fountain of the laws By these Governours and Deputies agreeeing together Tributes are exacted and Taxes levied According to an order of the Senate held at Lyncopen 1599 they were to keep Courts of Justice twice in every year all of them meeting in the Winter time about February at Vpsal at the publick Fair called Disting and in Summer at Lyncopen States or Orders of men in this Kingdom there are says Bureus six 1. Princes of the Blood Royal Nobility Clergy Souldiery Merchantry and Commonalty 1. Princes of the Blood The Princes of the Blood-Royal are disposed of by the King according to their age and capacity The eldest as was said is Heir apparent to the Crown The younger are commonly created Dukes and made Governours of Provinces of Vpsal first and the rest in order of dignity These after the death of their elder brother if he dye without issue have right to succeed in the Throne 2. Nobility The Nobility which is said to have descended from King Ingon or Harold of Norway and spred through Germany Suitzerland Spain c. when the Goths invaded the Roman Empire It is divided into three ranks or orders 1. Consists of Earls and Barons or Franck-Barons The Earls Jerl anciently were created only upon extraordinary accounts as were also their Dukes called Hertog neither of their titles being then hereditary A war happening between them and some of their Kings their Honour and Titles were for some ages quite laid aside till King Ericus XIV about the year 1560 first of all renewed these lost Titles and restored them to their owners which gracious favour of his was follow'd by his successors they not only conferring like honour during life but at present making it hereditary The second consists of those whose ancestors have been advanc't to the honour of Senators of the Kingdom The third sort is made up of those who are neither Counts nor Barons and whose ancestors have not been of the Senatorian Order of these Orders may be either their Knights for their valour created by the King whose Titles are not transmitted to their Heirs tho frequently upon equal desert confer'd on them or Gentlemen who are the lowest degree of the Nobility anciently called Affwappen either because they were expert in war or bore a Coat of Arms. All these Noblemen enjoy great priviledges and immunities All their estates are free from taxes and impositions so much only out of the Lands of Earls and Barons excepted as they at their creation receive of the King for which they pay some acknowledgment to the Crown only in time of war and all exigences whatever they are obliged to fit out horses and men for the Kings service proportionable to their estates Out of these are commonly elected the Senators Judges and chief Officers of the Kingdom men of low birth tho of considerable parts seldom advancing themselves into places of great trust and employment in Civil affairs in Ecclesiastical more frequently The estates of these Noblemen are inherited as well by their daughters as their sons the son if one having half and a daughter three parts of them which custom King Bergerus Jerl is said to have made and brought in about four ages ago 3. The Clergy Clergy concerning whom what we find is set down under Vpsal 4. The Souldiery 〈◊〉 which enjoys very great priviledges from the King as soon as any is listed Souldier he has over and above his ordinary pay all his Lands Tax-free if in time of war a Souldiers horse be killed under him the King provides him with another and if any be taken Captive by the Enemy the King redeems him at his own charges and such like which we shall mention when we speak of the Forces of the Kingdom 5. The Merchantry Merchantry in whose possession the most considerable part of the riches of the Kingdom is kept and by whose procurement forreign Commodities are imported For the good government and benefit of these every Maritime City and Mart-Town had anciently their particular Municipal Laws derived from Berca the ancient seat of their Kings and about 600 year ago a Town of the greatest trade in the Kingdom by these it was ordered how and in what manner the Maritime Cities might exercise Trade as well with Inland Towns as Forreigners what Commodities they might traffick with not hindring one anothers commerce c. These laws were by the Civil wars in the Kingdom quite neglected and for a long time out of use but by the care of some of the late Kings they or some equivalent to them begin to be restored and put in Execution 6 The last and lowest state Commonalty and as it were the Basis of the rest is the Commonalty called Bond or Beond of which there are two sorts 1. Named Scatbonder who have Hereditary Lands priviledges of fishing and fowling c. belonging to them these in time of war are bound to fit out one Horse and Man for the Kings service The second sort are those that labour in the Mines