Prince-elector

Another elector, the Elector of Brunswick, was just about to become King of England, and the Elector of Brandenburg was the King of Prussia, having received the title from the Emperor in order that the Prussian troops might be secured to the side of the Emperor and the Grand Alliance in the Spanish Succession War.

It cannot be too often impressed upon learners that by the German title Elector, Kurfürst, is meant one who has a right to vote at the election of the Emperor of the so-called Holy Roman Empire.

Until the middle of the 17th century there were seven electors, three archbishops and four secular princes.

The prelates were those of Mainz or Mayence, Treves and Cologne.

The Heidelberg Catechism was produced at the instruction or direction of the elector of the Palatinate, the Holy Roman Empire, which, as I think it was Voltaire said, was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire.

Anyway, so the empire is divided into seven districts or electorates, and one of those covered Heidelberg and some other areas around Heidelberg, and it was known as the Palatinate.

And the Elector Palatinate in 1559 was Frederick III, and he inherited a religiously mixed electorate that had previously been briefly Lutheran, and before that it was Roman Catholic.

And so in the course of just a very few years, A person in the Palatinate could have awakened and been a Roman Catholic.

And then the next day, a Lutheran, some kind of sort of broad Lutheran, a Melanchthonian Lutheran, we might say.

and of course understand this is christendom everything is top down it's not a democracy um there's no such thing as religious freedom that's not going to happen until the 18th century so it's a different world and and in that world the elector said you know the people that we need to explain the faith to the people so they can all get on the same page and um so the he commissioned We don't know exactly how the Catechism was written.

We don't know.

Well, we know with reasonable certainty that Zacharias Sirsinus, who was a young theologian whom the Elector had brought to Heidelberg, was the principal author.

if the protestants properly availed themselves of it the sword of the union might keep within its sheath the sword of the league or if matters actually came to a war might make the issue of it doubtful but unfortunately private interests dissolved the band of union which should have held together the protestant members of the empire This critical conjuncture found none but second-rate actors on the political stage, and the decisive moment was neglected because the courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in sagacity, courage, and resolution.

The elector of Saxony was placed at the head of the German Protestants by the services of his ancestor Maurice, by the extent of his territories, and by the influence of his electoral vote.

Had the Evangelic Union been worthy of the name it bore, and of the cause which it pretended to defend, insuperable obstacles might have prevented the execution of the sentence.

but it was hopeless for a power which was far from a match even for the spanish troops in the lower palatinate to contend against the united strength of the emperor bavaria and the league the sentence of proscription pronounced upon the elector soon detached the free cities from the union and the princes quickly followed their example Fortunate in preserving their own dominions, they abandoned the elector, their former chief, to the emperor's mercy, renounced the union, and vowed never to revive it again.

but while thus and gloriously the german princes deserted the unfortunate frederick and while bohemia silesia and moravia submitted to the emperor a single man a soldier of fortune whose only treasure was his sword ernest count mansfield dared in the bohemian town of pilsen to defy the whole power of austria left without assistance after the Battle of Prague by the Elector, to whose service he had devoted himself, and even uncertain whether Frederick would thank him for his perseverance, he alone for some time held out against the imperialists, till the garrison, mutinying for want of pay, sold the town to the Emperor.

Undismayed by this reverse, he immediately commenced new levies in the upper palatinate, and enlisted the disbanded troops of the Union.

a new army of twenty thousand men was soon assembled under his banners the more formidable to the provinces which might be the object of its attack because it must subsist by plunder uncertain where this swarm might light the neighbouring bishops trembled for their rich possessions which offered a tempting prey to its ravages but pressed by the duke of bavaria who now entered the upper palatinate mansfield was compelled to retire Eluding by a successful stratagem the Bavarian general Tilly, who was in pursuit of him, he suddenly appeared in the lower Palatinate, and there wreaked upon the bishoprics of the Rhine the severities he had designed for those of Franconia.

