Preparations of War in His Kingdom nay and under pretence of a League unjustly made with some of the Chapter of Cologue to send His Forces into that Arch-Bishoprick He supposes the Emperor in the mean while to have so little to do in the Empire that He may not so much as meet with the Princes and States thereof to consult about the Peace of their Country without doing such an injury to France as must be revenged by Force of Arms. His second Argument has much the same degree of Force and Validity in it viz. That the Emperor refused to turn the Truce into a Peace If He had wholly refused it and that upon other Conditions that were not so unworthy of the Emperor and noxious to the whole Empire as those which at that time happened to be prescribed rather than propounded by the Court of France had that been any Crime The Twenty Years Truce ought certainly to have been stood to and during the continuance of that a Peace should have been Treated of which His Most August Majesty never refused provided the King would agree to a Peace that was Honourable maturely considered and Just There ought therefore to have been a Meeting appointed and both sides heard and all the Chief Controversies concerning matters of right in those things which were attempted by France as well before as after the Truce should have been Examined and then might have ensued a Peace every one having their own restored to 'em by common consent and such as might have been likely happily to continue The Most Christian King might remember that at His desire the Truce was lengthened out to Twenty Years both that there might be time enough to discuss and determine all Controversies as it was fir and that the Electors Princes and States of the Empire might with the greater security take Arms against the Common Enemy of the Christian Name And therefore that it cannot be without the French Kings breaking His Agreement and violating His Word that when scarce Two Years of the Twenty are gone about and while the Turkish War yet lasts He should so change His Mind that nothing now forsooth should remain to be discussed or determined but a sixth part of the Provinces of the Empire must at once by a full and irrevocable Right be made over to Him. Now this is what the Emperor could not Lawfully have done if He would It would have been contrary to Right and to the Tenour of the Truce and they who had thought themselves injured would doubtless have withstood it Therefore His Imperial Majesty excused Himself as to this matter and lest any the least suspition should remain He not only declared several times by His Letters to the Pope and by a Writing exhibited to the French King by the Count Lobcowitz then Resident in the French Court that He would keep inviolably the Twenty Years Truce as well after the end of the Turkish War as during its Continuance but also if the King thought it necessary He would confirm it by an Oath to be deposed in the hands of the Pope In which when the French King did then acquiesce and with all did obtain that His mighty Building of Fortifications which He had begun and desired to finish though contrary to the Articles of the said Truce and of the Peace of Westphalia and Nimegen should not be look'd on as a just Cause to break it He promising over and over again the most sincere and constant Friendship during the whole Twenty Years Any one may hence easily gather how frivolously this same pretence is made for the French infraction of their League and what lasting Peace can be expected if such idle Reasons may serve to break His Faith and overthrow His Agreements so that a Twenty Years Truce can hardly last Four. As for the Third Argument taken from the Succession in the Palatinate His Imperial Majesty do'es not so espouse the Cause of the Most Serene Elector Palatine as to defend it at all Adventure without its coming to a fair Tryal But it is most evident that that Prince who is famous all over the World for the Nobility of His Blood the Probity of His Behaviour and His great Wisdom and Prudence did not violently Invade the Countreys of the Palatinate but enter'd peaceably observing all Forms of Law. Whatsoever things did undoubtedly belong to the Dutchess of Orleans by Inheritance he willingly let her have As for what was doubtful not being willing to be blindly prodigal of what He had He thought fit to retain it till the Matter were clear'd by a Competent Judge The French King has undertaken the Cause of the Dutchess of Orleans and given notice to the Elector Palatine to yield up what she pretends to He appeals to the Court of Judgment the Court Palatine of the Empire This the King refuses What if the Emperor should undertake the Cause of the Duke of Lorrain's claim to his Inheritance for the sake of his dear Nephew and should refuse to let it be try'd in France Has the French King more right in the Empire than the Emperor has in France Afterwards there being a proposal of referring the matter to the Pope the Elector Palatine admitted him as Mediator Arbitrator whom he cou'd not allow of as a Judge without giving Offence to His own Court by whom it shou'd be try'd and without the consent of his Kindred He sent a Minister to Rome fully instructed and informed The Dutchess of Orleans sent never a one The Pope sent a Monition to her but all in vain so that at last after a whole years stay the Palatine's Embassadour was dismissed by the deluded Pope And yet very lately the French King's Embassador here at Vienna the Count De Lusignan assures the Emperor that His Master was resolv'd not to depart from the Arbitration of the Pope though he was very averse and unfriendly to Him. Thus the French King drills it on with vain Pretences till me falls in with His Arms upon the Palatinate And this is the true series of the matter That which is added concerning the Emperors being sollicited by the Elector Palatine to make War upon France and a League made to that purpose is all a Fiction Neither is the Most Serene Elector so imprudent as to seek any gain by War when fall how it will it will be sure to be most pernicious and fatal to His own Country The last Argument remains concerning the business of Cologne for the putting out of Furstenburgh and thrusting in the Bavarian which is so stuff'd with Calumnies that from thence it may appear how destitute Frunce is of any Reason or shadow of Reason to cover the Injustice of their breach of Faith. What the Emperor did at Cologne He did according to Right and agreeable to the Laws of Justice and His Imperial Office and the Patronship of all Churches thereunto annexed He did exhort the Chapter to choose him that was best and fittest for
