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CHAPTER III: Of the Origine of the States of the Empire, and by what degrees [ stages ] they arrived to that Power they now have. - Samuel von Pufendorf, The Present State of Germany [1696]

Edition used:

The Present State of Germany, trans. Edmund Bohun, edited and with an Introduction by Michael J. Seidler (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


CHAPTER III

Of the Origine of the States of the Empire, and by what degrees [stages] they arrived to that Power they now have.

1. For the attaining an accurate knowledge of the German Empire, it is absolutely necessary to enquire by what steps those that are called the States [Estates] of the Empire arrived to the Power they now possess; for without this it will not be possible to see what was the true cause that this State [the Empire] took such an irregular form.1 Now these States are Secular Princes, Earls, Bishops, and Cities, of the Rise of each of which we will discourse briefly.

The Secular Princes of, the Empire are either Dukes or Earls.The Secular Princes are Dukes or Earls [Counts, Grafen], who have to these Titles some other added {in the German Tongue}, viz.Pfaltzgrave, Landtgrave, Marggrave, and Burggrave; for to the best of my remembrance, none of the ancient Princes, except he of Anhalt, has the simple Stile of a Prince [princeps,Fürst], without one of these Additions; yet some of them use the Title of Prince amongst their other Titles. Thus they of Austria are stiled Princes of Schwaben; the Dukes of Pomerania (now under the King of Sweden) the Princes of Rugen [Rügen]; <the Marggraves of Brandenburg Princes of Halberstadt, Minden, and Cammin;> the Landtgrave of Hussia [Hessia] and Hersfield, &c. <51>

The old German Dukes military Officers, as2. Amongst the ancient Germans,2 before they were subdued by the Franks, a Duke [dux] was a meer Military Officer; as appeareth plainly by the German word Heerzog, who for the most part were chosen on the account of their Valour, when a War was coming upon them: In Times ofTheir Grevens or Earls were Judges in times of Peace. Peace, those that governed them, and exercised Jurisdiction, and governed their Cities, Districts, and Villages, were for the most part chosen out of the Nobility, and were called Greven, or Graven, which is as much as President [praeses], though the Latin word Comes is more often used for it; because from the time of Constantine the Great downward <paying no attention to the designation of previous times>, those who were employed in the Ministry or Service of the Court, in the command of the Forces dispersed in the several Provinces of the Empire, or in administring Justice and the execution of the Laws, were all stiled Comites. After this, when the Franks had subdued Germany [Alemannia], and were become Masters of all its Provinces, they, after the manner of the Romans, sent Dukes to govern the Provinces in it, that is, Presidents to govern them in Peace, and command their Forces in time of War: And to these they sometimes added Comites, for administring Justice; and some Provinces were put under Comites only, and had no Dukes; but then all these that were thus employed by them, were meer Magistrates; but in length of time, it came to pass,The Dukes and Earls made Officers for their Lives, and at last became hereditary Proprietors. that some persons were made Dukes for their <52> Lives, and the Son for the most part succeeded the Father: So that having so fair an opportunity in their hands, of establishing themselves, they began [gradually to have less respect for the authority of kings and] to look on their Provinces [entrusted to them] as their Patrimony and Inheritance.a

Nor can a Monarch commit a greater Error than the suffering these kinds of Administrations to become hereditary, especially where the Military Command is united to the Civil: And therefore I can scarce forbear laughing when I read this Custom, in some German Writers,3 defended, as commendable and prudent; for it is the Honour of a Prince to reward those who have deserved well of him: But then, if a Master should manumise all his Servants at once, I suppose he might, for the future, make clean his Shooes himself: A Father may be the fonder of a thing, because he knows he can leave it to his Son after him; but then the more passionately he loves his Son, the greater care he ought to [will] take, that a Stranger may claim as little Right as is possible to it. Thus we usually take more care of what is our own, than of what belongs to another:

