with astonishing rapidity by swellings of the groin and armpits, which in a short time became large boils. But the most deadly symptoms of all were large black, or deep-blue spots, which, in a great proportion of cases, showed themselves in different parts of the body; hence the pestilence was commonly called the "black death." Its effects on different constitutions were various; some became sleepy and stupid, and continued in a lethargic state until their death; others could rest neither day nor night; the tongue and throat were black, as if filled with coagulated blood, and they were tormented by an insatiable thirst. In addition to these symptoms, which were its characteristics in Asia, the disease in Europe attacked the lungs, which sent out a noisome breath, filling the whole air with infection. Medical aid was unavailing, nor could it indeed be easily obtained; for, as the disorder was undoubtedly contagious, not only physicians, but even the nearest and most affectionate relatives, fled from the house of death, leaving the sick to expire alone and unassisted. Whole villages and towns were thus left without a single inhabitant, or even a domestic animal, for the plague was as fatal to dogs, cats, and swine, as to the human It has been calculated that one-fourth of the population of Europe fell victims to this terrible scourge. The Franciscans, or Minorites, numbered their dead, and found that they had lost 124,434-a proof both of the violence of the plague and the immense increase of their order since its first establishment. Women also formed themselves into societies for the purpose of attending on the sick and dying. These were called Benguines, probably from the old Saxon word began, to serve.

race.

The nucleus of such societies had existed ever since the eleventh century, but they were called into more especial activity by the unhappy circumstances of the times. Thus far they acted on the purest and most Christian principles; but the superstition of the age being dissatisfied with the plain duties of practical piety, and deeming it necessary to propitiate the Deity by some extraordinary sacrifice, another sect arose, who believed that the infliction of tortures on their own persons would be the surest mode of turning aside the wrath of the Almighty. These fanatics were called the Flagellants, or Scourgers. The brotherhood had existed since the year 1260, but the horrors of the present eventful time called

them into more vigorous action. The flame of superstition spread as if by magic. Hundreds of men, and even of boys, paraded the streets bearing heavy crosses and lashing their naked shoulders with scourges. They marched in regular parties, with banners, keeping time to the melody of a rude hymn, which they chanted in chorus.

The pope viewed these irregular proceedings with alarm. A sentence of excommunication being issued against them, one of their leaders, who pretended to be the Messiah, was burnt at Erfurt. Whilst the plague was at its height the Germans thought to appease the wrath of God by a persecution of the Jews, who were accused of having occasioned it by poisoning the wells. Nothing could restrain the fury of the populace. The persecution began in Bern. In all the cities of the Rhine and Danube, the Jews were cruelly massacred. Strasburg 2,000 of them were burnt on one pile. At length the plague began gradually to subside, and ceased altogether towards the end of the year

1349.

At

Wenceslaus, who succeeded his father in 1378, was in character and manner his reverse. The Germans thought him a fool; the Bohemians felt him to be a tyrant.

In Bohemia he committed acts of almost insane cruelty. On one occasion the nobles whom he had invited to an entertainment found three tents pitched, of different colors, black, white, and red. The king himself occupied the black tent, into which the guests were marshalled one by one, and required to declare what possessions of the crown were in their occupation. Those who readily surrendercd their lands were then ushered into the white and sumptuously feasted; while the recusants were hurried away to the red and beheaded by the common executioner. At another of his entertainments the guests beheld with dismay a man of ferocious appearance, who stood leaning on an axe, as if in expectation of some command from the king. "Wait until after dinner," said the tyrant to this grim functionary; "thou wilt have work enough then." The unfortunate visitors, who were persons of no less importance than the burgomaster and town council of Prague, were fain to laugh at this sharp jest, as the only means of saving their lives, and after eating and drinking with what appetite

they might, to make all the concessions which their sovereign demanded. At table he was generally surrounded by a pack of bloodhounds, which in his drunken fits he would set on his guests, or even on his wife, who was repeatedly torn by the ferocious animals, as she lay in bed. Even the ministers of religion were sometimes exposed to the fury of his ungovernable temper. His second wife had a confessor named John of Nepomuk, from whom Wenceslaus had often tried to extort the secrets of the confessional, but the priest, faithful to his ordination vow, had always refused to gratify this unjustifiable curiosity. At length, wearied out by the importunities and threats of the tyrant, he boldly declared that he would rather die than commit so deadly a sin. "Sayest thou so, sir priest?" was the retort; "then by the heaven above us thou shalt have thy wish. Bind this monk hand and foot and throw him into the Moldau." John was canonized in 1729, and became the patron of bridges.

Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, the second son of the late emperor, fearing lest these continued extravagances should bring disgrace and ruin on their house, placed the person of his brother under restraint; but the cunning madman contrived to elude the vigilance of his keepers by plunging into the Moldau under pretence of bathing, and swimming to a boat rowed by a young girl named Susanna, he was conveyed safely to the opposite bank. The electors determined to set him aside, and in 1400 chose Count Palatine Rupert.

