![MAXIMILIAN IN 1518
From a Chalk Drawing by Dürer
[30] Maximilians I. Beziehungen zu Sigmund von Tyrol.—Victor v. Kraus.
[31] His mother was the daughter of Albert II., Emperor and King of
Hungary and Bohemia (died 1439). Though Hungary was strictly an
elective monarchy, the next heir was almost invariably elected.
[32] A small garrison held out in the citadel till the end of August.
[33] Huber, Gesch. Oesterreichs, iii. 298.
[34] "Time ever brings its reward or its revenge."
[35] Maximilian to S. P. (September 21). Debts growing ever larger:
"darumb pit helfft und rath ains für als." He adds, "Der König v. Behaimb
... ist auch nicht viel erberer dann der ander gewest" (i.e. Matthias).—
Vertraulicher Briefwechsel, p. 80.
[36] This attitude was due to jealousy. Frederick disliked the idea of
Maximilian as King of Hungary, fearing that he would then usurp all his
remaining power in the Empire.
[37] To the amount of 100,000 gulden.
[38] This marriage of his only daughter against his will (1487) was a very
sore point with Frederick III., and the fact that Maximilian acquiesced in
it increased his irritation against him.
[39] It had been seized by Albert in 1486. See above.
[40] Which included the free towns of Strassburg and Basel and their
bishops.
[41] V. Polheim and W. v. Waldenstein to Maximilian. Even if Frederick
recovers, "werde er doch die fuesse nit mer mugen brauchen"; ... "hab in
den zehen kain empfintlichait."—Vertraulicher Briefwecksel, p. 83.
[42] Sigismund was now a nonentity, living obscurely in his former
dominions.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-29-320.jpg)
![[43] For Maximilian's relations to internal reform, see Appendix.
[44] Janssen, i. 586.
[45] Huber, iii. p. 338.
[46] Creighton's Papacy, i. p. 277.
[47] December 31, 1510. For a most beautiful and touching letter of
condolence from Margaret to Maximilian, see Le Glay, Correspondance,
i. p. 481.
[48] Few people seem to have troubled themselves about Gian Galeazzo's
infant son, who was now the lawful heir of the Sforza.
[49] For Maximilian's efforts towards war against the Turks, see Ulmann,
i. pp. 203-218.
[50] Cp. Chmel, Urkunden, Briefen, etc., page 56. Marquard Breisacher
to Maximilian, about Charles VIII., in Rome—"Darauss ich sorge, der
Kung v. Frankreich werd auff das mindest die Kirchen reformieren und
damit jm selbs in aller cristenheyt lob eer und auffsechen machen, das
doch E. Ko. Mt. von götlichem und weltlichem rechtem me zu gepürett
denn jm."
[51] Ulmann, i. 272-6.
[52] The more correct name of Emperor elect has been sunk for
convenience sake.
[53] Afterwards the famous, or notorious, Ulric.
[54] "Und wo in der Zeit kein Gelt herkumbt, wirdet die Speisung an dem
end auch still sten"! Dated May 27, 1496.—Vertr. Briefwecksel, page 109.
[55] Ranke, Latin and Teutonic Nations, page 109.
[56] In South Germany.
[57] Chmel, Urkunden, Briefen, etc.—Letter 126, Stangha to Maximilian
(Sept. 30, 1496).
[58] Chmel, ibid.—Letter 127, Maximilian to Stangha (Genoa Oct. 1,
1496).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-30-320.jpg)
![[59] Chmel, ibid.—Letter 146, Bishop of Concordia to Maximilian
(Lindau, Dec. 26).
[60] This was written in 1507.—Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al
Senato, ed. Alberi, Serie I. vol. vi. page 26 sqq.
[61] Janssen, i. 593. Cp. Trithemius' view of the Hapsburg characteristic;
—"Seelenruhe und Gottvertrauen beim Missgeschick; viel Noth, viel
Ehr."
[62] Pirkheimer, quoted by Ranke, Latin and Teut. Nations, p. 149.
[63] The more so, as the Confederacy was joined by the Imperial cities of
Schaffhausen and Basel.
[64] If Louis XII. died without male issue, Brittany and Burgundy were
likewise to fall to Charles.
[65] "Il y a longtemps que François ont tousiours fait le piz qu'ilz ont peu
a ceste maison, et n'ay espoir qu'ilz doyent changier," writes Chièvres to
Maximilian 1506.
[66] By violating the perpetual Landfriede.
[67] Kirchberg, Weissenhorn, Marstetten, Neuburg-am-Inn, etc.
[68] Catherine, paternal aunt of Maximilian, married Charles, M. of
Baden, whose son James was.
[69] Afterwards Adrian VI.
[70] Yet the people, Maximilian is convinced, are always on his side, and
a few of the Cantons; "mes en sumarum il sount meschans, villains, prest
pour traïre France on Almaingnes" (dated August 18, Lindau).—Le Glay,
Correspondance, vol. i., letter 3.
[71] March 1, 1508, quoted Huber, iii. pp. 369, 370.
[72] Le Glay, i. p. 68 (dated July 4).
[73] Le Glay, i. p. 77 (dated July 23).
[74] Bishop of Gurk.
[75] Le Glay, i. letter 90 (dated Cambrai, December).](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-31-320.jpg)
![[76] Le Glay, i.—letter 143 (dated October 7).
[77] Le Glay, i.—letter 134 (Bassano, August 7).
[78] Le Glay, i.—letter 192 (Augsburg, April 6, 1510).
[79] Sanuto, x. 79, quoted by Huber, iii. 387.
[80] Chmel's Urkunden, etc., p. 470 (May 31, 1511).
[81] Le Glay, ii. p. 38—autograph letter, dated September 18, no year or
place given. But A. Jäger, in Kaiser Maximilians I. Verhältniss zum
Papstthum, p. 75, shows that 1511 was almost certainly the year.
[82] Le Glay, ii. p. 84 (dated January 21, 1513).
[83] Le Glay, Correspondance, vol. ii.—letter 554, page 221.
[84] Le Glay, ii.—letter 555.
[85] Le Glay, ii.—letter 556.
[86] Kings of Hungary and Poland were brothers.
[87] It is possible, however, that he was actuated by pique against his
grandson, who had recently asserted his independence of control.
(January 1515.)
[88] Quoted in Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII., page 125.
[89] Brewer, i. page 133.
[90] Huber, iii. page 407.
[91] Ala, Avio, Mori, and Brentonica.
[92] The early years of Charles V.'s reign do not disprove this assertion.
For, though it was an Imperialist army which was responsible for the
Sack of Rome in 1527, this was entirely composed of mercenaries, and
Charles's predominance in Italy was due to his position as King of Spain
and the Sicilies, and was won by the pikes of his Spanish infantry.
[93] He was called "Coeur d'Acier," by Olivier de la Marche.
[94] He hoped to obtain from Leo X. full recognition of himself as
crowned Emperor, and, further, the grant of a tithe on church property in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-32-320.jpg)
![Germany for his projected Crusade.
[95] Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, page 126 (1st edition).
IV
"The essence of Humanism is the belief ... that nothing which has ever
interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality."—Walter Pater.
It is with a certain sense of relief that we pass from the tragi-comedy of
Maximilian's political life to those realms where lies his real claim to fame
and gratitude. Great ambitions thwarted by the sordid details of poverty are
never a pleasant subject of contemplation; and there have been few
monarchs in whose lives they have played a more prominent part. But it may
fairly be argued that all the more credit is due to one who, under such
unfavourable circumstances, ever remained buoyant and full of the joy of
living, and whose frequent disappointments never soured his enthusiasms
nor turned him from the path of knowledge. The first of his race to welcome
the new culture, and possessed of that joyous temperament which seems to
offer immortal youth, Maximilian was acclaimed by the scholars of his day
as the ideal Emperor of Dante's or Petrarch's dreams. His predecessors had
shown little interest in intellectual pursuits. Sigismund had indeed crowned
several poets, but was always too needy himself to spare much money for
their salaries; Frederick III. was devoid of literary tastes, and, in spite of his
connexion with Æneas Sylvius, gave but slight encouragement to art or
learning. But Maximilian surrendered himself, with all his habitual energy
and enthusiasm, to the new spirit of the age. In spite of his many political
failures he remains to all time the darling of the scholar and the poet. This
almost universal favour he did not win by liberal donations or the grant of
lucrative posts, for he was seldom free from money embarrassments—nor by
the maintenance of a gorgeous court and imposing ceremonial—for his
endless projects and expeditions made any fixed residence impossible; but](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-33-320.jpg)
![Since God hath, of His goodness,
Prepared a deathless crown.[96]
A vital distinction is at once apparent between the Italian and the German
Renaissance. In Italy the movement was essentially aristocratic and largely
dependent upon the various Courts—the Medici, the Popes, the Dukes of
Urbino. In Germany such open-handed patrons were few and far between.
Albert of Mainz, Frederick of Saxony, and Eberhard of Würtemberg stand
alone among the princes as patrons of learning; while Ulrich von Hutten is
the sole representative of the Knightly order in the ranks of the Humanists.
[96a] The political and intellectual development of the German towns is of
great importance during this transition period, and it is in them that the
leaders of the German Renaissance are to be found. The movement remained
throughout municipal rather than aristocratic, making itself first felt where
there was closest commercial intercourse with Italy—notably in the cities of
Swabia and the Rhine valley. But for this very reason Humanism took deep
root in the soul of the German people. Not merely aesthetic or sensuous, like
the Italian movement, it had a profound ethical and national basis, on which
the powerful art of Dürer, the sonorous language of Luther, the sweet singing
of Hans Sachs, might safely rest. Almost from the very beginning it pursued
a moral aim. It was inspired by no mere sordid quest of pleasure, but by a
noble dream of purer manners and loftier ideals. It realized the decadence
into which society, both lay and ecclesiastical, had fallen, and earnestly
strove to arrest it in the only possible way—by the introduction of a new
spirit at once into the details of daily life, and into the broad principles of
national existence. But as the Humanist movement gathered strength and
influence, it remained isolated from politics and from those who ruled the
destinies of the Empire, and, developing in various places and under separate
leaders, tended to waste its energies through lack of systematic or united
effort. Under such circumstances its unspoken appeal for assistance in high
places met with an eager response from Maximilian. For the last twenty-five
years of his life he forms the central figure of the new movement—possibly
not its most glorious or most brilliant representative, but yet giving life and
uniformity to the whole. If for nought else, he would deserve to be
remembered as the connecting link between the Humanists of Strasburg,
Augsburg and Nuremberg. In order to interpret this feature of the Emperor's](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-35-320.jpg)
![character, we must present a slight sketch of the German Renaissance in its
three main channels, with especial regard to Maximilian and his connexion
with the leading Humanists, and must then proceed to examine Maximilian's
own literary achievements, and his relations to Science and Art in its various
branches.
