people are found dead in their Sleds The cold also endures a long time the frost ordinarily begins with November but breaks not up till April i.e. till the Sun hath been some considerable time above their Horizon whence it comes to pass that all their plants and whatsoever is under-ground in winter is ready to thrust it self into the air as soon as it hath liberty their Rye for this reason they sow in the beginning of winter that as soon as the snow and ice is melted it may spring and have time to ripen but all their other corn which requires not so much maturation they sow not till May. And it is by strangers much taken notice of that even almost as soon as the snow is gone the fields are all green and plants spring much faster then in another place where their natural force and vigor hath not been so much restrained and kept back by the cold and the snow so that what they sow in May and June they reap in July and August and indeed the shortness of their summer allows them not much time for tillage It is also observed that their Rye is in its kind their best grain And for their fruits tho they have of most sorts as Apples Pears Plums Cherries c. yet they are not so good nor do not ripen so kindly nor can be so long preserved as in those places where they grow and ripen slower But those things which are of hasty and speedy growth are very good as all sorts of Berries Herbs Gourds and Melons which are here both exceedingly great some weighing forty pound and very well tasted but they breed them in hot beds as we do here and never remove them All Authors almost speak of a certain Melon or Gourd called Boranetz or a Lamb that grows upon a stalk and when it hath eaten all the grass within its reach it dies It is possible that there may be a fruit which with the help of imagination may somewhat resemble a Lamb and it may also be downy and woolly also it may be either of so hot a temper or so great a depredator of moisture that it may cause the neighbouring-plants to wither and dy but that there is any animal growing upon a root and eating c. they that have seen it must believe it but other persons may have their liberty It is not long ago since they began to cultivate garden-herbs but they prosper very well as Asparagus for the purpose grows as thick as a mans thumb And edible roots must needs become both large and pleasant From this multitude of melted snow it comes to pass that the ground is very soft and mellow which tho it be an inconvenience in their high ways insomuch that even the streets of Moskow would be unpassable were it not that they pave them with round Fir-trees laid close to one another yet in their tilling their ground it is very useful for neither do they use any manuring even in the barrenest places nor is their ground difficult to belaboured no small convenience to a lazy people that even stirring it with a stick is in some places sufficient for their Corn. Nor is their Corn being so short a time betwixt the sowing and harvest subject to so many accidents droughts rains blastings c. as ours is whence it is noted that it is exceeding rare to hear of a dearth in Muscovy except by the wickedness of them that buy up the Corn to sell it dearer tho they sow little more than for their own spending But sowing for plenty they have much to spare as the Dutch know very well who bring thence great quantities to supply their own necessities It is also observed in their weather that the Summers are violently hot both because their days are so long and the soil for the most part sandy which easily receives and retains strongly the heat of the Sun so long upon it This heat coming upon proportionable moisture produces prodigious quantities of Gnats and other Insects which tho not so dangerous as Toads and Vipers yet are much more troublesom and a much greater annoyance Indeed an extraordinary heat is requisite to force up such a quantity of materials as must serve to make so much snow that it covers the ground some yards thick But it is hard to believe what some Authors say that it sometimes sets on fire their Corn-fields and their woods But this heat is augmented or conserved as was said before by the nature of the soil for in Livonia in the same degrees of Latitude yea divided only from Russia by the River Narva their Corn seldom comes to be so ripe and hard that they can thresh or grind it but they are forced to help themselves with stoves built in their Barns for drying their Corn which tho it be easier to thresh yet it neither yeilds so much flower nor is so good to sow as that which ripens by the heat of the Sun as it always doth in Muscovy The Country is generally overgrown with Woods and their Forrests consist most of Firs and Birch which loveth a light sandy soil and Lakes both I believe from the same cause want of tillage For the Natives husband not much more then they are sure will serve themselves for should they have greater plenty they could not find markets for it and they are not careful of encreasing their stock of men Albertus Campensis tells very great stories whom in some things we have followed of the great abundance of people in Russia Possevine again as much disparages them But our own Authors affirm that it is not so well peopled as it might be partly because of their wars which devour always great quantities of them and partly because they are lazy and take more care themselves to live in ease and plenty then to multiply their Nation or employ more hands then of needs they must These Forrests must needs be very well stored with Beasts and Fowls Their Beasts are Elks which the Germans call Elans and Olans and the Russes Lozzi not much unlike to the Rain-Deer Wild Bulls which seem to be the Bisontes of the Ancients Boars Bears of a prodigious magnitude strength and cruelty both white and black Wolves also too many for in an hard winter both the Bears who sleep not when hunger pinches them and Wolves are very pernicious to their cattle and their persons also when they meet them unarmed There are also Horses plenty small but strong couragious and very serviceable Cows Goats and Sheep Fallow Deer also and Roe-Bucks in great plenty Besides these are many others who are hunted only for their Furs as the Wolverine or Wood-Dog Beavor Once Lysern Sable Martron black dun red and white Foxes the Gurnstal the Laset or Minever Hares which in winter change their colour into white as the Squirrel doth into gray whereof comes the Fur they call Calaber There is one sort of Squirrel that hath upon the point of its
