The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction
• A Note On the Text
• Acknowledgments
• The Present State of Germany
• Pufendorf’s Preface to the First Edition of 1667 1
• Preface to the Second Edition (1706) 1
• A Letter of Monsieur Mézeray Concerning the Manuscript On the State of the German Empire, Written to a Bookseller of Paris. 1
• To the Reader
• Chapter I: Of the Origine of the German Empire.
• Chapter II: Of the Members of Which the Present German Empire Is Composed .
• Chapter III: Of the Origine of the States of the Empire, and By What Degrees [ Stages ] They Arrived to That Power They Now Have.
• Chapter IV: Of the Head of the German Empire, the Emperor; and of the Election and the Electors .
• Chapter 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.
• Chapter VI: Of the Form of the German Empire. 1
• Chapter VII: Of the Strength and Diseases of the German Empire.
• Chapter VIII: [of the German State-interest.] a

CHAPTER II

Of the Members of which the present German Empire is composed.

Germany a potent State, tho’ much diminished as to its extent.1. After the German Nation [peoples], by the help of the French [Franks], became one Body, it has in all times been thought one of the strongest States in Europe; and at this day it is not less regardable, on the account of its bulk, though great parts of it have been ravished <25> from it, and either annexed to other Kingdoms, or formed into separate and independent States.1 How much the German Empire is now less than it was anciently, has been [thoroughly] shewn by Hermannus Conringius, a most skilful man in the German Affairs, in his Book, de finibus Imperii Germanici, concerning the Bounds of the German Empire.2 But it will be enough for us to observe what she has at present.

The principal Members then of this Body are designed [designated] by the Title of The States [Estates] of the Empire, who have, as we express it, a Right to Sit and Vote in the Diet. Tho’ many of these are opposed [excluded] by others, |[or whose Right to be immediate States is disputed by other more potent States, who pretend they ought to represent them in the Diet]|:a The occasion of these Controversies is, because these Potent States would make those that are controverted Members of their own Provincial |[States]|,a and not of the general Diet.3 But then, as to the Families of the Princes, it is to be observed, that there regularly belongs to each House a certain number of Votes in the Diet<, according as the powers it possesses have customarily entailed a right to vote>; as some Houses have only one Vote, some two, some three, some four, and some five. In some Principalities the eldest Brother enjoys the whole Estate [ditio], and all the younger must be content with an Apanage,4 and in others, they have all a share, though not an equal one, with the eldest. Where the first of these is observed, the eldest [alone] represents the Person of the whole Family; |[where the latter, they may all come to the Diet, but they <26> have altogether but one Vote, of which they must all agree amongst themselves]|.b

Which are the Members of the Empire.2. To prove a Person a Member of the States of the Empire, two things are commonly thought sufficient, 1. if his Name is in the Catalogue or Matricula of the |[States]|;c and 2. if he is obliged to pay what he contributes to the Publick, to the Empire, and not into the Exchequer or Treasury of any other [subordinate]a State. [Tho’ the plainest Proof is, to alledge the Possession of this Priviledge.]b [For] some pretend they have by mistake paid their quota into other inferiour States [another’s treasury]; and others say, [on the contrary,] that some others, by meer Usurpation [presumption], have passed by the Provincial Treasury [to which they belonged of Right,]⁺ and have flown with their share to the publick Treasury; and these Allegations are made, as men endeavour to [acquire or deprive others of the Right of being Members of the Diet respectively].c Nor was there ever yet any Matricula extant, in which nothing was wanting or redundant [excessive],d and about which there was not some Controversie; |[tho’ those that were published in the year 51, 56, 66. of the last Century, are thought [the most]⁺ authentick]|.e But I should however think, that the most ancient Matricula’s which represent many as Parts of the States of the Empire, who have been long since excluded out of the Diet, are [better than the latter, because they are nothing but Lists of those who were then in the Diet, when publick Instruments were made by publick Authority; and therefore from thence undoubted Arguments may be made for both the <27> contending Parties].f But in the mean time, from this variety in the Matricula’s I may safely conclude, That in the most ancient times the number of the States of the Empire was never fixed and certain, [and that all that were enabled by their Wealth or Prudence, to contribute any thing to the Welfare of their Country, had liberty to be present in]a the Diet. Afterwards the Poorer [not being able to attend the Diet, by reason of the Expence and Charge, remained willingly at home];b and [that in after-times others, who would willingly enough have been there, were excluded by others, who were too powerful for them to contend with],c till the States were by degrees brought to the number we now see them.

It were too tedious for us to transcribe here a [whole] Matricula, but yet I shall represent the Principal of the States [the chief estates], as a thing absolutely necessary to the forming a Judgment of the Magnitude of this whole Body.

An account of the House of Austria.3. Amongst the Secular Princes, we give the first Place to the House of Austria, not so much for its Antiquity, as on the score of the greatness of its Dominions, and because it has now for some Ages possess’d the Imperial Throne. This unusual Clemency of the Fates has raised this Family from a very mean original, to an invidious greatness.

Its Rise.Rudolphus5 [, the first of these, who obtained the Imperial Dignity,]⁺ was Count of Hapsburg, and possessed a small Estate, nothing above his Condition and Title in the Borders [vicinity] of Switzerland, but then he was a good Souldier, and a man of Valour: |[There having been in his times an Interregnum <28> of about 20 years, the State of Germany was in great confusion and disorder. [So] the principal Princes of Germany met, and to put an end to these Calamities, resolved to elect [creato] an Emperor. Wernerus, then Bishop of Mentz, mentioned Rudolphus, who had civilly waited upon him in one of his Journeys to Rome, from Strasburg [Argentina] to the Alps, and he much extolled his Prudence and Courage [magnanimity], and the Electors of Cologne and Trier soon joined with him. Now he that is any thing well acquainted with the Temper of the Churchmen, will, without any difficulty, conjecture what occasion’d this great desire in the Bishop of Mentz to raise this Gentleman. [He concluded, he]a would be the more obnoxious or compliant to him[self], because [the Nobility of his extraction]b did not [yet] encourage him to act with that freedom another would have used; and besides, he would [in greater degree be obliged to him]c for his preferment. But then it might seem a wonder that none of the greater [other] Princes should aspire to the Imperial Throne, except we consider the confused state of things in Germany, at that time, which made them all [some of them] fearful they might not be able to reduce it into order; and perhaps others of them were not of sufficient age and experience to effect so difficult a Work. Thus the Secular Electors complied with the Spiritual. But then the Elector of Saxony, and the Burgrave of Norimburg [Nuremberg], would not give their Votes for him till he had promised each of them a Daughter in Marriage; and the same was asked by the Duke of Bavaria, who [was then present],d and granted. Thus Rudolphus <29> [immediately] became allied to the best Families of Germany,]|e which in the beginning was both an honour and a support to this House.

The Imperial Dignity gave him also afterwards opportunity of obtaining a considerable Patrimony for his Posterity; |[for when any Fee [fief] became vacant, none could better pretend to it than one of his own Sons, for to take it to himself, would have been very invidious [aroused much ill will]. Thus that House]|a obtained Austria,Austria, Stiria, Carniola, &c. came into this House as vacant Fees.Stiria [Styria], Carniola [Carinthia], and the Marquisate of Vindish in Carniola [the Wendian March], and some other Territories <which he [Rudolph] took from the vanquished Ottokar, king of Bohemia, who had [previously] seized them>. |[And in process of time many others were added, by the Bounty of other Emperors, as the Opulent are more frequently obliged [courted] with such Favours than the Poor.b Being thus enriched, it became very easie for this Family to match into the best Houses; and because Ladies are not only won by Riches, but dazzled sometimes with the glittering of a new and extraordinary Title, [a Son might easily gain in that case, from a less yielding Father, some new additions, which might]c set him above the other Dukes.

