He devoted himself to the
study of the mystic sciences of astrology and alchymy. He became
irritable, morose, and melancholy even to madness. Foreign ambassadors
could not get admission to his presence. His religion, consisting
entirely in ecclesiastical rituals and papal dogmas, not in Christian
morals, could not dissuade him from the most degrading sensual vice.
Low-born mistresses, whom he was continually changing, became his only
companions, and thus sunk in sin, shame and misery, he virtually
abandoned his ruined realms to their fate.
Rhodolph had received the empire from the hands of his noble father in a
state of the very highest prosperity. In thirty years, by shameful
misgovernment, he had carried it to the brink of ruin. Rhodolph's third
brother, Matthias, was now forty-nine years of age. He had been educated
by the illustrious Busbequias, whose mind had been liberalized by study
in the most celebrated universities of Flanders, France and Italy. His
teacher had passed many years as an ambassador in the court of the
sultan, and thus had been able to give his pupil a very intimate
acquaintance with the resources, the military tactics, the manners and
customs of the Turks.
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