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THE RHINE.

COLOGNE.

THE original inhabitants of Cologne were, properly speaking, the Ubii, who, in the time of Augustus Cæsar, were driven across the Rhine by the Hessians. To recompense their fidelity to Rome, the emperor granted them a portion of the land of the Menapians, the present duchy of Julich; and, to keep them in check, a Roman colony was founded on the site of the present city of Cologne. It was built in the year

of our Lord 50; and, at the desire of Julia Agrippina, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero, and daughter of Drusus Germanicus, who was born in the camp or capital of the Ubii (Oppidum

Hence its

From this ori

Ubiorum), it was called after her. it was more commonly known among the Ubii name, Cologne, from Colonia Agrippina; though by the apellation of Agrippina. gin the city has always claimed its freedom; and the citizens asserted their right to be free; a claim which was allowed, and a right which was recognised in every subsequent mutation of the German Empire, until the period of the first

French revolution.

The history of Cologne," under

1

the Roman

domination, is but a history of that powerful empire. Vitellius was proclaimed emperor in this city; and Trajan held the high office of imperial legate within its walls when he was nominated by Nerva to succeed him. Many others of the Roman emperors resided here; and here it also was on the spot where the Church of St. Severins now stands-that Sylvanus was assassinated, after a reign of twenty-eight days.

The Franks besieged and sacked Cologne in the time of Constantius-the beginning of the fourth century;-holding it for some time after as a portion of their possessions. It was, however, recovered from them by the Romans under Julian the Apostate, and annexed once more to the empire. It fell again into the hands of the Franks, A.D. 460-2; and from thenceforward continued under their sovereignty. Clovis was proclaimed king of the Franks in Cologne In the year 949, Otto the Great, emperor of Germany. declared it an imperial free city; and granted to it all the immunities and privileges attached to that condition. The bishopric and temporal principality in connexion with it he subsequently bestowed on his brother, Bruno, who is celebrated in local history, not alone as the first elector of Cologne, but also as the destroyer of the Roman bridge over the Rhine from that city to Deutz,

In the year 1064, great disquiet ensued between the citizens and their sovereign, Bishop Hanno; of which, as they will be treated more at large a little onward, mention is barely made here.

Henry the Fifth besieged Cologne at the time his father, Henry the Fourth, escaped from Klopp —Cologne being one of those cities which stood

ed to perorom its walls without being

his extremity; but he was

able to make any impression on them.

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In the year 1201, Cologne became a member of the celebrated Hanseatic League; and in a few years afterwards, from its wealth, and power, and population, and extent of commerce with all parts of the then known world, it assumed the chief place in that important mercantile union. At this auspicious era it was that, from the number, and riches, and variety, and greatness of the religious foundations within its walls, Cologue received the appellations of the 66 Holy City,"

and the "Rome of the North."

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The famous battle of Hermann Gryn, the brave Burgomaster of Cologne, with the Archbishop's Lion-of which a more detailed account will be given in the sequel took placo in the year. 1262. The bitter feuds between the archbishop and the burghers, which preceded and followed, were only appeased by the pacific intervention of the celebraled Albertus Magnus, previously bishop of Ratisbon, then a friar minor resident in the city, But the truce which ensued was only temporary; indeed it scarcely lasted the brief remainder of his life-time. While the exciting cause of popular discord exists, occasion to exhibit it will seldom be wanting: we, therefore, find that from this period, until the commencement of the fifteenth century, Cologne was never a consecutive year quiet; but that dissensions were perpetually breaking forth-now between the archbishop and the burghers, now between the burghon for more than ers and the patricians, and so two centuries,

C

In the early part of the fourteenth century Cologne was the chief city and the centre of the great Hanse Towns Confederacy. In the Rathhaus was held the supreme court of that formidable commercial league. The cotton and silkmanufactures were then the principal trade of the city; and at that period there were eighty thousand looms employed on them alone at work within its walls. Cologne, at this time, was also the centre of German civilisation; and schools of art in painting, sculpture, and design, were established there, which had the most beneficial influence on the genius of the Flemish masters, who followed. The cathedral was a result of wealth and refinement.

In the year 1333, Cologne was honoured by a visit from Petrarch, who thus speaks of it:"How glorious is this city! What a wonder to find such a spot in a barbarous land! What dignity in the men! what grace and tenderness in the women!"* And again, speaking of the literary taste of the inhabitants, and the poetical genius which displayed itself among them, he observes:-"But before all things else will it surprise thee, as it did me, to find Pierean spirits under such a cloudy heaven. Know, then, that though here be no Maros, yet are there very many Nasos. "**

In the year 1374, the Rhine increased to such a height that its waters overtopped the battlements of Cologne, and filled all the streets and

"Epistolæ Familiares;" addressed to his friend and patron, John, Cardinal Colonna,

** Idem. Alluding to Virgil and Ovid.

attle

San

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houses of the
quently (A.D.

within its channel

ly, and no

city; and fourteen years subse1388) it suddenly shrunk so much that horsemen forded it freeor boat could float on its waters.

vessel

A.D 1471

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William Caxton commenced the

trade of a printer in this city, and established

the first press

afterwards

walls. One of his earliest productions-two years that was ever worked within its reprinted in London, to which city he subsequently removed-was given to the world

in Cologne.

Cologne during this

grew

daily in wealth and greatness era; but the seeds of destruction had been long sown in its social constitution. the burghers

internal

troubles

The

between the archbishops and continued with unabated fierceness;

the alienation of the mass of the population from claiming

those

increased; power

the

the

to be patricians, or the nobility, the and magistracy succumbed before the influence of the guilds or trades of licentiousness and disorder were

city;

and

natural

decline

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in

had they

and necessary results of this clashing of interests and opposition of power. These circumstances contributed mainly to the of the city: but there were others, equally affected it in the same manner, succeeding centuries, which would have never existed. Among the many, three may be enumerated as the most fatal to its prosperity; and they take their rise as much from bad civil government as from the influence of a foul superstition. The first was the persecution and banishment of all the Jews within its walls. Eighty thousand are said to have been expelled 1425at one moment-on Bartholomew's day,

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