1256.
This period was afterwards called by the people "the Evil Time when there was no Emperor"—and, in spite of the two kings, who had fairly paid for their titles, it is known in German history as "the Interregnum." It was a period of change and confusion, when each prince endeavored to become an absolute ruler, and the knights, in imitating them, became robbers; when the free cities, encouraged by the example of Italy, united in self-defence, and the masses of the people, although ground to the dust, began to dream again of the rights which their ancestors had possessed a thousand years before.
First of all, the great change wrought in Europe by the Crusades was beginning to be felt by all classes of society. The attempt to retain possession of Palestine, which lasted nearly two hundred years,—from the march of the First Crusade in 1096 to the fall of Acre in 1291,—cost Europe, it is estimated, six millions of lives, and an immense amount of treasure. The Roman Church favored the undertaking in every possible way, since each Crusade instantly and greatly strengthened its power; yet the result was the reverse of what the Church hoped for, in the end. The bravery, intelligence and refined manners of the Saracens made a great impression on the Christian knights, and they soon began to imitate those whom they had at first despised. New branches of learning, especially astronomy, mathematics and medicine, were brought to Europe from the East; more luxurious habits of life, giving rise to finer arts of industry, followed; and commerce, compelled to supply the Crusaders and Christian colonists at such a distance, was rapidly developed to an extent unknown since the fall of the Roman Empire.
1256. GROWTH OF INDEPENDENT SECTS.
As men gained new ideas from these changes, they became more independent in thought and speech. The priests and monks ceased to monopolize all knowledge, and their despotism over the human mind met with resistance. Then, first, the charge of "heresy" began to be heard; and although during the thirteenth and a part of the fourteenth centuries the Pope of Rome was undoubtedly the highest power in Europe, the influences were already at work which afterwards separated the strongest races of the world from the Roman Church. On the one hand, new orders of monks were created, and monasteries increased everywhere: on the other hand, independent Christian sects began to spring up, like the Albigenses in France and the Waldenses in Savoy, and could not be wholly suppressed, even with fire and sword.
The orders of knighthood which possessed a religious character, were also established during the Crusades. First the Knights of St. John, whose badge was a black mantle with a white cross, formed a society to guard pilgrims to the Holy Land, and take care of the sick. Then followed the Knights Templar, distinguished by a red cross on a white mantle. Both these orders originated among the Italian chivalry, and they included few German members. During the Third Crusade, however (which was headed by Barbarossa), the German Order of Knights was formed, chiefly by the aid of the merchants of Bremen and Lübeck. They adopted the black cross on a white mantle as their badge, took the monkish vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, like the Templars and the Knights of St. John, and devoted their lives to war with the heathen. The second Grand-Master of this order, Hermann of Salza, accompanied Frederick II. to Jerusalem, and his character was so highly estimated by the latter that he made him a prince of the German Empire.
1256.
Inasmuch as the German Order really owed its existence to the support of the merchants of the Northern coast, Hermann of Salza sought for a field of labor wherein the knights might fulfil their vows, and at the same time achieve some advantage for their benefactors. As early as 1199, the Bremen merchants had founded Riga, taken possession of the eastern shore of the Baltic and established German colonies there. The native Finnish or Lithuanian inhabitants were either exterminated or forcibly converted to Christianity, and an order, called "the Brothers of the Sword," was established for the defence of the colonies. This new German territory was separated from the rest of the Empire by the country between the mouths of the Vistula and the Memel, claimed by Poland, and inhabited by the Borussii, or Prussians, a tribe which seems to have been of mixed Slavic and Lithuanian blood. Hermann of Salza obtained from Poland the permission to possess this country for the German Order, and he gradually conquered or converted the native Prussians. In the meantime the Brothers of the Sword were so hard pressed by a revolt of the Livonians that they united themselves with the German Order, and thenceforth formed a branch of it. The result of this union was that the whole coast of the Baltic, from Holstein to the Gulf of Finland, was secured to Germany, and became civilized and Christian.
During the thirty-five years of Frederick II.'s reign and the seventeen succeeding years of the Interregnum, Germany was in a condition which allowed the strong to make themselves stronger, yet left the weaker classes without any protection. The reigning Dukes and Archbishops were, of course, satisfied with this state of affairs; the independent counts and barons with large possessions maintained their power by temporary alliances; the inferior nobles, left to themselves, became robbers of land, and highwaymen. With the introduction of new arts and the wider extension of commerce, the cities of Germany had risen in wealth and power, and were beginning to develop an intelligent middle-class, standing between the farmers, who had sunk almost into the condition of serfs, and the lesser nobles, most of whom were equally poor and proud. Upwards of sixty cities were free municipalities, belonging to the Empire on the same terms as the dukedoms; that is, they contributed a certain proportion of men and money, and were bound to obey the decrees of the Imperial Diets.
1256. ROBBER-KNIGHTS.—CITIES.