enters into his office he is obliged to present to the King and the principal Ministers of State the Apostolick brief of his Nunciature wherein he acknowledges the King as supreme To conclude it has been often controverted among which of Aristotle's five sorts of government the government of Poland may be reckon'd which when the most learned have not been able to determine they have all betaken themselves to the common Proverb frequently in the mouthes of the Polonians themselves Polonia confusione regitur yet such a confusion saith Coricinius which has preserved the Virgin honour of the Nation safe and undefiled in the midst of so many cruel and bloody Wars At this day there is no less confusion in the religion then government of Poland 〈…〉 In the year 965 Miecislaus King of Poland John the 13th being then Pope received and entertained the Christian faith according to the ceremonies of the Church of Rome which though it be still the most profest and reigning religion to this day yet have other Religions and Sects got no small footing in the Realm For in the year 1264 the Jews flock'd into Poland planting themselves whole Colonies together in this Kingdom To whom Boleslaus Duke of Great Poland granted several priviledges and immunities which Casimir the great at the suit of another Jewish Esther who was his Mistress very much enlarged by which means their number is now so encreased over all the Cities and Villages of Poland that is now called the Jews paradise In the year 1397 Vitoldus grand Duke of Lithuania having overthrown the Nagayan Tartars translated whole Herds of them into his own Territories who to this day obstinately maintain the follies of Mahomet Much about the same time in the reign of Vladislaus Jagello the opinions of John Huss brake forth and by the pains of Procopius Holy Brederick Straznicz and William Kotska prevailed so far in Poland even among the Nobility that though several severe Edicts were made against them yet could they never be wholly extirpated At length the Lutherans and Calvinists invaded the Roman-Catholick Religion with more danger to the Papacy their party being encreased by the Students of Cracow through the neglect of the Magistrates in not revenging the murder of one of their Collegiates For they thereupon dispersing into Bohemia and Germany upon their return so largely propagated the doctrine of Luther that Sigismund Augustus himself the Archbishop of Gnesna with the Bishops of Culmo and Camieniek lean'd very much to their party Among these the Arrians intermixed themselves and although so severely prosecuted by John Casimir and others that Alexander the seventh for their sakes gave the Kings of Poland the Title of Orthodox yet they still shelter themselves under the name of Dissenters As for the Calvinists how far they have strengthened themselves may appear by the late disturbances in Dantzick The Russians though a great part of them in the year 1596 joyned themselves to the Roman Church yet the more numerous party which go by the name of Not-united still retain the ceremonies of the Greeks under Arch-bishops and Priests of the same profession And their priviledges were confirmed by the agreement made in the year 1658. The Armenians who are very numerous in Poland upon the account of Trade profess the Roman Catholick religion being wrought thereto by the zealous industry of John Casimir Lately for the better support of the Roman-Catholick Religion there was an Article inserted into the Pacta Conventa to which this present King swore That no Person should be elected to the Kingdom of Poland that was not of the Roman Catholick religion and that the Queen should be either a Roman Catholick born or by conversion PALATINATVS POSNANIENSIS IN MAIOTI POLONIA PRIMARII NOVA DELINATIO Per G. F. M. What has been hitherto said has related to Poland in general which according to the opinion of the best modern Geographers may be divided into the following Provinces 1. The Greater Poland which contains the Palatinates of Posnania Calissia Lancicia Bresta Inouladislavia Sirad and Rava and the Territories of Vielun and Dobrin 2. The Lesser Poland in which are contain'd the Palatinates of Cracow Sendomir and Lublin the Dukedomes of Oswiec Tabor and Aever and the County of Scepus 3. Lithuania which consists of three Palatinates of Vilna Troco and Brescia 4. Masovia to which belong the Palatinates of Masovia Ploco and Podlachia 5. Prussia Regia which is divided into the Palatinates of Culmo Mariaeburg and Pomerania and the Bishoprick of Varma 6. Samogitia in which are no Palatinates but the whole Province is subject to one Governour or Captain 7. White Russia which borders upon the great Dukedome of Moscovy and contains the Palatinates of Novogrod Micislavia Viteps Poloco Smolensco Czernichovia and Kiovia of which at present a great part is in the hands of the great Duke of Moscovy 8. Red Russia in which lay the Palatines of Russia Podolia Volhinia Belze and Braclavia Lastly the Southern tract of Livonia is also reckoned among the Provinces of Poland But of all these we shall treat more fully in the following Order GREAT POLAND THe Greater Poland containing the Counties of Posnania and Calissia Great Poland and the Palatines of Sirad Rava Vielun and Cujavia which last is subdivided into the Baronies of Breste and Junuvladislavia is bounded on the South with Silesia on the West with the Marquisate of Brandenburgh and the upper Pomeren on the North with Masovia and part of Prussia on the East with the Lesser Poland 'T is generally a level champain country abounding with pleasant Rivers Lakes and Ponds and well furnish'd with all manner of Fish and Fowl Some parts of Cujavia indeed are more mountainous but what those want in pleasure they repay with profit the hills every-where affording good store of Wool and the valleys plenty of Corn. The Metropolis of the whole Province is Posnania called by the Poles Posnan Posnania by the Germans Posen seated in 39 degrees of Longitude and 52 and about 10 minutes of Latitude on the river Warta The City is not large but well stockt with Merchants from all parts of Germany John Lubranski formerly Bishop of this place founded here a Gymnasium or petty-University in the suburbs ordering the Professours to be called from Cracow where himself had been Doctor of Laws Though this structure has since that time been very much beautifyed by Adam Canar one of Lubranski's successours in the Bishoprick yet t is still outdone by the Jesuits Colledge and Monastery in Posen The people here are civil and gentile orderly and cleanly in their houses and go more rich in apparel then is ordinary in any other place in Poland Cracow onely excepted with which notwithstanding Posen may vie for beauty trade and riches The greatest part of the inhabitants are Roman-Catholicks However there are many large swarms of Jews who live among them and enjoy more priviledges and immunities then the Citizens themselves
at for the barbarous commonalty could not but by degrees be weaned from their antient folly Besides the Masters of the Order minded the enlargement of their own power and dominion more then the preaching of the Gospel being grown to that height of insolence that they despised the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of Rome and sleighted the Popes threats and excommunication This neglect gave way to many Schisms and divisions in the Prussian Church insomuch that the Waldenses Wiclesians and Hussites had almost overrun the Land However the Teutonic Order still professed the Roman-catholic religion till the days of Alhert Marquess of Brandenburgh last Master of that order and first Duke of Prussia who having not without a great deal of blood-shed rejected the Polish yoke about the year 1520 began to embrace Martin Luther's opinions and by his own example and authority first perswaded the greatest part of the Teutonic order to marry and by degrees won over the whole Country to Lutheranism The present Elector of Brandenburgh being himself a Calvinist has countenanced of late Calvinism in Konigsberg and other chief Cities of Ducal Prussia but in Dantzick and the other Towns upon the Vistula which are subject to the Crown of Poland the people are Lutherans The same Laws and Judicature are not observed all Prussia over For some parts of it only known by the name of Prussia Regalis are subject to the Kings of Poland and those too enjoy several peculiar privileges and immunities the rest which usually goes under the name of Ducal Prussia is immediately subject to the Elector of Brandenburgh The three Islands called commonly by the High Dutch Die Werder The chief part of the Regal Prussia lyes in the three Islands between Elbing and Dantzick which the Germans call Die Werder which signifies properly so many solid pieces of ground in the middle of fenns and bogs The first and least of these Dantzick is der Dantzicher Werder or Island of Dantzick which is seated on the North-West end of it upon the Vistula When and by whom this City was built at first is not certainly known Becanus thinks t was built by the Danes and from them called Danswick i. e. the City of the Danes But this derivation of the word has too much Dutch in it 'T is more probable that to the word Dan Codan Cdan or Gdan was added only the Slavonian termination Scke which made Danscke or Gdanscke changed afterwards into Dantzig The chief part of the City Die rechte Stadt was built by Conrad Wallenrodt Master of the Teutonic order about the year 1390. St. Maries Church in Dantzick is the stateliest Fabrick in Prussia having in it forty eight altars and 3722 windows The font in it was made at Antwerp and cost 24000 Rixdollars or 5400 pound Sterling The City is exceeding populous and a place of the greatest trade in these parts The next Island is Der Marienbursche Werder Marienburg the greatest of the three which takes its name from Marienburg a pleasant City on the banks of the Negat The Castle of Marienburg was built in the year 1281. It was reckoned the strongest hold the King of Poland has and by the Preusners set in competition with the best forts in Christendom according to their hobbelling verse Margenburg ex luto Offen ex Saxo ex Marmore Meiland And Faelix Pidelarus has given this bold character of it Fundamenta latent domibus camerata profundis Firmior Arctoo nulla sub axe jacet MAGNI DVCATVS LITHVANIAE Caetâ—…rarumque Regionum illi adiacentium exacta descripâ—◠〈…〉 The third Island is Der Elbingscher Werder 〈◊〉 so called from the City of Elbing seated in it Ptolomey seems to place his Aelveones and Tacitus his Helvecones near this place whence Fridericus Zamelius takes the liberty to call this City Augusta Aelvaeonum and Aelveopolis not doubting but it had its name from these antient people Hennebergerus more probably brings the name from Oehlsing Oelfang or Eelfang that is a place where Eels are caught But Conringius a very learned professor of Physick in the University of Helmstad with most judgment brings the word from Elff which was a common name given by the Goths almost to all Rivers For 't is certain the Gothes lived here for some considerable while though it be but a meer guess to affirm that this was the seat of Ptolomey's Aelveones or Tacitus's Helvecones Elbing as it now stands was built about the middle of the thirteenth Century by the Burgers of Lubeck who prevailed with the Master of the Teutonic Order to suffer it to enjoy the same Laws and Priviledges which the Emperour Friderick the second had granted to Lubeck The Master gave them also for their arms which the City still bears two Crosses and a net out of the arms of Lubeck but in the year 1454 they delivered their laws libertyes City and themselves into the dominion of the King of Poland The City is well built and very clean There is in it great store of English who trade here in cloth though their number has of late been something abated by the greater concourse of Merchants to Dantzig The Country Rusticks in the neighbourhood of Elbing have as well built houses and as rich clothes as most Noblemen in Pomeren and you can scarce here discern a Bore from a Burger by his habit The whole Island is a level champagn Country like Holland and as fruitful too and well peopled as any part of that Province Amsterdam excepted Prussia Regia THe other parts of Prussia 〈…〉 more immediately subject to the Crown of Poland are the following Cities all seated on the banks of the Vistula 1. Dersavia or Dirschau called formerly Zuder-Sau because seated on the bank of a small river of that name which runs into the Vistula It was built in the year 1209 burnt 1433 and utterly destroyed 1577. So that now there is little of it to be found but ruins 2. Marienwerder or the City of St. Mary in the Island was built by Burehard Burgrave of Magdeburg about the year 1233 who fenced it with walls and a strong Castle This City has been often in the hands of the Electors of Brandenburgh whence commanding all the Ships that came up and down the Vistula they could easily spoil the whole trade of Poland 3. Culm an antient and famous City giving name to that great tract of Land which from it is called Culmigeria or the Land of Culm Most of the Prussian writers will have Culmigeria to fetch its name from the Hulmigeri antient inhabitants of these parts And 't is as probable the Hulmigeri might have their name frâ—â— Holm easily turned according to the idiom of the Northern languages into Culm which signifies a piece of firm ground among boggs such as Culm is at this day seated upon The City was built or rebuilt rather by Herman de Balk first provincial of Prussia in the year 1232. As soon as it was
City named Tingvalla 4. Hallandia Hallandia which has oâ— the West the Sinus Codanus on the South Schonen and on the North and North-East Smalandia and Westro-Gothia A pleasant and fruitful Province reaching in length from Bahusia to the City Laaholm upon a small River which falls into the Sinus Codanus several miles but in breadth in some parts not above half a mile and where broadest not exceeding three miles It has in it four Cities 1. Halmstadt 2. Falkenburg 3. Laaholm 4. Waersburg all lying upon the Codane Bay very conveniently for Trade and exporting of those Commodities which come out of the more Northerly Provinces In the year 1645 by a Ratification of peace held betwixt Christina Queen of Swedland and Christian the IV King of Denmark this Province with all its Cities Towns Forts and Appurtenances was granted to the Crown of Sweden for thirty years as a pledg of security whereby the Swedes might be ascertain'd of their free passage through the Sund or Oresund the controversies about which had been the chief occasions of their former war At the end of thirty years if the Swedes thought convenient either this Province was to be retained by them as a pledg for the performing of the covenant on the part of the Danes or they to have some other Province or Cities and Forts equivalent to it given into their hands which might be to them sufficient assecuration An. 1658 by articles of a peace concluded at Roschild a City in Zeland it with all its Cities Towns and Forts was granted to Charles the X then King of Sweden and to his successours for ever II. Eastern-East or Ostro-Gothia Ostro-Gothia which has in it these Provinces 1. Ostro-Gothia properly so call'd 2. Smalandia and 3. Oelandia to which may be added Gotlandia Scania and Bleckingia GOTHIA Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios er Mosem Pitt SCANIA Vulgo SCHONEN Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt VIROIllustri Generosissimo Dno OTTHONI KRAGH Toparchae in Trutzholm Summo R. M. DAN Secretario Patrono suo magno Dedicat Consecrat Johannes Janssonius 2. Smalandia parted from Ostro-Gothia by the Wood Holavedh a very large Province being 95 German miles in compass indifferently fruitful in those parts where it is not overgrown with wood It abounds very much with Cattel whence some say it has its name Smala signifying Cattel which are exported hence in great numbers into Denmark and from thence into Germany and Holland In it there are very many Lakes the chief of which are Bolm Viostez Moklen and Asnan Rivers likewise not a few as Nyssea Laga Helga Marboa Aem c. This Country is cut out into several Divisions or Territories the principal of which are Tieherad Verendia which is said anciently to have had distinct Laws of its own Tiustia Finheidia and Mauringia c. It abounds with several Mines as of Copper and Lead and in some parts with great store of Iron which is said to be found in the bottom of their Lakes and Rivers Cities here are 1. Calmar whose name is said to have been given to it by the Germans from the coldness of the air which blows from the Baltick Sea Here is a very convenient Port frequented by our English Merchants and some of other Nations In the year 1230 Ericus King of Denmark Norway and Swedland instituted thirteen Prebendaries in this City and ordered that the Cathedral Church here should have the priviledges of an Ecclesiastical Colledg It is at present governed by one Superintendent who with the rest of the Bishops has a place in the publick consistory of the Kingdom This City was sometimes under the power of John King of Denmark and Christiern the second who succeeded him but not long after regain'd by the Swedes In the year 1611 Christianus the fourth King of Denmark took this City putting all the Inhabitants to the Sword but two years after it was by vertue of a ratification of peace made betwixt the Northern Crowns restored to the Swede In the year 1647 it was almost quite consumed by fire not above sixty houses left standing in the whole City but since that is very handsomly rebuilt and at present by reason of its commodious Situation upon the Baltick a very considerable Trade-Town 2. Jenecoepia or Jenecoepping situate in a Vale near the Lake Veter built for the most part of Wood a City quite naked and easy of access It is reported that anciently the houses of this City were covered on the outside not with Thatch or Stone but with a sort of courser Cloth or Canvas which the Inhabitants thought a great piece of handsomness M. Heberer in his Itinerary reports that when he came to this City he found a great number of very large Serpents which were kept tame by the Citizens and though they were familiarly admitted into their houses yet never did them any injury whether or no they used to eat them as the Indians are said to do at this day is not by him set down though 't is probable they did not feed them in their houses for no other end then to sport with 3. Vexio a Bishops See where some of the first Planters of Christianity as was said lie buried 4. Ekesio and 5. Vesterwick 3. Oelandia a pleasant and fruitful Island lying in the Baltick Sea divided from Smalandia by a very narrow Bay in it are Cattel as Oxen Horses c. Birds also and Wild-beasts in great plenty and besides the Fort called Barkholme or Bornholme two and thirty Parishes in all This Island was by the Dane yeilded up to Gustavus Adolphus an 1613. See more concerning it amongst the accessional Provinces of the Crown of Sweden 4. Scania or Schonen a Province abounding with Corn Beasts Birds and all other Commodities of life here several Mines of Silver Lead Iron c. are said to be laboured and their Mettal to be hence transported into other Countries but this seems to be a mistake either from the confounding of the word Scandia with Scania which is frequently done by Geographers or from counting that Mettal which is brought hither from the more Northern Provinces to come immediately from this This Province an 1658 was ceded to the Swedes and an 1660 confirm'd to them so that it may seem one of the new accessions to the Kingdom amongst which see a description of it 5. Blekingia a fruitful Province lying upon the Baltick coast It was given up to the Swedes an 1658 and as was Schonen confirm'd to them an 1660. A larger account of this Province may be expected by and by 6. Gothlandia or Gothland an Island lying in the Baltick Sea over against Ostro-Gothia about eighteen German Miles in length and five or six in breadth fourteen miles from the Gothick Shore twenty from Curland thirty from Dantzic fifty from Bornholme and eighty from Rostock It has in it one City named Wisbuy or Visburg the residence of the Governour of the Island When it was under the Danish
serves for a good Land-mark to the Sea-men that sail along this dangerous shore This Church was first built on the top of a hill by King Eric Barn whom St. Ansgar had converted to Christianity about the year 848. Near an hundred and fifty years after upon the reclaiming of the Danes from the Idolatry they were relaps'd into this Church was turn'd into a Cathedral and Ripen made a Bishops See as it hath continued ever since There is a kind of an University at Ripen but comes far short of that at Copenhagen The rest of the Cities and great Towns of moment in this Diocess are 1. Kolding first built by Eric Glipping about the year 1268 in the place of an old Castle of the same name and fortified with such strong walls and good ditches as made it a City able to defend the frontiers of the Danish dominions which in those days reached no further South then this place But they that think Kolding had its name from Ptolomy's Chali who seem to be placed in this part of Jutland make it a City much more ancient Christian III. was so much taken with the situation of it and plenty of all things in the Country adjoining that he removed his Court to the Castle Arnsburgh which hangs over the Town which he repair'd and in which he ended his days On the South the City is washed by a River which divides the Northern Jutland from the Southern and separating it self into two branches is emptied soon after into the Baltic Sea The Bridge over this River brings yearly a great treasure into the King of Denmark's Coffers For besides the impost upon all other kinds of commodities for every Ox or Horse that passes this Bridge towards Holstein or any of the Hans Towns the owners pay a Rixdollar which considering the infinite number of Horses and Kine which are yearly sent this way out of the Northern Jutland must needs amount to a vast revenue 2. Wee l a compact neat and well built City on the Baltic shore but not very large 3. Ward 4. Rinkoping Both seated near the Western-shore upon the same River 5. Holstebro 6. Lemwick which is the outmost bounds of the Bishoprick of Ripen Northward seated on the Limfiord whence it has its name At Jelling a small Village in this Bishoprick not far from the City Wee l is to be seen one of the most famons Runic Monuments that the three Northern Kingdoms afford This Village is said to have had its name from one Elling a General of the Cimbrians and fancied to have been the seat of several Danish Kings The inscription has been thought worthy the diligent enquiry of Jos Scaliger Bonaventura Vulcanius Lindenbrogius Stephanius and Wormius and may therefore justly challenge a place in our description of this Province The words are these Haralter Kunugr bad kaurva Kubl dausi eft Gurm fadur sin Aug eft Thiurni mudur sinasa Haraltr Kesor van Tanmaurk Alla aug Nurvieg Aug tini folk Kristno i. e. Harald the King commanded this Tomb to be built in remembrance of Gormo his father and Thyra his mother Harald the Emperor won Denmark and all Norway and Christ'ned the inhabitants of both Kingdoms How worthy Queen Thyra was of such a lasting monument as this we shall shew hereafter and shall in this place only take notice of King Harald's styling himself Kesor or Emperor of Denmark and Norway Which seems to be done in contempt of the Emperor Otho the first who having conquer'd a great part of the Kingdom of Denmark annexed this to the rest of his dominions and writ himself Emperor of the North till this King Harald Blaatand forced him to retire and made him part with not only whatever he had taken in Jutland but a great part of Saxony After so great a conquest and defeat of so mighty an Emperor he had reason to assume a title as swelling as ever Otho could pretend to who came no further then Othesundt with his Army Especially if it be true what Helmoldus reports of him that he was so far King of Saxony as to be the Author of those Laws which are to this day observed in the upper and lower Saxony and contained in their Saxon-Spiegel Southern Jutland THE Southern Jutland which is often comprehended under the name of the Dutchy of Sleswic reaches from Kolding and the River Leewens Aa as far as the Dannewirk which is reckon'd about eighteen German miles The breadth of it does not any-where exceed eight seldom six miles The chief City Sleswic which sometimes gives name to the whole Province is Sleswic It is seated on a River or rather a small arm of the Sea called by the inhabitants De Slye So that Sleswic is no more then a Village call'd anciently by the Saxons Wic by the Hollanders to this day Wiick and the Latines Vicus upon the Slye Hence the ancient people of these parts are called by Ptolomy Sigulones which some read Slievâ—nes i.e. Wooners or dwellers upon the banks of the Slie Adam Bremensis calls the Town Slias-wig and Ethelwerd an ancient English-Saxon Historian gives us this account of it Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones Giotos habens oppidum Capitale quod sermone Saxonico Sleswic nuncupatur secundum Danos vero Haithaby i. e. Old England lies between Saxony and Jutland the Metropolis of which is called by the Saxons Sleswic but by the Danes Haithaby In an old History of the life of Charles the Great it is called Sliestorff It had its Danish name Haitheby saith Pontanus from Hetha a certain Queen of Denmark Which assertion seems confirm'd by a passage in the Preface to King Aelfred's English-Saxon translation of Orosius And of Scipinges heale he cÆ¿aeþ ê§ he seglode on fif dagan to þem porte þe mon haetaet Haeðh um se stent betÆ¿uh Winedum Seaxum Angle hyrðh in on Dene i.e. And from Sciringes-heal he said that he sailed in five days to the Port which is called Haethe which stands between the Vandals Vinedi Saxons and the Angles to whom it is subject 'T was questionless heretofore a City much frequented by Merchants from Britain France Spain Flanders and all other parts of the trading world Adam Bremensis who lived about the year 1100 calls it Civitatem opulentissimam ac populosissimam i.e. a City exceeding rich and populous And so it must needs have been For before Mariners learnt perfectly the way of shunning the dangerous Sands upon the coasts of Jutland and at the entrance into the Baltic carriages were usually brought up the Eidor and Threan as far as Hollingsted by Ship and thence conveyed by Land to Sleswic where they were again shipped and so transported into Zeeland Sweden c. The Citizens here were first converted to Christianity and the great Church built by King Eric Barn assisted by St. Anchar about the year 800. Not long after in the year 1064 the Slavonians making incursions into this part of the Country
pass all the Merchant-ships which traffick in the Baltic The breadth of it is about twelve German miles and the length eighteen This Island is undoubtedly the ancient Codanonia mentioned by Pomponius Mela which signifies the same thing as the more modern words Dania and Denmark Most of the Danish Etymologists derive Seeland from Soedland or Seedland from the plenty of Corn which this Country affords Others with greater probability make the word signifie no more then an Island or piece of ground encompassed with the Sea Whence Saxo Grammaticus and several other ancient Historians call it Seelandia from the old Danish word Sia or Sio which is now turned into Soe and in our English tongue corrupted into Sea In most or all of the ancient Runic Manuscripts it is called Soelunder or the Sea-Grove The Edda Islandorum calls it Soelund and gives us this account of the first original of the word There was formerly a certain King in Sweden named Gylfi who promised an Asian Sorceress call'd Gesion who had pleased him with her melody as much land as four Oxen could plow up in one day and a night Whereupon the old Hag brings four of her sons out of North Jutland and turning them into as many Oxen caused them to plow up a large and deep furrow round this piece of ground Which when the Sea had fill'd up the land became an Isle and was call'd Seelund Stephanius thinks Ptolomy alluded to this fable when speaking of some Islands in the Baltic he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Beyond the Cimbrian Chersonese ly three Islands called Alociae from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a furrow Copenhagen the Metropolis of this Island Copenhagen and of the whole Kingdom of Denmark is seated on the East of Seeland upon the Sea-shore The Danes call it Kiobenhaun and the Germans Copenhaven both which words are corruptions of Kiobmanshafen i.e. Portus Mercatorum as Saxo somewhere calls it Mejerus a learned Frisian writer derives the name of this City from Coppen which says he in the Frisian language signifies James and Haven q.d. St. James's Haven But there is very little or no grounds for any such derivation About the year 1168 Axil Wide surnamed Snare Saxo calls him Absolon Archbishop of Denmark built a considerable fortification in the Island in which now stands the Castle This was call'd after his name Axel-huys and was a good defence to the whole Island against the daily incursions of Pyrats Under the protection of this Fort several Fishermen and others that traded this way used to harbour their Ships in security This caused a continual concourse of the Natives who resorted hither to furnish the Vessels with such provisions as their Country afforded and in a short time laid the first rude draughts of a City which at this day for strength trade beauty and bulk is not surpass'd by many in Europe Most of the Danish Kings especially Christian IV. have been very active in beautifying this City with an University Churches Walls Ditches c. James Ecland Bishop of Roschild was the first that granted any priviledges to it in the year 1254. These his successor Ignatius confirm'd and they were afterwards considerably enlarged by King Waldemar in the year 1341 and Eric of Pomeren in the year 1371. Christopher of Bavaria endowed it with Municipal immunities like the other Cities of Denmark in the year 1443. All which were confirm'd by the large Charters of Christian the third and Frideric the second The Citizens houses till within these few years were very mean and low most of them patcht up of wood and mortar but of late they are grown more curious and expensive in Architecture and few of their streets are without a considerable number of fair brick buildings The Cathedral Church dedicate to St. Mary is beautified with a noble Copper Spire built at the charges of King Christian the fourth The Advowsance of this Church belongs to the Professors in the University The Market-place is exceeding spacious and no small ornament to the Town Besides these the Kings Palace the Arsenal which perhaps excels any thing that Europe affords in this kind the Observatory or Runde taarn and the adjoining University Church and Library the Exchange c. are places richly worth the seeing and deserve a larger description then the bounds of this short account of the whole Kingdom will permit The City is governed by four Burgomasters one whereof is Regent or President for his life This honour is at present conferr'd on that worthy and learned person P. John Resenius Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University at Copenhagen and Counsellor to the present King of Denmark With him most of the other Professors of note in this University as William Langius formerly Tutor to this present King Christian the fifth Erasmus Vindingius Professor of History and Geography and Author of the Academia Hafniensis which gives us an exact account of all the famous men that have ever flourished in this University Thomas and Erasmus Bartholini both well known by their incomparable works c. are at this day Ministers of State in the Court of Denmark and keep only the title and pension of Professors without being tyed to the performance of the duties SELANDIAE in Regno Daniae Insulae Chorographica Descriptio Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios et Mosem Pitt VIRO Illustri ac Generoso Dno GEORGIO SEEFELDO Haereditario in REFFES Regni Daniae Senatori ac Iudici provintiali Selandico Domino ac Patrono plurimum honorando D. D. D. Johannes Janssonius The rest of the great Towns and places of note in this Island are Roschild 1. Roschild which takes its name from a river running by the Town which drives seven mills Roe in the antient Danish Tongue signifies a King and Kille a stream of water 'T was formerly the Metropolis of the whole Kingdom but of late years this City has decayed and Copenhagen grown so fast that it is scarce remarkable for any thing at this day save the great old Cathedral the burying place of the Kings of Denmark and some small trade This City was first made a Bishop's See by Suenotho King of England Denmark Sweden and Norway about the year 1012. who gave the Bishoprick of Roschild which is now swallowed up of Copenhagen to Gerebrand a Monk Afterwards Sueno Gratenhede fortifyed it with a wall ditch and bulwark Lyscander tells us there were once no less then twenty seven fair Churches in this Town Among these I suppose he reckons the Chappel built by King Harald Svenotho's father in which both he and his son whose dead corps were carried out of England to Roschild to be buried are entombed In the old Cathedral amongst many other rich monuments in honour of several of the Danish Kings and Queens stands a fair marble pillar which Margaret Queen of Denmark erected on purpose to hang thereon the Whetstone which is fastened to it with a chain which Albert King of
