that not only the Countries possess'd by the old German Nations were all reduc'd under his Obedience but all those that lay upon the Baltick Sea and that part of Poland which lies on the West of the Vistula which was then inhabited by the Sclaves for History saith They also were either Tributaries to that Prince or majestatem comiter coluisse were Homagers to his Crown 6. The greatest part of the German Of what Nation Charles the Great was Writers have very fondly endeavoured to have it believed he was their Countryman as being born at Ingelheim a Town in the Bishoprick of Mentz but now under the Elector Palatine and in an ancient Charter of the Abby of Fuld the Lands upon the River Unstrut in Thuring are call'd The Lands of his Conception And that he us'd the German Tongue is apparent by the names of the Months used in his time which are still retained in Germany and are thought to have been introduced by him But if the Germans would suffer me a Foreigner to pass my judgment in this Affair tho' I am not at all disposed to favour the French in their other pretences to the damage of the Germans yet I would perswade them here freely and willingly to renounce their Pretences to Charles the Great and the rather because it can bring no injury to their present Empire for it is certain the Franks placed the Seat of their Empire in Germany and it is no less A Frank certain that the Father of Charles the Great By his Father was King of France and all his Progenitors had for many Ages lived in great Honour and managed great Employments in that Kingdom Besides those parts of Germany And born in France which lie on the West of the Rhine and were then subject to the Crown of France were possess'd by them as Accessions acquired to that Kingdom by Conquest and were looked upon as conquered Provinces and every man is esteemed to be of the same Nation his Father was and in which he has placed the Seat of his Fortunes and Hopes after his Father and Ancestors The sole consideration That a man was born in this or that Country will hardly be allowed to make a man of a different Nation from his Father unless we can believe that if the present King of Sweden had been born in Prussia he had been to have been esteemed a Prussian and not a Swede Nor was that part of Germany which lieth on the West of the Rhine esteemed a part of France till under Charles the Great it was united to that Kingdom And in the first timeâ— that followed when his Posterity had divided their Ancestor's Dominions amongst them the Historians frequently distinguish between the Latin or Western France and the German or Eastern France which is the same with Germany And it is observed that after the times of the Otho's that name of Germany by degrees grew out of use The objection made on the account of the use of the German Language by Charles the Great may be thus easily Tho' he used the German Tongue answered The Gauls having been long subject to the Romans by degrees lost their own Tongue and embraced that of their Conquerors so that at last there were scarce any footsteps of the old Celtick left amongst them But then the Franks brought their German Tongue along with them and without doubt did not presently forget it But then as the Franks neither destroyed nor expelled the Gauls but only assumed the Government and Soveraignity of the Country from whence it came to pass that those who were descended of the Franks were employed in the great Affairs and the Gauls as a conquered People were kept under but then as two Rivers of different colour uniting in one stream may for some time preserve each his proper colour but at length the greater stream will certainly change the lester into its own colour so in the beginning the Gauls had their Tongue and the Franks theirs till in length of time a third was made out of both mixed and twisted together in which yet the Latin is the predominant the plain cause of which is That the Gauls were more numerous than the Franks and it was much harder for them to learn the German than it was for the Franks to learn the Gallick Latin for with what difficulty Foreigners learn the German Tongue I my self know by experience From hence it proceeds that the most ancient Writers of this Nation call the vulgar Latin the Rustick or Countryman's Tongue because the Nobility and Gentry still used the German whilst the Countrymen and the rest of the Gauls had no knowledge of any other than the Latin And thus we see it is in our own times in Livonia and Curland where the old Inhabitants are by the Germans reduced into the condition of meer Rusticks for all the Nobility and the Inhabitants of the Cities speak the Sclavonian Tongue and the German but the Countrymen do scarce understand one German word of ten Thus Charles the Great might easily understand the German Tongue because the Franks who were a German Nation had not quite laid aside the use of it and also because the Franks before his time had conquered a great part of Germany and he went on with the work and reduced all the rest under his Dominion Nor was it possible in that unlearned Age to converse with the Germans in any other than their own Language But then he that observes that there is two very different Questions confounded into one will very accurately determine this Controversie for if the Question be Whether Charles the Great were of a Gallick or a German Original without doubt it will be answered That he was not a Gaul but a German or which is all one a Frank. But if the Question be What Countryman he was France and not Germany is to be assigned him and therefore in this respect he was no German but a Gaul or Gallo-Frank I fear I shall make the Reader think I take him for a stupid person if I should dwell any longer on so plain a thing and yet I will presume to give the Germans a known example If you fall upon a Nobleman of Livonia and ask him what Countryman he is he will reply a Livonian and not a German but then if you still insist and ask him of what Lineage he will say he is descended of the Germans and not of the Livonians 7. This Prince Charles the Great had The Titles of Charles the Great to his several Dominions under him divers Nations which he had acquired by very different Titles He enjoy'd France as his Inheritance devolved to him from his Father by Succession For though we read in their Histories that the ancient Franks had lodged in the Nobility and People of that Nation some Authority in the constituting their Kings yet I conceive it was rather a solemn Inaguration and an acknowledgment of their Loyalty
reach only to the Baltick Sea and even here the King of Denmark has deprived it of a considerable part of the Promontory of Jutland which he claims as a part of his Kingdom tho' it lieth on this side of the Sound or Mouth of the Baltick Sea But then by way of Reprisals she has enlarged her Borders to the The present Bounds South-East beyond the Danube to the Borders of Italy and Illyrica and beyond the Rhine to the West and North she has gained both the Alsatia's Lorrain and the 17 united Provinces which last were formerly called Gallia Belgica 2. This vast Tract of Land was in The ancient State of it those early times possessed by various Peoples and Nations who were much celebrated on the account of their numbers and valour yet each of them was under a distinct Regiment very different from that used by their Neighbours but then they had one common Original and the same Language and there was a great similitude in their Manners The greatest part of them were under popular Governments some had Kings but that were rather to perswade their Subjects by their Authority than to command them by the Soveraign Power for that Nation was never able to brook an Absolute Servitude This Ancient Germany was never reduced into one Empire or Kingdom wherein it was like the rest of her Neighbours Italy France Spain Greece and Britain before they were conquered by the Romans But then as Germany never was reduced by a Conquest so it retained more lively traces and marks of the Primitive State of Mankind which from separate and distinct Families by degrees united into larger Bodies or Kingdoms But then tho' The old German state dangerous weak this Independent Knot of States and small Kingdoms by reason of its freedom was very grateful to the Germans of those times yet it was absolutely necessary they should frequently be engaged in mutual and destructive Wars when they were so many and so small This again exposed them to the Invasions of their neighbour Nations though they were a warlike People because their scattered Forces were not united in one Empire for their defence Neither had the greatest part of these small States so much Politicks as in due time to unite in Leagues against the dangers of their potent Enemies but they perceived the Benefit of such a Concord when it was too late and they by fighting separately for their Liberty were one after another all conquered 3. The first that reduced Germany The Franks the first Conquerors of Germany of an unknown extraction from that ancient state were the Franks which Nation is of so controverted an Origine that it is not easie to determine whether it were of Gallick or of German extraction For tho' we should grant that all those Nations which the Greeks comprehended under the title of Celtae that is the Illyrians Germans Gauls Old Spaniards and Britains did as it were flow from the same Fountain yet it is very notorious they afterwards much differed each from the others in Language and Manners so that no man that is any thing versed in Antiquity can in the least doubt of it The foolish Pride of some of the Gauls occasioned this difference who being ignorant that many of the Gallick People in the first Ages had ambitiously boasted they were of Gâ—rman extraction did in the later times envy Germany the honour of having been the Mother of the Franks These men pretend that great multitudes of men out of Gaule invaded Germany in ancient but unknown times and passing beyond the Rhine possessed themselves of all the Countries upon the River Mayn to the Hercynian Forest and that after this they returned and conquering the Parts on the West of the Rhine recovered the possession of their ancient Country but so that a part of their Nation still inhabited on the Mayn and left their Name to that Country For the confirmation of this Opinion they cite Livy lib. 5. c. 134. Câ—sar de bello Gallico lib. 6. Tacitus de moribus â—ermanorum c. 28. 