In a quaint old comedy written at the close of the fifteenth century, Cicero
and Caesar are brought to life and taken round the cities of Germany. They
are made to describe Strasburg as "the most beautiful of the German towns, a
treasure and ornament of the Fatherland"; of Augsburg they exclaim, "Rome
with its Quirites has wandered here"; while Nuremberg is pictured as "the
Corinth of Germany, if one looks at the wonderful works of the artist; yet if
you look at its walls and bastions, no Mummius would conquer it so easily."
[97] Such are the three great centres of the German Renaissance.
In Strasburg, education was the most crying need of the time; for though
there were excellent schools in the Franciscan and Dominican convents,
these were reserved for novices, the laity being wholly excluded. Jacob
Wimpheling, under whom Humanism first took deep root in the city, was
himself a pupil of the Deventer School,[98] and, like them, devoted his
energies to educational reform. His hopes of founding a University were not
realized, and he had to content himself with forming the centre of a literary
society, such as was formed both at Mainz and Vienna by Conrad Celtes.
Wimpheling and his friends differ largely from their contemporaries in other
parts of Germany. They were characterized by a theological bias which led
them into violent and unprofitable controversies. Though himself a cleric,
and thus a supporter of the spiritual order and of orthodox belief, he indulged
in fierce attacks upon the monks for their immorality, and in spite of his
admiration for heathen authors, he pushed his defence of theology so far as
to condemn the Art of Poetry as useless and unworthy to be called a science,
and only to exempt from utter damnation the sacred poets of Christianity.
[99] He was equally limited in his patriotic polemics. His praise of
everything German is only surpassed by his hatred for the French and
Italians, his profound contempt for the Swiss. His best-known work, entitled
Germania, was written with the double object of proving the exclusively
German origin of Alsace and of "defending the King of the Romans against
the monks and secular preachers who attack him."[100] Even the ingenuous
arguments in which the book abounds, and the quaint array of authorities,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-36-320.jpg)
![from Caesar and Tacitus to Aeneas Sylvius and Sabellico cannot blind us to
the genuine patriotism, which is latent in every page. "We are Germans, not
French," he exclaims, "and our land must be called Germany, not France,
because Germans live in it. This fact has been acknowledged by the Romans.
For when they had conquered us, the Alemanni on the Rhine, and, crossing
the river, saw that the dwellers on the further bank were like us in courage,
stature, and fair hair, as well as in customs and way of life, they called us
Germans, that is, brothers. But it is certain that we, these Germans, are like
the real Gauls neither in speech and appearance, nor in character and
institutions. Hence our city and all Alsace is right in preserving the freedom
of the Roman Empire, and will maintain it also in the future, in spite of all
French attempts to win over or conquer us."[101] Such fervent expressions
of German feeling must have called Maximilian's attention to Wimpheling,
even without his vigorous defence of the Imperial dignity. In 1510, when
Maximilian was opposed to Julius II., and hoped to intimidate him by
recounting the wrongs of the German nation, he could think of none more
versed in them than Wimpheling, and therefore requested him to draw up a
summary of the French Pragmatic Sanction, such as would suit the needs of
Germany. In March, 1511, he wrote to Wimpheling that he was about to hold
an assembly at Koln, to deliberate with the French envoys as to summoning
a general Council; and he begged him to think out means of redressing the
various abuses, "without touching religion." As a result of this request,
Wimpheling drew up his Gravamina Germanicae Nationis and added the
desired Remedia.[102] But the Emperor's policy had already changed, and
Wimpheling was informed through the Imperial Councillors that the moment
was unfavourable for publication. Indeed, his labours only received the
attention which they deserved, when they were employed as the basis of
"The Hundred Grievances of the German Nation" (1522).[103]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-37-320.jpg)
![SEBASTIAN BRANT
Side by side with Wimpheling stands Sebastian Brant, whose literary
worth has probably obtained wider recognition than that of any German
Humanist, with the sole exception of Erasmus. His Narrenschiff ("The Ship
of Fools") is penetrated by a deep religious spirit, and fearlessly attacks all
the corruptions and abuses of the day, "branding as fools all those who are
willing, for things transitory, to barter things eternal."[104] Brant is in no
sense a great poet; his verses are often stiff and ill-proportioned, and his
matter frequently sinks to the level of the common-place. But the appearance
of "The Ship of Fools" caused an unparalleled stir, not merely in the republic
of letters, but throughout the whole German people; and it owes its
extraordinary popularity to its skilful intermixture of problems which were
in all men's minds. He was the first to give full expression to the ideas of the
middle classes (anticipating the manly independence of the Scottish poet,
[105]) when he sang—
Aber wer hätt' kein Tugend nit,
Kein Zucht, Scham, Ehr, noch gute Sitt,
Den halt' ich alles Adels leer,
Wenn auch ein Fürst sein Vater wär'.
But the ruling motives which inspire his muse are the maintenance of the
Church in her pristine purity, and the defence of Christendom against the
onslaught of the infidel. While he preaches earnestly the Headship of Christ,
and exhorts all men to put their trust in God rather than in mortal men, he is
also never tired of enjoining reverence for the Emperor, and urging them to
unite in loyal obedience to his wishes and aspirations. Apparently
unconscious of his inconsequence, he upheld the principle of absolute Papal
domination, and yet early associated himself with that august dream of the
Middle Ages—the universal monarchy of the Emperor. For him he claimed
the same power in the temporal, as the Pope exercised in the spiritual world.
As the Pope was the organ of religion, so was the Emperor the source of
Law; and the revival of his power as temporal head of Christendom was to
coincide with the re-establishment of that order and discipline whose
absence Brant so frequently laments. The whole fabric of these vast
aspirations Brant rested upon Maximilian. He could not foresee that this](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-39-320.jpg)
![prince, so brilliant, so chivalrous, so sympathetic, would disappoint the rich
promise of his youth and fail to restore the fallen grandeur of the Empire
owing to his schemes of family aggrandisement. He greeted his election with
adulatory verses, protesting that under such a prince the Golden Age could
not fail to return. The news of Maximilian's imprisonment at Bruges rouses a
very whirlwind of indignant phrases, contrary to the whole spirit of his later
teaching. "Destroy the Flemings," he cries, "extirpate the very race of this
crime, hang and behead the miscreants, overturn their walls, and make the
plough pass over this accursed soil. Such is the demand of justice."[106] His
belief in omens and portents is unlimited, and they are generally connected
with Maximilian in some quaint and high-sounding verses. Thus the killing
of an enormous deer on some hunting expedition inspires Brant with an
absurd and laboured comparison. "No animal is nobler than the stag: thou,
Maximilian, art the most noble of Princes. He stops astonished before things
which seem new; thou also dost admire things new and great. At the
approach of danger he pricks up his ear and places his young in safety; thou
hearest the menacing noises of thine enemies, and dost protect thy people."
[107] A number of falcons which were seen to assemble and fly southwards
is acclaimed as a symbol of Maximilian, aided by the Princes in his Italian
expedition. "Destiny calls you, O Germans; go and restore the Empire in
Italy." Even when it became evident that Maximilian was not destined to
realize the poet's high ideals, such extravagances did not cease. Moreover, he
was sustained by a personal attachment for the Emperor, which was
deepened by his various visits to the Court and closer acquaintance with his
early hero, and doubtless strengthened by the Imperial favours bestowed
upon him. And thus it is with unfeigned grief that Brant celebrates his death.
"O magnanimous Caesar, that hope is vanished which we had founded on
thee while thou didst hold the sceptre. How should I restrain my tears? Thou
wert worthy to live, thou the sole anchor of safety for the German nation.
One swift hour hath removed thee: thou art no more, and misfortune assails
the Empire."[108] Our subject is Maximilian, not Brant, and we may not
linger. But the epitaph on the Strasburg poet's tomb should not be omitted,
even in the translation; for it gives us a sure clue to a character which was
sweet and winning in spite of all its extravagances. "Toi qui regardes ce
marbre, souhaite à Brant le ciel!"](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-40-320.jpg)
![CONRAD PEUTINGER
If in Strasburg the movement assumed a theological and educational
character, in Augsburg it was rather directed towards politics and the study
of history. Alike from its geographical position[109] and from its industrial
and commercial importance,[110] Augsburg was thrown into close relations
with Italy and Italian thought; and enthusiasm for classical studies was early
introduced by Sigismund Gossembrot, one of the leading merchants of the
city. The direction of the movement was further influenced by the Diets
which were held within the city,[111] and by the frequent visits of the
Emperor Maximilian.[112] The place of Gossembrot was worthily filled by
Conrad Peutinger,[113] who returned from Italy in 1485, as a doctor of law,
embued with all the ardour of a scholar. He became a prominent official of
his native city, and retained his position for many years from inclination
rather than from necessity, betraying throughout his writings the sharp eye
and critical knowledge of the practitioner. His first meeting with Maximilian
probably took place at Augsburg in 1491, and from this time onwards he was
continually employed by the Emperor in various positions of trust. As
ambassador, secretary or orator, he visited many countries in Europe, and,
besides ordering affairs of politics, was entrusted with the truly humanist
task of presenting and answering formal addresses and greetings. While in
his foreign relations he was eager to maintain the honour of the German
name, he skilfully used his double position as Imperial Councillor and
Town-official to smooth over differences between Maximilian and
Augsburg, to the advantage of both parties. The Emperor's love of Augsburg
led him to purchase various houses within the walls, and the castle of
Wellenburg in the neighbourhood. His action was far from welcome to the
burghers, who did not wish this powerful citizen to acquire too much
property in their midst; and they were only pacified by the assurances of
Peutinger that Maximilian would raise no fortifications round the castle. On
the other hand, during his honourable mission to Hungary (1506), he
obtained from the Emperor a substantial grant of privileges for his native
city—notably the right "de non appellando." But Peutinger was Maximilian's
confidant not merely in political affairs. Indeed, his employment in Imperial
diplomacy directly arose from his intellectual and artistic relations with
Maximilian, who sought the support of every scholar in his attempt to place
the Fatherland in the forefront of Art and Science. In Italy Peutinger had](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-42-320.jpg)
![learned the value of old Roman inscriptions, and in 1505 he was encouraged
by Maximilian to publish a collection of the inscriptions of German
antiquity.[114] The Emperor and the scholar kept up a correspondence on the
subject of ancient coins, large consignments of which were sent to Augsburg,
by order of the former, from every part of the Empire. During Peutinger's
visit to Vienna in 1506 he was monopolized for three whole days for learned
conversation, and received a new and more important commission from
Maximilian. He was to examine the letters and documents of members of the
House of Hapsburg, and to prepare a selection of them for publication; and
with this object he was assigned a special apartment in the castle of Vienna,
to which chronicles and histories were brought for his use from all quarters.
