celebration of the Holy Offices of Religion who ought to have no other Employment and yet should be competently maintained That it was also fit that Churches should be built on the publick charge whose external beauty and magnificence might create in the Minds of Men an awful regard to Religion for the kindling the Devotion of the Common People But then I think no wise man will deny that those men who are no way necessary to the Service of God nor employed in his Worship ought not to be called or thought Churchmen or of the Clergy and that what was employed in the maintaining such men has nothing of Sanctity in it But in Germany the Clergy were so vastly enriched by the liberality of the old Emperors the Princes and the Common People that one half if not more of the Lands of that Nation was in their hands which was never heard of in any other and an innumerable shole of lazy useless men made it their business to live upon and devour this vast Wealth which was neither agreeable to the Rules of the Christian Religion nor of sound Policy The Holy Scriptures do indeed command as to provide decently and liberally for the Clergy and that we should not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn but then they never give that name to those who have no share in the Ministry of the Church Nor do they any where exempt the Persons of the Clergy or their Revenues from the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate or disable them to attemperate the same in such manner as may be consistent with the Publick Good And your * The Author pretends to be a Venetian Venetian Republick understands none better that the Revenues and Riches of the Church are not to be excessively encreased to the damage of the State and she has accordingly wisely put a stop to that leak the Pope and Court of Rome opposing her in this Design in vain and without any success In truth she saw her self wasted by this means and as it were brought into a Consumption whilst her Riches and Lands were engrossed by a sort of men who acknowledge no Authority but that of an Head without their State and pretended at the same time they were exempted by the Divine Laws from contributing to the publick Burthens As to the number of Bishops Germany has no reason to complain except that considering the extent of the Nation they are too few to discharge their Office as they ought if they were otherwise well disposed to do it But to what purpose serves the vast Revenues belonging to these few Sees You will perhaps say they are Princes of the Empire as well as Bishops and take their share in the Care of the State with the other Princes Why then let them abstain from the Sacred Title of Bishops because that holy Office is inconsistent with the vast burthen of secular business which is necessarily attending on the Office of a Secular Prince let them lay by the first and stick wholly to the last Title for I think the Christian Religion would suffer no detriment if they did not celebrate one or two Masses in a year attended with a vast number of their Guards and Retinue in rich Garbs and with great pomp as if they designed nothing by it but to reproach the Poverty and mean Circumstances of the first settlers of the Christian Religion So let the Bishop of Mentz if he will possess his great Revenues to enable him to sustain the Dignity and Charge of his Office of Chancellor of Germany but then there is no apparent cause can be given why he should have a Bishop's See assigned to him when the other Princes of the Empire who have as great zeal for the welfare of their Country as he have been contented to take none but Temporal Titles Now what shall I say of the Canons of the Cathedral Churches which are the Blocks they hew into Bishops They perform none of the Sacred Offices and this they are not ashamed to own to all the World by calling themselves Irregular Canous and they too to spare their own precious Lungs fill their Churches with Noises made by their mercenary Curates and such of them as are not employed in Secular Affairs are meer useless Burthens of the Earth serving their Bellies and their Lusts Now as to those that are wholly employed in Worldly Concerns why are they called Holy men Why are they maintained by the Revenues of the Church And what shall I say of the excessive Riches of the Monasteries and of the wonderful swarms of shaven Crowns that hover about them It is certainly necessary that there should be Colleges for the sitting your Youth for the Service of the Church and State and I should be well pleased to suffer some few men to spend all their daies in them too in profound Contemplation for which only Nature has fitted them and besides if they were brought on the stage the world would lose the benefit of those advantages it might reap from their Studies so that as to these men the State would have no great reason to complain because at one time or other they would recompence the Charges of maintaining them with good Interest yet then both these sorts of men are most happy when they have sober and competent Provisions made for them over-great ones load them with fat which stifles and obstructs both their Vigour and Industry But then there doth not seem to be any good Reason that can possibly be given by the Wit of Man why the Publick should be at the charge of fatting up a vast number of lubbarly lazy fellows who have betaken themselves to their ugly Cowles out of pure desperation and are good for nothing but to fill the Church with sensless noises or Prayers repeated with such cold and unconcerned affections that they are fain to keep the account of them by their Beads The only pretence worth the regarding that is made for the excessive Riches of the Church is That the illustrious and noble Families of Germany have a means to provide for their younger Children who being promoted to Ecclesiastical Benefices are kept from being a Burthen to their own Families by which means Estates are kept from being crumbled into small Particles by dividing and subdividing them in every Descent and the Riches and Splendor of Families is upholden nay sometimes encreased the younger Brother who must otherwise have struggled with Want and Penury at home being advanced to considerable and rich Dignities in the Church And I confess it was a good Fetch and a crafty Policy in the Church of Rome thus to chain the noblest Families to her Interest and purchase their Favour But then though it is worth our care to consider how we may preserve the Families of our Nobility and Gentry yet in all probability they that first gave these Lands to the Church never dreamt of any such thing and it is most certain this
