acters of the age, Frederic, duke of Saxony; the same man whose high reputation, as we have before observed, would have procured him the election to the Germanic empire, even against such candidates as Charles V. and Francis I., had not his own modesty expressly declined that elevated station. It is but justice to this most respectable man to relate an anecdote, told by Roger Ascham, preceptor to queen Elizabeth, who, when in Ger many, was personally acquainted with him. Duke Frederic was taken prisoner by Charles V. in the battle of Mulberg, and upon a representation of some of his counsellors, that the exemplary punishment of so eminent a man would prove of great service in checking the progress of the Reformation, the emperor, forgetting his own obligations to him, condemned him to be beheaded, on a scaffold, at Wittemberg. The warrant for his execution, signed by the emperor's hand, was sent to duke Frederic the night before, and was delivered to him while he was playing at chess with his cousin the landgrave of Lithenberg. He read it over attentively, and then folding it up, "I perceive," said he," that I fall a victim to my religion, and that my death is necessary to the emperor's schemes of extinguishing the protestant faith. But God will maintain his own cause. Come, cousin," said he, "take heed to your game ;" and then, with the same composure as if he had received a private letter of little importance, he continued to play till he had defeated his antagonist. It is a satisfaction to learn that the emperor, impressed, as is said, by this admirable example of fortitude, gave immediate orders for a recall of the warrant, and ever afterwards treated the elector of Saxony with the highest respect and esteem.*

4

These disturbances in Germany continued to embroil the emperor during the remainder of his life, and utterly destroyed his peace. It was impossible for him to form his dominions into a well-connected empire. The jealousies that could not fail to subsist between his subjects of different countries, must have been an insuperable bar to such a coalescence, even though his foreign enemies had allowed him sufficient respite to turn his whole. attention to the iniernal police of his kingdoms; but this we have seen was far from being the case. Henry II., the successor of Francis, was an antagonist equally formidable as his father had been, and made more effective encroachments upon the dominions of the empire. In short, the last years of Charles were the most tumultuous and the least successful. The load of

* Ascham sums up the character of this great man in these remarkable words: -“He is a man wise in all his doings, just in all his dealings, lowly to the meanest, princely with the highest, gentle to all. His noble nature thinketh nothing which he dare not speak, and speaketh nothing which he will not do. Him no adversity could ever move, nor policy at any time entice to shrink from God and from his word. The remembrance of him is never out of place, whose worthiness is never to be forgotten

cares, and the difficulties which surrounded him on every side, at length entirely overpowered him. The vigor of his mind was broken, his animal spirits were exhausted, and, in a state of despondency and melancholy dotage, he abdicated the empire, and renounced the world at the age of fifty-six.

This celebrated resignation, though prompted by dejection of spirit, was conducted with some policy, and with a regard to the interest of those who were to come after him. Charles wished that his son Philip should succeed, not only to his hereditary dominions, but to the empire. He had, however, unluckily, in the earlier part of his life, taken a step which defeated this last purpose. This was the procuring his brother Ferdinand to be elected king of the Romans, which is always regarded as the preparatory step to the empire. Before Charles resigned the imperial crown, he proposed to his brother Ferdinand to resign in his favor, provided he would consent that Philip should be elected king of the Romans. A third person, however, struck in, and disappointed this negotiation. This was the archduke Maximilian, son of Ferdinand, a youth of abilities and ambition, who frustrated all the emperor's schemes for that purpose, and secured the dignity of king of the Romans to himself. The defeat of this darling project entirely broke the spirit of Charles V. After a solemn resignation of his hereditary dominions to his son Philip, he transmitted his resignation of the empire to his brother Ferdinand; and retiring to Spain, he betook himself to the monastery of St. Justus, where he soon after died, bequeathing to mankind a striking lesson of the vanity of human greatness, the madness of ambition, and the total insufficiency of all earthly dignities or possessions to the attainment of substantial or lasting happiness.*

It may not be improper to conclude this brief sketch of the reign of Charles V., with a few observations on the constitution of the German empire.

Till the reign of Maximilian I., the empire of Germany was a prey to all the disorders of the feudal government. Of this the Golden Bull," published in 1356, affords sufficient evidence, as it proceeds on the supposition of great barbarism of manners. It is true that the Germans, like the Franks, preserved the ancient custom of holding general diets, or assem blies of the states; but these meetings were commonly of so short a continuance, and so extremely tumultuous, that they were of very little consequence in establishing wise political regulations. The emperor Wenceslaus had, indeed, in the year 1383, endeavored to give a better form to the empire.

He

* Charles V. had no taste for literature, or disposition to patronise the arts and sciences; even the great Erasmus, who had dedicated to him some of his works, complains that he received nothing but barren thanks for the compliment.-Jortin's Life of Erasmus, p. 304.

proclaimed a general peace, but he found it impossible to take proper measures to secure it.

Sigismund made a similar attempt with no better success. But Albert II. was more fortunate. more fortunate. He actually accomplished the conclusion of a general peace between all the branches of the empire; and, with the consent of the assembly of the states, he divided Germany into six circles, or provinces, which were each to have their own diet or assembly. But still the great object was not completely attained: a spirit of jealousy and disunion continued to pervade the Germanic body, and frequent differences of interest, which were followed by hostile conflicts, threw them back into their former anarchy and barbarism.

