The Lords of Prussia: from feudalism to modernity (a MMP2 AAR)

The Austrian case is about to get a hell of a lot worse. The past 15 years were kind of slow for Brandenburg, so I played God and tried to make a slightly more historical sitaution in Europe...needless to say it's totally backfired on me. Oh, and Austria went for the 'annex the Balkan states' move which I see it do nearly all the time for no reason.

The creation of the Great Powers System
Or, Merrick makes this game far harder on himself.

The early 1500s saw the rise of the powers which would dominate the early modern era. With the exception of Holland, Britain, and Prussia, by 1515 one could already see which nations were ascending to Great Power status. I have already written on the rise of the Ottomans and of Muscovy, so I will use this entry to write on the other three rising powers.

France


France was the early bloomer of the rising nations. Even by the early 15th century the Capets had integrated most of their realm into a unified body. France's short term goal would be to achieve its 'natural borders', IE the Alps and Rhine to their East, the Atlantic to their west, and the Pyrenees to their south. This will mostly be achieved by integrating their vassals into their realm. In the longer term, France's expansion is blocked by the Kingdom of Spain to their south and the Empire to their East, and considering the rise of Hapsburg into both positions, France has a hard future ahead of her.

Spain


The state of Castille had its origins in the Reconquista against the Islamic control of Al Andalus. Viewed through this lens, Spain's inheritance made the Spanish state the only surviving crusader state by 1550. Castille, through her control of the Canarias, was one of the first states to discover the riches of he New World, and her armies were marching through Latin America by the 1510s, and by inheriting the crown of Aragon, she now has dominance of the Mediterranean as well. Who knows, at this point, where Spain will direct her energies? While the New World is a colossal source of wealth, armies are the true determinant of power at this point, so where will Spain's armies go?

The return of the Hapsburgs

While all of the other powers had rather straightforward rises, the House of Hapsburg is different. The state of Austria, at the beginning of the 16th century, had a lot in common with Brandenburg. They had similar forms of executive government (cabinet idea), a similar focus on the military, they were both conservative regimes, and positions on the outskirts of the Empire. During the 1490s both were at war with Emperor Vladislaw. Had the Brandenburgers petitioned harder for the Emperorship, perhaps their positions would be different. But the Hapsburgs had history on their side--they were already the Emperor before. Most of the smaller states still argued that the Empire needed a strong Emperor, and Brandenburg's elites had strong hopes for an Austrian Emperor.


The argument was that while a Bohemian Emperor was strong enough to intervene in intra-Imperial conflicts, it wasn't strong enough to finish those wars. That a small margravate on the northern border of the Emperor could out maneuver him was a display of the weakness of Bohemia. This was not the only factor in Austria's rise, however.

Austria had another commonality with Brandenburg--they were constantly looking for a means to gain a higher title. Why the obsessive hunt for regality? To quote Kennedy's Rise and Fall of Great Powers, "the Regal title at this point meant a great deal...Kings were often afforded larger positions in negotiating truces". With the Pope looming less and less over secular matters, the princes of Europe had to take every advantage they could in order to make their voice heard in the increasingly complicated peace negotiations. However, within the Empire there was only one King--the King of Bohemia. Any Duke who was seeking a higher title was a threat to the established power system, where (besides the King of Bohemia) theoretically all of the Dukes were equals. Many of the larger dukedoms and margravates (Brandenburg, Brunswick, and Bavaria especially) wanted to find their own ways onto a thrown, and Austria's rise presented a nice precedent. Brandenburg agreed to support Austria's bid for a higher title if Austria would support Brandenburg's.


The results of the deal left much to be desired--the Duke of Austria became the Archduke of Austria, which put him higher than any duke but not at the level of a King. Austria would get a kingship soon, though.

Hungary, the state to Austria's south, was by the 1500s falling apart. While Jacob II was a competent and selfless man, he was aware that his son was incurably insane, and that even with the army marching across the realm, he wouldn't be able to keep Hungary's menagerie of races together for long--his territory in Bessarabia was revolting every couple of months, which was draining his treasury, his army, and the people of Bessarabia were starving from the constant looting and rationing.

Things came to a head when the City of Zagreb, capital of the province of Croatia, attempted to join the Empire as a Free City. This would have cut off Hungary's connection to the sea, and it would have started a process by which other Hungarian territories would start breaking off. Neither the Emperor nor Jacob II wanted this. The King of Hungary was concerned with one thing and one thing only--defending Christianity from the armies of the Turk. However he was increasingly aware that he would not be able to do this, and if his nation were to be cut off from the sea, this would be even worse.

The Emperor at Ansbach believed this as well, and denied Zagreb's petition with the words "I will not stab our sole defense in the back". This kept the status quo, but did not solve the Hungarian problem--that within the decade, the King was going to die and the Ottomans will have annexed the Mamluke's empire. This problem was solved when Ferdinand Vi of Austria offered that Zagreb would join the Empire by becoming a part of their patrimony. Jacob II approached the Arch-Duke with an unheard of proposal:

1.That Austria would start a process of integration with Hungary immediately
2.When Jacob II died, that Austria would inherit the Hungarian crown.


However, Jacob quickly became sick after making this agreement. His son was enraged by this deal, but he bided his time. In 1513, during a dinner, Francis IV brought up the topic of his succession to the aging king. When Jacob stood by his decision to give his crown to the Austrians, Francis stabbed his father and his sovereign 50 times. He then called for all "True Huns" to rally around him and march on Vienna. Francis' 'army' of 5000 peasants was swiftly crushed by Ferdinand's armies, and with this odd turn of events, Ferdinand was a King.

As this happened, the Emperor at Ansbach was declining into illness. Having done little in his long reign as Emperor, his death marked the end of Ansbach's dominance of the Empire, and indeed, of Ansbach's significance.


Next: Back to Brandenburg, or, WHY WON'T YOU JUST CORE?

The end of Johann Georg I's Reign and the Rise of Prussia

The rule of Johann Georg I is generally skimmed over by historians. He did not engage in the frivolous wars of his uncle, nor was he so anachronistically modern as his successor. Georg was, instead, a typical ruler of the period, concerned as much if not more by his social life than by his work. Because of this, German historians tend to gloss over his rule and instead speak about the far more engaging expansion of the House of Hapsburg during the period. Because of the little that happened during the period I will instead focus on, firstly, why most historians skim over the period, and then on the important events of the period in Berlin.

Intellectual Activity, or Why do Historians ignore Johann Georg I?

