with all the Officers of the Crown and Dutchy and all that are present at Court The Company 's of Tradesmen walk thither bare-foot in Procession each of them accompany'd with the representation of a Coffin cover'd with a Pall supported by two Men. Thus the whole Multitude goes to visit the Relicks of St. Stanislaus Bishop of Cracow who was kill'd in the Year 1079 by King Boleslaus as he was saying Mass After which they bring back the Body of the Deceased King to the Chapel of the Cathedral Church which is the Burying-place of His Predecessors The day after the Funeral is the Coronation-Day The Ceremony ought to be perform'd by the Archbishop of Gnesna as Primate of the Kingdom yet there are some Examples to the contrary For Stephen Battori was Crowned by the Bishop of Cracow because the Archbishop of Gnesna was of the Faction of Maximilian of Austria whom a Party of Polanders had Chosen and the late King John Sobieski was Crowned by the Bishop of Cracow because the Archbishop of Gnesâ—a died during the Diet of Election This day the King being Richly Cloathed is conducted in Solemn Procession to the Cathedral Church by the Senate and the Nobility Before he enters into the Church the Great Master of the Horse of the Kingdom brings the Crown Scepter Globe of Gold and the Naked Sword to the Archbishop who lays 'em upon the Altar after which the Bishop of Cracow and Cujavia having receiv'd the King and bolding Him between them present Him to the Archbishop to whom he makes a bow The King being in this condition the Archbishop and the Two Bishops put him in mind of his Duty and Obligation to the Republick after which he kisses the Archbishops hand and laying his own upon the Gospel he Swears to observe Inviolably all the Articles which he had before Sworn to keep in the Cathedral Church of St. John at VVarsaw The Oath runs thus VVe N. Chosen King of Poland and Great Duke of Lithuania Russia Massovia Prussia Samogitia Livonia Smolensko Volhinia Kiovia Siberia Podolia Podlassia and Czernikowia by all the Orders of both Estates of Poland and Lithuania and of all the Provinces which depend upon them and are Incorporated with them having been Elected freely and with the Vnanimous Consent of all Promise sincerely and Swear before Almighty God and upon the Holy Evangelists of Jesus Christ to Maintain Observe Keep and Fulfil in all their Circumstances Points and Articles all the Rights Liberties Immunities and Privileges both Publick and private that are not contrary to the common right and liberties of both these Nations or to any Law either Ecclesiastical or Temporal that have been justly and lawfully esiablish'd by our Predecessors Kings of Poland and Great Dukes of Lithuania or granted by all the Orders during the Interregnum to all the Roman Catholick Churches Lords Barons Gentlemen Citizens and Inhabitants of what rank or condition soever with the Pacta Conventa agreed upon betwixt our Ambassadors and the Orders of the Kingdom and Great Dutchy of Lithuania Moreover we promise to maintain whatsever was Fuâ—â—ed or Agreed upon in the Diet of our Election or shall be Enacted or Agreed upon in that of our Coronation to execute the same and to cause to be restored to the Kingdom and to the Great Dutchy of Lithuania and united to their Lands and Revenues whatsoever has been in any in owner alinated or dismembred therefront by what way soever Not to contract the limits of the Kingdom and Great Dutchy of Lithuania but to defend and enlarge them to establish Courts of Justice in all places for all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom and the Dutchy of Lithuania and to render Justice to every one without delay or respect to persons And if it should happen which God forbid that we should violate Our Oath in any one point we consent that all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom and of all our Territories shall be discharg'd and exempted from the Obedience and Fidelity they owe us After the King has taken this Oath He kneels upon a Cushion of Red Taffeta while the Litany of the Saints is Read at the end of which they take off his Clothes and the Archbishop Anoints his Right hand and Arm up to the Elbow with Consecrated Oil and afterwards his Shoulders and Forehead and then they put on his Clothes again After this Ceremony the two Bishops Conduct him to the Chapel where they Cloath him with another Habit somewhat resembling that of a Bishop then the Marshals of the Crown and Dutchy with the Officers that are Senators place him upon a Throne erected in the Middle of the Church where He hears Mass and is afterwards brought back to the Altar where the Archbishop puts a Naked Sword into his Right-hand saying Receive this Sword with which you are powerfully to Protect and Defend the Holy Church and the Faithful After which the Great Standard-bearer of the Kingdom Girds it to his side The King having the Sword by His side draws it out of the Scabbard and beats the Air four times in form of a Cross towards the Four Parts of the World and having wip'd it upon his Left Arm he puts it up again into the Seabbard Then he kneels and the Archbishop puts the Crown upon His Head the Scepter into His Right hand and the Globe of Gold into His Left After which the King rises and His Sword is drawn and given to the Sword-bearer of the Kingdom to be carry'd before Him and then Marching between the Archbishop and the Two Bishops He is brought back to the same Throne All these Ceremonies being ended the Archbishop returns to the Altar and after Te Deum is Sung and that Prelate Seated the King comes to make His Confession to him after which he gives the Sacrament to His Majesty and then the Benediction to the People This done the Marshal of the Court Cries Vivat Rex and is Answer'd by all the People who Repeat the same words In the mean time the Treasurer of the Kingdom scatters Money among the People who are in the Church ' Twou'd be needless to describe the Feast that usually follows this Ceremony since I intend in a peculiar Chapter to give a particular Account of the Feasts and Entertainments of the Polanders Only it may be reasonably suppos'd that a Feast which a King makes after His Coronation is very Splendid and Magnificent The Day after the Coronation the King goes in Great Pomp being Cloathed in His Royal Robes to the Town-house where upon a Throne Erected before the House the Magistrates come to Assure him of their Fidelity and present him with the Keys of all the Gates in a Silver Dish the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor assures them reciprocally of the Affection and Clemency of the King and Reads with an Audible Voice the Oath of Fidelity which they take kneeling and holding up their hands Then they present His Majesty with a Purse full of Ducats after
AN ACCOUNT OF POLAND An Account of POLAND CONTAINING A Geographical Description OF THE COUNTRY THE Manners of the Inhabitants and the Wars they have been Engag'd in the Constitution of that Government Particularly the Manner of Electing and Crowning their KING his Power and Prerogatives With a Brief History of the Tartars By Monsieur Hauteville who Resided about 25 Years in that Kingdom To which is Added A Chronology of the Polish KINGS the ABDICATION of KING John Casimir and the Rise and Progress of SOCINIANISME Likewise a Relation of the Chief Passages during the Last Interregnum and the Election and Coronation of the New KING Frederic Augustus The Whole Comprehending whatsoever is Curious and Worthy of Remark in the Former and Present State of POLAND London Printed for T. Goodwin at the Queens-head in Fleet-street and H. Newman at the Grashopper in the Poultry 1698. To His EXCELLENCY The Earl of GALLWAY Lieutenant General of the King's Armies one of the Lords Justices of Ireland and General of His Majesty's Forces in that Kingdom My Lord THis Treatise I make bold to Present to your Excellency and I hope the Consideration of the Subject it Treats of will make Attonement for the Freedom of it The Republick of Poland is justly Ranked amongst the Greatest Dominions in the World and the Dispute between Two Great Princes who both Pretend to the CROWN draws all the Eyes of Europe on that side Therefore I hope that tho' your Excellency is Perfectly Acquainted with the Laws and Constitutions of all the States in Christendom yet you will please Favourably to Receive this Book which I think gives an Exact Account of Poland and of the Pretentions of the Two Illustrious Rivals who Dispute that Throne However I design not to Prepossess the Wâ—â—â—â—â— in Favour of this Book by the Prefixing of 〈◊〉 Illustrious Name to it I know I could nâ—â— make choice of a Better Protector but I only 〈◊〉 tend to give your Excellency a Publick Mark of my Profound Respect Neither did I propose to my self to make the Eulogy of the Great Virtues which are so conspicuous in your Excellency such an Vndertaking is above Vulgar Pens and too great to be Treated in the narrow bounds of an Epistle Dedicatory Whoever attempts that must give a Relation of the Sieges of Candia Athlone Galway Limerick and Cazal Describe the Bloody Batters of Aghrim and Landen Relate the Important Negotiations committed to your care speak of the Prudence Intrepidity and Bravery you have expressed in the greatest Dangers and commend in Terms suitable to the Subject that admir'd Penetration and Sagacity of your Excellency which discover'd the Secret Intreagues of a Court notwithstanding the most refin'd Dissimulation that ever Italy made use of These great Qualities are so well known that Envy and Jealousie are forced to be silent and dare not attack a Merit esteem'd by all the Princes of Europe and admir'd by all the World I am afraid that I should displease your Excellency by proceeding any farther on this Subject yet I would beg leave to observe that these great Vertues are hereditary in your Excellency and not the effect only of an happy Education My Lord Marquiss of Ruvigny your Father was equally fit for Council and Action His great Courage and Prudence raised him to the Dignity of Lieutenant General of the Armies of the French King and would have certainly advanc'd him to that of Mareschal of France had not his Religion been an Invincible tho' Glorious Obstacle to it Every body own'd he deserv'd that Great Trust and his Prince thought he had no Subject in his Kingdom so fit to Represent His Person in the Courts of the greatest Kings in Europe Your Excellency will pardon me if I cannot forbear to carry the Parallel somewhat further and therefore my Lord give me leave to say That you are like him Pious and Charitable You both Generously quitted a Great Estate and a private Life with the Testimony of a good Conscience had more Charms with you than all the Dignities and Dazling Splendor of a Court. You are as he was Sensible of the Miseries of the Poor They had always Access to your Person and were never sent back without Relief The Widows and Orphans find in your Excellency what they have lost and the Prayers of so many Relieved People sent up to Heaven fall down again upon your Excellency in Showers of Blessings But what shall I say of the Vertues of my Lady Marchioness your Mother It is impossible to draw her Character without Exhausting all the Qualifications ascribed by Solomon to his Virtuous Woman The Merit of your Excellency is so generally known that England and Ireland have Applauded the Choice His Majesty made of you to be one of the Lord Justices of Ireland and every body agrees that the Titles and Employments Conferr'd upon your Excellency are not so much the effect of His Majesty's Favour as the just Reward of your Eminent Virtue and Services That your Excellency may long enjoy that unspotted Fame will be the Constant Prayers of My Lord Your Excellency's most Humble and most obedient Servant THE PREFACE THE Dispute about the Crown of Poland makes now such a Noise in the World that 't is Believ'd an Account of that Country cannot but be Acceptable to the Ingenious Reader This Book which is offer'd to your Consideration is not Exstracted out of several Authors as most Accounts commonly are but contains the Observations of a Person of Quality who Resided 25 Years in Poland and had an Opportunity of Informing himself of every thing worthy a Gentleman's Curiosity being very Intimate with the Ministers and all the Great Men of that Kingdom * See Journaux des Seavans An. 1687. Epâ—em 23. Mots d' Avril Also the Pibliotheq Vniver Tom. 7. p. 574. And the Republiq des Lutres Mots d' Aâ—ust An. 1687. Though Poland is not very Remote from us yet one may say it is almost unknown few Persons going thither to Travel However it deserves our Curiosity it being one of the most Ancient States of the World the only one which has Preserved and Maintain'd the Right of Electing their Monarchs and indeed the only one that was never Conquer'd The Original of the Poles as well as other Nations is very uncertain and Fabulous but the Sarmatians are so Ancient that there is still some Monuments at this day that Jupiter Belvs one of the Assyrian Monarchs made War upon them though Unfortunately The Grecians and Persians were not more Successful against that Warlike Nation nor even the Romans themselves They had nothing to do with them till Augustus's time who Beat them off of the Banks of the Danube Domitian was very Unhappy against them and in short it does not clearly appear that any of the Roman Emperours penetrated into Sarmatia no not Trajan Himself though Eutropius relates he received under his Protection a Sarmatian King Adrian allow'd them a Yearly Pension Marcus
Antoninus Pius took a greater Care to Defend the Empire than Inlarge its Bounds and as to Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher he was not able to Compass the Design he had of Reducing Sarmatia into a Province of the Roman Empire Maximin had no better Success against them and since his time the Empire declin'd apace till Probus reviv'd their Spirits again This Great Man Subdu'd the Germans and gave the Sarmatians so many Overthrows that they were forc'd to quit the Territories they had Usurp'd during the Reign of His Predecessors They were again Defeated by Dioclesian and Constantius but it does not appear that they became Subjects to the Romans Valentinian Defeated them some time after in such a Manner that they were forc'd to quit Pannoma and Moesia and Retire into their own Country and Began to Form a Common-wealth under Lochus about the Year of our Lord 550. They have preserv'd their Liberty ever since though they have been often reduc'd to great Extremities but they never paid Tribute to any of their Neighbours 'T is true that their King Michael VVieznowisky had the Weakness to agree to Pay a Yearly Tribute to the Turks but the States of Poland refus'd to Ratify the Treaty and boldly Asserted their Right and Liberty under the Conduct of John Sobiesky Grand Mareshal of the Crown who was afterward Elected King and forc'd the Turks to Renounce the Pretended Tribute that Michael had Promis'd them The Nobility of Poland is so Numerous and Brave that it seems Morally Impossible to Conquer their Country so long as they are well United and the Surprising Progress of Charles Gustavus King of Sweden who in Three Months Time Conquer'd almost that Kingdom signifies nothing in this Case for that Prince was called in by some of the Polanders themselves and the others would not Fight for their King The Precipitated Retreat of the Swedes when the Poles Returned to their Duty sheweth how little they were able to Conquer Poland But I leave off this Subject to speak a word as to this Book The First Part giving an Account of the Constitution of the Polish Government of the State of Poland in respect to its Neighbours of the Prerogative of their Kings of their Dyets Customs Manners Ceremonies Religion Coyns c. is Owing to a Person of Quality who has Resided many years in that Kingdom and who by reason of his Merit as well as Character could better inform himself of the Matters he Treats of than Men of ordinary Birth and Capacity The Appendix containing a Chronological Abridgment of the Kings of Poland some farther Remarks on the Government of that Kingdom the Instrument of the â—bdication of King John Casimire the Rise Progress and Destruction of the Socinians is partly abstracted from History and Private Memoires of Persons that may be depended upon The Account of the late Interregnum and the Election of Frederick Augustus is grounded upon the best Intelligence that it was possible to have from Poland considering the Confusion of the Affairs of that Country and the Pretentions of the Competitors are stated and related as they have been communicated by the Eye-witnesses of those Transactions THE CONTENTS Chap. I. OF the Constitution of the Polish Government and the Principal Officers of State p. 1 Chap. II. Of the Division of Poland into Provinces p. 4 Chap. III. Of the State of Poland with respect to its Neighbours and of the various Success of the VVars in which it has been Engaged with them p. 12 Chap. IV. Of the Tartars their manner of Fighting their Original Division of their Country Manners and History of their Actions and how they became Subject to the Turk p. 27 Chap. V. Of Ukrania and the Cossacks with an Account of the Lithuanians and Livonians p. 37 Chap. VI. Of the State of Poland p. 76 Chap. VII Of the King p. 81 Chap. VIII Of the Senate in General p. 97 Chap. IX Of the Senate an particular and first of the Bishops p. 98 Chap. X. Of the Palatins Castellans and Officers of State who are Senators p. 107 Chap. XI Of the Order of the Nobility and Gentry p. 113 Chap. XII Of the Officers who are not Senators p. 118 Chap. XIII Of the Interregnum p. 120 Chap. XIV Of the Election of a KING p. 124 Chap. XV. Of the Diets in general p. 128 Chap. XVI Of the Diet of the Election p. 137 Chap. XVII Of the Election of a Successor p. 144 Chap. XVIII Of the Pacta Conventa or the Contract betwixt the King and the People p. 147 Chap. XIX Of the Kings Coronation p. 153 Chap. XX. Of the Queens of Poland p. 161 Chap. XXI Of the Polish Army p. 164 Chap. XXII Of the Estates and Revenues of the Polanders p. 174 Chap. XXIII Of the Customs Humours and Inclinations of the Polanders p. 184 Chap. XXIV Of their Religion p. 191 Chap. XXV Of the Administration of Justice p. 194 Chap. XXVI Their Marriages and Funerals p. 196 Chap. XXVII Of the Diet and Entertainment of the Polanders p. 200 Chap. XXVIII Their way of Travelling p. 205 Chap. XXIX Of the Polish Money p. 209. A Chronological Abridgment of the History of Poland p. 212. A Panegyrical Character of the Last King John III. with an Account of his Principal Actions and Death p. 221 Further Remarks on the Government of Poland and the Extraordinary care they take of their Libertys and Priviledges p. 223. The Form of King Casimire's Abdication p. 225. The Instrument of the States Publisht on that Cecasion p. 228. The Rise of Socinianism in Poland and of the Present State of that Sect. p. 230 Edict of King Sigismund against the Socinians p. 233. Edict of King John Casimire against them p. 236. A Letter giving an Account of the Present State of the Socinians p. 238. A Petition of the Socinians sent some years ago into England representing briefly their Miserable Condition p. 248. Where now Setled p. 250. Account of the late Interregnum and Election of the Present King With some further Remarks on the late King and a short Character of the several Candidates for that Crown p. 251 The Proposals made by the Baron de Fleming in behalf of his Master the Elector of Saxony p. 274. The Pacta Conventa Sworn to by the Baron de Fleming in the great Church of Warsaw p. 278 A great Ambassy appointed to go and offer the Crown to the Elector with the Remarkable Speech of the first Ambassador on that Occasion p. 281. The Kings Speech to the Nobility assembled to Congratulate him p. 288. His Corronation p. 293. The Prince of Conty's arrival at Dantzick c. p. 295 THE Present State OF POLAND CHAP. I. Of the Constitution of the Polish Government and the Principal Officers of State POLAND is a Republic compos'd of two Estates the Crown and the great Dutchy of Lithuania The Crown is properly the Kingdom of Poland and the great Dutchy of Lithuania was United to it in the
is only the Royal Prussia that ought to be reckon'd a Province of Poland and even tho' it belongs to the Republic 't is govern'd by its own Laws and enjoys particular Privileges They have a peculiar Treasury and a Treasurer and when the King summons the Arrierban the Nobility are not obliged to go beyond the Frontiers of the Kingdom This Province is divided into three Palatinates Culm Marienburg and Pomerania It s chief Cities are Thorn upon the Vistula Elbing a league from Frischlaff and Dantzic which is the most considerable of 'em all and the capital City of the Palatinate of Pomerania which comprehends all the Country Westward of the Vistula to the Confines of Germany Upon the Coast of Prussia the Waves of the Sea cast Amber upon the Shore which the Fishermen take up in Nets It is soft at first but soon after grows so hard that it may be turned or engraved and cut into all sorts of Figures 'T is also found in certain great Lakes in the same Province especially in the Bishoprick of Warmia There are also many Lakes that abound with Fish almost in every part of the Country In the Palatinate of Marienburg there is the Lake of Drausen which sends forth the River Elbing that discharges it self in the Frischaff which is a Bay or Gulf of the Baltick Sea about twenty leagues in length and two in breadth In the Palatinate of Pomerania there is a Lake betwixt Konicz and Schochaw which is seven leagues long and five broad and is the head of the River Bro which falls into the Vâ—stula about four leagues above Culm There are also three other almost as large as the former in the same Palatinate near the City of Dantzic and both the Palatinate of Culm and the Bishoprick of Warmia are so full of Lakes that it would be almost an endless Labour to mention every one of them particularly Massovia hath Prussia on the North little Poland on the South Podlassia on the East and great Poland on the West The Vistula and the Bugg are the principal Rivers that water it This Province began to be united to the Crown of Poland by Ziemowit who was Prince thereof in the Reign of Casimir the Great but the Union was not fully perfected till the Death of the Dukes John and Stanislaus in the Reign of Sigismund I. anno 1526. It contains only one Palatinate which formerly took its Name from the Town of Czersk but is now call'd after the Name of the Province Samogitia or Samojedia which is a Dependancy of the Dutchy of Lithuania is border'd by Courland on the North the River Niemen on the South Lithuania on the East and the Baltic Sea on the West The Christian Religion was introduc'd into this Country Anno 1413 by the pious Care of King Jagellon who took the pains to instruct those People himself because they could not understand the Polish Priests The chief Towns in Samogitia are Rosienia on the River Dubissa and Miednich There are no Palatinates here but the Province is divided into several Starosties or Governments of Castles and the first Starosta is a Senator Since Courland depends upon Poland and is the Frontier of Samogitia it will not be improper to give a short account of it here 'T is divided into two parts Courland and Semigallia the River Dzwina separates it from Livonia on the North 't is bounded with Samogitia on the South Lithuania on the East and the Baltic Sea on the West This Country has been subject to a Prince who is a Vassal and Feudatory of Poland since the Year 1561 that Godfrey Ketlâ—r great Master of the Teutonic Knights in Livonia having voluntarily resign'd his Office put all Livonia with the Town of Riga the capital City of the Province into the hands of Nicholas Radziwill in the Name of Sigismund Augustus who gave him Courland and Semigallis which were then reckon'd part of Livâ—ia on Condition that he should remain a Vassal to the Crown of Poland The City of Mittauw in Sâ—â—â—â—â—ita is at present the Metropolis of that little State and the Residence of the Duke Upper Volhinia reaches from Polesia on the North to upper Pâ—dâ—ia on the South and from lower Volbinia on the East to black Russia on the West It s chief Cities are Lucko or Lusuck or Luceowia on the River Ster and Kremienice which is situated upon an Eminence on the bank of the River Izwa about eight leagues from Luceowia towards the South The Province of Podlachia which was united to Poland in the Year 1569 is bounded by Lithuania towards the East and Massovia towards the West 't is ten leagues broad and thirty leagues long It s chief Cities are Augustow and Biclsk which gives Name to a Palatinate CHAP. III. Of the State of Poland with respect to its Neighbors and of the various Success of the Wars in which it has been engag'd with ' em POland reach'd heretofore from the Black Sea to the Baltic and from 〈◊〉 to Hungary but as all the States in the World are subject to great and frequent Revolutions Poland has had its share in the general Calamity and is at present confin'd within much narrower Bounds For it may be observ'd in general that every Republick is look'd upon by its Neighbors as a Country which they have a kind of Right to invade And the same Remark may in a peculiar manner be apply'd to Poland both with respect to the Manner and Constitution of its Government and the insatiable Ambition of all its Neighbors of which the Turks Tartars and Moscovites are most formidable 'T is long since the Turks dismember'd Valachia and Moldavia from this Kingdom and afterwards the Cossacks being oppress'd by the Nobility and restrain'd from their wonted Pyracies on the Black Sea resolv'd to shake off a Yoke which they could no longer bear and by that means gave the Turks an opportunity to invade Vbrania in the Reign of King Michael and to make themselves Masters of Caminiec the capital City of Vpper Podolia and the only place of strength which the Polanders had upon that Frontier That fatal War continued after the death of K. Michael and disturb'd the Reign of his Successor John III till the Polanders were at last constrain'd to make a Peace at Zurawno in Pokutia for the Army of the Turks and Tartars was so numerous and formidable that Year that it consisted of above 180000 effective Men and on the other hand that of the Polanders was so weak that they could not bring above 12000 Men into the Field because they were depriv'd of the Assistance of a considerable part of the Forces of Lithuania who were drawing together near Leopold under Prince Michael of Radziwill their General but could not joyn the grand Army because the Infidels had block'd up all the Avenues to the Camp so that the General was oblig'd to continue at Leopold with the Marquess de Bethune and the L. Hide Ambassador from the K.
