Yet they seem more ancient than Frederick II. 5. The Priviledges of the Electors 6. The manner of the Election 7. The Electors have deposed an Emperor 8. The Electors have some other special Priviledges 9. What is done during the Interregnum 10. Of the King of the Romans CHAP. V. Of the Power of the Emperor as it now stands limited by Treaties Laws and the Customs of the Empire and the Rights of the States of the Empire p. 82. 1. Of the Limits of the Imperial Power 2. These Conditions are prescribed only by the Electors 3. The usefulness of the German Capitular 4. The extravagant Opinions of some German Writers concerning the Capitular 5. The Emperor doth not appoint or punish the Magistrates in the Empire out of his Hereditary Countries 6. Nor can he deprive any of the Princes of their Dignity or Dominions 7. He has no Revenues 8. Nor is he the Arbitrator of Peace or War nor of Leagues and Alliances 9. Nor the general Governour of Religion An account of Martin Luther 10. Many of the German Princes deserted the See of Rome The Decree of Ausburg for the Liberty of Religion 11. The Liberty of the Clergy more fiercely disputed 12. The Differences of Religion cause great Disquiet in Germany The Peace of Religion finally settled 13. The Legislative Power not in the Emperor The Canon Law first introduced The ancient German Customs The Civil Law brought into use in the Fifteenth Century That at present in use is a mixture of all these three Particular or Local Laws made by the States and the general Laws in the Diet. 14. The Form of the German Jurisdiction in several Ages 15. The old Forms changed 16. The Innovation brought in by Churchmen 17. How the Secular Cases are managed The Chamber of Spire erected for Appeals 18. The present form of Process In Civil Cases there lies no Appeal from the Emperor Electors or King of Sweden in their respective Territories nor from the rest in Criminal Cases 19. How the Controversies of the States and Princes amongst themselves are determined 20. The highest Courts in the Empire are the Chambers of Spire and Vienna 21. When this last was instituted 22. The form of executing the Judgments of these Courts 23. That the greater Cases ought to be determined by the Diet. 24. In ancient times the Diets were held every year 25. All the Members are to be summoned to the Diet. 26. The things to be debated there are proposed by the Emperor or his Commissioner 27. The Emperor has some Prerogatives above any other of the Princes 28. The Priviledges of the Princes and Free States CHAP. VI. Of the Form of the German Empire p. 135. 1. Of the Form of the German Empire 2. All the Hereditary States and some of the Elective are Monarchies The Free Cities are Commonwealths 3. The form of the whole Body is neither of these but an Irregular System 4. Yet many pretend the Empire is an Aristocrasie 5. This disproved 6. It is not a regular Monarchy 7. That it is not so much as a limited Monarchy Hippolithus à Lapide considered 8. The Arguments of those that pretend it is a Limited Monarchy answered 9. That it is an irregular System of Soveraign States CHAP. VII Of the Strength and Diseases of the German Empire p. 155. 1. The Subjects of Humane Force Men and Things Husbandmen most wanted A vast Army may be easily levied in the Empire An account of the number of the Cities Towns and Villages in Germany The Inhabitants as warlike as numerous steddy and constant in their Humour 2. In the point of strength the Country first to be considered 3. That it is well stored with what will carry on a Trade its principal Commodities yet Germany wants Money 4. The Strength of the Empire compared with the Turks to whom a fourth part is equal 5. With Italy Denmark England Holland Spain Sweden and France 6. The Strength of Germany compared with its Neighbours united against her 7. Germany weak by reason of its irregular Form or Constitution Monarchy the best and most lasting Government wherein the Strength of a System of States consists the Leagues between Kings and Commonwealths seldom lasting 8. The Diseases of Germany The Princes and the Emperor distrust each other and the States are embroiled one with another 9. The Differences of Religion cause great Disturbances The Princes of Germany enter into Foreign and Domestick Leagues The want of Justice and of a common Treasure The Emulations and Contests between the Princes and States of Germany CHAP. VIII Of the German State-Interest p. 186. 1. The Remedies of these Diseases enquired into 2. The Remedies prescribed by Hippolitus à Lapide 3. His Six Rules Six Remedies 4. The Author 's own Remedies proposed The German State nearest to a System of States The Empire cannot be transferr'd to another Family 5. The Opinions of some great men concerning the different Religions in Germany 6. Contemt and Loss exasperate men greatly 7. The Tempers of the Lutherans and Calvinists of Germany and their Differences with each other 8. The Temper of the Roman Catholicks The Reason of inventing the Jesuite's Order 9. Some Considerations on the excessive Revenues of the Church in the Popish States Our Author pretends to be a Venetian 10. The Protestant Princes are well able to justifie what they have done with relation to the Revenues of the Church The Conclusion THE PRESENT STATE OF THE German Empire CHAP. I. Of the Origine of the German Empire GERMANY of old was bounded The ancient Bounds of Germany to the East by the Danube to the West by the Rhine towards Poland it had then the same bounds it has now and all the other parts were washed by the Ocean so that then under this Name Denmark Norway and Sweden were included with all the Countries to the Botner Sea which three Kingdoms were by most of the ancient Writers call'd by the name of Scandinavia But then I think the Countries on the East of