Rupert, the new emperor, was a man of courage and action, but being coldly supported even by the nobles who elected him, possessed little more than the shadow of imperial power. An attempt which he made in conjunction with Leopold of Austria to force his way through Italy to Rome, ended in a disgraceful defeat at Brescia, where Leopold was taken prisoner. Rupert, returning to Germany, resided there till his death in 1411. Wenceslaus survived him, but made no attempt to regain his rights. Of the epistolatory talents of Wenceslaus there is a curious specimen still extant in the form of a letter to the citizens of Rotenburg, written in answer to their refusal to advance him 4,000 florins.

"To our unfaithful men of Rotenburg, who are disobedient unto the empire. The devil began to sheer a hog, and spake thus, Great cry and little wool.' REX."

The brother of Wenceslaus, Sigismund, was now elected by one party, and Jodocus of Moravia by another. The two rival popes had both been set aside by a council held at Pisa in 1409, and a new pontiff elected: but the others refused to resign, so that in the year 1411 Germany had three emperors, and the Christian world witnessed the unedifying spectacle of three popes, each claiming for himself the infallibility supposed to reside in the legitimate successor of St. Peter.

The difficulty, however, with regard to the empire was removed within a few months by the death of Jodocus, and Sigismund remained undisputed occupant of the imperial throne. Sigismund gave at his election a specimen of his arrogant character. "There is no prince in the empire," said he, "with whose merits I am so fully acquainted as with my own. I am surpassed by none—either in power or in the prudence with which I have ruled, whether in prosperity or adversity. Therefore do I, as elector of Brandenburg, give my vote to Sigismund, king of Hungary, and will that he be elected king of Germany."

At the beginning of his reign, the great object of his ambition was to play the part of a reformer in church affairs. The great council of Constance held its sittings in the hall of the Kaufhaus, a long room supported by wooden pillars. It began its sessions on the 28th of November, 1414. It had been decided that this assembly should consist of bishops, doctors of the universities, and temporal princes or their ambassadors; the secular power being represented by the emperor, all the electors, and a crowd of nobles, who appeared as the plenipotentiaries of foreign sovereigns. The spiritual representatives were three patriarchs, thirty-three cardinals, forty-seven archbishops, one hundred and forty-five bishops, one hundred and twenty-four abbots, one thousand and eight hundred priests, seven hundred and fifty doctors, and many monks. Of the three rival popes John XXIII. alone came in person. Independently of those immediately engaged in the council, the number of persons whom curiosity or the love of gain attracted to Constance is reported to have been at least one hundred and fifty thousand, among whom were mountebanks, buffoons, and actors brought from England who represented mysteries, or scenes from Scripture history, an exhibition which seems to have given the

Germans the first taste for dramatic, performances. The nations whose representatives appeared at Constance are thus described by a contemporary writer: "The Germans are enduring as well as impetuous, the French boastful and arrogant, the English prompt and sagacious, the Italians subtle and intriguing." The northern party (that is to say, the Germans, French, and English), with the emperor at their head, and supported by the talent of the French cardinal d'Ailly, and of Gerson, the celebrated chancellor of the university of Paris, having carried a resolution that the votes should be taken according to nations (an arrangement which deprived the Italian cardinals and bishops of the weight which their suffrages would have possessed if the spiritual and temporal deputies had voted in separate bodies), now went a step farther, and declared that the council was superior to the popes, who were all called on to resign their usurped dignities. Gregory XII. submitted to this decree of the council, and became a simple cardinal. John who, after laying down his insignia, had attempted to recover his rights by force, was condemned to imprisonment in the castle of Heidelberg, where he remained until the year 1418.

The third pope,

Benedict XIII., who was in Spain, continued to bid defiance to their proclamations. Having thus humbled the popes, the council of Constance proceeded to take cognizance of those heresies which had lately disturbed the peace of the church. The university of Prague had been celebrated ever since. its establishment in 1348 for the learning and talent of its professors. Among these was John Huss, who had read the writings of Wickliffe, which the marriage of Anne, the sister of Wenceslaus, with Richard II. of England, had been the means of introducing into Bohemia. As early as the year 1401, Huss had maintained that the pope was no greater than any other bishop, that useless holidays ought to be abolished, that the doctrine of purgatory had no foundation in Scripture, that confirmation and extreme unction were not sacraments, that auricular confession was a vain thing, that altars, priestly vestments, images and consecrated vessels were useless, and that prayer need not be offered up in churches, for the whole earth being the Lord's, any spot of it might be used as his temple. He also contended that the sacrament of the Lord's supper ought to be received in both kinds by the

laity, and that the bread and wine in the Eucharist were not transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, but that the real body and blood were received after a spiritual and mysterious fashion. In the dissemination of these doctrines he was assisted by his friend and pupil Jerome Faulfisch, commonly called Jerome of Prague; and, in spite of opposition, these two men continued to lecture. and preach at Prague and elsewhere, until they were summoned to appear before the council. Both John Huss and Jerome of Prague having been condemned, were burnt alive at the stake.