4 But to all this the Germans may The Franks were a Germ. People truly reply That the Testimony of these Latin Writers is not without just exceptions because they testifie very faintly of a thing which hapned long before their times and concerning a People too whose Antiquities were not preserved in any written Records Nor is it at all probable when the 1 Trebocci Alsatia the chief Towns of which were Breuco-magus Bruomat and Elcebus Schelstat Trebocci 2 Nemetes the Inhabitants of the Bishoprick of Speyr Nemetes 3 Vangiones the Inhabitants of Worms and Strasburg Vangiones 4 Treveri the Inhabitants of the Archbishoprick of Triers Treveri and some other People who in those times lived on the West side of the Rhine and yet owned themselves to be of German extraction That the Franks should on the contrary pass the Rhine and out of Gaul make a Conquest in Germany And yet after all though we should grant that the Franks were at first a Gallick Colony yet seeing they lived about 800 years in Germany and both in their Language and Customs differed from the Gauls and in both these agreed exactly with the Germans they are for that cause to be reckon'd amongst the German Nations This is certain in the mean time that till about CCC Years after Christ there is scarce any mention of the Franks made in any ancient History From hence there arose two very different Opinions whilst some believe those People who are by Tacitus call'd the 5 The Chauci were the Inhabitants of East-Friesland Groeningen Breme Lunenburg and Hamburg as they are placed by Ptolemy Chauci changed that name in after times and call'd themselves the Franks and others think that a number of German People or some parts of them united in this name and out of a vain affectation of Liberty took up the name of Franks for in the German Tongue Frank signifies free And to this purpose they produce the Testimonies of Francis I and Henry II Kings of France who in their Letters to the Diet of Germany say they are of German Extraction Tho' it is very well known at the same time to all wise men to what purposes such ancient and overworn Relations of Kindred are for the most part pretended 5. But however this be the Franks The Franks conquer Gaul now France and after it Germany for certain first passed the Rhine upon the Vbii or Inhabitants of the Archbishoprick of Cologne and after they had conquered the far greatest part of Gaul now call'd France turning as it were the course of their victorious Arms back again they conquered the greatest part of Germany and subdued all the Countries between the Mayn and the Danube and went Northward as far as Thuringia After this Charles the Great extended his Conquests much further by subduing the Saxons and Tassilon King of the Bavarians so
the Charges of the Empire for he well considered that all was to be spent on the Turkish War and the Preservation of the Austrian Dominions and when the Accounts of the Moneys expended in the Turkish War were to be in the hands of the Princes of this Austrian Familys the Low Countries were not likely to be overcharged nor to be very ill treated if they proved slow in the payment So that it was easie to observe That Charles V. by this Promise only encouraged the Germans to spend their Treasures the more freely in the defence of his Territories when they saw him so freely consent to bring his own Patrimony under the same Burthen tho' perhaps there might be another reason too at the bottom of it viz. That whereas his Son Philip then aspired to the Empire it might not be objected against him that he had no Dominions in the Empire those belonging before to the House of Austria being then assigned to his Brother Ferdinand Or perhaps that the Germans might think themselves the more obliged to defend these Provinces if they were at any time invaded by the French King At this time that Line is reduced The Males of this House to two Males Leopald Emperor of Germany who has since our Author wrote had a Son named Joseph and Charles King of Spain who has no Issue I have heard many of the Germans wish this Prince a numerous Male Posterity out of meer fear that the failing of the Line in this Family may cause dreadful Convulsions in Europe 5 The Family of the Counts Palatine of the The Counts Palatine of the Rhine and the Dukes of Bavaria Rhine and of the Dukes of Bavaria are as to Antiquity equal to the best and it enjoys a vast Tract of Land which extends from the Alps to the River Moselle and two Dukedoms in the Borders of the Low Countries It is divided into two Lines the Rudolfian and William one of these is possess'd of the Dukedom of Bavaria Bavaria and has ever been thought very Rich and in the last tedious Civil War it got also the Electoral Dignity from the Palatinate Family and for almost an hundred years it has possessed the Electorate of Cologne Prince Clement who was lately chosen being likely still to continue it in this Family tho' powerfully opposed by the King of France his Predecessor also possess'd the Bishopricks of Liege and Hildisheim The Rudolfian The Palatine Family Line is divided into many Branches the Principal of which is the Elector Palatine and it enjoys the Lower Palatinate on the Rhine a Country which for its strength pleasantness and fertility was equal to the best parts of Germany before the French with Fire and Sword barbarously laid it desolate not only demolishing but burning down to the Ground the greatest part of its Towns Cities Palaces and Churches The Count Palatine of Newburg The House of Newburg possess'd heretofore the Dukedoms of Juliers and Montz and some Dominions on the Danube and in the year 1685. Charles Lewis the last Elector dying without Issue Philip William of the House of Newburg succeeded in the Electorate too which in the year 1688. he resigned to his Son John William being grown very old and sorely oppressed by the French Besides these The other Branches of this House there are the Palatines of Sultzback Simmeren Deuxpont or Zuibrucken as the Germans call it Birkenfield and Lawtreck The Family of Deuxpont produced Charles Gustavus King of Sweden who The King of Sweden of this Family His Dominions in Germany now reigns in that Kingdom who by the Peace of Osnaburg has obtained in Germany the Dukedoms of Breme Ferden and the upper Pomerania together with Stetin the Principality of Rugen and the Barony of Wismar This Family enjoys now also Princes of great worth and virtue for as the Bavarian Line are celebrated for their great Piety so the Electoral Family have been much esteemed for their Prudence which character will belong equally to the House of Newburg the last of this Family was on that account thought worthy of the Crown of Poland tho' he was no way related to the Families that had worn it And Prince Rupert a Branch of the elder House of the Palatinate who died in England was a Person of great Valour and Worth and famous over all Christendom for the Wars he had managed by Sea and Land 6. The Dukes of Saxony possess almost the The House of Saxony middle parts of Germany to whom belongs Misnia Thuring and a small Country on the Elbe called the Vpper Saxony Lusatia and in Franconia the Dukedoms of Coburg and the Earldom of Henneburg a Country celebrated in some parts for its Fertility and in others for its Mines This Family is divided in to two Branches viz. Albert and Ernest the last of these is in possession of the Electorate and the second Son is to be Bishop of Magdeburg of the first are the Dukes of Altenburg Gotham and 4 Brothers of the Family of Wimar and a numerous Posterity besides 7. Next these are the Marquesses of Brandenburg The House of Brandenburg the Head of which Family is one of the Electors who has large Dominions in Germany besides Prussia which is placed now out of the Empire which also he lately obtained from the Crown of Poland he has Mark the further Pomerania gained from the Swedes tho' it belonged to him by Inheritance