But then a good Father [paterfamilias] will not give his Estatea to his Tenant, that he may use it so much the better. There is a cheaper way of preventing the Rebellions of Presidents, than that of granting Provinces to them, to be administred as an Inheritance. And ’tis a very silly thing to measure the Majesty of a Prince [ruler], by the number of those in his Dominions, who can with safety despise him and his Soveraignty. <53>

|[To say more were to no purpose; for to expose the Stupidity of these men, it will be sufficient for us to consider, that they are not ashamed to compare the German Lawyers with the Italian, French, and Spanish Writers; and yet the [abortive] Writings of the greatest part of them [the former] shew, they never understood the first Principles of civil Prudence.]|a

Charles the Great endeavoured to redress this error.3. Charles the Great observing the Error committed by his Ancestors, took away the greatest part of the Dukedoms, which were of too great extent; and dividing the larger Provinces into smaller parts, committed them to the care of Counts, Comites, or Earls, some of which retained the simple Name of Counts, and others were call’d Pfaltzgraves, or Pfaltzgraven,Comites Palatini, Count Palatins, or Prefects of the Court-Royal,4 and in that capacity administred Justice within the [Verge of the]b Court. Others were call’d Landtgraves, that is, Presidents set over a whole Province. Others were call’d Marggraves,Presidents of the Marches or Borders, for repelling the Incursions of Enemies, and administring Justice to the Inhabitants. Others were called Burggraves, that is, Prefects or Governours of some of the Royal Castles or Forts.

And these Offices and Dignities were not granted by Charles the Great, in Perpetuity or Inheritance, but with a Power reserved to himself, to renew his Grants to the same person, or bestow them on another, as he thought fit.

But his Posterity returned to the former ill management.But after <54> the Death of Charles the Great, his Posterity returned to the Errors of the former Reigns, and not only the Sons were suffered to succeed their Fathers in these Magistracies [or Governments]+, but by a conjunction or union of many Counties or Earldoms, or by the Will of some of his Successors, some Dukedoms were again formed, which contained great Extents of Lands. The Presidents employed by them in the Government of these Provinces, thought it a piece of Cowardice and Sloth in themselves not to take hold of these occasions and opportunities of establishing themselves and their Posterities, (as the nature of Mankind is prone to Ambition) especially when the Authority of the French Emperors declined, and became every day more contemptible [diminished], [and their power fragmented] by reason of their intestine Dissentions and destructive Wars with one another. And in the first place,Otho Duke of Saxony, a King in Fact, though not in Title.Otho Duke of Saxony, the Father of Henry the Falconer, having under him a large and a warlike Nation, so established himself, that he wanted nothing but the Title to make him a King: And when Conrad I. Emperor of Germany, undertook to subdue and bring under Henry his [Otho’s] Son, he miscarried in the Attempt, and at his Death he advised the Nobility [proceres] to bestow the Imperial Dignity on this his prosperous Rival, thinking it the wisest course to give him what he could have taken by force, for fear he should canton himself, and disjoin his Dominions from the rest of Germany.5 <55>

Other Princes raised to this Dignity by the Emperors.There are yet some Princes, who owe their Dominions to the Liberality of some of the Emperors; Examples of which occurr frequently in the Histories of the Otho’s; and whether this is consistent with the Laws of Monarchy, I am not now at leisure to enquire. After these Beginnings or Foundations [Imperial donations], Princes encreased their Power afterwards byOthers by Purchace, Inheritance, or Usurpation. Purchaces, [and] by Hereditary Descents, not only in the Right of Blood; but also by mutual Pacts of Succession, which the Germans call, Confraternal Inheritances or Successions, which are of the same nature with that League between the potent Houses of Saxony, Brandenburg, and Hassia, which is now in force: And by vertue of such a League, the Dukes of Saxony obtained the Earldom of Henneberg, and the House of Brandenburg the Right of Pomerania, {though that [latter] League was not reciprocal}6 EPV>; and yet it is apparent, these Leagues are injurious to the Emperor, who has the Right of a Lord over the Dominions of the Princes [tanquam Dominus feudi], and ought, upon a vacancy, to dispose of the Fee.]|a Lastly, Some Estates [Domains] have been seized by force, by some of them [the Princes], when Germany was involved in Wars and Disturbances.