so many in all as the Tatars to shew the greatness of the slaughter filled nine great sacks with their right ears and the Arabian authors say they amounted to 270000 which is manifestly false if spoke of this battel if of all the war may have some probability This battel was fought V. Id. Apr. 1241 at a place thence called Walstad a mile from Lignitz The Tatars also were so weakened that they stirred not out of their camp for fifteen days space to cure their men and to deliberate whither they should march next and they resolved upon Moravia to be nearer to their General The King of Bohemia raising what men he could sent them under the command of a very valiant and expert soldier Jaroslaus a Sternberg to defend such places as were most considerable He with much labour and difficulty got into Olmutz when the scouts of the Tatars appear'd before the Town Trusting to the strength of his works he forbore to fight the enemies so long that they conceiving him a coward began to despise him and to keep their own guards more negligently which Jaroslaus perceiving after they had recommended their cause to God by fasting and prayer chusing a dark night march'd out of a postern and with great silence fell into the Tatars camp of whom they slew a great number Peta was slain by Jaroslaus himself the rest drew off and marched to Batu into Hungary Batu had ravaged for two years together not only Hungary but Slavonia Bosnia Rascia Bulgaria and the countries on both sides the Danube Some say that after this making an attempt upon Austria and endeavouring to swim a great river he was drowned others that going against the Greek Emperor he was overthrown however it was it is agreed that his army returned back and seizing upon all the country between the Boristhenes and Volga and the Taurica Chersonesus which before they very much wasted there setled unto this day being called Crim-Tartars from the chief City of the Chersonesus called Crim and Precopenses from Precop which in their language signifies a ditch such a one being drawn cross the Isthmus to cut of that Peninsula from the continent The Tartars at first were Lords yet not absolute for they acknowledged the superiority of the Great Cham the chief heir of Gingis-Chan till Lochtan-Chan one of the descendants from Batu refused obedience to him and took upon himself the absolute dominion over all those places except some few cities in Taurica which notwithstanding their conquests remained in the hands of the Genoueses their inhabitants till about the year 1574 when Mahomet II. Emperor of the Turks took them A little before that they had forsaken their old religion of Gingis-Chan by the practices of Hedegh and Sida-hameth-Chan their Emperors and embraced the Mahometan yet the common people are not very zealous in it to this day but make use of their little puppet-idols of felt c. and continue many other pagan customs of their former religion Mahomet the Great fearing they should grow too powerful for him under colour of taking in the City of Caffa possessed by the Genoueses made himself Master of the best part of the Chersonesus and of the City of Azoph or Azek a strong place at the mouth of Tanais Afterwards the Crim-Tartar aided Selimus I. who married his daughter with an army of 150000 men against his father and then the two Nations made a league that the Tartars should assist the Turk when required with 50000 horse that they should not make war except against the Muscovite without leave of the Turk that they should yearly pay to the Turk a tribute of three hundred Christians some furs butter and such other things And the Turk should pay them 5500 ducats and the Cham should succeed to the Turkish Empire if the males of the Ottoman line should fail But this lasted not long for Amurath III. in the year 1584 quarelling Mahomet the Crim-Tartar as if he designed to intercept Osman Basha in his return from Persia to Constantinople authorized Osman to invade him who taking him and his two sons strangled them and set up Islan the brother of Mahomet under such conditions as the Grand Signior pleased The Tartars did enjoy also all the country of Budziak which lies between the Niester and Boristhenes as we shall shew hereafter but the Turk hath seized upon that so that now their dominion reacheth only between Dnieper or Boristhenes and the Don or Tanais and of this that Peninsula called Taurica Chersonesus is the chiefest part That Peninsula 〈…〉 or Chersonesus was called Taurica becaused inhabited by a sort of Scythians called Tauri and Tauro-Scythae Afterwards the Greeks mingled amongst them and brought the country into great beauty and fame But their names and actions belongs to the ancient Geography The Genoueses taking advantage of the great feuds of the Greeks amongst themselves in the year 1266 or about the time of the Holy-war took Caffa and planted a considerable interest in the country the Tartars either permiting them because of the gain they made by their traffick principally of slaves which they furnished to a great part of the world but especially to Egypt who generally had all their Mamalukes as long as that government lasted from this place or not being skilled in besieging of Towns especially such as could be perpetually relieved And indeed it was