Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	jurisdiction_n	5,357	5	9.3309	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30476	Dr. Burnet's travels, or Letters containing an account of what seemed most remarkable in Switzerland, Italy, France, and Germany, &c written by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1687 (1687)	Wing B5934; ESTC R9984	167,242	250

as it was among the Florentines who though they value themselves as a size of Men much above the Venetians whom they despise as a phlegmatick and dull race of People yet shewed how little they understood with all their vivacity to conduct their state since by their domestick heats they lost their liberty which the Venetians have had the wisdom still to preserve This Faction of the Case Ducale was perhaps willing to let the matter fall for they lost more than they got by it for the ancient Families in revenge set themselves against them and excluded them from all the other advantagious imployments of the State For the others being only united in that single point relating to the Dukedom the ancient Families let them carry it but in all other Competitions they set up always such Competitors against the pretenders that were of the Ducal Families that were much more esteemed than these were so that they shut them out of all the best Offices of the Republick Such a Faction as this was ●f it had been still kept up might in conclusion have proved fatal to their Liberty It is indeed a wonder to see the Dignity of the Duke so much courted for h● is only a prisoner of state tied up to such rules so severely r●strained and shut up as it were in an apartment of the Palace of St. Mark that it is not strange to see some of the greatest Families in particular the Cornara's decline it All the Family if ever so numerous must retire o●t of the Senate when a Duke is chosen out of it only one that is next to him of kin sits still but without a Vote And the only real Priviledge that the Duke hath is that he can of himself without communicating with the Savii propose matters either to the Council of Ten to the Senate or to the Great Council whereas all other propositions must be first offered to the Savii and examined by them who have a so●t of Tribunitian power to reject what they d●slike and though they cannot hinder the Duke to make a proposition yet they can mortifie him when he hath made it They can h●●der it to be voted and after it is voted they can suspend the execution of it till it is examined over again And a Duke that is of an active Spirit must resolve to endure many of these afflictions and it is certain that the Savii do sometimes affect to shew the greatness of their Authority and exercise a sort of Tyranny in the rejecting of Pro●ositions when they intend to humble those that make them Yet the greatest part of the best Families court this Honour of Dukedom extreamly when Segrado was upon the point of being chosen Duke there was so violent an outcry against it over all Venice because of the disgrace that they thought would come on the Republick if they had a Prince whose Note had miscarried in some unfortunate disorders the Senate complyed so far with this Aversion that the People testified That though the Inquisitors took care to hang or drown many of the chief of the Mutineers yet they let the design for Sagredo fall Upon which he was so much disgusted that he retired to a house he had in the Terra firma and never appeared more at Venice During which time of his retirement he writ two Books the one Memorie Ottomaniche which is Printed and he is accounted the best of all the Modern Authors The other was Memoir●s of the Government and History of Venice which hath never been Printed and some say it is too sincere and too particular so that it is thought it will be reserved among their Archives It hath been a sort of maxim now for some time not to chuse a married Man to be Duke for the Coronation of a Dutchess goes high and hath cost above Hundred thousand Ducats Some of the ancient Families have affected the Title of Prince and have called their branches Princes of the Blood and though the Cornara's have done this more than any other yet others upon the account of some Principalities that their Ancestors had in the Islands of the Archipelago have also affected those vain Titles But the Inquisitors have long ago obliged them to lay aside all those high Titles and such of them that boast too much of their Blood find the dislike which that brings on them very sensibly for whensoever they pretend to any great Employments they find themselves always excluded When an Election of Ambassadors was proposed or of any of the chief Offices it was wont to be made in those terms that the Council must chuse one of its principal Members for such an Employment But because this lookt like a term of distinction among the Nobility they changed it Five and twenty Years ago and instead of Principal they use now the term Honourable which comprehends the whole body