the People so bare and miserable being forced to contribute towards defraying the expenses of War and the maintenance of Princes although the poor contributors enjoyed but the least part of the land which obliged Kings at last to forbid Priests all kinds of further acquisitions If that had not been done they had swallowed all long since for heretofore there was an order that no Will should be made without bequeathing something to the Church And if any one dyed intestate an estimate was made of his inheritance and according to the value thereof a portion was allotted and given to the Priests For the remedying of that excess very excellent Laws have been made in England the Low Countreys and at Venice and the Parliament of Paris it self seeing the immense riches of the Carthusians and Celestins made orders expresly prohibiting them the acquiring of any more immovables P. Those regulations are just where Churchmen live in plenty but they should not be hindred from making moderate acquisitions it being reasonable that they who feed us spiritually should be maintained corporally G. Your argument is very good Poverty should not be permitted in the Church for it is impossible the Priest should carefully attend upon preaching the Gospel visiting the sick comforting the afflicted and administring the Sacraments and at the same time labour to get bread While Clergy-men were under continual suffering they stood in need of extraordinary assistance to keep them from falling into despair but growing too rich they were swallowed up in lazyness from whence there flowed streams of ignorance wantonness impiety luxury superstition idolatry and other vices which brought Christendom almost to utter ruine P. Let us not enter into the consideration of the lives manners and humours of Priests who have constrained good men to procure their reformation and that reformation caused rivers of blood which have very near drowned Christendom Tell me rather how the Ecclesiastical Princes come by their Dignity G. The Prelates of Germany are not all raised to their Dignity after one and the same manner and the order observed now differs from that which was observed when Germany received the Faith In the beginning of Christianity Bishops were every where chosen by the Clergy and the People joyntly After which when the Roman Emperors were become Christians they sometimes gave Bishops to the principal Churches by their own authority or of several that were proposed to them they made choice of him that pleased them best So Constans made Liberius Bishop of Rome and Theodosius the younger chose Nectarius to be Bishop of Constantinople from amongst many that were named to him Since the fourth age before which there were few or no Bishops in Germany the Kings made a Decree that no man should be promoted to the Episcopal Dignity without their consent and when Germany was united to France the French Kings made such use of that right that no man was made Bishop but by their nomination or at least their approbation for if the Clergy and the People chose a Bishop he was to be confirmed by the King In Bavaria which at that time had its own Kings sometimes the People and sometimes the King chose the Bishops but so as there was no need to have Bulls from Rome Pepin gave the Archbishoprick of Mentz to Boniface and that Prelate being grown old he obtained a Coadjutor from the same King without having recourse to the Pope P. I believe indeed that Pepin raised that Prelate to the Episcopal Dignity but some think he had obtained permission to do so from Pope Zachary G. The creatures of Rome would make us believe so but that is not probable since Pepins Predecessors had the same power and his Successors maintained it insomuch that Leo or rather Gregory IV. durst not make Colonus the Deacon Bishop of Reale without the permission of Lewis the Debonaire and the Fathers of the Synod held at Aix-la-Chapelle entreated the same Emperor to have a great care of giving good Pastors to the Churches Nay all the Popes from Leo VIII to Gregory VII were created or confirmed by the Emperors P. But have not the Emperors made not confirmed any Popes since that time G. Gregory VII took away from Kings and Emperors the power not only of creating and confirming the Popes but the Bishops also in the Countreys under their obedience and having excommunicated the Emperor Henry IV. he commanded Hugh Bishop of Die his Legat in France to procure a Decree to be made against Lay-men that would name persons unto Bishopricks The year after he forbad Church-men the receiving of any Bishoprick Abbey or other Benefice from the hand of a Lay-man though he were King or Emperor and within two years more he pronounced that the power of choosing Bishops and Pastors belonged to the Apostolick See Victor III. confirmed the Decrees of Gregory VII Vrban II. went further and at the Synod of Melfi Can. 8. and at that of Clermont Can. 15. and 16. forbad Clergy-men to take the Oath of Allegiance unto their Princes Those Decrees drew the Emperor Henry V. into the field who took Paschal II. prisoner and made him restore the Empire unto its first condition But when Popes had once tasted what a pleasure it was to be independent and to keep the Emperors under their authority they forced the Councils of Lateran and Vienna held in the year 1112. to declare Heretical the Collations of Benefices made by Lay-men The Emperors on the other side desiring to keep up their power named one Bishop and the Pope or the People another and the stronger party held the Bishoprick to the great scandal and prejudice of Christendom At length Paschal II. excommunicated Henry