CHAPTER III.-HEIDELBERG AND ITS RUIN

T

ED CASTLE.

HE Palatinate was destined to pass through many changes. At the death of Elector

Frederick III, his son Lewis ascended the throne. He was a strict Lutheran. As the German law at that time was "like prince, like people" Lutheranism was again introduced as the religion of the land and the Reformed were driven out. But the younger brother of Lewis, Count John Casimir, was strongly Reformed and gave the persecuted Reformed an asylum in his little territory at Neustadt on the Haardt, southwest of Heidelberg. There he founded a new Reformed university.* This university he desired should take the place of the Heidelberg University, which had now been made Lutheran. He called to it all the Reformed professors of Heidelberg except Olevianus. Ursinus, Zanchius and Tremellius made this new university famous. These professors published a Reformed Bible in German, the Neustadt Bible. There Ursinus died after a useful, laborious life

*The university building is now used as a schoolbuilding and is called the Casimirium.

October 12, 1583, and was buried in the choir of the old church at Neustadt. Olevianus, when driven out of Heidelberg, went to Herborn in Nassau.*

But Elector Lewis died soon (1583) and the Reformed doctrines were reintroduced by his brother Count John Casimir, who became regent for the young prince, who later became Elector Frederick IV, and who was Reformed. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Elector Frederick III when dying, as he had said "Lewis will not do it but Fritz will do it." This prince built for himself a new wing of the castle at Heidelberg, named after him the "Frederick's Building." In it was a chapel, and under it is to-day the famous tun of Heidelberg, an immense cask, holding 49,000 gallons. Under Frederick IV, the university became famous under Pareus, Tossanus and H. Alting, as professors of theology.

But darker times were to come. The Protestants led by Frederick IV of the Palatinate, formed the Protestant Union. This led the Catholics to form the Catholic League. It was only a question of

*See Chapter IV of this book for Herborn.

time when matters would come to a crisis between them. This occurred under the reign of the next Elector of the Palatinate, Frederick V, the son of Frederick IV. This young prince married the daughter of King James I of England. For this daughter of a king, he built a new wing to the castle at Heidelberg called the "English Building," at the west end of the castle, and also laid out at great expense, a most beautiful park around the castle, so beautiful that it is said to have rivalled the gardens at Versailles near Paris. But in an evil hour, Elector Frederick V accepted the throne of Bohemia, which brought against him all the military force of the Emperor Ferdinand of Germany, who also claimed the throne of Bohemia. Then the Catholic League lined up against the Protestant Union. This conflict started the awful Thirty Years war (1618-48). After a short reign of a year at Prague, Frederick V was defeated at the battle of White Mountain near Prague.* By this defeat he lost not only Bohemia, but also his hereditary land of the Palatinate. He was driven. out of Germany and became an exile in Holland.

*See Book III, Chapter VI.

His land, the Palatinate, was given by the Emperor of Germany to the Catholic Duke of Bavaria, who was made an Elector.

Then began a reign of terror in the Palatinate as it was overrun by Bavarian and Spanish forces. Heidelberg was captured in 1622 by the Austrians under Tilly, whose soldiers plundered the city. Prof. H. Alting, one of the Reformed professors of theology, started to flee through the back door of his house, when an Austrian lieutenant met him and said "I have killed ten men to-day. If I knew where Prof. Alting was, he would be the eleventh." But Prof. Alting succeeded in escaping. The celebrated Palatinate library, which Elector Otto Henry had done so much to gather and was one of the finest libraries of its day,* was carried away and given to the Pope of Rome. So bitter was the feeling of the inhabitants of Heidelberg against this robbery, that nobody would help the Austrians pack it up to be sent away and the Austrians had to get the material for packing it from Worms and Spire. The Pope and the Catholic powers howled together for joy, that this German Geneva-Heidel

*It was kept in the church of the Holy Ghost.