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land_n	country_n	england_n	great_a	1,515	5	2.7980	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56252	The history of popedom, containing the rise, progress, and decay thereof, &c. written in High Dutch by Samuel Puffendorff ; translated into English by J.C.	Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694.; Chamberlayne, John, 1666-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing P4176; ESTC R5058	76,002	238

Counts Lords Free Knighthoods and Imperial Cities besides a great many in Protestant Countries which all together according to my Estimate will amount to two thirds of Germany In Holland we find a great many Papists and there were a great many of the same leaven in England though God be thanked since the Happy Coming of Their Present Majesties to the Crown the Land is pretty well scowr'd of them On the other side we reckon among the Protestants the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland with all their dependences Suedeland Denmark Holland the most of the Temporal Electors and Princes together with the Imperial Cities of Germany The Protestants of France are at present disarm'd those of Poland are not in a condition to undertake any thing the Cities of Prussia and Curland have enough to do to maintain the free exercise of their Religion Transylvania can do but little And the Papists have besides this advantage above the Protestants That they all of 'em own the Pope for Supreme Head of their Church and do at least with their Mouth and externally profess one and the same Faith But on the contrary the Protestants have no visible Spiritual Head but are miserably divided amongst themselves for not to mention those little Sects of Arminians Socinians Anabaptists and the rest their Body is divided into almost two equal parts of Lutherans and Calvinists amongst which a great many are as much imbitter'd against one another as they are against the Common Enemy the Papists Besides there is no general Policy or Government in the Religion amongst them but in every state the particular Soveraign regulates the Affairs thereof according to his own will and pleasure Nor can it be denied that commonly speaking the Papists do with more Zeal Labour and Industry promote the advancement and propagation of their Religion than do the Protestants who have mostly in view how they may conveniently subsist by their Benefices as the chiefest prospect of Handicrafts-men is how to get their Living by the Trade to which they apply themselves So that the search of the Kingdom of God is as the reserve and the last thing they take care for Whereas the Monks and Jesuites on the contrary have brought themselves into great repute by their Missions both into the East and West Indies and though in the relations they give us thereof they intermit a thousand fabulous reports yet the thing in it self is extreamly laudable In fine there is such an irreconcileable Jealousie among the chiefest of the Protestant States that it is morally impossible ever to perswade them to submit to one Head As for example Betwixt England and Holland Suedeland and Denmark not to mention the rest Though again it must be owned too that there are no less Jealousies between France and Spain which will scarcely permit them to act unanimously against the Protestants So that notwithstanding the great inequality in strength that there is between the Protestants and Papists the former need never apprehend the Oppression of the latter In the mean while there is a great difference between the Protestants that form an Independent State and those that are under the Yoke of Popish Lords for these are not half so well assur'd of the maintenance of their Religion as are the others Thus the Security of the French Protestants depends on the bare word of the King and the Edict of Nantes so that they would be in a sad condition if the French King should at any time be possest with a Spanish or Austrian Zeal Yet I don't believe he will ever undertake to force them in the matter of Religion as long as they live peaceably and contented with that Liberty he allows them especially if he considers the good Service they rendered to his Grandfather Henry the Fourth and that he himself without their assistance had never arrived to the Crown of France Nor can Poland easily suppress the exercise of the Protestant Religion in Curland and Prussia as long as Dantzick enjoys its Liberty In Germany the Protestants are strong enough So that if they were united under one Head they would make a formidable Kingdom but the great number of their Chiefs the diversity of their Interests and their distance from one another diminishes their Strength very considerably so that the Emperor in the space of an hundred years had twice reduc'd them to such a condition that their Religion and Liberty which are so inseparably annex'd that the loss of one would have been a necessary consequence of the other's loss had both been ruin'd without the assistance of France and Suedeland 'T is true of late years some have pretended to hold forth this new Maxim That the Protestants in Germany are able to subsist and maintain their Liberties without the help of those two Crowns and that Brandenburg is very fit to have the management and direction in Chief of all their Affairs And 't is indeed the real Interest of the House of Austria that such an Opinion should prevail among the Protestants 'T is with this Pretext that the Brandenburger and the House of Lunenburg cover the desire they