Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/70

 32 Readings in European History Enumeration of the chief German princes. The ecclesias- tical princes. The free towns. Limited power of the emperor. this republic and the rest of the Christian rulers, and what his Majesty may be able to accomplish at this juncture. This country of Germany is large and populous, full of principalities, towns, cities, burgs, and castles. . . . Among the temporal rulers there are two kings, about thirty dukes and an archduke, four landgraves, and a great number of counts. The chief among these rulers are the kings of Bohemia and of Denmark, the archduke of Austria, two dukes of Saxony, the duke of Brunswick, the duke of Liine- burg, the duke of Pomerania, the duke of Mechlenburg and he of Julich and Cleves, the duke of Franconia, the dukes of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, the count palatine, the land- grave of Alsace, two margraves of Brandenburg and one of Baden. Of those in Germany who are at once spiritual and tem- poral princes, there are five archbishops — Mayence, Cologne, Treves, Mechlenburg, 1 and Salzburg — and about twenty-five bishops. Of these latter, the chief are Wiirzburg, Bamberg, Strasburg, Augsburg, Freising, Eichstadt, Liege, Constance, and Trent. Beside these, there are twenty abbots, five mas- ters of religious orders, and fifteen priors, — all princes of the Empire, who combine spiritual and temporal powers like the bishops. Besides the above-mentioned principalities there are in Germany about a hundred free towns, of which twenty-eight belong to the Swabian League, sixty-two to the great league of Dantzig and Liibeck [namely, the Hanseatic League], while the rest lie in the region of the Rhine. The principal members of the great league are Dantzig, Stolp, Colberg, Liibeck, Limburg, Hamburg, and Stade ; of the Swabian League, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Memmingen, and Stras- burg. The chief of the Rhine district are Cologne, Speyer, Worms, Frankfort, and Constance. And this ends what I have to say about the size of Germany. . . . The authority over the Empire vested in the emperor, or king of the Romans, goes no further than the laws and jus- tice permit, and he cannot despotically force the princes 1 Magdeburg is meant.