
+service throughout the monarchy. Friedrich Wilhelm also undertook to
+dragoon his subjects in the matter of religion, amalgamating the
+Lutherans with other reformed bodies, under the name of the
+"Evangelical Church."</p>
+
+<p>In foreign politics, in the earlier part of the nineteenth century,
+during the Napoleonic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>wars, Prussia, as yet hardly recovered from her
+defeats under Buonaparte, almost entirely followed the lead of
+Austria. But perhaps the most important measure of the Prussian
+Government at this time was the foundation of the famous Zollverein or
+Customs Union of various North German States in 1834. The far-reaching
+character of this measure was only shown later, being, in fact, the
+means and basis by and on which the political and military ascendancy
+of Prussia over all Germany was assured. Friedrich Wilhelm III, who
+died on June 7, 1840, was succeeded by his son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+The new reign began with an appearance of Liberalism by a general
+amnesty for political offences. Reaction, however, soon raised its
+head again, and Friedrich Wilhelm IV, in spite of his varnish of
+philosophical and literary tastes, was soon seen to be <i>au fond</i> as
+reactionary as his predecessors. The conflict between the reaction of
+the Government and the now widely spread Liberal and democratic
+aspirations of the people resulted in Prussia (as it did under similar
+circumstances in other countries) in the outbreak of the revolution of
+1848.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary at this stage to take a brief survey of the political
+history of the Germanic States of Europe generally from the time of
+the Peace of Vienna, in 1815, onwards, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>order to understand fully
+the r&ocirc;le played by the Prussian monarchy in German history since 1848;
+for from this time the history of Prussia becomes more and more bound
+up with that of the German peoples as a whole. During the Napoleonic
+wars Germany, as every one knows, was, generally speaking, in the grip
+of the French Imperial power. To follow the vicissitudes and
+fluctuations of fortune throughout Central Europe during these years
+lies outside our present purpose. We are here chiefly concerned with
+the political development from the Treaty of Vienna, as signed on June
+9, 1815, onward. The Treaty of Vienna completed the work begun by
+Napoleon&mdash;represented by the extinction of the medi&aelig;val "Holy Roman
+Empire of the German nation" in 1806&mdash;in making an end of the
+political configuration of the German peoples which had grown up
+during the Middle Ages and survived, in a more or less decayed
+condition, since the Peace of Westphalia, which concluded the Thirty
+Years' War. The three hundred separate States of which Germany had
+originally consisted were now reduced to thirty-nine, a number which,
+by the extinction of sundry minor governing lines, was before long
+further reduced to thirty-five. These States constituted themselves
+into a new German Confederation, with a Federal Assembly, meeting at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>Frankfurt-on-the-Main. The new Federal Council, or Assembly, however,
+soon revealed itself as but the tool of the princes and a bulwark of
+reaction.</p>
+
+<p>The revolution of 1848 was throughout Germany an expression of popular
+discontent and of democratic and even, to a large extent, of
+republican aspirations. The princely authorities endeavoured to stem
+the wave of popular indignation and revolutionary enthusiasm by
+recognizing a provisional self-constituted body, and sanctioning the
+election of a national representative Parliament at Frankfurt in place
+of the effete Federal Council. The Archduke of Austria, who was
+elected head of the new, hastily organized National Government, was
+not slow to use his newly acquired power in the interests of reaction,
+thereby exciting the hostility of all the progressive elements in the
+Parliament of Frankfurt. When after some months it became obvious that
+the anti-Progressive parties had gained the upper hand alike in
+Austria and Prussia, the friction between the Democratic and
+Constitutional parties became increasingly bitter.</p>
+
+<p>The Prussian Government meanwhile took advantage of the state of
+affairs to stir up the Schleswig-Holstein question, so-called, driving
+the Danes out of Schleswig, an insurrectionary movement in Holstein
+having been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>already suppressed by the Danish King. Prussia, alarmed
+by the attitude of the Powers, agreed to withdraw her troops from the
+occupied territories without consulting the Frankfurt Parliament, an
+act which involved Friedrich Wilhelm in conflict with the latter. The
+issues arising out of this dispute made it plain to every one that the
+Parliament of all Germany was impotent to enforce its decrees against
+one of the German Powers possessed of a preponderating military
+strength. By the end of 1848 the revolution in Vienna was completely
+crushed and a strongly reactionary Government appointed by the new
+Emperor. Meanwhile in Berlin the Junkers and the reactionaries
+generally had already again come into power, a crisis having been
+caused by the attempt of the democratic section of the Prussian
+National Assembly, convened by the King in March, to reorganize the
+army on a popular democratic basis. We need scarcely say the Prussian
+army has been the tool of Junkerdom and reaction ever since.</p>
+
+<p>The last despairing attempt of the Frankfurt Parliament to give effect
+to the national Germanic unity, which all patriotic Germans professed
+to be eager for, was the offer of the Imperial crown to the King of
+Prussia. Against this act, however, nearly half the members&mdash;i.e. all
+the advanced parties in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>Assembly&mdash;protested by refusing to take
+any part in it They had also declined to be associated with a previous
+motion for the exclusion of German Austria from the new national
+unity, in the interest of Prussian ascendancy. Both these reactionary
+proposals, as we all know, at a later date became the corner-stones of
+the new Prusso-German unity of Bismark's creation. On this occasion,
+however, the Prussian King refused to accept the office at the hands
+of the impotent Frankfurt Assembly, which latter soon afterwards broke
+up and eventually "petered out." Meanwhile Prussian troops, led by the
+reactionary military caste, were employed in the congenial task of
+suppressing popular movements with the sword in Baden, Saxony, and
+Prussia itself.</p>
+
+<p>The two rival bulwarks of reaction, Prussia and Austria, were now so
+alarmed at the revolutionary dangers they had passed through that, for
+the nonce forgetting their rivalry, they cordially joined together in
+reviving, in the interests of the counter-revolution, the old
+reactionary Federal Assembly, which had never been formally dissolved,
+as it ought to have been on the election of the Frankfurt Parliament.
+Reaction now went on apace. Liberties were curtailed and rights gained
+in 1848 were abolished in most of the smaller States. Henceforth the
+Federal Assembly became the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>theatre of the two great rival powers of
+the Germanic Confederation. Both alike strove desperately for the
+hegemony of Germany. The strength of Prussia, of course, lay generally
+in the north, that of Austria in the south. Austria had the advantage
+of Prussia in the matter of prestige. Prussia, on the other hand, had
+the pull of Austria in the possession of the machinery of the Customs
+Union. In general, however, the dual control of the Germanic
+Confederation was grudgingly recognized by either party, and on
+occasion they acted together. This was notably the case in the
+Schleswig-Holstein question, which had been smouldering ever since
+1848, and which came to a crisis in the Danish war of 1864, in which
+Austria and Prussia jointly took part.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most reactionary of the Junker party in the Prussian
+Parliament of 1848 was one Count Otto Bismarck von Sch&ouml;nhausen,
+subsequently known to history as Prince Bismarck (1815-98). This man
+strenuously opposed the acceptance of the Imperial dignity by the King
+of Prussia at the hands of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, on the
+ground that it was unworthy of the King of Prussia to accept any
+office at the hands of the people rather than at those of his peers,
+the princes of Germany. In 1851 Count von Bismarck was appointed a
+Prussian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>representative in the revived princely and aristocratic
+Federal Assembly. Here he energetically fought the hegemony hitherto
+exercised by Austria. He continued some years in this capacity, and
+subsequently served as Prussian Minister in St. Petersburg and again
+in Paris. In the autumn of 1862 the new King of Prussia, Wilhelm I,
+who had succeeded to the throne the previous year, called him back to
+take over the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and the leadership of the
+Cabinet. Shortly after his accession to power he arbitrarily closed
+the Chambers for refusing to sanction his Army Bill. His army scheme
+was then forced through by the royal fiat alone. On the reopening of
+the Schleswig-Holstein question, owing to the death of the King of
+Denmark, German nationalist sentiment was aroused, which Bismarck knew
+how to use for the aggrandisement of Prussia. The Danish war, in which
+the two leading German States collaborated and which ended in their
+favour, had as its result a disagreement of a serious nature between
+these rival, though mutually victorious, Powers.</p>
+
+<p>In all these events the hand of Bismarck was to be seen. He it was who
+dominated completely Prussian policy from 1862 onwards. Full of his
+schemes for the aggrandisement of Prussia at the expense of Austria,
+he stirred up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>and worked this quarrel for all it was worth, the
+upshot being the Prusso-Austrian War (the so-called Seven Weeks' War)
+of the summer of 1866. The war was brought about by the arbitrary
+dissolution of the German Confederation&mdash;i.e. the Federal Assembly&mdash;in
+which, owing to the alarm created by Prussian insolence and
+aggression, Austria had the backing of the majority of the States.
+This step was followed by Bismarck's dispatching an ultimatum to
+Hanover, Saxony, and Hesse Cassel respectively, all of which had voted
+against Prussia in the Federal Assembly, followed, on its
+non-acceptance, by the dispatch of Prussian troops to occupy the
+States in question. Hard on this act of brutal violence came the
+declaration of war with Austria.</p>
+
+<p>At K&ouml;niggratz the Prussian army was victorious over the Austrians, and
+henceforth the hegemony of Central Europe was decided in favour of
+Prussia. Austria, under the Treaty of Prague (August 20, 1866), was
+completely excluded from the new organization of German States, in
+which Prussia&mdash;i.e. Bismarck&mdash;was to have a free hand. The result was
+the foundation of the North German Confederation, under the leadership
+of Prussia. It was to have a common Parliament, elected by universal
+suffrage and meeting in Berlin. The army, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>the diplomatic
+representation, the control of the postal and telegraphic services,
+were to be under the sole control of the Prussian Government. The
+North German Confederation comprised the northern and central States
+of Germany. The southern States&mdash;Bavaria, Baden, W&uuml;rtemberg,
+etc.&mdash;although not included, had been forced into a practical alliance
+with Prussia by treaties. The Customs Union was extended until it
+embraced nearly the whole of Germany. Prussian aggression in Luxemburg
+produced a crisis with France in 1867, though the growing tension
+between Prussia and France was tided over on this occasion. But
+Bismarck only bided his time.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion was furnished him by the question of the succession to
+the Spanish throne, in July 1870. By means of a falsified telegram
+Bismarck precipitated war, in which Prussia was joined by all the
+States of Germany. The subsequent course of events is matter of recent
+history. The establishment of the new Prusso-German empire by the
+crowning of Wilhelm I at Versailles, with the empire made hereditary
+in the Hohenzollern family, completed the work of Bismarck and the
+setting of the Prussian jack-boot on the necks of the German peoples.
+The Prussian military and bureaucratic systems were now extended to
+all Germany&mdash;in other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>words, the rest of the German peoples were made
+virtually the vassals and slaves of the Prussian monarch. This time
+the King of Prussia received the Imperial crown at the hands of the
+kings, princes, and other hereditary rulers of the various German
+States. Bismarck was graciously pleased to bestow unity and internal
+peace&mdash;a Prussian peace&mdash;upon Germany on condition of its abasement
+before the Prussian corporal's stick and police-truncheon. Such was
+the united Germany of Bismarck. Germany meant for Bismarck and his
+followers Prussia, and Prussia meant their own Junker and military
+caste, under the titular headship of the Hohenzollern.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, strange to say, the peoples of Germany willingly consented, under
+the influence of the intoxication of a successful war, to have their
+independence bartered away to Prussia by their rulers. In this united
+Germany of Bismarck&mdash;a Germany united under Prussian despotism&mdash;they
+na&iuml;vely saw the realization of the dream of their thinkers and poets
+since the time of the Napoleonic wars&mdash;which had become more than ever
+an inspiration from 1848 onwards&mdash;of an ideal unity of all
+German-speaking peoples as a national whole. It is unquestionable that
+many of these thinkers and poets would have been horrified at the
+Prusso-Bismarckian "unity" of "blood and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>iron," It was not for this,
+they would have said, that they had laboured and suffered.</p>
+
+<p>As a conclusion to the present chapter I venture to give a short
+summary of the internal, and especially of the economic, development
+of Prussia since the Franco-German War from an article which appeared
+in the <i>English Review</i> for December 1914, by Mr. H.M. Hyndman and the
+present writer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"From 1871 onwards Prussianized Germany, by far the best-educated, and
+industrially and commercially the most progressive, country in Europe,
+with the enormous advantage of her central position, was, consciously
+and unconsciously, making ready for her next advance. The policy of a
+good understanding with Russia, maintained for many years, to such an
+extent that, in foreign affairs, Berlin and St. Petersburg were almost
+one city, enabled Germany to feel secure against France, while she was
+devoting herself to the extension of her rural and urban powers of
+production. Never at any time did she neglect to keep her army in a
+posture of offence. All can now see the meaning of this.</p>
+
+<p>"Militarism is in no sense necessarily economic. But the strength of
+Germany for war was rapidly increased by her success in peace. From
+the date of the great financial crisis of 1874, and the consequent
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>reorganization of her entire banking system, Germany entered upon that
+determined and well-thought-out attempt to attain pre-eminence in the
+trade and commerce of the world of which we have not yet seen the end.
+From 1878, when the German High Commissioner, von Rouleaux,
+stigmatized the exhibits of his countrymen as 'cheap and nasty,'
+special efforts were made to use the excellent education and admirable
+powers of organization of Germany in this field. The Government
+rendered official and financial help in both agriculture and
+manufacture. Scientific training, good and cheap before, was made
+cheaper and better each year. Railways were used not to foster foreign
+competition, as in Great Britain, by excessive rates of home freight,
+but to give the greatest possible advantage to German industry in
+every department. In more than one rural district the railways were
+worked at an apparent loss in order to foster home production, from
+which the nation derived far greater advantage than such apparent
+sacrifice entailed. The same system of State help was extended to
+shipping until the great German liners, one of which, indeed, was
+actually subsidized by England, were more than holding their own with
+the oldest and most celebrated British companies.</p>
+
+<p>"Protection, alike in agriculture and in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>manufacture, bound the whole
+empire together in essentially Imperial bonds. Right or wrong in
+theory&mdash;which it is not here necessary to discuss&mdash;there can be no
+doubt whatever that this policy entirely changed the face of Germany,
+and rendered her our most formidable competitor in every market.
+Emigration, which had been proceeding on a vast scale, almost entirely
+ceased. The savings banks were overflowing with deposits. The position
+of the workers was greatly improved. Not only were German Colonies
+secured in Africa and Asia, which were more trouble than they were
+worth, but very profitable commerce with our own Colonies and
+Dependencies was growing by leaps and bounds, at the expense of the
+out-of-date but self-satisfied commercialists of Old England. Hence
+arose a trade rivalry, against which we could not hope to contend
+successfully in the long run, except by a complete revolution in our
+methods of education and business, to which neither the Government nor
+the dominant class would consent.</p>
+
+<p>"This remarkable advance in Germany, also, was accompanied by the
+establishment of a system of banking, specially directed to the
+expansion of national industry and commerce, a system which was clever
+enough to use French accumulations, borrowed at a low rate of
+interest, through the German Jews who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>so largely controlled French
+financial institutions, in order still further to extend their own
+trade. It was an admirably organized attempt to conquer the
+world-market for commodities, in which the Government, the banks, the
+manufacturers and the shipowners all worked for the common cause.
+Meanwhile, both French and English financiers carefully played the
+game of their business opponents, and the great English banks devoted
+their attention chiefly to fostering speculation on the Stock
+Exchange&mdash;a policy of which the Germans took advantage, just before
+the outbreak of war, to an extent not by any means as yet fully
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus, at the beginning of the present year, in spite of the
+withdrawal, since the Agadir affair, of very large amounts of French
+capital from the German market, Germany had attained to such a
+position that only the United States stood on a higher plane in regard
+to its future in the world of competitive commerce. And this great and
+increasing economic strength was, for war purposes, at the disposal of
+the Prussian militarists, if they succeeded in getting the upper hand
+in politics and foreign affairs."</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Works on the Thirty Years' War are numerous. Many
+scholarly and exhaustive treatises on various aspects of the subject
+are, as might be expected, to be found in German. For general popular
+reading Schiller's excellent piece of literary hack work (translated
+in Bonn's Library) may still be consulted, but perhaps the best short
+general history of the war with its entanglement of events is that by
+the late Professor S.R. Gardiner, of Oxford, which forms one of the
+volumes of Messrs. Longman, Green &amp; Co.'s series entitled "Epochs of
+Modern History."</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>MODERN GERMAN CULTURE</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>It is important to distinguish between the meaning of the German term
+"Kultur" and that commonly expressed in English by the word "culture."
+The word "Kultur" in modern German is simply equivalent to our word
+"civilization," whereas the word "culture" in English has a special
+meaning, to wit, that of intellectual attainments. In this chapter we
+are chiefly concerned with the latter sense of the word.</p>
+
+<p>Germany had a rich popular literature during the Middle Ages from the
+redaction of the <i>Nibelungenlied</i> under Charles the Great onwards.
+Prominent among this popular literature were the love-songs of the
+Minnesingers, the epics drawn from medi&aelig;val traditionary versions of
+the legend of Troy, of the career of <i>Alexander the Great</i>, and, to
+come to more recent times, to legends of <i>Charles the Great and his
+Court</i>, of <i>Arthur and the Holy Grail</i>, the <i>Nibelungenlied</i> in its
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>present form, and <i>Gudrun</i>. The "beast-epic," as it was called, was
+also a favourite theme, especially in the form of <i>Reynard the Fox</i>.
+In another branch of literature we have collections of laws dating
+from the thirteenth century and known respectively from the country of
+their origin as the <i>Sachsenspiegel</i> and the <i>Schwabenspiegel</i>. Again,
+at a later date, followed the productions of the Meistersingers, and
+especially of Hans Sachs, of N&uuml;rnberg. Then, again, we have the prose
+literature of the mystics, Eckhart, Tauler, and their followers.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the medi&aelig;val period we find an immense number of
+national ballads, of chap-books, not to mention the Passion Plays or
+the polemical theological writings of the time leading up to the
+Reformation. Luther's works, more especially his translation of the
+Bible, powerfully helped to fix German as a literary language. The
+Reformation period, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, was rich in
+prose literature of every description&mdash;in fact, the output of serious
+German writing continued unabated until well into the seventeenth
+century. But the Thirty Years' War, which devastated Germany from end
+to end, completely swept away the earlier literary culture of the
+nation. In fact, the event in question forms a dividing line between
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>earlier and the modern culture of Germany. In prose literature,
+the latter half of the seventeenth century, Germany has only one work
+to show, though that is indeed a remarkable one&mdash;namely,
+Grimmelshausen's <i>Simplicissimus</i>, a romantic fiction under the guise
+of an autobiography of wild and weird adventure for the most part
+concerned with the Thirty Years' War.</p>
+
+<p>The rebirth of German literature in its modern form began early in the
+eighteenth century. Leibnitz wrote in Latin and French, and his
+culture was mainly French. His follower, Christian Wolf, however,
+first used the German language for philosophical writing. But in
+poetry, Klopstock and Wieland, and, in serious prose, Lessing and
+Herder, led the way to the great period of German literature. In this
+period the name of Goethe holds the field, alike in prose and poetry.
+Goethe was born in 1749, and hence it was the last quarter of the
+century which saw him reach his zenith. Next to Goethe comes his
+younger contemporary, Schiller. It is impossible here to go even
+briefly into the achievements of the bearers of these great names.
+They may be truly regarded in many important respects as the founders
+of modern German culture. Around them sprang up a whole galaxy of
+smaller men, and the close of the eighteenth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>century showed a
+literary activity in Germany exceeding any that had gone before.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to philosophy, it is enough to mention the immortal name of
+Immanuel Kant as the founder of modern German philosophic thought and
+the first of a line of eminent thinkers extending to wellnigh the
+middle of the nineteenth century. The names of Fichte, Schelling,
+Hegel, Schopenhauer and others will at once occur to the reader.</p>
+
+<p>Contemporaneously with the great rise of modern German literature
+there was a unique development in music, beginning with Sebastian Bach
+and continuing through the great classical school, the leading names
+in which are Gl&uuml;ck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert,
+etc. The middle period of the nineteenth century showed a further
+development in prose literature, producing some of the greatest
+historians and critics the world has seen. At this time, too, Germany
+began to take the lead in science. The names of Virchow, Helmholtz,
+H&auml;ckel, out of a score of others, all of the first rank, are familiar
+to every person of education in the present and past generation. The
+same period has been signalized by the great post-classical
+development in music, as illustrated by the works of Schumann, Brahms,
+and, above all, by the towering fame of Richard Wagner.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>From the last quarter of the eighteenth century onwards it may truly
+be said of Germany that education is not only more generally diffused
+than in any other country of Europe, but (as a recent writer has
+expressed it) "is cultivated with an earnest and systematic devotion
+not met with to an equal extent among other nations." The present
+writer can well remember some years ago, when at the railway station
+at Breisach (Baden) waiting one evening for the last train to take him
+to Colmar, he seated himself at the table of the small station
+restaurant at which three tradesmen, "the butcher, the baker, and the
+candlestick-maker" of the place were drinking their beer. Broaching to
+them the subject of the history of the town, he found the butcher
+quite prepared to discuss with the baker and the candlestick-maker the
+policy of Charles the Bold and Louis XI as regards the possession of
+the district, as though it might have been a matter of last night's
+debate in the House or of the latest horse-race. Where would you find
+this popular culture in any other country?</p>
+
+<p>Germany possesses 20 universities, 16 polytechnic educational
+institutes, about 800 higher schools (gymnasia), and nearly 60,000
+elementary schools. Every town of any importance throughout the German
+States is liberally provided in the matter of libraries, museums, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>and
+art collections, while its special institutions, music schools, etc.,
+are famous throughout the world. The German theatre is well known for
+its thoroughness. Every, even moderately sized, German town has its
+theatre, which includes also opera, in which a high scale of all-round
+artistic excellence is attained, hardly equalled in any other country.
+In fact, it is not too much to say that for long Germany was foremost
+in the vanguard of educational, intellectual, and artistic progress.</p>
+
+<p>That the above is an over-coloured statement as regards the importance
+of Germany for wellnigh a century and a half past in the history of
+human culture, in the sense of intellectual progress in its widest
+meaning, I venture to think that no one competent to judge will
+allege. Is then, it may be asked, the railing of public opinion and
+the Press of Great Britain and other countries outside Germany and
+Austria, against the Germany of the present day, and the jeers at the
+term "German culture" wholly unjustified and the result of national or
+anti-German prejudice? That there has been much foolish vituperative
+abuse of the whole German nation and of everything German
+indiscriminately in the Press of this and some other countries is
+undoubtedly true. But, however, our acknowledgment of this fact will
+not justify us in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>refusing to recognize the truth which finds
+expression in what very often looks like mere foolish vilification.</p>
+
+<p>The truth in question will be apparent on a consideration of the
+change that has come over the German people and German culture since
+the war of 1870 and the foundation of the modern German Empire. The
+material and economic side of this change has been already indicated
+in a short summary in the quotation which closes the last chapter. But
+these changes, or advances if you will, on the material side, have
+been accompanied by a moral and material degeneration which has been
+only very partially counteracted at present by a movement which,
+though initiated before the period named, has only attained its great
+development, and hence influenced the national character, since the
+date in question.</p>
+
+<p>It is a striking fact that in the last forty-four years&mdash;the period of
+the new German Empire&mdash;there has been a dearth of originality in all
+directions. In the earlier part of the period in question the
+survivors from the pre-Imperial time continued their work in their
+several departments, but no new men of the same rank as themselves
+have arisen, either alongside of them or later to take their places.
+The one or two that might be adduced as partial exceptions to what has
+been above said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>only prove the rule. We have had, it is true, a
+multitude of men, more or less clever <i>epigoni</i>, but little else.
+Again, it is, I think, impossible to deny that a mechanical hardness
+and brutality have come over the national character which entirely
+belie its former traits. It is a matter of common observation that in
+the last generation the German middle class has become noticeably
+coarsened, vulgarized, and blatant.</p>
+
+<p>Again, although I am very far from wishing to attribute the crimes and
+horrors committed by the German army during the present war to the
+whole German nation, or even to the <i>rank and file</i> of those composing
+the army, yet there is no doubt that some blame must be apportioned at
+least to the latter. The contrast is striking between the conduct of
+the German troops during the present war and that of 1870, when they
+could declare that they were out "to fight French soldiers and not
+French citizens." Such were the military ethics of bygone generations
+of German soldiers. They certainly do not apply to the German army of
+to-day. The popularity of such writers as Von Treitschke and
+Bernhardi, respecting which so much has been written, is indeed
+significant of a vast change in German moral conceptions. The
+practical influence of Nietzsche, who&mdash;with his corybantic whirl of
+criticism on all things in heaven above <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>and on the earth beneath, a
+criticism not always coherent with itself&mdash;can hardly be termed a
+German Chauvinist in any intelligible sense, has, I think, been much
+exaggerated. The importance of his theories, considered as an
+ingredient in modern German Chauvinism, is not so considerable, I
+should imagine, as is sometimes thought.</p>
+
+<p>We come now to the movement already alluded to as a set-off and,
+within certain boundaries at least, a counteractive of the degeneracy
+exhibited in the German character since the foundation of the present
+Imperial system. The rise and rapid growth of the Social Democratic
+movement is perhaps the most striking fact in the recent history of
+Germany. The same may be said, of course, of the growth of Socialism
+everywhere during the same period. But in Germany it has for a
+generation past, or even more, occupied an exceptional position, alike
+as regards the rapidity of its increase, its direct influence on the
+masses, and its party organization. Modern Socialism, as a party
+doctrine, is, moreover, a product of the best period of
+nineteenth-century German thought and literature. Its three great
+theoretical protagonists, Marx, Engels, and their younger
+contemporary, Lassalle, all issued from the great Hegelian movement of
+the first half of the nineteenth century. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>Their propagandist
+activity, literary and otherwise, was in the German language. The
+analysis of the present capitalist system, forming the foundation of
+the demand for the communization of the means of production,
+distribution, and exchange, as resulting in a <i>human</i> society as
+opposed to a <i>class</i> society, and ultimately in the extinction of
+national barriers in a world-federation of socialized humanity&mdash;these
+principles were first appreciated, as a world-ideal, by the
+proletariat of Germany, and they have unquestionably raised that
+proletariat to an intellectual rank as yet equalled by no other
+working-class in the world.</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted, however, that with the colossal growth of the
+Social Democratic party in Germany in numbers and the introduction
+into it of elements from various quarters, a certain deterioration,
+one may hope and believe only temporary, has become apparent in its
+quality. This applies, at least, to certain sections of the party. A
+sordid practicalism has made itself felt, due to a feverish desire to
+play an important r&ocirc;le in the detail of current politics. Personal
+ambition and the mechanical working of the party system have also had
+their evil influence in the movement in recent years. Nevertheless, we
+have reason to believe that the core of the party is as sound and as
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>true to principle as ever it was, and that on the restoration of
+international peace this will be seen to be the case. What interests
+us, however, specially, at the moment of writing, is the lamentable,
+yet undeniable, fact that German Social Democracy has, on this
+occasion, disastrously failed to prevent the outbreak of war,
+notwithstanding the vigour of its efforts to do so during the last
+week of July; and still more that it has failed up to date to stem the
+rising flood of militarism and jingoism in the German people. That
+before many months are over the scales will fall from the eyes of the
+masses of Germany I am convinced, and not less that a revolutionary
+movement in Germany will be one of the signs that will herald the dawn
+of a better day for Germany and for Europe. But meanwhile we must hold
+our countenances in patience.</p>
+
+<p>If we inquire the cause of the degeneracy we have been considering in
+the German character since the war of 1870 and the creation of the new
+empire&mdash;apart from those economic causes of change common to all
+countries in modern civilization&mdash;the answer of those who have
+followed the history of the period can hardly fail to be&mdash;Bismarck and
+Prussia. We have already seen in the short historical sketch given in
+the last chapter how the robber hand of Prussia, in violation of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>all
+national treaty rights, had gradually succeeded in annexing wellnigh
+all the neighbouring German territories. But, notwithstanding this,
+the greater part of Germany still remained outside the Prussian
+monarchy. The policy of Bismarck was first of all to cripple the rival
+claimant for the hegemony of Central Europe, Austria. Her complete
+subjugation being unfeasible, she had to be shut up rigorously to her
+immediate dominions on the eastern side of Central Europe, in order to
+leave the path clear for Bismarck, by war or subterfuge, to absorb,
+under a system of nominally vassal States, the whole of the rest of
+Germany into the system of the Prussian monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as we know, from its very foundation the Hohenzollern-Prussian
+monarchy has always been a more or less veiled despotism, based on
+working through a military and bureaucratic oligarchy. The army has
+been the dominant factor of the Prussian State from the beginning of
+the eighteenth century onwards. Prussia has been from the beginning of
+its monarchy the land of the drill-sergeant and the barracks. It is
+this system which the Junker Bismarck has riveted on the whole German
+people, with what results we now see. Badenese, W&uuml;rtembergers,
+Franconians, Hanoverians, the citizens of the former free cities no
+less than the already absorbed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>Westphalians, Thuringians, Silesians,
+Mecklenburgers, were speedily all reduced to being the slaves of the
+Prussian military system and of the Prussian military caste. The na&iuml;ve
+German peoples, as already pointed out, accepted this Prussian
+domination as the realization of their time-honoured patriotic ideal
+of German unity.</p>
+
+<p>The fact of their subservience was emphasized in every way. The law of
+<i>l&egrave;se-majest&eacute;</i> (<i>majest&auml;tsbeleidigung</i>), by which all criticism of the
+despotic head of the State or his actions is made a heinous criminal
+offence, to which severe penalties are attached, it is not too much to
+say is a law which brands the ruler who accepts it as a coward and a
+cur, and the Legislature which passes it as a house, not of
+representative citizens, or even subjects for that matter, but of
+representative <i>slaves</i>. It must not be forgotten that the law in
+question strikes not only at public expressions of opinion in the
+press or on the platform, but at the most private criticism made in
+the presence of a friend in one's own room. The depths of undignified
+and craven meanness to which a monarch is reduced by being thus
+protected from criticism by the police-truncheon and the gaoler struck
+me especially as illustrated by the following incident which happened
+some years ago: Shortly after the accession of the present Kaiser, a
+conjurer was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>giving his entertainment in a Swiss town. For one of the
+tricks he was going to exhibit he had occasion to ask the audience to
+send him up the names of a few public men on folded pieces of paper.
+His reception of the names written down was accompanied by the
+"patter" proper to his profession. On coming to the name of Kaiser
+Wilhelm II he ventured the remark, "Ah! I'd rather it had been the
+poor man just dead" (meaning the Emperor Frederick), "for I'm afraid
+this one's not much good." Will it be believed that the whole
+diplomatic machinery was set on foot to induce the Swiss Government to
+prosecute the unfortunate entertainer, abortively of course, since it
+could not have been legally done? Surely the head of a State who could
+allow his Government to descend to such contemptible pettiness must be
+devoid of all sense of common self-respect, not to say personal
+dignity. And this is the fellow who claims to be hardly second in
+importance to his "dear old God"! In this connection it is only fair
+to recall the very different behaviour of King Edward VII when an
+Irish paper published not a mere criticism but an unquestionably
+libellous article reflecting on his private character. The police
+seized the copies of the paper and were prepared to take steps to
+prosecute, when the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>late King interfered and stopped even the
+confiscation of the paper. The least monarchical of us must, I think,
+admit that here we have a good illustration of the distinction between
+a man sure of his reputation and a cur nervously alarmed for his.</p>
+
+<p>This severe law of <i>l&egrave;se-majest&eacute;</i> in Bismarck's Prusso-German Empire
+is only an illustration of the way in which the German people have
+been made to grovel before the Prussian jack-boot. The Prussification
+of Germany in matters military and in matters bureaucratic has gone on
+apace since 1870. Prussia, it is not too much to say, has hitherto
+consisted in a nation of slaves and tyrants and nothing else. It is
+the Prussian governing class which has everywhere and in all
+departments "set the pace" since the empire was established. No man
+known to hold opinions divergent from those agreeable to the interests
+of the Prussian governing class can hope for employment, be it the
+most humble, in any department of the public service. This is
+particularly noticeable in its effects in the matter of education. The
+inculcation of the brutal and blatant jingoism of Von Treitschke at
+the universities by professors eager for approval in high places has
+already been sufficiently animadverted upon in more than one work on
+modern Germany. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>defeat of Prusso-German militarism will be an
+even greater gain to all that is best in Germany herself than it will
+be to Europe as a whole.</p>
+
+<p><i>Delenda est Prussia</i>, understanding thereby not, of course, the
+inhabitants of Prussian territory as such, but Prussia as a
+State-system and as an independent Power in Europe, must be the
+watchword in the present crisis of every well-wisher of Humanity,
+Germany included. A united Germany, if that be insisted upon, by all
+means let there be&mdash;a federation of all the German peoples with its
+capital, for that matter, as of old, at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, but
+with no dominant State and, if possible, excluding Prussia altogether,
+but certainly as constituted at present. Who knows but that a united
+States of Germany may then prove the first step towards a united
+States of Europe?</p>
+
+<p>But it is not alone to the political reconstruction of Germany or of
+Europe that those who take an optimistic view of the issue of the
+present European war look hopefully. The whole economic system of
+modern capitalism will have received a shock from which the beginnings
+of vast changes may date. Apart from this, however, the avowed aim of
+the war, the destruction of Prussian militarism and, indirectly, the
+weakening of military power throughout the world, should have
+immediate and important consequences. The brutalities <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>and crimes
+committed in Belgium and the North of France at the instigation of the
+military heads of this Prusso-German army do but indicate
+exaggerations of the military spirit and attitude generally. Von
+Hindenburg is not the first who has given utterance to the devilish
+excuse for military crime and brutality that it is "more humane in the
+end, since it shortens war." To refute this transparent fallacy is
+scarcely necessary, since every historical student knows that military
+excesses and inhumanity do not shorten but prolong war by raising
+indignation and inflaming passions. The longest connected war known to
+history&mdash;the Thirty Years' War&mdash;is generally acknowledged to have been
+signalized by the greatest and most continuous inhumanity of any on
+record. But whether military crime has the effect claimed for it or
+not, we may fain hope that public opinion in Europe will insist upon
+giving the "humane" commanders who "mercifully" endeavour to "shorten"
+war by drastic methods of this sort a severe lesson. A few such
+treated to the utmost penalties the ordinary criminal law prescribes
+to the crimes of arson, murder, and robbery would teach them and their
+like that war, if waged at all nowadays, must be waged decently and
+not "shortened" by such devices as those in question.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>If the present war with all its horrible carnage issues, even if only
+in the beginning of those changes which some of us believe must
+necessarily result from it&mdash;changes economical, political, and
+moral&mdash;then indeed it will not have been waged in vain. With the great
+intellectual powers of the Germanic people devoted, not to the
+organization of military power and of national domination, but to
+furthering the realization of a higher human society; with the
+determination on the part of the best elements among every European
+people to work together internationally with each other, and not least
+with the new Germany, to this end, and the great European war of 1914
+will be looked back upon by future generations as the greatest
+world-historic example of the proverbial evil out of which good, and a
+lasting and inestimable good, has come for Europe and the world.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED THE GRESHAM PRESS WOKING AND LONDON.</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p>
+<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;47: &nbsp;distrtict replaced with district<br />
+Page 106: &nbsp;therin replaced with therein<br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of German Culture Past and Present, by 
+Ernest Belfort Bax
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+Project Gutenberg's German Culture Past and Present, by Ernest Belfort Bax
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: German Culture Past and Present
+
+Author: Ernest Belfort Bax
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2007 [EBook #20461]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN CULTURE PAST AND PRESENT ***
+
+
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+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
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+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
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+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this  |
+    | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this     |
+    | document.                                                 |
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+
+                      GERMAN CULTURE
+                     PAST AND PRESENT
+
+
+
+                            BY
+                    ERNEST BELFORT BAX
+
+        AUTHOR OF "JEAN PAUL MARAT," "THE RELIGION
+        OF SOCIALISM," "THE ETHICS OF SOCIALISM,"
+            "THE ROOTS OF REALITY," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+
+
+            LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN, LTD.
+           RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+                _First published in 1915_
+                 [_All rights reserved_]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                        PAGE
+
+      INTRODUCTORY:--SITUATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY         7
+
+   I. THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT                                 65
+
+  II. POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE TIME                           85
+
+ III. THE FOLKLORE OF REFORMATION GERMANY                      99
+
+  IV. THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TOWN                       114
+
+   V. COUNTRY AND TOWN AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES          122
+
+  VI. THE REVOLT OF THE KNIGHTHOOD                            154
+
+ VII. GENERAL SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REVOLT            174
+
+VIII. THE GREAT RISING OF THE PEASANTS AND THE
+        ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT                                   183
+
+  IX. POST-MEDIAEVAL GERMANY                                   229
+
+   X. MODERN GERMAN CULTURE                                   263
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following pages aim at giving a general view of the social and
+intellectual life of Germany from the end of the mediaeval period to
+modern times. In the earlier portion of the book, the first half of
+the sixteenth century in Germany is dealt with at much greater length
+and in greater detail than the later period, a sketch of which forms
+the subject of the last two chapters. The reason for this is to be
+found in the fact that while the roots of the later German character
+and culture are to be sought for in the life of this period, it is
+comparatively little known to the average educated English reader. In
+the early fifteenth century, during the Reformation era, German life
+and culture in its widest sense began to consolidate themselves, and
+at the same time to take on an originality which differentiated them
+from the general life and culture of Western Europe as it was during
+the Middle Ages.
+
+To those who would fully appreciate the later developments, therefore,
+it is essential thoroughly to understand the details of the social and
+intellectual history of the time in question. For the later period
+there are many more works of a generally popular character available
+for the student and general reader. The chief aim of the sketch given
+in Chapters IX and X is to bring into sharp relief those events which,
+in the Author's view, represent more or less crucial stages in the
+development of modern Germany.
+
+For the earlier portion of the present volume an older work of the
+Author's, now out of print, entitled _German Society at the Close of
+the Middle Ages_, has been largely drawn upon. Reference, as will be
+seen, has also been made in the course of the present work to two
+other writings from the same pen which are still to be had for those
+desirous of fuller information on their respective subjects, viz. _The
+Peasants' War_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (Messrs.
+George Allen & Unwin).
+
+
+
+
+German Culture Past and Present
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+The close of the fifteenth century had left the whole structure of
+mediaeval Europe to all appearance intact. Statesmen and writers like
+Philip de Commines had apparently as little suspicion that the state
+of things they saw around them, in which they had grown up and of
+which they were representatives, was ever destined to pass away, as
+others in their turn have since had. Society was organized on the
+feudal hierarchy of status. In the first place, a noble class,
+spiritual and temporal, was opposed to a peasantry either wholly
+servile or but nominally free. In addition to this opposition of noble
+and peasant there was that of the township, which, in its corporate
+capacity, stood in the relation of lord to the surrounding peasantry.
+
+The township in Germany was of two kinds--first of all, there was the
+township that was "free of the Empire," that is, that held nominally
+from the Emperor himself (_Reichstadt_), and secondly, there was the
+township that was under the domination of an intermediate lord. The
+economic basis of the whole was still land; the status of a man or of
+a corporation was determined by the mode in which they held their
+land. "No land without a lord" was the principle of mediaeval polity;
+just as "money has no master" is the basis of the modern world with
+its self-made men. Every distinction of rank in the feudal system was
+still denoted for the most part by a special costume. It was a world
+of knights in armour, of ecclesiastics in vestments and stoles, of
+lawyers in robes, of princes in silk and velvet and cloth of gold, and
+of peasants in laced shoe, brown cloak, and cloth hat.
+
+But although the whole feudal organization was outwardly intact, the
+thinker who was watching the signs of the times would not have been
+long in arriving at the conclusion that feudalism was "played out,"
+that the whole fabric of mediaeval civilization was becoming dry and
+withered, and had either already begun to disintegrate or was on the
+eve of doing so. Causes of change had within the past half-century
+been working underneath the surface of social life, and were rapidly
+undermining the whole structure. The growing use of firearms in war;
+the rapid multiplication of printed books; the spread of the new
+learning after the taking of Constantinople in 1453, and the
+subsequent diffusion of Greek teachers throughout Europe; the surely
+and steadily increasing communication with the new world, and the
+consequent increase of the precious metals; and, last but not least,
+Vasco da Gama's discovery of the new trade route from the East by way
+of the Cape--all these were indications of the fact that the
+death-knell of the old order of things had struck.
+
+Notwithstanding the apparent outward integrity of the system based on
+land tenures, land was ceasing to be the only form of productive
+wealth. Hence it was losing the exclusive importance attaching to it
+in the earlier period of the Middle Ages. The first form of modern
+capitalism had already arisen. Large aggregations of capital in the
+hands of trading companies were becoming common. The Roman law was
+establishing itself in the place of the old customary tribal law which
+had hitherto prevailed in the manorial courts, serving in some sort as
+a bulwark against the caprice of the territorial lord; and this change
+facilitated the development of the bourgeois principle of private, as
+opposed to communal, property. In intellectual matters, though
+theology still maintained its supremacy as the chief subject of human
+interest, other interests were rapidly growing up alongside of it, the
+most prominent being the study of classical literature.
