Worms

WORMS, a city of Germany, in the Land of Hesse. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, 25 m. S. of Mainz, 20 m. N.W. of Heidelberg and 9 m. by rail N.W. of Mannheim. Pop. 50,473.

History.

Worms was known in Roman times as Borbeto magus, which in the Merovingian age became Wormatia. The town had before Caesar's time become the capital of a German tribe, the Vangiones. Drusus is said to have erected a fort here in 14 B.C. In 413 the emperor Jovinus permitted the Burgundians under their king Guntar or Guntiar to settle on the left bank of the Rhine between the Lauter and the Nahe. Here they founded a kingdom with Worms as its capital. Adopting Arianism they came into conflict with the Romans, and under their king Gunda har or Gundicar (the Gunther of the Nibelungenlied) rose in 435 against the Roman governor Aetius, who called in the Huns against them. The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns in 436 was the subject of heroic legends afterwards incorporated in the Nibelungenlied (q.v.) and the Rosengarten (an epic probably of the late 13th century). Worms was rebuilt by the Merovingians, and became an episcopal see, first mentioned in 614, although a bishop of the Vangiones had attended a council at Cologne as early as 347. There was a royal palace from the 8th century, and in it the Frankish kings, in cluding Charlemagne, occasionally resided.

Under the German kings the power of the bishops of Worms gradually increased. Otto I. granted extensive lands to the bishop, and in 979 Bishop Hildbold acquired comital rights in his city. Burchard I. (bishop, 1000-25) destroyed the castle of the Fran conian house at Worms, built the cathedral and laid the founda tions of the subsequent territorial power of the see. There were frequent struggles between the bishops and the citizens, who espoused the cause of the emperors against the church, and were rewarded by privileges which fostered trade. The city re tained its freedom until 1801, in spite of the bishops, who ruled a small territory south of the city, on both sides of the Rhine, and resided at Ladenburg near Mannheim till 1622.

The city of Worms was frequently visited by the imperial court. The concordat of Worms closed the investiture contro versy in 1122. The "perpetual peace" (ewiger Landfriede) was proclaimed by the emperor Maximilian I. at the diet of 1495, and Luther appeared before the famous diet of 1521 to defend his doctrines in the presence of Charles V. Four years later, Worms formally embraced Protestantism, and religious conferences were held there in 154o and 1557. It suffered severely during the Thirty Years' War. The French under Melac burnt the city al most entirely in 1689, and it has only fully recovered from this blow in recent years. Thus the population, which in its prosper

ous days is said to have exceeded 5o,000, had sunk in 1815 to 6,25o.

By the treaty of Worms in 1743 an offensive alliance was formed between Great Britain, Austria and Sardinia. The city was annexed to France at the peace of Luneville in 1801, to gether with the bishop's territories on the left bank of the Rhine. The remaining episcopal dominions were secularized in 1803 and given to Hesse-Darmstadt, which acquired the whole by the Vienna Congress in 1815.

Antiquities.

Some parts of the ancient walls and towers still remain. The cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul ranks besides those of Spires and Mainz among the noblest Romanesque churches of the Rhine. This basilica, built of red sandstone, with a choir at each end, has an imposing exterior. Only the ground plan and the lower part of the western towers belong to the original building consecrated in I0, the remainder was mostly finished by 1181, but the west choir and the vaulting were built in the i3th century, the elaborate south portal was added in the i4th century, and the central dome has been rebuilt. The baptistery contains five remarkable stone reliefs of the late 15th century. The church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche) is a handsome Gothic edifice outside the town, finished in 1467. The principal Protestant place of worship is the Trinity church, built in 1726. Second in interest to the cathedral is the church of St. Paul, also in the Romanesque style, and dating from 1102-16, with a choir of the early 13th century, cloisters and other monastic buildings. This church has been converted into a museum. The late Romanesque church of St. Andrews is not used. The old synagogue, an un assuming building erected in the 11th century and restored in the 13th, is completely modernized. The Jewish community of Worms claims to be the most ancient in Germany and to have existed continuously since the very early Christian era, though the earliest authentic mention of it occurs in 588.

The old Bischofshof, in which the most famous Diet of Worms (1521) was held, has been replaced. The Luginsland is an old watch-tower of the 13th century. The Lutherplatz contains a group of statuary commemorating the Protestant reformers and their forerunners. Extensive burial-grounds, ranging in date from neolithic to Merovingian times, have been discovered near the city.

Worms is the centre of a vine-growing country. The manufac tures include patent leather, machinery, cloth, chemicals, paints, cork, furniture, slates, etc. Worms possesses a good river harbour, and carries on a considerable trade by water.