eror might
well have found in such ideas the means of reconciling the conflicting
interests of peasants, citizens, and knights, at least sufficiently so
to serve his own purposes. How could the German princes, disunited as
they always were, have withstood an Emperor with such allies,
strengthened by a well-established income, and leader of an army which
for the first time since the Crusades would have been animated by a
great idea? Good grounds would such an emperor have had to have
respected old families: it would not have been necessary for him to
take the Electoral crown from off their heads, but he might have
reduced them to be dignitaries of one great united empire, in which the
highest jurisdiction and the power of the army would have been vested
in him alone: the want of such a man was for centuries the misfortune
of Germany.

It is difficult to do justice to the German princes of the sixteenth
century; their position was unfavourable for the formation of their
character and for the development of elevated political action. They
were too great to be loyal vassals, but not powerful enough, with only
moderate abilities, to conduct the affairs of the nation in a liberal
spirit. They were for the most part pretentious _Junkers_; their
selfishness appeared to foreigners rapacious, their manners rude, their
greed insatiable.

The private life of many of them was stained by the blackest crimes; a
few of them were at heart pious; their religion was, we hope, a
restraint in the hour of temptation, but it did not contribute to
enlarge their political views. There was a patriarchal feeling among
many of them. Such were Frederic the Wise and his next successor; such
also was the Margrave Ernest of Baden, who used to have condemned
criminals brought to him before their execution, that he might give
them comfort from the Gospel, and beg for their forgiveness (as he felt
obliged to fulfil his duty), and who offered them his hand at parting.
Besides men of this kind there were others, overbearing, profligate,
and wicked; such was Duke Ulrich of Wuertemberg, who stabbed Hans Hutten
in the forest because he wished to obtain possession of his wife. But
though at most of the courts consideration for wife and children
compelled a certain degree of moderation, the ecclesiastical princes
were not even under this restraint. They were in the worst repute, and
the more athletic preferred the helmet and the hunting-spear to the
vestment