his imperial majesty's letter to the pope wherein is offered his reasons why he cannot accept of any offers of peace with france / translated from the original. holy roman empire. emperor (1658-1705 : leopold i) 1692 approx. 5 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). b03987 wing l1112 estc r179455 52614743 ocm 52614743 175937 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. b03987) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 175937) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2755:27) his imperial majesty's letter to the pope wherein is offered his reasons why he cannot accept of any offers of peace with france / translated from the original. holy roman empire. emperor (1658-1705 : leopold i) leopold i, holy roman emperor, 1640-1705. catholic church pope (1689-1691 : alexander viii). 1 sheet ([2] p.) re-printed by the heir of andrew anderson ..., edinburgh, : 1692. caption title. imprint from colophon. dated at end: vienna, jan. 30, 1691. reproduction of original in: national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng grand alliance, war of the, 1689-1697 -sources. germany -foreign relations -france -early works to 1800. france -foreign relations -germany -early works to 1800. broadsides -edinburgh -17th century. 2008-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-08 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-09 megan marion sampled and proofread 2008-09 megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion his imperial majesty's letter to the pope ; wherein is offered , his reasons why he cannot accept of any offers of peace with france . translated from the original . most holy father , what deep and sorrowful impressions the great calamities and miseries of the present war , which all christendom groans under , have made on your mind , as also the great and special care your holiness takes to reconcile the exasperated minds of all christian princes , in order to the promoting of an universal peace , has been given us to understand at large by your holiness letter , from the 8th of the last month. and truly the great and increasing mischiefs , attending a war that has been rais'd under so frivolous pretences , moves no less ours , than your holiness fatherly heart . yet since we did not take up arms till we were forc'd to it by an unavoidable necessity , we have this consolation left us , that ( calling god and our conscience to witness ) we are wholly free from the cause of it : besides your holiness , by a long and solid experience , is so well acquainted with the remotest inclinations of our heart , that you 'll easily conceive , that we can suffer nothing with more uneasiness and impatience , than to see the effects of a natural tendency to peace and quietness , obstructed by the ambitious and envious endeavours of france . as yet no obligations , promises , no not the most sacred oaths could prevail with that crown to keep it from the breaking of the most solemn treaties as soon as they were made , for to pass over all the rest , the christian world knows it ; and future ages will relate it with astonishment , that the most christian king has caused himself to be seduced so far , as to obstruct the glorious course of our victorious arms over the infidels ; and when we were relying on his friendship , but so lately renewed , and consequently not at all standing on our guards , to invade us upon a sudden the second time with his hostile arms , putting all to the fire and sword , before he had acquainted us with his having the cause for it , and indeed , all divine and humane laws are violated , rather than france should let slip any occasion of enlarging her frontiers , or to hinder us from the securing of ours , and to deprive us and christendom of all means to end the war with the turks with success and advantage . thus have we been obliged by the most sacred ty of our high office , by reason of that most ignominious league between the most christian king , and the sworn enemy of the christian name , to unite our selves with our friends and confederates against france , to the defence of us and our people ; which union and confederacy is of so high a nature , that we can do nothing towards the conclusion of a peace , without their advice and counsel . but since we are wholly convinc'd that their inclinations are no less tending than ours to such a peace , by which all christendom , according to the wesphalian and pyrenean treaty ( since violated by france ) may be restor'd to its former quietness and tranquillity , all will be reduced to this point , that your holiness will be pleased to employ to the outmost , your fatherly care to prevail with the french king as the sole author of this war , to restore both the abovementioned treaties , which he himself has broke . in case your holiness can obtain from him these so just demands , there shall be wanting nothing on our side to render effectual this so holy design of your holiness , tending to the good of christendom , and your proffered fatherly service for the promoting of a general reconciliation , so acceptable to us , and so much wish'd for by all the rest of our confederates . this we have thought fit to reply to your holiness's letter , according to our zeal for your person , praying god almighty long to preserve your holiness to the benefit of us and the church . vienna , jan. 30. 169● . edinburgh , re-printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to their most excellent majesties , 1692. reasons humbly offered for encouraging his majesties natural born subjects to export the woollen manufactures of this realm to germany company of merchant adventurers of england. 1695 approx. 5 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a92249 wing r537a estc r224884 36273464 ocm 36273464 150198 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a92249) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 150198) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2236:14) reasons humbly offered for encouraging his majesties natural born subjects to export the woollen manufactures of this realm to germany company of merchant adventurers of england. england and wales. parliament. house of commons. 1 sheet ([1] p.). s.n., [s.l. : 1695?] date of printing from wing (2nd ed.). offered for consideration by the house of commons. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng company of merchant adventurers of england. wool industry -great britain -early works to 1800. great britain -commerce -germany -early works to 1800. germany -commerce -great britain -early works to 1800. broadsides -london (england) -17th century. 2007-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-08 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-09 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2007-09 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion reasons humbly offered for encouraging his majesties natural born subjects , to export the woollen manufactures of this realm to germany . the securing and promoting of the trade of exporting the woollen manufactures to germany , so as may be most beneficial for the nation , is a matter of such importance , that it is hoped it may not be unworthy the consideration of the honourable house of commons , to whom it is humbly represented . that the supporting the ancient company of merchant-adventurers of england in the said trade , will be the most effectual means to conduce thereunto . for this company having first introduced the woollen manufactures into this kingdom , and been the sole exporters thereof , the same did flourish , under their government and conduct , in a regulated way of trade , for above two hundred and fifty years , until foreigners , in the reign of king charles the ii. were indulged , and admitted to become principals in exporting thereof ; since which , few or no english are concerned as principals in the trade for holland , but only employed as factors for the dutch. whereby the woollen manufactures have been falsified and debased , the clothiers marks altered and english merchants seals counterfeited . that foreigners , as soon as they can be accommodated , prefer their own natives , to be their factors , who , most of them , live obscurely , and bear no charge to the government . that the clothiers have had great losses by the foreigners becoming insolvent to a very considerable summe . that the laying open the said trade about the beginning of the reign of his present majesty , and the late queen of blessed memory , hath not had its designed effect , as is evident by the general complaint of the clothiers . that by the preserving and supporting of this company in their trade to germany , the following benefits will accrue , viz. the merchants profit will be secured to the nation , which will otherwise go to foreigners . the younger sons of the gentry may be employed in this trade abroad , whereas now the sons and servants of foreigners are , and will be employed here . the reputation of the woollen manufacture will be kept up , and the goods not suffered to be debased , or go out altogether unmanufactured , whereby a very great number of handicrafts men have of late been impoverished . the market abroad will be plentifully furnished with great quantities and choice of goods , as was formerly done . whereas by the laying open that trade , english men have been discouraged from keeping their magazines abroad so fully stored , whereby the market hath not been sufficiently supplied . the company 's priviledges at hamburgh , which are very honourable as well as advantageous to the nation , will be thereby preserved , which if once lost , will be irrecoverable . the customs at hamburgh , inwards and outwards , will , by the stipulations made with that city , be prevented from being raised , wherein the members of this company have greater priviledge , and pay much less then their own burgers ; but if the company is not supported , there is no doubt , but in a little time , the customs there on english commodities will be advanced , and consequently the consumption thereof will be lessened . the english navigation to those parts will be restored . whereas of late few or no english ships have been employed . foreigners will be prevented from becoming the sole masters of this trade , and having the absolute command of our markets , which can never be for the interest of england . and many other advantages will accrue to the nation thereby . there can be no restraint of trade , or want of buyers , by passing the bill now depending , since thereby all his majesties natural born subjects will be intituled to the freedom of this society , for as small a fine as the honourable house of commons shall think fit ; and every member , so coming in , may buy and sell as much as he pleases , every one trading for his own account . and many eminent merchants have declared their resolutions of coming into the company when it shall be established ; and the present members thereof have very considerable stocks ready to be imployed in this trade , when the bill is passed . wherefore , it is humbly hoped , that the said company may be supported in their trade directly to germany . and that a foreign interest may not be preferr'd in opposition to the true interest of england . articles of peace, ratiffied [sic] and confirmed between the king of denmark, and the house of lunenburgh. licensed, october the 17th. 1693 1693 approx. 6 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a79539 wing c3936aa estc r230181 99896214 99896214 153859 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a79539) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 153859) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2384:13) articles of peace, ratiffied [sic] and confirmed between the king of denmark, and the house of lunenburgh. licensed, october the 17th. 1693 christian v, king of denmark and norway, 1646-1699. hanover, ernest augustus, duke of, ca. 1660. 1 sheet ([2] p.) printed for r. hayhurst, in little britain, london : 1693. reproduction of original in the newberry library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng hanover, ernest augustus, -duke of, ca. 1660 -early works to 1800. christian -v, -king of denmark and norway, 1646-1699 -early works to 1800. germany -foreign relations -denmark -early works to 1800. denmark -foreign relations -germany -early works to 1800. broadsides -england 2008-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-08 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-10 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2008-10 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion articles of peace , ratiffied and confirmed between the king of denmark , and the house of lunenburgh . 19. oct. 1693 licenses , october the 17th . 1693. in the name of the holy trinity . be it known to all men by these presents , that the differences happened between his majesty the king of denmark , norway , vandals , gother , &c. on the one part , and the most illustrious house of brunzwich , lunenburgh , zell , and hannouer , &c. on the other ; upon account of the new fortifications , made at ratzeburgh , and of a considerable number of troops ; which having passed the elbe , have been put there in garrison by the said most illustrious house , have been at last admirably annimated in the manner following , by the intercession of his imperial majesty , of their majesties , the kings of sweden , and of great-britain ; of his electoral highness of brandenburgh , and of the high and mighty lords , the states-general of the united provinces : who , to prevent the troublesome consequences thereof , have interposed their good offices : and promised their general guarantee , and each of them in particular . i. that the antient amity and consience shall by the present treaty be renewed and re-established between his majesty , the king of denmark , and the most illustrious house of brunzwich , lunenburgh , and all that might have been done on the one side or other , upon the account of the above-mentioned differences , shall be intirely forgot . ii. the said most illustrious house , &c. declares , that she will demolish the fortifications , made as well within as without ratzeburgh , and that she will begin to cause work thereupon the next day , after the exchange of the ratiffications of the present treaty , and shall continue the same without intermission , and with such diligence , that they may be intirely demolished in three weeks at furthest . iii. the said most illustrious house , &c. further declares , that so soon as the said demolishing of ratzeburgh , shall be intirely perfected , she will withdraw all the troops she had put therein , into her own territories , and on the other side the elbe , except 200 men , which she may leave there , to keep the possession of the principality , which she reserves to her self , and to the whole above-mentioned most illustrious house of brunzwich , lunenburgh . iv. his danish majesty declares on the other hand , that after the exchange of the ratiffications of the said treaty , he will withdraw into his obedience all the troops that he has , as well before ratzhurgh , as in all the country of saxe , lauwenburgh , promising to begin the next day after the said exchange , and to evacuate in four days the said country of lauwenburgh , excepting only two regiments of cavalry , and six battalions of infantry , which shall remain with the artillery fourteen days at most , after the ratiffication , in case that these and the artillery cannot depart the said country sooner , on condition that the said two regiments of cavalry , and six battalions of infantry , can exact nothing of the country , except forrage only , and that his majesty shall cause , provide them with bread , and other things necessary for their subsistance : in the mean time , the going in and out shall be free at ratzeburgh , after signing the treaty , and the artillery shall be likewise removed from the post without delay , after the ratiffication , and transported half a league from the said ratzeburgh , where the troops that are to remain till the intire evacuation of the country ; which , as 't is already said , ought to be done in fourteen days at furthest , after the ratiffication , shall also subsist . v. it has been further agreed , that from the day of signing the treaty , all hostilities shall cease on both sides , and first on the part of his said majesty , no new impositions can be exacted nor imposed upon the country beyond the imposition , made and intimated in the month of august last . as also that the danish generals in their retreat , shall cause a good order and discipline to be kept , so that the contreveeners shall be punished according to the crime . vi. that his majesty shall not concern himself , nor imploy any interest in the affair of the succession of saxe , lauwenburgh , in opposition to the said most illustrious house of brunzwich , lunenburgh , and shall not trouble the same directly nor indirectly in the said house , but shall stand to the decision that shall be given by the appointed arbitrators . vii . and finally , that the above mentioned high and mighty mediators have promised to secure the present treaty , and faithfully to maintain the executors thereof . the rest contains the usual formality subscriptions of the parties , and of the mediators , the date , and the seals of the one , and the others ; with the acts of exchange of ratiffications , which we have not thought necessary here to relate . london , printed for r. hayhurst , in little-britain , 1693. to the right reuerend father in god, my verie good lord and brother, the lord bishop of london right reuerend father in god, my verie good lord, i haue receiued from his maiesty his princely letters, written in fauor of the inhabitants of the towne of wesell, the tenor whereof here ensueth. church of england. province of canterbury. archbishop (1611-1633 : abbot) 1618 approx. 5 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-07 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a22155 stc 8568 estc s3899 33151149 ocm 33151149 28959 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a22155) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 28959) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1875:92) to the right reuerend father in god, my verie good lord and brother, the lord bishop of london right reuerend father in god, my verie good lord, i haue receiued from his maiesty his princely letters, written in fauor of the inhabitants of the towne of wesell, the tenor whereof here ensueth. church of england. province of canterbury. archbishop (1611-1633 : abbot) abbot, george, 1562-1633. king, john, 1559?-1621. 1 sheet ([1] p.). by a. islip?, [london? : 1618] for collections to alleviate suffering caused by spanish occupation of that city, 7 june 1618. dated and signed at end: lambehith: iune 25. 1618. g. cant." undated recommendation from the bishop of london added at end. last complete line ends "re-". reproduction of original in: society of antiquaries. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -charitable contributions -early works to 1800. wesel (germany) -history -17th century. germany -history -1618-1648. great britain -history -james i, 1603-1625. broadsides -london (england) -17th century. 2003-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-04 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-05 john latta sampled and proofread 2003-05 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-06 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion to the right reuerend father in god , my verie good lord and brother , the lord bishop of london . right reuerend father in god , my verie good lord , i haue receiued from his maiesty his princely letters , written in fauour of the inhabitants of the towne of wesell ; the tenor whereof here ensueth . most reuerend father in god , right trustie and right-wel-beloued counsellor , wee greete you well . whereas the magistrates of the citie of wesell , scituate in the confines of germany , by their speciall messengers sent hither , haue represented vnto vs , that where heretofore for long continuance of time , their said citie hath beene a place of succour and retraite to many afflicted strangers , such as haue beene exiled for the profession of true religion , as well from this kingdome of england , as from other countries , are now fallen into great miseries and distresses , aswell by the continuall calamity and spoiles of the warre , which heretofore they haue endured , as more perticularly some foure yeares since , by the suddaine and wofull surprise of their citie by marques spinola , generall of the king of spaine his army , and euer since by the surcharge and oppression of a mightie garrison of almost foure thousand spaniards and other nations : by reason whereof the said citie is become so impouerished ( the welthier citizens hauing retired themselues from thence ) as they are not able any longer to sustaine the charge , neither of the ministerie , nor of the free-schoole , which heretofore they haue erected for the propagation of gods true religion : nor of the multitude of their poore people , which are by the calamities aforesaid infinitely encreased of late , without the beneuolent assistance of others ; and to that end hauing humbly besought vs for a charitable contribution to be leuied amongst our subiects : we in tender commiseration of their distressed estate , and in gratitude for the benefits which heretofore they haue affoorded to others , when god enlarged them with meanes and occasion , are gratiously pleased to grant their request . wherefore we doe require and hereby authorise you to write your letters to the seuerall bishops of the diocesses in your prouince , that they doe giue order to the ministers and other zealous men of their diocesses , both by their owne example in contribution , and by exhortation to others , to dispose our welbeloued subiects in their seuerall charges to a charitable and bountifull contribution towards their reliefe . and for the better aduancing thereof , our pleasure is that those collections made in the particular parishes , be returned to the bishops of the diocesses , and by them transmitted to such persons , as by the aduise and nomination of the said messengers you shall thinke conuenient to appoint . giuen vnder our signet at our mannor of greenewich , the seuenth day of iune in the 16 yeare of our reigne of england , france and ireland , and of scotland the 51. hereby it appeareth that god hath beene pleased so farre to trie the faith and patience of these his children , as that they who formerly gaue reliefe vnto others , yea to diuers of our countrimen in the time of persecution vnder queene mary , are now constrained to seeke reliefe of others , which should incite vs to inlarge the bowells of our compassion towards them , taking knowledge of god his mercy the more vpon vs according to his owne saying ; it is a more blessed thing to giue , then to receiue , which cannot be better expressed of our parts , then by hauing commiseration and a fellow feeling of them , making the same profession of faith which wee doe , yet doe suffer such aduersitie , and so remarkeable a calamitie : i pray your lordship therefore , to your power , to aduance and set forward this worke , which tendeth to no other end but to the honour of almighty god. and to send the mony contributed vnto me , that so it may be deliuered ouer to philip burlamachie and some other merchant strangers , so to be conueied to the towne of wesell , according to his maiesties gratious direction . in the meane time i leaue you to god , and remaine your lordships very louing brother . g. cant . lambehith : iune 25. 1618. as my chancellor at the reading of these letters did intreate you my brethren of the ministerie to aduance this collection to the vttermost of your power , so i pray you all , and euery one of you , that you will vse both the best arguments and meanes to enrich and make as good as may be this collection , and with as much speed as may be to returne the same vnto mee , that so i may satisfie both his maiesties desire , and my lord of canterburies direction . and so i leaue you to god his protection . your louing friend io. london . the money that shal be gathered by vertue of these letters , to be giuen vnto the archdeacons officialls , or regesters , that it may be presently conueied into the hands of my lord of london . a declaration or manifesto, vvherein the roman imperiall majesty makes known to the states & peers of hungarie, what reasons and motives have compelled him to proceed in open warre against the prince of transylvania. vvhereby also his imperiall majesty admonisheth them to a due consideration of their loyaltie and obedience, as also to a zealous and joynt opposition against the said prince of transylvania, bearing date the 23. of february, 1644. holy roman empire. emperor (1637-1657 : ferdinand iii) this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a85219 of text r2348 in the english short title catalog (thomason e49_27). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. 14 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo 2017 a85219 wing f728 thomason e49_27 estc r2348 99872009 99872009 155133 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a85219) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 155133) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; 9:e49[27]) a declaration or manifesto, vvherein the roman imperiall majesty makes known to the states & peers of hungarie, what reasons and motives have compelled him to proceed in open warre against the prince of transylvania. vvhereby also his imperiall majesty admonisheth them to a due consideration of their loyaltie and obedience, as also to a zealous and joynt opposition against the said prince of transylvania, bearing date the 23. of february, 1644. holy roman empire. emperor (1637-1657 : ferdinand iii) ferdinand iii, holy roman emperor, 1608-1657. [2], 6 p. printed according to order for e. blackmore, [london?] : m dc xliv. [1644] reproduction of the original in the british library. annotation on thomason copy: "may 28". eng rákóczi györgy, -prince of transylvania, 1593-1648. thirty years' war, 1618-1648 -early works to 1800. germany -emigration and immigration -early works to 1800. holy roman empire -history -1517-1648 -early works to 1800. transylvania (romania) -foreign population -early works to 1800. transylvania (romania) -history -sources -early works to 1800. a85219 r2348 (thomason e49_27). civilwar no a declaration or manifesto, vvherein the roman imperiall majesty makes known to the states & peers of hungarie, what reasons and motives hav holy roman empire. emperor 1644 2320 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a this text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2008-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2009-01 scott lepisto sampled and proofread 2009-01 scott lepisto text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a declaration or manifesto , vvherein the roman imperiall majesty makes known to the states & peers of hungarie , what reasons and motives have compelled him to proceed in open warre against the prince of transylvania . vvhereby also his imperiall majesty admonisheth them to a due consideration of their loyaltie and obedience , as also to a zealous and joynt opposition against the said prince of transylvania , bearing date the 23. of february , 1644. printed according to order for e. blackmore . mdcxliv . the manifesto or declaration , wherein the roman imperial majestie makes known to the states and peeres of hungarie , what reasons and motives have compelled him to proceed in open warre against the prince of transylvania , &c. ferdinand the third by the grace of god elected roman emperour of germanie , hungary , bohemia , dalmatia , croatia and sclavonia , king , arch-duke of austria , duke of burgundie , slyria , karndten and craine , marquis of moravia , count of tyroll and gortz , &c. to all and every one of our wel beloved and loyal prelats , nobles , barons , knights , gentlemen , and all other states and peeres of our kingdome of hungary and other provinces belonging thereunto , greeting . with what fatherly care ever since wee begun to enter into our royall government , we have continually strived , that this our here before much afflicted kingdome of hungarie , as a wall and bullwark to christendome in these moderne heavy troubles and distractions , might be preserved in a good condition , peace and tranquillity , is not unknown to any of our loyall subjects of the said kingdome : to which end also in these latter yeares we have of set purpose entred into peaceable treaties with the turke , and admitted nothing that hath been advantageous and serviceable to the preservation of a firm peace , safety or tranquility of the kingdome . but in the meane time the prince of transylvania , george ragoczii , unknowne to us , what hath caused and moved him hereunto , hath suffered himselfe to be seduced , that , though we for our part have given unto him not any cause or occasion hereunto , he notwithstanding hath entred into a most dangerous and most pernitious league with our enemies the swedes and french , that he thereby also might highly endanger this our kingdom of hungarie , which hitherto through gods mercy hath sate in peace and quietnesse , and draw , and involve the same in this heavy warre , wherewith diverse countries in christendome are now overwhelmed , yea so farre also , that presently in the beginning of the aforesaid league he did not stick upon it to pawne by way of promise his two sonnes , that all the dayes of his life he would further and advance with all his strength and power the profit , wellfare and benefit of the confederates ; whereof the letters and treaties , that passed betwixt them by gods speciall mercy and providence are come to our hands and are still with us in originall : by which principally and most clearly appeareth , with what earnestnesse , as also with what high promises , and presents , as well also through perswasion of the ambassadours of our publick enemies and rebells , he hath sollicited the turke for his assent and approbation , that he first of all might invade hungarie , and then afterwards some other of our countries , subdue our loyall subjects in a warlike manner , extreamely afflict them , and thereby disturbe and destroy the common peace and tranquillity : he hath tied and bound himself also so fast to his fellow confederates , that neither he , nor his successours , neither the states and peeres of transylvania , nor also the inhabitants of hungary , that take his part , shall have any power to enter into any treaty with us or conclude any peace or cessation of armes without the knowledge and consent of all the confederates , promising withall , not onely to introduce into hungary the swedes , and their hostile army , but also to deliver over into their hands certaine places , especially our cities of tirna and presburg , which places are ordained for the preservation of the crown of the kingdom , insomuch that highly is to be feared , that thereby the glorious and precious treasure of that crowne , which hitherto hath been preserved and protected with so much blood of the hungarians may fall into strangers hands and be transported over sea into a strange country . that he also may involve this kingdome , and himself yet deeper into this heavy fire of war , he did not stick also upon it to promise , that as often as our enemies should be invaded in a warlike manner , as often he together with his confederates should be bound to take up armes , and faithfully to assist them , as necessity should require : he declares himselfe thereby further , that his principall desire is to fall upon us and our loyall subjects in a warlike manner , and to joyne with his forces to the enemies forces in the kingdome it self . all which and yet much more largely appeareth , as well by the articles of the league , ( the acceptation and confirmation whereof the said prince with much opportunity desires of both the crownes france and sweden ) as by the princes , master bisterfields , and other our enemies letters . whereby the most pernitious designe of the said prince is come to light how he namely forgetting all duty to the native country intends to kindle a fire to the ruine of the country , to disturbe the common peace and tranquillity of our loyall subjects , to set the transylvanians and hungarians by the eares together for to destroy one another themselves with their own swords , and thus to draw the hungarian nation , which in former overthrowes hath already been weakened very much , into a civill warre , and to the shedding of their own blood and of their own kindred . hereby appeareth also the great ingratitude of the aforesaid prince of transylvania to us and our illustrious house of austria , from which his predecessours have received great benefits and priviledges , whereas they were not onely raised from a low condition to honour and dignity , but also his father sigismund ragoczii was richly rewarded , and had bestowed upon him large dominions and lands , yea this prince himself had bestowed upon him the most rich and faire dominion of monchatz , and other presents : but to passe by all these things , yet contrary to all divine and humane right , his faith , troth , corporall oath , and his own bonds and obligations ( wherein he more then once bound himselfe to us and our crowne ) he hath entred with others in an agreement and league , as well to the great prejudice and dammage to his own countrymen and hungarian nation , as to our and the kingdomes , yea also the countries of transylvania : and first against our selves , whereas he hath promised to invade in a hostile manner not onely our kingdome of hungarie , but also others of our hereditary countries and kingdomes , and to conquer them : and then also against the hungarian nation it self , because the rising of an inlandish prince and the taking up of armes will produce nothing else but their utter ruine and destruction : further also against the kingdomes rights , and priviledges , whereas he hath sought to include the inhabitants without their knowledge and consent in his secret league and confederacy , and under a pretense of their names to make agreements : no lesse also to the prejudice of the country of transylvania it self , which by these secret treaties and agreements with our and the crownes enemies he purposeth to make it wholy subject and hereditary unto himself . for he hath brought the two crownes france and sweden so farre , that they have promised to protect by force all his heires and successours in the principality of transylvania , albeit long agoe a free election was promised to the transylvanians . herewith not yet being satisfied , the said prince hath laboured with all his strength , and considerable presents and summes of mony to annull and to make void the peace with the emperour of turkie , ( which hath been hitherto obtained with so great charges , paines and so much blood , and hitherto also with much adoe preserved ) and to move the turkes to the breaking thereof to the hazard and great dammage of the kingdome of hungarie , and his own nation . of all which calamitie , as also shedding of christian blood , ruine of the countrie , hazard of hungarie , and other inconveniences , which use to rise and spring out of the like insurrections , there is no other cause but the private affections and the princes untimely pride and haughtinesse . as for us , we protest before god and the whole world , that to these troubles we have given no cause to the prince , but that we seek and desire nothing else , but the preservation and upholding of our royall right , ( which we have received from god ) and protection of our loyall subjects , which god hath put to our trust , and that to all these things we are provoked and forced . declaring further , and withall assuring all our loving and loyall subjects and inhabitants of the kingdome , that by this taking up of armes , and introduction of a succour of german forces we aime at nothing else , but that after driving out of all our enemies , and laying down of armes , yee be reduced , your former peace and tranquillity , and thereby all states and peeres of the kingdome may continue without diminution in the enjoying of the rights and priviledges . and hereupon we graciously admonish and exhort all our said kingdomes , prelates , earles , barons , knights , gentlemen , cities , provinces and frontier townes , as also the heyducks and souldiers , that they will continue firme and stedfast in the loyalty and obedience which next unto god they owe unto us and the kingdome of hungarie , and not take part under any title or pretense with the said prince , much lesse yeeld to his obeysance , but rather valiantly take armes in hand , oppose him in all places and times , beate him back , and thereby shew unto us with unwearyed care and with undaunted courage all due obedience . but if there be some , that hitherto being compelled by force or feare have been fickle in their loyalty , and adhered the said prince , those we will receive in favour again , and accuse them of no disloyalty , if they do turne but in time , come away from the adversary party , yeeld again to our due obedience , service , and loyalty , and present themselves to our trusty and well beloved the right honourable count nicalao , esterhasi of galantha palatine of our above named kingdome of hungary , or to our military generalls . but those that will not observe neither the divine justice nor the due obedience towards their king , but go on in their obstinacy , and boldnesse , adhere yet further to the prince not depart from him , and thus neglect their obedience towards us , those shall be proclaimed publick enemies to their native country , and that they shall fall into our imperiall disgrace , and by force of our armes be severely punished according to their demerits . but the states and fellow members of the country of transylvania , with whom we and our kingdome of hungary by many treaties of peace and firme leagues are tied fast one to another , we admonish of their faith and troth , and obligations in writing most graciously , that they will wholly abstaine from all hostility against the kingdome and our loyall subjects , and in no way undertake to invade our countries , but rather keep firme the agreements , and thus not draw upon themselves a ruinous war , and involve themselves perhaps meerely in regard of their privat profit , favour or hate into the most dangerous tempest of war , which stormes as yet heavily at christendome . for we perceive , that principally in regard of force and feare of their prince they are fallen into these troubles out of which they may easily escape again , if they do turne but without delay , and by laying down of armes returne home to their own and betake themselves to peace and quietnesse , and then all their transgression and fault shall rather be ascribed to the oppression of their prince , then to their severall contrary opinions and inclinations . given in our austrian city of vienna the 23. day of february in the yeare of our lord god 1644. of our raigne of the roman empire the eight , of the hungarian and the rest the 19. but of our bohemian the 18. yeare . ferdinand . stephanus bossniack elect : episc : vespriniensis cancellarius . georgius orossy secretarius . finis . nevves from gulick and cleue a true and faithfull relation of the late affaires in the countries of gulicke, cleue and bergh, and what townes haue certainely been taken aswell by marquesse spinola, as by graue maurice, and how it stands with them in those parts at this present. seruing also to confute the false relation lately published in english. together, with count henrie of nassau his very late expeditions in the country of marck, &c. faithfully translated out of dutch by charles demetrius, publike notarie of london. published by authoritie. 1615 approx. 19 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 15 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2007-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a04713 stc 14838 estc s107971 99843662 99843662 8409 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a04713) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 8409) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 759:04) nevves from gulick and cleue a true and faithfull relation of the late affaires in the countries of gulicke, cleue and bergh, and what townes haue certainely been taken aswell by marquesse spinola, as by graue maurice, and how it stands with them in those parts at this present. seruing also to confute the false relation lately published in english. together, with count henrie of nassau his very late expeditions in the country of marck, &c. faithfully translated out of dutch by charles demetrius, publike notarie of london. published by authoritie. demetrius, charles. [2], 21 [i.e. 25], [1] p. printed [by edward griffin] for h. holland, and g. gibbs, and are to be solde at the flower de luce in paules churchyard, london : 1615. printer's name from stc. p. 25 misnumbered 21. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng netherlands -history -wars of independence, 1556-1648 -early works to 1800. germany -history -17th century -early works to 1800. 2006-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-09 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2006-11 celeste ng sampled and proofread 2006-11 celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion nevves from gvlick and cleve . a trve and faithfull relation of the late affaires in the countries of gulicke , cleue and bergh , and what townes haue certainely been taken aswell by marquesse spinola , as by graue mavrice , and how it stands with them in those parts at this present . seruing also to confute the false relation lately published in english . together , with count henrie of nassav his very late expeditions in the country of marck , &c. faithfully translated out of dutch by charles demetrivs , publike notarie of london . published by authoritie . london , printed for h. holland , and g. gibbs , and are to be solde at the flower de luce in paules churchyard , 1615. the translator to the reader . courteous reader , thus haue you seene in the premises a faithful report of the trueth , & nothing but the truth , translated out of a dutch coppie printed at amsterdam by nicholas van gelkerken , a few daies sithence , together with a bewtifull mappe or platforme of all those countries before named , the townes , marches , armies and camps , euen as at this very instant they remaine : which for your better satisfaction , you may see in the hands of the printer heereof , if you repaire vnto him : and so fare you well . 20. october 1614. finis . a trve declaration of the great enterprise of both the armies vnder the conduct of the marquesse spinola on the one part , and his princely excellency count mavrice of nassau on the other party , together with the names of the places by each of them seuerally taken , and where the campes are at this present lying . &c. gentle reader before we come to relate the preparation of defence taken in hand by the noble lords , the estates , vnder the conduct of his princely excellency . we will first begin to speake of the army conducted by the marquis spinola , whereof some three months past a great rumor went , aswell by taking vp of new forces , withdrawing of his olde souldiers , as also his marches , sieges , and taking in of the towns & places , lying in the countrie of gulicke , cleue and berch . in the moneth of august , the marquis hauing gathered an army together marched from brabant to the towne of tongeren , and so to mastricke , where he increased his armie , and here came his forces from all places marching . it was reported his campe was then twentie thousand strong aswell horse as foot . from thence he went with his whole army the twentieth of august , marching through the country of valkenburch , towards the town of acon or aken ; before which he came the two and twentieth of august , deuiding his campe in three quarters , the one at bortset , the other at the townes place of execution , and the third at saint sauiours hill , making presentlie his batteries close vnder the towne , charging also euery souldier to bring fiue fagots to assault the towne fiercelie and with all speed , seeming to be somwhat incensed against this towne . the romish catholikes within , seeing they were so fiercelie assaulted , fled altogether with their goods into the cloisters . and those of the reformed protestants religion , seeing the same , were not a little amased , and thereupon thought it fitte to conferre with him ; whereunto the marquisse spinola seemed to bee vnwilling ; notwithstanding at the entreaty and request of graue henry vanden berghe , the prior of the cloister of acon , with the abbesse of bortset , who at three seuerall times humbly entreated for the citizens or burgars , he condiscended to a parlee , and concluded vpon the foure and twentieth of august , and the keyes were deliuered into his handes , placing for gouernour of the towne the earle of ritbergen , brother vnto the earle of embden ; permitting the souldiers , who on the behalfe of the brandenburger lay within the town , to march forth with their full armes , flying ensignes , burning matches , &c. placing for the garrison of the towne fifteen hundreth new entertained lutzenburgar souldiers , and so marched forward with his whole armie towards dueren . the which those of the town vnderstanding and perceiuing that he would assault them , durst not stay his comming , but resolued to meet him , and deliuered him the keyes at his first approach , and so yeelded themselues without compulsion or any shot of canon . the marquis placing his souldiers therin , and so instantlie set forward towards berchem : where he sent part of his souldiers towards collen , to the end with the aide of the burgers of collen to spoile and deface the town of mulhem , the which with great rage of the burgars of collen , and the soldiers of the marquis spinola was begun , and after that they had beaten downe the walles , they instantlie beganne to fall vpon the new houses , but by the commandement of the newburger , vpon paine of death , it was left vndone , so as the protestant inhabitants remaine as yet reasonable peaceable in their seuerall houses . a garrison onelie there remaining . then hee marched forward in good order with the whole campe through the countrie of gulicke towards rynbercke , where when he came , hee made a bridge ouer the ryne , where the whole armie of the marquis marched ouer , ioining themselues to the forces of lingen and oldenseel , who had long expected his comming thither , marching all together towards wesel . and by the way with those of gelder and berck , he went tovvards orsoy , as hereafter follovveth . there first entred in fiue or sixe horsemen of bercke earely in the morning when the milke maides went out , and for that there was but slender watch held , they kept the gates , and the other being presentlie at hand , marched without making any shot , hauing by them two peeces of ordinance , and about sixe hundred men strong . then the marquesse marched towardes wesel , and betweene the riuer of lip and wesell lyeth strongly entrenched towards the field side of lip , neare the towne . and then a great part of the campe in all haste attempted to shoote vpon the towne , and by force to compell the same , euen as with all speed they did , causing such a feare in short time in the city , that the burgars who being couragious , with that hast were astonished , & being altogether discouraged , found it conuenient to agree with the marquesse , which happened on the fifth of september , condicioning libertie of religion , and reseruing their old priuiledges , but the towne should be kept with the garrison of the marquesse spinola . the ordnance and munition of the brandeburger beeing in the towne , some daies after was sent downe the ryne , towards the towne of rees , after long conference and deliberation thereabout held , betweene the marquesse , and the duke of newburgh . and in the marsh before wesell , the marquesse spinola hath made a strong sconce to compell the towne , and to hinder the passages of shippes by the rhyne . as also three halfe moones the marquesse hath caused to bee made before the three gates of the towne , placing his centinells or the outward watches toward the campe of his excellency of nassau . now shortly after that the marques had gotten wesell , hee purposed to haue made himselfe master of rees , to the which end hee had already sent forces , but his excellency was come there about an houre before , who in good time enuironed the towne and tooke it in . also it happened that the marquesse had gotten santen an houre before that his excellency with his forces came there . and euen so it remaines at this instant with the marquesse spinola and his whole army . now therefore come wee to speake of his excellency of nassau and his army as followeth . the description of the armie of his euer-renowmed excellencie . the noble lords the estates with his princely excellency their generall , vnderstanding of the great preparation of the marquesse spinola , also hauing knowledge of the taking in of acon , duren , and other places , that hee also purposed to come downe neere towards wesel , ( the marquesse of brandeburgh crauing by embassage their assistance ) they resolued to goe against him , and leauied souldiers out of all quarters , & first sent them vp toward sgrauen weert , elten , and therabouts , his princely excellency himselfe in person with all speede from the haghe , ( accompanied with the noble earles , graue william , graue iohn , graue earnest , of the house of nassau ; and the prince of portugall , ) trauelling by day and night came thither . first and formost making himselfe sure , and tooke in the towne of emericke with the forces hee had with him , presently marching from thence towards rees , which he also in good time , as is aforesaide , had gotten before the marquesse came : yea and had not his excellency staid the longer at the haghe , vpon the comming of his maiesty of great britaine , and the french kings embassadors , vpon a treaty of peace , the marquesse certainely might haue cast his cap after wesell . then the gouernour of nymegen , by command of his princely excellency , marched out the tenth of september towards the towne of goch , with three great cannons , and comming about the village of moock , there came to him fiue companies more , marching in hast toward goch aforesaid , presently demanding vp the towne , but the cleargy would not yeeld thereunto : the gouernour vnderstanding this , presently caused the parcullise of the gates to bee set on fire , which they within seeing , did bulwarke vp the gates with dung & other dirt , but the gouernour presentlie began to shoote with his ordnance which he had at hand , and to assault the towne : the burgars seeing he was so furiously bent , fearing to bee surprised , made composition with him , and the eleuenth of september , yeelded vp the towne vnto him , who presently put in garrison the souldiers of the duke of brandenburgh . the twelfth of this said moneth the gouernour aforesaid marched towards the towne and castle of gennep which he presently tooke , wherein he also put in garrison the brandenburgers men , sending also some forces towards cleue , rauesteyn , and sousbeck . from the campe where his excellency first assembled , he sent the new souldiers to aide the brandenburger , where hee lay some few dayes after . then his excellency caused to bee made a bridge before embricke ouer the rhyne , where the new souldiers marched ouer , and went vp higher into the country . the campe of his excellency lyeth at this present on the northside of rees in very good order , vnto whom dayly more men come , with horsemen round about . his excellency also caused an other bridge to bee made ouer the rhyne before rees , with the halfe moone , where a great number of ships lie , yea so many , that it is a great pleasure to see , and dayly yet more come out of holland . here are already many men marched ouer the bridge on the side of santen , and marien-bome , which his excellency also hath gotten : and here men thinke it will come to blowes . and which is not to bee forgotten , neere vnto rees , his excellency hath a goodly troupe of horsemen which lie for a watch . at a village called bislicke , diuers meetings on both sides , haue been to come to an agreement , but euery time as yet they haue parted in vaine . the description of the march of count henrie of nassau , to and in the countries of marck , as he departed out of the campe of his excellency his brother , likewise the description of that which happened vntill this present day , also is hereunto added what the souldiers of the town of gulicke of late haue effected and what towns they haue taken . after that his princelie excellencie , had lain a certaine time between the towne of emerick and rees : & had taken those townes before named , also the places and townes which his excellencie caused by the gouernour of nimmegen , to bee taken , and garrisons therein to bee put , his campe in the meane time grew stronger both with horse and foote , which came from all quarters . and hauing this strong armie of men together , a generall muster was made , which the marquis spinola hearing , thought they would come vpon him , and caused instantlie a battery to be made on the way of rees : he had a day before also , sent out som troopes higher vp into the country with certain wagons who spoiled and robbed the poore countrimen of all that they had , to the ende our souldiers comming thether should find nothing : but what blessing hee got thereby of the poore countrymen , i leaue euery one to iudge . the marquis strengthning himselfe before wesell , and not comming into the field out of his trenches , yet his excellency did vndertake some thing , and sent his brother count henry of nassau accōpanied with a good troope of horse and foote , and some wagons with ordinance , munition and victuals to the countries of marck & rauensbergh , &c. to take in march , ham , vnna , soest , camen , dortmondt , with others : whereof this count henry hath already taken manie , and put garrisons therin . they report also that count henry had sent some souldiers towards borkelo , lying ( between groll and lochum ) to take it in , and to put a garrison therein , for certaine reasons between the earle of stierum , and those of the towne of munster . neither haue those of gulick beene idle , but as valiant souldiers haue also attempted some thing , and the newes are currant that they haue taken in these places following , namely , linnich , wassenberch , rangelrayd , geilkercken , gangelt , sittert , &c. the marquis seeing the course of his victory in taking of the towne of wesel , stayed for that his princely excellencie came into field , and lay so close vnder his wings , found it fit for the first to make strong and to intrench himselfe , endeauouring to make a strong fort neare to the rhine before wesell , whereunto his souldiers haue as greate desire as a thiefe hath to bee hanged and doe plainely say this , we make for our enemy , as wee made the skonce of saint andrew . also they say , that the marquis ( because hee will not make the burgers of wesell altogether his bitter enemies ) hath consented that the souldiers lying in the houses shall buye and prouide their owne victuals : for the which those of the towne must euerie weeke disburse two thousand gilders , euery one according to his ability . moreouer , there is newes come out of the campe of the marquis spinola , that the regiment of the colonell palant , being strong ; about twelue companies with three peeces of ordnance , is marched towards venlo and geldor , and it is thought they goe to take the other remaining small townes , namely brughe , dulken , dalen and glabberck . in fine , euery one hath a snatch at that he can gette , but the poore countriman must looke to himselfe , therefore the olde prouerbe is true , euery one for himselfe . it is reported also that his excellency will attempt some other matter of no small moment , but where and what , the time will shew . there is preparation in hand to make a stronger bridge of shippes for the passage of wagons ouer the ryne : and according to that preparation : it is also thought hee will march higher vp the ryne then rees . aliquid latet quod non patet . the clergy haue procured and effected so much this yeare , for to aide his holinesse louing new-borne sonne the duke of newburgh that a multitude of men are already come to the field vnder the conduct of the marquis spinola , who haue already vtterly vndone many thousand poore men . but what confusion of seuerall nations of people , hee to aid the newburger bringeth into the country he himselfe doubtlesse will find in time . if he had had such a prosperous cesse as he had in the beginning , he had gone more forward in his designes , and also the arch-duke should haue gained more by his twelue years truce , then by a long continuall warre , and hee had had fit time in these fiue yeares to haue made conquest of these countries , beeing friends to the vnited prouinces : and then to come vpon vs. finis . tuba-pacifica seasonable precautions, whereby is sounded forth a retreat from the war intended between england and the united-provinces of lower germany / by geo. wither. wither, george, 1588-1667. 1664 approx. 58 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2006-06 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a66792 wing w3204 estc r15041 12940585 ocm 12940585 95873 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a66792) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 95873) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 993:33) tuba-pacifica seasonable precautions, whereby is sounded forth a retreat from the war intended between england and the united-provinces of lower germany / by geo. wither. wither, george, 1588-1667. 32 p. imprinted for the author ..., [london] : 1664. reproduction of original in huntington library. in verse. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng great britain -history -restoration, 1660-1688 -poetry. great britain -foreign relations -germany -early works to 1800. germany -foreign relations -great britain -early works to 1800. 2005-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2006-01 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2006-01 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion tuba-pacifica . seasonable praecautions , whereby is sounded forth a re-treat from the war intended between england and the united-provinces of lower germany . by geo : wither , a lover of peace , and heartily well-affected toward both nations . nimis cautela non nocet . matthew 5. 9. blessed are the peace-makers , for they shall be called the children of god anno. 1664. imprinted for the author , and is to be disposed of , rather for love then money . tuba-pacifica . sounding a retreat from the war intended between england and the united provinces . an ancient emblem , relating to the said nations . si collidimur frangimur , if we knock , we are broke . an hour is come , in which must be renew'd that work , which i have hither to pursude ; and , i to utter what i have to say , will take the kue that 's offer'd whilst i may , in hope that they , whose prudence can descern those things which their well-being do concern , will hear and heed them , e're it be so late that premonitious will be out of date : for , opportunities may slip away to morrow , which are offer'd us this day ; and 't is all one to wise-men , whether strangers or friends , premonish them of likely dangers , or , whether unto them , alarums from a silver , or a rams-horn trumpet come . to me there are but two wayes known , by which men may speed well or ill , grow poor or rich ▪ to wit , by prosecuting good or evil , by cleaving close to god , or to the devil and , they are two such masterships , that , neither is pleas'd with him , who serves them both together ; because , what is endeavour'd for the one obstructs what for the other shall be done . presuming therefore , you depend alone on him , whom i serve , thus proceed i on . a commom fame reports there will be war betwixt the english and the hollander and , by their preparations , i conceive we may with probability , believe it will be so . their many panick fears , their groundless hopes , their bitter scoffs and jeers , cast on each other , are plain symptoms too , of what , in likelihood , they mean to do . we likewise , by the truths and by the lies which to divide them wicked men devise , and , whereby such partakers on both sides augment that hatred which still more divides , may fear , as well as by their other deeds , the mischief will go on , as it proceeds , untill the power doth rest in god alone , to undo , what is wilfully misdone . but , that , which most confirms it , is the sin , the crying crimes , that both continue in without repentance : for , among the rest these i enumerate are not the least , ( nor any whit abated , since god made the late breach up , which them else ruin'd had ) such , as their bragging vaunts of that frail strength which will destroy their foolish hopes at length ; the confidence , the sottish vulgar gathers from ships and armies , long hair , muffs & feathers ; their hot contestings which shall have the hap to wear the greatest bauble in their cap. or , whether 't will at last , be brought to pass , that th' asse shall ride the man , or man the asse . these , and some other things , that are perceiv'd now acting , or about to be contriv'd , have made me , with small difference to deem most of them are as mad as they do seem . and , is it even so ? must you now lash each other , and your earthen pitchers dash ? must you , that have so long been friends , now knock untill you into potsherds quite are broke ? none taking heed or care how to prevent that mischief which appeareth eminent , and was presag'd about the ninetieth year now past , by this your well known emblem here ? have you not one among you , rich or poor , so wise as he , whose counsel heretofore . preserv'd a city , and did then receive the same reward , which men in this age give for such-like services ? hath neither , place a man so prudent as that woman was who rais'd the siege from abel , by her wit , when joab with an hoast beleagur'd it ? but , are you all of wisdom so bereft , that , no expedient seemeth to be left whereby to act untill the sequels are ignoble peace , or a destructive war ? if it be so , from whence could it proceed but from your failings both in word and deed ? from sordid avarice , pride , and self-will , inticing fleshly lustings to fulfil ? for , these deprave the judgments of most nations ▪ cause them to fall away from their foundations ; then , fly to refuges patcht up with lies , seek power and riches by those vanities which multiply oppressions and increase confusions to the ruine of that peace they might enjoy : for , then their strength consists in , and by those corrupting interests , which will ingage them to rush further on in their oppressive ways long since begun , till they grow deaf to all that can be said to make them of their just deserts afraid . and should they then , their crooked paths forbear , most private tradings at a non-plus were ; yea all those incomes whereupon depend their formal grandeur would soon have an end ▪ for , many thousands , who did vast estates get and uphold , by cherishing debates , by multiplying and delaying long vexatious suits , to many a poor mans wrong , would think themselves undone , if ev'ry state their courts of justice should reduce to that for which they were ordain'd ; and tyranny would want fit tools to bring to flavery the common people . very few know how they may to god and their superiours now perform their duties , and not both displease or th' one or th' other ; for , what is by these . commanded , is not seldom , either quite repugnant , or obliquely opposite , as they interpretations of them make who to be judges of them undertake . yea , those professions , and those trades whereby most live , are subject to such vanity that honest men are difficultly able to use them with a consence warrantable . it is no easie matter to devise what would become of all those batter-flies who flutter up and down in princes courts , if their oppressive projects of all sorts were took away ; and what case were they in who at this day do live upon the sin of one another ? but they 'l be supply'd what ever to the publick shall be tide ; and at the last , ( although their friends they seem ) destroy those governments that nourish'd them , unless , according to what 's just and true themselves they modulize , with speed , a new ; which , how , and by whom , that might well be done were an expedient worthy muzing on . perhaps , if you did seriously take heed , how this concerns you , and what would proceed from such a constitution , you might know from whence the quarrellings between you flow , and how to reconcile those differences which now increase your dangers and expences . perceive you not , that your prevarications , your falshoods , and your gross dissimulations with god , and with each other , so provokes his anger , who on all mens actions looks , that 't is impossible you should have peace with him , your selves or others , till you cease from provocations , and bring forth such fruit as with a real reformation suit , and with those churches which are truly christs ? yea , that your hopes wil fail , though flattering priests do promise peace , and impudently , too , perswade , that god is pleas'd with what you do ? observe you may , by what ensues thereon , how , god abominates what is misdone in managing the mysteries of state , and heeds what is in secret aimed at by fair pretendings ; and how , they thereby so long have sought themselves to fortifie that , most men are inclined to believe lest good is meant , when sweetest words they give ; and that they have forgot on what conditions or , to what end god gave them their commissions . know you not , that a spirit of delusion , to bring upon you merited confusion , was licensed to go forth and delude those prophets , by whose counsel are pursu'd unrighteous actions , that you may be sent on voyages like that which ahab went ? are your eyes wholly blinded ? heed you not that , such another spirit is begot 'twixt you , and 'twixt the people ev'ry where within your several borders , here and there , ( and at this time as active ) as was that which god permitted to infatuate abimelech and sichem , till it had destroy'd them ; all their counsels frustrate made , and brought upon both parties that reward which for blood-thirsty persons is prepar'd ? if these things you have heeded , be not still by those deluded who intend you ill ; but , wake out of your deep security , and from that trance wherein you seem to lie . consider seriously , what you intend ; e're it begin , think well how it may end ; what an intollerable heavy load 't will lay on most at home , on some abroad , what treasure , and how much blood will be spent ; how , both your countries will be thereby rent and shatter'd ; beside , what not yet fore-seen , is likewise possible to intervene , from them , who watching to enjoy the spoil by your contendings , laugh and jeer meanwhile ; which to prevent ; i sound out this retreat from that war , wherewith you each other threat . i nothing aim at , or design to do but what i know god hath inclin'd me to , and which you too , may know , if you well weigh what i have written , with what i might say ; and , i believe , that man ( who ere he be ) who shall obstruct what 's offer'd now by me shall thereby suffer as one who withstands the mercy he intendeth to both lands ▪ with nought i charge you ▪ but what th' one or th other is singly guilty of , or both together ; nor ought whereto , unless you feared are , you in your selves a witness do not bear : for my part , i shall neither gain nor loose by peace or war , or by that which ensues ; because , he that on god his whole heart sets , will be the same , what ever he permits . i love both nations , truly wish them well , and therefore shall not any thing conceal that may concern your safety , though with scorn my premonitions you should back return : permit me then , to speak a word in season ; for , sometimes , he that is a fool speaks reason . though joseph was a slave in deep disgrace ; a prisoner more neglected then i was in my late thraldome ; ( no whit less in danger by false accusers , because , more a stranger ; ) a heathen king , disdained not to take good counsel from him , when her reason spake though he in him , no more of god could see at first , then you at this time do in me . i , no such revelations will pretend as give no warrant on them to depend save his own word who tells them ; neither ought advise , but truths , which god himself hath taught as well to you as me , by his known word , or by the olive-branch , or , by the sword. his justice or his mercy ; which have spoke that oft , whereof you little heed have took . to fright you , no predictions i will fain as many do , pumpt out of their own brain ; nor speak in riddles , nor such things declare as you cannot without crakt patience hear , if i may but that freedom have to speak , which harmless fools , and licens'd jesters take . as moses , from a principle of love said unto those two israelites who strove , so say i unto you who disagree ; wrong not each other , for , you brethren be by nature ; yea , by grace too , so profest : be therefore christ●ans or be men at least . like barbrous heathen wherefore should you strive , and by dissention to your selves derive a mutual plague ? act that which is design'd by them who to destroy you are inclin'd ; and , probably , can no way else effect that mischief which their malice doth project ? consider what advantages you had by concord , how safe thereby you were made ; what you profest when you agreed together ; vvhat heretofore , you have been to each other ; how strengthned , and how pow'rful you became vvhilst your designs were in effect the same ; to your alies how helpeful ; and to those how terrible , who dar'd to be your foes ; ev'n when the pow'rfulst of your neighbouring nations seem'd so assured of their expectations , that their sea forces , in a proud bravado , were termed an invinsible armado ; till god befriending you , did with one puff bring down their pride , and blow their malice off . power , wealth , and honour , ever since that day he , likewise , heaped on them , many away , vvhilst you continu'd friends , though you had many backslidings and defects as gross as any . as to your outward welfare , all things , yet , to prosper , god doth graciously permit . some of you , have by loosing all , got more then ever they enjoyed heretofore ; some other , though of all ; no less bereft are twice as rich as they , now nothing's left , by having thereby learn'd to prize that most , vvhich being gotten never shall be lost ▪ and , they who this worlds wealth do more desire have means enough their longings to acquire . the chiefest forraign trade to you is given in all the realmes and countries under heaven . your ships are numberless , your merchants more and richer , then the tirians heretofore . your ware-houses are stor'd by your commerce vvith all things precious through the universe ; for which you were envyed by all those vvho either seem'd your friends or are your foes . your naval forces if you timely might perswaded be sincerely to unite , in righteousness , would ballance all the rest between the orient indies and the west and both the poles , enabling you to give those laws to all men , who by traffick live , vvhereby , there might , for all , sufficient trade in safety , and with equity be had ; vvithout which , whatsoere you shall obtain vvill prove but an unprofitable gain . and , ( which is more considerable , far , then all your honours , power and riches are ) god , hath among you , sown the feeds of grace more plentifully then in any place below the sun : his plants refreshments wanting though set in blood and fire , at their transplanting into your borders , so well thrived there ev'n then , that millions from them sprouted are ; and , more from them continually shall sprout in spight of those who seek to root them out ; yea , though you by your folly forfeit those advantages which he on you bestows , for their sakes ▪ whom some of you do revile oppress , and from their native lands exile . for , god hath made your countrie , to become the strongest bulwork in all christendom , both against gog and magog cover'd foes and such as openly , the saints oppose ; that ▪ saving truth and sincere innocence might thereby be preserv'd from violence ; especially , from their hate , who pursue the precious seed of christ in them and you , by antichristian wiles , which hatched were in your own wombs , and nursed up now are by seeming friends , who hide their fallacies vvith gaudy vails , and vain formalities , untill the souls for which they traps prepare are hunted unto death , or to their snare . these ingineers , within your bosomes lie , and , what their chief aims are , no doubt have i. think on these things , and whether 't is from me or from god , that you minded of them be ; for , what i had to write when i begun i knew not ; nor shall i know when 't is done , what , by my prompter , i was mov'd unto untill i read it over as you do , to see what is of god in ev'ry line as if those writings had been none of mine . when god , by despicable means and men , ( as he to do is pleased now and then ) speaks to a king or nation , it doth carry a shew of somewhat extraordinary to be consider'd on with serious heed , and it importeth somewhat to succeed . when waving men train'd up in learned schools he speaks to them , by those whom they count fools , makes others ( as of old some prophets were ) actors in things that scandalous appear to most spectators , yea , ridiculous to sober men ( as oft of late with us ) rendring them signs unto their generation of what 's to come ; 't is worth consideration ; ( especially when injuries and scorn are patiently with sober stoutness born , for conscience sake and all men , truly wise although such dispensations fools despise ) are deeply sensible , of what on those the ignorance and hate , of some impose , to whom , it will be manifest ere long , that , they have injur'd those , to their own wrong . if yet you know it not , now be it known that , by the power which is on you bestown to be on all occasions , whilst you have it employed for his honour who first gave it ) you were intrusted , and inabled so as you have been , not your own will to do ; or , that you to exalt your selves above your neighbours , gods donations , might improve into such an exorbitance of power that , at your pleasure , you might them devour , oppress your brethren , and advantage them vvho adversaries are to you and him : for , they were given to preserve their peace vvho , under you , in love and righteousness desire to live ; the same faith have profest , and by usurping tyrants are opprest ; vvhich grace if you shall turn into oppression or wantonness , will hasten your perdition ; make many of your truest friends grow sad and me , who of your welfare should be glad , be forc'd ray work to close ( in imitation of jeremiah ) with a lamentation . you will but give your foes just cause to laugh to see you quarrelling for straw and chaff vvilst they get opportunity to burn those granards down , whereby the precious corn might be preserv'd , wherewith your bread of life , may be supply'd , if you desist from strife . vvho can assure you that the provocations whereby , now very many in both nations , exasperated are , will not afford fit opportunities by your discord some such contrivances then to project and prosecute as prudence may suspect ? for , though what faction moves mad men to do vvill ruine them at last , so 't will you too . vvhat , men who have good consciences will shun vvill by men without consciences be done vvhen god shall let them loose , or call together all sors of sinners to correct each other . 't is likewise possible , that many things pretended causes of your quarrellings if they were well examin'd would be found meer scandals raised without real ground , to make misactings on both sides appear ( by aggravations ) greater then they were . for , in both nations , there is such a rabble ( by their ill manners much more despicable then by their fortunes ) who , for servile ends , in hope of profit , ( or to make them friends of those whom they sought to exasperate ) did some misactings much more aggravate then there was cause ; and so , that which was bad vvas by their falshood , more offensive made : this , hath been kindling 'twixt you many years a smothering fire , which now to blaze appears ; but hitherto these had not power to blow the flame so high as they have rais'd it now : for , god did but permit them for probation and though it was of long continuation , hath so your wealth increas'd , that as 'twixt lot and abraham , it now hath strife begot . god , by his grace , direct you to a course , the consequent thereof may not be worse . your force united hath been heretofore a terrour to the vassals of that whore vvhich rides the beast : yea , often such a dread to her , when she at highest bore her head that , she 's inrag'd to see you have so long against her soceries continu'd strong ; though to supplant you she laid many a train which had not then contrived been in vain , had you been so divided as this day you are , or as perhaps e're long you may . but unity did make you so compact a body , that her wiles could not distract your prudent counsels , neither from your course divert you , by her cunning joyn'd with force ▪ this ▪ by experience found , she doth begin to work upon you by another gin which will extend to many far and near who deem they thereby unconcerned are : for , they who foolishly , themselves now flatter ▪ that they by fishing in your troubled water shall get advantages , will be bereaved of those expectancies , now preconceived : for , that which follows , be it whatsoere will further ▪ gods designments , but not their ; and , though you may by folly , loose your ends she shall not bring to pass , what she intends . if she by this division , break your power she thinks that she shall easily devour the scatter'd churches , which in hazard lie within the limits of her sov'raignty ; then , those that stronger are ( though more remote ) assoon as opportunities are got to practice on them , by the force of arms or , by the power of her besotting charms ▪ and if they take effects , her work is done , untill gods counter-work shall be begun , who , though mans working with him he expects , shall no advantage lose by their defects vvho give advantages unto his foes , by trifling that away which he bestows , to do him service . but , they shall becom partakers with apostates in their doom . that grand impostris now resolves to play divisions , making all those whom she may , dance to her fiddle ; and to bring about her purposes , hath very little doubt : for , as a wasted candle when it sinks into the greasie socket ( and there stinks ) sends greater flashings forth , and blazeth more a little while , then any time before ; so , she doth now , with her whole force persue the mischief she hath long design'd for you ; and , not much wanting seemeth to compleat that , whereupon her heart hath long been set : for , to that end , were sent forth before hand , her emissaries into ev'ry land , with dispensations ( as occasion haps ) to make use of all courses , forms , and shapes : and these have into all societies all constitutions and fraternities , ( divine or civil ) all affairs , relations , and interests , what ever in both nations , screw'd , such a party , that , chief sway they carry in things divine , civil , and military ; so , that , as once it was prophanely said , should god stand neuter , till her game were plaid , she would prevail against you , at this time , because , no aid shall be withheld from them who malice you , nor any furtherance her power and sinking throne to readvance which antichrists confederates can add , or , from prophanest persons may be had . be therefore heedful that by your dissention you make not feizable her ill intention by trusting to the complements of those who are her vassals , and your secret foes , and ( as you , oft do ) speak fair , but to deceive that they without suspicion may contrive your whole destruction , and recover power to re-enlarge their babylonian tower ▪ which , is this day as truly their design , as those thoughts , whereon , now i think , are mine . blest let them be who seriously endeavour , to reconcile you ; cursed , they who sever whom god hath joyned ; for no outward curse to any can befall ; that will be worse then that which will in likelihood betide to these two nations if they long divide ; but , they who of the breach most guilty are the greatest burthen of that curse shall bear . i am no person who confederates with home-bred male-contents , or forraign states either to get revenge for wrongs received or that some gain may be thereby derived unto my self : for , whatsoere it be , that which best pleaseth god , best pleaseth me ; and having no designments of mine own can wait with patience till his will be shown . i , being one who having oft fore-seen , and fore-told things that have fulfilled been , endeav'ring to prevent the prosecutions , of wicked actions and rash resolutions , am by a power which i dare not oppose once more stir'd up , to preadmonish those ( as heretofore ) who now seem rushing on in that career , as other men have done , which tendeth unto that end which befell to those , who sleighted , what i did fore-tell : and , i to speak again must not forbear ; vouchsafe therefore to me a patient ear ▪ be wary , that your avarice and pride , prove not to be a motive to divide at this time , though when you divided last your likely hazards were soon over-past , and plagues remov'd ere any penitence had testifi'd remorce for your offence , lest , greater evils follow , and the trouble removed then , returns upon you double ▪ for , nations to expose to wars unjust meerly to satisfie a private lust , and those inforce the greatest weight to bear , who no way guilty of transgressing are of that which in a war ingages them , is questionless , a sanguinary crime from which , no temporary priviledge can vindicate , before a righteous judge : but , it will bring down vengeance in due season from him whose justice cannot be call'd treason although your high priests , and some others too , the boldness may assume to term it so . if wrongs be done , let all good means be us'd to judge between th' accuser and accus'd e're sentence pass ; and do not then prolong due recompence to them who have had wrong ; lest by delaying what you should restore , instead of righting him , you wrong him more . ere battail you begin , let peace be offer'd , accept a good expedient , when 't is proffer'd . remit small faults where you find penitence : upon the same terms , let the great'st offence be pardoned also , when the perpetration of wrong , exceeds all means of expiation ; in that , you 'l imitate the king of heaven who often hath such crimes to you forgiven . make not the sword your umpier , till you see a remedy , no other way can be ▪ your just rights to preserve , do what you can , but , fight not to inslave another man ; nor venture your own countries to inflame that you may get a fruitless aiery fame ; much less to grasp a power , which when acquir'd will in your hands , be like granados fir'd ; yet , to avoid the mischief and the curse of war , make not a peace that shall be worse . nor when you are at rest provoke his wrath who , quietness to you vouchsafed hath , by cheating them of their just expectations who truly wish the welfare of both nations , adventuring their persons and estates , to save what to your interest relates ; and then intrusted you with their defence , thereby , but as a second consequence . if you would keep rebellious men in awe , to ev'ry one his birth-right due by law preserve impartially ; and unto none deny that which is due to ev'ry one ; lest , whilst abroad ingaged you become in warfare , there may be worse fraies at home : for ▪ that allegiance which is in all lands ' twist prince and people , upon two feet stands , so , that if th' one fails in what it should do , in equity , so will the other , too ; men who are much oppressed against reason , will not much fear to act what you call treason ; and , then , from questioning , on whom there lies the greatest guilt ; small profit can arise . which way soever , therefore , god shall daigne to make you friends , and give you rest again , with moderation , and with justice use that mercy ; for if you the same abuse this , without question , will ensue thereon ; both , shall one way or other be undone . the conquer'd shall inslaved be ; and they who conquer , be made slaves another way ▪ make not your rest to be a snare or stale as fowlers do , to cath birds there withall . nor means , your selves with such vast power to arm , as helps not so much , to do good ▪ as harm ; for god will heed it , and you shall be caught ev'n in those traps , which your own hands have wrought , and as old rome was you shal be at length orewhelm'd and destroy'd , by your own strength . to mine own countrymen , i 'le write or say nought at this time , which any justly may apply to them alone ; lest , some once more may terme it scandalous as heretofore , or call me libeller , for being bold to tell them truths ( although in season told . ) i , have , so often in particular and so long time been their remembrancer with small regard ( except from such as do love simple truth , and suffer for it too ) that , i to them , will nothing mention here , save that in which , an equal part to bear both nations may be said , without my blame ; because , thereby , i somewhat hopeful am to raise thence an expedient to escape the being caught again , in my old trap. but i 'le apart , a word or two express to our dutch neighbours in true friendliness . remember what of old the english nation hath been to you ; and with how much compassion they , your protection timely undertook when you extreamly by the spanish yoke oppressed lay ; and whether the pursuing of those things which are at this present doing , may not at last reduce you back to that deplor'd condition , or a worse estate ; and bring you once again , inslav'd to lie beneath such an unbounded monarchy as you abhor : your senators are wise , they in their heads , i know do bear their eyes and ▪ if they be not hoodwinckt ▪ need by none be minded , what should be consider'd on : yet , since but men , let them not be offended with what is by a stranger recommended unto their serious heed , and let my caution be acceptable unto your whole nation ▪ consider , whether all they who pretend your country , cause , and intr'st to befriend may not more complemental prove then real , when time shall bring their friendship to a tryal , and be as false to you , as you have seen most states and princes , often to have been unto each other , though aly'd by blood , by aides in times of need , leagues , neighbourhood , and all ingagements whatsoere , which might devised be , them , firmly to unite . think , whether such have not a party now among you ▪ which as things to ripeness grow , will help improve them , to set up a power tending to their advantage more then your : yea , whether , you already may not see that , some to such a purpose , active be , this day among you ; and , take timely heed , that , what you would prevent , may not succeed . ill words corrupt good manners ; and i hear that , you no scurrile language do forbear vvhich either heighten may the indignation and fury kindled in our english nation , or , make them to be hated of your own ; as if you wholly resolute were grown , so to divide both , that by no endeaver , they might be reconciled again , for ever . this fault , which to the vulgar i impute vvill questionless produce a poisonous fruit , and , therefore , though i truly may confess my countrymen have not offended less , in that kind ( and may peradventure take occasion from these lines , a change to make within themselves ) i , heartily intreat both you and them , his love to imitate vvhose doctrines we profess , and bridle more their rude tongues , then they have done heretofore that , from good words , there may at last proceed , true reconcilement both in word and deed. of one thing more , put you in mind i would ( vvhich now to your remembrance bring i should ) vvere i not hopeful you oft minde it so , as it becomes you , and repent it too , and that , we shall give mutual satisfaction for ev'ry scandal and injurious action , on either charged , for which , to make even 't is in our power ; the rest must be forgiven . lord god , vouchsafe thy mercy to these lands and , if with thy good pleasure it now stands , t he plagues for their demerits due , ad●ourn , that peace with grace united may return before the madness of this generation hath frustrated their means of preser●ation . by judgments , and by mercies interwove , by chastisements in anger and in love , by threatnings and by gentile invitations , thou , to reclaim us from prevarications hast oft assaied ; adding unto these whisperings in secret to our consciences ; spoke to our ears by men , unto our eyes by apparitions and by prodigies : yea , whilst i 'm writing this , there doth appear a blazing star within our hemisphere , aswell unto our neighbours as to us made visible : and wherefore glares it thus with an aspect so dreadful at this time , but , to point at , and for warn us and them of some approrahing mischief , whereof heed is to be taken by us , with all speed . lord , let us not , still obstinate remain rendring ( as heretofore ) at quite in vain , that 's seen , or said , or done , till none for ever by word , or deed , our safety shall endeaver ▪ that time is not yet come , i 'le spend therefore in hope of good success , a few words more ▪ and , look to be excus'd if i shall thrice , vvrite that , which i have writ already twice ; for , neither can hard flints or knotty blocks be shap'd without reiterated strokes . why should you quarrel ? what are now your wants , but , grace and faith to use well what god grants ? the world is wide enough , the seas have room sufficient for your ships to go and come : expedients will be found which may procure an honourable peace that will endure vvithout a disadvantage unto either if to make proof therof you joyn together . impartial justice brotherly compassion love , mee kness , piety , humiliation faith , prayer , penitence , with such like things are those , whence wealth , and peace , and honour springs to them who will perswaded be to do to others as they would be done unto ; as jealous to redress a neighbours wrongs as in that which to their own ease belongs ; as forward , an oppressed man to hear as cruel tyrants to afflict him are ; and could forbear intruding on gods right a setled peace thereby enjoy they might , without fear ; yea , without a just suspicion of treasons , insurrections or sedition : and , they whom you distrust , will be more true then they , in whom you trust , shall be to you , if you endeaver to contract a peace and keep it , by unfeigned righteousness : although such mediums are but scoffed at or sleighted , by most ministers of state. but , such a blessing , never can he got or kept , by that whereon most nations dote . the constitution of whose governments are made according to such presidents as jeroboam left , and lost thereby that kingdom which on his posterity , should have been fixt , had he not counsel took from flesh and blood , and gods advice forsook . not those men , whose advantages are least , or most , shall thrive ▪ but , they who use them best ; make god alone their refuge , and contend that cursed strife , in blessed peace may end . 't is not your carnal policies , or forces , your forts , ships , armies , guards of men & horses ; your fair pretending what was never ment , your heavy taxes beyond president , your flattering parasites or your buffoones , your roaring hectors , and your pantaloones , or oaths inforced , or great brags and lies , nor their complyings whose hypocrisies are much depended on , that will effect those conquests and those triumphs they expect who boast before their armour is put off , and , at the weapons of the spirit scoff : for , what by vanity may be obtained shall thereby , be devour'd ▪ assoon as gained . you have betwixt you ( as imply'd before ) half of all forraign tradings , if not more . your many manufactures , are become staple commodities , that bring you home three times as much in ▪ value ev'ry year as those things , which among you growing are amounted to unwrought ; and you are grown as rich in forraign wares as in your own ▪ the seas have been your fish-ponds , and afford enough to make both rich , could you accord and both , alike were frugal . means of trade is in a thousand places to be had , which to imploy you will sufficient be , when you like christian brethren shall agree , or , but like moral men ; nay , if but so as many infidels , and some beasts do ; and , god and natures laws , would you direct aright , if , them , you did not wilfully neglect , make your own will a law , and were inclin'd to that , which hath corrupted all mankinde ▪ rendring , what for mans real weal was given the greatest outward plague on this side heaven . so wilfully pursuing your own wayes for your self-ends ; that he who doth not praise your folly , or with silence pass it by , is thought no friend , if not an enemy , and , to reprove vice is become a crime judg'd capital among you at this time . if you consider these things as you ought , ( and shall not be displeas'd to hear them brought thus bluntly to remembrance ) i have hope i may still scape the gollows and the rope for speaking truths in season , unto them who , their well-willers causesly condemn ▪ and , from their native countries , banish those for whose sakes , god hath kept them from their foes , waiting with long-long-suffering , when to him they will return , that , he may turn to them . this you may do ; and i have hope of it : for , god is resident among you , yet . his canal sticks are not from you removed ; within your borders , of his best beloved are many thousands , for whose sake , he hath remembred mercy , in his hottest wrath . good laws you have ; some , likewise , who profess and practise them , in truth and righteousness though from your first loves , you are fallen much and , your defects are at this present , such as in the seven asian churches were when first the mystery was hatching there which now ore-spreads the world ▪ you have not that comply'd with , but , the same abominate ; and therefore , that you may , return to him god hath premonish'd you as he did them , expecting that you better should improve then heretofore , his patience and his love , lest else , you speedily may be bereft as they were , of what , yet appeareth left . a moral charity retains a place among you , though grown colder then it was . you have a form of godliness , whereon if you depended not as you have done , that , which essential is , would more have been improved , and the power , thereof more seen . among your many vices , blended are some vertues , which , if you would take more care to cherish , god would such assistance give that they should , for the future better thrive . though you have multiply'd prevarications by many carnal , gross abominations , and , are with jezabel ( that sorceresse ) ( who counterfeits herself a prophetesse ) open confederates ; some of you hate her heresies , and their , who imitate the nichola●tans : god , now therefore hanges forth to you a flag of truce , once more , ( into a comet form'd ) and sets it there where , it , at one view , may to both appear ; that you might speedily and joyntly , do through fear , that which love could not win you to . for , though the wisards of preceding ages and , some how deem'd no despicable sages , think these prodgious meteors called stars are constituted of such characters and shapes , as do undoubtingly fore-shew what things particularly will ensuce , ( because such consequents have ofter been observed , they are much deceiv'd therein . ) there 's no such vertue proper to their natures ; for , they are only serviceable creatures employ'd by providence , to such an end as we by fired beacons do intend , when an invasion's threatned ; they declare in general , that foes approaching are ; stir up the nation to a timely heed but , who their foes are , what plagues will succeed , how long they will continue ; upon whom they first will seize , at what time , they will come ; or such like things by them we cannot know : for , they no more then beacons can fore-show . so , this late exhalation doth portend some judgment on offenders will descend ere long , to make them watchful , and prepare to do those duties which expected are ▪ but in particular presignifies nor this , nor that ; nor any terrifies who more desires to know ▪ how by gods grace , to do his will , then what will come to pass . he that is so affected , seldom fears the influence of comets , or of sta●s ; whereas , they who in folly are benighted oft , with a harmless glow-worm are affrighted . thus far , my mind i have once more exprest and hopeful am , ere long to be at rest from all my labours ; for , my life , almost , to bring this seasonably forth , it cost . but , some perhaps will now say , what is he that your remembrancer presumes to be ? to those , i make this answer ; i am one who stands instead of such a block or stone , as charity did set up heretofore by high-way sides , and somtime at each door , to save men from the violent approaches of drunken horse-men , waggons , carts & coaches , and in that service , often are abused curst , broken , crackt , hackt , cut , flasht , knockt , and bruised by those , who stumbling on them , heedless are to what good purpose they were fixed there . and , if this be my lot , i as i may , will bear it , as i have done till this day . for , that which follies hath to many seem'd hath by much wiser men , been well esteem'd : and , i despare not , though confused noises ▪ should at this time drown and confound the voices of sober men : for , when the raging water doth loudest roar ; winds , make the tacklings clatter , raffle the sails , and keep the greatest bustle , the storm is peirced by the boat-swains whistle ; so that all heedful mariners , thereby perceive whereto their hands they should apply . so , likewise , though the rumor of that war which many hope for , and as many fear , with other such confusions , as our sad distractions at this present thereto add , will make these lines , a while , of small regard with many , and with difficulty heard ; they shall , ere long , by some , with good respect be entertain'd , and have good effect ; for dayes will come wherein , that , shall from them be eccho'd forth , which all will not contemn ; and , from whence , at the last , a voice will come that shall out-sound the ratling of a drum ; yet fright no soul but that mans , who depends on carnal weapons , and hath carnal ends . praecautiones aenigmaicae per omnes personac terminationes , modi imperativi declinatae , numero singulari & plurali . cave mbr . & ed. cavete v. caveto a , caveto b. cavetote a. caveat p. p. p. p. & p. caveant o. jam qui rident ha , ha , he , mox clamabunt . heu , vah , vae . caveamus ergo , ac amemus , ni perimus . a corollary . some think , i , an apology may need for daring thus to bid my friends take heed ; and , so perhaps i may ; for , not long since , i suffer'd for as blamless an offence ; and , heretofore , informed was of one , who said ; that to be totally undone much less displease him would , then if that he should from undoing , be preserv'd by me ; and , shortly after ( with no little shame ) that , which he might have scapt , upon him came . i hope they wiser are whom , to take heed i now advise and that they 'l better speed . what e're succeds ; praise will to god belong , and of the saints , this shall be then the song . a hallelujah , alluding to the 150 psalm . come praise the lord , come praise him where saints assembled are , as hee 's almighty praise him his righteousness declare . in his excellings praise him with trumpet and with flute , with harp and psaltery praise him , with viol and with lute , let nothing that can praise him unactive be ▪ or mute . upon the timbrol praise him in songs his praise advance ; upon the organs praise him and praise him in the dance ; on tingling symbals praise him that , make the loudest noise and let each crature praise him that sense or breath enjoys , yea , let privations praise him although they have no voices . the mystical sense of what is literal express'd by the metaphorical and allegorical contexture of the proceeding hymn , in the original text , according to the authors under standing thereof , is as followes . by the sanctuary is meant the congregations of the saints . by the firmament of gods power , the unchangeableness of his almightiness . by his mighty acts , his unresistible justice . by his excellent greatness . his mercy , which is said to be over all his works , and his most excellent attribute . by the trumpet or flute , we are exhorted to praise him in our martial expeditions . by the psaltry and harpe , in our spirimal rejoicings . by the viol and lute in our corporeal and civil recreations . by the timbrel in those actions which are of a spiritual and natural mixture . by the dance in all those things wherein we move together , and counteract apart , by deeds , words , and dissenting opinions ; for in a dance , are various motions , sidings , turnings , returnings , and moving all one way . by ten steinged i●struments and the organ ▪ the faculties of our souls and the members of our bodies . by cymbals , and loud cymbals , the internal breathings , and external ejaculations of the heart and voice in prayer and praising god. the last two lines of both the foregoing stanza's , consisting of ten a piece are but a supplement to my paraphrase of the 150 psalm , and not found in the original . this is in brief my private judgment , not totally excluding the sense and interpretation of other pious men . finis . taylor his trauels: from the citty of london in england, to the citty of prague in bohemia the manner of his abode there three weekes, his obseruations there, and his returne from thence: how he past 600 miles downe the riuer of elue, through bohemia, saxony, anhalt, the bishoprick of madeberge, brandenberge, hamburgh, and so to england. with many relations worthy of note. by iohn taylor. taylor, john, 1580-1653. 1620 approx. 49 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 17 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a13508 stc 23802 estc s118294 99853501 99853501 18885 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a13508) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 18885) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1036:25) taylor his trauels: from the citty of london in england, to the citty of prague in bohemia the manner of his abode there three weekes, his obseruations there, and his returne from thence: how he past 600 miles downe the riuer of elue, through bohemia, saxony, anhalt, the bishoprick of madeberge, brandenberge, hamburgh, and so to england. with many relations worthy of note. by iohn taylor. taylor, john, 1580-1653. [32] p. printed by nicholas okes, for henry gosson, and are to bee sold by edward wright, london : 1620. partly in verse. signatures: a-d⁴. running title reads: taylors trauells to bohemia. reproduction of the original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng germany -description and travel -early works to 1800. bohemia (czech republic) -description and travel -early works to 1800. 2000-00 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2001-08 tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread 2001-08 tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion taylor his trauels : from the citty of london in england , to the citty of prague in bohemia . the manner of his abode there three weekes , his obseruations there , and his returne from thence : how he past 600 miles downe the riuer of elue , through bohemia , saxony , anhalt , the bishoprick of madeberge , brandenberge , hamburgh , and so to england . with many relations worthy of note . by iohn taylor . london printed by nicholas okes , for henry gosson , and are to bee sold by edward wright . 1620. the right hon. ble algernon capell , earl of essex , viscount maldon , & baron capell of hadham . 1701 reader take this in your way . a pamphlet ( reader , ) from the presse is hurld , that hath not many fellowes in the world : the maner's cōmon , though the matter 's shallow , and 't is all true , which makes it want a fellow . and because i would not haue you either guld of your mony , or deceiued in expectation , i pray you take notice of my plaine dealing ; for i haue not giuen my booke aswelling bumbasted title , of a promising inside of newes ; therefore if you looke for any such matter from hence , take this warning , hold fast your mony , and lay the booke downe : yet if you do buy it ( i dare presume ) you shall find somewhat in it worth part of your mony ; the troth is that i did chiefely write it , because i am of much acquaintance , and cannot passe the streets , but i am continually stayed by one or other , to know what newes , so that sometimes i am foure houres before i can go the length of too paire of butts , where such non-sence or sencelesse questions are propounded to me , that calles many seeming wise mens wisedoms in question , drawing aside the curtaines of their vnderstandiug , and laying their ignorance wide open . first iohn easie takes me , and holds mee fast by the fist halfe an houre , and will needes torture some newes out of me from spinola , whom i was neuer neere by 500 miles ; for hee is in the pallatinate country , and i was in bohemia . i am no sooner eased of him , but gregory gandergoose , an alderman of gotham catches me by the goll , demaunding if bohemia bee a great towne , and whether there be any meare in it , and whether the last fleet of shipps be ariued there : his mouth being stop'd , a third examines mee boldly , what newes from vienna , where the emperours army is , what the duke of bauaria doth , what is become of count buquoy , how fares all the englishmen ; where lies the king of bohemiaes forces , what bethlem gabor doth , what tydings of dampeier , and such a tempest of inquisition , that it almost shakes my patience in pieces . to ease my selfe of all which , i was inforced to set pen to paper , & let this poore pamphlet ( my harrald or nuntius ) trauell & talke , whilst i take my ease with silence . thus much i dare affirme , that whosoeuer hee or they bee , that do scatter any scandalous speeches against the plenty in bohemia of all manner of needfull things for the sustenance of man and beasts , ( of the which there is more aboundance then euer i saw in any place else ) or whatsoeuer they bee that report any ill successe on the kings party , this little booke , and i the author doth proclaime and proue them false lyers , and they are to be suspected , for coyning such falshoods , as no well-willers to the bohemian prosperity . one thing i must entreate the readers patience in reading one hundred lines ; wherein , i haue kept a filthy stirre about a beastly fellow , who was ( at my going from england , a piece of a graues-end constable ) at which time hee did mee such wrong , as might haue drawne my life in question ; for hee falsly sayd that i would haue fired their towne . i did promise him a ierke or two of my penne at my returne ; which now i haue performed , ( not out of any mallice , but because i would bee as good as my word with him . ) thus crauing you to reade if you like , and like as you list . i leaue you a booke much like a pratling gossip , full of many words to small purpose . yours , as you are mine . iohn taylor . taylors travels , from the citty of london in england , to the citty of prague in bohemia . i come from bohem , yet no newes i bring , of busines 'twixt the keysar and the king : my muse dares not ascend the lofty staires of state , or write of princes great affaires . and as for newes of battells , or of war , were england from bohemia thrice as far : yet we do know ( or seeme to know ) more heere then was , is , or will euer be knowne there . at ordinaries , and at barbers shopps , there tydings vented are , as thick as hopps , how many thousands such a day were slaine , what men of note were in the battell ta'ne , when , where , and how the bloody fight begun , and how such sconces , and such townes were won ; how so and so the armies brauely met , and which side glorious victory did get : the month , the weeke , the day , the very houre , and time , they did oppose each others powre , these things in england prating fooles do chatter , when all bohemia knowes of no such matter . for all this summer , that is gone and past , vntill the first day of october last , the armies neuer did together meete , nor scarce their eie sight did each other greet : the fault is neither in the foote or horse , of the right valiant braue bohemian force , from place to place they daily seeke the foe , they march , and remarch , watch , ward , ride , run , goe , and grieuing so to waste the time away , thirst for the hazard of a glorious day . but still the enemy doth play bopeepe , and thinkes it best in a whole skin to sleepe , for neither martiall pollicy , or might , or any meanes can draw the foe to fight : and now and then they conquer , spoile and pillage , some few thatcht houses , or some pelting village ; and to their trenches run away againe , where they like foxes in their holes remaine , thinking by lingring out the warres in length , to weaken and decay the beamish strength . this is the newes , which now i meane to booke , he that will needes haue more , must needes go looke . thus leauing warres , and matters of high state , to those that dare , and knowes how to relate , i 'le onely write how i past heere and there , and what i haue obserued euery where , i 'le truely write what i haue heard and eyed , and those that will not so be satisfied , i ( as i meete them ) will some tales deuise , and fill their cares ( by word of mouth ) with lies : the month that beares a mighty emp'rours name , ( augustus hight ) i passed downe the streame , friday the fourth , iust sixteene hundred twenty full moone , the signe in piscis , that time went i ; the next day being saturday , a day , which all greate brittaine well remember may , when all with thankes do annually combine , vnto th' almighty maiesty diuine , because that day , in a most happy season , our soueragne was preseru'd from gouries treason ; therefore to churches people do repaire , and offer sacrifice of praise and praire , with bells and bonfires , euery towne addressing , and to our gracious king their loues expressing , on that day , when in euery nooke and angle , fag gots and bauins smoak'd , and bells did iangle : onely at graues-end , ( why i cannot tell , ) there was no sparke of fire , or sound of bell , their steeple , ( like an instrument vnstrung , ) seem'd ( as i wish all scolds ) without a tong , their bonfires colder then the greatest frost , or chiller then their charities ( almost ) which i perceiuing , sayd i much did muse , that graues-end did forget the thankfull vse , which all the townes in england did obserue ; and cause i did the king of brittaine serue , i and my fellow , for our maisters sake , would ( neere the waters side ) a bonfire make ; with that a scotch man , tompson by his name , bestowed foure faggots to increase the flame , at which ( to kindle all ) a graues-end baker , bestowed his bauine , and was our partaker : we 18 foote from any house retir'd , where we a iury of good faggots fir'd ; but ere the flame , or scarce the smoake began , there came the fearefull shaddow of a man , the ghost or image of a constable , whose frantick actions ( downeright dunce-stable , ) arm'd out of france and spaine , with bacchus bounty : ( of which ther 's plenty in the kentish county , ) his adle coxcomb with tobaco puff'd` his guts with ale full bumbasted and stuff'd , and though halfe blind , yet in a looking glasse , he could perceiue the figure of an asse ; and as his slauering chapps non-sense did stutter , his breath ( like to a iakes ) a sent did vtter , his leggs indenting scarcely could beare vp , his drunken trunk ( o're charg'd with many a cup. ) this riff raff rubbish , that could scarcely stand , ( hauing a staffe of office in his hand , ) came to vs as our fire began to smother , throwing some faggots one way , some another , and in the kings name did first breake the peace , commanding that our bonfire should succease . the sotchman angry at this rudnes done , the scattered faggots , he againe layd on : which made the demy constable go to him , and punch him on the brest , and outrage do him ; at which a cuffe or twaine were giuen , or lent , about the eares , ( which neither did content . ) but then to heare how fearefull the asse braid , with what a hideous noyse he houl'd for aid , that all the ale in graues-end , in one houre , turn'd either good , bad , strong , small , sweete , or soure : and then a kennell of incarnate currs , hang'd one poore thomson , like so many burrs ; haling him vp the dirty streetes , all foule , ( like diuells pulling a condemned soule . ) the iaylor ( like the grand deu'll ) gladly sees , and with an itching hope of fines and fees , thinking the constable , and his sweete selfe , might drinke and quaffe with that ill gotten pelfe ; for why such hounds as these , may if they will , vnder the shew of good , turne good to ill ; and with authority the peace first breake , vvith lordly domineering or'e the weake , committing ( oft ) they care not whom or why , so they may exercise themselues thereby , and with the iaylor share both fee and fine , drowning their damned gaine in smoake and wine : thus hirelings constables , and iaylors may , abuse the kings leige people night and day , i say they may , i say not they do so , and they know best if they do so or no. they hal'd poore thomson all along the streete , tearing him that the ground scarce touch'd his feete , which he perceiuing , did request them cease their rudenes , vowing he would go in peace , he would with quietnesse go where they would , and prayed them from his throate to loose their hold . some of the townesmen did entreat them there , that they their barbarous basenes would forbeare , but all entreaty was like oyle to fire , not quenc'd ; but more enflam'd the scuruy squire . then they afresh began to hale and teare , ( like mungrell mastifes , on a little beare , ) leauing kind tompsom neither foote or fist , nor any limb or member to resist , who being thus opprest with ods and might , most valiant with his teeth , began to bite , some by the fingers , others by the thumbs , he fang'd within the circuit of his gummes ; great pitty'twas his chapps did neuer close , on the halfe constables , cheekes , eares , or nose ; his seruice had deseru'd reward to haue , if he had mark'd the peasant for a knaue : yet all that labour had away bin throwne , through towne and country he 's already knowne ; his prisoner , he did beate , and spurn'd and kick'd , he search'd his pockets ( i 'le not say he pick'd ) and finding ( as he sayd ) no mony there , to heare how then the bellwether did sweare , and almost tearing tompson into quarters , bound both his hands behind him with his garters , and after in their rude robustious rage , tide both his feete , and cast him in the cage , there all night he remained in lowsie litter , which for the constable had bin much fitter , or for some vagabond ( that 's sprung from caine , ) some rogue or runagate , should there haue laine , and not a gentleman that 's well descended , that did no hurt , nor any harme intended : but for a bonfire in fit time and place , to be abus'd and vs'd thus beastty base . there did i leaue him till the morrow day , and how he scap'd their hands i cannot say . this piece of officer , this nasty patch , ( whose vnderstanding sleepes out many a watch ) ran like a towne bull , roring vp and downe , saying that we had meant to fire the towne ; and thus the diuell his maister did deuise , to bolster out his late abuse with lies ; so all the streete downe as i past along , the people all about me in a throng , calling me villaine , traytor , rogue , and theife , saying that i to fire their towne was cheife . i bore the wrongs as patient as i might , vowing my pen should ease me when i write ; like to a grumbling cur , that sleepes on hay , eates none himselfe , driues other beasts away , so this base fellow would not once expresse , vnto his prince , a subiects ioyfulnesse , but cause we did attempt it ( as you see ) h'imprison'd thompson , and thus slandered me . thus hauing eas'd my much incensed muse , i craue the reader this one fault excuse , for hauing vrg'd his patience all this time , with such a scuruy subiect , and worse rime ; and thou graues-endian officer take this , and thanke thy selfe , for all that written is , 't is not against the towne this tale i tell , ( for sure there doth some honest people dwell , ) but against thee , thou fiend in shape of man , by whom this beastly outrage first began , which i could do no lesse , but let thee know , and pay thee truely what i long did owe , and now all 's euen betwixt thou and i , then farrewell and be hang'd , that 's twice god buy . sunday the 26 of august we set sayle from graues-end , and with various windes , some large and some scarce , we happily past the seas , and sayled vp the riuer of maze , by the brill , and on the wednesday following i ariued at roterdam in holland , at which time the worthy regiment of the right honorable colonell sir horace veare , and the two noble earles , of essex , and oxford departed from thence in martiall equipage toward the pallatinate country , whose heroick and magnanimous endeauors , i beseech the lord of hosts , and god of battells to direct and blesse . the same day , i went to the hage , and from thence to leyden , where i lodged all night , and the morrow being thurseday the 30 of august , i sayled from leyden , to amsterdam , where i saw many things worthy the noting , but because they are so neere and frequent to many of our nation , i omit to relate them , to auoid teadiousnes : but on the friday at night i got passage from thence towards hambrogh , in a small hoy , in the which wee were weather-beaten at sea three dayes and nights before wee ariued there . saterday the eight of september i left hambrogh , and being carried day and night in waggons , on the munday night following i came to an ancient towne called heldesheim , it standeth in brunswick land , and yet it belongeth to the bishop of collin , where i did obserue in their doome kirke , or cathedrall church , a crowne of siluer 80 foote in compasse , hanged vp in the body of the church , in the circuit of which crowne were placed 160 wax candles , the which on festiuall dayes , or at the celebration of some high ceremonies are lighted to lighten their darknesse , or their ignorance , chuse yee whether . moreouer there i saw a siluer bell in their steeple , of six hundred and 30 l. weight , and the leades of their steeple , shining and sparkling with the sun beames , they did affirme to mee to bee gold , the truth of which i am doubtfull of . in this towne i stayed foure dayes , and on friday the 14 of september , i went six dutch miles to the strong towne of brunswick , where by reason of my short stay , which was but two houres , i obserued nothing worthy of memory , but their triple walls , and double ditches , their artillery and fortifications , which they thinke to be impregnable ; besides , there i saw an old house of the duke of brunswicke , with the statue of a golden lyon , of a great bignesse , standing aloft vpon a piller , with the broken walls , and houses , which the dukes cannon hath left there six yeares since , as tokens and badges of his fury , and their rebellion . from thence on the morrow i went one dutch mile further , to an ancient towne called wolfunbuttle , where the duke of brunswick keepes his court , in the which i and my fellow could get no further admittance , then ouer a bridge into his outtermost , or base court ; for his souldiers , seeing vs with swords and pistolls , were fearefull , belike , that wee would haue taken the fortresse from them , and therefore though wee were but two englishmen , yet they durst not let vs enter ; which made men call to remembrance the frequent , and dayly egresse and regresse , that all people and nations haue to his maiesty royal court of great brittaine , where none that are of any good fashion or aspect are debar'd entrance : when those inferiour princes houses are garded with hungry halberdiers , and reuerend rufty bil-men , with a brace or two of hot shots , so that their pallaces are more like prisons , then the free & noble courts of cōmanding potentates . after two dayes entertainment at wolfunbuttle , with an english merchant residing there , of good fame and credit , named maister thomas sackuille , i wish my brother , my fellow tilbery , and another man in my company departed from thence on foote , onward on our iourny towards bohemia , in which trauell , what occurrences hapned , and what things of note i saw , were as followeth . passing with many weary steps , through the townes of rosondink , remling , soolem , hessen darsam , and haluerstade , ( which is all in brunswick land , ) but this towne of haluerstade belongs to a bishop so stiled , who is duke christian brother to the now duke of brunswick , a long dutch mile ( or almost six english ) is a small towne or a bleck called groning belonging to the duke , in the which place i obserued two things worthy of remembrance . first a most stately pallace built with a beautiful chappell , so adorned with the images and formes of angells , and cherubins , with such exquisitenes of arts best industry of caruing , grauing , guilding , painting , glasing , and pauing , with such superexcellent workmanship of organes , pulpit and font , that for curiosity and admirable rarenesse , all the buildings , and fabricks that euer i beheld , must giue it preheminence . i confesse that henry the seuenths chappell at westminster , kings colledge chappell in cambridge , and christs church in canterbury , are beyond it in height and workmanship of stone : for indeed this chappell is most of wood gipps , and plaster of parris ; but it is so guilded as if it had bin made in the golden age , when gold was esteemed as drosse , so that a man had need to weare a vaile ouer his dazeling eyes , or else he can hardly looke vpon it . the caruing and painting seeme to outgo the arts of pigmalion , apelles , or praxiteles ; the pauing of chequered blacke and white marble , and the windowes glassed with christall : but all this great cost and shew is very little to the honor of god , or the propagation of the ghospel , the edification of the ignorant . for in this chappell of ease , there is no seruice . if the painted pulpit could preach , the dumbe images might ( perhaps ) haue a sermon now and then ; for scarce at any time there comes any body into the chappell , but a fellow that shewes the beauty of it for two pence or three pence a piece . in the same house , in a place or celler built of purpose , is a great tonne or vessell of wood , that was 7 yeares in making , and hath vsed to be filled with rhenish wine : it is sayd to bee twice as bigge as the vessell at heidelberg , and the hoopes of it are twelue inches thick , and the staues or bordes of it being as much : i went vp to the top of it , with a ladder of 18 stepps , hee that keepes it saith it will hold 160 tonnes . my fellow tilbery did creepe in at the tap hole ; it is in length 32 foote , and in breadth acrosse 19 , and verily i thinke that bable cost more mony the making , then would haue built a good ship , or founded an almes house for 6 poore people . this is a tub of tubs , tub of tubs hall , who n'ere had fellow yet , nor euer shall ; o had diogenes but had this a ton , he would had thought that he more roome had won , then alexanders conquests , or the bounds of the vast occean , and the solid grounds . or had cornelius but this tub , to drench his clients that had practis'd too much french , a thousand hogsheads then would haunt his firkin , and mistris minks recouer her lost mirkin . this mighty cask great bacchus vs'd too stride , when he to drunkards hall did often ride ; and in this barrell he did keepe his court , bathing himselfe in rhenish for disport . but now these 8 yeares it hath dry bin kept ; in it the wine-god hath nor pist or wept ; that now the cappell , and the cask combine , one hath no preaching , t'other hath no wine . and now the vse they put it to is this , 't is shew'd for mony , as the chappell is . from groning wee trauelled to a towne called ashers leauen , to ashleauen , to kinderne , to hall , and so to leipzig , which is one of the chiefest townes in saxony , being famous for a yearely mart that is yearely held there , whereto merchants and other people from the most part of christendom haue annual concourse : in this towne we stayd two dayes , and taking our leaue then of some english merchants , who vsed vs kindly , we there would haue hired a coach or waggon to prague ; but all the saxon coach-men and carters were afraid to looke vpon any part of bohemia , because their duke is a profest enemy in armes against the king of beame , so that we were forced to hire a fellow with a wheelebarrow two dayes to carry our cloakes , swords , guns , pistolls , and other apparell and luggage which were our necessaries , to a towne called boorne , to froburge , and so to another towne called penigh , where wee cashierd our one-wheel'd coach , and hired a cart with two , which carried both vs and our baggage to chemnizt another towne in saxony , from whence to a place called shop , wee were faine to bee our owne sumpter horses , walking on foote to the last towne in saxony , called marienberg . from thence passing vp and downe inaccessable mountaines , we came to a wood , which parts bohemia from saxony on the west , which wood is called by the people of those parts the beamer wolts or wolt , and is in breadth to english miles , and in length further then i know how to describe truely : but this much of it i dare affirme , that it is a naturall impregnable wall to the kingdome of bohem , which kingdome is all incompast round with woods and mountaines , so that there is no passage on that side of it , for any army to enter into it with munition and artillery , all the wayes being vneuen , and the mountaine tops all boggs , mosses , and quagmires , that great ordnance or any heauy cariage either of horse , cart or waggon , will sinke and be lost . besides , there are numbers past numbring of firre trees , many standing , and such store fallen of themselues , that any passage might easily be stopped by laying them crosse the way . and of all my iourny , the trauell through that dismall wood was the most heauy vnto mee , for the trees grew so thicke , and so high , that the sunne was obscured , and the day seemed night ; in some places , the way paued with swimming trees 2 miles together on the tops of hills , which now and then i slipping besides , sunke to the middle in a quagmire . when wee had thus footed it , and trauelled past the hills and woods , ( being at the least 4 houres toyle ) and that wee might looke downe the mountaines into the fruitfull land of bohem , neuer did sight more reioyce vs , the lower hills being all full of vineyards , and the vallies , corne and pasture ; not an english mile distance , but a village euery way ; and twenty , thirty , or forty reekes or stacks of corne which their barnes cannot hold , in the space of euery houres iourny : in a word , euery thing that belonged to the vse and commodity of man was and is there , and al the delightfull obiects to satisfie euery sence is there abundantly , so that nature seemed to make that country her storehouse or granary , for there is nothing wanting except mens gratitude to god for such blessings . the first night we lodged there at a pretty towne called comoda , which towne by negligence and occasion of fire had fifty houses burnt two dayes before our comming thither , it being eleuen dutch miles from prague . there we hired a wagon 7 dutch miles to a towne called slowne , from whence we walked on foote a long 16 english miles to prague , which long looked for the citty wee could not see vntill we came within an houres trauell of it : within halfe a dutch mile is a fearefull place , being frequented with inhumaine and barbarous murderers , that assault trauellers , first shooting and murdring them , and after searching their pockets , where if they haue mony or not , all is one , it is but so many slaine : for these villaines haue a wood , and a deepe valley to shelter themselues in , that they are hardly taken afterwards ; but if they chance at any time to be but apprehended , they are racked and tortured to make them confesse , and afterwards their executions are very terrible . but ( i thanke god ) wee past that place , and many other as dangerous as that , where some were robbed and murdered ( as report told vs ) both before vs , behind vs , and on each side : and we saw in our iourny aboue seauen score gallowses and wheeles , where thieues were hanged some fresh , and some halfe rotten , and the carkases of murtherers , broken limb after limb on the wheeles ; and yet it was our happines onely to see the dead villaines , and escape the liuing . i came into prague on thurseday the seauenth of september , whither if i had come but the friday before , i had seene a most fearefull execution of two notorious offenders ; the manner how , with their faults , as it was truely related to me by english gentlemen that saw it , i thinke it not much impertinent to relate . the one of them being taken , apprehended and racked , for ripping vp aliue a woman with child , and for taking the infant out of her body , did sowe a liuing puppy into her belly ; all which hee confessed hee did to make properties for wichcraft : and beeing further tortured , hee confessed when and where hee had committed 35. murthers more : the other in respect of him was but a petty offender , for he in all his life time had murthered but 14. for the which execrable facts , their deserued executions were as followeth : first , they were brought out of the iayle naked from the girdle vpward ; and so being bound fast on high in a cart , that the spectators might see them ; then the hangman hauing a panne of coales neere him , with red hot pincers nip'd off the nipple of one brest ; then he tooke a knife and giues him a slash or cut downe the backe on one side , from the shoulder to the waste ; and presently gaue him such another slash , three inches from the first ; then on the top he cut the slashes into one ; , and presently taking pincers , tooke hold of the crosse cut , and tore him downe like a girse below the middle , letting it hang downe behind him like a belt : after which he tooke his burning pincers , and pluck'd off the tops of his fingers of one hand : then passing to another place of the towne , his other nipple was plucked off , the other side of his back so cut and mangled , ( which they call by the name of rimming , ( if it had beene riming , i would neuer haue written but in prose ) his other fingers nip'd off ; then passing further , all his toes were nip'd off with the burning pincers : after which he was enforced to come out of the cart , and goe on foote vp a steepe hill to the gallowes , where he was broken with a wheele , aliue , one bone after another , beginning at his legs and ending with his neck , and last of all quartered and layd on the wheele , on a high post , till crowes , rauens , or consuming time consume him . this was the manner of both their executions , but i speake but of the greatest murtherer particularly , because it is reported , that all these torments neuer made him once to change countenance , or to make any signe or action of griefe , to call to god for mercy , or to entreate the people to pray for him ; but as if he had beene a senselesse stocke or stone , he did most scornefully , and as it were in disdaine abide it : whilst the other villaine did crye , rore , and make lamentation , calling vpon god often ; the difference was not much in their liues , and manner of their deaths , but i am perswaded the odds was great in their dying . the city of prague is almost circular or round , being diuided in the middle by the riuer of moldoue , ouer which is a faire stone bridge , of 600. paces ouer , and at each end a strong gate of stone : there is said to be in it of churches and chappels , 150. for there are great numbers of catholiques , who haue many chappels dedicated to sundry saints , and i was there at foure seueral sorts of diuine exercises ; viz. at good sermons with the protestants , at masse with the papists , at a lutherans preaching , and at the iewes synagog ; three of which i saw and heard for curiosity , and the other for edification . the iewes in prague are in such great numbers , that they are thought to be of men , women and children , betwixt 50. or 60000. who doe all liue by brocage and vsury vpon the christians , and are very rich in money and iewels , so that a man may see tenne or twelue togither of them , that are accounted worth 20. 