+
+Besides these things, there was the dawning interest in nature, which
+took on, as a matter of course, a magical form in accordance with
+traditional and contemporary modes of thought. In fact, like the
+flicker of a dying candle in its socket, the Middle Ages seemed at the
+beginning of the sixteenth century to exhibit all their own salient
+characteristics in an exaggerated and distorted form. The old feudal
+relations had degenerated into a blood-sucking oppression; the old
+rough brutality, into excogitated and elaborated cruelty (aptly
+illustrated in the collection of ingenious instruments preserved in
+the Torture-tower at Nuernberg); the old crude superstition, into a
+systematized magical theory of natural causes and effects; the old
+love of pageantry, into a lavish luxury and magnificence of which we
+have in the "field of the cloth of gold" the stock historical example;
+the old chivalry, into the mercenary bravery of the soldier, whose
+trade it was to fight, and who recognized only one virtue--to wit,
+animal courage. Again, all these exaggerated characteristics were
+mixed with new elements, which distorted them further, and which
+foreshadowed a coming change, the ultimate issue of which would be
+their extinction and that of the life of which they were the signs.
+
+The growing tendency towards centralization and the consequent
+suppression or curtailment of the local autonomies of the Middle Ages
+in the interests of some kind of national government, of which the
+political careers of Louis XI in France, of Edward IV in England, and
+of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain were such conspicuous instances,
+did not fail to affect in a lesser degree that loosely connected
+political system of German States known as the Holy Roman Empire.
+Maximilian's first Reichstag in 1495 caused to be issued an Imperial
+edict suppressing the right of private warfare claimed and exercised
+by the whole noble class from the princes of the empire down to the
+meanest knight. In the same year the Imperial Chamber (_Reichskammer_)
+was established, and in 1501 the Imperial Aulic Council. Maximilian
+also organized a standing army of mercenary troops, called
+_Landesknechte_. Shortly afterwards Germany was divided into Imperial
+districts called circles (_Kreise_), ultimately ten in number, all of
+which were under an imperial government (_Reichsregiment_), which had
+at its disposal a military force for the punishment of disturbers of
+the peace. But the public opinion of the age, conjoined with the
+particular circumstances, political and economic, of Central Europe,
+robbed the enactment in a great measure of its immediate effect.
+Highway plundering and even private war were still going on, to a
+considerable extent, far into the sixteenth century. Charles V pursued
+the same line of policy as his predecessor; but it was not until after
+the suppression of the lower nobility in 1523, and finally of the
+peasants in 1526, that any material change took place; and then the
+centralization, such as it was, was in favour of the princes, rather
+than of the Imperial power, which, after Charles V's time, grew weaker
+and weaker. The speciality about the history of Germany is, that it
+has not known till our own day centralization on a national or racial
+scale like England or France.
+
+At the opening of the sixteenth century public opinion not merely
+sanctioned open plunder by the wearer of spurs and by the possessor of
+a stronghold, but regarded it as his special prerogative, the exercise
+of which was honourable rather than disgraceful. The cities certainly
+resented their burghers being waylaid and robbed, and hanged the
+knights wherever they could; and something like a perpetual feud
+always existed between the wealthier cities and the knights who
+infested the trade routes leading to and from them. Still, these
+belligerent relations were taken as a matter of course; and no
+disgrace, in the modern sense, attached to the occupation of highway
+robbery.
+
+In consequence of the impoverishment of the knights at this period,
+owing to causes with which we shall deal later, the trade or
+profession had recently received an accession of vigour, and at the
+same time was carried on more brutally and mercilessly than ever
+before. We will give some instances of the sort of occurrence which
+was by no means unusual. In the immediate neighbourhood of Nuernberg,
+which was _bien entendu_ one of the chief seats of the Imperial power,
+a robber-knight leader, named Hans Thomas von Absberg, was a standing
+menace. It was the custom of this ruffian, who had a large following,
+to plunder even the poorest who came from the city, and, not content
+with this, to mutilate his victims. In June 1522 he fell upon a
+wretched craftsman, and with his own sword hacked off the poor
+fellow's right hand, notwithstanding that the man begged him upon his
+knees to take the left, and not destroy his means of earning his
+livelihood. The following August he, with his band, attacked a
+Nuernberg tanner, whose hand was similarly treated, one of his
+associates remarking that he was glad to set to work again, as it was
+"a long time since they had done any business in hands." On the same
+occasion a cutler was dealt with after a similar fashion. The hands in
+these cases were collected and sent to the Buergermeister of Nuernberg,
+with some such phrase as that the sender (Hans Thomas) would treat all
+so who came from the city.
+
+The princes themselves, when it suited their purpose, did not hesitate
+to offer an asylum to these knightly robbers. With Absberg were
+associated Georg von Giech and Hans Georg von Aufsess. Among other
+notable robber-knights of the time may be mentioned the Lord of
+Brandenstein and the Lord of Rosenberg. As illustrating the strictly
+professional character of the pursuit, and the brutally callous nature
+of the society practising it, we may narrate that Margaretha von
+Brandenstein was accustomed, it is recorded, to give the advice to the
+choice guests round her board that when a merchant failed to keep his
+promise to them, they should never hesitate to cut off _both_ his
+hands. Even Franz von Sickingen, known sometimes as the "last flower
+of German chivalry," boasted of having among the intimate associates
+of his enterprise for the rehabilitation of the knighthood many
+gentlemen who had been accustomed to "let their horses on the high
+road bite off the purses of wayfarers." So strong was the public
+opinion of the noble class as to the inviolability of the privilege of
+highway plunder that a monk, preaching one day in a cathedral and
+happening to attack it as unjustifiable, narrowly escaped death at the
+hands of some knights present amongst his congregation, who asserted
+that he had insulted the prerogatives of their order. Whenever this
+form of knight-errantry was criticized, there were never wanting
+scholarly pens to defend it as a legitimate means of aristocratic
+livelihood; since a knight must live in suitable style, and this was
+often his only resource for obtaining the means thereto.
+
+The free cities, which were subject only to Imperial jurisdiction,
+were practically independent republics. Their organization was a
+microcosm of that of the entire empire. At the apex of the municipal
+society was the Buergermeister and the so-called "Honorability"
+(_Ehrbarkeit_), which consisted of the patrician clans or _gentes_ (in
+most cases), those families which were supposed to be descended from
+the original chartered freemen of the town, the old Mark-brethren.
+They comprised generally the richest families, and had monopolized the
+entire government of the city, together with the right to administer
+its various sources of income and to consume its revenue at their
+pleasure. By the time, however, of which we are writing, the
+trade-guilds had also attained to a separate power of their own, and
+were in some cases ousting the burgher-aristocracy, though they were
+very generally susceptible of being manipulated by the members of the
+patrician class, who, as a rule, could alone sit in the Council
+(_Rath_). The latter body stood, in fact, as regards the town, much in
+the relation of the feudal lord to his manor. Strong in their wealth
+and in their aristocratic privileges, the patricians lorded it alike
+over the townspeople and over the neighbouring peasantry, who were
+subject to the municipality. They forestalled and regrated with
+impunity. They assumed the chief rights in the municipal lands, in
+many cases imposed duties at their own caprice, and turned guild
+privileges and rights of citizenship into a source of profit for
+themselves. Their bailiffs in the country districts forming part of
+their territory were often more voracious in their treatment of the
+peasants than even the nobles themselves. The accounts of income and
+expenditure were kept in the loosest manner, and embezzlement clumsily
+concealed was the rule rather than the exception.
+
+The opposition of the non-privileged citizens, usually led by the
+wealthier guildsmen not belonging to the aristocratic class, operated
+through the guilds and through the open assembly of the citizens. It
+had already frequently succeeded in establishing a representation of
+the general body of the guildsmen in a so-called Great Council
+(_Grosser Rath_), and in addition, as already said, in ousting the
+"honorables" from some of the public functions. Altogether the
+patrician party, though still powerful enough, was at the opening of
+the sixteenth century already on the decline, the wealthy and
+unprivileged opposition beginning in its turn to constitute itself
+into a quasi-aristocratic body as against the mass of the poorer
+citizens and those outside the pale of municipal rights. The latter
+class was now becoming an important and turbulent factor in the life
+of the larger cities. The craft-guilds, consisting of the body of
+non-patrician citizens, were naturally in general dominated by their
+most wealthy section.
+
+We may here observe that the development of the mediaeval township from
+its earliest beginnings up to the period of its decay in the sixteenth
+century was almost uniformly as follows:[1] At first the township, or
+rather what later became the township, was represented entirely by
+the circle of _gentes_ or group-families originally settled within the
+mark or district on which the town subsequently stood. These
+constituted the original aristocracy from which the tradition of the
+_Ehrbarkeit_ dated. In those towns founded by the Romans, such as
+Trier, Aachen, and others, the case was of course a little different.
+There the origin of the _Ehrbarkeit_ may possibly be sought for in the
+leading families of the Roman provincials who were in occupation of
+the town at the coming of the barbarians in the fifth century. Round
+the original nucleus there gradually accreted from the earliest period
+of the Middle Ages the freed men of the surrounding districts,
+fugitive serfs, and others who sought that protection and means of
+livelihood in a community under the immediate domination of a powerful
+lord, which they could not otherwise obtain when their native
+village-community had perchance been raided by some marauding noble
+and his retainers. Circumstances, amongst others the fact that the
+community to which they attached themselves had already adopted
+commerce and thus become a guild of merchants, led to the
+differentiation of industrial functions amongst the new-comers, and
+thus to the establishment of craft-guilds.
+
+Another origin of the townsfolk, which must not be overlooked, is to
+be found in the attendants on the palace-fortress of some great
+overlord. In the early Middle Ages all such magnates kept up an
+extensive establishment, the greater ecclesiastical lords no less than
+the secular often having several castles. In Germany this origin of
+the township was furthered by Charles the Great, who established
+schools and other civil institutions, with a magistrate at their head,
+round many of the palace-castles that he founded. "A new epoch," says
+Von Maurer, "begins with the villa-foundations of Charles the Great
+and his ordinances respecting them, for that his celebrated
+capitularies in this connection were intended for his newly
+established villas is self-evident. In that proceeding he obviously
+had the Roman villa in his mind, and on the model of this he rather
+further developed the previously existing court and villa constitution
+than completely reorganized it. Hence one finds even in his new
+creations the old foundation again, albeit on a far more extended
+plan, the economical side of such villa-colonies being especially more
+completely and effectively ordered."[2] The expression "Palatine," as
+applied to certain districts, bears testimony to the fact here
+referred to. As above said, the development of the township was
+everywhere on the same lines. The aim of the civic community was
+always to remove as far as possible the power which controlled them.
+Their worst condition was when they were immediately overshadowed by a
+territorial magnate. When their immediate lord was a prince, the area
+of whose feudal jurisdiction was more extensive, his rule was less
+oppressively felt, and their condition was therefore considerably
+improved. It was only, however, when cities were "free of the empire"
+(_Reichsfrei_) that they attained the ideal of mediaeval civic freedom.
+
+It follows naturally from the conditions described that there was, in
+the first place, a conflict between the primitive inhabitants as
+embodied in their corporate society and the territorial lord, whoever
+he might be. No sooner had the township acquired a charter of freedom
+or certain immunities than a new antagonism showed itself between the
+ancient corporation of the city and the trade-guilds, these
+representing the later accretions. The territorial lord (if any) now
+sided, usually though not always, with the patrician party. But the
+guilds, nevertheless, succeeded in ultimately wresting many of the
+leading public offices from the exclusive possession of the patrician
+families. Meanwhile the leading men of the guilds had become _hommes
+arrives_. They had acquired wealth, and influence which was in many
+cases hereditary in their family, and by the beginning of the
+sixteenth century they were confronted with the more or less veiled
+and more or less open opposition of the smaller guildsmen and of the
+newest comers into the city, the shiftless proletariat of serfs and
+free peasants, whom economic pressure was fast driving within the
+walls, owing to the changed conditions of the times.
+
+The peasant of the period was of three kinds: the _leibeigener_ or
+serf, who was little better than a slave, who cultivated his lord's
+domain, upon whom unlimited burdens might be fixed, and who was in all
+respects amenable to the will of his lord; the _hoeriger_ or villein,
+whose services were limited alike in kind and amount; and the _freier_
+or free peasant, who merely paid what was virtually a quit-rent in
+kind or in money for being allowed to retain his holding or status in
+the rural community under the protection of the manorial lord. The
+last was practically the counterpart of the mediaeval English
+copyholder. The Germans had undergone essentially the same
+transformations in social organization as the other populations of
+Europe.
+
+The barbarian nations at the time of their great migration in the
+fifth century were organized on a tribal and village basis. The head
+man was simply _primus inter pares_. In the course of their wanderings
+the successful military leader acquired powers and assumed a position
+that was unknown to the previous times, when war, such as it was, was
+merely inter-tribal and inter-clannish, and did not involve the
+movements of peoples and federations of tribes, and when, in
+consequence, the need of permanent military leaders or for the
+semblance of a military hierarchy had not arisen. The military leader
+now placed himself at the head of the older social organization, and
+associated with his immediate followers on terms approaching equality.
+A well-known illustration of this is the incident of the vase taken
+from the Cathedral of Rheims, and of Chlodowig's efforts to rescue it
+from his independent comrade-in-arms.
+
+The process of the development of the feudal polity of the Middle Ages
+is, of course, a very complicated one, owing to the various strands
+that go to compose it. In addition to the German tribes themselves,
+who moved _en masse_, carrying with them their tribal and village
+organization, under the overlordship of the various military leaders,
+were the indigenous inhabitants amongst whom they settled. The latter
+in the country districts, even in many of the territories within the
+Roman Empire, still largely retained the primitive communal
+organization. The new-comers, therefore, found in the rural
+communities a social system already in existence into which they
+naturally fitted, but as an aristocratic body over against the
+conquered inhabitants. The latter, though not all reduced to a servile
+condition, nevertheless held their land from the conquering body under
+conditions which constituted them an order of freemen inferior to the
+new-comers.
+
+To put the matter briefly, the military leaders developed into barons
+and princes, and in some cases the nominal centralization culminated,
+as in France and England, in the kingly office; while, in Germany and
+Italy, it took the form of the revived Imperial office, the spiritual
+overlord of the whole of Christendom being the Pope, who had his
+vassals in the prince-prelates and subordinate ecclesiastical holders.
+In addition to the princes sprung originally from the military leaders
+of the migratory nations, there were their free followers, who
+developed ultimately into the knighthood or inferior nobility; the
+inhabitants of the conquered districts forming a distinct class of
+inferior freemen or of serfs. But the essentially personal relation
+with which the whole process started soon degenerated into one based
+on property. The most primitive form of property--land--was at the
+outset what was termed _allodial_, at least among the conquering
+race, from every social group having the possession, under the
+trusteeship of his head man, of the land on which it settled. Now,
+owing to the necessities of the time, owing to the need of protection,
+to violence, and to religious motives, it passed into the hands of the
+overlord, temporal or spiritual, as his possession; and the
+inhabitants, even in the case of populations which had not been
+actually conquered, became his vassals, villeins, or serfs, as the
+case might be. The process by means of which this was accomplished was
+more or less gradual; indeed, the entire extinction of communal
+rights, whereby the notion of private ownership is fully realized, was
+not universally effected even in the West of Europe till within a
+measurable distance of our own time.[3]
+
+From the foregoing it will be understood that the oppression of the
+peasant, under the feudalism of the Middle Ages, and especially of the
+later Middle Ages, was viewed by him as an infringement of his rights.
+During the period of time constituting mediaeval history, the peasant,
+though he often slumbered, yet often started up to a sudden
+consciousness of his position. The memory of primitive communism was
+never quite extinguished, and the continual peasant-revolts of the
+Middle Ages, though immediately occasioned, probably, by some fresh
+invasion, by which it was sought to tear from the "common man" yet
+another shred of his surviving rights, always had in the background
+the ideal, vague though it may have been, of his ancient freedom.
+Such, undoubtedly, was the meaning of the Jacquerie in France, with
+its wild and apparently senseless vengeance; of the Wat Tyler revolt
+in England, with its systematic attempt to envisage the vague
+tradition of the primitive village community in the legends of the
+current ecclesiastical creed; of the numerous revolts in Flanders and
+North Germany; to a large extent of the Hussite movement in Bohemia,
+under Ziska; of the rebellion led by George Doza in Hungary; and, as
+we shall see in the body of the present work, of the social movements
+of Reformation Germany, in which, with the partial exception of Ket's
+rebellion in England a few years later, we may consider them as
+virtually coming to an end.
+
+For the movements in question were distinctly the last of their kind.
+The civil wars of religion in France, and the great rebellion in
+England against Charles I, which also assumed a religious colouring,
+open a new era in popular revolts. In the latter, particularly, we
+have clearly before us the attempt of the new middle class of town and
+country, the independent citizen, and the now independent yeoman, to
+assert supremacy over the old feudal estates or orders. The new
+conditions had swept away the special revolutionary tradition of the
+mediaeval period, whose golden age lay in the past with its
+communal-holding and free men with equal rights on the basis of the
+village organization--rights which with every century the peasant felt
+more and more slipping away from him. The place of this tradition was
+now taken by an ideal of individual freedom, apart from any social
+bond, and on a basis merely political, the way for which had been
+prepared by that very conception of individual proprietorship on the
+part of the landlord, against which the older revolutionary sentiment
+had protested. A most powerful instrument in accommodating men's minds
+to this change of view, in other words, to the establishment of the
+new individualistic principle, was the Roman or Civil law, which, at
+the period dealt with in the present book, had become the basis
+whereon disputed points were settled in the Imperial Courts. In this
+respect also, though to a lesser extent, may be mentioned the Canon
+or Ecclesiastical law--consisting of papal decretals on various points
+which were founded partially on the Roman or Civil law--a juridical
+system which also fully and indeed almost exclusively recognized the
+individual holding of property as the basis of civil society (albeit
+not without a recognition of social duties on the part of the owner).
+
+Learning was now beginning to differentiate itself from the
+ecclesiastical profession, and to become a definite vocation in its
+various branches. Crowds of students flocked to the seats of learning,
+and, as travelling scholars, earned a precarious living by begging or
+"professing" medicine, assisting the illiterate for a small fee, or
+working wonders, such as casting horoscopes, or performing
+thaumaturgic tricks. The professors of law were now the most
+influential members of the Imperial Council and of the various
+Imperial Courts. In Central Europe, as elsewhere, notably in France,
+the civil lawyers were always on the side of the centralizing power,
+alike against the local jurisdictions and against the peasantry.
+
+The effects of the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and the
+consequent dispersion of the accumulated Greek learning of the
+Byzantine Empire, had, by the end of the fifteenth century, begun to
+show themselves in a notable modification of European culture. The
+circle of the seven sciences, the Quadrivium, and the Trivium, in
+other words, the mediaeval system of learning, began to be antiquated.
+Scholastic philosophy, that is to say, the controversy of the Scotists
+and the Thomists, was now growing out of date. Plato was extolled at
+the expense of Aristotle. Greek, and even Hebrew, was eagerly sought
+after. Latin itself was assuming another aspect; the Renaissance Latin
+is classical Latin, whilst Mediaeval Latin is dog-Latin. The physical
+universe now began to be inquired into with a perfectly fresh
+interest, but the inquiries were still conducted under the aegis of the
+old habits of thought. The universe was still a system of mysterious
+affinities and magical powers to the investigator of the Renaissance
+period, as it had been before. There was this difference, however; it
+was now attempted to _systematize_ the magical theory of the universe.
+While the common man held a store of traditional magical beliefs
+respecting the natural world, the learned man deduced these beliefs
+from the Neo-Platonists, from the Kabbala, from Hermes Trismegistos,
+and from a variety of other sources, and attempted to arrange this
+somewhat heterogeneous mass of erudite lore into a system of organized
+thought.
+
+The Humanistic movement, so called, the movement, that is, of revived
+classical scholarship, had already begun in Germany before what may be
+termed the _sturm und drang_ of the Renaissance proper. Foremost among
+the exponents of this older Humanism, which dates from the middle of
+the fifteenth century, were Nicholas of Cusa and his disciples,
+Rudolph Agricola, Alexander Hegius, and Jacob Wimpheling. But the new
+Humanism and the new Renaissance movement generally throughout
+Northern Europe centred chiefly in two personalities, Johannes
+Reuchlin and Desiderius Erasmus. Reuchlin was the founder of the new
+Hebrew learning, which up till then had been exclusively confined to
+the synagogue. It was he who unlocked the mysteries of the Kabbala to
+the Gentile world. But though it is for his introduction of Hebrew
+study that Reuchlin is best known to posterity, yet his services in
+the diffusion and popularization of classical culture were enormous.
+The dispute of Reuchlin with the ecclesiastical authorities at Cologne
+excited literary Germany from end to end. It was the first general
+skirmish of the new and the old spirit in Central and Northern Europe.
+
+But the man who was destined to become the personification of the
+Humanist movement, us the new learning was called, was Erasmus. The
+illegitimate son of the daughter of a Rotterdam burgher, he early
+became famous on account of his erudition, in spite of the adverse
+circumstances of his youth. Like all the scholars of his time, he
+passed rapidly from one country to another, settling finally in Basel,
+then at the height of its reputation as a literary and typographical
+centre. The whole intellectual movement of the time centres round
+Erasmus, as is particularly noticeable in the career of Ulrich von
+Hutten, dealt with in the course of this history. As instances of the
+classicism of the period, we may note the uniform change of the
+patronymic into the classical equivalent, or some classicism supposed
+to be the equivalent. Thus the name Erasmus itself was a classicism of
+his father's name Gerhard, the German name Muth became Mutianus,
+Trittheim became Trithemius, Schwarzerd became Melanchthon, and so on.
+
+We have spoken of the other side of the intellectual movement of the
+period. This other side showed itself in mystical attempts at reducing
+nature to law in the light of the traditional problems which had been
+set, to wit, those of alchemy and astrology: the discovery of the
+philosopher's stone, of the transmutation of metals, of the elixir of
+life, and of the correspondences between the planets and terrestrial
+bodies. Among the most prominent exponents of these investigations may
+be mentioned Philippus von Hohenheim or Paracelsus, and Cornelius
+Agrippa of Nettesheim, in Germany, Nostrodamus in France, and Cardanus
+in Italy. These men represent a tendency which was pursued by
+thousands in the learned world. It was a tendency which had the honour
+of being the last in history to embody itself in a distinct mythical
+cycle. "Doctor Faustus" may probably have had an historical germ; but
+in any case "Doctor Faustus," as known to legend and to literature, is
+merely a personification of the practical side of the new learning.
+
+The minds of men were waking up to interest in nature. There was one
+man, Copernicus, who, at least partially, struck through the
+traditionary atmosphere in which nature was enveloped, and to his
+insight we owe the foundation of astronomical science; but otherwise
+the whole intellectual atmosphere was charged with occult views. In
+fact, the learned world of the sixteenth century would have found
+itself quite at home in the pretensions and fancies of our modern
+theosophist and psychical researchers, with their notions of making
+erstwhile miracles non-miraculous, of reducing the marvellous to
+being merely the result of penetration on the part of certain seers
+and investigators of the secret powers of nature. Every wonder-worker
+was received with open arms by learned and unlearned alike. The
+possibility of producing that which was out of the ordinary range of
+natural occurrences was not seriously doubted by any. Spells and
+enchantments, conjurations, calculations of nativities, were matters
+earnestly investigated at Universities and Courts.
+
+There were, of course, persons who were eager to detect impostors: and
+amongst them some of the most zealous votaries of the occult arts--for
+example, Trittheim and the learned Humanist, Conrad Muth or Mutianus,
+both of whom professed to have regarded Faust as a fraudulent person.
+But this did not imply any disbelief in the possibility of the alleged
+pretensions. In the Faust-myth is embodied, moreover, the opposition
+between the new learning on its physical side and the old religious
+faith. The theory that the investigation of the mysteries of nature
+had in it something sinister and diabolical which had been latent
+throughout the Middle Ages, was brought into especial prominence by
+the new religious movements. The popular feeling that the line between
+natural magic and the black art was somewhat doubtful, that the one
+had a tendency to shade off into the other, now received fresh
+stimulus. The notion of compacts with the devil was a familiar one,
+and that they should be resorted to for the purpose of acquiring an
+acquaintance with hidden lore and magical powers seemed quite natural.
+
+It will have already been seen from what we have said that the
+religious revolt was largely economical in its causes. The intense
+hatred, common alike to the smaller nobility, the burghers, and the
+peasants, of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, was obviously due to its
+ever-increasing exactions. The chief of these were the _pallium_ or
+price paid to the Pope for an ecclesiastical investiture; the
+_annates_ or first year's revenues of a church fief; and the _tithes_
+which were of two kinds, the great tithe paid in agricultural produce,
+and the small tithe consisting in a head of cattle. The latter seems
+to have been especially obnoxious to the peasant. The sudden increase
+in the sale of indulgences, like the proverbial last straw, broke down
+the whole system; but any other incident might have served the purpose
+equally well. The prince-prelates were in some instances, at the
+outset, not averse to the movement; they would not have been
+indisposed to have converted their territories into secular fiefs of
+the empire. It was only after this hope had been abandoned that they
+definitely took sides with the Papal authority.
+
+The opening of the sixteenth century thus presents to us mediaeval
+society, social, political, and religious, in Germany as elsewhere,
+"run to seed." The feudal organization was outwardly intact; the
+peasant, free and bond, formed the foundation; above him came the
+knighthood or inferior nobility; parallel with them was the
+_Ehrbarkeit_ of the less important towns, holding from mediate
+lordship; above these towns came the free cities, which held
+immediately from the empire, organized into three bodies, a governing
+Council in which the _Ehrbarkeit_ usually predominated, where they did
+not entirely compose it, a Common Council composed of the masters of
+the various guilds, and the General Council of the free citizens.
+Those journeymen, whose condition was fixed from their being outside
+the guild-organizations, usually had guilds of their own. Above the
+free cities in the social pyramid stood the Princes of the empire, lay
+and ecclesiastic, with the Electoral College, or the seven Electoral
+Princes, forming their head. These constituted the feudal "estates" of
+the empire. Then came the "King of the Romans"; and, as the apex of
+the whole, the Pope in one function and the Emperor in another,
+crowned the edifice. The supremacy, not merely of the Pope but of the
+complementary temporal head of the mediaeval polity, the Emperor, was
+acknowledged in a shadowy way, even in countries such as France and
+England, which had no direct practical connection with the empire.
+For, as the spiritual power was also temporal, so the temporal
+political power had, like everything else in the Middle Ages, a
+quasi-religious significance.
+
+The minds of men in speculative matters, in theology, in philosophy,
+and in jurisprudence, were outgrowing the old doctrines, at least in
+their old forms. In theology the notion of salvation by the faith of
+the individual, and not through the fact of belonging to a corporate
+organization, which was the mediaeval conception, was latent in the
+minds of multitudes of religious persons before expression was given
+to it by Luther. The aversion to scholasticism, bred by the revived
+knowledge of the older Greek philosophies in the original, produced a
+curious amalgam; but scholastic habits of thought were still dominant
+through it all. The new theories of nature amounted to little more
+than old superstitions, systematized and reduced to rule, though here
+and there the later physical science, based on observation and
+experiment, peeped through. In jurisprudence the epoch is marked by
+the final conquest of the Roman civil law, in its spirit, where not
+in its forms, over the old customs, pre-feudal and feudal.
+
+The subject of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages,
+characterized by what is known as the revival of learning and the
+Reformation, is so important for an understanding of later German
+history and the especial characteristics of the German culture of
+later times, that we propose, even at the risk of wearying some
+readers, to recapitulate in as short a space as possible, compatible
+with clearness, the leading conditions of the times--conditions which,
+directly or indirectly, have moulded the whole subsequent course of
+German development.
+
+Owing to the geographical situation of Germany and to the political
+configuration of its peoples and other causes, mediaeval conditions of
+life as we find them in the early sixteenth century left more abiding
+traces on the German mind and on German culture than was the case with
+some other nations. The time was out of joint in a very literal sense
+of that somewhat hackneyed phrase. At the opening of the sixteenth
+century every established institution--political, social, and
+religious--was shaken and showed the rents and fissures caused by time
+and by the growth of a new life underneath it. The empire--the Holy
+Roman--was in a parlous way as regarded its cohesion. The power of the
+princes, the representatives of local centralized authority, was
+proving itself too strong for the power of the Emperor, the recognized
+representative of centralized authority for the whole German-speaking
+world. This meant the undermining and eventual disruption of the
+smaller social and political unities,[4] the knightly manors with the
+privileges attached to the knightly class generally. The knighthood,
+or lower nobility, had acted as a sort of buffer between the princes
+of the empire and the Imperial power, to which they often looked for
+protection against their immediate overlord or their powerful
+neighbour--the prince. The Imperial power, in consequence, found the
+lower nobility a bulwark against its princely vassals. Economic
+changes, the suddenly increased demand for money owing to the rise of
+the "world-market," new inventions in the art of war, new methods of
+fighting, the rapidly growing importance of artillery, and the
+increase of the mercenary soldier, had rendered the lower nobility,
+as an institution, a factor in the political situation which was fast
+becoming negligible. The abortive campaign of Franz von Sickingen in
+1523 only showed its hopeless weakness. The _Reichsregiment_, or
+Imperial governing council, a body instituted by Maximilian, had
+lamentably failed to effect anything towards cementing together the
+various parts of the unwieldy fabric. Finally, at the Reichstag held
+in Nuernberg, in December 1522, at which all the estates were
+represented, the _Reichsregiment_, to all intents and purposes,
+collapsed.
+
+The Reichstag in question was summoned ostensibly for the purpose of
+raising a subsidy for the Hungarians in their struggle against the
+advancing power of the Turks. The Turkish movement westward was, of
+course, throughout this period, the most important question of what in
+modern phraseology would be called "foreign politics." The princes
+voted the proposal of the subsidy without consulting the
+representatives of the cities, who knew the heaviest part of the
+burden was to fall upon themselves. The urgency of the situation,
+however, weighed with them, with the result that they submitted after
+considerable remonstrance. The princes, in conjunction with their
+rivals, the lower nobility, next proceeded to attack the commercial
+monopolies, the first fruits of the rising capitalism, the appanage
+mainly of the trading companies and the merchant magnates of the
+towns. This was too much for civic patience. The city representatives,
+who, of course, belonged to the civic aristocracy, waxed indignant.
+The feudal orders went on to claim the right to set up vexatious
+tariffs in their respective territories, whereby to hinder
+artificially the free development of the new commercial capitalist.
+This filled up the cup of endurance of the magnates of the city. The
+city representatives refused their consent to the Turkish subsidy and
+withdrew. The next step was the sending of a deputation to the young
+Emperor Karl, who was in Spain, and whose sanction to the decrees of
+the Reichstag was necessary before their promulgation. The result of
+the conference held on this occasion was a decision to undermine the
+_Reichsregiment_ and weaken the power of the princes, by whom and by
+whose tools it was manned, as a factor in the Imperial constitution.
+As for the princes, while some of their number were positively opposed
+to it, others cared little one way or the other. Their chief aim was
+to strengthen and consolidate their power within the limits of their
+own territories, and a weak empire was perhaps better adapted for
+effecting this purpose than a stronger one, even though certain of
+their own order had a controlling voice in its administration. As
+already hinted, the collapse of the rebellious knighthood under
+Sickingen, a few weeks later, clearly showed the political drift of
+the situation in the _haute politique_ of the empire.
+
+The rising capitalists of the city, the monopolists, merchant princes,
+and syndicates, are the theme of universal invective throughout this
+period. To them the rapid and enormous rise in prices during the early
+years of the sixteenth century, the scarcity of money consequent on
+the increased demand for it, and the impoverishment of large sections
+of the population, were attributed by noble and peasant alike. The
+whole trend of public opinion, in short, outside the wealthier
+burghers of the larger cities--the class immediately interested--was
+adverse to the condition of things created by the new world-market,
+and by the new class embodying it. At present it was a small class,
+the only one that gained by it, and that gained at the expense of all
+the other classes.
+
+Some idea of the class-antagonisms of the period may be gathered from
+the statement of Ulrich von Hutten about the robber-knights already
+spoken of, in his dialogue entitled "Predones," to the effect that
+there were four orders of robbers in Germany--the _knights_, the
+_lawyers_, the _priests_, and the _merchants_ (meaning especially the
+new capitalist merchant-traders or syndicates). Of these, he declares
+the robber-knights to be the least harmful. This is naturally only to
+be expected from so gallant a champion of his order, the friend and
+abettor of Sickingen. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the
+robber-knight evil, the toleration of which in principle was so deeply
+ingrained in the public opinion of large sections of the population,
+may be judged from the abortive attempts made to stop it, at the
+instance alike of princes and of cities, who on this point, if on no
+other, had a common interest. In 1502, for example, at the Reichstag
+held in Gelnhausen in that year, certain of the highest princes of the
+empire made a representation that, at least, the knights should permit
+the gathering in of the harvest and the vintage in peace. But even
+this modest demand was found to be impracticable. The knights had to
+live in the style required by their status, as they declared, and
+where other means were more and more failing them, their ancient right
+or privilege of plunder was indispensable to their order. Still,
+Hutten was right so far in declaring the knight the most harmless kind
+of robber, inasmuch as, direct as were his methods, his sun was
+obviously setting, while as much could not be said of the other
+classes named; the merchant and the lawyer were on the rise, and the
+priest, although about to receive a check, was not destined speedily
+to disappear, or to change fundamentally the character of his
+activity.
+
+The feudal orders saw their own position seriously threatened by the
+new development of things economic in the cities. The guilds were
+becoming crystallized into close corporations of wealthy families,
+constituting a kind of second _Ehrbarkeit_ or town patriciate; the
+numbers of the landless and unprivileged, with at most a bare footing
+in the town constitution, were increasing in an alarming proportion;
+the journeyman workman was no longer a stage between apprentice and
+master craftsman, but a permanent condition embodied in a large and
+growing class. All these symptoms indicated an extraordinary economic
+revolution, which was making itself at first directly felt only in the
+larger cities, but the results of which were dislocating the social
+relations of the Middle Ages throughout the whole empire.
+
+Perhaps the most striking feature in this dislocation was the transition
+from direct barter to exchange through the medium of money, and the
+consequent suddenly increased importance of the role played by usury in
+the social life of the time. The scarcity of money is a perennial theme
+of complaint for which the new large capitalist-monopolists are made
+responsible. But the class in question was itself only a symptom of the
+general economic change. The seeming scarcity of money, though but the
+consequence of the increased demand for a circulating medium, was
+explained, to the disadvantage of the hated monopolists, by a crude form
+of the "mercantile" theory. The new merchant, in contradistinction to
+the master craftsman working _en famille_ with his apprentices and
+assistants, now often stood entirely outside the processes of
+production, as speculator or middleman; and he, and still more the
+syndicate who fulfilled the like functions on a larger scale (especially
+with reference to foreign trade), came to be regarded as particularly
+obnoxious robbers, because interlopers to boot. Unlike the knights, they
+were robbers with a new face.
+
+The lawyers were detested for much the same reason (cf. _German
+Society at the Close of the Middle Ages_, pp. 219-28). The
+professional lawyer class, since its final differentiation from the
+clerk class in general, had made the Roman or civil law its
+speciality, and had done its utmost everywhere to establish the
+principles of the latter in place of the old feudal law of earlier
+mediaeval Europe. The Roman law was especially favourable to the
+pretensions of the princes, and, from an economic point of view, of
+the nobility in general, inasmuch as land was on the new legal
+principles treated as the private property of the lord; over which he
+had full power of ownership, and not, as under feudal and canon law,
+as a _trust_ involving duties as well as rights. The class of jurists
+was itself of comparatively recent growth in Central Europe, and its
+rapid increase in every portion of the empire dated from less than
+half a century back. It may be well understood, therefore, why these
+interlopers, who ignored the ancient customary law of the country, and
+who by means of an alien code deprived the poor freeholder or
+copyholder of his land, or justified new and unheard-of exactions on
+the part of his lord on the plea that the latter might do what he
+liked with his own, were regarded by the peasant and humble man as
+robbers whose depredations were, if anything, even more resented than
+those of their old and tried enemy--the plundering knight.
+
+The priest, especially of the regular orders, was indeed an old foe,
+but his offence had now become very rank. From the middle of the
+fifteenth century onwards the stream of anti-clerical literature waxes
+alike in volume and intensity. The "monk" had become the object of
+hatred and scorn throughout the whole lay world. This view of the
+"regular" was shared, moreover, by not a few of the secular clergy
+themselves. Humanists, who were subsequently ardent champions of the
+Church against Luther and the Protestant Reformation--men such as
+Murner and Erasmus--had been previously the bitterest satirists of the
+"friar" and the "monk." Amongst the great body of the laity, however,
+though the religious orders came in perhaps for the greater share of
+animosity, the secular priesthood was not much better off in popular
+favour, whilst the upper members of the hierarchy were naturally
+regarded as the chief blood-suckers of the German people in the
+interests of Rome. The vast revenues which both directly in the shape
+of _pallium_ (the price of "investiture"), _annates_ (first year's
+revenues of appointments), _Peter's-pence_, and recently of
+_indulgences_--the latter the by no means most onerous exaction, since
+it was voluntary--all these things, taken together with what was
+indirectly obtained from Germany, through the expenditure of German
+ecclesiastics on their visits to Rome and by the crowd of parasitics,
+nominal holders of German benefices merely, but real recipients of
+German substance, who danced attendance at the Vatican--obviously
+constituted an enormous drain on the resources of the country from all
+the lay classes alike, of which wealth the papal chair could be
+plainly seen to be the receptacle.
+
+If we add to these causes of discontent the vastness in number of the
+regular clergy, the "friars" and "monks" already referred to, who
+consumed, but were only too obviously unproductive, it will be
+sufficiently plain that the Protestant Reformation had something very
+much more than a purely speculative basis to work upon. Religious
+reformers there had been in Germany throughout the Middle Ages, but
+their preachings had taken no deep root. The powerful personality of
+the Monk of Wittenberg found an economic soil ready to hand in which
+his teachings could fructify, and hence the world-historic result. The
+peasant revolts, sporadic the Middle Ages through, had for the
+half-century preceding the Reformation been growing in frequency and
+importance, but it needed nevertheless the sudden impulse, the
+powerful jar given by a Luther in 1517, and the series of blows with
+which it was followed during the years immediately succeeding, to
+crystallize the mass of fluid discontent and social unrest in its
+various forms and give it definite direction. The blow which was
+primarily struck in the region of speculative thought and
+ecclesiastical relations did not stop there in its effects. The attack
+on the dominant theological system--at first merely on certain
+comparatively unessential outworks of that system--necessarily of its
+own force developed into an attack on the organization representing
+it, and on the economic basis of the latter. The battle against
+ecclesiastical abuses, again, in its turn, focussed the
+ever-smouldering discontent with abuses in general; and this time, not
+in one district only, but simultaneously over the whole of Germany.
+The movement inaugurated by Luther gave to the peasant groaning under
+the weight of baronial oppression, and the small handicraftsman
+suffering under his _Ehrbarkeit_, a rallying-point and a rallying cry.
+
+In history there is no movement which starts up full grown from the
+brain of any one man, or even from the mind of any one generation of
+men, like Athene from the head of Zeus. The historical epoch which
+marks the crisis of the given change is, after all, little beyond a
+prominent landmark--a parting of the ways--led up to by a long
+preparatory development. This is nowhere more clearly illustrated than
+in the Reformation and its accompanying movements. The ideas and
+aspirations animating the social, political, and intellectual revolt
+of the sixteenth century can each be traced back to, at least, the
+beginning of the fifteenth century, and in many cases farther still.
+The way the German of Luther's time looked at the burning questions of
+the hour was not essentially different from the way the English
+Wyclifites and Lollards, or the Bohemian Hussites and Taborites viewed
+them. There was obviously a difference born of the later time, but
+this difference was not, I repeat, essential. The changes which, a
+century previously, were only just beginning, had, meanwhile, made
+enormous progress.
+
+The disintegration of the material conditions of mediaeval social life
+was now approaching its completion, forced on by the inventions and
+discoveries of the previous half-century. But the ideals of the mass
+of men, learned and simple, were still in the main the ideals that had
+been prevalent throughout the whole of the later Middle Ages. Men
+still looked at the world and at social progress through mediaeval
+spectacles. The chief difference was that now ideas which had
+previously been confined to special localities, or had only had a
+sporadic existence among the people at large, had become general
+throughout large portions of the population. The invention of the art
+of printing was, of course, largely instrumental in effecting this
+change.