called Bergs-men no less profitable to the publick then the former and enjoy no less priviledges and immunities both possessing Estates and Fishery of their own and like the Commons of England having their Representatives in the publick Council of the Kingdom Of these some by reason of their freedom and advantage of Education which is denyed the Pesantry of other Countrys sometimes arrive at great honours in Church and State the famous King Ericus furnamed the Saint is said to have been a Country-mans son The Swedes as all other Nations were for a long time governed only by the laws of nature the confus'd edicts of their Kings Decrees of the States and Responses of the wise till about the year 1251 Bergerus Jerl compiled a body of Laws and Constitutions for the Kingdom collected out of the former These before the invention of Paper were engraven upon large wooden Posts thereby after the manner of the Romans and Athenians to be promulgated to the people They were commonly very short and general as designing the decision of particular cases to the publick Magistrates Besides these they had upon any emergent difficulties other ancient Laws which they called Recessus Regni and other ancient Statutes of the Kingdom by which only great controversies were decided At present the Courts of Justice are more regular and for the speedier execution of it there are in the whole Kingdom five supream Courts of Judicature 1. The Kings Chamber which is divided into three ranks or degrees 1. Supream in which all Cases twixt Senator and Senator brought thither by Appeal are decided 2. The Middle in which are determined actions of Treason and all others betwixt Noblemen Lagmen and publick Officers 3. The lowest where ordinary Trials are decided whether Civil or Criminal where it is judged whether the procedure in Inferiour Courts in actions brought thence by Appeal has been Legal or not From this Court there lies no
return'd promoters of Puritanism and rebellious Principles They arriv'd at Francfurt in June A. D. 1554 where by the favour of John Glauberge an Alderman of the City they were permitted the free exercise of their Religion in a Church formerly assign'd to the French Protestants Their chief Ring-leaders were Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who before they began to instruct their flocks took upon them to reform the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England The Surplice and Litany were cashier'd as rags of the Whore of Babylon and the Responsals laid aside as formal pieces of canting which disturb'd the due course of Divine Worship In short the whole Liturgy except the Lessons and Psalms was rejected as savouring too much of Rome and Antichrist Instead of the Magnificat Nunc dimittis c. they sung so many Stanza's of Sternhold's Rithms After Sermon they had a prayer for all states and conditions of men more particularly for the Church of England meaning their own Tribe in imitation of our prayer for the Church Militant and then concluded with The Peace of God c. The noise of this upstart Church wherewith Dr. Scory Bishop of Chichester now Superintendent at Embden Grindal Sandys and Haddon at Strasburg and Horn Chambers and Parkhurst at Zurick had refused to have communion drew Knox the Scotch Incendiary from Geneva in hopes of making a better market here then he could do in Switzerland Here he arriv'd about the latter end of September and immediately took upon him the Superintendency of the Church Whittingham and the other Divines submitting themselves to his Apostleship and Government This was highly resented by the Divines of Strasburg and Zurick who were well acquainted with Knox's principles and knew of what dangerous consequence the promotion of such a Hotspur was like to prove Whereupon Gryndal and Chambers were sent to Francfurt to endeavour a composure of differences and a reunion of all the English Protestants But their endeavours prov'd successless and vain tho they proposed that the substance of the English Liturgy being retain'd there might be by a general consent an omission of some ceremonies and offices in it allow'd of For Knox and Whittingham were as zealously bent against the substance as circumstantials of the Book In the midst of these confusions Dr. Cox Dean of Westminster and a principal composer of the Liturgy in King Edward the Sixth's days comes to Francfurt attended with a great many more English Exiles Upon his first arrival he causes one of his company to read the Litany in the Pulpit and not long after got Knox expell'd the Town for publishing some treasonable expressions against the Emperor Having thus worsted his adversary he was resolv'd to follow the blow which he did so effectually as to procure an Order from the Common Council of the City requiring all the English Protestants to be conformable to the Discipline of