Deduction Concerning the Free Exercise of the Augsburg Confession in Silesia

And although it might be further argued against the Hereditary Principalities Silesian territories directly ruled by the Emperor as King of Bohemia, unlike the "Mediatized" principalities ruled by local dukes that they had perhaps sinned against His Imperial and Royal Majesty at that time—since it is not known that many of them failed to contribute to the Elector-Saxon, as well as the Swedish and Brandenburg armies, provided for them, and offered various assistance—a response is quite easy to provide. Specifically, it was not within the power of the Hereditary Principalities to resist such a great force, which even the Imperial army found itself unable to withstand and was forced to retreat. Thus, it naturally followed in several places that the people—completely abandoned by the Imperial soldiery and stripped of all help and protection—could not prevent themselves from contributing to the Evangelical Protestant army, nor from taking in some troops in one place or another. However, this happened with Imperial devotion preserved and unimpaired original: salvâ & illibatâ devotione Cæſareâ. In this devotion, the Hereditary Principalities (which were excluded in the Peace of Prague) always remained constant. They knowingly undertook nothing against honor, loyalty, duty, and sincerity, nor did they take part in any dangerous counsels or alliances. Instead, they suffered only hardship, plundering, fire, and ruin from friend and foe alike, remaining henceforth in purely passive terms original: in puris terminis merè paſsivis, and were forced to patiently let the many storms and tempests original: tempeſtates ac procellas roar and pass over them.

Nevertheless, the aforementioned exclusion of the Hereditary Principalities did not only occur in the Peace of Prague The 1635 treaty between the Emperor and Saxony which failed to secure religious rights for many Silesians, but there is an intention to persist in it. This is exactly why they inwardly desire and wish for the help and counsel of the highly noble Electors and Princes of the Holy Roman Empire with hot tears and most fervent sighs—since, the freedom to speak freely, and even more so the freedom to complain, having been taken away during these times original: adempto siquidem per hæc tempora liberè loquendi, multò autem maximè conquerendi arbitrio, it cannot be done in any other way.

The Electors have all the more reason to offer a helping hand because the Peace of Prague term: Prageriſcher Receſs — the official text of the 1635 treaty itself testifies that they did not sin against His Imperial Majesty as a collective body original: in forma univerſitatis. Therefore, it falls upon them all the more woefully and painfully that they are placed in a far worse condition than those by whom His Imperial and Royal Majesty found Himself most highly offended. Yet, in their pardoning term: Perdonirung — formal amnesty, His Majesty most graciously promised to protect them in the privileges they previously held and to allow them to remain entirely in the practice term: Exercitio — the public performance of religious rites of the Augsburg Confession term: Augſpurgiſche Confeſſion — the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church. Meanwhile, despite their manifest innocence, the Hereditary Principalities are to be pushed back and separated from their religious freedom, contrary to the clear letter of the Letter of Majesty term: Majeſtät-Brieff — a 1609 charter granting religious freedom in Silesia and the Accord, which remains unrevoked in the archives of the Princes and Estates of Silesia original: archivis Principum & Ordinū Sileſiæ.

Indeed, even if it were posited, but not conceded original: Quin poſito, ſed non conceſſo, that the Hereditary Principalities had sinned somewhat through the contributions and other assistance provided to the Evangelical army, it would still be not so much their own sin as another’s original: non tam proprium, quàm alienum peccatum, just as it was with the Bishopric and other Catholic places, which no less...