And yet even here the Prudence [skill] of the House of Austria deserves commendation.]|d It would have been very invidious [given rise to great jealousy] for this new Family to have taken a Place in the Diets, above the more ancient; and yet it did not become it to follow the rest[, now it was possessed of the Empire]⁺. Therefore they took the first place amongst theThe first amongst Spiritual Electors.Spiritual Electors [Ecclesiastical Princes], who have a Bench distinct from the Secular Princes; for these [being for the most part descended of lower Families],e did without any reluctance yield the first place to this Family. {And yet this their modesty went <30> not unrewarded: for} on this account they [the house of Austria] obtained that Employment or Honour which they call the Directory in the Colledge of the Princes, to be exercised by turns with the [Arch]bishop of Salsburg.6 {These things are so far from deserving the blame of any wise man, that it would have been the utmost degree of stupidity to have done otherwise.}

Thus the House of Austria [gained to it self]a the greatest part |[of the Eastern Countries of Germany. After this, they got [In addition, they possess] the Crown of Hungary, by almost an Hereditary Title, which amongst other advantages serves as a Bulwark to their other Dominions against the Irruptions of the Turks, and gives the Austrians many pretences of draining the Moneys of Germany [to maintain its Wars against that dreadful Enemy].b ]|c

This Family has long possessed the Imperial Throne.4. We ought well to consider [also not only that the House of Austria has continued its self so long in the Imperial Dignity, that there is scarce any other House in Germany, which has a Revenue sufficient to bear the Expence of that [splendid] Station; but that they have also found]d means in the interim so to order their Dominions, that without any difficulty they can erect them into an Independent separate State or Kingdom, if any other Family [someone else] should happen to be advanced to the Imperial Crown. For they have procured such Priviledges, that whenever they shall not be pleased to acknowledge the Authority of another Emperor, they may [immediately] say, They have no business with the Empire of Germany, their Dominions are a separate State [civitatem]<, or they acknowledge the Emperor’s authority only at their discretion and insofar as it pleases them>.7 Which would not only wonderfully [significantly] maim the Empire by depriving it of <31> so great a part of its body, but would also set a dangerous Example to other powerful Princes [for others] to do the like, especially if they conceive they are able to preserve themselves without the assistance of the Empire. Yea, if this example were once given, [even] the meaner and lesser Princes would not continue in the state of Subjects [would reject their lower status]. And thus Germany would soon be brought into the same state [condition] with Italy; but then it seems to me to be very doubtful, whether [it could so well preserve it self as Italy doth].a

That I have not rashly feigned all this, will be easily granted, if any one is but pleased to consider, That the Kingdom of Bohemia has very little concern with the Empire [rest] of Germany, {besides its Vote in the Election of the Emperor;}8 or if he will but reflect [a bit more carefully] on the greatest part of the Priviledges of the House of Austria. It will to this purpose be sufficient to represent [excerpt] a few Heads of the Immunities given by Charles V.9

The Priviledges granted to this Family by Charles V.In the very entrance of this Grant he is pleased to acknowledge, that Men naturally [most of all] desire the welfare of their Families. Then he decrees, [1.] That Austria shall be a perpetual Fee of this Family, which no future Emperor shall deprive it of. 2.a That the Duke of Austria, [for the time being,]⁺ shall be such a Counsellor of the Empire, as without his knowledge nothing shall be determined. And yet, 3. He declares his Dominions free from all Contributions to the Empire. 4. And yet obligeth the Empire to the defence of them; so that in all Advantages it [Austria] is a Member, in all Charges it is not. 5. The Duke of Austria shall not be obliged to demand the Investiture of his Dominions out of the Bounds <32> of them, but it shall be offered to him in his own Territories; to wit, [because for a naked acknowledgment of the Tenure, he will not confess himself |[subject to the Empire]|;b or as if he were to be intreated to own himself a Vassal of the Empire].c And then the [Ornaments that are allowed him in this action],d do also sufficiently argue, that he is to be treated |[like an Equal, and not like a Subject]|.e {6. If he please, he may come to the Diet; and if he please, he may forbear.}10 7. The Emperor has no Author[it]y to rectifie any thing done by him in his own Dominions. 8. The Emperor [Empire] can dispose of no Fees within the Dominions belonging to the House of Austria. 9.= His= Subjects shall not be drawn out of his Dominions to answer in any other Courts. 10. From his Sentence there lies no Appeal. 11. He may without any danger receive such as are put under the Ban of the Empire, so [provided] that he take care to do Justice to the Party injured [the accuser]; but then those that are banished by the Duke of Austria, shall be absolved by no other Prince, nor in any other place than in Austria. 12. He may lay new Tributes or Taxes [on his own Vassals],f at his own pleasure. 13. [Likewise] he may create Earls, Barons, and Gentlemen [nobles] within his own Dominions, which was heretofore [is otherwise] thought one of the Acts of Soveraignty [in Germany]. 14. Lastly, [to perfect his Power],a it is decreed, That in case the Male Line fail in this House, the Estates [dominions] belonging to it shall devolve to the Female Issue; and if there be no Females, neither, the last Possessor shall give or dispose [alienare] of them as he thinks fit.

It is to no purpose to add any more, seeing these are sufficient to <33> convince any [moderately] wise man|[. So that the man must be very silly who doth not perceive the Sham designed [perpetrated on] the Empire by Charles V. when he submitted his 17The Low Countries united to the Empire by Charles V. and why. Provinces [Belgium suum] to the Empire, with a magnificent Promise, that they should pay as much as any two of the Electors paid to 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 [since] the Accounts of the Moneys expended in the Turkish War were to be in the hands of the Princes of this Austrian Family, [the Low Countries were not likely to be overcharged, nor to be very ill treated, if they proved slow in the payment].b So that it was easie [for an Italian] to observe, That Charles V. by this Promise only encouraged the Germans to spend their Treasures [res] the more freely in the defence of his [someone else’s] Territories, when they saw him so freely consent to bring his own Patrimony under the same Burthen.

[T]ho’ 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 [in Germany] to the House of Austria, being then assigned to his Brother Ferdinand:11 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.12

The Males of this House.At this time that Line is reduced to two Males, Leopold Emperor of Germany, [(who has, since our Author wrote, had a Son named Joseph)]⁺ and Charles King of Spain[, who has no Issue]:a I have heard many of the Germans wish this Prince [Leopold] a numerous Male Posterity,b out of meer fear that the failing of the Line in <34> this Family may cause dreadful Convulsions in Europe [may require costly funeral games].13 ]|c

The Counts Palatine of the Rhine, and the Dukes of Bavaria.5. The Family of the Counts Palatine of the Rhine, and of the Dukes of Bavaria, are [is], as to Antiquity, equal to the best, and it enjoys a vast Tract of Land, which extends from the Alps to the River Moselle, <though dotted here and there by the territories of others,> and two Dukedoms in the Borders of the Low Countries [Belgii]. It is divided into two Lines, the Rudolfian and William[ite]. One of these [the latter] is possess’d of the Dukedom ofBavaria.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].a 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);14 his Predecessor also possess’d the Bishopricks of Liege [Lüttich] and Hildisheim].b

The Palatine Family.The Rudolfian Line is divided into many Branches, |[the Principal [at the head] of which is the Elector Palatine, and it [who still] enjoys the Lower Palatinate on the Rhine,15 a Country [region] 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].a The Count Palatine ofThe House of Newburg.Newburg possess’d heretofore [still possesses] the Dukedoms of Juliers [Jülich] and Montz [Berg], 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 <35> sorely oppressed by the French.]bThe other Branches of this House. Besides these, there are the Palatines of Sultzback, Simmeren, Deuxpont, or Zuibrucken [Zweibrücken] [(as the Germans call it)]⁺Birkenfield and Lawtreck [Lautereck][, all with modest domains]. The Family of Deuxpont [also] produced Charles Gustavus King ofThe King of Sweden of this Family.Sweden, who [whose son, Charles, though still a minor] now reigns in that Kingdom,16 [and] who by the Peace of Osnaburg has obtained inHis Dominions in Germany.Germany the Dukedoms of Breme[n], Ferden [Verden], and the upper [western] Pomerania, to-gether with Stetin, the Principality of Rugen [Rügen], and the Barony of Wismar.