glad of such an Opportunity to be reveng'd for the ill usage he had receiv'd from him Accordingly he cut off his Master's Head upon a Logg of Wood as if it had been a piece of Beef and was forc'd to give him several Slashes before he could entirely separate his Head from his Body Stephen Battori King of Poland besieg'd the City of Polotta in Muscovy Anno 1579. and after a most vigorous resistance the Besieged finding themselves unable to hold out longer offer'd to surrender the place the Capitulation was at last agreed upon by the unanimous Consent of the Garrison and Inhabitants except the Bishop and the Governor who continually animated the Soldiers and the Burghers to make an obstinate defence representing to them that it would be more honourable to dye in the Service of their Prince than to save their Lives by an ignominious Treaty And indeed neither the Bishop nor the Governor would sign the Capitulation but retir'd into the Church of St. Sophia whence Steven Battori caus'd them to be brought forth and committed them to the Custody of the Treasurer of Lithuania When the Polish Garrison enter'd the Town to take possession of it and to receive the Stores and Ammunitions according to the Articles of the Capitulation they were surpriz'd to behold so many Marks of a horrible and brutish Cruelty which the Muscovites had practis'd on the Polish Prisoners they found some of 'em most barbarously torn in pieces some half boil'd in great Kettles with their Hands ty'd behind their Backs and others who had been miserably butcher'd by ripping up their Bellies the Polanders were so transported with Rage and Indignation at the sight of such a dismal Scene of Horror that they would have reveng'd the death of their Countrymen upon the whole Muscovitish Garrison But King Stephen generously considering that no provocation could excuse the Breach of a solemn Treaty restrain'd the Fury of his Souldiers and sent the Muscovites back to their own Country under the Convoy of two Troops of Horse I could easily produce many other Examples of this nature but what I have already said is sufficient to prove that the Muscovites are naturally cruel I return now to that memorable Irruption which the King of Sweden made into Poland with so much Violence and Success that King John Casimir and his Queen Louise Mary were forc'd to leave the Kingdom and to retire into Silesia for almost all the Nobility and even the Polish Army had abandon'd them and follow'd the Rapidity of the Conqueror's Fortune But the Polanders afterwards being sensible of the Fault they had committed in forsaking their King and those who had still continu'd faithful to him resuming fresh Courage under the Conduct of the General Czarneski they by degrees expel'd the Swedes who had made themselves Masters of the whole Country and of the City of Cracow which they had taken in three days Thus the Kingdom was reconquer'd and the Swedes were oblig'd to enter into a Treaty of Peace which was concluded in the Abby of Oliva Princes are so apt to be jealous of a neighbouring Conqueror that they are even willing to assist a former Enemy against the unequal force of an ambitious and successful Invader For when the King of Sweden had made himself Master of Poland at a time when the Polanders were engag'd in a War with the Cossacks who had besieg'd Leopold the Muscovites who had also invaded Lithuania immediately quitted that Dutchy and fell upon the Swedes in Livonia in order to make a diversion and the Tartars who are naturally Enemies to all Christians and in a particular manner to the Polish Nation not only sent a potent Army to assist the K. of Poland but forc'd the Cossacks to raise the Siege of Leopold and to joyn with them in the defence of the Polanders And the same reason which induc'd the Muscovites and the Tartars to succour the Polanders obliged the Emperor also to send them some Troops but he made 'em pay dear for his Assistance for the Salt-works being mortgag'd to him for some years he caus'd so great a quantity of Salt to be made and exported that the Works were almost ruin'd Nor are the Muscovites and Tartars the only troublesome Neighbours to Poland for 't will appear by the following Relation that the Misfortunes of that Nation were in some measure owing to the Germans Vladislaus Jagellon King of Poland being engag'd in a War with the Teutonic Knights who were Masters of Prussia and having rais'd a powerful Army of Polanders Lithuanians and Prussians was in a condition to overpower his Enemies and to expel them utterly out of his Dominions when the Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg desir'd him to refer the Differences that occasion'd the War to his Arbitration and in the mean time to grant the Teutonic Knights a Truce for two Years Jagellon accepted the Offer and disbanded his Army But since the Emperor design'd only to gain time that the Knights might be able to put themselves in a posture of desence he was so far from taking care to adjust these Differences that he was glad the Polanders were divided fearing that after they had driven the Teutonic Knights out of the Kingdom they would make a vigorous Attempt to retake Silesia which the Kings of Bohemia had lately usurp'd King Jagellon perceiving that the Emperor had disappointed him sent to put him in mind of his Promise but it seems Sigismund had either forgotten or was not willing to remember the Service which the Polanders had done him in the year 1414 when they oblig'd the Turks to restore all the Prisoners they had taken and to grant him a Truce for six years and that Jagellon not only refus'd the Crown of Bohemia which the revolted Hussites had offer'd him but exhorted them to return to their Obedience to the Church and to their Prince Thus without considering those important services and without examining the matter he gave Judgment against the Polanders in favour of the Teutonic Knights which so incens'd King Jagellon that he dispatch'd one immediately to reproach him with his Ingratitude and Injustice and to tell him that he renounc'd his Friendship Whereupon Sigismund endeavour'd to excuse himself by pretending that he was impos'd upon by the Knights Tho' the Emperor knew that the King of Poland had just cause to be angry with him he was so far from seeming to take notice of his Resentment that he went as far as Luceoria to see him and his Uncle Vitold pretending an earnest desire to be reconcil'd to 'em tho his real design was to divide ' em He knew that the latter was a violent and ambitious Prince and that his Nephew had intrusted him with a very great Authority in Lithuania and resolv'd to make use of this Opportunity to corrupt his Fidelity and inspire him with an Inclination to revolt He insinuated that a Prince of so much Merit ought not to depend â—pon his Nephew but to think how
to make himself at least his Equal adding That since 't was in his power to erect new Kingdoms as being King of the Romans he would make him King of Lithuania and send him the Crown with all the other Royal Ornaments To which Vitold reply'd That tho he wou'd not refuse the Offer he cou'd â—ot accept it without the Consent of the King his Neâ—hew As soon as the Emperor had receiv'd this Answer he went to Jagellon and represented to him That for the Honour of his Nation he ought not to oppose that Design if the Senate would consent to it The Senators being assembled for that end and Vitold present the Archbishop of Gnesna whom Sigismund had brought over to his side having made a long and confus'd Discourse without coming to any certain conclusion the Bishop of Cracow rose up in his place and blaming Vitold's Design with a great deal of Zeal and Boldness put him in mind of all the Articles agreed upon betwixt the King and him and confirm'd by mutual Oaths by which they had united Lithuania to Poland That it was a Shame for a Prince of his age and who had acquir'd so much Glory to discover so irregular an Ambition that would infallibly expose both the Polanders and Lithuanians to unavoidable Ruin adding That he ought to consider that Sigismund's Kindness was treacherous and fatal that he ought to suspect a Present that was offer'd him by their common Enemy that the Design of the King of the Romans was only to create a Jealousie betwixt him and his Nephew that he might execute his Designs upon two disunited Princes which he durst not attempt while they were Friends that he ought to set a greater Value on the Favours and Kindnesses he had received from the King his Nephew and from the Polanders than upon the vain and deceitful Promises of the King of the Romans that the Germans never had any real Kindness either for him or the King that they had often violated the Conditions of Peace agreed on between the two Nations and that under the pretext of doing them good Offices they had made frequent Attempts to ruine 'em that he ought to consider that the King had prefer'd him before his own Brothers by intrusting him with so great an Authority in Lithuania that he ought not to be deluded by the pernicious Insinuations of Sigismund and that he hop'd so wise and judicious a Prince would neither suffer himself to be impos'd upon nor the Glory of so many illustrious Actions which he had perform'd to be stain'd by the treacherous Artifices of his Enemy This Harangue was applauded by the whole Senate which so exasperated Vitold that he went out of the Assembly after he had assur'd 'em That since they did not think fit to comply with him he would find some other way to compass his Designs Thus the Senate broke up and King Jagellon return'd to Poland but Sigismund staid some time with Vitold at Luceoria after which he went immediately to Hungary lest the Polanders whom he had offended should raise some Disturbance in that Country and some time after he sent a fine Present to Vitold as a Pledge of the League they had enter'd into upon certain Conditions The King left no means unattempted to secure himself against the Attempts of his Uncle and to prevent the ill effects of the Advice which Sigismund had given him to make himself Master of Lithuania for he had receiv'd information that he had enter'd into an Alliance with the Tentonic Knights by the Emperor's Advice and Mediation Vitold on the other hand in pursuance of his Design forc'd the Lithuanians to take a new Oath of Fidelity to him and plac'd Garrisons in the Towns of Lithuania that border'd upon Poland Jagellon not being able to disswade his Uncle Vitold from pursuing the unnatural Resolution with which the King of the Romans had inspir'd him and understanding that he was suddenly to be Crown'd gave Orders to lye in wait for those who should be sent to him and to surprize them in their Journey from Prussia to Lithuania And accordingly the Chamberlain of Posnania who receiv'd that Order seiz'd two of those Envoys on the Frontiers of Poland viz. Baptista Cigale of Genoua and Sigismund Roth of Silesia who were going to Vitold in Lithuania and took from them the Letters which they were carrying to him Those Letters were written to satisfie him that a King of the Romans or an Emperor had power to erect new Kingdoms These Envoys were also intrusted with Letters Patents for the erection of the Dutchy of Lithuania into a Kingdom And besides they were impower'd to treat of an Alliance with the Teutonic Knights against the Polanders The King having perus'd all the Letters commanded the Chamberlain of Posnania to return to the Frontiers of Poland for Sigismund was sending to Vitold an Ambassy of Germans Bohemians and Hungarians who were carrying the Crown and all the Royal Ornaments to him and were to pass by the next morning but by that time they had reach'd Frankfurt upon the Oder they understood that the Polanders had block'd up all the Passages so that after they had staid two months in that City without daring to proceed on their Journey they return'd to Germany In the mean time Vitold who had invited all the principal Lords of Lithuania and Russia and the chief of the Teutonic Knights to Vilna to assist at the Ceremony of his Coronation perceiving that he was disappointed resolv'd himself to invite the King his Nephew to a Hunting-match in Lithuania hoping that he might easily perswade him to consent to his Advancement But the Senate of Poland who were acquainted with the goodness and easiness of the King's Temper order'd the Bishop of Cracow to accompany him that he might not do any thing without his Advice When the King arriv'd at Viâ—na Vitold pray'd him to consent to his Coronation and not to envy him the Honour of wearing a Crown To which the King answer'd That he could not do it without the Consent of the Lords of Poland who had sent the Bishop of Cracow with him that he might do nothing without his Approbation Upon which Vitold sent some persons to that Prelate to bribe his Fidelity with Assurances of a magnificent Reward adding in a flattering and obliging manner That his Fortune depended upon him and that he hop'd he would not prove the only Enemy to his Advancement Those who were intrusted with this Message had Orders to tell the Bishop That he ought to consider what an Affront it would be to their Master if he sould not be crown'd King That he desir'd no more than that he would suffer him to wear the Crown for a moment and that he would quit it immediately At the same time they assur'd him that if he continued obstinately to oppose that Prince's Design he would be his irreconcilable Enemy and do every thing that lay in his power to dispossess him
the Russians that they could never afterwards be reconcil'd And this was one of the principal causes of the Revolt of the Cossacks and of all the Disasters with which Poland was afterwards harass'd Such was the dismal effect of that Change of Religion and of those Ceremonies which the Polish Gentry would have introduc'd into their Territories in Russia they ought to have consider'd that the best Innovations are frequently attended with fatal Consequences and their own Country might have furnish'd 'em with a very instructive Example of this nature The Lutheran Doctrin was introduc'd into Riga by a Sedition of the meaner sort of people in the Year 1586 not long after the Reformation of the Kalendar made by Pope Gregory XIII had been publish'd there Some persons resolving to celebrate the Feast of our Saviour's Nativity according to the ancient Kalendar the Governor of the City imprison'd the Principal of the College because he was the first who acted contrary to the Decree of the Senate which rais'd so great an Uproar in the City that the People in the night-time broke open the Prison and pull'd down the Houses of the Curate and of the Governor And even the disorder was so great that almost all the Inhabitants took up Arms against those who defended the Roman-Catholick Religion and especially the Jesuits whom King Stephen Battori had settl'd there in the year 1582 after he had given 'em certain Revenues and a Church which belong'd to the Canons During the heat of the tumult the incens'd People imprison'd some of the Senators and put some others to death so that being sensible of their Guilt and despairing of Pardon they put themselves under the protection of other Lutherans and never afterwards return'd to their ancient Religion Thus 't is plain that the restraining of the Cossacks from making Incursions and the Change of Religion which the Lords of Poland would have introduc'd into their Territories in Russia and Vkrania were the two principal Causes of that Peoples revolt But there was also another reason that caus'd that fierce and untractable Nation to rebel The Gentry of Vpper Volhinia were so addicted to Tyranny and Oppression that they could not endure the Cossacks because their neighbourhood gave a bad Example to all their Subjects and dispos'd 'em to shake off the insupportable Yoke of Servitude for they thought it better to live like the Cossacks at Liberty and without Constraint than to work and till the Ground for the use of their Oppressors so that the tyranny of the Gentlemen augmented the number of the Cossacks by forcing the Peasants to forsake their Habitations and retire to them The fourth reason that the Cossacks had to complain of the Gentry proceeded from the sordid Usury and insatiable Avarice of the Jews who are very numerous in Poland except in the Province of Massovia where they are only permitted to remain when there is a Dyet sitting at Warsaw They live miserably thro the whole Kingdom because they are oppress'd and squeez'd by the Gentry they are usually the persons who sell Aqua-Vitae and Beer and farm the Customs of the Lords which they do for the most part at an excessive price and this is the reason why they make bad Brandy and Beer They were first introduc'd into Poland by a Duke of Kalisch who brought them from Germany and establish'd them in his and some other Cities of Lower Poland from whence they spread themselves throughout the whole Kingdom they have the Privilege not to acknowledge any Judge but only the Palatins whom they easily soften not to say corrupt by the Presents they make them Their Usury and Exactions upon the People have sometimes risen to such an exorbitant height that they have obtain'd a Prohibition for any private person to brew Beer not even for themselves by which means they oblig'd all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom to buy it of them at what price they pleas'd to impose upon it The Son of King Vladislaus dying in the Year 1647 the Cossacks began again to revolt under the command of one Chemeinski who was the first that made the Cossacks joyn the Tartars notwithstanding the mortal Enmity that was formerly betwixt 'em by reason of the great difference of their Language Manners and Religion After they were thus united in the Year 1648 they made a terrible havock in Poland But before I proceed to relate their Barbarities it will not be improper to give a short Character of Chemelnski He understood War very well and was once Secretary to the Army he was also a man of Learning and had studied with the Jesuits at Leopold he knew the weak side of the Court of Poland having been several times there in the quality of an Envoy he was so exasperated by the loss of an Estate which a Polish Lord had taken from him by a Law-suit that immediately he had recourse to force and having gather'd out of the Isles of the Boristhenes a multitude of People like himself and corrupted the Cossacks in the Polish Army he soon after prevail'd with the neighbouring Tartars to joyn him with whose assistance he fell unexpectedly upon the Polanders who guarded the Frontiers of the Kingdom and afterwards cut in pieces part of their Army and sent the rest with their Commanders into Slavery to Tartary From that time he so manag'd the Republick that sometimes he suffer'd himself to be appeas'd by Promises and then rais'd a new Insurrection according to the posture of his Affairs 'T is true he was sometimes beaten by the Polanders but 't is no less certain that he always kept the Advantage over 'em either by his own dexterity or by the Divisions or Neglect of the Polish Generals who could not make a right use of their Victories He was often reconcil'd to the Republick but never trusted in them He was naturally of a turbulent Spirit keeping his Men always in Arms against Poland and fortifying his Interest by the Affiance of some potent Neighbour for 't was his constant practice to change his Affies according to the state of his Affairs Thus after the Tartars had concluded a Peace with King John Casimir he implor'd the Protection of the Duke of Muscovy so that Poland could hardly entertain any Hope of being able to reduce the Cossacks during the life of so politick a General After the death of Vladislaus IV May 30 1648 John Casimir his Brother was chosen King of Poland Nov. 17 in the same Year He immediately apply'd himself to remedy the ill state of the Republick and to repair the Losses it had sustain'd by the Irruption which the Cossacks and Tartars had made even into the very Heart of the Kingdom after the Defeat at Pilaveze Sept. 29 1648. The greatest part of the Polish Army was compos'd of new-rais'd Soldiers and of Militia they were encamp'd near the Cossacks end had even obtain'd some Advantages over them but those Revolters having made a great noise in the Evening with
this place he found the Cossacks and Tartars joyn'd together whom he attack'd and fought for three days together during which time the Battel was very obstinate on both sides but at last the Polish Army obtain'd an entire Victory over the Cossacks and Tartars and put Chemelnski and the Cham who commanded in person to flight This deseat oblig'd Chemelnski to make a Peace with Poland which was concluded Sept. 28. 1651 but lasted not long for soon after the Cossacks being enrag'd by the Insolency of the Polish Nobility and fearing to fall again into their ancient Bondage attack'd the Army of the Republic and totally routed it I observ'd before that Chemelnski had always the Policy to enter into an Alliance with such Princes who were best able to support him In pursuance of this Maxim as soon as he understood that the Tartars had made a Peace with Poland not daring to rely upon his own single strength he put himself under the protection of the Muscovites in the year 1654 and made a League with 'em which cost the Polanders the City of Smolensko which the Muscovites took the same year Chemelnski dying Anno 1658 the Cossacks chose one Vihowski for their General and threaten'd that they would put themselves into the hands of the Turk or the D. of Muscovy if the Republic would not grant all that they demanded upon which King John Casimir considering that it would be equally disadvantageous to his Kingdom whether they submitted to the Duke of Muscovy or the Turks concluded a Peace with 'em by which it was agreed that all their Captains should be Gentlemen of Poland That Vihowski their General should be Palatin of Kiowia That the Bishops of the Greek Religion should be admitted to the chief Offices and That the Metropolitan of Kiowia should have the rank of a Senator Besides the Starostie of Lubomliana was given to Vihowski and that of Bobrois to Nieczaio on condition that they should hold them as Fiefs of the Republic These Conditions was afterwards ratified by the Diet And by this means the Cossack Captains from miserable Peasants of Russia as they were by their Birth were advanc'd to the Dignity of Polish Noblemen I have already observ'd that the revolt of the Cossacks was partly occasion'd by the Tyranny of the Polish Gentlemen for they were their Lords and had power of Life and Death over 'em as they have still in Poland over all their Peasants Those of Vkrania not being able to support their Insolency began to revolt and by degrees expel'd all the Nobility There were several great Lords who by this revolution lost above 100000 Crowns a Year among whom was the above mention'd Prince Visnovieski whose Son I have seen in Poland so poor that he had only a yearly Pension of Six thousand Livres which Queen Mary Louise allow'd him to subsist upon but Fortune afterwards rais'd him to the Throne upon the abdication of King Casimir as I shall have occasion to observe in its proper place That fatal Revolt of the Cossacks which began in the Reign of Sigismund III augmenting by degrees under the following Kings not only depriv'd many Polish Gentlemen of their Estates and gave the Tartars occasion to carry away above a million of persons into Slavery but was also the cause of the decay of the Christian Religion throughout Vkrania For it may be reasonably suppos'd that the Turks endeavour to settle Mahometism in that Country in imitation of all Conquerors who the Letter to secure the Fidelity of the people whom they subdue force them to receive their Religion as the most effectual way to keep 'em in Obedience to their new Masters And even tho' the Turks should not endeavour to settle Mahometism in all their Conquests it wou'd at last become the modish Religion since 't is usual for people to take the Language and Religion of a Prince whose Favour they are desirous to procure The Cossacks having under several Generals maintain'd a War against the Polanders who perpetually labour'd to reduce them they were at last oblig'd to call in the Turks and to put themselves under their protection Thus were those Infidels admitted into Vkrania and easily made themselves Masters of the City of Caminiec which they found destitute of all sorts of Provisions nevertheless they took it by Capitulation But they were so far from observing the Articles they had granted by which the Inhabitants were to continue still in the profession of their ancient Religion that as soon as they were Masters of the place they carried away into Slavery all the people of that unhappy City and left no mark of its having been once inhabited by Christians but only the Cathedral Church which they have also turn'd to a Mosque These are the fatal Consequences of the insupportable Tyranny of the Gentlemen of Poland and of their unjustifiable Cruelty to their Subjects But long before the Turks invaded Poland they look'd upon Vkrania as a Country which they resolv'd to conquer at any rate and which they might easily subdue if the Cossacks should be oblig'd to desire their protection Besides they were willing to take hold of so favourable an Opportunity to deliver themselves from such cruel and formidable Enemies who had so often harass'd 'em by their Pyracies on the Black Sea They had made Peace with the Emperor and consequently were not oblig'd to keep an Army in Hungary and after the abdication of King John Casimir who was a valiant Prince the People had chosen a peaceable King in his place They consider'd also that the Revolt of the Cossacks gave them a free passage into a pleasant and fertile Country such as Vkrania certainly is and invited 'em to make themselves Masters of Caminiec which is the Key of that Province For that City which is the Metropolis of Upper Podolia is fortified by Nature being situated on a Rock environ'd by a very deep broad and sleep Ditch which is sill'd with Water by the River Smotrzy which almost quite surrounds the City so that it leaves only a narrow passage into it and 't is that entry only which is fortified by Art all the rest being sufficiently defended by Nature Nevertheless it must be acknowledg'd that the Hills that are beyond the Ditch being higher than the City the Garrison in a Siege might be very much incommoded with Artillery But 't is not such an Inconveniency as this that can oblige a place of strength to surrender nor will it ever be reduc'd by so distant an attack and after all the City of Caminiec will ne'r be retaken by the Polanders unless the Port be one day reduc'd as low as Poland was when the Turks took it In the Reign of King Michael the Polanders were so firmly perswaded of the impossibility of reducing that place and of the difficulty of putting an end to the War with the Grand Signior that they made a shameful Peace with him and oblig'd themselves to pay him a yearly Tribute