V. Calixtus II. confirmed the proceedings of his predecessors at the Council of Reims A. D. 1120. and Henry being both strucken by the Popes thunderbolts and wearied by the obstinacy of the Princes renounced his own right in the Diet held at Wormes A. D. 1122. In this manner the right which the Emperors had to choose Bishops passed from them to the Clergy and the People but a little after the Canons of Cathedral Churches assumed that right to themselves and keep it still P. I observe that many of the Councils wherein the Empire lost so much of its power and dignity were held in France G. Those Kings seeing that Germany had separated it self from France and kept the Imperial Majesty which their first Predecessors of the second Race had gotten were glad to see it humbled and for that cause they sided with the Popes when they would vex the Empire helping by that means to forge and hammer those chains of servitude which would have oppressed them and their Successors if the Popes had not met with Parliaments and a French people more inclined to obey their own Kings then to follow the orders of Rome P. Those Subjects who prefer the obedience they owe to their Soverains before any other consideration are highly to be
discourse that he hath profited more in a Travel of two years then if he had stayed ten in his Study P. I might easily confess to you that the conversation of several persons increaseth prudence but I do not perceive how the seeing of Forain Countreys can make us able Souldiers G. Travel teacheth us to understand the plenty of Countreys the Fords of Rivers the conveniency of Bridges the distance of places the strength of Cities the number of the people the inclination of the Subjects the humour of Princes the Sympathy and Antipathy of Nations and many other things which may instruct a General of an Army and a Counsellor of State giving them particular advantages Travel doth also give us lessons of Temperance Modesty Patience and the Languages which are useful to all men but necessary to those who would have any Command in Armies P. Languages are so necessary to persons of Command that our Ancestors would advance no man to the Imperial Dignity that was not able to speak Latin Italian Sclavonian and Dutch And the Emperor Frederick II. besides these advantages could speak elegant French Spanish and Turkish and which was very rare in his time he was skill'd in the Ancient and vulgar Greek G. The Emperor Frederick the second of that name and the last of the House of Suevia or Swaben with whom the Majesty of the Empire was buried for many years was both Valiant and Learned and if you employ your excellent natural endowments well you will become so too you have a good Judgment a happy Memory a sound Body and a vigorous Complexion P. I am God be thanked of a strong Temper and I retain long enough what I have once learnt But why is it necessary to learn so many Languages if Latin be sufficient to hold conference with Strangers and Dutch to employ my cares upon the good of the affairs of the Empire and the administration of my Fathers States if God give me the grace to come to the Government G. I know that the Latin and Dutch Languages may serve your turn and that a Prince may Reign piously justly and religiously without the knowledge of Forain Tongues Nay I know one who is even the Tutelar Angel of his Subjects and who without haveing learnt either Latin or French governs his State in the fear of God and without oppressing any man hath paid his debts and built a Castle of a marvellous bigness while others more knowing than he have brought poverty upon their Subjects and left it to their own children But the intercourse of business which we have with Strangers suffers us not to neglect their Languages without the hazard of incurring some inconvenience thereby P. I understand by what you said last that one may be a good prince though he have not studied and yet that you would have me to possess a reasonable knowledge of Forain Languages that I may not stand in need of an Interpreter to deal with other Potentates that have affairs in Germany or Lands lying within the limits of the Empire which would oblige me as well to understand Swedish and Spanish as French and Italian seeing the Crown of Sweden possesseth a good part of the Lower Saxony and that of Spain more than half of the Netherlands G. It were good to know the Languages you mention but being it is impossible to master them all one should endeavour to learn the most necessary Spanish is the noblest of all the bastard Languages and I know never a one of them that pleaseth me more but the King of Spain making use of Burgundians to treat with us and Dutch being no less common amongst the better sort of Swedes than the Swedish it self methinks one may better want the Swedish and Spanish than the French and Italian Languages P. Why do you call Spanish a bastard Language G. I call it so because it is not a Mother Tongue but compounded of the Latin Gothick Arabick and old Spanish for the Romans the Goths and the Moors having Reigned many ages in Spain introduced a mixture of all those Languages P. If mixture only be enough to bastardize a Language there are but few Legitimate for there be many Greek words found in the Latin and many Latin and French in our Dutch And questionless it is for this cause that Lewis prince of Anhalt obliged those of the Fructifying Company or the Society of good Wits to avoid that medley with all possible care G. Greek words that are found in the Latin Tongue or Forain terms which vanity rather than necessity hath introduced into ours do not qualify them to be of the same