30. or 40000. l. apiece ; and yet the slaues goe so miserably attired , that 15. of them are not worth the hanging for their whole wardrobes . the castle where the king and queene doe keepe their court , is magnificent and sumptuous in building , strongly situated and fortified by nature and art , being founded on a high hill , so that at pleasure it keepes the towne in command , and it is much more spacious in roomes for receipt in gardens and orchards , then the towre of london . i was in it dayly the space of 20 dayes , and saw it royally graced with the presence of a gracious king & queen , who were honorably attēded by a gallant courtly traine of lords and ladies , and gentles , of the high dutch and bohemians , and where was free & bountiful entertainment to strangers in abundance : i must euer humbly and thankfully acknowledge the queenes maiesties goodnesse towards mee , whose vndeserued fauours were helpful vnto me both there , and in my tedious iorny home-ward . moreouer there i saw ( and had in mine armes ) the king and queenes yongest son , prince robert , who was borne there on the 16 of december last : a goodly child as euer i saw of that age , whom with the rest i pray god to blesse ; to his glory and his parents ioy and comfort . there ( for a token ) i did thinke it meete , to take the shoes from off this prince his feete : i doe not say i stole , but i did take , and whilst i liue i 'le keepe them for his sake : long may his grace liue to be stylde a man , and then i 'le steale his bootes too , if i can . the shoes were vpright shoes , and so was he that wore them , from all harme vpright and free : he vsde them for their vse , and not for pride , he neuer wrong'd them , or ne're trod a side . lambskin they were , as white as innocence , ( true patternes for the footsteps of a prince , ) and time will come ( as i do hope in god ) he that in childhood with these shooes was shod , shall with his manly feete once trample downe , all antichristian foes to his renowne . the citty of prague , hath in it ( by reason of the wars ) thrice the number of it's owne inhabitants , and yet for all that , victuals is in such great plenty , that 6 men cannot eate three halfe penny worth of bread , and i did buy in the market a fat goose well roast for the vallew of nine pence english , and i and my brother haue dined there at a cookes with good roasted meate , bread and beere , so that we haue bin satisfied and left , for the vallew of fiue pence : a good turky there may bee bought for two shillings , and for fresh fish i neuer saw such store , for in one market day i haue knowne in prague 2000 carps , besides other fishes , which carps in london are fiue shillings a piece , and there they were for eight pence , or ten pence at the most , so that one of their fresh fish markets heere were worth at the least 5 or 600 pounds , and as for all other manner of wild foule , they are there in satiety , besides their fruites are in such abundance that i boght a basket of grapes of the quantity of halfe a pecke for a penny & farthing , & a hat-ful of faire peaches for as much , pickled cowcumbers i haue bought a pecke for three pence , and muskmellons , there hath bin cast fiue or six carts load of them in one day to their hoggs . as concerning the dyet that is in the kings armies , i could neuer yet heare any man complaine of want , but that it is more plentifull then in the citty , the greatest scarcity hath bin to some sicke souldiers , who being not able to march with the leaguers ( by reason of their weakenes ) they haue bin left amongst the boores , or husbandmen in the next villages , where their languages not vnderstood , their succour hath bin but small , but for all this in the campe hath euer bin a continuall cheapnes of all things , the king most duely paying his souldiers at the end of euery month , hauing in his great leguer , vnder the conduct of the princes of hollock and anhalt , of foote and horse 43000 , and at the least of carts and waggons to carry prouision , and baggage for the army , to the number of 18000. in his little leaguer vnder the leading of count mansfelt there are of foote and horse 7000 , besides carrs and waggons for carriage , and yet for these great numbers of men and beastes , there is food in all abundance . in the campe with graue mansfelt is the brittane regiment vnder their colonel sir andrew gray knight , and in prague i met with many worthy gentlemen and souldiers , which were there sicke , as the worthy captaine bushell , lieutenaut grimes , lieuetenant langworth , ancient galbreath , ancient vandenbrooke , maister whitney , maister blundell and others , all which did most courteously entertaine me , vnto whom i must euer rest thankful , and they do affirme that now it hath pleased god to grant their souldiers recouery , that they do hope euery brittaine souldier doth retaine more good spirit , then 3 enemies of what nation soeuer . thus hauing shewed part of the best things in bohemia , the court and citty of prague , it shall not be amisse if i relate a little merily , of some things there tolerable , some intollerable , some naught and some worse then naught ; for as euery rose hath a prickle , and euery bee a sting , so no earthly kingdome hath such persection of goodnesse , but it may be iustly taxed with imperfections . prague is a famous , ancient , kingly seate , in scituation and in state compleate , rich in aboundance of the earths best treasure , proud and high minded , beyond bounds or measure , in architecture stately ; in atire , bezonians and pleibeians do aspire , to be apparell'd with the stately port of worship , honor , or the royall court ; there coaches , and carroches are so rife , they do attend on euery trades mans wife , whose husbands are but in a meane regard , and get their liuing by the ell or yard , how euer their estates may be defended , their wiues like demy ladies are attended : i there a chimney sweepers wife haue seene , habillimented like the diamond queene , most gaudy garish , as a fine maid marrian , with breath as sweete as any suger carrion , with sattin cloake , lin'd through with budg , or sable , or cunny furre ( or what her purse is able ) with veluet hood , with tiffanies , and purles , rebatoes frizlings , and with powdred curles , and ( lest her hue or sent should be attainted , she 's antidoted , well persum'd and painted , she 's fur'd , she 's fring'd , she 's lac'd and at her wast , she 's with a massie chaine of siluer brac'd , she 's yellow starch'd , she 's ruff'd , and cuff'd , and muff'd , she 's ring'd , she 's braceleted , she 's richly tuff'd , her petticoale , good silke as can be bought , her smocke , about the taile lac'd round and wrought , her gadding legges are finely spanish booted , the whilst her husband , like a slaue all sooted , lookes like a courtier to infernall pluto , and knowes himselfe to be a base cornuto . then since a man that liues by chimny sweepe , his wife so gaudy richly clad doth keepe , thinke then but how a merchants wife may go , or how a burgamaisters wife doth show ; there ( by a kind of top sie turuy vse , ) the women weare the bootes , the men the shooes , i know not if 't be profit , or else pride , but sure th' are oft'ner riden then they ride : these females seeme to be most valiant there , their painting shewes they do no colours feare , most art-like plastring natures imperfections , with sublimated , white and red complexions ; so much for pride i haue obserued there , theire other faults are almost euery where . thus hauing stayd in prague almost 3. weekes , i returned from thence homeward , on tuesday , the 26. of september , hauing in my company three gentlemen , a widdow ( and foure small children ) whose husband and being an english man , and the kings brewer for beere , deceased , and was buried there in prague whilst i was there : the good desolate woman hauing receiued reward after seuen yeares seruice there and at heidelberg , being desirous to retire to her countrey ( england ) came with vs , with my brother , and my fellow tilbery . we tooke two coaches at the castle of prague , & in a day and halfe , we were carried seuen duch miles , to a towne in bohemia ( standing on the riuer of elue ) called leutmeritz , at which towne we all layd our moneyes together , and bought a boate of 48. foote in length , and not 3. foote in bredth , and because we did not know the riuer , wee hired a bohemian waterman to guide vs 15. dutch miles , to the towne of dreason in saxony . but 4. miles short of that town , which was the first towne in the saxon countrey , called pirne , where we were stayed 5. houres without the gates , til such time as the burgamaster wold be pleased to examin vs : in the meane space our waterman ( not daring to abide the terrible triall of examination , because the duke of saxon was in armes against the king of beame ) hee ran away , and left vs to bring the boate downe the riuer , 600. english miles our selues to hamburgh . but now to close vp all , i will relate what rare dyet , excellent cookery , and sweete lodging we had in ouriourney in germany : first for our comfort , after very hard getting of houseroome , our lodgings was euery night in straw , where lying together well littered , we honestly alwayes left our sheetes behind vs : then at our suppers at a table square , and so broad , that two men can hardly shake hands ouer it , we being some twelue about it . our first dish being a raw cabbadge , of the quantity of halfe a pecke , cut and chopped small , with the fat of resty bacon powred vpon it in stead of oyle ; which dish must be emptied before we could get any more : our second dish perhaps , a peck of boylde apples and honey , the apples being boyled skins , stalkes , cores , and all : thirdly , 100. gudgeons , newly taken perhaps , yet as salt as if they had beene three yeares pickled , or twice at the east indies , boyled with scales , guts an all , and buried in ginger like sawdust : a fresh pike as salt as brine , boyled in flat milke , with a pound of garlick . this was the manner of the most part of our dyet ; and if we did aske them why they did salt their meate so vnreasonably , their answere was , that their beer could not be consumed , except their meat were salted extraordinarily . if a man doe finde fault or seeme distasted with their beastly dyet , he is in danger to be thrust out of dores , and take vp his lodging in the streetes : and in the conclusion when dinner or supper is ended , then comes mine host , or his leather lip'd froe , with a sawcy reckoning of what they please , which sounds in our eares like a harsh epilogue , after a bad playe ; for what they say wee must pay , their words are irreuocable ( like the ancient kings of persia ) and we must not question or aske how and how it can bee so much , but pay them their demand without grumbling to halfe a farthing . which made me call to minde sixe seuerall principals , that doe belong to a traueller , as patience , silence , warinesse , watchfulnesse , a good stomacke , and a purse wel moneyed ; for if he want any one of these , ( perhaps ) the other fiue will neuer bring him to his iournies end . a mans patience must be such , that ( though he be a barron ) he must beare all abuses , either in words , lodging , dyet , or almost any thing , though offered from or by a sowter , a tinker , or a merchant of tripes & turneps ; his silence must be , that though he heare & vnderstand himselfe wronged , yet he must be as dumbe as a gudgeon or a whiting mop : and though his mouth be shut , his warinesse must be such , that his eares must be euer open , to listen and ouer-heare all dangers that may bee complotted against him : his watchfulnesse must be so , that he must seldome sleep with both his eyes at once , lest his throat be cut before he wake againe . but for his stomacke , hee must eate grasse with a horse , aud draffe with the hogges , for hee that cannot eate pickl'd herring broth , and dirty puddings , shall many times fast by authority , and goe to bed withont his supper : and last of all , he must haue fortunatus or a prince his purse , that must bee ( like a drunkards dagger ) euer drawne , to pay bountifully for such wash and graines , as his valiant stomack hrth ouercome , conquered and deuoured : but of this a little in verse : sixe things vnto a traueller belongs , an asses backe , t' abide and beare all wrongs : a fishes tougue ( mute ) grudging speech forbearing , a harts quick eare , all dangers , ouerhearing . a dogs eyes , that must wake as they doe sleepe , and by such watch his corpes from perill keepe . a swines sweete homely taste , that must digest al fish , flesh , rootes , fowle , foule and beastly drest ; and last , he must haue euer at his call a purse well lynde with coyne to pay for all . with this kinde of lodging and dyet , and with tedious labour sometimes night and day , wee came in 14. dayes 607. miles from prague in bohemia , to hambrogh on the hither skirts of germany , the riuer hauing aboue 1000. shelues and sands , and 800. ilands , so that a man cannot see on which side of them to goe , there being 240. mills chained in boates on the first streame , and a number numberlesse of oakes and other trees sunke with the violence of the riuer , and sometimes fogs and mists that we could not see a boates length from vs : besides great rocks , and stones that were fallen into the water , that any or many of these impediments do often ouerthrow boats , and drowne passengers ; yet i , and my fellow tilbery ( wee being both his maiesties watermen ) did by gods assistance safely escape them all , and brought our selues , as is afore-sayd , to hamborogh , where being winde bound 10. dayes , i thanke the english merchants , i was well welcomed , vntill at last it pleased god , the winde came faire , i tooke ship , and after 9. dayes and nights of various weather ( i giue prayse to the almighty ) i safely came home to my house in london , on saterday the 28. of september . 1620. you that haue bought this , grieue not at the cost , ther 's something worth your noting , al 's not lost , first halfe a constable is well bumbasted , if there were nothing else , your coynes not wasted , then i relate of hills , and dales , and downes , of churches , chappels , pallaces and townes , and then to make amends ( although but small ) i tell a tale of a great tub withall , with many a gallowse , iibbit , and a wheele , where murdrers bones are broke , from head to heele ; how rich bohemia is in wealth and food , of all things which for man or beast is good . how in the court at prague ( a princely place ) a gracious queene vouchsafed me to grace , how on the sixteenth day of august last , king frederick to his royall army past , how fifty thousand were in armes araid , of the kings force , be side th' hungarian ayde , and how bohemia strongly can oppose , and cuffe and curry all their daring foes . then though no newes of state , may heere be had , i know heer 's something will make good men glad , no bringer of strange tales i meane to be , nor i le beleeue none that are told to me . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a13508-e550 ●he first let●ers of his ●ames are l●nd ●nd his full ●ame being ●nnagrama●●'d is a tro●eler , a trobe●er he was to ●e , and so i ●eare he hath ●ene to my reader . three vveekes, three daies, and three houres obseruations and trauel, from london to hamburgh in germanie amongst iewes and gentiles, with descriptions of townes and towers, castles and cittadels, artificiall gallowses, naturall hangmen: and dedicated for the present, to the absent odcombian knight errant, sr. thomas coriat. great brittaines error, and the worlds mirror. by iohn taylor. taylor, john, 1580-1653. 1617 approx. 58 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a13513 stc 23807 estc s118268 99853475 99853475 18858 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a13513) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 18858) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 977:16) three vveekes, three daies, and three houres obseruations and trauel, from london to hamburgh in germanie amongst iewes and gentiles, with descriptions of townes and towers, castles and cittadels, artificiall gallowses, naturall hangmen: and dedicated for the present, to the absent odcombian knight errant, sr. thomas coriat. great brittaines error, and the worlds mirror. by iohn taylor. taylor, john, 1580-1653. [42] p. printed by edward griffin, and are to be sold by george gybbs at the signe of the flower-deluce in pauls church yard, london : 1617. signatures: a-e⁴ f² (-a1). running title reads: taylors trauels. reproduction of the original in the folger shakespeare library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng germany -description and travel -early works to 1800. 2002-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-09 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-10 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2002-10 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ●●ree vveekes , three daies , and three houres observations and travel , from london to hambvrgh in germanie : amongst iewes and gentiles , with descriptions of townes and towers , castles and cittadels , artificiall gallowses , naturall hangmen : and dedicated for the present , to the absent odcombian knight errant , s r. thomas coriat , great brittaines error , and the worlds mirror . by iohn taylor . london , printed by edward griffin , and are to be sold by george gybbs at the signe of the flower-deluce in pauls church yard . 1617. to the cosmographicall , geographicall describer , geometricall measurer ; historiographicall calligraphicall relater and writer ; enigmaticall , pragmaticall , dogmaticall obseruer , ingrosser , surueyer and eloquent brittish graecian latinist , or latine graecian orator , the odcombyan deambulator , perambulator , ambler , trotter , or vn-tyred traueller , sir thomas coriat , knight of troy , and one of the deerest darlings to the blinde goddesse fortune . most worthy sir , as quintilian in his apothegmes to the naked , learned , gimnosophists of aethiopia , very wittily saies , potanto machyo corbatio monomosco kayturemon lescus , ollipuff tingere whingo : which is , knowledge is a main antithesis to ignorance , and paines and trauell is the high way to experience . i being therefore well acquainted with the generous vrbanity innated or rooted in your humanity , ( in these daies of vanity , ) i dedicate ( out of my affability , debility , ability , imbecillity , facility , or agility , ) this poore pamphlet to your nobility , in all seruility and humility : not doubting but the fluent fecundity of your wisdomes profundity , in your heads rotundity , will conserue , reserue , preserue , and obserue , what i & my industrious labors deserue . i do ( out of mine owne cognition ) auerre and abett , that hee is senselesse that will assent , that the fates did assigne , with their whole assistance , that any should aspire , to be an associate in any assembly , boldly to assimulate , assay , assault , or ascribe to any mortall but your selfe , superlatiue maiority or transcendency for trauels , obseruations , and oratorie . these things being reuolued and ruminated , in the sagacitie or acutenesse of my pericranion , i imagined that no man vnder the cope was more worthy then your selfe to be a patronizing poplar to shelter my poore reed-like endeuors . howsoeuer in the preterlapsed occurrences there hath beene an antagonisticall repugnancy betwixt vs , yet i hope time and trauell hath worne it thred-bare , or brought it to a most irrecouerable consumption ; withall i know you are vncapable of inexpugnable malice , inueterate malignancy or emulation . i protest tongue-tide taciturnity should haue imprisoned this worke in the lethargicall dungeon , or bottomlesse abisse of euer-sleeping obliuion , but that i am confident of your patronage and acceptance , which if it fall out ( not according to any promerits of mine ) but out of mine owne expectation of your matchles and vnparalelld disposition , i shall heereafter sacrifice whole hecatombs of inuention both in prose and verse , at the shrine of your vnfellowed and vnfollowed vertues . so wishing more to see you then to heare from you , because writers want worke , and the presse is turned voluntarie through the scarcity of imployments , which i hope your presence will supply , i pray that neptune , aeolus , tellus , bacchus , and all the watery , windy , earthly , and drinking deities may be officious , auspicious , and delicious vnto you , humbly imploring you to take in good part this my sophisticall , paradoxicall , submission , with a mentall reseruation of my loue and seruice , to sympathize or be equiualent to your kind liking and corroborated affecting . he that hath a poore muse to trot in your seruice with all obsequious obseruance : iohn taylor . three weekes , three daies , and three houres trauels and obseruations . or , taylors travels . saturday the 17. of august , 1616. ( after i had taken leaue of some friends that would hardly giue me leaue to leaue them ) i was associated with fiue or sixe courteous comrades to the hauen of billingsgate , where i was no sooner come , but i was shipt in a wherry for the port of graues-end , and hauing two women and three men in my company thither , we past the way away by telling tales by turnes . where one of the women tooke vpon her very logically to defend the honesty of brokers , and she maintained her paradoxicall arguments so pithily , as if her selfe like a desperate pawne had layen seauen yeares in lauender on sweetning in long lane , or amongst the dogged inhabitants of houndsditch . and one of the men replied that he thanked god he neuer had any need of them , whereupon i began to suspect him to be a crafty knaue , because the prouerbe saies , a crafty knaue needs no broker , and indeede after i had enquired what countriman he was , he told me he was a welch man , and a iustices clarke . i left him as i found him , hoping neuer to be troubled with his binding ouer , and withdrawing : and so landing at graues-end , wee all went to the christopher where wee tooke a bachanalian farewell one of another , where i remained till the munday following , awayting the comming downe of the ship that i was to be transported in . about the houre of three in the afternoone , with good hope we weighed anchor , and with a curteous tide and a gentle winde we sailed downe the riuer of thames , as farre as the grand oyster hauen of quinborough , where though our ship was not sea-sicke , yet shee cast , ( anchor i meane . ) on the morrow , being tuesday , wee weighed , and with the friendly breath of zephirus , aliâs a westerne wind , our sailes being swolne , our ship called the iudith , who with her sterne cut the liquid mounting mountaines of neptunes wauering territories , as nimbly as hebrew iudith beheaded holofernes , so that by the bountifull fauour of him that rules both windes and seas , on the thursday following wee espied the coast of freezeland , and the next day wee sailed by an iland called the holy land , which may bee called the land of lobsters , or the countrie of crabs for the plentie of those kinde of crawling creatures that are taken there . but we , taking time by the fore-top , let no aduantage slip , but with a merry gale , and a friendly floud , on the friday wee sailed vp the riuer of elue , as farre as stoad , where we anchoured till the morrow , being saturday , and the feast of s. bartholmew the apostle , we ariued at a bleake aliâs , a towne an english mile from hamburgh , called altonagh , which is so called by the hamburgers because it stands all-too-nigh them for their profit , beeing inhabited with diuers tradesmen which doe hinder their freedome . i was no sooner landed there , but my company and my selfe went to a dutch drinking-schoole , and hauing vpsefreez'd foure pots of boone beere as yellow as gold , our host said we had foure shilling to betall , or to pay , which made me suspect it to bee a bawdy house by his large reckoning , till at last i vnderstood that the shillings hee meant were but stiuers , or three halfe pence a peece . so this terrible shot being discharged ( which in the totall amounted to the sum of sixepence english , ) we departed towards hamburgh , where by the way i noted some 20. men , women , and children in diuers places of altonagh , all deformed , some with one eye , some with hare-lips , crooke backt , splay footed , halfe-nozed , or one blemish or other . i admiring at them , was told they were all iewes , wherein i perceiued the iudgement of the high iudge of all , that had permitted nature to deforme their formes , whose gracelesse mindes were so much mishapen through want of grace . but i being entred the city of hamburgh on the saturday , i was presently conducted to the english house , where i found a kinde host , an honest hostesse , good company , store of meat , more of drinke , a true tapster , and sweet lodging . and being at dinner , because i was a stranger , i was promoted to the chiefest place at the table , where to obserue an olde custome , euery man did his best endeuour to hauns me for my welcome , which by interpretation is to giue a man a loafe too much out of the brewers basket ; in which kinde of pot-shot , our english are growne such stout proficients , that some of them dares bandy and contend with the dutch their first teachers . but after they had hanced me as well as they could , and i pleas'd , they administred an oath to mee , in manner and forme as followeth ; laying my hand on a full pot i sweare by these contents , and all that is heerein contained , that by the courteous fauour of these gentlemen , i doe finde my selfe sufficiently hanced , and that henceforth euer i shall acknowledge it ; and that whensoeuer i shall offer to be hanced again , i shall arme my selfe with the craft of a fox , the manners of a hogge , the wisdome of an asse , mixt with the ciuility of a beare . this was the forme of the oath , which as neere as i can shall be performed on my part ; and heere is to be noted that the first word a nurse or a mother doth teach her children if they be males , is drinke , or beere : so that most of them are transformed to barrels , firkins , and kinderkins , alwaies fraight with hamburgh beere . and though the city is not much more then halfe the bignes as london is within the walls , yet are there in it almost 800. brewhouses , and in one day there hath beene shipped away from thence , 337. brewings of beere , besides 13 or 14. brewings haue beene wrackt or stayed in the towne , as not sufficient to be bezelled in the country . the saturday beeing thus past , and sunday come , i went toward the english church , where i obserued many shops open , buying and selling , chopping and changing of all maner of wares , with the streetes furnished with apples , peares , plums , nuts , grapes , or any thing else that an ordinary market can afford , as commonly as if the sabbaoth were but a bare ceremony without a commandement . in which i note the iewes in their execrable superstition , to be more deuout and obseruant , then these pedlars in their profession ; for on the saturday ( beeing the iewes sabaoth ) they neglect all humane affares ▪ and betake themselues irreligiously to their misbeleeuing faithlesse religion . the sermon being ended at the english church , i walked in the afternoone with a friend of mine , ( an inhabitant of the towne ) to see and to be seene , where at one of the gates was placed a strong guard of souldiers with muskets , pikes , halberts , and other warlike accoutrements , i asked the cause , and i was informed it was because of the building of certaine new mounts and bulwarks , which were partly erected without the old wall : and when i perceiued these fortifications , i was amazed , for it is almost incredible for the number of men and horses that are daily set on worke about it , besides the work it selfe is so great that it is past the credit of report , and as i suppose will prooue most inexpugnable and inuincible rampiers to strengthen the towne on that side against the inuasiue attempts of the greatest monarke that should assaile them . but after much musing , walking further towards the fields , i espied foure or fiue pretty parcels of modesty goe very friendly into a counsell-house by the wayes side , as we and thousands of people vsed to passe ; they were handsome young girles of the age of 18. or 20. yeares a peece , and although they had a door to shut , yet they knowing their businesse to bee necessary and naturall , sate still in louing and neighbourly manner : so hauing traced a turne or two , wee returned into the towne againe , and entring a long garden within the walls , some of the townes-men were shooting for wagers at a marke with their muskets : some bowling : some at slide-thrift , or shouell-boord : some dancing before a blinde fidler and his cowbellied , dropsie , durty drabb : some at one game , some at another , most of them drinking , and all of them drunke , that though it was a sabboth , which should wholly be dedicated to god , yet by the abvse of these bursten-gutted bibbers , they made it an after-noone consecrated , or more truely execrated to the seruice of hell , and to the great amplification of the deuills kingdome . when christians dare gods sabboth to abuse , they make themselues a scorne to turkes and iewes : you stealing barabasses beastly race , rob god of glory , and your selues of grace . thinke on the supreame iudge who all things tries , when iewes in iudgement shall against you rise . their feigned trueth , with feruent zeale they show , the truth vnfeign'd you know , yet will not know . then at the barre in new ierusalem , it shall be harder much for you then them . but leauing them to their drunken designes , i return'd toward my lodging , where by the way i saw at the common iayle of the town , a great number of people were clustred together , i asked the cause of their concourse , and i was certified that there was a prisoner to be broken vpon the wheele the next day , and that these idle gazers did prease to gape vpon him for want of better imployments , i being as inquisitiue after nouelties , as a traueller of my small experience might be , enquired earnestly the true cause of the next daies execution : my friend told me that the prisoner was a poore carpenter dwelling in the towne , who lately hauing stolne a goose , and plucking it within his doores , a little girle , ( his daughter in law ) went out of his house , & left the dore open , by which meanes , the owner of the goose passing by , espied the wretched theefe very diligently picking what hee before had beene stealing , to whom the owner said ; neighbour i now perceiue which way my geese vse to goe , but i will haue you in question for them , and so away he went : the caitife being thus reproued grew desperate , and his child comming into his house ; ye yong whore , quoth hee , must ye leaue my dore open for folkes to looke in vpon me ? and with that word , hee tooke a hatchet , and with a fatall cursed stroake , he cloue the childes head : for the which murder hee was condemned and iudged to be broaken aliue vpon the wheele . close to the iayle i espied a house of free stone , round and flat roofed , and leaded , vpon the which was erected the true picture of a most vnmatchable hang-man ; and now i am entred into a discourse of this braue abiect , or subiect , you must vnderstand that this fellow is a merry , a mad and a subsidie hangman , to whom our tyburne tatterdemallian , or our wapping windpipe-stretcher , is but a raggamuffin , not woorth the hanging : for this teare-throat termagant is a fellow in folio , a commander of such great command , & of such greatnesse to command , that i neuer saw any that in that respect could countermand him : for his making is almost past description , no saracens head seemes greater , and sure i thinke his braine-pan if it were emptied , ( as i thinke hee hath not much braine in it , ) would well containe halfe a bushell of mault , his shaggie haire and beard would stuffe a cusheon for charons boate , his imbost nose and embroydered face , would furnish a ieweller ; his eies well dried , would make good tennis-balls , or shot for a small peece of ordinance , his yawning mouth would serue for a conniborrow , and his two ragged rowes of teeth , for a stone wall , or a pale ; then hath hee a necke like one of hercules his pillars , with a winde-pipe , ( or rather a beere pipe ) as bigge as the boare of a demiculuering , or a woodden pumpe ; through which conduit halfe a brewing of hamburgh beere doth run downe into his vnmeasurable paunch , wherein is more midriff , guts and garbage then three tripe-wiues could be able to vtter before it stunke . his post-like legges were answerable to the rest of the great frame which they supported , and to conclude , sir beuis , ascapart , gogmagog , or our english sir iohn falstaff , were but shrimpes to this bezzeling bombards longitude , latitude , altitude , and crassitude , for hee passes , and surpasses the whole germane multitude . and as he is great in corpulency , so is he powerfull in potency , for figuratiuely he hath spirituall resemblance of romish authority , and in some sort hee is a kinde of demy-pope , for once a yeere in the dogge-daies he sends out his men with bats in stead of buls , with full power from his greatnes to knocke downe all the curs without contradiction , whose masters or owners will not be at the charge to buy a pardon for them of his mightines , which pardon is more dureable then the popes of waxe or parchment , for his is made of a piece of the hide of an oxe , a horse , or such lasting stuffe , which with his stigmaticall stampe or seale is hanged about euery dogs necke who is freed from his furie by the purchase of his pardon . and sure i am perswaded that these dogges are more sure of their liues with the hangmans pardon , then the poore besotted blinded papists are of their seduced soules from any pardon of the popes . the priuiledges of this graund haulter-master are many , as he hath the emptying of all the vaults or draughts in the city , which no doubt he gaines some sauour by . besides all oxen , kine , horses , hogs , dogs , or any such beasts , if they dye themselues , or if they be not like to liue , the hang-man must knocke them on the heads , and haue their skins : and whatsoeuer inhabitant in his iurisdiction doth any of these things aforesaid himselfe , is abhorred and accounted as a villaine without redemption . so that with hangings , headings , breakings , pardoning and killing of dogges , flaying of beasts , emptying vaults , and such priuy commodities , his whole reuenue sometimes amounts to 4. or 5. hundred pounds a yeere . and hee is held in that regard and estimation , that any man will conuerse and drinke with him , nay sometimes the lords of the towne will feast with him , and it is accounted no impeachment to their honours ; for he is held in the ranke of a gentleman , ( or a ranke gentleman ) and he scornes to bee clad in the cast weedes of executed offenders : no , he goes to the mercers , and hath his sattin , his veluet , or what stuffe he pleases , measured out by the yard or the ell , with his gould and siluer lace , his silke stockings , laced spangled garters and roses , hat and feather with foure or fiue brauè villaines attending him in liuery cloakes , who haue stipendary meanes from his ignominious bounty . monday the 19. of august , about the houre of 12. at noone , the people of the towne in great multitudes flocked to the place of execution ; which is halfe a mile english without the gates , built more like a sconce then a gallowes , for it is walled and ditched about with a draw-bridge , and the prisoner came on foot with a diuine with ●im , all the way exhorting him to repentance , and because death should not terrifie him , they had giuen him many rowses and carowses of wine and beere : for it is the custome there to make such poore wretches drunke , whereby they may be sencelesse eyther of gods mercy or their owne miserie ; but being prayed for by others , they themselues may die resolutely , or ( to be feared ) desperately . but the prisoner beeing come to the place of death , hee was by the officers deliuered to the hangman , who entring his strangling fortification with two graund hangmen more and their men , which were come from the city of lubeck , and another towne , ( which i cannot name ) to assist their hamburghian brother in this great and weighty worke : the draw-bridge was drawne vp , and the prisoner mounted on a mount of earth , built high on purpose that the people without may see the execution a quarter of a mile round about : foure of the hangmans men takes each of them a small halter , and by the hands and the feet they hold the prisoner extended all abroad lying on his backe : then the arch-hangman , or the great master of this mighty busines tooke vp a wheele , much about the bignesse of one of the fore wheeles of a coach : and first hauing put off his doublet , his hat , and being in his shirt as if he meant to play at tennis , he tooke the wheele , and set it on the edge , and turned it with one hand like a top or a whirigigg , then he tooke it by the spoaks , and lifting it vp with a mighty stroke he beat one of the poore wretches leggs in peeces , ( the bones i meane ) at which hee rored grieuously ; then after a little pawse he breakes the other legg in the same manner , and consequently breakes his armes , and then he stroke foure or fiue maine blowes on his breast , and burst all his bulke and chest in shiuers , lastly he smoate his necke , and missing , burst his chin and iawes to mammocks ; then hee tooke the broken mangled corps , and spreads it on the wheele , and thrusts a great post or pile into the naue or hole of the wheele , and then fixed the post into the earth some sixe foot deepe , being in height aboue the ground , some tenne or twelue foote , and there the carkasse must lye till it be consumed by all-consuming time , or rauening fowles . this was the terrible manner of this horrid execution , and at this place are twenty posts with those wheeles , or peeces of wheeles , with heads of men nailed on the top of the posts , with a great spike driuen through the skull . the seuerall kinds of torments which they inflict vpon offenders in those parts , makes me to imagine our english hanging to be but a flea-biting . moreouer , if any man in those parts are to be beheaded , the fashion is , that the prisoner kneeles downe , and being blinded with a napkin , one takes hold of the haire of the crowne of the head , holding the party vpright , whilest the hangman with a backward blow with a sword will take the head from a mans shoulders so nimbly , and with such dexterity , that the owner of the head shall neuer misse the want of it . and if it be any mans fortune to be hanged for neuer so small a crime , though he be mounted whole , yet hee shall come downe in peeces , for he shall hang till euery ioynt and limbe drop one from another . they haue strange torments and varieties of deaths , according to the various nature of the offences that are committed : as for example , he that countersets any princes coyne , and is prooued a coyner , his iudgement is to be boyled to death in oyle , not throwne into the vessell all at once , but with a pully or a rope to bee hanged vnder the armepits , and let downe into the oyle by degrees : first the feete , and next the legs , and so to boyle his flesh from his bones aliue . for those that set houses on fire wilfully , they are smoked to death , as first there is a pile or post fixed in the ground , and within an english ell of the top of it is a peece of wood nailed crosse , wherepuon the offender is made fast sitting , then ouer the top of the post is whelmed a great tub or dryfat , which doth couer or ouerwhelme the prisoner as low as his middle . then vnderneath the executioner hath wet straw , hay , stubble , or such kinde of stuffe , which is fired , but by reason it is wet and danke , it doth not burn but smolder and smoake , which smoake ascends vp into the tub where the prisoners head is , and not being able to speake , hee will heaue vp and downe with his belly , and people may perceiue him in these torments to liue three or foure houres , adultery there , if it bee prooued , is punished with death , as the losse of both the parties heads , if they be both married , or if not both , yet the the married party must dye for it , and the other must endure some easier punishment , eyther by the purse or carkasse ; which in the end proues little better then halfe a hanging . but as after a tempest a calme is best welcome ; so i imagine it not amisse after all this tragicall harsh discourse , to sweeten the readers pallat with a few comicall reports which were related vnto me , wherein , if i seeme fabulous , it must be remembred that i claime the priuiledge of a traueller , who hath authority to report all that hee heares and sees , and more too . i was informed of a fellow that was hanged somewhat neere the high way , within a mile or two of collein , and the fashion being to hang him with a halter and a chaine , that when the haulter is rotten with the weather , the carkasse drops a butten hole lower into the chaine . now it fortuned that this fellow was executed on a winters afternoone towards night , and being hanged , the chaine was shorter then the halter , by reason whereof hee was not strangled , but by the gamming of the chaine which could not slip close to his necke , he hanged in great torments vnder the iawes , it happened that as soone as hee was trust vp , there fell a great storme of raine and winde , whereupon all the people ran away from the gallowes to shelter themselues . but night being come , and the moone shining bright , it chanced that a country boore , or a waggoner and his sonne with him were driuing their empty waggon by the place where the fellow was hanged , who being not choaked , in the extremity of his paines did stirre his legges and writhe and crumple his body , which the waggoners sonne perceiued , and said ; father looke , the man vpon the gallowes doth mooue : quoth the olde man he moues indeed , i pray thee let vs make hast , and put the waggon vnder the gibbet , to see if we can vnhang and saue him . this beeing said was quickely done , and the wretch halfe dead was laid in straw in the boores wagon , and carried home , where with good attendance he was in foure or fiue daies recouered to his health , but that he had a cricke in his necke , and the crampe in his iawes . the olde man was glad that he had done so good a deed , ( as he thought ) began to giue the thiefe fatherly counsell , and told him that it was gods great mercy towards him to make mee ( quoth he ) the instrument of thy deliuerance , and therefore looke that thou make good vse of this his gracious fauour towards thee , and labour to redeeme the time thou hast mispent , get thee in-into some other princes countrey , where thy former crimes may not bring thee into the danger of the law againe , and there with honest industrious endeuours get thy liuing . the theefe seemed willing to entertaine these good admonitions , and thanked the boore and his sonne , telling them that the next morning he would be gone ▪ and if euer his fortunes made him able , he promised to be so gratefull vnto them that they should haue cause to say their great curtesies were well bestowed vpon him ▪ but all his sugred sweet promises , were in the proofe but gall and wormwood in the performance : for this gracelesse caitiffe arose betimes in the morning , and drew on a paire of bootes and spurs which were the mans sonnes of the house , and slipping out of the dores , went to the stable and stole one of his kinde hosts best horses , and away rode hee . the man and his sonne , when they were vp and missed the thiefe and the horse , were amazed at the ingratitude of the wretch , and withall speed his sonne and he rode seuerall waies in pursuit of him , and in briefe one of them tooke him , and brought him backe to their house againe , and when it was night they bound him , and laid him in their wagon ( hauing deafe eares , and hardened hearts to all his intreaties ) and away to the gallowes where they found him hanging , there they with the halter being a little shortned , they left him . the next day the country people wondred to see him hanging there againe , for they had seene him hanged , and missed him gone , and now to be thus strangely and priuately come againe in boots and spurs , whereas they remembred at his first hanging he had shoes and stockings , it made them muse what iourney he had beene riding , and what a mad ghest he was to take the gallowes for his inne , or ( as i suppose ) for his end . the rumour of this accident being bruited abrood , the people came far and neere to see him , all in generall wondring how these things should come to passe . at last , to cleere all doubts , proclamations were published with pardon , and a reward to any that could discouer the truth , wherupon the old boore and sonne came in and related the whole circumstance of the matter . at another place ( the hangmans place being void ) there were two of the bloud , ( for it is to be noted that the succession of that office doth lineally descend from the father to the sonne , or to the next of the bloud ) which were at strife for the possession of this high indignity . now it happened that two men were to be beheaded at the same towne , and at the same time , and ( to auoid suite in law for this great prerogatiue ) it was concluded by the arbitrators , that each of these new hangmen should execute one of the prisoners , and hee that with greatest cunning and sleight could take the head from the body , should haue the place , to this they all agreed , & the prisoners were brought forth , where one of the executioners did binde a red silke thred double about his prisoners necke , the threds beeing distant one from another onely the bredth of one thred , and he promised to cut off the head with a backward blow with a sword , betweene the threds . the other called his prisoner aside , and told him that if he would bee ruled by him , hee should haue his life saued , and besides , ( quoth he ) i shall be sure to haue the office . the prisoner was glad of the motion , and said he wold doe any thing vpon these conditions , then said the hangman , when thou art on thy knees , and hast said thy prayers , and that i doe lift vp my axe , ( for i will vse an axe ) to strike thee , i will cry hem , at which word doe thou rise and run away , ( thou knowest none will stay thee if thou canst once escape after thou art deliuered into my custody , it is the fashion of our countrie ) and let me alone to shift to answer the matter . this being said , or whispered , the heads-man with the sword did cut off his prisoners head iust betweene the threds as hee had said , which made all the people wonder at the steddinesse of his hand , and most of them iudged that he was the man that was and would be fittest to make a mad hangman of . but as one tale is good till another be told , and as there be three degrees of good , better , and best , so this last hangman did much exceed and ecclips the others cunning : for his prisoner being on his knees , and he lifting vp his axe to giue the fatall blow , hem said he ( according to promise ) whereupon the fellow arose and ran away , but when he had ran some seuen or eight paces , the hangman threw the axe after him , and strooke his head smoothly from his shoulders : now for al this , who shall haue the place is vnknowne , for they are yet in law for it ; and i doubt not but before the matter be ended , that the lawyers will make them exercise their owne trades vpon themselues to end the controuersie . this tale doth sauour somwhat hyperbolicall , but i wish the reader to beleeue no more of the matter then i saw , and there is an end . at another towne there stood an olde ouerworne despised paire of gallowes , but yet not so old but they will last many a faire yeare with good vsage , but the townsmen a little distance from them built another pair , in a more stately geometricall port and fashion , whereupon they were demanded why they would be at the charge to erect a new gallowes , hauing so sufficient an old one : they answered , that those old gallowes should serue to hang fugitiues and strangers ; but those new ones were built for them and their heires for euer . thus much for hangmen , theeues , and gallowses . yet one thing more for theeues : in hamburgh those that are not hanged for theft , are chained 2. or three together , and they must in that sort sixe or seauen yeares draw a dung-cart , and clense the streetes of the towne , & euery one of those theeues for as many yeares as he is condemned to that slauery , so many bells he hath hanged at an iron aboue one of his shoulders , and euery yeare a bell is taken off , till all are gone , and then he is a freeman againe , and i did see ten or twelue of these carts , and some of the theeues had seuen bels , some 5. some 6. some one , but such a noyse they make , as if all the deuils in hell were dancing the morrice . hamburgh is a free city , not being subiect to the emperor , or any other prince , but onely gouerned by 24 burgomasters , whereof two are the chiefe , who are clled lords , adn doe hold that dignity from their first election during their liues ; the buildings are all of bricke , of one vniforme fashion , very lofty and stately , it is wonderfull populous , and the water with boates comes through most of the streetes of the towne . their churches are most gloriously set forth , as the most of them couered with copper , with very lofty spires , and within sides they are adorned with crucifixes , images and pictures , which they doe charily keepe for ornaments , but not for idle or idoll adoration ; in saint iacobs and in saint catherines churches , there is in one of them a pulpit of alablaster , and in the other a paire of such organs , which for worth and workemanship are vnparalelld in christendome , as most trauellers doe relate . the women there are no fashion-mongers , but they keepe in their degrees one continuall habite , as the richer sort doe weare a huicke , which is a robe of cloth or stuffe plaited , and the vpper part of it is gathered and sowed to a thing in the forme of an english potlid , with a tassell on the top , and so put vpon the head , and the garment goes ouer her ruffe and face if she please , and so down to the ground , so that a man may meet his owne wife , and perhaps not know her from another woman . they haue no porters to beare burdens , but they haue bigge burly-bon'd knaues with their wiues that doe daily draw carts any whether vp and downe the towne , with marchants goods or any other imployments : and it is reported that these cart-drawers are to see the rich men of the towne prouided of milch-nurses for their children , which nurses they call by the name of ams , so that if they doe want a nurse at any time , these fellowes are cursed , because they haue not gotten wenches enough with childe to supply their wants . but if a man of any fashion doe chance to goe astray to a house of iniquity , the whilst he is in the house at his drudgery , another of the whores will go to the sherif , ( which they call the rightheere ) and informe that such a man is in such a suspected howse , then is his comming forth narrowly watched , and hee is taken and brought before the right-heere , and examined , where if he be a man of credit , he must , and will pay forty , fifty , or sixty rex dollors before hee will haue his reputation called in question . of which money , the queane that did informe shall haue her reward . a lawyer hath but a bad trade there , for any cause or controuersie is tried and determined in three daies , quirks , quiddits , demurs , habeas corposes , sursararaes , procedendoes , or any such dilatory law-tricks are abolished , and not worth a button there . but aboue all , i must not forget the rare actions and humours of a quacksaluer or mountebanke , or to speake more familiarly , a shadow of a skilfull chirurgian . this fellow beeing clad in an ancient doublet of decayed satin , with a spruce leather ierkin with glasse buttons , the rest of his attire being correspondent , was mounted vpon a scaffold , hauing shelues set with viols , gallipots , glasses , boxes , and such like stuffe , wherein as he said , were waters , oyles , vnguents , emplasters , ellectuaries , vomits , purges , and a world of neuer heard of drugs ; and being mounted ( as i said ) he and his man begin to proclaime all their skill and more , hauing a great number of idle and ignorant gazers on , he began as followeth ( as i was informed by my interpreter ) for i vnderstood not one worde he spake . ) i iacomo compostella , practitioner in physicke , chyrurgery , and the mathematicks , being a man famous through europe , asia , affricke and america , from the orientall exaltation of titan , to his occidentall declination , who for the testimony of my skill , and the rare cures that i haue done , haue these princes hands and seales ; as first the great cham of tartaria , in whose court , onely with this water , which is the ellixar of henbane diafracted in a diurnall of ingredients hippocratonticke , auicenian , and catarackt , with this did i cure the great dutchesse of promulpho of the cramp in her tongue : and with this oyle did i restore the emperor gregory euanowich of a convulsion in his pericranion . from thence i trauelled through slauonia , where i met with mustapha despot of seruia , who at that time was intolerably vexed with a spasmus , so that it often droue him into a syncope with the violent obstructions of the conflagerating of his vaines . onely with this precious vnguent being the quintessence of mugwort , with auripigmenty terragrophicated in a limbecke of christalline translucency , i recouered him to his former health , and for my reward i had a barbary horse with rich caparisons , a turkish semitar , a persian robe , and 2000. hungarian ducats . besides , here are the hands and seales of potohamacke , adelantado of prozewgma , and of gulch flownderscurse chiefe burgomaster of belgrade , and of diuers princes and estates , which to auoid tedious prolixity i omit . but good people if you or any other be troubled with apoplexies , palsies , cramps , lethargies , cataracks , quincies , tisicks , pleurisies , coghs , headaches , tertian , quartan , and quotidian agues , burning feuers , iawndizes , dropsies , collicks , illiaca passio's , the stone , the strangury , the poxe , plague , botches , biles , blanes , scabs , scurfs , manage , leprosies , cankers , megrimms , mumps , fluxes , meazels , murreins , gouts , consumptions , tooth-ache , ruptures , hernia aquosa , hernia ventosa , hernia carnosa , or any other malladie , that dares afflict the body of man or woman , come and buy while you may haue it for money , for i am sent for speedily to the emperour of trapezond about affaires of great importance that highly concernes his royall person . thus almost two houres did this fellow with embost words , and most laborious action , talke and sweat to the people , that vnderstood no more what hee said , then hee himselfe vnderstood himselfe . and i thinke his whole takings for simple compounds did amount in the totall to 9. pence sterling . but leauing hamburgh , ( hauing gathered these few obseruations aforesaid ) out of it i went august 28. and my first iaunt of my trauels was by water , to a towne called buckstahoo , it is a little walled towne , and stands on the other side of the riuer , three miles ( as they call it ) from hamburgh . the boate wee passed in is called an iuar , not so good as a graues-end barge , yet i thinke it bee as great , and the three miles longer then from london to graues-end , for i am sure that we were going nine houres before we could be landed : our passage cost vs threepence a peece , and one thing i remember well , that the lazie water-men will sit still all ( or the most part of ) the way , whilest their passengers , ( be they neuer so rich or poore , all is one to them , be they men or women ) they must rowe by turnes , an houre or such a matter : and we landed in the night at a place called crants , where all the passengers were to goe to supper , but such diet we had that the prouerbe was truely verified , god sent meat , and the deuill sent cookes ; for as there was no respect of persons in the boate , so all fellowes at the table , and all once price , the palatine and the plebeian : our first messe was great platters of blacke broath , in shape like new tarre , and in tast cosen germane , to slut pottage ; our second were dishes of eeeles , chop'd as small as hearbs , and the broth they were in as salt as brine : then had wee a boyld goose , with choake peares and carrats , buried in a deepe dish ; and when wee demanded what was to pay , it was but three pence a man , i mused at the cheapnesse of it , but afterward they came vpon vs with a fresh reckoning of fiue pence a man for beere , for they neuer count their meate and drinke together , but bring in seuerall reckonings for them : but the morning being come , we hired a boores wagon , to carry vs to a place called citizen , three miles there , or 12. english miles from buckstahoo : a little bald dorp it is , where we came about noone , and found such slender entertainment , that we had no cause to boast of our good cheere , or our hostesse cookery . we hauing ▪ refreshed our selues , and hyred a fresh wagon , away wee went two miles further to another dorp called rodonburgh , this village belongeth to the bishop of rodonburgh , who hath a faire house there , stronglie walled and deepely ditched and moated about , very defensible , with draw-bridges , and good ordinance . this bishop is a temporall lord , notwithstanding his spirituall title ; and no doubt but the flesh preuailes aboue the spirit with him ; so the bishops of breame , luningburgh , and diuers other places in germany , doe very charitably take the fleece , ( for they themselues neuer looke to the flocke ) by reason they vse no ecclesiasticke function , but onely in name . being lodged at rodonburgh , in a stately inne , where the host , hostesse , guests , cowes , horses , swine , lay all in one roome ; yet i must confesse their beds to be very good , and their linnen sweet , but in those parts they vse no couerlet , rugge or blanket , but a good featherbed vndermost , with cleane sheetes , pillowes , and pillowbeares , and another featherbed vppermost , with a faire sheet aboue all , so that a mans lodging is like a womans lying in , all white . august the 30. wee went from rodonburgh , and about noone wee came to an olde walled towne , called feirden , it hath two churches in it , and the hangmans statue very artificially carued in stone , and set on a high pillar , with ▪ a rod rampant in his hand , at this towne i met with sixe strangers , all trauellers , where we went to dinner together all at one table , and euery man opened his knapsack or budget with victualls ; ( for he that carries no meat with him , many fast by authority in most places of that country ) but to note the kindnes of these people one to another , some had bread and a boxe of salt butter , some had raw bacon , some had cheese , some had pickled herring , some dried beefe , and amongest the rest , i had brought three ribs of rost beefe , and other prouision from hanburgh : to conclude , wee drew all like fidlers , and fed ( for the most part ) like swine for euery man eat what was his owne , and no man did proffer one bit of what he had to his neighbor , so he that had cheese must dine with cheese , for he that had meat would offer him none ; i did cut euery one a part of my rost beefe ; which my guide told me they would not take well because it is not the fashion of the countrey : i tried , and found them very tractable to take any thing that was good , so that i perceiued their modesty to take one from another , proceedes from their want of manners to offer . but dinner being done , away wee went ouer a bridge , in the midst whereof is a iynn , made in the likenesse of a great lanthorne , it is hanged on a turning gybbet , like a crane : so that it may be turned on the bridge , and ouer the riuer , as they shall please that haue occasion to vse it . it is bigge enough to hold two men , and it is for this purpose , if any one or more doe rob gardens or orchards , or cornefields , ( if they be taken ) he or they are put into this same whirligigge , or kickumbob , and the gybbet being turned , the offender hangs in this cage ouer the riuer some 12 or 14 foot from the water , then there is a small line made fast to the party some 5. or 6. fadome , and with a tricke which they haue , the bottome of the cage drops out , and the thiefe fals sodenly into the water . i had not gone farre , but at the end of the bridge i saw an olde chappell , which in olde time they say was dedicated to s t. frodswicke , which hath the day after s. luke the euangelist : i entring in , perceiued it was a charitable chappell , for the dores and windowes were alwaies open , by reason there were none to shut , and it was a common receptacle for beggars and rogues . there was the image of our lady , with a vaile ouer her , made ( as i thinke ) of a bakers bolter , and saint peter houlding a candle to her . i cut a peece of her vaile , and taking peter by the hand at my departure , the kind image ( i know not vpon what acquaintance ) being loose handed , let me haue his hand with mee , which being made of wood , by reason of ruinous antiquity , burst of in the handling : which two precious relickes i brought home with me to defend me and all my friends from sparrow blasting . from this place we were glad to trauell on foot one dutch mile to a dorpe called durfurne , where we hired a boores waggon to a town called neinburgh , but we could not reach thither by 2 english miles , so that we were glad to lodge in a barne that night : on the morrow early , we arose and came to nienburgh , which is a little walled town , belonging to that bishopricke from whence it is so named . there we staied 3. houres before wee could get a waggon , at last we were mounted to a dorpe called leiz , two dutch miles ; i would haue bargained with the boore to haue carried vs to dorne , which i bade my guide tell him it was but a mile further , a mile quoth the boore , indeed we call it no more , but it was measured with a dogge , and they threw in the taile and all to the bargaine ; so to leiz he carried vs , and there we found a waggon of dorne homeward bound , which made vs ride the cheaper ; but it was the longest mile that euer i rode or went , for surely it is as much as some ten of our miles in england . but hauing ouercome it at last , from thence i tooke a fresh waggon to carry me two miles further to a towne called buckaburghe , where i had , and haue , i hope , a brother residing ; to whom my iourney was entended , and with whom my perambulation was at a period . this towne of buckaburgh is wholely and solely belonging to the grass or graue of shomburgh , a prince of great command and eminence , absolute in his authority and power , not countermanded by the emperour , or any other further then curtesie requires ; and in a word , hee is one of the best accomplisht gentlemen in europe for his person , port , and princely magnificence . he hath there to his inestimable charge , built the towne , with many goodly houses , streets , lanes , a strong wall , and a deepe ditch , all well furnished with munition and artillery , with a band of souldiers which he keepeth in continuall pay , allowing euery man a doller a weeke , and double apparell euery yeere . besides , hee hath built a stately church , being aboue 120. steps to the roofe , with a faire paire of organes , a curious carued pulpit , and all other ornaments belonging to the same . his owne pallace may well be called an earthly paradice , which if i should run into the praise of the description of , i should bring my wits into an intricate labyrinth , that i should hardly find the way out : yet according to the imbecillity of my memory , i will onely touch a little at the shadow of it , and let the substance stand where it doth . at the front or outward gate is a most stately arch , vpon the top whereof is erected the image of enuy , ( as great as a demy colossus ) betweene two dragons , all guilt with gold ; before the gate is an iron grate to open & shut as it were of flowers or worke of embroydery , at which gate stands alwaies a court of guard , and a sentinell , and at the lower part of the arch is the princes title or in capitall letters as followeth ; ernestvs , dei gratia , comes holst , scomburgh , sternburgh , &c. after i was entred within the outward gate , i was shewed his stables , where i saw very faire and goodly horses , both for warre and other vses , amongst the rest there was one naturally spotted like a leopard , or panther , and is called by the name of leopard , a stately couragious beast , and so formed as if nature had laid all hir cunning aside , onely to compose that horse , and indeed i must acknowledge that hee was made for the seruice of some great prince , and not for any inferior person . passing further , i came to another court of guard , and ouer a draw-bridge , into the inner court , where on the right hand , i was conducted into the chappell , in which chappell , if it were possible that the hand of mortall men ( with artificiall workemanship ) could visibly set forth the magnificent glory of the immortal creator , then absolutely there it is , but beeing impossible so to doe , ( as neere as i can ) i will describe it ; the pauement is all of blacke and gray marble , curiously wrought with chequer-worke , the seats and pues are carued wainscot of wonderfull cunning and workemanship : the roofe is adorned with the statues of angels and cherubins , many in number , all so richly guilded , as if gold were as plentifull as peauter , there could not be more liberality bestowed : besides there are a faire set of organs , with a braue sweete quire of queristers : so that when they sing , the lutes , viols , bandoraes , organs , recorders , sagbuts , and other musicall instruments , all strike vp together , with such a glorious delicious harmony , as if the angelicall musicke of the spheares were descended into that earthly tabernacle . the prince himselfe is a protestant , very zealous in his prayer , and diligent in his attention to the preacher , who although i vnderstood not , yet i perceiued he was a good diuine who grauely and sincerely with reuerence and eloquent elocution deliuered the breade of life to the vnderstanding auditors . in this towne i stayd with my brother from saturday the last of august , till the thursday following which was the fifth of september . when i was conducted an english mile on my way by certaine of my countrey-men my lords musicians , where we dranke and parted , onely my brother and my guide brought mee that night to a strong walled towne called minden , which standeth on the riuer of weazer , and belongeth to the bishop of that see. on the morrow i walked to see the towne , where i bought 36. cheeses for eight pence , and a yard and halfe of pudding for fiue pence , which i brought into england for rarities . so about noone wee tooke a boat to passe downe the riuer , which boat is much longer then any westerne barge , but nothing neere so broad , it was halfe laden with lime and chalke , and by reason the winde blew hard , we were almost choaked with the flying and scattering of that dusty commodity . besides the water was so shallow , that we ran a ground 3. or 4. times , and sometimes an houre , sometimes lesse before wee could get a float againe : which made mee and my guide goe a shore at a village called peterhaghen , where we hired a waggon to leize , where wee stayd all night , ( being come into our olde way againe ) where were a crew of strowling rogues and whores that tooke vpon them the name of aegyptians , iuglers and fortune tellers , and indeede one of them helde the good-wife with a tale , the whilst another was picking her chest , and stole out ten dollors , which is fortie shillings , and she that talked with her , looked in her hand , and tolde her that if shee did not take great heede , she knew by her art that some mischance was neere her : which prooued true , for her money was gone the whilst her fortune was telling . but i appoynted a waggon ouer night to bee ready by three of the clocke in the morning , when i arose and applyed my trauell so hard by changing fresh waggons , so that that day i came as farre as rodonburgh , which was nine dutch miles , where i stayd that night : the next day being sunday the eighth of september , wee tooke waggon towards buckstahoo , we had a mad merry boore , with an hundred totters about him ; and now i thinke it fit a little to describe these boores , their natures , habits , and vnmannerly manners . in our english tongue the name bore or boore doth truely explane their swinish condition , for most of them are as full of humanity as a baconhogge , or a bore , and their wiues as cleanely and and courteous as sowes . for the most part of the men they are clad in thinne buckerom , vnlined , barelegged and footed , neither band or scarce shirt , no woollen in the world about them , and thus will they runne through all weathers for money by the waggons side , and though no better apparrelled , yet all of them haue houses , land , or manuall meanes to liue by : the substantiall boores i did meet aboue 120. of them that sunday , with euery one an hatchet in his hand , i mused at it , and thought they had been going to fell wood that day , but my guide told me they were all going to church , and that in stead of cloakes they carried hatchets , and that it was the fashion of the country : wherupon it came to my mind , cloake , quasi cleaue-oake , ergo the boores weare hatchets in steede of cloakes . there are other fashion boores , who weare white linnen breeches as close as irish trouzes , but so long , that they are turned vp at the shooe in a role like a maides sleeues at the hand , but what these fellowes want in the bignesse of their hose , they haue in dublets , for their sleeues are as big as breeches and the bodies great enough to hold a kinderkin of beere and a barrell of butter . the countey is very full of woods , and especially oakes , which they very seldome cut downe , because of the mast for their swine , which liue there in great abundance . if any man bee slaine or murthered on the way , they vse to set vp a woodden crosse in the place , for a memoriall of the bloody fact committed there , and there were many of those woodden crosses in the way as i trauelled . they seldom haue any robbery committed amongst them , but there is a murther with it , for their vnmannerly manner is , to knocke out a mans braines first , or else to lurke behinde a tree , and shoot a man with a peece or a pistoll , and so make sure worke with the passenger , and then search his pockets . it is as dangerous to steale or kill an hare in some places there , as it is to rob a church or kill a man in england , and yet a two-penny matter will discharge the offender , for the best and the worst is but an halter ; and i was enformed that an english marchant ( not knowing the danger ) as he was riding on the way , hauing a peece charged in his hand ( as it is an ordinary weapon to trauell with there ) by chance hee espied an hare , and shot at her and killed her ; but he was apprehended for it , and it was like to haue cost him his life ; but before he got out of the trouble , he was faine to vse his best friends and meanes , ( & pleading ignorance for his innocency ) at last with the losse of a great deale of liberty , and fiue hundred pound in money , he was discharged : the reason of this strict conrse is , because all the hares in the countrey doe belong to one lord or other , and being in abundance , they are killed by the owners appoyntment , and carried to the markets by cart-loads , and sold for the vse of the honourable owners : and no boore or tenant that dwels in those parts where those hares are plenty , must keepe a dogge , except he pay fiue shillings a yeere to the lord , or else one of his fore-feet must be cut of that he may not hunt hares . a man is in almost as high promotion to bee a knaue in england , as a knight in germany , for there a gentleman is called a youngcurr , and a knight is but a youngcurs man , so that you shall haue a scuruy squire command a knight to hold his stirrup , plucke off his boots , or any other vnknightly peece of seruice : and verily i thinke there are an 100. seuerall princes , earles , bishops and other estates , that do euery one keepe a mint , and in their owne names stampe money , gold , siluer , & brasse , & amongst 23. two pences which i had of their brasse money ( which they call grushes ) i had 13. seuerall coynes . many more such worthy iniunctions and honourable ordinances i obserued , which are hardly worth pen and inke the describing , and therefore i omit them , and draw toward an end , for on the wednesday morning i was at an anchor at st●ad , & on the friday night following i was ( by gods gracions assistance ) landed at london . so that in three weeks and three dayes , i sailed from england to hamburgh and backe againe , staying in the countrey 17. dayes , and trauelled 200. miles by land there : gathering like a busie bee all these honyed obseruations , some by sight , some by hearing , some by both , some by neither , & some by bare supposition . finis . tvvo letters or embassies the one sent by the states of bohemia, to the elector of saxony: the other from the popes holines to the emperour, concerning the troubles of germany. bohemia (země). sněm. 1620 approx. 69 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 23 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a16303 stc 3215 estc s102769 99838533 99838533 2915 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a16303) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 2915) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 914:03) tvvo letters or embassies the one sent by the states of bohemia, to the elector of saxony: the other from the popes holines to the emperour, concerning the troubles of germany. bohemia (země). sněm. paul v, pope, 1552-1621. aut barlow, william, of amsterdam. johann georg i, elector of saxony, 1585-1656. ferdinand ii, holy roman emperor, 1578-1637. [44] p. [s.n], printet [sic], at amsterdam : 1620. translator's introduction signed: william barlow. signatures: a² b-f⁴. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large 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subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng germany -history -1618-1648. germany -foreign relations -1517-1648. germany -foreign relations -czech republic -bohemia. bohemia (czech republic) -foreign relations -germany. 2003-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-04 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-12 andrew kuster sampled and proofread 2004-12 andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion two letters or embassies . the one sent by the states of bohemia , to the elector of saxony : the other from the popes holines to the emperour , concerning the troubles of germany . printet , at amsterdam . 1620. to his assured friend , h c. at his lodging neere bishops-gate in london . sr. if i should send you ouer the relations both in latin , dutch , and french , which come to this towne concerning the variety of newes about the troubles of europe , i should weary you with the multiplicity of bookes , and my selfe with the cunning of transportation : besides , i am sure to bee preuented in sending you newes , because it will bee stale ere it come to your handes by my meanes : therefore i desist from either troubling you or my selfe in that kinde , and yet haue i chanced on something , which i am sure none can helpe you to , but by my meanes : so it is then , that there , came to my hands two seuerall coppies of seuerall letters , one from wittenberg , as the summe of an embacy from the states of bohemia to the duke of saxony , concerning his desertion of the king in these tumultuous times : another from mr. fodringham in vienna , written by the pope to the emperour , concerning the pacification of the troubles , and admission of a peace ( if the motiue might bee correspondent to his honour ) rather then aduenture to bee terrified with so much effusion of blood , or hazard the dignity of the empire , by letting the warres goe forward . and these as you see i haue printed heere in amsterdam , and they are so pleasing to the inhabitants heere , that i presume , they will bee as acceptable there to all the welwillers of the bohemian affaires : and so wishing your contentment in the ouer-reading , bee bolde that whensoeuer any thing comes worthy of you , you shall not fayle of it . for i am still your friend : william barlow . the introduction . rvmor hauing played a true womans part through the citty of prague , concerning the duke of bauaria's comming to lintz , and the duke of saxonyes declaratiue letters to the emperour , that the marquesse spinola was approaching with a formidable preparation to assist him , and hee himselfe would not be behinde in any duty , which belonged to his obseruation , or the dignity of the empire : thrust herselfe at last into the presence of the king , and the greatest councellors of estate , but in such a manner , as if she durst iustifie her lauish tongue , and tooke a pleasure in the ampliation , which yet briefly had these maine passages : 1 first , that saxony and bauaria combined themselues to illustrate the glory of the house of austria , and by no meanes to leaue either emperour , or empire in the cruell hands of reuolters , if either they could procure their deliuery , or by any prouidence conserue their renowne : 2 that the marquesse spinola had more forcible reasons in his approaches , as resoluing to reduce the subiects of bohemia ( whom hee termed rebels to the emperour ) to their pristinate obedience , wherein if hee found any retardance , hee would shew them the angry faces of 20000. men , so prouided out of the storehouse of power and pollicy , that the world should record it as a remarkable president , and they be confounded to vnderstand , what their wilfulnes had incurred . 3 that presently don lewis de velasco , hauing fortified wesell , and left a sufficient garrison both in it and other townes subiect to surprises vpon the aduantage of his absence , should follow him , as a second in the prosecution of greater designes . 4 that the catholicke bishops , and other secular princes , would fill vp this well bound sheafe with their arrowes , and make the hierogliphick an absolute resemblance of indissolluble and vnresistable strength . 5 that these free cittyes of the empire would open their gates , yea breake downe their walles , rather then this sinons horse should stand without , and not offer sacrifice in the temple of pallas . thus was this mattachene of report danced euen in the kings castle and pallace , and if mischiefe had had a tricke to affright them indeed , or startle their resolutions from standing in their firmnesse , it so fell out , that it ranne like a voyce of thunder , and meant to follow one another in sequence . but it should seeme , no arme of flesh could turne the frame of heauen about : and there was a stronger hand ready to throw a stone to strike nabuchadnezars image in peeces : for they were all so farre from being daunted , or terrified with imposturing apparitions , that they were rather exasperated , and encouraged to opposition : yea it is saide , that the inuincible and heroyick queene kneeled downe with lifted handes to heauen , desiring god to accept of her , as a propitiary sacrifice , rather then his iustice might not haue her prosperous course in the punishment of sinnes , or the now glory of her husband suffer diminution , or so much as a controll from the enemies of the gospell , and aduersaries of the kingdomes prosperity : to this ( besides the admiration at her magnanimity ) both king and nobles , cittizens and commons , gent. and souldiers , protestants and papists , priests and cleargie men , yea all that had participated with the particulars , combined themselues to shake off these drops of threatning rumor , and be sheltred from the greater storme of a publike enemy . notwithstanding it was thought conuenient to send an embacy to iohn george duke of saxony , and prince elector , to put him in minde of the auncient league and amitie , which euer continued betweene the bohemian state and the house of saxony , and to knowe from a personall information , how he stood affected in this warre , or disposed to the assignation of his forces , or what might bee the cause of his desertion in this so great a busines , which concurred with the propagation of the gospell , and the liberty of oppressed people . whereupon there were two out of each of the three states of bohemia deligated to this imployment with an orderly proportion of attendants , besides a secretary of eminency , who came in good time to presula , and there found the duke . it is said , that at the first , there was some difficulty in their entertainment and admission , as from a king indeed : for 1. whether priuate emulation against the palsgraues aduancement , whom before hee held in equall rancke with himselfe . 2. or sinister occasions like vntoward weedes choked vp the growth of better corne , 3. or neernesse of consanguinity drawing his loue to the emperour . 4. or a iealousie concerning the diminution of the greatnesse of the common-wealth , beeing thus dilacerated and diuided . 5. or a superstitious blindnes in the case of the roman religion wrought him out of the possession of better thoughts , or diuerted him from that respect so meritorious a prince excited , i will not now dispute : onely i am sure hee would neither willingly allow them the titles of such a kings ambassadors ; nor affoord them that audience , which their message both imported and deserued , till at last his councell beeing most of them well affected to the king , and his religion , ouer wrought him to condiscend to the law of nations and liberty of all royall prouinces : so they had a day of audience , and the duke for all his minde was intangled with an intricate businesse , and farre reaching proiects , yet heard them the sooner , the sooner to bee ridde of them , and so the secretary thus began : fredericke by the grace of god king of bohemia , duke of bauaria , palatine of the rhine : and so as followeth in his maiesties iust titles , with the three states of the common-wealth of prague , and protectors of the incorporated prouinces , sendeth greeting to the high and mighty prince iohn georgivs , duke of saxony , iuliers , and cleues , elector of the sacred empire , &c. most mightie & illustrious prince , wee cannot coniecture , except it please you to enlarge your selfe , wherin any aspect of ours hath bene maleuolent toward you , or occasion raised it selfe to such an height , that you thinke it meete , either with a rough hand to keepe it vnder , or forcible arme to bring it to humiliation . as for the particulars of the kingdome , & all our suffrages in this so well contriued election , i hope you expect not more at our hands now , then you haue receiued diuers times by priuate letters , or daily read out of iustifiable treatises : as for the secret of preseruation , which comes from instinct of nature , and glorious manumition of distracted subiects ; i hope you make no question of the lawfulnes , & necessitie of our well begun courses . as for the grieuances of the commons , and convulsions of the prouinces , wherin no man liued secure , while the tyrannie of our gouernours lasted : the opening of our graues , the disquieting of buried soules , the displacing of setled offices , the teares of widowes , the cryes of orphanes , the wringing hands of matrons , the rauishing of virgins , the outrages in euery citie ; and in a worde , the complaints of rich and poore haue long before this , ecchoed in your eares , & drawne commiseration from your hart. as for the secrets of gouernment , what can be more implyed out of all prescription , then the glory of god , 2. the honor of a kingdome , 3. the good of the people , 4. and the renowne of the prince . in all which , it is well knowne our princes haue fayled ; as 1. dishonouring god by a manifest approbation of thinges contrary to his worde , 2. disgracing the kingdome , by violating her lawes , abrogating her priuiledges , threatning her peace , subiecting her to strangers , and tying her as it were to the whipping-poasts of crueltie and injustice , 3. abusing the people , by affrighting them with the rages of exorbitant actions , and suffring no man in the securitie & benefit of his owne possessions , 4. as defaming themselues , by the scandalous imperiousnesse of wicked counsellors , and weaknes of iudgement to be ouer-awed in all their actions , by the passionate wilfulnes of such as were enemies to god and men . as for the cause of religion , remember i pray you what the statist steephen king of poland was wont to say , that he was a king of men , but not of consciences ; a commaunder of bodies , but not of soules : and what vnheard-of mischiefs haue the iesuites bred , the inquisition procured , the pope contriued , the emperors continued ; and all long of that terrible vow the iesuites caused him to make ; rather to loose the dignitie of his tytle , the benefit of his diademe , and the comfort of his life , then a protestant should enioy the liberty of his conscience , or a church publiquly opened for the exercise of true religion . as for the emperor himselfe , if your loue were neuer so great , or your passion transported beyond limitation ; what gouernment did euer admit of the vsurpation of strangers ? and how dangerously haue the hartes of all kingdomes beene eaten vpon by the hungry teeth of mercinary souldiers ? were not the gothes and vandales brought in as auxiliary to the emperors of the east , and when they learn'd their discipline , and had possession of their armes , they learn'd also to turne their pikes into the brests of the weaker side , and so was europe subiected ? thus againe was brittany diuers times conquered , spayne ouer-runne by the mores , and the rest brought vnto all vnrest by this course . for what can we expect lesse then desolation and dissolution of gouernment & religion ? if either the emperors had continued in their former outragiousnes , or ferdinand who doth now attempt to fill your free cities with garisond spanyards , or allow of the vsurpation of such as would deride our miseries , and tryumph to see vs feed vpon one an others bowels , with a rauening desire of confusion . as for reputing vs rebels , or the diminution of the emperors tytles and glory of the austrian famely , we haue only from being slaues , made our selues subjects of a lawfull prince , wherein the proofes are extant from all times and authoritie ; and neither that , nor any thing heere spoken , need illustration from the lawes of our country , or the credit of authors , who haue diuers times seene a king of hungary , a king of bohemia , and an emperor of germany , in seuerall distinct persons : nor doe we see why austrias few yeares of possession , should debarre all other famelies from the empire it selfe , especially damme vp our encloasures , that we shall not giue libertie to our owne immunities and priuiledges . and therfore is there neither such cause of repining in you , nor cruelty in him . for alas , what must be the end of these dissentions , but the pulling of germaines peace & prosperity in peeces , and the filling our fields with the slaughtered carkasses of innocents , whose fatherlesse children will crye for vengeance , till the heauens powre it downe vpon the heads of the delinquents . as for any thing else , which either you haue , or can obiect ; it hath bene long since answered : and although princes neede not giue an account of their actions , yet haue wee published our iustifications , and written both to your selfe , the emperour , and bauaria : so that if the warre continue , god knowes , we are meere defendants , and our king is his substitute for religion and the common-wealth , and would bee loath to see you bring fuell to the flames of this disturbance , or make the tyranny and ambition of another a pitt to praecipitate your selfe in without recouery . therefore ( most illustrious prince ) seeing these thinges are so , and autentically approued by all sufficiency ; why should your disallowance either manifest a willingnes to infringe the amity , and confederation with the bohemian state : or show a tumor of some priuate passion against an immaculate prince , and louing neighbour , or the vnion of other princes , who haue combined themselues to withstand a publicke enemy . so that if neither the generall cause of the empires peace ; the blessed worke of the propagation of the gospell ; the priuate respect of our grieuances ; the auncient combination of the prouinces ; the extraordinary worth of our king ; nor any other motiue bee the threed , to leade you out of the laberinth of this disquiet , yea manifest seduction to eternal confusion : remember your owne ancestors , and the glorious actions , whereby they haue shined like faire mouing planets in perspicuous orbes , from whose influence could proceed nothing but sweet presages . o what a story is registred of your fredericke duke of saxony , about the yeare 1520. for luthers security and defence against the then malicious aduersaries of the ghospell ! euen when the popes indulgences and pardons brought remission of sinnes , and plenary freedome out of purgatory ! when the dragon watched the woman , that her birth might bee deuoured ! when fire and vengeance was threatned against the heretickes , and the emperour himselfe proued the churches champion , and tooke vpon him for romes sake , to curse and fulminate against zealous professors , or any innouators of the papisticall hierarchy . then did the noble fredericke guard luther to wormes , and in the presence of the emperour demaunded of erasmus , whether his reasons and arguments were consonant to the word of truth ? and they might ( as the bereans did ) try the doctrine by the scriptures . then were the prophesies of hierom of prague , & iohn hus remembred and disputed vpon , as if euen now they had their time of expiration . then was iohn hilton a monck imprisoned for discouering the abuses of the roman clergie , and released againe for continuing constant in the case of the reformed religion , both against the will of the pope and emperour , and all by a duke of saxony . then was veselus , picus mirandula , laurentius valla , erasmus of roterdam , and many others acceptable to your ancesters , and they gloried in nothing more , then the protection and patronizing of such saints of god. then could that worthy prince hearing of a storme , that strucke the angell on the top of the popes pallace to the ground , praesage , it was an ominous signe of the fall of babilon , and decay of the popes glory ; and when not long after hee heard of 31. cardinals made at a time , yea in such a time , when a lightning & thunder struck the childe out of the virgins armes , and the keyes out of peters handes , being both images in the church , his zeale and deuotion burst out , that sure god was offended with them , and would reduce their ambition , and prophane ceremonies to a better humiliation and conformity : and this was fredericke of saxony . after him succeeded iohn fredericke , of whom the emperour was as suspitious as the other : and therefore as it were to serue him into the amity and league of spaine and austria , they contriued to marry him to lady katherine the emperours sister , and so thought themselues secure of him : notwithstanding when he was sent for to beare the sword before the emperour at masse , he would not goe , till hee was resolued of diuers diuines , whether hee might or no with a safe conscience : i will not ( saith he ) make a president of immitation of naamans the syrians going into the temple of rimmon with the king , to pollute my selfe with an vnlawfull mixture : whereupon they resolued him , that he might goe , because he was sent for , but not endure masse , because it was so grosse a sinne , and filthy an idoll . i will not name the release of the lantsgraue of hesse , nor other disceptations against the emperour , and all wrought by the house of saxony , euen to make sad againe the hearts of elated men , who at last grew disaffected with their owne glory : so that when charles the 5. saw their resolutions to deny him a succession in the empire for his sonne phillip , he tooke a calmer course , and left his brother ferdinand to wrastle with the germane protestant princes , and went himselfe directly into a monastery . with what a faire and euen course were the affaires of rodulphus emperour carryed , as aduised by your princes to proclayme the confession of auspurg , which they had bought out with great summes of money of maximilian and ferdinand his predecessors ? whereby the protestants had many sweet entercourses to heare the worde of god , and thought no pleasure of the world comparable to the blessed society of gods people ; but to neerer times . how carefull was your brother christian the 2. late elector of saxony , of the peace of the empire , and in a manner iealious of the liberty of the protestants , least it might fall into the handes of violence ? this made him write to mathias king of hungary , concerning the eleuation of the house of austria , that sure hee tooke a wrong course both with the church and common-welth , especially our selues , whome he found startling frō the obedience of a tyrannous gouernment , and affrightings of vnconscionable vsurpation . for said he , what will you get by your spanish garisons , and spanish factions in those kingdomes , but an vnwilling & enforced obedience to your present authority , and vtter rejection to your future posterity ? what will the tyranny of the inquisitiue iesuites come to , but a plaine infatuating and imposturing of your zeale and deuotion , and the peoples manifestation of murmurings and grudges against so fearefull a worke ? what will the bringing in of the inquisition it selfe contriue , but in the beginning , cursses and repinings from euery mans mouth , and in the end hate and rebellion in euery mans heart ? to this effect were your brothers letters , and what hath followed , i neede not enlarge ; seeing now the clamours of warre on euery side eccho out the same , and our iustifications haue beene as a bonarges , or the sound of many waters . nay , did not duke iohn ernestus not long a goe send to his owne vniuersitie of iena , and then they of iena to the vniuersitie of wittenberg , and therein to persons of name iohn maior superintendent , and iohn gerrard , doctors of diuinitie for the sollution of certaine difficulties in 〈…〉 designes , especially the waging of 〈…〉 of forces ? who returned answers , that 〈…〉 to the worde of god , either to assist the papists against the protestants and professors of true religion , or according to your owne state positions ( which you would now haue the busines of the empire ) to bring in strangers to tyrannize ouer the peace of contracted neighbours , wherin the law of nations haue beene alwayes so preualent , and the customes of germany so powerfull , that euen opposite princes haue laide aside for the time all ill will and vnkindnes , to vnite their forces against a common enemy , or propulse vnusuall innouation . this act was played by the triumuiri at ierusalem against the romans , by the dissentious brittons against caesar , by your owne prouinces against the gothes and vandalls , till they were quite driuen into italy and spaine . and what vnkinde hand hath now throwne filthines or durt into the pure streame of your former resolutions ? or what fearefull incantation hath vnbound you from the mast of constancy , to hearken to the syrens song of ambitious deceiuers , who are resolued to shed the blood of innocents , and vnder the colour of reuenging the wrongs , wherein wee are supposed delinquents , and foraging the palatinate with pretence to diuert the warre thither , as by spinola's formidable approaches may appeare , lye in waite for nothing , but the generall diminution of germaines happines , and particular pollution of gods altar with the trumperies of mens inuentions ? oh hearken not to su 〈…〉 : nor giue way to a contamination , 〈…〉 wiped off : for though you could bee 〈…〉 to forget vs , yet remember your selfe : though you could giue way to the desertion of bohemians amity , yet there is no forsaking of mercy , nor the loue of god and heauen : though you could reioyce in the sincking and beating downe of an enemy , yet be not an enemy to your owne soule , nor hazard the losse of eternall reward : for it is now gods cause , and the people will liue and dye in the defence of their religion : oh that the emperour himselfe would hearken to the voyce , that told saul , there was no kicking against the pricke ! and if a lightning from heauen strucke him from his horse and made him blinde , what shall the armies of gods angels doe , when hee meanes to deliuer his people ? be not therefore transported to fight against god , or with the olde gyants to begin a new warre , and throw the mountaines against heauen . for i am fully perswaded , that you thinke , how antechrist is not onely discouered , but know , he shall be punished , yea laide open in this world to the hissing of all the passengers ; and then woe to the princes of the earth , that haue worshipped the beast , and drunke of the cup of the strumpet , that rideth vpon the beast . but leauing religion , which yet will not be left out of gods account , what stumbling blocke of offence hath bene further laide , or who hath cast these rubs in your smooth walke to amity & former combination ? is it the person of our king you maligne ? oh say not so : for if euer titus was called deliciae generis humani , he may well be proclaymed the prince of happines and peace , as a man composed by nature , ordayned of god , selected by prophesie , confirmed by miracle , and established by all our suffrages , as if the dignity belonged vnto him , as a prince , and other blessings , as a happy man. is it our reuoltings you disalow of , as if either the rejection of ferdinand were not lawfull , or ratification of this our choyse suspencible ? why , wee haue answerd it to the whole world , that when mathias had his owne endes in the adoption and inauguration of this man to the kingdome of bohemia , for which he left him a pledge of his loue the towne of budwis : it was absolutely contrary to his owne oath , and our immunities and priuiledges . for neither did the incorporated prouinces know of it , nor wee our selues condiscended to the agreement : but onely certain iesuites the firebrands of hell , ran vp and downe to set all in combustion , and with meleagers mother tooke the torch of his life in a rage , and held it downeward , till the flame was extinguished , and other traytors of our owne , molded to another impression by the warming handes of spanish papists , and all to let out the blood of their mother , i meane their countrey and common-wealth , to see her languish and perish before their faces for priuate respects , or some praedestinated vengeance to fall vpon their owne heads . is it the obseruation of the emperour himselfe , or respect to his family ? wherein hath he deserued better of reputation , then your selfe , or other princes of germany ? or what hath beene done these 100. yeares for the good of christendome ? or why shall this glowing meteor or exhalation darken the light of truer starres , and more radiant planets ? hath he not abused the trust committed vnto him , by betraying all your princely liberties into the handes of strangers , and setting vp the spaniards monarchy in the westerne world to the terrifying of all christian princes ? for what nation haue they not beene tampering withall , euen to the placing of soldiers and garisons amongst them . i hope italy hath knowne them , and the ilands of those seas . ireland hath had them , and felt some endurances for them . france bin tormented by them ; the grisons haue still their forte fuentes : the passages of some mountaines are kept by them . sauoy is full of them . hungary is not yet freed of them . austria swarms with them : our selues are but newly ridde of them , some imperiall townes , as wesell and others possessed by them , and euen at this instant is hee calling in of greater troopes amongst you . is it the care of the empire you shoot at ? how can that be ? when by these warres all gouernment must be turmoyled , and that natiue beauty of our peace and prosperity made adulterate by iesabels paintings and the thicke laide colours of wicked pollicy , when the slaughtered armies of christians shall pollute your fields & cities , and fill your swolne eyes with tears for the losse of parents , husbands , children , friends , &c. is it the popes curse you are afraide of ? why that 's impossible , considering that hee now resembles a fire in a painted cloath , which neither yeeldeth warmth nor lustre . for his fulminations are now made ridiculous , and his cursings proue like balaams corruption , who for all the king of moabs promises , sang a parable of blessings to ifraell : nay you may be assured , that the time of his desolation is comming faster on then the winde , and the prouinces are falling away like vntempered morter from a wall . is it spaines mightines you stand in awe of ? be not amated ! he hath many territories indeed ; but may thanke the endeauours of other princes , as also the slacknes of some , who gaue way to his owne seruitors , whē they had first offred the west indyes to themselues : he is rich indeed , but hath much to doe with his money , and greater charges to defray , then present reuenues can supply ! he is strong indeed , but is beholding to the peace of other kingdomes , and the honesty of such nations , as make a conscience in infringing of an oath . is it the marquesse spinola's army which terrifies you ? i answer briefly with elisha to his seruant , there are more with vs then with them : and it is but the opening of eyes to see chariots and the horsmen of heauen on the mountaine tops : but i could say thus much further , that you haue the more cause to adhaere to the princes of the vnion , and propulse a common enemy , of whom i will onely apply that , which count meloun assured the english in the later time of king iohn , that if lewis of france had preuailed , hee was resolued to destroy all such first , as prooued traytors to their countrey , and led him by the arme to trample on the bruised body of england : so say wee euen to the catholicke bishops themselues , whether warre or peace , they will repent this hard bargaine with disturbance , and when they see their exaltation depressed , or liberty vsurped , cry out vpon the first cause of their troubles , and name the iesuites , as so many incendiaries of a common-wealth . for had they not bene better to haue continued in their electiue powers for the choyse of their emperours , and let the confession of auspurg alone to the freedome of mens consciences , and the quieting of free citties ? then now to bee assured , that the protestants will neuer be reclaymed , nor taught other lesson then to fight for their religion , and the glory of the gospell ; yea to hazard their owne liues and dignities : so that whether wee , or strangers preuaile , it lyes in the will and choyse of the victors , to deale with the vanquished at their pleasures . is there any thing else ! you make a scruple of ? oh that there were nothing else , then might these obiections bee easily answered , and a iudicious man soone satisfied : yet if you conceale the same , it must prooue like the oyntments shut vp in boxes , which seldome are smelt to the refreshing of the sences , till they bee vncouered or powred out : oh doe not therefore exaestuate your griefes by suppression , but let the wounds be opened , and gently searched , least they grow vlcerous , ranckle and proue incurable ! and if any imputation lye vpon vs , wee will be bolde to say ( sauing the dignity of our king ) wee will easily descend to acknowledgement , and you shall quickly finde the benefit of satisfaction . therefore for gods sake , for religions sake , for your owne sake , for your ancestors sake , for your countries sake , let there bee a better reposednes , and recollection of those contracts of amity , which euer were betweene your house and bohemia , yea with faster bindings , and more reciprocall obseruation , then with any other prouinciall prince . oh let the liberty of the germaines , and the glory of their citties be exposed vnto you ; which must otherwise feele a kinde of torture by the racking handes of compulsion and hostility ! oh let the beauty of concord ( if it be possible ) shine , that beginneth to hide her head vnder the thickning cloudes of trouble , and mischiefes ! i spare instances of moderne times , i spare examples of olde times , i spare precepts of all times , i spare your owne relations from the rending a sunder , by disagreement ; nay i spare to put you in minde of the present necessity , concerning the good of all christendome . for although hee that holdeth the windes in his handes , hath also held the rages of the turke from those formidable extentions of ambition and tyranny , which haue formerly beene displayed in the countries of asia , and greece ; in the fieldes of hungary ; before the walles of vienna ; at the siedge of malta ; and many other obsessions : yet you heare , how he hath of late visited italy ; brought 80. gallies into the gulph of venice , landed 2000. ianisaries , sacked the towne of manfredonio in brutia , and carryed away the inhabitants ; so that while poore christians looke vpon one another , with longing hearts for the pacification of these affrightings , hee ouerlookes vs all with polliticke eyes to pry into our weaknesse , and take aduantage of our dissentions . yea , for all his league with bethelem gabor prince of transiluania , and praefixed day to crowne him king of hungary , yet without controuersie doth hee make vse of the troubles of germany , and is not to be trusted in his best reconciliation . i could name and set downe the very manner of gratefying our king , with animating him in his best prosecutions , as if he had bene distasted with the emperours vaine-glorious insulting ouer vs ; but they be thinges beyond our c●mmission , and so impertinent to our purpose in hand ? for we onely come to moue your princelines to the renouation of former leagues , and combination of a perpetuall amity , or manifestation of some cause for this your desertion in the time of such expectation . nay , wee are ready to attend you , though you exemplifie no reason at all , but a glorious spirit to manifest your greatnes , or wilfulnes to prepare your liberty to support whom you please ? for if it be so , there may be some hope of the compassion which will follow , when necessity shall whisper preseruation in your eares , and draw commiseration from your heart to preuent the slaughters of so many christians , and peraduenture the captiuity of your freest citties : whereas now there is not so much as a thought of prouidence , nor a worde of preuention , nor any positions of state , among whome this is autenticall , that weake beginnings , and the worst sort of men may be instruments to set mischiefe on worke , but troubles are not pacified without iudgement , and men of approued wisdome . therefore once againe ( most illustrious prince ) we beseech you , let vs returne to our king , as the explorators of canaan did to the israelites : for although tenne of them did talke of enakims and giants of iron gates and high walles ; of strong cities & formidable passages ; yet did caleb and iosua assure them of a plentifull country and vberant vineyards , of sweete increases and many blessings ; of well erected citties and rich terretories ; of pleasant fields and excellent fruites : of all which they came to a diuision , and a the fulnes of time glorified god for their exaltation . now the same god worke vpon your heart to admit of some lenatiue impression , and send vs home with a happy message , that the publicke good of christendome hath ouer-wrought you , not onely to wish well to zion , or peace to ierusalem , but to endeauour a pacification of these miseries , and some noble prosecution , whereby the emperour may bee cooled in the heate of his reuenges . to his approued friend mr. william barlow , now dwelling in amsterdam . good sr. according to the reciprocall contract between vs of writing to one another , concerning such thinges as may pleasure either , i thought good once againe to acquaint you with something worthy of your acceptation , and my report , which is the coppy of a letter written from the pope to the emperour , concerning the pacification of the troubles of europe : for although the counterchangeable oppositions of these great princes , haue made report flowe like a sea with the accidents of the times , as in all countries and languages is apparant : yet for any thing wee either heare or see in vienna , neither are the pope , emperour , nor angry iesuites , so confident of successe , but if they could perswade their polliticke honours , aswell as their affrighted soules , they would bee glad to hide their eyes from effusion of blood , & keepe their harts within the bounds of some charity and humaine affection , as by this letter may appeare , which i wish with all my heart were published . for i am resolued the true hearted christian will make vse of it to gods glory , and his owne comfort : and so i referre it and my selfe to your kinde admission of my indissolluble loue , which sendeth you greeting from vienna , this 26th . of october : and from your assured friend , tho : frodringham . pope paulus quintus sendeth greeting to the emperour ferdinand , and king of the romans : sacred and imperiall sonne ; i remember a speech of tacitus , that it was a signe of treason , or trayterous disposition , when a generall meant onely to write to his enemy , when with like facillity hee might haue repulsed him by force of armes : so may you obiect against me , that you wonder at a letter , when you expected both men and money : but then you must wonder at the alteration of times too , and peraduenture the necessity of our fortune : for it fareth not now with vs , as when the empire it selfe came as it were from our donation , and the diadems of princes were the vtensels of our houshold , as when charles the great dissipated the cloude of vengeance , with the gothes and lombards , thickned against the shining sunne of our prelacie , as when the prouinces and kingdomes of europe were affraid of our curse , and excommunication of our church : as when religion was locked vp in our conclaue , and not opened without peters keyes , as when a sonne for our sakes would chastice the rebellion of a father , and one nation scourge another at the intercession of a legat : the examples are so plentifull , that euen heretickes , haue gotten them in their mouthes to spit in our faces : it fareth not with vs , as when true deuotion tyed the consciences of men to the obseruation of our pleasure , and no vpstart familist durst broach a strange doctrine to our preiudice : when faith was predominant in our hearts , and honest simplicity liued out our liues and actions , beleeuing onely what the church did teach , and practising nothing but with modesty and obedience : then were the halcion dayes of our glory , and how euer heretickes haue characterd them with ignorance and superstition , yet questionles as in martiall discipline soldiers must not bee acquainted with euery secret , but simply yeeld obedience to their commanders : so in the matters of the church , men were neuer at so much peace of conscience , as when they knew not how to trouble their soules beyond their vnderstandings : in a word , it fareth not with vs , as when the vnity of church and common-wealths resembled a sheaue of arrowes , strongly bound together , which was that way indissolluble , but diuided a sunder they were easily snapped in peeces one by one ; then were the kingdomes of europe of one vnanimity , and if any vpstart heretickes brake out , or furious scismatickes approached to the holy altar with violence , they were quickly enforced backe , and taught a lesson of obedience , either by generall councels , whereat many times 400. bishops were gathered together , or the power of an army , which came at our becke from all the quarters of christendome . but now , and in your owne particular most deare sonne , 1. the times are altered , 2. religion is confounded , 3. and the prouinces are deuided . 1 first concerning the times , you see , that princes are so iealious one of anothers greatnes , that neither law of marriage or conscience can detaine them within the limites of humanity , especially charity , as reioycing in the good one of another , but they will confederate euen with those , they hate , to cast blocks and hinderances in the way of one another , if there be but a suspition , that he runneth on too fast to greatnes : this began ( for our moderne times ) in the time of charles the fift , with whome england and many other prouinces ioyned against the french : but no sooner was the king taken prisoner at pauy , but they fell backe againe to a commiseration of his affliction , and began to assist him in a new recouery . this hath continued against your house of austria , and my sonne of spaine : for euer since burgundy and yee haue beene vnited , whereby charles left the empire to his younger brother , you see the world hath cryed out , that spaine would bee the monarch of the west , and the iesuites by his assistance vsurpe the dignity of the church , and by a new superintendency ouertop the authority of the papacy . this hath made seuerall kinges oppose themselues against spaine , and now seueral prouinces fall from your obedience , as if the angels prophesie against ismael , were verified ; that his hand should be against euery man , & euery mans hand against him . yea this will end against the low-countries themselues , who fill the seas with formidable nauies , and haue such strong citties , ramparts , and armies , that already they begin to be feared , and already fall vnder the hand of watching and ouerlooking . beleeue it then , that in this point alone of suspition of your greatnes , not naming other collaterall causes of hate , cruelty , oppression , defending our supremacy , enriching your selfe and such like , there will euer remaine a tricke of pollicy , if not to trip vp your heeles for running at all , yet to pull you backe as it were by the sleeue from making too much hast , so that i see no remedy , but that you must be contented to yeeld to the time , and rather to keepe somthing , then loose all : for howeuer the greatnes of your spirit may commaund obedience , and the goodnes of the cause plead possession ; yet necessity is a predominant mischiefe , and they are fooles that will perish in an obstinacy , repugnant to fortune : remember that hanniball had possession of italy 17. yeares , and might haue tryumphed in rome , if he had taken his time : but when scipio diuerted the warre , carthage was besieged , and carthage knew not , how to bee relieued , till hanniball was recalled : so the great captaine was disapointed in his proiects , and compelled to yeeld to the roman glory . i speake not by way of prophesie but precept , that in all extremities the law of preseruation comes from instinct of nature , and to preuent a greater mischiefe , men must , and may endure some inconuenience ; and so much for the time . 2 concerning religion , which yet is not the emperours plea , nor the empires cause , you see the alteration : many good mothers bring forth bad daughters , truth begets hatred , familiarity contempt , charity idlenes , and knowledge presumption , with such like . for euer since the common people haue beene licenced to reade the scriptures , and make their owne interpretations , they haue startled from the obedience of the church , and cryed out vpon liberty , as though their consciences like vntam'd heyfers were let loose , and they tyed vnto no rules and lawes but of their owne deuising : this hath made so many mechanicke men presumptuous , and silenced women audacious ; that a poore ignorant cobler dare compare with a father of the church , and a tatling woman instead of being instructed by her husband , take vpon her to rule both husband and family : this hath set on worke certaine strange spirits to rayle vpon order and conformity , euen in the churches of heretickes themselues , that they haue denyed them to be churches , but the vnswept roomes of antechrist , because of some enormities , and imperfections in men and gouernment , which are , were , and shall be in this militant church , till the comming of christ to iudgement . this hath deuided the countries of europe , and taught hipocrites and foolish libertines a glorious lesson of defending the gospell of christ and his saincts , whereby they haue vaine-gloriously taken vp armes against the church , and their prnces ; so that if successe haue not smoothly looked vpon them , but iustice submitted them to the punishment of impiety , they haue confounded treason and martyrdome together , and taught their blasphemous tongues to cry out , sanguis martirium semen ecclesiae , as though euery rebell and raging pesant , punished for transgression , must bee therefore charactered a saint of god ; so that this gangren is spreading ouer the whole body , and for any thing i see remediles , vnlesse wee could cut off that poysoned ioynt where it began . againe , if their commotions and convulsions of the empire it selfe haue thriued with aduantages of victory , and preuailing ; then haue they dared to publish the right of their cause , and exclaime against rome for babilon , against our holines for the man of sinne , against our church for antechristian , against our sonnes the catholicke princes for the kinges that haue drunke of the cup of abhomination , and against your imperiall maiesty , as the beast with 10. hornes spoken of in the aenigmaticall prophesie of st. iohn : nay these thinges are so imprinted in the mindes of most men and nations , that euery man is almost so farre from retraction , or a seeming sorrow of doing amisse , that ( so they may haue the name of religion in their mouthes ) they are ready to take vp armes against their natiue lords , and thinke it a glory to colour their hipocriticall disobedience , with maintaining the cause of the gospell , and taking part ( as a new deuise of rebellion ) with the princes of the vnion : and so much for religion . 3 concerning the prouinces : i cannot now compare them better , then to a wall set vp with vntempered morter , ready to fall a sunder for lacke of cementing . for alas such is the impetuosity of rumor at this houre against you , that it is more fearefull and terrible , then the winde that shooke the foure corners of iobs houses , and threw them downe on the heads of his children . to begin with the north , if we name saxony and his neighbour bishops to assist you : they counterprize denmarke , sweden , brandenburg , brunswick , and many of that side : if we talke of poland , they tell you , that all that way , there is lusatia , silesia , morauia , as a hedge betweene bohemia and it ; nay they drawe a longer shaft , and a stronger bowe of hungary , transiluania , and the turkes confederacy and combination : if wee mention your vnckle the arch-duke , or more familiarly the marquesse spinola his liefetenant , they stop the gap with the truce , with the peace with england , or else with the armies of the states , the affinity of the prince of orenge , and the indissoluble loue of a king to his daughter , which i onely feare is vnanswerable , and must needes say vnpossible to be resisted , if hee either remember what a sonne in law he hath , or what subiects proportionable to his greatnes , that without imposition ( if hee giue them leaue ) long to be tampering with the indyes themselues : if wee expect collen , and the bishops belonging to our obedience , they present vs the lantsgraue of hesse , franconia , and the palatinate it selfe : if we relye vpon bauaria , they neighbour him with wittenberg , and other protestant princes : if wee resolue vpon austria , they cry alas what is that to bohemia , and the deuided countries of your inheritance ? if wee boast of money , they answer directly , there is no want in their army , but your soldiers repine for lacke of pay : if we whisper of france , they talke aloude , there is enough to doe to answer their owne proportions . for queene , king , and princes gaze vpon one another in the behalfe of fauorites , factions , and people : if wee reioyce for spaine , they depresse the insulting , with alas , what can spaine doe ? spaine is too remote , spaine can spare no men : spaine hath many garisons to tend , as so many nurse children to pay for : spaine hath many yrons in the fire , but as fast as one heates , another cooles : spaine is tyred with the multiplicity of busines , and must be more then tyr'd , if hee could come ouer the alpes : spaine is in hazard of loue , and good opinion in the world , as rather enuyed , then feared , and maligned then obserued : in a word , spaine hath many millions and great treasure : but i may well compare him to a glorious steward of a house , who must defray the charge of a 1000.l . a yeare expences , but the lord will but allow his seruant 800. toward it . if we recken vp our own prouinces , i cannot liken them better , then to argos his eyes , whereof the one halfe wakes , while the other sleepes . for sauoy neither dares trust spaine , nor truly loue vs : must keepe his frontiers , and watch geneua , lookes vpon the marquisate of salusse with soare eyes , and vpon prouince with a hungry heart ; dares not speake aloude against france , though he whisper for some indignities receiued : but either to succour you , or our selues , he is both vnwilling and vnprouided . mantua and modena runne the same course , but with slower pace , and indeed because no body regards them , as able to doe either hurt or good , they are made the wiser to looke to themselues , and not to meddle with other folkes busines . millaine is like a bird in a golden cage , that may sing to answer proportion with nature , but if the casement be open , shee will take the benefit of her liberty : so that howeuer they seeme religious , yet hath spaine much adoe to ouer-watch them . genoa is not worth the naming for your busines , for if it were as rich againe , it hath much a doe to pay the marchants debts . venice is a fearefull and polliticke state , maketh vse of our religion , but loueth her owne greatnes so well , that shee is both jealious of spaine , and loathsome to vs : for wee feare her reuolt dayly , and because she is got into the number of the princes of the vnion , will not number a man , nor a peece of gold for your reliefe . florence and leuca , will lend you what money they can , but alas they haue neither men nor gallyes , and if they had , the venetian is so dogged he will not let them passe into the gulph . naples and sicilia , could spare you men , though they want money , and many of their nobles are willing to assist you , but to come through the grison passages it is a long and terrible iourney , and to passe into histria , puls the venetian dust into their eyes . the swisse are very indifferent , and for money will serue either party , but considering their combination , and confederacy with the protestants , i doe not see , how they are to be trusted , or relyed vpon . in a word wee our selues are yours , and yee shall haue our men , if we knewe which way ; our money as it comes euery way ; our prayers as true deuotion inciteth ; our curses against your enemies , as their contentions increaseth ; our priests amongst your subiects , as their affection decayeth ; our pardon 's for your sinnes , as holy church instituteth ; and our benediction for your busines , as your affaires concurreth : onely bee patient and ouercome your disasters with wisdome . for to that end were vertues framed , or else why doe we name fortitude , magnanimity , patience , temperance , and such like concomitants of glory and blessednes . seeing then your case so stands , and that bohemia hath put a tricke of reuolt vpon you . first grounding vpon some fundamentall positions of an electiue prouince , making the world beleeue they haue a purpose to reduce it to her pristinate gouernment . secondly relying vpon hungarias examples , whose vnconstancy hath yet as it were dilacerated her kingdome , and shewed the turke a way to prey vpon her prosperity , as you shall read of prometheus on mount caucasus , on whose entrals a vulture continually gnaweth , so that he is euer dying , and euer liuing . thirdly , emboldened by bethelem gabor prince of transiluania , with whome you see the turke hath contracted a truce and couenant of peace , that he might the better make warre against any disturbers of his friends and confederates : for when at first the bohemians cast themselues into his embraces , he would not close his armes , but gaue them leaue to returne to faster holdings , and in amanner nominated the palatinate for their prince . fourthly pretending some grieuances from your selfe , and mathias , not onely that you tooke a wrong course with their obedience , playing the vnskilfull surgeon with them , to feare , cut , and cauterize their wounds , which might haue bene fairely healed with lenatiue cataplasmes , but also that you ouer-stretched your owne stringes to a higher tune then the instrument would beare , and so presuming to command all , you came at last to enioy nothing , according to our italian prouerb , chitutto a braccia nessuno strenge . last of all , proiecting the youth , brauery , and alliance of this man ( especially that the king of great brittaine , a nominated prince in all prophesie , and conference for the enemie to papistrie ) would neuer stand still , and looke vpon those rude hands , which should pull downe the frame of so goodly a building , they came at last to this maine point of reiection of you ; which must needes be their fault , and electing him , which cannot chuse but be his fortune : so that in a word considering what i haue said , beleeue it , they that dared once to conceit the starting aside frō your authority , were not so barren of vnderstanding , but to consider what might happen , either war or peace , and so haue prepared both to shut you out of their walks of their loue and submission , & to keepe you off as far as they can by a steely arme and forcible detention , wherat you cannot be dismayed , for this maine reason , that they which wil confesse themselues aduersaries to god , care not to professe themselues enemies to men . now in this point alone all our hopes are disappointed : for first , they haue traced our supremacy after luthers owne steps , and placed the stout hereticks : that though with hercules in his cradle they did not strangle the serpents , yet with hercules in the tragedie , that killed his owne children , they haue like refractary delinquents set vpon their father & their mother . me their father the supreame bishop , and the church their mother , the blessed spouse of christ. 2. secondly , they haue denied our indulgences , and scorned our pardons , not caring for their sicke soules , but willing to dye in desperation , as a frantick man in a feauer , that striketh his phisician , and casteth the potion on the ground . 3. thirdly , they haue pulled downe our images , and abrogated that constitution of the church , as if they meant to be anathemataes , and enemies to religion , by taking away all the meanes of deuotion . 4. fourthly , they haue banished the iesuites . it may be they are suspected amongst our owne priests , and haue imputation rather of pollicie , then piety : but what is that to the cure of soules ? and the estate of lay men ? i pray god i may not say by them , as demosthenes tale is betweene the sheepe and the wolues , who were offended at the sheepes entertaining great dogges amongst them , whereby they liued secured from their ruine : but when they had betrayed them to their dimission , then did these cruell wolues , more cruell by the aduantage of exasperation , returne to their former prey and violence . last of all , they haue bewitched the foster spirited men with manswetude and good vsage , whereby the priests themselues are growne to commend their gouernment , & the catholickes in generall to shew their obedience : so that they , which in former times repined to pay our officers the tribute of the church , disburse both money and armes to the sustentation of our enemies : and whereas we had euer much adoe to worke vpon their soules , these bohemians ( though of a contrary religion ) haue brought both soules and bodies to their beck , and authority . thus ( deare sonne ) for any thing i see , the matter is remedilesse , and to complaine against god , men , fortune , treasons , and such like , will rather discouer a distemperature of passion , then magnanimity of spirit : nay , though there were hope of reformation . therefore be aduised by me , though patience in some things be a poore vertue , and onely fit to draw on heauier burthens : yet in other businesse , and most occasions it reduceth the minde to consideration , and setleth the iudgement for the preuention of greater mischiefe . it bringeth the sences to order , and keeps both soule and body in temperature : as for imputation of cowardise , and basenesse , when high and glorious designes propose themselues to prosecution , remember the story of fabius , and minutius , against hanniball . the senate indeede gaue eare to the aspersions of his retraction and delay , as if either he durst not fight , or knew not how to proceede , and so deuided the generalship betweene them , but that diuided the successe of the businesse : for minutius fayling in the heat of his forwardnesse , was glad to retire vnder the shadow of fabius his moderation : for as sometimes the doltishnesse of an aduersary doth animate weake troupes to giue the onset : so at all times the wisedome , and discipline of an enemie , doth keepe in awe euen equall forces for aduenturing too farre , and being too forward . this is your case , and my feare : your case , for what can you now get by this warre , considering the mightinesse of your foe , and the diuision of your people ; but in the preuailing an eternall hate against your house and family ? and in the failing , such contumely and disgrace , that how euer you are sure of me and my bishops , yet the name of emperour shall be but a titular dignity , and the obumbration of your glory bring forward at last obliuion of your greatnesse ; nay , peraduenture the losse of that character of emperor it selfe : for it fareth with the fortune of vnfortunate princes , as with ruinous walls ; when a man perceiues their decay and weaknesse , euery one runnes aside for mistrust of falling vpon them : or else they are compared to a mans tumbling downe a paire of staires , who if hee once loose his first footing , commonly neuer stayes himselfe , till hee come to the bottome . againe say , your aduersary be subiect to a defeat , as his friends encrease , his forces will be renued , and then hee returnes with greater violence , as in those dayes the souldiers were wont to doe with their machinations , who pulled backe their rammes and engines , of purpose to run forward with the greater fury , and more impetuosity . but if you ( which god forbid ) should be subiect to the inconstancy of fortune , or if you will ( as many good men haue beene ) to the chastisement of diuine prouidence , and suffer dissolution of your army : how will you renue the same , considering the remotenesse of your friends , the weaknesse of confederates , the convulsion of your people , the infection of your subiects with lutheranisme , the repining of stiria , curniola , and carinthia : the murmuring of the swisse and grisons ; and in a word , the shaking of the whole frame of your gouernment , as you see a high and heauy topped tree loosened in the root , and standing on vnfirme ground wauering , and ready to fall , & so much for your selfe . concerning my feare : say that successe ( for it is a wisedome to presuppose the worst ) should bring them forward into the walke of preuayling , would they not runne thinke you without interception ? nay could the alpes barricado the way , or the venetian gulph deny them transportation , the high hilles and white cliffes of ancona would be a sea marke to bring them directly to rome , & the appenine is but a poore mountaine in respect of those they haue passed : but you will say , our friends about the mediterranian sea , will come in apace to preuent this mischiefe , and a 1000. ships and gallies will keepe the ostia of tiber , after they haue landed our friends in our behalfe ; i thinke and hope so too ; yet i would be loath to put it to such an aduenture . for the straights of gibralter are wider , then the gates of the citty that sampson carryed on his shoulders , and they that cannot bee detained from going to the indyes , will not be denyed to come into the leuant : our enemies haue more shipping then our selues , and our friends are far fewer then our opposites , they that know the way for traficke , and commutation of marchandize , will know the way to spoile and getting of riches so easily : againe , our aduersaries are constant , sure and exasperated with zeale and fury against vs : they march like iohn the sonne of nimshi , and cry aloude to cast iesabell out of the window : our friends are wauering , vnconstant , and fearefull of alteration , so that to relye vpon them is but to trust egiptian reedes , or a broken staffe : in a word ; they haue prophesies and calculations in their mouthes , wishes of reuenge , and eternall hate in their hearts , fury and bloody executions in their actions , and all against rome . some talke of the scriptures , and compare the vomiting of the priests at their tables spoken of in the prophets to the feasts of cardinals , and banquettings in our court : some tell a tale of bell and the dragon , and when they come to the deuouring of so much meate , they say , that daniel sifted ashes in the place , and discouerd the footsteps of the priests , their wiues and their children , and all against rome : some coniecture of pauls epistles to timothy and titus , concerning the doctrine of deuils , the man of sinne , antechrist and idolatry : some descant of the apocalips , and dare name iesabell , babilon , rome in italy , the whore vpon the beast ; the cup of abhomination , & all against rome : some repeate the prophesies of the sybels , the praedictions of moncks and fryers , the praedil ; sages of nunnes and saincts , the foretelling of martyrs , and the persecuted vnder tyrants , and all against rome : which though it end with blasphemous inuectiues , yet hath made such impressions in the hearts of heretickes , that as they haue set their blacke mouthes on worke with contagious rayling , so they long to set their soule handes on worke , with our vncharitable destruction , and is not this a iust cause of our feare ? therefore ( deare sonne ) for gods sake , for my sake , for the churches sake , for your owne sake , for our friends sake , and in a word , for the generall cause sake both of peters chayre , and caesars throne , be contented to mingle a little water with your wine , and coole the heate of your passion with some sweeter compounds , then rage and reuenge : hearken to a treatise of pacification , though it sound not such a diapason of musicke , as will answer proportion , and satisfie the cares of your maiesticke greatnes , admit of a peace in this case of extremity , and remember how abimelech though a heathen idolater , when hee saw abraham so prosper in his enterprises , descended to contracts of amity , and came so lowe , as to allow him for a prince amongst them . as for the aspersions of disparagement , and extenuating the worthines of so great a monarch , let all bee wiped away with the hand of charity , and the auoyding effusion of christian blood : blot out the exaggeration of your enemies mischiefe against you , or the conceit of their trayterous reuolts amongst themselues : bee wise in your owne harmes , and for your owne good : let spaine and your kindreds example induce you to immitation : they haue pollitickly kept their distances , and for aduantage made truce with their owne rebels , i meane the low-countries , and contracted peace with them , whom not long agoe they thought to swallow vp : i meane england it selfe , which now to shoot against , will returne their arrowes in their owne bosomes . if this be harsh and vnpleasant , as curbing the heroycknes of your spirit by descending so lowe , as making the first proffer , wee will goe another way to worke , and rather then faile of this blessing of peace , put on esaus hairy necke , & rough hands , and bring to isaac his venison , though the voyce bee iacobs : i will send a legate : spaine an embassador : france an intercessor : england a mediator , yea it shall bee so contriued , that all the states of christend●me shall make you beleeue at least , they wish you prosperity , and their owne good , and how euer the children of edom will cry downe with it , downe with it , yet shall the natiues of iudea speake peace to zion , and wish ioy to the gates of ierusalem . you shall reade amongst the prophets in a certaine vision , that there was a great thunder and noyse , but the lord was not in it ; a great lightning and earthquake , but the lord was not in it ; a great winde and shaking of the trees , but the lord was not in it : a soft and gentle murmuring of the leaues , and the lord was in that ; so when you heare of warres , of the marching of soldiers , of the raising of armies , of the thundring of canons , of the sound of trumpets , of the demolution of cities , rauishment of women , & the murthering of men , with thousand of other outrages vnnamed : beleeue it the lord is not in , or among them ; but when they mention peace , quietnes , loue , charity , remitting of iniuries , pacification of troubles , and such like , the lord is and will be there . as for the swelling tumour of greatnes , losse of renowne , disgraces , giuing way to rebellion , diminution of honour and such like , it resembles but the imposturing incantation of sathan to eua , that made her taste of the forbidden fruit , to the vtter subuersion of all mankinde ; so that i will say no more , but if god doe come with this murmuring sweetnes of peace vnto you , hearken to his voyce , that tuneth such pleasant notes to your soules and consciences . but if sathan wish you to bee vnderstanding men , and like god himselfe to know good and euill , hearken not vnto him ; your first mother was deceiued , and your last ruine is a contriuing . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a16303-e3570 king iames. the lamentations of germany wherein, as in a glasse, we may behold her miserable condition, and reade the woefull effects of sinne. composed by dr vincent theol. an eye-witnesse thereof; and illustrated by pictures, the more to affect the reader. hereunto are added three letters, one whereof was sent to the dutch consistory in london, under the hand and seales of 14. distressed ministers of swyburggen in germany. vincent, philip, b. 1600. 1638 approx. 83 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 46 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a14442 stc 24760.7 estc s121128 99856315 99856315 21850 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a14442) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 21850) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 944:6) the lamentations of germany wherein, as in a glasse, we may behold her miserable condition, and reade the woefull effects of sinne. composed by dr vincent theol. an eye-witnesse thereof; and illustrated by pictures, the more to affect the reader. hereunto are added three letters, one whereof was sent to the dutch consistory in london, under the hand and seales of 14. distressed ministers of swyburggen in germany. vincent, philip, b. 1600. [30], 20, [2], 25-33, 32-63, [1] p. : ill. (metal cuts) printed by e. g[riffin] for iohn rothwell, and are to be sold at the signe of the sunne in st. pauls church-yard, london : 1638. this expanded edition has signatures: a (-a1) a b-e (±e8). printer's name from stc. running title reads: a true representation of the miserable estate of germany. e8 is a cancel with verso blank; recto line 18 begins "loke". variant: e8 is cancellandum with imprimatur on verso; recto line 1 begins "soules". incorrectly identified as stc 24761 in reel guide. reproduction of the original in yale university. library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher 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g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng germany -history -1618-1648 -early works to 1800. 2000-00 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2001-00 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2001-00 tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread 2001-00 tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the lamentations of germany . wherein , ●s in a glasse , we may behold her miserable condition , and reade the woefull effects of sinne . composed by dr vincent theol. an eye-witnesse thereof ; and illustrated by pictures , the more to affect the reader . ●ereunto are added three letters , one whereof was sent to the dutch consistory in london , under the hand and seales of 14. distressed ministers of swyburggen in germany . lament . 1. 12. ●●it nothing to you , all ye that passe by ? behold and see , if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow , which is done unto me , wherewith the lord hath afflicted me , in the day of his fierce anger . london , ●rinted by e. g. for iohn rothwell , and are to be sold at the signe of the sunne in st. pauls church-yard . 1638. to the reader . behold here , as in a glasse , the mournefull face of a sister nation , now drunke with misery ; according to what god threatned by the prophet ieremy . should i endeavour by all the memorable particulars , which might be accumulated , to amplifie this sad theme , the third part would bee sufficient to weary thee or blinde thy eyes with reares , if thy heart were not adamantine . i record but a small portion of what i have seene , what i have had from sufficient testimonies . gall and wormewood are tasted in a drop , and so may the great ocean . onely the thing i desire , is to move thy christian heart to compassionate the estate of thy poore brethren , so lamentable , and almost desperate , that thou mayest ( at least ) by the vials of thy prayers poured out in their behalfe helpe to appeale this wrath of heaven which is upon them . remembring withall , that as wee know not what hangeth over our owne heads , so we are not ignorant of our owne indeserts . our native countrey did sometimes suffer in like manner , if not measure , as in the civill wars and other times . now we are free , and live in peace , every man under his owne vine , under his owne big-tree ; let us not forget to bee thankfull for this unto the god of peace , and ●ithall to shunne those provocations , for which hee maketh a fertile land barren , a populous land desolate , even the iniquity of them that dwell therein . thine p. vincent . preface exhortatory : touching the use which is to be made of the ensuing narration . men and brethren : here followes ( according to the table ) a true representation of the miserable estate of germany . a most grave , serious , and weighty subject , and above all other most necessary for us to peruse , and ponder . wee for the present have halcion dayes . sitting as the people under salomon , every man under his owne vine , and fig-tree ; no complayning in our streets , no carrying into captivity . for which all honour and praise be to him , whose mercy it is that wee are not consumed . and yet there may be a lengthening of our tranquility , if wee would walke worthy of those mercies which we doe inioy , and learne righteousnesse by the judgements of god , which are made manifest . one especiall meanes effectually tending hereunto , is to be acquainted with the passages of gods providence abroad , and to make such use of his dreadfull judgements as he himselfe in scripture directs us to . for our information in the state of things abroad , these ensuing schedules may helpe such as have no better intelligence . wherein such passages are related , as may make both our eares 〈◊〉 to heare them . the heads insisted on are the arrowes of the almighty ; sword , famine , and pestilence , together with their pale and grisly attendants . extortion , rapine , salvage cruelty , desolations , deaths of all kinde . a sad and dismall troope . the subject on which all these evils light , is germany : a neighbouring countrey well knowne . the throne of europes empire . this is now the stage whereon most direfull tragedies are acted . and therein as well the protestants ( the more the pity ) as the papists : no difference for religious sake ; nor any respect of persons , ages , sexes , or conditions . the fowles of the ayre may therein eate the flesh of kings , captaines , and mighty men . the flesh of horses , and them that sit on them . yea , the flesh of all men , both free and bond , both small and great , rev. 19. 18. the instances and particulars which are here recorded are such as may seeme incredible , and cause wondring unto astonishment , yet is there nothing but what may well be counted probable , a few things considered . as first , what god threatens in this kinde for breach of his law. deut. 28. 