very convenient for the Genoueses for having besides this a great plantation at Pera near Constantinople they thereby enjoyed the whole trade of the Black-Sea till as we said they were ruin'd by the Turks since which time I cannot find that it hath suffer'd any considerable alterations We shall therefore describe it being by Christians an unfrequented country out of Mart. Broniovius who was sent Ambassador twice thither from Stephanes Battori King of Poland from which such little informations as we meet with since do not considerably differ This Chersonesus then is about fifty leagues long and thirty where broadest The first Town at the entrance upon the east is Przecop called by the Tartars Or situate upon the Dyke in the narrowest part of the Isthmus where it is not above a mile wide anciently called Eupatoria Pompeiopolis besides other names 'T is now a small Town of about four hundred fires it hath a stone Castle but not strong wherein the Cham hath continually his Beg or Palatine who commands the guard upon the rivers of Boristhenes and Tanais as also the Tartars in the plains betwixt he also examines all strangers suffering none to pass without the Chams letters Sachingeri the Great Cham here overthrew the Nagay-Tartars and raised seventeen forts upon the Dyke some of them of the skuls and bones of the slain Coslow situate near unto the Black Sea is a Town of traffick having near two thousand houses and is in the power of the Cham. Ingermen is now only a Castle but hath been a great Town as appears by the ruines amongst which
are many caves cut out of the rock wells and old buildings of the Greeks witnessed by their inscriptions there very frequent it is now an inconsiderable place inhabited by a few Turks Sari-germen by the Turks by the Tartars Topetarkan anciently Chersonesus and Corsuna the noblest and most ancient City of all the Peninsula is still compassed with a strong stone-wall and divers aquaeducts and other noble buildings entire but without inhabitants the Turks every day fetch away the marble and stones for other buildings Volodomir the Grand Tzar took this Town from Joannes Zimisces and amongst other rich plunder carried away two large royal brazen gates to Kiow from whence Boleslaus II. King of Poland transferred them to Gnesna where they still remain They say also that Volodomir was here baptized Balachey or Balaclawa by the Genoueses called Jamboli or the tower of fishes the Sea there being very well stored situate under the mountain Baba The Genoueses took it without any loss from the Greeks and made it a very commodious beautiful and strong haven The Turks at this day build here their gallyes and ships tho it be but a poor Town at most but of an hundred and twenty fires the inhabitants Turks Jews and Greeks Mangut or Mancus was a very magnificent City tho not by the Sea-shore but first by the Turks and afterwards by a great fire it was so wasted that nothing now remains of it except one high tower and a strong stone-house whereinto the Cham thrusts the Russ-Ambassador as often as he hath a mind to quarrel his master There are some few Turks Jews and Greeks that inhabit there in all about sixty fires There remains still upon the ruines of the walls of some of the Churches the pictures of divers of the Greek Emperors and other famous men Cercessigermen is a small Turkish Fort not far from Mancop The Palaces of the Cham are situated in the middle of the country Baciasaray Baccasaray is a Town of about two thousand houses wherein is a Meschite and divers sepulchers of the Chams very magnificent as is their Palace built with great charges by their former Princes besides that it is seated in a country very proper for hunting and fowling and is nobly adorned with gardens orchards bathes c. Almasaray is another house whither he sometimes retires in a Town of about seventy fires There are also divers little Castles where his own brethren children and their wives are kept Sortasse is a Town where the Ambassadors of foreign Princes have many times liberty to divert themselves At Creme or Crim anciently Taphros and Taphrae from whence they are called Crim-Tartars is his Mint and a very strong Castle in possession of the Tartars but the Town is most inhabited by Turks in all about an hundred houses Sidagios or Sudacum was a very noble and strong City situated in the mountains taken by the Genoueses from the Greeks so set one family against another that they would not come to the same Church the Turks by a long and difficult siege took it from the Genoueses 't is famous for the wine growing thereabouts Caffa or Theodosia still the chief City of the Peninsula hath betwixt five and six thousand houses inhabited most part by Christians who have about forty-five Churches Greeks Armenians and remainders of the Italians some Turks and few Tartars all under a Turkish Sangiac Slaves they reckon there about thirty thousand a Town of great traffick about two days sailing from Constantinople yet is it nothing to what it was under the Genoueses Kerky is a little Town of the Tartars of about an hundred families upon the Strait called anciently Bosphoras Cimmerius which is here about three leagues broad This Town is open for the Grand Signior will not allow the Tartars to have any fortified Town besides Przecop Over against this is Taman a Town and Castle upon the continent in the country called anciently Colchis now the Circassians or Petigor-Tartars Karasu belongs to the Cham and hath above a thousand houses Tusla is amongst the Salt-works and hath about eighty houses Arabet or Orbotec is a double Castle near to which the Cham keeps his Stud or breed of horses which are reckon'd to be about seventy thousand The country towards the south is mountainous and consequently well water'd the rest plain and good pastures but wants water for that near at hand is brackish and their good water is drawn out of very