yielded it to them on that score yet after all for ought that appears to me we shall never read that any of the Line of Charles the Great call'd the Kingdom of France by that Name 13. When the Caroline Family began to The Fall of the Caroline Race the Rise of the Kingdom of Germany under Otho 1. decline and the Germans had divided themselves from the Kingdom of France and Italy was afflicted with great Commotions there sprung up other States out of the Ruins of this House and amongst them Otho the First King of Germany who having overcome Berengarius and reduced the Kingdom of Italy the Popes who could not trust to their States thought fit to put Otho in possession of the same Power that had been enjoyed by the Family of Charles the Great and consented That for the future the Protection of the See of Rome should be united to the Kingdom of Germany so that whosoever enjoyed that Kingdom should be the Protector of that See But then after many of those old German Kings had couragiously executed that Office upon the See of Rome and in the mean time the Wealth and Power not only of the See of Rome but of the Bishopricks of Germany was become very great the Popes of Rome began to grow weary of this German Protection too the Causes of this were 1. The Aversion common to all Nations against a Foreign Dominion 2. The Indignity which was offered hereby to the Italick People who having ever been celebrated for Civil Prudence were by this kept under the Tutelage of the less-politick Germans 3. Besides it was very uneasie to the Vicar of J. C. to be any longer under the Guardianship of another whose fingers itched to be giving Laws to all Princes therefore for the shaking off this Yoke they took this course viz. They found out ways by the means of the Bishops to imbroil the Affairs of these Kings sometimes in Germany and at others in Italy and the Pope seconded them with his Fulminations or Censures which in those Ages were wonderful terrible Thus by degrees the Kings of Germany grew weary of Italy and being content with their own Kingdom left the See of Rome to the sole management of the Popes which they had sought so many Ages and by such a variety of Arts to the embroiling all Europe After this the Kings of Germany a long time omitted the being crowned at Rome yet they retained the old Titles of Emperors of Rome and when they entred upon the Kingdom the Defence of the See of Rome was in the first place enjoin'd them from which care the Protestant Electors have since given the Emperor a Discharge 14. By all that has been said it will appear The Kingdom of Germany has not succeeded in the Roman Empire how childishly they are mistaken who think the Kingdom of Germany his succeeded in the Place of the old Roman Empire and that it is continued in this Kingdom when in truth that Empire which was seated at Rome was destroyed many Ages before Germany became one Kingdom and that Roman Empire which was given to Charles and Otho which was nothing but the Advousion and Protection of the See of Rome in length of time fixed its Name upon that Kingdom of Germany tho' the States of the Church in Italy never were united into one and the same Polity with the Kingdom of Germany much less did either Charles or Otho submit their proper Kingdoms to Rome as the Metropolis or Seat of the Empire In the mean time because it was believed the very Title of Emperor of Rome upon the account of the Greatness of that ancient Empire had something of Majesty and Grandeur in it it was frequently given to the Kings of Germany only And the consequence of this was that Germany was afterwards call'd the Roman Empire by way of Honour but the different Coronations which belong to them do not obscurely shew that there is a real difference to be made between the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Germany and the later Emperors since Maximilian I. after the Title of Roman Emperor expresly subjoin that of King of Germany The Germans also at this day do commonly call their State The Roman Empire of the Teutonick Nation which form of Speech seems to contain in it a contradiction Seeing it is very certain the present State of Germany is not one and the same with the ancient Roman Empire yet the Kings of Germany retain the Title which has been received tho' they have for a long time omitted the Reception of the Crown of Rome and use very little of the ancient Rights of an Advocate which belonged heretofore to them because Princes do more easily part with the things in dispute than with the Titles to them Now whether that Right they once had is by the lapse of time expir'd or preserved by the use of the Title only we shall hereafter when occasion is offered enquire 15. But in the mean time the Title of the The Title of Roman Emperor damageable to Germany Empire of Rome is so far from being any advantage that it is manifest it has been the cause of great Mischief and Inconvenience to Germany Priests are alwaies ready to receive but never part with any thing and whereas all other Clients dispose their Masters to favour them by their Presents if a Priest be not fed with new Presents he presently snarles and imputes his Blessing as a wonderful Obligation I should think that the ancient Princes heaped their Bounties upon the Clergy of Germany principally because they were made believe God expected they should provide plentifully for that Order of Men. And what has been spent by Germans in Journies to Rome for the Imperial Crown What Treasures and Men have been consumed in Italick Expeditions in composing the Commotions stirr'd up by the Popes and in protecting them against refractory men that have attack'd them is not to be conceived Nor has any Foreigner got much by attacking Italy the Spaniards excepted who have stuck so many years in the Bowels of * The Author tho'a German pretends to be an Italian our Country that we have never yet been able to â—epell them Lastly no Princes were oftner fulminated by that See than the German Emperors nor was any of them more exercised by the frequent Seditions of the Churchmen than they the principal cause of all which misfortunes seem to have arisen from hence That they thought these Princes who had this Title from the See of Rome in which they took such pride were obliged by it above all other Men to promote the Affairs of that See Or otherwise because that Order of Men is above all others unwilling to be subject to the Soveraignty of another and with Mother-Church is ever seeking how to shake off the hated Secular Authority yet I would have this understood with Salva reverentia sanctissimae sedis a saving the Reverence and Respect due