53 , &c. thou shalt eate the fruite of thine owne body , the flesh of thy sonnes and daughters — . the man that is tender among you , and very delicate , his eyes shall be evill toward his brother , and toward the wife of his bosome , and towards the remnant of children which hee shall leave : so that he will not give to any of them the flesh of his children , whom he shall eate , &c. then what particular instances we have of like things upon like occasions in scripture , as in the siege of samama , 2 king. 6. 28 , 29. the certainety of the generals is beyond all exception , among those that will believe any thing more than they see with their eyes , and feele with their hands . the time , and space that the wars have endured addes much to the probability of all effects avoucht . the current yeere making up full twenty since the beginning . during all which germany hath beene acheldama , a field of blood . vnder this word ( warre ) more evill and mischiefe is comprehended than can be uttered . weigh all things duly , the severall kinds of warre , forraigne and domesticke ; by invasions , by insurrections , the same persons , and places being to day conquerours , and to morrow conquered , over and over againe , and all things every day worse and worse ; we may well conclude , the one halfe hath not beene told us . i hope none among us are so prophane as to say what is this to us , be it all be true ? and few so ignorant , as not to know what god requireth of us in this regard . yet it 's too manifest , that most are so carelesse , that they neede a monitor to twit them by the care . i have therefore partly upon intreatie , and chiefly for affection unto the thing it selfe , endevoured briefly to speake something unto that end . the lyon hath roared , who will not feare ? the lord hath spoken , who can but prophecie , amos 3. 8. salvian in his time , tooke great paines to prove there was a provilence , when the then supposed barbarous goths and vandalls broke in upon the empire , as the sea doth sometimes over flow the banke . but mee thinkes that alone were enough to manifest the finger of god , which bred the doubt in men atheisticall . how exceeding full is the scripture for the proofe of this ? that god is authour of all judgements , and therefore in all wee ought to looke up unto him . all captaines and their armies are but sergeants under the lord of hosts ; that man of warre , and god of battell . the assyrian is the rod of gods anger , the staffe in their hand is gods indignation , isay 10. 5. there is no evill in a city but he doth it . behold ( saith the psalmist ) what desolations the lord hath made in the earth . psal. 46. 8. if a sparrow fall not to the ground , but according to the will of our heavenly father , much lesse are millions of men mowed downe with the sword , but according to his righteousnesse in iudgement . it is also cleare out of scripture , that wee ought to lay to heart those iudgements of god , which wee are acquainted with , and especially his greater iudgements god sends one place to consider of another : goe yee now unto my place , which was in shilo , where i set my name at the beginning , and see what i did to it for the wickednesse of my people israel , 7. 12. saith god to the men of ierusalem . and who makes question , but that those churches , nations , persons , and places , which have speciall relation one unto another , sacred or civill , in the bonds of religion , neighbourhood or commerce are more especially bound mutually to consider and bemoane one anothers conditions . this likewise is evident , that our church and state , and every member of the same , ought upon speciall consideration to be cordially affected with the miseries of germany . they are of the same religion with us . christians as wee are ; our peace is the weaker for want of theirs ; many of our owne have suffered with them . but above all is the affliction of that royall lady our gracious soveraignes onely sister , who hath suffered already in her royall person , and may suffer yet more in her posterity , but god forbid . but what is it that wee must doe , or learne from the state of things in germany ? the particulars are severall in severall regards . in relation to god , to them and to our selves . in regard of god. wee must acknowledge the infinitenesse of his wisdome and unsearchablenesse of his iudgements , and take heede of rash assigning the cause . some lay all the blame upon the protestants , as if their division among themselves , and unnecessary separation ( in their phrase ) from the church of rome , were the roote of all . but is it not more likely , that germany drinkes now of the cup of wrath , because shee hath long drunke of the cup of sundry great abominations ? the generall cause , which is sinne , wee all acknowledge : it were a happinesse to know the speciall , according unto that , foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas . but such a spirit of discerning god gives not unto all . they themselves best know their owne waies , case and state , and therefore wee may leave it unto them to consider of the speciall causes , whom it most concernes . but who will not feare the lord , and glorifie his name , who onely is holy , and whose judgements are made manifest , rev. 15. 4. in respect of them , first let us sympathize : grieve with them that grieve . rom. 12. 15. and weepe with them that weepe . we are all members of one and the same mysticall body , whereof christ is head . our peace and security is in a great measure bound up in theirs : their troubles may increase ours ; as they have already occasioned many feares , cares and expences : witnesse the great levie of souldiers at some times , and not a little chargeable embassages from our king and state. next of all , we are to pray for them , that god would restore peace , and make up all breaches . giving the lord no rest , untill hee make ierusalem the praise of the earth . abraham interceded long for sodome , how much more ought we to do the like for them ? and yet further , as we have ability and opportunity , we ought to help and succour them , ministring to their necessities , receiving of their profugates , and intertaining them into our bosomes , when they fly from their owne to us . many of ours found among them a shelter from the storme in our marian daies , and doe still , no doubt , blesse god for our peace , notwithstanding their owne warres . in respect of our selves , there be many instructions which we may learne from the lecture of their calamities . no privileges can finally secure a sinfull people ; for what have we to glory in that they had not ? the seedes of all their evills are sowne in our fields . there be likewise divers duties that wee should abound in the more : in repentance , lest we bring upon our selves the like : in prayer , that god would blesse our state and government , that by the wisedome thereof we may be led along in such waies as may propagate our peace unto posterity : in patience under those chastisements which we suffer . though the hand of god hath long beene upon many cities and townes , and his arme be stretched out still upon some of them , yet is our misery , happinesse , in comparison of theirs : if a gentle plague alone have affrighted us all , what would sword and famine with it doe ? but what doe wee ? wee put farre away the evill day , and cause the seat of violence to come neere : wee drinke wine in bowles , and anoint our selves with the chiefe ointments , but are not grieved for the afflictions of ioseph , amos 6. 3. & 6. this is no small sinne , and if once the day of our visitation come , a small chastisement on gods part will not be all . oh that wee would consider , the vials of gods wrath are pouring forth , as well on his owne churches for correction , as on their adversaries unto destructino . who knowes how fast the cup may passe round ? gods arrowes are all fleete . the curse of god goeth forth over the face of the whole earth , zach. 5. 3. if the sinnes of sodome be found in samaria , and the sinnes of samaria in ierusalem , they shall all pledge each other : for god is no respecter of persons . are there no drunkards but in germany ? or , doth god hate sinne in them alone ? what are wee , that god should alwaies spare us ? many cry , peace , peace , and i with the prophet ieremy say amen . the lord doe so , the lord performe the words of them which prophesie of nothing but good , iere. 28. 6. but it s good to remember that of the apostle , when they cry , peace , peace , &c. gloss. ordin . in ierem. 7. 12. quicquid illo populo fecit deus , timeamus : cum nos similia faciamus . yet no such clouds ( blessed bee god ) arise over our heads , as those wherewith her horizon is darkned . but stormes arise suddenly . god creates good and evill , brings both when there is no appearance or cause of suspicion . not to feare is cause enough to bee affraid , if we could so reflect upon our selves : as god brings light out of darknesse , so darknesse out of light . how faire rose the sunne upon sodome , that day it rained fire and brimstone ? how poore a thing was a cloud like a mans hand , to prognosticate abundance of raine by ? but i must manum de tabula . well then reade on , reade and spare not , reade and consider , reade and weepe , imagine the booke to be germany it selfe , their case ours , and our soules in their soules stead . do as nehemiah did when he heard of the state of ierusalem , and the temple therein he sate downe and wept , mourned and fasted certaine daies , and prayed before the lord god of heaven , neh. 1. 4. would we but doe the like for our selves and them , god would assuredly restore their peace , and continue ours , for which i shall ever heartily pray , and so rest a well-wisher to all the churches of god. a copie of a letter sent by the ministers of germany to the dutch church in london . snalles and froges eagerly eaten eatinge dead mens guts and interalls a diuines wife saw 6 of her children ley starued before her eyes . corne 3 pounds 18 shilling a bushell . since the imperialists passing the rhine , first entred into our countrey , which is almost two yeeres agoe , destruction hath come upon as like a whirlewind , and sudden desolation hath depopulated this our most floutishing country ; our cities are turned into townes , our townes into villages , our villages into cottages ; where before were a thousand , there now scarce a hundred , and where a hundred , there the tenth is hardly left alive : those which the sword hath spared , the pestilence hath consumed , those which the pestilence hath left , famine hath destroyed , and the small remnant which pale-fac'd famine hath not devoured , are so transcēdently miserable , as it even exceeds the most hyperbolical expresions of the loftiest rhetorician , yet that your thoughts may be elevated to a higher pitch , and more serious consideration , we● will give you some instances , some examples . after that the caesarian forces the last yeere had taken swybruggen , & passing with a numbersome army towards lotharinge had destroyed all round about ; there followed such a fearefull famin , that the most part of men , especially of thē that dwelt in the country , being urged by pressing necessity , was driven to feed on acorns , all manner of herbs , roots , briars , nettles , grasse , leaves of trees , so that we may truly take up the complaint of the psalmist ( though there it 's to be taken in another sense ) that man is become like the beast that perisheth , but further , the intralls of beasts , the skins of beeves , sheepe , horses , the haire being first burned , was highly prised , yea snailes , frogs with their guts and egs , the flesh of dogs and cats , carrion that hath been dead six weeks or more , hath beene valued at a great rate , nay , sometimes not the price , but a sword hath decided who should have a young colt , or some such thing , though not halfe a yard long . two women did so long fight with their fists for horse-flesh , that one of of them dyed , yea , in some famine made such a rage , that they did not abstaine from mans flesh . in a parish neere unto sweybruggen , a brother and sister surviving their parents , and the sister also dying , he ( wee tremble in the very writing ) fed upon his sister , and devoured the thighes of his mother , in the diocesse of blissoe capellana the corpses of men starved , whose skin cleaved to their bones , so that whilest they were alive , we might truely have said , that their flesh did but infunerall their buried ghosts , yet they being dead , had their in wards , their heart and lungs taken our , and devoured , and that which is more , they have laine in waite to intercept passengers , and those whom they have taken , after they have killed them , they make their own bellies then graves . a boy of some three yeeres old , the son of a souldier in biten territory , was stollen and carried away by a begger , as she was about to strangle him with a haltar , the mother opportunely comming , rescued him , and moved with wrath and indignation slew her , these are the fearefull effects of famine , so that if we scape the being devoured by others , yet hunger will even famish us : the widow of iohn peters laëri . minister , saw before she died ( o dreadfull spectacle ) sixe of her children perish with famine . the widow of albogastus rumela perished her selfe , and foure children , and when they are extinguished by famine ( if they escape being eaten of others ) they lie unburied , stinking and torne in pieces by dogs , wolves , and other beasts . some having eaten mad dogges , were taken with phrensie themselves , and ragingly dyed . hence comes such a wildernesse , that in 300 parishes , there 's not any left alive , those few that remaine , hide themselves in the woods , and in the townes , the tenth man doth not survive , and many of them too , having their strength dryed up , totter to and fro , nodding and sliding like carved pictures without life , and many being no longer able to stand , fall downe in the middest of the streetes , groveling on the ground , and being onely able to aske for sustenance are ready to give up the ghost . this is the state of our afflicted countrey , so that we may lament , as isay. the daughter of sion is like a city of devastation , like a sommer cottage in a garden , like a little nouse in a vineyard . it the lord of hosts had not left us a remnant , we had beene as sodome and as gomorrah . in the dukedome of sweybruggen are left ministers . 40. schoolemasters . 16. wives . 52. widowes 26. children . 140. orphanes . 18. somme 292. persons . in the names of all the ministers of sweybrugen sent forth under hand and seale : iohannes wilthelmus . rauschius pastor numbacensis . exul . iohannes christianus . neuhorelius pastor ohmbacensis . exul . this we have had from such good hands , even from the dutch cō sistory in london , where the originall is , that it must needes seeme malicious ignorance in any that will but faint in the beliefe hereof . sweybruggen . 14. novemb. 1636. a copy of a letter written by a worthy minister of meissenheim , upon the edge of the lower palatinate , the 1. of feb. 1637. caeterum , quis patriae nostra afflictissimae status fit , ex aliis procul dubio percepistis , omnia ( ut poetae verbis utar ) in pejus ruere , & retro pede lapsareferri , quocunque enim oculos vertimus , nihil nisi miseriam , & hor. rendam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cernimus : militis insolentia & truculentia omnem fere superat fidem , biponti ipsa illustrissimorum ducum ante multos annos defunctorum , spe prede , sepulcra violare , in eorum cadavera savire , ossa disturbare & comminuere non veriti sunt : annonae caritas tanta , quanta in his terris nunquam audita , medimnus siliginis vix octodecim comparatur imperialibus thaleris , & cum summo vitae periculo bûc portatur , certè nisi deus opt. max. veluti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manus auxiliairices ferat , paucisfimis illis incolis , qui adhuc superstites sunt , & bactenus maximā partem pomis pirisque victitarunt , quoque inedia pereundum erit ; famis sagunthinae , samaritanae , hisrosolymitanae , prae atrocissimis illis , quae in nostra ( proh dolor ! ) patriâ evenêre , exemplis ferè ludicra sunt ; ante 2. hebdomadas in pago ilvesheim incola ( vir alioquin honesti nominis ) vicini sui absentis aedes intrat , aliquid panis aufert , exire volentem interpellat puer octo quasi annorum , & comminatur , quòd cognato suo , apud quem vixerat hactenus , redeunti furtum hoc propalare velit , ibi continuò sceleratus ille instinctu mali genii accurrit , & puero falce putatoria miserè jugulum abscindit : in pago steinhausen propè hornbacum foemina quaedam puellam 12 annorum , blandis verbis pellectam , puerumque quinque annorum molitoris filium ( horresco referens ) trucida vit , & cum vicinâ devoravit ; milites praesidiarii bipontini excurrentes in pagum hunc irruunt fortuitò , & aedes infanticidae bujus nesariae , nidore allecti , intrant , omnes angulos rimantur , tandem vas adipe humano resertum , caputque prius aquâ fervente maceratum , exinde in furno tostum reperiunt , ipsam captivam bipontum trabunt , ubi 24. ianuarii poenas infandi hujus infanticidii dedit meritas , sequ● praeterito anno duos insuper liberos prope landoviam & annae villam mactasse confessa est ; altera foemina , quae particeps barum carnium suit , adbuc in vinculis tenetur , se enim hujus facinoris affinem fuisse constanter pernegat . talia ( proh dolor ! ) indies audire cogimur , tristissima exempla : ô vere malesuadam famem ! ô ingenia verè cyclopica ! ô horrendam metamorphosin , quâ homines omnem ubmanitatem exuentes , truculentissimarum bestiarum naturam induunt , & verè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , seu lycaones fiunt ! fredericus goelerus , pastor meissenheimensis . the same in english. vvhat the state of our most afflicted countrey is , without all doubt you have perceived by others ; all things ( as i may use the words of the poet ) have runne together for the worse , and slid with a backward foot , for wheresoere we cast our eyes , wee see nothing but misery , and a horrid devastation of townes and villages ; the insolencie and cruelty of the souldiers exceeds all beliefe , they have not beene afraid , sor the hope of prey , in sweibruggen to violate the tombes of the illustrious dukes many yeares agoe deceased , to exercise cruelty on their corps , to disturb and diminish their bones . the dearenesse of provision is such as never hath beene heard of before in this land , a bushell of corne is scarsely got with 1● rix dollers , which is foure pounds one shilling english money ; which is hither brought with the extreme danger of their lives that bring it , surely , without our good god from above should lend us his helping hand , those few inhabitants which yet remaine alive , and hitherto for the most part have lived on apples and peares must needs perish . the famine of saguntum , samaria , ierusalem , if they are but paralleld with those most grievous ones ( oh our griefe ! ) that have befalne us in our countrey , seeme but trifles . about a fortnight since , an inhabitant of the village of ilvesbeim ( a manotherwise of a good report ) comming into the house of his neighbour , when he was absent , tooke a little bread , intending to goe out , a child of some eight yeares of age called after him , and threatned him , that when his cousen came home , with whom he lived , that he would make manifest his theft presently ; that wicked fellow ranne unto him , and with a pruning hooke miserably cut his throate . in the village of steinhaus neere hornebach , a certaine woman having allured unto her with enticing words a girle of 12. yeares old , and a boy of 5 , a millers son ( i tremble in the relating ) killed them both , and devoured them with her neighbour ; the garrison souldiers of sweibrugen making an excursion by chance into this village , being drawne thither by the smell , enter the house of this infant killer ; they search every corner , at last they finde a vessell full of humane grease , and a head that had beene scalded in hot water , and so baked in an oven ; they carried her caprive unto sweibruggen , where on the 24 of ianuary shee suffered condigne punishment ; at her death she confest , that neere landovia and the village of anna , she killd two other children the last year . the other woman , which was partaker in the eating , is still kept in prison , and constantly denies that shee was a partner in that wicked act . such things ( oh our grief ! ) we are compeld daily to heare , most sad examples . o ill perswading hunger , o wits truly cyclopicke ! o dreadful metamorphosis ! by which men putting off all humanity , and putting on the nature of salvage beasts , doe truly become wolvish ! from meissenbsim . feb. 1. 1637. fredericus goelerus , pastor of meissenh . a true copy of a letter written by a worthy minister , andreas pilger sometimes minister of heydelberg . from wormbs the 10th . of febr. 1637. alas ! what stormes and tempests doe now beat upon the ship of jesus christ in our countrey ? what punishments and plagues doe now oppresse us ? god is justly angry with us for our manifold sinnes , and seemes in his indignation utterly to destroy us , and all that is round about us . the heavie curses of moses , the bitter lamentations of ieremy , and all the horrible threatnings of the holy prophets , wee see daily here accomplished . with this new winter-quarter , beginnes a renewing of our miseries ; oppression and persecution , we being utterly destitute of all helpe and meanes to support us . the chiefest of our countrey are forced to leave their houses and lands , and to goe a wandring in strange countries ; yea , many of them end their lives most miserably . it is impossible to expresse either the greatnesse of our wants , or the fury of famine amongst us . mothers forgetting their naturall affections towards their owne children become butchers of them , and eate them up in stead of food . wee do heare daily children crying about the streets , and lamenting that they dare not goe home , for feare of being killed . it is kept upon record by the magistrates of this city , how that men have digged out of the graves dead bodies , and have eaten them . a woman was found dead , having a mans head rosted by her , and the rib of a man in her mouth , holding it betweene her teeth , and of this horrible spectacle all sorts of men can give testimony . such and many more signes of gods heavie wrath wee could write unto you of , but this shall suffice to give you a touch of the extremities wee are in . o how seasonable are those almes , which are sent hither to keepe some of us alive ! that faithfull god , who hath made so many promises to the liberall heart , will undoubtedly consider those , that consider our poore countrey-men in these extremities , and keep them from famishing . andreas pilger , pastor . chap. i. evills of punishment are gods , the evil of sinne is wholly ours . whatsoever was the impulsive cause of his judgements , our wholsomest use is , to attribute them to our sins : to greater sins , greater judgements , seeing god seemeth to observe a proportion to our deserts ; for , ezck. 14. 21. the prophet speaks of foure sore judgements , that is , greater and more grievous than the rest ; famine , sword , pestilence , and the noisome beast : with these hath he lately visited some nations ; especially germany , before a large , populous , fertile and flourishing countrey . what shal we say ? were their sins greater than ours ? no , but except we repent , what may we expect ? the sins of sodome were pride , idlenesse , and fulnesse of bread ; and such they acknowledge theirs to have beene . i have seene their peasants served in plate , they slept with downe-beds above and under them : their stoves kept them insensible of the winters cold ; they ate no dish of meat without his sauce ; their plenty of corne and wine , milk and honey , fish and flesh , did equall that of any other nation whatsoever . a little labour brought them in much ; delicacie of living made them incompassionate of others sufferings ; and security blinded them , that they could not see the storm a comming . thus , while they swim in fulnesse and pleasure , the judgement that slept , was suddenly awaked , & the fire of war was kindled in all their coasts ; which blowne with the bellows of exasperated spirits , hath depopulated their land , and consumed their dwellings to the ground : all lieth desolate ; the vineyards are not dressed , nor the fields tilled , the sword is every where drunke with bloud . famine killeth more than the sword ; and the pestilence , with other epidemicke diseases ( wars attendants ) devour their part also ; and which is worst of all , there is yet no end of these things . chap. ii. of extortions and exactions . the blazinge starre 1617 burgers and ministers . , releued in prisson a diuine tortured with a catt . to beginne with warre , which began the rest , who knoweth not that this mercilesse fury hath there plaied the tyrant , ever since that burning beacon , the blazing starre , gave them the alarme , 1617. which the best astrologers expounded the sword of germany . a prophecie i have seen , long since , written in a booke , which belonged to a canonick of nimegen , and now in the library at zutphen ; that a time should come , when one frederike should be king , and then should the princes of germany , the nobility of bohemia , and the people of both be oppressed , and warre rage , beyond all precedent of former ages this , if ever , is now fulfilled in our daies . and if in such disorder it may be possible , i will observe this order in speaking thereof : first , extortions and exactions : secondly tortures and torments : thirdly , rape and ravishing : fourthly , robbery and pillaging : fifthly , bloud-shed and killing ; sixthly , burning and destroying . these shall be the scenes of this first act . famine and pestilence shall stand for the other acts of this direfull tragedy : in which , as no action or passion was simple , or single , so can i not but with intermixtion , and confusion rehearse them . for the first , as no province or part of germany can boast of her freedome from these miseries ( though some have beene more free than others ) so is there no prince , nor state , which hath not suffered herein , no city , no towne , almost no person . every halfe yeeres , every moneths , yea , weekes relation , telleth us , of hundreds , thousands , millions of rix dollars , or galdens imposed , exacted , extorted by the conquerours , or spoylers , for the redemption of mens lives or liberties , goods or dwellings , 〈◊〉 strange and impossible oft-times have the ransomes beene , with which they have ●●xed the burgers , at the taking in of townes . and that they might have their wills in this kinde , they have called the magistrates , and burgers into the state-houses , threatened , imprisoned , or otherwise abused them , till they condescended . at griphenberg , they kept the senators shut up in a chamber of the common-hall , macerating and tormenting them so long with hunger and smoake , that some of them dyed . we left in heydelberg-castle many burgers to this their mercy ; and divers reverend ministers , who were imprisoned , and fed with bread and water , till the charity of the reformed churches could relieve them . presently after , they at frankendale surrendring the towne , upon necessity , could not enjoy the articles granted them by the enemy ; but were together with the grave counsellours , and other electorall ministers , forced to endure such conditions , as were sitter for slaves and dogs , than men . some were cast into prison , and there so handled , that many of them dyed through griefe and sorrow . others , though altogether exhausted , redeemed themselves with unreasonable ransomes . the goods of those that were fled , were confiscated : all the inhabitants , though they were willing to leave their houses , with all their furniture , were detained in the city , and their destruction most cruelly plotted : after like manner have others beene dealt with , contrary to all oathes and promise , yea , contrary to the lawes of nations and common faith . chap. iii. of tortures and torments . not to insist on these , looke we upon the cruelties which the licentious souldier hath exercised upon the persons of the inhabitants , without respect of age , sex , dignity , calling , &c. and we shall rather thinke them banditos or renegado's , than men of armes , rather monsters than mankinde . nor turks nor infidells have so behaved themselves . even princes ( sacred persons ) though they never bore armes , as the old landgrave of hessen , and others : yea , some of the female sex , as the old dutchesse dowager of wirtenberg , have beene without any regard or pitty , taken prisoners , reviled , abused . aronibeus reporteth from the letters of the d. of saxony , that some of tillies souldiers caused his subjects to be tortured , by halfe strangling them , and pressing their thumbes with wheeles . his souldiers , and those of walsten , exercised yet greater cruelties in pemeren , and thereabouts . they made the people by force to eate their owne excrements : and if they would not , they thrust them downe their throates , and so choaked some of them . twisted out there eyes raced offe there skinne with knifes hanging vp in the smoke blood sprouted at fingers end . plaining there faces pisse poured downe there . throates whom they thought to have hidden gold or other wealth , they have assayed , by exquisite torments to make them confesse . yea princely personages have suffered like cruelty in this kind with meaner folke . they have wound and tied about the heads of such , strong matches or cords , and twisted the same till the blood came out of their eyes , eares , and noses , yea , till their eyes started out of their heads . they have put and tied burning matches betwixt their fingers , to their noses , tongues , jawes , cheeks , brests , legs , and secret parts . yea those parts which nature hideth , they have either filled with powder , or hung satchels of powder on them , and so giving fire to the same , they have in horrible manner burst their bellies , and killed them . they have with bodkins pierced , yea with knives raced , and cut the skin and flesh of many , as some artificers deale with leather , or other stuffe of like nature . they have drawn strings and cords thorow the fleshy parts of some , the muscles of their thighs , legs , armes , &c. thorow their noses , eares , lips , &c. they have hung up some in the smoak , drying them with small fires , refreshing them sometime with small drinke , or cold water . for these being such as were before overwhelmed with griefe , they tooke care lest in their torment they should die too soone . some they have put into hot ovens , and so smothered or burned them . some they rosted with straw-fires . some have they stifled , strangled or hanged . this was great favour to be ridde out of their paine . to many they have bound so hard both hands and feete , that the blood hath sprouted out at the ends of their fingers and toes . of some they have tied both hands and feet back ward together , and stopped their mouthes with clouts to hinder them from praying . some have they hanged up , with ropes fastned to their privie parts , and hearing their roaring cries , have striven to out-roare and drowne their cries as in sport . and yet more detestable , where they have found poore weake creatures troubled with ruptures or burstennesse , they have enlarged the same by villanous meanes , filled them with gunpowder , and blowne them up as a mine , by giving fire thereunto . many have they trussed up on high , hanging on their feet stones and weights to stretch out their bodies . with jizels or like instruments they have gone about to plaine the faces of some , pretending that they would make it equall & smooth . some housholders have they openly gelded , in the presence of their wives and children . the mouthes of some have they opened with gags , and then poured downe their throats , water , stinking puddle , filthy liquids , and pisse it selfe , saying , this is a swedish draught . so growing sicke , and their bellies swelling like a tun , they have dyed by leysure with the greater torment . downe the throates of others , they have thrust a knotted clout , and then with a string pulled it up againe , to pull the bowells out of their place , or shew themselves exquisite in such divellish devices . and by these torments , they have made some deafe , or dumbe , others blind , others lame and miserable creples , if they killed them not . if an husband did intreat for the wife , or the wife for the husband , then tooke they the intercessour , and he was tortured by them , after the same manner before the others eyes . and ( which is almost beyond all credit ) when these poore prisoners or patients , were suffering or dying under their hands , and crying to god in their anguish , these hellish executioners would command or force them to pray unto the divell , or call upon him . infinite and unspeakeable are the cruelties , which have this last yeere beene exercised by the furious souldiers on all sides . and some devills among them did proceed so farre , that they consulted and devised new and exquisite tortures , which they exercised upon innocent persons . they tooke a divine , ( some write a canon in those parts , and a reverend old man ) stripped him , bound him along upon his backe on a table , and a strong bigge cat upon his naked belly . they beat and pricked the cat to make her fixe her teeth & claws in the poore mans belly . so the cat & the man , partly through famin , partly through pain and anguish , both breathed their last . some of their despicable and infamous ruytery called croats or crabats , have laboured much to teach their horses not only to kil men , but to eate humane and christians flesh , and have consulted how to find out torments more rare , cruell , and exquisite than ever . what shall we say to these devils ? phalaris , nero , dionysius , all other tyrants and tyrannies , are incomparable to these new stratagematists and engineers . cancasus bred them , tygers fed them , hel taught them , and thither i remit them . chap. iiii. of rape and ravishing . ●●●●nesse in chur●●● a maide rauisched and after quarterd maides leapinge into riuers . i have said much of the former particular , and yet but little . i will now speake little of this ensuing abomination , and ( i feare ) too much . rapes and ravishing scarce to be spoken or heard of , have they committed , beyond all humane modesty . mayds and matrons , widdowes and wives , without distinction have they violated and forced , and that in the presence of their parents , husbands , neighbours , &c. women with child in child-bed , &c. no pen can write it , no faith believe it . no chappell church or place consecrated hath beene free from the filthiest of pollutions , or most sacrilegious barbarismes . the very hospitalls and bedlame-houses have not beene spared : their divellish madnesse hath there found subjects for their purpose . in hessen-land , a poore leane bedlam woman , that had beene kept in chaines abóve twenty yeeres , was by these hell-hounds let loose . about her they brought divers others , like her selfe , some madde , some dumbe , all wretched . they tyed their coates about their eares , and so used them as i shame to expresse . in pomeren they tooke the fairest daughters of the country-dwellers , and ravished them in the sight of their parents , making them and their friends to sing psalmes before them all the while . in italy , i have heard some with teares recite the villanies perpetrated by the germane troopes of gallas and altringer , when they besieged mantua . among the rest , a beautiful maid was by her parents hid in the dung-hill . but they found her out , had their pleasures of her , then cut her in pieces , hung her quarters up in the church , and bid her friends pray to the saints for her succour . the sperenrentrish herse-men ( as we came through brunswick-land ) tooke by force a young maide ten yeeres old , and carryed her into a wood to ravish her . the mother with upreard hands came running after our coach , crying out to my colonell , who was here a stranger without command , and could not relieve her : then saw wee the two horse-men come out of the wood , where they had left the poore child dead or alive i know not . vertuous and chaste women have they offered to kill , or throwne their children into the fire , to make them yeeld . they have not spared the very nunnes in the cloysters , but after they have entred by force , broken open their trunkes and coffers , and taken their goods , they have likewise ravished them , and killed some of them . i know the generall , a troope of whose horse having done the like , hee commanded them all to be hanged , but because they were not all alike guilty , they cast lots for their lives , and every tenth man dyed . some have leaped into rivers , into wells , or killed themselves because they would not be subject to the filthy lusts of these hell-borne furies . not onely sicke and weake maids , and women have beene violated till they dyed , but these wretches have committed like filthinesse with the dead bodies . chap. v. of robbing and pillaging . no man can now passe any where in dutch-land ; but hee is robbed , stripped , perhaps killed . the merchants of frankford , nurenberg lipzig , hamburg , &c. have had too wofull experience hereof : witnesse of infinite this one instance . the merchants of basil , returning from the mart at strasburg , and other faires , to goe to shoffehausen , were set upon by the imperialists in their lodging , and though they offered to prove themselves merchants , and craved their lives upon their knees , yet they killed ten of them , saying , they must dye , because they were heretickes . the rest leaving their goods and garments behind , escaped by flight starke naked in the night . marchants robed and slaine persons priuelegdd rifled divines cutt in peaces two countesles of great nobility , with their faire daughters and followers in distresse , were entertained by us in the castle of heydelberg , the one immediately before , the other in the time of the siege . when our hope of subsisting began to faile , they went away with the enemies pasport . notwithstanding which they were by them robbed and rifled in their coaches of all they had , not sparing the very garments that covered them . the priviledged persons of royall embassadours , their goods and followers , cannot be secured from them , witnes this yeare the shamefull plundering of the danish embassadour . what quarter they give to the traveller , the like or worse they afford the inhabitants , if they escape with their lives , this is all , and well too : when the time hath beene that one might have travelled safe from the one end of germany to the other with a white rod in his hand and an hundred pound in his purse . indeed they robbe one another every where out of their quarter : nor are they fellow souldiers any longer , when they have opportunity to play the theeves . nor god nor devil do they acknowledge , but when they sweare , nor is any thing so vile but they will doe it . chap. vi. of bloodshed and killing . as for killing , this is the least of all the rest . death puts an end to all miseries ; onely they that survive are oft-times the worse for want of them that are dead . to report the blood-shed of this warre , would be incredible : alsted saith , that before the king of swedens comming , it had consumed no lesse than 100000. if this be true , what hath it done since ? how many millions have miserably perished ? they have sometimes killed one another ; and among other precedents this is not least remarkable , that gourdon and lesley scotch colonells , with colonell butler the irish man , who killed walstein , the count of tirskie , and other imperiall officers then ready to revolt to the swedish party , are now , this yeere after the same manner , hurt , or killed themselves ( as is written ) by gallas his followers , upon a dispute about that former businesse ; a document for all strangers , to take heede , how they collogue with those monsters , in such dangerous actions , who love the treason , but hate the traytor . priests slaine at the altars croats eate children noses & eares cut of to make hatbandes at landshood in bavier , the souldiers entring by force , killed not only all they found in arms , but the innocent inhabitants , yea , the very priests kneeling at the altars ; and divers other instances of like nature i could produce . now what may the poore peasant and countrey-dwellers expect ? to kill them if they resist or refuse them any thing , is but ordinary in this warre : among the imperiallists is a base sort of rascally horse-men which serve them , and are called croats . the tenth part of them are not of that countrey : for they are a miscellany of all strange nations , without god , without religion , and have only the outsides of men , and scarse that too . they make no conscience of murthering men or women , old or young , yea , the very innocent babes ; and like the beasts among whom they are bred , doe sometimes eat them , when other food might be found : the poore people have by these beene every where knocked downe in the fields and wayes , slaughtered , stabbed , tortured barbarously . their fellow souldiers are not much behind them having some where left such foot-steps of their cruelty , that there scarce remaine living , to relate the sufferings of the dead . i have seen them beat out the braines of poore old decrepid women , as in sport , and commit other outrages of like nature , which my brevity wil not permit me to relate . it is now growne so usuall with the poore people to see one slaine before anothers face , that ( as though there were no relation , no affection of neighbourhood , kindred or friendship among them ) none compassionateth almost , none cryeth out , oh my father , or oh my brother ! as for quarter ( that is mercy , and the saving of the lives of the vanquished , when they beg it on their knees ) the vanquishers have been oft times inhumane . the croats , till of late , never gave any quarter , but killed whatsoever enemy they had at their mercy . the like did the curlins ( the regiment of hell ) receive pay of them of gaunt and bruges , to bring the nose and ears of their enemies away to their masters . tilly , after the defeate of the duke of brunswicke at heuxt on the maine , drew out of that town threescore poor souldiers , & caused them all to bee killed in the cold blood , before the gate , saying , that he sacrificed them to count mansfield their master . i could weary my reader with these examples . but i forbeare . chap. vii . of burning and destroying . 2000. villages burnt in bauaria no tillage nor breding cattell but dringe all in to citties for burning , pulling down and ruining of churches , cities , villages , the like hath not been heard . the swedish army burned above 2000 villages in bavaria , in revenge of the palatine cause : but their enemies spare meither foes nor friends . what goodly houses of the nobility and gentry shall you , there , see fallen down , or so defaced , as is scarce reparable without building new ? from what quarter soever the army riseth , they will bee sure to leave some dwellings in the ashes , some in the smoake . to that passe it is now come , that every one that is a man , betaketh himselfe to arms . there is now no other aboad , but some campe , no other plow to follow , no other imployment but the warre , for he that is not an actor with the rest , must needes bee a sufferer among the miserable patients . no tilling of the land , no breeding of cattell ; for if they should , the next yeare the souldiers devoure it . better to sit still , than to labour , and let others reape the profits , hence an universall desolation . part of the people swarme as banished in strange countries , as i have observed in suisse , at lausan , berne , basil , &c. in france , in italy , especially the venetian territories . from basil to strasburg , from strasburg to heydelberg , from thence to marpurg , i scarse saw a man in the fields , or villages . little better shall a man finde it tha● travelleth from the kingdome of france to the middle of bohemia , from the alps above auspurg to the baltique sea , a square of land little lesle than thrice all great britaine . onely here and there , as the land hath rest , the dwellers return . but alas , the farre greater part are extinguished by war , misery , or length of time . chap. viii . of famine . eateing dead horses fowles eate the dead famine commeth next in place , a thing so grievous , that david preferred the pestilence in his choicy . to see men slaine by the sword , or die of contagious diseases , is not yet so grievous , as to see them dye of famine , or kill to eate one another . in samaria besieged by benhadad king of syria , the famine was so great , that an asses head was sold for 80. pieces of silver , & the fourth part of a cab of doves dung for 50. pieces of silver . two women covenanted to eate their children successively : and when they had boyled and eaten the one , the other woman hid hers . in the siege of ierusalem , mice , rats , and hides were good meat , and women did dresse and eate their owne children , the smell whereof drew others that were hunger-starv'd to come to share with them . but that cities not besiged , and a country naturally fertile , should be so ruined , as not to be able , for so long a time to afford bread to a poore remnant of people , but that they must be faine to eate carrion , yea , dead men , yea , one another living : this is pittifull , this is unheard of . had i not beene provided of viaticum , at my comming out of suisse famine had arrested me in germany , for there was not any where meate for money . the italians and spaniards , which had bee eat the skirmish at nortlingen , and without armes , wandred among the duke of lorrane's troopes at nyburg and brisac , were so blacke and feeble through hunger , that had i not given them part of m● provision , i thinke they had rent me in pieces , and eaten mee . travelling from neiustadt towards frankendale in a snowie day , i met , unexpected , the army of duke bernard , whose stra ling fore-runners , came riding up to me by couples , and when i looked for a worse errand , asked onely for bread , which my guide gave them , so long as we had any . from thence to manheime and heydleberg , many dead men lay strewed on the way , especially on the fire places , which perished through cold and want . before wee were besieged last time in heydleberg castle , some of my patients , almost recovered of thei diseases , sent mee word , they were dying of famine , as indeed they did , except our canon helped to shorten their miseries . for being immediately shut up , we shot into the towne night and day , almost uncessantly . our souldiers at the first , killed more horses on a day , than they could eate , lest they should famish for want of hay and those they threw out of the castle , downe the rocke , which the enemy in the night drew into the towne , ( though some in so doing were slaine by our shot ) and so they eat our horse-flesh , also our serjeant major sallied with 50. men upon the enemy being 300. entrenched on the hil on the east side of the castle , and beate them out of their workes . many were slaine , some broke their necks downe the rocks : but which equalized the victory , the valiant major was shot dead . our souldiers being masters of the trench , fell to ransacke the enemies knapsackes , which they had left behinde them . but there was nothing in them , save our horse-flesh , which every day grew scarser with us : so that now we killed the horses which stood fasting and sleeping on the dung-hill , not out of compassion , but necessity . another serjeant major had two very faire horses shut up our souldiers tooke the one and ate him , he thinking to make sure the other , stapled him to the wall with a strong chaine and a padlocke , but they espying their opportunity , cut off the horses necke , left the head in the chaine , and carried away the body and ate it . at length , dogs and carrion came into request , we could smell our meate afarre off , and on the table it was yet more loathsome , the taste did answer the smell , yet , we ate it savourly , but our bread at last failing , we yeelded to necessity . chap. x. of famine . the armies now everywhere over-ranne the couutrey , devoured both corne & catel : so they that had goods left , offered to give all for a little bellytimber . but not so obtaining it they were faine to lie upon the streets and high waies , ( a thing not usuall with them ) and to crave for gods sake where with to refresh their dying soules . but no sooner had they swallowed what was given them , but they fell downe and died . memorable is that story which reinmannuste recordeth of the famine in alsatia the last yeere , which is at this present yet worse . valentine of engelin a citizen of rufacke , with the dead-burier , delivered unto the magistrate upon their oathes , that anne the daughter of iohn ebstein confessed unto them , that she came from colmar , where shee had waited many daies before the hangmans doore in hope to get a piece of horse-flesh to satifie her hunger . but not prevailing , shee was now come to rufack entreating them , that if there was the body of any young man or woman unburied , that they would give it her to eate to preserve her life . carion sould in the market as dogges & rattes fyteinge for carion and that two women and a boy did after the same manner speak unto them , telling them that they had for a long time lived of dead mens flesh , which being published , the cloyster of the church-yard of s. nicholas , where the dead bodies were kept , was locked up . lastly , that foure young maydes had cut in pieces the dead bodie of another young maid of eleven yeares of age , and eaten every one their part . at this day it is yet worse . many that survived the losse of all they had , have for a long time sustained themselves with roots , acornes , greene fruits , grasse , thistles , and weeds , that beasts would not have eaten , whereof they grew enraged anddyed . the famished have beene so faint , that they have not had strength to bury one another , in so much , that the dead have beene eaten up of dogs , foxes and wolves , and some have run mad for hunger . in some cities , the inhabitans by this famine , have beene constrained to kill all unedible cattell , without any difference , and to sell them publikely : as dogs , cats , rats , mice &c. a woman at hanaw , that had sold dogs-flesh ordinarily to the souldiers , was in the streetes assaulted by dogs , all her garments torne off her backe , that shee was faine to sit downe on the ground to hide her shame . and had she not beene rescued , shee had beene rent in pieces by the dogs . where any man had a beast left that he carefully kept for his necessity , some or other of his acquaintance , if he could come by it , would kill and eate it . they have snatched one from another the very stinking carrion , which had lien sixe or seven weekes dead and full of maggots : yea and have fought and beaten one another to get a morsell thereof , as lately happened at dubach by bachrack . it hath moved the great ones and governours of these quarters unto compassion to see their people in such extreame want . in so much that the noble earle of falkenstein seeing his subjects crave sustenance of him , commanded his man to give them his hounds to satisfie their hunger , which they presently killed and ate . chap. x. of famine . 3 wp , em killinge and after eateing each other wemen eate there owne children as the sicknesse spreadeth by the contagion of infected bodies , so hath this famine encreased by the neglect of providence in the disabled and famished . when no more food was to be got , they were inraged like beasts one against another , and gathering together by troopes , have watched for one another upon the high waies , and so murthered , dressed , and eaten one another . thenceforth no man could passe safe on the way , or in the streets , except wellarmed , or travelling with a convoy . and some of them have beene taken and severely punished by justice , neverthelesse they haue secretly lurked here and there , and set upon the passengers , as by many instances , i could shew . it is not good to be alone ; for where there is company , the one will helpe the other in distresse . the hardnesse of these times being observed , or rather felt , three maidens at odenheim in dirmbstein by wormes agreed to dwell together , and to partake of sweet and sower all alike . but the proverbe is true , that necessity hath no law , and hunger is a sharpe thorne . so pressed they were with extreame famine , that they sought one anothers lives to save their owne . two of them conspired together to take away the life of the third , by strangling her in bed or otherwise treacherously to kill her , and after to dresse and eate her up . all which they did accordingly . then the second resolved to strangle her companion , and cut off her head , which when shee had done , her heart being hardened , she went to a village called ridisheim to a woman of her acquaintance , called margaret , whose husband was a farmer , and kept himselfe a way for a time in the towne of leyningen . the woman entertained her kindly , rejoycing that shee came yet once to see her . but in the night , lying by the said woman , she cut off her head , bound the dead body upon a board and brought it to piedessen , where she dwelt and drew it into her house . the sharpenesse of hunger pricking her , she had not the patience to cut the body in pieces , but did cut off the head and both the hands onely , and washed and dressed them . the husband comming home missed his wife , and enquired for her at the neighbours , who told him that such a maide was seene with his wife . he went to her house , knocked at the doore and asked her , if she had not seene his wife . she answered him no. but such deeds of cruelty are hard to be concealed . murther will out , they say , or the very bruits will discover it . hee goes into her house , casteth his eyes round about , pryeth into every corner : at length hee espieth an hand to sticke out of the pot , which hung upon the fire . hereupon , as overcome with griefe , hee rageth and raileth against the murtheresse , threateneth her with sharpe words , so that she presently confessed and revealed it . then went he to the justice , and complained . so shee was brought to slitzey with three musketires . they made her hold the sodden hand in her hand , while she was examined : and so she had her sentence from the imperiall officers , burgrave philip of waldecke , and all the lords of justice , before the judgement-seat . they deliberated long about her punishment , whether she shoule die or no , because some were of opinion , that she did it not as a rationall creature , but as a brute , because the appetite of food is common to us with beasts . but wickednesse , though necessitated , may not ever goe free . some must be made an example for the terrour of others . she was led to the common place of justice , her head cut off , and her body bound upon a wheele , there to remaine as a spectacle . i cannot but write with teares what followeth . — quis talia fando mysmidonum , dolopumve ant duri miles vlyssis temperet à lachrymis ? — what myrmidon , what dolop , who that beares armes under harsh vlysses , but his teares must flow at this relation ? no man ever hated his owne flesh . but such are the children of our bodies . it is even against nature to destroy such fruite . yet the sharpnesse of hunger brought this to passe . oh! what is that necessity which makes us breake stone walls , forget the neerest and dearest relations , vanquish our naturall and most powerfull passions , and destroy that which we so dearely loved , so carefully cherished ! at oterburg in the palatinate , a widow women dwelling by the churchyard ( her name well knowne ) had a daughter of nine or ten yeares old . this child with hunger was growne so faint , that upon a time , with sorrowfull eyes , she stedfastly looked upon her mother and said , sweete mother , i would willingly die , so i were rid of my paine . oh! would you make an end of mee , then should i goe from whence i came , or if i did kill you , you would be rid of your paine . the mother looking upon her againe , sighing said , and what wouldest thou do with me ? the child answered , very sadly , i then would eat you , for they say that mans flesh is very sweet . the mother fell a weeping , and broken with her owne thoughts , as a ship tossed and beaten between two rocks , desperate necessity & her motherly affection , catcheth at her head , untyeth her haire-lace , twisteth it about the necke of this innocent lambe , and so strangleth her ; when it was dead , shee having nor knife nor hatchet to cut it in pieces , took a spade , and therewith hewed it into boggets , & so dressing the head , and part of the body devoured it . some part thereof shee sold to her neighbours for foure stivers the pound . her childe being long missed , her acquaintance asked her where it was , and how she came by that flesh . she answered it was hogs-flesh , which she had got of the souldiers , who passed that way . but perceiving the truth would come out , she at last confessed it . whereupon she was complained of to the justice at keysars lauteren , and put in prison by jonker van effren , and adjudged to an halfe pound of bread , and a kanne of water a day , so to expect her sentence . but being sent for out of prison , and examined by the lords , she told them she was happy that she was in prison , and would be glad to lie there all her life , to slake her hunger and refresh her selfe with such food , her pricking paine being thereby abated . this so moved the lords to pitty , that they freed her from prison , and let her goe as innocent . i cannot but record another story of like nature , of the woman of horne-bach , where was sometime the princely schoole of zwybruck , having lately lyen in childbed and wanting milke to nourish her babe , she kissed and embraced it with moyst teares , and after a long discourse killed it with a knife . afterwards she dressed and ate it . when it began to be knowne , she was examined before the justices . the lords asked her , wherefore she killed her childe . she made answere that mighty and intollerable hunger had made her so to doe , and that it was her owne fruite , of which shee might better make use , than of any other . neverthelesse she was condemned to die , and accordingly executed . chap. xi . of famine . i am now weary of these lamentable relations . yet more miserable ( if more miserable can be ) have ensued . they have traced the dead bodies to the place of their buriall , digged them out of their graves , dressed and eaten them . so that in divers places ( at wormes especially ) they have beene faine to set watch at the church-yards ; and over the graves to keepe the dead from being stolne and eaten . in saxony at this present the case is so miserable in this kinde , that no pen can expresse it . the saxon-austrian army ( were they not beaten ) must retreite through hunger , having famished both the inhabitants and themselves . after the same manner it is upon the rhine , and many other parts , where the armies are or have lately beene . to that extremity it is come , that some constrained by hunger , have taken poyson to advance death . dead corpes digd out of there graues to eate some take poyson to hastē death in a word , the very wild beasts in the woods doe starve for want of prey . my lord the earle of arundel travelling homewards , towards frankefort on the maine , a boore or peasant of the countrey , being their guide , and having his legs bare , a fox pursued him , among my lords followers , and would not forbeare snatching and biting at his bare heeles , ( such was his hunger ) till they gave him a blow in the necke , and so tooke him alive . his eyes were sunke , his bones stucke out , and hee was so extreme leane , that his sides almost mot together . they carried him alive with them in the coach , and after a few daies he died . an english gentleman arrived here the other day , who travelling from vlmes to nurenburg , & so through germany for england , with such companions as guided him by-waies for escaping of the souldiers , reporteth that wolves , foxes and other wild beasts lie dead for want of food , and that in some places men live only upon robbery and spoile of strangers , or one another ; theevery being become a trade . chap. xii . of sicknesse and diseases . in basile 1633 died . 20000 in trent . 1634 died 30000 generall holcke offred 600 rixdollers for a diuiń to comforte him . before mastreicht , after the towne was taken , our quarters had contracted infectious sicknesses : whereof i my selfe had my share , being left sicke in the towne of a purple feaver . but the yeere following both the towne and countrey were grievously afflicted , with feavers , fluxes , and the plague above all . the same yeere elsas or alsatia and the lower palatinate , where the armies of the duke of lorraine and the rhinegrave had lodged , did suffer miserably in this kinde . the army of the prince of orange having taken rhineberg , and marching towards mastriche and liege , left such infection in great brabant , about firkens-ward , that the inhabitants the yeere after were afraid of their owne dwellings . about the same time , generall holck being sent by wolstein , with 6000. to invade saxony , sacked the city of leipzick , and committed as great outrages as tillies army had done before . but such a pestilence overtooke both him and his , that most of his souldiers dyed like sheepe of the rot . and being infected himselfe , hee offered 600 rixdollers for a minister of the gospell to instruct and comfort him . but both himselfe and his souldiers had so behaved themselves , that no minister was to be found . in the meane all his friends & servants forsook him , except his concubine , who stayed with him to the last . he had beene both of the religion and the protestants party , but revolted from both . so guilty of his owne perfidiousnes , and the execrable murders and rapines that he had caused , hee dyed despairing utterly of all future blisse . at length came a minister , but holcke was dead before . the city of basile that winter lost above 20000. of the plague . they of the city of trent , their neighbours rejoyced at their sufferings , as being their enemies in religion . but it sell out with them , as with edom in obadiah , v. 15. that mocked jacob in his distresse . the winter following , 1634. the pestilence so raged among the tridentines , that wee were forbidden to come that way , for the sicke and sound were mixed together , and that city ( not great ) buried above 30000. besieged in the castle of heidleberg , i visited every day divers sicke of the plague , and like diseases . but in neither of these two great plagues in london , nor in any other , that i have beene in , did i ever finde the cause so virulent , the symptomes so incorrigible , the disease so incurable . some dyed raging , others were killed with their carbuncles , when the venome seemed to be expelled from the inward parts , others were swollen and discoloured , as though they had taken poyson , and some that dyed were so spotted , as i never saw the like . if any souldier were but sleightly wounded , presently it became a maligne ulcer , though all good inward and outward meanes , were used . if the infection got into a kindred , it killed parents , children , and almost all the blood , that were present . whence i perswade my selfe , that hippocrates his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , the divine hand and finger of god was more conspicuous in this , than in any other visitation i had seene , though i doubt not but our foode with the aire might also helpe to impoyson our bodies extraordinarily . toward the end of the siege , wee had made an hospitall in the roofe of the house . but packing out of the castle , wee left there our sicke , some dying , some crying out at the windowes , not to be left to their sicknesse , famine , and death , and which was worse than the enemy , of whom how they were used wee may imagine . in the towne they were much visited before we were shut up : which could not but be augmented by the multitudes of the enemy . in the siege of hanaw were buried , ( most of the plague ) above 22000 people , and had not god sent that sicknesse to diminish their numbers , they had yeelded the towne through want of victuals . in the same siege , souldiers that went to the guard seeing and well , came off strucken starke blinde thirty at a time . afterwards the disease falling into their legges , the most of them recovered . chap. xiii . of sickenesse and diseases . in bauier men not left to bury the dead , but rattes , and mice , devoured there carcasses . haue pittey vpon me , haue pittey vpon me , o yee my frends for the hand of the lord hath touched me . the yeere 1635 , almost whole germany felt this punishment , in most grievous wise . in swaben the countrey of tyroll , all along the reine , and the maine , it was so furiously hot , that all places were alike safe . the king of hungary was faine to dissolve his court , and send them away into divers cities , for their safer abode . in swaben the inhabitants of memingen , campden , and isnen were utterly consumed , and none left . in the countrey thereabout , in which were more than thirty thousand men heretofore , were not foure hundred soules to be found . in the confines of bavier the living were nothing neere able to bury the dead . but rats and mice devoured their carcasses , most horrible to behold . the low countries smarted sore also . the universitie of leyden buried thirty thousand . the countrey villages and the hague , ( where i was shut up my selfe ) were miserably afflicted . the infant cardinall was forced to remove from bruxels and antwerp , the sicknesse did so increase in those places . nimegen , emericke , rees , guelders , with other places neere , were not onely visited therewith ( wherof the marquesse of aytoma , the spanish generall , & other commanders died ) but new contagious diseases , among which were strange fluxes , and a kind of pox unheard of . the emperours army dispersing all over for want of resistance , did also scatter the contagion from their quarters at haylbrun , through the land of wirtenberg , that many places hereby became utterly depopulated . but since gallas his taking in the townes upon the rhine , such an infection happened through the stinch of the dead unburied bodies , that in the bishopricke of ments alone there died of this and hunger twenty foure thousand people . in saxony , brandenburg , pomeren , mecklenburg , &c. this yeare the pestilence with like diseases have beene so universall , that these and the sword , seeme to strive which shall be the greatest destroyer . the retraite of the swedes , in which they did not onely evade , but cut in pieces many of the enemies troopes , is not so famous as these calamities . the very plague consumed in saxony the other day in the space of two moneths , no lesse than sixteene thousand that the king of hungary hath given command that none shall come from thence to prague , or the cities of bohemia . as by the print of hercules his foot you might guesse at his stature , so by these few particulars of the miseries of some places there , we may guesse at the lamentable estate of the whole . the war having every where caught and raged , hath left such wounds as will not in haste be recured , and perhaps posterity for some generations will see the scarres . thus is the virgine daughter of that people destroyed with a great destruction , and with a sore and greivous plague . goe into the fieid , behold the slaine with the sword . enter into the city , behold them that are sicke for hunger also . so are they smitten , but are not healed . they loke for peace , but there is no good ; for the time of health , but behold trouble . finis . imprimatur november . 12. 1637. sam. baker . g. rodolphus weckherlin . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a14442-e1730 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a devas●●tion of townes & villag●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wolvif●● men . a briefe and yet exact and accurate description of the present state of the great & mighty empire of germany both touching the formes of their civil government and profession in religion / taken by a diligent and faithfull surveyor of it, with much paines travelled over that whole country to informe himself and others of these things ; now published by sa. clarke ... for the publick good. clarke, samuel, 1599-1682. 1665 approx. 109 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 28 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-11 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a33299 wing c4503 estc r37719 17007686 ocm 17007686 105735 this 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a33299) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 105735) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1611:66) a briefe and yet exact and accurate description of the present state of the great & mighty empire of germany both touching the formes of their civil government and profession in religion / taken by a diligent and faithfull surveyor of it, with much paines travelled over that whole country to informe himself and others of these things ; now published by sa. clarke ... for the publick good. clarke, samuel, 1599-1682. 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the present state of the great & mighty empire of germany , both touching the formes of their civil government , and profession in religion . taken by a diligent and faithfull surveyor of it , who with much paines travelled over that whole country to informe himself and others of these things . now published by sa . clarke , somtime pastor in st. bennet fink , london , for the publick good . london , printed by a. m. for william miller at the guilded acorn in st. pauls church-yard , near the little north door . 1665. a description of the great empire of germany : together with an account of their government both civil , and religious , wherein many memorable things are contained . germany is divided into ten provinces , which are called the circuites , or circles of the empire ; whereof the first circuit is of the four electors besides the river of rhine , viz. of the archbishops of mentz , collen , and treere , and the counte palatine . the second is the circuit of franconia : the third of bavaria : the fourth of austria : the fifth of suevia : the sixth of the rhine : the seventh of westphalia : the eigth of saxonia superior : the ninth of saxonia inferior : and the tenth of burgundia . all the which circuits are governed by ten severall heads , that are chose out of the nobility , and doe use that office commonly during their lives , or according to the will of the emperour , and the states of the empire , as hereafter in the end of this book it shall appear , where the division of the same provinces shall more at large be set forth . and as all these ten circuits are but one body ; so doe they consist in three estates , viz. of churchmen , temporall potentates , and free cities , the which all have one head , that is the emperour : who at present hath his residence at vienna in austria , to whom , as for homage , they pay yearly some little tribute ; and in cases needfull for the state of the empire they contribute men , weapons , and money extraordinary , every one according to the assessement made in the division of the said ten circuits of the empire . the which extraordinary contribution is given by the consents of these three estates being lawfully called to some place certaine , by the emperour , unto a parliament , which they tearm a diett . the churchmen have three heads , which are archbishops , and electors : of the which , the first is the archbishop of mentz , high chancelour of germany , with whom remaine all the acts of the diettes . and he hath authority sede vacante to call the rest of the electors to a diett for the choosing of an emperour , which is alwayes done at francford upon the river of mene. next unto him is the archbishop of colen , high chancelour of italy ; and after him the archbishop of treer high chancelour of france , the which two doe take their place in the sessions alternis vicibus , by turnes . and here is to be noted , that these three spirituall electors have not their office of electorship , nor their preferment of the archbishopricks by succession of inheritance , but by election of the cannons of their cathedrall churches , who commonly choose such to be their archbishop as is a gentleman of a good house . further in this ecclesiasticall estate are comprehended all the other archbishops , and bishops of germany ; as the archbishop of saltzburge , which is one of the ancientest , and in respect of his mines of salt , silver , and gold , is counted the richest , whose revenue is yearly to the value commonly of one hundred and fifty thousand guilderns . the archbishops of magdeburge , who is called the primate of the empire , whose revenue is likewise great , for out of one city called hall , he receiveth for the proffit of salt that is gotten , every saturday at night , five hundred dollars , all charges deducted . the archbishop of bream , and bisontz , with about twenty five bishops that have great possessions , and in respect of their cities , castles , and provinces are called princes of the empire : amongst the which the bishop of munster in weastphalia , who is also bishop of esenburge , and padeborn , is counted one of the cheifest . of the temporall lords there are counted likewise four cheif , the which are also called princes electors , and have each one a severall office which they use in their stiles for any honour in the service of the emperour , at his coronation . the count pallatine of the rhine is the greatest amongst them , and is chief sewer to the emperour , and sede vacante , vicarius imperij in pallatinatu , whose cheif court is commonly at heydelberge upon the river of neccar , his liuetenant in the office of sewership , is alwayes one of the house of nortenberge by inheritance . next to him in all sessions of parliament , but before him in the wars ( the emperour being personally in the field ▪ ) is the duke of saxon , whose principall house is at dresden in misuia , upon the river albis , who is high marshall of the empire , and beareth in all triumphs the sword before the emperour . his lieutenant in that office of high marshalship , is alwayes one of the house of papenheim by inheritance . the third place of the temporall lords , and the sixth place of the electors , hath the marquis of brandenburge , who is high chamberlain ; whose court is cheifly at birlyn in marchia upon the river of spre . his liuetenant in the office of high chamberlain , is alwayes one of the house of falkenstein by inheritance . there is also a seventh elector who is cupbearer , and hath no other office , nor authority in the empire , but only in the election , a voice , when the other six are equally divided , and then on that side that he giveth his voice , there doth the matter prevaile . and the same is ever the king of bohemia , which is now emperour himself . his lieuetenant in the office of cup-bearer is alwayes one of the house of lymburge by inhetance . the seventh elector was appointed long after the other six , viz. in charles the fourth his time , and the rest in the time of otho tertius . all these four temporall electors , have their authority by succession of heritage , and the eldest of the house hath alwayes the place of electorship ; they have power , and authority after the death of the emperour to chuse a man , whom they list , or during the emperours life to elect a king of the romanes , who alwayes doth succeed the emperour , as the prince of wales doth in the kingdom of england , and the dophin of france doth the french king. after the lords electors , are reckoned the noblemen , and princes of their houses , as for example : the duke of bavire whose residence is at monachum , or munchen in bavaria , where his yearly revenue is said to be six hundred thousand guildernes , with the rest of the palsegraves , whose feodaries are the ringraves , the earles of erbach , and isenberg . the duks of saxon , whose feodaries are the counties of mansfelde ; swerzberge , and stolberge . the marquesses of brandenburge , whose feodaries are the earles of reppein , and vyer rotton , ( which earldom now the earle of houlstine possesseth ) and the barrons of potlas . the dukes of brunswick ( whose yearly revenue is two hundred thousand guildernes ) the eldest of that house , who is called duke julus of wolfenbottel ) receiveth every day through out the year one , hundred dollers out of one silver myne at gloster only , besides his other mines of lead , and copper &c. his vassales are the contz of regenstein , and barrons of warberge . the dukes of lumburge , and harburge , who are of the house of brunswicke . the dukes of lawenburge , and princes of anhalt , which are of the ancientest house of saxon . the landesgrave of hessen , whose country is very great , for they be also earles of catzenelbogen , and have in hessia seventy citties , their vassals are the earles of rippan , of hoyz , of trefeld , of lipe , of sulmos , of witstem , of nefsowz , and of shaumborcke . the duke of wirtemberge ( whose yearly revenue is two hundred thousand florens , or guildernes . the dukes of pomer and mechelburge . the marquesses of baden , with a number of other princes , marquesses , earles , and barrons , of all the which , in all conventions , and dietts of the empire , next after the seven electors , the four dukes , which are of suevia , brunswick , bavaria and lothering , do take their place . and after them , the four marquesses of misnia , marchia , baden , and brandenburge . and next unto them the four landgraves of muring , heses , litchtenberge , and elsotz . after them the four burgraves of magdenburge , normberge , renake , and strumburge . and after them the four earles of savoye , cleve , zilie , and schwartzburge . and next to them the four barons of lymsperge , tasis , westerburge , and aldenwalde . and last of all , the four knights of andelaw , meldin , stomeck , and frawenberge . the third estate consisteth in the free cities , which are in number at present ( as some say ) seventy two : and have been heretofore eighty five . all the which doe acknowledge no other head but the emperour , to whom they pay a small tribute yearly , not amounting in all to the summe of fifty thousand guildernes : from the which payment also certaine of these citties are exempted , and pay nothing but at the generall contribution of all the states at the diett , as shall hereafter appear . touching the pollicy of these three estates of the empire , it is to be understood , that every one hath within their own dominions an absolute power to coyn monies ( which serve not in any other teritories , but in their own , except dollers , which according to their rate are currant in all places ) to determine by law , to execute justice , to dispence and deal with their subjects according to right , and equity , as they list . but forasmuch as it would be too tedious to speak of every princes government apart , namely , seeing that in most things they have one order and form ; i shall therefore give an example of one , or two of the most principall , which may serve for all the rest . and because among the temporall estates the count pallatine ( as was said ) is the chiefest , i will begin with him . at heidelberge , where his court is , he hath a very fair house adjoyning to his castle , which is called his chancery . in the which place are five principall counsels , or courts . the first is his privy counsel , where he himself , with a few others , whereof the chiefest be doctors of the civil law , doe daily sit to consult of matters of importance touching the state of his country : the answering of forreign princes ambassadours , dispatching of his ambassadours to forreign princes : the bestowing of his children in marriage , &c. the second counsell , whereof the chancelour is cheife , is of a few civillians , where all matters extrajudiciall ( as they tearm it ) are handeled and compremitted , and in case they cannot by the arbitrators , be ended , then are they , by the chancelour , referred to the third counsel , which is called the hossegerichte , which is of a great number both of doctors , and gentlemen . in the which all civill controversies and causes between his subjects , and actions , both personall , and reall , are by law decided , and in the which , the subject , if he be injured by his prince , may have the law against him , from the which court , it is not lawful to apeal to the chamber of the empire , except the cause doth surmount the some of six hundred guildernes . the fourth counsell is the consistory court and is of civillians , and spirituall men , wherein all church matters , both for doctrine , and discipline are determined : testaments proved , and controversies in marriage decided . this prince hath reformed this court , and whereas before , it had no other counsellours then spirituall men , now he hath joyned together with them , certain honest discreet ministers , some of his wisest and best-learned counsellours . the fifth counsell ( whereof the camer master , that is the chamberlain or the treasurer is president ) is of certain doctors , and of houshould officers , in the which there is accompt taken of all his revenues , how his debts are to be paid , his houshold ordered and served , his lands sett and lett , his customes and tolls examined . this prince maintaineth commonly in his court of all sorts of people twenty four tables , eight persons to every table , the which do eat commonly in two severall places . in the one place , which is a faire large chamber , sitteth himself , his wife and children , at one table standing alone in the upper end of the chamber : and his gentlewomen , and preachers at two other tables , and about ten tables more adjoyning to those , two tables which stand in a rowe , on one side of the said chamber , whereat doe sit his gentlemen , who immediatly after the prince is set down , do likewise sit and eat continually at one hour , which is at ten and at five of the clock . in the other place the rest of his family ; as his guard ( which are twenty four halberders ) with others of his yeomen , and groomes , together with all the officers and gentlemen servants , who likwise eat together at one time , which is at nine and four of the clocke : before which houres they are continually warned by the noise of eight trumpets and two kettle drummes . his houshold officers , be the marshall , the steward , the treasurer , the secretary , and the clarke of the kitchen : the marshall first placeth all men and seeth good order kept : the steward seeth all things provided for the house and houshould : the treasurer disburseth the money : the secretary taketh the accompt and writeth the letters ▪ the clarke of the kitchen seeth all things ordered in the kitchen , and everv one served according to their degrees , and of all the houshould expences keepeth a book . the prince is served in silver with four courses , besides fruit , and in every course nine covered dishes , which three gentlemen with their caps on their heads , do alwayes bring to the carver , having the marshall to goe before them with his staffe , and when they have delivered their dishe , they sit likwise down at a table appointed only for them in the same chamber . there waiteth ordinarily on the prince at the table , a sewer , a carver , a gentleman of his chamber that waiteth on his cup , and taketh the same , and two or three pages that waite on his trencher which the carver alwayes giveth . the carver giveth every one to eat in like sort as it is at the lord majors of london his table . all the other tables be served by the princes guard. in the princes chamber , one of his preachers doth alwayes say grace , both before and after meat , and in the common hall the clark of the kitchen , who is there in the place of the marshall , causeth likewise thankes to be given to god by one of the poor schollers that the prince keepeth of purpose . the meat that is left in both places is alwayes forthwith given to the poor by the almner . his counsellors have alwayes allowed them every one according to his virtue and quallity , a very good stipend both for his fee and diet in their own houses . there is straight discipline in his court against swearing , blasphemy , and drunkennesse , whoredom , fighting and all other kinds of vices , in which cases notwithstanding , some more respect is had to the punishment of a gentleman , then of an other , and yet none spared . dauncing also is forbidden in his court , and throughout all his land. the charge of his stable hath the master of his horse , & every gentleman that by his commandment keepeth any horses , is allowed oates sufficient , and for every horse tweny five dollers the year , towards pay and stable roome ; and every yeoman twenty five guildernes . and because i have entered into some discourse of his houshould matters , it shall not be impertinent to shew this princes order , and conversation , how he spendeth his time : both because the example is notable and worthy of all good princes to be followed , as also because that hereby he winneth great favour of the peopele . his order is to arise every morning at five of the clock , and at six he cometh to his chappel , with his wife , children , and family , where one of the three ministers ( which he alwayes keepeth in his court to say grace , preach , and administer the sacrament ) after a psalm sung by children , which are kept in his court for that purpose , doth preach and pray untill seven of the clock , and then the prince goeth straight away into his court chancery , where he tarrieth untill ten , which is the houre to dine . at dinner he commonly sitteth two hours , and after dinner one hour , talking with his wife and children . after he riseth up ( which is about one of the clock ) he goeth straightwayes into his closet , where he tarrieth till five , in perusing and reading his subjects supplications , which are duly given to him as he goeth and cometh from the chancery : the which supplications , the next day he sendeth to every court as the matter requireth , where immediatly justice is administred . at five of the clock he goeth to supper , where he sitteth two hours , and afterwards either walketh , or otherwise passeth the time with his wife , and children untill it be nine , and then he calleth both the gentlemen , grooms , and pages of his chamber to his privy chamber door , where they hear him pray half an hour , and so he goeth to rest . this is the conversation commonly of this good prince , the which order he breaketh not but upon some very great occasion . somtimes as he sitteth at his table he heareth his musitians , whereof he hath five , playing excellently well on shalmes that be made , the one like a halberd , the second like a crossebow , the third like a boarstaff , the fourth like a handgun , and the fifth like javeline . the same musitians have also cornetts , violins , and virginals , which they mingle one with an other , as it is the princes pleasure to hear them : other pastimes he exerciseth not , except when he hath no supplications of his subjects to read , which is very seldome . he then hunteth the stagge or hinde , according to the season of the year ; or else seeth his sons and gentlemn ride his great horses and run at the ring , or else rideth about certain villages , and converteth the curates , to the understanding of the true doctrine of the sacraments , wherein a number of his country are not yet well perswaded . when this prince hath any war towards , or otherwise upon some urgent cause for the weale of his country , and conservation of his state , he calleth ( as the manner is of all other princes in germany ) a parliament , which they tearm a landstage , to the which all the nobility of his country , and certain burgesses of every city within his dominions doe come . by whose common consent , either a subsidy is granted to be levied of all his subjects or else new statuts are made , or old revoked , or reformed , according to the state and necessity of the time , the which statuts are called quandtz ordnuce : and are alwayes expounded by the rules of the civil law , when their intent is not well otherwise to be understood . this princes country lieth , partly along both sides of the river rhine from argentine unto collen , the which he governeth himself , and partly in bavaria superiour , whereof the principall city is amberge , upon the river of fills , where his eldest son , duke lewis doth govern under him , and hath the same order in administering justice ( as near as the manner of the country will permit ) as his father hath at heidelberge , from which place notwithstanding the subjects may appeal to heidelberge , because that is the highest court by reason that the elector , who is chiefe of that house , dwelleth there . this prince , although his father was a great papist , yet he being perswaded by one of his sisters that was of the religion , and chiefly instructed by eberhard , earle of eberbache , a godly and wise gentleman , and then steward to ottho henrye , his predecessor in the electorship , as soon as he came to the same estate , which was in anno 1558. he reformed the religion in his country , as much as was possible for the obstinacy of the lutherans . and at this day throughout all his dominions the gospell is sincerely preached , images , and other superstitious ceremonies which the lutherans throughout all germany yet use ) were abolished , and the sacrament as well administred , as it is at present in the church of england , for the which his reformation he was like to have suffered great trouble in the diett at augusta , in anno. 1566. where the emperour maximilian that now is , with all the electors , and states of the empire , his eledest son duke lewis , and his sons in law the dukes john fredrick , and john william of waymar in saxon , and the dukes of swebrooke , and wirtemberge , were so earnestly bent against him for the same , that in case duke augustus , the present elector of saxon , had not been , many supposed that he should have been committed to prison . and deprived of his electorship . in the which convention he did so wisely , godly and constantly defend his cause before them and against them all ( having only the duke of casimere his second son that stood alwayes by him , with the bible in one hand and the confession off augusta in the other , that he did convince them and put them all to silence , and during his aboad there , caused his preachers openly to set forth the true doctrine of the eucharist , in their sermons in his house at augusta , where they had a wonderfull audience , to the great grief and dispight of all the lutherans . but to knitt up the discourse of this good princes government , and godly conversation , i think it not superfluous to shew what word he useth in all purposes and events , and the which i heard him utter the eighth day of aprill last in anno 1569. when a great part of his estate at heidelburge was sodenly by casualty in the night set on fire , and the whole in great danger to be utterly burnt and consumed notwithstanding the exceeding great watch that is nightly there kept by four men , which at every quarter of an hour doe blow great base hornes , and at every hours end do sound trumpets in four quarters of the said castle : at that time , even in the extremity of the flame , he said with his hands lift up to heaven , not once but often , ( herenach dine will ) which is to say , fiat voluntas tua domine . thy will be done , o lord. now like as before is shewed of the count pallatines order of justice , in like sort may be said of the duke of saxon , now elector , saving that his counsels , and courts of justice be not all at one place . for his chancery where he holdeth his privy counsell and exchequer , are at dresden , which i declared before to be the cheif place of his residence ; unto the which all the rest of his courts doe appeal , and from the which his subjects doe in no case appeal to the chamber of the empire , as was said that the paulsgraves subjects may . and further his court called croffegricht , where the differences between his subjects are decided and whereunto himself , if he doe his subjects wrong , may be sited , is kept alwayes in the city of leiptzigke , in misnia . and his consistory court , which is not so well reformed as the palsgraves court , is holden in two places , the one at misen in misnia , and the other at witemberge in saxony . in all this princes provinces adultery is punished with death , and fornication with whipping and bannishment . this elector , albeit he kepeth not so many tables in his court as the count pallatine doth , yet he kepeth a greater state , and giveth ordinary entertainment to more then the palsgrave doth . for besides his ordinary guard , whereof there be fifty holbardiers , and as many harquibushers , to whom he giveth monthly , besides their liveries , which are black cloaks , for their diet and fee five guildernes , when they sit still , and six guildernes when they travell he hath continully about him fourteen rittmasters , that is captaines , which are able to bring him on the suddaine for all events , three hundred horses apiece , of the which every one keepeth ordinarily twelve horses , for the which twelve horses each of them hath allowance of the prince , yearly five hundred french crowns and for their yearly fee of captainship one hundred and fifty french crowns the peice , and these captaines are all gentlemen that are for the most part married , and keep houses themselves at dresden , where the court is . to the rest of his train , to whom he giveth meat and drink in his court , he alloweth besides provender yearly for every horse fifty dollers , and some gentlemen he alloweth six horses , to some more to some lesse , according as he favoureth them , and according to their quallity , and for every horse he alloweth them a servant , who hath his livery , meat , and drink at the princes charges in the town . of all the princes of germany , the present elector of saxony , is the richest , and of the greatest power , both of men and money : for his yearly rent of assise is reckned to be above seven hundred thousand dollers , besides his taxes , tolles and impositions of beer , and wine , &c. which is accounted to amount yearly to as much more . the said duke hath one hundred and thirty four seignories , and in the same twenty earldomes , and sixteen barronies , he hath of late gotten into his hands by the consent of the cannons ( for the tearm , as he hath promised , but of one and twenty years , but as it is thought for ever ) three bishopricks of mersburge , misen , and nawimberge : and out of the last only he hath yearly for impost of beer about twenty four thousand dollers . his mines of silver , copper , brasse , tin , lead , &c. which he hath at his cities of friberge , anneberge , maryberge , sueberge , and swertzberge , &c. which be faire towns , and maintained only by the said mines , doe yeild him yearly wonderfull riches , whereof i could learn no certaine yearly summe , because the commoditie is uncertain , some years better , some years worse , according to the goodnesse of the vaines , in the which there are working , above ten thousand able men for the wars , besides a great number of poor impotent men , women and children , which have there livings only by the same . of the which works their i sone at friberge , wherein is a singular art used in drawing of the water out of a well that is above one hundred fathom deep , and in most places not a fathom broad , into the which i went down with mr. henry killegrew & docter christofer chemius , the count pallatines ambassador , the twenty first junij 1569 , we all being apparrelled with such garments as the workmen and miners thereof doe use , and as the manner is for all such as will see their works : but when we were descended almost four hundred staires by very narrow ladders , they two were almost dead with the damp and close aire , so as they were constrained to cause the guides , who conducted every of us with a lamp , to return , by meanes whereof i could not see the bottom of the water worke , whereof i did not greatly passe , because those works , and the engines used in them be exactly set forth by georgius agricola of remuitz in saxon in two great volumes printed at basill by frobenius . but among other commodities which grow out of these mines , there are three sorts of stones , in a work in the town of swertzberge , whereof the one is named magnes , commonly called the loadstone , which properly draweth iron to it , and the othet andromedes , which putteth iron away from it ; the third is called merga , which being made into powder & drank in a little white-wine warmed , is approved to be very good for a bruise . by the benefit and great quantity of iron and copper which are gotten in those mines , the prince hath furnished such an armory , at his city of dresden , as by report of them that have travelled farre , the like is not to be found in any other place in europe , i shall describe the order thereof as i did see it the twenty fourth of june , 1569. first the house is builded four square of free stone , the two lengths are each one of them three hundred foot long , and the breadths each one of them one hundred seventy five foot broad , every one of these lengths , and breadths hath three roomes or stories . in the lowest roomes are the great ordnance , being about fifty six double cannons that carry a shot , which waieth one hundred and sixty pound , and three hundred and fifty culvernis , half cannons , cannon pieces , sacres , fawcons , rabnets , and other small field pieces , all of brasse ready mounted on very good carriages , and furnished with all things necessary , as shot made with the hammer to an infinite number , chargers , scowrers , horsetraines , pioneers tooles , &c. and every of those have three or four great peices hanging for them on the walles , eleven harquebushes , a crock . in the two uppermost roomes or stories are armor , as corslets , black and parcell white , very good and of the newest fashion , calivers , long curriours ; daggs , pikes armed and unarmed , lances , halberds , partisons , holy water sprinkles , two hand-swordes and swordes with basket hiltes , thirty six ensignes , drums , fiffes , and all other things necessary for the furniture of four regiments , to every regiment ten ensignes , and to every ensigne three hundred men , which is twelve thousand footmen , and curaces for the proofe for two thousand horsemen , so that of the sodain this prince is able to furnish into the field fourteen thousand men with armour in every point , which is only in his city of dresden . his cities besides at lipsia , wittimberge , and guicca , are said to have also their severall armories , besides that every subject in all his dominions , to his ability is bound to have his proper furniture both for himself and his servants , for as many as every man keepeth , a corselet , a harquebush , a halberd , and a pike , of the which ( that are able to bear armour ) the prince , if need require , may well make into the field eighty thousand men , whereof six thousand shall be horsemen , leaving his country notwithstanding with sufficient guard. this prince as he hath not the perfect knowledg of god like unto the count pallatine , even so is his conversation such as misliketh all men universally ; he is misliked for his inaffability , for ever since the wars of gottha , he hath kept himself so secret , as no man , except one or two of his privy counsell , can either see him or speak with him , he keepeth himself still within his privy chamber , where he learneth to play on the virginals , the which exercise he doth so earnestly apply , as almost he never ceaseth but when he must either eat or sleep . not long since his mind was to learn the latin tongue whereof he was utterly ignorant , and now he hath so profited in a short time therein , that he is able commonly to understand any thing that is either spoken or written in latin. the great delight that he hath in hunting the stagg , and wild boar , bringeth him some time abroad , but then he is so accompanied on either side with all his guard , and with at the least , four hundred horsemen that no man almost , for what cause so ever it be , is suffered to come to his speech : he seldom giveth any princes ambassadors audience in his own person , but answereth them by his chancelour or chief councellour . the princes of germany do not love him , ( although by reason of his great power and authority , they flatter him ) because of his extream dealing with his kinsman , duke john frederick , from whose father duke maurice , this electors brother did take the electorship and the most part of this living besides ( all which the said duke maurice , dying without issue male , left unto duke augustus his brother , whereupon such displeasure grew between these houses ( as i shall hereafter declare ) that the eldest son of john frederick the old elector , is spoiled both of all his land & liberty . further this duke augustus is hated of his nobility and gentlemen , as well for the cause last recited , as also for purchasing of late the lands of one miltitz , a gentleman in misnia in a manner against his will , for the which he paid one hundred and sixty thousand guildrnes , and as it is said , the woods only on the same lands , were worth as much . he offendeth his nobility also for his other cruelties , in tormenting of men with such deaths , and specially for cutting in four peices of late on carolutius , a gentleman of an ancient house and one of his houshould servitors , who albeit he had committed things worthy of death , yet the manner of his execution seemed so strange , and was so odious to the gentlemen of his court● , as they all went forth of the city that day that he suffered death . the people of his cities love him not for his covetousnesse , because there is no traffique nor handleing whereof there may arise any commodity or gain , but he getteth it into his own hands . as for example , the gain that they were wont to have in buying and selling the mettall that riseth of his mines , he hath now taken into his own hands . besides that he maketh silke , dieth cloth , selleth malt , and handleth every thing himself whereof any proffit may grow . he hath furthermore raised such taskes and impositions upon his people , and hath turned the tenants out of certain lands that he lately purchased , whose ancestors have held the same time out of mind : and they know not now where to place themselves again , and hath converted the same to his own use , in such sort as throughout all his country there is great complaint of him . all these things are the more grievous , and specially marked , by reason that the memory of the late princes his predecessors , is fresh , who albeit in some respects wanted not their faults , yet generally , for affability , mercifulness , and liberallity , were very much commended ; the cause why this elector was s●irred to deal so extreamly with his cozen john frederick , i think it not amiss to insert in this place , as well because it is not yet to my knowledge set forth truly by any other , as also for that upon the grudg between the princes of this house , dependeth almost the weale or ruine of all germany , by reason of the alliances that either part hath with the most noblest houses , not onely in dutchland , but in other kingdoms neer about . the story as i have heard it credibly reported is this , in anno 1567 , john frederick of wymar in saxony , son unto john frederick the late elector of saxony , kept within his jurisdiction one william grombache , and certain other rebels to the empire , for the which cause he was also declared by a publick decree , a rebell to the same state of the empire . this grombache was an ancient captain about threescore and ten years old , born in franconia , of a noble and ancient house , and from his youth was brought up in the exercise of war , and was of nature sediciously disposed , always attempting new designs in his countrey ; for in the wars that marquess albert made against the bishops and churchmen , he took part with him , and never left him so long as he kept the field . and although he was oftentimes called home by the bishop of wertzburge , whose vassall he was , under the pain of confiscation ; yet he continued with the said marquess untill he was overthrown : whereupon the bishop seized on his goods and lands . after the overthrow of marquess albert he went into france to henry the second , of whom he received great summes of money to levy souldiers to serve against the emperor charles ; but peace being concluded between them at amienz in anno 1558 , he returned into his countrey , where , by secret means he had caused the bishop of wietzburg to be slain , in anno 1557 , because he had confiscated his lands . afterwards in anno 1564 , he was commanded by the duke of guise to levy certain souldiers for the service of the french king , whose colonell he was , against them of the religion in france ; but peace being then also concluded , he was not there imployed , whereupon he returned home , and with part of those souldiers whom he had taken up with the french kings money , he marched against the other bishop of wertzburg and bamberg the which succeded him that before he had killed , where he not only by force recovered his goods taken away by the said bishop , but also spoiled and made havock of both those bishoppricks ; for which cause he procured to himself the bann of the empire and was proclaimed a rebel , by reason whereof he was forced always to keep a good guard of souldiers about him , for the safety of his person . but in the last dyett holden under the emperor ferdinand , an edict was published , that no man of what degree soever he were , should keep any man in arms except it were by the publique consent of the states of the empire . notwithstanding grombache did not only keep his old band of men still together , but also levyed new , and practised with some personages of name and authority to enteprise somewhat for the liberty of such as were oppressed and sustained wrong in the empire . of the which enterprise the forenamed john frederick of wymar was one of the chiefest favourers , being perswaded by the same grombache , that then the time served him to recover the electorship , the which was taken by force from his father , and that the most part of the princes of germany would aid him therein . whereupon , in the dyett holden by maximilian , the emperour that now is , at augusta , in anno 1566 , by the common consent of all the states , the said grombache was declared a rebell of the empire , with all his adherents , and order taken to proceed against him as against a sedicious man , and disturber of the commonweale . this notwithstanding , grombache continuing his faction , was received by john frederick into his castle of gottha , the which was of such force , as they in all respects thought themselves safe from their enemies . but augustus now elector of saxony , being in the aforesaid dyett , appointed the emperors lieutenant for the wars , and having at the charges of the emperor six thousand horses , thirty ensigns of footmen , and forty pieces of great ordnance , besieged the town of gottha , and castle of grimsteteine , which thing the citizens and certain captains there perceiving , and weighing with themselves that the matter was taken in hand by all the estates of the empire , were contented to yield , both grimbache , the town and the castle to the said elector , who as soon as he was entred , took john frederick , and sent him , with a sufficient guard to the emperor , with whom he remaineth still a prisoner in the city of presburge , in hungary , above one hundred english miles beyond vienna , near turkey , and executed above twenty of the chiefest rebels , whereof grombache , and dr pontanz , chancellor to duke john frederick , with certain others , were quartered quick . this victory was so joyfull to the elector augustus , that in memory thereof he caused dollers to be coyned with this inscription , tandem bona causa triumphat , a good cause at last prevails . after he had sent duke john frederick away prisoner , he caused his castle , which was one of the fairest houses , and strongest fortresses in all germany , and the principall mannour house of the old elector john frederick , to be utterly razed and destroyed , so as there is not one stone left upon another . i heard as i passed through the town of gottha , that the razing only of that castle grimsteteine and the walls of gottha , cost him seventy three thousand guilderns , which the states of the empire ( as i hear ) do grudge to repay , because , as they alleadge , repay they did not consent to the razing thereof . grombache , and divers others that were executed with him and since , before their death confessed , that their intent was to have killed augustus , and to have reduced the electorship to john fredicks house , whom notwithstanding , grombache in that respect did clear , as not privy to that enterprise for the killing of augustus , and protested that he was not culpable in any thing but in defending him , to the which he said , by great perswasions he had also allured him . and moreover because his brother , duke john william , would not agree to this enterprise , but ever withstood the same , the said grombache found means to set dissention , betwixt him and his brother about the partition of their third brothers part , who died a little before the same time ; for the which cause duke john william was content to assist augustus , the elector , against his brother in the siege of gottha . by means whereof both his brothers parts were given unto him , the which he at present enjoyeth . notwithstanding there is now a heart-burning betwixt the elector augustus and the said duke john william , as well for the cause of their electorship , that moved his foresaid brother to the former enterprise , as also for certain controversies in religion that are between their preachers , whereof i shall speak further hereafter . now because i have not heretofore touched the manner and custom that the princes of germany have in the devision of their lands , i think it good in this place to shew what i have learned thereof . the manner commonly of all the noblemen , princes , and gentlemen in germany is by their last will to dispose to every child their portion , both of lands and money . the women , so long as there liveth any male of the name , do never inherit any land. he that hath many sons and beareth an affection to one more than to another , if he be a great prince , then he calleth the gentlemen and great states of his countrey and cities together , and by their consent establisheth in his life time the division of his childrens portions , and giveth to some more to some less , according as he favoureth , and as his estates will agree , whose consent commonly dependeth upon the princes pleasure . but to disinherit any son , or to make too much an unequall devision of land , is very dangerous , as it appeareth by that which john selden writeth in the fourteenth book of his history , touching the devisions of the lands of the dukes of saxony , whereof sprang the first quarrell betwixt them of that house , and was cause of a great civill war in germany . such inequality in partition is not therefore lightly seen , except it be for certain such causes as are prescribed in the civil law ; that is , in case the son conspireth his fathers death , or doth not his endeavour to redeem him out of prison if he be taken by their enemies , &c. if the father dieth intestate , then doe his children divide his goods equally pro raeta portione : sons have the land , and the daughters the mony ; and in case there be no mony left , then the sons are bound every one out of his portion of land , to pay a certain summe of money towards the dowry of his sisters . in the which cases there are certain ordinances whereby every one knoweth what to have , according to their quality . the subjects of all the princes and gentlemen in germany , do hold their lands , ether in feodo , for paying a chief rent and acknowledging homage , or in fee-farm , paying a certain rent , either in money , corn , or wine , or in all . or else there are tennants , at the will of the lord for so many years , and for so much rent as is agreed between the lord and the tennant . there is almost no prince , nobleman , nor gentleman but hath certain vassals that of right do owe them their labour , some to sowe , some to mowe , till , carry , ditch , hedge , &c. by whose labour their demesnes are for the most part manured . thus i have as briefly as i could , set forth by the examples of the count palatine and the elector of saxony , the form of government in politicall matters of the two first estates , that is to say , of the spirituall and temporall potentates , who both in their houshold service , and civill affairs , have also the most part the same order and form that the foresaid electors have . touching the third estate , which i said was of the free cities , thus much is to be understood ; that of the same free cities , some are meerly subject to the empire , as augusta , acona , argentina , francfordia ad menum , lubeca , hamburga , vlma , colonia , spira , noriberge , &c. and other some , for that they were once under another lord , to whom every one yet acknowledgeth a certain duty , do therefore yield no such contribution , as the imperiall cities do : as for example : magdeburge , erford , breme , brunswicke , luniburge , &c. have each of them a severall lord , who is either the bishop , or duke of the name that every one is called by , to whom they owe their homage and a small duty besides . but they use notwithstanding their own proper municipall laws , which have their ground on the civill laws , and their ancient customs , as the imperiall cities do , from the which their laws , ordinances , and customs , it is lawfull for the citizens in some cases to appeall to the chamber of the empire which is at spires . they are all governed , either by democriti's , that is by certain chosen out of the multitude of the common people , or by the state of olygarchy , that is , by a few of the wealthiest and most principall of the people : or else by aristocracy , that is , by a few of the best sort , not in respect of their wealth , but of their vertue . they got their liberties , either by purchase of money , or else by the favour of the emperor , or by force of arms from that prince that was their sovereign , and have by that means of liberty , such traffique , and handling , as they are grown so rich that they have fortified their cities , and territories in such sort as they fear not the force of the enemy be they never so mighty . there are four cities which are called by an ancient name , the four cities of the empire , and are free , that is , augusta , metis , acona , lubeca : whereof metis is at present under the french king , and is not free as the rest be . also there are four other cities which are named the dorffes , that is , the towns of the empire , viz. bamberga , erlistadia , haganoa , ulma , whereof , bamberga is now under a bishop , and salistadium , under archduke ferdinando , the emperors brother that now is . there be also four other cities which are termed the boores of the empire , that is , the villages , but yet are notwithstanding great cities , as collen , regensburge , constantia , and saltzburge : the which three last are all subjects to the bishops of that name . there be many other cities of great fame , and force , as magdeburge which sustained the siege by the space of thirteen moneths together , of the emperours lieutenant , duke maurice , elector of saxon , and others the mightiest princes of germany . in the which siege they took prisoner george duke of mechelburg , and in the end compounded not with so unreasonable conditions as the other cities did , in the wars of smascald . for they would never agree to receive the interim no more than the cities of brunswiche , hamburge , lubecke , and the sons of john frederick , the elector of saxon did . breame standing upon the river of wesar , is likewise famous for resisting duke erike of brunswicke , lieutenant generall to the emperour charles the fifth , where he besieged the same in vain , and was in the end , by the help of the hamburgers conducted by coúnte peninge , chased away from thence and forced to leave his great ordinance behinde him . brunswicke , standeth neer the river of owker , which taking in another little river , called the sconder above the town of zell , falleth into the weser , the which city of brunswick , hath been at variance with their dukes from the year of 1536 , untill this present year 1569. henricus senior duke of brunswick , besieged it a whole year in vain . henricus junior , the father of duke julius that now is , besieged it twice , once by the space of six weeks , and another time eight weeks together , and prevailed not . the said duke julius is now agreed with them , and entreth the town with seven hundred horse , the third of october next ; but is not to remain there with any force . in this city is an ancient monument of a monstrous brazen lyon , the which beast duke henricus , surnamed leo , is said to have brought thither with him out of england . there is also made in this city the best harnis for the proof , and otherwise , and the best daggers , and firelocks that be in all europe . lubeck , upon the river of trowe , hath as it were conserved the king of denmark in his seat , against the swede , but is at this day greatly impoverished because of the continuall wars they have had with the king of sweden , and stopping of a river between them and the city of hamburge called the trow , with jasper bucolt , a gentleman of that country , because they refused to pay a small towl unto him , hath of mallice thrown a number of great trees and stones into it , so that they cannot traffique too , and for hamburge by water as they were wont to do . but are driven to carry all their wares by land , which is greatly to their discommodity . hamburge standing at the mouth of the great river of albis , about one hundred english miles beneath , is famous for the number of beer-brewers , whereof there are dwelling there , housholders seven hundred and twenty . there is also ausperge upon the river of leche , in the which are the richest merchants in europe , namely the fowlkers , peimels , schorers , bawingartners , &c. francford standing upon the river of mene , is famous for the two great marts that are kept there yearly , and for the election of the emperour . regensburge ( as was before said ) is now under a bishop , but once was meerly subject to the empire , where caesar frederick the third , in anno 1446 , did hold a dyett , to the which diet for certain respects , a strait commandment was given by the emperour , that no earl should bring more servants than three , nor no knight nor gentleman more than one . at the same time there was a gentleman named babo , of abenspurge , the which by two lawfull wives , had eight daughters , and thirty two sons all living at one time , and of good age and stature , and hearing of this dyett , brought his thirty two sons thither , being all apparelled in red , and thirty three servants with them , all well mounted , his sons riding before him , and his servants after him . and when the emperout heard that the said babo was come to the dyett with so many horses , he sent for him and asked wherefore he had broken his commandment ? to whom babo answered , may it please your majesty , i have not transgressed your will , for i and my thirty two sons of my body lawfully begotten , and therefore right gentlemen , have but thirty three servants , which is for every gentleman a servant , according to your majesties commandment . the emperour marvelling at the blessing of god , gave unto him at that present great possessions to maintain his geneology with all , and caused a monument to be made in the city of regensburg of him and his children , the which at this day remaineth there to be seen . but now there is none alive of that house ; for in the wars that were betwen the dukes albert , and christopher of bavaria , in anno 1485 , nicholas of abensperge , which only remained of all that stock , was slaine by a servant of the said duke christophers , and his inheritance given away . exford upon the river of vnstra , an old university founded in anno 1392 , in the which martyn luther first studied and became a frier in that city , and there remaineth to this day for a monument of him , the pulpit wherein he made his first sermon . noriberge upon the river of b●gnitz , notable aswell for the good government , as also for resisting the force of albert , marques of brandenburge and for all kind of iron work which is there made excellently well . luneburge upon the aller and elmenawe , famous for the golden table which is in saint michaels abby , and is almost two yards long and a yard broad , set full of old rubies , &c. it was given by duke erneste of stuplecorne , who was elector of saxony , and duke of brunswick and luneburge &c. who wan the same table at dice of a jew , as is reported . there is in the city of luneburge , which is distant above twenty eight english miles from the main sea , a salt pitt , out of the which six men by a pumpe do continually both night & day , changing every five houres fresh men , draw so much salt water as serveth fifty four houses in , every of the which houses there be four leaden pannes that boile in a day and a night a wagon load of salt , which is sold for six dollers one time with another , which amounteth yearly to above one hundred thousand pound sterling . the spiritualty hath the most part of the commodity thereof . there are in every house three labourers at the least , so as by the benefit thereof a number of poor people are set on work . collen is an ancient university founded in anno 1388 , and a great city ; wherein is said to be for every day of the year , a church . in it also are three idols of pure gold , which the blind papists believe to be the images of the wise men that offered to our saviour christ , and are thought to be brought thither by the bishop of that city from millian in lumbardie . in the same city are also i cannot tell how many thousand virgins skuls , which the doting antiquity believed to be slaine in england for the testimony of the gospell vlma standing upon the river danubius , a very great and rich city . aquisgrave that once was the seat of carolus magnus , and after the place of his sepulture , where the emperour ought also to receive his first crown as king of the romans . in the which city is kept for a relique , an old linnen cloath which the grosse papist shame not to affirme to be the virgin maries smocke , like as not farre off at fere , they dream also to have the shirt of our saviour christ , by the which no small gain riseth to the proud prelats from the poor simple people . argentine or strasburge , standing upon the river of brushe , is one of the strongest pieces in germany . in the which there are seven hundred and odd gardners that are houshoulders and are no small maintainers of that commonwealth . spire also , is the chamber of the empire , where all controversies in law between the princes and the free cities of the empire are decided . in the which court the emperour presenteth the president , who is commonly either an earle or baron , who hath for his fee yearly three thousand guildernes , and two other barons assessors , the which have fifteen hundred guildernes apeice . and every elector hath a counsellour there alwayes resident , and every circle of the empire hath also one which are called sessors camere , who solicit the cause of there princes or estate , and have for their fee yearly five hundred guildernes a peice allowed them , out of the chamber of the empire . to this court all the other courts , except before excepted , both of the princes and free cities in germany do appeal , and receive by the civill law there a definitive sentence . all these free cities for the most part do stand upon rivers , whereof the principall are danubius , rhenus , albis , menus , mose , mosella , amisia , visurgis , egra , odera , vestula , &c. of the which danubius falleth into mare euxinum by constantinople , and the rest into the ocean . and by the benefit of these rivers and other small rivers that fall into these , the abovesaid free cities are cheifely maintained , for by meanes thereof they have traffique with the most part of other nations . the commodities that commonly are had in germany , are , copper , brasse , rhenish wine , rie , firr-tree wood , woll , madder , hopps , wax , flax , blew-sclate , harnis , harquebushes , daggers , locks , and all kinde of iron work , horses , onyon seed , paper , furrs , glasses for windowes , and drinking glasses , with such like , the which are transported from one city to an other , and so to other nations for other comodities that they have need of . there be also in germany divers great and rich cities , that partly are fallen away from the obedience of the empire , and partly forced under the power of other princes or states adjacent , as basilia , geneva , schaffhawsen , and milhawsen , the which at divers times have been all won to the confederacy of the helvetians , or switchers . dantzicke standing upon the river vistula , neer the ocean , a great city and chiefe market of all the north part is become subject , together with eluma , and a great part of prusia , to the king of polonia . in anno 1525 , rostocke was taken by the duke of mechleburge . constance is under the king of the romans , mettz , thove , and verdune are possessed by the french king. vtrict , and cambrais king phillip enjoyeth , with many others which now are not contributers to the empire as other free cities are . the free cities , because they cannot otherwise be commanded , are called in all necessary affaires of the empire , as is aforesaid , by the emperour to the diet : in the which diet , as they be called three estates , so they are three counsels . into the first counsel come only the seven electors . into the second the princes spirituall , and temporall , and for every abbot of the empire enter two parsons , and for every count and baron enter likewise two . and into the third counsell come those that are sent from the free cities . unto all those three severall counsels are propounded such matters as either the emperour , or the king of the romans , or any other prince of the empire hath to intreat of . upon the which every of them give their advise a part . an in this diet , the free cities give only their advise , but are allowed no sentence . thus much touching the politicall government of these three estates in civill affaires . now it remaineth that i speake something of their religion , whereof in germany there be three kinds especially used , viz. popery , calvenism ( as they term it ) and lutherism . they which abide in popery are the three spirituall electors , with all the rest of the archbishops and bishops , except the bishop of magdeburg , who is the elector of brandenburgs eldest son and heire , and the archbishop of bream , who is the second son to duke francis of lawenburg , the which two have induced their dioces from popery to lutheranism . of the three archbishops electors , the archbishop of treere , who is of a mean gentlemans house , is the most vehement in popery , and the greatest enemy to the other professions . the archbishop of mentz , who is also of another mean gentlemans house in hessia , called daniell brendell , albeit he favoreth popery with all his heart , yet doth he suffer every man to use the liberty of his conscience throughout all his country ; and in many of his cities the lutherans preach the gospell . the like may be said of the archbishop of collen , who is the only heire male of the county of isenburg , and is by reason thereof feodarie to the count pallatine , elector , who wrote to him in december last in anno 1568. at which time the inheritance of the said county fell to the said archbishop , that according to the laws and customes in germany , he should within one year next following , being the only heire male left in his house , either take a wife , or else he would , as by right he might , being cheif lord , seize upon the said county : whereupon the archbishop made answer , that he would within the said time marry a wife , which yet he hath not done as i hear . of all the rest of the ecclesiasticall princes , the bishop of munster is the greatest enemy to the true religion , and the greatest suporter of the contrary . the abbot of fulda , who is the emperesses chancelour by inheritance , hath in his teritories all sorts of religion , viz. jesuits , jews , lutherans , anabaptists , &c. of the temporall lords that dwell in germany , the duke of bavire only maketh open profession of popery , whose country abideth still in the dregges thereof . as also the country of tirolis , and alsatia do that are under archduke ferdenando , and stiria , and carinthia , that are under archduke charles , the emperours brethren . duke francis of lawenburg , and duke john william of saxony , albeit they professe lutherism , yet being provoked , partly by poverty and needinesse , and partly by the sinister perswasion of their preachers , who maketh them believe that the calvenists be worse then the papists , they have been contented to aide the papists aganist them of the religion : the one with the duke of alva , in whose hire he yet remaineth : and the other which is duke john william in the second civell wars in france , served the french king. the like also did of late philibert , marques of baden , who was slaine by the admirall in the last conflict of france . there be also other noble men of germany , that this day live out of their country , partly for lack of living , and partly because their country is against their will reformed in religion , as duke erick of brunswick , and peter erneste of mansfeld , who have abandoned their country and live at present under the duke of alva . and the counties of ringrave , who serve the french king. but all these that thus have , and doe serve against the religion , are with the most part of the nobility and states of their native country the worse esteemed , and have the lesse credit the count pallatine , and the electors of saxony , have through all their domiminions , and circles of the empire , commanded all their subjects of what estate or degree soever he be , by publike edict , which now are in the service of any papist , that they within a certain time , upon pain of confiscation of their lands , and goods , shall return home , and have by the same given commandement to all other their subjects , that they , nor any of them , upon like pain , shall hereafter goe unto the service of the french king , the duke of alva , or of any other forrigen potentate , without their lycense and consent . of the free cities that are not subject to any other power then only to the empire , besides munster , aquisgrave , and collen , i know not any that professeth altogether popery , and yet in all these , any man may use his conscience without constraint to live after their order : and in collen a number of those which are banished out of the low countrys for their religion , have liberty at this day to remain ; whereof the principall are the prince of oringe , the countesse of horne , and the count of killingbrooke &c. the cities of colmar , sledstat , kaysersberge , &c. in alsatia superior , not withstanding that they are after a sort imperiall , yet they be properly under the archduke ferdinand , and therefore do maintain popery still ; the which religion the common people and most part of the citizens there , do so little regard , as , if they had means , they would reform it in like sort as their neighbours of hagona , turkeine , mynster , &c. of late about three years past , have done . the second kind of religion that is used in germany , is that which they call calvenisme , of the which , amongst the nobility , onely the count palatine and the grave of embden maketh profession , and have accordingly reformed their countries . and of the free cities breme only beginneth to incline that way , by reason that the chiefest burgomaster danyell van buren , and millanus , the chief schoolmaster there , are earnest in that opinion , and labour all that they may to reduce the state there to their minde . all the rest both of the princes and free cities in germany , except before excepted , are lutherans in profession of doctrine , and papists in ceremonies : for they have at this day in their churches , images , lamps , torches , copes , vestments , albes , surplices , crosses , altars , and the very same superstitious rites and ceremonies , both in administring the communion ( saving that they deliver it in both kinds in their mother tongue without any elevation . ) in baptism , marriage , auricular confession , and burying , even as the papists have . there is at this day two sorts of the lutherans in germany , whereof the one sort is called truncistae , because they affirm that a man is born , quasi truncus in regeneratione , having no power of himself to do well , and that works be not necessary to salvation : and that the church is too much burthened with ceremonies . this opinion did matthias flaccus illericus as argentine maintain to be the doctrine of luther ; whom , wigandus of gena , with all the rest of duke john william of wimars preachers , do follow . the other sort are termed sunergistae , because they say that god draweth hominem volentem in regenerationem , and that good works are requisite to follow faith in mans justification , and that ceremonies be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , things indifferent . of this sort is georgius major , who , with all the divines in the universities both of wittemberge , and leyipzeigke , and withall the princes of the elector augustus , do maintain this to be the doctrine of philip melancton . this contention is gone so far between these preachers and divines of both sides , that the princes of each side are become parties therein , for the pacifying thereof it was thought good by the wisest of either side to have the matter openly disputed , the which was done at aldenburge , a town in saxony , between both the said princes dominions , in feb ▪ last 1569. the which disputation is set forth in print . but the faction notwithstanding continueth , and to what end that will come , the lord in heaven onely knoweth . but wise men doubt that these are but the beginnings of a further mischief to come upon germany , and the dutch nation , who both for their security in religon , dissolute living , and horrible drunkenness , do exceedingly provoke the plague of god unto them . to these three kindes of religions used in germany , there may be added a fourth , which is of newtrals , such as are the duke of cleive , and the emperour . and first touching the duke of cleive , albeit for his own part he professeth lutheranisme , yet by means of his wife , who is the emperours sister , and of his chancellor , who is an earnest papist , the romish religion is permitted throughout all his dominions , to as many as like the same , who are not a few . on the other side , the emperour , although he make publick profession of popery in his court ; yet as well in his countrey of austria , which is a member of the empire , as also in all his other dominions , for the most part the confession of augusta , is for certain respects , and after a sort , granted to such as are desirous thereof ; but the greatest number of his subjects do dwell still in popery , the which religion , the emperour himself , as it is reported , doth not in conscience like , although for some wordly respects he dare not but dissemble the same ; for there are , both some of his privy councill , whom i know , that professe openly the reformed religion , and divines , both learned , and noblemen in germany , the which have had secret conference with him in that behalf , who do affirm assuredly , that he knoweth the truth in religion , & that for pollicies sake he dissembleth the same : but howsoever the matter doth stand , and whatsoever he maketh men to believe to the contrary , sure i am , that in all his actions , both publick and private , he hath shewed himself an enemy to all those of the religion : and on the contrary part , hath favoured and supported the romish faction , for the which respect he hath at this present so little favour with the princes , protestants in germany , as both his authority is with them the less regarded , and their minds so alienated from him , as they are purposed never in their time to establish the succession of the empire in his house , neither yet during his reign , to come any more themselves in person to any dyett that he shall appoint for what cause soever it be . wherefore considering the premisses , a man may gather hereof a state conjecture , and conclude with the saying in the gospell , that for as much as this nation of germany is in so many respects divided in it self , that it shall in the end suffer desolation . the ten provinces or circuits of the empire , and what horsemen and footmen , every one is bound to contribute in all necessary affairs for the state of the empire . where is to be noted that the protestants in the same , do double their contribution . 2. circulus quatuor electorum ad rhenum , whereof the count palatine is head . horsemen . footmen . 120 mentz . 554 120 collen . 554 120 trier . 554 120 palatinatus . 554 2 philip count of nasshaw , and brelstem . 8 4 count of newenard . 8 4 lords of rifferschird . 12 2 lords of reyneck . 6 6 bayliffes of confluence . 26 6 abbot of st maximyn . 44 4 prenost of selz . 12 6 town of geluhausen . 42 4 gerloch lord of nether isemburge . 16 summ. 518. summ. 2390. the circle of franconia whereof george ludovike of zenzam is head . 72 bamberge . 404 90 wartzburge . 416 60 aystat . 264 38 duchemr . 110 2 amburge the provost . 6 2 abbey of st giles . 26 90 marquess of brandenburge as burgrave of noriburg . 416 18 count hennan of hennyberge . 48 18 count william of hennyberge . 48 2 count of castell . 8 12 count of wortheim . 20 4 count of reyneck of lar. 20 0 count albrecht of horulor . 60 12 count george of horuloe . 0 0 count wolf of horulor . 24 2 regenspurge bishop of wurtzburge . 8 4 heirs of schenckgotzen of limpurge . 20 4 george , and william cupbearers of limpurge . 20 4 ebererd and valentine pincernae lords of eberbache . 8 2 heirs of count john of schwarzberge . 6 18 the town of norinberge . 500 20 the town of rodtenburge . 180 10 swinford . 72 8 wynsheym . 72 8 weysenburge . 36 summ. 566. summ. 2792. 3. the circle of bavaria whereof the duke of bavire is head. 120 the archbishop of saltzburge . 554 36 the bishop of bassaw . 156 28 the bishop of brisingen . 64 18 the bishop of regensburge . 62 12 bishop of rempsen . 48 4 provost of betchtadsgaden . 68 8 abbot of waldsachsen . 36 2 abbot of rode. 20 8 abbot of raysheime . 134 8 abbot of haymerachs . 90 8 abbess of nether mynster . 36 4 abbess of over mynster . 20 120 dukes william and lodowicke palatines . 554 60 ottho henry phillips countes palatines . 230 42 landtgrave of lichtenberge . 