Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	church_n	father_n	2,359	5	5.4153	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55717	The present state of Germany, or, An account of the extent, rise, form, wealth, strength, weaknesses and interests of that empire the prerogatives of the emperor, and the priviledges of the cleaors, princes, and free cities, adapted to the present circumstances of that nation / by a person of quality.	Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694.	1690 (1690)	Wing P3265; ESTC R16227	121,831	240

some time under the Greek Emperors entirely ruin'd Rome and a considerable part of Italy returned under the Obedience of the Greek Emperors tho' on the account of her former Majesty and for that Constantinople was considered as the Metropolis Italy was rather treated by them as an Ally than as a subject Province But however the Supremacy was acknowledged to be in the Emperor of Greece who exercised it in Rome and those other parts of Italy which were under his Jurisdiction by his Exarchs But by degrees the Popes became weary of this Greek Empire they lay the blame however on the Misgovernment of the Exarchs and because some of the Greek Emperors were too severe against Images which they yet judged a most useful Tool to instruct the Many in the Superficial Rites of Religion which as they said was become incapable of receiving or bearing a more solid Piety nor was it so profitable to the Priests to let the People know a good and holy Life would certainly please God Perhaps also it was believed the Church would be very much exalted in her Authority if the Pope could by degrees gain the Secular Empire as he had already in a good degree assumed the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical or Sacred Affairs throughout the World And in truth it did not seem fit that he should live in subjection to the Slave of a Greek Emperor who sometimes was deprived of his Virilities whom God had intrusted with such Power as his own Vicar in the World that he being freed from the Care of the Church might be at the better leisure to attend the Civil Affairs of the World and that they too had been delegated by God to the Pope if it had not been apparent that the holy minds of these Bishops were so taken with the Pleasures of Divine Affairs that they wholly declined the being concerned in these prophane Employments But then though The Lombards feared by the Popes the Greek Emperor was not much feared both on the score of his distance and also because he had enough to do to defend himself against the Saracens which then from the East fiercely and successfully attack'd the Empire yet the Power of the Lombards was more dreadful and hung like a mighty Tempest over all Italy and had almost made themselves Masters of the Suburbs of Rome and the Pope not being able alone to grapple with this Enemy could bethink him of no body that was able to succour the See of Rome in this exigence but the King of France and he too was very much disposed to it by the Prospect of that Glory which would attend the rescuing from Injury that Person who like an unexhaustible Fountain dispensed to all Christian Souls the Waters of Divine Grace The Pope also had before-hand very much obliged Pipin the Father and Charles the Son by his ready consenting That Chilprick King of France should be shaven and turn'd into a Monastery Which could never be equally recompensed by those Princes who might otherwise have had painful Scruples of Conscience to perswade themselves That a Subject might lawfully shave his Prince and make him of a Monarch become a Monk who was guilty of no other fault but his having committed more Power to a Potent Minister than was consistent with the safety of his Crown and Kingdom And in this the Fates strangely befriended the French in giving them so plausible a pretence of invading and possessing our Italy which has alwaies been courted by the Vltra-montane Kingdoms 12. After then that Charles the Great had subdued all that part of Italy which was before Charles the Great subdues the Lombards and is made Emperor subject to the Lombards the Pope who had a good share of the Prey that he might shew his gratitude and assure himself for the future a Potent Defender declared Charles Emperor and Augustus with the Approbation of the People Now it is not easie to conceive what Charles got by this Title in truth Rome long before this was not the Seat of the ancient Roman Empire being made first a Part of the Gothick Kingdom and after that of the Eastern Empire and therefore the Romans could not give that to Charles which heretofore belonged to the Western Empire for all that Right was determin'd by Conquest and the Right of War by Cession and Desertion and was now for a long time in the peaceable possession of others And even Rome her self was not sui juris and therefore could not give her self to another And therefore Charles was at first in doubt whether he should accept the Title till he had made an agreement with the Greek Emperor and obtained his consent The Emp. of Constantinople who was then weak and needed the Friendship of Charles yielded the point without any difficulty to preserve Calabria and those other Ports he had yet left him in Italy So that upon the whole Charles the Great under the Or rather Protector and Advocate of the See of Rome splendid Title of Emperor borrowed from the ancient State of Rome but in a very different sense was made the Supreme Defender Protector and Advocate of the See of Rome and of the States belonging to it either by the Usurpation of the Pope or the Liberality of others Now whether this Defence and Protection included in it