an oath taken in Norway and Iseland we read Hialpi mier suo Fryer og Niordur og hin al matke As i.e. So help me Frier and Niordur a Norwegian King Deified for his noble exploits and the almighty Asian i.e. Woden From him the Iselanders call the fourth day of the week Odensdagur and we Wendesday The Nobility of the ancient people of the North were wonderfully ambitious of fetching their pedigree down in a streight line from this Patriarch and God of the Northern Nations Hence possibly it comes that in some Copies of our Anglo-Saxonic Chronicle the Genealogy of our English King Cerdic with several others is run up to one who is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the son of Woden and there the pedegree breaks of As if in so doing they had sufficiently imitated St. Luke's Genealogy of our Saviour unto Adam which was the son of God And hence as may well be conjectured the Islanders do to this day call their Noblemen Godar and Hoffgodar i.e. such as are of the lineage or family of the Gods Besides these two we sometimes read of Freyer as in the Norwegian oath before quoted one of Wodens companions and Friga Wodens wife whence our Friday with several others of less note Arngrim allows 〈…〉 that several Christians came out of Norway into Iseland with Ingulf in the year 874 but that the Isle was then converted to the Christian faith he denies A full and total conversion he says was never attempted till about an hundred years after The first that openly preached the Gospel was one Frideric a Saxon born who came over into this Isle in the year 981 and succeeded so well that within three years after there were several Churches built The Iselandic Chronicle mentions one Thangbrandt another outlandish Bishop who came into Iseland in the year 997. At last in the year 1000 it was agreed on in a general Assembly of the whole Isle That the worship of Heathenish Idols being abandoned they would unanimously embrace the Christian Religion In the year 1056 Isleif an Iselander was consecrated Bishop of the whole Isle and enter'd upon the See of Schalholt the year following It is very observable what is recorded in the Iselandic Chronicle that this Isleif married Dalla the daughter of one Thorwald and by her had three sons The eldest of which named Gysser succeeded his father in the Bishoprick of Schalholt altho he also is said to have married Stenun the daughter of Thorgrin Since that time the inhabitants of Iseland have continued stedfast in the Christian faith Gudbrand Thorlac who entred the Bishoprick of Holen in the year 1571 abolished the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and introduced the Augustan Confession which to this day is maintained all over the Isle The same Bishop first procured a Printing-house to be set up in Iseland and afterwards caused the Bible and several other godly books to be translated into the Iselandic tongue and printed Christian the third King of Denmark founded two Free-schools in Iseland one at Holen and the other at Skalholt which by the munificence of his successors Frideric the second and Christian the fourth were improved into two considerable Colledges where young men were instructed in the liberal Arts and principles of Religion till they were thought fit for the ministry Of late years many ingenious men and learned Iselanders have been bred up in the University at Copenhagen We have before taken a survey of the mean Cottages or Burrows of the Rusticks in Iseland Cities and we cannot expect that their Citizens should live in much better fashion There are only two Cities in the Isle Holen and Skalholt the one the seat of their Northern the other of their Southern Bishop In both of them the houses are built of wood rarely of stone cover'd with either boards or turf The Cathedral at Holen according to Arngrim's description either is or at least has been a stately Fabrick In his days the Church-porch had on each side five pillars which were fourteen ells high I suppose he means Norwegian ells one of which is about three quarters of a yard English and five in thickness The Quire and Body of the Church were proportionable to the Porch This noble structure was blown down in the year 1584 but magnificently rebuilt at the charge of Frideric II. King of Denmark within four years after Neither of these Cities look any better then one of our ordinary Villages for the houses are not contiguous nor defended by any fortification or rampire Blefkenius tells us how truly I know not of a pleasant plain in the middle of Iseland Judicature where formerly stood an high flaming mountain which by degrees burnt away This plain says he is encompassed with huge rocks which make it inaccessible excepting only in one place and there too you have room for no more then one passenger at once From the tops of two of these rocks fall down two large rivers which with a terrible noise are swallowed up by a whirl-pool in the midst of the plain Hither yearly upon the twenty-ninth day of June repair all such as have any suit at Law or other controversie to be determined At the passage stands a guard of soldiers who admit all in that desire the favour but suffer none to go out without a pass from the Governor As soon as all who have any business are come in the Governor or Lieutenant of the Isle reads his Commission from the King of Denmark That done he gives his charge insisting much upon the good will and kindness which the King his Master and himself bear the Iselanders and advising them all to administer justice without respect of any manner of persons whatever After this he returns to his Tent where in a godly Sermon preach'd to him and the rest of the Assembly the necessity of punishing offenders and vindicating the injur'd is declared As soon as Sermon is ended the twelve chosen Justices whom they call Lochmaders i.e. men of the Law sit down on the ground with each a book of the Iselandic Laws in his hand After the Plaintiff and Defendant have both given in what they have to say they all arise and every man examines privately the verdict of his book in the case proposed Returning they consult awhile of the sentence and then unanimously pronounce it If any considerable doubt arise among them which they themselves cannot easily solve they consult the Lieutenant but will not give him authority or leave to decide the controversie by pronouncing of sentence These twelve Jurymen of whom one always is Foreman have great respect shew'n them as long as these Assizes last They have power to determine all Civil causes and to pronounce condemnation as they think convenient against all Criminals Those that are condemn'd to dye as Adulterers Murderers and notorious Thieves are beheaded but smaller misdemeanors are marked in the forehead with an hot iron This
them in the year 1648 which have not since been rebuilt However the place is still beautified with a fair Church College and Town-Hall and the Streets especially the Market-place which is in an exact square are generally neat and uniform Oelsse had anciently its own Duke who kept his residence in that City but upon the death of Duke Conrad the Eighth in the year 1492. the Dukedom was given to the Dukes of Munsterberg who have ever since been Lords of it In this Principality are reckon'd the small Cities of Bernstatt Festenberg Kunstatt Stroppen Mosebahr Hundsfeld and Trebnitz VI. The City and Dukedom of BRESLAW BRESLAW or Wratislavia the Metropolis of Silesia has its name from Wratislaus a Bohemian Prince its first Founder whence the Citizens bear a great W in their Coat of Arms to this day 'T is seated at the confluence of the two Rivers Oder and Ohla in a rich and pleasant Country Towards the North indeed there are some Marshes and moist fields whence are now and then some unwholesome gales sent into the Town and the whole City is reported to have been built in the place of a great Pond dried up The Citizens who are exceedingly numerous by reason of their great Traffick with the Hungarians Bohemians Polanders and other foreign Merchants who resort hither are said to be as neat and gentile in their Clothes and Cookery as any other of the Emperor's Subjects whatever Breslawers love to be esteem'd immediate members of the German Empire and cannot endure to be reckon'd a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia Hence 't is that they have obtain'd leave of the Emperors to bear the spred Eagle in their Escutcheon and that they petitioned Charles V. to confirm their priviledges For this reason M. Boregius a Breslawer who wrote a Chronicle of the Kings of Bohemia ranks Breslaw among the Imperial Cities but ne're mention it with the King of Bohemia's Towns altho it be certain that 't was formerly subject to that Prince This Goldastus in his learned Treatise of the Kingdom of Bchemia evidently proves notwithstanding what is usually alledg'd as an argument to the contrary by some ignorant and silly Historians that it was once one of the Hans-Towns The generality of the buildings in this City are fair and stately only on the banks of the Oder stand four old fashion'd Fabricks with Turrets on the top which the Antiquaries of this place fancy to have been the ancient Palaces of so many Schwabish Princes who in former days were Lords of this City Besides the vast traffick of the Citizens the Town is famous for a Bishop's See and an University wherein have been bred many learn'd men and some great Writers The Bishops of this Diocese who had anciently the Epiphet or Title of Golden given them from their vast revenues are put in by the King of Bohemia whom they acknowledg their supreme Head at least in Temporals 'T is a receiv'd Tradition in these parts that the Kings of Bohemia have no power to promote a stranger to any Bishopric in Silesia so that a Bohemian is no more capable of being advanced to one of their Dioceses then a Silesian is of being preferr'd to the Archbishopric of Prague But how false this report is Historians will sufficiently inform us Boleslaus Dukedom surnam'd the Long a Polish Prince was created the first Duke of Breslaw and Lignitz by the Emperor Frideric in the year 1163. But these kind of petty Princes not being able to secure their Territories and especially this large and rich City which was a bait sufficient to tempt the most potent Prince of the neighbourhood from the incursions of the Tartars Polanders and other foreign Enemies the Citizens of Breslaw were forced to put themselves under the protection of the Kings of Bohemia or as they will have it Emperors of Germany to whom they are now immediately subject VII The Town and Dukedom of LIGNITZ LIGNITZ a fair City on the banks of a small Rivulet call'd Katsbach is thought to have its name from the Lygii City a German people the ancient inhabitants of this part of Silesia About the year of Christ 1170 this Town was much enlarg'd beautified and fortified by Boleslaus the Long the first Duke of Lignitz After him Duke Frideric the second so far improv'd his predecessor Boleslaus's undertakings that in the year 1532 it became one of the best fortified Cities next to Breslaw in all Silesia Things best worth seeing in the Town are the Hospital the Town-Hall and Castle The Dukedom of Lignitz is reckon'd one of the best Corn-Countries in Silesia Dukedom and affords near as great plenty of the Terra Sigillata as the Dukedom of Schweidnitz especially the white sort which is here more plentiful then in any other Province The whole is commonly subdivided into seven Circles whereof four have names from the four Cities of Luben Parchwitz Hayn and Goldberg and the other three are the division of the barren or desert part of the Dukedom VIII The Ducal Cities of JAWER SCHWEIDNITZ BRIEG MONSTERBERG and OPPELEN THE City of Jawer is seated in a pleasant Valley Jawer tho not far distant from the rugged Crags and Mountains which separate Silesia from the Kingdom of Bohemia It has not the advantage of any River near it so that all the fortifications it has are high Rampires and deep Ditches There is little of note in the Town but the Church burnt down in the late Civil Wars A. D. 1648. but rebuilt more stately then before and the Castle wherein resides the Lieutenant of the two Dukedoms of Jawer and Schweidnitz The Emperor Charles IV. King of Bohemia married Ann Daughter of Henry II. Duke of Javer who with his Brother Bolco Duke of Schweidnitz died without issue whereupon these two Dukedoms were more immediately subjected to the Kings of Bohemia in whose hands they still remain To the Dukedom of Javer belong the Towns of Buntzlau Lemberg Schonau Greiffenberg Lahn Fridberg Lubenthal Schmideberg Naumburg upon the Queiss Kupfferberg and Hirschberg 2. SCHWEIDNITZ or Schweinnitz Schweidnitz has its name from the great Herds of wild Swine which were harbour'd in this place before the Forest was cut down in the year 1070. Whence the Arms of the Town are a wild Boar. It was afterwards much enlarged by Boleslaus I. who fortified it with Walls and Rampires and beautified it with several fair buildings so that 't is now one of the finest Cities in Silesia The most remarkable sight in the Town next to the Churches and other publick buildings is the great Gun in the Armory which carries a Bullet of three hundred and twenty pound weight This is by Schickfusius in his Preface to Curaeus's Chronicle of Silesia very improperly reckon'd amongst the great and extraordinary blessings which the Almighty has been pleased to bestow on some of the Cities in Silesia In the Dukedom of Schweidnitz are the Towns of Strigau memorable as we have already acquainted
Suedes At the Treaty 1616 of Stolbow the Grand Tzar quitted the title of this Country to the King of Sweden Vodska or Votska thirty leagues North of Novogorod Vodska upon its left hand is the strong Castle of Ivanogorod surrender'd to the Swedes by the same Treaty as well as the Towns Jamagrod and Augdow and the Castles Coporia Noteburg and Kexholm They say that all the beasts that are brought into this Province turn white The inhabitants have a language proper to themselves Woskopitin is by some Authors placed between Kexholm and Noteburg Woskopitin a large and fruitful Province both for Corn and Cattle but so pester'd with Lakes and Marshes that it is very little frequented and the name scarce known Bieleiezioro Bieleiozioro situated upon a Lake of the same name and signification i.e. the White Lake which Lake is thirteen Leagues long and as many broad and furnishes only one River call'd Sosna which falls into the Wolga In this Lake is a Castle both for natural and artisicial strength accounted impregnable whither in times of danger the Princes have sent their treasure and themselves also retired The whole Province is full of Woods and Lakes that except when they are hard frozen it is not easily passable Near this Lake is another small Lake that produceth Sulphur I rather suppose Naphtha or Petroleum swimming like froth or oyl upon the water This is said to be first possessed by Sinaus Varegus whose brother Truvor setled in Pskouvia and Runiz in Novogardia These three are by the Russes look'd upon as the Founders of their Nation Vologda is the only City in all the Grand Tzars dominions that is fortified with a stone-wall Vologda and for its strength the Emperor is wont in times of danger to secure here part of his treasure It is as the rest of those Westerly and Northerly Provinces much encumbred with Woods and Marshes many of which are except in Winter utterly unpassable It is situated upon the River Waga which falls into the Dwina and it together with all the Provinces mention'd since Dwina belonged to the Dutchy of Novogorod Novogorod call'd Weliki or the Great Novogorod to distinguish it from others of that name The Dutch call it Nieugarten in 58 deg 23 min. situated upon the River Volgda not Volga or Volchou famous for its Bremes a little below the Lake Ilmin Whilst it was governed by its own Prince it was in so great power fame and wealth by reason of the vast commerce of several Nations there established that it was proverbially spoken Who can do any thing against God and Great Novogorod The reason of this trading was the convenience of the River which being navigable from the very Spring and the Country abounding in Wheat Flax Hemp Honey Wax and Leather which is better dressed here than in any other place invited hither so many Merchants from all the Northern Countries and those upon the Baltick Sea that it was the greatest City of all the North for trade and wealth The first diminution of it was from Vitold Duke of Lithvania who 1427 obliged the City to compound for their peace at a great rate But Ivan Vasili Grotsdin 1477 forced them to receive a Governour from him but that not satisfying of him he went thither in person pretending I know not what devotion and by the help of the Bishop being admitted into the City with his Army he pillag'd it carrying away three hundred Carts loaden with Jewels Gold and Silver besides many more filled with rich stuffs and sumptuous moveables all which he sent to Moscow and transported many of the inhabitants into other places and sent Muscovites to inhabit in their steads But their greatest calamity was from Ivan Vasilowich in 1569 who upon a suspition of their endeavouring to revolt came hither with his army slew drowned and trampled to death a vast number of people presently after this follow'd a great plague which brought so great a famine that they eat one another the Tzar on this occasion pretending to punish their inhumanity cut to pieces the greatest part of the remaining inhabitants His barbarous cruelties here acted are not sitting to be repeated It was in 1611 taken by the Swedes by storm but at the great Treaty between the two Crowns of Russia and Sweden it was agreed to be redeliver'd to the Russes and in their hands it hath continued ever since On the other side the water is a strong Castle built of stone join'd to the City by a large Bridge wherein lives the Weywod or Governor and the Metropolitan by which two all the affairs Ecclesiastical Civil and Military in all that Province are governed The Town is encompass'd with a Rampart of timber and earth and hath a Castle in the midst reasonably well fortified There are about an hundred Monasteries whereof that of St. Antony is the chiefest Churches and Chappels which have their Steeples and Towers cover'd with Copper gilded the Cathedral Church is that of St. Sophia In the territory belonging to this City Brunitza Sedrowa and Stara-Russa are Brunitza Sedrowa and Stara-Russa which the Baron of Herberstein calls Russ and saith it gave name to all the Russes Near that Town is a salt River which the inhabitants have formed into a Lake and with Conduits draw the salt-water to their houses where they boil the Salt with which and other commodities they drive a great trade into Polotskow a Province of Poland The Russes say that near to Novogorod was the famous battel of Whips mention'd by Justin l. 2. and many other Authors wherewith the Masters returning victorious after some years wars conquer'd their Slaves who in the long time of their absence had seized upon their estates and wives which is the reason why the Novogorod-money had formerly on one side an Horse-man shaking his whip Bielski is a Province between Novogorod and Smolensko Bielski having its principal City and Castle called Biela Bielha or Bielow situated on the River Osca This had heretofore a Prince of its own subject to the descendents of Jagellan Duke of Litvania till Basilius Prince of Bielski fell off to the Grand Tzar and agreed to pay him tribute it now augments the number of his Titles As doth also that of Rischow Rischow which hath also a Castle and City of that name it had also formerly a Prince of its own but now is a member of the Russ-Empire The Country is full of Forrests and Lakes particularly here is that great Forrest of Wolchonisky wherein arise the Volga the Dnieper the Dwina and the Lowat all great Rivers Near to this are Woloizk famous for its white Hares and the Princes frequent hunting there Wyelikyeluki a large City with a good Castle And Toropyecz a large Town also and a Castle all which came to the Crown of Russia by surrender of their proper Lords T wer is near to the foresaid 〈…〉 North-West from Moskow The capital Town
what is said of them is certainly fabulous and all the rest uncertain we shall however respit them till we come to Asia Nor of Casan and Astracan but we shall defer them also till we come to speak of Volga and the Tartars their Countries and affairs being mingled together There remains therefore only Moscua Moscua the Metropolis of this great Empire which we purposely reserved to this place that what we have to say concerning the Empire it self and the whole Nation might be more easily apprehended The Province and City of Mosko are almost in the center of all the Grand Tzars dominions but nearer the West and South for which reasons as also because the soil is none of the fruitfullest it was very prudently chose for the Seat of the Empire For toward the West and South is the greatest danger of invasion and the fiercest enemies and the barrenness of the soil makes the air so very good and healthful that it is accounted a wonderful thing to hear of a plague or any epidemical disease in that Province tho they are sometimes afflicted with a violent burning Feaver which they call Ognyo whereof few recover yet I do not hear that it is malignant Nor is the sterility any inconvenience in any part of Muscovy because the Country is generally very fruitful and carriage from place to place very easie and cheap in Summer time because of the great number of navigable Rivers and in Winter by reason of the convenience of their Sleds whether drawn by Deer whose nourishment costs nothing a little moss which useth not to be very scarce in bogs and woods sufficing them or Horses which are very hardy and used to travel forty or fifty of our miles without baiting so that a Country-man will for four Crowns conduct you eleven or twelve hundred miles Besides the inland trade amongst themselves is very great for having very many fasting days they must be supplied with fish from the Sea The North sends them Furs and Skins for their clothing the South sends Corn Cloth Linnen and Woollen and almost all manufactures Besides the frequent passings and repassings of so many Governors both renders travelling very commodious and frequently cheap also and makes a great circulation of trade and commodities in the whole Nation The City of Moskow is in 55 deg 36 min. Latitude and about 66 deg Longitude Of the vastness of it before its great desolation by fire 1571 strange things are related as that it was more than double as large as it was afterwards that there was in it many hundred thousand inhabitants and that there were slain burnt drowned and troden to death above eighty thousand persons Possevinus who was there Ambassador 1582 saith that in his time it was not above five Italian miles in compass and not more then thirty thousand inhabitants But I am afraid that Author doth much depress the power and number of inhabitants everywhere in Russia In 1611 forty-one thousand and five hundred houses were again reduced to ashes by the Poles and two hundred thousand persons slain Olearius saith that in his time its circumference was about three leagues Our relators in 1662 allow it four leagues sixteen miles in compass and the figure round and is said to contain above forty thousand houses It consisteth of four parts or quarters The first is Cataigorod or mid-City divided from the rest by a brick-wall the River Moskwa runs on the South-side as the Neglina doth on the North of it In this part is the Castle fortified with three strong walls and a good ditch wherein are two Palaces of the Grand Dukes one of stone another of timber In this Castle are two Steeples in one of which is a bell weighing 33600 pound The Exchequer and Magazine of powder are also in the Castle Two fair Monasteries five Churches and Chappels all of stone and in St. Michaels Church the Sepulchers of the Grand Tzars At the Castle-gate is the Church called Jerusalem which Ivan Vasilowitz thought so magnificent that he put out the Architects eyes that he might never make the like And before the Castle is the great Market place where every trade hath a station by it self The second quarter is Tzar-gorod encompassing the other like a semicircle walled about with stone wherein is the Arsenal and the workmen in mettal as Bell-founders Casters of Cannon c. The third is Skoradom on the North-West side of the other the River Jagusa passes thro it and here is the market for houses timber c. The fourth is Strelitza Slavoda being the quarters of the Strelitz or Guard of the Grand Duke fortified with wooden Ramparts and built for strangers and mercenary Soldiers There are in this City above two thousand Churches and Chappels built saith Possevin more for ornament to the City then use but this Author as I observed before seems to be partial against the Muscovites The Houses in Moskow and generally in all Muscovia are after the same fashion made of Fir-timber squared and dove-tail'd one into another not with mortise and tenant at the end two or at the most three stories high their windows short and narrow the chinks between the timber calk'd as I may say or stop'd up with moss stairs on the outside instead of chimnies stoves the covering or tiling of bark and upon that sometimes turfs of earth Nor is their houshold-stuff much richer no beds chairs wainscot hangings or the like unnecessary implements The walls cover'd with mats benches to sleep and sit upon a pot or two as many wooden dishes a spoon to hang at the girdle If a fire happen in the City as it doth very frequently they go not about to quench it with water but only to stop the course of the flame by pulling down the neighbouring-houses to which purpose the Soldiers that keep their night-guards carry each of them an hatchet to cut down an house presently Nor are the people very much concern'd for their small and cheap furniture But the Merchants and persons of quality have for their magazines Vaults of stone with little windows and those also have shutters as well as their doors of white iron There dwell in the City a great number of Greeks Persians but especially Tartars yet the Greeks are most welcom as most sympathizing with the Russes in their Religion The Lutherans also and Reform'd are well received and have liberty publickly to exercise their Religion which they of the Roman Communion cannot No Jews are admitted amongst them Moskow being near the center of the whole Empire it is very convenient to take our measures by it of the rest of the Country allowing proportionably for the nearness to or remoteness from it As first for the temper of the air The cold is here sometimes so excessive that water will freeze as it is falling that the earth will chop as with us in the violent drought of Summer even to above twenty fathoms long and a foot broad and
are many caves cut out of the rock wells and old buildings of the Greeks witnessed by their inscriptions there very frequent it is now an inconsiderable place inhabited by a few Turks Sari-germen by the Turks by the Tartars Topetarkan anciently Chersonesus and Corsuna the noblest and most ancient City of all the Peninsula is still compassed with a strong stone-wall and divers aquaeducts and other noble buildings entire but without inhabitants the Turks every day fetch away the marble and stones for other buildings Volodomir the Grand Tzar took this Town from Joannes Zimisces and amongst other rich plunder carried away two large royal brazen gates to Kiow from whence Boleslaus II. King of Poland transferred them to Gnesna where they still remain They say also that Volodomir was here baptized Balachey or Balaclawa by the Genoueses called Jamboli or the tower of fishes the Sea there being very well stored situate under the mountain Baba The Genoueses took it without any loss from the Greeks and made it a very commodious beautiful and strong haven The Turks at this day build here their gallyes and ships tho it be but a poor Town at most but of an hundred and twenty fires the inhabitants Turks Jews and Greeks Mangut or Mancus was a very magnificent City tho not by the Sea-shore but first by the Turks and afterwards by a great fire it was so wasted that nothing now remains of it except one high tower and a strong stone-house whereinto the Cham thrusts the Russ-Ambassador as often as he hath a mind to quarrel his master There are some few Turks Jews and Greeks that inhabit there in all about sixty fires There remains still upon the ruines of the walls of some of the Churches the pictures of divers of the Greek Emperors and other famous men Cercessigermen is a small Turkish Fort not far from Mancop The Palaces of the Cham are situated in the middle of the country Baciasaray Baccasaray is a Town of about two thousand houses wherein is a Meschite and divers sepulchers of the Chams very magnificent as is their Palace built with great charges by their former Princes besides that it is seated in a country very proper for hunting and fowling and is nobly adorned with gardens orchards bathes c. Almasaray is another house whither he sometimes retires in a Town of about seventy fires There are also divers little Castles where his own brethren children and their wives are kept Sortasse is a Town where the Ambassadors of foreign Princes have many times liberty to divert themselves At Creme or Crim anciently Taphros and Taphrae from whence they are called Crim-Tartars is his Mint and a very strong Castle in possession of the Tartars but the Town is most inhabited by Turks in all about an hundred houses Sidagios or Sudacum was a very noble and strong City situated in the mountains taken by the Genoueses from the Greeks so set one family against another that they would not come to the same Church the Turks by a long and difficult siege took it from the Genoueses 't is famous for the wine growing thereabouts Caffa or Theodosia still the chief City of the Peninsula hath betwixt five and six thousand houses inhabited most part by Christians who have about forty-five Churches Greeks Armenians and remainders of the Italians some Turks and few Tartars all under a Turkish Sangiac Slaves they reckon there about thirty thousand a Town of great traffick about two days sailing from Constantinople yet is it nothing to what it was under the Genoueses Kerky is a little Town of the Tartars of about an hundred families upon the Strait called anciently Bosphoras Cimmerius which is here about three leagues broad This Town is open for the Grand Signior will not allow the Tartars to have any fortified Town besides Przecop Over against this is Taman a Town and Castle upon the continent in the country called anciently Colchis now the Circassians or Petigor-Tartars Karasu belongs to the Cham and hath above a thousand houses Tusla is amongst the Salt-works and hath about eighty houses Arabet or Orbotec is a double Castle near to which the Cham keeps his Stud or breed of horses which are reckon'd to be about seventy thousand The country towards the south is mountainous and consequently well water'd the rest plain and good pastures but wants water for that near at hand is brackish and their good water is drawn out of very deep wells of which there is no want dug by the former inhabitants Thus much of the Chersonesus The country of Przecop without this the Crim-Tartars enjoy all betwixt Boristhenes Nieper and Tanais Don which from Ossove upon the Don to the Nieper in a strait line is accounted about four hundred English miles but the Nieper fetching a great compass eastward in some places it is not so much This is for the most part plain and even ground and rich pasturage without any Town or constant habitation or propriety Only it seems that the Cham by his officers appoints what parts shall be tilled and in February proclamation is made amongst all the Tartars that if any have a mind to till any ground they should get all their matters ready by such a day when they will go to such a place commodious for that purpose and accordingly some do go and the rest attend upon them that they be not disturbed Betwixt this plain and Russia lies waste a great country as they say requiring twenty days to cross it full of woods and lakes and sometimes under-water which is the greatest security of the rest of that Empire The government is wholly in the hands of the Cham. The Government of the Crim-Tartars The Cadi's determine lesser causes but capital and matters of greater importance are judged by the Cham himself with his Council He is of easie access and reasonably just He always chuseth a Galga who is next to him alive and succeeds after death this is commonly his son or brother according to merit If any one have better pretensions he flies to the Grand Signior who judges the cause His younger sons are Soldans and are brought up by such as have the custody of their wives with whom they are educated till of sufficient strength and according to their fitness they are furnished with commands either in his own country or are recommended to the neighbouring Tartars who willingly receive them Part also are hostages with the Turks When the family of Gingis-Chan was numerous and potent they chused always the Chan but Sachibgerei and Deuletigerei Chans made away with most of them and setled the dominion in their own posterity The Chan hath many Officers and Counsellors Hamiat are those who take care of the affairs of foreign Princes Captains also Coracei Vlans and the best of the Murses are called to Council The Vlans are those of an ancient family of Chans but were deprived of it by the Giereys the name of the