28 8 count of haage . 36 4 countes of ortenberge . 12 6 barons of stanssen of erenselfe . 20 4 lords of degenberge . 18 4 lords of wolsteine and barons of over sultzberge . 8 40 town of regenspurg . 224 summ. 514. summ. 2524. 4. the circle of austria with the countries and estates apertaining , whereof the emperour is head . 240 archduke of austriche . 1200 28 trent . 182 28 brixen . 182 24 gurke . 120 12 sackaw . 48 10 cavall . 38 6 bayliffes of ostriche . 26 16 bayliffe of etsche within the mountain . 26 16 count george of schemburg in the county of entz. 48 6 barons of wolchenstein . 48 6 lords of cassentrin . 26 4 lords of rogendorfe . 8 24 count of hardeche . 90 summ. 420. summ. 2042 5. the circle of suevia whereof in the place of christopher late duke of wertemberge , charles marquess of radan is now head . 42 bishop of auspurge . 200 28 bishop of constans . 120 10 bishop of cur. 36 10 abbot of rempten . 36 2 abbot of rephenawe . 60 12 abbot of st. gallus . 36 10 provost of elwangen . 134 8 salmenschweyler . 36 8 wyngarten . 26 6 schutter . 40 4 weisenaw . 36 8 st blasie . 20 2 st petro in silva sereina . 44 10 maulbrunen .   8 schaffhausen . 36 0 steyne upon the rheyne . 20 0 petershausen . 12 6 emisedell . 44 2 pfeffors . 8 2 rrentzlingen . 8 2 dissides . 20 2 st john in turgaw . 8 4 schaschrurent . 36 2 rockenburck . 16 6 ochsengaroson . 26 2 koningsborn . 20 2 marckthall . 8 6 elchingen . 26 2 psuye . 12 2 munchrodt . 20 0 owersperge . 20 0 hursawe . 18 2 gengenhache . 18 2 abbess of lindawe . 20 0 abbess of rottencuaster . 18 4 abbess of bynhawe . 20 0 abbess of hickhache . 10 0 abbess of guttstell . 10 0 abbess of bounde . 10 6 bayliffes in alsatia and burgundia . 26 120 duke of wirtenberge . 554 38 marquess phillip of baden . 96 4 count vlrich of helsenstein . 0 16 count of werdenberge . 90 16 count of ottingham . 90 8 count of rupsen . 36 16 counts of mimdford wolsange . 90 16 counts of mimdford johan . 90 16 count frederick of furstanberge . 90 6 count of eberstem . 8 12 solern joachim and wegand sons to count francis. 60 4 randolfe count of sultz . 18 4 lewis and frederick of lewinstem . 18 2 tubengen . 2 10 the inhabatants in the county of kirkberge . 20 2 brandis the count radalfe of sultz . 12 4 zimmern . 18 2 the inhibitants of the signiorie of islingen . 8 2 christopher count of denngen . 0 4 gandelfing lord of schwdukharte . 8 24 dapiferi de waldeburge & possessores honor : de sonnenburge . 134 2 heirs of the lord leo of stanffe . 18 2 sigismond lord of fawlkenstein . 6 4 john lord of roingsocke . 20 0 john dennys lord of konigs ekerberge . 10 2 gandalf & walter lord of serotzecher . 6 2 lord of hoenloe . 8 50 augusta . 300 8 rawssbewru . 136 50 vlma . 134 20 mynningen . 72 6 rempten . 72 12 bibrache . 110 4 lutkirtche . 36 8 pslyn . 44 4 wangen . 46 8 lyndawe . 144 8 ravenspurge . 134 0 buerchorn . 20 20 vbereingen . 156 12 constance . 144 6 pfullendorfe . 80 0 st. gallas . 114 14 schafdansen . 90 12 renthingen . 110 20 esslingen . 134 10 sunndt . 90 4 weyl . 36 12 helbron . 120 6 wiwpfen . 26 20 hall. 160 10 drinkelspuell . 116 2 dopffingen . 18 4 gingen . 26 4 alen. 36 20 nortlingen . 160 8 werdt . 72 0 buchatt . 12 0 offenburge . 90 0 gengenbache . 72 0 zell in hamberspache . 44 6 rotheoell . 244 summ. 918. summ. 6394. the circle of the rhine whereof the count of sulmos is head. 4 bishops of wormes . 26 36 bishop of speire . 120 30 bishop of strasburge . 200 14 bishop of basill . 84 48 bishop of bysontz . 150 0 bishop of wallis . 450 6 bishop of geneva . 26 28 bishop of losanna . 120 48 bishop of metz ▪ 200 18 bishop of doll . 48 38 bishop of verdon . 86 28 abbot of fuldawe . 92 4 abbot of hirchfell . 18 12 abbot of murbache . 38 8 provost of wisenburge . 36 28 master of the jobaintes . 92 2 provest of odenhayme . 20 2 abbot of st. gregories . 8 8 abbot of rfrin . 60 2 abbess of ranfinget . 20 120 duke of lorayne . 554 36 duke john count of spanheime . 150 120 duke of savoy . 554 16 donest marques of baden . 46 48 duke lewis count of veldent . 150 136 landgrave of hesen . 554 60 prince of calyn . 188 4 john lewis count of nasshawe of barbruck . 24 6 ringraves with the tutors of the children of phillip deceased . 24 4 wolfgange lord of leipoltzkirche . 26 4 lord of krirchingen . 8 2 phillip of buxing lord of oberstein . 2 8 raynard count of bitch his children . 24 2 george of recheshoven count of bitsch . 6 4 nicholas count of salyn . 18 8 phillip count of hannaw , lord of litchtenburge . 24 6 emmieht and englehardt , brothers , lords of leinnigen . 18 2 werrich of oberstein count of folkenstein . 8 8 john jacob lord of merspurg and beffort . 40 8 lord of bavilstein . 90 4 the inhabitants of high koningsperg , john of sukingen to bring them to eusisheim . 18 12 of the duke of lorrayne , as possessor of the signiory of blankenburge . 50 6 phillip of wysbaden count of nassaw . 26 8 eberhard count of koningstein lord of ebstein . 26 12 john and anthony of buttingen counts of nether isenburge . 60 8 william count of sulmos . 40 6 barnard count of sulmos . 32 4 tutors of the goods of the count of wayker of leymengen to bringe their souldiers to the lords of riepolkirch and of oberstein of rixingen . 18 24 balthasar as tutor to the children of phillip count of hannow , lord of muntzburg late deceased . 60 4 can count of westerburge . 20 2 william count of wytenstein . 18 6 phillip and harry counts of waldeck . 32 2 lords of bless . 0 towns. 20 bassil . 360 20 mulhausen in sim●kaw . 54 10 colmar . 78 6 kaysersberge . 36 2 turkheim . 18 0 munster in the valley of st. gregories . 54 86 strasburge . 450 6 obernesheim . 62 2 rosheim . 18 14 stridestade . 116 14 haganawe . 116 4 wysenburge upon the rhine . 44 4 landaw . 44 6 speire . 198 20 worms . 158 40 francford . 280 0 fridburg . 44 0 weislor . 62 80 metz. 500 20 the order of the knights of the castle of frieberge . 90 8 the order of the knights of the castle of gelhausen . 30 14 doll . 122 20 verdun . 90 4 kansmans sarbrucke . 18 14 bisons . 116 summ. 1468. summ. 8008. the circle of westphalia and of the low country , whereof the duke of cleve is head. 36 padenborn . 68 120 lutich . 380 100 vtriche . 410 68 munster . 338 44 chamerick . 164 12 osenbruck . 72 10 pserden . 48 12 mynden . 30 4 werden . 26 4 stabell . 44 8 st. cornelius minster . 90 4 achternach . 36 4 corfei . 18 0 hawerden . 20 4 essen . 26 90 duke john of burchenburge . 540 90 duke john of cleve and marcke . 540 16 barnard marques of baden of lutzenburge . 46 20 william of dillinmarke count of nashaw . 90 6 john count of sam. 26 4 william count of fuerberge . 20 12 diotrick . counts of manderscheid . 54 8 john counts of manderscheid . 26 2 james counts of manderscheid . 8 8 john count of wye , lord of ruchen . 24 6 william count de morsch lord of rodenache . 24 12 justus lord of brimkurst . 54 4 eberwein count of bewthen . 54 4 arnold count of steinfeld . 18 2 the possessors of the goods of the lords of turmesex . 8 4 counts of teckinberge . 18 8 john count of oldenburge . 60 8 otto lord of rieperge . 54 4 justus count of hoye . 16 2 frederike count of tirfeild . 8 16 schawenburge , and gemma . 68 6 lord of spitzenburge . 12 2 lord of wargenburge 0 8 eberhard and rupreckt of the marcke , lords of arenburge . 90 4 limaw count of frunenburge for the inhabitants of the signiory of someraw● . 0 8 symon lord of lyffie . 36 60 collen . 644 40 aquesgreve . 180 10 nether-wesell . 100 6 dewer . 40 4 camerich . 36 40 dortumbt . 200 40 sost. 240 4 dusburge . 36 2 herwarden . 26 14 bracken . 116 6 warburge . 44 0 verdon . 30 80 leinchawe . 44 summ. 1104. summ. 5490. the circle of saxony superior whereof augustus the elector is head. 120 john elector of saxony . 554 120 ihoachim marques of brandenburge , elector . 554 12 bishop of meissen . 12 12 bishop of mersperge . 12 12 bishop of nawumburge . 12 10 bishop of brandenburge . 30 18 bishop of havelburg . 66 10 bishop of lebus . 30 18 bishop of camyn . 84 4 abbot of salfeld . 26 4 abbot of rittershawsen . 20 4 abbot of walchenried . 12 2 abbot of luedelburge . 20 2 abbess of gerenrode . 20 90 george duke of saxony . 416 90 george duke of barvim . 540 18 all the princes of anhal● . 20 8 gunter the elder countz of scwartzburge . 28 4 gunter the younger countz of scwartzburge . 20 2 john henry countz of scwartzburge . 10 20 all the countz of manfelt . 90 6 otto count of stolberge . 24 4 bein count of hunstein . 0 4 erneist count of hunstein . 16 6 adam count of benchlingen . 0 2 countez of rapm . 24 6 countez of baxby and meulingen . 8 2 all the countez of gleichem . 26 2 countez of lyswecke . 4 4 contez of wyldenselss . 4 2 lords of geracoe . 24 4 renssen of blat lord of gretz . 6 2 barons of schoenberge . 8 2 barons of dantenberge pincernae . 8 0 lords of branderstain and rentz . 8 0 dantzik . 330 0 ilburge . 164 summ. 628. summ. 3230 the circle of saxonia inferior , whereof adolf duke of holstein is head. 120 of the king of denmarke for those his countries that belong to the empire . 554 114 the archbishop of magdenburge . 524 72 the archbishop of bream . 300 28 hyldechem and bishops . 56 28 lubeck bishops . 56 4 schwerin 26 24 ratzenburge . 38 10 seblswyke . 30 10 magims duke of lawenburge . 30 30 erick dukes of brunswike . 224 35 henry dukes of brunswike . 164 35 ernest dukes of brunswike . 164 70 philip dukes of brunswike . 328 24 henry dukes of mechelburge . 6 40 albert dukes of mechelburge . 67 40 fredrick duke of holstein . 67 80 countez of honstein . 134 2 countez of rhenstein . 8 4 lubeck . 0 40 hamberck . 354 40 muthawsin in thuringia . 240 6 northansen . 156 0 gosler . 260 0 gottengen . 44 summ. 822. summ 3724. the circle of burgundia , whereof king phillip is head. 246 duke of burgundia , for so much of his country as pertaineth to the empire . 1200 40 nawssaw and breda , 180 69 lords of weryn . 44 20 lords of egmond and iselstein . 90 20 lords of bergea and walda . 134 8 aswold count of bergin . 96 summ. 334. summ. 1684. summ. totall , horsemen , 7292. summ. totall , footmen , 38478. finis . courteous reader ▪ be pleased to take notice that these books following , are printed for , and sold by william miller at the gilded acorn in st pauls church-yard , near the little north door . hickes revelation revealed . folio . clark's martyrology compleat , with the persecutions of england to the end of queen maries reign . folio . — lives of ten eminent divines , some being as follow ; bishop vsher , dr gouge , dr harris , mr gataker , mr whittaker , &c. and some other famous christians . 4º — the lives and deaths of such wotthies who by their prudence , policy , and power have purchased and procure to themselves the surnames of great . 4º — life of christ. 4º — life of herod the great . 4º — life of nebuchadnezzar , and cyrus the great ; the one , the first founder of the babylonian empire , the other , the first founder of the empire of the medes and persians . 4º — life of alexander the great , the first founder of the grecian empire , as also of charles the great , commonly called charlemagne , the first founder of the french empire , 4º — the life and death of hannibal ▪ the great captain of the carthaginians , who maintained wars against all the power of rome for eighteen years together in italy . as also the life and death of epaminondas , the great captain of the thebans , who was famous both for his vertues and valour . 4º — the life and death of pompey the great , with all his glorious victories and triumphs . as also the life and death of artaxerxes mnemon , one of the great persian emperours . 4º — the life and death of julius caesar , the first founder of the roman empire . as also the life and death of augustus caesar in whose raign our blessed lord and saviour jasus christ was born . 40 — a prospect of hungary , and transylvania , together with an account of the qualities of the inhabitants , the commodities of the countries , the chiefest cities , towns , and strong-holds , rivers , and mountains , with an historycal narration of the wars amongst themselves , and with the turks , continued to this year 1664. as also a brief description of bohemia , austria , bavaria , steirmark , croatia , dalmatia , moravia , and other adjacent countries , contained in a map joyned therewith , by which map you may know which places are in the power of the turk , and which christians have , 4o. — ministers dues . 4º cradock's knowledge and practice ; or , a plain discourse of the chief things necessary to be known , believed , and practised in order to salvation , 4º ford of baptism . 8º vennour's whole armor of god. 8º cotton , on the covenant of grace , 8º culverwell , of assurance , 8º records urinal of physick , 8º ravius oriental grammer , 12º peacocks visitation , 12º dr tuckney's good day well improved , 12º — death disarmed , 12º — balm of gilead , 12º cleaveland poems characters and letters . 12º clamor sanguinis , 12º aristippus or balscat's master-piece . 12º king charles's works , 24o. defence and vindication of tithes , 4º dr mays relation of a strange monster , or serpent found in the left ventricle of the heart of a gentlemen , 4º estwicks christ's submission to his fathers will , 4º ferriby lawfull preacher , 4o. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a33299-e110 ten provinces of germany . the governours of ●he ten provinces elected . the empire consisteth of church-men , temporall potentates and free-cities . the diett . the first estate of the empire . the heads of the church-men . archbishop of mentz chancellour of germany . archbishop of collen , and trier . archbishop of saltzburg . archbishop of magdeburge . arch-bishop of bream . twenty five bishops . the two estates of the empire . temporal electors four . first count pallatine of the rhine . second duke of saxon. third marquis of brandenburge . fourth king of behemia . the electors may chuse also a king of romans . duke of bevaria . the common guildern or floren is worth 38. starling . duke of saxon. marquesse of brandenburge . duke of brunswick . the daller is worth 4s 4d sterling . duke of lumberge hamberge . duke of lawenburge : princes of anhalt . landgrave of hessen . duke of wirtemberge . duke of pomer & mechelberge . marquesse of baden . order of preheminence . 7. electors . 4. dukes . 4. marquesses . 4 landgraves . 4 burgraves . 4. earles . 4. barons ▪ 4 knights . the three estates of the empire . free cities , the number . their tribute . absolute power of the three-estates . the government and p●licy of the count pallatine . his court. 1. his counsell . 2. counsell . 3. counsell . 4. counsell . his reformation of the spitituall court. 5 counsell . officers of his court. the exercises of the pallatine . his parliament . his countries . his religion . his touble in the diett at augusta , for religion . his chiefe court. no appeal from him punishment of adultery and fornication . the invasions of germanie with all the civill, and bloody warres therin, since the first beginning of them in anno 1618 and continued to this present yeare 1638 : wherein are described the severall battles, encounters, conflicts, and assaults, of cities, townes, and castles ... with a new and exact map of germany ... : together with the progresse of every army, marked with severall markes or lines, with the pictures of the chiefe commanders on both sides / faithfully collected out of good and credible originalls by a gentleman well deserving that hath suffered much in those warres. gentleman well deserving that hath suffered much in those warres. 1638 approx. 125 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 60 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a01653 stc 11791 estc s244 22150912 ocm 22150912 21828 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a01653) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 21828) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1204:1 or 1747:17a) the invasions of germanie with all the civill, and bloody warres therin, since the first beginning of them in anno 1618 and continued to this present yeare 1638 : wherein are described the severall battles, encounters, conflicts, and assaults, of cities, townes, and castles ... with a new and exact map of germany ... : together with the progresse of every army, marked with severall markes or lines, with the pictures of the chiefe commanders on both sides / faithfully collected out of good and credible originalls by a gentleman well deserving that hath suffered much in those warres. gentleman well deserving that hath suffered much in those warres. [125] p. : map, ports. printed by i.norton for i. rothwell, and are to bee sold at the sunne in pauls church-yard, london : 1638. signatures: a4 b-e8 f4 2f8 g-h8. bound with: the warnings of germany (stc 3759), a true and brief relation of the bloudy battell (stc 1907), the lamentations of germany (stc 24761) and lacrymæ germaniæ. reproductions of originals in the newberry library and harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng thirty years' war, 1618-1648 -campaigns -germany. germany -history -1618-1648. 2007-01 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-03 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2009-01 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2009-01 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the invasions of germanie . with all the civill , and bloody warres therein , since the first beginning of them in anno. 1618. and continued to this present yeare 1638. wherein are described the severall battles , encounters , conflicts , and assaults , of cities , townes , and castles , at severall times , and in severall places , with a new and exact map of germany , wherein the cities , and townes are figured with the same figures which are expressed over the heads of the patticulars in the booke , so that the reader may behold at one view the places , time , yeere , and event of every battle , skirmish , and assault . together with the progresse of every army , marked with severall markes or lines , with the pictures of the chiefe commanders on both sides . faithfully collected out of good , and credible originalls . by a gentleman well deserving that hath suffered much in those warres . london , printed by i. norton , for i. rothwell , and are to bee sold at the sunne in pauls church-yard . 1638. to the reader . the civill warres of this ( sometime ) flourishing country might be rather desired to be buried in silence , then bee recalled and perpetuated to memory , ●ut that the lord will have his great ●orkes to be had in remembrance , that ●●hers might see , and feare him that doth ●hat ever he pleaseth in heaven , and 〈◊〉 earth . how great the misery of ger●any hath beene , no tongue can expresse , 〈◊〉 heart can beleeve , except those that have ●ene , and felt the bitternesse of it , they have ●runken the wine of astonishment , ●hough they would not beleeve their misery 〈◊〉 have beene so neere , nor so dreadfull , who ●or these last twenty yeares have beene mi●●rably destroyed , that i may say of it , as the ●rophet esay saith of ierusalem : your country is desolate , your cities burnt with fire , your land strangers devoure in your presence . shee is now left so poore , that she can call nothing her owne , she that relieved others is now in need of others reliefe . she that of late was as a princesse among the nations , with her sumptuous palaces , is now with the daughter of zion , as a cottage in a vine-yard , or as a desert wildernesse . we all this while continue as the vineyard of the lord , fenced about by his providence , and sheltred under his protection , wee onely heare what others feele . god strikes some that others might take warning . goe to my place which was in shiloh , where i set my name at first , and see what i did to it , saith the lord. esay . 7. 12. we are admired ( by all the world ) for our peace , it will be our wisdome to labour to be as famous for piety , peace should bee the nurse of piety , if we improve this our prosperity to gods glory , it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity . if you shall meete with any harsh phrase , 〈◊〉 unusuall expression in the insuing treatise , you will be easily inclined to a charitable construction , when you shall consider that he is a german borne . a gentleman sometimes of good worth in his own country , able to deliver himselfe elegantly in his owne language , in latine , or in those other languages in which he hath been longer exercised , than in our english tongue . you shall find it worthy your reading , wherein you shall suddenly behold the state of the wars , the severall battles , encounters , conflicts , and assaults of cities , townes , and castles , with a new , and exact map , with figures both on map , and book , referring you to each other , wherin you may perceive the time , the yeere , and day , with the successe , and event of every battle , skirmish , and assault , extracted out of the best german histories . read , and consider . vale. henry duvall count of dampier lieutenant , generall to bucquoy . who came into bohemia with an army of 6000 men 24 iuny 1618. fought against count of thurn mansfeld . duke anholt generalls of the bohemians forces : was ●hot and afterwards his head cut of by the hungarians of bethlehem gabors . garrison in the assault of prespur● . 8 oct : 1620 the invasions of germanie . with all the civill , and bloody warres , since the first be-beginning of anno 1618. to this present yeare 1638. ( 1 ) count of dampier liutenant generall for the emperour mathias , with an army of six thousand men , maketh the first invasion into the kingdome of bohemia , besieged and assaulted the towne of pilgram , wherein three companies of the bohemians were put to the sword , and the rest taken prisoners . this pilgram was the first towne , which by the imperiall forces was assaulted , the fift of september . anno 1618. ( 2 ) the imperiall generall , count bucquoy with his army comming into bohemia , fought the first battle with the bohemian forces , consisting of 14000. horse and foote , under the leading of count mathias , of thurn , before budweis , the 12. of october . anno. 1618. the bohemian forces stood not long considering upon the matter , but fell with such fury upon the imperialists , that they utterly dispersed them ; killing an exceeding great number , and some 300. prisoners were taken . ( 3 ) the 11. of november , anno. 1618. count ernst of mansfeld comming into bohemia , he first presents himselfe with his , and the bohemians army , before the citie of pilsen . summons being given the second time , and denied ; mansfeld brings forward his approaches . some sallies , and rencounters there passed : for all which mansfeld gat up a very large battery & mounted some pieces of good ordnance upon it . a vast breach and a saultable he made , and commands it to be stormed . the imperiall garrison , with the citizens therein maintained it very stoutly , and beate off the aslaylants many times from their walls . but mansfeld so overlayes the defendants with numbers , that he by maine force enters the city . ( 4 ) september the 4. anno 1619. the imperiall generall bucquoy falls upon the towne biscka , in bohemia , wherein all that were found in armes , are put to the sword . immediately after this bucquoy lighting upon a great party of the bohemian forces , not farre from th●s towne , takes away three cornets of them , and more then 1500 utterly defeated . ( 5 ) bethlehem gabor , duke of transilvania , sending an army of 12000. horse and foot , under the command of redei ferentz , to aide the bohemians , who joyned with them , and making an army both together of 26000. brave men . all these being drawn up into battalia , before the imperialists campe , at the donaw-bridge by the imperiall residence , and city of wien . the bohemians being desirous to tempt generall bucquoy out of his campe into faire campagnia . the 25. of october . anno. 1619. fell there out a sore battle on the further side of the same bridge ; wherein on the bohemians side were slaine some 1000. men ; on the imperiall side above 4500. and a great many of common souldiers wounded , which were brought with waines into the hospitalls of wien . generall bucquoy himselfe wounded , but not mortally . ( 6 ) at egenburg in bohemia , a great battle was fought under the conduct of duke christian of anhalt , then generall of the bohemian army , against the imperiall generalls bucquoy , and dampier , wherein the imperialists were beaten , with the losse of 2000. common souldiers , and divers officers . on the bohemians side were also slaine , 1800. the 10. of march , anno. 1620. ( 7 ) the 26 of august . anno. 1620. marquesse ambrosius spinola , with an army of 25000. foot , and horse , came into germany , marching with his army towards the protestants leaguer , before oppenheim in the palatinate ; from thence removed to creutzenach , which he besieged . the palatin garrison , out of all hopes of being relieved , parlies , and yields , the 31. of august . he tooke altzheim . then with 12000. men encompassed the towne of oppenheim againe . the towne unprovided for siege , was rendred also unto spinola , the 6. of september . anno. 1620. marquis ambrosius spinola generall . over the spanishe army in the netherlandes . was sent by the king of spaine with 25000 men into the palatinat the 26. of august . a●● 620 fought against marquis of durlach . mansfeld . and duke of brunswick , takes in possession the most part of the lower palatinat dyes in italy in the niew fort of serivia . the 15 of sept : a●● 630. ( 8 ) the elector of saxonie , with 12000. of horse , and foote did assault the towne of bautzen , wherein eight companies of the bohemians were in garrison . the saxons fell to myning , and shooting of granadoes into the towne ; attempting to scale the walls , are by a sally many times beaten off . but the saxons with 12. peeces of canon , fired and spoiled at last this goodly citie ; against which they made in the space of two dayes 3931. shot , and also taketh it . the towne is almost wholly turned to cinders . 1136. houses . 9. goodly churches , and two hospitalls are burnt , the 25. of september . anno. 1620. ( 9 ) count of dampier being very desirous to surprize the hungarish garrison under bethlehem gabor in presburg , goes thitherward with 6000. of horse , and foote , takes and fires the fort in the suburbs , neere the river donaw . five hundred souldiers thereupon were commanded to storme the castle , & with a petard to enter it . but the garrison perceiving this , issues out of the castle , and a great number of the assaylants cut in peeces . count dampier himselfe was shot , and afterwards his head was cut offby the hungarians . octob. the 8. an. 1620. ( 10 ) upon the 7. of november , anno. 1620. a great , bloody , and sore battle was fought before prage ; in which the duke of bavaria , and the imperialists under generall bucquoy , and tilly , did overthrow the bohemians , and protestants army ; all canons , and ordnance were here taken , 9000. men of the bohemian forces slaine , 6000. upon the place of battle , and the rest , in the rest of pursuing . prisoners were taken , the young duke christian of anhait , the young count of thurn , count of styrumb , divers officers and captaines , and of common souldiers 500. on the bavarian , and imperialists-side , slaine some 250. and some brave cavaliers , and chiefe commanders , as the generall quarter-master caretti , colonell megaw , captaine prosing , and dompre , with 4. wallons captaines more . ●he protestants army before the beginning of this battle is said to have been full 30000. men , and of the imperialists , and bavarians . 50000. ( 11 ) iuly the 10. anno. 1621. the imperiall general bucquoy presents himselfe in full battalia before ne●heusel , wherein bethlehem gabor had a strong garrison , and demands it to be rendred , the summons being denyed , the towne is surrounded by his army . the garrison falling out slaying there 900. imperialists , and bringing some 100. away prisoners . some dayes after , the garrison sallies out againe , where generall bucquoy himselfe , with divers commanders was slaine , and prince torquato de comitibus , and some officers taken prisoners , and so the imperialists were faine to levy their owne siege . ( 12 ) iuly the 8. and 11. anno. 1621. divers troopes of the bavarian generall lieutenant tillys army , made a show of themselves before count mansfelds quarters , neere frawenberg in bohemia who sending out some troops against them , drave them to retreat , and cut in pieces 300. of them . the next day the imperialists came on with greater forces , the mansfeldish well aware of their comming , these feigning to flee , draw on the imperialists into an ambush , where many of them were slaine , and amongst them the bavarian colonell baur , with divers captains and ritt-masters . in these divers rencounters of the bavarians , slaine more then 1600. on the mansfeldish side some 500. ( 13 ) september the 19. anno 1621. don cordua , spanish vice-generall , with his whole army , and divers peeces of ordnance , comming to besiege the town of franckendall in the palatinat , wherein was a garrison of some 12. companies under the command of colonell witgenstein ; who sallies out with his souldiers many times upon the spanish , defeats , and disperses many of them . but count mansfeld comming with an army of 16000. men to relieve the towne , the spanish were forced to give over , & to leave some ordnance behind them . on the spanish side were slaine and wounded in all this time of the siege , from the 19. of september , till the 14. of october , no lesse then 3000. men . 9. citizens , and 100 of the garrison were also slaine . ( 14 ) bethlehem gabor by this time falling with an great army upon tirna a towne in moravia , wherein was an imperiall , garrison of 7. companies ; this being a wonderfull well provided place , makes great countenance of resistance , in so much that bethlehem gabor in the third assault lost above 700 of his men before it . but at last parlies , and yeelds anno. 1621. ( 15 ) in the beginning of aprill anno. 1622. count ernst of mansfeld advancing with his army into alsatia besieged the strong towne zabern ; and 12. dayes , and nights together he battered it . all which time the imperiall governour count of salm , with his garrison , and the citizens helpe , defended the towne , and put of one or two assaults very manfully . mansfeld fell very furiously on againe , and was againe repulsed with losse of 300. of his men , with divers officers , and commanders . ( 16 ) aprill the 5. anno. 1622. generall tilly summons the towne neckergemund three english miles from heidelberg , the garrison doing some resistance , whereupon the imperialists with assault , the towne surprised , putting to the sword both the garrison , and inhabitants with women , and children . the second day after this massacre , tilly falls upon 20. cornets of the mansfeldish hors-men , defeates , and kills 200. of them . ( 17 ) the 14. of aprill anno. 1622. count of mansfeld comming to revenge in full battalia against tilly at mingelheim neere wiseloch in the palatinat , cut in peeces 2000. of his hors-men , and followed so hard upon his reere , that the wayes side by the river rhein towards germersheim were strewed with the dead bodies of his army : takes 13. cornets , and 4. ensignes 4. peeces of ordnanc● and many prisoners , amongst them 2. colonells 1. sergeant major , divers rittmasters , captaines and lieutenants on the mansfelders side slaine not above 100. ( 18 ) after this generall count of mansfeld encompasses the towne ladenburg in the palatinat ; to which he the next morning gives summons by a trumpet . the imperiall governor giving a deniall answer . mansfeld brings forward his approches : one part being blowne open with a petard , is intred by the mansfeldish , put to the sword the resistance , and takes 8. ensignes . anno. 1622. ( 19 ) the 26. of aprill anno. 1622. at wimpffen generall tilly , and don cordua fought a bloody battell against the marquis of durlach , which battell began from the morning till 8. a clock in the night . the marquis with his cavallary having charged the imperialists , and spanish , at severall times , was with such resolution answered , that after five or six charges bet wixt them , his whole army was defeated , all ordnances , and baggage , 7. ensignes , and 11. cornets taken ; 5000. slaine upon the place of battle on both sides ; amongst which magnus duke of wirtemberg , and one duke of saxon weimar . 800. common souldiers , besides captaines , rittmasters , and lieutenants , both of horse , and foote were taken prisoners . ferdinand cordua vice-generall of the spanish army . left by spinola in the palatinat 1621 besieged franckendall and many other places , was beaten of the same siege with losse of 3000. men by mansfeld : sought against him and branswick in the battel before hochst . 1622 the 9. of iuny . and in the encounte● vpon , the borders of brabant the 26. of august 1622. ( 20 ) whereas duke christian of brunswick had taken the towne , and castle hochts ; iune the 9th . anno. 1622. setled his quarter in the same place . but long he stayed not . for generall tilly with don. cordua with 22000. of foote , and 140. cornets of horse , marching against him , a great conflict fell out , which continued 6. houres . but the imperialists more in number overthrew , and dispersed the others , which fleeing to the bridge so throunged , and wedged in one another , that a great number thrust into the river main ; wherein more were drowned , then killed in the battell . duke christian with 5. cornets of horse through the river did escape . of great commanders on the dukes side were not many slaine , except the count of lowenstein , which was drownd . colonell lieutenant kochler , and francking with 5. or 6. captaines more were taken prisoners . ( 21 ) in the end of july , anno. 1623. duke christian of brunswick charged some imperialists under the leading of the duke of saxon lawenburg , within few leagues from plesse in the dukedome of brunswick . 1000. imperialists horse-men he cut in peeces , the rest fled , leaving 7. cornets together , with one rittmaster , and some prisoners and 140. waggons of ammunition , and baggage behind them . ( 22 ) upon the 7. of august . anno. 1623. a sore battell was fought at statlo in w●stphaly , wherein generall tilly prevailed against duke christian of brunswick , and defeated his whole army . 4000 of duke christians army were slaine , and so many , and more taken prisoners ; all baggage , and ammunition . 11. demi-canons , and 4. lesser peeces of ordnances besides 70. ensignes , and 9. comets taken . prisoners of account were , duke william of saxon weimar ; the count of isenburg generall of the artillery , john philips rhinegrau , a count of witgenstein , and another count of slick , besides divers colonels , captaines , and other officers . duke christian , and the count of thurn , who was hardly wounded , and with the most of his horse-men fled by night unto breford . on tilly side slaine 3. rittmasters , and one captaine , and some 100. of common souldiers . christian duke of brunswick . & bishop of halberstad came first into vpper germany with 1500 horsemen the 18 nov : 1621. fought severall battels with tilly & don cordua was overthrowen . lost his left arme in a battel upon the borders of bmb the 26. aug : 1622. d●ed of a seaver at groningen 6 may. 1626. ( 23 ) octoher the 4. anno. 1625. 3000. imperiall horse-men , and 3000. of foote , falling upon the king of dennemarcks , and duke christian of brunsrick's troopes , neere the city of hannover , in the lower saxony , where above 500. of them were slaine , and all the rest utterly rooted . 5. cornets tooke the imperiall partie , and many prisoners also . duke frederick of anhold was shot dead upon the place , in the beginning of the conflict . and so dyed colonell obentraut , and that of the wound received in the battle few houres after , in the imperiall leaguer . ( 42 ) aprill the 21. anno. 1626. count mansfeld comes with his army before the strong sconce by dessaw-bridge , in which the imperiall generall altringer then commanded . against this mansfeld casts up three batteries : from whence he night , and day thunders upon the imperialists . duke of ●riedland comming to succour them , skirmishes with the mansfelders , and utterly defeates the horsemen , and foure regiments of foote : 3000. of the mansfelders were slaine upon the place ; amongst them three colonels . kniphousen was taken prisoner with other officers , and 30 , ensignes , and 7. peeces of ordnance . the imperialists lost some 1000. men likewise . ernst count of mansfeld came into bohemia the 20 of aug : 1618 was first generall of the 〈◊〉 and commander of 4000 horsemen : tooke . pilsena towne in bohemia by assault fought against tilly. cordua and spinola had a particular army by himselfe in the pelatinat . alsatia silesia and hungaria : died at racon betwixt sara and spalato in his yourny from constantinopel towards venice the 10 : of novemb : 1626 ( 25 ) may the 27. anno. 1626. generall tilly with his army , setting him downe at the siege of mun●en , in the dukedome of brunswick , which hee most fiercely assaults . the danish garrison , under colonell claut , sallies out of the towne , and doth valiantly resist them . tilly resolves upon a generall assault , by force breaking into the towne , hee takes it ; massacring and putting to the sword 25000. citizens , and souldiers , with women , and children in it . ( 26 ) iuly the 29. anno 1626. generall tilly , with the count of furstenberg , generall of the ordnance , comming with 20. cornets of horse , and 1500 of foote , to the reliefe of the fort calenberg , which was by the danish army besieged . but tilly encountring with them , put them to a retreat , and defeates them utterly ; tooke 21. cornets , and ensignes , and many prisoners , with slaughter of 500. common souldiers , 6. rittmasters , and other officers , and colonell frytags of the danish army . ( 27 ) the 25. of august . anno. 1626. at luttor , few leagues from wolffenbuttel , in the dukedome of brunswick , the imperiall generall tilly obtained a great victory against the king of dennemarck , and there slew , and tooke prisonerssome 4000. men of foot , with . 60. ensignes , and 6. cornets . there was ●laine besides on the kings side , upon the place of battle , the valiant colonell fuchs , who commanded , as sergeant major , colonell nyab , colonel● pentz ; the danish generall commissary powis● and the landgrave philip of hessen . prisoners ●● account were taken , colonell lindstaw , colonel● franking , courville , rantzaw , and divers other officers . on tillies side some 3. or 400. were slaine . ( 28 ) the austrian boores , some 20000. strong , did besiege , and assault the imperiall towne of lintz but were beaten off with losse of 800. men . afte● this they fall upon some imperialists forces , unde● the leading of duke adolph , of holstein , which they utterly defeat , the rest were glad to runne away . this to revenge comes pappenheim , with 6000. men upon them , and overthrowes them . 3000. he cut in peeces , and put the rest to flight , the 4. of novemb . anno . 1626. ( 29 ) the towne of northeim in the dukedome of brunswick for a long time being blockd up by the imperialists . the imperiall generall sergeant major , count of furstenberg resolves to take it by a generall assault ; whereupon the imperialists fall furiously on at severall times , but by the danish garrison , and citizens , were againe as bravely repulsed , with losse of 6. captaines , 8. ancients , and some 100. common souldiers . 9. captaines , with divers officers , and 500. souldiers were wounded , and hurt . the garrison being out of all hopes of reliefe at last parlies , and yeelds , the 5. of iune , anno . 1627. ( 30 ) betwixt bredenborg and itzeho in holstein , the ●mperiall commander , count of slick , fought a battle against the marquis of durlach , where the marquis lost the field . the imperialists tooke 42. ensignes , and 32. peeces of ordnance from him , with a slaughter of many 1000. men , whereupon the ●mperialists surprised the fort bredenborg , putting ●o the sword all that was found in armes , in octob. anno. 1627. ( 31 ) count of slick having notice that 12. danish companies under the conduct of colonell calen●ach , 4. of conrad nell , and 6. under colonell holck with 200. horsemen , of colonell bauditzen were ●nquartered about froy-borg in jutland , hee with all ●is forces overtakes them . 300. muskettiers , and dragooners were cut in peeces , 3000. of the danish horsemen , sticking in morish places , were also taken prisoners by the imperialiests , the 17. of october . anno. 1627. ( 32 ) duke of fridland sending the imperiall colonell pechman with 7000. horse-men , & dragoners to pursue the danish , and weinmarish army about fridberg in silesia , where began a great fight betwixt thē ; ●ll the danish troopes were ruinated , the rest put ●o fight , 10. companies of them were taken prisoners , and afterwards constrained to turne unto the ●mperialists , colonell pechman was slaine in the first encounter . ( 33 ) the first of iune , anno . 1630. gustavus adolphus , king of sweden , with some 12000. ( for so many brought he out of sweden with him , his fleete was about some hundred and thirty shippes of all sorts ) landed first at that dorp , or village , in the isle of vsedome , called pennemund . the kings army consisting of eleven regiments of swedish , scottish , and high-dutchmen , was entrenched before day-light . the enemies confusion in this isle , which the king tooke , at his comming , and assaulting , was so great , that three hundred of them perished by the sword , or in the water . gustavus adolphus king of sweden , came into germany and landed first in the i le of vsedom , with an army of 12000 men the. 1. of july aº : 1630. obtained many glorious victory conquered in two yeares & 4 moneths two third parts of germany , was shot thorow y● body & slaine in y● battel of lutzen y● 6. no : aº : 1632. ( 34 ) the king of sweden sendeth that colonell , and his men , who had layne in garrison in stetin , which towne was rendred to the king the 26. of july . anno. 1630. to the towne of stargard . this colonell came by night upon the towne , and having given advertisment unto these burgers within , they secretly opening a port unto him , give him present entrance . he thus got in presently , cutts in peeces the corps du-guard , which had the watch upon the market-place . this done , he without stay goes towards another port , which he presently assaulted , killing 350. souldiers , which he found within them . ( 35 ) the king of sweden passing beyond stetin , and towards stralesund againe , he set's him downe before wolgast , the towne he by fine force tooke in . in the heat of the assault , the garrison , and chiefe citizens retyre themselves into the castle . this the king asseiges . torquati conti the emperours generall in those parts , came with 3. regiments towards the reliefe of it , but was beaten , and lost 12. ensignes , and 3. cornets in the skirmish . the garrison consisting of 600. souldiers thus defeated of her succours parlies . in this siege the king lost 120. men . this was done in the end of august . anno. 1630. ( 36 ) the imperiall garrison , under the cammand of the cruell colonell gotze , having plundered , and forsaken the towne pasewalck , and carried the chiefe men away , take it againe , from the swedes , which being 140. strong , had entred the forsaken towne , september , the 7. and after most valiant resistance : beate , kill , and drive out the swedish ; fall to tortu●ing of the townes-men for their money ; ravish women , and girles even in the open streets , and church-yards ; yea women in child-bed ; kill and abuse the men , fire the houses , and the people , in them ; thrust straw into cellars where children are hidden , and then set fire to it , burne the churches ; massacre the ministers ; and at length burne downe the whole towne . thus their rapes and ravages continue till the 11th or 12th of september . anno. 1630. ( 37 ) after which the same imperialists goe to vckermund , a towne hard by , this they fall upon , and take ; use as before , keepe the gates shut , and so burne the people in the towne . anno. 1630. ( 38 ) october the 5th . anno. 1630. certaine troopes of crabats making a brave before the trenches at stetin , drive away the cattell thereby feeding . in rescue of them there ●ally out 1000. swedens . the swedes overlayd by numbers , loose some 300. brave men , 2. captaines of horse , and one sergeant major in the skirmish ; the rest being glad to get out with their lives . ( 39 ) a pretty kinde of battell betweene the swedes , and imperialists , happened upon the 11th . of nouember . anno. 1630. in the mist before colbergen . in which , what with those that were slaine by the enemy , and what they had killed themselves at their owne mistake , were 500. men lost . but the emperours whole forces both foote , and horse were defeated : their cannon , all their baggage and 4. cornets taken from them . ( 40 ) december the 23. anno. 1630. the king of sweden with 12. regiments of foote , and 85-troopes of horse in person , drawes downe towards the towne of griffenhagen , naturally a very strong place in pom●ren ; in which lay an imperiall garrison of some 3000. men ; and don capua a spaniard their governour . a fayre , and large breach being made , 10. 15. or 20. peeces of canons continually going off together , the swedens twice attempt to enter , and are twice most valiantly repulsed . but 2500. men ( for no more were now left ) being unable to hold out against 20000. the towne is at the third assault taken . the governour received a shot in his thigh , whereof in prison he afterwards dyed : many chiefe commanders and 100. common souldiers were also taken . 200. were slaine , some fled , the rest flinging away their armes craved quarter , and had it . ( 41 ) about the middest of september , anno. 1630. the imperialists of garze , which towne they leaving afterwards emptie unto the king of sweden , did loose more then 1000. men in a bloody fight , with the kings forces . ( 42 ) at the selfe same time the swedish commander bauditzen fell upon the imperialists garrison of piritz a towne betwixt griffenhagen , and connixberg in which were some 1400. men those he defeates , and so was that towne taken . ( 43 ) in the beginning of octocter . anno. 1630. duke of friedland sent a strong convoy of 4000. men to open the passages , and to thrust some men , and victuals into the city of rostock , which was block't up by the king of sweden . there the swedens grapling withall , shrewdly defeated , and kill the most of them : utterly frustrating their designe . about the beginning of december , some 7. cornets of horse issue out of the same towne , to goe a boote-haling : these the swedish pursue . in the skirmish were 200. imperialists slaine upon the place 280. taken prisoners ; and some 400. horse brought away : scarcely 20. sound men recovering into rostock againe : which afterwards yeelded to the king , and their lord the duke of mecklenburg . ( 44 ) february , the 14. anno. 1631. the king of sweden with an army of 16000. horse , and foote set's downe to the siege of dammin a very strong towne ; after a hideous battery was the castle first taken of all by assault ; the 15th . day , he thunders upon that againe , beates downe the workes , and makes so vast a breach in the walls , that the imperiall govemour the duke of savelly finding the place not to be tenable against such thunder , and resolutions , parlyes , and yeelds . the king lost about 200. men in this siege . ( 45 ) at this time generall tilly with an army of 22000. men , and 26. peeces of ordnance besieging feldsberg a castle neere unto new brandenburg , which was kept by the swedish , by assault he tooke in , putting all to the sword in it . ( 46 ) thence hee did goe to new brandenburg , which was taken by the king of sweden with composition , which tilly streightlie besieged , and most fircely assaulted . there are his men soundly knock't downe many a time , by the swedens sallyes out of the towne , and by others from the army by dammin . tilly thus enraged with the losse of his men , after a large breach in the walls made with his ordnance , he breaking into the towne , he takes it , kills all that hee finds in armes : except the governer kniphousen ; foure captaines , some lieutenants , and ancients with about 60. common souldiers : all which hee sends prisoners away . this was done the 9th . of march , anno. 1631. ( 47 ) neere munchenberg 600 swhedish horse falling on the sudden upon 700. crabats , of which the most part they kill , and 100. they take , their colonell hardly escaping into franckford anno. 1631. ( 48 ) the king of sweden vantcurryers going toward the siege of franckford , surprise zednick kill 300. crabats obtaine 3. cornets , and 460. horse , with a great booty besides , anno. 1631. ( 49 ) the king of sweden with an army of some 18000. men advancing towards franckford upon the oder the 3. of aprill , anno. 1631 which he tooke by great , and bloudy assault of the imperialists . count schomberg who commanded in chiefe within the towne ( with full 7000. men in garrison ) tieffenbach , and monte cuculi escaped into silesia . the souldiers , and fleeing imperialists so throng'd , and wedged in one another upon the oder bridge , which was clustred full with carriages , that many were stifled , and many thrust into the river oder . lieutenant generall herberstein was slaine ; so were heidum , walstein , and iour , all colonels , with 500. other captaines , and officers : and 2000. souldiers at the least dead upon the place : besides those that were drowned ; and others found in cellars , chambers , and elsewhere , as many more perchance . generall major sparre , colonell waldaw , colonell meves , buttler , count sebaudi all colonels , and 2. others , together with 800. common souldiers being sent prisoners unto the king. ensignes were there 23. with 8. cornets presented unto the king. there were 300. swedes slaine , and 100. hurt . to increase the misery of the citizens , there fell a fire at night , which burnt downe 17. faire houses . ( 50 ) some swedish over-confident of their valour , and fortune would needs set upon certaine troopes of imperialists , which they heard were then abroad betwixt landsbergen , & schiffelbein . but the swedes are well beaten , 300. of them lost , and 3. cornets . upon the 15. of aprill anno. 1631. the king of sweden having fully finisht his workes . before the strong towne of landsbergen , falls strongly upon the enemies out-works , and takes them ; and 300. souldiers in them . the garrison , some 4500. in all , over which was count cratz governour , whose sonne the young colonell , in falling out , by a musket bullet was killed demands conditions . about this siege first , and last , the king lost 600. men. ( 51 ) in this time the imperialists attempted the recovery of crossen in silesia , a great towne upon the oder , which the swedes had taken before upon agreement : but the swedish garrison being assisted by there fellowes out of franckford , and landsbergen , kill some 200. of them upon the place , driving the rest into great glogaw . ( 52 ) june the 13. anno. 1631. ●00 . imperialists in werben were taken sleepers , killd , rowted , or imprisoned ; their leiutenant colonell , their cheife quarter-matter , and their towne surprised by the kings of swedens generall baiudtzen . ( 53 ) upon the last of june , anno. 1631. the swedish colonell duwaldt sent out from the king with 2000. horse , and 2000. dragoners , who passing through the river elue at a shallow passage , ( as bauditzen had done before in surprising werben ) falls upon the city of tangermnnd ; where both towne , and castle being taken , the most of the garrison slaine in the resistancie . ( 54 ) the king of swedens generall john bannier falls upon havelberg , 110. imperialists he put to the sword , 440. taken prisoners , and the towne also , the 9th . of july . anno. 1631. july the 17. anno. 1631. a great defeat was given to the imperialists from the king of sweden colonell callenbach , and the rhinegrave at tanger ; where 4. regiments of horse they utterly defeated . 1500. were slaine . colonell bernsteins which was their leader killed , colonell holck , and coronino fled , some 28. or 29. cornets taken , besides those that were burnt . ( 56 ) whereas generall tilly the city of magdenburg for a long time besieged , count pappenheim then generall field marshall , the 10. of may , anno. 1631. by a generall assault enterd , and the imperialists fall to killing . the valiant falckenburg chiefe commander was slaine . the marquis of brandenburg administrator hurt , and taken whilest all thus goes to wrack , a mighty fire breakes out , the whole city was in 12. houres space wholly turned to cinders , excepting 139. houses . sixe goodly churches were burnt . 20000. people at least were here killd , burned , and smothered . 6000. being observed to be drowned in the elue . tillyes wallons , and crabats would give quarter to few , so that all were killed . ( 57 ) upon the 7. of september anno. 1631. about a mile from leipsig a sore battell was fought betwixt the king of sweden , and generall tilly. tillies army was some 44000 brave men . the kings troupes were some 18000. and the duke of saxony , together with the elector of brandenburg some 22000. in which great , and bloudy battell the king prevailed against tilly. there were 9000. of the imperialists slain● upon the place of battell : and a great number besides in the chace , the same night , and the dayes , following . the king lost some 1200. men in the whole fight , and the duke of saxonie not full 2000. of the chiefe commanders on the kings side these were slaine , baron teufel , callenbach , hall , aldergast all colonels , with divers captaines , lieutenants . on the duke of saxonies side these . colonell bintauf , starshedel , sergeant major holbersdorff , and lamminger , both lieutenant colonells , and some more : whereof some died the same day , and some the next . of tilly side slaine these following , the generall of the ordnance count of schomberg : erfft serjant major generall : baumgarten , planckhard , colonels ; colonell leutenant , and baron of grota , caratelle leutenant colonell : together with diverse other italian colonels , besides captaines of horse , and foote . tilly himselfe wounded , and fled into hall. 9 john tscherclaes count of tilly first lieutenant generall of the duke of bavaria came into austria with 6000. of horse and foot the. 10. juny . aº : 1620 was victorious in the battel before prage fought against the marq : of durlach . mansfeld . branswick . and king of dennemarck and overthrow . them . his wholy army defeated by the king of sweden in the battel of leipzig and lech . dyed . at jngolstad of the wound receved in the conflict at lech the 20 of aprill . aº : 1632 ( 58 ) october the 8. anno 1631. the king of sweden tooke by a generall assault that strong , and ( by the enemy supposed ) impregnable castle of wurtzburg , being therein an imperiall garrison of 1500 fighting men . all that resisted suffred . the governour keller , a captaine of a troope of horse , saved his owne life by begging it at the kings feete : all the defendants being slaine , and taken prisoners . the castle for one houre was permitted to the pillage : where an unvaluable booty was obtained by the souldiers . some 200. of the swedish lost their lives upon the service . troy it selfe was not better provided for its ten yeares siege , for victualls , money , and ammunition , then this goodly , rich , strong , and pleasant fort of wurtsburg was . ( 59 ) the towne werthhaim was kept by the italian colon. piccolomini . he now issuing out of the town , and making the best resistance that he could , had all his men that escaped not by fight , eyther slaine upon the place , or carried away prisoners . october the 15. generall tilly having a minde to be revenged of the losse of piccolominies men , and the towne , sends some 3000. horse , and foote to make an enterprise upon that place againe . the king of sweden sends some of his men against tilly. tilly falling into the swedish ambuscado whence he gate not out , but with the losse of 2700. men 800. horse , 14. ensignes , and cornets , and all their armes , and baggage . ( 60 ) about october the 21. anno. 1631. generall tilly sends out 3. regiments more to oppose the swedish at rotenburg an imperial towne neere the head of the river tauber ; but these three whole regiments were either routed , or slaughtered by the kings troopes . ( 61 ) december the 8 , anno. 1631. the king of sweden tooke by assault the castle of oppenheim , where 200. spanish of don cordua's army were cut downe , and 8. colours taken . ( 62 ) not long after this , rhinegrave otto ludwick upon his march towards franckendall , chances upon , a partee of 9. troopes of don philip de silva ' ●● horse ( who was then generall of all the spanish in the palatinate , and in the bishopricks of mentz and triers ) that were going out a bootie haling , whom , after a long fight , hee rowtes , and overthrowes , taking 5. cornets away , from them anno. 1631. ( 63 ) upon the new-yeares day at night , anno . 1632. was the strong towne , and fort of manheim , yea the strongest of all the palatinate , by a pretty stratagem surprised by duke bernhard of saxon weimar . being believed , and admitted as a friend into the towne , hee presently cut in pieces the next court of guard , kills 300. of the garrison : layes hold upon maravelli the governour , and his lieutenant colonell ; giving quarter to none , but to the germanes . ( 64 ) about the 8. of ianuary , anno. 1632. after the towne of wismar had yeelded to the swedish generall todt , and the imperiall garrison under colonell gram , marching out with almost 3000. men , upon occasion of a quarrell by the way , whom the swedish colonell lohausen falling aboard with , kills 300. upon the place , and so terrifies 2000. more , that to save their lives they became souldiers to the king of sweden . and gram himselfe taken prisoner . ( 65 ) ianuary the 20. anno . 1632. the swedish generall rhingrave falls upon kirch-berg , in the hunts-ruck , and takes it in by assault ; wherein 147. italians , and burgundians were put to the sword , and 100. germans taken prisoners . ( 66 ) about this time the rhingrave sets upon 2. regiments of spaniards , not farre from kastel : whereof , one he utterly overthrew , forcing the other to retire into the fastnesse of a wood . here were 8. colours obtained , and afterwards presented unto the king of sweden , at mentz . but the spaniards resolving not to put it up so , suddenly passe over 1800. horse , and disposing one foot regiment in close ambush . the rhinegrave hoping of the former fortune , though hee had but 600. horse in all with him , lost in the cloze of the businesse some 300. men . ( 67 ) ianuary the 22. anno. 1632. the towne and castle crutzenach , wherein 600. germans , and spaniards were in garrison , taken in by great assault from the king of sweden ; a breach first wa● made of the kings canon , thorow which the towne was entred : the castle being night and day besieged , at last yeelds upon hard conditions . there were lost on the kings side , 3. captaines , and of common souldiers , 250. ( 68 ) in the beginning of february , anno. 1632. generall field-marshall pappenheim , having gott●● notice , how that the swedish colonell cag , wa● with three new , and weake regiments , dragooners , of about 1500. men , lodged neere unto hoxter , and corvey , he falling into their quarters , cut in peeces the most of them . ( 69 ) before the middle of february , anno. 1632. landgrave wilhelm of hessen reprised warburg , whereinto pappenheim had newly thrust a garrison of 900. men . the towne he tooke by storme ; and all that resisted , dyed for it . ( 70 ) about this time duke william of saxon weimar , and generall bannier do storme , and enter by forc● the towne of gottingen , wherein the imperiall colonell carthaus commanded with a garriso● of 900. men . carthaus with his officers flinging downe their armes , are taken prisoners , and the houses plundered . ( 71 ) february the 28th . anno. 1632. gustavus horne , swedish field-marshall , cut in peeces two regiments of generall tillies horse , obtaines 2. cornets , the rest together with the baggage being all burnd within a mile of bamberg . but gustavus horne likewise in forsaking bamberg , lost 500. prisoners . henry william , count of solms wounded , whereof he dyed in march following at sweinfurt . ( 72 ) gustavus horne in recovering mergentheim first of all defeated 800. new-come imperialists , who had thought to have thrust themselves into the towne . the garrison after this being roundly besieged , and for two or three dayes battered , came to a composition the 16. of december anno. 1631. ( 73 ) whereas the king of sweden besieged the citie donawerth , wherein were some 1200. foote . 500. horse , and 500. of the bavarian trained bands , and rodulph maximilian , duke of saxon lawenburg being their governour , perceiving that they were neither able to resist the king , nor to stay the expectation of reliefe ; thought a little before breake of day to have , under favour of the darkenesse , marcht out of the towne over the bridge , towards bavaria , this designe of theirs was hindred by colonell hebron : that though saxon lawenburg , and some few with him got safely over , yet the rest that would have followed , betwixt 3. and 400. of them being cut downe , and 400. taken prisoners , the 27. of march , anno. 1632. donawerth being thus taken , the kings troopes falling upon 400. imperiall souldiers , in a castle not farre from donawerth , kill 200. of them in the castle , and the rest were taken prisoners . ( 74 ) the 5 of aprill . anno. 1632. a great confict happened at lech , the king of sweden passing the same river lech , and generall tilly streightly opposing him not to come over , the generall altringer of the bavarians army with the shot of a field-peece was spoyled , and carried off in the duke of bavarians owne coach : and tilly also received a musket-shot , which proved a mortall wound unto him . the duke of bavaria himselfe and the whole army fled by great disorder , some 1000. men of the bavarians army were here slaine , with many great commanders , and under officers . ( 75 ) in the end of april , anno. 1632. pappenheim being come with an army of 10000. horse , and foote , in the city of stade falls upon 4. com●anies of the swedish colonell monroes , and a swedish regiment of generall major leslyes , cuts them off , takes 19 colours , and some of the captaines , and officers prisoners . 10. godtfrid henry count of pappenheim . sent from the emperour the 10. of octob. aº : 1626 with 6000. against the rebellious boores into austria afterwards was made field-marshall to generall tilly over the jmperiall & bauaria● army . was strucken with a bollet of a falconet in the battel of lutzen the 6 of no : a ● : 1632 ( 76 ) in the beginning of iune an . 1632. the imperiall generall cratz , with 2000. foote , and baron of cronenburg with his regiment of horse , together with 2. regiments of crabats , besieged and takes the imperiall city of weissenburg : the swedish garrison , consisting of 8. companies of foot , and 2. of horse , refusing to turne to the imperiall party , had all their throats cut . the towne plundered , the chiefe citizens , and ministers were carried away prisoners , the gates of the city burnt downe to the ground . ( 77 ) duke bernhard of saxon weimar in the pursuite , of the imperiall army under ossa , lights upon one of his bravest regiments , consisting of 2000. men , and conducted by hannibal , count of hohen-ems : all which hee had utterly rowted and defeated ; tooke the count , with 400. prisoners , and 8. ensignes . this defeate happned about isne . an . 1632. ( 78 ) sir patrick ruthven then swedish governour in the city of vlm , falling upon some 1000. boores stirred up by their land-lords against the swedes , killed 400. of them about kempten . others of them beingbusie at zipperiden , where almost 800. were cut in peeces , 300. more of them in an other place were affrighted , and disarmed by the swedes , anno. 1632. ( 79 ) the imperialists falling upon 5. troops of the elector of saxonies horse , then lying at rakonick in bohemia , where the saxons were surprised , and knockt downe , scarce 120. of them escaping with their lives , and losse of two cornets . anno. 1632. ( 80 ) the saxons forces , under the leading of baron hoffkirck , defeated 900. crabats , and take 11. cornets from them , about prage . three ensignes of the imperialists , that had before cut off 5. companies of saxons at rakonick ; were almost every man of them cut in peeces , by the saxons againe , before the gates of prage . anno. 1632. ( 81 ) iuly the 30. anno 1632. colonell sparr was sent out from generall walstein , in his encamping before norimberg , with 8. cornets of horse , and 20. troopes of crabats , and 500. muskettiers to cut off the swedish colonell dubatel in his retreat from freyenstat . but the king of sweden with his dragooners falling upon the walsteiners , rowted , and defeated them . sparre himselfe , with his lieutenant colonell tertskie taken prisoner , together with 4. captaines , divers officers , and above 100. common souldiers , 3. cornets were then obtained , and 2. ensignes . 600 of the walsteiners were slaine upon the place ; and divers more drowned in the river , and moorish places . on the kings side were not many slaine ; but amongst them was colonell ries . this was done about burghtan . 11. albrecht walstein duke of friedland . generall of the jmperiall army came first against the mansfeldishe & weinmarishe forces into silesia out of hungary the. 16 apr : aº : 1626. pravailed against the king of dennemarck : was quitted of his generallship aº : 1630. & againe recalled to it aº : 1632. lost the battel before lutz ●● ▪ was killed w th : a partisan from cap : debrox at ●gra . feb : 25 aº : 1634. ( 82 ) july , the 20. anno. 1632. landgrave wilhelm of hessen with a partee of 500. horse , & as many muskettiers lighting upon 3. companies of imperialists , killed 100. of them , tooke 2. cornets , and 500. prisoners . 150. of the imperialists more slaine the same time about sweinfurt . ( 83 ) june , the 23. anno. 1632. duke bernhard of saxon weimar came before the port of ehingen ; those hee breakes with a petard ; he puts 200. imperialists therein to the sword , who had before surprised the swedish officers in the same place . ( 84 ) by this time duke bernhard surprised the towne of fuessen , opening the gates by petards , and scaladoes ; wherein ▪ 1500. men of the imperiall generall altringers old regiments were in garrison : 300. of which being in the heate of slaughter were cut off ; the rest flung downe their armes , and were taken prisoners . ( 85 ) upon the 24th . of august . anno. 1632. a bloody conflict fell out betwixt the king of sweden , and the imperiall army before norimberg , where on the kings side were slaine . the count of erpach who dyed of his wounds : generall major boetius lieutenant colonell scepter , rittmaster maurice of malsburg with rittmaster crailsheim all men of account . divers other captaines , lieutenants , ensignes , and other inferiour officers there lost their lives , with 800. common souldiers , wounded on the kings likewise the count of eberstein , castel , & thurn all colonels , together with divers other captaines side , rittmasters , and other officers , of common souldiers there were some 1500. wounded . on the imperiall and walsteiners side slaine 1000. of common souldiers of acount were slaine the lord fugger , colonell aldobrandino , colonell don maria de caraffa . some dayes after this battell , the king going out upon a party falles upon some walsteiners , 250. of them he cut in peeces , divers prisoners they left behind them . ( 86 ) in the end of august . anno. 1632. the king of sweden in his removing from norimberg cutts the throats of 350. crabats by rain , and tooke 7. ensigns from them . ( 87 ) about this time 14. hassian troopes of horse sent to relieve the towne volckmarsen were discovered , and surprised by the pappenheimers , of these were 200. slaine , and as many prisoners , with the losse of 9. ensignes , and all their baggage . the towne was yeelded presently upon it to pappenheim . ( 88 ) september the 20. anno. 1632. generall pappenheim pursuing the swedish generall ba●dissin and skiermishing with him 20. english miles together , did very much spoile upon the swedish , and cut of all the sicke , and tyred men , that could not fast follow : there being slaine on both parties . ●●e 1000. men . this was about hebenhusen . ( 89 ) august the 17. anno. 1632. a great fight was ●●tweene the swedish , and imperialiests before ●einaw , where the imperiall leager then was un●●r don balthasar di marradas with some 12000 ●ong . the swedish colonell , and the saxons field●arshall arnheim falling upon the imperialists ●orse quarters , they after a charge or two tooke the ●wte upon it : running towards sweinitz , and ●●eslaw ; some 4000. of their foote having thrust ●●emselves into the fort of steinaw . in theirs en●●unter were slaine above 2000. imperialists . the ●wedish hereupon recovered the passe , and fort of ●●einaw . upon august the 31. the imperiall ge●●rall sergeant major schaffgotzki was also over●●rown by arnheim betwixt the od●r , & namstaw ; ●here 1200. imperialists lost their lives , the rest ●ed , and their colonell eckstad with many of●●cers taken . 12 don balthasar di marradas sent from the emperour with . 2 rigiments of spaniards ye●● jul : 1620 into bohemia afterwards left chiefe commander in 〈◊〉 parts by walstein . fled out prage at the saxons com̄ing . 1 of nov : 1632. recovered & lost againe some places in bohemia : defeat● at steinaw and before breslaw by arnheim 1653. ( 90 ) upon the 6. of nouember anno. 1632. hap●ned the long , cruell , bloudy , and bravely fought ●ttell of lutzen , which in continuall exercise one place or other had lasted from 9 in the ●orning untill night , in which the swedes by the ●lour of duke bernhard saxon weimar , and ●enerall major kniphousen did overthrow , and put flight the imperiall army , and their generalissi●o duke of friedland . 9000. men were slaine upon ●e place ; and many a brave man dyed of the an●●ish of his wounds miserably . of great comman●ers slaine on the kings side ; first , the king of ●wedens majesty himselfe , whose death is never e●ough to be lamented . next to the king was ●rave neeles , duke ernst of anhalt , count of ●hurn , colonell wildenstein , colonell winckel , ●ergeant major generall isler , and colonell gers●rff , with divers lieutenants colonells , majors , ●ittmasters , and captaines . on the imperiall side ; ●e abbot of fulda ; the count of pappenheim●ield ●ield marshall : count berthold wallenstein : ser●eant major generall breuner , lo. westrumb , lan , ●omargo , witzleb , and foves all colonels : together with taxheim , lampert , and cammerhoff lieute●ant colonels ; besides majors , captaines of horse , ●nd foote , and other officers . ( 91 ) gustavus horn swedish field marshall , and the rhinegrave otto ludowick obtained a noble victory before wiseloch the 16. of august . anno. 1632. defeated a thousand horse-men of the very flower of the imperiall army , led by c●lonell vitzthumb , and montbaillion , where col●nell montbaillion was shot dead , and so his i●tenant colonell fell at the same time by hi● divers rittmasters were there dismounted , and ●bove 400. of the common souldiers slaine . ( 92 ) october the 15th . 1632. the swedish general rhinegrave falling upon the imperiall army u●der count of salm , who with 4000. boores. 200 ▪ souldiers , and 600. horse intend to relieue be●feld , which was by gustavus horn besieged , ki●● 600. of them , and takes about 150. prisoners wher● upon the rest retyred unto molsheim . ( 93 ) upon the 30. of october anno. 1632. wa● the strong towne , and fort benfeld delivered to gustavus horn , who from the 12. of september untill the 30. of october , had streightly besieged , and many times assaulted . the imperial governour having done , and suffered as much a● might be expected from a man in his place , had lost above 400. in all this time of his men , marching out with 400. foot , and 220 , horsemen . ( 94 ) the 16. of november . 1632. whereas 12. cornets of the brisachers horse , were resolved to affront gustavns hornes quarter , and to attempt the relieving of colmar , rhinegrave otto ludwick , with 3. regiments flyes in upon the necks of them , kills , takes , and disperses them , scarce 100. of them recovering with safety unto brisach , 7. ensignes hee tooke from them , and that he might pursue the victory , falls likewise upon the imperialists at witte●en hard by ensisheim , where 300. hee knockt downe upon the place , and amongst them 2. barons of reiffenberg , lieutenant colonell roben , a sergeant major . 6. horse captaines , with divers cornets and under officers . colonell ascanio their chiefe commander being escaped with 3 cornets of horse , the remainder of 1200. ( 95 ) the 8. of december , anno. 1632. the swedish colonell zillhart of gustavus horne's army , and lieutenant colonell remthinger with a reasonable partee steale suddenly upon endingen , where the imperiall colonell croneck with 5. troopes of horse was enquartered , who was himselfe in the very beginning of the fight shot dead upon the place , above 100. of his men slaine , and all the rest dispersed , and the towne of endingen taken . ( 96 ) the 9. of january , anno. 1633. the vantcurriers of gustavus horn army falling upon 200. bauarian dragooners not farre from memmingen , kill the most of them , whereupon gustavus horn with his whole army aduanced towards the bavarian , and imperiall army under duke of feria skirmish with them , and defeate 2. regiment of horse , where the chiefest officers were slaine , 6 , cornets taken , and the rest prisoners . ( 97 ) january , the 28. anno. 1633. the swedish colonell canofsky having gotten intelligence of 1700 ▪ imperiall horse , and 1500. muskettiers comming upon him to surprise him , and his forces , presently gathered his men together , falls with fury upon the imperialists , and dispersed them , forced the rest to runne away into fryburg , tooke 400. prisoners , and killing 400 of them . ( 98 ) in the end of january , anno. 1633. 4000. imperialists tooke by force that fort of oppelen . but the saxon colonell sneider falling upon them , cut in peeces 300. of them , and put the rest unto a disorderly retreate . not long after this skirmish , the swedish , and saxon forces comming againe upon the imperialists at strelen , where they were beaten off , with slaugther of some 500 men . ( 99 ) the 24th . of march. anno. 1633. after duke bernhard of saxon weimar had taken the towne herrieden , dan , and ohrenbaw by assault , the imperiall generall john de werth with 40. troupes of horse comming to reliefe , and to beate of the swedish , duke bernhard falls upon them , killed more then 400. of the imperialists , the rest escaping with losse of 2. cornets , and some prisoners . ( 100 ) in the middle of aprill , anno 1633. the swedish colonell dubatel with 5. troopes of horse falling into the quarters of 3. troop●s of crabats , at wonsidel , hee cut in peeces the most of them , takes 3. ensignes , and their colonell , with some officers prisoners . few dayes after dubatel light upon 1600. other crabats , that scoured up and downe the country , cut the throates of the most of them , carrying away their 8. ensignes . ( 101 ) the 25. of aprill , anno . 1633. duke george of luneborg , swedish general , having besieged hamelen ▪ upon the river weser ; 30. cornets of horse , and 12. ensignes of foote , under command of the imperiall generall bonninghusen , and the bishop of osenbrug came to the reliefe of this towne , whereupon duke luneborg sent the lieutenant generall melander with some regiments of horse and foote against them , who encountring with the imperialists at angeren , neere the city of lemgow , killing , and destroying them utterly . there were slaine upon the place of this battle almost the halfe part of this imperiall army , and amongst them colonell haxthusen , colonell dunbert , colonell aschenburg , with divers captaines and officers , and 9. ensignes were taken . ( 102 ) iune the 4. anno. 1633. the swedish under the leading of colonell deloni fell upon 1600. imperialists and bavarians before the city of memmingen , where the imperialists were defeated , and knockt downe , few of them escaping with their lives into memmingen . ( 103 ) about this time , the swedish field-marshall gustavus horne having taken with composition the strong fort of pappenheim , the imperiall generall altringer sends 1500. crabats to attempt the swedish ; but the swedish being ready to entertaine them , kill 300. of them , and drive the rest to a shamefull retreate . 13 gustavus horn swedish generall field marshall , came into germany with the king of sweden 1630 was first sent with a army towards silesia . then afterwards generall of a particular army by himselfe in franconia alsatia & swabenland , where he much prevailed against the coesarca●● & bavarian forces was taken prisoner by the k : of hung : in the battel of norlingen . 27 aug : 1634 ( 104 ) upon the 28th . of june . anno. 1633. a bloody battell was fought at oldendorp , where the imperlalists , who had gathered a new army under the leading of generall merode , and count of cronsfeld , comming the second time to the reliefe of hamelen , by the manhood of the swedish generals , as duke of luneborg , generall melander , and kniphousen , they were overthrowne , and 5000. of them slaine upon the place ; amongst them the imperiall colonell , quad , westphall , and dincklag , generall merode , who dyed few houres after , besides captaines , rittmasters , lieutenants , and other officers , whose dead , and naked bodies were not knowne . prisoners were taken sergeant major mars●seler , colonell westerhold , and divers officers more , besides 2500. common souldiers . 13. great peeces of ordnance , and 70. cornets , and ensignes , also taken . on the swedish , and hassians side some 200. lost their lives . hereupon the towne of hamelem was rendred to the swedish conquerors . ( 105 ) at pfaffenhoven , in alsatia upon the 31. of june . anno. 1633. prince palatin christian of berckenfeld generall of a swedish army , by himselfe , obtained a great victory against the duke of lorrlayne , in which battell the lorrlaynes army was wholy ruinated , and defeated ; leaving all their ordnance , and baggage behind them with the losse of 1000. men ; the swedish garrison in pfaffenhoven likewise in the heate of this encounter fell out , cutting of , and dispersing 500. of the lorraynes muskettiers . of the swedish were slaine the generall of the ordnance schulthes , and baron of ruppa ; of common souldiers slaine , and hurt some 208. ( 106 ) in the midle of october 1633. the imperiall generall bonninghusen falling at night upon the swedish , under field marshall kniphousen neere paterborn cut off a great many , tooke 200. prisoners , and 5. ensignes of them . ( 107 ) november the 4th . anno. 1633. gustavus ho●● swedish field marshall comming with his army upon 3. strong regiments of imperialists , and bavarians under the conduct of the count bray colonell luirs , and konig of generall altringers army , he gives them a shrowd defeat , put to the sword 400. of them , and many carried away prisoners , amongst them count of bray , and divers officers more . this skirmish happened at oberndorff neere balingen . ( 108 ) in the end of the month november anno. 1633. the swedish generall rhinegraves horse regiment falling upon some troupes of the imperiall generall altringer about mindelheim , where after a sharpe conflict neere 1000. imperialists were cut off , and altringer himselfe had beene almost surprised . ( 109 ) about this time the swedish colonell kanoffsky had a good fortune upon that pleskowish regiment of crabats , which he utterly routed at wangen ; their liutenant colonell he tooke prisoner besides some other officers , the rest being put to the sword. a little after this the swedish generall major rostein runiated also three regiments of imperialists , about kempten whereof many were cut in peeces , and the rest put to flight . anno. 1633. ( 110 ) at this time the swedish generall rhinegrave tooke in many places in the upper alsatia , and amongst others aslaulted the towne rufach , in which hee tooke prisoners the old earle of lichtenstein , together with many other officers , and above 500. common souldiers , which gave up their names to the rhinegrave , but the boores were all put to the sword , within a weeke or 10. dayes space , there were a full 1000. imperialists cut off in severall places thereabouts . anno. 1633. ( 111 ) in the end of december anno 1633. the swedish colonell cracaw falls upon some imperiall troopes of colonell bucheim , going towards huimolst neere landsbergen , where he sorely ruinated them , kills 400. takes 9. ensignes , one cornet and many prisoners . ( 112 ) december the 29. anno 1633. landgrave william of hessen , and the swedish field-marshall kniphousen tooke in by a generall assault , the towne of saltzkoten , and whereas the citizens thereof had dealt very treacherously with the swedes , the town was set on fire , by heaving and shooting of granadoes in two severall places , which burnt so fiercely , that the whole towne quite consumed unto ashes ; few of the citizens and garrison could escape away , but the most of them were put to the sword . the imperiall governour was also taken prisoner . william landgrave of hessen the first protestant prince ▪ in germany which made an union with the king of sweden and 1631. did goe privately over vnto the kings campe at werben and returned with 3. regiments of horse and. 1. of foot. for his assistance . brought an army of 12000. men to yoine with kings forces at franckford the 20. nov : 1631. tooke many cities and castles in ringkow westphaly . & lower saxony . died of a burning feaver in eastfriesland . 1637 ( 113 ) upon the 29 of january anno 1634. the swedish colonell kirkhofer of duke bernhard saxon weymars army , had the fortune to light upon the imperiall and bavarian generall , john de werths regiment , consisting of 11. companies , all which hee wholly routed and dispersed , some prisoners he took and brought into deckendorff . at the same time the sergeant major of the sa●tlerish regiment , brought back three of john de werths ritmasters . 3. lieftenants . 2. cornets . and above 80. prisoners . in both these conflicts were full 300. imperialists slaine , the bavarian colonell swartz taken prisoner . not long after two swedish colonells , rosa and karpffen , light upon colonell corpus with his regiment of crabats , whom falling upon unawares , they put them to flight , kill 300. and take 200 prisoners . ( 114 ) february the third anno 1634. landgrave iohn of hessen , and the swedish lieftenant colonell ramell and colonell sperreuter with 700. horse , fall out of weissenburg upon the imperialists , with whom they began a hard skirmish , 300. dragooners and muskettiers they cut in peeces , and tooke 800. prisoners . amongst which were colonell snetter and haslanger . the rest of the imperialists fled , leaving foure ensignes , with foure ancients , one rittmaster , and one lieftenant . ( 115 ) the tenth of march an. 1634. the swedish colonell plato sent from duke bernhard saxon weimar unto mundelheim , to surround the crabats regiment of budiani in it , tooke the town by assault , and put some 200. that lay in it , to the sword ; their leiftenant colonell hee tooke prisoner , together with many officers . ( 116 ) about this time , rhinegrave otto ludowick swedish generall did obtaine a great victory against the lorraynes and imperialists , under command of count salm , and marquesse of bassompier generall of the lorrayne forces who with 7000. strong set upon him , that was little above 2000. betwixt the town of senan , and the dorpe of ochsenfeld , whereof the lorraynes and imperialists were slaine 2000. upon the place . colonell philip was shot . count of salm , governour at zabern , marquisse of bassompier with colonell mercy , and 600. common souldiers were taken prisoners . the duke of lorrayne retired himselfe into dan. ( 117 ) the 29 of may anno 1634. 700. imperialists horsemen , and other commanded forces , together with 700. of foot , under the leading of colonell wolckenstein , came before the towne of wangen , thinking to surprise it unawares , and in haste they assaulted it with great fury : on the other side the commander colonell kanosfky with his swedish garrison did as bravely , and resolutely stand to their defences ; so that after some time of resistance the imperialists retired ; the swedes issuing out upon them , pursued them till they came to ravenspurg , where canofsky constrained them to fight , and put above 500. of them to the sword , and brought 400. prisoners with him into wangen . ( 118 ) whereas the losse of the citie of regenspurg so much discontented the imperial party , that the caesarian army augmented with 2000. hungarians , & the bavarian forces under the generall altringer , marched thitherward to regaine it the 17. of may anno 1634. but duke bernhard of saxon weimar sudden comming , was so terrible to the enemy , that they presently retired towards the upper palatinate . the swedes pursuing them , and overtaking the reare , cut of 300 crabats , amongst which was their commander pleskowits slaine , and tooke 400. prisoners . on the swedish side was generall major courville shot through the body , whereof he died immediately . but the bavarians joyning with the imperiall army under the king of hungary , both which together consisting of 30000. foot , and 15000. horse , applying themselves to the fiege , intending to make an assault upon the citie , when they could make a sufficient breach by battery . hereupon may the 26. with an 100. peeces of ordnance begin to batter it . presently after , they made an assault , but were repulsed with the losse of 500. men , by the swedish garrison out of the citie , taking prisoner of the imperiall colonell breuner , divers other officers , yea the swedes they surprise many crabats in severall places , which were put to the sword with their commander budiani ; that also in this first assault of the imperialists 3000. lost their lives . july the 10. was the last assault upon the citie on all sides , wherein 4000. imperialists , likewise miserably from the swedish were cut in peeces . but whereas the garrison and citizens had for a long time , behaved themselves stoutly in defence of the citie , even to the admiration of the imperialists , who had before it , by their owne relation , 8000. slaine upon the place , 6000. others who had runneaway , made 15000. canons shot upon the town , cast above 2000. granadoes into it , and 465 sallies endured from within , the citie is at last surrendred upon honourable conditions . ferdinand the third king of hungarie and bohemia proclaimed king of the romanes the 11. dec : 1636 at ratisbone . which citie he for along time besieged , most fierceli assaulted , and at last took e from the swedens vpon honourable conditions the 16 july . 1634. fought a bloody battel with duke beruhard of saxon wemar ▪ & gustavus horn generalls of the swedish army . before the citie of nordlingen and obtained the victory against them the. 27. aug : 1634 , ( 119 ) may the 12. anno 1634. duke georg of luneborg swedish generall , having received certaine intelligence , that the imperialists , and leaguish forces consisting of some 3000. men , had an intent to releefe the towne of hildesheim , which he still besieged ; he sends 1330. horses in all of his , under colonell king towards the enemy , where began , not farre from the towne bevern , a sharp conflict betwixt them ; at last the swedish were victorious , the opposite parties were put to a suddaine flight , with great losse and slaughter . the protestant forces pursuing them so furiously , that they were head long tumbled into the river of weser ; the way of bevern was strowed and scattered full of dead carcasses , there were very few that escaped , and the most of them were afterwards found and slaine . prisoners were taken some 300. amongst which was one colonell lievetenant . one colonell the earle of essenfeld , and an earle of wangenburg . ( 120 ) the imperial commander bonninghusen was with generall geleen besieging the towne of coesfeld , to which they gave two fierce assaults the 17. and 19. of may. anno 1634. at which assaults , they were bravely received , and repulsed with great losse , and whilest they lay at the siege , the swedish and hessish troupes came suddenly in the neck of them , and after a furious encounter for the space of foure houres doubtfull , the most part of their foot forces were dispersed , and a great many of them slaine : and pursuing the horsemen betwixt ham and lunen , 500. of them were slaine ; with the rest of the horsemen bonninghusen and geleen retired to lunen , which the swedish after the third assault had it also surrendred : 4000. souldiers which were therein are come over to the swedes . ( 121 ) about this time generall lieftenant melander of the hassian army , marching against the army of the catholique leaguers in westphalia , overtooke their foot forces , and put 1500. of them to the sword ; the rest under the command of generall bonninghusen and geleen , fled in a confused order into hamme , wherein he left a garrison under his colonell lieftenant veglen ; which towne the swedish went to assault , there the petards were imployed and took such effect , that though the souldiers defended themselves stoutly from the walls , yet the citie was taken the 27. of may. anno 1634. to the great confusion and most totall ruine of the leaguish catholick army ; and more than the fourth part of the fame armie was put to the sword. ( 122 ) after this the swedish army being brought before the citie of munster , the swedish generall duke of luneborg without delay summoneth the citie , to be surrendred unto him : but they giving an deniall answer , the swedish did continue the siege . a party of some 1000. strong sallyed out of the citie , to fetch provision in it , in their returne were met by some hassians , and swedens in the army , who put 800 , of them to the sword , and and tooke from them all the provision . an. 1634. george duke of lunenborg chiefe commander of fridlands army before stral-sundt : 1626 came to the king of sweden and maide generall in lower saxony with 5000. men swedish forces . 1. may 1631 besieged and tooke many places obtained 2 glorious victoria against the jmperialists the 28. juny 1633 at oldendorp the other before hildesheim . 5. of july . 1634. ( 123 ) upon the third of may. anno. 1634. generall fieldmarshall arnheim of the saxons army obtained a memorable battle , and brave successefull victory against the imperialists at lignitz : where the onset and first shocke of the battell was very hot and fury , continuing with great obstinacy and bloody opposition , the space of five houres : the saxons canons being three times lost to the imperialists , and three times with much occision recovered againe from them by the saxons : the imperiall curassiers and the crabats did shew much valour , and resolution for the most part of the battell , till in the end the victory inclined to the saxons side . the imperialists fleeing towards lignitz were pursued and cut in peeces , by the saxons with an exceeding great slaughter , above 4000. imperialists were slaine upon the place ; amongst whom were colonell bigots , two generall majors , the lieftenant colonell of winsen regiment , foure other officers and commanders , and 1400. taken prisoners . colonell trost was dangerously wounded , and so was coloredo the generall himselfe , and colonell winse . colonell goslitz was taken prisoner , most of the captaines of the foot forces were slaine . of the saxons party slaine about 400. whereof 2. ritmasters , 5. cornets , and foure ancients , and 200. hurt : 36. ensignes . nine peeces of ordnance . 27. cornets won in the field , and two others more in pursuing of the enemy . ( 124 ) the 6. of may. a. 1634. the imperiall commander goltz comming with 5000. men to besiege oppelen , began to assault it in 5. severall places at once . but the saxon garrison under command of colonell sneider , did their best to keep the imperialists out . that 140. of them lay dead in the ditch neere the breach , three or foure one over another , and neere the other workes lay scattered here and there , a great many carcases , in so much that above 400. were found dead upon the place , and more then were slaine , were hurt and wounded . the commander goltz was slaine , the lieftenant colonell sieghose was shot in the shoulder . foure captaines with some lieftenants and ancients lost their lives , leaving their ordnance alone upon the batteries , and ranne away . ( 125 ) the fift of aprill anno 1634. the army of the catholique league , after some resistance , having taken the towne of hoxter by assault , the imperialists made their victory exceeding bloody : sparing neither armed or unarmed , man , woman , or child , putting all to the sword , and what the sword could not spoile , they caused the fire to consume , and the dead corpes they cast into the river weser : yea did most inhumanely and butcherly murther and hew in peeces , without respect either of age , sex , or condition : the hessish generall lieftenant melander hearing of the cruelty of the imperialists , sending 1200. horsemen before his army against them , put above 500. to the sword , and tooke 4. companies of them prisoners . ( 126 ) iune the seventh anno 1634. betwixt landshut and pfaffenhoven in bavaria , gustavus horn having the pursuit of the bavarian generall iohn de werth , cut in peeces 900. of the bavarians , and iohn de werth himselfe hardly escaped . ( 127 ) iune the 14. anno. 1634. generall field marshall horn did reprise and take by assault the towne aicha , put the most of the townesmen and souldiers to the sword , hanged the perfidious commander , who contrary to the agreement and his promise , had repossest himselfe of the place , from which hee had so lately been ejected , before one of the gates , and burned the towne to the ground . ( 128 ) iuly the 12. anno 1634. duke bernhard of saxon weimar and gustavus horn taking landshut in bavaria by assault , fired the castle and suburbs , pillaged the citie , and put as many as they found in armes to the sword. hither was altringer the bavarian field marshall sent with some troups to succour it , a man knowne to the world , for a prudent and valiant souldier , but he in a battell being slaine , with a shot through the head , his army was routed . ( 129 ) upon the 26. and 27. of august anno 1634. the great , sore , and bloody battell was fought before norlingen , in which the king of hungary together with the bavarians and spanish army , under cardinall jnfant of spaine , prevailed against the two swedish generalls duke bernhard of saxon weimar , and gustavus horn , so that the swedish army being overlayed , and oppressed with multitude of the imperialists , spanish and bavarian forces , was forced to give ground , and so were beaten and disordered , that many of the old and best infant●ria were slaine , and divers of the best commanders killed , hurt , or taken prisoners : amongst others the valiant gustavus horn , who himselfe , together with the fieldmarshall cratz , the generall major rostein , the generall major schafelitzki , colonell hume , lieftenant colonell stuart and forbes , and other high and under officers were taken prisoners . the young marquesse friderick of anspach , the lord zerotin , colonell , sneidewind , which commanded as generall major , colonell wettberger , colonell grun , colonell lieftenant willibart , sergeant major king , and seven scots captaines , besides lieftenants , ensignes , and other officers were slaine upon the place of battell . generall lieftenant hoffkirchen , and many of other officers and commanders were wounded and hurt : what and how many of common souldiers on both sides were slaine , man had no certainty of it . after this bloody encounter was ended , the citie of norlingen , being yeilded to the king of hungary . 17 ferdnand . cardinall jnfant of spaine joyned with the jmperiall campe at norlingen 22 aug : 1634. w th : 12000 jtalian & spainish forces in witch fight he gayned much glory & is gouerner of brabant . etc : ( 130 ) the imperiall army came from thence , besore the imperiall citie of hailbrun , and troubled the same with no ordnance , but only with granadoes , in such manner , that at once , there were set on fire , and burnt to the ground , above 140. houses . a swedish lieftenant colonell senger of smidbergers regiment , commanding in the towne , being slaine in a sally , and the towne taken , in the end of august . anno 1634. ( 131 ) whereas july the fift anno 1634. the imperialists under command , of the colonells waldeck and schelhammer , who brought together above 400. horse and foot to neustat , did the second attempt to reliefe hildesheim , were by the protestants army , under the swedish generall commissary anderson , and generall lieftenant vsler defeated ; within one houre they fled in a disordered confusion , and the rest of the army , within a short space was so utterly routed , that of 2500. horse , scarce 250. returne to neustat ; their foot forces , being at the first 1500. were almost slaine upon the place . about 1000. prisoners were taken , amongst which were two lieftenants colonells , two majors , seven ritmasters , three captaines , 11. lieftenants 9. cornets , and 13. standards . the citie of hildesheim whereupon , when they within saw themselves deprived of all succour , iuly the 17. was delivered to the swedes . ( 132 ) after the battell at lignitz , the saxons armie under lieftenant generall arnheim , marched towards olaw , wherein the imperiall governour rostick , being advertised of the saxons comming , burnt the whole towne to the ground , and betooke himselfe into the castle : from thence the saxons did goe to oels , wherein the imperiall governour don johan de languiall yeilded , to the mercy of the saxons , and was taken prisoner , with his 300. souldiers ; likewise in the pursuit of the imperialists from namslaw , tooke more than 100. prisoners of them , in the moneth of may anno 1634. ( 133 ) upon the 29. of iune 1634. the swedish generall bannier , entered into a set battell with 15000. imperialists , under the conduct of their generall coloredo , and got a noble victory , neere the citie of griffenberg in silesia , where the imperialists lost some 4000. men , slaine upon the place , and many officers of account , were taken prisoners : 30. cornets . 70. ensignes , and 38. peeces of ordnance were gotten by the swedes , by this puissant army . ( 134 ) iuly the fourth anno 1634. the saxons army , though not with strong opposition tooke sittaw in silesia by assault ; which issue of the assault was bloody on both sides ; the saxon colonell lieftenant wanger was slaine , by a bullet of foure pound weight , with 50. common souldiers , and the master of the horse , to the duke saxon lawenburg , received a mortall wound : whereof hee died few houres after . on the imperiall side within was slaine the chiefe commander , lieftenant colonell fuchs , two captaines , and 60. souldiers , the rest were taken prisoners , with 12. ensignes , and two standards of the enemy . the citie being plundered by the souldiers in the furie . ( 135 ) about this time , the saxon commander donner , who was guarded with some 400. horse , lighted upon the young maximilian of wallenstein , of the imperiall army , who held his randevouz neere glatz in silesia , routed his troops , carried away 300. prisoners , and amongst them two captaines . ( 136 ) as the saxon colonell daube tooke the citie of elnbogen , upon the river eger , he by a stratageme , though it was both well fortified , and well manned , and had but one way of comming to it , quickly entered , and put the imperiall garrison therein to the sword. july the 15. anno 1634. ( 137 ) at this time , the saxon generall lieftenant arnheim , and the swedish generall bannier being sate downe before the citie of prage , with their army , they played upon the citie , with their canons , for the space of three dayes , and were replayed unto from thence in the like kind , with great losse on both sides . 900. men of the saxons , and swedes there being slaine , of the imperiall garrison within consisting of 14000. men , under the command of coloredo , and don balthasar , two expert and valiant souldiers , which neither omitted the fortification of the citie against assaults , nor shunned the danger of fight , lost their lives some 600. after this the swedes and saxons marching off . ( 138 ) the 25. of august anno 1634. generall bannier comming with his army , before the towne of satz , distant from egra three german miles , upon the borders of bohemia , the imperialists within standing out after his summons , tooke it by force , putting all to the sword in it . 19 iohn bannier generall of the infantery came into germany with the king of sweden 1630. employed afterwards from the king with a strong army towards tyrole bavaria lower saxony and sil●sia : did admirable good service in the battel o● leipzig 1631. is yet still generall & chiefe commander of all the swedish army in pomerland and upon those borders , where he lately ye. 3. oct : 1636. obtained a memorable victory against the imp : & saxons forces at wi●stock ( 139 ) the swedish and saxons armies joyntly marching forward in bohemia , did obtaine a bloody victory on the enemies side , in taking by assault the towne of limpurg ; wherein did lie foure companies of imperiall dragooners , and three of foot ; the souldiers assisted with the citizens , and boores , and women , threw burning pitch and scalding water upon the protestants army , made what resistance they were able , but their unadvised action , and desperate obstinacy , provoked the invaders to anger , which was not pacified , but with the death of above 2000. persons in that citie . the principall commander in the midst of the slaughter with 150. souldiers retired into the castle , craved quarter , but was likewise put to the sword with all those , that were with him . after this cruell victory , some imperiall succouts were comming to releefe this place , but those the swedes encountered also , slew a great many , tooke the waggons and carriages , and forced the rest to a confused flight august . the 6. anno 1634. ( 140 ) august the 12. 1641. generall bannier advancing with his army towards brundeis , where hee first got the bridge from the imperialists , and broke it downe , then cut in peeces 300. crabats , which were hindered in their flight , and lastly tooke the citie . ( 144 ) the fourth of january 1635. the imperiall commander bamberger , who had formerly commanded in vdenheim , for the elector of tryer as the swedes tooke it the yeare before , using the benefit of the frost , tooke it forcibly againe , from the french , and germaine souldiers , that till then held it , by an assault . six companies , the most of them in heat of bloud , were put to the sword therein : the governour himselfe was taken prisoner . 18 piccolomini a great commander first of walsteins army after pappenheim was mortally wounded in the bloody battel of lutzen . advanced with his owne and the cauallery which pappeheini had seconded the jmperiall army with extremitie of resolution , was twice or thrice shot : & whereas his regiment was that which : first charged when the king of swē : was slaine walstein , reunrded him as much as was better , then 100000 pounds sterlings . 1632 com̄anded afterwards the principàll part of the k : of hun● army , was sent to assist the spanish cardinall aº : 1637 ( 145 ) january the 17. anno 1634. count lodowick of nassaw dillenburg tooke the strong fort braunfels , three english miles from the citie of mentz , to the terrour of the imperialists , 1400. of whom being quartered thereabout , by assault , having mastered the out-workes , fell upon the head watch , whom he put to the sword , applied his petards to the gates one , he fired the rest of the gates and so entred , one lieftenant , two captaines , three lieftenants , one cornet , three ancients , and many under officers , and 156. common souldiers were taken prisoners , besides the losse of many , who were slanie . ( 146 ) february the 28. anno 1635. a sharp gonflict fell out betwixt the imperialists , and the french , together with duke bernhard of saxon weimar troupes , before the citie of speyer , in which the french and swedish prevailed against the imperialists , that rhey retired towards the fort of the same citie , 800. of them being partly slaine in the battaile , and in part taken prisoners by duke bernhard . after this duke bernhard fell upon the gates of the suburbs , though it was guarded with 400. men , 300. of these were put to the sword , and the rest saved by the mercy of the conquerour . on the assailants side , were slaine about sixtie men , and about that number wounded . they of qualitie were these , a french baron , commander of the regiment of normandy . one lieftenant , one ensigne , and captaine more of the french army . of the enemies were slaine 600. after this bloody encounter the imperiall garrison in speyer , being no● brought to 500. foot , and 300. horse , 900 others being slaine in this short time of the siege and many taken prisoners , yeelded upon discretion . meternick the late commander and hartemberg commander of the military men , and gotz the colonell , who was dangerously wounded , with 80. officers became prisoners , to the swedish and french generalls . this citie of speyer , was first taken by mansfeld , then retaken by tilly , lately recovered by the king of sweden , reposessed by john de werth , conquered againe by the french in this siege , and afterwards taken in againe by gallas . ( 147 ) the 21. of march , anno 1635. the earle of eberstein , generall major of the hassian army , surprised and defeated 1200. crabats , and obtained a noble conquest neere hirchsfeld in hassia . jllo lieftenant colonell , who was commander of these crabats , himselfe being shot through the head , most of his souldiers & officers were slaine , and the rest , which escaped with their lives , made prisoners , whom with their baggage , and 500. goodly horses the count of eberstein , governour of the same citie , brought into cassell . ( 148 ) the strong and goodly citie of vlm being already blockt up in the end of february , anno 1635. by the imperiall generall gallas , expected every day to be besieged . in the beginning of march. anno 1635. six companies of their garrison sallying out of the citie , fell upon 300. crabats , which were lodged in a neighbour village , slue them every man , and tooke their colonell alive and brought him into the citie : also in the end of aprill , a swedish colonell , who had escaped out of prison from the imperialists , assisted with the maine body of the garrison , having in one sally utterly rooted three whole imperiall regiments . ( 149 ) the seventh of iune . anno 1635. the imperiall generall lieftenant hatzfeld , for gallas being advanced into the lower palatinat , besieged the towne keiserslautern , battered it with his canon , made breaches in the wall , assaulted it valiantly severall times , and was in the end beaten off , with the losse of 1500. men , by the valiant swedish colonell schombeck commander in the same towne . but the imperialists fell violently againe upon the citie , the 7. of june , carried by their number and desperate manner , and in the fury , in revenge of their enemies , 3000. of whom were lost in this siege , put not to the sword , those only , whom they found in armes , but old men also , women , children , and little infants , without any condition or distinction . only the colonell schombeck , of all the swedish regiment shrewdly wounded , became a prisoner to hatzfeld , and some citizens saved themselves by much intreaty , and promise of a large beneficence . ( 150 ) july the 19. anno 1635. duke bernhard of saxon weimar , and the french cardinall de valette , who were in all about 18000. foot , and 10000. horse well disciplined , fell upon the reare of the imperiall generall gallas , and cut of some 1600. of his foot , and above 1000. horsemen , neere lanstell . ( 151 ) the caesarian field marshall goetz , marching with his army towards hessenland , summoned zoest , a small citie upon the river lippe , which refusing to yeeld , was by his army besieged , and allmost burnt to the ground , by the granadoes cast out of the campe the 9. of september . anno 1635. ( 152 ) about the middle of october . anno 1636. a bloody and sore battell , was fought at witstock , in which the swedish generall iohn bannier got a glorious victory , against the elector of saxonie , and the imperialists , where was a hard and long doubtfull combat . of the imperiall chiefe commanders were slaine ; the two generall majors wilsdorp , and goltz , and marazini himselfe deadly wounded , and five colonells slaine , whereof threee are particularised by name , wilzberger ; young hatzfeld and kunigell besides rittmasters , captaines , and divers officers , and by 7000. of common souldiers slaine upon the place of battell , and many others more , which fell by the sword , of the swedes in the prosecution , six whole regiments as coloredoes , wendensales , walsteins , goltz , eracts , and pappenheimes , being totally ruined . prisoners were taken 1500. amongst which were 170. officers , and 146. women of quality , wives to the caesarian , and saxon colonells , and their officers . 143. cornets and ensignes . 14. peeces of ordnance , and 8000. wagons were left to the conquerors . on the swedes side were slaine 1000. and upwards , amongst were of account the two colonells , berghawer , and conigham , foure lieftenants colonells , and sundry ritmasters , captaines , and under officers . colonell cracaw , linse , and gun were wounded . ( 153 ) the fourth of november anno 1636. the swedish army under generall bannier , fell upon 300. saxons horsemen ; the avantguard of seven regiments , under the saxon generall major dehne , neere the fort of mansfelt whom the swedish environed round about , put the greater part to the sword , and tooke the rest both officers , and common souldiers prisoners . ( 154 ) about this time the swedish generall bannier receiving intelligence , of two imperiall regiments enquartered not farre from helmstat , routed them totally , and cut in peeces the most part of them . ( 155 ) november the 15. anno 1636. the count of eberstein , generall major to the landgrave of hessen , hearing of the imperialists march , and how the swedes pursuit after them , made all the haste he could to stop their journey , falling upon the reere-guard , commanded by generall goetz neere rotenburg , upon the river fulda , where being compassed in behinde and before , by the swedes and hassians , foure of his best regiments , were cut in peeces , and also defeated . three peeces of canon . 13. ensignes , 300. horse being taken ; 800. imperialists more were also not farre from this place , from the hassian commander gunterot slaine and taken . ( 156 ) december the 16. anno 1636. the imperiall commander geleen being upon his march , with foure regiments towards westphalia , to unite his army to goetz and hatzfeld the two imperiall generall majors , was encountred by the swedish generall major stalhanse about ma●ningen , who slew 700. of them upon the place , tooke neere as many prisoners , and amongst the rest , the two colonells , manteuffell and ramsdorff , gained three peeces of ordnance , and pursued the rest almost to wurtzburg , generall geleen and the count of furstenberg saved themselves with much difficultie . ( 157 ) in the beginning of ianuary anno 1637. the swedish generall major stallhanse , who having passed the river sala , cut off the bridge behinde him , in three severall skirmishes with the imperiall commander hatzfeld , who led the avantguard of ten regiments , ruinated foure of them utterly not without much losse of his owne partie . after this the hassian troupes , after a a sharp conflict with the imperiall count budiani , and his crabats , cut in peeces 300. of them , himselfe was forced to flight , and carried with them 26. p●risoners , all or most of them of note , and eminent commanders in the army . in another place the hassians falling upon foure companies caesarians , which lay in a small citie , put them all to the sword , and returned home with 150. horse and other good bootie , and baggage , of which they had spoyled the imperialists . ( 158 ) a bloody timefell out betwixt the imperiall generalls , and banniers forces , march the 23. anno 1637. the swedes advancing with six full regiments , burned the citie and castle of stralen to the ground , and surprised one of the caesarian quarters neere wurtzen , carried away 300. wagons laden with baggage : the caesarians burning hereupon many faire townes to the ground , that 44. severall fires within two leagues compasse , might at once been discovered to the eye . colonell slang being sent by bannier with 1500. horse towards leisnick , and eylenburg , in his returne at wurzen , defeated two imperiall regiments , carried away their baggage , slewe 600. upon the place , takes many prisoners , amongst which were two ritmasters , five lieftenants , and many other officers . generall bannier in the absence of colonell slang , purposely to bring a generall terrour upon the armie of the imperialists , falling upon 2000. imperiall horse , whom he defeated and routed utterly . this victory incited him to proceed further , and appearing in battell arry before the enemies campe , another sharpfightfell out , where the swedes encountered with three imperiall regiments , charged them so furiously , that abovt 300. of them were slaine , and so many drowned in the river . ( 159 ) the bavarian generall john de werth with the stren●gt of his army , which consisting 4300. horses , and as many foot , foure severall times did assault duke bernhard saxon weimar , neere ensisheim , but was still repulsed with losse of above 1000. in severall conflicts . 500. dead corpes being found dead up●n the place , and all the officers of one whole regiment slaine , and so duke bernhard with the losse o● 130. of his men , got a happy victory . after this battell was ended , duke bernhard with the rhinegrave , took by assault the towne ensisheim , and slue as many as they found in armes . the officers were made prisoners , and the rest came to serve under duke bernhards colours . ( 160 ) june the 5. anno 1637. the imperiall generall john de werth with his owne forces , and 24. cornets of crabats , commanded by jsolani , going to relief kentzingen , was beaten and defeated by duke bernhard of saxon weimar , who slue and routed 500. of his foot , and three squ●drons of his cavallery , with the losse of 100. of his owne . ( 161 ) iune the 6. anno 1637. generall bannier lighting upon some certaine companies of the saxons commander in the towne of meissen , owne foot regiment enclosed them with his army , and put them all to the sword , not leaving one to carry newes of his fellowes misfortune . this done , by a stratageme he presently surprised the towne , who came also in with his cavallery , made himselfe master of the citie , putting also to the sword , some few only excepted , which saved themselues in the castle with the governour meurer . ( 162 ) june the 15. anno 1637. the imperiall gommander mercy in behalfe of charles duke of lorrain with 13. regiments of horse and foure of foot , to hinder duke bernhard with his army , from passing the river soane . duke bernhard having notice of the lorraines designe , put his men into battalia , towards the river , where after a great encounter duke beruhard got the victory neere sangre upon the borders of lorraine . all the three germain regiments of the imperialists , 50. persons excepted , were slaine , or brought into captivity 500. dead corpes of them being found upon the place , and 900. taken prisoners . 3000. horses gained by this victory . prisoners of note were these , the count of reux colonell , two lieftenants colonells . ten captaines of horse , 9. lieftenants , 14. cornets , 13 quarter-masters , 37. corporalls . 13. trumpets . 426. common souldiers , and 400. dragooners . but 16. ensignes gained by the victory , were sent to the king of france . this defeat was seconded by another ; mercy having rallyed up his broken army with 2000. horse , was againe defeated by the rhinegrave , who slew 400. of them upon the place , put the rest to flight , and pursued them to veson . bernhard duke of saxon wemar first generall ▪ of a 1000 horse & foot of the king of sweden army about the bodensee danuby & in bauaria . 1632 then was left with halfe of the kings army in franconia by his great valour & manhood obtained victory in the battel of lutzen : halfe the swedish army was cōmitted to him after the kings of sweden death is now generall for the king of france and the confederate princes in lorrain alsatia & about the rhine . where in this present yeare the 3 of march. 1638 , got aglorious victory against the imperialist before the towne of rhinfelden . ( 163 ) august the first , anno 1637. the swedish colonell wrangell , being advertised that in new brandenburg , lay ten companies of imperiall dragooners , making in all about 700. horse , under the command of their colonell debroll , and 300. other horse commanded by winsen , drew out 800. of the most valiant in the army at anclam , marched directly against them , surprised and slue the major part of them , tooke 300. prisoners , with three lieftenant colonells , two ritmasters , and three captaines , with two cornets , gained in the battaile . ( 164 ) august the second anno 1637. slang the swedish colonell was attended with the like good fortune falling upon two brandenburgish regiments , under the conduct of colonell dobitz , ●eere shiffelbein , hee surprised them sodainly , defeated them totally , and put them all to the sword , except 200. whom he made captives . ( 165 ) about the midst of august , anno 1637. the imperiall generall gallas falling upon the castle of vckermund , where the young lieftenant colonell wrangell lay , tooke it by assault , and put the swedes to the sword. ( 166 ) the third of march new stile , anno 1638. duke bernhard of saxon weima got a glorious victory before rheinfelden , where he the imperiall army under command generall iohn de werth twice intirely defeated , having slaine in the first ski●mish , about the passe of bicken 400. and 600. taken prisoners , with 10. cornets of the enemy ; and in the second combat betwixt the same citie , rheinfelden , and lauffenberg , 1200. more cut in peeces upon the place of battel , and 2500. were taken prisoners , the most of them officers , and men of qualitie , as generall iohn de werth himselfe , together with the italian duke of savelly , generall lieftenant enckenford , generall major sperreuter , besides 17. colonells and lieftenants colonells , 106. rittmasters , captaines and ancients , with 110. cornets and ensignes . on duke bernhards fide slaine not above 500. in the battell , but amongst them lieftenent generall iohn philip rhinegrave , and some other officers . ( 167 ) upon the fourth of march. anno 1638. the imperiall generall klitzingen with 200. horse and foot , surprised and tooke in by assault the strong towne and fort gartz in pomeren , wherein all that he found in armes of the swedish garrison , were put to the sword , taking prisoner in it generall major trumund , two lieftenant colonells , eleven captaines with 12. ensignes . finis . errata . nvmb . 19. lin● 11. for no both , read on both . by numb ▪ 20. in the mar . for 2627. r. 1623. numb . 22. l. 1. fo● august , r. august . numb . 22. l. 12. for stick r. slick . afte● the numb . 23. for numb . 42. r. 24. numb . 32. l. 6. for figh● r. flight . numb . 52. l. 5. for baiudtzen , r. bauditz●● numb . 53. for resistancie , r. resistance . after numb . 54. r. 55. which is left out . numb . 72. l. 6. for 1631. ● 1632. numb . 114. l. 3. for and r. unto . numb . 122. ● 9. dele . and. numb . 129. l. 31. for nortingen r. no●linge● numb . 143. l. 4. for was , r. were . by numb . 144 an● 145. in the m. for 1634. r. 1635. vlt. pag. for 1635. r. 1638. here is also a more large relation of th● batttell lately fought for rhinefelden betwixt iohn de werth , and duke bernhar● saxon weimar , and with more circumstances , as is mentioned . numb . 166. 21 john de werth a bauarian commander tooke in the citie of anspach , and was rewarded with the honr. of the marquisat there of by the k : of hungary made an inuasion in francomay e 10 au : 1634 afteryebattel of norlingen being joyned withy e duke of loraine , tooke in many places in the vper al●atia , had a fortunate attempt againsty e french in picardi 1636 , did goe with picolom●nito luxinberg , returned with his army into a●satia , 1637 ▪ where hee had many incounters withy e rhine graue and saxon weimar , who took● him 〈◊〉 battel before rhin●●ld 31 1638 a discours of the empire, and of the election of a king of the romans, the greatest busines of christendom now in agitation as also of the colledg of electors, their particular interests, and who is most likely to be the next emperour / by j.h. howell, james, 1594?-1666. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a44712 of text r4781 in the english short title catalog (wing h3065). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. 124 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 67 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo 2017 a44712 wing h3065 estc r4781 13201221 ocm 13201221 98449 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a44712) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 98449) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 421:14) a discours of the empire, and of the election of a king of the romans, the greatest busines of christendom now in agitation as also of the colledg of electors, their particular interests, and who is most likely to be the next emperour / by j.h. howell, james, 1594?-1666. [7], 109, [17] p. printed by f.l. for charles webb ..., london : 1658. written by james howell. cf. bm. "senesco, non segnesco" printed between author's initials. includes index. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. eng electors (kurfürsten) -early works to 1800. holy roman empire -kings and rulers. holy roman empire -history -1648-1804. germany -history -1517-1871. rome (italy) -history -1420-1798. a44712 r4781 (wing h3065). civilwar no a discours of the empire, and of the election of a king of the romans, the greatest busines of christendom now in agitation. as also of the howell, james 1658 19962 5 5 0 0 0 0 5 b the rate of 5 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2003-12 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-10 ben griffin sampled and proofread 2004-10 ben griffin text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discours of the empire , and of the election of a king of the romans , the greatest busines of christendom now in agitation . as also of the colledg of electors , their particular interests , and who is most likely to be the next emperovr . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . j. senesco , non segnesco . h. london , printed by f. l. for charles webb , at the bores-head in s. pauls church-yard 1658. the summ and substance of the ensuing discours as it is divided to seven sections . the proeme , shewing the motives that induc'd the author to undertake this task . the first section , treats of the first rise of the roman empire , and of the sundry rotations , or retrogradations of goverment that hapned in rome , &c. the second section , treats of the septemvirat , or the electors of the roman empire , their primitive constitution , and power ; with their precedence , and offices , &c. the third section , treats of the stile , and title of emperour , or caesar , and of the king of the romans , &c. the fourth section , treats of the diet , or imperial parlement , and the members therof , with the division of germany , and the strength of the empire , &c. the fift section , consists of a parralel 'twixt the empire pass'd , and the present , with the causes first and last of the declination therof , &c. the sixt section , treats of the enlargement of the colledg of electors , from seven , to an octum virat ; and of the contest that 's now 'twixt the count palatin of the rhin , and the duke of bavaria , touching the vicarship of the empire , &c. the seventh section , consists of som reflexes made upon the present conjuncture of things , and the political condition of germany , with a conjecture who is likely to be king of the romans , and consequently the next emperour , &c. a corollary . pauca in multa diffundere est opus ingenii , multa in pauca digerere est opus artis . a discours of the empire , in a letter sent lately to a noble personage . my lord , the election of a king of the romans , and consequently of a western emperour , being now the gran busines in agitation , and wheron the eyes not only of all christendom , but of other princes ( as well turk as tartar ) are more earnestly fix'd than at other times , because of so long a vacancy , and a kind of demurr ; as also for the opposition that france , with all her confederatts , are like to make for secluding , and putting by the house of austria ( especially the young king of hungary ) wherin the german empire hath continued above two hundred and odde yeers . and wheras that after som loose extemperall communications lately upon this subject , your lordshipp desir'd much to be inform'd of the present estate and interests of germany , together with the power and primitive constitution of the septemvirat , or the colledg of electors , with other reflexes upon that point ; being returned home , i fell a rummaging my old papers , and such remarques that i gathered when i was employ'd in some parts of the empire , and to comply with your lordshipps desires ( which shall alwaies be as binding to me as decrees ) i have digested into this short ensuing discours , consisting of seven sections . the first section . treating of the first rise of the roman empire , and the sundry rotations , or retrogradations of goverments that hapned in rome , &c. now for a cleerer illustration of things , and a more regular proceeding , it is not amiss to fetch in matters from their fundamental ( for the furthest way about is somtimes the neerest way home specially in the reserches of truth . ) and to do this , we must go to rome , a city that hath had as many strange traverses of fortune , and turns of goverment , as any other upon earth , having bin eight several times ravish'd and ransack'd by sundry warlike nations . first by brennus the bold britain , then by alaric the goth , afterwards by ge●sericus the vandale , then twice by to●ila the hun , after him by the moores and saracens , then by three christian emperours , viz. by henry the fourth , otho the third , and charles the fift when his general the duke of bourbon breath'd his last in scaling her walls , ( and she was lately like to receive an ill-favour'd shock by the duke of parma ) yet she never fell sans recource as they say , or was ever layed so flat upon her back , but she recovered herself , and rays'd up her crest again , whence it may be inferr'd , that an extraordinary providence , and tutelar genius doth attend that citty ; 't is tru that the translating of the imperial court by constantine , to bizantium ( which he christned afterwards with his own name ) was fatal to rome , when the glory of the tyber and tyrrhene sea pass'd over to the hellespont , yet a spiritual head preserv'd her still in some lustre , in so much that when the pope came to be her master , she might have bin sayed to have bin reduc'd to her first principles , and to have pass'd from one shepheard to another , viz. from romulus , to sylvester ; but ther were a world of vicissitudes and revolutions of goverments interven'd , and pass'd between ; her primitive , and original way of ruling was by kings , but , after a hundred and forty yeers continuance , she surfetted upon that , which surfett may be sayed to have proceeded from the peeples wantones rather than from tarquins lust ; then , she was govern'd a while by consulls , so call'd a consulends carrying a memento of their duty is their names ; then followed the decemvirs who were put down for the same vice that destroyed the kings after that , the supremacy was delated to two tribunes ; then it revolv'd to consulls , then to tribunes again , b●● more than two , which lasted a good tract of time above seventy yeers , then came consuls in again the third time , after that dictators , untill caius iulius caesars time who was the first perpetuall dictator , and a little after the first emperour , though it cost him dear , for he might be sayed to have cimented the foundation of the roman empire with his own bloud being murther'd in the senat by small contemptible tools , yet it remain'd in his progeny to six descents , viz. to domitius nero . thus after so many rotations or retrogradations of goverments , and a kind of cushion dance of several kind of rulers , the imperial was established at last , and the successive emperours were us'd to be chosen by the senat , and then saluted by the army ; but afterwards the legionary soldiers & pretorian bands made emperours sub hasta in the field , and galba was the first who was chosen so , and that with the consent of the senat ; now , it was the most unpolitique act that ever the roman senat committed , which prov'd so fatal to so many of the following emperours who held not their security as much as their lifes from the soldiers , which took them away at plesure ; for after that the election pass'd from the senat to the sword , ther were above thirty emperours that were put to violent deaths , and som of them very tragical , fower murthered themselfs , many also of those that were adopted caesars , and design'd to succeed in the empire were untimely made away , being rays'd to that pitch that they might perish the sooner , as an author sayes . but to go more punctually to work we will muster up here most of those emperours that came to immature and violent deaths ; iulius caesar was assassinated in the senat. octavius the first augustus ( called so ab augendo imperium , from enlarging the territories of the empire ) was made away by his wife livia ; tiberius by macro ; caligula by cassius chereas ; claudius poyson'd by his wife agrippina ; nero and otho slew themselfs ; galba and vitellius were done away by the soldiers ; domitian by stephanus ; commodus by letus , and electus ; pertinax and iulianus by the praetorian bands ; caracalla by macrinus command ; macrinus , heliogabalus , alexander , maximinus , maximus , and balbinns by the soldiers ; hostilianus by gallus and aemilianus , and they by the legions ; valerianus died in parthia ; florianus waas ccessary to his own death ; aurelianus murther'd by his own meniall servants ; gallienus , quintillus , tacitus and probus by the militia , &c. now , that which heighned the spirits of the soldiery to such infolences , was the largesses , and encrease of salary , that the praetorian bands us'd to receave from the new emperour , which pernicious kind of bounty was begun first by claudius caesar , and is now practised by the turk : for evry new sultan useth to enhance the pay of the spahies , and ianizaries to so many aspers more for fear of mutinieng , which in time may be the bane of the ottoman empire , for such hath bin the presumption allready of the sayed ianizaries of late yeers that they have murther'd two of their emperours in lesse than five and twenty yeers . but in the roman empire the military bands came to such an exorbitancy of power , that somtimes they did prostitute , and put the empire to sale by publique outcry , as we read how sulpitianus offerd twenty sestertiums ( which are neer upon eight pounds sterling apeece ) to evry soldier , but iulianus rays'd the market higher , and out-bad him ; but constantine the great ( the first christian emperour and a britain born ) found out the policy to regulat , & lessen the praetorian bands , till at last he quite casheerd them , at least reduc'd them to such a nomber that they could do no hurt . the removal of the imperial court to constantinople , though it prov'd advantagious to the bishop of rome , who had the citty transferr'd unto him by way of a pious donation from constantine about his departure from italy to the levant , as the church annals affirm , though some by way of drollery , and derogation to the pope do say , that he hath the same right to rome , as venice hath to the dominion of the adriatique gulph , and that they are both inserted in one patent , though that patent cannot be found upon any record ; i say though this removall was an advantage to the bishop of rome , yet it prov'd very prejudiciall to italy in general , and to all the western parts of the empire , for many rough-hewn northern nations , that desir'd to come neerer the sun , took the advantage hereby to rush in , not only to italy , and harasse her so often , but like so many fwarms of locusts they cover'd other countreys , ( and some fear'd the like of the late swedish army , had they prosper'd in poland ) the huuns took such firm footing that they gave the name to hungary ; the longobards to insubria , and the territoties about milan ; the goths and vandales piercing the very heart of france overcame spain , and denominated andaluzia , insomuch that the present king of spain doth acknowledg himself to be de la sangre de los godos , to descend from the goths , wherby som wold inferr that he is a german not only by extraction from the house of austria , but also from the gothique race , who were a branch of the teutons , or germans , taking the word in the largest sense ; but more properly may germany challenge the french , and english to be her children , the first comming from the territories of franconia , the other from the lower circle of saxony wherof they bear the names ( saissons ) among the welsh and irish to this day . but to proceed from the main subject , the eastern part of the roman empire bore up many ages after constantine with som lustre in the levant , though the northwest parts suffred many eclipses , being so pittifully dilacerated , and torn by the fury of forein nations ; now the chiefest cause therof may be ascrib'd to the remotenes of the emperours person at constantinople , who by reason of so incommunicable a distance could not reach a timely hand to assist them with auxiliaries ; but about the yeer eight hundred a new kind of auspicious star appeer'd in the west , which was charlemain , whom the germans do claym to be their compatriot , though they go a great way back and fetch him from pharamond , or the first race of the kings who invaded gallia , and by way of conquest call'd it france . charlemain was the gran-child of charles martell , who being maire of the palace , or chief steward and surintendent of the kings court gott his son pepin to be crown'd king of france over the head of chilperic his liege lord and master , martel giving out that he did not follow the ambition of his heart , but the inspirations of heaven in this act ; so the scotts stories tell us that the family of the stewards came to be kings of scotland by taking their surnames from their office , for as charles martell was in france , so the first of them was steward of the kings court in scotland . pepin though a little man did great exploits , for he cross'd the alpes , and recover'd lombardy where a race of goths had bin kings above 200 yeers , and at his return to france conferr'd the exarcbatship , or vicegerency of italy upon the bishop of rome . charlemain his son did higher achievments , for he clammer'd ore the pyreneans and debell'd the saracens in spain , discomfited the saxons , and confirm'd the conquest of italy , so that he was solemnly saluted emperour of the west at rome by the general voice , and wonderfull acclamations of the peeple , and so confirm'd by the popes benediction ( leo the 4th . on christmas day . nicehporus in constantinople storm'd extremely at first ther shold be another emperour besides himself , alledging that he was the sole roman emperour , and accordingly us'd to send his exarques , or viceroyes to govern italy , but not knowing how to remedy it , he complied at last with charlemagne who then kept his court in germany , where he died , and was buried at aquisgrave , leaving ludovicus his son to succeed him , who partitioning the empire afterwards twixt his three sonns did wonderfully enervat and enfeeble it , as a great river cutt out into many armes , and sluces must needs grow weaker and shallower in her first bed . now , though charlemain was an extraordinary heroique , and a magnanimous gallant man as his actions tell us , yet his children for fower descents together did strangely degenerat , and prov'd but poor spirited men , his son lewis was call'd the gentle for his soft nature , charles the bald was of a baser alloy than hee , lewis the stuttring inferior to both , charles the grosse the last emperour and king of france died a most disastrous death ; after him the empire was soly devolv'd to the germans ; charlemain and his dependants enjoy'd it 118 yeers , then it came to the house of saxony who held it 117 yeers , the house of suevia 110 , other families ( wherof the house of the count palatine of the rhin , and of nassaw were somtimes ) held the empire 112 yeers , untill it came to the house of austria , who have held it longer than any one family ever did . now , ther is a remarquable tradition how the house of austria came to that comble of greatnes , which they report thus , rodulph earl of habspurg returning homeward fromhunting one day overtook a priest that had the eucharist under his habit , comming from visiting a sick body , the earl finding he was tyr'd alighted , and help'd the priest a horsback , and holding the bridle in his hand wayted upon him as a lacquay till he came to the church , and replac'd the host upon the altar , the priest sang an extraordinary masse ( where the earl devoutly attended all the while ) and pronouncing the benediction at the end , he cross'd the earl , saying that for so signal , and a sweet act of piety , his house shold be one of the greatest , and most glorious families that ever was upon earth , which prov'd tru , for a while after not only the german empire , but the east , and west indies , with all the dominions of spain , wherof some are the tother side of the world , came to that family . and now , my lord , i will proceed to the septemvirat , or colledg of electors ( wherof i promis'd an account in the beginning ) whose creture the emperour may be sayed to be , for t is their breath that makes him . the second section , touching the septemvirat , or electors of the roman emperour , their primitive constitution , and power with their precedence , and offices , &c. for two hundred yeers after charlemain , who was the restaurator of the occidental parts of the roman monarchy ( which had bin so pittifully shatter'd by the irruption of sundry barbarous peeple , as was sayed before ) and therfore meritoriously stil'd , the first emperour of the west , i say for a long time ther was no certain or regular way of election , and the customs was that the emperour regnant us'd to nominate , & recommend his son , or neerest kinsman to the german princes , but in the yeerabout 1000 after the incarnation , rome began to rayse up her crest , and brussle , by re-demanding and challenging the election of the emperour , alledging , 't was a prerogative of hers de jure antiquo ; the raking up of the ashes of this old right , was like to kindle a great fyre on both side of the hills , for the italian princes stuck to her in the claym ; but otho the third a prudent prince found a way to prevent it , by procuring a cosen of his to be created pope by the name of gregory the fift , who being a german born , was so favorable and indulgent of his own countrey , that he confirm'd the choosing of the vvestern emperour to the german nation , but the romans , with some italian princes stomaching heerat , they depos'd gregory , and chose the bishop of placentia pope in his place , by the title of iohn the ninth : otho took this in so great indignation , that he suddenly rays'd an imperial army , clammer'd or'e the alpes , and made his way by the point of the sword towards rome , which open'd her gates unto him without much difficulty , so he seaz'd upon the person of the new pope , disoculated that counterfait light of the church by plucking out his eyes , and replac'd gregory the fift his cousin in saint peters chair with triumph . otho being victoriously return'd to germany , convoqu'd the chiefest princes , and propos'd unto them the multiplicity of inconveniences , encumbrance , and causes of confusion , that the incertain , and unestablish'd way of choosing an emperour , and his immediat successor , was subject unto , therfore he desir'd them to consider of a more regular way of election ; so after many mature deliberations , and bandings of opinions they fell upon settling a septemvirat , viz. seven princes , in whom a plenary power shold be invested , to elect an emperour , and his next successor ; herupon the colledg of electors was founded , and constituted , but they must be all within the german pale ; addresses were made to the pope about this business , who not only approv'd herof , but was ready to confirm the act , provided that three of the sayed electors were ecclesiastiques ; so the western empire was made purely elective , giving encouragements therby for princes of vertue and merit to aspire . herupon the archbishop of mentz , the archbishop of collen , and the archbishop of tryers were chosen for the three spiritual , and for the secular the palsgrave of the rhin , the duke of saxony , the marquis of brandenburg , and in case their suffrages were equal , the duke of bohemia ( made about 80 yeers after king ) was chosen to have a session among them , and whom he nam'd of those two that they had elected , shold be emperour , so that the bohemian might be call'd rather an umpire than an elector in these transactions . this great act was solemnly voted , and enroll'd in the imperial chamber , and som hundred of yeers after 't was ratified and fortified by the famous aurea bulla , the golden bull , who regulated matters more punctually touching the offices , the precedencies , and other particulars reflecting upon the sayed electors . the archbishop of mentz was made high-chancellor of germany , he of colen high-chancellor of italy , and he of tryers high-chancellor of france ; the duke of saxony was made sacri imperii archi-marascallus , lord high marshall of the sacred empire ; the count palatin of the rhin sacri imperii archidapifer , lord high sewer of the sacred empire ; the marquis of brandenburg was made sacri imperii archicamerarius , lord high chamberlain of the sacred empire ; the duke ( now king of bohemia ) was made sacri imperii archipincerna , lord chief buttler of the sacred empire , all which offices are contracted in this tetrastique . moguntinensis , trierensis , coloniensis , quilibet imperii fit cancellarius horum ; et palatinus dapifer , dux portitor ensis , marchio praepofitus camerae , pincerna bohemus . thus in english , mentz , colen , tryers , let these three each of them an arch-chancellor bee , duke , bear the sword ; count , the first dish take up ; marquis look to the chamber , boheme the cup . so the secular electors are compos'd of a king , a duke , a marquis , and a count . upon an occasion of a new choise , these with the ecclesiastiques were to be summon'd by the archbishop of mentz , to assemble within three months time , and to be garded by the countrey as they passed along , but their retinue was not to exceed two hundred horse , wherof ther shold be but fifty armed . being conven'd , the ecclesiastical electors were to put their hands only on their breasts , the secular princes solemnly upon the book , to choose a fit imperial head for christendome , and they were to do this within the compass of thirty daies , and not to go out of frankford , or the place where they mett in the interim , & iury-like to have no other nutriment but bread and water after the expiration of the sayed thirty dayes . the choice being made by the assembly of electors , the new emperour , according to the tenure of the golden bull the grand charter of the empire ( so call'd because 't was confirm'd by the pope ) is saluted by the title of king of the romans , and not emperour till he be crown'd with three crowns , viz. with the golden crown representing rome , with a sylver crown representing germany , and with an iron crown representing lombardy , which ceremony useth to be perform'd at aquisgrave for all the three places , but he is not to be call'd augustus till confirm'd by the pope . at the first day of the emperours inauguration , the foresayed electors were to give their personal attendance in the emperours court , but now they are dispens'd withall to do it by proxy . before the palace gate ther us'd to stand a heap of oats to the breast of a horse , then comes the duke of saxony mounted , having in his hand a sylver wand , and a sylver measure stood by , which was to weigh two hundred marks , he fills the measure , sticking his wand afterwards in the remainder , and so goes to attend the emperour ; the three arch-bishopps say grace ; the marquis of brandenburg comes also on hors-back with a sylver bason of water , of the value of twelve marks , and a clean towell which , being alighted , he holds to the emperour ; then comes the count palatin of the rhin a hors-back also , and being alighted he carries fower dishes of meat , ev'ry dish of the value of three marks ; then the king of bohemia comes with a napkin on his arm , with a cover'd cupp of twelve marks which he presents . touching the precedence of the electors among themselfs one may judg of it by the maner of their session with the emperour , when he sitts in majesty , which is thus . the arch-bishop of tryers high chancellor of france sitts over against the emperour ; the arch-bishop of moguntia or mentz , as high chancelor of germany sitts on the right hand of the emperour ; the arch-bishop of collen on the left hand ; the king of bohemia hath his seat on the right hand of the arch-bishop of mentz , and next him the count palatin of the rhin ; the duke of saxony fitts on the left hand of the arch-bishop of collen , and by him the marquis of brandenburgh . moreover when they us'd to go in procession with the emperour 't was ordain'd in the golden bull that the arch-bishop of tryers shold go before his imperial majesty , and neer him on both sides one of the ecclesiastical electors ; the king of bohemia was to go alone after the arch-bishops , and after him the elector of saxony with the naked sword of the empire in his hand , having on his right hand the count palatin of the rhin , carrieng the golden apple which denotes the world to be under the roman empire ; and on the left hand of the duke of saxony , the marquess of brandenburgh was to march with a scepter in his hand , then followed the emperour himself . by what hath bin spoken the discern reader may judg who had the priority of place , the count palatin of the rhin or the duke of saxony , a contest that hath gravell'd many . the third section , touching the stile & title of emperour or caesar , and of the king of the romans , &c. concerning the character , and title of emperour , it is of a younger date than that of king , and among the romans it was in the beginning given to him who was commander in chief of the militia , nor was it neer of such a transcendency then as now it is , he was at firstbut tutoyè he was but thou'd when he was spoken unto , but afterwards in regard he had the prerogative to conferr honors , and offices , to grant pardons , and patents of grace , with other obliging motives , the courtiers , especially the churchmen began to magnifie , or rather deifie him with sublime attributs , as we read in symmachus in his epistles to theodosius , and valentinian , wherin his stile unto them is vestra aeternitas , vestrum numen , vestra perennitas , vestra clementia , &c. then he began to be call'd divus imperator ; but touching the title of majestas , which was given ab augendo imperium ( as was touch'd before , ) or as some wold have it a majori statu , it is an attribut of no great antiquity , for it is not found among the old authors , and it came not till henry the seconds time to france who is not us'd to be backward in assuming , and applyengtitle of greatnes to her self . but concerning the dignity of emperour , as heretofore , so is he still accounted the prime potentat and prince paramount among christians , and not only among them , but the turk , next himself accounts the german emperour the greatest monark upon earth , and esteems him accordingly , which appeer'd in the person of david vngnadius , who being not an age since ambassador in constantinople for the christian emperour , and coming for audience to the duana in the seraglio , the perfian ambassador had come before , and got the chair , but vngnadius offering to go away ther was an upper chair put for him . another time upon the celebration of mahomet the thirds circumcision which lasted forty daies & nights , ther being then in constantinople the legats of the greatest monarks upon earth , yet hee who was ambassador at that time for the emperour rodulphus the second had alwayes the first place . some civilians exalt the emperour with divers transcendent titles , wherof one is , dominus totius terrae , the lord of the whole earth ; that caesar is proximus deo ; caesar is next to god almighty ; but though the emperour be accounted the sole supereminent prince in christendom yet ther have bin other kings who assum'd that title besides him ; som of the kings of spain have bin call'd imperatores hesperiae ; king edgar whowas row'd upon the river of dee by fower kings , wherof the scot was one , had this title , which appears upon good record by this bouncing character . ego edgarus altitonantis dei largiflua clementia anglorum basileus omniumque regum insularúmque , oceanique britanniam circumjacentis , cunctarúmque nationum quae infra eam includuntur imperator , et dominus , he was call'd also albionis imperator . i edgar by the bountifull clemency of the highthundring god , king of the english , emperour , and lord of all the kings , islands , and seas circumjacent to britain , and of all the nations included therin , he was stil'd in another place emperour of albion . moreover the realms of england was declared an empire by act of parlement octavo henrici octavi and in divers other acts the crown of england is call'd the imperiall crown , and the city of london the imperiall chamber . now touching the respects that other christian kings owe the emperour , they acknowledge no other but that of precedence only , though henry the second of england in his letter ( which stands upon record ) to frederique barbarossa , and richard the first in his to henry the 6. emperour , seem to acknowledg a kind of subordination by way of complement ; but edward the third of england wold not kisse the emperour lewis of bavaria's feet at their enterview in colen , and the reason he alledg'd , was , because he was rex inunctus habens vitam & membrum in potestate sua , &c. because he was an anointed king having life and limb in his power , &c. which edward , as the german annals attest , ab electoribus fuit vocatus , et nominatus vicarius imperii , he was call'd , and nominated vicar of the empire , and as some have it , was offer'd to be emperrour , in regard of his acquests , and glorious exploits in france , whence he brought the three flower de luces upon his sword , after the french had sent him that geering answer that la couronne de france n'est pas liee a la quenoville , that the crown of france was not tied to a distaff . add herunto that the emperour cannot be call'd so pure , and independent a monark as some other kings , for besides that he is but tenant for life and govern'd by diets which are imperial parlements , the electors may be sayed to be his associats , and to have a share in the goverment ; nay , the emperour by the ancient customs of the empire may be brought to answer in causis pro quibus impetitus fuerit , sayeth the bull , before the count palatin of the rhin , but he can passe no iudgement unlesse the emperour himself be present in imperiali curia . ther want no examples that some emperours have bin depos'd for their mal-administration , an instance shall be made in wenceslaus in the yeer 1400. who was formally degraded by the archbishop of mentz upon a publique theater in the plaines of brubach neer the river of rhin by a judicial sentence , which i thought worthy the inserting here . vvee iehn archbishop of moguntia , prince elector and archchancellor of the german nation , in the name of other princes electors , dukes , landgraves , counts , and other lords , barons , and potentats of the empire , in regard of divers dommageable interests , and for the special importance of all the empire , we do depose , and deprive by common consent , and mature deliberation , wincestaus as negligent , unprofitable , and unworthy of the roman empire ; we degrade him of all the dignities and of all the honors which were due to him from the empire , and we publish him in the presence of all the princes , barons , and potentats of the empire for a prophane person , and unworthy of such an honor , and dignity ; enjoyning evry one of what quality or condition soever he bee , not to yeeld him obedience as emperour , prohibiting evry one to payhim any kind of tribut , fief , or forfeiture , either by right or by covenant , or any office appertaining to the empire , nay , we will that those perquisits be reserv'd untill god doth give us the grace to elect an emperour , that may be for the benefit of the whole empire , and the christian common-weale . and it is well known how often he hath bin admonish'd by the princes electors both in publique and privat , and particularly by ev'ry one of our order that he wold leave his unworthy deportments , and carry himself as his dignity requir'd . concerning the king of the romans , it is but a modern title , peculiar to him who is declar'd heir apparent , or the design'd successor of the empire ; but at first , he who was so chosen was called caesar , and it was the emperour adrian who first cal'd aeliusverus by that title , insomuch that the family of iulius caesar being extinct in the person of domitius nero who was the sixt in descent ( as afore was told ) the name caesar ceas'd to be us'd as the name of a family or blood , but it was us'd as a name meer honorary , and precedent to the empire ; afterwards the design'd successor to the empire was call'd despote , after that he was call'd king of italy , then king of germany , and lastly king of the romans , romischer konig in high dutch , and the emperour himself was only call'd caesar keyser in dutch , wch appellation continueth to this day ; and it was charles the 5 who introduc'd the title of king of the romans , who since is acknowleg'd the immediat , and unquestionable apparent heir and to succeed in the empire , whether it be by resignation , by deprivation , or death , being in proximo fastigio collocatus to the emperour ; nay som civilians hold that the king of the romans may make edicts without the regnant emperour , being bound only as they say , majestatem imperialem comiter observare , making him hereby to owe a duty of reverence , but not of superiority to the keysar or emperour . the 4 section . touching the diet or imperial parlement , and the members therof , with the division of germany , and the strength of the emperour . the german empire is divided to ten circles , viz. austria the high , and low , franconia , bavaria , saxonia , westphalia , the lower circle of saxony , burgundy , the two palatinatts ; the goverment wherof is principally in the emperour , contractedly in the electors , and diffusively in the diet or imperiall parlement , and other courts , wherof the chamber of spire is the supreme , whence ther is no appeal . in the diets , after the emperour , the princes electors are the prime state , among whom the prelats have still the priority ; the second state is compos'd of four arch-bishops , viz. he of magdenkurg ( who is primat of all germany ) he of salzburg , he of besanson , and the arch-bishop of breme , which archbishoprick the kings of denmark have had a long time ; then ther are one and thirty bishops , and eleven abbats , wherof he of fulda is the chief , having above fourscore thousand rich dollers in annuall revenue ; then come the secular princes of the empire , wherof the arch-dukes of austria are first , and they are divided into two branches , viz. of germany and burgundy . the third estate is compos'd of imperial towns which are about sixty five in nomber , som wherof hold soly from the emperour ( which are accounted the most noble , ) and some are relevant from other princes . ther is another sort of towns call'd the hansiatique towns , twixt whom ther is a strong confederacy , and fraternal league in merchantile affairs : they are divided into fower classes , or metropolitan cities , to wit lubeck , colen , brunswick , and danzick , who have a solemn yeerly convention at lubeck where they keep their records . the hans or hansiatique association is of long antiquity ; touching the word , some wold fetch it from hand , because they of the society plight their faith when they enter into the fraternity ; others derive it from the word hansa , which is counsell or advice in the gothique toung ; others wold have it from hander see which signifieth a place neer the sea , and this passeth for the most current etymologie , in regard that all their townes are so situated , or upon som navigable river leading to the sea . the extent of the old hans was from the nerve in liefland , as far as the banks of the rhin , comprehending about 62 townes of trassique , whereof the fower great towns afore nam'd were the several precincts ; the kings of poland , and sweden have sued to be their protector , but they refus'd them , because they were not princes of the empire ; they put off the king of denmarque also with a complement , nor wold they admit of the king of spain when he was most powerfull in the netherlands , though afterwards they desir'd his help when 't was too late ; they refus'd also the duke of anjou , notwithstanding that the world thought at that time he shold have married queen elizabeth of england , who appeer'd for him in this busines , wherby 't was probable , they might have recover'd their old priviledges in england ; so that i do not find that they had any other protector ( unles of late yeers ) but the great master of prussia , and their want of a protector did do them some prejudice in that famous difference they had with queen elizabeth ; the old hans had extraordinary immunities conceded unto them by our henry the third , because they assisted him in his warrs with so many ships , and , as they pretended , the king was not only to pay them for the service of the sayed ships , but for the vessels themselfs in case they miscarried ; now , it fortun'd , that upon their return to germany from serving henry the third ; a great part of their fleet was cast away by distresse of weather , for which according to covenant they demanded reparation ; our king in lieu of money gave them some immunities , and among other acts of grace , they were to pay but one per cent custom , which continued till queen maries time , and by the advice of king philip her husband she enhanc'd the one to twenty percent ; the hans not only complain'd , but clammor'd allowd for breach of their ancient privileges confirm'd unto them by long prescription from thirteen successive kings of england , which they pretended to have pourchas'd with their money ; king philip undertook to accommodat the busines , but queen mary dieng , a ltttle after ( out of a conceit of the lesse of calais , which she sayed upon her death-bed should be found engraven in her heart if she were open'd ) and he retiring hence , there could be nothing done ; complaints being made afterwards to queen elizabeth , she answered , that , as she wold not innovat any thing , so she would protect them still in the immunities , and condition she found them . hereupon their navigation , and traffic was suspended awhile , which prov'd very advantagious to the english , for they tryed what they could do themselfs herein , and after som adventures they thrive so well that they took the whole trade into their own hands , and so divided themselfs to staplers , and merchant adventurers , the one residing constant in one place , the other stirring , and adventuring to divers towns abroad with cloth , and other manufactures ; this so netled the hans , that they devis'd all the wayes they could to draw upon them the ill opinion of other nations ; moreover the hans towns being a body incorporated in the german empire , complain'd to the emperour , who sent over ambassadors to mediat the busines , but they return'd still re infectâ ; herupon the queen caus'd a proclamation to be publish'd , that the merchants of the hans shold be intreated , and us'd as all other strangers within her dominions in point of comerce , without any mark of distinction . this nettled them the more , therupon they bent their forces more eagerly , and in an imperial diet at ratisbon they procur'd that the english merchants who had associated themselfs in corporations both in embden , and other places , shold be adjudg'd monopolists ; whereupon ther was a comitial edict procur'd against them that they shold be exterminated , and banish'd out of all parts of the empire , which was done by the activity of suderman a great civilian ; ther was there at that time for queen elizabeth mr. gilpin , as nimble a man as suderman , and he had the chancellor of embden to countenance and second him , but they could not stop the edict wherby the society of english merchants adventurers were pronounc'd a monopoly ; yet gilpin played his cards so well that he wrought under hand that the sayed imperial ban shold not be publish'd till after the dissolution of the diet , and that in the interim his imperial majesty shold send an ambassador to england to advertise the queen of such proceedings against her merchants ; but this made so little impression on the queen , that the sayed ban grew to be rather ridiculous than formidable ; for the town of embden harbour'd our merchants notwithstanding , and afterwards the town of stode ; but they , being not so able to protect them against the imperial ban removed , and settled themselfs in hamburgh ; after this the queen commanded another proclamation to be publish'd , that the hansiatique merchants shold be allowd to trade into england upon the same conditions and payments as their own subjects did , provided that the english merchants might have the same privileges , to reside , and trade peaceably in stode or hamburgh , or anywhere else within the precincts of the hans ; this incens'd them more , therupon endeavours were made to cut off stode , and hamburgh from being members of the hans , or of the empire , but they suspended this dessein till they saw what successe the great spanish armada shold have which was then preparing in the year 88 , for they had not long before made their addresse to the king of spain which had done them som good offices ; wherfore to this day king philip and his councell were tax'd of a great oversight , that ther was no use made of the hans towns in that great expedition against england . queen elizabeth finding that they of the hans were not contented with that equality she had offer'd to make twixt them , and her own subjects , put out a proclamation that they shold transport neither corn , victuals , arms , timber , masts , cables , metals , and any other materials , or men to spain , or portugal ; and after , the queen growing more redoubted , and famous by the overthrow of the fleet in 88 , the hans began to despair of doing any good ; add herunto that another disafter befell them , which was the taking of 60 sayles of their shipps about the mouth of the river of lisbon by the queens shipps , that went laden with ropas de contrabando , or goods prohibited by her former proclamations into the dominions of spain ; and as these shipps were ready to be discharged , she had intelligence of an extraordinary assembly at lubeck , which had purposely mett to consult of means to be reveng'd of her , therupon she made absolute prize of the sayed 60 shipps , only two were freed to bring home tydings what became of the rest ; herupon the pole sent a ranting ambassador in the behalf of the hans , who spake in a high tone , but the queen herself did suddenly answer him in a higher . these premisses being well considered , it prov'd an advantagious thing for england that this clash fell out betwixt her and the hans , for ever since the english merchants have beaten a peacefull and an un-interrupted trade into high and low germany , with their manufactures of wool , the golden fleece of england , and found also a way through the white sea to archangell , and mosco , which may be sayed to have been the chiefground of that encrease of shipping , mariners , and merchandising which she is come unto . now , ther is one passage in this relation observable , that the hans-towns , do not tie themselfs to obey the bans , and edicts of the imperial diet no further than it conduceth to their own interest , as it appeer'd by the examples of embden , stode and hamburgh , in the traverses of this busines , which towns stuck stil to the english factories , notwithstanding the publique transactions & prohibitions of the diet to the contrary , aeneas sylvius hath a memorable critical saying of the german diets when he sayeth omnes germanorum dietas esse valde faecundas , et quamlibet in ventre habere alteram , ac credible est quia faemineum sit nomen libenter impregnari , pietas est parturire . all the german diets are fruitfull , in regard ev'ry one hath another commonly in its belly , and 't is credible because diet is of the faeminine gender she is more willing to be got with child ; wherunto alluded also the saying of ( charles the fift , viz. that the german diets were like vipers , for as these destroy their damms , so the latter decrees of diets destroy the former . i have dwelt longer upon this particular , than my propos'd brevity requir'd , but the hans being that part of the empire with whom england hath most correspondence in point of negotiation and comerce , i suffred my self to be transported till my pen came to a full period . the fift section . a parallel twixt the empire passd , and the present , with the causes of the declination therof , &c. though by the tru rule of proportion , no parallel canbe made 'twixt the roman empire pass'd , and the present , no more than 'twixt an eagle and a wren , yet because comparisons and examples conduce much to the elucidation of things , somthing shall be said to that point . the roman monarchy when she was at the highest altitude of greatnes , and glory , may be sayed to have had no horizon , while she sate upon her seven hills she may be sayed to have overlook'd the world ; she was once fifty miles in circuit , and five hundred thousant free citizens were computed to be within her walls , by that famous cense which was made that vopiscus relates ; the roman eagle fix'd his talons upon the banks of euphrates eastward , on the nile south , on the danube and the rhin northward , and flew west as farr as the british and german seas ; her annual revenues were then computed at a hundred and fifty millions , wherof the salary of her legionary soldiers amounted to above twenty milions ; some of her generals usually brought ten thousand talents into her aerarium , her exchequer , at their return from abroad , and gabinius twenty thousand ; som of her emperours are recorded to have strew'd the amphitheater with gold sand in their publique spectacles , & triumphs , so she might well have taken then the 5 vowels for her symbole a , e , i , o , v , which signified , aquila , electa , iustè , omnia , vincit . but she may be sayed to have shrunk since from a giantess to a dwarf , insomuch that he who hath the empire now may be sayed to have an eagles feather only in his capp , for he must have somthing of his own to support the sacred caesarian majesty , els he may be put to live upon alms ; take all the tributes of the free towns , they come but to five thousand crowns a yeer , but for any tru fundum , or real estate ther 's none ; he depends meerly upon the plesure of the diet for all publique pecuniary erogations , and taxes ; and wheras we read that charles the fift had once ninety thousand foot , and thirty five thousand effectif horse against solyman , and above that nomber against the lutherans , most of those were leavied in his own dominions , and patrimonial territories , insomuch that if the roman eagles were not imp'd with austrian feathers they wold be as bald as a coot . yet germany or almain , as the knowing statists have delivered their opinions , is a continent of that large expansion , and so well peepled , that take the whole bulk together she is able to rayse two hundred thousand effectif men , and maintain them by a general unanimous contribution . now , my lord , if you desire to know the reason of this so great an alteration and decay of the roman empire , ther were many causes concurr'd therunto , the main cause was touch'd before , viz. the translation of caesars court from rome to constantinople , wherby italy , and the rest of the western parts of the empire were left obvious and as a prey to other nations ; add herunto the dismembring of the empire into east and west , with other accidents pointed at before . but for the declination of the occidental empire founded by charlemain , ther was a greater concurrence of caufes ; first the unhappy partition that lewis the gentle charlemains son , made of the empire to find a-pannage and portions for his sons , wherof he had three ; adde herunto , that when the empire came to be within the german pale , and italy became but a province to germany , being to be dispos'd of by the colledg of electors , they who aspir'd to be emperours , or to have their sons to succeed them us'd to prepossesse , and oblige the electors by donatifs , and indeed no lesse than bribes , as charles the fourth to make his son vvenceslaus capable to succeed him , offer'd them a hundred thousand florins apeece , as aeneas sylvius hath it , but having no ready money to satisfy them , he transferr'd , and pass'd over som imperial townes unto them , wherof the count palatin of the rhin had three for his share at one time , viz. openheim , inquelien , & keyserlausen . it is recorded in the imperial annals that gerardus archbishop of mentz was call'd pro pola imperii , the hucster of the empire , and having conspir'd with others of his complices against albert the first , and design'd to elect another emperour , the sayed gerardus having a hunting horn about him , and being a potent popular man , he winded out these words in hoc cornu complures gesto caesares , in this horn i carry many keysars , viz. caesars ; the empour taking this in indignation , by the speciall benediction of heaven , he was quit with him , and his confederats afterwards , by making them carry doggs about the countrey so many miles , which is acccounted in germany the disgracefullest and most opproprious kind of punishment that can be inflicted upon a nobleman , or gentleman , wheras a boore or plebean is condemn'd according to the quality of his offence to carry only a chair from one county to another ; such a peculiar punishment ther was of old in france , for wheras ther was a law call'd la loy de la chevelure that none shold wear long hair but the nobles , he who had committed any degenerous offence was adjudg'd to have his hair cutt off before the tribunal of iustice , and so was degraded from being a gentleman , his honor going away with his hair , and so made a roturier or yeoman : the story tells us that the emperour frederique barbarossa made hermannus count palatin of the rhin , and ten counts more to carry doggs above one german mile , for the praedations , and ill balancing of dollars , with other insolences they had committed while he was in italy warring with the pope , against whom we read he had twelve pitched battails . such another clash the emperour conradus had with guelphus duke of bavaria , who bore up a good while against him , at last the emperour , recruting his army with italian auxiliaries , shut up the duke in vvinsberga , and beleagred him so close that he was ready to famish ; and the emperour having bin provok'd so farr that he had vow'd to put all to fyre and sword , the duchesse being a comely couragious lady went through the throng of the army into the emperours tent , and made such a flexanimous speech which so melted the emperour , that he publish'd a proclamation , that for her sake all the women of vvinsberga shold have safe conduct to depart and carry away upon their backs as much of their most precious wealth that they could bear . herupon the dutchesse took the duke upon her back , and evry wife by her example her husband , mayds and unmarried women took up their brothers , and kindred , and so all marched out ; the emperour being much taken with this witty peece of humanity , publish'd a generall act of amnestia , and so the duke was redintegrated into his favor . this memorable story i couch'd once into verse , being a task impos'd upon me , and the epigram runns thus . tempore quo bavarum superârat roma guëlghum , seria festivo res fuit acta joco ; conradus victor vvinsbergam oblesserat vrbem , hinc fame , deditio facta , premente , fuit ; matribus at miserans bavaris , sponsaeque guelphi , induperator iis tale diploma dedit ; quaelibet ut mulier tuto cum rebus abiret quas humeris posset sustinuisse suis . cum reliquis comitissa novo diplomate nixa inde viros portant , pondera grata , suos . pendebant collo nati nataeque lacertis sic abiit licita faemina virque fugâ ; hac delectatus caesar pietate , pepercit omnibus , atque novum cum duce faedus init . but to return where we left , another cause of the empours decay , was , that being often reduc'd to som exigents for want of money , they us'd to have recours to the richest imperial towns for a supply , who us'd to lend them money , and the emperours payed them their money back with immunities ; many towns in italy got their necks out of caesars yoak this way , and som of them very cheap , as florence , for it cost her but six thousand crownes , and luca ten thousand ; &c. in so much that the liberties of most of the free citties of italy , much more of high and low germany , sprung out of the necessities of the emperours , wherby their power as well as their glory did daylie decline ; adde herunto that the bishopps of rome feather'd their nests from time to time with the eagles plumes , specially in italy , for besides the city of rome , and the countreys adjacent , such was the high reverence the church had in those daies that many other territories were given to the apostolical see , and since , by well devoted princes , insomuch that the pope is grown herby to he a great temporal prince , for the state of the church extends above three hundred miles in length , and about two hundred miles in breadth ; it contains the dutchy of ferrara , bologna , romania , the marquisat of ancona , sabina , perugia , with a part of toscany , the patrimony of saint peter , and latium ; in these there are above 50 bishopricks ; he doth signorize also over the dutchy of spoleto and the exarchat of ravenna , he hath the towns of benevento in the kingdom of naples , and the county of venisse in france call'd avignon , he hath title good enough to naples also herself , and calabria , but rather than incurr the diplesure of the king of spain his champion , and chief supporter of his chair , he is contented with an annual heriot of a white mule with a pursfull of pistols about her neck ; he pretends also to be lord paramount of sicily , urbin , parma , and masseran , as also of norway , ireland , and england since king iohn did prostrat our crown at pandulpho his legats feet : his dominions reach from one sea to another , viz. from the tyrrhene to the adriatique , and these territories run through the center of italy , which enables the pope to do good or harm to the princes about him , and makes him capable to be an vmpire , or a potent enemy , his authority being mixt twixt secular and spiritual , for he can use the sword , and thunder-bolt of excommunication at plesure ; and ( to return to our chief subject ) most of the countreys pointed at before being feathers of the eagle did much decrease her strength . moreover , as the roman church did this way impair the power of the empire , so the reformed church , and the difference of religion in germany did much enfeeble it ; for those princes who turn'd lutherans daylie encroach'd upon , and impropriated the demeans of the church , which was a great support to the emperour , being more devoted to him ; than to the secnlar princes . but to go a little more particularly to work , we will not rove in asia and afrique where so many mighty parts of the continent fell from the roman empire , nor will we look so farr back in europe as to speak of the defection of spain , france , and great britain , which was the first province that fell from rome , though indeed rome may he sayed to have fallen first from her , being not able by reason of warrs she had in other countreys , to protect the britains against the picts , as england sayes now in point of religion that she had never fallen away from rome , unlesse rome had fallen from her self ; i say we will not look so fart back , but come to more modern times since the empire came within the german pale ; the suisses were one of the last that revolted , who being summon'd to the imperiall chamber at spire , they sent a rough hewn ambassadors totell the imperial councel in these words , domini confaederati heluetii vos vicinos suos salvere jubent , mirantur verò quod tam crebris citationibus , &c. the lords confaederats of switzerland do greet you their neighbours , but they wonder that by your so frequent citations you wold disquiet them , therfore they pray and exhort you , that you would no further molest them . in charles the fifts time the livonians fell off , and he summoning them to their obedience , and menacing to reduce them otherwise by force , they sent him a geering answer , that they beleev'd his horse wold tyre before he could reach the skirts of liefland , as thuanus hath it . a german author hath it upon record , that since the reign of rodolph the first , above two hundred states and princes have un-membred , and emancipated themselfs from the german emperour , who were us'd to obey his summons , & make their apparance accordingly . touching germany it self , 't is tru , that it is a huge continent , and full of princes , which make som compare her to a firmament spangled with stars ; others compare the emperour to a great luminary incircled with the seven planets , meaning the septemvirat , or the colledg of electors , and not improperly , for this agrees with the caesarean arms , which are sol , saturn arm'd , and crown'd mars , and the eagle displayed with two heads ; yet , though therby the emperour be call'd rex regum , these princes are prejudicial to his greatnes , wherof ibraim ambassador to solyman the great turk gave a hint by an ingenuous fable which was thus ; when maximilian the second was chosen emperour , the foresayed ibraim was then at frankfort , who having bin a spectator to the ceremony , and observ'd what great princes attended the emperour that day , and being told that som of them could rayse an army of them selfs , and maintain it against any power , the ambassador smilingly sayed , that he doubted not of the puissance of germany , but he observ'd that the minds and actions , the counsels and interests of the germans were like a beast with many heads , and tayls , which in case of necessity being to pass through a hedg , and ev'ry head seeking to find a particular hole to pass thorough , they were a hindrance one to another , ev'ry head drawing after his own fancy , and so hazarded the destruction both of all the heads body & tayls : but the empire of solyman his great master was like a beast with many tayls , yet she had but one head , which head being to get thorough or over any passage , without any confusion , or difference of fancy , all the tayls , and the whole body follow'd smoothly after . lastly , the fatallst cause of the decay of caesar was the monstrou ; successes of the mahumetan , whose half moon fill'd out of the wane of the roman empire both east and west , it being a sad saying , that whersoever the turks horse sets once his foot , ther 's no christian grasse will ever grow there again . the sixth section , of enlarging the colledg of electors from seven to an octumvirat , and the contest that is now twixt the count palatin of the rhin , and the duke of bavaria touching the vicarship of the empire . the attempting the crown of bohemia by frederiqne count palatin of the rhin , as it prov'd unsuccessfull unto himself and family , so it prov'd fatal to all christendom besides ( as the preceding comet did foretell an. 1618. ) for directly or collaterally it hath bin the cause of all the warrs that happen'd ever since in christendome , which made king iames , as if he had bin prophet as well as prince to say unto his privy councell , upon the first tydings which were brought him that his son-in-law was gone to prague , my lords , this is a sad busines , and the youngest man amongst us shall not live to see the end of it which prov'd tru . the bohemian crown was first offer'd by the revolters to the duke of saxony , but hee out of a political prudence , as well as out of the fidelity and alleageance he ow'd the emperour , declin'd it ; then they reflected upon the count palatin of the rhin as a prince that might be par negotio , and able to go through-stitch with it , in regard of his powerful alliances , the king of great britain being his father-in-law , the king of denmark his onckle , the states of holland his confederatts , and maurice prince of orenge with the duke of bovillon ( who was call'd the old ardenian fox ) being also his oncles , which last three , incited him first unto that great attempt , though he paus'd a good while upon it , and resolv'd twice to decline it , till his lady seem'd to reproch his pusillanimity , telling him , had you sir , the courage to venture upon a king of great britains sole daughter , and will you not venture upon a crown when 't is offer'd you ? the count palatin then was look'd upon as one of the fortunatst princes in germany , having the best lady in his bed , the best stable of horses , the best library of books , the best cellar of wine of any of the rest . maximilian the old duke of bavaria , stuck close to the emperour in this quartell , for by his assistance and conduct an army of 25000. was routed by lesse then fifteen thousand , and the city of prague with the whole kingdom was recover'd for the emperour ; on the otherside by the arms of the king of spain and the conduct of marquis spinola the palatinat was conquer'd , though the princes of the vnion had an army of forty thousand effectif men under , the marquis of ansback and others to defend it , but 't was sayed that dolus versabatur in generalibus , that the generals were corrupted , and that the acquest was made more by spanish pistolls , than by spinola's sword . herupon at a solemn assembly of the electors at ratisbon anno 1623 , the electorship of the rhin , and the archidapifership , with all the prerogatives , and perquisits , the authorities and enfranchisements , and honors annexed therunto was conferr'd upon the duke of bavaria for term of life ; but in another assembly 1628 , which was five yeers after at prague , this great grant was not only confirm'd unto him during his own life , but entayl'd upon his heirs to perpetuity , and withall , the upper palatinat was transferr'd unto him , with the county of cham in consideration of his expences in the wars , which amounted to thirteen million of dollars . but in the treaties at munster and osnabrug anno 1652 , fower and twenty yeers after , this grant was qualified , that in case the gulihelmian line which is the house of bavaria did fayl without masculine issue , the electorship of the rhin , with the archidapifership and all the prerogatives therof shold revert to the rodulphian line which is the palatin , being the elder house of the two . now , concerning the gulielmian or bavarian line ther are but 4 living , wherof two are churchmen , viz. the archbishop of colen , and the bishop of frizing , which can leave no issue behind ; then is ther the now duke of bavaria and his brother , nor are they also likely to get issue , for as the tradition in germany goes maximilian the former duke of bavaria having maried the last emperours sister who was young , and the duke being old and crazy having 5 issues then about his body , ther were some jesuitts that brought such a prolifical cordial from italy that enabled the old duke to get children , but those children shold be impotent and barren , as it hath hitherto prov'd tru , insomuch the palsgrave is in fair hopes to get the electorship of the rhin again in a short time , and then the eighth electorship must be extinguished . besides , publicae tranquillitatis causa , as the instrumentum pacis hath it , for setling a firm and general everlasting peace in germany which had bin so miserably depopulated and torn by the late wars , which had not only scratch'd her face , but rent her very bowels , for about thirty yeers together , as also for diremption of all strife for the future , the count palatin was created the eighth elector , which is term'd in the instrument by a new coynd epithet or logical term simultanea investitura , a joint or contemporary investiture ; and because ther 's an office annexed to ev'ry electorat , he was made arch-treasurer of the empire , which he executed at the election of the last king of the romans , and the coronation of the empresse at ratisbon , by throwing medaills some of gold , some of sylver among the peeple ; under this notion he hath a session and suffrage in the colledg of electors , but he must be content to sitt last of all ; moreover by the said instrument of accommodation at munster , he was to renounce all right pro tempore not only to the upper palatinat , and the county of cham , but he was to part with the bergstrad ( one of the best parts of the lower palatinat ) and re-deliver it to the archbishop of mentz , who had oppignorated , and pawn'd it to his ancestor anno 1463 for a sum of money , but cum pacto perpetuae reluitionis , with a proviso that it might be redeem'd at all times . the emperour ferdinand the third , being not long since dead ther arose a contest , which continues still undecided , 'twixt the elector palatin , and his cosen , and co-elector the duke of bavaria about the vicarship of the roman empire ; and to illustrat this point the better it must be understood that by the fundamental laws of the empire , exemplified in the aurea bulla , it is enacted , that in the absence of the emperour ( who was us'd oft in former times to crosse the alpes to italy ) or after his death during the vacancy or interregnum , ther were two vicars or imperial deputies appointed to manage the affaires of the empire , to witt the count palatin of the rhin , for the jurisdictions of franconia , svevia , and the country about the rhin , and the duke of saxony for those large territories that lay within that circle ; the bavarian alledgeth that this prerogative of vicarship appertain'd unto the count palatin of the rhin ratione electoratus , by vertu of the electorship , & the office of archidapifer or chief sewer of the sacred empire , for which he produceth the golden bull both in the original latin , and also translated into dutch ; hee takes also the great instrument of munster for his buckler , wherin the sayed electorship of the rhin , and the ofice of archsewership with all the prerogatives , perquisits , and appendixes therunto belonging , wherof the vicarship is the chiefest , is totally transferr'd uuto him and his issue male to perpetuity . the count palatin utterly denies that , and positively affirmeth that this office and prerogative of vicariat was conferr'd upon him and practis'd by his progenitors before ever the colledg of electors , and the subsequent aurea bulla was constituted , which bull or magna charta of the german empire was not the donor but confirmer only of that great ancestrial prerogative which inconcussa consuetudine , by an unshaken custom belong'd to his family ; avouching further , that it is an annexum inseparabile comitatus , that it is an heirloome of the county palatin of the rhin , in which county he was formally and plenarily reinvested in the yeer 1652 : he excepts likewise against the translation of the sayed aurea bulla into the teutonique , or high dutch , alleadging it is erroneous in many passages ; and lastly concludes that his progenitors enjoyed this prerogative of vicariat , ratione comitatus , not electoratus , as may be inferr'd out of the politicall reason why that office was conferr'd upon his ancestors wch was in regard of the position of their ditions & territories which lye apposit & proper to have the goverment of those countreys of franconia svevia , &c. because they are situated neer , & som of them conterminant with the rhin . this controversy remains still indecided ; in the interim the protestants of those parts make their addresses to the count palatin , and the roman catholiques to the bavarian as their occasions require , either for renewing or letting of leases , the forfeiture of felons goods , the protection of idiots , and lunatiques , &c. the seventh section . some reflexes made upon the present coniuncture of things , and the political condition of germany , with a coniecture who is likely to be king of the romans , and consequently the next emperour . having allready , my lord , in a succinct , but i hope , some satisfactory way treated of the german empire , of the octumvirat , or colledg of electors , with other matters concident , and homogeneous with this subject , i shall now wind up this small bottome , and conclude with some glances upon the present estate of germany , together with the particular interests therof . your lordship hath read before that the office of emperour , in statu quo nunc , is meerly a title , and like a feather in one's capp , whosoever undertakes it must have pillars of his own to support it ; now among the princes of germany , the duke of saxony , next after the house of austria , is thought to be best able to bear the three imperial crowns , and at the late emperours death he began to be much spoken of , but ( as an observing gentleman , who came lately thence , told mee ) all the peeple that are under his subjection did rise up , and with open mouth protested against it , cryeng out that they wold put themselfs under the protection of another prince , if he wold be the keysar ; now , the reason is , that if the elector of saxe were emperour , he must of necessity enhance their tolls and taxes to support the dignity . the duke of bavaria since he hath bin invested in the upper palatinat , and the county of cham , is grown very considerable , and to be able to counterpoise the saxe in power , their yeerly revenues amounting to above a million of rich dollars apeece ; besides , the bavarian sylver mines have wonderfully thriven of late yeers both for the purenes , and quantity of bullion ; and if maximilian the former duke of bavaria could lay out thirteen millions for the service of the emperour , in consideration wherof he had at first a part of the territories of austria hypothequ'd unto him , and afterwards the upper palts and the county of cham transferr'd unto him , together with the electorship of the rhin in full and valuable satisfaction of the said 13 millions , i say if the former duke was so powerfull , it may be well inferr'd that the present duke is much more , by the new acquests he hath made , and so might be capable of the empire , but notwithstanding that the french is sayed to spurr him on , and that the elector of colen be his oncle , yet 't is not probable he will make any competition with his cousin-germin the king of hungary , his peeple like them of saxony being also very averse therunto , though his peeple be in a surer way of subjection and vassalage unto him , than other germans are , ther being no great ones in his dominions to clash with him . touching the marquis of brandenburg , though he be great master of the teutonique order , and hath such spacious and large territories that he can go upon his own demeans above 500 miles from cleve to the furthest parts of prussia , yet is he thought to be inferiorto the other two in revenues , & wealth , therfore the lesse able to bear the weight of the german empire ; adde herunto that of the eight electors , five are still roman catholiques , so that it is improbable , a protestant shold be chosen , for ther are such ceremonies to be perfotm'd that are incompatible with a protestant , besides the pope wold never confirm such an emperour , and without his confirmation no emperour can be call'd augustus . touching the king of denmark though he be capable of the empire being a kind of german , yet the nature of those kings and peeple hath bin rather to preserve what they have than to extend their country further ; moreover the present king is ingag'd in an open war against the swed ; ther is also a late clash 'twixt him , and the town of hamborough about the huldygen , which is an inauguration to be her protector , as his father was : for hamborough was built upon , and stands still upon the king of denmarks ground ; yet she refuseth to huld him , alledging that she bought him out for great summes of money , and so pretends to be now an imperial free town , and to hold soly from the keyser ; wheras others averre that she is meer hansiatique within the verge of lubeck her neighbour , which is the chiefest of the first precinct of the old hans , as was touch'd before . adde herunto that the last king of denmark hath some particular obligations to the house of austria , his great gran-mother having bin charles the fifts sister . besides , when general tilly was like in the eye of human reson with a veteran victorious army to overcom all holsteyn , ferdinand this king of hungaries gran-father made a friendly , and favourable peace with christian the fourth , who had invaded germany with a considerable army , but with little successe , in the behalf of the count palatin of the rhin his nephew . the swed mought have bad fair for the imperial golden apple had he took firmer footing in poland , and succeeded in his notable designs further ; nay , his army being compos'd of soldiers of fortune , might still by new recreuts as they push'd on their hopes , have prov'd in time as formidable , and fatal to the test of christendome as their ancestors the goths and vandales were of old , who pierc'd the very center of europe to find warmer habitations . nor was the swed altogether incapable to have stood for it in regard of those territories which gustavus got , and annexed to the crown of sweden within the pale of the empire , viz. pomerland , and breme ; but the dane entring into a new warr with him , and the marquis of brandenburg deserting him , and having the house of austria , the pole , the moscovit his actual enemies besides , 't is thought his hopes are blasted for enlarging his dominions at this time , but 't is well if he can now secure sweden it self , much more the new acquests aforesaid in germany ; specially his friends ( viz. england and france ) being so remote from him , and his enemies so neer about him . the french king , though i beleeve he be in despair to have it himself , he being exterus & non germanus , a scranger and no german , and ther being a fundamental law that no forrener be emperour , as ther is a sanction in the conclave among the cardinals , that no tramontane , viz. one born this side the alps can be pope , i say , though the king of france looks not for it himself , yet he spends all the interests he hath , and is like to employ all the power he can with all the artificies besides to cajoll , i will not say , corrupt the electors for the secluding of the young king of hungary , and that the empire shold not be alwayes a prostitut to one family . but france they say hath few real friends in germany among the princes ; 't is true the elector of tryers being perpetual arch-chancelor of france , hath always bin , and is still fleurdelizè , he is flowdeliz'd and frenchified all over , and france alwaies sticks to him also upon all occasions ; 't was about him that ther was such a counterbuff 'twixt lewis the thirteenth , and gustaphus adolphus , because he had invaded part of his territories ; 't was for his sake , besides the still growing greatnesse of spain , that this present warr was denounc'd by sound of herald against the house of austria , by the last french king : moreover , 't is tru that the marquis of brandenburg while he lately adher'd to the swed was devoted to france , but since he hath accommodated matters with the pole , he hath chang'd his interest , and is like to enter into the general league they speak of to be made between the princes of the empire for preserving the common peace of germany against all that shall attempt to disturb it ; and besides the electors themselfs , the duke of brunswick , prince of anbalt , luneberg , lawenburg , the landgrave of hesse , darmstad't , baden , newburgh , wittemburgh , though the last , and some of the other smell rank of the french interest , yet to prevent a new warr in germany they are like to enter into the foresayed patrial league , together with all the imperial and hansiatical towns . touching the palsgrave , or prince palatin of the rhin , 't is tru that ther hath bin a great deal of intimacy , and reciprocal leagues twixt his progenitors , and france , but the last emperour and his son the king of the romans oblig'd him ( and his brother prince rupert ) by many recent civilities ; at the treaties of osnabrug , and munster the emperour wold have his busines to be dispatch'd first , and was very indulgent of him all along the while ; the fower hundred thousand dollars which were assign'd himself , and to make portions and apennages for his younger brothers , the twenty thousand dollars that were awarded the lady dowager his mother pro victalitio , and the ten thousand dollars which were assign'd for dowries to evry one of his sisters , were all granted as the words of the instrument run pro benevolo suae majestatis caesareae affectu ergo domum palatinam , for the benevolent affection his imperial majesty bore to the family of the palatin , which summes the emperour punctually payed ; moreover at the coronation of the empresse , and the creation of the last king of the romans , the prince palatin officiated in person , and ther were many endearments pass'd twixt the emperour , and him ; in so much that 't is thought he will be no back frend to his son the now king of hungary when the busines of election comes to be canvas'd . these premisses , & particular interests being well considered , in the eye of all humane probality 't is thought , that the last emperours son leopoldus ignatius , now king of bohemia and hungary , &c. and being one of the electors himself , and chiefest of the temporals , is like to be the man , and make the fourtinth emperour of a direct austrian line ; and they who think thus , ground their conjectures upon divers reasons deduc'd from the present posture of things . first , because the iunta , or assembly of the princes electors is stil deferr'd , and like to be so , till the sayed king of hungary be come to his majority , which by the german law in this point is at eighteen yeers , and this will be in iune next ; then being out of his bassage , or minority , he is capable both to be king of the romans , and to have a suffrage among the electors as he is king of bohemia , and archbuttler of the sacred empire . secondly , because if the king of hungary have the canvas , and be rejected , ther will be an inevitable warr in germany , which she will avoyd if possible she can , having had not only her face scratch'd , but her very entrails rent asunder for so many yeers by a cruentous lingring warr , and the deep wounds she receav'd thence are not yet consolidated in som places . thirdly , because ther is no prince so potent and proper to bear the weight of this great burden than the king of hungary , or to keep out and encounter the common enemy , to witt , the turk , as hee , for he hath not only most of the dominions of austria , but two kingdomes besides situated on the confines , and serving as ramparts against him by land , as the republique of venice doth by sea ; insomuch that both the danger , as well as security of the house of austria is involv'd with the empire it self , and indeed of all europe . now we shall find all these countreys in the title of the last emperour , which runns as followe's . ferdinandus tertius divinâ favente clementia electus romanorum imperator , semper augustus , ac germaniae , hungariae , bohemiae , dalmatiae , croatiae , slavoniae , &c. rex , archidux austriae , dux burgundiae , bragantiae , stiriae , carinthiae , carniolae , &c. marchio moraviae , dux lucemburgiae , ac superioris & inferioris silesiae , wittemburgiae , & teckae , princeps sveviae , comes haspurgi , & gloritiae , langravius alsatiae , marchio sacri imperii romani , burgaviae , ac superioris , et inferioris lusatiae , dominus marchiae slavonicae , portus naonis , & salinarum , &c. in this accumulation of eight and twenty titles ther are but two that he had from the empire , viz. the stile of emperour , and ring of germany , all the rest are appendixes of the house of austria ; and the king of spaiu who is of the elder house hath many more , being great granchild to the emperour charlesle quint , who made a spontaneous resignation of the empire to ferdinand his second brother , though as a privat author hath it , the second day after his resignation , was the first day of his repentance . now , to rayse up the house of austria to this altitude , six of the greatest families of europe concentred in one , viz. austria , burgundy , castile , aragon , hungary , and portugal , so that it may be call'd a palace six stories high , ( though as emperour he hath not a house to hide his head in ) austriacûm domus armipotens sex fulta columnis . fourthly , because the house of austria hath the good wishes of the pope , and of the iesuitts , who underhand do good offices for him , though the pope dare not appeer publiquely in the busines for fear of giving any distaste to france ; for he may be sayed to hold france , and portugal also , as one doth a dog by the ears , fearing they shold run away from him to patriarks of their own making ; nor hath any king in christendom a greater temptation to fall away from rome , in regard the gallican church , by a late computation which was made , hath above three hundred and forty millions of liures in annual revenue , which , shold he renounce the pope , wold devolve most of it to the crown . moreover , this gentleman told me that the electors , with the princes and cities of empire , are more and more sensible to find the king of france shold appeer so much , and as som write , intrude himself into this busines , by sending ambassadors with such gawdy trains , whose rich liureys are like to be worn out before the election day , so that they had needed to have brought a lantern and candle with them comming so long before day , as one made a pasquill of them in frankfort , who with som difficulty did open her gates unto them , it being an ancient constitution of the empire , that none shold be admitted to lodge in the town where the election is to be held , but the princes electors themselfs and their train , which come to nere upon two thousand horse ; but the germans are more sensible and startled , that the french shold draw such forces to their frontires as to metz , philipsburg , and brisack ( for brisack-bridg makes now france and germany one continued piece , ) as if ther wer a design hereby to controul the electors in their choice , and embroyl germany again in a warr ; which puts the young king of hungary to extraordinary expences , of making new levies , insomuch that he will have by the next spring , as they write , an army of 50 thousand effectif men , to confront the french . but indeed it may be wondred ther shold be any ambition at all , of aspiring to the roman german empire in statu quo nunc , it being but an ayrie bare shadowy title , or a skeleton of part of the old roman monarchy , therfore a late german author confesseth , quod nobis est magnum momentum politicum , exteris est magnum deridiculum , that which we make to be of so high political a consequence , seems to forreners to be but a thing of laughter , alluding to that adoe ther is us'd about the election of an emperour , as in venice to creat a doge who in point of power is no other than tecta di legno a head of wood . nor are those who live under the empire tyed to so strict an obedience , ther is not that exact relation , and reciprocation of subjection , and protection 'twixt the emperour and his vassals , as useth to be 'twixt prince and peeple in other places , where the liegeman is bound to submit , and the liegelord is bound to defend ; touching the later , he spoke like a statist , that sayed , defendere subditos est attributum naturale inhaerens visceribus regiminis , est qualitas infixa ossibus , et indivisibilis , ita utregimen , & protectio unum & idem judicatur indivisible . defence of the subject is a natural attribut inhaering in the very bowels of goverment , 't is a quality infix'd in the very bones therof , insomuch that protection and goverment is adjudg'd to be the self same indivisible thing : 't is not so in the imperial government , wher ther is a looser kind of clientele , and protection ; nor is the submission of the liegeman so absolut , for an imperial ban is not so much obey'd there as an edict in france , a prematica in spain , a proclamation in england , or a placart in the netherlands , wher ther is a more punctual obligation 'twixt prince and peeple , the one to obey , the other to defend their persons , and maintain their privileges ; though som do hold , that a country giving her self to a prince , what privileges soever the peeple reserve to themselfs by contract , they are all lost when they enter into subjection , which by its nature makes a man subordinat to another without any exception , whensoever the publique good is concern'd , and that those privileges by the sayed subjection pass into the nature of concessions of princes afterwards , which they may stretch , restrain , or revoke according to the urgency of their publique occasions ; and when ther is a necessity to do so , the peeple are not allow'd to revolt , or right themselfs by violence ; 't is tru , that in all privat particular treaties the unobservation of the conditions , acquitts the parties from the obligations of the contract , but this doth not reach to soverain princes , when the peeple have once chosen them for their advantage , and security . but to return to our chief matter , the princes , and towns of the empire , though they acknowledg the keyser for their soveraign , yet are they not oblig'd in that strictnes of obedience to him , as their own peeple are to them ; these princes may be sayed to be rather his collegues , and associats in governing rather than snbjects ; it being a rule in germany , that quilibet imperii status in suo territorio tantum possit , quantum imperator in toto imperio , ev'ry state of the empire within his own territory , may do as much as the emperour in the whole empire ; they have power of life and death , they may coyn money , send ambassadors abroad , and make confederacies , and leagues with forren princes , with other territorial prerogatives ; but that power of making leagues was restrain'd in the late treaty at osnabrug , for the instrument sayes , ius faciendi faedera liberum esto , ita tamen ne ejusmodi faedera sint contra imperatorem , & imperium , pacemque ejusdem publicam , let it be free to make confaederacies , provided that the sayed confaederacies be not against the emperour , and the empire , with the publique peace therof ; nay further , the princes of the empire have such a latitude of power that they write se regnare dei gratiâ , that they raign by the grace of god ; and that within the verge of the empire the princes electors are not to give precedence to any other forren prince , or potentat whatsoever ; therefore when charles king of scotland , was a few yeers since at frankfort , the count palatin of the rhin sent him word that he desir'd to give his majesty a visit , but by the constitution of the empire he was not to give priority of place there to any , it being an imperial town , but if his majesty wold please to come to any of his own territories he wold then respect his majesty in that point accordingly . the states of the empire have also a territorial authority , to change their religion at plesure , by a late constitution , where 't is sayed , religionis mutatio est sequela territorialis iurisdictonis , ac inhaeret territorio sicut nebula paludi ; the alteration of religion is a sequele of territorial iurisdiction , and is inhaerent in the territory as a clowd in a pond . by what hath bin spoken it appears what a small extent of power the sacred caesarean majesty hath over those that professe obedience to him ; nay , when ther is a king of the romans 't is a question who hath the greater power the emperour or hee ; for the emperour and the king of the romans may be sayed to be like two sunnes in one firmament , the one declining , the other rising , and the later hath more eyes upon it than the former . by those particulars that have bin pointed at in this section , a conjecture may be made , if not a judgment , who stands fairest to be the next emperour ; but they who harbour some doubts of the king of hungary , have one shrewd argument that he may go without it , which is his late encrease and amplitude of power , for he hath not only the large kingdom of bohemia with the great territories annex'd therunto now as hereditary by way of conquest , but ther is an ovverture , if not an offer and privat treaty a foot that the crown of poland will be entayl'd upon him , and his successors for the future ; though this augmentation of power be good for the christian common-wealth in general , because it enableth the emperour to bear up the better againgst the common enemy the turk , yet not only the electors , but some other princes of the empire conceave some jealousie of this enlargement of the imperial power , not without some apprehensions of fear , that if the eagle shold ranew his bill , and have his feathers come home to make his wings full summ'd again , hee might seaze upon , and make a prey of sundry towns , and territories which divers of the sayed princes hold from the empire but by crazy weak titles ; nay it putts a flea in the venetians ear also , who have bin alwayes jealous of the austrian greatnes , in regard of contiguity of territories they both have in dalmatia , croatia , and other places . but it may be well expected that the princes electors will rather look upon the generall good and incolumity of the christian common-wealth , as their oath doth bind them , which is as astringent , and conjuring kind of oath as possibly the witt of man can draw , or devise , for they are not to be transported by any pact , price , promise , or prayer in the election . which oath runns thus . the solemn oath that 's administred to the princes electors , when they meet for choosing a king of the romans , the spiritual having their hands upon their breasts , the secular upon the book all the while . ego r. sacri imperii princeps elector , juro ad sancta dei evangelia , heic praesentialiter coram me posita , quod ego , per fidem qua deo , & sacro romano imperio sum astrictus , secundum omnem discretionem , & intellectum meum , cum dei adjutorio , eligere volo temporale caput populo christiano , id est , regem romanorum in caesarem promovendum , qui ad hoc existat idoneus , in quantum discretio , & sensus mei me dirigunt , & secundum fidem praedictam , vocemque meam , & votum sive electionem praefatam dabo absque omni pacto , stipendio , precio , seu promisso , vel quocunque modo talia valeant appellari , sic me deus adjuvet , & omnes sancti . ir . prince elector of the sacred empire , do swear by the holy gospell of god put here before me , that i by the faith wherin i am bound to god , and the holy roman empire , will choose according to all my discretion & understanding , with the help of god , a temporal head for christian peeple , to wit , a king of the romans to be promoted to be caesar , one that may be idoneous for it , according as my discretion & senses shal direct me ; and according to my foresayed faith i shall give my voice , and vote , or forenamed choice , without any pact , stipend , price , or promise , or by what names soever such things may be call'd ; so help me god , and all his saints . this tremendous oath is pronounc'd in latin , the language of the empire in all negotiations with forein princes ; though the electors be enjoynd by the great charter of the imperial constitutions , viz. the golden bull , to speak the teutonique or high dutch , the italian , and slavonique languages . the corollary . thus have we cast the roman monarchy as it were into the eagles egg again , as 't is recorded that homers iliads were once put into a nuttshell , and as falconers observe the eagle can lessen her self into a lark by her high soaring , so we may say the roman monarchie hath lessn'd her self by her stooping . therefore this small volume is not unsuitable unto herin point of proportion as the case stands with her now , being shrivell'd a large folio to a decimo sexto , and mouldred away from a castle into a cottage , or rather from a mountain to a mole-hill . such is the method of the all-ruling providence with whom the greatest kingdomes are but as kittlepins which he tipps down at pleasure . ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus 't is he who transvolves monarchies , tumbles down empires , and cantonizeth them into petty common-wealths at pleasure , whereunto the pagan philosopher seem'd to allude when being asked what iupiter did in heaven ? he answered magnas ollas rumpit , et ex frustis earum parvulas componit , he breaks great potts , and of their fragments makes little pitchers ; and remarkable it is how symbolizing in point of sence and similitude , the holy psalmist is with the philosopher herein , when he sayeth tanquam vas figuli conteres eos , thou shalt bruise them in peeces ( viz. the potentates of the earth ) like a potters vessel , which shews the brittlenesse , the lubricity , and unfixednesse of all sublunary things as well political as natural , so that to find out a stability , and permanence , we must travel beyond trismegistus circle , and seek it in the other world . to conclude , having thus cast a few glances upon the ro. german empire , i hope , my noble lord , it will suffice to quitt me of that obligation i owe to your commands , which shall be alwayes to me as favours and i look upon your favours as a considerable part of my happines , which makes me delight so much in the character of holborn calendis ianuarii 1658. your most obedient and ever ready servant , jam. howell . infantium cerebri quadragessimus . an index of the principal matters contain'd in this treatise . a the arms of the empire fol. 64 alarick the goth sacks rome . 5 an extraordinary providence watcheth over rome . 5 austrian family enjoy'd the empire more than any that ever was . 16 arch-bishop of mentz prime elector and arch-chancellor of germany . 21 arch-bishop of colen arch-chancellor of italy . 23 arch-bishop of triers chief chancellor of france . 23 arch-bishop of magdenburg primat of all germany . 39 arch-duke of austria chief prince of germany after the electors . 39 a maga animous speech of the lady elizabeth . 69 augustus a title soly given by the pope . 81 the austrian house● six stories high , and how . 90. b brennus the britain first ransack'd rome . 5 bourbon breathed his last in scaling the walls of rome . 5 bohemian king chief butler of the empire . 23 a ban against the english pronounc'd by the imperial diet , and not obey'd . 45 boores carry chairs , and noble-men doggs for a punishment in germany . 56 brandenburg hath spacious territories . 80 bavaria and the palatin of the same line , this the rodulphian , the other the gulielmian . 71 the bavarian duke grown very potent of late years . 79 brisack bridge makes france and germany one continued peece . 92 c caesars issue enjoy'd the empire for 6 descents . 7 consulary goverment thrice in rome by retrogradation . 6 claudius caesar first began the pernicious way of enhancing the soldiers pay . 9 constantines policy to the soldiers . 10 constantin gives rome to the pope . 10 charlemain the first western emperour . 13 charles martel and his story in brief . 13 charlemains exploits . 14 charlemain proclaim'd emperour in rome upon christmas day . 14 charlemains issue degenerated . 15 the civilians exalt the emperour by high titles . 31 the crown of england called an imperial crown by act of parlement . 33 the crown of france not tyed to a distaff . 34 the comparison of germany to a firmament spangled with stars . 64 count palatin of the rhin arch-treasurer of the empire , and eighth elector . 68 the count palatins interests . 85 d the distance of the roman emperour the cause of the declination in the west . 13 duke of saxony lord high marshal of the empire . 22 duke of brandenburg lord chief chamberlain of the empire . 23 electors how they precede one another . 26 domitius nero the last of the race of iulius caesar . 36 the division of germany . 36 the diets of germany , or imperial parlement . 39 dutchesse of bavaria a couragious lady . 67 duke of bavaria at present impotent of getting children , and the reasons thereof . 71 duke of saxony a potent prince . 78 divers reasons why the young king of bohemia is fittest to be emperour 88 of the king of denmark . 81 e the empire of rome put often to sale by the soldiery . 10 the exorbitances of the roman militia . 10 english and french descended of the germans . 12 the eastern empire . 12 the exarchat of italy given to the pope by king pepin . 14 the empire devolv'd to the germans . 15 electors first constituted . 21 emperours but thou'd at first . 29 the emperours next to god almighty on earth . 32 edgar an emperour , and his high titles . 32 edward the third of england ▪ vicar of the empire , &c. 33 embden a great friend to the english . 45 the english declar'd monopolists in germany . 45 the empire now but a feather in ones cap. 55 the emperours titles . 89 the empire an airy title in statu quo nunc . 92 the electors bound to learn to speak dutch , italian , and the slavonique . 105 f france and portugal like to make patriarks of their own . 91 furthest way about is the nearest way home in the researches of truth . 4 a facetious comparison of the german dietts . 49 a facetious tale of the arch-bishop of mentz . 55 a facetious answer of the lieflanders to charles the fift . 63 the famous siege of winsberga . 57 the title of emperour but an eagles feather in ones cap. 78 g gensericus the vandal sacks rome . 5 galba the first emperour chosen by the soldiers . 7 a geer upon rome and venice . 11 of the goths and vandals . 12 german princes do carry dogs for their punishment . 17 german princes feather themselfs with the eagles plumes . 61 germany able to raise 200 thousand electif men . 54 h hungary took name from the huns . 11 henry the second in france had the first title of majesty . 30 the high power of the king of the romans . 37 hans-towns whence derived . 42 how hamburgh first receiv'd the english staple . 46 a hundred and fifty millions the revenues once of the roman monarchy . 54 how the imperial towns got out of caesars yoak . 59 i iulius caesar cimented the empire with his blood . 7 iulianus bought the empire of the soldiers . 10 imperial towns . 42 immunities payed for monies to the towns of the empire . 59 ibraim the turks ambassador his witty parable . 64 king iames his prophetique saying . 68 k kings continued in rome 140 years . 7 king a more antient title than emperour . 29 kings of spain sometimes called emperours . 32 king of denmark arch-bishop of breme 39 l the late swedish army like to have prov'd such another as that of the goths and vandals of old . 11 lombardy freed of the goths by king pepin . 14 lutherans a great cause of the decay of the empire . 62 the latitude of power which the princes of the empire have . 96 the lubricity of political bodies as well as natural . 108 m the moors and saracens sack rome . 5 the manner of electing an emperour . 25 majesty and other high titles how they began . 30 maximilian duke of bavaria takes prague from the palatin with a lesser army . 69 marq-spinola takes the palatinat . 69 the mahumetan moon fill'd by the wane of the christian empire . 65 of the marquis of brandenburg his interest . 85 n the names of divers of the emperours that were put to violent deaths . 9 a notable saying of charles martel . 13 the names and offices of all the electors . 21 nothing so unlike as the present empire and the old . 53 a notable story of a bavarian dutchess 57 the notable symbolisation of sense 'twixt the psalmist and a pagan philosopher . 108 o one of the cause that may oververthrow the turkish empire . 9 the new ottoman emperour must encrease the ianizaries pay . 9 otho the third the first establisher of the electors . 20 the offers of wenceslaus to the electors to make his son emperour . 55 of the swed . 82 the tremendous oath the electors take . 103 p the present king of spain a goth by descent . 12 pepin a little man , but a great conqueror . 14 pope iohn the ninth , taken prisoner , and his eyes pluck'd out . 20 palatin of the rhin arch-sewer of the roman empire . 22 parallel 'twixt the empire pass'd , and present . 51 palatin of the rhin adjudg'd to carry a dog for his punishment . 57 the pope a great temporal prince . 60 the poor revenues of the empire . 53 q quarrell 'twixt rome and germany for choosing the emperour . 19 quarrel 'twixt queen elizabeth , and the hans-towns . 43 quarrel 'twixt the count palatin and the duke of bavaria touching the vicariat of the empire . 74 quarrel 'twixt the king of denmark , and hamburgh . 81 a thing like a quarrel 'twixt the king of scots and the palsgrave . 97 r the rise of the roman empire . 5 rome eight times ravish'd and ransack'd . 5 the roman emperours held their lifes from the army . 8 the roman monarchy shrunk from a giantess to a dwarf . reasons why the king of hungary is likeliest to be emperour . 88 the revennues of the french church 300 millions of liures and 20. 91 s the several kinds of goverments in rome . 7 the stewards in scotland , and charles martel of france had the same beginning . 13 the septemvirat or the seven electors . 18 staplers their first rise . 43 the suisse one of the last that fell from the empire , &c. 63 the spaniard the popes champion . 61 the small power of the emperour . 53 a sad saying of the turks . 66 the spaniard comes from the elder house of austria . 90 the several interests of the princes of germany . 85 t totila the hun sacks rome . 5 the translation of the empire to constantinople fatal to rome . 5 thirty emperours put to violent deaths by the army . 8 two turkish emperours kill'd in less than 25 years . 9 a tradition remarkable how the house of austria came to be so great . 26 the turk gives place to the emperors ambassadors above all other . 31 the titles of the heirs apparent to the empire from time to time . 37 the territories of the pope 300 miles in length . 60 the pope pretends to be lord paramount of england by king iohns grant . 61 titles of the house of austria . 89 v the vastnes of the old roman monarchy . 54 the vast circumference of rome in vopiscus time 50 miles compass . 54 a very witty embleme of the turks ambassador touching germany . 64 a very witty devise of the dutchess of bavaria to preserve her husband . 58 the vicarship of the empire challeng'd by the count palatin , and his reasons . 74 a very witty way found by a iesuitt to make the old duke of bavaria get children . 71 the upper palatinat , the county of cham , with the electorship conferr'd upon the bavarian . 79 w the wantones of the peeple more than the tarquins , cause of the expulsion of kings . 6 a weak act of the roman senat. 7 the welsh and irish have no other name for an english man , but saisson or saxon. 12 wenceslaus the emperour , depos'd , and the manner how it was . 35 why england fell from the roman emperour , and from the pope . 62 were not the imperial eagles imp'd with austrian feathers they wold be as bare as a coot . gloria honorque deo saeclorûm in saecula sunto . chronogramma . a true relation of all the remarkable places and passages observed in the travels of the right honourable thomas lord hovvard, earle of arundell and surrey, primer earle, and earle marshall of england, ambassadour extraordinary to his sacred majesty ferdinando the second, emperour of germanie, anno domini 1636. by wiliam crowne gentleman crowne, william. 1637 approx. 123 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 39 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a19674 stc 6097 estc s109122 99844772 99844772 9614 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a19674) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 9614) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 954:10) a true relation of all the remarkable places and passages observed in the travels of the right honourable thomas lord hovvard, earle of arundell and surrey, primer earle, and earle marshall of england, ambassadour extraordinary to his sacred majesty ferdinando the second, emperour of germanie, anno domini 1636. by wiliam crowne gentleman crowne, william. [4], 70, [2] p. printed [by felix kingston] for henry seile and are to be sold in fleet-street, at the signe of the tygres-head betweene the bridge and the conduit, london : 1637. printer's name from stc. the last leaf is blank. running title reads: a relation by way of iournall, &c. reproduction of the original in the henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng arundel, thomas howard, -earl of, 1585-1646. germany -description and travel -early works to 1800. 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 rina kor sampled and proofread 2003-12 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a trve relation of all the remarkable places and passages observed in the travels of the right honourable thomas lord hovvard , earle of arundell and surrey , primer earle , and earle marshall of england , ambassadour extraordinary to his sacred majesty ferdinando the second , emperour of germanie , anno domini 1636. by william crowne gentleman . london , printed for henry seile and are to be sold in fleet-street , at the signe of the tygres-head betweene the bridge and the conduit . 1637. to the true noble and my honourable master , master thomas hovvard , sonne and heire to the right honourable henry lord matravers , grandchilde to the right honourable thomas earle of arundell and surrey , lord high marshall of england , and his majesties late ambassadour to the emperour of germany . noble sir , i know your innate goodnes is such , that you cannot contemne this well intended abstract , though gathered by an infirme hand , considering , it reporteth the difficult embassie of no lesse person than your most ennobled grandfather , my dred lord , from whose sage steps , when our king shall please to invite you , to give caesar a second visit , you may the better know the way , and be secured from many imminent dangers by such a provident care : pardon me , deare sir , that i make your choice tendernesse my patron ( since the discourse is no more pleasing ) my aimes and endeavours being all bent to serve you ; and therefore the effects must needs be yours : truly sir , your early beginnings promise such a rare proceeding , that you seeme to anticipate your age by out-stripping time in your wisedome and sweet discretion , and if i may obtaine your beloved smiles in this bold , though honest , action , i shall not feare what the sharpe jerke of any malignant tongue can doe unto me , but will glory in my character , happy servant in such a master , william crowne . a relation by way of iovrnall , &c. the seventh of april being thursday , 1636. his excellency departed from greenwich for germanie , tooke barge about three of the clocke in the morning , and landed at gravesend , from thence by coach to canterbury to bed , the next day to margate where wee dined , and about three of the clocke in the afternoone , hee tooke shipping in one of the kings ships called the happy entrance , and landed the tenth day being sunday at helver-sluce , and from thence to the brill , there sailing over a lake into masanssluce , and so on by waggons to delph , and to the hage : but a mile before wee came thither , there met us some of the queene of bohemia's coaches , which her majesty sent for his excellency , and in one of them his excellency went to her majesty that night , the time we staid there , was spent in visits betweene the prince of orange , his excellency and the states , with some other ambassadours , that were then there , as the french , venetian , and the swedish , heere we staid three daies , and departed the fourteenth day by wagons , passing through leiden to woerden , and then entred the bishopricke of utrecht , and so to the city it selfe where wee lay , the princes being there at schoole , his excellency went to see them that night , the next day thence to rhenem to dine , where the queene hath an house adjacent to the rhine , on the left side , which wee viewed , having faire roomes and gardens belonging to it , after diner , wee entered into gelder-land , so through wagening to arnheim to bed , passing that afternoone through much danger , by reason of out-lyers from the army at schenckenschans , which was not farre off , the prince of brandeburgh being heere in towne , visited his excellency the next day , and the day after his excellency visited him , who was shewed by him , the ashes of some romanes preserved in pots , that were found in a mountaine called zanten , which wee afterward passed by , heere wee lay easter-day and the munday following , and did see the smoake and fire out of the great peeces from the sconee , as they were in skirmish , thether his excellency sent the steward and a trumpeter to demand passage of the spanyard in the schans , and grave william for the hollander , but the spaniard would not grant it , without order from brussels , grave william hearing their answer , sent his excellency word , hee made no doubt , but to give him free passage the next day , for he resolved to make an assault that night upon the sconce , upon the assault , the spaniards yeelded it up on conditions , and heere his excellency published certaine orders , to be generally observed amongst us , one reason was , the sickenesse , being heere very much , wee staid heere three daies and departed the nineteenth in waggons for the schans , first crossed over the rhine just by the towne on to the right side into cleveland , and so to the tolhouse , a castle where the hollanders take toll at , adjoyning to the rhine on the same side , then passing through all their workes and army , leaving the schans at a distance which was miserably battered , untill wee came to grave william his tent , where some of the spaniards were sealing of their agreements what quarter they should have , who instantly left them , to bring his excellency over the rhine on a bridge of flat bottom'd boates , guarded with all his troopes of horse , untill wee came at the barke wherein his excellency lay that night , then returned and sent a company of english souldiers to guard it , the next day earely wee weighed anchor and sailed up the rhine , having a guard of souldiers along the shore , by reason the enemy went out of the schans that morning , so passing by emmerick and rees , townes with strong sconces adjoyning to the rhine on the left side , then in sight of the mountaine zanten on the other side , so by burick , on the same side , to wesell a towne on the left side of the rhine , against which wee cast anchor , and lay on ship-board all night , for they died there of the sickenesse more than thirty a day , neverthelesse the next morning we tooke waggons in number eighteen and displaied our english colours in three severall wagons , passing over a little river in boats call'd lipp , then by rheinbergh on the right hand being the last towne of the states , then by dinslacken , on the same side to dinsburgh to dinner , where none of our carriage might enter in , for as his excellency entered the gate , one of the watch discharged his peece neere unto the horses breast , the rest being instantly commanded to the contrary , but the gates were shut up , and wee kept out , untill the towne were satisfied , wee were no enemy , our carriage and company being great , frightened them at the first after diner we past through a long wood in much danger , and in the view of rogues , who did not set upon us because our company was great , yet we fearing the worst , had sent for a convoy of musketiers to the next towne before , who met us not untill we were out of the wood. then wee entered into bergish-land , and went by keiserswert to dusseldorp to bed , which adjoynes to the rhine on the left side , where the duke of neiuburgh lay , who was with his dutchesse abroad taking the aire , but espying us comming , returned backe into the towne with speed , and sent to have the ports shut up , thinking wee had beene some enemy , but hearing it was his excellency was very joyfull , and sent coaches for him , to come and suppe with him , and to make his house his lodging the time he staid , but the next morning after breake-fast , perceiving his excellency would goe away , had three coaches waiting at the doore , into one hee put his excellency , and us into the rest , and brought us out of towne , with a company of horsemen and foote in armes , and a troope of lances going before , and trumpets sounding about the coach , his owne guard ; being thus brought without the gates , hee tooke his leave of his excellency and returned , and as wee were departing , there went off great peeces of ordnance . thence neere neusse , and then crossed over the rhine at a little dorpe called hittorpe , into the territory of collein , and then to the city where we lay . it is seated on the right side of the rhine , where the bishop of mentz was , who sent one of his privie counsell to invite his excellency the next day to diner , he then sent three of his coaches for us , and gave his excellency very noble entertainement ; the first night his excellency came , were presented unto him twenty foure flaggons of severall kindes of wine , the next day twenty eight , and at every present , there was a long speech made to his excellency in latine by one that came with the wine , which came all from the magistrates of the city in flaggons with the city armes on them , the jesuits there have built them a very stately church and richly adorned it with gildings and erected an altar one of the state liest , i ever saw , in the city likewise there is a great church called the dome , wherein lye the bodies of three kings , called the three kings of collein , which went to worship our saviour , then is there another church called saint ursulas , in which lyeth the bones of 1100. virgins in places locked up , and saint ursula in a faire tombe by them , which came all thither with her for their devotion , there is besides a nunnery and some english nunnes there . heere we staid a weeke , and the twenty eighth day wee tooke a boate drawne with nine horses and went up the rhine , by many villages pillaged and shot downe , and many brave vineyards on mountaines , along the rivers side , passing by bonn on the right side , and seven high burghens with old castles on them , seated on the other side of the river , and to drachenfels castle on the left of the rhine , against which wee cast anchor and lay that night on ship-board , the next morning earely weighed anchor , passi●● 〈◊〉 an island in which is a monastery of nunnes called ●onenwerther , so on by hammerstein castle by keigrmagen andernach and ormus three townes on the right side of the rhine , against ormus wee cast anchor and lay on ship-board . the next day earely weighed anchor and went by engers on the left side , and there begunne trierischlandt , and so to coblentz a towne adjoyning to the rhine on the right side , which the french lately lost , being driven out by the emperours forces into a castle seated on a very high rocke , opposite to the towne called hermanstein , which commandeth the towne , who were then skirmishing when wee came , wherefore wee cast anchor about halfe an english mile before , and sent a trumpeter desiring passage , which they willingly granted , ceasing their fight on both sides , the generall in the towne making preparation to entertaine his excellency , did but open the gate , thinking to cleare the passage for his excellencies entrance , presently they in the castle let flye a cannon and were like to have slaine some of them , wherefore they withdrew from shewing of themselves , untill his excellency came against the gate , and then came forth and intreated his excellency to dine with him , but hee staid not having a long way to goe that night ; they in the castle are besieged on every side , before them are cannons placed just by the rivers side , behinde them are a great company of horsemen called crabbats , beyond them in a plaine great field , are other horsemen and footemen , and likewise in islands in the rhine , all watching that they cannot be relieved , they in the towne , if they doe but looke out of their windowes , have a bullet presently presented at their heads , yet the towne is somewhat the stronger for a river called the mosell , which runneth along one side of the towne into the rhine , over which there did stand a faire bridge , though part of it now be beaten downe , that there is no passage over , but have made a little lower on the mossell a passage on boates , to relieve the towne , under the castle there is a very beautifull house , which the emperour gave to the elector of tryer , and hee resigned it to the french , whereupon the spaniard besieged him , when he lay in a faire castle on the mossell called tryer , and tooke him prisoner , and is prisoner now : as wee were departing from hence , the french gave us a brave vollie of shot as hath beene heard , with foure or five peeces of ordnance , from hence up the rhine , by lonstein and branbach two townes on the left side , and capelle a castle on a rocke on the other side , to boppart a towne on the same side , against which wee cast anchor and lay aboard . the first of may being sunday , and their whit-sunday , we departed , passing by villages shot downe , and by many pictures of our saviour and the virgin mary , set up at the turnings of the water , untill we entered the land of hesse , where we still viewed pleasant vines on the mountaines , so by saint goware , and by rhinefilds castle both on the right side , to catzenelbogon castle on the other side , then by oberwesell on the right side ; then begins the lower palatinate , so by caub on the left side , which is the first towne in the pfaltz , and so to pfaltz castle , seated in a little iland in the river , from hence to bacharach , a towne where we landed , it is seated on the right side of the rhine , having a castle on a high rocke within the walls , and under that a church , which is from the plaine ground 100. steps before one can come into it , heere the poore people are found dead with grasse in their mouthes : from hence by a village on the same side , in which none but leapers are , being not farre off the towne , and so to hambach on the same side , by drechshausen on the other side , to armanshausen , a towne on the left side of the rhine , against which we cast anchor and lay on ship-board . the next morning departed hence , and then begun momtzistzland , so by a little tower in the water , called mouse thour , which one otto a bishoppe of mentz , having lived not well , being much troubled with mice , built this , and lived in it , thinking there to be secure , but even thither they pursued him also , and eate him up : then by bingen , a faire towne on the right side , and by ehrenfels castle on the other side to rudeshein , a towne on the left side of the rhine , into which i entered , and did see poore people praying where dead bones were in a little old house , and here his excellencie gave some reliefe to the poore which were almost starved as it appeared by the violence they used to get it from one another : from hence by geisenhem , elfeld , and wallaff , three townes on the left side of the river , and then we crossed over the rhine , unto the other side . then to mentz a great city seated close by the rhine on the right side against which wee cast anchor and lay on ship-board , for there was nothing in the towne to relieve us , since it was taken by the king of sweden , and miserably battered , there the king of bohemia dyed , in a faire corner house towards the rivers side , heere likewise the poore people were almost starved , and those that could relieve others before , now humbly begged to bee relieved , and after supper all had reliefe , sent from the ship ashore , at the sight of which they strove so violently , that some of them fell into the rhine and were like to have bin drowned . the next day being the third of may , from hence wee departed , leaving the rhine halfe a league above the city on our right hand , and entered into a shallow river called the maine , passing by a place which the king of sweden was building for a fort , but could not finish it , then by cassell , on the left side , thence by flersheim on the left side to russelsheim on the right of the maine , and then to the stately city of francfurt , adjacent to the maine on the left side , where we landed and lay : from collein hither , all the townes , villages , and castles bee battered , pillaged or burnt , and every place wee lay at on the rhine on ship-board , we watched , taking every man his turne ; heere wee staid foure daies , untill our carriages were made ready : where we saw the place wherein they keepe the dyet , afterward entered into the church called saint bartholmews , where the emperours use to bee crowned and take their oath ; the city is inhabited with lutherans and iewes , for in the iewes synagogue , i entered in to see the manner of their service , which is an undecent way , making a hideous noise , having on their heads and about their neckes things called capouchins , the women are not admitted into their synagogue , but in places about . and on sunday the seventh of may , by waggons through the city over two bridges which are alwaies guarded with souldiers , leaving the maine on our left hand , from hence we tooke a convoy of musketiers along , being wee went through much danger , by offenbach , selgenstat , seated betweene us and the maine , passing thus along through a great forest in much danger , hearing the great peeces so swiftly discharge off at hannaw , which the swedes subdu'd , and now besieged by the emperors forces , being not above three english miles off , then by a very great mountaine two english miles long , all beset with vines , untill we came at a poore little village where wee staid and dined with provision of our owne , and after dinner departed , passing through plaines untill wee came at the maine , and there ferried over into a towne called klingenberg , passing through this , we came to a very high hill the way up being all stone & 2. english miles up to the top , and then through a wood , after we were past this , we came to a poore little village called neunkirchen , where we found one house a burning when we came and not any body in the village , heere we were constrained to tarry all night , for it grew very late , and no towne neere by 4. english miles , spending the night in walking up and downe in feare , with carrabines in our hands , because we heard peeces discharg'd off in woods about us , and with part of the coles of the consumed house his excellency had his meat rosted for supper , the next morning earely , his excellency went to view the church , which we found rifled with the pictures and altars abused , in the church-yard , we saw a dead body scraped out of the grave , in another place out of the church-yard , there lay another dead body , into many of the houses wee entered , and found them all empty . from this miserable place we departed , and heard after , that they in the village fled by reason of the sicknesse , and set that house on fire at their departure , that passengers might not be infected . then came we into wijrtzburg-land , and descended downe another steep hill and there crossed over a little river call'd tauber , and through keichelsheim , to neubruim a poore village where wee dined , after dinner passing by the side of the maine , and through woods and plaines , untill we came to wijrtzburg , a faire city passing over a bridge first , standing over the maine into the towne , seated on the left side of the river , and a faire castle opposite to the towne on the other side , in which the towne put all their riches when they heard the king of sweden was comming , thinking there it would not be gain'd , but they hearing of it , surprised and pillaged it in 3. daies , and it was 3. or 4. moneths before the emperors forces could regaine it , the next day earely departed , being the 10. of may , and entered marggrafen-land , and to kiteingen to diner , after diner , thence through ipza a city , and so to marckbibrach , where we lay all night on the plancher , for the village was pillaged but the day before , earely the next morning wee went away and passed through neustadt , which hath beene a faire city , though now pillaged and burnt miserably , heere we saw poore children sitting at their doores almost strav'd to death , to whom his excellency gave order for to relieve them with meat and money to their parents , from hence we went to eilfkirchen a poore village where wee dined , with some reserv'd meat of our owne , for there was not any thing to be found , after diner , thence we passed by many villages pillag'd and burnt down , and so into nurnberger-land , passing through the place where the king of swedens leaguer lay , when the king of bohemia was with him and my lord craven , and in sight of the place the emperors army had intrenched themselves by the side of a great wood , here the king of sweden set upon poles alive three of his souldiers , for killing 2. of their commanders , and flying presently to his enemy , and at the end of a battaile that was then fought , he tooke them prisoners , and so executed them , then drawing neere nurnburg a great city seated in a plaine , which the king of sweden relieved at that time against the emperor , being not above two english miles off , heere we passed by some of their workes before the towne , and then entered the gate into the city being very stately built , and one of the strongest in germany , and so to his excellencies lodging , the next day the lords of the city came and visited his excellency ; here we staid ii daies untill his excellency had word for certain where the emperor was , the most part of our time was spent in seeing of the rare things in the towne , as a very brave magazine wherein all their munition lieth , which the governours of the towne shewed his excellency , at our first entrance wee passed through a large court where there lay on our left hand 4. great cannons by the walles side , which were 6. paces long , and 2. foote broad , and worke-houses there likewise , then entered we into a long roome where there hung on both sides armour for foot and horse , and then into the place it selfe , where there were 6. partitions each 28. paces long and 6. broad , all full of brasse peeces and other small ones of severall rare inventions , from hence we went to see a very rare water-worke which supplieth all the city , adjoyning close to the wall of the towne , returning homewards , we entered into their great church call'd the dome , there his excellency was shewed a very stately picture of the annunciation of the virgin mary , which hung in the middle of the quire , drawne up , which had not bin shewed to any in 18. yeeres before , and then return'd home , and the lords with him , who supped with his excellency , the next day they dined with him likewise , and after diner desired his excellency to goe and take the aire in some of their gardens without the city , which he did : the city is very strong being encompassed without the wals with bulwarkes and a mighty deepe and wide ditch , and within are many curiosities and stately buildings : the ancient men ( called lords ) governe by turnes , not acknowledging any particular prince their soveraigne , but hold correspondency with all , for in the time of those great wars between the emperor and the king of sweden , they would resigne to the emperor one while , and to the k. another , paying great taxes & impositions to their halfe undoing . frō hence we departed may 22. being sunday , for regenspurgh , thinking there to meete with the emperor , first p●ssing through a part of the upper palatinate to newmark , where we lay , seated in a plaine where the king of bohemia had a house , which his excellency viewed , adjoyning to the wall within the towne , fortified with bulwarkes and pallizadoes , having spacious roomes and a faire armory : early the next morning , from hence , by churches demolished to the ground , and through woods in danger , understanding that crabbats were lying heere about , untill we came at a poore little village called hemmaw where we staied and dined , which hath beene pillaged eight and twenty times in two yeeres , and twice in one day , and they have there no water but that which they save when it raineth : after dinner , to ettershansen a poore village where we crossed over a little river in boates , the bridge being burnt downe by the swedes forces ; from hence wee ascended up a high hill , being descended downe , wee passed a long on an high banke , having the river danubius on our right hand , and high mountaines with vines on our left , passing thus through severall villages beaten downe or burnt , untill we came at a round fort before the bridge which a guard kept , and so over it through a tower in the middle standing over the danuby , which runneth with as swift a current as at london bridge , dividing it selfe into severall ilands which have had howses on them , but now burnt , and also houses on the arches which were demolished likewise , then into the citie regenspurg to his excellencies lodging , the citie hath bin taken by the swedish forces , and regained by the king of hungary . the 25. day his excellency went to take the ayre on the other side of the towne , and as we went did see the ruines of many houses and churches , and one carthusian monastery not so much ruinated as the rest , into which his excellency entered to see the roomes wherein the king of hungary did lie all the time hee was regaining of the citie , being not above two english miles off it , and heere likewise the old duke of bavaria , this dukes father lived in a cell for many yeers together , againe his excellency went to take the ayre the 28. day , and entered into a jesuites monastery , in which there is one altar dedicated to s. george ; here his excellency staied a weeke , and departed thence for liniz , where the emperour was , taking foure boates and went downe the danow thorough bavaria , passing by a castle called donastauff , seated on a high mountaine , with a dorpe at the foote of it , adjoyning to the danubij on the left side , and by werth castle on the same side , to straubingen on the same side where we landed about eleuen at night and lay that night ; the next morning from thence , still by many ruines to pogen on the right side , at the foote of a very high mountaine , and on the top of it a church with a few houses about it ; then by nuternberg castle seated on a high mountaine on the right side of the river , and by deckendorff on the other side , against which wee met with thirty horses fastened all to one rope drawing of sixe great boats which were going to regenspurg , then by a castle called tawrin● seated on a high mountaine , and below at the bottome is a towne walled round , called overwinter on the left side , and so to vilshoven , a towne on the right of the danuby where wee landed and lay that night . the next morning as his excellency was taking boate , he spied a poore boy standing among other poore people begging for reliefe , who looked very strangely and could neither speake nor heare , but a little at his mouth and nose , having neither eares nor passage to heare with , and his face very thin & drawne aside , yet when one hallowed hee heard and answered againe with a noise , there was with him his sister , a pretty girle , who when one spake to him , made him understand by signes , these two his excellency tooke along with him in his boate to a city called passaw seated on the right side of the danuby , where we landed & lay , and there common ded to have new clothes made for them & gave them monie and sent them home to their freinds , and a little before we came thither , endeth bavaria ; this citie is seated very sweetly , having 3. rivers running neere it , the danuby which is of a green color , incompasseth it of one side , and a swift river called inn , on the other side , which commeth out of italy , and is of a white color , the third is ilze , which is very blacke , and commeth out of bohemia , and both runne into the danuby at the end of the towne , the next day his excellency went to view a capuchine monastery , seated very pleasantly on a high hill , neere unto the towne , first we passed over a bridge made of little rafts which standeth over the river inn , and so through instadt , and then ascended up the hill upon which the monastery stands , and then entered into the chappell called our ladies chappell , being built in the yeere 1636. where we saw a neat altar , and a picture of the virgin maries set up in the altar , and many fine reliques , left there of those that are said to have been healed of severall diseases , comming but thither to doe their devotion , and returned thence sound , from hence we descended to another chappell at the bottome of the hill , passing downe 274. steps , being set in order , 10. and 11. together . and as much plaine ground as containeth the steps thorow out the whole descent , and in the middle of the descent is a crucifix , at which one daily sits to receive the almes of charitable people , which crucifix one rude person passing by , strucke it , and fell downe dead and never revived , as these capuchines related , and then returned . and opposite to the citie on the other side of the danuby on a very high rocke , is seated a strong castle which cannot be scaled , called festingoverhouse , commanding all the townes and monasteries ; at the foot of this is another strong built fort , by which the river ilze falleth into the danuby , betweene the towne ilze and this : the citie is governed by leopoldus the emperours second sonne , who is bishop of it ; here we stayed three dayes , and departed the fourth of iune , and entred into upper austria , passing by schaumberg castle on the left side of the river , and by effertingen on the other side , and wilhering monastery on the same side , to lintz where the emperour was , who sent to receive his excellence at his landing the count of harrack , marshall of the court , with some other courtiers ; after his gratulation with his excellence , there came ten or twelve coaches , which waited on his excellence to his lodging which the emperour had provided , and then returned . presently after came the count megaw , high steward to the emperour , to visit his excellence ; and the next day count mansfelt captaine of the foot-guard to visit his excellence , and after him father lemmarman , his majesties confessour . the sixth of iune , being the second day after wee came , his excellence had audience of the emperour and empresse , who sent their coaches for us ; being come to his palace , which is seated on a hill , we went up foure ascents of staires , the guard standing on each side of us , with halberds and carrabines in their hands , passing thus thorow roomes , untill wee came at the doore of the chamber in which the emperour was , and when his excellence came at the doore , out came the little count of kezell , high chamberlaine to his majestie , and brought in his excellence , and then withdrew and shut the doore after him , that none might enter in : after his excellence had beene within a while , we were all admitted , and kissed his majesties hand , and then withdrew , and passed thorow other roomes and a gallerie , where the guard stood in like manner , to the empresses chamber , where none might enter neither , stealing a sight of her as wee stood , and then returned . the eighth day his excellence had his second audience of the emperour , as private as the first : and the tenth day audience againe of the empresse , and then wee were admitted to kisse her hand : the same day there were seven men beheaded which were rebels , for rising up in armes with foure hundred other boores against the emperour : the first that was executed , was said to be one that had inchanted himselfe , that no bullet could hurt him , and the onely seducer of the others : after he was upon the scaffold and his face covered , two men held him fast to the blocke , then came the executioner with a red hot paire of pincers , and violently clapt hold of both his brests , that done , nailed his right hand fast to the blocke , and chopt it off , then presently whipt out his sword from his side , and cut off his head , one of the hangmen presently tooke it up , and cryed at the eares of the head , iesus , iesus ; then the iesuite which came a long with him admonishing of him , desired everie one to joyne in prayers with him for him ; then came the other , and a boy which was beheaded likewise , all making their private confessions to priests , at the foot of the scaffold , having a crucifix in their hand , kissing their hands & feet at the end of everie prayer : after all those men were beheaded , and quartered , there went two of their confederates a foot to bee hanged about an english mile off , to a place where a priest of theirs hung upon a pole , and his head on the top , which was taken in a church a yeere before called ering , which we afterward passed by . the twelfth day being sunday , the emperour , empresse , and the arch-dutchesse , dined at the iesuites college ; but before , they heard masse in their church , and after dinner a play was presented to them by the house , and some young schollers , consisting of many varieties . the fifteenth day his excellencie dined at the count megaws , and was nobly entertained : the sixteenth day as we were at dinner , there came a mightie clap of thunder and lightning , which burnt downe three houses presently , being not above an english mile off , on the other side of the water , and such accidents happen here often , by reason all their houses be covered with thin boord , in the manner of tile ; and about foure of the clocke in the after-noone , his excellence had audience the third time , and we all invited to a balto , by the empresses command , to the count slavataes , who is chancellour of prague , where all the ladies assembled , and there spent the time in dancing : in moravia not farre from this place , there was a baron whose name was rabell , having a wife , which couple had beene married fortie yeeres together , and had many children , and when he was eightie two yeeres old , and his wife seventie five , she conceived and brought him forth two children at a birth , a sonne and a daughter , which children lived a yeere and died , and then presently after their parents both died , and was buried in s. michaels church , a church of the dominicans in brune , a towne in moravia : this storie was related to us by a priest of the empresses for certaine ; here his excellence stayed nineteene dayes , and all the time at the emperours charge , and served by his majesties servants , in as much state as he himselfe ; at the first course the drums beat up , and at the second , musike with voyces . from hence we tooke boat for vienna , the three and twentieth day of iune , passing downe the swift river danuby , neere the church called ering , wherein the boores assembled and chose that priest , who was taken and executed as afore-mentioned , so by a faire castle called spiulbarke , where the duke of bavaria makes his toll-place seated on the left side of the river , then by markhawsen on the same side , by walzig a faire castle seated on the other side on a high hill , and the towne at the foot a little beyond , so by another faire castle called crayne , seated on a high rocke close by the danuby , on the left side , the towne at the foot of it , both belonging to the count megaw : then thorow a place in the water called the struddell , where it runneth very swift , with a great fall amongst the rockes , and dangerous to passe , having no more space than the breadth of a boat , which if it toucheth , breakes into many peeces , and over this place on a high rocke is a crosse set up , having past this danger , just by on the left side of the river is an old chappell called s. nicolas , out of which came two men with his picture in a box , to receive an accustomed reward due from those which passe by safe : from hence by a faire castle called besinboe , seated on the same side on a rocke , and by pekelem on the same side , then by wednick castle seated on a rocke on the left side , with a village beneath it , so by a castle and monasterie encircled with a wall , seated on a verie high rocke called milke , and the towne at the foot of the rocke along by the danuby on the right side , part of it burnt by an accident when the king of hungary was in it , and by sable castle on a high rocke on the same side , with a faire banquetting house , which belongeth to the grave sturbutz ; and a little further on the same side , is another banquetting-house , called the devils banquetting-house , by reason of many apparitions there seene . then to a little poore dorp called aspagh on the left side of the danuby , where wee went a shore and lay that night . earely the next morning , being the foure and twentieth day , we went up the river by a castle called the spitz , seated on the same side , so by stiringsteine , a faire towne on a rocke adjoyning to the river on the same side , with a ruinated castle over the towne on a hill , with rocks on both sides , which are the grave van seldingz : then by another faire towne seated on the same side called stine , from which there standeth a bridge over the danuby made of rafts , having thirtie seven arches , under which wee passed , and at the end of it , opposite to the towne is a monasterie with many faire houses belonging to it , and behinde this is another stately built monasterie , called kitne , seated on a hill : from this an english mile distance , with a delightfull prospect , just by are two other faire townes , the one crempz , and the other winsell , seated both on the left side of the danuby in a plaine , which three townes are within the compasse of an english mile ; then by tolnie a towne on the other side , which is the oldest towne in all the empire , against which wee lay a while and dined on ship-boord : after dinner wee entred into lower austria , and went by an old castle called griffopsteine , seated on a rocke on the same side , in which all priests that offend are imprisoned and tried . then a dutch mile further , on the left side , the danubius runneth out to a faire towne called cornybrough , seated an english mile off in a plaine with faire monasteries therein , then on the other side of the river is cloysternybrough , full of cloysters and monasteries ; so by nustorffe on the same side , from whence we discovered vienna , seated in a plaine , then left the danu , which divides its selfe into sever all branches and meet beyond the towne , and runs thorow hungary into the blacke sea , and went up in an arme of it to the citie , where wee landed , seated on the right side of the danu , which is very well fortified round the wals , besides a compleat regiment of 1500 men alwayes ready in armes , part watching at everie gate , some about the emperours palace , others about the place where the iewes keep their shops in the citie , for they are not suffered to lye in the towne a night , but constrained to keepe within a place on the other side of the river opposite to the citie , which they have built , and is called the iewes burg ; for if any one be found all night in the towne , he is miserably punished , if not put to death : there are likewise 7000 burgers in the citie , which are to be in armes at an houres warning . the next day being sunday , his excellence had audience of the queene of hungary and the arch-duke leopoldus , the emperours second sonne , being the 26. day , and nothing wee saw note-worthy at his palace , but a spacious court-yard : the next day againe his excellence went to see the dukes lodging , where we saw onely a few pictures ; from hence he went to severall houses of the iesuites , the first was a university , where was presented to his excellence a kinde of comedy by young schollers in masking attire , and one of the house playing on an instrument like a virginall , severall kindes of musicke ; after that , a banquet brought in by the actors : this ended , we went to the second house called the probation-house , where none but young men are , about fiftie in number , there to be tried whether they may bee made capable of holy orders : thence to the third house , called the profest-house , where none but the ancient fathers are , where as soon as his excellence entred , an oration was made to him by one of the chiefe , & after viewed the house and church , in which there was an hymne sung by their best singers , with very sweet musicke , and they have an organ of five thousand pipes . from hence wee returned home to our lodging , where there came presently after the prince of ducardins to visit his excellence . the eight and twentieth day his excellence went to see a garden of the emperours about a dutch mile off , called nigobath , upon which place the turke once intrenched himselfe , when hee would have taken vienna , and was then two hundred thousand men strong , in the emperour rodolphus his time , and after they were driven out of the countrey , the emperour built this on their works for a memoriall , the garden is almost foure-square , encircled with a strong stone wall , and at every corner a faire tower , and in the middle two , with three partitions in everie one , and the tops covered with brasse , round within the wall is a walke for two to goe a brest , covered with brasse , and underset thicke with pillars of stone : then returned wee to another very stately large garden of the empresses neere unto the citie , called her favorita , having severall small gardens adjoyning to it and a faire house : the next day his excellence went to see the queene againe , and the two princes her sonne and daughter here we staid a weeke , and departed the first of iuly by waggons for prague , passing first over three long bridges handing over severall branches of the danubius : so by the wals of cornyburgh the towne aforementioned , to stackay a poore village where wee dined , after dinner by kildersdorf to holebrum a poore village , where wee lay all night on the straw , having travelled seven dutch miles , and every dutch mile is foure english , where six and twentie houses were burnt that day fortnight wee came , by thunder and lightning , the next day early from hence passing thorow plaines and corne-fields which were a reaping , we came to kudordorp , where moravia begins in a great plaine , where two stones are set in the ground , dividing lower austria and moravia , then past we thorow colendorp the first towne in moravia , and by a crosse standing in a plaine not neere any towne , with many graves about it , then to swamb a prettie towne where we dined , having past that fore-noone in danger neere a great company of crabats , who were thereabouts , who frighted the towne : for when his excellencies harbenger entred the gates an houre before us , they were all shutting up of their shops , and running out to defend the towne . after dinner thorow most plaines and corne-fields which were a reaping , untill wee came at bodewich , a poore village , where wee lay on the plancher , and travelled that day seven dutch miles . the next day being sunday , and the third of iuly , we stayed there untill dinner , and thence thorow part of a wood called hertz-waldt , on a causey two english miles long , the wood being three hundred miles in length ( as we were credibly informed ) passing thorow we saw severall fires in it , & many strange things are likewise seene , and so by bernetz , a little towne at the end of the wood , to iglo , a beautifull built towne seated on a little hill , where we lay that night , having gone foure dutch miles and an halfe . earely the next morning from thence passing over a river at the end of the towne , which parteth moravia and bohemia , and then thorow stickey the first towne in bohemia , so thorow haybeireitz a village , in which an oast killed at severall times of his guests ninetie men , and made meat of them , so to dutchbrade a towne where wee dined , and then departed , passing thorow a plaine wooddie countrey to holebrum , where we lay that night on the plancher , which was a most fearefull night of thunder and lightning , having travelled seven dutch miles . the next morning wee departed , and went thorow a wooddie countrey againe , and thorow a towne called shasshaw where in the street we passed thorow , lieth buried the body of one iohn ziska , who made war against the emperour rodolphus , in the defence of his deere friend iohn hus , who died a martyr : this iohn ziska in all his wars was a victor , and when hee was blinde desired to bee carried up and downe the wars , and at his death commanded that a drum might be made of his skin , which was done , and wheresoever that was , they subdued likewise ; then by a silver mine of the king of hungaries , which was by the way side on a little hill , into which wee entred to see their works , the oare being two hundred and fiftie fathom deepe , and behinde this place is a citie called kettenburgh , which wee left two english miles of our left hand and thence to colen two english miles off likewise where we dined ; about part of the towne runs the river elbe : after dinner we past thorow a plaine countrey to bemishbrade , where wee lay on the plancher againe , having travelled eight dutch miles , which hath beene a faire built towne , and very pleasantly seated , but now burnt almost downe by a carpenter , when the emperour was in it , and since been pillaged twice , by the swedish , and the duke of bavaria his forces . the next morning earely , being the sixth of iuly , from thence to prague to dinner , being five dutch miles , passing first thorow very pleasant plaines and meddowes , vntill we came neere the citie , which is encompassed on both sides with rocks and hils , all planted with vines , having three townes belonging to it , newstadt , oldstadt , and the slostadt ; at newstadt wee entred in at a faire gate , passing thorow into oldstadt , to his excellencies lodging , which said stadt is inhabited chiefly by iewes , who have there foure synagogues , and in one i saw there a rabbi circumcise a child , here we were told that all their fruits in the further parts of the countrey were spoyled , as corne , vineyards , and the like , by the aforesaid thunder and lightning with hailestones as big as ones fist , and also divers cattell were then lost : between this and the slostadt runneth a pleasant river called the muldow , and over it standeth a faire bridge of stone , as long as london bridge , over which his excellencie passed , going to view the castle , being a stately large built fort , seated on a high hill within the slostadt , called ketschin , in which the king of bohemia lived ▪ first wee passed thorow three faire court-yards , having at one of the gates a guard of souldiers in which court-yard there is a statue of s. george on horse-backe in brasse , and a fountaine , then entred we into a spacious hall , having many faire shops in it like unto westminster , but that their courts of iudicature are in other roomes by it : from hence wee went up and passed thorow many faire roomes well hung , and pictures in them , and one roome furnished with english pictures of our nobilitie , which the king of bohemia was forced to leave , passing thus untill wee came at one roome two stories high , which was their councell-chamber , where the bohemians being sat at councell , and three of the emperours couucell with them , there rose a mutiny , insomuch that they threw them three out on the ground , which was fiftie five foot high , and shot pistols after them , yet none of them killed , and two of them still alive , and upon that ground they fell on are set set up three gilt crosses : then went we downe into a stately lower roome , which used to bee their masking roome , upholden with severall faire pillars , in the middle , and statures of brasse placed by them ; by the wals hang pictures of indian horses which were there then ; adjoyning to this is a large dining roome , having a table in it of mozaique worke , and musicke within it not to be discerned , then at the end of this roome is a little place where choyce armour is , and one piece which i saw shot off a bullet , not having any powder in it : then into the schaut kamber , where the treasure was , and a most noble collection of the emperour rodolphus . in the first roome was cup-boords placed in the wals on our right hand ; the first was of corall ; the second , of purslaine ; the third , of mother of pearle ; the fourth , of curious brasse-plates engraven ; the fifth and sixth . mathematicall instruments ; the seventh , basons , ewers , and cups of amber ; the eighth , cups of aggets , gold and chrystall ; the ninth of rocks ; the tenth , of mozaique worke in stone ; the eleventh , cups of ivorie , and a great unicornes horne a yard in length ; the twelfth , of imbossing worke ; the thirteenth , of brasse pictures ; the foureteenth , of antick things cast in silver ; the fifteenth , cabinets of bohemia diamonds , and little chests of bohemia pearle ; the sixteenth , things belonging to astronomy ; the seventeenth and eighteenth , indian worke ; the nineteenth , turkey-worke ; the twentieth , of a lively statue of a woman covered with taffatie . then in the middle of the roome are rare clocks of all kinds ; the first was like a globe with musike ; the second was set round about the middle with little pillars , and a bullet running round in a cresse out and in , and over it hung two little cords , which being puld , wee heard sweet musike , but could not discerne from whence it was ; the third had a faire lively face and hand looking out , and musike with voyces singing , not to be discovered ; the fourth , a close clocke , and by it a faire table of mozaique worke ; the fifth , with foure ascents set severally with pillars , and a bullet running round in a cresse up to the top , playing with musike ; the sixth , like the top of a globe , the gold coloured like a green field , and a bucke running round in and out , and hounds after making a noyse , and beneath musike , and anticks , dancing in a round within it ; the seventh , a clocke with a globe : by the wals on the other side anticke things set up , and pictures , together with a steele chaire very curiously wrought and cut thorow . then entred wee into another little closet , wherein were more cabbins placed in the wals on the same side , of presents sent to the emperour , as gilt helmets and head peeces , and statues . in the third roome , foure cup-boords in the wals full of rare pictures , and in the middle of the roome anticke things , as a bore rough cast to the life , and a statue of a strong maid to the life , who went to war , and a presse of ancient bookes . the fourth roome , three cup-boords full of the anatomies of severall rarities , as cockatrices , and fishes part resembling men ; and the fourth cup-boord of rare great shels ; the fifth , of fine dishes ; the sixth , of all kinde of little shels , and a librarie , with one mightie great booke in folio , written by a fryar in a dungeon , who was there put in , upon some hainous offence there to suffer , and fortie yeeres after discovered by some fryars going neere , hearing a noyse , had search made , and found him , who brought forth this booke , consisting of the old and new testament , and many strange histories , which hee was all that time a writing , and assisted by the devill ( as he conceived ) and spake very little more before he died . here is likewise all the skins of those indian horses , whose pictures hung up in the masking roome : then did wee enter into a large church , standing neere about the middle of the castle , where about the quire are cut in wood many fine things , and a tombe of the queenes confessour , called iohan. nepomews , who was miserably tortured by wenceslaus the fourth king of bohemia , to reveale her majesties confession , and at last put to death by him , anno dom. 1383 , from hence his excellencie went to view a garden behind the castle within the wall , where wee went in a walke covered arbour-like , halfe an english mile long , untill we came at a stately old building , with walkes round the house , and set thicke with pillars and likewise on the top of the house , with a delightfull prospect over all the citie , and then his excellencie returned backe to the keepers house , and there dined , having sent provision before : dinner being past , his excellencie went to see a parke two english miles off the citie , in which there is a friarie of white friars , who were leaping then in the parke , as wee passed by to see a great beast called a buffule , which is kept there , and then returned home by wallensteines new house , into which his excellencie entred to view it , first passing thorow a large hall of eight and thirtie paces , or more in length , and one and twentie in breadth , we went up thorow galleries having pictures hung up , and painted on the wals with stories of hercules , above head divers stories of ovid ; then to the audience-roome , where the foure elements are in the middle above head , and thorow other faire chambers ; then downe into the garden , where there are five fountaines , and great figures of brasse placed on them , and on the great fountaine neptune , with foure nymphs about him , and a faire grott-house , but the waters run