supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs. He stated that the only authority
in matters of faith was the Bible, with the necessary interpretation
given it by a general council composed of both clergy and laymen; that
the emperor had the right to convoke and {44} direct this council and
to punish all priests, prelates and the supreme pontiff; that the Canon
Law had no validity; that no temporal punishment should be visited on
heresy save by the state, and no spiritual punishment be valid without
the consent of the state.

[Sidenote: Germany]

With such a weapon in their hands the emperors might have taken an even
stronger stand than did the kings of England and France but for the
lack of unity in their dominions. Germany was divided into a large
number of practically independent states. It was in these and not in
the empire as a whole that an approach was made to a form of national
church, such as was realized after Luther had broken the bondage of
Rome. When Duke Rudolph IV of Austria in the fourteenth century stated
that he intended to be pope, archbishop, archdeacon and dean in his own
land, when the dukes of Bavaria, Saxony and Cleves made similar boasts,
they but put in a strong form the program that they in part realized.
The princes gradually acquired the right of patronage to church
benefices, and they permitted no bulls to be published, no indulgences
sold, without their permission. The Free Cities acted in much the same
way. The authority of the German states over their own spiritualities
was no innovation of the heresy of Wittenberg.

For all Germany's internal division there was a certain national
consciousness, due to the common language. In no point were the people
more agreed than in their opposition to the rule of the Italian Curia.
[Sidenote: 1382] At one time the monasteries of Cologne signed a
compact to resist Gregory XI in a proposed levy of tithes, stating
that, "in consequence of the exactions by which the Papal Court burdens
the clergy the Apostolic See has fallen into contempt and the Catholic
faith in these parts seems to be seriously imperiled." Again, {45} a
Knight of the Teutonic Order in Prussia [Sidenote: 1430] wrote: "Greed
reigns supreme in the Roman Court, and day by day finds new devices and
artifices for extorting money from Germany under pretext of
ecclesiastical fees. Hence arise much outcry, complaint and
heart-burning. . . . Many questions about the papacy will be answered,