While Christian Albrecht I was amazingly dynamic and promoted the Renaissance in Berlin, and Johann Cicero was a borderline genius who worked as hard as he could to bring intellectuals into his court, Johann Georg's protonationalism and insecurities meant that he only promoted Brandenburgers to the highest court, and didn't allow for any critical actions. This is not to say that Georg I was not an intelligent man, but that his reign was not marked by a great deal of intellectual activity. The most skilled man that Berlin produced was Georg Von Merkatz, a giant of a man who would be sent to the county of Magdeburg in order to 'keep them in line'. Men of minor skill beyond their ability for agreement dominated the courts. The sole exception was the philosopher Kreyitz.

It is said that, for most of his career, Kreyitz pioneered what would become the regional passtime for Eastern European intellectuals: criticizing through allegory, sneaking deeply inquisitive novels past censors. This nearly cost him his job and his head on several occasions, but he managed to sneak by through his work in the Ghetto translating early Christian writings from Greek sources. The success of this project was the only reason for Kreyitz's existence in the Brandenburger courts and the presence of the Berlin Ghetto during the 1510s. In 1515 the translation project paid off, and Kreyitz sent a fully German bible to print. On the last page he signed a thank you to the scholars in the Berlin Ghetto, for otherwise he would not have succeeded in the translation during his lifetime.


This new translation was widely accepted, with the exception of the Franciscan clergy, who were slowly losing their hold on the peasantry anyways. Kreyitz's master stroke was that he released the new translation just when the Potsdam seminary was taking in a new group of students (a relatively rare occurrence). These new students would be coming into their intellectual adulthood in the shadow of this immense Humanist text.

The achievement of Kreyitz was one of the reasons for the lack of intellectual activity in Berlin: Johann Georg, in his belief of the importance of sovereignty, did not want to be overshadowed by anyone in his regime. The popularity of the Kreyitz translation (he translated the Bible into Hebrew and Polish soon thereafter, and the print was the most popular translation of the Bible throughout northern Germany) nearly lost Kreyitz his job.

There was a plus to this, however. While Johann Georg was fearful of competition, he was also aware of the need for competent administration. In fact, 2/3rds of the major institutions of Prussia were created by Georg, which brings me to the only major controversy of the second half of his reign:

The Right of Deployment Act and the creation of the Officer-Diplomat

While the Konigsbergers were in no position to negotiate at the end of the 4 Years War, they managed to sneak in a privilege from Christian Albrecht which would haunt him. They agreed to fight in the Brandenburger army and in Prussian garrisons with one requirement--only Prussians could be in Prussian garrisons, and Prussian regiments could only be led by Prussian officers. This was a guarantee against the tyranny that Pomerania placed upon their territories, but this also played into a Brandenburgian law from the feudal era, which gave generals the right not to deploy their armies and nobles to not call up levies, for 'unjust wars', IE wars against the King of Germany. While Georg I saw no reason to fight any wars in the near future, he viewed this provision as a huge threat to his security, especially as the typical vision of the Mark Armee was that it was an offensive force. Beyond that, the independence of the Brandenburger Foreign Service led to occasional rifts between the more cosmopolitan Service and the more conservative court. Georg killed two birds with one stone with the Right of Deployment Act:

1.The Margrave reserves the right to deploy any Soldier in the Army of the Mark to wherever
2.All garrison leaders are to be reshuffled and replaced by officers of the Armee of the Mark. The Margrave reserves the right to deploy any officer to any regiment
3.Henceforth, the Foreign Service of the Margravate of Brandenburg is to be integrated into the army, and one must have served as an officer to join the Foreign Service.
4.The Foreign Service Administrator is to be appointed by the Margrave. The Margrave reserves the right to appoint whomever he chooses.

Click to expand...

There was little controversy over this at first. Margrave Georg had never deployed the army and it did not seem that he ever would. In practice the Margrave controlled the army absolutely ever since the 15th century. However, one provision would prove problematic, and would lead to the only revolt in Georg's rule. The reshuffling of garrison leaders was intended to place Brandenburgers in charge of Prussian garrisons, however, officers needed to go to the Officers School, and the Officers School required noble birth. Thusly, garrison leaders were the only place where a burgher or even a (gasp) peasant could become a military leader. Georg I was immediately petitioned by hundreds of garrison leaders, requesting an opening up of the Officer Corps. Georg agreed, setting up an alternate Officers School in OstPreussen which did not discriminate based on birth. This led to decreased revenues and a small revolt. It also finally united the Aristocracy of Brandenburg into a singular block. And while the paltry force of 3,000 disgruntled veterans could not withstand the combined forces of a Magdeburger army and the newly formed Brandenburger Tercios, the Noble Union as it would call itself acted as a prototypical oppositional political party for years to come.


Alright, I'm tired. The next entry is going to be about the 2 new provinces, and about the similarities with Georg I and Albrecht, and about how flipping awesome Cicero is. I'm going to sign off for now, but to wet your appetite, a preview of my new Margrave!

AAAAAAAAAAHHH

My laptop overheated, which destroyed the long entry I made about the provinces under Georg I. I'm just going to sum up the first 3/4ths of it--OstPreussen + Ostpommern (the Ostlanden) are far more rural than the Mark, and their integration created a far more aristocratic situation. Ostpommern cored within a decade and is now the second most productive province in the Mark. Ostpreussen is stuck in time, they didn't get a coring event until the very end of Georg I's reign, instead they held out hope that Georg I would devolve sovereignty to them, which he obviously didn't.

Altmark was held under the fist of Merkatz, a 6-star inquisitor, who increased the size of Brandenburg's possessions by marrying members of the Kronesohr to countesses.

ANYWAY

The First King of Prussia: Johann Cicero Von Hohenzollern

Johann Cicero, born Johann, is one of the best examples of Branbenburg's luck when it came to monarchs. While the close minded Johann Georg I did all he could to keep his realm stuck in time, his son came in and swiftly destroyed the order his father had built, and instead created one where the Kingdom of Prussia, guided by him, was a rising power which could accomplish the goals the Hohenzollerns had set out for it.

Johann Von Hohenzollern was born in Anhalt, like his father, and lived with his mother (a Hannoverian Countess) in Anhalt for his early years. When he was moved to Berlin, Du Fournay swiftly moved in and suggested that he apprentice in the Kronesauge, so that he would understand the basics of administration. Under the assumed name Heinrich, Johann worked in the Berlin branch of the Kronesauge alongside Du Fournay's son, Armand. The two quickly became friends, living and apprenticing under the same adopted father. Beyond accounting, Fournay gave both of his 'sons' the same classical education, and Johann quickly took a liking to stories of Alexander. This makes sense, as even as a child one could see a certain sharpness about Johann. He swiftly grew into a tall, broad shouldered man, with a lion's mane of hair and a mouth constantly twisted into a smirk. Not only did he have a fantastical talent for logic, he had an amazing ability to attract other intelligent men to him, and always knew how to make another man think he got the better deal.