about three English miles containing not above six thousand inhabitants and encompassed with a silly trench of twenty-five foot broad The Roman Communion hath four Churches the Greek ten which they call Cerkuils and a kind of University called Bracha Cerkuils It hath a reasonable trading for corn furs wax honey tallow and salt-fish They have four jurisdictions that of the Bishop of the Palatine or Starost of the Wovit and of the Consuls of the City Half a league below Kiow 〈…〉 is a large Village called Piecharre where is a noble Monastery the habitation of the Metropolitan or Patriarch And under the mountain close by it are divers grots dug like mines wherein are conserved many bodies buried very many years ago amongst others there are saith Beauplan three heads in dishes which every day distill an oyl soveraign for several diseases the bodies are neither so black nor hard as Mummies the place is a sandy-stone but very dry it seems to be of the same nature of that called Roma subterranea Below Piecharre is Stayky Stayky an ancient Town on the top of a mountain as all those ancient Towns are even in Italy built so for strength and security There is also a Ferry to pass men over the river After that is Richow where is an easie passage over the river Lower is Tretemirof a Monastery amongst inaccessible rocks Here the Cosacks conserved the choicest of their wealth A league below that is Pereaslaw a strong Town of six thousand families Here the Cosacks have a Regiment as they have another and a Ferry at Kaniow a little lower but on the east bank of the Nieper On the same side is Cirkacse the center of all their retreats burnt by the Polanders ann 1637. On the same side is Krilow and below that Kremierczow the lowest Town upon the river all below it being desart A league from thence the river Pseczoll and a little lower on Russia side Omelnik fall into the Nieper as also on the Poland bank Worsko and Orel two rivers very full of fish Here are divers dwarf-Cherry and Almond-trees which one of our country-men I doubt mistakeingly hath placed far on the north of Volga Continuing down the river are many Isles most of them uninhabited because overflowed in the spring but much frequented by fishers Divers rivers also encrease the Niester at Romanow but chiefly Samar which supplies not only much fish but other commodities as honey wax venison and especially timber The Cosacks call it the holy river and in the spring here are said to be caught sturgeons and herrings A little below that the Polonians built a fort in the year 1635 at Kudac which is the first of the Porohi Poroui or Porohi called anciently Catadupae Porouhi in the Russ-language signifies a rock of stone and of these there are thirteen chains or as it were causeys that cross the Boristhenes and render the navigation from the Vkrain to the Black Sea impossible so that tho the Vkrain be a very fruitful country in corn and all other commodity yet the inhabitants not being able to vend them suffer much of it to lye unhusbanded or at least not so well as it might be Of these rocks some are under some above water ten foot as big as houses and very near to one another so that stopping the course of the river they make very great falls some to fifteen foot when the water is low for in the spring when the river is swelled with the melted snow they are all except the seventh called Nienashtes which only there hindreth navigation covered with water Betwixt Budelou and Tawolzany which are the tenth and eleventh the Tartars do often swim the river the banks being shallow A little below the lowest Porouhi is an Island they call Kaczawanicze or boil-millet because here they make good cheer when they have passed the Porouhi Below that is a river a Promontory and the best passage for the Tartars the river not being above an hundred and fifty paces broad called Kuczkosow Below that is the Isle Tomahowka whither the Cosacks often resort and rendezvous But their chiefest retreat is below the river Czertomelik upon an Island where are some old ruines but which is compassed about with a vast number of small Islands some dry some overflowed in the spring some marshes but all cover'd with canes as big as pikes which hide the passages between the Islands and render it all a great labyrinth known only to the Cosacks who call it Scarbniza Woyskowa or the treasure of the army Here they lay up all their ordnance their money and whatever will not spoil by the water The Turks have lost many gallies so engaged amongst these Isles that they could neither go backward nor forward and were seized by the Cosacks Here also they make their Cholna of which more by and by From these Porouhi the Cosacks take their name of Zaporouski which are the great body in imitation whereof the Donski are lately set up None can be a Zaporouski Cosack who hath not passed in his little boat all the Porouhi's i.e. who hath not made a course or voyage upon the Black Sea no more then he can be a Knight of Malta that hath not made a Caravane We shall first shew the original and actions of the Cosacks and afterwards finish what concerns the Boristhenes and the countries adjacent The Cosacks Of the Cosacks so called saith a late author from Cosa which in the Slavonian language signifies a sythe their ordinary weapon began in the time of Sigismund I. King of Poland and were certain volontiers upon the frontiers of Russia Volhinia and Podolia that troop'd togegether partly to defend themselves from the Tartars which they did by fighting them at the passages over the Nieper as they returned with their prey partly to rob upon the Black Sea where they getting very rich booty drew more into their association At first they were about six thousand under Eustachius Daskovicius their General But their numbers quickly encreased their neighbours seeing the rich booties got by their pyracies part whereof they laid in their Skarbniza Woskowa the rest they brought home to their own houses agreeing upon a time of rendezvousing the next spring upon the Isles and Rocks of Nieper whence they again return to their pyracy Stephen Batory King of Poland considering the service which might be made of these thieves in defending the frontiers of his country from the inrodes of the Tartars Their Establishment to which they were too much exposed owned them and formed them into an orderly Militia giving them the Town and territory of Trethimirow about eighty miles in length in the Palatinate of Kiow upon the Boristhenes appointing them a General to whom he gave power to chuse his under-officers giving them many priviledges besides some pay he joined to them also two thousand horse to the maintainance of whom he assigned the fourth part of his demesne whence they
The Town is governed by a Court of Schipins or Aldermen who themselves are subject to a Burgo-master chosen yearly as a Mayor in our Cities out of them who during his government has the title of General of Great Poland conferred on him The Bishop and Clergy are in the Province of the Archbishop of Gnesna Seven miles from this city you have Gnesna called by the Dutch Gnisen formerly the Metropolis of Poland Gnesna built by Lechus the first Duke of Poland by whom it had its name given from the Polish word Gniasao which signifies a nest because in this place Lechus found an Eagles nest Whence to this day the Princes of Poland bear a spread Eagle for their Arms. This is the seat of the chief Metropolitan Archbishop in the whole Kingdome of whose state and grandeur we have given you a relation before In the Cathedrall is kept an inestimable treasure of Gold Silver and curious enamel'd vessels left by several Princes of Poland and Archbishops of this See which was much encreased by the legacies of Henry Firley late Archbishop who besides many vessels and vestments of great worth gave them his own mitre valued at 24000 Polish guilders which being reduced to our English money will amount to about 2300 pounds sterling The gates leading into the Cathedral are of Corinthian brass and rarely wrought These at first were taken out of the Monastery of Corsuna in the Tauric Chersonese whence they were removed to Kiow and from thence brought hither by Boleslaus the second In the year 1613 this city was miserably laid wast by fire and does yet daily loose something of its antient glory The rest of the Towns of Posnania are meanly built and without any considerable fortifications Their buildings excepting onely the Churches Monasteries and other religious houses are most commonly of wood The County of Calissia has its name from the chief City in it Calissia by the Polanders called Kalisk seated on Przoen and fortifyed with a strong brick wall Stanislaus Karncow Archbishop of Gnesna founded here a stately Colledge of Jesuits and endowed it with a considerable revenue The countrey round this City is generally like the rest of the greater Poland pleasant fruitfull and very well cultivated and inhabited every where abounding with great Towns and villages Among which Borek and Goluchow are the most considerable the former for a famous picture of the Virgin Mary resorted to with a great opinion of devotion by most of the zealous Romanists in these parts the latter for an extraordinary peice of modern Architecture in the Palace of the Counts of Lesno The City of Sirad Sirad which gives name to the Palatinate of Siradia is seated on the south of Calissia upon the river Warta 'T is fortifyed with a strong brick wall Most of the houses are of wood and very mean and low This City and the territories about it made formerly a Dukedome usually given to the second son of the Polish King Seven German Petricow or twenty nine English miles from Sirad lyes Petricow a neat and well built City where sits yearly the Parliament of Poland Vielun Vielun or Wielun is somewhat differing in beauty from the rest of the Cities of these parts most of its houses being brick Rava is as populous a City as Vielun Rava but short of it in the splendor of its buildings which are commonly wood except the castle which is brick In this is reposited a fourth part of the revenues of the Crown and all captives if persons of any considerable quality are here kept prisoners Instances whereof we have in the natural son of Charles King of Sweden who with other officers of the Swedish army was taken prisoner in the Lifland wars and Baldise General of Gustaphus Adolphus's forces who with Streffe Taiste and other Colonels was taken in the wars of Prussia Five German Lowicz or twenty English miles from Rava lies Lowicz the residence of the Archbishop of Gnesna 'T is a place much more populous then Rava and yearly in the Fair-time throng'd with great numbers of merchants who flock thither from all quarters The Archbishop's Palace is seated in a low and marshy ground nevertheless its fabrick is magnificent and well becoming the state of so great a Prince Lancicia or Lanschet giving denomination to a Palatinate of the same name Lancicia is situate in a low and fenny ground encompassed with a ditch and brick wall Not far from the City is a Monastery which might easily if as well provided for by art as nature be made impregnable There is besides little in the City worth taking notice of except the great fairs kept once a year and the sessions of the Deputies of this Palatinate which are here holden Cujavia is bounded on the East with Masovia and the Palatinate of Rava Cujavia on the south with the Palatinates of Lanschet and Calissia on the north with Prussia It contains in it two Baronies Breste which lies to the east and south and Juniuladislavia This Countrey is rich in corn and cattel and well stored with Fish In the Palatinate of Bresty lies the City of Vladislaw Bresty the seat of the Bishop of Cujavia and Pomeren The Cathedral here is a pitiful old-fashioned peice of building but well furnished with plate and rich ornaments and reliques within The houses are generally of brick Matthias Golanciew who was forty two years Bishop of this See beautifyed this City very much by building that stately Palace which is seen at this day in Vladislaw instead of an old ruinous castle and founding the Church of St. Vital the Martyr The next considerable place is Bresty built of brick and wood interlayd The other Towns of note are Nisaw a wall'd Town Rasienski guarded with a fair Castle Radschow seated on the lake Goplo and Kowale upon the Vistula Cruswick belongs properly to the Palatinate of Bresty though situated upon the confines of Inouladislavia Cruswick In the suburbs of this City stands a Church dedicated to St. Peter built of square stone with a Colledge of twenty four Canons In the adjoyning Island stands a Brick Castle built by Popielus the elder who chose this place to live in rather then Cracow or Gnesna whither he had once removed his Court as being of too timorous a nature to trust himself in the confines of the Russians or Hungarians Here as the Polonian Chronicles report Papielus son of Papielus the elder was devoured by mice heaven by this punishment revenging the blood of several of his relations whom his greedy ambition of swaying the scepter had prompted him to poyson at a banquet Cromer advances the story by telling us That his father in his ordinary revels used to wish himself and his children this kind of death and That the mice were miraculously generated out of the carcases of his poyson'd kindred PRUSSIA ACCURATE INSCRIPTA a Gasparo Henneberg Erlichensi Nobiliss o tam prosapia
generis quam Meritis in Patriam Honoratiss o Viro D. o NICOLAO VON BODECK Consuli et Primario Iudici in celeberrion totius Maris Baltici Emporio Vrbe Gedanensi artium literarumque â—autori benevolentiss o D. D. D. Ioannes Ianssonius MASOVIA Masovia called by the Polanders Mazowsze by the Germans Die Masaw lies in the very middle of Poland bounded on the north with Prussia on the east with Lithuania and Polessia on the west with some part of the lesser Poland on the south with the Palatinate of Rava 'T is usually divided into these four parts The Palatinates of Podlachia Plockzo Masovia strictly so called and the territories of Dobrin which last ought rather to be reckoned a part of the Palatinate of Plockzo There are different conjectures touching the original of its name The most commonly received is That upon the death of Mieceslaus the second the Nobility of Poland not enduring the impotent and effeminate government of his surviving Queen Rixo layd hands upon what every man could catch Among these Masos or as others call him Maslaus formerly Cup-bearer to the deceased King siezed upon that large tract of land which he after his own name called Masovia This Masos was afterwards overcome by Casimir the first by whom he was taken and put to death By this means it was again restor'd to the Crown of Poland though it still retained the name of Masovia But Stanislaus Serictius rejecting in part this story derives more probably the Massovii from the Massagetes I know saith he what our Historians have written touching the original of the Massovians But it seems incredible to me that so famous and couragious a people should stoop to borrow their denomination from so mean a person In the year 1220 Lescus the white in the Parliament of Sandomir granted the Dukedomes of Masovia Cujavia and Dobrinia to his brother Conrade from which time it was governed by Dukes of its own doing homage however to the Kings of Poland till the the year 1495 but then the race of the Dukes of Masovia began to fail For that year John Duke of Masovia dyed a Batchelour upon which John Albert reunited Plockzo to the Crown leaving the rest of Masovia to his brother Conrade Which after his decease in the year 1503 was granted to his children upon condition that for default of male issue it should return to the Crown which was effected in the reign of Sigismund the first In the same manner the Palatinate of Podlachia formerly belonging to Masovia and joyned by Casimir Jagellon to Lithuania return'd to the Kingdom of Poland in the year 1567. There are no peculiar Bishops in Masovia but the whole Province is divided under the jurisdiction of Posnan Plockzo and Luceoria The Metropolis of Masovia is Warsaw by the Polanders called Warfrawa seated in the very centre of the Polish dominions upon the Vistula encompassed with a double wall and deep ditch distant 40 German or 160 English miles from Posen and Cracow Here the King of Poland keeps his Court in a large four squared Palace built by Sigismund the third but much beautifyed by his successours Over against this on the other side of the river which is passable by a stately wooden bridge sits the great Parliament of Poland in another of the Kings Palaces called Viasdow seated in the midst of many and delicate Groves and Gardens In the City are publique buildings of good note the most remarkable of which is St. John Baptists Church where divine service is performed by secular Canons Not far from Viasdow in the suburbs called Cracow stands as a trophie of the victory obtained by the Poles over the Moscovite a small Chappel built by the Kings command for the burial of Demetrius Suiscius great Duke of Moscovie who dyed a captive in the Castle of Gostenin The Nobility of Masovia which are more numerous then in any other part of Poland being reckoned to amount to near forty thousand whereof fifteen thousand appear'd in a body at the Coronation of Sigismund the third are all Roman-Catholicks never suffering any of other religions or opinions to reside among them Out of these are sent yearly to the general Assembly of the Estates one Palatine and six Castellanes The Palatinate of Plockzo lyes eastward from Masovia between the Vistula and Prussia Plockzo 'T is divided into the territories of Plockzo Zavera Mlava and Srensco and sends out to the great Parliament four Senators that is The Bishop The Palatine and Castellanes of Plockzo Radzyagas and Sieprez It has its name from Plockzo its chief City seated on a high bank of the Vistula whence you have a fair prospect of a pleasant and fruitful Countrey The City is an Episcopal See and very populous There are in it several religious houses and Churches besides the Cathedral very well endowed especially the Abby of Benedictines in the suburbs where among other reliques is kept the head of St. Sigismund to whom the Church is dedicated enchased in gold given by Sigismund the third The territory of Dobrizin is properly a part of the Palatinate of Plockzo though Mr. Blaeu Dobrzin and some others have made it a distinct part of Masovia It has its name from the City Dobrzin situate between Cujavia and Plockzo on a rock near the banks of the Vistula The houses in it are generally of wood and the whole City is environed with wooden fortifications The Countrey affords great store of fruit and fish PRVSSIA Whence Prussia or Borussia called by the Germans Preussen should fetch its name Prussia is not easily determined Certain it is That it is not to be met with amongst antient authors Cluverius thinks Helmoldus who flourished in the twelfth Century is the oldest writer that gives any account of the Countrey under this name But both Dithmarus who lived in the beginning of the eleventh Century in the days of the Emperour Henry the second and before him an Anonymous writer of the life of St. Adalbert the Apostle of the Prussians about the year 990 mentions it Marianus Scotus will have the word derided from Aprutis a City saith he in these parts where St. Adalbert suffered martyrdome in the year 995. But this conjecture is vain and precarious for where any City of this name formerly stood or its ruins can at this day be found only he himself can tell us Johannes Annius Viterbiensis tells us the Prussians were at first called Pruti and that from one Prutus a Scythian King grandchild to Noah That this nation is an offspring of the antient Scythians is indeed allowable but to the rest of the story we can say no more then That 't is well known how nimble this author and his feign'd Berosus are at counterfeiting of names in the Etymologies of Countries Others of the same authority with Viterbiensis bring the Prussians out of Asia under the command of Prussia a King of Bithynia Some will have the word Prussi or Prutheni corrupted
and many other superstitions they seem to have borrowed from the Romans who came into this country under the conduct of Palaemon Hence they used to burn their dead expecting saith Cajalowicz part I. Hist Lithv lib. 5. p. 140. a resurrection out of the ashes at the coming of a strange God to judge the whole earth from the top of one of their mountains From these Idolatrous practises they were first converted to Christianity by Vladislaus Jagello their Great Duke who A. D. 1386 upon his marriage with Hedvig Queen of Poland turned Christian and was baptized at Cracow by John Bishop of that See He is said to have been a very pious and zealous Prince and exceeding diligent in bringing over the whole Dukedom of Lithvania to the Christian religion At the first he met with no small opposition but when the King had cut down their tall trees the Temples of their Heathenish Gods and no mischief befell him the people begun to think their Idols would never take this affront if able to revenge themselves and therefore they were resolved to listen to their Princes advice Whereupon the King immediately built a Cathedral and founded a Bishoprick at Vilna and the Queen furnished seven parish Churches in the neighbourhood with Chalices vestments and all other necessaries for divine service The Russians at that time as most of them are still were members of the Greek Church so that the King thought good to forbid marriage with a Russ that would not conform to the Church of Rome At this day many Lithvanians are of the Greek Church tho more of the Roman In Vilna and several other great Towns vast numbers of the Inhabitants are Lutherans The whole Dukedom is divided into ten Palatinates the Metropolis and chief of which is Vilna The next is the Palatinate of Troki 3. Minsko 4. Novogrod 5. Breste 6. Volhinia 7. Kiow 8. Miecislaw 9. Vitebsk 10. Poloxko Vilna called by the Inhabitants Vilensski by the Germans die Wilde has its name from the river upon which 't is seated The houses are generally low and mean all of wood excepting only in some streets where Merchants of other nations that resort hither for trade have built themselves more then ordinary gentile ones of stone Most of the Churches are of stone some of wood The suburbs are not built here as at other Cities in Europe but round the walls in a confused and disorderly manner every man placing his house which is nothing else but a wooden booth where he pleases The citizens are exceeding poor and idle slaves to their Nobles and their belly They are taken notice of for great lovers of onions and garlick which kind of diet help'd by their smoaky houses blinds half of them before they arrive at any considerable age Their excessive intemperance in drinking breeds continual quarrels among them If a stranger be kill'd in any such broil the murderer pays only sixteen dollars as a mulct If a Lithvanian be slain and the murderer fly 't is usual to preserve the dead corps embalmed till they can apprehend the fugitive whom they cannot condemn without shewing him the carcase of him he slew There is not one public hospital in the whole City though it stands in more need of such a provision then any place in Europe if we might judge by the swarms of beggars every street affords The only peice of neat building is the Monastery of Bernardine Monks all of hewn stone The Moscovian company of Merchants have also a considerably handsome structure built for a repository of Furrs Ermines and other rich merchandise brought from Mosco The great Dukes Palace has nothing of note in it but the armory which is admirably furnished with all sorts of arms and armour considering that Lithvania it self affords no mines of brass or iron About two English miles from Vilna the great Duke has another Palace called from its situation Wersupa that is near the water built by Sigismund King of Poland all of wood and beautifyed with a Park and pleasant orchards and gardens The rest of the Cities of Lithvania have little in them observable save that they give titles to Palatines and Dukes What numbers there are of these last may be easily guess'd by what is reported of Vitoldus once Great Duke That he had no less then fifty Dukes at once in his army Samogitia THis country has its name from its situation which is low and wet Samogitz in the language of the inhabitants signifying a marshy ground Whence the Moscovite calls it Samotzkasemla It is bounded on the North with Liefland on the East and South with the great Dukedom of Lithvania on the West with the Baltic sea and some parts of Prussia A great part of the country is continually overflown with rivers and Lakes unpassable but in a frost The rest of it is full of woods which afford good store of hony purer and better then any in Lithvania or Liefland The inhabitants differ little from the Lithvanians either in manners habit or language They are sottishly ignorant grosly superstitious and easy to be imposed upon They use no plough in tilling their ground but dig it up with spades or sticks as it is usual in some parts of Moscovy When one of their governours having observed how far his countrymen were outdone in their husbandry by other nations endeavoured to teach them the art of plowing it chanced that for two years after their crop was not so rich as formerly it had been whereupon the people attributing the miscarriage to the new device grew so enraged that the governour was glad to decry the experiment for fear of an insurrection When Vladislaus Jagello had converted the greatest part of Lithvania he endeavoured to bring the Samogitians to the Christian faith In pursuance of this resolution he goes himself into this country and burning up their hallowed groves and destroying the serpents and other creatures they worshipped with threats and promises made them vow to abandon their former Idolatry and worship the true God And for fear that when his back was turn'd they might relapse into their former heathenism he founded a Bishoprick at Mzdniki endowing it with a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of a Bishop and twelve Prebends who were to officiate at so many parish Churches in and about the City Howbeit the good King was not so successful in his undertaking nor his successours so vigilant in the prosecution of his designs but that to this day many poor ignorant Idolaters may be found in the desart parts of this country These like the Lithvanians spoken of before worship a four footed serpent about three hands long called in their tongue Givosit Without one of these houshold gods you shall scarce find a family If any mischief befalls them they think 't is because the little deity has not been well attended Another piece of heathenish superstition is still retain'd by the Rusticks in the following manner About the latter end of
of Lechus the first Others think it the same with Ptolomey's Carodunum corrupted into Cracow This City as 't is the largest so it is the best built of any one in Poland Cromer sets it in competition with the best built Cities of Germany or Italy but we must allow him to stretch a little more then ordinary in commendation of his own Country The houses are for the most part of free-stone and four or five stories high but covered with boards instead of slat There are in it a considerable company of Italian and German Merchants who bring in such foreign wares as the Country stands in need of It consists like London and Paris of three parts 1. Cracow properly so called or the antient City 2. Cazimiria joyned to the rest by a wooden bridge cross the Vistula 3. Stradomia which lyes between Cracow and the bridge The King's Palace is seated on the top of an high hill whence it overlooks both City and Country 'T was rebuilt in the magnificent posture it now stands by Sigismund the Elder who added the gallery on the north side from whence you have one of the best prospects in Europe The University of Cracow was first begun by Casimir the Great finished by Vladislaus Jagello in performance of the last will and testament of his Queen Hedwig and had its priviledges confirmed to it by Pope Vrban In the year 1549 the scholars of Cracow by a general consent left the University upon an affront put on them by the Magistrates of the City who refused to execute justice upon the servants of Andrew Czarnkowski when in a quarrel they had slain a great number of students and dispersed themselves into several parts of Germany whence returning Lutherans they spread the reform'd opinions all Poland over and got great numbers of proselytes Upon the first planting of Christianity in this Kingdom Miecislaus the first who begun his reign in the year 964 Cracow was made an Archbishoprick But within a hundred years after Lampert Zula refusing to receive his Pall from the Pope of Rome as his predecessors had done before him it degenerated into a Bishoprick Afterwards in the reign of Boleslaus the chast which begun A.D. 1226 a contest arising between Jvo Bishop of this Diocess and the Bishop of Vratislaw about precedency the Bishop of Cracow upon his submissive appeal to the See of Rome was again restored to the dignity of an Archbishop which only lasted during his life At this day the Bishops of Cracow wear an Archbishop's Pall set richly with jewels which is the only relique they have of their antient honour The next Palatinate of the Lesser Poland Sendomir is that of Sendomir The City is seated on the bank of the Vistula and fortifyed with walls and a Castle both built by Casimir the Great who afterwards dyed of a surfet by eating too freely of the fruits of this Country which are reckoned the fairest and best in Poland Here is nothing else worth the taking notice of save the Monastery of Dominican Friars founded by Jvo Archbishop of Cracow The Palatinate of Lublin was taken out of that of Sendomir as being too big for the jurisdiction of one Palatine by Casimir Jagellonides Lublin The City is not very large but well built and much frequented especially in the Fairs kept three times a year by Christian Jewish and Turkish Merchants 'T is much better fortifved by the marshes which environ it then its walls and more beholden to nature for its defence then either Casimir the Great who walled it round or the Russians who built the adjoyning Castle The great Church in it was built by Lescus the black upon a great conquest obtain'd against the Lithvanians near this City and dedicated to St. Michael who in a vision the night before the battel had promised him good success St. Bridgets Monastery among many other magnificent ones was founded by Vladislaus Jagello One of the two chief Courts of Judicature from which no appeal lies save to the Parliament of Poland is kept at Lublin Hither for judgment in controversies of any great moment repair the Palatinates of Cracow Sendomir Russia Podolia Lublin Belze Podlassia Volhinia Braclaw Kiow and Czernichow or at least so many of them as are still subject to the Crown of Poland Of other Countries and Provinces to which the Kings of Poland have formerly pretended a title by conquest contract or otherwise BEsides the places mentioned and at present subject to the Crown of Poland the Kings of that Nation have from time to time lay'd claim to many and large Territories now in the hands of other Princes Omitting Bohemia Moravia Wagria Misnia and the Dukedomes of Rugen Mecklenburg and Lunenburg which whatever some of the Polish writers assert and endeavour to make good were very little or not at all subject to Boleslaus Chrobri who was the only King that ever could plausibly pretend a title to any part of them we shall confine our discourse to those Countries to which the Polonian Princes may seem to have had a more just and legal title That all or most of Silesia was part of the Dukedome of Poland Silesia in the days of Lechus the first and several of his successours is highly probable from the writings of Adam Bremensis and Helmoldus who both of them make the river Oder the bounds of Poland Besides the German Chronologers tell us that Charles the Great Ludovicus Pius and other Emperors conquer'd the Silesians and made them tributary to the Empire But the Polish Historians upon what grounds I know not are generally positive in asserting That Silesia was always without any such intermission or conquest as the Germans strive to make out a part of the Polish dominions Only Vincentius Kadlubko agrees with the Germans affirming That Boleslaus Chrobri amongst his many other conquests regain'd Selucia as he calls it and left it annexed to the Crown of Poland After his time we find that Casimir the first translated the Bishoprick of Bicine to Vratislaw whence 't is manifest that in his days Silesia was part of the Realm of Poland Not long after Henry the IV Emperour of Germany in the Diet at Munster A.D. 1086 made over Silesia Lusatia and indeed all Poland to Vratislaus King of Bohemia though as Cromer says he had no right to a foot of land in any of them Whereupon ensued a bloody war betwixt the Bohemians and Poles wherein it is to be conjectured the latter had the better since all Historians agree that Silesia was under the King of Polands goverment during the whole reign of Boleslaus the third His son Vladislaus the second being deposed by his brethren who were left Co-heirs with him in the Kingdom fled first to the Emperor Frederick the first who brought Boleslaus Crispus Duke of Poland and brother to Vladislaus to such straits that he was forced to resign all Silesia into the hands of his brother's children but upon condition they should