Tartars ought to have encourag'd the Polanders to pursue their Victory and in their return to enter the Crim and ravage all they could which they might have done the more easily because Poland reach'd at that time to the Black Sea and because they might have surpriz'd that Peninsula since there was not one Tartar that escap'd to carry the News of the defeat or of the march of the Polanders But instead of taking this favourable Opportunity to invade or at least alarm these Barbarians with whom they were sensible they could never conclude a solid and durable Peace Prince John Albert return'd to Poland in triumph and the King his Father receiv'd him with a great deal of Joy instead of checking him for not pursuing his Victory and all the Polanders extoll'd his Courage and Prudence This then is the usual Conduct of the Polanders after the gaining of a Battle I observ'd that the Polanders know by experience that they can never make a solid peace with the Tartars or rely upon their promises and I could easily prove this Remark by above a hundred examples but I shall content my self with mentioning two of these Instances Sigismund King of Poland preparing to make War with the Duke of Muscovy in the year 1516 and being desirous to secure Podolia and Volhinia gave a sum of Mony to Mendlinges Cham of Tartary that he might not only oblige him to make no Irruptions into Poland but also to make a powerful diversion in Muscovy which the Cham promis'd and swore to do but he had no sooner receiv'd the Mony from the Polanders than he violated his Oath for marching out of the Crim with 300000 Horse instead of invading the Muscovites he enter'd into Podolia and Russia and encamp'd at Luceoria from whence he sent four of his principal Officers each with a great body of Horse keeping only the fourth part of his Army with himself who made such a terrible havock thro' the whole Kingdom of Poland and especially in the Palatinates of Belcz Leopold and Lublin and the Consternation of the People was so great that the Alarm reach'd to Hungary for they pillag'd burnt ravish'd Women and Maids and carried away all the Cattle Men Women and Maids they could seize upon insomuch that the number of the Slaves they took amounted to above 50000 persons without reckoning the old and the young whom they kill'd because they could not carry them away In the mean time King Sigismund was in Lithuania where having receiv'd an account of the fatal News and not being able to remedy the disorder at so great a distance he sent Deputies to Mendlinges to complain of his Treachery in violating his Oath to which the Cham reply'd That it was the Fault of his Children and Nephews and of the insolent Youth whom he could not restrain In the mean time he desir'd to renew the Alliance he had made with King Sigismund and promis'd to turn his Arms against the Muscovites accordingly he march'd the same Summer out of the Crim and ravag'd all Muscovy from whence he brought back an infinite number of Cattle and Slaves 'T is plain then that neither the Polanders nor any other Christians ought to give credit to those Barbarians But the second Example which I shall relate will more plainly demonstrate the Infidelity of those Mahometans Aslan being declar'd Cham of Tartary and his Fidelity being suspected by the Grand Signior the Port on which the Tartars depend resolv'd to send them Sedetker for their Prince which Aslan being inform'd of by some of his Friends and dreading the Grand Signior's power he sent to supplicate Sigismund III King of Poland to give him leave if the Port should declare War against him to retire into his Territories about the Boristhenes with 70000 men praying him to be instead of a Father to him and promising to serve him against all his enemies to which Sigismund replied That he would receive him as his Son that he wish'd him all Happiness that he was sorry that the Port was displeas'd with his advancement and that if the Turks should march against him he might retire with safety into the neighbourhood of the Boristhenes where he would assist him with Provisions and Troops The Polanders who guarded the Frontiers of the Kingdom that they might signalize themselves by some brave and important action resolv'd to attack Oczakow which belong'd to the Crim Tartars that there might be no place left that could incommode those who had retir'd along the Boristhenes but unfortunately three days before the Polanders arriv'd at Oczakow Aslan had concluded a Peace with his Cousin Sedetker and Oczakow was surrender'd to him The Polanders having no design to offend Aslan who they knew was their Ally nor knowing that the two Cousins were reconcil'd met in their way 300 Tartars belonging to the Cham Aslan whom believing 'em to be his enemies they cut to pieces and afterwards kill'd more of the same Nation in other places Their Courage being elevated with this success they marched strait to Oczakow and at their first arrival before the place took 3000 Horses that were running loose in the Fields Aslan understanding what the Polanders had done sent a Messenger to Jaslowieski their Commander to acquaint him that since he was in League with the King of Poland his Brother and good Friend and had faithfully defended his Country from the Incursions of the other Tartars he was extreamly surpriz'd to hear that the Polanders had killed his Men and carried away the Horses which he kept for the Service of their King that he entreated him to cause 'em to be restored to him without obliging him to right himself by force of Arms to revenge the Injury he had received nor from a Defendor of the Kingdom of Poland to give him cause to become its most cruel enemy that however he thought fit to inform him it was necessary he should have a private Conference with him to treat in a friendly manner of the wrongs and losses he had sustained Jaslowieski being deeply concerned at this News that did acquaint him with his having offended a Prince who was one of Poland's Allies and also fearing the Kings Resentments sent word to Aslan that he was extremely sorry that the Polanders had offended one of his King's Allies that this happen'd thoro ' a Mistake not knowing that the Tartars whom he met did belong to him and thinking they were some of the Crim Tartars his Enemies that he prayed him to forgive him a Fault of which his Ignorance was the only cause that he was ready to restore all the Horses that had been taken then and gave free leave to the Tartars to come for them when they pleas'd Aslan having received this News with a great deal of Joy sent immediately to fetch the Horses and invited Jaslowieski to come to Oczakow with the men that were to bring 'em thither assuring him that he had nothing to fear and that at his Arrival
Controversies by the way of Arms in publick This was their way of Living then which is not yet altogether abolished in some places But in Process of Time Princes and then Kings were brought in among them Yet with a more limited authority than in other Countries and after an Elective manner As for Laws King Casimir introduced the Teutonick there in the Year 1368. and Established a Soveraign Court of Justice at the Castle of Cracow as in the middle of his Kingdom for Poland was then of a far greater Extent than 't is now so that the City of Cracow was in a manner in the middle of that Great State whereas at this time it may be almost call'd a Frontier Town since it is but twelve Leagues from thence to Silesia which was then a province of Poland and now belongs to the Emperor of Germany on the account of the Kingdom of Bohemia The Kings us'd always to have a right to make the People take up arms as often as it was necessary and every Man was excited to give some proofs of Valor because there was no other means to rise and obtain the Right of Nobility neither was there any other Reward to be expected As for those who were not stirr'd up by the desire of honour and advancement the fear of punishment us'd to prevail with them for those who did not obey the King's Orders were either whipt with Cords or cudgel'd into fighting which convinc'd the rest of the Necessity of taking arms with all speed In those days it was not the Custom to levy Military Men with Mony in Poland for there was none at that time in that Kingdom where they then till'd the Ground barely to supply the Necessity of the Inhabitants and had no thoughts of exporting Corn out of the Country nor of importing those things that serve only for Superfluity and good Chear The Soyl which is fruitful of it self suppli'd every one with a sufficient subsistance so that the Peasants were not compell'd to work hard for if they wrought never so little they did enough for their Masters and for themselves But as soon as the Polish Gentlemen began to exchange Corn for foreign Merchandises and Riches and Luxury were brought into that Kingdom the Military Vigour began to abate and the Slavery of the Peasants became intollerable Poland is now properly a Republick and 't is by that Name that the Polanders call it looking upon their King as being no more than the head of their Common wealth This makes them lessen the King's authority more and more when a new one is to be elected still enlarging their own privileges and taking care that his prerogative may not grow too great They are indeed so jealous of their Liberty and so afraid of losing it that they will not have any fortyfied towns upon the Frontiers for fear the King should put a Garrison in it and so should make himself absolute Master of all the Nobility by degrees That sentiment is so strongly rooted within their hearts that they prepossess their Children with it betimes making them believe that their native Freedom would soon be lost if ever they suffered any town to be fortyfied upon the Frontiers But they do not consider that while they design to shun a great Evil they fall into another that is worse since their Neighbours who are all of them their Enemies finding the Country open easily invade it and from time to time make themselves Masters of some part of their state before the Polanders can be in a Condition to oppose their Irruptions as the Swedes did which I have already mentioned The Republick of Poland is composed of three Orders the King the Senate and the Nobility or Gentry Thus all the Rites and Privileges are joyntly holden by those three Orders insomuch that there can be no Laws made nor abrogated no War levied no alliance concluded with Foreigners no Impositions laid 〈◊〉 nor no money coyned but with the joynt Consent of the whole Republick or of the Senators that are deputed for that end therefore some of these are always near the King's person in order to preserve the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom CHAP. VII Of the KING THe King disposes of all the consistorial Benefices and of many others as also of all the Offices and Places of profit in the Gift of the Crown for he cannot keep them to himself and is obliged to bestow them upon the Gentlemen of Poland and not upon Foreigners tho' they have never so much personal Merit or have done never so much service to the Republick for the Polanders are so jealous of Foreigners that they cannot endure that the King should make them any connderable Gratification As for Instance In the Reign of King Stephen Batori the Hungarians had been very serviceable to the Republick in the War against the Muscovites Now that brave Prince who had invited many of 'em into Poland to repell that encroaching Enemy with their Assistance thought himself obliged to bestow some suitable Rewards upon them but he had no sooner done this but that several of the Great Men of Poland were strangely exasperated particularly the Great General who resented it so highly that he resigned his place upon that Account Many others also murmur'd openly against that Prince which usage may seem the more ungenerous and ungrateful seeing they were so much obliged to that Warlike King who had atcheived braver and greater Actions for Poland than any of his Predecessors Thus all that a Foreigner can pretend to in that Republick can amount to no more than the obtaining the Command of a Regiment of Foot or the Grant of some little Royal Gift Besides that he may be duely qualified for the possession of it he must first be made a Gentleman of Poland for otherwise the King cannot bestow any such thing upon him however there are some little Royal Gifts and Benefices which a man may hold without being a Gentleman of Poland But in the main 't is so certain that there is a necessity of being made a Gentleman of Poland to possess an Estate or Place of considerable Profit in that Kingdom that King Stephen Battori whom we just now mentioned thought fit to procure the Indigenate that is the right of Nobility to two of his Kins-men at the Sessions of the Diet which he had summon'd to meet the 13 of December 1386. For as he had no Children he was desirous of advancing those of his Brother and was perswaded that this Naturalization would enable him to prefer them to something more considerable But that Great Prince was prevented by Death in the fifty fourth year of his age after he had reigned ten years One would be apt to think that this mighty Power which the King of Poland has to dispose of so many places of Trust and Profit of so many Lands by Royal Tenure and of so many Benefices must need gain him the Love and Affection of those on whom they
are conserr'd and engage them to follow the Dictates of his Will with a blind Obedience for there are few Kings in Europe that have more favours to bestow than that Prince neither can any other in less time make a very rich Lord of a poor Gentleman But it happens quite otherwise For not to speak of the Temper of the Polanders who naturally are none of the most grateful they know too well that their King cannot dispose of any of those Preferments to any others but only to themselves and they believe that when he grants them any such Places Revenues or Benefices he only gives 'em back what belongs to them by their native Right and that thus his grant is not so much an act of Grace as a piece of Justice The rather because as I have already said the King neither ought nor can keep or convert any of those Revenues to his own particular Use or Benefit nor can he suppress any Place of Trust or Profit in the Kingdom Besides the Nobility would not easily suffer him to give the least thing to Foreigners for that powerful Body is so jealous of its Liberty that it will not give the King the least Opportunity of encreasing his Prerogative and Authority by gaining creatures that would solely depend upon him The King does not succeed his Predecessor no not tho' he were his Father But he is freely elected by the Nobility who meet by their Deputies in a General Diet which always ought to be kept near Warsaw However though a King's Children have no manner of right in the Republick yet is there always a due regard had to them Insomuch that 't is commonly one of them upon whom the Election falls after the decease of his Father But nevertheless this is always done with the same Ceremonies and still observing the same rules as if a Stranger were elected the Polanders taking great care to preserve their right of not chusing one of the deceased King's Family believing that their Happiness lies chiefly in the Power which they have to make choise of what Prince they please They have not only a due regard to the Sons of their Kings their Consideration extends also to their Daughters and even to their Widdows of which I will here relate some Examples Lewis King of Poland and Hungary being dead the 13 of December 1382 and having left no other Issue than two Daughters the Republick met at Radom in order to proceed to the Election of a New King Part of the Senators inclin'd to chuse Sigismund Marquess of Brandenburg who had wedded the eldest of those two Princesses The other part were for Hedwige who was the youngest and not yet of age to be married Thus after many Consultations it was resolved at last in the Diet that was kept at Vielicza that some Deputies should be sent by the Republick to Queen Elizabeth who was then in Hungary with the Princess Hedwige her Daughter to entreat her to send that Lady into Poland and inform her that the Senate had resolved to crown her Queen and to elect a Prince that would be in a condition to marry her Queen Elizabeth who had no mind that this Princess should marry so young and besides that had a Design to wed her to the Duke of Austria to whom she had been betroth'd in King Lewis her Father's life time sent to acquaint the Diet which was then held at Seradia that she would send the Princess Hedwige into Poland at the following Easter but that she desired that she might return after that into Hungary to remain with her the space of three years till she were of age to be married The Senators of Poland having receiv'd this answer did not think fit to proceed to the Election of a King till the Arrival of the Princess according to the promise of the Queen her Mother But finding that she had not sent her into Poland at the time appointed the Senate did a second time depute some of the Nobility to let the Queen know that tho' the Affairs of the Republick of Poland were in such a condition as highly required the presence of a King yet they were contented to stay for the Princess till the Month of November 1383. Now the Queen having neglected to send her Daughter Hedwige that second time the Polanders sent her some Deputies a third time about the beginning of the following year But Queen Elizabeth having also broke her word to them that time the Senate being met at Radom sent one single Deputy to acquaint her that it had been resolv'd in the Diet not to send any more to her and that if she had a mind that her daughter Hedwige should been Queen they would still wait for her till the 8 of May but that if after that time she did not appear the Republick would proceed according as might be thought most adviseable in the pressing necessity which they laboured under for want of a King The Queen having heard the Senate's final resolution instead of sending her Daughter Hedwige into Poland advis'd her Son-in-Law Sigismund to go thither with some Forces to govern the Republick till her Daughter Hedwige were grown up But as soon as the Polanders heard of Sigsmund's Approach they rais'd some men with all speed to oppose that Prince whom they particularly hated At the same time they sent to let him know that if he presumed to enter Poland they would declare themselves his open Enemies this obliged him to go back and send to desire them to stay till the Whitsuntide following for the Princess Hedwige's Coming Accordingly they staid and not only till then but also till the month of October after that at which time she arriv'd at Cracow where immediately she was crown'd Queen of Poland on St. Hedwige of Lignitz's Day I thought fit to relate this passage to de nonstrate that the Poles have no common Regard to the royal progeny nor do I think that any thing can illustrate that Respect more than the patience with which they waited and that too at a time while they had so much need of Electing a King For the Kingdom was then disturb'd not only by the Duke of Masovia who having a considerable party in the Republick endeavour'd to be made King of Poland as being one of the royal Family of Casimir the Great but the Lithuanians and the Russians also were not a little troublesome and there were then many Roberies Plunderings and strange disorders committed every where with Impunity because the Kingdom was destitute of a Head When Hedwige had been crowned and the Republick was studying how to get her a proper Husband Jagello Duke of Lithuania sent his two Brothers to her with very considerable Presents and at the same time offered to renounce his idolatrous Worship and turn Christian as also to endeavour to make his Subjects do the same and to unite his Dutchy to the Crown of Poland for the future and present the Republick with two
Nay even his Lady tho' a French-woman of the House of Mailly could never be brought to side with the French Faction tho' very Advantageous Offers were made to her She was Lady of Honour to Queen Eleonor and had promis'd her to be faithful to her which she did Inviolably This unshaken Fidelity in an Austrian French-woman was such that even the French themselves could not but admire and esteem it it being their Nature to Prefer that Vertue to all the Advantages that can be propos'd to them to engage them to part with it France had then almost all the Princes of Europe its Enemies but was still so Fortunate that Heaven would not somuch as suffer her to compass those Things which She most Earnestly desir'd when in process of Time those Things might have been Prejudicial to her Interest Thus the Divine Providence would not permit the Prince of Newburgh to be chosen King of Poland tho' France us'd all her Indeavours to make the Choice fall upon him which if it had taken effect would undoubtedly have been disadvantageous to that Nation for that Prince would not have fail'd to have prov'd her Enemy as did his Father soon after having Married his Daughter to the Emperor I return now to what I have already said that it is in the King of Poland's Power to dispose of all the Places and Offices in the Kingdom and Dutchy Those on whom he bestows them ought not only to be Gentlemen of Poland but ought also to be possest of some Estate in Land in the State or Country to which the said Place or Office Properly belongs So that a Gentleman whose Estate lyes all in the Kingdom of Poland cannot have an Office in the Dutchy of Lithuania neither can he whose Estate is altogether in the Dutchy have an Office in the Kingdom which Order is regularly observ'd tho' the Polanders and the Lithuanians are now properly but one Body and are no more than one People differing but in few things as to their manner of Living Nevertheless in the time that I liv'd in Lithuania I have observ'd that the Politer part of the Lithuanians come nearer to to the French than the Polanders do in all their wayes and particularly in their Briskness and Gayty tho' Lithuania is remoter from France than Poland When the King of Poland enters a City the Magistrates ought alwayes to bring him the Keys and he has power to make his own Regiment of Guards keep watch at the Gates The Citizens of Dantzick alone have the priviledge of Guarding their own Gates when the King enters that City nay they have a Right to hinder any Forces from entering with the King and to go the Rounds all Night in the Streets as long as he stays within their Walls But it must indeed be Acknowledg'd that Dantzic which is one of the most Considerable Hans-Towns is properly a free Republic under the Protection of Poland Consequently it has all the marks of an Entire Sovereignty For it condemns to Death without Appeal even the Gentlemen of Poland themselves if they happen to commit any Crime there that deserves a Capital Punishment It has a Mint of its own and Coyns its own Mony without any previous Leave or Permission obtain'd from the Republic of Poland tho' they Stamp the Kings Image upon it and they are not Oblig'd to take in payment the base Mony of that State however tho' the people of Dantzic may thus be reckon'd a Republic and particular Soveraign State they are nevertheless Oblig'd to send to the Diet some Deputies who never fail to speak in the Name of the Senate of Dantzic and who Consequently never fail to be Interrupted by the Chancellor who always desires them to be Silent forbidding them to take that Quality upon them which yet they are sure to take afterwards in the following Diets Dantzic is Scituated about a League from the Baltic Sea and almost at the mouth of the River Vistula That City till the Year 1170 consisted only of some Fishermen's Cottages but has rais'd it self since that time to such a height of Greatness that it passes now for one of the Principal Cities of Europe It must indeed be own'd that it is a Fine and Stately Place and its Port or Harbour very Famous but of difficult Access because the Vistula divides it self into several Branches before it discharges it self into the Sea and that Branch which goes to Dantzic is one of the least of them which is the reason that Great Ships have not Water enough to Anchor with their Lading thro' that Branch into the Harbour of Dantzic Between the Mouth of the River and the Port there lyes a Fort which is call'd the Light-house because there is a Beacon in it where there is a Light every Night that the Ships which are coming into the Harbour may discover it a far off Dantzic is the Town of the Greatest Trade in all Prussia most of which Trafick consists in Corn as doth almost all the Trade of Poland The Dantzickers have such a priviledge that none but themselves can be allowed to buy any Corn of the Polanders when once it is enter'd in their Port whether vast Quantities are brought to them from all Parts by the Vistula half the Revenue of the Port belong'd to the King of Poland since the time that King Sigismund Augustus oblig'd the Dantzickers to grant him that Tribute for their presumption in proposing some Provoking Conditions to him before they would suffer his Deputies to come into their City Dantzic is the Capital City of all Prussia 't is about Seven Leagues from Elbing and Twenty Six from Thorn 't is well enough Fortifi'd considering the Country since the Irruption which the Sweedes made into Poland in the Year 1655. But there are some Grounds that overlook and command it on the West-side From this Town the Polanders draw what Goods they want of Foreign Growth and Manufacture as Cloth Silks Stuffs Leather Paper Sugar Oyls and all the Spices which they use in very great quantities to Season their Fish and other Meat I do not speak of the Wines and Brandy nor of the Salt which is brought thither from France and worth but a Crown the French Muid or Hogshead because as for Wine the Poles like no other but that of Hungary as for Brandy they make it at home with Corn and as for Salt their Countrey abounds with it Thus the Wines Brandy and Salt that come from France to Dantzic serve only for Prussia however there are such considerable quantities of other Goods exported from Dantzic to Poland and so great a Return made from that Kingdom thither in Corn Money and other Things that as it is the only Place from which they draw all their Necessaries and to which they Trade 't is not in the least to be admir'd how that Town is come to be so Rich and Considerable All the Dantzickers were formerly Roman Catholicks But they Embraced the
Lutheran perswasion in the last Age as did most of the Northern Nations They began to imbibe that Doctrine in the Year 1525. in the Reign of Sigismund the first who did not dare to oppose it because he was afraid of engaging in a War with the Teutonic Knights the Truce which he had made with them being then near expir'd Sigismund Augustus having afterwards receiv'd the Homage and Oath of Fidelity to himself and the Republick from Albert Duke of Prussia he confirm'd the people of Prussia in their Ancient Rights and Privileges and gave them leave to make open profession of the Lutheran Belief according to the Augsburg Confession The greatest part of the Inhabitants of Dantzic are Lutherans and the other part Calvinists there being only some few Roman Catholiks and Anabaptists for there is an entire Liberty of Conscience yet in such a manner that the whole Government is in the hands of the Lutherans none of the other Sects being admitted to a share The Roman Catholiks have a Church there which is a Convent of Dominican Monks which serves for a Parish to all those that reside in the Town The Jesuits have also a House in the Suburbs where there is likewise a Nunnery As for the Lutherans they have that Stately Church which was of Old enjoy'd by the Roman Catholicks and which is one of the finest Buildings that I have seen in Poland 'T is Worthy Observation that at Dantzic even among the Lutherans they acknowledge the Popes Nunicio that resides in Poland in several Eclesiastical Cases as for Licenses and Dispensations to Marry in a degree forbidden by the Canons I have no more to say of the City of Dantzic but only that it disclaims the Jurisdiction of Poland its Inhabitants saying that it did not submit to the Polanders but only to the King To vindicate that right of Exemption the Dantzickers took Arms in the Year 1576. and march'd as far as Ditschow upon the Vistula with some Forces which they had rais'd under the Command of a certain Officer call'd John of Cologn who had before that defended Marienburg But they were defeated by the army of Poland however the King afterwards forgave them at the Intreaty of the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg The King of Poland cannot send any Ambassadors to foreign Princes nor receive any from 'em without the Senates Consent tho' 't is he that is to give them Audience Neither can he leave the Kingdom upon any Account let the Importance be what it will Sigismund III having heard of the death of his Father John King of Sweden summon'd a Diet at Warsaw in the month of May 1592 that the Republick might consent to the Journey which he intended to take into Swedeland And Lewis King of Hungary who was chosen King of Poland in the year 1370 having a desire to return into Hungary was obliged to ask consent and to enlarge the Privileges of the Nobility that he might obtain it The King of Poland has a right to judge and determine civil and criminal Cases The definitive Sentences in all Jurisdictions are past according to the Majority of Votes But in criminal Cases the King 's single Vote saves the Offenders Life And this because he has a right to pardon all manner of Criminals by what Tribunal soever they be condemned But 't is otherwise in the Decision of those affairs that concern the Republick which are handled in a general Diet where all the Nobility is assembled by its Deputies for then it is absolutely necessary to have the unanimous Consent of all those Deputies whose number is considerable before any thing can be concluded and determined So that as often as any one Member of the Assembly will not consent and enters his protestation the Diet breaks off and all the Deputies depart nor can the King oblige 'em to stay nor get another Diet to assemble till three months after that which then broke off But tho' a King of Poland can hardly do any thing by himself yet he may take Cognisance of the payment of the Soldiers regulate their number and command the Army Not but that he that is great General of it still has a great Authority over the Soldiers as I will shew hereafter CHAP. VIII Of the Senate in General THE Senate of Poland is Compos'd of the Bishops Palatines Castellans and the Ten Officers of State whose Dignity Entitles them to a place in that Assembly It was Instituted to Regulate according to the Justice and Equity of the Laws all that is Transacted for the Good and Security of the State The King Creates the Senators and before he Advances them to that Honour makes them take an Oath of Fidelity to the Republick But after they are once admitted into that Body they cannot be afterwards displac'd In the General Diet they sit at the Right and Left hand of the King according to their Dignity and not according to the Seniority of their Reception 'T is they who with the King Approve and Ratifie all the Constitutions which the Nobility propose to them by their Deputies So that the Senators are as it were Mediators betwixt the King and the Nobility to preserve and defend the Authority of the Republick For 't is in this order that the Authority is properly lodg'd not by reason of the great Number of Persons of which it is Composed but by a Power they derive from the Laws which determine their respective Duties and Privileges The Senators value their Dignity so much that they despise all the Titles of Honour which the Emperours are wont to bestow Thus when Sigismund King of Poland and his Brother Vladislaus King of Hungary went to Vienna the Emperour offer'd to confer upon the Senators who accompany'd them the Title of Princes of the Empire which they refus'd to accept of saying That since they were Gentlemen of Poland and had Power to Treat with their King both of Peace and War he did them an Injury to think that the Title of Prince of the Empire could either be more honourable or great than that of Senatour of the Republick of Poland The Senators Swear to maintain the Rights Liberties and Privileges of the Republick against all opposition So that if the King should attempt to extend his Power beyond the Laws and Liberties which he is obliged by Oath to preserve the Senators may put him in mind of his Duty and Oath without losing that respect which is due to His Majesty And therefore there ought always to be Four Senators at Court both to assist the King with their Counsel and to see that nothing be done contrary to their Privileges which the Polanders believe to be the only way to secure the Liberty of their Republick 'T is also to be observed that none of the Senators must go out of the Kingdom without leave obtain'd of the Republick not even for change of Air or to drink the Waters c. for the Recovery of their Health CHAP.