their Church as contain'd in the Book of Common Prayer But Cox tho at present Master of the Field was not able to appease the dissatisfied Brethren who follow'd Knox to Geneva and there set up the profession of their former Schismatical Tenents In short these scandalous ruptures first begun at Francfurt and afterwards carried on at Geneva occasion'd the irrecoverable discredit of our Church beyond Seas and were the first seeds of those lamentable animosities which to this day threaten our destruction The Territory of Francfurt which is under the subjection of the Citizens and Magistrates of the Town is bounded on the East with the County of Hanaw Territory on the South with the Landgraviate of Darmstat on the West with the Archbishopric of Mentz and on the North with the County of Wetteraw The soil is generally cover'd with Woods or Vineyards and there is little of arable or pasture ground in it The inhabitants of this Country are a laborious sort of people Inhabitants applying themselves chiefly to the planting of Vineyards and making Wine The poor people sell off their Wine and drink water having seldom the happiness to taste a draught of Beer It was indeed anciently a proverb in Germany Sachs Bayr Schwab und Franck Die lieben all den Tranck i. e. The Saxons Bavarians Swabes and Francks Are all inclin'd to excessive drinking But now adays that piece of debauchery is laid aside in Franconia and you shall seldomer meet with a drunkard here then in any other part of Germany The ancient Francks were men exceedingly plain and careless in their habit whence the Germans to this day say of any thing that 's plain and ordinary 't is gut Alt Franckisch but the case is alter'd and the modern Francfurters are rather foppish then slovenly in their Apparel In this they are still imitators of their Ancestors that they are a stout and hardy people which is enough to keep up that honour and repute which their Ancestors have got in foreign Nations The Asians call all the Europeans Francks and the Mahometans give the Western Christians the same name The Abyssines in Africa as Vagetius witnesses call the other part of the Christian World Alfrangues and the Country they inhabit i.e. Europe and some parts of Asia Francia The Principality of HENNEBERG HENNEBERG was formerly no more then a bare County the Earls whereof were first advanced to the honour of Princes of the Empire by the Emperor Henry VII in a public Convention or Diet of all the Estates of the Empire in the year 1310. The first of these Princes was Berthold surnam'd the Wise who was succeeded by Henry This Prince married his Daughter to Frideric Marquise of Misnia bestowing on her for a Dowry the County of Coburg The last Prince of this Line was George Ernest after whose death which hapned in the year 1583 the County of Coburg with the whole Principality of Henneberg fell into the hands of the Elector of Saxony 'T is a populous and fruitful Country 〈◊〉 bounded on the East with the Forests and Mountains of Thuringen on the South with the Bishopric of Bamberg on the West with the Diocess of Wurtzburg and on the North with the Territories annex'd to the Abbey of Fulda The Castle or Palace of Henneberg whence the Principality has its name is seated on the top of a Hill not far from the City Meiningen but has nothing in it remarkable SCHLEUSINGEN 〈◊〉 which has its name from the River Schleuss on which 't is seated is accounted the chief City in the County tho perhaps not in the Principality of Henneberg 'T is famous for a Gymnasium built here by the last Prince of Henneberg George Ernest A. D. 1577. 'T was for some time the chief Residence of the Earls and Princes of this Country many of whose monuments are still to be seen in the great Church Besides this the Towns of Romhilt Meinungen and Koningshoven challenge the name of Cities but very ill deserve that character We have already given a description of
and Albert Dukes of Mecklenburg two Cousin Germans in the year 1419. The Corporation of the City bore it seems half the charges of the foundation and therefore 't was then ordered by a Decree still in force that half of the Professors should be chosen by the Dukes of Mecklenburg and the other half by the Burgomasters and Radtshern of the Town The Rector Magnificus as they are pleased to intitle the chief Magistrate of their University is chosen every half year as in most other German Universities by turns out of the two Companies of Professors He has power to call Convocations and appoint times for meeting of the other Professors on all extraordinary occasions as collecting or disbursing any part of their common-Treasure or the like In matters of greater weight and moment then are usually debated he has an Assistant whom they call Promotor chosen out of the Seniors of the eighteen Professors The University was at first stocked