Cities were taken away From hence proceed Envy Contemt Mutual Insults Suspicious secret Contrivances against each other all which Mischiefs are yet more manifest and outragiously prosecuted between the Bishops and the Cities in which the Cathedral Churches are fixed Yea in the Diets the Princes do ever express a great Contemt of the Cities but the Emperor on the contrary doth alwaies cherish and protect them because he finds them more observant of his Orders than the other States Nor do the Princes themselves bear that mutual kindness each to other they ought especially the Secular and the Ecclesiastical Princes the Spiritual Princes have the Preheminence or Precedence of the Temporal on the account of the Sanctity of their Office and also because their great Experience in the World and Learning is supposed to make them better able than the Laymen to advise which in the barbarous times begat them a great Authority in the State But then the Temporal Princes are now very much concerned to see these Prelates which are for the most part the Sons of meaner Families than themselves in a few years time equal yea and mount above them as if they had more of the Grace of God than themselves They are yet more aggrieved because these men cannot transmit their Estates to their Posterity but their Families continue in the same estate it was before but that many of these Holy Fathers have learned from the Pope to enrich their Kindred by Ecclesiastical Benefices and large Donations out of the Revenues of the Church On the other side the Prelates have more reason to be offended with the Temporal Princes who have intercepted and cut off so many of their old Preferments of which I shall say more hereafter Besides all these that I have represented the Inequality of their Estates and Riches is another Fountain of Discontent betwixt them For first as is common the more potent contemn the weaker and are but too apt to oppress them and the weaker are as ready to complain and suspect and sometimes to boast unseasonably that they are equally free with the most powerful The very exalting the Electors above the other Princes is a great cause of Discontent whilst the other States are displeased at their Dignity and charge them with usurping some things they have no Right to and the Electors as stifly maintain what they have got as their Right and Due 9. These would not be sufficient Principles The Differences of Religion cause great Disturbances and Disquiet of Disorder if the most effectual active Ferment which can possibly affect the Minds of Men I mean the Difference of Religion were not added to all I have mentioned which at this day divides Germany and distracts it more than all the rest Nor is the diversity of Opinions and the commonly practised excluding each other out of the Kingdom of Heaven as Priests of diverse and contrary Opinions use to do the only cause of their mutual hating each other The Roman Catholicks charge the Protestants That they have deprived them of a great part of their Wealth and Riches and they good men are night and day contriving how they shall recover what they have thus lost and the other Party are as well resolved to keep what they have got Nay they think they have still too much and that the Revenues of the Church at this day are a Burthen to the State seeing the Priests and Monks depend upon another Head who is no part of the German Empire but a Foreigner and an everlasting Enemy to their Country nay to all the Laity in the World which he would fain impoverish that so his own Followers might flourish and flant it with their Spoils If he could bring this about there would then be a State within the State and an Head to each of them And this to those that love their Country more than the Church of Rome seems the greatest Mischief that can betide any State Nor is this a less Disorder than the last viz. That the Princes of Germany enter The Princes of Germany enter into Domestick and Foreign Leagues into Leagues not only one with another but with Foreign Princes too and the more securely because they have reserved to themselves a Liberty to do so in the Treaty of Westphalia which not only divides the Princes of Germany into Factions but gives those Strangers an opportunity to mould Germany to their own particular Interest and Wills and by the assistance of their Allies to insult on all the rest of the Princes especially when the Design of those Leagues is not levell'd against other Foreign Princes which might be born but against the Members of the Empire There are scarce any Footsteps or Trace of Justice neither left in the Empire for if any Controversie arise between the States themselves The want of Justice another cause of Disqâ—iet 〈◊〉 which must often happen where there is such a number of them and their Dominions lie intermixed one with another if they commence a Suit in the Chamber of Spire it is an Age before they can hope to see an end of it In that of Vienna the Palace-Court there is too much Partiality and Bribery and after all it is suspected to think more than is fit of the Place it is seated in So that in Germany men for the most part right themselves by their Swords and he that is strongest has the best Cause and feareth not to do his own business Lastly How weak must that Government needs be that has no common Stock or Treasure nor any Army to resist the Invasions of Strangers or for the acquiring some Provinces to bear the publick Charge And how much better The want of a Common Treasure were it for Germany to spend her valiant men who cannot live in Peace in her own Service than to have them as they now do run into foreign Countries and there sell their Blood at cheap rates to those who will employ them as mercenary Souldiers of Fortune 10. There are also a vast number of The Emulations and Contests between the States and Princes of Germany Emulations and Controversies between the Inferiour States and Princes which do much weaken the strength of the whole Body It will be enough for us here only to touch the principal of these Differences The House of Austria has raised a Spirit of Jealousie and Envy in all the other Princes of Germany by its long Possession of the Imperial Dignity and the vast Dominions it has by that means acquired in the Empire and elsewhere Besides the old Quarrel between the Houses of the Elector Palatine and that of Bavaria there is a new one concerning the Administration of the Publick Affairs during the Vacancy of the Empire which will hardly be determin'd the one House relying on its Power and the other on its Right In the House of Saxony there is a Contest and Heart-burning between the Lines of Ernest and Albert because the