In the year 1438, the emperor Sigismund died, and with him ended the Luxemburg dynasty.

Sigismund's brother-in-law Albert was, in 1438, elected to the throne of Germany, which from that period to the dissolution of the empire continued to be filled in an almost uninterrupted succession by the princes of the House of Austria. Albert dying two years subsequently, his cousin Frederick of Styria was placed as guardian over the infant Ladislaus. Frederick's whole time was spent in the study of astrology, the cultivation of his garden, and the scholastic amusement of capping verses, and yet he was destined to reign fifty-three years, "the imperial crown having now become a nightcap."

In Hungary the infant Ladislaus, son of the late emperor, had been crowned by the German party; but a threatened invasion of the Turks rendering it necessary to have a man of action at the head of the government, the people chose Ladislaus of Poland, who was conquered and slain by the Turks at Varna soon after his election. In Bohemia the German Ladislaus was universally recognized as king, but the powers of government were exercised by the heads of two factions, Meinhard and Ptaczek. After the death of the latter, George of Podiebrad, a brave warrior, became leader of the more popular party, surprised Prague, threw his rival into prison, and was made sole regent. In Austria, one Sitzinger, a native of Bavaria, exercised unlimited influence over the states:-thus in each of the hereditary dominions of the emperor and his ward, the people were ruled with absolute authority by a power almost independent of the indolent Frederick and his young cousin. In 1452 the emperor married the beautiful Eleanor of Portugal, who met him at Sienna in Italy; and after his coronation

the marriage was celebrated with great pomp at Naples, the fountains of the city being made to run with wine, and tables spread for the entertainment of 30,000 guests. The following year the city of Constantinople was taken by sultan Mahomet II., and the eastern empire destroyed. All Christendom was horror-struck at the intelligence of this disaster, and Pope Nicholas proclaimed a crusade against the Turks.

The defence of eastern Europe was left to the Hungarians, who stormed Belgrade, and drove the Turks across the Danube. Ladislaus, king of Poland, dying in 1457, the people elected Matthias Corvinus to the throne, while the Bohemians chose the brave George of Podiebrad to be their king. George of Bohemia died in 1471, and was succeeded by Ladislaus, king of Poland.

Frederick, despised by all, and so poor that his horses were seized by a farrier, and kept as security for his bill, had now the additional misery of bodily suffering. An abscess in one of his feet, occasioned by his constant habit of opening doors with a kick, had rendered amputation necessary, and as he lay in pain he uttered the desponding exclamation, "better be a sound beggar, than a sick Roman emperor." His only hope now lay in marrying his young son Maximilian to Mary, the daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy.

At a meeting of the two sovereigns at Trèves the hand of the young Burgundian princess was formally demanded by the emperor on behalf of his son. But an unexpected obstacle arose: Charles wished to be recognized as king of Burgundy, whilst Frederick was anxious that at least the marriage should be solemnized before he gave his consent to such an assumption of dignity. This difference of opinion produced a misunderstanding which was aggravated by the intrigues of Louis XI. of France, and Frederick quitted Trèves in disgust. After her father's death Mary succeeded in persuading the Netherlanders to seek an alliance with Maximilian, who joyfully obeyed the summons, and entered the city of Ghent clad in bright armor, with no covering on his head except a bridal circlet of gold, studded with precious stones, which was wreathed in his long fair hair. His affianced bride came out to meet him at the head of a gallant train of nobles and ladies, and falling on her knees by his side welcomed him with expressions of the tenderest affection. But the do

mestic happiness which had begun so auspiciously was destroyed by a lamentable accident. His beautiful wife, who had borne him a son and a daughter, died in 1482, in consequence of a fall from her horse, leaving Maximilian to struggle not only with the grief occasioned by her death, but with the fury of the discontented Netherlanders, who now considered themselves absolved from their allegiance. At Liége the citizens rose against their bishop, and admitted William de la Marck, generally called "the Wild Boar of Ardennes," into the city. After putting the bishop to death, this adventurer took possession of the place in the name of France, but was soon afterwards beheaded by Maximilian, who had recently concluded a treaty of peace with the French king. The Flemings, however, still refused to submit to a prince who neither understood nor valued their privileges. At Bruges the citizens, mistaking the evolutions of his mercenaries for an attack, displayed the thirty-two banners of their guilds, and marching to the market-place disarmed the troops, and took Maximilian prisoner. Even the emperor was roused by this insult, and sent a German army into Flanders which speedily compelled the people of Bruges to release his son. During these events Matthias of Hungary had invaded Austria, and made himself master of Vienna, which was retaken by the imperialists in 1490.