with Professors from Leipsic and Erfurt who all of them received their Licences to teach and read in publick together with a Charter of priviledges and body of Statutes from Pope Martin V. The Bishop of Swerin is their perpetual Chancellor who commonly deputes one of the Senior Professors his Vice-Chancellor at any public Promotion or taking of Degrees when he himself is not at leisure to give a personal attendance Amongst many other learned men that have been bred in this University Albert Crantzius John Posselius and Nathan Chytraeus three famous Historians have got themselves and the place of their education great credit by their elaborate writings The Citizens are subject to a kind of mixt government made up of Aristocracy and Democracy The Democratical part consists of twenty four Aldermen chosen out of the Nobility Scholars and rich Merchants of the Town whereof four are Burgomasters two Chamberlains two Stewards for the River and two Judges The Chamberlains collect and distribute all manner of Assesments for the reparations of public buildings in and about the City The two Stewards are overseers of the Haven at Warnemund and look to the cleansing of the Channel from that Port up to the City The Judges determine and pass sentence in all causes Civil and Criminal These twenty four Magistrates of the upper House decide all ordinary Controversies and have the sole power of coining money chusing Officers c. But besides them there are in the Town a hundred more Common-Councilmen elected out of the inferior Tradesmen of the Town who are summon'd to appear and give their opinions upon debate of any matter of more then ordinary concernment to the common welfare Though the River Warna be navigable up to the Walls of the City of Rostock yet it is not deep enough to carry Ships of the largest bulk but such Vessels are forced to take harbour at Warnemund so called because situate on the mouth of the River a small Town about seven English miles distant from Rostock Since the Treaty of Munster the Swedes built a Fort on the mouth of this River by the strength of which and a good Garison always kept in it they exacted a toll or custom of all Merchantmen that pass'd this way from or towards Rostock to the great decay of trade in this City and impoverishing of its inhabitants This Castle was in the late wars between the Northern Crowns demolished and thereby a stop put to the Swedish encroachments Whereupon the Ministers for the Dukes of Mecklenburg in the last general Treaty at Nimeguen were very diligent in soliciting the Mediators for a redress of this grievance which they represented as a violation of an express Article in the Westphalian Treaty With Memorials and Petitions to this purpose our English Mediatours by the Duke of Gustrow's Minister and the Popes Nuncio on the other hand by the Duke of Swerin's were continually wearied in the latter end of the year 1678 and beginning of 1679. Their importunity prevailed so far at last as to have the following clause inserted into the first Proposal of a Treaty betwixt the Emperor and King of Sweden Omni casu salva sint Dominis Ducibus Mecklenburgicis sine turbatione competentia jura sublatum maneat vectigal seu telonium Warnemundense cum omnimoda aliarum quae ibi motae sunt pretensionum abolitione portus Warnmundensis relinquatur in pristina qua nunc gaudet commerciorum libertate But the Swedish Plenipotentaries in all their conferences with the Imperial Ambassadours upon this Subject constantly denied that they had instructions to meddle with it and the Imperialists were willing to omit the insertion of this point rather then delay the signing of the other Articles till new Instructions could be procured from the Swedish Court So that all the satisfaction the Princes of Mecklenburg had was a compliment from the Emperour 's Plempotentiaries shewing the great care their Master would be always ready to take in asserting their Rights and Priviledges as well as those of any other member of the German Empire against the encroachments of any Foreign Enemy whatever and a Certificate under their hands that their Ministers had used all imaginable diligence in the discharge of their duty Neque defuerunt say they durante hoc congressu officio suo praedictorum Dominorum Ducum i. e. Mecklenburgicorum Ablegati Dominus Antonius Bessel Dominus Joannes Reuter sed omnes partes impleverunt quae a Ministrorum fide dexteritate vigilantia expectari possunt In quorum omnium fidem Legatio Caesarea praesentes hasce a se subscriptas sigillis suis munivit Dabantur Neomagi duodecima Februarii Anno 1679. IV. SWERIN Swerin Situate at about fifty English miles distance from Rostock upon a great Lake which from the name of this City is usually by the Neighbourhood called Der Swerinsche See It was built and fortfied by Henry surnamed the Lion Duke of Saxony who