CHAPTER II.-HEIDELBERG AND ITS

B

REFORMATION.

UT Heidelberg, not Strasburg, was destined to be the real birthplace of the Reformed Church in Germany. Next to Zurich, Heidelberg is the most sacred place to the German Reformed, as Geneva is to the French and Edinburgh to the Scotch. The Reformed doctrines, driven out of Strasburg, found a permanent home in Heidelberg.

Heidelberg is one of the most picturesquely 10cated towns in Germany and for beauty its ruined castle is without a rival on that continent. The city is located in a long narrow valley along the Necker river, and consists mainly of two or three parallel streets, between the river on the north and the mountain on the south. At the mouth of this narrow valley, the city spreads out in the shape of a fan, into the new part of the city on the south side of the river and into the suburb of Neuenheim on the north side of the river. Above the city on the hill, to the south, perched like an eagle's nest and overlooking it, is the grand old ruined castle, its red sandstone towers being adorned

with creeping vines. Directly underneath the castle huddled, like chickens under the mother's wings, are the houses of the eastern end of the city.

The history of Heidelberg goes back to Roman times. There is a legend that an enchantress, named Jetta, lived there and that she was killed by a wolf. Hence there is east of the castle up on the mountain-side a place called the Wolfs-spring (Wolfesbrunnen).* The town was originally settled by fishermen and sailors, who plied their trade on the river Neckar. They built their huts along the river, where they were joined by other trades. Meanwhile the prince of the land, the Elector of the Palatinate, attracted by the great strength of the mountain south of Heidelberg built a castle halfway up the mountain-side. It was originally built above its present location at the Molkencur. The town gradually grew up from the river, and the prince moved his castle down the mountain to its present location, so that town and castle grew together as they are to-day. In the old part of the city, there are three Protestant Churches, the Holy

*There is an interesting novel based on this legend called "Jetta," by Prof. Haus-rath, of the university, which has been translated into English.

Ghost Church, which was the old parish Church of the town, and is located in its centre, and the St. Peter's Church, which is the university Church. Both of these became Reformed in the reformation. There is also a third church, the Providence Church further west on the main street, which was Lutheran and was founded during the Thirty Years war. All these churches, with others in the new part of the city, are now in the United or Evangelical Church of Baden, of which duchy Heidelberg is at present a part.

The prince of the Palatinate (whose capital as at Heidelberg),* was called an Elector, because he, with six others were the highest princes of the realm, and had the right to elect a new Emperor, when an Emperor died. And during the interim, when there was no Emperor, the empire was ruled by the Elector of the Palatinate as the senior Elec

*There were two Palatinates, an Upper and a Lower, both under this prince. The Upper Palatinate was located in the northeastern part of Bavaria, and had Amberg for its capital. But the main part of the Palatinate was this Lower Palatinate, which is located along the Rhine from Darmstadt on the northeast to Zweibrucken on the southwest; indeed, it extended down the Rhine north of Mayence.

tor. The other Electors were of two kinds, the spiritual Electors being the Electors of Mayence, Treves and Cologne, the temporal Electors being the Electors of the Palatinate, Saxony, Bradenburg and later Bohemia. At the reformation all the temporal Electors became Protestant, while the spiritual Electors remained Catholic. Therefore there was a life and death struggle on the part of the Catholics, to retain the majority in the Electorate so as to elect a Catholic Emperor. Three times the majority was about to pass over into Protestant hands in the reformation. Twice the

Elector of Cologne became a Protestant, first when Elector Herman, and later when Elector Gebhard Truchsess, became Protestant. The third time was when the Elector of the Palatinate was elected King of Bohemia, which would make him hold two Electorates, one of the Palatinate and one of Bohemia and thus give him two votes. To prevent this was one of the causes of the awful Thirty Years war; for the Catholics were ready to engage in a war rather than loose their majority in the Electorate. However, when in 1866 Prussia defeated Austria on the battle of Sadowa, and in 1870 the German empire was formed, Prussia came to the front and