52 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
Nuremberg were also members for a time. It met with only limited
success even in its earlier years, becoming increasingly inactive there-
after until it was finally disbanded in 1599. The Union likewise had a
form of antecedent in the short-lived cooperation between the electors
of the Palatinate and Saxony between 1586 and 1592, while the Protes-
tant territories of Württemberg, Baden-Durlach and Pfalz-Neuburg had
formed a defensive alliance in 1605.
The Catholic League
Neuer-Landfried, the historian of the early years of the Catholic League,
confirms that the idea of a wider Catholic defence body had been
discussed well before the Donauwörth incident, triggered by the contro-
versy over the ‘four cloisters’ cases and its repercussions at the Reichstag
meeting of 1603. Shortly afterwards the three ecclesiastical electors met
and concluded that because of the political situation and the perceived
designs of the Protestants on further church property it would be advis-
able to assemble a defensive army of 20,000 men and the funds to
maintain it. However Emperor Rudolf II expressed serious reservations,
and following the death of the elector of Mainz early in 1604 the matter
was dropped.^45
Maximilian of Bavaria returned to the concept as the Donauwörth
incident developed, not least because he did not wish his duchy to
stand alone as the principal target of Protestant hostility. Thus, says
Albrecht, ‘the League was not only founded principally by Bavaria,
but also for Bavaria, and in furtherance of Bavaria’s confessional and
political objectives’.^46 Following the Reichstag of 1608 Maximilian ener-
getically sought to win adherents for a Catholic League, mainly in
southern Germany, but progress was slow even after the foundation of
the Protestant Union. Although most of those approached expressed
agreement with the principle they raised a series of problems which
betrayed underlying reservations or reluctance to become involved.
The influential bishop of Würzburg warned that an association limited
to Catholics was likely to draw its participants into a major political
conflict in the Empire, particularly if the members of the emperor’s
house were excluded, while the financial burden would be too great
for the Catholic princes alone. The new elector of Mainz commended
Maximilian’s efforts, but preferred to see how much success he had with
other prelates before committing himself, as it would be easier for him
to join an organisation once established by Bavaria than to participate
in its founding. The elector of Trier was similarly equivocal, while the
archbishop of Salzburg, noting that the Landsberg League had been