Here he remained for almost three months, and the fruit of his labours was
the Kaiserbuch, or Book of the Emperors, which was unfortunately never
published and which is now extant only in a few fragments. During his
labours for Maximilian he seems to have acquired a great number of
valuable manuscripts; and had his literary projects been fully realized, we
should have gained an astonishing contribution to the historiography of the
sixteenth century. But apart from his own unfinished writings, he edited and
published, with Maximilian's approval, various early historical works,—the
chronicles of Paul the Deacon and of Ursperg being of especial value.[115]
Moreover, he was charged by the Emperor with a species of censorship, by
virtue of which he prevented the appearance at Augsburg of a Swiss
Chronicle, containing statements derogatory to the House of Hapsburg. In
short, in almost every phase of the struggle of culture and civilization, which
Maximilian so gallantly led, we find Peutinger intimately engaged as his
friend and fellow-labourer; and with Beatus Rhenanus we may truly
exclaim, "Our Conrad Peutinger is the immortal ornament, not merely of the
town of Augsburg, but also of all Swabia!"
The activity of Augsburg was not confined to historical studies. The
rising art of Germany had found here a worthy representative in Hans
Holbein, who, though not strictly a Humanist himself, took the deepest
interest in the movement. His attitude is clearly visible from his portraiture
of Erasmus, More, and other leaders of the Renaissance, and from his
illustrations to the Praise of Folly and the Dance of Death. But Holbein,
though the greatest of the Augsburg School, was too much of a wanderer to
be thrown into close contact with Maximilian. The latter none the less found
capable artists to give expression to his own literary projects. Hans](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-43-320.jpg)
![WILIBALD PIRKHEIMER
Of the three centres of German Humanism, Nuremberg is the greatest and
the most fascinating. The home of invention as well as of industry, it made
no mere empty boast in the proverb, "Nürnberg Tand geht durch alle Land."
Its churches and public buildings were the glory of the age, its craftsmen and
designers perhaps then unequalled in the world. Its literary circle contains a
larger number of distinguished names than any of its rivals. Meisterlin, the
author of the famous Nuremberg chronicle, Cochläus, the bitter satirist of
Luther; Osiander, the celebrated Hebrew scholar and Reformed preacher;
Jäger the mathematician; above all Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, "the sweet
singer of Nuremberg"—all these fill an honourable place in the annals of the
city. But the central figures of its life are, beyond any doubt, Wilibald
Pirkheimer and Albrecht Dürer; in any case they would monopolise our
attention on account of their intimate connexion with Maximilian. When still
King of the Romans, he had resided at Nuremberg, and the joyous animation
with which he entered into the life of the city won for him wide popularity.
"When about to depart, we are told he invited twenty great ladies to dinner;
after dinner, when they were all in a good humour, the Markgrave Frederick
asked Maximilian in the name of the ladies to stay a little longer and to
dance with them. They had taken away his boots and spurs, so that he had no
choice. Then the whole company adjourned to the Council House, several
other young ladies were invited, and Maximilian stayed dancing all through
the afternoon and night, and arrived a day late at Neumarkt, where the Count
Palatine had been expecting him all the preceding day."[116] As Emperor,
Maximilian paid many visits to Nuremberg, and his first Diet was enlivened
by a succession of brilliant masques, dances and tournaments, such as roused
the enthusiasm of the local chroniclers. He remained on terms of great
intimacy with Pirkheimer, who in many ways is the most typical figure of
the German Renaissance. After an excellent education, at Padua and Pavia,
in jurisprudence, literature and arts, Pirkheimer became councillor in
Nuremberg, and won the special confidence of the Emperor both by his
skilful diplomacy and by his patriotic assistance in the Swiss War. His great
riches he employed not merely for the adornment of his own house, but also
in generous support of less-favoured followers of the Muse. While he
resembled Peutinger as diplomat, as historian, and as theologian, he had less
of the temperament of a pedagogue, and more of the joyous nature of a true](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-46-320.jpg)
![poet. As the representative of a great movement of the intellect, he was open
to all its various methods and aspirations, and yet understood the lesson of
self-restraint and concentration too well to exhaust his powers in a labyrinth
of alternatives. With the true cheerfulness and humour of the man who
knows the world, yet remains unsullied by contact with it, he and his friends
devoted themselves to what is after all the highest philosophy, the study of
mankind—hiding under a smiling face, nay, often a mocking mien, their
confidence in the great destinies of the race. And yet a deep pathos attaches
to Pirkheimer's closing days. Disappointed in his dreams of moral and
spiritual regeneration for the people, he turned wearily back from the paths
of the new doctrine to the bosom of Mother Church. His violent attack upon
Johann Eck, his noble defence of Reuchlin, had seemed to foreshadow him
as a leader of the Reformation.[117] But his ideals were in reality of the past
rather than of the future; and, brooding over his shattered hopes, he lingered
out a solitary old age, whose sadness is but deepened by his swan-like
lament for Dürer.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-47-320.jpg)
![ALBRECHT DURER
Dürer was indeed well worthy of all the praise which has been lavished
upon him; for from all his works there shines forth the noble modesty of a
pure good man. Though scarcely a scholar himself, his deep sympathy with
the great movement is manifest not only in the manner in which his art
interprets it, but also in his own written words.[118] His letters to Pirkheimer
from Venice form delightful reading and show the keenness of his sympathy
and observation. The years which followed his return to Nuremberg, 1507-
1514, were the most productive period of his life, as well as the period of his
most intimate connexion with Maximilian. From them date the ambitious
designs of the "Ehrenpforte" (Triumphal Arch), which, though executed
under Maximilian's direct supervision, were entirely the idea of Dürer. No
less than ninety-two large woodcuts, the production of which occupied
Dürer for two years, go to make up this imposing metaphorical picture. A
structure in itself impossible is overburdened by portraits of all the ancestors
of Maximilian, mythical as well as real, and by the many exploits and
adventures of the Emperor's own life. But the work must be estimated less
by the quaintness of its composition than by its sterling artistic qualities and
by the important place which it holds in the development of German Art.
The idea was further developed in the "Triumphzug" and the
"Triumphwagen," which was completed in 1516. The Imperial and other
triumphal cars were drawn by Dürer in sixty-three woodcuts, while the
remaining seventy-four were prepared in Augsburg by Hans Burgkmair and
L. Beck.[119] The procession, whose magnificence was to idealize
Maximilian as the greatest of Princes, includes sketches of almost everything
that ever roused the Emperor's interest. Landsknechts, cannon, huntsmen,
mummers, dancers of every rank and variety, the noble ladies of the Court,
are mingled with allegories of every Imperial and human virtue, elaborately
grouped upon triumphal cars. The keen personal interest of Maximilian in
the progress of the work is well attested. Indeed, he showed his impatience,
while the various blocks were in progress, by frequently visiting not merely
Dürer himself, but also the "formschneider" or block-cutter, who lived in a
street approached by the Frauengasslein. Hence the old Nuremberg proverb,
"The Emperor still often drives to Petticoat Lane."[120] Dürer was
appointed painter to Maximilian, with a grant of arms and a salary of 100
florins a year; and a letter of the Emperor to the Town Council of Nuremberg](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-49-320.jpg)
![is still extant, in which he demands Dürer's exemption from "communal
imposts, and all other contributions in money, in testimony of our friendship
for him, and for the sake of the marvellous art of which it is but just that he
should freely benefit. We trust that you will not refuse the demand we now
make of you, because it is proper, as far as possible, to encourage the arts he
cultivates and so largely develops among you."[121] These earnest words of
Maximilian reveal to us very clearly his attitude towards the great movement
of his day. Yet, sad as it is to relate, Dürer never received payment for the
ninety-two sheets of the "Triumphal Arch," which had cost him so much
time and labour, and after Maximilian's death they were sold separately. But
the Emperor may fairly be absolved from the charge of mean treatment of
Dürer, for his own needs were great and many, and it is strictly true that he
spent very little upon himself. The great artist was always treated with
distinction as a personal friend of the Emperor, who, besides granting him a
fixed salary, gave him material assistance in checking the forging and
pirating of his engravings. He sometimes resided at Court, when Maximilian
held it at Augsburg, and often employed his time in making sketches in chalk
of the illustrious persons whom he met. On one occasion Maximilian was
attempting to draw a design for Dürer, but kept breaking the charcoal in
doing so. When the artist took the pencil and, without once breaking it,
easily completed the sketch, the Emperor expressed his surprise and
probably showed his annoyance. But Dürer was ready with his compliment.
"I should not like your Majesty," he said, "to be able to draw as well as I. It
is my province to draw and yours to rule."[122] Not the least interesting and
important of Dürer's commissions was to paint that portrait of the Emperor
which now hangs in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna. The prominent nose, the
hanging eyelid, the half-contemptuous, half-mournful turn of the lips, the
wrinkled cheeks and neck, the long hair falling over the ears, the pointed
bonnet with its clasp, the sombre flowing robes, form a striking picture and
suggest a speaking likeness. Disappointment, but also that peculiar attribute
of the Hapsburgs, resignation, are clearly marked upon Maximilian's face. In
the other two portraits by Dürer—a chalk drawing executed at the Diet of
Augsburg (1518) and a woodcut completed shortly before his death—the
features are less rugged, and reveal somewhat more of the sanguine spirit of
Maximilian's early days. With the exception of these sketches,[123] Dürer's
last commission for Maximilian was the exquisite decoration for the latter's
private Gebetbuch (Book of Prayer), of which only ten copies were printed,
[124] and which will ever remain one of the gems of artistic and devotional](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-50-320.jpg)
![DAS ROSENKRANZFEST.