nature with the Spanish The Romans and the Germans have admitted those stranger words by way of wantonness and may do well enough without them if they will on the contrary the Spaniards have so few of their own that if they should restore to the Latines and Arabians what they have stollen from them they would no longer be able to express their conceptions but would remain as destitute of words as Horace's Jackdaw saw her self stript of feathers when every bird had resumed his own P. Is French in any better condition and can it well pass without those Latin terms which the Romans brought in while they held the Gauls under their jurisdiction G. I do not think it is being certainly perswaded that all Nations which have long been under obedience to Strangers have lost the purity of their ancient Languages So that we have more reason to wonder that the French brought so few Dutch words into Gaul when they laid the foundation of a flourishing Kingdom there then that the French Language is half Latin P. Were the Gauls ever subject to a German power G. Yes for all Historians do unanimously agree that Pharamond the first King of France was Duke of Franconia that he extended his Empire all along the Rhine that Clodius his Son proceeded as far as Cambray and that Merovée his Granchild setled his Royal Seat in Paris from whence Clovis the great brought Burgundy under his Dominion and forced the Goths to forsake those parts of Gaul about Narbon Afterwards his successors degenerating from his virtue and leaving the management of affairs to the Maiors or Stewards of their Palace Charles Martel who preserved Christendom by the victory he obtained at Tours gave so much reputation to his Son Pepin that he easily seated himself upon his masters Throne having thrust Childerick the Lazy into a Monastery P. Therefore Princes ought to take special heed that their servants make not themselves great at the expence of their masters Honour and authority for a Prince without authority is like a head without eyes or a body without a Soul G. Authority is the soul of Government and the reputation of a Prince is the support of his State without these things there is nothing to be seen but contempt disobedience and rebellion The most moderate seeing their Prince devoid of these good qualities
have voice and seat in the Assemblies G. All the Estates of the Empire who are the Electors the Princes the Prelates the Counts the Barons and the Imperial Cities And besides the place and voice they have in general and particular Assemblies they have also a certain right of Regality and the priviledge of the Austregues that is a right not to be convented or brought before any but peculiar Judges P. I thought that the Emperor alone had the right of Regality that this right and Majesty were one and the same thing and that but few Counts and Barons had place and voice in the Assemblies G. By the Counts and Barons which I told you had seat and suffrage in the Assemblies you should understand those that are Estates of the Empire and abstract all others even those Lords to whom the Emperor gives the title of Prince in his Hereditary Countreys who are in no small number the abuse being grown to that height that few or none are content with the title of Gentleman As to the other part of your supposition you should take notice that Soverainty and Regalities are different things Soverainty is that which essentially constitute the Emperor that is which makes him to be Emperor and Regalities are the Adjuncts of Soverainty and the Rights which flow from it as rivulets from their spring P. I beseech you explain your self a little more G. For the better understanding of what I have even now said you must note that the word Regality is diversly taken to wit 1. for great Lordships held in Fee of the Crown 2. for Churches extraordinarily rich 3. for the right of giving great Benefices 4. for the Royal Ensigns which are carried before Kings and put upon their heads and into their hands and 5. for the Rights which have been given to Emperors for marks of a Soverain eminence Regalities may be also distinguished into the greater and the lesser The greater are Regalities of Dignity which relate to the Emperor person the lesser are Regalities of Vtility which regard his Treasure The great one are incommunicable the lesser are communicable and communicated to Princes Lords and Cities to one more to another less according to the good pleasure of the Emperors P. I do not yet fully understand which be the Regalities of Dignity I pray speak a little more at large of them G. The Regalities of Dignity are the immense power which the Emperor hath to give the title of King Elector Archduke Duke c. to make Laws to administer Justice and other such like things P. I think the Emperor hath communicated the right of administring Justice unto the Imperial Chambers of his Court and of Spire G. That is true but the power of the Chambers is no argument why the Emperor alone should not be said to have the Soverain Right of administring Justice For the Judge of those Chambers bears the Imperial Sceptre to show that he exercises the Emperors jurisdiction there all judgements are pronounced there in his Majesties name and sealed with his Arms Which makes it clear that all is done by his authority and in his name P. Was Justice always administred by the Soverain Chambers which his Majesty hath established the one in his Court and the other at Spire G. The Chamber of Justice or Parliament of the Empire was ambulatory till the time of Maximilian I. who taking pity of the parties that were necessitated to follow the Court and seek for