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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	present_a	say_a	2,150	5	6.5817	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18489	The manifest of the most illustrious, and soveraigne prince, Charles Lodovvick, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Prince Electour of the sacred Empire: Duke of Bavaria, &c. Concerning the right of his succession both in the princedome, lands, and estates of the Palatinate: as also in the dignity, voice, session, and function of the electorship-Palatine thereunto annexed. Translated, anno. M.DC.XXXVII.; Manifestum sive deductio. English	Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine, 1617-1680.	1637 (1637)	STC 5046; ESTC S107765	37,055	164

the deceased without let or contradiction And as this Right of Birth and prerogative of nature is large and universall so in especiall manner it hath beene confirmed and observed most exactly in the Electorall houses of the Germane Empire insomuch that many hundred yeeres agoe when it seemed good to the preceding Emperors Princes and Estates of the Empire to found and erect the Colledge of Electors as well for the setling of a good order as for preventing of all divisions They decreed by common consent and ripe deliberation that the three Electorall houses of the Palatinate Saxony and Brandenburgh should from thence forwards and for ever after have their certaine and unquestionable successours in their Electorall Office and Estates and Regalities thereunto annexed Ordaining moreover that whensoever any of the said Electors should depart this world then his first borne Sonne and the male issue or in default thereof the next of that a Agnation is that Line in blood which comprehendeth all the Cousins or male-descendents on the Fathers side ●●o in the Empire are only capable to succeed in Electorall and princely Houses Agnation should be received and acknowledged by all the States of the Empire for true and lawfull Electours Or if perchance they were under yeeres that then they should be reputed as Successors designed and in due time invested by the Emperours raigning in the right of their successions Which wise and wholesome Ordination whereby the Empire had so long time been peaceably governed was againe in the yeere 1356 at the intervention of all the Electors Princes and Estates ratified and established for a fundamentall Law of the Empire by the Golden b So called from Bulla the stampe or seale of gold which was appended to this imperiall Charter here mentioned wherein was contained all the laws forms and orders of the Empire both for choosing the Emperour as Head and preserving the Estates as Members in their severall liberties rites and lignities Bull of Charles IV. then Emperour In such sort that all Constitutions of the Empire and c Whe● the Electours were agreed of the person before they declare Him Emperour they required an oath of Him to maintaine the Lawes of the Empire and preserve them and the Estates thereof in their severall Rights and Immunities And this is called the Imperiall Capitulation Capitulations of the Emperour together with the mutuall bonds and unions betwixt Electors which have since that time beene made and contracted were laid and founded upon this fundamentall Sanction and whatsoever hath been contriued to the prejudice thereof held for illegall and of no validity The word of the Golden Bull whereby the right of Birth and Succession is inviolably preserved in the Electorall Houses follow in this forme The Law concerning Electorall successions That hereafter no dispute nor dissention arise betweene the Sons of the said Electours and Princes temporall and that the publike good and tranquillity suffer no stop nor detriment We desirous to remove all such impediments Doe by this present Act never to be repealed declare will and ordaine by Our Imperiall Authority That when any of the said Electours shall decease his Right Vote and power Elective shall descend to his eldest Sonne being secular and begotten in lawfull marriage and by his decease to his eldest Son without any opposition And in case the eldest Sonne should depart without lawfull heires being secular then the Right Vote and power Elective shall be transferred by vertue of this Act to his next brother by the fathers side lawfull and secular and so successively unto his eldest Son Furthermore this Succession in the eldest Sons and lawfull heires of Electors and Princes concerning their Right Vote and power Elective shall from hence forwards be for ever precisely observed with this Declaration That if perchance and Electour his first borne Son or his next eldest brother of the first borne Son shall have the Tuition and Administration till He accomplish his Maiority which in an Electour shall be eighteene yeeres Compleate at the end whereof the Right Vote and Elective power with all the appurtenances shall devolve upon him which together with the Electorall Office shall bee resigned to him by the said Tutour and Administratour Since therefore by the death of the most Illustrious Prince Fredericke V. Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria and afterwards chosen King of Bohemia Our most Honoured Lord and Father of happy memory the office of High d For more honour to the Coronation the foure temporall Electors doe the Emperour service for that Day King of Bohemia giveth him Drinke as Cupbearer Electour Palatine setteth on the first Dish as Sewer which is called Truckcesse The Electour Saxony carrieth the Sword as Marshall and Electour Brandenburg beareth the Key as Chamberlaine Truckcesse and Electourship of the Empire together with all the Rights Suffrage Dignities Regalities Lands People and Subjects thereon depending are fallen unto Vs and that by vertue of Our proper and acquired Birth-right of the Contract and providence of our Ancestours of all Feodall lawes of the first e So called from Simul together because when a Prince or Electour is invested by the Emperour it gathereth and includeth all the rest of his blood and Agnation and entitleth them to the same Right of Succession with himselfe wherby every one succedeth in his owne Right and can neither foresee more than he hath nor be prejudiced by the forfeiture of another Simultaneous Investiture of the Golden Bull of Imperiall Charters of fundamentall Lawes of f By these Covenants All those in every Electorall House who appertaine to the male blood or Agnation are bound to observe the foresaid order in their severall successions which is established by the ancient and publike Constitutions of the Empire namely which descendeth upon the Eldest Sonne and so forward to the next male Cousin in blood by the Fathers side Covenants made in our Electorall House and of the Confirmation of many foregoing Emperours they are inseparably intailed upon us And since Our dearely beloved Vnckle by Our Fathers side the Duke of Simmern hath in conformity to the Golden Bull resigned as well the Tuition of Our Person as Administration of Our Estates at the time prefixed We having as it became us waited the time and now by the grace of God attained our full age doe thinke Our selves bound in honour and conscience to take upon Vs the Succession of Our Electorall Dignity and all things thereunto belonging as that whereunto God Nature and Our Right hath called Vs. To which purpose We doe now present our selves both to your Imperiall Majesty of whom We have in due forme demanded Our Investiture as also to have all Kings Electours Princes and Estates in that Electorall quality which belongeth to our Birth and Succession hoping that yee will not onely receive and acknowledge Vs therein but also assist and maintaine Vs in Our illitigable Right Here

children of the Palatine His Brother and the next of that Agnation all of whom are as yet unaccused and therefore much lesse convinced of any crime And a little after The Translation being of no lesse moment then the Ban did questionlesse alike belong to their deliberation for as they were Electours and States of the Emperour so were they also of the Empire and were therefore called the props and pillars of the Empire and if the Emperour cannot by His own power bestow any Fee nor any Towne fallen in reversion without the knowledge of the Electours and Estates how much more is their assent necessary in transferring of so supreame a Tenure of the Empire as is an Electorall Dignity This would be too grievous and great a wrong to the temporall Electours Princes and Estates to their children and blood if without hearing of their cause or privity of the Colledge Electorall they should be dispossessed of their Estates and Dignities and deprived of their simultaneous and undeprivable Succession Their Lord and Master hoped that the rest of his Electorall Fellowes would never approve of such proceedings nor be a cause that the condition of an Electour which hath alwayes been of such sway in the Empire should become worse than a Gentleman 's in Poland who cannot be proscribed but in a Diet of the Kingdome In the answere which the Electours and Princes assembled at Ratisbone together with the Ambassadours of such as were absent made unto the Emperours Proposition exhibited to them the 30 of Ianuary 1623. This was represented in the name of the two Electors of Saxe and Brandenburg Answeres made to the Emperour touching the Translation That not to speak of the Count Palatines defence these things ought to be duely considered in the point of the Translation First whether those of His children who before His Outlawry were included by the providence of their Ancestors in the Electorall Right and Succession can afterwards bee excluded Next whether His Brother guiltlesse of any transgression who neither hath nor could by reason of his nonage offend the Emperour or whether the kindred and next of His Agnation that not onely testified their innocency but likewise their service and fidelity to His Majesty in these occasions can be justly debarred from their pretentions It was further represented in the report of the Electours and Princes made upon certaine points of the Emperours Proposition the 15. February of the said yeere The Suffrages sufficiently declared what the opinion was of the two Electours of Saxe and Brandenburg about the point of Translation And albeit these words Without ought prescribing were inserted in the last relation yet their Highnesses have thought good to retract them forasmuch as the said words cannot stand with the Capitulation by which His Majesty is so farre and formally bound that this matter cannot be left to the freedome of His will For it is expresly ordained That no businesse of importance should passe without the knowledge and approbation of the Electours and that no Estate of the Empire