not ; then into the stable , being curiously built , where six and twentie horses may stand , the pillars and manger all of red marble , and thirtie eight in number , and each pillar cost twentie five pounds , there are foure court-yards which encompasseth the house , which is now the king of hungaries . this wallensteine was sole commander of the empire , under the emperour , and grew so great , which caused his majestie to be jealous of him , as he had just cause considering his plots which hee had laid against the crowne ; but to prevent the worst , privately tooke order with some of his irish captaines , who were appointed to keepe watch of him that night , to cut him off , which was effected in the evening , pressing on the sudden into his chamber found him onely in his shirt , and said , live ferdinando , but dye traytour wallensteine ; at which he opened his armes and cried , oh my god , embracing the stabs of the halberds , which done , they cut off his head , and presently posted to the emperour with it , who gave them great rewards , and they still continue much in his favour . the next day his excellence was invited to a play at the iesuites college , where the senior of the house is an irish man , and there entertained prince-like ; first , an oration by a young scholler , then passing downe by a guard of souldiers , who discharged their muskets : his excellence being past to the roome where the comedy was acted , which action did please exceedingly , not onely in respect of substance , but also for the goodnesse of the action and severall habits , in number more than fiftie , the chiefe part were young schollers , and divers of them barons sons , and being ended , desired to kisse his excellencies hand kneeling , in testimony of his approbation . and here is the argument annexed in the page following . pax in anglia , diu exul in germaniam postliminio reditura . drama , cum illustrissimus & excellentissimus thomas howardus , arundelliae & surriae comes , & potentissimi caroli magnae britanniae regis ad augustissimum imperatorem ferdinandum secundum , & imperii principes legatus extraordinarius , collegium societatis iesu inviserit , a collegii studiosis datum pragae , 1636. prologus . mercurii famulus in theatro apparando occupatus , in parvos pueros incidit regis angliae legatum videre cupidos : negat ex theatro spectariposse nisi adventum ei gratulentur , cum latine per aetatem tenellam non possint , diverso idiomate vernaculo id praestent . pars prima . scena prima . mercurius deos deasque , proprio quemque comitatu , & schemate , ad concilium venientes excipit , & loca distribuit . scena secunda . astraea apud iovem deosque de mortalium sceleribus queritur . iupiter auditis sententiis , orbem marti , vulcanoque puniendum tradit . scena tertia . pax desolata quaerit locum ubi martis furorem declinet , neptunus in angliam marina choncha eam vehit . scena quarta . mars globum terrae in varias partes dividit , & bellonae furori caeterisque asseclis distribuit . pars secunda . scena prima . ceres , apollo , & bacchus deplorant apud iovem , illam quam a marte patiuntur calamitatem : iupiter ad neptunum eos destinat . scena secunda . neptunus se carolo britanniae regimaris imperium commisisse nunciat , illum adeant pro pace orbi reddenda . scena tertia . mercurius bene sperare cererem & phoebum jubet , carolum regem pacem brevi reducturum per l egatum howardum arundelliae comitem : pristinis sedibus se restituendam pax asserit : gratulantur sibi omnes , & howardo applaudunt . epilogus ad gentilicia howardicae familiae symbola alludens faelicia omnia legato & apprecatur & ominatur , & eum veneratus , suo & omnium nomine gratias agit . plaudite . peace is in england , which having beene a long while exiled , and given over as gone , is now about to returne into germany . a masque when the most illustrious and most excellent , thomas howard earle of arundell and surrey , extraordinarie ambassadour from his puissant majestie of great britaine , to the most august emperour ferdinand the second , and to the rest of the princes of germany , came to visit the iesuites college , presented by the students at prague , 1636. the prologue . mercuries servant imployed about making ready of the theatre , fals upon little children , who would faine see the ambassadour of the king of england : he tels them that they cannot see him in the theatre , unlesse they will congratulate his comming : whom when by reason of their tender age they cannot salute in latine , they doe performe it in their native language in a differing idiome . the first part. the first scene . mercury entertaines the gods and goddesses with their severall attendants , in a proper habit , comming to councell , and appoints to every one their places . the second scene . astraea complaines to iupiter and the rest of the gods of the crimes of men . iupiter having heard their opinions , delivers over the world to be punished by mars and vulcan . the third scene . peace now forlorne seeks out for a place where she may secure herselfe from the fury of mars . neptune carries her over into england in a sea-shell . the fourth scene . mars divides the globe of the earth into divers parts , and distributes them to the furie of bellona and his other agents . the second part. the first scene . ceres , apollo , and bacchus bewaile before iupiter the calamitie which they suffer from mars : iupiter sends them unto neptune . the second scene . neptune tels them that hee hath committed the imperiall government of the sea to charles king of great britaine , and that they must make suit to him to restore peace unto the world . the third scene . mercury bids ceres and apollo to be of good cheere , and wils them not to doubt , but that king charles will shortly by his ambassadour howard earle of arundle , reduce peace . peace affirmeth that shee shall be restored to her former dwellings , they doe all gratulate one another , and give their acclamations to howard . the epilogue alluding to the armes of the house of the howards , both wish and presage all happinesse to the ambassadour , and having made obeysance to him , give him thanks for himselfe , and for all the rest . here we stayed seven dayes , and departed the thirteenth of iuly for regenspurg by waggons , over the plaine where the great battell was fought , betweene the emperour and the king of bohemia , not above two english miles from the citie , there wee did observe many places in the ground , wherein the dead bodies were put , and a great company of bones lying by on a heape , where were slaine in all on both sides about thirtie thousand : from thence thorow a plaine corne countrey , to a little towne three dutch miles from frague , called beroum , where wee lay , which towne hath beene burnt by the duke of saxon his forces . the next morning earely wee went thorow plaine corne-fields and meddowes , untill we came to mauth , a poore village where we dined : from thence thorow woods , and by poore villages burnt , to a prettie towne called pilsen , where we lay that night , having travelled seven dutch miles , it is seated in a plaine , with three little rivers running by it , as misen , glatow , and pilsen , taking the name from the towne . the next morning thorow a wooddie countrey and corne-fields to swabe to dinner ; after dinner to bishopsteine to bed , having this day travelled but foure dutch miles , in which the count dorfmastaff hath a little castle pleasantly seated , and the river igree running about part of it , the towne was never pillaged as yet . earely the next morning from thence passing thorow a very stony hill , and a wood foure english miles in length , called bemer-waldt , wherein about the middest there is a schans , in which count mansfelt and his armie lay two moneths , at which schans the upper palatinate begins . then to waldminiken , a little towne to dinner , the first in the upper palatinate ; and the oast of the house did serve count mansfelt as ancient at that time : after dinner thorow a wooddie poore countrey to redtz a little towne where we lay that night , having travelled six dutch miles . the seventeenth day being sunday , early we departed , passing thorow great woods , in danger of the crabats lying thereabouts , and carried out of our way by by chance through an ignorant guide , untill we came to bruke , a towne miserably ruinated , seated pleasantly in a plaine , where there was not above foure poore housholds remaining : not long since it was in great prosperitie ; for when wee were a little past the towne , there was a gallowes and scaffold by the way , whereon the burgers of the towne suffered , and many hanging still , who were lutherans : then to a towne called nettenow to dinner , and from thence after dinner to regenspurg , having travelled seven dutch miles this day , passing first thorow many pleasant places of landskips , and over the river regen , ( which runneth into the danuby just by the citie ) passing over on rafters , the bridge being beaten downe then with the other former batteries : between vienna and this place , are many faire built townes promising much , by reason of their severall piazzo's , or market-places and fountaines , with other such expressions , but entring the houses , scarse finde men , lodging , or people of understanding to exchange discourse with . the next day after his excellence came hither , the ambassadour of the elector of brandenburg visited him ; and the day after his excellence visited him againe ; here his excellence stayed but foure dayes , because the emperour was not come , and departed for augusta , on thursday the one and twentieth of iuly , and dined that day at sall , a small towne on the danuby , thence thorow bavaria to augsburg , a verie fine towne standing on the river volga , which a little before fals into the danuby , and thence that night to neistadt , a faire towne ten miles from regenspurg , where his excellence lay that night . next day earely passing thorow a fine wooddie countrey to bezanzon , where my lady abbesse gave his excellence a banquet , from thence after dinner to palermo , a stately towne , and there lay that night , having travelled seven dutch miles . satturday being the three and twentieth of iuly , we departed for augusta , passing thorow part of tiroll to mumantia , burnt some two yeeres since by generall cleandor , one of the king of swedens colonels ; and from thence to dole , which hath been a verie pleasant situated towne , standing on the brow of a hill , from whence at the distance of three english miles we beheld augusta , which towne of dole was also with bezanzow burnt by colonell cleandor two yeeres since , passing thorow this towne , we descended into a goodly valley , but ere we gut into it , went over a small arme of the river tanais , ( which encompasseth augusta on the west , as the river vindilicorum doth on the east ) passing this valley , which is the more famous , in respect at the upper end of it was fought the great battell of pharsalia , between pompey & iulius caesar , from whence it takes the name of the plaine of pharsalia : drawing neere augusta , we passed over five bridges standing over the river vindilicorum , which is divided into so many branches so running with so many bulwarks : the river water is of an excellent greene colour , which is caused ( as they say ) running out of copperas mines , which are in the mountaines of dalmatia , from whence it springs , taking its name from vindix a famous captaine , who first rebelled against nero , passing over all these bridges , we entred the outer towne , which is well built , and so in at a broad port thorow the high street to his excellences lodging , that day and the next was spent in seeing pictures : munday being the five and twentieth day , his excellence went to see the stadt-house . first you must understand it to bee a square pile , of at least one hundred foot square ; in the middest against the street , yee enter by a large paire of staires of thirteene steps , into a stately lower roome supported by twelve calcidonian pillars , opposite to which against the wals stand the images of the first caesars , which because they were written under , i will mention as first , augustus the city founder , from whence it takes the name , then tiberius , nero , sergius , andronicus , meleager , themistocles , lysimachus , orion ; phoebus , enobarbus , and barbarossa , over it in another roome which to come to , wee passed up sixe and thirty staires which as the other was supported by twelve pillars of corinthian worke and jasper stone , in which is painted to the life ( which they say , was done by apelles and michael angelo , the one the master the other the man ) are the images of lycurgus , zeno , aristocrates , aristides , agathocles , phocion , anaxagoras , the first triumvirat of rome , thence by thirty steppes more into the state-house it selfe , which is a most curious peece of worke , without pillers , peeced with onyx and smarage , two excellent kindes of marble , found in the teneriffe a mountaine of tiroll , it is about the walles painted with the stories of all the gods , painted by raphael urbine , some twelve yeeres since , against this state-house stands a goodly fountaine in the middle on a pedastall of brasse , the statue of augustus environed with all the gods and goddesses to the number of forty in brasse in polonian cassockes and turkish scymiters by their sides , in the middest of the high street is another of mercurie , and at the farther end hercules in a lions skinne killing of hydra with his seventy heads all in brasse , which as soone as he strikes off one head , two ariseth in the place , there are besides in this towne many other rare things , as an arsenall brave monasteries fugger house , water workes most innumerable and admirable rare and curious buildings and what not to delight the eye , heere his excellency staied a weeke . and thence on sunday , hearing the emperour was a comming to regenspurg , departed that day being the one and thirty of iuly another way for regenspurg through the mountaines of tiroll to niburg , where wee lay being seven dutch miles , a stately towne from whence the duke of niburg takes his name , it stands on a small river boristines which is of a blacke colour , as rising out from the cole mines of epirus . the next day through swaben and to ingolstate the strongest towne in all mesia , which is a part of bavaria , which towne kept out the king of sweden and killed his horse under him , whose skinne is preserved still for a relique in the arsenall , it is the stronger having the danu and a large plaine on the south , and the swift river rhodanus on the north , which not above a mile before falles into the danu . the next day which was the third of august his excellency tooke boate and that night arrived at regenspurg , passing first by many small places not worth the naming except rellein , a great towne which had anciently beene a colony de corvinus , the dictators , as it is said . the emperours comming to towne was in this manner : when he entered the first gate of the city , twelve of the magistrates , standing there , made a long oration to his majesty after their duty done , then past through a round where musicke and voyces were , and a canopie borne by sixe men having his majesties armes thereon , passing thus along the streets through seven hundred souldiers placed in order and his owne guard of an hundred men about his coach , the empresse being with him , and after his coach were an hundred horsemen , with carabines and pistols , who alwayes guard his person , called harshers , clothed alike , then followed the archdutchesse , in her coach , and all the rest in their degrees , untill they came at the great church , where his majesty alighted and went in , where the bishoppe of the city met him at the enterance , being clothed in his robes , with his miter cope and croysers staffe , burnt incense to them , being upon their knees , after went up to the high altar , and there heard te deum sung with drummes and trumpets , this ended , retyred into his pallas which doth adjoyne to the church . the fifth day his excellency had audience of the emperour and emperesse , the next day conde d' oniato the spanish ambassadour extraordinary visited his excellency guarded by twelve polakes having carabines on their shoulders and sables by their sides , whose sonne is now ambassadour extraordinary in england . the nineth day his excellencie visited him , the same day the duke of bavaria came , and his dutchesse , being bigge with childe , was brought in her chaire from the waters side , attended with eight hundred thirty and seven persons , and seven hundred sixty and foure horses , and have taken five hundred quarters for them heere in the towne . the next day being sunday , the bishop of mentz came in the evening with an hundred seventy and nine horses , and one hundred eighty and five persons . the sixteenth day the poland ambassadour visited his excellency having thirty followers being all clothed in severall coloured sattin dublets and red cloth hose with long poland red coates , most of woven silke , without sleeves bands or hats , but redde cappes on their heads with a feather like unto a turkey's in every one of them , their haire all cut off their heads , but one long locke left on their crowne , and all yellow short bootes , no spurres but iron heeles , and the ambassadour in the same fashion , and twelve footemen clothed in the same kinde in a meaner habit , having great pole-axes in their hands and sables by their sides . the eighteenth day being the emperours coronation day , his majestie went to visite the elector of mentz , about eight of the clocke in the morning , and all his nobles and servants attending on his person going before him afoote by two and two together . the same day also as soone as his majesty departed , his excellency visited him : and the one and twenty being sunday the venetian ambassadour visited his excellency , and after him the florentine agent . the next day in the afternoone his excellency was visited by the elector of mentz , and the bishop of vienna after him , and marquis palavicino . the five and twenty day in the forenoone the holland ambassadour visited his excellency . and the next day the spanish ambassadour gave his excellency the second visite , and after him the count slavata chancellour of prague . the eight and twenty day being sunday in the forenoone , the emperour and empresse went to doe homage for peace , accompanied with the bishop of mentz , the duke of bavaria , his dutchesse , and the archduchesse her sister , from his palace to a little old church in the towne , going all a foote , and their nobles and servants attending in their orders ; first bannors , then all the cavaleers , then singers , and all the priests with their orders , and the bishop of the towne in his church robes , then the emperour following , led by the count kezell lord high chamberlaine , and don-baltazar , a great commander : the emperesse led by count slavata and prince dietreichstain , lord high chamberlaine to her majestie ; the bishop of mentz , the duke of bavaria , his dutchesse , and the archdutchesse her sister , led by their servants , and all the nobles and ladies following in their degrees : after their devotions ended , returned in the same manner . the same day in the afternoone , his excellency visited the spanish ambassadour . and the next day the bishop of maintz gave his excellencie the second visite . this day after great search , were found the lost bodies of his excellencies servants , the gentleman of his horse , his trumpeter , together with their guide , the postmaster : sixe daies after the murder committed , being most barbarouslie slaine and tied to severall trees in the wood , the distance of about a pistols shot off from the high-way , as it was conceived to bee spectators each one of anothers end , and not foure english miles from nuringburge , taken as they were returning for regenspurge , and thus murthered : the head of the gentleman of the horse shotte thorough with a pistoll , the trumpeters head cut off , and the guides cloven in sunder , and the next day after they were found were nobly interred at nuringburge , accompanied with all the lords and burgers of the citie . the first of september being thursday in the morning , came the bishoppe of vienna and doctor gebard , one of the emperors counsell , and a clarke of the counsell , to conferre together about his excellencies ambassage . the fourth day being sunday , the emperour , emperesse , the dutchesse of bavaria , and the archduchesse her sister , went to the holy crosse to heare a vesper sung , and the nobles afoote by their coaches ; the next day about ten of the clocke in the forenoone all the electors or their ambassadours mette privately at court , the same day , the countesse of tyrconnell an irish lady , and sir griffin markham an english gentleman dined with his excellency , and many scotish and irish colonels hath visited his excellencie and dined with him likewise ; and they say a great part of the emperours army bee our kings subiects . the next day the spanish ambassadour gave his excellency the second visit , and after him , the leger of genoa . the eighth day being thursday , about eight of the clocke in the morning , all the electors or their ambassadours met in the state-house , being a little meane house where the magistrates of the towne sit to doe justice , comming in this manner ; first the elector of collen his ambassadour , the elector of brandeburgh his ambassadour , elector of mentz , the duke of bavaria , and the elector of saxon his ambassadour , but the elector of tryer who was taken prisoner by the spaniard as afore mentioned was not admitted , all in their coaches , having but few attendants , and fewer spectators , they being sat , two chaines were drawne over the street and guarded that none might passe neere , having sat two howers departed in the same manner they came , the elector of mentz , is chancellour of germanie , the elector of collen chancellour of italy , the king of bohemia cup-bearer of the empire , the elector palatine of the rhine high shewer of germanie , the elector of saxon high marshall of the empire , and the elector of brandeburg high chamberlaine of the empire : this day the emperours propositions were opened and read to them . his first was , that they should depose tryer from his electorship , and elect leopaldus his majesties second sonne in his place . the second , to crowne his sonne king of the romanes , who is now king of hungary . the third to raise up forces to cleare the empire of all enemies which detaine and keepe any imperiall townes . the fourth , to conclude a generall peace with all christian princes . the tenth day , they all sat againe , and in a meaner fashion than before . the fifteenth day , sat againe , in the forenoone there was a man beheaded for committing incest with his owne daughter , from nine yeeres old untill this time , she being now of the age of twelve yeeres , and with childe by him . in the afternoone about foure of the clocke , came the poland ambassadour , to visite his excellency , being his second time . the next day in the morning earely , the duke of bavaria and his dutchesse departed for munecken eighteene dutch miles off , there to remaine untill shee bee delivered ; in so meane a fashion not worthy so much as to bee named , onely shee was caried in a chaire by her coaches side . the two and twentieth day , the electors sate againe , and the most part of the dyet they spent by way of private visits , with one another . the next day , the brandenburgs ambassador , gave his excellence the second visite . the foure and twentieth day , the ambassador of holland visited his excellence againe . october the fourth day , the count megaw visited his excellence the second time . the fift day in the morning , the emperour , empresse , and all the court , went to the church of the carmelites , to celebrate the feast of st. tereza , by whose prayers and intercessions , it is sayd , certaine captives were delivered out of turkie , transported out of their bondage and set free , in another place not farre distant , and their irons , fetters , and pictures , still preserved in this church , for a testimony of the myracle : in the afternoone , the king of hungary came , being sent for by the emperor from the army , to be elected king of the romans , accompanied with divers colonels and commanders of scotch and irish , but an english mile off the town his majesty made a stay , being in his coach , untill the emperor , empresse and the whole court came forth to meet him , and then he and all his followers tooke horse , and met the emperour and empresse at a distance , he lighted , and hastened to doe his obedience to them ; they likewise embracing him , then returned to his sister the archdutchesse to salute her , who was in another coach ; in the meane time , his followers kist the emperor and empresse hands ; that ended , the emperor call'd him into his coach , and went a hawking , but when they came at the place where their game was , they all tooke horse , but the empresse and the archdutchesse , who were carryed in an open litter by mules , their sport being ended , returned with their three spaniels and one hawke to their pallace . the 7. day , his excellence was visited by colonell lesley a scotch commander , and captaine of the king of hungaries guard. the 10. day on sunday , the king went poste to meet with his queene , who was a comming hither likewise . the 12. day , the elector of colen came in the forenoone , very well attended , and in the evening his excellence had audience of the emperor and empresse , but as we passed through the chambers to her majesty , there were neyther lights , nor men to direct us the way , passing thus along in the darke untill wee stumbled on a little doore , which is the doore of their antichamber , where wee found three or foure cavalieres , who had runne from the emperours side thither a little before , to informe her majesty of his excellence's comming , who was instantly brought in to her chamber , and after returned the same way , and but one attending with a light . the fourteenth day being friday , the queene of hungarie came about five of the clocke in the afternoone , for at one , the emperour , empresse , and the elector of collen , together with the whole court , went three english miles from the towne to meet her , but hawked as hee went untill three a clock , and then discovering her a comming about halfe an english mile distant , left his sport and went to meet her , drawing neere , lighted of his horse about foure rod off from her coach , and made hast with his hat in hand to imbrace her , shee being but got out of her coach and comming a little towards him , did her obedience kneeling and kissed his hand , hee bowing low likewise , most joyfully received her in his armes , the empresse being in a litter and the archdutchesse , hastened out likewise to salute her ; their gratulation being ended , betweene them and the elector of collen and conde d' oniato , the spanish ambassador extraordinary , which in all , held more than a quarter of an houre , the king and queene returned home in the emperours coach , having about thirty coaches , and one hundred horse , which brought them into the towne . the 17. day at 9. of the clocke in the morning , his excellence had audience of the king , and in the afternoone was visited by colonell lesley againe , and after him by the agent of poland . the next day in the evening , there was a great marriage at court , colonell wager a polander , who married a maid of honour to the empresse , call'd madam shafcutzin , whose father was beheaded some few yeares since here in this towne as a conspirator against the emperor ; the ceremony of the marriage beeing contrary to our english fashion , and in the evening : i will declare it ; first hee beeing brought from his lodging by the poland ambassadour and many cavalieres all well mounted to the court , lighted and went up to the emperour and empresse , then to his majesties private chappell , being brought thither by the emperor & the king , and she by the empresse and the queen , where the bishop onely joyned their hands , as the emperor gave her , and set a rich crowne of diamonds and pearle on his head , which was his majesties , and then returned to the privie chamber , where the emperor gave them a supper , and his majesty , the empresse , the king and queene of hungary , and the archdutchesse , together with the elector of mentz and colen , sate at table with them , and the bridegroome with the crowne all the time on , and the bride cloathed very richly at the empresses charge , having no other iewels on but her majesties that night , and after supper put to bed by them , being an order , that what lady soever of the court marries they do lye there that night , ( if she be a maide , not else . ) the next day at two of the clocke , count trausmistorfe privie councellor to the emperor , and the chiefe ruler in all the king of hungaries affaires , visited his excellence , being sent from the king. the day after , colonell lesley dined with his excellence , and after dinner was visited by the spanish ambassador conde d' oniato . and the one and twentieth day , his excellence had audience of the king and queene of hungarie , at two of the clocke in the afternoone . the next day , his excellence visited count trausmistorfe , and the bishop of vienna , and then returned home , and presently after count schlyck president to the councell of warre , visited his excellence ; and at five of the clocke came marquis castillado to towne , being ambassador in ordinary from spaine , who alwayes accompanies the king of hungary in the army , and came now from thence . the 23. being sunday , the count of schwartzenburg his sonne , whose father is the ambassador from the prince of brandenburg , and colonell lesley , dined with his excellence . and the foure and twentieth day , about eight of the clocke in the morning , his excellence visited the elector of colen , and at two of the clock marquis castillado , and likewise the count megaw . and the day following , hee visited the poland ambassador in the forenoone , and the elector of mentz in the afternoone . the 26. day , young pappenheym dyned with his excellence , whose father was generall for the emperour in the king of swedens time , and slaine then . and the next day , his excellence visited the count of schlyck againe . the 28. his excellence visited the count of trausmistorfe : being returned home , the poland ambassador came to take his leave of his excellence , and returned into poland againe ; and this day the elector of tryer past by the town at a distance , going for lintz , there to remaine a prisoner during the emperours pleasure , being brought out of the king of spaines dominions by a convoy of the emperors . the 29. day in the evening , the elector of colen visited his excellence : and since , the dutchesse of bavaria is brought to bed of a sonne , and he christened by the name of ferdinandus maria franciscus ignatius wolfgangus . the 30. of october on sunday , their dyned with his excellence the count of styrenburg , the count of schmurbenburg junior , baron lambert , and count piccolomini , whose father is generall of the emperors army , which joynes now with the cardinall infant against the french. and after dinner , the spanish ambassador castillado visited his excellence ; and the next day his excellence visited the spanish ambassador extraordinary . the first of november , his excellence visited the count of schlyck in the fore-noone , and had audience of the king in the afternoone . the next day , his excellence tooke his leave of castillado the spanish liedger , and the ambassador of brandenburg . and the day after , doctor vmmius liedger from the count of oldenburg , visited his excellence ; and colonell henderson a scotch gentleman , & dyned both with him : and after dinner , his excellence tooke his leave of count pappenheym marshall of the empire under the elector of saxon , and count bockhaym master of the horse to the king of hungary ; and the next morning , of the count of schlyck , and the count of strolensdorfe , vice-chancellor of the empire ; and in the afternoone of count slavato ; and then returned home , and presently came conde d' oniato the spanish ambassador extraordinary , to give his excellence his last visit ; he being gone , his excellence went and tooke his leave of the elector of m●ntz , and in the evening of the elector of colen . the next day , the count of slavato came to give his excellence his last visit , and after him the bishop of vienna : and the next morning marquis pallavicino , and after dinner the ambassador castillado and the count trausmistorfe , and at 5. of the clocke his excellence took his leave of the emperor , empresse , and the king and queene of hungary . and the next morning being tuesday , the 8. of november , early left regenspurg returning backe for england the same way to hemmaw , the first night 3. dutch miles . the next day wee travailed five dutch miles to nyemarke . and the third day to nuremburg , which was five dutch miles more , where the next morning the lords of the city came and presented their service to his excellence , in a long dutch complement , and after ●ined with him . and the next day in the afternoone they came againe , with a present of 40. flaggons of wine , and three killors of fish , which was brought in by thirty men all in red coats , guarded on the armes , with white and red caps , and then desired his excellence to goe and view their stathouse , which is a large long building of stone , above an hundred paces in length , passing first up 5. ascents of staires , & through a long gallery 90. paces long , ruffe cast with severall stories , and at the end entered into a square chamber , which sometimes is their councell-chamber , so into the second , third and fourth roome , which is twenty eight paces long , and twelve in breadth , painted above head , and carved very richly ; and on one of the walls hang the pictures of the sixe caesars ; first , carolus magnus , rodolphus primus , cꝰ . mundus , rodolphus secundus , mathius primus , and ferdinandus this emperor ; then into the fifth roome , which was furnished likewise with severall rare pictures , and two pictures of albert durer and his father , done by him , which they presented his excellence with ; and in all these roomes are stoves very richly made , and upholden , some by lyons of brasse , and others by griffons . from hence , we went to view one of their houses , in which amongst the rest of his pictures , was the picture of his grandfather , who had neyther nose nor chin ; as the picture demonstrateth ; and then presented his excellence with a banquet : from hence to another faire house adjacent , and very well furnished likewise , but before we came into the rooms , we went up the curiousest stayre-case of stone as ever i have seene . and from hence to the castle , where the father of one of the lords lived , who after he had shewed his excellence all the roomes in the castle , which adjoynes to the wall of the towne , standing on a hill , and a very deepe well of one hundred and fifty fathom , cut out of a rocke , by which they were constrayned to releeve the towne , in the time of their former warres , betweene the emperor , and the king of sweden ; he presented his excellence with another banquet , and then returned home . the next day , which was sunday , they all dined with his excellence . and in the morning being the 14. day , wee departed having stayed heere three dayes , and tooke a convoy of 100. musketiers along with us to neustadt , five dutch miles ; the first night , travelling part by torch-light through the woods , and there lay on the straw that night : which towne formerly hath beene inhabited by 250. burgers or more , and not having now five in it . the fifteenth day earely , thence to ketzen five miles , and there lay on the planchers likewise ; and the next day to wirtzburg to dinner , which was three dutch miles , staying that night there , having no other towne neere to goe to . after dinner , the lords of the towne sent his excellence a present of two and thirty flaggons of wine , fish , and provision for his horse . the next morning before his excellence departed , he was visited by the bishop of wesburg , whom wee found , in the habit of a countrey gentleman , setting aside his order , which is an enamelled crosse hanging on a blacke ribbon about his necke ; who made very much of his excellence , and presented him with the picture of our ladie , done by albertus durerus , being one of his best peeces ; and then tooke leave of him , who was ready to ride out of towne , to some other place for safety , the swedes being within two dayes march of it , and then his excellence returned to his lodging , and presently went away . the seaventeenth day , taking a fresh convoy went to bishopsheim that night , a towne seated in a bottome , and incompassed round with hills , having the river tauber running about part of it , belonging to the bishop of mentz ; travelling this day foure dutch miles and most part through great woods . earely next morning , thence through k●lsen a village , and divers other poore villages burnt and pillaged , passing through a hilly wooddy countrey in much danger of the croats , and spying some running up and downe in the woods , being round about us , in number 6000. or more , dispersing themselves into severall companies , pillaging and robbing of the countrey ; travelling this day five miles to mildebarke , but a dutch mile before wee came thither , entered into our old way at nunkirken , the poore burnt village before mentioned , which is now inhabited by some foure or five poore people . the 19. day in the morning , from thence another way , taking another fresh convoy , leaving our old way and the maine on our right hand , passing along by the side of it , through hybach a village , and a faire house which is the bishop of mentz likewise , and through other villages miserably battered , and in plaines some sixe english miles in length , untill wee came to selgenstadt , having gone this day sixe dutch miles . falling into our old way within one mile of the towne , travelling all those dayes in danger of the croats , where as soone as his excellence lighted , the grave vandosme governour of the countrey for the bishop of mentz , sent his excellence a present of halfe a wilde bore , and likewise provision for his horse ; knowing that the towne could not affoord any thing . the twentieth day being sunday , early in the morning , wee went thence to frankfort to dinner , which was three dutch miles . and the next morning after , his excellence went to hannaw to visite sir iames ramsey , a scotch gentleman and governour of the towne , and there stayed that night , who met his excellence without the gate with a troupe of horse , and entering the towne there went off a brace of canons , and when his excellence lighted , went off two more by the doore of his excellencies lodging ; which towne , was besiedged a yeare and a halfe by the emperours forces , and at the beginning of the siege had such a grievous plague , that there dyed in 7. weekes , 22000. yet for all this , they kept out the enemy , though in great want and misery , and three months since it was releeved by the landt-grave of hesse , who slew a great company of the imperialists and drave the rest away ; for as wee passed by afore at a distance , we heard them as they were in their skirmish . the next morning , his excellence went about the towne to view the workes , which are very strong , scarce to bee scaled by any force , having two engines made but of six musket barrels a piece , which dutch engine dischargeth 80. times together , giving fire to it but once ; the towne is seated in a plaine ground , having the mayne on the east , and incompassed on the north and west , with the river knitszig , besides moted round , and this river serveth 14. mills which adjoynes to the towne , and before any man can enter into the old towne he must passe over three bridges , and through severall bulworkes , and over another into the new towne ; and at the releefe of the town , there was one daniel lauter a chiefe burger , dyed for very joy ; he being above in his house and seeing the victory , was overcome with such a mighty passion of joy , that hee fell downe and dyed instantly ; there was likewise a woman , who killed many dogs & sold their flesh at a great rate to many people , and one day as shee walked in the streets , was like to have been devoured by them , had not some poore souldiers by chance releeved her , who presently confessed what shee had done formerly , acknowledging she had justly deserved it ; and after dinner his excellence tooke leave of sir iames ramsey , and then returned backe to frankfort . the foure and twentieth day , foure of the burgers of the citie came and presented their service to his excellence with twenty flaggons of wine , and then dined with him ; here wee stayed three dayes untill our boates were made ready . and on saturday the 26. day of november , wee departed from hence , and rowed downe the mayne ; the first night to flersheym , which was three miles , against which wee cast anchor and lay aboard ; the next morning launched forth , and past downe to mentz , and there his excellence went on shore , to see if it were any way inriched since our being there , but alas , wee found it as miserable as before , with divers poore people lying on dunghils almost starved , being scarce able to crawle for to receive his excellencies almes , and presently returning to our boate to dinner , wee afterwards releeved many poore hungry soules with the fragments ; thence after dinner downe the rhyne to rudeshem , which was five dutch miles , and there cast anchor , and lay on the boards likewise . very earely the next morning wee weyed anchor , and presently entred into a dangerous place to passe , called bingham-locke , where the river lo● falls into the rhyne by the towne amongst many rockes , which causeth a violent fall , tossing us up and downe , that if wee had but touched any part of them we had all been cast away ; being past this , we came to bacharach , where , some of our company did but goe ashore ( and presently hastened after in a little boate , ) were pursued by five musketiers almost to his excellencies boat , who discharged very often at them , yet by good fortune mist them , and having overtaken his excellence , they instantly fled away ; then going on to a large iland an english mile from coblentz , wee there cast anchor and lay all that night ; for wee could not passe to the towne without leave from the governour , by reason of severall watches which lay in our way ; which night wee lay in much danger , perceiving them walke up and downe to catch a prey , for as some of our company did but goe a little way from our boat , they were layd hold on , and one that fled , had a musket shot at him , and hee that was taken , they caried before their commander , who was in a monastery in the iland , examining him , & then let him goe . the next morning , his excellence sent againe to the governour , for passage , who like a base fellow made us stay that night also , and the next day untill three of the clock in the afternoone , and would not let us passe , for all that his excellence had sent him the emperors passe and letter , wherein hee was commanded , not onely to give passage , but , to assist him in any thing hee required ; yet for all this , hee kept us still , and would not give way that our trumpeter might goe to the french in the castle ; but they perceiving how unworthily hee did deale with his excellence , discharged 4. or 5. cannons at his house , and shot quite through it , at last hee came at the third sending for , with an excuse , hee was very unkindly delt with by cardinall genetta , the popes nuntio , who lately passed by , going to colle● , but stayed him three dayes first , before hee let him passe , and made him promise faithfully not to visit the french , but being got beyond the towne landed and went in , which made him vow not to let any passe . but after that hee had talked a while with his excellence , gave leave to fall downe neere the towne , and having cast anchor , set a strong watch about us , and then gave leave for the trumpeter to goe to monsieur salade in the castle for passage , who most willingly granted it , and sent his excellence a very faire ancient picture ; but hearing by the trumpeter the governours base usage towards his excellencie , presently plac'd their canons against his house , and vowed his sonne should give fire to them the next morning , and would send him such a breakfast , as that hee should need no dinner ; in the interim , there came a lieutenant from the governour , upon a colour to visite his excellence , who proved a second villaine in the end , for all that wee used him very well , and fedde his hungry belly better than it had beene long before ; for the souldiers themselves confessed , that they had but one browne loafe and a halfe of bread in eight dayes , and not one penny of money ; yet this rascall lay lurking in our boate till our trumpeter returned , and then violently tooke him and the skipper , and carried them into the towne and set a watch about them ; and the next morning , sent his excellence word hee might passe , but the trumpeter should follow after ; whereupon his excellence sent his steward to know the reason , who found them tyed by the armes together , the skippers finger cut off , & the trumpeters head escaped very narrowly from being cloven in two , had not his strong hat defended it , and also had threatned to hang them up the next day together , but with much adoe hee brought them away with him , and after followed a gentleman to excuse that barbarous base usage of the lieutenant , and leave to passe , presently departing , and being gone but a little past the towne and against the castle , they saluted us , and said they would drinke the king of englands health , and then gave fire to more than twenty thundring cannons , beside a brave volley of small shot , which made their houses to smoake and tumble in our sight , but they durst not returne one backe againe ; the other governour geats , gave us very noble usage , but this who was lately sent , shewed himselfe so base , that he deserves no name with us ; from hence to bonn , and there cast anchor , but durst not lye nigh the towne , the sicknesse being very sore in it , and this day rowed eight miles . the next day being the first of december , in the morning we went from thence to collen , being foure miles , leaving those delightfull mountaines , hills , and pleasant vines , and entred into a plaine countrey , where as soone as wee came into the towne , neere the palace where the cardinall lay , had information , of all what the boorish governour of coblentz sayd of him was false ; wee stayed heere three dayes untill wee had exchanged our boates for bigger , and every day his excellence had presented unto him 24. flaggons of wine , sent from the magistrates ; who once dined with him . and on sunday the 4. day of december , about foure of the clocke at night tooke shipping , and the next morning at three a clocke set sayle , and sayled downe by mulheim on the left side of the rhyne , and sonts on the other side , which belongeth to the abbots of collen , where wee stayed to free toll ; then on by newse on the same side , where the river runneth out to it , and so to dusseldorpe , where as soone as we came but neere the shore , out came the noble duke of neuburgh , and clambered over other ships to come into ours , to visite his excellence , being much joyed at his safe returne , and had made provision at his house to entertaine his excellence , but perceiving he would not stay , sent for a wilde bore , wine , and five pictures , and presented them to his excellence , then tooke his leave , being very sory to let him goe , but considering the time and tediousnesse of the weather , was more willing to give leave , he staying by the shore untill wee put off , and then went off 10. cannons , the duke still walking along the shore as farre as the water would give him leave , and stayed untill we were out of fight . from thence by keiserswert belonging to the elector of collen , seated on the left side of the rhyne , where wee were stayed to free our toll againe , and at our lanching forth saluted us with one peece of ordnance , so on by ordingen a little towne , where on the other side , about a league further wee cast anchor , against a small old castle called engersort , sayling seaven leagues and a halfe this day , for before wee went by miles , which were some foure or five english miles at the least in length , but these are but three english ; this night wee lay in much danger , for there did lye on each side of us , parties , which robbeth and pillageth all passengers ; for wee saw above fifty in a company , going all along by the shore , but a little before wee cast anchor , and at 10. of the clocke in the night being very darke , was a false alarum given by the watch of a partie comming , which made us all flye to our weapons , at last perceiving it was but one boate , and they that were in it , crying out friends from the duke of neuburg , else wee had shot them , who came for to have passage into england . next morning earely wee weyed anchor , and went part of the day in danger likewise , to orsoy , the first garrison towne of the states , where we were stayed , and our ship searched what wee carried , but at our putting off , they gave us two pieces of ordnance ; so from thence along by rhineberg , against which there lay a man of warre of the states , who saluted us with three pieces ; then by buricksweasell , and a league further we cast anchor in the middle of the rhyne , sayling this day but 4. leagues and a halfe , by reason of our stay at severall toll places . the next day earely in the morning , set sayle , and sayled downe by rhees , emmericke , and by schenck-schants , which is now new built and well fortified againe , where wee left the rhyne and that on our right hand , and went downe in a deepe river called the wall , by nimmegen a faire towne , seated on the east side of the rhyne on a hanging hill , where the governour of the towne , sonne to one of the states , came forth and tendered his service to his excellence . in which towne there dyed this summer 12000. people of the plague , but now thankes be to god , it is almost ceased : from thence , passing by severall redoubt-houses built at every halfe league , in which there lyeth a watch continually to keepe the river , passing along untill wee came to the fourth house ; where , for all wee told them it was an english ambassador , shot foure or five pieces at us , and mist some of us very narrowly ; whereupon wee cast anchor , and lay in the middle of the rhyne , but could not certainly learne who they were , sayling this day seaven leagues . december the 8. in the morning , wee set sayle and went to teill , being but two leagues , and could not passe any further for yee , but sayled in great danger thither of splitting our ship by the violent force of it , which caused us to stay there three dayes , untill we heard there might be a passage cut over the rhyne at viana ; departed thither upon little sledges , on sunday the eleventh of december , and passed over great quantities of yce , through burem , where the prince of orange hath a faire castle , thence to culenburg , and so to viana to bed , travelling with much labour some on foot , others by the sledges this day 6. leagues , where sir ferdinando curie , an english gentleman , entertained his excellence that night , the towne is very pleasantly seated upon the east side of the rhyne , and the ●●rest thinges in it , are flowers , for there was a tulip-roote sold lately for 340. pounds , as sir ferdinando informed his excellence . the next morning , wee tooke boate and crossed over the river though with much danger and difficulty in the wet , the winde and tyde contrary , being got ashorm , went to vtrecht where we lay that night , which was but 2. leagues , and where there then dyed of the plague 80. a weeke , but a little before 300 ; from the 〈◊〉 to leydon next day to bed , travelling very late , and ●●ght leagues this day ; where some of the princes the queene of bohemia's sonnes , were at schoole , whom his excellence presently visited , and there met with some gentlemen , which the queene had sent to meet his excellence , and two of her coaches to fetch him to the hague . the next day before his excell● went away , he viewed the chiefe things of note in the towne , as the vniversities , the anatomie schoole , which before we had not leysure to see , and from thence after dinner to the hague , which was but 3. leagues , being wednesday the 14 th . day of december , and their christmas eve. thus leaving his excellence at the hague , i went for amsterdam that famous citie , first by waggon to harlem , which was five leagues , where i lay that night , being a very well built towne , the next day to the citie it selfe , which was three leagues , passing all the way upon a cawsey , by harlem-meare on my right hand , and the river tey on the left , and entred in at harlem-port , and past through all the new towne , and over three large graufts , princes , keasers , and the heares grauft , these streets be three quarters of an english mile in length , two hundreth paces in bredth , having an even row of stately beautifull buildings , and trees planted the whole length of the graufts side , and so into the old towne , which is not of so stately a building , but the whole citie is built upon piles in the water , and a great channell runneth through every street for the marchants ships to sayle to their doores , their exchange is built much like unto that in london , both beneath and above , but that it wants a little in breadth , with water running under it , there is a very large building called the weishouse , wherein all poore children , fatherlesse , or of decayed parents , are there maintained and brought up , and there is now at this present time 800. all clad alike , the one side of their garments blacke and the other red ; there is likewise foure hospitals adjoyning one unto another , for men and women to be severed each from other , the east and west indian houses , two rare builings and curious within , and many other delightfull things to please the eye , heere i stayed two dayes ; and on saturday the 17. day of december , at 5. of the clocke at night , tooke a s●utz drawne by a horse , and went up a river along by the side of the cawsey ; than i passed downe on before to harlem , and there at 10. of the clocke in the evening tooke a waggon , and travailed all night to the hague , which was five leagues ; but ferried over the rhyne at two in the morning , and got thither by 8. of the clocke ; where wee stayed eight dayes , and the most part of the time was spent at the queenes court , and the rest in visites , betweene the prince of orange , the states , and three ambassadors which were there ; as monsieur charnesse from france , seignior carmerarius for the swedes , the venetian ambassador , and the count of culenburg ; but hearing our ship was come , his excellence tooke leave of the queene at 10. of the clocke at night , and came away next morning being wednesday , the one and twentieth of december , and prince maurice along with him to keswicke , where the prince of orange hath a house , which his excellence viewed , and then the prince taking leave returned backe againe , and his excellence rode on forward in her majesties coach to delft where he dined , in which towne there are as many bridges as dayes in the yeare , and so many channels and streets , where boates doe passe up and downe , and one common passage under a church-yard , under which wee did passe , from thence by a scute to rotterdam , where we lay , which is from the hague five leagues , untill that the winde served us , and then on saturday being the 24. of december ( and christmas eve by our stile ) at a 11. of the clocke in the night , tooke boates and went to our ship , sayling first through magan sluce to helver-sluce , where our ship called the garland did ride at anchor , and about 3. in the afternoone set sayle , and sayled over the barre , having a pilate sayling before us with a lanthorne on the top of his mast , sounding for the depth all the way ; and the next day at twelue of the clocke cast anchor in the dounes , and there rid and could not land for the roughnesse of the sea , untill tuesday morning the 27. of december , and then landed at deale , and from thence by poast to canterbury , and so to sittinburne to bed . the next day in the morning earely to gravesend , and there tooke water for london ; where on the way , my right honourable lady met his excellence , who exchanged barges , and there she entertained him with a banquet , and so earely the next morning , went to hampton court to his majesty . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a19674-e220 hage . utrecht . schen●●shants . wesell . dusseldorp . collen coblentz . bacharach . mentz ▪ francfurt . neunkirchen . wurtzburg marckbibrach noremberg . newmark . regenspurg . straubingen vilshoven . lintz . aspagh . holebrum . swamb bodewic iglo . shasshaw . bemishbrade . pragu bishopsteine . regensp palermo hemmaw . nuremburg . wirtzburg bishopsheim . mildebarke . selgenstadt . frankfort hannaw . coblentz . collen . mulheim . dusseldorpe teill . amsterdam hague . the vvarnings of germany by wonderfull signes, and strange prodigies seene in divers parts of that countrey of germany, betweene the yeare 1618. and 1638. together with a briefe relation of the miserable events which ensued. all faithfully collected out of credible high dutch chronicles, and other histories by l. brinckmair captaine. as also a learned and godly sermon preached before the lords the states at norrimberg. anno 1638. brinckmair, l. 1638 approx. 140 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 54 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2007-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a16857 stc 3758 estc s121731 99856899 99856899 22541 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a16857) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 22541) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1129:10) the vvarnings of germany by wonderfull signes, and strange prodigies seene in divers parts of that countrey of germany, betweene the yeare 1618. and 1638. together with a briefe relation of the miserable events which ensued. all faithfully collected out of credible high dutch chronicles, and other histories by l. brinckmair captaine. as also a learned and godly sermon preached before the lords the states at norrimberg. anno 1638. brinckmair, l. [32], 69, [3]; [8], 72 p., folded plate : ill. (metal cuts) printed by john norton, for john rothvvell, and are to be sold at the sunne in pauls church-yard, london : 1638. in two parts. part 2, "lacrymæ germaniæ", also issued separatedly as stc 11792--cf. stc. part 2 has title: lacrymae germaniae: or, the teares of germany. vnfolding her woefull distresse by jerusalems calamity. in a sermon .. translated out of the high dutch copy .. london, printed by i. okes, and are to be sold by h. overton, and iohn rothwell, 1638--cf. folger shakespeare library catalog. "lacrymæ germaniæ" on reel 1024, and there identified as stc 11792, is actually part 2 of stc 2759. imperfect as filmed lacks part 2. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bernhard, -duke of saxe-weimar, 1604-1639. omens -early works to 1800. sermons, german -early works to 1800. germany -history -1618-1648 -early works to 1800. 2006-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-07 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2006-08 jason colman sampled and proofread 2006-08 jason colman text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the vvarnings of germany . by wonderfvll signes , and strange prodigies seene in divers parts of that countrey of germany , betweene the yeare 1618 and 1638. together with a briefe relation of the miserable events which ensued . lvke 21. 25. &c. and there shall be signes in the sunne , and in the moone , and in the starres , and upon the earth distresse of nations with perplexitie . &c. all faithfully collected out of credible high dutch chronicles , and other histories by l. brinckmair captaine . as also a learned & godly sermon preached before the lords the states at norrimberg . anno. 1638. london . printed by john norton , for john rothvvell , and are to be sold at the sunne in pauls church-yard . 1638. a briefe discovrse of prodigies , by way of preface to the treatise following . section 1. most divine is that axiome , god and nature do nothing in vaine . nature is that constant order of being and working , which god hath appointed for the creatures . where there is order , and that order constant , and both determined by an infinite wisdome , there must necessarily be some good end propounded by the ordainer , and all motions effectuall for accomplishment . yet the course of nature is subject to many alterations , because there is a god above nature , who hath set bounds for the creatures , but none for him save the counsell of his will. whatsoever the lord pleases , that doth hee in heaven above , and in the earth beneath . a § 2 hereupon it followes , that even those things which come to passe according to the course of nature , are very considerable : because they are ●ffected according to gods ordination . his invisible power and godhead b may be seene in them . nothing is so small , but his providence extends to it . praes●ntemque refert quaelibet herba deum . in every tender grasse god may be seen as in a glasse . divine praescience were far from being , as indeed it is , all infinite , did it not extend it selfe to every accident . nothing is or moves , or suffers in any kinde , but in subordination to gods eternall decrees , that his wise purpose may be effected . and what is it which we see or heare of in any of the creatures , which affords not some morall and divine use ? the world is gods great booke in folio . every creature is a severall page , in which w●e may reade some instruction to further us in heavenly wisedome . the occasional meditations of such as are piously devoted , give us sensible demonstration of this . prophane then , and irreligious are they that looke on the ordinary course of gods providence , but never looke up to god in holy meditation . whereas everything wee see is like iacobs ladder . the foote of it is in earth , but the top is in heaven . we should therefore looke beyond our senses , and use them as a prospective glasse , to see god through , that he may be brought nigh our hearts , though wee be farre from his glorious presence . that philosopher seemés to have had some secret inspiration from the almighty , who being asked wherfore man was made , answered , coeli contemplandi gratiâ . for god indeede made us to study himselfe , and minde things above . why was adam put in paradise ? onely to till the garden without taking other care , or pleasure ? rather , that by imploying himselfe about the creatures , he might more distinctly meditate of every one to inflame his affections toward god. and what is it which affords no instruction ? toades , and such like , seeing man fly from them presently . a lively emblem of lapsed mankinde , which cannot indure gods presence , we being conscious to our selves that we are worthy of his hatred . seeing poore wormes made by god in such a condition , that every foo●e may tread on them , and them without meanes to revenge or resist that hurt , we should hence learne humilitie , patience , and all subjection to the will of god. every cocke crowing is a lesson of repentance . every sound of a trumpet an alarum to the last iudgement . and every puffe of breath a memento mori . for what is our life ? it is even a vapour , appearing for a little time , then vanishing . i am . 4. 14. § 3 this supposed , it followes further . those things which are more rare in the course of nature , divers , contrary , or above , are more then ordinarily to be thought upon . for of every such thing it may be said , digitus deiesthic , god hath an immediate hand in them , they are for speciall use . having therefore in the treatise following the wonderfull things of god reflicted to us as in a glasse , by an historicall gleaning together of some remarkable prodigies which of late yeares have happened in germany , with the events which followed them , it will not bee superst●ous to take something along with us in reading them , touching the nature , ends , and use which is to be made of such like , according to the scripture . the rather because they are in themselves like the writing on the wall in beshazzars palace , a which sooth-fayers , astrologians , and chald●●ns could neither understand nor reade . who can reade gods riddle , but they who plough with his heifer ? none know what use to make of his workes , but they who meditate of them , according to his word , with the helpe of his spirit . hence it is though some are carefull in observing them , yet few have the happinesse to profit by them . most men profanely disregard them , being of gallio's temper , carelesse of such matters . some su●●itiously abuse them . many onely gaze , and wonder . few know what they meane , and therefore skip them over as unskilfull readers use to doe sentences of greeke and latine which they understand not . to remedy this in some part , here is my indeavour in hope of gods blessing . the worke of the lord is great , sought out of all them that have pleasure therein psalm . 111. 2. § 4. if the question be what prodigies are , the answer may be , signes and wonders wrought by god immediately , or by others at his appointment , to signifie his pleasure aforehand touching some speciall mercy or judgement ensuing . the treatise cals them prodigies , that is praedictions or foremarnings . so much the word implyesa. in scripture phrase they are called , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signes and wonders , joel ( chap. 2. v. 38. ) calls them wonders , st. luke , chap. 21. 11 ) calls them fearefull sights , and great signes . st. peter tearmes them , wonders in heaven , and signes in earth . acts. 2. 21. of signes some are to represent , some for commemoration , some to assure , others to prognosticate , whereof some be ordinary , others extraordinary . prodigies be extraordinary prognosticating signes . they are also called wonders , not because they are all miracles in propriety ; but because they seeme to bee , unto such as know not the causes and effects of them , and therefore cause wondring . a miracle is that which happens besides the order of all nature , particular , and generall , for a stone to moove upward when it is throwne , is contrary to the particular nature of a stone , yet no miracle , because all things give way to violence . the hanging of mahomets iron tombe in the ayre ( if it bee , as it is reported ) is no miracle , because it may be drawne up by vertue of some loadstone above it . but every thing is a wonder , whose cause we know not , or at least which wise men know not . admiration alwaies rises out of some degree of ignorance . there is therefore a difference betwixt a miracle and a marvell : d under the tearme of wonder ; 3 severall things be comprehended . 1 speciall rarities in the course of nature , and in the actions and affaires of men e ▪ secondly , miracles properly so called . thirdly , whatsoever it is which makes the wiser or greater part of men to admire , as wel as fooles , however it be called . alwhich are here included under the name of prodigies . § 5 having briefly notified the meaning both of the name and thing in hand , the next thing most necessary is to consider of the author , who gives being to things prodigious , and appoints their use . that must needs bee god , who is the onely alpha and omega ; the center from which all lines are drawne , and the circumference wherein they are terminated . all predictions , whether they bee naturall or supernaturall , must needs originally issue from him , that decrees things from eternity , and causes them to exist in time in all circumstances according to his appointment . this hath alwaies been out of controversie , not onely among christians , but also among the philosophers , yea even amvng the very vulgar heathen . but though all have reference to god , yet not all alike . some things hee either doth immediately , or at least wise seemes to doe , for both god , and nature are often clouded . many things are effected by the ministery of the angells . some proceed from me , and the course of nature , yet not without god. those things which are most common in the course of nature , are to bee counted gods workes , and therefore much more those which are strange . god puts these questions to iob. hath the raine a father ? or who hath begotten the drops of dew ? out of whose wombe came the yce ? and the hoary frost of heaven , who hath gendred it ? the answer to bee made is this , god giveth being to al these things according to his pleasure , what then shall be thought of raining bloud , fire , and such like ? no otherwise then according to that , the lord rained upon sodom and gomorrah , fire and brimstone from the lord out of heaven b . he threatens such aforehand , and he alone hath power to effect them . therefore when we see or heare of any such thing , we can doe no lesse then acknowledge in the psalmists words , this is the lords doing , and it is marvellous in our eyes . psal . 118. 23. § 6 but how is it that signes and wonders are said to be wrought by false prophets ? for so moses intimates a and our saviour sayes expresly , there shall arise false prophets , and false christs , and shall shew great signes and wonders and to like effect paul speakes of antichrist ▪ 2. thess . 2. 9. we read also that many signes done before pharaoh by moses , were also done before him by the magitians of aegypt c . no doubt but satan and his instruments are permitted to doe great things for the triall of gods church and children , but in all they doe they are no more but instruments . therefore that fire wherewith jobs sheepe and servants were consumed , is fuly called the fire of god , though the prince of the ayre was in that the incendiary and the bellowes , and added oyle to the flame . but gods wonders and satans differs very much ▪ oftentimes in the thing it selfe . * satan seemes to worke miracles , but god workes miracles indsed . satan also makes a shew of doing many things which indeed hee doth not , deluding the outward senses and the the phantasie . he alwayes lies against god or nature . therefore well saith moses , who is like unto thee o lord among the gods ? who is like unto thee ? glorious in holinesse , fearefull in praise , doing wonders . e but in the ground and end there is alwayes a vast and manifest difference betwixt the one and the other . all that satan does , is out of hatred , envy and malice , to god and man. but all that god doth is in mercyor iustice . the plot which the devill prosecutes in every particular , is to rob god of his glory , to make his word of none effect , and to frustrate the salvation intended for the elect. gods immutable purpose is to glorifie himselfe , to fulfill his word in all the promises and threatnings , and to save those whom he hath chosen in christ . the one intends nothing but fraud and mischiefe , the other to approve his goodnesse even to them that wilfully perish . satan labours to bring men into heresie , superstition , and idolatry , to blind their eyes , harden their hearts , and wholly to corrupt them in all their wayes . god would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth that they might be saved a , if any desire to know how it may be knowne , which wonders be wrought by god especially , and which by satan , let them consider , this is needlesse for us curiously to inquire after , and fruitlesse to bee knowne . our duty is to looke upon all good and evill as coming from god , as iob did , saying , the lord , hath given , and the lord hath taken , &c. shall wee receive good from the hand of the lord , and not evill ? and though some prodigies be but rarities in nature , yet are wee to ascribe all to god , in as much as nature is his handmaid , and even of naturall things there is more to be made then a naturall use . § 7 as for the matter wherof prodigies consist , that is worthy to be considered of , but warily to be determined a confused notion that some things are prodigious , without knowledge of the particulars , and whether it be good or evill that is portended , hath bred and nourished much curiositie and superstition , needlesse feares in some , fond hopes in others , there have anciently beene a sort of men who have made it their study and profession to teach what is ominous , and of what : such were the soothsayers , astrologians , chaldeans , and the like . but the light of the gospell hath made all these see ming starres to vanish . and yet still pride , curiositie , infidelity , like bitter rootes growing in the heart of mankinde naturally , leade them much what in the same way . hence it is that almost every accident is by some counted a signe of good or evill lucke , according to our common phrase . to reckon up particulars in this kinde , would be both tedious and ridiculous . but it must be granted that some things are prodigious : true . and that some things are so in reference to particular persons , and families . some to countries , nations , and whole states . this also cannot be denied , whatis then the rule to know them by ? no vulgar conceit , no nor every pretended reason . nor yet all manner of experience , so far as wee are to regard prodigies . the scripture is a sufficient rule . therein we have multitude and varietie of examples that teaches us to count of sinne as a certaine forerunner of divine vengeance , unlesse repentance intercept . and to take repentance , faith , obedience , piety , justice , and charity for assured pledge of gods love and purpose of blessednes in every kinde . according unto these we are to regulate our hopes and feares . humility is a speciall token of honor ensuing , and pride a forerunner of destruction . a he that goes on in an evill way shall not prosper at the last , though the sun , moon and starres should seeme to fall downe and worship him , as they did sometime to ioseph . and he that feareth god , and escheweth evill may be confident that all shall worke together for the best , though hell were for the present let loose upon him . yea , though god himselfe should make a but of him to empty his quiver in . foure hundred prophets may say to ahab , goe up to ramoth gilead and prosper . yet ahab falls there , for he had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse . romes merchants will not believe her fall , but they shall certainly see and lament it c babylon sayes i am , and none else besides me . i shall not sit as a widdow , neither shall i know the losse of children . but these two things ( saith god ) shall come to thee in a moment in one day , the losse of children and widdowhood , they shall come upon thee in their perfection , &c. in sinning there be some circumstances which are more immediate harbingers of judgement , and so likewise many particular sinnes . backsliding , as in solomon . presently hereupon god stirred him up adversaries . raeshnesse in things which require a waighty consultation , as in rehoboam . selfe-will , as in iosias . impudency , as in absolon . but i had rather leave particulars to the studious readers observation . so on the other side humility , wisedome , patience , importunity in prayer , diligence in well doing doe more especially demonstrate gods purpose to manifest his especiall mercy . but those praedions which we have now especially to consider , are of another sort . § 8. to speake more fully of the matter of prodigies , in generall ▪ i conceive it is some speciall accident happening by the providence of god. the things about which such accidents happen are diverse , and according to the difference thereof wee may count of 3. kinds of prodigies , naturall , morall and divine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . naturall are those speciall accidents which fall out in the particular or generall course of nature . of which some are celestiall , some elem●ntarie . celestiall i call those which happen about the heavenly bodies . as about the sunne , moone or other starrs . by elementary i meane those which happen in the elements themselves , or those things which are compounded of them . morall prodigies are those which consist in the affections , passions , words , or actions of men . divine i call those wherein ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) some divine impression is more conspicuous or necessarily to be acknowledged . for each of these kinds there is mutiplicity of instances to be had almost in all histories , but it shall suffice me to particularise in some few out of scripture . that extraordinary eclipse which happened at our saviours passion a , at which the greatest philosophers , that then were , much admired . the plague of darknesse in aegypt b , and the apparition of angells and heavenly visions , whereof we often read in scripture , were prodigies celestiall . of elementary we have more variety of examples , the fire which consumed nadab and abi●● c , that which fell from heaven on the captaines and their companies , sent by ahaziah to elijah , d the pillar of fire which was for safe conduct to the israelites in the night time e . the fire & vrimstone which fell on sodom and gomorrah . the cherubims and flaming sword which god placed before paradice . the cloudy pillar which was israels guide by day . the manna wherewith they were fed in the wildernesse . the plague of haile in egypt . that on the army of the five canaanitish kings in ioshua's time . the dividing of the red sea. and of iordan . christs walking on the water . water issuing out of the rocke , and out of the jaw bone of an asse . bitter water becomming sweet by casting in salt. earthquakes , famine , extraordinary fruitfullnesse , excessive multitude of birds , as of quailes , among the israelites , or of flyes , beasts , or creeping things , as among the plagues of egypt , the strange peregrination of creatures , from their wonted habitation , as the comming of the creatures into the arke . these and many such like particulars are counted prodigies , and for distinction sake naturall , because some thing in it selfe naturall , is the subject of them . as for morall prodigies that which is passed in the former section shal●suffice , because it is but a schedule that i have to write , and not a volume : for divine prodigies , so called in a more especiall manner , these following are most apparent . the sun and moone standing still as in ioshua's time . the shadowes going backe 10 degrees on ahaz his diall in hezechiahs time . the new starres appearing at our saviours birth . the rending of the vaile of the temple , and the resurrection of dead bodies , at the time of his crucifying . &c. these are sufficient to shew us what is to bee counted prodigious , and what not . for all particulars we have no instance . things new and strange may daily happen as god sees cause to conclude this part of the matter in hand , let this note suffice . whatsoever happens extraordinarily and rarely to us or to any of the creatures , hath more or lesse of the nature of a prodigie in it . such was the strange fighting in the nombe of rebekah , nebuchadnezzars , pharaohs , and pilates wives dreames . the carriage and speech of baalams asse . the falling off of the chariot wheeles of the egyptians , as they drave in the red sea. dagons prostrating before the arke . § 9 sufficient being spoken of the matter , the next thing necessary to be touched is the forme , to shew what makes any speciall accident to be a prodigie , that is ( as i conceive ) the aptitude which such accidents have in themselues , or by divine institution to portend the futurition or manifestation of something as yet not existent , or not knowne . as for example , bloud happening extraordinarily in raine , in sweate , or in the use of bread or otherwise , doth fitly betokenwarre , murther , execution of malefactors , or persecution . but how comes the rainebow to be a signe the world shall never be overflowne againe by an vniversall inundation , whereas naturally it signifies raine . this it could not doe if god had not appointed it for such an use . it may be demanded what i thinke of experience . if it be found by observation from time to time that after such an accident in one kind , such an event in another followes , may not that accident thenceforth be taken for a certaine signe of such an event to ensue ? i answer , god is unsearchable in his wayes . no observation whatsoever will inable us to trace him . as the way of a ship in the sea , or a bird in the ayre , so are gods waies . experience therefore is but an uncertaine guide , because the course of gods providence is a perfect maze or labyrinth . there is indeed no variance nor shadow of turning betwixt his will at one time , and his will at another . ( i speake of his absolute will ) neither is there any difference betwixt his will in decree , and his will in deed , and hee often doth the same things over againe , for kind . yet there is so much variety for circumstances , that its impossible by al observation to conclude for certaine , from that which doth happen in one kind , to that which shallhappen in another . this notwithstanding the argument from existence of the signe , to the ●utu●ition of the thing signified , concluding onely probably and indefinitely , cannot justly bee gainesaid : for instance , thus to reason is very usefull . after a comet or blazing starres appearing and vanishing , some great personages doe commonly expire . this experienc● out of many histories confirms , therefore such a 〈◊〉 now appearing , its likely some of the go●● of the earth shall dye like men , and all of 〈…〉 just cavse more then ordinaril●●●pr●pare ●or death , ●●●ecially such as herod . bat ●●her matter calls me to it . § 10 〈…〉 the ●●nall cause of prodigies , that is divers in divers re●e●c●s . the common end is that go● may beglorified by us in beholding his works , and spelling out of them his infinite wisedome , power , and goodnesse , whereunto prodigies conduce no little , because they minister master for an invincible argument against an atheist or epicure ; and strongly prove both god and providence . the proper end of them is either neare or remote ; that which they serve for more immediately is in generall , to intimate some change in the condition of them , to whom they have reference : but sometimes they serve to bring to light that which was hid , or to make that knowne which was secret ; as when satan appeares for a time where some body lies buried in secret , and then vanishes , or when extraordinary trouble of minde falls on some , that thereby they may be brought to disclose some secret sin , the revealing whereof may tend to gods glory . some of them doe more especially serve for comfort , some for terror . * some serve to terrifye for a while , as the burning bush , but leave comfort in the issue , a● that did . and the angells wonderfull behaviour in the presence of sampsons parents : some serve to streng then the faith of g●d● children in time of great discouragement ; orwhen the 〈◊〉 to some special service : some serve to invite and call all , of all sorts , to repentance and amendment of life . those which serve to this end are in a more peculiar manner the prodigies , and such are those which are instanced in , in the following history ▪ comfortable ones may happen to the wicked , and terrible to the godly , to harden the one , and humble the other . that the one may prepare for correction and profit by it , the other in gods just judgement perish everlastingly . if the question be when fearefull prodigies happen in a countrey where there be two contrary sides of different professions in religion , how it may be knowne whether of them they concerne . i answer , the only nec●ssary thing is , for each private person of what sort soever , whose abode is in such place , to take it to himself , and to examine his heart , wayes , and spiritual estate , that he may reforme himselfe according to the word of god , lest hee also perish . many are too prone to cry woe unto others , but at last are forced to say ( with him mentioned by iosephus , where be speakes of the lass destruction of ierusalem . ) woe unto mee also . god is not wont to send generall judgements , till all flesh more or lesse have corrupted their way : and therefore it behoues all of all sorts ▪ howsoever different in the profession of religion to humble themselve● , and study reformation really ▪ not inpr●tence . * if they of germany doe so , and then send out a dove from their arke , she is likely to return with an olive branch in her mouth . in the meane while so long as every one looking on his neighbour saies , truth is on my side , thou art an hereticke , and therefore the destruction threatned is to thee , but i shall escape : god that is no respecter of persons findes just matter of offence in both , and on which side peace and victory will rest , as touching sence is yet uncertaine . but wee know who they are that cry peace , peace , to themselves : that for temporall things dreame of a fifth monarchie , and for church affaires would faine force all to doe as they doe , that is , to put their noses under the popes girdle . and though here i digresse a little , i hope it will be pardoned . § 11 as for those particular prodigies which the history at hand makes mention of ▪ the reader may well admire at them , and happily revolve these questions in his minde . whether there were such things as are here related ▪ whether they are truly prodigious or no. whether those events here adopted to them were portended . whether the like things have not happened elseywhere without like effects or consequences , with more of likenature , if hee bee either cautious , or scrupulous , to alwhich i have onely this to answere . if any credit may be given to such histories of germane affaires , as commonly fall into the hands of the learned , from mercurius gallo-belgicus ; it is certaine that africa was not antiently more famous for monsters then germany hath for many yeares been of prodigies . the particulars hereafter mentioned make not a fourth part of what might be collected in like kinde . and if prodigies be taken in a large sense , as they are here to be understood , the matter doth well answer the title . but this must needs be granted , this or that single prodigie may happen , and yet no remarkable judgement follow . for god may shake his rod often , before he strike once . and many times he threatens , but to try . but when heaven and earth , sea , and land did all make one outery , and strike up an alarum , no other could be expected , but that god should march on apace in fury after . it is but a gentrall intimation of this or that iudgement , that prodigies doe make necessarily . but what else could bee expected but shedding bloud on earth , when it rained bloud from heaven . battailes in the ayre were most lively pictures of the same to bee on earth . so that wee may truly say , god wrote his minde in most lively characters , and hath punctually fulfilled what hee threatned . it seemes they were confident of longer peace , or else god needed not to have reade them so many lectures of bloud : what particular iudgements are signified by particular prodigies may wel be guessed by the prodigies themselves : for my owne part i beleeve , admire , and adore , and shal wonder at him that can doe lesse . i doe every day expect the like and greater , because our saviour hath so largely prophesied in this kinde in reference to ourtimes , which all the evangelists have recorded . the latter dayes shal bee short beyond expectation , and christ come sooner then we are aware , and therefore the signes of his comming must needs bee expected , whereof strange prodigies are one . § 12 aud now hopeing this may satisfie such as have anycandor ; its high time to draw the arrow to the head , and hit the marke i shoote at , which is to point out the christian use which godly feare and reverence teaches us to make upon the knowledge of these dreadfull things . to which end there are some cautions to be premised . i seeing god is the author of prodigies , wee must religiously observe them , and by prayer seeke from him instruction and grace , to fit us for a holy improvement of them to his glory and our own benefit ; saying as paul , when christ spake to him in a vision out of heaven , lord what wilt thou have mee to doe ? and with prayer wee must joyne all diligence in studying of his holy word , for thence it is that al necessary instruction is dertved . be we sure to make use of prodigies according to this rule , and light will come out of darkenesse , comfort out of feare . secondly we may not bee too curious in searching after the particular evills which prodigies foreshew , much lesse to know their circumstances , when , where , and how they shall happen . it is enough for us , and great mercy from god , that we have , aforehand , so much as the noise of his comming to aflict . in the state of israel , god was wont to threaten in the fathers dayes those judgements which hee purposed to their posteritie , and yet upon those threatnings , he expected present repentance . and surely that memento given by christ unto the angell of sardis , is necessary for every church and state to apply uato themselves in these dayes : remember how thou hast received , and heard , and hold fast and repent . if therefore thou shalt not watch , i will come on thee as a thiefe , and thou shalt not know what houre i will come upon thee . a third caveat is that , which god himselfe gives by the prophet ieremy , learne not the way of the heathen , and be not dismaied at the signes of heaven . for the heathen are dismaied at them . where a things are forbidden . the one is learning the heathens way , that is , to worship the creatures themselves , or to use any part of their idolatrous service : the other is excessive feare upon the sight of all unpleasant aspects in the heavenly bodies , without any true feare of god who causes them , and in whose hand it is to hasten or prolong , increase or diminish , or totally remove all threatned evils . the grosser sort of antient idolalaters thought the sun , moone , and other starres to be gods , and eclipses and such like to be signes of their anger , whereupon they feared exceedingly unto astonishment , and addicted themselves by divers rites and ceremonies to pacify them . many times the israelites were much subiect to like idolatry , against which god there instructs them . this place therfore does not condemne all feare upon the sight of prodigies , as unlawfull , but the abuse of feare , when it is placed on the creature , not on god , and leades not to true piety , but to will worship . or when it so captivates , that we thinke it in vaine to seeke god by repentance , and doe hereupon despise him , and harden our hearts , and commit all intquity with greedinesse . of all things such a feare is most to be feared . as for such whom a lively faith hath incorporated into christ , and a true feare of god in his iudgements , made penitent and obedient according to gods word . prodigies should rather comfort them , then otherwise . ioel having said in one verse , the sunne shall bee turned into darknesse , and the moone into blood , before the great and terrible day of the lord come , saith immediately in the uext verse , it shall come to passe that who soever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved . for in mount sion and in ierusalem shall be deliverance . our saviour speaking in like manner of the prodigies which shall happen partly before the destruction of ierusalem , but especially before the end of the world , and of the feare which shall be in many , said to his disciples , when these things begin to come to passe , then looke up and lift up your heads , for your redemption draweth nigh , christ the accomplisher & finisher of it . thus much for caution . § 13 now for the uses themselves , who will not hereby be assured of a generall judgement comming on apace , seeing these forerunners of it . i speake both of the prodigies , and of the things which follow and accompany . the order of the signes of the latter day is this . first false prophets . many shall be deceived . iniquity shall abound . secondly , persecution , and by meanes thereof apostacy in some , great misery to others . then warres , famine , pestilence . prodigies , interchangeably , till false prophets , and al deceived by them be rootea out of the earth . and as touching warrs , judgement must begin at the house of god. therein false prophets arise , as paul saies , from among your selves &c. their rising is like the opening of pandoraes box , the original of alevil . and certainly the churches negligence in not convincing them by doctrine , and suppressing them by discipline in the particular churches wherin they first appeared is the corner stone of all , and therefore it is fit gods churches should be first in the course of judgement , who are first in the course of sinning . the third course of signes which are now most conspicuous shall continue till the first error be discovered and amended , and that evill which it hath brought in be removed , i meane particular churches be rightly stated , and faithfull in administration of all publicke ordinances , &c. § 14 in the meane while ▪ for a second use , let every one of us learne hence , to search and try our waies , and turne unto the lord our god , lest our securitie prove prodigious unto us . be we more carefull to know gods will , and to professe that we know , and live according to our profession ; in one or other of these specialties we all faile . yea wherein is it that we faile not ? see the state of the seven churches of asia , as st. iohn describes it , and i feare whatsoever is reproved in all them together ▪ will be found among us , but little of that which they are commended for . were it not that god is iealous of his own honour , and ( in his own phrase ) feares the wrath of the enemie , lest our adversaries should behave themselves strangely , and say , our hand is high , the lord hath not done this , we also ere this time had felt the effect of many prodigies which have beene among our selves . but i hope god will shortly stirre up some in a more especiall manner , to bring gods wonders among us in remembrance . this for the present may serve something to awaken us . and if we regard neither the voyce of god on earth , by his ministers , nor the voyce of god from heaven by his wonderous workes , though noah , job , and daniel were among us , they shall deliver but their owne soules . god must deny himselfe , or we perish if we continue impenitent , the name of reformation which we have in our mouthes , will no more helpe us then the iewes crying . the temple of the lord , we be abrahams children . in many abuses there is not so much as a colour of reformation , as in the matter of sacriledge for one . it was after iosiah had reformed many things , that his heart was tender , and smote him upon hearing of the law. perceiving thereby there were yet more abuses in the land than he at first was ware of . antichrist had made all places like augean stables . they doe therefore surely neede a continuall clensing . the god of all grace fill us according to our measure with wisdome and zeale , that we may grow from beauty to beauty in his eyes . § 15. and seeing god is so gracious , as by all meanes to manifest himselfe and his intended judgements , he hath not left himselfe without witnesse , but we are altogether without excuse . let him have the prayse which is due unto his name , who abounds toward us in all meanes of grace , whereby we might be made wise unto salvation . thy word , o lord , is sufficient of it selfe to warne all the world. thy workes are the utmost that we can aske or thinke : what shall we say of thy wonderous workes from day to day ! oh thou holy one of israel . all this is that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings , and overcome when thou art judged . it will be thy glory that thou ast shewed us signes in heaven above , and wonders in earth beneath , but it will be our misery if we regard them not , or if regarding we doe not blesse thee the almighty , or if blessing thee in words we repent not and amend . of our selves we are able to doe none of all this . let it not alwayes be said of us as it was sometime of thy people israel , yet the lord hath not given you a heart to perceive , and eyes to see , and eares to heare unto this day . for thy annoyiteds sake powre upon us thy spirit , give us hearts according to thine owne heart , and cause us to walke in thy wayes . truth lord , thou mayst leave us to our selves , and let us perish : if thy grace were not free for thee , to besto●●r not , it were no grace . if thou sayest , i have no pleasure in you , doe to us as seemeth good in thy sight . yet be pleased to remember thy covenant . and for his sake who hath sealed it with his bloud poure out his spirit among us . worke knowledge in our minds , submission in our wills . yea sanctify us we beseech thee throughout . oh love us , and cause us to love thee , and then wee know assuredly that all things shall worke together for the best , amen . if any thing offend thee christian reader in this prologue , consider herein i tread an unbeaten path , wherein it is easie to erre . the way it selfe is rough , my spare houres for such imployment few . importunity of others , and arguments drawne from the publicke good , have stollen mee from my selfe to doe others service in this businesse . if it seeme strange i make so much a doe to usher in a small pamphlet , consider not the book , but the subject . in prodigies god comes in , as riding on a cherub , and flying on the wings of the wind . how then can just exceptions be taken at one for cōming before to cry * bow the knee ? my boldnesse pardoned i am content to beare all other blame . in magnis est volxisse satis . errors in the preface . in the first sect. r. axiona●a . for him r. himself . in 2. sect. them r. him for fooler foo●e . 3. sect. for suspitiously r. superstitiously , for paedicant r p●rdica●● . 5. sect. for no is in mar . 1. iovis so , mer men ▪ in 7 sect. so pledge ● pledges in mat-tom r. revel . for prediens r. p●edict●ors in the 〈◊〉 se●t r. which ate adapted . dreadfvll , and prodigiovs aspects which have happened , and appeared in the ayre , water , and on earth , beyond the common course of nature , in diverse parts of germany , since the beginning of these late bloody b●oyles in that country , from the y●er● of our lord , 1618. to this present time ; together with briefe observations of the issues , and consequences ensuing after 〈◊〉 . among the many troubles , and turmoyles ( courteous reader ) which have long time roved , and raged not onely in bohemia , but also in divers other places of germany , there appeared a terrible comet with a great blazing tayle , which was as terrible as visible . it appeared first , october , 26. 1618. in the signe of scorpio , and the tayle thereof was extended betwixt the spicavirginis , and arcturus , towards polus septentrionalis . afterwards it tooke its progresse in signo librae , continuing its course from the ecliptica to topico cancri , from east to west , or northerly . it was to be seene , often in a cleare skie , in the east : in bohemia and ausiria , it appeared , at first , with red ; in other places with a saturnish pale-red colour , for the space of 27. dayes , and in some places longer . this fearefull , & ominous link or torch the omnipotent iehovah had constituted , and ordained in the pulpit of the heavens to bee a preacher of repentance ; that sinfull man might see , and discerne , that for incorrigible sinne he was resolved to plague and punish them if they timely prevented not the threatned danger , by seeking grace , and speedi'y fying from sinne the sole cause thereof . for in as much as the ●●cure , and bood-winckt-world had long despsed , and neglected the gracious reclaming voyee of his sacred word , in the publike preaching thereof by his vignant and diligent ministers , and refused to heare those charmers , charme ● they never so wisely , running on in their accustomed course of sinne , and transgression , refusing to be reclamed , and living all their dayes in sensuall impenitence , as if god regarded not their doings , and tooke no notice of their desperate rebellions ; therefore the almighty lord god , as mercifull , as just , sent forth these his prodigious signes , in the sunne , moon , and starres of heaven , as certain fore-runners of his wrath , and of imminent , and eminent plagues and punishments on them , if not speedily prevented , thus ( if it were possible ) to awaken men from thei even dead sleepe of sin , to timely repentance , and true reformation of life ; but otherwise to shew and assure them that he would come suddainly , and severely upon them , and bring all those evills , and miseries on them , which those hideous , and ho●●ed lignes did portend unto them . of which his proceeding in former ages manifold examples are extant , both in the sacred scriptures , and in other various , and volummous histories , which , for brevities sake , i heere of purpose pretermit . this comet herein mentioned hath bin indeed a certain harbinger , and fore-runner of the lords high indignation , and future punishments , wherewith ( since it appeared ) the secure world hath ●in soundly whipped , and severely corrected ▪ ●ea the great miseries and calamities , which poore dilacerated germany hath , since its appearance , ●elt and found , are as unspeakable , as deplorable , ●ardly to bee lively delineated by mans tongue or pen. for that is now compleatly ( if not too fully ) effected , which is spoken of in comets , that never did a comet appeare , which was not accompanied with much evill and miserie . and claudianus the poet writ thus of their operations . — bellacanunt , ignes subitosque tumultus , et ▪ elandestinis surgentia fraudibus arma , civiles etiam motus , cognataque bell● significant . — thus englished . they shew fierce wars , fire , sword & sudain broyles , and by clandestine craft , fast springing toyles , uncivill-civill jarres , and home-bred flames they signifie , &c. pontanus also writes thus of them . ventorum quoque certa dabune tibi signa cometae — et●am belli motus , feraque arma minantur ; magnorum & clades populorum , & funera re●●● ▪ comets are certaine signes of future things ( kings threatning fierce wirres , much blood , and death of of the estate , & co●aitió of this our present comet ancient astrologians have thus written . verba docent , et signa monent , et poena probabit , nisubitò in melius vitam convertimus , 〈◊〉 words teach , signes preach , and punishments make that want of true repentance proves our bane ▪ ( plain , which altogether the following yeers being fulfilled & verified , is notable to all the christian world to take warning by : and to declare the misery w● ( after this appearing blazing comet ) germany felt , would require many volumes . how many fruitfull countries , dominions , and territories are through these last warres totally ruinated ; the cities , towns , and villages therein spoiled , and made pillars of fire and smoke ; the churches lying desolate , the woods being cut down , the earth untilled , and lying waste . the bloody and cruell dealing of inhumane souldiers , especially of the crabats , in many goodly ▪ townes and cities , is scarce credible , which furiously have plundered the places , torturing the inhabitants most barbarously ; ravished women even to death ; powred dunghill-water and vineger into the throats of men and women ; tyed chains and cords about their heads , and have twisted them so hard , that they have fallen down dead upon the ground ; some are hanged up by the privy member● ▪ s●wed off the legs of some , rubbed off the flesh from the legs of others to the very bones ; tyed the armes of others backwards , and so hanged them up by those distorted parts ; drew many through the streets of the cities starke naked , brake and wounded them with axes and hammers , and generally used them with such barbarous cruelty , that many begged to be shot or slain instantly , rather than to live , and be partakers of such misery . some they have rosted alive , and sacked the cities miserably , that they spoiled what they could not carry away . all the corn and provision of victuals , have they taken away with them , and left the places so bare , that many of the best rank , for the space of 8. dayes after , saw not one bit of bread , but were glad to feed upon roots and water : sp●iled the inhabitants of their garments , exposed them to that nakednesse , that neither man , woman , nor childe have had clothes to put on . no man indeed can be ignorant of the miserable condition of all germany . no man can think of it without a sorrowfull heart : none that hath not put on the stoicks stupidity , can heare it without compassion . such civill warres were never without strange prodigies , and this as in the beginning it was threatned by this said come● , so in the continuance the uncouth condition thereof was still made apparent by those strange things , which happened out of the common course of nature , which i shall endeavour to declare , as followeth . a●no 1619. in the moneth of december the water which doth runne through sixto a citie in hungaria ( where in the yeer 1588. an exceeding gre●t battell was fought betwixt the turks and christians ) turned to bloud , and the ice therein was likewise bloud-red , which at many places was transported . this perhaps hath been a fore-runner of the bloody encounters and skirmishes , which happened afterwards 1621. in the same places and thereabouts , betwixt the imperiali●●s and bethlem-gabors army where bethlem-gabor fought a bloudy battell against the imperialists under generall bucqnoy , and rowted their whole army , and put to the sword above 2000. of them upon the place . about midsummer , anno 1620. another hard conflict happened neere the citie sixto where bethlem-gabor lost 600. men : and on the imperiall side some 400. amongst which was the marquis palav●●ino an imperiall commander . seene at groningen a great blassing starre and 2 armies onein the north totherin the south and the northern army beaten 1619 at wien water turned into blood for 8day es and 3 ▪ sunnes and 3 rainbowes in the skie 1619 in the same moneth december , anno 1619. at groningen in the dukedome of brunswick , appeared a great blazing starre , and two armies , one in the east , the other in the north , fighting against each other in the heaven , so long till the army of the north was slaine and defeated . this islued out , anno 1626. the 25. of august , where few leagues from this place a fore battell was fought betwixt the king of denmark and the imperiall generall tilly ▪ in which the king lost the field , and 4000. of his army were slaine and taken prisoners ; amongst them were also slaine 4. danish colonels , and a landgrave of hessen . of the imperialists lost their lives some 3. or 400. upon the place . we will not speak much of another conflict , which happened in the same dukedome , when the fore-mentioned starre was seen ▪ where 500 were slaine upon the place neere calinberg ; nor of the bloody massacre , done by the imperialists in the citie of munden in the said dukedome , where 2500. citizens and souldiers were put to the sword most miserably by the imperialists , the 27. of august , anno. 626. at wien in austria , the water in the ditch was to bee seene like blood for the space of 8. dayes : likewise 3. rainbowes appeared , and 3. sunnes in the heaven , in the beginning of april . anno. 1619. here in the same place , and city , and in the same yeere , the 25. of october a great , and bloody fight was at the donaw-bridge in the same towne of wien , betwixt the bohemians , and generall bucquey : in which encounter were slaine on the imperiall side 4500. and of the bohemians some 1000. and a great many wounded , which were brought with waines into the hospitals of wien . anno 1620. about the moneths of april , some strange fignes , and prodigies of future misety appeared in polonia : where it rayned blood , in so much that the drops of them fell abundantly downe from the tops of the houses , whose signification not long after was th●s : that the tartarians with an army of 40000. men invaded polonia , with such cruelty ▪ as is scarce credible , killing in one place more then 3000. of the polonians . likewise in the same yeere the grand turke with 90000. men falling into walstady had a bloody encounter with 12000 ▪ polonians under the leading of the great chancellour of their kingdome , who himselfe with the whole polonians army was slaine , very few of them escaping . anno. 1621. in the month of march happened a terrible prodigy in austria , where two armies were to be seene in the heaven by cleere day light , fighting battells together with great thundering of ordnances , and canons . in the same country , anno. 1623. in the moneth of january at lintz , just over the city two swords standing against another , and two strong armys fighting a pitcht battell together , were seene , and observed by the inhabitants , with great terror , and heavinesse . this city of lintz in the yeere 1626 , was besieged , and many times assaulted by the austrian boores , but were beaten off with losse of 500. men . these boores many thousand strong falling upon some imperiall forces under the conduct of duke adolff of holstein , touted and defeated them utterly , the rest being glad to runne away . this was afterwards revenged by pappenheim , who with an army of 6000. horse and foot came against them , putting to the sword 3000. of them upon the place , and tooke many prisoners , who afterwards were executed in the same city of lintz . at prage and heidelberg the 5. of febuary , anno 1622. were seene three sunnes and three rainbowes , a sharpe conflict happened before this city of prage in the beginning of january anno 1632. betwixt the imperialists and the saxons , under the baron of hofkirch , who defeated 900. crabats , and tooke 11. cornets of them , 3. ensignes , and almost every man of the imperialists were cut in pieces by the saxons before the gates . concerning heidelberg the seate and the chiefest city in the palatinat , the same towne was by the imperialists for a long time besieged , assaulted , and at the last taken by force , with great losse and slaughter of the inhabitants . neckergemund a lesser towne , 3. english miles from heidelberg , was likewise the same time , anno 1622. surprised by the imperialists by furious assault , wherein the garrison , doing some resistance against them , with the inhabitants , both men , women and children , were put to the sword. anno 1634. in iuly was also the city of prage , by the saxons , and swedes , besieged ; which by the space of 3. dayes plyed uoon the towne with canons , and were replyed unto from thence in the like kind , with great losse 〈◊〉 both sides ; 900. men of the saxons , and sw●d● , being slaine : of the imperiall carrison within , consisting of 1400. men , under the command o both the generalls , coloredo , and don balthasar , 600 lost their lives . in the month of april , anno 1622. in the country of darmstad were found trees , whose leaves dropt blood . this country afterwards in the same yeere was grievously invaded both by the imperiall , and spanish army , as well of count mansfeld , as duke christian of brunswick ; many bloody encounters and skirmishes happened betwixt them ; and especially a sore battell was fought not farre off betweene duke christian of brunswick , and generall tilly , whose army consisting of ●2000 . of foot , and 140. cornets of horse , continued a great fight for the space of 6. houres with duke christian at hochst . but the imperialists more in number beate the others , and dispersed them , which flying to the bridge , so thronged , and wedged in one another , that a great many were thrust into the river ma●n , wherein as many were drowned , as were killed in the battell . at minefeld and malants the shikles were seene blodey k men drew there hands out bloodey when they cut the corne anno. 1623. about midsommer many bloody signes and aspects appeared in divers countries , and places . in bohemia in the county of podybrat a well for some dayes was turned to blood . at tursin a towne 3. or 4. leagues from egra , in a citizens house , the table , the wall of the parler , and the chaires sweated blood , in so much that it began to runne in the parler . what bloody encounters happened in the next , and other yeeres in those places , is too well knowne : where 4000. of the bohemiant under count mansfeld were slaine : some 300. of the imperialists not long after lost their lives also by the sword : 5. troopes of the elector of saxonies horses , lying then at rakonick in bohemia , were at once knockt downe by the imperialists ; scarce 120. of them escaping with their lives . what if we should remember the bloody tragedy acted by the imperialists at egra , where the imperiall generalissimo duke of fridland himselfe , with 4. others chiefe commanders , was murthred , and massacred the 25. of february , anno. 1634. in the territories about the rhine , and hossen darmstad in this 1623. yeere , in divers townes , and villages , were seene bloody signes and tokens , on houses , stones and walls : how prodigious this hath beene at mingelheim , where 2000. of the imperialists were put to the sword by count mansfeld , the wayes side by the river rhine towards germersheim being strewed with their dead bodies . also next yeere following in a battell at wimpsen betwixt generall tilly , and marquis of durl●ch , 5000. were flaine upon the place . in the moneth of ianuary , anno 1632. the swedish generall rhinegrave taking the towne of kinchberg by assault , put to the sword 147. imperialists , and spanyards therein . not long after the rhinegrave in another occasion lost 300. of his men by the spanyards sword. about meyenfild and malantz , the sickles , and the hands of the labourers in the medowes were seene bloody . what cruelty , and shedding of blood by the invasion of the spanyards in those places afterwards hath beene , would require a large relation ; where the inhabitants , without respect of sex or condition , have beene miserably massacred . this is notable amongst other cruelties there committed ; the spanish , and imperial● army comming from the rhine , passed by gall into those parts , anno 1635. where the catholikes to secure themselves from being made a prey unto them , marked their dwelling houses with the signe of the crosse , then thinking themselves as secure from injury from that army , as rahab was by hanging the scarlet thread at her window , from the victorious sonnes of iacob at iericho ; or israel by striking the blood of the pascall lambe upon their posts , and lintels , from the destroying angell . but as the grounds of their hopes were most different ; so the issue was most unlike . these were the first which felt the effects of their insolency , being pillaged , and murthered without distinction of age , sex , calling , or place ; men and women in religious orders being forced in their monasteries , and an agent sent unto them from the states of the province , precipitated by them from an high rock . in the dukedome of wirtemberg at herbrechtingen and hermeringen , the 16. of july , anno 1622. it rayned so much blood , that it fell upon the hands , and cloaths of the labouring men , and was to be seene upon trees , stones , and other places in the fields . how many thousands of the inhabitants of that dukedome in those last warres , and especially after the battell , and in the battell of norlingen have lost their lives , is too well knowen to the christian world : in which bloody battell how many thousands on both sides were slayne , no man had certainty of it . amongst which were many brave colonels , and chiefe commanders , as the marquesse of auspach , 5. colonels , divers captaines , and officers all dead in the bed of honour . anno 1634. the 24. of aug. the 26 of december , anno 1624. for the space of 10. or 11. houres it was observed in bohemia , that the sunne was changed first in divers colours ; at the last fiery beames came forth out of the sunne , which for a time held their opposition against the sunne , then they went away , and vanished like a smoake in the ayre , and at last fell downe with a noyse like rackets . two dayes before , in silesia happened an horrible prodigie , as if two armies in the ayre continued a great fight and skirmish against one another . how many skirmishes and conflicts have fallen out in these two countries the yeers following , is needlesse to remember : remarkable alone is the siege of the citie of ranckford upon the borders of silesia , which the king of sweden took in by assault , anno 1631. to the terrour and slaughter of 2000. imperialists , which were out in pieces upon the place , besides those that were drowned , and others found dead in cellars , chambers , and elsewhere , as many more perchance . 300. swedes also there staine , and 100. hurt . at lansbergen in the front of silesia , 300 swedish souldiers , over-confident of their valour , were put to the sword by the crabats : which town the king the 15. of aprill took in by assault , with slaughter of 300. imperialists : but of his own men no lesse then 600. lost their lives . in this time at cressin in silesia , 200. imperialists attempting the recovery of the same towne , were slain by the swedes . a strange prodigie in the heaven happened at gierslet in the dukedome of anhalt the 12. of may , anno 1624 ▪ which continued from 6 ▪ till 8. clock at night , and was observed by the inhabitants of the same town in this manner . first of all came forth out of the clouds an ancient , with a red hungarian habit : after him followed some grave men clothed in the like habit . thirdly , came forth a chariot with two horses of divers sprinkled colours , and another chariot with foure armed horses . suddenly did breake out of the clouds an infinite number of people , like a swarme of bees , with such aforesaid hungarian habit , and with hungarian hats upon their heads with great feathers . after them followeth a man sitting upon horse-back , with a great long robe , putting the people before him . after this did follow a comet , iuxia aquilam with inclining head . a quarter of an houre after came forth another army , consisting of many horses , and foot , and chariots , having hoods of broad rands with feathers . in the midst of the army appeared a man alone , drawing before him a long red crosse , before which hee made some prayers with extended hands . these the following army presently rowted and defeated . all these forces marching towards the townes of aldershliben , hirshliben , and turning at the last-towards sandersliben , with red clouds oppressed vanished away . the day before it rained blood at wemsham in bohemia , and likewise two armies appeared in the aire skirmishing together . this portentuous prodigie issued out perhaps in the bloudy battell which was fought at dessaw● bridge , in the same dukedome of auhalt , the 25. of aprill , anno 1626. where count manifield came with his army before the imperiall sconce , against which he cast up 3. batteries , from whence he night and day thundred upon the imperialists . but the duke of fridland comming to succour the imperialists , utterly defeated the mansfieldish forces , whereof were slain 3000. upon the place : amongst them 3. colonels , and other officers . of the imperialists 1000. also slaine . the day before that the prodigie happened at giersleb ▪ it rained blood about fridberg in silesia , and two armies also appeared in the heaven fighting for a long time together . three yeers after happened a bloudy encounter about the same place , ●e●re the towne of fridberg . for the duke of fridland fo●ding colonell pechman with 7000 ▪ horsemen and dragoners to pursue the danish and weinmarish troops , there began a sore fight betwixt thē , where at the last all the danish forces were ruinated and killed , 10. companies of them taken prisoners , the imperiall commander pechman himselfe , with divers other officers slaine . anno. 1624. the 8. may , a strange tempest happened at ratisbon , full of admiration . when there was a great calme with a little raine , two darke clouds met together , which sodainly belched out a wind intermingled with fire , and raised such a tempest , as hath not bin knowne in the memory of man. it was first perceived neere the wood before the city , where it tore up the trees by the roots , and , as in a moment , drave them to divers places ; and thence extending it selfe to the city , overturned more then two hundred houses in the towne and suburbs , which had not a chimney left standing , nor a peece of the roofe to cover it ; not sparing the churches , the church of emerant besides the shattered windowes , having one of the steeples laid fat to the ground , and the other broke off in the middle : two of the chiefest steeples being blown downe , with the destruction of a cloyster , which cannot be well repaired with many thousand florens . this was the progresse , yet the end was more wonderfull , both in its time of duration and the bounds of the tempest . it was then supposed to be raised by some damned sorcerers , who by the assistance of the prince of the ayre had caused this outrage . the instrument of this desolation was limited both to time , place , and persons ; the time lasted not above a quarter of an houre : the hericano ( so we may call it , though the true one was never seen in europe ) did not dilate it selfe beyond the city , where it rent up some few trees , and killed foure men . this city of ratisbone was ten yeeres after this strange tempest , anno 1634. in the moneth of may , streightly besieged , and assaulted , by the imperiall and bavarian army , consisting of 30000. foot , and 15000 horse , when they night and day battered it with an hundred pieces of ordnance , but were valiantly every battell repulsed by the swedish garrison and the inhabitants , with the slaughter of 4000. imperialists in the last assault . many brave commanders , and officers , lost their lives in this siege . the garrison and citizens having for a long time behaved themselves stoutly in defence of the city , even to the admiration of the imperialists , who had lost before it by their owne relation 8000. men that were slaine upon the place ; 6000. others who had run away ; made 15000. canons shot upon the towne ; cast above 2000. granadoes into it , endured 465. sallyes from within the city , at last they surrendred it to the imperialists upon honorable conditions . in the yeare 1625. the 6. of march , at mors a village neere to the city of frankendall , was found a strange kinde of prodigious fruit , on a peare tree , which was brought from a country man to the towne clark with great admiration of the spectators . it was a branch not round , as a naturall branch or sprig , but broad of about an ell in length , and the delineation thereof was transported to many places , and some the goverrnour of the towne himselfe afterwards sent to the spanish infantin at brussel . whether this prodigy hath portended the miserable devastation and desolation of the whole palatinat , is needlesse to make mention thereof . it is too well knowne to the christian world , what and how much this country the years following hath suffered , and long felt the misery of warre , famine , and the plague ; and doth not onely continue to this present in the same condition , but the flame thereof hath set the neighbour countries on fire , which are sensible of the like miseries . therefore great need of repentance have such who doe enjoy the contrary , i meane peace and tranquillity and are disburdened of those afflictions with which other people are incombred : for . verba docent , et signa mouent , et poena probabit , ni subito in mclius vitam convertimus , actum est . in this before mentioned village mors , wherein this prodigy of fruit was found , were 9. troopes of spanish horses under don philip de sylva , who was then generall of all the spanish forces in the palatinat , and in the bishopricks of mentz and triers , whoafter a long fight were utterly rowted & defeated by the swedish commander the rhinegrave , ar , 1631. the towne of franckendall was repossessed by the king of bohemia their naturall lord , anno 1632. the spaniards therein would never treato with the king of sweden about it , but with the prince palatines ministers , to whom they condescend to deliver it , but : it is lately conquered againe by the imperial army , with most lamentable sufferings of the inhabitants . multitudes of croweskilling each other they baskits of them were caried into the citie in selesia 1625 ▪ neere troppaw in silesia , in the moneth of february , anno. 1625. a great multitude of little crowes ( corniculae ) appeared in the ayre , which fought as it were in a set battaile , and skirmished so eagerly , killing many amongst themselves , that the boores gathered some sacks full of them dead , and transported them unto the city . the yeere after , anno. 1626. fell out a hard and sharpe fight , betwixt the imperialists , and the weinmarish forces in this place . the imperiall commanders schaffgotch , dona , colorede , and hexted , with an army of some 1000. men of horse , and many foot , attempting to assault the weinmarish troupes in their camp neere troppaw , were still repulsed ; and in the end 7. companies of the weinmarish●allying ●allying out of the campe , slew and rowted the imperialists , 4000. dead corpes being found of them upon the place , and many officers slaine ; and so the weinmarish got an happy victory of their enemy , although they were more in number . another , but more bloody , conflict fell out few leagues from this place the 3. of may , anno. 1634. where the saxonian army , under the command offield-marshall arnheim obtained a memorable battell , and brave successefull victory against the imperialists : where the onset , and first shocke of the battell was hot and fiery , continuing with great obstinacy , and bloody opposition , for the space of 6. houres : the saxons canons being three times lost to the imperialists ▪ and three times with much slaughter recovered againe from them by the saxons . the curassiers , and crabats did shew much valour and resolution for the most part of the battell , till in the end the victory enclined to the saxon side . of the imperialists were slaine upon the place of battell above 5000. amongst whom were two generall majors , 1. colonell , 1. colonell lieutenant , 4. other officers of account : coloredo the generall , trost and winse , both colonels , were grievously wounded ; and most of the captaines of the foot forces were slaine . of the saxons party slaine about 400. whereof ● . ritmasters , 5. cornets , and 4. ancients , and 100. of them hurt : 36. ensignes , 9. peeces of ordnance , 27. comets won ▪ in the field . in the end of february , anno 1625. in divers places of silesia was as exceeding great tempest with thundering and lightning , as hath been since the memory of any man. at breslaw the spires of the elizabeth , and mary magdalene churches , the foundation of the state-house , and many fine dwelling places , were overturned into the towne ; great trees , and a new strongly-builded bridge before the swinith port , were torne up by the roots , that the next day following nothing of them were seene , but driven to divers places : many faire houses were utterly demolished by this strange tempest . at nissa a lesser city then breslaw , the chiefest . church therein was struck with a terrible thunder , and the tower was thereby battered to the very ground worke , and foundation , the 9. of september , 1627. at breslaw , anno 1628. a strange prodigie also was observed by the inhabitants of the same city , with great wonder and astonishment : the moon appearing much bigger then usually , and foure great ordnance or canons were first seen in the ayre , with great terrour ; and afterwards heard shot off with uncessant thunders , and volleyes one against another . after that , before the gates of this said city of breslaw , some sharpe conflicts fell out about the 26 ▪ of august , anno 1632. betwixt the imperialists and the swedes : who pursued the flying imperialists unto breslaw . after some encounters the imperialists called to the citizens on the walls , to assist them , by shooting at the swedish , and saxons , which they refused : some skirmish being made on both sides , the whole swedish and saxonian army appearing with their great artillery , and being come within halfe an houres march of the imperiall leaguer , they ranged themselves into battaglia , advancing with their canon playing before them , and beate the imperialists over the river oder , who set fire upon their owne quarters before the towne , and in haste retired themselves with baggage , and ordnance over the bridge ; which in three places they put fire unto . this had the imperialists not done , they had been all undone . the swedish were at this day in hot skirmish with them : the next day , in the morning , they began againe the fight , continuing till 8. a clock : at which time shooting was given over on both sides . the imperialists towards evening retire a little , and send much of their best baggage , with 4. great peeces of ordnance ( each drawne by . 20. on 24. horses ) to be taken into breslaw , for feare least they in their retreate should be forced to leave them to their enemies . the gunnes were taken in . the most part of the imperiall army in the meane time forsooke their owne leaguer , and retyred into that suburb on the other side of breslaw , the swedish continuing their assault , upon those left at the oder : but at last the imperialists in great haste retyred themselves from breslaw , some north east-ward , to namstaw ; others north-west-ward-to auris , whence was thought they would have gon , out of the country . newes afterwards was brought , that other swedish had slaine 200. horsemen more at olaw-bridge . whilest the swede was thus employed about breslaw , the saxons follow the caesarians towards the passe at . olaw , where all day , and night , the saxon ordnance so thunderd into the wood , that so soone as ever the saxons came over the bridge , the imperialists tooke the rout at it , leaving 2. peeces of ordnance behinde them . there were 1200. imperialists said to bee slaine . october the third did breslaw accord with the swedish commander dubalt , yeelding to maintaine those 600 , foot , and 1000 , horsemen , which he already had about the cathedrall church , which is in the suburbs . at hamborow the 3. of may , 1627. a prodigy was seene in the heaven not without terrour of the citizens , and inhabitants . it appeared first a circle , and therein the accustomed face of the sunne , but in the edge of the circle five other sunns , round about the first appearing sun , with an interposed rainbow ; afterwards two other sunnes with another part of a rainebow , one extending towards the west , the other towards the south , were to be seen ; at the last all this vanished in a burning smoake . this city of hamborow lyeth upon the front of holstein , wheresome leagues off , betwixt bredenborg , and itz●ho , in the same yeare the imperiall count of slick fought a battell against the marquis of durlach , then commander of the danish army , where the said marquis lost the field , his army rowted , and a great many of them slaine upon the place , 32. pieces of ordnance , and 42. ensignes taken by the imperialists whereupon they suddainly surprised the fort of bredenborg , putting to the sword all that they found in armes . not long after , this count of slick having notice that 24. danish compaines , with 200 hors-men were enquartered about froyborg some miles distant from hamborow , he with all his forces over ▪ tooke them , cut in pieces 300. of them , 3000. of the danish hors-men sticking in moorish places were all taken prisoners . betwixt hamborow , and stoad in the end of april , anno 1632. happened another conflict : generall pappenheim being come with an army of 10000. horse and foot into stoade , had the passage into keydinger land open ; where was a swedish regiment of generall major leslyes , and 4. companies of colonell monroes enquartered ; upon these falls pappenheim , cuts them off all , takes 19. colours , and some captaines and officers prisoners . at sanderborn in pomerland appeared a great army and the northern side preuailed this 1628. yeare was full of portentuous prodigies , which were seen in many and divers places . at sunderbory in pomerland , the heaven being open , an army appeared comming from the northern parts , the avantguard thereof being pioners and muskettiers ; hereupon did follow great peeces of cannons and ordnances : the reere was concluded by cavallery or horsemen . another army came forth on the other side against the first , where began a fiery , and hot skirmish betwixt them : but the victory enclined to the northern army . at last a right fiery beame followed upon the northren conquerour , which beame put forth fiery rayes or beames , and continued thus prodigiously for the space of some houres . a prediction of a great astronomer of the english nation , and his judgment upon that great conjunction of saturne and iupiter , july , 18. anno 1623. is this ; that the effect of that conjunction would bee felt in the north , and north-east parts of europe in particular : and in generall over all . that it would produce warres , famines , plagues , &c. places subject to this he nameth , italy , france , bohemia , silesia , and germany . of provinces he nameth prusia , brandenburg , stiria , hassia , and saxony : yea , he descends to cities ; naming rome , prague , magdenburg , coblenz betwixt mentz and cullen , vlin , brunswick , augsburg , &c. he sayes it is likely to goe hard with the romane empire , clergy . jesuites : he speakes of a king of a true religion that should doe all this , and much happinesse that should succeede it . how this observation hath even now been verified , we neede not feede the humour of the times : true it is , and cannot be denyed , that in the yeare 1630. following , gustavus adolphus king of sweden , having conquered many townes from the king of poland , both in prussia , and livonia , came with an army of some 12000. men out of the northern corner of the world , and landed first in pomerania , not very farre from sunderborg , where the fore-said prodigy was seene : where he first beate out the whole imperiall army , nor ever returned he out of them , but with the olive branches , the emblemes of victory . but these northern trophes upon his next neighbours , as they had much of glory ; so have they much of credit in them : but chronicle , and beliefe , must straine hard to make his germane conquest any thing probable with posterity : and were they not written in the times of doing , and acknowledged by his enemy , scarcely would the legend be more apocryphall . for what beleefe ( not easily to be abused ) could perswade it selfe , that two third parts of germany could ( and by him that entred with 12. or 11000. men ) in two yeares , and 4. months space , be wrested from so puissant an emperour ? a might empire and a potent , formidable for its greatnesse , confident upon the power of its colleagues , and upholders : vast in extent , terrible for its armes and captaines , renowned for its conquests , beyond expectation successefull in all its enterprises , and that knew no bounds but the alpes , and the ocean . and yet this empire , with its armies or garisons , that did hold so many princes at a bay , was it selfe constrained to take the yoake , which swedens gantlet put upon it . in lesse then 2. yeeres and a halfe this northern lyon did all this : what might he more have atchieved , had hee gon on another yeare , and two moneths , and filled up the time of that malicious and false prediction , which the iesuits , had cast abroad of him ? they comforted their creduious novices with his being antichrist ; and that he should raigne 3. yeares and a halfe , and no longer . at bishein a village neere the city of strasburg , a poore woman brought forth a strange monster to the world the 11. of march , anno 1628. which was two femalls , whose bodies were joyned together , the externe members , as hands , feete , and heads , being perfect and whole , but onely seene in them one heart , and one lungs . this prodigy if it hath fore-run the many and fearefull outrages committed in the warres neere and about strasburg the yeares following ; and those great damages , which usually accompany the warres , and the unruly souldiers , i know not . certain it is that these continued warres , these grievous impositions , these violences , injuries and rauages in those parts would scarcely be beleeved : and to passe by also the great famine and plague , which for a long continuance have followed this prodigy , no man can be ignorant , how the people and inhabitants of that country have been tortured for their money , had their cattell driven away , their houses firedand and all commers driven out of the same country . the souldiers neither observed martiall discipline , nor morall honesty : neither keeping the lawes , nor fearing god. virgins , and women have been ravished upon the high altars . and if the weekely contribution were not payed at the souldiers pleasure , then the inhabitants were presently spoyled or killed of them . strange was that thunderclap which fell at brig in silesia , wherein the immediate power of god appeared . a thunder bolt about mid-day , may , the 29. anno 1628. fell upon one of the churches of the same towne , broke downe the doore , slew a poore woman in the porch as she was praying , wounded in its course many poore women and children . after this the same thunderbolt , rowted towards the church in the suburbs , struck the minister as he was reading , doing him no more harme but that it singed the haire of his head , nor the people which fell down and prostrated themselves to the earth at the instant . a strange thunder fell upon the church at sagan , another towne in silesia , the 13. october , in the same yeare , whence it burst forth by a window , attended with such winds , raine , haile , stormes , and tempests , that it tore up the trees by the very roots , blasted the herbs , and fruit-trees , and so harrowed the country for a league about , that the losse was esteemed of a great summe of money : i can onely say with the prophet , it is the glorious god , which makes the thunder ; marvellous are his works , and that my soule knoweth right well . besides this thunder and tempest , afterwards appeared just over the church fiery beames like a sword and a rod , the bells in the steeple began to sound and ring without helpe of man , and 3. miles of the heavens for the space of an houre seemed open and fiery . betwixt this towne sagan , and steinaw both situated in silesia , a hot skirmish happened the 17. of august , in the yeare 1632. following ; where the s wedes and saxons forces came before the imperiall leaguer under don balthasar di maradas consisting of 12000. men . the swedes cruelly with 20. peeces of ordnance thundred both upon the towne steinaw and the imperiall leaguer . the swedes , and saxons cavalery charged , and fell upon their horse quarters ; their horsemen after a charge or two , were defeated : some 4000. of their foot having thrust themselves into the fort of the same town . in this fight were some 2000. imperialists slaine ; the rest of the horse-men running towards sweinitz , and breslaw . at griffenbery another town betwixt sagan , and brig in silesia , the swedish generall ▪ bannier was entered in a set battell with 15000. imperialists under the conduct of their generall coloredo the 29. of iune , anno 1634. and : got a noble victory ; where the imperialists lost some 4000. men slaine upon the place . another towne in silesia , by name olaw , felt the like misery of the bloody warres , with more grievous punishment . after the battell at lignith the saxon army marched towards the same towne , wherein the imperiall governour being advertised of the saxons comming , burnt the whole towne to the ground , and betooke himselfe into the castle ; from thence the saxons did goe to orls , a lesser towne then this in silesia , wherein the imperiall governour don iohn de languiall yeelded to the mercy of the saxon , and was taken prisoner , with his 300. souldiers . s●llaw a city in silesia suffered also much calamity , and was plundered at the same time by the souldiers in their fury . for the saxon army , though not with strong opposition tooke , the same city by assault ; the issue on both sides was bloody . a very miraculous thing happened in a souldier at geismar in hassia , anno 1630. two souldiers lying for a safeguard in the same towne , the one at night makes his complaint to his fellow souldier , who lay with him in one bed , for taking much cold , to whom the other answered , that he did not beleeve it in regard that his body was very hot , and wet , intreating him to touch , and feele his side . which when he had done , finding his hands exceeding wet , which were as it were glued or congeled together , suspected some had event ; first lookes upon his hands in the shadow of the moon , and apprehendeth his hands to be bloody : being hereat much terrified , called for a candle ; who find● the souldier very weake , and his left side and the sheets of the bed to be bloody : and whereas their indeavour was to wash off the blood of his side , presently commeth forth more , and more blood ; at length after a space of an houre it ceaseth of it selfe . three handfulls of blood , or thereabout was taken out of the sheetes : this , with the relation of other circumstances , they presented in the morning to the captaine and commander of those two souldiers , who enquired of him , how he had felt himselfe that night ; the souldier answered , that he had been in great anguish of heart , and was afterwards restored to his former health . it cannot be concealed , how many and severall armies and forces since have invaded this goodly country of hassen , and especially about the time when this prodigie happened on the souldier . the 2. next yeeres after , how barbanously and inhumanely the inhabitants thereof have been used by the imperall army , and that against all reason , without any cause , and besides all colour of right and justice : they are yet still sensible of them ; and wh●ch was worse then all this , if the prince with his poore subjects did at any time complaine or sue for justice or redresse , they were but scorned and rejected for their labours , contrary to all lawes and rights of nature ; as also against the peace of religion and of policy , all constitutions , and articles of the romane empire : yea , they have endured the most barbarous usage that might be , in the said country of hassia ; namely in quarterings , taxations , burnings , robberies , sacking of their townes , and villages : yea , also , and of putting to the sword innum●rable innocent subjects of all sorts . during all which proceedings of the enemy , and most lamentable sufferings of the inhabitants , the worst hath been of all , that notwithstanding those infinite complaints , prayers , cryes , and lamentation , they were never able to obtaine any pitty of their cause , or any christian compassion towards them . the norinberg carrier , with some company in his journey towards hamborow passing by the towne of coburg at night in the moneth of may , anno 1630. observed with great admiration a prodigious fire going into the towne and out of the towne , as if some discharging of great orduance were heard , for certaine houres after this . before the towne of coburg generall wallenstein presenting his canons in the yeare , 16●2 . following , the towne being there ▪ upon entred , the dukes pallace within the towne fell also to the souldiers ransacking with the rich houshold-stuffe , and a great part of treasure . the towne being thus mastered , the strong castle standing upon a rocke without the towne , was next summoned . the roise of the summons is answered by the thunder of the canons : which being lowder then the sound of the trumpet , would not let the offered conditions to be hearkned unto . wallensteins ordnance therefore are sent to reply upon dubatals canons , who had then the command of it . wallenstein having shot a breach in the lower parts of the castle wall , he prepared all things to give a generall assault upon it . five hundred souldiers thereupon being commanded into the dry graft or moate of the castle ; other from the towne side with continued volleys of small , and great shot , entertained the besieged dubatel having with good diligence also brought downe some new peeces of ordnance , he so seowers the imperialists , that a many of the assaylants already halfe way mounted , came fluttering downe headlong into the moate . wallenstein perceiving the castle to be strong , high situated , well provided , and the besieged resolved for defence ; after that one repulse had been given him he retreated , anno 1634. at hall , in lower saxony , in the beginning of may , anno 1631. the water was turned to blood , which miracle was beheld with horrour of many of the inhabitants . great alteration about the midle of the said moneth of may , in the same yeere followed in this city . first as it was taken by tilly , so was it retaken by their naturall lord the administrator of hall , and magdenburg from tilly. but presently repossessed by tillies forces . hither generall tilly , thus wounded in the battell of leipsig , made shift to flie that night , and had his wounds dressed by the town-barber of hall. this city of hall is but 7. dutch miles distant from the place of battell , wherein the imperiall army was quite defeated and beaten out of the field , being miserably slaine and trodden downe in the chase . and had the king of sweden had but 3. houres more of day-light , scarcely had , 1000. enemies come off alive . one of the high dutch relations doth affirme , that there were , 15000. of the imperialists slaine upon the place of battell , or in the chase ; the same night and the dayes following . tillys manly heart ( t is said ) could not refraine his teares , when he perceived his brave old souldiers , and army , which was called invincible , consisting of 44000. brave men , thus going to wracke . the chase and slaughter being done , which continued all the next day , the 10. of september , the king besieged hall , which the next day was yeelded unto him . the castle he tooke in september , 12. where he tooke an imperfall sergeant major , and a captaine prisoners , redeeming a colonell with some others that had been taken prisoners at magdenburg ; the king sending for the duke of saxony , and other the great commanders of his army , to come to hall , unto him . a councell of warre was there held , which way to keepe the enemy from gathering head againe , and how to pursue the victory . anno 1632. papp●nheim tooke in againe this city of hall , did not omit that spoile , and barbarisine upon the city , as was reported . part of the bridge he burned , and blew up some of the work es : clapt a petard to the castle gate , in which then was a swedish commander , with a garrison of 200. souldiers . however the leader of pappenheins salliers was there shot dead , and fell , his men forced from the the castle to retyre , being after some skirmishing beaten into the towne againe . at which instant a messenger of wallenstns overtooke him , to returne backe with all his forces to wards lutzen , in which bloody battell he was also strucken with a bullet of a ●●lconet . at madenburke a captaines wife dieing in childbed desired to be ripte vp shee had a child as bige as a child of 3 yeares old on his hind a head peace and a brest plate gret bootes and a bag at his side at frawenstein ●6 miles from dresden a woman hauemg● bought bread and goeing to cut it thereout i shewed bloode 〈◊〉 in the time of the siege of magdeburg a city captaines wife dying in child-bed , desires to be ript : the child was found , a boy almost as big as one of three yeeres old . he had an head-peice and an iron breast-plate upon him ; great bootes of the french fashion : and a bag by his side , with two like musket-bullets . this horrible prodigy hath doubtlesse portended the deplorable destruction , and dire abodement unto the same city ; which fell out the 10. of may , anno 1631. when a generall assault , by the imperialists was made upon the towne ; the walls were in a trice mounted , the towne entred , and the souldiers fell to killing . falckenberg the swedish commander therein , after valiant resistance was slaine with a shot , the administrator hurt and taken . whilest all thus goes to wrack , a mighty fire breakes out ( how none knowes ) it being a great windy day , all was on the sudden become one great flame : the whole towne was in twelue houres space , wholly turned to cinders , excepting few fisher houses . six goodly churches are burnt : the cathedrall was by the monkes , and souldiers diligence preserved . twenty thousand people at least were herein killed , burned , and smothered : six thousand being observed to be drowned in the river elve . tilly , wallons , and crabats never use to give quarter , or beg any : so that all were killed . 