their Bishop seeing Munstet it would the better have became them who took Arms against their own Prince for their Liberties to have assisted their Neighbours in a like Attempt 14. The Knights of Germany are not all The Knights of Germany in the same condition part of them being immediately subject to the Emperor and the Empire and another part being under the subordinate States who are their Lords They that belong to the first of these Classes call themselves the Free Nobles of the Empire and the Conjunct Immediate and Free Nobility of the Empire These according to the respective Circuits in which their Estates are stand divided into three Classes of Divided into three Classes Franconia Schwaben and the Rhine which are again subdivided into lesser Divisions They have of their own Order certain Directors and Assessors who take care of those Affairs which concern the whole Body of this Order and if any thing of great moment happen they call a general Convention but then they have no Place in the But they have no Vote in the Diet. Diet which they look on as a Priviledge for the saving of the Expences necessary in such an Attendance And in truth it would be no great advantage to them to be admitted into the Diet to give their Votes in all other things they enjoy the same Liberties and Rights with the other Princes and Free States so that they are inferiour to the Princes in nothing but Wealth To recompence this they have great Advantages from the Ecclesiastical Benefices and Cathedral Churches in which they are Canons and by this way many of them become Princes of the Empire They that obtain this Honour have learned by the Pope's example to take good care of their Family and Relations and besides there is a wonderful satisfaction in the enjoyment of great Revenues with small Labour for they employ their Curates or Vicars to make a noise in their Churches so that they are in no peril of spoiling their Voices by any thing but Intemperance and as to the inconveniences of living unmarried their Concubines which are not wanting cure them Those that make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven are in the mean time very scarce in Germany And it is almost as infamous in a Nobleman to be continent as not to love Dogs and Horses I have heard some of them complain that some of the Princes have an apparent disgust at their Priviledges and look upon them with an evil Eye because living in the midst of their Territories they enjoy such large Exemptions And others say such vast numbers of small Royolets do much weaken the Empires in which they are suffered And if a foreign War happen they become an easie Prey to the Invaders Yet for all this these Gentlemen will not part with a certain Liberty for an uncertain Hazard or Danger and the rest of the Princes will not suffer so considerable an Addition to be made to the Power and Riches of the Princes they live under except some great Revolution open a way to this change or by length of time and crafty Projects their Estates be wasted and consumed 15. We must here in a few words The Empire is divided into ten Circles admonish the Reader that this vast Body of the Empire by the appointment of Maximilian I. in the year 1512 was divided into ten Circles the names of which are these Austria Mentz Trier Cologne and the Palatinate call'd the Lower Circle of the Rhine the Vpper Circle of the Rhine Schwaben Bavaria Franconia the upper and lower Saxony Westphalia that of Burgundy the Kingdom of Bohemia with the Provinces of Silesia and Moravia belong not to any of these Circles Which yields us a clear proof that it is rather united to Germany by a kind of League than a part of that Empire To which of these Circles any Place belongs may be found in common Books every where to be had This Division was made for the more easie Preservation of the Publick Peace and the Execution of Justice against contumacious States and Princes to which end each of them has Power to name a General for the commanding their Forces and the appointing their Diets in which the principal Prince in the Circle for the most part presides in which they take care for the defence of the Circle and for the levying Moneys for the publick use Yet a man may well question whether this Division doth not tend more to the Distraction and weakening of Germany than its Preservation the whole Body being by this means made less sensible and less regardful of the Calamities which oppress or endanger the Parts of it and threaten though at a distance the Ruin of the whole Thus much of the Parts of the Empire CHAP. III. Of the Origine of the States of the Empire and by what degrees they arrived to that Power they now have 1. FOR the attaining an accurate knowledge of the German Empire it is absolutely necessary to enquire by what steps those that are called the States of the Empire arrived to the Power they now possess for without this it will not be possible to see what was the true cause that this State took such an irregular form Now these States are Secular Princes Earls Bishops and Cities of the Rise of each of which we will discourse briefly The Secular Princes are Dukes or Earls who have The Secular Princes of the Empire are either Dukes or Earls to these Titles some other added in the German Tongue viz. Pfaltzgrave Landtgrave Marggrave and Burggrave for to the best of my remembrance none of the ancient Princes except he of Anhalt has the simple Stile of a Prince without one of these Additions yet some of them use the Title of Prince amongst their other Titles Thus they of Austria are stiled Princes of Schwaben the Dukes of Pomerania now under the King of Sweden the Princes of Rugen the Landtgrave of Hussia and Hersfield c. 2. Amongst the ancient Germans before they The old German Dukes military Officers as were subdued by the Franks a Duke was a meer Military Officer as appeareth plainly by the German word Heerzog who for the most part were chosen on the account of their Valour when a War was coming upon them In Times of Peace those that governed Their Grevens or Earls were Judges in times of Peace them and exercised Jurisdiction and governed their Cities Districts and Villages were for the most part chosen out of the Nobility and were called Greven or Graven which is as much as President though the Latin word Comes is more often used for it because from the time of Constantine the Great downward those who were employed in the Ministry or Service of the Court in the command of the Forces dispersed in the several Provinces of the Empire or in administring Justice and the execution of the Laws were all stiled Comites After this when the
