INTRODUCTION.                                    CXV
But he soon shewed his real intentions, for by his
craftiness and underhand movements, he contrived,
with the assistance of the bishops of Hungary, to carry
his point that the pope should be allowed to appoint
a nuncio [hauptmann] in Hungary, who should be
dependent solely upon himself. He had also the
effrontery to state before Herberstein that he himself
had given his acquiescence to this arrangement. But
as Herberstein had the firmness to declare this state-
ment to be untrue, the wily ambassador did not gain
his object, and mainly through Herberstein's adroit-
ness, the adoption of a nuncio was contravened. He
was very active all the time he was in Buda, and
proved himself a very able diplomatist. He left that
city for Augsburg, where Maximilian was holding his
last diet before his death, a diet especially celebrated
for the presence of Martin Luther, who had been
summoned thither by the pope's nuncio, cardinal
Cajetan, on the question of the famous ninety-five
propositions.
In October 1518, the estates of Styria appointed
Herberstein to be their councillor at the imperial
court, and the emperor confirmed his appointment.
Maximilian died on the 12th of January 1519, and
Herberstein was one of the bearers of the imperial
pall at the funeral. Maximilian had ordered that all
the affairs of the government should remain unaltered
until the arrival of his successor, and therefore had
appointed a special regency; but several provinces, and
more especially Lower Austria, took advantage of the
interregnum for introducing alterations in their con-