Before Du Fournay died, he suggested that Johann be sent as a fosterling to the Parisian universities. Not only would his presence cement the Franco-Brandenburger alliance, there he would be able to get a full liberal arts education and would be able to see more of the world. Georg reluctantly agreed, and Johann and Armand moved to Paris to become scholars. Soon Johann joined the increasingly large Brandenburger diaspora in Paris in his pursuit of intellectual activities. He was a learned historian by 19, and upon reading Machiavelli's Il Principe, he collaborated with Armand and the rest of the Diaspora to write the history of the past 200 years in Italy, asking "Haben die Fakten treffen die Ideen?" (do the facts meet the ideas?). Johann intentionally kept the conclusions vague, and philosophers on both sides of the Machiavel argument cited "The Histories of Italy" for their arguments. In light of the way Johann dealt with the religious conflict in Germany 20 years later, it is clear that Johann was a perfect Machiavel who knew that stating his intentions would make his actions more obvious.

At a courtly dinner in Paris, Johann met the woman who would become the love of his life--Christine, a minor Bourbon countess. Within the year they had married and, along with Armand, started traveling around Western Europe to see the various major events unfolding around them--Johann and Armand served in the English army fighting the Peasants Revolt, they witnessed the coronation of Ferdinand VI, and they moved to French Piedmont to see a sermon from another Brandenburger ex-patriot, Frederich Heicke, a theologian known to have some radical thoughts, when they met another Brandenburger. Hienrich Finck was a political philosopher who had just been summoned by Georg I to report for an interview (Hiring Fair). He was worried, however, that firstly he may make the trip to Berlin and come back with nothing to show for it, and secondly that he may be executed under the Arch-Conservative's rule. Johann, without disclosing his identity, told Becke precisely what to say in order to get the job, and then inquired as to the Margrave's health. He discovered that his father was very ill, so Johann traveled with Christine to Prague, and then to Berlin by river. He met his father at his sickbed, and started the process of ruling the realm early, letting his father stay in his manor in Ostpommern.

When Georg I died, both Johann's wife and his friends asked him what his regal name would be? Armand, as well as Heicke, suggested Alexander, or even Augustus, to represent Johann's regal nature. However, Johann was well aware of the political currents of the time. Choosing a name like Caesar or Alexander would suggest both to the markets and to the Emperor that he was a threat and a risk. Instead Johann chose to name himself Johann Cicero, after the most prominent and popular philosopher of the time, but also for another reason--Cicero was killed for questioning Marc Antony. Cicero promised that no philosopher would suffer the same fate, so long as he was ruler (note that he did not say Margrave, in fact he rarely used the term with regards to himself).

The first major event of Cicero's rule came the week he ascended to the Margravate. The Hungarian Jews who had been expelled by their new Austrian ruler were requesting sanctuary, and a home in the Berlin ghetto. As this happened, Kreyitz started looking for more translators to help his newest project, which would translate a series of Jewish stories into German for public consumption. The clergy disagreed with both ideas--they had done particularly well under Georg I, and any turn-face from Georg's policy was viewed as a threat. Beyond this, there was a hysteria that Kreyitz was secretly Jewish and was attempting to convert good Germans. Cicero publicly insulted the clergymen who started spreading the rumors about Kreyitz, and announced that not only was the Hungarian Jewish congregation allowed into Berlin, that he was reopening the printing presses.


Cicero then started to delve into the Mark's private archives in order to discover anything which would help his reign, and unsaid goals or secret plans would give him a swift orientation towards what would be beneficial for the realm. He quickly came upon Albrecht's writings on the unclaimed title of King of Prussia. Cicero realized that because his father had never sifted through the archives, he never knew that the true prize in the wars of Albrecht was not Ostpommern, but Ostpreussen. Because Georg hadn't pulled his weight in getting the nobility of Prussia to agree to a union, they were now suspicious of any act the Margravate might make. Therefore, Cicero made it a goal to impress upon the Prussians the benefits of living within the Mark while not looking like a tyrant. He did this by setting up the Marsh Commission. Eastern Prussia is, basically, mostly marshes, and by reclaiming areas of OstPreussen and auditioning it off, the Mark would profit and the profits would be able to be invested further in Konigsberg.


As this was occurring, Kreyitz was nearly done with his book, "Jüdische geschichten", or Jewish stories. In the afterward, he penned

I hope that these stories entertain you, and impress upon you the greatness of Jewish qualities, of hard work, of critical thinking, of inventiveness. I think we could agree, that we could all use these qualities

Click to expand...

The clergy in Berlin swiftly petitioned to have Judische Geschichten banned from print, but when Cicero stated that he was not about to kill a man for his thoughts, an incited riot killed Kreyitz on his way to work.


As this was happening, Heicke was stripped of his bishop's tunic in Genoa for his criticism of Church corruption. Nearly in a suicidal depression, Heicke instead went to his desk and penned 95 problems with the behavior of the Catholic Church. His flock welcomed him with open arms that morning, and as a mob they went to the Genoan cathedral and hammered the Theses on the front door.


This was occurring during a period of intense dissatisfaction with established authorities. The new Austrian Emperor proved unable to defend the Empire from the armies of Denmark, who occupied Luxemburg. The priesthood was considered implicit in the designs of the nobility, and both wanted the peasants to die in some worthless war against other serfs who were living under another ruler. The peasant wars and the ability of the Reformation to penetrate even into the established Arch-Bishoprics were deeply related.


Meanwhile, the Genoan protest was swiftly becoming a heresy. The college of cardinals asked all of the rulers of Europe to attack this new heretical line of thinking and appraise the universal Catholic church. Cicero had lived in Italy, France, England, Germany, and in Poland. He had seen the differences between different brands of Catholicism and he had seen the corruption of the Church. His official response was silence, but in private he told his wife "There is no Universal Church, just a collection of shards that calls itself Catholicism"

At the same time, Cicero had just lost an adviser, and beyond that, the head of the Kronesauge had died, so he desperately needed a replacement who could create some sort of relationship between the banks and the government. He set up a hiring fair, and waited all day in the Berlin market, interviewing various bankers, some officers, and some traders. The sun was nearly down when he heard a familiar voice "So, have you bankrupted the Margravate yet?" Armand Du Fournay, the son of the Kronesauge's founder, was now in the proper position to start expanding it.

@Gabor: Du Fournay went to Cologne to find work a bit before Cicero rose to the crown. He doesn't have a royal allowance like Johann did, and I can imagine that living with such a ridiculously rich traveling companion can cause some problems. Also I hadn't realized how many distinguished readers I have! Your AAR about Danzig is fantastic!

