rs. This method of spreading intelligence had come to Germany
from Italy. In Venice, from the year 1536, there were _Notizie
Scritte_, written news in successive series, which continued there till
the French Revolution. There also, appeared the first regular newspaper
shortly before 1600, which it is stated took the name of _Gazzetta_
from a little coin which was the cost of the single numbers.

Soon after, the German newspapers began to appear regularly. In 1615
the first weekly newspaper was published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, by
Egenolf Emmel, bookseller and printer. In opposition to which, in 1616,
the Imperial deputy postmaster Johann van der Brighden, published a
competing paper called 'Political Notices.' From these two undertakings
resulted the oldest German newspapers, the 'Frankfort Journal,' and the
'Oberpostamts Zeitung.'

But these and other weekly papers were for a long time, only news
sheets in which opinions on the facts communicated were carefully
withheld. The great stream of public opinion still continued for two
centuries to run in the old direction; the flying leaves and occasional
brochures.

At the beginning of the war even the distant readers were compelled to
be violent partisans. Everywhere appeared controversial writings,
opinions, councils, and deliberations. The nation was rent into large
parties by this intellectual strife, and it is instructive to see how
the writings of the disputants stand in exact relation to the success
which their party had achieved. Till the battle of the Weissen Berge
nine tenths of all the narratives and controversial writings are
Protestant; they reached full a thousand in number. Hatred to the
Jesuits blazed fiercely; bitter was the rancour against the Emperor,
and incessant were the cautions against the League. After Prague,
Strasburg was the centre of their warlike activity. Whilst at Prague
the libel-writer von Roerig, as _Huss-redivius_, made his voice heard
vehemently in many 'Political Discourses' against his adversary Sturm:
the _magisters_ of Strasburg, after the fashion of Boccalini, made
accusations against the same opponent, before Apollo and the high court
of Parnassus; but their Apollo had to deliver human and explicit
oracles. The answers in defence are cautious and uncertain, as during
the whole war the Catholic party were generally not a match for the
Protestants in the serious warfare of the pen. But the speedy flight of
the new King of Bohem