Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A39387
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The emperour and the empire betray'd by whom and how written by a minister of state residing at that court to one of the Protestant princes of the empire.; Empereur et l'empire trahis, et par qui & comment. English. 1682
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Cerdan, Jean-Paul, comte de.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing E716; ESTC R27323
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33,952
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136
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Forests Rivers Ponds and all other Common Rights of what nature soever More on all sorts of Merchandises Imported or Exported The Custom The Custom for the Value The Foreign Besides the Custom of Lions Burdeaux and Roan which take their Names from the Places and are levied with all Rigour imaginable not only upon Importation into the Realm or Exportation out of it into Foreign Countries but in most of the Frontiers of the Provinces upon passing out of one into another within the Kingdom And we may expect the like Exactions to be established in the several Provinces of the Empire on several pretences All these Subsidies and many others which to avoid Prolixity I pass over in silence are one way or other punctually paid where-ever any Subjects of the French Monarchy live with no other distinction but that the Lords and Gentlemen have Right to hold free from Imposition so many Acres of Land for their Maintenance as may be Husbanded with two Yoke of Oxen provided the Owner hold that Estate in Demean for as to what is let out to Farmers as they pay the King Taxes for the profit of the Farms they pay so much the less Rent to the Landlord so that in effect the Nobleman in France pays Taxes as well as the Boor Which the Princes the Nobles the Magistrates and Subjects of the Empire of what Degree soever have reason seriously to consider For 't is folly to fancy they can make their Capitulations so advantageous as to exempt them from paying these intollerable Subsidies The Provinces of Guienne Languedoc Provence Dauphine Bourgundy and Britain and most of the other Provinces of France had herefore their particular Princes as most of the Provinces of the Empire now have and the principal Cities and Towns in these Provinces of France had then as great Priviledges and Immunities as any Free Towns of the Empire But the Kings of France having invaded all these Principalities and seized the Liberties of the Cities have since the taking of Rochel reduced them into so absolute Slavery that the Citizens and Inhabitants have quite lost the Resolution and Generosity to endeavour a Recovery of their Liberties and are so bridled with strong Garrisons and Citadels and we may expect the like in all Countries of the Empire if ever under a French Government that they are not in a condition to stir at least to any considerable purpose This may suffice for the first point I pass to the Second The second Point This deserves the more exact consideration for that if ever the Dauphin be chosen King of the Romans since the Court of Rome and the Jesuits by the important Services these have done the Crown of France of late and promise to do for the future and the Cardinalships they flatter the Nephews and Relations of the principal Ministers of France with the hopes of do what they please in the Council of France and what is published to the contrary on the account of Regalities now in controversie is but Cheat and Illusion the cruel persecution raised and carried on some years last past against the Protestants of that Kingdom the disgrace of Pompone being not of their Cabal and of Theatin the Princess of Brvaria's Confessor intimating sufficiently the extraordinary Credit that Society hath in the Court of France I say if ever the Dauphin be elected King of the Romans the Empire is to expect two things First To see him at the Head of the best Forces of France upon the specious pretence of Religion and restoring the Estates belonging to the Church undertaking in the Empire aganst the Protestant Party what Charles the Fifth and Ferdinand the Second attempted to execute Secondly That this affair will be so obstinately fomented protected by the Court of Rome that the Empire will be in danger to be involved in a War more cruel more bloody and dangerous than any the former Wars raised for that Cause And there is reason enough to believe that the late War as well as the Peace since made were hatched and carried on by the Court of Rome in hopes of being able by the Power of the French Forces to work the entire Ruin of the Protestant Party of Europe which we see every day decay by degrees And I am much mistaken if the Money sent by the Pope into Poland was not design'd for a Project of this nature Prince William of Furstenberg might if he pleased furnish us with clear Evidence of authentick Memoirs to this purpose but we are not to expect it from him lest by such a Discovery he lose the Recompence the Court of Rome designs him for the Pains he hath taken and continues to bring to effect this Popish Project in the Empire and consequently in all Europe By what hath been said your Highness may see the Fortune of the Empire if ever it fall by any means whatever under the intolerable Yoke of the Despotical Government of France And I think I need say no more to convince every Member of the Empire and all the States of it in general without any great depth of Policy or knowledge of War what their Duty to Religion their Glory and Interest oblige them to do for preserving themselves from falling under a Yoke of that nature But to preserve themselves effectually from this Yoke I conceive it extremely considerable to enquire first Whence all this Mischief proceeds Which known will give us light what must further be done And particularly from what Part the first Attack may be expected and what Defence is to be made The Mischiefs I have mentioned unquestionably have their rise from the Designs and Fomentations of the Court of Rome and the Jesuits who at present at least direct and dispose of the French Projects and Forces and without any Mercy or Respect pretend with the Assistance of those Forces and their own secret Managements of Affairs to sacrifice all to the Re-establishment of the Papal Grandeur I conceive in Right and Justice two things are to be done but I doubt much whether the one will be The first is That since the Publick Good and Safety of the Empire consists in living without Innovation according to the Ancient Rights Immunities and Privelidges and the Concordats established by Law which every Member of the Empire is obliged to observe and that the Pretensions of the Court of Rome and the Jesuits are as inconsistent as those of France with the Publick Good and safety of the Empire Every Member of the Empire without flattering themselves any longer with hopes of Favour from Rome or from France and without distinction of Religion applying themselves seriously to procure and promote the Preservation and Publick Good of the Empire should without delay take such Measures that neither the Court of Rome the Jesuits nor France may attain their Ends. And in order to this That every Member of the Empire should put it self into a Posture and Condition by uniting their Forces to oppose Force