A Dangerous Game: the Rise of Prussia and the Reformation

Part 1: a Choreographed conversation

The Reformation came at the perfect time for Brandenburg. The Habsburg dominance over all of Europes major institutions--The Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy through their Spanish branch, and inter-Atlantic trade through their kingships in England and Spain--was based, partially, on the religious homogeneity of Europe. With a purely Catholic Europe, the Hapsburg Pope would control the Kingdom of God, while the Hapsburg Emperor could control the Kingdom of Men. Ferdinand VI, however, squandered this peak of power. The first major war that the Empire fought was against the Danish belligerent to the North, however, because the Imperial Armies were not legally allowed to cross many of the counties and duchies in the Empire, the Imperial and the KuK army suffered devastating starvation, desertion, and general attrition.

Danes and Norwegians occupied the Netherlands, on and off, for a full decade. It got to the degree that Luxembourgers thought that they had a better chance with the Danes, bringing the notables of the province to legally change its ownership from the Empire to Denmark. As this was happening, Protestants, and their more radical cousins, the Reformists, were sweeping through Germany, Italy, and Scandanavia.


It was 1532 when Ferdinand VII came to the Imperial throne. The Danish War of Aggression was over, but the Reformation was now in full swing. Cicero attended his coronation, and afterwards attempted to talk to him as much as possible, if only to judge the character of the most powerful Christian on earth. Speaking to Du Fournay on the way back to Berlin, Cicero said that "He was the worst sort of king...righteous, wrathful, arrogant, and stupid". However stupid Cicero considered this man, it was still true that Ferdinand VII was at the head of the Holy Roman Empire, and that soon Cicero would need to ask him for the Kingdom of Prussia.

Three years later, Cicero invited Ferdinand to his manor in Nassau, by the Riechscourt. The scene "Ferdinand and Cicero negotiate in Nassau" has been the subject of hundreds of paintings, especially during the early 19th century. The tableau was certainly a very Romantic one (in the classical sense)--two men, one in a position of power but incompetent, the other one of the intellectual giants of his time but with little power, negotiating over the shape of Europe while a riot occurs outside.

In fact, with recent archival knowledge in our hands, we know that it was in fact Cicero who incited the riot. He requested the radical Reformist, Ludwig von Hessen, to make a speech outside of his apartment, knowing that Von Hessen had a penchant for violent language which would cause street violence. When a fistfight broke out on the corners of the sermon, Cicero requested that the army of Hesse send a battalion to keep the peace, which only made matters worse.

Ferdinand entered Cicero's office finding him lounging in a chair by the fire, reading a recent translation of Herodotus through a pair of pince-nez reading glasses. "My emperor," asked Cicero, "what is the purpose of a state?"
"To bring salvation to its inhabitants, of course. To protect them from sin."
The Augustan argument as to the role of government was precisely what Cicero expected. "I agree with you, my friend. But, if it is the role of the government to bring salvation to its citizens, then is it Good, in the universal sense, for the government to become stronger and larger?"
"I suppose it is, Margrave, but what is the purpose of this conversation? Did I travel from Vienna to Nassau to talk philosophy?"
"No, my Emperor. I asked for your presence to speak of the great threats to Europe."
"Oh?", asked Ferdinand. Cicero took off his glasses and walked over to his desk, which had a large map of Europe.
"The way I see it, there are 3 great threats to the Empire. Orthodoxy to the East, the heathen religion of Mohammed to the South, and now within, the cult of Protestantism."
"It is good that we agree, but how are we to respond to that?"
"How indeed, Emperor. I know that you are a man of great martial skill, but your people are not a warlike people"
"I take offense to tha-!"
"I did not mean to offend, but look at the state of your realm. The knowledge that the Hungarians have of war is Turks marching across their lands, eating their food, storming their castles, and raping their women. The Netherlands just recently were occupied for a decade, and the Austrians have been taxed nearly into poverty to pay for the experiences of the other two. By my estimations, it will take a generation for your subjects to develop a taste for warfare again. But with this said, we have 3 threats, which means that Christiandom must have 3 protectors. Poland can, has, and will defend us from Orthodoxy, you can defend us against the Turk, and"
"No. It is the occupation of the Emperor to defend against the threats of the Empire, including heresy."
"But sir, the Turk is expanding to the South, which means"
"Which means nothing. They are fighting over sand, and will be fighting over sand for several more decades. The only rich provinces in the Holy lands are Baghdad and Damascus, and the Ottoman padishah already rules those. Beyond that, it will take years for those Mussulmen to consider the Turk their true ruler."
This surprised Cicero, who had choreographed the entire conversation up to this point. That Ferdinand had conversed with his cabinet, at length, on the subject of the Turk did not surprise him, but that Ferdinand did not consider the Turk a threat was unexpected.
"...What is the biggest threat to the Empire?"
"This 'reformation' would never have happened had my father been in a stronger position, and the peasants war wouldn't have occurred without the destabalizing effects of Dukes, Counts, and Margraves going into wars of conquest within the Empire."


With this Cicero walked to the windows, and pulled the curtains.
"Sir, I am not the biggest threat to the Empire. They are," he said, pointing to the chaos occurring in the street. "You say that men like my great uncle caused instability, but what's worse, the occupation of a province by an army which can control it, or this? Just as this street crowd is overwhelming the battalion fighting it, the Protestant horde will overwhelm the Kleinstrate (small states), and soon you won't just be fighting the Danes, but Protestants from Hesse, Hannover, Saxony and Bavaria! Only strong states can fight the instability caused by the very existence of the infinite number of free cities, dominated by the burgher fools who will fall to the Reformation like sheep to a slaughter."
Ferdinand looked at the riot for some time, before looking over at Cicero "...what do you want?"
"I shall be your sword. My people are used to war, my army is well trained, and we have a fantastic rationing system which will keep any war exhaustion down. But, I cannot do this with the small realm I have and with a system of laws that reduces my claims to my own land. The notables of OstPreussen are about to subject themselves to my rule. Next month you will get a request to turn the Margravate of Brandenburg-Prussia into the Kingdom of Prussia."
"I cannot have you being the King Of Prussia, if I do so every duke will want to be crowned."
"I will not be King of Prussia, but King IN Prussia."
"I suppose...that I could consent to this. In exchange for what?"
"Stability. You think that it is instability that creates the ability for Protestants to reign? Bohemia had an elected monarchy. Who knows whom those fools will elect in ten or twenty years? Beyond that, they tolerate the followers of that Heretic Hus, what will happen when the followers of Becke come in force to Prague? I will start and finish wars quickly, putting more land into my hands and creating the possibility of a threat that you can respond to with more men and laws."
Ferdinand looked at the fires blazing underfoot. The burghers were now throwing street tiles at the pikemen, and several men died as Ferdinand watched. His lips slowly grew into a smile.
"And when this is done, will we be able to cleanse the Empire of heresy?"
"Yes. I believe that together, we will."