In after times these Powers were confirmed by the Emperors.4. But then, in after times, when it appeared, that the Power which these Princes had once gotten, could not be dissolved without distracting [disturbing] all Germany, and perhaps not so neither, without hazarding the Ruin of him that should attempt it, it seemed better to the succeeding Kings, especially <56> after they saw they could not obtain the Empire without it, to confirm their Possession; so that from thenceforth they enjoyed their Territories as Fees [fiefs, feuda], acknowledged to depend on the Emperor, and swore Allegiance to him and the Empire.

|[From hence it is, that by what means soever the Princes got their Estates [opes], they now hold them as Fees of the Empire]|:b Yet the name of Vassal has not deprived these Princes of any considerable part of their Power and Grandeur [recognition]. For, if I grant a man any part of my Estate, to be holden of me as a Fee, though I put him thereby into a full possession, yet I [make him my Subject],a and I, as the Lord of the Fee, may prescribe what Laws or Conditions I please to the possession of what I thus grant: But then [on the other hand], he who consenteth to acknowledge what he already hath, to be a Fee holden of the Party thus consented to, is supposed only to own the Lord of the Fee as a superiour Confederate in an unequal League, and so [his own obligation gladly] to respect his Majesty and reverence his Dignity.7

Upon the failing of the Line of Charles the Great, Germany was perfectly Free.The Line of Charles the Great failing, Germany became perfectly free, and many of the Nobility, before that time, had acquired to themselves great Dominions. When therefore it was thought fit to give the Regal Title to some one Person chosen out of the Nobility, that Germany might not return into her ancient weak, defenceless state, by being broken into small Governments: It is not to be thought, that the Princes were willing to <57> cast away their Dominions [opes], or to submit them to the Absolute Dominion of another; but rather to seek a strong Protector [or Defender of their Rights]+<, and to tie themselves to a great state [reipublicae] through a bond that was by no means productive of the condition of a simple citizen>. Thus the State [status] of these Princes being once introduced and confirmed, it was fit that those who were afterwards exalted to that Dignity by the Emperors, in the stead of any Families that happened to be extinguished, should also be advanced to the same state of Freedom and Power with the ancient Princes.

And in the mean time, those that are well versed in Civil Prudence [scientia civilis], or Politicks, will easily acknowledge, that this Feudal Obligation [tie] of the Princes to the Emperor, only made them unequal Allies or Confederates, and not Subjects, properly so called. For it is inconsistent with the Person or Notion of aThe Princes of Germany not Subjects, but Allies to the Emperor. Subject to exercise a Power of Life and Death over all those that are in his Dominions, or to appoint Magistrates as he thinks fit, to make Leagues, and levy Moneys to his own use, without being accountable for the same to the Royal Treasury, or [giving to it any more than he himself shall think fit].a But then, to force an Ally by [means of] the rest of the Confederates, who offends [grossly] against the Rules of the League, is very usual in all such cases, and there are many Examples of it both in ancient and modern Story [History]. But to acknowledge the Emperor to be the sole Judge of the Cases for which a Prince may deserve to be deprived of his Dominions, as it would pull up the Foundations of the Power of German <58> Princes, so those who have alwaies [fiercely] opposed the Emperors that have attempted at any time to do it, have thought it a slavish and base Respect or Reverence to him, to betray their Rights so far, as to suffer him to do it.

Great Emperors are well obeyed, the weaker are despised.5. From thenceforward, as it has ever happened in |[all Empires]|b where the Power of the Subject has been formidable to the Soveraign, so more signally has it happened in Germany, viz. “That when they [the Germans] had Emperors of great Wealth, or very much Reverence, on the Score of their eminent Virtues, the Princes were most obsequiously subject to them; but when they have had weak or unactive Emperors, they [the Emperors] have had only a precariousc Command over them [the Princes].” And those Emperors again who have endeavour’d to pluck up this so deeply rooted Power of the Princes, and to reduce Germany into the condition [to bring Germany back under the laws] of a true Monarchy or Kingdom, have sometimes pull’d Ruin down upon themselves, and have ever failed of their hopes, and gained nothing by it, but the disquieting themselves and others. Nor have those that endeavoured to do it by Craft made any progress, because some or other have found out the Design, and disappointed it; and if any thing were gained from the Princes at any time [in] one way, it was lost [in] another. Thus it is [well] known to all men, what ill Successes, in the last Age, attended the Attempts of Charles V. and[, in ours, of] Ferdinand II.

