Wullenweber  is  a  perfect  representative  of  the  rash  and  perverse  spirit
which  was  rife,  during  that  period,  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  German
cities.  He  had  begun,  like  so  many  demagogues  in  other  towns  ;  the
talent  of  leading  a  mobile  population  at  his  pleasure,  and  the  natural
force  of  the  political  and  religious  interests,  elevated  him  to  a  station
whence  he  could  dare  to  intrude  self-supported  among  the  great  powers
of  the  world.  He  knew  no  moderation  ;  failures  did  not  teach  him  caution  ;
he  evoked  once  more  the  ancient  spirit  of  the  Hansa,  prevailed  on  German
princes  to  engage  in  his  wars,  and  contracted  alliances  with  foreign  poten-
tates. Motives  of  all  sorts, — democratic,  religious,  mercantile  and  political
— were  confusedly  blended  in  his  mind  ;  he  entertained  the  project  of
making  the  reformed  Liibeck  the  centre  and  head  of  the  democracy  of  the
North,  and  himself  the  director  of  this  newly  organized  world.  But  he
thus  deserted  the  sphere  of  the  ideas  which  had  given  force  and  success  to
the  German  reformation  ;  the  powers  which  he  attacked  were,  at  length,
too  strong  for  him  ;  the  reverses  which  democracy  suffered  on  every  hand
reacted  on  his  native  city  :  the  ground  was  thus  cut  from  under  his  feet,
and  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies.  Having  failed  to  conquer
the  North,  the  only  alternative  that  remained  to  him  was  to  die  on  the
scaffold.
