JOACHIM I., jo'a-kim: Margrave of Brandenburg; b. Feb. 21, 1484; d. at Stendal (40 m. n.n.e. of Magdeburg), July 11, 1535. Although only fifteen years of age at the death of his father he assumed control of the government and appeared in the diet of 1500 with the dignity of electoral prince, having associated his ten-year-old brother with himself as nominal co-ruler. Through Dietrich of Bülow the young prince had received a thorough humanistic education, and in his intense admiration for the new learning he sought and secured the friendship of the famous Tritheim, abbot of Sponheim, who, after a long solicitation, visited Berlin in 1505 and took part in the following year in the foundation of the University at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. Both by Tritheim and by Aleander Joachim was praised as a learned prince and as a patron of the sciences. In the government of his territories he displayed exceptional energy in the suppression of public disorder and he followed this up with the introduction of the Roman law and important judicial reforms which, however, were slow in coming into effect. In the imperial election which resulted in the choice of Charles V., Joachim played an unworthy rôle of mingled duplicity and weakness, carrying on secret negotiations both with Emperor Maximilian and with Francis I. of France and appearing finally as a candidate himself. He failed, however, to secure the vote even of his brother Albert, whom his influence had made, in 1514, archbishop of Mainz (see ALBERT OF BRANDENBURG). He held himself aloof from the imperial court until the victory of Pavia in 1525 made Charles all-powerful in Germany. Thereupon Joachim became a thorough partizan of the House of Hapsburg.

As early as 1514 he had allowed the sale of indulgences to be carried on in his dominions, and three years later Tetzel was permitted to pursue his practises there. The theologians at the University of Frankfort took sided against Luther, whom the

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margrave regarded with personal dislike because of the format's bitter attack on Archbishop Albert. A personal interview with Luther previous to the meeting of the Diet of Worms served only to intensify the opposition between the two. In the execution of the provisions of the Edict of Worms Joachim took the leading part, gaining thereby increased favors from the emperor. In 1524 he married his eldest son to a daughter of Luther's enemy, George of Saxony, and in the following year joined the association formed at Dessau for the destruction of "The Abominable Sect of Lutherans." In spite of all his efforts, however, the new teachings made rapid progress in Brandenburg and created dissensions in his own household. In 1527 his wife Elizabeth received the communion secretly from a Lutheran priest, largely through the influence of her brother Christian II. of Denmark, whose interference in his domestic affairs aroused bitter resentment in Joachim. The electress escaped lifelong imprisonment only by flight, and Luther's intervention served but to intensify the elector's hatred. At the Diet of Augsburg he appeared as one of the leading champions of a policy of relentless warfare against the Lutherans. In 1533 he concluded with George of Saxony and Archbishop Albert a league at Halle in opposition to the Schmalkald League. In his will, drawn up in 1534, he laid the injunction upon his successors to remain faithful to the Roman communion, and, when his son Joachim's wife died, he obtained for him the hand of Hedwig, daughter of Sigismund, king of Catholic Poland. His death revealed, however, that his efforts against the spread of the reformed faith were practically vain.

(G. KAWERAU.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. G. Droysaen, Geschichte der preussischen Politik, ii. 2, pp. 1-163, Leipsic, 1870; A. Müller, Geschichte der Reformation in der Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1839; C. W. Spieker, Geschichte der Einführung der Reformation in . . . Brandenburg, ib. 1839; D. Erdmann, Luther und die Hohenzollern, pp. 37 sqq., Breslau, 1883; J. Heidemann, Die Reformation in der Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1889. For matter upon the choice of the emperor consult: Reichstagsakten, new series, vol. i., Gotha, 1893; E. R. Roesler, Die Kaiserwahl Carls V., Vienna, 1878. Consult also the literature given under TRITHEMIUS.