that Bay were not rightly ascribed to or included in the bounds of the ancient Germany for the present Finlanders have a Tongue so different from that spoken by the Swedes and other Germans as clearly shews that Nation to be of another extraction To this I may add that what Tacitus writes of the Manners of the most Northern Germans will not all agree with the Customs of the Finlanders but is wonderfully agreeable to those of the Laplanders who to this day live much after the same manner It is probable therefore that the Finni mentioned by the Ancients were the Estoitlanders in Livonia Nor is it any wonder that Tacitus should not write very distinctly of this People they being then the most Northern Nation that was ever heard of and known only by an obscure Fame or general Report These Northern Countries have however for many Ages been under distinct Kings of their own so that Germany has been taken to
is plain the Authority of the Churchmen will thereby be reduced into a very narrow compass Add. Artic. 1. 19. Capit. Leopold 13. We proceed now to the Legislative The Legislative Power not in the Emperor Power That it may appear to whom this belongs we must consider by what Laws Germany is governed and how they were introduced Here the learned Hermannus Conringius has led the way in his learned Book De Origine Juris Germanici whom I shall very near wholly follow This Author takes great pains to confute the commonly-received Opinion That the Roman or Civil Law was in the year 1130 by the Command of Lotharius the Saxon then Emperor of Germany received both in the Schools and Courts of Justice Whereas he shews that to the XIII Century the Courts of Germany did not so much proceed upon any written Laws as upon ancient received Customs and upon Equity and good Conscience and the Judges for popular actions were not chosen on the account of any eminent Learning but rather ancient men well esteemed for Prudence Piety and Justice the far greatest part of the People being then not able to write or read In the XIII Century the Canon Law by slow degrees The Canon Law first introduced began to creep into Germany and not only that begun to be studied which concerns Church-Affairs but the Processes of Civil Affairs were regulated or formed by it though many stuck stifly to their own ancient Customs About the same time these The ancient German Customs after this set down in Writing Old Customs were also put in Writing amongst which the Laws of Lubeck are most esteemed and those of Magdeburg which in the German Tongue is call'd Weichbild the Mirror of the Saxon and Schwaben Law aad the Feudale Saxonicum Suevicum and these were very near all the Laws used in Germany in the XIII and XIV Centuries In the XV. Century the Civil or Roman The Civil Law introduced in the XV. Century Law and with it the Jus Feudale Longobardicum began also by degrees to creep in the Skilful in these Laws being often advanced to the Honour of being Counsellors to the Princes who took all opportunities to recommend their own Profession to the good Opinions of Men And it began thereupon to be taught in all the Universities of Germany and that after the manner of Italy which gave them the example After this when men that had studied it were call'd to the Bar it began by little and little to be received into the Court And in the year 1495 Maximilian I. appointed the Civil Law to be admitted and used in the Chamber of Spire but saving all the Ancient Customs and the Local Statutes of all places So that the Law now used in Germany is a Mixture of Civil Law Canon That at present In use is a mixture of Canon and Civil Laws and the old Customs Law Ancient Customs and the Statutes of the several Provinces and Cities which are very contrary one to the other And in all Courts this is observed That if there be any Provincial Statute or municipial Law extant concerning the Case depending that takes Place in the first place but if there be none then they have recourse to the Roman or Civil Law as far as it is commonly received The States of Germany in Particular Laws made by the several States the mean time are allowed to make Laws concerning Civil Causes in their respective Provinces which may differ if they think fit from the Common and Usual Law and that they shall enact Statutes for their own use without ever consulting the Emperor So they contain nothing in them prejudicial to the other States of Germany And although many of them have desired the Emperor to confirm their Provincial Statutes And they can also make particular Laws concerning Criminal Cases Nor is the Caroline Constitution in all points every where observed The States have also a Power to pardon Offenders But if any thing is to be introduced that shall bind all it The general Laws in the Diet. cannot be settled but in a Diet and by the Consent of all and when it is so passed it obligeth the Emperor as much as any of the other States Vide Artic. 