IX Of the Senate in particular and first of the Bishops ALL the Bishops are Senators and Precede the Secular Members There are but 16 Bishopricks in the Kingdom 3 of which are Usurp'd by its Enemies viz. those of Smolensko and Kiovia by the Muscovites and that of Caminiec by the Turks Nevertheless the Dignities are still retain'd and when they become vacant there are always a considerable number of Competitors who solicit the King for those Titles that they may have a place in the Senate The Archbishop of Gnesna is Apostolical Legat by his Office the first of all the Bishops and Senators and Primate of the Kingdom These Privileges were annex'd to this See by the Council of Constance whither he who was then Archbishop was sent by King Vladislaus Jagellon to assert his Right to Prussia against the Teutonick Knights For that Prelate being inform'd that during his Absence the King had Married Elizabeth Daughter to the Palatine of Sandomir Anno 1416. and caused her to be Crown'd at Cracow by the Archbishop of Leopold and fearing lest he and his Successors shou'd be depriv'd of the Privilege of Crowning the King prevail'd with the Council to Declare and Ordain that the Archbishop of Gnesna should from thenceforth be Primate of the Kingdom And 't is for this reason that an Appeal may be brought before him not only from the rest of the Bishops but also from the Archbishop of Leopold Afterwards in the Year 1513. John Laski Archbishop of Gnesna being sent to Rome by King Sigismund to assist at the Council of Lateran obtained of Leo the Xth for himself and all his Successors the Quality of Legatus natus of the Holy Apostolick See The Authority of this Prelate is so great that 't is not lawful to draw a Sword or so much as to speak indecently in his presence Besides when the King acts contrary to the Laws the Archbisâ—â—â— may Assemble the Senate and the Nobility to oppose him and during an Interregnum he has Power to Coyn Money The Cross is carried before him when he goes to the King or to the Diet and when he sits on Almoner holds it behind his Chair And as a farther Mark of his Grandeur he hath a Senator and Castellan of the Kingdom for his Marshal who rides before his Coach bearing his Staff upright which he never bows but before the King and when the other Marshalls are absent he has the Privilege to carry the Staff upright before His Majesty and to March before Him to Church or to the Diet. When the Archbishop comes to the Foot of the Stairs of the King's Palace he stops there till the King send the Chamberlain of the Crown or some other of the Principal Officers of his Court to Salute him The Sub-Marshal attends him at the top of the Stairs and when he enters the Anti-Chamber the King comes out of his Chamber to meet him He never makes a Visit but to the Pope's Nuncio whom he only Visits once not even to the Ambassadours of Crown'd Heads who have visited him 'T is he who during the Interregnum is the Head and Regent of the Republick and who regulates the Sentiments of all the Noblemen who are Assembled by their Deputies in the Diet of the Election 'T is he who sends Circular Letters to all the Orders of the Republick to give them notice of the King's Death that they may hold their Petty Diets and to acquaint them with the time of the General Diet. And when any extraordinary Affair happens during the Interregnum some Noblemen and Senators are chosen to assist him with their Counsel in so difficult a Juncture The Polanders have lodg'd so great an Authority in the Person of this Prelate because they durst not entrust a Lay-man with it least his Ambition should prompt him to aspire to the Crown For 't is he who Proclaims the New King after he is Chosen which is so great and so considerable a Privilege that the Ambassadours of the Candidates look upon the Archbishop of Gnesna as the Person on whom the success of their Negotiation depends and leave no means unattempted to gain his Favour because the King cannot be duly Elected unless he be afterwards Proclaim'd To confirm this I shall relate what happen'd at the Election of the late King John the Third in the Year 1674. One Czartoreski of the Faction of Austria an Intimate Friend of Chancellour Putz and consequently a great Enemy to the French Faction and the Marshal Sobieski who was Chosen King was then Archbishop of Gnesna and in that Quality had the Power of Proclaiming the King He would never have been prevaild with to Proclaim the Great Marshal but dying Three days before the Election the right of Proclamation was devolv'd upon Trzebicki Bishop of Cracow who being a Friend to the Marshal Sobieski Proclaim'd him with Joy There are but 16 Bishopricks in Poland as I have already observ'd but they are generally of a vast extent and Endow'd with great Revenues which may be easily believ'd if we consider that that Kidgdom after all its Losses is still as large as France The First is the Archbishoprick of Gnesna in Lower Poland in the Palatinate of Kalisch about 9 Leagues from that City towards the North. This place which was once the Capital City of the Kingdom is now only a great Unwall'd Village without the conveniency of a River The Second is the Archbishoprick of Leopold which is the Metropolis of Black Russia and took its Name from Leo Duke of that Province who as he was Ravaging Poland with an Army of Tartars and Russians was entirely defeated by the Castellan of Cracow Ann. 1279 in the Reign of Lesko the Black This City is seated at the foot of the Mountains very meanly Fortify'd without a River and defended only by an inconsiderable Castle upon an Eminence 'T is famous for the many Sieges it has sustain'd having been once Besieg'd by the Cossacks and Tartars with a formidable Army at another time by the Muscovites and the Cossacks with an Army of 120000 Men for the space of Two Moneths and a half after which they were constrain'd to raise the Siege and in the last place by the Turks and Tartars in the Reign of King Miâ—â—â—el This City is the Seat of 3 Bishops viz. a Latin Catholick Archbishop an Armenian Catholick Archbishop and a Russian Scismatical Greek Bishop The first Latin Archbishop was a Polish Gentleman called Christinus who was Consecrated by the Archbishop of Gnesâ—a in the presence of King Casimir who erected this See Anno 1361. I shall say nothing of the Archbishops since they differ not from other Catholicks only the Armenians have their particular Ornaments and Ceremonies and the Men are separated from the Women in the Church But I shall take this occasion to give a brief account of the peculiar Rites and Customs of the Russians Their Bishop is always an Unmarry'd Person because he is chosen among the Monks of
the Borysihenes the Water of which Congeals to Salt by the heat of the Sun so that it may be broken in pieces and carried away in Carts like Ice but it Melts immediately with Rain The 34th is the Palatin of Pomerania whose Palatinate is in Royal Prussia The 35th is the Palatin of Minsk a City in the Dutchy of Lithuania seated on the River Suislocz The 36th is the Palatin of Czernichowia a City of Lithuania scituated on the River Derna This Palatinat which is also a Dutchy is only a Titular Dignity Having thus given an Account of the 32 Palatines 3 Castellans and one Starosta who are Senators it may not improperly be observ'd that tho' the Quality of Castellan and Starosta is inferiour to that of a Palatin there are Four of them who possess almost the First Ranks among the Lay-Senators I have already intimated the Reason why the Castellan of Cracow is the First Temporal Senator and as for the other Three 't is probable that this Precedency was granted them in Recompence of some Brave Actions which the Castellans of those Cities had perform'd The Office of a Palatin is to Lead the Troops of his Palatinate to the Army to Preside in the Assemblies of the Nobility in his Province to set a Price upon Merchandices and Commodities to take care that the Weights and Measures be not altered and to Judge and Defend the Jews He hath a Vice Palatin under him who must take an Oath to him and who ought to have an Estate in Land which they call Possessionatus The Castellans are the next in Dignity to the Palatines and there are two sorts of them in the Kingdom who are usually distinguish'd by the Titles of Great Castellans and Petty or Sub Castellans The number of the former both in the Kingdom and Dutchy amounts to 32 and that of the latter to 49. ' Twou'd be equally tedious and unprofitable to give a particular account of 'em all and therefore I shall content my self with observing in the general that they are all Senators Lieutenants or Deputies of the Palatines and Heads of the Nobility in their respective Jurisdictions In the next place I shall proceed to mention the Officers of State who are Senatours The First is the Great Marshal of the Kingdom The Second The Great Marshal of the Dutchy The Third The Chancellour of the Kingdom The Fourth The Chancellour of the Dutchy The Fifth The Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdom The Sixth The Vice-Chancellour of the Dutchy The Seventh The Treasurer of the Kingdom The Eighth The Treasurer of the Dutchy The Ninth The Sub-Marshal or Marshal of the Court of the Kingdom And the Tenth The Sub-Marshal or Marshal of the Court of the Dutchy These are all the Members of the Polish SENATE I have in another place given a sufficient Account of the Privileges and Functions of the Officers mention'd here and therefore I shall conclude this Chapter with observing that besides the Four Senatours who ought always to attend the King and to assist him with their Counsel in all Deliberations and Judgments all the other Senatours who are at Court have also the privilege to assist in such cases And all those who are present in Council and Consent to the Decree or Sentence are obliged to Sign it not only in Criminal but also in Civil Cases that they may afterwards be accountable for their Proceedings to the Whole Body of the Republick CHAP. XI Of the Order of the Nobility or Gentry THE Third Order of the Republic of Poland is that of the Nobility who are only capable of possessing all the Offices and Lands both in the Dutchy and Kingdom For all the Peasants are Slaves and the Burghers of Towns and Cities are only lookt upon as Tradesmen who can possess at most but some Houses in the Cities and the Lands about a League round them As for Strangers how Noble soever they may be in their own Country and whatever Services they have done in the Army to the Republick they can neither possess an Estate nor rise to any higher Preferment than the Command of a Regiment of Foot or at most the Place of a Major-General which is an Office not much different from that of a Brigadeer in France for the Polanders will never suffer that a Stranger tho' never so expert in War should have the general Command of their Army The Nobility or Gentry are the Guardians of the Laws and Liberties of the Republic and the Electors of their Soveraign They bestow the Crown and Scepter upon him and furnish him with Ministers and Counsellors They make their own Laws and determine both their Duties and Privileges They are oblig'd to defend the Rights of their Countrey against the Incroachments of any aspiring Prince whose Ambition might carry his Designs beyond the limits prescrib'd to him by the Laws Since the number of the Gentry is so great that they cannot all assist at the General Dyets they chuse Deputies in the Petty Dyets whom they send to the General Dyets to preserve their Ancient Privileges and Constitutions and to contrive and Enact new Laws for their Security The Polish Gentry are generally perswaded that 't is their Interest to preserve an Uninterrupted Peace with their Neighbours that they may be able to preserve all their Provinces But 't is plain from the Event that they are extreamly mistaken in their Politics for Poland lying open on all sides and being surrounded by so many Enemies we may easily suppose that every one of them may find an opportunity to surprize some part of the Kingdom before the People can put themselves in a posture of Defence All that the King can do in such a juncture is to summon the Nobility together to oppose the Enemy which is the same with the Arriere Ban in France and is called the Postpolite in Poland Upon such occasions 't is to be observ'd that the King must send His Circular Letters thrice into each Palatinate to Assemble them That none are exempted from the Service but the Chancellour and the Starosta's of Frontier Places That the Nobility of Poland are not oblig'd to go above Three Leagues out of the Kingdom That those of Lithuania and Prussia are not oblig'd to go out of the Kingdom at all That the King cannot keep the Gentry in Arms above the space of Six weeks and that all the Courts of Justice are shut up during the time that the Arriere Ban is Assembled It is so far from being the Interest of the Republick to maintain a constant Peace with their Neighbours that 't was this very Maxim which occasion'd the loss of the Third part of their Country For in the Reign of Vladislaus the IVth they built Fort Kudack on the Boristhenes to hinder the Cossacks from Cruizing on the Black Sea for fear of Irritating the Turks But this False Step in stead of securing the Quiet of the Kingdom engag'd 'em in a War with the Cossacks and Tartars and even
Prince's Flying from His Kingdom like Henry II. King of Poland and III. of France who having receiv'd Advice of the Death of Charles the IXth His Brother by a Courier that was dispatch'd to Him by the Queen His Mother secretly departed from Cracow after he had enjoy'd the Crown of Poland Five Months with the Love of all the Nobility who were so troubl'd at His Flight and the loss of so good a Prince that they Wrote on the 12th of May 1574. a very Pressing and Respectful Letter to perswade Him to Return The Polanders look upon the Interregnums as the most Favourable Occasions to confider of the Surest and Most Effectual Ways to Preserve their Liberties and though the Royal Authority is then properly Lodg'd in the Senate 't is in some measure Represented by the Archbishop of Gnesna as Primate of the Kingdom and the First of all the Senators as I intimated before During the Interregnum some of the Senators and Noblemen are sent to the Generals of the Army to stay with them and to assist them with their Advice in Matters relating to the War Some Senatours are also Deputed to the Castle of Cracow to Visit the Treasury of the Crown and to make an Inventary of it with those that have the Keys which they present at the next Coronation Commissioners are also appointed to enquire into the State of the Revenue that is set apart for the King's Table and to give an Account of it to the Republick During the Interregnum and till the New King be Proclaim'd the Republick pretends that all Soveraign Princes and even Crown'd Heads themselves are obliged to give them the Title of Most Serene But when the King of France Writes to the Republick Assembl'd in a Diet of Election he makes no mention of Serenity and only Writes in these Terms To our most Dear and Great Friends Allyes and Confederates the States of the Kingdom of Foland and Great Dutchy of Lithuania Nor is it reasonable that a King of France should give the Republick of Poland the Title of Most Serene since they do not give their own King either the Title of Most Serene or of Majesty I shall only observe further on this Subject that as soon as the Archbishop of Gnesna has Notify'd by his Circular Letters that the King is Dead all the Courts of Justice are shut up and are not open'd again till after the Coronation of the New Elected King except the Marshal's Court which continues open and another which is establish'd for deciding Controversies that may happen during the Diet of the Election But as for all other Causes and private Law-Suits they are not Try'd till after the King's Coronation CHAP. XIV Of the Election of a King SINCE the Kingdom of Poland is Elective all Christian Princes may Pretend to the Succession and send Ambassadours thither whether they be Catholicks or not But those who Aspire to that Crown must either profess the Roman Catholick Faith or resolve to Embrace it after their Election for otherwise he cannot be Chosen and 't is only for this Reason that the Pope sends a Nuncio to the Diet of Election that he may represent to the Republick that 't is the Interest of the Whole Church that they should Chuse a Catholick Prince who is a zealous Assertor of the True Faith of Christ The Polanders usually Chuse a Foreign Prince for their King because they cannot without Reluctancy submit to those who were formerly their Equals They esteem it their happiness that they have the Liberty to Chuse such a Prince as they please But 't is certain that their Liberty is frequently the Cause of Fatal Divisions They will not Choose a Prince who is King of another Realm least after his Election and after he has remain'd for some time among 'em he should leave them to Return to his own Country 'T was for this Reason that after the Death of Casimir III they would not Chuse Vladislaus his Son because he was King of Hungary and Robemia and this was also one of the Reasons which in a Diet held at Radom in the Year 1382 made the Republick Exclude Sigismund of Luxemburg Marquess of Brandenburg who pretended to the Crowns of Poland and Hungary as having Marry'd the Eldest Daughter of Lewis King of those Two Kingdoms Before the Ambassadours come to Warsaw they are to Notifie their Arrival to the Archbishop of Gnesna who appoints Lodgings for 'em at some distance from the City and sends a Polish Gentleman to each of 'em to observe their Actions and to hinder them from making Parties But those Rules are seldom put in Execution for the Ambassadours of Princes live openly at Warsaw 't is true there is a Polish Gentleman appointed to attend every one of 'em during the Diet that the Republick may be inform'd of their Proceedings and that they may not have an opportunity to Bribe or Corrupt the Deputies But this is an Inconveniency that cannot be avoided by all these Precations for the desire of Money is so reigning a Vice in Poland and attended with so little Scandal and Infamy that the Fidelity which a Polish Gentleman owes to his Country would not be Proof against 1000 Crowns 'T is the Interest of the Ambassadours to Manage all the Senators and the whole Order of the Nobility since the disobliging of one of them may render 'em incapable of Compassing their Designs Thus the Quarrelling with Chancellour Patz in the Diet of the Election Anno 1668. was the true reason why the Duke of Newburg was Excluded and Michael Vicznowieski was Elected King In the mean time it must be acknowledg'd that the Election was Tumultuary that the Nobility had not a Free Vote and that they were in a manner hurry'd away by the Violence of the Multitude which was so great that Prasmowski Archbishop of Gnesna was forc'd to Proclaim Him which he was unwilling to do because he was sensible of the Dangers that threatn'd the Republick in that Juncture and of the great need they had of a Rich and Valiant Prince At the same time he knew that King Michael wanted both those Qualities For he was so poor that during the Life of Queen Mary Louise he had nothing to subsist upon as I intimated before but a Pension which She allow'd him of 6000 Livres a Year And as for his Courage it may be guess'd at by what happen'd immediately after his Election when he durst not resent the Affront he receiv'd from the Marquiss of Brandenburg who without asking his Permission caus'd a Prussian Gentleman who had fled to Poland for Protection to be seiz'd and carryd away before the King's eyes and almost under the Windows of His Palace 'T is plain then that the Polanders ought to have Chosen a Prince that was equally Brave and Rich and able to Support their Tottering State For if they had consider'd their true Interest in the choice of a Soveraign the Turks wou'd never have had the
Circular Letters to Summon the Nobility and to notify the Day of the General Diet And in those Circular Letters he mentions every thing that is to be Treated of in the General Diet All the Gentlemen in Poland have the Privilege to assist at the Petty Diets where they Chuse their Nuncio's or Deputies to whom they give Instructions Containing all they ought to grant or refuse in the General Diet. Those Nuncio's were first establish'd in the Reign of Casimir III. who to raise Money for the Payment of his Army order'd all the Palatinats to send their Deputies to the General Diet to find out the most proper Means to supply his Necessities and since that time no General Diet can be held without Deputies from all the Palatinats The General Diets are wont to depute 16 Senators who are Chosen among the Bishops Palatins and Castellans 4 of whom are to be always with the King to take care that nothing be done contrary to the Laws and since the Year 1649 they have joyned to them a Deputy of the Nobility who is chosen by all the Palatinats Every thing that is concluded and ordain'd by those Deputies with the King's Approbation has the force of a Law and if they neglect to reside at Court or to perform their Duty they are Fin'd a Lay-man in 2000 Livres and an Ecclesiastick in 6000. All the General Diets are begun by the Election of a Speaker or Marshal of the Deputies who must be Chosen out of one of the three Nations First Among the Deputies of Upper Poland Secondly Among those of Lower Poland And in the Third and last place among those of Lithuania which frequently occasions Debates that lasts for several days The Marshal of the Deputies being Chosea the King gives him his hand to kiss and afterwards makes the same Compliment to all the Deputies After which the Chancellor Proposes the Points that are to be consider'd of in the Diet which are always different according to the various occasions of the Republick In the mean time I cannot forbear observing that the Polanders spend more time in Drinking than in Deliberating concerning their Affairs for they never enter upon Business till they begin to want Money to buy Hungary Wine After the Chancellor has in the King's Name proposed to the Diets all the Articles they are to Deliberate upon the Speaker or Marshal of the Deputies acquaints the King in the Name of the Nobility with what they desire of him which is to Redress the Grievances and Regulate the Abuses committed either against the State or Particular Persons to dispose of the Royal Gifts the Benefices and Offices that are vacant and to distribute them according to the Laws which forbid the bestowing of Two of them that are Inconsistent to one Person After which the Chancellor makes Answer for the King That His Majesty will satisfie 'em after he has taken the Advice of the Senators The Marshal of the Deputies has a great Authority over them in the Diet For 't is he who Imposes Silence and Speaks to the King and Senate And consequently since his Authority enables him either to Animate or Moderate their Heats he is always extreamly respected and the Court is particularly kind to him 'T is no wonder then that there is so much Intriguing at his Election and that the Contest is usually so hot For 't is the business of the Court to procure a Marshal that will promote their Designs in the Diet and on the other hand the Deputies who chose him have a different Interest from that of the Court and are always afraid of losing their Liberties or of seeing their Privileges abridg'd by some New Laws Those different Interests are frequently the reason that there are some Deputies who regarding only their private advantage oppose the Election of him whom the Court would have Chosen that the King may Bribe them with some Benefice Employment or Royal Gift and there are not only Deputies who make a Noise at the Election of the Marshal but during the whole Progress of the Diet that they may extort Favours from the Court Nay there are some who force the King to comply with 'em by threatning to break up the Diet if he does not answer their Expectations For there are so few of 'em that have a sincere regard to the true Interest of the Republick that there is scarce one to be found among 'em that is capable of resisting the Temptation of 2000 Crowns Thus the Court may purchase the Votes of the Members or dissolve an over-bold and obstinate Diet by seattering sufficient Sums among the Mercenary Deputies And even not only the Neighbours but the Enemies of the Kingdom may by the same means procure a Rupture in the Diet when they find the honest Party resolv'd to take effectual Measures for the security of the Republick Before any thing can be resolv'd in the Diet it must be propos'd by the Deputies and approv'd by the King and Senate And before it can pass into a Law it must be revis'd by the Marshal of the Deputies and two of the Deputies besides or else by three Senators and six Deputies After which it must be read in the Senate in the King's Presence and the Chancellors must ask with a loud Voice Whether the King Senators and Deputies will have the Seal put to it Then 't is seal'd and inserted in the Registers of Warsaw or in those of the Chancery of the Kingdom and one of the King's Secretary's takes care to get it Printed at the Charge of the Publick Treasury that it may be sent to the Petty Diets and to the Courts of all the Palatinats They Treat in all Diets not only of the Affairs of the Republick but also of particular Persons Thus in one of the Diets they took cognizance of the difference betwixt the Order of Maltha and Prince Demetrius Vicznowieski who took possession of an Estate which the Duke Ostrog his Brother-in-Law had given to that Order And in another Diet those who Murder'd Gonczeski Petty General of Lithuania were Prosecuted and Condemn'd to be Beheaded But in cases of Treason against the King the Polanders pretend that neither His Majesty nor the Order of the Nobility ought to be present at the Judging and Determining of the Cause and 't was on this score that the Marshal Lubomiski complain'd against K. John Casimir who caus'd him to be Condemn'd for Contumacy in the Diet held at Warsaw Anno 1664. Nevertheless in a Diet held in the same City 1582. King Steven Batteri brought several Deputies into the Senate to be present at the Tryal and Judgment of Sborowski who was accus'd of Treason against the King Which that Great Prince did that all the Nobility might be Witnesses of the Justice of his proceedings 'T is in a General Diet that they give the Indigenat that is the Right of Nobility to Strangers which renders 'em capable of Possessing some small Pensions or Gifts of the
Republick That right is now given to those who are in Favour at Court or Protected by some Great Lord whereas formerly it was granted only to Officers as a Recompence for their Services done to the State Those who are not Officers and yet pretend to the Indigenat by the favour of the King or of the Marshal of the Deputies procuring their Names to be inserted in the Instructions of the Army that is among the Names of the Officers who demand to be made Gentlemen of Poland and every one of the Pretenders gives in an account of his Genealogy Name Sirname Family and Services and puts his Coat of Armes in the middle And after they have been receiv'd by the Diet and their Pattents Seal'd they take an Oath of Fidelity before the Marshal of the Deputies by which they Swear to be faithful to their Country and to the King and the Marshal gives 'em a Certificate declaring that the Diet has receiv'd such a one for its Natural Son and that he has taken the Oath of Fidelity before him Yet tho' a stranger be made a Gentleman of Poland the King cannot bestow any considerable Employment or Consistorial Benefices on him or his Children to the third Generation For the Republick has made this Provision that they may be the better assured of the Fidelity of those who are entrusted with any Office or enjoy any Benefices According to the Constitutions and Laws of Poland a Diet must not sit above Six Weeks and the Nobility are so fond and jealous of their Privileges that when the King endeavours to prolong the Session of a Diet and even when the Interest of the State requires the Sitting of that Assembly the Deputies are always ready to oppose such an Innovation and Charge their Marshal to Acquaint the King that they will immediately leave the Diet as soon as they perceive that he intends to keep them longer than usually I shall only mention one Instance of this Unaccountable Obstinacy which happen'd in the Diet Assembled at the Coronation of King John Casimir in the Year 1649. The Defeat of the Polish Army at Pilaveze and afterwerds the Dreadful Irruption of the Cossacks and Tartars into the very heart of the Kingdom had reduc'd the Republick almost to the last extremity and since the Diet had been so busy'd in determining particular affairs that they had not time to consider of the Means to raise a sufficient Army to oppose the progress of so Barbarous and formidable an Enemy till the very day before the breaking up of the Diet the King and the Senators endeavour'd to find out a way to avoid the terrible danger that threatned 'em and for that end resolv'd to Prolong the Diet But as soon as the Deputies were inform'd of this Resolution they sent their Marshal to the Senators to put 'em in mind of the Law which forbids the prolonging of Diets and afterward to take leave of the King The Marshal to execute his Commission went to the Senate and began to thank the King and to take leave of Him in the Name of all the Nobility whereupon the Senators rising up desir'd that they wou'd condescend to sit only one day longer representing the Pressing Exigencies of the present Juncture The Chancellor seconded these Intreaties with a very Moving and Pathetick Harangue After which the Marshal having resum'd his Character which he had already laid down went back to the Deputies and pray'd them to give their Opinion concerning the Prolongation which the King and Senate desir'd The Deputies met again at the return of their Marshal and were at last prevail'd with tho' not without a great deal of difficulty to consent that the Diet should be prolong'd but upon this condition that every one of them should obtain whatever his Palatinat had charg'd him to ask CHAP. XVI Of the Diet of the Election THE General Diet for the Election of a King is always held in the open Field about half a League from Warsaw near the Village of Vola where they erect a sort of Booth cover'd with Boards at the Publick Charge which in the Polish Language is called Szopa or a Shelter from bad Weather This place is built and prepar'd by the Treasurer of the Crown 't is surrounded with a Ditch and has Three Doors The Day appointed for the Diet being come the Senate and the Nobility go to St. John's Church at Warsaw to hear the Mass of the Holy Ghost and to beg the Grace of God in order to the Electing of a New King who may have all the Qualitys necessary to defend the Interests of the Church and of the Republick After which they go to the Szopa where the Order of the Nobility elects the Marshal of the Deputies that were sent by the Petty Diets who being Chosen by Plurality of Voices and having taken the Oath goes to Salute the Senators and to be confirm'd by their Approbation After these Preliminaries the Orders of the Senate and Nobility enter into an Union or Association which they Ratifie and Confirm with an Oath Not to separate from one another not to Name any person for King Nor acknowledge him as such till he be Elected by the unanimous consent of 'em all They swear also to preserve all the Rights Privileges and Immunities of the Republick and that he who shall do otherwise shall be declar'd an enemy to his Country They Promise reciprocally neither to give their Voices for an Election nor to enter into any Agreement with the Candidates or their Ambassadors till all the Irregularities and Disorders that have been committed either in the Kingdom or Dutchy be consider'd and redress'd They annul and make void all the Decrees of the Tribunals and even the Statutes of the Kings that are found to be contrary to their Liberties and Promise to make a Law to that Purpose They declare That all the Judgements given before the Publication of the Interregnum shall be valid and that they will approve of all that shall be done by the Court of Justice establish'd during the Interregnum which is called Kaptur and is design'd for the defence of the Country for Coyning of Money for raising of Soldiers and for maintaining the Laws They forbid any person to come to the Diet with Strangers or with Fire-Arms They ordain that the Generals of the Army shall take an Oath before Commissioners to discharge the Trust that is repos'd in 'em with all possible fidelity to make no other use of their Troops than to oppose the Enemies of the Nation To defend the Frontiers of the Kingdom and to secure the Honour and Liberties of the Republick They oblige 'em also to Swear to Assert the Publick Interest in case of a Sedition or Revolt To restrain the Souldiers from injuring any person To receive no Money either from the Clergy or Laity and to hinder the Soldiers from receiving any After which they forbid the Officers of the Army to March with their Forces into