Yet Luxury,(ii) Sloth, and Prodigality have <59> wonderfully [notably] weakened some of the Princes, because they took no care to augment or keep what they had. And several of the Families are also weakened by dividing their Patrimony and Dominions amongst their Brethren and Kindred:a And some, without any fault of theirs, have been ruined by the Calamities of the Civil Wars.

The election of the Bishops.6. I must in the next place speak something of the Bishops too. Now it is certain, that in the first times of Christianity the Bishops were elected and constituted by the [remaining] Clergy and the Faithful People; afterwards, about the IV. Century, when Princes embraced the Christian Religion, a Custom was taken up by them [by those with supreme authority over states] of not [easily] suffering any person to be made a Bishop without their Consent, because they very well understood, that it tended very much to the preservation of the publick Peace, to have good and peaceable men in that eminent Office.8 The Kings of the Franks took up the same Custom [exercised the same right (ius)], and would suffer none to be made Bishops in their Kingdom, but such as they approved of. And the Emperors of Germany continued the same Right [claimed the same power (potestas)] till the Reign of Henry the Fourth: Gregory the Seventh began a [strange] Quarrel against this Prince on that Score, which was carried on by his Successors, against the succeeding Emperors; till at length his Son Henry V. weary of the Broils this Controversie had occasion’d, in the Diet of Worms, in the year 1122,Renounced by the Emperor. renounced this <60> Imperial Priviledge [ius] of constituting and investing the Bishops[, which was formerly done by handing over a ring and a staff]; but yet the Emperor had still the Right [potestas] of delivering to [conferring on] the elected Bishop the Regalia and [Imperial] Fees, by the [ritual] delivery of a Crosier [sceptrum].9

Now it is not easie [difficult] to conceive what the Emperor lost by the yielding this great point; for though his power before over the Secular Princes was not great, yet as long as the Church was [priests were] subject to him, he could easily equal, or, if need was, overrule their Forces. In the Agreement between the Pope and Henry the Fifth, the Election of the Bishops was setled in the Clergy and People jointly, yet afterwards the Canons of the Cathedral Churches began to claim the sole power of chusing them, the Pope conniving at this their Usurpation [no doubt with the silent acquiescence of the Pope], it being more for his Interest to have this Affair in a few hands, than in many. At length things came to this: That the Confirmation of the new elected Bishop was to be sought [by cathedral chapters] from Rome, whereas this, as well as the Consecration before, [since this, as well as the Consecration, had earlier] belonged to the Metropolitan.a But then, the Examples of Men, provided beforehand with Bishopricks, by the power of the Pope, was |[very rare in Germany]|,b and I suppose the reason was, because the Chapters would scarce have submitted patiently to [acknowledged] a Bishop, so obtruded on them [(though it was practis’d frequently in other Countries)]+<, unless internal turmoils did not allow any opposition>.

The Bishopricks of Germany endowed by the Emperors.7. The Bishops of Germany are indebted to the Liberality of the first Emperors, for all those Provinces and great Revenues <61> they now enjoy; a fervent Piety and Zeal in those times ruling in the minds of Princes, because they thought the more they gave to the Church, the more they united themselves to God. Which Opinion is much abated in our times, because many now (how truly I know not) have taken up another, contrary to it, viz. That over [too] great Wealth, bestowed on Church men, tends rather to the extinguishing than nourishing of Piety and Religion. [The Church-men also of those early times seem to have had the Grace of asking, without fear, whatever might seem convenient for the allaying the Hardships of their Profession].c Thus the Bishops and Churches obtained of these good Princes not only Farms, Tithes,10 and Rents [other incomes], but also whole Lordships, Counties [Earldoms], Dukedoms, with all the Regalia’s or Royalties [royal rights] annexed to them, so that they became equal in all things to the Temporal Princes. But then, in truth, they obtained the Degree of Princes but [most of them were elevated even to princely rank] in the times of the Otho’s, and those that followed;11 and [but] they got not the Regalia all at once, but by little and little, some at one time, and some at another: And from thence it comes, that some of the Bishops have not yet got them all, and others have them under the restraint of certain Limitations.

