ters sought to give a general view of the
social life, together with the inner political and economic movements,
of Germany during that closing period of the Middle Ages which is
generally known as the era of the Reformation. With the definite
establishment of the Reformation and of the new political and economic
conditions that came with it in many of the rising States of Germany,
the Middle Ages may be considered as definitely coming to an end,
notwithstanding that, of course, a considerable body of mediaeval
conditions of social, political, and economic life continued to
survive all over Europe, and certainly not least in Germany.

We have now to take a general and, so to say, panoramic view embracing
three centuries and a half, dating from approximately the middle of
the sixteenth century to the present time. Our presentation, owing to
exigencies of space, will necessarily take the form of a mere sketch
of events and general tendencies, but a sketch that will, we hope, be
sufficient to connect periods and to enable the reader to understand
better than before the forces that have built up modern Germany and
have moulded the national character. In this long period of more than
three centuries there are two world-historic events, or rather series
of events, which stand out in bold relief as the causes which have
moulded Germany directly, and the whole of Europe indirectly, up to
the present day. These two epoch-making historical factors are (1) the
Thirty Years' War and (2) the Rise of the Prussian Monarchy.

Owing to the success of Protestantism, with its two forms of
Lutheranism and Calvinism in various German territories, the friction
became chronic between Catholic and Protestant interests throughout
the length and breadth of Central Europe. The Emperor himself was
chosen, as we know, by three ecclesiastical electors, the Archbishops
of Koeln, Trier, and Mainz, and by four princes, the Pfalzgraf, called
in English the Elector Palatine, the Markgraves of Saxony and
Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. The princes and other
potentates, owing immediate allegiance to the empire alone, were
practically independent sovereigns. The Reichstag, instituted in the
fifteenth century, attendance at which was strictly limited to these
immediate vassals of the empire, had proved of little effect. This was
shown when in the middle of the sixteenth century Protestantism had
established itself in the favour of the mass of the Germ