reach only to the Baltick Sea and even here the King of Denmark has deprived it of a considerable part of the Promontory of Jutland which he claims as a part of his Kingdom tho' it lieth on this side of the Sound or Mouth of the Baltick Sea But then by way of Reprisals she has enlarged her Borders to the The present Bounds South-East beyond the Danube to the Borders of Italy and Illyrica and beyond the Rhine to the West and North she has gained both the Alsatia's Lorrain and the 17 united Provinces which last were formerly called Gallia Belgica 2. This vast Tract of Land was in The ancient State of it those early times possessed by various Peoples and Nations who were much celebrated on the account of their numbers and valour yet each of them was under a distinct Regiment very different from that used by their Neighbours but then they had one common Original and the same Language and there was a great similitude in their Manners The greatest part of them were under popular Governments some had Kings but that were rather to perswade their Subjects by their Authority than to command them by the Soveraign Power for that Nation was never able to brook an Absolute Servitude This Ancient Germany was never reduced into one Empire or Kingdom wherein it was like the rest of her Neighbours Italy France Spain Greece and Britain before they were conquered by the Romans But then as Germany never was reduced by a Conquest so it retained more lively traces and marks of the Primitive State of Mankind which from separate and distinct Families by degrees united into larger Bodies or Kingdoms But then tho' The old German state dangerous weak this Independent Knot of States and small Kingdoms by reason of its freedom was very grateful to the Germans of those times yet it was absolutely necessary they should frequently be engaged in mutual and destructive Wars when they were so many and so small This again exposed them to the Invasions of their neighbour Nations though they were a warlike People because their scattered Forces were not united in one Empire for their defence Neither had the greatest part of these small States so much Politicks as in due time to unite in Leagues against the dangers of their potent Enemies but they perceived the Benefit of such a Concord when it was too late and they by fighting separately for their Liberty were one after another all conquered 3. The first that reduced Germany The Franks the first Conquerors of Germany of an unknown extraction from that ancient state were the Franks which Nation is of so controverted an Origine that it is not easie to determine whether it were of Gallick or of German extraction For tho' we should grant that all those Nations which the Greeks comprehended under the title of Celtae that is the Illyrians Germans Gauls Old Spaniards and Britains did as it were flow from the same Fountain yet it is very notorious they afterwards much differed each from the others in Language and Manners so that no man that is any thing versed in Antiquity can in the least doubt of it The foolish Pride of some of the Gauls occasioned this difference who being ignorant that many of the Gallick People in the first Ages had ambitiously boasted they were of Gâ—rman extraction did in the later times envy Germany the honour of having been the Mother of the Franks These men pretend that great multitudes of men out of Gaule invaded Germany in ancient but unknown times and passing beyond the Rhine possessed themselves of all the Countries upon the River Mayn to the Hercynian Forest and that after this they returned and conquering the Parts on the West of the Rhine recovered the possession of their ancient Country but so that a part of their Nation still inhabited on the Mayn and left their Name to that Country For the confirmation of this Opinion they cite Livy lib. 5. c. 134. Câ—sar de bello Gallico lib. 6. Tacitus de moribus â—ermanorum c. 28. 4 But to all this the Germans may The Franks were a Germ. People truly reply That the Testimony of these Latin Writers is not without just exceptions because they testifie very faintly of a thing which hapned long before their times and concerning a People too whose Antiquities were not preserved in any written Records Nor is it at all probable when the 1 Trebocci Alsatia the chief Towns of which were Breuco-magus Bruomat and Elcebus Schelstat Trebocci 2 Nemetes the Inhabitants of the Bishoprick of Speyr Nemetes 3 Vangiones the Inhabitants of Worms and Strasburg Vangiones 4 Treveri the Inhabitants of the Archbishoprick of Triers Treveri and some other People who in those times lived on the West side of the Rhine and yet owned themselves to be of German extraction That the Franks should on the contrary pass the Rhine and out of Gaul make a Conquest in Germany And yet after all though we should grant that the Franks were at first a Gallick Colony yet seeing they lived about 800 years in Germany and both in their Language and Customs differed from the Gauls and in both these agreed exactly with the Germans they are for that cause to be