2. Capit. Leopold 14. The Jurisdiction of Germany has been The forms of the German Jurisdiction in several Ages very differently managed in different times as is accurately set forth by Conringius in his Tract De Germanici Imperii Judiciis from whom I shall transcribe the principal Heads to save my own labour and I will begin with the Times of Charles the Great When any of the Royal Family had any Controversie either one with another or with any other it was determined in the Council of the Nobility and People as were also those Cases of the Nobility that were of great concernment The smaller Controversies the Nobility had were determin'd by the King or those he sent for so they were then called who are now call'd Commissioners Visitors or Delegates For the ending the Contests of others there were setled in the Hundreds and Districts certain Judges called Graves who had to assist them and sit with them others called Scabins chosen out of the Nobility or the better sort of the People and these heard and determined all Civil and Criminal Cases The Graves by reason of the greatness of their Hundreds had certain Deputies in every Village or as they call them Scultesio's like our Constables from whom yet there lay an Appeal to the Grave The Priests also punished the Vicious Lives of Christian Men by Canonical Censures The Bishops exercised a Jurisdiction over the Clergy and the Monks And the Bishop was also accountable to his Metropolitan or a Synod called by him though afterward Appeals to the Pope began to be made on the account of the Authority of that See yea the Cases of many Laymen were promiscuously referred to the Bishops upon an opinion of their Sanctity and Integrity But then the Judgment of the Church Revenues was not in the Clergy but in the Advocates or Vicedames which were particularly appointed by the Kings and so the persons of the Clergy were subject to the Judgment of the Clergy and their Revenues were subject to the Advocates Judgments who were Laymen From these fixed settled Judges they appealed to the King's Messengers who at certain times travelled over the Provinces like our itinerant Judges of Assize and from them to the King's Palace in which Appeals the King himself or the Count Palatine gave Judgment which last was also appointed to determine the Causes which arose in the Court But then they hardly admitted an Appeal but where the Grave or Messengers refused to administer Justice And all Cases were determined by a short and very plain Process and in a few Sessions or Hearings So that in all this form there was nothing wanting but an Appeal for the Clergy to the Pope who
yielded it to them on that score yet after all for ought that appears to me we shall never read that any of the Line of Charles the Great call'd the Kingdom of France by that Name 13. When the Caroline Family began to The Fall of the Caroline Race the Rise of the Kingdom of Germany under Otho 1. decline and the Germans had divided themselves from the Kingdom of France and Italy was afflicted with great Commotions there sprung up other States out of the Ruins of this House and amongst them Otho the First King of Germany who having overcome Berengarius and reduced the Kingdom of Italy the Popes who could not trust to their States thought fit to put Otho in possession of the same Power that had been enjoyed by the Family of Charles the Great and consented That for the future the Protection of the See of Rome should be united to the Kingdom of Germany so that whosoever enjoyed that Kingdom should be the Protector of that See But then after many of those old German Kings had couragiously executed that Office upon the See of Rome and in the mean time the Wealth and Power not only of the See of Rome but of the Bishopricks of Germany was become very great the Popes of Rome began to grow weary of this German Protection too the Causes of this were 1. The Aversion common to all Nations against a Foreign Dominion 2. The Indignity which was offered hereby to the Italick People who having ever been celebrated for Civil Prudence were by this kept under the Tutelage of the less-politick Germans 3. Besides it was very uneasie to the Vicar of J. C. to be any longer under the Guardianship of another whose fingers itched to be giving Laws to all Princes therefore for the shaking off this Yoke they took this course viz. They found out ways by the means of the Bishops to imbroil the Affairs of these Kings sometimes in Germany and at others in Italy and the Pope seconded them with his Fulminations or Censures which in those Ages were wonderful terrible Thus by degrees the Kings of Germany grew weary of Italy and being content with their own Kingdom left the See of Rome to the sole management of the Popes which they had sought so many Ages and by such a variety of Arts to the embroiling all Europe After this the Kings of Germany a long time omitted the being crowned at Rome yet they retained the old Titles of Emperors of Rome and when they entred upon the Kingdom the Defence of the See of Rome was in the first place enjoin'd them from which care the Protestant Electors have since given the Emperor a Discharge 14. By all that has been said it will appear The Kingdom of Germany has not succeeded in the Roman Empire how childishly they are mistaken who think the Kingdom of Germany his succeeded in the Place of the old Roman Empire and that it is continued in this Kingdom when in truth that Empire which was seated at Rome was destroyed many Ages before Germany became one Kingdom and that Roman Empire which was given to Charles and Otho which was nothing but the Advousion and Protection of the See of Rome in length of time fixed its Name upon that Kingdom of Germany tho' the States of the Church in Italy never were united into one and the same Polity with the Kingdom of Germany much less did either Charles or Otho submit their proper Kingdoms to Rome as the Metropolis or Seat of the Empire In the mean time because it was believed the very Title of Emperor of Rome upon the account of the Greatness of that ancient Empire had something of Majesty and Grandeur in it it was frequently given to the Kings of Germany only And the consequence of this was that Germany was afterwards call'd the Roman Empire by way of Honour but the different Coronations which belong to them do not obscurely shew that there is a real difference to be made between the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Germany and the later Emperors since Maximilian I. after the Title of Roman Emperor expresly subjoin that of King of Germany The Germans also at this day do commonly call their State The Roman Empire of the Teutonick