Deduction Concerning the Free Exercise of the Augsburg Confession in Silesia

...also in several places, due to the soldiers quartered upon their necks, the citizenry and guilds could not safely attempt anything.

Similar obstacles original: obstacula are in their way, so that even within the land itself they cannot implore original: imploriren the help and counsel of the Protestant Princes in Silesia. And although the custody and defense of religion original: custodia & defensio Religionis actually belongs to the Imperial Captain-General The highest military and administrative official in Silesia, representing the Emperor, it has unfortunately come to the point—ever since certain persons devoted to the Roman Catholic religion, such as Chancellors, Councilors, and Secretaries, who depend solely and directly original: immediatè upon the Imperial Court, were assigned to him not only for assistance but even as colleagues original: Collegæ—that all power has been snatched and stripped from his hands, as in other matters, so also especially in this matter of religion original: in hoc passu Religionis. Indeed, even before the Peace of Prague The 1635 treaty between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Elector of Saxony, which many Silesian Protestants felt abandoned their religious rights, the Imperial administrators of the time were strictly forbidden from entering into any communication or undertaking with His Electoral Highness of Saxony regarding this matter. Furthermore, when the religious oppression in Silesia began anew after the publication of the Peace of Prague, quite pitiful lamentations, complaints, and protests arrived in great numbers to His Princely Grace, Duke Heinrich Wenzel of Münsterberg and Oels—the Imperial Captain-General in Upper and Lower Silesia. These people reported how they had previously been forced and compelled to accept the Catholic religion through various cruel types of torture original: genera tormentorum, and thus through force and fear, such as might affect even the most constant of men original: per vim & metum in constantissimum virum cadentem; a legal principle referring to duress that justifies the breaking of a contract or oath. His aforementioned Princely Grace was indeed so moved that he took up the cause of these oppressed consciences in a truly fatherly manner and interceded original: intercediret movingly and zealously for various individual Estates. Yet all of this was in vain, and it is even said that the pious Prince received a harsh reprimand from the Imperial Court for doing so.

And since, in this manner, all means for the Hereditary Principalities to advance their highly urgent needs have been cut off, they are surely for this very reason worthy of even greater pity original: ex hâc ipsâ causâ eò majori miseratione digni. It is therefore well worth considering by all God-fearing Christian potentates and rulers: just as one would do wrong if he saw a man stuck in deep mud and mire at the risk of his life, and allowed him to sink and drown miserably simply because, out of great distress original: Consternation and shock of the heart, he did not implore original: implorirte help—so too could it hardly be judged as right if they did not exert themselves to the utmost to rescue so many thousands of innocent fellow Christians and brothers in faith. These people might well say, using the well-known Psalm of David, that the water has now reached their souls, yet they cannot or dare not cry out for help, but rather await it in hope and silence original: in spe & silentio with heartfelt and painful sighs.