Regensburg

“ It is not easy, looking across the closely cultivated plain towards Regensburg, to-day to realize the scenes of those strenuous Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century Donaustauf was [Pg 41] sold to Charles the Fourth of Bohemia, who maintained it as one of the barrier fortresses of his kingdom.
Of the time when the castle was the residence of the bishops of Regensburg, and should seemingly have been a centre of Christian peace and charity there are accounts that indicate that it had under some possessors quite another reputation. ”

“ Near Regensburg are two very handsome classical buildings, erected by Louis I. of Bavaria as national monuments of German patriotism and greatness. The more imposing of the two is the Walhalla, a costly reproduction of the Parthenon, erected as a Teutonic temple of fame on a hill rising from the Danube at Donaustauf, 6 m. to the east. The interior, which is as rich as coloured marbles, gilding, and sculptures can make it, contains the busts of more than a hundred German worthies. ”

“ The treasures of mediaeval art, sent from every part of the diocese of Regensburg, formed a magnificent collection, for, among all the cities of Germany, Regensburg is one of the richest in monuments of mediaeval times, whilst its cathedral is one of the finest in the world. A. Reichensperger, the chairman, enforced strict order in debate; next to him sat Dr. F. Streber, professor at Munich. As a successful student of numismatics, his fame was European; in fact he was a man of superior learning. ”

“ And before January was out, saw the Reichs-Diet at Regensburg, much more the general Gazetteerage everywhere, seized of this affair, and thrown into paroxysms at the size and complexion of it: saw, in fact, a world getting into flame,—kindled by whom or what nobody could guess, for a long time to come. Gortz had great running about in his cloak of darkness, and showed abundant talent of the kind needed. A pushing, clear-eyed, stout-hearted man ”

“ But let's hurry to leave this dangerous road. The town of Regensburg is very near here and I am going there to visit a sister who will be only too happy to see you. Permit me to take you there and then once in safety, I can tell you of the events which have given me my freedom from the margrave and the means of being of service to you now. ”

“ The citizens of Regensburg accepted their doctrines, which also made considerable progress in the Palatinate and in Austria, while the archbishop of Cologne, Hermann von Wied, and William, duke of Gelderland, Cleves and Juliers, announced their secession from the Roman religion. The Protestants were now at the height of their power, but their ascendancy was about to be destroyed, and that rather by the folly and imprudence of their leaders than by the skill and valour of their foes. The unity and the power of the league of Schmalkalden Their defeats. ”

“ My Russian friend had a large sum of Austrian paper florins over, and lost forty guldens or sixteen dollars, by not exchanging as I advised him, and was consoled by the money changer, saying: Mann muss lehr geld zahlen. One must pay for experience.
Regensburg, or Ratisbon, whence I write, is beautifully situated upon the south bank of the Danube. It was formerly the seat of the Imperial Diet; it has a population of only twenty-four thousand, but is an interesting old city, with enchanting shady walks surrounding the city, giving the occupants breathing room. ”

“ Regensburg itself being a Reichs-Stadt, very particularly sacred from War;—the very Reichs-DIET commonly sitting here; though it has gone to Frankfurt lately, to be with its Kaiser, and out of these continual trumpetings and tumults close by. [Went 10th May, 1742,—after three months' arguing and protesting on the Austrian part (Adelung, iii. A, 102, 138) .] —"At Regensburg, once across, Seckendorf with his Bavarians calls halt ”

“ Thank you, count, thank you most cordially. You know well, however, that the master's business is before all things else. My imperial master awaits me at Regensburg, and I shall then have the honor of being permitted to accompany him to Vienna. His Imperial Majesty is a strict and punctilious lord, and has calculated to the very day and hour when I may again reach the imperial palace. ”

“ He, therefore, can be no general. His troops and his land belong to us, and, like the Margrave of Jägerndorf and the Elector of the Palatinate, the deposed Elector of Brandenburg may soon be a wanderer in foreign lands, exposing his humiliation to the whole German Empire. Nowhere will he find compassion, nowhere sympathy, for he is a dangerous foe to all, and all will profit by his fall. Dear, honored father, let me depart this very hour for Regensburg, in order to obtain the Emperor's approval of our weighty plans, and to return to you the earlier with plenipotentiary powers. ”

