An Inevitable War? 53a failure, preferred an association limited to ecclesiastical members, as
this would arouse less suspicion among the Protestants and could also
be kept secret more easily. In June 1608 Maximilian complained to his
uncle, the elector of Cologne, that there was little enthusiasm for his
proposed confederation.^47
Nevertheless he persevered, but it took him a further year to assem-
ble enough support to found the League. One major problem was his
objection to the participation of Habsburg Austria, which he attributed
to a wish to avoid involvement in the then current feud between
Emperor Rudolf II and his brother Matthias, although privately his prin-
cipal reasons were the long-established dynastic rivalry between the
Wittelsbachs and the Habsburgs, together with his own aim to take
the leading position as both political and prospective military head of
the organisation. The bishops, on the other hand, wanted Habsburg
membership, or at least the emperor’s approval, and certainly his knowl-
edge of the founding of the association. Agreement was eventually
reached in Munich in July 1609, but the initial membership was small,
Bavaria being joined only by the four nearby bishoprics of Würzburg,
Constance, Augsburg and Passau, together with two minor ecclesiasti-
cal foundations, also in southern Germany. The archbishop of Salzburg
declined membership at least in part because of his local rivalry with
Bavaria, but the three ecclesiastical electors of Mainz, Cologne and
Trier joined shortly afterwards. The alliance had various titles during
its existence, all stressing its defensive rather than its confessional char-
acter, whereas the name ‘Catholic League’ was originally coined by its
opponents as an allusion to a notorious organisation active during the
French Wars of Religion, but the label has nevertheless been adopted by
historiography.^48
A number of new members joined in 1610, but thereafter recruit-
ment was slow and spread over the following three years. The eventual
participants included the city of Cologne (although researchers dif-
fer about this) and the small Catholic cities and minor counts of
the Swabian Circle, but the remainder were almost all ecclesiastical
entities from southern Germany. Bavaria was the only significant non-
ecclesiastical territory, and the only members in the northern half of
Germany were the electorate and possibly the city of Cologne, and
the bishoprics of Hildesheim, Liège and Münster, although these only
joined in 1613 after their bishop, Maximilian’s brother, also became
elector of Cologne following the death of his uncle. Even in south-
ern Germany by no means all the potential Catholic members actually
joined.^49