There were two other things contributed very much to the acquiring all these great Riches and Honours for the Church [to their ascent to such dignities]. 1. That many of the Nobility in those times took Orders, and became Church-men; and, 2. That all the little <62> Learning those barbarous Ages had, was in the Clergy. This [early on] occasion’d the calling the Bishops to Court, to give their Advice, and the employing them as Judges and Governours in the Provinces, because these things [and the putting them in charge of those offices that] cannot be well perform’d without some Learning. [And this was the true reason why the Office of Chancellor was at first annexed to the principal Bishops Sees].a

I do also believe, that the Riches of the Church were very much improved by many Princes and Noblemen, who [voluntarily] resigned their Estates, or a part of them, to the Bishops, and took them again as Fees from them, that they might so oblige them to take the more care in recommending them, and their Salvation, to God in their Prayers, and as their Families afterwards were extinguished, their Estates were united to the Bishopricks. [Finally] Who knows not also what vast Additions have been since made [to the clergy’s riches] by the [gifts and] Wills of Dying Men[, both nobles and plebeians], [when a Nation that is naturally afraid of Heat and Thirst, saw they must buy off the Roasting in Purgatory, by that means which they feared above all men?]b

When they became very rich, they would not be subject to their Benefactors.8. The Church-men might have been well contented with their Condition in Germany, though they had neither abjured Ambition nor Avarice [entirely]: But then, as they of all men are [most] desirous to have others under them, so they could least endure to see others above them, and therefore thought this [one thing] was still wanting to perfect their Happiness in this World, because they were <63> still forced to receive all they had [such fine benefices] from the Emperor, and consequently were forced to live in a [special] dependence on him. If the Reverence I owe that most Sacred Order of Men, did not restrain me, I should say, they were the worst of men, who, as the event shews, abused the Imprudent Liberality of the Emperors, to the Ruin of that [Majesty and Power that had raised and enriched, dignified and ennobled them].a Certainly, he is not worthy of Liberty, who is not willing to own his Manumissor for his Patron [and Master]+.12 That therefore this Tribe of Levites [Sacerdotum natio] might wholly free themselves from the Subjection of [to] the Laicks, the German Bishops strenuously solicited the Pope to send abroad his Vatican Thunders [threats of excommunication], and raised plenty of Commotions in the Empire, to second [assist] them, by both which they at last gained their Point: For the Archbishop of Mentz led the way, and the rest of the Flock followed him faithfully, and would never suffer their Prince to have any rest, till he would permit them to depend on no body but the Pope.

This, as many think, brought a signal Mischief [very grave illness] on the German State, viz. The having so many of its Members [citizens] acknowledge a Foreign Head, unless we can think the Pope was so fondly [fatally] in love with Germany, that he desired nothing more than its Preservation, and that they at Rome knew better what was for the Good of Germany, than the very Germans themselves did. <64>

Of the Free Cities.9. It remains now, that we say something of the Free Cities. Germany, till the V. Century after Christ, had nothing but Villages, without Walls, or dispersed Houses, in all that part of it which lies to the East and North of the Rhine:a Even in the IX. Century, there is only mention made [of a City or two in that part which borders on the State of Venice]:b But then there were many Cities built by the Romans, much more earlily [sic] in that part which lies on the French side of the Rhine, of which the Romans were possess’d; as also between the Danube and the Alps, which belonged then to them, but was afterwards a part of Germany.

Why the Germans of old had no Cities.The reason why in those ancient Times they had no Cities, was first, because the old Germans had no skill in Architecture; which Ignorance still appears in many places of this Country; and secondly, The Fierceness of the Nation, which made them averse to these kinds of Habitations [Places], as a sort of Prisons [Cloisters]; and also, thirdly, Because the Nobility placed their greatest Pleasure in Hunting, and therefore neither knew nor much valued the Conveniencies of having Cities and great Towns. Their Dyet [diet] then was very mean, their Furniture and Clothes [Equipment] cheap, and they neither knew nor regarded [valued] the Superfluous Effects of Wealth or Luxury; but after their Minds were civiliz’d and softned by Christianity, they began, by degrees, to affect the elegant way of living; the love of Riches, and a studied Luxury followed, and was brought <65> in from abroad, both which are nourished by great Cities [greatly nourished by Cities]:

