before the King where-ever he goes and to take care that all the Court-Officers perform their Duty in their several Stations over whom he has the sole Jurisdiction in criminal Cases If any Person so much as wounds one of his Officers he loses his Head for it by a Law made in the Year 1573. He is moreover the Introducer of all Ambassadors He has an exceeding great Benefit by imposing Prizes on Merchants Wares for they generally make him great Presents and Bribes to augment their Profit Nevertheless his Power is very much lessen'd in the Time of the Election of a King for then he must act in Conjunction with the Grand Marshal of Lithuania He always acts by Assistance of the Court Marshal who is his Deputy in his Absence And when the Court Marshal absents likewise the Duty of that Office is requir'd from the Grand Marshal of Lithuania and in his Absence from his Little Marshal And when all these are absent that Duty is incumbent on the Chancellors and Treasurers in their respective Turns The hundred and twentieth Lay Senator is The grand Marshal or grand Steward of Lithuania His Office is much the same with that of the grand Marshal of Poland The hundred and twenty first Lay Senator is The great Chancellor of the Kingdom The hundred and twenty second Lay Senator is The great Chancellor of the Dutchy The hundred and twenty third Lay Senator is The Vice-Chancellor of the Crown The hundred and twenty fourth Lay Senator is The Vice-Chancellor of the Dutchy The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdom must be the one Ecclesiastical and the other Secular by a Law made at Cracow in the Time of Sigismund I. But those of the Great Dutchy are both oblig'd to be Secular tho Hartknoch says there is no Law against a Bishop's being Chancellor there They have each of them two Seals the Chancellor the greater Seal and the Vice-Chancellor the lesser Their Authority is equal except that the former always takes Place of the latter tho' he happens to be a Bishop and that the Vice-Chancellor does not act but in Absence of the Chancellor or at least under him The Chancellor's Office is to take Cognizance of all civil Affairs to see Justice done the Laws observ'd and to render ineffectual the Cabals and Intrigues of foreign Princes in Prejudice of the Liberties and Authority of the Republick They are to seal all the King's Mandates and Grants and to receive and answer all his Letters Their Power also is so great that they can seal several things without the King's Consent and refuse as many where he commands if they are contrary to the Constitution of the State The Chancellor or in his Absence the Vice-Chancellor answer to all Speeches made the King and propose all Matters to be debated in the Senate He of the two that is Ecclesiastical hath a Power over the King's Secretaries Chaplains and Preachers as likewise over all the Ceremonies of the Church which in any wise relate to the King They are the general Chroniclers and Publishers of the Laws and take Cognisance of all Appeals made to the King The Vice-Chancellor generally succeeds the Chancellor tho sometimes in Lithuania it has happen'd otherwise The Ecclesiastical Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor of Poland is for the most part chosen out of the meaner Bishopricks as Culm Premislia Chelm c. They ought to be Persons of great Prudence Learning and Probity their Business being to admonish advise and direct the King in his Administration of the Government The hundred and twenty fifth Lay Senator is The great Treasurer of the Crown The hundred and twenty sixth Lay Senator is The great Treasurer of the Dutchy These Treasurers are Masters and Guardians of the Treasure and Revenue of the Republick which is brought them in by four general Collectors who all keep a true Register of it giving a Copy thereof to the King and another to the Treasurer They also have the keeping of the Regalia as the Crown Scepter Globe Sword of State Robes c. They moreover have in their Custody all the King's Furniture and Records and are to preside in the Office of the Mint They likewise pay all Salaries either of the Military or civil List The Treasurers Privilege is so great that they are not oblig'd to give any Account either to the King or any of his Officers how they perform their Trust but in due Time the Diet appointing Commissioners for that Purpose they are oblig'd faithfully to charge and discharge themselves before them otherwise the Republick may sue them for it and confiscate their Lands Nevertheless the Treasurers who most commonly misemploy the publick Stock by treating the Commissioners well and making them considerable Presents withal often obtain their Discharge without much Difficulty I may here give your Grace an Account of a Passage that happen'd when Count Morstyn was great Treasurer of Poland who having more Regard to his own private Interest than publick Benefit sent all the Riches of the Treasury into France when fearing that the Diet would soon think fit to call him to Account he retir'd privately with all his Effects out of the Kingdom and went to settle in France where he purchas'd the whole County of Chateau-Villain which is worth above an hundred thousand Livres a Year The hundred and twenty seventh Lay Senator is The little or Court Marshal of the Kingdom The hundred and twenty eighth Lay Senator is The little or Court Marshal of the Dutchy These Court Marshals in the Time of Vladislaus VII had a Contest with the Chancellors for Precedence but at length they were order'd to be contented with the last Place in the Senate therefore Starovolscius who in his Colen Edition of the State of Poland places them next to the great Marshals in that of Dantzic puts them last of all It will not be here amiss to acquaint Your Grace that besides these ten Crown-Officers there are three other Sorts of Officers which are not Senators and they are either of the Kingdom and Great Dutchy the King's Court or belonging peculiarly to Palatinates and Districts The Principal of the first Kind are these The two Grand Generals of the Crown and Great Dutchy who are the King 's immediate Substitutes and have a full Power to do whatever his Majesty could were he present Tho this Dignity of Great General be the most considerable and honorable of any in the Republic yet does it not make the Person that enjoys it to be a Senator nor qualifies him to have the least Seat in the Diet unless he be therewithal a Palatin or Castellan as most commonly he is The two great Generals of Poland and Lithuania have equal Power in their respective States and have no Dependance upon each other unless that the Great General of Lithuania always gives Place to him of Poland yet has he the sole Command
the Church and the Civil Magistrates are oblig'd to be Assisting to them in the Execution of their Sentences as often as they shall be so requir'd To the Ecclesiastical Courts belongs the Court of Nunciature held by the Popes Nuncio for that purpose always residing in Poland However before he can have any Jurisdiction he must have presented the King and the Principal Ministers of State with the Apostolic Brief of his Nunciature The Civil Jurisdiction is divided among divers sorts of Judges and belongs to the Commonalty as well as Gentry Some of these determine Causes exempt from Appeals and others cannot Those from whom there lies no Appeal are the three High-Tribunals instituted by Stephen Batori the Judges whereof are all Gentry Two of these Tribunals are for the Kingdom and one for the Great Dutchy Those for the Kingdom keep their Session Six Months at Petricovia in Low Poland and the other Six at Lublin in High Poland That for the Great Dutchy is alternatively one year at Vilna and another either at Novogrodec or Minski They all consist of so many Judges both Ecclesiastical and Civil chosen out of every Palatinate the former once in four years and the latter once in two Judgment is pronounced here by Plurality of Voices but where Matters are purely Ecclesiastical there ought to be as many of the Clergy as the Laity The Causes here are heard in Order for three days are allow'd to enter all that come and whatever are not enter'd within that time cannot be adjudg'd that sitting A Man that has a Trial in these Courts may be said to have all the Nation for his Judges Deputies both Ecclesiastical and Temporal being sent thither for that purpose from all Parts of the Kingdom The Senate also Judges of Civil or Criminal Matters without Appeal As do likewise the Great Marshals in all Cases relating to the King's Officers And the Great Chancellors in matters of Appeal to the Court which they have only Cognisance of But the Marshal's Jurisdiction extends over all Merchants and Strangers both who find but little Justice done them in Poland when they have occasion for it Also there are two Exchequer Courts for the Revenue one held at Radom in High Poland and the other at Vilna These Courts seldom sit above a Fortnight or Three Weeks Those that are not exempt from Appeals are the Courts of the Gentry and Commonalty in every Palatinate which are by no means to have any of the Clergy for Judges Those for the Gentry are either the Courts of Land-Judicature or those of the Starostas and are more or fewer in number according to the Extent of the Palatinate where they are held The Courts of Land-Judicature have one Judge an Associate and a Natory or Head-Clerk to Try Causes and Administer all Civil Justice in some Places four in others six times a year and in others once a Month. The Courseof these Courts can only be interrupted by the Death of any of their Judges by the Diet or by the general Meeting of the Palatines and Magistrates which last is every Autumn to hear Appeals from Inferiour Courts The Towns where the Gentry sit are in great number and it must be observ'd that none who have Lands or Goods within each Jurisdiction can be made to Appear at a Court where they have none The immediate Appeal from these Courts is to the Vice-Chamberlain of the Palatinate who either by himself or his Deputy the Chamberlain of that District restores all that have been Dispossess'd and ascertains all Bounds and Limits of Lands This is as it were his whole Jurisdiction But where there is any Contest between the King and any of the Gentry in this Kind then at their request Commissioners are appointed out of the Senate to inspect the matter disputed and to do Justice therein Likewise where the Difference is between the King and a Clergy-man Commissioners are order'd but there the Bishop of the Diocess Claims the Nomination of one or more of them When any of the Officers of the Courts of Land-Judicature die the King cannot Name others till the District to which they belong'd have chosen Four out of the House-keepers but then he may pitch upon One for each Election This Office being once obtain'd it cannot be forfeited but by a Higher Promotion or Male Administration The other Courts for the Gentry are those that take cognizance of Criminal Cases whereof there is one only in every Starostaship call'd Sudy Grodskie Where either the Starosta himself or his Lieutenant-Criminal Administers Justice in his Castle or some other publick Place at least every Six Weeks He likewise has Cognisance of Civil Causes between such as have no Lands and such Forreigners as come to Trade here Process in Criminal Cases is to be serv'd here a Fortnight and in Civil a Week before the Court sits He is also the Executive Minister of all Sentences pronounc'd and likewise a sole Conservator of the Peace within his Territories He is oblig'd by himself or his Officers to see all Publick Executions perform'd The Courts of the Commonalty are either in Cities or Villages In Cities Justice is Administred by the Scabins Town-Hall or Judg-Advocate The Scabins have cognisance of all Capital Offences and Criminal Matters the Town-Hall of all Civil Cases to which likewise the Gentry are subject and the Judg-Advocate of Offences committed by Soldiers Civil Matters of small Moment are determin'd solely by the Governour of the City but which are subject to Appeal to the Town-Hall and thence to the King In Villages the Commonalty are subject to Scabins being the Kings Officers and to Scultets or Peculiar Lords from which last lies no Appeal Here Justice is almost Arbitrary except in Criminal Cases The Scultets are Hereditary Judges The Execution of all Sentences in Cities and Towns is in the hands of its own Magistrates though in some cases they are forc'd to beg Assistance from the Starostas The Officers and Magistrates of the Plebeian Courts are some nam'd by their Peculiar Lords and some Elected by their Fellow Citizens except in Cracow only where the Palatine has a Right of Choosing the Magistrates though he has not the same Power to dis-place them after they are once chosen for they are to continue their Office for Life unless they forfeit it by Infamy or Inability Out of the XXIV composing the Council or Senate of Cracow the Palatine every year deputes Eight with the Title and Power of Presidents He also Names the Judge and Scabins by the Magdeburg Laws though these in other Cities are chosen by the Council The Scultets or Hereditary Judges cannot be remov'd but in extraordinary Cases The Profits of all Offices are but very small and scarce any certain the Poles esteeming the Honour of enjoying them sufficient Recompence Nevertheless they have all Salaries and Perquisites though inconsiderable The Military
there should be no Successor nam'd for the future while the Predecessor surviv'd This Constitution Stephen Bateri would have invaded but the Republick oppos'd him so vigorously that he was forc'd to let fall his Design All Christian Princes having a feasible Right to the Crown of Poland it is the Interest of each of them to oppose the Election of a Successor since they would thereby absolutely be excluded from it This occasion'd the present Emperour Leopold to send Francis de Lisola to the Diet held at Warsaw in the Year 1661 where John Casimir had a Mind to propose a Prince to succeed him Wherefore in Conjunction with John Owerbeck Envoy to the Elector of Brandenbourg Lisola rais'd Factions in the Diet which were seconded by Marshal Lubomirski insomuch that they quickly overthrew King Casimir's Design and caus'd the Diet to confirm the former Constitution against electing of a Successor Several of the Lithuanian Gentry had the same Intentions with John Casimir but however with these following Precautions First That such a Successor should be elected a new after the King's Death Secondly That he should be a Roman Catholick Thirdly That he should not be a Piasto or Native Fourthly That he should neither be an Emperour King nor Sovereign Prince of another Country Fifthly That he should not be any Neighbour of Poland Sixthly That he should neither be too young nor too old And Seventhly That he should not be marry'd No doubt the Designs of King Casimir and of all those that were for the Election of a Successor were good for they had thereby a Mind to secure the Government from those Divisions and Intestine Jarrs which commonly happen in Interregnums But those who oppos'd them affirm'd that the Election of a Successor would undoubtedly soon introduce an Hereditary Monarchy and be the ruin of their Liberties and Privileges whatever care they could take to prevent it That it would be likewise against the Constitutions of the Realm to Elect a Soccessor in the King's Life time and that if the Republic consented to it they would be no longer at Liberty to oppose it That it would moreover be an Injury done to several Princes who all had a kind of Right to the Kingdom of Poland which would therefore infallibly embroil it in new Troubles when it was the Interest of that Crown to be at Peace with all the World These were the several reasons offer'd by the two Parties the last whereof as I said before got the better Till a King of Poland be Crown'd he has really no Regal Authority for he can bestow no Benefice give no Office nor Pardon any Offence Neither can he make use of the Great Seal of the Chancery nor set the Courts of Justice a going which are always silenced during an Interregnum till he has taken his Coronation Oath It belongs to the King-Elect to appoint a Day for his Coronation which formerly was wont to be at Gnesna till the Coronation of Vladislaus Locticus was solemniz'd at Cracow in the year 1320. where it was fix'd by the Constitutions of the Kingdom nevertheless Vladislaus VII would needs Crown his Queen Caecilia Renata at Warsaw but which was not perform'd without excessive Murmurings of the Gentry The Day of Coronation being arriv'd the King makes his solemn Entry into Cracow with great Pomp and Acclamations The Scabins of the City carry the Dais over him preceded by all the Horse and Foot-Guards with their Officers Immediately after the King follow the Bishops Palatins and foreign Embassadors on Horseback Just before the King Rides an Officer who throws some Coronation Medals among the People but which seldom amounts to any great Sum. Thus Attended his Majesty is conducted thro' the City to the Castle having first receiv'd the Keys of the City from the Magistrates in the first Gate thereof and pass'd under several Triumphal Arches with Motto's of various Invention At the Castle-gate he has the Keys of that Important Place also presented him with a solemn Harangue by the Starosta of Cracow The rest of the Day is spent in Banqueting and Feasts The Day following being that which precedes the Coronation the Obsequies of the deceas'd King are to be celebrated when they carry his Body to Schalka to the Church of St. Stanislaus The Order of Procession is this First the new King marches on foot then follow all the Officers of the Crown and Great Dutchy together with the Deputies the Ensigns with the Standards of every Palatinate and lastly the Crown Scepter Globe Sword and other Regalia being carry'd before the Corps pointed towards the Ground After these come a great Number of other Gentry and next after them march the several Companies of Trades barefooted belonging both to the City and Court each having an empty Coffin and Pall born before them on the Shoulders of two Men. It is to be observ'd that all that assist at this Procession must be in Mourning At the Place of Interment the Marshals break their Staffs against the King's Tomb and all the other Officers are discharg'd of their Authorities several Ways After which the Body is interr'd in the Cathedral Church among the rest of the Kings of Poland who for the most part lie all buryed there I should have remember'd that the Myter'd Clergy generally march about the Corps The Day after the Funeral is assign'd for the Coronation the Ceremony whereof is to be perform'd by the Archbishop of Gnesna as Primate of the Kingdom altho' that Office was once disputed with him by Sâ—igneius Olesnicius as being both Bishop of Cracow and Cardinal at the same time yet nevertheless Casimir IV. decided that Difference in Favour of the Archbishop and which was afterwards confirm'd by Alexander Notwithstanding if the Primate be either dead or refractory that Right devolves to the Bishop of Cracow and upon his Obstinacy Absence or Death to the Bishop of Cujavia The two Bishops that assist at the Coronation are the Bishops of Cracow and Cujavia The Ceremony of the Procession when the King goes to be crown'd is order'd by the Master of the Ceremonies but before his Majesty stirs out he is habited after a very splendid Manner by the Great Marshal of the Kingdom The King is conducted from the Castle to the Cathedral by the Senators foreign Embassadors and a great Number of the Gentry Before he enters the Church the Great Master of the Horse brings the Crown Scepter and naked Sword to the Archbishop who places them all upon the Altar After which the Bishops of Cracow and Cujavia having receiv'd the King they hold him under each Arm and present him to the Archbishop to whom he makes a Bow I imagine a more particular Account of this Ceremony may neither be unacceptable to your Lordship nor the Publick and therefore I shall for the future describe all the most remarkable Circumstances thereof as
Kingdom have a right to any of these Mines as likewise to those of any Metals found upon their Lands there being by the Constitutions no Royal Mines in Poland except those of white Salt only which belong peculiarly to the King Throughout all Poland and Lithuania there are a great many Corn and Cachat-Mills but scarce any for Fulling or Paper yet which they might very well have by reason of their great number of rapid Streams In this and in other respects the Poles are very negligent of their own Interest being content to pay great rates for Cloth and Paper when they might easily have both of their own Manufacture As for Leather tho' no People use it more having almost all Boots and Chariots which they call Ridevans yet do they not care to take the trouble of dressing it themselves but suffer Foreigners to do it for them and which commonly they pay very dear for when done The Poles Trade very much in fresh Fish amongst themselves and the manner of their Fishing I imagine may not be unacceptable to your Excellency having something peculiar in it Their Lakes and Fish-ponds in Poland and Lithuania being generally so large that it would be almost impossible ever to drain them They usually choose to Fish them in Winter when they are all frozen up They first make a great hole in the Ice to let down their Nets and afterwards several little ones from place to place that they may draw them along from hole to hole with a Rope fastned to a long Pole till they bring them back to the first large opening When the two ends of the Nets are brought together they pull them up and bring out with them all the Fish that happen to be within the space of Water thro' which the Nets were drawn for they cannot possibly leap over them because of the Ice Throughout all Poland and Lithuania there are huge quantities of Honey to be found in the Woods either in hollow Trees holes of the Ground or any where else that the Bees can find to settle in Of this Honey as I said before the People make several sorts of Mead with which and the Wax that comes from it they Trade very much into the Neighbouring Countries Now is it not a great wonder that these Bees can produce so great plenty of Honey in so Cold a Climate But it seems they find something in the Fir-Trees whereof there are great numbers in every Wood that supplies the place of Flowers which they suck their materials from in other Countries Before I proceed to give your Excellency a description of the Famous City of Dantzic I must take some cursory Notice of the former Trade of Prussia before its Inhabitants came to have the use of Money In the XIIIth Century the Teutonic Knights coming out of Germany into Prussia brought along with them the Coin of their Country for before that time the Prussians only barter'd Commodities with their Neighbours Their chiefest Trade then lay in Electrum or Amber of the Nature of which Hartman a late German Author gives this account He says that since it can neither be melted down nor is Malleable it is impossible it should be Metal and because it is too solid a Body to come under the Species of Sulphur or Bitumen it must necessarily be rank'd among the precious Stones This Amber is of divers Colours and notwithstanding Hartman insinuates it to be always solid yet is it certain that sometimes it is as liquid as Oyl There is a black sort of it which is no other than what we call Jett A Description of the City of DANTZIC TO come to the Description of Dantzic in Latin Dantiscum or Gedanum your Excellency may be pleased to understand that it is the Capital and Largest City in Royal Prussia and lies in 41 Degrees and 30 Minutes of Longitude and in 54 Degrees and 20 Minutes of Latitude It is Situate in one of the three Islands of which Regal Prussia consists called by the Germans der Dantzicher Werder the other two having the Names of der Marienbursche Werder and der Elbingsâ—her Werder This Name Der Werder implies properly so many pieces of solid Ground encompassed by Fenns and Boggs By whom this City was first built remains as yet undetermin'd Becanus will have the Danes to have been the Founders of it and from them to have been called Danes-wick i. e. Danes-Town but this derivation seems to have too much Dutch in it therefore it is more probable that to the word Dan Cdan or Gdan was added the Sclavonian term Scke signifying a Town which made it Danscke Cdanscke or Gdanscke and which might very reasonably be suppos'd afterwards for better Pronunciation's sake to be chang'd into Dantzig or Dantzic It is distant about 80 Polish Miles from Cracow 40 from Posnan 50 from Warsaw 30 from Gnesna 22 from Thron 24 from Koningsberg 8 from Elbing 6 from Marienburg and near 4 English Miles from the Baltick Sea and is built on the borders of the Vistula on the North-West side of the aforesaid Island The Town it self is watered by the Rivers Rodawn and Motlaw and divided by the former into two parts the Old and the New On the Southern and Western side it is surrounded with high Mountains and was well fortified with Bulwarks against the Incursions of the Swedes in the Year 1656. It has a large and high Wall so broad that Coaches easily go round the Ramparts and so large in compass that it is three hours Journey round which I may very well compute at six English Miles At the Entrance of the Rodawn on the other side it has a strong Fort wherein there is commonly kept a Garrison of 1000 Soldiers It is impossible this City should be Bombarded from the Sea by reason of its distance from it but from the Neighbouring Hills it may and therefore some Works are raised there and always a certain number of Soldiers with store of Cannon and Ammunition plac'd in them for its greater security This City is at present a famous Mart and one of the principal of the Hanse-Towns being altogether govern'd by its own Laws tho' under Protection of the Crown of Poland from which it has a Castellan appointed over it Half of the Suburbs belong to that Crown and the other half to the City for in some Parts the Crown-Lands reach to the Suburbs but in others the City-Lands go several Miles together into the Country There are Twenty Parishes in the City and the Suburbs The Houses are generally of Brick and the Streets most commonly very large and well pav'd tho' somewhat dirty in Winter as most of the Towns in Poland are The chief Part of the City call'd by the Inhabitants Die rechte Stadt was built by Conrad Wallenrodt Master of the Teutonick Order about the Year 1388. There are no Gardens in the City but nevertheless several very fine and large