deep wells of which there is no want dug by the former inhabitants Thus much of the Chersonesus The country of Przecop without this the Crim-Tartars enjoy all betwixt Boristhenes Nieper and Tanais Don which from Ossove upon the Don to the Nieper in a strait line is accounted about four hundred English miles but the Nieper fetching a great compass eastward in some places it is not so much This is for the most part plain and even ground and rich pasturage without any Town or constant habitation or propriety Only it seems that the Cham by his officers appoints what parts shall be tilled and in February proclamation is made amongst all the Tartars that if any have a mind to till any ground they should get all their matters ready by such a day when they will go to such a place commodious for that purpose and accordingly some do go and the rest attend upon them that they be not disturbed Betwixt this plain and Russia lies waste a great country as they say requiring twenty days to cross it full of woods and lakes and sometimes under-water which is the greatest security of the rest of that Empire The government is wholly in the hands of the Cham. The Government of the Crim-Tartars The Cadi's determine lesser causes but capital and matters of greater importance are judged by the Cham himself with his Council He is of easie access and reasonably just He always chuseth a Galga who is next to him alive and succeeds after death this is commonly his son or brother according to merit If any one have better pretensions he flies to the Grand Signior who judges the cause His younger sons are Soldans and are brought up by such as have the custody of their wives with whom they are educated till of sufficient strength and according to their fitness they are furnished with commands either in his own country or are recommended to the neighbouring Tartars who willingly receive them Part also are hostages with the Turks When the family of Gingis-Chan was numerous and potent they chused always the Chan but Sachibgerei and Deuletigerei Chans made away with most of them and setled the dominion in their own posterity The Chan hath many Officers and Counsellors Hamiat are those who take care of the affairs of foreign Princes Captains also Coracei Vlans and the best of the Murses are called to Council The Vlans are those of an ancient family of Chans but were deprived of it by the Giereys the name of the
should be summon'd by the Archbishop of Gnesna as Interrex of Poland That in every such election the Lithuanian and Polish Nobility should have equal power in giving of voices That whoever by a majority of voices of both Nations should be elected King of Poland should at the same time be pronounced Great Duke of Lithuania That the election should always be had in some place near the confines of both Countries That the Parliament should sit in Poland and Lithuania by turns c. In the year 1654 the Moscovite made many and terrible incursions into Lithuania which were carried on with that success that A. D. 1655 he took Vilna This hold he kept till the King of Poland having made peace with the Swede who oppressed him on the other hand drave him out and made him retreat as far as the confines of Moscovy However the war ceased not till in January 1667 a truce for thirteen years was agreed on upon these conditions That Polockz Vitepski Duneburg and the hither Liefland should return to the Polander Provided that Nevel Vieliss and Sebisch be excepted from the Palatinates of Polockz and Vitepski That the Moscovite should retain Smolensko Sevir and all the Vkrain beyond Boristhenes That Kiow after two years should be restored to the Crown of Poland c. The Country is full of woods and Lakes Soil which yeild good store of Venison and fish The Forrests also afford them great quantities of honey and pitch The land is tolerably fruitful but the extreme cold too often spoils their harvest The greatest trade of Lithvania lies in Pitch Commodities Tar and Timber which is transported into Holland and other foreign Nations For these they receive in salt and Wines For all other necessaries they are well enough provided being well stockt with great herds of Cattel though they are not so large as in Germany and other their neighbouring Countries and considerable flocks of sheep Besides the woods furnish them with Ermins Sables and all manner of furs to defend them from the otherwise intolerable sharpness of the air The Lithvanians seem to have natures proportionate to their quality Temperâ—â— the peopâ—â— for the Nobles are as proud and domineering and the Commonalty as sneaking and mean spirited here as in any part of Europe The reason of such inequality of tempers proceeds from the unreasonable slavery that Landlords force their Tenants to undergo If you have but a good train of attendance you may uncontrolably plunder any peasant's house in the Land and if you please give him a kicking into the bargain He dares not open his mouth except to give you thanks for giving over when you are weary They are bound to serve the Lord of the Mannor five or six days in the week and if he spares them as is usually munday they must work on sunday for themselves If any ask them a reason why they labour that day they will readily reply Ought we not to eat on Sundays as well as other days In their wars with Poland they gave a sad testimony of their barbarous cruelty the usual attendant of a low spirit by denying quarter to all Captives ripping up women with child murdering of infants c. They are perfidious to their Prince and regardless of oaths and promises NOVA TOTIVS LIVONIAE accurata Descriptio Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios et Mosem Pitt The Rusticks eat bread made of the ears of wheat not winnowed nor thresh'd This they call Duonos a gift for the same reason that the Polanders call bread Bozydar and the Germans Gottes-gab the gift of God and