“ The papal legate, realizing the hopelessness of inducing all the members of the diet to coöperate with him in bringing the country once more under the pope's control, called together at Regensburg a certain number of rulers whom he believed to be rather more favorably disposed toward the pope than their fellows. Among these were Charles V's brother, Ferdinand, Duke of Austria, the two dukes of Bavaria, the archbishops of Salzburg and of Trent, and the bishops of Bamberg, Speyer, Strasburg, etc. ”

“ Yes!—yes, your majesty! Had you admired my window at Trianon, I should not have been obliged to involve you in a war with Germany."
CHAPTER V. THE IMPERIAL DIET AT REGENSBURG. In 1687 the imperial Diet assembled at Regensburg, to examine the claims of the King of France to Alsatia, Lorraine, the Palatinate, and other possessions, which his majesty longed to appropriate out of the domains of his neighbors.
On the 2d of October, 1689, a travelling-carriage might have been seen standing in front of the large, antiquated building occupied by Count Spaur, the envoy of the Emperor Leopold. ”

“ The Regensburg Declaration, A.D. 1541.―The emperor, in order to satisfy the naturally dissatisfied Protestants, made a special declaration, annulling the prosecutions decree of the Augsburg Diet and relieving the adherents of the Augsburg Confession from all disabilities. Also the injunction that no one should withhold their dues from the clergy was extended to the Protestant ministers. But on the very day when the declaration was issued the emperor held a private session with the Catholic majority, in which the Nuremberg League was renewed and the pope received into it. ”

“ When they went through a town by night women crowded to see them, often in their nightclothes; by day men left their business and followed as if they, too, would go on pilgrimage, some with a hayfork in their hands, others with a scythe. The more sensible thought the people had all gone crazy. Impostors appeared, and at length the Regensburg council found itself compelled to adopt some measures of repression, or at least of control.
These pilgrimages aroused much attention and discussion in the whole Empire. As to Hübmaier's exact part in them there is almost nothing to warrant an inference. ”

“ Return to Stockholm. Strike the iron while it is hot. Much I hope from this armistice. It will make the lords of Warsaw, Regensburg, and Vienna more pliant and yielding, for it will show them that the Elector of Brandenburg is no longer drifting helplessly about in a leaky boat, but that he has succeeded at least in stopping one hole and keeping himself above water! And now, friend Leuchtmar, how fared you in your secret mission? Did you hand my letter to the young Queen?"
"Yes, your highness; I even had the opportunity of delivering it to her in a private audience without witnesses." ”

“ It is a task, in truth, not easy to be accomplished, for the Emperor's supreme Government has many enemies here at the electoral court, and very many there are here who maintain that Brandenburg should free herself entirely from imperial vassalage, and that the Elector should be sole lord within his own domains. But now, dearest lord high chamberlain and count, tell me wherefore you have come here so unexpectedly, and what news do you bring from Regensburg? ”

“ Dresden, Augsburg, Munich are among the larger towns, Regensburg, Hildesheim and Marburg are a few among the smaller beautiful cities. In all these towns the old centres, the historic and beautiful things, are well preserved, and the industrial establishments are on the outskirts. ”

“ About this time, during the interregnum, a federation of more than a hundred towns was formed, beginning on the Rhine, but spreading as far as Bremen in the north, Zürich in the south, and Regensburg in the east, with the object of helping to preserve the peace. After the death of King William in 1256, they resolved to recognize no king unless unanimously elected. This league was joined by a powerful group of princes and nobles and found recognition by the prince-electors of the Empire ”

“ The delegates of the Council arrived at Regensburg on August 16, an hour before the arrival of the Bohemian envoys. The Bohemians, who considered themselves as sent only to negotiate with the Emperor Sigismund, were reluctant to confer with the delegates of the Council, which had so often disappointed them. Several minor incidents contributed to render the relations between the antagonists more strained. Palomar visited the Bohemian envoys and begged them not to assist at the religious services in the churches of Regensburg, as this might cause scandal. ”