Iron-mines and indifferent good store of corn It has but one City in it call'd Gevalia commodiously situated upon the Bay of Bothnia half a days Journey from Kupferberg 2. Helsingia Helsingia which was anciently a general name for all the Northern Provinces from the North-sea to the River Vla and the Lake Vlatresk in the North of Cajania as appears from some records of a Parliament held at Telgis A. 1328 and a distinct Kingdom of it self govern'd by its own Kings till the time of Ingellus the second King of Vpsal so were the Kings of Sweden anciently styl'd who at his Coronation invited the King of Helsingia and several other Princes to the solemnity and after having made them drunk with strong liquors set fire on the Palace and so destroyed them all and seized their possessions which ever after were united to the Crown of Sweden The inhabitants of this Country had anciently a peculiar language of their own and also an Alphabet altogether distinct from the Runick as appears by several old monuments found amongst them They are recorded to have fought many famous battels with their neighbours of Finland Carelia and Cajania and after having driven some of their Enemies as far as the Sund in memory of their conquest and to eternize their name to have built the City Helsingburg From them are said to have come the Nylanders who border upon Carelia and use the same manner of speech to this day The Natives are generally very hospitable and courteous to strangers of a docile and ingenious disposition and above all things endeavouring to be neat and handsom within doors The whole Country of Helsingia is divided into four Provinces 1. Helsingia properly so call'd Helsingia heretofore known by the name of Sundhede which has in it three lesser divisions Alora thro which runs the river Liusna Sundhede in the midst whereof is the Lake Dil and Nordstigh not far from the wood Arskog The soil is indifferently fruitful for Corn but chiefly for Pasture the inhabitants mostly imploying themselves in feeding and managing their stock of Cattel Here is but one City in the whole Country call'd Hudingsvaldia remarkable for the great quantities of Corn Butter Hydes Pitch Rosin Masts of Ships and Deal-boards that are convey'd hence into other Countries 2. Medelpadia Medelpadia much of the same nature with Helsingia but only it is narrower and abounds more with woods and mountains in it are two rivers very full of fish Some say the Kings of Helsingia anciently resided here 3. Angermannia a fruitful and pleasant Angermannia yet in some places mountainous Country The soil is so good and certain that tho it bear Corn plentifully it needs not be manur'd above once in ten years It is divided in the middle into two parts the northern and southern by a great wood which runs all along from the ragged mountain Scula and thence takes its name water'd it is by only one river well stored with Salmon and other fish secur'd by one City nam'd Hernosandia yeilding the same commodities as Hudingsvaldia only it affords no Copper 4. Bothnia Bothnia not so full of mountains as Angermannia of a sandy and barren turf but well supplied with fish and other commodities It has in it several rivers of considerable bigness which empty themselves into the Bothnick-Bay Cities here are none but this defect is supplied by a frequency of Market-Towns which are almost as numerous as the Parishes The advantage of this Country is chiefly by the trade from the nearer parts of Lapland which is managed chiefly by the Birkarli and all comes to the Sea-side this way II. Sueonia or Sweden strictly so taken Sueonia which contains in it these five Provinces Vplandia Westmannia Dalecarlia Nericia and Sudermannia DALECARLIAE et WESTMANNIAE Nova et Accurata descriptio VIRO ILLVST mo D. no PETRO JULIO COYET Equite Aurato S. R. M. Sueciae Cosiliario Aulico Scretario Status et nunc ad Confoederatos Belgas extra ordinem Ablegato D. D. D. Joh. Janssonius VPLANDIA 2. 〈…〉 On the South or South-east of Dalecarlia lies West or Wester-mannia or Westmannerland bordering upon Vpland and Gestricia It is according to the several Dales or divisions that are in it divided into three parts viz. Oster Wester and Sun-Dalia The soil is very fruitful and the Mines very considerable affording Steel Iron Copper Lead and some veins of Sulphur in greater quantity then those of any other Province of the whole Country There is also a Silver Mine discover'd and made use of at Salberg The Cities here are three Arosia Arbogia and Koping the chief of these is Arosia or Westeras a Bishops seat where in the Cathedral Church are several great stones with Gothick inscriptions as there are likewise at Stregnesia In this City the agreement by which the State of the Kingdom was changed from an Elective to an Hereditary Monarchy was concluded ann 1540 in the time of Gustavus I. and thence call'd Pactum Arosiense The history was thus The Swedes not being able to endure the tyranny and oppression of Christiern II. then King both of Sweden and Denmark forsook their Allegiance to him and under the conduct of Prince Gustavus who had wonderfully escaped from his imprisonment in Denmark took up arms against him expell'd him their Country and at last gain'd their former liberty and priviledges whereupon to requite their General for this signal good he had done the publick they at the instance of one Canutus President of the Council and Johannes Gothus the Popes Legat ann 1523 unanimously elected him King and considering how much it might tend to the happiness of the Kingdom to have the Succession ascertain'd to his Issue they in the year 1540 wholly gave up their power of Electing their Kings for the future and by Oath and solemn Covenant setled the Crown upon him and his Heirs for ever which confidence of the people in their Prince was justified in the event for the new King was so far from abusing his Absolute power that in that very year he published many Laws for the benefit of the people 3. 〈◊〉 South of Westmannia lies Nericia a little but fruitful Province yeilding good store of Sulphur Allum and Vitriol Some Silver Mines there are but not labour'd Most of its inhabitants are Smiths who supply the whole Country especially those that work in the Mines with Iron instruments of all sorts Here is one City nam'd Orebrogia 4. 〈…〉 South or South-east of Nericia lies Sudermannia or Sudermanland having on the East the Baltick Sea Ostro-Gothia on the South and the Lake Meller on the North. It is famous for several Cities it contains the chief and most considerable of which is Nicopia the ancient seat of the Dukes of Sudermannia Here also is the place for building of Ships the workmen are good and materials cheap Next to this is Stregnesia a Bishops seat with Telga Torsilia and Trosa all commodious for
dedicated to him so stately and magnificent that by the relation of Johannes Magnus who tells prodigious stories of the Golden Roof c. the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco was but a poorly adorn'd Chappel to it In the middle of this stupendous Fabrick their God was set upon a bed or couch with a Crown upon his head adorn'd with twelve stars and a scepter in his hand Upon his right hand stood Oden or Othen arm'd like a soldier Cap a-pie not unlike the Roman God Mars On his left was plac'd the Goddess Freia their Venus holding a sword in one and a bow in the other hand These three Deities were had in special reverence amongst them Votaries coming from very remote parts every ninth year to visit the Temple and pay their devotions offering the most precious gifts they could provide and sacrifices for nine days together Pythagorean-like counting nine an auspicious number and on every day nine sorts of Animals three of every sort not sparing their servants friends children nor even their own selves from being part of such bloody victims This they did not by choice every votary striving to be presented a sacrifice to his God but by lots taking him on whom the lot fell tying a cord about his middle and so let him down alive into a large well dugg close by the Temple for that purpose if he expir'd quietly and without any great struggling or motion of the water they concluded that their god was pleas'd and their Petitions heard if otherwise and he seem'd to dye with any reluctancy they suppos'd their god was angry and thereupon presently made ready another such-like sacrifice to appease the wrath When the body was drawn up out of the well if a pleasing sacrifice they thought it not fit to bury it in the ground the ordinary way but hung it up upon a tree in the consecrated grove and for ever after suppos'd it to be instated in a place of happiness and esteem'd it as one of their Demi-gods In these cruel sacrifices their Kings themselves were not only present but sometimes when the lot fell upon them offer'd up to their Gods being attended to the place of execution with great joy and acclamations by the greatest part of their subjects who promised themselves great and lasting happiness by so Noble a victim Besides these three principal they worshiped many other inferior Deities upon different occasions as Methothim who presided over their Magical Arts Fro to whom they always offer'd black victims Vagnoft Hading c. with all the the Sons and attendants of their principal Gods Of which see Johannes and Olaus Magnus Adam Bremensis and Loccenius The many foolish superstitions to which their Ignorance and credulity made them subject as their arming themselves whensoever it chanc'd to thunder and shooting arrows up into the clouds to assist these Gods of their Country who as they suppos'd were waging war against those of other Nations Their using to sacrifice their horses before they engag'd with their enemies and setting the heads of them upon pales before the Army in manner of a Palisado and such like frequently met with in Authors are scarce worth mentioning only this may be observ'd that in their customs and ceremonies about their worship they had some faint notions of an Infinite power to which they owed their being and happiness that their soul did not dye with their body and such like common dictates of natural reason All which were clearly discover'd to them and the mists of Idolatry and Irreligion quite dispell'd by the happy plantation of Christianity amongst them In the year of Christ 780 〈…〉 Bero or Biorno III. King of Sweden desir'd Charles the Great Emperor of Germany to send some able Ministers into the North to plant Christian religion amongst them who accordingly sent one Herebertus surnam'd Belga a man of noted piety and learning in those times He succeeded well in his undertakings gain'd many proselytes and built a Church at Lyncopen in Ostro-Gothia where himself was Rector and afterwards dyed Ann. 814 Ludovicus Pius I. Emperor of Germany in the sixth year of his reign sent hither more Apostles one of which was nam'd Ansgarius a Monk of Corbey in France who brought with him from thence divers of the Monks and planted in Saxony a Monastery of the former name intending it for a Seminary to supply the want of Preachers in the North. But all this Emperors time Christianity was rather privately brought in hither Paganism prevailing and most of these pious men being martyr'd for their Religion then publickly countenanc'd or established till about ann 955 when Olaus Scot-konung desirous to enjoy the purity of the Gospel sent to Ethelred then King of England desiring him to furnish him with Ministers to preach Christianity to him and his subjects That there hath always been great friendship betwixt those two Crowns appears by many particulars one especially not to be forgotten is that the Kings of Sweden would never permit any of their subjects to engage with the Danes and other Northern people to exercise Piracy against or invade the English Dominions as 't is observed by Jo. Magnus and other Authors Ethelred readily consented to so pious a request and dispatch'd over one Sigfrid then Archbishop of York with divers other godly Priests and worthy labourers who at their arrival in Sweden found kind reception baptiz'd the King himself with all his Courtiers and prevail'd so far to have the Gospel propagated amongst his subjects that Christian Churches were built in every Province of the Kings Dominions This so happy a plantation was water'd by the blood of three of his Followers Vnaman Sumaman and Vinaman murther'd by the contrivance of a wicked woman and lye buried at Wexio a City in Smalandia After this Christianity was nurs'd up by their succeeding Kings Ericus especially who as was said before propagated it to the Finlanders Exercis'd it was according to the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome till about the year 1530 at which time Gustavus I. then King upon what motives Authors do not agree established the Lutheran Religion displacing all those that refus'd to subscribe the Articles he propos'd amongst whom was that elegant Historian and very learned person Jo. Magnus then Archbishop who refusing to comply with the King left his Country fled to Rome there wrot his History with an account of this Metropolis and dyed 1544. In the year 1537 the said Gustavus enter'd into a League with Christianus King of Denmark Philip Landsgrave of Hassia the Elector of Saxony and other German Princes to defend this Religion thus reformed against the Emperor and other Princes of the Communion of the Church of Rome In the year 1613 it was publickly consented to by the States of the whole Kingdom A. D. 1627 Gustavus Adolphus gave sactuary in his dominions to all those that were any way persecuted in Germany or elsewhere for this profession Confirm'd it was and agreed to by Charles
Gustavus X. ann 1655 and by this present King Charles XI in 1663 publickly ratified and subscrib'd to and ever since by him maintain'd so that Lutheranism may seem to have taken deepest root in this Kingdom The Clergy of Sweden is had in great honour and reputation 〈◊〉 And tho the revenues belonging to the Church are since the Reformation very much impaired Gustavus I. annexing as 't is said to the Crown at one time 7500 Farms and Ecclesiastical Livings yet the respect due to their Ministers does not seem to be much abated Their Archbishop always performs the Religious Solemnities at the Kings Coronation and with as many Bishops as the King pleases to chuse is admitted Privy-Counsellor to his Majesty He is reckon'd the chief person in the Kingdom next to the King himself and accordingly takes place of all Temporal Lords and anciently when it was granted to a Knight or Lay-Privy-Counsellor to have only twelve and a Senator eight it was order'd that he might have forty and a Bishop thirty Horses in their Retinue He has under him seven Suffragans viz. the Bishops of Lyncopen Scare Stergnes Westeras Wexio Aboa and Riga And divers Superintendents who have Episcopal Jurisdiction viz. of Calmare Gottenburgh Marienstadt Revel c. All which make up an Ecclesiastical College call'd the supreme Consistory of the Kingdom wherein the Archbishop always presides The Clergy of this Nation says Loccenius according to the manner of the Eastern Churches us'd to marry till Pope Innocent IV. by a Council held at Sceningia a City of Ostro-Gothia ann 1248 forbad marriage to Priests and caus'd those that had wives to put them away What concerns their Religion or their Church-Government being the same with that of the Lutherans must be elsewhere more largely treated of The King is the absolute Soveraign in Ecclesiastical matters which he determines not without the advice of his Archbishop and Bishops He names all the Bishops and by his power are summon'd all Ecclesiastical Assemblies Authors make a difference betwixt their Bishops and Superintendents but it is not considerable both equally depending upon the Archbishop but the Superintendents have not in all things equal power with the Bishops 5. The fifth and last City of Vpland is Stockholm Stockholme lying in 42 degrees of Longitude and of Latitude 58 ten minutes A Town of great Trade the present seat of the Kings of Sweden and the Metropolis of the whole Kingdom Situate it is in an Island on the side of the Lake Meller encompassed on all sides especially that toward the sea with high rugged Rocks called Scheren which hinder the prospect of the City but very much secure the Haven which is very large and of dangerous entrance though these Rocks are a defence to the Town yet by reason of them it is sometime set upon by an enemy unawares as it was by Sigismund King of Poland Anno 1594. It is said to have been founded by King Birgerus Anno 1261 and from the great quantity of wood used in the building of it called Stockholme Stock signifying wood and Holme an Island But Anno 1552 a fire happening in the City and by reason of the wooden buildings burning down a great part of it it was by publick command rebuilt part of stone part of brick part also upon Piles so that the sea flowes under the houses In it are several large well-built bridges only two gates opening to the South and North. Publick Inns or Lodging-houses here are none but strangers take up their quarters with some of the Burghers entertainment handsome and charges not great An. 1407 it was consumed by Lightning and some thousands of people destroyed by the fire In 1529 King Gustavus the first called several principal Burghers and Merchants out of other Cities to inhabit this most of the inhabitants being driven hence by the tyranny of Christiern II. King of Denmark There are in it eight Churches in all one of which is supplied by a Finlandish another by a German Minister who constantly preach in their own language In the Cittadel is the Kings Palace handsomely built some part eight or nine stories high yet of great strength and security within it is a large and magnificent Church built by King John erected upon Marble pillars and rooft with Copper with a private Chappel for the King very large also having forty windows on each side where at the high Altar is said to be a massy Silver Image of our Saviour crucified in full proportion This City has been very often besieg'd ann 1434 by the people of Sweden who rebelled upon account of Foreign Officers employed in the affairs of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws of the Land ' By King John 1481 1522 by Gustavus I. and at other times the enemy always taking advantage of a hill called Bruncaberge so near that from it they can batter the Cittadel The Arms of this City are the Head of Saint Ericus Crown'd Or taken by the agreement of the States in remembrance of that Kings Virtue and Piety and those of the Kingdom are three Crowns Or in a Field Azure given for the same reason This being the Metropolis and lying so conveniently is the greatest place of trade in the whole Nation from whence are exported Copper Iron Steel Lead Deal-board and very many Manufactures made of those materials Copper especially whereof this Kingdom supplies the necessities almost of the whole world This City is govern'd by four chief Magistrates or Consuls who are elected out of the Burghers and enjoy the dignity for their life Their Office is to give Laws and decide controversies arising 'twixt one Citizen and another if of lesser concern but if of great moment they always have the assistance of the Lieutenant of the Castle who is President of the Court for that time and either puts an end to the case or transmits it to the Kings Council They perform this office by turns two having precedence and supplying it one and the other two the next year When any extraordinary affairs happen they may have the assistance of some of the principal Citizens who take upon them particular businesses as the care of Buildings the decision of some private action promulgation of Laws c. Besides these there are twelve Senators or Aldermen chosen out of the Body of the City who have the office likewise for their lives Out of these four are elected to be Assessors to the Consuls and in all cases and differences arising to assist them In this City commonly reside a great number of Foreigners Germans and Finlanders especially who as all others of the Lutheran perswasion are allow'd free exercise of their Religion which is not granted to any of the Roman Communion The soil of the Country hereabouts Soil as in most parts of Sweden is generally fruitful affording store of Corn as Wheat Rye Barley Oats c. and pasturage and in some places no small quantity of Wood. In the
Government Friderick the second ordered one superintendant to preside here and subjected all the Churches and Parishes about an hundred in all to his jurisdiction which authority was shortly after lost and by Christian the fourth again restored Upon the decaying of Wineta and Julinum Mart-Towns in Pomerania this City became famous for Trade and may be reckoned among the chief of the whole North. In this City Hydrographical Tables and Sea-mens Cards are said to have been first printed and perfected and rules for Navigation and Commerce for the whole Ocean as far as the Scythian Sea and Hercules his Pillars here prescribed and by Sea-men observed In it were anciently ten Churches and four Monasteries at present only seven Churches in all Near this place are several large Rocks with Gothic Epitaphs and Inscriptions of which see Pontanus This City was formerly under the command of the Teutonick Order in which time it was beseiged by Ericus King of Swedland Denmark and Norway and after much loss both of men and money on both sides the difference was referred to the Emperor who ordered that the Teutonick Order should yeild up to the King their Title both to the City and the Island and he in consideration of it to pay them in hand a 1000 English Nobles After King Ericus's death it was sometimes in the possession of the Swedes sometimes of the Danes See more amongst the Swedish Islands That this Country was first of all inhabited by the Goths and from them receiv'd its name is agreed on by most Authors but whence they came hither under whose conduct or in what age of the world is very much controverted That they came out of Scythia Europa over the Venedic Bay under Magog and from him were call'd Magogae Gothi or Getae is the opinion of Jo. Magnus and Olaus Magnus his Brother and successor in the Archbishoprick of Vpsal Tho they seem to have no motive for it other then the affinity of names not being able at such great distance of time to have any certain authority of Historians Other Authors and those of very good account affirm the Goths or Getes at first to have been a Colony of the Messagetae who inhabited Scythia Europaea in those parts near the Palus Maeotis or the Caspian Sea and thence to have come into Scandia there to have setled and sent out Colonies into Germany Italy and other parts both of Europe and Asia and from the Messagetae to have been called by an abbreviation Getae or Gothi being as most are of opinion the same Nation These Getae as soon as come over the Baltick Sea erected a Government among themselvs administred justice by their own Laws and in a short time Northern Nations being observ'd to be most prolific encrea'd to a numerous and potent Nation and the bounds of the Kingdom not being able to contain and the Provisions not sufficient to satisfy so great a number they were forc'd to seek out for themselves other more large and more convenient habitations which they chose to do in the neighbouring parts beyond the Venedic Bay and in other more Southern Countries where they became to the Roman and Greek Empires more known and more considerable then any other enemies with which they had to deal At what time their first emigration out of Gothia was Their Emigration out of Gothia Crantius and Jornandes are very positive It was say they A. M. 3790 the whole Colony was imbarqued in three Vessels too small a number to contain the seeds of so potent a Nation had not several other people as the Vandali Suevi Heruli c. joyned with them and made them in a short time very potent the first place they touch'd at was the Isle of Gothland not improbably so called from them thence they came to Rugen and so on to Pomeren where two of their Ships arriving before their fellows those that came first to harbour called the other when they came up to them by way of reproach Gepantae or Gepidae i.e. slow or slothful whom as not fit for their company and designs they left in those parts and joyning themselves with other Nations advanc'd on by land as far as Poland and the Palus Maeotis where they divided themselves into two Companies 1. Those that went toward the East called by the Romans the Oriental 2. Those that march'd into Transilvania and places near Germany Spain c. call'd the Occidental Goths which branch about the year of Christ 450 possess'd almost all the Kingdom of France This division to be made first of all after their emigration out of their own Country Loccenius with some other Swedish Writers cannot allow but say that their Country was divided into Ostro and Westro-Gothia before ever they parted from it that being the most certain constant and first distinction as may be gathered from the ancient Swedish Laws which in the very beginning says the same Loccenius testify the same thing Those that went into Spain are said to have driven out the Inhabitants planted themselves in their room about the year 369 or 407 and retain'd that Kingdom till an 710 the chief families of Spain counting it an honour to have their pedigree deduced from the ancient Goths By those that went towards Italy under the conduct of Alaricus or Allreich who Anno Christi 409 sack'd Rome it self and the Government of it retain'd by Theodoricus Veronensis Dietrick vonberne who died An. 526 and after the Government was for seventy years by them maintain'd they were quite overcome and utterly expell'd that Country by Narses of which see the Catalogue of their Kings They that travell'd as far as Thracia and Maesia and the parts of Macedonia were by Claudius the Roman General almost all overcome in Battle he at one time killing 320000 of them as he himself in a Letter to the Senate declares for which signal victory a golden Statue was erected for him in the Capitol At several other times and in several other places they made head against the Roman Empire as in the time of Constantine and Theodosius who overcame 20000 of them which to mention in this place is not so pertinent as in that where the Seat of the war was wherefore at present we shall relate no more of those famous exploits which were performed by the Goths after their departure out of Scandia but leave them to be taken notice of in other more convenient places Besides this emigration which is said to have been under the conduct of Berico or Berig Authors make mention of another egression of the Gothish or Getish people as should seem much ancienter in the reign of Ericus one of their first Kings about the time of Sarug or Saruch great Grandfather to Abraham when as was said were peopled Denmark Jutland Fionia and the neighbouring Islands then called Wetalaheedha i.e. marshy and waterish places This opinion tho as to the time of the transmigration it may seem somewhat improbable the earth then not being
chief security to the Russes on this side but now are all given up by the forementioned Treaty A. D. 1616 into the possession of the Swedes As 1. Notteburg which the Russes call Oresia i. e. a Nut from its compactness and strength It is seated in a small Island at the mouth of the River Nieva which by reason of its breadth is a great security to it About the year 1614 Gustavus Adolphus besieged this City and after he had lain before it with his whole Army for a long time and not by force able to gain it it was at last by the Burghers voluntarily surrendred up to him not because they wanted any provision necessary to defend the City but because as is reported a strange distemper of Boils or Warts in the mouth and throat seized the greatest part of the inhabitants so that they were not able to eat any victuals or sufficiently to secure their Bastions against so potent an enemy 2. Ivanogorod built upon a Rock in a small Isthmus at the confluence of two Rivers it lies opposite to Narva parted from it only by a large and rapid River which runs from the Lake Peipus and empties it self into the Finnic Bay On the East-side of this City there is a small Mount made hollow partly by art and partly by nature in the side of which many of the poorer sort of people such as ordinarily live in the suburbs of great Cities come to inhabit 3. Jamagorod situated upon the River Laga 4. Capurium or Coporio a strong Fort lying upon the Finnic Bay All these Cities and Forts by vertue of the Peace concluded 'twixt Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden and the Muscovite an 1616 or 1617 were deliver'd up into the hands of the Swedes and ever since by them retain'd of what was given to the Tzar by that Treaty see what was said in Muscovy p. 23. concerning the Province of Novogorod c. Of the new Accessions in Livonia SOme Livonia tho the lesser part of Livonia or Liefland as is taken notice of in Poland where a description of the whole Province may be seen belongs at present to the Crown of Poland all Esthonia with the Island Oselia and some Towns in Lettia and other parts which lye upon the Baltic coasts being in the possession of the Swedes and held by them by vertue of a Ratification of Peace concluded at the Monastery of Oliva near Dantzic ann 1660 between John Casimir King of Poland and Charles XI the present King of Sweden The Articles which chiefly relate to the Swedes and their possessions in Liefland we shall for the Readers satisfaction here insert 1. It was agreed on That a general and inviolable peace amnesty and friendship should thenceforward be maintain'd between the said Crowns of Sweden and Poland the Emperor Leopold and Frederic Wilhelm Marquess of Brandenburg and between their subjects of what degree condition or Religion soever 2. That the King of Poland for himself and his heirs should renounce all pretensions to the Crown of Sweden and the Great Principality of Finland and to all other possessions which his Grandfather John III. King of Sweden had formerly enjoyed but that the said John Casimir during his life might when he writ to any Prince or Ally whatsoever use the Arms and Title of the King of Sweden as well as those of Poland Only observing this that in all transactions 'twixt him and the King of Sweden he should stile himself King of Poland and Great Duke of Lithvania without adding any more Titles but only annexing three Etcaeterations thus John Casimir King of Poland Great Duke of Lithvania c. c. c. The like was to be done by the King of Sweden after the Title of Great Duke of Finland 3. That the King and States of Poland and Lithvania should yeild up to the Swedes all Livonia beyond Dwina with the Island Rune and some other places beyond the Dwina which the King of Sweden during the Truce had possession of and also all Esthonia and Oselia and all Cities Towns Forts c. that did formerly any way belong or appertain to the Crown of Poland the King of Sweden being hereby obliged vpon the surrender of these places not to lay any claim to Curland or Semigallia or to any Towns and Forts that belong to those Provinces That all the inhabitants in the Swedish Livonia should have free exercise of their Religion Laws c. with undisturb'd intercourse of Trade upon the Dwina And several such-like Conditions The whole Province of Liefland 〈…〉 in respect of its jurisdiction may be divided into Swedish and Polonian Liefland 1. Polonian Liefland Polonian Liefland which lies beyond the Dwina and contains in it the Dukedom or Principality of Curland and Semigallia with part of Lettia of which see Poland 2. Swedish Liefland 〈…〉 which may be said to contain the Districts of Esthonia Odepoa Oselia and Lettia This Province being frequently subjected to different Princes has no very certain limits set nor like names given to the parts of it by any that have undertaken to describe it Some Authors adding Harland and Verland as distinct Provinces from the former which may seem rather parts only of Esthonia then different Principalities from the rest I. Esthonia Estia or Esthland 〈…〉 so call'd from the Estii its ancient inhabitants is bounded on the North with the Finnic Bay on the West with the Baltic Sea and the Islands Dagho and Oselia on the East with the Lake Peipus and part of Muscovy and on the South with the District of Lettia and the River Dwina It is cut out into five divisions or Dioeceses Alentakia Wiria Harria Wicia and Jervia 1. Alentakia Alentakia which lies betwixt the Lake Peipus and the Finnic Bay having the River Narva on the East and on the West the District of Wiria In it are two Cities of note 1. Narva call'd commonly the German Narva to distinguish it from Muscovitic Narva which lies opposite to it upon a River of the same name not far from the famous Fort Ivanogorod It is a place of great strength and consideration and ordinarily well garrison'd with Swedish soldiers Behind the Castle there is a small piece of ground encompass'd with wooden pales which was given by Gustavus Adolphus to the Russes where they are permitted to live and enjoy free exercise of their Religion which is according to the Ceremonies of the Greek Church The German Lutherans of which there is a vast number that reside here have a particular Church allow'd them and Sermons preach'd to them in their own language This City is said to have been built by Waldemarus II. King of Denmark A. D. 1223. It was taken by the Russes in 1558 and by them lost to the Swedes A. D. 1581 and in the year 1599 by a Ratification of Peace confirm'd to the Kings of Sweden and ever since by them possess'd It lies in 60 deg of Northerly Latitude
Christian Whereupon he was baptized in the year 826 and immediately restored to his dominions But soon after he renounced Christianity and continued Heathen till reclaim'd by St. Anschar who for his good offices in the Northern Kingdoms was made Archbishop of Hamburgh in the year 835. 2. Eric succeeded his brother Harald with whom he had been baptized in Germany in his Kingdom and cruelty against the the Christians In his days about the year 853 the Danes first enter'd France under the command of their Captain Rollo though others more probably relate him not to have been the first of those Northern Rovers that invaded France but to have succeeded to Gotfrid and to have entred France about the year 876 and not to have been peaceably settled in Normandy till 889 or 890 see the History of the life of King Aelfred and seated themselves in that part which has ever since kept the name of Normandy 3. Eric Barn or the Child being the only male left alive of the Royal Family after the bloody wars between his predecessor and Guthorm King of Norway He begun his reign happily having married the daughter of King Guthorm but within awhile he grew more cruel then any of his Ancestors had been slaying more Bishops and destroying more Churches and Religious Houses both in Germany and England then all the rest of the Danish Kings put together In his German wars he slew Brunno Duke of Saxony and twelve Counts He dyed about the year 902. 4. Canutus the Hairy or Lodneknudt succeeded his father Eric In his days saith King Eric in his Chronicon every third man in Denmark went by lot to seek his fortune so that those who marched off over-run all Prussia Semgal Curland and several other Countries whence they never return'd but there they and their posterity have continued to this day He dyed a Heathen about the year 912. 5. After the death of Canutus the Danish Scepter was given to Frotho his son so say the most credible Historians tho Lindenbruch reports that his brother Sueno reigned nine years He was twenty years King of England and Denmark in the former of which he was baptized and dyed a good Christian 6. Gormo Gormund or Guthrum surnam'd Hartesnute and Engelender because born in England succeeded his father He together with his followers was baptized at Aalre in Sommersetshire and had our Learned and Pious King Aelfred to his Godfather who at the Font gave him the name of Athelstane and afterwards bestowed on him the Kingdom of the East-Angles From this Gormo a Village near Huntingdon call'd at this day by the inhabitants corruptly Godman-Chester had its name Gormon-Chester As Cambden proves from that old Verse Gormonis a Castri nomine nomen habet I am very unwilling I must confess to confound this Gormo with King Aelfred's God-son who as far as we can learn from English writers never sat in the Throne of Denmark neither do the times agree But the Danish Historians will have it so and 't is in vain to seek for satisfaction in the midst of such confusion as we meet with in their writings 7. Harald surnam'd Blaatand succeeded his father Gormo In his days the Danes threw up that famous Trench between Gottorp and Sleswic call'd Dannewirck of which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter 8. Sueno or Svenotho surnamed Tuiskeg i. e. fork'd-beard succeeded Harald At first he was an Heathen and a severe persecutor of the Christians but afterwards he turned Christian himself and founded three Bishopricks at Sleswic Ripe and Arhuse Some say he dyed in the year 1012 and was buried at York others make him live till the year 1014 and bring him to his grave in Denmark 9. Canutus the Great son to Sueno He was at once King of England Denmark Sweden Norway Slavonia and Sambland some make him King or Duke at least of Normandy And this seems to be the meaning of that old Distich which not reckoning either Slavonia or Sambland a Kingdom brings him in thus speaking of himself Facta mihi Magni pepererunt inclyta nomen Quinque sub imperio regna fuere meo He was buried at Winchester in the year 1036 after he had been twenty-seven years King of Denmark twenty-four of England and seven of Norway leaving the Kingdom of Denmark to his son 10. Hardi-Cnute who within four years obtain'd the Kingdom of England upon the death of hs brother Harald Here he dyed in the year 1041 and was buried by his father in the Cathedral at Winchester 11. Magnus King of Norway seized on the Kingdom of Denmark upon the death of Hardi-Cnute pretending a title to it by contract But he enjoy'd it not long He dyed in the year 1048 and left the Kingdom to 12. Sveno Esthret son on one Vlf an English Earl He dyed in the year 1074 and left behind him five sons who all of them sate successively in their fathers Throne 13. Harald Sveno's eldest son held the Scepter only two years He was a soft easie and timorous Prince afraid to punish offenders or to look an enemy in the face So that the English making use of the opportunity shook off the Danish yoke without any considerable molestation 14. St. Canutus King Swain's second son was barbarously murder'd in St. Alban's Church in Odensee a City in the Isle of Funen whither he fled for sanctuary from the rage of his own Subjects in the year 1088 Pontanus says 1077 The occasion was this The pious King commanded that all his Subjects should pay Tythes according to the custom of other Nations This Edict was represented to the people by his brother Olaf who long'd for the Crown as an encroachment upon the priviledges and liberty of the Subject Whereupon they quickly rose in open rebellion against their Soveraign who to appease the rage of the rabble was martyr'd 15. Olaf Swain's third son upon the slaughter of his brother Cnute which he traiterously had procured was by his followers unanimously declared King But his brothers blood went not long unrevenged For in this Kings days the famine was so great in Denmark that even the Kings Houshold wanted bread Olaf at last sensible that this judgment was inflicted on the Kingdom for his sins pray'd that God would turn the current of his vengeance from the people upon his head that had offended His prayers were heard and the same night in the year 1096 he dyed hungry and miserable and the famine immediately abated 16. Eric Swain's fourth son surnam'd the Good for his religious zeal and piety who dyed in his pilgrimage towards Jerusalem and was buryed in the Isle of Cyprus in the year 1106. In his days Lunden was made an Archbishops See before which time all the Danish Bishops were under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Bremen 17. Nicolas Sveno's youngest son He was slain by the Jutes in revenge of Cnute Duke of Flanders whom he had caused to be killed in the Church in the year