a Supreme Empire or Dominion over that See as some Civilians have said seems a doubt to me and I should rather think there was a kind of unequal League only entred between Charles and the See of Rome That he should defend her against all Invaders or by his Authority compose all internal Commotions which might tend to the damage or dishonour of that See and on the other side the See of Rome should pay a due respect to his Majesty and not undertake any thing which was of great consequence without his Authority or Leave and in the first place that no man should be admitted Pope against his will From whence it will appear that the See of Rome from thenceforward became a particular State and properly speaking was not united to the Kingdom of France And that Charles the Great was not the Master of the See of Rome and the States belonging to it nor did he exercise a Soveraign Dominion over her by making Laws imposing Tributes creating Magistrates or exercising any Jurisdiction or the like for all these things are not above the Pretences of an Advocate viz. To expel a Pope that entered by ill Arts to reduce into Order such as designed the Ruine of the Church or any other signal damage or to subdue the Romans or any other who should rebel against the Pope Charles and some of his Posterity tho' they seemed fond enough of the Titles of Emperors and Augusti and on However neither he nor any of his Successors would suffer France to be taken for a part of the Empire that account took upon them the Priority amongst the other European Princes who willingly

and Obedience to the new King than a Free Election for they rarely departed from the Order of a Lineal Succession but when there were Factions or the next Heir in the Line was wholly unfit for Government A part of Germany was before this time united by Conquest to the Crown of France and the rest of it was subdued by the victorious Arms of Charles the Great Whether any part of this Country freely and willingly submitted to him out of Reverence to his Greatness is very uncertain He also by his Arms conquered the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy the Pope of Rome affording him a Pretence for it after which he was by the Pope and People of Rome saluted Emperor of Rome and Augustus Now what he gain'd by this Title we shall by and by inform you 8. Thus under Charles the Great Germany Germany a part of the Kingdom of France became a part of the Kingdom of France and was sufficiently subject to the Absolute Empire or Soveraignty of those Princes During this state of Affairs it was divided into divers Provinces which were governed by Counts or Earls and Marquesses who were for the most part of French extraction yet in these times the Saxons enjoy'd a greater shew of Liberty because Charles the Great had not been able to reduce them without a long and tedious War and was at last to perfect the Work and establish his Soveraignty necessitated to admit them to a participation of the Priviledges enjoy'd by the Franks and to unite them into one Nation with their Conquerors That he might further assure himself of this fierce Nation which was so impatient of Servitude he call'd in the assistance of the Priests who were ordered to teach them the Christian Faith and to inculcate into them how much they were obliged to those who had shewn them the way of obtaining Eternal Life On this account many Bishopricks and Abbies in Germany were founded by Charles the Great Germany was in the same estate under Saint Lewis the Son of Charles but that the Authority of the Prefects or Governours of the Provinces began to grow greater 9. But afterwards when the Children of The Children of St. Lewis divide their Father's Kingdom this Lewis had divided their Father's Kingdom amongst them which was the first and principal cause of the Ruin of the French Power and of the Caroline Family Germany became separated from the French Empire and was a distinct Kingdom under Lewis II. Son of St. Lewis To it was afterwards added a great part of the Belgick France or of the Low Countries as it is now called which lies towards the Rhine which for the most part was inhabited by German Nations which from Lotharius another of the Sons of St. Lewis was then called the Kingdom of Lorrain though at this day only a very small part of that Kingdom retains the old name During the destructive Wars which followed after these times between the Posterity of Charles the Great not only the German Nobility gained exorbitant Power but the very Family of Charles was at last totally extinguished or at least deprived of the Crown of France for to this day the Dukes of Lorrain and the Electors Palatine pretend to be descended of that Family and the Germans chose themselves Kings out of the Nobility of their own Nation from which times Germany became again a free State and Germany a free State had no dependance on the Crown of France Now because the German State is commonly call'd the Sacred Roman Empire I think it will be worth my pains to enquire How it first obtained this Title what it has gained by it and by what Right it now enjoys that Name for the clear understanding of which it will be necessary shortly to recapitulate the state the Roman Empire in the West was reduced to before the times of Charles the Great 10. It is very well and commonly known A short account of the Roman Empire after what manner the People of Rome after they had by the Success of their Arms subdued the noblest part of the then known World were at last by the ambition of a few over-potent Citizens engaged in Civil Wars and at length brought under the Dominion of a single person But then Augustus the Founder of the Roman