which they might more easily pervert to their own Arbitrary Interest and advantage If it have but the name or resemblance the people look no farther they see not into the trick and secrets of it they are led by the appearance so long till they are past recovery and no way is left them for a retreat And indeed the Emperors of the last Age ceased to deal bonâ fide the old German honesty wore out of fashion And they no longer treated on the square with their people Artifice and juggle came in place and in the days of Charles the Fifth began to get a specious appellation and be named forsooth Reason of State But more especially since the Jesuits there have refined upon the Court-sophistry and minc'd away all the old remains of Morality and Conscience for the Jesuits could the worst of all other endure these same mixt Governments They would have the Pyramid inverted and the whole stress of things rest upon one single leg that their art might play the more freely and they the more cleverly trip it down This broad-bottom'd Monarchy and Government founded on the people puts them to other measures a dose of poyson or consecrated dagger will not do the work They must here go about and about make slow approaches ripen a Plot of many years and draw a long concatenation of Intrigue ere they can think to compass their design When the Commonwealth has but one neck the Jesuit will have it under his girdle if not one blow does the feat and his dexterity is admirable Therefore in Germany the Jesuits have left no stone unturned for their part to bring all the Soveraign power from the States to the Emperor And to that end of late times the Emperor whether by their influence upon his Councels or no is not our enquiry has employed all the undue practises and set all engines a-work to render the publick Assembly useless burthensome and odious to the people On this foot care has been taken that some vexatious Tax should be the only result and conclusion of every Session Aid against the Turk was a constant perpetual pretence Money the Head of all his Proposals Money the effect and substance of all his Speeches This affair once adjusted other Debates were out of doors Grievances not then longer to be toucht upon but all adjourn'd to another Session Besides the mischievous devises to embroyl the States amongst themselves and turn all their heat upon fruitless disputes and altercations In the second place the Electoral Colledge have not been too fair in their respects to the Diet. These could be content that betwixt Caesar and themselves all the matters of State be transacted And have sometimes accordingly strecht a Text of the Golden Bull to serve a turn and collogued with him that he again might be complacent to them till that amongst them the publick patrimony and common right and Prerogatives of the Empire become engrost in a few hands and made a spoyl to their unreasonable ambition These Electors must every one under his Hand and Seal signifie their consent to the Emperor before he can summon an Assembly of the States They got to themselves the making of the Emperor And now in effect the States cannot meet without their order They were wont to be reckoned six Electors to some purposes seven now they make eight but before they fill up the number of the Roman Decemviri they will remember their fate These ten as Livy tells us having got all the Supreme Authority for a time into their hands that they might reign absolute took an Oath together never to call the Common Councel Yet their Tyranny held not long This cheat would not down with the old Romans but with a general indignation they break over the Forms and Captivity of the letter for that old Law in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to free their Country from slavery they executed an unwarranted piece of Justice upon these ten Usurpers or Ten Tarquins as some body then call'd them Lastly the States have not a little been wanting to themselves in the affair of this their so ancient and fundamental Prerogative One principal cause amongst many others has been their differences about Religion For the Protestants being sure to be out-voted in the Dyet think they can barter with Caesar for better conditions And are therefore well enough content that the yearly Assembly be neglected In a word the German Diet is still on foot rather incumberd and clogged and puzled than destroyed The Parliament of France seems quite antiquated and subdued the Ghost and shadow of the defunct has appeared three or four times since Lewis the Eleventh But to revive that Assembly in its full and perfect vigor requires a Miracle like the Resurrection So that in effect we may date the demise of the Parliamentary Soveraignty in France from Lewis the Eleventh and the decay of that in Germany from Charles the Fifth It is in England onely that the ancient generous manly Government of Europe survives and continues in its original lustre and perfection Were there not something in that saying of the Emperor Maximilian that the French King is