of Cologne and the oppression of the Catholick Religion does endeavour to have War made upon France at the Charge and Hazard of the Electors Princes and States of the Empire that so the Roman Diadem may at last settle on the Head of the King of Hungary now a Child and all Germany large as it is being torn away from the Kings Friendship may fall under the most miserable Tyranny and Servitude of the House of Austria Even as these things are more largely and invidiously set forth in the foresaid Writing When His Sacred Majesty the Emperor Read this infamous Libel infamous not to Him but to the Author or Authors of it and saw in it not so much as a shadow of Reason but the most impudent Slanders wickedly forg'd both against His Sacred Person and the Popes as also against the Most Serene Elector Palatine He easily perswaded Himself that it was quite contrary to the Sence of the Most Christian King and therefore far from having been Read or Approv'd by Him but that rather it was Compil'd by some Malicious French Minister of State for that He believ'd the French King would not suffer willingly that His Imperial Majesty in a way so unusual betwixt Crown'd Heads should be so unworthily Reproach'd which matters he certainly knew in His Conscience to be False or that the Reason of His own Actings such as they are should be written in such an impudent stile and with such venomous reflections and interpretations of things And therefore His Imperial Majesty doubted a great while whether He should think it worthy of an Answer and not rather pass it over in silence But forasmuch as the French Court is not asham'd irreverently to Publish it by its Ministers as well in the Emperors own Court as at Ratisbone in the Dyet and endeavours by such False and Contumelious Reasons to justifie Their bringing on Us a Cruel War in a way little better than downright Treachery and Perfidiousness without so much as denouncing it before hand as the Law of Nations does Require and has been often Agreed and without leting us know what injury they had to complain of but even deceiving us all by their fresh Assurances of constant Friendship and pretended Kindness Therefore His Imperial Majesty thought it necessary to demonstrate to the World the vanity and insignificancy of all those undeserved Imputations To begin therefore with that which is the Foundation on which all the French Reasoning stands viz. That the Emperor had resolv'd to make a Peace with the Turk that He might fall upon France that can with no more Truth be charged upon Him now than it was the last Year at Rome in a Proposition made by Cardinal D' Estree And as Impartial Judges will hardly believe that so Religious a Prince supported by Gods help in the present War and having all the success He desired forc'd by no necessity would so much as think of making a Peace with the Turks without the Privity of His Allies thereby to defile His Conscience with the rash Breach of a League made against the Ottoman Empire and at the same time to incur the Just Censures and Complaints of the Pope the King and Senate of Poland and the Commonwealth of Venice so how vain a suggestion the other is that His Imperial Majesty should have an intent to make War with France when He has neither an Army nor Provisions at hand nay when all His strong Places Cities and Provinces as the event shews by too much trusting the Kings Word are left in a manner destitute of Souldiers and of all kind of Necessaries for Defence and His whole Strength gone against the Enemy of Christianity every one will easily see who will but take the pains even slightly to consider upon how weak and frivolous Arguments that surmise is grounded Those Arguments certainly amongst those that know nothing of the matter will scarce seem to bear the weight of a thin and brittle Conjecture but to those who do understand it they will appear to be mere Fictions which yet if they were true would prove nothing to this purpose For who is there that can draw so much as a probable consequence from hence that because the Emperor favours the innocent in defence of Himself and of the Alliances which His Friends have made because He refuses to turn a Twenty Years Truce into a perpetual Peace without first hearing those that are concerned in it and without any discussion of the matter because by His Counsel and Help he sustains His Father in Law the Elector that France may not have the deciding of his Cause Because Lastly He removes Furstenburg the Man that has been so fatal to his Country and promotes to the Bishoprick of Cologne a Prince of great Expectation of the Family of the Dukes of Bavaria which has deserv'd very well both of their Country and of that Archiepiscopal See Who I say can hence draw but a probable consequence that therefore the Emperor intends to take the first opportunity to make War with France Nay France it self if it would but remember what was remonstrated in Letters to the Pope and to His Most Christian Majesty both by Words and Writing the last Year by the Count Lobcowitz the Emperors Embassador would doubtless acknowledge that all the other superadded Arguments and especially that drawn from the League Established at Ausburg were vain and frivolous For this League brought on nothing that was New but only Established some Ancient Agreements betwixt the Emperor and