upon the death of the last Duke without Issue Halberstad Minden and Camin three Bishopricks given him as an Equivalent for the hither Pomerania and he was also to have that of Magdeburg after the death of Augustus the present Possessor of the House of Saxony These Dominions are large and fruitful yet some believe he would have chosen the two Pomerania's entire before all the rest I remember when I was in my return from Germany being at an Entertainment at Padoua in which were present some Italian and French Marquesses I had an occasion to say the Marquess of Brandenburg could travel 200 German miles in his own Dominions without lying one night in any other Prince's Country though in some places it was indeed interrupted whereupon many that were present began to suspect I was guilty of the common fault of Travellers and my Faith was much questioned but that an old Souldier who was present and had served long in Germany and had been one of my Acquaintance in that Prince's Court delivered me from their Suspicions They could not but blush thereupon when they considered that some prided themselves in this Title in Italy and France who were scarcely Masters of Two Hundred Acres of Land So little did they understand that our German Marggraves are more considerable than their Marquesses There is another Branch of this Family in Franconia who if I am not mistaken possess the old Inheritance of the Burggraves of Norimburg and are divided into two Lines that of Culemback and that of
the Lands on the Rhine nearer one another and on the Rhine which is the most fruitful part of Germany they were possessed of the whole Country except what belongs to the Elector Palatine which as it interrupts that beautiful Chain of church-Church-Lands has I perswade my self been looked on by them with an evil Eye This their Neighbourhood has in the mean time contributed very much to the preserving them from the Reformation one of them assisting another to expel that dangerous Guest till the French at last by a just Judgment of God though a Catholick Nation as they call it came in to revenge their Contempt of the True Religion and has laid the far greatest part of these populous well built fruitful Countries in Ashes twice or thrice within the Memory of Man and now especially in the year now current 1689. But to return to our Author 11. Ecclesiastick States which are not The Ecclesiastick Electors come into the hands of the Protestant Princes are these The three Archbishopricks of Mentz Trier and Cologne which Mentz Trier and Cologne are three of the Electors and the Archbishopricks of Saltsburg and Besanzon in Burgundy for as for Magdeburg it is a meer Lay-Fee The inferiour Bishopricks are Bamberg Wurtzburg Worms Spires Aichstad Strasburg Constance Ausburg Hildisheim Paderborn The Bishops Freisingen Ratisbone Passaw Trent Brixen in Tirol Basil Liege Osnaburg Munster Curen in Curland The Master of the Teutonick Order has the first Seat amongst the Bishops And we must observe too that in our times there are sometimes two or more Bishopricks united in the same Person either because the Revenues of one single Diocess were not thought sufficient to maintain the Dignity and Splendor of a Prince's Court or that they might by that means be rendred more formidable to those that hated them The Bishoprick of Lubeck is very little better than a part of the Patrimony of the Duke of Holstein and all the Country has also embraced the Protestant Religion Amongst the Abbies which are called Prelates are these Fuld Mitered Abbots Kempten Elwang Murback Luders the Master of St. John Berchtelsgaden Weissenburg Pruym Stablo and Corwey the rest of the Prelates who are not Princes are divided The Prelates that are not Princes but vote in the Diet. into two Benches that of the Rhine and that of Schwaben or Suabia one of each of which has a Vote in the Diet and they are esteemed equal to the Counts or Earls of the Empire 12. The Estate of the Counts or Earls The Earls and Barons of the Empire and Barons of the Empire is also much more splendid and rich than that of men enjoying the same Dignities in other Kingdoms for they have almost the same Priviledges with the Princes and the ancient Earldoms had also large Territories belonging to them whereas in other Kingdoms a small Farm or Mannour shall dignifie its owner with that Title Yet the Division of the Estate amongst the Brothers has damnified many of the German Families and is only to be admitted in Plebeian Families for its Equity and Piety sake Some others have been equally ruined by the Carelesness and Luxury of their Ancestors and their prodigal Expences At this day the Earls have four Votes in the Diet one for Wetteraw Have 4 Votes another for Schwaben a third for Franconia and the fourth for Westphalia The Earls which are known to me are these Nassaw Oldenburg Furstemberg Hohenlohe Their Names Hanaw Sain Witgenstein Leiningen Solms Waldek Isenburg Stolberg Wied Mansfeld Reussen Ottingen Montfort Konigseck Fugger Sultz Cronberg Sintzendorf Wallenstein Papenheim Castell Lewenstein Erbach Limburg Schwartzenburg Bentheim Ostfrisland who is now made a Prince Khine and Walts Rantzow and perhaps many other whose Nobility is not to be prejudiced by my silence and as to those I have named I pretend no skill in the marshalling of them according to their proper Places There are also many Earls and Barons in the Hereditary Countries belonging to the Emperor who being of late Creation or subject to other States have no Place or Vote in the Diets of Germany and therefore are not to be mentioned here 13. There is also in Germany no small The Free Cities make a College in the Diet. number of Free Cities who are subject to no Prince or State but are immediately under the Emperor and the Empire and are therefore called Imperial Cities In the Diet they constitute a particular College which is divided into two Benches that of the Rhine and that of Schwaben The Principal of these are Norimberg Ausburg Cologne Lubeck Vlm Strasburg Frankford Ratisbone Aix la Chapelle or Aken Metz Worms Spire Colmar Memmingen Esling Hall in Schwaben Heilbron Lindaw Goslar Mulhausin North Hausin the rest have reason rather to pride themselves in their Liberty than in their Wealth In the former Ages the conjunction of two or three of these Cities together made a great Power and they were terrible to the Princes but now their Wealth is much reduced and we may probably enough conjecture they will one after another be all reduced under the Yoke of the Princes At least the Bishops threaten those very much in which their Cathedrals are There are also some potent Cities which preserve their Freedom though perhaps not very well grounded for the Dukes of Holstein pretend a Right over Hamburg which this Hamburg most wealthy City of all Germany will not submit to and it is thought the Strength of it and the Jealousie of the neighbouring Princes who envy the King of Denmark the possession of this fat Morsel will preserve it The King of Sweden has such Breme another Dispute with the City of Breme without which he can never secure that Dukedom and perhaps the Kings of Sweden have too much reason to suspect that City was admitted into the Diet in the year 1641 when they began to suspect those Princes would become Masters of this Dukedom on purpose to keep it out of their hands and deprive them of this convenience and security The City of Brunswick doth strangely weaken and disfigure Brunswick the Dukedoms of Brunswick and Lunenburg and by its Site interrupt their otherwise well compacted Territories And yet they will never suffer the Bishop of Hildisheim to take possession of that City Hildisheim The Elector of Brandenburg is not very favourable to the Cities in his Dominions and therefore it is not improbable the City of Magdeburg may suffer the loss of Magdeburg her Liberty after the death of Augustus of the House of Saxony They of Erford weary Erford of a doubtful Contest for their Liberty submitted and for their Folly and Cowardice were thought worthy to lose their Liberty Wise men wonder also that the Dukes of Saxony have not seized the Citadel of Thuring and I suppose by this time the Hollanders are made sufficiently sensible they ought to have defended the Inhabitans of Munster against
