RUDOLF
219
RUDOLF
resistance of many cities which had to be put down
by force of arms before they came to an agreement
with the Emperor.
With Rudolf began a period of national peace for Germany which was to last for two hun- dred years. Taking as his model the pacific settlement made by the Emperor Frederick II, in the Landfricden at Mainz, in 1235, he drew up a number of agreements which, though often broken, were the chief means of protecting commerce and trade. But here also he had to be content, if the princes and towns really carried out these settlements to do which they claimed as their right and if they really checked the system of robbery, which, under the form of "feuds", prevailed more and more. This however was not always the case. Even in such cases Rudolf did not take vigorous measures and prove practically that the maintenance of public peace was the duty of the Emperor. Lesser peace-breakers he punished; greater ones only in case they threatened his dynastic interests. In Swabia his governor {Landvogl), Count Albert of Hohenberg, fought with- out much success against Count Eberhard the Il- lustrious of Wiirtemberg; against Siegfried, the am- bitious Metropolitan of Cologne, he proceeded by force of arms. But it was not the warlike measures of Rudolf, but the defeat of Siegfried near Wor- ringen in I'iSS by the Duke of Bral)ant in the quarrel concerning the inheritance of Duke Walram of Lim- burg that cm-bed the ambitious efforts of the arch- bishoj). Ruflolf was more successful in his efforts (1289) to settle the disputes in the House of Wettin. But his chief ambition, to secure the imperial crown for his house, he failed to realize. Th(! electoral au- thority grew stronger during his reign, and the system of electing its kings remainef I the canker of the German Empire. Until the very last he endeavoured to in- crease the power of his family; indeed, in the eiist of the empire, he created for his family such a position that a little later it developed into a decisive factor in the subsequent historical evolution of the German Empire. Meanwhile, considering the difficult con- ditions, he did very much to restore the unity of the empire. By his wi.se moderation he secured for him- self general recognition, being the first emperor for a long period to achieve this end. The many diets which he held must also have strengthened the feel- ing of the unity of the empire. His foreign policy showed the same wise moderation. He abstained from taking any action in the Italian question, without however resigning the rights of the empire. How- ever much the pope strove to secure the support of the German king against the i)owerful Charles of Anjou in order to check his power in the .south of the peninsula, Rudolf wiis always able to skilfully avoid the overtures; even the attractions of the imperial crown were of no account in the eyes of this .sober and calculating prince. In Burgundian affairs he inter- fered only as far as his action was likely to increase the power of his house, by strengthening it on the imperial frontiers towards Burguncly. Otherwise his policy in the West was guitled by the principle of preserving peaceful relations with France. The death of this uyiright and popular monarch was received with lamentations throughout the empire. He was buried at Speyer.
LiUDNEB, Deutsche Gesch. unter den Habsburgern u. Luxem- burgern (Stuttgart, 1888-93); Kopp, Gesck. der eidgenossischen Bunde (Basle, 1882) ; Michael, Gesch. des deutschen Volkes vom 13. Jahrh. bis zum Ausgang des MitteUiUers (Freiburg, 1897- 1903); ScHULTE, Gesch. der Habsburger in den ersten drei Jahr- hunderten (Innsbruck, 1887); Redlich. Rudolph von Ilabsburg (Innsbruck, 1903).
Franz Kampers.
Rudolf of Riidesheim, Bishop of Breslau, b. at Riidesheim on the Rhine, about 1402; d. at Breslau in Jan., 1482. From 1422 to 1426 he studied at the University of Heidelberg from which he graduated aa
master. He then proceeded to Italy, graduated as
doctor in ecclesiastical law and became auditor of
the Rota. Numerous benefices were conferred upon
him at an early date, particularly in the dioceses of
Mainz and Worms. From 1438 onward he represented
the cathedral chapter of the latter city at the schismatic
Council of Basle, where he formed a friend.ship with
Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini, subsequently Pope
Pius II. The latter, his successor Paul II, and the
Emperor Frederick III entrusted Rudolf with im-
portant missions and difficult negotiations. Pius
II named him in 1463 Bishop of Lavant in Tyrol.
The See of Breslau was conferred on him in 1468,
at a time when the inhabitants were spiritedly re-
sisting their ruler, George Podiebrad, King of
Bohemia. The latter had been deposed and ex-
communicated, but maintained his position as ruler.
The war which resulted was protracted beyond
Podiebrad's lifetime and terminated, with Rudolf's
co-operation, in the Peace of Olmiitz in 1479. Now
intent more exclusively upon the spiritual welfare
of his diocese, the bishop sought to heal the wounds
of the war, endeavoured to imbue the diocesan secu-
lar and regular clergy with a soimd ecclesiastical
spirit, and insisted upon the importance of their
proper theological training. The acts of the synods
held in 1473 and 1475 bear witness to the zeal and
energy of the .skilful prelate.
Zaun, Rwlolf von Riidesheim (Frankfort, 1881); Pastor, 1/isl. of the Popes, tr. Antrobu.s, III (London, 1894), 174, 198- 201.
N. A. Weber.
Rudolf von Ems (Hohenems in Switzerland), a Middle High German ej)ic poet of the thirteenth cen- tury. Almost nothing is known of his life. He him- self tells us that he was in the service of the Counts of Montfort and from the anonymous continuator of the "Weltchronik" we learn that the poet died "in welschen richen", i. e. in Italy, whither he had prob- ably gone with King Konrad IV, about 1254. He professes himself a follower of Gottfried von Strass- i)urg, for whom he entertains the greatest admiration, but his moralizing and didactic tendency differs strik- ingly from Gottfried's joyous .sen.su alism, and he is prone to diffusencss and redundancy. In the choice of subjects he shows a ])redilection for tho.se that are learned, and he generally draws from Latin sources. The earliest of his extant poems and one of the best is " Der gute Cierhard" in which the simple piety of an humble merchant of Cologne puts to shame the Phar- isaical ostentation of the Emperor Otto. The didactic tendency is very conspicuous in the poem "Barlaam und Jo.saphat", which treats a well known Christian legend that seems to have its root in Buddhist sources and which on account of its glorification of the ascetic life and its defence of Christianity against Paganism was a favourite subject with medieval poets. Another poem on a legendary subject, the conversion of St. Eustace, which Rudolf mentions among his works, has not been preserved. " Wilhelm von Orlens", a courtly epic with a conventional love- story, is based on a French original and was written for one Konrad von Winterstetten (d. 1241). Rudolf's most ambitious efforts were the historical epics "Alex- ander" and "Weltchronik". For the former the chief sources are the "historia de preliis" and the work of Curtius Rufus. The "Weltchronik" was undertaken at the request of King Konrad IV and was to be a complete history of the world from the beginning to the poet's own time. But death intervened and the story breaks off with King Solomon's reign. An anonymous poet then took up the subject and, making free use of Rudolf's material as well as drawing on Godfrey of Viterbo's "Pantheon", he gave a version that carried the story as far as the Book of Judges. This .second recension, usually called the " Christ - Herre-Chronik", from its opening words, was sub-