Trade gave them great Security and by consequence made them populous and rich The principal of these Leagues is that made by the Cities on the Rhine in the year 1255 in which some Princes desired to be included The Hanse League was chiefly made on the account of Maritime Commerce and grew to that height of Power that they became terrible to the Kings of Sweden England and Denmark But then after the year 1500. it became contemptible because the lesser Cities when they found the greater got all the profit fell generally off and deserted them And the Nations upon the Ocean and Baltick Sea by their example began about the same time also to encourage Trade in their own Subjects especially the English Flandrians and Hollanders Thus their Monopoly failing their Strength fell with it 10. Though in the beginning the Cities The Cities at first subject to the Kings or Emperors of Germany were in a better condition than the Villages yet they were no less subject to the King or Emperor than they and these Princes took care to have Justice exercised in them by their Counts or deputed Judges as they call'd them After this by the enormous and imprudent Liberality of the Emperors many of the Cities were granted to the Bishops others to the Dukes and Counts and the rest remained as before only subject to the Emperor In the XII Century they began to take more liberty as they found they could relie upon their Riches because the Emperors by reason of the Intestin Wars were not able then to reduce them to a due Obedience some Princes were but just advanced to the Imperial Dignity and so were forced also to purchase the Favour and Assistance of the great Cities by the Grants of new Priviledges and Immunities that they might employ them as a Bulwark against their Refractory Bishops and Princes after this by degrees they shaked off the Emperor's Advocates The succeeding Emperors observing also that the Bishops employed their Wealth against them encouraged the Cities to oppose the Bishops The Dukes of Schwaben failing many small Cities in the Dukedom catched hastily at the opportunity of being made free yet they did not obtain their Freedom all at once but one after another as they could gain the Favour of the Emperor and that is one Reason that they have not all the same Priviledges and some of them want a part of the Regalia to this day Some of them bought these Priviledges of their Dukes or Bishops and others shook them off by force and then entred into Treaties for the purging that Iniquity for when these Princes were poor or low their last Remedy was to sell the richest of their Subjects their Liberty and others when they saw they could no longer keep them in subjection took what they could get from them and were unwillingly contented with it CHAP. IV. Of the Head of the German Empire the Emperor and of the Election and the Electors 1. THough Germany consisteth of so many The Emperor the Head of Germany Members many of which are great and perfect States yet it has at all times excepting the Interregnums which have happened since Charles the Great been united to one Head which the Ancients only call'd their King the later Ages by the more ambitions Titles of the Roman Emperor and Casar and upon the sole account of this Head it has seem'd to the most of men to be one single simple State And my next business is to shew how this Head is constituted or appointed but then it will be worth my while by way of Introduction to represent this Affair from its Rise that it may the more clearly appear how much the present differeth from the ancient Election and what is the true Original of the Electoral Princes As to Charles the Great and his Posterity the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France are to be severally and distinctly considered The The Empire of the Romans pretendedly given by the Pope first of these was collated upon Charles by the Pope and the People of Rome as the principal Members of that Empire or rather as upon one who plainly designed to make himself Emperor and that as appeareth in an Hereditary way So that the Crowning his Successors had not the force of a new and free Election but of a solem Inaguration For we read that Charles the Great made Lewis his Son and Lewis made also Lotharius his Son their Consorts in the Empire and yet there is no mention made of their asking the Consent of the Pope or of the People of Rome on either of these occasions But then as to the ancient Kingdom of France we cannot affirm that it was either meerly elective or meerly hereditary but a mixture of both For we read frequently that the The Kingdom of France morchereditary than elective Kings of France were constituted by the Consent and Approbation of the Nobility and whole People of France but in such a manner yet that they never chose out of the Line of the dead King but for very great reasons which kind of Election is as we know still observed in Poland yet he that shall curiously observe it shall find France had more of a Successive than of an Elective Kingdom So that it seems to