At length Maximilian I. procured that famous law of the Germanic body, which established a general and a perpetual peace, by prohibiting all hostilities between the different states, under pain of that state which was the aggressor being treated as a common enemy. The Imperial Chamber was established to judge and determine all differences. A new division was made of the empire into ten circles, and each of these provinces named a certain number of representatives, or assessors, to take their place in the imperial chamber, and undertook to carry its decrees or judgments into execution, through the whole extent of its territory. The diet held at Augsburg in the year 1500 established likewise an occasional regency, which was to subsist, without interruption, in the intervals of the meetings of the diets. The regency was invested with all the power of the national assembly. The council was composed of twenty ministers, named by the diet, over whom the emperor himself presided. One elector was always obliged to be personally present in the council; the other six sent their representatives.

Although these establishments gave a more regular form to the government, they would not have been adequate to the preservation of the peace of the empire, and the enforcement of the laws, had not the house of Austria acquired, of a sudden, so much power and influence as to establish itself on the imperial throne, and to render its authority more respectable than that of the former emperors. In fact, although the inferior princes, or electors, were accustomed to have recourse to the imperial chamber for a redress of grievances or encroachments, the more powerful chose rather to do themselves justice by force of arms; and, notwithstanding all the wise regulations, the ancient prejudices remained in full force, and the empire was still a prey to the same disorders.

The accession of Charles V. to the empire formed a remarkable era in its constitution. The princes wisely judged that his elevation was attended with danger; but they were short-sighted enough to imagine, that a capitulation would be sufficient to fix bounds to his authoriry. Charles had vast ambition, great resolution, and that versatility of character, which could accommodate

itself to any conduct most favorable to his political views.

But

amidst his ambitious projects, he seemed to have overlooked a very material circumstance: that new system of European politics, the motive of preserving a balance of power between the kingdoms of Christendom, which made the princes of the empire find allies and protectors sufficient to resist and defeat all his schemes of absolute dominion. Charles wished to turn to his own advantage that spirit of religious enthusiasm, which was kindled in his time, but his extensive territories gave him too many objects of attention, and he could not prosecute any single enterprise with that constancy which was necessary to promote its success. He attained, however, a measure of authority very far superior to that of any of his predecessors, and virtually established his own family on a throne, which the constitution of the empire declared to be elective, and. not. hereditary.

The successors of Charles, without his talents, wished to pur sue the same system of policy, and might, perhaps, have enslaved Germany, had it not been for the aid she received from other European powers. After a series of wars, and a great deal of bloodshed, the peace of Westphalia, in the year 1648, became the foundation of the public law of the empire, and fixed the emperor's prerogatives and the privileges of the states.

The power of electing an emperor was, by the golden bull of Charles IV., (published in 1356,) vested in seven electors, who were likewise appointed to fill the great offices of the empire. These electors were the archbishop of Mentz, great chancellor of the German empire; the elector of Cologne, great chancellor of the empire in Italy; the elector of Treves, great chancellor of the empire in Gaul; the king of Bohemia; the count Palatine; the duke of Saxony; and the margrave of Brandenburg. An eighth electorate was afterwards created-viz., that of Bavaria; and to these, in 1692, was added a ninth, that of Brunswick-Lunenburg, or Hanover.

All the princes of the empire acknowledged a legislative power to reside in the diet for the enactment of general laws, which regard the whole body of the state. The diet, or general assembly of the empire, was divided into three colleges, the electors, the princes, and the free cities. After the emperor's commissioner communicated his propositions to the diet, they became the subject of the separate deliberation of the electoral college, and that of the princes. When their opinions were uniform, the resolution was carried to the college of the free cities, and if acceded to by them, it became a placitum of the empire. If the emperor gave it his approbation, the placitum became a conclusion, and formed a law, which was obligatory upon the whole of the If the emperor and the diet were of different opinions, there could be no general law. Thus it was in the power of the emperor to prevent the enactment of any law, however salutary,

states.

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37

which may be contrary to his own interest: a power which was not checked, as in the British government, by the sovereign's dependence on the people for his revenue. Agreeably to the same bad policy, the emperor was the sole proposer of all new laws, a further security for his proposing none but what were favorable to his own interests. It was, likewise, in the power of the director of the diet to prevent the execution of the established laws of the empire. Nothing could be communicated to the diet but by the consent of the elector-archbishop of Mentz. All complaints of grievances, or requisitions made by any of the princes to the Germanic body, must receive his approbatory sanction, and he might refuse them at his pleasure.

These great constitutional defects were the more destructive, when it is considered that the Germanic government had for its object to regulate the contending interests of princes who had all the rights of sovereignty--who had their armies, their revenue. and their fortified cities, and a power of contracting defensive alliances with foreign nations, and were sometimes possessed them. selves of foreign dominions greatly more considerable than their Germanic territory. The greater that are the sources of division between the parts of an empire, the greater certainly ought to be the prudence and stability of its laws and policy.

CHAPTER XX.

Of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, and the Revolution in Den mark and Sweden-Reformation in England under Henry VIII. and his successors-Immediate causes Sale of Indulgences Luther attacks the abuses of the Romish Church-Zuinglius-Reformed Religion acknowledged by Decrees of the Senate in Zurich, Berne, and Basle-the Revolution in Denmark and Sweden-Gustavus Vasa--Anabaptists-Origin of the Name of Protestant-Calvin-Origin of the Reformation in England-Henry declares himself Head of the Church-Persecution under Mary-firmly established under Elizabeth.

THE age of Charles V. is the era of great events and important revolutions in the history of Europe. It is the era of the Reformation in religion in Germany, in the northern kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, and in Britain. It is the era of the discovery of America; and, lastly, it is the period of the highest splendor of the fine arts in Italy and in the south of Europe. Of each of these subjects we shall treat in order, and shall consider first the Reformation, as undoubtedly the most important, both in a moral and in a political point of view.