A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

Henry V. returned immediately to Germany, defeated the rebellious Thuringians and Saxons in 1113, and the following year was married to Matilda, daughter of Henry I. of England. This was the climax of his power and splendor: it was soon followed by troubles with Friesland, Cologne, Thuringia and Saxony, and in the course of two years his authority was set at nought over nearly all Northern Germany. Only Suabia, under his nephew, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, and Duke Welf II. of Bavaria, remained faithful to him.

He was obliged to leave Germany in this state and hasten to Italy in 1116, on account of the death of the Countess Matilda, who had bequeathed Tuscany to the Church, although she had previously acknowledged the Imperial sovereignty. Henry claimed and secured possession of her territory; he then visited Rome, the Pope leaving the city to avoid meeting him. The latter died soon afterwards, and for a time a new Pope, of the Emperor's own appointment, was installed in the Vatican. The Papal party, which now included all the French Bishops, immediately elected another, who excommunicated Henry V., but the act was of no consequence, and was in fact overlooked by Calixtus II., who succeeded to the Papal chair in 1118.

The same year Henry returned to Germany, and succeeded, chiefly through the aid of Frederick of Hohenstaufen, in establishing his authority. The quarrel with the Papal power concerning the investiture of the Bishops was still unsettled: the new Pope, Calixtus II., who was a Burgundian and a relation of the Emperor, remained in France, where his claims were supported. After long delays and many preliminary negotiations, a Diet was held at Worms in September, 1122, when the question was finally settled. The choice of the Bishops and their investiture with the ring and crozier were given to the Pope, but the nominations were required to be made in the Emperor's presence, and the candidates to receive from him their temporal power, before they were consecrated by the Church. This arrangement is known as the Concordat of Worms. It was hailed at the time as a fortunate settlement of a strife which had lasted for fifty years; but it only increased the difficulty by giving the German Bishops two masters, yet making them secretly dependent on the Pope. So long as they retained the temporal power, they governed according to the dictates of a foreign will, which was generally hostile to Germany. Then began an antagonism between the Church and State, which was all the more intense because never openly acknowledged, and which disturbs Germany even at this day.

1125.

Pope Calixtus II. took no notice of the ban of excommunication, but treated with Henry V. as if it had never been pronounced. The troubles in Northern Germany, however, were not subdued by this final peace with Rome,—a clear evidence that the humiliation of Henry IV. was due to political and not to religious causes. Henry V. died at Utrecht, in Holland, in May, 1125, leaving no children, which the people believed to be a punishment for his unnatural treatment of his father. There was no one to mourn his death, for even his efforts to increase the Imperial authority, and thereby to create a national sentiment among the Germans, were neutralized by his coldness, haughtiness and want of principle, as a man. The people were forced, by the necessities of their situation, to support their own reigning princes, in the hope of regaining from the latter some of their lost political rights.

Another circumstance tended to prevent the German Emperors from acquiring any fixed power. They had no capital city, as France already possessed in Paris: after the coronation, the monarch immediately commenced his "royal ride," visiting all portions of the country, and receiving, personally, the allegiance of the whole people. Then, during his reign, he was constantly migrating from one castle to another, either to settle local difficulties, to collect the income of his scattered estates, or for his own pleasure. There was thus no central point to which the Germans could look as the seat of the Imperial rule: the Emperor was a Frank, a Saxon, a Bavarian or Suabian, by turns, but never permanently a German, with a national capital grander than any of the petty courts.

The period of Henry V.'s death marks, also, the independence of the Papal power. The "Concordat of Worms" indirectly took away from the Roman (German) Emperor the claim of appointing the Pope, which had been exercised, from time to time, during nearly five hundred years. The celibacy of the priesthood was partially enforced by this time, and the Roman Church thereby gained a new power. It was now able to set up an authority (with the help of France) nearly equal to that of the Empire. These facts must be borne in mind as we advance; for the secret rivalry which now began underlies all the subsequent history of Germany, until it came to a climax in the Reformation of Luther.

1125. LOTHAR OF SAXONY ELECTED.

Henry V. left all his estates and treasures to his nephew, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, but not the crown jewels and insignia, which were to be bestowed by the National Diet upon his successor. Frederick, and his brother Konrad, Duke of Franconia, were the natural heirs to the crown; but, as the Hohenstaufen family had stood faithfully by Henry IV. and V. in their conflicts with the Pope, it was unpopular with the priests and reigning princes. At the Diet, the Archbishop of Mayence nominated Lothar of Saxony, who was chosen after a very stormy session. His first acts were to beg the Pope to confirm his election, and then to give up his right to have the Bishops and abbots appointed in his presence. He next demanded of Frederick of Hohenstaufen the royal estates which the latter had inherited from Henry V. Being defeated in the war which followed, he strengthened his party by marrying his only daughter, Gertrude, to Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria (grandson of Duke Welf, Henry IV.'s friend, whence this family was called the Welfs—Guelphs). By this marriage Henry the Proud became also Duke of Saxony; but a part of the Dukedom, called the North-mark, was separated and given to a Saxon noble, a friend of Lothar, named Albert the Bear.

Lothar was called to Italy in 1132 by Innocent II., one of two Popes, who, in consequence of a division in the college of Cardinals, had been chosen at the same time. He was crowned Emperor in the Lateran, in June, 1133, while the other Pope Anaclete II. was reigning in the Vatican. He acquired the territory of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, but only on condition of paying 400 pounds of silver annually to the Church. The former state of affairs was thus suddenly reversed: the Emperor acknowledged himself a dependent of the temporal Papal power. When he returned to Germany, the same year, Lothar succeeded in subduing the resistance of the Hohenstaufens, and then bound the reigning princes of Germany, by oath, to keep peace for the term of twelve years.