+
+The comparatively sudden popularization of doctrines previously
+confined to special circles was the distinguishing feature of the
+intellectual life of the first half of the sixteenth century. Among
+the many illustrations of the foregoing which might be given, we are
+specially concerned here to note the sudden popularity during this
+period of two imaginary constitutions dating from early in the
+previous century. From the fourteenth century we find traces, perhaps
+suggested by the Prester John legend, of a deliverer in the shape of
+an emperor who should come from the East, who should be the last of
+his name; should right all wrongs; should establish the empire in
+universal justice and peace; and, in short, should be the forerunner
+of the kingdom of Christ on earth. This notion or mystical hope took
+increasing root during the fifteenth century, and is to be found in
+many respects embodied in the spurious constitutions mentioned, which
+bore respectively the names of the Emperors Sigismund and Friedrich.
+It was in this form that the Hussite theories were absorbed by the
+German mind. The hopes of the Messianists of the "Holy Roman Empire"
+were centred at one time in the Emperor Sigismund. Later on the role
+of Messiah was carried over to his successor, Friedrich III, upon whom
+the hopes of the German people were cast.
+
+_The Reformation of Kaiser Sigismund_, originally written about 1438,
+went through several editions before the end of the century, and was
+as many times reprinted during the opening years of Luther's movement.
+Like its successor, that of Friedrich, the scheme attributed to
+Sigismund proposed the abolition of the recent abuses of feudalism, of
+the new lawyer class, and of the symptoms already making themselves
+felt of the change from barter to money payments. It proposed, in
+short, a return to primitive conditions. It was a scheme of reform on
+a Biblical basis, embracing many elements of a distinctly communistic
+character, as communism was then understood. It was pervaded with the
+idea of equality in the spirit of the Taborite literature of the age,
+from which it took its origin.
+
+The so-called _Reformation of Kaiser Sigismund_ dealt especially with
+the peasantry--the serfs and villeins of the time; that attributed to
+Friedrich was mainly concerned with the rising population of the
+towns. All towns and communes were to undergo a constitutional
+transformation. Handicraftsmen should receive just wages; all roads
+should be free; taxes, dues, and levies should be abolished; trading
+capital was to be limited to a maximum of 10,000 _gulden_; all
+surplus capital should fall to the Imperial authorities, who should
+lend it in case of need to poor handicraftsmen at 5 per cent.;
+uniformity of coinage and of weights and measures was to be decreed,
+together with the abolition of the Roman and Canon law. Legists,
+priests, and princes were to be severely dealt with. But, curiously
+enough, the middle and lower nobility, especially the knighthood, were
+more tenderly handled, being treated as themselves victims of their
+feudal superiors, lay and ecclesiastic, especially the latter. In this
+connection the secularization of ecclesiastical fiefs was strongly
+insisted on.
+
+As men found, however, that neither the Emperor Sigismund, nor the
+Emperor Friedrich III, nor the Emperor Maximilian, upon each of whom
+successively their hopes had been cast as the possible realization of
+the German Messiah of earlier dreams, fulfilled their expectations,
+nay, as each in succession implicitly belied these hopes, showing no
+disposition whatever to act up to the views promulgated in their
+names, the tradition of the Imperial deliverer gradually lost its
+force and popularity. By the opening of the Lutheran Reformation the
+opinion had become general that a change would not come from above,
+but that the initiative must rest with the people themselves--with the
+classes specially oppressed by existing conditions, political,
+economic, and ecclesiastical--to effect by their own exertions such a
+transformation as was shadowed forth in the spurious constitutions.
+These, and similar ideas, were now everywhere taken up and elaborated,
+often in a still more radical sense than the original; and they
+everywhere found hearers and adherents.
+
+The "true inwardness" of the change, of which the Protestant
+Reformation represented the ideological side, meant the transformation
+of society from a basis mainly corporative and co-operative to one
+individualistic in its essential character. The whole polity of the
+Middle Ages industrial, social, political, ecclesiastical, was based
+on the principle of the group or the community--ranging in
+hierarchical order from the trade-guild to the town corporation; from
+the town corporation through the feudal orders to the Imperial throne
+itself; from the single monastery to the order as a whole; and from
+the order as a whole to the complete hierarchy of the Church as
+represented by the papal chair. The principle of this social
+organization was now breaking down. The modern and bourgeois
+conception of the autonomy of the individual in all spheres of life
+was beginning to affirm itself.
+
+The most definite expression of this new principle asserted itself in
+the religious sphere. The individualism which was inherent in early
+Christianity, but which was present as a speculative content merely,
+had not been strong enough to counteract even the remains of corporate
+tendencies on the material side of things, in the decadent Roman
+Empire; and infinitely less so the vigorous group-organization and
+sentiment of the northern nations, with their tribal society and
+communistic traditions still mainly intact. And these were the
+elements out of which mediaeval society arose. Naturally enough the new
+religious tendencies in revolt against the mediaeval corporate
+Christianity of the Catholic Church seized upon this individualistic
+element in Christianity, declaring the chief end of religion to be a
+personal salvation, for the attainment of which the individual himself
+was sufficing, apart from Church organization and Church tradition.
+This served as a valuable destructive weapon for the iconoclasts in
+their attack on ecclesiastical privilege; consequently, in religion,
+this doctrine of Individualism rapidly made headway. But in more
+material matters the old corporative instinct was still too strong and
+the conditions were as yet too imperfectly ripe for the speedy triumph
+of Individualism.
+
+The conflict of the two tendencies is curiously exhibited in the popular
+movements of the Reformation-time. As enemies of the decaying and
+obstructive forms of Feudalism and Church organization, the peasant and
+handicraftsman were necessarily on the side of the new Individualism. So
+far as negation and destruction were concerned, they were working
+apparently for the new order of things--that new order of things which
+_longo intervallo_ has finally landed us in the developed capitalistic
+Individualism of the twentieth century. Yet when we come to consider
+their constructive programmes we find the positive demands put forward
+are based either on ideal conceptions derived from reminiscences of
+primitive communism, or else that they distinctly postulate a return to
+a state of things--the old mark-organisation--upon which the later
+feudalism had in various ways encroached, and finally superseded. Hence
+they were, in these respects, not merely not in the trend of
+contemporary progress, but in actual opposition to it; and therefore, as
+Lassalle has justly remarked, they were necessarily and in any case
+doomed to failure in the long run.
+
+This point should not be lost sight of in considering the various
+popular movements of the earlier half of the sixteenth century. The
+world was still essentially mediaeval; men were still dominated by
+mediaeval ways of looking at things and still immersed in mediaeval
+conditions of life. It is true that out of this mediaeval soil the new
+individualistic society was beginning to grow, but its manifestations
+were as yet not so universally apparent as to force a recognition of
+their real meaning. It was still possible to regard the various
+symptoms of change, numerous as they were, and far-reaching as we now
+see them to have been, as sporadic phenomena, as rank but unessential
+overgrowths on the old society, which it was possible by pruning and
+the application of other suitable remedies to get rid of, and thereby
+to restore a state of pristine health in the body political and
+social.
+
+Biblical phrases and the notion of Divine Justice now took the place
+in the popular mind formerly occupied by Church and Emperor. All the
+then oppressed classes of society--the small peasant, half villein,
+half free-man; the landless journeyman and town-proletarian; the
+beggar by the wayside; the small master, crushed by usury or
+tyrannized over by his wealthier colleague in the guild, or by the
+town-patriciate; even the impoverished knight, or the soldier of
+fortune defrauded of his pay; in short, all with whom times were bad,
+found consolation for their wants and troubles, and at the same time
+an incentive to action, in the notion of a Divine Justice which should
+restore all things, and the advent of which was approaching. All had
+Biblical phrases tending in the direction of their immediate
+aspirations in their mouths.
+
+As bearing on the development and propaganda of the new ideas, the
+existence of a new intellectual class, rendered possible by the new
+method of exchange through money (as opposed to that of barter), which
+for a generation past had been in full swing in the larger towns, must
+not be forgotten. Formerly land had been the essential condition of
+livelihood; now it was no longer so. The "universal equivalent,"
+money, conjoined with the printing press, was rendering a literary
+class proper, for the first time, possible. In the same way the
+teacher, physician, and the small lawyer were enabled to subsist as
+followers of independent professions, apart from the special service
+of the Church or as part of the court-retinue of some feudal
+potentate. To these we must add a fresh and very important section of
+the intellectual class which also now for the first time acquired an
+independent existence--to wit, that of the public official or
+functionary. This change, although only one of many, is itself
+specially striking as indicating the transition from the barbaric
+civilization of the Middle Ages to the beginnings of the civilization
+of the modern world. We have, in short, before us, as already
+remarked, a period in which the Middle Ages, whilst still dominant,
+have their force visibly sapped by the growth of a new life.
+
+To sum up the chief features of this new life: Industrially, we have
+the decline of the old system of production in the countryside in
+which each manor or, at least, each district, was for the most part
+self-sufficing and self-supporting, where production was almost
+entirely for immediate use, and only the surplus was exchanged, and
+where such exchange as existed took place exclusively under the form
+of barter. In place of this, we find now something more than the
+beginnings of a national-market and distinct traces of that of a
+world-market. In the towns the change was even still more marked. Here
+we have a sudden and hothouse-like development of the influence of
+money. The guild-system, originally designed for associations of
+craftsmen, for which the chief object was the man and the work, and
+not the mere acquirement of profit, was changing its character. The
+guilds were becoming close corporations of privileged capitalists,
+while a commercial capitalism, as already indicated, was raising its
+head in all the larger centres. In consequence of this state of
+things, the rapid development of the towns and of commerce, national
+and international, and the economic backwardness of the country-side,
+a landless proletariat was being formed, which meant on the one hand
+an enormous increase in mendicancy of all kinds, and on the other the
+creation of a permanent class of only casually-employed persons, whom
+the towns absorbed indeed, but for the most part with a new form of
+citizenship involving only the bare right of residence within the
+walls. Similar social phenomena were, of course, manifesting
+themselves contemporaneously in other parts of Europe; but in Germany
+the change was more sudden than elsewhere, and was complicated by
+special political circumstances.
+
+The political and military functions of that for the mediaeval polity
+of Germany, so important class, the knighthood, or lower nobility, had
+by this time become practically obsolete, mainly owing to the changed
+conditions of warfare. But yet the class itself was numerous, and
+still, nominally at least, possessed of most of its old privileges and
+authority. The extent of its real power depended, however, upon the
+absence or weakness of a central power, whether Imperial or
+State-territorial. The attempt to reconstitute the centralized power
+of the empire under Maximilian, of which the _Reichsregiment_ was the
+outcome, had, as we have seen, not proved successful. Its means of
+carrying into effect its own decisions were hopelessly inadequate. In
+1523 it was already weakened, and became little more than a "survival"
+after the Reichstag held at Nuernberg in 1524. Thus this body, which
+had been called into existence at the instance of the most powerful
+estates of the empire, was "shelved" with the practically unanimous
+consent of those who had been instrumental in creating it.
+
+But if the attempt at Imperial centralization had failed, the force of
+circumstances tended partly for this very reason to favour
+State-territorial centralization. The aim of all the territorial
+magnates, the higher members of the Imperial system, was to
+consolidate their own princely power within the territories owing them
+allegiance. This desire played a not unimportant part in the
+establishment of the Reformation in certain parts of the country--for
+example, in Wuertemberg, and in the northern lands of East Prussia
+which were subject to the Grand Master of the Teutonic knights. The
+time was at hand for the transformation of the mediaeval feudal
+territory, with its local jurisdictions and its ties of service, into
+the modern bureaucratic state, with its centralized administration and
+organized system of salaried functionaries subject to a central
+authority.
+
+The religious movement inaugurated by Luther met and was absorbed by
+all these elements of change. It furnished them with a religious
+_flag_, under cover of which they could work themselves out. This was
+necessary in an age when the Christian theology was unquestioningly
+accepted in one or another form by wellnigh all men, and hence entered
+as a practical belief into their daily thoughts and lives. The
+Lutheran Reformation, from its inception in 1517 down to the Peasants'
+War of 1525, at once absorbed, and was absorbed by, all the
+revolutionary elements of the time. Up to the last-mentioned date it
+gathered revolutionary force year by year. But this was the turning
+point.
+
+With the crushing of the peasants' revolt and the decisively
+anti-popular attitude taken up by Luther, the religious movement
+associated with him ceased any longer to have a revolutionary
+character. It henceforth became definitely subservient to the new
+interests of the wealthy and privileged classes, and as such
+completely severed itself from the more extreme popular reforming
+sects.
+
+Up to this time, though by no means always approved by Luther himself
+or his immediate followers, and in some cases even combated by them,
+the latter were nevertheless not looked upon with disfavour by large
+numbers of the rank and file of those who regarded Martin Luther as
+their leader.
+
+Nothing could exceed the violence of language with which Luther
+himself attacked all who stood in his way. Not only the
+ecclesiastical, but also the secular heads of Christendom came in for
+the coarsest abuse; "swine" and "water-bladder" are not the strongest
+epithets employed. But this was not all; in his _Treatise on Temporal
+Authority and how far it should be Obeyed_ (published in 1523), whilst
+professedly maintaining the thesis that the secular authority is a
+Divine ordinance, Luther none the less expressly justifies resistance
+to all human authority where its mandates are contrary to "the word of
+God." At the same time, he denounces in his customary energetic
+language the existing powers generally. "Thou shouldst know," he says,
+"that since the beginning of the world a wise prince is truly a rare
+bird, but a pious prince is still more rare." "They" (princes) "are
+mostly the greatest fools or the greatest rogues on earth; therefore
+must we at all times expect from them the worst, and little good."
+Farther on, he proceeds: "The common man begetteth understanding, and
+the plague of the princes worketh powerfully among the people and the
+common man. He will not, he cannot, he purposeth not, longer to suffer
+your tyranny and oppression. Dear princes and lords, know ye what to
+do, for God will no longer endure it? The world is no more as of old
+time, when ye hunted and drove the people as your quarry. But think ye
+to carry on with much drawing of sword, look to it that one do not
+come who shall bid ye sheath it, and that not in God's name!"
+
+Again, in a pamphlet published the following year, 1524, relative to
+the Reichstag of that year, Luther proclaims that the judgment of God
+already awaits "the drunken and mad princes." He quotes the phrase:
+"Deposuit potentes de sede" (Luke i. 52), and adds "that is your case,
+dear lords, even now when ye see it not!" After an admonition to
+subjects to refuse to go forth to war against the Turks, or to pay
+taxes towards resisting them, who were ten times wiser and more godly
+than German princes, the pamphlet concludes with the prayer: "May God
+deliver us from ye all, and of His grace give us other rulers!"
+Against such utterances as the above, the conventional exhortations to
+Christian humility, non-resistance, and obedience to those in
+authority, would naturally not weigh in a time of popular ferment. So,
+until the momentous year 1525, it was not unnatural that,
+notwithstanding his quarrel with Muenzer and the Zwickau enthusiasts,
+and with others whom he deemed to be going "too far," Luther should
+have been regarded as in some sort the central figure of the
+revolutionary movement, political and social, no less than religious.
+
+But the great literary and agitatory forces during the period referred
+to were of course either outside the Lutheran movement proper or at
+most only on the fringe of it. A mass of broadsheets and pamphlets,
+specimens of some of which have been given in a former volume (_German
+Society at the Close of the Middle Ages_, pp. 114-28), poured from the
+press during these years, all with the refrain that things had gone on
+long enough, that the common man, be he peasant or townsman, could no
+longer bear it. But even more than the revolutionary literature were
+the wandering preachers effective in working up the agitation which
+culminated in the Peasants' War of 1525. The latter comprised men of
+all classes, from the impoverished knight, the poor priest, the
+escaped monk, or the travelling scholar, to the peasant, the mercenary
+soldier out of employment, the poor handicraftsman, of even the
+beggar. Learned and simple, they wandered about from place to place,
+in the market place of the town, in the common field of the village,
+from one territory to another, preaching the gospel of discontent.
+Their harangues were, as a rule, as much political as religious, and
+the ground tone of them all was the social or economic misery of the
+time, and the urgency of immediate action to bring about a change. As
+in the literature, so in the discourses, Biblical phrases designed to
+give force to the new teaching abounded. The more thorough-going of
+these itinerant apostles openly aimed at nothing less than the
+establishment of a new Christian Commonwealth, or, as they termed it,
+"the Kingdom of God on Earth."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] We are here, of course, dealing more especially with Germany; but
+substantially the same course was followed in the development of
+municipalities in other parts of Europe.
+
+[2] _Einleitung_, pp. 255, 256.
+
+[3] Cf. Von Maurer's _Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark-Verfassung_;
+Gomme's _Village Communities_; Laveleye, _La Propriete Primitive_;
+Stubbs's _Constitutional History_; also Maine's works.
+
+[4] It should be remembered that Germany at this time was cut up into
+feudal territorial divisions of all sizes, from the principality, or the
+prince-bishopric, to the knightly manor. Every few miles, and sometimes
+less, there was a fresh territory, a fresh lord, and a fresh
+jurisdiction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT
+
+
+The "great man" theory of history, formerly everywhere prevalent, and
+even now common among non-historical persons, has long regarded the
+Reformation as the purely personal work of the Augustine monk who was
+its central figure. The fallacy of this conception is particularly
+striking in the case of the Reformation. Not only was it preceded by
+numerous sporadic outbursts of religious revivalism which sometimes
+took the shape of opposition to the dominant form of Christianity,
+though it is true they generally shaded off into mere movements of
+independent Catholicism within the Church; but there were in addition
+at least two distinct religious movements which led up to it, while
+much which, under the reformers of the sixteenth century, appears as a
+distinct and separate theology, is traceable in the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries in the mystical movement connected with the names
+of Meister Eckhart and Tauler. Meister Eckhart, whose free treatment
+of Christian doctrines, in order to bring them into consonance with
+his mystical theology, had drawn him into conflict with the Papacy,
+undoubtedly influenced Luther through his disciple, Tauler, and
+especially through the book which proceeded from the latter's school,
+the _Deutsche Theologie_. It is, however, in the much more important
+movement, which originated with Wyclif and extended to Central Europe
+through Huss, that we must look for the more obvious influences
+determining the course of religious development in Germany.
+
+The Wyclifite movement in England was less a doctrinal heterodoxy than
+a revolt against the Papacy and the priestly hierarchy. Mere
+theoretical speculations were seldom interfered with, but anything
+which touched their material interests at once aroused the vigilance
+of the clergy. It is noticeable that the diffusion of Lollardism, that
+is of the ideas of Wyclif, if not the cause of, was at least followed
+by the peasant rising under the leadership of John Ball, a connection
+which is also visible in the Tziska revolt following the Hussite
+movement, and the Peasants' War in Germany which came on the heels of
+the Lutheran Reformation. How much Huss was directly influenced by the
+teachings of Wyclif is clear. The works of the latter were widely
+circulated throughout Europe; for one of the advantages of the custom
+of writing in Latin, which was universal during the Middle Ages, was
+that books of an important character were immediately current amongst
+all scholars without having, as now, to wait upon the caprice and
+ability of translators. Huss read Wyclif's works as the preparation
+for his theological degree, and subsequently made them his text-books
+when teaching at the University of Prague. After his treacherous
+execution at Constance, and the events which followed thereupon in
+Bohemia, a number of Hussite fugitives settled in Southern Germany,
+carrying with them the seeds of the new doctrines. An anonymous
+contemporary writer states that "to John Huss and his followers are to
+be traced almost all those false principles concerning the power of
+the spiritual and temporal authorities and the possession of earthly
+goods and rights which before in Bohemia, and now with us, have called
+forth revolt and rebellion, plunder, arson, and murder, and have
+shaken to its foundations the whole commonwealth. The poison of these
+false doctrines has been long flowing from Bohemia into Germany, and
+will produce the same desolating consequences wherever it spreads."
+
+The condition of the Catholic Church, against which the Reformation
+movement generally was a protest, needs here to be made clear to the
+reader. The beginning of clerical disintegration is distinctly visible
+in the first half of the fourteenth century. The interdicts, as an
+institution, had ceased to be respected, and the priesthood itself
+began openly to sink itself in debauchery and to play fast and loose
+with the rites of the Church. Indulgences for a hundred years were
+readily granted for a consideration. The manufacture of relics became
+an organized branch of industry; and festivals of fools and festivals
+of asses were invented by the jovial priests themselves in travesty of
+sacred mysteries, as a welcome relaxation from the monotony of
+prescribed ecclesiastical ceremony. Pilgrimages increased in number
+and frequency; new saints were created by the dozen; and the disbelief
+of the clergy in the doctrines they professed was manifest even to the
+most illiterate, whilst contempt for the ceremonies they practised was
+openly displayed in the performance of their clerical functions. An
+illustration of this is the joke of the priests related by Luther, who
+were wont during the celebration of the Mass, when the worshippers
+fondly imagined that the sacred formula of transubstantiation was
+being repeated, to replace the words _Panis es et carnem fiebis_,
+"Bread thou art and flesh thou shalt become," by _Panis es et panis
+manebis_, "Bread thou art and bread thou shalt remain."
+
+The scandals as regards clerical manners, growing, as they had been,
+for many generations, reached their climax in the early part of the
+sixteenth century. It was a common thing for priests to drive a
+roaring trade as moneylenders, landlords of alehouses and gambling
+dens, and even in some cases, brothel-keepers. Papal ukases had proved
+ineffective to stem the current of clerical abuses. The regular clergy
+evoked even more indignation than the secular. "Stinking cowls" was a
+favourite epithet for the monks. Begging, cheating, shameless
+ignorance, drunkenness, and debauchery, are alleged as being their
+noted characteristics. One of the princes of the empire addresses a
+prior of a convent largely patronized by aristocratic ladies as "Thou,
+our common brother-in-law!" In some of the convents of Friesland,
+promiscuous intercourse between the sexes was, it is said, quite
+openly practised, the offspring being reared as monks and nuns. The
+different orders competed with each other for the fame and wealth to
+be obtained out of the public credulity. A fraud attempted by the
+Dominicans at Bern, in 1506, _with the concurrence of the heads of the
+order throughout Germany_, was one of the main causes of that city
+adopting the Reformation.
+
+In addition to the increasing burdens of investitures, annates, and
+other Papal dues, the brunt of which the German people had directly or
+indirectly to bear, special offence was given at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century by the excessive exploitation of the practice of
+indulgences by Leo X for the purpose of completing the cathedral of
+St. Peter's at Rome. It was this, coming on the top of the exactions
+already rendered necessary by the increasing luxury and debauchery of
+the Papal Court and those of the other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
+that directly led to the dramatic incidents with which the Lutheran
+Reformation opened.
+
+The remarkable personality with which the religious side of the
+Reformation is pre-eminently associated was a child of his time, who
+had passed through a variety of mental struggles, and had already
+broken through the bonds of the old ecclesiasticism before that
+turning-point in his career which is usually reckoned the opening of
+the Reformation, to wit--the nailing of the theses on to the door of
+the Schloss-Kirche in Wittenberg on the 31st of October, 1517. Martin
+Luther, we must always bear in mind, however, was no Protestant in the
+English Puritan sense of the word. It was not merely that he retained
+much of what would be deemed by the old-fashioned English Protestant
+"Romish error" in his doctrine, but his practical view of life showed
+a reaction from the ascetic pretensions which he had seen bred nothing
+but hypocrisy and the worst forms of sensual excess. It is, indeed,
+doubtful if the man who sang the praises of "Wine, Women, and Song"
+would have been deemed a fit representative in Parliament or elsewhere
+by the British Nonconformist conscience of our day; or would be
+acceptable in any capacity to the grocer-deacon of our provincial
+towns, who, not content with being allowed to sand his sugar and
+adulterate his tea unrebuked, would socially ostracise every one whose
+conduct did not square with his conventional shibboleths. Martin
+Luther was a child of his time also as a boon companion. The freedom
+of his living in the years following his rupture with Rome was the
+subject of severe animadversions on the part of the noble, but in this
+respect narrow-minded, Thomas Muenzer, who, in his open letter
+addressed to the "Soft-living flesh of Wittenberg," scathingly
+denounces what he deems his debauchery.
+
+It does not enter into our province here to discuss at length the
+religious aspects of the Reformation; but it is interesting to note
+in passing the more than modern liberality of Luther's views with
+respect to the marriage question and the celibacy of the clergy,
+contrasted with the strong mediaeval flavour of his belief in
+witchcraft and sorcery. In his _De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae_
+(1519) he expresses the view that if, for any cause, husband or wife
+are prevented from having sexual intercourse they are justified, the
+woman equally with the man, in seeking it elsewhere. He was opposed to
+divorce, though he did not forbid it, and recommended that a man
+should rather have a plurality of wives than that he should put away
+any of them. Luther held strenuously the view that marriage was a
+purely external contract for the purpose of sexual satisfaction, and
+in no way entered into the spiritual life of the man. On this ground
+he sees no objection in the so-called mixed marriages, which were, of
+course, frowned upon by the Catholic Church. In his sermon on "Married
+Life" he says: "Know therefore that marriage is an outward thing, like
+any other worldly business. Just as I may eat, drink, sleep, walk,
+ride, buy, speak, and bargain with a heathen, a Jew, a Turk, or a
+heretic, so may I also be and remain married to such an one, and I
+care not one jot for the fool's laws which forbid it.... A heathen is
+just as much man or woman, well and shapely made by God, as St. Peter,
+St. Paul, or St. Lucia." Nor did he shrink from applying his views to
+particular cases, as is instanced by his correspondence with Philip
+von Hessen, whose constitution appears to have required more than one
+wife. He here lays down explicitly the doctrine that polygamy and
+concubinage are not forbidden to Christians, though, in his advice to
+Philip, he adds the _caveat_ that he should keep the matter dark to
+the end that offence might not be given. "For," says he, "it matters
+not, provided one's conscience is right, what others say." In one of
+his sermons on the Pentateuch[5] we find the words: "It is not
+forbidden that a man have more than one wife. I would not forbid it
+to-day, albeit I would not advise it.... Yet neither would I condemn
+it." Other opinions on the nature of the sexual relation were equally
+broad; for in one of his writings on monastic celibacy his words
+plainly indicate his belief that chastity, no more than other fleshly
+mortifications, was to be considered a divine ordinance for all men or
+women. In an address to the clergy he says: "A woman not possessed of
+high and rare grace can no more abstain from a man than from eating,
+drinking, sleeping, or other natural function. Likewise a man cannot
+abstain from a woman. The reason is that it is as deeply implanted in
+our nature to breed children as it is to eat and drink."[6] The worthy
+Janssen observes in a scandalized tone that Luther, as regards certain
+matters relating to married life, "gave expression to principles
+before unheard of in Christian Europe";[7] and the British
+Nonconformist of to-day, if he reads these "immoral" opinions of the
+hero of the Reformation, will be disposed to echo the sentiments of
+the Ultramontane historian.
+
+The relation of the Reformation to the "New Learning" was in Germany
+not unlike that which existed in the other northern countries of
+Europe, and notably in England. Whilst the hostility of the latter to
+the mediaeval Church was very marked, and it was hence disposed to
+regard the religious Reformation as an ally, this had not proceeded
+very far before the tendency of the Renaissance spirit was to side
+with Catholicism against the new theology and dogma, as merely
+destructive and hostile to culture. The men of the Humanist movement
+were for the most part Free-thinkers, and it was with them that
+free-thought first appeared in modern Europe. They therefore had
+little sympathy with the narrow bigotry of religious reformers, and
+preferred to remain in touch with the Church, whose then loose and
+tolerant Catholicism gave freer play to intellectual speculations,
+provided they steered clear of overt theological heterodoxy, than the
+newer systems, which, taking theology _au grand serieux_, tended to
+regard profane art and learning as more or less superfluous, and spent
+their whole time in theological wrangles. Nevertheless, there were not
+wanting men who, influenced at first by the revival of learning, ended
+by throwing themselves entirely into the Reformation movement, though
+in these cases they were usually actuated rather by their hatred of
+the Catholic hierarchy than by any positive religious sentiment.
+
+Of such men Ulrich von Hutten, the descendant of an ancient and
+influential knightly family, was a noteworthy example. After having
+already acquired fame as the author of a series of skits in the new
+Latin and other works of classical scholarship, being also well known
+as the ardent supporter of Reuchlin in his dispute with the Church,
+and as the friend and correspondent of the central Humanist figure of
+the time, Erasmus, he watched with absorbing interest the movement
+which Luther had inaugurated. Six months after the nailing of the
+theses at Wittenberg, he writes enthusiastically to a friend
+respecting the growing ferment in ecclesiastical matters, evidently
+regarding the new movement as a Kilkenny-cat fight. "The leaders," he
+says, "are bold and hot, full of courage and zeal. Now they shout and
+cheer, now they lament and bewail, as loud as they can. They have
+lately set themselves to write; the printers are getting enough to do.
+Propositions, corollaries, conclusions, and articles are being sold.
+For this alone I hope they will mutually destroy each other." "A few
+days ago a monk was telling me what was going on in Saxony, to which I
+replied: 'Devour each other in order that ye in turn may be devoured
+(_sic_).' Pray Heaven that our enemies may fight each other to the
+bitter end, and by their obstinacy extinguish each other."
+
+Thus it will be seen that Hutten regarded the Reformation in its
+earlier stages as merely a monkish squabble, and failed to see the
+tremendous upheaval of all the old landmarks of ecclesiastical
+domination which was immanent in it. So soon, however, as he perceived
+its real significance, he threw himself wholly into the movement. It
+must not be forgotten, moreover, that, although Hutten's zeal for
+Humanism made him welcome any attempt to overthrow the power of the
+clergy and the monks, he had also an eminently political motive for
+his action in what was, in some respects, the main object of his life,
+viz. to rescue the "knighthood," or smaller nobility, from having
+their independence crushed out by the growing powers of the princes of
+the empire. Probably more than one-third of the manors were held by
+ecclesiastical dignitaries, so that anything which threatened their
+possessions and privileges seemed to strike a blow at the very
+foundations of the Imperial system. Hutten hoped that the new
+doctrines would set the princes by the ears all round; and that then,
+by allying themselves with the reforming party, the knighthood might
+succeed in retaining the privileges which still remained to them, but
+were rapidly slipping away, and might even regain some of those which
+had been already lost. It was not till later, however, that Hutten saw
+matters in this light. He was, at the time the above letter was
+written, in the service of the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, the
+leading favourer of the New Learning amongst the prince-prelates, and
+it was mainly from the Humanist standpoint that he regarded the
+beginnings of the Reformation. After leaving the service of the
+archbishop he struck up a personal friendship with Luther, instigated
+thereto by his political chief, Franz von Sickingen, the leader of the
+knighthood, from whom he probably received the first intimation of the
+importance of the new movement to their common cause.
+
+When, in 1520, the young Emperor, Charles V, was crowned at Aachen,
+Luther's party, as well as the knighthood, expected that considerable
+changes would result in a sense favourable to their position from the
+presumed pliability of the new head of the empire. His youth, it was
+supposed, would make him more sympathetic to the newer spirit which
+was rapidly developing itself; and it is true that about the time of
+his election Charles had shown a transient favour to the "recalcitrant
+monk." It would appear, however, that this was only for the purpose of
+frightening the Pope into abandoning his declared intention of
+abolishing the Inquisition in Spain, then regarded as one of the
+mainstays of the royal power, and still more to exercise pressure upon
+him, in order that he should facilitate Charles's designs on the
+Milanese territory. Once these objects were attained, he was just as
+ready to oblige the Pope by suppressing the new anti-Papal movement as
+he might possibly otherwise have been to have favoured it with a view
+to humbling the only serious rival to his dominion in the empire.
+
+Immediately after his coronation he proceeded to Cologne, and convoked
+by Imperial edict a Reichstag at Worms for the following 27th of
+January, 1521. The proceedings of this famous Reichstag have been
+unfortunately so identified with the edict against Luther that the
+other important matters which were there discussed have almost fallen
+into oblivion. At least two other questions were dealt with, however,
+which are significant of the changes that were then taking place. The
+first was the rehabilitation and strengthening of the Imperial
+Governing Council (_Reichsregiment_), whose functions under Maximilian
+had been little more than nominal. There was at first a feeling
+amongst the States in favour of transferring all authority to it, even
+during the residence of the Emperor in the empire; and in the end,
+while having granted to it complete power during his absence, it
+practically retained very much of this power when he was present. In
+constitution it was very similar to the French "Parliaments," and,
+like them, was principally composed of learned jurists, four being
+elected by the Emperor and the remainder by the estates. The character
+and the great powers of this council, extending even to ecclesiastical
+matters during the ensuing years, undoubtedly did much to hasten on
+the substitution of the civil law for the older customary or common
+law, a matter which we shall consider more in detail later on. The
+financial condition of the empire was also considered; and it here
+first became evident that the dislocation of economic conditions,
+which had begun with the century, would render an enormously increased
+taxation necessary to maintain the Imperial authority, amounting to
+five times as much as had previously been required.
+
+It was only after these secular affairs of the empire had been
+disposed of that the deliberations of the Reichstag on ecclesiastical
+matters were opened by the indictment of Luther in a long speech by
+Aleander, one of the papal nuncios, in introducing the Pope's letter.
+In spite of the efforts of his friends, Luther was not permitted to be
+present at the beginning of the proceedings; but subsequently he was
+sent for by the Emperor, in order that he might state his case. His
+journey to Worms was one long triumph, especially at Erfurt, where he
+was received with enthusiasm by the Humanists as the enemy of the
+Papacy. But his presence in the Reichstag was unavailing, and the
+proceedings resulted in his being placed under the ban of the empire.
+The safe-conduct of the Emperor was, however, in his case respected;
+and in spite of the fears of his friends that a like fate might
+befall him as had befallen Huss after the Council of Constance, he was
+allowed to depart unmolested.
+
+On his way to Wittenberg Luther was seized, by arrangement with his
+supporter, the Kurfuerst of Saxony, and conveyed in safety to the
+Castle of Wartburg, in Thueringen, a report in the meantime being
+industriously circulated by certain of his adherents, with a view of
+arousing popular feeling, that he had been arrested by order of the
+Emperor and was being tortured. In this way he was secured from all
+danger for the time being, and it was during his subsequent stay that
+he laid the foundations of the literary language of Germany.
+
+Says a contemporary writer,[8] an eye-witness of what went on at Worms
+during the sitting of the Reichstag: "All is disorder and confusion.
+Seldom a night doth pass but that three or four persons be slain. The
+Emperor hath installed a provost, who hath drowned, hanged, and
+murdered over a hundred men." He proceeds: "Stabbing, whoring,
+flesh-eating (it was in Lent) ... altogether there is an orgie worthy
+of the Venusberg." He further states that many gentlemen and other
+visitors had drunk themselves to death on the strong Rhenish wine.
+Aleander was in danger of being murdered by the Lutheran populace,
+instigated thereto by Hutten's inflammatory letters from the
+neighbouring Castle of Ebernburg, in which Franz von Sickingen had
+given him a refuge. The fiery Humanist wrote to Aleander himself,
+saying that he would leave no stone unturned "till thou who earnest
+hither full of wrath, madness, crime, and treachery shalt be carried
+hence a lifeless corpse." Aleander naturally felt exceedingly
+uncomfortable, and other supporters of the Papal party were not less
+disturbed at the threats which seemed in a fair way of being carried
+out. The Emperor himself was without adequate means of withstanding a
+popular revolt should it occur. He had never been so low in cash or in
+men as at that moment. On the other hand, Sickingen, to whom he owed
+money, and who was the only man who could have saved the situation
+under the circumstances, had matters come to blows, was almost overtly
+on the side of the Lutherans; while the whole body of the impoverished
+knighthood were only awaiting a favourable opportunity to overthrow
+the power of the magnates, secular and ecclesiastic, with Sickingen as
+a leader. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of the year
+1521.
+
+The ban placed upon Luther by the Reichstag marks the date of the
+complete rupture between the Reforming party and the old Church.
+Henceforward, many Humanist and Humanistically influenced persons who
+had supported him withdrew from the movement and swelled the ranks of
+the Conservatives. Foremost amongst these were Pirckheimer, the
+wealthy merchant and scholar of Nuernberg, and many others, who dreaded
+lest the attack on ecclesiastical property and authority should, as
+indeed was the case, issue in a general attack on all property and
+authority. Thomas Murner, also, who was the type of the "moderate" of
+the situation, while professing to disapprove of the abuses of the
+Church, declared that Luther's manner of agitation could only lead to
+the destruction of all order, civil no less than ecclesiastical. The
+two parties were now clearly defined, and the points at issue were
+plainly irreconcilable with one another or involved irreconcilable
+details.
+
+The printing-press now for the first time appeared as the vehicle for
+popular literature; the art of the bard gave place to the art of the
+typographer, and the art of the preacher saw confronting it a
+formidable rival in that of the pamphleteer. Similarly in the French
+Revolution, modern journalism, till then unimportant and sporadic,
+received its first great development, and began seriously to displace
+alike the preacher, the pamphlet, and the broadside. The flood of
+theological disquisitions, satires, dialogues, sermons, which now
+poured from every press in Germany, overflowed into all classes of
+society. These writings are so characteristic of the time that it is
+worth while devoting a few pages to their consideration, the more
+especially because it will afford us the opportunity for considering
+other changes in that spirit of the age, partly diseased growths of
+decaying mediaevalism and partly the beginnings of the modern critical
+spirit, which also find expression in the literature of the
+Reformation period.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] _Saemmtliche Werke_, vol. xxxiii. pp. 322-4.
+
+[6] Quoted in Janssen, _Ein Zweites Wort an meine Kritiker_ 1883, p. 94.
+
+[7] _Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes_, vol. ii. p. 115.
+
+[8] Quoted in Janssen, bk. ii. 162.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE TIME
+
+
+In accordance with the conventional view the Reichstag at Worms was a
+landmark in the history of the Reformation. This is, however, only
+true as regards the political side of the movement. The popular
+feeling was really quite continuous, at least from 1517 to 1525. With
+the latter year and the collapse of the peasant revolt a change is
+noticeable. In 1525 the Reformation, as a great upstirring of the
+popular mind of Central Europe, in contradistinction to its character
+as an academic and purely political movement, reached high-water mark,
+and may almost be said to have exhausted itself. Until the latter year
+it was purely a revolutionary movement, attracting to itself all the
+disruptive elements of its time. Later, the reactionary possibilities
+within it declared themselves. The emancipation from the thraldom of
+the Catholic hierarchy and its Papal head, it was soon found, meant
+not emancipation from the arbitrary tyranny of the new political and
+centralizing authorities then springing up, but, on the contrary,
+rather their consecration. The ultimate outcome, in fact, of the whole
+business was, as we shall see later on, the inculcation of the
+non-resistance theory as regards the civil power, and the clearing of
+the way for its extremest expression in the doctrine of the Divine
+Right of Kings, a theory utterly alien to the belief and practice of
+the Mediaeval Church.
+
+The Reichstag of Worms, by cutting off all possibility of
+reconciliation, rather gave further edge to the popular revolutionary
+side of the movement than otherwise. The whole progress of the change
+in public feeling is plainly traceable in the mass of ephemeral
+literature that has come down to us from this period, broadsides,
+pamphlets, satires, folk-songs, and the rest. The anonymous literature
+to which we more especially refer is distinguished by its coarse
+brutality and humour, even in the writings of the Reformers, which
+were themselves in no case remarkable for the suavity of their
+polemic.
+
+Hutten, in some of his later vernacular poems, approaches the
+character of the less-cultured broadside literature. To the critical
+mind it is somewhat amusing to note the enthusiasm with which the
+modern Dissenting and Puritan class contemplates the period of which
+we are writing--an enthusiasm that would probably be effectively
+damped if the laudators of the Reformation knew the real character of
+the movement and of its principal actors.
+
+The first attacks made by the broadside literature were naturally
+directed against the simony and benefice-grabbing of the clergy, a
+characteristic of the priestly office that has always powerfully
+appealed to the popular mind. Thus the "Courtisan and Benefice-eater"
+attacks the parasite of the Roman Court, who absorbs ecclesiastical
+revenues wholesale, putting in perfunctory _locum tenens_ on the
+cheap, and begins:--
+
+    I'm fairly called a Simonist and eke a Courtisan,
+    And here to every peasant and every common man
+    My knavery will very well appear.
+    I called and cried to all who'd give me ear,
+    To nobleman and knight and all above me:
+    "Behold me! And ye'll find I'll truly love ye."
+
+In another we read:--
+
+    The Paternoster teaches well
+    How one for another his prayers should tell,
+    Thro' brotherly love and not for gold,
+    And good those same prayers God doth hold.
+    So too saith Holy Paul right clearly,
+    Each shall his brother's load bear dearly.
+
+But now, it declares, all that is changed. Now we are being taught
+just the opposite of God's teachings:--
+
+    Such doctrine hath the priests increased,
+    Whom men as masters now must feast,
+    'Fore all the crowd of Simonists,
+    Whose waxing number no man wists,
+    The towns and thorps seem full of them,
+    And in all lands they're seen with shame.