Painting by Dürer, with Kneeling Figure of Maximilian
During the first century of its existence, Vienna University[125] was an
autonomous ecclesiastical corporation, over which the methods of the
mediaeval Schoolmen held complete sway. But during the long reign of
Frederick III., several circumstances combined to cast a blight upon its
hitherto flourishing condition. During the Council of Basel it assumed a
hostile attitude to the Pope, and its surrender of that position only
emphasised its folly; while in the struggle of Frederick and his brother Albert
the professors were unwise enough to dabble in politics and thus to throw off
the immunity which guarded their proper sphere. Their open sympathy with](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-52-320.jpg)
![Albert was fatal to a good understanding with Frederick, who never showed
any favour to their body. Vienna further suffered from a six months' siege by
Matthias of Hungary (1477) and from a violent outbreak of the plague
(1481); and this had scarce abated, when war was renewed and Matthias
overran the whole of Lower Austria. During the ensuing siege (December
1484 to June 1485) all lectures were inevitably suspended, and the whole
work of the University was at a standstill. The refusal of the University
authorities to take the oath of allegiance to Matthias—on the ground that, as
a clerical corporation, they were independent of the temporal power—
induced the conqueror to stop all the revenues which they derived from the
government; and though he at length granted[126] a sum sufficient for the
payment of the Professors and other necessities, yet he never extended to
Vienna the same liberality towards Art and Science which had distinguished
his relations with Buda-Pest. By the time of his death (1490) Vienna
University was in a state of almost complete decay.
Under such circumstances the recovery of Austria by Maximilian was
greeted with joy on the part of the authorities, and immediate steps were
taken to restore the tottering fabric of the University. Maximilian set himself
definitely to transform it from a clerical corporation to a home of the new
Humanism, and was aided in this difficult task by the Superintendent Perger,
the intention of whose office was not only to control the Government grants,
but also to decide upon their expenditure, and to refer to the Emperor all
questions of professorial appointments. In spite of much internal opposition,
the Humanists ere long acquired predominance in the philosophical Faculty,
the medicals threw off the monstrous requirements of Scholasticism, and the
jurists began to study Roman as well as ecclesiastical law. The revival of
Vienna soon roused the interest of that peculiar product of the Renaissance
period, the wandering scholar. The first to visit the University was Johann
Spiesshaimer—more celebrated as Cuspinian—who rapidly won favour with
the Hapsburgs by a poem in praise of St. Leopold, Markgrave of Austria, and
who was crowned poet by Maximilian shortly after his father's death, in
presence of a brilliant and representative assembly. Soon afterwards he
began to hold regular lectures on poetry and rhetoric, discussing such writers
as Cicero, Sallust, Horace, Virgil and Lucan. But Perger's preference lay
decidedly with the Humanists of Italy, many of whom he had known
personally during his residence at Padua and Bologna. At his
recommendation, Maximilian in 1493 summoned Hieronymus Balbus from](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-53-320.jpg)
![Celtes, and with him the Emperor, was convinced that new methods of
instruction were necessary, if Humanism was to triumph over Scholasticism.
"A new institute was required, which should serve for the preparation and
training of Humanism, a sort of seminary of Humanist scholars, not outside,
but inside, the University."[127] These views led, in October 1501, to the
foundation of the "Collegium Poetarum et Mathematicorum" by Maximilian.
Planned by Celtes with the active approval of Cuspinian, the College in no
way formed a fifth Faculty, though it was directly connected with the
Faculty of Arts. Of its two divisions, the first was devoted to the study of
mathematics, physics and astronomy, the second to that of poetry and
rhetoric. The right of the coronation of poets, which had hitherto lain with
the Emperor alone, was now vested by Maximilian in Celtes, as director of
his own creation. The most distinguished scholars were to receive the crown
of laurel, as a mark of high distinction and as an incentive to further efforts.
But this privilege was exercised by Celtes for the first and last time, when in
1502 he crowned Stabius, his former colleague at Ingolstadt, and now
Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Vienna. All subsequent
coronations of poets were by Maximilian himself;[128] and the College of
Poets fell into disuse after the death of Celtes in 1508. Even had worthy
successors to Celtes and Stabius been found, it is doubtful whether the
College would have had a permanent existence. Its hybrid position, as an
independent institution and yet an integral part of the University, was a
source of endless bickerings and quarrels, which can scarcely have been a
recommendation to foreign scholars. Celtes' other peculiar institution, the
"Literary Society of the Danube," which he had originally founded at Buda,
and which transplanted itself to Vienna when he settled there, was a kind of
academy or free union of scholars for the spread of Humanism. Its members
were recruited from almost every nation, and were only held together by the
personal influence of Celtes; on his death it shared the same fate as the
College of Poets.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/14398-250614223203-f5fd4423/85/ASP-NET-8-Best-Practices-1-converted-Edition-Jonathan-R-Danylko-55-320.jpg)
ASP.NET 8 Best Practices 1 / converted Edition Jonathan R. Danylko
- 1. ASP.NET 8 Best Practices 1 / converted Edition Jonathan R. Danylko download pdf https://ebookmass.com/product/asp-net-8-best-practices-1-converted- edition-jonathan-r-danylko/ Visit ebookmass.com today to download the complete set of ebook or textbook!
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- 6. ASP.NET 8 Best Practices Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned
- 7. in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. Group Product Manager: Rohit Rajkumar Publishing Product Manager: Jane D’Souza Senior Editor: Aamir Ahmed Book Project Manager: Sonam Pandey Technical Editor: Simran Ali Copy Editor: Safis Editing Proofreader: Safis Editing Indexer: Manju Arasan Production Designer: Prashant Ghare DevRel Marketing Coordinator: Nivedita Pandey First published: December 2023 Production reference: 1011223 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
- 8. Grosvenor House 11 St Paul’s Square Birmingham B3 1RB, UK ISBN 978-1-83763-212-1 www.packtpub.com
- 9. To my family, for their continued support throughout my career (even though I tend to live in the o ce).
- 10. To my colleagues and mentors: this book is a culmination of our discussions, experiences, and solutions (and some fires) we’ve encountered over the years.
- 11. To my readers and supporters on DanylkoWeb.com, who allow me to turn their questions into blog posts to further everyone’s knowledge in the end.
- 12. Finally, to my parents, who bought me that Commodore VIC-20 when I was 11, which started me on my journey of building software.
- 13. –Jonathan Contributors About the author Jonathan R. Danylko is an award-winning web architect who works at Insight, an international company providing enterprise-level solutions. He started development at age 11 with a Commodore VIC-20. He has competed in international programming competitions and has contributed to various publications as an author and technical editor. His career spans 25 years of building internet and intranet websites for small, medium, and Fortune 500 companies, since 1996. He also created, developed, and maintains a blog called DanylkoWeb.com and has been writing blog posts since 2006. Jonathan continues to write code on a daily basis in his personal and professional career. About the reviewers Matthew D. Groves is a guy who loves to code. It doesn’t matter whether it’s C#, jQuery, or PHP: he’ll submit pull requests for
- 14. anything. He has been coding professionally ever since he wrote a QuickBASIC point-of-sale app for his parent’s pizza shop back in the 90s. He currently works for Couchbase, helping developers in any way he can. His free time is spent with his family, watching the Reds, and getting involved in the developer community. He is the author of AOP in .NET, co-author of Pro Microservices in .NET, a Pluralsight author, and a Microsoft MVP. Abdulkabir Abdulwasiu is a dedicated individual from Nigeria, holding a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and education. My journey led me to the Federal University of Technology Minna, honing my skills in this specialization. Further education at Nigeria Defense Academy earned me a post-graduate diploma in computer science, igniting my passion for its dynamic potential. As a classroom teacher for over four years, I’ve inspired young minds through math education. In 2021, I began a software developer role at Vatebra Limited, driving tech innovation in Nigeria. Proficient in C# and .NET, I leverage technology for positive change. My commitment to learning extends beyond teaching and coding. As a research assistant with Ph.D. students, I explore uncharted territories, refining my research skills. This journey
- 15. Visit https://ebookmass.com today to explore a vast collection of ebooks across various genres, available in popular formats like PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, fully compatible with all devices. Enjoy a seamless reading experience and effortlessly download high- quality materials in just a few simple steps. Plus, don’t miss out on exciting offers that let you access a wealth of knowledge at the best prices!
- 16. encapsulates my dedication to growth and contributing to cutting-edge academia.
- 17. I would like to express my gratitude to my mentors, colleagues, and family for their unwavering support. Their guidance has been invaluable in shaping my journey as an educator, researcher, and software developer. Their belief in my potential has inspired me to reach new heights, and for that, I am truly thankful.