This Family [enjoys now also Princes of great worth and virtue].c For as the Bavarian Line are celebrated for their great Piety, so the [Electoral Family have been much esteemed for their Prudence];a 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.17 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]|.b , 18

The House of Saxony.6. The Dukes of Saxony possess almost the [entire] middle parts of Germany, to whom belongs Misnia [Meißen], Thuring, and a small Country [region] on the Elbe, called the Upper Saxony, Lusatia [Lausitz, Łużyce] and in Franconia, the Dukedoms of Coburg, and the Earldom of Henneburg, [overall] a Country celebrated in some parts for its Fertility, and in others for its Mines.

This Family is divided into two Branches, viz. Albert and Ernest: |[the last [first] of these is in possession of the Electorate, and the second Son [among the three remaining brothers] is to be Bishop [Archbishop] of Magdeburg [for life];19 of the first [latter] <36> are the Dukes of Altenburg, Gotham, and 4 Brothers of the Family of Wimar [Weimar], and a numerous Posterity besides]|.a

The House of Brandenburg.7. Next these are the Marquesses 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 [Roman] Empire, which also he lately obtained from the Crown of Poland, he has Mark, [the further [eastern] 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 [western] Pomerania; and he was also to have that of Magdeburg after the death of Augustus the present Possessor of the House of Saxony.]b 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 [Padua], 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 [by intervening territories]) whereupon many that were present, began to suspect I was guilty of the common fault of Travellers, [i.e., exaggeration] and my Faith [credibility] was much questioned [by my countrymen, who for some reason hardly ever leave their native land], but that an old Souldier [officer], who was present, and had served long in Germany, and had been one of my Acquaintance[s] in that Prince’s Court, delivered me from their Suspicions [supported my statements]. They could not but <37> blush thereupon, when they considered, that some [many] prided themselves in this Title [Marggrave] in Italy and France, who were scarcely Masters of Two Hundred Acres of Land: So little did they understand, that [our]⁺ German Marggraves are [much] more considerable than their [our] 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 [Nuremberg], and are divided into two Lines, that of Culemback [Kulmbach], and that of Onolzbeck [Onolzbach,Ansbach].

Of the other Princes of the Empire.8. Next after the Electors follow some 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 [those disputes].

The Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburg.The Dukes of Brunswick 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;20 two Brothers have divided the Dukedom of Lunenburg between them, one of which resides at Zel [Celle], the other at Hannover, and the third Brother is now Bishop of Osnaburg]|.a , 21

Mechlenburg.The Dukes of Mechlenburg have a small Tract of Land belonging to them, which lies between the Baltick Sea and the River Elbe; and this Family |[is now]|b divided into two Branches, Swerin [Schwerin] and Custrow [Güstrow].

Wurtemburg.The Duke of Wurtemburg has in [Franconia]c a great and a powerful Territory; his <38> Relations have also in the extreamest parts of Germany the Earldom ofMontpelgart.Montbelgard [Montbéliard] in Alsatia. The Lantgrave ofHassia.Hassia [Hessen] has also a large Country, and is divided into the Branches of Cassel and Darmstad. The Marquesses ofBaden.Baden have a long but narrow Country on [the right bank of] the Rhine, and are also divided into two Lines, that of Baden, properly so called, and that of Baden Durlach.

Holstein.The Dukes of Holstein possess a part of the Promontory of Juitland [the Cimbrian peninsula], 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 [governed] by the King of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein Gothorp; |[which last]|a has also the Bishoprick ofLubeck.Lubeck. The Dukedom of Sleswick doth not belong to [is not dependent on] the Empire. <There are still other lines of the Dukes of Holstein sprung from their descendants, whose numerical increase has gone beyond the bounds of their modest territory.> The Duke ofSax-Lawemburg.Sax[ony]-Lawemburg |[has a small Estate [territory] in the Lower Saxony]|,b and almost equal to that of the Prince[s] of Anhalt in the Upper Saxony.

Savoy and Lorrain.9. These are the ancient Princes of the 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. increased the number of the Princes.Ferdinand II,22 who, as many believe, designed the subduing [of] the Power of the German Princes, and to gain an Absolute Authority [Imperium] over them, amongst other Arts by him imployed, [brought into the Diet many Princes, which]c depended entirely on <39> 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 [general] 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 [be so proud of their status], 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 [the eminence of the old families] 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, [albeit with some resistance,] <and only upon the condition that, if they did not yet have them, they would later acquire goods worthy of a Prince’s rank,> are [so far as I know] these; theThe Titles of Eleven of his creation. Prince[s] of Ho[h]enzolleren, Eggenburg, Nassaw-Hadmar, <Sigen,> Nassaw-Dillenburg, Lobkowitz, Salm, Dietrichstein, Aversberg, and Picolomini<, Schwartzenberg, Portia, East Frisia, Fürstenberg, Waldec, Oetingen>.23 But then this Project of Ferdinand miscarrying, and the Estates [means] 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 [vis-à-vis the latter]. {And they have also been much exposed to the Reproaches [ridicule] 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,]aThat 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 [was new once], and that these Families in time may get greater Estates.} |[Though]|b the easiest way <for surrounding themselves with wealth> is <40> now foreclosed against them, [by restraining the Emperor from disposing of the vacant Fees as he thinks fit].c

The Ecclesiastick States,10. The Next Bench [of princes] in the Diet belongs 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;24 yet in the Diet, and other publick Meetings, [for the most part, they are placed]a above the Temporal Nobility: For since the Fortune of the Churchmen in these latter Ages has [been so vastly different from what it was in the beginning of Christianity],b it were very absurd to expect they are now bound to observe those [obsolete] Laws of Modesty our Saviour at first prescribed [them];c and perhaps those Laws too were by him designed only for the [those] Primitive Times: For in truth, it would have been ridiculous for Fishermen and Weavers ambitiously to seek the Precedence of Noblemen [a higher place]; who were to earn their [daily] Bread with the labours of their Hands, or to subsist on voluntary Contributions.

Now [though] the Authority and Revenues of the Churchmen is very great [quite respectable] [in all those Countries that ever were under the Papacy];d yet their Riches and Power are no where so great as in Germany, there being few of them [in theOnce very rich and powerful. Empire]⁺ whose Dominions and [domestic] Equipage is not equal to that of the Secular Nobility. And <41> their Power [jurisdiction] and Authority over their Vassals [subjects] 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.25 [But however],e in these later Ages there are more than there were in former times, who are not ashamed to take Orders, and [only] 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 [holy] Sacrifice [i.e., the Mass].

