Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	england_n	king_n	3,792	5	4.0738	3	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

the Prayer a good interval of Silence for the private Devotions of the Assembly The Schools here go not above Latin Greek and Logick and for the ●est they send their Children to Zurich or Basil The Clergy here are very meanly provided for most part they have nothing but the benevolence of their People they complained much to me of a great coldness in their People in the matters of Religion and of a great Corruption in their morals The Commons are extream insolent and many Crimes go unpunished if the Persons that commit them have either great credit or much money The poor Ministers here are under a terrible slavery for the Grisons pretend that in all times they had not only the Patronage of their Churches but a power to dismiss their Ch●rch-men as they saw cause How it is among the Papists I cannot tell but the Dean of the Synod of the House of God told me they had an ill custom of ordaining their Ministers without a Title upon an Examination of their Qualifications and Abilities which took them up generally six or seven hours and when this Tryal was thus dispatched if the Person was found qualified they ordained him and it was too ordinary for those that were thus ordained to endeavour to undermine the Ministers already in Employment if their people grew disgusted at them or as they became disabled by Age and often the Interest and Kindred of the Intruder carried the matter against the Incumbent without any colour or pretence and in that case the Synod was bound to receive the Intruder In one half of the Country they preach in High Dutch and in the other half in a corrupt Italian which they call Romanish that is a mixture of French and Italian In every League they have a Synod and as the People chuse their Ministers so in imitation of the Switzers every Syn●d chuses their Antist●s or S. perintendant he is called the Dean among the Grisons and hath a sort of an Episcopal Power but he is accountable to the Synod The Office is for life but the Synod upon great cause given may make a change The people of this Country are much more lively than the Switzers and they begin to have some tincture of the Italian Temper They are extream civil to Strangers but it seems in all Commonwealths Inn-keepers think they have a right to exact upon Strangers which one finds here as well as in Holland or in Switzerland I shall conclude what I have to say concerning the Grisons with a very extraordinary Story which I had both from the Ministers of Coire and several other Gentlemen that saw in April 1685. about five hundred persons of different Sexes and Ages that past through the Town who gave this account of themselves They were the Inhabitants of a Valley in Tirol belonging for the greatest part to the Archbishoprick of Saltsburg but some of them were in the Diocesses of Trent Bresse they seemed to be a Remnant of the old Waldenses they worshipped neither Images nor Saints and they believed the Sacrament was only a commemoration of the Death of Christ and in many other Points they had their peculiar Opinions different from those of the Church of Rome they knew nothing neither of Lutherians nor Calvinists and the Grisons tho' their Neighbours had never heard of this nearness of theirs to the Protestant Religion They had Mass said among them but some years since some of the Valley going over Germany to earn somewhat by their labour hapned to go into the Palatinate where they were better instructed in ma●ters of Religion and these brought back with them into the Valley the Heidelberg Catechism together with ●om● other German Books which un over the V●lley and they being before that in a good di●position those Books had such an effect upon them that they gave over going to Mass any more and began to worship God in a way more sutable to the Rules set down in Scripture some of their Priests concurred with them in this happy Change but others that adhered still to the Mass went and gave the Archbishop of Saltsburg an account of it upon which he sent some into the Country to examine the truth of the matter to exhort them to return to Ma●s and t● threaten them with all severity if they continued obstinate so they seeing a terrible Storm ready to break upon them resolved to abandon their Houses and all they had rather than sin against their Consciences And the whole Inhabitants of the Valley old and young Men and Women to the number of two thousand divided themselves into several Bodies some intended to go to Brandenburgh others to the Palatinate and about five hundred took the way of Coire intending to disperse the●●elves in Switzerland The Ministers told me they were much edified with their Simplicity and Modesty for a Collection being made for them they desired only a little Bread to carry them on their way From Coire we went to Tossane and from that through the way that is justly called Via Mala. ●t is through a bottom between two Rocks through which the Rhine runs but under ground or a great part of the way The Way is cut out in the middle of the Rock in some places and in several places the steepness of the Rock being such that a Way could not be cut out there are beams driven into it over which Boards and Earth are laid this way holds an hour After that there is for two hours good way and we past through two considerable Villages there is good Lodging in both From thence there is for two hours Journey ter●ible Way almost as bad as the Via Mala then an hours Journey good way to Splagen which is a large Village of above two hundred Houses that are well built and the Inhabitants seem all to live at their ease tho' they have no sort of Soil but a little Meadow ground about them This is the last Protestant Church that was in our Way it was well endowed for the Provision of the Minister was near two hundred Crowns Those of this Village are the Carriers between Italy and Germany so they drive a great Trade for there is here a perpetual Carriage going and coming and we were told th●t there pass gen●rally a hundred Horses through this Town one day with another and there are above five hundred Carriage-Horse that belong to this Town From this place we went mounting for three hours till we got to the top of the Hills where there is only one great Inn. After that the way was tollerably good for two hours and for two hours there is a constant descent which for the most part is as steep as if we were all the while going down Stairs At the foot of this is a little Village called Campdolcin and here we found we were in Italy both by the vast difference of the Climate for whereas we were freezing on the other side the hear of the