- 18. Table of Contents Preface 1 Taking Control with Source Control Technical requirements Branching Strategies GitFlow Hotfix branches GitHub Flow GitLab Flow Creating short-lived branches Understanding Common Practices Rebase when Private, Merge when Public Always “Get Latest” Before Committing
- 19. Always Build and Test Before Committing Avoid Committing Binaries Use tags for versioning Summary 2 CI/CD – Building Quality Software Automatically Technical requirements What is CI/CD? Preparing your Code Building Flawlessly Avoiding Relative Path Names with File- based Operations Confirming that your Unit Tests are Unit Tests Creating Environment Settings
- 20. Understanding the Pipeline Pulling Code Building the application Running Unit Tests/Code Analysis Creating Artifacts Creating a Container Deploying the software The Two “Falling” Approaches Falling Backward (or fallback) Falling Forward Deploying Databases Backing up Before Deploying Creating a Strategy for Table Structures Creating a Database Project Using Entity Framework Core’s Migrations
- 21. The three Types of Build Providers CI/CD Providers Microsoft Azure Pipelines GitHub Actions Amazon CodePipeline Google CI Walkthrough of Azure Pipelines Preparing the Application Introducing Azure Pipelines Identifying the Repository Creating the Build Creating the Artifacts Creating a Release Deploying the Build Summary
- 22. 3 Best Approaches for Middleware Technical requirements Using Middleware Understanding the Middleware Pipeline Using Request Delegates – Run, Use, and Map Common Practices for Middleware Defer to Asynchronous Prioritizing the Order Consolidating existing Middleware Encapsulating your Middleware Creating an Emoji Middleware Component Encapsulating the Middleware Examining the Component’s Pipeline Summary
- 23. 4 Applying Security from the Start Technical requirements Developing Security Do I have any sensitive data to protect? Am I exposing anything through the application? Am I sanitizing user input? Securing Access Common Security Practices Logging Keep your Framework and Libraries Current Always Force SSL Never Trust the Client Always Encode User Input
- 24. Securing Your Headers Securing Entity Framework Core Use Microsoft Entra for Securing Applications Protecting Your Pages with Anti-Forgery Safeguarding Against the Top 3 Security Threats Broken Access Control Cryptographic Failures Injection Summary 5 Optimizing Data Access with Entity Framework Core Technical requirements Entity Framework Core Implementations
- 25. Repository/Unit of Work The Specification Pattern Extension Methods Common Entity Framework Core Practices Confirming Your Model Using Async/Await Logging Your Queries Using Resources for Large Seed Data Understanding Deferred Execution Using a Read-Only State with .AsNoTracking() Leveraging the Database Avoiding the Manual Property Mapping Implementing the Theme Park Example Overview Creating the Database
- 26. Visit https://ebookmass.com today to explore a vast collection of ebooks across various genres, available in popular formats like PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, fully compatible with all devices. Enjoy a seamless reading experience and effortlessly download high- quality materials in just a few simple steps. Plus, don’t miss out on exciting offers that let you access a wealth of knowledge at the best prices!
- 27. Exploring the Variety of Random Documents with Different Content
- 29. MAXIMILIAN IN 1518 From a Chalk Drawing by Dürer [30] Maximilians I. Beziehungen zu Sigmund von Tyrol.—Victor v. Kraus. [31] His mother was the daughter of Albert II., Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia (died 1439). Though Hungary was strictly an elective monarchy, the next heir was almost invariably elected. [32] A small garrison held out in the citadel till the end of August. [33] Huber, Gesch. Oesterreichs, iii. 298. [34] "Time ever brings its reward or its revenge." [35] Maximilian to S. P. (September 21). Debts growing ever larger: "darumb pit helfft und rath ains für als." He adds, "Der König v. Behaimb ... ist auch nicht viel erberer dann der ander gewest" (i.e. Matthias).— Vertraulicher Briefwechsel, p. 80. [36] This attitude was due to jealousy. Frederick disliked the idea of Maximilian as King of Hungary, fearing that he would then usurp all his remaining power in the Empire. [37] To the amount of 100,000 gulden. [38] This marriage of his only daughter against his will (1487) was a very sore point with Frederick III., and the fact that Maximilian acquiesced in it increased his irritation against him. [39] It had been seized by Albert in 1486. See above. [40] Which included the free towns of Strassburg and Basel and their bishops. [41] V. Polheim and W. v. Waldenstein to Maximilian. Even if Frederick recovers, "werde er doch die fuesse nit mer mugen brauchen"; ... "hab in den zehen kain empfintlichait."—Vertraulicher Briefwecksel, p. 83. [42] Sigismund was now a nonentity, living obscurely in his former dominions.
- 30. [43] For Maximilian's relations to internal reform, see Appendix. [44] Janssen, i. 586. [45] Huber, iii. p. 338. [46] Creighton's Papacy, i. p. 277. [47] December 31, 1510. For a most beautiful and touching letter of condolence from Margaret to Maximilian, see Le Glay, Correspondance, i. p. 481. [48] Few people seem to have troubled themselves about Gian Galeazzo's infant son, who was now the lawful heir of the Sforza. [49] For Maximilian's efforts towards war against the Turks, see Ulmann, i. pp. 203-218. [50] Cp. Chmel, Urkunden, Briefen, etc., page 56. Marquard Breisacher to Maximilian, about Charles VIII., in Rome—"Darauss ich sorge, der Kung v. Frankreich werd auff das mindest die Kirchen reformieren und damit jm selbs in aller cristenheyt lob eer und auffsechen machen, das doch E. Ko. Mt. von götlichem und weltlichem rechtem me zu gepürett denn jm." [51] Ulmann, i. 272-6. [52] The more correct name of Emperor elect has been sunk for convenience sake. [53] Afterwards the famous, or notorious, Ulric. [54] "Und wo in der Zeit kein Gelt herkumbt, wirdet die Speisung an dem end auch still sten"! Dated May 27, 1496.—Vertr. Briefwecksel, page 109. [55] Ranke, Latin and Teutonic Nations, page 109. [56] In South Germany. [57] Chmel, Urkunden, Briefen, etc.—Letter 126, Stangha to Maximilian (Sept. 30, 1496). [58] Chmel, ibid.—Letter 127, Maximilian to Stangha (Genoa Oct. 1, 1496).
- 31. [59] Chmel, ibid.—Letter 146, Bishop of Concordia to Maximilian (Lindau, Dec. 26). [60] This was written in 1507.—Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, ed. Alberi, Serie I. vol. vi. page 26 sqq. [61] Janssen, i. 593. Cp. Trithemius' view of the Hapsburg characteristic; —"Seelenruhe und Gottvertrauen beim Missgeschick; viel Noth, viel Ehr." [62] Pirkheimer, quoted by Ranke, Latin and Teut. Nations, p. 149. [63] The more so, as the Confederacy was joined by the Imperial cities of Schaffhausen and Basel. [64] If Louis XII. died without male issue, Brittany and Burgundy were likewise to fall to Charles. [65] "Il y a longtemps que François ont tousiours fait le piz qu'ilz ont peu a ceste maison, et n'ay espoir qu'ilz doyent changier," writes Chièvres to Maximilian 1506. [66] By violating the perpetual Landfriede. [67] Kirchberg, Weissenhorn, Marstetten, Neuburg-am-Inn, etc. [68] Catherine, paternal aunt of Maximilian, married Charles, M. of Baden, whose son James was. [69] Afterwards Adrian VI. [70] Yet the people, Maximilian is convinced, are always on his side, and a few of the Cantons; "mes en sumarum il sount meschans, villains, prest pour traïre France on Almaingnes" (dated August 18, Lindau).—Le Glay, Correspondance, vol. i., letter 3. [71] March 1, 1508, quoted Huber, iii. pp. 369, 370. [72] Le Glay, i. p. 68 (dated July 4). [73] Le Glay, i. p. 77 (dated July 23). [74] Bishop of Gurk. [75] Le Glay, i. letter 90 (dated Cambrai, December).
- 32. [76] Le Glay, i.—letter 143 (dated October 7). [77] Le Glay, i.—letter 134 (Bassano, August 7). [78] Le Glay, i.—letter 192 (Augsburg, April 6, 1510). [79] Sanuto, x. 79, quoted by Huber, iii. 387. [80] Chmel's Urkunden, etc., p. 470 (May 31, 1511). [81] Le Glay, ii. p. 38—autograph letter, dated September 18, no year or place given. But A. Jäger, in Kaiser Maximilians I. Verhältniss zum Papstthum, p. 75, shows that 1511 was almost certainly the year. [82] Le Glay, ii. p. 84 (dated January 21, 1513). [83] Le Glay, Correspondance, vol. ii.—letter 554, page 221. [84] Le Glay, ii.—letter 555. [85] Le Glay, ii.—letter 556. [86] Kings of Hungary and Poland were brothers. [87] It is possible, however, that he was actuated by pique against his grandson, who had recently asserted his independence of control. (January 1515.) [88] Quoted in Brewer, Reign of Henry VIII., page 125. [89] Brewer, i. page 133. [90] Huber, iii. page 407. [91] Ala, Avio, Mori, and Brentonica. [92] The early years of Charles V.'s reign do not disprove this assertion. For, though it was an Imperialist army which was responsible for the Sack of Rome in 1527, this was entirely composed of mercenaries, and Charles's predominance in Italy was due to his position as King of Spain and the Sicilies, and was won by the pikes of his Spanish infantry. [93] He was called "Coeur d'Acier," by Olivier de la Marche. [94] He hoped to obtain from Leo X. full recognition of himself as crowned Emperor, and, further, the grant of a tithe on church property in
- 33. Germany for his projected Crusade. [95] Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, page 126 (1st edition). IV "The essence of Humanism is the belief ... that nothing which has ever interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality."—Walter Pater. It is with a certain sense of relief that we pass from the tragi-comedy of Maximilian's political life to those realms where lies his real claim to fame and gratitude. Great ambitions thwarted by the sordid details of poverty are never a pleasant subject of contemplation; and there have been few monarchs in whose lives they have played a more prominent part. But it may fairly be argued that all the more credit is due to one who, under such unfavourable circumstances, ever remained buoyant and full of the joy of living, and whose frequent disappointments never soured his enthusiasms nor turned him from the path of knowledge. The first of his race to welcome the new culture, and possessed of that joyous temperament which seems to offer immortal youth, Maximilian was acclaimed by the scholars of his day as the ideal Emperor of Dante's or Petrarch's dreams. His predecessors had shown little interest in intellectual pursuits. Sigismund had indeed crowned several poets, but was always too needy himself to spare much money for their salaries; Frederick III. was devoid of literary tastes, and, in spite of his connexion with Æneas Sylvius, gave but slight encouragement to art or learning. But Maximilian surrendered himself, with all his habitual energy and enthusiasm, to the new spirit of the age. In spite of his many political failures he remains to all time the darling of the scholar and the poet. This almost universal favour he did not win by liberal donations or the grant of lucrative posts, for he was seldom free from money embarrassments—nor by the maintenance of a gorgeous court and imposing ceremonial—for his endless projects and expeditions made any fixed residence impossible; but
- 34. by his restless activity, his manly self-reliance, his wide and human sympathy with all ranks and classes of the people. Above all, he identified himself with the struggling ideals of a new German national feeling, and with the growing opposition to France, to Italy, and to Rome; and, as a national hero, inspired the devotion alike of the scholar, the knight, and the peasant. "Mein Ehr ist deutsch Ehr, und deutsch Ehr ist mein Ehr" is the ruling motive of his life; and the praise which is continually on all lips is, before all, the result of his passionate loyalty to that larger Germany of which the poet sings— So weit die deutsche Zunge klingt Und Gott im Himmel Lieder singt Das soll es sein! Das, wackrer Deutscher, nenne dein! Nowhere is the general admiration more evident than in the Volkslieder and the popular poetry of the time. And even when death overtook him in the midst of complete failure and humiliation, no scornful voice is heard, and all is regret and loving appreciation. First among earthly monarchs, A fount of honour clear, Sprung of a noble lineage, Where shall we find his peer? ... He stands a bright ensample For other Princes' eyes, The lieges all appraise him The Noble and the Wise. His justice is apportioned To poor and rich the same. Just before God Eternal Shall ever be his name. And God the Lord hath willed it, Our pure, immortal King, And welcomed him in glory, Where ceaseless praises ring. Our hero hath departed, Time's sceptre laying down,