A Dangerous Game: The rise of Prussia and the Reformation

Part 2: 3 bureaucracies and achievements

Cicero stood before the new DoppelKorps (Dual Corps) of Prussia, based in Ruppin.

A short comment on the structure of the Prussian government--Cicero simplified all of the Mark's services into 3 huge bureaucracies--the Kronesauge, or Eye of the Crown, which acted as a primitive central bank and spoke for the finances of the country (in game they are the 'monarchists'). The Kronesauge's command structure was the man in charge of the bank plus the heads of the provincial banks. By this point only Neumark didn't have a provincial bank. The Kronesohr, or Ear of the Crown, which represented the political arm of the mark, was comprised of local elites, intellectuals, and the church.

The Kronesohr (represented in game by the intellectuals, clergy, and bureaucracy) acted under the orders of an executive board consisting of the provincial mayors (one for Brandenburg, one for Ruppin, one for Neumark, one for Potsdam, one for Ostpomern and one for Ostpreussen--this would expand as the Kingdom expanded), the mayor of Berlin, the head censor (though by now the Berlin censors functioned more closely to what we would call publishing houses than censors) representing Brandenburg's culture, and the head priest in the Potsdam seminary. There was an inherent conflict in the nature of the Kronesohr which would resolve itself every decade, which involved the under representation of the church in the Kronesohr. The head priest would note that the Kingdom had more priests than mayors, and press for more representation for the church. Cicero would then note that there were also more artists than mayors, and that he would give more representation to the Church if they would agree for more representation of the poets, writers, and intellectuals. This was a deal that the Church would never consent to--the Berlin intellectuals were mostly Protestant, Reformed, or Jewish, and little representation for the church was better than letting heathens into the government.

The Doppelkorps was another organization created by Johann Georg I in order to placate the East Prussians. The Doppelkorps was named such because it was a combination of the diplomatic corps and the officer corps. It was led by a 3-man council--the head of the officer corps, the head of the diplomatic corps, and the head of the Doppelkorps, who was chosen by the King.

The heads of the Kronesauge and Doppelkorps were both appointed positions, but the Kronesohr was a representative body which consistently gave the King trouble, even though it's head was also appointed by the King. The king's cabinet was comprised of the King, and the heads of the 3 bureaucracies, and within the cabinet the 4 men spoke as equals, and if something had to be held to a vote, the king was given 2 votes. Back to the story.

Cicero was giving a lecture to the Doppelkorps on a concept he called "Wirkliche Ziele"--real objectives. "A couple of years ago I had a talk with the Emperor on the state of the Empire. I asked him what is his objective? He responded 'the conversion of the Protestant and Reformed Christians' We cannot operate on similar airy concepts. It would take more force than any man has to change one mind, let alone the minds of a third of the Empire. And yet Ferdinand the seventh will bring his realm into multiple wars with countries that could be his allies, and make his people tired of wars and taxes in order to achieve an impossibility. We, on the other hand, must fight short wars for limited, real objectives." He was met with widespread applause, partially because this signified to the protestant officers that he was not going to join the Emperor in his crusade.

The Doppelkorps finished its first white-paper, on the medium-term goals of the Kingdom, in 1538. Firstly, the existence of the Bishopric of Magdeburg was a threat to Prussia's security, as the criminals seeking a way to leave the mark would be able to easily escape into the Bishopric. It should be annexed immediately, which would not only solidify the realm, but it would also give a good deal of new tax revenue and men to the Prussian army, allowing them to achieve their other objectives. Secondly, the annexation of Pomerania's Polish colonies would not only cement the King's claim to the title of King of Prussia, it would also take out a destabilizing element when Prussia was most able to deal with the consequences of a war of conquest and when the Emperor had still made a deal with the King.

Lastly, there were multiple reasons for why the province of Glonowski was added to the list of objectives. In fact the section on Glonowski was as long as the entirety of the rest of the report. Glonowski stood around the Elbe river--as it was, there were far too many places where a Bohemian army could cross into the Mark without encountering resistance. Building a series of strongholds in the province of Glonowski would make the Mark's southern border far safer, and it would create a border with the now independent Silesia. The only long term goal that the report suggested was Prussian annexation or suzerainty over Silesia.

The annexation of Magdeburg was easy--the inquisitor Merkatz had primed the population for a long period of time, and by now there were few differences between the culture of Altmark and the culture in Berlin. Moreover, the head of Magdeburg's army was willing to become a Prussian general, and he was a military genius.


This immediately led to the annexation of the rest of Prussia. Magdeburg was incorporated into the Kingdom in January 1539, and the declaration of war came to Pomerania in 1539. The Austrian Emperor did not respond to Pomerania's call, on the grounds that he was now at war with a series of small states on the West of Germany. Bohemia, however, did respond, but the conditions were greatly different from the war of Ostpomern. For one, the Prussian generals were top notch, and with the number of deaths that the Brandenburgian armies suffered in the last war, the Prussian officer corps was now taught that logistics was as, if not more, important than the ability to win battles. Beyond this, Cicero had a great deal of knowledge on the roads on Brandenburg's borders, from his life of consistently escaping his father's grasp. With this knowledge, the major roads of Ostpomern were expanded to bring food to the armies of Prussia and Brandenburg.


The 3 war aims were Danzig (to Poland), Warmia, and Glonowski. However, upon hearing that the entire Bohemian army was traveling through Silesia to Ponzan, he sent a letter to the Polish king, saying that instead the King was to capture Glonowski and the Prussian king was to take Danzig and Warmia. The Pomeranian army did not stand a chance--their men were still trained in the feudal fashion (seriously, they were Men-At-Arms), and were swiftly dealt with. By the winter of 1540, the King of Bohemia had given Glonowski up to the Poles, and the Pomeranian duke wanted a peace agreement.


While the first part of the trade, where Glonowski was transferred to Prussia in exchange for the promise that all claims and ownership of the province of Danzig would be traded to Poland, the second part of the deal was cut short by a war initiated by Poland against Denmark. The armies of Prussia were again mobilized and sent to fight Denmark's ally, Hannover, who had recently annexed Mecklemburg in their own war of conquest. Poland agreed to a white peace in 1542, due to the Danish blockade destroying Poland's connection to Western European trade (sorry that I didn't get screens of the first war, but pretty much nothing went on in the second war). Prussia traded Danzig to Poland for the sum of 20,000 thalers, and with this, Cicero could state that he was one of the greatest Brandenburgian kings. While Albrecht achieved his final goal of controlling Ostpomern and Ostpreussen only at the end of his life, Cicero had achieved all of his short term goals within 20 years of ascending to the Prussian throne.