no proverb is more ordinary in the mouthes of the Lithvanians then Dieva dave dantes Dosi duonos i. e. God that gave teeth will give bread The rest of their diet is flesh herbs and roots of which they have plenty The most general drink of the Country is a kind of Brandy made of Corn. Besides this they have some beer and a sort of mead boyl'd with Hops which is kept sometimes an hundred years together in Noblemen's houses Of late there has been brought hither great quantities of Spanish and French wines from Konigsberg and other places near the Baltick Sea The Lithvanians generally as well in Cities as Villages speak the Russian language and write all pleadings and proceedings of Courts-judicature in that tongue However there is a great mixture of Latin words in their talk which seems to confirm the story of Palaemon So for Ignis they say ugnis unda wanda aer oras sol saule mensis menuo dies diena ros rasa Deus Diewas vir viras c. Besides they have many Polish words though these two languages are not originally the same The Latin tongue is as common here as in Poland and you shall not meet a Lithvanian from a Duke to a plowman that cannot give you an answer in that language 'T is probable the Greeks first taught them how to write for they call letters Goomata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless perhaps they had them more immediately from the Russians who use the same word No Nation in Europe has been more besotted with Idolatry then Lithvania Among the rest of their false Gods they as well as the antient Egyptians Greeks Romans and Indians were great worshippers of serpents and many of them continued so till within these few years Of which Signismund Baron of Herberstein in Comment rer Muscovit P. 84 tells us this memorable story Returning says he lately from Masovia at Troki a small Town about eight English miles from Vilna mine host acquainted me that that year he had chanced to buy a hive of bees of one of these serpent-worshippers whom he with much ado had perswaded to betake himself to the worship of the true God and to kill his adder Within a while after coming that way he found the poor fellow miserably tortur'd and deformed his face wrinkled his mouth awry c. demanding the cause of his misery he received this answer from him That this judgment was inflicted on him for killing his God and that he was like to suffer heavier torments if he did not return to his former worship Nay to this day here are too great footsteps of this Idolatry for in many Villages both in Lithvania and Prussia you shall meet with poor Bores that keep Adders in their houses to which they though professed Christians pay a more then ordinary superstitious respect and fancy some great misfortune will befall them if these Laria take any harm Besides the antient Lithvanians had an Idol called by them Percune to whom they kept a continual fire burning with as much caution and diligence as ever the Vestal fire was kept at Rome For if the Waidelot or Priest that was to attend the Altar should happen to let the fire out he was sure to dy for 't The like ceremonies were performed in remembrance of Kiern one of their Princes on the top of a high hill near Dziewaltow These
people what the Reader misses in the general description of Norway may possibly be met with in the following one of Island The Prefecture of Masterland THis Prefecture takes its name from the chief City in it seated on a rocky Peninsula and famous for its great trade in Herrings and other Sea-fish This City with two more of less note Congel and Oddawald and the adjoining Country are commanded by the strong Castle of Bahus now in the hands of the King of Sweden It was first built by Haquin IV. King of Norway about the year 1309 upon a steep rock on the bank of the river Trollet and was then look'd upon as the best Fort that King had in his dominions and a sufficient Bulwark against the daily assaults and incursions of the Swedes and Westro-Goths The Bishopricks of Anslo and Staffenger with the Province of Aggerhuse ANslo called by the inhabitants Opslo and by some Latin writers Asloa was first built by King Harold cotemporary with Sueno Esthritius King of Denmark who frequently kept his residence in this City Here is held the chief Court of Judicature for all Norway wherein all causes and suits at Law are heard and determined before the Governor who acts as Vice-Roy of the Kingdom The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Alward who took great pains in preaching the Gospel to the Norwegian Heathens In this Church is to be shew'n the Sword of Haquin one of their ancientest Kings a signal testimony if the stories they tell of it be true of the strength and admirable art of some Norwegians of former ages The hilt of it is made of Crystal curiously wrought and polished whence Olaus Magnus will needs conclude that the use of Crystal was anciently much more ordinary in Norway then it is at this day in any part of Europe Not far from Opslo on the other side of the Bay stands the Castle of Aggerhusen memorable for the brave resistance it made the Swedish Army in the year 1567 which besieg'd it hotly eighteen weeks together but was at last beat off and forced shamefully to retire About twenty German miles Northward of Opslo lies the City Hammar formerly a Bishops See but at present under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Opslo Near this Town is the Island Moos where if we believe Olaus Magnus a huge and monstrous Serpent appears constantly before any grand alteration in the State or Government of the Kingdom of Norway In this Province besides the places already mentioned stand the Cities of Tonsberg Fridericstadt Saltsburgh and Scheen which have all a considerable trade from the Copper and Iron Mines which hereabouts are in greater numbers then in any other part of the Kingdom 'T was in this Province that the Silver Mines