Justice there at great expenses at the request of Berchtold Count of Henneberg who was then Elector of Mentz established a Sedentary Chamber at Wormes in the year 1495. from whence it was soon after removed to Spire but cannot be withdrawn from that place without the consent of all the Estates P. Doubtless the Emperor hath given an extraordinary jurisdiction to that Chamber for I have heard say that it hath concurrence of jurisdiction with his Majesty G. The Chamber of Spire can have no concurrent jurisdiction with the Emperor unless it be that his Majesty may concur with himself for the jurisdiction of the Chamber is nothing else but the Emperors jurisdiction Besides the Emperor hath not established the Chamber to concur with him but to administer Justice in his name For in transferring thither all the jurisdiction universally for so much as concerns Civil causes he hath ordered that nothing shall be dispatched but in his name and under his Seal Whereby it is easie to judge that there is a dependence and not a concurrence of the Chamber of Spire with the Emperor who also causeth the Assessors to be punished when they transgress and swerve from their duty P. Seeing the Emperor hath transmitted all his jurisdiction unto that Chamber certainly it passeth judgement upon all things without appeal G. Except Ecclesiastical and Spiritual matters as the crimes of Heresie Adultery and other such like the cognizance whereof belongs to the Church that Chamber Judges finally and absolutely of every thing So that an appeal cannot be made unto the Emperor and much less to the Pope even in a cause of a pious nature And there is a Decree to be seen of the 20. February 1512. whereby one that appealed to the Pope was fined a hundred Marks of Gold But this Chamber takes no knowledge in the first instance but of the causes which concern some Immediate person that is immediately depending upon the Emperor P. Are all Immediate persons Estates of the Empire G. The Gentlemen of Swaben Franconia the Rhine and the lower Alsatia are not Estates of the Empire though they be immediately subject to the Emperor P. Let us begin to speak of the Estates of the Empire and tell me if you please what was the original of the House of Austria how long it hath worn the Imperial Crown into how many branches it is divided by what means it became so potent and what are its priviledges G. You ask too many things at once yet I will answer them But that we may avoid confusion I will speak severally of that which you have proposed conjunctly And as to your first question I say that flatterers think they can never raise the beginning of this Most August House high enough unless they fetch it from the Trojan horse and tracing the Fables of the old Romans invent a fine Genealogy from near 500. years before the birth of Jesus Christ Others would have it to descend from Charlemagne in a direct masculine line The most common opinion is that the Counts of Habspourg who wear the Imperial Crown at this present are a branch of the Dukes of Zeringuen from whom also the Marquisses of Baden are descended and the Dukes of Teck whose lands are passed by marriage into the House of Wirtemberg P. That which you say is not out of controversie for a modern Author affirms confidently that the Archdukes of Austria and the Kings of France come both out of one and the same stock But because we desire
inferior to the Dukes P. There are some that presume to say that heretofore Counts were greater then Dukes G. Gariban a diligent Spanish Historiographer following the opinion of Vasco affirms that Counts were greater then Dukes and endeavours to prove it from that which is found in the Councils held at Toledo where some that subscribed them styled themselves Comites Proceres and Comites Duces And the reason whereupon they ground that assertion is because all those that have many titles set the greatest in the first place Which nevertheless is not alwayes true for the Cardinals of the Church of Rome when they sign any thing write Deacon Cardinal Priest Cardinal or Bishop Cardinal not to perswade us that the dignity of Deacon Priest or Bishop is above that of Cardinal but to inform us that they are not barely Deacons or Priests but Deacon Cardinals that is the most eminent Princes of the Church And so it was with the Lords that subscribed those Councils they styled themselves Counts and for a distinction from others they added Duke as the more eminent P. You will confess that the sons and brethren of Kings and the greatest Officers of the Imperial and Royal Houses have anciently contented themselves with the title of Count and if the Ducal dignity had been greater they would without question have desired sought for and obtained it G. The titles which Kings have formerly given to their children as also those of Count of the Palace Comes Stabuli or Constable and others which satisfied the principal Officers of the Imperial Court do in no wise derogate from the quality of Duke For at last those Princes better bethought themselves and acknowledging that the name of Duke was alwayes a higher quality then that of Count they desired to be honoured with the same I know very well that the Counties of Castille Portugal Flanders Tyrol Tolouse Provence and Wirtemberg were very illustrious but I know also that the Countreys of Burgundy Bavaria and Lorraine did anciently bear sometimes the title of Kingdom sometimes of Dukedom and that the latter imported no less authority then the other The Princes of Poland Hungary and Bohemia who are at this time great Kings did for many ages bear no more then the quality of Duke Nay some Provinces in