It was now an object of intense solicitude with Maximilian, to secure the reversion of the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, which were both upon the brow of Ladislaus, to his own family.  With this object in view, and to render assurance doubly sure, he succeeded in negotiating a marriage between two children of Ladislaus, a son and a daughter, and two of his own grand-children.  This was a far pleasanter mode of acquiring territory and family aggrandizement than by the sword.  In celebration of the betrothals, Ladislaus and his brother Sigismond, King of Poland, visited Vienna, where Ladislaus was so delighted with the magnificent hospitality of his reception, that he even urged upon the emperor, who was then a widower, fifty-eight years of age, that he should marry another of his daughters, though she had but attained her thirteenth year.  The emperor declined the honor, jocularly remarking—­

“There is no method more pleasant to kill an old man, than to marry him to a young bride.”

The German empire was then divided into ten districts, or circles, as they were then called, each of which was responsible for the maintenance of peace among its own members.  These districts were, Austria, Burgundy, the Upper Rhine, the Lower Rhine, Franconia, Bavaria, Suabia, Westphalia, Upper Saxony and Lower Saxony.  The affairs of each district were to be regulated by a court of a few nobles, called a diet.  The emperor devoted especial attention to the improvement of his own estate of Austria, which he subdivided into two districts, and these into still smaller districts.  Over all, for the settlement of all important points of dispute, he established a tribunal called the Aulic Council, which subsequently exerted a powerful influence over the affairs of Austria.

One more final effort Maximilian made to rouse Germany to combine to drive the Turks out of Europe.  Though the benighted masses looked up with much reverence to the pontiff, the princes and the nobles regarded him only as a power, wielding, in addition to the military arm, the potent energies of superstition.  A diet was convened.  The pope’s legate appeared, and sustained the eloquent appeal of the emperor with the paternal commands of the holy father.  But the press was now becoming a power in Europe, diffusing intelligence and giving freedom to thought and expression.  The diet, after listening patiently to the arguments of the emperor and the requests of the pontiff, dryly replied—­

“We think that Christianity has more to fear from the pope than from the Turks.  Much as we may dread the ravages of the infidel, they can hardly drain Christendom more effectually than it is now drained by the exactions of the Church.”