Eager to get the start of his competitor, the King of Denmark hastened to take the field.

Another elector, the Elector of Brunswick, was just about to become King of England, and the Elector of Brandenburg was the King of Prussia, having received the title from the Emperor in order that the Prussian troops might be secured to the side of the Emperor and the Grand Alliance in the Spanish Succession War.

It cannot be too often impressed upon learners that by the German title Elector, Kurfürst, is meant one who has a right to vote at the election of the Emperor of the so-called Holy Roman Empire.

Until the middle of the 17th century there were seven electors, three archbishops and four secular princes.

The prelates were those of Mainz or Mayence, Treves and Cologne.

It met in three colleges, 1.

The Electors, with the exception of the King of Bohemia, 2.

The Princes, spiritual and lay, and 3.

The Imperial Cities.

To the first question he answered in the affirmative but asked for time to consider his second answer.

He was given one day for consideration, and he appeared again the following afternoon.

Before a most brilliant assembly, including the Emperor and his brother Ferdinand, the Electors and the Princes of the Empire, spiritual and lay, Counts, Nobles, Knights, and the delegates from the free cities, he delivered his famous speech.

He expressed his determination to recant nothing unless he could be proved by the Scriptures to be wrong.

In 1692 he was raised by the Emperor to the dignity of Elector.

The other Electors were indignant at the Emperor's claim in such an arbitrary manner to add to their number, and for nearly sixteen years, during which period one election to the Empire had taken place, the Electors refused any recognition of the new voice.

Then they yielded.

Whether the Emperor acted strictly legally is disputed amongst those who are learned in that intricate subject, the law of the Holy Roman Empire.

He wrote on philosophical questions, on theological, on legal, and historical.

On one occasion George I called him a living dictionary.

When Leibniz was about thirty he was invited by the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose successors afterwards became Electors, to take up his residence at the court of Hanover, where he was treated with great kindness and most highly valued, especially by the Electress Sophia.

The original design was that Leibniz should write the history of the house of Brunswick.

These problems were further added to within weeks when several of the European powers made it clear that they would not accept Maria Theresa's accession, calling into question the legal validity of the Pragmatic Sanction which Charles had passed in 1713, allowing a daughter of his to succeed to all of his territories.

In particular, Charles of Bavaria, the ruler of the Electorate of Bavaria as Prince Elector and head of one of the most powerful German states, had a claim to the Habsburg territories if the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction was to be questioned.

He also appealed to the scores of other German states and free cities to refuse to accept a female ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.

As with so many other European conflicts of the 18th century, a number of other powers soon joined in the conflict to further their own dynastic and territorial ambitions.

Wilkins did not become warden in place of Dr. Pitt, expelled by the parliamentary visitors, until April 13, 1648, when his name was entered in the buttery book.

On May 5, 1648, Wilkins had a dispensation for 12 months from the full performance of his duties in consequence of his attendance on the Prince Elector, whose chaplain he was.

It was not impossible that Wren should have gone to Wadham at 14.

The profligate Rochester matriculated at 12 and was M.A. before he was 14.

Wren was fortunate in the influence of the Warden of Wadham, which was so powerful during the formation of Wren's character that it is necessary to form some picture of the man.

John Wilkins reigned beneficently over the college from sixteen forty-eight to sixteen fifty-nine, and was described by Aubrey as no great red man, but one of much and deep thinking, and a prudent man as well as ingenious.

As the late Doctor Wright Henderson, the biographer of Wilkins, wrote of him, "His greatness fell short of genius, for it was the effect of ordinary qualities rarely combined and tempered into one character, but more effective for useful work in the world than genius without sanity." Soon after the Civil War broke out, Wilkins was living in London as the chaplain of Charles Lewis, Prince Elector Palatine, with whom Christopher renewed a childish acquaintance.

Mr. Wright Henderson thinks that Wilkins became the leader, as he was certainly the friend, of the group of students of natural philosophy who afterwards formed the Royal Society.