of the Nobility without any distinction It is at Venice in the Church as well as in the State that the Head of the Body hath a great Title and particular Honours done him whereas in the mean while this is a meer Pageantry and under these big words there is lodged only a light shadow of Authority for their Bishop has the glorious Title of Patriark as well as the Duke is called their Prince and his serenity and hath his name stampt upon their Coin so the Patriark with all his high Title hath really no Authority For not only St. Mark 's Church is intirely exempted from his jurisdiction and is immediately subject to the Duke but his Authority is in all other things so subject to the Senate and so regulated by them that he hath no more power than they are pleased to allow him So that the Senate is as really the supream Governor over all Persons and in all Causes as the Kings of England have pretended to be in their own Dominions since the Rrformation But besides all this the Clergy of Venice have a very extraordinary sort of exemption and are a sort of a Body like a Presbytery independent of the Bishop The Curats are chosen by the Inhabitants of every Parish and this makes that no Noble Venetian is suffered to pretend to any Curacy for they think it below that Dignity to suffer one of their Body to engage in a Competition with one of a lower Order and to run the hazard of being rejected I was told the manner of those Elections was the most scandalous thing possible for the several Candidates appear on the day of election and set out their own merits and defame the other pretenders in the foulest language and in the most scurrilous manner imaginable the secrets of all their lives are publisht in most reproachful terms and nothing is so abject and ridiculous that is not put in practice on those occasions There is a sort of an Association among the Curats for judging of their common concerns and some of the Laity of the several Parishes assist in those

which seemed very strange for since that defence is made upon so small an expence it was amazing to see Bridges so naked and that was more surprizing in some places where the Bridges are both high and long yet I never heard of any Mischief that followed on this but those are sober Countries where drinking is not much in use After two days journey we came to Coire which is the chief Town of the Grisons and where we found a general Diet of the three Leagues sitting so that having staid ten days there I came to be informed of a great many particulars concerning those Leagues which are not commonly known The Town is but little and may contain between four and five thousand Souls it lies in a bottom upon a small brook that a little below the Town falls into the Rhine It is environed with Mountains on all hands so that they have a very short Summer for the Snow is not melted till May or June and it began to Snow in September when I was there On a rising groun● at the East-End of the Town is the Cathedral the Bishop's Pallace and the Close where the Dean and six Prebendaries live all within the Close are Papists but all the Town are Protestants and they live pretty Neighbourly together Above a q●arter of a mile high in the Hill one goes up by a steep ascent to S. Lucius Chappel my Curiosity carryed me thither tho' I gave no Faith to the Legend of King Lucius and of his coming so far from home to be the Apostle of the Grisons His Chappel is a little Vault about ten Foot square where ther is an Altar and where Mass is said upon some great Festivites it is situated under a natural Arch that is in the Rock which was thought proper to be given out to have been the Cell of a Hermit from it some drops of a small Fountain fall down near the Chappel the Bishop assured me it had a miraculovs vertue for weak ey●s and that it was Oily but neither Tast nor Feeling could discover to me any Oilyness I believe it may be very good for the Eyes as all Rock-water is but when I offered to shew the good Old Bishop that the legend of Lucius was a Fable in all the parts of it but most remarkably in that which related to the Grisons and that we had no Kings in Brittain at that time but were a Province to the Romans that no ancient Au●hors speak of it Bede being the first that mentions it and that the pretended Letter to Pope Eleutherius together with his Answer has evident Characters of Forgery in it all this signified nothing to the Bishop who assured me that they had a Tradition of that in their Church and it was inserted in their Breviary which he firmly believ'd He also told me the other legend of King Lucius's Sister S. Emerita who was burnt there an● of whose Veil there was yet a considerable remnant reserved among their Relicks I confess I never saw a Relick so ill disguised for it is a piece of worn linnen Cloth lately washt and the burning did not s●em to be a month old and yet when they took it out of the Case to shew it me there were some there that with great Devotion rub'd their beads upon ir