- 35. Since God hath, of His goodness, Prepared a deathless crown.[96] A vital distinction is at once apparent between the Italian and the German Renaissance. In Italy the movement was essentially aristocratic and largely dependent upon the various Courts—the Medici, the Popes, the Dukes of Urbino. In Germany such open-handed patrons were few and far between. Albert of Mainz, Frederick of Saxony, and Eberhard of Würtemberg stand alone among the princes as patrons of learning; while Ulrich von Hutten is the sole representative of the Knightly order in the ranks of the Humanists. [96a] The political and intellectual development of the German towns is of great importance during this transition period, and it is in them that the leaders of the German Renaissance are to be found. The movement remained throughout municipal rather than aristocratic, making itself first felt where there was closest commercial intercourse with Italy—notably in the cities of Swabia and the Rhine valley. But for this very reason Humanism took deep root in the soul of the German people. Not merely aesthetic or sensuous, like the Italian movement, it had a profound ethical and national basis, on which the powerful art of Dürer, the sonorous language of Luther, the sweet singing of Hans Sachs, might safely rest. Almost from the very beginning it pursued a moral aim. It was inspired by no mere sordid quest of pleasure, but by a noble dream of purer manners and loftier ideals. It realized the decadence into which society, both lay and ecclesiastical, had fallen, and earnestly strove to arrest it in the only possible way—by the introduction of a new spirit at once into the details of daily life, and into the broad principles of national existence. But as the Humanist movement gathered strength and influence, it remained isolated from politics and from those who ruled the destinies of the Empire, and, developing in various places and under separate leaders, tended to waste its energies through lack of systematic or united effort. Under such circumstances its unspoken appeal for assistance in high places met with an eager response from Maximilian. For the last twenty-five years of his life he forms the central figure of the new movement—possibly not its most glorious or most brilliant representative, but yet giving life and uniformity to the whole. If for nought else, he would deserve to be remembered as the connecting link between the Humanists of Strasburg, Augsburg and Nuremberg. In order to interpret this feature of the Emperor's
- 36. character, we must present a slight sketch of the German Renaissance in its three main channels, with especial regard to Maximilian and his connexion with the leading Humanists, and must then proceed to examine Maximilian's own literary achievements, and his relations to Science and Art in its various branches. In a quaint old comedy written at the close of the fifteenth century, Cicero and Caesar are brought to life and taken round the cities of Germany. They are made to describe Strasburg as "the most beautiful of the German towns, a treasure and ornament of the Fatherland"; of Augsburg they exclaim, "Rome with its Quirites has wandered here"; while Nuremberg is pictured as "the Corinth of Germany, if one looks at the wonderful works of the artist; yet if you look at its walls and bastions, no Mummius would conquer it so easily." [97] Such are the three great centres of the German Renaissance. In Strasburg, education was the most crying need of the time; for though there were excellent schools in the Franciscan and Dominican convents, these were reserved for novices, the laity being wholly excluded. Jacob Wimpheling, under whom Humanism first took deep root in the city, was himself a pupil of the Deventer School,[98] and, like them, devoted his energies to educational reform. His hopes of founding a University were not realized, and he had to content himself with forming the centre of a literary society, such as was formed both at Mainz and Vienna by Conrad Celtes. Wimpheling and his friends differ largely from their contemporaries in other parts of Germany. They were characterized by a theological bias which led them into violent and unprofitable controversies. Though himself a cleric, and thus a supporter of the spiritual order and of orthodox belief, he indulged in fierce attacks upon the monks for their immorality, and in spite of his admiration for heathen authors, he pushed his defence of theology so far as to condemn the Art of Poetry as useless and unworthy to be called a science, and only to exempt from utter damnation the sacred poets of Christianity. [99] He was equally limited in his patriotic polemics. His praise of everything German is only surpassed by his hatred for the French and Italians, his profound contempt for the Swiss. His best-known work, entitled Germania, was written with the double object of proving the exclusively German origin of Alsace and of "defending the King of the Romans against the monks and secular preachers who attack him."[100] Even the ingenuous arguments in which the book abounds, and the quaint array of authorities,
- 37. from Caesar and Tacitus to Aeneas Sylvius and Sabellico cannot blind us to the genuine patriotism, which is latent in every page. "We are Germans, not French," he exclaims, "and our land must be called Germany, not France, because Germans live in it. This fact has been acknowledged by the Romans. For when they had conquered us, the Alemanni on the Rhine, and, crossing the river, saw that the dwellers on the further bank were like us in courage, stature, and fair hair, as well as in customs and way of life, they called us Germans, that is, brothers. But it is certain that we, these Germans, are like the real Gauls neither in speech and appearance, nor in character and institutions. Hence our city and all Alsace is right in preserving the freedom of the Roman Empire, and will maintain it also in the future, in spite of all French attempts to win over or conquer us."[101] Such fervent expressions of German feeling must have called Maximilian's attention to Wimpheling, even without his vigorous defence of the Imperial dignity. In 1510, when Maximilian was opposed to Julius II., and hoped to intimidate him by recounting the wrongs of the German nation, he could think of none more versed in them than Wimpheling, and therefore requested him to draw up a summary of the French Pragmatic Sanction, such as would suit the needs of Germany. In March, 1511, he wrote to Wimpheling that he was about to hold an assembly at Koln, to deliberate with the French envoys as to summoning a general Council; and he begged him to think out means of redressing the various abuses, "without touching religion." As a result of this request, Wimpheling drew up his Gravamina Germanicae Nationis and added the desired Remedia.[102] But the Emperor's policy had already changed, and Wimpheling was informed through the Imperial Councillors that the moment was unfavourable for publication. Indeed, his labours only received the attention which they deserved, when they were employed as the basis of "The Hundred Grievances of the German Nation" (1522).[103]
- 39. SEBASTIAN BRANT Side by side with Wimpheling stands Sebastian Brant, whose literary worth has probably obtained wider recognition than that of any German Humanist, with the sole exception of Erasmus. His Narrenschiff ("The Ship of Fools") is penetrated by a deep religious spirit, and fearlessly attacks all the corruptions and abuses of the day, "branding as fools all those who are willing, for things transitory, to barter things eternal."[104] Brant is in no sense a great poet; his verses are often stiff and ill-proportioned, and his matter frequently sinks to the level of the common-place. But the appearance of "The Ship of Fools" caused an unparalleled stir, not merely in the republic of letters, but throughout the whole German people; and it owes its extraordinary popularity to its skilful intermixture of problems which were in all men's minds. He was the first to give full expression to the ideas of the middle classes (anticipating the manly independence of the Scottish poet, [105]) when he sang— Aber wer hätt' kein Tugend nit, Kein Zucht, Scham, Ehr, noch gute Sitt, Den halt' ich alles Adels leer, Wenn auch ein Fürst sein Vater wär'. But the ruling motives which inspire his muse are the maintenance of the Church in her pristine purity, and the defence of Christendom against the onslaught of the infidel. While he preaches earnestly the Headship of Christ, and exhorts all men to put their trust in God rather than in mortal men, he is also never tired of enjoining reverence for the Emperor, and urging them to unite in loyal obedience to his wishes and aspirations. Apparently unconscious of his inconsequence, he upheld the principle of absolute Papal domination, and yet early associated himself with that august dream of the Middle Ages—the universal monarchy of the Emperor. For him he claimed the same power in the temporal, as the Pope exercised in the spiritual world. As the Pope was the organ of religion, so was the Emperor the source of Law; and the revival of his power as temporal head of Christendom was to coincide with the re-establishment of that order and discipline whose absence Brant so frequently laments. The whole fabric of these vast aspirations Brant rested upon Maximilian. He could not foresee that this
- 40. prince, so brilliant, so chivalrous, so sympathetic, would disappoint the rich promise of his youth and fail to restore the fallen grandeur of the Empire owing to his schemes of family aggrandisement. He greeted his election with adulatory verses, protesting that under such a prince the Golden Age could not fail to return. The news of Maximilian's imprisonment at Bruges rouses a very whirlwind of indignant phrases, contrary to the whole spirit of his later teaching. "Destroy the Flemings," he cries, "extirpate the very race of this crime, hang and behead the miscreants, overturn their walls, and make the plough pass over this accursed soil. Such is the demand of justice."[106] His belief in omens and portents is unlimited, and they are generally connected with Maximilian in some quaint and high-sounding verses. Thus the killing of an enormous deer on some hunting expedition inspires Brant with an absurd and laboured comparison. "No animal is nobler than the stag: thou, Maximilian, art the most noble of Princes. He stops astonished before things which seem new; thou also dost admire things new and great. At the approach of danger he pricks up his ear and places his young in safety; thou hearest the menacing noises of thine enemies, and dost protect thy people." [107] A number of falcons which were seen to assemble and fly southwards is acclaimed as a symbol of Maximilian, aided by the Princes in his Italian expedition. "Destiny calls you, O Germans; go and restore the Empire in Italy." Even when it became evident that Maximilian was not destined to realize the poet's high ideals, such extravagances did not cease. Moreover, he was sustained by a personal attachment for the Emperor, which was deepened by his various visits to the Court and closer acquaintance with his early hero, and doubtless strengthened by the Imperial favours bestowed upon him. And thus it is with unfeigned grief that Brant celebrates his death. "O magnanimous Caesar, that hope is vanished which we had founded on thee while thou didst hold the sceptre. How should I restrain my tears? Thou wert worthy to live, thou the sole anchor of safety for the German nation. One swift hour hath removed thee: thou art no more, and misfortune assails the Empire."[108] Our subject is Maximilian, not Brant, and we may not linger. But the epitaph on the Strasburg poet's tomb should not be omitted, even in the translation; for it gives us a sure clue to a character which was sweet and winning in spite of all its extravagances. "Toi qui regardes ce marbre, souhaite à Brant le ciel!"
