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 PALATINATE

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PALATINATE

reigned alone. The Renaissanoe wsis zealously fos- tered; Heiilelberg Cattle, in which Johann Diihlberg, Rudolf Agiicola. Johannes Reuehlin, Konrad Celtcs and others were hospitably rceeived, became the rally- ing point of the champions of a reform in literature and science, while the university remaineil unaffected. After the death of Cieorge the Itieh of Bavaria-Land- shut, he elaimetl for his second son Rupprecht, who had married George's daugliter, the lands of Lower Bavaria; this led to a conliiet with Albrecht, Duke of Upper Bavaria, who found in his brother-in-law, Emperor Maximilian, a powerful helper. For the Pal- atinate little was gained by the war, which lasted un- til 1.').5: only the city of iVeuburg on the Danube with its environs was ceded to the sons of Rupprecht, who had fallen in battle, as the "New Palatinate", while the rest was given to Upper Bavaria.

In the electoral Palatinate Louis V the Peaceable (l.')0S-41) succeeded, a man of conservative views, who personally kept aloof from, and regretted the Reformation, but did nothing to withstand it. He added a number of buildings, the last of the Gothic period, to Heidelberg Castle. His brother Frederick II (1.544-.5(5), who for a time belonged to the Smal- kaldic League, was more ready to give ear to innova- tions, but in many respects still wavered. Otto Henry, a son of that Rupprecht who had laid claim to Lower Bavaria, succeeded to the electoral dignity; the "New Palatinate", which he now held, was given by him to his relatives of the line of Zweibriicken. Otto Henry (1.5.56-59) enforced the Lutheran Reformation in his lands resolutelj' and indiscriminately, and aided the new humanistic movement to victory in the Uni- versitj' of Heidelberg. He added to Heidelberg Castle the building named for him, the Otthcinrichshau, the most brilliant creation of the Renaissance on German soil. The electoral dignity and the lands passed to Frederick HI (1559-7(i) of the Palatinate-Simmern line, a family who zealously championed Protestant- ism. Frederick's son John Casimir fought in France for the Protestant cause; his younger brother Christo- pher in the Netherlands, where he fell, 1574, on the Mookcr Heath; John Casimir's son in 1654, as Charles X, ascended the Swedish throne, which the house of Palatinate-Zweibrlicken occupied until 1751.

From 1545 to 1685 the ruling family of the Palati- nate changed its creed no less than nine times. Fred- erick III w-as a zealous Calvinist; he made the Palati- nate Calvinistic, caused the drawing-up, in 1562, of the Heidelberg Catechism, and sheltered French Huguenots. His .son Louis VI (1576-83) brought about a l>utheran reaction; John Casimir, regent from 1573-92 for Louis's son Frederick IV, restored Calvin- ism. Frederick IV (1592-1610) attained the leader- ship of German Protestantism; he was the founder of the Evangelical Union, 160S. Frederick V (1610-23), the husband of the British Princess Elizabeth (daugh- ter of James I), was a man of boundless self-confidence and ambition, and when he took the crown of Bo- hemia, offered him by the insurgents, the Thirty Years' War broke out. The battle at Weissen Berg, near Prague (1620), cost Frederick notonly the "Win- ter Kingdom" but also his electoral Palatinate, which together with the electoral dignity and the L^pper Palatinate was transferred in 1623 to Maximilian of Bavaria. The ent ire burden of the war rested for dec- ades upon the Palatinate; the famous library of Heidel- berg was presented to the pope by Tilly, who had cap- tured the city in 1622. At the Peace of Westphalia Frederick's son, Charles Frederick (1648-80), received back the RhenLsh Palatinate undiminished, but had to give up the Upper Palatinate and be content with a newly-created electoral vote. In spite of his dimin- ished resources, he raised the country materially and intellectually to a highly-flourishing condition. In contrast with his predecessors h(^ permitted the three great creeds of Germany to exist side by side, and re-

ceived colonists from all lanils without (lucstioning them as to their religion. Church und schools found in him a zealous patron: the University of Heidelberg, deserted since 1630, was again opened by him in 1652, and renowned scholars such as Pufeudorf were ap- pointed to the professorships. In the wars between Germany and France he remained loyal to the em- peror; as a consequence his lands suffered severely from the devastation of the French soldiers in the Wars for Reunion. With his incompetent son, Charles Louis (1680-88), the Palatinate-Simmern line became extinct.

With Philip William (168.5-90) the government passed to the Catholic line of Palatinatc-Neuburg, which by marriage (1614) had come into ))ossession of Jiilich-Berg, and in 1624 into that of Ra\ensberg. The allodial lands of the family, however, were claimed by Louis XIV for his brother the Duke of Orleans, who was wedded to the sister of Charles Louis, Elizabeth Charlotte. When his claims were rejected Louis in revenge undertook a number of sanguinary expeditions into the Palatinate, particu- larly in 16SS-S9, and transformed it into a veritable desert. Heidelberg with its castle, Mannheim, Sins- heim, Bretten, Bruchsal, Durlach, Pforzheim, Baden, Rastatt, and others, as w'ell as numerous villages were given to the flames. Peace was not restored until 1697, at Ryswick. The son of Philip William, the ostentatious John William (1090-1716), resided at DUsseldorf; during the War of the Spanish Succession, he, for a short time, again obtained for his family the Upper Palatinate. His brother Charles Philip (1716- 42), in cdu.'ic '(luence of friction with the Protestants of Heidelberg, transferred his residence to Mannheim (1720), where he erected a magnificent palace in the French style.

With him the Palatinate-Neuburg line ended; his- torians averse to Catholicism have painted the reli- gious policy of these three Catholic electors in the blackest colours. In reality, if they gave Catholicism the opportunity to expand without hindrance, and reintroduced the Catholic Divine service in many places, they did nothing more than Protestant princes have at all times done in favour of Protestantism in their dominions, and, in accordance with the princi- ple then in force, Cuius regio, eius est religio, they were just as much justified as Protestant rulers. The occu- pation of the Palatinate by the French (1688-89) was also to the advantage of the Catholics, as the French gave them complete or joint possession of a number of churches, and the title to the property thus ob- tained by ,the Catholics in many places was upheld by the Peace of Ryswick. As the non-Catholics con- sidered these conditions and the introduction of simul- taneous services in many churches a great hardship and made complaint to Brandenburg, the leading Protestant power, who threatened reprisals, complete religious liberty was proclaimed for the three chief creeds (Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed), in the declaration of 1705; the joint use of the churches was replaced (1706) by the division of the churches into a Catholic and a non-Catholic part. From 1686 Jesuit professors were appointed at Heidelberg; after their suppression Lazarists took their places.

Charles Theodore (1742-99), of the Palatinate- Sulzbach line, succeeded; he promoted the arts and sciences at great expense, so that his reign was later regarded as the Golden Age in the Palatinate. In 1777 Charles Theodore inherited Bavaria; the Palati- nate electorate thereupon became extinct. Mannheim was given up, and Munich became the seat of the court. In 1794 the French entered the Palatinate and took possession of Mannheim, which they were com- pelled to surrender to the imperial troops under General Wurmser in 1795, after a prolonged siege. The armistice of 1796 practically decided the cession to France of that portion of the Palatinate lying on