have been collated on the first of the Race with a Condition that he should transmit it to his Posterity unless they appeared to the People very unworthy of it So that the Children of the Deceased King did not so much gain a new Right to the Kingdom by this Approbation of the Nobility and People as a Declaration that they were not uncapable of succeeding by the Right that was at first collated on them Afterwards the Line of Charles the Great being deposed or rejected and denied the Throne of France the Kingdom of Germany or as they then called it the East Kingdom of France was by the most free Consent of Germany given freely to Otho and after to Conrad the Nobility given to Otho the Saxon who excusing himself on the account of his Age by his Advice Conrad Duke of Franconia was by them chosen King of Germany who was as some think of the Line of Charles the Great By his Counsel also afterwards Henry the Falconer Son of Otho Duke of Saxony was by a free Election advanced to that Kingdom who being contented with Germany would not accept the Title of Emperor though the Pope offered it to him but Otho the Great his Son having subdued Italy so united Rome and The Empire of Rome united to the Kingdom of Germany for ever the Lands of the Church to Germany that from thenceforward he that had the Kingdom of Germany without any new Election should be Emperor of Rome the Crowning by the Pope being nothing but a Solemnity though before this Ceremony the Kings of Germany had not usually used the Title of Emperors The same form of Succession hereupon was used in Germany which
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
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
the Lands on the Rhine nearer one another and on the Rhine which is the most fruitful part of Germany they were possessed of the whole Country except what belongs to the Elector Palatine which as it interrupts that beautiful Chain of Church-Lands has I perswade my self been looked on by them with an evil Eye This their Neighbourhood has in the mean time contributed very much to the preserving them from the Reformation one of them assisting another to expel that dangerous Guest till the French at last by a just Judgment of God though a Catholick Nation as they call it came in to revenge their Contempt of the True Religion and has laid the far greatest part of these populous well built fruitful Countries in Ashes twice or thrice within the Memory of Man and now especially in the year now current 1689. But to return to our Author 11. Ecclesiastick States which are not The Ecclesiastick Electors come into the hands of the Protestant Princes are these The three Archbishopricks of Mentz Trier and Cologne which Mentz Trier and Cologne are three of the Electors and the Archbishopricks of Saltsburg and Besanzon in Burgundy for as for Magdeburg it is a meer Lay-Fee The inferiour Bishopricks are Bamberg Wurtzburg Worms Spires Aichstad Strasburg Constance Ausburg Hildisheim Paderborn The Bishops Freisingen Ratisbone Passaw Trent Brixen in Tirol Basil Liege Osnaburg Munster Curen in Curland The Master of the Teutonick Order has the first Seat amongst the Bishops And we must observe too that in our times there are sometimes two or more Bishopricks united in the same Person either because the Revenues of one single Diocess were not thought sufficient to maintain the Dignity and Splendor of a Prince's Court or that they might by that means be rendred more formidable to those that hated them The Bishoprick of Lubeck is very little better than a part of the Patrimony of the Duke of Holstein and all the Country has also embraced the Protestant Religion Amongst the Abbies which are called Prelates are these Fuld Mitered Abbots Kempten Elwang Murback Luders the Master of St. John Berchtelsgaden Weissenburg Pruym Stablo and Corwey the rest of the Prelates who are not Princes are divided The Prelates that are not Princes but vote in the Diet. into two Benches that of the Rhine and that of Schwaben or Suabia one of each of which has a Vote in the Diet and they are esteemed equal to the Counts or Earls of the Empire 12. The Estate of the Counts or Earls The Earls and Barons of the Empire and Barons of the Empire is also much more splendid and rich than that of men enjoying the same Dignities in other Kingdoms for they have almost the same Priviledges with the Princes and the ancient Earldoms had also large Territories belonging to them whereas in other Kingdoms a small Farm or Mannour shall dignifie its owner with that Title Yet the Division of the Estate amongst the Brothers has damnified many of the German Families and is only to be admitted in Plebeian Families for its Equity and Piety sake Some others have been equally ruined by the Carelesness and Luxury of their Ancestors and their prodigal Expences At this day the Earls have four Votes in the Diet one for Wetteraw Have 4 Votes another for Schwaben a third for Franconia and the fourth for Westphalia The Earls which are known to me are these Nassaw Oldenburg Furstemberg Hohenlohe Their Names Hanaw Sain Witgenstein Leiningen Solms Waldek Isenburg Stolberg Wied Mansfeld Reussen Ottingen Montfort Konigseck Fugger Sultz Cronberg Sintzendorf Wallenstein Papenheim Castell Lewenstein Erbach Limburg Schwartzenburg Bentheim Ostfrisland who is now made a Prince Khine and Walts Rantzow and perhaps many other whose Nobility is not to be prejudiced by my silence and as to those I have named I pretend no skill in the marshalling of them according to their proper Places There are also many Earls and Barons in the Hereditary Countries belonging to the Emperor who being of late Creation or subject to other States have no Place or Vote in the Diets of Germany and therefore are not to be mentioned here 13. There is also in Germany no small The Free Cities make a College in the