that not only the Countries possess'd by the old German Nations were all reduc'd under his Obedience but all those that lay upon the Baltick Sea and that part of Poland which lies on the West of the Vistula which was then inhabited by the Sclaves for History saith They also were either Tributaries to that Prince or majestatem comiter coluisse were Homagers to his Crown 6. The greatest part of the German Of what Nation Charles the Great was Writers have very fondly endeavoured to have it believed he was their Countryman as being born at Ingelheim a Town in the Bishoprick of Mentz but now under the Elector Palatine and in an ancient Charter of the Abby of Fuld the Lands upon the River Unstrut in Thuring are call'd The Lands of his Conception And that he us'd the German Tongue is apparent by the names of the Months used in his time which are still retained in Germany and are thought to have been introduced by him But if the Germans would suffer me a Foreigner to pass my judgment in this Affair tho' I am not at all disposed to favour the French in their other pretences to the damage of the Germans yet I would perswade them here freely and willingly to renounce their Pretences to Charles the Great and the rather because it can bring no injury to their present Empire for it is certain the Franks placed the Seat of their Empire in Germany and it is no less A Frank certain that the Father of Charles the Great By his Father was King of France and all his Progenitors had for many Ages lived in great Honour and managed great Employments in that Kingdom Besides those parts of Germany And born in France which lie on the West of the Rhine and were then subject to the Crown of France were possess'd by them as Accessions acquired to that Kingdom by Conquest and were looked upon as conquered Provinces and every man is esteemed to be of the same Nation his Father was and in which he has placed the Seat of his Fortunes and Hopes after his Father and Ancestors The sole consideration That a man was born in this or that Country will hardly be allowed to make a man of a different Nation from his Father unless we can believe that if the present King of Sweden had been born in Prussia he had been to have been esteemed a Prussian and not a Swede Nor was that part of Germany which lieth on the West of the Rhine esteemed a part of France till under Charles the Great it was united to that Kingdom And in the first timeâ— that followed when his Posterity had divided their Ancestor's Dominions amongst them the Historians frequently distinguish between the Latin or Western France and the German or Eastern France which is the same with Germany And it is observed that after the times of the Otho's that name of Germany by degrees grew out of use The objection made on the account of the use of the German Language by Charles the Great may be thus easily Tho' he used the German Tongue answered The Gauls having been long subject to the Romans by degrees lost their own Tongue and embraced that of their Conquerors so that at last there were scarce any footsteps of the old Celtick left amongst them But then the Franks brought their German Tongue along with them and without doubt did not presently forget it But then as the Franks neither destroyed nor expelled the Gauls but only assumed the Government and Soveraignity of the Country from whence it came to pass that those who were descended of the Franks were employed in the great Affairs and the Gauls as a conquered People were kept under but then as two Rivers of different colour uniting in one stream may for some time preserve each his proper colour but at length the greater stream will certainly change the lester into its own colour so in the beginning the Gauls had their Tongue and the Franks theirs till in length of time a third was made out of both mixed and twisted together in which yet the Latin is the predominant the plain cause of which is That the Gauls were more numerous than the Franks and it was much harder for them to learn the German than it was for the Franks to learn the Gallick Latin for with what difficulty Foreigners learn the German Tongue I my self know by experience From hence it proceeds that the most ancient Writers of this Nation call the vulgar Latin the Rustick or Countryman's Tongue because the Nobility and Gentry still used the German whilst the Countrymen and the rest of the Gauls had no knowledge of any other than the Latin And thus we see it is in our own times in Livonia and Curland where the old Inhabitants are by the Germans reduced into the condition of meer Rusticks for all the Nobility and the Inhabitants of the Cities speak the Sclavonian Tongue and the German but the Countrymen do scarce understand one German word of ten Thus Charles the Great might easily understand the German Tongue because the Franks who were a German Nation had not quite laid aside the use of it and also because the Franks before his time had conquered a great part of Germany and he went on with the work and reduced all the rest under his Dominion Nor was it possible in that unlearned Age to converse with the Germans in any other than their own Language But then he that observes that there is two very different Questions confounded into one will very accurately determine this Controversie for if the Question be Whether Charles the Great were of a Gallick or a German Original without doubt it will be answered That he was not a Gaul but a German or which is all one a Frank. But if the Question be What Countryman he was France and not Germany is to be assigned him and therefore in this respect he was no German but a Gaul or Gallo-Frank I fear I shall make the Reader think I take him for a stupid person if I should dwell any longer on so plain a thing and yet I will presume to give the Germans a known example If you fall upon a Nobleman of Livonia and ask him what Countryman he is he will reply a Livonian and not a German but then if you still insist and ask him of what Lineage he will say he is descended of the Germans and not of the Livonians 7. This Prince Charles the Great had The Titles of Charles the Great to his several Dominions under him divers Nations which he had acquired by very different Titles He enjoy'd France as his Inheritance devolved to him from his Father by Succession For though we read in their Histories that the ancient Franks had lodged in the Nobility and People of that Nation some Authority in the constituting their Kings yet I conceive it was rather a solemn Inaguration and an acknowledgment of their Loyalty
