Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/712

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Frederick of Baden — collected 50,000 mercenaries, an army of unusual size for that era. This force was intended to oppose the army of Maximilian and the Spaniards, and as quickly as its numbers decreased they were recruited afresh. The Bavarian com- mander-in-chief Tilly defeated this force when it attempted to prevent his army and the Spaniards from occupying the fortified towns of the Electoral Palatinate (undecisive engagement at Wiesloch, 27 April, 1622; complete defeat of the army of the mar- grave at Baden at Wimpfen, 6 May, 1622; severe defeat of Christian at Hochst, 20 June, 1622). After this, however, the Netherlands, the foe of Spain, allowed the still unconquered Mansfeld to enter their territory; from here he advanced in 1623 into East Frisia. The plan was that Christian should come to his su]iport with a new army. Tilly, how- I • \- e r, pursued I "hristian and com- pli'iely defeated I mil on 6 August, 11123, at Stadtlohn ill Westphalia, but was not able at t hat moment to attack Mansfeld. I nder these cir- iiinistances Tilly was obliged to re- main innorth-west- irn Germany; the estates of this ter- ritory had taken no part in the war, and soon the quar- tering of the soldiers and the forced contributions aroused violent discontent among them.

A denominational movement now also gradually made itself felt. In 1623 for the first time a Catholic was elected bishop in the Diocese of Osnabriick. Hereupon the estates of Lower Saxony demanded the emperor's guarantee for the security of their lands which had formerly belonged to the Church. The emperor, however, was willing only to promise secur- ity against force, not against a judgment of dispos- session. In 1624 Maximilian began to make the Upper Palatinate once more Catholic. In Swabia the Cathohc estates sought to regain the many ecclesi- astical foundations that had been acquired by the Protestants. A large number of suits concerning ecclesiastical property were still in litigation before the courts of the empire. There developed on the one side the desire, and on the other the dread, that all the changes in the entire empire made by the Prot- estants contrary to the Religious Peace of Augsburg might be done away with. Foreign countries began to give increasing attention to the war. France sought especially to separate Maximilian from the emperor; the Netherlands granted subsidies; in 1624 a French embassy intrigued against the Habsburg dy- nasty at the Cierman and northern Courts; England and Holland negotiated both with King Christian IV of Denmark and with Gustavus Adolphus to induce these rulers to take part in the war. Christian, who belonged to the estates of the empire as Count of Holstein, was elected commander of their forces by the oppressed and aroused estates of the lower Saxon circle, and on 9 December, 1625, he came to an agreement with England and Holland and marched into the empire.

Thus the enemies of the emperor and the Duke of Bavaria became so powerful that the emijcror could no longer leave the burdens or the direction of the war to a single prince of the empire, even though this


prince were as able as Maximilian. The struggle now threatened to engage all Europe. Wallenstein, a Bohemian noble, and the ablest of all the leaders of mercenaries, offered to collect and maintain in the same way as the enemy a force larger and better equipped than that of the Protestants. Ferdinand accepted WaUenstein's offer, and on 7 April, 1625, appointed him general. For some unknown reason \\'allenstein and TiUy did not come to an under- standing. In 1026 Wallenstein took up a position on the Elbe. Mansfeld planned to surround him and establish communication with the Prince of Transyl- vania, but Wallenstein defeated him on 25 April at the bridge over the Elbe at Dessau. However, Mans- feld was able to march to Transylvania, where he found that Bethlen Gabor had decided to make peace. Shortly after his arrival he died of fever. Wallen- stein increased his army to 70,000 men and in the summer of 1627 he defeated Mansfeld's troops, now without a leader, at Kosel in Silesia on 9 July. In the meantime Tilly had defeated the Danish King Christian on 27 August, 1626, in a hotly-contested battle at Lutter on the Barenberg. During the winter Christ ian equipped a new army ; nevertheless, Tilly drove him from the lower Weser and Elbe, but did not take Stade.

IV. The Edict of Restitution. — The success of the imperial and Bavarian armies in Northern Ger- many enabled the Catholics to reclaim the lands of the Church. In 1626 the energetic Francis William of Wartenberg, a relative of Maximilian, became Bishop of Osnabriick. He sought to be made bishop also of the dioceses of Minden and A'erden, which had become Protestant. In 1627 the Austrian Archduke Leo- pold William became Bishop of Halberstadt; in the early part of 1628 he was defeated by a prince of Saxony in his attempt to secure the -Archdiocese of Magdeburg, but in the summer of 1628 he obtained the right of succession to the .Archdiocese of Bremen. In Southern Germany Maximilian undertook in 1627 to make the Electoral Palatinate Cathohc again. Catholic demands were now sent to the emperor from all sides. In accordance with the Habsburg method of administration and with the emperor's own way of thinking, these demands were all turned over in September, 1628, to the Aulic Council for judicial investigation. Following this, Ferdinand issued in March, 1629, the Edict of Restitution. In its first part the edict settled the meaning of the disputed ordinances of the Religious Peace; it then ordered that all legal suits arising from the Religious Peace which were pending before the imperial courts were to be settled summarily in accordance with the edict. It further appointed three commissions which were to determine and correct the infringements of the Reli- gious Peace in all parts of the empire. The Guelpha in Northern Germany were obliged to surrender what they had taken of the Diocese of Hildesheim in 1523 with the exception of a small part; in March, 1630, imperial commissioners took possession of Magde- burg, and in May and July, 1630, Francis \\'illiam of Wartenberg estabUshed himself at ^'erden and Min- den. In Southern Germany Wijrtemberg, in par- ticular, was forced to make restitution.

In the beginning of the trouble, at the period of the Bohemian revolt the more powerful of the Protestant estates had held to the emperor. The transfer of the electorate to Maximilian, however, had made Saxony and Brandenburg indignant because it put an end to the parity of religions in the Electoral College. To keep Brandenburg from joining the other side Wal- lenstein devastated it between 1626 and 1627. The Edict of Restitution, however, alienated all the Prot- estant rulers and nobles from the emperor. From desire of peace and from lack of strength they took no steps against him. It was not until the Catholic estates also became estranged from the emperor that