should be Outlawed without a due and formall hearing Which Capitulation being a fundamentall and unrepealed law in the Empire ought no more to be brought in question but rather obeyed than disputed And because their Dignities as Electours temporall descended to their posterity by inheritance They tooke themselves to have the greater interest and so the more obliged to preserve the said Authority Furthermore to confirme the votes aforesaid the Electour of Saxe wrote to the Archbishop of Mentz during the said Diet 23 February 1623. to this purpose VVe hoped that our good and wholesome exhortations grounded not upon opinions but upon the lawes and examples of the Empire would have found more credit than they have done then these wayes had not beene taken which must needs leade to bitternesse and trouble of which as we cannot approve for the Reasons which ye know so the mischiefes which may follow thereupon will justifie our innocencie though increase our griefe Sorry we are to see such proceedings in our dayes and so hopelesse of remedy which maketh us the more constant to our former suffrages that are registred in your Chancery desiring nothing more than that our sound and sincere remonstrances may hereafter be remembred when the events perhaps will not answere to the designes And a little after What if in the proscribing an Electour and placing another in his roome the advise of Electours be not taken we see not wherein consisteth that Authoritie nor how it can be secured not what it differeth from any other Estate To alleadge necessity or that the Colledge shall incurre no harme is but a sleight excuse For Capitulations are stricti juris and admit no exceptions or if any the interpretations thereof belong to the Colledge in Body without which all is in vaine whatsoever is at the present promised As for the Translation it selfe wee never thought it a way to peace but rather to warre and could not therefore assent unto it In which opinion Wee are still the more confirmed for as much that since the establishment of the Golden Bull the like example hath not been found and if wee take that of Duke Maurice abovesaid it declareth quite the contrary Besides that clause inserted into his Majesties resolution touching the Children and Agnation of Electours in very umbragious and may rather exasperate than still the cause for there is decided that a third person innocent may be deprived of his simultaneous Investiture and lose that inherent Right which is proper to himselfe for the crime which is proper to another Where hence will follow that the Children and Agnation must settle their Right by arbitrement and composition and that which was before cleare and legall will now become disputable and uncertaine but because this doth not alone import the Palatine House but all the rest of Electors and Princes who have obtained the same Investiture by propriety taking an oath and kissing the sword VVe must be so much the more carefull not to approve of such a fact which may endamage the whole Empire In another letter to the said Arch-bishop of Mentz dated from Dresden the 10. of October 1623. the Electour of Saxe giveth this Councell It was our true and sincere affection first to his Majestie as Head of the Empire and then to all the members which made us deliver those suffrages in open Councell registred in the Imperiall Chancery wherby sufficiently appeareth what meanes we judged fittest to obtaine a settled peace But we have learned by sad experience that since the said Assembly where that Resolution was most hotly taken which we esteemed most unpeaceable all things in the Empire have grown worse and worse And somewhat after The restitution was propounded for this regard because the Ban the execution and the Translation which as yee know followed thereupon were all resolved without the knowledge or assent of the Electours which assent is neverthelesse necessary if so

occasion that the Empire should longer groane under those miseries oppressions which threaten utter destruction And therefore if the Rights of all Parties may be so provided for that none may suffer wrong we are contented to redintegrate the Colledge by acknowledging the Duke of Bavaria for Electour But before he be put in possession we think it needfull first of all that all the Armies speedily dislodge out of the Lands and Territories of the Electours Princes and Townes Imperiall whereby it may appeare that the said Duke be received for respect to the Emperour and zeale of publike peace rather than by constraint which caution is the more reasonable because the troops of the Duke of Brunswick and Count Mansfelt are utterly routed and disbanded and all the Evangeliks have licensed their souldiers so as there being nothing more to be feared it would be unjust and against the lawes of the Empire to burden it with souldiers when there is no warre and oppresse those parts with superfluous charges which live in quiet and obedience Secondly that letters of recognisance be given by his Imperiall Majesty as also by the Duke of Bavaria fully testifying that neither the Ban of the Count Palatine nor Translation of the Electorate shall be any way hereafter alledged to the preiudice of the Electorall greatnesse and dignity or of the Golden Bull or Imperiall Capitulation or else of the Electorall Princely Houses in their severall Rights and Investitures Thirdly that the Rights