and Obedience to the new King than a Free Election for they rarely departed from the Order of a Lineal Succession but when there were Factions or the next Heir in the Line was wholly unfit for Government A part of Germany was before this time united by Conquest to the Crown of France and the rest of it was subdued by the victorious Arms of Charles the Great Whether any part of this Country freely and willingly submitted to him out of Reverence to his Greatness is very uncertain He also by his Arms conquered the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy the Pope of Rome affording him a Pretence for it after which he was by the Pope and People of Rome saluted Emperor of Rome and Augustus Now what he gain'd by this Title we shall by and by inform you 8. Thus under Charles the Great Germany Germany a part of the Kingdom of France became a part of the Kingdom of France and was sufficiently subject to the Absolute Empire or Soveraignty of those Princes During this state of Affairs it was divided into divers Provinces which were governed by Counts or Earls and Marquesses who were for the most part of French extraction yet in these times the Saxons enjoy'd a greater shew of Liberty because Charles the Great had not been able to reduce them without a long and tedious War and was at last to perfect the Work and establish his Soveraignty necessitated to admit them to a participation of the Priviledges enjoy'd by the Franks and to unite them into one Nation with their Conquerors That he might further assure himself of this fierce Nation which was so impatient of Servitude he call'd in the assistance of the Priests who were ordered to teach them the Christian Faith and to inculcate into them how much they were obliged to those who had shewn them the way of obtaining Eternal Life On this account many Bishopricks and Abbies in Germany were founded by Charles the Great Germany was in the same estate under Saint Lewis the Son of Charles but that the Authority of the Prefects or Governours of the Provinces began to grow greater 9. But afterwards when the Children of The Children of St. Lewis divide their Father's Kingdom this Lewis had divided their Father's Kingdom amongst them which was the first and principal cause of the Ruin of the French Power and of the Caroline Family Germany became separated from the French Empire and was a distinct Kingdom under Lewis II. Son of St. Lewis To it was afterwards added a great part of the Belgick France or of the Low Countries as it is now called which lies towards the Rhine which for the most part was inhabited by German Nations which from Lotharius another of the Sons of St. Lewis was then called the Kingdom of Lorrain though at this day only a very small part of that Kingdom retains the old name During the destructive Wars which followed after these times between the Posterity of Charles the Great not only the German Nobility gained exorbitant Power but the very Family of Charles was at last totally extinguished or at least deprived of the Crown of France for to this day the Dukes of Lorrain and the Electors Palatine pretend to be descended of that Family and the Germans chose themselves Kings out of the Nobility of their own Nation from which times Germany became again a free State and Germany a free State had no dependance on the Crown of France Now because the German State is commonly call'd the Sacred Roman Empire I think it will be worth my pains to enquire How it first obtained this Title what it has gained by it and by what Right it now enjoys that Name for the clear understanding of which it will be necessary shortly to recapitulate the state the Roman Empire in the West was reduced to before the times of Charles the Great 10. It is very well and commonly known A short account of the Roman Empire after what manner the People of Rome after they had by the Success of their Arms subdued the noblest part of the then known World were at last by the ambition of a few over-potent Citizens engaged in Civil Wars and at length brought under the Dominion of a single person But then Augustus the Founder of the Roman Empire or Monarchy when he had by the assistance of the Army gained the Empire perswaded himself that he should easily keep it by the same way Therefore tho' from thenceforward he seemed to leave some of the Affairs of the State to the disposal of the Senate that it might still seem to have a share in the Government yet he wholly kept in his own hands the Care and Government of the Army But then it was his principal care to conceal from the Rabble of the Army That the Souldiers were the men who could set up and pull down the Emperors which Secret when it was once discovered the State of the Empire became as miserable as the Condition of the Emperors for the Empire being weakened by frequent intestine Wars found it self also often exposed to the worst of men by a covetous and turbulent Rabble which oftentimes most wickedly murdered her best Princes to her great damage and sorrow Nor could any of her Emperors after this entertain any hopes of firmly settling the Empire in their Families but was necessitated to be contented with a precarious Title amongst a parcel of mercenary Souldiers So that in truth the whole power of making the Emperors was in the Army which is the common Attendant of all Military Monarchies where a strong and perpetual Army is kept together in any one place and the Senate and People of Rome were weak and vain Names made use of to delude the simple common People as if the free and voluntary consent of the whole Body had constituted the Emperor That Kingdom thus founded on a Military Licence as it was unfit for continuance was by Constantine the Great and Theodosius hastened to its fatal period the first of these making Byzantium now called Constantinople the Seat of the Empire and withdrawing the Armies which had till then been maintained on the East of the Rhine for its preservation and the later by dividing the Empire between his two Sons Arcadius and Honorius soft lasie Princes and neither of them fit for such a Command From thence forward there were two Kingdoms for one and this Division was no way useful but only for the fitting the Western part by separating it from the Eastern to be the more easie Prey to the barbarous Nations and accordingly not long after this an end was put to the Western Empire and Rome was taken and sack'd by the Goths which before that had been deprived of all her Provinces by as good Right as she had got them and now in her turn lost her beloved Liberty and became a part of the Gothick Kingdom 11. After this the Gothick Power being Rome for