are redress'd and all the Ambassadors have had Audience of the Republick they proceed to the Election of a King But before they give their Votes they Implore upon their knees the Assistance of the Holy Ghost by Singing the Veni Creator after which the Deputies of each Palatinat give their Votes and Communicate 'em to the rest and if all the Votes be for one Candidate the Arch-bishop of Gnesna or the Bishop who presides in his Pallace demands thrice Whether the Grievances be Redress'd and afterwards Proclaims the King Elect which is also done by the Marshals of the Crown and of the Dutchy after which they all Sing the Te Deum I observ'd that the King Elect is Proclaim'd by the Arch-bishop when all the Votes are for him For it may sometimes happen that the Diet may be divided in which case the strongest Party carries it Thus in the Diet that was held after the Retreat of Henry III. one Party Chose Stephen Battori and the other Elected Maximilian of Austria Maximilian designing to enter into Poland with some Troops was prevented by Stephen Batori who arriv'd before him at Cracow where he was Crown'd the 18th of April 1576. Thus all the Voices were transmitted to King Stephen whom the Polanders oblig'd afterwards to Marry the Princess Ann whom they had already acknowledg'd for their Queen After the Death of Stephen Battori there happen'd a much greater Division in the Diet for there being Two Parties form'd one of which was supported by Zamoski and the other by Sboroski the former Chose Signismund III. Son to John King of Sweden and Catherine Sister of Sigismund Augustus the last of the Race of Jagellon and Nephew to Queen Ann the Relict of King Stephen and this Party was so strong that they Crown'd Sigismund at Cracow the 27th of December 1587. tho' Maximilian of Austria who was Elected by Sborosky's Party had been Proclaim'd King in the Church of the Bernardins at Warsaw by Cardinal Radziwill who was of his Faction In the mean time Maximilian entering into Poland with some Troops Zamoski pursu'd him to Byczin in Silesia where he defeated and took him Prisoner Jan. 25. 1587. and oblig'd him to renounce his Title to the Crown So that Maximilian was a Second time excluded from the Crown of Poland and the Princes of the House of Austria a Third time First In the Person of Ernest by the Election of Henry de Valois Secondly In Maximilian by that of Steven Battori And a Third time in the same Maximilian by that of Sigismund III. CHAP. XVII Of the Election of a Successor THo' the Election of a Successor is contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of Poland and inconsistent with the Privileges of an Elective Kingdom it may sometimes happen that the natural affection which most persons have for their Children or Relations may induce them to make Party's in the Republick to get them Chosen during their Life Thus in the Reign of Sigismund I. his Son Sigismund Augustus tho' but Ten years old was nam'd King during his Father's Life upon these Conditions That he should not in the least meddle with the Affairs of Poland till after his Father's death That when he came to be Fifteen years old he should Swear to maintain all the Rights and Privileges of the Republick And that this Example should not prejudice a Free Election for the future which his Father Confirm'd by Letters Patents given at Cracow 1530. And afterwards by other Letters dated at Pâ—otrkow 1538. for that Prince lived 82 years But Sigismund Augustus being dead the Republick being Assembl'd in a Diet held at Warsaw after they had carefully examin'd the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom made a Constitution by which they expresly Prohibited the Nomination of any Successor for the future during the Life of the Reigning Prince that they might Inviolably preserve the Right and Liberty of Choosing any Soveraign they pleas'd Nevertheless Stephen Battori seeing he had no Children and considering the danger to which the Republick was expos'd during the Two last Interregnums propos'd the Election of a Successor in a Diet held at Warsaw contrary to the above-mention'd Constitution But the whole Order of the Nobility oppos'd the Design of that Great King who died soon after at Grodno in Lithuania Decem. 12. 1586. Since any Christian Prince may aspire to the Crown of Poland 't is evidently the Interest of 'em all to oppose the Election of a Successor which might render the Kingdom Hereditary and consequently ruin their Pretensions 'T was this Consideration that oblig'd the present Emperor to send Francis de Lisola to the Diet held at Warsaw in the Year 1661. to oppose the Design of King John Casimir who wou'd have had a Prince Chosen to Succeed him after his death And this Envoy with the Assistance of John Owerbeck Envoy of the Elector of Brandenburg who was also apprehensive of the same design form'd a strong Party and was so effectually seconded by Marshal Lubomirski that they broke Casimir's design and prevail'd with the Diet to make a Constitution forbidding any person for the future to make mention of the Election of a Successor The reason why King John Casimir Summon'd a Diet at Warsaw to deliberate about the Election of a Successor was because that Prince consider'd the danger to which the Republick had been expos'd for above Twelve years during which they had Maintain'd a War against the Cossacks Tartars Muscovites Swedes Transilvanians and the Marquis of Brandenburg and that none of all those Enemies would have Invaded Poland if they had not been incourag'd by his want of Issue And therefore he look'd upon the Election of a Successor as the most effectual way to prevent the disorders that might be occasion'd during an Interregnum by the Jealousie and Ambition of the Neighbouring PrInces and especially of the Muscovites who pretended to make themselves Masters of Lithuania and to make all the Inhabitants Slaves There were also many Lithuanian Gentlemen who were engag'd in the same design with King Casimire and had earnestly desir'd that Prince and the Nobility of Poland to Consent to the Election of a Successor who might be able after the King's death to oppose the Muscovites who only waited for that opportunity to enter into Lithuania with a great Army and to possess themselves of that Dutchy A considerable Number of the Nobility were prevail'd with to comply with the intended Election of a Successor upon these Conditions That he should be Chosen again after the death of the King That he should be a Roman Catholick That he should not be a Piaste that is a Native Polander That he should not be a King or Soveraign Prince of any other Country That he should not be a Neighbour of Poland That he shou'd be an Unmarry'd Person and one that was neither too young nor too old It must be acknowledg'd that the design was good for the King and those who seconded his desire look'd upon
this as the best if not the only Expedient to secure the Republick from the otherwise unavoidable dangers to which it wou'd be expos'd during an Interregnum by the Ambition of it's Neighbours and the Jealousy and Factions of those who shou'd aspire to the Crown But those who oppos'd the Election of a Successor alledg'd on the other hand That no Prudent Person wou'd venture upon a present danger to avoid a future inconveniency That such an Innovation wou'd introduce a Hereditary Succession and entirely destroy the Liberty of Elections notwithstanding all the measures that cou'd be taken to secure it That 't was contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom to Chuse a Prince during the Life of the King That the Republick cou'd not consent to such an Election without divesting it self of its Liberty That the Choice cou'd not be determin'd without offending several Princes and involving the Nation in new Troubles at a time when 't was their Interest to maintain an uninterrupted Peace with all their Neighbours These are the most Material Arguments that were urg'd on both sides I leave it to the Reader to Judge which of 'em were most agreeable to Reason that I may proceed to acquaint him with the nature of the Pacta Conventa which the King Elect Swears to observe in St. John's Church at Warsaw CHAP. XVIII Of the Pacta Conventa or the Contract betwixt the King and the People THE Polanders are so fond of their Liberty and so afraid of losing it that as soon as the King is Elected they make Him Swear upon the Altars to maintain all their Privileges during His Reign This is usually call'd the Pacta Conventa which is properly a Contract betwixt the King and the People by which the former is oblig'd to preserve all the Rights and Immunities of the latter According to the Laws of Poland this important Ceremony ought to be perform'd before the King be Proclaim'd Thus at the Election of Henry of Valois after they had rejected Ernest of Austria the Emperor's Son and Confirm'd the Election of King Henry John de Monluc Bishop of Valence that Prince's Ambassador was oblig'd by the Senate to come to the Diet where the Conditions that were to be observ'd by the New King his Master were Read in his Presence After which he took an Oath to Observe 'em in the Name of Henry de Valois and his Brother Charles IX Then he was conducted to St. John's Church where after the Celebration of the Mass Henry of France was Proclaim'd King of Poland by the Great Marshal of the Crown May 18. 1573. Afterwards the Ambassadors that were sent by the Republick to offer the Crown to King Henry oblig'd both him and his Brother to take the same Oath at Paris in the Great Hall of the Palace on the 10th of September following This is the Method prescrib'd by the Laws for Swearing to keep the Pacta Conventa But this Regulation is not always punctually observ'd For both King Michael Vicznowieski and John Sohieski took the Oath several days after their Election at Warsaw upon the great Altar of St. John's Church The Pacta Conventa or Contract is drawn up and Methodiz'd by the Order of the Senate and Nobility after which the Three Orders go to Church where the Great Marshal Reads the whole Contract aloud of which these are the principal Articles That the King shall not assume the Quality or Title of Heir of Poland nor appoint any Person to Succeed him but that on the contrary he shall Inviolably preserve and maintain the Laws and Constitutions relating to the Free Election of a King That he shall Ratify all the Treaties of Peace made with Foreign Princes That he shall make it his principal care to preserve the Publick Quiet and Tranquility That he shall not pretend to the Right of Coining Money or deprive the Republick of the profits of the Coinage That without the Consent of the Republick he shall neither declare War against any Prince nor give Orders for the levying of Forces And that without the same consent he shall neither bring any Soldiers into the Kingdom nor suffer any to go out of it That he shall not introduce any Strangers of what Rank or Quality soever into his Council and that he shall not bestow any Offices Dignities or Governments upon ' em That all the Officers shall be Polanders or Lithuanians or at least Natives of such Provinces as depend upon the Crown of Poland That the Officers of the Regiment of Guards shall be Natives of Poland or Lithuania that the Colonel shall be a Polish Gentleman that he shall take an Oath of Fidelity to the Republick and that all the Officers shall be under the Jurisdiction of the Marshals That the King shall not Marry without the consent of the Senate according to the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom and that the Train and Attendants of the Princess whom he shall Marry shall be regulated by the Senate That he shall never make use of his private Signet in Affairs that concern the Republick That for the preservation of his Power and Dignity he shall dispose of the Offices both of the Republick and Court least they shou'd be either usurp'd or remain vacant and that the number of 'em shall not be diminish'd That he shall Administer Justice according to the Advice of the Senators and Counsellors that attend upon him That for the Expences of his Table he shall only possess those Revenues that were granted by the Republick to the Kings his Predecessors and that he shall enjoy 'em only for his Life That he shall not confer upon any one Person the Offices or Dignities which according to the Ancient Laws ought not to be possess'd by one Man That he shall take care in the space of six weeks to fill up all the vacant Offices That the first thing he shall do in the Diet shall be to dispose of the Vacancy's and to cause the Chancellor to publish them and that in pursuance of the Laws he shall only bestow them on Polish Gentlemen who are Persons of Merit of the Age requir'd by Law and of a staid and solid Judgment That he and his Council shall so regulate the Troops as well Horse as Foot that the Republick may not stand in need of any Foreign Troops nor be put to an unusual Expence and that the Soldiers shall be satisfy'd with their pay and do no injury to the Peasants That hesh all in no wise diminish the Treasure at Cracow but on the contrary shall endeavour to augment it That he shall borrow no Money but with the Consent of the Republick That if the Exigences of the State require Naval forces he shall not pretend to Levy 'em without the approbation of the Nobility and the Advice of the Senate And finally That all the Rights Liberties and Privileges that have been justly and lawfully granted to the Polanders Lithuanians and to all the Inhabitants of the Provinces depending
on them and to all the Cities according to what has been ordain'd in the preceding Diets and to what shall afterwards be ordained in the following Diets shall be inviolably kept and preserv'd and that he shall issue out his Letters Pattents to Confirm them in all their Clauses and Conditions They also frequently add several other Articles according to the exigency of the present Juncture and the Quality and Circumstances of the Elected Prince As for the Ceremonies that are used when they make the King Swear the Capitulation The Arch-bishop and the Marshal of the Deputies carry it before him after the Mass is said and require him to take an Oath to observe it according to his promise Then the King being upon his Knees before the Great Altar says after the Chancellor We N. Chosen King of Poland and Great Duke of Lithuania Russia Prussia Massovia Samogitia Kiovia Volhinia Podolia Podlassia Livonia Smolensko Siberia and Czernichovia Promise to Almighty God and Swear upon the Holy Evangelists of Jesus Christ to observe maintain and accomplish all the Conditions agreed upon at our Election by our Ambassadors with the Senators and Deputies of Poland and of the Great Dutchy of Lithuania and Confirmed by the Oath of our Ambassadors and to perform the same according to all the Clauses Points Articles and Conditions mention'd therein and in such sort that the speciality cannot derogate from the generality nor the generality from the speciality All which we promise to Ratifie by our Oath on the Day of Our Coronation After the King has Sworn to keep the Pacta Conventa the Chancellor gives him the Decree of his Election Written in Parchment and Signed by the Senators and Deputies The Republick of Poland uses these Precautions at the Election of their King that if afterwards he should act contrary to what he promises to obsorve the Senators may have a right to put him in mind of his duty It was the breach of one of those Articles which gave the Polanders occasion to complain of King Michael for in the Pacta Conventa which he Swore to observe they had Inserted this Article That he should not Marry any Princess without the Consent of the Republick Nevertheless without asking their Consent he Marry'd the Emperor's Sister and the Party that was form'd against him look'd upon this as a sufficient ground to compel him to Abdicate If the Prince who is Elected be not present at Warsaw he takes the Oath in the presence of the Deputies whom the Republick sends for that purpose and obliges himself before them to observe all the Articles of the Capitulation 'T was thus that Sigismond the Third Swore to keep the Pacta Conventa in the Abby of Oliva near Dantzick Anno 1587. as they were drawn up by the Senate and the Nobility 'T is the Custom in Poland that the Great Marshal or in his absence the Petty Marshal carries the Staff erect before the King when he goes to any Ceremony But 't is observable that from the time of his Election to his Coronation they carry the Staff bow'd down that when the King Issues out any Letters Orders or Constitutions he only assumes the Quality of King Elect and that no Dispatches can be Sealed but with the little Seal of the Closet which is a sign that the Election is perfected by the Coronation which is as it were the Seal of it CHAP. XIX Of the King's Coronation A KING of Poland cannot exercise the Royal Authority before his Coronation for he can neither dispose of any Office nor Benesice nor so much as grant any Favour nor use the Great Seal of the Chancery and the Courts of Justice which ought to be kept in his Name and are shut up at the beginning of the Interregnum cannot make a Decree till after his Coronation T is the New King who appoints the Day for this Ceremony which must be perform'd at Cracow in the Cathedral Church in the Castle This City takes its Name from King Cracus who built it in the Year 700 after he had left Gnesna which was formerly the Capital City of the Kingdom It is scituated on the Vistula in Upper Poland 'T is the Seat of a Bishop who is a Suffragan of the Arch-Bishop of Gnesna The City is very large fine and well-built but the Streets are ill Paved as in most other Cities of that Country However the Streets are very broad and straight with a great Square in the middle where the Town-house is built The Castle or the King's Palace is seated upon a little Eminence or Rock the Foot of which is washed by the Vislula The Circumference of this Eminence is very small and consequently the Palace is of no very great Extent and as for the Church tho it be the Cathedral of a great Diocess and the Burying-place of the Kings of Poland 't is one of the smallest and least Beautiful Structures of that kind that I have had occasion to see in that Country It must be acknowledg'd that the King's House is really well built but besides the extraordinary smallness and obscurity of the Court it has neither Garden Wood nor Water nor is it adorn'd with any Walls or Avenues It was formerly a strong place when the strength of places consisted in the height of their Scituation but 't is now only fit to refist some flying Parties of Horse 't is here where the Jewels of the Crown are kept with the Royal Ornaments that are used at the King's Coronation There is also to be seen in the Little Hill or Rising Ground on which it stands the Cave or Den of that Furious Dragon which made such a terrible havock in all the Neighbouring places and which 't is said Cracus killed by laying some Meat for him mixt with Pitch and Brimstone When the Coronation-Day draws near the King makes his Entry into Cracow on Horseback the Sheriffs of the City carrying a Canopy of State before him The Troops both Horse and Foot March before with their Officers and are follow'd by the Palatines Bishops and Ambassadors on Horseback The Ceremony is doubtless very Splendid and I know not where a Traveller can have occasion to see a more Magnificent Cavalcade A Man who rides on Horseback before the King scatters some small pieces of Silver stampt with the Effigies of the New King among the People in the Streets but this Liberality costs him so little that I do not believe there are a hundred Crowns distributed Thus the King is conducted from the City Gate to the Castle passing thro the publick place where there are several Triumphal Arches adorn'd with Statues Devices and various Inscriptions On the day that precedes the Coronation which is called the day of Expiation they perform the Funeral of the Deceased King whose Body is carry'd to the Church of St. Stanislaus at Schalka where the Marshalls break their Staves and the Chancellors their Seals against the King's Coffin The New King goes also thither
not be Crown'd and that the austrian Faction oppos'd it both because she was a French-woman born and because she was but a private Gentlewoman But the event show'd the contrary for she was Crown'd at Cracow with her Husband without the least opposition But if a Queen of Poland be not a Catholick she cannot be Crown'd as it happen'd to Helen the Wife of Alexander I. and Daughter to the Duke of Muscovy who being of the Greek Church and refusing to imbrace the Roman Catholick Faith the Republick would never consent that She should be Crown'd Tho' according to the Constitutions of the Republick and the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom both the Kings and Queens of Poland ought to be Crown'd at Cracow we find that this Ceremony has been sometimes perform'd in other places For Queen Cecilia the Wife of Vladislaus IV. was Crown'd at Warsaw in the Year 1637. And tho' there was a Law made the next Year that the Queens should always be Crown'd at Warsaw Anno 1670. 'T is true this was done with the consent of all the Orders of the Republick When the Queen is Crown'd the King must desire it of the Republick he must be present at the Ceremony himself Conduct her to the Church and present her to the Archbishop of Gnesna or to the Bishop who is to perform the Ceremony The Archbishop Anoints Her with the Consecrated Oil and puts the Crown upon Her head the Scepter into Her right hand and the Globe of Gold into Her left The Queens of Poland have no Officers but a Marshal and a Chancellor neither of whom are Senators but only Judges of the Differences that happen among her Domesticks They Answer the Harangues that are made to the Queen when an Ambassador makes her a Compliment in His Master's Name or when a Present is made to her at the Marriage of a Maid of Honour The King furnishes the Queen with Money to defray the Charge of her Houshold But after the King's death she must maintain her self and all her Retinue with the Revenue which the King bestows upon her with the Consent of the Republick both for her Dowry and for her Marriage-Present These Revenues are call'd the Reformation and consist of the Reversion of a certain number of Starosties which she cannot enjoy till they become vacant by the Death of the present Possessors So that a Queen of Poland is frequently kept from her Estate till she be just ready to leave it For sometimes those who possess the Starosties that are in her Reformation out-live her But if the King die before the Queen's Reformation be settled upon her the Republick allows her a Yearly Pension out of the Crown-Lands as they did to Queen Eleanor in the Year 1674 after the Election of King John for they were so king to that Princess as to give her a Yearly Pension of 120000 Livres by an express Article which was afterwards inserted in the Pacta Conventa but she chose rather to quit both that and the Kingdom than to see a French Gentlewoman succeed a Princess of the House of Austria CHAP. XXI Of the Polish Army THERE is so little Order or Discipline observ'd in the Polish Army that the Country is frequently harrass'd by those who are paid to defend it and the Republick is oblig'd to Raise New Troops every Year At the first there were few Cities in Poland But when the Inhabitants grew more Industrious in Cultivating the Ground they were perpetually molested by their Neighbours who by frequent Inrodes endeavour'd to deprive 'em of the fruit of their Labours In order to oppose these Invasions the Kings caused Castles and Fortresses to be built in the Cities which always subsisted so long as they were Protected by the Royal Authority and defended by good Officers and Disciplin'd Soldiers But since those Forts were neglected several Lords have endeavour'd to usurp the Posession of 'em that they might extend their Dominion over the Cities and oppress the Burghers as they do the Peasants in the Villages Those whom the Kings entrusted with the Government of those Places did not employ the Revenues that were annex'd to 'em in Repairing the Walls and Fortificatious whence it comes that all their Cities are open and that the Soldiers who are put there into Winter Quarters may go out when they please and Ravage the Country For when a Regiment is to be sent from one end of the Kingdom to the other the Commander is only Order'd to set out and to go to the place appointed without mentioning either the time or the places through which he is to March or the Cities where he is to Quarter so that he may run through the Whole Kingdom and so sometimes spend a Moneth or six Weeks in Marching to a place which he might have reach'd in Eight days 'T is plain that these disorderly Marches must of necessity waste and destroy the Cities and Villages through which the Soldiers pass Nor is the Law able to to remedy such an insupportable Grievance because it is not the Custom in Poland to establish Magazins and Store-houses in any place The Gentlemen who go to the Army spend the best part of their Estates in furnishing themselves with Magnificent Arms fine Horses and rich Apparel maintaining a Numerous Train of Servants Their Estates alone are not sufficient to defray so vast a Charge and besides they receive no Pay for a considerable time after they enter into the Service so that they are in a manner constrain'd to Oppress the People that they may be able to support their extravagant vanity Some who are naturally of a less violent temper endeavour to excuse a Fault which they are forc'd to acknowledge by laying the blame upon the Court pretending that the King bestows the Royal Gifts of the Republick and the Offices and Dignities upon the Courtiers or other great Lords who either have no need of 'em or do not deserve 'em in stead of giving 'em to those who have done good Service in the Army where they have spent their Estates and expos'd their Lives for the defence of their Country Others accuse those who are entrusted with the management of the Finances who make 'em wait very long for their Pay and even then oblige 'em to quit part of it that they may procure the rest These Grievances exasperate their Minds and frequently occasion great Complaints in the Diet. When they Levy Soldiers in Foland the Captains exact Contributions on those Places where they Raise their Men and give very little to the Soldiers Retaining the Money they Receive on the Publick Account always finding some unjust pretext to Defraud the Soldiers of their Pay who are consequently under a strong Temptation to Rob and Pillage the Country the Officers not daring to Restrain a Disorder which is occasion'd by themselves To put a stop to these Irregularities it has been frequently Propos'd to the Diets by some Wise and Considering Persons to keep the Soldiers always