any Conditions to become Master of so considerable a Kingdom to which he had no Right either by Birth or other Claim and more especially since these Conditions are neither Rigorous nor Dishonourable but such as are decently consistent with the Regal Character he is to be Invested with Thus the Polish Gentry of a kind of Monarchical Government have in time made a perfect Republic consisting of three Orders The King Senate and Gentry which they call the Nobility Here My Lord I must take notice to Your GRACE that the Polish Nation is divided into two sorts of People the Gentry or Freeborn Subjects who are hardly a Tenth Part of the Kingdom and the Vassals who are no better than Slaves to the Gentry for they have no Benefit of the Laws can Buy no Estates nor Enjoy any Property no more than our Negroes in the West-Indies can and this because some Ages since the Common People Revolting against their Lords and having driven them out of the Nation the Gentry came with a Foreign Power and reduced them to a greater Subjection than before in which they have been kept ever since So that the Government of Poland at present comprehends only the King and Gentry By a Gentleman or Nobleman of Poland is understood a Person who either himself or his Family has a Possession in Land For they never Intermarry with the Common People All the Gentry from the King's Sons to those that are but only Masters of an Acre of Land are equally Noble both by their Birth and the Constitution of the Kingdom for no Body is Born either a Palatine Senator or Lord but those Titles are always annexed to certain Employments which the King only gives to Persons advanced in Age and recommended by their Merits The Diet of Poland in some respects resembles our Parliament being made up of two Houses the House of Senators answerable to our House of Lords and the House of Nuncio's not unlike our House of Commons The Senators are the Bishops Palatines Castellans and the Ten Great Officers of the Crown in all about 142. In the Upper-House the Senators sit not by any Writ of Summons or Letters Patents as in England but only by Virtue of the Great Preferments in the King's Gift which they Enjoy for Life So that the King wholly Constitutes the Upper House but the Lower are the Representatives of the Gentry Elected by them alone in their respective Provinces without the Concurrence of the Common People who have no Priviledge to Vote in their Election Insomuch that at least Nine Parts in Ten of the People of Poland are excluded from having any Share in the Government The Grand Diet of Poland is nothing else but the King Senators and Deputies assembled together in any Part of the Kingdom that his Majesty Commands Without this great Assembly of the States the King can neither Make nor Repeal Laws Declare War nor Conclude a Peace make no Alliance with any Foreign Princes raise neither Troops nor Taxes Coin no Money and in a word can Determine no Matter of State of any Importance without the Universal Consent and Concurrence of this Parliament which they term the Free States of Poland Several powerful Motives have enclin'd the Poles to Establish this kind of mixt Government which they take to be a just Temperament of whatever is to be found most Excellent in the several Monarchies Aristocracies and Democracies that have been in the World The most considerable of which Motives as I have met with them in their Histories or learn'd them from the most knowing among their Natives are as follows First They think by this Judicious Choice of a Government to preserve their Kingdom from those Disorders which most commonly attend Absolute Monarchies Agreeing herein with that Prince of Philosophers Aristotle who though he preferr'd this kind of Government to all Others yet was he nevertheless obliged to own that when ever it degenerated it was the most pernicious of all Thus the Poles have temper'd the Exorbitant Power of their Kings with the mixture of two other Governments whereby they thought to secure their Liberty a Thing always most Dear to them from the Arbitrary Will of a Prince who by Imagining himself above the Laws might Fancy whatever his Passions prompted him to allowable and his truest Interest to be the Entire Subjection of his People The miserable Examples of their Neighbours the Turks and Moscovites have sufficiently convinced them of this Truth wherefore the Polish Nation thought it but convenient to limit the excessive Power of their Kings and confine them to Rule with more Moderation and Justice Secondly The Poles have observ'd as well from their own Government as from that of their Neighbours that no small disadvantage has flow'd from an Aristocracy They could not be perswaded but that the Authority of one Person was infinitely more easie to be Tolerated than that of many for that either the Ambition or Jealousy of such would often disturb the Repose and Tranquility of the Public Poland also began to Reflect upon its former Miseries under its Woievods when it was deplorably rent and torn by the Factions among those Palatines Insomuch that even while it became a Conqueror from without it was vanquish'd within and that by its own Force This gave the Poles no small dislike to an Aristocracy which they have resolved never more to admit among them The Third Reason of State which has obliged the Poles to reject a Democracy is that they look upon that sort of Government to be the most dangerous of all being the easiest enflam'd and the greatest Enemy to true Nobility Its first Maxim is To procure a Vniversal Levelling or making all alike whereby under the Notion of a common Liberty they weaken and enervate those great Genius's which were design'd to Govern and Protect them How then could it be expected that the Descendents of those mighty Warriers who Founded the Polish Nation and have so long maintain'd the Honour of it by their Valour should submit to have their Blood debased by mixing it with the Ignoble Vulgar The Tyranny of Laws which the Nobles are subjected to in an Absolute Common-wealth would be too rude a Check to this Ambition which the Poles have always had to Command over their Vassals and therefore they have always entertain'd a secret Odium for those Grecian Republics that Banish'd their greatest Statesmen meerly because they would not have them gain too fast upon the Affections of the People If any should perhaps doubt of the pernicious Consequences of a popular Government where Reason does not so much reign as an Unruly violence of a People who know no other Laws than those of their Passions let them cast their Eyes on the Heats of the Roman Empire who were often ready to Overturn the State had not the Senate speedily applied a prudent Remedy But there are other Examples more Modern as the Revolt
of the Cosacks and the last Troubles in Bohemia To these also may be added the Revolutions of our own Nation in the Time of Charles I. when the Fury of the People extended their Rage even to the dipping their Hands in this Prince's Blood Politicians do generally own that the People are a wild Beast which ought rather to be led than left at Liberty and by consequence have pronounced it most Perilous to acquiesce under their Subjection An Anarchy would undoubtedly do more harm in a day than a Tyrant could in all his Reign If he Punishes 't is with some pretence of Justice when nothing can abate the Peoples Rage but an utter Extinction of whatever is placed over their Heâ—ds A mixt Government therefore made out of all these Three is that which has proved most Agreeable to the Polish Nation being a just Medium between the dangerous Extremities of an Absolute Monarchy and those of Aristocracy and Democracy It is this the Poles have pitch'd upon as most proper to preserve the public Liberty and to perpetuate the Happiness of their State being it seems perswaded that a Body Politic resembles a Humane in this that as the one borrows all its Vigour and Health from a Just Temperament of the different Humours that compose it so the other depends absolutely on that of the Three before-mention'd Forms of Government And moreover as the former subsists by the mutual Opposition of contrary Qualities so the King Senate and Gentry of Poland having in some measure different Interests and Inclinations are not only hinder'd from deviating into vicious Extremities but also through a Noble Emulation are excited to labour carefully for the Good of the Public The Republic is divided into Two States the Kingdom of Poland and the Great Dutchy of Lithuania yet both which are but as one Body having the same King the same Parliament the same Laws the same Privileges the same Religion and as the natural result of all these the same Interest These Two States are so very well United that a King cannot be Elected a Law made nor any State-Business done without the mutual Consent of both But My Lord as the King is the Prime and Chief Member of this Republic I will give Your GRACE an Account of his present Power and Prerogatives The Poles are too proud a Nation to agree with those Politicians that measure the Grandeur of a Prince and Happiness of a State by the Despotic Power of him that Governs it and therefore those pernicious Maxims of Tyrants Si Lubet Licet Oderint dum Metuant and the like would be but ill receiv'd among a People that have all along secured their Liberties by their Prudence and Valour This Vassalage would suit well enough with the Slaves of Asia and Africk or with the Moscovites and Turks who all suffer themselves to be govern'd like Beasts and led by the Nose according to the different Caprice or Pleasure of their Prince As for the Kings of Poland they may rest in security in the Bosom of their Country even amidst the Noise of Arms either without or within their Dominions since they have always their Subjects to crowd about them for their Guards thro' indispensable Inclinations For what contributes chiefly to the Happiness of these Princes is the Loyal Observance and voluntary Obedience paid them even by those that are at Liberty to do the contrary I have often heard Monsieur de Polignac the French Ambassador say at Warsaw That he thought a King of Poland more Happy in his Person and Condition than a King of France Nevertheless this Authority of the King of Poland is so alloy'd by the Laws of the Land that it does not exact more Veneration from the Nobles or Gentry than they think he deserves For tho' their Behaviour be generally extraordinary Observant yet do they tacitly seem to call in question the Power they have limited and often refuse that Duty which they have deem'd him worthy of by his Election The Polish Nobility make no Difference between their King 's Right and those of the Senate and Deputies affirming That since these three Members compose but one Body they ought equally to share in the same Benefits and Injuries and consequently ought all either to Reward the one or Revenge the other The small Authority therefore of their Kings and the Impossibility of their Acting by themselves has at all times exposed Poland to the Insults of their Neighbours and the Rage of their own People as may be seen in the Civil Wars of the Cosacks and the Treachery and Sedition of the Confederates which could never have arriv'd at so great height if the King had had but sufficient Power to have suppress'd them Also the Great Marshal of the Crown Lubomirski would never have had the Boldness to have oppos'd King Casimir's Designs openly and to have form'd so many Factions against the Court had he not had some Assurances of remaining Unpunish'd This makes the King of Poland to be stiled a King of Kings and Lord of Lords since he has no better than Companions and Equals for his Subjects We have divers Instances of the Poles love for their Kings and particularly by their once enforcing the Right of Sigismund III. to the Kingdom of Sweden in an obstinate War which they began several times as likewise in supporting afterwards the Pretences of Vladislaus VII to Moscovy To omit divers others of a more ancient Date This Respect of their obliges them frequently to come and spend their Estates at Court thinking to augment their Princes Grandeur by their Prodigality and Magnificence This appears by the mistake made by Gregory King of Bohemia at the Interview between him and Casimir the Great at Glogan which Place the former had demanded to bound the Limits of Silesia when he saluted a Private Gentleman splendidly Cloath'd for the King of Poland The Custom and Inclination of the Poles runs so strong towards Honouring their Prince that all they have or are able to do even to the Destruction of their Lives and Fortunes they are willing to lavish in his Service without expecting any greater Recompence than the Glory of Waiting on His Majesty's Person Insomuch that a King of Poland who is Couragious and Prudent Just and Sober Liberal and Religious one that observes the Laws and Constitutions of his Kingdom and in a word who has no other Interest but the Common Good and Safety of his Subjects is as much Respected and Honour'd and as faithfully Obey'd both in time of Peace and War nay as formidable to all his Enemies as most Princes in Europe As to what relates to War no Monarch has greater Advantages than himself for he is neither at the trouble of raising Forces nor Expence in Maintaining them his Business being only to convene the Diet and they do all these things to his Hand After War is once declar'd he can continue the
Starostaships after the Death of those that Enjoy them If the King chance to die before the Queen has this Reformation assign'd her then the Republic gives her a Yearly Pension out of the Crown-Revenues but this no longer than she continues unmarried or stays in the Realm for otherwise in both those Cases the Queen Regent gets it or else it reverts to the State It may be observ'd that the Queen Regent never comes by it without the Consent of the Diet and that is no ordinary Expence to her to procure by Purchasing almost all the Votes of that Mercenary Assembly This may be seen in the Case of the present Queen-Dowager for when the Queen her Predecessor Marry'd the Duke of Lorrain she observing that the Settlement of her Pension was like to be put off to the succeeding Diet which is conven'd only once in three Years thought it better to be at the Charge of gaining their Votes at that Session than to lose three Years Income This Revenue is generally computed at half a Million Polish which amounts to about Thirty Thousand English Pounds As long as the Queen-Dowager enjoys this Pension the Queen-Regent can have none for the Poles say that it would be too much to Pension two Queens at once Tho' the King of Poland has many important Employments to distribute yet his Power is always limited in the Distribution of them for he cannot Name any of his Children no nor so much as the Queen to any Charge either Ecclesiastical or Temporal Sigismund III. having a mind to give his Queen Constantia two Starostaships vacant by the Death of Queen Anne who died in the Year 1625. all the Gentry oppos'd it by a great Uproar in the Diet and maintain'd vigorously That a King of Poland ought not to part with any Office without their Consent Neither can he Purchase any Lands for them in any part of the Kingdom without Consent of the Diet Although the late King bought several vast Territories in other Peoples Names both in Russia Prussia and almost all over the Kingdom and besides purchas'd a Principality of the Emperor in Silesia for Prince James his Eldest Son But the Poles having long since discovered the Secret pretended when I was at Warsaw that all those Lands must come to the Crown after the King's Death Some of the Kings of Poland also have been so kind as to part with their Prerogatives in Ecclesiastical Matters so that now they retain only the Collation of Benefices As for the Foundation of Monasteries whatever Power the King may have left to Erect them they must always be confirm'd by the Three Orders of the States The King of Poland is likewise limited in divers other respects for he can neither encrease nor diminish the Number of Officers either of his Court or the Kingdom nor Name any Stranger that is not Naturaliz'd to any Charge or Government only in the Foot Army and there too such a Person can pretend to no more than to be a Captain or at most a Colonel This may appear by the Example of Stephen Batori who having had considerable Services done him by the Hungarians in the War against the Moscovites he thought it but reasonable to Prefer some of them for Recompence which extreamly incens'd the Poles and particularly the Grand General so much that he immediately thereupon resign'd his Staff 'T is also out of the Kings Power to advance some Natives for all Citizens Merchants Tradesmen and their Sons Country-Men Labourers and generally all Artificers are not only by the Constitutions of the Kingdom excluded from Preferments which the King has the Nomination of but also have not Liberty either of Buying or Enjoying Lands or Estates 'T is then the Nobility alone or Freeborn of the Kingdom of Poland the Great Dutchy of Lithuania or of the other Provinces Incorporated into that Monarchy that can pretend to any Preferment in the Republic Wherefore the aforesaid King Batori thinking to Advance his Nephews by reason he had no Children design'd to get them Naturalized in the Diet held the Thirteenth of December 1586 but was prevented by Death It must withal be understood that 't is not every one of these that can Aspire or lay Claim to every Preferment but only such as have Lands or Estates in the Kingdom the Great Dutchy or any other Incorporated Province where the Preferment lies For a Free-born Native of the Kingdom though he has an Estate in it yet cannot be a Governor of a City in Lithuania nor have any kind of Employment there without a setled Estate in that Country But the Advantage that all Freeborn Natives have is that they can Buy an Estate throughout the whole Extent of the Dominions of Poland There is another Inconvenience which very much Prejudices and Limits the King's Power and the public Interest of the whole Commonwealth for where-ever a Noble Pole is once named to a Preferment and is in actual possession of it let him commit never so many Crimes against the Crown or State he can never be depriv'd of his Employ or turn'd out of it without the Unanimous Consent of the Diet but shall continue in the same for Life even against a the Will of the Diet if he has but one Member on his Side who will protest against the Proceedings For the Negative Voice of a Member of the Diet of Poland has the same Force with a Negative of a King of England in Parliament This pernicious Constitution occasions many Troubles and Animosities for it encourages Unruly and Mutinous People to disturb the Commonwealth Officers never serve the Republic faithfully Treasurers arè thereby emboldened to give no Account of the Public Revenues the Generals of the Army and Governors of Provinces and Towns do as they think fit and most commonly mind their own private Affairs more than the Interest of the Republic In a word though the Poles term this Constitution the greatest Mark of their Liberty it inevitably Ruins the Foundation of the whole State and every one sees what bad Consequences must and do necessarily follow from this excessive Liberty or rather Libertinism of every Private Officer of the Kingdom My Lord This great Privilege of the Ofcers makes them pay more than ordinary Respect to the King before they are Dignify'd and court him to give them a Charge which he can never afterwards take away Moreover this Power of the King 's to Name such of the qualify'd Nobility as best pleases him to these important Employments keeps all the Gentry in a great Dependance on him for the design of the Republic in lodging the Nomination of Officers in the King's Hands was that he should take care to confer them on those that had best deserv'd them by their Services either in Peace or War and exclude such from them as had been Stubborn Mutinous and Unserviceable to the State Another Reason that makes the King respected is the natural Ambition
the Poles have to Aspire to the Honours of the Kingdom for by their Constitutions all the Nobles as they call them or Free-born of the Land are equal as to their Birth and none though never so Poor ows precedence unless through a Compliment to any ever so Rich Insomuch that Preferments and Honours are the only Means by which they attain to Precedence which is annex'd thereto and ascertain'd by the Statutes and Laws Now one would think that this mighty Power which the King of Poland has to dispose of so many Places of Profit and Trust so many Lands by Royal Tenure and so many Benefices must needs gain him the Love and Affection of those on whom they are conferr'd But on the contrary the Poles being none of the most grateful and knowing too well that the King cannot dispose of those Preferments but to themselves they believe that when he Grants them he only gives back what of Right belongs to them and that it is not so much an Act of Grace in him as a piece of Justice When a King of Poland comes to any City the Inhabitants are oblig'd immediately to present him with the Keys and he can send his Regiment of Guards to take possession of the Gates The Citizens of Dantzick only have a Privilege to keep their own Keys and to hinder all but a few Troops from following the King into the City It is certain that Dantzick has more Immunities and Privileges than any other City of Poland insomuch that it may be rather look'd upon to be a small Republic of it self under Protection of that Kingdom than a City subject to it Nay it has in a manner all the Marks of a Sovereign Power for it can Condemn to Death without Appeal even the Polish Gentry if they commit any Crime within its Territories and Jurisdiction The King can raise no Troops at his own Charges without Consent of the Diet and this for fear that he should strengthen himself and Intrench upon their Liberties Nevertheless Vladislaus VII Levied some with the Portion of his Queen Mary Ludovica but the Senate so Murmur'd that he was soon oblig'd to Disband them The King cannot on any Account whatever go out of the Kingdom without Consent of the Diet for Your GRACE may observe that King Henry of Valois was fain to steal out of the Kingdom when he went into France Sigismund III. after the Death of his Father John King of Sueden was forc'd to call a Diet at Warsaw in the Month of May 1592. to obtain Consent to return into Sueden to take Possession of his Hereditary Kingdom and that Lewis King of Hungary who was chosen King of Poland in the Year 1370 having a mind to return to his Native Kingdom desired leave of the Senate and was oblig'd to Augment their Privileges to obtain it The King's Children are more than ordinarily respected though at the same time every private Gentleman thinks himself as great as they by the Law and to have as lawful a Right to the Crown yet are they nevertheless always treated as Princes of the Blood Royal. His Eldest Son has the Title of Prince of Poland and the others barely that of Princes adding withal their Christian Names as Prince Alexander and Prince Constantin of Poland The Kings Eldest Daughter is call'd the Princess of Poland and the others only Princesses adding thereto their Names as Princess Mary of Poland But it must be understood that when the King their Father dies and a new King of another or the same Family succeeds and has Children then do they lose the Titles of Princes and Princesses of Poland and take only the Names of their Families or Estates such as Prince Sobieski Princess Czartoriski yet however the Senate always look upon themselves oblig'd to provide for them to give them Pensions and to Match them equal to their Dignity and Birth which has ever hitherto been duly observ'd Nay the Poles have all along shew'd such Esteem and Affection to the Royal Family that although they have not allow'd them any Hereditary Right to the Crown by Law yet have they always Elected one of them King where there was any surviving For I find from the time of their Prince Piastus even down to that of the Election of the late King John Sobieski which is from the Year 830. to the Year 1674 the Crown has always continued in the same Family in a direct Line as your GRACE may observe in the First Volume of my Account of Poland They have also not confin'd this Affection of theirs to the Kings Sons only but have likewise extended it towards their Daughters and even their Widows as may be seen at large in their Histories where Your GRACE will find what strict Regard the Poles had to the Royal Race in the Election of the Princess Hedwigis whom they waited for with great Patience though all the while they suffer'd extreamly by the Insults of the Duke of Masovia who pretended a Right to the Crown as being a Relation to Casimir the Great The King 's Natural Sons are extreamly undervalu'd and are hardly look'd upon to be Common Gentlemen for none of the Gentry care to keep Company with them Nay one of the Late King's is a Clerk in the Salt Custom-House at Thorn a City in Prussia where his Place is not worth him above Thirty Pounds per Annum All over the Kingdom they usually have a very mean Opinion of Illegitimate Children though Nature endows them generally with as many Perfections and with as good Qualities as she does the Lawfully Begotten The only way for a King of Poland to continue the Crown in his Family is to be Warlike to enlarge his Dominions to gain the Love and Affections of his People by his own Merits and by the Favour of the Clergy to send his Children early to the Wars to get Credit and Reputation in the Army to spend Liberally all his Revenues and to die in Debt to the end that the Poles may be enclin'd to Elect his Son to enable him to pay what his Father ow'd But all this while he must never think to encroach on the Privileges of the Nation nor endeavour by any means to render the Crown Hereditary for whenever the Poles begin to smell out any such private Design they are presently apt to stir up Seditious Tumults which would prove very Pernicious to all the Posterity of that King as the ill Success the Late King's Sons have had sufficiently demonstrates It is altogether impossible for a King of Poland in Imitation of the King of Denmark to reduce his Subjects under an Arbitrary Power for the State of Denmark was quite different then from what that of Poland is now In Denmark the King Clergy and Commonalty were under the Rule and Government of the Gentry so that it was the Interest of the Clergy and Commonalty to side with the King to abate and depress the