Franks had subdued Germany and were become Masters of all its Provinces they after the manner of the Romans sent Dukes to govern the Provinces in it that is Presidents to govern them in Peace and command their Forces in time of War And to these they sometimes added Comites for administring Justice and some Provinces were put under Comites only and had no Dukes The Dukes and Earls made Officers for their Lives and at last became hereditary Proprietors but then all these that were thus employed by them were meer Magistrates but in length of time it came to pass that some persons were made Dukes for their Lives and the Son for the most part succeeded the Father So that having so fair an opportunity in their hands of establishing themselves they began to look on their Provinces as their Patrimony and Inheritance Nor can a Monarch commit a greater Error than the suffering these kinds of Administrations to become hereditary especially where the Military Command is united to the Civil And therefore I can scarce forbear laughing when I read this Custom in some German Writers defended as commendable and prudent for it is the Honour of a Prince to reward those who have deserved well of him But then if a Master should manumise all his Servants at once I suppose he might for the future make clean his Shooes himself A Father may be the fonder of a thing because he knows he can leave it to his Son after him but then the more passionately he loves his Son the greater care he ought to take that a Stranger may claim as little Right as is possible to it Thus we usually take more care of what is our own than of what belongs to another But then a good Father will not give his Estate to his Tenant that he may use it so much the better There is a cheaper way of preventing the Rebellions of Presidents than that of granting Provinces to them to be administred as an Inheritance And 't is a very silly thing to measure the Majesty of a Prince by the number of those in his Dominions who can with safety despise him and his Soveraignty To say more were to no purpose for to expose the Stupidity of these men it will be sufficient for us to consider that they are not ashamed to compare the German Lawyers with the Italian French and Spanish Writers and yet the Writings of the greatest part of them shew they never understood the first Principles of civil Prudence 3. Charles the Great observing the Error Charles the Great endeavoured to redress this error committed by his Ancestors took away the greatest part of the Dukedoms which were of too great extent and dividing the larger Provinces into smaller parts committed them to the care of Counts Comites or Earls some of which retained the simple Name of Counts and others were call'd Pfaltzgraves or Pfaltzgraven Comites Palatini Count Palatins or Prefects of the Court-Royal and in that capacity administred Justice within the Verge of the Court. Others were call'd Landegraves that is Presidents set over a whole Province Others were call'd Marggraves Presidents of the Marches or Borders for repelling the Incursions of Enemies and administring Justice to the Inhabitants Others were called Burggraves that is Prefects or Governours of some of the Royal Castles or Forts And these Offices and Dignities were not granted by Charles the Great in Perpetuity or Inheritance but with a Power reserved to himself to renew his Grants to the same person or bestow them on another as he thought fit But after the Death of Charles the Great his Posterity But his Posterity returned to the former ill management returned to the Errors of the former Reigns and not only the Sons were suffered to succeed their Fathers in these Magistracies or Governments but by a conjunction or union of many Counties or Earldoms or by the Will of some of his Successors some Dukedoms were again formed which contained great Extents of Lands The Presidents employed by them in the Government of these Provinces thought it a piece of Cowardice and Sloth in themselves not to take hold of these occasions and opportunities of establishing themselves and their Posterities as the nature of Mankind is prone to Ambition especially when the Authority of the French Emperors declined and became every day more contemptible by reason of their intestine Dissentions and destructive Wars with one another And in the first place Otho Duke of Saxony a King in Fact though not in Title Otho Duke of Saxony the Father of Henry the Falconer having under him a large and a warlike Nation so established himself that he wanted nothing but the Title to make him a King And when Conrad I. Emperor of Germany undertook to subdue and bring under Henry his Son he miscarried in the Attempt and at his Death he advised the Nobility to bestow the Imperial Dignity on this his prosperous Rival thinking it the wisest course to give him what he could have taken by force for sear he should canton himself and disjoin his Dominions from the rest of Germany There are yet some Princes who owe their Other Princes raised to this Dignity by the Emperors Dominions to the Liberality of some of the Emperors Examples of which occurr frequently in the Histories of the Otho's and whether this is consistent with the Laws of Monarchy I am not now at leisure to enquire After these Beginnings or Foundations Princes encreased their Power afterwards by Purchaces by Hereditary Descents not only in the Right of Blood but Others by Purchace Inheritance or Vsurpation also by mutual Pacts of Successions which the Germans call Confraternal Inheritances or Successions which are of the same nature with that League between the potent Houses of Saxony Brandenburg and Hassia which is now in force And by vertue of such a League the Dukes of Saxony obtained the Earldom of Henneberg and the House of Brandenburg the Right of Pomerania though that League was not reciprocal and yet it is apparent these Leagues are injurious to the Emperor who has the Right of a Lord over the Dominions of the Princes and ought upon a vacancy to dispose of the Fee Lastly Some Estates have been seized by force by some of them when Germany was involved in Wars and Disturbances 4. But then in after times when it appeared In after times these Powers were confirmed by the Emperors that the Power which these Princes had once gotten could not be dissolved without distracting all Germany and perhaps not so neither without hazarding the Ruin of him that should attempt it it seemed better to the succeeding Kings especially after they saw they could not obtain the Empire without it to confirm their Possession so that from thenceforth they enjoyed their Territories as Fees acknowledged to depend on the Emperor and swore Allegiance to him and the Empire From hence it is that by what means soever the
I suppose the reason was because the Chapters would scarce have submitted patiently to a Bishop so obtruded on them though it was practis'd frequently in other Countries 7. The Bishops of Germany are indebted The Bishopricks of Germany endowed by the Emperors to the Liberality of the first Emperors for all those Provinces and great Revenues they now enjoy a fervent Piety and Zeal in those times ruling in the minds of Princes because they thought the more they gave to the Church the more they united themselves to God Which Opinion is much abated in our times because many now how truly I know not have taken up another contrary to it viz That over great Wealth bestowed on Church men tends rather to the extinguishing than nourishing of Piety and Religion The Church-men also of those early times seem to have had the Grace of asking without fear whatever might seem convenient for the allaying the Hardships of their Profession Thus the Bishops and Churches obtained of these good Princes not only Farms Tithes and Rents but also whole Lordships Counties Dukedoms with all the Regalia's or Royalties annexed to them so that they became equal in all things to the Temporal Princes But then in truth they obtained the Degree of Princes but in the times of the Otho's and those that followed and they got not the Regalia all at once but by little and little some at one time and some at another And from thence it comes that some of the Bishops have not yet got them all and others have them under the restraint of certain Limitations There were two other things contributed very much to the accuring all these great Riches and Honours for the Church 1. That many of the Nobility in those times took Orders and became Church-men and 2. That all the little Learning those barbarous Ages had was in the Clergy This occasion'd the calling the Bishops to Court to give their Advice and the employing them as Judges and Governours in the Provinces because these things cannot be well perform'd without some Learning And this was the true reason why the Office of Chancellor was at first annexed to the principal Bishops Sees I do also believe that the Riches of the Church were very much improved by many Princes and Noblemen who resigned their Estates or a part of them to the Bishops and took them again as Fees from them that they might so oblige them to take the more care in recommending them and their Salvation to God in their Prayers and as their Families afterwards were extinguished their Estates were united to the Bishopricks Who knows not also what vast Additions have been since made by the Wills of Dying Men when a Nation that is naturally afraid of Heat and Thirst saw they must buy off the Roasting in Purgatory by that means which they feared above all men 8. The Church-men might have been When they became very rich they would not be subject to their Benefactors well contented with their Condition in Germany though they had neither abjured Ambition nor Avarice But then as they of all men are desirous to have others under them so they could least endure to see others above them and therefore thought this was still wanting to perfect their Happiness in this World because they were still forced to receive all they had from the Emperor and consequently were forced to live in a dependence on him If the Reverence I owe that most Sacred Order of