- 42. CONRAD PEUTINGER If in Strasburg the movement assumed a theological and educational character, in Augsburg it was rather directed towards politics and the study of history. Alike from its geographical position[109] and from its industrial and commercial importance,[110] Augsburg was thrown into close relations with Italy and Italian thought; and enthusiasm for classical studies was early introduced by Sigismund Gossembrot, one of the leading merchants of the city. The direction of the movement was further influenced by the Diets which were held within the city,[111] and by the frequent visits of the Emperor Maximilian.[112] The place of Gossembrot was worthily filled by Conrad Peutinger,[113] who returned from Italy in 1485, as a doctor of law, embued with all the ardour of a scholar. He became a prominent official of his native city, and retained his position for many years from inclination rather than from necessity, betraying throughout his writings the sharp eye and critical knowledge of the practitioner. His first meeting with Maximilian probably took place at Augsburg in 1491, and from this time onwards he was continually employed by the Emperor in various positions of trust. As ambassador, secretary or orator, he visited many countries in Europe, and, besides ordering affairs of politics, was entrusted with the truly humanist task of presenting and answering formal addresses and greetings. While in his foreign relations he was eager to maintain the honour of the German name, he skilfully used his double position as Imperial Councillor and Town-official to smooth over differences between Maximilian and Augsburg, to the advantage of both parties. The Emperor's love of Augsburg led him to purchase various houses within the walls, and the castle of Wellenburg in the neighbourhood. His action was far from welcome to the burghers, who did not wish this powerful citizen to acquire too much property in their midst; and they were only pacified by the assurances of Peutinger that Maximilian would raise no fortifications round the castle. On the other hand, during his honourable mission to Hungary (1506), he obtained from the Emperor a substantial grant of privileges for his native city—notably the right "de non appellando." But Peutinger was Maximilian's confidant not merely in political affairs. Indeed, his employment in Imperial diplomacy directly arose from his intellectual and artistic relations with Maximilian, who sought the support of every scholar in his attempt to place the Fatherland in the forefront of Art and Science. In Italy Peutinger had
- 43. learned the value of old Roman inscriptions, and in 1505 he was encouraged by Maximilian to publish a collection of the inscriptions of German antiquity.[114] The Emperor and the scholar kept up a correspondence on the subject of ancient coins, large consignments of which were sent to Augsburg, by order of the former, from every part of the Empire. During Peutinger's visit to Vienna in 1506 he was monopolized for three whole days for learned conversation, and received a new and more important commission from Maximilian. He was to examine the letters and documents of members of the House of Hapsburg, and to prepare a selection of them for publication; and with this object he was assigned a special apartment in the castle of Vienna, to which chronicles and histories were brought for his use from all quarters. Here he remained for almost three months, and the fruit of his labours was the Kaiserbuch, or Book of the Emperors, which was unfortunately never published and which is now extant only in a few fragments. During his labours for Maximilian he seems to have acquired a great number of valuable manuscripts; and had his literary projects been fully realized, we should have gained an astonishing contribution to the historiography of the sixteenth century. But apart from his own unfinished writings, he edited and published, with Maximilian's approval, various early historical works,—the chronicles of Paul the Deacon and of Ursperg being of especial value.[115] Moreover, he was charged by the Emperor with a species of censorship, by virtue of which he prevented the appearance at Augsburg of a Swiss Chronicle, containing statements derogatory to the House of Hapsburg. In short, in almost every phase of the struggle of culture and civilization, which Maximilian so gallantly led, we find Peutinger intimately engaged as his friend and fellow-labourer; and with Beatus Rhenanus we may truly exclaim, "Our Conrad Peutinger is the immortal ornament, not merely of the town of Augsburg, but also of all Swabia!" The activity of Augsburg was not confined to historical studies. The rising art of Germany had found here a worthy representative in Hans Holbein, who, though not strictly a Humanist himself, took the deepest interest in the movement. His attitude is clearly visible from his portraiture of Erasmus, More, and other leaders of the Renaissance, and from his illustrations to the Praise of Folly and the Dance of Death. But Holbein, though the greatest of the Augsburg School, was too much of a wanderer to be thrown into close contact with Maximilian. The latter none the less found capable artists to give expression to his own literary projects. Hans
- 44. Burgkmair, the most distinguished of their number, produced over one hundred illustrations of Weisskunig, seventy-seven for the Genealogy, which consists of portraits of Maximilian's ancestors, and close upon seventy for the Triumphal Procession, the main idea of which belongs to Dürer. Leonhard Beck illustrated a book of Austrian Saints, and the greater part of the famous Teuerdank; whilst Freydal represented in his Mummereien the various tournays and festivities of which Maximilian was the central figure. All these woodcuts and engravings were executed under the supervision of Peutinger, who also directed the casting of figures for Maximilian's tomb at Innsbruck, and the making of armour and warlike equipments for the Emperor's own person. Indeed, Maximilian put his Humanist friend to very strange uses; for among the manifold commissions of Peutinger we find the selection of tapestries from the Netherlands, inquiries after the inventor of a special kind of siege-ladder, the building of hatching-houses for the Imperial falcons, and the establishment of an important cannon foundry. The climax is reached when Maximilian employs Peutinger's historical knowledge to obtain the names of a hundred women famous in history, after whom he may christen the latest additions to his artillery!
- 46. WILIBALD PIRKHEIMER Of the three centres of German Humanism, Nuremberg is the greatest and the most fascinating. The home of invention as well as of industry, it made no mere empty boast in the proverb, "Nürnberg Tand geht durch alle Land." Its churches and public buildings were the glory of the age, its craftsmen and designers perhaps then unequalled in the world. Its literary circle contains a larger number of distinguished names than any of its rivals. Meisterlin, the author of the famous Nuremberg chronicle, Cochläus, the bitter satirist of Luther; Osiander, the celebrated Hebrew scholar and Reformed preacher; Jäger the mathematician; above all Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, "the sweet singer of Nuremberg"—all these fill an honourable place in the annals of the city. But the central figures of its life are, beyond any doubt, Wilibald Pirkheimer and Albrecht Dürer; in any case they would monopolise our attention on account of their intimate connexion with Maximilian. When still King of the Romans, he had resided at Nuremberg, and the joyous animation with which he entered into the life of the city won for him wide popularity. "When about to depart, we are told he invited twenty great ladies to dinner; after dinner, when they were all in a good humour, the Markgrave Frederick asked Maximilian in the name of the ladies to stay a little longer and to dance with them. They had taken away his boots and spurs, so that he had no choice. Then the whole company adjourned to the Council House, several other young ladies were invited, and Maximilian stayed dancing all through the afternoon and night, and arrived a day late at Neumarkt, where the Count Palatine had been expecting him all the preceding day."[116] As Emperor, Maximilian paid many visits to Nuremberg, and his first Diet was enlivened by a succession of brilliant masques, dances and tournaments, such as roused the enthusiasm of the local chroniclers. He remained on terms of great intimacy with Pirkheimer, who in many ways is the most typical figure of the German Renaissance. After an excellent education, at Padua and Pavia, in jurisprudence, literature and arts, Pirkheimer became councillor in Nuremberg, and won the special confidence of the Emperor both by his skilful diplomacy and by his patriotic assistance in the Swiss War. His great riches he employed not merely for the adornment of his own house, but also in generous support of less-favoured followers of the Muse. While he resembled Peutinger as diplomat, as historian, and as theologian, he had less of the temperament of a pedagogue, and more of the joyous nature of a true
- 47. poet. As the representative of a great movement of the intellect, he was open to all its various methods and aspirations, and yet understood the lesson of self-restraint and concentration too well to exhaust his powers in a labyrinth of alternatives. With the true cheerfulness and humour of the man who knows the world, yet remains unsullied by contact with it, he and his friends devoted themselves to what is after all the highest philosophy, the study of mankind—hiding under a smiling face, nay, often a mocking mien, their confidence in the great destinies of the race. And yet a deep pathos attaches to Pirkheimer's closing days. Disappointed in his dreams of moral and spiritual regeneration for the people, he turned wearily back from the paths of the new doctrine to the bosom of Mother Church. His violent attack upon Johann Eck, his noble defence of Reuchlin, had seemed to foreshadow him as a leader of the Reformation.[117] But his ideals were in reality of the past rather than of the future; and, brooding over his shattered hopes, he lingered out a solitary old age, whose sadness is but deepened by his swan-like lament for Dürer.