2. dayes after tilly came into the towne , and finding some hundreds of women and children in the church , he gives them their lives , and some bread to maintaine them . how inhumane a devastation of this so ancient and goodly hanse towne , the county of tilly , and pappenheim had then made , no pen can expresse it . the cruelty of which fury , no man can discover one halfe to the world , that agoodly city should be reduced to such ruines : as if hannibal had done it , and not tilly ; hannibal who had the art by fire and vinegar , to moulder away , the rocks and mountaines into crumbles ; for the forcing of his owne passage . the 18. and 19 of june , anno 1631. at asherleben in the lower saxony , towards evening a terrible prodigy was seene , and observed in the heaven . two strong armies met together , and prepared themselves to a pitcht battell . one came forth out of the south , and the other marching up out of the north. after a long fight the northern army obtained the victory from the other . this prodigy was seene the said two dayes for the space of an houre in the cleere heaven . after the battell was ended , a man in a long coate appeared two severall times , bearing a bow , shooting and prostrating the leader or commander of the southern army . betwixt this towne aschertlben , and tangermund , in the moneth following , july the 8. happened a sharpe conflict betwixt the swedes and imperialists , pappenheim then commander of 4. regiments of crabats , and others , and the expulsed garrisons thereabouts being sent by tilly to hinder the king of swedens proceedings in those places . the rhinegrave therefore with some swedish forces being there abroad , pappenheim falls upon on them ; of whose approach the king having intelligence with all the horse he could make , and some 2000. muskettiers came time enough to make one in the battell . pappenheims foot were almost all cut off , most of the horse ran away . himselfe escaped first into asherleben ▪ from whence hee hasted towards magdenburg , there to expect his master the generall tilly. it was said that some 20. companies of the imperialists were here defeated , and some 14. ensignes taken . tilly being come backe unto wolmerstad , few leagues from as●herleben , upon the 16. or 17. of iuly , he first of all dispatches away 4. regiments of horse for his vant curriers , to stay the king whilest himselfe with his whole army might come up to him and to tempt the king to a pitcht battell in the field . these gallant troopes , most of them old souldiers , were pappenheims men , and very forward therefore now to revenge their followes , marching towards the kings leaguer , and tooke up their quarters about tanger . the swedish charging presently tumbles down a many of the imperiall curassiers ; colonell bernstin , who was their leader , himselfe being slaine , thus were 1500. slaine , all the 4. regiments defeated . this defeate was given , tilly himselfe being in the sight of it . tilly resolving now upon a revenge , iuly , 21. forwards hee sets towards the king brought some 26000. men along with him , and all these full of anger , resolution and desire of revenge ; 3. severall times assaults the king in his trenches , but was beaten off , and with such a tempest of shot , chaine-shot , murthering shot , and what ever was cruellest to doe execution , showred in amongst the imperialists out of the kings campe , that there was made a miserable butchery . tilly at length retyred from the king , leaving five hundred starved horses behind him . some report him to have lost 6000. or , 7000. men : perchance in all these 3. great defeates of p●ppen●eims , bernsteins and his own . upon the fatall seaventh of september , this 1631. yeare in the bloody battell of leipsig , generall tilly himselfe was twice or thrice wounded with pistall-shot , and his whole army slaine , and rowted , as is already mentioned . upon the place of battell which the enemy had left for the king of sweden , there sate a ●locke of birds ; which being sprung by the kings comming , tooke their fight directly over tillies armie ; and fetching there a circle about ( and that also the romanes would have accounted an happy presage ) they turned againe towards the kings army : as who should say , we went to fetch you victory . but the king had a better presage on his side then a slight of birds , god with us , which was the watch-word ; and that which the romane generall sometimes preferred before the birds : romano milite dignus , ensis adest augur ; his valour namely , and his sword . generall tilly , anno 1632. received also another , but more mortall shot of a musket in the thigh , a little above the knee , in the conflict at lech betwixt him and the king , whereof he afterwards april , the 20. dyed within the towne of ingolstad , after the taking of 4. splinters out of his thigh ▪ few yeares before the long , cruell and bloody battell was fought at lutzen , the water in the towne ditch of lutzen , was turned to blood , which prodigy was fullfilled upon the 6. of november ▪ anno 1632. wherein the bloody encounter in continuall exercise lasted from 9. in the morning untill night ; in which the swedes did overthrow the whole imperiall army with slaughter of 9000. men upon the place : many a ●rave man dyed of the anguish of his wounds miserably ; who might otherwise have beene cured . the king of swedens majesty himselfe , ( as was sayd ) out of the greatnesse and heat● of his courage , having made a charge upon the imper●all curassiers , was there over-laid with a number of men , and did receive a shot in the left arme , which ▪ he scarce feeling at first , would needs have led on still . but perceiving by and by his royall blood to gush out abundantly , in his retreate was shot thorow the body . whose death indeed is never enough to bee lamented , and so this dying conquerour did seale the religion , and liberty of the germans nations with his blood ; and to whom the more ingenuous imperialists at prague , were heard to give this honourable testimony , that he was the bravest enemy , and the best captaine , that ever was in christendome . and so the swedes , and protestants army found themselves to have gotten ●ut a dolefull and a wofull victory ; losn●g that incomparable conquerour who was , alone , worth 2. armies . but he is dead ; and that as heartily bemoaned of the germanes ( to speake of him no more ) as of his owne subjects , who yet professe their losse to be unspeakeable . and in both their chronicles shall his sacred memory be made famous , and his name shall live in their mouths , and be honored . about the death of this glorious king of sweden , some singular , and miraculous prodigies happening also , had affrighted the people in swedland : amongst others , in the selfe same houres and times , when this battell of lutzen was fought appeared just over the castle , and royall seate of stockholm a virgin or damsel at night , holding in one hand a burning candle , in the other a white handkercher , which she cast about . besides it was noted and observed , that all the doores in castle , although they were shut and lockt , three severall times did open themselves . a river not of small account in swedland , lost the same time his water , insomuch that all the day long a man might goe thorow with a drie foot . in smaland a province of that kingdome , the bells without helpe of man began to sound , with great dishartning and terror of the inhabitants . at bushein a village betwixt the townes of frawenstein , and fribery , in the dominion of the sheter of saxonie happened a strange prodigic in the beginning of april , anno 1623. where first in the ayrc was seene a signe of a two-fold rain-bow , the one white as snow , the other exceeding blacke : besides this another signe appeared of a fiery colour . the next day from eleven till two of the clock in the afternoone , another aspect of a high white colour reappeared . besides all this , at frawenstein a woman having bought some loaves of bread , and turning homewards to her dwelling place , as she was dividing the bread , bloud came thereout . this frawenstein , being a pretty towne upon a hill some 16. english miles to the south of dresden , was taken by the imperialists by a bloody assault , the 3. of october following , in the same yeare 1632. for finding some opposition , the imperialists doe carry the towne by scaladoe , and put all both souldiers and inhabitants most miserably to the sword for it . october the 4. they assault friberg , a handsome towne upon the river mulda , some 10. english miles to the west of frawenstein . the towne also was hard laid at by the imperialists , being no way able to hold out a generall assault , which was the next day threatned them , and a generall destruction withall , if they yeelded not ; which the 5. october was done . neere this friberg , holcks men , who was then chiefe commander of those imperiall forces , taking , ( i know not what ) high displeasure at a certaine minister of the country ( a man of rare learning ) first of all hewed him miserably in peeces with their swords , and then sung him to their dogs to bee eaten . but the dogs , as astonished at such savage cruelty ( ô stand , and wonder ) would not so much as touch , or licke a droppe more of his blood . vvhereupon his friends the next day gathered up his pieces , and interred them . and lest this should seeme incredible , the authour of le soldat su●dois avowes , that the crabats shewed themselves ingenious to invent new torments for the poore inhabitants : and that it was frequent with them for want of dogs-meate , to feede their curres with humane flesh . this if it may be true , though the dogs were the man-eaters , yet the crabats surely were the cannibals . at kempten in swabeland , a strange prodigie , and abortive was borne of a citizens wife in the moneth of august , anno 1632. his head was altogether fat , and without eares ; the hands stretcht out all bloody twixt the flesh and skin , whose left hand held a rope , the belly thereof having too prickt wounds , and the left knee twice broken , a corde being about it . this goodly towne was held by the imperiall commander bray , and being strongly besieged , and many times furiously assaulted by the swedes , at the end of six dayes it was surrendred upon composition in the moneth of may , in the yeare 1633. the commander went to reitaw , where he was beheaded , because he so slightly surrendred the said towne . the 18. of march , anno 1634. was this towne of kempten the second time taken by gustavus horn by assault ; and whereas the imperiall colonell with his carrison had retyred themselves into the castle , both place and men were enforced the next day to yeeld upon hard conditions . many bloody ●●●irmi●es are fallen out about this towne , where the imperialists were often times beaten to the very gates of kempten . what misery the yeares following this towne felt , and the country thereabouts , when it was besieged and taken by the imperialists againe , cannot well be expressed . it was brought to such extremity of famine , not much inferiour to that of samaria , and ierusalem , recorded in holy scripture , or saguntus in spaine , and perusium in hetruria , or tuscany a province in italy , mentioned by prophane histories ; many brave citizens out of , this and the neighbour townes were compelled by necessity to beare armes , thereby to get their lively-hood . horse-flesh was sold for high prises , dogges , cats , and vermine , were as good as venison : all commerce being cut off , bread-come was not onely at an excessive rate , not to be purchased with money : so that the spruce citizens , which formerly held the country people as boores and clownes unfit for their society , might well discerne that their labours were not to be despised , their dead wares standing in no parallell of use with the fruit of the field , gotten by the industry of the rough handed plow-man , and the blessing of god. in the moneth of february . anno 1633. at dobenshutz , a village in the territory of althenburg in a fish-pond sprang forth blood which caused an exceeding ill stinke , so that if passengers had touched it , they could not wash off the stinke in 3. dayes . this country indeed hath been this yeare and the others following lamentably ruined and plunged : the souldiers licentiousnesse , exercising their wonted cruelty and beastly ravishing , hath beene unheard of . many faire townes were forced , spoiled , and burnt to ashes for resisting , and divers of the villages , as well as the foresaid dobenschutz , put on fire , and the inhabitants thereof most miserably slaughtered . here were the women , yea , ladies , gentlewomen , and others like beasts and dogs yoaked , and coupled together , to be sent into the woods and ravished : who for resisting had their cloaths stript off , their bodies whipt , their eares cut off , and so sent home againe . hereabout gat the souldiers and crabats together some thousands heads of cattell , and what beast soever could not , or did not readily follow them , they either houghed or killed ; lest ( as they said ) it should serve some hereticks . the rest i omit , not so much for frevities sake , as for horror : not listing to relate the barbarismes , and sheddings of blood committed by the crabats as if they had falne in not to make warres , but desolations ; or as if they had beleeved , that a country was never thorowly conquered , till it were utterly by sword and fare destroyed . gustavus horn , swedish field-marshall , with the rhinegrave , and a landgrave of hessen , being come to bibrach the 6. of march , anno 1633. a portentuous prodigie appeared about 8. clocke in the evening right over the towne ; two long swords were seene in the ayre , the one fiety , the other red as blood . many hard e●counters fell out about this time , and about this place , betwixt the swedes and imperialists . hornes people were supposed to have killed 600. crabats in a few dayes , neere and about this towne of bibrach : and so many of duke de ferias men , who had a new army of spanish and italians brought to aide the imperialists , dyed by the way , by frost , sword and famine , that betwixt vlm , and bibrach were found 1000. dead carcasses . and so the catholick generalls were then glad to make towards bavaria , having scarce brought away the third part of their army ; spanish , jtalians , germans , and burgundians . this towne of bibrach , not long after gustavus horns departing , was retaken by the imperialists by assault : the garrison laying downe both armes and ensignes , to have their bare lives saved . some moneths after foure regiments of the imperialists , betwixt this towne and isne , were surprised and ruinated by the swedes , which invaded their quarters , tooke a colonell with many officers prisoners , putting a great many to the sword : 600. other imperialists having been abroad , were also overtaken and killed the most of them . in the moneth of march , anno. 1634. gustavus horn besieged the city of bibrach againe , in the which lay 1300. men , offering upon his first approaches a faire agreement , which the imperiall governour of the towne refused : then planting his ordnance , hee battered the towne so long , till he won the enemies works , and made a breach into the walls . then the governour sending a trumpet out of the towne , desired reasonable conditions ; else that he would defend the towne to the last man ; and that first of all he would burn and blow up all the protestant citizens , which he had already lockt up into the towne-house , and into a cellar . this being refused , for that he had already denyed first good offers . after all this , when as all things were ready for the assault , and the swedish troopes advanced towards the breach , the evangelicall ministers together with divers women came foort● of the towne making a most pitifull cry and entreaty to the swedish generall , signifying it would cost all their lives , for that the town-house was already undermined , and the myne filled with powder , and that they certainly expected to be blown up immediatly . out of commiseration therefore to those poore people was offered another agreement unto the governour , and granted them liberty to march out with their swords onely : which was accepted . at dresden iune , the 23. anno 1634. happened another prodigy ; where towards evening at five of the clocke , the sun was first seene as white as snow , and then suddainely becomming darke , as if a mist went over it : it appeared first in forme of a crowne , and then like a feather ; red as blood , in which postures when it had continued by the space of halfe an houre , it returned to his orbicular shape , but retained the sanguine hew till it went downe , and the moon at her rising , retained the same bloody aspect till she was not to be seen in that horison . i know not whatsoever the physiologers bable of naturall causes , yet such alteration in the heavenly and ayry bodies is alwayes prodigious . memorable was that observation of the ancient astrologians to this purpose . speaking of the fearfull blazing star seene 1618. that it did presage — 1. violenta et superba consilia , dissidi● , proditiones et rebelliones . 2 latrocinia , et subsessiones viarum , solicitudinem auxietatemque animorum . 3 regum et principum interitum , bella , pestem , et morbos varios . 4 religionis legum , et institutorum mutationem , novarum rerum inexplebilem cupiditatem . i shall not dispute of the effects but expect them : a luxuriant wit may happily play on either side , and presage probably good or evill to either party . i dare not medle here ; my wish is — deus omen in hostes convertat — and my prayer shall still be : powre out thine indignation , o lord , upon the heathen , and thy wrath upon them which have not called upon thy name . about the midle of iune , anno 1634. at berlin in the marquisdom of brandenburg it rayned blood , and brimstone . the next yeare following in the moneth of november , before the gate of itzeho , a towne in holstein it rayned thick blood ; whose droppes instead of inck have represented right naturall blood in writing . how many bloody conflicts and encounters the same yeare and the next following happened betwixt these two countries , no man can fully apprehend or beleeve , unlesse such as have seen it with their eyes . and to avoide all other bloody passages , whichhave raged most cruelly in those parts , yet still in remembrance is the last bloody and sore battell , which was fought in the moneth of october , anno 1636. at witstock , in which were slaine 7000. of common souldiers upon the place , on the saxon and imperiall side , and many others more , which fell by the sword of the swedes in the prosecution . 6. whole regiments being totally ruinated , besides those great commanders who lost their lives also , namely the two generall majors , wilsdorp , and goliz , 5. colonels , besides rittmasters , captaines , and divers officers both of horse and foot 1500. prisoners taken , amongst which were 170. officers , 143. cornets and ensignes , 14. peeces of ordnance , and 8000. wagons were lest to the swedish conquerours . of the swedes were also slaine upon the place of battell 1000. and upwards ; amongst which there were of account two colonels , 4. lieutenant colonels , and sundry ritmasters , captaines , and under officers . at m●lnick where the randevouz of the saxon army was , in time of prayer , iuly the 24. anno 1634. was a strange apparition in the ayre , which is thus delivered by letters bearing date the same day — that about evening , when our electors chaplaine was at prayers , there appeared a signe in the skie , like a fiery beame : when he had finished his course , and the lieutenant generall arnheim his chaplaine did his office , there appeared another in a forme of a scepter fiery-red , just over the house where he made his sermon , assoone as prayers were done , and the chaplaine had spoken amen , the signe vanished : it was seene of many after this . the crabats , like vermin in a warren , worse then bandetties , have ransacked , plundered , and pillaged what places soever they came unto , in these countries , this yeare , and the other following : they spared neither noblemens houses , churches , nor cloysters , but robbed , and dismembred the country people , ravished the women , defloured the maids , burnt the villages , and townes , and did such mischievous insolences , as those rhodopes , and dolopes would have started at . man and beast , and fowles of the ayre , all seemed now to be at an irreconciliable difference , and germany must be the stage whereupon they played their prizes : at hessen , in the moneth of march , anno 1635. there met together two armies of strange birds , which fought , as it were , in a set battaile : and neere straubinge , upon the danubie multitudes of dogges had their randevouze , which fought so eagerly , that the whole vicinage was not onely affrighted by the prodigy , but , as if they would not admit of any agreement , but such as themselves liked of , when the governour of ratisbone had sent out against them 4. companies of his garrison , with muskets and other military instruments to assault and slaye them , they left their hostility , a strange enemy comming upon them , set upon the souldiers , and in despite of their shot and weapons devoured nine men . multitudes of strange dogges fought so eagerly and slew each other that the gouerner of ratisbone sent 4 companies of muskets against them and 9. of the men were slaine by the dogges the conduit at isenach rane blood for 2 houres together 1637 strange prodigies terrifying the hearts of the people , while the princes and peeres were in their jollitie in the dyet at ratisbone : mars , and saturne reigned abroad , and warre with his grim attendants , famine , pestilence , fire , and destruction also raging abroad in the romane empire . what might happen by the fault of a carelesse or unskilfull mason , not well bedding or cementing the stones , at the building of a new steeple at vienna , was by the construction of the vulgar sort counted ominous . the spire of shotten lately built fell downe suddenly the 19. of december , anno 1636. about the time of the coronation of the new king of romanes at ratisbone , and demolished the new builded church : and that was made portentous , the rather , being accompained with another of the same time at rome ; where a great blazing starre , called by the naturalists cometa crinitus , appeared for a space , and then vanished away suddenly over s. pauls church with a noyse : and diverse monuments , placed in the church , fell downe , and were defaced utterly . now it would relish of over much boldnesse to peepe into the arke of the divine secrets , nor can we conclude any particular consequences to have been portended by the accidentary fall of the aforesaid new steeple at vienna ; yet doubtlesse the comet , though caused by the meeting of secundary and naturall causes , was the significator of what ensued about that time , and not long after . within the space of a moneth the emperour ferdinand the second , who had long been sickly at ratisbone , and then removed to vienna , exhaled his last spirit , february the 5. anno 1637. betwixt 8. and 9. of the clock in the morning , to the great griefe of the court and city , which had prepared triumphs and tournaments , and in much braverie determined to receive the new king of romanes : but by this occasion laid aside their gallantrie , put on the face of sorrow , and by their dejected lookes and mourning apparell , shewed their anxietic for his losse , who so long had steered the ship of state to their content , and was then taken from them , when the tottering empire freshly assaulted and ransackt by strangers , required such a nestor , as by sage directions grounded upon mature deliberations might preserve it from feare of utter ruine . some prodigies happening in sundry places of the roman empire before the meeting of the princes in the electorall diet at ratisbone , did dis-hearten the common people , and made them despaire of any good issue by that treaty . one was at wels in austria , the suddaine uncovering of the emperours house of pleasure , where he was lodged , ( by a violent tempest , and this was accompa●ned with two others at lintz , the first whereof , was the suddaine fall of an arch of the bridge made over the danuby , which the emporour had no sooner passed over , but it tumbled into the river : the other this ; three carved eagles , placed upon the house of a burgesse of lintz , being broken downe , by the fury of the tempest , were mounted by the same violent blast into the ayre , shattered there sundry wayes , and the one in the end fell upon the house appointed for the assembly of the province , the other upon the state-house , and the third upon a publike aqueduct . anno 1636. distracted wits upon every light occasion , project terrible things : these conceits were fond , and superstitious , not rationall , and sound . the harsh beginning of the dyet , and the first session was more to be feared , as a fatall prognosticke of no happy conclusion , then those antecedent accidents . a bloudy time was in the electorate of saxony , and a generall feare was conceived by the adjoyning princes , that the fury of warre would not be confined there : the hearts of the people were terrified by a strange prodigie , which though it admits no particular interpretation , was as terrible as portentous . the conduit at isenach anno 1637. situated in the midst of the marketsted , sodainly instead of water poured out blood , and so continued for the space of two houres , before it yeelded againe that element , for which that aqueduct was ordained . a bloody time ensued it betwixt the imperiall generalls and banniers●orces ●orces : where few dayes passed without shedding of blood in those parts about the same time . and the miserable condition of that dukedome of saxony , and the detriments and most totall ruine thereof , can not bee delivered without an accent of griefe : which desolation was made , not onely by the swedes the enemies , but also by the seeming friends the caesarians , who spared not to burne those places to the ground , where they finde not as much provision , as they demand for their armies : and the severall conflicts betwixt the swedish and saxonian armies , were not without the effusion of much christian blood , but the blood so shed was not taken away by way of murther , ( warre justly grounded , is continued lawfully ; the sword is oft a just decider of controversies , and though it bee accompted one of the great plagues sent by god , it is not attended with any injustice in the execution ) black murthers and horrid treasons hatched in darknesse , what ever the pretence thereof may be , are not onely unexcusable , but detestable also to god , and man. peace , the benefits whereof have not for many late yeeres been sensibly discovered to the germans , was now , and especially in this country of saxony , the generall desire of the people : the boores , which lived by tillage , and feeding of cattell , hoped that these yeares the swords would be turned into plow-shares , and the pikes into shepherds crooks ; the merchants , whose free traffique was stops by these militarie broyles , began to feele poverty , comming upon them , more then the armed men against their enemies , and longed for an open trade , and severall persons , according to our humane condition , qui facilè credsmus , quod volumus , upon each slight occasion , gave out , that a truce for time of yeares , if not a certaine and firme peace , would be concluded betwixt the crowne of sweden and its allies , and the king of hungary , and his adherents . but the misery of that country was not yet come to the height : the elector himselfe lost almost his whole country : moissen the chiefest city of mionia , eulemberg , grim , borne , debitz , bitterfeld , belgeren and hall , yeelding instantly to the swedish conquerours ; having no hope of reliefe by any confederate army ; onely dresden of all the umbilicall cities of saxony , did hold still out , yet not without feare of being made the spoyle of strangers , the imperiall armies being so farre from their succours , that their march , and places of reft , were unknowen to the citizens . the swede was by this ●ucce●●e growne terrible to the commons of the empire ▪ some accounted him as an authorized executioner of divine justice , upon the saxon , whose jugling dealing had brought this misery and desolation upon his dukedome . a woman at vienna appeared crying nothing but woe vnto you woe vnto you anno 1637. the water at weimar againe turned to blood . a strange worm in the shape of a man , with perfect lineaments , and a golden crowne upon his head , was found in a sallad at an herb-womans shop at coblentz , and which ( if not prestigious ) was most terrible , a woman appeared in a mourning habit , in stephens the cathedrall church-yard at vienna , iune the 18. 1637. which , with an accent of sorrow , from 11. to 12. at night yelled out woe unto you , woe unto you ; often repeating those words , and nothing else : the bells without helpe of man rung sodainly , to the great affrightment of the people , who descanted upon the omen , doubting such horrid consequences would ensue it , as presented themselves to their sevetall fancies . a new time of trouble began then , fire and sword raging in the most and best part of germany , not only casually , but by the arbitrement and will of such as used that devouring element , to the damage of those with whom they were at enmity . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a16857-e180 beda inter axiome . philos . ex arist . a psal . 135 ▪ 6 b rom. 1. 20. v●t●●is est maxima , pert●ag●●e quem 〈◊〉 . apud 〈◊〉 arist . de an . 〈…〉 pind. a min●●i ad mi●es . . a dan 5. 8. prodigia , quod ●orro dicant , dest , sut●rrap ●edicant . au. d● civ . d●i . lib. 21 cap. 8 omnia qu●●pe port●nta contra nauram di●mu● csse : s●dn●n sunt ●dem . c ●●nch de ep●●ih . dei. lib 3. cap 13. 〈◊〉 mir●●u●um & 〈◊〉 . quae sunt rara ●psa sunt mira augu. novis omnia plena virg . a iob. 38. 28. 29. b gen. 19. 24. a deut 13. 1. b mat. 24. 24. c exod. 7. 11. d iob. 1. 16. * mar●●nus biermanus , de magicis actiombus e exod. 15. 11. 1 tim. 2. 4. a pro. b gen. 27. 9. c rom. 19. isa . 4● . 8. and 9. * qui portentorum numerat multitudinem que historia gentium con●inentur . aug. a mat. 27. 45. b exod. 10 21. c levit ▪ 10. 2. fitry prodigies . d 2 kings 1. 10. e exod. 13. 21. 22. gen. 19. 24. gen. 3. 24. airy . iosh . 101● watery . earthy . isa . 38. 8. i psa nomint indict ●in●m rei . monster sane dicta pe●hi bentà . monsirando . &c. aug quo supra . * cum deus puuitur●● est gen●ens vel orben● prod 〈◊〉 id 〈…〉 herod . * ●●e 〈…〉 p●oba●● , 〈◊〉 ●act . 〈…〉 16. acte . 9. 6. rev. 3 3. ier. 10. 2. ezech. 8. luke . 21. 31. acts. 20. deut. 32. 27. rom 3. 4. deut. 29. ● * gen. 44. 43. notes for div a16857-e3830 the blazing start water and ice turned ●●bloud . two armie ▪ fighting in the heavens . three rainbows and three sunnes appearing in the heavens . ●dnance ●d canons dis●arging n the ●eavens . ● sword●●tanding ●gainst o ▪ her seene ●y the in●abitants . leaves of trees drop blood . a well turned to blood . the parler walls table , and chaires sweate blood . bloody signes seene on ho●s s , & walls . sickles in the l●ield bloody . it rayned blood . fiery beames ▪ comming forth of the sunnc stand in opposition to it . an ancient in red habit seen in the air : also a chariot with 2. horses , an infinite number of men . a strange tempest . strange kinde of fruite . thunder and lightning . 2 femals joyned together . thunderbolt did much hurt sword , & a rod appeared . water tur ▪ ned to bloud . a child taken out of the body of a woman as big almost as one of three yeeres old . ● strang-armies met in the ayre , one out of the south , the other out of the north. a virgin with a candle , & hand●ercher . a double ●ai●e-bow , one white , the other black . blood running out of a loafe of bread. homo 〈◊〉 ●u●u● men metamorp osed into vipers . a strange abortive blood springing out of a fish ▪ pond . god punis●●●th f●thy thy beastly ans with stenches , & ●●thy ●●vots . friday and 〈◊〉 ●●●cleann●sse . savage ●●●city . blood and brimstone from heaven . scepter seene red , and fiery . 2 armies of birds fighting a conduit running blood a strange worm in the shape of a man. an accurate description of the united netherlands, and of the most considerable parts of germany, sweden, & denmark containing a succinct account of what is most remarkable in these countries, and necessary instructions for travellers : together with an exact relation of the entertainment of his most sacred majesty king william at the hague / written by an english gentleman. english gentleman. 1691 approx. 272 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 107 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a69794 wing c631 wing e3688 estc r20438 12259162 ocm 12259162 57758 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a69794) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 57758) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 175:17 or 339:15) an accurate description of the united netherlands, and of the most considerable parts of germany, sweden, & denmark containing a succinct account of what is most remarkable in these countries, and necessary instructions for travellers : together with an exact relation of the entertainment of his most sacred majesty king william at the hague / written by an english gentleman. english gentleman. carr, william, 17th cent. [4], 147, [2], 40 p., [4] leaves of folded plates : ill. printed for timothy childe ..., london : 1691. "an exact relation of the entertainment of his most sacred majesty william iii ... at the hague" has special t.p. and separate paging. attributed to william carr. cf. wing. entry for a438 cancelled in wing (2nd ed.). created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng william -iii, -king of england, 1650-1702. netherlands -description and travel. germany -description and travel. scandinavia -description and travel. 2006-06 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-06 ali jakobson sampled and proofread 2007-06 ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an accurate description of the united netherlands , and of the most considerable parts of germany , sweden , & denmark . containing a succinct account of what is most remarkable in these countries : and necessary instructions for travellers . together with an exact relation of the entertainment of his most sacred majesty king william at the hague . written by an english gentleman . london : printed for timothy childe at the white-hart in st. paul's church-yard 1691. the preface . having often observed , that relations of travels , voyages , &c. are generally very acceptable to the genius of the english nation , i judged that it might not be altogether impertinent to give a brief account of some remarkable observations made during my abode in foreign countries , especially having travelled for the space of sixteen years through holland , germany , sweden , denmark , and other considerable parts of europe . i easily foresee , that it will be soon objected , that after so great a man as sir william temple , who hath already published a full and incomparable description of the policy and government of the states of the united provinces , it would be a vain presumption to attempt any farther on that subject . however , without derogating from his honour , i have here inserted divers particular remarks , not mention'd by him , but such as travellers may make use of to very good purpose , for whose information this small essay is chiefly design'd . and it will be the more eminently useful at this time , in respect of the great number of english gentlemen , that now travel that way . wherefore i doubt not , but this will be a sufficient plea to cover me from the imputation of vanity , and to make it appear , that what i have here perform'd , is only intended for the publick service in general , and the particular assistance of those gentlemen , who shall hereafter travel through these countries . the lists of the passage boats and wagons in holland , with the hours of their going off , which i have inserted , the traveller will find extreamly useful . as for the relation of the kings voyage to holland , annexed at the end . i confess indeed , that it deserves to be written by an abler hand ; but being at that time at the hague , i was induced by curiosity , to take an exact account of this so extraordinary a solemnity , which i did at first for my own private use , but have now published it through the importunity of some friends . the prospects of the triumphal arches , pyramids , &c. are exactly copied from the original draughts taken at the hague , and are the true representations of them . a description of holland : with some necessary directions for such as intend to travel through the province of holland , germany , &c. as they that confine themselves to their own country , have not the opportunity to see and observe rarities in other parts of the world ; so , such as go into foreign places , rather wander at random , than travel , who have not the curiosity to commit to memory or writing such things they meet with , both for their own and others satisfaction , as may demonstrate the fruits of their travels . i confess , all travellers are not of alike temper ; some delight themselves in contemplation of the curiosities of arts ; some are taken with the varieties of the works of nature ; others speculate , with a kind of reverence , the decays and ruins of antiquity ; others studiously inform themselves with the transactions of modern times ; others with the government and polity ; others speculate the strange cust●●● and fashions of the places they pass through ; to be short , every one labours to entertain the reader with those objects and rarities of foreign parts his genius and inclination is most affected with . as to my self , although during the space of 16 years travel , i might have enlarged , according to the curiosity and opportunity i have had in the rehearsal of many rare and exquisite things very observable ; yet my chief aim was , to make such remarks as might most contribute to the common good of human society and civil life , in taking notice of the government and polity of the several states and dominions where i have been , viz. the united provinces , germany , denmark , sweden , and other countries , whose natural temper and disposition seemed to me most to sympathize with our english nation , and thereby have an occasion to do some good to my own country . expect not , reader , a like punctualness , as to all the forementioned places , because very many things , which i might have observed , are much agreeing , and so may be referred to what shall be spoken of the polity and government of holland , which , for reasons i shall by and by hint at , is the chief end i aimed at in this treatise . we will begin then in the first place with the commonwealth of holland , and dominions of the states general , which thô for some years were in a declining condition , and their forces exceedingly weakened , by reason of that fatal war it managed against england , france , and the bishop of munster , unto which , if we add the intestine divisions of those two factions , the prince of orange and lovestein , that politick body , was so totter'd and torn , as did threaten its utter and total ruine . but as bodies , whether natural or politick , after that a violent fit hath ●ore shaken , dissipated , and exhausted their spirits , may recover vigor , and look lively again , if so be the radical constitution and natural temper be not wholly changed and depraved ; even so this commonwealth of holland hath visibly recovered strength again , and attained its former force and lustre . we will therefore make some remarks , as to the defects and failings ( observed not only by me , but also by others ) which that famous commonwealth hath of late years been guilty of ; which i shall do not out of any malice , or design of reflection , the intention of writing this treatise being simply to insert those defaults which the wisest of authors have always judged necessary , not only for the reformation of this , but of all states whatsoever . this commonwealth of holland hath worthily been the wonder of all europe during this last age , and perhaps not to be parallell'd in the records of former times ; for if we consider how many years it was assaulted by the then most potent prince of europe , who aspired to no less than the universal empire ; and that how formidable soever he were , yet they not only maintained their pretensions , but with uninterrupted prosperity and succefsfulness adva●●ed their trade , and spread their conquests in all the four parts of the world. rome it self , though most famous and victorious , yet could not , as is be●ieved , in so short a time do what by this commonwealth hath been effected . in india and africa they soon forced the spaniard and portugueses to yield to them most of their trade and possessions : and thô england put in for a share , yet they were a long while vigorously opposed by the dutch , and to this hour have enough to do to keep what they have gotten ; so that in less than 100 years this commonwealth by their industry , and art in trading , are become so excessive rich and potent , that they began to insult , and would needs be arbitrators to their neighbouring princes and states , and encroach upon their territories and dominions . this drew upon them that fatal war before-mentioned , by which they were sorely weaken'd and brought so low , that except god by a more than ordinary providence had protected and appeared for them , they had certainly been ruinated , and never able to recover themselves again ; however , their pride hereby was much abated : and as luxury and lasciviousness are the sad effects of prosperity , as well as pride ; so such vices in a body politick and commonwealth as do corrupt the radical humours , by abating the vigour of the vital parts , do insensibly tend to the consumption and decay of the whole . that this commonwealth hath much recovered its strength , may clearly appear , if we consider what great things they have effected since the little time they have enjoyed peace : they have in less than 7 years built about 40 gallant ships of war ; they have laid out vast sums of treasure in refortifying narden , maestricht , breda , the grave , and many other places ; they have paid vast sums of money to their allies for their auxiliary troops , as also 200000 l. sterling to the king of england to enjoy their peace with him . and besides all this , their encrease in riches and power may be guessed at , by the many stately houses built within these 5 years in amsterdam , rotterdam , and other places ; to all which we may add , to what excessive height the actions of the east and west-india company are risen , and the obligations from the states are so esteemed as to security , that they can get as much mony as they please at 2 per cent. not to speak of the exceeding encrease of their subjects , occasioned by the french king's tyranny against the distressed protestants in france , alsace , and other parts of his conquests ; neither will we speak of other signs of the encrease of this commonwealth , as not judging it convenient to commit them to paper , but will now proceed to shew the method of living and travelling in the dominions and places of the states , which , if you do well consider , you may see how happy and easy the government of england is , above that of other nations . the briell in holland is the usual place where the pacquet and king's pleasure-boats bring on such as come to see the united provinces ; but of late helvoet-sluys is the place the pacquet comes to , as being the more convenient port : here be sure to furnish your self well with money . from hence you take a boat to maesland-sluys or rotterdam , which , if you go in company with others , will only cost you 5 stivers ; but if you take one for your self , will cost 25 stivers for maeseland-sluce , and a ducatoon to rotterdam : the fifth part of which goes to the states for a tax , they call passagie gelt ; and the other four parts are for the boat-men or schippers , who also out of their gains must pay a tax to the states , so that by computation you pay a fifth penny to the states for your travelling either in boats by water , or in wagons by land. as you pass by maseland-sluce you will see a very fair fishing village , to which belong near two hundred herring busses , but if you go by the way of rotterdam you sail by two old towns , called flardin and schiedam : yet let me advise you before you depart from the briell , to take a serious view of it , as being the city which in queen elizabeth's time was one of the cautionary towns pawned to england . the briell had a voice among the states , but by reason rotterdam hath got away their trade , by which having lost its former lustre , is now become a fishing town only . rotterdam is the second city for trade in holland , and by some is called , little london , as having vast traffick with england , insomuch , that many of the citizens speak good english . there are in this city two considerable churches of english and scotch : and how great a trade they drive with the king of england's subjects is evident , for in the year 1674 , at the opening of the waters , after a great frost , there departed out of rotterdam 300. sail of english , scotch , and irish ships at once with an easterly wind : and if a reason should be demanded , how it comes to pass that so many english ships should frequently come to that haven , it is easily answered , because they can ordinarily load and unload , and make returns to england from rotterdam before a ship can get clear from amsterdam and the texel : and therefore your english merchants find it cheaper , and more commodious for trade , that after their goods are arrived at rotterdam , to send their goods in boats landward into amsterdam . this city is famous , as being the place where great erasmus was born , whose statue of brass stands erected in the market-place : and although the buildings here are not so superb as those of amsterdam , leyden , or haerlem , yet the places worth the seeing , are , first , the great church , where several admirals lie stately entombed ; here you see their admiralty , east-india , and stadt-houses , together with that called , het gemeen lands huis . from rotterdam you may for five stivers have a boat to bring you to delft , but before you come thither you pass through a fair village called overschie , where the french and english youths are trained up in litterature , as to the latin and dutch tongue , book-keeping , &c. from thence in the same boat you come to delft which is famous for making of porceline to that degree , that it much resembles the china , but only it is not transparent . in delft is the great magazin of arms for the whole province of holland : their churches are very large , in one of which are tombs of the princes of orange , admiral tromp , and general morgans lady , and in the cloister over against the church , you have an inscription in a pillar of brass , shewing after what manner william the first , that famous prince of orange , was shot to death by a miscreant jesuit , with his deserved punishment . delft hath the third voice in the states of holland , and sends its deputies unto the college of the states general , and to all other colleges of the commonwealth . they have also a chamber in the east-india company , as shall be more largely spoken to , when we shall come to treat of the state of the said company . from delft you may by boat be brought to the hague for two stivers and an half ; which is accounted the fairest village in the world , both for pompous buildings , and the largeness thereof ; here the princes of orange hold their residence , as also the states general , and the council of state ; here you have the courts of justice , chancery , and other courts of law. here you see that great hall , in which many hundreds of colours are hung up in trophy , taken from the emperor , spaniard , and other potentates with whom they have waged war. their council chambers are admired by all that see them . many fair libraries they have belonging to particular men. the princes palace is a most superb building , and there are many costly gardens adjoyning to the hague , together with that to the princes house in the wood , in which house are in a large hall the most rare and costly pictures of europe ; there also are those magnificent and unparalell'd gardens of the ●●eer bentham of amesland and others . i might here speak of the splendor of his majesties court in holland , of his noble virtues and valour , of the most virtuous and beautiful princess his royal consort , but i dare not , least i should infinitely fall short of what ought to be , and which others have already done before me : and therefore leaving the hague , i shall only tell you that from thence you may for seven stivers have a boat to bring you to leyden . leyden is a fair and great city , and the university is very famous , there being continually in it 1000 students from all parts , as hungary , poland , germany , yea from the ottomans empire it self , who pretend to be grecians , besides the english , scots , and irish , who this year were numbred to be above 80. the most remarkable things here to be seen , i shall summarily set down : as the place called the bergh , formerly a castle belonging to the prince of liege in flanders : the stadt-house , the university schools , especially that of the anatomy , which excels all the anatomy schools in the world , a book of the rarities whereof you may have for six stivers ; their physick garden , and the professors closet are all ravishing in rare curiosities . but as to their colleges , they are but two , and very small , not to be compared with the smallest halls in oxford , neither have they any endowments , their maintenance being only from the charitable collections of the ministers of holland ; neither are any students to remain longer there than till they attain the degree of batchelors of art : one of the curators being demanded by me , why so rich a commonwealth as holland is , did not build and endow colleges after the manner of oxford and cambridge ; answered , they had not so many able and publick spirited men as are in england , and to deal plainly with you , said he , had we such colleges , our burghermasters and magistrates would fill them with their own and their friends sons , who by leading a lazie and idle life , would never become capable to serve the commonwealth , and therefore he judged it much better to put them to pension in burghers-houses , leaving them to the care of the professors , who are very diligent in keeping the students at their exercises , both at publick lectures , and in their private houses also , where they cause them punctually at their appointed hours to come to their examinations and lectures , besides those they have in publick . their churches are rare , so are their walks round the city , and the fortifications very pleasing to behold . here you have the river rhine running through the city , and falling into it from catwyck op zee . leyden is very famous in history for the long siege it held out against the spaniard . from hence for 12 stivers and an half you are brought to haerlem by water , being 12 english miles . harlem is famous , in that costor one of their burghers , first invented the art of printing . this costor being suspected to be a conjurer , was fain to flee from haerlem to cologne in germany , and there perfected his invention , having in haerlem only found out the way of printing on one side of the paper . the first book he ever printed is kept in the stadt-house , for those that are curious to see it . here is one of the fairest and largest churches of the seventeen provinces , in the walls whereof there remain to this day sticking , cannon bullets , shot by the spaniards during the siege thereof . in this church are three organs , as also the model of the three ships that sailed from haerlem to damiater , seizing the castle in which the earl of holland was kept a prisoner , and brought him away to holland : in the tower of this church hang two silver bells , which they also brought from thence , and now ring them every night at nine a clock . haerlem is renowned for making the finest linnen cloth , tyffinies , damasks , and silk stuffs ; also ribands and tapes : they have mills by which they can weave 40 or 50 pieces at a time ; they make the finest white thread and tapes for lace in the whole world ; their bleacheries surpass all other whatsoever , their waters whitening cloth better than any in the seventeen provinces : they have a most pleasant grove like a little wood , divided into walks , where on sundays and holy-days the citizens of amsterdam and other places come to take their pleasure . haerlem is the second city of holland , and sends in deputies unto all the colleges of the government . from hence you have a passage by boat to amsterdam for six stivers , but when you are come half way , you must step out of one boat to go into another , where you see a stately palace , where the lords , called dykgraves sit ; every one of these lords hath his apartment when he comes for the concerns of the sea-dykes and banks : here are also two large sluces , having gates to let in or out water from the haerlemmer meer . near this place about anno 1672 , a part of the sea-bank was broken by a strong north-west wind , drowning all the land betwixt amsterdam and haerlem , which cost an incredible vast sum to have it repaired . they sunk in this breach 400 small vessels fil'd with earth and stones , for a foundation to rebuild the wall upon , and by unspeakable industry and charges at last repaired the bank. i come now to speak of amsterdam , which having been the place of my abode for several years , i shall give a more large and punctual account thereof then i do of other places : it is esteemed by intelligent men , the second city in the world for trade , and not inferiour to any in wealth . certainly amsterdam is one of the beautifullest cities in the world , their buildings are large , their streets for the most part pleasantly planted with trees , and paved so neatly , as is to be found no where else in any country , save in some of the seventeen provinces . and although , as i have already said , amsterdam may justly be taken for the second or third city after london and paris , yet it hath neither court nor university as they have . and now in treating of all the excellences and virtues of amsterdam , i shall not hyperbolize or flatter ; for before i have done , you shall see , i shall also faithfully declaim against the evils , mistakes , and vices in it . amsterdam stands upon 1000 morgans of land , encompassed with a very strong wall and bastions most pleasant to behold , with a very large gracht or ditch for the defence of three parts of the city , the fourth being secured by an arm of the sea called the river y , or ( as the english men corruptly call it ) the ty. there are 13 churches in this city for those of the reformed religion ( called dutch presbyterians ) to meet and worship in , with two french , one high-dutch , and one english , all presbyterian churches , who only are allowed bells , and whose ministers are maintained by the magistrate . all these churches or congregations make up only a third part of the inhabitants of the city . the papists , who have 85 houses or chapels to meet in for their worship , make another third part , and have a long square of houses for their nuns to live in , who are not shut up in cloisters , as in papist countries they are wont to do , but may go in and out at their pleasure , yea and marry also , if they grow weary of a nunnish life . these churches of the papists have no bells allow'd them , being look'd upon as conventicles , and are many times shut up , and again opened at the scout's pleasure . the other third part of the city is made up by jews , lutherans , armenians , brownists or english independants , anabaptists , and the quakers : none of which , as was also said of the papists , have bells allowed them , but are accounted conventicles ; and all that marry amongst them must first be married by the magistrate , and then ( if they please ) among themselves in their own assemblies ; neither are any of them admitted unto any office in the government , but such only as are of the reformed or presbiterian profession . the jews , who are very considerable in the trade of this city , have two synagogues , one whereof is the largest in christendom , and as some say , in the world ; sure i am , it far exceeds those in rome , venice , and all other places where i have been . within the court-yard where their synagogue stands , they have several rooms or schools , where their children are taught hebrew , and very carefully ( to the shame of christians negligence ) brought up and instructed in the jewish principles . amsterdam , for the wise statesmen it hath produced , is said to be a second athens ; others make it the storehouse or magazine of europe , for that it hath such great store of corn , wherewith it furnishes many other nations . and secondly , for the exceeding great magazine of spices , which in ancient times the venetians brought by land , furnishing all parts of europe , but now is done by the east-india company , which not only supplies europe therewith , but many places in the indies also . thirdly , it hath inconceivable store of all manner of provisions for war , insomuch , that england and divers other nations send to amsterdam to buy arms , buff-coats , belts , match , &c. yea , here are several shop-keepers who can deliver arms for four or five thousand men , and at a cheaper rate than can be got any where else ; and this they can do by reason of their great industry in the ingrossing most of the iron works on the rhine , and other rivers , which run into holland . fourthly , amsterdam hath more store of sawed and prepared timber for shipping than can be found in any one nation in the world ; and this is the reason why her neighbor town sardam is made capable of building ships 20 per cent. cheaper than they can do in england or france : so that both france , and spain do many times buy them in holland : as lately the king of spain bought ten capital ships of the two brothers the melts merchants in this city . fifthly , amsterdam is the staple where the emperor sells his quick-silver , not only to the spaniard , to use in his mines in the indies , but for the making of cinoprium or vermillion , with which amsterdam furnisheth not only europe , but many places in the indies . the stadt house of amsterdam the stadthouse , or guild-hall of amsterdam , is deservedly admired and talked of by all the world , it is in truth a most neat and splendid pile of building , and the reader will not be displeased , i believe , if i enlarge 〈◊〉 little in its description . this noble town-house then , is built all of free-stone , according to the modern architecture of the corinthian order , adorned with statues in brass , and carving in marble by the best masters of the age. a prospect whereof see in the following figure . it is 282 foot wide , 232 foot deep , and 116 foot high , besides the tower. the foundation is laid upon 13659 piles of wood driven into the ground ; the first stone of it was laid october 28. 1648. in the middle over the cornish , and just before the tower , is a very handsome piece of carving in marble of 82 foot long , and 18 foot high , wherein the city of amsterdam is represented by a woman , on whose right hand sits the god neptune , with his trident , and two sea-goddesses bring her the fruits of the earth . on her left , two naïdes present her with laurels and palms ; and before her two tritons dance and sound their horns . on the top of this stands an image of brass , representing peace , and one on each side representing providence and justice , each figure being 12 foot high . and on the back part of the building to answer , is such another piece of carving , in marble also , shewing the grandeur and commerce of the city ; in the middle sits a woman , having on her head the hat with wings of mercury ; behind her is seen the masts and sails of a ship , and round about her lies all sorts of mathematical instruments used in sailing ; at her feet lie the two rivers y and amstel , and on each side , the inhabitants of the four parts of the world bring her their fruits . here likewise are placed three images of brass of the same bigness with the other ; that on the top is an atlas , bearing a very large globe of copper , on the right hand , one representing temperance , and on the left justice . on each of the four corners of the building , over the cornish , stand four eagles of brass supporting an imperial crown , all finely gilt. in the middle is erected a very handsom round tower , advanced about 50 foot above the rest of the building , the roof supported by pillars , and adorned with images ; in it hang a very curious chime of bells , which at certain times being played on by a person maintained for that purpose , afford a very agreeable musick . so much for the out side . and now let us enter , which you may by seven little arched doors , which let you into the porch , from whence you enter the house by two large gates , between which opening by windows , ( with bars of cast-brass ) to the street , stands the justice-hall for trial of criminals , which is adorned with many curious carvings in marble of ingenious devices , which would be too long to describe particularly . below stairs , within side , is kept the office of the bank , where the merchants write off their money , the prisons both for debtors and criminals , the guard chamber where the citizens keep the head-watch , and where the keys of the city gates are kept lockt up in a chest every night , and some other offices . from hence you ascend by a handsome broad pair of stairs , though not very light , into the burghers-hall , which is 120 foot long , 57 foot broad , and 98 foot high , in the floor whereof are inlaid in marble the two faces of the terrestrial globe , and that of the coelestial , which ingeniously shews , as in a map , the situation of the countries of the earth , and the constellations in the heavens : each of which maps is 22 foot diameter . at the end of this hall is the scheepens chamber , where are tryed all civil causes between man and man , and in the galleries ( which go round two square courts on each side the hall , for convenience of light ) are the several chambers , or offices , belonging to the government ; as the council chamber , where 〈◊〉 the common council of the city , who make laws , choose the burghermasters , and scheepens , deputies for the states , &c. the burghermasters chamber , who sit there daily to administer the government : the burghermasters withdrawing room : the scheepens extraordinary chamber : the treasury chambers , ordinary and extraordinary : the chamber of accounts : that of the commissioners for bankrupts : another for the commissioners for tryal of small causes , like our court of conscience : and one for the commissioners of the hospitals ; with two or three more belonging to the several secretaries , all which are beautified with fine paintings , and ingenious devices carved in marble over the door of each chamber ; to give a particular description of which would take up a volume , which is not agreeable to what i here pretend , these being only short remarks to put young travallers in mind of what is most worthy their observation . i shall only therefore say in general , that it is already a very noble , beautiful , and costly building , and is a sufficient intimation of the richness of the city , but should they finish it within side as they pretend , by painting the ceilings , and facing the walls with marble , &c. it would make it incomparably the finest and costliest in the world. over these chambers , in the second story , is kept a large magazine of arms , which takes up one angle of the building , and is very compleatly furnished ; the arms are all kept in presses shut up , to avoid the injury of the weather ; the rest of the house above is not used , or furnished at all . one thing i must not omit , and that is , that there are eight cisterns of water kept always full at the top of the house , which by pipes may be let down into every room , to quench any accidental fire ; and the chimneys are all lined with copper , the former stadthouse having been burnt down by accident . i shall now proceed , and speak of their alms-houses , and of the government of the poor , of their prisons , and houses of correction . this city is said to have 20000 poor every day at bed and board . the alms-houses are many , and look more like princes palaces than lodgings for poor people : first , there are houses for poor old men and women , then a large square palace for 300 widows , then there are hospitals for boys and girls , for burghers children , and for strangers children , or those called foundlings ; all these boys and girls have every sunday , and other days of worship , two doites given them by the fathers of these houses , the which the children put into the deacons bag when they gather for the poor in the churches : then there is an hospital for fools , and a bedlam : there are houses where common beggers , and gamesters , and frequenters of tap-houses are kept hard at work : there is also a house called , the rasp-house , where petty thieves , and such as flash one another with knives , such as beg with cheating devices , women with fained great bellies , men pretending to have been taken by the turks , others that pretend wreck at sea , and such as beg with a clapper , or a bell , as if they could not speak or hear , such as these are kept hard at work , rasping every day 50 pounds between two of them , or else are beaten with a bulls pissel , and if yet they rebel , and wont work , they are set in a tub , where if they do not pump , the water will swell over their heads : then there is a house where whores are kept to work , as also dis-obedient children , who live idle , and take no course to maintain themselves ; likewise women commonly drinking themselves drunk , and scolds ; all these sorts of hospitals , and alms-houses are stately buildings , richly adorned with pictures , and their lodgings very neat and clean . in some , of the boys and girls hospitals there are 1500 , in some 800 , and in some 500 in a house ; then they have houses where a man or a woman may have their diet , washing , and lodging for his life , giving a small sum of money ; these are called brouders houses . the alms children of this city are held in such veneration and respect , that a man had as good strike a burghermasters child as one of them . these children are permitted to travel in any of the treckscuts , or passage-boats , freely without money : these hospitals are governed by men and women , as are of an unspotted life , and reputed to be rich , devout , and pious : it is very observable , that the women govern their women hospitals , better than the men do theirs ; yea , it is a general observation in this country , that where the women have the direction of the purse and trade , the husband seldom prove bankrupts , it being the property of a true born holland-wife presently after marriage , to apply her self wholly to her business ; but i forbear to say any more of the dutch-housewives , for fear of displeasing our english dames , not so much addicted , at least not so generally bred up to industry ; but to return to the acts of charity of amsterdam , the which is so extraordinary , that they surpass all other cities in the world , for they are daily and hourly giving to the poor , every house in amsterdam hath a box hanging in a chain , on which is written , think on the poor , so that when any merchant sells goods , they commonly conclude no bargain , but more or less is put in the poors box ; these boxes are lockt up by the deacons , who once a quarter go round the city , and take the money out of the boxes . then twice a week there are men belonging to the hospitals that go round the city , and ring a bell at every house , to know what the master or mistriss of the house will give to the box , who generally give not less than two stivers . then every first wednesday of the month , the deacons in their turn , go round the city , from house to house , to receive what every house-keeper will give to the poor , then on the week before the sacrament is given , a minister , with an elder , goes round the city to every house where any members of the presbiterian religion live , and there ask if any differences be in the family , offering their service to reconcile them ; also to instruct and prepare such as are to receive the sacrament : at this time a minister may be seen to go into a tap-house or tavern , for which at another time he would be counted a wine-bibber , and the worst of reprobates : at this time while these ministers and elders go about the city on their visitations , the people take an occasion to give to the poor . and here i ought not to omit telling you of their great charity to the distressed french protestants , who are here in great numbers . they maintain no less than 60 french ministers , and unto many handicraft tradesmen , and makers of stuffs , and cloth , they lend sums of money , without interest , to buy working tools , and materials for their work ; but this is no other then they formerly did to the poor distressed protestants of ireland and piemont ; and their charity was not a little that they gave to geneva towards the building their fortifications ; and here give me leave to tell you , what king charles ii. said of the charity of amsterdam , when the duke of lotherdal , hearing that the prince of orange's army was not able to oppose the french from advancing so near to amsterdam , the duke jearingly said , that oranges would be very scarce in holland , after amsterdam should fall into the french hands to plunder . to which his majesty said , that he was of opinion , that god would preserve amsterdam from being destroyed , if it were only for the great charity they have for the poor , the which put the duke out of countenance ; i will say no more of their charity , only this , that they leave no stone unturned to bring monies into the poors stock ; they make the stage-players pay 80000 gilders a year to the poor ; there is not a rope-dancer , poppet-player , or any of that sort of unnecessary vermin which frequent fairs , but pay the third penny to the poor , which is carefully looked after , by placing an alms-man at the door of the booths , to see that they cheat not the poor of their share . i shall now in the next place say something of the clergy , i mean those called , the states clergy , for the states are absolutely head of their church ; and when any synod of divines meet , two of the states are always present to hear that they debate nothing relating , or reflecting on the government , or governors ; if they do , presently the states cry , ho la mij● heeren predicanten , and if their ministers meddle with any thing relating to the government in their pulpits , they send them a brief , ( which some call a pair of shooes ) to quit the city , and sometimes imprison them to boot ; but if they behave themselves quietly and well , as they ought to do , they then are respected by the people as gods upon earth : they have a form of prayer sent them how they shall pray for the states , and stadholder , nor must they meddle with any other religion in the country , because all sorts are tollerated , at least connived at by the magistrates . all those called the presbiterian ministers , or states clergy , are obliged under a forfeiture to have done preaching and praying by eleven of the clock in the forenoon on sundays , because then the scheepens go to the stadthouse , to marry the jews , papists , and lutherans , and others that may not marry after the calvinistical form ; and the reason why the states thus marry them first according to law , is to render their children legitimate , but they may marry again afterwards as they please themselves : none may marry until they have made their appearance at the stadthouse before the lords ; where , if the parties be agreed , the preachers marry the calvinists , and the scheepens marry all the rest , who differ from the religion established by law. when one dies , the friends dare not bury the corps until it hath lain three days open in the coffin , that the friends and relations of the deceased may be satisfied that the party hath not been murdered , or reported to be dead when alive ; after three days , the corps must be brought to the church before the bell ceaseth tolling , which is at two , for if you keep the body untill half three , then the church doors are lock'd , and for the first half hour must be paid 25 gilders , and for the second 50 , and so until six , then they may amerse you as much as they please . there are many rich people who make that default on purpose , that they may have solemn occasion of giving to the poor , as i knew once an english merchant did . the next thing i shall speak of , is the method which the states observe in ordering their maritime affairs , one of the greatest mysteries in their government : the states general divide their admiralty into five courts , which they call chambers . the first is rotterdam , ( which is the chamber call'd the maese , ) and hath the admirals flag . then amsterdam , which hath the vice-admiral's flag ; and zealand hath the rear-admiral's flag ; the other two chambers are those in north-holland and fricsland . each of these five chambers have their admirals , vice-admirals , and rear-admirals , apart from the states-generals flags ; so that when the states have occasion to set out a fleet of an hundred ships , more or less , every chamber knows the number they must provide for their proportion , though in regard of its opulency , amsterdam frequently helps her neighbours , and adds two , or more , ships than their share comes to . these chambers have lately built 36 men of war , and now are building of 7 more ; and all this is done without noise , every one building their proportion : and they have admirable methods in preserving their ships when built , and their magazines are in good order , every ship having an apartment to lay up all its equipage in ; and at the top of their magazines are vast cisterns , which are kept constantly full of water , having pipes into every apartment to let it down upon any accident of fire . and there is in their magazines a nursery room , where a woman keeps an office , to feed at certain hours of the day a great number of cats , which afterward hunt among the stores for mice and rats . this great magazine in amsterdam was built in the time of cromwell , in the space of 9 months and 14 days , in which time the lords of the admiralty gave the workmen drinkgelt as they call it , to incourage them to work more than at an ordinary rate . at this time , the biggest man of war the states had was the amelia , in which the famous admiral trump was kill'd ; she was a ship of no more than 56 guns , afterward made a fire-ship . but the states quickly discovered their want of great ships , and therefore built , the same year 20 men of war , from 50 to 80 guns : but the great ships built at amsterdam , had like to have proved of no use , had not the ingenious pensionary de wit found out a device to carry them over the pampus , betwixt those they call water ships . the admiralty have an excellent method in setting out their fleets , they neither press soldiers nor seamen , all go voluntary at the beating of a drum , each captain providing men and provisions for his ship , who , after they have received orders from the lords to the equipage-master to equip out their ships , and receive the provisions of war , then the states send aboard each ship a chaplain , and check-master , who take care of the provision of war , and see that the seamen have the states allowance , and wholesom food : and great care is taken by the lords , that both captains and seamen receive their pay punctually for the time they are in the states service : and for the incouraging their seamen , there is plaistred on a board , hanging by the foremast , the several rewards to such as either take or fire a flag-ship , or take or sink any other ship of the enemies : also what pensions a wounded seaman shall have , if maim'd or disabled in the states service , &c. the lords of the admiralty follow the same methods which the states-general observe , as to their land obligations , and go through this great charge by the good management of their credit ; for though it be true , that they are indebted great sums of money , yet they never want a supply , nay , moneys are often forced upon them by rich merchants , who send in their moneys , and only take the admiralties obligations , with which they afterward pay their customs , when their ships arrive , at which time the admiralty allows them interest for the time they have had their money : and this is it that makes the admiralties obligations more valued than ready money , for it saves the trouble of telling : and such is the credit of the admiralty , that when they have occasion for any goods , the people strive to furnish them , and rather take their obligations than money , because they get interest ; and all other assignments upon the admiralty are very punctually paid , and without exchequer fees ; no they are sworn officers , who are forbid to receive any monies for fees , being contented with the sallery they have of the states . and their methods used at the custom-house for loading or unloading ships are very easie , insomuch , that the women generally have the charging and discharging the ships at the custom-house , which is a great policy in the states to make trade easie for the encouragement of the merchants : and the admiralty are very grateful and generous unto their commanders ; if any of their admirals , or captains are kill'd at sea , and have done any considerable service , they then eternize their memories with lasting trophies of honour , as you may see by those stately monuments of trump , updam , de ruiter , the eversons , and others ; nor are they sparing in bestowing large gifts and pensions on the widows , and children of those as have served them faithfully and valiantly in the wars , whilst the treacherous and cowards meet with the severity they deserve ; i might here in the next place , inlarge and tell you of the excellent methods they have in building , and preserving their ships when built , but i shall refer you to that excellent peice written by the heer witsen on that subject . and shall now in the next place say something of their famous company , called the east-india company of the netherlands ; this company is said to be a commonwealth within a commonwealth , and it is true , if you consider the soveraign power and privileges they have granted them by the states general , and likewise consider their riches , and vast number of subjects , and the many territories and colonies they possess in the east-indies , they are said to have 30000 men in constant pay , and above 200 capital ships , besides sloops , ketches , and yachts . this company hath by their politick contrivances , and sedulous industry possessed themselves of many colonies formerly belonging unto the spaniards , portuguises , and divers indian princes , and as good christians have been at great charge in planting the gospel of christ in many parts there , printing in the indian language bibles , and prayer books , and catechisms , for the instruction of the indians , maintaining ministers and school-masters , to inform those that are converted to the christian faith : and now , because i have said that this company is so considerable , and as it were a common-wealth apart , i will demonstrate it to be so ; first by their power , riches , and strength in the indies , secondly , what figure they make in europe , and this very briefly , for if i should speak of every particular , as to their possessions in the indies , it would swell into many volumes , but i will only begin with them at the cape de bonne esperance , where they have built a royal fort , in which they maintain a garison of soldiers to defend their ships which come there to take in fresh water : from thence let us take a view of them in the island of java ; where they have built a fair city called battavia , and fortified it with bastions , after the mode of amsterdam . this city is the place of residence of their grand minister of state , called the general of the indies , he hath allowed him six privy counsellors in ordinary , and two extraordinary , these govern the concerns of the company throughout the indies , and they make peace and war , send their ambassadors to all parts thereof , as occasion requireth . this general hath his guards of horse and foot , and all sorts of officers and servants , as if he were a soveraign prince , the whole expence whereof is defrayed out of the companies stock . this general hath much of the direction of bantam , and other parts of the island of java : from whence let us take a view of them in their great possessions in the molucca islands , and those of banda , where they are become so formidable , that they look as if they aimed at the soveraignty of the south seas : they have also a great trade in china , and japan , from whence let us return to the islands of sumatra , and on the coast of bengale , where they have several lodges : in persia they have likewise great commerce , and are so considerable , that they wage war with that mighty monarch if he wrongs them in their trade . they also have several colonies and lodges on the coast of malabar and cormandel , and in the country of the great mogul , and king of galcanda , but principally let us behold them in the rich island of zeylon , where they are masters of the plain country , so that the emperor , or king of that island , is forced to live in the mountains , whilst this company possess the city of colomba , and other the most considerable garisons of that island : it is said , that the company hath there in their pay 3600 soldiers , and at least 300 guns planted in their forts and garisons ; in a word , they are not only masters of the cinnamon , but of all other spices except pepper , and that they would also have , had it been for their interest to ingross , but they wisely foresaw that the english would be a block in their way , therefore they contented themselves to be masters of the mace , cinnamon , cloves , and nutmegs , with which they not only serve europe , but many places in the indies ; i will say no more of them in the indies , but let us see what figure they make in europe . and first to begin with them in amsterdam , where they have two large stately palaces , one being in the old part of the city , and the other in the new ; in that of the old part of the city they keep their court , and there sits the resident committee of the company , where also they make the sales of the companies goods . there for six years the grand council , or assembly of the seventeen , do meet , and after six years are expired , the grand council of the seventeen do assemble at middelburg in zealand for two years , and then again return to amsterdam ; the other lesser chambers of delft , rotterdam , horne , and e●chuysen never having the assembly of the seventeen in their chambers , so that only amsterdam and zealand have the honour of that grand council . i will therefore crave leave to describe unto you the chamber of amsterdam , it being the most considerable of the chambers belonging to this famous company : in their house or palace , within the old city , are many large offices or apartments ; as first , on the lower floor is their parliament chamber , where the seventeen do sit ; next to this chamber are several fair chambers for the committees to sit in . they have also a chamber of audience , where they do receive princes or ambassadors , or other great men as have occasion to speak with them . in one of these chambers are the arms of several indian princes they have conquered . on the same floor is their treasury office , where their receivers sit and receive money , and pay out the orders or assignments of the company ; near to that chamber sits their grand minister , the heer peter van dam , who is said to be a second john de wit for parts , tho' not so in principle : this great minister is a man of indefatagable industry , and labours night and day in the companies service ; he reads over twice the great journal books which come from the indies , and out of them makes minutes to prepare matters of concern necessary to be considered by the grand council of seventeen , and by the inferiour committees of the company , and prepares instructions and orders to be sent to their chief ministers in the indies ; i could say many more things of his great worth and virtues , but shall forbear lest i should be judged a flatterer : over-against this great ministers office sit in a chamber many clarks , or under secretaries , who receive from this minister their orders of dispatches in the affairs of the company ; and next to this chamber is a register office , where are kept the journal books of the indies , where you may see the names of all the men and women that have ever served the company in the indies , with the time of their death , or departing the companies service : then next to that is a council chamber , where the residing chamber , or committee of the company always sits ; then assending up stairs , there sit their book-holders , who keep the accounts of all the transactions of those that buy or sell actions of the company , and over against this office sits the heer gerbrand elias , who is the second advocate of the company : on this floor are several large rooms , in which are great stores of pack'd goods , and also a room with all sorts of drugs , tea , wax , ambergreace , and musk ; and on the same floor is a chamber where the commissioners sit , who govern the pack-houses ; and next to them sit their clerks , who keep the registers of the sales of the companies goods : and on the same gallery or floor , is a chamber where are kept the several books of divinity , printed in the indian language , that are sent to the several colonies of the company : and at the end of this gallery is a magazine full of medicaments and instruments for barber chirurgeons chests , to furnish the companies ships and garisons in the indies : then assending up another pair of stairs , there are several large magazines of nutmegs , cloves , mace , and cinnamon ; and in a long gallery are many men at work sorting of spices fit for sale : then ascending up another pair of stairs there are many rooms full of spices ; then descending into the court-yard , there is guard chamber , where every night the house-keeper hath a watch , and on the other side of the gate there is a chymist ▪ who with his men prepares medicaments for the indies ; adjoyning to this court-yard is their ware-house and pack-house for pepper and gross goods ; but before i leave this house in the old part of the city , i must say something of the manner or method used in the transactions of the jews and others , who make a trade of buying and selling the actions of the company , the which is a great mystory of iniquity , and where it inricheth one man , it ruins an hundred . the jews are the chief in that trade , and are said to negotiate 17 parts of 20 in the company ; these actions are bought and sold four times a day , at 8 in the morning in the jews-street , at a 11 on the dam , at 12 and at one a clock upon the exchange , and at six in the evening on the dam , and in the colleges or clubs of the jews until 12 at midnight , where many times the crafty jews , and others have contrived to coin bad news to make the actions fall , and good news to raise them , the which craft of doing at amsterdam is not taken notice of , which is much to be wondred at , in such a wise government as amsterdam is ; for it is a certain truth , they many times spread scandalous reports touching the affairs of state , which pass amongst the ignorant for truth . i shall now in the next place say something of their palace , or magazine , in the new part of the city , the which may more properly be called an arsenal : it is a building so superb , that it looks more like a kings palace , than a magazine for merchants : i have measured the ground on which this arsenal stands , which i find to be 2000 foot , and square every way , reckoning the motes , or burgals , about it . i remember the ingenious sir joseph williamson measured the two rope-alleys , by telling the stone-figures in the wall , and found them to be 1800 foot long , the like whereof is not to be seen in the world. on the backside of this rope-alley lies a store of five hundred large anchors , besides small ones ; in this arsenal they build the ships belonging to this chamber : and here are all sorts of work-houses for the artificers that serve the company . and in a chamber next to the joyners office , is a model of a ship , they now build their ships by , which cost 6000 gilders . when a man beholds the great stores of timber , cordage , and the provisions of war in their magazine , a man would think there were enough to furnish a whole nation : in this arsenal the ships unload their goods , laid up in several apartments in the grand magazine , and afterward is removed to the house in the old part of the city , as there is occasion for sale. in the upper part of this large palace sit the sail-makers at work ; but on the lower part of this house is an apartment where the committee assemble upon occasion of business : this arsenal is not to be seen by strangers without a ticket from the bewinthebbers . now all what i have spoken of these two houses , or magazines , doth only belong unto the chamber of amsterdam . there are yet other chambers of the company , who , according to their quota , or stock in the company , have the like houses and magazines , as the chambers of zealand , delft , rotterdam , horne , and enkusen . and now i have named the six chambers , of which the company is composed , i shall say something of their constitution , which is from an octroy , or act of the states-general ; by which they have sovereign power over their servants in the indies , yea , their authority reacheth their servants in all territories of the states-generals dominions : it is death for any of the states subjects to be interlopers against this company ; nor may any , of what nation soever , that lives in any of the companies territories , as burghers or servants , return into europe without leave from the company , only those called freemen may depart without asking leave to remove : the grand councel of this company is the assembly of the seventeen , which are elected out of the several chambers before named , that is , eight from amsterdam , and four from zealand ; delft , rotterdam , horne , and enkusen , send one a piece , which makes sixteen , and the five lesser chambers by turns chose the seventeenth . in the chamber of amsterdam there are 20 bewinthebbers , or committee for management of the stock , in ordinary , who are for life , and have 1000 ducatoons a year , and spices at christmas , and their travelling charges , when they go upon the companies service . the next chamber is zealand , which hath twelve bewinthebbers , who have about 250 l. a year , and travelling charges , and spices at christmas . the next is delft , which hath seven bewinthebbers , who have only 120 l. a year , and travelling charges and spices at christmas . the other chambers of rotterdam , horne and enkusen , have seven bewinthebbers a piece , and the like salary , with travelling charges and spices at christmas , as the chamber of delft hath . these bewinthebbers are elected or chosen out of those adventurers called the high participanten of the company : they generally chuse such as are rich , and men of parts and wisdom , most of them being of the magistracy of the country . no man is capable of being elected a bewinthebber who hath not 1000 l. stock in the company . in a word , this grand council of the seventeen make laws for the governing the company , both in india and europe . it is they that appoint the days of sale , and what number of ships each chamber must send to the indies ; and likewise order the building of ships , and all other grand concerns . this company is worthily esteemed a wise , politique , deserving company , sparing no cost to get good intelligence of affairs , sending messengers and expresses over-land to the east-indies . they have their spies and correspondents in all the considerable trading parts of the world : they have been so industrious as to gain the spice trade , not only from the venetians , spaniards , portuguises , french , danes , and other european nations , but have also ingrossed all the spices ; so that , as i told you before , they sel● spices to the indians themselves : but this i must say for them , that they are a generous company , and gratefully paying respects where it is due , as lately they have complemented his royal highness the prince of orange , his present majesty of great britain , with an annual sum out of the profits of their company , to make him their friend and protector . neither are they backward in bestowing presents upon strangers that have obliged them , as i could instance in some of our own nation . they are also very charitable to the poor , giving them the thousandth gilder of all the goods they sell . and to all the reformed ministers in amsterdam they send spices at christmas , to pray every sunday for the welfare and prosperity of the company . to conclude , this company is a buckler and defence for the common-wealth upon all urgent occasions : and truly our english east-india-company might be the same to our king , if the differences between the two companies were composed ; especially now they have such a great king to protect them , and that the interlopers are destroyed . and now it is high time i should tell you the methods a stranger must take if he hath occasion to keep house in amsterdam : if a man will hire an house , he must take a lease upon seal'd paper , for which you must pay a tax to the states , and pay the broaker that makes the bargain : but before you can buy a house , you must be in a capacity to be made a burgher . to this purpose it is usual to take with you to the stadthouse your broaker , or any two securities , and there before the burghermasters take the oath of burgherschap , which is to be faithful to the city , to the magistrates and government , &c. but if you buy either land or houses , and lodge ▪ privately , you will find your case much worse ; then you must pay a legion of taxes to the mills that drain your lands , and for maintaining the banks and sluces ; and if the states have occasion to build a fortification on your lands , or to drown them in time of war , you must be contented with the states terms : and if your house or houses stand empty without tenants , yet you must pay the states taxes on that house or houses . thus much for the method how you are to be advanced to be a burgher of amsterdam , and to give you a taste what you are to pay for houses or land , if you settle there ; and if you have either purchased or hired an house , then comes an officer from the stadthouse , with a printed sealed paper , who tells you , you must pay as followeth . first , a pole-tax for every male and female servant in the house above eight years old , six gilders a year . for a coach , if you keep one , 75 gilders a year . for a coach without wheels , 50 gilders a year . for soap , as the number of the family is . the like for salt. for wine , as your quality is . to the watch , as your house is in greatness . to the lanthorns , as the largeness of the house is . for butter , every 20 pound seven stivers . for beans , half as much as you pay for the beans . for turff , every tun five stivers . for every 20 gilders in wood , six gilders . for flesh the tax often changeth . there is also a tax on the bread. then there is a tax called the 200th penny , and a tax called the 8th : then there are many taxes in trade , as that no man can weigh or measure out his own goods if sold in gross , but the states officers must do it . then the states have a tax called the verpounding on all lands and houses in their dominions . then they have a tax on seal'd paper , and a tax for registering land 〈◊〉 houses ; likewise a tax on cows , horse● calves , and on all sort of fruit. there are many other taxes i could name , as a stiver for every man that goes out or into any city after the hour of shutting the gates . also you pay for going over some bridges , and passing through gates called tolhek , a stiver for every person ; but coaches , wagons or horses pay more . these i have already named , you will say , are too many ; yet i may not forget to tell you , that milk first pays as milk ; and again if it be made butter ; yea , the buttermilk and whay pays a tax likewise , for all which a man would think that a people that stand so much upon maintaining of their liberty should mutiny , and refuse payment : but this seldom happens ; and if it doth , the states punish them very severely . i remember that in my time there was a mutiny at sardam about paying a new tax , whereupon the states sent a regiment of their souldiers , and seized the heads of the mutineers , and hanged up five or six of them at the towns end , and severely whipt eight under the gallows . and in the rich city of amsterdam , if any refuse to pay their tax , the magistrates send their officer to pull off their doors ; and if they remain long obstinate , they send and fetch away the lower windows of their house , and they dare not put up others , until they have ●●id the taxes . however , this is observable 〈◊〉 if any man will swear he is not worth 〈◊〉 he is taxed at , then he is free : but there are many so proud , that they will not let the world know their condition . i knew a merchant named ornia , who paid during the war for his 200th penny , and other taxes for his and his wives children , ( having had two rich wives ) 14000 pounds sterling . i also knew an english anabaptist merchant , who told the english envoy in my presence , that he had paid near 4000 l. sterling to the war , and yet the same man did grumble to pay his majesties consul a pityful fee or consulat-money on his ships : the reason whereof i once asked him , who answered me , that the king could not raise a penny in england without his parliament , and therefore much less could he do it in the states country . thus these phanaticks had rather make bricks without straw , than pay the least tribute to their natural prince's officer . should we in england be obliged to pay the taxes that are here imposed , there would be rebellion upon rebellion : and yet after all that is here paid , no man may bake his own bread , or grind his own corn , or brew his beer , nor dare any man keep in his house a hand-mill , although it be but to grind mustard or coffee . i remember one mrs. guyn a coffee-woman at rotterdam , had like to have been ruined for grinding her own coffee , had not sir lyonel jenkins employed his secretary doctor wyn to intreat the states on her behalf ; and it was reckoned a grand favour that she was only fined , and not banished the city , and forfeiture made of all her goods . i remember also a landlord of mine in leyden bought a live pig in the market , and innocently brought it home , and kill'd it , for which he had like to have been ruined , because he did not first send to the excisemen to excise it , and also let the visitors see that the pig was free from diseases . at another time a wine-merchant coming to give me a visit , told me that he had the rarest rhenish in the city , and that if i would send my maid to his cellar with six bottles , they should be fill'd : whereupon i sent the maid only with two bottles , and charged her to hide them under her apron ▪ but such was her misfortune , that the scouts dienaers met her , and seized her and her bottles , and carried her to prison , which cost the wine-merchant 1500 gilders ; and had it not been for the strongest sollicitations made by us , he had been ruined : so sacred are taxes here , and must so exactly be paid . and were they not here so precise , it were impossible for so small a country to subsist : and therefore you may hear the inhabitants generally say , that what they suffer is for their vaderland : hence the meanest among them are content to pay what is laid on them , for they say all what is the vaderlands is ours , the men of war are theirs , the sumptuous magazins , bridges , and every thing what is the vaderlands . and indeed in a sense it is so , for they have this to comfort them , that if it please god to visit them with poverty , they and their children have the publick purse to maintain them ; and this is one main reason why they so willingly pay their taxes as they do ; for there 's not a soul born in the states dominions that wants warm cloaths and dyet , and good lodging , if they make their case known to the magistrates . and for the vagabonds that rove up and down the streets , they are either walloons , or other strangers as pretend to have been ruined by the late wars . i shall now in the next place let you know how excellently the laws are here executed against fraud and perjury , and the intention of murders ; which laws were once much used in england , as you shall hear hereafter when i speak of the duke of brandenburgh's court. i shall here instance a few particulars that happened in my time : there was a spark that made false assignments on the admiralty , who tho' related to many of the magistrates of amsterdam , had his head cut off ; and another who was a clerk in the merchants bank , who made false posts in their books , and had his head also cut off ; and all the portions he had given with his daughters , the husbands were forced to pay back , and all his houses and goods were sold at his door in the open streets : i knew a french marquis , who swore his regiment was compleat , and when the states knew that he had not half his regiment , he likewise had his head cut off in the prison in the hague : i also knew a french pedagogue , a runagado monk , who designed to have murdered his master major cavellio , and his two pupils , young children of the majors , and afterward to set the house a fire to colour the murder , he had his head cut off and set upon a post , with his body on a wheel near the hague . i could name you two other cheaters , who were severely whipt under the gallows ; and two under farmers who designed to run away with the states money . the cheat of breaking with a full hand is not so frequent in holland as in england , ( where some use it as a way to slip out of business , and then to live conveniently afterward upon the estates of other men ) because in holland they are more severely punished when discovered than in england : as on the contrary , those that fall to decay through losses , and unavoidable accidents which they could not prevent , find a more speedy and easie way of compounding and finishing matters with their creditors if they be over-strict , than the custom or law of england doth afford , for the suing out of statutes of bankrupts in england doth prove many times so pernicious both to creditor and debtor through the tediousness of the proceedings , and the expensiveness of executing the commissions , that what by commissioners fees , treats , and other incident charges , the creditors are put to such expences as to be utterly disappointed of their debt , and the poor debtors for ever ruined and undone ; i shall therefore in this place give a short relation of the method used in amsterdam in the case of bankrupts , which perhaps may be taken notice of by our king and parliament , for the preventing disorders and sad abuses that daily happen in executing the statutes of bankrupts : the magistrates of amsterdam every year name commissioners for bankrupts , out of those that make up a judicature , like to our courts of aldermen in london ; these meet certain days in the week in a distinct chamber in the stadthouse , over whose door is cut in marble the emblem of fortune flying away with wings , and round chests turn'd upside down , with mice and rats eating the money-bags , pens , inkhorns , and paper-books . there they receive petitions from debtors and creditors , and as occasion requireth , summon the parties to appear before them , and to lay open the true state of the matter ; this done , they either by authority seize the bankrupts books and effects , or else without any stir and noise leave all remaining in the debtors houses , and send thither two committees to examine the books , and make an inventory of the estate , with power to compose the matter , without giving much trouble to the parties . if the commissioners find that the debtor is come to decay by unexpected losses , and unavoidable accidents , to which he did not at all contribute , it is their usual way to propose to the creditor such amicable and easie terms , as the poor man may be able to perform , alotting sometimes the half of the estate left to the debtor , sometimes a third part , and sometimes perswading the creditors to advance to the poor man a sum of money to help him up again in trade , upon condition that he do oblige himself to pay the creditors all he oweth them , when god shall be pleased to make him able ; but on the contrary , if the commissioners find that a trader hath dealt knavishly , and broken with a design to defraud and cheat his creditors , as if it appear that a bankrupt hath kept false books , and counterfeited bills of exchange , bills of loading , or pretended commissions from foreign parts ; in such a case they are very severe , and not only seize all the books and effects of the bankrupt , but also imprison him , and also punish him corporally ; and if the cheat be of an heinous nature , sentence him sometime to death ; whereas , if the debtor be only unfortunate , and no ways knavish , then the commissaries use all the power they have to force the creditors to accept the poor mans terms , the which is better for the creditors than to use the rigour of the law , in committing the poor man to prison , seeing in that case the creditors must maintain him in prison according to his quality , where if he lies a certain time , and the creditors be not able to prove the prisoner hath an estate , then the debtor is admitted to his oath to swear he is not worth 40 gilders , besides his wearing cloths and working tools , and then he is set at liberty ; but in the mean time let the prisoner have a care not to make a false oath , for then he is punished without mercy , an instance of which happened in my time . the states having admitted a certain jew to come and make such an oath before them , were at the same time informed by the goaler , that this jew had been seen through the chinks of the door , quilting ducats of gold , and some diamonds in his cloaths , to the value of 5000 gilders . the states hereupon admonished the jew to take heed to what he was about to swear , because the law was very strict against such as made false oaths before them , and at the same time caused the oath , and the law to be read unto him ; nevertheless the jew offered to take the oath , but the lords not suffering him to swear , because then he must die by law , caused him to be taken out into another room and searched , where they found about him the ducats and diamonds : this being told the lords , they sent for him in , and then sentenced him to have 60 lashes under the gallows , and to be banished the country ; yet , because the jew had many children , they gave the third part of what was taken about him to his wife and children , and a third to the poor , and the other third to the creditors , which was enough to pay them their debt : these commissioners are paid by the states , and have not a doit from debtors or creditors , for all what they do : these commissioners are also much to be commended for their readiness to do good offices to those poor merchants , who having lived honestly , are brought to decay by losses and crosses in their trade ; who when they find any such so poor that they can neither pay their creditors , nor maintain the charge of their families , it is their constant custom , to take their children from them , and maintain and bring them up in their hospitals ; yea , often also solliciting the burghermasters on their behalf , to bestow some small office upon them for their relief and subsistance . and here i must not omit to acquaint you , that as the compounding of matters in holland betwixt debtor and creditor , so as hath been said , is very easie and equitable , so is also their way or method of suing for debts very favorable , which is after this manner ; in the first place , a note or summons is left at the debtors house , and if he neglect to appear , a second summons is sent , but then if he neither appear himself , or send his proctor , the sheriffs order an arrest against him ; and at last , when he is brought before them , if the matter be difficult , it is referred to two or three good men of the city , and time given him ; but if the plaintiff make oath , that he apprehends the debtor hath a design to run away , then must the prisoner either give bail , or return to prison . it is a remark that i have made in my travels , that excepting france and flanders , i never saw in any prison above forty prisoners for debt at one time , and in some great towns , as in haerlem and others , sometimes not one ; and the reason hereof is plain , for you cannot lay a man in prison for an action or debt , small or great , but you must maintain the prisoner , so that many times the charges exceed the principal debt , and after all , the prisoner can free himself ; whereas the custom in england , encouraged by those varlets the pettyfoggers and catchpoles , of turning a man into a prison for a crown , or it may be for nothing at all , if he cannot find bail , he may lie and starve there , is an abominable abuse ; as also that of suborning false witnesses , which is extreamly cried out against beyond sea. and now because i am speaking of petty-foggers , give me leave to tell you a story i met with when i lived in rome , going with a roman to see some antiquities , he shewed me a chapel , dedicated to one st. evona , a lawyer of britain , who he said came to rome to intreat the pope to give the lawyers of britain a patron , to which the pope replied , that he knew of no saint but what was disposed of to other professions ; at which evona was very sad , and earnestly beg'd of the pope to think of one for them : at last , the pope proposed to st. evona , that he should go round the church of st. john de latera blindfold , and after he had said so many ave maria's , that the first saint he laid hold of should be his patron , which the good old lawyer willingly undertook ; and at the end of his ave maria's , he stopt at st. michael's altar , where he laid hold of the devil under st. michael's feet , and cry'd out , this is our saint , let him be our patron ; so being unblindfolded , and seeing what a patron he had chosen , he went to his lodgings so dejected , that in few months after he died , and coming to heavens gates , knockt hard ; whereupon st. peter asked , who it was that knockt so boldly , he replied , that he was st. evona the advocate : away , away , said st. peter , here is but one advocate in heaven , here is no room for you lawyers . o but , said st. evona , i am that honest lawyer who never took fees on both sides , or ever pleaded in a bad cause ; nor did i ever set my neighbours together by the ears , or lived by the sins of the people . well then , said st. peter , come in : this news coming down to rome , a witty poet writ upon st. evona's tomb these words ; st. evona un briton , advocat non larron , hallelujah . this story put me in mind of ben. johnson's going through a chruch in surrey , seeing poor people weeping over a grave , asked one of the women , why they wept ? o said she , we have lost our precious lawyer , justice randal , he kept us all in peace , and always was so good as to keep us from going to law , the best man that ever lived , well , said ben. johnson , i will send you an epitaph to write upon his tomb , which was , god works wonders now and than , here lies a lawyer an honest men. and truly old ben. was in the right , for in my time i have observed some gentlemen of that profession , that have not acted like st. evona , or justice randal , i will say no more of them , but wish them as great fees , and as much encouragement as the lawyers have in switzerland . i now come to speak something of the three taxes i mentioned in the former part of my remarks on taxes , of which the first ought rather to be called an useful and publick invention , like to that of the insurance office in london , then a publick tax , seeing no man needs contribute to it unless they please , and find his profit by it ; but the other may be called taxes , because the subjects are obliged to submit to them , but then they are so easie , that what the publick gets thereby , not only lessons extraordinary subsidies , which many times occasions clamour , when because of their rarity , and the urgency of occasions , they must needs be great . yet it is sufficiently compensated by the advantage and security in the estates , which private persons , who are obliged to pay it , reap thereby daily : i am confident , that if the king and parliament thought fit to introduce some , or all three of these taxes into england , the publick charge of government might be defrayed with more ease , and with less repining and clamour , than when it must be done by new and high impositions ; however , our governors are the proper judges of that . the first then is an house called the merchants bank , which is governed by divers commissioners , clerks , and book-keepers , likewise an essay-master , who judgeth of the gold and silver , that at any time is brought into the bank uncoined : the security given for preservation thereof , are the states and magistrates of amsterdam . now if you have a mind to put money into the bank , suppose 1000 l. less or more , you must go to the clerks , and ask a folio for your name , and then pay in your money at three or four per cent. according as the rate of the bank-money is high or low , or you may buy it of those called cashiers or brokers ; then get the clerks to set down in the folio what you bring in ; having done so , you may draw this sum , or sell it in what parcels you please ; but then if you let your money lie seven years in the bank , you receive no interest for the same . if you ask , where then is the advantage for the merchants ? i answer , first , you have your money ready at all times for answering bills of exchange , and making other payments : you are at no charge for bags or portage , at no loss by false tale , or bad money , in no danger of thieves , or unfaithful servants , or fire ; and above all , you have the accounts of your cash most punctually and justly kept without any trouble , or running the risk of goldsmith or cashierers breaking in your debt ; for such is their care ; that twice a year , or sometimes oftner , they shut up the bank for 14 days , and then all that have concerns therein , must bring in their accounts to the clerks , who a few days after , having viewed the books , acquaint such as have brought in wrong accounts with their mistakes , desiring them to return to their books , and rectifie their error , not telling them wherein the mistake lies : so that i have known merchants , in my time , sent back three or four times with their wrong accounts : but if they begin to grow impatient , and say that they will stand to their accounts , then they pay a mulct to the clerks upon their convincing them of their mistakes , either by charging too much upon the bank , or forgetting or omitting what was their due . i knew two merchants , who having forgot , the one 750 l. and the other 220 l. in their accounts , were honestly rectified by the clerks , so that they sustained no loss . besides this care of the clerks in keeping and stating the accounts , the bank is obliged for 5 l. a year to send to every merchant that desires it , their accounts every morning before exchange-time , of the moneys written of by them in in the bank the day before upon any merchants account , and what sums are written of by others upon their accounts : so that the merchants may compare the banks . notes with their books , and so save much of the charges of book-keeping . now if it be objected , that though this be an advantage to the merchants , yet what can the publick gain thereby , seeing the charges of paying officers , clerks , &c. must needs be very considerable ? i answer , that indeed it is a mystery to those who understand not the thing ; but if it were once known and practised , the advantage of it would appear : for among other things which might be said , the magistrates of the city take out of the merchants bank a sufficient stock of money to supply the lumbert , a bank that lends out money , and is governed by four commissioners chosen out of the magistrates , who sit in court every day in the lumbert , which is a large pile of building 300 foot long , containing several chambers and magazines under one roof ; in these several chambers the commissioners have officers sitting to lend money upon all sorts of goods , even from a pair of shooes to the richest jewel , &c. this is a great convenience for poor people ; yea , for merchants also , who some times may want money to pay a bill of exchange , and prevents the cheating , and extraordinary extortion used by the pawn-brokers in england , france , and other countries . and besides , the poor have their pawns safely and well preserved , neither are they punctually sold when the year is out , or denied under the pretext of being mislaid , as the poor are often times served by the wicked pawn-brokers . there is also another convenience in this lumbert , viz. an excellent way they have of discovering thieves , and the stolen goods ; they publish two general open sales of goods pawn'd , twice a year , that such as will may redeem their goods , and paying the interest may have them , although the time be relapsed . thus much as to the lumbert . i was once , according to my duty , to wait upon the d. of york , at the bank of merchants , where shewing his highness the way of keeping the journal-book of the bank , which is of a prodigious bigness , his highness was extreamly pleased with the contrivance of preserving it from fire ; saying , that the course they took might be of great use for the preserving patents , and the deeds of noblemens estates : this contrivance , which perhaps may be thought useful or imitable , i shall therefore describe it : it is a large fire-stone shaped like a chest , and set upright in a stone-wall , having a large brass door of a vast thickness , with flaps to fall over and cover the lock and hinges ; into this chest the book is drawn upon rolls , it being of such a bulk and weight as cannot be handed in by a man , and there it is so securely preserved , that although the house should be burnt , the book in all probability would be safe . should i here give an account of the vast sums of money that daily are written of in this bank , i might probably be thought to speak at random , but this i may boldly affirm , that it far exceeds all the banks in europe , both for riches and business , and their credit is such , that the italians , french , germans , and english have great sums in the same ; neither was ever any man refused his money in the worst of times . a second tax is what ariseth from the just and laudable establishment of a register , a tax which i think most men will be willing to submit to , except such as design to cheat and defraud their neighbours , and live by such like sins and confusion , and for the most part die with the curse of the people : this register in holland begets such assurance and safety in dealing , that in purchasing of houses or land , a child , though over-reached in the value , yet cannot be cheated as to the title . the third and last tax is that of sealed paper , as it is practised in holland . there are many other things might be spoken , as to the government of amsterdam , but i must not tire your patience . however , one considerable thing i would not pass by , touching the militia : there are in amsterdam sixty companies of foot , the least of them having 200 men , some 300 , which in a modest account , amounts at least to 15000 men , in which number neither jews nor anabaptists who carry no arms are reckoned , only they are obliged to contribute to the maintenance of the 1400 soldiers , who are kept in constant pay , as a guard for the city , and towards the night-watch or rattel-watch , who walk the streets the whole night to keep good orders , and tell us every half hour what a clock it is . there are also upon every church tower , trumpeters , who sound every half hour ; and if any fire breaks out in the city , they give a signal on which side of the city the fire is , and ring the fire-bell ; and they have excellent ways on a sudden in such sad accidents to quench fire : but i may not inlarge any longer , but hasten out of holland . though before i leave it it will not be amiss if i give the reader a list of the passage-boats , which for the convenience of those that travel that way , i have here collected , with the times of their going off , which they are punctual in observing . beginning at helvoet-sluys , where the pacquet-boat from england lies . from whence to the briell there goes a wagon every day at 8 in the morning ; the passage costs 7 stivers ; and the same from the briell to helvoet . from the briell to rotterdam , and from rotterdam to the briell , there sails a boat every day as the tide serves . from rotterdam to delft , and from delft to rotterdam , there goes a trecht-scuyt , or passage-boat , every hour , from 6 in the morning to 8 in the evening . from delft to the hague , and from the hague to delft , the boat goes every half hour . from delft , and from the hague to leyden ; in the morning at 5 , 7 , 9 , and half an hour after 10. in the afternoon at half an hour after 12 , at 21 1 / 2 , at 4 1 / 2 , and at 6 1 / 2 daily , as you are to understand all along . from leyden to delft , or to the hague at the same hours ; in the morning at 4 , 6 , 8 , and 10 1 / 2. afternoon , 12 1 / 2 , 2 1 / 2 , 4 1 / 2 , and 6 1 / 2 ; and a night-boat at 11. from leyden to haerlem ; in the morning at 3 1 / 2 , 6 1 / 2 , 9 and 11. afternoon , 12 1 / 2 , 1 1 / 2 , 2 , 4 , and 6. also a market-boat every day before noon . from haerlem to leyden ; in the morning at 6 , 8 , 10 and 12. afternoon at 1 , 2 , 4 and 6 ; and the night-boat at 11. from amsterdam to haerlem , and from haerlem to amsterdam , there goes a boat every hour , from the opening of the gates , to 8 of the clock at night . from amsterdam to leyden , at 8 at night ; and from leyden to amsterdam , 9 at night , every night ; and a market-boat at 3 in the afternoon . from amsterdam to utrecht , from the 15 of march to the 15 of september , at 7 in the morning , at 1 in the afternoon , and at 8 in the evening . from the 15 of september , to the 11 of march , at 8 in the morning , at 1 in the afternoon , and at 7 in the evening . and ▪ from utrecht to amsterdam at the same hours . from amsterdam to gouda , or tergoes , as 't is corruptly called ; from the first of april to the last of september ; in the morning at 7 , and in the evening at 8. in october , november , and march , morning and evening ▪ at 8. from gouda to amsterdam ; in the morning at 11 , and in the evening at 8. in december , january and february , no boat goes in the morning from either place , and only one at 8 in the evening . from tergoes you may go by wagon to rotterdam , or from rotterdam to tergoes , for about 12 or 14 stivers , which is a convenient passage for strangers , there being the least shifting of boats. from amsterdam to rotterdam , and from rotterdam to amsterdam ; the market-boat for carrying goods goes off at 12 at noon every day . from amsterdam to the hague , and from the hague to amsterdam , the same at 12 at noon . from amsterdam through muyden to naerden ; in the summer , from the first of april , to the last of september , morning , at 6 , 8 and 10 ; afternoon , at 2 , 4 and 6. in the winter , mornings at 7 , 9 and 11 ; afternoon , 1 , 3 and 5. this is a fortification very well worth seeing . from naerden through muyden to amsterdam ; in the summer at 5 , 7 and 9 , mornings ; and at 2 , 4 and 6 , afternoons . in the winter , mornings , 7 , 8 and 10 ; afternoons , 1 , 3 and 5. from leyden to gouda ; every day a boat goes at 11 in the fornenoon , and on saturdays at 2 in the afternoon . from gouda to leyden ; every day at 11 in the forenoon , and on thursdays at 12. from leyden through woerden to utrccht ; in the morning at 9 , afternoon at 12 1 / 2 , and evening at 9. from utrecht through woerden to leyden ; mornings at 8 and 12 , evenings at 8. from rotterdam to dort , and from dort to rotterdam ; every day a boat as the tide serves ; as also to antwerp the same . it will be unnecessary to particularize any more , these being all that englishmen have occasion for , for whom these remarks are made , though it will not be improper if i insert the order for the post-wagons , which some for expedition make use of . the order of the post-wagons which go between amsterdam and the hague . every day except sundays , from the 26 of february to the 29 of september , there goes a post-wagon at 6 in the morning . from the first of october to the sixth of november , at 7 in the morning . from the 8 of november to the 19 of january , at half an hour past 7 in the morning . from the 21 of january to the 24 of february , at 7 in the morning . in the great vacation of the courts of holland , which is all the month of august , there goes no wagon in the morning . at 12 at noon there goes a wagon every day , sundays and all , throughout the year . the passage in the post-wagon for each person is 4 g. 3 st. besides passage-gelt . and if any hire a whole wagon , they may go at what hour they please , and pay 24 g. 18 st. and passage-gelt , provided there be no more than 6 persons . and if you are set down by the way you shall be abated proportionably of the passage , but then you must give notice of it before hand , and be content to take your place after those that go quite out . and now having said so much of the states government , and of amsterdam in particular , it will not be amiss to take notice of some bad customs and practices now in vogue in holland , and leave it to the reader to judge what they may portend : there are tollerated in the city of amsterdam , amongst other abuses , at least 50 musick-houses , where lewd persons of both sexes meet and practise their villanies : there is also a place called the long-seller , a tollerated exchange , or publick meeting house for whores and rogues to rendezvous in , and make their filthy bargains . this exchange is open from six a clock in the evening until nine at night ; every whore must pay three stivers at the door for her entrance or admission . i confess the ministers preach and exclaim from the pulpit against this horrible abuse , but who they be that protect them i know not ; yet , i have heard some plead for the tolleration of these wicked meetings , upon pretext , that when the east-india fleets come home , the seamen are so mad for women , that if they had not such houses to bait in , they would force the very citizens wives and daughters ; but it is well known , that as money does countenance , so discipline might suppress that abuse . the old severe , and frugal way of living is now almost quite out of date in holland , there is very little to be seen of that sober modesty in apparel , diet , and habitations as formerly : in stead of convenient dwellings , the hollanders now build stately palaces , have their delightful gardens , and houses of pleasure , keep coaches , wagons and sleas , have very rich furniture for their horses , with trappings adorned with silver bells . i have seen the vanity of a vintners son , who had the bosses of the bit , and trapping of his horse of pure silver ; his toot-man and coach-man having silver fring'd gloves ; yea , so much is the humour of the women altered , and of their children also , that no apparel can now serve them but the best and richest that france and other countries affords ; and their sons are so much addicted to play , that many families in amsterdam are ruined by it ; not that england is less extravagant then the dutch ; who as i said before , got such great estates by their frugality , whilst they were not addicted to such prodigality and wantonness as the english are , whose excess i cannot excuse ; nevertheless , the grave and sober people of holland are very sensible of the great alteration that now is in their country , and as they say , paracelsus used to cure his patients of their disease with a full belly ; so a good burghermaster desirous to convince his amsterdammers of their dissolute kind of life , invited the 36 magistrates and their wives to a feast ; who being come , and the ladies big with expectation of some rare and extraordinary entertainment , sat down at table , where the first course was buttermilk boil'd with apples , stock-fish , butter'd turnips and carrots , lettice , sallat , and red herrings , and only small bear , without any wine ; at this the ladies startled , and began to whisper to their husbands , that they expected no such entertainment , but upon removing of the dishes and plates , they found underneath printed verses , importing , that after that manner of living they began to