Yeah, while I don't seem worried about the Poles I actually really am. France didn't come to my aid in the Ostpommern war, but they didn't have cores on me. If Poland decided that it's worth attacking me, even if I had succeeded in taking Silesia I'd be dead. So I'm going to be using the first Seldon Defense (referencing Foundation, if you haven't read it yet check it out! it's like science fiction for history nerds), that is, the balance of power. So long as Poland is as strong as Austria, and neither is breathing down my back, I'm good. Beyond that taking Gdansk is generally the first step in breaking Poland, and I did that way too early in my last Germany game, which left me with a Russia who's national income was 500 and who's army doubled France's and mine put together. Beyond that 200 ducats allows me to start to build the Southern Wall against Bohemia,

Also I'm reading a history of Poland and my second full game was a Polish game, so I got some sympathy for those guys.

Also yeah, the general events are fantastic, and they're pretty much the reason that I take the Army Academy as a smaller nation because producing generals for free is always worth it.

LASTLY!

What should i be doing now? It's always hard to play a Prussia game because it's nearly impossible to expand in north eastern Germany without one of the two great powers being angry at you, and after Silesia it's not like you have much of a model--where I am + Silesia, northern Saxony, and Pomerania was Frederick's Prussia. I kind of want to attack Silesia but they're cozying up to me now and in the last war I lucked out hugely. I don't think I'll be able to get such an easy war again.

The only problem is that, to have defensible borders with Poland, I'd need to take Danzig, Torun, and Posen, which would be difficult for one war. And Silesia is also a problem--adding it would be very helpful to me, but it's a hard to defend area which lengthens my border with both Poland and Bohemia

"Knowledge of God"--Social Policies in Cicero's Prussia

While the cooperation between Armand De Fournay and Johann Cicero led to one of the most capable and efficient governments of the time, it is worthwhile to note that in the long term it was the writings of Heinrich Finck that created the German political culture. Finck has been much respected in German circles ever since the Historical School acknowledged his position as the founder of the philosophy of Prussian Legalism and as the fore founder of Hobbes' line of thought. However it's only recently that he has become popular within English-speaking circles and French intellectuals. He has been called "the Medievalist's Weber". And while there were other important institutional goings on in the Kingdom of Prussia at the time, Finck's important position as the King's appointment to the Kronesohr informed everything that occurred after the War of Danzig.


It was 1520 when Machiavelli started to publish Il Principe. German translations came quickly, but considering the dominance of the Church in most educational institutions, the Augustan line of thought was pretty much the only theory of government that was taught. To simplify Augustus' argument, governments exist to provide the basic amount of stability and to impress Christian values upon their peoples so that the maximum number of people in their kingdom can get into heaven.

Finck's argument is that, since governments exist to the benefit of their population (through trying to bring Salvation to as many of them as possible), Christian governments were divinely anointed, and if a good government created good laws, those laws would contain within them "shards of the Knowledge of God". It is his definition of 'good laws' that made this theory controversial when it was penned. Oppression and political violence (the state killing its citizens) 'pollutes the souls of the murderers and the murdered'. While Finck agreed that the teachings of Becke were a heresy, he attacked the Emperor for 'recreating pre-Constantine Rome' and for the violent murder of Christians. Finck's major point--that a government that rules through law alone is an ideal government--is the point that is most salient to the way Finck governed as head of the Kronesohr.

While this was being written, the precise laws of Prussia were still being hammered out. The Kronesohr, at this point, overrepresented the Mark at the expense of Ducal Prussia. This was all fine and good during the rule of Georg I, when the culture of Ostpreussen and the Mark weren't markedly different. However by 1540 the difference was starting to be felt--by now the Mark was 30-40% Protestant and while Cicero denounced them, he never went so far as to attack them physically. While this angered the Church, it placated the Emperor--Ferdinand VII had recently been killed during the battle of Nassau, having been hit in the head by a rock thrown by a peasant-turned-protestant soldier, and his brother Franz Karl I was not as forgiving a man.


Compared to this, Prussia was entirely Catholic and far less urbanized than the Mark. Prussia started the negotiations by asking for representation in the Board of Executives of Memel, Johannesburg, Marienburg, Rastenburg, and Allenstein, which would effectively make Ducal Prussia as large an entity in the board as the rest of the Kingdom combined (as Glonowski was not a part of the board yet, but instead was ruled by the Doppelkorps via military districting). While Georg would have responded to this angrily, Cicero and Frinck were both willing to create stronger systems of law, as both were fully aware of the concept of an incompetent King.

Cicero countered with representation for Memel, Marienburg, and Allenstein on the provision that Prussia accepted the new law he was penning, which would limit the state in a fundamental way--

The Laws of Religion of the Kingdom of Prussia

No man or woman may be deprived of their speech or life for the reason of religion.

Click to expand...

This law would make Prussia the foremost and most tolerant government on the continent. The inspiration of the law was England's law of religion adopted 30 years ago. Cicero had personally served in the English Army during their peasant's war, and with that he had served with Jewish soldiers and under Jewish officers. Beyond that he knew that he needed to find some way to enshrine tolerance into his government in order to ease the eventual shift to Protestantism. The negotiating went back and forth, with the eventual agreement being that the head of the Kronesohr would be located in Konigsberg and the intellectuals of Konigsberg and Mayor of Konigsberg would be given the same importance as the Berliner intelligencia and the mayor of Berlin. It's due to this devolving of representation that Prussia is sometimes called the Double-Kingdom.


This was not received well, at all, by the Church. Not only were Protestants now going to become more powerful within the government, but Jews would become more powerful as well! "Our king is a kind man," wrote the inquisitor Albrecht Von Merkatz from his office in Vienna to his friend the Bishop of Altmark, "But he is a naive man. If we allow the Jews and the Becker heretics to become more powerful they will overwhelm us."

The peasants war in Prussia was markedly different from the peasants wars in the rest of the Empire. While the Peasants War was generally connected with Protestantism, the peasants in Brandenburg were organized by Catholic reactionaries, and while the peasant hordes were met with violence in the rest of the world, Cicero managed to end it relatively bloodlessly.


While Cicero was riding to Konigsberg from Berlin, he was confronted with the largest army that Prussia or Brandenburg had ever seen at this point--a 30,000 man horde of peasants led by mayors and priests. When they realized that they had hostaged the King, they threatened to kill him if he did not pay a huge sum. "Oh, but I can do so much better", said Cicero, and with this he made a deal with the peasants, which would push through a reform he had wanted to force long ago, banning from now on the tradition of being born into serfdom. While this lost him some prestige (having immediately given into the demands of a mob by gunpoint), it cemented Cicero's legacy and brought him closer to Finck's notion of a 'bloodless state'.