excessive Power and Privileges of the Nobility which they soon effected by being Resolute and more in Number But in Poland it is quite otherwise for there the Clergy and Gentry have a common Interest to keep the King and People in Subjection The Clergy have great Privileges and are very Rich. The Bishops for the most part are Princes or Dukes they are all Senators and sit in the Diet before all the Temporal Lords so that by the great Authority and Veneration which they have procur'd to themselves from the slavish People they can hinder them from making any Insurrection and by the Arbitrary and Free Power which they and the Gentry have hitherto maintain'd to Elect whom they pleas'd for King they will always keep him in such a Dependence for the sake of his Children that he shall hardly ever be able to effect any Design upon their Prerogatives Nay providing he had found any Opportunity to compass such a dangerous Enterprize yet would it not consist with Prudence either to declare or Attempt it for fear of Incurring the Hatred and Displeasure of the People which would not only tend to his own Ruin but likewise Obstruct the Election of any of his Family to the Throne after his Death so that the surest way for a King of Poland to continue the Crown in his Family is never to attempt any Innovation I would not however think the Kings of Poland Unfortunate in not being able to assure the Succession of the Throne to their Children since they are thereby compell'd as it were by a lucky Necessity to breed them up to all Royal Virtues and this to the end that it may render them more Accomplish'd and Worthy to be Elected For where they are satisfied that the Crown is not due to their Blood but to their Merits what will either the Father or Sons omit to obtain it by the most Glorious Means My LORD I have hitherto presented Your GRACE with what relates to the Form of Government in Poland and to the King's Power and Revenues I would now give a particular Account of the King's Court were it not like to that of other Princes as to Splendor and Number of Officers For besides the Great Crown-Officers as the two Great and Little Marshals as many Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors two Generals and two Great and Little Treasurers The King has his Lord-Chamberlain his Court-Marshal or Lord Steward his Master of the Horse his Secretaries of State his Standard-Bearer Chief Huntsman his Gentlemen of the Body answerable to our Lords of the Bed-Chamber his Physicians Chaplains Pensioners Cup-Bearers Sewers Carvers Musicians and Guards The Gentlemen Pensioners always attend the King on Horseback this Body of Gentry consists of the Noblest Youth of the Kingdom whereof many have Court and State-Employments and are all subject to the Jurisdiction of the Court-Marshal There are some of these that attend his Majesty on Foot but in long Journeys they are always carried in Waggons A set number of these keep Guard Day and Night about the King Whenever the King goes in Public these last March every way about him with long Battle-Axes on their Shoulders and Sabres by their Sides but still admitting the Senators and Chief Courtiers to March next him yet when the Queen goes with the King the Senators and other Persons of Quality are to walk before The King's Horse-Guards ought by the Constitutions to be either Poles Lithuanians or Natives of some of the Incorporated Provinces but however this Law has been dispens'd with for the late King admitted both Germans and Hungarians amongst them Their Number by the Law is not to exceed 1200 and their Chief Commander is to be subject to all the Four Marshals The King has the same Number of Court Officers in Lithuania as he has in Poland the Lithuanians being as Ambitious to keep up the ancient Grandeur of their Great Duke as the Poles are for that of their King The King has likewise the Nomination of some Court-Officers in several Provinces as in Prussia Masovia and Russia which had formerly distinct Princes of their own and were afterwards United to the Kingdom of Poland so that the King has the Nomination of as many Court-Officers as any Prince in Europe but most of them are rather Honorary than Beneficial yet the Gentry always make great Interest to get into them Precedence of which they are Ambitious being Regulated according to the Nature and Dignity of the Employment As for the Queen's Court it consists of about Thirty Officers the Chief whereof are her Marshal and Chancellor Their Business is to Preside over Domestic Affairs in the Queen's Court. Her Marshal or Steward is to carry the Staff before her and her Chancellor or Secretary to Write Sign Receive and Answer all her Letters There is her Treasurer who Manages her Revenue her Master of the Horse Cup-Bearers Carvers Sewers Clerk of the Kitchen c. For Women Servants she has her Ladies Maids of Honour Dressers c. When she goes in Public she is always attended by a great number of her own Sex It may not be here amiss to add something of the Court of the Inter-Rex or Primate and so I will conclude While the Archbishop of Gnesna has the Administration of the Government he has much the same Officers with the King but when he has laid down that Authority his Officers are his Marshal spoken of before his Chancellor who Presides in his Courts of Justice his Almoner Master of Requests Cross-Bearer Steward Treasurer Chaplains Library-Keeper Clerk of the Kitchin c. This Archbishop alone as he is the Chief Senator of Poland has Drums beating and Trumpets sounding both within and without Doors before he sits down to Table He also by his Prerogative is not to wait for the King's Commands when he should Visit him but may go when and as often as he pleases Before My Lord I put an end to this Letter permit me to take notice to Your GRACE that the King of Poland does not Name his Privy-Counsellors but all Senators are Counsellors of Course for all of that Dignity that are about the Place where the King Resides have a Right to sit at the Council-Board For fear notwithstanding that there should not be always Senators sufficient for that purpose at Court the Senate always depute four of their Members to attend the King's Person by turns and that not only to give him Advice but likewise to Inspect into his Conduct and to prevent him from Acting contrary to the Laws For the King and Council are accountable to the Diet for any Mismanagement in the Government In short the Genius of the Polish Nation and the whole Frame of their Constitution is entirely bent to Curb the King's Power and to secure their Laws and Prerogatives against the Incroaching Factions of Foreign Princes or of their own Court-Party I might here My Lord add a great many
more Particulars relating to the King of Poland but this is what I thought most material to be mention'd and what I cou'd only learn in so small a Time as I have lived in that Country I beg your GRACE's Pardon for tiring your Patience with so long and imperfect an Account and desire my Lord you wou'd receive this at least as a Testimony of my good Will of satisfying your Curiosity and of owning your many Favours to My LORD Your GRACE's Most Obedient Servant BERNARD CONNOR The following Letters intended at first to be Written by Dr. Connor were Compiled by Mr. Savage the Doctor not having Leisure to attend them from his Practice LETTER II. To His Grace HENRY Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England Of the Senate and Senators of Poland both Ecclesiastical and Temporal With an Account of the Present Religion in Poland and Lithuania As also of the State-Officers and Officers of Districts belonging as well to the Kingdom as the Great Dutchy My LORD YOUR Grace's High Birth and Station in our Government together with Your Primary Right of Suffrage in our House of Lords entitle you in a Superlative manner to the Patronage of this Letter Wherefore I was glad to meet with an occasion so favourable to pay my Duty to Your GRACE and I could heartily wish it had been on a Subject that I were more Master of than in an Account of a Country which I never saw yet that you may give some Credit to the Truth of my Relation I dare humbly assure you that I have mention'd nothing therein but what I either had out of Dr. Connor's Memoirs learn'd from his own Mouth or drew from such Books as both the Doctor and Other Persons of Credit have own'd to be Authentic and most Correct My LORD The Senate of Poland is an Order of Nobles between the King and common Gentry establish'd to rule and govern according to Law and to observe the Conduct of the King And moreover they are to apply themselves to study the publick Good and the Preservation of the Privileges of the People It consists at present of a far greater Number of Persons than formerly It is the King that makes every Senator but who being once so made is to continue his Office for Life At the Time of his Creation he is oblig'd to take a solemn Oath to conserve inviolable the Rights and Liberties of the Republic so that if the King himself had a mind to extend his Power and Authority beyond the Limits prescrib'd him by the Laws every Senator's Oath alone would oblige him to acquaint his Majesty with due Respect of his Duty and Obligation Nay every Nuncio in the grand Diet assumes this Liberty For in that Place dicunt quae sentiunt sentiunt quae velint as may appear by an insolent Affront put upon the late King John Sobieski who having been call'd Tyrant Nero and many other opprobrious Names by some of the Deputies and not being able to bear it he started up and threatned them laying his Hand on his Sword That had he been the great General still he would have done something whereat one of them rising likewise and clapping his Hand to his Sword reply'd and that Sword would have done something too Another Passage I have read of Lewis King of Hungary and Poland who having been basely abus'd in the Diet stood up and cry'd Si non essem Rex whereto the Orator briskly reply'd Si non fuisses Rex These Senators are likewise bound to see that nothing be done against their Privileges and therefore four of them are always deputed to attend the King with their Advice Besides these four who are ever actually the King's Counsel any of the others in like manner have a Right to assist at the Council-Board if they think fit The Presence of these Senators is look'd upon to be so absolutely necessary for the Good of the Kingdom that not one of 'em can travel upon whatsoever Account without Leave of the Republic This Custom is taken from the Romans who not only forbid the Senators but also their Sons to go beyond the Verge of Italy This Title of Senator the King cannot bestow by it self but it is always annex'd to one of the four Dignitys of Bishops Castellans or Palatins The Ten Crown-Officers all which the King names whereof Palatins are Lord-Lieutenants of Provinces Castellans are Governours who have not their Names from Castles as the Word might reasonably import but from commanding a Portion of a Province in Time of War The ten Crown-Officers are the Marshals Chancellors and Treasurers of the Kingdom and Bishops preside over their several Diocesses with an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction When any one is nam'd a Bishop Palatin Castellan or any of the ten Officers of the Crown he is immediately a Senator without more ado Their Business is to serve faithfully the King and Republick in the Senate at home to administer Justice by Commission or otherwise and abroad with Consent of the Diet to exercise foreign Ministrys c. These Senators of Poland value their Dignities so highly that they despise almost all other Titles of Honour whatever and therefore when Sigismund I. went to Vienna and the Emperour offer'd the Title of Princes of the Empire to the several Senators that came along with him they absolutely refus'd 'em giving for Reason That being born Gentlemen of Poland and thereby having a Right to treat either of Peace or War with their King they believ'd it an Injury to their Dignity to have a Prince of the Empire thought superiour This Senate consists either of Ecclesiastical or Secular Members The Ecclesiastical are either Archbishops or Bishops and are the chief Members of the Senate Their Number at present is but sixteen Three of these Bishopricks are now in the Enemies Hands though they nevertheless have titular Bishops viz. Smolensko and Kiovia possess'd by the Moscovites and Caminiec enjoy'd by the Turks So that there remain but thirteen Bishopricks actually in the King's Dominions of which but two are Archbishopricks viz. those of Gnesna and Leopol When any of the aforesaid three Bishopricks are vacant there are always those ready that will beg their Titles meerly to have the Honour to sit as Senators The several Diocesses belonging to all these Bishopricks are Archiepiscopal of Gnesna and Leopol Episcopal of Cracow Cujavia and Pomerania Vilna Posnan Plocksko or Plosko Varmia Luceoria or Lucko Premislia or Premislaw Samegitia Culm Chelm Kiovia Caminiec and Smolensko Subject to the two Archbishops are the other Bishops and first to the Archbishop of Gnesna are the several Bishops of Cracow Vladislaw Posnan Plosko Vilna Varmia Samogitia and Culm And next to the Archbishop of Leopol are the Bishops of Chelm Caminiec Luceoria Premislia and Kiovia The Archbishop of Gnesna is not only Chief of the Bishops but also of all the other Senators of Poland He is
a Town in the Palatinate of Kalisch The seventy eighth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Srzdo or Sremsk a Town in the Palatinate of Posnania The seventy ninth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Zarnow a Town in the Palatinate of Sendomir The eightieth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Malagost or Malogsch a Town in the same The eighty first Lay Senator is The Castellan of Vielunia a Territory in the Palatinate of Siradia The eighty second Lay Senator is The Castellan of Praemislaw a District in the Palatinate of Russia The eighty third Lay Senator is The Castellan of Halicz a District in the same Palatinate The eighty fourth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Sanoch a District in the same Palatinate The eighty fifth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Chelm The eighty sixth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Drohiczin a District of the Province of Podlachia The eighty seventh Lay Senator is The Castellan of Poloviec a Town in the Palatinate of Sendomir The eighty eighth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Premecz or Primen a Town in the Palatinate of Posnania The eighty ninth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Kriven a Town in the same Palatinate The ninetieth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Czekow a Town in the Palatinate of Sendomir The ninety first Lay Senator is The Castellan of Nakel or Naklo a Town in the Palatinate of Kalisch The ninety second Lay Senator is The Castellan of Rosprza a Town in the Palatinate of Siradia The ninety third Lay Senator is The Castellan of Biechovia a Town in the Palatinate of Lanschet The ninety fourth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Bidgotz a District and Town in the Palatinate of Inowlocz The ninety fifth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Brezini a District and Town in the Palatinate of Lanschet The ninety sixth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Kruswick a District and City in the Palatinate of Bresty The ninety seventh Lay Senator is The Castellan of Oswieczin a Dutchy and City in the Palatinate of Cracovia The ninety eighth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Kamin a Town in the Palatinate of Kalisch The ninety ninth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Spicimiria or Rizepice a District and Town in the Palatinate of Siradia The hundredth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Inowlocz The hundred and first Lay Senator is The Castellan of Kowalow a Town in the Palatinate of Bresty The hundred and second Lay Senator is The Castellan of Zandoc a Town in the Palatinate of Posnania The hundred and third Lay Senator is The Castellan of Sochazovia a District and Town in the Palatinate of Rava The hundred and fourth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Warsaw a District and famous City in the Province of Masovia The hundred and fifth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Gostinin a District and capital City in the Palatinate of Rava The hundred and sixth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Wisna a District and Town in the Palatinate of Masovia The hundred and seventh Lay Senator is The Castellan of Radzanow a Town in the Palatinate of Plosko The hundred and eighth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Sieprcz or Siepez a Town in the same Palatinate The hundred and ninth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Wissegrod a District and Town in the Palatinate of Masovia The hundred and tenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Ripin a District and Town in the Palatinate of Dobrina The hundred and eleventh Lay Senator is The Castellan of Zacrol a District and Town in the Palatinate of Masovia The hundred and twelfth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Cickanow a District and Town in the same Palatinate The hundred and thirteenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Liw or Liwo a District and Town in the same Palatinate The hundred and fourteenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Slonsk a District and Town in the Palatinate of Dobrina The hundred and fifteenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Lubazow a Town in Royal Prussia The hundred and sixteenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Konarzew a Town in the Palatinate of Siradia The hundred and seventeenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Konarzew in the Palatinate of Lanschet The hundred and eighteenth Lay Senator is The Castellan of Konarzew in the Territory of Cujavia Having thus gone thro' the several Precedencies of the Bishops Palatins and Castellans in the Senate Your GRACE may please to observe that a Palatin cannot be a Castellan of the same Place whereof he is Palatin Nor can either of them two be a Starosta or any other Officer in the same Palatinate or Castellany except some few and all those of Lithuania and Prussia where the Palatins govern wholly by Martial Law Neither can a Palatin Castellan or Starosta have two Commands either of the same Kind or any other at the same time It is likewise to be observ'd that no Castellan can be Burgrave of the Castle of Cracow or any other Castle whilst he is Castellan In the Polish Tongue the Castellans are call'd Lords of a Place by adding only the Termination of Ki or Ski to it as Pan Poznanski Lord of Posnan c. Last of all the Lay Senators come the ten Crown-Officers who stand about the Throne on each Side of the King Their Degrees are as follow viz. The great Marshal or great Steward of Poland The great Marshal or great Steward of Lithuania The great Chancellor of the Kingdom The great Chancellor of the Dutchy The Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdom The Vice-Chancellor of the Dutchy The great Treasurer of the Crown The great Treasurer of the Dutchy The little Marshal or Court-Marshal of the Kingdom The little Marshal or Court-Marshal of the Dutchy Here it is to be observ'd that the five Senator-Officers of Lithuania have the same Dignity and Power with those of the Kingdom except that they give place to the Former But first for The hundred and nineteenth Lay-Senator who is The great Marshal or great Steward of Poland His Office is to prepare every thing for the general Diet either by Command of the King or the Primate to assign Stations for the several Members to exclude such as are none and to provide Lodgings for foreign Ministers and moreover to take care that all be safe where that general Assembly of the States is to convene Likewise to set Prizes upon all Vendibles and to moderate publick Shows He may punish Offenders and seditious Persons even with Death without being subject to an Appeal unless it be in a Matter of very great Consequence He has the Authority to impose Silence and to give Liberty to speak He has a Power to admonish a Senator or Deputy if he exceeds the Bounds of Modesty in his Harangue His Business is to promulgate the Acts of the Senate and to put in Execution the King's Decrees either in Cases of Infamy or Death His Duty is also to carry a Staff erected
of the great Dutchy's Army and receives no manner of Orders from the Crown-General except where both are jointly engag'd in a Battle These great Generals in the King's Absence have the greatest Power in the Kingdom for they have then a supreme Command in the Army They give Battle and besiege Towns without the King's Participation and settle Winter-Quarters where and upon what Lands they think fit This Power of theirs is so extraordinary considerable that a great General is formidable to all the Nobility Their Duty is to keep good Order and Discipline in the Army to punish mutinous and seditious Officers and Soldiers to settle the Prizes of all Commodities and Provisions brought into the Camp to give Command or necessary Orders for a Charge or Retreat and in fine to do any thing that his Majesty could were he present It is therefore the Interest of a King of Poland always to head his Army himself to have his Sons with him in the Field and to give them Opportunity to gain Reputation and Credit by their Valour and Conduct for the more the King encreases his own Fame or that of his Sons the more he diminishes the Credit and Power of his Generals who are the only Persons in the Kingdom that are most to be fear'd and who have the greatest Power and Influence over the Gentry in the Election of a King The present great General of Poland is the Count Jablonowski of the French Faction and of Lithuania Prince Sapieha suppos'd to be of the Austrian Faction When the Office of great General is vacant the little or Lieutenant-General has a Right to succeed him The two Lieutenant-Generals of Poland and Lithuania are to preside in all Court-Marshals and to take care that Guard be strictly kept throughout the Camp Also they are to observe that all Spies and Scouts be sent out as often as Occasion requires and lastly to see that foreign Soldiers be duly paid The Business of the chief Commander of the King's Guards in the Camp is to command solely those Soldiers who are assign'd to guard his Majesty's Person in the Camp but upon the Kings Departure this Officer's Power ceases There are several other Officers of Note in the Army the most considerable of which are the great Ensign or Standard-Bearer the great Master of the Artillery the Camp Notaries and Commander of the Guards against Incursions of which two last I shall only speak here Camp-Notaries are Pay-Masters General for the Army both of the Kingdom and great Dutchy The chief Commander of the Guards against the Incursions of the Tartars c. This Officer is posted on the Confines of the Kingdom towards Crim-Tartary c. and is to give Notice of all the Motions of the Enemy For the civil State-Officers there are the two great Secretaries of the Kingdom and Dutchy They have a Power to enter into the Privy-Council and to take Cognizance of what the Chancellors and Vice Chancellors do They must both be Ecclesiasticks and their Office is a great Step to the Chancellor's Dignity They have the keeping of the King's Signet and are qualify'd for the highest Episcopal Honours and have Precedence before most Officers of the Court or Kingdom The Masters of Requests or Referendaries of the Kingdom and the great Dutchy Their Business is to receive Petitions made to the King and to give his Majesty's Answer They have a Place in any of the King's Courts of Justice These are in all four one Ecclesiastical and one Civil for the Kingdom and the like for the great Dutchy Two Cup-Bearers for each Nation for the same Two Carvers and Two Sword-Bearers The Treasurers of the Court in the Kingdom and the great Dutchy These supply either the Absence or Vacancy of the Office of the great Treasurers The Treasurer of Prussia whose Business is to take all Accounts of the Collectors of Revenue in that Province and to transmit them to the great Treasurers Associates to Judges which are generally such as reside in the King's Court viz. the Masters of Requests Vice-Chancellors c. Two chief Notaries of the Courts of Justice for civil Causes either of the Kingdom or the great Dutchy Two Registers in the Chancery of both Nations An Officer that looks after the Escheats call'd by us Escheator He can either sue for or seize any such Lands or Goods as fall to the Crown The Commissioners of the Custom-Houses who give in their Accounts as often as the great Treasurers require them The Governours of the Silver Lead and Salt Mines They exercise Jurisdiction over the Workmen there but must nevertheless admit of Appeals to Court The Governours or Wardens of the Mint which are for the most part the Treasurers of the Kingdom Their Business is to take care that the Mony there coin'd be of Weight and Value The chief Officers of the King's Court are treated of before in the Letter to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury The Officers of Districts may be divided into two Sorts Civil and Military The civil are The Vice-Chamberlain whose Office is to decide all Differences within his District about the Bounds of Land c. to which he is sworn He has several Deputies under him call'd Chamberlains whom he chooses out of the Gentry of his Jurisdiction and to whom he gives an Oath to be true and faithful in the Execution of their Office It is at his Pleasure to displace these as often as he thinks fit The Judge who together with his Assistant determines all civil Causes and Controversies The Prothonotary who in those Courts has likewise a Power of giving his Opinion The head Collector of the publick Revenue who is accountable above The other Officers are less considerable being Sewers Carvers Cup-Bearers Sword-Bearers c. The Reason of there being such Officers in every Palatinate is because formerly each Province of Poland was a Sovereignty and had its peculiar Princes who had all their Court-Officers But now tho these Offices remain yet it is only with Honorary Titles and some few Privileges the chiefest of which are that when the King comes into their Palatinate his Court-Officers must leave to them the Honour of serving him at Table bearing the Sword before him c. The Military Officers of a District are Starostas with and without Jurisdiction Starostas with Jurisdiction are Governours of Castles and Royal Cities who sit and hear private Causes of small Moment once a Fortnight and those of greater concern every six Weeks if nothing intervene to prevent them These have Vice Starostas Judges Clerks and Servants in the Nature of Sheriffs Officers to enforce Justice in Cases of Resistance The Jurisdiction of these Starostas extends not only over the Commonalty but likewise over the Gentry They have also a Care of the
