The triumph of the papacy over the Empire had been short-lived. Owing to the disturbed state of Italy, Clement V. was in 1305 compelled to take refuge at Avignon, and till 1377—a Summary of the characteristics of the 14th and 15th centuries. period known as the Babylonish captivity—the popes remained in France. While the Empire and papacy steadily decline, while the Byzantine empire falls before the Turks, strong monarchies are gradually formed in England, France, Spain, and Portugal, and in Italy the Renaissance movement covers the later years of the 15th century with glory (see Renaissance). During these centuries there is common to Europe no one principle which is to be found in all kingdoms. But while the old system, founded on belief in the unity of Europe under the Empire and papacy, declines amid chaos and turbulence, there is much intellectual and political activity which portends the appearance of an entirely new state of things. The 14th and 15th centuries may truly be styled a period of transition.
From the death of Conrad IV., the son of Frederick II., in 1254 to 1273, when Rudolph of Habsburg became king, chaos reigned in Germany, and the period is known as the Great Interregnum. The forces of decentralization strengthened themselves, and the emperors found that The decline of the Empire, 1254–1519. the formation of a strong and united German kingdom was an impossibility. Rudolph of Habsburg (1273–1291), realizing what were the limits of his power in Germany and the futility of attempting to establish his hold upon Italy, began that policy of family aggrandizement which was continued so notably by successive members of his house. His reign witnessed the firm establishment of the house of Anjou in Naples, and, after the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, the supremacy of the house of Aragon in Sicily. Refusing to follow the example of Frederick II. and to take part in distant expeditions, Rudolph conquered Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, Vienna became the capital of the Habsburg dominions in Germany, and his son Albert of Austria, who was king from 1298 to 1308, was careful to continue the policy of his father. Though no Habsburg was again elected to the imperial throne till 1438, when the long succession of emperors began which continued unbroken till 1742, the establishment of the Habsburgs in Austria by Rudolph proved an event of European importance. From that time the leading members of the Habsburg family never lost an opportunity of aggrandizement. In 1335 they received Carinthia, in 1363 the Tirol. While, however, the Habsburgs, the Wittelsbachs and later the house of Brandenburg were strengthening themselves, the Empire was steadily declining in power and influence. The 14th century saw Switzerland shake itself free from the Austrian house and establish its independence, which was, however, not formally acknowledged till the treaty of Westphalia in 1648.
During the 14th century the weakness of the Empire became more and more accentuated under the weak rule of Louis IV. On his death in 1346 his successor Charles of Luxemburg, known as the emperor Charles IV., made a celebrated attempt to form a strong centralized German monarchy. With that object he issued in 1356 the Golden Bull, by which it was hoped that all matters connected with the imperial election would be settled. The number of imperial electors was settled, and henceforth they were to consist of the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz and Trier, and of the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg and the count palatine of the Rhine. Charles hoped to concentrate gradually in his house all the chief German provinces, and having by the Golden Bull endeavoured to check the growth of the towns, he expected to establish firmly the imperial influence in Germany. But the towns were too strong to be coerced, and during his reign the Swabian cities formed a union; and though the marriage of his son Sigismund to the heiress of the king of Hungary and Poland, and the possession of Brandenburg, which fell to him in 1373, seemed steps towards the realization of his hopes, his death in 1378 left his work unfinished. Moreover, his son and successor Wenceslaus (1378–1400) proved, like Richard II. of England and Charles VI. of France, unequal to the task of checking the growing independence of the nobles and the cities. The Hanseatic League (q.v.) was at the height of its power, and in 1381 the Rhenish towns formed a confederation. Wenceslaus, like Richard II., had fallen upon evil times. The advance westwards by the Turks occupied the attention of his brother Sigismund, now king of Hungary; he was himself unpopular in Bohemia, and at the same time was exposed to the intrigues of his cousin Jobst of Moravia, who had secured Brandenburg. In 1400 Wenceslaus was formally deposed by the electors, and spent the rest of his life in Bohemia, where he died in 1419. His successor Rupert of the palatinate reigned from 1400 to 1410, and during his reign the council of Pisa endeavoured to bring to an end the great schism which had followed upon the return of Pope Urban VI. from Avignon to Rome in 1377. Two popes had been elected, one living at Rome, the other at Avignon, and Christian Europe was scandalized at the sight of two rival pontiffs. On Rupert’s death the electors chose Sigismund the brother of Wenceslaus, and he ruled as emperor from 1411 to 1437.
Thus at the beginning of the 15th century the papacy was
seen to have fallen from the high position which it occupied at
the time of the death of Frederick II. The Avignon
captivity followed by the great schism weakened its
temporal as well as its spiritual power and prestige,
Decline of
the papacy.
while national developments and dynastic ambitions,
such as led to the Hundred Years’ War, diverted men’s minds
from religious to purely temporal concerns. The work of Wycliffe
and Hus illustrated not only the decline of papal prestige
but also the general opinion that reform in the papacy was
necessary. Sigismund’s reign as emperor was rendered
noteworthy by the part which he took in the council of
Constance (q.v.), and by his successful efforts to suppress
Sigismund,
emperor,
1411–1437.
the Hussite movement in Bohemia (see Hussites).
That country on the death of Wenceslaus in 1419
fell to Sigismund, but it was not till 1431, after a long and
sanguinary war, that the opposition to the union of Bohemia
with the Empire was suppressed. Led by Žižka and other able
chiefs, the Bohemians who were Slavs utilized the Hussite
movement in a vigorous attempt to secure their independence.
In 1436 Sigismund was formally acknowledged king of Bohemia.
In 1431, the year of the final overthrow of the Bohemians and
the Hussites, he opened the council of Basel (q.v.), being
resolved to establish a religious peace in Europe and to prevent
the Hussite doctrines from spreading into Germany. In 1438
Sigismund died, leaving Germany involved in a quarrel with the
papacy, but having successfully withstood the efforts of the
Bohemians to acquire independence. Sigismund’s death marks
an epoch in the history of the Empire, for his successor Albert
of Austria proved to be the first of a long line of Habsburg
emperors. Albert himself reigned only from 1438 to 1440, but
on his death the imperial dignity was conferred upon another
member of the Habsburg house, Frederick, duke of Styria and
Carinthia, known as the emperor Frederick III. With his
accession the imperial throne became practically hereditary in
the Habsburg family. Frederick’s long reign, which lasted from
1440 to 1493, was of little benefit to Germany; for he showed
no administrative skill and proved a weak and incapable ruler.
Undoubtedly his lot fell upon evil days, for not only were the
Turks at the height of their power, but both Bohemia and
The taking of Constantinople
by the Turks.
Hungary gave him much anxiety. The imminent fall
of Constantinople, the last barrier of Christendom
against Islam in the East, was a threat not only to
the Empire, but to all Christian Europe. But western
Europe was too much occupied with internecine feuds to
unite effectively against the common enemy. In vain the emperor
John VI. had gone in person to solicit aid at the various courts
of the West; in vain he had humbled himself to pay the price
asked, by subscribing to the abnegation of the distinctive tenets
of the Orthodox Church, which secured the ephemeral reunion of
Christendom at the council of Florence (1438). The crusading
spirit was dead; the European powers stirred no finger to save
the imperial city; and in 1453 Sultan Mahommed II. rode
through the breach over the body of the last of the Eastern
