THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.

THE

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

BY
JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L.
FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE
and
PROFESSOR OF CIVIL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

THIRD EDITION REVISED

London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1871

OXFORD:
By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The object of this treatise is not so much to give anarrative history of the countries included in the Romano-GermanicEmpire—Italy during the middle ages, Germanyfrom the ninth century to the nineteenth—as todescribe the Holy Empire itself as an institution orsystem, the wonderful offspring of a body of beliefs andtraditions which have almost wholly passed away fromthe world. Such a description, however, would not beintelligible without some account of the great eventswhich accompanied the growth and decay of imperialpower; and it has therefore appeared best to give thebook the form rather of a narrative than of a dissertation;and to combine with an exposition of what may becalled the theory of the Empire an outline of the politicalhistory of Germany, as well as some notices of the affairsof mediæval Italy. To make the succession of eventsclearer, a Chronological List of Emperors and Popes hasbeen prefixed[1].

The present edition has been carefully revised andcorrected throughout; and a good many additions havebeen made to both text and notes.

Lincoln's Inn,
August 11, 1870.

vii

CONTENTS.