Men did not restrain me I should say they were the worst of men who as the event shews abused the Imprudent Liberality of the Emperors to the Ruin of that Majesty and Power that had raised and enriched dignified and ennobled them Certainly he is not worthy of Liberty who is not willing to own his Manumissor for his Patron and Master That therefore this Tribe of Levites might wholly free themselves from the Subjection of the Laicks the German Bishops strenuously solicited the Pope to send abroad his Vatican Thunders and raised plenty of Commotions in the Empire to second them by both which they at last gained their Point For the Archbishop of Mentz led the way and the rest of the Flock followed him faithfully and would never suffer their Prince to have any rest till he would permit them to depend on no body but the Pope This as many think brought a signal Mischief on the German State viz. The having so many of its Members acknowledge a Foreign Head unless we can think the Pope was so fondly in love with Germany that he desired nothing more than its Preservation and that they at Rome knew better what was for the Good of Germany than the very Germans themselves did 9. It remains now that we say something of the Free Cities Germany till the Of the Free Cities V. Century after Christ had nothing but Villages without Walls or dispersed Houses in all that part of it which lies to the East and North of the Rhine Even in the IX Century there is only mention made of a City or two in that part which borders on the State of Venice But then there were many Cities built by the Romans much more earlily in that part which lies on the French side of the Rhine of which the Romans were possess'd as also between the Danube and the Alps which belonged then to them but was afterwards a part of Germany The reason why in those ancient Why the Germans of old had no Cities Times they had no Cities was first because the old Germans had no skill in Architecture which Ignorance still appears in many places of this Country and secondly The Fierceness of the Nation which made them averse to these kinds of Habitations as a fort of Prisons and also thirdly Because the Nobility placed their greatest Pleasure in Hunting and therefore neither knew nor much valued the Conveniencies of having Cities and great Towns Their Dyet then was very mean their Furniture and Clothes cheap and they neither knew nor regarded the Superfluous Effects of Wealth or Luxury but after their Minds were civiliz'd and softned by Christianity they began by degrees to affect the elegant way of living the love of Riches and a studied Luxury followed and was brought in from abroad both which are nourished by great Cities The Princes also having amass'd great Riches took a Pride in building Cities and invited the Rusticks of Germany and the Inhabitants of other Nations to settle in them by the Grant of large Priviledges especially after the Christian Religion had abolished Villenage or Slavery and the Liberti or Freemen had no Lands to subsist on they flew by Flocks to the Cities and betook themselves to Manufactures and Trading The Irruption of the Hungarians forced Henry the Falconer to build many Cities and strong Holds in Saxony and he made every ninth man be drawn out of the Country to inhabit them The Leagues afterwards between the Cities for their mutual Defence and
Trade gave them great Security and by consequence made them populous and rich The principal of these Leagues is that made by the Cities on the Rhine in the year 1255 in which some Princes desired to be included The Hanse League was chiefly made on the account of Maritime Commerce and grew to that height of Power that they became terrible to the Kings of Sweden England and Denmark But then after the year 1500. it became contemptible because the lesser Cities when they found the greater got all the profit fell generally off and deserted them And the Nations upon the Ocean and Baltick Sea by their example began about the same time also to encourage Trade in their own Subjects especially the English Flandrians and Hollanders Thus their Monopoly failing their Strength fell with it 10. Though in the beginning the Cities The Cities at first subject to the Kings or Emperors of Germany were in a better condition than the Villages yet they were no less subject to the King or Emperor than they and these Princes took care to have Justice exercised in them by their Counts or deputed Judges as they call'd them After this by the enormous and imprudent Liberality of the Emperors many of the Cities were granted to the Bishops others to the Dukes and Counts and the rest remained as before only subject to the Emperor In the XII Century they began to take more liberty as they found they could relie upon their Riches because the Emperors by reason of the Intestin Wars were not able then to reduce them to a due Obedience some Princes were but just advanced to the Imperial Dignity and so were forced also to purchase the Favour and Assistance of the great Cities by the Grants of new Priviledges and Immunities that they might employ them as a Bulwark against their Refractory Bishops and Princes after this by degrees they shaked off the Emperor's Advocates The succeeding Emperors observing also that the Bishops employed their Wealth against them encouraged the Cities to oppose the Bishops The Dukes of Schwaben failing many small Cities in the Dukedom catched hastily at the opportunity of being made free yet they did not obtain their Freedom all at once but one after another as they could gain the Favour of the Emperor and that is one Reason that they have not all the same Priviledges and some of them want a part of the Regalia to this day Some of them bought these Priviledges of their Dukes or Bishops and others shook them off by force and then entred into Treaties for the purging that Iniquity for when these Princes were poor or low their last Remedy was to sell the richest of their Subjects their Liberty and others when they saw they could no longer keep them in subjection took what they could get from them and were unwillingly contented with it CHAP. IV. Of the Head of the German Empire the Emperor and of the Election and the Electors 1. THough Germany consisteth of so many The Emperor the Head of Germany Members many of which are great and perfect States yet it has at all times excepting the Interregnums which have happened since Charles the Great been united to one Head which the Ancients only call'd their King the later Ages by the more ambitions Titles of the Roman Emperor and Casar and upon the sole account of this Head it has seem'd to the most of men to be one single simple State And my next business is to shew how this Head is constituted or appointed but then it will be worth my while by way of Introduction to represent this Affair from its Rise that it may the more clearly appear how much the present differeth from the ancient Election and what is the true Original of the Electoral Princes As to Charles the Great and his Posterity the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France are to be severally and distinctly considered The The Empire of the Romans pretendedly given by the Pope first of these was collated upon Charles by the Pope and the People of Rome as the principal Members of that Empire or rather as upon one who plainly designed to make himself Emperor and that as appeareth in an Hereditary way So that the Crowning his Successors had not the force of a new and free Election but of a solem Inaguration For we read that Charles the Great made Lewis his Son and Lewis made also Lotharius his Son their Consorts in the Empire and yet there is no mention made of their asking the Consent of the Pope or of the People of Rome on either of these occasions But then as to the ancient Kingdom of France we cannot affirm that it was either meerly elective or meerly hereditary but a mixture of both For we read frequently that the The Kingdom of France morchereditary than elective Kings of France were constituted by the Consent and Approbation of the Nobility and whole People of France but in such a manner yet that they never chose out of the Line of the dead King but for very great reasons which kind of Election is as we know still observed in Poland yet he that shall curiously observe it shall find France had more of a Successive than of an Elective Kingdom So that it seems to have been collated on the first of the Race with a Condition that he should transmit it to his Posterity unless they appeared to the People very unworthy of it So that the Children of the Deceased King did not so much gain a new Right to the Kingdom by this Approbation of the Nobility and People as a Declaration that they were not uncapable of succeeding by the Right that was at first collated on them Afterwards the Line of Charles the Great being deposed or rejected and denied the Throne of France the Kingdom of Germany or as they then called it the East Kingdom of France was by the most free Consent of Germany given freely to Otho and after to Conrad the Nobility given to Otho the Saxon who excusing himself on the account of his Age by his Advice Conrad Duke of Franconia was by them chosen King of Germany who was as some think of the Line of Charles the Great By his Counsel also afterwards Henry the Falconer Son of Otho Duke of Saxony was by a free Election advanced to that Kingdom who being contented with Germany would not accept the Title of Emperor though the Pope offered it to him but Otho the Great his Son having subdued Italy so united Rome and The Empire of Rome united to the Kingdom of Germany for ever the Lands of the Church to Germany that from thenceforward he that had the Kingdom of Germany without any new Election should be Emperor of Rome the Crowning by the Pope being nothing but a Solemnity though before this Ceremony the Kings of Germany had not usually used the Title of Emperors The same form of Succession hereupon was used in Germany which