Now much diminished.But then, whereas of old their Estates equalled, if not exceeded, that [the domains] of the Secular Princes, the Reformation of Religion, which was embraced by the greatest part of Germany, and <whose seizure of ecclesiastical goods was confirmed by the Treaty of Passau, the Peace of Augsburg, and later by> the Peace of Westphalia [in the year 1648],a have strangely [considerably] diminished them; for in the Circles of the Upper and Lower Saxony the Churchmen have very little left: But then, in the Upper [southern] Germany (if you except the Dukedom of Wurtemburg) [they escaped better].b Now the reason of this is this; The Saxons being more remote, did not fear the Efforts of [Emperor] 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 [Churchmen’s] Dominions were intermixed with [those of] Potent Secular Princes, and consequently lay exposed to their Incursions; but in the Upper [southern] Germany <and in Westphalia> they were seated nearer one another <and better suited for rendering mutal assistance>, and [especially] on theThey possess the greatest part of the Lands on the Rhine.Rhine, which is the most fruitful part of Germany, they <42> were possessed of the whole Country, except what belongs to the Elector Palatine, whichc as it interrupts that beautiful Chain of Church-Lands, {has for that reason alone, 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.)26

The Ecclesiastick Electors.11. Ecclesiastick States, which are [not yet]a come into the hands of the Protestant Princes, are these: The threeMentz, Trier, and Cologne. Archbishopricks of Mentz, Trier, and Cologne, which are three of the Electors, and the Archbishopricks of Saltsburg and Besanzon in Burgundy{; for, as for Magdeburg, it is [now] a meer Lay-Fee}.27 The inferiour [simple]The Bishops. Bishopricks are, Bamberg, Wurtzburg, Worms, Spires [Speyer], Aichstad [Eichstätt], Strasburg, Constance, Au[g]sburg, Hildisheim, Paderborn, Freisingen, Ratisbone [Regensburg], Passaw, {Trent}, Brixen [in Tirol]⁺, Basil [Basel], Liege [Lüttich], Osnaburg, Munster, Curen [Chur] [in Curland].b The Master of the Teutonick Order28 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 <43> 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 [their rivals]. 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 [Mitered Abbots Abbies which are called Prelates],a are these; Fuld[a], Kempten, Elwang, Murback, Luders, the Master of [the knightly order of] St. John, Berchtelsgaden, Weissenburg, Pruym [Prüm], Stablo, and Corwey. The rest of theThe Prelates that are not Princes but vote in the Diet. Prelates, who are not Princes, are divided into two Benches, that of the Rhine, and that of Schwaben or Suabia, [one of each of which has a]b Vote in the Diet, and they are esteemed equal to the Counts or Earls of the Empire.

The Earls and Barons of the Empire12. The Estate [condition] of the Counts, or Earls; and Barons [Freiherren] 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 [rights] with the Princes, and the ancient Earldoms had [have] 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 [hurt] many of the German Families, [and]c 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 <44> of their Ancestors],d and their prodigal Expences.

Have 4 Votes.At this day, the Earls have four Votes in the Diet, one for Wetteraw, another for Schwaben, a third for Franconia, and the fourth for Westphalia. The Earls which are known to me, are these;Their Names.Nassau, {Oldenburg},29Furstemberg, Hohenlohe, Hanaw, Sain [Sayn], Wit[t]genstein, Leiningen, Solms, Waldeck, Isenburg, Stolberg, Wied, Mansfeld, Reussen [Reuß], Oetingen, Montfort, Ko[e]nigseck, Fugger, Sultz, Cronberg, Sintzendorf,Wallenstein, Pap[p]enheim, Castell, L[o]ewenstein, Erbach, Limburg, Schwartzenburg [Schwarzburg], Bentheim, {Ostfri[e]sland, (who is now made a Prince)}30 [Rhine, and Walts],aRantzow, and perhaps many other[s], 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].b

The Free Cities make a College in the Diet.13. There is also in Germany no small number of Free Cities, who are subject to no Prince or State [estate], 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 [classes, commonly called] Benches, that of the Rhine, and that of Schwaben. The Principal of these are, Norimberg, Augsburg, <45> Cologne, Lubeck, Ulm, {Strasburg [Argentoratum],} Frankford, Ratisbone [Regensburg], Aix la Chapelle, or Aken [Aachen], <and Straßburg, which awaits its return to the Empire;> [of lesser status are] [Metz]⁺, Worms, Spire [Speyer], {Colmar},31Memmingen, Esling [Eßlingen], Hall in Schwaben [Schwäbisch-Hall], Heilbron, Lindaw, Goslar, Mulhausin [Mühlhausen], 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],a but now [their Wealth is much]b reduced, and we may probably enough conjecture, they will [one after another be all reduced]c 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]|d their Freedom, though (perhaps) not very well grounded [non ita liquido jure]. |[For the Dukes of Holstein pretend a Right overHamburg.Hamburg, which this most wealthy City of all Germany will not submit to; and [but] 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.32

The King of Sweden has such another Dispute with the City ofBreme.Breme[n], without which he can never secure that Dukedom;e and perhaps the Kings of Sweden have too much reason [are right] to suspect that [that] City was admitted into the Diet, in the year 1641, [among the free cities,] when [they began to suspect those Princes]a would become Masters of this Dukedom[, on purpose to keep it out of their hands, and deprive them of this <46> convenience and security].b

Brunswick.The City of Brunswick doth strangely [greatly] weaken and disfigure the Dukedoms of Brunswick and Lunenburg, and by its Site interrupt their otherwise well compacted Territories: And yet they will never suffer the Bishop ofHildisheim.Hildisheim to take possession of that City [Hildesheim].33 The Elector of Brandenburg is not very favourable to [an excessive liberty of] the Cities in his Dominions, [as is well known,] and therefore it is not improbable, the City ofMagdeburg.Magdeburg may [suffer the loss of her Liberty]c after the death of Augustus, of the House of Saxony.34

Erford.They of Erford, weary 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 [for themselves instead].35

[A]nd I suppose, by this time, the Hollanders [Batavos] are made sufficiently [sensible they ought to have defended]d the Inhabitan[t]s ofMunster.Munster against their Bishop; seeing it would the better have became them who took Arms against their own Prince, for their Liberties, to have assisted their Neighbours in a like Attempt.]|a , 36

The Knights of Germany14. The Knights of Germany are not all in the same condition, part of them being immediately subject to the Emperor and the Empire, and another part being under the subordinate States, who are their Lords. They that belong to the first of these Classes, call themselves the Free Nobles of the Empire, and [the Conjunct,]bImmediate, and Free Nobility of the Empire. These, according to <47> the respective Circuits [districts] in which their Estates are, stand divided into threeDivided into three Classes. Classes, of Franconia, Schwaben, and the Rhine, which are again subdivided into lesser Divisions. They have of their own Order certain Directors and Assessors,37 who take care of those Affairs, which concern the whole Body of this Order; and [occasionally,] if any thing of great moment happen, they call a general Convention. But then they have noBut they have no Vote in the Diet. Place in the [Imperial] Diet, which they look on as a Priviledge for the saving of the Expences necessary in such an Attendance. And in truth it would be no great advantage to them to be admitted into the Diet, [to give their Votes].c In all other things they enjoy the same Liberties and Rights with the other Princes and Free States [estates], so that they are inferiour to the Princes in nothing but Wealth [opes].