took Sleswic destroyed the Church rooting out Christianity and replanting Paganism This relapse is sufficiently confirm'd by the many Runic monuments found daily in and about this City whose inscriptions shew them to be Heathenish reliques tho of too late a date to have been erected before the first appearance of Christianity in these parts But the Slavonians kept not long footing here For within a short while the Danes weary of the tyranny and Idolaty of strangers forced them to quit their Conquets and retire Whereupon paganism was once more rooted out Christianity reestablisht and the Cathedral rebuilt Soon after this the Angles that maintain'd a trade in Sleswic built the Church of the Holy Ghost near the market-place with the adjoyning Hospital The Dukedome of Sleswic was first given by Christopher King of Denmark about the year 1253 by way of pension to the children of King Abel upon condition the Duke of Pomeren and some other petit Princes of Vandalia would engage they should always acknowledg a dependance upon and never pretend any title to the Danish Crown After a revolution of some years it became the inheritance of Christiern of Oldenburg King of Denmark who annexed it to the Danish Realm a part of which it has continued ever since Assign'd indeed it hath been often as a portion to some of the younger Princes of the blood but never quitted its dependance upon the Crown This City as appears by their records was first made a Bishops See by the Emperor Otho the first who upon his conquest of Jutland first sent ministers hither to instruct the ignorant Heathens in the principles of the Christian religion and afterwards set a Bishop over the new Converts whom the records call Mark. Upon the South of Sleswic lies Ekelfort 〈◊〉 called so from the abundance of Squirrels in the adjoyning woods as the Arms of the Town still show It is a Town of good Trade and one of the safest parts in the Baltic shore Flensburch takes its name from Flen a small bay of the Baltic Sea upon which it is seated Mhier in his accurate History of the affairs of Flanders speaking of Henry Duke of Sleswic who died at the siege of this City A. D. 1427 says it ought to be called Vlensburg not Flensburg from Vlens which in the language of the Inhabitants signifies the flux and reflux of the Sea Some fetch its name from one Fleno a Danish Nobleman who had the Custom of the fishing trade in this place and was Lord of the Mannor It is situated in a low and pleasant valley begirt with several hills of great height It consists chiefly of one continued street of magnificent and noble buildings the length of which is said to be near two English miles All along this street the Ships are brought up in a port so commodious that the Citizens can lade and unlade their Vessels at their doors On the top of an hill in the Suburbs stands the Castle which easily commands the Town and Haven Betwixt this City and Sleswic is the undoubted seat of the antient Angles the ancestours and first Founders of our English Nation in Britain Which is not only proved by the assertion of our famous Historian Ethelwerd quoted before but from a small village in this tract which to this day is called Anglen Ptolomey indeed and Tacitus place the antient Angli furrher southward as far as the banks of the Elb and they were doubtless a more populous nation then can reasonably be imagined to be confin'd to so narrow a piece of ground as at this day goes under the name of Anglen in the maps of our modern Geographers For we cannot otherwise conceive they should so far overpower the Saxons and Jutes who came with them into Britain as to call so great a part of our Land after their own names without any notice taken of their Allyes Hadersleve seven German miles distant from Flensburg Northward Hadersleve was first made a City and had its Charter confirm'd by Waldemar Duke of Jutland about the year 1292. It was formerly defended by a strong Castle built on the top of an hill which overlooks the Town This John Earl of Holstein pull'd down and instead thereof begun to build a new one call'd from him Hansburg or John's-Castle for Hans in the High Dutch and Danish tongues is the same with John which was finished by King Frideric the Second The most of the streets in Hadersleve are of a good breadth and very uniform In the Great Church is to be seen a stately monument erected by King Eric the Eighth to the memory of Rombold Duke of Silesia who was sent Ambassador hither from the Emperor Sigismund to compose the differences between the King of Denmark and the Earls of Holstein about the claim laid by both parties to the Dukedom of Sleswic and died before the work was finished On the Western Coasts of South-Jutland live the Srond-Frisians Srond-Frisians mention'd often by Saxo Grammaticus as men of great strength and agility of body This Historian reckons Eyderstede a part of his Frisia minor but now a days there are none go under the name of Strand-Frisians except a small remnant of people who inhabit the Strant an inconsiderable Island in the German Ocean and a little narrow tract of land between Husem and Langenhorn In the middle of this petit Province they have a market-place where they maintain a small traffick and commerce amongst themselves Their country is defended from the rage of the Sea like Holland and other parts of the Netherlands by great Earthen banks which preserve their meadows and corn fields lying all on one level from the waves They have a great art of making the whitest and best salt in Europe of earth soked in the Sea-water dried and boil'd Saxo says these people are a Colony of Frislanders in the low Countries who being a laborious nation and destitute of habitations in their own Country came hither to seek their fortunes and by draining the fenns made this piece of marshy ground habitable What time this transplantation hapned is not mention'd in the Danish Chronicles but that it was so will be manifest to any one that will compare the language habit and manners of this people with those of the Frisians in the Netherlands The rest of the Towns of note in the Southern Jutland are 1. Husem a rich and neat port-Town on the Western Shore 2. The two Tunderens Greater and Less both places of considerable traffick upon the same coast 3. Gottorp the ancient seat of the Earls and Dukes of Holstein It is seated on the top of the Slie exceedingly well fortifyed and very remarkable for the Tol-booth or Custom-house which one year with another brings in Toll for at least 50000 Oxen which are brought out of Jutland into Germany 4. Appenrade seated on a small bay of the Baltic Sea and much frequented by the Danish Fishermen Of the ancient wall of Partition which
Neutrality and Commerce and of all their Rights and Priviledges And that the Rights of his Imperial Majesty and the Empire be maintain'd To which the King returned them a kind answer assuring them of his good will and that he would punctually observe on his part this Agreement Which done within a few days after the Danish Army decamped Other Cities and Towns of note in Stormar are 1. Gluckstadt built and well fortified by King Christian IV. who much delighted in its pleasant situation and much improved by his successors It gave sufficient proof of its strength soon after the first building of it when it withstood and beat back the Emperors Army and held out a siege of almost two years continuance without yeilding at last It commands the passage of the Elb so that it highly concerns the Hamburghers to be at peace with the King of Denmark except they could make themselves masters of this Fort and so secure a free passage both for their Men of War and Merchant-Ships 2. Crempe seated on a small river of the same name This is reckoned one of the Keys of the Kingdom of Denmark and in the German wars gave a good testimony of its so being when in the years 1627 and 1628 it bravely resisted the fortunate German General Count Wallenstein for thirteen months together and at last was yeilded upon honourable terms It owes the chief of its strength to King Christian IV. who fortified it with a wall and ditches 3. Itzehoa seated on the navigable River Stoer which furnishes it with plenty of fish and all manner of merchandise from abroad 4. Bredenberg one of the neatest little Towns in all the King of Denmark's Territories the ancient seat of the most noble Family of the Rantzows very remarkable for the stout resistance it made Count Wallenstein who having at last taken it by storm put all the Garrison in it to the sword WAGRIA WAgria or Wagerland is almost girt round with the Baltic Sea and the two Rivers Trave and Suentin The whole length of it from Odelslo as far as the Village Grotenbro amounts to near forty-eight English miles and the breadth about twenty It is observable that the Princes of Holstein tho they bear the Arms of every other Province in that Dukedom have not the Arms of this Country which are a Bulls-head in their Coat Perhaps because the Arms of Oldenburgh are thought sufficient to represent the whole Province Plutarch tells us that the ancient Cimbrians who first made an inroad into Italy bore a Bull's-head Sable in a field Gules which shews of how venerable an antiquity the Arms of Wagerland are and how justly they may claim some place if not the best in the Coat of the Dukes of Holstein It had its name from the Wagrii a people in Slavonia who made themselves masters of this Tract by conquest The chief Towns of Wagerland are 1. Lubeck Lubeck seated at the confluence of the Rivers Trave and Billew From the pleasantness of its situation and stately buildings some Etymologists have derived the name of this City calling it Lobeck or ein eck dess lobes i. e. an honourable Corner Which agrees well with the account an ancient Poet gives us of it in these two verses Angulus haec laudis dicta est urbs nomine prisco Angulum in hunc fertur fluvius Travenna per aequor It was rebuilt by Adolph II. Earl of Holstein about the year 1143. But within a short while after grew so headstrong upon the daily accession of new Priviledges and Charters granted by this Prince and his successors that it bid defiance to the Earls of Holstein and became a Dukedom of it self By the Emperor Frideric I. it was made a member of the German Empire Upon his death the Lubeckers chose themselves another Duke who after he had govern'd them five years was vqnquish'd by the Danes by whom the City was made tributary to their King Out of this bondage it was rescued by the Emperor Frideric the second who made it an Imperial City in which state it continues to this day and therefore as a branch of the Empire of Germany will be described elsewhere more at large 2. Segeberge seated on the River Trave about sixteen English miles from Lubeck It was anciently called Aelberg which name upon the building of the Castle on the top of the adjoining craggy mountain was changed into Segeberg The occasion of which as Helmoldus tells the story was this When the Emperor Lotharius began to advise with some of his Counsellors in the year 1134 about building some considerable fortification in these parts which might check the growing power of the Sclaves in this Province and had at last pitcht upon this hill as the most convenient place One of the Sclavonian Princes is said to have spoken prophetically to his Companion these words Seest thou the fortification on the top of those mountains Let me tell thee it will in a short time prove the yoke of the whole Land c. Whence say the Danes the place to this day retains the name of Segeberg which in High Dutch signifies Behold the mountains 3. Odelso a fair City on the River Trave in the middle way between Segeberg and Lubeck In the year 1338 John Earl of Wagerland bought this City into his hands at the rate of ten thousand Marks of Silver After this it continued in a very flourishing condition till Eric of Pomeren in his wars with the Dukes of Sleswic and Holstein so defaced it that it could never since recover its ancient glory 4. Ploen an ancient City seated in the middle of a Lake of the same name by which and a Castle built not many years since by Joachim Ernestus Duke of Holstein after the Italian fashion it is exceedingly well fortified In the furthest corner of Wagerland lyes the ancient and famous County of Oldenburgh Oldenburgh divided from the rest of this Province by the River Brockaw Tho 't is generally agreed on by all the Danish writers that Oldenburgh the chief City in this County was anciently the Metropolis of the Wagrians and Venedi two warlike Nations to whom the greatest part of Mecklenburgh was subject yet we find no mention made of this place before the reign of Otho the Great who after he had vanquished the Venedi founded here a Bishoprick afterwards translated to Lubec and bestowed it on Marcus his Chancellor It was formerly a Town of great trade and exceeding populous having been beautified with four Churches three Monasteries and five Gates but since the Port was stop'd up at the command of Queen Margaret its glory has decreas'd daily and by the late dreadful fire caus'd by thunder and lightning which hath laid waste the best and greatest part of the City 't is now become much less considerable then it was before NOVA et Accurata descriptio totius FIONIAE vulgo FUNEN Apud Janssenio-Waesbergios et Moses Pitt The Baltic Sea ORtelius out of Pliny
this City are expressed by Westhow a Danish Poet in three Distichs thus Fluctibus Arctoi sat bella Coagia ponti Alluor hinc campus subjacet inde nemus Quae silvae utilitas agri emolumenta fretique Commoda sunt meus haec omnia civis habet Dat glandes ligna nemus dat pascua campus Piscibus variis mercibus unda beat LALAND LAland or Lawland so called from its low situation is an Island about 32 English miles in length and 20 in breadth It is divided from Seeland by the narrow bay Gronesond or as some Maps call it Goldersond and from Falster by a bay much narrower then the former It is a very fruitful Country and affords great quantities of Corn and good store of rich pasturage Lyscander says of this Dukedome That there are in it four several Gentes I suppose he means Herrits or Lordships and as many Cities The great Towns or Cities he speaks of are 1. Naschaw or Nachscouw which together with the adjoyning Monastery was stormed taken and burnt by the Lubeckers in the year 1510. 2. Sascoping 3. Newstadt once famous for a noble Monastery built here A. D. 1286. 4. Lavinscoping Besides these the Nunnery of Mariaebo spoken of before in the Description of Sor was as considerable and remarkable a place as any in the whole Island Other Islands less considerable in the Baltic Sea WHat Islands have been of late delivered up by the Danes into the hands of the Swedes upon the Ratification of Treaties and Leagues may be seen in the description of Swedeland Of those that remain still in the hands of the King of Denmark these we have mentioned are of most note and 't were irrational to expect a particular account of those millions of diminutive Islands that lay scattered along the Coasts of Seeland Schonen Jutland c. Among them these following are all that are worth the taking notice of 1. Falster Falster a considerable Island adjoyning to Laland It is not above 16 English miles in length but so fruitful that it furnishes not only its own Inhabitants but a great part of the Dukedom of Mecklenburg and several other parts of Germany with Corn. Great Towns of note in this Island are 1. Nycoping which Dr. Heylin for I cannot find that he borrowed the expression from any other writer calls the Naples of Denmark from the pleasantness of its situation and uniformity in building 2. Stabecoping a place of some Trade upon the account of Passengers who come daily this way betwixt Seeland and Germany 2. Mona or Meun Mona A chalky Island to the Northeast of Falster which serves for a good Landmark to the German Vessels that trade in these Seas Lyscander tells us 't was formerly annex'd to the stipend of the Danish Admiral as a place the fittest of any in the King of Denmark's Dominions for such an Officer to reside in The only Town of consequence in it is Stege which bravely withstood the Lubeckers in the year 1510 and forced them at last to retreat 3. Langeland Langeland A narrow Island betwixt Funen and Laland about 28 English miles in length and only 8 in breadth whence it has its name There are in it 16 Parish Churches and a great number of Noblemens houses besides the impregnable Castle of Traneker which is admirably well provided with all manner of Military ammunition Rutcoping may pass for what the Danish writers will needs have it to be a City but 't is a miserably poor one and in no great probability of being advanced by Traffic 4. Alsen Alsen A small Isle over against the Bay of Flensburg in the Dukedom of Sleswic of which it is a part and therefore only subject to the Kings of Denmark as Dukes of Sleswic The learned and Noble Danish Antiquary Rantzow thinks the Elysii Arii and Manimi mentioned by Tacitus were the antient Inhabitants of this Island Ar and Meun and that these three Isles have the same names at this day saving only a small alteration such as may easily happen in the revolution of a few years which they had when that learned Roman writ his Annals This Isle is every where either exceeding fruitful or very pleasant and so populous that several thousands of stout fighting men have been raised in a very short time out of its four Towns and thirteen Parishes Sunderburg heretofore the usual seat of the Dukes of Sleswic and to this day one of the strongest holds which the King of Denmark has is the chief Town in the Island LALANDIAE et FALSTRIAE Accurata Descriptio Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios et Mosem Pitt On the coasts of Jutland between the Promontory of Schaghen and the Isle Funen there are several little inconsiderable Islands as Anholt Lasso Niding Helm Tune Kitholm Jordholm Samsoe c. Among these the three first are notorious for the dangerous Sands which lye round them whence 't is an ordinary proverb used by the inhabitants here Lassoe Niding und Anholt Maecken dat menich stuerman niet werdt oldt i. e. Lassoe Niding and Anholt Hinder shipmen to grow old Of the ancient Inhabitants of the Isles in the Baltic Sea THat the Dani Insulares as Saxo calls the inhabitants of these Isles are all of one extraction will be found a question very disputable after a diligent enquiry into the different customs and languages used in several of the Baltic Islands Ptolomy we know and most of the ancient Geographers make Scandinavia or Schonen an Island but of so large a bulk that Alter Terrarum Orbis is one of the most usual names they give it This Pliny tells us was by some of the Greek writers call'd Baltia which by Pytheas is corrupted into Basilia Now if we grant that this Continent which the ancients mistook for an Island were named Baltia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the noblest Isle in this Sea which seems the most probable conjecture then it will not by any means be irrational to conclude that in all probability the inhabitants of all these petit Islands were only so many small branches of the old warlike Nation of the Goths whom the most learned Historians place in Schonen But then 't will still be doubted whether these Goths were not a Nation wholly distinct from the Getes mention'd in Jutland and consequently whether those that inhabit the Isles upon the coasts of Schonen be not descended of another stock then they that live near Jutland can reasonably pretend to Pontanus is exceeding angry at Jornandes Orosius and others for affirming that the Getes and Goths are one and the same people but as I conceive without any great reason For if as is prov'd in the description of Jutland the Getes gave name to a great part of the Cimbrian Chersonese these two Nations are easilier brought together then he is aware of And could we once perswade Pontanus's admirers to grant that the Getae Gutae Vitae or Witae were the ancient inhabitants of Jutland as
get nothing but the bare Title of their Elder Brethren and are not permitted to have the least share in the Inheritance and Temporal Estate of their Ancestors The Bishopric of Lubec remains still an Ecclesiastical preferment tho in the hands of the Lutherans and ever since the death of Balthazar of Rantzau which hapned in the year 1547 has been in the gift of the Dukes of Sleswic and Holstein The present Bishop is a younger Brother of the Duke of Holstein and keeps his residence at Eutin a fair Palace situate on a Lake about two German miles from Lubec Among the Roman Prelates the Archbishop of Saltzburg is chief being born Legate of the Papal See and giving place to none but the Electors in the public Diets of the Empire How fair and strong a City Saltzburg is and what riches it brings in yearly to this Prelate by the abundance of Salt here vended we shall have occasion to shew hereafter Bishops of the Roman Church who still enjoy a Seat and Suffrage in the Assemblies of the Empire are Bamberg Wirsburg Wormes Spire Eichstedt Augsburg Constance Hildesheim Paderborn Munster Osnabrug Passau Strasburg Frisinguen Liege Trent Brix and Basil Amongst which Osnabrug belongs to the Lutheran Princes by turns and since the death of Francis Count of Wirtemberg the Bishopric came into the hands of the present Bishop Ernest Augustus Duke of Lunenburg youngest Brother of the House of Zell And since the late decayed power of the Elector of Colen who challenges the Bishopric of Hildesheim the last Duke of Hanover took possession of the Diocess of Hildesheim and kept it by a strong hand And whether his Brother Ernest Augustus Bishop of Osnabrug who has lately succeeded him in the Dukedom of Hanover will restore it to the Archbishop of Colen I cannot determine There had long been a quarrel between the Emperors of Germany and the Bishops of Rome about the Right of Election and Investiture of Bishops in the Empire â—â—stiâ—â—â— of â—â—ops before the Council of Trent determined the controversie and gave the sole power of conferring of Dignities and Prelacies not only in the German Empire but in all other parts of Christendom to the Pope How unjust an usurpation this was the Pope's own Canons will inform us where we meet with Pope Leo begging leave of the Emperors Ludowic and Lotharius to consecrate one Colonus Bishop of Riete with several other the like examples And an infinite number of Historians and other ancient Authors many of which the Reader may find quoted by the learned Author of the Review of the Council of Trent assure us that the Emperors always peaceably enjoy'd this Right of investing Bishops and Abbots till the days of Pope Gregory VII who altho himself had receiv'd Confirmation from the Emperor Henry IV. yet thunder'd out an Excommunication against all Emperors Kings Dukes Marquises Earls and all other secular powers that should lay claim to the Right of Investiture into Bishoprics or any other Ecclesiastical Dignities and against all those that should receive any such preferment at their hands This Decree has been observ'd by Gregory's Successors as an inviolable Statute of the Apostolic See and enroll'd in their Books of Decretals After many irreconcilable broils and bickerings betwixt the Pope and Emperor after this Excommunication was issued out the one endeavouring to keep the other to regain the said Right at last Henry V. was forced to yeild to Pope Calixtus and divest himself of that Right which his Ancestors had always challeng'd and to which most of them made good their title and plea. This poor Emperor I say abandon'd almost by all the world and combated by his own Subjects those especially of the Clergy was constrain'd to quit his claim to all manner of Investiture by this formal Declaration I Henry by the Grace of God Emperor of Rome for the Love of God and of the Holy Roman Church and of Pope Calixtus and for the benefit of my own Soul do restore unto God and to his blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and to the Holy Catholic Church all kind of Investiture made by the Ring and Staff and permit that Elections and free Consecrations be made in all Churches Now tho the terms of this renunciation shew that it was only personal and that it laid no obligation on his Successors to follow his example yet by virtue of this surrender the Popes of Rome have for more then five hundred years pretended to an unquestionable Right of Investiture of all sorts of Eclesiastical Dignified persons And that Emperor's Successors have always wanted either courage or strength enough to regain their lost prerogative There are two ways of advancing these Prelates in the German Church whereof the one is term'd Election and the other Postulation When the Chapter of any Cathedral being Canonically assembled chuses any particular member of their own body to be head thereof which is supposed to be lawfully done when two thirds of the Canons give him their voices he is said to be Archbishop or Bishop by Election But if the same Canons think fit to promote to that Dignity some Prince or Prelate who is not of their own body they call that kind of proceeding Postulation Besides the Archbishops and Bishops there are several other Ecclesiastical Princes of the Empire Abbots who have Seats and Voices in the Diets The chief of these is the Master of the Teutonic Order tho he has nothing but a bare Title from his Order who keeps usually his Residence at Manenchal or Morkenthal and has a Vote in all Assemblies immediately after the Archbishop of Saltzburg The rest are the Abbots of Fulda Hirsesfeld Murbach Kempten Corbay Prum Stabel and Ludors the Grand Prior of Malta the Provosts of Elvang and Beressolagaden who have Voices after the Bishops There are three and twenty other Prelates Abbesses and fourteen Abbesses that come after the Secular Princes who tho they have Seats in the Diets yet have no voices but in a full body no more then the Counts The Abbesses are they of Quedlimburg Essen Hermord Nidez and Obermunster at Ratisbon Lindau Herenroda Buchau upon the Lake Federsic Rottemmuster near Rottevil Hagbaen Guttenzel Beind Dandelau and Gunderthem These Ladies are obliged to send in their Deputies to all public Assemblies of the Empire being excus'd a personal presence because of their Sex However they have as good a right to challenge Seats in the Diets as any Prince whatever The three and twenty Prelates have each of them the Title of Abbot Provost or Bayliff of some particular place and have commonly so large revenues annex'd to their Titles and Dignities that if their riches were employ'd to the best advantage they would be able to strike terror into any secular power that should dare to affront them All the reform'd members of the German Empire both Lutherans and Calvinists agree in this Reformed Church That they make all their Clergy acknowledg
vast number of men employ'd in most parts of the Town This is reckon'd one of the best tasted Liquors which the German Nation affords and is ordinarily exported into most of the neighbouring Towns and Villages The Bores in Holstein are so great admirers of this sort of Drink that some whole Villages are fully perswaded 't would be present death to change their Liquor At Lubec it is esteem'd one of the choicest commodities which their City has from Hamburg and indeed the Germans have generally so good an opinion of it that it is sometimes brought as far as Francfurt upon the Main and there sold at an higher rate then their best Rhenish Wine Besides the Hamburgers have good store of all other necessaries for the furnishing out a good and commendable Table The Hollanders have taught them to stock their Gardens which ly without the Gates of the City with all manner of fruits and potherbs With these and all sorts of fresh-water and Sea-fish their Markets are daily stored from morning till night 'T would be needless to inform the Reader that few or no places in Europe have greater opportunity of providing themselves with the choicest commodities of foreign Countries then the Citizens of Hamburg since every man knows what swarms of Merchant Ships from the most considerable parts of the known world daily resort to this City This is the great I might say only Mart-Town in Germany which furnishes the other Cities and chief Towns of the Empire with the richest Merchandise of all other Nations The Haven is so commodious Haven and the River even up to the walls of that depth that the largest Merchant-men that trade on the main Ocean may with great ease be brought up to the Town excepting only some few of more then ordinary bulk and carriage which are forc'd to strike anchor at the New Mills about four English miles from the Town and there to unlade their Cargo into smaller Vessels Notwithstanding the many heavy burthens which are continually brought up the River to this Town the mouth of the Elb is reckon'd to be eighteen Dutch or seventy-two English miles distant from Hamburg and yet the Tide comes ordinarily sixteen English miles beyond the Town as high as the common Ford betwixt this City and Lunenburg So that the whole race of the Flood up the River Elb will amount to eighty-eight of our miles at least a much larger course then any other navigable River in Europe not excepting our Thames which only pretends to a second place can brag of The Trade which our English Merchants have English Trade for many years last past brought to this City seems more considerable then any commerce they have hitherto enter'd upon with other foreign Nations And therefore there is good reason that our Hamburg Company should be treated with that civility and respect which has of late been shew'n them in this place Our Merchants have the priviledg granted them which is denied to most other foreigners of pleading and trying all kind of Suits wherein they themselves are more immediately concern'd before their own Resident who determines all causes in a public and stately Hall built at the charges of the Company They are also permitted the free exercise of their Religion whilst men of other Nations and Confessions are forc'd to go as far as Altenaw to say Mass or hear a Sermon The chief Church in Hamburg is dedicated to St. Peter It was formerly a Cathedral Churches as long as the Town continued an Archbishoprick and there is still kept a kind of Dean and Chapter who keep here an Ecclesiastical Court from which an Appeal lies only to the Imperial Chamber at Spire In this Church which some say was first built in the year 801 others in the years 830 ly buried a great many of the Earls of Schawenburg and Holstein whose names are writ in a fair Catalogue next after Charles the Great and his Son Ludowic of their Benefactors which hangs up in the Body of the Church This amongst other things may be thought an argument sufficient to perswade any unprejudic'd man to believe that the Princes of Holstein and Schawenburg had formerly a power more then titular over this City whatever the Hamburgers may now-a-days pretend to the contrary The other Churches of note are St. Nicholas's St. Jacob's St. Catharine's the greater and less St. Michael's and the New Church in the New Town In each of these they keep a Register of poor and distressed people in the several Parishes who have money weekly distributed amongst them and a competent yearly allowance for clothes and fuel The lesser Churches are St. Gertrude's St. Mary Magdalen's and that of the Holy Ghost Near the last of these is the oldest Hospital in the Town which is endow'd with yearly maintenance for one hundred and fourteen poor people such as are old blind dumb c. But this is not all the provision which the Hamburgers have made for such of their own body as are poor and needy Hospitals For hardly any great City in Europe excepting Paris and some few others where an Epidemic conceit of the more then ordinary merit of good works have over-aw'd some Misers into an humour of bounty and munificence can shew more public Hospitals and larger allowances for the maintenance of the miserable then this Town For example 1. For such as live in any part of the Territories belonging to this City and not in the Town they have an Hospital in the Suburbs into which are readily admitted all such distemper'd or decay'd persons as are not able to maintain themselves any longer in the Villages adjacent This Hospital dedicated to St. George was founded about the year 1250 and endow'd with a sufficient salary for the maintenance of a vast number of poor people with servants and a Priest to attend them 2. For such as are disabled with the French Pox and not able to pay for their own cure they have a kind of Pest-house where such as are troubled with that disease are provided with Diet and Medicines convenient for their recovery This was built in the year 1509 and named St. Job for this reason without doubt because design'd for such as were smitten with Boils as Job was 3. For poor fatherless and motherless Orphans they have their Waysen-hauss as they call it or Orphanotrophium where such Citizens children as are left by their deceas'd Parents unprovided for and incapable of procuring for themselves any competent maintenance are carefully lookt after and furnish'd with all manner of necessaries They that are too young to be instructed in the School are attended on by Nurses and the rest are kept close to constant prayer reading writing casting accounts c. Sometimes near three hundred Infants are at the charge of the Hospital the whole yearly revenue of which is said to amount to 21000 Rix-dollars put to nurse abroad and taken into the House as soon as they are well able