Diet. number of Free Cities who are subject to no Prince or State but are immediately under the Emperor and the Empire and are therefore called Imperial Cities In the Diet they constitute a particular College which is divided into two Benches that of the Rhine and that of Schwaben The Principal of these are Norimberg Ausburg Cologne Lubeck Vlm Strasburg Frankford Ratisbone Aix la Chapelle or Aken Metz Worms Spire Colmar Memmingen Esling Hall in Schwaben Heilbron Lindaw Goslar Mulhausin North Hausin the rest have reason rather to pride themselves in their Liberty than in their Wealth In the former Ages the conjunction of two or three of these Cities together made a great Power and they were terrible to the Princes but now their Wealth is much reduced and we may probably enough conjecture they will one after another be all reduced under the Yoke of the Princes At least the Bishops threaten those very much in which their Cathedrals are There are also some potent Cities which preserve their Freedom though perhaps not very well grounded for the Dukes of Holstein pretend a Right over Hamburg which this Hamburg most wealthy City of all Germany will not submit to and it is thought the Strength of it and the Jealousie of the neighbouring Princes who envy the King of Denmark the possession of this fat Morsel will preserve it The King of Sweden has such Breme another Dispute with the City of Breme without which he can never secure that Dukedom and perhaps the Kings of Sweden have too much reason to suspect that City was admitted into the Diet in the year 1641 when they began to suspect those Princes would become Masters of this Dukedom on purpose to keep it out of their hands and deprive them of this convenience and security The City of Brunswick doth strangely weaken and disfigure Brunswick the Dukedoms of Brunswick and Lunenburg and by its Site interrupt their otherwise well compacted Territories And yet they will never suffer the Bishop of Hildisheim to take possession of that City Hildisheim The Elector of Brandenburg is not very favourable to the Cities in his Dominions and therefore it is not improbable the City of Magdeburg may suffer the loss of Magdeburg her Liberty after the death of Augustus of the House of Saxony They of Erford weary Erford of a doubtful Contest for their Liberty submitted and for their Folly and Cowardice were thought worthy to lose their Liberty Wise men wonder also that the Dukes of Saxony have not seized the Citadel of Thuring and I suppose by this time the Hollanders are made sufficiently sensible they ought to have defended the Inhabitans of Munster against
I suppose the reason was because the Chapters would scarce have submitted patiently to a Bishop so obtruded on them though it was practis'd frequently in other Countries 7. The Bishops of Germany are indebted The Bishopricks of Germany endowed by the Emperors to the Liberality of the first Emperors for all those Provinces and great Revenues they now enjoy a fervent Piety and Zeal in those times ruling in the minds of Princes because they thought the more they gave to the Church the more they united themselves to God Which Opinion is much abated in our times because many now how truly I know not have taken up another contrary to it viz That over great Wealth bestowed on Church men tends rather to the extinguishing than nourishing of Piety and Religion The Church-men also of those early times seem to have had the Grace of asking without fear whatever might seem convenient for the allaying the Hardships of their Profession Thus the Bishops and Churches obtained of these good Princes not only Farms Tithes and Rents but also whole Lordships Counties Dukedoms with all the Regalia's or Royalties annexed to them so that they became equal in all things to the Temporal Princes But then in truth they obtained the Degree of Princes but in the times of the Otho's and those that followed and they got not the Regalia all at once but by little and little some at one time and some at another And from thence it comes that some of the Bishops have not yet got them all and others have them under the restraint of certain Limitations There were two other things contributed very much to the accuring all these great Riches and Honours for the Church 1. That many of the Nobility in those times took Orders and became Church-men and 2. That all the little Learning those barbarous Ages had was in the Clergy This occasion'd the calling the Bishops to Court to give their Advice and the employing them as Judges and Governours in the Provinces because these things cannot be well perform'd without some Learning And this was the true reason why the Office of Chancellor was at first annexed to the principal Bishops Sees I do also believe that the Riches of the Church were very much improved by many Princes and Noblemen who resigned their Estates or a part of them to the Bishops and took them again as Fees from them that they might so oblige them to take the more care in recommending them and their Salvation to God in their Prayers and as their Families afterwards were extinguished their Estates were united to the Bishopricks Who knows not also what vast Additions have been since made by the Wills of Dying Men when a Nation that is naturally afraid of Heat and Thirst saw they must buy off the Roasting in Purgatory by that means which they feared above all men 8. The Church-men might have been When they became very rich they would not be subject to their Benefactors well contented with their Condition in Germany though they had neither abjured Ambition nor Avarice But then as they of all men are desirous to have others under them so they could least endure to see others above them and therefore thought this was still wanting to perfect their Happiness in this World because they were still forced to receive all