1697. DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE.

Nearly every important German State, at this time, had some connection or alliance which subjected it to foreign influence. The Hapsburg possessions in Belgium were more Spanish than German; Pomerania and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden were under Sweden; Austria and Hungary were united; Holstein was attached to Denmark, and in 1697 Augustus the Strong of Saxony, after the death of John Sobieski, purchased his election as king of Poland by enormous bribes to the Polish nobles. Augustus the Strong, of whom Carlyle says that "he lived in this world regardless of expense," outdid his predecessor, John George II., in his monstrous imitation of French luxury. For a time he not only ruined but demoralized Saxony, starving the people by his exactions, and living in a style which was infamous as well as reckless.

The National German Diet, from this time on, was no longer attended by the Emperor and ruling Princes, but only by their official representatives. It was held, permanently, in Ratisbon, and its members spent their time mostly in absurd quarrels about forms. When any important question arose, messengers were sent to the rulers to ask their advice, and so much time was always lost that the Diet was practically useless. The Imperial Court, established by Maximilian I., was now permanently located at Wetzlar, not far from Frankfort, and had become as slow and superannuated as the Diet. The Emperor, in fact, had so little concern with the rest of the Empire, that his title was only honorary; the revenues it brought him were about 13,000 florins annually. The only change which took place in the political organization of Germany, was that in 1692 Ernest Augustus of Hannover (the father of George I. of England) was raised to the dignity of Elector, which increased the whole number of Electors, temporal and spiritual, to nine.

1697.

During the latter half of the seventeenth century, learning, literature and the arts received little encouragement in Germany. At the petty courts there was more French spoken than German, and the few authors of the period—with the exception of Spener, Francke, and other devout religious writers—produced scarcely any works of value. The philosopher, Leibnitz, stands alone as the one distinguished intellectual man of his age. The upper classes were too French and too demoralized to assist in the better development of Germany, and the lower classes were still too poor, oppressed and spiritless to think of helping themselves. Only in a few States, chief among them Brunswick, Hesse, Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Weimar, were the Courts on a moderate scale, the government tolerably honest, and the people prosperous.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION.

(1697—1714.)

1700. TROUBLES IN SWEDEN AND SPAIN.