have this City look'd upon as a place of the greatest antiquity of any in Saxony esteeming it the same with Ptolomy's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tho I think the Longitude and Latitude which Ptolomy assigns to that old Town being 29 deg of Long. and 51 deg 20 min. of Lat. will scarce come near this City This large and ancient City was formerly subject to Earls and Marquises of its own and thence we find the inhabitants in and about the City named by the Latin Historians Stadenses Stadingi or Stedingii as a people distinct of themselves and independant upon any of the neighbouring Princes Of these Earls and Marc-Graves the Reader may meet with a Catalogue in Crantzius or Angelius a Werdenhagen In the year 1234 the Stadenses were the occasion of a bloody and terrible war in the Archbishopric of Bremen which happening in the very infancy of Christianity in these parts had like to have stifled Religion in its Cradle This bloodshed was occasion'd by a revolt of the Citizens of Stade from their obedience to the See of Bremen Whereupon the Clergy of that City being resolv'd to keep by a strong arm what their enemies had endeavour'd to wrest from them took up arms and engaged several of their neighbours in the broil But this expedient did not meet with the expected success having after a long quarrel only weaken'd both parties and in no wise vindicated the Archbishop's Title At last a volley of curses and excommunications from the Bishop of Rome frighted the Citizens of Stade into submission and obliged them to yield obedience as formerly to the Archbishop's of Bremen Hereupon Philip Duke of Schwaben and Earl of Stade annex'd the whole County to the Archbishopric reserving only to himself the City with its ancient priviledges and immunities In which state it continued till in the Civil wars of Germany it fell into the hands of the Swedes and was confirm'd to that Crown as a part of the Dukedom of Bremen by the Treaty of Munster And possibly we may have some reason to call this the Metropolis of the whole Country which is now subject to the King of Sweden as Duke of Bremen since the City of Bremen it self was exemted from the Homage payable to that Monarch from the Archbishopric by vertue of that Treaty and is to this day a free Imperial City immediately subject to the Emperor and to him only Notwithstanding the vast Rampires and Bulwarks wherewith this City is fortified and the natural strength of the place it was besieg'd and taken in one day April 13 1645 by the Swedish General Count Coningsmark who having at the first assault taken the Fortress on the mouth of the Zwinge betwixt the City and the Elb press'd forward with his whole Army to the Gates of Stade and forc'd his way into the City Whereupon the Burgers were glad to surrender up the Castle and other strong Forts upon any conditions the Conqueror was pleas'd to propose The Town is at present in a flourishing condition being seated in a wholesom Air and a pleasant rich Country The Burgers who have the character of the most civil and courteous people in this part of the Empire have commonly Orchards and Gardens of pleasure without the walls of the City well stockt with all manner of Fruits and Flowers Their Haven is large and commodious and Ships of larger carriage and burthen come up to Stade then are able to reach Hamburg The Market-place Rahthauss or Town-Hall Exchange and several of their Churches are Buildings worthy a Traveller's sight Many and great have been the priviledges by several Emperors granted to this City It was always reckon'd a Sanctuary for fugitives insomuch that all manner of malefactors whether Germans or Foreigners that could reach Stade before vengeance overtook them were sure to find shelter here and be secure from the hand of justice Besides the priviledg of coining money authority to hunt in the neighbouring Forests and the like prerogatives challeng'd by all Imperial Cities they have power to demand a certain Toll or Custom of every Merchant-man that passes up the Elb to Hamburg every such Vessel being oblig'd to strike anchor at the mouth of the Zwinge and there to tarry till dismiss'd by the Masters of the Custom-House These pretensions occasion'd not many years ago a quarrel between the Citizens of Stade and the Hamburgers the later pretending that 't was an infringement of their prerogative who were absolute Masters of the Elb below their own City for Stade to lay claim to any such priviledg But the controversie soon after was amicably compos'd and each City has since peaceably enjoy'd its own peculiar Regality This ancient Hans-Town being one of the first that was enroll'd into that noble society was once reduc'd to a mean and beggarly condition by the overgrown trade and riches of the Hamburgers insomuch that it was forc'd to sell almost for bread the public stock not amounting to ninety pounds sterling a year to these upstart thriving Merchants its ancient priviledges and put it self under the protection of the Archbishops of Bremen But in this low condition it did not long continue before the English Merchants upon some affront the Hamburgers had offer'd them remov'd their commerce to Stade By which means this City in a short time recover'd its former grandeur and grew on a sudden rich and populous VI. BREMER-VERDEN A wall'd Town Bremer-Verden on the road betwixt Bremen and Stade distant from the later about twelve English miles and from the former near twenty-eight It was first built by Luder Duke of Saxony and afterwards made a Palace for the Archbishops of Bremen who had here their usual residence In the Castle which commands a great part of the adjacent plain the Swedes have commonly a strong Garrison The Town would otherwise be of little note not having the convenience of any trade except what is brought by the resort of passengers that travel this way to Bremen or Stade THE DUKEDOM OF LUNENBURG THE Dukedom of Luneburg Bounds or Lunenburg is bounded on the South with the Dukedom of Brunswic on the South-East with Magdeburg on the East with Brandenburg on the North with Lauwenburg and Holstein on the North-West with Bremen and on the West with some part of Westphalia The Metropolis which gives name to the whole Dukedom is thought by some to have had its name from the Moon Lunus or Luna worshipp'd by the ancient Idolatrous Inhabitants of this Land Others derive the word from the name of the River Elmena or Ilmenow on which the City of Luneburg is seated which they tell us was formerly call'd Luno from Isis the Egyptian Goddess who coming into Germany to visit her Kinsman Gambrivius who was in those days Lord of that part of the Country where Hamburg now stands was here Deified and worshipp'd under the Image of an Half-Moon Several of the Saxon Chronologers report that this Idol was first brought hither by
his Brother Christian Elect Bishop of the Diocess of Minden This brave Prince govern'd the Dukedom in great peace and prosperity two and twenty years and enlarg'd it with the Principality of Grubenhagen After his decease in the year 1633 the Dukedome of Luneburg fell to his Brother Augustus Elect Bishop of Ratzeburg upon which incomparable Prince of whom the Reader may expect a larger account in the description of the Dukedom of Brunswic descended not long after by the death of Frideric Vlric the Dukedom of Brunswic Whereupon the Dukedom of Luneburg was given to Duke George Lieutenant General of all the forces of the Lower Saxony in the year 1636. He left four Sons whereof the eldest Christian Ludowic for some years govern'd the Luneburgers paying each of his younger Brethren an annual stipend of 12000 Ric-dollars Upon his death the second Brother George William succeeded in the Government and kept as he doth to this day his Residence in his Brothers Palace at Zell By the Treaty of Hildesheim the Dukedoms of Calenberg and Grubenhage were assign'd over to the third Brother John Frideric who kept his Residence at Hannover in much greater state then his Brother at Zell These and all other Territories subject to the late Duke of Hannover are now in the possession of the youngest Brother Ernest Augustus who by the Treaty of Munster was made Bishop of Osnabrug and is now upon the death of his Brother John Frideric this last year 1680 Duke of Hannover He married the Lady Sophia youngest Sister to our Prince Rupert of whom this character is usually given that she is the most accomplish'd Princess in Europe by whom he hath three Sons and a Daughter Chief Cities and other places of greatest note in this Dukedom are FIrst Luneburg LUNEBURG We have already given the Reader an account of the most probable opinion about the original of the name of this City and but little more can be sai concerning its first Founders and those that fortified it The story of Julius Cesar's laying the first foundation of a City in this place is at best incredible and groundless There 's hardly an ancient City in Europe which does not pretend to some venerable piece or other of Julius's Architecture which tho ordinarily admir'd by the vulgar yet is contemn'd and laugh'd at by men of sence and knowing Antiquaries The best testimony of its age I can meet with is Dithmarus Mersburgensis's mentioning Luinberg by the name of Civitas in speaking of an Earthquake which hapned in the days of the Emperor Henry II. But 't is easie to observe how the Historians of those times were wont to compliment any mean Village with the title of Civitas Yet Lambertus Schafnaburgensis an Author of almost as great antiquity as the former in his account of the transactions of the year 1073. gives this character of Luneburg that 't was then Oppidum maximum Ottonis Ducis Saxoniae situm in confinio Saxonum Luticiorum At present the Town contains about two English miles in circumference being not built in exact square but rather an oblong figure The Streets are broad and most of the Houses tolerably well built Over against the Town-hall which is a neat and compact piece of building stands the Duke's Palace where the Duke of Zell and his Family are lodg'd when he has a mind to reside at Luneburg The chief Trade of the Town is in Salt which the Citizens make in great abundance out of certain pits of salt water which spring within the walls Their Salt-houses are fenc'd round and continually guarded as being the main support of the City These bring in the Duke a considerable yearly Revenue and besides provision is hereby made for a great number of poor labouring men who might otherwise starve for want of employment II. Bardewic BARDEWICK At this day a Village within a mile of Luneburg but anciently a strong and populous City Some Authors fancy it to have been the first City in Saxony And so questionless it was if it be true as they pretend to be able to demonstrate that it was built 990 years before Christ Over the door of the Cathedral which is now the only Church left of nine are wrote in an old Gothic character these hobling verses Abram dum natus mox Treveris incipit ortus Hinc annis Barduic mille sex X quoque quinque Post Barduic Roma duo C cum quinque triginta M C post Nat. junctis octaginta novemque Dum Brunsvicensis Henricus Leo dictus Simonis in festo Barduic subvertit ab alto Meibomius a learned Antiquary whom we have already had occasion often to mention has taken great pains to pick up out of these Rithms and all other Monuments of note about this Town a large account of the Antiquity of the place The name he imagines contrary to the humour of some other Historians who speak of Bardo a Knight Errant of old and Founder of Bardewic derived from the Bardi a Northern people who wandring a great many years up and down Saxony and the neighbouring Countries at last fix'd themselves in this place Whether these Bardi may not have been a Tribe of such Poets as Mr. Cambden and some other of our Antiquaries says gave name to Bardsey one of our British Islands I shall leave to the Reader 's judgment since every Historian that mentions the Bards will tell us that they were the Genealogists amongst the Gauls an undoubted branch of the German Nation as well as the Britains The Verses before-mention'd will inform us that this great City was destroy'd by Duke Henry surnam'd the Lion on St. Simon and Jude's day in the year 1189. Since that time it has never been able to recover its glory and is now remarkable for nothing but a College of Eight Residentiary Canons and some few Vicars III. ULTZEN A neat uniform little Town Vltren about the middle way betwixt Lunenburg and Zell 'T was anciently call'd Lawenwald i. e. Lion-Forest as appears from several of its old Records and an inscription to this day legible on the North-side of the Town-hall And from this its old name the Arms or Rebus rather of the Town are still a Lion Passant Azure in a Field Verd betwixt Three Trees of the Second The modern name Vltzen it had from the neighbouring Monastery of Olden-Stadt which as is evident from several ancient Writings bearing date A. D. 1255 and 1338 was formerly call'd Old-Vlssen On the twentieth of September in the year 1646 this City was miserably destroy'd by a fire which in a very short time burnt down the fairest and richest part of it This blow it has hardly yet so well recover'd as to be entirely rebuilt but however the most considerable streets and places of consequence are very much advanc'd by it and the new buildings are every-where more regular and splendid then the former The Citizens have a Tradition among them that the first English Saxons
he mentions yet upon examination we shall find that this Wisimir if ever there was any such man must have slain Siward about the year of Christ 340 and we never hear of Duke Lechus in Poland before the year 550 nay some say he began his Government in the year 644. Wherefore omitting these impertinent contradictions and anticronisms it is certain that Wismar had its name from the convenience of its situation Wis-meer signifying no more then a safe and secure part of the Ocean such an one as that is upon which this City is now seated Nor is the Town so ancient as they would make it but first built or at least made a City out of the ruins of Mecklenburg which as hath been already said was once the Metropolis of this whole Dukedom about the year 1250 or as some will have it 1238 by Gunceline II. Earl of Swerin Afterwards Henry Duke of Mecklenburg for his great performances in the Holy Land surnam'd Hierosolymitanus brought hither the Statutes and Ordinances observed in the Government of the City of Lubec and new modell'd Wismar about the year 1266. From which time it grew so extravagantly great and populous that within a very short time it was reckon'd one of the chief Hans-Towns and was made the Harbour for all the Men of War belonging to that Society This engaged the whole Community to contribute towards its fortification insomuch that within the compass of a very few years it became almost impregnable By the Treaty of Munster the City and Haven of Wismar with the Castle of Wallfrisch and the Peninsula of Pole excepting the Villages of Schedorff Weitendorff Brandenhusen and Wangeren which belong to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Lubec as also Newen-Closter were given up to the Swedes since which time the King of Sweden has always stiled himself Lord of Wismar But in these late Wars between the two Northern Crowns the City of Wismar amongst many others was taken by the present victorious King of Denmark Christian V. Altho it was agreed by the Eighth Article of the Treaty of Peace signed at Fountainblaeu on the second day of September in the year 1679 by the French and Danish Ministers that Wismar and Rugen should be restor'd to the Swedes within three weeks after the ratification of the said Treaty yet in a second Treaty sign'd on the twenty-sixth day of the same month at Lunden in Schonen it was agreed that Wismar should remain in the hands of the King of Denmark as a surety for the arrears of certain Contributions due from that King to the Crown of Sweden This obligation it seems is not yet cancell'd for the Danes to this day keep possession of this great Town and are not like to be forc'd in any short time to yeild it up III. Rostock ROSTOCK A City of great antiquity if we believe the stories which some of the German Antiquaries report of it For they tell us that this is the very place which several of the ancient Roman Writers point at when they report great things of Lacinium Rhodopolis and Laciburgium all which names the modern Historians appropriate to Rostock But how its name came at last to be chang'd for there seems to be but little affinity betwixt Lacinium or Laciburgium and Rostock altho Rhodopolis come something nearer to the modern name they cannot so easily determine Some think the word Rostock or Rostzogz a compound of two old Wendish Monosyllables signifying as much as a confluence of two Rivers So that this City according to this derivation had its name at first for the same reason that several great Towns in France are at this day nam'd Confluent The Polish writers say the name was first given it by some of their Country-men in whose language Rostock signifies a moist or boggy place P. Lindebergius in his Chronocle of Rostoch proves from inscriptions upon the Seal of the City and other ancient Monuments that the true name of the Town is Rotzstock and he guesses that this name was first given it from a great Red Pillar von einem rothen saul oder stock which in the days of Paganism and Idolatry was worshipp'd by the Inhabitants of these parts And this conjecture seems most agreeable to the name of Rhodopolis before-mention'd not to mention its being back'd with the authority of a learn'd man and great Antiquary But whatever grand conceit the Mecklenburgers may have of the antiquity of this City 't is certain that in the year 329 't was only a small inconsiderable Village built by some poor Fishermen on the banks of the Warna and consisting of a few slender Tents rather then Houses Afterwards it was advanc'd into a small City by Gotheschalk King of the Heruli and by his successor Primislaus the Second notably enlarged about the year 1160. At last Burevinus Primislaus's Son made it a compleat City having been at the charges of walling it about and new modelling it according to the Laws and Constitutions of the City of Lubeck Burevinus's Charter which the Citizens of Rostock shew to this day amongst other records of their Corporation is signed in the year 1218. At this Day it consists of three parts the Old New and Middle City in all which are reckoned 140 Streets and many thousands of high and stately Citizens Houses The most memorable things in Rostock are usually by the Mecklenburgers in their Saxon Dialect reckoned up in the following Rithms Seven doren tho St. Marien-karcke Seven Straten van den grooten Marckle Seven thore so der gahn tho lande Seven kopmans bruggen by dem strande Seven torne so up den Radthuss staan Seven Klocken die daar daglycken slaan Seven linden op den Rosen-garden Dat syn die Rostocker kennewarten i. e. There are seven times seven remarkable things in Rostock 1. Seven great doors to the Cathedral Church of St. Mary 2. Seven large Streets leading to the chief Market-place 3. Seven Gates of the City towards the Land Seven Bridges over the Warna which runs through several places of the Town 5. Seven Towers on the top of the Town Hall 6. Seven great Bells which chime at certain hours in the Town Clock 7. Seven vast Linden trees in the Common Garden But of late years one of their Bridges being decayed with age fell down and because of no great use has not since been repaired so that one of their Septenaries is fail'd The most notable Commodity of the Town is Beer which is here brewed and carryed into several parts of Germany and other Nations A Rostocker will tell us that yearly by the 250 priviledged Brewers in this City there are at least so many thousand Tun of Beer brewed besides the vast quantities which many of the Private Citizens men especially of the chiefest rank and repute must be supposed to brew for their own use The University at Rostock which is now one of the largest and best stockt in the German Empire was first founded by John
opinion that 't was first built by Drusus and his Son Germanicus in the days of Augustus Cesar but Pyrckamer thinks 't is yet older and the same with Ptolomy's Vesovium They that fetch its original no higher then the Roman Captain Drusus's time tell us it had its name from an Image of Venus called in their language die Magde i. e. the Maid which say they the old Records of Magdeburg report to have been worshipp'd in the neighbouring banks of the Elb. Hence we meet with the names of Parthenope Parthenopolis and sometimes Parthenopyrga the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the same with the High Dutch Burg in Latin Historians instead of Magdeburgum This Image as the report goes was destroyed and its Temple utterly demolished by the Emperor Charles the Great 's Officers who converted the great Treasure they had seized to better uses in building St. Stephens Church in the Town An ancient Chronicle of the City of Brunswic gives this description of the foremention'd Image That it represented a naked woman with bright shining eyes and long yellow hair seated in a guilt Chariot drawn by two white Swans and as many white Turtles Upon her head was placed a Garland of Myrtle and on her breast a burning Torch flaming every way In her right hand she held a Globe of the world and in her left three Golden Apples She was attended by three Graces who cover'd each others eyes with a Veil What credit may be given to these stories I know not nor will it probably be worth the while to enquire However certain it is that whatever Antiquity the Town of Magdeburg may pretend to it was never wall'd round before the year 940 nor could ever challenge the name of a City till some time after For Edgitha wife to the Emperor Otho I. and Daughter to our English-Saxon King Edmund having the Land about Magdeburg setled on her for a Jointure prevailed with her Husband to give her leave to build a City in this place and to wall it in This Grant the Emperor seconded with large Contributions out of his own Treasury and translated the Bishopric of Vallersleben to this new City So that Magdeburg had if not its name at least its glory from an English Princess Soon after the said Emperor Otho prevailed with the Pope of Rome to make Magdeburg an Archbishopric and to order that several of the neighbouring Bishops particularly the Bishops of Mersburg Zeitz Havelberg and Brandenburg should be subject to the Archbishop of this Diocess as to their lawful Metropolitan who should acknowledg no man's supremacy in Spirituals but the Pope's From thenceforward the Archbishop of Magdeburg had the Title of Primate of Germany conferr'd on him tho as Krantius shews the three Spiritual Electors and the Archbishop of Saltzburg always refused to pay him that respect In this State the Church of Magdeburg continued till the year 1566 when the whole Chapter having abandoned the innovations and fopperies of the Church of Rome and embraced the tenents of M. Luther elected Joachim Frideric at that time the only Son of John George Elector of Brandenburg to be the Administrator of their Archbishopric having before his admission bound him by oath to the observation of certain Articles approved on by himself and his Father After whose death he was advanced to the Electorate of Brandenburg and his Son Christian-William chosen Administrator in his place Who faithfully discharged his trust till the year 1631 in which the Town after a long siege was taken by the cruel Count Tilly who destroyed the lives and fortunes of no less then thirty thousand Citizens with Fire and Sword and carried the Administrator prisoner to Newstatt in Austria where he chang'd his Religion and turn'd Papist Into his place the Chapter elected Augustus second Son to John George the First Elector of Saxony who had had the Title of Coadjutor from the year 1625. In the Westphalian Treaty it was order'd that upon the death of the said Augustus the Archbishopric of Magdeburg should again return to the House of Brandenburg and be for ever annex'd to that Elector's Dominions under the name of a Dukedom In pursuance of this agreement the present Elector of Brandenburg has upon the death of the said Administrator which hapned this last year 1680 taken possession of Magdeburg and the adjoining Territories which 't is thought will advance his yearly Revenues the sum of 600000 Rixdollars The siege of Magdeburg in the year 1631 which we have already mention'd is so famous for the valour of the Defendants Siege and notorious for the unparallel'd cruelty of the Besiegers that it well merits a more particular account then we have yet given of it The tenth of May old stile was the bloody day whereon this horrid and tragical Massacre was committed The Burgers had long withstood the threats and force of the Imperial General Count Tilly endeavouring to secure their Religion from the outrages of a Popish Army But after a long and vain resistance the bloody Count forced his way into the Town and commanded his men to spare neither man woman nor child but put all to the Sword to fire all their Churches and private Houses and to extirpate if possible their very name In obedience to his command women in travail were ript up and the sucking children snatcht from their mothers breasts and hew'n in pieces before their eyes The young Virgins were first ravish'd in the open street and then murder'd two whereof are said to have prevented their shame by hast'ning their death the one throwing her self before Tilly's face into a Well and the other into the Fire Sixteen Churches and Chappels whereof many cover'd with Lead and one with Copper were burnt down and not an House in the Town left standing save a few Fishermen's Cottages which the Imperialists would not vouchsafe to fire Of near forty thousand Citizens scarce four hundred were left alive and those destitute of Houses and other conveniences requisite for the preservation of the miserable lives they had spared them This bloody exploit Count Tilly was used to brag of afterwards in his jollity calling it merrily The Marriage-feast of Magdeburg Since this desolation the Town has not to this day been able to recover its former grandeur Present condition but is every-where checquer'd with new buildings and the ruins of the old They have rebuilt one stately Church but most of the rest ly still buried in their ashes Tilly in the heat of his rage was perswaded to spare the Cathedral which is indeed a stately structure and enough to recommend the whole Town to a stranger's eye In one of the Chappels in this Church is shew'n the Tomb of the Emperor Otho the Great with his Wife Edgitha before-mentioned holding in her hand nineteen small Globes within a Golden circle which denote so many Tun of Gold given by the Emperor at her request towards the building of this Cathedral There are
immediately suspecting by their number the whole matter confess'd her design and was pardon'd by her Husband From the eldest of these Whelps or Guelps for so the old Count order'd them to be nam'd in remembrance of the Midwife's answer was descended that Henry Guelph Earl of Altorf whom the Emperor Conrad II. made afterwards Duke of Bavaria How this Family came afterwards to encrease their Dominions by the accession of the Lower Saxony is already shew'n in the Catalogue of the Dukes of Luneburg and needs not here be repeated The Reform'd Religion Religion according to the Doctrine of Luther and the Augsburg Confession was first brought into this Country by Duke Julius who died in the year 1589. Since which time the greatest part of the Duke of Brunswic's Subjects have been rigid assertors of Lutheranism and as vehement opposers of Popery and Calvinism Indeed of late years the great authority and respect which the Calixti and other Latitudinarians have got at Helmstadt has won over some multitudes to their perswasion but the generality are of their Prince's Religion and zealously pursue the footsteps of their Megalander as they are pleas'd to call him Martin Luther Each particular Dukedom has its distinct supremacy in Ecclesiastical as well as Civil affairs Churchgovernment which are administred in this Manner Under each Dukedom there is one Superintendens Generalissimus who has supreme inspection over all the Church and resembles one of our Archbishops To him are subject the several Superintendentes Generales or Bishops and to these the Superintendentes Speciales which are the same thing in effect with our Arch-deacons In some Provinces they have no other distinction of Superintendents then into Generales and Speciales to wit where the whole Province is of so small extent as not to require more then one single Bishop So that we see how willing the Lutherans are to admit of the Office and Dignity of Archbishops and Bishops in their Church altho they have got a trick of bawling out against their names as Popish and Anti-Christian Cities and Great Towns in the Dukedom of BRUNSWIC BRUNSWIC Brunswic I. In the Cathedral at Brunswic among many other Monuments there is an old Parchment writen in Plat-Dutch containing a short account of the most considerable persons which ly buried in that Church which begins thus Alse man Schreff na Goddes gebordt 861 hefft Hertogg Danckquarth tho Sassen erstlik dusse Borch bemuhret unde Danckquarderode geheten unde nomen laten i. e. In the year of Christ 861 Danckquarth Duke of Saxony first walled in this Castle and called it Danckquarderode or Tanquard's-Cross Which agrees with the story we find in most German Chronologers of note who treat of the Antiquities of this place For they tell us that Bruno and Tanquard Sons of Ludolph Duke of Saxony were the first Founders of this Town which from the former was called Brunswic the latter only giving name to the Castle Since that time this City has been continually augmented by the succeeding Dukes of Saxony and Brunswic and is now become one of the most considerable Hans-Towns in the Empire Insomuch that the Citizens divide themselves into five distinct Corporations who are govern'd by several Magistrates of their own and have so many different Courts of Judicature These Companies never unite but upon some extraordinary occasion wherein the common interest of the whole Town seems concern'd Whether Brunswic be a free Imperial City or subject to the Dukes of Brunswic and Luneburg has been a question often controverted betwixt both parties concern'd each of whom have endeavour'd to assert their pretensions by dint of Sword and have come off with various success witness the Sieges in the years 1492 1550 1553 1605 1606 1614 1616 c. 'T was last of all besieged by the present Duke Rudolphus Augustus who took it in the year 1671. Since which time he has taken care to be very often resident in the Town and always at his departure to leave behind him a strong Guard The chief Trade of this City is in Hides and Mum. Trade The Tanners have Skins out of England Denmark and other Nations which they return dress'd Their Mum is of two sorts one whereof is of a thin and weak body the ordinary drink of the Citizens and neighbouring Rustics the other which they call Ship-Mum is a much clammier and grosser liquor brew'd on purpose to be transported into foreign Nations This kind of drink which is scarce potable before it has been putrified by working at Sea is made of Barley and Hops with a small mixture of Wheat There are a set number of Brewers who have the sole power of making it and their appointed time of brewing is from the beginning of October to the latter end of March Here by the way I cannot but wonder that Meibomius writing a Commentary de Cerevisiis potibusque ebriaminibus extra vinum aliis should omit the two most famous liquors of his own Nation Mum and Breuhane II. WOLFENBUTTEL Wolfenbuttel This is the ancient Seat of the Dukes of Brunswic Famous for its strong and impregnable fortifications It confists of two parts 1. Arx Guelpica or the Duke's Palace which is properly call'd Wolfenbuttel Which name it has from its first Founder Duke Ekbert who was of the Guelphian Family The termination of the word in this as many other names of Cities and great Towns in Germany denotes a moist and watery situation such as this Town has and which contributes very much to its strength and security 2. The City or Henrich-Stadt so called from Duke Henry the younger its founder The only remarkable thing in this part of the Town is the new Church which some Italians and many other Foreigners if we believe the Citizens have look'd upon as a most admirable piece of Architecture In a vault under the Quire lie buried one and twenty Dukes and Dutchesses of Brunswic wrapt up in Coffins of Lead with Inscriptions In the Duke's Palace the most remarkable thing is BRAVNSWICK MEYDBVRG com ceteris adiacentibus Apud Janssonio Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart DUCATUS BRUNSVICENSIS Accuratissime discriptio Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart His Son and Successor Duke Rudolphus Augustus keeps now his residence at Wulfenbuttel a mild learned and religious Prince following the steps of his Father rather in his Study then in Acts of Chivalry He has no male issue but is like to be succeeded by some of the Sons of his Brother Antony Vlric the eldest whereof was slain at the late siege of Maestricht III. HELMSTADT Which City is reckon'd the oldest in Saxony next Bardewic It was built by the Emperor Charles the Great about A. D. 782 and so nam'd from the abundance of Elm-trees that encompass it Here St. Ludger who was sent into these parts by the foremention'd Emperor to convert the Infidel Saxons preach'd and the Citizens pretend to show Travellers the