have of putting themselves in possession of those Lands which the King of Suedeland has in Germany whilst they give out They are as well able to maintain them in the enjoyment of their Liberty and Religion as the other Protestant States Yet it is most certain that if these two Houses should attain their ends their additional Grandeur would render them less formidable to the Emperor than they are at present whilst back'd and supported by the King of Suedeland And they are no less deceived if they think to find as sure a Support from Denmark or Holland as they have received from France and Suedeland And thirdly Should the Emperor once attain to his desire and dispossessing those two Crowns of what they have at present in Germany introduce again the Spanish Faction and mortifie the States by the maintenance of a standing Army and other Inconveniences of War who at such a time could oblige the Emperor to disband his Victorious Troops And if for example the Emperor could find no Pretext to keep his Army together and to oblige the Protestants to maintain it at their cost will Brandenburg and Lunenburg make head against him And fourthly If in case the Protestant States should not find themselves equal to so vast a Work Whether those two Crowns would at their Call come and help them And whether their own Affairs would permit them to undertake so important a design Or lastly Whether there would fall down from Heaven another Gustavus Adolphus to redeem them from the very brink of Destruction and make as great a progress as that mighty Conqueror once did And as for such as believe that the Security of the Protestant Religion can consist alone in Parchment and Seals or that the Emperor will not attempt the Soveraignty of Germany if ever a fair occasion presents it self whilst he

Reconciliation Sect. 2. If we will ascend to the first causes of the thing we shall find that before our Saviour's Birth the whole World excepting the Jewish Nation was benighted in the darkest Ignorance of Divine Affairs For what they did hold forth in general concerning the Nature of their Gods c. consisted mostly in improbable and impudent Fables 'T is true some of the most Learned among the Heathens could Discourse more rationally of the Divinity and State of the Soul but it was so dubious imperfect and ill-grounded a Description they made thereof that they themselves scarce knew what they meant The most of them were well enough convinced that they were oblig'd to the Exercise and Practice of Virtue but they knew no farther Effects thereof than that Advantage and Honour which they enjoy'd thereby in civil Conversation for as for what the Poets held forth concerning the Rewards which the just and the Torments which the unjust were to expect after this Life those that would pass for the wisest Men laugh'd at it esteeming it nothing more than a witty Fable and Bug-bears invented to frighten the unthinking Mobile into their Devoirs The rest of the People liv'd without proposing to themselves any other ends and in that which the Heathens named Religion there was not to be found any Rules or Formularies including the principal Matters of Divinity The greatest part of their Divine Worship consisted in Sacrifices Ceremonies and certain Holy-Days which were more spent in Plays and Debauches than any inquiry into Divine things so that from such a Heathenish Religion one could neither receive any Edification in this Life nor any hopes of a future Happiness in the next Sect. 3. In those times the Jews were the only People to whom God vouchsafed to reveal the True Religion and means of Eternal Salvation But betwixt that and the Christian Religion the difference is very considerable not only in that the Redeemer of the World and the Fountain of Salvation was represented to the Jews by Types and Figures whereas the Christian Religion comprehends the reality and accomplishment thereof but forasmuch as the Religion of the Jews was dress'd up with abundance of tedious Ceremonies whereof the greatest part had respect to the Policy and natural Inclinations of that People which were great obstacles to the growth of their Religion and render'd it morally impossible to become Universal and serve for all the World 'T is true the other Nations were not so totally excluded that through Faith in Jesus Christ they could not likewise be saved to which end there were among the Jews some godly and zealous men that made it their business to convert the Heathens especially those with whom they had to do but it did not yet please the All-wise God to send out his Embassadors or Apostles honour'd with especial and extraordinary Gifts over all the Earth to turn all Nations to the Jewish Faith and the pains that some particulars took in the Conversion of the Infidels could not produce any great effects in relation to the whole World And forasmuch as the Jews in those times being the Select People of God had the advantage above all others and that the only Temple of the True God was amongst them they valu'd themselves highly therefore and despised all the rest of the World in comparison with themselves Besides They were oblig'd upon the Account of their Ceremonies to abstain from a too free and familiar Conversation with other Nations which produc'd an implacable and reciprocal hate betwixt them so that they were set against all the World and all the World against them and consequently destroy'd all hopes of the propagation of their Religion Again the Heathens could not easily be perswaded that when they would Solemnly