Joachim II., Sixth Elector, no doubt after painful study, and intricate silent consideration ever since his twelfth year when Luther was first heard of over the world, came gradually, and before his Father’s death had already come, to the conclusion of adopting the Confession of Augsburg, as the true Interpretation of this Universe, so far as we had yet got; and did so, publicly, in the year 1539. [Rentsch, .] To the great joy of Berlin and the Brandenburg populations generally, who had been of a Protestant humor, hardly restrainable by Law, for some years past.  By this decision Joachim held fast, with a stout, weighty grasp; nothing spasmodic in his way of handling the matter, and yet a heartiness which is agreeable to see.  He could not join in the Schmalkaldic War; seeing, it is probable, small chance for such a War, of many chiefs and little counsel; nor was he willing yet to part from the Kaiser Karl V., who was otherwise very good to him.

He had fought personally for this Kaiser, twice over, against the Turks; first as Brandenburg Captain, learning his art; and afterwards as Kaiser’s Generalissimo, in 1542.  He did no good upon the Turks, on that latter occasion; as indeed what good was to be done, in such a quagmire of futilities as Joachim’s element there was?  “Too sumptuous in his dinners, too much wine withal!” hint some calumniously. [Paulus Jovius, &c.  See Pauli, ii-73.] “Hector of Germany!” say others.  He tried some small prefatory Siege or scalade of Pesth; could not do it; and came his ways home again, as the best course.  Pedant Chroniclers give him the name HECTOR, “Joachim Hector,”-to match that of CICERO and that of ACHILLES.  A man of solid structure, this our Hector, in body and mind:  extensive cheeks, very large heavy-laden face; capable of terrible bursts of anger, as his kind generally were.

The Schmalkaldic War went to water, as the Germans phrase it:  Kur-Sachsen,-that is, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Son of Johann “V.  D. M. I. AE.,” and Nephew of Friedrich the Wise,-had his sorrowfully valid reasons for the War; large force too, plenty of zealous copartners, Philip of Hessen and others; but no generalship, or not enough, for such a business.  Big Army, as is apt enough to happen, fell short of food; Kaiser Karl hung on the outskirts, waiting confidently till it came to famine.  Johann Friedrich would attempt nothing decisive while provender lasted;-and having in the end, strangely enough, and somewhat deaf to advice, divided his big Army into three separate parts;-Johann Friedrich was himself, with one of those parts, surprised at Muhlberg, on a Sunday when at church (24th April, 1547); and was there beaten to sudden ruin, and even taken captive, like to have his head cut off, by the triumphant angry Kaiser.  Philip of Hessen, somewhat wiser, was home to Marburg, safe with HIS part, in the interim.-Elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg had good reason to rejoice in his own cautious reluctances on this occasion.  However, he did now come valiantly up, hearing what severities were in the wind.

He pleaded earnestly, passionately, he and Cousin or already “Elector” Moritz, [Pauli, ii.]-who was just getting Johann Friedrich’s Electorship fished away from him out of these troubles, [Kurfürst, 4th June, 1547.]-for Johann Friedrich of Saxony’s life, first of all.  For Johann’s life FIRST; this is a thing not to be dispensed with, your Majesty, on any terms whatever; a sine qua non, this life to Protestant Germany at large.  To which the Kaiser indicated, “He would see; not immediate death at any rate; we will see.”  A life that could not and must not be taken in this manner:  this was the FIRST point.  Then, SECONDLY, that Philip of Hessen, now home again at Marburg,-not a bad or disloyal man, though headlong, and with two wives,-might not be forfeited; but that peace and pardon might be granted him, on his entire submission.  To which second point the Kaiser answered, “Yes, then, on his submission.”  These were the two points.  These pleadings went on at Halle, where the Kaiser now lies, in triumphantly victorious humor, in the early days of June, Year 1547.  Johann Friedrich of Saxony had been, by some Imperial Court-Council or other,-Spanish merely, I suppose,-doomed to die.  Sentence was signified to him while he sat at chess:  “Can wait till we end the game,” thought Johann;-“PERGAMUS,” said he to his comrade, “Let us go on, then!” Sentence not to be executed till one see.

