THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
V., was ready to come to terms. Ernest received some compensation, in 1581, by obtaining the rich diocese of Liege.
Gebhard (b. at the Waldburg, 5 m. e.s.e. of Ravensburg, in Swabia, Nov. 10, 1547; d. at Strasburg May 21, 1601) descended from the old Swabian family of the Truchsesses of Waldburg; his father was Imperial Councilor Wilhelm Truchsess; his uncle, Cardinal Otto of Augsburg. A careful education had fallen to his portion, as even at an early age he was destined for the spir-
3. Geb- itual vocation. He attended, so the
hard II. accepted report has it, the universities of Dillingen, Ingolstadt, and (longest) Lou vain; then terminated his studies with a sojourn in Italy, 1567. His spiritual career began in 1560 with the acquisition of a prebendary position at Augsburg; in 1561 he became canon at Cologne; capitular at Strasburg in 1567; and capitular at Cologne in 1568, in place of the newly elected elector Salentin. From data of the year 1569 it is known that Gebhard led a scandalous life at Augsburg, and by request of Cardinal Otto, Duke Albert V interposed with exhortations which appear to have occasioned some improvement. In 1574 Gebhard became dean of the cathedral at Strasburg; in 1576, by papal nomination, provost of the cathedral at Augsburg. At all events, his ecclesiastical behavior must have been clear of suspicious imputations, and the curia was ready to confirm his election as elector of Cologne.
A personal matter drew the elector, some years after his election, into the ecclesiastical strife, and gave new life to the Bavarian hopes. Gebhard, about 1580, had formed a liaison with Countess Agnes of Mansfeld, a canoness of the cloister at Gerresheim. Under the insistencies of the dishonored woman's relatives, Gebhard resolved on marriage. Originally, no doubt, he meant to resign his office and renounce the spiritual career; but the same friends who had been active in securing his election now induced him to retain the archiepiscopal position despite his marriage. After somewhat prolonged, though not, indeed, by any means satisfactory preliminaries, and after formal conclusion thereof in the city of Bonn, which, for that matter, was anything but unanimously in accord with him, the elector publicly announced, in Dec, 1582, and in Jan., 1583, that he licensed the exercise of both confessions in the archdiocese, the old as well as the new; and that he himself intended to adopt the Augsburg Confession, to remain archbishop, and to marry. Gebhard's short-sightedness betrays itself in the fact that on publicly declaring his purpose he still had no assurance that he had sufficient support in the archdiocese, or that he would receive encouragement from the German Protestants or from Orange and the States-General. Up to that time, only the counts of Wetterau and Palgrave John Casimir had showed themselves ready to help. In case a general Protestant support were lacking — and this was just what happened, thanks to the mistaken policy of Elector Augustus of Saxony — the unsuccessful issue of this attempt toward religious freedom was inevitable from the outset.
Even before Gebhard had publicly announced his purposes, his adversaries were stirring (from the autumn of 1582); the cathedral chapter at Cologne opposing on both ecclesiastical and personal grounds the secularization of the archdiocese, devised measures of resistance, and formed an alliance with the
governor-general of the Netherlands,
4. Geb- Alexander of Parma; moreover the ter-
hard's ritorial estates of the diocese declared
Downfall, themselves against Gebhard's project.
The most influential member of the chapter, the suffragan bishop, Duke Frederick of Saxe-Lauenburg, even began, on his own responsibility, open war against the innovation. The city of Cologne arrayed itself against the elector; the Emperor charged him to desist; and the curia instituted canonical procedure against all apostates. In Apr. 1583, Gebhard was excommunicated and deposed from his rank. Bavarian statecraft now began to stir anew, and the curia, no less than Gebhard's antagonists in the chapter at Cologne, accepted Duke Ernest as their sole possible candidate. He had appeared in Cologne at the beginning of March, and at the new election, duly appointed under date of May 23, he was unanimously elected archbishop. Ernest and Gebhard now confronted each other as champions of different principles no less than as exponents of personal interests; nor was Gebhard disposed to recede. Promptly after his election, Ernest, supported by his brother Duke William V., by the Spanish Government at Brussels, and by the curia, collected an army; his elder brother, Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, was appointed commander-in-chief, in the summer of 1583; and Spanish regiments were furthermore in readiness to cooperate, since it would be a new menace to the shattered Spanish dominion in the Netherlands if the electorate of Cologne fell into Protestant hands. Gebhard's military forces were quite unequal to this opposition. Among the archdiocesan subjects, only the estates of the duchy of Westphalia had declared in his favor; in the Rhenish districts of the electorate, Gebhard, at the beginning of the war, had only a few secure points in his hand (Bonn, Bedbur, Berk, and Uerdingen) ; in the southern portion of the diocese, his brother Karl Truchsess fought on his side and in the north his most capable partizan, Count Adolphus of Neuenar, but both with meager commands. Palgrave John Casimir, to be sure, the sole Protestant prince who attempted to furnish real assistance, marched up to his support with seven thousand men in the summer of 1583; but his army, unfit to begin with, and by no means well handled under his own leadership, was well-nigh ready to disband after two months of fruitless maneuvering on the right bank of the Rhine, and in consequence of a shortage of pay. In October John Casimir was recalled from the seat of war to Heidelberg, to assume the regency on occasion of the death of his brother, Elector Louis. The ban of the Empire, threatened by the emperor, contributed to the collapse of this auxiliary service. Negotiations with the States-General leading to no result, Gebhard was left to his own resources for facing the much stronger adversary. In spite of