Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures, Maps, and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Usages
- Map 1 The Empire in 1547
- Map 2 The Peace of Westphalia, 1648
- Part I The Empire, the German Lands, and Their Peoples
- 1 Reformations in German Histories
- 2 Shapes of the German Lands
- 3 Temporal Estates – Farmers, Traders, Fighters
- 4 The Church and the Faith
- Part II Reform of the Empire and the Church, 1400–1520
- Part III Church, Reformations, and Empire, 1520–1576
- Part IV Confessions, Empire, and War, 1576–1650
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Shapes of the German Lands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures, Maps, and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Usages
- Map 1 The Empire in 1547
- Map 2 The Peace of Westphalia, 1648
- Part I The Empire, the German Lands, and Their Peoples
- 1 Reformations in German Histories
- 2 Shapes of the German Lands
- 3 Temporal Estates – Farmers, Traders, Fighters
- 4 The Church and the Faith
- Part II Reform of the Empire and the Church, 1400–1520
- Part III Church, Reformations, and Empire, 1520–1576
- Part IV Confessions, Empire, and War, 1576–1650
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although the Roman empire once was very powerful, its condition and strength began gradually to decline. It was therefore indicated that, following its translation to the Germans and with the passage of time, the empire should be supplied with special bulwarks and be fortified with princes …
Peter von AndlauOne morning in the year 1338 as the future Emperor Charles IV lay sleeping, a young knight woke him with the cry, “Sire, get up! The Last Day has arrived, for the whole world is covered with locusts!” Charles arose, dressed, went out to see how large the swarm was, and rode nearly thirty miles without coming to its end. Ten years later, a tremendous earthquake rocked the eastern Alps. A report from Villach in Carinthia said that the castle, monastery, churches, and all the city's walls and towers had collapsed; the earth opened up and poured out water and sulfur; at least 5,000 people had perished. The plague (Black Death) that followed close on this disaster raged so fiercely in Vienna, “that in a single day 1,200 bodies were buried in St. Colman's cemetery…. The great mortality was blamed on the Jews, and … the common people rose up in the towns of Stein and Krems … seized the Jews, and killed them all.” At Strasbourg, too, on the western edge of the Empire, Jews were rounded up and killed, and their kinsmen were forbidden ever to reside in the city again.
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- German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400–1650 , pp. 11 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009