With Philip of Hessen things had a more conclusive aspect.  Philip had accepted the terms procured for him; which had been laboriously negotiated, brought to paper, and now wanted only the sign-manual to them:  "Ohne einigen Gefangniss(without any imprisonment),” one of the chief clauses.  And so Philip now came over to Halle; was met and welcomed by his two friends, Joachim and Moritz, at Naumburg, a stage before Halle;-clear now to make his submission, and beg pardon of the Kaiser, according to bargain.  On the morrow, 19th June, 1547, the Papers were got signed.  And next day, 20th June, Philip did, according to bargain, openly beg pardon of the Kaiser, in his Majesty’s Hall of Audience (Town House of Halle, I suppose); “knelt at the Kaiser’s feet publicly on both knees, while his Kanzler read the submission and entreaty, as agreed upon;” and, alas, then the Kaiser said nothing at all to him!  Kaiser looked haughtily, with impenetrable eyes and shelf-lip, over the head of him; gave him no hand to kiss; and left poor Philip kneeling there.  An awkward position indeed;-which any German Painter that there were, might make a Picture of, I have sometimes thought.  Picture of some real meaning, more or less,-if for symbolic.  Towers of Babel, medieval mythologies, and extensive smearings of that kind, he could find leisure!-Philip having knelt a reasonable time, and finding there was no help for it, rose in the dread silence (some say, with too sturdy an expression of countenance); and retired from the affair, having at least done his part of it.

The next practical thing was now supper, or as we of this age should call it, dinner.  Uncommonly select and high supper:  host the Duke of Alba; where Joachim, Elector Moritz, and another high Official, the Bishop of Arras, were to welcome poor Philip after his troubles.  How the grand supper went, I do not hear:  possibly a little constrained; the Kaiser’s strange silence sitting on all men’s thoughts; not to be spoken of in the present company.  At length the guests rose to go away.  Philip’s lodging is with Moritz (who is his son-in-law, as learned readers know):  “You Philip, your lodging is mine; my lodging is yours,-I should say!  Cannot we ride together?”-“Philip is not permitted to go,” said Imperial Officiality; “Philip is to continue here, and we fear go to prison.”-“Prison?” cried they all:  “OHNE EINIGEN GEFANGNISS (without ANY imprisonment)!”-“As we read the words, it is ‘OHNE EWIGEN GEFANGNISS (without ETERNAL imprisonment),’” answer the others.  And so, according to popular tradition, which has little or no credibility, though printed in many Books, their false Secretary had actually modified it.

“No intention of imprisoning his DURCHLAUCHT of Hessen FOREVER; not forever!” answered they.  And Kurfürst Joachim, in astonished indignation, after some remonstrating and arguing, louder and louder, which profited nothing, blazed out into a very whirlwind of rage; drew his sword, it is whispered with a shudder,-drew his sword, or was for drawing it, upon the Duke of Alba; and would have done, God knows what, had not friends flung themselves between, and got the Duke away, or him away. [Pauli, ii.] Other accounts bear, that it was upon the Bishop of Arras he drew his sword; which is a somewhat different matter.  Perhaps he drew it on both; or on men and things in general;-for his indignation knew no bounds.  The heavy solid man; yet with a human heart in him after all, and a Hohenzollern abhorrence of chicanery, capable of rising to the transcendent pitch!  His wars against the Turks, and his other Hectorships, I will forget; but this, of a face so extensive kindled all into divine fire for poor Philip’s sake, shall be memorable to me.

Philip got out by and by, though with difficulty; the Kaiser proving very stiff in the matter; and only yielding to obstinate pressures, and the force of time and events.  Philip got away; and then how Johann Friedrich of Sachsen, after being led about for five years, in the Kaiser’s train, a condemned man, liable to be executed any day, did likewise at last get away, with his head safe and Electorate gone:  these are known Historical events, which we glanced at already, on another score.

For, by and by, the Kaiser found tougher solicitation than this of Joachim’s.  The Kaiser, by his high carriage in this and other such matters, had at length kindled a new War round him; and he then soon found himself reduced to extremities again; chased to the Tyrol Mountains, and obliged to comply with many things.  New War, of quite other emphasis and management than the Schmalkaldic one; managed by Elector Moritz and our poor friend Albert Alcibiades as principals.  A Kaiser chased into the mountains, capable of being seized by a little spurring;-“Capture him?” said Albert.  “I have no cage big enough for such a bird!” answered Moritz; and the Kaiser was let run.  How he ran then towards Treaty of Passau (1552), towards Siege of Metz and other sad conclusions, “Abdication” the finale of them:  these also are known phases in the Reformation History, as hinted at above.