they had from the Emperor and consequently were forced to live in a dependence on him If the Reverence I owe that most Sacred Order of Men did not restrain me I should say they were the worst of men who as the event shews abused the Imprudent Liberality of the Emperors to the Ruin of that Majesty and Power that had raised and enriched dignified and ennobled them Certainly he is not worthy of Liberty who is not willing to own his Manumissor for his Patron and Master That therefore this Tribe of Levites might wholly free themselves from the Subjection of the Laicks the German Bishops strenuously solicited the Pope to send abroad his Vatican Thunders and raised plenty of Commotions in the Empire to second them by both which they at last gained their Point For the Archbishop of Mentz led the way and the rest of the Flock followed him faithfully and would never suffer their Prince to have any rest till he would permit them to depend on no body but the Pope This as many think brought a signal Mischief on the German State viz. The having so many of its Members acknowledge a Foreign Head unless we can think the Pope was so fondly in love with Germany that he desired nothing more than its Preservation and that they at Rome knew better what was for the Good of Germany than the very Germans themselves did 9. It remains now that we say something of the Free Cities Germany till the Of the Free Cities V. Century after Christ had nothing but Villages without Walls or dispersed Houses in all that part of it which lies to the East and North of the Rhine Even in the IX Century there is only mention made of a City or two in that part which borders on the State of Venice But then there were many Cities built by the Romans much more earlily in that part which lies on the French side of the Rhine of which the Romans were possess'd as also between the Danube and the Alps which belonged then to them but was afterwards a part of Germany The reason why in those ancient Why the Germans of old had no Cities Times they had no Cities was first because the old Germans had no skill in Architecture which Ignorance still appears in many places of this Country and secondly The Fierceness of the Nation which made them averse to these kinds of Habitations as a fort of Prisons and also thirdly Because the Nobility placed their greatest Pleasure in Hunting and therefore neither knew nor much valued the Conveniencies of having Cities and great Towns Their Dyet then was very mean their Furniture and Clothes cheap and they neither knew nor regarded the Superfluous Effects of Wealth or Luxury but after their Minds were civiliz'd and softned by Christianity they began by degrees to affect the elegant way of living the love of Riches and a studied Luxury followed and was brought in from abroad both which are nourished by great Cities The Princes also having amass'd great Riches took a Pride in building Cities and invited the Rusticks of Germany and the Inhabitants of other Nations to settle in them by the Grant of large Priviledges especially after the Christian Religion had abolished Villenage or Slavery and the Liberti or Freemen had no Lands to subsist on they flew by Flocks to the Cities and betook themselves to Manufactures and Trading The Irruption of the Hungarians forced Henry the Falconer to build many Cities and strong Holds in Saxony and he made every ninth man be drawn out of the Country to inhabit them The Leagues afterwards between the Cities for their mutual Defence and
they are necessary care should be taken to expedite the Affairs depending which now move too slowly and occasion vast expence both of Time and Money which might be saved There are some that are jealous that these affected Delays and Charges are a State-Mystery by which the Emperor hopes in time to tire out the States and make them abhor Diets which were otherwise the most effectual means to secure the German Liberty The Golden Bull has ordained That the first Diet of every Emperor's Reign should be at Norimberg which yet is not scrupulously observed now for in these Capitulars there is only care taken that it shall be held in a convenient place within the Empire as shall be agreed with the Electors Of a long time some one of the Free Imperial Cities has been appointed for that purpose the reason of which is not so much in the dark and I suppose the Princes would scarce meet if the Emperor should appoint Vienna 25. All the Members of the States are All the Members are to be summoned to the Diet. without exception to be called to the Diet and amongst the Ecclesiasticks those that are not yet confirmed by the Pope and before they have obtained their Palls and in the vacancy of any See the Chapter is to be called And whereas the Protestant Possessors of Bishopricks before the Treaty of Westphalia were not admitted to the Diet they in it obtained the Assignment of a peculiar Place As to those Secular Princes that are minors their Guardians appear for them and they that are of full age are to be admitted before they have asked or obtained their Investiture This is true though in the Diet of Ratisbonne in the year 1608. John Frederick Duke of Wurtemburg was excepted against on that account If in any Family the Right of Primogeniture prevails and is received only the Eldest is called Those that have divided their Inheritance are called by Families in general but they have all but one voice But those that have obtained the Investiture of their Share or Portion from the Emperor are personally called They that are called to the Diet must appear in person or if this is inconvenient by their Legates or Proxies sufficiently instructed Those that neglect to appear are nevertheless concluded by the majority of those that do appear By a peculiar Priviledge the King of Bohemia is not bound to appear in the Diet if it is not held