soon after its first foundation which is said to have been in the year 1163. bestowed this City with all the Territories and Lordships thereunto belonging upon Guntzel or Gunceline one of the Generals in his Army whom he made Earl of Swerin His son Henry who succeeded his father in the Earldom was a great favourite of the Emperour Otho IV and well deserved all the honour his master could confer on him He took Woldemar King of Denmark prisoner in his own Kingdom brought him bound into Saxony in triumph and kept him in close custody in the Castle at Danneberg till his Subjects had almost reduced themselves to beggary by paying ransome The last Earl of this Family was Otho who died in the year 1355. His only daughter and child Richardis was married to Albrecht Duke of Mecklenburg for which reason the Earldom of Swerin after Otho's death was annexed to the Dukedom of Mecklenburg The Bishoprick of Swerin was removed from Mecklenburg to this City The first Bishop of this Diocess was one Johannes Scotus who in the fourth year of his Prelacy A.
Schweinfurt which some Geographers bring within the bounds of this Principality Schmalcad was once a part of this Principality but is not esteem'd so now PRINCIPATUS HENNENBERGENSIS COMITATVS WERTHEIMICI FINITIMARVMQVE REGIONVM NOVA ET EXACTA DESCRIPTIO Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart The City and County of WERTHEIM IN the mouth of the Tauber on the banks of the Mayn is seated the City of Wertheim in a fruitful soil and good air The Citizens whose chief trade is in making Wine liv'd formerly in good credit till upon some disagreement between them and their Earls who endeavour'd to reestablish Popery in the Town they were brought to so great poverty and straits for the defence of their Religion that they have scarce been able to recruit themselves to this day However they still stick close to the Augsburg Confession and are zealous assertors of the honour of their Saint Luther The County of Wertheim which is a part of the old Francia Orientalis as lying on the South side of the River Mayn is bounded on the East with the Bishoprick of Wurtzburg on the South with the County of Hohenloe and the Palatinate on the West with the Silva Ottonica and on the North with the large Forest of Speshart This Province affords much more plenty of Corn then the Territories about Francfurt nor is it any way inferior to those for the goodness of its Wine The inhabitants have here good store of Meadows and Pasture-ground for Cattel which bring in yearly as great revenues as their best Vineyards They have no want of wild Fowl and are cloy'd with Venison Among the several Villages that have dependance upon the City of Wertheim Niclashausen the most remarkable is Niclashausen famous for the birth and education of one John Behaim who was burnt for an Heretick at Wurtzburg A. D. 1476. The occasion whereof was this The poor Bore being melancholy and crack-brain'd fancied daily that he saw in his melancholy and dumpish fits strange and terrible apparitions One time the Virgin Mary forsooth amongst his other spiritual guests gave him a visit and grew so familiar as to communicate to him several deep intrigues and secrets The choicest whereof was that there lay no obligation at all upon the Burgers of Wertheim to shew any manner of respect to their Earls or inferior Magistrates but that they were all as free and boundless as the Rivers that water'd their Country This was a plausible Doctrine in the ears of the Commonalty and needed but little Divine Revelation to authorize it so that Behaim had presently more proselytes then all the Preachers in the Country and would in a short time have perverted the greatest part of the County had he not early been overpower'd and prevented by the Bishop's forces Erpach Norimberg Hanaw c. are purposely omitted in this place tho parts of Franconia as being reserv'd for the second Volume of Germany THE County Palatinate OF THE RHINE DIE Pfaltz which is the ordinary German word for this County signifies no more then Palatium Name whereof Palatinus is only an Adjective Possessive Now how Palatium should be a name given to a County or Palatinus to an Earl we have already acquainted the Reader treating of the High Dutch Nobility in the General Description of Germany There are only at this day two Counties in the German Empire which are usually known by the name of Counties Palatinate whereof one the Upper Palatinate is part of the Dukedom of Bavaria and shall be treated of elsewhere About four or five hundred years ago Bounds very little of the Country about Huydelberg was reckon'd a part of the Lower Palatinate but most of the Cities in this neighbourhood were either Imperial or subject to some other Prince then the Counts Palatine who are now by Marriage Conquest or Purchase Masters of the Land Before the Bohemian