+    Their violence and knavery
+    Leave not a church or living free.
+
+A prose pamphlet, apparently published about the summer of 1520,
+shortly after Luther's ex-communication, was the so-called "Wolf Song"
+(_Wolf-gesang_), which paints the enemies of Luther as wolves. It
+begins with a screed on the creation and fall of Adam, and a
+dissertation on the dogma of the Redemption; and then proceeds: "As
+one might say, dear brother, instruct me, for there is now in our
+times so great commotion in faith come upon us. There is one in Saxony
+who is called Luther, of whom many pious and honest folk tell how that
+he doth write so consolingly the good evangelical (_evangelische_)
+truth. But again I hear that the Pope and the cardinals at Rome have
+put him under the ban as a heretic; and certain of our own preachers,
+too, scold him from their pulpits as a knave, a misleader, and a
+heretic. I am utterly confounded, and know not where to turn; albeit
+my reason and heart do speak to me even as Luther writeth. But yet
+again it bethinks me that when the Pope, the cardinal, the bishop, the
+doctor, the monk, and the priest, for the greater part are against
+him, and so that all save the common men and a few gentlemen, doctors,
+councillors, and knights, are his adversaries, what shall I do?" "For
+answer, dear friend, get thee back and search the Scriptures, and thou
+shalt find that so it hath gone with all the holy prophets even as it
+now fareth with Doctor Martin Luther, who is in truth a godly
+Christian and manly heart and only true Pope and Apostle, when he the
+true office of the Apostles publicly fulfilleth.... If the godly man
+Luther were pleasing to the world, that were indeed a true sign that
+his doctrine were not from God; for the word of God is a fiery sword,
+a hammer that breaketh in pieces the rocks, and not a fox's tail or a
+reed that may be bent according to our pleasure." Seventeen noxious
+qualities of the wolf are adduced--his ravenousness, his cunning, his
+falseness, his cowardice, his thirst for robbery, amongst others. The
+Popes, the cardinals, and the bishops are compared to the wolves in
+all their attributes: "The greater his pomp and splendour, the more
+shouldst thou beware of such an one; for he is a wolf that cometh in
+the shape of a good shepherd's dog. Beware! it is against the custom
+of Christ and His Apostles." It is again but the song of the wolves
+when they claim to mix themselves with worldly affairs and maintain
+the temporal supremacy. The greediness of the wolf is discernible in
+the means adopted to get money for the building of St. Peter's. The
+interlocutor is warned against giving to mendicant priests and monks.
+
+We have given this as a specimen of the almost purely theological
+pamphlet; although, as will have been evident, even this is directly
+connected with the material abuses from which the people were
+suffering. Another pamphlet of about the same date deals with usury,
+the burden of which had been greatly increased by the growth of the
+new commercial combinations already referred to in the Introduction,
+which combinations Dr. Eck had been defending at Bologna on
+theological grounds, in order to curry favour with the Augsburg
+merchant-prince, Fuggerschwatz.[9] It is called "Concerning Dues.
+Hither comes a poor peasant to a rich citizen. A priest comes also
+thereby, and then a monk. Full pleasant to read." A peasant visits a
+burgher when he is counting money, and asks him where he gets it all
+from. "My dear peasant," says the townsman, "thou askest me who gave
+me this money. I will tell thee. There cometh hither a peasant, and
+beggeth me to lend him ten or twenty gulden. Thereupon I ask him an he
+possesseth not a goodly meadow or corn-field. 'Yea! good sir!' saith
+he, 'I have indeed a good meadow and a good corn-field. The twain are
+worth a hundred gulden.' Then say I to him: 'Good, my friend, wilt
+thou pledge me thy holding? and an thou givest me one gulden of thy
+money every year I will lend thee twenty gulden now.' Then is the
+peasant right glad, and saith he: 'Willingly will I pledge it thee.'
+'I will warn thee,' say I, 'that an thou furnishest not the one gulden
+of money each year, I will take thy holding for my own having.'
+Therewith is the peasant well content, and writeth him down
+accordingly. I lend him the money; he payeth me one year, or may be
+twain, the due; thereafter can he no longer furnish it, and thereupon
+I take the holding, and drive away the peasant therefrom. Thus I get
+the holding and the money. The same things do I with handicraftsmen.
+Hath he a good house? He pledgeth that house until I bring it behind
+me. Therewith gain I much in goods and money, and thus do I pass my
+days." "I thought," rejoined the peasant, "that 'twere only the Jew
+who did usury, but I hear that ye also ply that trade." The burgher
+answers that interest is not usury, to which the peasant replies that
+interest (_Guelt_) is only a "subtle name." The burgher then quotes
+Scripture, as commanding men to help one another. The peasant readily
+answers that in doing this they have no right to get advantage from
+the assistance they proffer. "Thou art a good fellow!" says the
+townsman. "If I take no money for the money that I lend, how shall I
+then increase my hoard?" The peasant then reproaches him that he sees
+well that his object in life is to wax fat on the substance of others;
+"But I tell thee, indeed," he says, "that it is a great and heavy
+sin." Whereupon his opponent waxes wroth, and will have nothing more
+to do with him, threatening to kick him out in the name of a thousand
+devils; but the peasant returns to the charge, and expresses his
+opinion that rich men do not willingly hear the truth. A priest now
+enters, and to him the townsman explains the dispute. "Dear peasant,"
+says the priest, "wherefore camest thou hither, that thou shouldst
+make of a due[10] usury? May not a man buy with his money what he
+will?" But the peasant stands by his previous assertion, demanding
+how anything can be considered as bought which is only a pledge. "We
+priests," replies the ecclesiastic, "must perforce lend moneys for
+dues, since thereby we get our living"; to which, after sundry
+ejaculations of surprise, the peasant retorts: "Who gave to you the
+power? I well hear ye have another God than we poor people. We have
+our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath forbidden such money-lending for
+gain." Hence it comes, he goes on, that land is no longer free; to
+attempt to whitewash usury under the name of due or interest, he says,
+is just the same as if one were to call a child christened Friedrich
+or Hansel, Fritz or Hans, and then maintain it was no longer the same
+child. They require no more Jews, he says, since the Christians have
+taken their business in hand. The townsman is once more about to turn
+the peasant out of his house when a monk enters. He then lays the
+matter before the new-comer, who promises to talk the peasant over
+with soft words; for, says he, there is nothing accomplished with
+vainglory. He thereupon takes him aside and explains it to him by the
+illustration of a merchant whose gain on the wares he sells is not
+called usury, and argues that therefore other forms of gain in
+business should not be described by this odious name. But the peasant
+will have none of this comparison; for the merchant, he says, needs
+to incur much risk in order to gain and traffic with his wares; while
+money-lending on security is, on the other hand, without risk or
+labour, and is a treacherous mode of cheating. Finding that they can
+make nothing of the obstinate countryman, the others leave him; but
+he, as a parting shot, exclaims: "Ah, well-a-day! I would to have
+talked with thee at first, but it is now ended. Farewell, gracious
+sir, and my other kind sirs. I, poor little peasant, I go my way.
+Farewell, farewell, due remains usury for ever more. Yea, yea! due,
+indeed!"
+
+The above specimens of the popular writing of the time must suffice.
+But for the reader who wishes to further study this literature we give
+the titles, which sufficiently indicate their contents, of a selection
+of other similar pamphlets and broadsheets: "A New Epistle from the
+Evil Clergy sent to their righteous Lord, with an answer from their
+Lord. Most merry to read" (1521). "A Great Prize which the Prince of
+Hell, hight Lucifer, now offereth to the Clergy, to the Pope, Bishops,
+Cardinals, and their like" (1521). "A Written Call, made by the Prince
+of Hell to his dear devoted, of all and every condition in his
+kingdom" (1521). "Dialogue or Converse of the Apostolicum, Angelica,
+and other spices of the Druggist, anent Dr. Martin Luther and his
+disciples" (1521). "A Very Pleasant Dialogue and Remonstrance from the
+Sheriff of Gaissdorf and his pupil against the pastor of the same and
+his assistant" (1521). The popularity of "Karsthans," an anonymous
+tract, amongst the people is illustrated by the publication and wide
+distribution of a new "Karsthans" a few months later, in which it is
+sought to show that the knighthood should make common cause with the
+peasants, the _dramatis personae_ being Karsthans and Franz von
+Sickingen. Referring to the same subject we find a "Dialogue which
+Franciscus von Sickingen held fore heaven's gate with St. Peter and
+the Knights of St. George before he was let in." This was published in
+1523, almost immediately after the death of Sickingen. "A Talk between
+a Nobleman, a Monk, and a Courtier" (1523). "A Talk between a Fox and
+a Wolf" (1523). "A Pleasant Dialogue between Dr. Martin Luther and the
+cunning Messenger from Hell" (1523). "A Conversation of the Pope with
+his Cardinals of how it goeth with him, and how he may destroy the
+Word of God. Let every man very well note" (1523). "A Christian and
+Merry Talk, that it is more pleasing to God and more wholesome for men
+to come out of the monasteries and to marry, than to tarry therein
+and to burn; which talk is not with human folly and the false
+teachings thereof, but is founded alone in the holy, divine, biblical,
+and evangelical Scripture" (1524). "A Pleasant Dialogue of a Peasant
+with a Monk that he should cast his Cowl from him. Merry and fair to
+read" (1525).
+
+The above is only a selection taken haphazard from the mass of
+fugitive literature which the early years of the Reformation brought
+forth. In spite of a certain rough but not unattractive directness of
+diction, a prolonged reading of them is very tedious, as will have
+been sufficiently seen from the extracts we have given. Their humour
+is of a particularly juvenile and obvious character, and consists
+almost entirely in the childish device of clothing the personages with
+ridiculous but non-essential attributes, or in placing them in
+grotesque but pointless situations. Of the more subtle humour, which
+consists in the discovery of real but hidden incongruities, and the
+perception of what is innately absurd, there is no trace. The obvious
+abuses of the time are satirized in this way _ad nauseam_. The
+rapacity of the clergy in general, the idleness and lasciviousness of
+the monks, the pomp and luxury of the prince-prelates, the
+inconsistencies of Church traditions and practices with Scripture,
+with which they could now be compared, since it was everywhere
+circulated in the vulgar tongue, form their never-ending theme. They
+reveal to the reader a state of things that strikes one none the less
+in English literature of the period--the intense interest of all
+classes in theological matters. It shows us how they looked at all
+things through a theological lens. Although we have left this phase of
+popular thought so recently behind us, we can even now scarcely
+imagine ourselves back into it. The idea of ordinary men, or of the
+vast majority, holding their religion as anything else than a very
+pious opinion absolutely unconnected with their daily life, public or
+private, has already become almost inconceivable to us. In all the
+writings of the time, the theological interest is in the forefront.
+The economic and social groundwork only casually reveals itself. This
+it is that makes the reading of the sixteenth-century polemics so
+insufferably jejune and dreary. They bring before us the ghosts of
+controversies in which most men have ceased to take any part, albeit
+they have not been dead and forgotten long enough to have acquired a
+revived antiquarian interest.
+
+The great bombshell which Luther cast forth on June 24, 1520, in his
+address to the German nobility,[11] indeed, contains strong appeals to
+the economical and political necessities of Germany, and therein we
+see the veil torn from the half-unconscious motives that lay behind
+the theological mask; but, as already said, in the popular literature,
+with a few exceptions, the theological controversy rules undisputed.
+
+The noticeable feature of all this irruption of the _cacoethes
+scribendi_ was the direct appeal to the Bible for the settlement not
+only of strictly theological controversies but of points of social and
+political ethics also. This practice, which even to the modern
+Protestant seems insipid and played out after three centuries and a
+half of wear, had at that time the to us inconceivable charm of
+novelty; and the perusal of the literature and controversies of the
+time shows that men used it with all the delight of a child with a new
+toy, and seemed never tired of the game of searching out texts to
+justify their position. The diffusion of the whole Bible in the
+vernacular, itself a consequence of the rebellion against priestly
+tradition and the authority of the Fathers, intensified the revolt by
+making the pastime possible to all ranks of society.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] See Appendix C.
+
+[10] We use the word "due" here for the German word _Guelt_. The
+corresponding English of the time does not make any distinction between
+_Guelt_ or interest, and _Wucher_ or usury.
+
+[11] _An der Christlichen Adel deutscher Nation._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE FOLKLORE OF REFORMATION GERMANY
+
+
+Now in the hands of all men, the Bible was not made the basis of
+doctrinal opinions alone. It lent its support to many of the popular
+superstitions of the time, and in addition it served as the
+starting-point for new superstitions and for new developments of the
+older ones. The Pan-daemonism of the New Testament, with its
+wonder-workings by devilish agencies, its exorcisms of evil spirits
+and the like, could not fail to have a deep effect on the popular
+mind. The authority that the book believed to be divinely inspired
+necessarily lent to such beliefs gave a vividness to the popular
+conception of the devil and his angels, which is apparent throughout
+the whole movement of the Reformation, and not least in the utterances
+of the great Luther himself. Indeed, with the Reformation there comes
+a complete change over the popular conception of the devil and
+diabolical influences.
+
+It is true that the judicial pursuit of witches and witchcraft, in
+the earlier Middle Ages only a sporadic incident, received a great
+impulse from the Bull of Pope Innocent VIII (Dec. 5, 1484), entitled
+_Summis Desideruntes_, to which has been given the title of _Malleus
+Maleficorum_, or _The Hammer of Sorcerers_, directed against the
+practice of witchcraft; but it was especially amongst the men of the
+New Spirit that the belief in the prevalence of compacts with the
+devil, and the necessity for suppressing them, took root, and led to
+the horrible persecutions that distinguished the "Reformed" Churches
+on the whole even more than the Catholic.
+
+Luther himself had a vivid belief, tinging all his views and actions,
+in the ubiquity of the devil and his myrmidons. "The devils," says he,
+"are near us, and do cunningly contrive every moment without ceasing
+against our life, our salvation, and our blessedness.... In woods,
+waters, and wastes, and in damp, marshy places, there are many devils
+that seek to harm men. In the black and thick clouds, too, there are
+some that make storms, hail, lightning, and thunder, that poison the
+air and the pastures. When such things happen, the philosophers and
+the physicians ascribe them to the stars, and show I know not what
+causes for such misfortunes and plagues." Luther relates numerous
+instances of personal encounters that he himself had had with the
+devil. A nobleman invited him, with other learned men from the
+University of Wittenberg, to take part in a hare hunt. A large, fine
+hare and a fox crossed the path. The nobleman, mounted on a strong,
+healthy steed, dashed after them, when, suddenly, his horse fell dead
+beneath him, and the fox and the hare flew up in the air and vanished.
+"For," says Luther, "they were devilish spectres."
+
+Again, on another occasion, he was at Eisleben on the occasion of
+another hare-hunt, when the nobleman succeeded in killing eight hares,
+which were, on their return home, duly hung up for the next day's
+meal. On the following morning, horses' heads were found in their
+place. "In mines," says Luther, "the devil oftentimes deceives men
+with a false appearance of gold." All disease and all misfortune were
+the direct work of the devil; God, who was all good, could not produce
+either. Luther gives a long history of how he was called to a parish
+priest, who complained of the devil's having created a disturbance in
+his house by throwing the pots and pans about, and so forth, and of
+how he advised the priest to exorcise the fiend by invoking his own
+authority as a pastor of the Church.
+
+At the Wartburg, Luther complained of having been very much troubled
+by the Satanic arts. When he was at work upon his translation of the
+Bible, or upon his sermons, or engaged in his devotions, the devil was
+always making disturbances on the stairs or in the room. One day,
+after a hard spell of study, he lay down to sleep in his bed, when the
+devil began pelting him with hazel-nuts, a sack of which had been
+brought to him a few hours before by an attendant. He invoked,
+however, the name of Christ, and lay down again in bed. There were
+other more curious and more doubtful recipes for driving away Satan
+and his emissaries. Luther is never tired of urging that contemptuous
+treatment and rude chaff are among the most efficacious methods.
+
+There was, he relates, a poor soothsayer, to whom the devil came in
+visible form, and offered great wealth provided that he would deny
+Christ and never more do penance. The devil provided him with a
+crystal, by which he could foretell events, and thus become rich. This
+he did; but Nemesis awaited him, for the devil deceived him one day,
+and caused him to denounce certain innocent persons as thieves. In
+consequence, he was thrown into prison, where he revealed the compact
+that he had made, and called for a confessor. The two chief forms in
+which the devil appeared were, according to Luther, those of a snake
+and a sheep. He further goes into the question of the population of
+devils in different countries. On the top of the Pilatus at Luzern, he
+says, is a black pond, which is one of the devil's favourite abodes.
+In Luther's own country there is also a high mountain, the
+Poltersberg, with a similar pond. When a stone is thrown into this
+pond, a great tempest arises, which often devastates the whole
+neighbourhood. He also alleges Prussia to be full of evil spirits
+(!!).
+
+Devilish changelings, Luther said, were often placed by Satan in the
+cradles of human children. "Some maids he often plunges into the
+water, and keeps them with him until they have borne a child." These
+children are placed in the beds of mortals, and the true children are
+taken out and hurried away. "But," he adds, "such changelings are said
+not to live more than to the eighteenth or nineteenth year." As a
+practical application of this, it may be mentioned that Luther advised
+the drowning of a certain child of twelve years old, on the ground of
+its being a devil's changeling. Somnambulism is, with Luther, the
+result of diabolical agency. "Formerly," says he, "the Papists, being
+superstitious people, alleged that persons thus afflicted had not been
+properly baptized, or had been baptized by a drunken priest." The
+irony of the reference to superstition, considering the "great
+reformer's" own position, will not be lost upon the reader.
+
+Thus, not only is the devil the cause of pestilence, but he is also
+the immediate agent of nightmare and of nightsweats. At Moelburg in
+Thueringen, near Erfurt, a piper, who was accustomed to pipe at
+weddings, complained to his priest that the devil had threatened to
+carry him away and destroy him, on the ground of a practical joke
+played upon some companions, to wit, for having mixed horse-dung with
+their wine at a drinking bout. The priest consoled him with many
+passages of Scripture anent the devil and his ways, with the result
+that the piper expressed himself satisfied as regarded the welfare of
+his soul, but apprehensive as regarded that of his body, which was, he
+asserted, hopelessly the prey of the devil. In consequence of this, he
+insisted on partaking of the Sacrament. The devil had indicated to him
+when he was going to be fetched, and watchers were accordingly placed
+in his room, who sat in their armour and with their weapons, and read
+the Bible to him. Finally, one Saturday at midnight, a violent storm
+arose, that blew out the lights in the room, and hurled the luckless
+victim out of a narrow window into the street. The sound of fighting
+and of armed men was heard, but the piper had disappeared. The next
+morning he was found in a neighbouring ditch, with his arms stretched
+out in the form of a cross, dead and coal-black. Luther vouches for
+the truth of this story, which he alleges to have been told him by a
+parish priest of Gotha, who had himself heard it from the parish
+priest of Moelburg, where the event was said to have taken place.
+
+Amongst the numerous anecdotes of a supernatural character told by
+"Dr. Martin" is one of a "Poltergeist," or "Robin Goodfellow," who was
+exorcised by two monks from the guest-chamber of an inn, and who
+offered his services to them in the monastery. They gave him a corner
+in the kitchen. The serving-boy used to torment him by throwing dirty
+water over him. After unavailing protests, the spirit hung the boy up
+to a beam, but let him down again before serious harm resulted. Luther
+states that this "brownie" was well known by sight in the neighbouring
+town (the name of which he does not give). But by far the larger
+number of his stories, which, be it observed, are warranted as
+ordinary occurrences, as to the possibility of which there was no
+question, are coloured by that more sinister side of supernaturalism
+so much emphasised by the new theology.
+
+The mediaeval devil was, for the most part, himself little more than a
+prankish Ruebezahl, or Robin Goodfellow; the new Satan of the
+Reformers was, in very deed, an arch-fiend, the enemy of the human
+race, with whom no truce or parley might be held. The old folklore
+belief in _incubi_ and _succubi_ as the parents of changelings is
+brought into connection with the theory of direct diabolic begettal.
+Thus Luther relates how Friedrich, the Elector of Saxony, told him of
+a noble family that had sprung from a _succubus_: "Just," says he, "as
+the Melusina at Luxembourg was also such a _succubus_, or devil." In
+the case referred to, the _succubus_ assumed the shape of the man's
+dead wife, and lived with him and bore him children, until, one day,
+he swore at her, when she vanished, leaving only her clothes behind.
+After giving it as his opinion that all such beings and their
+offspring are wiles of the devil, he proceeds: "It is truly a grievous
+thing that the devil can so plague men that he begetteth children in
+their likeness. It is even so with the nixies in the water, that lure
+a man therein, in the shape of wife or maid, with whom he doth dally
+and begetteth offspring of them." The change whereby the beings of the
+old naive folklore are transformed into the devil or his agents is
+significant of that darker side of the new theology, which was
+destined to issue in those horrors of the witchcraft-mania that
+reached their height at the beginning of the following century.
+
+One more story of a "changeling" before we leave the subject. Luther
+gives us the following as having come to his knowledge near
+Halberstadt, in Saxony. A peasant had a baby, who sucked out its
+mother and five nurses, besides eating a great deal. Concluding that
+it was a changeling, the peasant sought the advice of his neighbours,
+who suggested that he should take it on a pilgrimage to a neighbouring
+shrine of the Mother of God. While he was crossing a brook on the way
+an impish voice from under the water called out to the infant, whom he
+was carrying in a basket. The brat answered from within the basket,
+"Ho, ho!" and the peasant was unspeakably shocked. When the voice from
+the water proceeded to ask the child what it was after, and received
+the answer from the hitherto inarticulate babe that it was going to be
+laid on the shrine of the Mother of God, to the end that it might
+prosper, the peasant could stand it no longer, and flung basket and
+baby into the brook. The changeling and the little devil played for a
+few moments with each other, rolling over and over, and crying, "Ho,
+ho, ho!" and then they disappeared together. Luther says that these
+devilish brats may be generally known by their eating and drinking too
+much, and especially by their exhausting their mother's milk, but they
+may not develop any certain signs of their true parentage until
+eighteen or nineteen years old. The Princess of Anhalt had a child
+which Luther imagined to be a changeling, and he therefore advised its
+being drowned, alleging that such creatures were only lumps of flesh
+animated by the devil or his angels. Some one spoke of a monster which
+infested the Netherlands, and which went about smelling at people like
+a dog, and whoever it smelt died. But those that were smelt did not
+see it, albeit the bystanders did. The people had recourse to vigils
+and masses. Luther improved the occasion to protest against the
+"superstition" of masses for the dead, and to insist upon his
+favourite dogma of faith as the true defence against assaults of the
+devil.
+
+Among the numerous stories of Satanic compacts, we are told of a monk
+who ate up a load of hay, of a debtor who bit off the leg of his
+Hebrew creditor and ran off to avoid payment, and of a woman who
+bewitched her husband so that he vomited lizards. Luther observes,
+with especial reference to this last case, that lawyers and judges
+were far too pedantic with their witnesses and with their evidence;
+that the devil hardens his clients against torture, and that the
+refusal to confess under torture ought to be of itself sufficient
+proof of dealings with the Prince of Darkness. "Towards such," says
+he, "we would show no mercy; I would burn them myself." Black magic or
+witchcraft he proceeds to characterize as the greatest sin a human
+being can be guilty of, as, in fact, high treason against God
+Himself--_crimen laesae majestatis divinae_.
+
+The conversation closes with a story of how Maximilian's father, the
+Emperor Friedrich, who seems to have obtained a reputation for magic
+arts, invited a well-known magician to a banquet, and on his arrival
+fixed claws on his hands and hoofs on his feet by his cunning. His
+guest, being ashamed, tried to hide the claws under the table as long
+as he could, but finally he had to show them, to his great
+discomfiture. But he determined to have his revenge, and asked his
+host whether he would permit him to give proofs of his own skill. The
+Emperor assenting, there at once arose a great noise outside the
+window. Friedrich sprang up from the table, and leaned out of the
+casement to see what was the matter. Immediately an enormous pair of
+stag's horns appeared on his head, so that he could not draw it back.
+Finding the state of the case, the Emperor exclaimed: "Rid me of them
+again! Thou hast won!" Luther's comment on this was that he was always
+glad to see one devil getting the better of another, as it showed
+that some were stronger than others.
+
+All this belongs, roughly speaking, to the side of the matter which
+regards popular theology; but there is another side which is connected
+more especially with the New Learning. This other school, which sought
+to bring the somewhat elastic elements of the magical theory of the
+universe into the semblance of a systematic whole, is associated with
+such names as those of Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, and the Abbot
+von Trittenheim. The fame of the first-named was so great throughout
+Germany that when he visited any town the occasion was looked upon as
+an event of exceeding importance.[12] Paracelsus fully shared in the
+beliefs of his age, in spite of his brilliant insights on certain
+occasions. What his science was like may be imagined when we learn
+that he seriously speaks of animals who conceive through the mouth of
+basilisks whose glance is deadly, of petrified storks changed into
+snakes, of the stillborn young of the lion which are afterwards
+brought to life by the roar of their sire, of frogs falling in a
+shower of rain, of ducks transformed into frogs, and of men born from
+beasts; the menstruation of women he regarded as a venom whence
+proceeded flies, spiders, earwigs, and all sorts of loathsome vermin;
+night was caused, not by the absence of the sun, but by the presence
+of the stars, which were the positive cause of the darkness. He
+relates having seen a magnet capable of attracting the eyeball from
+its socket as far as the tip of the nose; he knows of salves to close
+the mouth so effectually that it has to be broken open again by
+mechanical means, and he writes learnedly on the infallible signs of
+witchcraft. By mixing horse-dung with human semen he believed he was
+able to produce a medium from which, by chemical treatment in a
+retort, a diminutive human being, or _homunculus_, as he called it,
+could be produced. The spirits of the elements, the sylphs of the air,
+the gnomes of the earth, the salamanders of the fire, and the undines
+of the water, were to him real and undoubted existences in Nature.
+
+Strange as all these beliefs seem to us now, they were a very real
+factor in the intellectual conceptions of the Renaissance period, no
+less than of the Middle Ages, and amidst them there is to be found at
+times a foreshadowing of more modern knowledge. Many other persons
+were also more or less associated with the magical school, amongst
+them Franz von Sickingen. Reuchlin himself, by his Hebrew studies, and
+especially by his introduction of the Kabbala to Gentile readers,
+also contributed a not unimportant influence in determining the course
+of the movement. The line between the so-called black magic, or
+operations conducted through the direct agency of evil spirits, and
+white magic, which sought to subject Nature to the human will by the
+discovery of her mystical and secret laws, or the character of the
+quasi-personified intelligent principles under whose form Nature
+presented herself to their minds, had never throughout the Middle Ages
+been very clearly defined. The one always had a tendency to shade off
+into the other, so that even Roger Bacon's practices were, although
+not condemned, at least looked upon somewhat doubtfully by the Church.
+At the time of which we treat, however, the interest in such matters
+had become universal amongst all intelligent persons. The scientific
+imagination at the close of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance
+period was mainly occupied with three questions: the discovery of the
+means of transmuting the baser metals into gold, or otherwise of
+producing that object of universal desire; to discover the Elixir
+Vitae, by which was generally understood the invention of a drug which
+would have the effect of curing all diseases, restoring man to
+perennial youth, and, in short, prolonging human life indefinitely;
+and, finally, the search for the Philosopher's Stone, the happy
+possessor of which would not only be able to achieve the first two,
+but also, since it was supposed to contain the quintessence of all the
+metals, and therefore of all the planetary influences to which the
+metals corresponded, would have at his command all the forces which
+mould the destinies of men. In especial connection with the latter
+object of research may be noted the universal interest in astrology,
+whose practitioners were to be found at every Court, from that of the
+Emperor himself to that of the most insignificant prince or princelet,
+and whose advice was sought and carefully heeded on all important
+occasions. Alchemy and astrology were thus the recognized physical
+sciences of the age, under the auspices of which a Copernicus and a
+Tycho Brahe were born and educated.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] Cf. Sebastian Franck, _Chronica_, for an account of a visit of
+Paracelsus to Nuernberg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TOWN
+
+
+From what has been said the reader may form for himself an idea of the
+intellectual and social life of the German town of the period. The
+wealthy patrician class, whose mainstay politically was the _Rath_,
+gave the social tone to the whole. In spite of the sharp and sometimes
+brutal fashion in which class distinctions asserted themselves then,
+as throughout the Middle Ages, there was none of that aloofness
+between class and class which characterizes the bourgeois society of
+the present day. Each town, were it great or small, was a little world
+in itself, so that every citizen knew every other citizen more or
+less. The schools attached to its ecclesiastical institutions were
+practically free of access to all the children whose parents could
+find the means to maintain them during their studies; and consequently
+the intellectual differences between the different classes were by no
+means necessarily proportionate to the difference in social position.
+So far as culture and material prosperity were concerned, the towns
+of Bavaria and Franconia, Munich, Augsburg, Regensburg, and perhaps,
+above all, Nuernberg, represented the high-water mark of mediaeval
+civilization as regards town life. On entering the burg, should it
+have happened to be in time of peace and in daylight, the stranger
+would clear the drawbridge and the portcullis without much challenge;
+passing along streets lined with the houses and shops of the burghers,
+in whose open frontages the master and his apprentices and _gesellen_
+plied their trades, discussing eagerly over their work the politics of
+the town, and at this period probably the theological questions which
+were uppermost in men's minds, our visitor would make his way to some
+hostelry, in whose courtyard he would dismount from his horse, and,
+entering the common room, or _Stube_, with its rough but artistic
+furniture of carved oak, partake of his flagon of wine or beer,
+according to the district in which he was travelling, whilst the host
+cracked a rough and possibly coarse jest with the other guests, or
+narrated to them the latest gossip of the city. The stranger would
+probably find himself before long the object of interrogatories
+respecting his native place and the object of his journey (although
+his dress would doubtless have given general evidence of this),
+whether he were a merchant or a travelling scholar or a practiser of
+medicine; for into one of those categories it might be presumed the
+humble but not servile traveller would fall. Were he on a diplomatic
+mission from some potentate he would be travelling at the least as a
+knight or a noble, with spurs and armour, and, moreover, would be
+little likely to lodge in a public house of entertainment.
+
+In the _Stube_ he would probably see, drinking heavily,
+representatives of the ubiquitous _Landsknechte_, the mercenary troops
+enrolled for Imperial purposes by the Emperor Maximilian towards the
+end of the previous century, who in the intervals of war were
+disbanded and wandered about spending their pay, and thus constituted
+an excessively disintegrative element in the life of the time. A
+contemporary writer[13] describes them as the curse of Germany, and
+stigmatizes them as "unchristian, God-forsaken folk, whose hand is
+ever ready in striking, stabbing, robbing, burning, slaying, gaming,
+who delight in wine-bibbing, whoring, blaspheming, and in the making
+of widows and orphans."
+
+Presently, perhaps, a noise without indicates the arrival of a new
+guest. All hurry forth into the courtyard, and their curiosity is
+more keenly whetted when they perceive by the yellow knitted scarf
+round the neck of the new-comer that he is an _itinerans
+scholasticus_, or travelling scholar, who brings with him not only the
+possibility of news from the outer world, so important in an age when
+journals were non-existent and communications irregular and deficient,
+but also a chance of beholding wonder-workings, as well as of being
+cured of the ailments which local skill had treated in vain. Already
+surrounded by a crowd of admirers waiting for the words of wisdom to
+fall from his lips, he would start on that exordium which bore no
+little resemblance to the patter of the modern quack, albeit
+interlarded with many a Latin quotation and great display of mediaeval
+learning. "Good people and worthy citizens of this town," he might
+say, "behold in me the great master ... prince of necromancers,
+astrologer, second mage, chiromancer, agromancer, pyromancer,
+hydromancer. My learning is so profound that were all the works of
+Plato and Aristotle lost to the world I could from memory restore them
+with more elegance than before. The miracles of Christ were not so
+great as those which I can perform wherever and as often as I will. Of
+all alchemists I am the first, and my powers are such that I can
+obtain all things that man desires. My shoe-buckles contain more
+learning than the heads of Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more
+experience than all your high schools. I am monarch of all learning. I
+can heal you of all diseases. By my secret arts I can procure you
+wealth. I am the philosopher of philosophers. I can provide you with
+spells to bind the most potent of the devils in hell. I can cast your
+nativities and foretell all that shall befall you, since I have that
+which can unlock the secrets of all things that have been, that are,
+and that are to come."[14] Bringing forth strange-looking phials,
+covered with cabalistic signs, a crystal globe and an astro-labe,
+followed by an imposing scroll of parchment inscribed with mysterious
+Hebraic-looking characters, the travelling student would probably
+drive a roaring trade amongst the assembled townsmen in love-philtres,
+cures for the ague and the plague, and amulets against them,
+horoscopes, predictions of fate, and the rest of his stock-in-trade.
+
+As evening approaches, our traveller strolls forth into the streets
+and narrow lanes of the town, lined with overhanging gables that
+almost meet overhead and shut out the light of the afternoon sun, so
+that twilight seems already to have fallen. Observing that the
+burghers, with their wives and children, the work of the day being
+done, are all wending toward the western gate, he goes along with the
+stream till, passing underneath the heavy portcullis and through the
+outer rampart, he finds himself in the plain outside, across which a
+rugged bridle-path leads to a large quadrangular meadow, rough and
+more or less worn, where a considerable crowd has already assembled.
+This is the _Allerwiese_, or public pleasure-ground of the town. Here
+there are not only high festivities on Sundays and holidays, but every
+fine evening in summer numbers of citizens gather together to watch
+the apprentices exercising their strength in athletic feats, and
+competing with one another in various sports, such as running,
+wrestling, spear-throwing, sword-play, and the like, wherein the
+inferior rank sought to imitate and even emulate the knighthood,
+whilst the daughters of the city watched their progress with keen
+interest and applauding laughter. As the shadows deepen and darkness
+falls upon the plain, our visitor joins the groups which are now fast
+leaving the meadow, and re-passes the great embrasure just as the
+rushlights begin to twinkle in the windows and a swinging oil-lamp to
+cast a dim light here and there in the streets. But as his company
+passes out of a narrow lane debouching on to the chief market-place,
+their progress is stopped by the sudden rush of a mingled crowd of
+unruly apprentices and journeymen returning from their sports, with
+hot heads well beliquored. Then from another side-street there is a
+sudden flare of torches, borne aloft by guildsmen come out to quell
+the tumult and to send off the apprentices to their dwellings, whilst
+the watch also bears down and carries off some of the more turbulent
+of the journeymen to pass the night in one of the towers which guard
+the city wall. At last, however, the visitor reaches his inn by the
+aid of a friendly guildsman and his torch; and retiring to his
+chamber, with its straw-covered floor, rough oaken bedstead, hard
+mattress, and coverings not much better than horse-cloths, he falls
+asleep as the bell of the minster tolls out ten o'clock over the now
+dark and silent city.
+
+Such approximately would have been the view of a German city in the
+sixteenth century as presented to a traveller in a time of peace. More
+stirring times, however, were as frequent--times when the tocsin rang
+out from the steeple all night long, calling the citizens to arms. By
+such scenes, needless to say, the year of the Peasants' War was more
+than usually characterized. In the days when every man carried arms
+and knew how to use them, when the fighting instinct was imbibed with
+the mother's milk, when every week saw some street brawl, often
+attended by loss of life, and that by no means always among the most
+worthless and dissolute of the inhabitants, every dissatisfaction
+immediately turned itself into an armed revolt, whether it were of the
+apprentices or the journeymen against the guild-masters, the body of
+the townsmen against the patriciate, the town itself against its
+feudal superior, where it had one, or of the knighthood against the
+princes. The extremity to which disputes can at present be carried
+without resulting in a breach of the peace, as evinced in modern
+political and trade conflicts, exacerbated though some of them are,
+was a thing unknown in the Middle Ages, and indeed to any considerable
+extent until comparatively recent times. The sacred right of
+insurrection was then a recognized fact of life, and but very little
+straining of a dispute led to a resort to arms. In the subsequent
+chapters we have to deal with the more important of those outbursts to
+which the ferment due to the dissolution of the mediaeval system of
+things, then beginning throughout Central Europe, gave rise, of which
+the religious side is represented by what is known as the Reformation.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] Sebastian Franck, _Chronica_, ccxvii.
+
+[14] Cf. Trittheim's letter to Wirdung of Hasfurt regarding Faust. _J.
+Tritthemii Epistolarum Familiarum_, 1536, bk. ii. ep. 47; also the works
+of Paracelsus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+COUNTRY AND TOWN AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+
+For the complete understanding of the events which follow it must be
+borne in mind that the early sixteenth century represents the end of a
+distinct historical period; and, as we have pointed out in the
+Introduction, the expiring effort, half-conscious and half-unconscious,
+of the people to revert to the conditions of an earlier age. Nor can the
+significance be properly gauged unless a clear conception is obtained of
+the differences between country and town life at the beginning of the
+sixteenth century. From the earliest periods of the Middle Ages of which
+we have any historical record, the _Markgenossenschaft_, or primitive
+village community of the Germanic race, was overlaid by a territorial
+domination, imposed upon it either directly by conquest or voluntarily
+accepted for the sake of the protection indispensable in that rude
+period. The conflict of these two elements, the mark organization and
+the territorial lordship, constitutes the marrow of the social history
+of the Middle Ages.
+
+In the earliest times the pressure of the overlord, whoever he might
+be, seems to have been comparatively slight, but its inevitable
+tendency was for the territorial power to extend itself at the expense
+of the rural community. It was thus that in the tenth and eleventh
+centuries the feudal oppression had become thoroughly settled, and had
+reached its greatest intensity all over Europe. It continued thus with
+little intermission until the thirteenth century, when from various
+causes, economic and otherwise, matters began to improve in the
+interests of the common man, till in the fifteenth century the
+condition of the peasant was better than it has ever been, either
+before or since within historical times, in Northern and Western
+Europe. But with all this, the oppressive power of the lord of the
+soil was by no means dead. It was merely dormant, and was destined to
+spring into renewed activity the moment the lord's necessities
+supplied a sufficient incentive. From this time forward the element of
+territorial power, supported in its claims by the Roman law, with its
+basis of private property, continued to eat into it until it had
+finally devoured the old rights and possessions of the village
+community. The executive power always tended to be transferred from
+its legitimate holder, the village in its corporate capacity, to the
+lord; and this was alone sufficient to place the villager at his
+mercy.
+
+At the time of the Reformation, owing to the new conditions which had
+arisen and had brought about in a few decades the hitherto
+unparalleled rise in prices, combined with the unprecedented
+ostentation and extravagance more than once referred to in these
+pages, the lord was supplied with the requisite incentive to the
+exercise of the power which his feudal system gave him. Consequently,
+the position of the peasant rapidly changed for the worse; and
+although at the outbreak of the movement not absolutely _in extremis_,
+according to our notions, yet it was so bad comparatively to his
+previous condition and that less than half a century before, and
+tended as evidently to become more intolerable, that discontent became
+everywhere rife, and only awaited the torch of the new doctrines to
+set it ablaze. The whole course of the movement shows a peasantry, not
+downtrodden and starved but proud and robust, driven to take up arms
+not so much by misery and despair as by the deliberate will to
+maintain the advantages which were rapidly slipping away from them.
+
+Serfdom was not by any means universal. Many free peasant villages
+were to be found scattered amongst the manors of the territorial
+lords, though it was but too evidently the settled policy of the
+latter at this time to sweep everything into their net, and to compel
+such peasant communes to accept a feudal overlordship. Nor were they
+at all scrupulous in the means adopted for attaining their ends. The
+ecclesiastical foundations, as before said, were especially expert in
+forging documents for the purpose of proving that these free villages
+were lapsed feudatories of their own. Old rights of pasture were being
+curtailed, and others, notably those of hunting and fishing, had in
+most manors been completely filched away.
+
+It is noticeable, however, that although the immediate causes of the
+peasant rising were the new burdens which had been laid upon the
+common people during the last few years, once the spirit of discontent
+was aroused it extended also in many cases to the traditional feudal
+dues to which, until then, the peasant had submitted with little
+murmuring, and an attempt was made by the country-side to reconquer
+the ancient complete freedom of which a dim remembrance had been
+handed down to them.
+
+The condition of the peasant up to the beginning of the sixteenth
+century--that is to say, up to the time when it began to so rapidly
+change for the worse--may be gathered from what we are told by
+contemporary writers, such as Wimpfeling, Sebastian Brandt,
+Wittenweiler, the satires in the _Nuernberger Fastnachtspielen_, and
+numberless other sources, as also from the sumptuary laws of the end
+of the fifteenth century. All these indicate an ease and profuseness
+of living which little accord with our notions of the word "peasant".