at Norimberg or Bamberg The House of Austria and the Duke of Burgundy are at Liberty to appear or not as they please It is not worth our while to sum up the vain useless Rites and Ceremonies 26. The things that are to be debated The things to be debated are proposed by the Emperor or his Commissioner and settled in the Diet are proposed by the Emperor or his Commissioner then they proceed to the Debate where the first Question is Whether they shall proceed in the order the things are proposed to consider and determin them or whether they shall postpone some of them undecided and pass forward to the rest of the things proposed Here the States pretend they are not religiously bound to observe the Method of the Proposals but the Imperial Party who can easily fore see what the States drive at have ever stifly pretended the Method of the Proposals is to be followed that the Emperor's Concerns have ever been wont to lead the Van and those of the States to follow in the next place If therefore the States will do their own Business they must of necessity gratifie the Emperor but then it has been observed that when he has gained his own point he is seldom much concerned for those things that the States would have When they come to debate they are divided into three Colledges Houses or Chambers the Electors the Princes and the Frée Cities which Division is thought to have been first made in the year 1589 in the Diet at Frankford In the first of these the Bishop of Mentz is the Director Speaker in the second the House of Austria and the Bishop of Saltzburg by turns and in the third that City in which the Diet is held The Princes vote man by man the Counts and Bishops by Benches The greater part obligeth the lesser except in the Affairs of Religion in which the States are not considered as one Body but as Parties in opposition each to other Whether the same thing ought to be admitted in the matter of Taxes or granting Money is a Question not yet decided See the Treaty of Westphalia Art 5. n. 19. I should think this might easily be expedited by a Distinction viz. Whether the Grant tends to the Safety and Security of the whole Body of Germany or is only granted and designed for the Benefit of the Emperor No good German would decline contributing to the first and as to the latter it is fit every one should be left to his own liberty to determin as he shall think fit Their way of Proceeding is this What is approved by the College of Electors is communicated to the College of Princes this latter returns to the former their Sentiments of it which is called a Reference or Conference and so it is transacted pro and con between these two till they agree then they two join and communicate their agreed Resolves to the thrid College or Cities and if they consent too then the unanimous Resolves of the whole Bodies of the State are communicated to the Emperor or his Commissioner and when he has approved of it that Affair is settled If the three Colleges cannot agree their differing Votes are proposed to the Emperor who in a friendly way as an Arbitrator and not in a commanding way as a Master or Prince endeavoureth to reconcile them In like manner if his Judgment is not the same with that of the States it is friendly and fairly argued between them till he is of their mind or they of his After this at the breaking up Recess of the States there is a Solemn Form containing the things agreed between the Emperor and the States in the manner of a Contract As to the College of Cities it is to be observed that though in the Treaty of Peace Art 8. sect 4. the deciding Vote is assigned to it whereas before others contended that they were only to be admitted to the Debates to offer their Reasons yet even now they communicate nothing to this Member of the States but what is agreed by the two other Colleges but then neither can those two Colleges exact Obedience or force this third to comply with them against their wills as a major part but where the third College disagreeth from the other two the thing in dispute is referr'd to the Emperor till a way is found to adjust it and what cannot at last be agreed is wont to be referred to another Diet. What is agreed by the whole Diet is by the Bishop of Mentz who is
to whose Sister he afterwards married the Dauphin his Son to fix him for ever to France but all would not do that Prince has since seen his true Interest as all the German Princes too by this time do and now France finding the wheeling way will never do has taken the way of Rage and Conquest having disobliged the whole World and what the event will be is in the Hand of God 7. This bulky and formidable Body which is thus united in the common Appellation Germany weak by reason of its irregular Constitution of the German Empire and if it were reduced under the Laws of a regular Monarchy would be formidable to all Europe is yet by reason of its own Internal Diseases and Convulsions so weakened that it is scarce able to defend it self Nay it is certain if it were not powerfully assisted by its Neighbours it is not able to defend it self against the French The principal Cause of this Impuissance and Weakness is its irregular and ill-compacted Constitution or Frame of Government The most numerous multitude of men is not stronger than one single man as long as every man acts singly by himself and for himself all its extraordinary Strength is from its Union and Conjunction And as it is not possible that many should join in one natural Body so they may certainly be united into one Force whilst they are governed by one Council as a common Soul By how much the closer and more regular this Union is so much the stronger this Society or Body is But on the contrary Weakness and Diseases ever follow upon a loose Conjunction and an ill-combined and irregular Union A well composed Kingdom or Monarchy