though an holy person was then considered as one out of the Bounds of Germany and so not to be taken notice of 15. In all these things in process and length of time almost every thing was The old forms changed in after times changed After the Golden Bull the Electors took cognizance of all the Royal Cases and the Pope assumed to himself so great Power on that account that he made no scruple to excommunicate the Emperors and declare that their Subjects were free from the Obligations of their Allegiance to them and he boldly said the Emperor was his Vassal and the Empire a Fee which belonged to his See As to the Princes Suits or Cases this was ever observed from the very beginning of the French Monarchy that they were never determin'd by the Judgment of the King alone but were alwaies decided in a Convention of the Nobility upon a simple and short Process according to Equity and good Conscience And even in the first Ages of the German Empire if any of the Emperors assumed a Power singly to iudge of the Fees belonging to any of the Princes the more couragious of them alwaies protested against it Yea if all the Testimonies we have were lost the very form of the whole Empire or its Constitution do sufficiently prove that things of that consequence which these Suits are of ought not by it to be left to the single Judgment of the Emperor And therefore they are notoriously guilty of palpable Flattery who pretend that this Judgment of the Cases of the Princes of the Empire which the Germans call Das Furstenrecht is a meer Pretence But then it was long after these times that these inferiour Princes took upon them to judge arbitrarily of the Cases of their own Vassals which was done only by some Families and imitated by the Free Imperial Cities as to their Subjects The Germans call these Counts in their Language Austrega's and it is probable they began about the times of Frederick and the great Interregnum Those that trusted more to their Power or Force than to the Justice of their Cause would commit the Trial of it to the Sword It is also a late Practice which has been taken up by some of our later Emperors and Princes to referr the Cases depending to their Ministers and profess'd Lawyers rather than to give themselves the trouble of hearing them But then this became necessary when instead of a few plain Country Customs we had introduced the Intricate Papal and Civil Laws which it would have been the utmost punishment to have put the Princes to the trouble of learning 16. As to the Churchmen they innovated The Innovations brought in by the Churchmen in these particulars By degrees they drew all the Personal Cases of the Bishops to the Pope's Tribunal utterly destroying thereby all the Authority of Metropolitans and Synods and they took from the Laity all Right of judging in any Case a Clergy-man This is by the Protestants returned to the ancient method but by the Roman Catholicks still retained though Charles V and some other Princes since have to the great vexation of the Pope ordered some things pertaining to Religion and punished some Clergy-men for great Offences too In the times also of Frederick II and those that followed the Bishops and Clergy assumed to themselves the free Administration or Management of their own Church-estates and shook off their Advocates of Vicedams yet still the Ecclesiastical States are subject to the Empire by reason of their Fees and other Regalia's of which they may be deprived if they act any thing insolently against the Publick Peace and the Laws of the Empire The Monks as to their Persons were in the times of Charles the Great subject to the Jurisdiction of the Bishops from whom some ancient Monasteries were exempted and were put immediately under the Pope The new Orders which have arisen since the XIII Century are only subject to their Provincials and Generals and only acknowledge the Pope's Jurisdiction as their Supreme Ordinary The Administration of the Lands of the Abbies were at first committed to Advocates from which dependance in length of time some Houses were exempted but the greatest part have still remained in the same state they were at first and some few of them are free from all publick Taxes and Charges 17. The Secular Cases of the meaner People Secular Cases how managed were heard in the times of Charles the Great either in the Secular Courts or by the Bishop in his Consistory which later way has since been much extended beyond what it was at first These were first as to the Secular Courts to make their Complaints to the Scabins which in ancient times were appointed in all the Pagi Hundreds and Villages from him they might appeal to the Graves or Comites Earls or Sheriffs whose Jurisdiction was after usurped by many Dukes and Bishops From the Counts or Graves they had an Appeal to the Itinerary Messengers or Judges sent into the Provinces by the King and from them to the King himself who in his Court made a final Determination of all Cases But in the XV. Century when Appeals became very frequent by reason of the bringing in the tedious Forms and the Iniquity of the Rabble for the more commodious determining these it was resolved to erect a certain fixed Tribunal or Court which The Chamber of Spire erected for Appeals was at last settled at Spire the reason of this was not because the Imperial Court was too ambulatory or unsettled but because the vast quantity of these Cases might most conveniently be determined in a place set apart for that end The French in Since removed to Wetzlar the year 1688 having seized Spire the Diet in the year 1689 agreed this Court should be settled for the future at Westlar Wetzlar a City of Hassia seven German Miles from Frankford to the North and about fifteen from Cologne to the S. E. which being approved by the Emperor Commissioners are appointed to adjust all things for the opening this Court there and it is very probable it will never be returned back to Spire that City being too much exposed to the Insults of the French who when they please can seize the Records of this Court to the inestimable damage of the Empire And besides the French had before burnt and destroyed the whole Town of Spire not leaving any thing standing in it that Fire and Gunpowder could fetch down 18. The modern way of Trials now received The present form of Process in Germany is thus When any private person commenceth a Suit against another of the same quality he in the first instance goes to the Praetor Scabin of the City or Village in which he lives except the Defendant be some way priviledged above the Scabin There is in all the Principalities which I have been acquainted with some superiour Court which is common to the whole Province which they call the
