f seeing all cities between the Rhine and the Vistula
thus connected. The clergy, jealous of this municipal power, besought
the Emperor to repress the magistrates who had been called into being
by the people, and who were closely allied to this commercial
confederation. But the monarch advised the prelates to return to their
churches lest their opulent friends became their enemies.

The Rhine Hanse Towns

The influence of the Hanseatic League of the Rhine district in the
fourteenth century extended over the whole commercial radius of Germany,
Prussia, Russia, the Netherlands, and Britain. It opened up new fields
of commerce, manufacture, and industry. It paved the way for culture,
it subdued the piracy which had existed in the Baltic, and it promoted
a universal peace. On the other hand, it created jealousy; it boycotted
the honest manufacturer and merchant who did not belong to the League,
and fostered luxury in the Rhenish cities, which did much to sap the
sturdy character of the people. The celebrity which many of these
municipalities attained through their magnificence can be gathered from
the historic buildings of Worms, Spires, Frankfort, Cologne, Augsburg,
and Nuremberg. The splendour of these edifices and the munificence of
their wealthy inhabitants could only be equalled in the maritime regions
of Italy. But in the fifteenth century the power of the League began to
decline. The Russian towns, under the leadership of Novgorod the Great,
commenced a crusade against the Hanse Towns' monopoly in that country.
The general rising in England, which was one of the great warehouses,
under Henry VI and Edward IV reflected upon them. The Netherlands
followed England's example. In the seventeenth century their existence
was confined to three German towns--Luebeck, Hamburg, and Bremen. These
no longer had the power to exercise their influence over the nation, and
soon the League dropped out of existence.

The Thirty Years' War

The protracted struggle known as the Thirty Years' War was most
prejudicial to the interests of the Rhine valley, which was overrun by
the troops of the several nationalities engaged. One phase of this most
disastrous struggle--the War of the Palatinate--carried the rapine and
slaughter to the banks of the Rhine, where, as has been said, they
were long remembered. During the reign of Ferdinand III (1637-1659) a
vigorous and protracted war broke out between France and Germany, the
former assisted