Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Rudolf I.
[Rudolf of Hapsburg; founder of the House of Austria; born in Hapsburg, in what is now the Canton of Aargau, Switzerland, 1218; succeeded his father in the hereditary possessions of the family, 1240; elected Holy Roman Emperor, 1273; reformed the government and restrained the nobles; died 1291.]
Rome is like the lion’s den in the fable: one may see the footsteps of many who have gone there, but of none who have come back.
To the archbishop who kissed the emperor’s bride (his second wife, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy) as she was alighting from her carriage, Rudolf said, with a profane pun, “Kiss your Agnus Dei, but not my Agnes” (Küsse lieber deine Agnus Dei als meine Agnes).At his coronation he seized a crucifix for want of a sceptre, saying, “The symbol of the world’s redemption is as good as a sceptre” (Das Zeichen der Welterlösung ist so gut als ein Scepter).When his attendants would have kept some peasants from approaching him, the emperor rebuked them, saying, “I was not made king to be shut up from mankind.”
