Solemn Orations in Praise of the Divine Elector Princes of Saxony, Maurice and Christian I

ORATION I.

and the memory of the prince is to be celebrated in today’s light, and the rites of the funeral are to be paid to his blessed Manes shades of the departed: And not without cause.

For if both the Greek and the Roman Republic, celebrated in histories for their praise of wisdom and justice, not only honored with statues and public monuments those brave men who fell fighting for the safety of the fatherland, for their altars and hearths, but also adorned them with speeches and writings: what inhumanity, what injustice, what impiety would it be if we did not follow with similar honors those Christian Princes, who are in no way inferior in greatness of soul, virtue, wisdom, and the fame of their illustrious deeds, especially if they had fallen in battle or in camp for the safety of their citizens, indeed for the security of the Church and the entire fatherland? What stupor, what madness would it be to suffer and concede that those enlightened by the heavenly Word and imbued with the true knowledge of God be surpassed in justice and piety toward the well-deserving by heathen men? Therefore, it would be entirely right, and worthy of such an Academic assembly, to repeat the praises of Maurice annually, and to proclaim such an outstanding hero with a grateful heart, even if no mandate from the Most Illustrious court had arrived. Let us therefore perform the duty of piety, humanity, and gratitude, I indeed at the command of the Magnificent Rector, as much as this voice of mine can in the present, but you indeed by listening not only with your ears but also with fair minds. And I wish that not such a small amount of time had been given for speaking, for a most ample subject for speaking about Maurice would not easily fail anyone. But because my Oration is concluded and circumscribed within a brief hour, it cannot be satisfied—I will not say by adorning his deeds, but not even by commemorating a single year of the Maurician reign. For so many evidences of Piety, Wisdom, Heroic Virtue, Temperance, and Humanity joined with gravity, so many of divine happiness