Empire or Monarchy when he had by the assistance of the Army gained the Empire perswaded himself that he should easily keep it by the same way Therefore tho' from thenceforward he seemed to leave some of the Affairs of the State to the disposal of the Senate that it might still seem to have a share in the Government yet he wholly kept in his own hands the Care and Government of the Army But then it was his principal care to conceal from the Rabble of the Army That the Souldiers were the men who could set up and pull down the Emperors which Secret when it was once discovered the State of the Empire became as miserable as the Condition of the Emperors for the Empire being weakened by frequent intestine Wars found it self also often exposed to the worst of men by a covetous and turbulent Rabble which oftentimes most wickedly murdered her best Princes to her great damage and sorrow Nor could any of her Emperors after this entertain any hopes of firmly settling the Empire in their Families but was necessitated to be contented with a precarious Title amongst a parcel of mercenary Souldiers So that in truth the whole power of making the Emperors was in the Army which is the common Attendant of all Military Monarchies where a strong and perpetual Army is kept together in any one place and the Senate and People of Rome were weak and vain Names made use of to delude the simple common People as if the free and voluntary consent of the whole Body had constituted the Emperor That Kingdom thus founded on a Military Licence as it was unfit for continuance was by Constantine the Great and Theodosius hastened to its fatal period the first of these making Byzantium now called Constantinople the Seat of the Empire and withdrawing the Armies which had till then been maintained on the East of the Rhine for its preservation and the later by dividing the Empire between his two Sons Arcadius and Honorius soft lasie Princes and neither of them fit for such a Command From thence forward there were two Kingdoms for one and this Division was no way useful but only for the fitting the Western part by separating it from the Eastern to be the more easie Prey to the barbarous Nations and accordingly not long after this an end was put to the Western Empire and Rome was taken and sack'd by the Goths which before that had been deprived of all her Provinces by as good Right as she had got them and now in her turn lost her beloved Liberty and became a part of the Gothick Kingdom 11. After this the Gothick Power being Rome for

Onolzbeck 8. Next after the Electors follow some Of the other Princes of the Empire other Princes whose Houses are still extant and because amongst these there are various Contests for the Precedence I would not have the Order I here observe give any prejudice to any of them in these their vain Pretences The Dukes of Brunswick The Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburg and Lunenburg possess a very considerable Territory in the Lower Saxony they are divided into two Branches to the first of these belongs the Dukedom of Brunswick now enjoyed by an ancient Gentleman two Brothers have divided the Dukedom of Lunenburg between them one of which resides at Zel the other at Hannover and the third Brother is now Bishop of Osnaburg The Dukes of Mechlenburg have a Mechlenburg small Tract of Land belonging to them which lies between the Baltick Sea and the River Elbe and this Family is now divided into two Branches Swerin and ●ustrow The Duke of Wurtemburg has in Franconia Wurtemburg a great and a powerful Territory his Relations have also in the extreamest parts of Germany the Earldom of Montbelgard in Montpelgart Hassia Alsatia The Lantgrave of Hassia has also a large Country and is divided into the Branches of Castel and Darmstad The Marquesses of Baden have a long but narrow Baden Country on the Rhine and are also divided into two Lines that of Baden properly so called and that of Baden Durlach The Dukes of Holstein possess a part Holstein of the Promontory of Juitland which by reason of the Seas washing its Eastern and Western sides is very Rich That part of Holstein which belonged to the Empire is possessed by the King of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein Gothorp which last has also the Bishoprick of Lubeck The Dukedom Lubeck of Sleswick doth not belong to the Empire The Duke of Sax-Lawemburg has Sax-Lawemburg a small Estate in the Lower Saxony and almost equal to that of the Prince of Anhalt in the Upper Saxony 9. These are the ancient Princes of the Savoy and Lorrain Empire for the Dukes of Savoy and Lorrain though Fees depending on the Empire and so having Seats in the Diet yet by reason of the Situation of their Countries they are in a manner separated from the Empire and have different Interests Ferdinand II who as many believe Ferdinand II. encreased the number of the Princes designed the subduing the Power of the German Princes and to gain an Absolute Authority over them amongst other Arts by him imployed brought into the Diet many Princes which depended entirely on him he intended by their Votes to equal if not overballance the Suffrages of the ancient Princes if he should be at any time forced to call a Diet which yet he avoided as much as was possible or that he might shew at least that there was no reason why the ancient Princes should so much value their Power seeing he was able when he pleased to set as many as he pleased on the same Level with them And the Princes of the old Creation had without question been very much endangered if the Emperor could have created Lands as easily as he could give Titles Amongst those however that then gained Places