Here at Halle, in the year 1547, the great Kaiser, with Protestantism manacled at his feet, and many things going prosperous, was at his culminating point.  He published his INTERIM (1548, What you troublesome Protestants are to do, in the mean time, while the Council of Trent is sitting, and till it and I decide for you); and in short, drove and reined-in the Reich with a high hand and a sharp whip, for the time being.  Troublesome Protestants mostly rejected the Interim; Moritz and Alcibiades, with France in the rear of them, took to arms in that way; took to ransoming fat Bishoprics ("Verbum Diaboli Manet,” we know where!);-took to chasing Kaisers into the mountains;-and times came soon round again.  In all these latter broils Kurfürst Joachim II., deeply interested, as we may fancy, strove to keep quiet; and to prevail, by weight of influence and wise counsel, rather than by fighting with his Kaiser.

One sad little anecdote I recollect of Joachim:  an Accident, which happened in those Passau-Interim days, a year or two after that drawing of the sword on Alba.  Kurfürst Joachim unfortunately once fell through a staircase, in that time; being, as I guess, a heavy man.  It was in the Castle of Grimnitz, one of his many Castles, a spacious enough old Hunting-seat, the repairs of which had not been well attended to.  The good Herr, weighty of foot, was leading down his Electress to dinner one day in this Schloss of Grimnitz; broad stair climbs round a grand Hall, hung with stag-trophies, groups of weapons, and the like hall-furniture.  An unlucky timber yielded; yawning chasm in the staircase; Joachim and his good Princess sank by gravitation; Joachim to the floor with little hurt; his poor Princess (horrible to think of), being next the wall, came upon the stag-horns and boar-spears down below! [Pauli, ii.] The poor Lady’s hurt was indescribable:  she walked lame all the rest of her clays; and Joachim, I hope (hope, but not with confidence), [Ib. ii.] loved her all the better for it.  This unfortunate old Schloss of Grimnitz, some thirty miles northward of Berlin, was-by the Eighth Kurfürst, Joachim Friedrich, Grandson of this one, with great renown to himself and to it-converted into an Endowed High School:  the famed Joachimsthal Gymnasium, still famed, though now under some change of circumstances, and removed to Berlin itself. [Nicolai, .]

Joachim’s first Wife, from whom descend the following Kurfursts, was a daughter of that Duke George of Saxony, Luther’s celebrated friend, “If it rained Duke-Georges nine days running.”

JOACHIM GETS CO-INFEFTMENT IN PREUSSEN.

This second Wife, she of the accident at Grimnitz, was Hedwig, King Sigismund of Poland’s daughter; which connection, it is thought, helped Joachim well in getting what they call the MITBELEHNUNG of Preussen (for it was he that achieved this point) from King Sigismund.

MITBELEHNUNG (Co-infeftment) in Preussen;-whereby is solemnly acknowledged the right of Joachim and his Posterity to the reversion of Preussen, should the Culmbach Line of Duke Albert happen to fail.  It was a thing Joachim long strove for; till at length his Father-in-law did, some twenty years hence, concede it him. [Date, Lublin, 19th July, 1568:  Pauli, ii-179, 193; Rentsch, ; Stenzel, , 342.] Should Albert’s Line fail, then, the other Culmbachers get Preussen; should the Culmbachers all fail, the Berlin Brandenburgers get it.  The Culmbachers are at this time rather scarce of heirs:  poor Alcibiades died childless, as we know, and Casimir’s Line is extinct; Duke Albert himself has left only one Son, who now succeeds in Preussen; still young, and not of the best omens.  Margraf George the Pious, he left only George Friedrich; an excellent man, who is now prosperous in the world, and wedded long since, but has no children.  So that, between Joachim’s Line and Preussen there are only two intermediate heirs;-and it was a thing eminently worth looking after.  Nor has it wanted that.  And so Kurfürst Joachim, almost at the end of his course, has now made sure of it.

JOACHIM MAKES “HERITAGE-BROTHERHOOD” WITH THE DUKE OF LIEGNITZ.

Another feat of like nature Joachim II. had long ago achieved; which likewise in the long-run proved important in his Family, and in the History of the world:  an “ERBVERBRUDERUNG,” so they term it, with the Duke of Liegnitz,-date 1537.  ERBVERBRUDERUNG ("Heritage-brotherhood,” meaning Covenant to succeed reciprocally on Failure of Heirs to either) had in all times been a common paction among German Princes well affected to each other.  Friedrich II., the then Duke of Liegnitz, we have transiently seen, was related to the Family; he had been extremely helpful in bringing his young friend Albert of Preussen’s affairs to a good issue,-whose Niece, withal, he had wedded:-in fact, he was a close friend of this our Joachim’s; and there had long been a growing connection between the two Houses, by intermarriages and good offices.