Spain were governed by Dukes a thousand years before the birth of Christ and when that Countrey was assaulted by the Carthaginians and afterwards by the Romans it was vigorously defended by the same Dukes who were Soverain and independent From whence you may judge that the title of Duke was almost equal to that of King before ever there were any Counts and so conclude that albeit in certain Countreys and times the title of Duke hath been somewhat abased yet it was never inferior to that of Count but alwayes greater P. The Counts Palatine and the Marquisses of Brandenburg are nevertheless as much or more then the greatest Dukes in Germany G. I agree with you but that derogates nothing from the title of Duke in general forasmuch as those Princes are not barely Counts but Counts Palatine Margraves and Electors and as such placed amongst the first Princes of the Empire P. I am satisfied and having seen that a Duke is and alwayes was greater then a Count I beseech you declare unto me those of the Empire But before we go any further tell me whether you think that true which some Writers affirm that a Duke should have four Counts under him G. I have just now demonstrated unto you that a Count was alwayes less then a Duke But I esteem it a mere dream and a folly below a discoursing soul to resolve that an Emperor should have under him four Kingdoms a King four Dutchies a Duke four Counties a Count four Baronies a Baron four Castellanies and a Castellan four Fiefs Those maxims of Quaternions should be expelled out of your thoughts as ridiculous Otherwise all they that have four Kingdoms would be Emperors and the Emperor losing one of those four which he had would cease to be Emperor Besides all Kingdoms are not equal and it would require a great many such Kingdoms as Valencia Murcia Grenada Algarvia Majorca Minorca Ivica and Yuetot to make one great King And on the other side if any one could have three Kingdoms equal to that of France in richness of soil abundance of People and number of Nobility he might equalize the greatest Emperors and the Count of Champagne to whom seven other Counts did homage would almost double the proportion of a Duke P. Having seen in your former discourse the force of the Latin word Comes and the Dutch Grave together with all its compounds and other things which I desired to know concerning the Counts in general you will oblige me now to come in particular to the Counts of the Empire and tell me what was their original what their power is at present and what their dignity G. Stephanus Paschalis a famous searcher of Antiquity saith there were as many nay more Counts then Cities in Gaule when the French made themselves masters of it and that the Conquerors desiring to use their new Kingdom favourably and give a subdued People no cause of complaint kept up all the offices and commands which the Romans had introduced amongst them The Laws of Charlemagne and of his son Lewis the Debonaire are full of the order which the Counts were to observe in the administration of justice From whence you may gather that the Counts of those times were not raised to such a height of Dignity as they are now P. If the Counts were but Judges who usually are such no longer then their Prince pleaseth how came it to pass that they made themselves masters of the lands which were under their Jurisdiction G. Though the Emperors had power to deprive the Counts of their Offices yet for the most part they let them enjoy them during their lives and if they had any sons capable to succeed them they were preferred before any other And that they might be the better enabled to attend upon the administration of Justice and defend the People when need should require the Emperors granted them Fiefs within the Territory of their Jurisdiction which Fiefs gave them opportunity to make themselves Masters of all the rest and to transmit the same unto their heirs P. Is it long since the Counts made their Counties hereditary G. It is hard to say under what Emperor that remarkable change hapned in the Empire but it is probable that it was under the Descendants of Charlemagne in the time when Charles the Bald and his son Lewis the Stammerer made their residence in France and were at variance with the sons of Lewis Germanicus their kinsmen who said the Imperial dignity belonged to them P. By what you have hitherto said I can sufficiently comprehend what was the power of the ancient Counts Do me the kindness to tell me what that is they have at present G.
Into the greatest part of Regular Orders they admit Gentlemen that have attained to the age of 18. years and consequently before they have given any proof of their merit and they are degraded for murders basely committed by lying in ambush or other crimes unworthy of such persons But Kings admit none into their Orders but those that have performed good and considerable services and for that cause a man is oftentimes well in years before he can obtain that honour of which also he cannot be deprived but for High Treason Divine or Humane or for notorious cowardize as having run away from his Colours and forsaken his Chief P. If it be so there is less honour in being admitted into a Regular then into a Secular Order G. I do really think so because for the obtaining of the latter it is requisite that a man joyn his own vertue unto that of his Ancestors And the Order which makes him that is admitted into it Companion of a Soverain and familiar with his King hath doubtless something more eminent in it then that which only makes him brother and Companion of certain Gentlemen P. I would willingly know why so many Orders of Knighthood