King's Revenue arising within their District and may discount a fourth Part for their Trouble The Starostas without Jurisdiction are those who are properly Tenants in Capite They have no Power to exercise Justice unless in very slight Cases Burgraves and Tribunes have the Custody of Castles Forts c. and are to keep constant Guard there either by themselves or their Deputies These are subject to the Starostas The Revenue of Starostaships partly arises from Agriculture and partly from Manufacture and Handicrafts They have been sometimes known to have been Mortgag'd to raise the King's Revenue more speedily especially those without Jurisdiction Here likewise the Officers of the Mines call'd Zuppars in Polish may be taken notice of who have divers Officers and Substitutes under them The Minor Ecclesiastical and Temporal Officers and Persons of this Kingdom being in all Respects like to those of other Nations I have purposely omitted them Thus My LORD I have gone thro' the several Particulars which I propos'd to entertain Your GRACE and the Publick with yet at the same time cannot but be highly sensible of my Presumption in prefixing Your Great Name to so imperfect an Account therefore hoping Your GRACE'S Pardon upon an humble Acknowledgment I beg Leave to subscribe my self My LORD Your GRACE'S Most Obedient and Most Humble Servant J. S. LETTER III. To the Right Honourable JAMES VERNON Esq Principal Secretary of State Of the Grand Diet Little Diets and other general Assemblies in Poland with an Account of all the several Courts of Justice from the highest to the lowest As likewise of the Judges Laws and Punishments in that Kingdom SIR A. The Present King in his Throne BB. The ten Crown Officers C. The A Bp. of Gnesna w th the Cross born behind him DDDD The other Ecclesiasticall Senators EEEEE Forreign Embassadors admitted only to the Diet of Election FFFFFF The Palatins Castellans in the three Rows on each side GGGGGG The Deputy s in the two back Rows on each side H. The Nuncio Marshall or Speaker of Deputy s. IIII. Vacant seats for such others as are sometimes admitted 1. The Arms of Poland 2. The Arms of Lithuania SIR The Grand Diet or Parliament of Poland by the Natives call'd Seym Walny is an Assembly of the King Senators and Nuncio's or Deputies of every Province met together in any City or Town of Poland or Lithuania in order to deliberate upon State Affairs and the Means to secure and preserve the Kingdom both in Times of Peace and War It is the King or during an Inter regnum the Primate who has the sole Power of convoking this great Assembly as likewise to determine the Place where and the Time when it shall sit By the Constitutions of the Kingdom the King is oblig'd to call a Diet every third Year and of every three successively call'd two must be held in Poland most commonly at Warsaw and the third in Lithuania in the City of Grodno in the Palatinate of Troki twenty Leagues from Vilna Capital of this great Dutchy So that every ninth Year the King with all the Senators and Deputies of the Kingdom goes into Lithuania and every third the Senators and Deputies of Lithuania come into Poland The Reason of the Diet 's being held in Lithuania was because the Lithuanians complain'd that it was not a little inconvenient for them to come so far as Poland When the King has a mind to convoke this general Meeting he is to send out circular Letters six Weeks before the time he appoints for its Session by the Constitution in the Year 1613. to all the Palatins of the Provinces acquainting them with his Design together with the Time he intends it shall meet He sends them likewise a List of all the Affairs and Articles which are to be treated of in that Diet. Whereupon every Palatin or his Deputy in his own respective Government forthwith dispatches Notice to all the Castellans Starostas and other Gentry requiring them at a certain Time to meet together in order to deliberate on the Articles and Affairs propos'd by the King's Letters as likewise to choose a Nuncio or Deputy to represent their Intentions and Decisions in the Great Diet. These Letters are proclaim'd by a Herald call'd by the Poles Wozny and afterwards pasted up upon all the Town-Gates and Church-Doors These Assemblies in the Provinces are term'd by them Comitiola in the Polish Language Seymiki or little Diets In Cases of Extremity six Weeks Notice need not be given as appears by the Constitutions of the Year 1638. The several Places these little Diets meet at are as follow In Lower or Great Poland In the Palatinates of Posuan and Kalisch Siradia In the Cities and Towns of Sroda Schadkow In the Castellany of Vielunia In the Cities and Towns of Vielun In the Palatinates of Lanschet Bresty and Inowlocz In the Cities and Towns of Lanschet Radzieiow Appointed by the Constitutions in the Year 1510. In the Palatinate of Dobrina the little Diet meets in the Town of Ripin Appointed by the Constitutions in the Year 1567. In the Palatinates of Plosko Rava in three Places In the Citys Towns of Radzanow Rava Sochaczow Gombin In the Provinces of Podlachia in three Places In the Cities and Towns of Droghiczin Mielnik Bransko Masovia in ten Places In the Cities and Towns of Cirna Warsaw Wisna Wissegrod Zakrol Ciekanow Lombze Rozan Liw and Nur. In the Province of Upper or Little Poland In the Palatinate of Cracovia in two Places In the Cities and Towns of Zator for the Dutchy of Oswieczin and Prossovia for the Palatinate By the Constitutions of the Year 1667. In the Palatinates of Sendomir and Lublin In the Citys Towns of Opatow and Lublin In the Great Dutchy of Lithuania In the Palatinates of Vilna in four Places In the Cities and Towns of Vilna Osmian Wilcomitz Braclaw Troki in five Places In the Cities and Towns of Troki Grodno Cowno Lida Ponienwiez Polocz In the Cities and Towns of Polocz Novogrodec in two Places In the Cities and Towns of Slonim Wolkowizko Witebsko in two Places In the Cities and Towns of Witebsko Orska Briescia or Polesia in two Places In the Cities and Towns of Briescia Pinsko Mscislaw In the Cities and Towns of Msceislaw Minsk in three Places In the Cities and Towns of Minsk Modzir Reczycza In the Province of Prussia In the Palatinates of Pomerania Marienburg Culm Elbing In the Cities and Towns of Imprimis in all the Districts then in Stargar-Stuma die Michalovia and Graudentz Elbing In the Province of Russia In the Palatinates of Russia in five Places In the Cities and Towns of Leopol Praemislaw Sanoch Halitz Chelm Belsko Podolia In the Cities and Towns of Belsko Caminiec Since Caminiec's being taken by the Turks its Little Diet meets at Leopol In the Palatinates of Kiovia Braclaw In the Cities and Towns of
Credit and Authority nevertheless is so great that he can dispose the Affairs in the Diet as he pleases especially where they tend to the publick Good of the Kingdom for very few if any at all will venture to protest against any Proceedings there that are for the Interest of the Nation unless they be supported by a good Party of Senators and Deputies and this because it is not only infamous and scandalous to his Person but also prejudicial to his Posterity that breaks up a Diet as also not a little dangerous to his Life to irritate and disobey so powerful a Body for they are commonly very liberal in their Passion of bestowing several Slashes of a Scymitar on any ill-natur'd corrupted Member that opposes the Interest of his Country tho' in Reality he has the Law on his Side It is certain therefore that where any Person withstands the rest in the Diet it is either because the King has not sufficiently employ'd his Authority to pacifie him or Policy to win him with a small Present or else by reason that he does not care they should agree or lastly because there is a considerable Party of Senators and Deputies that support or rather employ him to protest against an Act that they do not think for their Interest to let pass It is a common Practice where any of the Members of the Senate have any particular Advantage by opposing the Diets Proceedings not to expose themselves either to the Hatred or Anger of that numerous Body but rather to sacrifice some private Deputy to their Fury who for a small Summ of Money will come into the Diet and declare in plain Terms without any manner of Reason that it is not his Pleasure that such a Matter then in Agitation should pass Whereupon he immediately withdraws if he can into the Country for Security But generally these Oppositions are never practis'd where the publick Interest of the Nation is concern'd as appears in the raising the last Siege of Vienna by the Turks where the Poles finding that the Loss of that City would turn be very much to their Prejudice march'd directly under their then reigning King John III. to the Relief of it which they soon effected to their immortal Honour and Glory 'T is true that it is not an easie Matter to bring the Poles into the Field but when once they are got together into a considerable Body their Courage and undaunted Resolutions render them invincible Secondly The Order of their Government and their Courage and Resolution does not so much contribute towards their Preservation as the Envy and Jealousies of their Neighbours among themselves for when the late King of Sueden and Elector of Brandenbourg made War with Poland the Tartars came to assist the Poles and at the same Time the King of Denmark made a considerable Diversion in Suedeland When the Tartars likewise declare War against Poland most commonly either the Emperour or Moscovite come to its Relief or else make great Diversions on their Sides for as it is the Interest of the Princes their Neighbours not to let them grow to that exorbitant Power which they had formerly so it is not at all for their Benefit to let them perish for whoever could be able to conquer Poland and unite it to his own Dominions would quickly be too powerful for all the rest Thirdly The Poles besides this can the easier conserve their Dominions by reason that they have no strong Forts or Castles to shelter their Enemies where they happen to make any Progress in their Country yet I verily believe that an Army of fifty Thousand well-disciplin'd Men would at present conquer the whole Kingdom of Poland tho' at the same Time I am of Opinion that an Hundred Thousand could not be able to keep it Carolus Custavus King of Sueden with about Forty Thousand Men entirely subdu'd Poland in less than two Years Time yet when he began to encroach too much upon their Constitutions and Liberties the Polish Gentry join'd unanimously together and soon drove the Suedes out of the Kingdom The Tartars in numerous Bodies make frequent Incursions into this open Country but still as soon as they have loaded themselves with their Booty they make all possible Haste away The Loss of Caminiec makes the Poles admire at their own Policy in having no strong Towns for they say had not that been so well fortify'd it had not serv'd for Shelter to a strong Garrison of Turks and Tartars at their Doors Insomuch that it may be observ'd that Forts and Castles which we count our greatest Security would inevitably be the Ruine of the Poles they being not skill'd in besieging Towns and moreover having no good Artillery Ingeniers Ammunition or other Necessaries since they never were nor ever will be able to retake Caminiec tho it is a Place of no extraordinary Strength and for my Part I verily believe that if it should be surrender'd to them they would quickly rase and demolish it SIR Having thus far treated only of the Diet or Parliament of Poland I will now proceed to present you with a cursory Account of its other Assemblies and Courts of Justice and therefore must acquaint you that besides the Grand Diet and Senate the Clergy there have both a general Convocation and two Provincial Synods but which are wholly regulated and aw'd by the Pontifical Chair I may take notice that the Archbishop of Leopol tho he can call and hold his Synod a-part yet is he altogether subject in Spirituals to the Archbishop of Gnesna or Primate of Poland The general Convocation is for the most part conven'd every third Year at Petricovia Lanschet or Lowitz whereof the minor Clergy as in England are admitted by their Deputies or Representatives As for Cours of Justice the Poles have one that is wholly peculiar to the Interregnum which they call the Kaptur This is twofold either general which sits during the Interregnum to prevent Disorders and which has Power over Life and Death Or particular in the several Palatinates of the Kingdom The Judges of the former are chosen out of the Prime Nobility and those of the latter out of the Nobility in general of every Palatinate at the several particular Conventions and in the Beginning of every Interregnum All these Courts cease three Weeks before the Assembly for Election meets and after the Election they sit again to the very Day of the Coronation The other Courts of Justice in Poland are either Ecclesiastical Civil or Military The Ecclesiastical as in other Nations are altogether in the hands of the Bishops who have Each their Chancellor Register c. from whom Appeals may be made to the Archbishops and even from the Archbishop of Leopol to him of Gnesna who is the Popes Legat Born and Primate and Metropolitan of all Poland Nevertheless from him Appeals lye to the See of Rome These Judge according to the Canons and Customs of
Name by her Chancellor After which they march to the Szopa where the Nobility elect their Marshal or Speaker by Majority of Votes who after being chosen takes the usual Oath which runs thus That he will discharge his Office faithfully receive no Bribes keep private Correspondence with none of the Competitors and will not subscribe a Schedule of a free Election without the Knowledge and Approbation of the Republick After this he goes to wait on the Senators for their Approbation It must be understood that the Senators only sit in the Szopa for the Deputies have their Session in the open Field which they call their Rota Equestris The first thing that the Senators and Nuncios or deputed Gentry do in this Diet after establishing of the Kaptur is to take a mutual Oath on their Knees administred by the Prmate to a strict Union and Intelligence among themselves for the common Interest of the Nation Next not to acknowledge any for their King but him that is lawfully elected by the unanimous Consent and who must withal swear to preserve inviolable the Rights and Privileges of the Republick and they moreover promise mutually that he who will act otherwise shall be deem'd and declar'd an Enemy to his Country Likewise they reciprocally promise not to give their Voices for an Election nor to enter into any Agreement with any of the Candidates or their Embassadors till all the Irregularities or Disorders either in the Kingdom or the Great Dutchy be first consider'd and redress'd They annul all the Decrees of the Tribunals and even the Statutes of Kings that are found to entrench on their Liberties They declare that all other Judgments pronounc'd before the Publication of the Interregnum shall be valid They set up a new Court of Justice call'd Kaptur which is to Defend the Country Coin Money Raise Soldiers and for Maintaining of the Laws They give Orders that no Body shall come to the Diet with Fire-Arms nor bring any Strangers along with them They cause the Generals to take on Oath before Commissioners to discharge the Trust repos'd in them faithfully to employ their Forces against the Enemies of the Republick and to defend the Frontiers thereby to secure the Honour and Liberties of the Kingdom They oblige them also to swear to assert the publick Interest in Case of Sedition or Rebellion to restrain Soldiers from injuring any Person to receive Money neither from Clergy nor Laity and to prevent their Soldiers from receiving any And lastly they forbid them to advance with their Troops into the Heart of the Kingdom and more especially to come near the Diet for Fear of being forc'd to an Election against their free Will And providing the Republick should be attack'd by such a Force as the Army were not strong enough to resist then they declare that from that very Minute they summon all the Nobility to meet together without Delay at the Time and Place which the Primate and his Council shall appoint that the Review of the Soldiers rais'd in general by the Republick or in particular by the Palatinaetes shall be made in the Camp that each Palatinate shall take care to pay its own Troops and not disband any but such as the general Diet shall think fit to dismiss They forbid the Treasurers of the Crown or Great Dutchy to give out any Money without Knowledge and Approbation of the Archbishop and his Council but only for Payment of the Troops of the Republick They order that skilful and honest Persons shall be sent to visit the Salt-Works and to regulate all Reparations that shall be found necessary there and in the last Place that the Deputies of certain Cities shall not be admitted to the Diet till they have sufficiently prov'd their Right to come thither In short the Poles in this Diet take all the Measures and Care imaginable to secure their Frontiers maintain the Kingdom in Peace and Quietness to settle a good Intelligence among themselves and lastly to prevent Bribery or any private Interest in any of the Members of the Diet that might tend to hinder a free and unanimous Election Matters being thus dispos'd they immediately proceed to the Election examining first the Exorbitances that is to say the Disorders and Excesses committed during the last Reign to the end that they may prevent the like for the future These Exorbitances are not examin'd by the whole Session either of the Senators or Deputies but by a certain Number assign'd out of both who sit a-Mornings in the Castle of Warsaw Then the Diet gives Audience to the Ambassadors both of those Princes that pretend to the Crown and those that recommend others to it sending first a great Train of Coaches to wait on them to the Rota Equestris whither it must be understood that on this Occasion the Senate goes When these Embassadors are thus sent for the Pope's Nuncio is always preferr'd then comes the Emperour's Embassador next the French and after these the Spanish But since the Diet of Election conven'd at Warsaw after the Death of Sigismundus Augustus when the Spanish Embassador demanded Audience before the King of France who notwithstanding was preferr'd Spain has sent no Embassador on this Account into Poland for as for Don Pedro Ronquillos who was present at the Diet of Election of John III. he durst never assume either the Title or Quality of Embassador for Fear he should be forc'd to give Place to the Embassador of France The Manner of receiving these Embassadors is this The Pope's Legate is introduc'd by a certain Number of the Ecclesiastical and Lay-Senators as likewise by the Marshal of the Deputies and an assign'd Number out of their Body The Inter-Rex arising out of his Chair moves two or three Steps to meet him and places him on his Right-Hand The secular Embassadors are introduc'd by some of the Lay-Senators and Deputies only The Emperour's Minister is plac'd by them between the Great Marshal and the Nuncio-Marshal When the Embassadors receive Audience they make their Harangue in Latin to which the Archbishop that presides answers for the Senators and the Nuncio-Marshal for the Nobility It is absolutely necessary for all Ministers that have any Interests of their Masters to carry on in the Diet to be not only eloquent but liberal and generous that by their Treats Feasts and chiefly their Money they may gain or purchase the Good Will and Suffrages of the Senate and Gentry It is so essentially requisite for Embassadors to make a great Figure keep an open Table spend a vast deal of Money and to make considerable Presents that if the Diet do but in the least suspect any Avarice or Niggardliness in them they will presently impute it to the Poverty of the Prince that sent them which would prove no small Obstruction either to his Election or Interest in Behalf of any body else Embassadors must likewise take more than ordinary Care to keep in with
reflect on those States that have a great many Fortifications we shall find that with the Loss of but one Battel they have been in a manner ruin'd for the Enemies being once got into their Strong-Holds are not easily forc'd out of them When on the contrary the Poles always rally in a Field-Battle and having no Places to retire to either for themselves or their Enemies never give out till they have totally excluded their Invaders Besides the Poles look upon Garrisons to be the Promoters of Effeminacy and Softness by the Examples of several Heroes of Antiquity for the Courages of Alexander and Hannibal were altogether enervated by their Revels at Persepolis and Capua and Boleslaus bury'd as it were in his Debauches at Kiovia Next I must proceed to present Your GRACE with an Account of the General Officers of the Army And first Of the Generals whereof there are two one for the Kingdom and another for the Great Dutchy as I have observ'd before He that is for the Kingdom is stil'd Hetman Wielki Koronni and he for the Dutchy Hetman Wielki W. X. Litheuskiego These as I have said before have almost the same Power with the King whilst they continue in the Field over their respective Armies for their Authority is altogether independent on each other This Dignity does not intitle them to sit in the Senate yet for the most part they are chosen out of the Senatorian Order and that to procure them the greater Respect and sometimes they have at the same time been the highest Officers in the Kingdom as Great Marshal Great Chancellor c. for John Zamoski was both Great Chancellor and General at once Yet this was afterwards abrogated and now the Office of General or Lieutenant General is usually conferr'd either upon the Palatins or Castellans who altho' they be in a manner superiour to the Great Officers of the Kingdom in respect of their Sitting in the Diet when the others are to stand about the King yet they are not presum'd to have so great a Power in the Republick This Office was not long since perpetual but now by the Constitutions in the Year 1666. it is to expire at the End of three Years Each of these Generals has his Lieutenant General The Office of these is describ'd in the Letter to his GRACE the Duke of NORFOLK and therefore need not be repeated here The Title the Poles give the former is Hetman Polny Koronni and to the latter Hetman Polny W. X. Litheuskiego In the absence of the Generals they have almost the same Power with them and formerly had equal tho' the Generals were present but that was afterwards abrogated They are chosen out of the Senatorian Order in like manner as the Generals Besides these there are the Generals of the Frontier-Guards which are independent on all but the King and Diet Likewise the General of the Cosacks whose power is established by the Constitution in the Year 1661. Next may be reckon'd the Chief Commander of the King's Guards in the Camp whose Office has been describ'd already in the Letter before-mention'd Next to these General-Officers come the Great Masters of the Artillery whereof there are two one for the Kingdom and another for the Great Dutchy Their Office is to take charge of and to provide the Armies with all sorts of Cannon c. and to see the Soldiers want for no Ammunition After these may be rank'd the Pissarsz of the Army that is to say the Intendant the Great Ensign the Camp-Marshal the Captain of the Guard or Watch and lastly the Major Generals which are much the same with our Brigadiers Then come the Colonels Captains c. There are two other sorts of Officers belonging to the Army which are the Camp-Notaries and the Roto-Magistri The former are to take an exact account of the number of Soldiers in the Army every three Months and to transmit a Copy thereof to the Great Treasurer and another to the Nuncio-Marshal but in Lithuania this is to be done every Month and the Nuncio-Marshal's Copy is to be given to the General The Roto-Magistri are as it were Captains or Centurious of the Frontier-Guards and who cannot by the Constitutions enjoy such a Commission and be Senators at the same time As to the Laws relating to Arms Your GRACE may first be pleased to understand that tho' the King cannot properly be said to declare War without the unanimous consent of the Diet yet in cases of sudden Incursions he might formerly with the Approbation only of such of the Senators as were then about him And under Sigismund III. there was a Council of War assign'd by the Diet or elected by the little Diets amounting to a considerable number to attend and advise in those matters which Council continues even at this day however with this restraint That what they do is not altogether valid till it has been confirm'd by the General Diet but as to offensive War that belongs peculiarly to the Great Diet to declare The King in like manner cannot either give to or receive Assistance from any Foreign Prince without the consent of the General Diet neither can he place any Foreigner in the custody of Castles or Forts without their Approbation The Poles have many other Laws concerning Martial Discipline which I have not Room here to Insert only I may take notice to Your GRACE that Deserters are punish'd not only with the loss of their Reputation but also whatever else they have in the World is Consiscated to the sole use and benefit of the Army By the Laws also no Women are suffer'd to follow the Camp tho' too great a number of Servants and useless Rabble are allow'd of insomuch that in an Army of but 10000 Men there will at least be 50000 of that Gang. Thus my Lord I have presum'd to present your GRACE with what particulars I could find as well in the best Polish Historians as in some private Memoirs relating to the Military Affairs in Poland and which I hope tho' not capable to afford what satisfaction might be expected may at least give no occasion of Offence I am My LORD Your Grace's most Humble and most Obedient Servant J. S. LETTER VII To his Excellency Monsieur de CLEVERSKERK Ambassador in Ordinary to his Majesty WILLIAM III. from the States of Holland Of the Trade Coyn and Riches of Poland with an Account of the Famous City of Dantzic its Manners Privileges Strength and Revenues MY LORD TRADE has ever been justly esteem'd so necessary towards the Support and Grandeur of any State that no Nation in the World has hitherto been found so Stupid as to be without it Some Countries indeed have wholly confin'd it to the limits of their own Dominions but how much they have been in the wrong may appear from the vast advantages which Foreign Commerce has brought to other Nations England and Holland are sufficient Demonstrations of this Assertion who during
Frederic Augustus the Present King of POLAND The History of POLAND IN Several LETTERS to Persons of Quality Giving an Account of the Present State of that Kingdom VIZ. Historical Political Physical and Ecclesiastical The Form of Government The King's Power Court and Revenues The Senate Senators and other Officers The Religion Diet and little Diets with other Assemblies and Courts of Justice The Inter-regnum Election and Coronation of a King and Queen with all the Ceremonies The present Condition of the Gentry and Commonalty as likewise The Genius Characters Languages Customs Manners Military Affairs Trade and Riches of the Poles Together with an Account of the City of Dantzic The Origin Progress and Present State of the Teutonic Order and the Successions of all its Great Masters Likewise The Present State of Learning Natural Knowledge Practice of Physick and Diseales in Poland And lastly A Succinct Description of the Dutchy of Curland and the Livonian Order with a Series of the several Dukes and Provincial Masters To this is also added A Table for each Volume And a Sculpture of the Diet in Session With some Memoirs from Baron Blomberg VOL. II. By BERNARD CONNOR M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of the College of Physicians who in his Travels in that Country Collected these Memoirs from the best Authors and his own Observations Compos'd and Publish'd by â—ir SAVAGE LONDON Printed for Daâ— Brown without Templ-Bar ' and A. Roper and T. Leigh both in Il et-street 1698. D R. CONNOR ' S PREFACE IN my PREFACE to the First Volume of this Historical Relation of POLAND I have mention'd my Incapacity for Matters of this Nature both because I was only Twelve Months in that Kingdom and because I have no Talent or Genius for History I thought Writing it by way of LETTERS in Imitation of some of our Neighbours would be more easie to my self and more acceptable to the Publick I am proud to have this happy Occasion of giving the Honourable Persons I write to so publick a Testimony of my Respects I am sorry in the same time I cannot have Leisure to honour my self in writing to the Noble Persons mention'd in the Second Volume as I have had in the First I follow a Profession so remote from HISTORY particularly a Polish one that it neither allows me Time nor leaves me any Inclination to attend any other Business I hope notwithstanding the Persons I promis'd to write to will be pleas'd to excuse me for not being able to keep my Word to them as I flatter'd my self I could since the ingenious Gentleman I desir'd to undertake this Work will give them the same Satisfaction he having already assisted me in my First Volume and having had all my Memoirs for this Second THE Antient and Present STATE OF POLAND PART II. The Present State LETTER I. To His Grace THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Of the Form of the Government in Poland and of the King's Power Court and Revenues My LORD THAT high Station wherewith the King has Recompenc'd Your Merits and the great Trust His Majesty has reposed in Your GRACE during his Absence shews his Confidence in Your Ability as well to Govern the State as the Church Since therefore being lately Invested with a share of the Regal Authority you had occasion to know more intimately Our King's Power and Prerogatives I thought my self oblig'd to give Your GRACE an Account of those of the King of Poland to the end that comparing both together you might more sensibly perceive the Excellency of our Own Constitution which makes the Greatness of the King inseparable from the Interest of the People For when the Executive Power is as vigilant to see our Laws obey'd as the Legislative has been provident in making them England can justly boast of a much greater Happiness than either Poland or any other Kingdom of Europe Having My LORD not been a full Twelve Month at the late King of Poland's Court I cannot pretend to be throughly acquainted with that Kingdom yet I find that like most other Countries it has undergone several Changes in its Constitution since the middle of the VIth Century at which time it began to be a distinct Nation during the Reigns of the two great Houses of Piastus and Jagello Ever since the time of Lechus its Founder the Kings thereof have been Elected to the Crown after an Hereditary manner tho' not by an Hereditary Title They have really been Absolute and their Will went for a Law for then they made Peace and War when they pleas'd Levied as many Troops as they thought fit Punish'd or Pardon'd at Pleasure and Rewarded where they saw Convenient And all the Administration either of Public or Private Affairs was so wholly lodg'd in the King's Hands that I have heard the Poles themselves say That Sigismund II. the last King of the Jagellonic Family was to the full as Absolute as either the King of France or Denmark is now Whilst the Kings of Poland thus maintained a Supream Power over their Subjects they exceedingly enlarged their Dominions were both fear'd Abroad and belov'd at Home Commanded Potent and Numerous Armies into the Field Executed most Enterprizes speedily and were almost always sure of Success and this because they did not then as now depend upon the lingering Determination and tedious Conclusions of a Turbulent Diet. But the Family of Jagello being once Extinct by the Death of Sigismund II. who had resign'd his Kingdom to the Senate and Polish Gentry and given them full Power and Authority to dispose thereof as they thought fit the Crown of Poland was anew declared Elective to the end that all the Princes of Christendom who had due Merits and Qualifications might have a Right to Aspire thereunto This gave occasion to most of the Princes of Europe ever since to Court the Polish Nobility after their King's Death And that either to get the succeeding Election determined in their own Favour or else to have some of their Friends Advanced to that great Dignity but this most commonly rather with regard to their own private Interests than out of any Respect to the Person they desired to Promote as the Houses of Austria and Bourbon have always practis'd The Gentry of Poland therefore observing that several Princes at a time always Aspir'd to their Crown and considering that not one of them had more Right than the rest as likewise that it lay altogether in their Power to choose whom they pleased resolved Unanimously to Elect none but such as should Condescend nay Swear to observe the Terms and Conditions they proposed Hereby the Poles by degrees have clip'd and limited the Antient Power of their Kings and have reduc'd them to the Bounds we now find them to have that is barely to a third Part of the Grand Diet For the Poles knew very well that no Prince would be so Imprudent as to scruple Submitting to