This outmaneurvering of the Catholic Church was made even more humiliating when the Pope offered Cicero concessions in thanks for his staying within the sphere of the Universal Church. Cicero used his personal skill at negotiating to discover precisely how much land and money the Pope would part with and took it, which led to the Seminary in Potsdam and the Bishopric in Altmark being owned, legally, by the state.


The most important, long term, part of Finck's legacy was enshrined in 1546, 2 years after his death. While Christian Albrecht I created Prussian norms towards freedom of speech that even the conservative Johann Georg I did not directly break, Johann Cicero had made them law. The legacy of Humanism, and of Humanist Tolerance, were now no norm, but rather a law, and with Du Fournay now at the head of the Kronesauge (partially in order to preside over a rather unstable body, partially because the banker De Crussol had offered his services to the King), this notion would stay through thick and thin.

The Fall of Silesia, the Radical Reformation, and The Constantinian Decision


Silesia had been fighting for its own independence for 200 years. Ever since it had broken off from Poland, Silesia stood between the stronger Polish King on one side and its overlord, the Bohemian king, on the other. But in the hundred years since the fall of Constantinople, Silesia had transformed from a buffer state to a genuinely independent identity. Philosophically and politically Silesia was easily a century ahead of some of its neighbors. While England and Prussia had laws giving the right of life and speech to all of their citizens regardless of religion, Silesia had passed laws banning the legal rights of the nobility and had created a concept of 'nation' based around the idea that the Silesians were a 'river people', and river people, who met thousands of men and women who traveled up and down the river, had to be tolerant by default. By 1545, the congregations of Jews in Silesia had become simply another one of the several demographical groups. There is little doubt that Krystian Ludwig I was one of the most liberal rulers of the time when he passed a law allowing any man to go to any school he could afford. This meant that recently converted Jews could go to Seminary, which caused a great deal of controversy internationally, though not within Silesia.


However there was one problem--while Krystian Ludwig was a fantastic duke, he had not sired any sons, and as the 1540s came to a close and his wife died, it became clear that he would not have another chance to have any children. So he needed to make a hard decision--he needed to decide which nation would inherit his nation. The three inheritors who had the best claims were Frederich of Prussia (also the Heir of Prussia), Janislaw of Bohemia, and Johann III, Margrave of Baden. For quite a while the intellectuals of Wroclaw considered Baden the best choice--as Baden was a weak country, the Duchy of Silesia would soon be able to break free and establish another dynasty. Krystian knew better though--the new Emperor strongly believed in the Austrian international relations concept of "integrated convergence", or creating stronger links (preferably through inheritances) between the Catholic powers in order to counter the ever more radical Protestant threat.

Beyond this, Krystian's faith in Catholicism wasn't at its strongest near the end of his life. The 6th Council of Archbishops was held in the Highlands region in Scotland. Partially this was to make sure that the council would not be interrupted by war (as the councils in Denmark were), but there was another attractive aspect to the council--it was being held in a town that was half Protestant, half Catholic. The more moderate rulers were attracted to this, as the last several councils had led to highly conservative decisions. However this council was more of the same, and though the "Good Works Catholics" (the followers of Kreyitz' Catholicism, which included Prussians but also Pomeranians, Silesians, Mecklemburgers, Saxons and northern Bohemians and which involved respect for Judaism , a focus on literacy and theological argument, and Bibles printed in Vernacular, which Kreyitz thought brought more people closer to God) managed to get the College of Cardinals to ban Simony (the exchange of bribes for benefices), the Spanish archbishops also succeeded in limiting the communion host, which was a slap in the face to the followers of Kreyitz, who had shared communions for the past several decades. When this decision was passed, the whole Good Works contingent left the council in a rage. The trip back to the Elbe from Scotland was one of the first times that Johann Cicero and Krystian had met each other.


Though Cicero was also near to his death, he knew that if he negotiated the combination of Prussia and Silesia, he would be able to guarantee the safety of both. Beyond that he had been waiting for years to find the right time to convert--it was clear even before the 4th Council that the Catholic Church was not going to accept concessions from the Good Works contingent--and a Prussia that included Silesia (one of the most urbanized areas of Europe outside of Italy) would be able to defend itself far better. On the other hand, Krystian saw Prussia as the closest fit to Silesia's culture. The works of Kreyitz (which Albrecht, and later Cicero, had translated into Czech) had an even stronger effect on Silesia than it did in Prussia, and Kreyitz's respect for Jewish culture had led to the Silesian concept of a 'river people'. Beyond that, Berlin and Wroclaw had been joined at the hip ever since the annexation of Glonowski, and trade up and down the Elbe had enriched both cities.

While Krystian was well read on Kreyitz' theology, the life of hard work asserting Silesia's independence from Bohemia meant that he had never had the chance to read Finck's The Spirit of Laws. Being that Cicero had been Finck's editor the whole time, it would be reasonable to say that there was no better Finck scholar at the time than Johann Cicero. At the same time, it would be dishonest of me to say that Cicero was giving a full summation of Finck's philosophy--he focused mostly on the concept of a 'bloodless state', and any of the other concepts which he felt Krystian would be attracted to. A Catholic scholar who traveled with the two said that the conversation they had over the weeks was "closer to seduction than lecture". By the end of the trip, Krystian and Cicero were close friends.

This was still not enough, however. Before Krystian signed his whole legacy off to the next Prussian King, he first needed the guarantee that the King would respect the laws of Silesia and that the next King would integrate rather than dominate the Duchy. This started a period of Silesian near-dominance of Prussian internal affairs. Tariffs across the Elbe (even with Pomerania) were lowered, Good Works Catholic seminaries were opened, and tax privileges were rearranged so that Cities were given preferential treatment over the estates (which, sadly, put even more pressure on the towns). A Silesian theologian was hired so that the Silesian concept of a "church tax" could be spread to Prussia.


Krystian was pleased, and before his death he made the young Frederich the duke of Silesia, with a regent in his place until he took the Prussian crown. Cicero could not be more pleased--in his lifetime he had effectively doubled the size of his realm.