pay their Adorations to God Almighty they must make a long Journey to Jerusalem as if they themselves could not build a Temple in their own Country which should enjoy the same privilege as that of the Jews To which prejudice we may add that those who were converted to the Jewish Religion were not so much esteem'd as the Natives of the Country so that a very few could resolve for Religion's sake to expose themselves to that contempt which is usually the fate of strangers to endure Sect. 4. But the Christian Religion has not only a much purer and clearer Light and other Advantages above the Jewish which we leave to be considered by the Divines but it is also free'd from those streightning Circumstances which render'd the Jewish Religion so particular and it has all the Qualities that are requisite to the composition of an Universal Religion upon which Account all men are oblig'd to embrace the same which ought especially to be observed by one that will enquire into the Nature and Genius of the Christian Religion for in this God has not set apart any particular Land or Country where he will more peculiarly be Ador'd nor endu'd any with a privileg'd Holiness above the rest so that the inconvenience and great distance of God's Temple can now no longer be a pretext to this or that People for in all Nations the offering of an humble and contrite heart is equally agreeable to the common Saviour of the whole World nor is there any one Temple where God is more present or our Prayers sooner accepted than in another No Nation professing the Christian Religion has such Advantages above the rest whereupon to value its self and undervalue its Neighbour There is no distinction of Jew or Greek Bondman or Free but we are all in Jesus Christ there is no particular Race or Family selected by God for the performing Divine Service as among the Jews but all other abilities concurring one has as much right thereto as another There is nothing in the Christian Religion that hinders us from maintaining a good Union and Correspondence with all men or to render one another those mutual good Offices which the Law of Nature requires from us The Christian Religion simply consider'd and in its natural Purity dispoil'd of all Worldly views and interests has not the least jarring or discord with the Laws and Civil Society in as much as they agree with the Dictates of right Reason but rather contributes much to the cementing and corroborating of the same tho' that is not its principal end or design There is nothing that does clash with the ends of Civil Government or that should hinder us from living honourably quietly and securely under the Protection of our Rulers so that every Christian may yield an exact and perfect obedience to every command of the Secular Power as long as such commands do not recede from the Law of Nature right Reason and the Necessities of the State as likewise he may fill every charge and employ that is necessary in a well govern'd Common-wealth On the contrary the Christian Religion is most fit thereto for it does require in us a strict observation of all the Precepts

France they had gain'd nothing unless it be the Art of Chicaning Simony and another abominable Crime which it is hardly lawful to pronounce to which we may add that the Papal Court being thus translated from its natural Seat into a Foreign Country its imperfections were the more easily expos'd and consequently the Popes became more despicable This absence of the Popes was no less prejudicial to the Ecclesiastical Lands in Italy for after that the Emperor had lost all his Authority there every petty Prince was for erecting himself into a Soveraign and by the divisions of the Guelphs and Gibelines all things were brought into confusion The neighbouring Princes without any scruple pillag'd the Church's Patrimony whilest the absence of the Pope had made them forget all the respect they ow'd him the most of his Cities at the perswasion of the Florentines drove out his Legates and either erected themselves into Free States or chose them a Prince of their own City to which we may add that the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria having quarrell'd with the Pope and gain'd the Subjects of the Ecclesiastical State to his Interests made himself Master of most of the Country as being a Feoff of the Empire and invested therewith such as took his part against the Pope so that St. Peter's Patrimony was at that time in a very bad condition nor have the Popes been since able to reduce the better part of what was thus taken from them into their power but are forced to leave the possessors thereof in a free enjoyment of what they have gotten In the mean time the City of Rome was at last oblig'd to submit to the Pope's Soveraignty which it had so long oppos'd after that Pope Boniface the ninth in the year 1393. had fortified the Castle of St. Angelo which serv'd to bridle the City and keep it in subjection Alexander the sixth was chiefly the cause that the Patrimony of the Church fell again into the hands of the Pope he had a natural Son nam'd Caesar Borgia who upon the account of the Dukedom of Valence brought to him as Dowry by his Wife Charlotte d'Albret was commonly call'd il Duca Valentino Now whilest the Pope used all his endeavours to make his Son a powerful Prince in Italy to attain to his ends he bethought himself of this expedient He drove out those little Signiori that were possess'd of small parcels of the Church's Territory making himself Master of those places which they held and then