have been instituted G. Necessity was the first and principal cause of all those Orders The Regulars began after Godfrey of Boullion had taken Ierusalem when some valiant Gentlemen having voluntarily undertaken the defence of the oppressed the maintenance of Hospitals the care of Pilgrims and the securing of the ways Popes gave them priviledges and bestowed honours upon them to draw on others to the same profession Which is honourable to the Church of Rome as well for the zeal which Catholiques show in visiting the Holy places as because all the Nobility also that embraces a Rule becomes subject to the Pope P. Had Kings the same design G. Conquerors made Souldiers willing to follow them by sharing the fruit of their Conquests with them and when their Successors had not estate enough to reward all the glorious actions and eminent services which Gentlemen did for them being perswaded that a man of courage values nothing comparably to honours which distinguish him from other men they invented those Orders which without exhausting their Treasure would gain them the Flower of their Subjects and enflame all others with an extreme desire to make themselves worthy of the same honour I think it was for that reason that anciently they created Knights just before the Battel to make them engage more resolutely or presently after it to recompense those that had the greatest hand in the victory P. I would know whether there be many Knights in Germany G. There be Knights of four sorts who ought to be Princes Lords or Gentlemen The Emperor dubs some by touching them lightly upon the shoulder with a naked sword and saying to them Esto miles Dei Sancti Stephani Be a Souldier of God and of St. Stephen and those wear no Collar or other mark to distinguish them from other Gentlemen The Kings of Spain England and Denmark do also send their Order to such Lords as they set most value upon The first wear the Golden Fleece the second the Garter and the third the Elephant enamelled with white and enchased with a Cross of five great Diamonds All the other Knights are of the Military Orders of Prussia or Malta The former have the Black Cross and are named Teutoniques the latter wear a white one and are called Knights Hospitallers of St. Iohn of Ierusalem Heretofore all of the last Order were Catholiques but there are some of them now that are not so and possess the Commanderies which the Protestant Princes have not incorporated into their Demesnes But if you happen to see any German Suisse or Hollander wearing the Collar of the Order of St. Michael you may take notice that the most Christian King sometimes confers the honour of that Order upon those that have done him some acceptable service P. Do all Emperors and Kings of the Romans make Knights G. If they do not at least they may all do so And at the Coronation of Charles V. there was such an abuse that all those that would have that honour received it although they were not Gentlemen In our days it hath not been so abused For when the last Ferdinand was crowned at Ratisbon he created 28. Knights the greatest part of them very illustrious both by their birth and merit P. Now I see what difference there is between a Knight and a Cavalier I pray discourse something of the Nobility G. There are Countreys in Europe where the Nobility is distinguished into Princes Lords and Gentlemen who all together make one part of the State and are the Kings right arm the support of his Crown and the prop of his authority It is not so in Germany where the Princes nay the poorest Lords would take it for an affront to be called Gentlemen Who as we have seen before are absolutely separated from the Body of the Nobility and have their interest apart P. I know already that the Princes are Estates of the Empire and have no communion with the Nobility But I would willingly know whether all the Gentlemen of Germany make one Body whether they be equal in priviledges and whether they mutually assist one another in their necessities G. The Nobility of Germany is of two sorts One Immediate acknowledging none but the Emperor the other Mediate that acknowledges the Emperor as Head of the Empire yet without being exempt from the jurisdiction of another Prince This latter hath not so much liberty as the former but is for all that excellent in its degree there being never a Gentleman in Germany that doth not prefer a poor Gentlewoman before a rich Burgers daughter and wonders at the mixture of different qualities used in other places But this Body being united only by the ligaments of name and condition there is little or no help to be expected from one to another P. Is the Nobility that depends upon Princes equally priviledged through all the Empire G. Nobility being a quality acquired by vertuous actions and eminent services which some Houses have performed to the Prince and State it is impossible but that there should be some Houses more Noble and better priviledged then others And although fortune should have more influence then merit upon the dispensing of those qualities yet the same judgement were still to be made because Soverains are subject to their passions rewarding more bountifully and raising higher some of their servants then others It happens also that one Prince hath occasion to make use of his Nobility more often then another and receiving more considerable services from them he doth also recompense them with greater and more signal benefits P. There is no doubt but merit or favour hath made the difference which is found between those Houses that hold in Fee of a particular Prince But I am perswaded that all the Nobility immediately subject