reckon'd amongst the German Nations This is certain in the mean time that till about CCC Years after Christ there is scarce any mention of the Franks made in any ancient History From hence there arose two very different Opinions whilst some believe those People who are by Tacitus call'd the 5 The Chauci were the Inhabitants of East-Friesland Groeningen Breme Lunenburg and Hamburg as they are placed by Ptolemy Chauci changed that name in after times and call'd themselves the Franks and others think that a number of German People or some parts of them united in this name and out of a vain affectation of Liberty took up the name of Franks for in the German Tongue Frank signifies free And to this purpose they produce the Testimonies of Francis I and Henry II Kings of France who in their Letters to the Diet of Germany say they are of German Extraction Tho' it is very well known at the same time to all wise men to what purposes such ancient and overworn Relations of Kindred are for the most part pretended 5. But however this be the Franks The Franks conquer Gaul now France and after it Germany for certain first passed the Rhine upon the Vbii or Inhabitants of the Archbishoprick of Cologne and after they had conquered the far greatest part of Gaul now call'd France turning as it were the course of their victorious Arms back again they conquered the greatest part of Germany and subdued all the Countries between the Mayn and the Danube and went Northward as far as Thuringia After this Charles the Great extended his Conquests much further by subduing the Saxons and Tassilon King of the Bavarians so
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
Yet they seem more ancient than Frederick II. 5. The Priviledges of the Electors 6. The manner of the Election 7. The Electors have deposed an Emperor 8. The Electors have some other special Priviledges 9. What is done during the Interregnum 10. Of the King of the Romans CHAP. V. Of the Power of the Emperor as it now stands limited by Treaties Laws and the Customs of the Empire and the Rights of the States of the Empire p. 82. 1. Of the Limits of the Imperial Power 2. These Conditions are prescribed only by the Electors 3. The usefulness of the German Capitular 4. The extravagant Opinions of some German Writers concerning the Capitular 5. The Emperor doth not appoint or punish the Magistrates in the Empire out of his Hereditary Countries 6. Nor can he deprive any of the Princes of their Dignity or Dominions 7. He has no Revenues 8. Nor is he the Arbitrator of Peace or War nor of Leagues and Alliances 9. Nor the general Governour of Religion An account of Martin Luther 10. Many of the German Princes deserted the See of Rome The Decree of Ausburg for the Liberty of Religion 11. The Liberty of the Clergy more fiercely disputed 12. The Differences of Religion cause great Disquiet in Germany The Peace of Religion finally settled 13. The Legislative Power not in the Emperor The Canon Law first introduced The ancient German Customs The Civil Law brought into use in the Fifteenth Century That at present in use is a mixture of all these three Particular or Local Laws made by the States and the general Laws in the Diet. 14. The Form of the German Jurisdiction in several Ages 15. The old Forms changed 16. The Innovation brought in by Churchmen 17. How the Secular Cases are managed The Chamber of Spire erected for Appeals 18. The present form of Process In Civil Cases there lies no Appeal from the Emperor Electors or King of Sweden in their respective Territories nor from the rest in Criminal Cases 19. How the Controversies of the States and Princes amongst themselves are determined 20. The highest Courts in the Empire are the Chambers of Spire and Vienna 21. When this last was instituted 22. The form of executing the Judgments of these Courts 23. That the greater Cases ought to be determined by the Diet. 24. In ancient times the Diets were held every year 25. All the Members are to be summoned to the Diet. 26. The things to be debated there are proposed by the Emperor or his Commissioner 27. The Emperor has some Prerogatives above any other of the Princes 28. The Priviledges of the Princes and Free States CHAP. VI. Of the Form of the German Empire p. 135. 1. Of the Form of the German Empire 2. All the Hereditary States and some of the Elective are Monarchies The Free Cities are Commonwealths 3. The form of the whole Body is neither of these but an Irregular System 4. Yet many pretend the Empire is an Aristocrasie 5. This disproved 6. It is not a regular Monarchy 7. That it is not so much as a limited Monarchy Hippolithus à Lapide considered 8. The Arguments of those that pretend it is a Limited Monarchy answered 9. That it is an irregular System of Soveraign States CHAP. VII Of the Strength and Diseases of the German Empire p. 155. 