Nation which form of Speech seems to contain in it a contradiction Seeing it is very certain the present State of Germany is not one and the same with the ancient Roman Empire yet the Kings of Germany retain the Title which has been received tho' they have for a long time omitted the Reception of the Crown of Rome and use very little of the ancient Rights of an Advocate which belonged heretofore to them because Princes do more easily part with the things in dispute than with the Titles to them Now whether that Right they once had is by the lapse of time expir'd or preserved by the use of the Title only we shall hereafter when occasion is offered enquire 15. But in the mean time the Title of the The Title of Roman Emperor damageable to Germany Empire of Rome is so far from being any advantage that it is manifest it has been the cause of great Mischief and Inconvenience to Germany Priests are alwaies ready to receive but never part with any thing and whereas all other Clients dispose their Masters to favour them by their Presents if a Priest be not fed with new Presents he presently snarles and imputes his Blessing as a wonderful Obligation I should think that the ancient Princes heaped their Bounties upon the Clergy of Germany principally because they were made believe God expected they should provide plentifully for that Order of Men. And what has been spent by Germans in Journies to Rome for the Imperial Crown What Treasures and Men have been consumed in Italick Expeditions in composing the Commotions stirr'd up by the Popes and in protecting them against refractory men that have attack'd them is not to be conceived Nor has any Foreigner got much by attacking Italy the Spaniards excepted who have stuck so many years in the Bowels of * The Author tho'a German pretends to be an Italian our Country that we have never yet been able to â—epell them Lastly no Princes were oftner fulminated by that See than the German Emperors nor was any of them more exercised by the frequent Seditions of the Churchmen than they the principal cause of all which misfortunes seem to have arisen from hence That they thought these Princes who had this Title from the See of Rome in which they took such pride were obliged by it above all other Men to promote the Affairs of that See Or otherwise because that Order of Men is above all others unwilling to be subject to the Soveraignty of another and with Mother-Church is ever seeking how to shake off the hated Secular Authority yet I would have this understood with Salva reverentia sanctissimae sedis a saving the Reverence and Respect due
had been observed in the old Kingdom of France viz. That the Consent of the Nobility and People did not easily depart from the Order of a Lineal Succession in the Royal Family And this continued to Henry IV. who being young and perhaps not Governing well the Nobility thereupon by the procurement of the Pope rose up against him and deposed him from the Kingdom and for the time to come made a Law That though the Son of the last King were worthy to succeed him yet he should attain the Throne by a Free Election and not by a Lineal Succession as the words of that Constitution run 2. That old Approbation and Election The ancient Elections not made by any certain numâ—â—â—â— of Princes exclusively was made by all the People though it is not to be doubted but the Authority of the Nobility and Princes or of the Bishops and Peers was much valued But now for some Ages past Seven chuse the Emperor in exclusion of all others and since the Treaty of Osnaburg Eight of the principal Princes are to do it who from thence are called The ELECTORAL PRINCES Of these Three are stiled Ecclesiastical Electors viz. The Archbishops of Mentz Trier and Cologne and Five are Temporal or Secular Electors the King of Bohemia the Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony the Marquess of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of the Rhine It is not very clear how these Princes came by this Right for two Ages viz. from the year 1250 to the year 1500 it was a received Opinion That Otho III. And Pope Gregory V. instituted the The 7 Electors not instituted by Otho III. Seven Electors but with this Difference that some Authors ascribe the principal share in the Act to the Emperor and others to the Pope as each man was affected to them Our Countryman Onuphrius Panvinius was the first man that opposed this Opinion in a Book De Comitiis imperatoriis of the Imperial Diets which is since approved by all the wisest of the German Nation His best Argument against it is Because this Ottonian or Gregorian Constitution was never yet produced by any man and no man has mentioned it from the times of Frederick II. to those of Otho III which contains 240 years for the first that mentions the Electors was one Martin a Polonian who lived under this Frederick and therefore his Testimony was justly liable to exception seeing it was not supported by any better in an Affair which happened so long before his own times And yet after all he doth not mention any such Constitution nor doth he say the Electors began in the time of that Otho but that after his times the Officers of the Empire began to elect Which is capable of a double sence either because they were then possess'd of very large Dominions who before had the principal Offices in the Court or because those Offices were then first collated for ever on Princes that had very great Dominions who though perhaps they had a Signal Authority as the most eminent men above all others yet that the Election belonged to other Princes besides these Seven can be denied by no man who is not very ignorant of the German Antiquities Others have ascribed the appointing the Seven Electors to Frederick II but then there is no Record of any Law to that