mention'd before were first discover'd at the expence of Christian IV. King of Denmark and some of the adjoining hills are by the neighbourhood to this day called Silver-bergen or the mountains of Silver To these Mines and the lofty woods of Pines and Fir-trees with which this part of the Country is overspread the Kingdom of Norway owes the greatest part of if not all its trade The City of Staffenger lies in 59 degrees some reckon 60 and a great many odd minutes of Latitude It is seated in a Peninsuia upon a great Bay of the Northern Ocean full of small Islands and guarded by the strong Castle of Doeswick which lies about two English miles from the Town In Civil affairs this City is under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Bergenhusen tho it has its own peculiar Bishop constantly residing in the Town The whole Bishopric is divided into the several Districts of Stavangersteen Dalarne Jaren Listerleen Mandalsleen Nedenesleen and Abygdelag Thomas Conrad Hvegner Bishop of this Diocess in the year 1641 took the pains to collect a great number of Runic inscriptions which lay scatter'd up and down his Diocess some of which are published by Wormius who further informs us that this Conrad's predecessor whose name he omits writ a Topographical description of this City and Bishoprick Beyond the Bay appears the Island Schutenes three German miles in length but scarce half an one in breadth Between this Island which has in it several considerable Villages and the Continent runs up a narrow Frith to Bergen which is called by the Dutch Merchants T' Liedt van Berghen To the Bishopric of Staffenger belongs the Province of Tillemarch or Thylemarch which gave Procopius the first grounds for that assertion of his which he defends with so great vehemency viz. that Scandinavia taken in its largest extent of which Thylemarch is a very inconsiderable part is the ancient Thule The Parish of Hollen in this Province is very remarkable for a Church-yard or burying place on the top of a Church dedicated to St. Michael which is cut out of a great high rock call'd by the Vicenage Vear upon the Lake Nordsee half a mile distant from Scheen Wormius thinks 't was formerly an Heathenish Temple but converted to Christian uses upon the first planting of the Gospel in this Kingdom The Prefecture and Bishoprick of Berghen THis Bishoprick the most fruitful and pleasantest part of all Norway lies to the North of Aggerhusen in the middle or heart of the Kingdom It derives its name from the fair and noble Emporium or Mart-Town of Berghen or else from the strong Castle of Berghenhusen the usual seat of the Vice-Roy of Norway at a small distance from Berghen Northward Berghen an ancient and famous Sea-Port Town mentioned by Pomponius Mela and Pliny is the Granary and Magazine of the whole Kingdom of Norway It lies distant from Bahusen about an hundred German miles by Sea and sixty by land from Truntheim as many from Schagen the outmost Promontory of Jutland almost eighty Some have fetcht its name from the Norwegian verb Bergen which signifies to hide or conceal because the Haven being surrounded with hills seems to be a kind of sculking-place for Ships where Vesfels of two hundred Tun and upwards ride in a spatious and most secure Harbour free from all danger of wind and weather But we need not trouble our selves any further for the derivation of the name then to consider that Berghen in the Norwegian language signifies mountains and Berghen-husen a company of houses among the hills The buildings in this City till within these few years were exceeding mean and contemptible most of them of wood cover'd with green turf and therefore frequently burnt down But of late the Hamburghers Lubeckers Hollanders and others that trade this way have beautified the Town with an Exchange and a great many private houses of credit The most peculiar trade of this City lies in a kind of Stock-fish catcht upon these coasts and thence called usually by the Norway Merchants Berghenvisch This the Fishermen take in winter commonly in January for the conveniency of drying it in the cold and sharp air Besides hither Furs of all sorts and vast quantities of dry'd
Marquisses Earls Lords c. on whom they please and to grant the priviledges of the most ancient Families of what Ordersoever within the bounds of their own Kingdoms to any who they fancy deserves their favour But in this the Emperor surpasses them all in that he challenges a power of creating Kings which is a piece of Authority never pretended to by any other Potentate Thus the Emperor Otho III. made Poland a Kingdom in the year 1001 which before that time was govern'd by a Duke Henry IV. did the like for Bohemia in the year 1086 and Charles the Brave Duke of Burgundy desired the same kindness of the Emperor Frideric III. but could not obtain it The Popes of Rome have for a long time laid claim to this Prerogative as appears from their frequent excommunicating and deposing of Kings in every Country in Christendom Nay they go further and challenge a power of deposing the Emperor himself at their pleasure and creating a new one in his place as has been sufficiently shew'n in the foregoing Chapter But how empty and vain these pretensions are may be learned from the single example of Pope Pius V. who endeavoured to create Cosmo di Medices Great Duke of Tuscany For the Emperor Maximilian II. opposed the design and first made Cosmo receive the Title from him and afterwards forced the Pope to confess that he had exceeded and transgress'd the bounds of his power If any Prince in Germany chance to be a notorious delinquent and disturber of the common peace of the Empire it is not in the power of the Emperor alone to divest such an offendor of his Honour and Dignity or to banish him the Empire Such punishments cannot be inflicted without the consent of the Electors who are to judge of the nature of the misdemeanor