[352] See Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Lecture II.
[353] It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend.
[354] The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible.
[355] 'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'—M. Villani, iv. 77.
Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of mediævals in such matters:—'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa—e questi son dinominati Guelfi; cioè, guardatori di fè. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cioè, guidatori di battaglie.'
[356] 'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'—Æneas Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide.
[357] See Ægidi, Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden; a book which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on the inner nature of the Empire.
[358] The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of that family must be dated.
[359] Reichsregiment.
[360] Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred thereby the hatred of the nobles.