The Princes also having amass’d great Riches, took a Pride in building Cities, and invited the Rusticks of Germany, and the Inhabitants of other Nations, to settle in them, by the Grant of large Priviledges, especially after the Christian Religion had abolished [or mitigated] Villenage or Slavery [Servitude], and the Liberti or Freemen had no Lands to subsist on, they flew by Flocks to the Cities, and betook themselves to Manufactures and [or] Trading. The Irruption of the Hungarians forced Henry the Falconer to build many Cities and strong Holds in Saxony, and he made every ninth man [ingenuus, free-born] be drawn out of the Country to inhabit them:

The Leagues afterwards between the Cities, for their mutual Defence and Trade, gave them great Security, and by consequence made them populous and rich. The principal of these Leagues is that made by the Cities on the Rhine, in the year 1255, in which some Princes desired to be included: The Hanse League was chiefly made on the account of Maritime Commerce, and grew to that height of Power, that they became terrible [formidable] to the Kings of Sweden, England, and Denmark.13 But then, after the year 1500. it became contemptible [almost completely collapsed], because the lesser Cities, when they found the greater got all the profit, fell generally off, and deserted them. And the [other] Nations [gentes] upon the Ocean and Baltick Sea, by their example, began, about the same time also, to encourage Trade in their own Subjects [increase their commercial activities], especially <66> the [(English)]+Flandrians14 and Hollanders. Thus their Monopoly failing, their Strength fell with it.

Cities at [sic] subject to Kings or Emperors of Germany.10. Though in the beginning the Cities were in a better condition than the Villages, yet they were no less subject to the King or Emperor than they, and these Princes took care to have Justice exercised in them by their Counts or deputed Judges [royal emissaries], as they call’d them. After this, by the enormous and imprudent Liberality of the Emperors, many of the Cities were granted to the Bishops, others to the Dukes and Counts, and the rest remained (as before) only subject to the Emperor. In the XII. Century they began to take more liberty, as they found they could relie upon their Riches, because the Emperors, by reason of the Intestin Wars [internal disorders], were not able then to reduce them to a due Obedience; some Princes were but just advanced to the Imperial Dignity, and so were forced also to purchase the Favour and Assistance of the great Cities, by the [voluntary] Grants of new Priviledges and Immunities, that they might employ them as a Bulwark against their Refractory Bishops and Princes; after this, by degrees they shaked off the Emperor’s Advocates [and officials]. The succeeding Emperors observing also, that the Bishops employed their Wealth against them, encouraged the [their chief] Cities to oppose the Bishops [by bestowing privileges on them]. The Dukes of Schwaben failing [dying out], many small [insignificant] Cities in the Dukedom catched hastily at the opportunity of being made free.

[Y]et they [those cities] did not obtain <67> their Freedom all at once, but one after another, as they could gain [an opportunity and] the Favour of the Emperor; and that is one Reason that they have not all the same Priviledges [rights], and some of them want a part of the Regalia to this day. [Some of them bought these Priviledges of their Dukes or Bishops, and others shook them off by force, and then entred into Treaties for the purging that Iniquity].a For when these Princes were poor or low, their last Remedy was, to sell the richest of their Subjects their Liberty; [and others, when they saw they could no longer keep them in subjection, took what they could get from them, and were unwillingly contented with it].b <68>

[1 ]This is the first mention of the empire’s irregular (or monstrous) form; see VI.9.

[2 ]According to Breßlau, Pufendorf errs in referring the Frankish title of Grafen (earls, counts) to pre-Frankish times, when Fürsten (principes) were in charge of the various municipalities (Monzambano, Über die Verfassung, trans. Breßlau, 54, note 1).

[a ]Thus, dux = Herzog = duke, comes = Graf = earl or count, princeps = Fürst = prince, and baronus = Freiherr = baron. [Ed.]

[3 ]Thomasius (Severini, ed. Thomasius, 259–60, note o) refers here to Johann Nicolaus Myler ab Ehrenbach (1610–77), whose De statibus Imperii eorumque jure (1640) was later expanded into Delineatio de Principum et Statuum I[mperii] R[omani] G[ermanorum] praecipuis juribus (1656) and widely used in the education of young princes.