Wars betwixt the Emperor and Frideric Count Palatine and the Civil Wars of Germany the Territories and Revenues of this Prince were large enough to make him more formidable then any of the other Electors But such were his misfortunes in those bloody Engagements that he lost both the Kingdom of Bohemia which he contended for and also all his own hereditary Dignities and Estates The Upper Palatinate was seized on by the Duke of Bavaria and the Lower conquer'd and subdued by the King of Spain By the Treaty of Munster the late Count Charles-Ludowic Son to the unfortunate King of Bohemia was restored to some part of his Father's Dominions in the Lower Palatinate but these are of no great extent and are still like to be lessen'd by the daily encroachments of the French King This Country is much the pleasantest part of the German Empire Soil and therefore 't is no great wonder that the neighbouring Princes have in all ages watcht an opportunity of getting it into their clutches The Hills are cover'd with Vines which yeild that rich Liquor known all Europe over by the name of Rhenish Wine The Plains and Valleys afford plenty of all manner of Grain and Fruit and the Forests are plentifully stock'd with Deer and other Game The Rhine passing thro the midst of the County gives a fair advantage of exporting the commodities of this and importing those of foreign Nations The Rivers Rhine and Neccar have store of Fish and the Hills want neither Mettals nor Minerals That part of the Lower Palatinate which lies on the Western banks of the Rhine 〈◊〉 was first conquer'd by the Romans and afterwards by the French of whose Kingdom it was a part but more immediately subject to the Earls of the Moselle Afterwards when the Kingdom of Lorrain came to be divided betwixt the Emperors of Germany and the Kings of France this Territory became a share of the German Empire but was still possess'd by the Prince of Moselle as before Upon the failure of that Family it fell under the more immediate power of the Emperors who for many good offices done them were pleased to bestow it on the Elector's Palatine By the same means they became Masters of the other part of this Country on the Eastern banks of the River upon extirpation of the House of Schwaben The present Elector Palatine is Count Charles 〈…〉 who was born on the last day of May in the year 1651 and was advanc'd to the Electorate upon the late death of his Father Charles-Ludowic A. D. 1680. He is a pious and learned Prince and treads much in the steps of his Father who possibly was considering the troubles he had undergone as learned a Prince as Europe afforded in his time The Revenues of this Elector's Ancestors are said to have amounted to 100000 pounds sterling yearly Nor can we well imagine them to have been less when only the Silver Mines about Amberg in the Upper Palatinate yeilded 60000 Crowns a year and the passage over one Bridg cross the Rhine brought in 20000 more To which if
the Eastern banks of the Rhine is a Province of no large extent but exceedingly fruitful in Corn Wine and Hemp. The Country is every-where very populous and the Villages so thick that the whole Marquisate has been by some compared to one continued City with fair Gardens interlac'd among the buildings Entz 〈◊〉 Wirmb Phintz and the other Rivers afford plenty of Fish And the Chases and Parks are so well stock'd with Venison and Fowl that what the Nobility in other parts of the German Empire covet as a delicacy the Rustics of Baden have for their ordinary food The Merchants of Amsterdam Antwerp and other great trading Towns in the Netherlands furnish themselves hence with those vast quantities of Flax and Hemp which they transport into foreign Nations so that what passes for Holland Flax here in England grows for the most part in the Marquisate of Baden and is brought thence down the Rhine There are in this Country whole Woods of Chesnut Trees which feed their great Herds of Swine at a cheaper rate then the Hog-Merchants of Whestphalia who buy their Chesnuts at Bremen can afford to do The Quarries give the inhabitants an advantage of building fair Houses with a small cost 〈◊〉 providing them with a good Free-stone and Marble of all colours Amongst these especially in the County of Sponheim they sometimes find Agat which is here rarely polish'd and sent into foreign Countries 〈◊〉 But this Marquisate is most peculiarly happy in the multitude and goodness of its hot Baths and Mineral-waters especially at Baden of which more anon 〈◊〉 From the vast conflux of the Nobility from all parts of the Empire to these Baths we may reasonably imagine that the complaisant carriage towards strangers which we find every-where practis'd by the inhabitants of this Country has in a great measure proceeded from their conversation with strangers who flock hither upon the strong conceit they