And yet, at the time of the Reformation, the Empire was little better than a state in dissolution through the centrifugal forces of feudalism.
So little was the Empire an individual unit that the policy of her rulers themselves was not imperial.

The statesmanship of Maximilian was something smaller than national; it was that of his Archduchy of Austria.

The policy of his successor, on the other hand, was determined by something larger than Germany, the consideration of the Spanish and Burgundian states that he also ruled.

Maximilian tried in every way to aggrandize his personal power, not that of the German Nation.

[Sidenote: Maximilian I, 1493-1519] The Diet of Worms of 1495 tried to remodel the constitution.