more fond of getting Money than preserving the Souls of those under his care or lastly to prevent being suspected to be better pleased with the price of Mens Sins paid to him than with the most Innocent and Holy Life The more indevout sort of men were not to be tempted neither by this Affair to suspect that the Priests were very like Physicians and Chirurgeons who reap too much Benefit from the Diseases and Wounds of Men to be heartily sorry for them So that if it was foolish and sacrilegious to give Sentence against the Indulgences to the damage of the Church it had been prudent to sweeten a man of too warm a temper with Presents Preferments and Promises that he might not light the Laity into the way of shaking off the Church's Yoke and when so many have by Ambition and Gifts aspired to the highest Dignities in the Church of Rome I think for my share it would have been worth the while to have wrapped this Monk in Purple to prevent his doing her so great a mischief For when Martin Luther saw he could have no Justice done him at the Pope's Tribunal he began to court the Grace and good Opinion of the Laity and soon after he positively refused to submit to the Judgment of the Pope because he had made the Quarrel his own by entring into it And that he might not want a Patron he began to teach That the Care of the Church belonged to Secular Princes and those who had the like Authority and they again reflecting That the great Revenues their Ancestors had given to pious uses were spent in Sloth and Luxury quickly embraced the opportunity of turning these lazy fat Cattel to Grass This was greedily followed by What is said of the design of enriching themselves by the Revenues of the Church is to be understood as spoken in the Person and Name of a Roman Catholick for all the Protestant Princes have ever denied they had any such design and it is not at all probable at first they could have any such many partly because what Luther said seemed true and partly because they sound they could considerably improve their Revenues There was then a Rumour also that the Italians imposed upon the old German Honesty and Simplicity and that they spent the Money they had torn from them on the account of their Sins in Gaming Luxury and filling the insatiable Avarice of the Pope's Officers and Creatures They called to mind a Saying of Pope Martin V. which in truth was very worthy of a Spiritual Pastor viz. That he could wish himself a Stork provided the Germans were turned into Frogs Hereupon they began to bemoan themselves to one another and say We who of old so valiantly repell'd the victorious Arms of the Romans are by an unwarlike sort of men under pretence of Religion reduced almost to a necessity of eating Hay with our Beasts I cannot tell how much the restoring Learning in this part of the World might contribute to this Revolution which was thereupon received with great Applause However we we may well and safely affirm That Men of Learning are not easily perswaded to believe what is or seems contrary to Reason 10. The effect of this Controversie was Many of the German Princes deserted the See of Rome that a great part of the ancient Rites and all those Doctrines which seem'd superfluous to these new Teachers were laid aside by a considerable part of the Germans and at the same time many of the Clergy were deprived of their church-Church-Lands Thereupon many Suits were commenc'd in the Chamber of Spire by the Clergy against those that had deprived them of their Possessions and that Court was also very willing to have restored all to the outed Clergy but then the Protestants as they are call'd refused in this matter to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of that Court For though said they the Laws in all Cases command that they which have been dispossess'd should be restored to what they once had yet in this Case that was now depending it was sit and reasonable that a lawful general Council or some other publick Convention that is a National Council of Germany should first consider and determin whether the outed Clergy did profess and teach the true Religion for if this was not first well proved as they believed it could not it was in vain and to no good purpose for them to expect the enjoyment of those Revenues which had been given by their Ancestors for the maintenance of the true Worship of God Now because they were quickly sensible that Reasons and Protestations alone would not secure them the greatest part of these Protestant States and Princes joined in a League at Smalcald to repell any Force or Violence which might be offered to any of them because they had embraced the Reformed Religion At length it came to a War which proved very unfortunate to the Protestants and the Elector of Saxony and the Landtgrave of Hess the two principal persons of their Party were both taken Prisoners and their Religion seem'd to be in a desperate and hopeless condition but then Maurice the next Duke of Saxony restored it to its former Power by his Arms and the R. Catholicks were forced to come to a Treaty at Passaw for the securing all Parties the terms of which may easily be found in any of the German Historians of that time After this in the Diet of Ausburg The Decree of Ausburg for the Liberty of Religion in the year 1555 the Protestants obtained the securing their Religion by a Law passed there in favour of it by which Law they had sufficient Security given them that they should live in Peace and that neither of the Parties should hurt or invade the other on the account of their different Religions nor compel any man by force to abjure that Religion which he professed If any Church-Lands had been seized by any of the Secular Princes which did not belong to any other immediate State or Prince of Germany it should be left to the present Possessor against whom no Suit should be commenced in the Chamber of Spire if the Clergy were not in possession of the same at the time of the Treaty of Passaw or after it That the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction should not be exercised against those who professed the Protestant Religion and that they should manage their Religious Affairs as they thought fit That no Prince should allure the Subjects of another Prince to his Religion nor undertake the Defence of them on the pretence of Religion against their own Prince But then those Subjects of either side that were not pleased with the Religion or Ceremonies of his own Prince might sell their Estates and go where they pleased And lastly if this Difference of Religion cannot be composed by fair and lawful means this Peace shall nevertheless be perpetual 11. In the mean time there was a sharp The Liberty of the Clergy more fiercely
though an holy person was then considered as one out of the Bounds of Germany and so not to be taken notice of 15. In all these things in process and length of time almost every thing was The old forms changed in after times changed After the Golden Bull the Electors took cognizance of all the Royal Cases and the Pope assumed to himself so great Power on that account that he made no scruple to excommunicate the Emperors and declare that their Subjects were free from the Obligations of their Allegiance to them and he boldly said the Emperor was his Vassal and the Empire a Fee which belonged to his See As to the Princes Suits or Cases this was ever observed from the very beginning of the French Monarchy that they were never determin'd by the Judgment of the King alone but were alwaies decided in a Convention of the Nobility upon a simple and short Process according to Equity and good Conscience And even in the first Ages of the German Empire if any of the Emperors assumed a Power singly to iudge of the Fees belonging to any of the Princes the more couragious of them alwaies protested against it Yea if all the Testimonies we have were lost the very form of the whole Empire or its Constitution do sufficiently prove that things of that consequence which these Suits are of ought not by it to be left to the single Judgment of the Emperor And therefore they are notoriously guilty of palpable Flattery who pretend that this Judgment of the Cases of the Princes of the Empire which the Germans call Das Furstenrecht is a meer Pretence But then it was long after these times that these inferiour Princes took upon them to judge arbitrarily of the Cases of their own Vassals