ABSTRACT
The constitution of the Holy Roman Empire was enshrined in the Treaties of Westphalia, and provided sufficient restraints on any prince who might attempt such divisive action. Almost a century of German historiography, up to the end of the Second World War, based on the virtually uncontested assumption that the nation state was the only desirable form of government, has prejudiced many generations in their view of the Holy Roman Empire. Austro-Prussian rivalry, and the strains and stresses of the French revolutionary wars, submitted the Holy Roman Empire to pressures it was unable to resist, making it easy for later generations to believe that Goethe's or Gorres's sardonic references did justice to its antiquated structure. The bishops could combine in the assembly or in the imperial circles of the Empire, which were still effective in south Germany, and they could get through a vote for military supplies in wartime, of great value to the Emperor.