the Hellespont into Asia from whence they first came if the French King who began the present War by his Arts had not to prevent their utter ruine in the year 1688 began as destructive a War on the other side of the German Empire which will in all probability force the Emperor to sit down contented with Hungary Transylvania Wallachia Servia and Bosnia and leave the Turks in the Possession of Bulgaria Thrace and Macedonia and a part of Albania and Dalmatia but much sunk in Courage Reputation Strength and Wealth so that he is never likely to recover his Loss again 5. Italy is very much inferiour to Germany Germany compared with Italy both as to Men and Wealth and being divided into many small impuissant States is not in a condition to offer any Violence to its neighbour Nations so that the Italians are very well pleased if the Emperor will but sit down with the loss of his ancient Pretences to their Country especially now that the Pope's Thunderbolts which heretofore were very dreadful are now for want of the former Zeal become weak and contemptible Nor is Poland in a condition And Poland to compare her self in any respect with Germany and seeing the Interest of the Polish State is rather to defend what they have than to make any Conquests upon their Neighbours and that the Necessity of the German Affairs must needs teach them the selfsame modesty There can hardly be supposed any Case in which the German Princes can be tempted to make a War upon Poland except any of the Emperors should intermeddle with their private internal Quarrels and Civil Wars The Danes were never yet in a With the Danes condition to subdue their neighbour Hamburgers much less are they able to attack the Forces of all Germany who tremble at every motion of the Swedes The Germans are nothing concerned to see the English Masters of her own Ocean and as it were folly in the English to attempt With England the subduing the Continent so the Germans have no Naval Forces that can dispute their Soveraignty of the Ocean or ought at all to be compared with the English Royal Navies The United States of With the Hollanders Holland have neither Will nor Power to attempt any thing against the Empire of Germany for these Water-Rats are altogether unfit for Land-service and although they have Money in abundance yet it is not for the Security of their own Liberty to maintain too great a Land-Army So that they are well pleased if the Germans will but suffer them to enjoy the Forts and Cities they have taken and garrison'd to defend themselves from the Spaniards though belonging to the Empire These Towns belonged to the Dukedoms An Addition of Cleves and Juliers and to the Archbishoprick of Cologne and were all taken by the French in the year 1672 and in the Treaty of Nimmegen restored all to their proper Owners except Maestriect which yet belongs rather to the Spaniards than the German Empire which having happened since our Author wrote was here to be taken notice of The Spaniards With Spain have no Territories which border upon Germany which are worthy to be compared with it and Spain it self is so very remote and her Forces so exhausted that she is not able to reconquer the small Kingdom of Portugal Even Charles V. when Spain was in the height of all its Glory and Power though Master of it and all the Austrian Dominions and Emperor of Germany too yet after all he was not able to oppress the rest of Germany As to Sweden though you consider all those With Sweden Provinces she has conquered on the South side of the Baltick Sea yet she is not to be compared to Germany in Men or Monies For whereas some men have been so much mis-led on the account of the old Proverb which called Scandinavia now Sweden Vagina Gentium the Sheath of Nations and on the score also of the late great Victories obtained by the Swedes in Germany under the Conduct of Gustavus Adolphus their King as to think it is superiour or at least equal to Germany in Men yet wise men do very well see and understand the true Reasons of those great Successes and that they proceeded neither from the Numbers nor extraordinary Valour of the Swedes for in the space of Eighteen years there was not brought over out of Sweden into Germany above Seventy thousand men the far greatest part of which returned back again and yet during that War there was scarce ever less than an Hundred thousand men of the Germans in pay so that the true cause of that wonderful Progress was the Discord of the Germans the opportunity of the Times which favoured the Swedes and because all the Protestants being oppressed ☞ by the Austrians looked upon Gustavus Adolphus as a Deliverer sent to them for their Preservation from Heaven But as to the now most flourishing Kingdom of France we may with greater probability With France doubt whether it be not a Match for Germany and yet if the Forces of both Nations be well considered without their Advantages or Weaknesses France being the stronger for being a regular Kingdom and Germany the weaker for being a knot of Independent States Germany is certainly the strongest of the two for 1. It is much greater than France and though we should suppose it only equal to France in point of Fertility yet even then it would excell France as to its Minerals 2. It has more Men than France and the Germans have on many occasions proved themselves the better Souldiers of the two 3. As to the quantity of Money it is very difficult to determine on which side the Advantage lieth for it is not to be guessed how much Gold the present King of France has squeezed out of the old Horseleaches of his Kingdom and how much he has encreased his Revenues which is not to be taken into consideration without wonder But then at the same time it is to be observed that the People of France are much more harass'd oppress'd and ruin'd by their excessive Taxes than the People of Germany are and that all the Wealth of France runs in one Channel whereas in Germany it is divided amongst many Princes and so it will not so easily be computed or estimated as it might if it were paid all into one Prince Since An Addition this Author wrote there have been two Wars between Germany and France and the second is now depending In the first the Germans were ever too hard for the French whilst they fought them in the Field but the French drawing on the War the Germans were at last worsted for want of Money and much more worsted in the Treaty and after it by the Treachery of the French But now the Turks are reduced to such an ebb and all Christendome is united against France so that all their Trade is cut off The Germans have