The Dukes of Liegnitz were Sovereign-Princes, come of the old Piasts of Poland; and had perfect right to enter into this transaction of an ERBVERBRUDERUNG with whom they liked.  True, they had, above two hundred years before, in the days of King Johann ICH-DIEN (A.D. 1329), voluntarily constituted themselves Vassals of the Crown of Bohemia:  [Pauli, ii.] but the right to dispose of their Lands as they pleased had, all along, been carefully acknowledged, and saved entire.  And, so late as 1521, just sixteen years ago, the Bohemian King Vladislaus the Last, our good Margraf George’s friend, had expressly, in a Deed still extant, confirmed to them, with all the emphasis and amplitude that Law-Phraseology could bring to bear upon it, the right to dispose of said Lands in any manner of way:  “by written testament, or by verbal on their death-bed, they can, as they see wisest, give away, sell, pawn, dispose of, and exchange (vergeben, verkaufen, versetzen, verschaffen, verwechseln) these said lands,” to all lengths, and with all manner of freedom.  Which privilege had likewise been confirmed, twice over (1522, 1524), by Ludwig the next King, Ludwig OHNE-HAUT, who perished in the bogs of Mohacz, and ended the native Line of Bohemian-Hungarian Kings.  Nay, Ferdinand, King of the Romans, Karl V.’s Brother, afterwards Kaiser, who absorbed that Bohemian Crown among the others, had himself, by implication, sanctioned or admitted the privilege, in 1529, only eight years ago. [Stenzel, .] The right to make the ERBVERBRUDERUNG could not seem doubtful to anybody.

And made accordingly it was:  signed, sealed, drawn out on the proper parchments, 18th October, 1537; to the following clear effect:  “That if Duke Friedrich’s Line should die out, all his Liegnitz countries, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau, should fall to the Hohenzollern Brandenburgers:  and that, if the Line of Hohenzollern Brandenburg should first fail, then all and singular the Bohemian Fiefs of Brandenburg (as Crossen, Zullichau and seven others there enumerated) should fall to the House of Liegnitz.” [Stenzel, .] It seemed a clear Paction, questionable by no mortal.  Double-marriage between the two Houses (eldest Son, on each side, to suitable Princess on the other) was to follow:  and did follow, after some delays, 17th February, 1545.  So that the matter seemed now complete:  secure on all points, and a matter of quiet satisfaction to both the Houses and to their friends.

But Ferdinand, King of the Romans, King of Bohemia and Hungary, and coming to be Emperor one day, was not of that sentiment.  Ferdinand had once implicitly recognized the privilege, but Ferdinand, now when he saw the privilege turned to use, and such a territory as Liegnitz exposed to the possibility of falling into inconvenient hands, explicitly took other thoughts:  and gradually determined to prohibit this ERBVERBRUDERUNG.  The States of Bohemia, accordingly, in 1544 (it is not doubtful, by Ferdinand’s suggestion), were moved to make inquiries as to this Heritage-Fraternity of Liegnitz. [Ib. .] On which hint King Ferdinand straightway informed the Duke of Liegnitz that the act was not justifiable, and must be revoked.  The Duke of Liegnitz, grieved to the heart, had no means of resisting.  Ferdinand, King of the Romans, backed by Kaiser Karl, with the States of Bohemia barking at his wink, were too strong for poor Duke Friedrich of Liegnitz.  Great corresponding between Berlin, Liegnitz, Prag ensued on this matter:  but the end was a summons to Duke Friedrich,-summons from King Ferdinand in March, 1546, “To appear in the Imperial Hall (KAISERHOF) at Breslau,” and to submit that Deed of EBVERBRUDERUNG to the examination of the States there.  The States, already up to the affair, soon finished their examination of it (8th May, 1546).  The deed was annihilated:  and Friedrich was ordered, furthermore, to produce proofs within six months that his subjects too were absolved of all oaths or the like regarding it, and that in fact the Transaction was entirely abolished and reduced to zero.  Friedrich complied, had to comply:  very much chagrined, he returned home:  and died next year,-it is supposed, of heartbreak from this business.  He had yielded outwardly:  but to force only.  In a Codicil appended to his last Will, some months afterwards (which Will, written years ago, had treated the ERBVERBRUDERUNG as a Fact settled), he indicates, as with his last breath, that he considered the thing still valid, though overruled by the hand of power.  Let the reader mark this matter; for it will assuredly become memorable, one day.