is a Twisting of the Hair in such a manner that 't is impossible to unravel it These Twisted Locks cannot be compar'd to any thing more fitly than to those long and nasty Ropes of Hair upon some Spaniels The Polanders give this Account of the Original of this Distemper They say That the Tartars having made a Furious Irruption into Poland in the Year 1279 and having killed a great Number of People they Poyson'd their Hearts and threw 'em into the Waters which Infected those who drunk 'em with this Loathsome Disease the True Cause whereof is still a Secret to Physitians Strangers generally believe that the Plica is the effect of Slovenliness and not of any Distemper and they are confirm'd in this Opinion because they are never troubled with it even tho they live a long time in the Countrey for if their Hair begins to Twist when they fall Sick they cause it immediately to be Cut off which the Polanders dare not do for fear of losing their Sight which they imagin is an unavoidable consequence of Cutting off the Hair in this Distemper Yet I have known some whose Hair was actually Cut off without any dangerous Accident But the People are so perswaded that the Plica is a Distemper that there are some Old Women who pretend to bring it out upon Children that are troubled with Languishing Diseases by mixing and twisting their Hair and making their Mothers believe that the Children are only Sick because the Plica cannot break forth CHAP. XXIV Of the Religion of the Polanders THE Polanders Received the Faith of Christ in the Reign of Mieceslaus in the Year 964. and have ever since remain'd in Subjection to the See of Rome except some who in the last Age Embrac'd the Doctrins of Luther and Calvin At present the Polanders are generally Roman Catholicks except in Russia where there are still a considerable number of Persons who observe the Rites of the Greek Church and in Prussia where there are many Lutherans as at Dantzick Elbing Thorn and Mariemburg There were also some Socinian formerly but King John Casimir Expell'd 'em out of the Kingdom in 1658 and oblig'd 'em to sell their Estates in Three years In the Reign of Sigismund Augustus Nicholas Radziwill was the first who turned Calvinist and Protected those of that Perswasion in his House at Vilna where they Sung the Psalms Translated into the Vulgar Tongue But that Branch of the House of Radziwill is now wholly Extinct the last having left only one Daughter who was Marry'd to the Elector of Brandenburg's Second Son The Ecclesiasticks in General are very much Respected in Poland but the Monks or Regular Clergy are more esteemed than the rest and well entertain'd every where They Read Homilies in the Churches and carry the Sacrament privately to Sick Persons and even sometimes Bury the Dead without asking the Consent either of the Bishop or Curat The Mendicant Friars who go about Begging Alms enter boldly to the very Closets without Knocking at the Door The Monks in Poland are generally Rich but they are neither Regular nor Modest for they usually Drink in Cellars which are the Taverns of that Country and sometimes to that Excess that they are not able to walk in the Streets without fearing either to be Censur'd by their Superiors or to give any occasion of Scandal to the People The Fasts that are observ'd by the Monks and by all the Polanders in General consist only in Abstaining from Milk Eggs and boiled Fish at Night for they may eat dry'd Fish for their Collation and provided they Fast at that time they imagine that they may Eat and Drink all the Day long They Abstain from Butter Eggs and Milk on Friday and Saturday for they believe there is no difference betwixt Milk and Flesh As for the Secular Clergy there are some of them who have not only Two Canonships but Two Parsonages but there are none of them who take care to perform the Duties of their Function The Curates make the Monks Instruct their Parishioners and leave the other Duties of their Offices to be perform'd by Vicars The Canons are never present at the Offices and give a poor Scholar Two pence a day to say their hours for them in the Quire And the Bishops themselves are so careless of their Episcopal Functions that they dare not Correct the Inferior Clergy The Polanders seem very Devout and bestow considerable Gifts upon their Churches but they are neither Liberal to the Poor nor careful of their Sick Servants They Pray aloud in the Church and at the Elevation of the Sacrament at Mass they Beat themselves and knock their Heads against the Pavement or against the Bench on which they sit with so much Violence that on such occasions there is always a great Noise in the Church The Women commonly use their Prayer-Books with a Chaplet of Beads drawn thro' the middle of ' em In Winter all the Ladies of Quality and even some Men cause a Furr'd Bag to be brought to Church in which they put their Feet for the Weather is extreamly Cold especially for the Women who have Fine thin Shooes they wear also a little Furr'd Mantle upon their shoulders The Churches of Poland are very Fine and well-adorn'd The Jesuits of Leopold have a Chasuble cover'd so thick with Pearls and so heavy that they cannot use it when they say Mass 't is valu'd at above 100000 Livres They Sing somewhat in the Polish Tongue every where especially in the Parishes at High-Mass The Rosary is also daily repeated in the same Language in all the Churches of the Dominicans where the Women are seated on one side and the Men on the other the Men alone Singing the Ave Maria and the Women alone the Sancta Maria. There are Monks of all Orders in Poland except Carthusians and Minimes CHAP. XXV Of the Administration of Justice THERE are two sorts of Jurisdiction in Poland Ecclesiastical and Civil The former is in the hands of the Bishops who execute it by their Officials from whose Judgment there lies an Appeal to the Archbishop of Gnesna the Primate of the Kingdom And besides the Authority of the Pope's Nuncio is so great that he may Judge all Ecclesiastic Causes by Appeal The Civil Jurisdiction is in the hands of several sorts of Judges The Starosta's hold Courts within the Extents of their Territories and each City has a Right to give Judgment in certain Cases Every Palatin Marshal and Chancellor has his respective Jurisdiction The King the Senate and the General Diets determin Civil and Criminal Causes And besides the Nobility have Three Courts where they give Final Judgment in Causes without further Appeal There are Two of those Courts for the Kingdom and one for the Dutchy Those of the Kingdom Sit at Peotrkow in Lower and Lublin in Upper Poland and that of the Dutchy is held one Year at Viina and another at Minsk or at Nowogrodeck by turns They are compos'd
always afraid that he shall never be Paid Others Travel on Horseback and carry along with them a Small Stiched Quilt to Lye upon being about an Inch thick and a Foot and a half broad which they fold double and lay it under the Saddle and when they arrive at the Inn they give the Gospodarz Money to bring them some Brown Bread Beer and a little Oates so that all the Charge for the Lodging of a Polish Gentleman and of his Horse does not often amount to above 5 or 6 Gros which are worth no more than Two pence And consequently that which is so Incommodious to Strangers is very Convenient for those of the Countrey because they can Travel 100 Leagues on Horseback without spending above 50 Pence As for the Lords and Ladies they Travel alwayes in Coaches and carry Waggons along with them with Provisions and Beds for themselves and their Women but their Attendants who follow 'em on Horseback are forc'd to content themselves with such Lodgings as I describ'd before I must not forget to intimate that a Traveller ought to be very careful in passing over the Bridges because they are generally bad and the Polanders take no care to keep them in Repair Those who Travel in Winter ought to provide a sufficient quantity of Brandy and a Furr'd Bag to put their Feet into For 't is so Cold in Poland that those who are in a Coach Wagon or Calash cannot otherwise endure it and since the Lakes and Rivers are so Frozen that they easily Travel upon the Ice They must take care when the Earth is cover'd with Snow to procure a Sledge upon which they must place the Coach or Calash and draw the Sledge with the Horses Travellers are very much incommoded in Winter especially on Holy-dayes for the Cold is so piercing that 't is impossible to be in a Chamber without a Stove in it And besides on such solemn occasions all the Peasants of the Village who usually drink nothing but Water meet together to Carouse with Beer and Brandy and then Sing and Dance all Night so that the weary Traveller cannot so much as shut his eyes I have said enough to convince the Reader that the manner of Travelling in Poland is extreamly Inconvenient to Strangers As for the Native Polanders who Travel on Horseback in the Winter they have great Boots into which they put Chaff or chopp'd Straw to keep their Feet warm and before they Mount their Horses they drink a large Draught of Brandy to preserve 'em from the Cold. The Coachmen use the same precaution from the Cold for otherwise they could never endure the Sharpness of the Weather which is so excessively violent that when a Man Travels with his Face expos'd to the Air his Nose sometimes Freezes Those who have the Misfortune to meet with such a Disaster must apply Snow to the part and carefully avoid entering into a Room wherein there is a Stove or into any warm place for otherwise they would run the hazard of losing their Nose There is no Travelling by Post in Poland tho' there are Posts for Carrying Letters and Pacquets This Custom was first establish'd by Order of the Republick in the Reign of Vladislaus IV. Anno 1647. For before that time the King's Orders were carry'd by Gentlemen of the Court who oblig'd the Starosta's to furnish 'em with Horses and Provisions CHAP. XXIX Of the Polish COINS THE Pieces of Gold which pass Currently in Poland are Ducats which are worth 2 French Crowns or 2 German Rix Dollars or 7 Livres of Dantzick Money or 12 Livres of the Currant Money of Poland that is in Chelons A Chelon is a piece of Copper smaller than a French Denier 3 Chelons make a Polish Gros and 3 Gross 2 Pence of the Countrey Money So that to make up these 2 Pence which are not worth above one of our Pennys there must be 9 Chelons which are not worth and weigh no more than 2 English Farthings whereby one may easily judge how much the Countrey is Ruin'd by so base a Coyn which was first Introduc'd in a pressing exigency to satisfie the Army which had Confederated for want of their Pay The Introducing of base Money into Poland is no new thing as it appears by that which was Coyn'd by the Officers of Casimir IV. and afterwards occasion'd a Complaint to the Diet held at Peortrkow in 1459. For at that time the Kings had the Privilege of Coyning the Money and the first who yielded it up to the Republick was Sigismond III. in the Year 1632. There is another Base Coyn in Poland call'd Tinfe which was also brought into the Kingdom in the Year 1663 to pay the Confederated Army The Tinfe which is a little larger than a French Fifteen pence is of Silver of a Base Allay 'T is worth 30 Gros of Chelons which make 20 Pence of Poland or 10 Common Pence Besides the Tinfes there is another sort of Money call'd Choustack which is also a Piece of Silver of Base Allay and less than a French Sou 'T is worth 10 Gros of Poland so that 3 of 'em make a Tinfe These Base Coyns do not pass so currently at Dantzick nor in any part of Prussia for the Tinfes are not worth above 18 Gros and the Choustacks Six Gros of Dantzick Money because the Chelons of Dantzick are worth more than those of Poland which do not go at all there The Money of Dantzick consists in Ducats of Gold Ourts Choustaques and Chelons The Ducat as I Intimated before is worth 2 Rix Dollars or 2 French Crowns An Ourt is a Silver Coin of the bigness of a French Piece of Fifteen Pence and is worth 18 Gros of Dantzick or 30 Gros of Polish Money A Choustaque is worth 6 Gros of Dantzick 10 Gros of Polish Money and there must be 3 Chelons Dantzick to make a Gros Yet 18 Gros of Dantzick Chelons make 30 Gros of Polish Chelons Thus a Tinfe which is worth 30 Gros of Polish Chelons is worth but 18 Gros of Dantzick Chelons The Ducat which is worth 12 Francks of Polish Chelons is worth but 7 Franks of Currant Money of Dantzick Five Choustaques or an Ourt and 2 Choustaques make a Livre of Dantzick Money because 5 Choustaques make 30 Gros and 30 Gros make 20 Pence This difference in the value of the Coins ought to be heedfully observ'd by Strangers who have occasion to pass through Dantzick because the Bankers take all opportunities to Impose upon ' em An APPENDIX CONTAINING A Chronological Abridgment Of the HISTORY of POLAND Some Remarks upon the Government of that Kingdom And the ABDICATION of K. JOHN CASIMIR And an Account Of the Present State of SOCINIANISM in that COUNTREY Lechus An. Dom. 550. THE Polish Historians asscribe the Foundation of their Monarchy to Lechus and some of 'em think that the Poles or Polanders were first call'd Polachs from the Name of this Prince He Built the City of Gnesna
Templo plusquam Sacerdos In Re-publica plusquam Rex In Sententia dicenda plusquam Senator In Judicio plusquam Jurisconsultus In Exercitu plusquam Imperator In Acie plusquam Miles In adversis perferendis injuriisque condonandis plusquam Vir. In publica libertate tuenda plusquam Civis In Amicitia colenda plusquam Amicus In Convictu plusquam familiaris In Venatione ferisque domandis plusquam Leo. In tota reliqua Vita plusquam Philosophus Sigismund III. An. D. 1587. The Son of John King of Sweden by Catherine Daughter to Sigismund I. having renounc'd the Protestant Religion was chosen King of Poland by the unanimous consent of the Nobility He order'd Maximilian Arch-Duke of Austria whom the Crown-General Zamoski had defeated to be bound with Golden-fetters and carry'd to Zamosch where he kept him Prisoner two years Vladislaus VI or IV. The Son and Successor of Sigismund He had the courage to encounter an Army of 200000 Muscovites with 50000 Men and routed 'em entirely After this Memorable and Important Victory he took the City of Moscow and return'd in Triumph to Warsaw with Two Czars the Patriarch the Crown and 500 Wagons loaden with rich Spoils He defeated the Grand Signior Osman and pursu'd him almost as far as Constantinople Afterwards he was so animated with an Imprudent Zeal for the propagating of Religion that he resolv'd to undertake an Expedition to the Holy-Land and dy'd for grief because the Polanders refus'd to raise Subsidies to enable him to prosecute that design After his Death the Kingdom was harrass'd by the Cossacks who were principally incens'd against the Jews and Jesuits John Casimit Who was formerly a Jesuit and a Cardinal was Elected King after his Brother Vladislaus and obtain'd a Dispensation from the Pope to Marry his Widow He defeated the Cossacks in a doubtful and uncertain Battle near Beresteczko in Russia Having by this Victory curb'd that Factious People and secur'd the Quiet of the Kindom he began to indulge himself in his Pleasures He Banish'd the Vice-Chancellor of the Crown after he had Debauch'd his Wife and that Injur'd Officer returning to Sweden perswaded that Prince to Invade Poland which he did with so great success that Casimir was entirely dispossest But he was afterwards recall'd even by those who joyn'd with his Enemies and after several Battles oblig'd the King of Sweden to make a Peace At last by the perswasion of his Queen that he might make way for the Prince of Conde to Succeed him he Abdicated the Government and retir'd to France where he was made Abbot of St. Germans Michael After Casimir's Abdication several Intrigues were made by the Dukes of Lorrain Newburg and York and the Prince of Conde who stood Candidates for the Crown At that time the Duke of York profest the Protestant Religion but when that was objected against him by the Nobility a certain Jesuite who was employ'd to manage his Interest declar'd openly before the Senate of Poland that he was a Roman-Catholick At last contrary to all expectation the Election was determin'd in favour of Michael Coributh Wisnowieczki who was descended of the most ancient Family of the Dukes of Lithuania This Prince dy'd at Warsaw about a year after his Coronation and 't is commonly believ'd that he was Poyson'd by a certain Priest 'T was observ'd that when the General Sobieski afterwards Chosen King came to see him in his Coffin the Nose of the Deceast Prince began to Bleed assoon as he enter'd the Room John Sobieski This Prince was descended of a very Noble and Ancient Family in the Palatinate of Lublin He was the younger Son of Sobieski Castellan of Cracow by a Daughter of Stanislas Zolkiewski Great General of the Crown He was made Great Marshal of the Crown August 24. 1665 Great General of the Kingdom in 1667 and Great Master of the King's Houshold Palatin of Cracow c. He retook 60 Cities from the Rebel Cossacks in Vkrania In 1667. he defended Podhais against the Tartars and two years after took from them and the Cossacks the whole Palatinate of Braclaw in Lower Podolia In 1673. he obtain'd a Memorable Victory over the Turks at Choczim on the Niester where 8000 Janizaries and 20000 Spahis were kill'd He was Chosen King of Poland May 10th 1674 and made two Campaigns against the Turks before he was Crown'd But that which will for ever perpetuate the Honour of his Memory is that Glorious and Important Action which he perform'd in 1683 when he Rais'd the Siege of Vienna The following Panegyrical Character of that Prince was made upon that occasion JOANNI III. DOminatione Polonico Lithuanico Liberatione Austriaco Pannonico Profligatione Ottomanico Thracio Religione Christianissimo Pietate Catholico Zelo Apostolico Inter Duces pugnacissimo Inter Reges sapientissimo Inter Imperatores Augustissimo Cui Gloria militaris Regna peperit Clementia stabilivit Virtus perennavit Qui Raro pietatis constantiae exemplo propria deserens aliena defendens Docuit quo pacto sacra foederis jura Jungantur custodiantur compleantur Ottomani am lunam fulgentissimo crucis vexillo eternam Eclypsim minitantem Adeo prospere feliciterque finibus extirpavit Vt unum Idemque fuerit Venisse Vidisse Vicisse Igitur Inter innumeros Christiani Orbis plausus Inter vindicatam Religionis Imperii laetitiam Inter cruentae lunae extrema deliquia Agnoscant Praesentes Credant Posteri Non tantum enascenti Evangelio quo propagaretur Sed adulto ne profligaretur Vtrobique a Deo missum fuisse hominem Cui Nomen erat JOANNES He Marry'd the Lady Mary de la Grange the Daughter of the Marquiss now Cardinal d' Arquien and Widow of Prince Zamoiski He died June 17. 1696 being seiz'd with a Fit of an Apoplexy after a long Indisposition SOME REMARKS UPON THE GOVERNMENT OF POLAND 'T IS Worthy Observation as to the Election of a King in Poland that whereas the Nobility and Gentry are the Keepers Preservers and Defendors of the Liberty and Laws of the Country Now for fear of a Change in the Government as has happen'd in France Denmark Swedeland and Italy where the Nobility having been corrupted and brib'd with Honours and other Rewards by the Kings have by degrees remitted from time to time some of their Rights and Immunities ill at last they have fool'd themselves out of their Freedom into a Slavish Dependence on the Court the Republick of Poland warn'd by those Examples to avoid such a Fate has made a Law That the Election of a King must be Nemine Contradicente An Instance of this may be given in the Election of King Vladislaus the Fourth a most Warlike Prince who was Chosen King of Poland in consideration of the great Services he had done the Common-wealth with the unanimous Consent of the Whole Nobility excepting only one Deputy who made a Solemn Protestation against the Votes of all the Diet yet the said Prince could not be Crown'd without the Consent of
the said Deputy Who being Ask'd why he thus Dissented Answer'd That he did it that by this means the Privileges of the Nobility might be safe and lodg'd within his Power tho all the rest of the Nobility were corrupted Having said this and caused his Protestation to be enter'd into the Records and Archives of the Kingdom he presently consented with the rest to the Election of Vladislaus the Fourth The Polish Nobility being endow'd with so many Privileges and the Deputies having always a free Vote the Aristocratical State of Poland cannot well be chang'd by any of the Kings of Poland into an Absolute Monarchy For whosoever offers to do this is declar'd by the Senate to be Perjur'd and no more a King which appears by the late King John the Third's Oath in Harnoc Besides the Nobility uses immediately to complain in the open Senate of the Tyranny of those that attempt such Innovations as did a certain Deputy out of the Palatinate of Posnania King Stephen Bathori after many Victories which he gain'd and several Provinces with which he enlarg'd the Kingdom of Poland began at last to endeavour to make himself Absolute Monarch of Poland whereupon this Deputy exprest himself in a Speech with so much Freedom Boldness and Vehemence that the King Ambitious and Passionate in his Nature not being able to let the Deputy run on any longer upon that Topic interrupted him in these words Hold your Tongue you Rascal To which the Deputy made Answer I am no Rascal but a Gentleman of Poland an Elector of Kings and a Deposer of Tyrants Whereupon the King said to him If I were not a King And the Deputy Answer'd If you were not By which Imperfect Reply the Deputy hinted to the King that he did not want Courage to engage with him hand to hand for Liberty if he had not been check'd by his Respect for the Majesty of Kings The King afterwards having buried all His Resentments advanc'd him to the Highest Dignities nor did he believe that this had any ways lessen'd His Majesty on the contrary he always esteem'd him one of the Best Patriots and Lovers of his Country If any of the Kings of Poland aim at Arbitrary Government or Act contrary to the Religion and Laws of the Country he is immediately Depos'd or forc'd to Abdicate the Throne The Form which King Casimire us'd in His Abdication is as follows WE make known and Declare to all the World that being sensible of our Weakness which grows daily upon us with our Age we are unable any longer to bear up under the Burden of so great Weight as the Government of this State is Wherefore we voluntarily and of our own accord have resolv'd upon Abdicating the Throne that we wight spend the remainder of our declining Life quietly and in private and in preparing for a better Life that never ends For this reason having call'd a full Senate at Warsaw on the Twelfth of June in this paesent Year we open'd our Mind to our Senators and Counsellors Who being struck with the Greatness and Novelty of the Affair and reverencing the Laws of their Country and referring the Consideration of the whole matter to all the Kingdom we accordingly appointed a General Diet of all the Orders of our Kingdom to be held on the Six and Twentieth day of August and at the first opening of the Diet made known our Intention of Abdicating the Throne We have had Experience of the Love and Affection of our Loyal Citizens and Subjects who bearing a Grateful Memory of the Deserts and Good Actions of our most Serene Predecessors and paying a Deference to the Great Cares Troubles and Dangers me underwent for Twenty Years together in Various Turns of Fortune in so many Camps and in so many Diets endeavour'd by importunate Intreaties and earnest Requests to keep us upon the Throne But forasmuch as we constantly persisted in our Resolution it was agreed that we should make our Abdication or Resignation of the Polish Crown in a Real and Solemn Manner Vpon Mature and Serious Deliberation and by the Consent of all Orders of the State we being in full souundness of Body and Mind do freely and without constraint Abdicate from this time and for ever the Kingdom of Poland the Great Dutchy of Lithuania and the Principalities thereunto annex'd We restore in full form into the hands of the Senate of the Marshals and of the State our Regal Dignity and whatsoever else of Ancient Right does belong to the Kings of Poland and the Great Dukes of Lithuania We Absolve all the States and Orders and every one of our Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance taken to us and we release them from the Obligation of Homage and Fealty The Duke of Prussia as to what concerns us only we declare free from all Obligation due to us upon the account of any Contract made for the Dukedom of Prussia and upon the account of any Right of Fealty for Bitovia and Lawenburgh and the Duke of Kureland we likewise declare freed from Homage and all other Obligations whatsoever The Authentick and Original Grant of our Election made in the Year 1648 We Restore Cancel and Annul without pretending to claim any or the least Right of Soveraignty to our selves or any of our Heirs within the Kingdom of Poland the Great Dukedom of Lithuania and the Principalities thereunto annex'd By which Abdication or Resignation of the Regal Power rightly and lawfully made and ratify'd by these Presents it shall be and is within the Power and Authority of the most Reverend Father in Christ the Arch-bishop of Gnesna Primate of Poland and Chief Minister of State to declare the Throne Vacant and to perform all that of Right and Custom does belong to the Archbishop of Gnesna during the Interregnum And the States of the Kingdom are empower'd to proceed to the Election of a New King according to the Laws and Customs of Poland And we further Promise that we will by no means hinder it from being a very Free Election that we will not promote the Interest of any Candidate and that during the time of the Election we will remove and abide at a distance from the Place of Election In Testimony and Confirmation thereof we have commanded these our Letters Patents to be Published under the Royal Seal Dated at Warsaw at the General Diet of the Kingdom Sept. 16. This Solemn Abdication made by King Casimire was afterwards Publish'd by the Senate of Poland The Substance of which I thought fit to Insert here that so the Abdication and Vacancy of the Throne after the Departure of King James II. Publish'd by the Parliament of England might not seem a Novelty and it is as follows WE the Senate and Officers both of Church and State within the Kingdom of Poland and the Great Dutchy of Lithuania and the Marshals of both Countries being Assembled in the Diet do manifest and Declare That after the Examples of our Predecessors
who esteem'd nothing more decent nothing more worthy to be transmitted to Posterity than the Respect they paid their Princes and have handed down to us the Esteem they had for them We have always us'd our Endeavours to Maintain and Increase the Good Will and Reputation of our Princes To the Vigorous Maintenance whereof not only our Honourable Emulation of our Ancestor's Virtues not only the Obligation and Gratitude we owe to the Royal Race of Jagello which for almost Three hundred years together has Govern'd us so Auspiciously did excite us But the Extraordinary Endowments of His Present Majesty who has Govern'd our State with the same Fortune and Reputation as His Greatest Predecessors for the space of Twenty years attract both our Veneration and Admiration He was always ready to undertake Noble Designs to endure the Heat of Summer and the Cold of Winter to be vigilant in Campains to suffer hunger and thirst to lye on the Cold Ground to spend sleepless Nights and as often as there was necessity or occasion hazarded his own Life for his Subjects Safety He was famous in the Arts both of Peace and War and gain'd an especial Esteem for his Clemency Whereupon we interpos'd the weighty Authority of the most Illustrious Senate the humble Requests of the Knights of both Countries the Intreaties of the whole Republick and the Desires of several Princes Lastly We Objected to him the Prohibitions of the Laws and the Ties of his Oath But when all these Motives could not prevail nor alter the unshaken Mind of His Sacred Majesty from His Thoughts of Eternity we were at last forc'd to yield to the Weight of our Fates and no longer to attempt to remove His Majesty from His-Resolution And forasmuch as His Sacred Majesty has Issu'd forth His Letters Patent which we had design'd for a Pledge of our Constant and Perpetual Fidelity and has added another more particular one whereby he Releases us and all his Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance and from all other Obligations We likewise on our parts by these our Letters Patent do Release His Majesty from the Oath made by His Deputies as well before His Coronation in the Church of Warsaw as afterwards in the Cathedral Church of Cracow and we disannul it to all intents and purposes provided that our Rights and Priviledges in all things be preserv'd and that this Act may not prejudice a Free Election our Laws and Liberties nor be drawn into a Precedent In Confirmation of the Premises we have affix'd our Hands Dated at Warsaw Sept. 16. An. Dom. 1668. From hence it appears that the Majesty and Authority of the King was Adjusted to the Liberty of the Senate and the People and all Orders of the Kingdom together with the King were kept within the Bounds of Equity So that if at any time the King should fail in His Duty and aim at the Invading of the Properties of His Subjects he was immediately check'd therein by the Authority of the Senate who were Sworn to do it and by this means the King of Poland dedepended on the Grave Advices of His Senate On the other hand the Senators and all the Knights Reverence Love and Honour His Sacred Majesty and are ready to lay down their Lives and Estates for His Benefit and Preservation AN ACCOUNT Of the Rise of Socinianism in POLAND And of the Present state of that SECT POLAND was at first Converted by S. Adalbert Arch-Bishop of Gnesna from Paganism to Christianity and has continu'd stedfast ever since for almost Seven hundred years in the Communion of the Church of Rome It was Instructed in the Romish Principles by him and has always paid a very great Respect to the Holy See and endeavour'd to excel all others in their Zeal for its Interests At present since the Extirpation of the Hussits Berengarians Picards Anabaptists Arians Tritheists Photians Ebionites Reactitorians and a world of such like Heresies and lastly of the Socinians who by the Countenance of some Noblemen and the Toleration once allow'd had swarm'd in Poland the Roman Religion chiefly prevails in that Country The King indeed Promises upon Oath before His Coronation to Protect the Lutherans and Calvinists The Greeks likewise and the Jews have the same Toleration there which they have in many other Countries And as the Case now stands that Old Proverb which says Whoever has lost his Religion may find it in Poland falls to the Ground and is no longer true of that Kingdom But forasmuch as a Clear Account of the Present State of the Socinians how they crept in and how they were at last thrown out cannot be met with in any other Author I shall now give it ye as briefly and orderly as I can This Pernicious Heresy of Socinianism which by Christians ought to be detested above all others which does not strike at any particular Article but shakes and almost overthrows the whole Fabrick of our Religion came out of Italy In the Year 1546. and began at first in the State of Venice at Vincenza by Forty Men. Two of them Julius Trevisanus and Franciscus Ruigo being taken and Strangled at Venice the rest to avoid the same Fate left Italy and dwelt in Turkey Poland Transilvania Suitzerland and in other places where a Toleration of Religion was Allow'd The first who spread the Errors of this Heresy in Poland was a certain Dutchman nam'd Spicillus alias Fricius a Disciple of Erasmus and well skill'd in Hebrew Greek and Latin under the Reign of King Sigismund Augustus in the Year of our Lord 1546. He came to Cracow where according to the Custom of the Country he was Treated very Nobly as a Stranger by the Mayor of the City At this Treat there were several Noblemen and among the rest Andreas Modrevius the King's Secretary This Man upon starting several Doubts concerning the Ever Blessed Trinity was the first that followed the Dutchman in his Errors who by the Secretary Means induc'd the King Himself to be his Disciple The King being thus wrought upon by His Secretary the Dutchman was soon follow'd by Laelius Socinus who being Banish'd out of Italy Absconded at Zurich where when he once heard how succesfully the Dutchman had spread his Heresy in Poland he immediately takes along with him Alicatus Parata and Ochinus three of his Associates and comes to Poland in the Year 1551. He was Introduc'd into the King's Court by the Secretary where he Infus'd his Errors into Lismaninus Queen Bona's Confessor and many other Courtiers Many Noblemen and Senators of all Orders were corrupted by these Men and at last they drew into their Party James Sieninski Palatine of Podolia and Lord of Racovia one of the Chief Nobility He turn'd from Calvinism to Socinianism and Built a Printing-House and an Academy at Racovia for the Use of this Sect. This Town being very pleasant for the Temperature of its Air for the Sweetness of its Situation for the Lakes Fountains Groves Walks and