“ But the Reich itself, and Vicarship along with it, are fallen into a nearly imaginary condition; and the Regensburg Diet (not Princes now, but mere Delegates of Princes, mostly Bombazine People) , which, "ever since 1663," has sat continual, instead of now and then, is become an Enchanted Piggery, strange to look upon, under those earnest stars. "As King Friedrich did not call at Greslau," after those Neisse bombardments, but rolled past, straight homewards, the three Excellencies all departed,—Borck and Gotter to Berlin, the Saxon home again with his insignificant message. ”

“ Dalberg was indemnified for the former by the favour of Napoleon by the gift of a small territory on the right of the Rhine, and for the latter by the renewal of the prince-primacy of the Confederation of the Rhine with a seat in the Federal council. He still retained his episcopal office and fixed its seat at Regensburg. The founding of a metropolitan chapter at Regensburg embracing the whole domain of the Rhenish Confederation he did not succeed in carrying out, and in 1813 he felt compelled to surrender also his territorial possessions. ”

“ The towns, assuming a certain independence, became strong and wealthy as trade increased, and the citizens of Munich and Regensburg were often formidable antagonists to the dukes. Thus a period of disorder saw the growth of representative institutions and the establishment of a strong civic spirit. Stephen III., duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, was distinguished rather as a soldier than as a statesman; and his rule was marked by struggles with various towns, and with his Intestine troubles.brother, John of Bavaria-Munich. ”

“ Friedrich's own Delegate at Regensburg, a Baron von Plotho, come of old Brandenburg kindred, is a resolute, ready-tongued, very undaunted gentleman; learned in Diplomacies and Reich's Law; carries his head high, and always has his story at hand. Argument, grounded on Reich's Law and the nature of the case, Plotho never lacks, on spur of the hour: and is indeed a very commendable parliamentary mastiff; and honorable and melodious in the bark of him, compared with those infuriated porcine specimens. ”

“ Affairs came to a crisis in the year 1809, when Napoleon issued at Vienna the decree of the 17th of May, ordering the annexation of the papal states to the French empire. In that year Napoleon conferred on Fesch the archbishopric of Paris, but he refused the honour. He, however, consented to take part in an ecclesiastical commission formed by the emperor from among the dignitaries of the Gallican Church, but in 1810 the commission was dissolved. The hopes of Fesch with respect to Regensburg were also damped by an arrangement of the year 1810 whereby Regensburg was absorbed in Bavaria. ”

“ In 1810, after the peace of Vienna (Schönbrunn) , the grand-duchy of Frankfort was created for his benefit out of his territories, which, in spite of the cession of Regensburg to Bavaria, were greatly augmented. ”

“ Thus the image of her which is preserved in North Holland is said to have come floating down the river, like the images of the Virgin referred to above. At Regensburg in Bavaria an image is preserved which is said to have been cast into the water at Neufarn. ”

“ It has paintings by Hans Schäufelein, who was a native of Nördlingen, and a tower 290 ft. high. The Late Gothic town hall has a collection of pictures and antiquities. The chief manufactures of the town are linen goods, soap, malt, and agricultural implements, and a brisk trade is carried on in cattle, grain and geese. From 898, when first mentioned, to 1215 Nördlingen was subject to the bishops of Regensburg, but about 1215 it became a free city of the Empire. ”

“ The Cathedral, Regensburg
THE CATHEDRAL, REGENSBURG.
HERE HÜBMAIER WAS CHIEF PREACHER, 1516—1520.
quarter that helps the modern traveller comprehend what it must have been. In Augsburg one of the most interesting sights is the "Fuggerei," a section of the town endowed in 1519 by John Jacob Fugger, the Rothschild of the sixteenth century, to furnish free homes for the poor. The Fuggerei is a little walled city within the city, the gates of which are shut at night ”