+Wimpfeling writes: "The peasants in our district and in many parts of
+Germany have become, through their riches, stiff-necked and
+ease-loving. I know peasants who at the weddings of their sons or
+daughters, or the baptism of their children, make so much display that
+a house and field might be bought therewith, and a small vineyard to
+boot. Through their riches, they are oftentimes spendthrift in food
+and in vestments, and they drink wines of price."
+
+A chronicler relates of the Austrian peasants, under the date of 1478,
+that "they wore better garments and drank better wine than their
+lords"; and a sumptuary law passed at the Reichstag held at Lindau, in
+1497, provides that the common peasant man and the labourer in the
+towns or in the field "shall neither make nor wear cloth that costs
+more than half a gulden the ell, neither shall they wear gold,
+pearls, velvet, silk, nor embroidered clothes, nor shall they permit
+their wives or their children to wear such."
+
+Respecting the food of the peasant, it is stated that he ate his full
+in flesh of every kind, in fish, in bread, in fruit, drinking wine
+often to excess. The Swabian, Heinrich Mueller, writes in the year
+1550, nearly two generations after the change had begun to take place:
+"In the memory of my father, who was a peasant man, the peasant did
+eat much better than now. Meat and food in plenty was there every day,
+and at fairs and other junketings the tables did wellnigh break with
+what they bore. Then drank they wine as it were water, then did a man
+fill his belly and carry away withal as much as he could; then was
+wealth and plenty. Otherwise is it now. A costly and a bad time hath
+arisen since many a year, and the food and drink of the best peasant
+is much worse than of yore that of the day labourer and the serving
+man."
+
+We may well imagine the vivid recollections which a peasant in the
+year 1525 had of the golden days of a few years before. The day
+labourers and serving men were equally tantalized by the remembrance
+of high wages and cheap living at the beginning of the century. A day
+labourer could then earn, with his keep, nine, and without keep,
+sixteen groschen[15] a week. What this would buy may be judged from
+the following prices current in Saxony during the second half of the
+fifteenth century. A pair of good working-shoes cost three groschen; a
+whole sheep, four groschen; a good fat hen, half a groschen;
+twenty-five cod-fish, four groschen; a wagon-load of firewood,
+together with carriage, five groschen; an ell of the best homespun
+cloth, five groschen; a scheffel (about a bushel) of rye, six or seven
+groschen. The Duke of Saxony wore grey hats which cost him four
+groschen. In Northern Rhineland about the same time a day labourer
+could, in addition to his keep, earn in a week a quarter of rye, ten
+pounds of pork, six large cans of milk, and two bundles of firewood,
+and in the course of five weeks be able to buy six ells of linen, a
+pair of shoes, and a bag for his tools. In Augsburg the daily wages of
+an ordinary labourer represented the value of six pounds of the best
+meat, or one pound of meat, seven eggs, a peck of peas, about a quart
+of wine, in addition to such bread as he required, with enough over
+for lodging, clothing, and minor expenses. In Bavaria he could earn
+daily eighteen pfennige, or one and a half groschen, whilst a pound of
+sausage cost one pfennig, and a pound of the best beef two pfennige,
+and similarly throughout the whole of the States of Central Europe.
+
+A document of the year 1483, from Ehrbach in the Swabian Odenwald,
+describes for us the treatment of servants by their masters. "All
+journeymen," it declares, "that are hired, and likewise bondsmen
+(serfs), also the serving men and maids, shall each day be given twice
+meat and what thereto longith, with half a small measure of wine, save
+on fast days, when they shall have fish or other food that nourisheth.
+Whoso in the week hath toiled shall also on Sundays and feast days
+make merry after mass and preaching. They shall have bread and meat
+enough, and half a great measure of wine. On feast days also roasted
+meat enough. Moreover, they shall be given, to take home with them, a
+great loaf of bread and so much of flesh as two at one meal may eat."
+
+Again, in a bill of fare of the household of Count Joachim von
+Oettingen in Bavaria, the journeymen and villeins are accorded in the
+morning, soup and vegetables; at midday, soup and meat, with
+vegetables, and a bowl of broth or a plate of salted or pickled meat;
+at night, soup and meat, carrots, and preserved meat. Even the women
+who brought fowls or eggs from the neighbouring villages to the castle
+were given for their trouble--if from the immediate vicinity, a plate
+of soup with two pieces of bread; if from a greater distance, a
+complete meal and a cruse of wine. In Saxony, similarly, the
+agricultural journeymen received two meals a day, of four courses
+each, besides frequently cheese and bread at other times should they
+require it. Not to have eaten meat for a week was the sign of the
+direst famine in any district. Warnings are not wanting against the
+evils accruing to the common man from his excessive indulgence in
+eating and drinking.
+
+Such was the condition of the proletariat in its first inception, that
+is, when the mediaeval system of villeinage had begun to loosen and to
+allow a proportion of free labourers to insinuate themselves into its
+working. How grievous, then, were the complaints when, while wages had
+risen either not at all or at most from half a groschen to a groschen,
+the price of rye rose from six or seven groschen a bushel to about
+five-and-twenty groschen, that of a sheep from four to eighteen
+groschen, and all other articles of necessary consumption in a like
+proportion![16]
+
+In the Middle Ages, necessaries and such ordinary comforts as were to
+be had at all were dirt cheap; while non-necessaries and luxuries,
+that is, such articles as had to be imported from afar, were for the
+most part at prohibitive prices. With the opening up of the
+world-market during the first half of the sixteenth century, this
+state of things rapidly changed. Most luxuries in a short time fell
+heavily in price, while necessaries rose in a still greater
+proportion.
+
+This latter change in the economic conditions of the world exercised
+its most powerful effect, however, on the character of the mediaeval
+town, which had remained substantially unchanged since the first great
+expansion at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the
+fourteenth centuries. With the extension of commerce and the opening
+up of communications, there began that evolution of the town whose
+ultimate outcome was to entirely change the central idea on which the
+urban organization was based.
+
+The first requisite for a town, according to modern notions, is
+facility of communication with the rest of the world by means of
+railways, telegraphs, postal system, and the like. So far has this
+gone now that in a new country, for instance, America, the railway,
+telegraph lines, etc., are made first, and the towns are then strung
+upon them, like beads upon a cord. In the mediaeval town, on the
+contrary, communication was quite a secondary matter, and more of a
+luxury than a necessity. Each town was really a self-sufficing entity,
+both materially and intellectually. The modern idea of a town is that
+of a mere local aggregate of individuals, each pursuing a trade or
+calling with a view to the world-market at large. Their own locality
+or town is no more to them economically than any other part of the
+world-market, and very little more in any other respect. The mediaeval
+idea of a town, on the contrary, was that of an organization of groups
+into one organic whole. Just as the village community was a somewhat
+extended family organization, so was, _mutatis mutandis_, the larger
+unit, the township or city. Each member of the town organization owed
+allegiance and distinct duties primarily to his guild, or immediate
+social group, and through this to the larger social group which
+constituted the civic society. Consequently, every townsman felt a
+kind of _esprit de corps_ with his fellow-citizens, akin to that, say,
+which is alleged of the soldiers of the old French "foreign legion"
+who, being brothers-in-arms, were brothers also in all other
+relations. But if every citizen owed duty and allegiance to the town
+in its corporate capacity, the town no less owed protection and
+assistance, in every department of life, to its individual members.
+
+As in ancient Rome in its earlier history, and as in all other early
+urban communities, agriculture necessarily played a considerable part
+in the life of most mediaeval towns. Like the villages, they possessed
+each its own mark, with its common fields, pastures, and woods. These
+were demarcated by various landmarks, crosses, holy images, etc.; and
+"the bounds" were beaten every year. The wealthier citizens usually
+possessed gardens and orchards within the town walls, while each
+inhabitant had his share in the communal holding without. The use of
+this latter was regulated by the Rath or Council. In fact, the town
+life of the Middle Ages was not by any means so sharply differentiated
+from rural life as is implied in our modern idea of a town. Even in
+the larger commercial towns, such as Frankfurt, Nuernberg, or Augsburg,
+it was common to keep cows, pigs, and sheep, and, as a matter of
+course, fowls and geese, in large numbers within the precincts of the
+town itself. In Frankfurt in 1481 the pigsties in the town had become
+such a nuisance that the Rath had to forbid them _in the front_ of the
+houses by a formal decree. In Ulm there was a regulation of the
+bakers' guild to the effect that no single member should keep more
+than twenty-four pigs, and that cows should be confined to their
+stalls at night. In Nuernberg in 1475 again, the Rath had to interfere
+with the intolerable nuisance of pigs and other farm-yard stock
+running about loose in the streets. Even in a town like Muenchen we are
+informed that agriculture formed one of the staple occupations of the
+inhabitants, while in almost every city the gardeners' or the
+wine-growers' guild appears as one of the largest and most
+influential.
+
+It is evident that such conditions of life would be impossible with
+town-populations even approaching only distantly those of to-day; and,
+in fact, when we come to inquire into the size and populousness of
+mediaeval German cities, as into those of the classical world of
+antiquity, we are at first sight staggered by the smallness of their
+proportions. The largest and most populous free Imperial cities in the
+fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Nuernberg and Strassburg, numbered
+little more than 20,000 resident inhabitants within the walls, a
+population rather less than that of (say) many an English country town
+at the present time. Such an important place as Frankfurt-am-Main is
+stated at the middle of the fifteenth century to have had less than
+9,000 inhabitants. At the end of the fifteenth century Dresden could
+only boast of about 5,000. Rothenburg on the Tauber is to-day a dead
+city to all intents and purposes, affording us a magnificent example
+of what a mediaeval town was like, as the bulk of its architecture,
+including the circuit of its walls, which remain intact, dates
+approximately from the sixteenth century. At present a single line of
+railway branching off from the main line with about two trains a day
+is amply sufficient to convey the few antiquaries and artists who are
+now its sole visitors, and who have to content themselves with
+country-inn accommodation. Yet this old free city has actually a
+larger population at the present day than it had at the time of which
+we are writing, when it was at the height of its prosperity as an
+important centre of activity. The figures of its population are now
+between 8,000 and 9,000. At the beginning of the sixteenth century
+they were between 6,000 and 7,000. A work written and circulated in
+manuscript during the first decade of the sixteenth century, "A
+Christian Exhortation" (_Ein Christliche Mahnung_), after referring to
+the frightful pestilences recently raging as a punishment from God,
+observes, in the spirit of true Malthusianism, and as a justification
+of the ways of Providence, that "an there were not so many that died
+there were too much folk in the land, and it were not good that such
+should be lest there were not food enough for all."
+
+Great population as constituting importance in a city is
+comparatively a modern notion. In other ages towns became famous on
+account of their superior civic organization, their more advantageous
+situation, or the greater activity, intellectual, political, or
+commercial, of their citizens.
+
+What this civic organization of mediaeval towns was, demands a few
+words of explanation, since the conflict between the two main elements
+in their composition plays an important part in the events which
+follow. Something has already been said on this head in the
+Introduction. We have there pointed out that the Rath or Town Council,
+that is, the supreme governing body of the municipality, was in all
+cases mainly, and often entirely, composed of the heads of the town
+aristocracy, the patrician class or "honorability" (_Ehrbarkeit_), as
+they were termed, who on the ground of their antiquity and wealth laid
+claim to every post of power and privilege. On the other hand were the
+body of the citizens enrolled in the various guilds, seeking, as their
+position and wealth improved, to wrest the control of the town's
+resources from the patricians. It must be remembered that the towns
+stood in the position of feudal over-lords to the peasants who held
+land on the city territory, which often extended for many square miles
+outside the walls. A small town like Rothenburg, for instance, which
+we have described above, had on its lands as many as 15,000 peasants.
+The feudal dues and contributions of these tenants constituted the
+staple revenue of the town, and the management of them was one of the
+chief bones of contention.
+
+Nowhere was the guild system brought to a greater perfection than in
+the free Imperial towns of Germany. Indeed, it was carried further in
+them, in one respect, than in any other part of Europe, for the guilds
+of journeymen (_Cesellenverbaende_), which in other places never
+attained any strength or importance, were in Germany developed to the
+fullest extent, and of course supported the craft-guilds in their
+conflict with the patriciate. Although there were naturally numerous
+frictions between the two classes of guilds respecting wages, working
+days, hours, and the like, it must not be supposed that there was that
+irreconcilable hostility between them which would exist at the present
+time between a trade-union and a syndicate of employers. Each
+recognized the right to existence of the other. In one case, that of
+the strike of bakers towards the close of the fifteenth century, at
+Colmar in Elsass, the craft-guilds supported the journeymen in their
+protest against a certain action of the patrician Rath, which they
+considered to be a derogation from their dignity.
+
+Like the masters, the journeymen had their own guild-house, and their
+own solemn functions and social gatherings. There were, indeed, two
+kinds of journeymen-guilds: one whose chief purpose was a religious one,
+and the other concerning itself in the first instance with the secular
+concerns of the body. However, both classes of journeymen-guilds worked
+into one another's hand. On coming into a strange town a travelling
+member of such a guild was certain of a friendly reception, of
+maintenance until he procured work, and of assistance in finding it as
+soon as possible.
+
+Interesting details concerning the wages paid to journeymen and their
+contributions to the guilds are to be found in the original documents
+relating exclusively to the journeymen-guilds, collected by Georg
+Schanz.[17] From these and other sources it is clear that the position
+of the artisan in the towns was in proportion much better than even that
+of the peasants at that time, and therefore immeasurably superior to
+anything he has enjoyed since. In South Germany at this period the
+average price of beef was about two denarii[18] a pound, while the
+daily wages of the masons and carpenters, in addition to their keep and
+lodging, amounted in the summer to about twenty, and in the winter to
+about sixteen of these denarii. In Saxony the same journeymen-craftsmen
+earned on the average, besides their maintenance, two groschen four
+pfennige a day, or about one-third the value of a bushel of corn. In
+addition to this, in some cases the workmen had weekly gratuities under
+the name of "bathing money"; and in this connection it may be noticed
+that a holiday for the purpose of bathing once a fortnight, once a week,
+or even oftener, as the case might be, was stipulated for by the guilds,
+and generally recognized as a legitimate demand. The common notion of
+the uniform uncleanliness of the mediaeval man requires to be
+considerably modified when one closely investigates the condition of
+town life, and finds everywhere facilities for bathing in winter and
+summer alike. Untidiness and uncleanliness, according to our notions,
+there may have been in the streets and in the dwellings in many cases,
+owing to inadequate provisions for the disposal of refuse and the like;
+but we must not therefore extend this idea to the person, and imagine
+that the mediaeval craftsman or even peasant was as unwholesome as, say,
+the East European peasant of to-day.
+
+When the wages received by the journeymen artisans are compared with
+the prices of commodities previously given, it will be seen how
+relatively easy were their circumstances; and the extent of their
+well-being may be further judged from the wealth of their guilds,
+which, although varying in different places, at all times formed a
+considerable proportion of the wealth of the town. The guild system
+was based upon the notion that the individual master and workman was
+working as much in the interest of the guild as for his own advantage.
+Each member of the guild was alike under the obligation to labour, and
+to labour in accordance with the rules laid down by his guild, and at
+the same time had the right of equal enjoyment with his
+fellow-guildsmen of all advantages pertaining to the particular branch
+of industry covered by the guild. Every guildsman had to work himself
+_in propria persona_; no contractor was tolerated who himself "in ease
+and sloth doth live on the sweat of others, and puffeth himself up in
+lustful pride." Were a guild-master ill and unable to manage the
+affairs of his workshop, it was the council of the guild, and not
+himself or his relatives, who installed a representative for him and
+generally looked after his affairs. It was the guild again which
+procured the raw material, and distributed it in relatively equal
+proportions amongst its members; or where this was not the case, the
+time and place were indicated at which the guildsman might buy at a
+fixed maximum price. Every master had equal right to the use of the
+common property and institutions of the guild, which in some
+industries included the essentials of production, as, for example, in
+the case of the woollen manufacturers, where wool-kitchens,
+carding-rooms, bleaching-houses and the like were common to the whole
+guild.
+
+Needless to say, the relations between master and apprentices and master
+and journeymen were rigidly fixed down to the minutest detail. The
+system was thoroughly patriarchal in its character. In the hey-day of
+the guilds, every apprentice and most of the journeymen regarded their
+actual condition as a period of preparation which would end in the
+glories of mastership. For this dear hope they were ready on occasion to
+undergo cheerfully the most arduous duties. The education in handicraft,
+and, we may add, the supervision of the morals of the blossoming members
+of the guild, was a department which greatly exercised its
+administration. On the other hand, the guild in its corporate capacity
+was bound to maintain sick or incapacitated apprentices and journeymen,
+though after the journeymen had developed into a distinct class, and
+the consequent rise of the journeymen-guilds, the latter function was
+probably in most cases taken over by the latter. The guild laws against
+adulteration, scamped work, and the like, were sometimes ferocious in
+their severity. For example, in some towns the baker who misconducted
+himself in the matter of the composition of his bread was condemned to
+be shut up in a basket which was fixed at the end of a long pole, and
+let down so many times to the bottom of a pool of dirty water. In the
+year 1456 two grocers, together with a female assistant, were burnt
+alive at Nuernberg for adulterating saffron and spices, and a similar
+instance happened at Augsburg in 1492. From what we have said it will be
+seen that guild life, like the life of the town as a whole, was
+essentially a social life. It was a larger family, into which various
+blood families were merged. The interest of each was felt to be the
+interest of all, and the interest of all no less the interest of each.
+
+But in many towns, outside the town population properly speaking,
+outside the patrician families who generally governed the Rath,
+outside the guilds, outside the city organization altogether, there
+were other bodies dwelling within the walls and forming _imperia in
+imperiis_. These were the religious corporations, whose possessions
+were often extensive, and who, dwelling within their own walls, shut
+out from the rest of the town, were subject only to their own
+ordinances. The quasi-religious, quasi-military Order of the Teutonic
+Knights (_Deutscher Orden_), founded at the time of the Crusades, was
+the wealthiest and largest of these corporations. In addition to the
+extensive territories which it held in various parts of the empire, it
+had establishments in a large number of cities. Besides this there
+were, of course, the Orders of the Augustinians and Carthusians, and a
+number of less important foundations, who had their cloisters in
+various towns. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the pomp,
+pride, and licentiousness of the Teutonic Order drew upon it the
+especial hatred of the townsfolk; and amid the general wreck of
+religious houses none were more ferociously despoiled than those
+belonging to this Order. There were, moreover, in some towns, the
+establishments of princely families, which were regarded by the
+citizens with little less hostility than that accorded to the
+religious Orders.
+
+Such were the explosive elements of town life when changing conditions
+were tending to dislocate the whole structure of mediaeval existence.
+The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 had struck a heavy
+blow at the commerce of the Bavarian cities which had come by way of
+Constantinople and Venice. This latter city lost one by one its
+trading centres in the East, and all Oriental traffic by way of the
+Black Sea was practically stopped. It was the Dutch cities which
+inherited the wealth and influence of the German towns when Vasco da
+Gama's discovery of the Cape route to the East began to have its
+influence on the trade of the world. This diversion of Oriental
+traffic from the old overland route was the starting-point of the
+modern merchant navy, and it must be placed amongst the most potent
+causes of the break-up of mediaeval civilization. The above change,
+although immediately felt by the German towns, was not realized by
+them in its full importance either as to its causes or its
+consequences for more than a century; but the decline of their
+prosperity was nevertheless sensible, even now, and contributed
+directly to the coming upheaval.
+
+The impatience of the prince, the prelate, the noble, and the wealthy
+burgher at the restraints which the system of the Middle Ages placed
+upon his activity as an individual in the acquisition for his own
+behoof, and the disposal at his own pleasure, of wealth, regardless of
+the consequences to his neighbour, found expression, and a powerful
+lever, in the introduction from Italy of the Roman law in place of the
+old canon and customary law of Europe. The latter never regarded the
+individual as an independent and autonomous entity, but invariably
+treated him with reference to a group or social body, of which he
+might be the head or merely a subordinate member; but in any case the
+filaments of custom and religious duty attached him to a certain
+humanity outside himself, whether it were a village community, a
+guild, a township, a province, or the empire. The idea of a right to
+individual autonomy in his dealings with men never entered into the
+mediaeval man's conception. Hence the mere possession of property was
+not recognized by mediaeval law as conferring any absolute rights in
+its holder to its unregulated use, and the basis of the mediaeval
+notions of property was the association of responsibility and duty
+with ownership. In other words, the notion of _trust_ was never
+completely divorced from that of _possession_.
+
+The Roman law rested on a totally different basis. It represented the
+legal ethics of a society on most of its sides brutally and crassly
+individualistic. That that society had come to an end instead of
+evolving to its natural conclusion--a developed capitalistic
+individualism such as exists to-day--was due to the weakness of its
+economic basis, owing to the limitation at that time of man's power
+over Nature, which deprived it of recuperative and defensive force,
+thereby leaving it a prey not only to internal influences of decay but
+also to violent destructive forces from without. Nevertheless, it left
+a legacy of a ready-made legal system to serve as an implement for the
+first occasion when economic conditions should be once more ready for
+progress to resume the course of individualistic development, abruptly
+brought to an end by the fall of ancient civilization as crystallized
+in the Roman Empire.
+
+The popular courts of the village, of the mark, and of the town, which
+had existed up to the beginning of the sixteenth century with all
+their ancient functions, were extremely democratic in character. Cases
+were decided on their merits, in accordance with local custom, by a
+body of jurymen chosen from among the freemen of the district, to whom
+the presiding functionaries, most of whom were also of popular
+selection, were little more than assessors. The technicalities of a
+cut-and-dried system were unknown. The Catholic-Germanic theory of the
+Middle Ages proper, as regards the civil power in all its functions,
+from the highest downward, was that of the mere administrator of
+justice as such; whereas the Roman law regarded the magistrate as the
+vicegerent of the _princeps_ or _imperator_, in whose person was
+absolutely vested as its supreme embodiment the whole power of the
+State. The Divinity of the Emperors was a recognition of this fact;
+and the influence of the Roman law revived the theory as far as
+possible under the changed conditions, in the form of the doctrine of
+the Divine Right of Kings--a doctrine which was totally alien to the
+Catholic feudal conception of the Middle Ages. This doctrine,
+moreover, received added force from the Oriental conception of the
+position of the ruler found in the Old Testament, from which
+Protestantism drew so much of its inspiration.
+
+But apart from this aspect of the question, the new juridical
+conception involved that of a system of rules as the crystallized
+embodiment of the abstract "State," given through its representatives,
+which could under no circumstances be departed from, and which could
+only be modified in their operation by legal quibbles that left to
+them their nominal integrity. The new law could therefore only be
+administered by a class of men trained specially for the purpose, of
+which the plastic customary law borne down the stream of history from
+primitive times, and insensibly adapting itself to new conditions but
+understood in its broader aspects by all those who might be called to
+administer it, had little need. The Roman law, the study of which was
+started at Bologna in the twelfth century, as might naturally be
+expected, early attracted the attention of the German Emperors as a
+suitable instrument for use on emergencies. But it made little real
+headway in Germany itself as against the early institutions until the
+fifteenth century, when the provincial power of the princes of the
+empire was beginning to overshadow the central authority of the
+titular chief of the Holy Roman Empire. The former, while strenuously
+resisting the results of its application from above, found in it a
+powerful auxiliary in their Courts in riveting their power over the
+estates subject to them. As opposed to the delicately adjusted
+hierarchical notions of Feudalism, which did not recognize any
+absoluteness of dominion either over persons or things, in short for
+which neither the head of the State had any inviolate authority as
+such, nor private property any inviolable rights or sanctity as such,
+the new jurisprudence made corner-stones of both these conceptions.
+
+Even the canon law, consisting in a mass of Papal decretals dating
+from the early Middle Ages, and which, while undoubtedly containing
+considerable traces of the influence of Roman law, was nevertheless
+largely customary in its character, with an infusion of Christian
+ethics, had to yield to the new jurisprudence, and that too in
+countries where the Reformation had been unable to replace the old
+ecclesiastical dogma and organization. The principles and practice of
+the Roman law were sedulously inculcated by the tribe of civilian
+lawyers who by the beginning of the sixteenth century infested every
+Court throughout Europe. Every potentate, great and small, little as
+he might like its application by his feudal overlord to himself, was
+yet only too ready and willing to invoke its aid for the oppression of
+his own vassals or peasants. Thus the civil law everywhere triumphed.
+It became the juridical expression of the political, economical, and
+religious change which marks the close of the Middle Ages and the
+beginnings of the modern commercial world.
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that no resistance was made to it.
+Everywhere in contemporary literature, side by side with denunciations
+of the new mercenary troops, the _Landsknechte_, we find
+uncomplimentary allusions to the race of advocates, notaries, and
+procurators who, as one writer has it, "are increasing like
+grasshoppers in town and in country year by year." Whenever they
+appeared, we are told, countless litigious disputes sprang up. He who
+had but the money in hand might readily defraud his poorer neighbour
+in the name of law and right. "Woe is me!" exclaims one author, "in
+my home there is but one procurator, and yet is the whole country
+round about brought into confusion by his wiles. What a misery will
+this horde bring upon us!" Everywhere was complaint and in many places
+resistance.
+
+As early as 1460 we find the Bavarian estates vigorously complaining
+that all the courts were in the hands of doctors. They demanded that
+the rights of the land and the ancient custom should not be cast
+aside; but that the courts as of old should be served by reasonable
+and honest judges, who should be men of the same feudal livery and of
+the same country as those whom they tried. Again in 1514, when the
+evil had become still more crying, we find the estates of Wuertemberg
+petitioning Duke Ulrich that the Supreme Court "shall be composed of
+honourable, worthy, and understanding men of the nobles and of the
+towns, who shall not be doctors, to the intent that the ancient usages
+and customs should abide, and that it should be judged according to
+them in such wise that the poor man might no longer be brought to
+confusion." In many covenants of the end of the fifteenth century,
+express stipulation is made that they should not be interpreted by a
+doctor or licentiate, and also in some cases that no such doctor or
+licentiate should be permitted to reside or to exercise his
+profession within certain districts. Great as was the economical
+influence of the new jurists in the tribunals, their political
+influence in the various courts of the empire, from the
+_Reichskammergericht_ downwards, was, if anything, greater. Says
+Wimpfeling, the first writer on the art of education in the modern
+world: "According to the loathsome doctrines of the new jurisconsults,
+the prince shall be everything in the land and the people naught. The
+people shall only obey, pay tax, and do service. Moreover, they shall
+not alone obey the prince but also them that he has placed in
+authority, who begin to puff themselves up as the proper lords of the
+land, and to order matters so that the princes themselves do as little
+as may be reign." From this passage it will be seen that the modern
+bureaucratic State, in which government is as nearly as possible
+reduced to mechanism and the personal relation abolished, was ushered
+in under the auspices of the civil law. How easy it was for the
+civilian to effect the abolition of feudal institutions may be readily
+imagined by those cognizant of the principles of Roman law. For
+example, the Roman law, of course, making no mention of the right of
+the mediaeval "estates" to be consulted in the levying of taxes or in
+other questions, the jurist would explain this right to his too
+willing master, the prince, as an abuse which had no legal
+justification, and which, the sooner it were abolished in the interest
+of good government the better it would be. All feudal rights as
+against the power of an overlord were explained away by the civil
+jurist, either as pernicious abuses, or, at best, as favours granted
+in the past by the predecessors of the reigning monarch, which it was
+within his right to truncate or to abrogate at his will.
+
+From the preceding survey will be clearly perceived the important role
+which the new jurisprudence played on the Continent of Europe in the
+gestation of the new phase which history was entering upon in the
+sixteenth century. Even the short sketch given will be sufficient to
+show that it was not in one department only that it operated; but
+that, in addition to its own domain of law proper, its influence was
+felt in modifying economical, political, and indirectly even ethical
+and religious conditions. From this time forth Feudalism slowly but
+surely gave place to the newer order, all that remained being certain
+of its features, which, crystallized into bureaucratic forms, were
+doubly veneered with a last trace of mediaeval ideas and a denser
+coating of civilian conceptions. This transitional Europe, and not
+mediaeval Europe, was the Europe which lasted on until the eighteenth
+century, and which practically came to an end with the French
+Revolution.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] One silver groschen = 1-1/5d.
+
+[16] The authorities for the above data may be found in Janssen, i.,
+vol. i., bk. iii., especially pp. 330-46.
+
+[17] _Zur Geschichte der deutschen Gesellenverbaende._ Leipzig, 1876.
+
+[18] C. 1/5d. The denarius was the South German equivalent of the North
+German pfennig, of which twelve went to the groschen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE REVOLT OF THE KNIGHTHOOD
+
+
+We have already pointed out in more than one place the position to
+which the smaller nobility, or the knighthood, had been reduced by the
+concatenation of causes which was bringing about the dissolution of the
+old mediaeval order of things, and, as a consequence, ruining the
+knights both economically and politically--economically by the rise of
+capitalism as represented by the commercial syndicates of the cities;
+by the unprecedented power and wealth of the city confederations,
+especially of the Hanseatic League; by the rising importance of the
+newly developed world-market; by the growing luxury and the enormous
+rise in the prices of commodities concurrently with the reduction in
+value of the feudal land-tenures; and by the limitation of the
+possibilities of acquiring wealth by highway robbery, owing to Imperial
+constitutions, on the one hand, and increased powers of defence on the
+part of the trading community, on the other--politically, by the new
+modes of warfare in which artillery and infantry, composed of
+comparatively well-drilled mercenaries (_Landsknechte_), were rapidly
+making inroads into the omnipotence of the ancient feudal chivalry, and
+reducing the importance of individual skill or prowess in the handling
+of weapons, and by the development of the power of the princes or
+higher nobility, partly due to the influence which the Roman civil law
+now began to exercise over the older customary Constitution of the
+empire, and partly to the budding centralism of authority--which in
+France and England became a national centralization, but in Germany, in
+spite of the temporary ascendancy of Charles V, finally issued in a
+provincial centralization in which the princes were _de facto_
+independent monarchs. The Imperial Constitution of 1495, forbidding
+private war, applied, it must be remembered, only to the lesser
+nobility and not to the higher, thereby placing the former in a
+decidedly ignominious position as regards their feudal superiors. And
+though this particular enactment had little immediate result, yet it
+was none the less resented as a blow struck at the old knightly
+privilege.
+
+The mental attitude of the knighthood in the face of this progressing
+change in their position was naturally an ambiguous one, composed
+partly of a desire to hark back to the haughty independence of
+feudalism, and partly of sympathy with the growing discontent among
+other classes and with the new spirit generally. In order that the
+knights might succeed in recovering their old or even in maintaining
+their actual position against the higher nobility, the princes, backed
+as these now largely were by the Imperial power, the co-operation of
+the cities was absolutely essential to them, but the obstacles in the
+way of such a co-operation proved insurmountable. The towns hated the
+knights for their lawless practices, which rendered trade unsafe and
+not infrequently cost the lives of the citizens. The knights for the
+most part, with true feudal hauteur, scorned and despised the artisans
+and traders who had no territorial family name and were unexercised in
+the higher chivalric arts. The grievances of the two parties were,
+moreover, not identical, although they had their origin in the same
+causes.
+
+The cities were in the main solely concerned to maintain their old
+independent position, and especially to curb the growing disposition
+at this time of the other estates to use them as milch cows from
+which to draw the taxation necessary to the maintenance of the
+empire. For example, at the Reichstag opened at Nuernberg on November
+17, 1522--to discuss the questions of the establishment of perpetual
+peace within the empire, of organizing an energetic resistance to the
+inroads of the Turks, and of placing on a firm foundation the
+Imperial Privy Council (_Kammergericht_) and the Supreme Council
+(_Reichsregiment_)--at which were represented twenty-six Imperial
+towns, thirty-eight high prelates, eighteen princes, and twenty-nine
+counts and barons--the representatives of the cities complained
+grievously that their attendance was reduced to a farce, since they
+were always out-voted, and hence obliged to accept the decisions of
+the other estates. They stated that their position was no longer
+bearable, and for the first time drew up an Act of Protest, which
+further complained of the delay in the decisions of the Imperial
+courts; of their sufferings from the right of private war, which was
+still allowed to subsist in defiance of the Constitution; of the
+increase of customs-stations on the part of the princes and
+prince-prelates; and, finally, of the debasement of the coinage due
+to the unscrupulous practices of these notables and of the Jews. The
+only sympathy the other estates vouchsafed to the plaints of the
+cities was with regard to the right of private war, which the higher
+nobles were also anxious to suppress amongst the lower, though
+without prejudice, of course, to their own privileges in this line.
+All the other articles of the Act of Protest were coolly waived
+aside. From all this it will be seen that not much co-operation was
+to be expected between such heterogeneous bodies as the knighthood
+and the free towns, in spite of their common interest in checking the
+threateningly advancing power of the princes and the central Imperial
+authority in so far as it was manned and manipulated by the princes.
+
+Amid the decaying knighthood there was, as we have already intimated,
+one figure which stood out head and shoulders above every other noble
+of the time, whether prince or knight, and that was Franz von
+Sickingen. He has been termed, not without truth, "the last flower of
+German chivalry," since in him the old knightly qualities flashed up
+in conjunction with the old knightly power and splendour with a
+brightness hardly known even in the palmiest days of mediaeval life. It
+was, however, the last flicker of the light of German chivalry. With
+the death of Sickingen and the collapse of his revolt the knighthood
+of Central Europe ceased any longer to play an independent part in
+history.
+
+Sickingen, although technically only one of the lower nobility, was
+deemed about the time of Luther's appearance to hold the immediate
+destinies of the empire in his hand. Wealthy, inspiring confidence and
+enthusiasm as a leader, possessed of more than one powerful and
+strategically situated stronghold, he held court at his favourite
+residence, the Castle of the Landstuhl, in the Rhenish Palatinate, in
+a style which many a prince of the empire might have envied. As
+honoured guests were to be found attending on him humanists, poets,
+minstrels, partisans of the new theology, astrologers, alchemists, and
+men of letters generally--in short, the whole intelligence and culture
+of the period. Foremost amongst these, and chief confidant of
+Sickingen, was the knight, courtier, poet, essayist, and pamphleteer,
+Ulrich von Hutten, whose pen was ever ready to champion with unstinted
+enthusiasm the cause of the progressive ideas of his age. He first
+took up the cudgels against the obscurantists on behalf of Humanism as
+represented by Erasmus and Reuchlin, the latter of whom he bravely
+defended in his dispute with the Inquisition and the monks of Cologne,
+and in his contributions to the _Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum_ we see
+the youthful ardour of the Renaissance in full blast in its onslaught
+on the forces of mediaeval obstruction. Unlike most of those with whom
+he was first associated, Hutten passed from being the upholder of the
+New Learning to the role of champion of the Reformation; and it was
+largely through his influence that Sickingen took up the cause of
+Luther and his movement.
+
+Sickingen had been induced by Charles V to assist him in an abortive
+attempt to invade France in 1521, from which campaign he had returned
+without much benefit either material or moral, save that Charles was
+left heavily in his debt. The accumulated hatred of generations for
+the priesthood had made Sickingen a willing instrument in the hands of
+the reforming party, and believing that Charles now lay to some extent
+in his power, he considered the moment opportune for putting his
+long-cherished scheme into operation for reforming the Constitution of
+the empire. This reformation consisted, as was to be expected, in
+placing his own order on a firm footing, and of effectually curbing
+the power of the other estates, especially that of the prelates.
+Sickingen wished to make the Emperor and the lower nobility the
+decisive factors in his new scheme of things political. The Emperor,
+it so happened, was for the moment away in Spain, and Sickingen's
+colleagues of the knightly order were becoming clamorous at the
+unworthy position into which they found themselves rapidly being
+driven. The feudal exactions of their princely lieges had reached a
+point which passed all endurance, and since they were practically
+powerless in the Reichstags, no outlet was left for their discontent
+save by open revolt. Impelled not less by his own inclinations than by
+the pressure of his companions, foremost among whom was Hutten,
+Sickingen decided at once to open the campaign.
+
+Hutten, it would appear, attempted to enter into negotiations for the
+co-operation of the towns and of the peasants. So far as can be seen,
+Strassburg and one or two other Imperial cities returned favourable
+answers; but the precise measure of Hutten's success cannot be
+ascertained, owing to the fact that all the documents relating to the
+matter perished in the destruction of Sickingen's Castle of Ebernburg.
+
+It should be premised that on August 13th, previous to this
+declaration of war, a "Brotherly Convention" had been signed by a
+number of the knights, by which Sickingen was appointed their captain,
+and they bound themselves to submit to no jurisdiction save their own,
+and pledged themselves to mutual aid in war in case of hostilities
+against any one of their number. Through this "Treaty of Landau,"
+Sickingen had it in his power to assemble a considerable force at a
+moment's notice. Consequently, a few days after the issue of the above
+manifesto, on August 27, 1522, Sickingen was able to start from the
+Castle of Ebernburg with an army of 5,000 foot and 1,500 knights,
+besides artillery, in the full confidence that he was about to destroy
+the position of the Palatine prince-prelate and raise himself without
+delay to the chief power on the Rhine.
+
+By an effective piece of audacity, that of sporting the Imperial flag
+and the Burgundian cross, Franz spread abroad the idea that he was
+acting on behalf of the Emperor, then absent in Spain; and this
+largely contributed to the result that his army speedily rose to 5,000
+knights and 10,000 footmen. The Imperial Diet at Nuernberg now
+intervened, and ordered Sickingen to cease the operations he had
+already begun, threatening him with the ban of the empire and a fine
+of 2,000 marks if he did not obey. To this summons Franz sent a
+characteristically impudent reply, and light-heartedly continued the
+campaign, regardless of the warning which an astrologer had given him
+some time previously, that the year 1522 or 1523 would probably be
+fatal to him. It is evident that this campaign, begun so late in the
+year, was regarded by Sickingen and the other leaders as merely a
+preliminary canter to a larger and more widespread movement the
+following spring, since on this occasion the Swabian and Franconian
+knighthood do not appear to have been even invited to take part in it.
+
+After an easy progress, during which several trifling places, the most
+important being St. Wendel, were taken, Franz with his army arrived on
+September 8th before the gates of Trier. He had hoped to capture the
+town by surprise, and was indeed not without some expectation of
+co-operation and help from the citizens themselves. On his arrival he
+shot letters within the walls summoning the inhabitants to take his
+part against their tyrant; but either through the unwillingness of the
+burghers to act with knights, or through the vigilance of the
+Archbishop, they were without effect. The gates remained closed; and
+in answer to Sickingen's summons to surrender, Richard replied that he
+would find him in the city if he could get inside. In the meantime
+Sickingen's friends had signally failed in their attempts to obtain
+supplies and reinforcements for him, in the main owing to the
+energetic action of some of the higher nobles. The Archbishop of Trier
+showed himself as much a soldier as a Churchman; and after a week's
+siege, during which Sickingen made five assaults on the city, his
+powder ran out, and he was forced to retire. He at once made his way
+back to Ebernburg, where he intended to pass the winter, since he saw
+that it was useless to continue the campaign, with his own army
+diminishing and the hoped-for supplies not appearing, whilst the
+forces of his antagonists augmented daily. In his stronghold of
+Ebernburg he could rely on being secure from all attack until he was
+able to again take the field on the offensive, as he anticipated doing
+in the spring.
+
+In spite of the obvious failure of the autumnal campaign, the cause of
+the knighthood did not by any means look irretrievably desperate,
+since there was always the possibility of successful recruitments the
+following spring. Ulrich von Hutten was doing his utmost in Wuertemberg
+and Switzerland to scrape together men and money, though up to this
+time without much success, while other emissaries of Sickingen were
+working with the same object in Breisgau and other parts of Southern
+Germany. Relying on these expected reinforcements, Franz was confident
+of victory when he should again take the field, and in the meantime he
+felt himself quite secure in one or other of his strong places, which
+had recently undergone extensive repairs and seemed to be impregnable.
+In this anticipation he was deceived, for he had not reckoned with the
+new and more potent weapons of attack which were replacing the
+battering-ram and other mediaeval besieging appliances. Franz retired
+to his strong castle of the Landstuhl to await the onslaught of the
+princes which followed in the spring. After heavy bombardment
+Sickingen was mortally wounded on May 6th, and the place was
+immediately surrendered. The next day the princes entered the castle,
+where, in an underground chamber, their enemy lay dying.
