The Holy Roman Empire

After the attempts already made to examine separately each of the phases of the Empire, little need be said, in conclusion, upon its nature and results in general. A general cha...

These were the events and circumstances of the time: let us now look at the causes. The restoration of the Empire by Charles may seem to be sufficiently accounted for by the wid...

'It is related,' says Sozomen in the ninth book of his Ecclesiastical History, 'that when Alaric was hastening against Rome, a holy monk of Italy admonished him to spare the cit...

That the Roman Empire survived the seemingly mortal wound it had received at the era of the Great Interregnum, and continued to put forth pretensions which no one was likely to...

The coronation of Charles is not only the central event of the Middle Ages, it is also one of those very few events of which, taking them singly, it may be said that if they had...

The era of the Hohenstaufen is perhaps the fittest point at which to turn aside from the narrative history of the Empire to speak shortly of the legal position which it professe...

Upon a world so constituted did the barbarians of the North descend. From the dawn of history they shew as a dim background to the warmth and light of the Mediterranean coast, c...

He who begins to read the history of the Middle Ages is alternately amused and provoked by the seeming absurdities that meet him at every step. He finds writers proclaiming amid...

The Peace of Westphalia is the first, and, with the exception perhaps of the Treaties of Vienna in 1815, the most important of those attempts to reconstruct by diplomacy the Eur...

The Reformation falls to be mentioned here, of course not as a religious movement, but as the cause of political changes, which still further rent the Empire, and struck at the...

In Frederick the Third's reign the Empire sank to its lowest point. It had shot forth a fitful gleam under Sigismund, who in convoking and presiding over the council of Constanc...

It was towards Rome as their ecclesiastical capital that the thoughts and hopes of the men of the sixth and seventh centuries were constantly directed. Yet not from Rome, feeble...

The reign of Frederick the Second was not less fatal to the domestic power of the German king than to the European supremacy of the Emperor. His two Pragmatic Sanctions had conf...

In the three preceding chapters the Holy Empire has been described in what is not only the most brilliant but the most momentous period of its history; the period of its rivalry...

The reign of Frederick the First, better known under his Italian surname Barbarossa, is the most brilliant in the annals of the Empire. Its territory had been wider under Charle...

Reformed by the Emperors and their Teutonic nominees, the Papacy had resumed in the middle of the eleventh century the schemes of polity shadowed forth by Nicholas I, and which...

Lewis the Pious[86], left by Charles's death sole heir, had been some years before associated with his father in the Empire, and had been crowned by his own hands in a way which...

Goethe has described the uneasiness with which, in the days of his childhood, the burghers of his native Frankfort saw the walls of the Roman Hall covered with the portraits of...

This was the office which Otto the Great assumed in A.D. 962. But it was not his only office. He was already a German king; and the new dignity by no means superseded the old. T...

That ostentation of humility which the subtle policy of Augustus had conceived, and the jealous hypocrisy of Tiberius maintained, was gradually dropped by their successors, till...

Causes of the Perpetuation of the Name of Rome 366 Parallel instances: Claims now made to represent the Roman Empire 367 Parallel afforded by the History of the Papacy 369 In ho...

Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that the Emperor Francis II had announced to the Diet his resignation of the imperial crown, there were probably few...

Rapid Decline of the City after the Gothic Wars 273 Her Condition in the Dark Ages 274 Republican Revival of the Twelfth Century 276 Character and Ideas of Nicholas Rienzi 278 S...

Accession of Charles V 319 His Attitude towards the Reformation 321 Issue of his Attempts at Coercion 322 Spirit and Essence of the Religious Movement 325 Its Influence on the D...

Political Import of the Peace of Westphalia 337 Hippolytus a Lapide and his Book 339 Changes in the Germanic Constitution 340 Narrowed Bounds of the Empire 341 Condition of Germ...

Revival of Learning 240 Beginnings of Political Thought 241 Desire for an International Power 242 Theory of the Emperor's Functions as Monarch of Europe 244 Illustrations 249 Re...

The World Monarchy and the World Religion 91 Unity of the Christian Church 94 Influence of the Doctrine of Realism 97 The Popes as heirs to the Roman Monarchy 99 Character of th...

Import of the Coronation at Rome 52 Accounts given in the Annals of the time 53 Question as to the Intentions of Charles 58 Legal Effect of the Coronation 62 Position of Charles...

Territorial Limits of the Empire--Its Claims of Jurisdiction over other Countries 182 Hungary 183 Poland 184 Denmark 184 France 185 Sweden 185 Spain 185 England 186 Scotland 187...

Adventures of Otto the Great in Rome 134 Trial and Deposition of Pope John XII 135 Position of Otto in Italy 139 His European Policy 140 Comparison of his Empire with the Caroli...

Relations between the Primitive Germans and the Romans 15 Their Feelings towards Rome and her Empire 16 Belief in its Eternity 20 Extinction by Odoacer of the Western branch of...

Weakness of Germany 302 Loss of Imperial Territories 303 Gradual Change in the Germanic Constitution 307 Beginning of the Predominance of the Hapsburgs 310 The Discovery of Amer...

Reign of Henry VI 205 Contest of Philip and Otto IV 206 Character and Career of the Emperor Frederick II 207 Destruction of Imperial Authority in Italy 211 The Great Interregnum...

Germany in the Fourteenth Century 222 Reign of the Emperor Charles IV 225 Origin and History of the System of Election, and of the Electoral Body 225 The Golden Bull 230 Remarks...

The Franks 34 Italy under Greeks and Lombards 37 The Iconoclastic Schism 38 Alliance of the Popes with the Frankish Kings 39 The Frankish Conquest of Italy 41 Adventures and Pla...

Origin and Progress of Papal Power 153 Relations of the Popes with the early Emperors 155 Quarrel of Henry IV and Gregory VII 159 Gregory's Ideas 160 Concordat of Worms 163 Gene...

The Empire in the Second Century 5 Obliteration of National distinctions 6 Rise of Christianity 10 Its Alliance with the State 10 Its Influence on the Idea of an Imperial Nation...

Frederick and the Papacy 167 Revival of the Study of the Roman Law 172 Arnold of Brescia and the Roman Republicans 174 Frederick's Struggle with the Lombard Cities 175 His Polic...

The Emperor Francis II 356 Napoleon as the Representative of the Carolingians 357 The French Empire 360 Napoleon's German Policy 361 The Confederation of the Rhine 362 End of th...

Reign of Lewis I 76 Dissolution of the Carolingian Empire 78 Beginnings of the German Kingdom 79 Italian Emperors 80 Otto the Saxon King 84 Coronation of Otto at Rome 87