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 henstaufens to the rise of Humanism (1900); Mon. Germ. Hist.; (Hanover and Berlin, 1826—); Script. rerum Germanicarum (in usum scholarum) ex Mon. Germ. Hist. recusi (Hanover, 1840) contains revised texts; Die Geschichtschreiber der deutsches Vorzeit in deutscher Bearbeitung (Berlin, 1849—), 2nd complete ed., edited by (Leipzig, 1884—);, Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum (6 vols., Berlin, 1864-73), mainly letters of the Carlovingian age;, Fontes rerum Germanicarum, Geschictsquellen Deutschlands (Stuttgart, 1843-68); , Regesta imperii, a collection, from Böhmer’s various works, of imperial records from the time of the Carlovingians up into the fourteenth century, revised and continued to 1410, some parts already published; Die Chroniken der deutschen Städte vom XIV. bis ins XVI. Jahrh. (Leipzig, 1862—), I-XXVIII;, Ausgewählte Urkunden zur Erläuterung der Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands im Mittelalter (2nd ed., Berlin, 1895); , Ausgewählte Urkunden zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, Vol. I: Urkunden zur staedtischen Verfassung (Berlin, 1899); , Quellensammlung zur Geschichte der deutschen Reichsverfassung im Mittelalter und Neuzeit (Leipzig, 1904); , Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit (5th ed., Leipzig, 1881-90), I-III; (2nd ed., 1877), IV; (Leipzig, 1895), VI; , ed., Bibliothek deutscher Geschichte (Stuttgart, 1876—); , Geschichte des deutschen Volkes bis zum Augsburger Religionsfrieden, ed. from the literary remains and lectures of (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1892), III;  ed., Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte (2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1902), II;, Deutsche Geschichte (Berlin, 1891-96), VI; Vols. I-Il in 3rd ed. (1902); Vols. III-V, Pt. I in 2nd ed. (1895-96);, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes (Stuttgart, 1894), II; , Geschichte des späteren Mittelalters 1197-1429 (Munich, 1903); in eds., Handbuch der mittelalterlichen und neueren Geschichte (Munich, 1903—), in publication; , Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Volkes (3rd ed., Berlin, 1898); , Geschichte der deutschen Kultur (Leipzig, 1904); , Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters (Paderborn, 1908), II, Vol. III not yet published; , Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel and Berlin, 1844—), VIII; , Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (4th ed., Leipzig, 1902); , Deutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1879-1901), IV; , Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1886), IV; , Die wirtschaftliche Tätigkeit der Kirche in Deutschland, Vol. I, In der naturalwirtschaftlichen Zeit bis auf Karl den Grossen (Leipzig, 1900); , Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Protestant), Vols. I-IV (Leipzig, 1887-1903); Vols. I and III (4th ed., 1904); Vol. II (2nd ed., 1898).

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—After the death of Maximilian I the two great competitors for the imperial crown were Francis I of France and Charles, Maximilian's grandson. Notwithstanding the opposition of Leo X and the alienation of French sympathies, the choice of the electors fell on Charles (28 June, 1519), who was crowned as Charles V at Aachen, on 23 October, 1520, and by Clement VII at Bologna, on 23 February, 1530. In January, 1521, he opened the Diet of Worms and his administration of the Holy Roman Empire lasted until his abdication. In 1556 Charles V resigned the imperial throne. This act implied a serious break in the continuity of the political and religious history of the German people. Charles's reign had lasted for more than a generation, but only an insignificant part of it had been devoted to Germany. His attention had been mainly given to the Netherlands, to Spain, and to the wars with France and the Turks. Consequently from 1520 the defection from the Church had made more and more rapid headway, in spite of the emperor's prohibitory edicts issued at the Diet of Worms (1521) and at the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and shortly after 1540 this apostasy threatened to affect the whole of Germany. At the same time the separatist tendencies of the ruling princes increased in strength. It was not until towards the end of his reign that Charles took measures to check the princes of the empire. By the war in Gelderland (1543), the deposition of the Archbishop of Cologne (1547), and the Smalkaldic War (1546-47), he succeeded in bringing the triumphant career of Protestantism to a standstill, thus saving the greater part of western and southern Germany to Catholicism. Driven from these territories Protestantism overran, during the following decades, the Bavarian and Bohemian-Austrian provinces in the south-east. But even there it was not able to maintain itself. On the other hand, Charles did not succeed in forcing the princes to return to their proper position in the empire and to subordination to the emperor. The most important of the princes were the rulers of the northern states; these were in no wise affected by Charles's military successes, as he did not push his operations as far as northern Germany. The Dukes of Saxon and Bavaria also, who were friendly to Charles and took part in his campaigns, suffered no curtailment of their power. The partial failure of Charles determined the future development of the empire, the basis of which was laid down in the recess of the Imperial Diet of 1555. By it, in the so-called Religious Peace of Augsburg, Germany was divided between the Catholics and the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, and the territorial princes were practically made the political arbiters of the empire. The principle, cujus regio, ejus religio, was recognized. The Imperial Chamber (Reichskammergericht) was subjected to the influence of the Estates of the empire. In the newly instituted system of administration by "circles" also, the control of the emperor was no longer permitted. Further, the permanent council of administration (Reichsdeputationstag), an organ of centralization developed in 1558 from the system of "circles," was summoned and presided over by the Elector of Mainz as chancellor of the empire and not by the emperor. Economical and judicial legislation devolved on the separate states. At the Diet of Speyer (1570) the princes annulled the supreme authority of the emperor in military matters.

These events implied not only a change in the government of the empire, so that it was controlled by the electors and not by the emperor, but the empire itself became almost a shadow incapable of great administrative actions. Its constitutional powers waned; diets were seldom convoked (only ten up to 1618), the decisions of the Imperial Chamber were not carried out, the administration by "circles" did not take root. The empire failed just as signally, as a European power, in maintaining its interests during the great wars of the reign of Philip II in Western Europe, an exception being the Pacification of Cologne (1579), which sought to restore order in the Netherlands, but to which little heed was paid. Not even the boundaries of the empire were maintained. From about 1580 the Spaniards and Dutch established themselves in the Rhine provinces and Emden, and Spain sought in addition to obtain Alsace. France entangled as many of the south-western sections of the empire as possible in its intrigues, especially the city of Strasburg. James I of England married his daughter to the Elector Palatine. On the Baltic coast the Swedes, Russians, and Poles despoiled the Germans of the more distant territories colonized by them, while the Danes settled in the south-west corner of the Baltic. At the same time the Dutch overthrew the economic supremacy of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea and German Ocean. On the Danube the Hapsburgs were compelled to buy an armistice with the Turks by the payment of tribute. The blame for the helpless condition of the empire rested principally on the reigning princes. They took no interest in its affairs, not because they were lacking in German sentiment, but because the horizon of their ideas was still too restricted, and because either they gave little thought to politics or their attention was absorbed by the details of administration within their own dominions. The governmental organization of their principalities was still very imperfect. The conservation and gradual development of their territories engrossed the energies of the princes, especially of the most powerful among them, the Elector Augustus of Saxony (1553-86) and Duke Albert V of Bavaria (1550-89). They, therefore, avoided war above all things. The only alliance among them that had any stability at that time, the "Landsberg League" of southern Germany (1556-90), had, for its sole object, the maintenance of peace.

The emperors of this period, Ferdinand I (1556-64),