While this seems like a tremendous event in and of itself, it led to one of the most important and underrated political inventions of the early modern era--the independent police force. When it was clear that prince Frederich would add the Silesian crown to his own, the Doppelkorps claimed that by the precedent set by its administration of Glonowski, it had the appropriate claim of administration over the rest of the provinces of Silesia. The Doppelkorps established multiple reasons for this--

1.Making Opolski, Wroclaw, and Rackinborski into military districts would by helpful, as Silesia would quickly be the main target of any belligerent.
2.While the nobility had accepted the provisions required for representation in the Kronesohr, they had their own estates, so the King would not lose the advantage of information seeping into the administration.
3.Silesia does not have a tradition of appointed mayors. Rather, they have a tradition of elected mayors and if we were to replace their system of government it could cause a revolt. It would be better, instead, to create a parallel system.

The Kronesohr then used its charter, which established it as the voice of the provinces for the King, as the counterclaim. However, De Fournay, who knew that his case wasn't that strong (Cicero had, by this point, put many of the administrative duties upon his son, so Fournay would have to argue to Frederich, a man who didn't know him all too well), established a counterclaim.

Two years before, a report came from the Doppelkorps stating that the city of Berlin was so large by this point, that it would be best if a separate policing force outside of the garrison and army could be established. The Army of the Mark was spending most of its time in Berlin, rather in the far more volatile Altmark, because any revolt that occurred within Berlin had the risk of overwhelming the King--the short-lived Peasants War was fresh in the minds of all of the senior military officers. Even the 3,000 man garrison was no where near enough people to police the city's urban population of 45,000, not even to mention the provincial population of nearly 100,000. So funds were allocated so that a policing organization could be created in Berlin. Two years later, the First Police District of Prussia was nearly fully formed, and the Kronesohr claimed that policing was a part of administration and domestic, rather than foreign policy, and if one wanted to maintain the spirit of the charters of the 3 Departments, domestic policy fell under the wing of the Kronesohr and therefore so did policing.

This was a feint. Diaries and public records show that this was simply De Fournay and the Kronesohr placing their chip on the table--if the Doppelkorps were to allow the Kronesohr to administer Silesia, then the Kronesohr would allow the Doppekorps to control policing. The Doppelkorps was far more interested in the greater prize, however. Frederich agreed to the 'parallel governance' plan, wherein military and diplomatic appointees would act as garrison commanders in Silesia, while Silesian mayors would be elected as per tradition. In order to sate the other two departments, the Kronesohr was now given control over policing and a Kronesauge 'market commissioner' would be in control over the Marketplaces of each of the provincial capitals plus Konigsberg and Berlin--beyond that promises were made that Kronesauge legal offices would be built in the provincial capitals of Silesia.

This led to the idea of modern policing. Paul Chevigny's "Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas" argues that one of the causes of police brutality is the 'militarization' of police and whether the military dominates the police force, for the nature of the military's occupation and the job of the police is greatly different: the military is generally taught of war in the Clauswitzian sense of Ideal War: a short act of overwhelming force which totally subjugates the enemy. Policing, however, is different: it's a constant reproduction of society's concept of Order. The Military, with its focus on quick solutions, is more willing to resort to violence in order to achieve results, see, for instance, French forces in Algeria or the Brasilian police (which has large para-military organizations within it). However, the utilization of force goes against the philosophical objective of the police, that is, reproducing order. "The separation of the police and military which occurred in 1548," Chevigny argues, "was the beginning of the European model of policing: concerned primarily with pacification and order rather than the destruction of criminals". This objective, combined with conceptions of an absolute Westphalian state and the legacy of the Second World War, has been argued by multiple sources to be the reasons for Europe's lower crime rates and its lower levels of violence.


By this point, Cicero knew that he was close to his death. However, with an army of 30,000 men who were now newly outfitted with gunpowder weapons, Cicero was confident that Prussia could fight any one of the Catholic powers to a standstill if it was needed. With the duchy of Silesia under their control, Prussia would be in total control over the Elbe river, which would give an excelled defensive position for their army.

Beyond this, there was one final insult. The next council, the 7th, which had been boycotted by the Kreyitzan Catholics, passed two provisions which were a spit in the face to the followers of Kreyitz. The concept of 'good works' was now limited to donations, with the suggestion that donations to the Church were to be considered higher. While this was insulting, Charity was one half of the Kreyitzan definition of "Good Works"--the other being Industry. The true insult was the establishment of Latin as the sole holy language.

The entire Berlin printing press system was based on the concept of works being printed in the vernacular for all to read, and Polish Catholicism had been based in vernacular for a century by this point, going so far as to translate Lithuanian and Belorussian into a Romantic characters system in order to print books for Lithuanians. "If we are to print all religious texts into Latin," said the Prince of Poland August III, "then we must be prepared for widespread illiteracy and philistinism. The Patriarch has no qualms with using Belorussan and Lithuanian to convert my peoples, neither do the Pagans" To the Eastern Europeans, the decision to stop teaching in vernacular was a product of Western European arrogance. There was no threat of Pagan, Orthodox, or Sunni conversions in France or England.

Beyond that, the printing of Bibles in the vernacular had created unprecedented literacy rates in Eastern Germany and Poland, and finally had given them some degree of knowledge of their own religion, and it nearly led to a parity between Eastern and Western Europe over the intellectual realm. Many Eastern European intellectuals felt that this decision was just to place Western European scholars, who were more likely to know Latin, back on top. We know that the decision disgusted Eastern Europeans because in Sweden, one of the most divided of the European countries, the King converted to Beckism the day that he heard of the decision and declared himself "the guardian of Christianity, not for the priests but for the people!"


Thus, the 7th Council had the effect of solidifying Catholicism in the West while abandoning it in the East, and of changing the Reformation from being based mostly on the moderate Beckian lines and changing it to being based more on the radical Italian monk, Calistus Brenta. Calistus believed that "Latin is a dead language. If we do not speak to the people in their own tongue, then how are they to understand us? Am I to expect that they will speak Latin in Heaven?" He also believed in elected priesthoods, predestination, and that the only true virtues were Industry and Faith. In one form or another, Brentism spread across Europe just as much as Beckian Protestantism. The largest example of this was the example of Jan Leopolitania, who had been working for a decade by 1549 on his translation of the Bible into Polish. In 1550 he was informed that his work was, in fact, heretical, and to stop immediately. Instead he created a form of Reformism in his Warsaw parish, and in doing so converted the prince of Poland.


With this in mind, on his deathbed he signed a Statute that he had locked in his desk the year that his sons tutor, Becke, became the leader of the Protestant Reformation. With this, known as the "Constantinal Decision" for its similarity to the deathbed conversion of Constantine to Christianity, Cicero had once more defended Prussia's sovereignty by rejecting utterly the Pope and converting to Beckist Christianity.


edit: I'm going to be away for the weekend, also the world update will be held in 1560 rather than 1550 because I was so worried about the 1560s that I forgot to take screencaps at the end of Cicero's reign.