in the Diet are these the Prince of Hoenzolleren The Titles of Eleven of his creation Eggenburg Nassaw-Hadmar Nassaw-Dillenburg Lobkowitz Salm Dietrichstein Aversberg and Picolomini But then this Project of Ferdinand miscarrying and the Estates of the new Princes bearing no proportion with that of the ancient Families their advancement to this Dignity has never been found as yet of any use to them and they have also been much exposed to the Reproaches of the ancient Princes as the new Nobility is ever slighted by the old and they have taken it up as a Proverb against them That they have got nothing by this Exaltation but of Rich Counts or Earls to be made Poor Princes Yet it is to be considered That the most ancient Nobility had a beginning and that these Families in time may get greater Estates though the easiest way is now foreclosed against them by restraining the Emperor from disposing of the vacant Fees as he thinks fit 10. The Next Bench in the Diet belongs The Ecclesiastick States to the Bishops of Germany and Abbots Though this Order consists of men of no very great Birth as being but Gentlemen or at best the Sons of Barons or Earls and advanced to this Dignity by the Election of their Chapters yet in the Diet and other publick Meetings for the most part they are placed above the Temporal Nobility For since the Fortunes of the Churchmen in these latter Ages has been so vastly different from what it was in the beginning of Christianity it were very absurd to expect they are now bound to observe those Laws of Modesty our Saviour at first prescribed them and perhaps those Laws too were by him designed only for the Primitive Times For in truth it would have been ridiculous for Fishermen and Weavers ambitiously to seek the Precedence of Noblemen who were to earn their Bread with the labours of their Hands or to subsist on voluntary Contributions Now the Authority and Revenues of the Churchmen is very great in all those Countries that ever were under the Papacy yet their Riches and Power are no where so great as in Germany there being few of them in the Empire O●● very rich and powerful whose Dominions and Equipage is not equal to that of the Secular Nobility and their Power and Authority over their Vassals is of the same nature and many of them are also more fond of their Helmets than their Miters and are much fitter to involve their Country in Wars and their Neighbours in Troubles than to propagate true Piety But however in these later Ages there are more than there were in former times who are not ashamed to take Orders and once or twice in a year to shew the World how expert they are in expressing the Gestures and representing the Ceremonies of the most August Sacrifice But then whereas of old their Estates Now much diminished equalled if not exceeded that of the Secular Princes the Reformation of Religion which was embraced by the greatest part of Germany and the Peace of Westphalia in the year 1648 have strangely diminished them for in the Circles of the Upper and Lower Saxony the Churchmen have very little left But then in the Upper Germany if you except the Dukedom of Wurtemburg they escaped better Now the reason of this is this The Saxons being more remote did not fear the Efforts of Charles V. so much as the other Princes who were awed by his Neighbourhood to them and oppressed by his Presence Besides in Saxony their Dominions were intermixed with Potent Secular Princes and consequently lay exposed to their Incursions but in the Upper Germany they were seated They possess the greatest part of

Franks had subdued Germany and were become Masters of all its Provinces they after the manner of the Romans sent Dukes to govern the Provinces in it that is Presidents to govern them in Peace and command their Forces in time of War And to these they sometimes added Comites for administring Justice and some Provinces were put under Comites only and had no Dukes The Dukes and Earls made Officers for their Lives and at last became hereditary Proprietors but then all these that were thus employed by them were meer Magistrates but in length of time it came to pass that some persons were made Dukes for their Lives and the Son for the most part succeeded the Father So that having so fair an opportunity in their hands of establishing themselves they began to look on their Provinces as their Patrimony and Inheritance Nor can a Monarch commit a greater Error than the suffering these kinds of Administrations to become hereditary especially where the Military Command is united to the Civil And therefore I can scarce forbear laughing when I read this Custom in some German Writers defended as commendable and prudent for it is the Honour of a Prince to reward those who have deserved well of him But then if a Master should manumise all his Servants at once I suppose he might for the future make clean his Shooes himself A Father may be the fonder of a thing because he knows he can leave it to his Son after him but then the more passionately he loves his Son the greater care he ought to take that a Stranger may claim as little Right as is possible to it Thus we usually take more care of what is our own than of what belongs to another But then a good Father will not give his Estate to his Tenant that he may use it so much the better There is a cheaper way of preventing the Rebellions of Presidents than that of granting Provinces to them to be administred as an Inheritance And 't is a very silly thing to measure the Majesty of a Prince by the number of those in his Dominions who can with safety despise him and his Soveraignty To say more were to no purpose for to expose the Stupidity of these men it will