purpose any where to be found nor is it probable that the rest of the Princes so early and so easily parted with their Right of Electing 3. The current Opinion of the most But yet they seem ancienter than Frederick II. Skilful in the German Affairs is That before the times of Frederick II those Seven Princes as the great Officers of the Empire and persons that had great Estates began by degrees to overtop the rest and to have the greatest Authority in the Elections of the Emperors but after the times of this Frederick the German Affairs being wonderfully disordered whilst the rest took little or no care of the Publick these Seven assumed it wholly to themselves This after it was confirm'd into a Custom by some repeated Acts was at last passed into a Law by the solemn and publick Sanction of the Golden Bull in which the whole form of the Election and all the Power of the Electors is contained and from thenceforward those Princes added to their former Titles that of Electors and were ever after esteemed as persons set in an higher Station and Dignity than the rest 5. Thus though at the first these Princes Of the â—â—â—viledges of the Electors seem to have assumed the power of electing the Emperor as they were the great Officers of the Empire yet afterwards by the Law call'd the Golden Bull those very Offices as well as the Electoral Dignity are annexed to certain Dominions so that whoever is legally possessed of them is thereby made one of the Electors the Ecclesiastical Electors in the mean time are made by Election or Collation as the other Bishops of Germany are where it is to be observed that though these Bishops to enable them to perform the other Functions belonging to their Office stand in need of the Pope's Confirmation and the Pall which they must not expect gratis yet they are admitted without them to the Election of the Emperor because these Secular Dignities pass without the Character But then when the See is vacant the Chapter has no Right to meddle with the Election In the Secular or Temporal Electors the Succession passeth in a lineal Paternal Descent so that neither the Electoral Dignity nor the Lands united to it admit of any Division But if a new Elector is to be made or for some Offence any one is to be deprived of that Dignity it is without doubt agreeable to the other Laws and Customs of the Empire for the Emperor not to dispose of the said Dignity without the Consent of the other States or at least not without that of the Electors though it is not to be denied the last Age saw an Example to the contrary against which however one or two of the Electors protested the Emperor despising their words because he saw his Arms prosper yet this Prince had wit enough to bestow the Dignity on one of the same Line and Family which tended very much to the abating the Envy of the Fact and divided two most potent Families by raising an endless Emulation between them and made that Party that was obliged by the Grant obnoxious to the Imperial Family for the preservation of it If any of the Electors happen to be a Minor their Guardians supply their place and the Minority ceaseth when the Prince is Eighteen years of age 6. The manner of the Election is thus The Elector of Mentz within one Month Of the manner of the Election after he knows of the Death of the Emperor signifies it to his Colleagues and calls them to the Election that is to be made who meet in person or by their Proxies When they
Princes repented they had consented to this Attempt of the Bavarian but could not then recall their Letters to him But then as is usual in such Encroachments no man was willing to join with the Oppressed and make his Quarrel his own afterwards they printed Books one against the other Now though no man could wonder that the Duke of Bavaria should venture upon this Practice who in the more flourishing state of the Count Palatin's Affairs had pretended to the Electorate and now having got part of the Palatin's Country had encreased his own Power and was otherwise well assured of the Concurrence and Favour of the House of Austria both on the account of Kindred and Religion yet the far greatest part of the indifferent Spectators thought the Count Palatine had sufficiently shewn his Right and demonstrated that this Vicarian Viceroyalty was no part of the Great Lord High Sewer's Offices but was perpetually annexed to the Palatinate of the Rhine as the Duke of Saxony has the other half of that Power in the rest of Germany not as Elector but as Palatine of Saxony But then as there were many that openly favoured the Bavarian so the rest were not willing openly to espouse the opposite side and that Prince would not confess he had done wrong and so the Controversie remains undetermin'd still 10. Sometimes there is joined to the Of the King of the Romans Emperor Extra Ordinem a King of the Romans in pretence as his General Vicar or Deputy who in his Absence or Sickness is to Govern the State and upon his Death to succeed without any new Election But then though the Good of the State has ever been pretended as is usual in such Cases yet the real Cause has ever or at least most usually been That they might with the greater ease in their own lifetimes preferr their Sons Brothers or near Kinsmen to the Empire by the Influence or Recommendation of a Regnant Emperor foreseeing that one that was chosen in a Vacancy or Interregnum would have harder terms imposed on him by the Electors Joseph King of Hungary the eldest Son of Leopald the present Emperor of Germany who was born the 25th of July 1678. was chosen King of the Romans the 24th of January 1689 90. and Crowned the 26th at Ausburg This Emperor has another Son of his own Name who was born the 12th of June 1682. who ought to have been taken notice of in the end of the former Chapter where