mediately result, as the knights had hoped, in securing them allies powerful enough to aid them iu emancipating themselves from Polish domination, it was fraught with important consequences to Germany at large, no less than to the order itself." The state founded by the order had, through the peculiar relations in which it stood to the papal see, through its great privileges, and through the weakness of the German emperors, secured a most inde- pendent situation, which was still strengthened by the circumstance that the bishops, being members of the or- der which ruled the land, had more interest with this worldly power than with the papal see. The monasteries could put no check on the omnipotence of the order, for, as a consequence of the nature of things, they were few in number. This, and the political situation of the time, facilitated the entrance of the Reformation into Prussia. The grand-master of the Teutonic Order, margrave Albert von Brandenburg, endeavored in 1519 to shake ofi" the feudal supremacy of the pope. The wish of suppressing, according to Luther's advice, "the foolish, nonsensical rule of the order," of taking a wife, and making of Prus- sia a worldly principality, induced him, after the peace of Cracow, in 1525, to accept Prussia from the crown of Po- land as a secular, hereditary feud.
Foreseeing that an example so momentous to the ec- clesiastical dignitaries of Germany could not but arraign many adversaries against him, duke Albert looked about for allies, married the daughter of the king of Denmark in 1526, and, by renouncing Roman Catholicism, entered into the closest relations with the Protestants ofGermany. Under the protection of king Sigismund of Poland he could stand his ground, and the protestation of the pope and of the members of the orders spoiled of their rights was just as ineffectual as the '• Acht" pronounced against him by the emperor. Charles V had beeu powerless against him ; and Maximilian, who would have beeu powerfully supported by the German nobility, did not care to declare war against the house of Brandenburg, or to break the good understanding existing between him- self and his brother-in-law, the king of Poland, especial- ly as he lived in the hope that one of his sons would iu time ascend the Polish throne. The duke's example of adopting the new faitli was followed by many of the knights of Prussia, and Lutherauism, especially through many considerate as well as coercive measures, made rapid progress. Indeed, the whole country now began to improve and thrive. "Albert improved the mode of ad- ministering the laws, restored some order to the finances of the state, established schools, founded the University of Konigsberg (1544), and caused the Bible to be trans- lated into Polish, and several books of instruction to be printed in German, Polish, and Lithuanian. Upon his death, in 150s, Protestantism had so strengthened in Prus- sia that there remained not the least prospect of the Cath- olic Church getting the supremacy again. His sou and successor, Albert Frederick, having become insane, a re- gency was appointed. Several of his kinsmen, in turn, enjoyed the dignity of regent, and finally his son-in-law, Joliann Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, after having held the administration of affairs in his bands for some years, was, on the death of the duke in 1618, recognised as his successor, both by the people and by the king of Poland, from whom he received the investiture of the duchy of Prussia, which, since that period, has been gov- erned by the Hohenzollern-Brandenburg house.
"Here it will be necessary to retrace our steps in order briefly to consider the polit'ical and dynastic relations of the other parts of the Prussian state. In the 12th century the northern Mark, comprising probably the territory be- tween the Elbe and the Oder as far as its confluence with the Spree, was held by the immediate descendants of Al- bert, the Bear of Luxemburg, its first hereditary margrave, who, during the next two or three centuries, extended their dominions eastward beyond the Oder into Farther Pomerania. On the extinction of this line, known as the Ascanian house, a remote kinsman, Frederick VI, count of Hoheuzollern, and margrave ofNiirnberg, became pos- sessed—partly by purchase and partly by investiture from the emperor — of the Brandenburg "lauds, which, in his favor, were constituted into an electorate. This prince, known as the elector Frederick I, received his investiture in 1417. He united under his rule, iu addition to his hereditary Franconian lands of Anspach and Baireuth, a territory of more than 11,000 square miles. His reign was disturbed by the insubordination of the nobles and the constant incursions of his Prussian and Polish neighbors, but by his firmness and resolution he restored order at home and enlarged his boundaries. It is said that he gained possession of the castles of his refractory nobles by the aid of a 24-pounder, known as the ' Faule Grete ;' but even this unwonted auxiliary was of no avail iu a long war which he waged against the Hussites, who de- vastated the land and razed many of his cities in revenge for the part which Frederick had taken in acting as com- mander-in-chief of the imperial army that had been sent against them.
"Under Frederick's successors the Brandenburg rerri- | tory was augmented by the addition of many new acqni- I sitions, although the system of granting appanages to the I younger members of the reigning house, common at that