is Monarchy the best and most lasting Government certainly the most perfect Union and the best fitted for duration or continuance for as for Aristocrasies besides that they can scarce ever conveniently subsist except when the force of a Commonwealth is collected into one single City yet even then in their own nature they are much weaker than Monarchies for the serene Commonwealth of Venice is to be reputed amongst the Miracles of the World A System of many Cities united by a League is much more loose in its conjunction and may more easily be dissolved which is the Case of the States of Holland And Wherein the Strength of a System of States consisteth here that there may be some strength in these kinds of Systems it is in the first place necessary that the Associated Cities or States have the same form of Government and be not overmuch disproportioned in their Strength and that the same or equal Advantages may from the Union arise to every one of them And lastly It is necessary in this case that they have come together upon well weighed and great Reasons and associated upon well-considered Laws or Conditions for they that unite in a Society rashly and as it were in a hurry without bethinking themselves very seriously what their future state shall be can no more form a regular well compacted Society than a Taylor can make a beautiful Garment after he has cut his Cloth all into Shreds and small Pieces before he has resolved whether he will form it into a Man's or a Woman's Garment And it has long since been observed that Monarchs very rarely enter into a sincere friendship with * The Leagues between Kings and Common-wealths seldome lasting Commonwealths or Free Cities though it be for a short time And it is yet much more difficult to make a perpetual or lasting League because all Princes hate Popular Liberty and the People or Popular States do equally detest the Pride or Grandeur of Kings And such is the Perverseness of Humane Nature that no man doth willingly see one inferiour to himself in point of Power live by him in an equal degree of Liberty and Men very unwillingly contribute to the Common Charges if they reap nothing or but a very little Advantage from the Common Profit 8. Now the State of Germany is so The Diseaseâ— of Germany much the more deplorable because all the Diseases of an ill-formed Kingdom and of an ill digested System of States are conjunctly to be found in it nay it is to be reckon'd as the principal Calamity of Germany that it is neither a Kingdom nor a System of States The outward Appearance and vain Images represent the Emperor as a King and the States as Subjects and in the most ancient times he was without doubt a King as he was call'd after this the Authority of the Emperor was from time to time diminished and the Liberties and Riches of the States were encreased till at last the Emperor had nothing but a shadow of the Kingly Power as at this day it is and seems liker the General of an Association than a King From hence proceeds a most pernicious Convulsion in the Body of the Empire whilst the Emperor and the States draw counter each to the other for he with might and main by all waies endeavoureth to regain the old Regal Power The Princes and the Emperor distrust each other and they on the other side are as solicitous to preserve the Liberties and Wealth they have got the possession of from whence there must necessarily follow Suspicious Distrust and underhand Contrivances to hinder each others Designs and break each others Power The first effect of this is the rendering this otherwise strong and formidable Body unfit to invade others or to make any Additions to its own bulk by Conquest because the States are not willing that any thing should be added to the Emperor's Dominions and yet it is not possible to distribute it equally amongst them And there are The States embroiled one with another very many distracting Differences between the States themselves on divers accounts and this makes them less happy than a well united System of States might be The States are under different forms of Government some of them being Princes and the rest Free Cities and these are intermixed one with another The Free Cities drive for the most part a considerable Trade and their Wealth excites the Envy of the Princes but especially when a great part of their Trade and Wealth ariseth from any of the Princes Dominions Nor can it be denied but that some Cities like the Spleen have swell'd too much to the damage of their Neighbour Princes their Subjects being drained away and their States impoverish'd to augment the Cities The Nobility are apt to despise the common People and they are as prone to value themselves on the account of their Money and to undervalue the Nobilities old Titles and exhausted Dominions Lastly Some of the Princes look on these Cities as a reproach to their Government and think their own Subjects would live more contentedly under their Command if these Instances of Popular Liberty were removed and all occasions of comparing their own Condition with that of their Neighbours in these