same either by himself or his Generals can Regulate his Troops and see his Army duly paid out of the Treasury of the Republic He has a great deal of reason to hope for Success in his Expeditions because that not having undertaken them on his own account those that engag'd him to them will infallibly support him in them and the rather by reason that what was done was altogether with their Consent This has prov'd the Cause of almost neverfailing Success to the Polish Arms till of late Days the King and his Subjects not having been in so good Intelligence with each other as formerly When the King is in the Army in Person he has the Supreme Authority there gives Battle when he pleases and Besieges Towns as often as he thinks fit And likewise Commands absolutely all the Gentry to follow him into the Field on Horseback at ever so little warning At Home he has the free Nomination of all Ecclesiastical Benefices and of all Secular Employments as well Military as Civil throughout the whole Extent of his Dominions without speaking of a great number of Royal Demesnes which together with the State-Dignities he confers on those that have deserv'd them He can bestow as considerable Preferments as any Prince in Europe and oblige and raise the Fortune of whom he pleases He has his Vote in Naming Cardinals as well as other Roman Catholic Kings have He can send and receive Ambassadors privately in Matters relating only to himself but as to what concerns the Republic the Senate must have their Share in it He can Call Prorogue and Dissolve the Diet at Pleasure In a word the Poles term him The Protector of their Laws and Privileges The Distributor of Honours The Supream Head of their Republic and Supream General of their Forces The Poles attend his Person Uncover'd The Chief Senators generally Serve him at Table first tasting of the Cup before they present him with it His Subjects never sit before him nor cover their Heads any where but in the Diet and there too the Senators are only allow'd that Liberty for the Deputies stand behind with their Furr'd Caps in their Hands The late King John Sobieski din'd always in Public and I never saw any sit down with him at Table when he eat at Court except the Queen his Children and foreign Ministers Yet when he either Hunted or Travell'd I have known some private Gentlemen to have had that Honour Nay even his own Servants that waited on him were then admitted to eat with him This his Majesty knew was absolutely necessary for him to allow of since by refusing any this Favour he might incur the Displeasure and Hatred of the whole Noblesse This was verified in the Case of Sigismund of Luxembourg who for having refused the Polish Gentry to eat with him was utterly excluded from the Crown that had been design'd him by Lewis King of Hungary and Poland his Father in Law The Poles when they speak to their King call him Mosci Krullo or Milociwy Krullo which is as much as to say Great or Merciful King The Titles Ambassadors give him or which are commonly made use of in Acts of Parliament or other Instruments sign'd by him and made in his Name are these Frederic Augustus II. King of Poland Great Duke of Lithuania Duke of Russia Prussia Masovia Samogitia Kiovia Volhynia Podolia Podlachia Livonia Smolensko Severia and Czernikovia All sorts of Gold Silver or Brass Coins are Stamp'd with his Image and Name All Justice is Administred in his Name and at Church they always Pray for the King and Royal Family When he is Crown'd the Diet allows him a Pension of about 140000 l. per Annum which together with his Patrimonial Estate maintains him a very splendid Court He has his Polish German and Hungarian Guards and has the same Officers of his Houshold as other Kings have While the Queen-Dowager lives the Queen-Consort maintains her Court at the King's Charge but after either the Queen-Dowagers Death or Marriage or the King's Death she has a Revenue Assign'd for that purpose as will appear hereafter Over and above the Pension which the Diet settles upon the King and Queen which in that cheap Country serves to maintain them as high as our Kings live here The King of Poland has great Incomes of his own for the Poles never care to Elect a Poor Prince for fear his Children may come to be a Charge to them after his Death He gets besides vast Sums of Money for Nominations Employments of which the late King did not scruple to sell though 't was directly contrary to the Constitutions of the Kingdom Nay the Ecclesiastical Benefices which are so very considerable have been put under Contribution by some cunning Artifice or other as happen'd some Years since about the Naming of a Bishop of Cracow whose Bishoprick is worth Eight Thousand Pounds Sterling per Annum which will go further than Twenty Thousand Pounds in England There were several that Aspir'd a long while to this Vacant Dignity and every one solicited what Friends he had at Court for the obtaining of it but most applied themselves to the Queen and begg'd of her though she has no Authority of her own to Intercede to the King in their Behalf After a long Debate the Queen call'd the Abbot Malakowski aside who was one of the Competitors and a rich Man and told him That tho' there were several that aimed at that Bishoprick yet she would Wager Fifty Thousand Crowns that he was prefer'd to them all Whereupon the good Abbot thinking to venture nothing being sure that either he should be Bishop or should gain a considerable Sum readily lays down the Money and by way of an accidental Bargain bought very dear his Bishoprick It has been Calculated that the late King what by his Own Incomes Pensions allow'd him from the Crown and other Casualties was worth about Three hundred thousand Pounds Sterling a Year of which he did not spend much above one Hundred thousand having had no Soldiers nor Army to Pay or Maintain but only his Guards and his Court. He hoarded up the greatest part of the Money in the Kingdom and was reputed to have had as much ready Cash by him as any Prince in Europe all which nevertheless the Poles Vow'd they would have back again when his Sons bought their Votes to be King The Kings Crown-Revenues are Imposts upon Merchandizes and upon the Jews part of the Customs of Dantzick and the Revenues of the Salt Mines of Cracow and other Places The Queen's Revenue consists either in a Gift from the King her Husband out of the Royal Revenues with Consent of the States or in an Annual Pension allow'd her by the Republick The Gift from her Husband serves also for her Dower and is called by the Poles what amounts to the Sense of the word Reformation being the Reversion only of a certain number of
Primate of the Kingdom a Title given him by the Council of Constance and moreover stiles himself the Pope's Legate Born by a Grant of the Council of Lateran All Ecclesiastical Affairs that have been determin'd in the Archbishop of Leopol's or any of the other Bishops Courts may be revers'd or confirm'd in an Appeal to him His Power and Authority is exceeding great and even next to the King 's It is Death to draw a Sword in his Presence or to quarrel in any manner whatsoever before him When he goes to the King or the Diet there is always a golden Cross carry'd before him and when he sits his Chaplain holds it behind his Chair He has his Marshal who is a Castellan and Senator of the Kingdom This Person on Horse-back carries a Staff before his Coach but salutes none with it except the King when the Archbishop and he happen to meet This Marshal has likewise the Honour to carry the like Staff before the King where the other Marshals are absent When the Archbishop comes to wait on the King the great Chamberlain or some other great Officer always receives him at the Stair-Foot and the King afterwards comes out of his Chamber to meet him in the Anti-Chamber He never pays any Visits out of Duty but to the Pope's Nuncio and to him only but once He visits no King's Ambassadors tho' they visit him first After the King's Death he is the supream Regent of the Kingdom till a new one be chosen during which Time he may coin Money in his own Name a Privilege granted him by Boleslaus the Chaste but which nevertheless has not been practis'd no Money having ever been seen of his coining The Revenues also of the Crown belong to him in the Inter-Regnum he convokes the Diet and dissolves it at Pleasure and in case there happens any thing extraordinary the Government assigns him several Senators for his Assistants In short he is Tantum non Rex He only can proclaim the King when elected and crown him afterwards except where he dies as in the following Case which is so very considerable that he is look'd upon by the Ambassadors and Envoys of the Candidates as the only Person upon whom the Success of their Negotiation depends and therefore all of them do their utmost to make him their Friend Hereupon I must acquaint your Grace with a Passage in the Election of the late King of Poland John III. in the Year 1674. when one Czartoreski was Archbishop of Gnesna who being entirely in the Austrian Interest and a great Friend to the Chancellor Patz and by consequence both an Enemy to the French and John Sobieski's Party could by no means be brought to proclaim him but as it happened he dy'd three Days before the Election and that Power devolv'd to Trzebicki Bishop of Cracow who being altogether for the Grand Marshal forthwith proclaim'd him with Joy The Reason why the Republic entrusts this great Authority to a Clergy-Man is for Fear that if it were bestow'd on a secular Senator he might make use of it to advance himself to the Throne This Archbishop's See is at Lowitz a City in the Palatinate of Rava in Lower Poland He is born a Canon of the Church of Plosko The second Ecclesiastical senator is the Archbishop of Leopol the capital City of Red-Russia so nam'd from a sovereign Duke of that Province call'd Leo who was subdu'd by a Castellan of Cracow in the Year 1279 and under the Reign of Lescus VI. This City is the Seat of three Bishops viz. the Roman-Catholick Archbishop the Armenian-Catholick Archbishop and a Russian Greek Schismatic Bishop These two Archbishops have the same Belief and Religion only the Armenian have some particular Ceremonies wherein they differ and the Women are separated from the Men in the Church The Russian or Greek-Schismatic Bishops cannot Marry because they must of necessity be chosen out of the Order of Fryars of St. Basil who all make a Vow of Chastity Nevertheless the Parish Priests are not oblig'd to live in Coelibacy that is if they were admitted into Orders after their Marriage for they cannot be constrain'd to leave their Wives but however when their Wives dye they cannot Marry again unless they have a mind to relinquish their Priesthood Their Liturgy is in the Russian Language being as the Polish a Dialect of the Sclavovian Their Tenets are that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by the Son and that the Pope is not Head of all the Church but only the first of the two Patriarchs whereof theirs of Constantinople is the second and independent of the first In other Articles of Belief they agree with the Roman Church Their Ceremonies and Ornaments differ from the Roman and Armenian They pray standing tho' they make frequent Genuflexions They receive the Communion in both Kinds after this manner The Priest consecrates several little Pieces of Bread made with Leaven after which he receives himself and then breaks the Bread in divers little Pieces which done he puts 'em into the Chalice with the consecrated Wine and then with a little Silver Spoon made for that purpose he communicates to the People who all stand with their Arms across upon their Breasts when they receive This done the Communicants follow the Priest thrice about the Altar with folded Arms who all the while advises and charges them to make good Cheer for seven Days together and to fast the next seven Days after that The Russians likewise make their Children communicate tho' never so young When they have all taken the Sacramenâ—â— the Priest consumes the rest at his Pleasure This Digression being curious I thought it not amiss to insert it but now I must proceed to The Third Ecclesiastical Senator who is the Bishop of Cracow the capital City of the Kingdom lying in High or Little Poland This was first an Archbishoprick establish'd by Miecislaus I. in the Year 964. immediately after he had embrac'd the Christian Faith but was afterwards lost by means of one Lampert who being made Archbishop and valuing himself too much on his Birth neglected to send to Rome for Consecration whereupon the Pope order'd it for the future to remain only a Bishoprick What is remarkable in this Bishoprick is that the Archbishoprick and that have frequently been held by the same Person This Bishop stiles himself Duke of Severia in which all the People are subject both to his Ecclesiastical and Temporal Jurisdiction His usual Residence is either at Bozentium a small Town at the Bottom of the Bald Mountain or else at Kielsk in the same Palatinate of Sendomir He has in his Diocess 1018. Churches of which thirteen are Collegiate His Seat in the Senate is on the left Hand of the King and next to the Archbishop of Leopol tho it ought to be on the right he being the first Bishop in the Kingdom This Bishoprick was formerly join'd to
Priest Formerly Poland was over-run with Hussites Picards Anabaptists Arrians Tritheists Photians Ebionites Nestorians and Socinians But the former of these have been some time since extirpated and the Socinians were first ejected by John Casimir obliging them by his Edict to quit the Kingdom immediately and allowing them three Years to dispose of their Effects These three Years were afterwards reduc'd to two by a following Edict But notwithstanding these positive Laws several of this Sect lurking about in the Kingdom from time to time and some being protected by the Favour of the Gentry the late King John Sobieski publish'd a new Edict more severe than either of the former whereby the Socinians were forthwith driven out of the Kingdom I must not omit to acquaint Your GRACE that there are abundance of Lutherans and Calvinists in this Kingdom and that chiefly in the Province of Regal Prussia who have all Liberty of Conscience allow'd them and whom the King is oblig'd to tolerate and protect by his Coronation-Oath The Lutherans are call'd by the Poles Sassowiez Saxons because Luther liv'd and taught in Saxony and the Calvinists Zborocoi Conventiclers from the Polish Word Zbor signifying an Vnlawful Meeting I should have observ'd that the Prussians became Christians after the Poles The reason of the Prussians so readily embracing the Lutheran Doctrin Cromerus attributes to their being chiefly Germans or to their reading the Books of that Nation The first Polish Nobleman converted to Calvinism was Nicholas Radzivil under the Reign of Sigismundus Augustus who receiv'd all that Sect into his Protection at his House at Viena where they had their Service in the Polish Language but this Family is at present extinct the last Person of it being a Daughter and Marry'd to the Elector of Brandenburgh's Son yet nevertheless many of this Sect still remain in Poland There are Besides Armenians Jews and Tartars in this Kingdom who all enjoy their different Perswasions and Ceremonies As for the Armenians they inhabit chiefly in certain Towns of Russia and Podolia and have their peculiar Prelates Abbots and Priests Their Service is always exercis'd in their own Language These as in other Countries acknowledge the Supremacy of the See of Rome The Jews are every where to be found in Poland and enjoy their Religion and other Privileges without Interruption only they are restrain'd from trading within twelve Leagues of Warsaw by the Constitutions Their Number is so great that Mr. Patric Ogleby who has travell'd all over these Countries affirms that there are above two Millions of them in this Kingdom and that they are so privileg'd that all this vast Body pays not above a hundred and twenty thousand Tinfes or Florens a Year to the States which amounts to no more than twenty thousand Dollars In the great Dutchy of Listhuania there are moreover about thirty thousand Tartars with Liberty of the Turkish Religion They have been there near six hundred Years and for the continuance of their Privileges they are oblig'd to send twelve hundred Men Yearly to the Wars against the Turks and Tartars There are likewise a great many Idolaters on the Frontiers of this Kingdom who still retain their ancient Superstitions whereof one is that whenever any one dies and tho it be a Year or more afterwards that another dies likewise they presently go and dig up the first Body and cut off its Head thereby to prevent as they say the Death of any more of their Family Notwithstanding Poland admits of all these Religions yet that which prevails most is the Roman Catholick which the Poles have continued stedfast in for above 700. Years They are so zealous in the maintaining of this Faith that they have a Custom to draw their Swords at the reading of the Gospel at Mass and this to testify their Readiness to defend it Also they are so bigotted to their Perswasion that they formerly would not inter-marry with Hereticks as they call them contract any Alliance with them accept of their Assistance in War nor receive any of their Scepters offer'd them An Example of which last we have in the Person of Jugello or Vladislaus V. who rejected the Crown of Bohemia meerly because the Hussites had then over-run that Kingdom Also in John Casimir's Reign the Swedes were altogether ejected Poland on Account of their being Lutherans The Poles being thus Zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion they will admit none into their Senate Diet or Courts of Judicature except in those of Prussia but of that Perswasion Also Bishops always preside in the Assembly of the States to the end that nothing may be transacted there in Prejudice of that Faith The lesser Clergy likewise selected out of the several Colleges and Chapters of the Kingdom are appointed to have Seats in the Tribunals and other Courts of Justice for the same Reason In like manner the great Officers of the Crown are oftentimes Bishops and the great Secretary of the whole Kingdom has always been an Ecclesiastick The Regular Clergy in Poland are generally more esteem'd than the Secular for they can perform all the Offices of Parish Priests without having Permission from the Bishops And Fryar Mendicants are allow'd to enter the most private Part of any House without so much as knocking at the Door There are all Sorts of Religious Orders in Poland except those of Carthusians and Minims These Regular Clergy are generally very rich but not less dissolute and immodest for they frequently go into the Cellars to drink being the Tipling Places of this Country and sometimes you shall see many of them so drunk in the Streets that they are scarce able to go upon their Legs and this without either their Superiours or the Peoples taking any Notice of them On Fast-Days these Religious Persons and all others of the Poles abstain from Milk-Meats Eggs Flesh and Boyl'd Fish a-Nights only For providing they keep to these Rules at that time they may Eat and Drink what they please all the rest of the Day only Frydays and Saturdays they forbear Butter Cheese Milk and Eggs all the Day long They cannot be enclin'd to eat Butter or Cheese on Fast-Days tho they have Permission from the Church for when Cardinal Radziouski once obtain'd them that Liberty from the See of Rome they absolutely refus'd it saying that his Holiness was a Heretick This rigid Custom they have observ'd ever since the Pope made them once fast for a hundred Years together for some enormous Crime and which it may be they do not think yet sufficiently expiated They also are so obstinate in their abstaining from Flesh that they will not eat any tho they be sick and advis'd thereto by their Doctors and permitted by their Priests As for the Secular Inferiour Clergy they are either Collegiate or Parochial and both are much after the same Nature as with us The Canons are never almost present at the Office for they
which is the Reason that he is often brib'd either by the King Foreign Princes or some great Men of the Kingdom On the Day prefix'd for the Meeting of the Diet the King with all the Senators and Nuncios goes to hear a Sermon which being ended he retires into the Senate where he is severally saluted by the Members thereof And the Nuncios retiring likewise into their House call'd by the Poles Izba Poselska confer together about electing a Speaker during which the last Speaker or Marshal officiates till a new one be chosen and then is oblig'd to resign his Staff to the Marshal elect who is to take an Oath to be true and faithful before he enters upon his Office When the Marshal or Speaker is elected he with all the Deputies of the Province goes to kiss the King's Hand in the Diet-Chamber where his Majesty sits on a Throne erected for that Purpose Then the Chancellor in the King's Name proposes all the Points to be debated in the Diet and desires the Senators and Nobility to take them into Consideration whereupon the King immediately leaves them lest his Presence might be an Awe upon them and then the Senators retiring into their Room by themselves and the Nuncios into theirs by them call'd Izba Poselska they forthwith set about deliberating on the Articles propos'd Here SIR I may remark a pleasant Reflection of Hauteville in his Account of Poland where he says That the Poles employ more Time in drinking and feasting than in debating Matters of State for that they never think on that Work till they begin to want Money to buy Hungarian Wine After the Chancellor has thus propos'd to the Diet in the King's Name all the Articles they are to go upon the Marshal of the Nuncios likwise on the Part of the Deputies presents to the King what they desire of his Majesty which is 1. To make void all Intrenchments either upon the State or the People And 2. To bestow all vacant Offices upon Persons of Worth and Merit This Marshal of the Deputies has a great Authority over them in the Diet for he it is that commands Silence among 'em and who transmits all their Requests to the King or Senate and seeing that by his Power he can either animate or moderate them it is not to be wonder'd at if he be a Person of no ordinary Esteem and that the Court always endeavours by various Favours to secure him for their Friend The Manner of Proceedings in the Nuncios House is much the same as in the Little Diets No body offers his Opinion there till having first ask'd Leave of the Marshal who alone introduces all Messengers from the King Senators Army or Foreign Princes and answers them all in the Name of the House If any Disserences arise among the Nuncios or other Tumults are rais'd by the Spectators he causes Silence immediately by striking his Staff against the Ground The two Orders being thus separated there are nevertheless frequent Intercourses between them as are between our two most Honourable Houses The Nuncios have a Power of impeaching all Magistrates and Officers for Male Administration and to put the King in mind as often as they think fit of his Coronation-Oath Moreover the Nuncios Power and Authority appears the greater in that no Constitution or Law is of any Validity or Force that was not first begun in their House Nay their Marshal is to be the first Starter of all Laws and when concluded upon it is his Office only to read them before the Senate For this Reason in the Year 1668. the Marshal protested against a certain Law because it was first concerted in the Senate But what is more to be admir'd than all this is that the Dissent of one single Nuncio is sufficient to annul the whole Proceedings and to occasion the Diet to be dissolv'd To confirm this Authority and for the futher Security of the Nuncios Sigismund I. in the Year 1510. ordain'd that it should be High Treason to Injure any Member of the Diet tho he afterwards in the Year 1539. restrain'd this Law to the Royal Person but which notwithstanding John Casimir in some measure renew'd in the Year 1649. If one of these Nuncios commits any Crime he is to be try'd only by his Fellow-Members This Privilege of the Nuncios begins a Month before and lasts as long after the Diet. Upon some Occasions the Marshal assigns Committees of these Nuncios who are to transact a-part such Matters as are intrusted to them The Nuncios remain in their House till the fifth Day before the Conclusion of the Diet when they are all to go to the Senate Et sic Comitia ad Patres transferre dicuntur But if within the Time assign'd by the Laws they find they are not able to finish their Business they humbly petition the King that the Diet may be prorogu'd Whilst the Nuncios are thus providing for the publick Good in their House the King and Senate do not pass their Time idly in theirs for after the Chancellor has given the Charge to the lower House and they are retir'd he together with the Senators tries criminal Causes for a whole Week which being ended there are several other Matters assign'd for certain Days until the lower House bring up Bills to be debated Near the Conclusion of the Diet and before the Senators and Nuncios are join'd the Marshal of the lower House in a set Speech gives Thanks to the Deputies for the Honour and Favour they have conferr'd upon him and is answer'd by one of the Nuncios in the Name of the rest who returns him their Acknowledgments for his faithful Execution of his Office When the Nuncios are come to the upper House their Marshal or Speaker sits on a Form below the Senator Marshals and the rest of the Deputies stand behind the other Senators who are seated all in their Order Being thus join'd they proceed to confirm create or abrogate Laws No body speaks here without having first obtain'd leave of the great Marshal In this Meeting the Nuncio-Marshal's Power is at an End his Office being then officiated by the great Marshal either of Poland or Lithuania or in their Absence by some other of the Senator Officers The great Marshal has Authority not only to check a Nuncio but also a Senator in speaking if he exceeds his Bounds He also in case of great Disorders imposes Silence by striking his Staff on the Ground In Cases of Controversy the King always suspends his Opinion till the Differences are reconcil'd This the Kings Henry and Stephen promis'd faithfully to observe as may appear by the Book of their Laws Page 254. To establish a Law or Constitution in the Diet the Deputies must first propose it by their Marshal and then the King and Senate are to approve of it but however before it