the Males of the House of Austria are set down but it slipped my Memory till that Sheet was wrought off CHAP. V. Of the Power of the Emperor as it now stands limited by Treaties and the Laws and Customs of the Empire and the Rights of the States of Germany 1. I Have already shewn by what degrees Of the Limits set to the Imperial Power and upon what occasions the Nobility of Germany mounted themselves to that excessive height of Power and Wealth as is wholly inconsistent with the Laws of a regular Monarchy Nor is it worth our wonder that when the Election of the Emperor in aftertimes was devolved upon them they set their Hearts upon the preserving what they had gotten By this Change in the State of Affairs the Kings of Germany lost the Power of Disposing or Governing as they thought fit the Concerns of that Nation and were necessitated to consult the Princes in things of great moment and transact more of their business with the States by their Authority than by their Soveraign Power and there is no question to be made but the Princes inserted a Clause to this purpose very early into the Coronation Oath of Germany which is usually administred to all Christian Princes in a very solemn manner upon their Accession to any Crown viz. That the King should Promise and Swear to Defend all the Rights of all and singular the Inhabitants of Germany and observe and keep all the laudable Customs in that Kingdom received and used But whether in process of time any particular Laws were added to the old and comprehended in Writing is not so manifest because before the times of Charles the Fifth we have no Copies of any such Capitulations or Agreements and those that are pretended to be more ancient are of no great certainty And whereas it is said in the Golden Bull The Emperor shall presently confirm all the Rights Priviledges and Immunities of the Electoral Princes by his Patent under Seal This seems to belong only to them and therefore is a very different thing from the Agreement by which the Emperor is now obliged to engage for the Liberty or Freedom of the whole Empire Now the Reasons why the Electors desired to have Charles the Fifth bound to them in so many express and tedious Articles and Covenants was That they considering the great Power of that Prince his Youth High Spirit testified by his Motto Plus ultra and his other Advantages feared lest he should imploy his Patrimonial Estates to subdue the German Nation and took this way to make him consider That he must Govern Germany after another manner than he did his other Dominions And this Custom being once taken up has been ever since continued though there are not the same Reasons there were at first for it 2. These Conditions have been prescribed These Conditions prescribed only by the Electors to the Emperors by the Electors without consulting the other States of Germany though they have sometimes complained of it and in the last Treaty of Munster it was moved That in the next Diet there might be care taken to draw up a standing form of Articles which should be perpetual And I heard when I was at Ratisbone that it was then under serious Debate and that much Paper had been spent in that Service but the Wiser part thought the Electors had no reason to fear the event of this Consultation because it was the Emperors Interest as well as theirs that the Electors should still be in a better condition than the other Princes for they being few in number might more easily be brought to a compliance with him than the other States which were more numerous and therefore it was reasonable on the other side that he should rather indulge them of the two And those Princes of the Empire who were descended of the Electoral Families were very inclinable to it too and the Demands of the rest might be deluded without much difficulty Nor doth it agree with the Manners of Germany to deprive any man of what he has by Force and Combination however he came by it They added That though what the States asked was not unreasonable viz. That they might be equally secured in the Capitular with the Electors yet that it was not possible to pen an Instrument in such manner but that upon the change of times and things it would be necessary to change and correct it That in the former Agreements there were many things changed added
and States swear Fidelity both to the Empire and the Emperor this they think may be thus explained That they will obey the Emperor as far as he shall employ their Assistance and Treasures to the Publick Good and as far as is expressed in the Laws and that as to the rest of the States they will live like good Neighbours and true Fellow-Subjects But still at last there are two things that will not suffer us to reckon Germany amongst the Limited Monarchies First In Two Arguments against This. every Limitted Kingdom though the King is bound up by some certain Laws in the management of its Government yet after all he so far excells all his Subjects that none of them dares presume to compare his Liberty or his Rights with the Power of his Prince and therefore all the Nobility depend on the Will of the King and are responsable to him for their Actions Now that it is otherwise in Germany is known to all the World for none of the German Princes or States will acknowledg that the Dominions which are under them are more the Emperor's than they are theirs or that they are bound in the Administration of them to have respect more to the Service of the Emperor or the People than to their own Personal Profit and Advantage But on the contrary every one of them is so far a Soveraign that he makes War upon his Neighbours at home or abroad and entereth into Leagues with his Neighbours or Foreigners without ever consulting the Emperor and every one of them that can trust to his own Forces or