Palace or Provincial Court and to this Superiour Court there lies an Appeal from the Scabin But then the most part of the Free Cities have only one Court from which there is no Appeal The Chamber of Spire and the Emperor's Palace-Court are common to the whole Empire but then some of the Princes have a Priviledge which restrains their Subjects from appealing to either of these Courts of this number are the Electors Yet there In Civil Cases there is no Appeal from the Electors Emperor and King of Sweden are some who question whether this Priviledge belongs to the Ecclesiastical Electors only because they do not exercise it The House of Austria and the King of Sweden enjoy the same Exemption for all his German Territories Westphaliae Art cap. 10. sect 12. This last Prince has erected a Court at Wismar for the determining all those Appeals which before belonged to the Chambers of Spire and Vienna Add. Capitul Leopold Artic. 28 27. but then all the Princes of the Empire are equal in this that there lies no Appeal except the thing in dispute exceed such a value which yet in some places is more and in others less In Criminal Cases not only the Princes of the Empire but many of In Criminal Cases there lies no Appeal the Burroughs or Corporate Towns and many of the Nobility exercise a Soveraign Jurisdiction without any Appeal 19. But then if there be any Controversie How the Controversies of the States or Princes are determined between the States or Princes the greatest part of them in the first instance have their resort to the Austraega's or Arbitrators Of these some are appointed in a peculiar Convention of the States and others depend upon the common disposition of the Laws The first Institution of this Judicature is very obscure but their Opinion seems most probable who date its Rise about the times of Frederick II. and ascribe it to that long Interregnum This Interregnum began in the year 1198 when Philip Brother of Henry VI. was chosen by one Faction and Otho Duke of Saxony Son of Henry the Lyon and Maud of England by another from henceforth there was nothing but War and Misery till in the year 1212. Frederick II. Son of Henry VI. was after many other chosen who yet could not obtain the peaceable Possession till the year 1219. so that it lasted about 21 years But to return It is certain Maximilian the First was not the Author of this Court though he gave it a new form which is extant in the Ordination of the Chamber in 1495. made at Worms Of the various forms of Austraega's there mention'd there are only two now in use as 1. The Defendant names Three Princes of the Empire out of which the Plaintiff chuseth one Or 2. They obtain by consent of the Emperor one or more Commissioners But then there are some Cases which ought not to be brought before the Austraega but immediately before the Chambers of Spire or Vienna which may be found in many very common Books Now there are these Inconveniences alwaies attending the Judgments given by the Austraega's 1. That there lies an Appeal to the Chambers so that very few Controversies are determined by them 2. That great Sums of Money are spent in treating and sweetening the Emperor's Commissioners 3. There is a Sequestration of a years continuance of the Profits of the thing in dispute which time is allowed to the Austraega's to give in their Award because it is thought an indecent thing to determine a Suit of moment in less time in Germany 20. The highest Court in Germany is the The highest Courts in Germany are the Chambers of Spire and Vienna Chamber which was lately fixed at Spire which was instituted by the Diet of Germany under Maximilian I. in 1495. And after many Removes fixed at Spire in the year 1530 by the Diet of Ausburg under Charles V. where it remained till this year 1689. Now though this Court useth the Name of the Emperor only in all its Processes yet it doth not depend on the Emperor only but acts in the behalf and by the Authority of the States of Germany The Emperor names the President who must be a Prince of the Empire or at least a Count or Baron By the Treaty of Osnabruck it was agreed that under this prime President there should be four other inferiour Presidents to be nominated by the Emperor and at least fifty Assessors Judges or Companions with them Twenty six of which should be of the Roman Catholick Religion and Twenty four of the Protestant to take from the later all just cause of complaint that their Cases were not favourably heard and determined Yet at this day there is rarely half this number the Princes that should nominate and pay them being very slow in both respects they being much offended with the Imperious Commands of this Court though they rarely go further than words He that is desirous to know the exact form of their Proceedings must read the Order of the Chamber inserted into the Recess of the Diet in 1495. It is a common Proverb That the Suits at Spire are drawing on but never die Spirant non expirant This is owing to the litigious forms and delays or perplexities in the Processes and the number of the Cases depending before too small a number of Judges to dispatch them But yet after all the great Reason is the Difficulty of executing the Sentence for the Princes that have great Estates do very little regard what the Judges at Spire say And they again have so much wit that they will not hazard the small remainder of their Authority by giving Judgment how justly soever against a Prince of that Power that he will despise both them and their Sentence But then in this Court as in others if they catch a small Fly they will be sure to hamper him In the year 1654 in a Diet there were many Rules or Provisions made for the supplying the Defects of this Chamber There lies no Appeal from it but if any man is aggrieved he may desire a Revision which yet to my knowledge was never sought or never granted 21. There is also in the Emperor's Palace The Chamber of Vienna when first instituted another Court which pretends to the same Authority with that of Spire which is above call'd for distinction the Chamber of Vienna They both say that a Suit begun at Spire cannot be withdrawn and removed to Vienna and so on the contrary Ferdinand the Emperor in the year 1549 first opened this and published the Rules or Laws by which it was to proceed Maximilian II. encreased them but Mathias in the year 1614 renewed it and Ferdinand III. changed some of the Rules in the Diet in the year 1654. See the Treaty of Peace Art 5. Sect. 20. Artic. 41 42 43. Capitul Leopold This Court depends solely on the Emperor though the Judges of it are bound to the