The Bishop had some Contests with his Dean and being a Prince of the Empire he had proscribed him the Dean had also behaved himself so insolently that by an order of the Diet to which even the Bishop as was believed consented he was put in Prison as he came out of the Cathedral By the common consent both of the Popish and Protestant Communities a Law was long ago made against Ecclesiastical Immunities this attempt on the Dean was made four years ago as soon as he was let out he went to Rome and made great Complaints of the Bishop and it was thought the Popish Party intended to move in the Diet while we were there for the Repealing of that Law but they did it nor The foundation of the quarrel between the Bishop and Dean was the Exemptions to which the Dean and Chapter pretended and upon which the Bishop made some invasion Upon which I took occasion to shew him the novelty of those Exemptions and that in the Primitive Church it was believed that the Bishop had the Authority over his Presbyters by a Divine Right and if it was by a Divine Right then the Pope could not exempt them from his Obedience but the Bishop would not carry the matter so high and contented himself with two maxims the one was That the Bishop was Christ's Vicar in his Diocess and the other was That what the Pope was in the catholick-Catholick-Church the Bishop was the same in his Diocess He was a good natured man and did not make use of the great Authority that he has over the Papists there to set them on to live uneasily wth their Neighbours of another Religion That Bishop was antiently a great Prince and the greatest part of the League that carries still the Name of The House of God belonged to him tho' I was assured that Pregallia one of these Communities was a Free-State above Six hundred years ago and that they have Records yet extant that prove this The other Communities to this League bought their Liberties from several Bishops some considerable time before the Reformation of which the Deeds are yet extant So that it is an impudent thing to say as some have done That they shook off his Yoke at that time The Bishop hath yet reserved a Revenue of about One thousand pound sterling a year and every one of the Prebendaries hath near Two hundred pound a year It is not easie to imagine out of what the Riches of this Countrey is raised for one sees nothing but a tract of vast Mountains that seem barren Rocks and some little Vallies among them not a mile broad and the best part of these is washed away by the Rhine and some Brooks that fall into it but their we●lth consists chiefly in their Hills which afford much Pasture and in the hot Months in which all the Pasture of Italy is generally parched the Cattle are driven into these Hills which brings them in a Revenue of above Two hundred thousand Crowns a year The Publick is indeed very poor but particul●r persons are so rich that I knew a great many there who were believed to have Estates to the value of One hundred thousand Crowns Mr. Schovestein that is accounted the richest man in the Country is believed to be worth a million I mean of Livres The Government here is purely a Common-wealth for in the Choice of their Magistrates every man that is above sixteen years Old hath his voice which is also the Constitution of some of the small Cantons The three Leagues are the League of the Grisons that of the House of God and that of The Ten Jurisdictions They believe that upon the incursions

some Secular Men and some Churchmen and as the Princes authority is delegated to them so they have a sort of an Episcopal jurisdiction over all the Clergy This Order was a surprise to them as being a direct breach upon their Laws and the Liberty of their Religion so they sent a Deputation to Court to let the Elector know the reasons that hindred them from obeying his Orders which were heard with so much Justice and Gentleness that their Prince instead of expressing any displeasure against them recalled the Order that he had sent them The way from Heidelberg to Frankfort is for the first twelve or fifteen miles the beautifullest piece of ground that can be imagined for we went under a ridge of little Hills that are all covered with Vines and from them as far as the eye can go there is a beautiful Plain of Corn-fields and Meadows all sweetly divided and inclosed with rows of Trees so that I fancied I was in Lombardy again but with this advantage that here all was not of a piece as it is in Lombardy but the Hills as they made a pleasant inequality in the prospect so they made the Air purer and produced a pleasant Wine The way near Darmstat and all forwards to Frankfort becometh more wild and more sandy There is a good Suburb on the South-side of the Main over against Frankfort which hath a very considerable Fortification there is a double Wall and a double Ditch that goeth round it and the outward Wall as it is regularly fortified so it is faced with Brick to a considerable heighth The Town of Frankfort is of a great extent