some of the Circles of the Empire It Renew'd what was necessary betwixt the Princes and States of the Empire for the Circumstances of the present time It tended to the hurt of none but only to that which is most innocent and allowed by all Law their mutual Defence And besides it took in but a moderate number of Heads and a small Strength into it And therefore the Mighty Crown of France did not need to be afraid of it Truly the forgetfulness of the Compiler of this Libel is very wonderful that he will not so much as remember that his own King to prevent all just occasion of quarrelling with the Emperor and Empire upon that account before the Signing of the Truce did Promise that after it was Sign'd He would not be against the Empires Consulting the best ways for its own Safety Nay and it was expresly Declared in the very League of Truce that such Agreements of the Empire might be strengthened by any kind of Guaranty of Forreign Princes But the same Authors ignorance is yet much more to be admir'd that he shou'd not know that there is nothing more Antiently Receiv'd in the German Empire nor nothing more Agreeable to its Laws then that the Members should alwayes most closely adhere to the Head for the Preservation of the whole Body And Lastly his Arrogance or his Folly is greatly to be admired that whilst he presumes it Lawful for his own King to make vast
Language and unjust Railing against His Sacred Person but to wipe off all the Scandal which this Impudent Writer has endeavoured to fix upon the House of Austria and which the Ministers of France do every where scatter about and to defend His own Innocence And moreover that this His Cause may be more and more publickly known and testified to all the Christian World He does publickly declare and call the Omniscient God to Witness that He never thought any thing of breaking the Truce but that He was alwayes firmly resolv'd and it is still His true and serious purpose to keep it inviolably if it will at last please His Most Christian Majesty to stand to the Covenant of Truce and the Declarations which He made and reiterated but the last year from Paris and not to endeavour to make any alterations But as for passing this Truce into a firm and perpertual Peace He persists in that that He will most candidly and willingly shew forth all readiness in endeavouring it provided that a Commission being appointed for the dividing of the Borders and discussing the Controverted Rights may proceed in that Manner and Order as is agreeable to the Laws made betwixt France and the Empire Wherefore if there be any regard to Justice in the Most Serene K. of France as it is hop'd His Imperial Majesty has good Reason to believe and trust that He will of Himself Chastise and Correct the Calumnies and Slanders of this Scandalous French Print will withdraw His unjust Arms restore Dammages bring back all into its Primitive State permit the Most Serene Prince Clement long since Legally Confirm'd by His Holiness to enjoy quietly the Electorate and Arch-Bishoprick of Cologne and will remit the Cause of the Prince Palatine to a competent Court of Judicature in which His Imperial Majesty does promise that Justice shall be Faithfully and Impartially done And Lastly That He will suffer the Peace which He sayes He wishes for to be procured in the time manner and order as is set down in the Truce But if He be not willing to do these things none can then suppose there is any other cause for the French King thus to revive the War then that the singular favour of the Divine Providence and the wonderful defence it has afforded to the House of Austria are things displeasing to Him or that He fears the great encrease and enlargement of that August Family by their late Victories which have carried the Empire beyond Belgrade or that He has a desire to raise up again the beaten and depressed Turks by diverting our Arms as 't is said He has promised them Or Lastly That through too greedy a desire not only of assuring to Himself for perpetuity what He has got for a time by the Articles of the Truce but also of Conquering the whole Roman Empire He thinks Himself not oblig'd by any Pacts or Covenants but that He may break them at any time at His Pleasure Whatever it is the Most Glorious King of France shall not escape the Infamous Mark of a Perfidious Prince that violates His Faith. And therefore His Most Sacred Imperial Majesty does protest before God and the whole Christian World that the said King is free to stretch forth His Hands either to the Fire or the Water and either to abuse the felicity of His present Power or in time to fear those Adversities which he provokes the Omnipotent God 〈◊〉 Anger to send upon Him. But as for Himself being driven to the necessary Defence as well of His Provinces as of the Sacred Roman Empire the Electors Princes and States thereof He shall be blameless and free from all the guilt as well of the calamities like to follow from the War and the effusion of Christian Blood as of the Mahometan Superstition continuing still in Europe and of the destruction of so many Christian Souls miserably groaning under the Yoke of the Turk The Author indeed of this Print boasts and glories that His Most Christian Majesties Arms are pâ—oved just from Heaven by their success wheresoever He moves 'em but with what Truth let him shew if he can His Imperial Majesty being fully satisfied of the goodness of His Cause is resolved if it shall please God in this occasion to give prosperous success to the French Arms He will never the less adore and Magnifie the secret Counsels of God who has sometimes Chastized and Corrected even those whom He Loved by such as Attilas But He is glad that He has cause to hope better in this World. The Most High has thrown down and humbled the Turk that broke his League but a little before it was ready to empire And He will also throw down and humble the French Violater of a League which should have held Sixteen Years longer Vienna Octob. 18th 1688. FINIS