a King of Asses yet however that same legereté on which the French so value themselves is but in plain English a lightness of humour by the which they are easily piped into a new mode of Government But our English Ancestors have always been of a more steady principle more wise and more weigh'd than to dance after their Politicks The Reformation of Religion leaves no room at our Court for Jesuitical infection so fatal to the Germans Nor on the other hand have we yet had any Swisse Guards or Lewisses for our Kings Ours have still been true English Original no Copies of the French Magna Charta instead of being superannuated renews and recovers its pristine strength and athletick vigor by the Petition of Right with our many other explanatory or declaratory Statutes And the annual Parliament is as well known to our Laws as ever it had been famous amongst the Customs of France and Germany I have not formally answered many Objectons that might be started nor much regarded the single instances of some Historians and perhaps may be judged lame in several particulars that I have slighted Take all together you may as easily find an answer as raise a scruple But the short of what I would have said is You are not to expect truth from an Historiographer Royal it may drop from their pen by chance but the general herd understand not their business they fill us with story accidental incoherent without end or side and never know the Government or policy where they write Even the Records themselves are not always accurately worded The style of the Court and a form of words imposes upon many Names are taken for things Ceremonies for Essentials The Civilians are Vassals to a For reign Jurisdiction Caesar the Sword the Military Imperial or rather
Conventus populi generalis habetur Elsewhere Venit ad fontes fluvii cui Lippia nomen Conventum fieri Procerum jussit generalem Anno 775. Publicus in Paderbrunon Conventus habetur Most commonly it was called Placitum Compendii placitum generale habuit Aimoinus Rex Pipinus habuit placitum suum in Nivernis Regino An. 773 and An. 777. Tenuit placitum in loco qui dicitur Paderbrunnon Abbas Stadensis in Chr. An. 811 Imperator habito placito c. And the aforesaid Monk Anno 770. Conventum placiti generalis habere Cum ducibus se velle suis denunciat illic Regino calls it Synodus An. 770. Carolus habuit Synodum in Wormatiaâ 771. Habuit Synodum ad Valentinianos 772. Synodum habuit in Wormariâ 775. Habuit Synodum in villâ quae dicitur Duria 780. In Lippa Synodum tenuit Convenerant multi Episcopi Abbates Principes ad Imperialem Synodum Trithem Abb. Afterwards in Germany Diet was the name that generally prevailed as that of Parliament in France and England Now these Quotations and Authorities shew not only that by all this variety of Names were understood the same Common Councel but that the Principes Proceres Primores Duces Patres c. imported no more in truth nor signified other manner of Men than the very same with Populus And the same Assembly by one Writer barely called Populus or Conventus populi is by another stiled Conventus procerum Conventus principum c. which those terms secundam morem juxta morem more solenni ut solebat more fully demonstrate which seem to refer and send us back to Tacitus Consultant de majoribus omnes This I the rather note because I find Mr. Petty amongst many other his excellent Memorials observing the like in old Records of Parliament where those somewhere called Populus and Vulgus and the Commons are otherwhiles dignified with the gay additions of Noble Most Noble Most Illustrious Most Gracious Seigniors Monseigniours and Sires the Commons And likewise for that some unwary and superficial Readers from this root have propagated and improved many Errours of pernicious consequence to our ancient and Fundamental Policy and Government The French incorporating and growing one people with the former Inhabitants had a much easier Province they setled and pursued their Native Customs and Forms of Government nor met with that difficulty and opposition which in this Nation attended the English and Saxons These had a much harder game to play These could in no wise fix or find any sure footing without first clearing their way and driving the Britains up by themselves into a corner of the Land And after much tumbling and bustle we find them formed into a Heptarchy How regularly they mov'd as to Civil Affairs how closely they followed their Country-Customs or where they innovated and varied from their German Forms and Policy in those dark times is hard to be traced Some footsteps however appeared then which remained to posterity as the division of the Countrey into Hundreds after the German manner described by Tacitus Besides the other Royalties in the people as that of appointing Sheriffs and choosing Annual Magistrates the jurisdiction and power of life and death by our Juries c. And even before all came united under one Monarch we find the people interposing their Authority and for the miscarriages of Queen Edburga providing