Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

“ The Turkish wars, more than anything else, prevented Max from carrying out his long-cherished plan and giving a constitution to the empire and church of the Germans. He who towered high above the Papal party and the miserable controversies of Protestant divines, and whose clear mind saw what the times required, would have had every qualification for such a task. But in the midst of his great projects, Maximilian II. died, in his 49th year, on the 12th of October, 1576; as emperor, honest, mild and wise, and elevated above all religious controversies to a degree that no prince has ever reached. ”

“ The emperor Maximilian, although dissatisfied with the occupation of Milan by the French, appeared wholly engrossed with the frivolous ambition of a Roman coronation. The pontiff and his son, Caesar Borgia, were closely bound to King Louis by the assistance which he had rendered them in their marauding enterprises against the neighboring chiefs of Romagna. The other Italian princes, although deeply incensed and disgusted by this infamous alliance, stood too much in awe of the colossal power, which had planted its foot so firmly on their territory, to offer any resistance. ”

“ Fears were freely expressed that he would definitely leave the Catholic Church, and when Ferdinand became emperor in 1558 he was prepared to assure Pope Paul IV. that his son should not succeed him if he took this step. Eventually Maximilian remained nominally an adherent of the older faith, although his views were tinged with Lutheranism until the end of his life. ”

“ The German sovereign, therefore, though he exercised, as soon as chosen, full imperial powers both in Germany and Italy, called himself merely “king of the Romans” (Romanorum rex semper Augustus) until he had received the sacred crown in the sacred city. In 1508 Maximilian I., being refused a passage to Rome by the Venetians, obtained from Pope Julius II. a bull permitting him to style himself emperor elect (imperator electus, erwählter Kaiser) . This title was taken by Ferdinand I. (1558) and all succeeding emperors, immediately upon their coronation in Germany ”

“ He filled Rome and Italy with armed troops, connived at their tumults, suffered them with impunity to plunder, and even to massacre, the defenceless people; [55] and, indulging them in the same licentiousness which their emperor enjoyed, Maxentius often bestowed on his military favourites the splendid villa, or the beautiful wife, of a senator. A prince of such a character, alike incapable of governing either in peace or in war, might purchase the support, but he could never obtain the esteem, of the army. ”

“ Besides these economic causes, the growing influence of Roman law affected the peasant even more than it had done the barons. By it, said the Emperor Maximilian, the poor man either got no justice at all against the rich, or it was so sharp and fine-pointed that it availed him nothing. ”

“ He was by far the most important ruler of the time, and the peoples under his direct sway were still adherents of the old faith. He was king of Spain, of Sicily, of Naples and of Sardinia; he was lord of the Netherlands, of the free county of Burgundy and of the Austrian archduchies; he had at his command the immense resources of the New World; and he had been chosen king of Germany, thus gaining a title to the imperial crown. Following the example set by Maximilian he called himself emperor without waiting for the formality of a coronation at Rome. ”

“ In signing this, Maximilian entered into a fatal engagement, which he knew well he could not keep without soon lapsing into a national bankruptcy. It would have been more dignified in the emperor if he had at once laid down his crown and retired from the scene, leaving to the French government all the enormous responsibility of the situation. But this sovereign did not know how to resist the seductions of royalty. Perhaps he still hoped for the success of the mission of the empress to Paris and Rome. This is his only excuse. ”

“ In 1500 the diet had divided Germany into six circles, for the maintenance of peace, to which the emperor at the diet of Cologne in 1512 added four others. Having made an alliance with Christian II., king of Denmark, and interfered to protect the Teutonic Order against Sigismund I., king of Poland, Maximilian was again in Italy early in 1516 fighting the French who had overrun Milan. His want of success compelled him on the 4th of December 1516 to sign the treaty of Brussels, which left Milan in the hands of the French king, while Verona was soon afterwards transferred to Venice. ”

