Report and Answer to the Bavarian-Anhalt Secret Chancellery

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...[those matters] have nothing to do with the question at hand and are hereby set aside. Furthermore, the Compiler The author of the pro-Catholic text being refuted here. on page 23 and following, wishes to depict the members of the Union The Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant states formed in 1608. as if their intentions were directed solely against the Roman Catholics. To prove this, he claims that the Union, right from the start—namely in the year 1608, for 30 months, and following year after year until 1617—collected large sums of money. He also claims that in 1618, the leaders of the Union seized upon the Bohemian unrest The Bohemian Revolt, which began with the Defenestration of Prague in 1618. for their own ends, and that before the Catholics—indeed even before Emperor Matthias—had recruited a single soldier for his own defense, the Union had allegedly negotiated for several thousand men (15,000 strong) with a potentate well known to them.

Regarding the contributions collected bit by bit by the Union: one might rightly wonder how the Compiler dares to reproach the Union so hatefully for such a thing. For he knows well, and it is common knowledge original Latin: notorium throughout the Empire, that the Roman Catholic League (by virtue of its own league statutes) has long since, and from time to time, collected significant sums of money in Cologne and other places. As can be found in their league decree from the year 1610 in Augsburg, they had already contributed heavily before that meeting. Furthermore, they petitioned the Pope and the King of Spain (who are members original Latin: membra of their League) for the payment of outstanding shares original Latin: quotarum. Likewise, it was solemnly concluded and decreed original Latin: recessieret on that day that the Bishop of Speyer and Count Froben of Helfenstein should be dispatched to France and Lorraine to persuade and negotiate with the respective King and Duke to join their League; and to strengthen the sinews of war original Latin: nervi bellici; a common 17th-century term for the money needed to fund a military campaign, they should consider a tax of one-tenth original Latin: decimation upon their clergy original Latin: Clericorum. It is also well known and undeniable that the aforementioned Catholic League, some years ago, dispatched a significant embassy beyond the mountains original Latin: ultra montes; referring to Italy, which solicited and petitioned the Pope and the princes and republics original Latin: Rebuspublicis in Italy for financial aid and assistance. From all this, the impartial reader can judge with what faith and audacity original Latin: qua fide & fronte the author of the Bavarian Chancery can reproach and misinterpret the contributions collected by the Union, seeing as this accusation can be turned back original Latin: retorquieret against him and his Catholic League with full right original Latin: optimo jure and in much stronger terms original Latin: in terminis longè fortioribus.

Secondly, as for the treaty and negotiation with the foreign potentate (whose name the Compiler mostly conceals, though—perhaps forgetting himself original Latin: parum memor—he points clearly enough to the Duke of Savoy), it is well known that he is a Prince of the Empire and derives his origin original Latin: originem from the Electoral Saxon line. In terms of land and people, he is...