The hand of power, namely, Ferdinand, King of the Romans, had applied in like manner to Joachim of Brandenburg to surrender his portion of the Deed, and annihilate on his side too this ERBVERBRUDERUNG.  But Joachim refused steadily, and all his successors steadily, to give up this Bit of Written Parchment:  kept the same, among their precious documents, against some day that might come (and I suppose it lies in the Archives of Berlin even now):  silently, or in words, asserting that the Deed of Heritage-Brothership was good, and that though some hands might have the power, no hand could have the right to abolish it on those terms.

How King Ferdinand permitted himself such a procedure?  Ferdinand, says one of his latest apologists in this matter, “considered the privileges granted by his Predecessors, in respect to rights of Sovereignty, as fallen extinct on their death.” [Stenzel, .] Which-if Reality and Fact would but likewise be so kind as “consider” it so-was no doubt convenient for Ferdinand!

Joachim was not so great with Ferdinand as he had been with Charles the Imperial Brother.  Joachim and Ferdinand had many debates of this kind, some of them rather stiff.  Jagerndorf, for instance, and the Baireuth-Anspach confiscations, in George Friedrich’s minority.  Ferdinand, now Kaiser, had snatched Jagerndorf from poor young George Friedrich, son of excellent Margraf George whom we knew:  “Part of the spoils of Albert Alcibiades,” thought Ferdinand, “and a good windfall,”-though young George Friedrich had merely been the Ward of Cousin Alcibiades, and totally without concern in those political explosions.  “Excellent windfall,” thought Ferdinand:  and held his grip.  But Joachim, in his weighty steady way, intervened:  Joachim, emphatic in the Diets and elsewhere, made Ferdinand quit grip, and produce Jagerndorf again.  Jagerndorf and the rest had all to be restored:  and, except some filchings in the Jagerndorf Appendages (Ratibor and Oppeln, “restored” only in semblance, and at length juggled away altogether), [Rentsch, p, 130.] everything came to its right owner again.  Nor would Joachim rest till Alcibiades’s Territories too were all punctually given back, to this same George Friedrich:  to whom, by law and justice, they belonged, In these points Joachim prevailed against a strong-handed Kaiser, apt to “consider one’s rights fallen extinct” now and then.  In this of Liegnitz all he could do was to keep the Deed, in steady protest silent or vocal.

But enough now of Joachim Hector, Sixth Kurfürst, and of his workings and his strugglings.  He walked through this world, treading as softly as might be, yet with a strong weighty step:  rending the jungle steadily asunder; well seeing whither he was bound.  Rather an expensive Herr:  built a good deal, completion of the Schloss at Berlin one example:  [Nicolai, .] and was not otherwise afraid of outlay, in the Reich’s Politics, or in what seemed needful:  If there is a harvest ahead, even a distant one, it is poor thrift to be stingy of your seed-corn!

Joachim was always a conspicuous Public Man, a busy Politician in the Reich:  stanch to his kindred, and by no means blind to himself or his own interests.  Stanch also, we must grant, and ever active, though generally in a cautious, weighty, never in a rash swift way, to the great Cause of Protestantism, and to all good causes.  He was himself a solemnly devout man; deep awe-stricken reverence dwelling in his view of this Universe.  Most serious, though with a jocose dialect commonly, having a cheerful wit in speaking to men.  Luther’s Books he called his SEELENSCHATZ (Soul’s-treasure):  Luther and the Bible were his chief reading.  Fond of profane learning too, and of the useful or ornamental Arts; given to music, and “would himself sing aloud” when he had a melodious leisure-hour.  Excellent old gentleman:  he died, rather suddenly, but with much nobleness, 3d January, 1571; age sixty-six.  Old Rentsch’s account of this event is still worth reading:  [Rentsch, .] Joachim’s death-scene has a mild pious beauty which does not depend on creed.

He had a Brother too, not a little occupied with Politics, and always on the good side:  a wise pious man, whose fame was in all the churches:  “Johann of Custrin,” called also “Johann THE WISE,” who busied himself zealously in Protestant matters, second only in piety and zeal to his Cousin, Margraf George the Pious; and was not so held back by official considerations as his Brother the Elector now and then.  Johann of Custrin is a very famous man in the old Books:  Johann was the first that fortified Custrin:  built himself an illustrious Schloss, and “roofed it with copper,” in Custrin (which is a place we shall be well acquainted with by and by); and lived there, with the Neumark for apanage, a true man’s life;-mostly with a good deal of business, warlike and other, on his hands; with good Books, good Deeds, and occasionally good Men, coming to enliven it,-according to the terms then given.