which was done only by some Families and imitated by the Free Imperial Cities as to their Subjects The Germans call these Counts in their Language Austrega's and it is probable they began about the times of Frederick and the great Interregnum Those that trusted more to their Power or Force than to the Justice of their Cause would commit the Trial of it to the Sword It is also a late Practice which has been taken up by some of our later Emperors and Princes to referr the Cases depending to their Ministers and profess'd Lawyers rather than to give themselves the trouble of hearing them But then this became necessary when instead of a few plain Country Customs we had introduced the Intricate Papal and Civil Laws which it would have been the utmost punishment to have put the Princes to the trouble of learning 16. As to the Churchmen they innovated The Innovations brought in by the Churchmen in these particulars By degrees they drew all the Personal Cases of the Bishops to the Pope's Tribunal utterly destroying thereby all the Authority of Metropolitans and Synods and they took from the Laity all Right of judging in any Case a Clergy-man This is by the Protestants returned to the ancient method but by the Roman Catholicks still retained though Charles V and some other Princes since have to the great vexation of the Pope ordered some things pertaining to Religion and punished some Clergy-men for great Offences too In the times also of Frederick II and those that followed the Bishops and Clergy assumed to themselves the free Administration or Management of their own Church-estates and shook off their Advocates of Vicedams yet still the Ecclesiastical States are subject to the Empire by reason of their Fees and other Regalia's of which they may be deprived if they act any thing insolently against the Publick Peace and the Laws of the Empire The Monks as to their Persons were in the times of Charles the Great subject to the Jurisdiction of the Bishops from whom some ancient Monasteries were exempted and were put immediately under the Pope The new Orders which have arisen since the XIII Century are only subject to their Provincials and Generals and only acknowledge the Pope's Jurisdiction as their Supreme Ordinary The Administration of the Lands of the Abbies were at first committed to Advocates from which dependance in length of time some Houses were exempted but the greatest part have still remained in the same state they were at first and some few of them are free from all publick Taxes and Charges 17. The Secular Cases of the meaner People Secular Cases how managed were heard in the times of Charles the Great either in the Secular Courts or by the Bishop in his Consistory which later way has since been much extended beyond what it was at first These were first as to the Secular Courts to make their Complaints to the Scabins which in ancient times were appointed in all the Pagi Hundreds and Villages from him they might appeal to the Graves or Comites Earls or Sheriffs whose Jurisdiction was after usurped by many Dukes and Bishops From the Counts or Graves they had an Appeal to the Itinerary Messengers or Judges sent into the Provinces by the King and from them to the King himself who in his Court made a final Determination of all Cases But in the XV. Century when Appeals became very frequent by reason of the bringing in the tedious Forms and the Iniquity of the Rabble for the more commodious determining these it was resolved to erect a certain fixed Tribunal or Court which The Chamber of Spire erected for Appeals was at last settled at Spire the reason of this was not because the Imperial Court was too ambulatory or unsettled but because the vast quantity of these Cases might most conveniently be determined in a place set apart for that end The French in Since removed to Wetzlar the year 1688 having seized Spire the Diet in the year 1689 agreed this Court should be settled for the future at Westlar Wetzlar a City of Hassia seven German Miles from Frankford to the North and about fifteen from Cologne to the S. E. which being approved by the Emperor Commissioners are appointed to adjust all things for the opening this Court there and it is very probable it will never be returned back to Spire that City being too much exposed to the Insults of the French who when they please can seize the Records of this Court to the inestimable damage of the Empire And besides the French had before burnt and destroyed the whole Town of Spire not leaving any thing standing in it that Fire and Gunpowder could fetch down 18. The modern way of Trials now received The present form of Process in Germany is thus When any private person commenceth a Suit against another of the same quality he in the first instance goes to the Praetor Scabin of the City or Village in which he lives except the Defendant be some way priviledged above the Scabin There is in all the Principalities which I have been acquainted with some superiour Court which is common to the whole Province which they call the
celebration of the Holy Offices of Religion who ought to have no other Employment and yet should be competently maintained That it was also fit that Churches should be built on the publick charge whose external beauty and magnificence might create in the Minds of Men an awful regard to Religion for the kindling the Devotion of the Common People But then I think no wise man will deny that those men who are no way necessary to the Service of God nor employed in his Worship ought not to be called or thought Churchmen or of the Clergy and that what was employed in the maintaining such men has nothing of Sanctity in it But in Germany the Clergy were so vastly enriched by the liberality of the old Emperors the Princes and the Common People that one half if not more of the Lands of that Nation was in their hands which was never heard of in any other and an innumerable shole of lazy useless men made it their business to live upon and devour this vast Wealth which was neither agreeable to the Rules of the Christian Religion nor of sound Policy The Holy Scriptures do indeed command as to provide decently and liberally for the Clergy and that we should not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn but then they never give that name to those who have no share in the Ministry of the Church Nor do they any where exempt the Persons of the Clergy or their Revenues from the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate or disable them to attemperate the same in such manner as may be consistent with the Publick Good And your * The Author pretends to be a Venetian Venetian Republick understands none better that the Revenues and Riches of the Church are not to be excessively encreased to the damage of the State and she has accordingly wisely put a stop to that leak the Pope and Court of Rome opposing her in this Design in vain and without any success In truth she saw her self wasted by this means and as it were brought into a Consumption whilst her Riches and Lands were engrossed by a sort of men who acknowledge no Authority but that of an Head without their State and pretended at the same time they were exempted by the Divine Laws from contributing to the publick Burthens As to the number of Bishops Germany has no reason to complain except that considering the extent of the Nation they are too few to discharge their Office as they ought if they were otherwise well disposed to do it But to what purpose serves the vast Revenues belonging to these few Sees You will perhaps say they are Princes of the Empire as well as Bishops and take their share in the Care of the State with the other Princes Why then let them abstain from the Sacred Title of Bishops because that holy Office is inconsistent with the vast burthen of secular business which is necessarily attending on the Office of a Secular Prince let them lay by the first and stick wholly to the last Title for I think the Christian Religion would suffer no detriment if they did not celebrate one or two Masses in a year attended with a vast number of their Guards and Retinue in rich Garbs and with great pomp as if they designed nothing by it but to reproach the Poverty and mean Circumstances of the first settlers of the Christian Religion So let the Bishop of Mentz if he will possess his great Revenues to enable him to sustain the Dignity and Charge of his Office of Chancellor of Germany but then there is no apparent cause can be given why he should have a Bishop's See assigned to him when the other Princes of the Empire who have as great zeal for the welfare of their Country as he have been contented to take none but Temporal Titles Now what shall I say of the Canons of the Cathedral Churches which are the Blocks they hew into Bishops They perform none of the Sacred Offices and this they are not ashamed to own to all the World by calling themselves Irregular Canous and they too to spare their own precious Lungs fill their Churches with Noises made by their mercenary Curates and such of them as are not employed in Secular Affairs are meer useless Burthens of the Earth serving their Bellies and their Lusts Now as to those that are wholly employed in