Imperial Council (Holy Roman Empire)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In historical research, the Imperial Council is the formal gathering of all the Estates invited to a Diet of the Holy Roman Empire .

Luther to the Diet of Worms in 1521; historicizing mural by Hermann Wislicenus .

At the time of the non-permanent meeting of the Reichstag (1495–1662), the Reichsrat formed the first meeting of the present members of the Reich, which opened the assembly of estates. This joint meeting of all the imperial estates (or their envoys) who had arrived took place on the first day of the Reichstag, immediately after the Holy Mass, which was also attended jointly : “ The simultaneous presence of imperial and imperial representatives in a body of the Reichstag was outside the joint committees to be observed in meetings of the Reichsrat, in which on special occasions, such. B. when the proposition was read out and the farewell, [...] emperors, electors, princes and estates also met in person. "

The most important function of the Imperial Council, despite its regular convening posed no Curia of the Reichstag, but rather only a special type of meeting was so the reading of the adopted by the emperor proposition . This took place in the presence of the emperor or his principal commissioner , who presided over the meeting and whereby the council performed an integrating function for the emperor and the empire. After the publication of the “agenda” of the Reich Assembly, the estates in the regular Reichstag colleges ( Elector Council , Reichsfürstenrat and City Council ) separated and began deliberations. “ This Reichsrat thus had representative tasks, but also served as a plenary assembly of all Reichstag participants to read out further propositions, issue instructions, hand over concerns and expert opinions and joint Imperial discussions outside the separate curiae. "

The interrogation of Martin Luther at the Reichstag in Worms (1521) , for example, took place during the session of the Reichsrat, since otherwise there would not have been so many different imperial estates gathered for this event.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ After the Reformation, the Protestant estates no longer took part in it.
  2. ↑ Helmut Neuhaus: Reichstag and Supplication Committee , p. 69 f.
  3. ↑ Cf. Neuhaus, p. 73. Neuhaus remarks here that the Reichsrat is fully comparable in its durability and personal continuity to the estate curia and their directorates.
  4. ↑ See Neuhaus, p. 70
  5. ↑ Neuhaus, p. 70

literature

  • Helmut Neuhaus : Reichstag and Supplication Committee. A contribution to the history of the imperial constitution in the first half of the 16th century . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3-428-03830-4 , ( Writings on Constitutional History 24), (At the same time: Marburg, Univ., Diss., 1975–1976: Reichstag, Supplikationswesen and Supplikationsrat ).