whole Army 16. Otto deposed by Honorius for Simony 17. Rudolf Founder of St. Mary's Church in Halberstadt 18. Vlric who engaged himself in a war against Henry surnam'd the Lion Duke of Brunswic to the almost utter destruction of himself and his successors For the City was taken by the said Dukes Army and burnt down to the ground the Citizens also and Clergy-men taking Sanctuary in the Cathedral perish'd in the same flames with their Church 19. Theodoric who rebuilt the Cathedral which his predecessor had so unfortunately destroy'd 20. Barthold 21. Conrad 22. Frideric Burggrave of Kirchberg 23. Ludolf Count of Schladem 24. Meinhard 25. Ludolf the second Count of Schladem 26. Wolrad Count Kranichfeld 27. Herman Count of Blanckenburg 28. Albert Count of Anhalt 29. Albert Duke of Brunswic a great Warriour who fought above twenty pitcht battels as the Chronicles of Brunswic inform us and came off most commonly a Conqueror 30. Ludowic Landgraf of Thuringen and Marquise of Misnia 31. Albert a great Philosopher but unfortunate Soldier overcome in battel by Gerhard Bishop of Hildesheim an eloquent Prelate In remembrance of which overthrow the Burgers of Halberstadt have to this day a proverbial saying among them Klanck uberwand den Ranck that is Rhetoric prov'd too hard for Logic. 32. Ernest Count of Honstein 33. Rudolf Count of Anhalt 34. Henry Baron of Werberge 35. Albert Count of Werningenrode 36. John von Hoym. 37. Burcard Baron of Werberg 38. Gerhard von Hoym. 39. Ernest Duke of Saxony 40. Albert Marquise of Brandenburg 41. John Albert Marquise of Brandenburg 42. Frideric Elector of Brandenburg 43. Sigismund Brother to his predecessor Frideric 44. Henry Julius Son of Julius Duke of Brunswic elected Bishop when he was a child of two years old upon condition that the Dean and Chapter should have the whole government in their hands for twelve years paying only during the said term a certain yearly stipend of the Revenues of the Church to their Infant-Prelate In the year 1591 this Bishop abolish'd Popish Ceremonies and establish'd the Reform'd Religion in the Cathedral at Halberstadt 45. Henry Charles Son of the foremention'd Henry Julius he died at six years of age and was succeeded by his Brother 46. Rudolf who also died the year following and so the Diocess came to his Brother 47. Christian a great Champion in the Civil wars of Germany but not very fortunate 48. Leopold William Archduke of Austria the last Bishop of this place In his time the Reform'd Religion was laid aside and Popery once more establish'd in Halberstadt But not long after the Swedish Army having taken the Town restored the Augsburg Confession and kept possession of the City and Diocess until the ratification of the Treaty of Munster by which as we have said it was given to the Elector of Brandenburg under the Title of a Principality In which estate it continues unto this day The Town of Halberstadt is tolerably well built Halberstadt the streets are strait and uniform and many of the buildings fair and stately The most remarkable thing in the Town is the Commiss a vast Inn built by Henry Julius Duke of Brunswic and Luneburg and Bishop of Halberstadt This is thought to contain more and better accommodation for strangers then any other House of its kind in Europe Albert Count of Wallenstein and Duke of Friedland General of the Emperor's Forces in the Civil wars of Germany kept his Court for some months in this Inn and found lodgings in it for all his Attendants and Guards Other Towns of note in this Principality are Gruningen 1. Gruningen Where was anciently kept the residence of the Bishops of Halberstadt In the year 1593 the old Castle was demolish'd and a new one built at the charges of Henry Julius before mention'd The only remarkable things in this place at present are the great Organ in the new Chappel and Wine-Fat in the outer Court The later of these was made as the inscription shews by one Michael Werner of Landau upon the Rhine possibly in imitation of that much larger one at Heydelberg of which the Reader may expect a description in its place This at Gruningen will hold 161 Waggon loads of Wine reckoning six Hogsheads to each load 2. Oschersleben Oschersleben a small Town on the borders of the Dukedom of Magdeburg Not far from which lies Hornhausen now a despicable Village but once the larger Town on the two 3. Osterwic a strong little Town on the banks of the River Ilse It ancient name was Salingstede in which place as we have said the Emperor Charles the Great first founded the Bishopric which was afterwards by its first Bishop Hildegrine removed to Halberstadt Upon this removal says Werdenhagen the Town got the new name of Osterwic which signifies as much as am osten wieken oder weichen i.e. to move towards the East To these I think we might add the City of Quedlingburg a considerable and well situate Town on the River Bode but because it is subject at present to the Elector of Saxony we shall reserve a more particular description of it till we come to treat of some of that Prince's Dominions THURINGIA LANTGRAVIATUS Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart Serenissimo Fortissimoque Principi ac Domino D BERNARDO Duci Saxoniae Iuliae Clivorum Montiumque Lantgravio THURINGIAE March Misniae Comiti Marcae et Ravensbergae Domino Ravestini etc. Hanc accuratissimam totius Thuringiae tabulam lubens consecrat dedicatque Henricus Hondius THE LANDGRAVIAT OF THURINGEN DVRINGEN or Thuringen in Latin Authors Duringia and Thuringia had its name from the old Deuringi Toringi Turingi or Thuringi who were a branch of the Vandalii mention'd by Tacitus and the ancient inhabitants of these parts Cluverius in his incomparable Description of old Germany gives us a large account of the manners religion c. of these people together with a learned account of their first passing over the Elb out of the Mark and fixing themselves in this place Micraelius guesses from the names of several Towns in Thuringen such as Gotha Gotleben Altengothen c. that the Thuringi were a Gothic people and no branch of the Vandals as Cluverius would make them But his argument will only prove that some part of the Gothic Nation has formerly intermix'd it self with the inhabitants of this Country and not that the Goths were once sole masters of the whole Province any more then the meeting with a few English names of Towns in Pembrokeshire and other parts of Wales will demonstrate the Welch men to be of an Anglo-Saxonic extraction This Province is bounded on the East with the River Sala on the North with the Hercynean Wood on the West with the River Werra on the South its utmost bounds are those vast Woods which separate it from Franconia and are usually known by the name of the Thuringian Forest The Country abounds almost every-where with Corn and in some places
of residence of the Counts Regent is Eisleben which has its name as well as Eysenach Eissfeld Eysenberg and other neighbouring Towns from the abundance of Iron-Ore which the Natives call Eysen found in these parts and not from the Egyptian Goddess Isis who as some Legendary Historians tell us upon the death of her Husband Osiris being in a melancholy humour wander'd into this Country and gave her own name to several of the Towns in which she sojourn'd The most notable thing which the German Historians have recorded of this City is that their Megalander Martin Luther was born in this Town in the year 1483 and here ended his days in the year 1564. Over the door of the House wherein he was born the Citizens took care to set up his picture in stone with this inscription Hostis eram Papae Sociorum pestis hujus Vox mea cum scriptis nil nisi Christus erat John Forster a Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg and Superintendant of the Church at Eisleben tells us that there hapned a great fire in this City in the year 1601 wherein the Counts Palace and 250 Citizens-Houses perish'd but yet 't was observed that the Church wherein this blessed Saint Luther as he calls him was Christned the house wherein he was born and another in which he dyed were sav'd from the flames tho all about them were laid in ashes But however this great man's sanctity tho able it seems to protect whole Houses from the rage and violence of the flames was not sufficient to secure his monument from the fury of the Imperialists who in the late Civil wars of Germany broke down his Image and defaced the Inscription above mention'd The old and ruinous City of Mansfeld which gives name to the County lies about five English miles from Eisleben 〈◊〉 It is defended by a strong Castle on the top of an high hill which for many years had laid desolate but was repair'd and fortified in the year 1547. Wippra Arnstein Quernfurt with some others are remarkable for nothing else but giving names to so many petty Counties into which the the whole County of Mansfeld to provide Titles for its many Earls is usually divided SAXONIA SVPERIOR Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart THE UPPER OF SAXONY ALTHO 't is usual with every Historian that treats of the affairs of Germany to make frequent mention of the Saxons yet in such different senses is that word used by them that we shall scarce meet with two of them that mean the same thing by Saxony Now the the reason of this disagreement is to be ascribed to the uncertain bounds and limits of the Dominions of that ancient and warlike people and the division of their Land into so many petty Tribes and Provinces who were all ambitious of appropriating the name of Saxons to themselves Albinus says the ancient Limits of Saxony were on the East the Elb on the West the Embs on the South Bohemia and Franconia and on the South Bohemia and Franconia and on the North Denmark but Ptolomey confines that Nation within much narrower bounds Henry the Lion's Territories reach'd from the Elb to the Rhine and from the Baltic down as far as the utmost bounds of the Hercynian Wood. This whole Tract was more immediately divided into the Lower and Upper Saxony of the former whereof we have already given the Reader an account Under the name of the later are sometimes comprehended besides the Dukedom of Saxony or Chur-Sachsen as the Germans call it the Marquisate of Misnia Voitlandia Thuringen the whole Hercynian Forest the Principality of Anhalt with some more of the neighbouring Provinces But in this place we only understand the Upper Saxony strictly so call'd or that small Province which gives the Elector the Title of Duke of Saxony Which is bounded on the East with the Lower Lusatia and some part of the Marquisate of Brandenburg on the North with the Principality of Anhalt on the West with the County of Mansfeld and Landgraviate of Thuringen and on the South with the Marquisate of Misnia This small Province came to retain the name of Saxony upon this occasion When the overgrown power of Henry the Lion was grown so formidable as to oblige the Emperor to depose him and to divide his Territories amongst the neighbouring Princes many of whom by their good services had deserved large recompenses at his hands the Dukedoms of Brunswic and Luneburg were the only Dominions continued to the posterity of the deposed Prince The lower parts of Westphalia were seized on by the Archbishop of Coln and another part of it above the Weser fell into the hands of the Bishop of Paderbourn and a third was given to Herman Landgrave of Thuringen The Princes of Anhalt and Counts of Mansfeld were made Masters of another portion of this large Dukedom and several of the Hans-Towns were made Imperial and subjected to a Government of their own By this means there was nothing left to be setled upon Bernhard Prince of Anhalt whom the Emperor Frideric Barbarossa had created Duke Elector in the room of Henry the Lion but the Territories betwixt the Sala and the Elb and some of that too as the City of Wittenberg was before assign'd him by the Emperor Conrad the third However 't was order'd that these narrow Dominions should have the name of Ober-Sax or the Upper Saxony given them and that Wittenberg should from thence forward be the Electoral City The County is tolerably well provided for with all manner of grain Soil but comes far short of its neighbouring Provinces Misnia and Thuringen Tho the Hills here afford some Mines of Silver and other kind of Metals yet the Country will scarce yeild so much Wood as is sufficient to cleanse and purifie it The inhabitants of this Country are still strict observers of the ancient Municipal Laws of their Heathen Ancestors Laws which were look'd upon by the Emperor Charles the Great as so agreeable to the dictates of right reason that he saw no necessity of abrogating these upon his introducing of Christianity and the observation of Gospel precepts The choicest of these old Statutes are collected into two Bodies or Digests whereof the one is call'd Der Sachsen-Spiegel or Speculum Saxonicum the other which is only an abstract of the former das Sachsische Weichbild The Sachsen-Spiegel was at first like Justinian's Institutes collected by a German Nobleman Ecke von Repkau out of a great many old Records and Laws publish'd in the days of Superstition and Idolatry It contains in it three Books whereof the first consists of 71 Articles the second of 72 and the third of 91. This with a Glossary annex'd explaining all the difficult and antiquated Law-terms in it was first publish'd by one Burchard Lord of Mangelfeld but a more accurate Edition was afterwards set out in Print by C. Zobelius at Leipsick in the year 1569. Das Weichbild or Wickbild signifies properly
the Reader for the Terra Sigillata found here in great quantities Reichenbach Polckenhahn Landeshut Freyberg Friedberg Fridland Zobten Waldberg and Gottesberg 3. Brieg BRIEG or Brig has its name from the Polish word Berega which signifies an exceeding high bank of a River such as this City is seated on The streets here are uniform enough and the houses generally built of stone St. Nicholas's Church is an high and stately old Fabrick beautified with two Towers and built after the ancient Franckish mode This whole City excepting only some few publick buildings was laid in ashes by the Hussites who overran a great part of Bohemia and Silesia in the year 1428. In the Dukedom of Brieg are reckon'd the Towns of Strelen Olau Nimptsch Pitschen Creutzburg Loben Michelau and little Oelsse The two Mine-Towns of Reichenstein and Silberberg are jointly subject to the Dukes of Brieg and Lignitz who are both of the same Family and descended from the ancient Hereditary Kings of Poland 4. Monsterberg MONSTERBERG or Munsterberg so called from the Monastery built in this place by the Emperor Henry the first the Founder of this City is seated not far from the head of the River Ola in a pleasant and fruitful plain The Town is neither large nor strong and has nothing in it of note but the School an old Castle and a fair Town-Hall In this Dukedom are the Towns of Franckenstein and Warta to which some Historians and Geographers are pleased to add Hainrichau Tepliwoda and Kamentz 5. OPPELEN is seated in a sandy and dry Oppelen but fruitful Country 'T is subject to the King of Poland who prevail'd with the Emperor to withdraw all his Forces and Subjects hence in the year 1647. Since which time the Citizens of Oppelen and all the Rusticks in the Villages near it speak the Polish language If strong Gates and thick Walls were proof against modern sieges this Town were sufficiently provided against the assaults of an Enemy but otherwise its fortifications are very mean and inconsiderable Among the many Towns and Villages in this Dukedom the most remarkable are little Glogaw Neustat Kosel Beudten Gleibitz Tost Strehlitz Falckenberg Zultz Rosenberg Lublinitz and Schurgast IX The Cities and Dukedoms of GROTKAW JEGERNDORF TROPPAU RATIBOR and TESCHEN CROTKAW is a City of no great 〈◊〉 bulk as its name seems to intimate but so well seated that 't is a proverb in this Country 'T is as impossible as for a Grotkawer to starve or freeze The reason of which expression is grounded upon each Burger's having a plentiful share in the adjacent Corn-fields and neighbouring Woods Most of the Houses in the Town are Wood-buildings only the Church Bishop's Palace and the Town-Hall are of stone The Dukedom of Grotkaw is subject to the King of Bohemia tho sometimes its Lieutenant is a Polander and contains in it the Cities of Neisse a place of great traffick Otmachau Wansen Ziegenhals Freywald Hozenplotz Jawernick Kaltenstein Patschkau Oyest Weidau and Zackmantel The great trade of this Country especially the Citizens of Neisse is in making and selling to the Merchants of Bohemia and Poland a sort of strong and durable Linnen-Cloth for Beds and Bolsters 2. JAGERNDORF Jagerndorf Which signifies in the German language a Village inhabited by Huntsmen and had its name probably from the abundance of all manner of Game in the neighbouring Woods The Moravians call this Town Carnowf whence the Dukedom is ordinarily by Latin Authors nam'd Ducatus Carnoviensis and a Citizen of this place Carnowfsky from the ancient Arms of the City which are a pair of Horns between two great Stones This City with the small Dukedom which bears its name was given by Ludowic King of Hungary and Bohemia to George Marquise of Brandenburg who was at the charges of building the Castle and erecting the other little fortifications that defend the Town DUCATUS SILESIAE GROTGANUS cum Districtu Episcopali NISSENSI To John Nicholls Esq of Trewane in Cornwall this Mapp is Humbly Dedicated by Moses Pitt Notularum Explicatio Vrbs Arx Pagus cum Templo Pagus nobilis Pagus Episcopalis Commenda COMITATUS GLATZ Notae Vrbs Oppidum Pagus cum templo Vicus Arx Auri et argenti fordinae Mons Notabilis Kohloruben Holtz fluesse The inhabitants of these and all other Towns and Villages in the Dukedom observe the same Laws with the Moravians For which reason the greatest part of them have often endeavour'd to associate themselves to the Marquisate of Moravia and renounce all dependance upon the great Dukedom of Silesia but have always been opposed by the Citizens of Troppau who have still been zealous to continue members of their ancient Body 4. RATIBOR is seated in a pleasant plain about six German miles from Oppelen We have no account of it before the year of Christ 1164 so that most Geographers venture to say that 't was built about that time The private dwelling Houses of the Citizens are as in most parts of Silesia generally wooden buildings but the Duke's Palace Cathedral and some other publick buildings are of stone There is still in the City one Popish Monastery and formerly the Jesuits had a great footing in it but since the Reformation that sort of Cattel were driven out of their Harbors The Dukedom of Ratibor which contains the Towns of Oderberg Sora Ribenick Pilzowitz and Mieslowitz was formerly governed by a Duke of its own but upon the death of Duke Valentinus its last Prince who died without issue in the year 1516 it became more immediately subject to the King of Bohemia 5. 〈◊〉 TESCHEN or Tessin is one of the oldest Cities in Silesia said to have been built by Cessimir or Gessimir Son of Lescus III. Duke of Poland A. D. 810 and from him to have had its first name which has since been corrupted into Tessin It is seated on the confines of Silesia Moravia Poland and Hungary whence it comes to pass that its Citizens speak a medly of languages hardly intelligible to any but themselves They have here great store of all sorts of Venison and wild Fowl the Vistula and Elsa afford them plenty of Fish and the Hungarian Merchants bring them in daily vast quantities of Wine Fruit and other Commodities of that Country At one of their Churches they have weekly Divine Service and a Sermon in the Bohemian language and at another the like in High Dutch for of these two Nations the Burgers chiefly consist Here is brew'd Beer of two sorts the one with Wheat and the other with ordinary Barly Malt the latter of these they call Matznotz a sort of drink pleasant enough but mighty strong and heady which too often on their Market-days makes the poor Rusticks commit several outrages and disorders in the height of their jollity In this Dukedom there are several high mountains whereof two Rows are more especially remarkable and taken notice of by Geographers and Historians The first of these are those on the
Regem honorasse dicuntur From all which it apears that there is something extraordinary in this Myrrh or call it what else you please which well merits the view and study of a curious Physiologist The Country Rusticks believe there is this strange vertue in this Mineral for so I think I may venture to name it that it puts to flight all manner of Serpents and amongst the rest that old Serpent the Devil Aeneas Sylvius who for having penn'd so many true stories was at last judg'd fit to sit in St. Peter's Chair 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and become an infallible Pope calls the Moravians Gentem ferocem rapinarum avidam ut quae tum iter non nisi armato potentiorique praebeat And most Travellors brand their barbarous inhumanity or at least incivility to strangers The Hanaks especially or Bores that live along the banks of the River Hana are said to be notoriously guilty of this crime but these are by the gentiler sort of Moravians themselves contemn'd and scouted as a pack of barbarous and ill bred Lowts The true character of the Moravians in general is that they are men of exemplary obedience and fidelity to their Governors free and open in conversation and therefore apter to be deceiv'd then to impose upon they are not easily provok'd to be angry but when once enraged hardly appeas'd not guilty of too much wit in discourse but rational enough hardy in the Camp and valiant in fight faithful observers of their promises and compacts and abhorrers of baseness and meanness of spirit They are indeed too apt to give credit to old Prophesies a folly observ'd in the inhabitants of our own Island and a little given to drinking and carousing but are not so superstitious nor so great drunkards as they are represented to be by the satyrical pens of some Geographers Their language I mean that which is ordinarily spoken by the Country-Rusticks Langâ—â—â—â— for the Nobility and Citizens speak generally High Dutch is a Dialect of Slavonian and little different from the Bohemian of which more anon The Moravians are said to have been first converted to Christianity by St. Cyril and Meludius Religâ—â—â—â— assisted by some other pious Doctors and Fathers of the Church Soon after the Reformation had been set on foot in Bohemia by John Huss a good part of Moravia began to throw off the Pope's yoke and to profess the purer and undefiled Religion of the primitive Christians and Apostles But John de Praga at that time Bishop of Olmitz and afterwards Cardinal of the Church of Rome so vigorously oppos'd the endeavours of all that labour'd to carry on the Reformation in this Marquisate that during his time it never got any deep rooting Afterwards during the Reigns of George Vladislaus and Ludowic Kings of Bohemia Popish Idolatry and Superstition was wholly extirpated and the Reform'd Religion unanimously profess'd in all the Cities and great Towns of Moravia But to see the unhappy consequents of Toleration and Liberty of Conscience as soon as the Synod at S. Brinn which met in the year 1608 to settle the affairs of Religion had made this Edict Vt liceret omnibus credere prout cuique Deus dat cognoscere i.e. That every man should have power and license to regulate his Faith according to the measure of knowledg which God had given him each Cobler set up for a Preacher of the Word and an Expounder of Scriptures Whereupon the Church was immediately confounded and broken into an irreconcilable medly and hotchpotch of Sects and Schismaticks Hussites Picards Anabaptists Arrians Flaccians Trinitarians Photinians Lutherans Calvinists Dulcians Lugentians c. So that no less then fourteen several Conventicles had assembled themselves in one City each of them asserting peculiar Doctrines and Tenets of their own and denying all manner of Communion in Church-Ordinances with the other thirteen Now what could be expected from this Anarchy in the Reformation but the reestablishment of Popery which accordingly hapned For soon after Frideric the King of Bohemia's Forces were overthrown by the Emperor Ferdinand II. at Prague in the year 1620 Francis Cardinal of Districhstein and Bishop of Olmitz found it a very easie matter to root out the divided and mutinous members of the Reform'd Church and to replant his own Doctrines and Church-Discipline After which some scatter'd parcels of the Reformed party lay skulking amongst the Rocks and Mountains on the borders of Silesia for some years but durst never appear in publick and within a while after dwindled into nothing The Kings of Moravia for 't was anciently a Kingdom were once the greatest Potentates in this part of Europe having for some time under their subjection the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland About the year of Christ 700 Zuantacop King of Moravia being at the same time Lord of the Dukedoms of Bohemia Poland and Silesia refused to pay Tribute or Homage to the Emperor of Rome who falling in upon his Country to demand satisfaction for this insolence was forced to make a dishonourable retreat But resolving not to endure this disgrace he rallies up his scatter'd forces and calls in to his assistance the Hungarians an infidel people who before that time were aw'd by the Moravians and kept from committing any outrages upon the Christian-Countries By the help of these Heathens the Emperor routed Zuantacop's Army forcing him to fly for shelter into the neighbouring Woods where he associated himself to an Hermite with whom he spent the residue of his days By this means Bohemia Moravia and Silesia came to be disunited and parcell'd into four different Dukedoms which were reckon'd so many Provinces of the Roman or German Empire Some ages after the Dukedom of Moravia degenerated into a Marquisate which name it still retains altho a great part of it be at this day immediately fubject to the Crown of Bohemia and the rest broken into a few petty Baronies and Lordships The chief Cities and great Towns in MORAVIA OLMITZ 〈◊〉 or Olomutium which Ortelius with whom agree Stephanus and Bertius fancies to be the same place with Ptolomy's Eburum is the Metropolis of Moravia and the only Bishop's See in the Marquisate 'T is not very large but neatly and well built and seated in a convenient place on the banks of the River Morawa to maintain a Trade with the Merchants of Bohemia Hungary Poland Silesia and Austria The Antiquaries of this Country are of opinion that Olmitz or Olmutz is nothing but a corruption of Juliomontium and thence conclude that the Town was first built and so it was as sure as either the Tower at London or Castle at Leyden by Julius Cesar But how then came it to be call'd Velgrad as Boregius proves 't was when King Suatopluck built himself a Palace here St. Cyril the great Apostle of this Country who liv'd about the year 880 was the first Bishop of this Diocess He was the Author as Aventinus affirms of the old Wendish or Crcation
Alphabet made use of in writing out the Bible by him translated into his own mother-tongue What became of this Translation I know not except as some late Antiquaries have ventur'd to say the ancient Moscovian Bible printed in the year 1581 be a Transcript of it In the year 1346 the Bishopric of Olmutz was remov'd from under the jurisdiction of the Elector of Mentz and subjected to the new Archbishop of Prague tho some of the late Bishops of Olmutz have denied to pay homage to any Prelate under the Pope 2. BRINN call'd in the Bohemian language Brno and by Latin writers Bruna Brinn is the second City in Moravia and a Town of so great repute that it seems to share with Olmitz in the Title of Metropolis since in these two Cities by turns the chief Courts of Judicature or Assizes for the whole Marquisate are held 'T is seated at the confluence of two small Rivers Schwarta and Zwitta and defended by the Spilberg a strong Castle on the top of the adjoining Hill The Moravian Philosophers make a great noise with the Vnicornu Minerale which amongst the other fossilia of their Country is said to be found near this City Of which Osv Grollius in his book entituled de Signaturis gives this account Vnicornu Minerale nobis quoque Deus largitus est in Moravia tribus milliaribus Bruna ubi eram ante Medicus non longe a territorio Abbatis Zabrdovicensis sub altissima rupe duorum inusitatae magnitudinis animalium incognitorum ossa una cum duobus junioribus efossa sunt quae absque dubio tempore Diluvii aquarum impetu perierunt in illa solitudine c. Another Author of the same Tribe Anselm Boetius de Boodt Physitian to the Emperor Rudolf II. gives a far different account of it Cornu fossile says he prope Brunam Moraviae urbem inventum ita exacte figuram trunci Juglandis intrinsecus extrinsecus refert ut nemo nisi Caecus negare possit truncum illius Arboris fuisse ac in Terra transmutationem accepisse Hertod in his ingenious Book beforementioned says there have been several fragments of this Mineral found in the Quarries near Niclsburg one whereof exactly resembled a man's thigh I know not what more to make of all these relations then that there are now and then in the fields near Brinn found several rare petrifications for that I think is as fit a name for them as Vnicornu fossile representing the parts of certain Animals and Plants Which is no greater miracle then may be daily met with in the fields here about Oxford as may be seen at large in the learn'd account given of such Rarities in the fifth Chapter of the Natural History of this County 3. IGLAW call'd by the Bohemians Gihlawa Iglaw seated on the borders of Bohemia upon a River of the same name is said to have been built in the year 799 and to have had its name from an Urchin or Hedghog which in the German language is call'd Igle but by the Moravians Gehlak because that upon the laying the first foundation of this City a great company of these kind of Creatures were found amongst the shrubs and thickets which grew in this place The Town is large well built and strongly fortified 'T is a great thorow-fair frequented by multitudes of Travellers that pass this way out of Bohemia towards Hungary And for this reason the Citizens as being daily accustom'd to converse with strangers are more obliging in their carriage then the rest of their Country-men In the Hussites-wars this City stedfastly opposed the introducing of the Reform'd Religion and with a great deal of resolute obstinacy and malepert zeal maintain'd the superstitious Discipline of the Church of Rome but as soon as Luther's Doctrine began to peep abroad in the world the heat was over with them and the Citizens of Iglaw of all the Cities of Moravia subject to the Kings of Bohemia were the first who embraced the Augsburg Confession and turn'd Rebels as themselves before had term'd other Protestants to the Pope's Interest In the late Civil wars of Germany immediately after the Imperial Forces were routed at Jankow in the year 1645 this Town was given up into the hands of the then triumphant Swedes who to make the City more tenable burnt down the large Suburbs on every side and having so done defended the Town with so much gallantry and manhood that all the forces the Emperor could bring against it were beaten off for a twelve-month after The Jesuits College with the Gymnasium annex'd founded by Adolph Michael Earl of Altham is a great ornament to the Town and the two Monasteries of Dominicans and Franciscans are well worth the seeing The chief trade of the Town besides the entertainment of passengers which brings in the greatest part of their riches is in selling Beer and a sort of course woollen Cloth which is made and dress'd after their fashion 4. Znaim ZNAIM in the Bohemian language Znoymo and in Latin writers Znogma stands on the Teya in a pleasant soil and wholesom air The learned Cluverius is of opinion that this place is the same with Ptolomy's Medoslanium But I do not find that his Latitude will agree at all to Znaim tho his Longitude comes near it The Annals of Moravia tell us this City was first built in the place where it now stands by Primislaus Ottacar about the year 1222 having before that time lain buried in its ashes from the year 1145 when Vladislaus King of Bohemia upon a provocation given him by his Kinsman Cunrad Marquise of Moravia wholly destroy'd it and its inhabitants with fire and sword The Town is defended by a Castle sufficiently fortified both by Nature and Art but in great danger of being damag'd in time of siege from the top of the Peldtenberg an adjacent mountain which overlooks it and stands within Canon-shot of it It lies upon the coasts of Austria and therefore is sure to be the first place attack'd by the Imperial forces in case of any rebellious uproar in either Bohemia or Moravia as it has often already found by woful experience There are a great many Vineyards round the City which yeild commonly good store of an indifferently palatable Wine but the chief income of the Citizens arises from the harbouring of passengers which travel this road betwixt Vienna and Prague 5. Cremsir CREMSIR or Kremsier call'd by the Bohemians Kromeritz seated on the River Morawa about the middle way betwixt Olmitz and Hradisch was not many ages ago a poor Village but is now become one of the fairest Cities in Moravia The occasion of which alteration was this John Bishop of Olmitz bought the Lordship of this Village for himself and his successors of Otto Marquise of Moravia After his death Bruno Bishop of the same Diocess observing the convenient and pleasant situation of the place built in it a fair Palace call'd to this day from its first Founder's name