be sufficient for us to consider that they are not ashamed to compare the German Lawyers with the Italian French and Spanish Writers and yet the Writings of the greatest part of them shew they never understood the first Principles of civil Prudence 3. Charles the Great observing the Error Charles the Great endeavoured to redress this error committed by his Ancestors took away the greatest part of the Dukedoms which were of too great extent and dividing the larger Provinces into smaller parts committed them to the care of Counts Comites or Earls some of which retained the simple Name of Counts and others were call'd Pfaltzgraves or Pfaltzgraven Comites Palatini Count Palatins or Prefects of the Court-Royal and in that capacity administred Justice within the Verge of the Court. Others were call'd Landegraves that is Presidents set over a whole Province Others were call'd Marggraves Presidents of the Marches or Borders for repelling the Incursions of Enemies and administring Justice to the Inhabitants Others were called Burggraves that is Prefects or Governours of some of the Royal Castles or Forts And these Offices and Dignities were not granted by Charles the Great in Perpetuity or Inheritance but with a Power reserved to himself to renew his Grants to the same person or bestow them on another as he thought fit But after the Death of Charles the Great his Posterity But his Posterity returned to the former ill management returned to the Errors of the former Reigns and not only the Sons were suffered to succeed their Fathers in these Magistracies or Governments but by a conjunction or union of many Counties or Earldoms or by the Will of some of his Successors some Dukedoms were again formed which contained great Extents of Lands The Presidents employed by them in the Government of these Provinces thought it a piece of Cowardice and Sloth in themselves not to take hold of these occasions and opportunities of establishing themselves and their Posterities as the nature of Mankind is prone to Ambition especially when the Authority of the French Emperors declined and became every day more contemptible by reason of their intestine Dissentions and destructive Wars with one another And in the first place Otho Duke of Saxony a King in Fact though not in Title Otho Duke of Saxony the Father of Henry the Falconer having under him a large and a warlike Nation so established himself that he wanted nothing but the Title to make him a King And when Conrad I. Emperor of Germany undertook to subdue and bring under Henry his Son he miscarried in the Attempt and at his Death he advised the Nobility to bestow the Imperial Dignity on this his prosperous Rival thinking it the wisest course to give him what he could have taken by force for sear he should canton himself and disjoin his Dominions from the rest of Germany There are yet some Princes who owe their Other Princes raised to this Dignity by the Emperors Dominions to the Liberality of some of the Emperors Examples of which occurr frequently in the Histories of the Otho's and whether this is consistent with the Laws of Monarchy I am not now at leisure to enquire After these Beginnings or Foundations Princes encreased their Power afterwards by Purchaces by Hereditary Descents not only in the Right of Blood but Others by Purchace Inheritance or Vsurpation also by mutual Pacts of Successions which the Germans call Confraternal Inheritances or Successions which are of the same nature with that League between the potent Houses of Saxony Brandenburg and Hassia which is now in force And by vertue of such a League the Dukes of Saxony obtained the Earldom of Henneberg and the House of Brandenburg the Right of Pomerania though that League was not reciprocal and yet it is apparent these Leagues are injurious to the Emperor who has the Right of a Lord over the Dominions of the Princes and ought upon a vacancy to dispose of the Fee Lastly Some Estates have been seized by force by some of them when Germany was involved in Wars and Disturbances 4. But then in after times when it appeared In after times these Powers were confirmed by the Emperors that the Power which these Princes had once gotten could not be dissolved without distracting all Germany and perhaps not so neither without hazarding the Ruin of him that should attempt it it seemed better to the succeeding Kings especially after they saw they could not obtain the Empire without it to confirm their Possession so that from thenceforth they enjoyed their Territories as Fees acknowledged to depend on the Emperor and swore Allegiance to him and the Empire From hence it is that by what means soever the

Freedom For whilst every Sect of them believes it has God on their side if any man differeth from them in any thing besides the affront offered to their Authority they are for accusing him forthwith of Impiety Contempt of the Heavenly Truth Obstinacy and Unwillingness to be brought over by another from a manifest Error And yet in the mean time it is a wonder that they which pretend to teach others the utmost Clemency and Goodness of the Christian Religion should not observe what horrid Passions they carry about them Or let them shew me some other sort of men more ambitious covetous envious angry stubborn and selfish than they if this is possible who so soon as ever they meet a man that differeth a little from them presently damn him to the Pit of Hell and will not suffer God himself to reverse their outragious Sentence But then for men to be a little more than ordinarily warm when they find their beloved Wealth like to be diminished that though not often mentioned for good Causes is not altogether so irrational 