that thereafter No Queen shall sit by the King nor have the Title of Queen but be called only the Kings Wife Gens itaque occidentalium Saxonum Reginam juxta Regem sedere non patitur nec etiam Reginam appellari sed Regis conjugem permittit c. Asser. Menev. Mals But I shall not repeat what Cambden and Selden and our other Antiquaries have collected on this occasion but Germany being the source both of our people and Laws I choose rather petere fontes And thence it may be concluded how far we do stare super vias antiquas and continue firm upon the old bottom When the People and Senate of Rome had transferred all their right upon Charles the Great or Charlemain as the French call him and Germany was made the seat of the Western Empire one might think if there could be an opportunity of introducing a new form of Policy this was the time Yet Charles so victorious so august so great the like in no age before him or since ever known on this side the Alps notwithstanding all that power and fortune and the Imperial Crown that adorn'd him his Language was still the high German and his Government did still in the old Parliamentary way go on and prosper Therefore we find him every year with his Parliament Eginhardus who was his Son-in-law and Chancellour says of him Rex sic ad publicum populi sui conventum qui annuatim ob regni utilitatem celebrabatur ire sic domum redire solebat And Aimoynus l. 4. c. 74. Generalem Conventum quotannis habuit And to these Parliaments under God so far as humane reason may judge does Hincmar Archbishop of Rheims and Chancellour in those times ascribe his happy Reign Secunda divisio qua totius Regni status anteposito sicut semper omnipotentis Dei judicio quantum ad humanam rationem pertinebat conservari videbatur haec est consuetudo tunc temporis erat ut non saepius sed bis in Anno duo placita tenerentur unum quando ordinabatur status totius Regni ad anni vertentis spacium quod Ordinatum nullus eventus rerum nisi summa necessitas quae similiter toti Regno incumbebat mutabat in quo placito generalitas universorum majorum â—am Clericorum quam Laicorum conveniebat alterum cum Senioribus tantum praecipuis Consiliariis All this seems but a Paraphrase upon the passage afore-cited out of Tacitus as to the Form of Government The Princes and Seniors are for the matters of less weight the former here mentioned was the generale placitum which the Germans more particularly call Die jahrlicke versamblung the yearly Assembly Whose business he tells us was to order the state of the Kingdom He shows us likewise how binding these their Ordinances were and not to be contraven'd unless upon the utmost necessity not a suggested invisible Courtnecessity but quae toti regno incumbebat a necessity that lay upon the whole Kingdom In effect the Parliament Ordered and he Executed their Orders his Office was the Administration Amongst other particulars we find him in Parliament adjusting the matter of Succession as Eginhard and the Abbot of Staden An. 813. informs us of which the Monk of Paderborn An. 813. Vnde Duces ac Primores solenniter omnes Atque Magistratus ad Concilium generale vndique collegit Natoque suo Ludovico Cunctorum cum consilio jus omne regendi Tradidit Imperii Successoremque paterni Imposito designavit Diademate Regni And accordingly his Son Lodowic by general consent of Parliament did succeed him post mortem patris
and prâ—sperity they began to forget on what conditions they had entered Conquest was a short a compendious Title and without intricacy And now likewise the Church-men were every where agog for changing the Government both of Church and State into absolute Monarchy But the best on 't was the pretences were visible and notorious Besides that the Temporal and Spiritual the Prince and the Prelatical Lord could not agree who should be Supreme Which differences gave breath to the people and put into their hands an opportunity to assert their ancient just Rights and bottom all upon the Parliament again And now since the Great Charter and Petition of Right and the many other declarations what can threaten us Neither the Gunpowder Treason nor the late more sacred invention of a Pensioned Parliament could take effect No room is left amongst us for a standing Army which enslaved the French And our Franc-Archers our Militia continues after the old Model Nor with us as in Germany is the Papist like to bear up against and balance our Protestant Votes in Parliament thereby to render the Constitution useless and unpracticable And it may be hoped we shall never so far give way and be gull'd by Jesuitical artifice to find another division in Religion amongst us that may favour their designs and under other names do their work as compleatly You need not be caution'd to distinguish Plato the Divine from Plato the Philosopher Poets and Divines you know have a particular way of expression and give their thoughts a turn different from that of other people They attribute every thing to God though the whole operation and train of causes and proceedings