“ Nothing was too fantastic for the Emperor Maximilian; the man who could not wrest a few towns from Venice was always deluding himself with the hope of leading victorious hosts to the seat of the Turkish Empire and the Holy City of Christendom; the sovereign whose main incentive in life was gold, informed his daughter that he intended to get himself canonised, and that after his death she would have to adore him. He died at Welz on 12th January, 1519, neither Pope nor saint, with Jerusalem still in the hands of the Turk, and the succession to the Empire still undecided. ”

“ Collecting a large and splendid army Maximilian marched to defend his territories; but no decisive engagement had taken place when a truce was made in 1568, and the emperor continued to pay tribute to the sultan for Hungary. Meanwhile the relations between Maximilian and Philip of Spain had improved; and the emperor’s increasingly cautious and moderate attitude in religious matters was doubtless due to the fact that the death of Philip’s son, Don Carlos, had opened the way for the succession of Maximilian, or of one of his sons, to the Spanish throne. ”

“ During the raigne of Maximinian;
8 Who dying left none heire them to withstand,
But that they ouerran all parts with easie hand.
1 deare, > deare 1609
1 But, wanting issue male, his daughter dear
wanting > lacking issue male > [sons]
2 He gave in wedlock to Maximian,
Maximian > (Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus, surnamed Herculius.
Roman emperor 286-305 and 306-308; died 310)
3 And him with her made of his kingdom heir, 4 Who soon by means thereof the empire won, 5 Till murdered by the friends of Gratian ”

“ When the Emperor Maximilian died, a greater man than himself or any of his predecessors on the Imperial throne had already begun a far greater work than was ever accomplished by any political ruler. Out of the ranks of the poor, oppressed German people arose the chosen Leader who became powerful above all princes, who resisted the first monarch of the world, and defeated the Church of Rome after an undisturbed reign of a thousand years. We must therefore leave the succession of the house of Hapsburg until we have traced the life of Martin Luther up to the time of Maximilian's death. ”

“ After this speech, Maximus promised the soldiers lavish gifts of money; then, remaining in Aquileia only a few days longer, he arranged to return to Rome. He sent the rest of the army to the provinces and to duty in their own local garrisons, while he went to Rome with the praetorians, the guards of the imperial palace, and the troops enrolled by Balbinus. 8. The auxiliaries from Germany also accompanied him to Rome; he put great faith in their loyalty, relying on the fact that before he became emperor he had governed the province of Germany in moderate fashion. ”

“ It also effectually impugns a military statement emanating from Maximilian at this time, and reproduced in a recent publication, entitled 'The Court of Rome and the Emperor Maximilian':—
'The town of Morelia is surrounded by the enemy,' say these imperial notes;. . .'the most perilous point is to ensure the safety of the large towns. . . The public treasury is ruined; the poor country must pay the French troops.'
It is difficult to explain the view thus taken of the country. ”

“ Maximinus made his son, of the same name, emperor, as soon as he was invested with the purple, and his choice was unanimously approved by the senate, by the people, and by the army.――Galerius Valerius, a shepherd of Thrace, who was raised to the imperial dignity by Diocletian, A.D. 305. He was nephew to Galerius Maximianus, by his mother’s side, and to him he was indebted for his rise and consequence in the Roman armies. As Maximinus was ambitious and fond of power, he looked with an eye of jealousy upon those who shared the dignity of emperor with himself. ”

“ The horsemen carrying the head of Maximinus to Rome made the journey at top speed; the gates of all the cities on their route were thrown open to receive them, and the people welcomed them with laurel branches. When they had crossed the marshes and shallows between Altinum and Ravenna, they found the emperor Maximus in Ravenna levying picked men from Rome and Italy. 6. The Germans sent to Maximus a large number of auxiliary troops; their good will toward the man was of long standing and resulted from his moderate governorship of their country. ”