those of his Allies looks upon the Reverence he ows to the Emperor as a meer empty piece of Pageantry To conclude every King how Limited soever he may otherwise be must still have sufficient Power left to command all the Forces of his whole Kingdom and direct them as he thinks fit so that the last Resort may be to him and the said Forces be united in him as their Head for the procuring the Common Good so that they may seem all of them to be as it were animated and governed by one Soul Now he that can see or find this in Germany must be wonderfully quick-sighted for there he that is call'd their King has no Revenues from the Empire but is forced to live by his own Juice there being no common Treasure nor are there any common Forces but every Prince and State disposeth of the Forces and Revenues in his own Territories as he or they think fit and only contributes to the Publick some small matter and that after tedious Delays and much humble Attendance and Courtship for it All which things have been fully and clearly proved in the Chapter before this and are found evidently true in the Actions of these Princes 9. There is now nothing left for us to That it is an irregular System of Soveraign States say but that Germany is an Irregular Body and like some mis-shapen Monster if it be measured by the common Rules of Politicks and Civil Prudence So that in length of time by the Lazy-easiness of the Emperors the Ambition of the Princes and the Turbulence of the Clergy or Church-men from a Regular Kingdom it sunk and degenerated to that degree that it is not now so much as a Limited Kingdom tho' the outward Shews and Appearances would seem to insinuate so much nor is it a Body or System of many Soveraign States and Princes knit and united in a League but something without a Name that fluctates between these two This Irregularity in its Constitution affords the matter of an inextricable and incurable Disease and many internal Convulsions whilst the Emperor is alwaies labouring to reduce it to the condition of a Regular Empire Kingdom or Monarchy and the States on the other side are restlesly acquiring to themselves a full and perfect Liberty But then as it is the nature of all Degenerations that they go forward in their Degeneracy and Corruption with great Facility it being a down-hill motion but they can hardly and with much difficulty be reduced to the pristine or ancient state for as a Stone laid on the edge of a Precipice or Downfall is with the smallest Thrust thrown down to the bottom but it is not to be replaced again at the top without great and almost insuperable difficulty So now Germany without great Commotions and the utmost Confusion of all things can never be reformed or reduced to the Laws of a Just and Regular Kingdom but it tends naturally to the state of a Confederate System Nay if you take away the mutual Bond or Tie between the Emperor and the States I suppose he means their Oaths Germany would then truly be a System of States united in an unequal League because those that are called the States are still bound to reverence the Imperial Majesty as their Head For a Free State we may take for our Example of this the League between the Romans and the Latin People before the latter were reduced into the condition of meer Subjects So the Generalship of Agamemnon in the Warlike Expedition of the Greeks against the Trojans was of the same nature And it commonly comes to pass in length of time that he that is the Superiour in these Leagues if he has much the advantage of his Allies in point of Power by degrees he sinks them into the condition of meer Subjects and so treats them Thus the best account we can possibly give of the Present State of Germany is to say That it comes very near a System of many Soveraign States in which one Prince or General of the League excells the rest of the Confederates and is cloathed with the Ornaments of a Soveraign Prince but then this Body is attack'd by furious Diseases of which I shall treat in the next Chapter CHAP. VII Of the Strength and Diseases of the German Empire 1. THE Forces of any State may be considered as they are in themselves or as by reason of the elegant Structure of its Form or Constitution they may be used Forces considered in themselves consist in The Subjects of Humane Force Men and Things As to the first of these Men Germany has no reason to complain that it wants numbers of them or they Wit or Ingenuity there is so great a multitude of the principal Nobility and they too are in such splendid circumstances that there is scarcely the like to be found elsewhere in all the World The Gentry or Inferiour Nobility are neither for want of Ground or by their over-great number compell'd to condescend to the exercise of mean and sordid Arts Trades Perhaps yet there are more of them employed in Learning than is convenient though amongst the many Graduates there are not many eminent Scholars Of Merchants Tradesmen and Mechanicks there is a great plenty But then in many places there is now a want of Husbandmen considering the largeness of the Country This is owing