- 49. ALBRECHT DURER Dürer was indeed well worthy of all the praise which has been lavished upon him; for from all his works there shines forth the noble modesty of a pure good man. Though scarcely a scholar himself, his deep sympathy with the great movement is manifest not only in the manner in which his art interprets it, but also in his own written words.[118] His letters to Pirkheimer from Venice form delightful reading and show the keenness of his sympathy and observation. The years which followed his return to Nuremberg, 1507- 1514, were the most productive period of his life, as well as the period of his most intimate connexion with Maximilian. From them date the ambitious designs of the "Ehrenpforte" (Triumphal Arch), which, though executed under Maximilian's direct supervision, were entirely the idea of Dürer. No less than ninety-two large woodcuts, the production of which occupied Dürer for two years, go to make up this imposing metaphorical picture. A structure in itself impossible is overburdened by portraits of all the ancestors of Maximilian, mythical as well as real, and by the many exploits and adventures of the Emperor's own life. But the work must be estimated less by the quaintness of its composition than by its sterling artistic qualities and by the important place which it holds in the development of German Art. The idea was further developed in the "Triumphzug" and the "Triumphwagen," which was completed in 1516. The Imperial and other triumphal cars were drawn by Dürer in sixty-three woodcuts, while the remaining seventy-four were prepared in Augsburg by Hans Burgkmair and L. Beck.[119] The procession, whose magnificence was to idealize Maximilian as the greatest of Princes, includes sketches of almost everything that ever roused the Emperor's interest. Landsknechts, cannon, huntsmen, mummers, dancers of every rank and variety, the noble ladies of the Court, are mingled with allegories of every Imperial and human virtue, elaborately grouped upon triumphal cars. The keen personal interest of Maximilian in the progress of the work is well attested. Indeed, he showed his impatience, while the various blocks were in progress, by frequently visiting not merely Dürer himself, but also the "formschneider" or block-cutter, who lived in a street approached by the Frauengasslein. Hence the old Nuremberg proverb, "The Emperor still often drives to Petticoat Lane."[120] Dürer was appointed painter to Maximilian, with a grant of arms and a salary of 100 florins a year; and a letter of the Emperor to the Town Council of Nuremberg
- 50. is still extant, in which he demands Dürer's exemption from "communal imposts, and all other contributions in money, in testimony of our friendship for him, and for the sake of the marvellous art of which it is but just that he should freely benefit. We trust that you will not refuse the demand we now make of you, because it is proper, as far as possible, to encourage the arts he cultivates and so largely develops among you."[121] These earnest words of Maximilian reveal to us very clearly his attitude towards the great movement of his day. Yet, sad as it is to relate, Dürer never received payment for the ninety-two sheets of the "Triumphal Arch," which had cost him so much time and labour, and after Maximilian's death they were sold separately. But the Emperor may fairly be absolved from the charge of mean treatment of Dürer, for his own needs were great and many, and it is strictly true that he spent very little upon himself. The great artist was always treated with distinction as a personal friend of the Emperor, who, besides granting him a fixed salary, gave him material assistance in checking the forging and pirating of his engravings. He sometimes resided at Court, when Maximilian held it at Augsburg, and often employed his time in making sketches in chalk of the illustrious persons whom he met. On one occasion Maximilian was attempting to draw a design for Dürer, but kept breaking the charcoal in doing so. When the artist took the pencil and, without once breaking it, easily completed the sketch, the Emperor expressed his surprise and probably showed his annoyance. But Dürer was ready with his compliment. "I should not like your Majesty," he said, "to be able to draw as well as I. It is my province to draw and yours to rule."[122] Not the least interesting and important of Dürer's commissions was to paint that portrait of the Emperor which now hangs in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna. The prominent nose, the hanging eyelid, the half-contemptuous, half-mournful turn of the lips, the wrinkled cheeks and neck, the long hair falling over the ears, the pointed bonnet with its clasp, the sombre flowing robes, form a striking picture and suggest a speaking likeness. Disappointment, but also that peculiar attribute of the Hapsburgs, resignation, are clearly marked upon Maximilian's face. In the other two portraits by Dürer—a chalk drawing executed at the Diet of Augsburg (1518) and a woodcut completed shortly before his death—the features are less rugged, and reveal somewhat more of the sanguine spirit of Maximilian's early days. With the exception of these sketches,[123] Dürer's last commission for Maximilian was the exquisite decoration for the latter's private Gebetbuch (Book of Prayer), of which only ten copies were printed, [124] and which will ever remain one of the gems of artistic and devotional
- 51. literature. With Dürer's career after 1519 we are not concerned; but it is worthy of notice that his most brilliant work dates from the reign of Maximilian, and that his sympathy with "the nightingale of Wittenberg" seems to have partially diverted his attention from his art. It must not be supposed that Maximilian's humanistic enthusiasms were confined to the three great centres which have just been described, or that he only helped on such movements as were already animated by a vigorous existence and a fair prospect of success. His own hereditary dominions were even more directly indebted to his efforts than were other parts of the Empire.
- 52. DAS ROSENKRANZFEST. Painting by Dürer, with Kneeling Figure of Maximilian During the first century of its existence, Vienna University[125] was an autonomous ecclesiastical corporation, over which the methods of the mediaeval Schoolmen held complete sway. But during the long reign of Frederick III., several circumstances combined to cast a blight upon its hitherto flourishing condition. During the Council of Basel it assumed a hostile attitude to the Pope, and its surrender of that position only emphasised its folly; while in the struggle of Frederick and his brother Albert the professors were unwise enough to dabble in politics and thus to throw off the immunity which guarded their proper sphere. Their open sympathy with
- 53. Albert was fatal to a good understanding with Frederick, who never showed any favour to their body. Vienna further suffered from a six months' siege by Matthias of Hungary (1477) and from a violent outbreak of the plague (1481); and this had scarce abated, when war was renewed and Matthias overran the whole of Lower Austria. During the ensuing siege (December 1484 to June 1485) all lectures were inevitably suspended, and the whole work of the University was at a standstill. The refusal of the University authorities to take the oath of allegiance to Matthias—on the ground that, as a clerical corporation, they were independent of the temporal power— induced the conqueror to stop all the revenues which they derived from the government; and though he at length granted[126] a sum sufficient for the payment of the Professors and other necessities, yet he never extended to Vienna the same liberality towards Art and Science which had distinguished his relations with Buda-Pest. By the time of his death (1490) Vienna University was in a state of almost complete decay. Under such circumstances the recovery of Austria by Maximilian was greeted with joy on the part of the authorities, and immediate steps were taken to restore the tottering fabric of the University. Maximilian set himself definitely to transform it from a clerical corporation to a home of the new Humanism, and was aided in this difficult task by the Superintendent Perger, the intention of whose office was not only to control the Government grants, but also to decide upon their expenditure, and to refer to the Emperor all questions of professorial appointments. In spite of much internal opposition, the Humanists ere long acquired predominance in the philosophical Faculty, the medicals threw off the monstrous requirements of Scholasticism, and the jurists began to study Roman as well as ecclesiastical law. The revival of Vienna soon roused the interest of that peculiar product of the Renaissance period, the wandering scholar. The first to visit the University was Johann Spiesshaimer—more celebrated as Cuspinian—who rapidly won favour with the Hapsburgs by a poem in praise of St. Leopold, Markgrave of Austria, and who was crowned poet by Maximilian shortly after his father's death, in presence of a brilliant and representative assembly. Soon afterwards he began to hold regular lectures on poetry and rhetoric, discussing such writers as Cicero, Sallust, Horace, Virgil and Lucan. But Perger's preference lay decidedly with the Humanists of Italy, many of whom he had known personally during his residence at Padua and Bologna. At his recommendation, Maximilian in 1493 summoned Hieronymus Balbus from
- 54. Venice to Vienna, and appointed him lecturer on the Roman Poets. But the Italian's fiery temper soon led him into disputes with the University authorities, and after an unsatisfactory career of two years he found a fresh outbreak of plague in the city a convenient pretext for returning to Italy. Krachenberger and Fuchsmagen, the two councillors whom Maximilian had appointed to assist Perger, doubtless influenced by the unseemly brawling of Balbus, were loud in their complaints of Perger's favouritism, and urged their Imperial master to encourage German rather than Italian scholars. But Maximilian was, after all, only following his own judgment, when in 1497 he sent a cordial invitation to Stabius and Celtes to fill professorships at Vienna. Conrad Celtes is the most famous of the earlier German Humanists, and is in a sense the forerunner of Peutinger and Pirkheimer. But while his influence penetrated into every part of the Empire as a stimulating force, Vienna was the scene of his longest and most definite labours, and hence all mention of him has been postponed till now. Born in 1459, in humble circumstances, Celtes devoted himself from youth to the pursuit of learning, studying the Roman classics in the leading universities of Germany. Without any settled abode, he wandered from one university to another, associating with scholars and supporting himself by lectures on the philosophy of Plato, the rhetoric of Cicero, or the poetry of Horace. In 1486 he visited Italy and made the acquaintance of all the famous Humanists of the age. On his return, the publication of his first treatise, the Ars Versificandi, brought him to the notice of Frederick III., by whom he was crowned as poet at the Diet of Nuremberg (1487). During the next four years he visited Cracow, Prague, Buda, Heidelberg and Mainz, and again settled down at Nuremberg in 1491. Here he published a life of St. Sebald, patron of the city, in sapphics, and a treatise upon the origin and customs of Nuremberg itself. But within a year he was summoned to Ingolstadt as Professor of Poetry and Rhetoric, and here he was residing when Maximilian's letter reached him. The Emperor's appeal was not in vain, and Celtes took up his permanent abode in Vienna University in 1497, as professor of the same subjects as at Ingolstadt. His opening lectures, which treated the philosophy of Plato in connexion with the Neo-Platonism of the Italian scholars, were regarded with suspicion and dislike by many members of the University; but his position was strengthened by the hearty support of Maximilian, who in 1501 appointed Cuspinian, the intimate friend of Celtes, to the post of Superintendent.
- 55. Celtes, and with him the Emperor, was convinced that new methods of instruction were necessary, if Humanism was to triumph over Scholasticism. "A new institute was required, which should serve for the preparation and training of Humanism, a sort of seminary of Humanist scholars, not outside, but inside, the University."[127] These views led, in October 1501, to the foundation of the "Collegium Poetarum et Mathematicorum" by Maximilian. Planned by Celtes with the active approval of Cuspinian, the College in no way formed a fifth Faculty, though it was directly connected with the Faculty of Arts. Of its two divisions, the first was devoted to the study of mathematics, physics and astronomy, the second to that of poetry and rhetoric. The right of the coronation of poets, which had hitherto lain with the Emperor alone, was now vested by Maximilian in Celtes, as director of his own creation. The most distinguished scholars were to receive the crown of laurel, as a mark of high distinction and as an incentive to further efforts. But this privilege was exercised by Celtes for the first and last time, when in 1502 he crowned Stabius, his former colleague at Ingolstadt, and now Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Vienna. All subsequent coronations of poets were by Maximilian himself;[128] and the College of Poets fell into disuse after the death of Celtes in 1508. Even had worthy successors to Celtes and Stabius been found, it is doubtful whether the College would have had a permanent existence. Its hybrid position, as an independent institution and yet an integral part of the University, was a source of endless bickerings and quarrels, which can scarcely have been a recommendation to foreign scholars. Celtes' other peculiar institution, the "Literary Society of the Danube," which he had originally founded at Buda, and which transplanted itself to Vienna when he settled there, was a kind of academy or free union of scholars for the spread of Humanism. Its members were recruited from almost every nation, and were only held together by the personal influence of Celtes; on his death it shared the same fate as the College of Poets.
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