â—e never so natural and plain before their face the Images they make are often taken in the grossest sense and worshipped by the vulgar and many times the Statesman is willing to contribute to their Idolatry Hence it comes that for the Persians Zoroaster was said to receive his Laws from Horomasis Trismegistus for the Aegyptians from Mercury Minos for the Cretans from Iupiter Charondas for the Carthaginians from Saturn Lycurgus for the Lacedemonians from Apollo Draco and Solon for the Athenians from Minerva Numa Pompilius for the Romans from Aegeria Xamolxis for the Scythians from Vesta and all these as truly as Mahomet had his Alcoran from the Angel Gabriel This sort of Doctrine went currant enough whilst Monkery and Ignorance sat in the Chair but now in an Age of History and humane Reason the blind Traditions go hardly down with us So that Iure Divino at this day makes but a very litigious Title Nor was it consistent with the brevity of a Letter to observe minutely how long the remains of the Roman domination continued amongst us as namely That the Roman was the only authentick Language for judicial matters in Germany till the Reign of Rudolph the first about the year 1287. in England till Edward the Third in France till Francis the First But in Church affairs that old mark of slavery is not yet worn off the spiritual Emperor will remit nothing he still holds his Vassals to the Roman Tongue even in Divine Service onely in England and where the Reformation has prevailed this with the other appurtenances of Roman bondage are no longer necessary Nor is it proper in this general draught to reflect on all the several steps and little dispositions to change in each Nation As how sometimes a practice has prevailed against the form and letter sometimes the form of words has been necessary but the practice obsolete The use in Commissions of the phrase pour en jouyr tant qu'il nous plaira was not known in France till Lewis the Eleventh tryed its vertue which occasioned their Parliament An. 1467. to ordain that notwithstanding the clause tant qu'il nous plaira Offices should not be voyd save only by death resignation or forfeiture as Pasquier in his Recherches informs us But peradventure since it has been so much controverted of late amongst us who are the Three States and the word occurring so frequently in the German Tongue you may expect some account who they be that have the name of States in Germany They express the word States in their own Language and call them Stands and Reich-stands because says Goldastus the Empire stands and rests upon them as upon its basis and pillars Status Imperii dicantur quod in illis ceu membris id est basibus columnis ipsum Imperium stet subsistat Those are said to be Stands who have the right to sit and Vote in the common Assembly of the Empire Hi quidem status Reichs-stands appellantur ideo quod statum locum votandi sedendi in Comitiis Imperii habent hâc quippe unicâ propriâ quasi notâ status ab aliis Imperii subject is secernuntur Arumaeus c. 4. de Comitiis So that all the question is how many several ranks or distinct orders there may be of these Stands From Polybius we have had a particular account of mixt Governments where he calls those that represent the Monarchical the Aristocratical and the popular State 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The three governing parts of the Common-wealth So the King the Senate and the Ephori at Sparta the Consuls the Senate and the Tribunes at Rome were there the Three States and had each their particular shares in the Government The like seems to have obtain'd in France under the names of the King the Peers and the Third State Nor did the power of the Clergy how great soever otherwise make any new distinct Order but they were mixt and included with the other States as their Learned Archbishop Claude Seisselle in his Treatise of the French Monarchy shows us In Germany how the Government has been shared and who have had a right of Voting in old times we may learn from what has before been cited out of Tacitus the Rex the Principes and the Omnes denote the Three States who had their several shares and right of Voting in the Government The same distinction continued still under the Western Empire Hincmar at the yearly Assembly or generale placitum under Charlemain does comprehend all under the terms of Seniores and Minores So that the Emperor the Seniors and the Commons seem to have then been the Three States Senior which the Germans exprest in their Ealdermen we may suppose was a word grew currant in the Provincial or vulgar Roman about that time and afterwards was diversifyed into Sieur and Sire and Sir and Monsignior and Monsieur and was ordinarily applyed to Men in great Office Cum Seniori urbis nunciata fuissent c. Seniores loci illius c. Nihil per me feci nisi quae mihi a Dominis nostris Senioribus Imperata sunt c. Tempore Senioris nostri c. ex parte Senioris mei Caroli c. These and the like passages in Gregory Turonensis may show the extent of the word and that