1. The Subjects of Humane Force Men and Things Husbandmen most wanted A vast Army may be easily levied in the Empire An account of the number of the Cities Towns and Villages in Germany The Inhabitants as warlike as numerous steddy and constant in their Humour 2. In the point of strength the Country first to be considered 3. That it is well stored with what will carry on a Trade its principal Commodities yet Germany wants Money 4. The Strength of the Empire compared with the Turks to whom a fourth part is equal 5. With Italy Denmark England Holland Spain Sweden and France 6. The Strength of Germany compared with its Neighbours united against her 7. Germany weak by reason of its irregular Form or Constitution Monarchy the best and most lasting Government wherein the Strength of a System of States consists the Leagues between Kings and Commonwealths seldom lasting 8. The Diseases of Germany The Princes and the Emperor distrust each other and the States are embroiled one with another 9. The Differences of Religion cause great Disturbances The Princes of Germany enter into Foreign and Domestick Leagues The want of Justice and of a common Treasure The Emulations and Contests between the Princes and States of Germany CHAP. VIII Of the German State-Interest p. 186. 1. The Remedies of these Diseases enquired into 2. The Remedies prescribed by Hippolitus à Lapide 3. His Six Rules Six Remedies 4. The Author 's own Remedies proposed The German State nearest to a System of States The Empire cannot be transferr'd to another Family 5. The Opinions of some great men concerning the different Religions in Germany 6. Contemt and Loss exasperate men greatly 7. The Tempers of the Lutherans and Calvinists of Germany and their Differences with each other 8. The Temper of the Roman Catholicks The Reason of inventing the Jesuite's Order 9. Some Considerations on the excessive Revenues of the Church in the Popish States Our Author pretends to be a Venetian 10. The Protestant Princes are well able to justifie what they have done with relation to the Revenues of the Church The Conclusion THE PRESENT STATE OF THE German Empire CHAP. I. Of the Origine of the German Empire GERMANY of old was bounded The ancient Bounds of Germany to the East by the Danube to the West by the Rhine towards Poland it had then the same bounds it has now and all the other parts were washed by the Ocean so that then under this Name Denmark Norway and Sweden were included with all the Countries to the Botner Sea which three Kingdoms were by most of the ancient Writers call'd by the name of Scandinavia But then I think the Countries on the East of that Bay were not rightly ascribed to or included in the bounds of the ancient Germany for the present Finlanders have a Tongue so different from that spoken by the Swedes and other Germans as clearly shews that Nation to be of another extraction To this I may add that what Tacitus writes of the Manners of the most Northern Germans will not all agree with the Customs of the Finlanders but is wonderfully agreeable to those of the Laplanders who to this day live much after the same manner It is probable therefore that the Finni mentioned by the Ancients were the Estoitlanders in Livonia Nor is it any wonder that Tacitus should not write very distinctly of this People they being then the most Northern Nation that was ever heard of and known only by an obscure Fame or general Report These Northern Countries have however for many Ages been under distinct Kings of their own so that Germany has been taken to
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
the Charges of the Empire for he well considered that all was to be spent on the Turkish War and the Preservation of the Austrian Dominions and when the Accounts of the Moneys expended in the Turkish War were to be in the hands of the Princes of this Austrian Familys the Low Countries were not likely to be overcharged nor to be very ill treated if they proved slow in the payment So that it was easie to observe That Charles V. by this Promise only encouraged the Germans to spend their Treasures the more freely in the defence of his Territories when they saw him so freely consent to bring his own Patrimony under the same Burthen tho' perhaps there might be another reason too at the bottom of it viz. That whereas his Son Philip then aspired to the Empire it might not be objected against him that he had no Dominions in the Empire those belonging before to the House of Austria being then assigned to his Brother Ferdinand Or perhaps that the Germans might think themselves the more obliged to defend these Provinces if they were at any time invaded by the French King At this time that Line is reduced The Males of this House to two Males Leopald Emperor of Germany who has since our Author wrote had a Son named Joseph and Charles King of Spain who has no Issue I have heard many of the Germans wish this Prince a numerous Male Posterity out of meer fear that the failing of the Line in this Family may cause dreadful Convulsions in Europe 5 The Family of the Counts Palatine of the The Counts Palatine of the Rhine and the Dukes of Bavaria Rhine and of the Dukes of Bavaria are as to Antiquity equal to the best and it enjoys a vast Tract of Land which extends from the Alps to the River Moselle and