Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	england_n	king_n	1,404	5	3.7713	3	false

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

chain of so many of them together and their extent both in length and breadth if at first he thinks of the old Fables of laying one Hill upon the top of another he will be afterwards apt to imagine according to the ingenious Conjecture of one that travelled over them oftner than once that these cannot be the primary Productions of the Author of Nature but are the vast ruines of the first World which at the Deluge broke here into so many Inequalities One Hill not far from Geneva called Maudit or Cursed of which one Third is always covered with Snow is two miles of perpendicular height according to the Observation of that incomparable Mathematician and Philosopher Nicolas Fatio Duilier who at Twenty two Years of Age is already one of the greatest men of his Age and seems to be born to carry Learning some sizes beyond what it has yet attain'd But now I will entertain you a little with the State of Bern for that Canton alone is above a third part of all Switzerland I will say nothing of its Beginnings nor History nor will I enlarge upon the Constitutions which are all well known It has a Counsel of Two hundred that goes by that Name tho' it consists almost of Three hundred and another of Twenty five as Geneva The chief Magistrates are two Advoyers who are not annual as the Sindicks of Geneva but are for life and have an Authority not unlike that of the Roman Consuls each being his Year by turns the Advoyer in Office After them there are the four Bannerets who answer to the Tribunes of the People in Rome then come the two Bursars or Treasurers one for the ancient German Territory the other for the French Territory or the Country of Vaud and the two last chosen of the Twenty five are called the Secrets for to them all Secrets relating to the State are discovered and they have an Authority of calling the Two hundred together when they think fit and of accusing those of the Magistracy the Advoyers themselves not excepted as they see cause tho' this falls out seldom There are seventy two Bailiages into which the whole Canton of Bern is divided and in every one of those there is a Bailiff named by the Council of Two hundred who must be a Citizen of Bern and one of the Two hundred to which Council no man can be chosen till he is married These Bailiages are Imployments both of Honour and Profit for the Bailiff is the Governour and Judge in that Jurisdiction since tho' he has some Assessors who are chosen out of the Bailiage yet he may by his Authority carry matters which way he will against all their Opinions and the Bailiffs have all the Confiscations and Fines so that Drinking being so common in the Country and that producing many Quarrels the Bailiff makes his advantage of all those disorders and in the six years of his Government according to the quality of his Bailiage he not only lives by it but will carry perhaps twenty thousand Crowns with him back to Bern on which he lives till he can carry another Bailiage for one is capable of being twice Bailiff but tho' some have been thrice Bailiffs this is very extraordinary The Exactions of the Bailiff are the only Impositions or Charges to which the Inhabitants are subjected and these falling only on the Irregularities and Disorders of the more debauched makes that this Grievance tho' in some particulas Cases it presses hard yet is not so universally felt for a sober and regular man is in no danger Many in this Canton are as in England Lords of Castles and Mannors and have a Jurisdiction annexed to their Estates and name their Magistrate who is called the Castellan In matters of small consequence there lies no Appeal from him to the Bailiff but beyond the value of two Pistols an Appeal lies and no Sentence of Death is executed till it is confirmed at Bern. There lies also an Appeal from the Bailiff to the Council at Bern. There are many Complaints of the injustice of the Bailiffs but their Law is short and clear so that a Sute is soon ended two or three Hearings is the most that even an intricate Sute amounts to either in the first Instance before the Bailiff or in the second Judgment at Bern. The Citizens of Bern consider these Bailiages as their Inheritance and they are courted in this State perhaps with as much Intrigue as was ever used among the Romans in the distribution of their Provinces and so little signifie the best Regulations when there are intrinsick Diseases in a State that though there is all possible Precaution used in the Nomination of these Bailiffs yet that has not preserved this State from falling under so great a mischief by those little Provinces that as it has already in a great measure corrupted their Morals so it may likely turn in Conclusion to the Ruine of this Republick All the Electors give their Voices by Ballot so that they are free from all after-Game in the Nomination of the Person All the Kindred of the Pretenders even to the remotest degrees are excluded from Voting as are also all their Creditors so that none can vote but those who seem to have no interest in the Issue of the Competition and yet there is so much Intrigue and so great Corruption in the distribution of these Imployments That the whole Business in which all Bern is ever in motion is the catching of the best Bailiages on which a Family will have its Eye for many Years before they fall For the Counsellors of Bern give a very small share of their Estates to their Children when they marry them all that they purpose is to make a Bailiage sure to them for this they feast and drink and spare nothing by which they may make sure a sufficient number of Votes but it is the Chamber of the Bannerets that admits the Pretenders to the Competition When the Bailiff is chosen he takes all possible methods to make the best of it he can and lets few Crimes pass that carry either Confiscations or Fines after them his Justice also is generally suspected It is true those of the Bailiage may complain to the Council at Bern as the oppressed Provinces did anciently to the Senate of Rome and there have been severe Judgments against some more exorbitant Bailiffs yet as Complaints are not made except upon great Occasions which are not often given by the Bailiffs so it being the general Interest of the Citizens of Bern to make all possible Advantages of those Imployments the Censure will be but gentle except the Complaint is crying In Bern there is very little Trade only what is necessary for the support of the Towns They maintain Professors in the Universities of Bern and Lausanne the one for the German Territory which is the ancient Canton and the other for the new Conquest which is the French In the former there are about