[a ]Here, feudum; but e.p.: fundum (Grundstück, plot of land). Salomon insists on fundum (Severinus, ed. Salomon, 68, note 1), and Denzer silently inserts the same (Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, ed. Denzer, 1994, 86). Still, the original and subsequent Latin editions have feudum, and the earliest German translations, in 1667 and 1669, speak of Lehen; see Salomon, “Literaturverzeichnis,” 15, nos. 20–21, and Severinus, ed. Salomon, 68, note 1. [Ed.]

[a ]E.p.: Moreover, though no one who cares about preserving the character of a kingdom [i.e., the empire’s] voluntarily introduces such a situation, what we have said does not mean that a state [respublica] where it has already become accepted is entirely to be condemned, or that an established custom which has acquired the force of public law should be violently uprooted. / This is a good example of Pufendorf’s pragmatism, and of how the editio posthuma was tempered to reflect the new situation in Europe in the 1690s, when the emperor was allied with various Protestant states against Catholic France. [Ed.]

[4 ]A Pfaltz (from palatium, itself derived from the Palatine Hill in ancient Rome, the city sector established by Romulus where Augustus and other emperors later resided) was a royal or imperial palace.

[b ]Rather: royal / A “verge” (in England) was a certain area or jurisdiction. [Ed.]

[5 ]Otto became duke of Saxony in 880. His son, Henry (the Falconer), succeeded as duke in 912 and became king of the eastern (i.e., German) realm of the Franks in 919, after the death of Conrad I, duke of Franconia and king of the German Empire (r. 911–918). Conrad, on his deathbed, had persuaded his brother, Eberhard, to cede the crown to Henry, an action confirmed at the Diet of 919.

[6 ]According to the Treaty of Grimnitz (1529), Pomerania should have gone to Brandenburg when its ruling house died out in 1637. Yet the Treaty of Osnabrück (1648) assigned Western Pomerania to the Swedes, leaving Brandenburg with limited control over Eastern Pomerania. Even after the Swedes were driven out in 1678, Brandenburg was forced in the Treaty of St. Germain (1679) by France, then still an ally of Sweden, to return its recent Pomeranian gains. It did not gain formal control over the region until 1720, at the end of the Nordic War.

[a ]E.p.: . And yet since the Emperor’s power over the territories of princes, which he has as feudal lord, is clearly made illusory by such agreements, in that such consolidations can be continued indefinitely, they are not valid without his ratification, nor are they easily consented to by him and by the remaining Estates at times when the state is calm.

[b ]E.p.: Hence it came to be that any territories thereafter bestowed on Princes by the Emperors were accepted under the designation of a fief / The e.p. version is less sweeping. [Ed.]

[a ]Rather: can make him a complete subject, albeit an honorary one

[7 ]Pufendorf’s claim that the German princes had given their territories to the emperor and then received them back as fiefs (feuda oblata) was very controversial and, in fact, historically inaccurate. As he himself suggested in two letters to Christian Thomasius (June 9, 1688; April 9, 1692), it was more of an explanatory hypothesis than an established historical fact. See Pufendorf, Briefwechsel, letters 137 (p. 195) and 218 (p. 340), and Döring’s note 7 on page 196. Thomasius, who had written a dissertation (De feudis oblatis, 1687) on the topic, also returned to it in his annotated edition; see Severini, ed. Thomasius, 274–77. As is evident in the passage at hand, Pufendorf’s claim was vital to his characterization of the empire as an unequal confederacy rather than a genuine state ruled by sovereign authority. See VI.9.

[a ]Rather: to render no service to which he has not freely consented

[b ]E.p.: proper kingdoms [justis regnis]

[c ]Not merely insecure but also dependent on the agreement, cooperation, or pleasure of others (cf. the Latin precor: to ask, pray for, beg, implore). This meaning is important in view of Pufendorf’s notion of effective sovereignty. See V.1–9 and On the Law of Nature and of Nations, VII.4. [Ed.]

[(ii) ]Luxury has impoverished some of the Princes.