can have any Force it must be review'd by the great Marshal and two Deputies or by three Senators and six Deputies Having been thus review'd it is read out in the Diet by the Nuncio Marshal after which the Chancellors demand with a low Voice If the King Senate and Deputies consent to apply the Seal which being answer'd in the affirmative it is presently seal'd and enroll'd among the Acts in the Register of Warsaw and this by the Care of the Deputy's Marshal who is to see it done soon after the Conclusion of the Session After this one of the King's Secretaries is to get it printed and dispers'd among the several little Diets and Tribunals all over the Kingdom It must be observ'd that where the Diet has been dissolv'd thro' the Obstinacy of any particular Member no Laws or Constitutions can be committed to the Press Whereupon in the Year 1665. the Nuncios severely reprov'd their Marshal for but suffering them to be transcrib'd where the Session had been adjourn'd The same Law is to be observ'd in all Decrees of the Diet for immediately after the publishing of them by the Referendary they are to be transcrib'd sign'd seal'd and printed Those Decrees that concern the Treasury are to be sign'd only by a Prothonotary appointed for that Purpose By the Constitution of the Kingdom the Diet ought never to sit above six Weeks and the Gentry are so very exact in observing this Privilege that as soon as ever that Time is expir'd they send their Marshal to take Leave of the King in their Name and moreover to acquaint him that they intend to wait on him to kiss his Hand which they are admitted to do soon after They are so obstinately bent upon defending this Custom that tho' the Urgencies of State require never so short a Continuance of the Diet after the Time prescrib'd yet they always vigorously oppose it as they did in the Year 1649. when the Tartars and Cosacks had almost over-run the Kingdom The Reason I suppose why the Members of the Diet are so punctual in observing this Constitution above any other is because by that Time their Money generally is spent and other Provisions which they bring in Waggons from home as Beer Wine Meat Fowl c. Consum'd by the great Train of Guards and other Domesticks which they have with them The Affairs generally treated of in the grand Diet are either a King's Election or his Marriage sending Ambassadours to Foreign Princes declaring War or making Peace imposing Taxes to carry on a War making Alliances with other Princes and all other State Affairs Likewise all Suits of Law between private Persons have their last Appeal from the Tribunals to the Diet As may appear by the Difference adjusted by them between the Order of Malta and Prince Demetrius Wiesnowiski who with-held Possession of what was given by his Brother-in-Law the Duke of Ostrog to this Order Also in criminal Cases they judge and condemn as they did those who assassinated Gonczeski Lieutenant General of Lithuania who had all their Heads cut off by Proceedings in this Court In Cases of High-Treason the Poles say their King ought not to be present at the Tryal of any Traytor and therefore the Marshal Lubomirski complain'd of John Casimir's condemning him in the Diet for Contumacy Also they do not generally admit the Nuncios at that Time tho Stephen Batori at a Diet held at Warsaw in the Year 1582. caus'd them to be present at the Tryal of Shorowski for Treason to the End that they might all be Witnesses of the Injustice done him 'T is likewise in the Diet that Strangers are naturaliz'd and Natives of the Country who are not free-born are made Gentlemen Formerly no Person was capable of this Honour but such only as had serv'd in the Wars for a considerable Time or else who had done some other good Service to the State but now there needs no other Merit or good Qualities than to be rich enough to purchase the Favour of the Court or the Protection of some great Man They that pretend to the Indigenat that is to be made Noble have no more to do than to apply themselves to the Nuncio-Marshal who has the Power to put their Names into the Roll of those that desire to be made Polish Gentlemen After which they are to give in a Note of their Genealogy Names Sir-names Family and Services and to put their Arms in the Middle When they have been receiv'd and accepted by the Diet and have got their Patent sign'd they are to take an Oath before the same Marshal to be true and faithful to their King and Country and whereof the Marshal afterwards gives them a Certificate Nevertheless tho the Candidate be declar'd Noble by the unanimous Consent of the three Orders yet is he capable only of mean Employments and to have a Vote among the Gentry it not being in the Power of the King to bestow either on him or his Children any important Preferment till the third Generation be past and the Republick is thereby satisfy'd of their Fidelity Loyalty and Affection for their Country Tho' no other Person but the King Senate and Nuncios can have any Business or Vote in the Diet yet vast Numbers of other People still flock thither Also most commonly Foreign Princes choose then to send their Ambassadors according to the Interest they have to maintain in the Diet. At this time likewise the greatest Part of the Nobility that have wherewithal to appear in any Sort of Grandeur meet here together with their Wives and Children tho' they have no other Business than to see and be seen It is then their Sons get acquainted with others of the young Gentry and often are marry'd to some of the young Ladies that come in like manner to be observ'd and to get Husbands In short the Diet is a kind of general Rendevouz of all the People of Quality in the Kingdom as well Men and Women as Children so that what City soever the Diet sits in there are always Thirty Thousand and sometimes Forty thousand Persons more than there us'd to be Nevertheless Provisions are not very scarce by reason that every Gentleman almost brings his Necessaries along with him Nay the greatest Part send their Fuel and Provender for their Horses by the River Vistula to Warsaw when they come from that Side of the Country There are likewise several Gentlemen that always come from Germany Sweden and other adjacent Countries to see this general Meeting which is a fine Sight and the only thing that is worth observing in Poland At this Time there is always such a Crowd of Soldiers Heydukes and Footmen in the Streets that it is not safe to be abroad after Day shut in for Fear of being rob'd or strip'd naked as happens almost every Night for the Polish Gentry give so very short Allowance to their Guards and Servants
to give any Reason for his said Refusal but is only to say after their usual Manner Nie pos Volam It is not my Pleasure that it shall be so Whereupon he immediately withdraws from out of the Diet and most commonly retires into the Country for Fear of being either kill'd or abus'd as it often happens such People are by some desperate Member of the Diet. Thns SIR you may plainly perceive how easie a Matter it is for any Foreign Prince to interrupt all the Projects of this Diet if they seem in any wise to move against his Interest If Poland be in Peace and has a mind to declare War against any Nation contrary to the French Interest the French Pistoles can easily find some Senator or Deputy to oppose this Design Or if by the Heat and Resolution of some great Men War be denounc'd the French King can never fail of somebody to break their Ways and Means of raising Money to carry it on as he effectually did in the War the late King had against the Turks and Tartars Then on the other side if the Poles are actually in War with the Turks and Tartars which is for the Emperours Interest the Court of Vienna will never want some Christianly dispos'd Bishop or some other Member to perswade or oblige the Diet to continue the War as long as it agrees with the Affairs of the House of Austria and this under Pretence of serving God and the Apostolick See This appears sufficiently in this present War for the Poles having been extreamly fatigu'd and impoverish'd by the continu'd and fatal Interruptions of the Tartars for near these fifteen Years do all no doubt wish for a Peace and have propos'd it in every Diet for several Years ever since the Siege of Vienna But notwithstanding either thro their own Disorders or the Austrian Faction they could never yet accomplish their Design Thus the Austrian Party keeps them in a tedious War and the French prevents them from carrying it on with Vigour insomuch that between these two that Nation is almost ruin'd since on one Side they are hinder'd from making Peace to remedy the prodigious Desolations made upon them and on the other prevented from raising Money sufficient to carry the War into the Country of their Invaders Every Member of the Diet after having obtain'd Leave of their Marshal who can only stop their Mouths has a Right to speak and harangue there as long as he pleases Nay can say what he will for they often abuse one another and affront their King to his Face branding him with the infamous Titles of Perjur'd Vnjust and the like They often likewise threaten both him and his Children when perhaps they have the least Reason The Occasion of this is generally in that they come drunk into the Diet and consequently talk only as the Spirit moves either good or bad Nay you shall have some of these Fuddle-caps talk Nonsense for two or three Hours together trespassing on the Patience of the soberer Sort with a railing carping injurious and ill digested Discourse without any bodies ever daring to interrupt them tho' they spin it out never so long for if the Marshal himself should then presume to bid 'em hold their Tongues they would infallibly dissolve the Diet by protesting against the Proceedings thereof so that the prudenter Way is always to hear them out and moreover to shew no Dislike to the impertinent Speeches they have made No body but sees the unhappy State of the Government of Poland that their Constitutions and Privileges are most pernicious that the unlimited and absolute Liberty of each Member makes all the Republick Slaves either to the Whimsy or factious Obstinacy of one particular Man for can there be any thing more unreasonable than that after all the Senators and Deputies have come from most remote Provinces with excessive Expence to the Diet and labour'd jointly with the King to conclude Matters for the common Benefit of the Nation it should be in the Power of one disaffected or corrupted Person without giving any farther Reason than his own Pleasure to annul the Proceedings of the rest and to dissolve the Diet at a Juncture especially when there is the greatest Occasion for their Concurrence Thus SIR you may perceive that Affairs of the greatest Consequence depend not only on the prudent Deliberations of sober Men but also on the whimsical Humours of the senseless or deprav'd This excessive Liberty of every private Man shews that both the Nation and the Diet have none at all This Constitution of concluding Matters in the Diet rather by universal Consent than Plurality of Voices was establish'd to deprive their Kings of all Means and Opportunities of ever becoming absolute for they imagin'd it was morally impossible as it really is that whatever Interest or Authority the King might get in the Country that he should ever so far prevail as to bring all the Members of the Diet for he might have the Majority to consent to any Article or Bill which might any wise be injurious to the Nation But on the other hand observing the many bad Consequences that usually attend and must still necessarily follow such Constitutions they once propos'd to decide their Affairs by the two Thirds of the Voices yet which they could never agree in by reason that the greatest Part of them being over-fond of their Liberties were loath by these means to consent to part with them and so that Proposal had no Effect SIR you may have just Reason to admire how the Polish Nation could for above a Thousand Years subsist with such bad Constitutions and still possess not only a vast Kingdom but also hitherto enjoy their Freedom and Liberties in their utmost Force and Extent 'T is wonderful also that far from losing or limiting any of their Prerogatives they rather enlarge and encrease 'em as often as they elect their Kings Nay considering the Power of their King the absolute Prerogative every Gentleman has in his own Lands in a manner above the Laws the Turbulency of their Diets and the small Obligation the Officers think they lie under to perform their several Duties the Poles themselves have own'd it to be no less than a Miriacle that they should have subsisted so long and Dr. Connor says he has often heard them say that their Preservation was to be attributed to God alone that protected 'em to be the invincible Bulwark of Europe against the Progress of the common Enemies of Christendom the Turks and Tartars Here we need not have Recourse to any peculiar Providence bestow'd by God on the Poles since by his own ordinary Concourse to all natural Causes we may easily collect that the Polish Nation could not but subsist hitherto only but likewise must in all Probability last as long as any Kingdom in Europe and this for several Reasons First Because tho' the King's Power is limited by the Law his
Jurisdiction of Poland is wholly in the hands of the King or his Generals although the Palatines and Castellans who generally Accompany his Majesty to the Wars retain their Authority over their respective Inferiours but where those are Refractory a Court-Marshal Adjusts the Debate As for the Laws of Poland it is on all hands agreed that it had none till the time of Casimir the Great and then but very few made by him altho it is certain that the Poles hadlong before been Christians and were well enough vers'd in the Human-Learning yet was there never any Law or Statute of any Prince committed to Writing but that People were contented to be govern'd by the Customs and Manners of their Ancestors handed down to them from Father to Son Casimir III. therefore call'd the Great from his prudent Administration observing the disadvantages his Kingdom labour'd under by the Germans who then frequently came into Poland on account of Trade receiv'd the Saxon Laws now call'd Magdeburg-Laws from the City of Saxony whence they were taken by which Poland is at this day principally govern'd although the Gentry have many peculiar Customs and some Statutes which have been since made And which in the Time of Sigismundus Augustus being compiled into one Volume by Learned Men were entitled the Statutes of the Kingdom and since some having been Approv'd and Augmented and others Chang'd and Alter'd in several Diets have obtain'd the Name of Constitutions of Poland to which nevertheless all that Kingdom is not Subject Lithuania and Volhynia observing its own Laws Prussia likewise both Regal and Ducal has a Municipal Law of its own commonly stil'd the Law of Culm from which notwithstanding Three Cities are Exempt viz. Elbing Bransberg and Fraumberg all which make use of the Laws of Lansberg The Punishments in Poland are various and differ only according to the Quality of the Crimes and not of the Persons for a Thief is to be hang'd of what degree soever he be and Capital Offenders of all other Kinds and Qualities are to be Beheaded except in Notorious Villanies where the Offender is commonly broke on the Wheel or else Tortur'd by cutting off two Thongs or long Pieces out of the Skin of his Back A Nobleman is sometimes punish'd by forfeiting half his Estate to the King and the rest to an Informer and sometimes by Imprisonment only Masters also have a Power of Chastising their Servants which they do after this manner If the Servant they are about to Punish be a Polish Gentleman then they make him lye down on his Belly on a Carpet spread on the Ground or upon a Stool when another Gentleman-Servant lays him on unmercifully on the Back with a Rope or Stick giving him as many Blows and Lashes as the Master who is then present orders After which he that is beaten embraces the Knees of him that had commanded him to be Beat and salutes him with the good-natur'd Title of Benefactor This Discipline seems a little too severe but however the Temper of these People makes it necessary The Peasant-Servants are punish'd after the same manner only with this difference that they have no Carpet spread under them Some of the former sort think it an Honour to be so lash'd which Honour they always receive liberally as often as they deserve it This Custom of the Poles in punishing their Gentlemen-Servants so rigidly ought not much to be wonder'd at if it be consider'd that they may serve in the meanest Offices without derogating from the Nobility of their Birth or incapacitating themselves for the Highest Preferments For says Hauteville I have known some who from being Foot-boys to great Lords and Drummers in a Company of Dragoons have been advanc'd to the Dignity of SENATORS Also in general Nothing debases Nobility in this Country but a Handicraft or Mechanic Employment This SIR is all that I could meet with by various Reading relating to the Legislative and Executive Justice in Poland and which though not capable to pass your Censure with the Name of a Regular Composition I hope may obtain Effects of your Candour under the Regretted Title of a hasty Compilation I am SIR with all Humility Your most Obedient Servant J. S. LETTER IV. To the Right Honourable JOHN Earl of Marlborough Governour to his Highness the Duke of Glocester Of the Election and Coronation of a King of Poland with the Proceedings in the Inter-regnum and all other Ceremonies as likewise a short Account of the Coronation of the Queen My LORD TO whom can this Letter which treats of the Election of a King more properly address it self than to your Lordship who has lately been pitch'd upon by the wisest of Monarchs to be Governour to the presumptive Heir of his Crown No Doubt his Majesty saw those united Qualifications in you which were but to be singly met with in all others and which moreover could not but be requir'd to copy a successor from so great an Original as himself These Considerations My Lord have embolden'd me to present your Lordship with this imperfect Account but which I hope in regard it has been extracted from so many Volumes may favourably pass your discerning Censure tho it must not in the least pretend to deserve your Approbation My LORD The Crown of Poland may be vacant four Ways for either the King abdicates voluntarily and publickly like John Casimir is depos'd for his Vices as Locticus was runs out of the Kingdom as Henry III. of France did or dies which is the ordinary Cause of an Inter-regnum When the Crown is once become vacant the Archbishop of Gnesna being the first Senator of the Kingdom is the Prime Minister and hath the same Authority as the King had most of the Crown Revenues being invested likewise in him during the Interregnum After the King's Death he issues out circular Letters to all the Provinces to acquaint them therewith and to command their several Officers to make Publication of the Inter-regnum as likewise to summon a general Convocation of the Gentry to meet at Warsaw at a Time prefix'd Before this general Meeting they meet at the Little Diets where Care is taken to secure the Roads from Thieves and to set strong Guards every where on the Frontiers to oppose an invading Enemy Next Spies are sent into all Neighbouring Kingdoms to have Intelligence of what they design or do Then all Persons are prohibited either to go out or come into the Kingdom during the Interregnum as likewise to carry any Horses out of it All foreign Letters directed to any Members of the Senate are intercepted All the High-ways are block'd up with Trees fell'd down and Ambuscades are plac'd about them None of the Senate nor no Foreigners are permitted to write to the Army All the Gentry are commanded to have every thing in Readiness for publick Defence The common Use of Guns is forbidden Taverns are shut up and Concerts of Musick silenc'd
Then they proceed to institute the Court call'd Kaptur treated of before This Diet consists of the Archbishop of Gnesna who represents the King's Person and the other Senators together with the Deputies of the Provinces In Case there is no Archbishop of Gnesna when the King dies the Office of Inter-Rex comes to the Bishop of Cujavia and next to the Bishop of Posnan and so to the rest of the Bishops of Lower Poland which in this Respect is preferr'd to the Higher tho' in nothing else Yet however they may grant away their Power as they did in the Inter-Regnum before the Election of the late King when the Bishop of Cracow officiated during the whole Interregnum by a common Consent of those Bishops Some of the Senators and Deputies are dispatch'd to the Generals of the Army to remain with them and to be assisting to them with their Counsel in the Affairs of the War Some Senators and Deputies likewise are appointed to inspect the Crown-Treasure deposited in the Castle of Cracow and to take an Inventory thereof which they are afterwards to report to the Diet. This Treasure is commonly committed to the Custody of eight Senators who are the Castellan of Cracow the Palatins of Cracovia Posnania Vilna Sendomir Kalisch and Troki together with the Treasurer of the Kingdom each having his particular Seal and Key and therefore none to act without the unanimous Consent of all Also Commissioners are sent to inform themselves of the King's Crown-Revenue which they are likewise to make their Report of during this Session and till a new King be proclaim'd the Republick claims the Title of Most Serene from all Sovereign Princes and Crown'd Heads altho' Hautaville says he has observ'd that the King of France writing to this Diet of Election has not faluted them with that Title but only express'd himself in these Terms To our dearest and well beloved Friends and Allies the States of the Kingdom of Poland and Great Dutchy of Lithuania Whilst this Diet sits which by the Laws is not to be above a Fortnight without Prorogation and from the Time of the Circular Letters to the Conclusion of the Diet of Election all Courts of Justice cease except only that of the Marshal's which continues as before and a Court establish'd to prevent Disorders in the Diet. As for all private Affairs and Suits of Law they are delay'd till after the new King's Coronation The Proceedings in this Diet are much of the same Nature with those in other Diets Most Crown'd Heads and other Christian Princes send Ambassadours to this Election and more especially the Emperour and King of France The Pope also always sends his Nuncio to take care that the Election should fall upon a profess'd Catholick and one that is in the Interest of the See of Rome The Emperour and French King always raise great Factions to promote their several Interests Before any Ambassadours arrive they are to send Notice of their coming to the Archbishop of Gnesna who is to appoint them Lodgings at a Distance from the City and to assign them a Polish Gentleman whose Business is rather to observe their Conduct and to acquaint the Diet therewith than to do them either any Service or Honour But however these Rules are but seldom observ'd for Princes Ambassadours now generally live publickly at Warsaw A Gentleman 't is true is still appointed to be always with them whose chiefest Business is to prevent their corrupting any with Money but this Precaution is notwithstanding now become useless since Avarice bears so great a Sway in Poland that even the Fidelity which a Polish Gentleman ows his Country cannot withstand the Charms of a Thousand Crowns Embassadors are not only receiv'd from Foreign Princes and their Masters Letters publickly read but also Polish Ministers are sent at this Time from the Republick to all Neighbouring States to answer their Embassies and to request their Amity Here it may be observ'd that all Embassadours or Envoys who have had Audience of Leave before the late King's Death are desir'd to depart within eight Days Embassadors from foreign Courts must take especial Care to secure the Diet in general since the bare disobliging of one particular Member may render them for ever incapable of bringing their Designs about as it hapned in the Election of Michael Wiesnowiski where the true Reason of the Duke of Newburg's being excluded was the Quarrel with the Chancellor Patz Nevertheless it must be acknowledg'd that that Election was tumultuary the Nobility had not their free Votes and that they were in a manner hurried away by the Violence of the Multitude which was so great that Prasmowski then Primate was forc'd to proclaim him tho' he knew that the Republick at that Juncture had need of both a rich and valiant King neither of which that Prince could in the least pretend to be He was no sooner proclaim'd but the Chancellor began to insinuate that he ow'd his Crown to him nor was it a difficult Task for him to impose on a Prince who was easily govern'd and who had always shewn more good Nature than Judgment After the Diet of Convocation ended the Nuncios and Deputies retire to their several Countries where they acquaint the Gentry being a second Time assembled in their Little Diets of the Proceedings in this general Convocation and particularly of the Day assign'd for the Election Whereupon the Gentry immediately begin to consult about what is proper to be propos'd in the Diet of Election and they proceed to choose new Deputies In Prussia the Bishop of Varmia being sole Lord Lieutenant summons all these little Diets by his Mandates The general Diet for the Election of a King was formerly held at Petricovia but since the joining of the Kingdom with the Great Dutchy is always held in an open Field half a League from Warsaw and near the Village of Vola and is not to continue by the Laws above six Weeks The Crown-Treasurer at the Charges of the Republick builds there a large Booth or Hall with Boards not unlike Booths in our Bartholomew Fair The Name the Poles give to this Place is Szopa signifying a cover'd Room against the Injuries of Weather It has but three Doors to go in at and they fortifie it round with a broad and deep Ditch When this Place is thus finish'd by the Care of the aforesaid Officer and the Day fix'd for the Diets convening is arriv'd the Senators and Nobility go in great Order to St. John's Church at Warsaw where they pray God to assist them in the Election of a King who may have all the Qualities necessary to defend the Church and protect the Republick Then they go to wait on the Queen Dowager to condole the Death of the deceas'd King her Husband the Primate speaking for the Senate and the last Nuncio-Marshal for the Deputies who are then answer'd in the Queen's