To recompence this, they have great Advantages from the Ecclesiastical Benefices and Cathedral Churches [chapters] in which they are Canons; and by this way many of them [very easily] become Princes of the Empire. They that obtain this Honour [rank], have learned{, by the Pope’s example,}a to take good care of their Family and Relations; and besides, [I imagine] there is a wonderful satisfaction in the [enjoyment of great Revenues with small]b Labour. {For they employ their Curates or Vicars to make a noise in their Churches, so that they are in no peril of spoiling their Voices by any thing but Intemperance. And as to the inconveniences of living unmarried, their Concubines, which are not wanting,c cure [easily remedy] them. [Those that <48> make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, are in the mean time very scarce in Germany: And it is almost as infamous in a Nobleman, to be continent, as not to love Dogs and Horses].}d

[Moreover,] I have heard some of them complain that some of the Princes have an apparent disgust at their Priviledges [openly threaten their liberty], and look upon them with an evil Eye, because living in the midst of their Territories, they enjoy such large Exemptions [freedoms]: [And others say,]e such vast numbers of small Royolets [do much weaken the Empires in which they are suffered].f And [For] if a foreign War happen, they become an easie Prey to the Invaders [either side]: Yet for all this, these Gentlemen [knights] will not part with a certain Liberty for an uncertain Hazard or Danger; and the rest of the Princes will not [easily] suffer so considerable an Addition to be made to the Power and Riches of the [few] Princes they [the knights] live under, except some great Revolution open a way to this change, or by length of time and crafty Projects their [the latter’s] Estates be wasted and consumed.38

The Empire is divided into ten Circles.15. We must here, in a few words, admonish [also advise] the Reader, that this vast Body of the Empire|[, by the appointment of Maximilian I. in the year 1512, was divided into ten [regions or] Circles[, as they are commonly called|,a the names of which are these; Austria, [the four Electorates on the Rhine:] Mentz [Mainz], Trier, Cologne, and the Palatinate, call’d the Lower Circle of the Rhine, the Upper Circle of the Rhine, Schwaben, Bavaria, Franconia, the upper and lower Saxony,Westphalia, that of Burgundy.39 The Kingdom of Bohemia, with the [adjoined] Provinces <49> of Silesia and Moravia, belong not to any of these Circles [or constitute a special circle]: Which yields us a clear proof, that it is rather united to Germany by a kind of League, than [a part of that Empire].b To which of these Circles any Place belongs, may be found [here and there] in common [reference] Books[, every where to be had]⁺. This Division was made [especially] for the more easie Preservation of the Publick Peace, and the Execution of Justice against contumacious [insubordinate] States and Princes. To which end each of them [the circles] has Power to name a General [ducem], for the commanding their Forces, and [the appointing their Diets, in which the principal Prince in the Circle, for the most part, presides;]c in which they take care for the defence of the Circle, and for the levying Moneys for the publick use [fiscal matters]. Yet a man may well question, whether this Division doth not tend [more to the Distraction and weakening of Germany, than its Preservation, the whole Body being by this means made less sensible and less regardful of the Calamities which oppress or endanger the Parts of it, and threaten (though at a distance) the Ruin of the whole].a

Thus much of the Parts of the [German] Empire. <50>

[1 ]Both Switzerland and the Netherlands, which formerly belonged to the empire, were recognized as independent states in the Treaty of Westphalia (Hammerstein, “Kommentar,” 1187).

[2 ]Hermann Conring, De finibus Imperii Germanici libri II (Helmstedt, 1654).

[a ]E.p.: that is, they are represented at the Diet by other, more powerful orders [ordines], either by a right that is publicly conceded by all concerned or by one that remains ambiguous, in that the latter’s challenge to the former’s unmediated status, and their attempt to exempt [exclude] them, is opposed by the former [themselves] as well as by the Empire

[a ]E.p.: Ordines / The e.p. as a rule replaces “states” or “estates” [status] with “orders” (ordines). [Ed.]

[3 ]So-called exempt (excluded) or mediate estates were those whose primary obligation was to other intermediaries, who sometimes assumed their obligations to the empire and thus claimed to speak for them, rather than directly (immediately) to the emperor or empire as such. Understandably, the empire frowned on these relationships, and the Treaty of Westphalia (VIII.3) proposed to reinstate these mediate or exempt estates at the next diet. See Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, trans. Dove, 138– 39, note 6; and Haberkern and Wallach, Hilfswörterbuch für Historiker, “Exemption,” 1:187, “Immediat,” 1:300–301, “Reichsunmittelbar,” 2:529.

[4 ]An apanage was a restricted grant (land, stipend, or office) for maintaining non-inheriting (male) members of a family.

[b ]E.p.: or rather, their concerns are not taken into account. But in the latter instance, where several are in undivided possession of a territory entitled [capax] to one vote, they can come to the Diet as individuals but may cast only one vote, about which they must agree among themselves. But where the individuals have been separately invested with their rightful portions of a seat, they also vote as individuals / See V.25. [Ed.]

[c ]Ordinum / e.p.: Statuum

[a ]That is, subordinate to the Empire. The term is added by Bohun. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: Though this is plainly to appeal to [the fact of] possession [alone].

[c ]Rather: to be included among, or to exclude others from, the [Imperial] orders [ordines]

[d ]That is, in which either too few or too many estates were listed. [Ed.]

[e ]E.p.: though that which was established in the year 1521 at Worms, by the common agreement of Emperor and the Estates, and was supplemented in 1551, 1556, and 1566, may be considered authentic

[f ]Rather: [merely] lists of those then present at the Diet, rather than authorized public records from which convincing [indubia] arguments may be made for either side

[a ]Rather: but that anyone who thought himself of any importance in the state [republica], in terms of either power or prudence, was free to attend

[b ]Rather: whose care for their private affairs did not leave them any time for public matters, stayed away on their own

[c ]Rather: others were excluded by the more powerful

[5 ]Rudolph I (of Hapsburg), 1218–91

[a ]Rather: To wit, he hoped that the latter

[b ]Rather: his modest family status

[c ]Rather: be obliged to him alone

[d ]Rather: then collaborated with those princes

[e ]E.p.: Deemed suited by the Electors’ votes to repair the very confused state of Germany after an interregnum of nearly twenty years, he not only arranged the state [rempublicam] in an excellent way but was no less fortunate and industrious in solidifying and expanding the power [res] of his own house. For he also linked himself with the first families of Germany through the nuptials of his daughters, / The e.p. version tones down the implied challenge to Austrian claims. [Ed.]

[a ]E.p.: for since he was permitted to bestow vacant Fees [fiefs] on others, no reasonable person faulted him for also taking his own family into consideration. Thus his son, Albert,

[b ]That is, the emperors favored already well-to-do members of their own family by bestowing vacant properties on them. [Ed.]

[c ]Rather: a son could easily get for himself from an otherwise strict father, the addition of a special title [e.g., archduke] that would / This hereditary title was first assumed by Duke Ernest the Iron around 1414, in accordance with the privilegium maius. See II.4 and notes 7 and 9, p. 56. [Ed.]

[d ]E.p.: To these, many other territories were later added through marriages, in which respect no other family is said ever to have been more fortunate. Since they surpassed the remaining princes in wealth, it was also fair that they exceed the rest of the dukes [duces] in the splendor of their title.

[e ]Rather: having for the most part ascended to princely rank from a lower lineage

[6 ]The Council of Princes (Reichsfürstenrat) contained both clergy and laity, the former on account of their ecclesiastical land holdings. It was the second college at the diet, after that of the electors.

[a ]Rather: encompasses within its terrains

[b ]Rather: through fear of a Turkish war

[c ]E.p.: of Germany toward the south and the east, which is composed of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Provinces properly speaking. Add to this the Kingdom of Hungary, also by hereditary right now that a great portion thereof has been seized from the hands of the barbarians [Turks] by Emperor Leopold’s military successes. / The Turkish threat had diminished since the first edition of Monzambano. After their defeat in 1683 at the battle of Kahlenberg, the Turks were gradually pushed out of Hungary, a situation formally affirmed in the Peace of Karlowitz (1699). [Ed.]

[d ]Rather: that the House of Austria has continued its self so long in the Imperial Dignity, not only because there is . . . Station; but also because they have found . . .