gave his Son the Propriety thereof This his design succeeded very happily and he made a shift to reduce either by force or treachery most of those little Lordships into his subjection and tho' Borgia us'd a great deal of temerity in the management of this affair yet he said he knew well enough what he did since his Father who was inspir'd by the Holy Ghost approv'd of all his actions But when he wanted Money to pay his Souldiers he plotted with his Father to poison several of the richest Cardinals at a Banquet design'd for that purpose and thereby not only to put himself in possession of their goods but likewise to be rid of hateful persons who he fear'd might oppose themselves to his design but in the mean time the Servant he had employ'd in this his devilish design by mistake gave the Pope and his Son the empoison'd drink so that the Pope died immediately thereof and the Duke very hardly escaped at the expence of a terrible sickness nor could he afterwards with all his Authority oblige the Cardinals to chuse a Pope that should be in his Interests Thus Borgia's vast ambitious projects dwindled into nothing for after the Death of Pius the third who held the Chair a very few Weeks came Julius the second the sworn implacable enemy of Borgia to succeed him who reduced all that he had taken and drove him at last out of the Country and this Pope prevailed so far by his Bribes and Artifices that he regain'd all that the Church had had before in its possession except the Dutchy of Ferrara which likewise at the latter end of the last Age the legitimate Race of all the Princes of Est being ended fell into the Popes hands again he also hinder'd the French from making themselves Masters of all Italy Sect. 25. But now whilest the Popedom seem'd to be in its greatest Splendor and at as high a point of perfection as it could ever aspire to all the West having join'd it self to the Communion and Fellowship of the Roman Church excepting some few relicks of the Vaudois in France and the Hussites in Bohemia which were altogether inconsiderable and the quarrel betwixt Pope Julius the second and Lewis the twelfth of France which had easily occasion'd a new Schism being happily compos'd after that Pope's death by Leon the Tenth and the old complaints that were us'd to be made against the ambition of the Court of Rome being almost all laid asleep there happen'd upon a very slight occasion so terrible an Insurrection against the Papal Chair that a great part of Europe did withdraw its self from the Tyranny thereof and did run the risque of an irrecoverable destruction In which Affair as in all other we will only observe how much humane prudence and designs contributed thereto and will rather adore with an humble respect and admiration the Counsel and Work of God Almighty than presumptuously penetrate into his Holy Mysteries and here we may not unfitly quote that expression which Tacitus uses in his History Abditos Numinis sensus exquirere illicitum nec ideo assequare Now Leon the tenth was a peaceable magnificent and very liberal Prince to Wise and Learned Men and might have pass'd for a good Pope had he had but an indifferent knowledge of Religion and inclination to Piety for both which on the contrary he was very insensible He living very splendidly and having exhausted his Treasures by the extravagant Pomp and Magnificence of his Court did not understand the Art of making Gold but was forc'd in his necessities to have recourse to the Cardinal Laurentius Puccius who finding all the other means of getting Money quite exhausted bethought himself of Indulgences which the Pope dispers'd for Money through all Christendom in the most ample form for the service as well of the dead as of the living with permission to eat Eggs and Milk-Victuals on Fast-days with several such like privileges and the Money which he hoped to collect by this infamous commerce was already dispos'd of and that especially which was to be gather'd in Saxony and in all that Country to the Sea was destin'd for Magdalen the Pope's Sister and that they might extract greater gains from this sort of Merchandice a Commission of collecting such Money was given to one Arcimboldus a Bishop in name and habit only but a man that was incomparably well versed in the tricks of the Genoa Merchants and that would only deal out Commissions to

Learned Men. They have likewise in the Romish Church made a great Reformation amongst the ordinary Priests and Friars and that brutality and ignorance which heretofore was so common amongst them is now no more to be seen The brave and learned Sermons of Luther was that which at first procur'd him and his Disciples so great a concourse of people they edified a great many by the excellent Books which they put out in their Mother tongue to excite them to Meditation Piety Prayer and Spiritual Exercises both which the Papists have since imitated and there are found amongst them a great many good Preachers and wholesome Books of Prayer and Meditation so that at present the Protestant Clergy have no longer reason to reproach the Romish with their want of that modesty and excellent conduct which they observe in the external Service of God They are also well versed in all Controversies and are ready with whole dozens of distinctions for every objection made against them for example whereas there is nothing can be more ridiculously invented than the Pope's distributing out Indulgences for twenty or thirty Thousand Years they give it a colour with the distinction of intensivè and extensivè