two Dukedoms in the Borders of the Low Countries It is divided into two Lines the Rudolfian and William one of these is possess'd of the Dukedom of Bavaria Bavaria and has ever been thought very Rich and in the last tedious Civil War it got also the Electoral Dignity from the Palatinate Family and for almost an hundred years it has possessed the Electorate of Cologne Prince Clement who was lately chosen being likely still to continue it in this Family tho' powerfully opposed by the King of France his Predecessor also possess'd the Bishopricks of Liege and Hildisheim The Rudolfian The Palatine Family Line is divided into many Branches the Principal of which is the Elector Palatine and it enjoys the Lower Palatinate on the Rhine a Country which for its strength pleasantness and fertility was equal to the best parts of Germany before the French with Fire and Sword barbarously laid it desolate not only demolishing but burning down to the Ground the greatest part of its Towns Cities Palaces and Churches The Count Palatine of Newburg The House of Newburg possess'd heretofore the Dukedoms of Juliers and Montz and some Dominions on the Danube and in the year 1685. Charles Lewis the last Elector dying without Issue Philip William of the House of Newburg succeeded in the Electorate too which in the year 1688. he resigned to his Son John William being grown very old and sorely oppressed by the French Besides these The other Branches of this House there are the Palatines of Sultzback Simmeren Deuxpont or Zuibrucken as the Germans call it Birkenfield and Lawtreck The Family of Deuxpont produced Charles Gustavus King of Sweden who The King of Sweden of this Family His Dominions in Germany now reigns in that Kingdom who by the Peace of Osnaburg has obtained in Germany the Dukedoms of Breme Ferden and the upper Pomerania together with Stetin the Principality of Rugen and the Barony of Wismar This Family enjoys now also Princes of great worth and virtue for as the Bavarian Line are celebrated for their great Piety so the Electoral Family have been much esteemed for their Prudence which character will belong equally to the House of Newburg the last of this Family was on that account thought worthy of the Crown of Poland tho' he was no way related to the Families that had worn it And Prince Rupert a Branch of the elder House of the Palatinate who died in England was a Person of great Valour and Worth and famous over all Christendom for the Wars he had managed by Sea and Land 6. The Dukes of Saxony possess almost the The House of Saxony middle parts of Germany to whom belongs Misnia Thuring and a small Country on the Elbe called the Vpper Saxony Lusatia and in Franconia the Dukedoms of Coburg and the Earldom of Henneburg a Country celebrated in some parts for its Fertility and in others for its Mines This Family is divided in to two Branches viz. Albert and Ernest the last of these is in possession of the Electorate and the second Son is to be Bishop of Magdeburg of the first are the Dukes of Altenburg Gotham and 4 Brothers of the Family of Wimar and a numerous Posterity besides 7. Next these are the Marquesses of Brandenburg The House of Brandenburg the Head of which Family is one of the Electors who has large Dominions in Germany besides Prussia which is placed now out of the Empire which also he lately obtained from the Crown of Poland he has Mark the further Pomerania gained from the Swedes tho' it belonged to him by Inheritance upon the death of the last Duke without Issue Halberstad Minden and Camin three Bishopricks given him as an Equivalent for the hither Pomerania and he was also to have that of Magdeburg after the death of Augustus the present Possessor of the House of Saxony These Dominions are large and fruitful yet some believe he would have chosen the two Pomerania's entire before all the rest I remember when I was in my return from Germany being at an Entertainment at Padoua in which were present some Italian and French Marquesses I had an occasion to say the Marquess of Brandenburg could travel 200 German miles in his own Dominions without lying one night in any other Prince's Country though in some places it was indeed interrupted whereupon many that were present began to suspect I was guilty of the common fault of Travellers and my Faith was much questioned but that an old Souldier who was present and had served long in Germany and had been one of my Acquaintance in that Prince's Court delivered me from their Suspicions They could not but blush thereupon when they considered that some prided themselves in this Title in Italy and France who were scarcely Masters of Two Hundred Acres of Land So little did they understand that our German Marggraves are more considerable than their Marquesses There is another Branch of this Family in Franconia who if I am not mistaken possess the old Inheritance of the Burggraves of Norimburg and are divided into two Lines that of Culemback and that of
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
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