+
+He was so near his end that he could scarcely distinguish his three
+arch-enemies one from the other. "My dear lord," he said to the Count
+Palatine, his feudal superior, "I had not thought that I should end
+thus," taking off his cap and giving him his hand. "What has impelled
+thee, Franz," asked the Archbishop of Trier, "that thou hast so laid
+waste and harmed me and my poor people?" "Of that it were too long to
+speak," answered Sickingen, "but I have done nought without cause. I
+go now to stand before a greater Lord." Here it is worthy of remark
+that the princes treated Franz with all the knightliness and courtesy
+which were customary between social equals in the days of chivalry,
+addressing him at most rather as a rebellious child than as an
+insurgent subject. The Prince of Hesse was about to give utterance to
+a reproach, but he was interrupted by the Count Palatine, who told
+him that he must not quarrel with a dying man. The Count's chamberlain
+said some sympathetic words to Franz, who replied to him: "My dear
+chamberlain, it matters little about me. It is not I who am the cock
+round which they are dancing." When the princes had withdrawn, his
+chaplain asked him if he would confess; but Franz replied: "I have
+confessed to God in my heart," whereupon the chaplain gave him
+absolution; and as he went to fetch the host "the last of the knights"
+passed quietly away, alone and abandoned. It is related by Spalatin
+that after his death some peasants and domestics placed his body in an
+old armour-chest, in which they had to double the head on to the
+knees. The chest was then let down by a rope from the rocky eminence
+on which stands the now ruined castle, and was buried beneath a small
+chapel in the village below.
+
+The scene we have just described in the castle vault meant not merely
+the tragedy of a hero's death, nor merely the destruction of a faction
+or party, it meant the end of an epoch. With Sickingen's death one of
+the most salient and picturesque elements in the mediaeval life of
+Central Europe received its death-blow. The knighthood as a distinct
+factor in the polity of Europe henceforth existed no more.
+
+Spalatin relates that on the death of Sickingen the princely party
+anticipated as easy a victory over the religious revolt as they had
+achieved over the knighthood. "The mock Emperor is dead," so the
+phrase went, "and the mock Pope will soon be dead also." Hutten,
+already an exile in Switzerland, did not many months survive his
+patron and leader, Sickingen. The role which Erasmus played in this
+miserable tragedy was only what was to be expected from the moral
+cowardice which seemed ingrained in the character of the great
+Humanist leader. Erasmus had already begun to fight shy of the
+Reformation movement, from which he was about to separate himself
+definitely. He seized the present opportunity to quarrel with Hutten;
+and to Hutten's somewhat bitter attacks on him in consequence he
+replied with ferocity in his _Spongia Erasmi adversus aspergines
+Hutteni_.
+
+Hutten had had to fly from Basel to Muelhausen and thence to Zuerich, in
+the last stages of syphilitic disease. He was kindly received by the
+reformer, Zwingli of Zuerich, who advised him to try the waters of
+Pfeffers, and gave him letters of recommendation to the abbot of that
+place. He returned, in no wise benefited, to Zuerich, when Zwingli
+again befriended the sick knight, and sent him to a friend of his, the
+"reformed" pastor of the little island of "Ufenau," at the other end
+of the lake, where after a few weeks' suffering he died in abject
+destitution, leaving, it is said, nothing behind him but his pen. The
+disease from which Hutten suffered the greater part of his life, at
+that time a comparatively new importation and much more formidable
+even than nowadays, may well have contributed to an irascibility of
+temper and to a certain recklessness which the typical free-lance of
+the Reformation in its early period exhibited. Hutten was never a
+theologian, and the Reformation seems to have attracted him mainly
+from its political side as implying the assertion of the dawning
+feeling of German nationality as against the hated enemies of freedom
+of thought and the new light, the clerical satellites of the Roman
+see. He was a true son of his time, in his vices no less than in his
+virtues; and no one will deny his partiality for "wine, women, and
+play." There is reason, indeed, to believe that the latter at times
+during his later career provided his sole means of subsistence.
+
+The hero of the Reformation, Luther, with whom Melanchthon may be
+associated in this matter, could be no less pusillanimous on occasion
+than the hero of the New Learning, Erasmus. Luther undoubtedly saw in
+Sickingen's revolt a means of weakening the Catholic powers against
+which he had to fight, and at its inception he avowedly favoured the
+enterprise. In some of the reforming writings Luther is represented as
+the incarnation of Christian resignation and mildness, and as talking
+of twelve legions of angels and deprecating any appeal to force as
+unbefitting the character of an evangelical apostle. That such,
+however, was not his habitual attitude is evident to all who are in
+the least degree acquainted with his real conduct and utterances. On
+one occasion he wrote: "If they (the priests) continue their mad
+ravings it seems to me that there would be no better method and
+medicine to stay them than that kings and princes did so with force,
+armed themselves and attacked these pernicious people who do poison
+all the world, and once for all did make an end of their doings with
+weapons, not with words. For even as we punish thieves with the sword,
+murderers with the rope, and heretics with fire, wherefore do we not
+lay hands on these pernicious teachers of damnation, on popes, on
+cardinals, bishops, and the swarm of the Roman Sodom--yea, with every
+weapon which lieth within our reach, _and wherefore do we not wash our
+hands in their blood?_"[19]
+
+It is, however, in a manifesto published in July 1522, just before
+Sickingen's attack on the Archbishop of Trier, for which enterprise it
+was doubtless intended as a justification, that Luther expresses
+himself in unmeasured terms against the "biggest wolves," the bishops,
+and calls upon "all dear children of God and all true Christians" to
+drive them out by force from the "sheep-stalls." In this pamphlet,
+entitled _Against the falsely called spiritual order of the Pope and
+the Bishops_, he says: "It were better that every bishop were
+murdered, every foundation or cloister rooted out, than that one soul
+should be destroyed, let alone that all souls should be lost for the
+sake of their worthless trumpery and idolatry. Of what use are they
+who thus live in lust, nourished by the sweat and labour of others,
+and are a stumbling-block to the word of God? They fear bodily uproar
+and despise spiritual destruction. Are they wise and honest people? If
+they accepted God's word and sought the life of the soul, God would be
+with them, for He is a God of peace, and they need fear no uprising;
+but if they will not hear God's word, but rage and rave with bannings,
+burnings, killings, and every evil, what do they better deserve than a
+strong uprising which shall sweep them from the earth? _And we would
+smile did it happen._[20] As the heavenly wisdom saith: 'Ye have
+hated my chastisement and despised my doctrine; behold, I will also
+laugh at ye in your distress, and will mock ye when misfortune shall
+fall upon your heads.'" In the same document he denounces the bishops
+as an accursed race, as "thieves, robbers, and usurers." Swine,
+horses, stones, and wood were not so destitute of understanding as the
+German people under the sway of them and their Pope. The religious
+houses are similarly described as "brothels, low taverns, and murder
+dens," He winds up this document, which he calls his "bull," by
+proclaiming that "all who contribute body, goods, and honour that the
+rule of the bishops may be destroyed are God's dear children and true
+Christians, obeying God's command and fighting against the devil's
+order"; and, on the other hand, that "all who give the bishops a
+willing obedience are the devil's own servants, and fight against
+God's order and law."[21]
+
+No sooner, however, did things begin to look bad with Sickingen than
+Luther promptly sought to disengage himself from all complicity or
+even sympathy with him and his losing cause. So early as December 19,
+1522, he writes to his friend Wenzel Link: "Franz von Sickingen has
+begun war against the Palatine. It will be a very bad business."
+(_Franciscus Sickingen Palatino bellum indixit, res pessima futura
+est._) His colleague, Melanchthon, a few days later, hastened to
+deprecate the insinuation that Luther had had any part or lot in
+initiating the revolt. "Franz von Sickingen," he wrote, "by his great
+ill-will injures the cause of Luther; and notwithstanding that he be
+entirely dissevered from him, nevertheless whenever he undertaketh war
+he wisheth to seem to act for the public benefit, and not for his own.
+He doth even now pursue a most infamous course of plunder on the
+Rhine." In another letter he says: "I know how this tumult grieveth
+him (Luther),"[22] and this respecting the man who had shortly before
+written of the princes that their tyranny and haughtiness were no
+longer to be borne, alleging that God would not longer endure it, and
+that the common man even was becoming intelligent enough to deal with
+them by force if they did not mend their manners. A more telling
+example of the "don't-put-him-in-the-horse-pond" attitude could
+scarcely be desired. That it was characteristic of the "great
+reformer" will be seen later on when we find him pursuing a similar
+policy anent the revolt of the peasants.
+
+After the fall of the Landstuhl all Sickingen's castles and most of
+those of his immediate allies and friends were of course taken, and
+the greater part of them destroyed. The knighthood was now to all
+intents and purposes politically helpless and economically at the door
+of bankruptcy, owing to the suddenly changed conditions of which we
+have spoken in the Introduction and elsewhere as supervening since the
+beginning of the century: the unparalleled rise in prices,
+concurrently with the growing extravagance, the decline of agriculture
+in many places, and the increasing burdens put upon the knights by
+their feudal superiors, and last, but not least, the increasing
+obstacles in the way of the successful pursuit of the profession of
+highway robbery. The majority of them, therefore, clung with
+relentless severity to the feudal dues of the peasants, which now
+constituted their main, and in many cases their only, source of
+revenue; and hence, abandoning the hope of independence, they threw in
+their lot with the authorities, the princes, lay and ecclesiastic, in
+the common object of both, that of reducing the insurgent peasants to
+complete subjection.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[19] Italics the present author's.
+
+[20] Italics the present author's.
+
+[21] _Saemmtliche Werke_ vol. xxviii. pp. 142-201.
+
+[22] _Corpus Reformatorum_, vol. i. pp. 598-9.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GENERAL SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REVOLT
+
+
+Peasant revolts of a sporadic character are to be met with throughout
+the Middle Ages even in their halcyon days. Some of these, like the
+Jacquerie in France and the revolt associated with the name of Wat
+Tyler in England, were of a serious and more or less extended
+character. But most of them were purely local and of no significance,
+apart from temporary and passing circumstances. By the last quarter of
+the fifteenth century, however, peasant risings had become
+increasingly numerous and their avowed aims much more definite and
+far-reaching than, as a rule, were those of an earlier date. In saying
+this we are referring to those revolts which were directly initiated
+by the peasantry, the serfs, and the villeins of the time, and which
+had as their main object the direct amelioration of the peasant's lot.
+Movements of a primarily religious character were, of course, of a
+somewhat different nature, but the tendency was increasingly, as we
+approach the period of the Reformation, for the two currents to merge
+one in the other. The echoes of the Hussite movement in Bavaria at the
+beginning of the century spread far and wide throughout Central
+Europe, and had by no means spent their force as the century drew
+towards its close.
+
+From this time forward recurrent indications of social revolt with a
+strong religious colouring, or a religious revolt with a strong social
+colouring, became chronic in the Germanic lands and those adjacent
+thereto. As an example may be taken the movement of Hans Boheim, of
+Niklashausen, in the diocese of Wuerzburg, in Franconia, in 1476, and
+which is regarded by some historians as the first of the movements
+leading directly up to those of the Lutheran Reformation. Hans claimed
+a divine mission for preaching the gospel to the common man. Hans
+preached asceticism and claimed Niklashausen as a place of pilgrimage
+for a new worship of the Virgin. There was little in this to alarm the
+authorities till Hans announced that the Queen of Heaven had revealed
+to him that there was to be no lay or spiritual authority, but that
+all men should be brothers, earning their bread by the sweat of their
+brows, paying no more imposts or dues, holding land in common, and
+sharing alike in all things. The movement went on for some months,
+spreading rapidly in the neighbouring territories. At last Hans was
+seized by armed men while asleep and hurried to Wuerzburg. The affair
+caused immense commotion, and by the Sunday following, it is stated,
+34,000 armed peasants assembled at Niklashausen. Led by a decayed
+knight and his son, 16,000 of them marched to Wuerzburg, demanding
+their prophet at the gate of the bishop's castle. By promises and
+cajolery, they were induced to disperse by the prince-bishop, who, as
+soon as he saw they were returning home in straggling parties,
+treacherously sent a body of his knights after them, killing some and
+taking others prisoners. Two of the ringleaders were beheaded outside
+the castle, and at the same time the prophet Hans Boheim was burnt to
+ashes. Thus ended a typical religio-social peasant revolt of the
+half-century preceding the great Reformation movement.
+
+In 1491 the oppressed and plundered villeins of Kempten revolted, but
+the movement was quelled by the Emperor himself after a compromise. A
+great rising took place in Elsass (Alsace) in 1493 among the
+feudatories of the Bishop of Strassburg, with the usual object of
+freedom for the "common man," abolition of feudal exactions, Church
+reformation, etc. This movement is interesting, as having first
+received the name of the _Bundschuh_. It was decided that as the
+knight was distinguished by his spurs, so the peasant should have as
+his device the common shoe of his class, laced from the ankle through
+to the knee by leathern thongs, and the banner whereon this emblem was
+depicted was accordingly made. The movement was, however, betrayed and
+mercilessly crushed by the neighbouring knighthood. A few years later
+a similar movement, also having the _Bundschuh_ for its device, took
+place in the regions of the Upper and Middle Rhine. This movement
+created a panic among all the privileged classes, from the Emperor
+down to the knight. The situation was discussed in no less than three
+separate assemblies of the States. It was, however, eventually
+suppressed for the time being. A few years later, in 1512, it again
+burst forth under the leadership of an active adherent of the former
+movement, one Joss Fritz, in Baden, at the village of Lehen, near the
+town of Freiburg. The organization in this case, besides being
+widespread, was exceedingly good, and the movement was nearly
+successful when at the last moment it was betrayed. Even in
+Switzerland there were peasant risings in the early years of the
+sixteenth century. About the same time the duchy of Wuertemberg was
+convulsed by a movement which took the name of the "Poor Conrad." Its
+object was the freeing of the "common man" from feudal services and
+dues and the abolition of seignorial rights over the land, etc. But
+here again the movement was suppressed by Duke Ulrich and his knights.
+Another rising took place in Baden in 1517. Three years previously, in
+1514, occurred the great Hungarian peasant rebellion under George
+Daze. Under the able leadership of the latter the peasants had some
+not inconsiderable initial successes, but this movement also, after
+some weeks, was cruelly suppressed. About the same time, too, occurred
+various insurrectionary peasant movements in the Styrian and
+Carinthian alpine districts. Similar movements to those referred to
+were also going on during those early years of the fifteenth century
+in other parts of Europe, but these, of course, do not concern us.
+
+The deep-reaching importance and effective spread of such movements
+was infinitely greater in the Middle Ages than in modern times. The
+same phenomenon presents itself to-day in backward and semi-barbaric
+communities. At first sight one is inclined to think that there has
+been no period in the world's history when it was so easy to stir up
+a population as the present, with our newspapers, our telegraphs, our
+aeroplane, our postal arrangements, and our railways. But this is just
+one of those superficial notions that are not confirmed by history. We
+are similarly apt to think that there was no age in which travel was
+so widespread and formed so great a part of the education of mankind
+as at present. There could be no greater mistake. The true age of
+travelling was the close of the Middle Ages, or what is known as the
+Renaissance period. The man of learning, then just differentiated from
+the ecclesiastic, spent the greater part of his life in earning his
+intellectual wares from Court to Court and from University to
+University, just as the merchant personally carried his goods from
+city to city in an age in which commercial correspondence,
+bill-brokers, and the varied forms of modern business were but in
+embryo. It was then that travel really meant education, the
+acquirement of thorough and intimate knowledge of diverse manners and
+customs. Travel was then not a pastime, but a serious element in life.
+
+In the same way the spread of a political or social movement was at
+least as rapid then as now, and far more penetrating. The methods
+were, of course, vastly different from the present; but the human
+material to be dealt with was far easier to mould, and kept its shape
+much more readily when moulded, than is the case nowadays. The
+appearance of a religious or political teacher in a village or small
+town of the Middle Ages was an event which keenly excited the interest
+of the inhabitants. It struck across the path of their daily life,
+leaving behind it a track hardly conceivable to-day. For one of the
+salient symptoms of the change which has taken place since that time
+is the disappearance of local centres of activity and the transference
+of the intensity of life to a few large towns. In the Middle Ages
+every town, small no less than large, was a more or less
+self-sufficing organism, intellectually and industrially, and was not
+essentially dependent on the outside world for its social sustenance.
+This was especially the case in Central Europe, where communication
+was much more imperfect and dangerous than in Italy, France, or
+England. In a society without newspapers, without easy communication
+with the rest of the world, where the vast majority could neither read
+nor write, where books were rare and costly, and accessible only to
+the privileged few, a new idea bursting upon one of these communities
+was eagerly welcomed, discussed in the council chamber of the town, in
+the hall of the castle, in the refectory of the monastery, at the
+social board of the burgess, in the workroom, and, did it but touch
+his interests, in the hut of the peasant. It was canvassed, too, at
+church festivals (_Kirchweihe_), the only regular occasion on which
+the inhabitants of various localities came together. In the absence of
+all other distraction, men thought it out in all the bearings which
+their limited intellectual horizon permitted. If calculated in any way
+to appeal to them it soon struck root, and became a part of their very
+nature, a matter for which, if occasion were, they were prepared to
+sacrifice goods, liberty, and even life itself. In the present day a
+new idea is comparatively slow in taking root. Amid the myriad
+distractions of modern life, perpetually chasing one another, there is
+no time for any one thought, however wide-reaching in its bearings, to
+take a firm hold. In order that it should do so in the _modern mind_,
+it must be again and again borne in upon this not always too receptive
+intellectual substance. People require to read of it day after day in
+their newspapers, or to hear it preached from countless platforms,
+before any serious effect is created. In the simple life of former
+ages it was not so.
+
+The mode of transmitting intelligence, especially such as was
+connected with the stirring up of political and religious movements,
+was in those days of a nature of which we have now little conception.
+The sort of thing in vogue then may be compared to the methods
+adopted in India to prepare the Mutiny of 1857, when the mysterious
+cake was passed from village to village, signifying that the moment
+had come for the outbreak. The sense of _esprit de corps_ and of that
+kind of honour most intimately associated with it, it must also be
+remembered, was infinitely keener in ruder states of society than
+under a high civilization. The growth of civilization, as implying the
+disruption of the groups in which the individual is merged under more
+primitive conditions, and his isolation as an autonomous unit having
+vague and very elastic moral duties to his "country" or to mankind at
+large, but none towards any definite and proximate social whole,
+necessarily destroys that communal spirit which prevails in the former
+case. This is one of the striking truths which the history of these
+peasant risings illustrates in various ways and brings vividly home to
+us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GREAT RISING OF THE PEASANTS AND THE ANABAPTIST MOVEMENT[23]
+
+
+The year following the collapse of Franz Sickingen's rebellion saw the
+first mutterings of the great movement known as the Peasants' War, the
+most extensive and important of all the popular insurrections of the
+Middle Ages, which, as we have seen in a previous chapter, had been
+led up to during the previous half-century by numerous sporadic
+movements throughout Central Europe having like aims.
+
+The first actual outbreak of the Peasants' War took place in August
+1524, in the Black Forest, in the village of Stuehlingen, from an
+apparently trivial cause. It spread rapidly throughout the surrounding
+districts, having found a leader in a former soldier of fortune, Hans
+Mueller by name. The so-called Evangelical Brotherhood sprang into
+existence. On the new movement becoming threatening it was opposed by
+the Swabian League, a body in the interests of the Germanic
+Federation, its princes, and cities, whose function it was to preserve
+public tranquillity and enforce the Imperial decrees. The peasant army
+was armed with the rudest weapons, including pitchforks, scythes, and
+axes; but nothing decisive of a military character took place this
+year. Meanwhile the work of agitation was carried on far and wide
+throughout the South German territories. Preachers of discontent among
+the peasantry and the former towns were everywhere agitating and
+organizing with a view to a general rising in the ensuing spring.
+Negotiations were carried on throughout the winter with nobles and the
+authorities without important results. A diversion in favour of the
+peasants was caused by Duke Ulrich of Wuertemberg favouring the
+peasants' cause, which he hoped to use as a shoeing-horn to his own
+plans for recovering his ancestral domains, from which he had been
+driven on the grounds of a family quarrel under the ban of the empire
+in 1519. He now established himself in his stronghold of Hohentwiel,
+in Wuertemberg, on the Swiss frontier. By February or the beginning of
+March peasant bands were organizing throughout Southern Germany.
+Early in March a so-called Peasants' Parliament was held at Memmingen,
+a small Swabian town, at which the principal charter of the movement,
+the so-called "Twelve Articles," was adopted. This important document
+has a strong religious colouring, the political and economic demands
+of the peasants being led up to and justified by Biblical quotations.
+They all turn on the customary grievances of the time. The "Twelve
+Articles" remain throughout the chief Bill of Rights of the South
+German peasantry, though there were other versions of the latter
+current in certain districts. What was said before concerning the
+local sporadic movements which had been going en for a generation
+previously applies equally to the great uprising of 1525. The rapidity
+with which the ideas represented by the movement, and in consequence
+the movement itself, spread, is marvellous. By the middle of April it
+was computed that no less than 300,000 peasants, besides necessitous
+townsfolk, were armed and in open rebellion. On the side of the nobles
+no adequate force was ready to meet the emergency. In every direction
+were to be seen flaming castles and monasteries. On all sides were
+bodies of armed countryfolk, organized in military fashion, dictating
+their will to the countryside and the small towns, whilst
+disaffection was beginning to show itself in a threatening manner
+among the popular elements of not a few important cities. A slight
+success gained by the Swabian League at the Upper Swabian village of
+Leipheim in the second week of April did not improve matters. In
+Easter week, 1525, it looked indeed as if the "Twelve Articles" at
+least would become realized, if not the Christian Commonwealth dreamed
+of by the religious sectaries established throughout the length and
+breadth of Germany. Princes, lords, and ecclesiastical dignitaries
+were being compelled far and wide to save their lives, after their
+property was probably already confiscated, by swearing allegiance to
+the Christian League or Brotherhood of the peasants and by
+countersigning the "Twelve Articles" and other demands of their
+refractory villeins and serfs. So threatening was the situation that
+the Archduke Ferdinand began himself to yield, in so far as to enter
+into negotiations with the insurgents. In many cases the leaders and
+chief men of the bands were got up in brilliant costume. We read of
+purple mantles and scarlet birettas with ostrich plumes as the costume
+of the leaders, of a suite of men in scarlet dress, of a vanguard of
+ten heralds, gorgeously attired. As Lamprecht justly observes
+(_Deutsche Geschichte_, vol. v. p. 343): "The peasant revolts were,
+in general, less in the nature of campaigns, or even of an
+uninterrupted series of minor military operations, than of a slow
+process of mobilization, interrupted and accompanied by continual
+negotiations with lords and princes--a mobilization which was rendered
+possible by the standing right of assembly and of carrying arms
+possessed by the peasants." The smaller towns everywhere opened their
+gates without resistance to the peasants, between whom and the poorer
+inhabitants an understanding commonly existed. The bands waxed fat
+with plunder of castles and religious houses, and did full justice to
+the contents of the rich monastic wine-cellars.
+
+Early in April occurred one of the most notable incidents. It was at
+the little town of Weinsberg, near the free town of Heilbronn, in
+Wuertemberg. The town, which was occupied by a body of knights and
+men-at-arms, was attacked on Easter Sunday by the peasant bands,
+foremost among them being the "black troop" of that knightly champion
+of the peasant cause, Florian Geyer. It was followed by a peasant
+contingent, led by one Jaecklein Rohrbach, whose consuming passion was
+hatred of the ruling classes. The knights within the town were under
+the leadership of Count von Helfenstein. The entry of Rohrbach's
+company into Weinsberg was the signal for a massacre of the knightly
+host. Some were taken prisoners for the moment, including Helfenstein
+himself, but these were massacred next morning in the meadow outside
+the town by "Jaecklein," as he was called. The events at Weinsberg
+produced in the first instance a horror and consternation which was
+speedily followed by a lust for vengeance on the part of the
+privileged orders.
+
+In Franconia and Middle Germany the peasant movement went on apace. In
+Franconia one of its chief seats was the considerable town of
+Rothenburg, on the Tauber. The episcopal city of Wuerzburg was also
+entered and occupied by the peasant bands in coalition with the
+discontented elements of the town. The sacking of churches and
+throwing open of religious houses characterized proceedings here as
+elsewhere. The locking up of a large peasant host in Wuerzburg was
+undoubtedly a source of great weakness to the movement. In the east,
+in the Tyrol and Salzburg, there were similar risings to those farther
+west. In the latter case the prince-bishop was the obnoxious
+oppressor.
+
+The most interesting of the local movements was, however, in many
+respects that of Thomas Muenzer in the town of Muelhausen, in Thuringia.
+Thomas Muenzer is, perhaps, the best known of all the names in the
+peasants' revolt. In addition to the ultra-Protestantism of his
+theological views, Muenzer had as his object the establishment of a
+communistic Christian Commonwealth. He started a practical
+exemplification of this among his own followers in the town itself.
+
+Up to the beginning of May the insurrection had carried everything
+before it. Truchsess and his men of the Swabian League had proved
+themselves unable to cope with it. Matters now changed. Knights,
+men-at-arms, and free-lances were returning from the Italian campaign
+of Charles V after the battle of Pavia. Everywhere the revolt met with
+disaster. The Muelhausen insurgents were destroyed at Frankenhausen by
+forces of the Count of Hesse, of the Duke of Brunswick, and of the
+Duke of Saxony. This was on May 15th. Three days before the defeat at
+Frankenhausen, on May 12th, a decisive defeat was inflicted on the
+peasants by the forces of the Swabian League, under Truchsess, at
+Boeblingen, in Wuertemberg. Savage ferocity signalized the treatment of
+the defeated peasants by the soldiery of the nobles. Jaecklein Rohrbach
+was roasted alive. Truchsess with his soldiery then hurried north and
+inflicted a heavy defeat on the Franconian peasant contingents at
+Koenigshaven, on the Tauber. These three defeats, following one
+another in little more than a fortnight, broke the back of the whole
+movement in Germany proper. In Elsass and Lorraine the insurrection
+was crushed by the hired troops and the Duke of Lorraine; eastward, on
+the little river Luibas. In the Austrian territories, under the able
+leadership of Michael Gaismayr, one of the lesser nobility, it
+continued for some months longer, and the fear of Gaismayr, who, it
+should be said, was the only man of really constructive genius the
+movement had produced, maintained itself with the privileged classes
+till his murder in the autumn of 1528, at the instance of the Bishop
+of Brixen.
+
+The great peasant insurrection in Germany failed through want of a
+well-thought-out plan and tactics, and, above all, through a want of
+cohesion among the various peasant forces operating in different
+sections of the country, between which no regular communications were
+kept up. The attitude of Martin Luther towards the peasants and their
+cause was base in the extreme. His action was mainly embodied in two
+documents, of which the first was issued about the middle of April,
+and the second a month later. The difference in tone between them is
+sufficiently striking. In the first, which bore the title, "An
+Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Peasantry in
+Swabia," Luther sits on the fence, admonishing both parties of what he
+deemed their shortcomings. He was naturally pleased with those
+articles that demanded the free preaching of the Gospel and abused the
+Catholic clergy, and was not indisposed to assent to many of the
+economic demands. In fact, the document strikes one as distinctly more
+favourable to the insurgents than to their opponents.
+
+"We have," he wrote, "no one to thank for this mischief and sedition,
+save ye princes and lords, in especial ye blind bishops and mad
+priests and monks, who up to this day remain obstinate and do not
+cease to rage and rave against the holy Gospel, albeit ye know that it
+is righteous, and that ye may not gainsay it. Moreover, in your
+worldly regiment, ye do naught otherwise than flay and extort tribute,
+that ye may satisfy your pomp and vanity, till the poor, common man
+cannot, and may not, bear with it longer. The sword is on your neck.
+Ye think ye sit so strongly in your seats, that none may cast you from
+them. Such presumption and obstinate pride will twist your necks, as
+ye will see." And again: "God hath made it thus that they cannot, and
+will not, longer bear with your raging. If ye do it not of your free
+will, so shall ye be made to do it by way of violence and undoing."
+Once more: "It is not peasants, my dear lords, who have set themselves
+up against you. God Himself it is who setteth Himself against you to
+chastise your evil-doing."
+
+He counsels the princes and lords to make peace with their peasants,
+observing with reference to the "Twelve Articles" that some of them
+are so just and righteous that before God and the world their
+worthiness is manifested, making good the words of the psalm that they
+heap contempt upon the heads of the princes. Whilst he warns the
+peasants against sedition and rebellion, and criticizes some of the
+Articles as going beyond the justification of Holy Writ, and whilst he
+makes side-hits at "the prophets of murder and the spirits of
+confusion which had found their way among them," the general
+impression given by the pamphlet is, as already said, one of
+unmistakable friendliness to the peasants and hostility to the lords.
+
+The manifesto may be summed up in the following terms: Both sides are,
+strictly speaking, in the wrong, but the princes and lords have
+provoked the "common man" by their unjust exactions and oppressions;
+the peasants, on their side, have gone too far in many of their
+demands, notably in the refusal to pay tithes, and most of all in the
+notion of abolishing villeinage, which Luther declares to be
+"straightway contrary to the Gospel and thievish." The great sin of
+the princes remains, however, that of having thrown stumbling-blocks
+in the way of the Gospel--_bien entendu_ the Gospel according to
+Luther--and the main virtue of the peasants was their claim to have
+this Gospel preached. It can scarcely be doubted that the ambiguous
+tone of Luther's rescript was interpreted by the rebellious peasants
+to their advantage and served to stimulate, rather than to check, the
+insurrection.
+
+Meanwhile, the movement rose higher and higher, and reached Thuringia,
+the district with which Luther personally was most associated. His
+patron, and what is more, the only friend of toleration in high
+places, the noble-minded Elector Friedrich of Saxony, fell ill and
+died on May 5th, and was succeeded by his younger brother Johann, the
+same who afterwards assisted in the suppression of the Thuringian
+revolt. Almost immediately thereupon Luther, who had been visiting his
+native town of Eisleben, travelled through the revolted districts on
+his way back to Wittenberg. He everywhere encountered black looks and
+jeers. When he preached, the Muenzerites would drown his voice by the
+ringing of bells. The signs of rebellion greeted him on all sides.
+The "Twelve Articles" were constantly thrown at his head. As the
+reports of violence towards the property and persons of some of his
+own noble friends reached him his rage broke all bounds. He seems,
+however, to have prudently waited a few days, until the cause of the
+peasants was obviously hopeless, before publicly taking his stand on
+the side of the authorities.
+
+On his arrival in Wittenberg, he wrote a second pronouncement on the
+contemporary events, in which no uncertainty was left as to his
+attitude. It is entitled, "Against the Murderous and Thievish Bands of
+Peasants."[24] Here he lets himself loose on the side of the
+oppressors with a bestial ferocity. "Crush them" (the peasants), he
+writes, "strangle them and pierce them, in secret places and in sight
+of men, he who can, even as one would strike dead a mad dog!" All
+having authority who hesitated to extirpate the insurgents to the
+uttermost were committing a sin against God. "Findest thou thy death
+therein," he writes, addressing the reader, "happy art thou: a more
+blessed death can never overtake thee, for thou diest in obedience to
+the Divine word and the command of Romans xiii. 1, and in the service
+of love, to save thy neighbour from the bonds of hell and the devil."
+Never had there been such an infamous exhortation to the most
+dastardly murder on a wholesale scale since the Albigensian crusade
+with its "Strike them all: God will know His own"--a sentiment indeed
+that Luther almost literally reproduces in one passage.
+
+The attitude of the official Lutheran party towards the poor
+countryfolk continued as infamous after the war as it had been on the
+first sign that fortune was forsaking their cause. Like master, like
+man. Luther's jackal, the "gentle" Melanchthon, specially signalized
+himself by urging on the feudal barons with Scriptural arguments to
+the blood-sucking and oppression of their villeins. A humane and
+honourable nobleman, Heinrich von Einsiedel, was touched in conscience
+at the _corvees_ and heavy dues to which he found himself entitled. He
+sent to Luther for advice upon the subject. Luther replied that the
+existing exactions which had been handed down to him from his parents
+need not trouble his conscience, adding that it would not be good for
+_corvees_ to be given up, since the "common man" ought to have
+burdens imposed upon him, as otherwise he would become overbearing. He
+further remarked that a severe treatment in material things was
+pleasing to God, even though it might seem to be too harsh. Spalatin
+writes in a like strain that the burdens in Germany were, if anything,
+too light. Subjects, according to Melanchthon, ought to know that they
+are serving God in the burdens they bear for their superiors, whether
+it were journeying, paying tribute, or otherwise, and as pleasing to
+God as though they raised the dead at God's own behest. Subjects
+should look up to their lords as wise and just men, and hence be
+thankful to them. However unjust, tyrannical, and cruel the lord might
+be, there was never any justification for rebellion.
+
+A friend and follower of Luther and Melanchthon--Martin Butzer by
+name--went still farther. According to this "reforming" worthy a
+subject was to obey his lord in everything. This was all that
+concerned him. It was not for him to consider whether what was
+enjoined was, or was not, contrary to the will of God. That was a
+matter for his feudal superior and God to settle between them.
+Referring to the doctrines of the revolutionary sects, Butzer urges
+the authorities to extirpate all those professing a false religion.
+Such men, he says, deserve a heavier punishment than thieves,
+robbers, and murderers. Even their wives and innocent children and
+cattle should be destroyed (_ap. Janssen_, vol. i. p. 595).
+
+Luther himself quotes, in a sermon on "Genesis," the instances of
+Abraham and Abimelech and other Old Testament worthies, as justifying
+slavery and the treatment of a slave as a beast of burden. "Sheep,
+cattle, men-servants and maid-servants, they were all possessions,"
+says Luther, "to be sold as it pleased them like other beasts. It were
+even a good thing were it still so. For else no man may compel nor
+tame the servile folk" (_Saemmtliche Werke_, vol. xv. p. 276). In other
+discourses he enforces the same doctrine, observing that if the world
+is to last for any time, and is to be kept going, it will be necessary
+to restore the patriarchal condition. Capito, the Strassburg preacher,
+in a letter to a colleague, writes lamenting that the pamphlets and
+discourses of Luther had contributed not a little to give edge to the
+bloodthirsty vengeance of the princes and nobles after the
+insurrection.
+
+The total number of the peasants and their allies who fell either in
+fighting or at the hands of the executioners is estimated by Anselm in
+his _Berner Chronik_ at 130,000. It was certainly not less than
+100,000. For months after the executioner was active in many of the
+affected districts. Spalatin says: "Of hanging and beheading there is
+no end." Another writer has it: "It was all so that even a stone had
+been moved to pity, for the chastisement and vengeance of the
+conquering lords was great." The executions within the jurisdiction of
+the Swabian League alone are stated at 10,000. Truchsess's provost
+boasted of having hanged or beheaded 1,200 with his own hand. More
+than 50,000 fugitives were recorded. These, according to a Swabian
+League order, were all outlawed in such wise that any one who found
+them might slay them without fear of consequences.
+
+The sentences and executions were conducted with true mediaeval levity.
+It is narrated in a contemporary chronicle that in one village in the
+Henneberg territory all the inhabitants had fled on the approach of
+the Count and his men-at-arms save two tilers. The two were being led
+to execution when one appeared to weep bitterly, and his reply to
+interrogatories was that he bewailed the dwellings of the aristocracy
+thereabouts, for henceforth there would be no one to supply them with
+durable tiles. Thereupon his companion burst out laughing, because,
+said he, it had just occurred to him that he would not know where to
+place his hat after his head had been taken off. These mildly humorous
+remarks obtained for both of them a free pardon.
+
+The aspect of those parts of the country where the war had most
+heavily raged was deplorable in the extreme. In addition to the many
+hundreds of castles and monasteries destroyed, almost as many villages
+and small towns had been levelled with the ground by one side or the
+other, especially by the Swabian League and the various princely
+forces. Many places were annihilated for having taken part with the
+peasants, even when they had been compelled by force to do so. Fields
+in these districts were everywhere laid waste or left uncultivated.
+Enormous sums were exacted as indemnity. In many of the villages
+peasants previously well-to-do were ruined. There seemed no limit to
+the bleeding of the "common man," under the pretence of compensation
+for damage done by the insurrection.
+
+The condition of the families of the dead and of the fugitives was
+appalling. Numbers perished from starvation. The wives and children of
+the insurgents were in some cases forcibly driven from their
+homesteads and even from their native territory. In one of the
+pamphlets published in 1525 anent the events of that year we read:
+"Houses are burned; fields and vineyards lie fallow; clothes and
+household goods are robbed or burned; cattle and sheep are taken away;
+the same as to horses and trappings. The prince, the gentleman, or the
+nobleman will have his rent and due. Eternal God, whither shall the
+widows and poor children go forth to seek it?" Referring to the
+Lutheran campaign against friars and poor scholars, beggars, and
+pilgrims, the writer observes: "Think ye now that because of God's
+anger for the sake of one beggar, ye must even for a season bear with
+twenty, thirty, nay, still more?"
+
+The courts of arbitration, which were established in various districts
+to adjudicate on the relations between lords and villeins, were
+naturally not given to favour the latter, whilst the fact that large
+numbers of deeds and charters had been burnt or otherwise destroyed in
+the course of the insurrection left open an extensive field for the
+imposition of fresh burdens. The record of the proceedings of one of
+the most important of these courts--that of the Swabian League's
+jurisdiction, which sat at Memmingen--in the dispute between the
+prince-abbot of Kempten and his villeins is given in full in Baumann's
+_Akten_, pp. 329-46. Here, however, the peasants did not come off so
+badly as in some other places. Meanwhile, all the other evils of the
+time, the monopolies of the merchant-princes of the cities and of the
+trading-syndicates, the dearness of living, the scarcity of money,
+etc., did not abate, but rather increased from year to year. The
+Catholic Church maintained itself especially in the South of Germany,
+and the official Reformation took on a definitely aristocratic
+character.
+
+According to Baumann (_Akten, Vorwort_, v, vi), the true soul of the
+movement of 1525 consisted in the notion of "Divine justice," the
+principle "that all relations, whether of political, social, or
+religious nature, have got to be ordered according to the directions
+of the 'Gospel' as the sole and exclusive source and standard of all
+justice." The same writer maintains that there are three phases in the
+development of this idea, according to which he would have the scheme
+of historical investigation subdivided. In Upper Swabia, says he,
+"Divine justice" found expression in the well-known "Twelve Articles,"
+but here the notion of a political reformation was as good as absent.
+
+In the second phase, the "Divine justice" idea began to be applied to
+political conditions. In Tyrol and the Austrian dominions, he
+observes, this political side manifested itself in local or, at best,
+territorial patriotism. It was only in Franconia that all territorial
+patriotism or "particularism" was shaken off and the idea of the unity
+of the German peoples received as a political goal. The Franconian
+influence gained over the Wuertembergers to a large extent, and the
+plan of reform elaborated by Weigand and Hipler for the Heilbronn
+Parliament was the most complete expression of this second phase of
+the movement.
+
+The third phase is represented by the rising in Thuringia, and
+especially in its intellectual head, Thomas Muenzer. Here we have the
+doctrine of "Divine justice" taking precedence of all else and
+assuming the form of a thoroughgoing theocratic scheme, to be realized
+by the German people.
+
+This division Baumann is led to make with a view to the formulation of
+a convenient scheme for a "codex" of documents relating to the
+Peasants' War. It may be taken as, in the main, the best general
+division that can be put forward, although, as we have seen, there are
+places where, and times when, the practical demands of the movement
+seem to have asserted themselves directly and spontaneously apart from
+any theory whatever.
+
+Of the fate of many of the most active leaders of the revolt we know
+nothing. Several heads of the movement, according to a contemporary
+writer, wandered about for a long time in misery, some of them indeed
+seeking refuge with the Turks, who were still a standing menace to
+Imperial Christendom. The popular preachers vanished also on the
+suppression of the movement. The disastrous result of the Peasants'
+War was prejudicial even to Luther's cause in South Germany. The
+Catholic party reaped the advantage everywhere, evangelical preachers,
+even, where not insurrectionists, being persecuted. Little
+distinction, in fact, was made in most districts between an opponent
+of the Catholic Church from Luther's standpoint and one from
+Karlstadt's or Hubmayer's. Amongst seventy-one heretics arraigned
+before the Austrian court at Ensisheim, only one was acquitted. The
+others were broken on the wheel, burnt, or drowned.
+
+There were some who were arrested ten or fifteen years later on
+charges connected with the 1525 revolt. Treachery, of course, played a
+large part, as it has done in all defeated movements, in ensuring the
+fate of many of those who had been at all prominent. In fairness to
+Luther, who otherwise played such a villainous role in connection with
+the peasants' movement, the fact should be recorded that he sheltered
+his old colleague, Karlstadt, for a short time in the Augustine
+monastery at Wittenberg, after the latter's escape from Rothenburg.
+
+Wendel Hipler continued for some time at liberty, and might probably
+have escaped altogether had he not entered a protest against the
+Counts of Hohenlohe for having seized a portion of his private fortune
+that lay within their power. The result of his action might have been
+foreseen. The Counts, on hearing of it, revenged themselves by
+accusing him of having been a chief pillar of the rebellion. He had to
+flee immediately, and, after wandering about for some time in a
+disguise, one of the features of which is stated to have been a false
+nose, he was seized on his way to the Reichstag which was being held
+at Speier in 1526. Tenacious of his property to the last, he had hoped
+to obtain restitution of his rights from the assembled estates of the
+empire. Some months later he died in prison at Neustadt.