Brunsberg which drawing together some considerable numbers of people obliged him soon after to wall the place round and turn it into a City 6. EWANCZITZ 〈◊〉 seated at the confluence of the two Rivers Iglaw and Oslaw both which here lose their names and are afterwards call'd Schwartza This City was once notorious for harbouring more different Sects in Religion then almost any other Town in Europe The Parish Church was divided by the two prevailing parties of Hussites and Lutherans both of which had here the exercise of their inconsistent forms of Divine Worship at the same time One of their streets was wholly inhabited by Jews who had erected in it a Synagogue and School for themselves and children Without the Gates of the City the Calvinists had two Churches the one for the Bohemians the other for the Germans and these shar'd with the Hussites and Lutherans in the Magistracy and Government of the City Another part of the Suburbs was taken up by the Holy Brethren of Switzerland a pack of nominal Christians who never were baptized thought it a damnable sin to wear a Sword and celebrated the Lord's Supper only at Whitsuntide The Photinians Atheists and Quakers for such kind of creatures I take the Schwenckfelder to have been who denied the resurrection of the dead met at their devotions on the banks of a Fountain in the field At a small Village nam'd Olekowitz about half an English mile out of the Town dwelt the Anabaptists who were about four hundred in number But this ridiculous toleration and distraction in Religion came to this issue at last that now all those various parties of people who all of them pretended to be true Protestants are cashier'd and none permitted the free exercise of their Religion but Jews and Papists To these we might add a great many more Cities if what Caspar Laudisman in his Directions for the speedy understanding of foreign Languages affirms it be true that there are in this Marquisate 100 Cities 410 Towns 500 Castles and 30360 Villages Which prodigious number of buildings would go near to cover almost all the habitable part of this Country But I think there are few more then we have already mention'd which deserve to be taken notice of any further then to give them room for their names in the Map BOHEMIA Notarum Explicatio Caritas Regia libera Oppidum Regis Bohemia Oppida â—â—â—inum et Nobil … Pagus Arx Castellum Monasterium Oppidum cum Arce Fodine Auri Fodine argenti Fodine Stanni Fodine ferri Therme Officina Vitriaria Nomina quae habent tri … in … nt Bohemica THE KINGDOME OF BOHEMIA BOHEMIA is bounded on the East with Moravia and Silesia on the West with Voitland the Upper Palatinate and the Dukedom of Bavaria on the South with the Arch-Dukedom of Austria and on the North with the Marquisates of Misnia and Lusatia Whence the learned Godalstus in that excellent Treatise of his entituled Commentarii de Bohemiae Regni incorporatarumque Provinciarum Juribus ac Privilegiis c. well argues that this Kingdom must needs have been anciently a branch of the German Nation and ought still to be so accounted since all the people that encompass it speak the High Dutch language The whole Kingdom is encompass'd round with Mountains the chief of which are the Montes Riphaei or Hills of Giants which part this Land from Silesia Out of these spring the great River Elb issuing out of two of them famous heretofore for the enchantments and apparitions of evil Spirits that used to haunt them One of these two is now adays named by the Silesian Germans that live near it Schneekippe from the continual Snow on the top of it and the other Knieholtz from the short shrubs or brush wood that grows there The other Rivers of note are the Eger Muldau Satzawa Orliecze Lusinitz Gyzera and Mise all which spring within the Kingdom and are at last emptied into the Elb at Dietzin Most of these run in a clear Channel and afford great plenty of fish In some of them the Natives find a sort of shell-fish much like a Horse-Muscle with a Pearl in it of good value such as those are which Mr. Cambden tells us ly gaping at the mouth of the River Irt in Cumberland In several parts of Bohemia especially at Teplitz and Wary both which have their names from the hot Baths there found spring Mineral and Medicinal waters which exceedingly refresh the body and cure many distempers The acid waters at Oegran and Comorzan are accounted mighty soveraign against many diseases and there was not many years ago a Fountain of as great credit at Stechowicz near Prague The like is still to be met with at Benessow near Caplicze which for the cures it has perform'd has got the name of Dobra Woda or good water There are no Lakes in the Kingdom Ponds excepting only one or two near the Towns of Mosta and Tepla of little or no moment But the Fish-ponds in many places seem to equal the Lakes in foreign Countries Witness those petty fresh water Seas at Pardubicz Clumecz Trzebon Rozdialowicz and Copydlan where the Ponds abounding with Perch Jack Carp and other fish bring their Masters in as large Revenues as so many good Lordships The Soil of the Country is generally fat and arable in few places barren or sandy Commodities You have here also fine Woods and Forests intermix'd but none so large as to render any considerable part of the Kingdom uninhabitable The Orchards and Gardens are so well stock'd with fruit that yearly great quantities of Apples Pears c. are hence exported into Misnia and other neighbouring Countries The inhabitants have Wine enough if the luxury of the present age did not want greater supplies then nature in their own Vineyards which is reckon'd a better bodied liquor then Moravian Wine and equals the Austrian in taste but is not capable of being kept to so good an age The Fields and Meadows are richly stock'd with all manner of Cattel especially Horses of more then ordinary courage and bulk Their Hop-gardens afford them a better and more plentiful crop then is usual in other Countries For which reason their Beer whereof they have two sorts white and brown is highly valued and exported into the neighbouring parts of Germany There have been some Salt-pits discover'd in Bohemia but so inconsiderable that they found the profit would not answer the cost of digging And therefore the Bohemians have their Salt out of Misnia and other Provinces of Germany But this want is sufficiently recompens'd by their rich Mines of Silver Copper Tin Iron Lead Sulphur Niter c. as also by their Glass and Allum made here in great quantities They pretend to have Carbuncles Ametheists and other precious stones in their Land which they say are often found in the Mines and amongst the Rocks of the Hill Countries Anselm Boetius Boodt whom we had occasion to mention in the description of
part are to be seen the ruins of the ancient Palace of the Dukes and Kings of Bohemia There is still standing a great part of the walls round this Palace the cement whereof is so good that hardly any Engine can be invented which will pull them down The Jesuits of late years have built here a new College for themselves which goes beyond the other they had before in the Old Town 3. The Little Town or Kleine Seiten as they sometimes call it lies on the West side of the Muldau over which you pass by a stately Stone-bridg of sixteen Arches In this place stands Winceslaus's Palace wherein the Emperor when he comes to Prague keeps his Court. Some have ventur'd to affirm that as good High Dutch is spoken in this Palace and by the neighbouring Burgers as in any City of Germany But he that shall curiously and critically enquire into the truth of this assertion will find that the Language here spoken falls as far short of the pure Misnian Dialect as this Palace does of the Elector's Court at Dresden Not far from hence is the Cathedral of this Archbishopric dedicated to St. Vite from the top of which you have the best prospect of the City of Prague At Weissenberg or the white Hill near Prague was fought the fatal battel between the Duke of Bavaria and Count Bucquoy Lieutenant of the Emperor Ferdinand the Second's Forces and Frideric Count Palatine of the Rhine and elected King of Bohemia in which the new King was conquer'd his Forces totally routed his Ordnance seized on and himself and his Queen our King Charles the Martyr's Sister forced to fly into Silesia Prague was forced to resign it self up immediately into the hands of the Emperor who soon after rooted out all maintainers of the Protestant Religion throughout the Kingdom Some Historians have taken notice that of the Gospel appointed to be read on the day whereon was fought this Battel which was the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity A. D. 1620 this Text Render to Cesar the things that are Cesars is a part Which is as observable as the Church of England's appointing the 27th Chapter of Matthew to be read the second Lesson on the thirtieth of January whereon our late King suffer'd Martyrdom II. EGRA Egra◠a great City on the borders of the Palatinate is call'd by the Bohemians Chebbe but by the Germans that inhabit it Egra from the River upon which 't is seated It was made an Imperial City by the Emperor Frideric I. in the year 1179 in remembrance of the fidelity of the Burgers to that Emperor in opposing Henry Duke of Bavaria who had overrun the greatest part of this Country It is walld with a double sometimes with a tripple wall and defended by an almost impregnable Castle The Market-place is surrounded with very fair buildings and some of their Churches make a good show Bertius and Ens speak of strange cures perform'd by the waters issuing out of a Fountain in the Suburbs of this City The Well they mention is not in the Suburbs but about two English miles from the Town Its waters are something salt and brinish but very cool and clear They are said to cure all infirmities in the Eyes Ears or other parts of the head and many other cures are wrought by their purging and cleansing the body Jac. Theodorus Tabernaemontanus gives us an account of some strange feats wrought by them in his Book entituled Wasser-Schatz printed at Frantfurt A. D. 1584. And Paul Macasius publish'd a whole Treatise about the nature and vertues of these Egrish waters in the year 1616. Some Antiquaries pretend to prove that the old name of this City was Sourstad from these bitter waters But we can expect no great faithfulness in the account of its Antiquities since the City with all its Records perish'd in the flames A. D. 1270. Other Cities of note are 1. Budweiss a fair and large Town not far from the borders of Austria 2. Kuttenberg a Mine-Town on the Elb. Elnbogen a strong Town on the borders of Misnia call'd usually the Bohemian Key to the German Empire 4. Thabor in the way betwixt Prague and Budweiss whence the Picarts got the name of Thaborites Leimiritz Augst Bern Bruck Gretz Maut Hoff Jaromir Pilsen c. are no better then ordinary Market-Towns FRANCONIAE Nova Descriptio Sumptibus Jansonio-Waesbergiorum Mosis Pitt et Stephani Swart Reverendissim o Illustrission Principi ac Domino Dnō FRANCISCO Episcopo Bambergensi Wirceburgensi Franciae Orientalis Duci Domino suo clementissimo humillime offert Nicolaus Rittershusius U. I. D. THE Great Circle OF FRANCONIA FRANCONIA is the chief of the Ten great Circles or Districts into which the German Empire is usually divided This District sends to the Diets the Bishops of Wurtsburg Eichstadt and Bamberg the Counts of Henneberg Wertheim c. with several other Princes Spiritual and Temporal besides the Deputies of the Imperial Cities of Noremberg Rottenburg Winsheim and Schwinfurt 'T is bounded on the South with Schwaben and Bavaria on the West with the Rhine and the Lower Palatinate on the North with the Landgraviate of Thuringen and on the East with the Kingdom of Bohemia The Country has undoubtedly its name from the Franks its ancient inhabitants whom some Historians make a remnant of the old Trojans who at first being expell'd their own Country by the Grecians seated themselves upon the Sea-shore near the mouth of the Danubius These Sicambri for so they were then call'd being beaten from their hold by the Goths were forc'd to seek out new habitations and at last about 430 years before Christ fix'd themselves under the command of their General Marcomir on the banks of the Rhine in Westphalia Frisland and Gelderland all which Countries were afterwards compris'd under the General name of Sicambria About four hundred years after they named themselves Franci after the name of their great Commander Francus who led them beyond the Rhine and subdued for them the greatest part of Gallia which they nam'd Franckric the Germans call it still Franckreich or the Kingdom of the Franks Others say that the Franks were not one particular people but that the Vbii Mattiaci Juhones Sicambri Tencteri Vsipetes Marsi Marsaci Tubantes Bructeri Chamavi Angrivarii Dulgibini Chassuarii Ansibarii Frisii Chanci Cherusci Gambrivii and some other branches of the German Nation united themselves into one Body by a solemn League and Covenant as the only means to secure themselves against the growing power of the Roman Emperors Having thus link'd themselves together they took as the Almans had done before them one common name calling themselves Francken which in their language signified as Freyen in the modern High Dutch a free people as we find in our ancient Law-books Francisia for freedom Franciscare to set at liberty and Franchises is a word still commonly used for liberties About three hundred and sixteen years after Christ there was great contest between the Thuringians and Schwabes
Henry the First 's Sister tho others think it rather a corruption of Papenberg or Pfaffenberg as having been anciently the Seat of the Priests or Pfaffen We have already acquainted the Reader with the delicate situation of this City abounding with all sorts of rich fruits and plants beyond any of its neighbouring Provinces and shall here only take notice of what is observable within the Town The old Earls of Bamberg kept their residence at Altenburg about an English mile from the Town but the Bishops have now adays a Palace in the midst of the City on a small Island in the River Regnitz 'T is a pile of building sufficiently magnificent and splendid rarely beautified with large and fair Orchards and Gardens The Jesuits College and Church make a good shew and the four Spires at the Cathedral are noble SCHWEINFURT or Trajectus Svevorum has its name from the Swabes passing the River Mayn in this place Sâ—â—â—â—â—â— fâ—â—â— Goltmeyer says this Town was built 217 years before Christ but brings little proof for what he reports The Town is at present neither very large nor populous but tolerably well fortified with Walls and Rampires and has the advantage of a good River running by This City is by some reckon'd a part of the Principality of Hennenberg of which anon TERRITORIUM FRANCOFURTENSE To Iohn Hillersdon of the Inner Temple Esq thisMapp is Humbly Dedicated by Moses Pitt The City and Territory of FRANCFURT upon the MAYN THE Emperor Charles the Great King of the Francks having once made war against the Saxons and thoroughly incensed that bold and resolute people he could get but little rest till he had subdued them beyond all possibility of a Rebellion For they were continually pressing in swarms upon the Francks whom when they found themselves too numerous for their enemies they would be sure to pursue to the very banks of the River Mayn where they had sometimes the misfortune to be cut in pieces by the Francks who well acquainted with the Fords of that River would suddenly rush in upon them and put most of them either to flight or the sword From these sallies 't is thought the Town of Francfurt had its name it being seated upon one of these common Fords of the Francks This is the opinion of the ingenious Gunther in his Ligurinus where he says quia Carolus illic Saxonas indomita nimium feritate rebelles Oppugnans rapidi latissima flumina Maeni Ignoto fregisse vado mediumque per Amnem Transmississe suas neglecto ponte cohortes Creditur c. But others say tho without reason that 't was built by Francus the first Captain of these people and that from him it got its name And some as ridiculously have call'd it Helenopolis from the Emperor Constantine's Mother The Town is divided into two parts separated from each other by the Mayn whereof the greater is call'd Francfurt and the less Sachsen-huss or the House of the Saxons These two are united by a Stone-bridg cross the River of thirteen or fourteen Arches and subject to the same Magistrates The City is strong and well fortified and which gives it more strength then Walls or Rampires can do its inhabitants are unanimous professors of the Lutheran Religion The Jews indeed have one street to themselves and are allow'd a Synagogue with the public profession of their Religion But these are so inconsiderable an handful of men that there is no fear of their disturbing the Government It is a place of great traffick and well seated for that purpose For the Mayn passing by the great Cities of Bamberg Schweinfurt Wurtzburg and Guemund gives it an opportunity of trading with the greatest part of Franconia and the same River running into the Rhine carries off and brings in Commodities from the Remoter parts of the German Empire and the Netherlands The greatest concourse of foreign Merchants is at the two great Fairs kept here yearly in March and September at which times all sorts of Commodities especially Books are brought hither by the Factors of the Germans Hollanders Italians French and English They have every year a Catalogue publish'd of such new Books as are or will be brought into the Fair and from them our London Booksellers have of late years learn'd the trick of printing a Catalogue every Term. As long as this Mart lasts which is usually three weeks there is here as great variety and choice of Books as in any City in Europe but when that is over the Booksellers shops are usually shut up On the North-side of the City they have a spatious Horse-Fair wherein yearly a vast number of good Horses are bought and sold Among the many Priviledges conferr'd on this City by several of the German Emperors Priviledges the chief is its being appointed the certain place for the Election of every new Emperor This was a customary thing ever since Arnulph the First 's days but confirm'd only by Charles IV. Author of the Aurea Bulla of which we have already treated at large in the General Description of Germany After the Electors have given their voices in St. Bartholomew's Church if it does not appear as now there are Eight Electors it may easily happen which person has the most votes it has been usual for the two Candidates to determine the quarrel by battel in the neighbouring Fields wherein the Conqueror is carried off with great acclamations back to the City and there proclaim'd King of the Romans Thus the controversie was decided betwixt Henry Landgrave of Thuringen and Conrad Son to the Emperor Frideric II. as also between Ludowic Duke of Bavaria and Frideric Arch Duke of Austria and lastly betwixt Gunther Count of Schwartzenburg and Charles IV. These are the instances given by Munster and some other German writers all of whom Martin Zeiller relying on the Authority of Chrst Lehman in his Chronicle of Spire fancies to be mistaken and to report stories which none of the more ancient Historians who flourish'd in the times when these things should have been transacted ever mention St. Bartholomew's Church in Francfurt is a venerable and stately piece of Architecture having been first built by King Pepin Charles the Great 's Father Some other public buildings as the Town-Hall several Monasteries c. are worth the seeing But the Mineral Springs and Baths are most remarkable which are daily visited by the Nobility and Gentry of the Town and neighbourhood Amongst the rest there is one Cold Bath wherein as Zeiller reports 't was the custom in his days to wash women before they went to be married or as soon as their month of childbed was over But that which gave England the greatest cause to remember this City was the entertainment of some of our Protestant Ministers who with their Congregations fled hither in the days of Queen Mary's bitter persecution Yet I am sorry our Island is forced to own such a sett of Ecclesiastics who went hence a pack of Zuinglian Gospellers and
return'd promoters of Puritanism and rebellious Principles They arriv'd at Francfurt in June A. D. 1554 where by the favour of John Glauberge an Alderman of the City they were permitted the free exercise of their Religion in a Church formerly assign'd to the French Protestants Their chief Ring-leaders were Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who before they began to instruct their flocks took upon them to reform the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England The Surplice and Litany were cashier'd as rags of the Whore of Babylon and the Responsals laid aside as formal pieces of canting which disturb'd the due course of Divine Worship In short the whole Liturgy except the Lessons and Psalms was rejected as savouring too much of Rome and Antichrist Instead of the Magnificat Nunc dimittis c. they sung so many Stanza's of Sternhold's Rithms After Sermon they had a prayer for all states and conditions of men more particularly for the Church of England meaning their own Tribe in imitation of our prayer for the Church Militant and then concluded with The Peace of God c. The noise of this upstart Church wherewith Dr. Scory Bishop of Chichester now Superintendent at Embden Grindal Sandys and Haddon at Strasburg and Horn Chambers and Parkhurst at Zurick had refused to have communion drew Knox the Scotch Incendiary from Geneva in hopes of making a better market here then he could do in Switzerland Here he arriv'd about the latter end of September and immediately took upon him the Superintendency of the Church Whittingham and the other Divines submitting themselves to his Apostleship and Government This was highly resented by the Divines of Strasburg and Zurick who were well acquainted with Knox's principles and knew of what dangerous consequence the promotion of such a Hotspur was like to prove Whereupon Gryndal and Chambers were sent to Francfurt to endeavour a composure of differences and a reunion of all the English Protestants But their endeavours prov'd successless and vain tho they proposed that the substance of the English Liturgy being retain'd there might be by a general consent an omission of some ceremonies and offices in it allow'd of For Knox and Whittingham were as zealously bent against the substance as circumstantials of the Book In the midst of these confusions Dr. Cox Dean of Westminster and a principal composer of the Liturgy in King Edward the Sixth's days comes to Francfurt attended with a great many more English Exiles Upon his first arrival he causes one of his company to read the Litany in the Pulpit and not long after got Knox expell'd the Town for publishing some treasonable expressions against the Emperor Having thus worsted his adversary he was resolv'd to follow the blow which he did so effectually as to procure an Order from the Common Council of the City requiring all the English Protestants to be conformable to the Discipline of their Church as contain'd in the Book of Common Prayer But Cox tho at present Master of the Field was not able to appease the dissatisfied Brethren who follow'd Knox to Geneva and there set up the profession of their former Schismatical Tenents In short these scandalous ruptures first begun at Francfurt and afterwards carried on at Geneva occasion'd the irrecoverable discredit of our Church beyond Seas and were the first seeds of those lamentable animosities which to this day threaten our destruction The Territory of Francfurt which is under the subjection of the Citizens and Magistrates of the Town is bounded on the East with the County of Hanaw Territory on the South with the Landgraviate of Darmstat on the West with the Archbishopric of Mentz and on the North with the County of Wetteraw The soil is generally cover'd with Woods or Vineyards and there is little of arable or pasture ground in it The inhabitants of this Country are a laborious sort of people Inhabitants applying themselves chiefly to the planting of Vineyards and making Wine The poor people sell off their Wine and drink water having seldom the happiness to taste a draught of Beer It was indeed anciently a proverb in Germany Sachs Bayr Schwab und Franck Die lieben all den Tranck i. e. The Saxons Bavarians Swabes and Francks Are all inclin'd to excessive drinking But now adays that piece of debauchery is laid aside in Franconia and you shall seldomer meet with a drunkard here then in any other part of Germany The ancient Francks were men exceedingly plain and careless in their habit whence the Germans to this day say of any thing that 's plain and ordinary 't is gut Alt Franckisch but the case is alter'd and the modern Francfurters are rather foppish then slovenly in their Apparel In this they are still imitators of their Ancestors that they are a stout and hardy people which is enough to keep up that honour and repute which their Ancestors have got in foreign Nations The Asians call all the Europeans Francks and the Mahometans give the Western Christians the same name The Abyssines in Africa as Vagetius witnesses call the other part of the Christian World Alfrangues and the Country they inhabit i.e. Europe and some parts of Asia Francia The Principality of HENNEBERG HENNEBERG was formerly no more then a bare County the Earls whereof were first advanced to the honour of Princes of the Empire by the Emperor Henry VII in a public Convention or Diet of all the Estates of the Empire in the year 1310. The first of these Princes was Berthold surnam'd the Wise who was succeeded by Henry This Prince married his Daughter to Frideric Marquise of Misnia bestowing on her for a Dowry the County of Coburg The last Prince of this Line was George Ernest after whose death which hapned in the year 1583 the County of Coburg with the whole Principality of Henneberg fell into the hands of the Elector of Saxony 'T is a populous and fruitful Country 〈◊〉 bounded on the East with the Forests and Mountains of Thuringen on the South with the Bishopric of Bamberg on the West with the Diocess of Wurtzburg and on the North with the Territories annex'd to the Abbey of Fulda The Castle or Palace of Henneberg whence the Principality has its name is seated on the top of a Hill not far from the City Meiningen but has nothing in it remarkable SCHLEUSINGEN 〈◊〉 which has its name from the River Schleuss on which 't is seated is accounted the chief City in the County tho perhaps not in the Principality of Henneberg 'T is famous for a Gymnasium built here by the last Prince of Henneberg George Ernest A. D. 1577. 'T was for some time the chief Residence of the Earls and Princes of this Country many of whose monuments are still to be seen in the great Church Besides this the Towns of Romhilt Meinungen and Koningshoven challenge the name of Cities but very ill deserve that character We have already given a description of
we add the Revenue of all the Demesns immediately subject to these Princes and the Church-lands which after the Reformation were annex'd to the Electoral Estate we may probably find the sum arise much higher But now adays the case is alter'd and the greatest share of the Riches as well as Honours anciciently appropriated to this House is enjoy'd by the Duke of Bavaria The state of Religion 〈◊〉 both in the Upper and Lower Palatinate has been exceedingly chang'd and varied since the first introducing of the Augsburg Confession by Count Frideric II. For Frideric III. set up the Doctrine and Discipline of John Calvin which soon after his death was thrown out by Ludowic V. a restorer of Lutheranism His Son Frideric IV. brought the Calvinists once more in play for the satisfaction chiefly of his beggarly Courtiers who knew no readier way of raising their Fortunes then by invading the Tythes and Glebe with the other poor remainders of the Church's Patrimony By which means the Clergy being reduc'd says Dr. Heylin to miserable short stipends under the name of a Competency became so contemptible and neglected by all sorts of men that at last the Church of the Palatinate was in the same condition with the Church of Israel under the reign of Jeroboam when Priests were made out of the meanest of the people But a Church reduc'd to these straits was not like to be of any durable continuance but to end ere long in misery Accordingly the Bavarians and Spaniards soon after this havock made of the Church fell upon them and took away their ill-gotten Estates and starv'd Religion leaving in the place of the latter the Idolatry and Superstition of the Church of Rome which is to this day openly profess'd in most parts of the Elector Palatine's Dominions notwithstanding his own firm adherence to the Doctrines of the Calvinists The Chief Cities in the Lower PALATINATE HEYDELBERG is the Metropolis of the Lower Palatinate and as some would have it of all Swaben 'T is seated on the Neccar which parts Swaben and Franconia It has its name from a little sort of shrub resembling Myrtle the fruit whereof growing plentifully on the Hills round this City the Germans call Heidelbeeren whence Latin Authors write the name of this Town Myrtillorum mons and Myrtilletum 'T is compass'd round with Hills cover'd with Vines except only towards the West which way you have a good prospect over a large and pleasant plain The Town is neither large nor very populous its chief beauty consisting in one fair street set off with an uniform Market place The Elector's Palace on the ascent of the hill Konigstul which overlooks the whole Town is a stately Fabrick beautified with a great many delicate Gardens Grottoes c. Not far distant from which stands a strong Tower which for its fortifications and heighth is hardly to be parallel'd in the German Empire 'T was formerly call'd Trutzkayser or Defiance to the Emperor but since the restauration of the late Elector that disobliging name has been abolish'd and 't is now call'd from some new Works made round it in form of a Star Stern-schantz or Star-fort But the most remarkable thing in this Palace and indeed in Heydelberg is the great Wine-fat Great Tun mention'd by all that travel this Country under the name of the Tun at Heydelberg That which is now to be seen in an outer building near the Palace was built by the order of the last Elector Charles-Ludowic and far exceeds any of the former It contains above 204 Fudder of Wine which amounts to about 200 Tun of our English measure Instead of Hoops it is built with large Trees of knee Timber like the ribs of a Ship which have several Inscriptions painted and carv'd upon them and are supported by carv'd pedestals Upon one side of the Vessel you have a handsom Stair-case leading to the top where you meet with a Gallery set round with Ballisters three and forty steps from the ground Before the year 1664 in which year this was built the old Tun tho one of the wonders of the German Nation was not comparable to this 'T was encircled with great Hoops of Iron each of which are said to have weigh'd 12200 pound It contain'd only 132 Fudder of Wine and there were no more then seventeen steps to the stop The University was founded by Count Rupert in the year 1387 Vniversity tho some will needs have it ten years older and others near forty It is still much frequented and has given education to many eminent men in former days Witness R. Agricola Munster H. Buschius Xylander Paul Cisner Pacius Franciscus Junius P F. Smetius Freherus and Janus Gruterus In the great Church Library dedicate to the Holy Ghost was formerly kept the Elector's Library of which the learned Scaliger in one of his Epistles to Janus Gruterus gives this account Indicem Bibliothecae vestrae sedulo legi Locupletior est meliorum Librorum quam Vaticana One great part of this Collection was the Library of the Monastery of Sponheim to which says Trithemius in a Letter to Damius Curtensis A.D. 1507 no Library in the German Empire is worthy to be compar'd either for the rarity or multitude of Books especially its Manuscripts in the Hebrew Greek Latin Chaldaean Arabic Indian Russian Tartarian Italian French German and Bohemian languages But this Treasure of Learning was siezed on and plunder'd by the Spanish forces who took Heydelberg in the year 1620. At which time a considerable number of choice Books were trodden to dirt and the rest carried over the Alps to the Vatican where they may still be seen in a long Gallery over against the Duke of Vrbin's Library 2. WORMES Wormes tho more immediately subject to the Bishop of that place is reckon'd the second Town in the Lower Palatinate Freher a man admirably skill'd in the Antiquities of this Country says that 't was anciently the Metropolis of the Vangiones the old inhabitants of these parts and that within these few years was to be seen this Inscription in Capital Letters over the Peacock-Gate SPECULA VANGIONUM But Cluverius tells us it s old name was Bormitomagus or Borbetomagus corrupted afterwards into Vorvetomagus Vorvemagus Vormagia Guarmacia and at last Wormacia The Imperial Chamber was formerly kept here and in those days Worms was one of the most considerable Towns in the Empire Munster says that in his time 200 Cities Great Towns and Villages lay so near this City that their inhabitants could daily bring into Worms such provision as their Country afforded and return home at night to their respective dwellings But the many calamities which this place and the neighbourhood underwent in the Civil Wars of Germany and by the late incursions of the French forces not to mention the miseries they have suffer'd by the often rebellion of the Citizens against their Bishop have mightily alter'd the case and there is now nothing of