Meads about it quickly drew thither Faustus Socinus Cousin German to Lelius with several others Hereupon several Books were Publish'd and spread over the whole Kingdom and the Chief not only of Catholicks but also of Lutherans and Calvinists embracing the Opinion of Socinus drew every day great Numbers to their Party Whereupon the Republick for fear least the Sparks already kindled should set the Whole Nation in Flames and least the Plague which had Infected many of the Members should at length destroy the Whole Body by the Incitement of the Bishops and several other Religious Orders oblig'd the King Augustus to Banish Lismaninus the Queens Confessor out of the Court and induc'd him to issue forth the following Edict against the Growing Heresies in Poland The EDICT of King Sigismund against the Socinians WHereas all Humane things are altogether vain and unprofitable unless Govern'd by the Laws of God and establish'd by the Integrity and Union of Religion Therefore We Sigismund Augustus by the Grace of God King of Poland do Publish and Declare to all and every person that is or may be concern'd that We being inform'd by Our Counsellors of Church and State that several Heresies are every where hatch'd within Our Kingdom and that not only New Doctrines and Ceremonies are Introduc'd but also that several of our unthinking Subjects do openly profess and instruct the same We following the Examples of our Predecessors whose chiefest care and study was to Propagate and Protect the Christian Faith and to cut off all occasion of Quarrel among our Subjects and of Disturbance in the State which always attends Dissensions in Religion And thinking this to be the proper Duty of Christian Kings and Princes do by these Our Letters Patent Testify and Promise That We out of Respect to the Christian Religion and out of Love to the Holy Church will Profess and Maintain to the utmost of our Power within all Our Dominions the Truth and Sincerity of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine and of the Christian Catholick and Apostolick Faith as it is professed by the Holy Church of Rome and as it has been Receiv'd and Profess'd constantly by Our Predecessors As for the Enemies thereof as well Pagans who are the Profess'd Enemies of Christianity as Hereticks who under the pretence of being Christians and by a false Interpretation of Scripture destroy Christianity and shew themselves to be alienated from the Faith and the Religion once deliver'd by the Apostles and hitherto Profess'd by the Roman Catholick Church These We shall take care to Suppress and to Banish out of Our Kingdom Nor will We ever admit into Our Royal Council and Senate nor bestow any Places of Honour or Trust on any who are tainted with Heresy provided We are satisfy'd of it If any shall be accus'd before Us We will take care by the Divine Assistance that the Statutes of our Realm shall with the utmost diligence be put in Execution against them that so they may be for ever Branded Stigmatiz'd and Banish'd their Country unless they shall desire to be Reconcil'd to their Holy Mother the Church The Ecclesiasticks together with their Laws Immunities and Privileges both Publick and Private We will Defend Maintain and Protect to the utmost of our Power To all our Officers and Governors We give it strictly in Charge and Command them under the Penalty of our Severe Displeasure that they be not Negligent or Remiss in Prosecuting and Apprehending such Offenders Whereas on the contrary if any of them shall be Charg'd before Us with being false to his Trust and to Our Commands he shall be brought to Condign Punishment For the Due Performance of all the Premisses We have Ingag'd Our Word to the Reverend Father in Christ Nicolas Ziergowski Lord Arch-bishop of Gnezna and to other of his Bishops and Our Counsellors and by the Oath of Our Royal Trust taken to Our Subjects at Our Coronation We design the Whole shall be faithfully put in Execution In Testimony whereof we have Issu'd forth these Our Letters Patent Dated at Cracow In the Year of Our Lord 1550. And in the Second Year of Our Reign This Edict or rather Manifesto of King Augustus was interpreted by the Nobility to be directly opposite to their Interests Whereupon several of the Chief among them began to stir up Commotions and rise in Arms. And the Hatred of the Romish Ecclesiasticks against the Socinians increas'd every day more and more Hence sprung many Murders constant Fewds between the Nobles and abundance of Bloodshed throughout the whole Kingdom The State being engag'd in a foreign War could not then prevent these great disorders but partly fearing a Civil War and partly trusting to the Vigilance and Pastoral Care of the Ecclesiasticks for the present forbear'd putting in Execution the severe Laws of Jagello against Hereticks But at last they work'd their own Ruin For being by degrees divided into the Factions of Servetus and Samosatanus they too far trespass'd on that Indulgence the State allow'd them Several Statues of our Saviour upon the Cross were broken by the Students of Racovia and several Blasphemies were utter'd in their Books against Christ and for these things being severely check'd by the Decrees and Edicts of John Casimire and King John III. all those who would not Embrace the Roman Faith were to depart the Kingdom within two or three Years Since those Decrees of the King and Republick against the Socinians are still in force it will not be amiss to insert them here and they are as follow John Casimire by the Grace of God King of Poland and Great Duke of Lithuania c. THo' the Being and Propogation of the Arian or as some call it the Socinian Heresy in Our Dominions has been always prohibited by Us yet because the aforesaid Sect which Robs the Son of God of his Praeeternity has by a strange misfortune fatal to the State begun to spread it self for a long time in Our Dominions as well of Poland as of the Great Dutchy of Lithuania We therefore reassuming and leaving in its full force the Statute of Jagello our Predecessor enacted against them do by the Consent of all Orders Enact concerning Hereticks that if any such shall dare to Confess Propagate or Preach the said Arian Heresy or to protect and countenance it or its Promoters within our Dominions of Poland the Great Dutchy of Lithuania and the Provinces thereunto annex'd and shall be thereof lawfully convicted every such Person shall forthwith according to the intent of the aforesaid Statute be Beheaded by our Captains and their Officers upon forfeiture of their Commission for the neglect But whereas We are Willing to extend Our Clemency as far as can be if any one refuses to renounce his Heresy We do hereby grant him the space of three years for the selling off his Goods his Estate and getting in his Debts In which time No Assemblies of the aforesaid Sect shall be held nor shall they undertake any publick
Offices under the Penalties aforemention'd This space of three years was afterwards Contracted to two years as appears by the following Edict WHereas in the Diet of the Year last past 1668. the Arian or Socinian Sect was Banish'd out of our Dominions by Us with the Consent of the States and Three Years time was allow'd them to Sell off their Goods By the Authority of the present Diet We grant them Two Years for Selling their Goods to Commence from the time of the last Diet and to end precisely on the Twelfth of July in the Year next ensuing 1669 which shall not be prejudicial to those who shall hereafter return into the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church But forasmuch as several Absconded in the Kingdom and many others were Protected by the Favour of the Nobles after the Foreign War in which Poland was engag'd was over they were all Banish'd the Kingdom by a Severe Edict which is as follows We Returning due Thanks to the Lord of Hosts for the Benefits of the last Year who has given us so many Signal Victories over our Enemies and desiring by this our Gratitude to continue the Divine Favour towards us when We shall have Banish'd out of our Dominions those who oppose the Praeeternity of his Son According to our Edicts made in the Assembly of the States in the Year 1668 and 1669 against the Arian or Socinian Sect We for the preventing the Absconding of any of the said Sect within our Territories of Poland and Lithuania and that the foresaid Laws against them may be put in Execution do require all our Officers and Judges to be strict therein And in the Great Dutchy of Lithuania we assign a Court of Judicature to Determine all such Causes By this last Law Publish'd and Ratify'd in an Assembly of the States under the Reign of the late King in the Year 1673 The Socinians were driven out of the Kingdom How Miserable their present Condition is and to what Dangers and Troubles they in their Exile were expos'd appears by this Sorrowful Letter of one of them to the rest of his Brethren A LETTER giving an Account of the Present state of the Socinians YOu desire that I should give you an Account of our present Calamity and Distress Alass you command me to renew an unspeakable Woe to run over again the Remembrance of our Sorrows and to make our Wounds raw and gaping as they are to Bleed afresh My Soul shivers at the reflexion of those many Fatal Blows we have receiv'd Not only my Mind but my Hand and Pen shake at and fly back from the Recital of those Misfortunes which have hitherto pursu'd us and whereof I my self was an Eye-witness We were ah we were a happy People and now the very remembrance of that Felicity which our Churches for so many years by the Divine Favour did enjoy does render the sense of our present Troubles the more severe So that we are loth so much as to remember when how and by what steps we fell from being what we were And did not the goodness of the Cause for which we suffer and the Consolations of this kind of Patience support our Minds it would be better for us who are almost overwhelm'd with such a vast weight of Calamity to forget all that is past that so our present Miseries might be born the more easie Yet because you are desirous of having some description of our present Condition we will give it you not drawn in its own proper and lively Colours but set off in the plainest Dress and such things as are but a trouble for us to insist long upon these we shall but lightly touch Nor do I think it worth the while to give you in a long train a Catalogue of unknown Names if the Faithfulness of the Relators be suspected upon the account of the Inraged or at least ignorant Witnesses and Judges of our Cause 'T is a great Enhancement to the Misfortunes of the Miserable But tho' fortune has abandon'd us in our Misery yet we still retain our Integrity It is best therefore to shew you the Beginnings of our Troubles and when these are once known it will be visible to every one how absurd and unjust it is to discredit the Truth of those things which by the very Nature of our Sufferings cannot be otherwise The first Rise of our Troubles we may date from the War begun in our Country with the Cossacks in the Year 1648 whereby several Inhabitants of the Country and many of our Countrymen especially those of us who were borderers on the Boristhenes were rifled of our Estates and Possessions or at least suffer'd irreparable Losses Upon this long before the Law of Proscripion made in the Year 1668 I with the greatest part of my Estate was ruin'd and for the full space of Ten years before the Banishment was an Exile and with several others of our Friends were as it were cast away before the Storm came Immediately after this the Muscovites and within a while the Swedes and at last the Transilvanians made Incursions into our Country which put the whole Kingdom into great Confusion and not the least Creature in it was free from these Outrages For their own Soldiers were so insolent and the Auxiliary Troops of Scythia and Germany so violent that they could neither escape by flight nor repel by Armes their unjust Force We were not indeed the only Persons who suffer'd by the Wars but we alone were those who exhausted by so many Wars and almost Expiring were harrass'd by a Peace more cruel than any War at a time when others were at quiet and by our Constant strugling with an adverse Fortune it seems as if the former Wars had inspir'd a Spirit of Persecution into the Peace which follow'd Altho' in the very heat of the Wars our Enemies were so industrious as to find out means whereby the heaviest Weight of the War might fall on our heads For upon the Abdication of King Casimire while the Swedes were Masters of Cracow the Deputies from all Provinces of the Kingdom flock'd thither to adjust Matters with the Enemy and their Armies with their Generals separated and almost all Orders bought their Peace by Surrendring But that we might not share the benefit of that short Peace our Inveterate Enemies fell upon us and Plunder'd us whilst we dream'd of no such danger and were every one of us quiet in our own Habitations This sudden Evil was the Death of some of our Party and of some of my own Relations but several who with much ado escap'd from these Pillagers fled to Cracow which was then Govern'd by a Swedish Garrison Tho they were forc'd upon this Flight through Fear and had long before this voluntarily thrown themselves under the Protection of the Swedes yet this was afterwards most unjustly laid to their Charge as a Crime and no Course of Law was us'd in the Oppressing of our Friends The Romish Mass-Priests who
World In the Ducal Prussia near Coningsberg they have at present a Church and publick Shcools being protected by the present Elector of Brandenburgh contrary to the Laws and Privileges of the Prussians who every year in their Diets exclaim against this Injustice of the Elector But at Racovia the Seat and Sepulcher of Faustus Socinus after many Changes the Printing house and Academy being first demolish'd came at last by right of Inheritance to the Grand Daughter of James Sieninski Palatine of Podolia and Governor of Racovia who embrac'd the Roman Catholick Religion and is still Living And this is the present State of the Socinians of which none else can give a Fuller or Larger Account A SHORT ACCOUNT Of the Late INTERREGNUM IN POLAND AND THE ELECTION OF THE Present KING HAVING given the Reader Page 221. a short Epitome of the Most Glorious Actions of John Sobieski late King of Poland it will not be amiss to Compleat his Caracter to take notice here of his Conduct during the latter end of his Life which has so little answer'd the Glorious beginning of his Reign That Prince entered into a Common League with the Emperour the Republick of Venice and the Pope against the Common Enemy of Christendom And notwithstanding the Emperour and Venetians carry'd on the War with so much Vigour and Success as to give a fair Opportunity to the Poles to regain Caminiek and the Provinces the Turks and Tartars have got from them yet to the great Amazement of the World the Polish Army did nothing at all and was not able to Protect their Country against the Excursions of their Enemies who committed unspeakable Disorders and carryed a Great Multitude of People into Slavery This occasion'd Great Murmurs amongst the Poles against their King and was such a Blot as tranish'd the Lustre of his former Actions Several have Inquired into the Causes of so odd a Conduct for that Prince wanting neither Courage or Ability every body thought that the Miscarriage of the Affairs of Poland was owing to the King Himself There have been many Conjectures on this Subject but the onely who appears to me well grounded is that Princes Covetousness and after an impartial examination this seems to me the only Remora who stopp'd the Vigorous Resolutions that were Yearly taken Old Men generally speaking are Covetous the reason whereof is plain enough but besides this almost natural Byass the little Esteem the Poles had for Prince James was a great Motive to ingage his Father to heap up Money tho' to the visible Detriment of the Republick That Prince seeing as I have said that the Poles expressed little esteem for his Eldest Son and consequently having no prospect that he should Succeed him meerly upon account of his being Born of the Royal Family and on the other hand knowing by Experience that Money is the best Argument to recommend a Prince to the Choice of the Poles resolv'd to Hoard up Money and therefore left His Army unpaid the Magazines unprovided and lived very Parsimonious in his House The same reason obliged him to set a Tax upon several things that were formerly given Gratis at his Court as Passes Petitions and the like France on the other hand being sensible that the Turks could hardly make head against so many Enemies if all of them carry'd on the War with Vigour made a good use of the Covetousness of the King of Poland and by means of a Yearly Pension to that hungry Prince disappointed all the Designs of the Polish Nobility who could hardly bear without Murmur that Caminick should continue so long in the hands of the Infidels A Violent and very Extraordinary Distemper King John laboured under giving him a sufficient Warning of his Death drawing nigh he tryed several ways to have his Son Chosen his Successor in his Life-time but all in vain for that being contrary to the Laws and Constitution of Poland it has been rarely practised and the King was not beloved enough to oblige the Poles to Act against their own Laws Thus stood the Affairs of Poland when King John Dy'd which happen'd the 17th of June at Nine a Clock at Night 1696. The News of the King's Death was immediately carryed by an Express to Dardinal Radziowsky Arch-bishop of Gnesna Primate of the Kingdom and Regent during the Interregnum who made his Entry into Warsaw on the 24th of June that is Seven days after the King's Death in a most Solemn and Magnificent Manner All the Senators and Nobility then in Town Rode forth above a League from the City to meet him with Colours flying and Kettle Drums beating in the midst of an incredible Crowd of People His Eminence went directly to the Castle and ascended into the Room where the King's Body lay exposed in His Royal Robes and having said a short Prayer went to the Queens Apartment to Condole her Majesty He did the like to Prince James and his Brothers and took upon him the Government of the Kingdom calling a General Dyet to Meet on the 29th of August following to Choose a Successor As the Cardinal Primate has made a great noise since that time it will not be improper to give his Caracter in this place He is of a very good family in Poland and Son to the famous Radziousky who called in the Swedes under Charles Gustavus He is a Man of great Parts but somewhat obstinate Pope Innocent XI made him a Cardinal without any other recommendation but his own merit the then King of Poland tho' his Relation nor the French King were pleased with his promotion tho' time has discover'd that his Eminence is absolutely in the Interests of France He went to Rome after the doath of Innocent XI and was present at the chusing of a new Pope which fell on Cardinal Ottoboni He lived like a Prince and his magnificence and Liberality acquired him a great many Friends Upon the 29th of August the Dyet assembled with the usual Ceremony and after the Mass of the Holy Ghost had been celebrated by the Cardinal Primate they began to talk of the Election of a Mareschal or Speaker of their Assembly which gave occasion to many disputes The Lesser Poland pretended that it was her turn to have a Mareshal chosen out of her Body and Greater Poland put in the same claim but was inclinable to wave it The Lithuanians opposed it pretending that the Greater Poland was to take their turn now that Lithuania might have theirs in the next Dyet and their dispute grew so high that People were affraid the Dyet would break up without coming to any conclusion The Bishop of Posen thought of a new way to put an end to the controversy and came to the Assembly in procession at the head of his Clergy pretending to allay their heats by the Charms of his Benedictions but this provoked the Deputies who told him in great scorn they were not possest and therefore had no need of his Exorcisms At last the
to this particular Point That every Native of the Country shall be excluded from the Crown Therefore the States Ingage themselves by this Association to look upon every Native of this Country who shall Aspire to the Crown as a Publick Enemy and likewise all such as shall Acknowledge him for their King 5. If any Forreign Potentate or Grandee of Poland shall endeavour to Advance any one to the Throne by Foul or Unlawful Means to the Destruction of the Priviledges and Immunities of their Country the States shall Unite themselves from this time forward against all such Potentates and Promise Joyntly to venture their Lives and Fortunes in Defence of their Liberties 6. We will preserve an Inviolable Peace with those who Profess a Religion different from that of the Kingdom and every one shall be maintained in their Rights and Priviledges except the Quakers and Mennonites 7. The time of the Election is sixed from the 15th of May to the 26th of June inclusively 8. The Pretentions of the Royal Family shall be remitted to the Dyet for the Election 9. The usual Place appointed for the Election between Warsaw and Woba shall be Fortify'd according to Custom there shall be Erected a Building for the Deputies and all requisite Preparations taken for the Security of their Persons either going in or coming out 10. Whereas the Army has entred into a Confederacy for want of Pay and that it is necessary that their Association should be broken we not only Promise them a speedy Payment but Authorize the Particular Dyets to find out necessary Funds for that purpose 11. Because the New Regulation drawn up for the Charge of the Artillery is not sufficient the Treasurer of the Crown shall supply what is wanting by vertue of the Establishment made in the Year 1659. 12. The Cardinal shall during his Regency Choose for his Counsellors some of the Senate and Nobility Lastly Deputies shall be Chosen to appoint good Winter Quarters to such of the Souldiers as shall give Obedience to the Crown General and to Pay them what is their Due to Reckon with the Army and Regulate all Affairs which concern the Salt-Mines Deputies were immediately sent to the Army to endeavour to break the Union and oblige them to return to the Obedience of Count Jablonowsky Mareshal of the Crown They offered to Pay their Arrears provided they would Disunite themselves But they returned Answer That though they should receive full Satisfaction upon their Demands they would not break off their Confederacy before the Election of a New King Whereupon the Treaty broke off and the Deputies of the Republick retir'd to Leopold where they made a Solemn Protestation against the Proceedings of the Army which being sent to the Primate was Printed and Dispersed into all the Provinces of the Kingdom to let them see they had left no Stone unturn'd to bring the Rebels to the Obedience of the Republick The Cardinal held a Great Council upon this Subject where it was Resolv'd That no Quarters should be allow'd to any Troops but those who remained Faithful under the Command of the Crown General and then if the Confederated Troops offer'd to take up their Quarters near Leopold or elsewhere they should be driven out by Force This Resolution did not Discourage the Confederated Army they gave an Oath of Fidelity to their New General Baronowsky who caused a New Standard to be made like that of the Crown General having Painted upon it Two Griffins holding Two Scimitters in their Claws with these Words Pro Patria under one of them and Pro Exercitu under the other The Tartars being got together to the Number of 30000 Men Introduc'd a great Convoy of Provision into Caminieck and having notice of the Confusion of the Affairs of Poland made an Invasion into Volhinia carrying away a Great Number of People into Slavery But the Confederate Troops having pursued them Charged them with so much Vigour that they Routed them and Retook a good Part of the Booty and of the Poor People design'd for Captivity The Lithuanians had Confederated themselves as well as the Poles and had refused the same offers which exasperated Prince Sapieha their General to such a degree that he undertook to Reduce them to their Duty by Force but the Confederates defended themselves with so much Bravery that Prince Sapieha was forced to return with considerable Loss This Disgrace put him upon Negociations and having gained Monsieur Crispin Vayvode of VVitepsc one of the Chiefs of the Army the rest followed his Example and the Lithuanian Army returned to their Duty upon the following Conditions 1. That there should be a Perpetual Amnesty for all that had been done to that very instant 2. That the Prince should forthwith Pay them the one half of their Arrears due from the Republick out of his own Revenues 3. That the General should Promise upon his Honour not to Molest any one of the Fraternity from the Highest Officer to the Meanest Souldier 4. That on their side they should ingage by an Authentick Writing immediately to quit the Confederacy into which they were entred 5. And to submit themselves to the Grand Marshal and obey his Orders 6. And lastly That for the future they should never enter into any other Confederacy This Treaty was executed on the 27th of November and all the Officers and Soldiers made their Submission to Prince Sapieha This Reunion of the Lithuanians weakned very much the Confederated Troops and disposed them to hearken to some new Terms that were offer'd them sometime after and to return to the Obedience of their former General as it will be hereafter mention'd All the World was surpris'd at the Proceedings of the Poles and few would have thought that the miserable condition of their Affairs absolutely requiring a King a Private Interest would have prevailed so far upon them as to oblige them to defer the Election of a Successor to Sobiesky till May next The Poles may say what they please to justifie this Resolution all their Reasons are but a thin Varnish over a Private Sordid Interest which Ruled them for the true Grounds of this Delay was only to give time to many Princes to put in for their Crown and make an Interest with them to obtain it which cannot be done without squandring away amongst them Vast Sums of Money This Consideration moved sometime ago a Grave Senator to Propose in the Dyet to follow the example of Cardinals who Chose always an Old Pope and to set forth in a very Eloquent Speech the Advantage that the Nobility would receive from Frequent Elections But he was Answer'd That he was mistaken in his Politicks for no Old Man would spend such Sums of Money he had spoken of and therefore his Project was Impracticable The Inconveniencies of Elections and Interregnums are so great that 't is likely the Poles would have long ago made the Crown Hereditary in one Family under a very Limitted Power were it not
put the Standard which he had Illegally set put Their Articles of Confederacy were torn to pieces which being done Te Deum was Sung and the Day concluded with a Noble Feast at the Crown General 's Palace where Baronowsky and other Officers were Nobly Entertained Though the Emperour had hitherto appeared in the Interest of Prince James the Queen of Poland thought to Write in his behalf both to His Imperial Majesty and to the Empress and much about that time a Letter pretended to have been Written by the Abbot of Polignac to Monsieur Chateauneuf Ambassador of France to Constantinople was dispatched through Poland and did the French a great prejudice This Letter was Written in the Year 1695 and Intercepted by a Party of Germans so that it was brought to the Emperour who thought fit to Communicate it to the Senate The Abbot giving an Account in the Letter of the Ill Condition of the Affairs of Poland tells Monsieur Chateauneuf That the Turks had no reason to be afraid of them and quit their Enterprises against Hungary to oppose a People who saith he can do them no harm because of their Divisions And it contains some odd Reflections on the King and the Crown-General as if they had known and been glad that he should serve the Turks as Spy This Letter did so highly incense the Poles that it was very much insisted that the Abbot of Polignac might be compelled to declare whether he had done it by his Masters Order or of his own head and that if he did it by Order of the King of France he might be Expelled the Kingdom as the Minister of a Prince Enemy of the Republick but that if it did appear that he had committed that Villanous Fact without any Orders that such a Punishment might be Inflicted upon him as the Laws Ordained for the Punishment of Traytors The French Ambassadour deny'd the Fact and prepared a Writing to disown the Letter and endeavour to prove that it was Forg'd by the Enemies of France but as his Party grew so strong as to make him fear nothing as to the Consequences of the Impressions that Letter might have wrought upon the Poles his Apology was never Publish'd which Silence has Corroborated all the Proofs the Imperialists Alledg'd to Convince the Senate of its being Genuine The Abbot of Chateauneuf's Brother to the French Ambassador at Constantinople arriv'd about that time at Warsaw being sent by the French King to assist Polignac in his Negotiation and temper a little his Eagerness and Passion which had been like to prejudice the Affairs of his Master This New Minister confirmed the Promise Polignac had made to the Poles and added some others in relation to an Advantageous Peace with the Turks The time of the Election approaching the particular Dyets were held in the usual Form and broke up with more Tranquility than was expected The Nobility of the Palatinate of Cracow made an Act of Association whereby they Promised upon Oath mutually to assist each other and not to suffer themselves to be Corrupted by any Party but on the contrary to Procure and Promote the Common Good of their Country with Unanimity and Fidelity The number of the Competitors was not much increas'd for besides these I have already mention'd no other had yet appear'd except the Prince of Newburg but few days before the Great Dyet began all the World was Surprised to see Prince Livio Odeschalchi Nephew to Innocent XI putting in for the Crown for no body thought he carry'd his Pretensions so high However he was like to outbid all the rest And that the Reader may know upon what account it will not be improper to set at large in this place the Proposals he made to the Republick which are as follows SEeing the Magnanimous Prince Odeschalchi Nephew to Pope Innocent XI of Glorious Memory is one of those that have conceived an Extraordinary Tenderness and Affection for the Most Serene Republick as well out of his own Inclination as an Imitatation of his Unckle he makes bold to be one of the Candidates at the New Election of a King Not that he has any Design to Cross the Royal Princes of Poland no less Illustrious for their own Vertues than for the Heroick Atchievements of their Deceased Glorious Father or to oppose those other Pretenders to the Crown whether Natives or Forreigners But if it should come to pass through any unfortunate event that none of those Competitors should be Advanced to the Polish Throne and that the Magnanimous Prince Odeschalchi should be Preferr'd before all the rest he would willingly submit his Person and all that he has in the World to the Most Serene Republick And moreover seeing he should not be Supported by any Forreign Prince he should be Solely Beholding for his Election to the Good Will of the Illustrious Polish Nation and will Bind himself as a Testimony of his Acknowledgment to the following Conditions I. That he will Maintain the Laws and Statutes of the Most Serene Republick as also the Conditions that shall be Agreed upon II. That he will in no Manner whatsoever Violate the Precious Liberty of the Polish Nation but rather defend it upon all occasions with the Expence of his own Blood III. That for the Payment of the Souldiers he will Supply the Republick with Eight Millions of Florins in Polish Money before he set his Foot in the Kingdom IV. That he will Redeem Elbing from the Elector of Brandenburgh by Reimbursing the Money for which it was formerly Mortgaged to him V. That he will use his best Endeavours to recover Caminiek and other Territories the Turks and Tartars have Usurp'd from the Most Serene Republick VI. That to Discharge the Republick from the Assignments that are usually allotted to the New Queen he will never Marry or if the Nation desires he should he will accept of such a Wife as they shall think fit VII That he will take Care for the future the Army shall be Regularly Paid VIII That he will at his own Charges Found a Colledge at Rome for 25 Polish Gentlemen and as many Lithuanians with a sufficient Revenue for their Maintenance according to their Quality IX That if he comes to Die without Issue the Republick shall be the Sole Heiress of all his Estate of Money and Lands as also of all his Rich and Costly Moveables X. For the Performance of all these Promises he is ready to ingage by an Authentick Act to the Most Serene Republick all his Hereditary Lands in the Milanese as also the Dukedoms of Ceri Bracciano and Palo the Marquisate of Roncofredi and the County of Montejano with all the Forts Arsenals and Brass Canon that are in those Places He will Ingage likewise all the Sums of Money which he has at Interest at Rome Naples Venice Genoa Madrid Amsterdam c. XI Lastly The Envoy of Prince Odeschalchi to the Dyet is ready to make it Evident to whosoever shall desire it by