+
+Of the victors, Truchsess and Frundsberg considered themselves badly
+treated by the authorities whom they had served so well, and
+Frundsberg even composed a lament on his neglect. This he loved to
+hear sung to the accompaniment of the harp as he swilled down his red
+wine. The cruel Markgraf Kasimir met a miserable death not long after
+from dysentery, whilst Cardinal Matthaus Lang, the Archbishop of
+Salzburg, ended his days insane.
+
+Of the fate of other prominent men connected with the events
+described, we have spoken in the course of the narrative.
+
+The castles and religious houses, which were destroyed, as already
+said, to the number of many hundreds, were in most cases not built up
+again. The ruins of not a few of them are visible to this day. Their
+owners often spent the sums relentlessly wrung out of the "common man"
+as indemnity in the extravagances of a gay life in the free towns or
+in dancing attendance at the Courts of the princes and the higher
+nobles. The collapse of the revolt was indeed an important link in the
+particular chain of events that was so rapidly destroying the
+independent existence of the lower nobility as a separate status with
+a definite political position, and transforming the face of society
+generally. Life in the smaller castle, the knight's _burg_ or tower,
+was already tending to become an anachronism. The Court of the prince,
+lay or ecclesiastic, was attracting to itself all the elements of
+nobility below it in the social hierarchy. The revolt of 1525 gave a
+further edge to this development, the first act of which closed with
+the collapse of the knights' rebellion and death of Sickingen in 1523.
+The knight was becoming superfluous in the economy of the body
+politic.
+
+The rise of capitalism, the sudden development of the world-market,
+the substitution of a money medium of exchange for direct barter--all
+these new factors were doing their work. Obviously the great gainers
+by the events of the momentous year were the representatives of the
+centralizing principle. But the effective centralizing principle was
+not represented by the Emperor, for he stood for what was after all
+largely a sham centralism, because it was a centralism on a scale for
+which the Germanic world was not ripe. Princes and margraves were
+destined to be bearers of the _territorial_ centralization, the only
+real one to which the German peoples were to attain for a long time to
+come. Accordingly, just as the provincial _grand seigneur_ of France
+became the courtier of the King at Paris or Versailles, so the
+previously quasi-independent German knight or baron became the
+courtier or hanger-on of the prince within or near whose territory his
+hereditary manor was situate.
+
+The eventful year 1525 was truly a landmark in German history in many
+ways--the year of one of the most accredited exploits of Doctor
+Faustus, the last mythical hero the progressive races have created;
+the year in which Martin Luther, the ex-monk, capped his repudiation
+of Catholicism and all its ways by marrying an ex-nun; the year of the
+definite victory of Charles V. the German Emperor, over Francis I. the
+French King, which meant the final assertion of the "Holy Roman
+Empire" as being a national German institution; and last, but not
+least, the year of the greatest and the most widespread popular
+movement Central Europe had yet seen, and the last of the mediaeval
+peasant risings on a large scale. The movement of the eventful year
+did not, however, as many hoped and many feared, within any short time
+rise up again from its ashes, after discomfiture had overtaken it. In
+1526, it is true, the genius of Gaismayr succeeded in resuscitating
+it, not without prospect of ultimate success, in the Tyrol and other
+of the Austrian territories. In this year, moreover, in other outlying
+districts, even outside German-speaking populations, the movement
+flickered. Thus the traveller between the town of Bellinzona, in the
+Swiss Canton of Ticino, and the Bernardino Pass, in Canton Graubuenden,
+may see to-day an imposing ruin, situated on an eminence in the narrow
+valley just above the small Italian-speaking town of Misox. This was
+one of the ancestral strongholds of the family, well known in Italian
+history, of the Trefuzios or Trevulzir, and was sacked by the
+inhabitants of Misox and the neighbouring peasants in the summer of
+1526, contemporaneously with Gaismayr's rising in the Tyrol. A
+connection between the two events would be difficult to trace, but the
+destruction of the castle of Misox, if not a purely spontaneous local
+effervescence, looks like an afterglow of the great movement, such as
+may well have happened in other secluded mountain valleys.
+
+The Peasants' War in Germany we have been considering is the last
+great mediaeval uprising of the agrarian classes in Europe. Its result
+was, with some few exceptions, a riveting of the peasant's chains and
+an increase of his burdens. More than 1,000 castles and religious
+houses were destroyed in Germany alone during 1525. Many priceless
+works of mediaeval art of all kinds perished. But we must not allow our
+regret at such vandalism to blind us in any way to the intrinsic
+righteousness of the popular demands.
+
+The elements of revolution now became absorbed by the Anabaptist
+movement, a continuation primarily in the religious sphere of the
+doctrines of the Zwickau enthusiasts and also in many respects of
+Thomas Muenzer. At first Northern Switzerland, especially the towns of
+Basel and Zuerich, were the headquarters of the new sect, which,
+however, spread rapidly on all sides. Persecution of the direst
+description did not destroy it. On the contrary, it seemed only to
+have the effect of evoking those social and revolutionary elements
+latent within it which were at first overshadowed by more purely
+theological interests. As it was, the hopes and aspirations of the
+"common man" revived this time in a form indissolubly associated with
+the theocratic commonwealth, the most prominent representative of
+which during the earlier movement had been Thomas Muenzer.
+
+But, notwithstanding resemblances, it is utterly incorrect, as has
+sometimes been done, to describe any of the leaders of the great
+peasant rebellion of 1525 as Anabaptists. The Anabaptist sect, it is
+true, originated in Switzerland during the rising, but it was then
+confined to a small coterie of unknown enthusiasts, holding
+semi-private meetings in Zuerich. It was from these small beginnings
+that the great Anabaptist movement of ten years later arose. It is
+directly from them that the Anabaptist movement of history dates its
+origin. Movements of a similar character, possessing a strong family
+likeness, belong to the mental atmosphere of the time in Germany. The
+so-called Zwickau prophets, for example, Nicholas Storch and his
+colleagues, seem in their general attitude to have approached very
+closely to the principles of the Anabaptist sectaries. But even here
+it is incorrect to regard them, as has often been done, as directly
+connected with the latter; still more as themselves the germ of the
+Anabaptist party of the following years. Thomas Muenzer, the only
+leader of the movement of 1525 who seems to have been acquainted with
+the Zuerich enthusiasts, was by no means at one with them on many
+points, notably refusing to attach any importance to their special
+sign, rebaptism. Chief among the Zuerich coterie may be mentioned
+Konrad Grebel, at whose house the sect first of all assembled. At
+first the Anabaptist movement at Zuerich was regarded as an extreme
+wing of the party of the Church reformer, Zwingli, in that city, but
+it was not long before it broke off entirely from the latter, and
+hostilities, ensuing in persecution for the new party, broke out.
+
+To understand the true inwardness of the Anabaptist and similar
+movements, it is necessary to endeavour to think oneself back into the
+intellectual conditions of the period. The Biblical text itself, now
+everywhere read and re-read in the German language, was pondered and
+discussed in the house of the handicraftsman and in the hut of the
+peasant, with as much confidence of interpretation as in the study of
+the professional theologian. But there were also not a few of the
+latter order, as we have seen, who were becoming disgusted with the
+trend of the official Reformation and its leading representatives. The
+Bible thus afforded a _point d'appui_ for the mystical tendencies now
+becoming universally prominent--a _point d'appui_ lacking to the
+earlier movements of the same kind that were so constantly arising
+during the Middle Ages proper. Seen in the dim religious light of a
+continuous reading of the Bible and of very little else, the world
+began to appear in a new aspect to the simple soul who practised it.
+All things seemed filled with the immediate presence of Deity. He who
+felt a call pictured himself as playing the part of the Hebrew
+prophet. He gathered together a small congregation of followers, who
+felt themselves as the children of God in the midst of a heathen
+world. Did not the fall of the old Church mean that the day was at
+hand when the elect should govern the world? It was not so much
+positive doctrines as an attitude of mind that was the ruling spirit
+in Anabaptism and like movements. Similarly, it was undoubtedly such a
+sensitive impressionism rather than any positive dogma that dominated
+the first generation of the Christian Church itself. How this acted
+in the case of the earlier Anabaptists we shall presently see.
+
+The new Zuerich sect, by one of those seemingly inscrutable chances in
+similar cases of which history is full, not only prospered greatly but
+went forth conquering and to conquer. It spread rapidly northward,
+eastward, and westward. In the course of its victorious career it
+absorbed into itself all similar tendencies and local groups and
+movements having like aims to itself. As was natural under such
+circumstances, we find many different strains in the developed
+Anabaptist movement. The theologian Bullinger wrote a book on the
+subject, in which he enumerates thirteen distinct sects, as he terms
+them, in the Anabaptist body. The general tenets of the organization,
+as given by Bullinger, may be summarized as follows: They regard
+themselves as the true Church of Christ well pleasing to God; they
+believe that by rebaptism a man is received into the Church; they
+refuse to hold intercourse with other Churches or to recognize their
+ministers; they say that the preachings of these are different from
+their works, that no man is the better for their preaching, that their
+ministers follow not the teaching of Paul, that they take payment from
+their benefices, but do not work by their hands; that the Sacraments
+are improperly served, and that every man, who feels the call, has
+the right to preach; they maintain that the literal text of the
+Scriptures shall be accepted without comment or the additions of
+theologians; they protest against the Lutheran doctrine of
+justification by faith alone; they maintain that true Christian love
+makes it inconsistent for any Christian to be rich, but that among the
+Brethren all things should be in common, or, at least, all available
+for the assistance of needy Brethren and for the common cause; that
+the attitude of the Christian towards authority should be that of
+submission and endurance only; that no Christian ought to take office
+of any kind, or to take part in any form of military service; that
+secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that the
+Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law courts nor should
+ever make use of their tribunals; that Christians do not kill or
+punish with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from
+the body of believers; that no man should be compelled by force to
+believe, nor should any be slain on account of his faith; that infant
+baptism is sinful and that adult baptism is the only Christian
+baptism--baptism being a sacrament which should be reserved for the
+elect alone.
+
+Such seem to represent the doctrines forming the common ground of the
+Anabaptist groups as they existed at the end of the second decade of
+the fifteenth century. There were, however, as Heinrich Bullinger and
+his contemporary, Sebastian Franck, point out, numerous divergencies
+between the various sections of the party. Many of these recalled
+other mediaeval heretic sects, e.g. the Cathari, the Brothers and
+Sisters of the Spirit, the Bohemian Brethren, etc.
+
+For the first few years of its existence Anabaptism remained true to
+its original theologico-ethical principles. The doctrine of
+non-resistance was strictly adhered to. The Brethren believed in
+themselves as the elect, and that they had only to wait in prayer and
+humility for the "advent of Christ and His saints," the "restitution
+of all things," the "establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth,"
+or by whatever other phrase the dominant idea of the coming change was
+expressed. During the earlier years of the movement the Anabaptists
+were peaceable and harmless fanatics and visionaries. In some cases,
+as in Moravia, they formed separate communities of their own, some of
+which survived as religious sects long after the extinction of the
+main movement.
+
+In the earlier years of the fourth decade of the century, however, a
+change came over a considerable section of the movement. In Central
+and South-eastern Germany, notably in the Moravian territories,
+barring isolated individuals here and there, the Anabaptist party
+continued to maintain its attitude of non-resistance and the
+voluntariness of association which characterized it at first. The
+fearful waves of persecution, however, which successively swept over
+it were successful at last in partially checking its progress. At
+length the only places in this part of the empire where it succeeded
+in retaining any effective organization was in the Moravian
+territories, where persecution was less strong and the communities
+more closely knit together than elsewhere. Otherwise persecution had
+played sad havoc with the original Anabaptist groups throughout
+Central Europe.
+
+Meanwhile a movement had sprung up in Western and Northern Germany,
+following the course of the Rhine Valley, that effectually threw the
+older movement of Southern and Eastern Germany into the background.
+These earlier movements remained essentially religious and
+theological, owing, as Cornelius points out (_Muensterische Aufruhr_,
+vol. ii. p. 74), to the fact that they came immediately after the
+overthrow of the great political movement of 1552. But although the
+older Anabaptism did not itself take political shape, it succeeded in
+keeping alive the tendencies and the enthusiasm out of which, under
+favourable circumstances, a political movement inevitably grows. The
+result was, as Cornelius further observes, an agitation of such a
+sweeping character that the fourth decade of the sixteenth century
+seemed destined to realize the ideals which the third decade had
+striven for in vain.
+
+The new direction in Anabaptism began in the rich and powerful
+Imperial city of Strassburg, where peculiar circumstances afforded the
+Brethren a considerable amount of toleration. It was in the year 1526
+that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg. It was
+Anabaptism of the original type and conducted on the old
+theologico-ethical lines. But early in the year 1529 there arrived in
+Strassburg a much-travelled man, a skinner by trade, by name Melchior
+Hoffmann. He had been an enthusiastic adherent of the Reformation, and
+it was not long before he joined the Strassburg Anabaptists and made
+his mark in their community. Owing to his personal magnetism and
+oratorical gifts, Melchior soon came to be regarded as a specially
+ordained prophet and to have acquired corresponding influence. After a
+few months Hoffmann seems to have left Strassburg for a propagandist
+tour along the Rhine. The tour, apparently, had great success, the
+Baptist communities being founded in all important towns as far as
+Holland, in which latter country the doctrines spread rapidly. The
+Anabaptism, however, taught by Melchior and his disciples did not
+include the precept of patient submission to wrong which was such a
+prominent characteristic of its earlier phase.
+
+Some time after his reception into the Anabaptist body at Strassburg,
+Hoffmann, while in most other points accepting the prevalent doctrines
+of the Brethren, broke entirely loose from the doctrine of
+non-resistance, maintaining, in theory at least, the right of the
+elect to employ the sword against the worldly authorities, "the
+godless," "the enemies of the saints." It was predicted, he
+maintained, that a two-edged sword should be given into the hands of
+the saints to destroy the "mystery of iniquity," the existing
+principalities and powers, and the time was now at hand when this
+prophecy should be fulfilled. The new movement in the North-west, in
+the lower Rhenish districts, and the adjacent Westphalia sprang up and
+extended itself, therefore, under the domination of this idea of the
+reign of the saints in the approaching millennium and of the notion
+that passive non-resistance, whilst for the time being a duty, only
+remained so until the coming of the Lord should give the signal for
+the saints to rise and join in the destruction of the kingdoms of
+this world and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth.
+Hoffmann's whole learning seems to have been limited to the Bible, but
+this he knew from cover to cover. A diffusion of Luther's translation
+of the Bible had produced a revolution. The poorer classes, who were
+able to read at all, pored over the Bible, together with such popular
+tracts or pamphlets commenting thereon, or treating current social
+questions in the light of Biblical story and teaching, as came into
+their hands. The followers of the new movement in question acquired
+the name of Melchiorites. Hoffmann now published a book explanatory of
+his ideas, called _The Ordinance of God_, which had an enormous
+popularity. It was followed up by other writings, amplifying and
+defending the main thesis it contained.
+
+Outwardly the Melchiorite communities of the North-west had the same
+peaceful character as those of South Germany and Moravia, holding as
+they did in the main the same doctrines. It was ominous, however, that
+Melchior Hoffmann was proclaimed as the prophet Elijah returned
+according to promise. Up to 1533 Strassburg continued to be regarded
+as the chief seat of Anabaptism, especially by Melchior and his
+disciples. It was, they declared, to be the New Jerusalem, from which
+the saints should march out to conquer the world. Melchior, on his
+return journey to Strassburg from his journey northwards, proclaimed
+the end of 1533 as the date of the second advent and the inauguration
+of the reign of the saints. Owing to the excitement among the poorer
+population of the town consequent upon Hoffmann's preaching, the
+prophet was arrested and imprisoned in one of the towers of the city
+wall. But 1533 came and went without the Lord or His saints appearing,
+while poor Hoffmann remained confined in the tower of the city wall.
+
+Meanwhile the new Anabaptism spread and fermented along the Rhine, and
+especially in Holland. In the latter country its chief exponent was a
+master baker at Harleem, by name Jan Matthys, who seems to have been a
+born leader of men. While preaching essentially the same doctrines as
+Hoffmann, with Matthys a Holy War, in a literal sense, was placed in
+the forefront of his teaching. With him there was to be no delay. It
+was the duty of all the Brethren to show their zeal by at once seizing
+the sword of sharpness and mowing down the godless therewith. In this
+sense Matthys completed the transformation begun by Hoffmann. Melchior
+had indeed rejected the non-resistance doctrine in its absolute form,
+but he does not appear in his teaching to have uniformly emphasized
+the point, and certainly did not urge the destruction of the godless
+as an immediate duty to be fulfilled without delay. With him was
+always the suggestion, expressed or implied, of waiting for the signal
+from heaven, the coming of the Lord, before proceeding to action. With
+Matthys there was no need for waiting, even for a day; the time was
+not merely at hand, it had already come. His influence among the
+Brethren was immense. If Melchior Hoffmann had been Elijah, Jan
+Matthys was Elisha, who should bring his work to a conclusion.
+
+Among Matthys' most intimate followers was Jan Bockelson, from Leyden.
+Bockelson was a handsome and striking figure. He was the illegitimate
+son of one Bockel, a merchant and Buergermeister of Saevenhagen, by a
+peasant woman from the neighbourhood of Muenster, who was in his
+service. After Jan's birth Bockel married the woman and bought her her
+freedom from the villein status that was hers by heredity. Jan was
+taught the tailoring handicraft at Leyden, but seems to have received
+little schooling. His natural abilities, however, were considerable,
+and he eagerly devoured the religious and propagandist literature of
+the time. Amongst other writings the pamphlets of Thomas Muenzer
+especially fascinated him. He travelled a good deal, visiting Mechlin
+and working at his trade for four years in London. Returning home, he
+threw himself into the Anabaptist agitation, and, scarcely twenty-five
+years old, he was won over to the doctrines of Jan Matthys. The latter
+with his younger colleague welded the Anabaptist communities in
+Holland and the adjacent German territories into a well-organized
+federation. They were more homogeneous in theory than those of
+Southern and Eastern Germany, being practically all united on the
+basis of the Hoffmann-Matthys propaganda.
+
+The episcopal town of Muenster, in Westphalia, like other places in the
+third decade of the sixteenth century, became strongly affected by the
+Reformation. But that the ferment of the time was by no means wholly
+the outcome of religious zeal, as subsequent historians have persisted
+in representing it, was recognized by the contemporary heads of the
+official Reformation. Thus, writing to Luther under date August 29,
+1530, his satellite, Melanchthon, has the candour to admit that the
+Imperial cities "care not for religion, for their endeavour is only
+toward domination and freedom." As the principal town of Westphalia at
+this time may be reckoned the chief city of the bishopric of Muenster,
+this important ecclesiastical principality was held "immediately of
+the empire." It had as its neighbours Ost-Friesland, Oldenburg, the
+bishopric of Osnabrueck, the county of Marck, and the duchies of Berg
+and Cleves. Its territory was half the size of the present province of
+Westphalia, and was divided into the upper and lower diocese, which
+were separated by the territory of Fecklenburg. The bishop was a
+prince of the empire and one of the most important magnates of
+North-western Germany, but in ecclesiastical matters he was under the
+Archbishop of Koeln. The diocese had been founded by Charles the Great.
+
+Owing to a succession of events, beginning in 1529, which for those
+interested we may mention may be found discussed in full detail in
+_The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (124-71), by the present
+writer, the extreme wing of the Reformation party had early gained the
+upper hand in the city, and subsequently became fused with the native
+Anabaptists, who were soon reinforced by their co-religionists from
+the country round, as well as from the not far distant Holland; for it
+should be said that the Dutch followers of Hoffmann and Matthys had
+been energetic in carrying their faith into the towns of Westphalia as
+elsewhere. Without entering in detail into the events leading up to
+it, it is sufficient for our purpose to state that by a perfectly
+lawful election, held on February 23, 1534, the Government of Muenster
+was reconstituted and the Anabaptists obtained supreme political
+power. Hearing of the way things were going in Muenster, Matthys and
+his followers had already taken up their abode in the city a little
+time before. The cathedral and other churches were stormed and sacked
+during the following days, while all official documents and charters
+dealing with the feudal relations of the town were given to the flames
+during the ensuing month. Both the moderate Protestant (Lutheran) and
+the Catholic burghers who had remained were indignant at the acts of
+destruction committed, and openly expressed their opposition. The
+result was their expulsion from the city; the condition of being
+allowed to remain became now the consent to rebaptism and the formal
+adoption of Anabaptist principles.
+
+Muenster now took the place Strassburg had previously held as the
+rallying point of the Anabaptist faithful, whence a crusade against
+the Powers of the world was to issue forth. The Government of Muenster,
+though it officially consisted of the two Buergermeisters and the new
+Council, to a man all zealous Anabaptists, left the real power and
+initiative in all measures in the hands of Jan Matthys and of his
+disciple, Jan Bockelson, of Leyden. The reign of the saints was now
+fairly begun. Various attempts at an organized communism were made,
+but these appear to have been only partially successful. One day Jan
+Matthys with twenty companions, in an access of fanatical devotion,
+made a sortie from the town towards the bishop's camp. Needless to
+say, the party were all killed. The great leader dead, Jan Bockelson
+became naturally the chief of the city and head of the movement.
+
+Bockelson proved in every way a capable successor to Matthys. A new
+Constitution was now given by Bockelson and the Dutchmen, acting as
+his prophets and preachers. It was embodied in thirty-nine articles,
+and one of its chief features was the transference of power to twelve
+elders, the number being suggested by the twelve tribes of Israel. The
+idea of reliving the life of the "chosen people," as depicted in the
+Old Testament, showed itself in various ways, amongst others by the
+notorious edict establishing polygamy. This measure, however, as Karl
+Kautsky has shown, there is good reason for thinking was probably
+induced by the economic necessity of the time, and especially by the
+enormous excess of the female over the male population of the city.
+Otherwise the Muensterites, like the Anabaptists generally, gave
+evidence of favouring asceticism in sexual matters.
+
+Considerations of space prevent us from going into further detail of
+the inner life of Muenster under the Anabaptist regime during the siege
+at the hands of its overlord, the prince-bishop. This will be found
+given at length in the work already mentioned. As time went on famine
+began to attack the city.
+
+It is sufficient for our purpose to state that on the night of June 24,
+1535, the city was betrayed and that in a few hours the free-lances of
+the bishop were streaming in through all the gates. The street fighting
+was desperate; the Anabaptists showed a desperate courage, even women
+joining in the struggle, hurling missiles from the windows upon their
+foes beneath. By midday on the 25th the city of Muenster, the New Zion,
+passed over once more into the power of its feudal lord, Franz von
+Waldeck, and the reign of the saints had come to an end. The vengeance
+of the conquerors was terrible; all alike, irrespective of age or sex,
+were involved in an indiscriminate butchery. The three leaders,
+Bockelson, Krechting, and Knipperdollinck, after being carried round
+captives as an exhibition through the surrounding country, were, some
+months afterwards, on January 22, 1536, executed, after being most
+horribly tortured. Their bodies were subsequently suspended in three
+cages from the top of the tower of the Lamberti church. The three cages
+were left undisturbed until a few years ago, when the old tower, having
+become structurally unsafe, was pulled down and replaced, with
+questionable taste, by an ordinary modern steeple, on which, however,
+the original cages may still be seen. A papal legate, sent on a mission
+to Muenster shortly after the events in question, relates that as he and
+his retinue neared the latter town "more and more gibbets and wheels
+did we see on the highways and in the villages, where the false
+prophets and Anabaptists had suffered for their sins."
+
+The Muenster incident was the culmination of the Anabaptist movement.
+After the catastrophe the militant section rapidly declined. It did
+not die out, however, until towards the end of the century. The last
+we hear of it was in 1574, when a formidable insurrection took place
+again in Westphalia, under the leadership of one Wilhelmson, the son
+of one of the escaped Anabaptist preachers of Muenster. The movement
+lasted for five years. It was finally suppressed and Wilhelmson burned
+alive at Cleves on March 5, 1580. Meanwhile, soon after the fall of
+Muenster, the party split asunder, a moderate section forming, which
+shortly after came under the leadership of Menno Simon. This section,
+which soon became the majority of the party, under the name of
+Mennonites, settled down into a mere religious sect. In fact, towards
+the end of the sixteenth century the Anabaptist communities on the
+continent of Europe, from Moravia on the one hand to the extreme
+North-west of Germany on the other, showed a tendency to develop into
+law-abiding and prosperous religious organizations, in many cases
+being officially recognized by the authorities.
+
+The Anabaptist revolt of the fourth decade of the sixteenth century,
+though it may be regarded partly as a continuation or recrudescence,
+showed some differences from the peasant revolt of some years
+previously. The peasant rebellion, which reached its zenith in 1525,
+was predominantly an agrarian movement, notwithstanding that it had
+had its echo among the poorer classes of the towns. The Anabaptist
+movement proper, which culminated in the Muenster "reign of the saints"
+in 1534-5, was predominantly a townsman's movement, notwithstanding
+that it had a considerable support from among the peasantry. The
+Anabaptists' leaders were not, as in the case of the Peasants' War,
+in the main drawn from the class of the "man that wields the hoe" (to
+paraphrase the phraseology of the time); they were tailors, smiths,
+bakers, shoemakers, or carpenters. They belonged, in short, to the
+class of the organized handicraftsmen and journeymen who worked within
+city walls. A prominent figure in both movements was, however, the
+ex-priest or teacher. The ideal, or, if you will, the Utopian, element
+in the movement of Melchior Hoffmann, Jan Matthys, and Jan
+Bockelson--the element which expressed the social discontent of the
+time in the guise of its prevalent theological conceptions--now
+occupied the first place, while in the earlier movement it was merely
+sporadic.
+
+After the close of the sixteenth century Anabaptism lost all political
+importance on the continent of Europe. It had, however, a certain
+afterglow in this country during the following century, which lasted
+over the times of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, and may be
+traced in the movements of the "Levellers," the "Fifth Monarchy men,"
+and even among the earlier Quakers.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[23] Those interested will find the events briefly sketched in the
+present chapter exhaustively treated, with full elaboration of detail,
+in the two previous volumes of mine, _The Peasant's War in Germany_ and
+_The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (Messrs. George Allen & Unwin).
+
+[24] Amongst the curiosities of literature may be included the
+translation of the title of this manifesto by Prof. T.M. Lindsay, D.D.,
+in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 9th edition (Article, "Luther"). The
+German title is "Wider die morderischen und rauberischen Rotten der
+Bauern." Prof. Lindsay's translation is "_Against the murdering, robbing
+Rats [sic] of Peasants_"!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+POST-MEDIAEVAL GERMANY
+
+
+We have in the preceding chapters sought to give a general view of the
+social life, together with the inner political and economic movements,
+of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages which is
+generally known as the era of the Reformation. With the definite
+establishment of the Reformation and of the new political and economic
+conditions that came with it in many of the rising States of Germany,
+the Middle Ages may be considered as definitely coming to an end,
+notwithstanding that, of course, a considerable body of mediaeval
+conditions of social, political, and economic life continued to
+survive all over Europe, and certainly not least in Germany.
+
+We have now to take a general and, so to say, panoramic view embracing
+three centuries and a half, dating from approximately the middle of
+the sixteenth century to the present time. Our presentation, owing to
+exigencies of space, will necessarily take the form of a mere sketch
+of events and general tendencies, but a sketch that will, we hope, be
+sufficient to connect periods and to enable the reader to understand
+better than before the forces that have built up modern Germany and
+have moulded the national character. In this long period of more than
+three centuries there are two world-historic events, or rather series
+of events, which stand out in bold relief as the causes which have
+moulded Germany directly, and the whole of Europe indirectly, up to
+the present day. These two epoch-making historical factors are (1) the
+Thirty Years' War and (2) the Rise of the Prussian Monarchy.
+
+Owing to the success of Protestantism, with its two forms of
+Lutheranism and Calvinism in various German territories, the friction
+became chronic between Catholic and Protestant interests throughout
+the length and breadth of Central Europe. The Emperor himself was
+chosen, as we know, by three ecclesiastical electors, the Archbishops
+of Koeln, Trier, and Mainz, and by four princes, the Pfalzgraf, called
+in English the Elector Palatine, the Markgraves of Saxony and
+Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. The princes and other
+potentates, owing immediate allegiance to the empire alone, were
+practically independent sovereigns. The Reichstag, instituted in the
+fifteenth century, attendance at which was strictly limited to these
+immediate vassals of the empire, had proved of little effect. This was
+shown when in the middle of the sixteenth century Protestantism had
+established itself in the favour of the mass of the German peoples. It
+was vetoed by the Reichstag, with its powerful contingent of
+ecclesiastical members. Of course here the economic side of the
+question played a great part. The ecclesiastical potentates and those
+favourable to them dreaded the spread of Protestantism in view of the
+secularization of religious domains and fiefs. This, notwithstanding
+that there were not wanting bishops and abbots themselves who were not
+indisposed, as princes of the empire, to appropriate the Church lands,
+of which they were the trustees, for their own personal possessions.
+After a short civil war an arrangement was come to at the Treaty of
+Passau in 1552, which was in the main ratified by the Reichstag held
+at Augsburg in 1555 (the so-called Peace of Augsburg); but the
+arrangement was artificial and proved itself untenable as a permanent
+instrument of peace.
+
+During the latter part of the sixteenth century two magnates of the
+empire, the Duke of Bavaria on the Catholic side and the Calvinist,
+Christian of Anhalt, on the Protestant, played the chief role, the
+Lutheran Markgrave of Saxony taking up a moderate position as
+mediator. Of the Reichstag of Augsburg it should be said that it had
+ignored the Calvinist section of the Protestant party altogether, only
+recognizing the Lutheran. In 1608 the Protestant Union, which embraced
+Lutherans and Calvinists alike, was founded under the leadership of
+Christian of Anhalt. It was most powerful in Southern Germany. This
+was countered immediately by the foundation under Maximilian, Duke of
+Bavaria, of a Catholic League. The friction, which was now becoming
+acute, went on increasing till the actual outbreak of the Thirty
+Years' War in 1618. The signal for the latter was given by the
+Bohemian revolution in the spring of that year.
+
+The Thirty Years' War, as it is termed, which was really a series of
+wars, naturally falls into five distinct periods, each representing in
+many respects a separate war in itself. The first two years of the war
+(1618-20) is occupied with the Bohemian revolt against the attempt of
+the Emperor to force Catholicism upon the Bohemian people and with its
+immediate consequences. It was accentuated by the attempt of the
+Emperor Matthias to compel them to accept the Archduke Ferdinand as
+King. This attempt was countered through the election by the Bohemians
+of the Pfalzgraf, Friedrich V (the son-in-law of James I of England),
+who was called the Winter King from the fact that his reign lasted
+only during the winter months; for though the Protestant Union, led by
+Count Thurn, had won several victories in 1618 and even threatened
+Vienna, the Austrian power was saved by Tilly and the Catholic League
+which came to its rescue. Many of the Protestant States, moreover,
+were averse to the Palatine Friedrich's acceptance of the Bohemian
+crown. The Bohemian movement was ultimately crushed by a force sent
+from Spain, under the Spanish general Spinola. The final defeat took
+place at the battle of the White Hill, near Prague, November 8, 1620.
+
+The second period of the war was concerned with the attempt of the
+Catholic Powers to deprive Friedrich of his Palatine dominions. Here
+Count Mansfeld, with his mercenary army of free-lances, aided by
+Christian of Brunswick and others on the side of Friedrich and the
+Protestants, defeated Tilly in 1622. But later on Tilly and the
+Imperialists by a series of victories conquered the Palatinate, which
+was bestowed upon Maximilian of Bavaria. Mansfeld, notwithstanding
+that he had some successes later in the year 1622, could not
+effectually redeem the situation, Brunswick's army being entirely
+routed by Tilly in the following year at the battle of Stadtlohn,
+which virtually ended this particular campaign.
+
+The third period of the war, from 1624 to 1629, is characterized by
+the intervention of the Powers outside the immediate sphere of German
+or Imperial interests. France, under Richelieu, became concerned at
+the growing power of the Hapsburgs, while James I of England began to
+show anxiety at his son-in-law's adverse fortunes, though without
+achieving any successful intervention. The chief feature of this
+campaign was the entry into the field of Christian IV of Denmark with
+a powerful army to join Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick in
+invading the Imperial and Austrian territories. But the savageries and
+excesses of Mansfeld's troops had disgusted and alienated all sides.
+It was at this time that Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, was appointed
+general of the Imperial troops, and soon after succeeded in completely
+routing Mansfeld at the battle of Dessau Bridge in 1626. Four months
+later Tilly completely defeated Christian IV and his Danes at Lutter.
+Wallenstein, on his side, followed up his success, driving Mansfeld
+into Hungary. Mansfeld, in spite of some fugitive successes in the
+Austrian dominions in the course of his retreat, was compelled by
+Wallenstein to evacuate Hungary, shortly after which he died. The
+campaign ended with the Peace of Lubeck in 1629.
+
+The action of the Emperor Ferdinand in attempting to enforce the
+restitution of Church lands in North Germany was the proximate cause
+of the next great campaign, which constitutes the fourth period of the
+Thirty Years' War (1630-36). The immediate occasion was, however,
+Wallenstein's seizure of certain towns in Mecklenburg, over which he
+claimed rights by Imperial grant two years before. This, which may be
+regarded as the greatest period of the Thirty Years' War, was
+characterized by the appearance on the scene of Gustavus Adolphus, the
+Swedish King. He was not in time, however, to prevent the sacking of
+Magdeburg by the troops of Tilly and Poppenheim. The former,
+nevertheless, was defeated by the Swedes at the important battle of
+Breitenfeld in 1631. The following year the Imperial army was again
+defeated on the Lach. Thereupon Gustavus occupied Muenchen, though he
+was subsequently compelled by Wallenstein to evacuate the city. The
+last great victory of Gustavus was at Luetzen in 1632, at which battle
+the great leader met his death. Wallenstein, who was now in favour of
+a policy of peace and political reconstruction, was assassinated in
+1634 with the connivance of the Emperor. On September 6th of the same
+year the Protestant army, under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, sustained an
+overwhelming defeat at Noerdlingen, and the Peace of Prague the
+following year ended the campaign.
+
+The fifth period, from 1636 to 1648, has, as its central interest, the
+active intervention of France in the Central European struggle. The
+Swedes, notwithstanding the death of their King, continued to have
+some notable successes, and even approached to within striking
+distance of Vienna. But Richelieu now became the chief arbiter of
+events. The French generals Conde and Turenne invaded Germany and the
+Netherlands. Victories were won by the new armies at Rocroi,
+Thionville, and at Noerdlingen, but Vienna was not captured. The
+Imperial troops were, however, again defeated at Zumarshauen by Conde,
+who also repelled an attempted diversion in the shape of a Spanish
+invasion of France at the battle of Lens in the spring of 1648. The
+Thirty Years' War was finally ended in October of the same year at
+Muenster, by the celebrated Treaty of Westphalia.
+
+The above is a skeleton sketch in a few words of the chief features of
+that long and complicated series of diplomatic and military events
+known to history as the Thirty Years' War.[25]
+
+The Thirty Years' War had far-reaching and untold consequences on
+Germany itself and indirectly on the course of modern civilization
+generally. For close upon a generation Central Europe had been ravaged
+from end to end by hostile and plundering armies. Rapine and
+destruction were, for near upon a third of the century, the common lot
+of the Germanic peoples from north to south and from east to west.
+Populations were as helpless as sheep before the brutal, criminal
+soldiery, recruited in many cases from the worst elements of every
+European country. The excesses of Mansfeld's mercenary army in the
+earlier stages of the war created widespread horror. But the defeat
+and death of Mansfeld brought no alleviation. The troops of
+Wallenstein proved no better in this respect than those of Mansfeld.
+On the contrary, with every year the war went on its horrors
+increased, while every trace of principle in the struggle fell more
+and more into the background. Everywhere was ruin.
+
+The population became by the time the war had ended a mere fraction of
+what it was at the opening of the seventeenth century. Some idea of
+the state of things may be gathered from the instance of Augsburg,
+which during its siege by the Imperialists was reduced from 70,000 to
+10,000 inhabitants. What happened to the great commercial city of the
+Fuggers was taking place on a scale greater or less, according to the
+district, all over German territory. We read of towns and villages
+that were pillaged more than a dozen times in a year. This terrific
+depopulation of the country, the reader may well understand, had vast
+results on its civilization. The whole great structure of Mediaeval and
+Renaissance Germany--its literature, art, and social life--was in
+ruins. At the close of the seventeenth century the old German culture
+had gone and the new had not yet arisen. But of this we shall have
+more to say in the next chapter. For the present we are chiefly
+concerned to give a brief sketch of the second great epoch-making
+event, or rather train of events, which conditioned the foundation and
+development of modern Germany. We refer, of course, to the rise of the
+Prussian monarchy.
+
+We should premise that the Prussians are the least German of all the
+populations of what constitutes modern Germany. They are more than
+half Slavs. In the early Middle Ages the Mark of Brandenburg, the
+centre and chief province of the modern Prussian State, was an
+outlying offshoot of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire of the German
+nation, surrounded by barbaric tribes, Slav and Teuton. The chief Slav
+people were the Borussians, from which the name "Prussian" was a
+corruption. The first outstanding historic fact concerning these
+Baltic lands is that a certain Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, at the end
+of the tenth century went north on a mission of enterprise for
+converting the Prussian heathen. The neighbouring Christian prince,
+the Duke of Poland, who had presumably suffered much from incursions
+of these pagan Slavs, offered him every encouragement. The adventure
+ended, however, before long in the death of Adalbert at the hands of
+these same pagan Slavs.
+
+The first indication of the existence of a Mark of Brandenburg with
+its Markgraves is in the eleventh century. There is, however, little
+definite historical information concerning them. The first of these
+Markgraves to attract attention was Albrecht the Bear, one of the
+so-called Ascanian line, the family hailing from the Harz Mountains.
+Albrecht was a remarkable man for his time in every way. Under him the
+Markgravate of Brandenburg was raised to be an electorate of the
+empire. The Markgrave thus became a prince of the empire. It was
+Albrecht the Bear who first introduced a limited measure of peace and
+order into the hitherto anarchic condition of the Mark and its
+adjacent territories. The Ascanian line continued till 1319, and was
+followed by a period of political anarchy and disturbance, until
+finally Friedrich, Count of Hohenzollern, acquired the electorate, and
+became known as the Elector Friedrich I. Meanwhile the Order of the
+Teutonic Knights, who earlier began their famous crusade against the
+Borussian heathens, had established themselves on the territories now
+known as East and West Prussia. In spite of this fact and of the for
+long time dominant power of their Polish neighbours, the Hohenzollern
+rulers continued to acquire increased power and fresh territories.
+
+At the Reformation Albrecht, a scion of the Hohenzollern family, who
+had been elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, adopted
+Protestantism and assumed the title of Duke of Prussia. Finally, in
+1609, the then Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund, through his
+marriage with Ann, daughter and heiress of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of
+Prussia, came into possession of the whole of Prussia proper, together
+with other adjacent territories. The Prussian lands suffered much
+through the Thirty Years' War during the reign of John Sigismund's
+successor, George Wilhelm. But the latter's son, Friedrich Wilhelm,
+the so-called Great Elector, succeeded by his ability in repairing the
+ravages the war had made and raising the electorate immensely in
+political importance. He left at his death, in 1688, the financial
+condition of the country in a sound state, with an effective army of
+38,000 men. Friedrich I, who followed him, held matters together and
+got Prussia promoted to the rank of a kingdom in 1701. His son,
+Friedrich Wilhelm I, by rigid economies succeeded in raising the
+financial condition of the kingdom to a still higher level. The
+military power of the monarchy he also developed considerably, and is
+famous in history for his mania for tall soldiers.
+
+We now come to the real founder of the Prussian monarchy as a great
+European Power, Friedrich Wilhelm I's son, who succeeded his father in
+1740 as Friedrich II, and who is known to history as Friedrich the
+Great.
+
+Friedrich no sooner came to the throne than he started on an
+aggressive expansionist policy for Prussia. The opportunity presented
+itself a few months after his accession by the dispute as to the
+Pragmatic Sanction and Maria Theresa's right to the throne of Austria.
+In the two wars which immediately followed, the Prussian army overran
+the whole of Silesia, and the peace of 1745 left the Prussian King in
+possession of the entire country. East Friesland had already been
+absorbed the year before on the death of the last Duke without issue.
+In spite of the exhaustion of men and money in the two Silesian wars,
+Friedrich found himself ready with both men and money eleven years
+later, in 1756, to embark upon what is known as the Seven Years' War.
+Though without acquiring fresh territory by this war, the gain in
+prestige was so great that the Prussian monarchy virtually assumed the
+hegemony of North Germany, becoming the rival of Austria for the
+domination of Central Europe, the position in which it remained for
+more than a century afterwards. Nevertheless, after this succession of
+wars the condition of the country was deplorable. It was obvious that
+the first thing to do was the work of internal resuscitation. The
+extraordinary ability and energy of the King saved the internal
+situation. Agriculture, industry, and commerce were re-established and
+reorganized. It was now that the cast-iron system of bureaucratic
+administration, where not actually created, was placed on a firm
+foundation. But in external affairs Prussia continued to earn its
+character as the robber State of Europe _par excellence_.