7. But for the more accurate knowledg The Tempers of the Three Religions in Germ. of the Causes of our Dissentions it is necessary here to make a close reflection on the Tempers of the three Religions which are now allowed a publick Liberty in Germany I shall not trouble my self with a curious Enquiry how well each of them can prove their respective Doctrins by the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures because we are only allowed the use of them for the Improvement of our private Piety and so are not allowed to suppose we can understand them and are besides bound to think our Church loves us too well to destroy us by false Doctrine yet we may be allowed to see and consider how far the way they teach us of going to Heaven will agree with our other Temporal Interests for I cannot think the Deity ever intended his Worship should embroil and disquiet the World That therefore I may The Temper of the Lutherans considered begin regularly I will consider the Lutherans in the first place because they first deserted our Holy Roman Catholick Church And I say I could never yet find any thing in their Doctrine which was contrary to the Principles of Civil Prudence and Government The Power they ascribe to Princes for the governing Religion is indeed not so favourable to the excessive Grandeur of the Priests so where it has prevail'd their Wealth is little but the Commonwealth has the benefit of that Abatement The People are taught by them to reverence their Magistrates and Princes as the Ministers of God and that all the good works expected from them is to do the Duties of Good men Nor am I displeased that they have retained so much of the Ceremonial Part and the Pomp of Religion which serves to divert the minds of the People who have not sence enough to contemplate the Beauty of simple undress'd Piety So that though their Religious Mysteries are not adorned to the frightful height of Superstition yet they are in a decent and grave Dress and adapted to teach Mankind that the Divine Wisdom and Power is able to effect that which we are not able throughly to comprehend the very Rusticity and Simplicity that appears in the Professors of that Religion and which is so much blamed by some is to me a sign and a testimony of their Sincerity and Uprightness So that as it is not possible to imagine a Religion that can be more serviceable and useful to the Princes of Germany than that of the Lutherans we may from hence conclude that this is the best for a Monarchy of any in the World And if Charles V. had not been diverted by the consideration of his other States and Kingdoms he must as Emperor of Germany have been thought blind and impolitick in not taking the opportunity the Reformation offered him to enrich the Patrimony of the Empire when so many of the Princes and Free Cities had before shewed him the way and would very gladly have permitted him to have shared in the Prey and the People were generally so taken with their new Preachers that he needed not to have feared them As to the Calvinists or Presbyterians it differeth very The Temper of the Calvinists little from the Lutheran but only in their great Zeal for sweeping out all the Roman Catholick Rites and Ceremonies with the Dust of their Churches and in a design to new polish the Lutheran Doctrine and to make it more subtile neither of which Intentions are accommodated or suited to the Minds of the meaner People for they are apt to fall asleep when the whole Service of God in publick is reduced to a Psalm and a Sermon and when it is once made a fashionable thing to have the meanest of men exercise their Curiosity upon the most Sacred Parts of Religion the most perverse and ignorant will soon catch the Itch of Innovating and Inventing and when they have once started a new Opinion they will persist in and defend it with invincible stubbornness yea some of them have faln into lamentable Follies and with them it was a great Sin to have a comely Head of Hair And it has long since been observed by wisemen That the Genius of this Religion is purely Democratick ☞ and adapted to Popular Liberty and a Commonwealth For when the People once are admitted to a share in the Government and Discipline of the Church it will presently seem very unreasonable to them that one Prince should without them govern the great Affairs of the State These two Religions having spread themselves The extent of these two Religions over a great part of Germany by their mutual Enmity each to other gave Opportunities to the Roman Catholicks to destroy them both Now what Reason can any man assign for this but the Perverseness of their Ministers who were on both sides more concern'd to maintain their Reputations than their Doctrine and they thought that they should certainly much sink in the esteem of Men if they should tamely submit their Judgments to such as explained things better than they could or taught them more Humility and Modesty than they had occasion for For The Differences destructive as for these two Parties there is no Contest between them which is attended with any Gain or Loss it being equally mischievous to both of them to be forced again to submit to the Church of Rome And therefore seeing the Ministers could never be perswaded to sacrifice their Obstinacy to the Peace of the Publick it had been the Duty of the Princes by degrees to have laid these Controversies asleep not by violent methods which commonly exasperate Dissenters but by oblique ways and Artifice For if Princes in chusing their Ministers would for the future not regard the Names of Mens Parties but the Abilities and Endowments of their Minds and if the Subjects were inured to bear an equal