of all those shall be no wise diminished to whom the Electourship Palatine belonged before the said Ban or Translation but that in their severall degrees they may after the death of the said Duke of Bavaria be admitted into their Rights without delay Vpon these Conditions we shall not refuse to acknowledge the said Duke for the present and the rather because whatsoever shall hereafter happen the Suffrages which we have delivered in open Counsell and which are inserted in the Records of the Empire will beare us witnesse to all Posterity that we failed not in due time place and manner to represent all things which our oath and Electorall Office required The Electour of Brandenburg in his answere given the Baron Hannibal of Dona dated at Coningsberg 22 May 1627. thus declareth The only cause which hath hitherto stopped His Highnes from agreeing to the point of Translation was That he thought it would rather sowe the seeds of discord than be a bond of peace and stirre up forraine Armes then quiet all at home since He hath found by experience to the great losse and ruine of His Countrey as well as other Estates that he was not mistaken in his beliefe But forasmuch as His Highnesse understandeth that His Imperiall Maiesty is out of hope that the Empire would ever be appeased unlesse the Electorall Colledge be first unanimously conjoyned by the introduction of the Duke of Bavaria That on his part he might further the Counsells of Peace and Prosperity of the Empire and avoyd the imputation of future Calamities His Highnesse is not unwilling to beare respect and obedience to His Imperiall Wisdome and conforme himselfe unto His will by receiving and acknowledging the Duke of Bavaria for a Coelectour during his life upon these tearmes and reservations First That he intendeth not by this Act any way to depart from the Suffrage and declaration of his Conscience made in the Diet at Ratisbone touching the publication of the Ban and Translation of the Electorate thereupon ensuing Secondly That thereby He will nothing derogate from the preheminence of the Electorall Colledge nor from the Sanctions of the Golden Bull nor Lawes and Constitutions of the Empire nor the Capitulation Imperiall nor yet from the Rights and Investitures of other Electorall and Princely Houses against any whereof He meaneth not that this His Act shall be drawne in consequence Thirdly He purposeth not in the least manner to prejudice by this His declaration the Cause of the Prince Palatine nor His Children Brother Blood or Agnation much lesse to contribute to their exclusion or any was to charge Himselfe with the Palatine Cause Wee are not ignorant that neere twenty yeeres agoe and now afresh since the Translation of our Electorate certaine rumours have been spread abroad especially in the Courts of forraine Princes as if the Electorall Dignity had of old beene an exed to the House of Bavaria and not of the Palatinate and that heretofore Contracts of alternation had beene made and observed betweene both Houses that they should enjoy the Dignity by turnes All which hath beene forged to this end that it should not seeme strange that the Session and vote Electorall which had been so long neglected by the Predecessours of the Duke of Bavaria should be restored by his industry and returne to the proper house Not to enter into the debatement or this Cause which is a digression from the purpose nor to repeate that which persons of quality have published to refute this vaine pretention we will wholly referre our selves to the Golden Bull as to that supreame and fundamentall law which can onely determine this cause whereby it will appeare whether the Electorate belong to the Bavarian or Palatine Line and what is to bee judged of the pretended part of alternation In the 7. Title thus we finde it Law for entailing the Electourship upon the Palatinate and not on Bavaria Since therefore it is commonly knowne to almost the whole world that the King of Bohemia Count Palatine of the Rhine Duke of Saxe Marquis of Brandenburg have by reason of their Kingdome and Principalities the Right Suffrage and Session to chuse with the Ecclesiasticall Electours a King of the Romanes and install him Emperour And that they are therefore established as true Electours of the Empire with authority to make Elections c. And in the beginning of the 20. Title Whereas all and every one of the said Princedomes by vertue whereof the Temporall Electours have full power right and suffrage to elect the King of the Romanes and make him Emperour together with their rights functions dignities and appurtenances are so straightly knit and united c. By another Edict of the Emperour Charles the 4. who enacted the Golden Bull the same was confirmed Anno 1356 in these words That the right of Election was annexed and founded upon the County Palatine his Imperiall Majesty and all the other Princes had certaine knowledge and no doubt was to be made thereof And a little lower For as much as we firmely know that the voice and Power Elective are founded with such right in the lands of the County Palatine and office of high Truckcesse that the one cannot subsist without the other To this may be added That the Count Palatine by reason of the Palatinate and not of the Dutchy of Bavaria is provisionally the Vicar of the Empire as the Golden Bull clearely ordaineth in the 5 title As often as the Empire shall fall in vacancy