The Holy Roman Empire

376

Quoted by Ludwig Haüsser, Deutsche Geschichte.

377

The distinction is well expressed by the German 'Reich' and 'Kaiserthum,' to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond.

378

So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles V's successor should be chosen from some other. – Moser, Römische Kayser. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family.

379

In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he would become Emperor.

380

Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The 'exacta æqualitas' conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic.

381

'The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,Tries the dread summits of Cæsarian power.With unexpected legions bursts away,And sees defenceless realms receive his sway…The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloomOf hasty greatness finds the fatal doom;His foes' derision and his subjects' blame,And steals to death from anguish and from shame.'Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes.

382

The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (Vitriarius Illustratus), writing early in the eighteenth century: —

1. The great power of Austria.

2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor.

3. The majority of Catholics among the electors.

4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances.

5. Her moderation.

6. The memory of benefits conferred by her.

7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from the blood of former Cæsars.

8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were deprived of the crown.

9. Her own eagerness to have it.

383

The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and shook it.

384

'You are in your own house: be the master.'

385

Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them.

386

Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those who practised in the Kammergericht.

387

Cf. Pütter, Historical Developement of the Political Constitution of the German Empire, vol. iii.

388

Frederick the Great said of the Diet, 'Es ist ein Schattenbild, eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen sich beschäftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.'

389

Cf. Haüsser, Deutsche Geschichte; Introduction.

390

Quoted by Haüsser.

391

Rotteck and Welcker, Staats Lexikon, s. v. 'Deutsches Reich.'

392

Deutschlands Erwartungen vom Fürstenbunde, quoted in the Staats Lexikon.

393

Wahrheit und Dichtung, book i. The Römer Saal is still one of the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any merit as works of art.

394

Jordanis Chronica, ap. Schardium, Sylloge Tractatuum.

395

In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date 10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words, 'Mes descendans conserveront longtemps ce trône, le premier de l'univers.' Answering a deputation from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811, 'La Providence, qui a voulu que je rétablisse le trône de Charlemagne, vous a fait naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes anséatiques, dans le sein de l'Empire.' —Œuvres de Napoléon, tom. v. p. 521.

'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je réunis la couronne de France à celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire confine avec l'Orient.' (Quoted by Lanfrey, Vie de Napoleon, iii. 417.)

'Votre Sainteté est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.' (Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.)

'Dites bien,' says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis Charlemagne, leur Empereur [of the Papal Court] que je dois être traité de même. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le réduirai à la même condition qu'il était avant Charlemagne.' (Lanfrey, Vie de Napoleon, iii. 420.)

396

Napoleon said on one occasion, 'Je n'ai pas succédé a Louis Quatorze, mais à Charlemagne.' – Bourrienne, Vie de Napoléon, iv. In 1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made for his own coronation; – (Bourrienne, ut supra.) Somewhat in the same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to incite his subjects to the conquest of England.

397

'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interêts (of political order and the spiritual authority of the Pope) qu'en annulant les donations des Empereurs Français, mes predecesseurs, et en réunissant les états romains à la France.' – Proclamation issued in 1809: Œuvres, iv.

398

See Appendix, Note C.

399

Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul, 'Carissime in Christo Fili noster … tam perspecta sunt nobis tuæ voluntatis studia erga nos, ut quotiescunque ope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.' – Quoted by Ægidi.

400

Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in the Codex Carolinus, and the following preamble to the Concordat of A.D. 1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from the Bullarium Romanum), and mark the changes of a thousand years.

'Gubernium reipublicæ [Gallicæ] recognoscit religionem Catholicam Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium Gallicæ reipublicæ profitetur.

'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore præstolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublicæ consules.'

401

Cf. Heeren, Political System, vol. iii. 273.

402

He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the mediæval orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been mentioned.

403

Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the phrase he once used, 'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.'

Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria' (erwählter Römischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich).

404

This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in Koch's Traités (continued by Schöll), vol. viii., and Meyer's Corpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ, vol. i. It has every appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place 'Der nämliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren Interessen Deutschlands übereinstimmend gezeigt haben.' The phrase 'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' 'body of German states' (Staatskörper), and so forth. This Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick.

405

Histoire des Traités, vol. viii. The original may be found in Meyer's Corpus Iuris Confœderationis Germanicæ, vol. i. p. 70. It is a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name of, &c., &c.

406

Koch (Schöll), Histoire des Traités, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; Haüsser, Deutsche Geschichte, vol. iv.

407

Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides.

408

'Les états d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien federatif.' —Histoire des Traités, xi. p. 257.

409

The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown.

410

[Since the above was written (in A.D. 1865) sudden and momentous changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an united German people, – united for the time, at least, by the folly of the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we see passing.]

411

See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the object of the expedition to Mexico.

412

One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons.

413

I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power claiming a more than spiritual authority.

414

'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam cœlum. Non enim propter cœlum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam cœlum.' From the tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter.

415

Von Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, v.

416

Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire.

417

Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht, Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit; and Rotteck and Welcker's Staats Lexikon. The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration.

418

See especially Von Sybel, Die Deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk.

419

Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the feudal law of land.

420

Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, iii. sub. fin.

421

Waitz (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte) says that the phrase 'semper Augustus' may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but not in official documents.

422

There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire people had begun to fancy that 'erwählter' did not mean 'elect,' but 'elective.' Cf. note m, p. 362.

423

These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or Gallicized Franks (Francigenæ), which having been for some time 'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,' grew at last to be simply 'regnum Franciæ,' the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire.

424

It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine documents of the early Empire. Goldast's Collections, for instance, are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and Pütter, and in the host of writers to whom they refer.

425

We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament.

426

Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss Confederation.

427

Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine Empire.

428

Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the example.

429

See note d, p. 270.