The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-09
lectual contents and the negative results
of the whole Of this so-ca lied science.

I the influence of the Cr,isades, which, az
! Prof. Prutz demonstrates, produced an
intellectual emancipation which was des-
! tined to bear the fairest blooms OF civili-
| zation. In the long years of conflict be-
tween the West and the Fast men came
to closer acquaintance with professors
OF faiths other than their own. as with
Greeks and Mohammedans, and thereby
realized that the pictures which the Latin
Church had been wont to draw Of them
were in no respect in keeping with reality
Thus the first step was taken toward q
freer conception Of religion generally.
and doubts arose in regard to the exclusive
claims urged by the Roman Church for its
teachings Through the Crusades also
the Western world learned to appreciate
the freshness and beauty which the East
offered 1t, and sought not only to enjoy
but also to naturalize them. BY the end
of the crusading period the Occident
appears changed both inwardly and In
It's relations to the outward mediterranean
pated and qualified for exercising Its newly
awakened powers with pleasure and sue
cess. Myriads Of crusaders. pilgrims,
traders and adventures had brought back
from the Orient the stimulating and sug-
gestive civilizations native to the Byzantine
Empire and the Mohammedan lands The
industries hitherto practised In the West
after primitive fashion were quickened
and differentiated in thousand ways
under the new conditions in which they
were now pursued. The barriers OF caste
distinction also being weakened, the various
nationalities came into nearer relations
and We'd with each other in the cntiva-
ton of the arts of peace. Above all the
intellectual side of life experience a radi-
cal transformation. The ecclesiastical
tutelage of learning and science drew to-
ward a close; these gradually made them
selves independent and went their own
way. The deep impression made by Nature
with its hitherto unrevealed richness in
form and color, the dissipation Of preju-
dices through intercourse with foreign
peoples and familiarity with their Ian
by the high Intellectual culture of the
Moslems conspired to widen infinitely the
intellectual horizon of the Occident. IA
consequence the West freed itself from
servitude to the literature and language
of Rome, and began, by the Use Of the native
vernaculars for literary purposes. to widen
the influence Of literature on the people.
In the crusading period. then, Prof Prutz
finds the common cement Of that process
which was to supplant medievalsm by a
new era and new civilization.
How did it come to pass that the estab-
lishment Of German universal empire
proved impractical BILE, and that even the
evolution of compact national monarchy.
such as the French or English, could not
be brought about in Germany? The qles-
ton is considered in the sixteenth chapter
of this volume. Prof. Prutz shows how
the absence Of Frederick II. in Italy. the
unopposed exercise of virtual indepen-
dence by the German princes at that time
and the conflict about the succession to the
imperial throne, that filled the Great Inter-
regnum which followed Frederick's death,
all contributed to hasten the change in the
German Constitution which had begun
much earlier The most marked feature
Of this change, which was to endure for |
upward Of five centuries lay in the con-
version Of semi-heredtary kingdom into
an elective one. The custom OF selecting
from those princes and magnates who
we're the principal participants in the cleo
ton of a king a committee whose reso-
utions were generally accepted without
iemur had in the course of time given
The tribal dukes certain privileges as re-
cards the choice of ruler. Those mag
mates who held certain high offices of the
empire asserted particular claims to these
privileges. According to the law book
,alled the "Sachsenspiegel. composed be-
ween A. D. 1924 and 1885, the three spiritual
electors We're the Archbishops of Mayence,
Cologne and TrAves. The first temporal
vote was cast by the lord high steward, the
COUNT Palatine of the Rhine; the second,
by the marshal. the Duke OF Saxony. and
n third by the Margrave of Brandenburg.
%the lord high chamberlain. To the
King of Bohemia. although he was the
was allowed no vote in 1878,
because he was not German. Thus the
franchise which had once been pos
essed in common by all the German princes
lad fallen into abeyance. The newly
organized College of Electors was brought
nto play. after the Great Interregnum to
elect A single head Of the State for the
ostoratio of order in the German realm.
40 sooner, however, was Rudolf Of Haps-
,urg, who had made himself Land grave of
Alsace, chosen King by the votes of
he six electors above named Q273), than he
IL MS tuTn SlTONe 10 make MS crown nered-
tary. He met with decided refusal, how
ver, at the hands of the Princes, when, in
he spring of 1891, he proposed the can
iidacy of his son Albert a diet in Frank
ort. 1t is true that. seven years later.
Albert obtained the crown but only at the
ost of civil war, and thenceforward he
GEMS to have renowned the design Of max
ng the imperial dignity hereditary in his
an " and to have restricted himself to
ggrandizing his territorial power. Another
ivil war. which lasted for eight years
ollowed the death Of Albert's successor,
1enry Of Luxembourg, and brought about
he same results which different causes
lad produced contemporaneously in Eng
and and France: an accumulation OF
nta gonistic social differences For OF
he two claimants Of the German throne,
.ouis Of Bavaria found his name supported
n the cities, and Frederick OF Austria
mong the mobiles. Only the first sta &c in
he political disintegration OF Germany is
overed by the present volume of this his
Dry, which ends with the first quarter OF
he fourteenth century. The process went on,