have of the more then ordinary virtues of these waters They are generally a stout and hardy people inur'd to labour and toil or the severities of a Camp from their their Cradle Hence they come to be reckon'd as good Soldiers as any in the Emperor's Dominions And 't is not a little Honour the Country has got this last year 1681 in having their Marquise Herman made choice of to succeed the late famous Commander Montecuculi in the place of General of all the Imperial Forces No question the Marquises of this Country are descended of an ancient stock of Princes Marquises but of what old Family they are to be reputed a branch the German Heraulds can scarce determine Some fetch them from the Vrsins and others from the House of Della Scala or the Scaligers Some again labour to prove that Baden and Hochberg are different Families and others that they are but one Other Genealogists tell us that the Emperor Frideric Barbaressa brought Herman Marquise of Verona out of Italy and made him the first Marquise of Hochberg and Baden A. D. 1155. Which will very ill agree with what the best High Dutch Historians report of a Monastery being founded by Herman Marquise of Baden in his Village of Backenau A. D. 1116 which was confirm'd by Bruno Bishop of Spire in the year 1122. The most probable opinion is that they are descended from the ancient Counts of Vindonissa and Altemburg in Switzerland from whom also the Dukes of Zeringuen and Tek the Counts of Habspurg and the Arch-Dukes of Austria derive their original At present there are two Families of the Marquises of Baden whereof one is a profess'd Lutheran and the other a zealous Papist For this reason their interests seem different the Marquise of Durlach associating himself with the Count Palatine the Marquise of Brandenburg the Duke of Wirtenberg and the Count of Solms and the Marquise of Baden with the Dukes of Bavaria Savoy and Lorrain and the Princes of Hohernzollern Each of these Princes stiles himself Marquise of Baden and Hochberg Landgrave of Sausenberg Earl of Sponheim and Eberstein Lord of Rotel Badenweiler Lohr and Mahlberg The Chief Cities in the Marquisate of BADEN BADEN is the Metropolis of this Marquisate Baden and has its name from the vast number of Hot Baths in this place which are said to be above three hundred The Town stands amongst Hills on a craggy and uneven spot of ground so that there 's hardly a strait and plain street in it Some of the Baths are scalding hot and all of them running out of Rocks of Brimstone Salt and Allum have the same tast One of them is call'd the Kettle out of which the water boils at a wonderful rate reeking as if set over a Furnace These waters are reckon'd soveraign medicines for several diseases especially the Cramp and Gout both which distempers have been admirably cur'd by them For this reason there is a continual resort of the German Nobility and Gentry who flock hither in as great companies during the whole Summer as our English Gentry are wont to do to Bath in Somersetshire See Joh. Keiffer's description of the Baths of this Country 2. Durlach DURLACH is seated on the bank of the River Psintz at the bottom of a high hill on the top whereof stands a Tower wherein contintial watch is kept for the security of the City The streets in this Town are generally fair and strait and the buildings stately and uniform The Marquise's Palace far excells that at Baden and is large enough to receive the Court and Attendants of the greatest Monarch in Europe There is a Gymnasium kept up by some few Professors who read public Lectures in the several Faculties But that which is most worthy a Scholar's sight is the rare Collection of ancient Coins and Meddals in the Marquise's Cabinet and the Library adjoining wherein are some pieces of good note 3. PFORTZHEIM says Rhenanus Pfortzheim was anciently call'd Orcynheim and by Latin Authors Porta Hercyniae because 't is seated at the entrance into the Schwartzwald a part of the Hercynian Forest as you travel from Spire On one side of the Town you have fair Meadows Pasture-grounds and Corn-fields but the other side is nothing but Mountains and Woods This Town was formerly subject to the Dukes of Schwaben but fell afterwards upon the death of Conradine the last Duke of that Country into the hands of the Marquises of Baden who are now Lords of it 4. GERSBACH is a Town of no great extent Gersbach having in it only two Churches whereof one is frequented by Lutherans and the other by Papists The Marquises of Baden as Counts of Eberstein a Castle not far from this Town have here a Palace and Court of Judicature for the determining all Controversies and Law-suits arising within the bounds of this small County 5. BADENWEILER a City betwixt Freyburg and Basil Badenweiler is a part of the Marquisate of Baden tho seated in the Territories of Brisach The hot Baths of this