[7 ]The broadest of these privileges (Freiheitsbriefe), the privilegium maius (a spurious counterpart to the privilegium minus, issued by Emperor Frederick I in 1156), was actually a mid-fourteenth-century (1359) forgery commissioned by Duke Rudolph IV in order to gain for Austria the electoral rights specified by the Golden Bull (1356). Although Petrarch advised Charles IV not to confirm it, the Hapsburg Emperor Frederick III did so in 1453. Its falsity was not conclusively established until 1856.

[a ]Rather: it [Italy] will be able to preserve itself in that same manner in the future

[8 ]Bohemia lost its status as an independent kingdom after 1620 and became an imperial crown land. It regained a vote in the Electoral Council of the diet in 1708 (Monzambano, Über die Verfassung, trans. Breßlau, 44, note 1).

[9 ]Charles V confirmed the privilegium maius in 1530, the year he was crowned emperor by Pope Clement VII.

[a ]The explicit enumeration is Bohun’s. [Ed.]

[b ]E.p.: subject [obnoxium] to the Emperor

[c ]Rather: he is unwilling to confess himself subordinate [inferiorem] to the Empire for a bare feudal acknowledgment, but acts, instead, as if he were a vassal of the Empire only per request / That is, he must be asked, and must consent. [Ed.]

[d ]Rather: insignia that he bears when accepting his fief

[e ]E.p.: more as an Equal than as a Subject

[10 ]This privilege was pointless after 1663, when the Reichstag began to meet in permanent session at Regensburg.

[f ]Rather: in his own dominions

[a ]Rather: to remove any doubt that he does not grant the Empire any right over his own dominions

[b ]Rather: the tax collectors in Belgium were not going to be treated too harshly if they were a little sluggish in collecting their portion

[11 ]Ferdinand succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor after Charles’s abdication in 1556, while Philip (II) became king of Spain and inherited the Dutch provinces.

[12 ]Six circles of the empire were established at the Diet of Worms in 1495; the number was increased to ten in 1512. The Burgundian Circle including the Dutch provinces became nominally independent from the empire in 1548, though it retained certain financial obligations in return for the empire’s protection.

[a ]Rather: whom few people expect to live much longer

[b ]The passage is written as Bohun saw the situation in 1690, not as Pufendorf saw it in 1667, when he wrote: “. . . wish that other prince [i.e., Leopold] a marriage rich in male offspring.” [Ed.]

[13 ]Charles II died childless in 1700, which led to extinction of the Hapsburg line in Spain. Shortly before his death he had designated as his heir Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, whom the latter duly acknowledged as Philip V of Spain (thereby revoking his formal renunciation of 1660, a condition of his marriage to the Spanish infanta, Maria Theresia). Since Leopold I also claimed the Spanish crown because of his marriage to a younger sister of Charles II, this led to the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–13). Leopold had two sons: Joseph I (1678–1711) and Charles VI (1685–1740), the former of whom reigned 1705 to 1711, and the latter from 1711 to 1740.

[c ]E.p.: who knows how easy it is to elude the specious legal vocabulary flaunted so fervently by academics [Scholasticis], when one may safely disregard another’s strength.

These things are by no means meant to create ill will toward that house [of Hapsburg], since it surely deserves praise for its skillful exploitation of fortune’s favors in order to consolidate its position. However, there are also those who do not like this interpretation because[, they say,] those privileges were bestowed on the Austrians by Frederick I. long before the Hapsburgs acquired Imperial rank, and so before they could entertain any thought of using them to secure it for themselves. Others add that though those privileges were acquired by a disputed [oneroso] legal title, they have brought Germany much good. For Henry, Count [Markgraf] of Austria, gave up [for them] his claim to Bavaria, over which he had been engaged in dispute with Henry the Lion of Saxony, to the disturbance of all Germany.

However, since Frederick I. granted the privilege [i.e., privilegium minus] to Count Henry for a particular reason, it could not go beyond his own person and family. By no means was it bestowed on the province of Austria as such, so that whoever later on controlled it should enjoy that privilege no matter what, apart from any right derived from Henry. For the claim to Bavaria had been given up by Henry in his capacity as Count [Marchio jure], not by the Estates of the province of Austria. Much less do the reasons adduced by Frederick I. [for bestowing the privilege] pertain to the family of the Hapsburgs, which never had a right to Bavaria and therefore could not be compensated with the privilege for restoring peace to Germany by yielding it. Nor could it claim for itself, upon assuming control of those provinces after the prior Austrian family’s extinction, the special privileges granted to that family, unless they were later bestowed on it by its own Emperors [i.e., of its own line].

The latter did not arouse ill will by granting their family members what had already been obtained by earlier possessors of that province [Austria], especially since no one could be found to object to that bestowal. Nor is it any objection to say that the intentions of those who initially granted or received the privilege differed from those of later parties who knew how to apply it in ways not previously envisioned. Of course, if Frederick I. could have foreseen such an interpretation and effect of that privilege, he would have gravely violated the Imperial office by granting it, and taken the first step toward the destruction of the Empire. For if all princes enjoyed such a privilege—which, as far as I know, no other Emperor has given to any of the Estates [Ordinum]—Germany would long ago have come apart at the seams. As it is, it cannot fall to any of them unless a particular Emperor wishes, as it were, to marry the Imperial dignity to his own family.

Still more loosely joined with Germany [than Austria] are the Belgian provinces [Netherlands], which Emperor Charles V. linked to the Empire under the name of “the Burgundian Circle,” promising that they would carry as much of the public burden as two Electors. The chief reason for this move, it seems, was to make the Germans believe that they should send aid to those conjoined with them by that name, if those provinces were ever attacked by the French, and to involve Germany in all the wars which the House of Austria is almost continually waging with France. Perhaps he wanted also in this way to make the Estates more willing to contribute money to the Turkish war, for which most taxes were sought at the time, by showing that the Emperor was calling upon his own territories to carry their part of the burden. And, is it possible that he also sought to preclude objections to the Imperial aspirations of his son, Phillip [of Spain], because the latter had no territories in Germany after the Austrian patrimonial lands had been given to Ferdinand [of Austria]? Whatever reason moved him, that association had no other effect than the vote cast in Burgundy’s name in the Diet. For the liberty [independence] of the Belgians was so amply provided for that that entire incorporation was limited to the mere payment of taxes deemed necessary for the common safety of Germany—which the Belgians still refused to pay. And on the other hand the German Estates never deemed themselves obligated to participate in the Belgian Wars, [acting] as if these did not matter to them.

Today the male line of that house, which had been reduced to two, has been, as it were, reinvigorated by Emperor Leopold through [his sons,] Joseph and Charles, while King Charles of Spain has not been blessed with the offspring he hoped for.

[a ]Rather: last war its booty included the Electoral Dignity as well as the upper Palatinate [Oberpfalz], which it had seized from its relations / e.p.: Thirty Years’ War . . .

[14 ]Joseph Clement (1671–1723), a brother of Max Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, was appointed in 1688 (at the age of seventeen) by Pope Innocent III to succeed the Francophile Max Henry to the archbishopric of Cologne, one of the spiritual electorates of the empire. This move was supported by Emperor Leopold I and most other European rulers (including William of Orange) because it frustrated the efforts of Louis XIV to expand his influence in northern Germany through his own candidate, Cardinal Wilhelm Fürstenberg, then bishop of Straßburg.

[b ]Rather: in addition to which the current Elector [modernus] also has the Bishopricks . . . / Pufendorf (in 1667) meant Max Henry of Bavaria, archbishop of Cologne from 1650 to 1688. The material in parentheses was added by Bohun in 1690, when he could render modernus as “predecessor.” [Ed.] / e.p.: as well as other adjoined bishoprics [Praesulatibus]

[15 ]The lower (inferior, western) Palatinate refers to the Kurpfalz (or Rheinpfalz), which includes Heidelberg. The upper (or eastern) Palatinate (Oberpfalz) is still a region of Bavaria, adjacent to Bohemia or the modern Czech Republic.

