Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/678

 576 Outlmes of European History The towns No central power to maintain order Neighbor- hood war of the present German Empire, but all of them have been much enlarged since the sixteenth century by the absorption of the little states that formerly lay within and about them. The towns, which had grown up since the great economic revolution that had brought in commerce and the use of money in the thirteenth century, were centers of culture in the north of Europe, just as those of Italy were in the south. Nuremberg, the most beautiful of the German cities, still possesses a great many of the extraordinary buildings and works of art which it produced in the sixteenth century. Some of the towns were immediate vassals of the Emperor and were consequently in- dependent of the particular prince within whose territory they were situated. These were called free, or imperial, cities and must be reckoned among the states of Germany (Fig. 208). The knights, who ruled over the smallest of the German territories, had earlier formed a very important class, but the introduction of gunpowder and new methods of fighting put them at a disadvantage, for they clung to their medieval tra- ditions. Their tiny realms were often too small to support them, and they frequently turned to robbery for a living and proved a great nuisance to the merchants and townspeople whom they plundered now and then. It is clear that these states, little and big, all tangled up with one another, would be sure to have disputes among themselves which would have to be settled in some way. The Emperor was not powerful enough to keep order, and the result was that each ruler had to defend himself if attacked. Neighborhood war was permitted by law if only some courteous preliminaries were observed. For instance, a prince or town was required to give warning three days in advance before attacking another member of the Empire (see above, section 67). Germany had a national assembly, called the diet, which met at irregular intervals, now in one town and now in another, for Germany had no capital city. The towns were not permitted to send delegates until 1487, long after the townspeople were