ruined their Estates for more than ten years I doubt not with the respect and submission that is due to them but they will find that the modern Romans have with great insolence and perfidiousness practised upon them what the ancient Romans did for divertisement to their Gladiators for when these men had by bloody and oftentimes mortal Combats sufficiently diverted the Spectators and the Magistrate made them a Sign to give out they were bound to do it and in what condition soever they were to go every one home as these four Princes were in the end forced to do This may serve for an excellent and important instruction for England Holland Swede and Denmark and all the Protestant States and Princes of Germany to avoid effectually the snares the Court of Rome every day lays for them the ways I have observed with a setled design to destroy not only their Religion but their Temporal Estates The Second Point The Advantages the Court of of Rome and the Jesuits proposed to themselves by the conclusion of the Peace between his Imperial Majesty and France may be reduced to three principal Heads 1. By the Maxims observed in the first part of my Letter to fix without danger of any probable variation the Designs of France and the Efforts of their Arms against the Empire and Northern Countries as most remote from Italy and most convenient by the progress of those Arms to ruine the Prorestant Party and consequently to advance the re-establishment of the Papal Grandeur and Authority the fall of the one producing naturally the exaltation of the other And for attaining this end to procure this Peace to be so made that his most Christian Majesty might be fully perswaded the Court of Rome and the Jesuits in prejudice to all other Powers of Christendom studied nothing more than his exaltation and an effectual setling and establishing in time an absolute Monarchick Authority over Europe And that this project might be made appear so facil and easie to this Prince that he might be the better tempted to undertake it In order to these ends the Court of Rome and the Jesuits could not have done any thing whereby more effectually to demonstrate their zeal and close adherence to the Grandeur and Exaltation of the most Christian King than by making as they have done with so much craft and perfidiousness a Sacrifice of the Emperour and Empire with all that concerned the Glory and Interest of both the better to carry on the Designs of the French Their project in this particular hath proved so effectual and discover'd so many divisions so much ignorance weakness and baseness in the Empire that his most Christian Majesty may by these appearances rationally judge he may probably succeed in whatever he shall attempt against the Empire though I am not of opinion he will find it so easie a matter as he hath been made believe ' t is But we are to believe this Prince is perswaded that to attain all his ends the Empire being the natural obstacle against an Universal Monarchy it must be his business to attempt the Empire in the first place Nor can it be doubted but the Court of Rome and the Jesuits making full account the most Christian King will be very well able by his Forces to master the Empire have hastened with all diligence possible the signing the Peace between his Imperial Majesty and France upon design that his most Christian Majesty being by this expedient of the Peace free from War in case the perpetual Plots of the Court of Rome and the Jesuits in England or elsewhere should be so prosperous as with the help of Forreign aid to effect the re-establishment of the Popes Authority there they might make use of the French Forces to invade that Kingdom or other Countries for the ends I have mentioned And if by Gods Providence the perfidious and damnable Conspiracy of the Jesuits against the King the Religion and State of England had not been discovered the last year I believe England had e're this felt the Effects of what I observe Be pleased to allow me leave on this occcasion to say that unless his Majesty of Great Brittain be willing to fall with all his People under the slavery of the Pope the Jesuits and France he hath great Cause to take heed left the Warlike Preparations of all sorts made by the French in all their Ports and on the Coasts of the Ocean be not made upon some such design for by the Scheme of the Plot Ireland is looked upon as a Country which may unquestionably procure France the absolute Dominion of the Sea and of Trade and the Conquests of the West Indies according to their ancient and primitive project 3. The Court of Rome and the Jesuits having that influence over the Imperial Council that it was in their power to do what they pleased there there is no doubt but the signing of the Peace was prest on this farther design that His Imperial Majesty the Peace concluded finding himself in a condition to dispose of the greatest part of his Forces they might easily perswade him to employ them to root out the Protestant Party in Hungary and perfect the pretended Reformation in Silesia And it was well for that People that God provided for their safety by very extraordinary means I mean the Plague for had not that broken out it is not credible but Dunewald the Apostate now a formal Creature of the Jesuits had been sent thither with an Army to do something Happy would it be for His Imperial Majesty if by just and solid Reflections on the Disasters successively fallen upon his August Family for having too much espoused the violent and cruel passions of the Court of Rome and the Jesuits and by considering this Scourge of God which hath forced him to quit his Capital City and in a manner follows him visibly wherever he goes he would be sensible the Hand of God is not stretched out against him as heretofore against David for his Sin but because he hath stretched out his hand to oppress the only Congregations of Christians in his Dominions whose Worship is not infected with Idolatry and who according to the Precepts of the Gospel adore the Soveraign and Supreme Creator in Spirit and in Truth But far happier should His Imperial Majesty be if by such reflections God would give him the Grace as he did to the Emperor Charles the Fifth before de died to acknowledge and own the Truth he persecutes and setting aside Policy embrace generously the Profession of it God Almighty would then certainly bless him and 't is credible he would not deny him the Power to humble the Proud and those who by their enormous Ambition put all Europe into Combustion I beg your Highnesses Pardon for this Digression which the Matter I treat of and my Zeal for the Faith and Salvation of others naturally led me to The Third Point To make some solid Prognostick in a matter