[a ]Added by Bohun. / The French incursions in the Kurpfalz began in 1688–89. Actually, the region had already been devastated earlier that century, when Elector Friedrich V lost his electoral status to Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria, whose troops looted Heidelberg in 1623 and sent its precious library (the so-called Biblioteca Palatina) to the Vatican, where most of it remains today. Friedrich’s son, Karl Ludwig, regained the electoral status in 1649, but Maximilian kept his as well. [Ed.]

[b ]Added by Bohun. / After Karl Ludwig died in 1680, he was succeeded by his son Karl II, who died in 1685 without issue. With the extinction of the Calvinist Pfalz-Simmern line, the Palatinate went to the Catholic line of Pfalz-Neuburg, first to Philipp Wilhelm (1615–90) and then his son Johann Wilhelm (1658–1716). Louis XIV contested the Neuburg succession on the grounds of the marriage of his brother, Philippe of Orleans (in 1671), to Karl Ludwig’s daughter (Charlotte Elizabeth, or Liselotte) and destroyed Heidelberg (1693) during the War of the Palatine Succession (1688–97). [Ed.]

[16 ]Charles X, or Charles X Gustav (1622–60), was the son of John Casimir, Count of Pfalz-Zweibrücken, and Gustav Adolphus’s sister, Catherine. He succeeded to the Swedish throne in 1654, after Christina abdicated, and was succeeded in turn, after an interregnum, by his young son, Charles XI (1655–97), who assumed full powers in 1672. Pfalz-Zweibrücken went to Charles XI in 1692, after John Casimir’s death, and it remained Swedish until the death of Charles XII in 1718.

[c ]Rather: also flourishes today on account of the fame of its highly praised princes

[a ]Rather: Palatine Elector [Karl Ludwig] is regarded, on account of his rare wisdom and other virtues, among the ornaments of his nation [nationis] / See Pufendorf’s 1667 preface and its note 13. [Ed.]

[17 ]Pfalz-Neuburg’s claim to the Polish succession rested on Philipp Wilhelm’s (first) marriage, in 1642, to Anna Katharina Konstanze (d. 1651), a daughter of Sigismund III of Poland.

[b ]E.p.: [and] now possesses, after the extinction of the previous [Simmerian] line, beside the lower Palatinate—one of the most fertile and pleasant parts of Germany—the duchies of Jülich and Berg, along with the small territory of Neuburg on the Danube. The duchy of Zweibrücken fell [in 1692] to Charles XI, king of Sweden, though the French have laid a sophistical claim to it as a fief of Metz. Other Palatine counts include those of Lautereck or Veldenz, Sulzbach, and Birkenfeld, some of whom have also been hard pressed by their French neighbors

[18 ]Prince Rupert (1619–82) was a younger son of Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, daughter of James I, and thus a brother of Karl Ludwig. Imprisoned for three years by the emperor for continuing to press his father’s cause, Rupert came to England in 1636 and fought vigorously in the English civil war on behalf of his uncle, Charles I, acquiring a reputation as leader of the Royalist cavalry. After the demise of the Royalist cause, he became a buccaneer in the Caribbean (where he attacked English shipping), returned to England after the Restoration, and finally became director of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The city of Prince Rupert, in British Columbia, is named after him. The eight words Pufendorf gives him here understate his reputation throughout Europe. See Rebitsch, Rupert von der Pfalz (2005), and Kitson, Prince Rupert: Soldier (1994) and Prince Rupert: Admiral (1998).

[19 ]Bohun confuses this passage. The Albertine branch included Johann Georg I, elector of Saxony from 1611 to 1656, and his three brothers, the second eldest of whom (August) was administrator of the archdiocese of Magdeburg until his death in 1680. After that, Magdeburg went to Frederick William of Brandenburg, the Great Elector. Pufendorf takes note of this in the e.p. revision.

[a ]E.p.: The former divided itself into four branches through the sons of Johann Georg I; the latter diffused itself through William of Weimar and his four sons, and through Ernest of Gotha and his seven sons, as well as through numerous grandsons. / Altenburg belonged to Weimar since 1672 and is not mentioned separately in the e.p. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: the further [eastern] Pomerania [i.e., Hinterpommern], the duchy of Crossen in Silesia, the duchy of Cleve, [and] the territories of Mark and Ravensberg. Also, in place of the [western] part of Pomerania [i.e., Vorpommern], which was ceded to the Swedes, and which would otherwise have fallen to him after the extinction of the ducal family of Pomerania, he received as an equivalent the bishoprics of Halberstadt,Minden, and Camin, and, after the death of Augustus of Saxony [in 1680], the archbishopric of Magdeburg. / Bohun omits some important lands (viz., Cleve, where Locke encountered the Great Elector in 1665–66) and partially obscures the distinction between eastern and western Pomerania. Much to the chagrin of Frederick Wilhelm, the latter went to the Swedes as part of the peace settlement of 1648 and did not come to Brandenburg until 1720. [Ed.]

[20 ]Herzog August the Younger (1579–1666) of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, who built up the famous library collection in Wolfenbüttel.

[a ]E.p.: Wolfenbüttel and Celle, whose domain has been bifurcated up to now, with one brother [Georg Wilhelm] residing at Celle and the other [Ernst August the Older] at Hannover. The latter also obtained the bishopric of Osnabrück for his lifetime, and later on the Electoral dignity

[21 ]The two brothers were Georg Wilhelm (1624–1705) of Lüneburg-Celle, and Johann Friedrich (1625–79) of Lüneburg-Calenberg. The third brother, Ernst August the Elder (1629–98), became secular “bishop” of Osnabrück in 1662. After Johann Friedrich’s death, his holdings went to Ernst August, who became elector of Hannover (the empire’s ninth electorate) in 1692; and then to the latter’s son, Georg Ludwig (1660–1727), in whose hands—after Georg Wilhelm’s death—all of Lüneburg was finally united. Since Ernst August’s wife, Sophie (sister of Karl Ludwig), was a daughter of Frederick V and Elisabeth Stuart (daughter of James I), Georg Ludwig as her oldest son became George I of England in 1714, according to the English Act of Settlement (1701).

[b ]E.p.: was formerly / This variant was probably introduced by Gundling, since Pufendorf died in 1694 and the Güstrower line of Mecklenburg did not end till 1695 (Severinus, ed. Salomon, 58, note 5). [Ed.]

[c ]Rather: Swabia [Suevia] / Although both are now partially in Bavaria, Franconia and Swabia had separate histories as circles of the empire. [Ed.]

[a ]E.p.: whose house

[b ]E.p.: formerly had a small region in Lower Saxony on the Elbe / The Lauenburg line died out in 1689 (Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, ed. Denzer, 1994, 71, note 14; Severinus, ed. Salomon, 59, note 1).

[22 ]Ferdinand II (1578–1637), Holy Roman Emperor from 1619 to 1637.

[c ]Rather: elevated to the order of Princes many who

[23 ]These e.p. additions had been elevated to princely rank since the preparation of the first edition. See II.12, note 30, p. 73.

[a ]Rather: who say

[b ]E.p.: Especially since

[c ]Rather: because the Emperor may not confer vacant fiefs of any importance on whomever he pleases

[24 ]Minor nobility, as well as noninheriting children, often saw the church as their only way to worldly advancement. Indeed, the church absorbed many such social misfits, as it were, and thus relieved the pressure otherwise placed on secular institutions.

