The Present State of Germany. Samuel Pufendorf
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subject to the]a Absolute Empire or Soveraignty of those Princes. <12> During this state of Affairs, it was divided into divers Provinces, which were governed by [prefects called] Counts or Earls, and Marquesses, who were for the most part of French extraction. Yet [in these times]+ the Saxons enjoy’d a greater shew [retained a fuller kind] of Liberty, because Charles the Great had not been able to reduce them without a long and tedious War, and was at last to perfect the Work, and establish his Soveraignty, necessitated to admit them to a participation of the Priviledges [jura] enjoy’d by the Franks, and to unite them into one Nation with their Conquerors. That he might further assure himself of this fierce Nation, which was so impatient of Servitude; he call’d in the assistance of the Priests, who were ordered to teach them the Christian Faith [religione], and to inculcate into them how much they were obliged to those who had shewn them the way of obtaining Eternal Life. On this account many Bishopricks and Abbies in Germany [were founded by Charles the Great].a
Germany was in the same estate [condition] under Saint Lewis [Louis the Pious,] the Son of Charles, but that the Authority [and power] of the Prefects or Governours of the Provinces began to grow greater<, and the clergy, their wealth swelled by the Princes’ indulgence, grew considerably haughtier as well>.23
The Children of St. Lewis divide their Father’s Kingdom.
9. But afterwards, when the Children of this Lewis had divided their Father’s Kingdom amongst them (which was the first and principal cause of the Ruin of the French [Francicae] Power, and of the Caroline Family) Germany became separated from the [rest of the] French Empire, and was a distinct Kingdom under Lewis II. Son of St. Lewis.b <And although soon, under Charles the Fat [crassus], it was combined with the rest of France [Francia] again, a short time later, when Arnulf was king, it was torn away once more and henceforth maintained its own separate affairs as Germany.> To it was afterwards added a great part of the Belgick France [Galliae], [(or of <13> the Low Countries, as it is now called)]+ which lies towards the Rhine, which for the most part was inhabited by German Nations [Teutonic peoples], [and] which from Lotharius another of the Sons of St. Lewis, was then called [the Kingdom of]+ Lorrain, though at this day only a very small part of that Kingdom retains the old name.
During the destructive Wars, which followed after these times, between the Posterity of Charles the Great, not only the German Nobility [procerum] gained exorbitant Power, but the very Family of Charles was at last totally extinguished, or at least deprived of the Crown of France, (for to this day [the Dukes of Lorrain <and others>, and the Electors Palatine, pretend to be descended of that Family)]c and the Germans chose themselves Kings out of the Nobility of their own Nation; from which times Germany [became again a free State, and had no dependance on the Crown of France].a
Germany a free State.
Now, because the German State [respublica] is commonly call’d the Sacred Roman Empire, I think it will be worth my pains to enquire [briefly], How it first obtained this Title? what it has gained by it? and by what Right it now enjoys that Name? for the clear understanding of which it will be necessary shortly to recapitulate the state the [ancient] Roman Empire [in the West]+ was reduced to before the times of Charles the Great.
A short account of the Roman Empire.
10. It is very well and commonly known after what manner the People of Rome, after they had by the Success of their Arms subdued the noblest part of the then known World, were at last, by the ambition of a <14> few over potent Citizens engaged in Civil Wars, and at length brought under the Dominion of a single person. But then Augustus the Founder of the Roman Empire (or Monarchy) when he had by the assistance of the Army gained the Empire, [perswaded himself, that he should easily keep it by the same way].b Therefore tho’ from thenceforward he seemed to leave some of the Affairs of the State to the disposal of the Senate, that it might still seem to have a share in the Government; yet he wholly kept in his own hands the Care and Government of the Army[, indicating the same by his adoption of the title Imperator]. But then it was his principal care to conceal from the Rabble of the Army, [as if it were the most important state secret, involving the most careful disguise,] That the Souldiers were the men who could set up and pull down the Emperors; which Secret, when it was once discovered, the State of the Empire became as miserable as the Condition of the Emperors.
[F]or the Empire being weakened by frequent intestine Wars, found it self also often exposed to the worst of men by a covetous and turbulent Rabble, [which oftentimes most wickedly murdered her best Princes, to her great damage and sorrow]:a Nor could any of her Emperors after this entertain any hopes of firmly settling the Empire in their Families, but [was necessitated to be contented with a precarious Title amongst a parcel of mercenary Souldiers]:b So that in truth the whole power of making the Emperors, was in the Army, (which is the common Attendant of all Military Monarchies, [or] where a strong and perpetual Army is kept together in any one <15> place), and the Senate and People of Rome were weak and vain Names, made use of to delude the simple common People, as if the free and voluntary consent of the whole Body [universorum] had constituted the Emperor.
That Kingdom [regnum], thus founded on a Military Licence, as it was unfit for continuance, was by Constantine the Great and Theodosius hastened to its fatal period: the first of these making Byzantium [(now called Constantinople)]+ the Seat of the Empire, and withdrawing the [strongest] Armies, which had till then been maintained on the [East of the Rhine<and the Danube>, for its preservation];c and the lat[t]er by dividing the Empire between his two Sons Arcadius and Honorius, soft lasie Princes, and neither of them fit for such a Command<, who were also much weakened by the dishonesty of traitors>. From thence forward there were two Kingdoms for one, and this Division was no way useful, but only for the fitting the Western part by separating it from the Eastern, to be the more easie Prey to the barbarous Nations.24 And accordingly, not long after this, an end was put to the Western Empire, and Rome was taken and sack’d by the <Herulians and> Goths which [i.e., Rome] before that had been deprived of all her Provinces by as good Right as she had got them, and now, in her turn, lost her beloved [own] Liberty, and became a part of the Gothick Kingdom.
Rome for some time under the Greek Emperors
11. After this, the Gothick Power being entirely ruin’d, Rome and a considerable part of Italy returned under the Obedience of the Greek Emperors, tho’ on the account of her former Majesty, and [for that Constantinople <16> was considered as the Metropolis; Italy]a was rather treated by them as an Ally [or equal] than as a subject Province. But however [in fact], the Supremacy was acknowledged to be in the Emperor of Greece who exercised it in Rome and those other parts of Italy which were under his Jurisdiction by his Exarchs. But by degrees the Popes became weary of this Greek Empire [as well]. They lay the blame however on the Misgovernment [wilfullness] of the Exarchs, and because some of the Greek Emperors were too severe against Images,25 which they [i.e., the Popes] yet judged a most useful Tool to instruct the Many [uneducated populace] in the Superficial Rites of Religion, which [i.e., the Many], as they said, was become incapable of receiving or bearing a more solid Piety; nor was it so profitable to the Priests, to let the People know, a good and holy Life would certainly please God. Perhaps also it was believed, the Church would be very much exalted in her Authority [splendoris], if the Pope could by degrees gain the Secular Empire, as he had already, in a good degree, assumed the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical or Sacred Affairs throughout the World. And in truth, it did not seem fit that he should live in subjection to the Slave of a Greek Emperor, (who sometimes was deprived of his Virilities)b whom God had in trusted with such Power [authority], as his own Vicar in the World, that he being freed from the Care of the Church, [might be at the better]a leisure to attend the Civil Affairs of the World, [and that they too