+
+In 1772 Friedrich joined with Austria in the first partition of
+Poland, acquiring the whole of West Prussia as his share. A few years
+later Friedrich formed an anti-Austrian league of German princes,
+under Prussian leadership, which was the first overt sign of the
+conflict for supremacy in Germany between Prussia and Austria, which
+lasted for wellnigh a century. By the time of his death--August 7,
+1786--Friedrich had increased Prussian territory to nearly 75,000
+square miles and between five and six millions of population.
+
+Under Friedrich's nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II, while the rigour of
+bureaucratic administration, controlled by a monarchical absolutism,
+continued and was even accentuated, the absence of the able hand of
+Friedrich the Great soon made itself apparent. As regards external
+policy, however, Prussia, while allowing territories on the left bank
+of the Rhine to go to France, eagerly saw to the increase of her own
+dominions in the east to the extent of nearly doubling her superficial
+area by her participation in the second and third partitions of
+Poland, which took place in 1783 and 1795 respectively. These external
+successes, or rather acts of spoliation, were, notwithstanding,
+counter-balanced at home by a degeneracy alike of the civil
+bureaucracy and of the army. The country internally, both as regards
+morale and effectiveness, had sunk far below its level under Friedrich
+the Great. This showed itself during the great Napoleonic wars, when
+Prussia had to undergo more than one humiliation at the hands of
+Buonaparte, culminating in October 1806 with the collapse of the
+Prussian armies at Jena and Auerstaedt. The entry of Napoleon in
+triumph into Berlin followed. At the Peace of Tilsit, in 1807,
+Friedrich-Wilhelm had to sign away half his kingdom and to consent to
+the payment of a heavy war indemnity, pending which the French troops
+occupied the most important fortresses in the country.
+
+Following upon this moment of deepest national humiliation comes the
+period of the Ministers Stein and Hardenberg, of the enthusiastic
+adjurations to patriotism of Fischer and others, and of the activity
+of the "League of Virtue" (_Tugendbund_). It is difficult to
+understand the enthusiasm that could be aroused for the rehabilitation
+of an absolutist, bureaucratic, and militarist State, such as Prussia
+was--a State in which civil and political liberty was conspicuous by
+its absence. But the fact undoubtedly remains that the men in question
+did succeed in pumping up a strong patriotic feeling and desire to
+free the country from the yoke of the foreigner, even if that only
+meant increased domestic tyranny. It must be admitted, however, that
+as a matter of fact not inconsiderable internal reforms were owing to
+the leading men of this time. Stein abolished serfdom, and in some
+respects did away with the legal distinction of classes, thereby
+paving the way for the rise of the middle class, which at that time
+meant a progressive step. He also conferred rights of self-government
+upon municipalities. Hardenberg inaugurated measures intended to
+ameliorate the condition of the peasants, while Wilhelm von Humboldt
+established the thorough if somewhat mechanical education system which
+was subsequently extended throughout Germany. He also helped to found
+the University of Berlin in 1809.
+
+But at the same time the curse of Prussia--militarism--was riveted on
+the people through the reorganization of the Prussian army by those
+two able military bureaucrats, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In 1813
+Prussia concluded at Kalicsh an alliance with Russia, which Austria
+joined. In the war which followed Prussia was severely strained by
+losses in men and money. But at the Congress of Vienna the Prussian
+kingdom received back nearly, but not quite, all it lost in 1807. The
+acquirement, however, of new and valuable territories in Westphalia
+and along the Rhine, besides Thuringia and the province of Saxony,
+more than compensated for the loss of certain Slav districts in the
+east, as thereby the way was prepared for the ultimate despotism of
+the Prussian King over all Germany. The success of Prussian diplomacy
+in enslaving these erstwhile independent German lands in 1815 was
+crucial for the subsequent direction of Prussian policy.
+
+It is time now to return once more to the internal conditions in the
+Prussian State now dominant over a large part of Northern Germany. A
+Constitution had been more than once talked of, but the despotism with
+its bureaucratic machinery had remained. Now, after the conclusion of
+the Napoleonic wars and the re-drawing of the Prussian frontier lines
+by the peace of 1815, the matter assumed an urgency it had not had
+before. Following upon proclamations and promises, a patent was
+addressed to the new Saxon provinces granting a national _Landtag_, or
+Diet, for the whole country. The drawing up of the Constitution thus
+proclaimed in principle gave rise to heated conflicts. There was, as
+yet, no proletariat proper in Prussia, and for that matter hardly any
+in the rest of Germany. The handicraft system of production, and even
+the mediaeval guild system, slightly modified, prevailed throughout the
+country. The middle class proper was small and unimportant, and hence
+Liberalism, the theoretical expression of that class, only found
+articulate utterance through men of the professions.
+
+The new Prussian territories in the west were largely tinctured with
+progressive ideas originating in the French Revolution, while the east
+was dominated by reactionary feudal landowners, the notorious Junker
+class--a class special to East Prussian territories, including the
+eastern portion of the Mark of Brandenburg--whom the moderate
+Conservative Minister Stein himself characterized as "heartless,
+wooden, half-educated people, only good to turn into corporals or
+calculating-machines." This class then, as ever since, opposed an
+increase of popular control and the progress of free institutions with
+might and main. Friction arose between the Government and Liberal
+gymnastic societies and students' clubs. This culminated in the
+festival on the Wartburg in October 1818, when a bonfire was made of a
+book of police laws and Uhlan stays and a corporal's stick. It was
+followed the next year by the assassination of the dramatist and
+political spy Kotzebue by the student Sand.
+
+Panic seized the reactionists, and the Austrian Minister Metternich,
+one of the chief pillars of absolutist principles in Europe, induced
+the King to commit himself to the Austrian system of repression. In
+1821 the Reactionary party succeeded in getting the projected
+Constitution abandoned and the bureaucratic system of provincial
+estates established by royal warrant two years later (1823). The
+Prussian police with their spies then became omnipotent, and a
+remorseless persecution of all holding Liberal or democratic views
+ensued, the best-known writers on the popular side no less than the
+rank and file being arbitrarily arrested and kept in prison on any or
+no pretext. The amalgamation of the new districts into the Prussian
+bureaucratic system was not accomplished without resistance. The Rhine
+provinces especially, accustomed to easy-going government and light
+taxation under the old ecclesiastical princes, kicked vigorously
+against the Prussian jack-boot. The discontent was so widespread
+indeed that some concessions had to be made, such as the retention of
+the Code Napoleon. What created most resentment, however, was the
+enactment of 1814, which enforced compulsory universal military
+service throughout the monarchy. Friedrich Wilhelm also undertook to
+dragoon his subjects in the matter of religion, amalgamating the
+Lutherans with other reformed bodies, under the name of the
+"Evangelical Church."
+
+In foreign politics, in the earlier part of the nineteenth century,
+during the Napoleonic wars, Prussia, as yet hardly recovered from her
+defeats under Buonaparte, almost entirely followed the lead of
+Austria. But perhaps the most important measure of the Prussian
+Government at this time was the foundation of the famous Zollverein or
+Customs Union of various North German States in 1834. The far-reaching
+character of this measure was only shown later, being, in fact, the
+means and basis by and on which the political and military ascendancy
+of Prussia over all Germany was assured. Friedrich Wilhelm III, who
+died on June 7, 1840, was succeeded by his son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+The new reign began with an appearance of Liberalism by a general
+amnesty for political offences. Reaction, however, soon raised its
+head again, and Friedrich Wilhelm IV, in spite of his varnish of
+philosophical and literary tastes, was soon seen to be _au fond_ as
+reactionary as his predecessors. The conflict between the reaction of
+the Government and the now widely spread Liberal and democratic
+aspirations of the people resulted in Prussia (as it did under similar
+circumstances in other countries) in the outbreak of the revolution of
+1848.
+
+It is necessary at this stage to take a brief survey of the political
+history of the Germanic States of Europe generally from the time of
+the Peace of Vienna, in 1815, onwards, in order to understand fully
+the role played by the Prussian monarchy in German history since 1848;
+for from this time the history of Prussia becomes more and more bound
+up with that of the German peoples as a whole. During the Napoleonic
+wars Germany, as every one knows, was, generally speaking, in the grip
+of the French Imperial power. To follow the vicissitudes and
+fluctuations of fortune throughout Central Europe during these years
+lies outside our present purpose. We are here chiefly concerned with
+the political development from the Treaty of Vienna, as signed on June
+9, 1815, onward. The Treaty of Vienna completed the work begun by
+Napoleon--represented by the extinction of the mediaeval "Holy Roman
+Empire of the German nation" in 1806--in making an end of the
+political configuration of the German peoples which had grown up
+during the Middle Ages and survived, in a more or less decayed
+condition, since the Peace of Westphalia, which concluded the Thirty
+Years' War. The three hundred separate States of which Germany had
+originally consisted were now reduced to thirty-nine, a number which,
+by the extinction of sundry minor governing lines, was before long
+further reduced to thirty-five. These States constituted themselves
+into a new German Confederation, with a Federal Assembly, meeting at
+Frankfurt-on-the-Main. The new Federal Council, or Assembly, however,
+soon revealed itself as but the tool of the princes and a bulwark of
+reaction.
+
+The revolution of 1848 was throughout Germany an expression of popular
+discontent and of democratic and even, to a large extent, of
+republican aspirations. The princely authorities endeavoured to stem
+the wave of popular indignation and revolutionary enthusiasm by
+recognizing a provisional self-constituted body, and sanctioning the
+election of a national representative Parliament at Frankfurt in place
+of the effete Federal Council. The Archduke of Austria, who was
+elected head of the new, hastily organized National Government, was
+not slow to use his newly acquired power in the interests of reaction,
+thereby exciting the hostility of all the progressive elements in the
+Parliament of Frankfurt. When after some months it became obvious that
+the anti-Progressive parties had gained the upper hand alike in
+Austria and Prussia, the friction between the Democratic and
+Constitutional parties became increasingly bitter.
+
+The Prussian Government meanwhile took advantage of the state of
+affairs to stir up the Schleswig-Holstein question, so-called, driving
+the Danes out of Schleswig, an insurrectionary movement in Holstein
+having been already suppressed by the Danish King. Prussia, alarmed
+by the attitude of the Powers, agreed to withdraw her troops from the
+occupied territories without consulting the Frankfurt Parliament, an
+act which involved Friedrich Wilhelm in conflict with the latter. The
+issues arising out of this dispute made it plain to every one that the
+Parliament of all Germany was impotent to enforce its decrees against
+one of the German Powers possessed of a preponderating military
+strength. By the end of 1848 the revolution in Vienna was completely
+crushed and a strongly reactionary Government appointed by the new
+Emperor. Meanwhile in Berlin the Junkers and the reactionaries
+generally had already again come into power, a crisis having been
+caused by the attempt of the democratic section of the Prussian
+National Assembly, convened by the King in March, to reorganize the
+army on a popular democratic basis. We need scarcely say the Prussian
+army has been the tool of Junkerdom and reaction ever since.
+
+The last despairing attempt of the Frankfurt Parliament to give effect
+to the national Germanic unity, which all patriotic Germans professed
+to be eager for, was the offer of the Imperial crown to the King of
+Prussia. Against this act, however, nearly half the members--i.e. all
+the advanced parties in the Assembly--protested by refusing to take
+any part in it They had also declined to be associated with a previous
+motion for the exclusion of German Austria from the new national
+unity, in the interest of Prussian ascendancy. Both these reactionary
+proposals, as we all know, at a later date became the corner-stones of
+the new Prusso-German unity of Bismark's creation. On this occasion,
+however, the Prussian King refused to accept the office at the hands
+of the impotent Frankfurt Assembly, which latter soon afterwards broke
+up and eventually "petered out." Meanwhile Prussian troops, led by the
+reactionary military caste, were employed in the congenial task of
+suppressing popular movements with the sword in Baden, Saxony, and
+Prussia itself.
+
+The two rival bulwarks of reaction, Prussia and Austria, were now so
+alarmed at the revolutionary dangers they had passed through that, for
+the nonce forgetting their rivalry, they cordially joined together in
+reviving, in the interests of the counter-revolution, the old
+reactionary Federal Assembly, which had never been formally dissolved,
+as it ought to have been on the election of the Frankfurt Parliament.
+Reaction now went on apace. Liberties were curtailed and rights gained
+in 1848 were abolished in most of the smaller States. Henceforth the
+Federal Assembly became the theatre of the two great rival powers of
+the Germanic Confederation. Both alike strove desperately for the
+hegemony of Germany. The strength of Prussia, of course, lay generally
+in the north, that of Austria in the south. Austria had the advantage
+of Prussia in the matter of prestige. Prussia, on the other hand, had
+the pull of Austria in the possession of the machinery of the Customs
+Union. In general, however, the dual control of the Germanic
+Confederation was grudgingly recognized by either party, and on
+occasion they acted together. This was notably the case in the
+Schleswig-Holstein question, which had been smouldering ever since
+1848, and which came to a crisis in the Danish war of 1864, in which
+Austria and Prussia jointly took part.
+
+Among the most reactionary of the Junker party in the Prussian
+Parliament of 1848 was one Count Otto Bismarck von Schoenhausen,
+subsequently known to history as Prince Bismarck (1815-98). This man
+strenuously opposed the acceptance of the Imperial dignity by the King
+of Prussia at the hands of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, on the
+ground that it was unworthy of the King of Prussia to accept any
+office at the hands of the people rather than at those of his peers,
+the princes of Germany. In 1851 Count von Bismarck was appointed a
+Prussian representative in the revived princely and aristocratic
+Federal Assembly. Here he energetically fought the hegemony hitherto
+exercised by Austria. He continued some years in this capacity, and
+subsequently served as Prussian Minister in St. Petersburg and again
+in Paris. In the autumn of 1862 the new King of Prussia, Wilhelm I,
+who had succeeded to the throne the previous year, called him back to
+take over the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and the leadership of the
+Cabinet. Shortly after his accession to power he arbitrarily closed
+the Chambers for refusing to sanction his Army Bill. His army scheme
+was then forced through by the royal fiat alone. On the reopening of
+the Schleswig-Holstein question, owing to the death of the King of
+Denmark, German nationalist sentiment was aroused, which Bismarck knew
+how to use for the aggrandisement of Prussia. The Danish war, in which
+the two leading German States collaborated and which ended in their
+favour, had as its result a disagreement of a serious nature between
+these rival, though mutually victorious, Powers.
+
+In all these events the hand of Bismarck was to be seen. He it was who
+dominated completely Prussian policy from 1862 onwards. Full of his
+schemes for the aggrandisement of Prussia at the expense of Austria,
+he stirred up and worked this quarrel for all it was worth, the
+upshot being the Prusso-Austrian War (the so-called Seven Weeks' War)
+of the summer of 1866. The war was brought about by the arbitrary
+dissolution of the German Confederation--i.e. the Federal Assembly--in
+which, owing to the alarm created by Prussian insolence and
+aggression, Austria had the backing of the majority of the States.
+This step was followed by Bismarck's dispatching an ultimatum to
+Hanover, Saxony, and Hesse Cassel respectively, all of which had voted
+against Prussia in the Federal Assembly, followed, on its
+non-acceptance, by the dispatch of Prussian troops to occupy the
+States in question. Hard on this act of brutal violence came the
+declaration of war with Austria.
+
+At Koeniggratz the Prussian army was victorious over the Austrians, and
+henceforth the hegemony of Central Europe was decided in favour of
+Prussia. Austria, under the Treaty of Prague (August 20, 1866), was
+completely excluded from the new organization of German States, in
+which Prussia--i.e. Bismarck--was to have a free hand. The result was
+the foundation of the North German Confederation, under the leadership
+of Prussia. It was to have a common Parliament, elected by universal
+suffrage and meeting in Berlin. The army, the diplomatic
+representation, the control of the postal and telegraphic services,
+were to be under the sole control of the Prussian Government. The
+North German Confederation comprised the northern and central States
+of Germany. The southern States--Bavaria, Baden, Wuertemberg,
+etc.--although not included, had been forced into a practical alliance
+with Prussia by treaties. The Customs Union was extended until it
+embraced nearly the whole of Germany. Prussian aggression in Luxemburg
+produced a crisis with France in 1867, though the growing tension
+between Prussia and France was tided over on this occasion. But
+Bismarck only bided his time.
+
+The occasion was furnished him by the question of the succession to
+the Spanish throne, in July 1870. By means of a falsified telegram
+Bismarck precipitated war, in which Prussia was joined by all the
+States of Germany. The subsequent course of events is matter of recent
+history. The establishment of the new Prusso-German empire by the
+crowning of Wilhelm I at Versailles, with the empire made hereditary
+in the Hohenzollern family, completed the work of Bismarck and the
+setting of the Prussian jack-boot on the necks of the German peoples.
+The Prussian military and bureaucratic systems were now extended to
+all Germany--in other words, the rest of the German peoples were made
+virtually the vassals and slaves of the Prussian monarch. This time
+the King of Prussia received the Imperial crown at the hands of the
+kings, princes, and other hereditary rulers of the various German
+States. Bismarck was graciously pleased to bestow unity and internal
+peace--a Prussian peace--upon Germany on condition of its abasement
+before the Prussian corporal's stick and police-truncheon. Such was
+the united Germany of Bismarck. Germany meant for Bismarck and his
+followers Prussia, and Prussia meant their own Junker and military
+caste, under the titular headship of the Hohenzollern.
+
+Yet, strange to say, the peoples of Germany willingly consented, under
+the influence of the intoxication of a successful war, to have their
+independence bartered away to Prussia by their rulers. In this united
+Germany of Bismarck--a Germany united under Prussian despotism--they
+naively saw the realization of the dream of their thinkers and poets
+since the time of the Napoleonic wars--which had become more than ever
+an inspiration from 1848 onwards--of an ideal unity of all
+German-speaking peoples as a national whole. It is unquestionable that
+many of these thinkers and poets would have been horrified at the
+Prusso-Bismarckian "unity" of "blood and iron," It was not for this,
+they would have said, that they had laboured and suffered.
+
+As a conclusion to the present chapter I venture to give a short
+summary of the internal, and especially of the economic, development
+of Prussia since the Franco-German War from an article which appeared
+in the _English Review_ for December 1914, by Mr. H.M. Hyndman and the
+present writer:--
+
+"From 1871 onwards Prussianized Germany, by far the best-educated, and
+industrially and commercially the most progressive, country in Europe,
+with the enormous advantage of her central position, was, consciously
+and unconsciously, making ready for her next advance. The policy of a
+good understanding with Russia, maintained for many years, to such an
+extent that, in foreign affairs, Berlin and St. Petersburg were almost
+one city, enabled Germany to feel secure against France, while she was
+devoting herself to the extension of her rural and urban powers of
+production. Never at any time did she neglect to keep her army in a
+posture of offence. All can now see the meaning of this.
+
+"Militarism is in no sense necessarily economic. But the strength of
+Germany for war was rapidly increased by her success in peace. From
+the date of the great financial crisis of 1874, and the consequent
+reorganization of her entire banking system, Germany entered upon that
+determined and well-thought-out attempt to attain pre-eminence in the
+trade and commerce of the world of which we have not yet seen the end.
+From 1878, when the German High Commissioner, von Rouleaux,
+stigmatized the exhibits of his countrymen as 'cheap and nasty,'
+special efforts were made to use the excellent education and admirable
+powers of organization of Germany in this field. The Government
+rendered official and financial help in both agriculture and
+manufacture. Scientific training, good and cheap before, was made
+cheaper and better each year. Railways were used not to foster foreign
+competition, as in Great Britain, by excessive rates of home freight,
+but to give the greatest possible advantage to German industry in
+every department. In more than one rural district the railways were
+worked at an apparent loss in order to foster home production, from
+which the nation derived far greater advantage than such apparent
+sacrifice entailed. The same system of State help was extended to
+shipping until the great German liners, one of which, indeed, was
+actually subsidized by England, were more than holding their own with
+the oldest and most celebrated British companies.
+
+"Protection, alike in agriculture and in manufacture, bound the whole
+empire together in essentially Imperial bonds. Right or wrong in
+theory--which it is not here necessary to discuss--there can be no
+doubt whatever that this policy entirely changed the face of Germany,
+and rendered her our most formidable competitor in every market.
+Emigration, which had been proceeding on a vast scale, almost entirely
+ceased. The savings banks were overflowing with deposits. The position
+of the workers was greatly improved. Not only were German Colonies
+secured in Africa and Asia, which were more trouble than they were
+worth, but very profitable commerce with our own Colonies and
+Dependencies was growing by leaps and bounds, at the expense of the
+out-of-date but self-satisfied commercialists of Old England. Hence
+arose a trade rivalry, against which we could not hope to contend
+successfully in the long run, except by a complete revolution in our
+methods of education and business, to which neither the Government nor
+the dominant class would consent.
+
+"This remarkable advance in Germany, also, was accompanied by the
+establishment of a system of banking, specially directed to the
+expansion of national industry and commerce, a system which was clever
+enough to use French accumulations, borrowed at a low rate of
+interest, through the German Jews who so largely controlled French
+financial institutions, in order still further to extend their own
+trade. It was an admirably organized attempt to conquer the
+world-market for commodities, in which the Government, the banks, the
+manufacturers and the shipowners all worked for the common cause.
+Meanwhile, both French and English financiers carefully played the
+game of their business opponents, and the great English banks devoted
+their attention chiefly to fostering speculation on the Stock
+Exchange--a policy of which the Germans took advantage, just before
+the outbreak of war, to an extent not by any means as yet fully
+understood.
+
+"Thus, at the beginning of the present year, in spite of the
+withdrawal, since the Agadir affair, of very large amounts of French
+capital from the German market, Germany had attained to such a
+position that only the United States stood on a higher plane in regard
+to its future in the world of competitive commerce. And this great and
+increasing economic strength was, for war purposes, at the disposal of
+the Prussian militarists, if they succeeded in getting the upper hand
+in politics and foreign affairs."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[25] Works on the Thirty Years' War are numerous. Many scholarly and
+exhaustive treatises on various aspects of the subject are, as might be
+expected, to be found in German. For general popular reading Schiller's
+excellent piece of literary hack work (translated in Bonn's Library) may
+still be consulted, but perhaps the best short general history of the
+war with its entanglement of events is that by the late Professor S.R.
+Gardiner, of Oxford, which forms one of the volumes of Messrs. Longman,
+Green & Co.'s series entitled "Epochs of Modern History."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MODERN GERMAN CULTURE
+
+
+It is important to distinguish between the meaning of the German term
+"Kultur" and that commonly expressed in English by the word "culture."
+The word "Kultur" in modern German is simply equivalent to our word
+"civilization," whereas the word "culture" in English has a special
+meaning, to wit, that of intellectual attainments. In this chapter we
+are chiefly concerned with the latter sense of the word.
+
+Germany had a rich popular literature during the Middle Ages from the
+redaction of the _Nibelungenlied_ under Charles the Great onwards.
+Prominent among this popular literature were the love-songs of the
+Minnesingers, the epics drawn from mediaeval traditionary versions of
+the legend of Troy, of the career of _Alexander the Great_, and, to
+come to more recent times, to legends of _Charles the Great and his
+Court_, of _Arthur and the Holy Grail_, the _Nibelungenlied_ in its
+present form, and _Gudrun_. The "beast-epic," as it was called, was
+also a favourite theme, especially in the form of _Reynard the Fox_.
+In another branch of literature we have collections of laws dating
+from the thirteenth century and known respectively from the country of
+their origin as the _Sachsenspiegel_ and the _Schwabenspiegel_. Again,
+at a later date, followed the productions of the Meistersingers, and
+especially of Hans Sachs, of Nuernberg. Then, again, we have the prose
+literature of the mystics, Eckhart, Tauler, and their followers.
+
+Towards the close of the mediaeval period we find an immense number of
+national ballads, of chap-books, not to mention the Passion Plays or
+the polemical theological writings of the time leading up to the
+Reformation. Luther's works, more especially his translation of the
+Bible, powerfully helped to fix German as a literary language. The
+Reformation period, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, was rich in
+prose literature of every description--in fact, the output of serious
+German writing continued unabated until well into the seventeenth
+century. But the Thirty Years' War, which devastated Germany from end
+to end, completely swept away the earlier literary culture of the
+nation. In fact, the event in question forms a dividing line between
+the earlier and the modern culture of Germany. In prose literature,
+the latter half of the seventeenth century, Germany has only one work
+to show, though that is indeed a remarkable one--namely,
+Grimmelshausen's _Simplicissimus_, a romantic fiction under the guise
+of an autobiography of wild and weird adventure for the most part
+concerned with the Thirty Years' War.
+
+The rebirth of German literature in its modern form began early in the
+eighteenth century. Leibnitz wrote in Latin and French, and his
+culture was mainly French. His follower, Christian Wolf, however,
+first used the German language for philosophical writing. But in
+poetry, Klopstock and Wieland, and, in serious prose, Lessing and
+Herder, led the way to the great period of German literature. In this
+period the name of Goethe holds the field, alike in prose and poetry.
+Goethe was born in 1749, and hence it was the last quarter of the
+century which saw him reach his zenith. Next to Goethe comes his
+younger contemporary, Schiller. It is impossible here to go even
+briefly into the achievements of the bearers of these great names.
+They may be truly regarded in many important respects as the founders
+of modern German culture. Around them sprang up a whole galaxy of
+smaller men, and the close of the eighteenth century showed a
+literary activity in Germany exceeding any that had gone before.
+
+Turning to philosophy, it is enough to mention the immortal name of
+Immanuel Kant as the founder of modern German philosophic thought and
+the first of a line of eminent thinkers extending to wellnigh the
+middle of the nineteenth century. The names of Fichte, Schelling,
+Hegel, Schopenhauer and others will at once occur to the reader.
+
+Contemporaneously with the great rise of modern German literature
+there was a unique development in music, beginning with Sebastian Bach
+and continuing through the great classical school, the leading names
+in which are Glueck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert,
+etc. The middle period of the nineteenth century showed a further
+development in prose literature, producing some of the greatest
+historians and critics the world has seen. At this time, too, Germany
+began to take the lead in science. The names of Virchow, Helmholtz,
+Haeckel, out of a score of others, all of the first rank, are familiar
+to every person of education in the present and past generation. The
+same period has been signalized by the great post-classical
+development in music, as illustrated by the works of Schumann, Brahms,
+and, above all, by the towering fame of Richard Wagner.
+
+From the last quarter of the eighteenth century onwards it may truly
+be said of Germany that education is not only more generally diffused
+than in any other country of Europe, but (as a recent writer has
+expressed it) "is cultivated with an earnest and systematic devotion
+not met with to an equal extent among other nations." The present
+writer can well remember some years ago, when at the railway station
+at Breisach (Baden) waiting one evening for the last train to take him
+to Colmar, he seated himself at the table of the small station
+restaurant at which three tradesmen, "the butcher, the baker, and the
+candlestick-maker" of the place were drinking their beer. Broaching to
+them the subject of the history of the town, he found the butcher
+quite prepared to discuss with the baker and the candlestick-maker the
+policy of Charles the Bold and Louis XI as regards the possession of
+the district, as though it might have been a matter of last night's
+debate in the House or of the latest horse-race. Where would you find
+this popular culture in any other country?
+
+Germany possesses 20 universities, 16 polytechnic educational
+institutes, about 800 higher schools (gymnasia), and nearly 60,000
+elementary schools. Every town of any importance throughout the German
+States is liberally provided in the matter of libraries, museums, and
+art collections, while its special institutions, music schools, etc.,
+are famous throughout the world. The German theatre is well known for
+its thoroughness. Every, even moderately sized, German town has its
+theatre, which includes also opera, in which a high scale of all-round
+artistic excellence is attained, hardly equalled in any other country.
+In fact, it is not too much to say that for long Germany was foremost
+in the vanguard of educational, intellectual, and artistic progress.
+
+That the above is an over-coloured statement as regards the importance
+of Germany for wellnigh a century and a half past in the history of
+human culture, in the sense of intellectual progress in its widest
+meaning, I venture to think that no one competent to judge will
+allege. Is then, it may be asked, the railing of public opinion and
+the Press of Great Britain and other countries outside Germany and
+Austria, against the Germany of the present day, and the jeers at the
+term "German culture" wholly unjustified and the result of national or
+anti-German prejudice? That there has been much foolish vituperative
+abuse of the whole German nation and of everything German
+indiscriminately in the Press of this and some other countries is
+undoubtedly true. But, however, our acknowledgment of this fact will
+not justify us in refusing to recognize the truth which finds
+expression in what very often looks like mere foolish vilification.
+
+The truth in question will be apparent on a consideration of the
+change that has come over the German people and German culture since
+the war of 1870 and the foundation of the modern German Empire. The
+material and economic side of this change has been already indicated
+in a short summary in the quotation which closes the last chapter. But
+these changes, or advances if you will, on the material side, have
+been accompanied by a moral and material degeneration which has been
+only very partially counteracted at present by a movement which,
+though initiated before the period named, has only attained its great
+development, and hence influenced the national character, since the
+date in question.
+
+It is a striking fact that in the last forty-four years--the period of
+the new German Empire--there has been a dearth of originality in all
+directions. In the earlier part of the period in question the
+survivors from the pre-Imperial time continued their work in their
+several departments, but no new men of the same rank as themselves
+have arisen, either alongside of them or later to take their places.
+The one or two that might be adduced as partial exceptions to what has
+been above said only prove the rule. We have had, it is true, a
+multitude of men, more or less clever _epigoni_, but little else.
+Again, it is, I think, impossible to deny that a mechanical hardness
+and brutality have come over the national character which entirely
+belie its former traits. It is a matter of common observation that in
+the last generation the German middle class has become noticeably
+coarsened, vulgarized, and blatant.
+
+Again, although I am very far from wishing to attribute the crimes and
+horrors committed by the German army during the present war to the
+whole German nation, or even to the _rank and file_ of those composing
+the army, yet there is no doubt that some blame must be apportioned at
+least to the latter. The contrast is striking between the conduct of
+the German troops during the present war and that of 1870, when they
+could declare that they were out "to fight French soldiers and not
+French citizens." Such were the military ethics of bygone generations
+of German soldiers. They certainly do not apply to the German army of
+to-day. The popularity of such writers as Von Treitschke and
+Bernhardi, respecting which so much has been written, is indeed
+significant of a vast change in German moral conceptions. The
+practical influence of Nietzsche, who--with his corybantic whirl of
+criticism on all things in heaven above and on the earth beneath, a
+criticism not always coherent with itself--can hardly be termed a
+German Chauvinist in any intelligible sense, has, I think, been much
+exaggerated. The importance of his theories, considered as an
+ingredient in modern German Chauvinism, is not so considerable, I
+should imagine, as is sometimes thought.
+
+We come now to the movement already alluded to as a set-off and,
+within certain boundaries at least, a counteractive of the degeneracy
+exhibited in the German character since the foundation of the present
+Imperial system. The rise and rapid growth of the Social Democratic
+movement is perhaps the most striking fact in the recent history of
+Germany. The same may be said, of course, of the growth of Socialism
+everywhere during the same period. But in Germany it has for a
+generation past, or even more, occupied an exceptional position, alike
+as regards the rapidity of its increase, its direct influence on the
+masses, and its party organization. Modern Socialism, as a party
+doctrine, is, moreover, a product of the best period of
+nineteenth-century German thought and literature. Its three great
+theoretical protagonists, Marx, Engels, and their younger
+contemporary, Lassalle, all issued from the great Hegelian movement of
+the first half of the nineteenth century. Their propagandist
+activity, literary and otherwise, was in the German language. The
+analysis of the present capitalist system, forming the foundation of
+the demand for the communization of the means of production,
+distribution, and exchange, as resulting in a _human_ society as
+opposed to a _class_ society, and ultimately in the extinction of
+national barriers in a world-federation of socialized humanity--these
+principles were first appreciated, as a world-ideal, by the
+proletariat of Germany, and they have unquestionably raised that
+proletariat to an intellectual rank as yet equalled by no other
+working-class in the world.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that with the colossal growth of the
+Social Democratic party in Germany in numbers and the introduction
+into it of elements from various quarters, a certain deterioration,
+one may hope and believe only temporary, has become apparent in its
+quality. This applies, at least, to certain sections of the party. A
+sordid practicalism has made itself felt, due to a feverish desire to
+play an important role in the detail of current politics. Personal
+ambition and the mechanical working of the party system have also had
+their evil influence in the movement in recent years. Nevertheless, we
+have reason to believe that the core of the party is as sound and as
+true to principle as ever it was, and that on the restoration of
+international peace this will be seen to be the case. What interests
+us, however, specially, at the moment of writing, is the lamentable,
+yet undeniable, fact that German Social Democracy has, on this
+occasion, disastrously failed to prevent the outbreak of war,
+notwithstanding the vigour of its efforts to do so during the last
+week of July; and still more that it has failed up to date to stem the
+rising flood of militarism and jingoism in the German people. That
+before many months are over the scales will fall from the eyes of the
+masses of Germany I am convinced, and not less that a revolutionary
+movement in Germany will be one of the signs that will herald the dawn
+of a better day for Germany and for Europe. But meanwhile we must hold
+our countenances in patience.
+
+If we inquire the cause of the degeneracy we have been considering in
+the German character since the war of 1870 and the creation of the new
+empire--apart from those economic causes of change common to all
+countries in modern civilization--the answer of those who have
+followed the history of the period can hardly fail to be--Bismarck and
+Prussia. We have already seen in the short historical sketch given in
+the last chapter how the robber hand of Prussia, in violation of all
+national treaty rights, had gradually succeeded in annexing wellnigh
+all the neighbouring German territories. But, notwithstanding this,
+the greater part of Germany still remained outside the Prussian
+monarchy. The policy of Bismarck was first of all to cripple the rival
+claimant for the hegemony of Central Europe, Austria. Her complete
+subjugation being unfeasible, she had to be shut up rigorously to her
+immediate dominions on the eastern side of Central Europe, in order to
+leave the path clear for Bismarck, by war or subterfuge, to absorb,
+under a system of nominally vassal States, the whole of the rest of
+Germany into the system of the Prussian monarchy.
+
+Now, as we know, from its very foundation the Hohenzollern-Prussian
+monarchy has always been a more or less veiled despotism, based on
+working through a military and bureaucratic oligarchy. The army has
+been the dominant factor of the Prussian State from the beginning of
+the eighteenth century onwards. Prussia has been from the beginning of
+its monarchy the land of the drill-sergeant and the barracks. It is
+this system which the Junker Bismarck has riveted on the whole German
+people, with what results we now see. Badenese, Wuertembergers,
+Franconians, Hanoverians, the citizens of the former free cities no
+less than the already absorbed Westphalians, Thuringians, Silesians,
+Mecklenburgers, were speedily all reduced to being the slaves of the
+Prussian military system and of the Prussian military caste. The naive
+German peoples, as already pointed out, accepted this Prussian
+domination as the realization of their time-honoured patriotic ideal
+of German unity.
+
+The fact of their subservience was emphasized in every way. The law of
+_lese-majeste_ (_majestaetsbeleidigung_), by which all criticism of the
+despotic head of the State or his actions is made a heinous criminal
+offence, to which severe penalties are attached, it is not too much to
+say is a law which brands the ruler who accepts it as a coward and a
+cur, and the Legislature which passes it as a house, not of
+representative citizens, or even subjects for that matter, but of
+representative _slaves_. It must not be forgotten that the law in
+question strikes not only at public expressions of opinion in the
+press or on the platform, but at the most private criticism made in
+the presence of a friend in one's own room. The depths of undignified
+and craven meanness to which a monarch is reduced by being thus
+protected from criticism by the police-truncheon and the gaoler struck
+me especially as illustrated by the following incident which happened
+some years ago: Shortly after the accession of the present Kaiser, a
+conjurer was giving his entertainment in a Swiss town. For one of the
+tricks he was going to exhibit he had occasion to ask the audience to
+send him up the names of a few public men on folded pieces of paper.
+His reception of the names written down was accompanied by the
+"patter" proper to his profession. On coming to the name of Kaiser
+Wilhelm II he ventured the remark, "Ah! I'd rather it had been the
+poor man just dead" (meaning the Emperor Frederick), "for I'm afraid
+this one's not much good." Will it be believed that the whole
+diplomatic machinery was set on foot to induce the Swiss Government to
+prosecute the unfortunate entertainer, abortively of course, since it
+could not have been legally done? Surely the head of a State who could
+allow his Government to descend to such contemptible pettiness must be
+devoid of all sense of common self-respect, not to say personal
+dignity. And this is the fellow who claims to be hardly second in
+importance to his "dear old God"! In this connection it is only fair
+to recall the very different behaviour of King Edward VII when an
+Irish paper published not a mere criticism but an unquestionably
+libellous article reflecting on his private character. The police
+seized the copies of the paper and were prepared to take steps to
+prosecute, when the late King interfered and stopped even the
+confiscation of the paper. The least monarchical of us must, I think,
+admit that here we have a good illustration of the distinction between
+a man sure of his reputation and a cur nervously alarmed for his.
+
+This severe law of _lese-majeste_ in Bismarck's Prusso-German Empire
+is only an illustration of the way in which the German people have
+been made to grovel before the Prussian jack-boot. The Prussification
+of Germany in matters military and in matters bureaucratic has gone on
+apace since 1870. Prussia, it is not too much to say, has hitherto
+consisted in a nation of slaves and tyrants and nothing else. It is
+the Prussian governing class which has everywhere and in all
+departments "set the pace" since the empire was established. No man
+known to hold opinions divergent from those agreeable to the interests
+of the Prussian governing class can hope for employment, be it the
+most humble, in any department of the public service. This is
+particularly noticeable in its effects in the matter of education. The
+inculcation of the brutal and blatant jingoism of Von Treitschke at
+the universities by professors eager for approval in high places has
+already been sufficiently animadverted upon in more than one work on
+modern Germany. The defeat of Prusso-German militarism will be an
+even greater gain to all that is best in Germany herself than it will
+be to Europe as a whole.
+
+_Delenda est Prussia_, understanding thereby not, of course, the
+inhabitants of Prussian territory as such, but Prussia as a
+State-system and as an independent Power in Europe, must be the
+watchword in the present crisis of every well-wisher of Humanity,
+Germany included. A united Germany, if that be insisted upon, by all
+means let there be--a federation of all the German peoples with its
+capital, for that matter, as of old, at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, but
+with no dominant State and, if possible, excluding Prussia altogether,
+but certainly as constituted at present. Who knows but that a united
+States of Germany may then prove the first step towards a united
+States of Europe?
+
+But it is not alone to the political reconstruction of Germany or of
+Europe that those who take an optimistic view of the issue of the
+present European war look hopefully. The whole economic system of
+modern capitalism will have received a shock from which the beginnings
+of vast changes may date. Apart from this, however, the avowed aim of
+the war, the destruction of Prussian militarism and, indirectly, the
+weakening of military power throughout the world, should have
+immediate and important consequences. The brutalities and crimes
+committed in Belgium and the North of France at the instigation of the
+military heads of this Prusso-German army do but indicate
+exaggerations of the military spirit and attitude generally. Von
+Hindenburg is not the first who has given utterance to the devilish
+excuse for military crime and brutality that it is "more humane in the
+end, since it shortens war." To refute this transparent fallacy is
+scarcely necessary, since every historical student knows that military
+excesses and inhumanity do not shorten but prolong war by raising
+indignation and inflaming passions. The longest connected war known to
+history--the Thirty Years' War--is generally acknowledged to have been
+signalized by the greatest and most continuous inhumanity of any on
+record. But whether military crime has the effect claimed for it or
+not, we may fain hope that public opinion in Europe will insist upon
+giving the "humane" commanders who "mercifully" endeavour to "shorten"
+war by drastic methods of this sort a severe lesson. A few such
+treated to the utmost penalties the ordinary criminal law prescribes
+to the crimes of arson, murder, and robbery would teach them and their
+like that war, if waged at all nowadays, must be waged decently and
+not "shortened" by such devices as those in question.
+
+If the present war with all its horrible carnage issues, even if only
+in the beginning of those changes which some of us believe must
+necessarily result from it--changes economical, political, and
+moral--then indeed it will not have been waged in vain. With the great
+intellectual powers of the Germanic people devoted, not to the
+organization of military power and of national domination, but to
+furthering the realization of a higher human society; with the
+determination on the part of the best elements among every European
+people to work together internationally with each other, and not least
+with the new Germany, to this end, and the great European war of 1914
+will be looked back upon by future generations as the greatest
+world-historic example of the proverbial evil out of which good, and a
+lasting and inestimable good, has come for Europe and the world.
+
+
+UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED THE GRESHAM PRESS WOKING AND LONDON.
+
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+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of German Culture Past and Present, by
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