[a ]Rather: they are placed almost

[b ]Rather: departed so immensely from the meager circumstances of the ancient clergy

[c ]Rather: to that order of men

[d ]Rather: throughout the whole of Christendom where Catholic rites are in effect

[25 ]Perhaps a reference to the aggressive Christoph Bernhard, Freiherr von Galen (1606–78), Catholic prince-bishop of Münster (1650–78), who imposed an absolute rule on the city in 1661. The Dutch Republic made some moves to assist the city but stopped short of direct intervention. In response, von Galen undertook hostilities against the Republic on two subsequent occasions, as he did against the Turks, the French, and the Swedes.

[e ]Rather: Indeed

[a ]Added by Bohun. / The Treaty of Passau (1552) and the Peace of Augsburg (1555) legitimated Protestantism (i.e., Lutheranism) in the empire, with the latter also establishing the principle that each ruler could determine the official religion within his own territories (cuius regio, eius religio). The seizure of ecclesiastical holdings may also allude to the so-called ecclesiastical reservation. See V.10–11, notes 8–11, pp. 129 and 131. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: there was less booty [for secular princes]

[c ]Rather: who / That is, it was the elector himself who was looked at with the evil eye. [Ed.]

[26 ]Bohun speaks as an Anglican: the Catholic French are God’s instrument for punishing these Catholic regions for rejecting the “true religion” (i.e., Protestantism). The reference to 1689 as “the year now current” indicates that Bohun’s 1696 edition was in fact a reprint of the 1690 edition, prepared already in 1689.

[a ]E.p.: not / This small change signifies Pufendorf’s later resignation to the status quo and his more positive view of the united empire (containing both Protestants and Catholics) as a necessary bulwark against French expansionism. [Ed.]

[27 ]See note 19 in this chapter. The archbishopric had been secularized as a duchy in 1648 and was occupied by the Great Elector’s troops already after 1666, even though the Great Elector did not formally take possession of it until 1680.

[b ]Added by Bohun. / Chur is an old city in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland, while Kurland or Curonia was a Baltic province in Livonia and became part of Latvia after World War I. [Ed.]

[28 ]A German order of knights [equites] (like the Hospitallers and Templars) established by the pope at the end of the twelfth century. After their military and charitable activities in Palestine had ended, the Teutonic Knights became, as it were, Christian mercenaries in eastern Europe, establishing themselves especially in eastern Prussia, which its grand masters ruled as a Polish fief until 1660, when it became a part of Brandenburg.

[a ]Rather: abbots or prelates with princely rank

[b ]Rather: each of which has one

[c ]Rather: this is a great ill for illustrious houses and

[d ]Rather: lazy management of their patrimony

[29 ]Oldenburg went to Christian V of Denmark in 1676, after its count left no descendants.

[30 ]The e.p. includes East Frisia among the newer princes admitted to Reichstag in 1667. See II.9 and note 23 in this chapter.

[a ]Rather: Lippe, the Rhine- and Forest-Count / Rheni et Sylvarum; translated as Rhein- und Wildgraf in Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, ed. Denzer, 1994, 77. This difficult expression refers to the honorary titles Wildgraf (comes silvester) and Raugraf (comes hirsutus) attached to territories in Nahegau that devolved on the Palatinate (on the Rhine) in the seventeenth century, and that Karl Ludwig bestowed in 1667 on his morganatic wife, Marie Louise von Degenfeld, and the thirteen children he had with her. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: in the hereditary domains of the emperor, or only recently been elevated to that rank, who have no place in the Diet since they are subject to other estates. It is not worth our effort to enumerate them / e.p.: , both in other parts of Germany and, in great numbers, in the hereditary domains of the emperor, who, whether they are more ancient or only recently elevated to that rank, have no place in the Diet since they are subject to other estates. It is not worth our effort to enumerate them

[31 ]The German cities of Colmar and Straßburg, in Alsace (Elsass), were occupied by France in 1673 and 1681, respectively. Colmar is not mentioned in the e.p., but Pufendorf is still hopeful there that Straßburg will return to the empire. This did not happen, and the French possession was formally acknowledged in 1697.

[a ]Rather: One or two hundred years ago the power of these cities was great and formidable, even to princes

[b ]Rather: the wealth of many has been

[c ]Rather: sometime be brought entirely

[d ]E.p.: were formerly . . . preserved

[32 ]Christian V’s attack on Hamburg, in 1686, was foiled by the intervention of Saxony and Brandenburg. See VII.5, page 189, below. Holstein was historically associated with Denmark, though not formally a part of its territory.

[e ]That is, the province containing the city. [Ed.]

[a ]Rather: it was already becoming clear that they

[b ]Rather: in order to defraud them of it / Even though the archbishopric of Bremen was secularized and assigned as a duchy to Sweden in 1648, the city of Bremen refused to submit. After two wars, the relationship was finally settled by the Treaty of Habenhausen in 1666: the city could remain in the empire, but without attending the Imperial Diet and while paying taxes to Sweden. [Ed.]

[33 ]The city of Hildesheim was Catholic, while the surrounding territory, administered from Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was Lutheran.

[c ]Rather: experience a change in government

[34 ]See notes 19 and 27 in this chapter.

[35 ]Erfurt, which is located in Thüringen, was conquered by troops of the archbishop of Mainz in 1664.

[d ]Rather: regretful that they did not assist the

[a ]E.p.: but that have now been brought under the dominion of princes, so that only Hamburg and Bremen, in particular, remain of their number. Hamburg, the richest city in all of Germany, is claimed by the dukes of Holstein, who assert that it is located in their territory. However, this claim has been rebuffed until now by means of contrary legal grounds [juribus] and by strong fortifications, with the support of Hamburg’s neighbors, who have never been so mad as to allow the Danish king to control so rich a prize, which would gravely burden both upper and lower Saxony. The same reason prevents the princes along the Weser from allowing the Swedes to control Bremen.

[36 ]See note 25 in this chapter.

[b ]Rather: , taken altogether, the

[37 ]In German, Ritterhauptleute and Ritterräte.

[c ]Rather: so that they can cast a vote or two there

[a ]Rather: by our Most Holy Father’s example / Bohun’s translation reduces the sarcasm and Pufendorf’s constant insinuation that the popes cared only for wealth and worldly power rather than spirituality. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: ability to consume in leisure a rich income that has been acquired without any

[c ]That is, they are remunerated [venales] for their services. [Ed.]

[d ]Rather: I have yet to see anyone who has castrated himself for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, and the gift of continence is [considered] as shameful in a nobleman [knight] as not to enjoy dogs and horses

[e ]Rather: On the other hand, [I have heard] others say openly that

[f ]Rather: contribute little to the strength of great empires

[38 ]Pufendorf’s point is that since the majority of knights resided in the Rhenish, Franconian, and Swabian circles of the empire, those princes would benefit most from a corrosion of the knights’ position; and this would surely be opposed by the other princes unless social unrest leveled the playing field or the knights’ privileges were lost piecemeal over time (Monzambano, Über die Verfassung, trans. Breßlau, 54, note 1).

[a ]E.p.: was divided into ten regions or circles, as they are commonly called, by the appointment of Maximilian I in the year 1500, when six were initially designated, with four more added in the year 1512

[39 ]The electorates of Mainz, Trier, Cologne, and the Palatinate jointly constituted the circle of the Lower Rhine, with the Upper Rhine, Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, and the rest being independent circles.

[b ]Rather: fused with it into one state [civitatem]

[c ]Rather: to convene Diets, which are usually called by the chief prince of that circle, and

[a ]Rather: to the dismemberment of Germany, in that the evils afflicting one circle have less of an impact on the rest