apparently at present the Advantage and it is not denied by the French who do what they can to separate the Allies one from another if they fail in this another Summer may by God's Blessing shew the World the German Nation is much superiour to the French and force that King to disgorge Lorrain Strasburg both the Alsatia's and the Franche Comte which have been got more by Purchace and Surprize than by the Force of a generous and open War 6. But though we suppose Germany superiour The Strength of Germany compared with its Neighbours united against her to any of its Neighbours when singly taken what may be the event if they should unite against her Here in the first place we ought to consider that Interest of State will not suffer many of her Neighbours to unite against her and that the Forces of others are so much inferiour to Germany that there is no reason for her to be concerned how they behave themselves And lastly it ought to be considered that the other Princes will not sit still and suffer Germany to fall into the hands of any one Prince who would then be in a condition to oppress and enslave the rest of the European Princes So that there will for ever be some Princes found who will join with the Germans and help them to preserve their Liberty for their own sakes So that there is in effect but three Princes in the World who at present are in capacity of subduing Germany viz. The Turks the House of Austria and the King of France Now it is not probable any Christian Prince will openly join with the Turks against Germany no not the King of France for the old Leagues the French had with the Turks were only for the curbing the over-great Forces of Charles V. who was then much too powerful for Francis I. King of France but we are never to fear a League in which these two Princes shall unite their Forces and jointly at once invade Germany to the end to make a Conquest of it because it would be both wicked and foolish to promote the Affairs of that barbarous Prince to that degree who bears an immortal hatred to all that is call'd Christian Besides as it is better for France that Germany should continue as it is than that any considerable share of it should fall into the hands of the Turks so it is better too for the Turks that it should continue in this divided state which makes it unfit to wage a War for Conquest upon its Neighbors rather than to have it brought by the French into the state of a well-formed Monarchy because if France and Germany were once throughly united in one Prince's hand the Turk would have too much reason to fear what Fortune might betide his Constantinople Nor is it the Interest of any of the European Princes to suffer the House of Austria to reduce the rest of Germany under their Dominion and therefore I cannot think any of them would be so mad as to promote them in it or lend their Assistance to it And as the Spaniard who is under a Branch of this Family might possibly be contented to do it so the French would certainly oppose it with all their Power with whom in that Case the Swedes and Hollanders would join the more readily because they never defended the German Liberty but to their own very great advantage Nor would the Pope in this Case be over-forward to assist the House of Austria because though it would be very glorious to him and profitable too to reduce so many straying Sheep into the Church's Fold yet let the hazard or loss of Souls be what it will he is not to hazard the loss of the Italian Liberty by making either the Emperor or the King of Spain Masters of that Country And if now the French should attempt the Conquest of Germany Spain England Italy and Holland would all unite with the Empire against him the Danes perhaps would not be much concerned at it so be they might be delivered from the Terror of Sweden though they for ever truckled under France But then the assistance of the Swedes would in this case be very considerable especially if that Nation happened to have then a Martial and a Warlike Prince But then it has been long since observed that the French must pay the Swedes very well for their assistance the French would also expect to be the only Gainers in the end of the War for the French would never be pleased to see the Swedes enlarge their Conquests in Germany with their Money to that degree especially that they might ever after despise the French Monarch And on the other side the Swedes are very sensible how foolish it is to spend their Bloods to the Advantage of the French and not at all for their own Benefit Nor are they so dull but that they very well know and consider that when the French are once Masters of the greatest part of Germany they will then pretend to give Laws to the Swedes as well as to the Germans And from this Consideration it is that there has for some time been a very moderate and luke-warm Friendship between these two Nations Which since the War in An Addition 1672. in which the French exposed the Swedes to all the Forces of the Brandenburgers and at the same time seized the Dukedom of Deuxpont which belongs to the King of Sweden though it lies on the Borders of France is so much abated that it is verily believed the Swedes will now heartily join with the Germans to humble France and it is certain in this present War he has done what was possible to prevent the Danes from embroiling the North parts of Germany which the French passionately desired The French King growing weary of the distant Swedes thought it more for his Interest before this to draw some of the German Princes on the Rhine into Leagues with him and as the Report goes has not been sparing in his Pensions to them and upon all accasions shews himself very solicitous for the general Liberty of Germany offering himself as a Mediator to compose any Difference that happen to arise between one Prince and another and is ever ready to send Money or Men to every one of them that desireth either of them and in short makes it his great business to shew them that they may certainly expect more from his Friendship than from the Emperor's or from the Laws of the Empire Now the man must be very stupid who doth not see that the End of all this Courtship is the opening a Way to the Ruin of the German Liberty especially if the Male Line of the House of Austria should happen to fail And the French King should thereupon An Addition obtain the Empire When this Author wrote the Emperor of Germany had no Son The Princes of the Rhine he here hints at are the Elector of Cologne and the Duke of Bavaria