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