At length in the year 1493 Frederick ended his long and inglorious reign. No emperor had reigned so long and done so little for his native country.

The grandfather of Charles of Burgundy had been a prisoner at Constantinople, where he imbibed notions of magnificence, which he put into practice on his return to Burgundy. His son Philip followed his example; and both were outdone by Charles, whose court was the most brilliant in Europe. The boundless wealth of the Netherlands, then the great emporium of manufactures, provided him with inexhaustible funds for the gratification of his expensive inclinations. His court glittered with jewels, gold, and the richest productions of the Flemish loom. Brussels set the fashion of dress to all Europe. Instead of the simple garb of their ancestors, the men now wore hats with waving plumes, puffed sleeves and hose, and the women Turkish caps, with long veils hanging down behind. Theatrical representations and masques, or mummeries, formed a principal part of the amusements of

this luxurious court. The Strasburg Chronicle contains a curious account of Charles's wedding feast on the occasion of his marriage with Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. of England, "Anno 1468; he held his marriage feast at Bruges; there was much costly pomp, and the dining hall was hung with cloth of gold. He and the bride wore golden robes. On the table stood fifty ships laden with roast meat, and by each ship a boat full of vegetables. Then came a lion, out of the jaws of which four singers sang harmoniously; then a griffin, out of which there flew a flock of birds; then a tower, from the windows whereof six bears growled a bass; and these were followed by wolves and he-goats with pipes and flutes, and lastly by asses, which sang deliciously. Then the apes danced a Moorish dance round the tower. Lastly there came a whale, out of which twelve wild men sprang and fought with one another. The dinner was every day set on table in eight hundred great silver dishes."

INVENTION OF THE ART OF PRINTING.

The art of printing with moveable metal types was invented by John Guttenberg, or Gutemberg, at Mayence, about the year 1440. Twelve years before that period Coster of Haarlem is said to have printed playing cards and elementary school books upon wood, each page consisting of a single block (block books, as they are called), but this only probably led the way to metal types, of single letters cast in a mould capable of being employed successively in different works-in short, the art of printing. The first printed book bearing a date is an impression of the Psalms, which appeared in 1457. In conjunction with his partners, Fust and Schaffer, Guttenberg brought the art to such perfection that he was enabled in the year 1462 to publish a complete edition of the Latin Scriptures, which was sold for thirty gold florins a copy. Previously to the invention of printing the price had been from four hundred to five hundred.

Maximilian I., 1493-1519, was in person such a hero as minstrels love to celebrate in their songs of chivalry. In the Tyrol is still shown the steep precipice, called the Martinswand (Wall of St. Martin), where he lost his way in pursuit of the chamois, and could neither advance nor descend, until, as the legend tells, an angel appeared and guided him

back to the plain. At another time he exhibited himself to the citizens of Ulm, standing with one foot on the balustrade of the cathedral tower, and enjoyed the applause which this foolhardy exploit drew from the crowd below. His memorandum book still exists, and exhibits a curious picture of his character, as well as of the times. There are sundry little notices of how such and such a fish was taken, and how it was dressed; how such and such a weapon was forged; what allowance the governor of a distant fortress required for his support; where a pretty story might be read, and so forth. He himself dictated a history of his life to his private secretary, under the allegorical title of the "White King." A metrical biography (Theuerdank, the Adventurer) was also written by Pfinzing, of Nuremberg. But these are rather the records of a knight-errant's romantic exploits, than chronicles of an imperial reign. From time to time, nevertheless, flashes of the old Hohenstaufen spirit blazed forth. He would march against the Turks, again incorporate Italy with the empire, chastise the insolence of France: in a word, act the part of a mighty German emperor.

A post-office was established, under the direction of the count of Thurn and Taxis; but the badness of the roads rendered it almost useless. In order to obtain funds for the exigencies of the empire, Maximilian prevailed on the states to grant a subsidy for four years, called the "common penny," which was a sort of property-tax of one penny in the thousand; but this contribution, insignificant as it appears, was very irregularly paid, and the emperor remained as poor as ever. Even a subsidy for the defence of the empire against the Turks was refused, on the plea that Italy, Burgundy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands contributed nothing. It was in this reign that the empire was first divided into circles. Germany was filled with electorates, dukedoms, earldoms, bishoprics, imperial cities, etc., which jealously insisted on their independence, though none of them separately was strong enough to maintain order. To remedy this state of things, a union of the different states had been effected in Swabia for the purpose of mutual protection. This example was now followed throughout the empire, which was divided into ten circles, each forming at union like that of Swabia. These circles were Austria, Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Upper Rhine,