[a ]That is, cognatos, vs. agnatos (in the e.p.). / The latter is more specific and refers not merely to blood relations but to those in the male line subject to the power of a paterfamilias. According to agnatic succession (also called Salic Law), the first-born male descendant of a line succeeds, no matter what rank; it essentially excludes female succession. See Bretone, Geschichte des Römischen Rechts, 74–75. [Ed.]

[8 ]Pufendorf, Of the Nature and Qualification of Religion, §§6–7, pp. 18–21, and §§44–45, pp. 96–99, grants sovereigns certain rights and responsibilities toward the church as a civil institution, though not in the determination of religious doctrine as such. As heads of state, sovereigns have a right of “general inspection” over the churches in their territories and, as the chief members of a particular religion, a shared right to appoint its ministers. Proper inspection entails ensuring that clergy do not abuse their spiritual powers in nonspiritual ways and thereby undermine secular authorities and disrupt the state. Also see VIII.7, pp. 228–29, and note 14.

[9 ]This refers to the famous Investiture Controversy (1075–77) between Emperor Henry IV (1050–1106) and Pope Gregory VII (1020–85). Henry V (1081–1125) forced his father to abdicate in 1105, reopened the controversy (even setting up an antipope), and secured a compromise in the so-called Concordance of Worms (1122) or Pactum Calixtinum (after Pope Calistus II, r. 1119–24), whereby the pope invested bishops and abbots with their spiritual rights (symbolized by ring and crozier) while the emperor gave them their secular powers.

[a ]The “archbishop of the mother-city” (i.e., Rome). [Ed.]

[b ]E.p.: more rare in Germany than before

[c ]Rather: Many Church-men seem also to have had the nerve of asking those upright men [i.e., rulers], without any hesitation, for whatever appeared capable of allaying of the harshness of their profession / That is, they took advantage of lay rulers, who hoped to mitigate the clergy’s religious rigor by meeting their other demands. [Ed.]

[10 ]The decima was a tithe of ten percent originally levied by kings (with the pope’s permission) on the clergy during the Crusades but then expanded to other purposes (Haberkern and Wallach, Hilfswörterbuch für Historiker, 1:140).

[11 ]The Saxon line of the so-called Ottonen began with reign of Henry I (the Falconer) in 919–36 and ended with that of Henry II (the Pious) in 1002–24.

[a ]Rather: Hence the chief bishops are still distinguished by the rank of chancellor

[b ]Rather: since they deem the burns of Purgatory—which a nation otherwise averse to thirst and heat finds strangely fearful—as something to be avoided at any price. / Probably a reference to the sale of indulgences in Germany during the previous century, a practice famously challenged by Luther. [Ed.]

[a ]Rather: Imperial position

[12 ]A reference to the ancient Roman practice—eventually banned by the lex furia caninia (ca. 7 )—of manumitting slaves (especially in one’s will) in order to augment the gratitude and honor they were obligated to show their liberator (Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, trans. Dove, 139, note 11).

[a ]transrhenana; e.p.: cisrhenana / As before, the e.p. consistently exchanges trans- and cis- (this side, near side) because Pufendorf is then speaking as a German rather than as an Italian. See pp. 25, note a; 26, note 8; and 32, note b. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: among the Venetians of a City or two

[13 ]The League of the Rhine was founded in 1254 (see Verfassung des deutschen Reiches, ed. Denzer, 1994, 101, note 5), while the Hanse in the North and Baltic Seas was formally organized around 1356.

[14 ]An area of Belgium bordering on the North Sea, Flanders was noted in the medieval period for its textiles. It had close commercial ties with England, from which it imported wool, and which supported the struggle of its powerful counts to be independent of France. This led to the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453).

[a ]Rather: Finally, some cities acquired what right over them belonged to Emperor, Dukes, or Bishops by means of sale, exchange, or some other legal title; others shook it loose by violence and later legalized the injustice of their title by means of a subsequent settlement / The first Latin edition included the emperors, though the e.p., like Bohun (who translates the first edition), omitted them. [Ed.]

[b ]Rather: or when they saw that they could no longer take from them what they had already seized for themselves, they deemed it advantageous to be content with the modest return they received for it