and give in their opinions to the Imperial Chamber Where the States of the Empire view the determination and take care the sentence be executed according to Law The Emperor at his Coronation is sworn not to infringe or violate the Priviledges and Properties of any free State in the Empire and therefore cannot mitigate or augment any Tax or Subsidy which either a Prince Regent of the Empire or an Imperial City thinks fit to levy amongst their own Subjects Besides he has no authority to punish a malefactor or raise money in the Territories of these Free States Nor is it lawful for him to advance a Subject of any of these States to any Honour but what shall be consistent with the Allegiance he owes to that particular Prince or City whose more immediate Subject he is In time of War he cannot command any Free State or Prince to assist him with men or money but must be forc'd to undergo the whole burthen thereof himself except it be the private interest of some peculiar Prince to stand by him However tho they are not very ready to take his part in every offensive quarrel he engages himself in yet most of them stick close to him when invaded by a foreign enemy and the common interest of the Empire lies at stake And indeed it nearly concerns the Free States of the Empire to be cautious of assisting and encourageing the Emperor's engaging himself in any other then a Defensive war For if he should by conquest enlarge his Dominions they were in danger of being curb'd and brought under but if on the contrary the victory should go on the enemies side they would all certainly suffer as his Accomplices The overgrown Authority of the Popes of Rome has amongst other encroachments upon the Imperial Prerogative rob'd the Emperor of his ancient Right of conferring Ecclesiastical Benefices and Bishoprics on whom he pleases 'T is well known in what subjection the Bishops of Rome liv'd under the Government of their ancient Emperors however they have Lorded it for these late years As soon as the Emperor Constantine the Great removed the Empire from Rome to Constantinople the Popes began to have more elbow-room and taking hold of the opportunity laid the first foundation of their own greatness upon the ruins of the decaying power of the Emperor in Italy Another advantage they made of the blind zeal of the neighbouring Princes who were exceeding fervent in carrying on the Catholic cause till they had enabled the Popes to arrogate to themselves the Title of Vniversal Bishops But still the Lombards who had overrun the greatest part of Italy kept these Usurpers under until Pepin and his Son Charlemaigne undertook their protection and added to their Riches the Revenue of several Towns and Provinces taken from the Lombards These good offices obliged the Roman Bishops to a return of gratitude which they express'd by doing homage to the said Princes for the Territories of Ravenna and Pentapolis or Romagnia which Pepin had liberally bestowed on them and making over to Charles the Great for ever the Right and Prerogative of chusing Popes After this Emperor's death some of the ambitious Clergy who found they had not interest enough in the Emperor's Court to compass their ends went to Rome where they got themselves chosen Popes and prevail'd with the easie Emperors of Germany to confirm the Election From these beginnings they arose by degrees to that height as to take upon them the power of electing and degrading of Emperors at their pleasure nay of trampling the Majesty of the Emperors under their feet as Pope Alexander III. serv'd Frideric Barbarossa And we cannot imagine that they who had thus magnified themselves above all Temporal Monarchs as they were pleased to distinguish should stick to the old Decree of accepting the Popedom at the Emperors hands Accordingly Leo IX having receiv'd the Bishopric of Rome from the hands of Henry IV. repented of his so doing and divesting himself of his Papal Robes march'd to Rome as a private person where he was elected anew by the Clergy After which time the Popes begun to invert Charles the Great 's Statute ordering that none should be honour'd and obey'd as lawful Emperor of Germany but those who receiv'd the Imperial Crown at their hands And some of them were so insolent as to affirm that there was as much difference between Popes and Emperors as betwixt the Sun and Moon intending from thence to infer that as the Moon has no light but what she borrows from the Sun so the Emperor has no power or Majesty but what the Pope bestows on him But they did on t always meet with such tame Emperors as would undergo their yoke and since Charles the Fifth's time who took the Pope of Rome prisoner there has not been one Emperor that has fetch'd his Crown from Rome The house of Austria have in a great measure recover'd the ancient power and priviledges of the German Emperors and probably the Pope's Authority would have decayed a great deal more in this time had not the Jesuites who swarm in the Court of Vienna been diligent in working the mild temper of their