“ Conduct of Maximus.The emperor Maximus, who had advanced as far as Ravenna, to secure that important place, and to hasten the mihtary preparations, beheld the event of the war in the more faithful mirror of reason and policy. He was too sensible that a single town could not resist the persevering efforts of a great army; and he dreaded, lest the enemy, tired with the obstinate resistance of Aquileia, should on a sudden rehnquish the fruitless siege, and march directly towards Rome. The fate of the empire and the cause of freedom must then be committed to the chance of a battle ”

“ A revolt of the praetorians was not repressed till much blood had been shed and a considerable part of the city reduced to ashes. On his march, Pupienus, having received the news that Maximinus had been assassinated by his own troops, returned in triumph to Rome. Shortly afterwards, when both emperors were on the point of leaving the city on an expedition—Pupienus against the Persians and Balbinus against the Goths—the praetorians, who had always resented the appointment of the senatorial emperors and cherished the memory of the soldier-emperor Maximinus, seized the opportunity of revenge. ”

“ He attempted in vain to secure the election of his grandson Charles as king of the Romans, and in spite of increasing infirmity was eager to lead the imperial troops against the Turks. At the diet of Augsburg in 1518 the emperor heard warnings of the Reformation in the shape of complaints against papal exactions, and a repetition of the complaints preferred at the diet of Mainz in 1517 about the administration of Germany. Leaving the diet, he travelled to Wels in Upper Austria, where he died on the 12th of January 1519. ”

“ MAXIMUS, the name of four Roman emperors.
I. M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus, joint emperor with D. Caelius Calvinus Balbinus during a few months of the year A.D. 238. Pupienus was a distinguished soldier, who had been proconsul of Bithynia, Achaea, and Gallia Narbonensis. At the advanced age of seventy-four, he was chosen by the senate with Balbinus to resist the barbarian Maximinus. Their complete equality is shown by the fact that each assumed the titles of pontifex maximus and princeps senatus. ”

“ Finding the empire too large to be governed by a single ruler, he selected as his colleague Maximian, a brave, but fierce and ignorant soldier, who, like himself, had risen to a high rank in the army. Maximian, however, always admitted the intellectual superiority of Diocletian. The emperor assumed the title of Jovius, and Maximian that of Herculius. Diocletian also appointed two Cæsars, Constantius and Galerius, to aid him in the defense of the empire, which was divided between the four princes. ”

“ But the army proclaimed Constantine, son of Constantius, as Emperor. He also established himself in Gaul, Spain and Britain. Then also Maxentius, son of the abdicated emperor Maximian, claimed the Western Empire, was proclaimed Augustus by the Prætorians, recognised by the Roman senate, and after the overthrow of Severus, ruled in Italy and Africa.―The pagan fanaticism of Maximinus prevailed against the toleration edict of Galerian. ”

“ PANEM ET CIRCENSES—FOOD AND GAMES
The sustenance of Rome with which the emperors charged themselves may be regarded in the light of compensation for the political rights of which the imperial government robbed the Romans. The emperor was not the war-lord of the Roman Empire who, as such, felt this duty incumbent upon him; he was rather the most powerful person in the capital, who exerted himself to win the favour of its populace, as the prominent personages of republican times had done. ”

“ It abounds with all the necessaries of life, which made the Emperor Maximilian say, "That if it were possible he himself were God, his eldest son should succeed him, and the second should be King of France." The common people were reckoned industrious, and the better sort very polite, well bred, extremely gay in dress, and civil to strangers, till their late wonderful revolution destroyed all distinctions, and involved them in a contest with the rest of Europe ”

“ Six months had elapsed since the inauguration of his reign, when the emperor received a French note, dated at the end of November 1864, which called his attention to certain delays which were prejudicial to the interests of his empire. At his desire, a complete financial staff had been sent out from France. After a conference, to which Maximilian had summoned his minister of war and his secretary of state for finance to meet Marshal Bazaine, in order to consult on the necessary measures, the above staff was portioned out through the country. ”