and seemed to be but about a third part less then Strasburg The three Religions are also tolerated there and though the number of the Papists is very inconsiderable yet they have the great Church which is a huge rude building they have also several other Churches and some Convents there There are several open squares for Market places and the Houses about them look very well without Among their Archives they preserve the Original of the Bulla Aurea which is only a great Parchment writ in High Dutch without any beauty answering to its Title and since I could not have understood it I was not at the pains of desiring to see it for that is not obtained without difficulty The Lutherans have here built a new Church called St. Catherin's in which there is as much painting as ever I saw in any Popish Church and over the high Altar there is an huge carved Crucifix as there are painted ones in other places of their Church The Pulpit is extream fine of Marble of different colours very well polished and joyned I was here at a Sermon where I understood nothing but I liked one thing that I saw both at Strasburg and here that at the end of Prayers there was a considerable interval of silence left before the conclusion for all peoples private devotions In the House of their publick Discipline they retain still the old Roman Pistrina or Hand-mill at which lewd Women are condemned to grind that is to drive about the Wheel that maketh the Milstones go There is a great number of Jews there though their two Synagogues are very little and by consequence the numbers being great they are very nasty I was told they were in all above twelve hundred The Women had the most of a tawdry Imbroidery of Gold and Silver about them that ever I saw for they had all Mantles of Crape and both about the top and the bottom there was a border above a hand breadth of imbroidery The Fortification of Frankfort is considerable their Ditch is very broad and very full of Water all the Bastions have a Counter-mine that runneth along by the brim of the Ditch but the Counterscarp is not faced with Brick as the Walls are and so in many places it is in an ill condition the covered Way and glacy are also in an ill case The Town is rich and driveth a great Trade and is very pleasantly scituated Not far from hence is Hockam that yieldeth the best Wine of those parts Since I took Frankfort in my way from Heidelberg to Mentz I could not pass by Worms for which I was sorry I had a great mind to see that place where Luther made his first appearance before the Emperor and the Diet and in that solemn audience expressed an undaunted zeal for that Glorious Cause in which God made him such a blessed Instrument I had another piece of Curiosity on me which will perhaps appear to you somewhat ridiculous I had a mind to see a Picture that as I was told is over one of the Popish Altars there which one would think was Invented by the Enemies of Transubstantiation to make it appear ridiculous There is a Windmill and the Virgin throws Christ into the Hopper and he comes out at the eye of the Milne all in Waters which some Priests take up to give the People This is so course an Embleme that one would think it too gross even for Laplanders but a Man that can swallow Transubstantiation it self will digest this likewise Mentz is very nobly scituated on a rising ground a little below the conjunction of the two Rivers the Rhine and the Main it is of too great a compass and too ill Peopled to be capable of a great defence There is a Cittadel upon the highest part of the Hill that commandeth the Town it is compassed about with a dry Ditch that is considerably deep The Walls of the Town are faced with Brick and regularly fortified but the Counterscarp is not faced with Brick so all is in a sad condition and the Fortification is weakest on that side where the Elector's Palace is There is one side of a new Palace very nobly built in a regular Architecture only the Germans do still retain somewhat of the Gothick manner It is of a great length and the design is to build quite round the Court and then it will be a very magnificent Palace only the Stone is red for all the Quarries that are upon the Rhine from Bazile down to Coblentz are of red Stone which doth not look beautiful The Elector of Mentz is an absolute Prince his Subjects present Lists of their Magistrates to him but he is not tied to them and may name whom he will The Ancient Demeasne of the Electorate is about Forty thousand Crowns But the Taxes rise to about Three hundred thousand Crowns so that the Subjects here are as heavily taxed as in the Palatinate There is Twelve thousand Crowns a year given the Elector for his privy Purse and the State bears the rest of his whole expence It can Arm Ten thousand Men and there is a Garison of Two thousand Men in Mentz This Elector hath three Councels one as he is Chancellour of the Empire consisting of three Persons the other two are for the Policy and Justice of his Principality He and his Chapter