tell us of them contain as many incredible things as the most Romantic Popish Legends However the Saxon Commonalty have still their memories and names in great veneration and would as soon part with Christmas-day as St. Ansgar's which is the eighth of February out of their Almanacks St. Wilhad's day is kept on the eighth of November and St. Rembert's on the fourth of February 6. Rembert was succeeded by one Adelgar a Monk of Corbey of whom nothing is recorded worth the taking notice of 7. Hoyer who was elected into the Archbishop's See in the year 909 and dyed the year following The Bremen Chronicle reports that about an hundred and twenty years after his death his Grave was open'd where nothing was found but a Pillow which had been laid under his head and a Cross both fresh and uncorrupted Whereupon the Monks of Bremen concluded that his body was immediately after his death snatch'd up into Heaven 8. Reginward 9. Vnni who going to convert the Infidels in Sweden died at Birca in Gothland 10. Adaldag 11. Libentius an Italian 12. Vnwan call'd by some Wimar 13. Libentius II. 14. Hermannus 15. Bezeline 16. Albert Son of one of the Dukes of Bavaria 17. Liemar or Leimar a Bavarian Nobleman the fourteenth and last Arch-Bishop of Hamburg For when at the request of Eric King of Denmark the Pope had erected an Archbishops See at Lunden in Schonen the Bishops of Denmark Sweden and Norway were subjected to the Archbishop of Lunden and only Lubec Schwerin Lebus and Ratzenburg remain'd Suffragans to the Archbishop of Bremen who thereupon for ever quitted the Title of Archbishop of Hamburg 18. Humbert the first that ever stiled himself barely Archbishop of Bremen 19. Frideric 20. Adalbar 21. Hartwic 22. Baldwin whose successor some have made one Barthold but without any good authority 23. Sifrid Son to Albrecht Marquise of Brandenburg 24. Hartwic II. 25. Woldemar Duke and Bishop of Sleswic 26. Gerhard formerly Bishop of Osnabrug 27. Gerhard II. Earl of Lippe 28. Hildebold or Hildebrand Earl of Broch-hausen 29. Giselbert 30. Henry I. 31. Florentius de Brunchorst against whom appear'd Bernherd Earl of Wolpe whom some Historians make Archbishop instead of Florentius â—at lost the day 32. John Bishop of Lunden and Provost of Roschild in Denmark 33. Burchard 34. Otto Earl of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst 35. Gotfrid Earl of Arnsberg He had great quarrels with Maurice Earl of Oldenburg for the See which when he could not peaceably enjoy he resign'd to 36. Albrecht Duke of Brunswic chosen Archbishop in the life-time of his predecessor in the year 1359. 37. Otto II. 38. John II. 39. Nicolas Earl of Delmenhorst 40. Baldwin 41. Gerhard III. Earl of Hoga 42. Henry III. Earl of Schwartzburg 43. John III. 44. Christopher Duke of Brunswic and Lunenburg 45. Henry IV. Duke of Saxony Engeren Westphalia c. 46. John Adolph Duke of Holstein c. who after the death of his Father was Regent Duke of Holstein and thereupon quitted the See of Bremen in the year 1596 leaving the place to his Brother 47. John Frideric who was at the same time Bishop of Lubec and having enjoy'd the Archbishopric of Bremen for the space of thirty-eight years died in the Monastery near Buxtehude in the year 1634 and was buried in the Cathedral at Sleswic 48. The last Archbishop of Bremen was Frideric Duke of Holstein Son to Christian IV. King of Denmark and Father to the present Danish King Christian V. But before this Frideric came to the Crown of Denmark he had nothing left but the bare Title of an Archbishop For in the year 1644 the prevailing Forces of the Swedish King overran the Archbishopric of Bremen and Bishopric of Vehrden as they had before many other Provinces of the German Empire Afterwards in the Treaty of Munster it was agreed upon that ut satis fieret Serenissimae Reginae Sueciae pro locorum hoc bello captorum restitutione Pacique Publicae in Imperio restanrandae condignè prospiceretur as 't is worded in the Tenth Article of that Treaty amongst other places there mention'd the Archbishopric of Bremen and Bishopric of Vehrden should be for ever subject to the Kings of Sweden and annex'd to their own Territories and Dominions sub solitis quidem Insigniis sed titulo Ducatus And thus the Archbishopric was turn'd into a Dukedom which Title it still retains Whence the City of Bremen which gives name to the whole Dukedom is so call'd City of Bremen there are several different opinions amongst the Germans Writers some of which for the Reader 's diversion I shall hear repeat leaving it to himself to embrace any one or reject all as he shall see cause One tells us there was formerly a Ferry cross the Weser in the place where the great Bridg at Bremen now stands and therefore will have the City so call'd from the flat bottom'd Boats in the tongue of the Neder-Saxons nam'd Pramen wherewith they us'd to ferry over passengers Another fancies Bremen may be fetch'd from the abundance of Broom in their tongue Brame which grows in this Country M. Martinius a man of no contemptible parts and learning guesses that because the Land of Bremen is the outmost bounds of the German Empire towards the Ocean therefore the City was call'd ein Brame which word signifies properly the outmost seam or selvidge of a Garment To omit the impertinences of other Etymologists all agree in this that Ptolomy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence ever that word had its original is the same with Bremen Cluverius allowing of this opinion adds further Nec nomen omnino abhorret nam dempta priore syllaba reliquum BIRANVM satis aperta vestigia gerit vocabuli BREMEN Et quid scio annon apud Ptolomaeum M corruptum sit in N integrumque vocabulum fuerit FABIRAMVM Amongst the old rubbish of ancient German writers Antiquity and the small fragments of Antiquity which are at this day to be met with in that Country 't will be a difficult task to find out the first original of this City 'T is certain one great part of it which is known by the name of S. Stephani Statt is of a later foundation then the main body of the Town and another grand accession call'd Die New Statt or the New City has been added within these hundred years What time this City was first fortified we have no other account then in the general that the Cities of Saxony and in all probability Bremen amongst the rest were first wall'd round by the orders of Henry Duke of Saxony surnam'd Auceps or the Fowler about the year 1000. For this Prince had found by experience that his naked Towns were not able to withstand the fury and outrages of the Vandals who in those days miserably infested the Northern parts of the Empire All the modern Historians will inform us that the Suburbs of St. Nicolas which at this day make up a considerable part of the