of Saxony though he had not time enough to purchase a Party with Money The Pope's Nuntio Answer'd That his Religion ought not to be an Obstacle to his Election seeing he had Imbrac'd the Catholick Faith as it appeared by a Certificate under the Hand and Seal of the Bishop of Javarin which he knew The Bishop of Passau Ambassad or of the Emperour appeared publickly for His Electoral Highness and in short his Party grew in few days so strong as to exceed the French as we are going to Mention The Election of a Mareschal and some other Preliminary things took up the Dyet till the 20th of June the Pope's Nuncio had publick Audience that day and the next day the Emperour's Ambassadour had his the 22d the French Ambassadour was heard and afterward the Envoy of the Elector of Brandenburgh so that the Dyet could not go on with the Election of a King till the 25th The Royal Family's Party made a Fair Appearance at the beginning several of the Palatinates having represented to the Electors the Merits of Prince James his Great Alliances and several other things fit to engage the Republick to present him with their Crown Others proposed Don Livio Odeschalchi but the French Party seemed still more Numerous The 26th the Saxon Party grew stronger notwithstanding the Intreagues of the Primate who Rode from one Squadron of the Nobility to the other Recommending to their Choice the Prince of Conti but his Competitors had such a Majority that it was thought the Elector of Saxony would have been Proclaimed that day However the Partiality of the Primate was such that the Grandees quitted the Field that day without coming to any Resolution They Met again the next day being the 27th of June and Resolved not to Separate till they had made an End of that Grand Affair The Cardinal did his utmost to bring the Nobility to the Prince of Conty's Party but his Endeavours were in vain for on the contrary a great many left him and went over to the Saxons yet in Spite of all the Opposition the Primate at the Head of his Cabal Ordered the Trumpets to Sound and Proclaimed the Prince of Conti and repairing with all the hast he could to St. John's Church caused the Doors to be shut and Sung Te Deum in the Dark The Cardinal having left the Field the Mareschal of the Crown the Crown-General and the Heads of the Parties of Saxony and Prince James Protested against the Irregular and Violent Way of proceeding of the Primate as contrary to the Laws and Freedom of Election and having United themselves they proceeded to Collect the Suffrages in a Legal Way and afterwards Friderick Augustus Elector of Saxony was Proclaimed King by the Bishop of Cujavia who immediately repair'd to the Great Church in Warsaw with the Saxon Party where he caused Te Deum to be Sung with the Usual Ceremonies The 28th they repair'd again into the Field and sent for the Cardinal who refus'd to come and thereupon they sent for the Baron de Fleming to Treat with him about the Pacta Conventa and the Royal Diploma was order'd to be prepar'd The Grand General caused an Act to be drawn up and Signed in the Field whereby it Appeared that there were but 80 Standards or rather Squadrons for the Prince of Conti whereas there were 250 for the Elector of Saxony The Envoys of the other Competitors extreamly blamed the Conduct of the Cardinal Primate for refusing so much as to Propose any of their Masters to the Republick and for his Concealing a Letter from the Czar of Muscovy in Favour of Prince James containing an Express Claus That Poland must expect a Declaration of War so soon as they have Elected the Prince of Conti. 'T is certain that the Partiality of this Prelate can hardly be match'd for had he been ruled by the Interest of the Republick as he ought to have been he would have Declared for the Elector of Saxony as being the most Advantageous Choice the Poles could have made considering the Riches and Valour of that Prince who is able of Himself to Support the Crown of Poland and Restore it to its former Dignity The Pacta Conventa being Drawn up the Baron de Fleming repair'd in great Splendor on the 13th of July to the Great Church in Warsaw and Swore to them in his Master's Name They were likewise Subscribed by most of the Nobility and Senators The Reader will find an Account in the foregoing Chapters of the Pacta Conventa and an Abstract of the most Principal Articles thereof however I think fit to Insert at Large in this place the Pacta Conventa Sworn by the Envoy of Saxony because there is some Additions made to them by reason of the Circumstance of Time and Persons These Articles were Sworn by the King Himself at the Coronation 1. The Kingdom of Poland shall be always Preserv'd in its Right of Electing a King so that it may never become Hereditary 2. No King shall be Elected who shall not be Devoted to the Roman Catholick Church and who shall not take an Oath constantly to persevere in her Communion 3. Liberty of Conscience shall be Inviolably preserved in its full strength and vigour and as for the Greek Religion that shall be taken into Consideration after the Coronation 4. No Presents shall be taken from those who shall sue for any Offices or Starosties 5. The Queen shall not Intermeddle with Affairs of Government 6. As to the Administration of Military Affairs the Presidents of Vladislaus II. and John Casimir shall be followed 7. The present Alliances of the Crown of Poland shall be Renewed 8. Endeavours shall be us'd to recover Vkrania and to make a perpetual Peace with the Muscovites 9. The Revenues or Money shall not be applyed to the particular Benefit of the King nor shall any Money be Coyned without the Consent of the Republick 10. No Foreign Forces shall be brought into the Kingdom without the Knowledge of the Republick 11. None shall be Imploy'd in Embassies but Gentlemen of Good Fortunes 12. No body shall be Naturaliz'd but such as have done the Republick some Signal Service 13. No body shall be admitted to any Preferment in the King's Houshold unless he has first Served the Crown 14. No Person whatsoever shall be permitted to enjoy any Petty Revenues of the Crown without the consent of the Republick 15. No Person shall enjoy two considerable offices at one time such as those of the Mareschal and General but they who now enjoy any offices shall continue in the Exercise of 'em and enjoy the Revenues thereof without any defalcation 16. The ordinary Order in the administration of Justice shall be presev'd without any alteration 17. The King when he has retaken Caminieck shall cause it to be fortifyed at his own charge but after that the Republick shall keep the said Fortifications in Repair 18. The King's Guard shall consist of the Natives of the
Firing of the Artillery of the place and with Three Salvo's of all the Saxon Forces Incamp'd under the Walls of Cracow The next Day His Majesty being Cloathed in His Royal Robes went in Great Pomp to the Town-House and being Set upon a Throne Erected before the House the Magistrates came to Assure Him of their Fidelity and Presented Him with the Keys of their Town in a Silver Dish The Chancellor in the King's Name Assur'd them of His Maiesty's Clemency and Affection and Read with an Audible Voice the Oath of Fidelity which they took Kneeling After which they Presented according to Custom a Purse full of Ducats to His Majesty who was pleased to Confer the Order of Knighthood upon some of them All the People being about the Throne a Gentleman who had the Office of Treasurer scatter'd some Money amonst them which Liberality was Proclaimed by Great Acclamations of Joy and Long Live Friderick Augustus Our KING The Dyet which was Called some time before Met at Cracow according to Custom and at their first Meeting some of the Deputies of the French Faction made some Reflections on the Castellan of Cracow and other Senators who had advisd the Hastning of the King's Coronation which as they said ought to have been deferred till the great Dispute concerning the Crown was accommodated to which they said the Primate and his Party were enclined but they were Silenc'd by the rest of the Deputies who would not hear such Discourses The Contest about the Choice of a Mareschal went so far that the Sabres were drawn but at last the Matter was Composed and the Starost Minsky of Lithuania was Chosen on the 24th of September and so the Dyet went on upon Publick Business Some days after the Coronation the King held a Great Council of War wherein it was Resolved to send a Detachment of His Forces towards Dantzick to prevent the Prince of Conty's Landing and another to Warsaw to Secure the Place and Disperse the Rebels which was accordingly done the King in ending to repair in few ways to Warsaw at the Head of His Army But the Primate having received Advice of His Majesty's Coronation and of His design to March to Warsaw caused the Corps of the Late King with all the Artillery and Ammunition of the Place to be Embarked on the Vistula for Jarreslow designing to retire himself with the Mareschal of the Nobility of his Party to Lowitz a Strong Place in a Morass belonging to his Eminence which he did few days after The whole Party was much Surpris'd at the News of the King's Coronation for they did not think that the Saxons would have proceeded to it because of the Reasons I have mention'd however they were not Disheartned and they Summon'd the Nobility of Upper Poland to Meet at Lenovi under the Command of the Castellan of Calish In the Lower Poland at Zawickhorst under the Command of the Palatine of Beâ—z but the Rendesvous of the Lithuanians was left to the Prince Sapieha who was to have the Chief Command till the Arrival of the Prince of Conti who was daily expected That Prince set out form Dunkirk the 6th of September on board the Chevalier Bart and Arrived at Dantzick the 25th He sent a Gentleman to give Notice of his Arrival to the Magistrates and desire a free Passage through the City To which they Answer'd That they had a great Respect for his Highness but that the Elector of Saxony having been Crowned they could do no more for him than give him the Liberty to come ashore himself with his Servants alone but not suffer any Officers or Soldiers to Land or Pass through their City The Prince was very much Mortifyed at the Answer of the Magistrates but his Mortification increased much on the 29th of the same Month that he was an Eye-witness of their Proclaiming his Competitor with all imaginable Solemnity which was a great disappointment to his Party who thought to have had their Rendesvous in that Place They had also bought several Pieces of Cannon and Ammunition but the Magistrates would not suffer them to be carry'd away and forbid the Inhabitants upon Pain of Death to Sell any Arms or Ammunition to Strangers The Primate came Incognito to Confer with his Highness with Five or Six other Gentlemen In the mean time the King thought fit to send Circular Letters to all the Provinces of the Kingdom as well to notify his Coronation as to Answer some Calumnies raised by his Enemies The Substance of those Letters were That his Majesty being by the Free Choice of the Kingdom Elected and Crowned King of Poland he was concerned to find there should be any Persons so much Enemies of their Country as to go about to Violate the Rights of the Gentry and disturb the Publick Peace That he understood they Complain'd of his having Possess'd himself of the Castle of Cracow and brought Forces into the Kingdom but that he had done nothing therein but with the advice of the Senators and Great Officers of the Crown and that the Troops he had with him were no more than were necessary for the Security of his Person That notwithstanding the unreasonable Opposition of the Adverse Party he had used all endeavours to gain them by fair Means but the same not having had the effect he hoped for his Majesty Places his Confidence in the Protection of Almighty God and doe's not Doubt but they who Chose him King will be careful to maintain their own Honour and Liberty Immediatly after the Coronation the Castellan of Cracow was sent to the Army who having receiv'd the Arrears due to them declar'd they were ready to obey his Majestys Orders The Primate had sent some Deputies to ingage them to come over to his Party but he having been inform'd at lemberg of the disposition of the Troops they did not think fit to venture to go to the Camp for fear the General should proceed against them as Publick Enemies Thus stood the affairs of Poland towards the latter end of September 1697. and notwithstanding the Obstinacy of the Primate and his Party one may reasonably believe that the Prince of Conti will find himself disappointed his Competitor having many great advantages over him for altho one would suppose which is certainly false that their Parties in the Republick are equal yet the Electors Territories bordering upon Poland and all the Neighbouring Princes as Sweden Moscovy the Emperor Brandenburgh c. having declar'd for him his Party must needs prevail upon the Prince of Conti who has nothing to rely upon but the supplies from France which will be very uncertain considering the distance from France to Poland and the dangers of the Sea in this Season of the year The Reader doe's perhaps expect that we should inquire which of the two Elections is conformable to the Polish Laws or whether either of them may be said to be so which is neither improbable nor impossible but this inquity would
be useless for as things are now disposed there is no likelihood that this Affair will be decided by the Laws of Equity However we may venture to say that there were some irregularities in both Elections but much more in that of the Prince of Conti and that the irregular proceedings in the other were chiefly occasioned by the partiality of the Primate The French Party exclaim very much against the Bishop of Cujavia for having Proclaim'd the Elector of Saxony but whatever they may say this Prelate is not to be blamed as to that point 'T is true it belongs to the Arch-Bishop of Gnesna to Proclaim the Kings of Poland but this is to be understood when the Election is Unanimous for if it were in the Power of the Primate alone to Proclaim a King the Election would never be Free and he might at that rate Proclaim whom he should please It appears by the foregoing account that the Elector of Saxony had the Majority of Voices on his side and this is enough to justify their proceedings seeing the Primate and his Party ought to have Submitted Money being the only Soul that enlivens the Affairs of Poland it were more to the purpose to enquire which of the two Competitors can spare most money for let their Right be what it will the first who wants money will be in the wrong and lose the Crown but the Case is now different the Elector is Crowned and has a good Army of his own and needs not to rely intirely on the Fidelity of his Party That Prince is certainly very Rich but yet his Purse bears no proportion with that of the French King who having already spent so much will neglect nothing at all to set the Prince of Conti upon the Throne The Winter drawing nigh the Baltick Sea will be Unnavigable and likely none of the German Princes will give him leave to march an Army into Poland through their Territories so that the Prince of Conti has nothing to rely upon but his Party which is very precarious for after all 't is likely that the Poles will open their eyes and consider that they have nothing to fear from France whereas they must expect a continual War with Germany if this present King receives any disgrace and is oblig'd to retire into his own Country insomuch that altho they should beat him out of the Kingdom the controversy would not be at an end for his Dominions bordering upon Poland he may invade them at any time These Reasons are so strong that one would think they should have already prevailed upon the Poles but their Mercenary Nobility is Influenc'd only by Gold and does not care for the Publick Good so long as they find their Private Interest in Intestine Divisions The Court of Rome who had a great Share in the Election of the King of Poland keeps now an exact Neutrality but those Refin'd Politicians will soon Declare for one of the Competitors and doubtless for the Present King because of the Great Advantage they expect from the Conversion of that Prince to their Religion which certainly weakens much the Protestant Interest in Germany The Long Continuance of the Prince of Conti in the Road of Dantzick without offering to go on Shoar is an Ill Omen for his Affairs and seeing his Party have resolved to give him only the Title of Protector of the Religion and the Liberties of Poland 't is doubted whether he will Accept of it it being a Tacit Confession that his Election was Illegal but if he does not scruple to take it 't is likely that he will make himself such a Sort of Protector as Oliver Cromwell was and perhaps the Historians of this Age will say of him in case he Succeeds what was said of the Successor of Julius Caesar Augustus Arma quae in Antonium acceperat in Rempublicam vertit And really I would not blame him for it for he must needs spend as much Money as the Crown of Poland is Worth and perhaps a great deal more But I must give over Conjectures time will soon bring this Great Controversy to an End The Reader must not expect here a Caracter of the King of Poland this undertaking is above my reach therefore I must break off my Discourse after having observ'd that he was Born May 12th 1670. Second Son to John George Elector of Saxony and of Anne Sophia Sister of the Present King of Denmark He has made several Campaigns on the Rhine and Flanders and after his Brothers Death he Commanded in Chief the Imperial Army in Hungary in the years 1695. and 1696. and has shewed on all Occasions an Extraordinary Bravery He Marry'd before he was Elector the Daughter of the Markgrave of Bareith of the House of Brandenburgh His Majesty is of a very strong Constitution and parhaps the Strongest Man alive FINIS
which they may rise to that of Chancellour and both those Officers must be Ecclesiasticks Next to the Great Secretaries are the Referendaries of the Crown and Dutchy there are Two of them in each State one a Lay-man and the other an Ecclesiastick They present Petitions to the King and return His Majesty's Answer And tho' they are not Members of the Senate they have a Privilege to sit by the Senators in Judgements of Processes upon Information to give their Advice and afterwards to Pronounce the Sentence that is given 'T is to be observ'd that all the Judges and Officers of Justice all the Advocates Proctors Registers and Notaries wear a Sabre or Scimitar by their side and do not lay it aside either when they Judge or Plead a Cause and that they have no other Garb than what they usually wear There are Four General Officers of the Army in Poland 2 for the Crown and 2 for Lithuania viz. A Great General and a Petty or Lieutenant-General Those Generals of the Army have no Place in the Senate unless they be Palatines or Castellans or be possest of some of those Offices which Entitle 'em to a Place in the Senate The Great General Commands the Whole Army and has Power to Quarter the Troops where he pleases the King himself not being able to hinder him And this Power is so considerable that it makes a Great General formidable to all the Nobility His Office is to take care that the Soldiers which are Levy'd for the Service of the Republick commit no Disorders that the Members of the Diets may not be over-aw'd by the Army He Helds the Army Orders its Encampments puts it in Battalia and gives the Signal of Battel and of Retreat he takes care of the Convoys and Ammunitions sets a Price on every thing that is Sold in the Army Regulates the Weights and Measures and Punishes Offenders The Office of the Petty General is to take Care of those who are appointed for Guards and of the Parties that are sent out to discover the Enemy He Commands the Foreign Troops and even the Whole Army in the absence of the General and succeeds him in course upon the occasion of a Vacancy There are many other Offices in the Army the most considerable of which is that of the Great Standard-bearer and the next that of Great Master of the Artillery As for the Offices of the Court the most Considerable are those of the Great Chamberlain Great Master of the Horse and the Steward or Master of the Houshold Besides all those Offices there are others in the Palatinats as Chamberlains Masters of the Houshold and many others for the Provinces of Poland were formerly divided among several Princes each of whom had their particular Officers and tho' those Provinces have been long since Re-united to the Crown yet the Officers still contiâ—â—e and enjoy certain Honorary Privileges the chief of which is that they serve the King in their Palatinates when the Officers of the Court are absent CHAP. XIII Of the Interregnum AN Interregnum may happen Four several ways by the Death of the Prince by His voluntary and Public Abdication by His Forc'd and Iavoâ—â—ntary Deposition or by His Flight 〈◊〉 Going out of the Kingdom but the most usual is by the Death of the King whose Body is immediately laid upon a Bed of State and some Senators both Ecclesiastick and Secular are chosen to attend him In the mean time the Republick Orders all the Necessary Expences for the Ceremony to be taken out of the Treasures left by the Deceased King The same Honours are also given to the Queens after their Decease as I had occasion to observe at the Death of Queen Mary Louise who dy'd at Warsaw May 10. 1667. in the Palace which King John Casimir her Husband had in the Suburbs The next day She was carry'd to the Castle where She was expos'd on a Bed of State till She was remov'd to Cracow to be Interr'd She Dy'd about the end of a Diet and almost suddenly of a Defluxion upon Her Lungs occasion'd by a too long and earnest Dispute with General Patz about an Affair She had propos'd to him which he would not consent to For that Princess was so fond of Intriguing and so desirous to Govern the State alone that She was in a manner Jealous of the King her Husband who durst not speak to any Woman in private least she shou'd imagine that he was Govern'd by another This troublesome Constraint made him so uneasie that he was not much afflicted at Her Death for the same Night he return'd from the Diet to the Palace to see a Person whom He had Lov'd before but durst never entertain during the Queens Life The Interregnum may also happen by a Voluntary Abdication when a King freely Resigns the Crown into the Hands of the Republick But 't is very rare to see a King Descend Voluntarily from the Throne and few will imitate the Example of King John Casimir who after he had Reign'd Twenty years with the Love of all the Nobility made a Publick Resignation in St. John's Church at Warsaw Septemb. 16. 1668. Notwithstanding the Earnest Solicitations of the Whole Senate and of all the Nobility to make Him alter His Resolution and the Tears that were shed by all the People at the Sight of so Dismal a Revolution For he was so Universally Belov'd by the Nobility and Senate that they voluntarily Assign'd Him a Yearly Pension of 50000 Crowns as a Testimony of their Acknowledgment towards a Prince who had Govern'd them so well Nevertheless that Pension was never Paid tho it was afterwards Inserted in the Pacta Conventa which King Michael Swore to observe after His Election The Abdicated King went to France where he died at Nevers December 16. 1672. I cannot on this occasion forbear taking notice of an odd Circumstance in the Fate of that Prince and His Queen for the latter quitted France and went to Poland where She dy'd in Her Husband's City and the former left Foland and went to France where he dy'd in His Wive's City Innovation are always dangerous to a State and threaten it with some Fatal Revolution which the Polanders considering endeavour'd to prevent the consequences of so unusual an Action causing an Article to be Inserted into the Pacta Conventa which they made King Michael Swear to observe That never any King should be suffered to Abdicate for the future but that Article was left out in the Pacta which King John the IIId Swore after his Election in the Church of St. John at Warsaw June 5. 1674. An Interregnum may be also occasion'd by the Deposing of a Prince either for Heresie or some other Notorious Crime as in the Case of Locticus who was Depos'd for his excessive Debauchery and Succeeded by Wenceslaus King of Bobemia was chosen King of Poland in the Year 1300. But those Instances are very rare as well as the Examples of a
Kingdom 19. If the King become a Widower and has a desire to marry he shall advise with the Senators about the choice of a Wife and if he takes a Forreigner She shall not have above Six forreigners in her Service 20. Only the Latin and Polish Languages shall be made use of for the King's Letters and Orders 21. The Laws called Pacta Henricea shall be observed in the Judgments called Post curialia 22. All the differences that are now depending shall be determined with all the Speed that may be 23. No new Custom or Novelty shall be admitted in the order of the King's Table but the ancient Custom shall be exactly observed 24. Places becoming vacant in the Intervals of Dyets shall be supplyed in six weeks 25. The Militia shall be so regulated at the Dyet of the Coronation that is to come that there shall be no need of Foreign Troops and Military discipline shall be exactly observed 26. The Salt shall be tax'd and shar'd out in all the Palatinates according to the ancient Custom 27. All Gentlemen shall have the freedom of the Salt and Mines 28. The Ancient Privileges of the Palatinates shall remain inviolable 29. The Prorogatives and Priveledges of places Towns and Cities shall be restor'd wherever they have been abolish'd 30. All the Priviledges which belong to the Universities of Cracow and other Cities as well Eclesiastick as Secular as also all the Articles which were promised upon Oath at the Coronations of the Kings Henry Stephen Sigismund Vladislaus John Casimir and others shall be revived at this Election which if it be not done or any thing endeavour'd to the contrary of these Articles then the Inhabitants of Poland and Lithuania shall be free and disingaged from their Obedience These Articles being Signed without exception a great Embassy was appointed to go and offer the Crown to the Elector who was already advanced to Tarnowits on the frontiers of Poland The Son of the Grand General of the Crown ten Senators and seventy Knights attended by above 2000 Gentlemem were appointed for that Service The Elector gave them Audience in the Fields near Tarnowits under a very Rich Tent and appear'd on that occasion with an extraordinary Magnificence The Ambassadors and Gentlemen of their Retinue paid him all respect as to their Prince and kissed his Hand and there was afterwards a noble Entertainment The new King and the Bishop of Passau Ambassador of the Emperor to the Dyet of Poland sat at one Table the Ambassadors and other Persons of Principal quality were at another Table and their Retinue at a third After Dinner the king went with the Ambassadors to view his Forces that were encamped near that Place and conferr'd the command thereof to the first Ambassador who received it with all Submission The Speech of the said Ambassador is so singular that I think fit to insert it here as well to give an example of the Eloquence of the Poles as to shew what opinion they have of their Crown which they think it seems above all other Crowns of the World Most Serene and Most Potent King THE Most Serene Republick of Poland which alone has preserv'd her Ancient Liberty and which after so much Blood as has been drawn from her own Veins may be called the Wonder of preceding Ages gives you to understand by our Mouths That you have been Elected by our Free Suffrages KING of Poland Grand Duke of Lithuania Russia Prussia Massovia Samogittia Kiovia Volhinia Podolia Polaquia Livonia Smolensko Servia and Czernicovia 'T is upon you Most Serene Elector of Saxony that we have cast our Eyes and whom we Imbrace and Cherish not only for the sake of so many Emperours Kings and Great Captains from whom you are Descended but for the sake of those Heroick Virtues that render your Name and Reputation so bright and glorious to the World besides an Infinite Number of Signal Endowments that make you worthy of a Scepter Could our Republick mistake her self in so Noble a Choice Has she not Chosen a Hero Belov'd of Heaven and Earth A Hero who has Won so many Victories from the Barbarians and who is laden with so many Laurels Has she not preferr'd Augustus before all the rest who before he was Chosen to Supply her Vacant Throne so well deserv'd to fill it by His Valour Fame and Eternal Honour Certainly we could never hope for Comfort after so many Calamimities which we were no longer able to bear but in expectation that your Reign will put an end to them You have Triumph'd Most Serene King over the Turks Triumph now over the Hearts of the Polanders Stretch forth over our Crown your Armes so well accustom'd to Vanquish the Infidels The People who give you their Suffrages give 'em to a Prince whom Rome looks upon as her Defender and Christendom as her Bullwark a Prince whose Experience Policy Atchievements and so many Victories cannot but gain th Esteem of all the World And who can better Rule a Nation who has Subdu'd so many Countreys and is still Famous for the preservation of her Liberty than Your Majesty Most Serene King in whose Countenance and continu'd Course of Life we behold that Courage and every thing that is capable to draw Veneration to Your Person Poland that has always been so Warlike and Nurs'd up in Armes from her Cradle shall behold You Imitating if not Surpassing the Heroick Actions of Your Ancestors endow'd with a Martial Heart breathing only what the Sublimest Bravery inspires into your Breast and full of Majestick Sweetness She will admire Your Generosity and all those Royal Manners that must needs force the World to confess that 't is only in Your Breast where Majesty Resides Lastly She will behold and admire You not only for Your Natural Endowments and those Rare Perfections You have Acquir'd in Your Illustrious Family and in Climates where Your Valour has been signaliz'd but for Your Imbracing our Religion This is that Light which renders Heaven Serene and dissipated those Clouds and Tempests which at first obscur'd Your Free Election Most Fortunate Prince You have Rejoyc'd the Holy City You have paid Your Ancient Mother the Honour due to Her and Saxony is become by Your Change of Religion a Thousand times more Illustrious than by Your perpetual Victories By abandoning the Errours of Your Country You have found Crowns amongst Forreigners There were several Competitors Excellent Princes and of great Worth who Aspir'd to the Crown of Poland but none of 'em who had Heaven a sharer in the Contest You only were the Person who began with God and for Your Premium carry'd the Prize of that Faith which You had Recover'd That thing once Confirm'd to us we gave You our Free Suffrages with all our Hearts and have Proclaimed You to Reign over us We are Ignorant whether You will or will not be our King but are Assur'd that You are Valiant Warlike Affable Pious Catholick and give You our Hearts our Prayers