potentialiter and actualiter wherein the young Students take a great deal of pleasure and the ignorant imagine some great Mysteries to be invelopt therein whereas also in Luther's time the ignorance of the Clergy and their hatred to Learned Men was so prejudicial to the Popedom those of that Communion and especially the Jesuits have since found remedies for that inconvenience for the Jesuits have not only taken upon them the Information and Instruction of the youth but in the Countries where they are establish'd they have as 't were made a Monopoly thereof so that learning is now so far from being any longer prejudicial to 'em that it procures them great advantages Lastly They desisted from the propagation of their Religion with Fire and Sword and endeavour'd to allure the chiefest of the Protestants with good Words great Promises and effectual Preferments Those that will go over to 'em if they have any parts and capacities are sure to make their Fortunes to which upon the account of their Church's Riches they have the best opportunity in the World Whereas on the contrary if any one of them would turn Protestant and does not bring means along with him or is not of a more than ordinary understanding he has nothing but contemptible poverty to expect Lastly The House of Austria has much contributed to the raising up and restoring of the Popedom by driving out the Protestants not only out of its hereditary Lands but likewise from Bohemia and the depending Provinces and lately out of all Hungary or else by obliging them to embrace the Romish Religion Sect. 29. From what has been said before may easily be understood how and by what means this Spiritual Monarchy has insinuated it self in the Western part of Christendom but that you may the better conceive the structure and all the resorts of this Machine 't would not be amiss if we consider'd the Pope two ways first as he is one of the Princes of Italy and secondly as the Ghostly Soveraign of the Occidental Churches As to the first we say That the Pope may very well pass for one of the greatest Lords in Italy but under this consideration must he yield to most of the Potentates of Europe his Territories are the City of Rome with its Dependances on both the sides the Tyber the Dutchy of Benevento in the Kingdom of Naples of Spoletto Urbin and Ferrara the Marquisate of Ancona several places in Hetruria as also the Romaniola or Flaminia containing the Cities of Bolonia and Ravenna in France he has the County of Avignon Parma is a Fee of the Church which Paul the third invested his Son Peter Lewis Farnesse with tho' since that time it has been resolv'd that for the future it shall not be in the Pope's power to alienate the vacant Fees nor invest any one with the Church-Lands for fear of weakning the Papal State and to the end that the Pope might have wherewithal to maintain his Court if it should happen that any part of his Foreign Revenues should fail or come short The Kingdom of Naples is likewise a Fee or Copy-Hold of the Church in acknowledgment of which the King of Spain does yearly present the Pope with a white Hackney and five Thousand Ducats As for the Pope's Pretensions upon other Lands they are now no longer passable All these Countries are peopled and fertile enough and do comprehend a great many considerable Towns and Cities from whence the Pope does yearly draw about two millions of Gold and his Officers are very careful that the People may not grow too rich Though there are good Souldiers enough to be found in the Pope's Dominions yet his Militia is not very considerable whilst the means he uses to maintain his Countries are quite contrary to those of other Princes He keeps ready equipp'd about Twenty Gallies which usually lie at Civita Vecchia The politick Maxims of the Pope which he as temporal Prince puts in practice do mostly consist in the maintaining of the Peace in Italy and retaining it in the same posture and condition as it is at present and especially in suppressing any upstart Power that may give Laws to all the rest Besides 't is his peculiar Interest to hinder the Turk from getting footing in Italy and in case of any Invasion to unite not only all the Italian Princes but likewise all Christendom against him who likewise ought not to suffer that this noble Country fall into the hands of those Barbarians The Pope has now no reason to be alarm'd by Germany as long as it does continue in its present form of Government But if it should happen to fall under an Absolute Monarchy it might easily revive its old pretensions Spain and France are those which can only give the Pope his hand full of business and therefore in respect of those it is the Pope's Interest to foment a continual Division betwixt them or to balance them so equally that neither may be able to trample upon the other I don't doubt but the Pope wishes with all his Heart that the Spaniard were not so near a Neighbour to him in Italy and would not be sorry to see him driven out of Naples but there 's no probability that he could effect that himself and to call in the French to drive out the Spanish were to leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire Therefore the Pope must be contented to hinder the Spanish from making any greater Progress in Italy and if at any time Spain should attempt it France and the rest of the Italian Princes would soon be upon their backs Nor is it less the Pope's Interest to hinder France from getting so sure footing there as to be able to sway the Affairs of that Country according to its own will