the King always bore to his Queen in Conjunction with her own Intrigues among the Senators soon broke this Design They have also sometimes elected absolute and neighbouring Princes as the King of Sweden the King of Hungary the King of Bohemia and the Prince of Transilvania but then this Constitution was not in Force being only made of latter Days for they are now resolv'd to admit of no such Election hereafter So that at present a Prince must be very rich to purchase the Votes of so many Hundreds that compose the Diet and to treat the Gentry in general And besides must have many Heroick and Warlike Qualities and a great Reputation in the World to obtain the Crown of Poland Insomuch that before he can be elected and crown'd it must necessarily cost him several Hundreds of Thousand Pounds Sterling And moreover the vast Sums that all the Competitors spend liberally at this Election far exceeds what the elected Prince has spent so that the Members of the Diet must needs get well by their Election which I take to be one of the chiefest Reasons why they maintain their Kingdom elective The others are first That they take that Government to be easiest which is executed by a Person whom they have unanimously chosen to obey being not thereby oblig'd to be subject to a Prince that Nature only has set over their Heads Secondly That they esteem an elective Kingdom free from those Hazzards which one that is successive most commonly incurs during the Minority of its Princes for that then either its Neigbours take an Occasion to invade it or its Great Men to embroil it the better to secure the greater Share in the Government to themselves under so weak a Head If this be pretended to be remedy'd by assigning fit Tutors and Counsellors to the young Prince They say that the Government will be miserably mistaken for that we do not want in History several Examples of young Kings who have been driven out of their Thrones by their assign'd Governours And moreover that seldom any Kingdom has been known to continue long in Peace during the Minority of its King The third Reason they give is that in an elective State rarely any Blood is shed about the Succession as has frequently happen'd in other Countries without fetching any Examples from Antiquity Fourthly They say that a King chosen by the free Consent of the People will be likely in common Gratitude to retaliate the Obligation by the Clemency and Justice of his Reign The fifth Advantage which the Poles pretend by an Election of their Kings is that in no other State Princes take so great Care to educate their Children as in theirs And the sixth is That by Means of electing their King the Gentry who are only consider'd in Poland have the greater Power of conserving their Liberties and Privileges in which their greatest Happiness consists And the seventh is by limiting the Actions of their Kings to the unanimous Consent of the Diet. I might here mention many more Reasons but for Fear of tiring your Lordship by too long a Digression I return to my Subject As for those that have Suffrages in this Election it must be observ'd that the Diet have in general as likewise the Deputies of some particular Cities especially the greater ones of Prussia which formerly had not only Place among the Nuncios but also in the Senate As for the lesser the Bishop of Varmia generally subscribes in their Names There are others who have pretended to but have been deny'd a Vote in the Election as the Dukes of Prussia and the Dukes of Curland when they were only tributary to Poland The King's Sons also are excluded from a Vote tho' they should be dignify'd with Consent of the Republick Soldiers likewise are refus'd a Suffrage tho' it is no wonder that they laid Claim to such a Privilege being for the most part chosen out of the Gentry when the Cosacks once pretended to it but who were rejected with Contempt being look'd upon to be no better than the Scum or Dregs of the Populace At the Time of this Election the Diet apply themselves to the Conservation of their Rights and Liberties for this is the best Time to secure their Constitutions and Privileges and to prevent any Abuse of or Breach in their Laws for which Purpose they are always then very busie in making new Laws not only to preserve but likewise enlarge their Prerogatives As soon therefore as their King is elected they propose to him certain Articles or Capitulations to be agreed to before he can be proclaim'd These Articles they call Pacta Conventa being properly a Contract between the King and People which he swears afterwards to keep inviolable before the Altar in the Church of St. John at Warsaw Providing the elected King be a foreign Prince then must his Embassador who represents him sign these Articles and take this Oath for him Thus at the Election of Henry of Valois his Embassador John de Monluc Bishop of Valence was oblig'd to come to the Diet where after the Conditions to be observ'd by the new King his Master were read to him he sign'd them in the Name of the said Henry and of Charles IX his Brother King of France Then was he conducted to St. John's Church where after taking the abovesaid Oath his Master Henry of Valois was proclaim'd King of Poland by the Great Marshal the eighteent of May in the Year 1573. Afterwards according to Custom in these Cases Embassadors were sent by the Republick to take the Oath from that King in Person at Paris which they did on the tenth of September following This is the Method prescrib'd by the Laws for swearing to observe the Pacta Conventa yet which is not always punctually observ'd for King Michael and John Sobieski took that Oath several Days after their Election The Form of this Agreement or Capitulation is drawn up and methodiz'd by Order of the Senators and Deputies at the same time that they make the Decree of Election after which the three Orders viz. the King elect or his Embassador the Senate and Deputies go to the Church where the Chancellor or Grand Marshal reads distinctly with an audible Voice the whole Contract as follows 1. That the King shall not assume to himself the Quality of Heir of Poland nor will appoint any to be his Successor but on the contrary will preserve and maintain inviolable the Laws and Constitutions made for the free Election of a King 2. That he will pretend to no Right of Coining Money but will entirely leave that Power and the Profit thereof in the Hands of the Republick 3. That he will ratifie and confirm all the former Articles of Peace made with foreign Princes 4. That he will make it his principal Care to preserve and maintain the Quiet and Tranquility of the Publick 5. That without the Consent of the Diet he will not
declare War against any Prince bring any foreign Troops into the Kingdom suffer no Soldiers to go out of it nor levy any new Troops 6. That all the Field-Officers shall be either Poles or Lithuanians or at least Natives of such Provinces as depend upon the Crown of Poland 7. That all the Officers of his Regiment of Guards shall be likewise either Poles or Lithuanians That their Colonel or chief Commander shall be a Polish Nobleman and who shall take an Oath of Fidelity to the Republick and that all the Officers in general shall be subject to the Jurisdiction of the Grand Marshal 8. That as to Affairs which concern the Republick he shall not make use of his Privy-Seal 9. That in six Weeks after any Charge or Office vacant he shall take Care to bestow it on some worthy and well qualified Polish Gentleman and on no other 10. That he will not confer on any one Person the Offices Benefices or Dignities which the Laws of the Kingdom prescribe to be enjoy'd by more 11. That he will not marry but according to the Laws and with the Consent and Approbation of the Senate who shall assign his Queen that Retinue only which they think fit and convenient This Article King Michael broke when he married Eleonora the Emperour's Sister without Approbation of the Senate but which nevertheless he afterwards repented of for they murmur'd heavily against him and did not scruple to tell him to his Face that he had violated his Coronation-Oath Likewise when Prince James the late King's Son marry'd the Princess of Newbourg the Senate procur'd the King to send his own Guards that no German Guards might come into the Kingdom 12. That together with his Council he will regulate the Number of Horse and Foot which is necessary to the End that the Republick may have no need of foreign Troops nor be put to an unusual Expence and that he will take care to preserve such good Discipline among the Soldiers that they shall commit no Disorders either in their Quarters or their March 13. That if it be necessary for the Interest of the State to have a Fleet that he shall build none without the Consent of the Gentry and Advice of the Senate 14. That he will no ways diminish the Treasure reposited in the Castle of Cracow but will rather study to encrease and augment it 15. That he will borrow no Money nor consent that any shall be borrow'd for his Vse without the Knowledge and Approbation of the Diet 16. That he will always administer Justice by the Advice of the Senators and Counsellors which attend him 17. That for the Expences of his Table he shall be contented with those Revenues that have been granted by the Republick to the Kings his Predecessors and moreover that he shall enjoy them only for Life 18. That he shall not introduce any Strangers of what Rank or Quality soever into his Council and that he will bestow no Offices Dignities or Governments upon them 19. That for the Preservation of his Power and Dignity he will not diminish or abrogate any of the Offices at his Disposal either in the Republick or Court 20. And lastly That he will inviolably keep maintain and defend and confirm by his Letters Patents all the Rights Liberties Immunites and Privileges lawfully granted by former Kings either to the Poles or Lithuanians or to any of the Provinces which depend upon either of those two Nations To these Articles they commonly add several others which vary according to the Circumstances of Time or Quality of the Person elected King Dr. Connor says when he was in Poland he heard the Poles say that at the next Election they would make a Law by which the King should be oblig'd to reside always at Warsaw which in a manner seems to be the Center of the Kingdom The Reason that made them think of this was because the late King almost always had an ambulatory Court having no certain or fix'd Residence or Abode For sometimes he liv'd on his own Estate in Prussia and sometimes in Russia at Zolkiew and so rambled about from one Country Palace to another where oftentimes the Courtiers Ambassadors or several Gentlemen of the Kingdom that were forc'd to follow him about Business found but very indifferent Lodgings and Entertainment It may here be observ'd that at new Elections they always make some new Constitution or other for the Benefit of the Nation and to abridge the Power of their Kings The Formalities which they use when they make the King swear to the Pacta Conventa are as follow The Archbishop of Gnesna and the Nuncio-Marshal carry these Articles before the King after Mass and when they are come to the Great Altar his Majesty repeats after the Chancellor these Words We Frederick Augustus duly elected King of Poland and Great Duke of Lithuania Duke of Russia Prussia Masovia Samogitia Kiovia Volhynia Podolia Podlachia Livonia Smolensko Severia and Czernicovia do promise to Almighty God and swear upon the Holy Evangelists that we will observe maintain and fulfill all the Conditions agreed upon at our Election between our Embassadors and the Senators and Deputies of the Kingdom of Poland and the Great Dutchy of Lithuania which were confirm'd by the Oath of our said Embassadors and that we will moreover perform the same in all Rigour Vigour Points Articles Clauses and Conditions therein contain'd All which we promise to ratifie and confirm by Oath on the Day of our Coronation When the King has thus sworn to observe the Pacta Conventa the Chancellor presents him with the Decree of his Election written in Parchment and sign'd by all the Senators and Deputies The Poles make use of these Precautions in the Election of their Kings by reason that if they at any Time act contrary to what they had promis'd they might have a Right to remonstrate to them and put them in mind of their Duty It is observable that from the Time of the King's Election to that of his Coronation the great or petty Marshal does not carry the Staff erected before him that when he issues out any Orders or Proclamations he assumes only the Character of King-elect and that nothing can then be seal'd but by the Signet Before I proceed to describe the Coronation of a King of Poland I may here reasonably insert something concerning the Election of a Successor which tho' it be contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom and repugnant to the Privileges of an elective Monarchy yet a Father will have always that Respect for his Child that he will endeavour to get him to succeed him even while he lives So Sigismund II. was nam'd King in the Life-time of his Father Sigismund I. but still on Condition that he should not meddle with the Government so long as his Father liv'd But Sigismund II. being dead the Diet after having inspected the Laws of the Realm Decreed that
it was practis'd in the last Election with as much Brevity and Succinctness as possible and which are as follow After the King has thus been conducted into the Church the Ceremony forthwith begins First the Archbishop in a short Oration exhorts the King to continue stedfast in the Roman Communion to exercise all Regal and Princely Virtues and lastly to remunerate his Obligations to the Republick by a just and inviolable Administration of the Government After which the Archbishop asks him to this Effect in Latin Will you support and maintain the Holy Catholick Faith and uphold it by good Works To which the King answers I will Then the Archbishop asks him again Will you protect and defend the Churches and their Ministers Answer I will Then the Archbishop again Will you govern and rule the Kingdom committed by God to your Charge according to Equity and Justice Answer I will Then the King-elect kneeling and kissing the Archbishop's Hand and laying his own upon the Evangelists sworn to perform all that he had before sworn to observe at St. John's Church at Warsaw with some other Particulars that induce me to repeat the Form which runs thus We Frederic Augustus duly elected King of Poland Great Duke of Lithuania and Duke of Russia Prussia Masovia Samogitia Kiovia Volhynia Podolia Podlachia Livonia Smolensko Severia and Czernicovia by all the Orders of both States of Poland and Lithuania and by all the Provinces incorporated and depending thereupon do sincerely promise and swear before Almighty God and upon the Evangelists of Jesus Christ to maintain observe keep and fulfill in every of the Circumstances Particulars and Articles all the Rights Liberties Immunities and Privileges both publick and private excepting such as are contrary to the common Rights and Liberties of both these Nations or to any Law either ecclesiastical or civil that have been justly and lawfully establish'd by our Predecessors the Kings of Poland Great Dukes of Lithuania and Dukes c. Or which have been granted by all the Orders during the Interregnum to the Catholick Churches Lords Barons Gentry Citizens and Inhabitans of what Rank or Condition soever together with the Pacta Conventa agreed upon between our Embassadours and the Orders of the Kingdom of Poland and Great Dutchy of Lithuania We do moreover promise to maintain and acquiesce in whatever has been enacted or establish'd in the Diet of our Election as we do likewise to what shall be agreed upon in that of our Coronation Also that we will restore both to the Kingdom and Great Dutchy whatever has or shall be alien'd and dismember'd from their Lands or Revenues Moreover we promise not to lessen the Bounds of either the Kingdom or Great Dutchy but rather to defend and enlarge them We swear likewise to establish Courts of Justice throughout the Kingdom and Great Dutchy and to see that Justice be render'd every where without Intermission or Delay without any Regard to or Favour of Persons or Things And lastly we consent that if it should happen which God forbid that we should in any wise violate this our Oath or any Part thereof that the Inhabitants of the Kingdom and all our Dominions shall be totally discharg'd and exempt from paying us Obedience and Fidelity This Form or Oath having been distinctly repeated by the King after the Chancellor and before the Archbishop his Majesty takes the Testament in his Hand and Kissing it uses these Words So may God help me and the Contents of this Book inspire me as I perform inviolably this sacred Oath After the King has been thus sworn he rises and hears the Pacta Conventa read and confirms the Oath which he had taken concerning them Then he Kneels again and receives the Benediction of the Archbishop and other Bishops after which he rises and has the upper Part of his Cloaths taken off when the Archbishop Anoints his right Hand and Arm up to his Elbow and Shoulder with consecrated Oyl with these Words I anoint thee King with consecrated Oyl in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen And then he has his Cloaths put on again Afterwards the two Bishops lead him to a Chappel on the left Side of the Church where they Habit him a-new somewhat like a Bishop After which he has other Ornaments put on by the two Marshals of the Kingdom and Great Dutchy and then he is convey'd by the Senator-Officers the Standard-bearer of the Kingdom walking before to the Throne rais'd for him in the Middle of the Church whence after having heard Mass he is brought back to the Altar where the Archbishop delivers a drawn Sword into his Right Hand with these Word Receive this Sword and cordially protect and defend the Holy Church against all Vnbelievers Then the King delivers the Sword to the Great Sword-Bearer of the Kingdom who having put it up in its Scabbard returns it to the Archbishop who then girds it to the King's Side whereupon the King immediately rises and drawing it again Flourishes it three Times over his Head to signifie that he will defend the Trinity and Church against all Unbelievers This being done the King kneels again and the Archbishop puts the Crown after a very solemn Manner on his Head which the two Bishops bear up with their Hands till the Archbishop has said certain Prayers After which the Archbishop puts the Scepter into the King's Right Hand and the Globe into his Left when the King rising his Sword is given again to the Sword-Bearer of the Kingdom to bear before him After this his Majesty is brought back between the Archbishop and the two Bishops to the Throne wherein he is forthwith plac'd by the Archbishop with these Words Sit and maintain the Place given you by God c. The King being thus seated the Archbishop and Bishops return to the Altar where they sing Te Deum which being ended and the Archbishop sit down by the Altar the King comes and Offers him Gold Kisses his Hand and having made his Confession to him receives the Sacrament and Benediction from him Thus the Ceremonies being at an end the Archbishop rises and gives his Benediction to all present when the Court-Marshal with a loud Voice cries out Vivat Rex Vivat Rex Which Signal being taken from him by the People all the Church soon rings with the same joyful Notes after which the Great Treasurer scatters a great Number of Coronation-Medals among the People and the Guns begin to roar out their Satisfaction in what had been done when the King forthwith returns to his Court with great Pomp and Magnificence The Coronation being thus compleated the rest of the Day is spent in various Kinds of Feasts and Rejoycings among which there is one very particular in the King's Court where they roast three whole Oxen stuff'd and larded with divers Kinds of fatned Wild Beasts when they also give a great many Hogs-heads of Wine and Beer
the Little and Poorer Sort think it no Disgrace to serve them that can maintain them 'T is true the Gentleman they serve is commonly very civil to them for the eldest of them generally eats with him at Table with his Cap off and every one of them has a Peasant-Boy to wait on him which the Master maintains yet if any one of these Gentlemen-Servants neglects his Duty his Master punishes him severely tho' he has no Power to take away his Life because he is a Gentleman but he may get him whipt naked with a certain Formality which I have mention'd before It may not be here amiss to observe to your Lordship some few Maxims whereby the Republick of Poland might always subsist and the Gentry retain their ancient Privileges First By reducing all the Gentry of the Kingdom to an equal Authority in the Election of a King and other publick Deliberations by which the King or Senate would be depriv'd of a Power of raising any considerable Factions and the Grandees be discourag'd from affecting and hunting after Foreign Titles which commonly ensnare them to the Prejudice of their Country Secondly By keeping up the free Choice of their Nuncios which would disable the Court and Senate from getting their Creatures elected to the utter abrogating of the Privileges of the Gentry wherein the Poles now follows the prudent Example of the Roman Common-wealth Thirdly By preserving the Custom of the Gentries appearing in great Numbers at the Diet which animates both the Senate and Deputies in the Prosecution of Affairs for the Good of the Kingdom and deters them from being biass'd by any sinister Means Fourthly By obliging both Senators and Deputies to give an Account of their Proceedings which must needs encline them to act with a great deal of Precaution Fifthly By prohibiting the Army to come near the great Assembly of the States for Rome never enjoy'd so great Happiness as when the Gown had Preference of the Sword Sixthly To maintain the Law of Equality in Matters of Descent whereby the Gentry would be kept at an even Lay and hinder'd from disturbing the Government by too great a Power Seventhly Never to prefer any Native to the Crown because of the great Disorders it might in all Likelyhood occasion Eighthly To maintaim the Authority of their Democracy establish'd for so many Ages by the Prudence of their Ancestors and all along continu'd with no small Hazards and Trouble And Ninthly Never to permit any Foreign Princes to intermeddle with their Affairs There is no Country where Embassadors are oblig'd to make so great a Figure as in Poland especially if they have any Interest of the Prince their Master to maintain or carry on in the Diet or among the Gentry for the Great Men there generally despise all such as either do not or cannot make the same Figure with themselves which is so excessive that an Embassador must have three remarkable Qualities to keep up with it For first he must have a great Train of Coaches and Servants proportionable next keep a plentiful and open House continually to Treat and Fuddle the Gentry and where he must be very humble and familiar with them they being generally very civil and easie in their Conversation And lastly which is the surest way to gain their Affection and Suffrages he must give 'em ever now and then a little Money and he still promising them more for Reasons I have mention'd before When the Great Men of Poland have any Suit at Law or other Difference to be determin'd the Justice of the Kingdom is commonly too weak for them for tho' the Diet or other Tribunals had decided the Matter in Favour of one of the two Parties yet the Execution of their Judgment must be left to the Power of the strongest Sword for these Grandees generally think it beneath them to submit to the Sentence of a Company of Judges without a Field-Battle Sometimes they will raise five or six Thousand of a Side plunder and burn one anothers Towns and Cities and besiege each others Castles and Forts and after a great deal of Blood-shed Fatigue and Expence the unjuster Cause shall commonly get the upper Hand Dr. Connor says When he was in Poland there was a Quarrel between Duke Raazivil and Prince Sapieha about whether of the two should be Guardian to the young Princess of Newbourg Neece to the present Empress for her Mother was Dutchess Radzivil of Lithuania and Heiress of the greatest Estate in the Kingdom Both Parties had their Troops in the Field and had some Skirmishes but it was thought that Prince Sapieha being Great General of the Forces of Lithuania would get the better tho' it seems Duke Radzivil as being her Mother's Relation had more Right to the Guardianship of her All this while the King never concern'd himself in the Quarrel nor declar'd for either Party As to Matters of Descent The Father's Estate is always equally divided among his Children in like manner as in Italy Germany and most Foreign Countries but when the Father is dead the Mother can enjoy all his Estate for Life and it is absolutely in her Breast to allot every one of the Children their Quota or to keep all the Estate to her own Use during her Life Some Mothers Marry after the Husbands Deaths and so spend their first Childrens Fortunes with their second Husbands This makes the Children more than ordinary obedient to their Mothers especially during their Widdowhood Altho Estates in Poland are equally divided among the Children which one would think should absolutely weaken or ruin their Families yet do they generally find Means to support and keep them up for most commonly some of the Brothers turn Monks and so get to be made Abbots or Bishops whose Revenues are here sufficient to enrich any Family and the rest look after State-Employments which are likewise considerable Some of the Daughters also many times become Nuns so that being in the Church Service they are oblig'd to live in Celibacy and consequently leaving no Heirs all their Goods or Estates fall to their Marry'd Brothers or Sisters or to their Children In this Country the Daughters always walk before their Mothers as in Italy and the unmarry'd Sisters before the marry'd I cannot but admire at the honest and good Temper of the Polish Gentry for tho' their Liberty is extraordinary tho' they have Power of Life and Death over their Subjects tho' they are in a manner above their own Laws and tho' Justice is administer'd in Poland more slightly than in any other Country yet Dr. Connor says that all the while that he was in that Kingdom he neither saw nor heard of any Murther or Slaughter or of any Barbarity or Cruelty committed by the Gentry on their Subjects nor what is a greater Wonder of any High-way Robbers but always observ'd the Poles in general to be good humour'd harmless and generous When it is certain had