thrive , and had inlarged their city . the second course consisted of bocke de kooks , quarters of lamb , roasted rabbits , and a sort of pudding they call a brother ; here they had dort and english beer , with french wine , yet all this did not please the dainty dames : but upon removing away the plates another dish of poetry appeared , which acquainted them , that after that modest and sober way of living they might keep what they had got , and lay up something for their children . then comes in the third course made up of all the rarities of the season , as partridges , pheasants , and all sorts of fowl , and english pasties , with plenty of rhenish , and other sorts of wine , to moisten them ; this put the ladies in a frolick , and jolly humour , but under their plates was found the use and application in verses , telling them , that to feed after that manner was voluptuous and luxurious , and would impair their health , and waste their estates , make them neglect their trade , and so in time reduce their stately and new built flourishing city to their old fishing town again . after this was brought in a banquet of all sorts of sweat meats piled up in pyramids , and delicate fruit , with plenty of delicious wines ; and to conclude all , a set of musick and maskers , who danced with the young ladies ; but at parting , like the hand writing to belteshazzar upon the wall , every one had a printed paper of moralities put into their hand , shewing them the causes of the ruin of the roman commonwealth , according to that of the poet , nullum crimen abest , facinusque libidinis ex quo , paupertas romana perit . with an excellent advice to them , that if they did not quit the buffoonries , and apish modes of the french , and return to the simplicity , plainness and modesty of their ancestors and founders , their commonwealth could not long last ; but all the thanks the good old burghermaster had for his kind and chargeable entertainment in thus feasting his country-men , was to be floutted at , and pasquild , the sparks of amsterdam saying in all places , that the old man being now past the years of pleasure himself , would have none others to take theirs : and here i shall put a period to what i thought fit to observe of the states of the united provinces , only i will beg leave to say something to the hollander by way of advice , viz. that now they are in a prosperous condition , rich , and at ease , they would look back and remember what god in his infinite goodness and mercy did for them in the days of their greatest calamities : for my own part i cannot but admire the great providence of god in preserving them from being devoured by their many enemies they had in the last war , besides their enemies at home , some of which particulars as they then happened give me leave to relate . at the time when the french came to invade the territories of the states general , it then looked as if god had mark'd out the way for the french to march , by sending such a wonderful dry season , that the rivers of the rhine , beta , wall , and other rivers were fordable , so that the french only waded throw , and became so victorious , that in a little space of time ( what by the treasons of some , and the ignorance and cowardise of others intrusted with the militia and garisons ) the french became masters of above forty cities and garisons , at which time there was nothing to be heard of in the states dominions but confusion and misery , even in the strong and rich city of amsterdam it self , who at this time beheld the french army like a mighty torrent coming within sight of the city , and at the same time wanting water in their canals , and burghwalls to ply their sluces , and such was the scarcity of rain , that a pail of fresh water was worth six pence : thus heaven seemed to frown on them , as well as the french army , by the shutting up as it were the conduits of heaven , and yet a worse thing had like to have fallen out , for at the same time the divisions grew so high amongst the magistrates in the stadthouse , that it was putting to the question , whether or no they should not go and meet the french king with the keys of their city , to save it from fire and plunder ; now nothing , in all probability , could save this rich city from falling into the hands of the french , but an immediate hand from heaven , and it had undoubtedly come to pass , had not providence caused the french to make a stand at muyden , two hours from amsterdam , at what time the valiant roman of amsterdam , scout hasselaer , like a true father of his country , opposed the french party in the counsel , calling out to the burghers from the stadthouse , to take courage , and rather chuse to die , like old battavians , with their swords in their hands , than tamely and treacherously to yield up their city to the mercy of the french , as some of the magistrates were about to do ; this so incouraged the burghers , that with great courage they mann'd the walls , and heaven then assisting them with a sudden and plentiful rain , that they ply'd their sluces , and dround the lands round the city three or four foot high , in some places , which caus'd the victorious french army to make a quick retreat , as far as utrecht , else they had paid dear for seeing of amsterdam ; thus was amsterdam delivered by the hand of heaven . a second was , when that bloody duke of luxemburg , who gloried and thanked god that he was born without pity or remorse of conscience , took the opportunity of an exceeding hard frost , to march his army over the ice as it had been dry ground , burning in his way the three fair villages of bodygrave , swammerdam , and goudse-sluys ; acting there a more cruel tragedy , and worse , than ever did turk , for they generally save the country people for ransom , but this cruel prince caused strong guards to surround the villages , and burnt men , women , and children together : thus he began his march , with a design to burn leyden , hague , rotterdam , delft , and all the rich country of rhineland : and this he might have done in all probability , for , first , the governor of new-sluce , who commanded the post that should have stopt the french , treacherously delivered up the fort without firing a gun ; and the handful of troops then under general koningsmark were so inconsiderable , that they , joyned to the soldiers under pain and vin , the governor of new-sluce , were not able to make head as could oppose laxemburg's army ; and at the same time the prince of orange was with the states army at charleroy : now was leyden ready to meet the french with the keys of their city , and other cities too , for they had neither fortifications nor soldiers to man their walls : thus the whole country and cities of rhineland were like to fall under the cruelties and tyrany of the french , but god a second time sent these people relief from heaven , first by giving such undaunted courage to that great states-man pensionary fagel , that he forced coningsmark to rally his troops together , and to make a stand near leyden , offering himself to die at the head of them if there were occasion , but god reserved him for a further good to the commonwealth , by sending such a sudden thaw as was never seen before , for in less than ten hours , the ice so sunk , and such floods of snow came down from the highlands , that the french were fain to make a very disorderly retreat , marching up to the middle for haste , because on the banks there could not march above four men a-breast , so they were constrained to leave behind them the greatest part of the plunder they had robb'd from the innocent country people , and the nimble dutch-men , on their scates , so long as the ice would bear them , did shoot down the french like ducks diving under water , so that it cost luxemburg's army dear , though they had the pleasure to burn the poor people , of which the french afterward wickedly made their boast . the third was as wonderful as the two others ; and although i do not believe miracles , as do the papists , yet i say nothing i ever observed looked more like a miracle than this ; to wit , when the english and french fleet lay before scheveling with a design to land , and the french ready on their march to joyn with the english and other french as soon as they should land , at the same time the bishop of munster lying before groeningen , and the french before gorcom , so that now all things looked with a dreadful face for the states , yet at this very time god sent a third relief , by sending such mists , and wonderful sorts of tydes , as so separated the two fleets , that the english were forced to quit scheveling shore , and were driven on the side of the texel road ; from whence they were constrained by the season of the year to retire home : and such were the sudden and great showers of rain , that the bishop of munster was forced in disorder to raise his siege at groeningen , and the french to quit gorcom . i could add many more observations of the providences of god to these people , as the preserving the prince of orange , his present majesty of great britain , from the many treacherous designs contrived against him from his cradle ; but moses must be preserved , to go in and out before his ▪ people . certainly never young prince endured so many fatigues as did his highness in his tender years , of which i was an eye-witness ; and had his highness had the years and experience , and such a good disciplined army ( as now he hath ) in the year 1671. when the french entred the country , his highness had given them as good a welcom as he did at bergen . i will say no more of this subject , only this , that the peace at nimeguen was also a very wonderful thing , for that not above eight days before the peace was signed , most of the plenipotentiaries did believe the war would have continued another year ; first , because the king of denmark and duke of brandenburg prospered exceedingly against sweedland , and totally refused the propositions of france ; and secondly , because the french king writ such bitter letters against the states-general : yet eight days after drest a letter unto the states , in which he calls them his good friends , and old alleys , offering them not only maestricht , but every foot of ground they could lay claim to in the world ; also giving them new terms and conditions as to their privileges in france , by way of trade . neither can i forget how speedily and as strangely the french king did quit his conquered towns after the valiant prince of orange took naerden , which was the first step to the french's ruine in the states dominions . i come now , according to promise in the beginning of this book , to give the reader some remarks i made in other countries where i have been , during my sixteen years travels . to give a full account of all that might be observed in so many countries , is not a task for one man , nor a subject for so small a book ; i shall only therefore briefly take notice of some remarkable matters which may in some measure satisfie the curiosity of my country-men , who have not been in the said places , and convince , if possible , all of them , that no country that ever i was in , affords so great conveniencies for the generality of people to live in , as the kingdom of england doth . though i have twice made the grand tour of germany , hungary , italy and france , and after my return back to england , travelling a third time through holland as far as strasbourg , and so back by francfort to denmark and sueden ; yet the reader is not to expect i should follow a geographical method and order in speaking of the places i have been in ; that is to be lookt for in the map , and not in travels ; but only that i mention places as i found them on my road , according as business or curiosity led me to travel . the first considerable place i then met with , after i was out of the dominions of the states-general , was cleave , the capital city of the province so called ; a fair and lovely city standing upon the rhine , and the rivers wall and leck . this province much resembles england in rich soil , and pleasantness of its rivers . the inhabitants of the country would have me believe that they were originally descended of those saxons who made a descent into england , and conquered it ; and to convince the truth of this , they shew'd me a cloyster standing on a hill , called eltham , from which they say our eltham in kent had its name . i was made to observe also two places standing upon the rhine near emmerick , called doadford , and gronewich , which according to them , gave the names to dedford and greenwich in england : but many such analogies and similitudes of names are to be found in other places of germany , but especially in upper saxony and denmark . the greatest part of this province of cleave , and part of the dutchies of juliers and berg , and of the provinces of marke and ravensbourg , belongs to the elector of brandenbourg , the rest belonging to the duke of newbourg now elector palatine , and the elector of cologne . the inhabitants are partly roman catholicks , partly lutherans , and partly calvinists , who all live promiscuously and peaceably together both in city and country . the city of cleave is the utmost limit of the territories of the elector of brandenbourg on this side of germany ; from whence his electoral highness can travel two hundred dutch miles out-right in his own dominions , and never sleep out of his own country but one night in the territories of the bishop of osnabrug . from cleave i went to a small town called rhinberg , but a very strong fortification belonging to the elector of cologne ; which lies at two miles distance from the city of wesel , that belongs to the elector of brandenbourg . through dusseldorpe , situated on the rhine , and the residence of the duke of newbourg , i went next to cologne , a very large city , called by the romans colonia agrippina , and the french rome d'allemagne . cologne is an imperial city , and a republick , though for some things it does homage to the elector of that name , and receives an oath from him . it is much decayed within these hundred years , having been much priest-ridden ; a misfortune that hath undone many other great cities . the jesuits have had so great influence upon the magistrates , that they prevailed with them to banish all protestants , who removed to hambourg and amsterdam ; so that cologne is become so dispeopled , that the houses daily fall to ruine for want of inhabitants , and a great deal of corn and wine now grows within the walls , upon ground where houses formerly stood . i dare be bold to affirm , that there is twice the number of inhabitants in the parish of st. martins in the fields , as there is in cologne ; and yet it contains as many parish-churches , monasteries and chappels , as there are days in the year . the streets are very large , and so are the houses also , in many of which one may drive a coach or wagon into the first room from the streets : but the streets are so thin of people , that one may pass some of them and not meet ten men or women , unless it be church-men , or religious sisters . the most considerable inhabitants of the city are protestant merchants , though but few in number , and they not allowed a church neither , but at a place called woullin , a mile without the city ; the rest of the inhabitants , who are lay-men , are miserably poor . there are no less than 3000 students in cologne taught by the jesuits gratis , who have the privilege to beg in musical notes in the day-time , and take to themselves the liberty of borrowing hats and cloaks in the night . but if in the jesuits schools there be any rich burghermasters sons who have parts , they are sure to be snapt up , and adopted into the society . formerly , before the matter was otherwise adjusted in the dyet of ratubonne , there have been designs of voting protestant magistrates into the government again ; but so soon as the jesuits came to discover who of the magistrates were for that , they immediately preferred their sons or daughters , and made them canons , abbots , or canonesses , and so diverted them by interest . it 's pity to see a city so famous for traffick in former times , now brought to so great a decay , that were it not for the trade of rhenish-wine , it would be utterly forsaken , and left wholly to the church-men . the continual alarms the magistrates have had by foreign designs upon their liberty , and the jealousies fomented among themselves , as it is thought , by the agents and favourers of france , and especially the bishop of strasbourg , have , for several years , kept them in continual disquiet , and necessitated them to raise great taxes , which hath not a little contributed to the impoverishing of the people , especially the boars round about ; who , tho' the country they live in be one of the most pleasant and fertile plains of germany , yet are so wretchedly poor , that canvas cloaths , wooden shoes , and straw to sleep on in the same room with their beasts , is the greatest worldly happiness that most of them can attain unto . the elector of cologne is bishop of four great bishopricks , viz. cologne , prince of liege , munster , and heldershime . to speak of all the miracles of the three kings of cologne , and the vast number of saints , who were removed out of england and interred there , would be but tedious , and perhaps incredible , to the reader , as well as wide of my design : i shall therefore proceed . from cologne i took water on the rhine , and advanced to the city of bon , and so forward to coblentz , the residence of the elector of trier : over-against this city , on the other side of the rhine , stands that impregnable fort called herminshine , built on a high rocky hill , as high again as windsor-castle ; and on the north-side of it , the river moselle falls into the rhine , over which there is a stately stone-bridge . this prince governs his subjects as the other spiritual electors do , that is , both by temporal and spiritual authority , which in that country is pretty absolute . the chief trade of this country is in wine , corn , wood and iron . the next country i came to was that of the elector of mayence or mentz , who is likewise both a secular and ecclesiastical prince , and governs his subjects accordingly . he is reckoned to be wholly for the interests of the french king ; who , notwithstanding of that , pretends a title to the cittadel of mayence . as i was upon my journey to mayence by land , i made a turn down the rhine to visit the famous little city of backrack , and some towns belonging to the landtgrave of hesse , but especially backrack , because travellers say , it much resembles jerusalem in its situation and manner of buildings . the burghermaster of this city told me , that the whole country about backrack does not yield above 200 fouders of wine a year ; and yet the merchants of dort , by an art of multiplication , which they have used some years , furnish england with several thousand of fouders . here i shall take the liberty to relate a strange story , which , i found recorded in this country , tho' i know it to be mentioned in history : there was a certain cruel and inhuman bishop of mayence , who , in a year of great scarcity and famine , when a great number of poor people came to his gates begging for bread , caused the poor wretches , men , women , and children , to be put into a barn , under pretext of relieving their necessities , but so soon as they were got in , caused the barn doors to be shut , fire set to it , and so burnt them all alive : and whil'st the poor wretches cried and shrieked out for horror and pain , the barbarous miscreant said to those that were about him , hark , how the rats and mice do cry . but the just judgment of god suffered not the fact to pass unpunished ; for not long after the cruel bishop was so haunted with rats and mice , that all the guards he kept about him could not secure him from them , neither at table nor in bed ; at length he resolved to flee for safety into a tower that stood in the middle of the rhine ; but the rats pursued him ▪ got into his chamber , and devoured him alive ; so that the justice of the almighty made him a prey to vermin , who had inhumanly reckoned his fellow-christians to be such . the tower , which i saw , to this day is call'd the rats-tower , and the story is upon record in the city of mayence . on my journey from thence i came to the little village of hockom , not far distant , famous for our hockomore-wine , of which , though the place does not produce above 150 fouders a year , yet the ingenious hollanders of dort make some thousand fouders of it go off in england and the indies . from hockom i proceeded to francfort , a pleasant city upon the river of maine , called formerly teutoburgum and helenop●lis , and since francfort , because here the franconians , who came out of the province of franconia , foarded over , when they went upon their expedition into gallia , which they conquered , and named it france : and i thought it might very well deserve the name of petty-london , because of its privileges , and the humour of the citizens . it is a hansiatick and imperial town , and commonwealth , the magistrates being lutherans , which is the publick established religion ; though the cathedral church belongs to the roman catholicks , who also have several monasteries there . the city is populous , and frequented by all sorts of merchants , from most parts of europe , and part of asia also , because of the two great fairs that are yearly kept there : many jews live in this city , and the richest merchants are calvinists , who are not suffered to have a church in the town , but half an hours journey out of it , at a place called bucknam , where i have told seventy four coaches at a time , all belonging to merchants of the city . it was in ancient times much enrich'd by charlemain , and hath been since by the constitution of the golden-bull : amongst other honours and privileges , it 's appointed to be the place of the emperor's election , where many of the ornaments , belonging to that august ceremony , are to be seen . it is strongly fortified , having a stately stone-bridge over the mayne , that joyns it to saxe-housen , the quarter of the great master of the teutonick-order . the government is easie to the people , they not being taxed as other cities are ; and had it not been for the alarms the french gave them , during the last war , they had not been much troubled , but being forced to keep 3 or 4000 men in constant pay to defend their fortifications , the magistrates were constrained to raise money by a tax . besides that of the emperor , they are under the protection of some neighbouring princes , as of the landtgrave of hesse-cassel , landtgrave of armstadt , the count of solmes , and the count of hanau , who are either lutherans or calvinists , amongst whom the late elector palatine was also one ; but whether the present , who is a roman catholick , be so or not , i cannot tell . this city takes great care of their poor , and in their charity to poor travellers exceed holland : i have seen a list of seven thousand whom they relieved in one year . their great hospital is a large court or palace , where the english merchants formerly lived , in the time of queen mary's persecution of the protestants , who , when they were recalled by queen elizabeth , were so generous as to give the whole court , with all their pack-houses and lands to the poor of the city . it was my fortune to be there in that cold winter in the year 1683 , and saw a ceremony performed by the wine-coopers of the city , who are obliged by law , that when ever the maine lies fast frozen over for 8 days together , to make a great fouder fat , hoops and staves , and set it up compleat upon the ice . it was very good diversion to see so many hands at work , and to observe the jollity and mirth of the many thousands of spectators , who wanted not plenty of rhenish wine to carouse in . i had the curiosity afterward to go to the court of the landtgrave of armestadt , a lutheran prince , who lives in part of the richest soil in germany . his highness is a very courteous and obliging prince to strangers , and his subjects are in a pretty good condition again , though they have been great sufferers by the last war between the landtgrave of hesse and this family . from thence i went to heidleberg , a city i had been formerly in , in the life time of that wise , though unfortunate prince elector , elder brother to prince rupert . here i had the honour to pay my dutiful respects to the elector , the son of that great prince , whose commissary i had the honour to be for two years together in amsterdam . this prince , since my being there , is dead , and left behind him the reputation of having been a zealous thorough paced calvinist , and so constant a frequenter of the church , that some sundays he went thrice a day to sermon ; but never failed , if in health , to be once a day at least at the garison church , where he took particular notice of such officers as were absent . he was married to a most virtuous lady , the royal sister of the king of denmark , and his brother prince george . during his life time the university of heidleberg flourished exceedingly , so that the number of students was so great , that chambers and lodgings in the city were scarce , and spanhemius was about quitting leyden to return to his professors place in heidleberg ; but how matters stand since his death , i am as yet ignorant . this country is called , the paradise of germany , for its fruitfulness in wine , corn , and all sorts of fruit. i my self have seen growing in one plain , at the same time , vines , corn , chestnuts , almonds , dates , figs , cherries , besides several other sorts of fruit. and as the country is fertile in yielding the fruits of the earth , so the people are careful in providing store room for them . this i take notice of , because of the prodigious rhenish wine fat 's which are to be seen there , amongst which there are seven , the least whereof holds the quantity of 250 barils of beer , as i calculated ; but the large and most celebrated fat is that which goes by the name of the great tun of heidleberg , and holds 204 * fouders of wine , and cost 705 l. sterling in building , for which one may have a very good house built . this fat i have seen twice , and the first time was , when the elector treated the french ambassadors that came to conclude the match betwixt his daughter , and monsieur the french kings brother , who married her after the death of henrietta his first wife ; at which treat there happened an adventure , that i shall here please the reader with . in a gallery that is over this fat , the elector caused a table to be placed in the middle , exactly above the bunghole of this monstrous vessel , and to be covered with a costly banquet of all sorts of sweat-meats : the day before , all the wine being emptied out of this tun into other fat 's , a little before the ambassadors , with other foreign ministers and persons of quality mounted the stairs to come to the place of entertainment , the elector caused twelve drummers , with as many trumpeters , some kettle-drums , and other musick , to be lodged in the belly of the tun , with orders to strike up , upon a signal given , when the elector drank the french kings health . all being sat down at table , and merrily feeding , the elector drank the health , and the signal was given ; whereupon the musick began to play its part , with such a roaring and uncouth noise out of that vast cavity below , that the french and other persons of quality who were unacquainted with the design , looking upon it to be an infernal and ominous sound , in great astonishment began to cry out , jesu maria , the worlds at an end , and to shift every one for himself in so great disorder and confusion , that for haste to be gone they tumbled down stairs one over another . all that the elector could say to compose them , was either not heard , or not valued , nor could any thing satisfie and reassure them , till they saw the actors come marching out of their den. had not many persons of quality and travellers seen this fat as well as my self , who know that what i say of its incredible bigness to be true , i should be afraid the reader might think i imposed upon his credulity . from heidleberg i went to see that impregnable fort or cittadel of manheim allas fredericksberg , built by the elector frederick , brother to prince rupert , a prince of as good a head as any germany afforded ; who though some have too partially judged of him by his misfortunes , yet by the wisest of the age was accounted the cato of germany . the wisest and best men of the world have been unfortunate , which makes some to be of the opinion , that god in his wisdom thinks fit it should be so , lest otherwise they might attribute their prosperity rather to the wise direction of their own conduct , than his all-seeing providence : and indeed , daily experience seems to evince the truth of this , since we see knaves and fools advanced to preferment and riches , when men of virtue and parts die neglected , and poor in the eyes of the world , though rich in the enjoyment of a contented mind . but this is a digression which the honour i have for the memory of that great man hath led me into , and therefore i hope will be pardoned by the reader . in the cittadel of manheim i saw some of the records of that illustrious family , which without dispute is the most ancient of all the secular electors , being elder to that of bavaria , which sprung from one and the same stock ; to wit , two emperors of germany . many writers derive them originally from charlemain , by the line of pepin king of france . there have been several emperors of that race , one king of denmark , and four kings of sueden , one of which was king of norway also , besides many great generals of armies in germany , hungary , france , and other countrys . since i can remember there were five protestant princes heirs to that electoral dignity alive ; which now by their death is fallen to the duke of newbourg , the present prince elector palatine , a roman catholick , whose daughter is empress of germany , and another of his daughters married to the king of portugal , a third to the king of spain , and a fourth to prince james of poland . being so near strasbourg , i had the curiosity to go see what figure that famous city now made , since it had changed its master ; for i had been thrice there before , when it flourished under the emperors protection , with the liberty of a hansiatick town : and indeed , i found it so disfigured , that had it not been for the stately cathedral church , and fair streets , and buildings , i could scarcely have known it . in the streets and exchange , which formerly were thronged with sober , rich , and peaceable merchants , you meet with none hardly now but men in buff-coats and scarffs , with rabbles of soldiers their attendants . the churches i confess are gayer , but not so much frequented by the inhabitants as heretofore , seeing the lutherans are thrust into the meanest churches , and most of the chief merchants , both lutherans and calvinists , removed to holland and hambourg . within a few years , i beleive it will be just such another city for trade and riches as brisac is . it was formerly a rich city , and well stockt with merchants and wealthy inhabitants , who lived under a gentle and easie government ; but now the magistrates have little else to do in the government , but only to take their rules and measures from a cittadel and great guns , which are edicts that merchants least understand . i confess , strasbourg is the less to be pittied that it so tamely became a slave , and put on its chains without any strugling . those magistrates who were instruments in it , are now sensible of their own folly , and bite their nails for anger , finding themselves no better , but rather worse hated than the other magistrates , who did what they could to hinder the reception of their new masters the french. i quickly grew weary of being here , meeting with nothing but complaints of poverty , and paying exorbitant taxes . i therefore soon returned to my petty-london , francfort , and from thence went to cassel , the chief residence of the landtgrave of hesse . this prince is a calvinist , as most of his subjects are , very grave and zealous in his religion : he married a princess of courland , by whom he hath an hopeful issue ; to wit , three sons , and two daughters . king charles ii. was god-father to one of his sons , 〈◊〉 was christened by the name of charles ; captain william legg , brother to the lord dartmouth , representing his majesty as his envoy . the court of this prince does indeed resemble a well-governed college , or religious cloister , in regard of its modesty and regularity in all things , and especially in the hours of devotion . he is rich in money , and entertains about nine thousand men in constant pay , under the command of count vanderlip , a brave and expert soldier , his lieutenant general , but can bring many more upon occasion into field . this family hath been very happy both in its progeny and alliances , many wise princes of both sexes having sprung from it ; and the mother of this present landtgrave may be reckoned amongst the illustrious women of the present and past ages . after the death of william v. landtgrave of hesse her husband , she not only supported , but advanced the war wherein he was engaged , did many signal actions , enlarged her territories , and at the conclusion of the peace , kept under her pay 56 cornets of horse in five regiments , 166 companies of foot , besides 13 companies of dragoons , and 14 independent companies , in all 249 companies of horse and foot : she was a princess extreamly obliging to strangers , especially virtuous and learned divines . i had the honour a good many years ago to kiss her highnesses hand , at which time she was mighty zealous in promoting an accommodation amongst different religions , as the roman catholick , lutheran and calvinist , but especially betwixt the two latter ; and therefore entertained doctor duris , at her court in cassels , who wrote several pieces upon that subject of reconciliation , and with some of his friends had a conference with a learned priest , that came from rome to forward the project ; whereupon the doctor published his book of the harmony of consent , which is highly esteemed in germany . from this princes court i directed my journey to hanouer , taking lambspring in my way , a place where there is a convent of english monks ; and there i met with a very aged , worthy , and harmless gentleman , sir thomas gascoigne , a person of seeming great integrity and piety ; the lord abbot and several of the monks i had seen there formerly . this monastery is very obliging to all strangers that travel that way , as well as to their own country-men , and is highly respected by the neighbouring princes of all perswasions , as the princes of the house of lunenburg , the landtgrave of hesse , and elector of cologne , who as bishop of hildersheim is their ordinary . the town of lambspring is lutheran , though under the government of the lord abbot and his chapter , who constantly chuse lutheran magistrates and officers for the civil administration , and live together in that love and unity , that as yet there hath never the least debate happened amongst them ; and indeed , this harmony is now to be observed in most parts of germany , where different religions are professed . when i considered so many goodly faces , both of monks and students in that abbey , i could not forbear to make a serious reflection on the number of the english whom i had seen in the colleges and cloisters abroad , as at rome , ratisbonne , wirtzburg in lorrain , at liege , louvain , brussels , dunkirk , ghent , paris , and other places , besides the nunneries ; and withall , on the loss that both king and kingdom suffered thereby , when so many of our natives , both men and women should be constrained to spend their own estates , and the benevolence of others in a strange land , which amounts to more money than at first one may imagine ; and this thought , i confess , made me wish it were otherwise . i would not have the reader to mistake me here , as if i espoused , or pleaded for any particular party ; no , i plead only for the sentiments of humanity , without which our nature degenerates into that of brutes , and for the love that every honest man ought to have for his country . i am as much a friend to the spanish inquisition , as to the persecuting of tender conscienced protestants , provided there be no more but conscience in the case : and i could heartily wish that papists and protestants could live as lovingly together in england , as they do in holland , germany , and other countries ; for give me leave to say it , i love not that religion , which in stead of exalting , destroys the principles of morality and human society . i have met with honest men of all perswasions , even turks and jews , who in their lives and manners have far exceeded many of our enthusiastick professors at home ; and when ever this happened , i could not forbear to love the men without embracing their religion , for which they themselves are to account to their great master and judge . in my progress towards hanouer i touched at hildersheim , a city whose magistrates are lutheran , though roman catholicks have the cathedral church , and several monasteries there . the court of hanouer makes another kind of figure than that of cassels , it being the court of a great prince , who is bishop of osnaburg , duke of brunswick , lunenburg , hanouer , &c. here i had the honour to kiss the hands of the princess royal sophia , youngest sister to the late prince rupert . her highness has the character of the merry debonnaire princess of germany , a lady of extraordinary virtue and accomplishments , and mistress of the italian , french , high and low dutch , and english languages , which she speaks to perfection . her husband has the title of the gentleman of germany , a graceful and comely prince both a foot , and on horseback , civil to strangers beyond compare , infinitely kind and beneficent to people in distress , and known in the world for a valiant and experienced soldier . i had the honour to 〈◊〉 his troops , which , without controv●●●●● are as good men , and commanded by as expert officers as any are in europe : amongst his officers i found brave steel-hand gordon , colonel of an excellent regiment of horse , grimes , hamilton , talbot , and others of our kings subjects . god hath blest the prince with a numerous off-spring , having six sons , all gallant princes ; of whom the two eldest signalized themselves so bravely at the raising of the siege of vienna , that as undoubted proof of their valour , they brought three turks home to this court prisoners . his eldest son is married to a most beautiful princess , sole heiress of the duke of lunenburg and zell's elder brother ; as the lovely princess his daughter is married to the duke of brandenburg . he is a gracious prince to his people , and keeps a very splendid court , having in his stables for the use of himself and children , no less than fifty two sets of coach-horses : he himself is a lutheran , but as his subjects are christians of different perswasions , and some of them jews too , so both in his court and army he entertains gentlemen of various opinions and countries , as italian abbots , and gentlemen that serve him , and many calvinist french officers : neither is he so bigotted in his religion , but that he and his children go many times to church with the princess , who is a calvinist , and join with her in her devotion . his country is good , having gold and silver mines in it , and his subjects live well under him ; as do those also of his brother the duke of lunenburg , and their cozen the duke of wolfembuttel , which are the three princes of the house of lunenbourg ; of whom it may be said , that they have always stuck honestly to the right side , and befriended the interests of the empire ; so that no by-respect , neither honour nor profit , could ever prevail with them , as it has with others , to make them abandon the publick concern . from this princes court i went to zell , the residence of the duke the elder brother of the family . this prince is called the mighty nimrod , because of the great delight he takes in horses , dogs , and hunting . he did me the honour to let me see his stables , wherein he keeps 370 horses , most of them english , or of english breed . his dogs , which are also english , are so many , that with great care they are quartered in several apartments according to their kind and qualities , there being a large office like a brewhouse employed for boyling of malt and corn for them . it is this valiant prince who took trieves from the french , and made the mareschal de crequi prisoner : he is extreamly obliging to strangers , and hath several brave scotish officers under his pay , as major-general erskin , graham , coleman , hamilton , melvin , and others . his lieutenant-general is one chavot a protestant of alsatia , an excellent and experienced commander . i shall add no more concerning this prince , his officers , or country ; but that he , with the other two princes of the house of lunenbourg , hanouer , and wolfembuttel , can upon occasion bring into the field 36000 soldiers , whom they keep in constant pay , and such men as i never saw better in my life . after some stay at the court of the duke of zell , i went to hambourg , a famous hansiatick town . it is a republick , and city of great trade , occasioned partly by the english company of merchant adventurers , but much more by the dutch protestants , who in the time of the duke of alba forsook the low-countries and settled here , and the protestants also who were turned out of cologne , and other places in germany ; who nevertheless are not now allowed publick churches within the city , but at a place called altena , a village belonging to the king of denmark , a quarter of an hours walk distant from hambourg . this commonwealth is lutheran , and governed by 4 burghermasters , 24 radts-heers , and a common-council of all the burghers who have above 40 shillings per annum freehold . the symbol or motto under their arms , is , da pacem domine in diebus nostris ; and in their standards are these letters s. p. q. h. the people here groan under heavy taxes and impositions ; the state , because of continual alarms they have from the king of denmark , or other neighbours ; and the intestine broils that frequently happen here , as well as at col●gne , where the burghermasters are often in danger of their lives from the mutinous mobile ; being forced to maintain 6 or 7000 men in pay , besides 2 or 3 men of war to guard their havens from pirats . i shall not name all the ways of imposing taxes which this commonwealth uses , because in most they imitate the methods of the states-general as to that , which have been mentioned before : i shall only take notice of some peculiar customs they have , wherein they differ from holland . when a barber , shoemaker , or any other artizan dies , leaving a widow and children , another of the same trade is not admitted to set up for himself as a master , unless he compound with the widow for a piece of money , or else marry her , or a daughter of hers with her consent . if any man cause another to be arrested for debt , or upon any other suit , the plaintiff must go along with the officer who arrests the party , and stay by him until the prisoner be examined by the sheriff ; so that if the sheriff be not to be spoken with that night , the plaintiff must tarry with the prisoner all night , until the sheriff examin the matter , and see cause of discharging or committing the party ; but this a plaintiff may do by a procuration notarial . if a prisoner be committed for debt , the plaintiff must maintain him in prison according to his quality ; and if the party lie in prison during the space of 6 years , at the expiration of that time the prisoner is discharged ; and if during the time of his imprisonment the plaintiff do not punctually pay the prisoner's allowance at the months end , the prisoner is set at liberty , and nevertheless the plaintiff must pay the gaoler the last month's allowance . this state is severe in the execution of justice against thieves , murderers , and cheats . there is no pardon to be expected for murder , and a burghermaster himself , if guilty , cannot escape . the punishment for murder is here as in sweden , breaking malefactors on the wheel , pinching their breasts and arms with hot pincers , spitting them in at the fundament , and out at the shoulder : they have also cruel ways of torturing to make prisoners confess ; and are very careful not to be cheated in their publick revenue , their excise-men and collectors being punished as in holland . they take a very good course not to be cheated in their excise , for all the mills of the country are in the hands of the state ; so that no baker nor brewer can grind his own corn , but must have it ground at the states mills , where they pay the excise . there is a general tax upon all houses , and that is the eighth penny , which nevertheless does not excuse them from chimney-money . the states here , as at genoua in italy , are the publick vintners , of whom all people must buy their wine , which they buy from the merchant , or otherwise import it in their own ships . in their ceremonies of burying and christening , they are ridiculously prodigal ; as for instance : if one invite a burghermaster , he must give him a ducat in gold ; if a radts-heer , that is , an alderman , a rixdollar ; to every preacher , doctor of physick , advocate or secretary , half a rixdollar ; and to every schoolmaster , the third part of a rixdollar . the women are the inviters to burials , weddings , and christenings , who wear an antick kind of a dress , having mitred caps as high again as the mitre of a bishop . the churches here are rich in revenues and ornaments , as images and stately organs , wherein they much delight . they are great lovers of musick , insomuch that i have told 75 masters of several sorts of musick in one church , besides those who were in the organ-gallery . their organs are extraordinary large : i measured the great pipes in the organs of st. catherine's and st. james's churches , and found them to be 3 foot and 3 quarters in circumference , and 32 foot long ; in each of which organs there are two pipes 5 foot and 8 inches round . the wealth and trade of this city encreases daily ; they send one year with another 70 ships to greenland , and have wonderfully engrossed that trade from england and holland , and it 's believed , that small and great there are belonging to this commonwealth five thousand sail of ships . after amsterdam , genoua and venice , their bank is reckoned the chief in credit ; but in trade they are accounted the third in europe , and come next to london and amsterdam . hambourg is now become the magazine of germany , and of the baltick and northern seas . they give great privileges to the jews , and to all strangers whatsoever , especially the english company of merchant adventurers , whom they allow a large building , where they have a church , and where the deputy-governour , secretary , minister , and the other officers of the company live , to whom they yearly make presents of wine , beer , sheep , salmond and sturgeon in their seasons . and so much of hambourg . from hambourg i went to lubeck , which is also a commonwealth and imperial town . it is a large well-built city , containing ten parish-churches ; the cathedral dedicated to st. peter being in length 500 foot , with two high spires all covered with brass , as the rest of the churches of that city are . in former times this city was the place where the deputies of all the hansiatick towns assembled , and was once so powerful as to make war against denmark and sweden , and to conquer several places and islands belonging to those two crowns , nay and to lend ships to england and other potentates , without any prejudice to their own trade , wherein they vyed in all parts with their neighbours ; but it is now exceedingly run into decay , not only in territories , but in wealth and trade also . and the reason of that was chiefly the inconsiderate zeal of their lutheran ministers , who perswaded the magistrates to banish all roman catholicks , calvinists , jews , and all that dissented from them in matter of religion , even the english company too , who all went and setled in hambourg , to the great advantage of that city , and almost ruine of lubeck , which hath not now above 200 ships belonging to it , nor more territories to the state than the city it self , and a small part called termond , about eight miles distant from it . the rest of their territories are now in the possession of the danes and swedes , by whom the burghers are so continually alarmed , that they are quite tired out with keeping guard , and paying of taxes . the city is indeed well fortified ; but the government not being able to maintain above 1500 soldiers in pay , 400 burghers in two companies are obliged to watch every day . they have a large well-built stadthouse , and an exchange covered , on the top whereof the globes of the world are painted . this exchange is about 50 yards in the length , and but 15 in breadth : over it there is a room where the skins of five lyons which the burghers killed at the city-gates in the year 1252. are kept stuft . the great market-place is very large , where a monumental-stone is to be seen , on which one of their burghermasters was beheaded for running away without fighting in a sea-engagement . the people here spend much time in their churches at devotion , which consists chiefly in singing . the women are beautiful , but disfigured with a kind of antick dress , they wearing cloaks like men. it is cheap living in this town : for one may hire a palace for a matter of 20 l. a year , and have provisions at very reasonable rates ; besides the air and water is very good , the city being supplied with fountains of excellent fresh water , which hambourg wants ; and good ground for celleridge , there being cellars here 40 or 50 foot deep . i had the curiosity to go from lubeck to see the ancient city of magdeburg , but found it so ruined and decayed by the swedish war , that i had no encouragement to stay there . i therefore hastened to berlin , the chief residence of the elector of brandenburg ; at whose court i met with a very ingenuous french merchant , who told me , that he , and divers other merchants , were designed to have lived in england , but were discouraged by a letter sent from london , by a french-man that was removing from thence to amsterdam , for these following reasons , which i copied out of his letter . first , because the reformed religion is persecuted in england as it is france ; the which i told him was a great untruth , for it is apparent that they have been all along graciously admitted , and received into his majesties dominions , without interruption , and allowed the free exercise of their own form of worship , according to the doctrine and discipline of the churches of france . nor can they who converse with the french ministers either in france or holland be ignorant , that the chiefest part , if not all those ministers , are willing to comply with the church of england ; and it is evident that most of the dutch and french protestants ( so called ) in holland make use of organs in their churches . a second thing was , that both the bank at london and the bankers goldsmiths were all broak ; the which i told this frenchman was not true altogether , for there are many able bankers whom i named : neither was the bank ( as he called the chamber of london ) broak , only it had been under the management of a bad person , whose design was to bring it into disgrace . besides , there is the east-india-company an unquestionable security for those as have money to dispose of , together with another undeniable security which is land. thirdly , he saith , that in england there is no register , and therefore many frauds in purchases and morgages , which beget tedious suits , and renders both dangerous to trust . fourthly , that if a man would purchase land he cannot , being an alien , until naturalized . fifthly , that in england there are so many plots and confusions in government , that the kingdom is hardly quiet 20 years together . sixthly , that false witnesses were so common in england , and the crime of perjury so slightly punished , that no man could be safe in life or estate , if he chanced to be in trouble . lastly he said , that the english are so restless and quarelsom , that they not only foment and cherish animosities amongst one another , but are every foot contriving and plotting against their lawful sovereign , and the government . by such surmises and insinuations as these , the french and germans are scared from trusting themselves and fortunes in england , and therefore settle in amsterdam , hamburgh , and other cities , where there are banks and registers : this i say is one cause , why there are now to be seen at amsterdam such vast numbers of french and germans , who have much enrich'd that city , and raised the rents of the houses 20 per cent. and the silk-weavers grow also very rich , keeping so many alms-children to do their work , and having all their labour without any charge , only for the teaching them their trades ; which hath lessened the revenues of the french crown , and will , in time , greatly increase the number of the states subjects , and advance their publick incomes . having made this digression , i return to berlin ; it is a city enlarged with fair streets and palaces : the magistrates of the place are lutherans , which is the publick established religion in all the electors dominions ; though he himself and his children be calvinists : he is look'd upon to be so true to that persuasion , that he is reckoned the protector of the calvinists ; and indeed he sollicited the emperor very hard for a toleration of the protestants in hungary . his chaplains , as most of the lutheran ministers also , endeavour to imitate the english in their way of preaching : and his highness is so much taken with english divinity , that he entertains divines for translating english books into the german tongue , as the whole duty of man , and several others . he has a large and stately palace at berlin , and therein a copious library , enriched with many manuscripts , medals , and rarities of antiquity . he may compare with most princes for handsom guards , being all of them proper well-bodied men , and most part officers who ride in his guards of horse . as he is known in the world to be a valiant and warlike prince , so he maintains in pay an army of 36000 men ; besides five or six thousand horsemen , who in time of war are modelled into troops ; with which body during the late war with sweden , his highness's father in person beat the swedes out of his country . he keeps his forces in strict discipline , obliging all the officers , if protestants , on sundays and holy-days to march their several companies in order to church ; but if a superiour officer be of a contrary perswasion , then the next in commission supplies his place . this custom is religiously observed by all his highnesses garisons , whilst he himself goes constantly to the calvinist church adjoyning to the court , with his children , being five sons , two daughters , and two daughters-in-law . amongst other acts of publick piety and charity , this prince hath established and endowed some religious houses or nunneries for protestant young ladies , where they may live virtuously , and spend their time in devotion as long as they please , or otherwise marry , if they think fit , but then they lose the benefit of the monastery . there is one of these at hertford in westphalia , where i was , and had the honour to wait upon the lady abbess the princess elizabeth , eldest sister of the late elector palatine and prince rupert . notwithstanding the late 〈◊〉 with sweden , and that by the prevalency 〈◊〉 france in that hasty treaty of peace co●●●●ded at nim●guen , his late electoral 〈…〉 was obliged to give back what he had 〈…〉 taken from that crown ; yet his 〈…〉 flourished in wealth and trade , his 〈…〉 having encouraged manufactures of 〈…〉 by inviting artizans into his domin●●● 〈◊〉 established a company of trading 〈…〉 to the west-indies , which will 〈◊〉 advance navigation amongst his sub●●●●● ▪ and in all humane probability they are 〈◊〉 to continue in a happy condition , seeing by the alliances his highness hath made with the protestant princes of the empire , and especially the house of lunenbourg , they are in no danger of being disturbed by their neighbours . i told you before that the elector of brandenbourg was married to the daughter of the duke of hanouer , so that as long as that alliance holds , the families of brandenbourg and lunenbourg will be in a condition to cast the balance of the empire ; they both together being able to bring into the field 80000 as good men as any are in europe . when i parted from berlin , i made a turn back to lunenbourg in my way to swedeland , where i found several of my countrymen officers in the garison , who shewed me what was most remarkable in the city , as the saltworks , ( which bring in considerable sums of money to the duke of lunenbourg ) the stadthouse , and churches , in one of which i saw a communion-table of pure ducat-gold . from thence i went into the province of holstein and at a small sea-port called termond , of which i spake before , i embarked for sweden . he that hath read in the histories of this last age the great exploits of gustavus adolphus and his swedes , perhaps may have a fancy that it must be an excellent country which hath bred such warriors ; but if he approach it , he will soon find himself undeceived . entering into swedeland , at a place called landsort , we sail'd forward amongst high rocks , having no other prospect from land but mountains till we came to dollers , which is about four swedish , that is , twenty four english miles from stockholm , the capital city of the kingdom . upon my coming ashore , i confess i was a little surprized to see the poverty of the people ; and the little wooden houses they lived in , not unlike soldiers huts in a leaguer ; but much more , when i discovered little else in the country but mountainous rocks , and standing lakes of water . the reader will excuse me , i hope , if i remark not all that i may have taken notice of in this country , seeing by what i have already written , he may perceive that my design is rather to observe the manner of the inhabitants living , than to give a full description of every thing that may be seen in the country they live in . however , i shall say somewhat of that too , having premised once for all , that the ordinary people are wretchedly poor ; yet not so much occasioned by the publick taxes , as the barronness of their country , and the oppression of the nobles their landlord● , and immediate superiours , who till the pre●●●t king put a stop to their violences , ty●●●nically domineered over the lives and 〈◊〉 of the poor peasants . 〈◊〉 d●llers i took waggon to stockholm , 〈…〉 horses three times by the way , 〈…〉 of the badness of the rode , on all 〈…〉 with rocks , that hardly 〈…〉 as here and there to leave a 〈…〉 ground . at two miles distance upon that road the city of stockholm looks great , because of the king's palace , the houses of noblemen , and some churches which are seated upon rocks : and indeed , the whole city and suburbs stand upon rocks , unless it be some few houses built upon ground gained from the rivers that run through the town . stockholm has its name from a stock or log of wood , which three brothers threw into the water five miles above the city , making a vow , that where-ever that stock should stop , they would build a castle to dwell in . the stock stopt at the holm , or rock where the palace of the king now stands : and the brothers , to be as good as their word , there built their castle , which invited others to do the like ; so that in process of time the other rocks or holms were covered with buildings , which at length became the capital city of the kingdom . it is now embelished with a great many stately houses , and much improved from what it was 400 years ago , as indeed most cities are ; for the stadthouse then built , is so contemptible and low , that in holland or england it would not be suffered to stand to disgrace the nation . the council-chamber where the burghmasters and raedt sit , is two rooms cast into one , not above nine foot high ; and the two rooms where the sheriffs and the erve college ( which is a judicature like to the doctors commons in england ) sit , are not above eight foot and a half high . the king's palace is a large square of stone-building , in some places very high , but an old and irregular fabrick , without a sufficient quantity of ground about it for gardens and walks . it was anciently surrounded with water ; but some years since part of it was filled up to make a way from the castle-gate down into the old town . in this palace there are large rooms ; but the lodgings of the king , queen , and royal family , are three pair of stairs high , the rooms in the first and second stories being destin'd for the senate-chamber , and other courts of judicature . the king's library is four pair of stairs high , being a room about forty six foot square , with a closet adjoyning to it not half the dimensions . when i considered the apartments and furniture of this court , i began to think that the french author wrote truth , who in his remarks upon swedeland says , that when queen christina resigned the crown to carolus gustavus , the father of this present king , she disposed of the best of the furniture of the court , and gave away a large share of the crown-lands to her favorites ; in so much that the king , considering the poor condition she had left the kingdom in , and seeing the court so meanly furnished , said , that had he known before he accepted the crown , what then he did , he would have taken other measures . there are many other stately palaces in stockholm belonging to the nobility ; but many of them for want of repairs , and not being inhabited , run to ruine ; several of the nobles who lived in them formerly , having lost the estates that maintained their ancient splendor , as we shall see hereafter , being retired unto a country life . there are also some other magnificent structures begun , but not finished , as that stately building intended for a parliament-house for the nobles , and two or three churches : but what i most wonder at , is the vault wherein the late king lies buried , is not as yet covered but with boards , for it is to be observed that the kings of sweden have no tombs and monuments as in england and other countries ; but are put into copper coffins , with inscriptions on them , and placed one by another in vaults , adjoyning to the gray-friers church . these vaults are about eight in number , having turrets over them , with veins of copper gilt , carved into the cyphers of the several kings who give them their names by being the first that are interred in them . the vault of the late king is not yet finished , no more than the fabricks above-mentioned , which perhaps may be imputed to the late troubles of swedeland . the number of the inhabitants of stockholm are also much decreased within these few years , partly by reason of the removal of the court of admiralty and the kings ships from that city to charles-crown , a new haven lately made about 200 english miles from thence , which hath drawn many families belonging to the fleet and admiralty from stockholm to live there : and partly , because many of the nobility , gentry , and those that depended on them , are , as i said before , withdrawn from stockholm to a retired life in the country . nevertheless the ordinary sort of burghers , who still remain , are extreamly poor ; seeing the women are fain to work like horses , drawing carts , and as labourers in england , serving masons and bricklayers with stone , bricks and mortar , and unloading vessels that bring those materials ; some of the poor creatures in the summer-time toiling in their smocks without either shooes or stockings . they perform also the part of watermen , and for a small matter will row passengers 40 miles or more if they please . the court here is very thin and silent , the king living frugally , and seldom dining in publick . he eats commonly with the two queens , his mother and consort , who is a virtuous princess , sister to the king of denmark . she is the mother of five children , three sons and two daughters , with whom she spends most of her time in retirement . the king is a goodly prince , whom god hath blessed and endowed with accomplishments far beyond what might have been expected from his education , wherein he was extreamly abused , being taught little more than his mother tongue . he is gracious , just and valiant , constant at his devotion , and utterly averse from all kind of debauchery , and the unfashionable vanities of other courts , in plays and dancing . his sports are hunting and exercising of his guards , and he rarely appears publickly , or gives audience to strangers , which is imputed to his sense of the neglect of his education . he is a prince that hath had a very hard beginning in the world , which hath many times proved fortunate to great men ; and indeed , if we consider all the circumstances of his early misfortunes , how he was slighted and neglected by his nobles , who would hardly vouchsafe to pay him a visit when he was among them in the country , or to do him homage for the lands they held of the crown ; and how by the pernicious counsels of the french , and the weakness or treachery of his governors , he was misled into a war that almost cost him his crown , having lost the best of his territories in germany and schonen , and most of his forces both by sea and land : if , i say , these things be considered , it will probably appear , that hardly any prince before him hath in a shorter time , or more fully setled the authority and prerogative of the crown , than he hath done in sweden ; for which he stands no ways obliged to france , as he was for the restauration of what he lost during the war. he is now as absolute as the french king , and makes edicts , which have the force of laws , without the concurrence of the estates of the kingdom . he hath erected two judicatures , the one called the college of reduction , and the other of inspections ; the first of which hath put his majesty in possession again of all lands alienated from the crown , and the other called to account all persons , even the heirs and executors of those who had cheated the crown , and made them refund what they or their predecessors had appropriated to their own use of the publick revenue . these two necessary constitutions , as they have reduced many great families to a pinch , who formerly lived splendidly upon the crown lands and revenues , and obliged them to live at home upon their ancient and private patrimony in the country , which is one great cause that the court of sweden is at present so unfrequented ; so have they enabled his majesty ; without burdening of his subjects , to support the charges of the government , and to maintain 64000 men in pay . the truth is , his other revenues are but small , what arises from the copper and iron mines , one silver mine , the pitch and tar , the customs and excise amounts to no extraordinary sum of money , and the land tax in so barren a country scarcely deserving to be named . the customes and excise , i confess , are very high , and the rigorous manner of exacting them pernicious to trade : as for instance ; if a ship come to stockholme from london , with a hundred several sorts of goods , and those goods assigned to fifty several men more or less , if any of those fifty do not pay the custom of what belongs to him , though it be for a barrel of beer , the ship shall not be unladen , nor no man have his goods out , though he hath fully pay'd the customs for them , till this last man hath pay'd his . there are several other silly customs in swedeland that discourages men from trading there ; as if any stranger die there , a third of his estate must go to the city or town where he traded . no foreign merchant in stockholme can travel into any country where there is a fair without a passport : and at present , seeing there is no treaty of trade betwixt england and sweden , though the english bring as considerable a trade to that kingdom as any other country whatsoever , yet they are very unkindly used by the officers of the custom-house ; whereas the dutch in lubeck , and other cities , have new and greater privileges allowed them . nor would i counsel an english-man to go to law with a swedish burgher in sweden , especially if he be a whiggish scot , who hath got his freedom in stockholme , for those are a kind of scrapers , whom i have observed to be more inveterate against the english than the native swedes . of all the swedish army of 64000 men , the king keeps but 12 companies of 200 men a-peice , with some few horse guards in stockholme , who are not upon duty as sentinels at the court gates , as at the courts of other princes . the rest are dispersed into quarters and garisons upon the frontiers , which are so far distant in that large compass of land which his territories take up , that it would require a hard and tedious work to bring them together to a general muster . they are however kept under very strict discipline , and those that lie near , often viewed by the king. they have odd sort , of punishments for the soldiers and officers of all degrees : for example , if a serjeant or corporal be drunk , or negligent on duty , they are put into armour , and with three muskets tied under each arm , made to walk two hours before the court of guard ; yet , for all the severity of discipline used against the soldiers , they commit many abuses in the night time , robbing , and sometimes killing men upon the streets in stockholme , where they have no lights nor guards as in copenhagen . in former times there have been at one time 35 colonels , besides general officers in the swedish army , all the subjects of the king of great britain , but at present there are few or none , unless it be the sons of some scotish officers deceased ; nor did i ever see an english-man in the kings guards , horse or foot , but one , and the son of sir edward wood , who hath since quitted the service . the king hath exceedingly won the hearts of the common people , not only by exempting them from the tyrannical jurisdiction of the nobility and gentry , who formerly would by their own private authority , punish and put to death the peasants at their pleasure , which makes the countries very willing to quarter the kings soldiers , but by his exactness in punishing duels , murder , and robberies . perjury is death here also , as in holland , which makes the magistrates in some parts of this kings territories , enjoyn strange kinds of oaths to deter men from being forsworn : as for instance , in some places the witness is set with a staff in his hand upon some peeble stones and charcoal , where he is to imprecate and pray , that if what he sweareth be not true , his land may become as barren as those stones , and his substance be consumed to ashes like the coals he stands on , which as soon as he steps down are set on fire . this manner of swearing so terrifies the people , that they commonly tremble when they come to take their oath . the religion of the dominions of the king of sweden , as of those of the king of denmark , and of other princes and states whom we have named , is lutheran , who are more rigid to roman catholicks and calvinists than the protestants of germany . there is no toleration allowed here to calvinist ministers ; and they take an effectual course to keep the country clear of priests and jesuits , by guelding them , whether they be young or old . in commemoration of the great losses and desolation sustained in the late war , the suedes strictly keep four fasting days in the months of april , may , june , and july ; on which days all men are prohibited by authority to kindle fire in their houses , or to eat till after evening service is done , which in the winter time could not be endured . they delight much in singing in their churches , which they constantly perform twice every day , morning and evening . in their marryings , christenings , and buryings they are so prodigally extravagant , that if all three happen in one year to a man of a competent estate , it is enough to break him . the clergy of sweden are neither so rich nor learned as those of germany , wanting both the opportunities of study , and of conversing with learned men , that those of other countrys enjoy , though there be some learned men amongst them . a bishoprick in sweden is no great benefice , if compared with some parsonages in england ; for the arch-bishop , and metropolitan hath not above 400 l. per annum , and some of the rest are not worth above 150 or 200 l. a year . the inferiour clergy are not so regular in their lives and conversation in the countries distant from stockholme , as they are near the court ; and the reason is , partly because they entertain travellers that pass the country , there being no inns in most places for the accommodation of persons of any quality , and so are obliged to drink with their guests ; and partly , because at buryings and christenings , where there is commonly high drinking , the pape or parson is master of the ceremonies : and here give me leave to tell a short story of one of them . a pape coming to christen a child in a church , and finding a scotch man to be godfather , was so transported either with zeal , or his cups , that when he came to exorcise the child , which is a rite used in their office of administring this sacrament ; he neglected the form prescribed by the liturgy , and in an extemporary prayer begg'd , that the devil might depart out of the child , and enter into that scottish heretick , for so they call the presbyterians of that nation . the prayer of the pape so incensed the scot , that he vowed revenge , and watched the pape with a good cudgel next day as he crossed the church-yard , where he beat him , and left him all in blood lying on the ground , and crying out murder . for this fact the scot was had before the justice , who asking him , how he durst be so bold as to lay his profane hands upon the man of god ? he , who knew very well what use to make of the devil he had got , foaming at the mouth , and cunningly acting the demoniack , made answer , that the pape might thank himself for what he had met with ; for since he had conjured the devil into him he spared no body , neither wife nor children , nor would he spare the justice himself , and with that fell a mangling and tearing the magistrate , that he was fain to 〈◊〉 take himself to his heels , crying out o! the devil , save me ; and so the scot marched home , no man daring to lay hold on him , for fear of being torn to pieces by the devil . but the justice recollecting himself , sent for the pape , told him , that the scot was a cunning rogue , and bid him go home , get a plaister for his head , and be silent , lest if the matter came to the bishops ears he might be censured for going against the rubrick of the liturgy . the famous university where their clergy are bred , is upsal , 8 swedish miles from stockholme . there are commonly 150 , or 200 students there , but no endowed colleges , as in other countries . the library is so mean and contemptible , that the libraries of many grammar schools , and of private men in england or holland are far better stored with books than it is . upon viewing of it , and that of the kings palace , i called to mind the saying of a french man , upon the like occasion ; that swedeland came behind france and england in the knowledge of men and things at least 800 years ; yet some swedes have been so conceited of the antiquity of their country , as to brag , that paradice was seated in sweden ; that the country was turned into such heaps of rocks for the rebellion of our first parents , and that adam and eve had cain and abel in a country three swedish miles distant from upsall . a french man standing by , and hearing this romantick story , as i was told , fitted him with the like , telling him , that when the world was made in six days , at the end of the creation all the rubbish that remained was thrown together into a corner , which made up sweden and norway . and indeed , the french seem to have no great liking to the country , whatever kindness they may have for the people ; for a french ambassador , as an author of that country relates , being by order of queen christina , treated in a country house four swedish miles from stockholme , and upon the rode going and coming , with all the varieties and pleasures that the country could afford , on purpose to make him have a good opinion of the same ; made answer to the queen , ( who asked him upon his return , what he thought of sweden ) that were he master of the whole country , he would presently sell it , and buy a farm in france or england ; which , under favour , i think was a little tart and sawcy . having stayed a considerable time in swedeland , and most part at stockholme , i set out from thence to go to elsenbourg by land , and went a little out of my way to see a small city called eubrone , famous for a coat of arms which it got in this manner . a certain masculine queen of denmark , who had conquered a great part of sweden , coming to this city , asked the magistrates , what was the arms of their city ? who having her , that they had none , she plucked up her coats , and squatting upon the snow , bid them take the mark she left there for their arms ; its pity she did not give them a suitable motto to it also : what that figure is called in blazonery i know not , but to this day the city uses it in their arms , and for marking their commodities . this queen came purposely into sweden , to pay a visit to a brave woman , that opposed a king of swedeland , who in a time of famine would have put to death all the men and women in his country above 60 years of age. the country all the way i travelled in swedeland is much of the same quality of the land about stockholme , until i came near the province of schonen , which is called the store-house , and kitchin of sweden , where the country is far better . it was formerly very dangerous to travel in this province of schonen , because of the snaphances , who were a kind of bloody robbers , now utterly destroyed by the king ; so that it is safe enough travelling there . entering into schonen i saw 29 of these rogues upon wheels , and elsewhere in the country , ten and twenty at several places . the king used great severity in destroying of them ; some he caused to be broken upon the wheel , others spitted in at the fundament , and out at the shoulders , many had the flesh pinched off of their breasts , and so were fastened to stakes till they died ; and others again had their noses and both hands cut off , and being seared with a hot iron , were let go to acquaint their comrades how they had been served . the king is very severe against highway-men and duellers . in above a 100 miles travelling , we found not a house where there was either french wine or brandy , which made me tell a swede of our company , who was travelling to denmark , that i would undertake to shew any man 500 houses , wherein a traveller might have wine , and other good accommodation in the space of an hundred miles upon any rode from london . there are several small towns and fertile land in this country of schonen , lying upon the s●undt ; at the narrowest part whereof lies elsenbourg burnt down by the danes in the last war : here i crost over to elsenore , the passage being but a league broad . the king of denmark has a castle at elsenore , which commands the narrow passage of the soundt , where all ships that enter into , or come out of the baltick sea must pay toll . having visited this castle , and staid about a fortnight with the english consul , and sir john paul , late resident at the court of swedeland , i went to the danish court at copenhagen . copenhagen is the capital city of zecland , jutland , or denmark , and place of residence of the king : it stands on a flat , encompassed with a pleasant and delightful country , much resembling england . the streets of the city are kept very neat and clean , with lights in the night time for the convenience and safety of those who are then abroad ; a custom not as yet introduced into stockholme , where it is dangerous to be abroad when it is dark . the kings men of war lie hear very conveniently , being orderly ranged betwixt booms , after the manner of amsterdam , and near the admiralty house , which is a large pile of building , well furnished with stores and magazins , secured by a cittadel , that not only commands the city , but also the haven , and entry into it . the court of denmark is splendid , and makes a far greater figure in the world than that of sweden , though not many years ago , in the time of carolus gustavus the father of the present king of swedeland , it was almost reduced to its last , when the walls of copenhagen saved that crown and kingdom . that siege was famous , carried on with great vigour by the swede , and as bravely maintained by the danes : the monuments whereof are to be seen in the cannon bullets gilt that still remain in the walls of some houses , and in the steeple of the great church of the town . the royal palace in copenhagen is but small , and a very ancient building ; but his majesties house fredenburg is a stately fabrick of modern architecture , and very richly furnished . denmark is at present a flourishing kingdom , and the king , who hath now made it hereditary , surpasses most of his predecessors in power and wealth : he hath much enlarged his dominions , as well as authority ; and by his personal and royal virtues , no less than the eminent qualities of a great many able ministers of state , he hath gained the universal love of his subjects , and the esteem of all foreign princes and states . the court is much frequented every day , but especially on sundays , where about eleven of the clock in the morning , the nobility , foreign ministers , and officers of the army assemble , and make a glorious appearance . there one may see many knights of the order of the elephant of malto ; but i never saw any order of the like nature as that of sweden , that king rarely appearing in his george and garter ; but on days of publick audience i have observed at one time above 150 coaches attending at the court of denmark , which are ten times more than ever i saw together at that of sweden . the king is affable , and of easie access to strangers , seen often abroad by his subjects in his gardens and stables , which are very large , and well furnished with all sorts of horses . he is a great lover of english horses and dogs , and delights much in hunting , as his eldest son the prince , with his brothers do in cock-●ighting ; insomuch much , that the english merchants cannot make a more acceptable present to those princes , than of english game-cocks . the standing forces of denmark are well disciplined men , and commanded by good officers , both natives and strangers , both french and scots , as major general duncan , and major general veldun , both scottish-men , whom i saw at copenhagen . the soldiers as well as courtiers are quartered upon the citizens , a custom which is likewise practised in sweden , and tho' somewhat uneasie , yet not repined at by the people , who by the care and good government of the king , find trade much advanced . for his majesty by encouraging strangers of all religions to live in his dominions , and allowing the french and dutch calvinists , to have publick churches , hath brought many trading families to copenhagen , and by the measure he hath taken for setling trade in prohibiting the importation of foreign manufactures , and reforming and new modelling the east and west india companies , hath much encreased commerce , and thereby the wealth of his subjects ; so that notwithstanding the new taxes imposed upon all coaches , wagons , ploughs , and all real and personal estates , which amount to considerable sums of money ; the people live very well and contented . there are commonly about 8000 men in garison in copenhagen , and his majesties regiment of foot guards , who are all cloathed in red , with cloaks to keep them warm in the winter time , is a very handsome body of men ; and with the horse guards , who are bravely mounted , and have their granadeers and hautboys , make a very fine shew . his majesty hath caused several new fortifications to be built upon the elb , and other rivers , and hath now in his possession , that strong castle called hilgueland , at present commanded by a scottish-man . the queen of denmark is a most virtuous princess , sister to the present landtgrave of hesse cassel , and in perswasion a calvinist , having a chapel allowed her within the court , though the publick religion of the king and kingdom be lutheran . the clergy here are learned , many of them having studied at oxford and cambridge , where they learnt the english language ; and amongst the bishops there is one doctor king the son of a scottish-man . but seeing it is my design rather to observe the condition of the people , than to be punctual in describing all the rarities that are remarkable in the countries i have been in , i shall conclude what i have to say of denmark , by acquainted the reader that the people of that country live far better than the swedes , and as well as most of their adjoyning neighbours ; and that there are several places , both there , and in norway , which have the names of english towns , as arundale , totness , london , &c. when i first began to write this treatise , i had some thoughts of making observations upon the several governments of other states and dominions , where i had travelled some years before i was in the countries i have been speaking of , as of the rest of germany , hungary , switzerland , italy , and france ; but that was a subject so large , and the usefulness of it to my present design so inconsiderable , that by doing so , i found i could neither satisfie the curious , by adding any thing material to those many who have already obliged the publick by the remarks of their travels in those places ; or make my discontented country-men more averse than they are already from removing into those countries , where i think few of them will chuse to transport themselves for the sake of liberty and property , though england were even worse than they themselves fancy it can be . all that remains to be done then , is to conclude this treatise with an obvious and popular remark , that those countries , where cities are greatest and most frequented by voluntary inhabitants , are always the best to live in ; and by comparing the city of london with all other cities of europe , and demonstrating by the surveys i have made , ( which i think will hardly be contradicted or confuted ) that of all the capital cities of europe it is the biggest and most populous , and so prove consequentially that england , for the generality of people , is the best country in the world , especially for its natives , to live in . now this being an observation ( for what i know ) not hitherto made good by induction and instance , ( as i intend to do it ) i hope it will please the reader as much , as if i gave him a particular account of other countries and governments , and leave it to his own reflection to state the comparison . though london within the walls cannot vye for bigness with many cities of europe ; yet take the city and suburbs together , according as it hath been survey'd by mr. morgan , in breadth from st. george's church in southwark to shoreditch , and in length from limehouse to petty-france in westminster , and it is in a vast proportion larger in compass of ground , and number of houses , than any city in europe whatsoever . this i shall demonstrate first , by comparing it with some cities of holland , and then with the most considerable cities of the other countries of europe , which i shall set down in an alphabetical order , with the number of the houses they severally contain . when london and suburbs was surveyed some years ago by mr. morgan , there were reckoned to be in it 84000 houses , besides hospitals , alms-houses , and other buildings , that paid no chimney-money to the king : now if those were added , and the vast number of new houses that have been built since that survey , upon modest computation london may be reckoned to contain 100000 houses ; nay , 't is believed 120000 , which truly considering the extraordinary additions that have been made lately , is not improbable ; i know the french vapour , and would perswade the world , that paris is much bigger than london . and the hollanders will scarce believe , that london hath more houses than the 18 cities in holland that have voices in the states , for ( say they ) amsterdam stands upon 1000 morgans of land , and london stands but upon 1800. to both which i answer , that it is very true that paris takes up a great spot of ground , but then you must consider , that in paris there are several hundreds of monasteries , churches , colleges , and cloisters , some of them having large gardens , and that in paris there are 7500 palaces and ports for coaches , which have likewise great gardens ; whereas london is very thick built , and in the city the houses have scarce a yard big enough to set a pump or house of conveniency in ; but the weekly bills of mortality will decide this question , and plainly give it to london , and so doth monsieur la cour , and sir william petty in his last essays dedicated to the king , making it appear , that london is bigger than paris , roan , and rochel altogether ; and as for amsterdam , i do appeal to all knowing men that have seen it , that although it be true , that it stands upon 1000 morgans of land , yet there is not above 400 morgans built ; and this i prove thus , that the large gardens , on the heeregraft , kysersgraft , and princegraft , and the burghwalls of amsterdam , take up more than a third part of the city ; then reckon the bastions , and the space of ground between the wall and the houses , and all the ground unbuilt from the utricks-port to the wesoper-port , muyer-port , and 〈◊〉 the seaside , and you will find it to be near 〈◊〉 morgans of land : there are two parishes in the suburbs of london , viz. stepney , and st. martins in the fields , ( the latter being so big , that the parliament divided it into four parishes ) either of them have more houses than rotterdam or haerlem ; and there are several other great parishes , as st. margarets westminster , st. giles in the fields , st. olaves , and st. mary saviours , the which if they stood apart in the country would make great cities ; we reckon in london , and the suburbs thereof to be at least 130 parishes , which contains 100000 houses ; now if you reckon 8 persons to every house , then there are near 800000 souls in london , but there are some that say , there is a million of souls in it : i shall now set down the cities alphabetically , and their number of houses , as they were given to me not only from the surveyors and city carpenters , but from the books of the hearth-money , and collectors of the several taxes in the respective cities : and first i shall begin with the 18 cities that have voices in the states of holland . cities in holland . cities . houses . 1. dort 5500 2. haerlem 7250 3. delft 2300 4. leyden 13800 5. amsterdam 25460 6. rotterdam 8400 7. gouda 3540 8. gorcom 2460 9. schiedam 1550 10. briell 1250 11. schonehoven 2200 12. alckmaar 1540 13. horn 3400 14. enckhuysen 5200 15. edam 2000 16. monekendam 1500 17. medenblick 850 18. purmerent 709 total 88909 cities in germany , and in the seventeen provinces . cities . houses . 1. antwerp 18550 2. aix la chapelle 2250 3. arford 8440 4. berlin 5200 5. bon 410 6. brisack 1200 7. breme 9200 8. breda 3420 9. bolduke 6240 10. bergen op zome 2120 11. brussels 19200 12. cologne 12000 13. cleave 640 14. coblentz 420 15. castels 1520 16. dresden 6420 17. disseldorpe 620 18. dunkirk 2440 19. emden 2400 20. francfort 10200 21. groningen 8400 22. guant 18200 23. harford 1420 24. hanouer 1850 25. heidelberg 7520 26. hambourg 12500 27. lubeck 6500 28. lovain 8420 29. lypsick 3242 30. lunenburg 3100 31. lewardin 5860 32. mayence 2420 33. malin 8000 34. middelburg 6200 35. madelburg 1120 36. mastricht 5600 37. munster 1240 38. nurenburg 18240 39. osenburg 2200 40. osburg 8420 41. oldenburg 620 42. praag 18640 43. passaw 560 44. ratisbonne 6540 45. strasbourg 8560 46. spire 540 47. stockholm 6480 48. salsburg 12460 49. uytrick 8240 50. vienna 4520 51. vean 340 52. wormes 1200 53. westburg 2420 total 314460 cities in france . cities . houses . 1. avignion 12400 2. amiens 5200 3. bullion 1400 4. bomont 800 5. burdeaux 8420 6. callis 1324 7. caine 2147 8. chalons 1850 9. diepe 1920 10. lyons 16840 11. montrevil 820 12. montpeiller 5240 13. marselles 9100 14. nantes 4420 15. nismes 3120 16. orleans 10200 17. orange 354 18. paris 72400 19. rochel 4200 20. roan 11200 21. tolouze 13200 22. valence 458 total 187013 cities in italy . cities . houses . 1. bolonia 12400 2. florence 8520 3. genoua 17200 4. luca 1650 5. legorne 3560 6. milan 18500 7. naples 17840 8. pisa 2290 9. padua 8550 10. rome 31200 11. sena 1820 12. venice 24870 13. veterba 620 14. valentia 1520 total 155040 cities in savoy . cities . houses . 1. chambray 852 2. salé 320 3. turin 8540 4. nice 500 5. st. john de lateran 420 6. remes 340 7. moloy 270 total 11242 cities in switzerland . cities . houses . 1. berne 4270 2. bale 5120 3. geneva 4540 4. losana 2100 5. solure 500 6. zurick 6200 7. morge 210 8. vina 320 9. st. morrice 300 total 23560 cities in denmark . cities . houses . 1. copenhagen 8220 2. elsenore total cities in sweedland . cities . houses . 1. northoanen 600 2. stockholme 7500 3. upsal 8200 total 16300 an exact relation of the entertainment of his most sacred majesty william iii. king of england , scotland , france and ireland ; hereditary stadtholder of the united netherlands , &c. at the hagve . giving a particular description of his majesty's entry there , jan. 26. 169●-● . and of the several triumphant arches , pyramids , pictures , &c. with the inscriptions and devices . illustrated with copper plates of the whole solemnity , exactly drawn from the original . by an english gentleman . london : printed in the year m. dc . xcl an exact relation of the entertainment of his most sacred majesty , william iii. at the hagve . kings voyage to holland pag : 2 't was expected that the king would have lain here this night , and so have entred the hague by day light ; but on the contrary , his extraordinary desire of entring immediately upon business , would not let him give himself so much as one nights ease ; and his majesty , after a very short refreshment here , departed for the hague , attended with five or six coaches with six horses : in his own coach accompanied him the earl of portland , and the lord overkirk , arriving at the hague about half an hour after five in the evening ; where ( though he was not that night expected ) there wanted not the general acclamations of the people of all sorts , who run by his coach , crying out , long live king william , welcom , welcom , &c. his majesty rode through the triumphant arches , erected by the lords of the hague , and the honourable the lords committee of the council of holland , ( of which we shall give an exact description in their proper places ) directly to the court , where being arrived , and the gates shut to keep out the extraordinary press of people , thirty peices of cannon , which were planted upon the vyverberg , were thrice discharged , publick thanksgivings were made in all the churches , and the bells rung with great joy ; and throughout the town almost all the houses were illuminated with great numbers of candles in their windows , whilst all the people , rich and poor , old and young , made all demonstrations of their inexpressible joy for his majesties most happy arrival . that evening the earl of berka , envoy extraordinary from the emperor , waited upon his majesty , and was a long time in private with him ; and the next day several members of the states , and divers persons of quality came to compliment his majesty , and congratulate his arrival . the ministers of the several confederate princes , who upon the kings arrival had sent expresses to their respective masters , assembling themselves in congress ; immediately after their breaking up , the imperial , spanish , and brandenburgh envoys , came to wait upon his majesty ; as also the council of state , and the lords of the general accounts , with all their members , to congratulate and complement him. the king immediately applied himself to the affairs of state , and taking first into his consideration the sea affairs , gave the command of the dutch fleet to the heer cornelius van tromp , with the title of vice-admiral of holland , who gratefully accepted the same , and immediately beat up his drums for seamen , who flocked to him in great abundance . his majesty gave also out commissions for two regiments of mariners to be raised . the elector of brandenburgh , who had waited some time at cleave , as soon as he received advice of his majesties arrival , set forward for the hague . in the mean time it was desired , and agreed to by his majesty , that his majesty would please to honour the hague with a publick entry , on monday , january the 26th : whereupon the trained bands , and the guards were ordered to be ready ; and accordingly on monday , at two of the clock in the afternoon , his majesty went out of the town by the way of the vyverberg , to the north-end , and from thence round the wall to the west-end , and so to the hounslaerdyke , or loosduyn's-bridge , where began the triumph . over this bridge was erected , by the burghermasters of the hague , a triumphant arch , the figure whereof we have here represented . over the arch in the front , is a man and a woman standing at an altar sacrificing , with the words , io triumphe . on the top of all stands the statue of his majesty , with a staff in his right hand , at the top of which is a cypher of his name , with a crown . on the two columns of the arch , on one side are these words , ob cives servatos : for having preserved his country-men . ob hostes fugatos : for having destroyed his enemies . and on the other side , restitutis provinciis : the provinces being restored . libertatis regnis : the kingdoms being delivered . behind each column is a small oval , in one a lawrel with this word , victoria , victory , on the other a palm , with the word , clementia , mercy . kings entertainment pag : 6 from hence was a lane made on each side by the burghers in arms , who appeared in very great splendour , being most of them very richly clad , many having been at great expence for their equipage . these trained bands consist of six companies , of about two and three hundred men in each company ; they make in all about fifteen hundred men : these standing in their order , reached all along the west-end , the great market , the high street , and so to the court-yard . all along this way , quite up to the court , before the houses and stalls , were built scaffolds , which were filled by a vast multitude of spectators , who scrupled not to give an 100 guilders in some places for the use of a chamber during the shew . the number of spectators being the greatest that has ever been seen in the hague ; insomuch , that one would have judged all the inhabitants of holland to have been in this town . after the pensionary had ended his speech , and his majesty kindly thanked them , the cavalcade proceeded . first went two very rich coaches with six horses , in which were divers persons of quality , next the kings life guard , the officers in extraordinary rich equipage : after them a great number of lacquees and footmen all in the kings livery , and black velvet caps ; after them came the kings pages , gentlemen , and servants on horseback , in extraordinary rich liveries . then came his majesty riding in a large , and very richly gilt coach , drawn by six white stone horses , accompanied by the lord overkirk on the left hand , and the earls of monmouth and scarborough over-against him . on each side of the coach the switzers with their halbards , in rich livery coats also , walked on foot. the provost general urck , and the heer roulas captain of the switzers rid on horseback immediately before the kings coach , and after it came about twelve coaches with six horses , wherein rid the duke of norfolk , the earls of devonshire and portland , the bishop of london , and several other english noblemen ; as also the chief ministers of the government , and the magistrates of the hague , besides these , were many coaches with four horses . the king as he passed along , was saluted , and complimented by divers persons of quality , which his majesty returned with great kindness , often looking out of the coach , with great satisfaction upon the people , who shouted with extraordinary chearfulness , crying out , long live the king our stadtholder , &c. the stadthouse , by which the king was to ride , was beautified with seven very noble transparent pictures ; behind which they put lights in the evening , which were set off with garlands of made flowers : above in the middle , was the king and queen , and on each side of them another picture ; one of a lion with this motto , placidum venerantur , & horrent infestum : they worship him when he is calm , and dread him when he is angry ; the other of an unicorn , with this motto , nihil passa veneni : she can endure no poison . underneath there are three other pictures , one of a crane sitting upon his nest , clapping his wings upon break of a day , and sun rising , with this motto , recreatur ab ortu : he is refreshed by the rising . the other of an atlas bearing the world upon his bending shoulders , resting with his breast upon a small hill , with this motto , in te domus inclinata recumbit : the leaning house rests on thee . the third , a crane standing on his nest , and chattering upon the rising of the sun , with this motto , vidit & exaltavit : he saw it and was glad . in the court of justice by the side of the stadthouse , a pillar was erected four rows high , garnished with coats of arms ; upon which towards night they set great numbers of flambeaux . the lords of the hague raised also a rich and a glorious triumphal arch in honour of this great monarch , in the market place : this was done upon the account of his having been born there ; which as they look upon to be one of the greatest glories of the place , and whereof hereafter they will have the greatest reason to boast , so they were desirous to shew what sence they had of it , upon so very glorious an occasion . this is much the highest arch of them all ; without any pillars , and on both sides are many pictures done in light colour ; and just over the passage there are two others done upon silk , and transparent , so as that by lights , which were set behind them in the evening , they appeared very gloriously . at the top of all was placed a sphear , and above that , fame sounding a trumpet in a flying posture , and leading a pegasus ; with trophies at each corner . kings entertainment pag : 10 there were several inscriptions round the arch : on the front above the gate , and under the arms of the hague , was this , hîc incunabula divum : here was the cradle of the gods. [ incunabula are properly the swadling-cloths in which new born infants are wrapt up . ] above , beneath , and on both sides was writ , nobilium primo , ducum maximo , posthumo gulielmo iii. coelitus dat . to the chiefest of noblemen , the greatest of dukes , [ or generals , the word being ambiguous , coming after noblemen ] the posthumous william iii. given from heaven . and behind above the pictures , victoriis , trophoeis , fortissimo imperateri , destinato , cautissimo gubernatori , and underneath at the bottom of the arch , quatuor regnorum regi , foederati belgii gubernatori , gulielmo iii. virtute & triumphis fulgenti , grati animi & letitiae publicae signum hoc erexit haga comitis . i.e. the hague erected this as a testimony of her gratitude , and of the publick joy for the victories and trophies of william iii. king of four kingdoms , stadtholder of the united provinces , equally glorious for his virtue and his success . on each side of the arch there are two wings , which make a semi-circle ; within each of which are seven pictures representing the battels and victories of the former princes of orange by sea and land ; every picture having an inscription under it . on the first , on the right hand , patientia laesa fit furor : injured patience turns to rage : intimating , that they had endured the insolencies of the spaniards as long as was possible , and that at last they were forced to rise . on the second , res poscit opem , & conspirat amice : the matter needs help , and prospers by friendly conference . on the third , per tela , per undas : through weapons and waves . on the fourth , audentes deus ipse juvat : god himself helps the daring . on the fifth , tantas dedit unio vires 〈◊〉 such strength has union given . on the sixth , aquilas & moenia cepit : he took standards and cities . on the seventh , celsas superat virtute carinas : he conquers tall ships by his valour . on the first picture of the left hand , repetenda quiescunt arma virum : the arms of the brave are at rest , hereafter to be resumed again . on the second , non uno virtus contenta triumpho : virtue not content with one triumph . on the third , crescunt numero crescente trophoea : as the number encreases so do their trophies too . on the fourth , caesorum replebant funera campos : the funerals of the slain filled all the fields . on the fifth , ultra garamantas & indos : beyond the furthermost parts of the earth . on the sixth , fortis promissa juventae : the promisses of valiant youth . on the seventh , deos in praelia confert : he brings the gods to combat for him . between these wings there are two pyramids fixt upon pedestals , each having a picture in the front : in that on the right side , there is a circle made up of hearts , with this inscription , hanc accipe magne coronam : great hero accept this crown . in that on the left side , there is an altar with incense , and this inscription , th●re tuo redolent arae : the altars yeild a fragrant smell with thy frankincense . these pyramids have each of them before them three transparent pictures , containing hieroglyphicks and trophies of victory ; the pyramids being covered on the sides with green : on one of these pyramids was set the kings picture ; on the other the queens , at full length : on that of the kings was this inscription , quis gratior appalit oris : what more acceptable person ever touched our coasts . upon the queens , reprimit & refigit : she represses and re-establishes . over the wings , the figures of the four late princes of orange are set up ; and under each some marks of victory . under william the first , patriae liberatori : to the deliverer of his country . under prince maurice , gloriae vindici : the vindicator of our glory : under frederick-henry , libertatis assertori : the assertor of our liberty . and under prince william the second , publicae felicitatis statori : to the establisher of the publick happiness . the triumphal arch in the court. passing from hence to the high-street they met another triumphal arch , which represents a pleasant building , beautified on both sides with pillars of red and white marble , the body of the work being of black and white marble ; the bases and chapiters are gilt : it has two large pictures before , and as many behind , painted in lively colours ; those before , representing a roman field battle and sea fight ; those behind , one war , the other peace : that of war has the world in a flame , with several figures , some dead ; others living , make justice lie down in distress : that of peace has a globe , upon which stand justice and peace embracing one another , whilst pan and his companions make themselves merry with the fruits of the earth . over all in the middle of the arch , on a pedestal , stands the statue of the king on horseback , as big as the life , and painted like brass ; on both sides of the pedestal there is this inscription , regi triumphanti : to the triumphing king. over his head , which is adorned with green , there are two wreaths placed cross ways , and over them a royal crown and scepter , and underneath a cross . on both sides of the arch there are two squares , wherein are set , both behind and before , transparent pictures for the convenience of setting lights behind in the evening . on the outside of these squares there was painted a cloudy pillar , and a pillar of fire , with the corners adorned with green. kings entertainment pag : 17 over the passage , is this inscription , haga posuit consulum decreto : the hague erected it by the burghermasters order . the triumphal arch in the outward court , at the entrance of the court gate . this triumphal arch was erected by the order of their high and mighty lordships , the committee of the council of holland : it is of the dorick order , after the italian manner , with three passages , and the middle higher than the rest of the building . it stands upon eight pillars of each side , supported by broad pedestals , each whereof bears two pillars : over the middle passage there is a cupola of an octogenal figure , whereon upon a pedestal stands the statue of his majesty on horseback , as big as the life , all richly gilt ; two prisoners lie by the pedestal chained with their backs to it , done over with copper : the whole arch is painted of a free-stone colour ; the whole intercolumniation of both sides , is beautified with pictures drawn in white and black , with histories of the heroick and illustrious actions of this great monarch . over these eight pillars are placed eight figures of both sexes , as big as the life , of a copper colour . on that side which faces the viver , is the representation of a victory at sea , and a neptune lying down with his trident , with this inscription , triumphet in undis : let him triumph in the waves . towards the lane , trophies of victory by land , with this motto , attingat solium jovis : let him reach to jupiter ' s throne . these words are written round the cupola of this building , pio , felici , inclyto , triumphanti , patriae patri gulielmo iii. gubernatori p. c. j. p. restauratori belgii foederati , liberatori angliae , servatori scotiae , pacificatori hiberniae , reduci : to the picus , happy , renowned william iii. triumphant , father of his country , stadtholder and restorer of the united netherlands , redeemer of england , preserver of scotland , quieter of ireland , now return'd home . on the front , under the images , towards the outer court , there are four spaces , upon which are these inscriptions . in the first , post maximas res domi forisque gestas , arctissimo ●um principibus icto foedere , suorum vindex , defensor oppressorum : after having done glorious things , at home and abroad , having made a most firm alliance with other princes , he is become the avenger of his own peoples wrongs , and a defender of the oppressed . under this there is a pannel , on which is a great picture , in which several brave men are described fighting against a dragon , with this motto , uniti fortius obstant : they make the firmer resistance being united . in the second space , mare transvectus liberat britanniam , & late dominantibus ornatus sceptris , in patriam publicâ cum laetitiâ receptus est : crossing the seas he delivered britain , where being honoured with scepters of large extended power , he is received again into his own country with publick joy. underneath in the small pannel , there is a ballance , and in one scale several crowns , in the other a sword , which outweighs the crowns , with this motto , praemia non aequant : the rewards do not equal the merit . in the third space , lugente patriâ , maerente europâ afflictâ antiquissimâ nassaviorum stirpe , heroum , imperatorum , principum faecundâ : his country mourning , europe grieving , the most autient family of nassau , which was fruitful of heroes , emperors and princes , lamenting . and in the pannel , there is described a burning phoenix , with a young one arising out of her ashes , and this motto , praelucet posthuma proles : his posthumous issue shines the brighter . this is designed for william the second , who died without issue , leaving the princess royal with child of his majesty . in the fourth space , gulielmum , posthumum , britannorum , arausionensium tertium , patriae spem , reipublicae palladium : william the posthumous , the third of britain and orange , his countries hope , the palladium of the common-wealth . his birth is described upon the picture , and three crowns with a scepter upon the pannel , with this motto , tenues ornant diademate cunae : his tender cradle adorns the diadem . on that side towards the inner court , there are on the fronts four other spaces . in the first space , there is this inscription , fatum europae favens de caelo dedit , futuram portendens , majestatem , admodum puerum , exemplar constituit . a favourable fate to europe gave him from heaven , and portending future majesty , set him for a pattern when he was yet very young. underneath his education is described , with a young eagle soaring against the sun beams upon the pannel , with this motto , tener adversis enititur alis : though young he bears up against it with his wings . in the second space , qui juventute strenué transactâ , funestis jactatâ bellis ac dissidiis in tanto rerum discrimine : who spent his youth bravely , whilst it was tossed about by bloody wars and discords , the publick being in such dangerous circumstances . upon the pannel there is a castle standing upon a hill , with a pike by it , and two lawrels springing out of it , with this motto , contorta triumphos portendit : vvhen wreathed together it portends triumphs . in the third space , nutantis belgii , quâ mari , quâ terrâ , admotus in pristinum decus gubernaculi , gloriam , aras & focos asseruit : he being restored to his antient dignity and government , defended the religion and properties of the tottering low countries both by sea land : on the pannel there is a ship row'd by men in armour , with this motto , alter erit typhis : there shall be another typhis . in the fourth space , meritis famam superantibus tropaeis , principi atavis regibus editae felicibus junctus hymenaeis : his deserved trophies out doing even fame , he was happily joyned in wedlock to a princess descended from an antient race of kings . the picture represents their majesties marriage ; and there are also in the pannel an unicorn and a lyon moving together ; and the unicorn goaring of serpents and vipers , with this motto , virusque fugant , viresque repellunt : they both drive away the poison , and repel the strength . at the top , upon the pedestal of the kings statue before , there are these words , populi salus : the peoples happiness . and behind , procerum decus : the honour of the nobility . upon the great cupola there are four distinct histories painted in four pannels . the first has this motto , refert saturnia regna : he brings back the saturnian reign . the second this , novos orbes , nova sceptra paramus : we prepare new worlds , and new scepters . the third this , superare & parcere vestrum est : it is your part to conquer and to spare . the fourth this , caetera transibunt : other things shall pass away . over the small arch on both sides , the arms of england were placed , with their supporters : over the great arch the arms of holland were placed , with two flying images of fame blowing of trumpets . a description of the fire-works , with their representations . in the canal behind the court , upon a large scaffold , there were very fine fireworks prepared , which were lighted the evening after his majesty entred the hague . in the middle was the kings cypher , with a crown over it : on the sides stood two high pyramids , a lyon , a hercules , and a sun : on each corner of the scaffold there were four cases of rockets , four of which were much larger then the rest , which represented the four kingdoms of england , scotland , france and ireland , with the arms of those kingdoms : round about there was pallissado stuck with rockets , some orange colour , some white , some blew , placed alternately to the number of three hundered and fifty . they placed fifteen bulwarks round the scaffold , on which they had mounted cannon and mortar pieces : between which they had large mortars made like beehives and pumps , which were charged with several sorts of fireworks . about half an hour after six in the evenning , the fireworks were lighted : just before thirty pieces of cannon that were planted upon the wall of the viver were discharged ; then follow'd twenty five mortar shot on both sides of the scaffold , and afterwards the crown and cypher , wr . which appeared like 350 pearls shining in the air. about the pallissadoes they had planted several devices : towards the states chamber was one with these words , triumphat semper augustus : he triumphs always august . on each side of this there was one planted ; one was , offensum metuunt hostes : his enemies dread him when he is offended . the other , carum venerantur amici : his friends worship him who is so dear to them . these shining very bright in the air , made a very pleasant show . over the cipher and crown was a ship toss'd about as in a storm , with this motto , ne metuas , caesarem vebis : fear not , thou carriest caesar . this also was visible in the air. when the pyramids were fired , they gave a lowd buzzing noise , which was now and then answered by the mortars . then the belgick lyon , and the hercules , play'd very wonderfully . hercules ' s arms were expanded , firing with eight several pauses , to denote his labours , which were . 1. the establishment of religion and liberty . 2. the securing the tranquillity of europe . 3. the settlement of the government upon a right bottom . 4. the preservation of the common interests of the people . 5. the preservation of unity amongst the neighbouring princes . 6. the clearing of the sea , and the increasing of trade . 7. the advancement of the glory of this state. 8. the concluding of a firm and lasting peace . while the fire play'd so finely , the air was full of the crackling noise , and the buzzes of the several sorts of fireworks , and they continued so very thick , that it did in a good measure dispel the fog , which was then very thick . at times they lighted water-balls , water-candles , water-bullets , water-boats , water-morters , rats and dolphins in a vessel upon the canal , which sputtering and crackling upon the water , gave an entertainment so great , that several ingenious men , who understood these matters , owned , that they had never seen any thing like it . they kindled also some hundreds of pitch barrels set round the scaffold , which encreased the light , whereby the other works which play'd all the while , were discerned the better . it lasted till about eight , and was ended with twenty five mortar-shot ; after which the cannon were several times discharged : the whole was done without any mischance , save only the loss of one gunner , who sweeping a cannon , lost both his hands , and died of his wounds . when his majesty came to court , the militia . stood in order in the outer court , before the triumphal arch , viz. baron friesem's regiment of foot , baron heyde's regiment of horse , who having discharged all together , went to the viverbergh to give way to the train bands in arms. several of the lords of the states were in the council chamber , to countenance this publick joy. the count de berka , and the heer colomma , the imperial and spanish ministers testified their satisfaction by illuminations before their lodgings : mijn heer schuylenbergh did the same at his own house upon the viverbergh with noble illuminations , beautified with several devices : as , regi gulielmo reduci : to king william returned again . transitque feritque : he passes by and strikes . imperat augustus : augustus governs . superat coelestibus alis : he mounts with heavenly wings . generosus ab ortu : noble from his birth . these were to be seen some time after . others also gave other instances of their satisfaction , every man after his own fancy . this was also graced with so vast a resort of people , as had never before been seen at the hague : some coming to see the solemnity , others to see the king once more returned again , and crowned with so much honour . the king well satisfied with all these their demonstrations of esteem and reverence , immediately applied himself to business ; having first given audiences of congratulation to all the colleges and deputies of the cities , and to some great lords and publick ministers . the elector of brandenburgh , and two princes of the house of anspach , ( who came two days before the publick entry ) were often with the king , and sometimes the ministers of the other allies joyned with them : it was said , that three ruffians were sent from the french court to cut off the king , and that there were particular informations given in of their persons . february the 7th in the afternoon the king went into the assembly of the states general , and took his place as stadtholder and captain general ; and made an oration to them , to this purpose . that when his majesty was last in council , he acquainted their high and mightynesses with his intention to go over into england with the assistance which they were pleased to give him , to deliver that nation from their impending dangers , and which in part had befallen them : and that god almighty had so far blessed him , as that he had brought his affairs to a happier issue then at first he could possibly wish for ; for which reason they offered him the crowns of great britain and ireland , which he accepted of , not out of any ambition , ( for he was not to be corrupted with that , or money ) but only to preserve religion and liberty in those kingdoms ; and to be able to give the allies a vigorous assistance against the power of france , which he had given before in a more particular manner , if the affairs of ireland had not diverted him ; which being now better settled than they were before , he was now come over , not only to take such measures with their high and mighty lordships , as should be most for the advantage of the confederates , but also to perform the duty of captain general ; and that from his tenderest years he had always a high regard for that state , and should always be ready to give greater proofs , if it were possible , how ready he should be to promote their welfare , for which he would joyfully hazard his life , if it might be a means to preserve the liberty of europe , and to encrease the felicity of the united provinces : and finally , he recommended himself to the good wishes of their high and mighty lordships . hereupon the lord president thanked his majesty in their lordships name , for the honour which was done unto them by his appearing once more in person amongst them : and he assured him , that they were highly sensible of those obligations which he had conferred upon them from time to time , by engaging in so great dangers so readily for their sakes : and further , that they should always thankfully acknowledge how much he had done for them ; wishing him all happiness in all his undertakings , promising their concurrence with his majesty to the utmost , and that they should contribute whatever they were able , to advance the common interest , and his majesties satisfaction . he afterwards made a speech to the state of holland , and was answered much to the same purpose . the evening before the king visited the princess of nassaw , lady to the hereditary stadtholder of friezeland ; as also the princess radzevile , and the princess of saxe-eysenach . the next day the king treated the elector of brandenburgh , the duke of norfolk , and several other lords at the house in the wood , and returned in the evening again to the hague . the ninth in the morning the heer prielmeyer , the envoy of the elector of bavaria , had audience of his majesty ; he was conducted from his lodgings about ten a clock , by the master of the ceremonies , with some coaches and six horses , and was received at the stair-foot by the swiss guards placed in order , and received by their officer at the end of the guard room , and thence conducted through the anti-chamber into the presence ; where after he had paid the accoustomed reverences ; he made a harangue in french to this purpose . that he was sent by the elector his master to congratulate his majesties happy successes , and that his master had begun his journey as soon as ever he had heard that his majesty had begun his ; so that he expected him every hour ; to be ready upon the spot to assure his majesty of his readiness to serve the common cause , and particularly to second those glorious undertakings ▪ which his majesty had so happily begun : and for his part , he only farther begg'd , that his person might not be unacceptable . to this the king replied , that he thank'd his electoral highness . that he should always endeavour to promote the common interest ; and therefore would joyn with the elector , and that he was oblig'd to his highness for this trouble ; and lastly , that his person was very acceptable . then the envoy presented his gentlemen to the king , who kissed his hand ; and afterwards the envoy was carried back in the same manner to his lodgings as he was brought up . then the envoys of mentz , cologne , munster and hambourg , had their publick audiences , after whom came the elector of brandenburgh , who had a private audience of near two hours . the duke administrator of wirtenbergh , with his brother , who were there incognito , were admitted without ceremonies . also the deputies of the cities and countries , who were obliged to go home to give an account of their affairs , had their audience of congé of his majesty : and afterwards the pensionary , secretaries , and deputies of the states of zealand , had their audiences , and complemented the king. the count of erbagh came from prince waldeck , and several foreign ministers from the emperor , the king of spain , the duke of savoy had their audiences . the 12th in the evening count winditsgratz , ambassador extraordinary from his imperial majesty arrived , and had his audience at ten a clock . the 14th at noon the king went into the council of the states , and after some affairs were dispatched , he went with the lords commissioners into the assembly of their high and mightynesses , where the state of the war for the year 1691. was presented , which the deputies were to send down to their respective provinces ; afterwards the king went to court , and gave audience to several foreign ministers and general officers , and among the rest to general delwich . the 15th the king , with the duke of norfolk , the earls of portland and devonshire , with several other noblemen , dined with the elector of brandenburgh : the elector received the king without , and conducted him to the dining-room . the king went away at four a clock , and gave audience afterwards to the elector palatine's minister . mr. berensdorff came hither also from the duke of zell ; and mr. klenck from the duke of hanouer , to complement his majesty in their masters names . prince waldeck came also to court , and had audience of the king immediately : and mr. cha●gagne came from the elector of treves . the 16th the elector of bavaria arriv'd , who acquainted the king of his arrival at ten a clock , by one of his gentlemen ; he lodged in his envoys house : next morning my lord portland , and the elector of brandenburgh went to complement him . the elector was met at the entrance of the house . about five in the evening he went privately to the king , and staid about an hour and half ; and the next day the king returned his visit . the 18th in the evening , the marquis de gastanaga , governor of the spanish netherlands arrived with a very splendid equipage : as soon as he arriv'd he went to court , and was received with the honour due to his character , the swiss guards being placed in ranks , with their officer posted at the head of them . he had a particular audience of the king an hour long , the elector of bavaria being by ; the swiss guards appeared then in arms , it being the first time that the elector of bavaria had appeared at court publickly : the same day also the elector of brandenburgh had his audience : next morning the marquis de gastanaga was at the kings rising , and then paid a visit to the elector of brandenburgh ; the king was that day above two hours in the committee of the council of state , and dined with the elector of brandenburgh at my lord portlands . mr. arnauld , preacher and head of the vaudois , who commanded them so bravely against the french last summer , came also to the hague , and had an audience of the king concerning their affairs . the 19th in the afternoon the king went a hawking near sorgvliet , with the elector of brandenburgh , and several other persons of great quality : next morning he went a hunting with the elector of bavaria , and the marquis of gastanaga near houns●●erdyke , where they dined , and came back again in the evening to the hague . the 20th , the prince of courland , with another prince of the house of holstein arrived here . the 21st , the landtgrave of h●sse came hither with his envoy , and several other lords : he immediately went to court , and staid some time with the king ; and the next day he paid a visit to the electors of brandenburgh and bavaria . the duke of zal●sbach came also with general dautel , as it 's believed , to complement the king in the elector palatine's name . the congress was now often kept : colomna the spanish envoy had a conference on the 23d in the morning with the deputies of the states general , and afterwards assisted in the congress ; where was also the count winditsgratz , the emperors plenipotentiary ; and the count de berka , and the chevalier crampricht the other imperial ministers were by , when he show'd his credentials , and the states assured him , that he should have audience with the usual ceremonies in two or three days . the counsellor mean , who was sent by the prince and chapter of liege , assisted also in the congress , and the emperors minister , with most of the other ministers waited upon his majesty . this extraordinary concourse has made the court at the hague so very splendid , that it has out-done any thing else in any other court of christendom . above 30 sovereign princes were there , besides marquesses , earls , barons , and gentlemen without number . the elector of bavaria , and the marquis de gastanaga kept publick tables . the 24th , about ten in the morning , the count de winditsgratz had publick audience of the king , conducted by the master of the ceremonies , with all the usual solemnities : he congratulated his majesties happy successes , and assured him that the emperor his master esteemed himself very much obliged to his majesty , for that care and concern which he show'd for the common cause ; and he further added , that his master look'd upon his britannick majesty , as the principal moving cause upon whom every thing else depended , that might be for the advantage of the confederacy . the elector of saxony's envoy had audience of the king the same day . the 25th in the morning the king , with the elector of brandenburgh , and the landtgrave of hesse , went to the great church , where they heard a sermon preached by mr. ulier ; who towards the latter end , said several moving things to his majesty . in the afternoon , the king with the electors of bavaria and brandenburgh , and the landtgrave of hesse , all four in a coach , took three or four turns round the voorhout , with the glasses down upon the kings side , who was received by the thronging multitudes with all imaginable demonstrations of affection and joy. the 26th , the count de prela doria , envoy extraordinary from the duke of savoy ; count d' autel , with the same character from the elector palatine , had audience of his majesty , as had on the 27th the sieur haxhuysen from the elector of saxony . march the 5th , the earl of devonshire treated the elector of brandenburgh , the landtgrave of hesse , the prince commercy , and divers other persons of quality with great magnificence , where his majesty was pleased to honour his lordship with his presence . on the 11th the duke of zell arrived at the hague , and the duke of wolfembuttel on the 14th . during all this time the congresses had been held almost every day , with great secrecy , his majesty always honouring them with his presence , when at last , the matters being fully concerted , and all things agreed upon to the mutual satisfaction of all the princes , this great council broke up , and the princes returned to their respective homes , to put in execution the designs here agreed upon , the good effects whereof we doubt not but to see this campagne , notwithstanding the unhappy accident of the loss of mons. his majesty having given orders to all the troops to be in a readiness to take the field by the first of april , was pleased on the 16th to depart for loo , being accompanied with the duke of zell , who rid in the same coach with him , and lay that night at the house of monsieur zullestein ; where he was met by the elector of bavaria , who likewise accompanied his majesty to loo , where they arrived the next evening , having been complemented as they passed along with all demonstrations of respect and affection , by the city of utrecht , and the several towns he pass'd through , and accompanied every where with the loud acclamations of the people , who were almost overwhelm'd with joy , at the extraordinary honour they received by the presence of this most illustrious monarch . but his majesty had not been long there before he received the unwelcome tidings of the siege of mons , an express arriving at the hague on the 16th in the evening , that the french troops had suddenly invested the town of mons , their horse having taken possession of all the avenues on the 15th of march , and that the foot were marching up with all diligence . the prince of stee●huysen , and the marquis bedmar , being sent from the governor of flanders , arrived at the hague the 17th , and after a short conference with prince waldeck , went post to loo , to give his majesty an account of the state of the affair . who being resolved himself to head the army , in order to raise the siege , returned to the hague ; from whence having dispatched prince waldeck with necessary orders for flanders , set forward himself the 26th for brussels ; the army in the mean time preparing with all imaginable diligence to muster at hall , whither his majesty went on the 6th of april , intending to have marched the next day at the head of the army , which consisted of 30000 foot and 16000 horse , with a train of artillery of 71 pieces of cannon and 14 mortars . but the carriages not being all come up , was obliged to defer his march for two or three days . the french had all this time very vigourously attacked the outworks of the town , but were as vigourously repulsed by the besieged , to the great loss of the enemy , who paid dearly for what he gained ; insomuch , that it was not doubted , but the town would have been able to have held out till the army came up to its relief , but the french king ( who was himself all the while at st. gislain , near the camp , the dauphin commanding in chief ) according to his old methods , had found means of gaining a party among the burghers and clergy in the town , who prevailing upon the rest , by the terrifying destruction the bombs and cannon made in their houses , and persuading them that by a timely surrender of the town they might obtain honourable conditions , made them basely desert the publick good , and altogether unexpectedly , even to the french themselves , on the 8th of april , beat a parley , and sent out three officers , as hostages for three french offices , who immediately entred the town , to treat upon articles of surrender ; the governor the prince de bergue oppos'd the surrender , and refus'd to deliver the gate to the french as the burghers had agreed , endeavouring to disswade them from this their resolution , alledging he could still hold out till the relief came ; but all would not do , the burghers wre resolved , and they being stronger than the garison , who were all employed in the outworks , the honourable governor was forced to submit , and about midnight the capitulation was signed on both sides ; and the next day april the 9th , a gate of the town was deliver'd up to the french guards ; and on the 10th , the garison marched out , being about 4000 , foot and 400 horse , with arms , baggage , drums beating , colours flying , six pieces of cannon , two mortars , &c. and were conducted to tubiese ▪ a few miles from mons towards brussels . the king having received this surprizing news just as he was ready to march to their relief , was forced to alter his measures ; and understanding that the french king had seperated his troops , and dispos'd 'em into garisons ; and that he with the dauphin , &c. were return'd to versailles , broke up the camp , and having sent reinforcements to charleroy , aeth , namur , and the other frontier garisons , went to brussels ; and from thence to the hague , where he was pleased to honour the duke of zell ( who was likewise return'd thither from the camp ) with the noble order of the garter , who was invested with the garter and george by the king himself , assisted by the dukes of norfolk and ormond , and the earl of devonshire : this was perform'd privately in the kings bed-chamber the 18th of april : and the next day , garter king at arms presented to his highness the rest of the ensigns , with the whole habit and ornaments of the order , which his highness having received , was pleased to make a very noble present to the king at arms , and to all the retinue he had brought with him upon this occasion . april the 22d , his majesty having taken leave of the states general , and been complimented by them , with all the expressions of sincere affection , took shiping in the maese in order to his return for england , and the wind being fair , the next morning made the english shore ; and that evening , viz. april the 13th , 1691. o. s. about eight of the clock landed at whitehall , having been saluted by the fleet , as he passed along with all their guns , and the repeated huzza's of the seamen , who demonstrated the most extraordinary joy imaginable ; and by the guns of the forts of tilbury , gravesend , and the tower ; also by the ships that lay in the river ; and the joyful acclamations of the people , who crowded in great numbers upon the shore , and in boats , to see his majesty , and express their joy upon his happy return , continually repeating , god save king william and queen mary , and prosper their arms by sea and land. thus have we finished our short journal of his majesties voyage into holland , wherein we have been as particular as was convenient , and as brief as possible ; we have all along carefully avoided all manner of reflections and animadversions of our own , and given only a true relation of the matter of fact as it occur'd ; wherein if we have the good fortune to please the reader , we have our end. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a69794-e330 * a fouder contains 4 hogsheads .