expences and dispatch business the more quickly there ought to be a new and more certain form of Proceedings thought of But then it doth not seem very probable that the Family of Austria will suffer such a Council to be introduced because they will ever labour to keep their Power above controul Nor will the The Empire cannot be transferred to another Family Present State of Germany permit the transferring the Imperial Dignity into another House as long as there is any Male in that of Austria therefore their Modesty is to be wrought on to perswade them to be content with their present Grandeur and not to labour to establish a Soveraign Authority over the rest of the States and Princes and it will become the Princes manfully and with united Hands and Hearts to oppose and resist all such Encroachments which tend to their prejudice and in the first place to take care that none may league with one another or with the Princes of the Empire against any of the Members of it and if they do so to render all such Combinations ineffectual and if any Princes have any Controversie with each other to take all the Care is possible that Germany may not be by that means involved in a War But in the first place Care ought to be taken that Foreigners may not intermeddle with the Affairs of Germany nor possess themselves of the least Particle of it to that end all waies that are possible are to be considered that they that border on Germany may not have the opportunity of enlarging their Kingdoms which they so passionately desire by ravishing its Provinces from it one after another till their Conquests like a Gangreen creep into the very Bowels of the Empire If any thing of this nature happen to be attempted let Germany presently take the Alarm provide her Defences and seek the Alliance and Assistance of those whose Interest it is to keep any one Kingdom from mounting to too great and exorbitant a Power and then as long as Germany is contented with the defending what is her own she will have no need to maintain any very numerous Armies yet she ought in due time to concert the Numbers that every one shall send in case of necessity And Germany may from her Neighbour the Swedes learn the methods of maintaining an Army in the times of Peace with small Expence which yet shall be ready when occasion serves at short warning to draw into the Field for her defence 5. Now it were very easie for wise and The Opinions of some great men concerning the different Religions in Germany good men to find out all I have said and all besides which can be necessary for the Safety of Germany if they pleased calmly to apply their minds to it who have the chief hand in the Government But then seeing the greatest part of the World think the Differences of Religion the principal Causes of the Distraction and Division of the Empire it will well become the Liberty I have taken in this piece to shew what wise men have said of this thing in my company for I am not so well acquainted with Church-affairs as to interpose my own Judgment and therefore I think it will be less liable to Exception to represent the Thoughts of others than my own which I submit c. When I was once at Cologne with the most Reverend and Illustrious Nancio of the Holy See to pay him my respects I happened to say That I could not understand the true reason of the great Dissentions in Germany on the Subject of Religion whereas in Holland where I had lately been there was no such thing and yet there men had the utmost liberty to think and believe as they themselves pleased for there every man was intent upon his own Trade and Business and not at all concern'd of what Religion his Neighbour was Upon this an Illustrious Person who had spent a great part of his Life in the Courts of several Princes but was now retired to live a very private life begged the Nuncīo's Leave to speak his own mind freely which being granted Since said he that travelling Gentleman has mentioned a thing I have very long and seriously thought on I will now discover what I take to be the most probable cause of this thing we being now at good leisure and I am well resolved not to approve my own former Thoughts on this Affair if your Eminence should happen to dislike them After this beginning at a distance from our present times he shewed how many Heresies had from the beginning afflicted and distracted the Church of Christ the greatest part of which in process of time vanished of their own accord but then there had hardly happened any Schism that had spread so far and ruin'd so many private Families and whole Kingdoms as this which in the last Century arose here in Germany and was occasion'd by some few Doctors of that Nation There were great Wits on both sides and they contended against each other with the most furious Passions and to this day there is not the least hope of putting an end to this Quarrel It is to no purpose to enquire into the secret causes of this Affait as far as Fate or Providence are concern'd but it will not misbecome my Profession to discourse of the Nature and Temper of Mankind 6. It is saith he apparent that two Contempt and Loss exasperates men greatly things above all others exasperate and enrage the Minds of Men Contempt and Loss As to the first of these I would not be understood here to speak of that Contempt by which the Reputation and Good Name of a Man is directly oppressed and trodden under foot but of that which every ordinary man thinks is thrown upon him when another shall but presume to differ from him in any thing for the Minds of Men are generally infected with this foolish and unreasonable Distemper And it is hateful to them to find another disposed not only to contradict but even to disagree with them in any thing for he that doth not presently consent to what another saith doth tacitely accuse him of being as to that particular in an Error and he that differeth in many things from any man seems to insinuate that he is a Fool. This Disease haunts the sedentary part of Mankind above all others who are educated in the Schools and wholly taken up with solitary Speculations and consequently not overwell acquainted with the World He that shall not reverence all this melancholy man has embraced as an Oracle is presently his deadly Enemy Nor was the War between the Romans and Carthaginians for the Empire of the World managed with greater heat than that which we have seen between some of the Learned World about some few Syllables or small Distinctions An equal nay a greater Fury has taken possession of the Church-men the Nuncio having in the beginning of his Discourse promised him the utmost