any Presumption I had to lay down any thing which might in the least contribute or add to the Knowlege of a General Officer of your Experience MY LORD In the Infancy of the Polish Empire the Poles were rather forc'd by an Arbitrary Power than commanded by indulgent Laws to defend their Country and extend its Limits but since Christianity has been received among them Bolestaus Chrobry their first King ordain'd a certain number of Horse out of every Palatinate and District and a set company of Foot out of every City and Town to be ready at a short warning and to bring their Provisions and Ammunition along with them This is what they call their Pospolite Ruszenie or the whole Body of Militia of the Kingdom gathered together under one Head or General at a place and time appointed by the King and those of the Senate that are always to attend him as his Privy-Council To this General Expedition first all Landed Gentry as well Publick as Private a few only excepted which I shall name hereafter are obliged to come 2. All Gentry that live in Cities or Towns upon Usury or otherwise 3. All Citizens that enjoy Lands or Tenements These besides all in Prussia are those of Cracow Vilna and Leopol 4. All Tenants that have hired Lands are to go themselves or to send out others 5. The Kings Tenants 6. Ecclesiastical Scultets or Advocates 7. In cases of imminent danger all Citizens in general are ordered either to send or go themselves 8. Even those Gentry that are clapt up in Jails for hainous Crimes are to be let out to assist at the Pospolite yet when that is once over they are to return to Prison again to expiate the whole extent of their Sentence All these are to be Horse well accoutred but as an Army cannot be compleat without some Foot this Pospolite also did consist formerly of the 20th Boor out of every Village or rather Farm who was to be arm'd with a Scymitar long Gun and Pole-Ax but which is often now chang'd to a Mulct to hire Forreigners Yet there are still some Polish Foot tho' of small Esteem Every Citizen that is now worth 8000 Florens is to find a Horse and he that has only 4000 is to set out a Foot-Soldier well provided The Boors also are to fit out one among 28 Families and to furnish him with Provisions sufficient for half a Year The Poles term both these Wybrancy's that is Pick'd or Selected Men so that Wybraniecka Piechota is a Pick'd Soldier If any of all these refuse to appear upon the third Summons their Lands or Goods are immediately confiscated to the King's Use Those Gentry that are excus'd from appearing at the Pospolite are 1. Such as may depute others in their Room viz. Superannuated or Sick Persons Widows Orphans Minors and lastly the Clergy for their Temporalities When any Publick or Private Nobleman is Sick he must notisie and attest it by the Oaths of several sufficient Witnesses Also it must be observ'd that in Lithuania a Clergy man must send out both for his Spiritual and Temporal Estate as likewise in Poland where there are any Temporal Lands annex'd to his Benefice 2. Those that have Estates in several Palatinates or Districts are oblig'd but to appear for one 3. The poorer sort of Gentry are eas'd in some measure for several of them may joyn in the fitting out of one Horse which is practised especially in Masovia Also Brothers that are Joint-Tenants may Depute one to appear for all 4. The King's Court and Retinue are not obliged to Muster under the Palatins and where the King does not go into the Field in Person they are to be totally excus'd 5. About 30 of the Gentry of the Queen's Court are exempt 6. About 12 of the Archbishop of Gnesna's Court and oftentimes some Officers of the Bishop of Cracow and other Bishops Courts especially where their Attendance is otherwise requir'd by the Republick 7. All Ministers to Foreign Courts together with their Domesticks are absolutely to be dispensed with 8. All Starosta's that are left in Garrisons and their Tribunes And lastly the great Constable or Governor of Cracow Castle with his Deputy the Burgraves and two Captains of Foot are to be excus'd Several Provinces and Palatinates likewise have peculiar Privileges relating to this general Meeting for in the Palatinates of Masovia and Plockzko six Brothers altho' they have distinct Estates send but one Horse-man In Podlachia out of ten Farms they send but one Light-Horse and out of twenty but one Cuirassier The Palatinates of Kiovia and Braclaw have likewise peculiar Privileges In a general Expedition the Gentry of Podolia were to continue in Garrison at Caminiec while the Poles had that City in possession The Prussians also need not march beyond the River Vistula Ossa and Drebnicz And lastly Lithuanians are not to go beyond the bounds of their Great Dutchy As to the great number assembled at this Pospolite Basko a Polish Writer says that only in the Palatinate of Lenschet in the time of Boleslaus Chrobry 2000 Cuirassiers and 4000 Light-Horse were raised at one time Starovolscius says that Uladislaus had 100000 Horse against the Prussian Knights over and above what he had left to defend the Provinces I might observe several other prodigious Lustrations out of the aforesaid Author but for brevity sake I omit them only I may affirm with Boterus in his Description of Poland that in case of necessity the Poles can raise upwards of 100000 Horse and the Lithuanians 70000 But Starovolscius is of Opinion they can both raise above 200000 Horse without Expense Also Fredro thinks that the Poles can raise above 200000 Horse The number of Polish Foot is uncertain they being at Liberty to appear or to be excused for Money Starovolscius says that in his time they did not amount to many hundreds being discouraged by the rigour of their Starosta's and wholly confin'd to their rustick Drudgery tho' continues he they are more able to sustain the hardships of War then either the Germans or Hungarians who can scarce live in the Polish Air. He also is of Opinion that the Polish Infantry if encouraged might amount to a considerable number and be not a little serviceable The Foreign hir'd Foot have sometimes exceeded 30000 when the Cosacks serv'd the Poles but they fought also on Horseback and King Stephen in his Expedition against the Suedes in Livonia had above 16000 German and Hungarian Foot in his Pay Now I shall proceed to present your Grace with an account of the manner of raising and Mustering this vast Body of Men. When a Pospolite is once agreed by the General Diet to be summon'd the King after the Ancient manner sends out his Writs or Letters into all the Palatinates or Districts of his Kingdom which being received by the inferiour Officers they are fastned by a small Cord to a long Pole whence they are called
Friar that had Orders to see it done or it would certainly have been effected notwithstanding her Majesty was admonish'd to the contrary The Plica is to be met with more commonly in Lithuania than in any other part of Poland It is so entirely peculiar to this Kingdom that none of the bordering Countries have it as Muscovy Tartary c. The Cure of this Distemper was often effected by one Dr. Jonas a Jew and Physician to the late King of Poland after this manner He Salivated his Patients by Friction and Unction and afterwards cut off the Hair without any dangerous consequences This Disease is often accompani'd with the Alopecia or Falling off of the Hair Of the cause of the Plica the Poles give this Account They say that the Tartars having made a great irruption into Poland in the Year 1279 and slain great numbers of People there rip'd out their Hearts and poyson'd them and afterwards threw them into the Rivers by which means the Waters became infected and those that have since drank of them afflicted with this loathsom Disease Notwithstanding this assertion Dr. Connor says the true cause thereof continues yet a secret to Physicians Strangers generally attribute the cause of it to slovenliness and they are confirm'd in this opinion because they are seldom troubled with it for reasons given before Another Account of this Distemper I have met with in Dr. Connor's Memoirs asserted to him by the Bishop of Posnania That Bishop it seems inform'd him that even while he was young he had the Plica and that upon cutting it with his own Hands he became dim-sighted for some considerable time and withal felt several pains and contorsions in his Limbs He told him moreover that he found divers seeming Incurvations of his Bones Afterwards the Hair growing again it began to mat as before but however he was forbid both by his Parents and his Tutor to make use of the same remedy to get rid of it during which time his pains totally left him but at length being weary of so loathsom a Companion he secretly cut off his Hair again when immediately the former symptoms began to return with greater Violence than ever Hereupon all the Servants of the House were caution'd against letting him have either Knife or Scissars for the future to do himself so much injury as he had formerly done notwithstanding which a Kinsman of his commiserating his deplorable condition privately convey'd a Knife to him wherewith he cut off his Locks a third time when he assur'd the Doctor he felt a thousand racking pains and had various other symptoms of this Disease renew'd upon him He inform'd him moreover that in one Night the Hair will be thus Matted even in those that take never so much care in Combing of it He told him likewise that the Symptoms and Pains were much greater when the Hair was often cut than when it was let grow to any length He also said that the first and second time that he cut his Locks he could sensibly perceive a vaporous and volatile matter pass in great abundance thro' the Ducts of his Hair which he said in its Passage very much frizled and contracted his Locks He moreover affirm'd that when he put a Cap upon his Head it occasion'd him intolerable heats and pain by reason said he that the pressure thereof repell'd the eruption and forced back the Humours of the Disease upon his Head From this Account of the Bishop of Posnania besides what we know already by Microscopes it evidently appears that every Hair is a kind of a little Tube thro' which the nourishment as well as those steams he mention'd may be reasonably suppos'd to pass to the utmost Extremities The other Disease peculiar to the Poles is the Rose which Hauteville says is a sort of Erysipelas chiefly shewing its self in the Face They are accustom'd to cure this Distemper by applying Powder of white Chalk to the part affected without letting Blood for they look upon that to be dangerous if not Mortal in this Case SIR What particulars have been here compil'd for your Diversion I hope may be favourably receiv'd as they are tender'd with all imaginable respect by SIR Your Most Obedient Humble Servant J. S. LETTER X. To the Honourable Mr. BRIDGES Eldest Son to my Lord CHANDOIS and Fellow of the Royal-Society Of the Dutchy of Curland its present State and Government with an Account of the Origin and Progress of the Livonian Order comprehending the several Successions of its Knights down to Gothotred Ketler the first Duke of Curland As also a succinct Relation of the several Administrations of this Duke and his Successors SIR I Hope the Addressing this following Letter to you needs no Apology since you were at first design'd to bear a part in the Patronage of this History What your great Merits intitle you to I shall not pretend to determine here reserving that Honour for a more favourable Opportunity and a better subject or at least a more correct Performance Sir The following Account is only the product of a hasty Compilation gather'd out of a confus'd Account of this Country which I could only meet with in Books But however if there be any Beautys discover'd they are to be ascrib'd to the ingenious Baron Blomberg his late Highness the Duke of Curland's Minister who by means of Dr. Connor has furnish'd me with some short Account of the Present State of Affairs in that Dutchy His Authority I presume will not be question'd by reason of his suppos'd Knowledge of those matters A much farther Account was promis'd by and expected from him but the urgency of time a consideration too much regarded by Booksellers requir'd this Abrupt Publication Sir the Dutchy of Curland which comprehends the Provinces of Curland and Semigallia is bounded on the North and West by the Baltick Sea on the East by the Great Dutchy of Lithuania and on the South by the Dutchy and Province of Samogitia In length it is about 50 great German Leagues computing from Memel in Prussia to Riga in Livonia and reckoning at least six Prussian Leagues to a Mile The breadth is different from the Baltic to Lithuania and Samogitia being in some places 30 and in others but 24 Leagues broad and moreover in some places less This Dutchy is a Plain Champion Fruitful Country and has always been well Inhabited It is a part of Livonia and when under the Teutonic Knights was the better half of it but now its Limits are not a little Abridged Some have divided Livonia into Regal and Ducal the former at present being under the King of Sueden and the latter under the Duke of Curland Formerly about the IXth Century this last was likewise Subject to Sueden but then it paid only a certain Tribute for it was never enter'd upon by the Swedes Some Authors have affirm'd it to be a Peninsula but those are easily confuted
over his Pretâ—nsions 208. c. Cujavia Territory Division into Palatinates 234. Chief Cities and Towns ibid. Cracovia Palatinate It s division into Districts 237. Cities and Towns ibid. Their several Descriptions 238 c. Castellan's Power 248. Czentochova a Town Famous for a Convent 244. Cruswick City It s Description 235. Culm Pal. Join'd by the Territory of Michalovia 260. Chief Cities and Towns ibid. Their several Descriptions ibid. c. Culm City It s Description 260. Caminiec City It s description 275. Built 320. Chelm Pal. Division into Districts 282. Chief Cities and Towns ibid. Their descriptions ibid. c. Chelm City It s description 282. Crasnistaw Town It s description 282. D. Denmark It s King taken Prisoner II. Dantzic Made a City 39. Dantzickers reduc'd 89 c. First allow'd a Vote 120. Deputies first admitted to the Diet 65. Diet. Conven'd 85 101 119 124 140 154 205. Dobrina Pal. In what abounds 289. Division into Districts ibid. Chief Cities and Towns 290. Their Descriptions ibid. c. Dobrina City It s description 290. E. Election By Horse-race 15. Peaceable 118. Of Sigisimund de Vasa 106. Of Uladislaus VII 119. Of John Casimir 124. Of Michael Wiesnowiski 144. Of John Sobieski 155. Embassadors Admitted to Audience 105 120 141 159. Elbing Town It s description 263. F. Family of Lechus 11 c. Cracus from 12 to 14. Leschus II. from 15 to 17. Piastus from 21 to 57. Jagello from 58 to 82. Factions Lutheran and Catholick 102. Not to be United 103. The former Mutiny ibid. Suppressed ibid. Three Factions 103. Lutheran's Policy 105. Frederic August King Elected 207. Takes possession of Cracow ibid. Crown d ibid. Reasons why he is likely to restore Poland 209. First German Prince that has been King ibid. G. Great Poland Province It s Division 220. Palatinates 221. Their several Cities and Towns ibid. c. Their Arms 226 c. Gnesna City It s description 223. Great Dukes of Lithuania Their several Lives from 310 to 324. Grodno City It s description 329. H. Henry I. Elected and Dethron'd 48. Appoints a Successor in vain ibid. Hedwigis Queen comes into Poland 58 Is Crown'd and how long Reign'd ibid. Has several Suitors ibid. Marries Jagello 59. Dies ibid. Henry of Valois King Sent for by the Diet 85. Agrees to Articles and takes an Oath ibid. c. Is Crown'd 86. Abdicates Poland 87. Embassies sent after him in vain ibid. House of Austria Jealous of Sigismund I's greatness 71. Raises Enemies against him ibid. How came by Hungary Bohemia and Silesia ibid. Habit of the Poles 177. Heilsberg City It s description 263. Halicz Town It s description 271. I. Jagello Great Duke of Lithuania Becomes Christian 59. Crown'd King of Poland and how long Reign'd ibid. Converts the Lithuanians ibid. Founds the University of Cracow ibid. His Wars ibid. Death and Issue 60. John Albert King His Character 66. Policy and Army defeated ibid Makes Peace with the Valachians and Turks 67. His Death ibid. John Casimir King Led a Religious Life and made Cardinal 124. His Character and Travels 126. Like to be excluded ibid. c. Elected 128. His Marriage ibid. His Wars ibid. c. Suedish King invades Poland 139. Wherefore 131. Motives and means of Casimir's Abdication 134. His Death 135. His Epitaph 136. John Basilowitz Czar of Muscovy Is a great Tyrant and his variety of Tortures 78. John III. Sobieski Elected in the Year 1674 163. His Father and Mother ibid His Travels 164. His Marriage ibid. His Generosity 165. Zeal to Arms discourag'd 166. War with the Turks and Tartars 167 c. A Battle 169. His Coronation 172. He relieves Vienna 173. Defeats the Turks 174. His entry thro' the Breach 175. Pursues the Enemy ibid Takes Zytehin in Hungary 176. Enters into a League against the Turks 177. Is immoderately covetous ibid. His Person and Dress ibid. His Character 179. Engages Dr. Connor in a Dispute ibid. His Buildings 184. Care of his Children 185. His great Riches ibid. Fortune formerly and gradual Promotion 150 His Sister 198 What Issue she left 200. Account of the King's Distemper from the Bishop of Plosko 201 c. The King's Death 204. Reflections on his Disease ibid. Inter Regnum before the present King's Election 205. Inowlocz Pal. Division into Districts 235. Chief Cities and Towns ibid. K. King Of Poland his Policy 8. The first 9 25. Four classes of Kings 10. Title ceases 30. Restor'd 48. King of Sueden enters into a League with the Elector of Brandenburg 132. Koningsberg in Regal Prussia built 45. It s description 264. Kalisch City It s description 226. Kalisch Pal. Its Arms 227. Kiovia Pal. How bounded 277. Chief Cities and Towns 278. Their descriptions ib. c. Kiow City It s Description 278. L. Laws What formerly in Poland 5. Lechus I. 10. Founds Poland 5. Builds Posnan and Gnesna 6. Occasions Poland the Name of Lechia ib. His Posterity how long Reign'd 11 12. II. His Banishment and Death 13. Lescus I. 14. Elected by a Stratagem ib. Reign and Death uncertain 15. II. How Elected 14. His Death 15. III. His death uncertain 16. IV. His Character and Death 23. V. Surnam'd the White 39. Under Guardians ib. His Wars 40. Is dethron'd ib. Restor'd ib. Dethron'd again 41 Put by an Election ib. c. Re-establish'd 42. Murther'd in a Bath ib. VI. When Elected and how long Reign'd 46. His Wars ib. Insurrection against him ib. Retires into Hungary 47. Returns with success ib. His death ib. Leaves his Kingdom in distraction ib. Lasconâ—gus Vide Uladislaus III. Locticus vide Uladislaus IV. Lewis King of Hungary When Crown'd and how long Reign'd 56. Oblig'd to take an Oath ib Returns into Hungary ib. His Wars Death and Issue 57. Commendable Example of his ib. Leopol City whence so call'd 46. It s description 267. Luther's Doctrine when first known here 70. Very much propagated 78. The occasion ib. First Person of Note that embrac'd it ib. Lutherans Contend for share in the Government 101. Obtain perpetual Liberty of Conscience ib c. Lutheran party Dissents 107. Elects and Proclaims Maximilian of Austria 〈◊〉 2 Pronounc'd Traytors by the Diet 108. Lithuanid Tends towards a Civil War 160. How call'd by the Inhabitants 302. Present Bounds ib. Antient Extent ib. Soil and Products ib. c Union with Poland and Privileges 303. Division ib. Its Arms ib. Different Opinions about its Name 304. Its Dukes from 305 to 310. Division into Palatinates 324. Lithuanid Proper Province 325. Lesser-Poland Province Its Bounds 236. It s Division into Pal. ib. c. Their several Arms 249 254 257. Lowitz City It s description 231. Lanschet Pal. It s division into Districts 232 Chief Cities and Towns ib. Lanschet City It s Description 232. Lublin Pal. Join'd by the Territory of Lukovia 254. Chief Cities and Towns 255. Their several Descriptions ib. c. Lublin City It s Description 255. Lutzk City It s Description 295. M.
Diet Who not to be present at Tryals for Treason Naturalization and Manner of making Noble in Poland Restrain'd in some Respects notwith standing Great Concourse at the Diet. Provisions indifferent Planty notwithstanding Dangerous to walk a Nights Visits at this Time unacceptable Great Guards of some Gentry Order of Session in the Diet. Members wear no distinguishing Habits * Hartnoch lib. 2. cap. 3. p. 512. What proves Equality among Polish Gentry Intended Limitation of Votes like to produce a bad Effect Deputies awe the King and Senate Causes of Disunion in the Diet. Fomented by the Empire and France What promotes foreign Factions Members not to give Reason for Dissent to any Bill Easie Matter to annul the Projects of the Diet. Great Freedom of Speech there Unhappy State of the Polish Government Policy of concluding Matters by unanimous Consent Wonderful how the Polish Government can subsist Must always flourish for several Reasons I. Reason II. Reason III. Reason Assemblys of the Convocation and Synods in Poland The Kaptur Court Ecclesiastical Courts and their Jurisdiction Court of Nunciature Gentry's Civil Courts High Tribunals The Senate and Green-Cloth Exchequer Courts Gentry-Courts not free from Appeal Of Land-Judicature with its Judges Vice-Chamberlains Court Commissioners to take Appeals Gentries Criminal Courts Starostas Power and Office Courts of Commonalty in Cities In Villages Officers and Magistrates of Plebeian Courts 〈◊〉 Profits Military Jurisdiction Origin Progress and present State of Laws Punishments in Poland Manner of chastising Servants No Disgrace to the Genty to be thus beat Crown vacant has many ways Diet summon'd Proceedings in little Diets before Grand Session Who officiates where no Interregnum * Lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 275. First Proceedings * Hartnoch lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 291. †Ibid. lib. cap. eodem p. 306. Courts of Justice cease except two Foreign Ministers on this Occasion Notifie their Arrival and how receiv'd Embassadors from the Republick Caution to foreign Ministers Deputies Business after this Diet Diet of Election * Hartknoch lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 295. †Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 1. p. eadem First Proceedings therein * Piasecius ad An. 1632. p. 530. Exorbitancies examin'd and Embassadors receiv'd Manner of Receiving them What requisite in forreign Ministers Diet proceeds to Election Further Particulars thereof Great Concours at the Election and Policy to byass them Qualifications requir'd in a Candidate * Lib. 2. Cap. 1. p. 309. to 312. †Ibid. p. 431. Rules observ'd by the Poles in Elections Why preserve their Kingdom elective Who have Votes and who not The Pacta Conventa When taken by Embassadors By whom drawn and after what manner Administred The Form and several Articles An Article Violated Occasional Articles Ceremony of the Kings swearing The Oath Presented with the Decree of Election Concerning the Election of a Successor Interest of foreign Princes to oppose it Reasons for and against such an Election The King has no Regal Authority till Crown'd * Hartknoch lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 331. Appoints the Day of Coronation †Neugebaver Hist Polon lib. 3. p. 185. Manner of his entring Cracow with other Ceremonies Obsequies of Deceas'd King and order of Procession * Piasetius in Chron. Anno 1632. p. 525. †Hart knoch lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 336. Ceremonies at the Interment Day of Corenation and by whom perform'd * Herbert Tit. Cardinalatus p. 63. †Heidenstein lib. 2. Rerum Polon p. 95. Procession in order to Coronation Ceremony at the Coronation Further Particulars of the Ceremony of Coronation King exhorted and sworn His Coronation Oath Words at kissing the Book Unction with other Ceremonys Manner of Crowning him Is Enthron'd And prenounc'd King Feasts thereupon Procession to receive Homage and Citizens Knighted Inter-Rex resigns and King Proclaim'd Queens where Crown'd and where not Place of their Coronation And what requir'd to confirm it Gentry only capable of Preferment Commonalty Incapable except some few Gentrys Power and Privileges Cannot be Apprehended till convicted Exception Cannot be Executed without the Kings Consent Need not Quarter Soldiers Other Privileges of the Gentry Need not pay Taxes unless oblig'd by the Diet. Privilege of Preemption Have one Grievance notwithstanding How they came by these Privileges All equal and consesequently value no Honour Title of Prince despis'd An Order Instituted but undervalu'd What Dutchies in Poland Polish Gentry assume Titles when they Travel Farther Power of Polish Gentry What makes them so Great Their Excessive Grandeur and Magnificence Means to support for ever the Polish Republic What foreign Embassadors are oblig'd to Law Differences decided by the Sword An Example Nature of Descents in Poland Children however support their Families Good Temper of the Poles and its Effect How Occasion'd Polish Peasants how first Enslav'd Live satisfy'd notwithstanding Their present Condition Enrich their Lords How establish'd in a Farm Their Service annex'd thereto Meet to reap their Lords Corn. Their Manners at Bed and Board Children how taught to go Habits of both the Men and Women Nobility how acquir'd in Poland Creation of a Gentleman A third way of becoming Noble Three ways of forfeiting it In what Case restor'd Chracter of the Poles Their Complexion Constitution c. Manners of the Polish Men. Their further Character Education and Learning To what generaly apply themselves Worst part of their Character Genius how enclin'd Enur'd to Hardship Greedy of Money Manner of Lending and Borowing Love to make a Figure Their present Fashions What Furrs us'd Rusticks Habit in Lithuania A few follow the French Mode The Womens former and late Fashions Poles great Extravagance Description of their Houses Furniture No Gardens nor Orchards Private and publick Baths with their Effects Poles great admirers of Shows Their Atendants Women very Modest Exception Women's Liberty restrain'd Indifferences in the Polish Temper What Exercises Practis'd Polish Families and Names formerly and now Marriages and their duration Court-Marriages Customs thereat Presents made the Bride Espousals and Ceremonies Who not Married without Dispensation Burials and order of Procession Other Proceedings Particulars relating to the King and Queens Enterment Cause of J. Casimir's Queens Death Manner of Mourning in Poland Edibles among the Poles Way of Hunting wild Oxen. Odd Dainties Manner of taking Bears Other sorts of Fowl What Fish they have Way of ordering Cabbage Their Potables Beer of what Quality Sorts of Mead. And of Wine What strong Waters Customs in Eating and Drinking Potage and Sauces Poles eat little Bread Crachat how made Customs at Feasts Banquetting Hall Particulars of Servants Manners at Table Poles way of taking Tobacco Feasts made by turns Brimmers much practis'd Customs in Traveling Description of Inns. Have few Conveniencies Travellers oblig'd to carry Provisions c. Travelling cheap in other respects Poles manner of Travelling Incommodities in Travel how remedy'd Disturb'd a Winter Nights by Boors Danger of losing Noses Manners of peculiar Countries Concerning Lithuania What relates to Courts of Justice there Former Judges Of