Worldly Concerns why are they called Holy men Why are they maintained by the Revenues of the Church And what shall I say of the excessive Riches of the Monasteries and of the wonderful swarms of shaven Crowns that hover about them It is certainly necessary that there should be Colleges for the sitting your Youth for the Service of the Church and State and I should be well pleased to suffer some few men to spend all their daies in them too in profound Contemplation for which only Nature has fitted them and besides if they were brought on the stage the world would lose the benefit of those advantages it might reap from their Studies so that as to these men the State would have no great reason to complain because at one time or other they would recompence the Charges of maintaining them with good Interest yet then both these sorts of men are most happy when they have sober and competent Provisions made for them over-great ones load them with fat which stifles and obstructs both their Vigour and Industry But then there doth not seem to be any good Reason that can possibly be given by the Wit of Man why the Publick should be at the charge of fatting up a vast number of lubbarly lazy fellows who have betaken themselves to their ugly Cowles out of pure desperation and are good for nothing but to fill the Church with sensless noises or Prayers repeated with such cold and unconcerned affections that they are fain to keep the account of them by their Beads The only pretence worth the regarding that is made for the excessive Riches of the Church is That the illustrious and noble Families of Germany have a means to provide for their younger Children who being promoted to Ecclesiastical Benefices are kept from being a Burthen to their own Families by which means Estates are kept from being crumbled into small Particles by dividing and subdividing them in every Descent and the Riches and Splendor of Families is upholden nay sometimes encreased the younger Brother who must otherwise have struggled with Want and Penury at home being advanced to considerable and rich Dignities in the Church And I confess it was a good Fetch and a crafty Policy in the Church of Rome thus to chain the noblest Families to her Interest and purchase their Favour But then though it is worth our care to consider how we may preserve the Families of our Nobility and Gentry yet in all probability they that first gave these Lands to the Church never dreamt of any such thing and it is most certain this
Onolzbeck 8. Next after the Electors follow some Of the other Princes of the Empire other Princes whose Houses are still extant and because amongst these there are various Contests for the Precedence I would not have the Order I here observe give any prejudice to any of them in these their vain Pretences The Dukes of Brunswick The Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburg and Lunenburg possess a very considerable Territory in the Lower Saxony they are divided into two Branches to the first of these belongs the Dukedom of Brunswick now enjoyed by an ancient Gentleman two Brothers have divided the Dukedom of Lunenburg between them one of which resides at Zel the other at Hannover and the third Brother is now Bishop of Osnaburg The Dukes of Mechlenburg have a Mechlenburg small Tract of Land belonging to them which lies between the Baltick Sea and the River Elbe and this Family is now divided into two Branches Swerin and â—ustrow The Duke of Wurtemburg has in Franconia Wurtemburg a great and a powerful Territory his Relations have also in the extreamest parts of Germany the Earldom of Montbelgard in Montpelgart Hassia Alsatia The Lantgrave of Hassia has also a large Country and is divided into the Branches of Castel and Darmstad The Marquesses of Baden have a long but narrow Baden Country on the Rhine and are also divided into two Lines that of Baden properly so called and that of Baden Durlach The Dukes of Holstein possess a part Holstein of the Promontory of Juitland which by reason of the Seas washing its Eastern and Western sides is very Rich That part of Holstein which belonged to the Empire is possessed by the King of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein Gothorp which last has also the Bishoprick of Lubeck The Dukedom Lubeck of Sleswick doth not belong to the Empire The Duke of Sax-Lawemburg has Sax-Lawemburg a small Estate in the Lower Saxony and almost equal to that of the Prince of Anhalt in the Upper Saxony 9. These are the ancient Princes of the Savoy and Lorrain Empire for the Dukes of Savoy and Lorrain though Fees depending on the Empire and so having Seats in the Diet yet by reason of the Situation of their Countries they are in a manner separated from the Empire and have different Interests Ferdinand II who as many believe Ferdinand II. encreased the number of the Princes designed the subduing the Power of the German Princes and to gain an Absolute Authority over them amongst other Arts by him imployed brought into the Diet many Princes which depended entirely on him he intended by their Votes to equal if not overballance the Suffrages of the ancient Princes if he should be at any time forced to call a Diet which yet he avoided as much as was possible or that he might shew at least that there was no reason why the ancient Princes should so much value their Power seeing he was able when he pleased to set as many as he pleased on the same Level with them And the Princes of the old Creation had without question been very much endangered if the Emperor could have created Lands as easily as he could give Titles Amongst those however that then gained Places in the Diet are these the Prince of Hoenzolleren The Titles of Eleven of his creation Eggenburg Nassaw-Hadmar Nassaw-Dillenburg Lobkowitz Salm Dietrichstein Aversberg and Picolomini But then this Project of Ferdinand miscarrying and the Estates of the new Princes bearing no proportion with that of the ancient Families their advancement to this Dignity has never been found as yet of any use to them and they have also been much exposed to the Reproaches of the ancient Princes as the new Nobility is ever slighted by the old and they have taken it up as a Proverb against them That they have got nothing by this Exaltation but of Rich Counts or Earls to be made Poor Princes Yet it is to be considered That the most ancient Nobility had a beginning and that these Families in time may get greater Estates though the easiest way is now foreclosed against them by restraining the Emperor from disposing of the vacant Fees as he thinks fit 10. The Next Bench in the Diet belongs The Ecclesiastick States to the Bishops of Germany and Abbots Though this Order consists of men of no very great Birth as being but Gentlemen or at best the Sons of Barons or Earls and advanced to this Dignity by the Election of their Chapters yet in the Diet and other publick Meetings for the most part they are placed above the Temporal Nobility For since the Fortunes of the Churchmen in these latter Ages has been so vastly different from what it was in the beginning of Christianity it were very absurd to expect they are now bound to observe those Laws of Modesty our Saviour at first prescribed them and perhaps those Laws too were by him designed only for the Primitive Times For in truth it would have been ridiculous for Fishermen and Weavers ambitiously to seek the Precedence of Noblemen who were to earn their Bread with the labours of their Hands or to subsist on voluntary Contributions Now the Authority and Revenues of the Churchmen is very great in all those Countries that ever were under the Papacy yet their Riches and Power are no where so great as in Germany there being few of them in the Empire Oâ—â— very rich and powerful whose Dominions and Equipage is not equal to that of the Secular Nobility and their Power and Authority over their Vassals is of the same nature and many of them are also more fond of their Helmets than their Miters and are much fitter to involve their Country in Wars and their Neighbours in Troubles than to propagate true Piety But however in these later Ages there are more than there were in former times who are not ashamed to take Orders and once or twice in a year to shew the World how expert they are in expressing the Gestures and representing the Ceremonies of the most August Sacrifice But then whereas of old their Estates Now much diminished equalled if not exceeded that of the Secular Princes the Reformation of Religion which was embraced by the greatest part of Germany and the Peace of Westphalia in the year 1648 have strangely diminished them for in the Circles of the Upper and Lower Saxony the Churchmen have very little left But then in the Upper Germany if you except the Dukedom of Wurtemburg they escaped better Now the reason of this is this The Saxons being more remote did not fear the Efforts of Charles V. so much as the other Princes who were awed by his Neighbourhood to them and oppressed by his Presence Besides in Saxony their Dominions were intermixed with Potent Secular Princes and consequently lay exposed to their Incursions but in the Upper Germany they were seated They possess the greatest part of